Kokoro Connect Volume 2: Kizu Random E-Book

Sadanatsu Anda

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Club
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Serie: Kokoro Connect
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 276

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Kokoro Connect Volume 2: Kizu Random

Leseprobe

Prologue: It Struck Without Warning

[Do it.]

A voice rings out in my head, so clearly it makes my skin crawl. The sound reverberates inside my skull, from my inner ears to my medulla oblongata, evoking a deep shudder down my spine. It feels like someone spoke directly into my brain.

But who?

I contemplate it for a moment, but hesitate. The voice sounded identical to my own.

Meanwhile, my body is suddenly burning hot, my face flushed red.

I feel lightheaded. My senses begin to melt into a haze, almost like I’ve come down with a vicious fever.

My body begins to pull away and move of its own accord, as though I’m no longer myself.

Something is swallowing me whole... and yet my consciousness doesn’t fade. I remain lucid.

Unfamiliar desires well up inside me, unbidden, demanding to be set free. I fight it down, but it fights back—an incendiary impulse spurring me forth.

Stop it. Don’t fight me. Shut up. Deal with it. I can’t just do that.

And yet my body moves nonetheless, as though disconnected entirely from my mind.

I don’t want to, and yet I want to so very badly...

Wait, so I do want to? So of course my body is going to move?

Are these desires truly “unfamiliar” and “unbidden”?

[Make your dreams reality.]

The voice—my voice—rings out in my head once more, but not of my own volition.

I don’t understand. My mind reels. My body boils.

Then I realize what’s happening.

I want to yell “When did this happen?!” but the words catch in my throat.

I’m horrified. I can’t believe what I’m doing.

I scream at myself to stop, but no sound escapes my lips. Separated from my body, all I can do is watch from a distance.

My mouth moves. It asks for something I don’t want.

Have I been possessed? By whom? By what? By myself?

...By myself?

My body moves without my permission. Where is it getting its orders? From me?

...From me?

Wait. I won’t wait. I don’t want to wait?

Stop. I don’t want to stop?

What is happening? How is this happening?

—Oh god, I can’t stop.

I can’t stop. I can’t stop. I can’t stop. I can’t stop. I can’t stop. I can’t stop. I can’t stop.

—I don’t want it to stop?

Chapter 1: Can’t Stop Can’t Stop Can’t Stop

Yaegashi Taichi was a member of the Cultural Research Club (CRC for short): a club birthed from countless loopholes in the system at Yamaboshi High School. For example, its members consisted of five first-year students. And its objective? “A broader scope of research unfettered by existing frameworks.” Translation: anything goes.

Contrary to the expectations this vague objective might have suggested to someone, the CRC was incredibly lax. Granted, they did at least put out some semblance of a monthly publication in the form of the “Culture Bulletin,” but it was transparently little more than an outlet for the club members’ varied interests. One could easily make the case that they were just screwing around.

But then one day, without warning, the CRC was afflicted by a supernatural phenomenon that turned their ordinary lives upside down. The five of them met a being known only as «Heartseed» who told them that they would be swapping bodies at random. It was the sort of thing any sane human would laugh off as impossible... which had no relevance to it actually happening. And when something unbelievable happens to you, as it turns out, your only choice from then on is to start believing it. They couldn’t run from it. All they could do was endure it.

At some times it was stressful; at others, downright painful.

But the five of them worked together to overcome it.

The crisis taught them a lot, and when the phenomenon finally faded, thankfully that knowledge was all that stuck around afterwards. No lingering scars.

Three weeks had passed, and the last lingering remnants of summer had faded into deep autumn. The hellish experience was still deeply engraved in their hearts... but now it had begun to fade into distant memory.

■□■□■

The five o’clock bell rang, signaling for all students to leave campus.

“Argh! I still have a little more to go, goddamnit!” Inaba Himeko slammed her keyboard and turned away from the laptop entirely. Clucking her tongue, she ran her hands through her glossy, dark, shoulder-length hair.

Instantly, Rec Hall Room 401—the CRC clubroom—came to life with cheers and groans.

“Inaban, how could you? I believed in you!” howled Nagase Iori, the prettiest girl in their grade. She lay slumped over the table, rolling her head from side to side, her ponytail bobbing with her movements.

“Yesss! See, I told ya! Not even Inabacchan coulda pulled it off!” smirked Aoki Yoshifumi, the tallest and lankiest of the five, as he jumped to his feet. “So that settles it! You’re buyin’ me a drink on the way home, Iori-chan!” His curly, unkempt strands bounced in time to his victory dance.

As it happened, Nagase and Aoki had placed a wager on whether or not Inaba would finish editing together the Culture Bulletin before the last bell.

“Not to like, repeat myself, but I literally can’t believe you guys would bet on her when the delay was your fault in the first place,” Kiriyama Yui sighed wearily, her long reddish-brown hair cascading over her petite yet muscular frame.

“Seriously,” Yaegashi Taichi chimed in. Something told him karma would bite them in the ass for this.

“Pffhahaha! Winner, winner, chicken dinner! I’m tellin’ ya, Inabacchan’s only human. She’s got her limits just like the rest of us,” said Aoki.

“Nngh... Inaba Himeko, I thought you were better than this...” muttered Nagase.

Evidently the two of them were more than content to carry on discussing Inaba’s faults right in front of her—

“Oh well. Don’t let it get ya down, Inabacchan,” said Aoki.

“Hmph... I think she ought to feel at least partly responsible for this,” said Nagase.

On and on and on—

“Shove it, you two!”

—until Inaba poked them both in the eyes. The two of them yelped and flailed in pain.

Serves you right, Taichi thought. He glanced at Kiriyama, and they smirked at each other.

“I’m actually a little impressed that Inaba was somehow able to poke both pairs of eyes with both of her hands at the same time,” Kiriyama commented.

“It was way more than a little impressive if you ask me,” Taichi replied. And also a little bit terrifying.

“This wouldn’t have happened if you idiots had turned your goddamn articles in on time! Now thanks to you, I have even more homework to do! Cough up that drink, Aoki!” Inaba seized Aoki by the shoulders and narrowed her eyes menacingly.

“Uh... I don’t see how the drink has anything to do with—”

“What was that?” Inaba clamped down harder.

“Y-YES, MA’AM!”

“That makes sense. Inaban’s been working so hard on this, y’know? Makes total sense for the drink to go to her instead. Hahaha!”

“I-Iori-chan?! I can’t believe you! I feel so betrayed!”

“Oh, you feel betrayed? It’s totally your fault for trying to turn in that half-assed garbage you called an article,” Kiriyama snapped, raising her shapely brows. “Right, Taichi?”

“Well... I suppose the article could’ve been better, yeah. Felt a little... tame, I guess? You gotta take more of a hardline stance when you write, like in my article ‘A Guide to Pro Wrestling Moves: Rope Work & Camera Work Edition’—”

“Tch... Should have picked someone else.”

“...You know, it’s not nice to mutter under your breath like that...”

It wasn’t like Kiriyama to cluck her tongue. Maybe he’d actually pissed her off... What had he done wrong, though?

“Gimme a break! I thought ‘Cutest Girl in the CRC: A Survey for the Guys of Yamaboshi High’ was a pretty good idea!” Aoki insisted stubbornly.

“Hell no!” Kiriyama refused. “I don’t want that kind of attention! Besides, it’s obvious Iori would win. Not that I mind losing to her, but I’d at least like to compete on a level playing field!”

“Don’t be silly, Yui! You’ve still got a chance! I hear more and more guys prefer underdeveloped girls these days! Heck, Taichi might be one of them,” Iori remarked casually, her smile utterly devoid of ill intent.

“Wow, Nagase, that was vicious. You implied Kiriyama can’t beat you without appealing to a niche audience, then turned around and threw me under the bus, too. Pretty next-level stuff. Just FYI, though, I’m not part of that niche, thank you!”

He knew she wasn’t actually trying to be vicious. She was just more openly honest about her thoughts these days. Shame his retort came out a little long-winded.

“You guys are nuts. Iori-chan’s hot and that’s a fact, but Yui’s got tons of secret admirers,” Aoki smirked knowingly.

“Why do they have to hide it?! Is it really that shameful?!” Kiriyama wailed.

Inaba slammed her hands on the table. “Will you people get ready to go already?! How is it that you had all that time to just sit around and yet somehow I’m still the first to finish packing up?!”

She had a point.

Together, the five of them left the Rec Hall and walked to the school gates. The sun was setting, and the sports clubs were starting to wrap up their practice for the day.

“I-Inaban... I got you this...” True to her word, Nagase had made a beeline straight to the vending machine and purchased a can of coffee, which she then offered to Inaba.

“Thanks. You know, despite all the hijinks you people got into, I still feel bad making you pay for it.” Inaba reached into her bookbag to pull out her wallet.

“Perish the thought, my lady! You’re the one who has to manage our ineptitude. ‘Tis the least I can do!” Nagase responded in a dramatic affectation.

Inaba took the can. “Alright.”

“You’re the whole reason she has to work late. What about the least you can do?” Kiriyama asked flatly in Aoki’s direction.

“Nngh... I’ll figure something out later...” Aoki whimpered, slumping his shoulders. Then he looked up suddenly. “Wait... But this never would’ve happened if she hadn’t rejected my article in the first place!”

“Obviously she was going to reject it, you birdbrain!”

As Aoki and Kiriyama started to bicker, a voice called out from behind.

“Oh, hey kids! Working late on your club assignment? Nice to see you’re all taking this seriously! As your club advisor, I couldn’t be prouder. Not that I contribute anything.”

It was Gotou Ryuuzen, advisor for Class 1-C and supervisor for the Cultural Research Club. The students at Yamaboshi liked to call him “Gossan” for short, some out of affection, others out of contempt. His laid-back, spontaneous personality gave him quite the particular reputation as a teacher—and not in a good way.

“Oh yeah, that reminds me. Inaba, Nagase, and Yaegashi...” He named the three CRC members under his advisory in Class 1-C. “Due to a sudden and unexpected business trip, I’m switching tomorrow’s second period class with the next day’s third period... and I kinda forgot to tell the class... Can you help me out?”

“Help you out?! You’re the adult! You need to have all your class shit figured out on your own!” Here was Inaba, literally scolding her own teacher. Even more frightening was the realization that Taichi was getting used to it by now.

“I do feel bad about it, honest! I know it’s a hassle... and the other teachers are gonna be pissed at me come tomorrow morning...”

“And I’ll bet you’re mostly worried about that last part,” Inaba glared through narrowed eyes.

“N-Not mostly! It’s like 40-60, tops!”

“Same difference!”

Inaba looked ready to punch him, so Taichi decided to step in. “I’ll go ahead and send some emails around to everybody I know.”

“Me too. Don’t worry, Gossan. We got this,” Nagase chimed in.

“Yaegashi! Nagase! You’re such good kids! Thank you!”

This 25-year-old adult man needed to learn how to do his job.

■□■□■

The next day after school, Taichi and Inaba left classroom 1-C and headed to the clubroom. Nagase had been assigned cleaning duty for the day, and so she would be joining them a little later.

“Well, if it isn’t Taichi and Inabacchan!”

Taichi turned to find Aoki standing there with Kiriyama at his side. He noticed, however, that they were headed in the opposite direction, away from the Rec Hall. “Hey guys... Did you get saddled with some random task?”

“Yeah, just a little errand. I got assigned as class helper for the day,” Kiriyama answered.

“Me too! Guess what, Taichi! Me and Yui always get assigned to stuff together! That’s how you know we’re meant to be!”

“No, it’s because our names both start with Y, genius!”

“And you know what they call that? Destiny.”

“Yeah, maybe—Oh god, I almost agreed with you! Yikes! I’m getting too careless!”

“Okay, whatever. So you’ll be a little late getting to the clubroom, I take it?” Inaba cut in.

“Oh, right. Yeah. Sorry, Inaba.”

“Hmph. Great...” Inaba waited until Kiriyama and Aoki had left, then added under her breath, “And after all that work I put in by myself at home last night...”

Evidently she was less than pleased. Taichi made a mental note to try and stay on her good side.

Scene: Rec Hall, Room 401.

“Say, Taichi. Doesn’t it piss you off when people waste your time, regardless of whether it’s their fault or not?”

Inaba sat across the table from Taichi, staring down at her laptop as she spoke.

“Well, if it’s not their fault, I’d say there’s no point in getting mad at them,” Taichi replied, hoping to mollify her a bit before the others arrived.

“Okay, you’re not wrong. But ultimately you’d still get frustrated, though, wouldn’t you?”

“Well... Maybe a little, I guess...?”

“And you’d naturally want to take it out on someone, yeah?”

“What? No! That wouldn’t do anyone any good!”

“Sure it would. Even if they don’t deserve it, at least you’d be getting the anger out of your system.”

“Don’t be a sociopath! You’d just be passing that anger onto someone else!”

“And? That’s just how the world works, my friend.”

“Good point... Wait, no it isn’t!”

“Nope... It’s not ‘good,’ that’s for sure.” Inaba could make anything sound reasonable when she said it with her head held high. She snickered, then continued. “Actually, I just wanted to mess with you. It’s good stress relief.” The corner of her lips curled up in a smirk.

“Whoa... You managed to vent your stress without causing me any harm? That’s a pretty high-level technique. I don’t think I could pull it off myself.”

“You’re not supposed to be impressed, idiot,” she scoffed.

Just take the compliment, would you?

“Anyway. You were gonna do homework, right? Sorry for interrupting.”

With that, Inaba turned back to her laptop screen and Taichi went back to his math problems. While most students simply copied answers from their friends, he made a point of doing his work on his own. After all, he wouldn’t learn anything unless he put in the effort.

Minutes of unbroken silence ticked by.

And then Inaba Himeko started to take off her clothes.

First, she pulled her arms out of the sleeves of her blazer jacket. With his mind still occupied by formulas and variables, Taichi shot a quick glance in her direction, then turned back to his work.

There was a soft fwump as the jacket hit the floor by her feet. Taichi looked up from his worksheet to find her pulling her black cardigan over her head.

“Hey, Inaba, your jacket’s on the floor.”

“Hm...? Oh.”

Her response was so vague, it wasn’t clear if she had actually heard him. Her face was flushed—almost feverishly so—and the static from her cardigan was making her usually tidy hair stand on end.

Next she pulled off her tie. Then, without stopping, her hands moved straight to the buttons on her blouse.

Snap.

There went the top button.

Snap.

Then the second.

The sound was distractingly loud.

Snap.

Then the third.

Now her chest was completely exposed—pale skin that would ordinarily never see the light of day in public. Combined with the starched white of her shirt, she was practically glowing. Her patterned black bra had no lace or frills. Her skin was so translucent, the veins peeking out near the bottom of her cleavage drew his gaze in like a magnet.

Then his brain finally kicked in.

What is she doing?

Evidently he’d forgotten how to say words until that moment.

“The hell are you doing, taking your clothes off in here?! It’s freezing! This is the clubroom! This isn’t your house! Did you forget I’m sitting right here?!” Flustered at his own delayed reaction, he blurted everything out at once... but Inaba ignored him and finished unbuttoning her shirt completely. “Stop! Hold on! Calm down, Inaba! I-Is your back itchy or something?! J-Just put your clothes back on, for god’s sake!”

But in spite of Taichi’s plea, Inaba slid her unbuttoned shirt down her shoulders, baring her upper back for all to see and exposing her pale, slender, sexy curves.

Then, with her shirt draped lazily over her forearms and hips, she roughly flung her laptop to the side, got out of her chair, and climbed onto the table in Taichi’s direction.

The wood creaked under her full weight. She was now right before his eyes... and in a state of significant undress.

Taichi froze, unable to speak. He kept his eyes firmly on hers, willing himself not to look at her nearly-bare torso. Her normally steely facade was now flushed and feverish and... desperate.

“Hurry up and take those clothes off,” she said, looking straight into his eyes.

For a moment, he forgot to breathe.

“What do you mean, take my clothes off?! What for?! We’re at school, remember?! There’s gotta be a better place to do this—Wait, no! What am I saying?! It’s not what you think—I’m not getting any weird ideas in my head, okay?! Just... Just put your clothes back on, alright?!” At this point, his mouth was basically on autopilot.

“We can’t do it unless you get naked.” For a girl, her voice was rather deep and commanding... and in this context, it was extremely hot.

“Will you quit talking like that?! ...Wait, I get it! I’m onto you, you bully! Th-This is some kind of trick, isn’t it? And you want me to fall for it so you can point and laugh! Another one of your de-stress techniques, right? Haha... Well, you’re going way overb—”

She grabbed his arm, and instantly his words faltered. He could feel a strange heat radiating from her soft, delicate hand.

“Come on...” She took his hand, and though her grip was by no means forceful, Taichi found he couldn’t resist her. Then she began to guide it in the direction of her breasts—

“Whoa! Th-That’s crossing a line!” Taichi yanked his hand back before it could make contact with her black patterned bra... and in doing so, pulled Inaba forward along with it.

“Huh? Aah!”

Inaba lost her balance and toppled forward in Taichi’s direction. Unable to support her weight, Taichi’s center of gravity tipped backwards in his chair.

“Whoa!”

The chair and table clattered loudly to the floor as the two landed in a heap.

“Guh!” Sandwiched between the hard linoleum and Inaba’s body weight, the impact knocked the air from his lungs. “Ow ow ow... Hey, are you okay? ...Whoa!” During the fall, he’d used his body to shield Inaba, and as a result she was now straddling him with his arms around her. “I... I didn’t mean to touch you, I swear!” Squeezing his eyes shut, he hastily pushed her away—

Squish.

He felt something strangely soft and pillowy—something he had only ever experienced once prior, in fact.

Taichi opened his eyes.

He was touching her breasts with both hands.

Startled, his mind and body froze completely.

And then the clubroom door opened.

Taichi shifted his gaze to the door. Kiriyama and Aoki were standing there, rooted to the spot.

He could only imagine what it must have looked like—Inaba Himeko, half-naked, straddling Yaegashi Taichi, who was touching her breasts—

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! What the heck are you guys DOING, ohmi GAAAAWD!” Kiriyama howled at the top of her lungs.

Not that Taichi blamed her. If there was one thing he was good at, it was staying level-headed in a crisis.

“Break it up! Break it up! BREAK! IT! UP!” she screamed hysterically.

“Whoa, Yui! I get how you feel, but let’s take a deep breath, alright?” She was freaking out so badly, Aoki instinctively moved to calm her down.

“I kn—Hggh!” Before Taichi could get the words out, Inaba suddenly jumped to her feet, crushing his stomach. Without so much as an apology, she walked over and picked up her discarded clothing.

Taichi wracked his brain for something to say to her—I understand how you feel, but this is why I told you not to strip in the first place—you need to think about how other people will see it—

But then he took one look at her and stopped.

She was deathly pale; her hands shook as she struggled to put her uniform back on. Hell, she looked like she was on the verge of passing out. This was no time to be scolding her. All things considered, she was very clearly not in a normal state of mind.

“So? Care to explain what we just walked in on?” Kiriyama asked, seemingly unconcerned with Inaba’s current condition. The former karate champion’s eyes were naturally almond-shaped, but now they were narrowed into furious slits. Her toned body was shaking with boiling-hot rage, her long chestnut hair practically standing on end.

Meanwhile, Taichi was desperate to buy some time. “C-Can you give us a minute? We kinda need to figure that part out ourse—”

His words were drowned out by the sound of splintering wood. Something clattered in pieces to the floor. Then, once the room had fallen silent once more—

“TELL ME RIGHT NOW!”

Kiriyama Yui had driven her fist completely through the table—that is, the one that wasn’t knocked over—and snapped it in half.

She was completely overreacting, even by Kiriyama standards. This was way farther than she normally would have gone.

“Yui?! What the heck’s gotten into you?!” Aoki shouted, clearly panicked.

As if on cue, the rage faded from Kiriyama’s eyes, and the heat drained from her cheeks.

“How...? What happened? Ow, my hand! I’m... bleeding...? What? Did... Did I do that to the table? I did, didn’t I? So it wasn’t a dream... What’s going on? Why would I do this? It doesn’t make sense... I wasn’t that angry about it... Why...? Oh god... I’m scared...” Kiriyama began to tremble, her eyes filled with tears.

And then the last member of the CRC arrived—the club president, Nagase Iori.

“ ‘Sup guys... Wait, what happened to the TABLES?! Why is that one straight-up BROKEN?! This whole room is a freaking mess! ...Wait, Yui, you’re bleeding! Let me see!” Nagase strode right over to Kiriyama and took her hand. “Okay... Just a small cut, it looks like. Let’s get you washed up in the bathroom. Then we’ll head to the nurse’s office to patch you up, okay?”

“I-Iori...!” Kiriyama burst into loud sobs.

“Hey now, what’s wrong? Does it hurt? It’s okay. It’s all okay now.” Nagase pulled Kiriyama into a tight hug and stroked her long hair reassuringly. “Taichi! Aoki! Inaban! What’re you just standing around for? We need to get this mess cleaned up and report it to the staff room!”

And so, thanks to Nagase’s quick thinking and initiative, the situation was resolved... if only on the surface.

After that, the CRC went straight home.

■□■□■

That night, after he got home from school, Taichi sat in his room and stared at the wall, thinking about everything that had happened that day.

Inaba seduced him. Then Kiriyama got way, way, way too angry about it.

Neither of them had seemed very rational. When asked about it later on, both of them said they hadn’t wanted or intended to do it, and yet somehow they went and did it anyway.

It made no sense. What was that?

But for all his contemplation, he was no closer to an answer.

Good thing Nagase was there to save the day, he thought. Who knows what might’ve happened if she hadn’t turned up when she did.

At the end of the day, Nagase was a reliable friend—

Just then, Taichi heard a voice.

[Are you just going to let things stay like this forever?]

Was it coming from somewhere outside his room? No.

Did he imagine it? No.

Did he say it himself? No.

Was it a memory he replayed in his mind? No.

Did it skip his ears and go straight to his brain? Yes.

What the hell was that?

The voice was too clear to be a trick of his imagination.

A chill ran down his spine. How could he hear a voice without using his ears?

Suddenly, an intense heat ignited inside his body, overwriting the chill and dulling his senses, almost like a fever.

Almost like... he wasn’t himself anymore.

He remained conscious, but he felt disconnected from himself... and his mind was filled with thoughts of Nagase Iori.

Her pretty, round face; her pale, translucent skin; her large, bright eyes; her straight nose; her silky hair tied back in a bouncy ponytail; her perfect, evenly-balanced figure...

Soon Taichi was hit with a strange, inexplicable impulse. One single emotion drowned out all the rest. He didn’t recall ever deciding to act on it... and yet his body was already moving. Grabbing his cell phone, he got to his feet. Then, as he navigated the menus, he dashed out of his room and down the stairs. He tried to stop himself, but the impulse rampaging inside him was far stronger. There was no suppressing it.

Once he arrived at the first floor, he made a beeline to the front door. There, he put his shoes on and opened the door to leave—and in that instant, the fever ebbed.

His senses regained, he felt more like himself again—not just some strange, internal observer. The impulse that brought him here was no more.

For a moment, Taichi simply stood there. One minute his body was practically on fire, and the next it was as if nothing ever happened. It was eerie how such an intense sensation somehow left no evidence of its presence.

He looked at his phone. The screen displayed the address book entry for “Nagase Iori.”

Confused, Taichi decided to head back to his room. Once there, he collapsed into a sitting position on the floor.

What in the world was that? It had felt like he was being strung along by something else... something that wasn’t him.

He looked back at his cell phone. The entry for “Nagase Iori” was still on screen. What did his body want from her?

That would be when his cell phone decided to ring, playing the early techno song used as an entrance theme by one of his favorite pro wrestlers.

“Whoa!”

Startled, Taichi dropped his phone onto the carpet. He hastily scooped it back up and checked the screen—and his heart skipped a beat. The caller was none other than the very person currently occupying his mind.

Willing his heartbeat to stay under control, he answered the phone. “Hello?”

“Listen, Taichi, I want to talk about us!” Nagase blurted out on the other end of the line. But then her voice faltered. “...About us...?” she repeated faintly in a questioning tone.

“Wh-What’s the matter, Nagase? Is something wrong?”

“Why did I...? Oh, uh, it’s nothing. Anyway, hi...”

“Uh... Hi.”

There was a pause.

“So, um... Today sure was crazy, huh?”

“Yeah, pretty crazy.”

Another pause.

“Uggghhh... Look, I’m sorry... I don’t know what I was thinking... I just randomly wanted to call you for some reason! I had this feeling like I really needed to talk to you, and then the next thing I knew, I was kinda operating on autopilot, almost.”

Operating on autopilot.

That sounded an awful lot like the weird impulse he had experienced just moments earlier.

“Actually, uh... just now... I don’t know what it was, but... for some reason I randomly felt like either calling you or going to see you in person.”

“Yeah, I know it doesn’t make sense—Wait, what? You felt it too?”

That’s what it was. He’d been convinced that he needed to talk to Nagase. And that desire had ballooned out of control. This begged the question: where had it come from in the first place?

If he couldn’t control it, then that suggested some sort of external force... but if it was a pre-existing desire inside him, then it had to be internal... right...?

“What’s going on with us? I mean... something’s not right, don’t you think?” Nagase asked.

“Yeah... Something’s weird, but I’m not sure what,” he answered. Evidently they had similar misgivings about the situation at hand.

Inaba and Kiriyama’s earlier misbehavior flashed through his mind, and dark shadows flickered at the edges of his consciousness.

“Okay, well... Let’s get back on topic, then... Wait, where were we...? Oh crap, I didn’t even start the topic yet!”

“You wanted to talk about us, right? That’s what you said when I answered the phone, anyway... So what did you want to talk about specifically?”

“Nnn... W-Well, to be fair, you clearly wanted to talk to me too! What’s up?”

“Oh, uh... Well, I...”

He thought back to the sudden fever, the impulse that had driven his body to act of its own accord. He remembered feeling that he was no longer himself.

Silence fell for the umpteenth time... and then—

“When I confessed to you—”

“When you confessed to me—”

They inadvertently spoke in perfect unison, and as the realization hit—

“Oh, sorry...”

“Oh, sorry!”

—they did it a second time.

“Well, um... L-Looks like we were both thinking the same thing... I think...”

“Y-Yeah... I’ve been wanting to double-check with you for a while now, but... things have been kinda hectic since then... So we sorta left things on vague terms, I guess...” He remembered their heart-to-heart about it during the crisis that was the body-swap, and he was pretty sure she’d been honest with him. But at the time it was all so surreal... Looking back, it almost felt like they were actors in a movie, and he couldn’t help but worry that the feelings they expressed to each other back then were little more than the suspension bridge effect at work—a byproduct of the crisis. Sort of like the trope where the action movie protagonist kisses his love interest while the bomb clock ticks down.

Compared with the relative tedium of their ordinary lives, the memory of their anguished love confession felt a little too perfect, almost like it had to be handled with care lest he inadvertently tarnish it.

“Do you still—” Nagase blurted out quickly, then paused. “Do you still... feel the same way you did back then...?”

She had beaten him to the punch. For a moment, he cursed his lack of bravery—but then he shook the thoughts away. This was no time for self-loathing. He needed to move forward, and the least he could do was be honest with her.

“I do. My feelings haven’t changed a bit.”

They were in love, but they weren’t officially together.

“...Oh... Cool... Umm... Same here.”

The conversation died there. This time, however, it didn’t feel awkward. In fact, it was perfectly comfortable—no, rather than comfortable—

“...Soooo... That’s really... about it...”

“Yeahhh... That’s pretty much all...”

It occurred to him that all this excess hesitation was probably the main reason their relationship was as of yet undefined.

“L-Let’s go ahead and wrap this up, I guess!”

“S-Sure, okay!”

God, I’m such a loser.

“Anyways, sorry for the random phone call! Bye!”

“Huh? Wait! Naga—!”

But she had already hung up.

Taichi closed his flip phone. He still had two problems—Nagase, and the weirdness from today—and was no closer to a resolution for either of them. He groaned and scratched his head.

Just then, he sensed a presence. He glanced at the door to his room.

Sure enough, his ten-year-old sister Rina peeked her head in. She had wavy, medium-length hair and big, round eyes like a puppy’s—eyes that were quietly fixed on him through the gap in the door. In her arms was a notebook with the word “MATH” scrawled across it in large letters.

“H-How long have you been standing there...?”

“Ummm... Around the time your phone rang and you got all startled and dropped it? No, wait, before that. You were staring at your phone.”

“Damn it, Rina! You eavesdropped on my whole conversation?!”

Kill me now.

It was decidedly not the sort of content he wanted to share with his kid sister.

“Sooo, bro... Was that your girlfriend on the phone just now?”

“Girlfriend? P-Perish the thought!”

Great, now I sound like Nagase.

“Aww, you’re embarrassed! How cute!”