~Part 3-2~           The forest was like a forest in the morning. It was dark and kind of chilly and there were lots of animals making weird noises. Almost everyone was sleeping, everyone except Kagemi. There was no way she was going to be able to sleep for a while. Too many strange things were suddenly happening to her. The combination of being hired to get something that belonged to someone that her old friend, Lina Inverse knew, someone trying to kill her, and a bad feeling she felt in the last week. She didn't know what she should do. She only hoped the woman wasn't sent to kill her because she hadn't finished the job she was supposed to do, which was the retrieval of the Hikari no Ken.
    She glanced back at the group. Everyone was napping peacefully, probably because none of them  felt the powerful burst that she knew was familiar, but didn't know from where. She noticed Kitty was missing from the snoring bunch... as well as the chimera, she remembered was Zel.
    The sound of running water attracted her attention and she followed the sound. A small waterfall and a stream, accompanied by an inviting pool was concealed behind a rock and some trees. It lay before her as she broke through a stand of evergreens.
    "Kagemi??" the unexpected voice made her jump three feet back.
    Looking around, she finally caught sight of Kitty, just arriving from a different direction, "Kitty-san! You freaked me out!" Kagemi leapt at the boy at growled in a threatening way.
    "GAAAH!" Kitty's eyes widened beyond the point any eye-lids could return and stepped backwards, losing his footing and falling right into the pool of cold water, "IIIEEEE!" Kitty screamed, frantically splashing water everywhere.
    Kagemi couldn't help laughing, "It's only water!"
    Kitty stopped in an instant and silence took over, "Right," he frowned and produced a canteen and began to fill it while remaining waist-deep in the water.
    "Good idea!" Kagemi chucked hers at Kitty, "Do you mind?"
    The canteen whacked Kitty in the head before landing on the surface of the water and floating, "YES!" he cursed, but snatched it up and filled it anyway.
    Kagemi sat down on a small patch of green grass and waited while Kitty hauled himself out of the water. he handed Kagemi her cantine accompanied with a displeased facial expression, trailing a massive amount of water from the pool.
    "Arigato! Are you going to leave now?" Kagemi sported a smile.
    "Why?" Kitty gave her a questioning glance.
    "Well, I was going to take a bath."
    "Oh," Kitty looked thoughtful for a moment, "then let me join you."
    There was a short pause before Kagemi exploded, "WHAT!!?? Are you insane!? There's no way I'm bathing nude with a guy!!" Kagemi shot to her feet, dropping the canteen in the process.
    "Guy...? Oh... oh yeah... , well then, you won't!" Kitty's voice became somewhat... feminine.
    Kagemi stepped back in absolute horror, "What... are... you?"
    "I'm a woman, human, of course," Kitty said casually, taking off her cape and hanging it on a strong tree branch to dry.
    "But you were just..." Kagemi circled Kitty at a nice distance, "a minute ago you... had a flat chest!" she continued to look at the girl carefully, "And now you're... shorter... a bit... and your eyes are different... what the hell are you!!!??" Kagemi grabbed the wet collar of Kitty's white shirt.
    "Um... it's kinda hard to explain..." Kitty pried Kagemi's paws from her top.
    "You... you're that thief from before!"
    Kitty smiled innocently and nodded her head.
    "Damn," Kagemi looked up and sat on a nearby, outcropping rock," so you just... changed?"
    Kitty nodded her head again, "Well, are we bathing or not?"
    "You pervert."
    "I AM NOT!!" Kitty jumped up and down, "I'm normally... female!"
    Kagemi glanced at her from her seat, eying her critically and without any trust whatsoever. BUT within minutes, they were in the water and having a nice, violent water fight. They splashed one another with childish shrieks and laughter. It was a split second acceptation of Kitty's difficulties, where others would have taken a few weeks to get over it, but that was Kagemi's nature. She encountered a lot of strange things and not much surprised her for more than a few moments anymore.
    "Okay! You win already!" Kagemi gave up and sank to jaw level in the water, making her way to the rim to lean against and relax
    "Aw, you're too easy!" Kitty chuckled at her victory and copied Kagemi.
    They sat in silence as the sun shone into the tiny clearing from a small break in the canopy above. The waterfall provided a constant, melodic sound as the two girls relaxed in contentment. Suddenly both were aware of an alternate presence. They glanced at one another, then turned.
    "God, why does this always happen?" Zelgadiss hastily whipped around and started to briskly walk away, turning red and muttering under his breath.
    "AAAAIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAA!!!!!" Kagemi and Kitty shrieked in perfect unison and pitch.
    First, a large rock was rendered airborne, compliments of Kitty and it hit its target dead on in the head. She immediately vanished after that- into the surrounding vegetation. Amelia ran onto the scene and found an out cold Zelgadiss with a very, very angry Kagemi looming over him, clutching her cape tightly in front of her with one hand and holding a big stick in the other. She was panting heavily in both shock and anger and glared at Amelia at the same time.
    A shiver ran up Amelia's spine. She hoped deeply in her heart that Kagemi's anger was not like Lina's... that would be too much for her tolerance levels, "Zelgadiss-san? Kagemi-san?" she said nearly stuttering. She looked from Zelgadiss, with a large bump on his head, to Kagemi and back again, sprouting a sweat drop.
    Thankfully, Kitty dashed into the bushes at the frightening interruption, wrapping herself in her cape. When she looked up from what she was doing, she wasn't expecting to have the intruder's vision being blocked by Kagemi. She was thankful for that. She quickly changed back into her clothes and into a male... she didn't want to freak out any more people if she had her say in the matter, which she actually did.
    She could change at will, but sometimes an accident would occur and she would have no control over it. It took her this long to gain the power to change by thinking of it like a 'left or right' situation. Only she didn't know which way lead where. She absolutely hated it though, she liked being a whole girl, not another changee like she had heard about in a lot of stories she overheard, or read, or listened to, being told by travelers passing by her village or friends and family. Then she smiled. She knew there were advantages to her problem. Where women traditionally couldn't go or couldn't do, all she had to do was change and she'd be able to have her way. But in the general scheme of things, women seemed to be treated better in most situations by way of pity and getting free things from people, and also everyone seemed more gentle and helpful towards women. That was nice.
    Still, she didn't like keeping such secrets from the people she met, because it was overly difficult to keep track of how she appeared to them first and was afraid she'd make a mistake and suddenly be opposite. Kitty didn't want to be posted as a 'pervert' or a 'weirdo'. She wanted to be Kitty, just Kitami Rhayader, the Chief Thief of her homeland, which she had actually accomplished. She had her own army of thieves for a time, but the organization was off and the party disbanded. So here she was... waiting for the next opportunity to arise...