“A new curse…” Konatsu murmured to herself, frowning.
“What sort of curse?” Ranko asked, cautious but curious. Thankfully she wasn’t the one in need of a curse sealing, so whatever it is wouldn’t be slapped on her.
“Hmmm…” the ghost murmured, studying Ranko.
“H-hey! I’m not the one who needs a curse sealed, or locked or whatever!” she protested.
“Yeah, but it’s the same curse on both of you,” the ghost pointed out. “And yours is already sealed… more than enough reason to study it, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, well… just don’t curse me or anything, alright? I’m not the one in need here.”
“Curse you?” she asked, before tilting her head. “You know, that’s not a bad idea. You guys did come barging in here together - maybe I should make it a package deal. Curse you both, and seal the thing. Or double seal it in your case!”
“I don’t need it,” Ranko said, crossing her arms. “I’ll bust my own way out of here if I have to.”
“But then I’ll never get my curse sealed!” Konatsu protested.
“So? You can’t seriously expect me to just sit here and be cursed for your sake, can you!?” Ranko demanded.
“Relax,” said the ghost. “The curse won’t be anything bad. Some in your situation might even call it a blessing!”
“Uh-huh,” Ranko replied, clearly unconvinced.
“Seriously! It’s just a fertility curse!”
“A fertility curse!?” Ranko all but screamed, before pausing. “Wait… like… infertility, you mean?”
The ghost smiled. “So? Do we have a deal, or don’t we?”
“Please, Ranko?” Konatsu asked, clasping her hands together.
“Well…” Ranko hesitated, glancing between her friend and the ghost. It wasn’t like she wanted children, per se… and Akane could always be the one to bear them, so… “Fine…”
“Great! Two fertility curses and a double order of sealing coming for you both!” the ghost girl declared, clapping her hands together. Something warm flickered in Ranko’s naval, as she did so. It was over before she could get a good grip on it, but somehow she knew in that instant that something had changed. “Now get out of here, both of you.”
“What happened to keeping us here until nightfall?” Konatsu asked.
The ghost girl snorted. “Are you crazy!? You two are already giving me a headache, and we’ve barely even met! No way I’m keeping you in here with me. Now scoot!”
The door flung itself opened, and a moment later the two girls found themselves flying out of it, crashing into the ground and rolling upon it.
“Ugh…” Konatsu muttered, even as she got back to her feet.
“You can say that again,” Ranko agreed, rubbing her stomach. She hadn’t injured it, or anything, but something in her felt… funny. “So what now?”
“Now we go back,” Konatsu said. “If we hurry, I can still help Mistress with closing!”
“Right, and I can… uh…” Go home and have a serious talk with Akane? “Maybe I can help you with closing?”
“I don’t think avoiding your wife is going to help anything, Ranko,” Konatsu bluntly stated, shaking her head.
“Who’s avoiding her wife!?” Ranko demanded. “I just… wanna do things that don’t involve her for a bit!”
From the look Konatsu was giving her, it was clear that Ranko wasn’t fooling anyone - not even herself.
***
Arriving back home, Ranko hesitated in front of the door to her house for a long moment, just trying to work up the courage to walk inside. Unfortunately, before she could, a voice called out to her.
“Ranko?” Akane asked, causing the redhead to spin around. Her wife was walking towards the door, her arms filled with paper bags that were in turn filled up with goods from her recent shopping trip. “Is everything alright?”
“It’s fine…” Ranko lied, not quite meeting her wife’s eyes. “Here. Let me get the door for you.”
“You’re not very cute when you lie, you know,” Akane scolded, even as Ranko opened the door for her.
“Who’s lying?” Ranko demanded, as Akane passed by to go inside. “I’m just…”
“Keeping things to yourself?” Akane asked. “More like bottled up, if you ask me. It would do you some good to let it all loose.”
“And who am I supposed to ‘let it all loose’ on, huh?” Ranko demanded. “You? You don’t deserve that. You deserve-”
“I deserve to make my own choices,” Akane said, putting the groceries down on the ground so that she could spin around with her hands on her hips. “Seriously, Ranko, you can’t just decide that it’s in my best interest we don’t communicate. Communication is part of what makes a marriage work!”
“Well, we never exactly communicated before,” Ranko pointed out, not quite able to meet Akane’s gaze.
“Then maybe this is the time to change that,” Akane said, firmly. “No more hijinks or misunderstandings. Just tell me what’s going through your head.”
“I don’t know what’s going through my head,” Ranko complained. “It’s all so… confusing.”
“Then we can figure it out together,” Akane replied, stepping forward to grab hold of Ranko’s hands. “How many times do I have to tell you that I’m here for you before you get it through that thick head of yours?”
“But why?” Ranko asked. “I’m not the man you married, anymore. I’m not even a man. Ranmna disappeared in that spring water, a couple days back - or maybe even before that. Maybe he disappeared back when I first fell into that spring, and I was just too stubborn to see it… or maybe… maybe he didn’t really exist at all…”
“Ranko?” Akane asked, hesitant and obviously unsure what to say.
“I put so much effort into being a man, Akane,” Ranko whispered. “I worked so hard to be the manliest man you’d ever met… and all it did was get me into trouble. It wasn’t worth it - or at least I didn’t think so? But… but what sort of man just lets go of being a man like that? If I could toss that part of my identity aside so easily, then… then what about me is real…”
“Ranko…” Akane repeated, before stepping closer to her wife. A hand lifted up towards Ranko’s face, causing the redhead to momentarily flinch, but all Akane did was cup her cheek.
“This is real,” Akane stated, leaning in to press a soft kiss against Ranko’s lips. “Our love is real. You are real. You’re just… different than you thought you were.”
“Different doesn’t even begin to describe it,” Ranko muttered, before shaking her head. “But you’re right. I’ve got you… and… and…” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I feel like I barely know who I am, anymore, Akane… Can I really just… be a girl? After all this time? All this struggle? Is it really okay for me to just accept it?”
“What do I have to do to get you to believe that you can?” Akane asked, sighing. “You don’t always have to suffer and train and fight to get what you want, Ranko. You’ve already got the body of a girl - a body most girls would kill for. Why can’t you just… accept it? Be that girl?”
“Because all my life has been devoted to trying to be the manliest man I could be!” Ranko all but screamed. “All my life, all my training, everything Pops tried to hammer into my skull… It feels like I’m turning my back on all of it, every time I so much as think about how I wanna stay this way.”
“But you do want it,” Akane pointed out.
“Of course I want it!” Ranko replied. “Why wouldn’t I? Being a man brought me nothing but trouble. Kodachi’s probably out there plotting how to turn me back, even as we speak - though good luck with that, now that I’ve had my curse locked twice. I don’t think I could find a way to turn back even if I wanted to at this point.”
“Twice?” Akane asked.
“I uh… helped Kodachi lock her own curse, and one thing led to another, and… look. That’s not the important bit here!”
“No,” Akane agreed. “The important part is that you’re a girl. That you want to be. If only there was some way I could drill it into your head that it’s alright to be this way…”
“Yeah, well, good luck with that…” Ranko muttered. “Pops did everything he could to turn me into the manliest man he could. Not sure how you’re supposed to drive that out of me.”
Akane fell silent for a moment, frowning in thought. When she opened her mouth to speak, at last, it was with hesitance in her voice. “Well… there is one thing we could try… Something that might drive home how much you’ve changed, inside and out…”
“Yeah?” Ranko asked, dubiously. “What?”
Akane hesitated a moment, before grabbing hold of Ranko’s hand, and pulling her towards the bedroom. “This is probably a stupid idea… but promise not to freak out until I’m done explaining it, okay?”
“This isn’t filling me with a lot of confidence, Akane,” Ranko complained. Still, she followed her wife into the bedroom, not pulling her hand away even when they reached their destination and Akane pulled open her top dresser drawer.
“Isn’t that your underwear drawer?” Ranko asked. “If your suggestion is panties and a bra, then I’m out of here.”
“Why not?” Akane asked. “It’s something you’ve never done before. It might even make you feel more womanly!”
“Yeah, maybe, but your stuff would never fit me. You’ve got way too little curves compared to me!”
Akane paused for a moment, before giving Ranko a sickly sweet smile. “Well then. It’s a good thing that it’s not underwear I’m recommending, isn’t it?
“H-huh? It isn’t?” Ranko asked, suddenly very nervous. Especially when she felt Akane’s hand tighten around hers, nails digging into her flesh to the point where it almost hurt. There was no way she was getting out of that grip without dealing some actual harm to Akane. “Wh-what is it then?”
Instead of answering, Akane pulled out… something. Something shaped a hell of a lot like what used to be between Ranko’s own legs. Something she knew the name of, but couldn’t quite bring herself to say, all the same.
“You wanna…”
“You’re struggling to accept yourself as a girl, aren’t you?” Akane asked. “Maybe this is just what you need to drive the point home.”
“Yeah, but… a… I mean, isn’t that a bit… I don’t know…”
“Gay?” Akane suggested. “Ranko, you’re a lesbian. I’m pretty sure that’s about as gay as you can get! Unless you’re planning to cling onto your identity as a boy, after all?”
“N-no!” Ranko insisted, shaking her head. “It’s just…”
“Look, if you’re scared, we don’t have to do it,” Akane said, easing her grip on Ranko’s hand until she was merely holding it gently. “I’m sure we can figure out something else. I just figured it might help.”
“…No,” Ranko said, shaking her head, and squeezing Akane’s hand back before reaching out for the… the thing in her hands. The thing that might soon be inside her.
“Ran… Ranko Saotome doesn’t back down from a fight.”
“This isn’t a martial art,” Akane said. “It’s just sex.”
“No, but it is a fight,” Ranko insisted. “Just… with myself. With who I used to be - or at least who I used to think I was… and if this is going to help me take him down, then… then let me at it!”
Akane stared at Ranko for a moment, before shaking her head, and letting out a rueful laugh. “Alright, Ranko. But if you want to take on this opponent, then for once in your life you’re going to have to accept my help. I’m not letting you go into battle by yourself.”
Ranko opened her mouth to protest, to say that she could handle it herself, that she didn’t need help. The look in Akane’s eyes brought her up short. “…Fine.”
“Good,” Akane said, giving her wife a small smile. “Then get on the bed.”
~~~
Author's Notes
Thanks, as always, go to JW for commissioning this! I actually had it finished before the latest chapter of My Own Villainess, but didn't want to post it until I had the commissioner's approval. Hope you enjoy as much as they did!