Episode 10: Whenever, Wherever

After all, it was school, CDAC, homework, gaming, and sleeping, every day. She loved those things, of course, but after a while even her favorite things got stale.

So when Summer vacation rolled around for her, two of those items (school and the Can Do Anything Club, to be more precise) were not there. Summer was supposed to be fun, she knew, but for someone who had no real hobbies besides gaming and shape-shifting into random people to troll said gamers, she felt bored all the time. (She didn’t actually go outside a whole lot, despite her darker skin—that was just from her dad’s side of the family.)

That was until that fateful late August day, only a few days before school would be back in session, when she got this message on her Steam from an acquaintance of hers online, JoestarMin:

Hey, I see that we live in the same Prefecture. Wanna meet up at a beach house or something tomorrow?

Ah. She didn’t know if this message was creepy or not.

Behami looked at her nightstand, which had all of her homework lazily laid on top of it.

Okay, I’m all done with that, so that’s good. (Behami called getting all of her summer homework done within the first week a “Homework Speedrun.”)

“But what do I even know about this guy?” she asked aloud. She decided to go to his Steam page again.

Upon doing so, she was immediately greeted with a Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure-themed background, profile pictures, and some gifs on his page.

“Ah, a Jojo’s fan. Right.”

Not that she had any problem with it, of course. They were 110% more tolerable than Five Night At Freddy’s fans, and that wasn’t saying a whole lot.

Also from looking at his profile, JostarMin was in fact from the same Prefecture as her (Kanagawa Prefecture, to be exact, look at that lore) and he was also sixteen.

I think… I should trust him. After all, a Jojo’s fan wouldn’t lie, right?

With bated breath, Behami posed her fingertips upon the keyboard and typed up her response.

Sounds great! What beach house do you wanna go to?

A few seconds later, JoestarMin responded.

Zushi Beach, is that okay?

Oh, I know that place. It’s pretty nice.

After responding with a “yes,” Behami closed the chat app and slid down in her seat a bit.

And that’s when it hit her.

I should shapeshift into a cute gyaru.

Why a gyaru, you might ask? The complexion of gyarus was the closest to her skin color, and their hair was also the closest to her hair color, therein…

She’d shapeshift into a different person and it’d still kinda look like her.

Lying and not lying. Absolutely brilliant!

Meet you at the beach at noon then. See you there!

Because it was close to bedtime, Behami wished him goodnight and got off the computer.

Alright, I gotta sketch this out before I hit the haystacks.

Behami got out a sheet of paper from the pull-out drawer in her desk and quickly sketched out what she wanted to look like, in case she forgot.

The coolest thing about her powers was that she didn’t even have to worry about what bathing suit she’d wear since whatever outfit she was wearing at the time would be transformed into the one she’d envisioned.

“Heh… Nice.”

With a flick of her lamp, Behami got in bed and went out like a light. Pun intended, of course.

★

Morning came and Behami was more than ready for hanging out with one of her online acquaintances… and because she stayed up a tad late last night she woke up at like, ten o’clock, giving herself not enough time to get ready.

That’s okay, though. Getting ready will be ridiculously easy.

For breakfast, she had an energy bar and a glass of fruit juice (Caribbean Sunset, to be exact) and after that, she started getting ready.

Phone, check.

Wallet, check.

Beach towel, check.

Swimming goggles, check.

Water bottle, check.

“Anything else?” she said out loud. (As her parents were at work, leaving the house in her shapeshifted form wouldn’t be a problem).

Ah.

“My 3DS! Right, I should bring this just in case we decide to play Smash Bros or something.” Having a gamer’s intuition, she had a feeling that JostarMin was going to bring his.

Alright. It’s time now.

Behami took a deep breath and took out her sketchbook from her desk.

“It’s go time.”

As a preface, she wasn’t going to change her voice because the boy had already heard it via voice chat, and she wanted to be authentic at least on that front.

In a flash of teal, Behami’s body morphed into the gyaru form that she was going for.

“Phew.” With that sigh of relief, the girl looked in the full body mirror and saw her new look.

She was still Behami, sorta—just two inches taller (Behami was 5.2”) and two cup sizes bigger (she was a meager, regular B cup). Her eyes were also wider, with subtle, light red eyeshadow on (along with mascara and waterproof eyeliner), and her hair was wavy and in twintails with hot pink scrunchies.

The swimsuit, on the other hand, was a frilly, aquamarine-colored two-piece that really emphasized her breasts—pretty gyaru core in her opinion.

Yes. This was the gyaru Behami she hoped and dreamed of becoming one day.

Her ultimate form, if you will.

It’s that she didn’t dislike her regular form—she looked pretty alright, pretty average if you asked her.

It was just so much funner to be with other people. She understood why actors loved acting so much—it was addicting.

After gazing at her new form for a few minutes, in awe of what she was seeing. Behami cleared her throat.

“O-Ohaaa!” she cheered. “ … Ah, that was stupid. Might as well not that at all.”

Having all her things gathered up into a big black duffel bag, Behami left the house, closing and locking the door behind her.

“Let’s do this!” she yelled determinedly at the sky.

Behami’s first IRL get-together was on its way.

★

After the surprisingly not-at-all-long trip, Behami finally arrived at Zushi Beach.

I’m here. Let’s go!

With a deep breath, Behami walked off the bus and onto the beach.

Bzzz, bzzz.

“Ah, my phone!”

Behami reached into her pocket and opened up the mobile Steam app.

You here? JostarMin asked.

Yeah, responded Behami.

I’m by the snack shack. Always gotta be by the snack shack.

Lol.

Behami found her way to the snack shack pretty easily since the building was light blue and decorated in starfish and shells.

“Hey, bro!” Behami called out to her friend.

The boy looked up and his jaw dropped.

Heh. Got him hook, line, and sinker.

“W-wow. I was not expecting you to look like that, Behayyy.”

God that sounds so cringe out loud.

“Y-you can just call me Behami.” At that point right there, Behami was glad that she didn’t have any other social media other than Steam and Snapchat because he would’ve been able to find what she actually looked like pretty easily.”

JoestarMin chuckled. “Alright, yeah. That was pretty cringe. You can call me Ichiro then. That’s my real name.”

Behami rolled out her beach towel next to him and took her sandals off, ready to sink her feet in the nice, warm sand—well, the sand that was under the towel, of course. Being Japan in the summer, the tiny grains of rock would probably burn her skin to cinders.

“S-so…” Ichiro began, looking at her and then looking away. “God, I did not imagine you looking like that. I mean, your voice certainly didn’t sound all girly or anything.”

“Hah hah, no!” Behami giggled as she got her water bottle and took a swig from it. “I have a bit of a tomboyish voice and hobbies but I still have a girly-girl side. I’m in choir after all, and that’s pretty girly.”

“Oh really? That sounds like fun. What do you guys sing?”

The girl thought for a moment. What can I categorize it as? “Hmm… Some old choral pieces, Christmas music around the holidays, of course, and lots of pop songs because that’s what my kids like to sing, my teacher said.” Can’t really get any more specific than that. (Behami reminded herself that there were plenty of videos of her choir singing online, so she was being ultra-cautious.)

“Ah. Yeah, that makes sense.” Ichiro sighed and looked up at the sky. “I haven’t listened to pop music in a long time, like since I was a kid. I really just listen to metalcore and shit now.”

Oooh, Mari’d like him! “Really, like who?”

Ichiro took a pair of goggles out of his backpack and put them around his neck. “Stuff like Killswitch Engage, August Burns Red, Atreyu. I like the real heavy stuff.”

Behami nodded, vaguely knowing those bands. “Ah, alright. Cool.”

The discussion went silent for a moment until Ichiro spoke up again. “Oh, by the way. One of my other friends is coming here soon, I hope you don’t mind.”

“Ah.” Behami’s face froze up in a half-smile. “Really? You didn’t tell me anyone else was coming.”

“Sorry about that,” Ichiro said, cringing a bit. “It was kinda last-minute and I thought you wouldn’t mind surprises. Anyway, did you bring your 3DS?”

“Yeah, I did!” Behami reached into her duffel bag and got it out. “I had a feeling we were gonna play some Smash Bros.”

“Heh.” Ichiro grinned. “You knew exactly what I was wanting us to do.” He paused. “In the meantime, would you like to go swimming or something? This is the beach, after all.”

Behami noticed that he was rambling on and on and wasn’t surprised about it in the least.

Boys. When girls are around they can’t stop talking.

And thus, the two teens took off to the ocean. Ichiro told her that he was just going to do a few laps and Behami gave him the thumbs up.

“I don’t care! Just do what you want!” was what she said to him.

She didn’t care what he did. After all, she barely knew him. Although it was strange for him to say one moment that he was waiting for one of his friends to arrive one moment and then not wait for him at their spot.

Boys are so weird, Behami mused.

Anyway, despite all that, Behami used this swimming thing as an opportunity to free her mind of everything that had ever happened to her this year.

Losing my powers during a karaoke session.

Getting them back a little over a month later.

Going back to my middle school.

Meeting in my new kouhai in the middle school CDAC.

And then, this boring summer vacation.

Last year’s summer vacation was a bit more fun, she remembered. She and her friends did more things like go on trips and stuff, but yet again the girls were in high school now and had far more to do regarding schoolwork, summer homework, and exams.

“Haaa…” Behami sighed as she readjusted her goggles and dipped back into the water.

And now, here’s my form of fun…

After shooting back up out of the water like a mermaid, Behami saw Ichiro rushing out of the ocean and waving to a boy that was by their beach towels.

Huh, this must be his IRL friend then… considering he recognizes what his beach towel looks like.

Behami trudged back up to the shore to meet the boy.

“Hey kid, nice to meet you!” For whatever reason, the word “kid” slipped out of Behami’s mouth, even though she had a feeling they were all the same age.

The boy looked at her, his eyes also wide. “Oh, damn! You’re his online friend?” He let out a whistle. “Alright, I’m gonna say it. Man it’s a hot one!”

Ichiro burst into laughter. “Oh my God, you had to go and say it! You fuckin bastard!”

Behami blinked. She knew that the song the boy referenced was “Smooth,” but she didn’t know—

Oh, wait. It’s a meme on the SiIvagunner channel. Of course.

She remembered and decided to join in.

“I mean, it is the prime time for ‘Smooth’ references,” she said bouncily. “ … Actually, every time is the time for ‘Smooth’!”

“You said it!” Ichiro’s friend said. “Also, nice to meet you. I’m Kazuya, Ichiro’s friend IRL.”

Knew it.

The boy had curly dark brown hair and light brown eyes. He had a similar build to Ichiro—lanky and with no muscle definition whatsoever. The only difference was that his friend had light freckles on his arms.

“Again, I hope you don’t mind him joining along,” Ichiro replied. “I just thought it’d be funner here than just the two of us. Kazuya really knows how to lighten up a party.”

Behami waved her hands back and forth. “No prob, no prob! I’m always like that back at school! The class clown and all that.”

“Hoooh, really?” Kazuya clasped his hands together into the iconic Gendo pose. “Do tell us of your exploits.”

“Okay, okay,” she said, giggling. “Well, there’s this one time that during lunch break in English class—my lunchtime falls right in the middle of it—I decided to splash some applesauce on the wall of the classroom before I headed into the cafeteria, just to see if anyone noticed when we came back. Lunchtime ended, the students came into the classroom, me trailing behind, and all of a sudden a girl screams out: ‘“Oh my God! Who did this?!’ Me, being the absolute genius, said, ‘IT’S THE DEVIL APPLE!’ At the top of my lungs.”

The boys cracked up at her story.

“But wait, it gets better: The teacher, who came into the classroom as well, heard me say that as well, and suddenly caught on to me—so I had to spend like fifteen minutes cleaning my mess up, making sure that the wall wasn’t sticky and all that. Let’s just say that I took some extra steps in that day going in and out of the bathroom to get some water and paper towel.”

The boys laughed even harder, Kazuya’s face actually going all red.

“That,” Ichiro said between gasps of laughter, “Was actually great. I can’t believe you did that.” He then looked at Behami and tried calming himself down.

“You telling her?” Kazuya said while pounding some grape Gatorade, hands actually shaking.

“Yeah, I’ll tell her,” Ichiro said, finally after calming down. “So in middle school one day, I took one of my Beyblades into school and was sneaking up to the front of the classroom where the door was so I could see if it could stick on the metal door frame—this is also in English, by the way—and it did. The teacher caught me though and snatched away my Beyblade so I had to get it after class. Everyone was watching me though, and that’s the great part. Many classmates trying to hold back laughs.”

Behami chuckled. “Okay, that was a good one too! I never did that before. Cool that it could stick.”

“I know! I was there, by the way.” Kazuya smirked. After that, he took out his DS and the other teens did too (they actually put them back in their bags before they went swimming. They’re smart, see?). “So are we gonna play some Smash Bros.?”

“You betcha!” Ichiro said, pumping his fists dorkily.

Behami grinned as she turned her gaming device on. “Let’s do it! Now, who do you guys normally play as…?”

★

The session they had of Smash Bros. lasted about one and a half hours, which was surprisingly shorter than the sessions she usually had with, say, Mari, but yet they were also at the beach where it was hot and there were a bunch of kids, making it slightly harder to concentrate.

In any event, it was still fun to play with people she’d never played with before, since she could learn their playing style, thus expanding Behami’s way of playing.

Once the people on the beach started to pack up and leave, Ichiro and Kazuya decided to leave as well.

“That alright with you?” Ichiro said in a casual tone.

Behami nodded. “Yeah, no prob. I’m pretty pooped out myself, actually.” She giggled.

“Cool.” The boy gave her a thumbs up. “Me and Kazuya are gonna hang out a little longer, but only because we haven’t finished our summer homework and we should probably get on that.”

Pfft. Consider me lucky. “Yeah, I getcha—although I already kinda finished mine.” She grinned.

Kazuya’s eyes almost popped out of his head. “Dude! You’re blessed!”

That part made Behami crack up. “Yeah, yeah. It’s called ‘Banishing the ADHD Gods and Actually Getting Shit Down.’ You should try it sometime!”

Ichiro snorted and elbowed Kazuya in the side. “Dude, burn…” He then straightened his posture and cleared his throat. “So, would you mind hanging out with us again sometime? You know, like sometime in the future?”

Behami blinked. “Uh, yeah, sure! Obviously not back here because it’s gonna be getting cold soon so it’d have to be somewhere else. Got anything in mind?”

Ichiro looked at Kazuya and the two looked at Behami thoughtfully.

“Uh… at a local arcade, maybe? Or maybe we could go to mind house?” Kazuya suggested this a bit nervously.

What’s so special about this house? Is this a roundabout way of wanting to bring a girl over there to show his mom?

“I’ve got a bunch of Nintendo gaming systems,” the boy tacked on as if he just now reminded himself that he had them.

“Ooh yeah, that sounds like a good idea!” Ichiro said. “I haven’t been over there in forever!” The two boys high-fived each other.

Hm. Wonder why?

With that conversation perceivably over, Behami threw on an orange beach shawl and tossed her duffel bag over her shoulder. “Alright guys, I better go too! You two have a nice night and good luck!”

“Y-you too!” Ichiro called back awkwardly.

★

Behami flung herself onto her bed, her appearance back to normal as her parents were now home.

“What a day…” she said aloud in a breathless voice. Her throat actually hurt from how much she talked and how much she laughed. Her limbs had also ached from swimming, which she hadn’t done in a while. (Further proof that the girl was, in fact, not that athletic.)

I haven’t used my voice this much since the Winter concert the year before…

It was a good thing, though. At least she didn’t have a choir the next day or anything.

The boys, she decided, were pretty nice. In fact, they were super nice. So nice, in fact, that it made Behami feel guilty for shape-shifting.

And it’s not like I can just show up the next time we hang out in my regular form… Unless I tell them about my powers.

“How is Behami gonna talk her way out of this one?” she said aloud, kicking her feet on her bed childishly.

Telling them about her powers would be what she’d have to do. After all, she actually hated lying, and no trolling kids on the Xbox didn’t count, that was just for fun.

However, she wouldn’t tell them tomorrow, and she wouldn’t be able to in the next three months, as school was going to ramp back up and the school festival was looming around the corner.

These things, Behami admitted to herself, take time.