"What?"

 

 

Toshi was sitting in the Nurse's office. He literally had no idea how he got there. One second he was running down the stairs, the next he was in the office. He rubbed his eyes for a second then noticed something odd on the back of his left hand. Someone had written something there. Not only Did Toshi have no idea how it got there, but it wasn't even his handwriting.

 

The words read, 'Trust Me'.

 

While he contemplated the meaning, he heard a honking noise. Upon looking up, out of the passenger side of the car he had bought Sato Toshi, he could see he was riding away from the school.

 

Toshi froze. He looked around with only his eyes at first, then slowly turned to see that Sato Toshi was driving the car. A soft cry came out of the back seat. Toshi turned to see Sato's son in a child seat. The child looked back at him then let out an oddly joyful scream.

 

Toshi turned to look at Sato but he was gone. The seat was empty. The car was stationary in a parking garage. The time of day was different as well. It was sunny not too long ago, and now there was this grey, overcast tinge to everything.

 

"Are you okay?"

 

Toshi turned around to find his door was open. Sato was standing there, holding his child, looking at Toshi expectantly. The look on his face was one of concern, "You've been acting very strange. Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital or something?"

 

Toshi opened his mouth to speak, but abruptly his hand started to burn. He looked down at it and saw the words, 'Trust me' were smeared as if he had washed his hand a few times, or tried to rub it away with his thumb and some spit. Toshi squinted and looked up at Sato, but Sato was gone.

 

He was in a bathroom, looking at his reflection in the mirror.

 

Toshi was standing there without a shirt on. Across his chest were tiny lines like hashmarks combined with dots and tiny diamond shapes. They were arranged in small groups on his skin, mostly in the center of his chest. There were a few on both shoulders. He tried to rub his forehead, but almost poked himself in the eye with he same pen he presumed he used on himself to make all the strange symbols.

 

He slammed the pen down on the counter and backed away. Turning to leave the bathroom, he saw a large note taped up on the back of the door:

 

TRUST SATO

 

Toshi took it down and stared at. For a few minutes he did nothing, but look around. He wondered if there was going to be another disjointed perception jump. It finally seemed like things had settled down. Abruptly Toshi realized he needed to go the bathroom. It felt like he hadn't gone for a while. He sat down on the toilet and took his time as he tried to collect his thoughts. He noticed his shirt was on the floor, so he picked it up and put it back on while he finished his business.

 

Eventually he flushed the toilet, washed his hands, then walked out of the bathroom.

 

He's only visited it once before, but it was the Apartment he had bought for Sato Toshi. It had an open floor plan with a short hallway to two bedrooms. Walking down the hallway lead to the open area where there was a kitchen divided from the rest of the main room by a low wall. Next to that was a diner table, then a living room where one corner was set up to be a home office.

 

On the couch sat Sato Toshi.

 

He was dressed in his usual business attire, except he had undone his top two buttond and his tie was loosened up. He looked nervous as hell and had a scent about him. He smelled like he had just gone through half a pack of cigarettes. He eyed Toshi suspiciously, "So. Who are you now?"

 

Toshi blinked, "Uh... what do you mean?"

 

"I mean are you an angel, Terauchi Toshi, Oh Toshi, or..." He paused for a moment, as if he didn't quite believe what he was about to say, "Sato Toshi from another world."

 

Toshi froze up. He half expected there to be another perception jump. Nothing happened. Toshi instead held up the note and turned it around to show Sato, "Not my hand writing. I assume you didn't write it?"

 

Sato shook his head, then gestured around the room, indicating where more of the odd hash marks, dots and diamonds had been apparently carved into the molding, "I assume the same one who carved all that into the walls of my apartment was the same one the wrote that."

 

Sato got up and walked over to the kitchen to open the fridge. He got out a beer as he called out, "You want anything to drink? Depending on how old you are, of course."

 

Toshi went over to sit down at the dinner table, "Can you explain what is going on?"

 

Sato laughed for a second, "Maybe?" He took a swig, "I know what I was told and what I'm supposed to tell you, but explain? I... that would assume I understood this." He walked out of the kitchen to sit down across from Toshi, "Okay..."

 

Sat took a deep breath, "You are Sato Toshi from another world, put in the body of Oh Toshi. You are now Terauchi Toshi. You let an angel into your body and he broke something. The other angels think he is dead. For now, let's keep it that way because something bad is going on and he hasn't figured it out yet. No, he didn't tell me what the something bad was, because it is safer if we don't know."

 

He took a swig from the bottle, "Oh. And don't wash off the enochian script." He stared at Toshi.

 

Toshi stared back, "That's it?"

 

Sato frowned, "What do you MEAN, 'that's it'?" He closed his eyes and pressed his beer against his forehead, "Look. The angel convinced me all this shit is real, but before we go any further... YOU'RE ME?" He slammed the beer down hard enough to cause some foam to shoot up out of the top, "Isn't that ENOUGH? Maybe... MAYBE... Maybe we should address the fact that YOU ARE MY INTERDIMENSIONAL DOPPLEGANGER FIRST!"

 

Toshi shrugged, "Yes. I am."

 

Sato's jaw hung open. He blinked and shook his head in disbelief, "I'm just..."

 

Toshi cut him off, "Look. I don't know how much the angel explained, but my world, the whole gender morality thing is reversed. My world, men are the logical ones, women are the emotional ones. So if you are expecting me to have some sort of freak out about this, I had that a long time ago. I got through it, I got past it, it's part of me now. So tell me what you need so we can move on."

 

"Are you trying to steal my kid?"

 

Toshi almost spit out his own skull. It took a moment to comprehend the statement that he was just told, "I'm sorry but where the fuck did THAT come from?"

 

Sato started to gesture around, "You-you-you approach me out of the blue-"

 

Toshi cut him off and explained, "Your friends pushed you upon me."

 

Sato looked annoyed, "You hired me and didn't tell me you are my dimensional duplicate-"

 

Toshi cut him off again with an exasperated sigh, "You think you'd believe me?"

 

"STOP CUTTING-" He stopped himself and glanced towards one of the closed bedroom doors, then lowered his voice, "Stop cutting me off!" He spoke in a hiss, "You are acting just like my Ex."

 

"I wouldn't know. She dumped me in my world."

 

Sato blinked, "Wait... you... two never got together? So...?" He gestured to the closed door, "Is there a Mamoru in your world?" Toshi shook his head. Sato went quiet, "I... sorry. I sort of thought that... if I lost my Son and I was in another world I would try to get him back."

 

Toshi shook his head, "Never got married. Never had any kids. I'm doing okay with my parents. Mom and dad are fine. I meet them for dinner once a month. I didn't have any siblings, like you. But yeah, No marriage, no kids." Toshi looked over at the closed door, "I suppose in a way, your kid is my relative, as we share half our DNA, but I don't have my original body anymore, so I have no idea how that works." He abruptly froze up, "My parents." He ran his fingers through his hair, "I wonder if I'm dead over there, or in a coma." He looked up, "Or did I just vanish? Did I have a funeral? Have they let go? Are they moving on?" He covered his face with both hands, "Goddamn it, I've been trying to ignore this since I got here, and I don't need this right now!"

 

Sato suddenly stopped looking so defensive and immediately looked sad. He reached out to put a hand on Toshi's shoulder, "It'll be okay."

 

Toshi jumped and pulled away. Sato looked confused, "Uh... sorry." Toshi shook his head, "No no no. It's fine. I... just don't like being touched. Most guys aren't very touchy feely in my world." He shivered all over, "It's creepy how much men touch each other here. Freaks me out."

 

Sato watched Toshi for a while, then rubbed Sato brow, "Actually, there is a lot more to explain to you, but I wanted to deal with this first." He looked up, "You don't mean my son any harm?"

 

Toshi shook his head, "It's the main reason why I hired you. I didn't want you in my life, because I was worried about... I dunno. It freaked me out. But I realized that your kid, in a way, is also mine and I felt an obligation to make sure he was taken care of. So, I gave you this job, knowing that it meant that you could provide for Mamuro."

 

Sato listened and nodded, "I... don't know what I would do in your shoes. Thanks for helping us out. I was at the end of my rope and didn't know what I was going to do."

 

Toshi nodded, "Got it. Can we just... move on?"

 

Sato stared at Toshi for a while, "Wow. It is creepy how much you remind me of my Ex right now. You don't normally act like this."

 

Toshi just stared at Sato.

 

Sato shook his head for a second, "Right. Got it. Okay." He cleared his throat, "I'm going to be honest, most of what the angel said confused me, but he said to explain everything to you, and you'd understand most of it."

 

Toshi nodded, "Okay. Lay it on me."

 

 Sato took a deep breath.

 

 

"He's stuck inside you.”