Linked Paths

Arc I - Closer to You [Chapter 1: If I were You, or am I?]

I thought Kacchan would walk out of my room as well, but he surprises me when he turns back, lets the door slide shut behind him and throws himself onto my couch with a loud sigh.

Kacchan: “What a shit!”, *crosses his arms behind his head and sinks a little deeper into the couch cushions*

“Yeah…”, I sit down next to him, uncertain of how to behave around him. Today we exchanged more words than in the entire last two years. That alone is peculiar.

Kacchan: “But it could actually have been even worse.”

I look at him questioningly.

Kacchan: “Well, I hate to admit it…”, *briefly falters, looks like he is in mental pain as he continues*, “…but at least it’s you and not some totally foreign extra.”

I nod and chuckle a little.

Kacchan: “Imagine if I had swapped bodies with an ugly, frail old woman. Irgh!”, *makes a disgusted face*

Me: “Kacchan!”

Kacchan: “Or a small, annoying child. That would be absolute horror.”

I nod again, “True...At least it’s someone of the same age and gender and someone you know.”

Kacchan: “Hey, and you have the body of a god now!”

I must laugh at this.

Kacchan: “It’s just true, nerd!”

Briefly, we are lost in our thoughts, and no one speaks. Honestly, I’m both glad and perplexed that Kacchan seeks contact with me and doesn’t ignore me or, worse, pushes me away. He probably knows how important it is to work together and support each other now. We are in each other’s skin. In the truest sense of the word. Accordingly, I have control over something that is sacred to him.

Thinking of which, a very specific need I was able to ignore until now that it becomes too urgent, slaps me in the face, or more precisely in the bladder.

“Ehm…”, I start but stop, horrified, because being trapped in someone else’s body is fraught with utter embarrassment. From which I try to not die right now.

In my peripheral vision, I sense that Kacchan is now looking at me. I blush hard and play nervously with my hands. “Kacchan…I-I have to...go to the t-toilet.” By All Might, please just kill me now!

Although such announcement is absolutely awkward, I feel I have to let him in on this, at least the first time. After all, it means I’m seeing him, and in a very different way. Very different than seeing someone in the locker room or alike. Kind of being him without truly being him in the end. Absolutely irritating and scary. I don’t know how, but I muster up enough courage to look at him. Just, he desperately runs his hand over his face, well my hands, my face, whatever, it’s just too exhausting.

Kacchan: “Guess that can’t be avoided, huh?”

Our eyes meet. I notice that even Kacchan blushes slightly, which really absolutely rarely happens. Well, he’s not himself now, and the whole situation is just terribly humiliating.

Kacchan: “Sitting. Look and touch as little as possible.”

“Of course.”, I absolutely understand this.

I get up and go into my adjacent bathroom. I close the door behind me and exhale heavily. I don’t want this, but I have no choice. This is something I can’t fight against and am forced to go through with it.

So, I flip up the toilet lid and fumble nervously with the pants. I pull down pants including underwear, of course, do not look. I want to scream. I sit down on the toilet, avoiding any direct contact, and let run. In principle, it doesn’t feel very much different than in my own body but is still super strange. As something that I should simply not feel or experience, something that definitely belongs to the true owner, something more than just conventionally private. Actually, it’s hard to describe or compare with anything. When I’m done, I get dressed again, which doesn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped, but I manage without seeing or touching him. I’m glad it was just a little business.