Dreams of Tanabata

The first thing Kokomi realizes when she wakes up is that she is not in her pillow laden canopy bed, but lying on an unfamiliar beat-up futon, a ratty cow plushy clutched to her chest. The room around her is unfamiliar as well with white, bookshelf-lined walls and a small, cluttered desk tucked away in a corner. Strangest of all, the room's doorframe is empty. Kokomi has no idea how she could ever manage to fall asleep in a room without a door she can close and preferably lock.

Come to think of it, how did she get here? She had gone to sleep in her own bed in her own room like always.

Oh, god was she kidnapped?

She pulls herself to her feet and realizes that even her very body is unfamiliar. It's a boy's body, shorter than her own and dressed in robin's egg blue pajamas scattered with golden sheep.

She presses a hand to its chest and forces long, deep breaths into its lungs, in an attempt to slow the heartbeat that pounds in its ears, its fingertips, its throat. There has to be a rational explanation for this. Is this a dream? It doesn't feel like a dream.

She- this body needs to pee rather badly, so she gets up to look for a bathroom.

Upon finding one and taking care of her immediate business she goes to wash her hands and is surprised to recognize the face looking back at her from the mirror above the sink after so many unfamiliar things.

It's not her face though. It's Akechi's.

Does that mean Akechi is in her body?

Dread sinks in her stomach like a stone at the thought.

She is only pulled from her visions of the countless ways that Akechi could be ruining her carefully maintained image of perfection even now by three sharp knocks on the bathroom door and a woman's voice asking, "Touma are you alright in there?"

Touma... that's Akechi's given name, right?

"I'm very well, thank you." Kokomi replies. It's uncanny to hear Akechi's voice speak her words.

"That's great. Well, I'll be having breakfast so come down whenever you're ready for that." The woman replies.

Kokomi dresses her (Akechi's) body in the boy's uniform and goes to join the woman (presumably Akechi's mother?) for breakfast.

Much to her dismay the woman tries to make conversation with her beyond the socially mandated small talk.

"Are you sure that you feel alright?" Akechi's mother asks,"You're awfully quiet this morning."

"Why yes I am quite well as always. Thanks for asking," Kokomi says, frantically trying to remember how Akechi talks besides altogether too much, "I've simply been a bit distracted by thoughts of my coming day at school."

"Oh right. You do have that test in first period that you said you were worried about last night." Akechi's mother says, "Well, good luck with that."

Kokomi wasn't even a little worried about the test today because as the perfect pretty girl she is not only beautiful but intelligent as well. Akechi had better not bring down her hard earned grades with a subpar test performance.

She pushes away from the table, bows and says,"Thank you very much for the delicious breakfast. However I must be on my way now."

She washes her plate, grabs Akechi's school bag and quickly makes her exit.

She needs to talk to Akechi.

*

To say that Touma has been having a strange morning would be a rather severe understatement. After awakening in a bed so excessively plush and warm that it felt as if it was trying to eat him alive he had come to find that not only had he somehow ended up in an unfamiliar house, he had also somehow bodily transformed into Miss Teruhashi as well.

His feelings on this situation are mixed. On the one hand, Miss Teruhashi's body is remarkably pleasant in appearance and odor, so he supposes that he should consider himself lucky, since if he had to pick a classmate to miraculously turn into she's certainly one of his better options, however Touma had developed a rather strong attachment to his prior body due to having lived in it his whole life up until now and will rather miss it should this change prove permanent. So long as it's temporary however, he may as well endeavor to make the most of the novel experience.

The feeling of long hair rubbing against his back and shoulders is distracting so he pulls Miss Teruhashi's hair back into his best attempt at a ponytail, which serves as a satisfactory solution to the issue.

The kitchen in what Touma assumes to be Miss Teruhashi's house is stocked only with ingredients rather than any ready made dishes which rather complicates the process of finding himself something to breakfast on due not only Touma's fairly minimal prior experience with cooking but also the somewhat overwhelming array of options this presents. In the end he decides to fry himself an egg since the process seems relatively foolproof.

He doesn't know if the unusually sulfurous flavor was caused by some mistake in his cooking process or simply the difference between Miss Teruhashi's taste buds and his own. He's still doing his best to eat the whole thing so as not to waste someone else's food when the doorbell rings.

Touma answers it to find himself standing outside. It's disconcerting enough that for once Touma is at a loss for words.

"You're Akechi, correct?" The him outside the door says with a pleasant, polite smile that even Touma can barely recognize as fake.

"You are indeed correct," Touma says,"and I would be correct in assuming that this means that you are Miss Teruhashi?"

"You would. I'm not sure how this happened but could you please give me back my body?"

"I would like nothing more than to return to my own body and allow you to return to your own but I'm afraid that I lack even the faintest notion of how this goal may be achieved."

"That's unfortunate," Miss Teruhashi says. "In that case, since we're stuck in each other's bodies we should establish some ground rules about how we should go about pretending to be each other so both our reputations can remain intact."

"You are free to do whatever you like during your time in my body, so long as you refrain from illegal activities and risky behavior which is likely to cause lasting injury or undue concern for my dear, yet somewhat anxious, mother," Touma says, "I don't really care about my reputation."

"Well, my reputation is pretty important to me, so I'm politely requesting that you don't do any weird things that might damage it," Miss Teruhashi says sternly.

"Your input has been noted and I will endeavor to ensure that my behavior remains similar to yours for the duration of this situation." Touma pauses for a moment and adds, "Actually, it occurs to me that before I make any such reckless promises I should ask, how long do you expect these strange circumstances of ours to last?"

"I don't know, I've never heard of this happening in real life before," Miss Teruhashi says, tapping a finger to her current body's chin, "I have an idol audition tomorrow so evening so I really hope we manage to switch back before then. Do you have any idea how this happened?"

"Well I do recall having a rather curious dream last night. Perhaps that has something to do with this?"

"You might be onto something. I had a strange dream last night too. Though I've been having those since my brother went missing," Teruhashi says and adds with an awkward chuckle, "Stress will do that, you know."

"I am familiar with the propensity of stressful circumstances to cause nightmares. However I think we may as well compare note regarding our dreams given the absence of any other leads." Sensing Miss Teruhashi's apprehension, Touma adds, "I'll go first if you like-"

"Can we not, please. Sorry, I mean, I'd really prefer not to talk about it and besides I don't even remember it that well," Teruhashi babbles.

"I suppose we can defer discussion of this topic indefinitely if you truly want to avoid it."

He's reluctant to abandon his only lead for getting his body back but seeing his own face shadowed with her fear makes him hesitant to force the issue.

"Thanks, um, would you like me to help you do your hair? Since you're a boy and have short hair you probably haven't styled it in a ponytail before."

Touma reaches up to touch his makeshift ponytail and replies, "Thank you for your offer. However I think that I have managed to obtain a satisfactory result for my purposes."

Teruhashi stares at him with an awkward expression that looks remarkably odd on his face.

"How to put this..." she says the tips of her (Touma's) fingers touching each other, "Please don't take this the wrong way but I'm not sure that I exactly agree."

"Fear not Miss Teruhashi. My feelings will not be terribly wounded if you express your honest feelings that my attempt at a ponytail does not meet your doubtless quite exacting standards. I simply made it to seek relief from the distracting sensation of your hair brushing up against your back and arms and I feel it serves that purpose quite well."

"I'm sorry but I'd rather not let my body go to school with hair like that. Please let me fix it," Miss Teruhashi replies bluntly.

Touma obliges. Teruhashi pulls his hair up into a bun that is rather tight but otherwise still perfectly serviceable for his purposes.

Afterwards, the two of them walk to school together which Touma greatly appreciates since, given his as of yet incomplete mental map of Yumetani, finding his way from the Teruhashi residance to the school on his own strikes him as a task which would be quite difficult for him to complete in a timely fashion.

On their way there Miss Teruhashi proposes that they should trade phones to allow them to text their loved ones as well as each other, a suggestion that Akechi enthusiastically agrees to.

Miss Teruhashi truly is a wonderful person, being not only exceptionally pleasant to look at but also both intelligent and kind, and Touma sincerely hopes that this bizarre experience can help forge a strong bond of friendship between the two of them.

*

Kokomi doesn't like the way the other students are looking at her. Usually their eyes fill with admiration at the sight of her but now that she's in Akechi's body her classmates look at her like she's something they scraped off the sole of their shoe if they even spare her a glance at all.

A couple of boys from her class approach her.

"Ah good morning Sawakita and Suzuki,"

"I don't want greetings from you. You're the creep that made Teruhashi cry." Sawakita says.

"Guys like you need to be taught a lesson," Suzuki says.

Kokomi is displeased with this development. Her fans going around threatening people in her name is kind of overkill, not to mention the more pressing issue that as the current occupant of Akechi's body she's the one being threatened.

"Um, I'm sorry," she mumbles. If she was still herself she would shed a few angelic tears as well but she's not sure how effective that strategy would be for a boy like Akechi.

"Now, now there is no need to do anything so drastic." Akechi says, "Akechi and I were able to privately resolve our issues after school yesterday."

Her classmates back off stammering and blushing.

"Thank you," Kokomi says once they're gone.

"It was no trouble whatsoever. I thought it would be best for me to take the opportunity to nip in the bud any resentments that our disagreement yesterday may have birthed," Akechi says.

Kokomi wasn't expecting that to have such a drastic effect on Akechi's reputation.

She wants to apologize but to do that properly she'd have to admit that she had started crying on purpose to get him to back off, which she doesn't want to do, so instead she says, "You're pretty good at pretending to be me."

"Why thank you!" Akechi replies, "I was a little concerned about my impression due to the fact that I have not had the pleasure of knowing you very long and I am glad to hear that you found my performance adequate."

Kokomi wishes that he wouldn't put it like that.

"Do you want me to act like you too?" Kokomi asks.

Akechi tilts his (Kokomi's) head to one side and says, "I don't think that's necessary. Is it something that you are interested in doing?"

"Not really, thank you," Kokomi says, a bit more quickly than she had intended to. If she had to act the way Akechi usually does then she'd die of embarrassment before the day was out. The very prospect is mortifying.

Frankly, it's baffling why Akechi acts the way he does given that he is not, as she had assumed, incapable of presenting himself in a more appealing and socially acceptable manner.

*

Today their class has the misfortune of being assigned a group project. To prevent the boys from fighting about who gets to be Teruhashi's partner for these sorts of things the teacher has taken to assigning partners.

Akechi, that is to say Kokomi in Akechi's body, gets paired with Kaidou Shun.

He doesn't seem very happy with the arrangement. Kokomi knows that this is just because she's stuck in Akechi's body but it still stings to see the disappointment and apprehension in his eyes as he approaches her at Akechi's desk.

Still she greets him warmly and gives him the brightest smile she can muster. If Kaidou isn't inclined to like Akechi because of some past awkward interaction she'll just do her best to make him like Akechi for as long as she's stuck in Akechi's body.

The assignment is to interview a professional and create a presentation using the information obtained from the interview.

They need to provide their proposed subject and a list of planned questions next week for a small portion of the grade, and two weeks after that they'll need to turn in transcript or recording of their interview for a larger portion of their grade as well as give an presentation for the rest of their grade.

"How do you feel about this project? I'm a little worried about it myself." she says giving Kaidou her best sad puppy dog eyes.

"You're not going to make me do all the work are you?" Kaidou asks nervously.

Kokomi had been planning to let him take the lead to make things simpler once she and Akechi swap back but in her experience boys, especially ones with a good enough GPA to consider themselves clever, are falling over themselves to do that, so they can use the project as an opportunity to show off their academic skills.

Actually, thinking about it that's just another one of the many perks of being the perfect pretty girl, isn't it? Wow, unpopular boys like Akechi must have it rough. "Oh not at all," she replies, "It's just that I'm new here so I don't know a lot of potential interview subjects and I was hoping that you had some ideas."

"I guess we could always do a phone interview with my dad," Kaidou offers.

"Oh, what does he do?" Kokomi asks.

"I don't think I'm at liberty to tell you what he really does." Kaidou says, covering his face with his hand in that way that he clearly thinks makes him look cool and mysterious rather than painfully cringe like it actually does, "We'd have to interview him about his cover job in international marketing which unfortunately is far less interesting."

Oh, right. Kaidou is a compulsive liar. Well, probably.

He did apparently electrocute that snake with his mind last year. Though as time goes on she's increasingly suspected that that had just been some kind of bizarre coincidence lent an air of credibility by the class's panicked state.

"It's fine. Most of the class will probably be interviewing their parents," Kokomi says. She probably would be if she was in her body, though their careers are certainly more interesting than Kaidou's father's, "If we can't think of anyone you'd prefer in the next couple of days he sounds like he'd be a good option to fall back on."

She should text Akechi later to see who he wants to interview.

"You're acting pretty differently from the last time we talked." Kaidou says.

Kokomi stiffens. Somewhat irrationally, she's afraid of getting caught stealing Akechi's body despite her earlier agreement with Akechi that she was under no obligation to act like him.

Before she can come up with a response Kaidou supplies one himself, "I've got it! You're like some sort of evil shadow self that comes out when Akechi feels threatened? You know, like in Yu-Gi-Oh."

Kokomi replies to this bizarre statement the only way she can think to, "What."

"It's fine if you are. You're pretty nice for an evil shadow self," Kaidou says. He adds hurriedly, "Just please don't mindcrush me or anything. Your secret is safe with me."

"Of course it is. I'm just impressed that you managed to figure it out first try like that." Kokomi lies. Playing along is bit undignified but what's the harm? It's cringe but far less cringe than Akechi usually is.

"Wow, really?" Kaidou's says, clearly excited. "Can you teach me how to use evil shadow self magic?"

"Sorry. That's information is for evil shadow selves only." Kokomi says raising a finger to her lips with a wink.

She thinks she understands Kaidou a little bit better. It's kind of fun to tell ridiculous lies instead of ordinary everyday ones.

Maybe it won't be so bad to not have to be the perfect pretty girl for a while.

*

Touma likes to think himself quite the actor. While it's true that he has never participated in a theatrical production, but he's put a great deal of time and effort into the analytical observation of human body language over the years and his current situation is an excellent opportunity to put that knowledge to use.

The only problem is how exhausting this is.

The effort of having to make sure that he's holding himself the way that Miss Teruhashi holds herself, schooling her face into those sweet, gentle expressions of hers that people like so much rather than the ones he naturally tends towards, which multiple sources have described as "off-putting" and "creepy," and not only understand what every person in every social interaction that he takes part in expects of him but also tailor his responses in an attempt to actually give it them is so draining that once he has left school for the day all he wants to do is sequester himself somewhere dark and quiet where he doesn't have to talk to anyone.

Fortunately Miss Teruhashi's house is an excellent place to do this.

He shuts himself in Miss Teruhashi's room, takes the comforter from her too soft bed, lays it out on the floor and lying there, swiftly falls into a sleep too deep for dreams.

*

When Kokomi gets back to Akechi's house she starts making dinner. She isn't hungry yet but she's learned that it's important to start cooking a little while before she gets hungry so that a meal is ready and waiting for her by the time she is.

The selection of ingredients in Akechi's house is a bit lacking but she thinks she can make it work.

She decides to make fried rice. She'll make some of it into omurice for herself tonight and she can use the leftovers as a side for her lunch tomorrow if she's still stuck in Akechi's body by then. If not then well surely he'll be grateful for the chance to eat something cooked by a perfect pretty girl like her. Part way through her preparations Akechi's mother comes home.

Dang it. Kokomi had forgotten about her.

"You're cooking dinner, Touma? That's very considerate of you," Akechi's mother says, her brows furrowing with concern, "You didn't get in trouble at school again, did you?" "What! No? I just was hungry so I started making dinner on my own."

"That's very responsible of you, little guy," Akechi's mother says patting Kokomi on the head. "It smells good too so you'd better have made enough for both of us." Oh well, it looks like there won't be any leftovers.

When they sit down to eat Akechi's mother takes a bite and exclaims, her eyes alight with excitement, "This is really good! When did you learn to cook like this?"

"Oh, here and there," Kokomi replies not really sure how to plausibly excuse what is clearly a sudden spike in cooking skill from Akechi.

It really is good. These are almost completely lacking the sulfurous undertone that Kokomi usually has to cover up with ketchup and have a much more pronounced umami aspect their flavor.

Kokomi will have to take note of what kind of eggs the Akechi household stocks so she can buy them herself once she gets her own body back.

"I found some of those sour pickled vegetables you like on sale today," Akechi's mother says producing a jar from her purse and placing it on the table between them. "Want to have some after dinner?"

Kokomi would really rather not. She's always found even mild pickles way too pungent to eat without smothering their flavor with rice or some other bland ingredient. However Akechi's mother offered them like they're something Akechi usually enjoys so it would be suspicious to deny her offer, wouldn't it?

"Yes please, my dear mother," Kokomi says forcing Akechi's face into a radiant smile. She expects to have to force it down and only hopes that she'll be able to do so without gagging.

Much to her surprise it tastes... fine? Good even.

It's not so much that it isn't salty and sour but rather that it is so in a way that somehow renders these intense flavors delicious rather than nauseating.

Is it possible that being in Akechi's body makes her taste in food similar to his?

The thought troubles her a bit. It's not as though Kokomi was especially attached to her dislike of pickles but discovering that she's lost it makes her wonder what other aspects of her self she's left behind with her own body.

How much of what she considers her self is simply biological features of the body she inhabits?

*

Akechi wakes up around 10 pm mildly disoriented and ravenously hungry.

He goes downstairs and rifles through Teruhashi's fridge and pantry intensely frustrated when he once again discovers the absence of any convenient pre-made meals within them.

In the end he settles for whatever ingredients he can find that are not overly unpleasant to eat with minimal preparation and consumes two raw daikon radishes and half a block of uncooked tofu before finding himself acceptably satiated.

At this point he realizes that he is still dressed in Kokomi's rumpled school uniform. He should probably change and perhaps shower as well given the uncomfortable gritty oiliness that's beginning to accumulate on Teruhashi's scalp.

This does bring up the awkward matter of having to undress Teruhashi's body.

Unlike this morning he now knows for certain that this is Teruhashi's body rather than simply his own somehow transfigured to resemble hers which somehow makes makes the prospect of witnessing its nudity far more morally fraught.

However he doubts Teruhashi will be happy if he simply foregoes showering either.

He eventually resolves to simply avoid looking at Teruhashi's body any more than necessary to clean it.

Once his current body is cleansed of the day's filth, he decides to explore Teruhashi's house.

It's rather spacious, as befits the home of a successful talent agent and his star actress, but judging by the sterile, hotel-like condition of the master bedroom, the only regular inhabitants of the house are Miss Teruhashi and her brother.

In light of this information he decides to narrow the scope his investigation to the Teruhashi sibling's bedrooms, opting to start with the brother's room since he's had far less opportunity to collect information on him than he has on Miss Teruhashi herself.

Aside from the doubtless carefully curated selection of rather mundane facts that Mugami Toru had disclosed in the handful of interviews that Touma had read online during his initial research, the main thing that Touma knows about the elder Teruhashi child is that Miss Teruhashi seems to have rather disliked him if her clear reluctance to accept Akechi's assistance with finding him is any indication.

The elder Teruhashi's room is far less nicely decorated than the younger's.

The walls are adorned with Mugami Toru posters, a rather tacky choice given the identity of its inhabitant. There's a digital camera lying on the the dresser suggesting that Teruhashi's brother has an interest in photography.

Touma boots it up and looks through it. Every picture on it is of Miss Teruhashi. Most of them are candid shots and in those that aren't Miss Teruhashi's smile appears rather strained.

Touma finds the single-minded selection of subjects somewhat unsettling but holds himself back from leaping to any untoward conclusions. It's too soon to rule out an perfectly innocent explanation for this strange camera roll such as Teruhashi's brother gathering pictures of his sister for some sort of photo collage that he wishes to present her with as a gift on her birthday or some other special occasion.

Though that doesn't explain why Miss Teruhashi looks so uncomfortable in the pictures that she had posed for.

Touma next examines a notebook on the elder Teruhashi's bedside table. The very first page has a picture of Miss Teruhashi sleeping pasted to it. It has hearts drawn around it and a caption "My dear Kokomi is soo cute when she sleeps. ( ˘ ³˘ )♡" The hair in the picture has been stroked so many times that the blue ink has begun to rub off of the cheap paper its printed on.

Ah, this is considerably harder to explain innocently.

*

Kokomi can't sleep. It's not that she isn't tired but sleep is impossible with the gaping maw of Akechi's doorless doorway looming over her. Every time she get close to drifting off she'll think she hears something moving from its direction and catapults back to wakefulness her heart pounding.

It's stupid, she knows. Her brother is dead and even if he wasn't he wouldn't be interested in her now that she's stuck in Akechi's body. Still telling herself this just makes her feel guilty for not being able to put her fears to rest despite this.

Shortly after 1 AM she's relieved from her restless repose by a notification from her phone. It's a text from Akechi.

It's an unusually concise message for him.

That certainly is a way to put it. She really doesn't want Akechi prying into this.

Her father had tried to convince her that she was overreacting to completely normal behavior.

Her mother hadn't thought that Makoto's feelings towards her "posed a threat to her virtue" and told Kokomi that should keep the issue to herself for the sake of her brother's career.

How dare Akechi back her into a corner and force her to reopen this most secret and personal wound of hers, just so he can flatter himself by trying to bandage it up again with such empty, useless condolences?

It's all well and good that she shouldn't have had to feel that way but she had and nobody had cared enough to help protect her back then and now here she is sitting in the dark at 1:15 in the morning because even though she knows her brother is dead, even though she killed him with her own two hands, she's still too afraid of him to sleep in a room without a door she can close and preferably lock.

Tears in her eyes, she furiously types a reply.

She watches the bubbles indicating that Akechi is typing pulse frantically for a few minutes before blocking his number and turning off her phone.

She doesn't want to read the long rambling explanation of how his creepy behavior differs from her brother's that he's doubtless typing up.

It's not that he's wrong. Akechi's much more interested in who Kokomi is beneath the facade of perfection she projects than her brother was.

Frankly that's part of the problem. Kokomi's perfectly content to be a closed book judged only by its stunning cover and doesn't much appreciate Akechi's attempts to pry her open. She'd really let him do a fine job of that this time, huh? Not only that, the pages she'd given him a glimpse of had been far from flattering.

She considers turning her phone back on, unblocking him and apologizing for her harsh words. That's the perfect pretty girl thing to do.

But she's not the perfect pretty girl right now is she? Tonight she's an unpopular weirdo boy who's about as desirable as a damp paper bag and she doesn't much feel like taking back what she said just because didn't say it politely enough.

Maybe she'll feel differently in the morning. Hopefully she'll be back in her own body by then.

She lies back down on her futon and continues staring at the ceiling until she eventually falls asleep from sheer exhaustion.

Her dreams that night are strange and stressful, but at least her brother isn't in them for once.