Crafty's One-Shots (Dec 31st, 2023: Happy With Yourself)

[NoticeMeOppai]

You absolute madman, that was glorious. Had some initial doubts as to why the director's daughter would choose to play Hanako if she was looking for a boyfriend, but you explained it all in the end. Wonder what happened to her though. Assuming some kind of major therapy.

[Mirage_GSM]

Okay, it took me a while to get to read that with so many other stories appearing lately, but it finally happened, and... man what a ride...
This not only deserves its own thread, it has easily taken its place among my top ten favourite stories around here. I don't keep a list, so no idea where exactly it would settle.
I did notice the timeline issue, but frankly I understand why the change was made, and I think the story works better with it.

If there is one thing to compl... No I can't even call that a complaint... one aspect I'd have liked to see explored, it would have been if Emi had taken longer to recognize her feelings - say until the relationship was already under way - but even there I can see that it wouldn't have worked, because it would have been a different story. Also an insteresting one, but a different one.

Anyway, this story was above and beyond all expectations anyone could have had for this project. Thank you for being as crazy as you are!

[Craftyatom]

Can't help but point out there were some timeline issues (most notably that Hisao's lock-in scene with Emi comes on the second run)

I did notice the timeline issue, but frankly I understand why the change was made, and I think the story works better with it.

I originally wanted to keep all the events from Act 1 the same, but I ran into a problem: the VN is broken up into many small scenes, some with timeskips in the middle, whereas my story has (relatively) few chapters, with almost no mid-chapter timeskips. As such, the story worked much better when multiple separate lines/actions were combined into single scenes. The first and second days of running were combined, and then the first rooftop lunch ended up being moved up with them. This is to make no mention of all the scenes I outright skipped, though I did my best to reference them in later chapters. That said, I do think that I made the right choice, in the end - there's simply no graceful way to fit a VN peg into a short story hole.

If there is [...] one aspect I'd have liked to see explored, it would have been if Emi had taken longer to recognize her feelings - say until the relationship was already under way - but even there I can see that it wouldn't have worked, because it would have been a different story. Also an insteresting one, but a different one.

I agree that Emi's feelings for Hisao kind of come out of the blue - at the end of one chapter she's only just happened upon the idea that she might have real feelings for him, and the next chapter starts with her proclaiming that she loves him completely and undoubtedly. That transition took a long time for the characters (and included more times when Emi had to act loving while trying desperately not to think it for real), but was almost instantaneous from the reader's point of view, because I simply didn't have the time or energy to write it all out, but it had to happen sooner rather than later. I considered adding a number of extra chapters: more rooftop lunches, the second time Hisao goes running, the track meet, their first date, a subsequent date, and their first time. I eventually decided that it was better to consolidate chapters, and I almost cut it down to 7 at one point. In the end, I think that I covered everything well enough, and that readers could fill in most of the gaps.

Wonder what happened to [Hanako] though. Assuming some kind of major therapy.

I hadn't thought much about the life of various characters after the end of the story, besides the fact that Hanako never returns to class for "medical reasons", and Lilly leaves after a short grace period due to "summons from relatives in Scotland". I do think the Director would try to help his daughter, both with professional therapy and a more personal role in her life. It wouldn't be a quick or easy fix, of course, but it might work out in the end. I don't think I'll ever write any continuations or additions to this story, despite some interesting ideas here, so if anyone ever wants to try and flesh out that concept, they're free to give it a go.

That's a classic, needs a thread of its own to do it justice.

This not only deserves its own thread, it has easily taken its place among my top ten favourite stories around here.

I did seriously consider a standalone thread for this one, especially since it was so long, but looking forward, I needed to make a one-shot thread at some point, and although neither this nor Dreamy are short, they are both standalone stories with a single central concept, so I think having them compiled like this is the best way to do things. I do plan on adding another somewhat-short story to this thread in future, so it really is meant to be my one-shot thread. I know, semantics, but I felt I should justify a decision that makes this story somewhat more difficult to find.

Dude! I am absolutely speechless. Well done! Bravo!

Bravo. Quite the thriller.

To say that I'm happy with the result would be a gross understatement. This was pretty phenomenal. Doesn't hurt that The Truman Show is one of my favorite movies.

You absolute madman, that was glorious.

Anyway, this story was above and beyond all expectations anyone could have had for this project. Thank you for being as crazy as you are!

Thank you all so much for the kind words (it's weird to hear my work rated as highly as some of the classics here), and to Prof, you're overwhelmingly welcome! As for being crazy, I hadn't realized just how insane my one-shots are, on the whole. Strange, because I don't feel like I'm that kind of author, but I guess the stories speak for themselves. Still, as long as people enjoy reading them, I can't ever say it wasn't worth writing them!

[Oddball]

Noise ...

It's a cute idea, but doesn't really work as well as it could have. I think the joke with all the screaming would have worked better if Misha had felt more like an actual person before hand. She feels a bit too one dimensionally cheerful for most of this story.


Epic ...

This is a weird one. You do a good job establishing a light hearted mood slowly getting less and less serious but in the end you swerve completely giving it the feeling that you were building up for some kind of joke and decided not to tell it at the last moment.


Command ...

On the other hand, there was an implication that any problem they couldn’t answer wasn’t really a problem at all - it was more of a rhetorical question, to be considered but not worried about.

I really love this part. Actually I really enjoy how you handle their relationship altogether in this section. The little game with the shackles was an interesting touch as well. It's original and it fit both characters perfectly without being too overboard. THEN you go overboard.

It was a nice little twist slowly devolving into irrational nightmare in a properly dreamlike tone, but I think I enjoyed the actual relationships parts of the story better.


Serenity ...

I think this is probably your weakest one. Lilly's character seems off and you can tell that your heart isn't into their relationship.

Flow ...

Nothing really to say about this one. Not great. Not horrible. Decent enough.

Power ...

I do like how you made Hisao a bit more negative in this story. It fits the Rin route better. The fact that Rin seemed to know what was going on when nothing made sense and Hisao didn't also really fit with the characters. The ending where Rin revealed Hisao was the one that made everything this was was also oddly sweat.

I like that you didn't end the chapter with him thinking about another girl after waking up. It helped drive the emotional impact home.

Surface ...

Harsh, but a nice end to the story.

As a whole, the thing was a nice entertaining read. The impact does lessen a little as you read more of it though knowing that it's always going to end as a dream, but that's somewhat unavoidable and you did a nice job at doing new things with it.

...

Project Blue Curtain

...

I have to admit, you got me curious on this right from the start. The character you were describing certainly matched Emi, but didn't seem anything like her personality wise. I started to wonder if maybe it wasn't supposed to be her then with the recording angle, maybe it was her years later...

Then you reveal that they're all "actors". Then I became REALLY curious.

I loved the new personalities that you've given the cast here. Bitchy murderous Hanako might have been a bit over the top but the rest were great. Misha being the tech genius with Shizune as her sidekick was great, as was Lilly being he bodyguard for Hanako. There was also something hilarious about Kenji being Rin's girlfriend.

I also loved how Rin kept trying to worm her way into more screentime.

I think the story does wrap itself up a bit too quickly though. It's also a shame we never got to see Meiko's appear.

Still otherwise it was a phenomenal read.

[Craftyatom]

I can’t tell if this is longer than it needed to be, or shorter than I wanted it to be. Possibly both. I guess we’ll find out.

Hello everyone, and welcome to my latest one-shot, Undercover Journalism! This is my entry into a small competition, for which each participant was given five character pairings, and then told to write a story using at least one of those character pairings - I chose Hanako and Miki as my pairing. However, I was also offered “Miki and Hisao” as an option, and was tempted to just post the next chapter of my main route and call it an entry... but that would’ve been a bit cheesy. Besides, it’s fun to branch out from what I’m used to.

Speaking of which, I did go into this thinking that, since the pairings are given right away, I might as well just write the best sex scene I could muster! But then... well, none of my pairings really screamed ‘smut’ to me. I wasn’t feeling it. So this isn’t a kosherbacon-esque orgy, or even a romantic fling. However, it does still contain adult content, so be warned, I guess.

Anyways, enough blathering - let’s get to it, shall we?

[Craftyatom]

Undercover Journalism

Don’t think about it. Just do it.

“Um... Excuse me?”

The dark-skinned girl from my class, who I know as Miura, looks up at me from the laundry in her hands. “Oh, hey. Hanako, right?” I nod, somewhat surprised that she knows my name, and she smiles. “Sup?”

My brain starts to lock up, but I move on before it gets the chance. Stay focused on what you came here for. “I was wondering if... if I could interview you about the t-track team?”

Her face lights up. “Oh right, you’re working with the newspaper girls now! Well you’re in luck - I happen to know a hell of a lot about the track team.” She grins. “Including some stuff they’d rather I didn’t.”

“O-okay then.” I look down at my notepad for help, and see only a few simple questions. That’s intentional: I’m trying to be more spontaneous, and coming up with questions on the spot is one way of practicing. Still, it makes me a bit nervous, having so little to go on. Before that nervousness can get to me, though, I preoccupy myself with asking the first question. “How long have you been doing track, Miura?”

She puts her hand on her chin. “Well, I started pretty soon after I got to Yamaku, so... two years, two and a half?” Almost as an afterthought, she adds “Oh, and you can call me Miki.”

“Okay.” I jot down her answer - that’s the kind of thing I’ll forget otherwise. “You have a meet c-coming up, right?”

She shrugs. “Yeah, a week from tomorrow.”

I thought so, but figured I’d make sure. “D-do you... How do you think the team will do?”

She sighs, and looks bored. “I mean, we’ll probably crush ‘em, just like last time, I guess.”

“And you p-personally, how-”

She cuts me off by grabbing my shoulder and staring me in the eyes. I feel incredibly intimidated - she’s got a powerful glare - but I just about manage to listen to what she says next.

“Listen, forget all that boring stuff. What you want is a juicy story, something that’ll grab readers right from the headline, right?”

Still somewhat frozen in fear, I only manage a soft “Uh...”

“Exactly. You want a big scoop, the real deal - that’s why you lucked out when you found me! So how about this: I’ll finish this load of laundry, then show you exactly what people get up to here in the track team. Whaddya say?”

My subconscious is screaming ‘no’, but I remember that the entire reason I joined the newspaper club was to get more involved with people. Isn’t this the perfect chance? Sure, I’ll miss class, but it’s Saturday, so I’ll only miss half a day. Besides, it’s official newspaper club business, which is a much better excuse than I’ve ever had before. Not to mention that if she’s telling the truth, it might be a big deal for the newspaper. The more I think about it, the more it sounds like a good idea.

Fighting back the urge to do otherwise, I nod. “Uh, sure.”

She smiles again, and pats me on the shoulder. “Awesome! Just give me a minute here, and I’ll take you over to practice.”

Thirty minutes later

It turns out that, with the meet coming up, the track team is practicing every day - and since the summer sun is making it unbearably hot outside in the afternoon, they have permission to skip class and practice in the morning. So there they are, running around the track, while Miura and I crouch in the adjacent wooded area. Which, I’ll be honest, I’m still not sure about.

“Uh, so... Why are we hiding?”

“Because,” she replies without taking her eyes off the track, “if they know you’re reporting on them, they’ll only show you what they want you to see. This way, you get to see everything unfiltered.”

Well, her reasoning isn’t wrong, per se. Undercover journalism is a real thing. I just don’t think it’s entirely necessary here.

Regardless, Miura taps me on the shoulder with her stump - something she does surprisingly often, if my short experience with her has taught me anything - and points at a specific area of the track. “Look, look, over there!”

“What?” I have no idea what I’m supposed to be looking at.

“The guy in the blue shorts, Kazuo - watch how he passes this girl.”

I watch as the boy approaches somewhat slowly, then drifts sideways, far away from the girl in question, before suddenly increasing his speed and sprinting past. It’s strange, certainly, but I’m not entirely sure what it means until Miura fills me in.

“They were dating until a few days ago. And let me tell you, that breakup was a sight to behold. It was like a fireworks show gone wrong.”

That part about the breakup sounds a bit grim, but the fact that it’s so visible is interesting; I would never have expected that.

“Ooh, ooh, and over there, look at those two!”

I don’t even need to ask this time - it’s obvious which two she’s talking about. A pair of boys, both red in the face and gasping for breath, are sprinting around the track, shoulder-to-shoulder.

“That’s Mahiro on the left, and Hiroshi on the right.” I don’t get the chance to ask whether she means our left and right or theirs. “They’re both serious contenders for first place, and they know it. They both know that they’re each others’ only serious competition.” She grins. “Also, thanks to a little mix-up I may or may not have been a part of, they kind of hate each other. You know, standard high school drama.”

A little unnerved by that last part, I jot down their names in my notebook. If nothing else, that’s something worth publishing. I expect Miura to interject with another observation right away, but it takes a few minutes before she finds something else to point out.

“Oh ho ho, Junji, you filthy dog! There, the really skinny kid.”

I quickly spot the boy she’s talking about, but have no idea why she’s pointing him out. He looks a bit bedraggled, but otherwise, just like anyone else on the track. “What’s d-different about him?”

“Notice how he’s staying just a little bit behind Emi?”

I look at the girl in front of him, with a pair of prosthetic legs - Ibarazaki, if I remember correctly. Sure enough, the boy keeps his distance, but is never too far behind. “Yeah... Why?”

“He’s got the best seat in the house: right on Emi’s behind.”

It takes me a second to realize what she’s alluding to. “You d-don’t mean...”

“Yup! He’s taking the opportunity to stare at her ass. And getting a pretty good workout while he’s at it.”

That’s a rather disturbing thought, but something else comes to mind. “Wait, isn’t Ibarazaki d-dating Nakai, from our class?”

“Well, yeah, but I mean...” She shrugs. “She does have a nice ass.”

Luckily, before I can digest that too much, someone near the track blows a whistle, and the runners slow down, eventually coming to a halt - practice must be over. I find myself rather relieved by that fact; crouching in the overgrowth next to a girl I’d never spoken to before today is far from my ideal morning.

“So whaddya think? Is this the best inside scoop you’ve ever gotten, or what?”

“Well, I, uh...”

“If you want, I can show you more - a lot more. Plenty of weird shit you haven’t seen yet.”

Crap. I was hoping this was everything, and I could just go home. But, despite my body’s intense desire never to do anything like this ever again, Miura has piqued my interest, and this all counts as being social, and will make for a great story to tell, and hopefully publish.

I gather my nerves, and ask a small but decisive question: “D-do we have to hide in the forest any more?”

“Nah, nothing interesting is going to happen on the track for the rest of the day, so there’s no point camping out here any longer.”

Well, I guess that settles it. “Okay, then. You lead the way.”

Three hours later

I should’ve been less specific.

I’m not hiding in a forest. In fact, I’m nowhere near a forest. Instead, I’m sat in a large box, its lid propped open and its contents strewn about the floor of the shed. Not that it changes the look of the place much - this shed, used for storing athletic equipment, looked like a mess when we first walked in. It’ll probably look like a mess forever; even the wooden walls suggest a certain ramshackle nature.

Of course, to be fair, I’m not currently hiding at all. I’m just sat in this box, in a shed, waiting for someone else to come along - which Miura insists will happen eventually - at which point we’ll both have to hide in this hastily-emptied box. As if that plan wasn’t bad enough, nobody has shown up yet, so we’re just waiting around. At least the forest was open and calm.

“M-Miura, it’s been hours, and I think I heard the lunch b-bell. Are you sure we’re... going to see anything?”

My tan-skinned guide stands by the door, holding it open a crack and peeking through. “Oh, someone will show, I’m sure of it. These are high schoolers we’re talking about.” She chuckles to herself, then adds, “And really, you can just call me Miki.”

She keeps talking about how people are bound to show up, but hasn’t said why they’d show up, or what they’d even do here. I can’t imagine anything interesting happening in a place like this.

Just as I begin to consider making an excuse and leaving, Miura gasps. “No way... Ha ha ha! Perfect!” She turns around and sprints over to the box, jumps in next to me, and pulls the lid down, completely enclosing us. “This will absolutely be worth the wait, trust me.”

It’s not exactly comfortable in here, and I can’t see out, but I guess I’ll just have to wait. Not like I could leave now, given that someone is presumably just about to come in. Sure enough, a second later, I can hear the door open, and a pair of footsteps - one set normal, the other more a series of metallic clicks - enter the shed.

“Man, this place brings back memories.” I recognize the voice as Nakai, the boy who answers lots of questions in class.

A girl’s voice - I don’t recognize it, but given the sounds of her legs and the fact she’s with Nakai, it might be Ibarazaki - groans in response. “Yeah, not the best memories I have of us.”

Nakai laughs. “Aww, c’mon, it wasn’t that bad.”

“Maybe not for you, dummy! It was pretty bad for me!”

More laughter. “Alright, alright, I get it. I was just teasing.”

“Hmph. Anyways, given that last time was such a disaster, I figured we should make some new memories of this place. You know... do it over? The right way?”

“Well, with an offer like that, how could I refuse?”

There’s a brief pause, and then a number of shuffling sounds, including what sounds like a brief effort to clear up some of the junk on the floor, and what might be the clicking sound of a lock. With neither of them saying anything, and no view of what’s going on, I really have no idea what’s happening - until a single, distinctive sound catches my attention.

The sound of a zipper being unzipped.

Surely not. Here? Like this? I mean, I know they’ve been together for a while, but... this seems almost surreal. I feel an urge to run, to leave as quickly as possible, but remain petrified, fully aware that I can’t move a muscle, lest things get even worse. I’m trapped.

After some more shuffling, and the creaking of some floorboards, Nakai speaks again. “Well look at that. I’m making good memories already.”

Ibarazaki giggles. “Come on, stupid, get on with it, before I get cold.”

“Okay, okay. Hmm... Now which of these was it, again?”

“Wha- Hey, don’t even think about it!”

“They both look pretty inviting... I wonder...”

“Hisao, I swear to god, don’t you fucking dare- Ahh!”

For a moment, only their breathing, slightly quickened, can be heard. Finally, Nakai speaks, in a whisper. “Better?”

“Way better. Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet, we’re just getting started!” Another moan, followed by some grunting, and heavier breathing.

I’m almost in a daze, trying not to even think about what’s going out there, when Miki taps me on the shoulder with her stump. Were I not so desperately trying to keep quiet, I would yelp in surprise - instead, I just turn to face her, eyes wide.

She nods towards the lid of the box, and before I can figure out what she meant, she begins lifting it, a few millimeters at a time, opening the tiniest crack in the top, and letting light in.

I feel my heartbeats quicken, terrified of being found out, and my eyes begin to dart around the opening in the box, searching our new line of sight for predators. Instead, I see something much more disgusting: a pile of undulating flesh, just beginning to glimmer with sweat, writhing on the floor of the shed.

Transfixed, I begin to see individual components. A pair of legs, ending in stumps just below the knee, wrapped around a body - Nakai’s. A pair of arms, also from below, grab his shoulder blades. From these shoulders come his own arms, which caress and squeeze the body below his - Ibarazaki’s. Her head, with long twintails flowing behind it, reaches up to meet his, and muffled moans emanate from where their lips meet.

I turn to Miura, hoping at least to share in a mutual feeling of discomfort, but instead find her staring at the mound of entangled limbs before us, her eyes wide and a faint smile on her lips. Evidently she’s having fun, while I am definitely not.

Realizing that all I can do is wait for it all to be over, I lower my head and close my eyes, hoping to block out the intricate pink construction a few feet away. While I succeed in seeing only black, I find myself assaulted on another front - sound. The moans, the gasping breaths, and now even the slapping, like the rhythmic playing of a meaty drum with another slab of meat as a drumstick...

I cover my ears with my hands, but it only dampens the noises, rather than muting them entirely. I can still hear them, the vibrations permeating my own flesh - the thought sickens me. I try remembering songs, playing melodies in my head, even bad ones, in an attempt to block out the terrors of the real world. When the songs prove too soft, I try screaming in my head, being very careful not to let my vocal chords follow suit. This proves to be a tiring, yet somewhat effective, reprisal. I continue, willing the screaming to become endless, in hope that the present will pass quickly.

One hour later

Something catches my attention.

It’s gone for a moment, then comes back - it sounds like someone calling my name. Upon hearing it again, I open my eyes, and look up to see Miura, standing above me. I then realize where I am: in a box, in a shed. After taking in my surroundings, I stand up, and climb out of the box. I guess I don’t need to be in there any more.

She grins. “Looks like you fell asleep - was it really that boring?”

I begin to remember how I got here. Miura was showing me the track team. We came to this shed because she said someone would show up. I hid in the box. And then... I swear I remember Nakai and Ibarazaki coming in and having sex. Did I dream that?

I reach into the box to pick up my notepad, and while it contains no new details, it draws my attention to the mess on the floor. For the most part, bits and pieces are evenly distributed, but there’s a large, slightly damp patch in the middle of the room, devoid of miscellaneous objects.

It all rushes back to me: the flesh, the sweat, the grunting and groaning, and eventually, an unending scream. I feel my stomach churn at the memory, but shake my head to try and be rid of it.

Miura, for her part, notices. “What’s up? You seem kind of out of it.”

I open my mouth to speak, but find it difficult. After a few attempts, and some stuttering, I manage to begin, “M-Miura, I...”

“Okay, seriously, just call me Miki. I hate it when people call me Miura, it reminds me of my fucking parents.”

A bit stunned by her rebuttal, I take a moment to try and collect my thoughts. I’m still in a bit of a daze, for a number of reasons. Plus, Miu- Miki just shared something really important to her, and I should take note of that. Before I can get it all together, however, she starts the conversation on her own.

“Anyways, there is one more thing I’d like to show you about the track team.”

I flinch, averse to the idea. “Uh, M-Miki, I’m sorry, I... I d-don’t really...”

“Is it the hiding thing? I promise we won’t be hiding anywhere. Especially not the forest.”

“I... It’s...” I feel myself closing off.

“And it won’t be boring. I know waiting here all morning was dull, but seriously, this will be fun! I promise.”

Twice today I’ve managed to convince myself that following Miki around was a good idea. Both times I’ve ended up regretting it. Am I really going to give her yet another chance? I mean, at least we won’t be hiding out somewhere. And it sounds like she knows I haven’t enjoyed the day so far. Maybe she’s really trying to make up for how bad today’s been.

I decide that I’ll follow her for now, but the moment she goes somewhere I don’t want to, I’ll turn around and go home, no matter what she says. That way, I can give her the benefit of the doubt, without getting too caught up in anything.

I try to say something, but end up just nodding, and she smiles. “Awesome! Alright, let’s go!”

She sets off in the direction of the dorms, and I follow, somewhat hoping that she’s just going to show me some pictures she has in her room, or introduce me to one of the runners doing laundry or something. At this point, I’d take it.

Ten minutes later

We end up in the girls’ dorms, which is somewhat comforting - I’m just around the corner from my own room. At the very least, I have a way out.

Miki also says something slightly comforting as we reach the end of a hallway: “By the way, if anyone gets on your case, just let me do the talking. I know how to handle these guys.” With that, she knocks on the door we’re standing in front of.

After a few seconds, it opens, but not much - just a crack, with a single eye peeking through it. The eye recognizes Miki immediately, but narrows when it gets to me. A terse female voice follows it. “Can I help you?”

Miki scoffs. “How about by letting us in, Kotomi? C’mon, you know it’s me, open up!”

“Yeah, I know it’s you, but I’m not so sure about who you’re with. You know not to bring uninvited guests.”

“Seriously?” Miki pats me on the shoulder with her stump. “This is my friend... Honoka. She just wants a taste of the awesome parties you guys throw. And I gotta say, this isn’t the best first impression.”

I freeze up when I hear the word. ‘Party’. Large, loud, sociable gatherings, which I do not have good experiences with. I clutch my notebook tightly as my muscles all tense up in unison.

“Right... Well then, Honoka, what have you heard about us?”

The eye continues to stare straight at me, only tightening my lips further. I can’t do it. I can’t say anything. I don’t know what’s going on. I should turn and leave, but my legs are frozen stiff. Luckily, Miki comes to my rescue. “Oh, she’s mute. That’s why she’s got the notepad.” She motions to the pad and pen I’m holding, and I feel a bit relieved. I guess I really am supposed to let her do all the talking.

Before the girl behind the door can reply, another eye, belonging to someone taller, peeks through the crack in the door, and a different, much deeper voice speaks. “Hey, Miki! Wait a minute... Is that the girl I saw you with by the shed earlier?”

Miki grins. “Boy, I’d love to tell you, Mahiro, but apparently she’s not allowed in.”

“Whaaat? Come on, Kotomi, what’s the deal?”

“But... ugh, fine, whatever.”

The girl leaves, and the door opens, revealing a tall boy with a big smile. He holds out one fist, and Miki punches it softly with her own before walking into the room. I cautiously follow, and the door swings shut behind me.

The room is far too packed for my liking. It’s a normal dorm room, like my own, but with six people crammed into it - eight, actually, now that Miki and I are here. One guy’s sitting on the desk, a boy and two girls are sitting on the bed talking to each other, and Kotomi, the girl we first met, is leaning against the wall by the door. I have no idea where we’re supposed to go, but Miki and Mahiro sit down on the floor next to the bed, so I follow suit.

I’m content just to listen to them talking - from what I gather, it’s something about an injury Mahiro just got over - but I’m interrupted by the boy sitting on the bed, who leans over towards me. “Hey, new girl!”

I turn to look at him - he’s staring back at me expectantly. I panic a little, then remember I’m supposed to use the notepad, so I scribble down a greeting. [Hi. I’m Honoka.] The name is weird, but I’ve come this far, and can’t turn back now.

I hand the notepad to the boy, and he smiles. “Honoka, huh? Nice name.” He hands back the notepad, then motions to one ear. “You can hear me, right?”

I nod in response, and hope nobody here knows sign language, because I certainly don’t.

“Awesome! So, what brings you to one of our infamous track bangers?”

Uh oh. I freeze up again, not sure what to do. I don’t even really know what he’s asking. Luck must really be on my side, though, as I’m saved by a knock on the door.

Kotomi opens it, and a boy carrying a large gym bag walks in. “Ladies and gentlemen, the party has arrived!”

The room suddenly becomes even more cramped, as everyone else stands up and clusters around the newcomer, who starts rifling through his bag. I don’t understand why until the partygoers return to their seats carrying suspicious-looking aluminum cans. My theory is confirmed when someone hands me one, and I read the label: it’s a cheap beer. At this point, I’m not even surprised, just kind of exasperated.

I do briefly consider that this is supposed to help everyone relax, which I could certainly do with. That thought is quickly shot down by memories of the last time I had alcohol, for Lilly’s birthday. It was just the two of us back then, and it’s still embarrassing to think about. Acting like that in front of strangers is the last thing I want, so I set the can on the floor next to me, unopened, as Miki downs an entire can in one go and asks for another.

Everyone starts talking to each other, and someone starts playing some electronic music out of a small CD player, only adding to the cacophony. I try to pick out interesting bits and pieces of conversation, but it’s just too loud and chaotic.

Not wanting to draw attention to myself, I just sit and stare at one unoccupied corner of the room, and try not to think too hard about how today has gone.

Seven hours later

“Hanako, how are you doing, girrrrrl?”

Miki using my real name would’ve been bad earlier, but by now it doesn’t matter. Of the other people in the room, two just went home, two passed out on the bed together at some point, and the other three “went to the bathroom” a few hours ago and haven’t come back. That makes Miki and I the only two conscious ones here - though ‘conscious’ might be a bit generous at this point.

“We did all this fucking awesome stuff today, but we never really talked, you know? Like, about your life and shit.”

I was hoping she’d pass out too, so I could go home without anyone caring, but she’s proven resilient. As if to prove a point, she reaches over, grabs the single unopened can I was given earlier, and downs it in one go. She tosses it towards the trash can, misses completely, then leans over towards me.

“You’re, like, a mystery. There’s gotta be sooooo much cool shit in your head, right? Like, who even are you, sister?”

Finally deciding that I’m too tired to deal with all this, I get up, stretch, and leave the room - only to find that Miki is following me, her breath carrying a noticeable scent of alcohol.

“I get it, right? You’re the loner type. Not about to spill the beans with those fuckers around, am I right?”

I should really take her to her room, since I don’t think she’s in much of a state to find it herself. But then, I have no idea where her room is, and I’m not about to try and work it out of her. I decide that it’s her own problem, and start the short walk to my room.

Unfortunately, she follows me all the way there, and as I unlock and open the door, she barges in before me. She spends a moment looking around, no doubt thinking that my room looks bland and undecorated, but forgets all that the moment she sees my bed.

“Oh fuck yeah, this looks comfy as hell! You sure know how to throw an after-party, sis.” Then, before I can protest, she flops down onto my bed, face-first, and goes still.

It takes me a second to realize what’s happened. I realize that I haven’t even closed the door, so I do that first, before going over to inspect her. Sure enough, she’s out cold, her limbs draped lazily over the bed. I wish she had done that ten minutes ago, but I guess this will have to do.

I take off my shoes and tie before realizing that she’s sleeping in my bed - which means that I can’t. There’s no room around her, and I don’t particularly feel like sharing anyways.

I briefly try to shake her awake, or pull her off the bed and onto the floor - this is my bed, damn it - but she’s too heavy and awkward to move. Instead, I yank my pillow out from under her and place it gently on the floor, then sigh. It’s a long sigh, encompassing everything I’ve had to deal with today. I guess it’s not over yet.

I lie down on the floor, the soft pillow at least making my head comfortable, and close my eyes, hoping that tomorrow will be better than today was.

The next morning

The first thought that comes to mind is that my shoulder hurts. I instinctively try to move it away from the pain, but doing so shifts my entire torso instead, which wakes me up a little. I slowly gain awareness of my body, and feel myself pressed up against a hard, flat surface. As it’s below me, I gather it must be the floor.

Not sure why I’d be on the floor, I open my eyes, just a little. Sure enough, I’m on the floor. And yet, my head feels rather comfortable. I turn to see why, and find my pillow. Why is it on the floor too?

That wakes me up just enough to remember: I’m on the floor because Miki took my bed, after... after the mess that was yesterday. Great.

I groan and get up, wondering what I’m even going to do with her. When I look over at my bed, however, it’s empty, if a bit ruffled. Maybe she left already? Wondering whether I could be so lucky - and also how she managed to do so, while hungover, without waking me up - I stand up and survey my whole room.

Sure enough, the tan-skinned girl is nowhere to be seen. My bed isn’t empty, though; an unfamiliar piece of bright pink cloth sits in the middle, along with a permanent marker taken from my desk. I lean in to get a better look, and immediately regret it.

It’s a pair of neon-pink panties - presumably Miki’s, since I certainly don’t own any underwear that loud - with the word ‘Thanks!’ written across the front in black marker, along with a little heart.

Ew.

I guess it was silly of me to think that yesterday’s disastrous events wouldn’t spill over into today. I sigh, then try to think about how I’m going to get rid of these.

Looking at my trash can, it’s only half full, and I don’t want to leave these just sitting in plain sight until I have to take the trash out again. I decide that I should take them to the trash can in the bathroom, which is deeper and covered and anonymous and not in my room. I groan, then carefully grab one corner of the garment between my thumb and index finger, and slowly pick it up, holding it at arm’s length.

Next, I open my door a crack, just making sure that nobody’s in the hallway. Perfect - the last thing I want is to be seen.

I duck out of my room, then rush to the bathroom door, and barge through it - only to find a large figure staring back at me. “Ah!”

“Ah!” The figure flinches and gasps too, by which point I realize that it’s just Lilly.

I freeze for a second, having been caught in a compromising position, before realizing that she can’t see what I’m holding, which is relieving. “Oh, Lilly, sorry, you... you scared me.”

She chuckles. “As did you.” I begin to walk over to the garbage, but she continues. “Were you out last night? I didn’t hear you around.”

“Oh, y-yeah. I was out working on... the newspaper.” Not a complete lie.

“Oh, good!” She smiles. “You had fun, I hope?”

By this point I’ve made my way to the garbage, and drop the disgusting garment in. “It was... an experience.” I walk over to the sink to wash my hands, and finally be done with this crazy morning.

Lilly giggles. “Well, that’s something, I suppose. Anyways, would you be up for lunch in the tea room later?”

“Sure, that, um... that sounds good!” Something comes to mind as I go to dry my hands off. “I have t-to meet with the newspaper club first, though.”

“Goodness, they really do work you to the bone!” she says jokingly, still smiling. “Ah well, I won’t keep you, then. Until later!”

“O-okay, bye!”

She turns and leaves, and I’m left alone in the bathroom. Right, the newspaper club meeting. What am I even going to say? Maybe all the stuff I dealt with yesterday could make a good story? It seems unlikely, but I should at least ask.

Perhaps it wasn’t a total loss after all.

One hour later

Naomi, Natsume and I gather in the center of the room. We like to start each meeting of the newspaper club by talking about what we’ve been doing since the last meeting, to get ideas for what stories we can run. At the last meeting, I found out that the track team has a meet coming up, and figured I could learn something about that... if only I had known.

Naomi begins, a smile on her face “Alright then! Who wants to start us off?”

I don’t feel great - I didn’t sleep particularly well last night - but I should just get it over with. There is, however, something worrying me, in the back of my mind, and I should deal with that first. “Um... B-before that, I have, uh... I have a question.”

Naomi cocks her head to one side. “Sure thing, what’s up?”

“Is there anything we... aren’t allowed publish?”

Naomi smirks. “Of course not! As this school’s official newspaper, it’s our job to publish everything people need to know, even if they don’t want to!”

Natsume sighs, then adjusts her glasses. “Yes, Hanako, there are things we aren’t allowed to put in the paper.” She holds out three fingers, and counts them off: “Lies, defamation, security concerns. If we breach any of those, we had better have a damn good reason for it, because it could well end up in front of the principal.”

“Okay...” I’m not really sure if those apply to what I learned yesterday, so I decide to be more specific. “So what about... what if, during an... interview, someone talked about other people who were... not getting along?”

Naomi’s eyes light up, but Natsume is less enthused. “Nope, that’s just rumor, which is as good as a lie unless you have evidence to back it up. Besides, if you included someone’s name, they could claim it’s defamatory, too.”

Well, there goes that part. “Okay. And then, what if some students had a party on campus, and had a bunch of alcohol?”

Naomi audibly gasps with excitement, but Natsume is there to bring her back to Earth. “That sounds like security’s job, not ours. If you have evidence of that, turn it over to them, and we can interview them afterwards for a story.”

Crap, that’s two strikes. Well, I still have one more shot. “Alright, b-but then, what if... what about if two students did... inappropriate things in a... school room?”

Naomi gets so excited and jumpy that for a moment I wonder if she’s having a seizure. “This is fantastic! We have to-”

“Nope, nope, no way.” Natsume stops her prematurely. “That’s definitely defamatory, so we’d have to remove all references to any real people or places, and just run the headline ‘Students Have Sex on Campus’.” She turns to Naomi. “Perhaps you’d also like to headline the weather section with ‘Rain Found to Be Wet’?”

Naomi seems rather peeved at being shut down so hard, but groans and carries on. “Fine. So, Hanako, what did you pick up over the past few days?”

“Um...” I flip through my notepad, finding many of the things I wrote yesterday, all of which are apparently out of the question. “I, uh...”

Natsume tries to help jog my memory. “You were interested in the track team, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, they, uh...”

I search frantically, before finally finding a line that I had completely forgotten I wrote. I take a deep breath, then go for it.

“I interviewed someone who’s b-been in on the team for two and a half years, and... they think they’re going to win this next meet.”

END.

[Scroff]

So much fun! Wonderful dynamics between Miki and Hanako, and Naomi and Natsume.

[Craftyatom]

Hello again! After finishing up the previous pairing competition that I participated in, the organizers decided to hold another, this time with slightly stricter prompt selections. For a while, I was stumped: the stricter rules didn’t give me a ton of wiggle room. I had a few ideas, but none of them were great, and the one I started working on had a plot hole that I couldn’t easily work around. So I paced for a bit.

While pacing, I thought about some of my old crackfics. I wondered why I couldn’t come up with ideas like that anymore. I remembered that part of the process was the sheer whimsy of it, and realized that I had lost some of that in my planning. So I reconsidered my options, this time trying to be a bit less serious - and you know what? It worked! I created a wacky and interesting plot, then wrote it out over the course of a few days. Finally, i sent it to Hanako Fancopter, a wonderful proofreader who I knew would appreciate the story for its hilarious and gravure nature.

Unfortunately, he pointed out a rather big flaw: while the plot as a whole was quirky and funny, the execution on my part took it to a dark and serious place near the end. In my rush for completion, I had injected exactly the wrong type of seriousness. Clearly, I had work to do. With only five days left before the competition deadline, I deleted half of the story (yes it's saved somewhere) and started working on new material. Within a few hours I had a much improved plot put together, within two days it had grown longer than the original version, and now it's here, almost 3x longer than the original, completely finished (with a mature content warning)! Is it a waste of over ten thousand words, or a masterpiece for the ages? You’ll only find out by giving it a go, so please enjoy my take on the prompt Hisao and Misha in the dormitory kitchen!

[Craftyatom]

Brief Exchanges

Hisao wasn’t particularly happy about what he had just put in the microwave.

For the most part, he loved having dinner with Shizune on Saturday nights. It was an excellent excuse for them to curl up together in his room, eat some trashy food, and just do whatever they felt like. They generally had a conversation over dinner, then played a game together, which usually ended up becoming a strip version of the game, which usually ended up becoming a spirited cooperative test of the springs in Hisao’s mattress.

This past week, however, Shizune had started talking with Hisao about his health. She spoke to him about exercise, and healthy eating, and medication - the kind of things an arrhythmiac boy should consider, if interested in living to a ripe old age.

It wasn’t that Hisao didn’t care about those things, or about his life expectancy in general. He genuinely wanted to grow old with Shizune, but... he just tried his best not to worry about it. Life was best lived in the moment, not in constant fear of the future. He wanted to enjoy his life, not just prolong it. Sure, he was fine taking pills with every meal, but he also wanted to sleep in on weekends, and work up a sweat in bed with his girlfriend, and eat delicious junk food.

Shizune wasn’t having it. She cared too much about him. And so she had talked him into buying some kind of sludgy vegetable meal, which was healthy and nutritious and organic and probably tasted like cud. Hisao wasn’t looking forward to smelling it, let alone eating it. Instead, he looked out the window at the fierce thunderstorm outside, and tried to focus on how good it would feel once he got the meals, went back to his room, and snuggled up next to Shizune while listening to the wind howl past his window.

As he did, the lights flickered for a moment - probably an issue with a power line somewhere. Once they returned to normal, however, he noticed that the microwave wasn’t making its characteristic hum, and looked back over to see that it had turned off.

No matter, it probably just got reset by the power surge. He pressed some of the numbered buttons to try and start it again, but nothing happened. It looked lifeless - a worrying prospect, given that his dinner relied on its operation: there were no other microwaves in the dorm kitchen, and he certainly didn’t want to go out to try and get more food in this weather.

Hoping that the situation could still be salvaged, Hisao looked around the back of the microwave. He didn’t know much about microwaves, but maybe there was a fuse or a switch or something. He couldn’t see one, but he did see the power cable running to the socket in the wall. He remembered hearing that 90% of technical problems could be solved by turning the technology off and back on again, so it was probably worth a shot. He grabbed the plug, pulled it out of the wall, waited a second, then re-inserted it, just as a massive crack of thunder reverberated through the building.

A bright flash immediately filled his vision, and he reflexively closed his eyes. Despite this, he felt that the image had been burned onto his retinae, and it made him feel dizzy, then weightless, then under pressure, as if a hundred hands were shoving him around. After trying to fight them for what felt like a while, he gave up, and let them throw him into a brief spell of unconsciousness.

As he started to think again, he noticed that even with his eyes closed, a bright light seemed to be seeping through. He hoped that he hadn’t gone blind - that would’ve made talking to Shizune much harder. Luckily, the brightness dimmed as a shrill voice spoke: “Oh my gosh, are you okay?”

Hisao opened his eyes, just a little, and saw an unfamiliar long-haired girl, backlit by ceiling lights. Of course, if he was looking forward at the ceiling, then he must be on the floor. He felt around beneath himself with his hands, and sure enough, the smooth chill of linoleum greeted him. Indeed, he felt it pressing on his head, his back, and his legs - that last one seemed strange, but he couldn’t put his finger on why.

After a few seconds of getting his bearings and letting his eyes adjust, he replied to the girl looking at him: “Yeah, I-” his voice cracked, and he started coughing. He tried again after calming his diaphragm, but his throat felt strange, like he couldn’t get it to do what he wanted, and his voice sounded weird. “Yeah, I think I’m okay.”

“Oh, thank goodness! I saw you get shocked while messing with the microwave, and thought for sure you were a goner!”

As she said this, Hisao sat up, and noticed that it didn’t feel difficult - it felt easy. In fact, if he had just been shocked, like this girl said, shouldn’t his heart have given him problems? Instead, he felt even better than he had before. He decided to check his pulse, and put his right hand up to the side of his neck, but was distracted when he felt something unusual on his chest press against his arm, and flinched.

He looked down, expecting to see something latched onto him, but instead saw his button-down shirt bulging outward in a shape unmistakably characteristic of a generous pair of breasts. In addition, past the rounded alien constructs, he saw that he was wearing a skirt, pleated and dark green as specified by Yamaku’s dress code, from which a pair of smooth legs protruded.

Either his dorm-mates had played a rather impressive prank on him while he was out, or something had gone incomprehensibly wrong.

Adrenaline flooding his body, he got up quickly, and ran over to the microwave, using its plastic-faced door as a makeshift mirror. Staring back at him was a familiar girl’s panicked face, situated under short pink hair.

Hisao blinked, and the image blinked with him. He raised one hand, running it back through his hair, and the dim reflection dutifully showed the pink strands becoming ruffled and unkempt.

There was no doubt about it. Somehow, he was now inhabiting Misha’s body.

He spun around, and realized that two, four, ten, all of the people here were girls. This was the girls’ dorm, not his own, as further evidenced by the unfamiliar layout. But then, if he was here, in Misha’s body... what about his body, back in the boys’ dorm?

Desperate for answers, he turned and ran towards the door. The girl that had spoken to him before called out, as did others he ran past, but he paid them no heed. Through the window, he saw torrential rain coming down at an angle, but he paid it no heed either. Right now, he needed to find his body.

~~~~~

After sprinting through the downpour, he arrived, completely soaked, in the boys’ common room, and stopped. Every eye in the room turned to look at the girl in a dripping-wet uniform who had just burst through the front door, and Hisao felt briefly embarrassed, but realized that these boys could help. “Excuse me,” he asked, still not quite accustomed to his voice, “has anyone seen me- I mean, Hisao?”

A lanky boy sitting on one of the couches nodded. “Yeah, he was using the microwave a minute ago, and shocked himself or something. Then his girlfriend came and got him, and took him back to his room.”

His room - of course! Hisao ran towards the stairs, calling “Thanks!” over his shoulder as he went. His body wasn’t dead, which was good, at least. He wasn’t sure what any of this meant, but the fact that he and his body were both alive probably boded well.

After reaching the top of the stairs, feeling winded but not in pain, he rushed to his room and threw open the door. First, he saw Shizune, sitting on his bed, her eyes closed and her lips turned upward in a comfortable smile. Immediately adjacent, he - or rather, his body - had its hands around her waist, and its lips pressed against her neck, kissing her softly.

Enraged, Hisao yelled at the pair. “HEY!”

Shizune, not having heard anything, kept her eyes closed, but his body flinched, and looked at him, startled. After a moment, it opened its mouth, emitting a voice that was not at all his own; it was squeaky, oddly deep, and cracked every few syllables. “O-oh, hey Misha, what are you doing here? I was just getting ready to have consensual sex with my smoking hot girlfriend.”

“No! I’m not Misha, I’m Hisao, and Shizune is my girlfriend!”

His body’s eyes went wide, but then closed as it gave a roaring laugh. “Wahahaha~! That’s ridiculous!”

That laugh, and the way that his body’s hands signed everything it said... “Wait a minute... Misha?”

“N-No, you’re Misha, and I’m Hisao.”

Fed up with this entire situation, Hisao lunged forward, putting his hands around his former body’s neck, and pushed it - Misha - against the wall. “What did you do to me‽ WHAT DID YOU-”

He was cut off by a powerful punch to the gut, which sent him stumbling backwards. Only when he looked up, still nursing his stomach, did he see who was responsible: Shizune. [Misha, why are you here?]

[This is my room! I’m Hisao! That’s Misha!]

Misha laughed again. [That’s ridiculous, I’m clearly Hisao. See, look at my boner!]

Not paying Misha’s crotch much attention, Hisao signed his rebuttal. [Seriously, we swapped bodies, I’m the real Hisao!] He knew how insane that sounded, and tried to think of some sort of justification - then remembered something from a novel he had once read. [I’ll prove it! I’ll tell you something only the real Hisao could know!]

Shizune frowned, looking rather unamused. [Fine. Go for it.]

It didn’t take Hisao long to think of something. [When we were at your parents’ house, you tied me to a chair and had sex with me!]

Misha broke into raucous laughter. “Wahaha, wahahaha~! That’s even more ridiculous, there’s no way that’s...” At this point, she noticed Shizune glaring at her. “What, what’s... Oh. You... Huh.” Having pieced everything together, she sighed a long, deep sigh.

Even angrier than before, Shizune addressed the body which had been kissing her a minute earlier. [Misha, is that really you?]

Misha sighed, dejected. [Yes.]

Shizune got up, slapped Misha in the cheek, and then turned to Hisao, a tired but serious look on her face. [How did this happen?]

[I was using the microwave downstairs, and I think Misha was using the microwave in the girls’ dorm, and there was a lightning strike or something... Past that, I’m as clueless as you.]

[Ugh... This is the last thing I needed.] Shizune rubbed her temples for a bit. [We should see the Nurse, before it gets late.]

[The Nurse?] Hisao replied. [What’s he going to do?]

Shizune glared back at him. [Do you have a better idea, then?]

He didn’t, of course. With a sigh, he shrugged, and all three of them got up and left.

~~~~~

When they arrived at the Nurse’s office, leaving a trail of rainwater on the floor behind them, Shizune knocked. A voice from inside called “Come in!”, and Hisao nodded, prompting Shizune to open the door.

The Nurse was alone in the room, and seemed surprised to see the three of them. He rubbed his chin for a bit, then smiled and addressed Misha: “Hisao, you dog, don’t tell me...”

Hisao, his voice still not quite under his control, spoke up. “Actually, I’m Hisao, and that’s Misha. We, uh... We swapped bodies, somehow.”

The Nurse stared at the trio for a moment, then put his head in his hands and sighed.

Hisao tried to argue his case. “No, really, we did, you have to believe us, we-”

“I do.”

The words surprised Hisao. “You do?”

The Nurse nodded. “Let me guess, you two were using the dorm microwaves.”

Once again, Hisao was shocked. “Actually, yes. How did-”

“Crap, and during a thunderstorm, too. I’ve told the administration, again and again, those old models aren’t fit for student use, but noooo... Great. Just great.”

The room was silent for a few seconds before Hisao spoke again. “So... Do you know how to swap us back?”

“Well... I mean, I, uh... Not, not really, no. But I do know someone who might.” The Nurse picked up the phone on his desk, typed in a few numbers, and waited until someone picked up. “Hey, Akio, it’s me. Yes, I know how late it is there, but this is important: two students were using the dorm microwaves and managed to perform a complete consciousness swap. No, no signs of splinching.”

The inaudible voice on the other end got louder, and went on a bit of a rant before the Nurse could reply. “Yes, I know, I know, we’ve been through this before, but- No, see, I know that, but given that these- Will you just listen to me for a- hello? Hello?” Realizing that he had been hung up on, the Nurse angrily slammed the phone back onto its place on the desk, muttering under his breath.

Hisao was pretty sure what the answer would be, but he figured it was better to ask anyways. “So... any luck?”

The Nurse turned around to face the trio, with one hand rubbing his chin. “Well, there is good news, and there is... not so good news.”

Hisao grew uneasy, but comforted himself with the idea that the situation wasn’t a total loss. Misha clearly felt the same: “What’s the good news?”

“Well, the good news is that you two can definitely be swapped back. Heck, you could probably get it done within an hour."

The news came as a massive relief to Hisao. "Awesome! So, what do we need to do?"

The Nurse sighed again. "Well, that’s where the bad news comes in. See, it’s... difficult. I was hoping that my esteemed colleague would know of an easier way,” he glared angrily at the phone on his desk, “but evidently not.”

Hisao wasn’t deterred. “Seriously, whatever it takes, we’ll do it.”

The Nurse rubbed his temple. “Well, alright, but you’re not going to like it. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you two need to... you need to have sex.”

Hisao felt like time had stopped. Today had been pretty weird already, but it seemed like things were only getting weirder. He waited for the Nurse to smile and call it a joke, but no such levity occurred. He looked over at Misha, who was similarly dumbstruck - so much so that she had stopped translating. Shizune, frustrated, poked Misha, trying to figure how what was going on.

Her hands moving much slower than usual, Misha dutifully translated. [Nurse says that Hisao and I have to have sex.]

Shizune audibly gasped, a break from her normally silent tendencies. She looked to Hisao for confirmation, and he nodded solemnly. She looked at the Nurse, a mixture of disbelief and anger on her face. Finally, she grabbed Hisao’s wrist and stormed out of the office, dragging him with her.

Shizune immediately went for the nearest exit, dragging Hisao out into the raging storm, and which point he got a bit worried, and got her attention. [Where are we going?]

Shizune was unflinching, even while being pelted with rain. [To my room.]

[What about Misha?]

This time, her angry expression intensified. [I don’t know. I don’t care. I’m still mad at her.]

With that, she carried on, putting an end to the conversation, and Hisao had no choice but to follow her. He was mad at Misha too - she had taken advantage of them - but he couldn’t shake the feeling that now wasn’t the time to be at odds with her. He needed her help to switch back into his body.

He had trouble thinking about it in such terms. Having sex with Misha? It would be his body, sure, but since he was in her body, it would be... strange. It did seem like that was the only way forward, but then, the Nurse had suggested there might be another way that he just didn’t know about yet. And besides, maybe waiting and thinking about it some more would help clear some heads.

Hopefully they’d figure it all out, in time.

[Craftyatom]

Hisao awoke to the sound of bedsheets being ruffled, followed by a loud thump. He opened his eyes just a bit, and saw that he was in bed, in a room he recognized as Shizune’s. And yet, he couldn’t see Shizune - until she got up off the floor by the bed, and stood up.

She looked terrified, which woke Hisao right up - what was she so worried about? Why was she staring at him? He sat up in bed, to give himself room to sign. [What’s wrong?]

Shizune had clearly had a bit of an adrenaline rush, as she was still breathing heavily, though she seemed to be calming down. [Hisao?]

Hisao nodded. [Did you have a nightmare?] He had never known her to, but it wasn’t impossible.

Instead, Shizune looked sad, and pointed as Hisao’s chest. He glanced down, and was greeted by a pair of breasts, still in a school uniform.

Of course. Yesterday, he and Misha had switched bodies. And then they had gone to the Nurse, and found out the only way to switch back. And then Shizune had stormed out, and they ended up in her room, and despite being soaking wet, they had just wanted to get the day over with, so they went to bed, still in their uniforms.

And then Shizune had woken up thinking she was in bed with Misha. Hisao felt sorry for her, and held out his arms, asking for a hug. Shizune was apprehensive at first, but then quickly jumped forward, embracing him. He might’ve been in a strange situation, but he was still her boyfriend, and he wanted to comfort her. Today was Sunday, so if it came to it, he would spend all day doing his best to make her happy.

After a minute or two like that, Shizune pulled away, and giggled silently. [Your chest gets in the way.]

Hisao chuckled as well, and began to reply, but then noticed Shizune squinting to make him out - she wasn't wearing her glasses. Still smiling, he reached over and grabbed them off of the nightstand. Once he handed them to her, however, he instinctively went back to the nightstand to grab his morning pills - only to find they weren't there.

Of course they wouldn't be there; he was in Shizune's room, and his pills were back in his room. He wondered why he hadn't thought to bring some with him, then realized that last night's incident probably made him forget all about it. He subsequently realized that, thanks to that same incident, he really didn't have to worry about pills - he was in Misha's body, and she certainly wasn't an arrhythmiac.

He was content with this realization for a single second before realizing that it had a devastating corollary. His eyes went wide, and he immediately waved at Shizune before frantically signing at her: [We have to find Misha!]

Shizune wasn't particularly happy with this request. [Why?]

[She doesn't know that she has to take all my pills!]

Shizune suddenly grasped the gravity of the situation. She pinched the bridge of her nose for a moment in frustration, then nodded. [You're right, we have to find her. Let's check her room first.]

Hisao hadn't heard anyone come into the room next door last night, but then again, he hadn't really been listening for it, so they had to check regardless. Shizune grabbed a spare key from her desk, then went out into the hallway, with Hisao in tow.

She knocked on the door directly adjacent to hers, then looked at Hisao. He listened, but couldn't hear anything, and shook his head, prompting Shizune to use the key.

As the door swung open and they went inside, Hisao realized that he hadn't ever been in this room. It had little decorations and keepsakes spread around, making it seem very bright, but it still didn't quite feel bright enough. Hisao had expected pink paint, or fuzzy neon bedsheets, or big posters, or... something at least a little gaudy. Instead, he saw a room that seemed much more human.

Regardless, Misha was nowhere to be seen, so Shizune turned around. [Let’s check the bathroom, just in case.]

They ducked into the bathroom at the end of the hall, but it was also empty. Shizune was stumped, but Hisao had an idea. [Maybe she’s in my room?]

Shizune shrugged. [Maybe. I guess we can check there next.] She turned to leave, but Hisao grabbed her shoulder to stop her.

[Actually, wait just a minute, I really need to pee.]

Shizune nodded, and Hisao went into one of the many unoccupied stalls, for what was sure to be an interesting experience.

~~~~~

After a brisk walk across campus, Shizune and Hisao ended up in front of the door to his room. Hisao realized that he hadn’t been back here since last night, when he had left it unlocked, since the key was in Misha’s pocket, not his own, when they left. When he tried the door, however, he found it locked. But then, who would have locked it?

Guessing that they would still be in, he knocked on the door. To his relief, his old voice - which was now Misha’s, of course - replied. Unfortunately, the reply wasn’t exactly what he was hoping for. “Go away.”

Hisao excitedly signed to Shizune that [She’s in there!], then tried to make his case. “Misha, open up, it’s Hisao and Shizune.”

“Hisao? Did Shizune decide to let you switch back?”

This came as a bit of a surprise to Hisao, who had kept that whole ordeal in the back of his mind. He had hoped that it would be clearer today than it was yesterday, but evidently not. “Well... no, actually, there’s-”

“Ugh, then why are you wasting my time? Go away, I’m busy.”

“Misha, seriously, you need to-”

“I’m not listening~! I’m perfectly happy to sit here and not listen to anyone who might be at the door~!”

Hisao furrowed his brow, and turned to Shizune. [She’s not letting us in.]

[Why not?]

[Something about us wasting her time by not wanting to switch our bodies back.]

Shizune rolled her eyes. [Do you have a spare key somewhere?]

Hisao nodded. [In the bathroom. I’ll go grab it.] He mentally patted himself on the back for hiding it in one of the showers, rather than giving it to Kenji, who would probably have been of absolutely no help in this situation.

As he neared the bathroom door, he heard a shower running: Kenji, presumably. Hisao stealthily opened the door and ducked inside, but his heart sank as soon as he looked at the showers.

Kenji was using the shower with his spare key in it.

There was nothing for it. Kenji showered for hours sometimes, and this was urgent. Hisao would just need to convince Kenji to get the key for him. He lowered his voice as far as it would go. “Hey, Kenji.”

“What‽ Who goes there‽ Identify yourself!”

“Kenji, bro, it’s me, Hisao.”

“Hisao, eh? Well you sure don’t sound like my best friend Hisao!”

Crap. “Uh, yeah, I’m masking my voice. I’m on an undercover mission.”

“Undercover... And how do I know you’re not a feminist double agent, undercover as an undercover agent, huh‽”

“Um... Because I’m the real Hisao. Your, uh, best friend.”

“Really now... If you really are the real Hisao, they why don’t you really say something only the real Hisao would really know for real‽”

Hisao could hardly believe that that was the second time he was having to do this in as many days. Unfortunately, he didn’t really share any secretive information - or, really, any information at all - with Kenji, so it was difficult to think of anything only the two of them would know. “I, uh... I lend you money for pizza sometimes.”

“Oh! Hisao, my man, it really is you! Sorry about the interrogation - you can never be too careful of feminist spies, you know.”

Pleasantly surprised that he had gotten this far with Kenji, Hisao started working towards what he really wanted. “Yeah, exactly. Speaking of which, I could use your help with my undercover mission.”

“Ha, you came to the right guy! I’ll be right out!” Hisao didn’t want Kenji to come out. He also didn’t want to wait for him to finish. He was about to protest, but was cut off by Kenji immediately throwing open the curtain and stepping, stark naked and dripping wet, out of the shower.

“Alright, Hisao, what can I-” He stopped and stared, squinting something fierce. Hisao froze in shock, both at Kenji’s sudden nude appearance and at the fact that he had been found out. Kenji’s vision was bad, but even he could surely tell that this pink-haired girl wasn’t the tall, brown-haired boy he knew. “Jesus... Talk about undercover, I can barely tell it’s you! Anyways, what do you need?”

It took Hisao a moment to recover, and then a bit longer to realize that Kenji was still being cooperative, in some sense of the word. “Oh, uh... I just need the key that’s in the shower you were using.”

“Oh, that thing? I didn’t know where it came from, and I thought it might be a listening device, so I moved it to the other shower.”

Once again, it took Hisao a moment to process that. He walked into the other, empty shower stall, and sure enough, found a key sitting where the soap would have gone. He grabbed it and headed for the door, trying not to look at Kenji. “Well, that’s all I needed. Thanks for your... help.”

“Anytime, buddy!” Kenji saluted, and droplets of water flew off his arm, landing on Hisao, who sighed as he went back out into the hallway, where Shizune was waiting for him.

[What took you so long?]

[It’s a long story.] Deciding to leave it at that, especially since he wanted to get to Misha before anything happened to her, he inserted the key, turned the handle, and pushed the door open.

There, on the floor by Hisao’s bed, sat Misha, in his old body, naked. She was resting her back against the bed, and had both legs splayed outwards on the floor. Between them was a magazine, which Hisao paid little attention to. Instead, his eyes were drawn to her right hand, which was grasping her penis - disturbingly, he thought, the second one he had seen in the last 30 seconds.

Misha looked up from the magazine, seeming a bit annoyed at the pair barging in. “What do you two want?”

Temporarily stunned by what he saw, Hisao forgot what exactly he came here for, and asked a more basic question: “What are you doing?”

Misha scoffed. “What does it look like? I’m making the most of my new body.”

Hisao finally managed to glance at the magazine. Even at a distance of two or three meters, he could tell what it was. “Is that a porn magazine? Where did you even get that?”

Misha shrugged. “Well your body was having some trouble getting it up this morning, so I went and bought it.”

“You... You went out, in my body, in broad daylight, to buy a porn magazine?”

“Yeah. Did you not?”

“No!”

“Not even before you bagged Shi-chan?”

“No, of course not, I-” He groaned, not wanting to be dragged into this conversation. “Whatever, look, we’re only here because you really need to take my pills.”

“Oh, those? Yeah, I took them.”

Hisao had lost track of how many times he had been dumbstruck today. “What?”

“Yeah, last night and this morning. And there are more at lunch.”

Misha seemed to know Hisao’s pill schedule even better than he had for a long time. “But... How did you...”

Misha rolled her eyes. “They say how many to take on the bottle. And it’s not like I could miss them.”

Hisao looked over at his nightstand, and saw what Misha meant - even someone who knew nothing about arrhythmia could probably tell that the myriad pill bottles were there for a reason. Just as Hisao got all of that squared away in his head, though, Misha spoke again.

“See, I actually want to take care of this body, since apparently it’s mine now.”

Hisao’s face darkened in anger. “It’s not your body, it’s mine!”

Misha smirked. “Oh yeah? Come and take it back, then!” She gestured to Shizune. “Or will she not let you?”

Hisao pursed his lips. “Look, regardless, how would you feel if I started doing weird stuff with your body?”

“Wahaha~! Please, Hisao, you barely used this one, so I doubt you’ll get up to much in that one.” She looked over at Shizune. [By the way, any time you want to go back to this...] She gestured at her crotch.

Shizune threw her a glare that could have stopped a charging bull, then stormed off. Hisao remained for a moment, trying to think of a rebuttal, but none was forthcoming, so he, too, turned and left.

As he did, however, Misha called after him. “Don’t forget to lock the door on your way out! Wahaha~!”

He left it unlocked out of spite, and took the key with him, in case he needed it again. Misha certainly didn’t seem like she’d be willing to let them in on her own.

[Craftyatom]

Hisao looked through the assortment of clothes, finding plenty of things that he could wear, but nothing that really fit him.

Shizune, furious, had gone back to her room, with Hisao in tow. Once she got back, she changed into some casual clothes, since she had unintentionally been wearing the same thing for more than 24 hours. Hisao had been in the same position, but without a wardrobe of his own, so Shizune had taken him over to Misha’s room.

Hisao saw a few pairs of clothes that were obviously Misha’s ‘weekend clothes’, but they were all too frilly, or too classy, or too... Misha. He wanted something plain and comfortable to lounge around in, and eventually settled on a pair of bright pink shorts - which were closer in length to boxers - and a white T-shirt with some English text on it. If nothing else, it seemed similar to the kind of outfit Shizune would lounge around in, so it was probably a decent choice.

He presented the items to Shizune, who stared at them critically for a bit before giving a thumbs up. Happy to have her approval, Hisao began to undress, only to notice in the corner of his vision that Shizune had turned to face the wall.

She didn’t want to watch. Or rather, she wanted not to watch - she’d rather stare at a blank patch of wall.

The thought saddened Hisao; Shizune loved him, he knew, but it was obvious that she didn’t quite love the body he was in. Of course, it wasn’t the body she had fallen in love with and come to know, but still, it was all he had at the moment. If nothing else, he knew that he couldn’t live like this forever - whether that meant him getting his old body back, or Shizune becoming used to this one, he didn’t know.

He started by unbuttoning his shirt and removing it - he was used to that. Next came the question of the bra, which he hadn’t considered beforehand. He decided that he would at least have to remove this one, before realizing he wasn’t entirely sure how - it looked different to the ones he had removed from Shizune on occasion, so he wasn’t entirely sure how it was supposed to work. He decided to work around the problem entirely, and simply lifted the bra up and over his head.

Immediately, he decided he wasn’t going to put on a new one, at least not for lounging around in. Removing it was, ironically, like having a weight lifted from off his chest. So, after tossing the dirty one onto the floor, he just put on the new shirt, which felt much more comfortable.

Next came his lower half, starting with socks. He didn’t need another pair, barefoot was fine for hanging out in Shizune’s room, which is really all he wanted to do right now. After the socks was the skirt - simple enough, button in the front, dropped right off. This left only underwear - something Hisao had neglected to consider.

Unlike the bra, he was pretty sure he couldn’t skip these and go commando. There weren’t any visible - which made sense, he didn’t keep his underwear in his closet either - so he moved to the adjacent drawers and began looking through them.

He started with the top drawer, which seemed to be mostly bras. Useful, but not what he was after. He moved down to the next drawer, and immediately recognized what were definitely several pairs of underwear. Now, however, he was spoiled for choice. Some of these looked like dauntingly little more than cloth straps, which he wouldn’t even consider, narrowing the choice a bit. He eventually grabbed something that was plain white and more substantial, then removed the old pair and applied the new, trying not to think about how different it felt.

Last but not least, the shorts. He thought the pink looked rather garish, but they were simple and comfortable, even if they felt a bit on the tight side and a bit on the short side. They reminded him of his running shorts, which always felt rather small until he got going, at which point he cherished every extra inch of skin they let breathe.

In fact, thinking of his running shorts gave him an idea. He picked up the dirty clothes, tossed them into a laundry bin that already had some garments in it, then walked over and patted Shizune on the shoulder, prompting her to turn back around.

[Looking through all these clothes made me realize something.] Shizune raised an eyebrow, clearly interested. [These remind me of my running outfit, and since this body doesn’t have any heart problems, I’d really like to go to the track and try running.] Now probably wasn’t the best time, of course, but it was something to keep in mind for later, when they had time and needed something to do.

Unfortunately, Shizune shot down the idea immediately. [Absolutely not.]

Hisao was confused. He had expected her to want to push it back, but not to veto it completely. [Why not?]

[Jump up and down a bit.]

Hisao wasn’t sure what that had to do with anything, but figured Shizune probably had a reason - perhaps something to do with Misha’s legs? Regardless, he made sure he wasn’t standing near anything that he might bump into, then jumped straight upwards, only a few inches.

Everything seemed normal initially, but as he crested the peak of his jump, he felt his chest begin to ‘float’, lagging behind his torso a bit. As he landed and jumped again, his breasts continued downwards just a bit longer, slapping into his ribcage and bouncing up again, just in time for him to be coming back down. Wondering whether it looked as silly as it felt, he craned his neck forwards to look down, and saw that while it wasn’t as spastic as it felt, it certainly wasn’t the kind of thing he’d want to do out in public.

He stopped, then smoothed his shirt out. Shizune didn’t sign anything, but the smug look on her face said everything. Hisao, however, hadn’t given up quite yet. [Wouldn’t a bra help?]

[A normal bra wouldn’t really, and I don’t think Misha owns any sport bras.]

[Okay, then what about if I...] Hisao realized he didn’t know the sign for it, so he made the motion of wrapping a roll of fabric around his torso.

Shizune rolled her eyes. [Binding them is a terrible idea, and I’ll show you why.]

She walked around behind Hisao, then wrapped her arms around him, as if performing the Heimlich maneuver, but on his chest instead of his stomach. She then pulled, rather forcefully, pressing her arms into his breasts, squishing him against her, in a strange sort of aggressive hug from behind.

“Ah!” Hisao gasped, and as soon as Shizune let go, he immediately brought his arms up to nurse his chest.

Shizune walked back around, giggling a bit at Hisao’s reaction. [See? Now imagine going around like-] She stopped and stared at him, a bit surprised that he was breathing a bit heavily, and his cheeks were a bit flushed. [Did it really hurt that much?]

Hisao wasn’t quite sure. [No. I mean, it did hurt, but it was... weird.]

Shizune furrowed her brow. [Weird how?]

Hisao wasn’t quite sure himself, so he decided to gather more data. He used his own hands to press into his breasts, trying to recreate the sensation - he didn’t press hard enough to hurt, but the other feeling was still there, and grew as he started moving his palms around, changing the pressure and moving the shirt against his skin.

[Hey! Now you’re just playing with them!]

This made it all click for Hisao. [Yeah, it feels... really good.]

Now it was Shizune’s turn to blush. [Well, yes, I suppose they do.] Hisao went to try again, and Shizune complained. [You can’t just do that all day, you know!]

Hisao stopped, as Shizune was right - he had just been interested in the new sensation, that’s all. It did remind him of something he had forgotten, though. [You know, we never did get to spend last night... together.]

Shizune understood the added emphasis - he wasn’t talking about falling asleep in her room. [Of course not. Yesterday was way too hectic.]

[Well, we have all day today. Maybe we could make up for it?]

Shizune’s face went blank, and her eyes unfocused a bit, lost in thought. She certainly didn’t seem happy about the idea, but she considered it carefully nonetheless. Finally, she asked a decisive question. [Are you sure you want to? With that body?]

Hisao briefly thought about how it might seem an improper use of a body which wasn’t really his, but that argument was quickly shut down by the memory of what Misha had been doing with his original body. Moreover, it wasn’t really his body that he was interested in. [I don’t care about my body - I want to do it with you.]

Shizune smiled, then tried poorly to cover it up. [You’re a stupid romantic.]

[And that’s why you love me!]

Still smiling, Shizune rolled her eyes. [Fine, have it your way.] She walked over beside Hisao, then gently pushed him towards the bed, causing him to fall softly onto it.

Being pushed onto the bed, however, reminded Hisao which bed it was. [Maybe we should go back to your room instead of doing this here?]

Shizune scowled. [Misha gave up this room when she decided to move into yours.]

That made sense to Hisao - it was pretty much the same reasoning he had used to justify the whole thing - but he did feel a bit like he was burning a bridge. Then again, that bridge was probably long gone, given the tone Misha had taken with them earlier.

He forgot all about that as Shizune sat next to him and began to massage his breasts. Now that he recognized it, the feeling was unmistakable: the presence of her palms against his skin was nice, but his nipples were where it changed from comfort and contentment into full-blown arousal, and he closed his eyes as his breathing became deeper.

Instinctively, he moved one hand down to his own crotch, and though it wasn’t what he was used to, it was just as pleasurable, once he figured out exactly where to rub. His experience with Shizune had taught him a bit, but feeling it for himself was a whole new level.

Thinking of Shizune, he opened his eyes and looked up at her, only to find that she was looking the other way, like she had done while he was changing earlier. Again, Hisao felt bad, and he reached out to Shizune with his free hand, putting it on her thigh.

Surprisingly, she flinched, and pulled away from him. They were still for a moment before Shizune replied, her cheeks bright red. [Just... let me do the work.]

Hisao felt uneasy about that, but dutifully kept his hands to himself. If Shizune wanted to be giving rather than receiving, he’d go with the flow.

Shizune had noticed Hisao’s hand on his crotch, however, and took it as an instruction. She reached out with one hand, keeping the other on one of his breasts, and slipped it below his underwear, rubbing against the bare, sensitive skin.

Hisao moaned lightly, taken aback by the sensation, which only increased once Shizune began to move her fingers, rubbing Hisao. While she didn’t have the direct feedback Hisao did, she seemed to know her way around, presumably from her own experience.

She sped up a bit, then seemed to stop for a moment. Just as Hisao began to wonder why, she unexpectedly inserted one finger into him.

Hisao wasn’t sure exactly what the sensation was supposed to be. It was very different from the pure pleasure of before, but almost seemed to fit alongside it. It was weird, and part of Hisao hated it, but the part of him that didn’t hate it loved it.

Now Shizune really began to pick up the pace, and added more force to her motions, which seemed to drive them further up Hisao’s nerves and into his brain. Recognizing the feeling of being near the edge, he looked at Shizune to let her know, but she was looking the other way, trying not to look.

Hisao once again felt sad, but the his momentum couldn’t be stopped. He clenched his eyes shut and bucked his hips upwards as he went over the edge, twitching slightly with every contact against Shizune’s hands.

He spent a bit lying there, waiting for his breathing to return to normal, as Shizune wiped her hand on his shirt. When he opened his eyes again, Hisao saw Shizune looking rather distant.

He sat up and waved to get her attention. [Okay, your turn.]

This seemed to shock her a bit. [No, no, it’s fine, I’m okay.]

Hisao sighed. [Look, I know that this body seems weird, but I’m still your boyfriend, and I still want you to be happy! Things aren’t perfect, but we have to make the most of them!]

Shizune spent a few seconds thinking about this, then turned away, letting her legs hang over the edge of the bed. Hisao was slightly discouraged, but refused to give up. He crawled over and gave her a bear hug from behind, hoping it would make sense to her. Somewhat surprisingly, after a bit, she perked up, and turned back around, her face lit up.

[Behind!]

Hisao was confused. [Behind?]

[If you’re behind me, I won’t have to look at your body!]

While that felt a little bit insulting, she did have a point. Hisao moved back and patted the bed in front of him, which Shizune slid onto, with her back to him.

Hisao started the same way Shizune had, with his hands on her breasts, giving a light massage with persistent focus on the nipples. He felt Shizune loosen up in his arms, and kept at it. He tried to think of what he’d normally do, if this were a Saturday night in his room, and his first thought was her shirt. He stopped, then moved her arms up, and pulled the t-shirt she had put on a few minutes ago up and over her head, tossing it onto the floor. So much for changing into clean clothes.

Now given unlimited access to her breasts, he renewed his efforts, gliding across her skin and occasionally rubbing one of her nipples between his thumb and index finger.

After a bit of this, however, Shizune put her arms out in front of herself, which seemed strange until Hisao looked at her hands: she was signing. There was nobody in front of her to see it, but Hisao could see it just fine from his position behind her. [Down, please.]

Understanding, Hisao moved one of his hands down, tickling her stomach lightly on the way past, before slipping under her clothes and onto her crotch, just as she had done to him.

Hisao was no stranger to Shizune’s nethers, but having just received some new training, he tried his best to mimic the patterns that had seemed best to him, and it worked - for the most part. Shizune’s breaths were heavy, her body was relaxed, and she seemed to be enjoying it, but things quickly started to plateau. Hisao tried to alter his tempo, change his patterns, use more force, but nothing seemed to move Shizune any further along.

After several minutes like this, she hung her head, and signed to him again. [Sorry.]

Taken aback, Hisao stopped, and Shizune turned around to see his reply. [Sorry? Why sorry?]

[It’s not the same. I keep wanting to ask you to just put it in, but...] She shrugged, and Hisao understood. ‘Putting it in’ wasn’t really an option.

Hisao thought about this a bit. [Is there anything I could do to make it feel more like... me?]

Shizune didn’t seem hopeful, but then something occurred to her. [Actually, let me check something.]

She got up and went over to the closet, and began looking around on the floor. Hisao wasn’t sure what exactly she was looking for, but he also wasn’t going to say no watching his topless girlfriend root around the room.

Having not found anything, Shizune moved to the drawers, and started with the top one, which Hisao knew had mostly bras. Next, she tried the middle one, and it was mostly underwear, unsurprisingly. Finally, she opened the bottom drawer, and Hisao saw that it was mostly socks. After feel around among the socks for a bit, however, Shizune’s face brightened up, and she pulled out a few olive-green boxes from underneath the collection of socks.

She tossed them onto the bed, and Hisao saw that there were three boxes, each with the same cross section, but one short, one medium, and one long. On the top of each, the words “Señor Zumbador” were embossed in black.

Shizune immediately went for the medium-sized box, and pulled out a deep purple dildo, which wobbled from side to side a bit as she handed it to Hisao. [Perfect! Use this, it should feel a lot more like you.]

Hisao picked it up and inspected it - it didn’t look particularly like his, especially as it was a bit too wide. Still, if it could make Shizune feel better, he was willing to give it a go.

Somewhat interested in what the other boxes might contain, Hisao opened the small one, and found an egg-shaped piece of plastic attached to a long wire, which he recognized as a vibrator.

Meanwhile, Shizune had pulled her shorts and underwear down to her knees, then laid down on her stomach, presenting her rear to Hisao. She lifted her hands above her head to sign to him: [Hurry up, I’m getting cold!]

Putting the small box and its contents back on the bed, Hisao shuffled over and started by rubbing the strange rubbery device up and down Shizune’s crotch, letting her get a feel for it. Then, once she seemed ready, he pressed the tip forwards - just like he’d do if it were his own - and slid it gently inside.

Shizune seemed to enjoy it, but Hisao was a bit lost without any sensory feedback. He didn’t really know where it was in relation to her body, and thus didn’t really know which direction to go, or how much force to use. Still, he did his best, starting out gently, and slowly getting a bit faster, a bit deeper, and so on. Encouragingly, Shizune would occasionally give him a thumbs up, letting him know that he was doing it right.

Eventually, however, his hand got tired, so he switched hands, giving one a rest. As he let it flop onto the bed, he felt it hit one of the boxes: the third and longest box, which remained unopened. Curious, and with one hand to spare, he opened it.

Inside was another dildo, but a very different one: this one was green, translucent, and almost three times as long, though it was thinner than the one in his other hand. At first, he was confused - there’s no way Misha would need anything this long - but closer inspection revealed that it was so long because both ends had tips. It was double-ended.

The realization hit Hisao like a freight train. Shizune wanted something that felt more like him? Here was the perfect solution: something to connect the two of them! This way, he could actually thrust, instead of just tiring out his hands!

Of course, that was easier said than done. About half of this hand would have to go inside him. Still, determined to do it for Shizune, Hisao pulled his own bottoms down a bit, then began by rubbing it against himself, just like he had done earlier. All the while, he kept up the pace with his other hand, wanting this to be a surprise.

Luckily, he was still rather sodden from before, not to mention the view he had of his girlfriend. He started with the tip, going slowly, and had to take a moment to get used to the feeling. Just like Shizune’s fingers, it felt weird, but by focusing on his arousal, he was able to enjoy it. He kept going, a bit at a time, slowly feeling the strange object make its way inside of him. Finally, when it looked like he had gone about halfway - which felt like a hell of a lot more than it looked - he put his plan into action.

He shuffled up behind Shizune, using his free hand to keep the green thing inside of himself, then removed the purple one. Before Shizune could complain, he moved the other end up - which pressed strangely on his insides - and began to rub Shizune with it. Somewhat impatient, he inserted the tip shortly afterwards, and began feeding it in, like before.

Once he had gotten it all the way in, he rocked his hips forward, pressing his front against Shizune, who only just noticed that something was different when Hisao pulled back. He could feel the dildo move inside of him as he did, and it made him almost instinctively thrust forward again, connecting the two of them once more.

As if that wasn’t enough, he heard Shizune let a moan escape her mouth - something he knew she hated, and only ever let happen if she was really getting into it. He had succeeded, and that made him feel glorious. Filled with a level of determination that he hadn’t yet felt in this body, he pulled back, then thrusted again, and he could feel Shizune’s body tremble, as well as hear her again. Stuck in a feedback loop, he got harder and faster as the girl beneath him melted and mewled more and more.

Finally, Hisao felt at home: his girlfriend was laid out in front him, singing in pleasure, as he thrust into her. This was the way he wanted life to be, and that bliss overtook him and Shizune, culminating in a heavenly sense of completeness as the two of them spasmed against each other, then collapsed onto the bed.

After a little bit basking in the afterglow, Hisao rolled to one side, off of Shizune. This made him acutely aware of the green thing, still connecting the two of them, which was now rather uncomfortable. He pulled it out, which felt incredibly weird, but it was over soon enough.

Shizune rolled over a bit to face Hisao, and caught sight of the strange green toy. [So that’s what it was.]

Hisao smiled. [I take it you enjoyed it?]

[Maybe, just a little.] They both giggled, and then Shizune scooched over next to Hisao, who put one arm around her. It was just like their usual weekend fun - or, at least, sort of. It still wasn’t quite right.

Hisao felt that, after almost a day of thinking it, there was something he needed to say. He signed up towards the ceiling, so that Shizune could see without moving away from him. [Shizune, I want my body back.]

Shizune’s contented face turned into a sad one, and she signed upwards in return. [Me too.] Her expression hardened. [But you saw what Misha was like! We can’t give in to that!]

[I know.] And yet, he didn’t like being this confrontational. [But maybe she’s just having a hard time trying to adjust, which is making her act out.]

[As if we haven’t had a hard time adjusting as well!]

[True, but we have each other. She’s kind of doing this alone.]

Shizune pursed her lips. [Regardless, she seemed to be having a great time when we last saw her, so I’m sure she’s doing fine.]

Hisao felt like that might not be the case, but he decided that now wasn’t the time to try and think about it. He tried to just enjoy having Shizune next to him, lazing around with each other. Inevitably, however, within a few minutes he started thinking about what might happen when this lazy period ended.

[What are we going to do about school tomorrow?]

Shizune shrugged, though it wasn’t easy to tell because she was still lying down. [I guess you’ll just come to class with me and... be Misha?]

[I guess. What about translating?]

[You can do that, right?]

[Well, maybe. I’ve never tried doing it so fast, but I’ll give it a go.] He thought for a second. [And what about Misha, what do we say to her?]

Shizune rolled her eyes. [I doubt she’ll even show up.]

Hisao couldn’t tell whether he hoped Shizune was right or wrong.

[Craftyatom]

So far, no Misha.

Hisao and Shizune had come to class a bit early - getting dressed had actually gone rather smoothly, and they didn’t really have anything else to do. So they had just been sitting there in class, vaguely aware that the third seat in their row was unfilled. It was looking like Shizune’s prediction had been right.

As the clock started counting down the final few minutes before the start of class, however, a pair of figures walked through the door: Misha, still in Hisao’s body, and... Miura? Hisao had barely noticed her absence, since the tan one-handed girl seemed to skip class every now and then, but apparently she was here today.

The most surprising thing about this was that he hadn’t ever talked to Miura before, so presumably Misha was the one who took the initiative - and yet, he was pretty sure that Misha didn’t really know Miura either.

Intrigued, Hisao kept an eye on them, though he tried not to stare too hard. They seemed to be chatting happily, having a good time. And yet, something seemed off. Misha’s speech, the way she laughed at what Miura said, they seemed wrong. Granted, she had only been in that body for about a day, so she probably wasn’t completely used to it.

Still, even though she should’ve been awkward and squeaky, she actually looked and sounded kind of suave. Her tone was deep, her expressions were bright, and her posture was open and composed. It was almost like she was... trying.

She was trying too hard.

Hisao suddenly had a hunch about what was going on, and he didn’t like it.

He got up, went over to Misha, and tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. “Hey, uh, Hisao, can I talk to you a second?”

Misha sized up Hisao for a moment, staring him down. She then turned to Miura, motioned to Hisao, and rolled her eyes before turning back to Hisao and replying. “Sure thing, vice pres. What’s up?”

“Are you-” Hisao stopped. This was probably something he shouldn’t say out loud. [Are you flirting with Miura?]

Misha smirked. [So, you noticed? I’m surprised.]

Hisao sighed. [You’re still in my body. As far as anyone else here knows, you’re dating Shizune - and now it looks to them like you’re playing the field.]

Misha’s eyes narrowed. [Look, we’ve been over this. Since you have no intention of switching back, this is my body now.]

[But that-]

Misha cut him off, signing at a such a pace that Hisao could barely understand her. [And I’m not going to stay single forever just because you think I might be ruining your good name, which isn’t even yours anymore!] Although she was signing rather than speaking, her eyes betrayed the venom behind her words. [If anyone asks about it, I’ll tell them the truth: that Shi-chan didn’t care about me.]

With that, her face reverted to its previous, carefree smile, so quickly that it scared Hisao a little. She turned around and started up her conversation with Miura again, as if nothing had happened.

After a moment processing what had just happened, Hisao sighed and sat back down at his desk. Talk about burning bridges. He had started today feeling like he was getting used to this new body, but it was beginning to look like he didn’t have a choice.

Shizune tapped him on the shoulder. [What was that about?]

Hisao started to explain, but was cut off by the bell, which signalled the students to take their seats. [I’ll tell you at lunch.]

He stretched out his wrists, and shook his hands to loosen them up. No matter how this whole thing ended up, right now he had to focus on translating for Shizune.

~~~~~

Hisao picked slowly at his lunch, trying not to move his hands too much. His wrists hurt already, and he still had to do even more translating once lunch was over. Translating a conversation was one thing, but a lecture, with so many new words, and all sorts of fingerspelling, was much more exhausting.

Much less important, but somewhat annoying, was Misha’s performance. She hadn’t answered a single question all class. Hisao certainly couldn’t pick up the slack: he used every one of those moments to catch up anything he hadn’t been fast enough to translate earlier. Not that any of this mattered, but it bothered him, and the last thing he needed right now was more irritations. At least they were able to have lunch here in the student council room rather than the crowded cafeteria, even if it did drive home the point that Misha was missing.

Shizune, working on her own lunch, snapped to get Hisao’s attention. [So what were you talking to Misha about earlier?]

Hisao felt a tangible wave of fatigue wash over him as he dug up the memory of his earlier conversation. [She was flirting with Miura. I told her that people might take it as her cheating on you. She said that she was just going to tell them that you two broke up.]

Shizune nodded. [Good. My plan was to break up with her and start dating you instead.]

This gave Hisao pause. He still wasn’t quite willing to accept that things were going to be like this forever. [Is that going to work? The two of us dating?]

Shizune shrugged. [It’ll be fine. There are one or two other girl couples here, they just don’t flaunt it.]

[And... your family would be okay with it?]

[They’d better be. If they aren’t, I’ll make do without them.]

Once again, Hisao felt like too much was just being thrown away. [What about the student council?]

Shizune pursed her lips, becoming a bit tired of this line of conversation. [It worked fine with only two people before you joined. We’ll make do again.]

[Okay, I guess.] A spike of pain shot through one of Hisao’s wrists, reminding him of another problem. [I’m trying my best to translate, by the way, but my hands really hurt, so it’s-]

Shizune suddenly threw her chopsticks against the wall, and her indifferent expression broke, giving way to a glare of pure anger, her eyes like weapons trained on Hisao’s head as her hands yelled at him. [Are you that eager to get into Misha’s pants‽]

Hisao blinked a few times, completely baffled, and his face contorted. [What?]

[All this time, you keep saying how you want to go back, that life is so hard now - do you just want to have sex with Misha that badly‽]

[No! I don’t want to, but I think I have to!] Shizune’s eyes narrowed, but Hisao continued. [None of us are happy with what happened, so I’m trying to change it back! Please, you must understand that!]

Shizune’s face tightened further, until her lips quivered, and her eyes closed. She shivered a little, and brought her right hand up, pushing up her glasses and wiping one eye, then the other, then just covering her face with both hands as she began to sob.

Hisao knew that this was a watershed moment, and that he had to be involved. He walked over and put his arms around Shizune, slowly running one hand through her hair as she leaned into him. His own eyes grew wet as well - not only out of empathy, but also because he felt that he had been holding some tears in since this whole thing started.

They stayed like that, Hisao supporting Shizune, until she composed herself a little, and signed again, for Hisao to see. [How much do you know about me and Misha?]

[I know that you two go way back.] But that wasn’t what she was talking about. [And that she... she confessed to you once, before I transferred here.]

Shizune nodded. [I had a lot of trouble with that. We both did. In the end, I made it clear that I wasn’t interested, and then... I tried to forget.] She sniffled. [When I found out that she had tricked me, and used your body to get close to me, I just... I felt so betrayed, so violated.]

Hisao had known that Shizune was mad about it, but evidently it went deeper than that. [So you didn’t want to deal with her, let alone let her have me.] Shizune nodded, and something occurred to Hisao. [But when you look at me you still think about her, which only makes you angrier.]

This one was harder to admit, and Shizune closed her eyes and hung her head, but still nodded. [Yes. No matter which one of you I see, I end up thinking about her.]

Hisao asked a question that was suddenly very important to him. [If we switched back, do you think you could go back to just seeing me?]

A terrifying pause swamped the room in anticipation before Shizune answered. [I think so. I hope so.] She paused again, then sighed. [But we can’t give in - after what she did, we can’t just let her win!]

Hisao smiled, just a bit. It wasn’t the same, but it sounded like good old competitive Shizune. Luckily, he knew how to deal with that side of her. [She’s not going to win.]

Shizune raised an eyebrow, though a tear fell down her cheek as she did.

Hisao continued. [I’ll switch back into my body, and things are going to go back to the way they were. We’re going to meet up on Saturday nights, and go to class, and take tests. And then we’re going to graduate, and go to college, and get jobs, and get married, and have kids, and grow old - and we’re going to win.] Inspired by his own words, he felt strength, pride, and most of all, love. [You and me, Shizune and Hisao, we are going to win. I promise.]

Shizune, after being stunned for a moment, reached forward and grabbed Hisao in a hug, sobbing a bit more. After only a few seconds, however, she pulled away, smiling. [Okay. Let’s do it.] A moment later, though, she added [But let’s see the Nurse first, okay? Just to be sure.]

That sounded like a good idea to Hisao - better to talk to the nurse than go in completely blind. [Alright. Do you want to finish lunch first?]

Shizune looked back at her half-eaten lunch, then shook her head. [No, let’s get this done.]

Hisao nodded. He couldn’t agree more.

~~~~~

The bell for the end of lunch had rung while Hisao and Shizune were on their way to the Nurse’s office, but they ignored it. It was common for them to have student council work to do during class hours - or, at least, it was common for them to cite that as an excuse, regardless of its veracity. So they ended up in front of the Nurse’s office, like they had on Saturday.

Hisao knocked on the door, and heard a positive reply from inside, so he opened it, and the two of them walked in.

“Ah, Mikado and-” The Nurse stopped. “Or, Nakai and Hakamichi, is it?” Hisao nodded. “Alright, then. Speaking of which, have either of you seen Mikado?”

Hisao immediately thought back to seeing Misha on the floor of his room, though of course he had also seen her in class earlier. “Er... Yes, we have. Why?”

“Oh, I just hadn’t seen her since you two switched, and wanted to make sure she was taking your medications.”

“Ah, yeah, we made sure. She said she’s keeping up with them.”

The Nurse smiled. “Excellent! That’s one less thing I have to worry about. So, what brings you two here?”

Hisao took a deep breath. “We, uh... We decided that we want to switch back.”

“Okay. You remember how I told you to do it, right?”

That was an understatement - Hisao had spent the past two days agonizing over it. “Yes, we do. But is there any other way?” He didn’t have much hope, but it was worth asking again.

“I’m sorry, but as far as I know, no, there isn’t. I know that it’s not easy, given... the circumstances, but it’s all I’ve got.”

Shizune tapped Hisao to get his attention, then signed to him, and he translated for the Nurse. “Can you give us any specifics?”

The Nurse sighed. “Unfortunately, no. See, we found out about this completely by accident - every time previously that this happened to a pair of students, they just switched back within a few days, and we thought it was temporary. Still, we asked them some questions about the experience, and that’s when we realized.” He chuckled. “Turns out that every time it happened, the two students involved ended up hitting it off. One thing led to another, and before too long, they had sex and switched back. And that’s all I’ve been able to gather from them, so that’s all I know.”

Hisao was a bit disheartened, but perked up at the notion of there being others who had experienced the same thing. “These other pairs - could we meet them and ask them about it?”

The Nurse grimaced. “Most of them have graduated, but even the few left on campus probably deserve their privacy. Besides, I’m not sure they’d even be willing to tell you any more than they told me. At the end of the day, we have a rough idea of what works, and I think that should be enough to go on.”

Hisao thought about it for a moment, then nodded. They would just have to try it out. He turned to Shizune. [Any more questions?] She shook her head, and Hisao looked back at the Nurse. “Alright, well, I think that’s everything we wanted to ask. Thank you for your time, and... wish us luck.”

“Of course, I’m always glad to help. Oh, right, and-” He opened up one of this desk drawers and rummaged around inside it for a bit, eventually pulling out a few condoms, which he held out to Hisao. “Never rely on luck.”

Rather surprised, especially by the number of them presented, Hisao instinctively took them and tried to stuff them into his pocket - which wasn’t there, of course, since he was wearing a skirt. He spent a bit trying to figure out where to put them, eventually just holding them flat in one hand against his side. He thanked the Nurse, then left, with Shizune following close behind.

She signed to him. [You know we have plenty of those at home, right?]

Hisao had trouble trying to sign with one hand full. [Yeah, but did you want to tell him that?]

Shizune digested that for a moment. [Fair. Anyways, let’s go get Misha.]

[Craftyatom]

Hisao and Shizune had initially gone to their classroom to pull Misha out of class - again, something that could easily be explained away as student council business - but found that she wasn’t there. They asked the teacher, which was was rather terrifying for Hisao thanks to his inexperience with this body’s voice and the condoms he was trying to hide in one hand, but apparently Misha hadn’t come back after lunch.

The obvious next place to look was Hisao’s old room, where they had found Misha before. Luckily, Hisao had left the spare key in Shizune’s room, so after a quick trip to retrieve it, they approached the room where they had seen Misha so exposed before.

Deciding that there wasn’t anything they could walk in on that they hadn’t already seen, Hisao just inserted the key and opened the door without knocking.

Inside was a rather familiar sight: Misha, naked, on the floor by the bed, with her hand on her penis and a couple of indecent-looking magazines laid out nearby. Hisao got a strange sense of deja vu, which was only broken once Misha spoke.

“Ugh, come on! Hisao, this tool of yours is useless - I’m only on my third go today, and it’s already taking forever!”

Hisao tried his best to ignore that, as Shizune closed the door behind them. “Misha, we’re here to... apologize.”

“Oh? Is that so?” Hisao didn’t like the look she was giving him, but carried on anyways.

“Yes. We’re sorry for taking so long to decide, but we’ve decided that we want to switch back.”

Misha smiled, and rubbed her chin. “Decided, huh. And what if I say no?”

This was problematic. “W-What? Don’t you want your body back?”

“Hmm... I don’t know, this body has its perks... How about you make it worth my while?”

Hisao’s face scrunched up. “I’m already going to have to have sex with you in order to switch back. Isn’t that enough?”

Misha laughed. “What, you’re some sort of sex god now? You think I should be honored to do it with ‘The Great Hisao’? No way. It’s gonna take more than that~!”

Lost for words, Hisao remained silent, but Shizune jumped in. [Misha, we’re not just giving you your body back, we’re giving you your life back. Don’t you want that?]

“Actually, no, I don’t really want it back. This life is pretty sweet, you know.”

Hisao spotted a weakness. “You literally just told us that you were frustrated with how long it takes those boy parts to reload.”

Misha rolled her eyes. “Well, yeah, it’s not perfect, but-”

“And what about all those pills you have to take, huh? Every day, so many times a day, so many at once!”

“Well, yeah, but they’re not-”

“And even after taking all those pills, you still get winded when you take the stairs, and you still can’t get to sleep at night!”

“Okay, yeah, that does-”

“And to top it all off, your hallmate is really annoying, and no matter how hard you try to avoid him, he still manages to pop up and ruin your day.”

“WHATEVER!” Misha’s face was angry, but also somewhat defeated. “Sure, this body is the fucking worst sometimes, but you know what? I’m still glad I’m not Misha anymore, because when I was, NOBODY LOVED ME!”

A brief silence fell over the room following her outburst, exacerbated by the fact that Shizune was the one to give a rebuttal. [So who loves you in that body? Because I certainly don’t.]

Misha froze, her eyes growing slightly wet. “I... It, it’s... I don’t...” She sighed, then hung her head. “Miki might. Maybe.”

Hisao latched onto this, now clearly the good cop in this negotiation. “That sounds like the kind of thing you could do in your old life. If you really went for it, using all that charm and laughter, and the body you’re used to, don’t you think you could do it? Especially if you had a pair of friends helping you every step of the way?”

Misha looked up at him. “You would... You would do that for me?”

Hisao nodded. “Of course. That’s what friends are for.”

Misha pursed her lips, then chuckled. “You sure know how to make a deal. Alright, let’s get this show on the road.”

She stood up, and began to walk towards Hisao, but Shizune stepped between them. [We’re going to do this quickly and cleanly, understand? I’m going to keep you both under control.]

Misha began to protest. “Hang on, who said you could-”

Shizune threw her a menacing glare, which cut her off immediately, giving Shizune full control again. [Alright, now, Misha, on the bed, face up.] Misha did as she was told, though she grumbled a little as Shizune addressed Hisao. [If we’re lucky, ‘sex’ just means you bringing her to orgasm. So, just use your hand for now.] Hisao nodded, and went to sit on the bed.

Misha complained again. “Like I said, I’ve been having trouble doing it myself, so I don’t know if a hand- Oh!” She flinched as Hisao put his hand around her erection. “Wow, it feels kinda different when someone else does it.”

Hisao shrugged, then started to move, mimicking the way he remembered doing it to himself, and trying to focus on the areas that used to feel the best. It was clearly more than Misha had been expecting, as she seemed to melt down onto the bed, occasionally releasing a soft moan.

In only a few minutes, her moans grew louder, and she tensed up, before ejaculating onto Hisao’s hand, some of it dripping onto her stomach as her breathing began to slow back down to normal.

Shizune raised an eyebrow. [Any luck?]

Hisao shook his head. [Nope, still in the wrong body.]

[Damn. Alright, next step is to try having both of you climax at once. You keep going, and I’ll take care of you.]

It seemed like a bit of a stretch, but Hisao was willing to give it a shot. He wiped his hand off on Misha’s stomach, then put it back on her crotch, though she was noticeably softer than before, and she made it known. “Hey, look, this is going to be the fourth time today, and it hasn’t even been a minute since last time, so don’t expect me to...”

She trailed off as Shizune knelt down on the bed behind Hisao, wrapped her arms around him, and began to kiss his neck. She rubbed her hands over his stomach, then moved them up to his breasts, massaging them in the spots she knew he liked, getting him ready.

Misha watched, speechless but enthralled. As Hisao felt himself loosen up, he also began to feel Misha get harder and harder - evidently, what she was seeing was enough for her.

Eventually, Shizune reached down and put one hand under Hisao’s skirt and underwear, rubbing her fingertips against him, just like last time. Hisao closed his eyes for a moment, but opened them again after realizing what the goal was - he had to line himself up with Misha, as much as possible. As such, he tried to change the movements of his hand to match his own arousal, and watched his old body intensely, trying to read it.

It took a few minutes, but soon enough, he noticed that both of them were getting close, and he worked on speeding up, powering through. Shizune noticed, and increased her cadence as well, until both he and Misha climaxed together.

Hisao opened his eyes, but his view was exactly the same as before. He was still in Misha’s body. It hadn’t worked. He turned to Shizune, who was staring at him expectantly, and shook his head.

Misha, too, realized that it hadn’t worked. “Alright, well that’s two ideas out of the way. What’s next?”

Shizune stared at nothing in particular for a moment, lost in thought, then sighed. [I guess we’re out of options. You’ll have to go all the way.]

Hisao knew that Shizune wasn’t particularly happy about this, and he patted her on the shoulder, to try and comfort her. Still, she got up, went over to the desk, opened one of its drawers, and pulled out a condom - at which point Hisao realized he had left the ones the Nurse had given him back in Shizune’s room. Good thing he had some of his own.

Shizune stopped at the side of the bed for a moment, then delegated the condom to Hisao, who unwrapped it and slowly applied it to Misha’s penis, which was luckily still hard enough.

Having done that, he reached under his skirt and pulled down his underwear, slipping them off of one foot, then the other. This was the real deal. He climbed onto the bed again, then knelt down, with one leg on either side of Misha’s hips, leaving him hovering above his old body’s penis - the one which, hopefully, would be his own again soon.

Misha chuckled. “Never thought I’d take my own virginity.”

Hisao allowed himself a nervous laugh, then began the process of lowering himself, using one hand to guide Misha into the right spot. He felt it touch him, and stopped for a moment before pressing it in, gently. Misha’s eyes closed, and a her breathing became deeper, as Hisao finally inserted the tip. That was step one, now just-”

Misha bucked her hips upwards, pushing her entire length into Hisao in one thrust - which was incredibly uncomfortable. Hisao lurched forwards, his hands moving to cradle his stomach. It wasn’t that it hurt so much as it just felt strange.

Shizune noticed Hisao’s discomfort, and snapped to get Misha’s attention. [Be careful with him!]

Misha groaned, exasperated. “I can’t help it, it’s just what this body does!”

Shizune narrowed her eyes, then walked over and straddled Misha herself, essentially sitting on her stomach, with her back to Misha and her face to Hisao.

Hisao appreciated the help, but he wasn’t handling the experience well. Last time, it had felt strange, but the pleasure had overridden it. This time, with the sudden thrust and the sheer oddity of being penetrated by, essentially, himself, the sickly, slimy, uneasy feeling had won out, and he cringed.

Once again, Shizune was there to help, she reached out and stroked his face, then massaged his breasts some more. When that wasn’t quite enough, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and began to unbutton her own shirt.

Hisao was taken aback as Shizune finished with some buttons, and shifted her bra and shirt around to give Hisao a good view. It worked - suddenly, he felt comfortable, and warm. It no longer felt like a stranger was inside of him - it felt like it was his girlfriend. He reached out and held hands with her, and she smiled, which gave him the will to continue.

Beneath them, Misha complained. “Hey, come on, I can’t see a thing from down here!”

“Tough.” Slowly, Hisao lifted himself up a few inches, then dropped back down, causing Misha to moan. Shizune’s tactics had worked - this time, it felt better than it did strange. And, given that it did, he tried it again - another success.

Happy with this setup, he started a slow rhythm, and could hear that Misha enjoyed it. She would, though - he remembered his own times with Shizune, and how good they felt.

He carried on for a while, just focusing on his tempo, before he felt Misha getting closer, and noticed that he himself wasn’t far off. He looked at Shizune, who was still watching him carefully, and smiled at her as he began to speed up.

She smiled back, and squeezed his hand, and it made him comfortable. He looked down at her chest, and it reminded him of good times together. Finally, he looked up at her gorgeous eyes, and as she stared back into his, he felt a deep connection, just as particular parts of his brain began to fire off in quick succession, and he tightened up around Misha, who he could feel begin to spasm.

He shut his eyes tightly, and prayed with every fiber of his being to be returned to his body.

~~~~~

The first thing to cross Hisao’s mind as he regained consciousness was a loud noise - with some focus, he recognized it as Shizune snapping her fingers. He slowly opened his eyes, only to find something heavy on top of him - he pushed it off to one side, blinked a few times, then sat up and looked over at Shizune, her shirt now buttoned back up, who was looking at him expectantly.

It took him a moment to remember what she might be expecting - something about the body he was in. He looked over at what had been on top of him, and saw a girl with pink hair - Misha. But if that was Misha, then... He looked down, and found himself completely naked, but with a familiar set of genitalia between his legs. His face lit up, and he wrapped his arms around himself for a moment, just to appreciate his body again.

He looked over at Shizune, but her expression had hardened. [Tell me something only Hisao would know.]

Luckily, he had prepared for this, and smirked. [We’re going to win.]

Shizune’s face lit up, her mouth widening into a smile and her eyes growing wet with joy, but before she approached, Hisao had one more thing to say.

[Also, the green one was our favorite.]

It took Shizune a moment to understand, but once she did, she laughed silently, then ran over and embraced Hisao, who hugged her back so tightly that he lifted her off the ground for a moment.

After pressing themselves against each other for a bit, they heard a groan from nearby. Misha slowly got up, looked around for a bit, then realized she was in her own body again, and breathed a sigh of relief. She then realized that she wasn’t wearing any underwear, and blushed heavily before finding her pair on the floor and quickly putting them on.

Hisao smiled. “Come on, Misha, you think you have something to be embarrassed about?”

Misha looked over at Hisao, who was still completely nude. She pouted, then burst into laughter. “Wahaha~! I guess you’re right, Hi-chan.” She stood up, then took a deep breath. “You know, it feels pretty good to be back.”

In the meantime, however, Shizune had walked up to Misha. She reached out with one hand and slapped Misha, hard, on the cheek.

Misha recoiled, and took a moment to recover before looking back at her attacker, who signed to her. [That’s for taking advantage of me on Saturday.] Shizune then extended one hand. [Now we can call it even.]

Misha stared for a second, then bowed her head and reached out with her own hand, and the two of them shook on it. [I’m sorry. But you’re right, let’s put it behind us.]

Shizune turned around and went back to Hisao, then stood up on her toes and put out her chin in a manner Hisao knew all too well. He leaned forward, putting his arms around her, and kissed her on the lips, cherishing every moment of it.

Like Misha had said, he was elated to have put the whole ordeal - interesting though it might have been - behind him.

END.

[Hanako Fancopter]

Well I'm obviously familiar with this story already so I feel obligated to leave a comment on it. I think you improved it a lot and I enjoyed the whacky ride you ended up with it. It's weird, it's ridiculous, it's lewd, and you explore the implications of your premise quite thoroughly for a one-shot.

[brythain]

Okay, Crafty, you win. It's the most ridiculous and insane and entertaining tragicomic one-shot in the forums. It's even more topless, or over the top, than Hoitash's stuff.