It's the last lesson of the day - Art. I'm excited! My art teacher walks in, and she's an art teacher if I ever did see one. She has pink hair and she's wearing paint-stained overalls.
"Good afternoon class! Today, I thought we could do something fun but easy," She explains, her voice raspy and child-like, "We're going to be drawing what we think the inside of our minds look like! You don't have to be realistic, in fact, be the opposite! Just have fun with it!" I think I'll like this teacher. She puts a massive box of pens and paints on the front desk. "If I find any of these pens broken, or too much extra paint in your pallets," she begins, "you'll all be getting an hour detention!" she looks at all of us with a villainous grin and everyone freezes. She smiles at us and begins handing out the paper. She gets around to my table and gives me an extra piece of paper. I look up at her, and she whispers, "The other teachers say you're fast at working, it's just in case you finish early." I smile at her and pull out my lucky pencil.
I begin sketching, but it just doesn't look right. The assignment was to draw the inside of your mind, and this is too soft. I erase it all and start over. I do the outline for the background first. I split the page into four squares and label them, 'Yoshiko', 'Takeshi', 'Nanami' and 'Kosa'. I start my sketch. I draw a muscular woman with long hair and a pretty face. I start to refine my sketch with darker pencil lines. I give the eyes dynamic eyelashes and a swirl for pupils. For the clothes, a large vest and cargo pants. I put my hand up and the teacher walks over. "Have you finished your sketch already?" I nod and she looks at my paper. "But there's three blank squares?" She inquires.
"Yeah, I can't draw the other parts. I need the other alters to." She looks puzzled so I explain, "I have a personality disorder." She looks shocked and apologises to me. "Do you need a paint pallet?" I nod and she walks to go get me one. Tokoyami takes a look at my drawing.
"That looks good. Is it how you see yourself?" He gets it! He really does! "Yeah! I'm a big strong lady with nice hair!" I joke. He nods and continues his drawing. I peak over his shoulder to see what his drawing looks like. It's simple, but nice. He's drawn a field at nighttime, but he's drawn swords stuck in the ground and creatures flying through the air. "Yours looks nice too!" I exclaim. He lifts his pencil off the paper and stares at me as if I just phased through a table. I don't think he expected me, or anyone, to say that. "Thanks I guess," he mutters, still shocked by my response. The teacher puts a paint pallet with the primary colours - plus black and white - on my table along with a paint brush and a water cup. I pick up the brush and dip it in the water.
At last, my painting is finished. I painted the hair black and the eyes orange with the vest a bluey-grey and the pants murky green. The background is yellow with white lines coming from the person. I grab the piece of extra paper and begin to doodle.
In the blink of an eye, I'm sharing my body. I'm now in co-conscience with Nanami-chan. I relinquish control over our body and tell her the assignment. She finds the box with her name in it and starts doodling. She draws a circle with a smiley face for the head and gives it two ponytails. She draws a stick for the neck and square for the body. She draws a triangle onto that square to make a skirt and gives herself little stick limbs. She grabs the paint brush and begins painting her masterpiece. Gradually, I recede into my mind, leaving Nanami to work on her art by herself.