Experimental Trio

"Are you the swapping trio?"

We turned around to see two women standing in front of us. The woman that had called us was the tallest of the two, and the only one wearing a lab coat.

Hey, they are the scientists I saw on TV.

Sachiko answered, "Yes, we are the three people who can swap bodies with each other. I'm…"

The smaller scientist interrupted her. "There's no need for introductions, we already know your names. Call me Ms. Enko and call her Mrs. Kawahara."

That's right. I remember their names now.

Mrs. Kawahara sighed. "I apologize for my daughter's rudeness. She's two months away from graduating from university and she still has a lot to learn."

University? She's even younger than us.

Mrs. Kawahara continued, "We rarely do appointments together because of… professional differences, but she's one of the people who discovered the CTCT disease, along with me, so we're both thrilled to study your unique case."

She not only acted and sounded more mature, but her appearance also complimented her adult personality, probably because of her better posture and perfectly matching makeup. They both wore glasses and their wavy hair lay against their back. However, Mrs. Kawahara's brownish hair was darker than Ms. Enko's ever so slightly.

"Why don't we step in and begin at once?" smirked Ms. Enko.

The three of us glanced at each other before nodding. I wasn't nervous at all before, but it seemed like Jun and Sachiko had been bombarded by them out of nowhere, just like me, and I couldn't understand why. I just wanted the disease to get cured so that I could go home and continue to rot in my chair, playing games all day.

Mrs. Kawahara opened the door and we followed them into a laboratory. Although some parts looked like an office with a couple of sofas and a coffee table next to a window, the majority of the room was occupied by huge and scary machines, desks with computers, shelves with books, a sink, flasks, and hundreds of things I didn't recognize. Entering here didn't help the anxiety at all.

"Please take a seat," Mrs. Kawahara requested as she approached the two sofas.

Sachiko sat on one of the sofas first, followed by Jun sitting on the one next to it. I sat on the same one as Jun since there were no more seats, but I sat on the opposite side, as far away from Jun as possible to avoid any swapping accidents.

Mrs. Kawahara sat on the armchair at the other side of the coffee table, already skimming through paper sheets on her clipboard. However, I didn't notice when Ms. Enko disappeared. Luckily, she didn't take long to return from one of the rooms connected to the laboratory, now wearing a lab coat like Mrs. Kawahara's. Without looking away from her phone, she pulled a stool from one of the counters in the middle of the room to place it next to Mrs. Kawahara and sit down.

After a moment of unnerving silence, Mrs. Kawahara spoke without raising her head.

"Ms. Minami."

"Yes?"

"You're the one who has swapped bodies with Ms. Katō and Mr. Nishida. Is that correct?"

Finally, both Mrs. Kawahara and Ms. Enko raised their heads to look me in the eye, inexplicably putting pressure on my shoulders.

"Yes, that is correct…."

"Understood."

While Mrs. Kawahara wrote something down, Ms. Enko asked.

"Can you tell us about the first incident? Please avoid unnecessary details."

Unnecessary details…. I like her straightforwardness, but what is unnecessary?

"Okay. So, the first person I swapped bodies with was Ms. Katō. We touched our hands by accident for a split second, but that was enough to swap bodies the next day."

"The next day?" wondered Ms. Enko. "That's impressive. Most people describe the sleepiness as unbearable. Did you ingest any substance like coffee or any kind of drug?"

"No, not at all. I was miserable the entire day, but I managed to survive until the evening by playing games on my computer. I did fall asleep several times for a minute or so. Actually, I also smoked. I smoke a lot. Does that count as a drug?"

Ms. Enko answered, "Yes, but we've already established that tobacco doesn't impact the swapping process. Ms. Katō, did you experience something similar?"

Sachiko nodded. "I don't smoke, but I suffer from chronic insomnia."

She does?

"I'm used to feeling tired all the time and I was spending time with my fiancé, so it wasn't that hard to stay awake most of the afternoon. Only in the evening did it become practically impossible to stay awake. I must admit it felt… nice to fall asleep on my own that fast."

"Interesting," said Mrs. Kawahara as she pushed her glasses up. "I assume you've been properly diagnosed with chronic insomnia by a doctor."

"Yes. Do you need my prescriptions?"

"No, that won't be necessary. How long has it been since you were diagnosed?"

"Two and a half years, but I had been struggling to sleep for five months prior to that, so I'd say almost three years."

Holy…. That must be awful.

"Interesting. There have been subjects that have described the same feeling as you have. However, you're the first one with chronic insomnia."

Interesting…. Subjects…. They aren't trying hard to earn our trust, huh?

Ms. Enko added, "There's also another thing you might've realized already when searching for help on the Internet. You are the first couple of the same sex to swap bodies. Officially, at least."

Sachiko and I glanced at each other.

"I… don't even know what to think," I said.

"Do you have any idea why this is happening?" asked Sachiko.

Mrs. Kawahara sighed. "The short, honest answer is no. We have no clues as to why two people of the same sex can swap bodies, or why people can swap bodies at all. The only reasonable, scientific hypothesis we've come up with so far is some kind of radioactive reaction, but you can already hear how absurd that sounds."

She's right. How can you explain something this bizarre? Can it even be explained, to begin with?

"Are there… non-scientific hypothesis?" wondered Sachiko.

"There are theories that claim that the disease is some kind of… Divine help to alleviate the worryingly decreasing birthrate of the country, but those claims have lost a lot of ground now that there's a couple of the same sex that can swap bodies, don't you think?"

That makes sense…

Sachiko disagreed. "Homosexual couples may not be able to reproduce, but they'll still contribute to the situation by adopting orphaned children."

Ms. Enko replied, "Although still somewhat early to be certain, the current statistics and studies show that couples formed due to the CTCT disease are much more likely to remain together. Consequently, they should be less likely to put their children up for adoption."

"That's too early to tell. Irresponsible people will always exist. If the theory that the disease is Divine help is true, which I find the more believable, those Divine beings would've taken these things into account."

This is getting heated.

Fortunately, Mrs. Kawahara cut the debate short.

"They are both very valid points of view. Let's hope we can confirm the origin of the disease sooner rather than later. In the meantime, the studies we've done on how the swapping process works have been progressing steadily, and we believe your case will help a lot. Before starting the experiments, let's talk about Mr. Nishida."

Experiments?

"Excuse me," I interrupted, "we came here to try and find a solution, not to be experimented on."

Mrs. Kawahara opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead, she gently bowed on the armchair.

"I apologize for my rudeness, but we'll kindly ask you…. No, we beg you to help us."

Huh?

Ms. Enko bowed on the stool as well.

"We know our wording might make you think we're doing this only for selfish reasons, but you would be helping yourselves, the country, and the entire world."

My mind went blank. As unbelievable as it sounded, she was right. Our case would be the first of its kind to be documented, but I couldn't keep my selfishness aside even for something like that. I still wanted to live a peaceful life and not worry about ethical, religious, and political dilemmas like this one.

Jun, Sachiko, and I glanced at each other.

"I'm okay with being experimented on," said Jun, "but only if I agree with the conditions."

"Me too," added Sachiko.

A smile formed on my face, knowing they were thinking the same as me.

"What he said," I replied.

Both Mrs. Kawahara and Ms. Enko smiled.

"Thank you," said Mrs. Kawahara. She pulled a paper sheet from the clipboard and handed it to me since I was the closest.

"What is this?"

"That's the standard agreement for… couples with the CTCT disease that agree to help with their cases. They ask for modifications more often than not, so please take your time to read it and do the same."

"Alright."

Jun asked, "Can you give copies to Ms. Katō and me? I'd like to avoid getting too close and touching either of them by accident."

"Good observation," replied Mrs. Kawahara.

She did just that, and the three of us spent the next fifteen reading and discussing what conditions should be added, changed, or deleted entirely.

Most of the standardized tests seemed fine, like taking blood samples or reading the electrical waves of our brains, as weird as that sounded. However, it was harder to agree to the gynecological tests, which we ended up accepting with the condition of having a female gynecologist and a male urologist in Jun's case. I wasn't sure if Jun only agreed to it to look good in front of us or if he was truly against the idea.

Mrs. Kawahara wrote down all of our observations, then we handed back the agreements.

"The new agreements will be ready by next Sunday if that's okay for you."

The three of us nodded. I wasn't really okay with losing another Sunday, but there wasn't much I could do about that.

"Wonderful. That would be everything for today, but there's a favor we'd like to ask you before you leave."

Jun asked, "What is that?"

"Ms. Katō mentioned in the submission that you swapped bodies with Ms. Minami without touching her skin directly. Is that true?"

He nodded. "I touched her shoulder over her clothes, and we still ended up swapping bodies the next morning."

"Fascinating…," uttered Ms. Enko. "This is the first time I've heard such a claim."

"That's exactly what I want to ask them," added Mrs. Kawahara. "Ms. Katō, Ms. Minami, Mr. Nishida, would it be alright for you to swap bodies right now? We won't do any tests on you, we just want to verify what you're claiming."

The three of us glanced and nodded at each other.

"Sure," I replied, "but won't it take too long to swap bodies, wait thirty minutes to swap back, then wait another thirty minutes to swap again?"

"Not necessarily. I'd like to ask you to swap bodies with Ms. Katō by touching her over her clothes. Then, from Ms. Katō body, you'll touch Mr. Nishida in the same way. We'll be able to verify if you can swap bodies without touching each other's skin directly, and we'll also verify if you can swap bodies from a swapped body."

"Ah…, that wasn't what I meant when I said I'm able to swap bodies with the two of them. I swapped bodies with Ms. Katō, returned to my body, then swapped bodies with Nishida on a different day."

Ms. Enko replied, "We know what you meant. However, we'd like to find out if you can swap bodies from a swapped body as well. Remember, this is also the first time we've encountered three people who can swap bodies with each other."

I sighed.

I don't have a good feeling about this, but I also want to know….

"Jun, Sachiko, are you okay with that?"

"That's fine with me," replied Jun.

"I'm not that fond of the idea, but it won't hurt to try it once," said Sachiko.

"Let's do it, then."

Just as Mrs. Kawahara and Ms. Enko explained, I touched Sachiko's shoulder over her blouse and sweater.

While waiting for the sleepiness to hit us, the idea of Jun and I touching each other was brought up, but Mrs. Kawahara and Ms. Enko decided to try that another day.

Sachiko and I eventually fell asleep, then we woke up in each other's body. Mrs. Kawahara asked some questions to make sure we weren't acting.

Then I touched Jun over his shirt and jacket. However, we felt no sleepiness whatsoever even after ten minutes. Instead of waiting for the cooldown to pass, Ms. Enko suggested Sachiko touch Jun since she was in my body. Mrs. Kawahara didn't agree at first because she wanted to check if the cooldown was still active, but Ms. Enko managed to convince her after a few attempts.

To everyone's surprise, Sachiko and Jun became sleepy five minutes later. They let themselves fall asleep, then they woke up in each other's body. Now, Sachiko was in Jun's body, Jun was in my body, and I was in Sachiko's body. We had officially become the first people on Earth to swap bodies from swapped bodies.

Although Jun and I had already swapped bodies with each other, it was the first time Sachiko had swapped bodies with a guy. It was obvious she was struggling to wrap her head around it by how silent and out of place she seemed while Mrs. Kawahara asked us more questions.

They couldn't do any tests, so they let us do the process in reverse to get back to our bodies after the cooldown passed. Jun and Sachiko touched each other, but nothing happened after ten minutes. The tension in the room grew a little, so Sachiko and I touched each other, but nothing happened. Jun and I touched each other, and that didn't work either.

I could feel Mrs. Kawahara's and Ms. Enko's tension through my anxiety as we kept trying to swap back to our bodies throughout the entire afternoon, to no avail.

We had gotten stuck.