Honda's Ghost Part 1

Before I even opened my eyes that first morning I knew something was wrong.

I’ve seen stories where a person can wake up, go through their morning routine, and not realise a single thing is different or wrong until they look into a mirror. (Usually when brushing their teeth, for comedic effect.)

That was wrong. Oh so wrong.

Once I’m awake, I’m awake. My mind is active before my body even starts to move, planning out what I need to do today, working out what the time is, thinking about what I want for breakfast.

I know it doesn’t work like that for some people, my best friend Joey for one takes about an hour to properly wake up, but then I’m slow to catch on late at night, so it’s a trade off.

And I’m babbling, sorry, but that first day was not good, I don’t like to think about it.

I woke up and I knew I was wrong. My body wasn’t my body.

It was male.

Now if a guy switched sex, the first thing they usually check is their... manhood, being originally a woman the first thing I grabbed for was my breasts.

They were gone. At this point any ability I had to emotionally process things shut down. I checked down below because that’s what you do.

I was male.

I climbed out the bed, it wasn’t my bed, it was wrong, the covers, the mattress, the pillows, everything was wrong.

There was a mirror in the room, and I slid out of the boxers and tee I was wearing. Those weren’t my clothes. I tossed them to the side and stared at the body in the mirror.

Ran my fingers across the chest, over the stomach and the thighs. The extra piece of meat hung limp, and it occurred to me I had no idea how to pee standing up. I didn’t think I wanted to try.

Well. This was great. The guy did look kind of familiar. Dark eyes, dark brown hair that wanted to spike forward, an Asian cast to his features. And tall. I wasn’t sure, not having anything to compare it too, but I was pretty sure he was a fair bit taller than my previous five foot two.

Oh, and worse thing? Teenager.

Young teenager.

There were school books on the desk, a quick glance over and my vision doubled.

Do you know how weird it is to be able to read and understand a language you know you don’t know?

Before I knew maybe a couple of words in Japanese.

Can you guess how weird it is to look at someone’s English homework, and know someone has a dozen spelling and grammar mistakes, when part of you is insisting you don’t know English?

Memories started to filter in. I had school today. A friend was expecting to meet me. That was my homework on the desk.

Well, if it was my homework, there was no way I was turning in that work. I grabbed a pen and quickly made corrections to the English.

Then my alarm finally decided it was time I should be awake and started blaring. I hit it over to the set radio station and checked the cupboards for clothes.

It wasn’t all that different from what I had to wear in school, apart from the colours and the jacket rather than a pullover. The colours looked familiar, a bright blue, but I didn’t make the connection then.

One morning routine to get through, I could be quick when I wanted, and I wasn’t about to spend too much time thinking about the extra bit I had somehow acquired.

Keep moving. Don’t panic. You can get an awful lot done if you don’t stop to think and panic.

There wasn’t food on the table. For that I was thankful, I don’t know how I would have coped if  had had to deal with the boy’s family. I had ghosts of memories floating about in my head, and a few alien impulses, but I knew me, if I was forced to talk and think and deal I would go off the rails.

Ice cold control, and keep moving.

I checked out the kitchen cupboards and was glad to find eggs. I was pretty sure that wasn’t what this guy usually had for breakfast, but I couldn’t find it in me to care, it was familiar food, and comforting for all that I usually wouldn’t have scrambled eggs in the morning, but I didn’t know where to start with most of the food there.

The shadow memories pointed out the lunch boxes, for which I was glad. I grabbed mine and my books and headed out the door.

“Bye guys” I called as I left, and only afterwards wondering if that was something this guy would do.

I didn’t know.

There was an awful lot I didn’t know, but I needed out, needed to be in the morning air and I just started walking.

Apparently my feet knew where to take me, there was a guy, another teenage boy, this one blond, waiting for me. His uniform was untidy, but I suspected he intended the look he was going for, considering what students at my old school used to do in the name of fashion.

“Honda.” The guy fell into step with me, and I had that same sense of my world trying to split in two as I did when I saw the English.

“Jonouchi?”

“Done your homework?” The blond smirked, and I couldn’t help raising an eyebrow.

“If I have, you aren’t seeing it.” Not when my handwriting might possibly be different from, what did Jonouchi call me? Honda? Wasn’t that a bike? I was named after a bike?

Please let that be my family name, please, please, please, if anyone is listening, don’t let this guy’s parents be that cruel.

Could be a nickname. Somehow I didn’t think it was.

“Hey!” Jonouchi objected, but it was in good humour, “After all I’ve done for you...”

Oh I knew that soundtrack. Almost as familiar as breathing. My heart flashed a sudden spark of pain, Joey... I shoved it to the back of my head, I didn’t have time to deal with that now.

I wondered if I should have checked the other work, but no, that might be suspicious if Honda’s grades suddenly jumped.

What? If you were suddenly over ten years younger and in High school, don’t you think you would be able to do the work easily? I might not remember everything I learned in school, but a lot of the questions wouldn’t be reciting facts. That was a thought, I was going to have to work at my history and... er... they wouldn’t call it English over here, what would they call literature studies? Japanese?

Actually, my understanding of the language was probably at Honda’s level, so maybe I should focus on expanding my vocabulary?

Something tapped me, “Honda?” And Jonouchi sounded worried, “Something up?”

Well that was a great start, getting lost in thought. I shrugged. (Just for reference, that was weird, moving in this body was weird, finding my centre was weird, everything about this bloody experience was weird... heh, bloody, on the plus side, no more monthly visitor, yay!)

“Just... thinking.” I replied.

Jonouchi frowned, I guess he must have figured something was really wrong, because he didn’t do what I expected him to do. “Something bothering you?”

A flicker of annoyance. That was familiar. I am more than capable of looking after myself. “It’s fine.” I said, “There’s a lot going on at the moment. I’ll tell you when I get it sorted out in my head.”

Jonouchi grinned, I guess he was hiding his worry and curiosity but I couldn’t tell, “Well if something needs beating up...”

I considered him, I knew him, or the shadow memories did, or I knew someone very like him, “You’ll have my back?” I asked, more confirming than anything.

“You know it!” And then we were in school.

Walking into the classroom I got the biggest shock of my life.

Yep, even bigger than finding out I had mysteriously changed sex this morning.

Sitting in that classroom was Yugi fucking Moto. Sans Puzzle, but Yugi. There was a Yugi. There is no way to mistake that hair.

My mind shut down in utter terror.

I was in a cartoon.

WTF?

I was in a cartoon.

This was not possible.

I was in a cartoon!

Fuck my life.