The Game Abduction Urban Legend (Entrance Swap — Possessing the Heroine)

"...?"

I opened my eyes.

Where was I? I looked around.

All I could see was a massive flag at the center, the symbol of the Academy.

State-of-the-art grand buildings, a wide and long outdoor courtyard lining the path to school.

And me, standing in the middle of the crowd of countless students coming and going — because apparently, it was time for morning classes.

..? Wait, why an Academy, all of a sudden?

I was pretty sure—

"Hngh..."

Memories crossed in my head in an instant.

At the same time, something I'd briefly forgotten came back to me.

Right. I remembered now.

I had definitely opened and launched some AI character chat game.

So was this scenery inside the game, then?

It looked pretty realistic.

Wow, they really rendered this convincingly, I thought to myself.

Still, just in case, I tried pressing the WASD keys in my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠head.

My limbs moved just fine.

"Ahh — a, b, c, d, e, f, g..."

I tried inputting dialogue in my mind.

Out of my mouth spilled a high-pitched, adorable voice that matched the words I'd imagined exactly.

No anomalies so far.

Well, it's an AI character chat... so now I'm supposed to go win over the heroine, huh?

But who had the heroine been again?

I clearly remembered seeing the AI chat character at the very end, but it had flashed by so quickly that I couldn't recall it properly.

I wasn't worried, though.

She'd probably be some eye-catching pretty girl or other.

"Excuse me, hi? Do you need any help?"

Apparently I'd been standing stock-still in the crowd for too long, because someone spoke up from behind me.

I turned around to find a man who looked, for some reason, strangely familiar.

"Oh, sorry. I was lost in thought. I'm fine."

"Really? That's a shame. Well then... do you remember me?"

"Excuse me? Um... who are you?"

"Hmm... if you don't know yet, there's nothing I can do about that."

With that, the man simply walked right past me.

What was that about.

I was tilting my head in bewilderment for a little while when the class bell went dong, and my mind snapped awake.

"Crap, I have to get to class!"

An Academy student must arrive at class without being late.

I couldn't be late again this time!

I'd been so absorbed in picking apart the game that I'd forgotten all about it.

Following the Academy's layout, which was somehow sprouting up in one corner of my head, I dashed toward the classroom — and there, sitting in the seat beside mine and waving at me, was a pink-haired girl.

"Sera! Here, over here!"

The pink-haired girl was Rhea — a friend I'd made not long after enrolling at the Academy.

But who's Sera, that Rhea is calling—

Oh. Me. I'm Sera.

Why does it feel so awkward?

What's wrong with me?

Muttering over my own name, which refused to click into place the way it should, I sat down next to Rhea.

Come to think of it, is Rhea the heroine?

She's pretty enough... but if talking to Rhea is what this AI chat game is, then it's way too boring.

Here I'd just praised the game for being so immersive, and it turns out the heroine is Rhea, who's been close with me since the Academy entrance ceremony.

When it came to Rhea I had nothing but fond feelings rather than any dislike, but since the game had just started, I'd expected a brand-new heroine to show up.

Huh? Just started? Something's off about the timeline here.

The game just started?

No — Rhea and I had been attending the Academy together since the entrance ceremony.

So this wasn't inside a game?

Then why did I keep feeling like I was in one?

A contradiction between two opposing facts.

My hands, unconsciously tidying the desk, stopped for a moment.

Huh?

But the pondering didn't last long.

Ugh, whatever.

I guess I was just some pathetic girl addicted to gaming delusions.

Mistaking reality for a game — the kind of thing you only ever saw on the news.

Hold on. A girl?

Was I a girl?

The moment that strange wrongness threatened to swallow me again, my train of thought was cut off.

Because Rhea, my close friend, spoke up.

"Hey, Sera — do you know Ray?"

"Huh? Who?"

I followed Rhea's pointing finger and saw the vaguely familiar man from the morning path, staring openly at the top of my head.

Our eyes met.

The man went on staring at me without a shred of self-consciousness — then waved.

"Ugh... what's with him? He kept bothering me this morning too. It's kind of getting to me."

"Really? Do you think he's got a crush on you?"

"As if."

Wait — is something on my head?

I tilted my chin up to look above me, and sure enough, I could see something floating over my head.

Let's see here...

Can only I see this thing?

"Hey... can you see anything above my head?"

"Hmm? Like what?"

So it's visible only to me? Then why is it floating over my head?

As I stared at it fixedly, I sensed something on it shimmering, the letters shifting.

Oh, it just changed. Intelligence −80% now?

What is that supposed to mean?

"Is there something up there? Or is it some kind of worry? If something's wrong, tell me. Hee, I'll fix it right up for you!"

Rhea shouted with all her might.

Well, two heads are better than one, as they say.

So ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I shared the strange feeling I was experiencing.

"Yeah, so, above my head there's... there's... what was it? I forgot. Uueeeng... I can't remember."

My head suddenly went completely white.

Why am I like this?

I remembered it just a second ago!

Dehet...

A baby-talk slur tumbled out of my mouth.

"You forgot that fast? Must not have been anything important, then."

Does she think so?

Come to think of it, maybe she's right.

Anyway, one less thing to worry about — so that's a win!

"Mmmh..."

And yet something about it nagged at me, for some reason.

The moment class ended, I bolted straight for the bathroom.

"Ah! Wrong one!"

My feet had carried me, perfectly naturally, toward the men's room.

Jolting in shock, I cursed myself and swerved direction in a panic.

What if I got branded as the weird girl... I'd die of embarrassment...

Once inside the women's bathroom, I found myself stopping in front of the mirror for some reason, staring hard at my own reflection.

"Have I always... looked like this...?"

A silver-haired, red-eyed beauty.

As if she'd leapt straight out of a manga.

An unreal, otherworldly face reflected back at me from the bathroom mirror.

Flawless porcelain skin without a single blemish, and a dainty, refined nose.

It felt less like looking at myself and more like gazing at some character from another world entirely.

If anything... that guy from earlier looked more like the real me...

The instant that thought crossed my mind, I flinched hard and shook my hair wildly.

What am I even saying? I'm Sera.

I'd probably been so immersed in the game that my sense of self had gotten scrambled.

But then why is the heroine a pretty girl?

Even granting that this was a game, the person reflected in front of me was clearly female.

So shouldn't the heroine — the one I'd be playing as — naturally be a man?

Wait, is that what I'm into?

"Phew... get a grip, get a grip!"

Still muttering that nonsense, I stepped outside — and there he was again, that familiar boy.

I knew it was impossible, but the thought flickered through me all the same: that guy's body feels more familiar than this one of mine.

And just then, the man came up to me with a smile.

"Hey, anything I can help you with?"

"Nope. Don't need anything."

Here we go again.

"Aw, come on... I even said hi to you in class and you just ignored me. That's three times now. Keep this up and you'll hurt my feelings?"

So that counted as saying hi.

He was an annoyance either way, but with us running into each other over and over, something was starting to feel off. Something gloomy, unsettling.

"Please stop talking to me. You're a bother."

Yet the man only murmured something incomprehensible.

"Hmm. So this is how hard romancing actually is. Now that I'm on this side of it, I'm at a total loss."

"Romancing? What foreign word is that supposed to be? If you've got nothing to say, leave."

"Hm... I guess I'll just be direct, then."

The man reached out his hand and began sweeping it through the empty air above my head.

My eyes naturally followed his hand upward — and there were the strange letters, starting to be erased.

"Keep that up and I'm reporting you. What have you been doing this whole—"

I meant to demand what he was playing at, but my eyes flew open faster than the words could come.

"...Uuuh?"

It felt like a dam bursting open.

The wall blocking my intelligence swung wide, and a flood of information began pouring into my eyes.

Right — I had clearly been pulled out of the game, snatched by that hand from outside the screen, and dragged into the game itself.

"...Uuuh?"

A high, clear, delicate voice came out of — of all places — my mouth, and echoed back into my own ears.

I hadn't realized it before, but it was unmistakably the voice of a girl who was not me.

I lowered my head.

What I saw was...

Where things went in, they went in; where they came out, the girl's figure was a little meager, but swelled out in soft, budding curves.

Why on earth did I mistake this for myself?

My senses expanded once again.

This time, out beyond the screen.

The Academy that had felt so much like reality resolved into the shape of a 2D background.

And there I was, rendered inside the screen as a 2D pretty-girl illustration, looking adorably bewildered.

Every time I wriggled a finger, the dim-witted expression of the pretty girl updated in real time.

And along with it, beyond the monitor, where fingers tapped away at a keyboard — I saw the original me. The body that had once been mine.

The true identity of the man who had struck me as so strangely off from the very start.

Above the man — wearing a face identical to the body that had once been mine —

"...?"

Above the man's head floated a window bearing the words .

Then that means...

Me?

"Why am I the heroine?!"

I lunged straight at the man fiddling with who-knows-what.

My mind raced.

From what I could tell, logout was impossible, and as long as I'd been turned into the heroine for some unknown reason, he'd keep ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠jerking me around forever.

This was the only chance I had.

And so, the instant I rushed desperately at the man who used to be me—

"Ah, there we go."

The world suddenly began to spin.

Round and round it went.

No — it was the scene in front of my eyes that was spinning round and round.

I hurriedly looked up above my own head.

What was floating there was:

"Freshness, cuteness, and... pwetty wittle dizzy-head state?"

My tongue was tripping over itself.

My head spun in a jumbled, dizzying whirl.

And through it all, the man spat out his words with a look of pure satisfaction.

"Now, finally, we can start the game I came to play."

The interface floating before the eyes of the man who used to be me came into view.

I ground my teeth, face ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠twisted in venom, and snarled:

"Who the hell said I'd be your heroine... I'm not tawking to you. Go 'way awreadyyy..."

The man's mouth slowly began to open.

And then—

"Well then... from now on, you are— @#@%&%."

Every single brain cell spinning round and round froze at a bizarre angle, all at once.

My world had just been rewritten.