Wayne and Hotaru, for an offshore business trip

Your coworkers, even your supervisor, had said it was a new type of metal detector that they were going to install at the front door, and they wanted to calibrate it. For whatever reason, you were chosen 'randomly' to be part of the calibration.

You were a fairly average guy, working in the materials engineering department at Shaw Biosciences. You knew your stuff, quickly rising in the ranks of employees faster than most of your colleagues, who were happy to leech off your work without any effort of their own. You'd known for a long time that working at Shaw is one part actual science, one part absolute buffoonery, so you stared at the Phase Binder with skepticism oozing out of every pore. This thing didn't look like any metal detector you'd ever seen... it had this huge area within the two main walls of the chamber, which seemed to be leaking some sort of ooze, and then some weird laser emitter array on the front.

You scratched your scruffy chin, having not shaved in three days while you'd been toiling away with various projects, which had left you with a scraggly proto-beard, messy hair, and bags under your eyes that your glasses only seemed to amplify. "This isn't going to fry me to a crisp, right? I've got that work trip to Hiroshima in two weeks, y'know, and that's kind of a big deal for the company."

One of the techs shook his head, the other shrugged. How reassuring.

Stepping into the Phase Binder's active area, you sighed. "Well, can we do it quickly? My to-do list is huge with stuff I have to finish before my trip."

"We can't start quite yet," the first tech said. "We need the other participant."

Another participant? You wanted to ask about that, if this was some sort of detector that could check multiple people independently in real time or something, but there wasn't much time to ask.

"Let's get this over with," a voice called out, with a thick Japanese accent. You turned to see a face that had become familiar over the past couple weeks: Hotaru Kamigawa, otherwise known as 'hot-head Hotaru'. Despite her stunning and immaculate appearance, always wearing some perfectly-tailored business suit and her hair tightly pulled into a bun, she always seemed to be scowling, or arguing with someone, or just generally being difficult to work with. She was part of the acquisition team and as such she didn't know much about the actual scientific work that went on at Shaw, but as part of the team that spoke fluent Japanese and decent English, however, she was designated to accompany you on the trip to Hiroshima to evaluate a chemical lab for Shaw to purchase. You would provide the technical analysis of the lab's business, Hotaru would determine the other factors for if adding the lab to Shaw's stable of satellite areas was worth the effort.

That is, if you didn't throttle each other before the end of the trip. "If you would try to not look like you just awoke from bed, maybe you would get lucky and find a girl who could tolerate you," Hotaru said as she glared at you, entering the Phase Binding area alongside you. "Hurry this test up, I can only spend so many minutes next to Wayne and I wish to reserve them for the lab." Hotaru could really cut deep, but Shaw Science's policy against harassment was pretty lax, given that its founder, Simon Shaw, was often the same way. Maybe Hotaru thought that was the best way to rise through the ranks, as she was gunning for a promotion after only a year here.

Others came to watch whatever this test was about, including your colleagues Jerry and Teresa, both about your same age and general level of weariness from constant work due to recent projects, followed by your boss Harry. One of Hotaru's other teammates, Toshiko Sawamoto, came to watch as well. You wished Toshiko had been chosen for the trip, she's much friendlier and easier to get along with, with a bit of a geek-girl vibe that you resonated quite well with, particularly when you and she talked about new monster movies in theaters. But while her English was stellar, her Japanese wasn't nearly as strong since she'd lived in the states since childhood. She could get by in Japan just fine as a tourist, but the constant technical talk that Hotaru seemed adept for was not Toshiko's strong suit.

The techs started to flip a few switches while you were distracted by Toshiko. "Alright, powering up in three, two... Phase Binder active."

You felt yourself freeze, not only because you heard the words 'Phase Binder'--wasn't that the machine that Yabusa Robotics made, and then it was broken and presumably scrapped? Those words filled you with a funny feeling, while the machine immobilized you. Hotaru seemed to be experiencing the same in this active phasebinding field, as a weird liquid emitted from the walls of the machine to surround you and Hotaru... and then everything went black.

The darkness persisted for what may have been eternity itself, where you were aware that something was happening, something was wrong, but the void offered no answers. You could only wait, until eventually, you could hear someone, their words fuzzy at first. Your body felt like pins and needles, similar to when your limbs were asleep, just from all over.

"Good, they're not dead," one of the voices said, possibly your boss Harry. You had this suspicion they were referring to you.

"Yeah, but how will we know if it worked?"

"Once they fully wake up, we'll ask, simple as that. We're confident the phase binding interleaved their minds in a way that is totally survivable, but the exact outcome is hard to predict. Either way, with a bit of work, this should simplify the Hiroshima trip substantially."

A bright light flickered on over your face, prompting you to open your eyes. You couldn't move anything else at the moment, but your eyelids were one of the few parts of you under your command. All the things you heard moments ago about phase binding and brain interleaving ate away at your mind, elevating a panic in your head that wasn't reflected by your numb body yet. Your thoughts were jumbled, bumping up against other strange thoughts of places and people you weren't familiar with, flashes of things you didn't understand, words and sounds that you didn't recognize.

A thought occurred: if that was a Phase Binder for real, and you were in there with Hotaru, you must have been phasebound to her! These strange memories, they were Hotaru's, but... what in the world did any of that mean! Why would you be a guinea pig like this! If you were thinking them, then your minds must be somehow connected, but you didn't know in what way--were you really in charge, or was Hotaru?

As you looked straight up, you saw a lamp shining softly over you, with a flat mirror finish on the underside, allowing you to clearly see your face reflected back.