Awake! She was awake.

She checked herself immediately. Everything was attached and far less bouncy than usual, so she assumed that everything had gone smoothly. Her clothes had exploded, but now that she thought about it, she supposed that was to be expected. She had woken up alone and covered in a frilly sheet, so at least nobody was peeking at her body before she had a chance to look at it.

And look at it she did.

Woof.

She was at least two feet taller than her original height, and her trained body had beefed up considerably. Her skin remained the same corpse-like shade and none of her scars had healed themselves. Not that any of that mattered – her only real irritation she had was that she would need to fashion a new hook now that her arms were considerably thicker.

Finally, she could smoke cigars without looking like a little girl that had rifled through daddy's collection.

"Hmmm~? Well? What do you think of your fashionable new form, candy boy?"

She spun around to the open door, taking in the sight of a ridiculously flamboyant miracle worker – whose eyes almost literally popped out of their head when she faced him.

"Hee-HAW, candy!"

She sat down on her bed, disgruntled. "Unless you came with pants, keep down the noise."

Pants – remarkably devoid of flowers, hearts and sparkles – were thrown beside her. She eyed them for a moment before putting them on.

"I – I'm gonna get a heart attack – oh, oh my heart – candy, you'll give me a doki-doki heart attack –"

"You're not going to get a heart attack, stop being so noisy," she said, annoyed.

"I'M NOT GONNA GET A HEART ATTACK!" Ivankov, Queen of Kamabakka Kingdom, punched the air in triumph as though his joke was fresh and believable. "On a serious note, how are you feeling? A woman like you, I had to give a lot of hormones to! Any aches or pains, candy?"

"None," she grunted.

"Oh! You're voice is so deadly smooth, candy! You'll give me a doki-doki heart attack! Another operation – COMPLETE WITH A HUGE SUCCESS!"

"It was hardly an operation," she said. "You just stabbed me with those nails and pumped me full of hormones."

"In any case candy, you're now a man with a full set of manly parts. No need for check ups in the future, my hormones are for liii~fe! But don't forget your beginnings – or your maiden's heart!"

"Are you kidding me?" She stood and stepped past Ivankov, leaving the room. "My maiden's heart can go screw itself. I've got things to do, worlds to conquer."

Ivankov watched the young new-man saunter down the path that would eventually lead back to the boat that had brought him here in the first place. He tutted for a few moments before saying to himself –

"Don't worry, Croc-boy…even if you forget who you once were…I never will. HEE-HAW!"