Imagine, if you will, a walking slab of beefcake walking through the front door of Sosei High. Everyone turns to notice him, because he's handsome, charming, supremely good at sports, and last week went out of his way to save a kitten from getting run over by a car at the risk of his own life. That's the kind of guy he is.
"Hi, Ryota!" a couple of cheerleaders coo, waving flirtatiously at him. He gives them some finger guns and a cheeky wink, then continues on his way. Yes, Ryota Konda sure did have it made around these parts. Popular, adored, and walking directly ahead of our actual protagonist, Akio Ono.
Akio Ono. A boy that lurked in the shadows, almost seeming to live there. He kept his head down low, because he didn't really get how to talk to people he didn't know. Which led to a paradoxical situation where he didn't meet new people - unless forced to interact by someone he already knew. Which wasn't many people. By trailing in after this Ryota guy, he was lucky - nobody was paying any attention to him at all.
"Hey babe, not seen you around before. Transfer student?"
At first he ignored that and went right to his locker. Which went all fine and well until a hand slammed next to him and, on turning around, Akio found himself looking at a smiling and quite ugly boy who was double his height and had arms like a gorilla.
"I saw you there trailing after Ryota, cutie," the boy said. "Forget him. Hang out with a real man instead."
Then the boy looked down at Akio's chest. For a long time. Longer than a straight man usually looks at another straight man's chest. The silence grew... uncomfortable.
"You're a guy," the boy said accusingly. Akio nodded. Then got his head caved in. No, not literally, but it sure did feel like it. Nothing like a little bit of gay panic to ignite a bully's 'fight' response.
"Alright, that's quite enough of that," a voice said. A girl's voice. After a moment, the bully's endless fists were peeled away, and Akio found himself staring at a pair of legs. Long legs. Very nice legs. Very nice legs that belonged to a very nice pretty girl, who was all but twisting the ear off that boy. "With an attitude like this, it's no wonder that you're single. Have you tried 'treating people with a modicum of respect'? I hear it does wonders for relationships."
She let go, and the guy stormed off rather than get his ass kicked by a girl. In turn, she helped Akio to his feet, and he did his absolute damndest to avoid looking directly at her.
"Honestly now," she tutted, tousling his hair. "Akio, my dear sweet Akio. You really are far too cute for your own good." The girl smiled gently, “So very cute…”
This was Naoki Yokoyama, tallest girl in school and president of every single martial arts club. No, really, she was in charge of <i>all of them</i>. Tweaking that boy's ear was a mercy compared to what she could do if she got serious. They'd been neighbors for years, and that was basically the only reason why she gave him the time of day instead of joining the bullies. Ryota was sure of it.
Still, she was a shining light in his daily life. Naoki was really pretty, but he honestly didn't have the nerve to ask her out. Akio almost wished he had the same nerve as the boy who had hit on him a little bit ago, at least then he could... You know...
"Thanks," he said, roasting in slow torture as she tousled his hair as if he were a pet cat. "Do I really look that girly?"
"Yeah, I'd say so," Naoki shrugged. "Really, you should join one of the clubs. We'd have you toughened up nice and quick!" She looked around and leaned in. "We have a bunch of sweaty muscular girls for you to look at. Maybe one of 'em will take a shine to you?"
"Th-thanks, but -"
"We also have big sweaty men," Naoki interrupted. "If that's more your thing?"
"It... it isn't..." Akio mumbled.
"Ah! What a shame! I'd love to be Princess Carried by a dashing, strong, and tall boy or girl! It's always been a dream of - " She stopped mid-rant, eyes a little glazed over. "Never mind, I didn't say anything. Come on, let's get off to class, and try to keep any more boys experiencing a gay tingle because of the pretty quiet boy they think is a girl."
<hr>
That night, Akio stumbled home and practically melted into his desk in front of his computer. This couldn't go on. Boys would hit on him at school thinking he was a chick, then beat the snot out of him when they realised the truth. Then the girl he liked, and the only girl he could talk to with any level of confidence, and he was pretty sure that she was into a type that honestly wasn't him anyway.
So he did the only thing he could to try to take his mind off of things. He mindlessly browsed the internet. Not looking for anything in particular, just looking for things to take up his time.
Then he found it. By complete chance. An advertisement caught his attention. Like basically everyone else, he ignored the ad, as he would for anything but the most obnoxious, so he could focus on what he was trying to actually do. Not this time. Something about this ad grabbed his attention by the balls and was starting to squeeze like a vice.
"Become the being you can admire," he read. "Change yourself into the person you truly want to be."
... Pfft! "Yeah, right. How stupid do you have to be to buy into something like that?" he asked nobody in particular. "It's an obvious scam. Only an idiot would fall for it. Even an old granny on her first day online would never fall for something like this. What kind of idiot put this up, huh? Why even keep it up, when it's so obviously fake."
<hr>
Picture, if you will, the front doors to Sosei High being pushed open, and the embodiment - no, the Goddess of Confidence herself was standing in the doorway, one hand on her hip, the other thrust out to meet the door. Instantly, all eyes were on her.
"Who is that?"
"No idea, must be new."
"No kidding! I'd remember a babe like her if I'd seen her before!"
All three of those were girls, by the way. Straight girls, stewing in their own juices. The straight boys and lesbians were all standing with their mouths agape, for among them now walked a truly divine being.
"Hey everyone!" she called out in a loud, cheerful voice. She flexed her bicep and poked it with her index finger. "Name's Kana Oshiro! I'm new here and I can't wait to meet you all!"
"Well hi there Kana," said a certain boy who thought he was entitled to be with any girl he thought was cute. "My name is -"
She reached out, put a hand on his shoulder, and then turned him around so that he wasn't looking directly at her. "Not my type," she whispered in his ear. Off she went to class, where she kicked up her seat, had it land backwards, then sat on it while leaning on the back, hogging all the attention of everyone else in class in the process.
After this, class begins.
“OK class, anybody want to give this formula a crack? The Math Teacher said. It was a hard one, and for most of the class it was just this wall of numbers. “Yes, uh... ?”
“Kana Oshiro.” She stood up and walked to the white board, taking the marker form the slightly confused looking teacher, she scribbled down the solution. “It’s really easy if you look at the text book.”
Then came Gym class.
“Ready? Go!” The Gym teacher fired the starter pistol and the rest of class was nearly bowled over by the metaphorical shockwave of Kana dashing ahead of the rest.
“I think that’s a new record!” And then she was across the finish line before the rest of class got halfway there.
"I dunno, thought that was kinda slow," Kana said, having not broken a bead of sweat. "I can do better next time."
Needless to say, but she was the talk of the school by lunchtime. Blowing in from out of nowhere, impressing all the teachers, and getting all eyes on her. Confident, strong, smart, she was as brilliant as she was brash. You couldn't help but like her even though she was cocky. Where did she come from? Who was she?
Lunchtime did eventually hit, and all the gossip was about Kana by then. Boys discussing ways to ask her out or at least earn her favour. Girls talking about - actually, a much broader range of topics. Some wanted to undercut her rising popularity, others wanted to become her friend, some wanted her to join their club, it was quite extensive really.
As for Kana herself, she was having a blast. It was weird though, it was her first day, but she already sort of felt like she knew every teacher, a few of the students, and her way around these halls like she'd been attending for at least a couple months.
Though... one thing was troubling her. She couldn't remember anything at all from before this morning. Not one single thing.
"What's this I hear about you bullying that Akio kid?"
What she didn't expect was a voice to come through from the classroom she was walking by. A voice that sent a chill down her spine. Kana stopped, looked around, then carefully leaned in to look inside. There were a bunch of jocks in there. Big dumb, muscular and -
One yummy morsel. Ryota. That was his name. She somehow knew that perfectly. Gimme. Gimme some of that.
"Yeah, well, it's his fault." Oh, wasn't that the boy from this morning that tried to hit on her? "Guy looks like a chick, he must be doing it on purpose to trap guys."
"Oh, so you're transphobic too?" Ryota slammed his fist into his open palm. "Come on punk, keep giving me reasons to kick your ass."
"H-Hey now! What do you even care?!" the boy protested. "He's just some runty little -"
Then, grabbing hold of the boy's lapel with two fingers, he lifted him bodily into the air. Oof, yeah, that was the stuff right there.
"Adjust your behaviour," Ryota said. "Or you're off the team."
He put the boy back down and started walking to the door. Ah! This was it. This was her chance! Kana leaned cooly against the opposite wall. That man was exactly what she was missing! She leaned a little to the side, letting her top sliiiiightly slip off her shoulder, undid a button for a touch of cleavage. He'd be putty in her hands in no time flat!
"Hi~" she said, waving flirtatiously at her soon to be boyfriend.
"Oh hey, you're the new girl everyone's talking about," Ryota said. "Nice to meetcha. Hey, sorry that idiot hit on you this morning, I've given him a talking to. Won't happen again. Alright? See ya!"
And off he went. His eyeline never wavered for an instant. Complete eye contact. Not even a struggle to not check out her amazing body. What? What?! That wasn't possible - unless he was into boys?
That evening, Kana stumbled home and went right up to her room in a daze. She still hadn't recovered from being turned down by the only boy worth a damn at that school.
"Ah, to hell with it! I'm going online to forget my troubles."
Truly, the Internet is the ice cream of the age. It's also a whole lot of other things of the age, most of them unhealthy. Funny thing though, when she started her browser she wound up landing on a familiar advertisement.
"Huh?! Make yourself the person you wanna be?" she grunted. "Oh, come on. What kind of loser would fall for this potion crap?"
Then... her eyes fell upon a certain bottle sitting on the desk, next to the monitor. It looked exactly like the bottle in the advertisement. Kana held it up, blinked slowly. Then looked around the room. Yep. It had been opened, and some of it was missing.
"Ohhhh!" Kana realised, looking around the room. "That explains all the boy's clothes, why I don't have any memories from before this morning... And a whole host of other small questions I had about myself from over the course of the day."
It was kind of humbling in a way, realising that you were someone else's wish fulfilment. No, wait. Humbling isn't the right word. Affirming. Yes, that's right. Your very existence was someone else's wish. That's kind of awesome! Still, though... That guy she liked had no interest in her. It sounded more like he was kind of into that Akio guy. Kana shrugged, read the instructions - she was brash, not stupid - and took the required dose before suddenly and spontaneously becoming a very confused and effeminate boy wearing a girl's uniform that was too big for him.
Akio looked down at himself. Blinked a few times. Then took off his clothes and fell asleep. This, it turned out, was the smartest move he'd made all week. And probably for the rest of the week as well.
- Akio and Kanna wind up trading off in their attempts to seduce their respective love interests.
- It doesn't take long for Naoki to figure out something is up. I mean, she lives next door.
- Akio isn't the only one at school to find this mysterious potion.
- Something else
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