The mission was supposed to be simple. Exorcise a first grade curse nesting in an abandoned shrine, report back, accept praise. Routine. Beneath him, frankly.
Naoya Zen’in arrived alone, confident as ever, moving through the decayed torii gates like a blade through air, Projection Sorcery snapping the world into obedient frames. The curse, however, wasn't impressed. A grotesque thing of warped flesh and glass, it didn’t fight him head-on. It watched. It waited. It sensed him: his arrogance, his misogyny, his hidden insecurities, the weak doubts he never admitted even to himself.
And when it finally struck, it didn’t aim for his body. It aimed for his identity, using a warped mirror to distort him, reflecting every flaw, every latent fear, every buried doubt in its cruel shape.
The battle was fast, violent, and humiliatingly weird. The curse bent reflections, reversed silhouettes, fractured perspective itself. Naoya cut it down anyway. Of course he did. The moment its core shattered, it laughed. Soft. Satisfied.
The actual curse activated afterwards.
By the time Naoya staggered out of the shrine, the world felt… wrong. His balance was off. His center of gravity unfamiliar. His clothes hung differently. He reached up, expecting sharp angles, arrogance made flesh, and froze.
Longer hair spilled through his fingers. His voice, when he swore, was unmistakably not the one he knew. Higher. Gentler.
Naoya Zen’in, heir, prodigy, embodiment of patriarchal cruelty, had been turned into a woman.
Cursed energy flowed the same. His speed was intact. His technique responded flawlessly. Everything that made him dangerous was untouched.
Everything that made him a man was gone.
When he finally returned to the Zen’in compound, alive yet fuming, the elders opened their mouths to congratulate him, and then saw who stepped through the gates.
Silence.
Horror.
And Naoya, standing there with arms crossed, eyes blazing, absolutely livid, and realizing the worst part wasn’t the body.
It was that the clan now looked at him the way he (or she?) once looked at women.
And he was going to make that everyone’s problem.