“We’ll get you started on an entry level mission with an easy child and world similar to your own so you can adjust easier,” Patch said, its voice coming disembodied from the whiteness.

Two screens popped up in front of Kaoru. They were framed like ID cards. Above the cards were the words Wild Chrysanthemum.

One card had a picture of a young, almost ten-year-old girl on it, silver hair complimenting the icy blue of her eyes and the paleness of her skin. She looked sickly, but kind. The words Child: Eri Kuroda were printed next to it. 

The other screen held an attractive young man, mid to late teen years, or even early adulthood. He had dark, inky black hair going down to his shoulders, though it got shorter as it got to the back, paired with ruby red eyes. This one said Role: Taiki Kuroda.

Beneath both screens was Difficulty Level: E. in bright red letters.

“Please remain calm,” Patch said. “Right now you are simply about to receive the memories of the character you will play.”

Kaoru thought to close his eyes and brace himself, until he realized his eyes were already closed, causing him to feel startled at the flood of sequences that filled his mind.

Taiki Kuroda, a well-to-do businessman who came into control of his family’s company by being the sole heir. He was spiteful and cruel, vengeful towards Makoto Takeuchi, the main character of the novel Kaoru was entering. 

It wasn’t out of nowhere though, because Taiki blamed Makoto for the death of his younger sister. It had been a tragic accident, but nevertheless, her death had torn the Kuroda family apart. Her death had caused his mother to die of heartbreak and his father to become distant. Taiki, of course, was too a result of those circumstances.

It was a vain anger, however, because Eri was always destined to die young. She’d always been sickly and ill as a child, with a disease that prevented her from even attending school. She was doomed to die by fourteen if not for that fateful snowy December day when she was ten.

Taiki’s efforts at revenge towards Makoto had pulled in the female lead, Suzume Katō. She became a victim of circumstance, and injuring her had been what finally sent Taiki to prison for the rest of his life.

Makoto and Suzume, as the leads, had gone on to live happily ever after and Taiki’s little sister had been relegated to a memory, “Taiki’s little sister,” and “Makoto’s childhood friend.”

“Now entering world,” Patch said, and Kaoru felt like he was falling. 

It was with a jolt that he suddenly felt settled.

He came back to understanding to blackness, and opened his eyes to a familiar but unfamiliar bedroom. It was Taiki Kuroda’s bedroom. The body that he had come into was when Taiki was sixteen, just before his baby sister was born. 

Patch was curled up on the bed by Taiki, Taiki curled around him to soak in his warmth. A knock came from the door and a lovely woman stepped in. She looked like an older version of the picture of Eri, but in place of the silver hair was Taiki’s inky black. His mother, Mariko Kuroda.

Mrs. Kuroda sighed and placed a hand on her hardly rounded belly. “Taiki, I thought your father said you couldn’t keep that dog,” she chided. 

Kaoru immediately sat up in a panic. He had to think quick. This wasn't how the story had gone, because Patch didn't exist in the story. What would a well to do boy like Taiki say? “But Kur-” He cleared his throat. He couldn't call her by her name, but how formally did Taiki address her? “Mother, please? I’m responsible enough to care for one, aren’t I?”

Mrs. Kuroda sighed again, though she at least seemed contemplative. “It’s just with the baby on the way…”

“It’s a good dog,” Kaoru insisted, swinging his legs off the bed. “It’ll be really good around the baby. Dogs are very protective. And I’ll take care of it myself.”

Mrs. Kuroda contemplated him for several moments before she broke out into a soft smile. “I’ll talk to your father again,” she said. “I’ve always thought a pet would be good around the house.” She rubbed her stomach again. “You’d better get dressed if you don’t want to be late for school again.”

Mrs. Kuroda left again, closing the door behind her. Kaoru reached over and scratched behind Patch’s ears. “I thought you were going to write yourself into the story,” Kaoru said, not accusingly, but curious.

Patch whimpered slightly, pressing its paws on its nose. “This was the best I could think of under pressure…” it whimpered. It shook its head and sat up, its entire boy shaking down to the tip of its tail. "And you'll have to change your way of thinking. If you can't embody your host, you will have a difficult time."

Kaoru frowned, scrunching up the fair features of Taiki Kuroda, the image reflected at him from the mirror on the door of the closet. Impish looking from youth, rather than malicious from a hardened heart.  Taiki's natural posture was a half slump, born from being cocksure of himself but also years of being strictly taught to hold himself upright. Kaoru struggled to right his posture, his back aching from the sudden change and stain from what the body was used to.

But patch was right. When Kaoru moved, so did Taiki. When Kaoru spoke, Taiki's mouth opened and formed the words. It was Taiki's voice that came out. He was not living as Kaoru right now, he was Taiki Kuroda.

"How much of Taiki do I have to be, rather than Kaoru?"

"Enough," Patch replied.

Well, that wasn't the answer he was hoping for. Taiki scratched its ears some more before standing. “Well, I suppose it’s back to school life with me,” he said. He headed for the closet. “After I graduated in the real world I didn’t think that I’d ever end up at a high school again.”

“Oh, that’s not the real world,” Patch said, jumping off the bed.

Taiki hesitated, hand just centimeters from his red school blazer. He looked back at Patch. “What do you mean, not the real world?” he questioned. 

Patch tilted its head. “Well, not in the way you’re thinking,” Patch explained. “There’s many ‘real worlds.’ You’re in one. Every world you enter will be ‘real’ in some way or another. Every world will also exist as some sort of fiction in another world. Time will pass on after you leave each world, just as time went on before you entered.”

Patch marched over to the bookshelf just under the window. It nosed at one of the manga on it until it began to fall out. Taiki grabbed it before it could fall all the way. He began to flip through the pages. 

“What’s this?” he questioned. He sat on the ground with his legs crossed and Patch leaned its head on Taiki’s shoulder.

“Go to the next chapter,” Patch said, and Taiki obeyed. 

It was a flashback chapter. The male lead was a young child, talking to his mentor figure, the only one who had shown him kindness and compassion as a child. The man who’d inspired him to stick to his path even when it was hard.

It had an abstract background, and the face of the tall man in the full-page image wasn’t fully drawn, but the young boy was drawn in excruciating detail and Taiki would recognize his features and that hat as it was placed on the boy’s head anywhere.

“That’s me,” Taiki said in awe. “And Ayumu Hidaka.” He hesitated. “I’m from a manga? And I’m only a character from the male lead’s past? So everything was destined to happen?”

“In a way you’re that character,” Patch agreed. “But you were always in control of your own life. Because you were you and human, Ayumu Hidaka grew up to be a caring, amiable young man, charismatic and able to make it through hardships. He worked his way to beat out his cruel father’s business with one of his own and became a successful CEO. At the end of the series, he married his sweetheart. Throughout the entire series, he looked to you as a father figure. Those few months you spent together were very impactful on him. He never forgot you.”

Taiki went quiet as he thumbed through the rest of the volume he had in hand. “Then should I go back?” he asked, voice quiet. “What if things change and he doesn’t end up happy because of me?”

“There’s always that chance,” Patch agreed. “But as I said, every world is real, which means all the people in it are real too. If a few months impacted him this much, imagine what longer could do for him. And with much more practice in other places from your missions, it would be much easier too.”

Taiki was about to reply, but was interrupted by three loud raps on his door. “Taiki, you better be getting dressed in there!” Mrs.--Mother shouted. 

Taiki jumped to his feet. “Y-Yes, Mother!” he called back, quickly pulling off his sleep shirt. It landed on Patch. 

“Think on it,” Patch urged, shaking the shirt off. “After all, it’s only day one of your first mission. You’ll have a lot of time before you have to decide.”

Taiki nodded and Patch nuzzled up to him. Taiki chuckled and petted its back before actually grabbing the uniform from the closet and putting it on neatly. 

When Taiki made his way downstairs, Mother and Taiki’s father, Jūrō Kuroda, were already sitting at the dining table. Father looked up from his newspaper quizzically, his eyes going down to Patch, who had stuck close to Taiki’s feet. He looked down at his watch with a huff and tapped it.

“Well, if it’s the dog that gets you out here early enough to eat with us before you run off, then I suppose it’s good for you,” Father acquitted. 

Mother sighed fondly, patting her husband’s hand. “Just admit that you’ve agreed to it,” she teased. 

Father kept quiet, only huffing softly. He folded his paper and sat it to the side. “What’d you name it, boy?”

“Patch,” Taiki said, taking his seat across from Mother. She handed him a bowl and Taiki gratefully began to dig in. 

“Interesting choice,” Father said. 

“I’ll get some things for it after school,” Taiki said. “So you don’t need to worry about it.” He went quiet and looked between Taiki’s parents. “Um… Thank you. For letting me keep it.”

“Of course, of course,” Father said dismissively.

“You’d better eat up or you’ll miss the train,” Mother said, prompting Taiki to rush through his meal, barely tasting it. Though, what he did taste was wonderful.

No one commented when Patch followed him outside and on the road to school, Taiki’s body moving more from muscle memory than much else. 

Patch let out a bark that sounded more like a bell ringing. It hummed gleefully. “You have received complementary points for starting your first mission! Would you like to allocate them now?”

Taiki furrowed his brow. “How do I do that?” Patch yipped, and all around it formed a blue screen. “And I can just choose anything?”

“Anything within reason for this world,” Patch corrected. “So no magic, nothing supernatural, and nothing you would not have access to from your personal position. But you don’t need to worry about those. If they show up, you can allocate points into it.”

Taiki thought for a long moment while looking through the extensive skill list. “His sister is going to be born sick. She’ll have trouble making it to adulthood even if I can prevent that incident.” Thinking about it, this wasn’t a simple world at all. She was supposed to die no matter what, and didn’t that make the author too cruel?

Taiki looked at Patch, considering. 

Well, he was only sixteen at the moment. He had an entire life before him. And with the help of Patch, Taiki could certainly make it easier to help Eri grow up. 

“I’ll become a doctor,” Taiki decided, flitting through the list of skills and attributes. 

Patch frowned and whimpered disapprovingly. “Taiki Kuroda is not someone who could easily reach for that,” he warned. “Up to this point, he’s had abysmal grades and study habits, getting by merely on his family name.”

“I’ll just have to work harder,” Taiki decided. He put all gifted one hundred points into the ‘Healing’ skill. Immediately, Healing went up to level 10. Ten more points appeared for allotment. 

Before Taiki could ask, Patch spoke up. “Those ten are available in every world. You can use them now, but if you wait until after the mission’s done, you’ll have the chance to receive a larger amount!”

Taiki nodded and decided he’d wait to use those. 

Patch yipped again. “Master! You’ll be late! Are you going to fail your plan so soon!?”

Taiki cursed and began running towards the school building. It was a very nice school, surrounded by a lovely iron gate woven with thick ivy and a large building, with students in red blazers and tan trousers and skirts milling about.

No matter what Taiki said, the instructor at the gate wouldn’t let Patch through. Taiki’s shoulders slumped and he turned to Patch with a frown on his face. 

“Sit,” he said, holding his hand out flat towards Patch.

“I can go invisible and follow if you would like,” Patch offered.

“It’ll be fine,” Taiki replied in his head. Patch let out a whine, but sat down on the ground. It laid down when Taiki knelt and patted its head. “I’ll be back at lunch,” he promised aloud. “Don’t get into trouble.”

The instructor gave Taiki a curious look, but as Patch seemed to be obeying, didn’t stop Taiki from walking away. 

Classes were honestly the same as when Kaoru had been a student in his original world. He had never been a remarkable student, never intended to be at the top of the class, but he’d done well enough. He found it much harder to focus on class in Taiki’s body, though. 

Taiki was a miserable student in every single one of his memories. Though he wasn't actively a troublemaker most of the time, he'd made not being dedicated a personality trait. And even when Kaoru tried focusing on what the teacher was saying, Taiki’s character setting made focusing much more difficult in that it would dial down the teacher’s voice until it was background noise and tune Taiki in on the whispering of his gossiping classmates like looking for the right radio frequency. Whenever Taiki would try to take notes, he’d find himself doodling (very nice drawings, to be fair, something else he hadn’t been too adept at, though Taiki apparently had a talent for). When trying to work on his worksheet, the answer always turned out wrong, no matter what Taiki did.

It was the most frustrating moment of high school Taiki had ever experienced, and that included his first time trying to ask a male classmate out, and said classmate mistaking his romantic coding for friendship.

By the time lunch let out, Taiki breathed a sigh of relief and started heading out towards the front of the school. Patch may not have been a real dog, but it was certainly cute enough to soothe Taiki’s wearied brain.

“Hey! Kuroda!”

Just as Taiki reached the school entrance, he heard the call of his name. He turned around to see a small group of two boys and two girls standing together. Taiki immediately recognized them as the original Taiki’s school friends, and future business partners. Yuzuki Tamura, Megumi Aoyama, Hachirou Hayashi, and Akimitsu Sano.

Yuzuki Tamura was slated as Taiki’s fiancée, an arranged marriage by their families, but Yuzuki truly did love Taiki. The original Taiki’s treatment of her, and his obsessive hatred and vengeful attitude towards Makoto Takeuchi had twisted her once sweet personality into something just as vile as his, often taking part in his horrible plots.

Megumi Aoyama had gone a different route. She and Yuzuki had known each other since preschool, but had lost contact after Taiki pushed everyone away after Eri’s death. She’d grown up to be the CEO of a fashion company, more beautiful than any of the models she hired, fiercer than any of the bodyguards who protected them. She’d been approached by Makoto and Suzume to either stop Taiki or protect Suzume from him, though in the end had been too bitter to be involved either way.

Hachirou and Akimitsu were both more background characters with a neutral relationship towards Taiki. In the original novel, they’d both admitted to knowing and having been friends with Taiki in their youth, but like Megumi, he’d soured their relationship with Eri’s death. Neither Haichirou or Akimitsu would help Makoto and Suzume aside from pointing them in Megumi’s direction, neither wanting to risk the relationship of their families.

But they stood just across from Taiki, smirking and grinning like troublesome teenagers. 

“Where are you headed, Kuroda-kun?” Yuzuki asked, the only one of the group who couldn’t be called a delinquent. The rich person version, that is. None of them would ever disgrace their families in such a way, but they weren’t up to the highest standards of what their social standing called for.

“Just outside,” Taiki said, debating for a moment whether or not to tell them about Patch. After a moment’s hesitation, he decided he would. After all, if they were supposed to be his closest friends, then they’d end up finding out sooner or later anyway. “…Wanna come with?”

Megumi scoffed, flipping her long pink hair over her shoulder. “Lead the way, dumbass. We need to find food because I am starving.”

“Nice to see you too, Megumi,” Taiki said, leading the way out of the building. Megumi made to swat at him, but Taiki was just a hint too fast to get all of it. He led the way to the school gate, where Patch still laid.

Taiki felt a small buzz in the back of his head, then the missing feeling of Patch with him. Patch’s head lifted, turning in Taiki’s direction. It jumped to its feet, tail wagging wildly. 

“Master! Master, you’re back!” Patch cheered. “Oh Master, I waited for so long!” Patch barked as the group neared. 

Yuzuki immediately cooed and dropped to her knees in front of Patch and began scratching all over the small beast. “Oh, how did you know this little guy was out here?” she cooed, Patch’s tail wagging even faster.

Taiki sat down on the ground, back up against the gate as he opened his bento. “It’s mine,” he said, holding a piece of bread out to Patch.

Patch tilted its head in confusion. “I do not need to consume, Master.”

Taiki rolled his eyes. “Just eat it,” he said, bopping Patch on the nose with it. Slowly, Patch lolled its tongue out and licked the bread from Taiki’s hand. Taiki patted Patch’s head and spoke through his mind. “We have to act normal, right? If it doesn’t hurt you, it’s no trouble on my part.”

“It doesn’t hurt me, Master, it’s just not necessary,” Patch said, licking its lips. “But I understand. I will eat like a real dog!”

Taiki grinned, scratching behind Patch’s ears. The others sat down around Patch. Akimitsu also patted it.

“I thought your father said no to pets,” Akimitsu said while unwrapping two bento boxes. He held one out to Megumi, which she took greedily.

Taiki shrugged. “Guess he changed his mind.”

Lunch truly began, Yuzuki ever slowly inching closer to Taiki until their arms were touching. It made Taiki wary, but it wasn’t the part that made Taiki uncomfortable. How, exactly, was he as a grown adult, supposed to communicate with a group of teenagers, as a teenager, as their friend? Not to mention, they were all wealthy.

Proven as such by the lunch conversation.

“Ugh, I’m so jealous,” Megumi said, eying Taiki’s half eaten lunch. “How do you get your mom to make you lunch everyday?”

“Our chef makes ours,” Haichirou said, taking a delicate bite of his lunch. “He learned in Italy, France, and America.” The meal itself he was eating looked Italian, so that wasn’t surprising.

Akimitsu groaned. “So lucky. Our chef specializes in Japanese cuisine. Which, like, I don’t hate, but variety, you know? Father says anything else isn’t worth the space it takes up.”

“At least your chefs cook for you,” Megumi snarked, poking him with her chopsticks. “My chef doesn’t like me. He’s hated me ever since I stopped eating meat.”

“My chef cooks for you too. Who do you think made the bento?”

“It’s so shitty I thought you’d made it.”

Megumi and Akimitsu delved into bickering as Yuzuki looked between her bento and Taiki, a blush spreading across her cheeks. “Mother, um, she doesn’t cook. But she’s having me learn so, um, I can be a… good wife… like Kuroda-san…” She side-eyed Taiki once more before curling in on herself in embarrassment.

Taiki pinched his nose and closed his eyes, sighing heavily, more in response to Megumi and Akimitsu than Yuzuki. They certainly were just children…

Haichirou’s interest seemed piqued, however, and he leaned forward. “Can I try a bite?” he asked. In the background, when Taiki opened his eyes again, Akimitsu was trying to take the bento back from Megumi, but she was intent on keeping it.

Yuzuki looked up, eyes bright. “Of course, Hayashi-kun!” She held out a delicate bite of some sort of fish to him and Haichirou took it.

“Delicious,” he said after swallowing, making Yuzuki glow in pride.

Patch wagged its tail, happily munching on the bites given from Haichirou, Yuzuki, and Taiki as Akimitsu and Megumi continued to bicker, even though they’d returned to their own lunches.

“Are you alright, Master?” Patch asked after a long while of Taiki just eating and not participating in conversation.

Taiki hummed. As Kaoru, he’d never lived like this. He’d been friendly and not necessarily an outcast, but being gay had caused more issues than you’d think. He’d been wary about getting close to people, the wrong people finding out he liked men, and then being outed and getting harassed. In retrospect, his high school experience had been rather lonely, with his first real friend since elementary school being Sayuri-chan.

He wasn’t entirely sure how to act around these kids.

“It’s fine,” Taiki answered silently. “Just… sort of glad I get something I couldn’t have before, sort of worried I won’t be able to make the most of it.”

Patch whined and laid its head on Taiki’s knee. Taiki grinned and scratched its ears.

Eventually, lunch came to an end and they all gathered their things. Taiki patted Patch’s head one more time before getting to his feet. 

“I’ll be back after school,” he said. Patch yipped in agreement, simply laying back down and curling into a ball to wait.

Taiki trailed after the rest of the group as they animatedly talked while heading inside. His eyes remained on the back of Yuzuki’s head. Maybe it might hurt her… but Taiki couldn’t follow the novel’s plot for them. 

He caught her wrist, bringing them both to a stop. “Tamura-chan, can we talk? Privately.”

A dark flush spread across her nose and cheeks, all the way up to her ears. “O-Oh. Okay…” She looked over her shoulder and Megumi gave her a thumbs up. Hachirou whistled with a shit-eating grin on his face. Akimitsu just shook his head and headed towards the school.

Yuzuki followed Taiki towards a small, concealed circle of trees, giving them a good amount of privacy. Her face seemed even darker than it had moments before. 

Taiki cringed and had to bite back a sigh. “There’s no easy way to say this to you… Tamura, I’m gay.”

Yuzuki’s eyes went wide. “…What?”

Taiki truly did sigh then, having already anticipated this coming. “I’m… gay. I like men. I’m… not into. You.”

Yuzuki looked stricken, like she was about to cry. “I… you knew.”

Taiki hesitated before nodding solemnly. “I didn’t want to hurt you,” he said, voice soft. “You’re a good friend, Tamura. But if I kept quiet, I knew it would hurt you more and only lead you on. I told you this because you’re my friend, and I trust you.”

Yuzuki was quiet for some time. She took a hesitant step towards Taiki and looked up into his face. “Is it… someone from…?”

Taiki choked on his spit. “Uh, no! No, nope,” Taiki said, trying to breathe again. “Noooo, no, no. I do not like anyone from our friends, or our school.” Not happening. They are children. “I like… older men.”

Yuzuki’s eyes went wide again. “Oh, you’re one of them…”

Taiki’s brows furrowed, mouth dropping open in further shock. “One of- what? No. Stop that. That is a stereotype that is incorrect.”

Yuzuki hummed, brushing hair behind her still pink ears while looking down at her feet. “Um, have you… told your parents?”

Taiki cringed. Yeah, there was the small little problem of the fact that their engagement had already been arranged. Taiki wasn’t exactly sure how they’d react to that. He was not looking forward to the whole ‘coming out’ thing again. He’d done it pretty much all his life in his world. And, well, it hadn’t exactly gone well when he told his parents the first time.

There was a reason he’d lived with his aunt from middle school on. 

“No… you’re the first person I’ve told.”

Yuzuki flushed again, though this time seemed different from before. She placed a hand against her chest, a shine in her eyes. “I’m… honored, Kuroda-kun. Thank you for trusting me…” She looked away, a frown forming on her lips. “I… Well, I’ll talk to Mother and Father about ending the engagement. You don’t have to do anything.”

“You don’t have to,” Taiki said, moving to reach out for her, but stopping. “I can- I can do it.”

Yuzuki shook her head stubbornly. “No,” she insisted, meeting Taiki’s eyes. “You need to tell them under your own terms, not by anyone else’s.” Yuzuki smiled a bit, a bit relieved and sad at the same time. “I do really like you, Kuroda-kun, but to be entirely honest, I never liked the idea of marriage and… a wife’s duty.”

“Thank you,” Taiki said, feeling a weight lift off his shoulders. A small ding went off in the back of his head, though it was mostly drowned out by the much louder warning bell. He nodded towards the school, making a note to ask Patch about the sound later. “Shall we go to class?”

Yuzuki nodded and walked side by side into the school with Taiki.