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Regaining consciousness, I opened my eyes and Kaori was sleeping in front of me. I blink a few times, making sure that this isn’t just a continuation of a dream. What happened while I was asleep? I quickly tried to move away, but…

‘I can’t move my body?’

Is this sleep paralysis? I can’t move my neck and I can’t even make a sound. The most I can remember is that I fell asleep at the bathhouse. I don’t know what happened after, but Kotone probably managed to do something.

‘And why is Kaori sleeping next to me?’

That’s honestly the biggest mystery. Kaori and Kotone shouldn’t know each other. So I have no idea what happened that resulted in them sleeping together holding hands. I just can’t imagine the bashful Kotone actually doing something like this.

‘Oi, Kotone!’

I called her, but she didn’t respond at all. Searching within me, I can somehow tell that Kotone is in deep sleep. So I’m the only one awake, huh. I want to know what happened, but since I can’t move, I guess I’ll have to give up for now. Besides, I don’t even know what time it is right now.

‘If Miyako and Harumi see us like this, they might just get the wrong idea.’

The doors are self-locking, so they probably won’t try entering our room. And even if they do, the sound of knocking should wake Kaori up. More importantly, I’m having a problem right now. What to do?

‘One possibility is that it’s the side effect of Kotone taking control, despite it being only temporary.’

If that’s the situation, then I can imagine Kotone executing her nuclear option. And she won’t have the leeway to think about the complications. She’ll definitely get mad at me. This is completely my fault.

‘Still, this happening every time we switch would be so inconvenient.’

I’m completely fine with returning Kotone’s body to her. But to think that the two of us switching would result in me being immobile. This isn’t originally my body, so I can understand this after-effect. Perhaps there’s some sort of malfunction in the connection between my consciousness and Kotone’s body.

‘Ah, my fingertip moved.’

Thank goodness. If this had continued, I might have had to permanently return Kotone’s body. And if that happens, I’ll inevitably be the one to disappear. But in that case, Kotone will be sad.

‘It’d be pointless in that case.’

Kotone is letting me use her body. She’s giving up on her own life and conceding it to a stranger. I personally cannot accept that line of thought, but if the situation doesn’t allow any alternative, then I at least want to leave some memories.

‘Since we’ll become one, I want to leave shared memories behind.’

I need to make very enjoyable memories for me and Kotone. That is my goal; this must be achieved until the assimilation with Kotone is completed. The matter with Kotone’s father is done, so this is my new objective.

“Oh, morning.”

But before anything, I’ll need to do something about this situation. Since my finger moved, Kaori woke up. From an outsider’s perspective, I must look like a corpse. After all, even when called to, I can neither move nor speak.

“Kotone?”

Since I can only move my fingers, I can’t reply. The situation is extremely dire. Outside of my inability to move, nothing feels wrong to me. If Kaori panics and goes out to call for help, it’ll cause chaos.

“Don’t go?”

That’s why I muster all the strength to hold down Kaori’s hand with my fingertips. Now, if I can just move my mouth, I’ll be able to explain the situation. I’m honestly impressed about how calm I am.

“Actually, which Kotone is it now?”

So Kotone did come out. Furrowing my brow, I thought of how to explain the situation, but I came to the conclusion that it’s impossible right now.

“Ah, it’s Kotone Kotone. I can somewhat tell.”
“How though?!”

Ah, I can use my voice now. I instinctively spoke out loud, but I really have no idea how she knows.

“It’s because lil’ Kotone is cute.”

If that’s the reason, then that makes me not cute. Well, I know I’m not cute, but in my case, being called cute only feels weird to me. Just what part of me is cute, honestly?

“So, what’s wrong?”
“I can’t move my body. It’s more or less like sleep paralysis, so I should get better in time.”
“Was it the effect of Kotone taking control?”
“Probably. I suspect that it’s due to my consciousness having completely separated from my body. I can’t say for sure unless I ask Kotone.”

She seems to be asleep, so I can’t ask about it. I can probably wake her up by force, but I don’t want to. This happened because she covered for my stupid mistake, after all. Oh right, I have to ask Kaori what happened when I was asleep.

“You talked with Kotone, right?”
“About a lot of stuff, yeah. It was pretty fun.”
“What did you two do?”
“We talked, played, sang, and went to the room to talk until we fell asleep.”

Well, they had a damn fun time. I thought Kotone was the shy-type, but I guess she’s fine with Kaori. I presume that she’s fine because she has always been watching my actions.

“The same goes with you, but Kotone’s voice was really pretty. We had so much fun singing.”
“I guess you two hit it off well.”
“She just makes you want to take the lead, you know? Completely opposite of you.”
“That, I agree. She’s been suppressing herself all this time, you see. She couldn’t find anything to do in life.”

You could say that Kotone couldn’t find fun in life because she made being noticed by her father her life goal. She was able to take interest in other things since the time we played together, but the second Kotone took her place soon after.

“She’s given up on living, you know? That’s why she wants to give her body to me.”
“Is there no way to coexist?”
“None.”

With this incident, it’s fully confirmed. This body is Kotone’s and the ownership of this body still remains with her. The main reason I could use it as my own is because Kotone didn’t come out at all.

“I see then.”
“I expected you to have more to say.”
“I mean, you two have already discussed that between yourselves, right? So there’s no point in me butting in. It’s really regrettable, though.”
“Have you heard about our situation?”
“I haven’t asked about that at all. We just had a really fun chat.”

I’m honestly really curious about what they talked about. After all, the one thing the two of them have in common is definitely me. Don’t tell me that they talked about my past as Souji? Kotone should be capable of peering into my memories. It’s fun to watch as a bystander, but hell to experience in person.

“About the past?”
“Yeah, but only Kotone’s past. We decided that it was dangerous to talk about and get involved with Souji’s past.”
“I was planning to use it to get you roped into stuff.”
“How can you think like that when you literally can’t move? You’re so calm, it’s eerie.”
“That’s my only problem, you see. I don’t feel sick or anything like that. Still, it is pretty inconvenient.”

Ever since she woke up, Kaori has been in a sitting position. I’m the only one lying down. With my current position, I can’t see her unless I look up, so it’s honestly rough. But since we started talking, I went from being only able to move my fingertips to being able to move whole fingers.

“What’s the time?”
“It just became 6 am, I think. Will you be better by breakfast?”
“Not likely. But I want to eat.”
“Want me to feed you?”
“I’d rather you don’t. I guess I’ll have to give up on the luxurious breakfast.”
“Breakfast apparently lasts until 10 am, so you might still make it. But eat too much, and it might affect you at lunch.”

I feel like Kaori’s eyes are screaming, ‘Worry about yourself before worrying about breakfast.’ I mean, if I don’t make it look like it’s serious, the people nearby will think that things are alright. I prefer keeping my anxieties from showing as much as possible. But frankly, I do feel really uneasy.

After all, it feels as if my bodily sensations have been reset. In other words, I might need some rehab. I’m really glad that we’re not doing winter sports today.