Prologue: Hey, Swap Bodies With Me
Suddenly, a voice rang through the space drenched in pure white light.
“Hey. Swap bodies with me.”
“Huh?”
Startled, I spun around. The first thing I saw was a girl wearing a black dress.
She stood about 140 centimeters tall, with striking crimson hair that cascaded all the way to her thighs. Though she had the adorable face of a young girl, the silver metal pipe resting on her shoulder and the lazy way she swung it made her look like a total delinquent.
Her delicate features were wasted on that deeply furrowed brow and the arrogant stare that openly sized me up. If I exaggerated a little, it almost seemed like she was deliberately flaunting how bad she could be.
“Didn’t you hear me? Let’s swap bodies.”
“What the hell are you talking about all of a sudden….”
“Exactly what I said. If you don’t want to die, hand over that body right now.”
Some new breed of organ thief? Threatening me out of nowhere to give up my body—it was so ridiculous I almost laughed. The girl stood there with an air of proud generosity, as if she were kindly explaining things, but from my perspective it was pure absurdity.
I clearly remembered waking up like any other day, skipping breakfast, washing up roughly, changing clothes, and dragging my tired body out the front door on my way to work. I even had a hazy memory of opening the car door and sliding into the driver’s seat.
Yet when I came to my senses, I was standing in an unknown space, face to face with a child I had never seen before.
“You’re an Earthling, right?”
“……Yeah, I am.”
Even while answering on reflex amid the confusion, I couldn’t hide my suspicion. Earthling? The way she phrased it made it sound like she was claiming to be from another world.
“You look like you’ve got a ton of questions, but I have zero obligation to explain anything. And no desire to, either. I’m in a real hurry here. If I miss this chance, who knows how long I’ll have to wait for the next one. So listen up—if you open that door and walk out as you are, there’s a ninety percent chance you’ll die. Therefore, swap bodies with me and live a tough, stubborn life.”
Whether I found it absurd or not, the girl rattled off her hasty demands and lifted the metal pipe to point somewhere. Following the motion, I easily spotted what looked like a door.
There were no walls, no ceiling, no floor—nothing but endless white. Yet the door stood there as if it had always belonged, completely natural despite the lack of any frame to hold it. A pitch-black door, like a black hole, fitted with a silver handle that sparkled with an eerily vivid gleam.
I caught myself being unconsciously drawn toward that light, which seemed to urge me to grab it quickly, and I flinched.
“Oh, and the remaining ten percent is the chance you’ll end up a brain-dead retard.”
The added remark felt like it was shoving me forward, emphasizing that I had no other options. Still, I ignored the pressure and asked.
“……Is there any way to return to where I came from?”
“There isn’t.”
“Do I absolutely have to open that door?”
“Obviously.”
“What if I don’t?”
“This space will vanish soon. So you’ll die even if you just stand here. Of course, I’ll return to my original place and be perfectly fine.”
“…….”
Her sharp voice carried an answer laced with pure spite. Even if she knew a way back, she clearly had no intention of telling me. The attitude was so obvious that for a moment I was at a complete loss for words.
Under normal circumstances I might have protested immediately. The only reason I didn’t was probably the combination of sheer bewilderment and the survival instinct that had kicked in.
It was a sensation I had never felt before in my life, but from the very first moment I saw her, I instinctively understood that the strange feeling I got from this sharp-eyed girl was a kind of fear.
If I resisted, she would enforce her will by force. That murderous glare made her determination unmistakably clear.
I was internally muttering a pathetic excuse—that it was the same principle as a herbivore freezing before a predator with an insurmountable difference in power—when she exploded again.
“Ah, why aren’t you swapping already! You people love this stuff, don’t you? Gender bender! Cute girl!”
“───I don’t like that!”
The sudden, completely out-of-left-field remark made me throw every ounce of strength I had into my retort.