Who Is This...?
I woke up.
It was the strangest morning of my entire life.
"......"
The ceiling.
My familiar bedroom.
The game console was still sitting on the desk, exactly as I had left it the day before.
A tracksuit lay carelessly discarded on the floor.
I glanced at my watch.
8:12 a.m.
"...I guess I overslept."
That was when I muttered those words.
And then, I realized that something was wrong.
"......Huh?"
My voice sounded strange.
No.
It wasn't merely strange.
It was unmistakably a woman's voice.
"......What?"
I jumped out of bed.
I placed a hand against my throat.
Then, I tried speaking again.
"...Huh? What's going on?"
It was definitely a woman's voice.
And on top of that, it was a remarkably beautiful one.
"......Seriously?"
Still confused, I walked toward the large mirror in my room.
One step.
Two steps.
Then I looked into the mirror.
"......"
A girl I had never seen before was standing there.
Dark brown hair, almost black.
Beautiful, straight hair that fell just below her shoulders.
Fair skin.
A well-proportioned face.
Almond-shaped eyes.
And—
A body that was unmistakably different from my own.
"Who is this?"
The girl in the mirror moved her mouth in exactly the same way I did.
"......"
"......"
".............Me?"
The girl said the same thing.
Of course she did.
Because the person reflected in the mirror was me.
"No, no, no, no."
My mind was completely overwhelmed.
"Wait. Wait, wait, wait."
Until yesterday, I had been nothing more than an ordinary high school boy.
I wasn't particularly handsome.
I wasn't good at sports.
I wasn't particularly good at studying, either.
I didn't have many friends.
In other words—
I was just an ordinary high school student.
That was me.
And yet...
"Why......?"
I stared at the girl in the mirror.
"...Did I become a girl?"
Of course, there was no answer.
After standing there in shock for a while, I grabbed my smartphone.
The news.
Social media.
Search engines.
I thought there had been some kind of global incident.
But—
There was nothing.
The world continued turning as usual.
The weather forecast was normal.
The news was ordinary.
Social media was perfectly normal.
"......"
In other words...
The only strange thing was—
Me.
"...Seriously?"
Just then—
Knock, knock.
Someone knocked on my bedroom door.
"Rin? Are you awake?"
"......"
It was my mother's voice.
I froze.
...Rin?
Who was that?
"Rin?"
"......Just a second."
I hurriedly opened the door.
My mother was standing there.
"Oh, good morning."
"......"
"What happened?"
"...Mom."
"Yes?"
"I......"
My mother stared at my face and tilted her head slightly.
"What's wrong?"
"......Am I Rin?"
"What are you talking about?"
She said it as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
"You're Asakura Rin, aren't you?"
"......"
My mind went completely blank.
My mother gently patted my head—
No, the head that belonged to me now.
"Are you still half-asleep?"
"......"
Apparently...
From the world's perspective, I had always looked like this.
Asakura Rin.
A girl.
A girl who was only a few weeks away from starting high school.
Only my memories remained—
the memories of when I had still been a boy.
That morning,
I told my parents everything.
As far as I remembered, I had still been a boy until yesterday.
Then I woke up this morning and suddenly found myself like this.
And I had absolutely no idea what had happened.
Of course, I didn't expect them to believe me.
But—
"I see..."
My father was surprisingly calm.
"......You believe me?"
"It's not really a matter of believing you or not. Rin genuinely says she remembers it that way."
"Yeah, that's true, but..."
My mother also studied my face carefully.
"Rin."
"Yes?"
"Are you all right?"
"........Maybe."
Honestly, there was no way I could be all right.
But—
After a few hours, I had managed to calm down somewhat.
I had no idea how to return to normal.
The cause was unknown.
And then—
"...I guess there's nothing else I can do."
"There's really no other choice?"
"Yeah."
I looked into the mirror.
There, I found a girl who was completely different from the person I had been yesterday.
"I guess I'll just have to live like this."
My mother smiled, looking a little sad.
"Yeah."
"...I still have to go to school, too."
"Are you looking forward to high school?"
"Oh, man..."
I gave a small smile.
"Since I've been given a second chance, I might as well try to make my life more enjoyable than it was before."
And so—
That was the beginning of my new life.
A few weeks later...
The entrance ceremony for high school.
"......"
I stood in front of the school gate.
Wearing my uniform.
Black hair.
A slightly nervous expression.
There were plenty of other new students around me, just like myself.
I took a quiet breath.
"Okay."
I had never been very good at socializing.
I rarely started conversations on my own.
But this time was different.
My life had finally changed.
In high school—
"I'm going to make some real friends."
I clenched my fist.
Then I walked into the classroom.
"Good morning!"
I greeted a girl standing nearby.
"Oh! Good morning!"
A smile.
Perfect.
...Or at least, that's how it was supposed to go.
The girls seemed to freeze for a moment.
"......?"
"Asakura-san..."
"Yes?"
"You're... really beautiful."
"Huh?"
"You're like a model."
"Oh, thank you."
I laughed.
...Okay.
I had managed to be polite and friendly.
At least, that's what I thought.
But then—
The girls began whispering among themselves.
"Asakura-san has such a calm and cool personality, doesn't she?"
"I know, right?"
"She seems pretty mature, too..."
"......"
I didn't hear them.
I thought I had been acting really friendly.
And yet...
From everyone else's perspective, I was—
A beautiful girl with a rather cool demeanor.
That same day, several people, both boys and girls, came up to me.
"Asakura-san, do you have a boyfriend?"
"Not right now."
"Is there anyone you like?"
"No one."
"I see..."
"?"
The boy's face suddenly turned strangely red.
"N-No, it's nothing."
"......?"
And the girls weren't much different.
"Asakura-san is pretty cool, isn't she?"
"Really?"
"Yeah. She's cute when she smiles, but normally, she looks so cool."
"......"
I smiled, feeling a little embarrassed.
"Thank you."
At that moment—
The girl's face turned bright red.
"......"
"............?"
I had no idea why.
Still...
High school life—
It wasn't nearly as bad as I had imagined.
And then...
Around that time, I had started getting used to high school life.
When I got home, I was having dinner with my mother and father in the living room.
"Rin, how have things been lately?"
"Pretty normal."
"Have you made any friends?"
"I managed to make a few."
"That's good, isn't it?"
"Yeah."
My mother smiled happily.
I laughed, too.
"School is actually pretty fun."
"That's good to hear."
After a while,
my mother said something while looking at her smartphone.
"Oh, right."
"Yeah?"
"Rin, you like video games, don't you?"
"Oh, yeah."
"VTubers have become really popular lately, haven't they?"
"...VTubers?"
"Yeah. People who make videos or do livestreams."
"I know what they are, but..."
My mother showed me something on her smartphone.
"Why don't you try it?"
"......Me?"
"Apparently, you can do it without showing your face."
"......"
That was true.
I liked video games.
I had always struggled when it came to talking to people.
But if it was through a screen—
"......That actually sounds pretty interesting."
I muttered to myself.
My mother laughed.
"Right?"
My father nodded as well.
"Starting something new might not be a bad idea."
"......"
I stared at the screen of my smartphone.
There were countless streamers appearing in the videos.
They seemed to live in a completely different world from mine.
But—
Just a little...
I found myself becoming interested.
"...Why don't I give it a try?"
That night,
I sat down in front of my computer.
And—
I began thinking about a new name.
"A normal name would be boring, wouldn't it...?"
I thought about it for a while.
And then—
One name suddenly came to mind.
"...Onimiya."
And then, another word.
"Kishin..."
I typed it into the keyboard.
The name appeared on the screen.
Onimiya Kishin
"......"
Not bad.
More than that—
Somehow, it felt strange...
Yet right.
"Okay."
I chuckled softly.
"Starting today..."
I would create a new version of myself behind the screen.
"I am Onimiya Kishin."
And so—
I had once been nothing more than an ordinary high school student.
But now, I had begun my—
second life.
And—
The story of the VTuber Onimiya Kishin had begun.
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