"Everyone run! Those who can fight, please step up and defend the weak!"
"They're headed this way! Those murderers!"
The TV was broadcasting news of users with strong powers running around and destroying the city. Watching it, I didn't feel all that terrified, I felt like I was watching a movie. On the other hand, Mom was completely devastated. Knowing that your life can always be at risk from other people who decide to be dangerous with their powers can be daunting.
Kazu enters the living room from the backyard door covered in sweat. "Who's that?" He asks after sliding the door shut.
"Something that relates to my power. Don't ask." I say, trying not to cause a commotion. "She looks like you a lot. What is she a duplicate of you or something?" He says.
Mom takes a glance at the sleeping girl, "Oh I didn't notice that before." She says surprised. I don't understand why Ryuuka went back to sleep. She was just walking and talking a moment ago.
"Kazu look at the TV. People are dying everywhere. It's out of control." Says Mom, "No one goes outside for now, at least until things calm down."
Kazu gives a slight nod while gazing at the TV before looking back at me. I'm currently eating a sandwich while sitting on the couch, with Ryuuka sitting asleep and laid back.
"So what are you gonna do with her? Does she do anything?" Kazu asks.
"I believe I can take control of her," I say while still munching and chewing food. "Wait you can control her? How? Show me!" Kazu demands.
"Not now, I haven't gotten used to it yet, plus I get a brain-ache every time I use it." I spoke out, "I just don't want to bother right now. Let me understand the environment we are in first." I contest.
"Sure man. Imma take a shower so take care of the house. I'm too sweaty right now, I guess even rocks can sweat hah!" He says while walking away.
As I finished my food, Mom confronted me with a great question, "Wait Yuuji. Doesn't the girl need to eat as well?"
"I don't know." I'm almost certain she would need food since otherwise how else would she get energy, or she would always be draining me of my power to remain active? One important thing to know is, how powers operate on energy. Is the energy just using your stamina? I don't have any answers as of now. I guess it's better to leave it for the experts to figure this stuff out and explain it properly. As for now, I have to work off my guesses.
"I think you should give her food," Mom says. "I'm gonna need to switch to her then, I'm not sure if it will work correctly though." I express my concerns.
"Is that difficult to do?" She asks.
"I should be able to do it, but there might be some problems," I explain before getting ready to switch. I kept hard focus on what felt like my power and tried to point it towards Ryuuka's head and released my energy, after a couple of seconds I felt like my power had a different, odd feeling to it. I remembered feeling like it when switching before, but I didn't pay attention to it.
"Just be careful." I hear my mom say before my vision fades to black and get up as Ryuuka.
As I attempt to pull my head forward and lean into a sitting position, I suddenly feel my brain burning like hell, as if I have a cramp in my brain. All I could do was hold my head firmly with my hands to try and ease the pain. It felt like I was relearning every piece of information I ever knew all at the same time.
"Are you okay? Is everything fine?" Mom asks. I wish I could answer but my head is hurting so much I could only bite my lips and brace the pain.
Then I feel a rub on my back, "Looks like it worked, but I'm still awake, and you're the real me now." This was the split consciousness talking that is now controlling my real body while I'm on this one.
"I don't understand. How can you be two at once?" Mom asks after witnessing my power.
"I honestly have no clue, but what I know is that I'm not the real one, but the one taken over Ryuuka is the real me. As for me, all I did was focus my power on the girl and just saw her become alive again." The split one tries to explain his point of view while my head feels like it was just healing back up after being turned to mush from a chainsaw.
"It hurts too much, I think I'll switch back now," I say after showing my abilities.
"Wait you have to eat some food first." She takes a spoon and tries to feed me some of her soup, to which after I eat five to six spoons. "I think the pain is going away now," I say.
"Do you think that's because of the food?"
"I think it just fades after a while."
"So what now," the split body spoke. "I think we should try to master this power more. There has to be other stuff it can do. Maybe if you keep switching then it won't hurt as much." The split body knows exactly what I was thinking.
"I agree." I say standing up, "Let's try a bunch of stuff with the power and see how it works!" I was genuinely excited. What could this power hold?
Wait a second, I have to try this, "System window!"
"What?" Mom questioned.
"Oh, good idea, real me." Said split body.
"System popup! System call! Board! Hey system! Stats!" Nothing happened at all.
"What are you trying to do?" Says mom.
"Nothing, it's just something I see a lot in books, I guess it doesn't make sense in real life." I try to explain without revealing that I read a lot of anime and mangas that have crazy leveling systems. Which makes sense. This is real life, not a game.
"Well, me and I will go start testing some stuff out so I can get stronger with my powers." That's right, stronger, now that everyone has gained powers, the world has changed from a money-oriented status ranking system to a power status ranking system. Having power is what's going to allow someone to rule over another.
I had split body write multiple notes on the possible theories we had on this power. First of all, I switch back to my real body, or a better way to say it is, merge everything I learned while I controlled Ryuuka and everything that happened with my split body into the same clump of memories. Although I anticipated that my brain would hurt switching back, it didn't hurt as much as before. What affected it? Or is it because I was controlling Ryuuka for a much shorter time?
Speaking about Ryuuka, after I merge back to my real body, Ryuuka starts being active again, almost like she's alive by herself. However, it didn't seem like she improved her learning or anything at all. Every time I spoke to her, she would sparsely repeat or combine words and mumble them. After a couple of minutes, she would shut down entirely and go back to sleep.
Here's what else I found out. The more often I switch, the less my brain hurts since less information is sent or updated to each other's brain. The downside is that the pain is dramatically harsher the longer I wait before switching bodies.
On the third day, I understood a fundamental concept, the farther I am from my main body, the longer time exponentially it takes to switch back when focusing on the other body. For example, 10 feet away takes 5 seconds to switch back, while 20 feet takes 15 seconds, it's a huge difference, and the farther we are apart, the longer it takes.
One thing I noticed when I was attempting to switch bodies extremely fast was that there seemed to be a thread between me and Ryuuka, each time I tried to connect, it felt like I was, or my consciousness was sliding on that thread across to the other side. This gave me another theory to test out. However, it seems like I need to learn how to control my power correctly to test out my new ideas.
After a couple of days, my split body and I were able to work together to achieve more productivity. For instance, split body, which is my real body, can be reading a book, going on the computer, or even learning a whole subject, and on Ryuuka I can clean around the house, prepare food, or heck, even just read another book! Once I merged back, I learned and understood everything I did on both bodies. The only problem is the headaches, or what I call brain cramps.
To use this power effectively, when the split body is sleeping, I control Ryuuka and get on the computer to research and take notes. I wouldn't want my real body overworked. I research everything and anything I can get on how powers work fighting techniques and tactical information on survival. This has helped a lot, I've also built much better mobility while controlling Ryuuka, since according to anatomy, female bodies have different maneuvers and movements than male bodies, it took less than a week for me to get used to fighting in it like it was my own body.
The more information I learn, the harsher the pain is, after just reading half a book on one body, and learning a dinner recipe, I was given an almost 30-minute long headache after merging. It was a painful problem and I had to find a way to solve it.
"The streets look much calmer now than a week ago," I say watching the window.
"I think it's safe enough outside to go buy stuff, I think I even see some normal civilians outside." Split body claims.
"Do you really think so? I'll go tell Mom I'll be going outside." I say, realizing I was Ryuuka. Does that mean my mom has essentially also gained a daughter? What am I saying, this body is just a power, but I can't help but wonder, what if I met danger outside and was killed, would my consciousness merge back to my original body, or would my real consciousness be gone forever and split body lives? Wait, isn't Split Body just the real me?
"Do you think the real me will die if I die as Ryuuka?" I ask split body.
"Your guess is literally the same thing as mine." His answer makes total sense. We are the same person after all, with the same mind.
I go over to the living room and see Mom watching the news again.
"That guy is insane! Someone stop him, he just destroyed two 6-story buildings just because someone made fun of his shoes?!" Then the camera zoomed in to a guy with spikey hair and goggles with a maniacal smile, looking like a came out of a steampunk cosplay convention.
"Hey, mom."
"Who? Wait oh never mind, I almost forgot you can control the girl now." She says.
"I'm gonna go outside and buy some stuff from the hardware store and some clothes."
"Don't go outside! It's very dangerous don't you see the news?" She objects to my actions.
"It's ok, I've been watching the streets these days, it's much more calm outside, also I'm going as Ryuuka so no matter what happens, my real body is at home," I reassure her.
She looks at me with second thoughts, "But didn't you say that your real consciousness is when you are controlling Ryuuka?" Shit, she got me there.
"It's okay, even if something happens, my consciousness will go back to my real body by itself."
She stares at me for a while before speaking again, "Only if you are really sure, I don't want you to get into any fights okay?"
"You should get your mind off the bad stuff on TV, you know that's happening on a whole different provenance right?" I picked up the TV remote and switched to a different channel that was playing cartoons.
I grab some cash from my wallet and put on a hoodie to conceal myself and avoid any contact with anyone who seems threatening.
"If I'm not back by tomorrow, assume I'm dead if the power doesn't let you know, although I would like to be back in less than 2 hours." Split body nods while staring at the computer screen, playing chess. I unlock the front door and lock it back on the way out as I begin to walk down the sidewalk. I wonder if the outside will be turned into a strategic stage, and if then, what moves can I make, except to become a pawn.