Chapter 2 – Screwing your head on straight

Continuation of the last chapter...

"Shit, I really have become Emilia, haven't I?"

Shousuke was caught off guard just a tiny bit by the soft voice, almost reaching anime Seiyuu voice acting peak quality. He had brought up his hand towards his cheek, the girl staring back in the mirror simultaneously doing the same. His hands rested on his cheeks, it was warm and soft. Belligerently, he gave himself a good smack across the face. The girl's cheeks in turn flushed a little red from the impact, but then frowned at the sight. This was the first time he had rough-handled a girl that was not his siblings. Even if that girl was himself.

'I'm definitely not dreaming... The question though is, why me? I'm just a guy that likes Re:Zero' Shousuke contemplated, as he traced back his steps to what could have possibly occurred throughout the last couple of days. He had been mostly sedentary throughout the last couple of days to catch up on the series he had fallen in love with. It wasn't an obsession, but more of a curiosity on his part in wanting to know what would happen next. He had also eaten normally, perhaps lacking a little sleep by choice, and had maintained his social life. He had hung out with Adam and a couple of his drinking aged buddies while chatting about some of the girls they have met at a nearby bar. Apparently they had all come from the same city in Nevada to study here for a plethora of other Majors that were outside of Shousuke's field. Of course, Adam had warmed him up to them, otherwise he would have shied away from and would have preferably made friends in his field. They were all interesting people, very outgoing, friendly, and a tad bit boisterous at times. Something that isn't very advocated in Japanese society as most keep to themselves in public.

'They did bring a few weird snacks but I didn't eat them. So that's probably not the reason I'm like this.' Shousuke determined, still trying to solve his current predicament. He had brought his now pale and very soft, flawless hands close to his face. Analyzing them as he caressed them delicately. The girl's complexion was flawless as well, she was wearing his now baggy shirt and shorts. Shousuke was thinner than most guys around his age due to him not having a large appetite for anything more than a plateful of food. But this girl was even smaller than him yet had the perfect anatomical dimension. Her eyes shone like beautiful Amethyst gems, and her hair symbolizing purity. It was truly any man's dream girl.

'Subaru is very lucky to have had such a girl like this in his world but to become her myself...' Shousuke's mind ventured off, drawing a blank as he repeated the name 'Emilia...' Suddenly a spark lit in him as he remembered the line he uttered last night.

"I wish Emilia was real..." He had uttered again. Suddenly the air around him had both expanded and contracted into a vacuum like force that was blowing and sucking things off of the ceramic sink top. The wind had tripped him off his balanced, causing him to reach out and grab a-hold of the towel rack. Some of the bathroom essentials such as the soap bar and the shelve doors to start flying/flapping all over the place, causing a loud ruckus. The wind resided, as he blanked stood there trying to figure out what just happened. Adam must have heard the ruckus, as he barged through the door moments later after being rudely woken up.

"What the hell man, I'm trying to sleep and - eer, who are you?" He asked, all of a sudden a leering grin formed on his face. "Now I get it, he got hooked up last night and snuck it past me. Doesn't explain why this cosplayer was throwing shit all over the place though."

"Wrong on all accounts, you ass." Shousuke scowled as he saw him make a provocative gesture. "It's me, I woke up like this. The guy who's been living under the same roof as you for the last 2 weeks or so." He stated, visible confusion crawling all over Adam's face.

"Also sorry for waking you up, I kind of lost my cool when I found myself like this. I kind of had a nervous breakdown..." Shousuke lied as he turned away from the mess he created. That wind was something mystical, something that did not belong to this world. 'If this emerald green pendant was anything to go by, that would mean that Puck is stored in there. And if this world has mana to let himself manifest into his familiar form, that would mean that he would be waking up soon at any moment. I would much rather meet him and ask him a few things before I do something irreversible.'

"I am so lost right now..." Adam uttered to himself as he turned is head in regard for the over-sized shirt that was hanging off the girl, barely covering her rack. Shousuke nodded along in agreement, not noticing the provocative clothing he was showing off. Adam put up a chivalrous front to order to maintain himself. "Ok, what is one thing that I hide in the backyard of my parents house back when I was in middle school? That will let me know whether or not you're bullshitting me." He smirked as interrogated the girl. The girl in turn put her right hand on her hips.

"The WW2 fountain dagger pen with the Reichsadler insignia at the tip of the cap. You found it at an antique store back in Las Vegas. Every once in a while you dig it out to polish it." Shousuke had responded, wondering why the question had to be oddly specific. 'Why did he even tell me about such a thing to begin with?' He mused to himself. Satisfied, Adam had bent over with a poker face and picked up the soap bar off the ground to put it back in its place before turning to leave the bathroom. "Ummm, aren't you going to say anything?"

"What, you want me to follow down that cliché path? What do you want me to say, 'Holy shit, I woke one morning and found out that my roommate had turned into a chick straight out an anime series. Then proceed to fall down that trope rabbit hole to get together with them?' Nah, we don't do that here. It would probably take more time for me to get used to, but since 2019 has been a shitstorm of a year. I decided to suck it up and accept reality. More importantly, what are you going to do now?" Adam suggested, bringing up the most significant point of them all.

"Case and point, I guess... For now, I should probably wait for Puck to wake up before I do anything rash. We can go over what to do later." Shousuke had suggested, grabbing hold of the pendant-necklace to show it off.

"Ahh, the little familiar that the main girl in Re:Zero has. Well, if you want to have my opinion, you should probably get yourself a new set of clothes as that shirt seems to be empowering all sorts of male fantasies." Adam stated, finally deciding to point out the clothing issue on his now female roommate. Shousuke had glanced down to see that his shirt had indeed needed to be presentable. He didn't seem to mind all that much since he was already good friends with Adam, although this conversation would be be a pretty awkward encounter with some random stranger.

"You know, the author probably would have had the girl freak out right now due to fan-service cliches. But since it's me in this body, and having seen my fair share of explicit R-34 fanart for certain over characters, it's not like I really care." Shousuke had shrugged off his remark, making Adam cough in response.

"You know, hearing an anime girl say that makes it all the more hot." Adam grinned perversely in response, Shousuke dismissed his remark as they both simultaneously left the bathroom. Out through the corridor and into the living room. Thoughts started to overwhelm his cerebrum as he caressed his silver locks of hair falling down past his shoulders. The chest region was starting to feel uncomfortable as well, he would likely need to go out and buy himself preferable a sports bra preferably for now.

'It's almost 9, so Puck should be waking up very soon. That gust of wind that I created in the bathroom was certainly not normal as saying those simple words out loud drew in a wave of energy. If magic does indeed exist in this world then Puck's appearance would certainly confirm that as Spirits would draw in the mana around them to make a physical form. The question though that if mana/spirits does exist, why hasn't humanity in itself discovering them yet. No wait, perhaps that power was manifested directly from my soul. Seeing as to how Emilia was a descendant of the Elven race could certainly factor in it, but that doesn't directly explain why humans can't channel the same power as well. Because I certainly feel a bubbly feeling like an overflowing chalice of liquid around my chest region that wasn't there before I said those words outloud. It was like turning on a light-switch. Damnit, it's no use without getting more information from Puck. Hopefully he can read the situation better than I can.' Shousuke contemplated, drowning out the world around him before accidentally bumping into a chair. Shousuke lamented himself for his careless before circling around it and settling down with his arms crossed under his new bust. He had glanced over at the electronic clock attached to the wall on his left.

'8:54, I could have swore that felt this whole revelation felt much longer than that.' He had reached over the marble coffee table for the TV remote, turning it on to Spike TV to see if anything good was on. Adam had introduced him to American TV the first day he had moved in. He didn't find anything that interested him at the time except for a show called Yellowstone. Unfortunately, the show wasn't on now, so he decided to flip through the channels to find something else to watch.

"Hey, ummm. Sorry for the thing I said earlier, but if you anything to confront your new problem.  I would be happy to help." Adam stated, trying to mend their friendship back to where it was before.

"Well, for now I'll just hang out here and see if Puck shows up or not. But I do need you to keep my problem a secret for now. At least when it comes to person to person meetings. Introduce me to them as your new friend or whatever, and if someone ask for me, tell them that I went to meet with some of my friends had come to LA for a little while. I least until I get my problems sorted out." Shousuke suggested, at least trying to be considerate of fact that his friend easily accepted him.

"Sure, no problem... Actually, now that we're on the topic of you becoming an anime girl, I've actually started to watch Re:Zero on my downtime at the local McDonald's down the street. And I have to say, it's really good despite the fact that I find the main character a little annoying at times. So far I'm on episode 6 but it's really damn interesting." Adam asserted, pulling out the his phone to show me the time-stamp on Netflix he had left off on. 'About time you got around to watching it. After I told my friends on Discord that I had caught up with the anime in no time within the last couple of days, my inbox started lighting up with most of them wanting to know my take on the show was. I haven't even gotten around to answering all of them yet as most of the would try to carry out lengthy conversations when I just wanted to focus on reading the main series.' Shousuke thought to himself, relieved that he had finally have been able gift the author a much broader audience. Even if it was only one person, the author deserves all the support he could get.

"About time you finally have gotten around to watching Subaru Literally has the Worst Time Ever in Another World, the Anime." Shousuke stated with a Cheshire grin to accompany it. "I didn't come up with that, by the way."

"Silver-lining for Creativity, I guess..." Adam attested to that, turning away in a graceless manner.  'Damnit, why is he so damn cute when he smiles like that?' Adam felt his pride take a frontal assault from the smirk on Shou's face. Suddenly, the pendant started to glow a bright, nearly blinding green as spiritual particles started to swirl around in the air. The pair were left flabbergast by the current phenomenon The particles started gathering around the avatar, setting building blocks as it started manifesting the spirit's form. The spirit had popped out in an eccentric manner as if trying to break himself free out of restraints

"Good morning Lia-" Puck had all of a sudden drifted off of his usual morning greets after seeing his daughter's spiritual aura and became eerily suspicious her. "Wait, something's off about you today. It's as if you're possessed by an evil spirit but at the same time, you're not. As if your souls have fused into one." The cat familiar had tried to activate his Decurseifcation but something had held him back. "What in the name of Volcanica is going on? I can't access my gate! It's as if it's been stripped from me!" His eyes desperately fell on Emilia seeing her safe and sound, yet the furnishing she sat on looked off. This wasn't the Roswaal E-state he was familiar with, and his connection with Betty was completely severed. 'This doesn't make any sense, living beings and spirits can't exist without a gate, yet I'm still here. Her soul has been altered drastically, yet my spiritual contract with her still remains. What's going on?' Puck thought to himself, alarmed by his powerlessness.

"Lia... No Emilia, can you explain what's going on? Where are we?" He had glanced over at the male seated across from her. His face turned into a scowl. "Are you the one that did this?!" The cat spirit sneered, as he drifted over to Emilia. Shousuke, currently Emilia, sighed in defeat at the apparent lack of knowledge for his current predicament. Adam was bewildered by the open hostility of the spirit.

"This going to be a long day..."