So, here we are. Over seven years from the upload of the original Hunter, Haunted on Bulbagarden Forums and over four since it was first uploaded here on Thousand Roads. There have been lots of laughs and lots of tears, a little anger as well, some hunger, some thirst, some itches at the back of your neck. HOWEVER: A comment by a fellow on one Discord server (paraphrased) made me think:
It made me realize that I've been shutting out a huge amount of possible readers by having HH cater so much to those attracted to men. Statistics say that only about 5-10% of men worldwide are attracted to other men, and as we all know, there are no women on the internet. Data's still out on other genders, but regardless, it looks like there's a lot of untapped potential in the straight man markets.
This is rectified today with the debut of Huntress, Haunted - a complete reimagining of the original HH with all genders swapped! Red, already quite well endowed in the chest area as a man, now gets a bursting bosom as a woman. This, of course, resulted in a lot of changes in the Helixian ideology and the plot of the story in general. But why am I still talking when you can just read about it instead?
Well, here's some content warnings first:
“...and the reason for that is clear. This is a man’s world. Politicians, executives, law enforcement - men, men, men, and when they’re women, they’re plants. Inoffensive picks that create an illusion of the presence of female power. None of them will ever speak the truth, none of them will ever fight for the cause. It’s mockery. Mockery of the female sex.”
Jordan nodded along as Scarlet spoke, looking thoughtful. At the end, he wrote something in his notebook.
“What did you just write?”
He looked up, staring through his red-rimmed glasses. “Just that you seem to have very… strong opinions on this subject.”
Scarlet huffed. “The correct opinions. But it’s not like a man like you would understand. I bet you didn’t even listen to half of what I said. I bet you were distracted by these!” She grabbed her voluptuous breasts and shook them.
Jordan raised his brow, then lowered it. “I assure you, Miss Akai, I was focused only on your words.”
“What, are you gay?”
“...No.”
“That’s what I thought. You are attracted to me.”
“That’s not what I said.”
Scarlet let out a forced laugh. “You really think there’s a straight man alive that wouldn’t look at these massive honkers without his weapon priming itself? I know you’re hard down there, too. There’s no use pretending.”
“I’m really not.”
Scarlet frowned. “What, are you calling me ugly?”
Jordan sighed. “No, I’m not --”
“I see how it is. You see a woman that happens to look or dress a certain way, a way that isn’t exactly what your dick prefers, so she’s got to be a hideous monstrosity!”
Jordan didn’t say anything, simply holding his forehead with an oncoming headache.
“Tell me, Jordan, what part of me do you loathe the most? What part of me offends you so?”
“Miss Akai, I have to --”
“It’s my eyebrows, isn’t it? Too strong for you? Too much actual hair? Would you like me to shave them off and draw on a better pair?”
“Miss Akai,” Jordan said, raising his voice, “please. Our time is almost over and you haven’t answered a single one of my questions. I won’t be able to make any reliable conclusions about your mental state if you do not provide accurate answers.” He sighed. “Surely the reason you came here was to get a professional’s evaluation?”
Scarlet quieted. “Fine,” she muttered. “What did you want to ask?”
“Well, for one, have you been sleeping well?”
Scarlet’s eyes widened. Jordan braced for the storm.
“Sleeping around, you mean?” she shouted. “I knew it! You want to hear that I’m a slut, because of course I have to be a slut with these -” she grabbed her breasts again “- and of course you want to hear all about my sex life so you can get off, you lecherous --”
“Are you sure you’re well enough to get home on your own?”
Scarlet turned to the female guard, looking deep into her eyes. “You are complicit.”
“What?” the guard asked, frowning.
“By taking their orders, you are complicit, sister. I hope you know that.”
The guard sighed. “Okay,” she said. “Just… stay safe, alright?”
“There is no safety for our kind under the patriarchy.”
The guard didn’t say anything, simply returning to the mental health clinic.
Scarlet sighed. That guard must have thought she was crazy. That made another addition to a long list of people…
The same list that Dr Marsh had gotten on just a while ago. Yeah. So much for getting a clean bill of health. While Scarlet had fulfilled her promise to Abby about seeing a shrink, she doubted it would count as Abby was likely to call Dr Marsh to verify it…. and then he’d let her know all about how uncooperative Scarlet had been. How she’d raved like a lunatic…
But Abby didn’t get it. She didn’t understand that the way Scarlet acted was perfectly reasonable. Of course she was ‘quick to anger’, of course she was ‘violent’, of course she was ‘paranoid’. She was a soldier in a war the majority of people either didn’t believe existed or didn’t take seriously. And there was no rest on the battlefield.
Still, Scarlet couldn’t be too hard on her stepsister. Scarlet had been the same way once - one of the girls only vaguely aware of the oppression of her gender that still persisted to this day. Thinking it was something minor, something that had been almost completely solved. That equality was almost here, that equality was something to strive for in general. That one’s sex had no bearing on one’s worth.
It was HER that had shown Scarlet the light. The great goddess HELICA.
Scarlet smiled. She always did when she thought of HER glory, HER power, HER great plan for the world. With Scarlet as HER Bringer, SHE would make the Helican Queendom anew - a world-wide empire of Helicatrixes, the women enhanced by HER grace. And as HER ascension would allow for HER to finally complete HER work - to make these tall, muscular women able to procreate with each other - men would become obsolete and able to be massacred in a glorious bloodbath, their remains eaten in a bountiful feast, their wicked flesh digested, absorbed, purified by the divine bodies of women, becoming sustenance for --
Scarlet jolted, returning to the present. She blinked a few times, listening to the traffic and birdsong of the sunny late spring day. How long had she been having her internal monologue?
Well, it didn’t matter. She needed to get home and rest up properly for tonight. For tonight, another battle of the war would be fought - and she would be victorious.
Scarlet entered the bar. A few of the customers looked at her - most of them men. Surely lustful, given the male brain was a slave to testosterone. The women, though, must have been jealous. That was how the patriarchy wanted them to feel. Scarlet’s ample bosom, narrow waist, wide hips, silky black hair and pretty face enhanced by makeup applied with surgical precision - they all combined into a bombshell beyond comparison. Of course a woman made to care about men’s opinion of them would want to achieve this body. Of course they wanted to feel… wanted.
Scarlet, though, hated dressing this way. The black cocktail dress was restrictive and uncomfortable and the makeup made her face feel like a mask. A Helicatrix would have never worn this clothing or covered their natural beauty with makeup. A Helicatrix was concerned with comfort, warmth and protection first and foremost, and only after that would aesthetics be worth considering. Simply logical.
Nevertheless, Scarlet arrived at the counter. She was quickly served after she showed her ID. She ordered something tasty without too much alcohol, something expensive enough to match her dress. She’d pocketed the money for these drinks and dresses from her father, who couldn’t be bothered to care about her thievery anymore.
She scanned the bar, waiting. Waiting for someone to come to her. Waiting to see who would be next. She couldn’t wait. It had been quite a while since the last one. What had been his name again? Right, Jonah. Jonah Murata. Yes, he’d bled very nicely.
Oh. Someone was approaching her…
Hold on. Was that… a man or a woman? They were quite androgynous. Their hair was wavy, cinnamon brown and chin-length, and they wore glasses with wide, round lenses. Their neat clothes were masculine, at least, and showed their flat chest - and they were holding a glass of beer. Man, Scarlet decided to assume. And thus a possible target. Though if they had been female, Scarlet would have had to admit that they were rather attractive…
The stranger arrived by the empty stool next to her. “This seat taken?” he asked, a gentle smile on his lips. Even his voice was androgynous.
Scarlet smiled. “No, go ahead.”
Of course, what Scarlet really wanted to do was spit on him, but that would hardly help in convincing him to come back to her apartment. She had to suppress herself as she always did when she was out hunting like this, to wear the mareep skin and bleat to convince the ram. Well, that was fine. She was very good at it by now. And, really, it was quite satisfying to manage to manipulate her oppressors.
The stranger sat down, placing his drink on the counter. Scarlet caught a whiff of his cologne - earthy. “I’m Andre,” he said. “Pleased to meet you.”
"I'm Scarlet." She leaned in a little and let her gaze run from his face down to his clothes, then met his eyes again. Playing the part. "And likewise."
"So, friends running late?" Andre asked.
Scarlet faked a pained smile. "No, just me tonight."
"Oh yeah? And how does a pretty lady like you end up sitting by herself at a bar like this?"
"You know how it is," Scarlet said, tracing the rim of her glass with her finger. "Single life. Relaxing, having a few drinks, meeting new people... I'm just seeing where the night takes me."
Andre nodded. “I see.”
After that began the game proper, and Scarlet knew exactly how to play. Spin some bullshit about a life far more normal than your actual one, pretend to care about the guy’s bullshit, laugh at his jokes. Make sure to tailor your body language to maximize allure. Oh, she was so skillful. No wonder HELICA had chosen her.
Andre finished his drink and placed down the glass. “Say, it’s a bit noisy in here. Would you like to go somewhere more quiet?”
Perfect, Scarlet thought. “Oh, how about my place? It’s close by, and I just finished refurnishing. I’m dying to show people.”
Andre smiled. “Sure thing. I’d love to see it.”
Scarlet nodded and finished her drink before the two of them exited the bar. Scarlet found out that Andre hadn’t arrived by car but by foot, which was wonderful for her - no car at her place to get rid of. Scarlet then drove Andre to her apartment complex and the two made their way to her apartment.
“Wow,” Andre said as he stepped into the living room. “Uh, great job with the furnishing.”
It was obvious that Andre was lying. Scarlet’s apartment could barely even be considered furnished at all - cheap tables, cheap chairs, only the most crucial of appliances in the kitchen… as well as something Andre would never get the chance to find out about: an utterly empty bedroom save for the transportation circle drawn on the floor in chalk.
“Oh, yeah. I may have told a little lie,” Scarlet said. “It’s just that I… don’t feel that comfortable going to other people’s places. It’s a quirk I have. But don’t worry! This place isn’t where I actually live, no. I live with my sister and pokémon companions somewhere else. It’s much nicer there, but also more crowded. This place is actually private.”
“Uh-huh,” Andre said, seeming uncomfortable, but then shaking his head and returning a smile to his face. “Well, that’s alright. Whatever’s comfortable with you.”
“Glad to hear it,” Scarlet said. Even with this shock, no man ever left. She was just that hot. “Would you like something to drink?”
Andre turned around. “Oh, please.”
Scarlet walked into the kitchen with Andre in tow and took out a bottle of red wine from the sole cabinet next to the refrigerator. Another expense paid for with Daddy’s money. Gods, it sure was fun to steal from a man.
She took out two glasses and filled them both, then brought them to the table. Scarlet and Andre resumed their conversation, Andre gradually becoming more at ease again. Scarlet continued employing her charms, waiting for Andre to need to --
“Excuse me, but I think I’d like to use the bathroom. Could you show me where it is?”
Scarlet smiled. “Sure thing!” Yet again - perfect.
Scarlet showed Andre to the bathroom, and once he’d locked the door, she returned to the kitchen. From the cabinet, she produced a box, and from the box, she produced a pouch of white powder. Sparkles, a drug developed from the spores of morelull. Cost a pretty penny, but again, Daddy’s money. And Daddy made a lot of money. Because he was a man. Duh.
She mixed the sparkles into Andre’s drink, put away the evidence and sat down to wait. A moment later, she actually realized she needed the bathroom herself. Once Andre returned, she excused herself. She didn’t take long - though she did pause to make sure Andre hadn’t gotten any piss anywhere like men tended to do - before returning, and their conversation continued.
Fifteen minutes, Scarlet thought, taking a sip of her glass as Andre took one of his. I give him fifteen minutes with that physique.
Ten minutes later, Scarlet noticed signs of lethargy in Andre. She smiled, even if she was getting a bit tired herself - he would soon pass out. She continued the conversation for an additional four minu-
Wait.
Tired?
She was tired. Very tired. It was tough to think. It was as if --
Andre realized his drugging at the same moment as Scarlet, his eyes widening, then drooping half-shut again.
“You… bitch,” he simply said.
“You… bastard,” Scarlet growled back.
Both fell off their chairs and collapsed to the floor, blacking out.
---
Fortunately, Scarlet woke up first.
As soon as she’d awoken and shed enough of her grogginess to stand, she staggered to the cabinet and took out her box once more. This time, she took out a vial of yellowish fluid and a rag. She doused the rag with the contents of the vial and took it to Andre’s face, making sure he breathed in enough to keep him knocked out at least for another hour. She left the vial and rag in the sink. She could deal with them later.
She dragged Andre to the bedroom in the middle of the transportation circle and activated it by drawing an additional stroke with a piece of chalk. Andre disappeared in a white flash, transported to the basement in Scarlet’s real house - hopefully intact. Scarlet left her apartment and began driving home even if some grogginess still remained.
Un-fucking-believable, she thought. That little sneasel drugged me. He was going to take advantage of me…
Scarlet shuddered. That would have been so… humiliating.
But, well, it’s alright, she thought. He’s all mine now. At my mercy. And, by HELICA’s name… I shall have none.
Scarlet arrived at her house. The lights were out - made sense, as it was the dead of night. None of Abby, Maureen and Little Helica were people who liked to stay up, even when it was Friday night. Scarlet wasn’t one to stay up, either, but if she wanted to do these rituals, she needed to go out when other people were out…
Either way, she made her way to the basement. She took out the hidden key from the bookshelf and opened the door her family thought had remained shut ever since the death of Scarlet’s mother. Scarlet saw that Andre lay on the transportation circle and breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t woken up.
She closed and locked the door. She took off her dress and folded it neatly on the desk. It felt good to be free of her disguise, to let her real self breathe again. Her underwear she could bear to keep. She actually liked it, really. Black lace. Pretty, but not in a degrading way. Something the Helicatrixes of old might have appreciated, too. And it made her ass look great.
She did wipe the makeup off her face, though. She wanted Andre to see her real face when he died.
Alright. She’d have to undress and wash Andre now in preparation for the ritual. As much as she hated touching the bodies of men without hurting them within the next few seconds, HELICA’s orders were HELICA’s orders.
First, she took off Andre’s socks and shoes. Then, she unbuttoned Andre’s shir…
Huh. Andre seemed to have some kind of garment underneath his shirt. It was white and looked like a sports bra, but flatter. Was that perhaps… medical, for back support? Or did Andre have - what was it called - gynecomastia, and he wanted to flatten his chest in order to look more masculine? Oh, that was so like a man. Couldn’t risk looking anything like a woman. Or… well, Andre did have longer hair than most men…
Whatever. Scarlet removed his shirt and then the garment. There did, indeed, seem to be petite breasts underneath it, and the garment had had a layer of thicker material inside it to help with compression. Well, that was certainly something. None of the other sacrifices had had breasts, and it would certainly have been an amazing coincidence if they had. She supposed she was lucky in a strange way. She’d caught a rare one.
Well, anyway, she ought to get on with it. She put aside the garment and moved on to the pants. They were jeans, somewhat tight-fitting, which Andre probably picked to accentuate that mass that lay between his legs. How disgusting. More disgusting was that Scarlet would have to touch it later, as every part of the body had to be cleaned. But, well, HELICA’s orders and so on…
She unbuttoned the jeans, undid the fly and dragged the pants down. While she tried to avoid looking at the crotch, she couldn’t help but catch a glimpse. And she froze.
She pulled down the underwear to make sure. Yep. That mass was a pair of socks tucked into the briefs and nothing else.
Scarlet sighed deeply through her nose, grabbing her forehead. I’m so fucking stupid, she thought.
It wasn’t gynecomastia. Those had been the breasts of a woman. ‘Andre’ was a woman.
Or -- well. In the modern world, there was the idea of people changing genders. Once someone did that, you weren’t supposed to consider them their original gender anymore. Was Andre trans?
Actually, did it matter? He -- or she -- or they had still drugged Scarlet. That meant they were hostile, an enemy. And an enemy of Scarlet’s was an enemy of the Helican way. While it wouldn’t be through the ritual - hard to castrate someone without testicles - Andre would still have to die.
But not before Scarlet could get some answers.
Scarlet removed Andre’s jeans fully alongside their underwear and crotch-filling socks. She removed their glasses for the time being and placed them on her desk. She pulled up a chair from the corner and placed it in the space she usually performed the ritual in. She fetched some rope, then dragged Andre’s nude body to the chair and sat them on it before tying them down.
Scarlet realized the scene before her, and her heart beat faster.
No. Not now. Not in this situation, not with anyone real. She was celibate, as a Helican priestess needed to be.
She shook her head. Just focus on something else. Go get dressed. It’s not like they’re going anywhere.
She left the room.
Scarlet returned dressed in a pair of jeans, a black t-shirt and a gray hoodie. She’d also brought with her some writing equipment and a crossword to spend the time. Once she’d taken her own chair and placed it across from Andre’s, she sat down and began doing the crossword.
It took a bit longer than expected for Andre to wake up. Scarlet supposed that was because she’d dosed Andre with the assumption that they’d been biologically male. In any case, they were waking up now - stirring, breathing more loudly, then raising their head and looking at Scarlet. Scarlet smiled.
“Wh… what?” Andre asked. “Where… am I?” Their voice sounded much more feminine now. They had been altering it before.
Scarlet placed her crossword on the floor. “I’ll be asking the questions, Andre, if that truly is your name.” She got up and fetched Andre’s glasses and placed them on them - the prisoner hesitantly allowed her to.
Once they saw the woman before them, they frowned. “You.”
“Yes, me,” Scarlet said, smirking. “Now, tell me your pronouns.”
“Huh?”
“Tell me your fucking pronouns!” Scarlet shouted.
“Alright, geez,” Andre said. “I’m she/her.”
“Ah, a woman,” Scarlet said, calm again. “Tell me, sister, what possessed you to don the robes of the penised?”
“Huh?”
“Why’d you dress up as a man?” she asked flatly.
Andre sighed - though her name must not have actually been ‘Andre’. “I was getting close to you, Ichiko Akai.”
Scarlet raised a brow. “You know my real name?”
“Yeah. I’ve been following you for a while.”
“For what purpose?”
“Do you recall a certain someone by the name of Jonah Murata?”
Scarlet flinched. “How do you know about him?”
“He’s the one that wanted me to kill you.”
Scarlet’s jaw hung ajar. “But… he’s been dead for months.”
“His first life ended when you ritually sacrificed him, yes, but he reincarnated into a yamask. It took him some time to regain his memories, but he ultimately remembered it all. And then he came to me.”
“Why you? Who are you?”
‘Andre’ smirked. “I suppose there’s no use hiding it. I know you’re going to kill me, so I might as well die proud.” She sat up straight as well as she could with her restraints. “My legal name is Andrea Victoria Duval, but the streets know me as Justitia.”
“Huh?” Scarlet vocalized. Andrea had said that like she was supposed to know the weight behind that name.
Andrea frowned. “You know, Justitia? The vigilante?”
Scarlet held a blank stare.
“Don’t you watch the news at all?” Andrea asked, annoyed.
“I don’t trust the propaganda machine.”
“Of course not,” Andrea muttered.
“So…” Scarlet scratched her head. “You’re some kind of vigilante, and Jonah came to you to ask you to… kill me.”
“Yes.”
“He told you that I killed him, and you just believed him?”
“I’m aura sensitive, so I can tell when people are telling the truth. And, well…” Andrea looked to the side, at Scarlet’s sacrificial board. “I see my aura sense was correct again.”
Scarlet grasped her chin.
“So…” Andrea began. “You’d better get to it, then. There’s no point in drawing it out. Kill me.”
Scarlet crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. “Are you really that unafraid of death?”
“I knew it would end like this one day. It’s a shame it was so early, but I’m still content with the difference I made in the world in the time I had.”
“But think of everything you’ll never be able to experience again. Birdsong. Sunlight. The sea breeze. The air in your lungs, the beating in your chest…”
“Yet I’ll also never feel pain again.” Andrea smiled. “It’s total neutrality. What’s so bad about that?”
Scarlet got an odd feeling that she should disagree and think that death was somehow infinitely painful, but it passed quickly. No, she didn’t really disagree. She just didn’t see why she had to settle for ‘total neutrality’ instead of godhood.
Still…
“You are…” Scarlet began. “You are a true soldier.”
“Come again?”
“You are so committed to your cause that you have conquered the ultimate fear.”
Andrea smirked. “Well, thanks. I try.”
“Were you to understand the Helican way… you could be a priceless ally.”
“Oh, yeah? And what is this ‘Helican way’?” Andrea asked. “Does it justify the murder you committed?”
“Violence against men is always justified,” Scarlet growled. “You know how they are. How they treat us women like our entire existence is for them alone. Like our bodies are their playthings, soil for their seed. Does it not disgust you?”
“Of course it disgusts me,” Andrea said, “but you are not describing all men. Jonah was not like that. You just assumed he was, and you put an innocent man to death.”
Scarlet sprang up and grabbed Andrea by the shoulders. “There is no such thing as an innocent man!” she hissed. “They are fundamentally impure creatures. They are violent, they are greedy, they are lustful, they are unintelligent. It is their fault alone that humanity still suffers from all the ills of the world. If women, divine beings that we are, were in charge, society would achieve its true potential efficiency, and civilization would prosper.”
“Ha!” Andrea laughed. “You can’t possibly be that naive. Women have the same potential for evil as men. Most of everything would be the exact same way if we were in charge.”
“As women are now, perhaps,” Scarlet said, leaning closer, “but our sisters are victims of years of conditioning. ‘No, you are not divine.’ ‘No, you are not superior.’ ‘No, your place is beneath the man.’ ‘No, you must not think for yourself - you must think like men want you to think, act like men want you to act, look like men want you to look. Otherwise, you are hideous, stupid, insane.’”
Scarlet realized she was getting heated, and then she realized her face was inches from Andrea's, and that she was still touching Andrea when the woman was nude and tied up and --
Scarlet recoiled and turned away. No, I can't think like this…
“I understand, Scarlet,” Andrea said.
She… understands?
“I can tell that you've been hurt by men,” she continued. “Hurt in general. And with this ideology, you've found who to blame.”
That's because they are to blame…
“But you have to realize that this world is made up of individuals. Individuals that make choices. What determines a person's worth is the choices they make - not what they simply are.”
“But… what men are is the reason behind the choices they make,” Scarlet said. “Their testosterone. That poison… it corrupts them. Makes them wicked. Creatures like that should not exist!”
“If men had no free will, then they would definitely be innocent,” Andrea said. “But they have it, just like everyone else. And they can choose good as well as they can choose evil. Only the evil ones deserve sanction. Only removing the evil ones will lead to a better world. And that goes for women, too. Any gender.”
“Quiet!” Scarlet snapped, turning back to Andrea. “You are a heretic. You are with them, you are the enemy. I have tried to explain the way of HELICA to you, and you have only responded with blasphemy. You… you must die.”
Scarlet fetched her trusty ritual knife from the rack on the wall. She held it up to Andrea's neck. Her dainty, feminine, bare neck. Her soft fair skin. Her…
Scarlet's gaze slid down. Andrea's chest was… an entirely different sight now that Scarlet knew she wasn't a man. Her shoulders, her collarbones. Looking lower, past the ropes covering her midsection, there were her hips, her legs, her feet…
Divine, as women were. And among the higher ranks.
“What's taking you so long?” Andrea asked.
Scarlet grimaced and withdrew the knife. “I can't do it,” she muttered. “The thought of breaking you, erasing you… it's not right.”
Andrea was silent, looking confused.
“I want you to live,” Scarlet continued. “But… how am I supposed to let you go? You'll return another day to kill me. And then I won't be able to fulfill my duty to HELICA. I'll never see the Helican Queendom return… and I'll never get my revenge.”
“Revenge,” Andrea repeated. “That's not necessarily the case.”
“What do you mean?”
“Being Justitia, I have resources,” she said, “but… the world could always use another killer on the right side.”
“The right side?”
“Yes. Not of misandry, not of female supremacy, but of gender equality. One who will kill bad men, but who will leave good men alone. I know you have it in you to kill bad women, too, but you won't have to do that if you don't want to. You can leave that to me.”
“But… my allegiance to HELICA…”
“You don't have to break it. You can simply change your method of finding victims.”
“HELICA wants me to kill men indiscriminately, though. To prove that I'm committed, that I won't commit the sin of empathy.”
“I'm sure you've already proven that by killing Jonah,” Andrea said. “Which I don't like, but I'm willing to put that aside for the common good. Jonah will have to understand. And, well, you do seem to be a little insane, and it doesn't feel right to execute someone for that.”
“Hmm.” Scarlet narrowed her eyes and grabbed her chin. “I suppose you're right. I suppose it could work. I suppose neither of us needs to kill the other.”
Andrea smiled. “I'm glad you've come to that conclusion. Will you be setting me free now?”
“Not quite. I need to make sure you're telling the truth.”
“How do you plan to do that?”
“Well, you're not gonna like this. I won’t like it either, carving into your beautiful back. But that's what the seal of truth requires.”
“Uh.” Andrea's smile was frozen on her face. “What?”
To Andrea's… partial relief, Scarlet put her under before carving the seal. She awoke with a back full of bandages, a lingering pain and the inability to lie. Scarlet interrogated Andrea until she was satisfied that she would be safe working together with Andrea and deactivated the seal with another swift cut which Andrea bore with gritted teeth. Scarlet let Andrea get dressed again and drove her home - it was late, after all.
They met again tomorrow afternoon, Scarlet showing up at Andrea’s apartment again. Andrea explained her whole ‘Justitia’ business in more depth - what her ethical code was, what kinds of clients and requests she would accept, how she carried everything out in practice. Scarlet was a quick learner, and not even a few days later, Andrea entrusted her with a mission.
Without any issues, Scarlet charmed the target and brought him into her apartment to drug him as she was used to doing. Andrea then came to pick both of them up and take them to an abandoned warehouse she knew - the place where she disposed of her targets. Andrea let Scarlet do the honors, which she perhaps regretted after she saw how brutal the woman’s methods were. Regardless, Andrea knew that Scarlet wouldn’t be as cooperative if she was told she couldn’t kill in the way she wanted, and it wasn’t like Andrea had much pity for the man with a history of taking advantage of passed out women.
Time passed. The two women continued killing, and with each successful mission, they grew closer. First as sisters in arms, then as friends, and then…
Scarlet stared at the ceiling, her heart still pounding, her breathing still heavy. The bed beneath was soft and warm, almost too warm with how hot her naked body was running.
“How am I going to explain this to HELICA?” she got out.
“You don’t have to tell HER anything,” Andrea said, lying beside her.
“SHE can read my mind.”
“Well, that takes care of the explaining, then,” Andrea said.
Scarlet frowned. “Getting across what happened isn’t the problem. It’s letting HER know that I… regret this, and it will not happen again. That I beg that SHE won’t reject me.”
“Oh, come on,” Andrea said. “You don’t regret this. I can see it in your aura.”
Scarlet stayed quiet.
“Isn’t it time for you to just let go?” Andre asked. “You’ve been having a wonderful time with me, haven’t you? You don’t need HELICA. You don’t need the ‘Helican Queendom’. You’ve met a lot of guys that are decent, too. You don’t want them to die in some massacre.”
“But… the patriarchy…”
“There are still things to do, I know. But look at the strides society has made in the past century. We can fix things without the help of a goddess, and we certainly don’t need the global extermination of all men.”
“I don’t know…”
“Just take some time to think about it, alright?”
“...Okay.”
“That’s my girl.” Andrea leaned over to peck Scarlet on the cheek. Somehow, despite the fact that they’d had mind-blowing sex not even minutes ago, Scarlet still blushed.
Andrea got up with a sigh. “I’m gonna use the bathroom,” she said. “You should too. It’s always a good idea to pee after sex, especially for women. During sex, bacteria can --”
“I know,” Scarlet said. “I’ve read about it.”
Andrea smiled. “Alright, good. Just looking out for you.”
As Andrea left, Scarlet sighed deeply.
Maybe… maybe she could live without HELICA. Maybe she did have everything she needed right here. Maybe having a finite life was enough. Maybe she didn’t have to sacrifice four billion human beings to achieve immortality…
But what would she choose?
“What’s up, gamers? It’s ya girl, Jessica, and guess where I am? That’s right, a wedding! My old trainer is getting hitched to, I don’t know, someone, and I’m here to witness this grand event. I know they told me not to film here, but I figured this would make some pretty sweet content, and you know me, I’m always about that hust-”
“Jessica!”
Jessica squawked, which was unusual for a pidgeot. “Oh, looks like I got caught. Gotta run!”
She stopped recording and turned to her reprimander, a nidoqueen with a white bow atop her head and an omanyte in her arms. “Maureen, please,” Jessica started. “You have to understand. I’m in the red. I owe bad people money. I --”
“This is a magical moment for Scarlet, and I will not let you sully it,” Maureen said. “Besides, what sort of example are you setting for Little Helica?”
“It’s okay, Maureen,” the omanyte said. “I know it’s bad manners to film without permission!”
“See?” Maureen said. “Even she knows it’s bad, and she’s only a year old!”
“A year and a half,” Little Helica amended.
“You folks all ready for the main event?” asked a new voice. The mon turned to her and recognized her as the priest, Margaret Samson.
“You know it!” Jessica said. “I’m a big, uh, wedding fan. Can’t get enough of ‘em.”
Mrs Samson chuckled. “I’m glad to hear it! But you should probably get into your seats so you don’t have to stand the whole time.”
“Absolutely,” Jessica said. “I’ll, just, uh, go now.” She made her way to her seat at the font - a white perch meant for large avian mon such as herself.
“Guess we better go, too,” Maureen said to Little Helica and followed Jessica to her own seat, which resembled a low, sturdy little bench.
The ceremony was held without issue. It was a Galarish-style ceremony, as Andrea’s family had been very adamant about it and Scarlet’s father, Junto, had simply been glad that someone else would be keeping his daughter in check from now on. Mrs Samson pronounced Scarlet and Andrea wife and wife, the couple kissed, everyone clapped. Then it was time for the catering.
“I’ve got to say,” Andrea’s mother said, “this shaved beef is fantastic. You can barely tell it’s lab-made. I must leave my commendations to the catering firm… this is even more delectable than it was at Dana’s wedding!”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying it,” Scarlet said, smiling. “I actually volunteered to source it.”
Andrea gave her new wife a cautious look.
“Oh, did you know some independent lab?” Andrea’s mother asked.
“You could call it that,” Scarlet said.
“Excuse us for a moment,” Andrea said and pulled Scarlet aside. “Scarlet.”
“Yes, dear?” Scarlet was still smiling.
“Did you do what I think you did?”
“Perhaps.”
“This isn’t the time to be coy. Is that meat lab-made or not?”
Scarlet grinned.
“Fuck’s sake,” Andrea said.
She did, however, leave matters be for the rest of the event. What was done was done. After the final dance party sequence to Feel This Moment by Granbull, the guests left and so did the couple, ready to consummate their marriage at their brand new house.
On the limo ride there, Scarlet grabbed Andrea’s hand.
“Hm?” Andrea hummed.
Scarlet looked at her with a warm smile. “I’m just… so happy.”
Andrea smiled back. “Me too.”
Scarlet gazed into Andrea’s eyes. Brown, so full of life. Scarlet had noticed her own eyes gaining a new shine to them, too, ever since she’d hired a group of electrode to use their explosion technique on HELICA’s fossil, blowing it into tiny little shards and destroying HER soul-anchor. As it would take thousands of years for HER to recompose herself, Scarlet knew she was safe - safe to spend the rest of her life with her wife.
Andrea’s smile then slipped away, and she let go of Scarlet’s hand. “But I didn’t appreciate that meat trick you pulled, so we’re not having sex for a month.”
Scarlet stared with shock. “What? No fair!”
“Should’ve thought about that before you fed some guy to my family.”
“Andrea, come on! It was just resourceful! All of that meat would have gone to waste otherwise! And you thought it tasted good, didn’t it? Admit it! You thought it was great!”
Andrea stayed silent for the rest of the trip despite Scarlet’s insistent pleas. As the limo sped past the mental health clinic, though, a yamask behind the fence clenched his fist…
“Mah, mah mah… mah, mah!” said Jonah.
“I know, Jonah,” said a pink-haired boy standing next to him. “It’s fucked up that they get to be happy after what they did to you.”
“Feelings of resentment?” a voice behind them asked. They turned around to see a black-haired man with red-rimmed glasses. “I can help with that.”
”Who are you?” the boy asked.
“Dr Jordan Marsh,” the man said, taking the boy’s and ghost’s hands and shaking them. “Why don’t you come inside? I sense we have much to talk about.”
The ghost and the boy exchanged a glance. “Sure, why not,” the boy then said, and the two followed the man into the clinic.
It made me realize that I've been shutting out a huge amount of possible readers by having HH cater so much to those attracted to men. Statistics say that only about 5-10% of men worldwide are attracted to other men, and as we all know, there are no women on the internet. Data's still out on other genders, but regardless, it looks like there's a lot of untapped potential in the straight man markets.
This is rectified today with the debut of Huntress, Haunted - a complete reimagining of the original HH with all genders swapped! Red, already quite well endowed in the chest area as a man, now gets a bursting bosom as a woman. This, of course, resulted in a lot of changes in the Helixian ideology and the plot of the story in general. But why am I still talking when you can just read about it instead?
Well, here's some content warnings first:
- Misandry and discussion of misogyny
- Transphobia (implicit)
- Sexual themes, including references to sexual assault
- References to violence and gore
- Drugging
---
Huntress, Haunted
Synopsis:
Ichiko "Scarlet" Akai, the high priestess of HELICA, seeks another man to sacrifice in her goddess' name. Everything seems to go according to plan at first, but then... well.
Genre:
Comedy and, uh, thriller?
Status:
Finished
Length:
~6 300 words
---
Huntress, Haunted
Synopsis:
Ichiko "Scarlet" Akai, the high priestess of HELICA, seeks another man to sacrifice in her goddess' name. Everything seems to go according to plan at first, but then... well.
Genre:
Comedy and, uh, thriller?
Status:
Finished
Length:
~6 300 words
---
“...and the reason for that is clear. This is a man’s world. Politicians, executives, law enforcement - men, men, men, and when they’re women, they’re plants. Inoffensive picks that create an illusion of the presence of female power. None of them will ever speak the truth, none of them will ever fight for the cause. It’s mockery. Mockery of the female sex.”
Jordan nodded along as Scarlet spoke, looking thoughtful. At the end, he wrote something in his notebook.
“What did you just write?”
He looked up, staring through his red-rimmed glasses. “Just that you seem to have very… strong opinions on this subject.”
Scarlet huffed. “The correct opinions. But it’s not like a man like you would understand. I bet you didn’t even listen to half of what I said. I bet you were distracted by these!” She grabbed her voluptuous breasts and shook them.
Jordan raised his brow, then lowered it. “I assure you, Miss Akai, I was focused only on your words.”
“What, are you gay?”
“...No.”
“That’s what I thought. You are attracted to me.”
“That’s not what I said.”
Scarlet let out a forced laugh. “You really think there’s a straight man alive that wouldn’t look at these massive honkers without his weapon priming itself? I know you’re hard down there, too. There’s no use pretending.”
“I’m really not.”
Scarlet frowned. “What, are you calling me ugly?”
Jordan sighed. “No, I’m not --”
“I see how it is. You see a woman that happens to look or dress a certain way, a way that isn’t exactly what your dick prefers, so she’s got to be a hideous monstrosity!”
Jordan didn’t say anything, simply holding his forehead with an oncoming headache.
“Tell me, Jordan, what part of me do you loathe the most? What part of me offends you so?”
“Miss Akai, I have to --”
“It’s my eyebrows, isn’t it? Too strong for you? Too much actual hair? Would you like me to shave them off and draw on a better pair?”
“Miss Akai,” Jordan said, raising his voice, “please. Our time is almost over and you haven’t answered a single one of my questions. I won’t be able to make any reliable conclusions about your mental state if you do not provide accurate answers.” He sighed. “Surely the reason you came here was to get a professional’s evaluation?”
Scarlet quieted. “Fine,” she muttered. “What did you want to ask?”
“Well, for one, have you been sleeping well?”
Scarlet’s eyes widened. Jordan braced for the storm.
“Sleeping around, you mean?” she shouted. “I knew it! You want to hear that I’m a slut, because of course I have to be a slut with these -” she grabbed her breasts again “- and of course you want to hear all about my sex life so you can get off, you lecherous --”
---
“Are you sure you’re well enough to get home on your own?”
Scarlet turned to the female guard, looking deep into her eyes. “You are complicit.”
“What?” the guard asked, frowning.
“By taking their orders, you are complicit, sister. I hope you know that.”
The guard sighed. “Okay,” she said. “Just… stay safe, alright?”
“There is no safety for our kind under the patriarchy.”
The guard didn’t say anything, simply returning to the mental health clinic.
Scarlet sighed. That guard must have thought she was crazy. That made another addition to a long list of people…
The same list that Dr Marsh had gotten on just a while ago. Yeah. So much for getting a clean bill of health. While Scarlet had fulfilled her promise to Abby about seeing a shrink, she doubted it would count as Abby was likely to call Dr Marsh to verify it…. and then he’d let her know all about how uncooperative Scarlet had been. How she’d raved like a lunatic…
But Abby didn’t get it. She didn’t understand that the way Scarlet acted was perfectly reasonable. Of course she was ‘quick to anger’, of course she was ‘violent’, of course she was ‘paranoid’. She was a soldier in a war the majority of people either didn’t believe existed or didn’t take seriously. And there was no rest on the battlefield.
Still, Scarlet couldn’t be too hard on her stepsister. Scarlet had been the same way once - one of the girls only vaguely aware of the oppression of her gender that still persisted to this day. Thinking it was something minor, something that had been almost completely solved. That equality was almost here, that equality was something to strive for in general. That one’s sex had no bearing on one’s worth.
It was HER that had shown Scarlet the light. The great goddess HELICA.
Scarlet smiled. She always did when she thought of HER glory, HER power, HER great plan for the world. With Scarlet as HER Bringer, SHE would make the Helican Queendom anew - a world-wide empire of Helicatrixes, the women enhanced by HER grace. And as HER ascension would allow for HER to finally complete HER work - to make these tall, muscular women able to procreate with each other - men would become obsolete and able to be massacred in a glorious bloodbath, their remains eaten in a bountiful feast, their wicked flesh digested, absorbed, purified by the divine bodies of women, becoming sustenance for --
Scarlet jolted, returning to the present. She blinked a few times, listening to the traffic and birdsong of the sunny late spring day. How long had she been having her internal monologue?
Well, it didn’t matter. She needed to get home and rest up properly for tonight. For tonight, another battle of the war would be fought - and she would be victorious.
---
Scarlet entered the bar. A few of the customers looked at her - most of them men. Surely lustful, given the male brain was a slave to testosterone. The women, though, must have been jealous. That was how the patriarchy wanted them to feel. Scarlet’s ample bosom, narrow waist, wide hips, silky black hair and pretty face enhanced by makeup applied with surgical precision - they all combined into a bombshell beyond comparison. Of course a woman made to care about men’s opinion of them would want to achieve this body. Of course they wanted to feel… wanted.
Scarlet, though, hated dressing this way. The black cocktail dress was restrictive and uncomfortable and the makeup made her face feel like a mask. A Helicatrix would have never worn this clothing or covered their natural beauty with makeup. A Helicatrix was concerned with comfort, warmth and protection first and foremost, and only after that would aesthetics be worth considering. Simply logical.
Nevertheless, Scarlet arrived at the counter. She was quickly served after she showed her ID. She ordered something tasty without too much alcohol, something expensive enough to match her dress. She’d pocketed the money for these drinks and dresses from her father, who couldn’t be bothered to care about her thievery anymore.
She scanned the bar, waiting. Waiting for someone to come to her. Waiting to see who would be next. She couldn’t wait. It had been quite a while since the last one. What had been his name again? Right, Jonah. Jonah Murata. Yes, he’d bled very nicely.
Oh. Someone was approaching her…
Hold on. Was that… a man or a woman? They were quite androgynous. Their hair was wavy, cinnamon brown and chin-length, and they wore glasses with wide, round lenses. Their neat clothes were masculine, at least, and showed their flat chest - and they were holding a glass of beer. Man, Scarlet decided to assume. And thus a possible target. Though if they had been female, Scarlet would have had to admit that they were rather attractive…
The stranger arrived by the empty stool next to her. “This seat taken?” he asked, a gentle smile on his lips. Even his voice was androgynous.
Scarlet smiled. “No, go ahead.”
Of course, what Scarlet really wanted to do was spit on him, but that would hardly help in convincing him to come back to her apartment. She had to suppress herself as she always did when she was out hunting like this, to wear the mareep skin and bleat to convince the ram. Well, that was fine. She was very good at it by now. And, really, it was quite satisfying to manage to manipulate her oppressors.
The stranger sat down, placing his drink on the counter. Scarlet caught a whiff of his cologne - earthy. “I’m Andre,” he said. “Pleased to meet you.”
"I'm Scarlet." She leaned in a little and let her gaze run from his face down to his clothes, then met his eyes again. Playing the part. "And likewise."
"So, friends running late?" Andre asked.
Scarlet faked a pained smile. "No, just me tonight."
"Oh yeah? And how does a pretty lady like you end up sitting by herself at a bar like this?"
"You know how it is," Scarlet said, tracing the rim of her glass with her finger. "Single life. Relaxing, having a few drinks, meeting new people... I'm just seeing where the night takes me."
Andre nodded. “I see.”
After that began the game proper, and Scarlet knew exactly how to play. Spin some bullshit about a life far more normal than your actual one, pretend to care about the guy’s bullshit, laugh at his jokes. Make sure to tailor your body language to maximize allure. Oh, she was so skillful. No wonder HELICA had chosen her.
Andre finished his drink and placed down the glass. “Say, it’s a bit noisy in here. Would you like to go somewhere more quiet?”
Perfect, Scarlet thought. “Oh, how about my place? It’s close by, and I just finished refurnishing. I’m dying to show people.”
Andre smiled. “Sure thing. I’d love to see it.”
Scarlet nodded and finished her drink before the two of them exited the bar. Scarlet found out that Andre hadn’t arrived by car but by foot, which was wonderful for her - no car at her place to get rid of. Scarlet then drove Andre to her apartment complex and the two made their way to her apartment.
“Wow,” Andre said as he stepped into the living room. “Uh, great job with the furnishing.”
It was obvious that Andre was lying. Scarlet’s apartment could barely even be considered furnished at all - cheap tables, cheap chairs, only the most crucial of appliances in the kitchen… as well as something Andre would never get the chance to find out about: an utterly empty bedroom save for the transportation circle drawn on the floor in chalk.
“Oh, yeah. I may have told a little lie,” Scarlet said. “It’s just that I… don’t feel that comfortable going to other people’s places. It’s a quirk I have. But don’t worry! This place isn’t where I actually live, no. I live with my sister and pokémon companions somewhere else. It’s much nicer there, but also more crowded. This place is actually private.”
“Uh-huh,” Andre said, seeming uncomfortable, but then shaking his head and returning a smile to his face. “Well, that’s alright. Whatever’s comfortable with you.”
“Glad to hear it,” Scarlet said. Even with this shock, no man ever left. She was just that hot. “Would you like something to drink?”
Andre turned around. “Oh, please.”
Scarlet walked into the kitchen with Andre in tow and took out a bottle of red wine from the sole cabinet next to the refrigerator. Another expense paid for with Daddy’s money. Gods, it sure was fun to steal from a man.
She took out two glasses and filled them both, then brought them to the table. Scarlet and Andre resumed their conversation, Andre gradually becoming more at ease again. Scarlet continued employing her charms, waiting for Andre to need to --
“Excuse me, but I think I’d like to use the bathroom. Could you show me where it is?”
Scarlet smiled. “Sure thing!” Yet again - perfect.
Scarlet showed Andre to the bathroom, and once he’d locked the door, she returned to the kitchen. From the cabinet, she produced a box, and from the box, she produced a pouch of white powder. Sparkles, a drug developed from the spores of morelull. Cost a pretty penny, but again, Daddy’s money. And Daddy made a lot of money. Because he was a man. Duh.
She mixed the sparkles into Andre’s drink, put away the evidence and sat down to wait. A moment later, she actually realized she needed the bathroom herself. Once Andre returned, she excused herself. She didn’t take long - though she did pause to make sure Andre hadn’t gotten any piss anywhere like men tended to do - before returning, and their conversation continued.
Fifteen minutes, Scarlet thought, taking a sip of her glass as Andre took one of his. I give him fifteen minutes with that physique.
Ten minutes later, Scarlet noticed signs of lethargy in Andre. She smiled, even if she was getting a bit tired herself - he would soon pass out. She continued the conversation for an additional four minu-
Wait.
Tired?
She was tired. Very tired. It was tough to think. It was as if --
Andre realized his drugging at the same moment as Scarlet, his eyes widening, then drooping half-shut again.
“You… bitch,” he simply said.
“You… bastard,” Scarlet growled back.
Both fell off their chairs and collapsed to the floor, blacking out.
---
Fortunately, Scarlet woke up first.
As soon as she’d awoken and shed enough of her grogginess to stand, she staggered to the cabinet and took out her box once more. This time, she took out a vial of yellowish fluid and a rag. She doused the rag with the contents of the vial and took it to Andre’s face, making sure he breathed in enough to keep him knocked out at least for another hour. She left the vial and rag in the sink. She could deal with them later.
She dragged Andre to the bedroom in the middle of the transportation circle and activated it by drawing an additional stroke with a piece of chalk. Andre disappeared in a white flash, transported to the basement in Scarlet’s real house - hopefully intact. Scarlet left her apartment and began driving home even if some grogginess still remained.
Un-fucking-believable, she thought. That little sneasel drugged me. He was going to take advantage of me…
Scarlet shuddered. That would have been so… humiliating.
But, well, it’s alright, she thought. He’s all mine now. At my mercy. And, by HELICA’s name… I shall have none.
Scarlet arrived at her house. The lights were out - made sense, as it was the dead of night. None of Abby, Maureen and Little Helica were people who liked to stay up, even when it was Friday night. Scarlet wasn’t one to stay up, either, but if she wanted to do these rituals, she needed to go out when other people were out…
Either way, she made her way to the basement. She took out the hidden key from the bookshelf and opened the door her family thought had remained shut ever since the death of Scarlet’s mother. Scarlet saw that Andre lay on the transportation circle and breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t woken up.
She closed and locked the door. She took off her dress and folded it neatly on the desk. It felt good to be free of her disguise, to let her real self breathe again. Her underwear she could bear to keep. She actually liked it, really. Black lace. Pretty, but not in a degrading way. Something the Helicatrixes of old might have appreciated, too. And it made her ass look great.
She did wipe the makeup off her face, though. She wanted Andre to see her real face when he died.
Alright. She’d have to undress and wash Andre now in preparation for the ritual. As much as she hated touching the bodies of men without hurting them within the next few seconds, HELICA’s orders were HELICA’s orders.
First, she took off Andre’s socks and shoes. Then, she unbuttoned Andre’s shir…
Huh. Andre seemed to have some kind of garment underneath his shirt. It was white and looked like a sports bra, but flatter. Was that perhaps… medical, for back support? Or did Andre have - what was it called - gynecomastia, and he wanted to flatten his chest in order to look more masculine? Oh, that was so like a man. Couldn’t risk looking anything like a woman. Or… well, Andre did have longer hair than most men…
Whatever. Scarlet removed his shirt and then the garment. There did, indeed, seem to be petite breasts underneath it, and the garment had had a layer of thicker material inside it to help with compression. Well, that was certainly something. None of the other sacrifices had had breasts, and it would certainly have been an amazing coincidence if they had. She supposed she was lucky in a strange way. She’d caught a rare one.
Well, anyway, she ought to get on with it. She put aside the garment and moved on to the pants. They were jeans, somewhat tight-fitting, which Andre probably picked to accentuate that mass that lay between his legs. How disgusting. More disgusting was that Scarlet would have to touch it later, as every part of the body had to be cleaned. But, well, HELICA’s orders and so on…
She unbuttoned the jeans, undid the fly and dragged the pants down. While she tried to avoid looking at the crotch, she couldn’t help but catch a glimpse. And she froze.
She pulled down the underwear to make sure. Yep. That mass was a pair of socks tucked into the briefs and nothing else.
Scarlet sighed deeply through her nose, grabbing her forehead. I’m so fucking stupid, she thought.
It wasn’t gynecomastia. Those had been the breasts of a woman. ‘Andre’ was a woman.
Or -- well. In the modern world, there was the idea of people changing genders. Once someone did that, you weren’t supposed to consider them their original gender anymore. Was Andre trans?
Actually, did it matter? He -- or she -- or they had still drugged Scarlet. That meant they were hostile, an enemy. And an enemy of Scarlet’s was an enemy of the Helican way. While it wouldn’t be through the ritual - hard to castrate someone without testicles - Andre would still have to die.
But not before Scarlet could get some answers.
Scarlet removed Andre’s jeans fully alongside their underwear and crotch-filling socks. She removed their glasses for the time being and placed them on her desk. She pulled up a chair from the corner and placed it in the space she usually performed the ritual in. She fetched some rope, then dragged Andre’s nude body to the chair and sat them on it before tying them down.
Scarlet realized the scene before her, and her heart beat faster.
No. Not now. Not in this situation, not with anyone real. She was celibate, as a Helican priestess needed to be.
She shook her head. Just focus on something else. Go get dressed. It’s not like they’re going anywhere.
She left the room.
---
Scarlet returned dressed in a pair of jeans, a black t-shirt and a gray hoodie. She’d also brought with her some writing equipment and a crossword to spend the time. Once she’d taken her own chair and placed it across from Andre’s, she sat down and began doing the crossword.
It took a bit longer than expected for Andre to wake up. Scarlet supposed that was because she’d dosed Andre with the assumption that they’d been biologically male. In any case, they were waking up now - stirring, breathing more loudly, then raising their head and looking at Scarlet. Scarlet smiled.
“Wh… what?” Andre asked. “Where… am I?” Their voice sounded much more feminine now. They had been altering it before.
Scarlet placed her crossword on the floor. “I’ll be asking the questions, Andre, if that truly is your name.” She got up and fetched Andre’s glasses and placed them on them - the prisoner hesitantly allowed her to.
Once they saw the woman before them, they frowned. “You.”
“Yes, me,” Scarlet said, smirking. “Now, tell me your pronouns.”
“Huh?”
“Tell me your fucking pronouns!” Scarlet shouted.
“Alright, geez,” Andre said. “I’m she/her.”
“Ah, a woman,” Scarlet said, calm again. “Tell me, sister, what possessed you to don the robes of the penised?”
“Huh?”
“Why’d you dress up as a man?” she asked flatly.
Andre sighed - though her name must not have actually been ‘Andre’. “I was getting close to you, Ichiko Akai.”
Scarlet raised a brow. “You know my real name?”
“Yeah. I’ve been following you for a while.”
“For what purpose?”
“Do you recall a certain someone by the name of Jonah Murata?”
Scarlet flinched. “How do you know about him?”
“He’s the one that wanted me to kill you.”
Scarlet’s jaw hung ajar. “But… he’s been dead for months.”
“His first life ended when you ritually sacrificed him, yes, but he reincarnated into a yamask. It took him some time to regain his memories, but he ultimately remembered it all. And then he came to me.”
“Why you? Who are you?”
‘Andre’ smirked. “I suppose there’s no use hiding it. I know you’re going to kill me, so I might as well die proud.” She sat up straight as well as she could with her restraints. “My legal name is Andrea Victoria Duval, but the streets know me as Justitia.”
“Huh?” Scarlet vocalized. Andrea had said that like she was supposed to know the weight behind that name.
Andrea frowned. “You know, Justitia? The vigilante?”
Scarlet held a blank stare.
“Don’t you watch the news at all?” Andrea asked, annoyed.
“I don’t trust the propaganda machine.”
“Of course not,” Andrea muttered.
“So…” Scarlet scratched her head. “You’re some kind of vigilante, and Jonah came to you to ask you to… kill me.”
“Yes.”
“He told you that I killed him, and you just believed him?”
“I’m aura sensitive, so I can tell when people are telling the truth. And, well…” Andrea looked to the side, at Scarlet’s sacrificial board. “I see my aura sense was correct again.”
Scarlet grasped her chin.
“So…” Andrea began. “You’d better get to it, then. There’s no point in drawing it out. Kill me.”
Scarlet crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. “Are you really that unafraid of death?”
“I knew it would end like this one day. It’s a shame it was so early, but I’m still content with the difference I made in the world in the time I had.”
“But think of everything you’ll never be able to experience again. Birdsong. Sunlight. The sea breeze. The air in your lungs, the beating in your chest…”
“Yet I’ll also never feel pain again.” Andrea smiled. “It’s total neutrality. What’s so bad about that?”
Scarlet got an odd feeling that she should disagree and think that death was somehow infinitely painful, but it passed quickly. No, she didn’t really disagree. She just didn’t see why she had to settle for ‘total neutrality’ instead of godhood.
Still…
“You are…” Scarlet began. “You are a true soldier.”
“Come again?”
“You are so committed to your cause that you have conquered the ultimate fear.”
Andrea smirked. “Well, thanks. I try.”
“Were you to understand the Helican way… you could be a priceless ally.”
“Oh, yeah? And what is this ‘Helican way’?” Andrea asked. “Does it justify the murder you committed?”
“Violence against men is always justified,” Scarlet growled. “You know how they are. How they treat us women like our entire existence is for them alone. Like our bodies are their playthings, soil for their seed. Does it not disgust you?”
“Of course it disgusts me,” Andrea said, “but you are not describing all men. Jonah was not like that. You just assumed he was, and you put an innocent man to death.”
Scarlet sprang up and grabbed Andrea by the shoulders. “There is no such thing as an innocent man!” she hissed. “They are fundamentally impure creatures. They are violent, they are greedy, they are lustful, they are unintelligent. It is their fault alone that humanity still suffers from all the ills of the world. If women, divine beings that we are, were in charge, society would achieve its true potential efficiency, and civilization would prosper.”
“Ha!” Andrea laughed. “You can’t possibly be that naive. Women have the same potential for evil as men. Most of everything would be the exact same way if we were in charge.”
“As women are now, perhaps,” Scarlet said, leaning closer, “but our sisters are victims of years of conditioning. ‘No, you are not divine.’ ‘No, you are not superior.’ ‘No, your place is beneath the man.’ ‘No, you must not think for yourself - you must think like men want you to think, act like men want you to act, look like men want you to look. Otherwise, you are hideous, stupid, insane.’”
Scarlet realized she was getting heated, and then she realized her face was inches from Andrea's, and that she was still touching Andrea when the woman was nude and tied up and --
Scarlet recoiled and turned away. No, I can't think like this…
“I understand, Scarlet,” Andrea said.
She… understands?
“I can tell that you've been hurt by men,” she continued. “Hurt in general. And with this ideology, you've found who to blame.”
That's because they are to blame…
“But you have to realize that this world is made up of individuals. Individuals that make choices. What determines a person's worth is the choices they make - not what they simply are.”
“But… what men are is the reason behind the choices they make,” Scarlet said. “Their testosterone. That poison… it corrupts them. Makes them wicked. Creatures like that should not exist!”
“If men had no free will, then they would definitely be innocent,” Andrea said. “But they have it, just like everyone else. And they can choose good as well as they can choose evil. Only the evil ones deserve sanction. Only removing the evil ones will lead to a better world. And that goes for women, too. Any gender.”
“Quiet!” Scarlet snapped, turning back to Andrea. “You are a heretic. You are with them, you are the enemy. I have tried to explain the way of HELICA to you, and you have only responded with blasphemy. You… you must die.”
Scarlet fetched her trusty ritual knife from the rack on the wall. She held it up to Andrea's neck. Her dainty, feminine, bare neck. Her soft fair skin. Her…
Scarlet's gaze slid down. Andrea's chest was… an entirely different sight now that Scarlet knew she wasn't a man. Her shoulders, her collarbones. Looking lower, past the ropes covering her midsection, there were her hips, her legs, her feet…
Divine, as women were. And among the higher ranks.
“What's taking you so long?” Andrea asked.
Scarlet grimaced and withdrew the knife. “I can't do it,” she muttered. “The thought of breaking you, erasing you… it's not right.”
Andrea was silent, looking confused.
“I want you to live,” Scarlet continued. “But… how am I supposed to let you go? You'll return another day to kill me. And then I won't be able to fulfill my duty to HELICA. I'll never see the Helican Queendom return… and I'll never get my revenge.”
“Revenge,” Andrea repeated. “That's not necessarily the case.”
“What do you mean?”
“Being Justitia, I have resources,” she said, “but… the world could always use another killer on the right side.”
“The right side?”
“Yes. Not of misandry, not of female supremacy, but of gender equality. One who will kill bad men, but who will leave good men alone. I know you have it in you to kill bad women, too, but you won't have to do that if you don't want to. You can leave that to me.”
“But… my allegiance to HELICA…”
“You don't have to break it. You can simply change your method of finding victims.”
“HELICA wants me to kill men indiscriminately, though. To prove that I'm committed, that I won't commit the sin of empathy.”
“I'm sure you've already proven that by killing Jonah,” Andrea said. “Which I don't like, but I'm willing to put that aside for the common good. Jonah will have to understand. And, well, you do seem to be a little insane, and it doesn't feel right to execute someone for that.”
“Hmm.” Scarlet narrowed her eyes and grabbed her chin. “I suppose you're right. I suppose it could work. I suppose neither of us needs to kill the other.”
Andrea smiled. “I'm glad you've come to that conclusion. Will you be setting me free now?”
“Not quite. I need to make sure you're telling the truth.”
“How do you plan to do that?”
“Well, you're not gonna like this. I won’t like it either, carving into your beautiful back. But that's what the seal of truth requires.”
“Uh.” Andrea's smile was frozen on her face. “What?”
---
To Andrea's… partial relief, Scarlet put her under before carving the seal. She awoke with a back full of bandages, a lingering pain and the inability to lie. Scarlet interrogated Andrea until she was satisfied that she would be safe working together with Andrea and deactivated the seal with another swift cut which Andrea bore with gritted teeth. Scarlet let Andrea get dressed again and drove her home - it was late, after all.
They met again tomorrow afternoon, Scarlet showing up at Andrea’s apartment again. Andrea explained her whole ‘Justitia’ business in more depth - what her ethical code was, what kinds of clients and requests she would accept, how she carried everything out in practice. Scarlet was a quick learner, and not even a few days later, Andrea entrusted her with a mission.
Without any issues, Scarlet charmed the target and brought him into her apartment to drug him as she was used to doing. Andrea then came to pick both of them up and take them to an abandoned warehouse she knew - the place where she disposed of her targets. Andrea let Scarlet do the honors, which she perhaps regretted after she saw how brutal the woman’s methods were. Regardless, Andrea knew that Scarlet wouldn’t be as cooperative if she was told she couldn’t kill in the way she wanted, and it wasn’t like Andrea had much pity for the man with a history of taking advantage of passed out women.
Time passed. The two women continued killing, and with each successful mission, they grew closer. First as sisters in arms, then as friends, and then…
Scarlet stared at the ceiling, her heart still pounding, her breathing still heavy. The bed beneath was soft and warm, almost too warm with how hot her naked body was running.
“How am I going to explain this to HELICA?” she got out.
“You don’t have to tell HER anything,” Andrea said, lying beside her.
“SHE can read my mind.”
“Well, that takes care of the explaining, then,” Andrea said.
Scarlet frowned. “Getting across what happened isn’t the problem. It’s letting HER know that I… regret this, and it will not happen again. That I beg that SHE won’t reject me.”
“Oh, come on,” Andrea said. “You don’t regret this. I can see it in your aura.”
Scarlet stayed quiet.
“Isn’t it time for you to just let go?” Andre asked. “You’ve been having a wonderful time with me, haven’t you? You don’t need HELICA. You don’t need the ‘Helican Queendom’. You’ve met a lot of guys that are decent, too. You don’t want them to die in some massacre.”
“But… the patriarchy…”
“There are still things to do, I know. But look at the strides society has made in the past century. We can fix things without the help of a goddess, and we certainly don’t need the global extermination of all men.”
“I don’t know…”
“Just take some time to think about it, alright?”
“...Okay.”
“That’s my girl.” Andrea leaned over to peck Scarlet on the cheek. Somehow, despite the fact that they’d had mind-blowing sex not even minutes ago, Scarlet still blushed.
Andrea got up with a sigh. “I’m gonna use the bathroom,” she said. “You should too. It’s always a good idea to pee after sex, especially for women. During sex, bacteria can --”
“I know,” Scarlet said. “I’ve read about it.”
Andrea smiled. “Alright, good. Just looking out for you.”
As Andrea left, Scarlet sighed deeply.
Maybe… maybe she could live without HELICA. Maybe she did have everything she needed right here. Maybe having a finite life was enough. Maybe she didn’t have to sacrifice four billion human beings to achieve immortality…
But what would she choose?
---
“What’s up, gamers? It’s ya girl, Jessica, and guess where I am? That’s right, a wedding! My old trainer is getting hitched to, I don’t know, someone, and I’m here to witness this grand event. I know they told me not to film here, but I figured this would make some pretty sweet content, and you know me, I’m always about that hust-”
“Jessica!”
Jessica squawked, which was unusual for a pidgeot. “Oh, looks like I got caught. Gotta run!”
She stopped recording and turned to her reprimander, a nidoqueen with a white bow atop her head and an omanyte in her arms. “Maureen, please,” Jessica started. “You have to understand. I’m in the red. I owe bad people money. I --”
“This is a magical moment for Scarlet, and I will not let you sully it,” Maureen said. “Besides, what sort of example are you setting for Little Helica?”
“It’s okay, Maureen,” the omanyte said. “I know it’s bad manners to film without permission!”
“See?” Maureen said. “Even she knows it’s bad, and she’s only a year old!”
“A year and a half,” Little Helica amended.
“You folks all ready for the main event?” asked a new voice. The mon turned to her and recognized her as the priest, Margaret Samson.
“You know it!” Jessica said. “I’m a big, uh, wedding fan. Can’t get enough of ‘em.”
Mrs Samson chuckled. “I’m glad to hear it! But you should probably get into your seats so you don’t have to stand the whole time.”
“Absolutely,” Jessica said. “I’ll, just, uh, go now.” She made her way to her seat at the font - a white perch meant for large avian mon such as herself.
“Guess we better go, too,” Maureen said to Little Helica and followed Jessica to her own seat, which resembled a low, sturdy little bench.
The ceremony was held without issue. It was a Galarish-style ceremony, as Andrea’s family had been very adamant about it and Scarlet’s father, Junto, had simply been glad that someone else would be keeping his daughter in check from now on. Mrs Samson pronounced Scarlet and Andrea wife and wife, the couple kissed, everyone clapped. Then it was time for the catering.
“I’ve got to say,” Andrea’s mother said, “this shaved beef is fantastic. You can barely tell it’s lab-made. I must leave my commendations to the catering firm… this is even more delectable than it was at Dana’s wedding!”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying it,” Scarlet said, smiling. “I actually volunteered to source it.”
Andrea gave her new wife a cautious look.
“Oh, did you know some independent lab?” Andrea’s mother asked.
“You could call it that,” Scarlet said.
“Excuse us for a moment,” Andrea said and pulled Scarlet aside. “Scarlet.”
“Yes, dear?” Scarlet was still smiling.
“Did you do what I think you did?”
“Perhaps.”
“This isn’t the time to be coy. Is that meat lab-made or not?”
Scarlet grinned.
“Fuck’s sake,” Andrea said.
She did, however, leave matters be for the rest of the event. What was done was done. After the final dance party sequence to Feel This Moment by Granbull, the guests left and so did the couple, ready to consummate their marriage at their brand new house.
On the limo ride there, Scarlet grabbed Andrea’s hand.
“Hm?” Andrea hummed.
Scarlet looked at her with a warm smile. “I’m just… so happy.”
Andrea smiled back. “Me too.”
Scarlet gazed into Andrea’s eyes. Brown, so full of life. Scarlet had noticed her own eyes gaining a new shine to them, too, ever since she’d hired a group of electrode to use their explosion technique on HELICA’s fossil, blowing it into tiny little shards and destroying HER soul-anchor. As it would take thousands of years for HER to recompose herself, Scarlet knew she was safe - safe to spend the rest of her life with her wife.
Andrea’s smile then slipped away, and she let go of Scarlet’s hand. “But I didn’t appreciate that meat trick you pulled, so we’re not having sex for a month.”
Scarlet stared with shock. “What? No fair!”
“Should’ve thought about that before you fed some guy to my family.”
“Andrea, come on! It was just resourceful! All of that meat would have gone to waste otherwise! And you thought it tasted good, didn’t it? Admit it! You thought it was great!”
Andrea stayed silent for the rest of the trip despite Scarlet’s insistent pleas. As the limo sped past the mental health clinic, though, a yamask behind the fence clenched his fist…
“Mah, mah mah… mah, mah!” said Jonah.
“I know, Jonah,” said a pink-haired boy standing next to him. “It’s fucked up that they get to be happy after what they did to you.”
“Feelings of resentment?” a voice behind them asked. They turned around to see a black-haired man with red-rimmed glasses. “I can help with that.”
”Who are you?” the boy asked.
“Dr Jordan Marsh,” the man said, taking the boy’s and ghost’s hands and shaking them. “Why don’t you come inside? I sense we have much to talk about.”
The ghost and the boy exchanged a glance. “Sure, why not,” the boy then said, and the two followed the man into the clinic.
---
THE END
THE END
one can only wonder how we all didn't realize it sooner