-
"Don't give up!"
Amy shouted from behind me.
An ice spear formed out of nowhere—
Shk!
The monster hissed, pain forcing through its rotten maw.
"Heh—feeling that?" I smirked arrogantly, grabbing the spear shaft lodged in its chest. "Heh—this is gonna be fun. Let's see who's playing who now!"
"..."
The spear… wasn't moving.
The monster clung to the shaft with every grotesque arm like it was a lifeline. I lifted my gaze a bit.
It was staring at me with the pitiful, pleading eyes of a puppy.
"Ugh, gross. You don't even have real eyes—stop trying that face. It's disgusting."
I kicked the spear's handle forward, driving it deeper.
And that was that—the monster died.
Or so I thought. For some reason before it finally went, it decided to rip my shirt and jacket off.
Ungrateful jerk. may be he liked to shove it straight into its ass?
I grabbed my bat again and looked toward Silus.
Slash! Slash!
There was still one left.
I grinned. I twirled the bat 360 degrees in my hand—so cool!
Thwak!
"….."
The bat slipped from my hand.
Please—forget that happened.
Whatever. Doesn't matter…
I crept up behind Silus's enemy with a wicked grin.
I took a "professional baseball stance" (no clue what that actually looks like) and—
"Horaa!"
BOOM!
Right in the strike zone!
The monster staggered, clutching its head from the blow—no time to recover.
Slash!!
Its head flew clean off and vanished.
"Haha! A pile of meat like you can't keep up with me! Hahaha!" I laughed arrogantly and slung the bat over my shoulder like some high-school delinquent.
Silus turned to thank me. "By the way, thanks f—"
But when he looked at me, he froze. His face flushed red and he suddenly turned away, embarrassed.
"U—Amy!" Silus called weakly.
"I get it," Amy said simply, smiling. She walked toward me and—out of nowhere—pulled a shirt and jacket into existence.
"Thanks," I whistled, impressed. "Teach me that trick sometime."
I started putting on the clothes she gave me, but something felt off.
"I don't remember being this… chubby," I muttered, staring at my chest in confusion. I shook it off quickly and finished dressing. Not a big deal—some exercise will fix it. Still… why did my chest feel kind of… weird? I didn't think about it much.
"By the way, what's wrong with you?" I looked at Silus and raised an eyebrow. Was he that rattled? Embarrassed to see another man's chest? Even Amy acted like it was nothing.
"Ahem—nothing," Silus forced a cough, embarrassed.
Wow. At this point I wasn't angry—I was just disappointed.
"Silus~ Come on, let's move. We need to head back," Amy prodded. Looks like she's enjoying his awkwardness. Pathetic guy.
"All right, from there—let's go. We're close to the teleportation chamber, I remember finding it in the room on the 34th floor."
So the three of us headed for the elevator.
---
"..." Silus
"..." Amy
"..." Me
"I swear it was working a moment ago," Silus muttered as he opened the elevator panel to check for faults. To his surprise, he found nothing wrong.
"I'm going to try something." I shoved Silus aside and said confidently.
Silus raised an eyebrow. "This needs a full diagnostic. I'll boot the scanner. Try whatever you want—maybe your nonsense will work." He shrugged and pulled a laptop from who knows where.
He closed the panel and left it to run while I stepped forward.
"Hey—um, what are you gonna try?" Amy asked curiously.
"Simple." I grinned wickedly and produced my bat.
There's an old saying: If an electronic device isn't working, hit it until it does.
Who said that? Someone out of eight billion people, I guess! Ha!
Amy and Silus's pupils shrank.
"Wait! You can't—" Silus shouted.
BOOM!
I didn't care.
Ding~ Ding~
The elevator… worked.
"Hmph." I puffed up proudly, slung the bat over my shoulder, and stepped in.
"What are you staring at—are you coming or not?!" I barked impatiently.
"Uh—yeah, we're coming," they said together, faces full of disbelief and embarrassment.
I hit floor 34, folded my arms, and stuck my chin out. We stood there, awkwardly facing each other.
"You really have your own way of doing things," Amy said, amused.
"I didn't expect that to work," Silus muttered under his breath.
My grin widened—ego fully charged. Amy tried not to laugh. Silus buried his face in his hand—head questioning his life choices.
---
"So this is the teleportation device?" I raised an eyebrow. It looked like a door with a tablet—a sci-fi control panel like a car dashboard. There was a slot that looked like it could take a fuse or a power cell.
"Here we go." Amy pulled something out of thin air again and slipped a capsule full of eerie green liquid into the slot.
Zzzzt— The machine crackled dangerously, then settled.
"We'll set the ship… here." Silus tapped a location on the map and pressed a button.
ZZZZZT! The buzzing got louder, then stopped. A gate opened.
It was weird—just a swirl of distorted colors, like smeared light.
"Let's go!" Amy chirped and jumped through. Silus followed and motioned for me to come.
I had nothing better to do, so I shrugged and followed.
---
Whoa—an actual spaceship! I can't believe my eyes! Who wouldn't be hyped?! This is every guy's dream: piloting a spaceship and wiping out the scum across the galaxy! My eyes lit up.
"Oh? What do we have here—a newcomer?" a woman with blonde hair and dark eyes said with a faint smile.
She was about to continue when Silus handed her a stack of documents. I'd seen him take those from the 34th-floor room earlier—didn't think much of it.
"Gah—what idiots. Don't they ever learn?" the woman frowned, then smiled again. "I'm in charge of operations and strategy on this vessel—Gwen Nureba. Nice to meet you, Stella."
"???" I blinked. "Stella? Who's Stella?" I asked, confused.
Gwen chuckled softly. "That's you. Your name is Stella, right? You must be suffering from memory loss—poor girl."
"Whaaaat?!" My jaw dropped.
Me? A girl? What nonsense is she spouting? Is she on something? I'm a man—can't she see how manly I am? My manliness? Ridiculous!
"Excuse me, Gwen, but don't you see how masculine I am?, my great masculine aura!" I puffed out my chest proudly.
"Heh—of course I see," Gwen laughed lightly. "But appearances can be deceiving." She handed me a small hand mirror.
I took it, confident—then flipped it up to look.
Crack!!
The mirror slipped and shattered. My face drained of color. I fell to my knees, tears of despair welling in my eyes. How could I—become a girl? Impossible! The shards reflected the face of a pretty girl: pale silver hair, golden eyes, a cute face that made you want to pat her head.
"Heh, dramatic much," Gwen said with amusement. "I watched everything on Silus and Amy's mission footage. You're full of energy."
I wiped the faint tears—men don't cry—and slowly stood.
"Anyway," Gwen continued, "how about joining us? We're the Corruption Execution Unit. We hunt down organizations and people who obtained corruption cores and eliminate them. You might also find clues about your memories. We found you unconscious in a traitor facility—you were one of their test subjects." Gwen smiled and held out her hand. "With Silus's brains, Amy's magic, and your strength, you'll be an unstoppable force."
Hmm. I had nothing better to do, and didn't know where I was. Joining would help me investigate why I turned into a girl and why I'm here. And if they tried to exploit me or do anything dumb? Ha—my glorious bat will deal with them.
I shrugged. "Why not?" I took her hand and used it to pull myself up. "haha! Seems like you're desperate to recruit me anyway."
"Of course! Welcome aboard… Stella!" Gwen said cheerfully.
---
End of Prologue
if there is any errors or confusing sentences, as always please tell me
As for the next chapters it may take up some time