Seraph Squad Gender-Bender Panic! ~The Day My Girlfriend Became My Boyfriend~
One morning, Cadet Karen wakes up to find the world has turned upside down.
She looks in the mirror and screams. The face staring back is sharper, with a faint stubble on the chin. In a panic, she checks under her shirt—her chest is flat. And there's something extra down below. "Wait, does this mean... I'm a guy?!"
Out in the hallway, the entire military dormitory is in chaos. The cool female instructor Yui has become a muscle-bound man, and the gentle senior Ryo is now a cute girl. Boys are g
Seraph Squad Gender-Bender Panic! ~The Day My Girlfriend Became My Boyfriend~ - The Courage to Speak Out! Our Piercings Shining in the Morning Sun!
The darkness of night had slowly begun to thin.
Karen and Ryou sat side by side on a bench in Midorigaoka Park.
They were still in that halfway state—neither fully male nor female.
Their shoulders touched, just barely.
Karen stared at the fists clenched tightly on their lap. Inside those fists were the two star-shaped earrings.
The one they'd removed from their own left ear, and the one Ryou had left behind in the room.
The cold metal gradually warmed with the heat of their palms.
" Ryou, I... there's something I have to tell you."
Karen's voice was hoarse.
An unsteady tone, neither male nor female.
Ryou slowly turned their head.
Their long black hair seemed to sway gently, even though there was no wind.
" ...Yeah. I'm listening."
Ryou's voice, too, was one they couldn't quite tell was low or high themselves.
Karen bit their lip.
Their heart was pounding.
Their head was a mess, and they didn't know where to start.
But.
They couldn't run away.
This time, they had to put all of their true feelings into words.
" I've been thinking about it this whole time."
Tears welled up in Karen's eyes.
" The day we moved into the dorms. I was so nervous back then. I didn't know anyone. I didn't even know where to eat. I was just standing alone in my room... and you called out to me."
Ryou listened in silence.
" You said, 'Want to go to the mess hall together?' And then you took me there, remember? That was the curry day."
Ryou drew in a small breath.
" When you gave me those earrings, Ryou, you said to me, 'Let's do our best together from now on.' Those words... I could never get them out of my head. They were right at the center of my heart."
Karen opened their fist.
The two small star-shaped earrings caught the faint light before dawn and gleamed dully.
" And then, this past week. Our bodies changed, every day was chaos. But... seeing you in a girl's body, right next to me, my heart was pounding so hard. It hurt. And that's when I understood."
A single tear fell onto their lap.
" I've been in love with you, Ryou, for a long, long time. Whether you're a girl or a guy, none of that mattered. If it meant losing you, I wouldn't have cared if the curse never broke at all."
Their voice trembled.
" When you disappeared from the base, I thought it was all over. Even though I was the one who said the cruelest things. Even though 'I hate you' was a lie. But when I thought that you tried to end everything all alone because of that... my chest felt like it was going to burst."
Karen clutched their own chest tightly.
" ...I can't manage anything without you, Ryou!"
The last words were almost a shout.
The tears wouldn't stop.
It was frustrating.
Why couldn't they have conveyed these feelings sooner?
Ryou just quietly watched Karen's tears.
And then.
A single tear rolled down Ryou's cheek, too.
" ...I have something I need to tell you, too."
Ryou's voice, though they were crying, was very gentle.
" My dad... he was badly wounded in the defense of North Gate."
Ryou looked up at the sky with distant eyes.
The eastern sky was just beginning to pale.
" Ever since then, my dad kept telling me. 'You must be strong. You must be the one who protects your comrades.' So I thought I had to be that. I'd convinced myself that I always had to be at the front, that I had to solve everything myself."
Ryou looked down at their own hands.
Slender hands, still bearing traces of femininity.
" Even when I found out the inspection team was coming, I thought I couldn't cause trouble for you, Karen. I couldn't make things worse for Instructor Yui. So I thought the fastest way to resolve it was for me to take all the responsibility. That was the only thing I could think of."
Ryou's voice trembled.
" But, the truth is... the truth is, I was really scared."
Ryou clenched their fists tightly on their lap.
" Deciding everything by myself, ending it by myself. Being hated by everyone. And then... having it all be like it never happened. The truth is, I wanted you to protect me, Karen. I wanted someone to tell me, 'It's going to be okay.' But I couldn't say that, and I just kept acting tough... I'm sorry."
Ryou's face crumpled.
" Even though I have no right to show you this side of me."
In that instant.
Karen pulled Ryou's shoulders into a tight embrace.
" Like that matters!"
Karen shouted.
" The tough-acting Ryou, the cowardly Ryou, the male Ryou, the female Ryou... the Ryou in front of me is the only Ryou there is! It's okay to be weak! It's okay to be scared! I'll protect all of you, everything included! I'll protect you!"
" Karen..."
" So don't go off on your own anymore! Please... please, just stay by my side!"
Karen hugged Ryou even tighter.
Ryou's body trembled against their chest.
" Yeah... yeah. I want you to stay with me, too, Karen. I want you... to protect me."
Ryou timidly reached out and wrapped their arms around Karen's back.
The two held each other tightly.
Words were no longer necessary.
Close enough to hear each other's heartbeats, they simply felt each other's warmth.
—At that moment.
The inside of Karen's hand grew hot.
" ...Huh?"
They both looked at the same time.
The two star-shaped earrings they had been clutching had begun to glow.
The light, a faint gold at first, grew stronger and stronger.
As if the morning sun itself was trapped inside, it shone with a dazzling brilliance.
"It's warm..."
The light overflowed from the earrings and gently enveloped their bodies.
A high, clear tone rang out.
Karen felt it.
The stubble on their chin smoothly vanished.
Their height shrank a few centimeters, their shoulder frame narrowed, and their hands returned to their original slender yet strong form.
More than anything, they could tell.
Heat was gathering in the center of their chest.
They were returning to their original, female self.
Ryou was different.
Their delicate shoulder width became distinctly broader.
Their waist-length black hair grew shorter, as if smoothly falling out from the roots, transforming into a head of short, sharp black hair.
Their once unreliable arms filled out with firm muscle.
He was returning to his original, male self.
The morning sun rose from the eastern sky.
Golden light pierced straight through Midorigaoka Park, illuminating the two of them.
When the light subsided.
There stood Karen and Ryou, returned to their original forms.
A girl with lively brown short hair and large eyes.
A boy with sharp black short hair and narrow, gentle eyes.
But on both of their left ears, something sparkled.
The star-shaped earrings were properly back in their original place.
" We're back... we're back, Ryou!"
" ...Yeah. You're back to normal too, Karen."
They embraced once more.
This time, truly, in their original forms.
Smiles wet with tears touched each other.
That miracle, like a radio wave, reached all the way to Fort Mirage Base.
At the window of the Command Building.
Right before the eyes of Operations Chief Shimada, who had been wrestling with inspection documents, a muscle-bound giant of a man suddenly transformed into a tall, slender beauty.
" Wha—!?"
" Th-this is...?"
Yui looked at her own hands.
Long, slender, beautiful fingers.
Her own face reflected in the window glass.
Strong-willed, narrow eyes. Lustrous black hair tied back in a single bundle.
"Back... my body is back...!!!"
Yui collapsed on the spot.
Tears overflowed endlessly.
The complaints she had never shown anyone since becoming a man. The taut thread snapped all at once.
"Thank goodness... truly, thank goodness..."
She covered her face with both hands and wept aloud.
Operations Chief Shimada stared at Yui, dumbfounded.
In the mess hall.
A middle-aged man suddenly transformed into a portly, middle-aged woman.
" Oh my! This belly's back again!"
Hasegawa Miki slapped their own stomach with a bang and laughed heartily.
All over the base, here and there, shouts of joy and crying echoed.
Trainees rushed out of the training building, vying to be first, hugging each other and jumping for joy at the sight of their original forms.
"Back to normal, back to normal!"
"My muscles!"
"My hair!"
The entire base was in a festive uproar from the morning.
Greeting Karen and Ryou, who had rushed back to the base, at the main gate was Instructor Yui, who had just wiped away her tears.
The beautiful, black-haired female instructor ran up to them when she saw them.
" ...You fools!!"
Yui smacked both Karen and Ryou hard on the head, one after the other.
" Ow! Instructor, if you hit us with that kind of strength now that you're back to normal, our brains'll fly out!"
" Shut up! What kind of instructor makes their subordinates worry!? And on top of that... you keep doing one reckless thing after another...!!"
Tears welled up in Yui's eyes again.
" ...However. You did well in bringing Ryou back. And more than anything, the feelings you two poured out saved the entire base. ...Thank you."
Yui bowed her head deeply, very deeply.
Ryou, surprised, hurriedly tried to support Yui's shoulders.
" Instructor Yui! Please raise your head. I... only ran away to protect myself. Rather, the one who should be apologizing is—"
" Don't be stupid, Ryou."
Yui raised her face and smiled gently. It was her genuine smile, from before she became a demon instructor.
" You were scared, weren't you? You came back well. That's all that matters."
Just then, a hearty laugh was heard from behind.
" Ah-ha-ha! Goodness, what a tearjerker from the morning!"
Hasegawa Miki came running over, carrying a tray.
On the tray, a mountain of extra-large pork cutlet curry was piled high.
" Come on, come on, it's a celebration! Today's mess hall is all-you-can-eat pork cutlet curry, my treat! After a big fuss, eating a meal to get your energy back is the best thing!"
"Wha— Miki-san! It's still six in the morning!?"
" Never mind the details! Does a stomach know morning from night!? Here, Instructor Yui, you eat too! Why not invite those big shots from the inspection while you're at it! You can't fight on an empty stomach!"
Karen and Ryou exchanged glances.
"...Somehow, I feel like I worried for nothing."
"But this means the base is back to normal."
Ryou spoke with his own male voice.
That low, gentle voice resonated pleasantly in Karen's ears.
"Ah, Ryou. It's been a while since I heard that voice."
"...It's been a while since I heard your voice, too. Yeah. That voice really suits you best, Karen."
Ryou smiled, looking a little embarrassed.
Operations Chief Shimada looked out over the base in its festive uproar and let out a grand sigh.
"...The paperwork just increased again."
But the corners of her mouth were slightly relaxed.
Twilight, after the entire commotion had settled.
The sky was dyed a blazing orange.
Karen stood alone on the rooftop.
The rooftop observation deck of the Arena Complex. It was their favorite spot, with a view of the base grounds, distant Tachibana City, and the glittering sea.
The wind rustled their short brown hair.
"...Found you."
A calm voice came from behind.
Turning around, Ryou stood there, returned to his original male form.
His short black hair was backlit by the sunset, outlined in orange.
"Ryou. What brings you all the way up here?"
"There's something I still haven't said to you, Karen."
Ryou looked at Karen with his usual gentle eyes.
"Wh-what is it, so formally?"
Karen's heart skipped a beat.
Alone together on the base. A sunset sky.
Ryou took a step closer to Karen.
" In the park this morning, you told me so many of your feelings. I still haven't properly said it to you with these words yet."
Ryou's voice trembled a little, but it was direct.
" I love you. I love you, Karen, more than anyone."
Karen's mind went completely blank.
Being told that so directly in a low, male voice, they felt as if all the blood in their body had rushed to their head at once.
" Your unbelievably c
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