That Time Everyone on Rhodes Island Got Gender-Swapped - Doctor, You're Shrinking!? Love Premonitions and Chaos in the Command Center

"Did I come back? No, not yet. This voice, these hands—" The heavy door to the bridge was open just a crack. Through that gap, Amiya looked down at their own right hand. It was much larger than usual. The fingers were thick and knotted with joints. The old ring Doctor had given them was digging into their finger, almost cutting into the skin. (*So this is me now.*) Their rabbit ears stood straight up with anxiety. The hallway was still in chaos. Female operators shouting in voices like boys. Male operators screaming in girls' voices. The clatter of armor crashing to the floor echoed from somewhere far away. But the moment they stood before this door, the world fell suddenly silent. (*They should be here.*) Amiya felt a tight, aching pain deep in their chest. Just moments ago, they had been thinking, "I have to do something about this chaos." But now, their head was filled with only one thought—they just wanted to see that person. (*I... feel this way about Doctor...*) An emotion they couldn't name swirled around and around inside their chest. Now that they were in a boy's body, that feeling had somehow become so much clearer than before. Timidly, they pushed the door open. *Creeeak...* The command room was dead silent. The lights of the large strategy board flickered on and off. Mountains of paperwork covered the desk. It was usually so orderly, but now memos and analysis results were scattered everywhere. And then. "............" In the back of the room. In a chair with a large backrest, there was a small figure. A white coat, far too big for them. They wore Rhodes Island's standard hood pulled down low over their eyes, completely mismatched to their physique. Their feet dangled and swayed, as if their toes couldn't reach the floor. Sleek black hair, grown down to their shoulders, spilled out from the gaps in the hood. Their gray eyes, usually the picture of composure, wavered with a lonely, helpless light in the pale blue glow of a tablet screen. On the screen—a heart rate monitoring app. *Beep, beep, beep.* An error tone sounded, faintly. "...This is strange. Calm down, calm down, me. No, is it 'I' now?" They heard Doctor's voice. It was a girl's voice. But the way they spoke was exactly the same as always. It felt so strange. Their voice was hoarse, trembling as if they were talking in their sleep. "Heart rate 120. That's the value for Arts usage. And yet I'm just sitting here. An abnormal situation. Logical thinking requires a reset..." The hand gripping the tablet was small and pale. The knotted fingers, usually stained with ink, were now slender, looking as if they might snap at any moment. Amiya held their breath. (*Doctor...*) The smartest person in the world. The person who never, ever lost their composure on any battlefield. Now, in the body of a girl much smaller than themselves, they were trembling all alone. Just then— Doctor turned around. Their gray eyes caught Amiya straight on. Time stopped. Doctor's gaze was looking up at them. Their eyes traced the line of Amiya's jaw, the breadth of their now-sturdy shoulders. Doctor's shoulders flinched. "————!" A scream that couldn't become a voice. Doctor nearly tumbled off their chair, scrambling to cling to the desk. Papers fluttered down everywhere, and the tablet fell to the floor. Their face turned bright red, all the way to their ears. Amiya's heart gave a massive *thump*. (*Ah...*) Their own face flushed hot too. Neither of them could find any words. They just stared at each other, frozen in place. Only the time inside this room flowed slowly, stickily, ignoring the great chaos outside. The mechanical sounds of the tactical command desk, which should have sounded so calm and collected, grated unbearably on their ears. "...A-Amiya... is that you...?" It was Doctor who broke the silence. Their voice was slightly shrill. They looked up at Amiya with eyes that seemed to be staring at something they couldn't quite believe. "...Yes." Amiya tried to answer. "A-Are you alright, Doctor!" —They were startled by the voice that burst from their own mouth. It was low and deep. It was as if a strange man had suddenly started talking right beside them. "Eep!" Doctor let out another weird noise. Amiya hurriedly covered their mouth too. Even though it was their own voice, they felt incredibly embarrassed. "N-No, that's not what I meant! That was just, I-I was surprised too..." No, not "I." They'd wanted to say "I" (feminine), but the word that came out was "I" (masculine). (*Ugh, what is wrong with this body!*) Their head was in a panic, but all that came out of their mouth was a thick, manly voice. The more they thought they had to get a grip as a leader, the more everything went wrong. Trying to calm Doctor down, they took a step closer. But then, their own well-muscled arm entered their field of vision. (*I can't touch Doctor with hands like these.*) They pulled their hand back without thinking. Doctor also leaned back against their chair, as if trying to escape from Amiya. "...Wait. Don't come closer. No, I don't mean come closer. It's not a matter of distance. My—no, *my*—heart rate, when I look at you, it rises beyond all logic. This is bad." "Huh? When you look at me!?" "Don't say it! It's a matter of numerical values! There are absolutely no romantic implications whatsoever! None at all!" "O-Okay, I get it! So please don't squeeze the tablet so hard! It's cracking!" "Ah." Doctor hurriedly let go of the tablet. An ugly crack ran across the screen, and an error display flickered on and off. "............" An awkward silence flowed between them. Only the sound of the clock's second hand, *tick, tock*, echoed unnaturally loud. (*What do I do?*) Amiya stood on the other side of the desk, at a complete loss. (*This isn't what I meant to happen.*) They had just wanted to see them, to make sure they were safe. Doctor was also looking down, clutching the deep hood they wore tightly in their hands. But. Doctor glanced over at them. Their eyes met. Doctor's face flushed bright red again. Amiya knew their own face was probably bright red too. "...Alright." Suddenly, Doctor slammed their small hand on the desk with a *bang*. "This is no time to be in disarray. We will elucidate this abnormal situation. The usual me would have identified the cause in a matter of seconds." "...The usual you, you say?" "The current me is thirty percent smaller than the usual me, and my heart rate is constantly jumping around like I'm wearing a tuxedo. However, my intelligence has not gotten smaller." Desperately adjusting the height of their chair, Doctor turned back to the mountain of papers on the desk. They leaned against the desk on their tiptoes, scrambling up. Looking at that small back, Amiya felt their chest tighten. (*They're not usually like this.*) Usually, they straightened their back, planted themselves firmly before the large desk, and gave orders to everyone in a cold voice. Now, they were rolling up the sleeves of their oversized white coat and rifling through documents. "Last night, I took this memo. —Mirror shards recovered in the cargo area. Residual Arts reaction detected. No abnormal behavior observed in surrounding crew members. Requires observation until morning." They plucked up one memo. "This is evidence that I continued my mission through the night. What happened after that. —In the morning, when I woke up, I no longer knew who I was. A defeat for logic." "It's not your fault, Doctor. No one could have predicted something like this." Gathering their courage, Amiya called out to Doctor from the opposite side of the desk. "...The fact that it couldn't be predicted is precisely the problem. My role is to crush the 'unexpected.' In the past, and now." It was their usual tone. Calm, and a little dismissive. But right now, that made Amiya incredibly happy. (*Thank goodness. Doctor hasn't changed.*) Even if their body had changed, the person inside was still the same. Though trembling, Doctor continued to flip through the memos with single-minded focus. "A copy of an ancient Sarkaz text. Oral traditions gathered from Sarkaz operators on board. This geometric pattern is—found it." They thrust a scrap of scribbled notes at Amiya. "'Mirror's Heim.' A cursed tool created in the late days of the Kazdel Kingdom. Its effect—it shows the owner what they want to see. Records indicate dozens of copies were scattered across Terra." "Shows them... what they want to see?" Amiya swallowed hard. "In other words, someone earnestly wished for a self different from their current one. That wish activated the cursed tool." "Then, me becoming a boy, and you becoming a girl..." "...That's what it means." Doctor slumped back into their chair as if exhausted. Their feet didn't reach the floor. Their toes dangled, swaying. Looking at that, Amiya felt a strange mix of emotions, like they wanted to cry and laugh at the same time. "But who? Who wished for something like this?" "...That's it. That's the problem." Doctor pressed their fingers to their temple. "To undo the effect of Mirror's Heim, the person who made the wish must 'accept it.' However—according to my calculations, everyone on board has been affected. Meaning, someone's wish influenced a range this vast. But who—" Just then. Doctor's eyes stopped on Amiya's right hand. The ring on their middle finger. An old, tarnished thing with a cloudy stone. "Amiya, that ring—" Doctor started to say something, then closed their mouth. (*?*) Amiya tilted their head. "...No. It's nothing. I don't have enough data yet. I can't risk causing confusion with speculation." "Do you have some idea?" "...I can't say. Not now." Doctor dropped their gaze to the tablet. But their hands were trembling. (*Doctor...?*) Amiya felt a nagging sensation. But they couldn't force the issue. Because right now, Doctor seemed so terribly small and anxious. (*I have to protect this person.*) Not as a leader, but just as Amiya. They felt that from the bottom of their heart. That was when it happened. "...Alright. Cooperate with me, Amiya. Help me with the analysis." Doctor stood up straight. And then, they looked up at Amiya. "You and I are going to solve this mystery." The moment they said it, they seemed to realize they only came up to about Amiya's shoulder. Doctor's cheeks flushed bright red again. "...Statistically, the probability of me looking up at you was 0.03%. This is completely unexpected." "...Hehe." "W-What's so funny!" "Because, crushing the unexpected is your job, Doctor, but now you've become the unexpected yourself." "Ugh... Th-That's... I told you, it's a defeat for logic!" Doctor's face turned even redder, and they started smacking the tablet repeatedly. "If that's how it is, I'll analyze this data right now and—" *Smack.* Carried away by momentum, Doctor's small hand hit the edge of the keyboard. A jumbled string of numbers appeared on the tablet screen. "Ah." "Oh dear." The two of them peered at the screen. 'Heart Rate: 999999999' 'Error: Value too high. Please proceed to the medical office immediately.' "...Hehehe, you really are the usual Doctor." Amiya couldn't hold back their laughter. Even in this huge chaos, even though they'd gotten so small. Around Doctor, time flowed just like it always did. Seeing that smile, Doctor turned red as if they'd finally exploded. "D-Don't look! This value is a system error! It's not a number representing my true feelings!" "Yes, yes, I understand. But—" Amiya gently reached out a hand to Doctor. Before they knew it, their hesitation had vanished. "I will protect you as you are now. No matter what form you take, Doctor, you are the most important person in the world to me." "............Amiya." Doctor looked down and fell silent. Their small sh

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Episode 2

Name: That Time Everyone on Rhodes Island Got Gender-Swapped
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