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>I want to be more like Rin.Hisao decided that he identified most with Rin's approach to life. He thought to himself, "Rin could probably do it. Even though she seems to doubt herself, I have no doubts about her strength. She could do it, even if she can't."Hisao leaned against Worry Tree, satisfied with himself. For a moment there, time seemed to stop for him and Rin. That moment of tranquility was interrupted when Rin turned to Hisao and broke the silence."You have messy hair, you know."Hisao brushed Rin's comment aside. Sure, he had... troublesome hair. What else was new?"I do. You think I should try and fix it?""I wouldn't know. I don't really worry about controlling my own hair. Life is easier when you don't worry about things. And, besides, I don't need to control my hair. It's not alive. It can't grow legs and walk around. Except for right now. It got up and walked onto your head.""...What?"Hisao gave up on Rin for the moment. Even when she made no sense, she made sense, in her Rin way. But this? This was indecipherable. It wasn't until he felt a slight tickle around his ears that Hisao received his first clue regarding his situation. Understanding Hisao's sudden confusion, Rin spoke up once more."See? My hair. Fluffy like a chick. I think. I've never seen a chick before."Indeed, Hisao's ill-kempt brown hair was already being overtaken by a wave of auburn coming from his roots. In this process, it had also lengthened ever so slightly, brushing past his ear and down his neck but stopping well before his shoulders. Now, a full mat of red hair laid atop Hisao's head. Through his peripheral vision, Hisao saw a few strands of what was now... his? But that couldn't be! Bewildered, Hisao turned to Rin for answers."Rin? What's going on??""I didn't know you liked my hair so much, Hisao. Girls like it when you compliment how they look. And imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I think. I'm not sure."Hisao blinked at Rin in utter confusion. As his eyelids fluttered, their lashes lengthened a tad, and his brown eyes rapidly shifted to a beautiful dark green. Similarly, his coffee-colored eyebrows shed many of their hairs as they, too, changed their pigment to a bright red. Rin continued to offer her insightful commentary."People say green eyes and red hair are pretty. I don't think I'm doing it right. Maybe you can?"Hisao groaned, both at Rin's lack of support for him, and also at the abrupt storm of tensions that was currently swarming his face. Hisao's skin started to become much more pale. His nose and ears shrunk, appearing cuter, while his lips puffed out a tad. The little bits of stubble he had flew away, leaving his skin clear for the most part. Furthermore, Hisao's skull crunched a few times, and his end result was a feminine face that smoother in structure, and, most importantly, a perfect replica of Rin's. When Rin saw this, her head drooped down a bit as she appeared to sulk."Hisao... I'm sorry.""...For what?""Something really awful is happening to you and I know that because I'm not a good person for you to be and I must have done something wrong because this is how the world is letting me know and I'm really scared and-""Rin, don't- I-"Hisao, however, was unable to finish his sentence. As he took a moment to cough, Rin continued to talk."If this is happening because you're sick, you could have some medicine. But maybe not. It doesn't really work for me all the time. But maybe you-me takes medicine differently than me-me.""Rin, I still don't know what you're-"This time, Hisao deliberately stopped himself from talking.Rin gave Hisao a knowing look. Pulling herself up, Rin waddled away from the Worry Tree and motioned for Hisao to follow."I have an idea."Hisao, acutely aware thatwas happening to his body but still unaware exactlythat was, followed Rin. Rin, who had reached a small pond, was staring endlessly at the reflection that shimmered back at her. Rin invited Hisao to wallow alongside her. Unsurely and with much hesitation, Hisao joined Rin. When he saw what greeted him in the water, a startled Hisao stepped backwards out of terror."AH! That's... I'm...""You look like you get it now. That's good. I still don't get it."While Hisao ran his palms over his face to feel what he saw, Rin continued to look downwards, her eyes beginning to get wet."I think I'm going to go now. I'm sorry for doing this to you, Rin-me-you-Hisao. Can you ask Hisao-me-Rin-you if my life is easier on them? I'd like to think it would be. Two people could probably do what one can't."Rin wandered to a path between a group of trees and vanished beneath their leaves. Hisao, demanding answers, tried to follow her, but stopped himself when he felt something happening to him once more. His shoulders, upon which his now-slender neck sat, were crunching inwards. Hisao stumbled for a moment as the feeling of his bodily structure forcibly changing incapacitated him. Collapsing to the muddy ground, Hisao expected his heart to kill him then and there. While Hisao crawled over to the nearest tree, another series of tranformations bombarded his torso. His waist caved inwards only slightly, leaving him with mild curves, while soft fat began to build up in his chest. Hisao's nipples and areolae grew out just barely as he was left with two c-cup breasts. The scar that once marked his crippling arrhythmia had now vanished entirely, drowned under the plush of his boobs. To support this latest development, Hisao's spine arched just a bit at the top of his back.Now with a completely womanly torso, Hisao felt around in utter perplexment until the most unsettling realization of all came to him. Removing his arms from under his shirt, Hisao could only let out a single gasp of fear as one of Rin's most... characteristic traits came to him. Indeed, his fingers were already webbing together, their bones uncomfortably crumbling into nothingness. As Hisao's hands became little more than unusable stumps, these mounds of flesh advanced their way up what was left of his arms. On their way, they eliminated not only bodily mass but also any signs of physical activity or masculine features. Hisao's arm hair was gently plucked out, and his biceps lost much of their muscle mass in this process. When it was all over, Hisao was left with two sickly "arms" that, like Rin's, ended just before their elbows.Hisao held up these twin appendages before him, but scarcely showed any sign of reaction. It was as if he couldn't bring himselfreact. Was he even able to at this point? Regardless, the next wave of changes opted to continue to go downwards. Like how Hisao's waist had only become somewhat curvier, his hips expanded enough to be able to bear a child, but ended in what was only a moderate hourglass figure. As Hisao zoned out more and more and became even less conscious of his changes, his limp penis began lose mass and length. It shrank down, eventually inverting itself, bringing his testicles with it. After a few moments of genital origami, only a wet vagina, devoid of any surrounding hairs, emerged. Proceeding further south down Hisao's body, his thighs and butt plumped up, becoming packed with a satisfactory layer of fat. Their surfaces softened tremendously as they, too, paled out and lost the majority of their hairs. Rin may not have been one to care too much about her appearance, but Emi would never have let her get away with something as unladylike as unkempt legs. Moreover, the fair amount of muscle mass that remained on Hisao's thighs disintegrated, its matter already used up on the rest of his body. Hisao's feet, masculine and bulky, were tightly squeezed until they had been compressed into a tinier, girlier size.Rin, who did not have proper arms, had to use her mouth or feet for most of her everyday tasks. To make that easier, she frequently wore sandals to class instead of the more common dress shoes her peers would wear. Accordingly, the laces flew off Hisao's shoes as they tore apart on their tops and at his toes and heel. Hisao pulled himself up from the earth below him as a pair of newly-formed sandals came into existence. Without particularly thinking, he leaned against a tree and dexterously kept his balance. He didn't so much as take note of the fact that he was noticeably shorter, nor the fact that his clothes were now much baggier and looser, and that his belt was completely gone. None of this fazed him.Hisao leaned against the tree that was distinct from Worry Tree, for this was not a time to be worrying. Rather, he spent the next few hours thinking about nothing in particular. Thinking about nothing is a good thing to think about when you don't want to think about something.But, eventually, she understood that she had to return to Yamaku. The forest probably wouldn't mind if she slept in it, but she probably wouldn't do well in it. People don't work like that, even though they're nature too. Nature is weird.Rin plodded through a familiar path between some trees and left her forest alone, just as she had entered it. That was enough of Worry Tree for one day. Trees can't solve real world problems such as art teachers. But maybe someday she'd have someone to share Worry Tree with.Maybe someday someone would come along and finally understand her and love her for who she was.That would be nice.