What struck me the first thing was not the usual call to arms, but an utter, horrendously stifling silence in my mind.
In normal conditions, recovery of consciousness would trigger a flood of conflicting thoughts a project deadline in the nearest future, the need to go to the gym, the need to read the statistics of gameplay, and the need to notify Hiroto about an upcoming party. I, Akihiro, at twenty years of age was a typical example of a person that did not simply enter the room, but ruled in it. My grades had been good, my physical prowess in baseball outstanding, and my appearance to be honest about it made me a campus heartthrob, a person who is very much aware of who he is.
But on this one day there was no clearness of this; but rather pure, empty, female horror.
I opened my eyes, and stared at the white blue canopy of my bed both the same and the strange. A hand, which was indescribably light, delicate, and as alien, floated toward my face. My jawbone I had worked at years with hard training was gone; and my fingers followed a gentle, beautiful curve ending in a chin that was too small and pointed.
I suddenly sat up when the duvet had fallen off to reveal a smooth and unfamiliar chest. Then, there was an overwhelmingly disastrous panic that made the room spin. I stumbled out of the bed and stared at myself in the full length mirror before my desk in the study.
I stood paralysed; my breath came in with stilted inhalation.
This is not Akihiro who is lying on the bed.
The look of the person, who gazed at me, was that of a woman without doubt.
She was beautiful indeed, but almost overly so.
Her long and wavy hair, which was like honey, warmed by the sun, and brownsugar, poured down her shoulders in natural waves. and her eyes, which I knew were my own, but somehow bigger and framed by heavy lashes, were of a remarkable amber which stood out sharply against her dainty features. The body was thin and almost airy, and wore the bulky college T shirt I used to wear, but now it was like a borrowed robe.
"No. No, no, I said to myself and the voice that came out was a high melancholic soprano that made my stomach feel queasy. This was the voice of a singer in a J-pop group, not of man, who traditionally sang low, confidently in the baritone.
I clashed my face with a violent vigor. The pain was real, but the perception could not be disturbed. The lady of the mirror only smiled, her amber eyes opened in surprise.
It must have been a dream born of a comatose state, or it may have been a prank. Yet how could my parents
I pushed myself out of the bedroom and ran down the corridor towards kitchen where I smelled of the usual coffee my mother made.
My father was reading the morning paper sipping coffee. He looked up, with all the friendliness and utter normality of his face.
Good morning, Akari," he said, putting the newspaper back in its place. You are early, you are still accustoming yourself to college life, my dear?
"Akari." the name had been like sand in my mouth.
"Dad! What is this? What is occurring? Where is my body?" I insisted, with a high and trembling voice.
He laughed with a kindly, old, and friendly tone, which had had of yore an assuaging effect on me, but now only added to my terror. "Silly girl." You have just awakened, he continued. Your body is right there. And hast thou dreamt a thing strange? You are beautiful, as ever, Akari. No need to dread your pretty little head.
My mother came in the laundry room with a heap of freshly washed clothes in her hands. She looked at me, with a mild, loving smile upon her features the same smile which she had put on my face every day dawn.
Your father is telling the truth, Conc. You are being melodramatic. You are our girl, Akari, since the time you were born. Dine now, or you lose your Sociology lecture.
They were not false. There was not a mite of confusion or hidden laugh or any trace of jest in their eyes. They considered me as their daughter, Akari.
I re examined my path, my mind falling. It was I that changed the world, not the world. But, of course, all other people acted as though this was the only reality that has ever existed.
Akihiro is no longer present.
Instead of him the campus has a new, puzzling beautiful girl who is deeply troubled. I he, she I have to find how to live in her life.
This is not possible, that piece of Akihiro cawed inside the beautiful and the unknown mind of Akari. Yet this is but the first day.
I felt that this unlucky first day would turn into an unbearable irreconcilable life.