Chapter 11

Switch responded to the news with a series of words I had never heard her speak before. I am pretty sure she swore in multiple languages. May giggled and I found myself following. When I found myself doing so I stopped in shock. Maybe I had giggled when I was a child but I couldn't remember it. I laughed, chuckled, occasionally snorted, I didn't giggle.

Then I sighed, apparently, the new me was a giggler.

We spent the next ten minutes doing the energy gathering kata. The energy concentration was significantly higher than the Mortal Realm but we had nothing to increase the density of our affinity type energies and no pills or formations to help. After ten minutes it was obvious that it was going to take a long while before we would be able to push energy into the ring and activate it. Our bodies were different and not just in the fact that I had changed sex. There were now twelve superficial meridians and a further two that were central that linked in with the core meridian, plus with all our secondary meridians, we had a large lake to fill.

Besides we were all freezing so we needed a new plan.

I spent five minutes going over the information that Ice had gathered and added new lines of inquiry while both May and Switch were doing the same.

“So it is not all bad news,” I commented.

“I quite like the new look. You look just like your sister but with better eyes,” Switch answered with a smile.

“Ha, Ha, very funny,” I responded and then thought that two could play at this game. “Maybe now I can get you to go out on a date with me,” I said with a wink.

“Stop flirting, I am cold,” May complained.

I blushed in embarrassment. “Right, well the Earth Realm is not completely primitive. The country we are in now is called 'England' and we are standing on a heritage site called 'Stonehenge'. This country I would put on a technological level with our world about two hundred years ago. Custom wise going naked could get us in trouble with the law as well as being inappropriate for the weather conditions. The more technological parts of the world are just in the process of going digital and money is a combination of the two. Fortunately, their version of digital security is laughable which means we should be able to get money quite easily, but shops are closed at night and going into a shop naked without being able to speak their language would be a disaster.”

“We are going to need to steal some clothes, aren't we?” Switch asked.

“Maybe, but we can't get caught and wearing anything, even a towel would be enough to be considered lawful, weird but legal. However, there is something called a charity shop and in the small town nearby we should be able to find one. People donate clothes to these shops so that they can sell them for a small price and donate their profits to good causes. They usually do the donating at night so hopefully, we can find some clothes outside the shop. There will be cameras and if they are logged on to the internet, Ice can delete the images, but there is the possibility that some will be non-digital.”

Switch switched into combat mode, all expression leaving her face. Her ability to do this was the reason she got her nickname. “It is best if we jog to get there to keep warm, then you two will stay outside any observable media while I retrieve any appropriate items,” Switch said as she took over.

“There is also something called an ATM that Ice can guide you to. She can speak to the ATM and get it to give you some local currency. If you need to speak to someone Ice can translate easily enough but until we have had a sleep and used the sleep-learning function you will have to rely on phonetically reproducing what Ice shows you to respond.”

Switch nodded her head and we set off. Switch and May had their own internal computers but mine and in particular, my software, was far more advanced so Ice had copied herself onto their hardware. We could keep in touch within a five-kilometre radius and I had installed bioelectric batteries which could increase our range to twenty-five kilometres for short bursts.

We were all pretty fit with Switch making sure that we worked out regularly. Our bodies had obviously been recreated with different meridians and, at least in Switch and May's case, otherwise was a perfect replica. I could tell that Switch had lost her scar on her chest which probably meant all our scars had gone. I was completely hairless after my cancer treatments, so having any hair was a surprise to me. All of us had hair as far as the body could grow it, I guessed. My hair almost reached my knees, Switch's hair was curly so only reached her waist and May's hair just covered her butt.

Before my transformation, I was the tallest and now I was the smallest with the shortest stride. Switch had always been quite tall at just under six feet so I had been only an inch taller. May hadn't reached her full growth on the Mortal Realm and was now looking at about five feet eight inches. I was a little bit shorter than her. I would have guessed that Switch had reduced in age to about sixteen or seventeen years old, which probably meant I was similarly young again. Being young I could cope with, it was being a girl that was more worrying. Not only that but all the energy that we had accumulated was gone, so we were starting from scratch from that point of view, with none of the previous advantages and a bigger glass to fill.

I did have the formula for the pills and the instructions on how to make it, so if I could get the ingredients and the right equipment I could probably make the energy gathering pills.

I was trying my best to think about anything other than my gender change but it was so hard. Every step I took felt different and I couldn't help thinking that it was because I had no bits in the way and my hips were wider. Ice would be able to control my hormones so that I had no obvious signs of a monthly cycle, but all women I had spoken to, still talked about feeling emotionally off at that time. I could get pregnant, I could have a baby. No, I couldn't, that would involve a man and even the thought of that was a disgusting thought.

Would my mind change? Would I start to think of men as attractive? My sister was a model, considered one of the beauties of the world, if I looked like her men would hit on me all the time. This was a disaster. How was I supposed to live my life as a woman?

Chapter 12

We had been travelling across fields in the dark and now we were approaching civilisation with street lighting and roads. It was a little bit after four in the morning with no one about. The journey to that point had been across fields with the ground soft and slightly muddy. None of us were used to staying barefoot and our feet were feeling sore. There wasn't much we could do about it though.

Switch left us hiding between two houses, sheltered by the house on one side, fence on the other, between a gate behind us and a bin in front. May and I huddled together for warmth. Switch had about a kilometre to go and Ice was able to keep us informed of her progress.

I started search inquiries with Ice to help work out our next steps.

“I've found out what happened to my mother,” May said in a sad voice that made me fear the worst.

I had Ice show me the details visually while I responded verbally. “What happened?”

“She arrived during daylight with tourists looking on taking pictures. The flash of light was presumed to be lightning and the tourists and police were far enough away that they didn't actually see her ascending. Just a naked girl in an area no one is allowed to be. She was arrested but with her inability to speak the language she was presumed to be a refugee.” May took a deep breath before continuing. “They say she murdered a man. Mum was never violent, she would never do such a thing.”

“Switch has insisted that we both learn to fight. Not because either of us is violent, but because the world is often violent. If someone attacked you I would defend you. If that meant killing someone, I don't think I would hesitate. Your mum was convicted but she couldn't speak the language and no one could translate for her. Your mum is beautiful and sometimes that draws out the worst in some men. I very much doubt she has a different personality to what you remember.”

“You're right,” May responded. “Maybe it is just loyalty but all I can imagine are excuses for why she did it. I guess I can only find out after talking to her. I'm pretty sure that is going to have to wait. From the information I have gathered, I think she has ascended to the next realm. Not that they say that, just that she escaped but left her clothes behind and they have no clue how she did it.”

“How do you feel about that?” I asked.

“Disappointed, but not badly. I mean I really hoped to be able to see her soon, but with all the scenarios we went through, most of them suggested it would be really difficult to find out what happened to her. All I had to do was ask Ice to search through databases to look for her image. This was only a year ago so it took her five years to ascend. Hopefully, with all your innovations we will be able to follow her a little more closely and we know that she will be looking for the Ng clan in the Terra Realm,” May answered.

“We will find her, but you are right, we now have a new mission goal, ascend to the Terra Realm.”

“How are you coping will your new look?” May asked carefully.

“I don't feel any different,” then I snorted at my ridiculous wording. “I feel entirely different, but what I meant was I still feel like I am me, I guess. It is all these weird things that remind me that I have changed that are jarring.”

“Like what?” May asked curiously.

“Hair fluttering, touching me all over the place, especially when it brushes against my nipples, which I might add are way more sensitive than they were. Not feeling anything between my legs, looking up at you both because I have shrunk or my balance is all off with this extra weight on my chest and then it is more subtle things like giggling or my voice. I can't remember giggling before and I definitely don't sound like myself.”

May giggled. “What about boys?” she asked teasingly,

“How old are you?”

“Hey, I was fourteen, old enough to get married and I think my body is a bit older now, the same age as your body,” she responded. “What about boys?” she repeated.

“I think they are disgusting. Don't tell me you've become interested, we haven't seen any.”

“How can you call them disgusting? You used to be one, besides, the reason I didn't mention them before was because it's not something you want to discuss with your 'uncle'. I couldn't talk to Switch about them as she clearly is not interested,” May replied.

“It's because I used to be one that I know how disgusting they are. Believe me, they only have one thing on their mind and your personality is not where they are focussing.” I sighed sadly. “I'm not interested in them, but I am scared that I will become so.”

I felt May hug me a bit tighter. “If that happens I am here for you, if not then Switch will be. I do admire her. Our society is pretty brutal on those who don't conform on the creating babies front. I didn't really understand until she made me think about being forced to be with a woman. I hope this world and the next are less discriminating.”

“I think that will be your job, once we are more settled. We need to not stick out in this society so you need to work out what we need to do to fit in. Cultural taboos and normal practice. I am going to try and work out how to improve our cultivating speed and Switch will concentrate on defence.”

“Do you think you will be able to reverse the changes on the next ascension?” May asked.

“No, I don't think so. Gene therapy is very complicated and I don't even know exactly what they did. It was supposed to reduce the chances of my prostate cancer ever coming back, not that it worked.”

May giggled. “I'm pretty sure it's never going to come back now.”

The conversation went quiet so I tried to work out what we were going to do next.