Hwan sighed as she walked down the street. Being a pool toy, she'd decided, was just not worth it anymore. The risk of another harrowing, helpless experience like the one she'd had at last night's party was just too great. And the fact that none of her new, popular "friends" seemed to care about the danger it posed - that just cemented the feeling. So Hwan had made her mind up. She was going back to the grocery store where it all began to have her nozzle removed and return to her normal human life.
The store itself was practically unrecognizable from how it had been just a few months ago. It was no longer just a little neighborhood corner shop, but one of the most active places in town. The parking lot was always full, and anyone who looked closely would notice that the license plates came from all over the country. Each Fruit user, as far as anyone could tell, was unique, after all. So anybody who wanted this particular change would have to come right here.
But it was inside the store where things were really different. Right in front of the entrance, where a normal supermarket would have a display made of soda 12-packs or something, was the center of attention. The town's resident Fruit user, in all her squeaky glory, could be found right here 12 hours a day, seven days a week. She was in high demand, after all, and had no biological needs to attend to anymore. Oftentimes there would be a line of people waiting for their turn, but on a Sunday evening like this, Hwan could walk right up to the woman.
"Oh, hello, dear," she said as Hwan approached. "How have you been?"
The look of dejection on Hwan's animated face was hard for her to conceal. "Listen, I just came here to get my change reversed. If you don't mind."
"O-of course," the woman replied. "Is everything all right? Did something-"
"Look," Hwan sighed, "I don't want to talk about it."
"All right then. One reversal, coming right up..." The woman reached for Hwan's nozzle and gave it a gentle tug. But nothing happened. Another, slightly more forceful pulling motion did nothing, either. It was just the same as when Hwan or anyone else pulled on it, a fixed part of her body that seemed to have no magic to it at all.
"That's strange...", the woman said awkwardly. "I've never had this happen before. Now, admittedly, I haven't had too many people coming to me for a reversal. Usually, people are pretty satisfied with their new form. I know I am. But still, it should be-- Hwan, wait! Where are you going?"
Hwan ran out of the store, a feeling of panic rising up inside her. Was she really stuck like this? For the rest of her life? (However long that would be when she wasn't really alive in the first place?) She didn't even want to think about that possibility, but there wasn't much else she could think about at the moment.
She knew this particular change was reversible - the woman had told her that other people had gotten it reversed before. Hwan wouldn't have been willing to go through with it if she had thought it would be permanent. In fact, she was struggling to think of an example of a transformation that wasn't reversible. The tricky thing with Fruits was, whatever deity put them into the world had failed to include an instruction manual. The only way to find out how they worked was to try it, so there was no hard and fast rule that all secondary transformations had to be temporary. But Hwan had heard about all kinds of different changes, in the news and on social media, and it seemed like the Fruit user could always undo whatever they did. Well, there was that one case of the woman who ate a Medusa Fruit and went around on a rampage turning people into statues. They were still alive and able to move, of course, but being made of several tons of stone was a pretty serious inconvenience. But those people were stuck that way because the Fruit user didn't want to change them back, not because she couldn't.
That left Hwan with one possibility on her mind. She couldn't get her first change reversed because the foxy change must have been interfering with it somehow. All Hwan had to do, then, was get her mom to remove the ears and tail first, and then the pooltoy transformation could be undone. But that would mean admitting to her mom that she wanted to change back - and after all the arguments the two of them had been through over Hwan's new body, that really wasn't a conversation she wanted to have. There was also the fact that Hwan's mom was still just learning about her new abilities, so it could be a while before she even knew how to undo it. And what if her mom had the same problem, unable to fix it because there was another change interfering? Hwan was certainly not the first person to get changed by two or more different Fruit users, but most of those people were daredevils and thrill-seekers, who probably wouldn't want to get those changes undone. Maybe this really was permanent, then...
Hwan kept walking back towards home. There was a light breeze blowing in the opposite direction - the sort of thing that would normally make an evening perfectly pleasant, but for Hwan, it was her worst enemy. Before the incident at the party, she would have described this as the worst thing about being inflatable. It was like being hit in the face by a hurricane. It was hard to even stand still, and continuing to walk towards home was out of the question. There was a real possibility, if the wind picked up and got any stronger, that she could be blown a few blocks off course - she'd had it happen before. That was kind of funny the first time, but now it was a reminder of her possibly long-term future. As she crouched down and tried to hold on to the sidewalk, Hwan wondered how much longer she could possibly put up with continuing to live like this.