Chapter 4: Bonds and Bombshells (One Week Later)

Yamaboshi High School was well-known for its lax school policies, save for one obnoxiously hard-line rule: all students were obligated to join a club. Supposedly the idea behind this rule was to encourage students to stay out of trouble while in exchange allowing their individuality to flourish in a relaxed learning environment.

Some found the idea of forcing club activities on high school students patently ridiculous; it wasn’t like they were still in middle school. Still, Yamaboshi’s club facilities and budgets were far more impressive than those of rival high schools.

But most impressive of all was the sheer number of clubs. The approval process was extremely simple: as long as you could get a minimum number of people to commit to joining, your club could be focused around basically anything. As a result, the total number of clubs exploded to well over 100. That said, a large percentage had since died out completely—and if you excluded clubs with no actual scheduled activities, the total number would shrink back to a reasonable amount (the high end of reasonable, though).

With or without activities, however, many clubs continued to exist, even if in name only... which meant first-year students were expected to choose from a giant list of over 100 clubs.

The one pitfall was thus: as a rule, any given club would only gain approval provided it was able to recruit at least five members under its helm.

At Yamaboshi, per the aforementioned rule mandating all students be affiliated with a club, all new students were required to submit a club membership application to their class advisor by a certain deadline. Those who chose an active club were promptly approved. Those who chose a dead club, however, would be given a few days to recruit other first-years (or poach older students from existing clubs) until the minimum of five members was met, at which point the club would receive official approval.

Regardless, the vast majority of students chose active clubs, as virtually all of the most desirable clubs fell under that category. Most crucially, however, the average first-year had no interest in going to the effort of reviving a dead club.

Every now and then someone would try to join one of these defunct clubs only to find out from other students that it didn’t technically exist. As such, no one ever really needed to resubmit their club membership application.

But for every rule, there are always exceptions.

In every category exists outliers.

Outliers like Yaegashi Taichi, a pro wrestling fanboy who saw “Pro Wrestling Research Club” in the club catalog and immediately submitted his membership application, unaware of the rule requiring a minimum of five members.

Outliers like Kiriyama Yui, a girl who recently developed a weird obsession with all things cute, possibly because she’d spent her entire childhood taking karate lessons, who saw “Style Club” in the club catalog (founded six years ago, only active for two), decided it was a sign from God, and promptly submitted her membership application, despite everyone warning her it wouldn’t meet the membership requirements, with the bizarre rationalization that it would somehow work out “because lots of girls enrolled this year.”

Outliers like Inaba Himeko, a girl whose hobbies include information gathering and analysis, who tried to join the Computer Club only to get in an irreconcilable dispute with the club captain on the last day of the trial period (a dispute caused by her own arrogance and the captain’s lack of patience), who then stormed back to the staff room to revoke her application, and from there attempted to revive the Data Processing Club, a dead club that was originally created by disgruntled former Computer Club members.

Outliers like Aoki Yoshifumi, a boy who had heard rumors about a “Playboy Club” that supposedly existed at Yamaboshi despite being completely unthinkable for underage students, thought it sounded like a fun time, chose to believe that he could totally still apply to join even though it wasn’t listed in the club catalog, did in fact apply, only to be told that it never at any point existed, as shown by the fact that it wasn’t listed in the club catalog, and then ultimately decided to try and create it himself.

Outliers like Nagase Iori, a girl who didn’t feel like choosing from a list of 100+ clubs, who declared that leaving such a choice to fate would be way more fun and memorable in the long run (though it wasn’t clear whether she was actually serious or just making a joke), who wrote “Your choice! ♡” on her application and ultimately left the task to the class advisor.

But so long as these outliers existed in public spaces, they were obligated to be bound by the same societal rules as everyone else. And as mere high schoolers, it was expected that they would assimilate into the dominant culture.

But even that rule had its own exceptions.

Perhaps the majority of outliers would simply submit to the overwhelming authority of the system.

But sometimes the outliers fought back.

Outliers like Yaegashi Taichi, Class 1-C, who said “Nobody told me I needed five members!”

Outliers like Nagase Iori, Class 1-C, who said “No, seriously, I want you to pick for me! I trust your judgment, Gossan!”

Outliers like Inaba Himeko, Class 1-C, who said “For now, would it be possible to extend the deadline? I promise I’ll dig up four more members.”

Outliers like Kiriyama Yui, Class 1-A, who said “Sensei, there must be some mistake! Girls my age love cute stuff! I demand a recount!”

Outliers like Aoki Yoshifumi, Class 1-A, who said “Huh? It doesn’t exist? Guess I’ll have to start it myself! That’s allowed, right? ...I need five members? Piece of cake!”

But this rebellion scarcely ever results in the desired outcome. Not just anyone can start a revolution, after all—the world is not that simple, and certainly not that fragile. In most cases, the outliers are either assimilated into the establishment or crushed entirely.

And yet, there are exceptions to that, too.

Sometimes, fighting the system leads to changes that the rebels never even intended.

Suppose, for example, the system was represented by a teacher named Gotou Ryuuzen, a teacher with a laid-back slacker mentality, who could be seen as either unconventional or irresponsible depending on one’s perspective, who decided it was too much work to try and convince Taichi, Nagase, and Inaba to join an active club, who came up with the ridiculous idea of putting the three students together in a brand-new club so they could do whatever they wanted “because it would be faster that way.”

Suppose, for example, the system was also represented by the advisor of Class 1-A, a teacher by the name of Hirata Ryouko, a woman with a friendly, devil-may-care personality, a pretty face, and a sexy figure, rumored to have been worshipped like a goddess during her high school days, a woman who had her ditzy moments, though this only served to make her even more popular among the guys, whose competence was occasionally questioned by a subset of the school, who heard that Gotou was thinking of starting up a new club and promptly volunteered two candidates from her own class.

Yes, it was a string of pure coincidences that led to the creation of the Cultural Research Club.

In other words, one could say the CRC was not only proof of the outliers’ triumph over the system, but also the product of a chemical reaction borne of deviant students paired with equally deviant teachers. (Disregard the heavy implication in the latter half of that statement.)

And so the Cultural Research Club was born, with Gotou stepping up as supervisor since it was his idea to begin with. Its objective: “a broader scope of research unfettered by existing frameworks.” Translation: anything goes.

In line with this objective, Taichi and the others made full use of the club’s allotted space and budget to... do whatever they wanted, basically.

But a club full of teenagers required at least a minimal level of supervision, and so in order for the CRC to earn its keep, the school mandated that the five of them submit a record of their activities once a month in the form of the “Culture Bulletin,” a periodical that the CRC would then make available to the rest of the school. (Its often nonsensical content would go on to win them a niche fanbase among the student body.)

But then, one day in September, the Cultural Research Club was plunged into a crisis that would threaten the group’s continued existence—no, forget the club. This crisis would shake the very foundations of their lives.

And this crisis, of course, was none other than the body-swap phenomenon and the resulting encounter with «Heartseed».

□■□■□

“As I’m sure you’re all aware, I have gathered you all here today for precisely one reason: to reflect on the events of this past week!” Inaba proclaimed. She was so worked up, her tone was veering sharply into “angry” territory, but the four others nodded along nonetheless.

A full week had passed since that Friday afternoon when «Heartseed» had revealed itself. Now it was Saturday, and the members of the CRC had assembled at Inaba’s house for a meeting.

“First things first—hmm?” Just as she was about to start, the phone began to ring from elsewhere in the house. “Sorry, I need to answer that real quick. Behave yourselves while I’m gone, got it?” With that, Inaba stalked out of the room, her chiding tone reminiscent of a beleaguered babysitter.

“Man... Inabacchan’s room totally matches her personality, don’t you think? I forget, when was the last time we came over here? Was it when we were tryin’ to figure out the schedule for the vacation we disguised as a study camp?” Aoki peered around the room as he spoke.

Personally, Taichi was inclined to agree. Inaba’s room was predominantly decorated in shades of gray and other subdued colors. It was furnished with all the basic necessities—a bed, a table, a bookshelf, a television, a computer—but no frills beyond that. Functional and efficient, just like its owner.

“Haah... Inaba’s sooo lucky. I wish I had a nice, big bedroom all to myself... I mean, like, look at this! This place fits all five of us, no problem! I finally got my own room, but it can barely even fit all my stuff! Plus, my little sister always hangs out in my room to use my TV! She’s so freaking tall, she takes up too much space in there! Little twerp... I can’t believe she’s taller than me now... Oh well. I’m happy being cute and fun-sized.”

Muttering to herself, Kiriyama flopped down on the floor and started to work her way through the plate of cookies sitting on the table.

“What’s fun-sized? Oh, your chest?” Taichi asked, though in immediate hindsight, his brain-to-mouth filter probably should have stopped him.

“Hi-YAH!” Kiriyama beaned him in the face with a cookie. It was surprisingly painful, actually. “No, stupid! Obviously I meant my height! Ugh... You just have boobs on the brain 24/7, don’t you? Why did I think you weren’t like other guys... Guess you’re no different from that horny little imp over there...”

“You talk about your chest all the time! Just the other day you were going on about how ‘anything more than a handful is a waste’!”

“Wait, did you just call me a ‘horny little imp’? Can I at least have a chance to defend myself?!”

“Motion denied.”

At this point, Aoki was well-established as the resident butt-monkey, and Taichi was starting to feel bad for the guy.

“Whoa now! You keep throwing food around like that and Inaban’s gonna be pissed! You know she’s a total germaphobe,” Nagase remarked.

“Ugh crap, you’re right! No way am I gonna let these two creeps get me in trouble!” Kiriyama began to crawl on all fours over the carpet, scooping up each little cookie crumb. Her long chestnut tresses tumbled over her shoulders to the floor. Paired with her petite build and frilly pastel dress, the sight held a certain allure.

Then she noticed more crumbs she’d left while eating and hastily scooped those up as well.

“As Yui shifted around to clean up her mess, the two boys watched carefully, hoping for a glimpse of her panties,” Nagase stated in her imitation narrator voice.

“What?! Nagase! Don’t be ridiculous! I would never—”

“Damn it! We were so close!”

Aoki was honest to a fault... and hopelessly, irredeemably stupid. Kiriyama hastily sat back down, holding her skirt safely in place. She began to tremble, her face tomato-red.

Uh-oh.

Taichi tried to think of a way to smooth things over, but came up empty. Meanwhile, Kiriyama slowly reached for the plate of cookies.

“Don’t do it, Yui! I told you, Inaban’s gonna be mad if you make a mess!”

Thankfully, they could always count on Nagase to take charge of the problem she had inadvertently created—

“Here, use this weighted memory foam pillow instead!”

—and make it worse.

“Nagase, I’m pretty sure that’s the opposite of a solution! Those things hurt like hell!”

But Taichi’s scream fell on deaf ears as Nagase laughed and tossed the weighted memory foam pillow into the air. As it fell, Kiriyama jumped and spun in the air, a flashy move that naturally resulted in—

“Ooh, I saw ‘em.”

With Aoki’s last little comment, Kiriyama added another full rotation to her jump.

“FIRE!!!”

With a dull thud her spinning jump kick connected with the pillow and sent it flying at full speed in Aoki’s direction.

“Gyah!” Though he’d raised his arms to shield himself, the impact still sent him flying nonetheless.

And right as it hit him, the door opened. “Hey! What’s going on in h—”

FLOMP.

The weighted memory foam pillow had bounced off of its first victim and directly into Inaba’s face. It was such a solid hit, Inaba’s neck bent backwards from the blow. She froze, the pillow resting on her face.

A few agonizingly long seconds passed. Then Inaba finally straightened up, and the weighted memory foam pillow fell to the floor, revealing the demonic expression beneath.

The four of them couldn’t get a word out—they just trembled in fear.

“...Raise your hand once you’re ready for your punishment...!”

In the end, Nagase and Taichi each received a single flick to the forehead; Kiriyama received two; and Aoki received two plus a slap to the face.

Ever since the day «Heartseed» had possessed [Gotou’s body], Taichi and the others had chosen to stop trying to fight the body-swap phenomenon and just let it happen.

It would be more accurate, however, to say this was the only choice available to them. After all, they certainly couldn’t ignore it. They could be forced to switch bodies at any place or time, and they couldn’t just stay cooped up at home for days on end. They had no way of fighting it, either—not until they figured out who to fight and how.

Their only concrete clue was the culprit(?) itself, the one known as «Heartseed»—but though they kept a careful eye on [Gotou], the enigmatic mastermind showed no signs of resurfacing. They had no plan of action, no leads to follow, no puzzles to solve. As they fumbled around in the darkness, all they had to go on was the information that «Heartseed» itself had granted them.

With no way to verify anything it told them, their only option was to believe—or rather, hope—that the body-swap would indeed someday come to an end... and in the meantime, all they could do was wait it out.

Now, a full week later, here they were to discuss the results—with Inaba Himeko acting as master of ceremonies, chairwoman, and final decision-maker.

“Now then, first things first, let’s review what we agreed upon last week regarding the handling of the body-swapping phenomenon. Our basic guidelines were determined thusly: One, stay in contact and update each other on the current situation as much as humanly possible. Two, act calmly and avoid the public eye. Three, when forced to interact with others, try your best to imitate the person whose body you’re in. And lastly, don’t do anything rash. At the time, I figured these four tenets would be enough to get us all safely through the average swap, but as it turns out... you imbeciles don’t know how to pay attention!”

Inaba plunked herself down on the floor, glaring around the room at each of them. Even with her legs crossed, her posture was still perfectly straight, like she was about to practice some Zen meditation.

“Rule number one of body-swapping: When you’re switched with someone of the opposite gender, go into the bathroom that matches their gender! Show of hands: who here has made this mistake before?”

Everyone except Inaba promptly raised their hands.

“HOW could you mess that up?! It should be the first thing you worry about when you’re in someone else’s body! Seriously, guys, of all the hackneyed tropes!”

“It’s just habit, I guess! We tend to run to the bathroom to hide out anyway, so... it just happens, you know?”

“No, I don’t know, Iori! But thanks to you idiots, now going to the bathroom is fucking excruciating!”

As teenagers, going into the wrong restroom by mistake didn’t result in some loud, crazy scandal—it just quietly weirded everyone out, particularly where [Taichi] or [Inaba] was involved. Their day-to-day demeanor was normally so level-headed and stoic, none of their classmates knew whether to treat it like a joke when it happened. In [Aoki’s] case, however, there was one incident where a few girls called him names and tried to report him to the teachers (and [he] nearly broke down in tears, as Kiriyama was in [his body] at the time).

“Okay, I have a suggestion,” Kiriyama piped up, raising her hand slightly. “Can we all agree to like, go to the bathroom more often when we’re in our own bodies?”

“Like I just said, going to the bathroom is extremely awkward for us now,” Inaba muttered, mildly annoyed.

“Well, whenever the three of us girls get stuck in [Taichi] or [Aoki’s body], if we have to use the restroom... then we have to see that disgusting thing in their pants! Aaagghhh!” Kiriyama rubbed her arms to soothe the goosebumps that had pricked up from the trauma of the memory.

“You don’t need to be so afraid of it. It’s just another body part, really. Besides, haven’t you been taking care of business in a toilet stall so you don’t have to touch it?” Taichi paused. “But, well... If it really bothers you that much, then I suppose me and Aoki ought to be a little more careful.”

“Okay... Thanks, Taichi, I’d appreciate it.”

“Aw, the hell, Taichi?! Don’t go stealin’ all the brownie points for yourself! Anyway, I’ll be more careful too, Yui!”

“Aw, Yui, it’s no big deal! If I can learn to pee standing up, so can you!” Nagase guffawed.

“Nobody asked you to learn... And you probably shouldn’t brag about it,” Taichi retorted. It was hard to formulate a response when she said it all with such an innocent smile...

“Iori’s right. Their junk is nothing to be afraid of, Yui. Also, I noticed Taichi’s is bigger,” Inaba snickered.

“Don’t make this weird! Keep your little comparisons to yourself! And Aoki, for god’s sake, pull yourself together!” Taichi begged.

“The real question here is: what about us? You two haven’t done anything untoward with our bodies, have you?” Inaba asked, her expression suddenly dead serious.

Taichi responded without hesitation. “Absolutely not. Right, Aoki?”

“Well... I admit, whenever I’m in [a girl’s body], I do get a little curious... What? Guys, c’mon! Don’t give me that look! Obviously I didn’t actually try anything! I have morals, okay?! Besides, I haven’t ever needed to use the bathroom in someone else’s body... What? I’m serious! Now quit givin’ me the stinkeye, okay? Hahaha...” Aoki’s awkward laughter hung in the air.

“...Well, I haven’t done anything inappropriate, at least.”

“In your case, Taichi... I’ll believe you.” Evidently Inaba was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“Me either!”

“...Oh really?” She squinted suspiciously in Aoki’s direction.

“Really really! In times like these, it’s important that we trust each other, don’t ya think? So, ’course I wouldn’t do something like that! That’d be stupid!”

“...R-Right.”

For a moment, Inaba stammered, her expression grim. But before Taichi could ask her about it, Kiriyama rounded on Aoki.

“Oh yeah, that reminds me! Last time you were in [my body], you made such a mess of things, didn’t you? Apparently you called my mother ‘Ma’ instead of ‘Mom’! And I heard you tried to sleep in the wrong bedroom!”

“So? Details, details! The worst that happened was your kid sister kept askin’ why [you] were actin’ weird. No big deal.”

“Maybe not to you, but it’s a big deal to me!”

“Ahem!” Inaba cut in. “We really need to be more careful about these things. There are already rumors floating around school about our weird antics as of late... though I can’t imagine they’ll ever guess that we’re switching bodies.”

That much was certain. As long as the five of them didn’t initiate the conversation, no ordinary person would ever arrive at that conclusion... but this also meant that they would ultimately be held responsible for any unusual behavior the others committed in their stead.

“Speaking of family stuff... Iori, last time I was [you], I woke up in the middle of the night and no one else was at home. What’s that about? I, um... I just... think it’s kinda not safe for a teenage girl to be home alone at nighttime...” It was a rather personal question, and Kiriyama’s voice quickly grew feeble.

Nagase froze. There was a pause, and the room fell silent.

“Oh... Right. That. Guess I haven’t had the chance to bring it up before! My parents are divorced. I’m living with my mom right now, and she’s just... super busy, basically? Anyway, don’t worry. If some guy tries to mess with me, all I gotta do is hit ‘em with some pepper spray, then start whaling on ‘em! Easy!”

“No, it’s NOT that easy! You can’t just underestimate them like that! You’re putting yourself at risk! You need to prepare yourself for this stuff before it’s too late or you’ll regret it FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!”

Kiriyama wasn’t just regular-screaming, as was commonplace when the CRC were messing around with each other. No, this was different. She was actually, genuinely furious.

“Wha...? Uh... I... I’m sorry...” Nagase stammered, confused.

This sort of thing rarely, if ever, happened between them.

Nagase’s apology quickly defused Kiriyama’s anger, and her gaze fell to the floor. “Um... I... I’m sorry too.”

A heavy silence dominated the room.

Upon further reflection, they were lucky they made it this far unscathed. Despite the utter insanity of switching bodies with each other, nothing serious had happened—just minor inconveniences at most.

At least, on the surface.

Was it in any way possible for an unpredictable phenomenon like the body-swap to somehow leave the five of them entirely intact? No, of course not. It was simply a matter of time before something shattered—but how long did they have until their luck ran out? And once it did... what would come of it?

Where would their bonds take them?

Before that line of thought could continue, Inaba clapped her hands together. “Moving on! The point is, we know the body-swap won’t last for hours on end, so as long as we each make an effort to act responsibly while we’re stuck in [another body], I’m sure we can talk our way out of any issues that occur. Granted, not all problems can be solved that way, but... Well, we can talk about that some other time.”

Just like that, she forced the mood to shift. This was part of why the others were so comfortable letting her take charge. Yes, it was a conscious choice, not just Inaba being a control freak... At least, Taichi was pretty sure.

“Our current problem is that we’re already causing real damage to each other. Aren’t we, Aoki?” Inaba continued, her tone bitter.

“Huh? Did somethin’ happen?” replied Aoki, slack-jawed.

Inaba’s shoulders slumped in frustration. “How could you forget?! You fucked up my English quiz, remember?!”

“Ohhh, that. Look, I’m tellin’ ya, I tried my best, alright?”

“How is a 7 out of 30 your ‘best’?! They put my name down for study hall! And compared to my usual grades, now they think something’s wrong with me! There’s no harm in being dumb as long as you keep it to yourself—but once your stupidity’s affecting my life? Now we’ve got problems!”

“What’m I supposed to do, man?! It’s not like I asked to be born this dumb!” Aoki grumbled, twirling his bangs between his fingers.

“C’mon, Inaba, it’s not the end of the world,” Taichi cut in. “That quiz didn’t even affect our final grades. And besides, Aoki isn’t going to get magically smarter anytime soon.”

“He’s right, Inaban! There’s no cure for stupid!” Nagase agreed.

“That’s right, Inaba. He was born stupid, and he’ll die stupid,” Kiriyama added.

“Guys, you’re not helping! Real talk, I’m feelin’ pretty attacked right now!”

Aoki Yoshifumi, everyone’s favorite punching bag.

“Sure, maybe it’s not the end of the world to you guys, but we don’t know how long this body-swapping ordeal is gonna stick around, remember? And if it lasts until midterms, or even finals...”

Taichi, Nagase, and Kiriyama gasped in unison as fear set in. They understood exactly what Inaba was implying.

Then their worst nightmare opened his mouth to speak.

“Huh? Whaddya mean? So someone might switch bodies with me, and...? Ohhh, I get it! Maybe I won’t fail every subject! Woohoo!”

“Yeah, and in exchange, you’ll fail them for someone else! You’re the only one of us who isn’t passing!” Inaba snapped, but Aoki seemed entirely unaffected.

“...Let’s just try to stay positive, guys. This’ll all be over soon,” Kiriyama muttered, clasping her hands to her forehead.

The “evaluation meeting” (which ended up turning into more of a casual hangout session) continued enthusiastically until that evening, when Inaba called it a day after claiming her parents would be coming home soon.

On the way home, Nagase went her separate way while Taichi, Kiriyama, and Aoki headed home in the opposite direction... or at least, that was how it should have gone.

Instead, right as the three of them arrived at the transfer station, Aoki and Nagase suddenly switched bodies. The two of them quickly got in contact with each other. Together they agreed they would head home anyway, and if they hadn’t switched back by the time they arrived at each other’s houses, they would kill time somewhere nearby instead.

“Wow... So this is how the world looks through [Aoki’s eyes], huh? Man, he’s tall! This is my first time in [his body], actually. He’s gotta be, what, one-seventy?” [Aoki] (Nagase) rambled excitedly without a hint of tension.

“Keep your voice down...” Taichi paused, then quickly thought better of his warning. “Then again, even if someone overhears you, I guess they probably won’t know what you’re talking about anyway.”

“Oh, wow! Yui looks so tiny from up here!”

[Aoki] (Nagase) reached out to pet Kiriyama, but she quickly jerked her head out of reach, then sidestepped away.

“Huh?”

“Oh...”

There was a moment of silence—a heavy silence too awkward to laugh off.

[Aoki] (Nagase) smiled sheepishly.

“It... It’s not what you think, Iori! It’s not like I don’t want you touching me. It’s just that you’re in [Aoki’s body] right now, so—”

“I know, Yui. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

“...Good thing Aoki’s not here to see this or he’d be crying himself to sleep tonight,” Taichi muttered, feeling sorry for his friend.

“It... It’s just a reflex at this point! Not my fault Aoki always tries to make a move on me!” Kiriyama replied earnestly. “But just so you know, I don’t, like, hate his guts or anything. He may be stupid, but he’s not a bad guy!”

Taichi had meant his comment mostly as a joke, so he wasn’t sure how to respond to her honesty. “O-Oh, okay... That’s good.”

But before they could clear the awkward tension, Kiriyama’s city-bound train pulled into the station, and she stepped aboard.

In the end, Taichi and [Aoki] rode their train all the way to Aoki’s station. Normally Taichi wouldn’t have deboarded until a stop later, but seeing as Aoki and Nagase still hadn’t switched back, he decided to stick around and help her kill some time.

At present, the five members of the CRC were switching bodies a total of approximately eight times per day. Each switch lasted anywhere from one minute to two hours, so it was likely Aoki and Nagase would swap back relatively soon.

The station was deserted. Taichi and [Aoki] (Nagase) sat down on opposite ends of a bench on the railway platform, leaving an empty seat between them.

To his right, Taichi could see the familiar face of a close friend—someone who wasn’t present at the moment. Instead, it was his other friend... his closest female friend.

“I really screwed up...” [Aoki] (Nagase) finally whispered, like she just couldn’t hold it in anymore. She’d been quiet and miserable all through the train ride, too.

“What, the thing with Kiriyama just now? Eh, it was just bad timing, that’s all. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”

“I understand how you could see it that way, but... I just... I can’t. I need to be careful not to seriously upset anyone... I have to... I just have to...”

She fell silent, looking uncharacteristically mournful. This wasn’t just about making Kiriyama uncomfortable. Taichi got the distinct sense that there was something more to it.

“Uggghhh...” [He] collapsed back against the bench and buried [his] face in [his] hands.

She seemed so weak and fragile, like she might just fall apart if he wasn’t around to keep her together... and he wanted to be there for her.

“What’s wrong, Nagase? Anything I can do to help?” he asked, but [Aoki] (Nagase) didn’t respond, unmoving.

A moment passed. Realizing his gaze was probably making her uncomfortable, Taichi looked away. Then, finally, Nagase broke the silence.

“...Taichi?” [Aoki] (Nagase) asked in a tiny voice.

“...Yeah?” Taichi answered slowly.

“I, um... Ever since we all started switching bodies, I’ve been going through all the used bookstores, hunting for all the body-swap stories. You know, manga and stuff like that.”

“Oh yeah?”

He couldn’t quite see where she was going with this.

“And out of everything I found, sure enough, most of ‘em featured guys and girls switching with each other... And in most of those... Once the girl’s in the guy’s body, nine times out of ten, she ends up [bleep] his [bleep]!” (Nagase) exclaimed, grinning. “So, I think maybe I ought to [bleep] a guy’s [bleep]—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! What does this have to do with Kiriyama?”

“Pffft! Nothing, obviously! God, you’re such a dork.”

“What the—I thought we were having a serious moment here! Give me back all the brain cells I wasted thinking maybe this conversation was going somewhere!”

She was always quick to change tack. At what point during her abject misery had she started formulating this stupid joke in her head?

“The thing is, even if I wanted to [bleep] a guy’s [bleep], I don’t know the first thing about how it works. So I was thinking, maybe you could [bleep] how to [bleep] your [bleep]...”

“Don’t just ignore me! Also, I don’t know exactly what words you’re ‘bleeping’ here, but I assure you, I’m not going to [bleep] how to [bleep] my [bleep]!”

“But if I try to [bleep] a guy’s [bleep] without the right knowhow, I might [bleep] his whole [bleep]...!”

“Aagh! Look, as long as you don’t [bleep] a guy’s [bleep] in the first place, you won’t have to worry about his [bleep] getting [bleep] as a result of you [bleep] his [bleep]!”

“I admit, you have a point. If I choose not to [bleep] a guy’s [bleep] in the first place, then I won’t have to worry about his [bleep] getting [bleep] as a result of me [bleep] his [bleep], but if I can’t [bleep] a guy’s [bleep], then won’t I end up [bleep] unless I... wait, what?”

“Nagase, you just wanted an excuse to say ‘bleep,’ didn’t you?”

“You got me...”

“Gah! I knew it!”

“C’mon, admit it! You had fun saying it with me!”

...He couldn’t deny it. It was a ton of fun, actually.

“No, but for real, I won’t [bleep] anyone’s [bleep]. You wouldn’t want me doing that in your body, right?”

“Of course not.”

“Then I won’t,” [Aoki] (Nagase) replied with a grin—a happy, radiant sort of grin.

Then Taichi realized.

“Were you hunting for body-swap stories because... you were trying to research what to do—?”

“Okay, Taichi, it’s time for Nagase Iori’s question of the day! Bum bada bum!” Nagase hastily interrupted, her impromptu fanfare a flimsy disguise for her embarrassment.

She could be downright depressed one minute, then giddy and excitable the next; her seemingly spur-of-the-moment clowning around was often carefully calculated; and she could tell a dirty joke without batting an eye, then turn on a dime and blush over something entirely inconsequential. Indeed, Nagase was a colorful character in every sense... and Taichi found it all quite attractive.

But then, Nagase’s expression shifted—into something he wasn’t quite sure how to interpret.

“We all have this tacit understanding that we’re each defined by our personality, or consciousness or ‘soul’ or whatever. Which is why, even though my ‘soul’ currently exists in [Aoki’s body], the rest of you still see me as Nagase Iori. But the problem there is, it’s kind of impossible to establish where our personalities—or consciousness, or souls—begin and end. After all, they’re completely intangible.” There was a distant smile on [Aoki’s] face. “So while we believe our soul, consciousness, or personality is what defines us as ‘us,’ we actually discern each other based on our physical forms. Which is why, no matter what crazy hijinks we get up to while we’re switching bodies, no one outside the CRC ever suspects a thing.” (Nagase) continued on like she was presenting a thesis. “In other words, our [physical bodies] form the absolute basis of who we are. But once that [body] loses its significance—say, through the process of a body-swap—how do we continue to define ourselves? Is it even possible?” She paused. “Just kidding.”

She started to laugh, but just then, [Aoki’s] eyes drooped shut. The next moment, [he] snapped awake again.

“...Whoa, what?! Oh, hey, Taichi!” [He] looked down at [his] body. “Hmmm... Yep, looks like I’m back to normal. Dude, I’m so glad to have [my body] back!” He blinked. “Now that I think about it, man, that’s not something a normal person would ever say, huh?”

Evidently the swap had ended. Taichi was so distracted, he just nodded along to whatever Aoki said. His mind was completely overwhelmed by that moment with Nagase just now. Her blank expression, her monotonous tone, her unusually philosophical commentary—it was all just so far removed from the normal her.

What exactly was she trying to get across to him?

The more detached she acted, the more it came across like a desperate cry for help... or maybe it was all just in his head. He had no way of knowing for sure.

He wanted to understand... but he just didn’t.