“Huh...?” I felt myself tense with confusion.
There was Ayasaki Hikaru, sleeping peacefully on the bed in his Gothic-Lolita dress.
And here I was, lying next to him, buck naked.
...........................................................................
“Hrgh?!” I jolted upright. I, Ayasaki Hikaru, was definitely asleep. Thanks to my cosplaying, I spent plenty of time looking at myself in mirrors and taking selfies and stuff. A lot of people probably weren’t nearly as familiar with their own faces as I was, and maybe the reason it took me a second to register this bizarre turn of events was because I was so accustomed to seeing myself.
What turn of events was this? Was I dreaming? Having an out-of-body experience? These days, I lived in an alternate world full of elves and dwarves and lizardmen, where magic was an everyday thing. Maybe astral travel was totally normal, too. Maybe you could do it with magic or something.
I realized I was so confused I could hardly think straight. Almost unconsciously, I brushed my long hair out of my face, and the sensation alerted me that this was neither a dream nor a disembodied journey. Physical sensation was present and accounted for. Or was even that part of the illusion?
I looked down to take an inventory of my body.
“............”
I felt my mind go blank. I was completely naked. And hey, that was fine. In a person’s own room, they can wear whatever they want—or don’t want, as the case may be. I seemed to remember some Greek myth about some guy who fell in love with himself when he saw his own face in a pool of water, but at least I didn’t have that problem.
Not normally, anyway. But...
“I... I can’t believe this...”
I was particular about my appearance, always making sure to attend to my hair and complexion. So it wasn’t the pale, healthy glow of my skin that surprised me. No, I was wondering why my chest seemed so... round.
I put a hand to my chest, discovering a slight but distinct weight. It was unmistakable. This was no illusion. Being seriously obese could produce that effect, of course, but it so happened that no other part of my body seemed so swollen. In fact, I looked exceptionally taut all over. Which all suggested one thing.
I sat and thought about it for a moment. I had a bad feeling about this. I know I dress in women’s clothes pretty much every day, but I am a man. I don’t wear women’s clothes out of some desire to deny that. I’m not interested in any sex-change surgery, and I still get perfectly excited if I see a naked woman. (At least if she’s my type.)
But anyway... After a long moment, I gathered my nerves and looked down. My gaze moved over the breasts... past my navel...
“Eeeeeeeek!”
A scream wrenched its way out of my lips. What should have been there... wasn’t!
A wave of confusion swept over me as I sat there, confronted with this fact. I was sure it had been there as recently as yesterday. I mean, it was attached to me! And now there was no trace of it! In its place was a woman’s—
“B-But why?!”
I was in a girl’s body, all right. I just didn’t have the faintest idea how I’d gotten there. It wasn’t a dream. It wasn’t an illusion. As hard as it was to accept, this was real.
“Hikaru-san, what’s wrong?!” Someone was knocking urgently on my door, trying to ascertain what was happening to me. It was Shinichi-san. And I was sure he wasn’t alone. I could hear someone else on the other side of the door, too. Myusel, probably. They must have heard my scream and wondered what was wrong.
Crap. That was my first thought. I hardly even knew what I was thinking it about.
“H-Hey... It’s... n-n-n—”
I was in such a panic I could hardly talk.
I’m fine. That’s all I had to say, but all I could manage were trembling syllables that could only make Shinichi-san and Myusel think something was really wrong. And Myusel had a spare key to every room. It seemed like only a matter of time until they came in to check on me. It should have been easy: I should have just exclaimed, “I’m fine!” or “Don’t come in!” But all I could manage was inarticulate gibbering as they pushed open the door.
Not just pushed it open, either; the door flew inward, and in bounded Shinichi-san and Myusel, just as I’d expected. “Hikaru-san, what’s... wrong............”
Behind them, Minori-san and Elvia were there, too.
There was a short, heavy silence, and then Shinichi-san let out a single befuddled syllable.
“...............What?”
Myusel, Minori-san, and even Elvia were just standing there, saucer-eyed. Everyone was understandably shocked at my... nakedness.
“Hikaru......san?”
“I think so,” I said, not feeling entirely sure myself. For the time being, I did the only thing I could do—arrange my hands to try to preserve my modesty.
The mansion was normally bright and full of life, but now it felt oddly... stifling. Anxious. Confused. Shaken. Maybe even a little panicked. Along with any other synonyms for “disturbed” you might come up with. Nobody knew exactly what was going on, but we were all very concerned about it. Including, of course, the person at the center of it all, namely me. But everyone else was so freaked out that I looked positively calm by comparison.
Sitting on the living room sofas were me, Shinichi-san, and Minori-san. Behind Shinichi-san and Minori-san stood Myusel, Brooke, and Cerise, collectively facing me. In other words, all eyes were on me. I found myself feeling a little uncomfortable. I tried to glance away from them, down to my knees, but then I couldn’t help noticing the bulge of my chest in my peripheral vision, and that made it all the more difficult to keep my composure. Outwardly, it didn’t look so different from when I was wearing padding, but wearing a brassiere that was actually touching my skin—it was, well, different. My intense awareness of the fact made it hard to ignore the swell.
