Chapter 2: "I've Swapped Bodies With Myself?!"

Riku stared at the message, confused. "Who is this..?" He said the message he received aloud before hesitantly replying, a hologram like keyboard popping up from the watch as he did so. "Shouldn't I be the one asking you that, stranger?"

Riku then sat there, waiting for a reply, receiving one after only a few seconds. The reply he received made his eyes go wide. "Right, sorry, I should've introduced myself first. My name is Riku Fumiya. Now will you tell me who you are?"

He could feel the heavy sarcasm in that text, but didn't hesitate to reply. "But I'm Riku Fumiya. How can you be Riku Fumiya if I'm Riku Fumiya?"

"If this is a joke it isn't funny." The contact replied.

"But I'm not joking! I'm really Riku Fumiya in the flesh! 17 years old, high school student, no friends and destined to be alone forever!" Riku replied.

A few moments passed before a reply popped up. "Are you making fun of me?"

"No, that's just what I think the world has in store for me, or the universe, or whatever I'm in now. It's not like I want to be alone or anything..."

Another few moments before a reply. "Tell me something, what is the world you live in like? Can you get as detailed as possible?"

Riku paused, thinking for a moment, but saw no reason to not respond truthfully. "Alright. Well, compared to the world I'm in now, the world I'm in is way less advanced, technology wise, there's no giant killer bees or griffons or anything else like that in the world I live in. If magic exists here then it doesn't in mine. My world is as boring as can be. Right now it's just filled with pointless drama, so many fake people, drugs, alcohol, etc. I do my best to not get involved with anyone because it's hard to read people, whether they're real or just planning to betray you in the future too."

"I see, everything you just described seems to match my home world perfectly. Wherever I am now, it's a lot different than my home. I thought I had travelled to the past or something, but that wouldn't explain this body, I feel so weak..." They replied.

Riku's eyes widened as he came to a realization. "Wait, today, you woke up in a world you didn't recognize? Your body is still yours, but different than how it used to be?"

"Yeah, that's right. What are you getting at?"

"So did I... You don't think...are we actually the same person and switched places with each other?!"

"What, there's no way...is there..?" The other Riku said audibly from the protagonist Riku's room. This was in fact true. These two alternate Rikus had swapped bodies.

(A/n: I will refer to them as Riku One and Riku Two for now)

Riku Two replied to Riku One's response. "You said there was a griffon correct? Did it have a name?"

Riku One replied. "Yep, Roco. He saved me from those killer bees."

"So it is true, we have switched places. Roco is my pet griffon." Riku Two replied.

"What could have caused something like this? This makes no sense."

"Well, I've heard of it in a story before in my world. I don't know if it was true, but it read, 'When two alternate planes of existence cross, something is bound to change.' I guess that meant us since we're so similar. No one will even notice considering we have no real friends and...I'm assuming your parents..?"

"Yeah. They're dead. They died when I was really young, I don't even remember their faces." Riku One responded, frowning as he typed his message.

"I don't know if my parents are dead, but I don't have any either."

"I was orphaned so long and no one wanted to adopt me for some reason, so I ended up moving out of my orphanage, getting a job, and ended up in that apartment you're in."

"I see. I built the home you're in from the ground up from scratch."

"W-Wow... How long did it take? Where were you before?"

"About two days. I was in an orphanage before as well..."

"What?!" Riku One shouted audibly as he read the message in disbelief before responding. "That's it?! Just two days?!"

"Yeah, I never considered it if I didn't have my magic."

"So, what kind of magic do you have?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Well if I'm in your body that means it's going to be my magic now too supposedly! I'd like to be prepared."

"I guess you could be right about that. I have elemental magic, meaning I can use all the elements that make up that world. It's very rare someone is born who can use every single element. Even someone being born with two is rare. However, being born with elemental magic itself is pretty common."

"Seriously? Your parents must have been really special people."

"I wouldn't know." Riku Two replied, his expression blank, but his eyes dark.

"Yeah, sorry... Well, I think we should come up with something to call each other."

"Why can't we just call each other our real names?"

"That would get confusing really fast, for me anyway. I need something else to call you."

Riku Two rolled his eyes and sighed before responding. "Alright fine, what are you thinking?"

Riku One thought to himself for a moment. "Hmm... Oh, I've got it." He started typing his response. "Since you want to go by your real name, I'll call you Riku F; Riku Fantasy since you're the fantasy version of me."

"Alright..? What am I going to call you?" Riku F. replied, confused since he considered the land he was in to be more fantasy, but he decided to roll with it.

"Well, the English meaning of Riku is land, So you can just call me Riku Land, or Riku L. for short."

Riku F. stared at the message for a moment before replying. "So in other words...Riku Riku?"

"I knew you'd get it."

Riku F. facepalmed and Riku L. laughed, imagining his reaction. Riku F. shook his head, sending another message. "At least our languages seem to be the same in our worlds. So, what exactly are we supposed to do about this?"

"I guess just live out each other's lives and wait to see if anything interesting happens. I know my world may be very boring compared to yours, but I think you'll be able to make it fun for yourself somehow."

"So then we'll keep each other updated on the things we do and some things that we have to do in order to maintain our images."

"Right, I'll tell you right now that summer vacation just started for me, so you don't have to go to school for a while."

"School?"

"You are so lucky..." Riku L. replied jealously.

Riku F. was confused, but assumed Riku L. would explain later, so he continued the conversation. "In my world, I'm a hero. There are sometimes hero meetings. You can go to them if you want, but I never go. It just causes trouble. Just make sure you're doing heroic things that you want to do, not what other people say to do."

"He's a hero here? Wow, look at mister big shot." Riku L. chuckled before replying. "Oh I plan on it, but I won't be doing anything heroic as I am now. I'm gonna have to do a lot of training."

"So will I... There's not much I can do with a weak body like this."

Riku L. laughed nervously. "Yeah...I haven't worked out a day in my life... Probably shouldn't tell him that..." "Well...good luck training my body." He replied with a nervous chuckle.

"It won't be that hard."

"Well you won't need tips from me but I will from you. How do I use magic? Also, how should I...train..?"

"Well, training the body should be simple to teach you, since you've obviously never done it before..."

Riku L. inhaled sharply. "He noticed..!"

"As for magic, well...magic awakens in a time of need. If you can't use my magic now, I'm guessing you have to awaken it again. Once you awaken your magic, you will know how to use it like second nature. It's practically the same as breathing. If you really need it, then it'll come to you."

"Right, that's why it came to me while those killer bees almost got to me." Riku L. said audibly, rolling his eyes

"I know you're probably saying something like, 'Why didn't it happen when the bees attacked? The reason for that is because you had Roco with you. What I'm talking about is when it comes to life or death. You literally have to be in a situation where you could die. Either that or someone close to you has to be in some kind of danger, your emotions go out of control, etc. Awakening your magic is pretty much an emotional thing."

Riku L. began to sweat at the thought, but something occurred to him and he sent another reply. "What made you awaken your magic?" There was a long pause while he waited for a response.

Riku F. didn't mind telling him, it was just a long story. A couple minutes passed and he finally sent the long response. "Well, it has to do with Roco. You saw the way his body is I'm guessing? Well, it wasn't always like that. Roco's been with me ever since I was a young child. When I was ten years old, I was just wandering around the forest, exploring. I was hearing strange noises and my childish curiosity got the best of me. As I travelled deeper into the forest, the thicker and darker it became, but the noises I heard were getting louder and louder. I ended up finding some mages who were trying to destroy the forest and mutate the creatures in the forest. They wanted to control them so they could take over some kingdom or something like that, I don't really remember. I was only ten don't judge me. Anyways, Roco was actually a part of the pack of animals they were testing on. When I saw this giant pack of animals and what those mages were doing, I tried to be brave and stop them, but being a ten year old with no magic...you can guess how that went. I ended up getting thrashed around badly and was about to be killed, but that's when Roco fought back against them to protect me. Even though he was weak, he fought for me, and one of their spells tore off his front right leg and right wing. When I saw that, I felt something erupt in me... That's when my magic awakened. If you want to see the aftermath, then just ask Roco to take you to THE forest."

Without even replying, Riku L. went to get Roco, various thoughts and a mix of emotions flowing through him. "Take me to the forest." He ordered the magnificent creature. Roco complied and flew off once Riku L. was on his back. It took quite a while to reach their destination, even with Roco flying so fast. What Riku L. saw once they reached their destination that day would never leave his mind.

Riku L. took a photo of it on his watch and sent it to Riku F. "This?" He asked in another text.

"Yep, that's it..." Riku F. replied. It was a crater, with a line of several elemental aftermaths going off in every direction. From cracked earth to scorched grass to a spiky ice floor and even sparks that still crackled on the ground. It seemed the aftermath of Riku F's awakening was irreversible and everlasting. Oddly enough, there wasn't a single body.