Chapter 5: Kasumi is Family Too! (Underway)

The days went on and the purpose of the syringes was revealing itself to just be Iori. It wasn’t a bad idea, and after three or so months, Toshiro could mimic her perfectly. But beyond her, he could mimic his own wife, son and close family friends, like Hitoshi, Iori’s boyfriend or Kasumi, her best friend.

Speaking of Kasumi, what was up with her? Her older half-brother worked in Miya-Mirai Agency as the video editor and specialist, but that was only discovered after she slipped up when talking to Toshiro (as Iori) during break. What a small world!

Iori herself was getting better. The leg was hurting less and she could finally walk and jog a bit! This meant that Toshiro didn’t need to keep replacing her all the time, but considering the family’s new dynamics, he did it whenever she asked him and felt she was in pain and in turn, the rest of the family would do his job too. Miki was already an expert on being him, and she taught both Koji and Iori how. Everyone in the Miyahara family could pass as the other and no one would bat an eye!

Thankfully, the months went on and it was time for a family outing, mostly because it was August! Summer vacation was in and now Iori didn’t need to worry about going to school so no replacing was needed.

Toshiro was at his office, always thinking about work until he was approached by both Miki and Iori at the same time. They were clearly up to no good…

“Daaaaad… It’s summer vacation so we should take a few days off…!” Iori said, smiling to him. “Go down to beach resort and the like…!”

Miki chuckled. “Yeah, I think we need a break, honey. You as well…!”

Oh, that was better than expected. Still something concerning with these two. Considering it was starting to seem like the idea was coming from them, Toshiro was getting the feeling something wasn’t right. They were planning something, but he couldn’t really tell what it is. Yet.

Keeping his suspicions as an internal thing for now, Toshiro would close his laptop before considering it for a moment. “Hmm… Well, I guess it’s been a while since we had a family vacation. Sure, might as well. But where should we even go?”

Maybe they could head to the beaches up north in the country, perhaps? Summer tends to be pretty fun over there, since it’s not being buried until metric tons of snow.

Miki smiled and looked at him, sitting on top of the desk. “Welllll~ I was thinking of the north. Most likely you thinking the same… But hey, we got the syringes now, so that means we can do more things!”

Iori nodded. “Mom was training me a bit on how to be her in case I needed to replace her at some point, dad. So I raised the possibility… Why don’t we all do swaps? Like those funny stories you two read?”

“Or even be different people altogether, just to avoid the paparazzi getting on our rooms.” Miki said, smiling while looking at him. “Iori is already down with it, and maybe we could even plan our looks before we head out. Maybe just a team of just girls? Or just boys? Your call!”

“Ah, Hitoshi and Kasumi are also joining, okay? No way I’d leave my boyfriend and my bestie out of this.” Iori said, nodding and chuckling, just as dangerously as Miki was.

Yeah, they were up to no good. Especially since Iori was already informed of what both him and Miki did to her boyfriend. Not to mention Kasumi’s not exactly subtle in terms of the sort of man she’s into. The only thing that could complete these oddly coincidental circumstances was if Keizo happened to be invited as well. If Kasumi’s coming along, she’s not gonna hesitate to take every chance to simp over him.

“…Girls, you can smile at me all you want, but I can tell something doesn’t really match with your eyes.” He sighed. “What are you girls planning to do for this summer? Because I got a feeling it’s nothing innocent.”

“Nothing, just what we said. We do swaps and the like!” Iori said. “C’mon, can’t I have some fun after you were disguised as me for like three months, dad?” She asked.

“Honey, it’s gonna be a fun trip, that’s it. We’ll have the syringes to make it more fun to us…!” Miki said. “Before you go ‘Well, make Miiyabe-san join too’, I messaged him and he’s out of town for the week. In fact, out of the country for a few weeks. Something related to his ex-wife that lives in Cambodia or Indonesia or something like that.”

“So it’ll be me, you, mom, Koji, Kasumi and Hitoshi. Our second car can fit all of us. Better still if we could use the syringe to turn into objects…!”

Wait, what?

“Yeah, Iori and I were pondering… How far could we go with the syringes?” Miki asked. “We can’t do clothes but could we be objects? I have no idea how it would work in practice but it could be possible, and we want to try it out. But just the two of us wouldn’t work well.”

More experimentation, and several months after the syringes became a ‘normal’ part of their lives? They were probably bored and trying stuff out. But then again, was it really a good idea to try it out? Especially since the company that made these syringes don’t exactly recommend them doing it?

“Ehhhh… I guess we could give it a try, but are you sure you wanna find out?” Toshiro asked the two. “You girls already know we would need to give ourselves another dose if we’re unable to change into something else. And if we’ve turned into inanimate objects, then how would we even inject ourselves with the serum in the first place?”

“Simple, someone else would do it. I’d assume there’s a fallback for us turning into objects.” Miki nodded while she spoke. “Something tells me that this thing can detect these syringes…”

Iori was equally curious. “Yeah! It might work. We could ask Hitoshi if he wants to try it. He’s gonna come here soon.”

And just like that, scaring the entire room, he popped into the doorframe. “Hey family.”

“JEEZ! At least knock on the door, Hitoshi!” Miki said, looking at something soft at Toshiro’s table to toss at him.

“Haha, sorry… Your brother opened the door for me, love.” He entered the room and kissed Iori, before the two did a sideways hug to face Toshiro at his table.

“Hitoshiiiii~ Can we turn you into an object?” Iori asked, almost immediately.

“Huh… Is it possible?” He asked, looking at Miki.

“We don’t know… But we want to try it!” She said with a chuckle. “You down to be our little test subject?”

“Hm… It couldn’t be bad, I assume. Sure.” He nodded.

This is already giving him so many ominous vibes, it’s not even funny. The trio of people with far-from-innocent intentions in their free time, all gathered together to do something experimental.

Surely, this would end well.

“Oookay, I think it’s best the three of you don’t get any funny ideas if you’re gonna do this.” Toshiro said to them, trying to get them to behave before their minds fully reach the gutter. “Keep in mind, we wouldn’t know what’s gonna happen from trying to turn into inanimate objects. So please, at least be careful about what you’re doing. Even if you’re treating them like one, these syringes aren’t toys.”

“We know that, honey.” Miki kissed his forehead. “This is not a toy but sure is fun, isn’t it?”

“Okay, so… Should I strip?” Hitoshi asked, almost removing his clothes.

A little syringe was applied to a naked Hitoshi inside the room. He wasn’t even with this underwear, and soon he wouldn’t need it anymore.

“What should I be… Oh.” He spoke as Miki applied the syringe on his left arm. “I wanna be a notebook backpack.”

For a moment nothing happened, Iori had her phone and camera recording everything. Not to post, but to show it to Hitoshi later. And before the three of them, Hitoshi’s form started to curve, like he was forced to be in a position. It was the weirdest thing that had happened ever, since Toshiro only saw practical effects like these in edits and movies. But Hitoshi quickly and surely went from redhead boy into a black notebook backpack, even with a few zippers to open and close.”

That made Iori and Miki gasp, surely they were kidding about how they could be objects, but here it was Hitoshi turned into one!

For a second, Toshiro wasn’t expecting the result to be… Well, this. He was genuinely expecting something to go wrong, even midway through the transformation itself. Hell, something like this was going to require them to turn into something without flesh and bones for god sakes! And yet, it inexplicably seems to work just fine for him. He looks practically indistinguishable from an actual notebook backpack.

But was he really a backpack, though? He hasn’t really looked at the insides just yet. There could be organs inside, for all he knew. Making sure to reach out as carefully as possible, he would grasp the backpack handles before carefully unzipping the pain part open. Please, don’t let him see any freaky organs inside…

The moment that Toshiro grabbed it, he couldn’t feel any weight difference from a normal empty backpack. And the zipper revealed the most amazing thing he had seen in his life.

Nothing.

Nothing was inside the backpack, it was empty. For all intents and purposes, Hitoshi turned into a backpack that he could stash his work laptop inside.

“This is beyond incredible…!” Iori exclaimed, checking the inside to see it was clear of organs or anything.

“It is! This opens up so many new possibilities! But before we go crazy… He needs to come back to normal.” Miki said.

She approached with the same syringe in hands. This was when something amusing happened: Normally syringes would just pierce fabric, but this time, it looked like Hitoshi’s arm was there and once she tried to find a spot for it, it was like she was injecting into his arm, despite no physical change happened.

Toshiro could feel a grumbling from the backpack and quickly dropped it on the floor, and saw it turning back into a naked Hitoshi, also just as quickly.

“What…? Oh, it might have forced me into blacking out…” He mused now that he was on the floor, naked. “Did it work?”

“Yes! It did, love!” Iori said, helping him up.

Miki couldn’t look more smug if she tried. “I got one more test for you, Hitoshi…” She waited for Toshiro to react before continuing.

“Ugh… Okay fine, you girls win this one…” Toshiro sighed. Clearly their experimentation worked, so they’d probably have nothing to worry about for this one. Well, apart from the obvious aspect of not being able to use the syringes without external assistance. But at least the drawback is just limited to that part. That much, he was more than grateful it didn’t turn out to be something worse. Although that look Miki was giving Iori’s boyfriend looked a little concerning.

“Wait, one more test? I thought we already proved the serum with this one.” Toshiro asked, wondering just what sort of idea Miki’s got in mind. It better not be anything too wild.

“Yeah, but like… What if we combined the two?” Miki said, and got closer to Hitoshi, whispering something to his ear.

That promptly caused the boy to blush but ultimately nod at the request. Considering that they had to vocalize what they had to do, he did it in the most hushed tone ever. And before Toshiro, Hitoshi turned into…

A copy of Miki but with a very surprising change: This copy had a bikini on. Actual clothes.

Miki nodded and smiled, making a pump motion. “Yes! It works that way too!”

“Uh… It really did work, Miki…” Hitoshi-Miki said, looking exactly like the wife Toshiro knew but the tone was still the joyful but concerned Hitoshi.

‘Oh.’

Toshiro could already tell where this was going. He could immediately tell. Funny that she happened to ask him to turn into a Miki copy with a bikini too, considering what they’re planning to do in the coming days.

“Alright, yeah, no wonder you girls were planning something…” Toshiro said, a faint blush beginning to appear on his face as he veered his gaze away from the wife-double. “I dunno if this is gonna end well, but as long as you’re doing it with different identities, it’s probably fine. Assuming of course, the three of you wouldn’t go too far with it.”

His words were especially directed at Iori in particular. There’s no way in hell she’s not tempted to have fun with the syringes. By now, she’s already known what Hitoshi was up to once he got his hand with the syringes.

Iori chuckled. “Relax, dad. I’m not gonna do too much with it. Plus… We need to agree on what we’re gonna do.

Hitoshi looked at Iori, blushing a bit. “Ah, Iori… What are we gonna do again?”

“We’re going on a vacation. I called you over to sort stuff with them and you. I assume your own parents are fine with it?” Iori asked.

Hitoshi nodded. “Yeah… They don’t mind me with you. In fact, they were considering putting me on therapy before we started dating. I assume you two plan to keep swapping into different people…?” This time, the Miki copy looked at Toshiro but her face was the same as his, a face of concern, considering these two were being quite dangerous at the moment.

“Reeeelax, Hitoshi! Since we can do clothes too, we’ll just stay at the beach looking like different people. Oh and we’re calling Tominaga-chan too!” Miki said to her doppleganger, before moving behind her to size her up. “I look good in black, right honey?”

Hitoshi’s face turned into one of ‘help me please!’ to Toshiro, thankfully, Miki couldn’t see it. Iori didn’t seem to mind for some reason.