Chapter 3 - Back In School

RRIIIINNnnnnnnGGGGGGGG!

In a noisy classroom, Recca, Yanagi and Domon are gathered. "I wonder if they're all right?" Yanagi started. "Don't worry Hime, we'll go look for Kira straight after school, beat the daylights out of him and get the madougu to rescue Mikagami and Fuuko. Kaa-san* will find a solution for the reverse process, I won't let them go mad" Recca said, determinedly.

*kaa-san - short for mother in japanese

"Where are they anyway? I've never seen Mikagami late before. Maybe Fuuko woke up late again." Recca continued, pondering on his friend's bad habit.

In a corner of the classroom, Domon was lost in his own thoughts of the 101 things Mikagami could have done to the body of his darling the previous night. All the thinking just made him feel more uneasy. "Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..." he growled in frustration while some students surrounding him immediately backed away in fear...

At the school gates...

Tokiya stared impatiently at his own body limping through the gates. Fuuko had taken forever to get up in the morning and they were apparently the last to walk through the gates this sunny morning.

"Oi, can't you hurry up, we're already late." Tokiya said as Fuuko continued her sluggish journey into school.

" Nani yo*, its not my fault that YOU got a rotten knee right. I'M the one who's dealing with the pain now you know. MOU!* ... you dragged me out before I even had breakfast..`~`

* Nani yo is one casual version of saying what

* mou translates to enough and is used here as a exclamation of frustration

"Oh whatever." Tokiya retorted. "Remember, we're only going after Kira after school so to prevent even more trouble, both of us will just have to pretend to be each other for the day."

"Eh? Hai hai...I understand. I can't wait for school to end though. Wait till I get my hands on that bastard. Fuuko said as she went up the stairs towards Tokiya's class.

"Oh one more thing Fuuko" Tokiya's voice paused her ascent. Fuuko's head turned slightly. "Don't do anything stupid, monkey." Fuuko's pride immediately hit rock bottom as she fumed and stomped the best she could towards Tokiya's class - the top class of the sophomore year - 2A

In class 1F...

After knocking on the door lightly, a usually brutish girl walked into class with the air of a goddess. Her slightly dusty uniform from yesterday's fight did nothing to dampen that presence of hers. As she apologised politely to the teacher, everyone in the class looked up and in an instant was amazed by the sight before them. It was Fuuko alright, but something was dramatically different about her. As Fuuko proceeded calmly to the empty seat beside Recca, murmurs could be heard within the class.

"Did Fuuko just apologise to the teacher?" (one of the boys)

"The sun must have rose from the west, she actually didn't barge in" (one of the girls)

"Kirei* ... blushes ...wait... Fuuko?" (unknown fellow from Fuuko's class)

*Kirei = beautiful

Recca sniggled as he hears some of the comments thinking "Fuuko would flip if she hears of this." Looking up, he stared at Tokiya who gave him a condescending look before he sat down on the seat next to his at the back of the class. Recca gave a grimace. "Man, in his body or not, Mikagami's still one arrogant piece of shit" he snorted.

The Tokiya within Fuuko remained oblivious to the comments as he sat down. He was eager to get through the day swiftly and therefore didn't think much of the comments. Plus, he was too used to being awed at in his original body. Only to Recca was he unable to keep a straight face, he gave him the same face he always showed him.

Meanwhile, Fuuko with her mind still sorely dwelling on that last comment Tokiya had showered on her, slid the door to the class 2A open with the loudest thud and walked into the class with her usual lackadaisical manner, ignoring the teacher and totally forgetting her pretense for the day.

All the students, having been disturbed from their studious analysis of their books and the blackboard, now had their heads up and were staring at Fuuko in Tokiya's body, making her pause in her footsteps.

"Damn!, I forgot!" was her first thought as she now faced a class of students VERY unlike her own rowdy bunch of classmates. Several of the girls were already staring with surprise as their usually early, cool and elegant classmate walked in with the stride of a gangster today, late too.

The guys, mostly prim and proper and half of these with nerdy glasses on were worse, they stared at the Tokiya before them with a look of disgust and envy. Tokiya had always been an object of envy and hate for the other boys in 2A. He easily topped the class in grades, had looks that every girl fell for in school and on top of that, was armed with deadly skills that kept bullies away. But the Tokiya before them now seemed a little different. The class was completely silent with their morning surprise.

Fuuko, fidgeting uncomfortably in her new body as she looked back at class 2A and before she could gather her thoughts carefully for her next action, she did something that everyone in class 2A that day would remember in many years to come. "Ohayo*!" she announced, topping her greeting with a lazy grin typical of Fuuko whenever she turned up late for her own class. She then walks (with the slightest limp) to the only empty seat in the class and sits down, ignorant of the consequences of her grin.

*Ohayo - informal way of saying good morning

In class 2A, there was instant shock...

"Is he ill? That smile was so uncool!" (one of the snotty smart girls in class)

"Mikagami-sama* just smiled! Oh my god! Did you see that? He looked so handsome!" (one of the more mindless girls)

*-sama - a name affix normally used to indicate respect..and in this case, adoration.

"Calamity!, the end is coming! Did you see that evil smile, he's gonna kill us, he's gonna kill us...I know it! (one of the Anti-Mikagami Club members)

The rest of the morning was a series of surprises for both classes. Even as the two tragic leads promised to keep up a pretense of one another for the day, neither had a clear idea of each other's class behaviour. Tokiya slipped into his old habits of elegantly paying attention in all the classes. Fuuko on the other hand fell asleep after only 15 minutes from entering the classroom and even snored slightly to the horror of the girls in 2A. Their behaviour led to A LOT of stares from the students in both classes. Recca was given the privilege of witnessing "Fuuko's" weirdness up close and had to do his best to control his sniggles that morning.

At lunchtime...on the rooftop

Recca and Yanagi were already discussing the morning's events excitedly while Domon continued moping at a corner.

The door to the rooftop swings open suddenly, and Fuuko (*reminder - in Tokiya's body) ran out.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh! Where is Mi-chan? I just realised...! in the toilet...! *^%*#$$&^, $^#%$$%^ ..*random verbal vomit noone could understand... AhhHHHHHhhhhhhh!"

Fuuko frantically looks around and runs out of the door again after seeing Tokiya wasn't there...

"What just happened?" was the collective thought on that rooftop but after a few more moments from recovering from the outburst, Recca laughs.

"Whatever that was all about...I've never seen that dumb expression on Mikagami's face before...hahahahaha" he continues, enjoying the tragedy insensitively while Yanagi looking a little worried towards the door.

Domon by now, reached the advanced stage of moping by stretching out his arm dramatically towards the door while on his knees. His heart was in conflict with his vision as he sees only the body of Mikagami when he looks at Fuuko, the thought shaped his face into an avant garde art-piece depicting confusion.

*BANG&#!$ SMACK!#*

Something heavy hit Recca's head as he was still bursting out in laughter, looking up in a painful grimace he saw a familiar angry face which was Tokiya in Fuuko's body this time, pissed for obvious reasons.

Puzzled faces accompanied another collective thought. Tokiya looked at Recca and retorted calmly."I was here the whole time over there (*points to the landing above the doorway), realise that already" Tokiya explained in utter disgust that even the all-powerful flame master wasn't aware of his presence.

"Is Fuuko ok? She seems really stressed" Yanagi thought aloud while still looking towards the door worriedly.

"That monkey probably just realised how silly her attempts to prevent us from seeing each other's bodies are" Tokiya explained to Yanagi, hiding a faint blush as he spoke.

"Baka saru*..." his words trailed off in a whisper as he looked away in embarrassment.

*baka saru - stupid monkey

After lunch...a few of girls from 2A were talking excitedly while heading back to their classroom.

"Did you see Mikagami-san just now? He's acting so strange today."

"Yeah, I've never seen him like that before. He's usually so cool and cold. Today, he's like a cute hot-blooded teenager! But, that's kind of hot too!"

"He greeted us good morning!"

"Maybe he's in love?" the girls giggled among themselves

"Hey! Isn't that Mikagami-san? He looks like he's leaving school!" the girls continued, pointing out of the walkway towards the school gate as they walked past an elegant purple-haired girl from Class 1F.

At the school gate, a troubled-looking bishonen had decided to skip school for the rest of the day for more urgent matters at hand.

Next Chapter – RegretXFuuko