There were many emotions that surged through John Brown’s mind at the sight of breasts. This was because they were his, and John Brown was very sure that he lacked this trait in his previous life. His first thought was to move his hand down to his crotch where he found that his other identifying male trait had also been lost. 

John Brown was now sexually female. Being from the 1850s, the distinction between gender and sex was less understood. Even though Brown couldn’t put the exact words to it, their memory was very clearly that of a man’s. Figuring out what pronouns to use was like trying to focus one’s vision on two objects at once, or saying something and thinking another thing at the same time. It was definitely possible to go with ‘him’, but it certainly gave them a headache. In order to have an easier internal monologue, and to mitigate some of this rather extreme dysphoria, John Brown decided that female pronouns were a bit easier. 

Brown slowly sat themselves up from the grass and was able to notice that they were thankfully clothed. Despite this, the clothing was rather undesirable. Her shirt was made of an itchy white wool shirt. Below that sat something akin to a leather corset, which held up his rather large chest. Her arms also had leather cuffs on them, and a dirty green cloak sat on her shoulders. She was wearing rather tight brown pants with leather boots. The hair that now came down to her shoulders was an inky black similar to their previous life. If there was anything Brown was currently thankful for, it was the fact that they were wearing pants instead of a skirt. 

Taking another look down at their chest, John Brown had an additional horrible realization.

I think I’m bigger than my wife.

With that horrid thought aside, there was a secondary issue regarding her chest- the piece of parchment that had been neatly tucked into it. Plucking it out of their cleavage, she unfurled it and began to read its holy penmanship.

Dear JB,

Hi there! It’s God. I just wanted to explain a few things to you to help you out on your holy mission. First of all, you probably noticed the new body. While I know you might have preferred to keep something similar to your original, I made the executive decision to give you the one you now have. That was for two reasons-

• It was simpler and took up less pages in your book.
• I believe it will help you get closer to the other reincarnators. They are all men due to the fact that they’re a lot easier to persuade to do other world crap. Hopefully, this disposition of yours will help to disarm them and make them easier prey.

Outside of that, I also want to tell you a few things about the world you have ended up in. The main thing to note is that everyone in this world has a system and a stat screen. This is in order to help people level up and choose abilities that they believe will help them in their life. Those previous sentences likely meant nothing to you, and that is okay. This is because you do not have a stat screen or system. 

I believe that giving you a system will only cause more issues. Instead, I gave you an automatic leveling path. Basically, as you defeat others, whether they be monsters or humans, or complete my missions, you will gain new abilities which should support you on your mission. They are traits and skills which I have specifically chosen to give you, but I believe they will be to your liking. You are starting off with a lot more power than most do in this world, but most of that got relegated to your weapon.

I am aware of your attachment to your weapon, so I spent a good amount of time making it as strong as possible. Not only does your rifle have infinite ammo, it also is only able to be utilized by you as it is directly tied to your soul. I also gave it a lot more kick than it did before, but I trust you’ll find out when you first get to use it. As you get stronger, so should your weapon. So please, take good care of it. I also have given you the ability to speak, read and write the language of this world, so don’t worry about that.

You might want to start out by heading east, as it should send you in the direction of one of the reincarnators. Of course, you’re free to do whatever you want as long as you still complete the mission I sent you on.

Yours truly,

God.

P.S. I already told you that you might want to go with a different name for what should now be very obvious reasons. I recommend Jane Brown, but JB should work completely fine. 

JB responded in the singular way that they could at that moment. They groaned. Very, very deeply. It was extremely rude, and they made sure to say a prayer asking for forgiveness afterwards, but it was really the only way they could express their frustration at the current predicament.

There was one important thing that JB had learned from her experience in the afterlife and the letter she had been provided- God did indeed have a sense of humor.

All of this discussion of systems and leveling had gone in one ear and out the other for the most part. All that they could make sense of was that as she completed more of God’s missions, she would become stronger. That was simple, as was the fact that her gun would also get stronger. The only hope that JB really had at this point was to see if there was any literature in this world that could explain whatever it was that God had told him about. 

Jane…

The other point of contention was that of her name. ‘John Brown’ was a title that felt a tad odd in this current body. The name Jane was very similar to her previous, and it didn’t feel too bad for this current disposition. Perhaps they would use it sometime in the future, but JB was a lot easier to transition to.

The only object of comfort they really had at this point was their .44 Sharp. On a physical level, it had stayed the complete same. They had no desire to treat it in the same vein that a child would treat a favorite stuffed animal, but it was certainly easing some of the mental anguish. 

JB slowly took their time standing up and taking in their surroundings. The new body would take some time to get used to, so their balance was off. They were currently on the edge of a forest in a grassy plain. The sun was starting to set in the distance, and they were soon nearing golden hour. Everything looked similar to his original world, although the trees seemed taller than the ones he’d seen before. He’d heard of some extremely big trees in California, one of the more recent states, but had never gotten the chance to see them personally. For some, this would be a rather quaint location. However, JB enjoyed the simplistic aesthetic of the forest and the plains.

A beautiful world, plagued with sins and debauchery that he had been personally dispatched to deal with. 

At the very least, God seemed to be in no rush to solve the issue. Making the almighty wait was not something JB planned on doing, but she certainly saw the benefit in smelling the roses. However, the direction they had been ordered to head was east, and that was what they were going to do. Since the sun was currently setting, that meant it was in the west. Therefore, the opposite direction of the sun would be east. So, she began walking with the sun directly at her back.

After all, JB assumed that since this place was so similar to Earth, the sun must function the same as well.

JB was currently heading towards the west.

JB was smiling as she walked, for they believed that they were currently experiencing good fortune. This was because heading east, or at least what JB had believed to be east, was taking them through the plains rather than the forest. This had given them more time to get used to this new body and its new center of gravity. While they had no exact form of measurement, JB believed that she was now shorter than she had been in her previous life. Their only tool for measurement was their .44 Sharp, and it felt a good bit larger in their hands or when it was strapped over her back. They hadn’t gotten the time to get a good look at their own body outside of the initial awakening and were intentionally avoiding doing so. The dysphoria she was experiencing was bad enough, and JB decided it was best to save that for later when she had a place to rest and possibly some food. 

The sun dropped lower in the sky as she continued to walk. She heard animals nearby darting through the grass, but they disappeared before she could get a closer look at them. Hunting was not out of the question for her, as she’d regularly done so in the past, but not knowing the new creatures of this land certainly gave her pause. 

Very luckily for JB, she finally found herself upon a dirt road. Since roads meant civilization, she decided she should follow the direction of the road that was also going towards the “east”. 

The sun began to set, and several celestial bodies came into vision. Looking up at the sky, JB noticed that there was not one, but two moons. They were nestled rather closely together, almost looking like eyes that were peering down on the humans below. The stars looked much brighter than they had before, and she could even see that some of them weren’t pure white. Some of them shined in hues of blue or deep orange. 

JB’s ruminations on the beauty of this new universe were loudly interrupted when two men jumped out of the brush on the road in front of her, swords in hand.

“Halt!” One of them shouted. The shouting man was extremely stout, with the body shape of a barrel and legs that could easily be mistaken for that of a donkey. He was wearing ragged leather gear, the garments beneath it having several holes that could easily be mistaken for the work of a moth. His mouth was hidden behind an extremely scruffy and unkempt brown beard, which was the same color as his hair. Looking closer, JB could swear she saw something move inside of it that was most certainly not his lips. The other was bald and entirely hairless, and was wearing what appeared to be metal armor. It was heavily dented and beaten in some places, but it was clear that someone had taken some time to polish it. His sword, on the other hand, had rusted in several spots and looked extremely dull.

JB, being polite, halted. She also decided it was probably best to take her own weapon off of her back and place it into her hands. 

“I have stopped.” She flatly stated. Unbeknownst to JB, she had just spoken in the local language rather than her mother tongue of English. Since this was the first time she had actually spoken, she was more alarmed at just how much the pitch of her voice had changed.

“Give us any money that you have. And don’t you dare use that staff for anything funny. I’d hate to kill a beautiful lady such as yourself.” The bald man confidently declared. Instead of causing JB to respond with the fear they had hoped for, she merely looked rather uncomfortable. Being called beautiful would generally be a compliment, but for someone experiencing as severe dysphoria as JB, it didn’t really help their mental state. 

To mitigate the panic over their gender and disposition, JB began to search through the meager amount of pockets that had been placed on her outfit. She came up with nothing except for the piece of parchment that God had given her. Reluctantly, JB even checked in their cleavage just to make sure that nothing extra had been hidden there by the almighty.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not carrying anything of value.”

The bearded man slowly made his way towards her, his sword pointed at the 44 Sharp currently held in her hands.

“Oh yeah, and what about your staff? That’s gotta be worth something.”

JB, to the man’s surprise, tilted her head in confusion.

“Staff?”

“The thing you’re holding. Ain’t no way that’s just a simple walking stick or something. You don’t see metal and wood like that unless it has some sort of enchantment on it.” The man took another step closer, now gripping his sword with both hands. “If it's weak, I’m fine letting you keep it. Don’t want a young lady dying like yourself if possible.”

“Oh come on Joseph! We’re bandits. Are you seriously going to be such a damn stickler about this morality thing?” The bald man bemoaned. Whatever history the two men had, ‘Joseph’ had been acting as the conscience of the two. 

“Well Theo, would you prefer people come after us for simple banditry or for murder? Which one do you think they’re going to chase after us harder for?” Joseph turned back to his partner with a grimace. This was very obviously not a new argument. “If it’s a weak staff, we’ll just take some of her clothes. Pretty sure those cuffs could sell for a bit, right? They look new.”

“But she’s not even holding it right! There’s no way she has any idea how to use that thing. Let’s just take it and go.” Theodore pointed his armored finger at JB and her grip on the rifle. 

“This is the correct way to carry it. It’s the way you’re supposed to hold a rifle.” she stated matter of factly. To demonstrate her point, she decided to take aim and fire right next to the armored man. She’d not had the chance to fire it yet, so using it to scare these bandits felt like the appropriate occasion. JB luckily found that her large chest had not in fact hampered her ability to use her weapon, which meant she could fire to her heart’s content. Pulling the trigger, her .44 Sharp erased a portion of reality. 

The .44 was a rather large bullet, often considered one of the strongest calibers of its time. However, the shot that exited the barrel of her rifle held the power of a cannon. There was no visible bullet, but the power was so high that it destroyed the earth around it and completely erased the middle section of a tree that was in its path. God had stated that she had made the weapon stronger, but JB had not expected she was carrying something akin to artillery on her back this entire time. 

Unlucky for the armored man, the shot had been a tad too close to him for it to not affect him. His left arm, which was closest to the blast, had the metal armor on it completely melted. It began to fuse and burn his skin beneath it, and he winced in pain. The shockwave had also caused him to lose his balance, leading to him falling onto the dirt where he was left writhing in pain and calling out in the name of his mother. Joseph, seeing this display of power, quickly jumped back away from the lady he had been hoping to rob just seconds ago.

“By the gods! What level is that thing?” Joseph asked, his beard shaking in fear.

Level… that was something God mentioned in her letter.

Due to lacking a system, which would have included a skill called “Analyze”, JB had no way to gauge the level of her weapon. In fact, she had no way to gauge the level of anything, creature and item alike. However, judging by the usage of the word stats, level was probably connected to a number of some sort. Thus, she decided to use the only number she knew of that was tied to her precious rifle. 

“Forty Four.”

The man’s eyes widened in a mix of fear and disbelief, his sword clattering to the ground. He looked as though he might faint from the number alone. JB had no context or understanding of what the number 44 meant in this world, but it clearly shocked the man. Now seeing that both of them were incapacitated, JB slowly made her way closer to Joseph with her gun constantly trained on him. 

“Could you please give me your food, water and money? And can you tell me where the closest town is?” They spoke in a calm, almost innocent voice, which only made the man tense up further. He quickly grabbed the canteen off of his hip and rummaged through pocket before pulling out a small piece of bread. She waited a moment, her gun still trained on him while she waited for him to finally tell her which direction to head. 

“Just follow the road you’re already on. And here!” He extended out both his arms which were holding the items. JB took them one by one and placed them in her pockets, and was eventually handed the money she had requested. 

Knowing that the threat had been successfully dealt with, JB began to continue her casual walk down the road. She took occasional looks behind her to make sure the men weren’t following, but the terror she had inflicted was surely enough to keep them at bay. 

JB had a mission, and she couldn’t let a couple of rag tag bandits slow her down. The level of her weapon, whatever number it may be, didn’t matter as long as she used it in the righteous name of God. 

However, all of that could come after she had acquired some lodging.

Spedbop

I want to state something very clearly- John Brown is not transgender. I am not about to turn a real life historical figure trans just for my story, as that would be pretty fucking rude. JB would still personally identify as male, but I'm using female pronouns for them to make my life easier. The dysphoria aspect mostly comes from the issue of having a new body, rather than having gender dysphoria in the sense that a real trans person would.