Chapter Text
Nagisa blinks
Once, twice.
But it's not him blinking.
It’s Karma.
Nagisa rubbed his eyes, pressing so hard that he could see stars and odd shapes swimming in his vision. And, when he opened his eyes, all he saw was black for a moment. Until he faded back into view and his eyes focused again.
Well. He wasn’t seeing things.
There before him, stood Karma Akabane. In the mirror. Which he was currently looking into.
Slowly, Nagisa lifted his arm.
Karma did, too.
Nagisa wiggled his fingers, kicked his leg out, leaned in close.
Karma did, too.
Nagisa wanted to scream. What an odd dream—nightmare—he was in.
Was he… in Karma’s body?
Nagisa looked down at himself. Surely enough, it wasn’t just the mirror. He lifted his hands up, and what met his eyes were Karma’s hands.
He looked back up into the mirror.
His face was pink. He was shirtless, of course, and only in boxers. Nagisa knew how Karma slept, so this wasn’t a surprise to him, but looking at it still made Nagisa’s head feel fuzzy in an odd way.
Nagisa jolted when the phone started ringing.
Glancing around for a moment, Nagisa rustles through Karma’s room, eventually finding his phone buried under his pillow. For a moment, Nagisa internally scoffs. What a bad habit of Karma’s, going to bed with his phone.
What he saw on the screen slightly shocked him. He’d never messed with Karma’s phone much, though Karma has messed with his plenty, so he didn’t know what Karma’s contacts were all titled.
Instead of a simple ‘Nagisa’ or even his full name like some of his classmates have, it was just…
God.
‘nagi’
Nagisa cringed, but picked up the phone regardless.
“N-Nagisa?” Nagisa grimaced. His own voice played through the phone, and Nagisa wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Is that what his voice sounded like? Oh, the horrors he’s subjecting his classmates to every time he speaks is insurmountable.
“Karma?” Nagisa is only vaguely shocked to hear Karma’s voice coming from his mouth. It made sense, really, given that he’s—he’s in Karma’s body.
“What—” Nagisa heard himself sigh. “What the fuck is happening.”
Nagisa had half a mind to scold Karma for using his mouth to curse, if his mom heard that he’d be beaten six ways to Sunday.
“Shh!” Nagisa instead opted to say. “Please don’t curse.”
It was weird. Nagisa was speaking as Karma with Karma’s voice but it still didn’t really… sound like Karma. It was Karma’s voice, yes, but with Nagisa’s intonation, syntax, and muscle memory moving the mouth to form the vowels and consonants. Some words sounded like they had a weird airyness to them, only really found in Nagisa’s own speech.
Similarly, Karma was speaking using Nagisa’s voice, but it didn’t sound exactly like Nagisa.
Nagisa never went ‘Uwah~’
“Uwah~ Nagisa! Relax!” Karma sighed.
“How did this even happen?” Nagisa decided to change the subject instead.
Karma whistled. That was odd. Given that Nagisa couldn’t actually whistle himself. “No idea,” Karma began, “but that’s besides the point. Nagisa~”
Nagisa didn’t like that tone.
Karma continued, “Do you do squats or something?”
Nagisa blushed, face heating up red hot. That was an invasion of his privacy! He couldn’t bear to think of what Karma would be doing all day in Nagisa’s body—and.
No!
What he’d do in front of their classmates.
He needed to keep Karma from their classmates, but it wasn’t like Nagisa could just skip—his mother would kill him!
But then—
“Karma,” Nagisa said, sternly. “I have an idea.”
“Hm?”
“Why don’t… Uh—Why don’t we try to trick our classmates, hm? Whoever can make them believe we’re really the other person wins.”
Karma went quiet for a bit, long enough that Nagisa wasn’t sure if it really was a good idea after all. But, it was the only thing Nagisa could think of that’d keep Karma from doing anything stupid.
“What about the loser?”
“What?”
“What happens to the loser, the one who gets figured out first?”
“Uh…” Nagisa started. “The loser does whatever the winner wants.” The moment the words were out of his mouth, Nagisa regretted them.
“Really?” Karma sounded giddy and sadistic. It felt weird hearing it in Nagisa’s voice.
“R-Really…”
“Well, alright then! Deal!”
“Alright,” Nagisa mumbled.
“Meet me in front of the school tomorrow,” Karma said.
Nagisa nodded, and breathed a quick, “Sure.”
Nagisa breathed a sigh of relief as he hung up the phone. Then, he glanced back into the mirror.
Face turning red at the sight of Karma. Nagisa didn’t know he had abs.
He really needed to get dressed.
—
Nagisa met with Karma first.
Nagisa half expected Karma to be wearing his uniform wrong. In fact, when Nagisa was getting dressed, he actually got ready in the normal way, and nearly forgot that Karma never comes to school dressed properly. He didn’t care much for the dress code himself, mostly following it so that his mom would get off his ass, but he still liked looking presentable.
Plus, he had a competition to win. As much as he thought of it to keep Karma from doing embarrassing things all day, he also didn’t want to lose, especially as losing would mean Karma could make him do anything.
And who knows what Karma would think up, what he’s already thought up, no less.
So, he unbuttoned the first button of his shirt, just enough to expose his chest but not enough to make Nagisa feel like his face was on fire. Then, he forwent the tie and donned the nice black jacket Karma always wears.
He remembered glancing in the mirror and seeing Karma’s tussled up hair. Something about it made Nagisa’s heart beat faster.
Nagisa blinked away the feeling of his cheeks burning again, pressing a cool hand to his right cheek.
“You’re dressed how I always dress,” Nagisa remarked.
“Of course I am.” Karma smirked, though with Nagisa’s face it looked incredibly off-putting. In general, seeing his own face stare back at him without the assistance of a mirror felt… bad. “I’m going to win,” Karma continued.
Nagisa only nodded and continued walking, not bothering to look to see if Karma was following him. Afterall, that’s exactly how Karma would act.
The walk up the mountain felt excruciatingly short. He’d hoped to postpone seeing his classmates as long as physically possible, but there was no missing the bell. Or, well, he supposed Karma would be perfectly fine with missing the bell, but Nagisa wasn’t. He thought for a moment… This might actually be good for both of them. Nagisa didn’t want to miss class because he actually needed to pay attention, Karma didn’t want to miss class because he needed to win the competition. So, this way, they were both attending class, body and mind. It was a win-win situation.
However, procrastination never got Nagisa anywhere, and eventually they both reached the satellite campus at the top of the mountain.
“Good luck,” Karma said, walking past Nagisa without so much as a glance backwards.
“You t—”
“Karma!”
Nagisa nearly grimaced, but was able to keep his expression steady. Then, Nakamura was hanging off of his shoulder like she belonged there. Something panged in Nagisa’s chest when he saw Karma glance backwards towards them before finally entering the building.
“Listen, man,” Nakamura continued, “I need a favor. I totally forgot about the homework due last night, promise, and I just need a hand completing it su~per quickly!”
Nagisa scoffed, not out of annoyance at Nakamura asking such a thing (Nagisa didn’t really care at all. Despite everything, this was still E-class), but out of incredulity at the idea that Karma actually did the homework. When he realized he actually scoffed out loud, he nearly apologized for his rudeness, before he remembered he was Karma now. And Karma would absolutely scoff at Nakamura.
Before Nagisa said anything else, though, he decided maybe he should actually check that Karma did or didn’t do the homework. Rifling through his (very disorganized) bag, Nagisa pulled out a paper that looked like last night’s homework, and, as to be expected, it was blank.
In his best attempt at Karma: “Like I actually even did that,” Nagisa said, grinning.
“Right,” Nakamura started, “but you can still help me with it. C’mon, man, I know you understand this stuff…” She pleaded.
Nagisa paled. And he hoped it didn’t show on Karma’s face. Nagisa remembers last night’s homework, and, by every God there is, he did not understand any of it. He figured he’d just tank the bad grade and visit Korosensei after class to ask about it, especially as it was science, so he knew Sugino and Kayano wouldn’t be asking him about it. He thought nobody would be asking him about it.
But he also thought he’d wake up in his own body today.
Nagisa’s mind raced in some sort of an attempt to come up with an excuse. And, as if Korosensei was actively aware of the situation, he appeared.
“You know I always encourage helping each other out, but you could have started that last night!” Korosensei exclaimed. “Homeroom is starting soon, you both should be taking your seats by now.” His perpetual smile bore into them. They knew he wasn’t mad at them, but both figured they'd better actually get inside like he said.
Would Karma usually listen to Korosensei like that?
…
Actually, he probably would, Nagisa mused. Korosensei was the one teacher Karma seemed to have respect for.
Nakamura grumbled as she entered the classroom, and, without thinking, Nagisa beelined for his usual seat.
Which was taken.
As he should have expected.
Karma was locked into what seemed like a passionate conversation between Kayano and Sugino.
Nakamura looked at him sideways when he practically followed her to her seat, though he tried to play it off.
“Yo, Nagisa,” Nagisa said, in his best attempt to mimic Karma’s voice.
Nagisa looked up at him, caught mid sentence. “Hey, Karma!” he said, sweetly. Almost too sweetly. Nagisa didn’t really sound like that, did he? “What’s up?”
Nagisa didn’t think this far ahead.
There was a glint in his body’s eyes, in Karma’s eyes, that told Nagisa that Karma knew he was winning the competition. But, Nagisa couldn’t just let that happen.
Thinking fast, “Do you wanna hang out tomorrow and watch Sonic Ninja?”
Nagisa watched his own eyebrows quirk upwards, if only minutely. It was weird. He was watching Karma make Karma-like expressions on his face.
Karma blinked. “Sure!” he said. Then, he turned back to Kayano and Sugino, and Nagisa took that as his opportunity to leave.
Terasaka also glanced sideways at Nagisa when he sat down in Karma’s seat.
This was going to be a long day.
—
Turns out maybe they don't know each other as well as they thought. It only took about one and a half class periods for someone to say something.
“So, Nagisa. Do you usually style your hair like that?”
Karma looked up, a sweet smile on his face. “Yeah?”
“Interesting,” Nakamura mused, “because it looks a lot messier than usual.”
Karma shrugged, maintaining his facade. “I was in a rush this morning.”
Nakamura squinted. “Try to fix them.”
Nagisa only knew this because it was his face, but it twitched slightly in the way it always does when he’s beyond nervous.
“Sure,” Karma bit out.
Then, he undid the two pigtails atop his head, which were, admittedly, not well done. Nagisa himself hadn’t really noticed, actually, though he supposed he was more distracted making sure he himself looked how Karma usually looked. Which didn’t take much effort, but regardless.
Nagisa grimaced for a moment at the sight of his hair down.
“Aha! Nagisa would never willingly take out his pigtails in front of us, he never lets his hair down!”
Not true, Nagisa thought, he’d take his hair down in front of his classmates if needed, or if they asked. He just didn’t like it, per se. Though, he realized that his classmates have never actually seen him with his hair down.
“And hey.” Terasaka wrapped his arm around Nagisa’s shoulders. He tried to give his best Karma indifference expression. “This one’s been acting weird, too. He hasn’t made fun of me yet today, or anyone else for that matter!”
“Yeah! They’ve both been off!”
And then, just like that, before either of them could comprehend what was going on, Korosensei’s tentacles were encircling them. They wrapped tightly around their torsos and brought them to the front of the class.
“Well, now. What do we have here?”
Nagisa wanted to cringe at the cliché way Korosensei said that. Korosensei loved doing that, though. Always so over the top.
Immediately, the class was on them.
“What’s my favorite color?!” Sugino called out.
“What’s my favorite color?!” Nakamura mimicked, grinning. She wasn’t taking this seriously, was she?
“Remember when you nearly cracked a stick over my head? What tree was it from?” Muramatsu yelled.
“What’s something only Nagisa would know…” Kayano mumbled. “Right!” She decided “What’s my cup size?!”
Huh? Nagisa blanked.
“I think I know what’s going on…” Then, Korosensei laughed his signature ‘nuruhuhu!’
Nagisa’s chest lightened just a tad. If Korosensei really did know what was going on, then maybe he’d be able to help them switch back.
“What’s going on, Korosensei? Are they assassins sent undercover disguised as Karma and Nagisa to kill you?! That’s a dirty, cheap trick!” Maehara mumbled the last bit.
“If that’s really what’s going on, then what happened to the real Karma and Nagisa?” Okuda mused.
“They’re still right here!”
The class stared dumbfounded at Korosensei.
“If I’m correct, I believe they—”
“We switched bodies!” Nagisa broke.
“Yes!” Karma yelled. “I win!”
“What?!” Nagisa turned towards Karma the best he could while he was still wrapped up in Korosensei’s tentacles. “That doesn’t count!” Nagisa argued.
Karma just laughed, a little maniacally. Otherwise, he didn’t respond. Nagisa figured he’d better just let it go. There were more important things on his mind, anyway.
Nagisa turned towards Korosensei, who began unraveling his tentacles from surrounding Nagisa and Karma.
Before he could say anything, though, Nagisa noticed Karma fiddling with his tie. And then, he undid it entirely, and also unbuttoned the first two buttons of the uniform, just up to the start of the vest. Nagisa’s entire body went red.
Nagisa couldn’t bear to look at any of his classmates, except he caught Kayano’s eye and saw that her face was all red, too.
Then, his classmates spoke up again: “What do you mean, ‘swapped bodies’?”
Korosensei nodded. “Karma and Nagisa must have swapped. Their mind and soul ended up in the other’s body.”
Nagisa turned around, facing Korosensei (for a moment, the new height difference startled him. He was much closer to Korosensei’s face than before). “How did it happen? And—” Nagisa glanced over at Karma, who was twirling a blue lock of hair in his finger and grinning at Nagisa, “And how do we fix it?”
“Well,” Korosensei started, “to fix it, you should just be able to go back to bed, and everything should return to normal.”
Nagisa sighed. He was glad that’s all it needed.
“As for how it happened, I’m not sure!”
Nagisa’s face paled. If he wasn’t sure how it happened, how could they avoid it in the future?
The class went silent for a moment.
“What did Nagi—Karma? W-win?” Kanzaki asked.
“O-Oh—” Nagisa started.
“Nagisa made a bet with me about who could convince you all that we were the other for longer,” Karma finished.
“Nagisa made that bet with you?” Kayano sounded incredulous.
“Mhm. His idea!”
Nagisa hung his head, managing to nod even with the awkward position.
“Huh,” Kayano huffed.
The rest of the day went on a tad uneventfully. Nagisa and Karma ended up switching seats. That is: so that they’d be in their regular seating, Nagisa near Kayano (so he could focus) and Karma back to the back of the class (so he could… do whatever it was that Karma did back there. Antagonize Terasaka, probably).
For a while, the class seemed to not have a great grasp of who was who. Nakamura kept accidentally coming up to Nagisa to bother who she thought was Karma, before remembering and continuing onto the real Karma. Similarly, Sugino kept asking Karma to toss a baseball back and forth on their breaks, to which Karma always responded with a cheeky smile, to which Sugino immediately ignored anything he said after.
Kayano sighed. “It’s so weird to be talking to you when you’re… Karma. But, I know you’re not! But, you look like him, so…” Kayano trailed off.
Nagisa put his head in his hands, obscuring his face. “I know. I just want it to be tomorrow already, and then everything will be back to normal.”
“You really don’t have any ideas for how this happened?” Sugino asked.
Nagisa just shook his head. He felt defeated. He wracked his brain earlier, but came up with nothing. It wasn’t like he prayed to any God to be in a different body, or anything.
“And Korosensei had no ideas for what it could be…” Kayano mumbled.
“I just hope it doesn’t happen again…” Nagisa couldn’t really think of what else he could say.
Suddenly, laughter erupted from outside. Nagisa, Kayano, and Sugino all opted to eat their lunch inside, but most of the class went outside to enjoy the late summer-early autumn weather. Though it was a bit cool, it was still nice enough to lounge around outside.
Nagisa ignored the laughter at first, until he heard his own voice sing-songing his name.
“Na~gi~sa~!”
Nagisa sat up pin-straight.
In the window was Karma, who was wearing nothing but a skimpy two piece bathing suit.
Nagisa almost catapulted himself out the window and tackled Karma. “Where did you even get that?!” Nagisa yelled, instead. So much for keeping him from doing stupid shit.
“Don’t worry about it!” Karma grinned. Again, so uncanny on Nagisa’s face. “You should wear shorts—or skirts—more often, your legs look great!” Karma made a display of Nagisa’s legs, stretching one in a side lunge.
“What is wrong with you?!” Nagisa screamed. He glanced down at his legs. At that angle you could almost see—
Karma closed his legs. “Relax! I tucked it.”
“Tucked—?”
Suddenly, Korosensei appeared, wrapping Karma up in a blanket.
“I think that’s enough of that.”
Nagisa wanted to fall to his knees and bow down to Korosensei. His face and ears felt so red he was worried it’d all melt off his body.
“I’ve never seen Karma blush that hard!” Nakamura laughed.
Suddenly, Karma didn’t find everything so funny anymore. “Wait—!”
But, Nakamura already had her phone pulled out, primed to take a million pictures of the blushing face.
It was Nagisa’s turn to grin, then, though he was the one that Nakamura was taking pictures of. He tried to ignore the thought in the back of his mind of how many pictures must exist of him now in that bathing suit.
He watched as Karma began chasing Nakamura, still in the swim suit.
“Nagisa, I hate to admit it, but you do look kinda good in that!”
“Kayano!”