In the Crusch manor
Julius, who currently possessed the brown haired catboy's frail body, sat at a desk, in the grand library. Sitting across from him, Felix, in our favourite purple haired knight's body, had his nose in a book.
They've been researching Yang magic and its effects on the mind for the past few hours, and they haven't made any progress. Crusch had one of the best collections of Magical Research books, due to her being a militarist.
So far they've been able to discover that Yang magic can duplicate items, improve them. It can also buff people, by boosting their speed, strength and other aspects of their body. Felix was sure that if he cooperated with Subaru's semi-suspicious and extensive knowledge on human anatomy, and if he could get a few Yang magic users into their camp, they'd make some invincible soldiers.
Felix recalled Subaru explaining to him about metabolism. The faster your metabolism works, the faster your body and mind works. God damnit, if Subaru was here he was sure he could find a solution to this.
Then again, it was probably best he'd accompanied Reinhard to see Beatrice, the Great Spirit of Yin. Reinhard isn't really that good of an actor, and Subaru is one hell of a character to play.
The now purple haired knight looked up to see his comrade, in his own body. "Any luck?" He asked, hoping that by pure chance they found something.
Julius sighed and shook his head. "Nothing, only an extension onto Duplication magic. It says that it can duplicate items in an even better condition than they were before by casting two spells at once. What about you?"
Felix rubbed his temples. "Same here, nothing. This chapter is on how you can create a link between a Yin and Yang user, letting them know where each other are at all times."
Julius nodded and hummed. "Oh, that's like what me and Subaru did after the White Whale hunt."
Felix sighed. He wanted a break, and he was sure Julius did too. He did a quick flip over the pages to see how much he had left, and screamed internally at the hundreds of pages that….. weren't there. There was just nothing on switching people's minds.
Just before reverting back to the page he was on, his eyes were caught on a specific page. Deconstruction? I guess it's the opposite of Duplication magic. Ah I'll take a look after a small break.
Felix stood up, stretching his arms and legs. "I'm going to fetch some tea, and visit the bathroom. I'll be back in a few minutes." He left after a prompted nod from Julius.
Wandering the hallways to get to the bathroom, his mind couldn't help but backtrack onto the Deconstruction page. Hm, something is bugging me about that. Ah, I'll think about it later.
He turned the corner and realised he wasn't entirely sure where he was going. That's… Strange. I know this place off the back of my hand… Oh right, third door on the left.
He entered the bathroom, unzipped his fly and started doing his business. He noticed some differences between his own body and Julius's, which he honestly wasn't proud to admit. Some things were bigger, like his thigh muscles. Some things longer, like his legs. And some things thicker, like his bulging calf muscles.
Finishing his business, he zipped up his fly, when it suddenly hit him. Deconstruction magic, Duplication magic. Following Subaru's logic, memories are electrical currents passing through brain cells. Now, Felix didn't know what electrical currents were, nor did he know about brain cells.
However, Subaru's brief explanation of them helped him with an epiphany. His said electrical currents are the flow of electrons—again, Felis had no idea what that was. But what did help is that it can stimulate certain cells.
Electricity would flow through the brain cells, and Subaru called these specific ones as Neurons, in a specific pattern which would then be saved as a memory. Later on, electricity flowing through those same Neurons would remind the person of said memory.
If these cells were what Subaru described as: 'imagine really small pieces of paper, with written instructions on what they do. The cells will follow these instructions, like small people I guess.' - then Felix can come to the conclusion that these cells are physical entities. And if like Subaru said, consciousness could likely be the result of memories, then...
"I SOLVED IT!"
He ran out the bathroom, sprinting down the corridors in his new body. Deconstruction magic for the win!
They must have duplicated the memories—or the electric patterns—while we slept, and then used deconstruction magic to destroy the initial memories or patterns. That way it completely swapped our memories! Resulting in our consciousness swapping, and for us it seemed like we swapped. When in reality, we're still the same person, just different memories!
It was an incredibly versatile spell. If Felix weren't the victim of this spell, he'd be eager to investigate it further and perhaps test it on someone else.
He slammed open the door to the library, calling out for Julius. Panic rose when Felis saw that he wasn't there.
Well, that wouldn't have made him panic, but when it was combined with the bloody knife on the floor, along with blood dripping onto the carpeted floor—Yeah. Panic.
OH GOD OH FU-.. Okay! I need to act like Julius! What would he do in this situation!?
Trying to act knightly, he slowed his breathing and tried to calm his head. Swallowing his panic attack, he decided to follow the blood trail. His heart kept beating rapidly, a sense of unease seeped into his stiff spine. Were he in his own body, his ears would be flat.
Were he in his own body, Felix surely would have heard this attack. He would've heard it, and Julius would've been able to fight off any attackers.
There was nothing Felix could do about it now, though, besides squinting his eyes for the trail of blood and cursing his inferior sense of smell.
The blood eventually led to a window, which was currently open. Rushing over, he looked outside. At first he saw nothing, but in the distance he saw a familiar looking cloak carrying an unconscious catboy.
He panicked once more, unsure of what to do. Looking around and biting his lip, he searched for something that would tell him what to do.
A sudden flashback to earlier, before they'd split up, invaded his senses.
"There are several kinds of memories. You have muscle memory, and normal memory. Normal memory is things like taste, things we like, the music we like, and a joke someone told us. But muscle memory is for things like writing, eating, walking, running. Even swinging a sword is in muscle memory.
I'm not entirely sure how it triggers, but it should come naturally. Think of it like breathing, you kind of do it automatically until you think about it, then you have to manually inhale and exhale."
Subaru has frantically explained the different kinds of memories that existed. He'd also talked about something like traumatic memory, but Felix had already stopped listening to his tangent by then, distracted by the insinuations of this new information.
If things like fighting and running are in muscle memory, then it would explain why I couldn't find the bathroom without thinking about it! Alright! If it's as natural as breathing, I got this!
It suddenly occurred to him he was watching the cloaked figure run away with Julius in tow, while Felix stayed at the window not really doing anything. He quickly got back on track and started sprinting throughout the mansion, making sure to concentrate on his route.
An idea—one strangely seated, like it was its own form of muscle memory—in his head. The Spirits!
As if on cue, 'his' contracted quasi-spirits materialised in front of him. "Hey guys! I'm gonna need some help!" He took a pause to round a corner. "There's a man in a white and blue cloak currently kidnapping my good friend Felix! Care to lend me a hand?"
Through his spirit affinity he could sense a sort of 'what do you want us to do about it' response. Felix couldn't help but feel a bit hurt. He knew the spirits didn't intend to phrase it that way, it sounded like they didn't care about him—or what they thought was him—being kidnapped.
Stop distracting myself! What can they do? Hmm. Wait! The book talked about creating a link between a Yin and Yang magic user. If I can get Julius's Yin and Yang spirit to link to each other, one of them can stay with Julius, and the other can lead us to him! Alright, let's do this!
"In, Nes, I need you two to create a link with each other. Afterwards, Nes, I want you to stay with Felix, and hide in his pocket or something. Just make sure you're not detected! In, stick with me, and lead me to him!"
The two spirits seemingly nodded, that is, if they had heads. Instead they just kind of bobbed up and down. A flash of white light erupted between the two before Nes sped off, likely to get to Julius.
Damn, that was easier than I expected it to be, Felis thought, putting on a burst of speed.
Finally making it out of the mansion, he ran into none other than Wilhelm Van Astrea. Old man Will! He can help me!
He rushed towards him, panting from the exertion of running. "Old man W-.." Wait, act like Julius! "Sir Wilhelm! May I request your assistance?"
Wilhelm eyed him up and down, raising an eyebrow. He lowered himself into a shallow bow. "How may I be of service, Sir Julius Juukulius?"
Felix regained his breath. "It's Felix." He paused, seeing Wilhelm straighten up and tense. "Someone's kidnapped him!"
He saw the butler's eyes widen to the point where they could have popped out of his skull.
"Well don't just stand there! Let's go!" Wilhelm almost yelled, determined to rescue his demi-human furry friend.
Felix almost smiled. This is a much better reaction. Not that that's what's important here. "Very well, In! Take us there!"