Playing the part

I woke up feeling quite energised the next morning, ready for my first day as a college student, and as Jane. Jane apparently really liked her classes, I hoped I would enjoy them too.

But first, I had to get dressed. I went to the wardrobe and picked a different outfit. A cute white dress Jane liked to wear when she wanted to look pretty. I also put my hair in a small bun like Jane would. And I finished my looks by putting on a pair of brown ankle boots.

I looked at the mirror and struck a cute pose. Seeing Jane's reflection in this dress was making me smile brightly. "It fits you so well!" After a few minutes of having fun with the mirror, I grabbed Jane's bag and got ready. "Time to check on Airi."

I left the bedroom and went to Sophie's room. "Airi? Are you awake?"

"Yeah, I am..." Airi's borrowed voice answered from behind the door. "What do you want?"

"Oh, I just wanted to make sure you were up. If you're staying as Sophie for five days, you have to go to school as her."

"I know, that's one of the things that I wanted to do when I asked to possess her. I'll be down in a moment."

"Okay, I'll prepare breakfast in the meantime."

I went downstairs and started cooking for Airi and myself. I prepared something Sophie liked, like I did last night. "Cooking for someone else makes it more fun."

Since Nadia was always drunk, I would prepare my food myself, but I never cooked for other people before.

Airi arrived shortly after, yawning a bit. "Good morning."

I smiled warmly at her. "Good morning, Airi! Breakfast is almost ready, you can sit down at the table in the meantime."

"Alright. That's a nice dress." She commented while sitting.

I did a three-sixty, the dress spinning alongside me. "Isn't it? I found it really cute, and decided to wear it today."

Airi observed me before speaking again. "There's no way anyone would believe you're a guy, right now. You really are enjoying it a lot."

“I am, yeah, and having access to my host's personality and mannerisms help me get accustomed to things more easily." I walked towards the table with our breakfast. "Being a girl is natural for me, at this point. And since I know I have a way out now, I'm just trying to enjoy it as much as possible while it lasts."

"I see. What are you going to do now?" She asked.

"I'll bring you to school, and then go to college. I'm a bit too lazy to walk, so I'll use Jane's car."

"Alright, thanks." While we were eating, Airi spoke. "Tell me, your mother's name was Anya, right?"

My smile became more melancholic. It still hurt even after two years to talk about her. "Her official name was Anna, Anya is a diminutive."

"It sounds like a Russian name."

I nodded. "My grandparents were Russians, yeah, but they moved here when my mom and Nadia were still young. Nadia's full name is actually Nadyezhda, but even she doesn't use it."

"Do you speak Russian?"

I shook my head. "Nah, and neither did my mom or Nadia. They may have known the basics, but that's about it. I only know that Nadia's name means hope and my mom's name means graceful.”

Airi raised an eyebrow. "Hope, huh?"

“And before my mom's ****, it was a fitting name for her. She used to be a great physics college professor." I remembered how she was before my mom died. The melancholy grew stronger. "She often taught me things related to that. And made me enjoy the subject." I felt some nostalgia. I missed that time...

After finishing my plate, I continued. “Now that I think about it, it's gonna be hard to prove to her that magic exists. She absolutely doesn't believe in any magical stuff."

"If we demonstrate some magic to her, she'll be **** to believe in it. And you could show her your true body, as well."

I looked away, scratching my head. "I'm scared of her reaction..."

Airi put her hand on my shoulder. "Yesterday, you got the proof that she regretted what she did and that she deeply cares about you. It will be fine."

At that moment, I wanted to mention Yurika, but I kept it to myself. Airi wanted to take a break from her, and I didn't want to make her hate me again. She was pretty considerate of me considering what I did to her.

I smiled at her. "Y-you're right… Thank you, Airi. In any case, we should hurry or you'll be late for school."

"Lead the way."

We left the house and got inside Jane's car. I drove a car as Risa yesterday, but driving as Jane was a different experience. She was younger and less experienced.

Everyone drives differently, I guess.

I quite enjoyed the feeling of freedom that driving brought me.

After some time, Airi broke the silence. "I'm curious, what exactly do you remember from my memories?"

"Huh?" After thinking for a bit, I answered. "Not much. It seems that I can only remember things if they truly... struck me. Like, I could remember Sophie liking me because it shocked me when I learned about it, and the same goes for how you felt about the people in our school and your parents. But that's about it. If I had to remember everything from all of my hosts, my mind would probably break, heh.” I laughed it off, and I could have sworn that I saw Airi smiling slightly.

We approached the school, and I was ready to drop Airi off at the entrance, but something caught my attention. "W-what?"

Airi's body was there, standing in front of the entrance, seemingly waiting for something. Airi kept quiet, looking unfazed. I parked near the entrance, and Airi left, walking towards her body.

"So, that's how you decided to ‘take care of my body’, I see." Airi commented coolly.

"Honey..."

I left the car and went to see them.

Airi glared at Yurika. "Don't call me that, and especially not in public. You can use my body in school if you want, but stay far away from me, okay? For as long as I stay in Sophie's body, I want you to leave me alone."

Yurika sighed, looking really sad. "I... understand..."

"Airi... Aren't you being a bit too harsh with her?" I said, feeling bad for Yurika.

Airi turned to face me while pointing at Yurika. "No, I possessed Sophie specifically because I wanted to take a break from her, and to be able to think in peace." When I looked at her, I thought I saw her shaking slightly… "Now that I think about it, my body is currently empty, so you can use it if you want, Ben."

"What?" Yurika and I were stunned by what she just said.

D-did she really offer me a chance to possess her body again?

"A-Airi, what are you doing?" Yurika asked.

Airi stared at Yurika with some defiance in her eyes. "I thought that you believed in him? Do you not trust him to take care of my body?"

Yurika gripped her tie while muttering softly. "I... I do believe in him..."

I think I understand… I had a theory about what was going on with Airi, but I felt like keeping it to myself for now. "T-thanks for the offer, but I prefer to stay with you, Airi."

She grinned teasingly at me. "You give up the chance to try peeking at my memories again?"

"I don't want to peek at your memories, I want to help you feel better." I replied, ignoring the teasing. “When your classes end, please wait for me here, I want to bring you somewhere." I had an idea to help Airi a bit.

She seemed intrigued. "Hmm? Sure. As long as you're not too late."

"If it ever happens, I'll warn you. I hope that you'll have fun at school, the both of you. See you later."

Airi smiled slightly at me but completely ignored Yurika. "Thanks. See you later."

She then hurriedly left us, not wanting to be around Yurika more than necessary. Yurika sighed heavily.

I came closer and gently tapped her arm. "Don't worry, Yurika. I'm sure things will get better. I think... she just needs time to cope with everything that happened."

"I hope so… We can talk later, Ben. I need to try to act like Airi for today, at least. I don't want her school year to suffer because of me..." She then looked back at me. "Maybe you can come over this evening. We weren't able to talk too much yesterday, because of what happened with Airi."

"I'll come once everything is settled with Sophie and Jane's parents. They're coming back during the night, and Airi will need me to help her pass convincingly as Sophie."

Yurika nodded. "Alright. I have to go now or I'll be late. See you later, Ben, and thanks."

I gave her a friendly wave. "It's no problem. Take care, Yurika."

Yurika went inside the building, and I left to reach the college campus. I still had to use my mind sink to give control back to Jane.

After parking near the campus, I closed my eyes, focusing. "Okay Jane. I'm sorry that it took so long, but you can somewhat be yourself now..."

My body moved deeper inside Jane, and, as before with Sophie and Airi, my sense of self merged with hers. It was a unique feeling for ‘me’, but for ‘Ben’, it was starting to feel familiar.

"Knowing that ‘you’ are in ‘my’ brain is really strange, ‘Ben’... We'll have to get used to it. Let's go to class."

"Hey Jane. How are you?"

We were so focused on the feeling that we didn't see ‘my’ good friend, Carla, approaching us.

"Oh, h-hi Carla. I'm good. Just thinking about class."

Carla chuckled. "Like you're worried! You're always acing every test!"

We sighed. "It doesn't mean that I can't be anxious about it. You know how much I want to finish my studies.” ’My’ goal was to get high enough grades to be able to work in a good elementary school.

She chuckled. "I know, I know. I wish some of your smarts could rub off on me."

"You just have to study hard." We simply said.

Carla gave us a teasing grin. "See, that's why you don't have a boyfriend..."

We pouted as we heard that. ‘I’ had some bad experiences with men before, and wasn't in a hurry to be in a relationship again... "I'll find one once I'm done with college, but I'm fine with being single for now."

"Heh, maybe I should bring you to a mixer someday."

"Not interested." We instantly replied.

She gave us a deadpan look. "You're no fun."

We chuckled. "I know. That's why we're friends."

"Your father comes back this evening, right?"

"Yeah."

Carla sighed. "Ah, no more slacking off in class, then."

"No, indeed. You better avoid it in his class. He can get pretty grumpy if he spots students not paying attention, and I don't really enjoy hearing his complaints during dinner. Anyway, we better move, or we're going to be late."

While Carla shared some classes with ‘me’ due to her minor, her major was computer science, a subject ‘my’ father taught. He was pretty strict, but always up to help students who struggled with his classes.

We went to class. ‘I’ really loved my teachers, so we enjoyed our day at college a lot. But we were also worried about Airi. ‘Ben’ had an idea about what she was trying to do, and ‘I’ agreed with it.

As soon as we finished college, we drove back to ‘my’ house, as ‘he’ had things to take there before meeting with Airi. I stopped the mind sink once I arrived, so as to not drain myself before what I wanted to do.

I first went to Sophie's room and started to look in her drawers. "Hmm, where does she keep them?" After a minute, I smiled. "Ah, here they are!" I found what I wanted, one of Sophie's swimsuits. I put the bikini in my bag, ready to go to Jane's room. "I hope that Airi will like swimming." That was my idea. Going to the beach and relaxing for a moment.

I went to Jane's room and quickly grabbed a one-piece swimsuit. Unlike for Sophie's, I didn't have to search for it, since I had Jane's memories to guide me." "Here we go. Now, I just need to wait until school's almost over. Hmm, what should I do meanwhile?"

I went to the desk and opened Jane's laptop. She had been working on her thesis, and I thought that I could try to continue it a bit for her. "It's the least I can do." After half an hour, I let out a loud sigh as I closed the tab and shut the computer down. "Even with her knowledge, it's so tedious..."

I stood up and stretched, my body already feeling tired from just trying to keep writing the thesis. "Let's just wait for Airi in front of the school."

I got into the car again and drove back to our school, waiting for Airi. I leaned against the wall next to the entrance and waited, reading some shojo manga on Jane's phone. She liked romantic comedy stories, and I enjoyed them as much, considering that her personality was influencing me.

After some time, I heard the bell ring, and saw students starting to leave the building. Airi left alongside Andrea, who noticed me. "Oh, Jane! Hi!"

"Hi Andrea."

"Hey Sis." Airi played the part of Sophie pretty well, smiling as innocently as her.

"Well, see you later, Sophie, Jane!" Andrea smiled and waved at us.

She left me alone with Airi, who was now looking at me expectantly.

"How was school?" I asked to start the conversation.

Airi closed her eyes and pondered for a moment. "Being perceived as someone else is interesting. Hanging out with Andrea, who used to ignore me, doing my best impression of Sophie, trying to be more cheerful and friendly… It is a pretty unique feeling."

I chuckled. "I know what you mean. I felt the same way the first day I spent as Sophie, before-" I stopped myself from continuing as I realised what I was about to say.

"Before you possessed me." But Airi finished my sentence...

I looked away, feeling guilty. "I'm sorry..."

She sighed. "I know it happened, Ben. You don't need to tiptoe around it."

"Okay, sorry..."

Airi gestured at the car parked a bit farther away. "In any case, shall we go?"

"Right, follow me."

We walked to the car and I started to drive.

"Where are we going? You haven't told me."

"You'll see soon."