"You're Very Talented."

 

 

 

Everyone had spent the next half hour just listening to music. It was relaxing. Occasionally someone would make a comment, or a request. They cycled through the three-dozen songs Toshi had recorded and they were all obviously covers of the original, but well made nonetheless. Haruo was the one who waited until they were between tracks to bring things back around to a normal conversation.

 

Toshi looked up at Haruo, "Actually, He's the talented one. I'm just riding on his coat tails." Everyone looked a little confused by this remark.

 

"Wait. Do you actually feel like there are... two of you?"

 

Haruo comment took Toshi off guard. He stopped to contemplate the remark before saying, "Well... not entirely. I have no experience with music at all, but he had a lot. It is like... I never road a bike before, but he did, so when I get on a bike, I am remembering how to ride a bike, using his memories... but they aren't memories. I don't remember specific events. I just remember... how to ride a bike."

 

Kingo leaned back, "So... You know how to record songs, but you never recorded a song before."

 

Toshi nodded, "Yeah. He was a pop star. Went by the cringe-tastic name, Honey Whitefox."

 

Haruo was sitting on the counter. Upon hearing that name he straightened up fast enough to hit his head on the cabinet behind him, "OW!"

 

Toshi looked over, but never got to speak as Kingo cut him off, "Hold it. Here YOU are Honey Whitefox?"

 

Toshi looked over and nodded as Ichikawa asked, "Who's Honey Whitefox?"

 

Haruo hopped off the counter rubbing the back of his head, "Only the hottest J-pop star in Japan! In the real world I had a poster of her in my room and not a week would go by without at least ONCE-" He suddenly cut himself off, "Wait." He snapped his head around to stare at Toshi with a look of pure horror, "Honey Whitefox is actually a TRAP???" He covered his mouth, "Oh god! I'm gonna PUKE!"

 

Kingo looked over and frowned, "Uh, No! Honey Whitefox is a girl."

 

Haruo pointed at Toshi, "He isn't a girl!"

 

Kingo pointed at Toshi, "His SISTER is Honey Whitefox in the real world! He died at her first concert and it rattled her so much that..." He turned from Haruo to look at Toshi. His voice took on a hollow tone to it, "That she quit being Honey Whitefox."

 

Toshi nodded, "I couldn't keep up the facade, so I quit as well."

 

Haruo let out a sigh of relief, "Whew! For a second there I thought I was... err..."

 

Toshi slowly turned to look at Haruo, "Have you been whacking off to pictures of my sister?" Haruo opened his mouth, then looked away and rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to avoid answering the question.

 

Ichikawa looked at Haruo with disgust, "You are such a pervert!"

 

Haruo glared back, "Hey, everyone does it!"

 

"You're the only one who talks about it!"

 

"DUDE! My SISTER?" Toshi looked at Haruo with wide, disbelieving eyes.

 

"Not your sister!" He gestured over his shoulder, "The real world version of your sister!"

 

Toshi looked somewhat placated, "Well, okay. At least it isn't my-" He abruptly curt himself off as he smacked both sides of his head then held his arms out wide, "HOLD IT! That IS my REAL SISTER!"

 

"I didn't know when I bought the poster!" Haruo then pointed a finger at Toshi, "Since you are Honey Whitefox here, how many bedrooms do you think have posters of you along with teenage girls rubbing one out while thinking of banging you?" He crossed his arms, "Pot meet Kettle."

 

Toshi was about to shout back when he had a flashback to the hentai he found under Mieko's mattress. He went pale as he started to hyperventilate. Ichikawa notice and reached over to put a hand on his shoulder, "Hey... you okay?"

 

He looked up and was about to speak, but stopped. He looked around then closed his eyes, "I was about to say I'm fine... but I'm not." He picked up his phone from the table and turned off the player. A few swipes of his finger and a quick GooHoo search and he found what he was looking for. It was for sale for about fourteen hundred yen. He tossed his phone onto the table for everyone to see.

 

Celebrity Rape Island, issue forty-four, staring Honey Whitefox.

 

Haruo reached over and turned the phone around so he could see it clearer, "Holy Shit." Kingo leaned in and looked at it without comment.

 

Ichikawa picked up the phone to scroll through the page looking increasingly revolted, "I know crap like this exists, but to see a manga that was created specifically about someone I know..." She looked up at Toshi, "I'm sorry."

 

Toshi smirked and snorted while looking up at the ceiling light, "The funny thing is, I don't know how to feel. Part of me finds it funny and another part of me is terrified. It's like I don't take it seriously and it scares me at the same time."

 

Haruo searched for the webpage on his own phone while Kingo focused on Toshi, "Dude... I'm..." He looked sideways, "Wait... that means back in our world, this same comic exists, but about your sister." He suddenly looked just as disgusted as Ichikawa, "That's awful!" He turned back to Toshi, "After Naora died, the real world Hinako was a real friend to me. She talked with me about losing you, and she... she was a very good friend. I owe her. She really came through when I was at my lowest point." He rubbed his mouth for a moment then continued, "This is all so screwed up."

 

Haruo looked over the webpage for a while before speaking up, "Dude. I'm so sorry you are going through all this crap. I was going to say Ichikawa had it bad, but I think your life is officially the worst out of all of us here."

 

Toshi leveled a flat look at Haruo, "Thanks, I think."

 

Ichikawa handed the phone back to Toshi, "Actually... this all gets me thinking." Everyone turned to look at her as she continued, "My theory had been, whatever happens to us starts, we get sick, we wind up in the hospital, for a while our minds swap between worlds, then we recover." She frowned and tilted her head to the side, "What if I'm wrong?"

 

Toshi quirked his head, "Explain?"

 

She started to gesture with her hands as she spoke, "What if... we get sick, wind up in the hospital, then someone does something at the hospital to us?" She focused on Toshi, "You say you died. It sounds like you died on both sides, but then you got better, but only here." Toshi nodded to confirm. She continued, "Did they take any scans of your brain? How damaged is it?"

 

"My brain is fine." He paused then spoke slowly, "But... there was quite a bit of damage before I recovered. The damage went away in a few days."

 

She pointed at Toshi while looking at the others, "What if we all went to the hospital with something serious, and someone there is testing a-" She made finger quotes in the air, "a 'new treatment' without knowing it has these side effects? The rest of us were just test cases, but they only did it on this side, or maybe it only happens on this side, so it wasn't as effective for his other version." She paused, "Or the other ones of us took longer to recover then we did."

 

Kingo squinted, "And you think this... why?"

 

She pointed at Toshi, "I think both versions of him are in the same body. They're trying to overwrite the same... parts of his brain. This world version of him has no where to go, so you have... Hybrid Toshi." She gestured to the other two, "Remember how confused you were when you flipped? How everyone was so disjointed? But that feeling didn't actually start for me until I got to the hospital." Haruo and Kingo both slowly nodded in agreement.

 

Kingo started tapping the table with a finger, "It's not much to go on, but it's the best theory we got."

 

Haruo nodded, "And it gives us an actual shot at getting home. If you are right, that means someone at the hospital is doing this, and if they do it again-"

 

Ichikawa finished Haruo's sentence, "We can go home."

 

Toshi spoke softly, "That's no longer an option for me."

 

Kingo shook his head, "I refuse to go back." Everyone looked at him, "I'm sorry. I don't care about the other Kingo and this world has Naora in it." He looked at Toshi, "I know how you feel about her, but I still think this flip is a gift from God." He tapped the table to punctuate every word he spoke, "An answer to my prayers." He closed his eyes and turned away, "Not gonna throw God's gift back in his face." He made a sweeping dismissive gesture with his hand, "Not going."

 

Everyone was quiet as they thought about this, then Haruo spoke up, "My life was shit." Everyone turned to look at him. He looked back at everyone in turn, "I was a social outcast. I was ignored and nobody even knew I existed." He looked at Ichikawa, "The single happiest day of my life was when you basically invited yourself into my home and seduced me." He looked at the ground, "Yeah. I had a crush on you. It was like a dream come true, except... it wasn't you."

 

Ichikawa was speechless. She turned away, avoiding Haruo's gaze, "I'm sorry if she hurt you. She shouldn't have messed with you like that." She snorted, "Especially with MY BODY."

 

Haruo laughed, "She didn't mess with me." He shook his head, "That's not the problem. It's..." He made a dismissive gesture, "It doesn't matter." He took a deep breath, "From what I can figure out about this world's Haruo, he was a shy guy who just wanted to be left alone. Well, He's in my world now and he will be left alone to his heart's content. Nobody cares if he lives or dies, over there."

 

Toshi frowned, but didn't know what to say. Kingo arched his eyebrows, "So you're gonna stay as well?"

 

Haruo nodded and looked at Toshi, "I get your choice, you don't have another body to return to." He looked at Ichikawa, "You went from being one of the most beautiful girls in school to that plain looking girl who hangs out with the perverts. I get why you want to return." He turned to Kingo, "And I respect your choice. I get where you are coming from." Haruo folded his arms, "But the fact of the matter is, I'm like superman. I was a nobody on Krypton, but here, I got superpowers! I have no intension of leaving."

 

Ichikawa frowned, "What if you don't get a choice? What if it reverses itself someday? Your other self is going to have to deal with the fact you have been whoring around in his body!" She rubbed her forehead, "I'll have to deal with that as well."

 

Haruo made a dismissive hand gesture, "Bah. I already told you she was only sleeping with me."

 

Ichikawa glared at him, "So you THOUGHT. And even if she was, is your doppelgänger going to keep sleeping with her, or is he going to get weirded out? If he doesn't want her, is she going to go out and do..." She gestured at Haruo, "Everything you've been doing, but with MY body?"

 

Haruo scowled at Ichikawa, "She wasn't cheating on me!"

 

Toshi held up a hand towards both of them, "HEY! Both of you... settle down!"

 

Kingo echoed Toshi, "Yeah, C'mon! Relax."

 

Haruo glanced around with narrow eyes, and then stomped off to the bathroom, "I need a minute." The door slammed behind him.

 

---

While Haruo is taking a leak, let us take a moment to play a trick on the bot that is copy pasting my story onto an aggregate site!

I don't mind, since it is a free story, but I also don't check the feedback on other sites. If you want to get the very latest chapter ASAP and also have a chance to be including in the polls that determine the direction the story is going, you need to go to Scribble Hub and search for Flip The Script over there. You'll get this message a week too late, most likely, but maybe you can catch the next poll!

I'm not posting a direct link, so as to keep the bot in the dark.

On With The Show!

---

 

Kingo looked at Ichikawa, "I know we just met, but what's your problem?"

 

She glared back at Kingo, then sighed and buried her face in her hands, "I don't know. I just..." She rubbed her face before looking up, "Here... so little matters. Do you know the girls here talk about which object they used to break their Hymen?" Kingo and Toshi both flinched. She nodded, "Yeah. Like, at lunch. I assumed I had the same body, but I don't. I thought I was still a virgin, but I'm not. Apparently girls are supposed to break that and get used to masturbating with penetration as soon as possible so that first time with a boy isn't awkward."

 

Toshi's eyes went wide, while Kingo recoiled, "I don't think I want to hear any more."

 

She slammed her hands on the table, "YOU DON'T???" She half stood up out of her chair, "I have to hear it all the TIME!" She gestured at her crotch, "Do you know there is a whole class of porn called Hymen Hunters? It is all about creepy girls who want to have sex with boys with their hymen intact! It is considered some of the most perverted shit on the internet!"

 

Kingo blinked, "Wait... a virgin girl having sex for the first time with her virginity intact is considered... perversion?" He smacked his forehead, "This place is beyond fucked up."

 

Ichikawa nodded, "Tell me about it!" She settled back into her chair, wrapping her arms around herself as she looked away, "It seems normal on the surface, but this place eats at you."

 

Haruo came out of the bathroom, "Sorry." He ran his fingers through his hair, "I needed to calm down."

 

Ichikawa looked at Haruo with a form of wary sadness, "Sorry. I didn't..." She relaxed her arms and sighed, "Look. I need to say something. I want to say it to all of you. I need to say it, then I will drop it, okay?"

 

The other three nodded. Haruo hopped up to sit on the counter while the other two turned to face her. She took a deep breath before letting it all out.

 

"You three are boys in a world where you are now to be treated as girls. I get that it might feel... empowering to have all these girls chasing you." She looked pointedly at Haruo, "But there is a REASON that good girls don't sleep around." She glanced around, "I'm not saying you'll all be like this, but if you are thinking about it, don't."

 

Haruo snorted, "Why?"

 

She looked up at him, "Because society is unforgiving. In the real world, girls are vicious. They love to spread rumors. They love destroying reputations. I'm assuming it is the reverse here. Guys also... they love fucking the 'bad girls', but they never stay with the bad girls. You can tell me you don't care-"

 

Haruo cut her off, "I don't."

 

Ichikawa frowned as she continued, "You can tell me you don't care, but that shit can follow you. Men say they love a slut, but in the end, society just uses sluts and tosses them away." She sighed and rubbed her forehead, "I... just wanted to say that once so that later you can't say, 'why didn't you say something sooner?'" She looked up with a flat expression, "I'm saying this so my conscience is clear."

 

Haruo shrugged, "Warning heard, loud and clear." He seemed quite dismissive of the whole thing.

 

Kingo looked at Haruo, "I got to ask, doesn't it bother you to whore yourself for money?"

 

He shook his head, "Nope!" He grinned, "And I don't do it for the money. I do it for the fun of it!" He raised a finger, "The money is just a bonus." Then winked at Ichikawa. She rolled her eyes and turned away in disgust, muttering the word, 'perv' under her breath as she did.

 

Toshi looked thoughtful, "Actually, do you want to do it professionally?"

 

Haruo looked at Toshi, "Uh... Sure, but I'm only sixteen. Two more years before I can do it professionally."

 

Toshi held his hands up and wobbled them up and down as if using them as scales to weigh something, "Maybe. Maybe not."

 

Haruo narrowed his eyes, "Explain?"

 

Toshi looked at Kingo, "Naora is in a contest with Gen. They have to compete to show who would be better at running the family." Ichikawa looked confused. Toshi turned to look at her, "Naora is a member of a crime family and they want her to be the next head of the family. She is competing with a girl named Gen. Whoever wins gets to be the next head of the family."

 

Kingo added in a soft voice with an undercurrent of dread, "The loser will most likely be killed by the winner."

 

Ichikawa's eyes went wide as she looked from Toshi to Kingo and back a few times, "Are you kidding me?"

 

Toshi shook his head, "Nope. They were competing to see who could sell the most drugs. Gen technically won because Naora didn't like selling drugs, but due to a technicality Naora actually made more money. So it was a declared a draw. So they have a new contest now." He looked at Haruo, "They are each going to be running a soapland this summer."

 

Ichikawa squinted and held up a finger, "Wait a minute." She pointed at Toshi and Kingo, swaying her finger back and forth between the two, "The girl who both are in love with is an heiress to a criminal empire and currently is competing to prove she is worthy to be said heiress by running a whore house?" She scratched her head, "Are we living in a Otome game?"

 

They both spoke in near unison, "She doesn't want to be." They glanced at each other, but only Toshi continued, "But she doesn't have a choice in the matter."

 

Kingo added, "It's complicated."

 

Ichikawa crossed her arms as she raised an eyebrow, "I'll bet."

 

Toshi looked at Haruo, "My point is, you'd be under age, but I bet she'd look the other way." He rolled a hand in the air, "And... I bet you'd be a big hit."

 

Ichikawa's arms dropped to her sides as she stared at Toshi in disbelief, "Are you trying to pimp him?"

 

Toshi looked back, "No. I'm asking if he'd like to BE pimped. I'm sure he'd make much more money and if he'd going to do it anyways, I'd rather he took precautions in a business that was run by someone I trust."

 

Haruo scratched his chin, "I... dunno. Sounds like work."

 

Toshi shrugged, "No pressure, but if you truly are committed to this lifestyle, I'd rather you realized what you were getting into sooner than later."

 

"Well... Okay. I can at least meet her." Haruo scrunched up his nose, "I suppose you are right. I should figure out if I really want to do this professionally or not. I only got so many years before I lose my sex appeal."

 

Ichikawa looked to Kingo, "Can you believe these two?"

 

Kingo looked back, slightly confused, "What? It seems like the practical solution. Better than him working on the street. Why?" Kingo smirked, "Do you secretly like Haruo and want him to stop so you can keep him for yourself?"

 

Ichikawa sputtered and turned beet red, "WHAT? How? WHAT? I- NEVER!" She sputtered incoherently, "I am Not- I..."

 

Haruo started tapping his chin with one finger, "Actually... now that I think about it..."

 

Toshi spoke more out loud to himself, than to anyone else, "We are the only three normal guys on the planet..."

 

Haruo added, "And two of them are chasing after the same girl. So you either need to wait until they figure things out then go after the loser or-" He slowly pointed a finger at himself.

 

Ichikawa let out a loud indignant 'Humph' and folded her arms are she turned away from everyone.

 

Toshi snorted, "Oh. C'mon! You know we're only kidding."

 

Ichikawa raised her head, "Oh no. No no no. You are making it quite clear you think I'm desperate." Her voice had a dangerous tone to it.

 

"Look I-" Kingo let out an exasperated sigh, "I'm sorry. I was just joking. That was rude."

 

Ichikawa glanced over her shoulder at the other three, "Well, for the record, I am not looking for anyone at the moment. I'll let you know if that changes." She turned to look away again, "But for now, I'm enjoying the freedom of anonymity that a girl has in this world."

 

Haruo rolled his eyes, "So you want to stay then?"

 

Ichikawa expression turned downcast, "Well... I didn't say that..."

 

Toshi nodded, "Well then. Even if you are the only one who wants to return, the rest of us will try our best to help you get back." Kingo nodded in agreement.

 

Ichikawa turned back to face everyone, "Really?"

 

Haruo nodded as well, "Really."

 

Ichikawa seemed to be more subdued, "Thanks. I... was worried if you all wanted to stay that you wouldn't want to bother trying to figure out some way to reverse this." Both Kingo and Toshi protested the very idea and gave her reassurances that they would never stop trying to find a way back.

 

Haruo said nothing, but inside his head he thought, ~If I could exchange you for her, I'd do it in a heartbeat."

 

 

---

 

 

The rest of the afternoon was spent exchanging stories and getting to know one another better. Eventually the conversation wore down and they resolved to meet two Sundays from now. There was some tension, but in the end the group bonded and, if they were not friends yet, they were certainly on the way to being so. Eventually his three visitors left, leaving Haruo alone in his apartment with his thoughts.

 

He went to his bedroom to play some video games, but seemed to change his mind. He turned and went to his desk and pulled out a sketchpad. He wasn't good, but he wasn't bad, either. He had made several sketches of things from his old world while they were still fresh in his memory. One of those sketches was of his old room and they way it was laid out. In the picture, he touched the spot where the poster of Honey Whitefox would have hung on the wall. He slowly traced the outline as he spoke to himself, "So..."

 

 

 

 

"Hinako is Honey Whitefox's Doppelganger, eh?"