MAZE

It was the last day of school before summer break started. Chinatsu had been planning to skip, but Miyabi practically dragged him out of bed to come to school. She was the Student Council President and felt a duty to ensure students (or at least this student) maintained excellent attendance and followed school rules.

Miyabi and Chinatsu were next-door neighbors. Their mothers were born in the same hospital, became best friends in high school, attended the same universities, met husbands who were also best friends, got jobs at the same companies, bought houses next to each other, and finally expected their children to grow up to become the best of friends.

Chinatsu found it absolutely sickening.

“It’s going to be your fault if we’re late!” Miyabi lamented as the two of them rushed down the street.

“The only one who’s going to be late here is you!” Chinatsu broke out into a sprint.

Since middle school, he’d been involved in all kinds of athletic clubs at school, so he knew that he could easily outrun her. After all, her body was much smaller and weaker than his. Chinatsu planned to circle back to his house once he lost her, but what he didn’t plan for was Miyabi chasing after him.

“S-stop!”

“Only if you catch me!” he laughed.

The crosswalk light had just turned red when Chinatsu reached the intersection, causing him to make an abrupt stop. He stopped to catch his breath, fully intending to bolt as soon as the light turned green again.

“I’ve got you now!” Miyabi called out.

Chinatsu began to turn around at the sound of her voice. Her arm was outstretched. Her hand grazed his shirt, followed by the full brunt of her body crashing into him, knocking them both into the street.

Chinatsu saw stars as he hit the pavement.

“Ow ow ow!” Miyabi whined.

He opened his eyes to see her collecting the contents of her spilled bag, while blood ran down her leg from a scraped knee. She didn’t even notice the oncoming bus.

Tires screeched.

Chinatsu threw himself over Miyabi.

Then everything went black.

It was like being thrown into a pool. Weightless. Cold. Quiet.

Then the warmth of the hot sun hit Chinatsu’s skin.

“--natsu!”

His ears were ringing.

“Chinatsu!”

A muffled voice calling out to him. But who?

“Chinatsu! Wake up!!”

He slowly opened his eyes, shielding them from the bright sun. Was it this bright when they left for school? His head was throbbing. He clapped his hand to his forehead as he sat up.

Huh? Was his hair always this soft? This…long?

His eyes were still adjusting to the light, but surely they weren’t playing tricks on him. Directly in front of him was…himself!?

“A mirror?” he said with a familiar voice, but one that wasn’t his own.

Chinatsu looked down to see hands that were smaller and softer than his own. Not only that, but he was wearing the girl’s uniform from his school!? He grabbed at his chest and felt it…

“Hey! Don’t touch my boobs, Chinatsu!”

SLAP

Chinatsu saw stars as he got whacked in the side of the head by none other than himself.

“M-Miyabi!?”

“That’s right,” she said with Chinatsu’s voice and face.

“But how!?”

“It seems we were switched when we got here,” she said, gesturing to the surrounding area.

Chinatsu felt grass between his fingers. They were no longer on the road but surrounded by stone walls on three sides. The stones making up the walls were grey and appeared carefully built, evenly spaced and cleanly mortared. While they mostly had a smooth appearance, there were portions covered in creeping ivy and lichen. Looking up, the walls must have extended at least 100 meters into the cloudless, blue sky with the bright, hot sun.

“Are we dead?” The words Chinatsu uttered in Miyabi’s voice quivered.

“Ugh, we better not be,” said Miyabi, furrowing the brows of the face she now wore. “We seem to have swapped bodies, so this better not be your idea of Heaven.”

“Gross! Who would want that!?” Chinatsu shouted. He felt his face getting hot and turned away.

Chinatsu ran the small hand that formerly belonged to Miyabi over the stone wall. Whether this was the afterlife or not, this was real. The rough, callused hand that formerly belonged to Chinatsu pressed against the wall next to his new one.

“This wall was open when we got here,” Miyabi started. “When I came to, we were lying in a huge desert right outside of these walls. There was this opening, but on either side, all I could see was a solid wall spanning for kilometers, surrounded by nothing but sand dunes. I couldn’t wake you up, so I carried you into the grass, but as soon as I passed through the threshold of this place, the wall became solid.”

“How long was I out for? How long have we been here?” His head was spinning.

“Not long. Maybe a couple of hours, judging by the way the shadows have moved. I didn’t look around because I didn’t want to leave you out of eyeshot.”

It felt like every question Chinatsu could ask would just create even more questions, so he bit his lip at the urge to ask anymore.

Chinatsu looked around again at his surroundings. A solid stone wall behind them, one to their left and one to their right. There was only one direction they could go, and his feet started to carry him forward before he even thought about it.

There was another wall ahead, but the closer he got, Chinatsu could tell that it wasn’t a dead end. He became more excited and began to pick up the pace, ignoring Miyabi’s calls for him to wait. Of course, now that Miyabi was occupying Chinatsu’s real body, she caught up easily. When they reached the wall, Chinatsu’s hunch was confirmed as two diverging paths opened up to the left and the right. Both of which seemed to extend for several meters and turn.

“Miyabi, I think we’re in a maze. Maybe we should split u–”

“Are you stupid or something!?” Miyabi grabbed Chinatsu’s shoulders and violently shook.

“But–”

“Absolutely not!! I am not letting you out of my sight while you’re in my body!” Her exasperated pleas reached him.

It was true that they weren’t in their own bodies, so they couldn’t be reckless. They had to think everything through.

“You couldn’t even find your way out of a mirror maze at the amusement park, and you’re talking about splitting up?”

“Sshh! Don’t bring that up now!” Chinatsu pleaded.

“Oh, you’re embarrassed?” she smirked. “Which part was more embarrassing? The part where you got lost for over an hour? Or the part where you panicked and ran into a mirror, broke it with your face, causing the attraction to close–”

“That’s enough!” Chinatsu clapped his hand over her mouth. Seeing the faint scar on his own chin, caused by the stitches he needed from the incident, was enough of a reminder.

“Chinatsu, listen up,” Miyabi started. “They say when you enter a maze, you hold your hand to the wall. Right on the right wall or left on the left. Doesn't really matter which it is. Keeping your hand there should keep you from getting lost and help you find the exit.”

“The exit?”

Chinatsu had been so caught up in the mystery of this strange place that he hadn’t even considered the fact that there could be an exit.

“I think we are supposed to solve this once we’re in here,” she posited. “That’s why the entrance closed off as soon as we crossed the threshold.”

“Aha! I knew I could count on you, Miyabi,” Chinatsu laughed while patting her on the back. In his mind, even if she was irritating as hell, she was incredibly book-smart. The perfect person to rely on for a puzzle.

But left or right? They needed to pick a direction.

“Miyabi, in my right pants pocket, there should be some coins. Give me one.”

Miyabi reached into the pocket and was surprised to find a small handful of coins–two 100 yen coins and a few smaller denominations. They had entered into this world with the incorrect bodies, but their uniforms and belongings appeared to have carried over properly. Chinatsu swiped a 100 yen coin from the pile.

He flipped the coin, then tucked it away safely into the uniform’s skirt pocket.

“We’ll go to the left,” he commanded.

“Hey! Wait! Chinatsu, you’re supposed to call heads or tails! Don’t unilaterally make a decision like that!”

Chinatsu ignored her objections and pressed onward. The fingers of his hand grazed the wall as he walked down the left path. The feeling of the stone wasn’t completely smooth, but it wasn’t as rough and weathered as you would expect outdoor walls to be. Miyabi had said outside the walls was a desert, but inside them was like the kind of English garden you see in travel books. An overgrown cobblestone path, grass, weeds, small flowers, creeping vines–green, green, green! All of that needs water, so how? Just what was this place?

Miyabi followed but seemed on edge. She hadn’t mentioned seeing anything strange to Chinatsu, and they hadn’t heard anything since he woke up…

That’s right! They hadn’t heard anything yet. It was too quiet. There was all this greenery, but no birds were singing, no insects buzzing.

As Chinatsu reached the end of the path where the turn was–a right-hand turn–a smell hit him. He stopped in his tracks and retched a bit.

“What is that smell!?” Miyabi said in a hushed voice, gagging as well.

“I don’t know. It almost smells like a petting zoo, but way worse,” Chinatsu said, holding his nose. The smell was making his eyes water.

He rounded the corner without thinking.

HUFF—

That was a mistake.

SNORT—

Chinatsu’s eyes slowly took in the body standing before him. Two cloven hooves upon bestial legs, but with the torso of a humanoid body. Resting upon the broad shoulders was the head of a bull with fire in its eyes, and forward-facing horns that ended in points.

A Minotaur…!