My first order of business was to get myself some proper clothing. While a hoodie and underwear might be fine around the house, it wasn’t fine for walking around the streets. I needed to find a mall. Luckily for me, malls anywhere in the world are pretty easy to spot. They tend to be large, boxy buildings that some poor architect had to try and cover up with some curvy walls or something. It’s not a box if the front wall bends, right?

I followed the traffic like an explorer follows water downstream to the coast. When I found the mall, it was in a neighborhood that actually didn't look run down. Crouched in the shadow of the large sprawling building was a series of shops that had sprung up to take advantage of the crowds that the mall attracted. The mall itself was a two storey affair with no windows visible from the front. The front was pretty standard: the main doorway extended out, allowing three sides to have automatic doors that facilitated entry.

I approached the entrance with apprehension. What kind of outfit would I choose? I knew I needed two sets of clothes, but how was I going to accomodate my tail? I would need some sort of sewing kit or something to alter all my clothing to deal with it. I hoped I could figure it out, because otherwise I’d be stuck in skirts for the rest of my life, which didn’t seem super appealing. I was a jeans person before and I was a jeans person now, especially with these gorgeous legs to show off. I’d get some super tight ones!

I walked through the sliding doors with my hood up over my head to try and conceal my ears, and my tail was tucked into my big hoodie. It seemed to be almost midday when I went in, judging by the number of people going in and out of the building. This didn’t stop a security guard in the tail end of his middle ages from spotting me.

He approached me menacingly, “Hey you! We have standards ‘round here! Get out of here before I kick you out!”

I stopped and glared up at him, “I just want to buy some stuff, what’s wrong with you?”

“Get out! You’re disturbing the good folks who’ve come here to really shop instead of stealin’ stuff like you will! Get out before I got to use this,” he said with a growl, retrieving one of those extendo-batons from his belt and brandishing it at me.

“Fuck, fine! Alright then dick head, I’m going!” I muttered as I turned back and walked away.

I hurriedly turned and walked back out the doors, my mind angry and shaken. I wasn’t used to being thrown out of a place like that and it stung far more than I had thought it would. Well screw them, I would get into the mall anyway, but not through the front entrance. Spies and thieves always scoped a place out in movies and books, so that’s what I would do. I began to circle the place, walking through the car park that surrounded the other three sides of the mall.

There were a lot of doors on the sides of the place, but they all looked firmly locked and underused. There was a side entrance every so often, but for the most part the walls were flat and featureless. It wasn’t until I got around back that I found a potential point of entry, a loading bay. The place was a bit crowded at the moment, two of the four bays taken up by some large trucks. A bunch of burly men unloaded boxes and other random crap from the trucks.

Okay, I found a way in. Now what? How do I get them to just let me walk through? What could I do? Teleport randomly, blind people with an illusory blindfold and create a flashbang. That flashbang might actually be worth a try, if I could find a way to make them all look at it. Would it be as simple as yelling? I guess I could try.

I snuck over to the far loading bay and hid behind the raised platform. I peeked over the top and waited until as many of them as possible were in sight, and then I began screaming. It was beautifully convincing with my adorable new voice, my cries sounding like a frightened young girl.

“What was that?” called one man.

“Is someone over there?” asked another.

I covered my eyes and looked at the ground, channeling as much oomph as I could into the flashback I placed directly above me. The flashbang made a faint fizzling sound as it formed, a dim ball of light in the air.

“The fuck is tha- AHHH!?” one exclaimed in pain, as I let it explode with crack and a huge surge of light.

Wasting no time, I leapt up onto the platform and raced along it, watching with giddy satisfaction as the workers clutched their faces and fumbled blindly for something to hold. I dodged one flailing arm as I ran, ducking under it and twisting to avoid it. I made the open garage door in no time, making sure my hood was firmly up and rushing through it as fast as I could. I was completely right to hide my face as I ran into a large storage room with several people looking out in confusion. As if the universe was out to screw me over, the workers behind me all recovered then too.

Clutching my hood down I ran onwards before the people inside realised what was happening. I really really needed them not to recognise me, and I had no way of disguising myself other than the huge hoodie. I might have to ditch the hoodie later which made me pretty upset, it had been with me through thick and thin recently.

I heard angry cries as the workers began to chase after me and it spurred my speed to greater heights. I had no idea how to get out into the main thoroughfare of the mall where I could slip into the crowd. I rushed headlong through the back hallways of the mall, and eventually found one that led out into the publicly accessible areas. Taking a moment to get a quick peek at what was behind me as I turned the corner, I ducked into one of those toilet rooms that also has a baby changing area and slammed the door closed, locking it firmly.

I knelt and wheezed, my breath coming to me in gasps that showed this body was not very fit, despite being light on my feet. Adrenaline surged through me and I felt my body began to shake as it had no outlet. I felt so good, the rush of the moment bringing a grin to my face. I wonder what my post infiltration grin looks like? I got up and went to the mirror.

Staring back at me was a completely different face from earlier this morning. A middle aged white man stared back at me. He was so utterly generic it was almost painful. Greying temples and frown lines marking his age across his face. He wore a generic black hoodie and jeans and carried an equally generic satchel that looked brand new. When I say looking back at me, I mean looking back from above me. It was strange, when I moved, he moved too, but his actions were mimicked badly, the height difference between me and the man causing incongruities.

It clicked as I watched the strangeness, the man was an illusion. I had accidentally disguised myself, although I had no idea how. I was still gazing at the guy in confusion when I heard a banging on the door.

“Oi open up if you’re decent in there, we’re looking for some white guy who just started shit!” I heard a gruff male voice call through the door.

Oh crap! How do I cancel this? I searched the sensations my mind was reporting, and found it pretty quickly. It felt like a slight tug on my mind in the direction of my center of mass. I cut the tugging sensation out and my reflection turned back to normal. I sighed in relief.

“Hey! Open up!” the voice outside yelled, getting more irate.

I put on my best scared girl face and timidly opened the door. Standing on the other side was a pair of scary looking men with a whole lot of muscle.

“Oh, sorry miss! Did you see an old white guy run past here?” he asked with a much more gentle tone of voice.

With eyes wide as possible I shook my head in the negative. He looked at the top of my head with a funny look for a second before he turned to his friend and walk off.

I heard him mutter, “Man kids are weird these days, was that like one of those weird people or whatever who dress up as wolves and fuck each other?”

“Dude she was underage that’s fucking gross,” the other replied.

I gritted my teeth in annoyance. Funnily enough I wasn’t that offended by the sexual fetish accusation, it was the age that made me angry. Just because I looked a certain age did not make my real age irrelevant. I had twenty three years under my belt and nobody was going to take those from me.

I was about to step out of the room and keep going towards the clothing store when I looked down and saw my feet. They were filthy, my whole body was filthy. I closed the door of the room again and set to washing myself up as best I could using the sink and paper towels. I undressed and piled my stuff in a corner. Looking in the mirror I saw my new feminine body with a whirl of conflicting emotions and I elected to just get on with it. The strangest part was when I got to wiping down my groin and I didn’t mind the new sensations. I’d seen the like before, I was no virgin, but having the vagina myself was so very different. It took me a while to get it done, but I looked much more presentable when I was finished. It was pretty gross putting on my dirty clothing again and I squirmed at the feeling.

I stepped out, for real this time, and made my way out into the mall proper. It was pretty familiar on the surface, we had similar malls in New Zealand, although a lot of the shops were different. I picked a clothes store that looked like it catered to girls and went inside. The attendants gave me weird looks for my shoeless bedraggled appearance, but they were busy and didn’t stop me. The lady who appeared to be the supervisor kept her eyes trained on me as I walked, however, and I got worried they would kick me out.

Anxiously taking a look around the store I was assaulted by visions of clothing I didn’t really want to wear. There was all sorts of typical girl clothing and none of it jumped out at me. I didn’t want to wear a flowery dress, or a shirt with ruffles on the sleeves. I looked at it all and felt overwhelmed by all the pastel colours that assaulted my eyes. I guess I wasn’t a flowers and frills kind of girl because this was all very much not me. I turned around and left the store.

I made my way through the mall carefully, avoiding the bored mall cops who wandered around and eyed everyone suspiciously. I was looking for a place that was more my speed, but I had no idea what to look for. All the shops were different and I didn’t know what to expect from each one other than what I saw on the front displays. I saw a group of rowdy skater teenagers who were about my apparent age, and I hunched further into my hoodie to keep from being spotted by them as well.

Eventually I found a promising store called Hot Topic, and went inside. I had actually vaguely heard of this one before, and kind of knew what to expect from it. When I stepped through the door I was stopped by a woman my own age, my real age that is.

She was taller than me, but not by much, maybe a hand width or so. Her shoulder length curly hair was an intense black with dyed purple highlights at the tips that gave the overall effect of floating purple wisps around her face. The hair framed a face that was almost perfect in shape, like she was actually one of the mannequins come to life. Her makeup was odd, as though she had purposely tried to mar her beauty with it. It was hard do describe, but the effect it presented was that of a perfect doll whose face had been broken. She wore some fairly restrained goth style clothing, black T-shirt with a cyberpunk skull in the middle, navy skinny jeans, cute black and blue striped Vans and a neon blue belt that wasn’t really holding anything up.

“Uh, hello there, I’m sorry but we generally don’t allow people who don’t match the mall dress standards into our store,” she said with a note of apology in her voice.

I looked up at her and my hood slipped off at possibly the worst time, my ears springing up to attention. She stared at my ears in slack-jawed surprise.

“Um, I… I lost all my clothes last night and I need some new ones. I promise I have money!” I blurted quickly, my ears drooping in anxious anticipation.

“I think… we can help you there. Would, uh, would you like some help choosing your clothes out?” she said still staring at my big fluffy fox ears.

“Yes please,” I said with relief.

“Alright, well what are you after then?” she asked with a smile.

I gave her a grin of appreciation and told her, “I don’t even know. I went into a few stores but all their clothing was so stereotypically girly and it just like.. Wasn’t me.”

“Alright well I think you probably need something on the bottom first alright?” she said being careful not to look down at my bare legs.

“I think I will need new underwear too. Should I buy and pay for those first?” I asked.

“Yeah, good plan,” she said with a laugh.

I grabbed a set of 6 black panties and gave her the cash at the tiller, then we headed off to the jeans section.

“Alright, do you know what size you are?” she asked, looking down at my legs with a funny expression on her face.

I shook my head in the negative.

“What style are you after?” she asked.

“I think skinny jeans like yours, maybe,” I said looking down at her. My eyes grazed her crotch and then snapped back up, followed by a blush to my face.

“Okay well I think you’ll probably…” she paused to scan the shelves for a moment, “fit these ones!”

She gave me a few pairs of jeans, a black skinny pair, a navy pair and a normal blue pair.

“Changing rooms are over here, I’ll be outside if you need me,” she said with a kind smile.

I thanked her and went inside, dropping my bag on the ground and setting the jeans on a hook. I carefully changed my underwear first. My boyshorts were looking a bit gross and I was so thankful when the panties snugly wrapped my new privates that I gave a little shimmying dance of happiness. Then I caught sight of my antics in the mirror and stopped with a surge of embarrassment.

I ran into a problem when I pulled the jeans up. My tail was too low to wear the jeans properly, I’d need to alter the jeans if I wanted to wear them. Damn.

I poked my head out and looked at the attendant with exasperation, “I think I’m going to need skirts until I can get my hands on a sewing kit.”

“Oh? Why?” she asked in confusion.

“Because of this thing,” I sighed and moved my tail into sight.

“Oh wow…” She breathed.

“You… got whammied last night?” she asked.

“Yeah I did, would you believe me if I told you I was a 23 year old guy until that storm?” I asked with a bitter laugh.

“More than you’d think,” she said with wry sympathy.

“Oh.. huh well then…” I said, that was not the response I was expecting, “I’m Kalia, by the way.”

“I’m Dan- I mean, I’m Laithe,” she said with a hitch in her voice.

“Nice to meet you Laithe!” I said happily, holding my hand out for her to shake.

She took my hand and shook it gently. Raising her eyebrow she asked, “New name already?”

I shrugged self consciously, “It seemed to fit.”

“Uh huh,” she said, her eyes boring into mine.

“I need a skirt, I guess? That will accomodate my tail,” I changed the subject.

“Uh, sure, this way,” she said, walking to a nearby section.

I trailed behind her and looked around the new section. She took me to a few skirts that looked kinda cute goth. She started to get some out, but I stopped her with a hand to her arm.

“This one,” I said pulling out a skirt I had seen.

The skirt started way high up on the waist and hugged the body all the way down to the hips where it flared out slightly and pleats began. It was rather short, too, but I liked it a whole lot. It was black with a kind of wireframe grid highlighting the pleats and waist. I didn’t wait for Laithe and ran back to the changing room with it.

It was a struggle to put it on, but there was a zipper I found that made it much easier. Shimmying it up my legs and over my hips I got it into place, pulling the zipper back up. My white dress shirt was tucked into it and I looked really cute. I stuffed my hoodie into my bag and stepped out again.

“Can I wear it and then buy it when we get to the counter? I really like it!” I asked happily.

She gave me a grin and a thumbs up, “It looks pretty fucking cool on you girl, you have the hips and waist to rock it.”

“Sweet!” I said, “Alright I guess shirts next?” I asked.

“Sure!”

I picked up three grey T-shirts and went and put one of them on. It was strange to put on a shirt fitted for girls, as it hugged my figure much more closely than guy shirts had on my guy body. I looked a lot better in a girl’s shirt, and I told her I’d like to wear this one too.

We were moving on to the shoes when I caught sight of a hoodie that was so Kalia it was just funny. The hoodie was predominantly black with purple trim, and a multicoloured stylised fox head on the chest. It looked like something a chick from a cyberpunk movie would wear and I snagged it off the shelf and showed it to Laithe.

She saw the design and laughed, “Bit on the nose isn’t it?”

“Yeah but I love it!” I grinned up at her.

“Alright then,” she giggled.

We continued on to the shoe section where I first bought some socks to use. The variety of shoes was a little daunting, but I needed something casual that could be worn with a lot of different styles. Laithe helped me pick out a bunch of different shoes to try, but I was suffering from some major indecision about the whole thing. It took me a while but eventually I settled on a pair of black and white vans that were nice and comfy.

Before we went on to buy the outfit she stopped me, “You’re going to be cold with so much leg showing this time of year, you might needs tights… or some thigh high socks.”

I could tell she wanted me to try some thigh highs by the way she’d said it, and I found it hard to disappoint such a cool chick. “Sure, let’s try the thigh highs, then.”

She rushed ahead and picked out two pairs of socks. One was a pair of purple and black striped ones and the other pair was black with dark blue skulls all the way up it that were only just visible against the black of the background.

“Sadly we can’t let you try them on beforehand but I’ll reimburse you personally if they don’t work okay? I think they will look incredible on you,” she said in an excited rush.

“Alright, I’ll get them then!” I giggled.

“Sweet! Shit you’re going to look so cool once you buy all this!” she said as we went off to the till.

I decided to take the navy pair of skinny jeans and modify them later when I had time. Before I paid for everything with the cash I had appropriated from the white supremacists, Laithe was happy to let me go and change into the full outfit we’d picked out to see if it worked. I left for the changing room. The high high socks went on, I picked the purple and black striped ones. Then the shoes and finally the hoodie. I removed the tags as I went and placed them in my bag to throw away later.

Looking at myself in the mirror with the full outfit on was mesmerising. I wasn’t hiding my fox features or my femininity at all and it felt so freeing. My cute fox ears twitched and moved slightly with my emotions and my tail followed suit, lazily swishing back and forth behind me. I had to make sure to keep it mostly pointed down or I’d be flashing everyone by lifting my skirt. I looked like a cute soft-goth fox girl. Which I guess is what I was. I loved the whole look. This was me, and people who had a problem with that could bumble around with a blindfold on their face for the rest of time. I’d follow them and make sure.

“Got it ready?” I heard Laithe ask in anticipation outside.

“Yup!” I said happily, making sure everything was packed in my bag before I left the booth.

“Wow you’re gorgeous!” she exclaimed.

I felt the blood rushing to my face and neck as a bright blush formed on my face, “Yeah, damn straight I am!” I said with false bravado.

She gave a laugh and then hesitated a little before asking, “So I guess we’re done now hey?”

“Yeah I guess so... “ I said with a note of sadness, this girl was cool.

“Hey um, if you want we coul-”

She never finished the sentence because right then another voice raised in a shout, “You! I told you to get out of the mall! We don’t let weirdo changed people like you in here!”