August 15: Life Swap

Aspiring idol singer Yazawa Nico and serious medical intern Nishikino Maki couldn't be more different. Wouldn't it be an interesting experiment if they had a Life Swap?

Tomishi TV's Very Reality only does this special show every four years - just like the Olympics! Our two participants do not know they are on the show! Because they are underage, parent or guardian must sign a release. They do not know they are having ...

(waits for audience)

«LIFE SWAP!»

And although they know they are doing something with television, they do not know it is

«VERY REALITY! »

Our first lovely girl is a struggling idol singer and dancer. From a large, poor family, she started a singing and dancing group at the prestigious but tiny Otonikizaka Academy for Girls. When that group abandoned the stage, 20-year-old Yazawa Nico did not give up, but rather she went to the up and , home of the famous A-RISE, and even joined to make them a quartet known all over Japan! This plucky little fighter has survived adversity before, will she do it again?

Like ships that pass in the night, Yazawa-San went to UTX just before our second beauty arrived at Otonokizaka. She managed to complete her courses in two years, and is now in her second year of a medical preparatory program at Kyoto University. 18-year-old Nishikino Maki was also an award-winning pianist, and even helped an idol group at Otonokizaka by composing songs for them! That group, the Muses, made a very respectable showing at the Love Live! School Idol Festival contest, which was won by A-RISE, in an attempt to drum up publicity for the Academy and save their school. Their efforts were not a success, but that is no reflection of Nishikino-san's talents. No, the declining numbers in the countryside is to blame. As those who watch

«WHO WANTS TO HELP ME REPLENISH JAPAN'S POPULATION!»

know very well. She is said to be very shy and stoic. Let's see if a

«LIFE SWAP!»

will loosen her up.

Yazawa Nico fainted.

When she had been taken from the studio to a hospital basement and shown the hospital intern garb, she assumed she was prepping for a role at short notice. Nico hadn't done much acting, but was eager to add a role to her resume. Then someone handed her a knife - a very sharp, wicked, clinical-looking knife. And invited her to cut on a dotted line on a very realistic looking body. And that body leaked what looked like blood to Nico's dimming sight.

Nishikino Maki was relatively content. The yarou her parents were pushing her into omiai with hadn't answered her text. Therefore, she was off the hook. On the down-side, her parents had demanded she help with some sort of television staged event to promote Nishikino Hospital. And their driver was taking her to a location that looked like neither a hospital nor a studio. It was a tall complex of flats near Shouhei Bridge that to Maki's eyes should probably be condemned. Did they still do tuberculosis tests in Japan? Maybe where a bunch of immigrant laborers lived, but these apartments were a couple of steps up from that. Probably she had to give the impression that Nishikino Hospital interns made house calls. That thought didn't sit well with Maki, who was a very upright girl. She hoped her guess was way off. The Shouhei Bridge area was, she had to admit, quite pretty. Especially with cherry blossoms all around. Maki knew the earlier and earlier sakura were caused by global warming. Among other things, Maki never bought anything from a vending machine. She carried a permanent metal water bottle in either her purse or her book bag.

Taking a second look at the building they were heading to, while it was clearly old, it had once been very nice, she decided. Oh gods! she thought. What if they want me to deliver a baby? Japanese TV wasn't noted for its sense of taste.

With that thought, she decided boredom and perplexity were making her thoughts run away from her. She decided to try meditating. She'd been given a one-minute course in it recently by a woman named Toujou. Her cousin Tsushima had been admitted to Nishikino after burning her arm in some sort of witchcraft ritual, and a visiting Toujou-san had suddenly turned to Maki, who was checking Tsushima's chart, and asked a lot of invasive but bothersomely insightful questions of her. Maki admitted that, like every other intern, she was under a lot of stress. Hence the lesson. It seemed to work, although it could be quite tricky, which sometimes made Maki feel more stressed.

Well, here they were. Maki noticed the driver had brought her day-bag from home and left it on the sidewalk with a note. And driven away!

Bedside manner did not extend to "interns," Nico was informed. Nonetheless, they kindly informed her that the corpse she was dissecting didn't have much, if any, blood in its veins. It had been all pumped out and replaced with formalin to prevent decay. Along with the refrigeration. Nico felt nauseated. One of the "other interns" handed her some water, but said, "If you're going to vomit, do it now, over there in the toilet. Better here and now than in the dissection room."

"Rinse your mouth really well, and wash up really well, too," a girl next to him said, breezily.

"Wait," Nico demanded. "Why would I go back there?"

One of the people there had a white coat thrown over a business suit. She could see the collar and tie peeping out. "This is all part of the job, I am afraid, Yazawa-san," he said. She recognized a Tomishi TV producer.

He couldn't mean she had to go back and knowingly cut up a corpse, right? Everyone there nodded. Yes, that was exactly what he meant. Nico carried the cup of water into the toilet and shut the door.

Go to Number 69, read the note. Well. At least her mystery destination was on the ground floor. When she arrived, she was troubled by the sound of a few children's voices and responses from an obviously harried mother. Maki didn't hate children, though she had no plans of having any of her own. She just wasn't used to them. Plus the chances of catching something went up with them. And even, if this was a prolific family, that she was delivering another addition to it.

"Hello, Maki," the rather young-looking woman who answered the door said. Then again, her children were all pretty young, too. The youngest were clearly primary school age, and the older one was around middle-school aged. Nonetheless, Maki would guess the mother had had to drop out of secondary school at some point. Maybe barely into her teens. Well, Maki didn't mind charity cases. She wasn't classist. Her host's name was Yazawa Kotono.

"This must all be a shock to you. We're only supposed to tell you just so much, so I apologize."

As she explained it to Maki, her immediate role wasn't medical, but maternal - she was going to supervise the three children while her host went to her second job. Worse, she had another job on top of that, which was, oddly, musical. "You're supposed to memorize this song tonight," she said, looking apologetic. "Don't worry about the kids, they love hearing Nico sing to practice. Nothing makes them behave well better than that." She pointed to an electric standup keyboard. "You should use Nico's piano." Then a thought seemed to strike her. "If I know my daughter, and if what little I know about medical training is true, you got the better end of the deal," she continued. When she laughed, she looked even younger.

Nico had never before believed in karma, but the evidence was right there in front of her. While she had been a good student in middle school, and even after starting high school, she became lonely and impatient. Once she started singing and dancing in a group, she assumed she'd be able to get through her classes with a half-hearted effort, and then never have to deal with academic issues again. Or just classes tailored to a busy performance student.

In addition to having to learn to read charts, she had to study for several hours a night - if the tasks the producer was setting for her weren't some sort of complex, cruel joke, that is. Biology, chemistry, anatomy. She would end up a bleary-eyed nerd. IF she didn't collapse first.

Nishikino Maki couldn't understand her feelings, now. Okay, not having to study, not having to worry about omiai, even playing piano again, even singing, though it's embarrassing, she could understand feeling good about. But she wasn't the most maternal girl even among the pre-meds. Somehow, taking care of the little Yazawas was making her - what? Maybe happy, which would be even more embarrassing than singing around other people.

No one job was worth her whole career. Nico made it clear to the hospital resident that she was at an - of all the unholy things - omiai with. Idols didn't get engaged, they didn't even have boyfriends. Nico was going to develop a permanent allergy to Tomishi TV at this rate. But she did know how to be gracious - AFTER she'd stared the guy in the face and laid down the law. As long as that was understood, he could take her out to a nice restaurant, behave like a gentleman, and so on. Perhaps even more unnerving was the Nishikino couple, handsome and classy, pretending she was their prized daughter that they were looking out for before they went out.

What kind of economic heft do I bring to this, she thought, almost smiling. My complete collections of idol videos? She had no idea what weirdo rich families had for etiquette with these marriage meetings, but she figured as long as she didn't drink, she didn't have to fear roaming hands. Which was good, because Nico didn't want to get a reputation as a close-combat spitfire.

After a week, Maki decided she had never, not in her whole life, been so exhausted. How on Earth the oldest Yazawa girl did it, she had no idea. On top of that, being able to still make a palatable dinner when she dragged herself home gave her almost as much satisfaction as placing first at a piano contest used to. The little Yazawas were so grateful, and the tired but game Mama Yazawa was so gracious. It was a wholly different concept of family from what Maki was used to. She'd learned seven songs, and the dance steps to five of those. Although the senior Yazawa daughter looked young and tiny, she seemed to be kind of a jock - not what you'd picture the cutesy, frilly idol girl type as. Maki wondered how she'd get on having to do mostly cerebral work.

Nico was getting even less sleep than she had first year in high school when she still cared desperately about her grades. She remembered literally juggling a notepad and her siblings' dinner. Remembered napping in the classes that didn't have a test coming up. Her "fellow" pre-med students were amused by her, but after a week of hard work, they had a certain respect - for her gameness, not her education or intellect, of course. Being able to recall anatomy or drug effects on little or no sleep at the drop of a hat was a skill she couldn't reasonably be expected to acquire, but she was sort of close. It gave her a quiet sense of satisfaction, like when she managed to create an idol group even though she was all but friendless. But the same lonely feelings she'd had then were resurfacing.

Nico missed her family. A lot.

Tomishi TV really played up the romantic possibilities for Maki, whom they were, unbeknownst to her, describing as a "wallflower." Would she be charmed by a handsome fan? What about all the handsome medium celebrities she'd run into? When she saw the costume for her performance, she broke down and phoned her parents. Her mother told Maki to suck it up and show some gaman.

Surprisingly, Mama Yazawa was more comforting. She made small adjustments to make the costume more modest without incurring the wrath of the producers. If they still complained, Maki would tell them off. She'd ask them if they wanted to tell other residents Tomishi TV was far too sleazy to cooperate with. If her parents were upset, well. She was already sacrificing her music to their need to have her take over the hospital perhaps twenty or thirty years in the future. She'd tell them to suck it up and show some gaman! As for her, she hadn't strangled Satou Haruto with his own tie ... yet. Forbearance like that would give her plus points with Buddha, she decided. "Never lose your cool, and never lose your smile," he was saying. She pictured him saying that with his face turning purple and his tongue sticking out, and managed to smile back.

Once, when he sidled closer to her, she raised her voice a little and waxed prosaically on the satisfaction of slicing through corpses with a scalpel. Then she mentioned deciphering sagittal brain sections, and asked him if he wanted to help her practice naming the parts. She whipped out the photos in question, and he sidled his chair back in place. Maki put her photos away and smirked. Satou had come very close to losing his cool, and his smile was hanging on by its fingertips.

Nico had been taught by her agency - one of the few good ones left - what to do if a producer or recruiter tried to molest her. It was a bonus that breaking Suzuki Riku's fingers meant he wouldn't be able to train for at least a week. Nico had simply observed that she didn't remember needing plastic surgery from a doctor-to-be on her handsy, self-described ladykiller had assumed a tiny, tired, overworked intern would be easy prey. Now, the word was spreading that she was as off-limits as Nishikino-san herself. Not that that deterred Suzuki, who told the other interns he'd have both girls out of their clothes at the hospital before he was done. Where Maki's parents being the owners of the hospital had saved her from most harassment, the spotlight of reality TV on Yazawa meant she could make endless trouble for Suzuki's reputation. He, however, laughed that off and said a challenge only made the victory sweeter.

It had been a week, and the producers informed Nico and Maki that they could, finally, meet their counterparts. They would be on camera, so their ability to discuss freely was quite limited. Neither of them would have believed how much they were looking forward to it.

The relatively stiff Maki was shocked when Nico gave her a strong, tearful hug, but she returned it; weakly and stiffly, but it was still a hug. Maki decided to let Nico go first.

"Nico is such an idiot," she heard her begin. "When Nico was fifteen, she was a good student, but when she began to be an idol, she told herself she'd never have to study again."

Maki wanted to laugh, but instead she put her hand over Yazawas. If that was true, then she probably was now suffering the tortures of the damned. It made her own exhaustion and bafflement child's play in comparison.

"I don't mind caring for Cocoro, Cocoa and Cotarou," Maki said, "but combined with idol duties and musical duties? I am working far harder than I did as an intern. I despise Tomishi TV," she continued, ignoring a gasp from the cameraman, "but I will grudgingly admit that this stupid swap was at least well-chosen."

Okay, she was probably borrowing trouble, but at least now Yazawa was laughing instead of crying. "Maki-chan is so pretty, you must be overrun with admirers. Is it bad enough you have a hard time doing your jobs?" that girl asked.

It was odd, but probably just Yazawa's style, to be called Maki-chan by a stranger. "I'm holding my own, Yazawa-san. It's not like I didn't have to fend off doctors and interns and creeps at omiai."

"Well," said Yazawa thoughtfully, "at least you don't have lolicon after you." She shuddered theatrically. "Did you have to discourage someone named Suzuki Riku, maybe?"

It was Maki's turn to shudder. "Oh, yes," she replied. Then, suddenly worried, she asked, "has he been molesting you? Because if so, TV crap notwithstanding, I can get him in so much trouble he will have to leave." After all, the girl was very young and tiny, and she suspected that was how he liked them.

"Umm, no, not at all," Nico said, looking cute as her eyes shifted away. "It might be, even, that Nico-nii."

Nico-nii what, she wondered.

"Nico-nii might accidentally have broken his fingers when he accidentally touched Nico's bottom," Yazawa concluded.

It was Maki's turn to laugh. Despite herself, she was warming to the little idol.

Her frustration at the situation was still there, though. When Maki felt like this, she was a different person, prone to doing impulsive things, and extremely dangerous to mess with.

"Are you looking to get a boyfriend anytime soon, Nico-san?" she whispered in the girls ear, to which the reply was a firm head shake. "Would it harm your reputation if there were rumours of the two of us dating?" she asked, still in a whisper. Yazawa froze.

After a long, long pause, she whispered back, "Right now, it seems, many idols are dating other idols who are girls. So, no, but you would have to tell Mama about it, and why. And as for Maki-chan?"

"My parents wouldn't like it one bit, but they got me into this, so for now I couldn't care less what they think," Maki whispered, with what was probably a harsh expression, as Yazawa flinched back a little.

"What was Maki-chan thinking about?" the little idol wondered. Maki wondered what the camera - and audience would make of all this whispering. It was, in and of itself, probably fodder for rumours.

"How far could we go with this on camera before it hurt you or your career?" was the obvious question. She could see Yazawa pondering that, so for the first time she sipped her drink.

Yazawa got out her phone and asked Maki for her number. Shortly after that, she saw a somewhat cheesecake photo of Yazawa, just the right shape to be a phone wallpaper. She quickly set her phone to it, then looked through her own photos. Maki was very good with devices, so she was able to find what she thought was her most attractive photo, crop out everyone else in the photo and arrange a second crop that made the image wallpaper-ready. Then she sent it to Yazawa, who immediately set her phone to the new image, then turned to Maki and smiled.

"A kiss on the cheek would be fine, Maki-chan," she heard the girl whisper as she leaned forward into Maki's personal space. She turned her head to do just that, since they were about to end their allotted meeting time.

Unfortunately, Yazawa did the same exact thing, so their lips met. They were both so shocked they didn't break the kiss for half a minute.

The Very Reality producer could have kissed the two cuties himself, even though he didn't like girls. The ratings for this one would be the greatest in the show's history, and they were only one week in.

A/N:

This is merely a slice of an AU, so it won't even have a completed story arc (much like my World Swap AU). If I complete my AU Augusts for 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021, I may revisit this. I decided to break it off after at least something had happened. After all the work this 2018 version became (with, basically, a novella for each day) I realised I was spending far, far too much time on each storylet, and giving a hint of the AU was as good as I could do, going forward, unless I was so enthused that the story would fit in one of my other collections. It's also uncomfortably similar to my fake dating AU, so I'd be retreading old ground.