"Tap… tap… tap." The senior vetting officer and the medical officer from the other room stepped out. They were instantly aghast: several candidates were passed out on the floor, and many others stared in sheer, wide-eyed terror. The officer looked where Marco and Lana were staring, utterly transfixed. When he followed their gaze, "Gasp," he completely froze at the sight of the bizarre, half-man, half-woman creature arguing with itself.
"Hey! What in the damn hell is going on here?!" the officer yelled, charging toward Grey.
Seeing the officer approach, Grey and Gizelle instantly stopped fighting, but it was too late to fully revert. Stuck in their horrifying split form, they snapped to attention and saluted.
"Sir, ready!" the two declared in a chilling, blended voice.
The officer moved closer, cautiously scrutinizing the half-and-half Grey. The female medical officer also approached, while the nurses and medical staff only peeked from behind the doorway, their faces white with fear, as if watching a terrible horror flick. The senior vetting officer then recognized Grey.
"What in the blazes happened to you, son?" he demanded, his voice firm but laced with confusion.
"Um… I… um… I caught a disease, sir," Grey answered in the decisive, blended voice, holding his salute.
"Hah… a disease?" the officer asked, looking over at the female medical officer.
"Hmm… what kind of disease?" the medical officer inquired.
Grey and Gizelle immediately fell silent. Sweat began to pour down their faces as they remained rigidly at attention.
"Hey! Tell me, son," the officer commanded, his tone sharp and heavy.
"Um… we're twin brother and sister, sir. Apparently, while we were in the womb, we merged, and this is how we were born, sir," Grey and Gizelle replied in their synchronized voices, clearly pulling the explanation out of thin air.
"Hey, Gizelle, what kind of explanation is that? It makes zero sense," Grey complained in his head.
"What do you want, Big Brother? Do you have a better idea?" Gizelle countered in his head.
"No, I don't… we can't exactly babble about coming from another world and having merged souls," Grey replied.
"Then just be quiet and hold the salute," Gizelle shot back.
The senior officer turned to look at the medical officer, who was seriously examining Grey and Gizelle's split body.
"Frankly, in my fifteen years as a military doctor, I've never heard of a twin birth like your case. Even if you were stuck together in the womb due to some medical anomaly, you wouldn't be perfectly merged with your bodies split and joined like this. You're clearly not conjoined twins," the medical officer stated.
"We are not, ma'am," Grey and Gizelle confirmed.
"Okay, then can you explain your medical condition?" the medical officer asked.
"Um (the two thought together)… oh right… we have a gender swap and multiple personality disorder, ma'am," Grey answered firmly.
"Hah?" the medical officer gasped in surprise.
"Hey, Big Brother, what kind of explanation is that?" Gizelle asked in Grey's head.
"It happens all the time in anime or manga, right?" Grey replied.
"Hah… all that stuff is after the year 2000, Big Brother… it wouldn't exist here!" Gizelle yelled in his head.
"Oh… right again," Grey conceded.
The medical officer, a beautiful woman despite being middle-aged, with black hair and slanted eyes, thought hard. Suddenly, she turned and walked into her office. She came back shortly, carrying a bottle of water and a thermos. "Crrrr," she poured hot water all over Grey, who winced and struggled to endure it. Afterward, the medical officer seriously observed Grey's body.
"What is she trying to do?" Grey asked.
"No idea. Try to change back, Big Brother," Gizelle suggested.
Suddenly, Grey's body emitted a flash of light and immediately reverted to his original male form. The medical officer looked impressed as she watched Grey return to his male body. Then, "Byuur," she threw cold water on Grey. Immediately, Grey's body flashed with light again, changing into Gizelle's female body. The officer, who had been impressed, was now completely amazed and incredulous.
"Wow… this is impossible and utterly absurd… but it's happening," the medical officer muttered to herself.
"Try to explain this to me, Miyuki," the senior officer said.
"Perhaps you, being from Australia, wouldn't know, Russel. But around the… maybe the 90s, I forgot, there was an anime about a young man who accidentally fell into a cursed spring, and whenever he got hit with cold water, he turned into a woman. He could change back to a man with hot water. That anime only aired in Japan—my country, which is now destroyed—I remember it clearly because I watched it when I was about seven. I never expected that anime to become real, but given the state of the world, I guess it makes sense," Miyuki, the medical officer, explained.
"Hmm, I see. What was the name of that anime?" Russel, the senior officer, muttered, observing Grey's body seriously and asking again.
"If I'm not mistaken, it was Ranma ½. My late older brother used to collect the manga from the magazines," Miyuki replied.
"Hmm… I see, this is fascinating," Russel said seriously.
"Oooh, so it was Ranma ½ after all," Grey murmured in his head.
"Wait, didn't that anime air on Netflix in 2024?" Gizelle asked in his head.
"Yeah, but I read that the one on Netflix is a new adaptation of an old anime. They said the old anime aired too, but I never watched it," Grey replied.
"Same. I didn't watch the old version either, I didn't even know the old version exist," Gizelle responded.
"This makes sense then. They haven't seen the new anime because for them, time and everything else, including anime, stopped in the year 2000. No one is making new anime, games, or movies anymore. Everyone is busy trying to survive against the Shifters and Cherubs or running from their war," Grey mused.
"Yeah, you're right, Big Brother. The military in this world is actually ridiculously advanced. They've even got anti-gravity aircraft, high-tech tablet specifically for military personnel, tanks that are electric-powered and float in the air thanks to anti-gravity tech, robot-like armor with AI, and laser weapons fired from satellites that pack the same punch as a nuclear blast," Gizelle replied.
"Right? And it's only 2021 here. Our Earth was in 2025. The reason is simple: when humanity is pushed toward extinction, then sci-fi becomes reality... not like our previous Earth, which was peaceful and laid-back, so the tech went in a different direction," Grey observed.
"So what's the plan now, Big Brother?" Gizelle asked.
"We just keep quiet for a bit. They're still talking, right?" Grey answered.
"Roger that," Gizelle confirmed.
After that, Gizelle, who was currently in control of the body, lowered her arms but remained rigidly at attention. They watched Miyuki and Russel continue to discuss, occasionally glancing their way with smiles. Gizelle was sweating more and feeling incredibly awkward, tense, and exposed while holding her position.
"Big Brother… we're not gonna get researched or dissected or turned into a lab rat because of that anime, are we?" Gizelle asked.
"Hopefully not, but our condition is weird. (He thought) I have a great idea," Grey replied.
"What?" Gizelle asked, curious.
"We can use the Ranma ½ method: if we get doused with cold water, we change into you, and if we get hit with hot water, we change back into me. Oh, and the Ultimate Double Mode skill is completely off-limits unless we're in a serious bind. How does that sound?" Grey asked.
"Hmmm… wow! That means I can be at the military academy too, right?" Gizelle asked.
"Yeah. We're already registered under my name, so from now on, both of us are Grey ½ or Grey Half, okay?" Grey asked.
"Deal! Just remember to instantly change if you get hit with cold water. Don't just stand there or you'll mess it up," Gizelle cautioned.
"Yeah, same goes for you if you get hit with hot water," Grey replied.
"Hehe… don't worry, I won't forget," Gizelle shot back.
"Good. Now we just have to pray we get out of here and are accepted as soldiers… and don't get dissected and studied," Grey said in his head.
After all that, Gizelle told Grey that in the future, the two of them would be known as Grey Half—the male form called Grey and the female form called Gizelle. This was the day they were officially born as Grey Half.