"Are you ready?"
A voice spoke to Ren through the empty void, the sky and ground reflecting below and beneath him like he was walking through a mirror, with a fog that shrouded his vision and seeped below his ankles.
Ren grinned confidently. As ready as he could ever be! He felt a rushing anticipation, but a swirl of intense nerves that rattled his chest, and his lip quivered.
"O-Of course! It's not like I can go back now, right? Don't worry... I'll find it."
"...Then don't fuck it up. Good luck."
Through the fog Ren spotted a figure, watching them turn and walk away.
Ren took a step forward and held a hand out towards them. "W-Wait-!"
Then a bright light appeared in front of him, blinding his vision.
Ren woke up with a start, staring at a tall black ceiling. He quickly sat up, and a white glare flashed directly into his eyes.
"Ahh!" He winced in pain as a blinding light pierced his vision. Everything was now white again.
"Ah, I'm so sorry!" He heard a voice say just beyond him. Then a lot more voices pitched in.
"Are you ok? Takeshita? Can you see?"
"Real smart Mizuno, turn your flash off."
It took Ren a few seconds to grasp that these were people talking to him, but before that he briefly wondered if he had been kidnapped by aliens. He certainly felt strange enough, and currently he still couldn't see very well.
'Takeshita? That's not....my last name'. Ren thought. He was still covering his eyes, struggling to see again.
"Why's he laying on the floor anyway?" The voice continued.
"Do we need to get the nurse..."
"No no, I'm fine!" Ren managed to get a word in. Though his vision was still speckled, he got up and acted like everything was fine. "I just need to head to the restroom. Which way is it?"
One of the blurry figures pointed, and Ren followed. Ren still couldn't see straight yet, but he didn't want to trouble anybody else and create a hassle because of his own actions.
But the more and more he walked, the more it was clear that everything was not fine either. As his vision cleared, so did his head. He doesn't remember what happened before he was on that floor. And looking at the walls, he realized he didn't know where he was either. In fact....who even was he...?
Ah, right. He was Koyamada Ren. Of course, how could he forget? It must have been that weird dream he had...
He entered the bathroom, still lost in thought, splashing his face while wondering where he had ended up. He likely just had a bit too much to drink at another dorm party and just needed to find a sink to rinse his face at and a can to potentially puke into. Though, he didn't feel nauseous or think this was a hangover either.
Then he looked up. He was completely taken aback. In the mirror, a scrawny dark haired boy stared back at him, Dark clear eyes staring back at him, wide. This face... it wasn't his, that he knew for sure.
A memory flashed in his mind, of what he should be seeing instead. He was much taller, he had cut his hair shorter that summer, and had more misty dark eyes. But these eyes, they were like marbles in comparison, looking wide and frantic as they searched for any signs of something tangible, something that made sense. But his vision was as clear as day: this wasn't the face he remembered.
Ren began to think. He began to rationalize. He began to doubt.
"Maybe I'm still dreaming..." He muttered, surprised by how different his voice sounded now that he was paying attention.
With that absurd thought in his mind, not remembering what he's supposed to even sound like, he started to focus.
'Ok, let's get my facts in order: I'm pretty sure my name is Koyamada Ren, yet my face is someone completely different.' he looks down. 'And my body too.'
'I've... heard this kind of story before. Have I been.... body swapped?'
Ren knew this concept fairly well, something that showed in movies or comics. It was total science fiction! Or a horror movie, but he was sure he'd have ended up a fly or a cat if that were the case, then again he never liked horror so didn't know what to look out for.
Ren recalled other things about himself to solidify that what he was seeing just didn't match his own memory. He was a college student in Osaka, in his second year. He remembered his dorm room, his dorm mates, the campus. But he couldn't remember what he was doing last, or even much of what he actually did at school. He knew it was a sports scholarship but, somehow he couldn't remember what it was for?
This confusion left him feeling unsettled so he focused back on the unfamiliar reflection, his reflection glaring back as challenging him to make a move. At least, that's how Ren would see it. "Who are you?" He says aloud as if the mirror could hear him, yet his words were for him alone. "Who the hell am I?"
"Takeshita-kun?" A person opens the door and pokes their head in. "Are you Takeshita Akira? You left your bag on the floor back there."
"Oh....thanks?" Ren took the bag. Ren assumed he was the right person, and that the boy in front of him was surely with those kids from before, the ones who blinded him. Still....he was uncertain.
He began to ask questions, "Hey, do you-"
"Come on, if you're feeling alright we should hurry or we'll miss the ceremony." And without a second to think he was pulled along, out the bathroom and down the hall back to the room he could see an auditorium.
It was enormous, like the size of a small stadium with rows and rows that led to a large stage at its center. Ren looked around, noticing everyone sitting were young and wearing school uniforms.
Seeing the rows and rows of students and the teachers on the stage, Ren could only guess what was happening, but things became clear as he took his seat and things began.
It was an entrance ceremony. An entrance ceremony... for a high school.