The Day the Sunset Fell Upside Down ~Everyone's Gender-Swapped~
Sendou Yuuhi is a high school VTuber with long brown hair, yellow highlights, and sunset-gradient eyes. She's a member of the virtual talent group 'Vuisupo!' and spends her days streaming with her friends. She thinks she's laid-back and gentle, but everyone tells her she's actually loud and energetic. One day, after a stream, Yuuhi finds an old mirror in the break room with a note reading 'Gender Reversal.' Thinking it's a joke, she shouts at the mirror, 'I'm tired of being a girl all the time—I
The Day the Sunset Fell Upside Down ~Everyone's Gender-Swapped~ - Showdown with Another Self—Grandmother's Sunset and the Weakness She Had Hidden
"This place feels different from before."
Sendou Yuuhi's voice echoed low through the old school building's hallway. Even with a boy's body, the long brown hair with yellow streaks and the sunset-colored purple-and-orange eyes hadn't changed. Day twelve since the curse activated. The moment the four stepped into the old building's waiting room, they noticed something was wrong.
"Yeah. The Reflect Mirror is starting to resonate again."
Kirishima Satsuki, black hair still slicked back, glared at the corner of the room with jade-green eyes. The small scar on their left cheek stood out starkly in the dim room. They clutched an old notebook to their chest and let out a slow breath.
"Are the doubles coming out again…?"
Kagurazaka Ruri's fluffy milk-tea-brown hair trembled as they backed away. Their round amber eyes wavered, on the verge of tears. They used to be a boy, but the curse had given them a girl's body. They still said "boku," and the gap with their appearance was all the more painful to watch.
"They're coming out. If anything, they've been waiting from the start."
Hoshimiya Neon had their platinum-blonde short hair braided on just one side, a silver hairpin glinting. Their night-sky navy eyes stared straight at the old full-length mirror in the center of the room. Now in a boy's body with broader shoulders, their tone was still as tsundere as ever.
In the center of the room. The Reflect Mirror stood quietly.
Height: one hundred eighty centimeters. Wooden frame. Clouded mirror surface. Reflected in it were the four of them. Yuuhi as a boy. Neon as a boy. Ruri as a girl. Satsuki as a girl.
—No.
Wrong.
All four figures in the mirror were looking back at them and smiling.
"Uwaaaah!"
The moment Yuuhi screamed, the mirror surface rippled. It swayed like water, and from it, four figures slipped out.
Materialized doubles.
"So we meet again."
Double Yuuhi spoke coldly, with the same face as Yuuhi, the same voice as Yuuhi.
"You're still hiding your true feelings."
"W-what are you saying? I'm not hiding anything—"
"You are. You're the one hiding the most."
Double Yuuhi took a step forward.
In that instant, Yuuhi's vision burst white.
—A sunset.
A sunset as far as the eye could see.
Childhood memories spread through their mind like film.
"Yuuhi, look. Doesn't the sky look like it's burning?"
It was Grandma's voice.
"So pretty…! Grandma, why is the sunset red?"
"The sunset is the sky cheering you on, telling you to do your best again tomorrow."
Grandma stroked Yuuhi's head with a wrinkled hand.
"So even when things are hard, if you look at the sunset, you'll feel better. You're a child like the sun, Yuuhi."
Grandma's smile.
Those warm hands.
—The scene changed.
A white hospital room.
The sound of machines.
The smell of medicine.
"Yuuhi…"
Grandma, thin and frail, smiled from the bed.
"Grandma! Today, at school, I—"
"Yuuhi is a child like the sun."
Grandma cut off Yuuhi's words and murmured that.
"Huh?"
"Stay that way forever. Keep smiling. You're my pride and joy."
Those were Grandma's last words.
—.
"You're averting your eyes from your grandmother's death."
Double Yuuhi's voice echoed from the depths of memory.
"You pretend you got over it cheerfully, but the truth is, you still haven't cried. You haven't been able to say you're lonely. Your smile is all fake."
"Th-that's not true… I…"
Their voice trembled.
"It is true. You haven't told anyone about your grandmother's death. Not a single word about being sad, or lonely."
"But… but I didn't want to worry everyone…"
"You just don't want to show your weak self. Because you were told you're a child like the sun, you've convinced yourself you have to be the sun. You think if you keep smiling, the sadness will disappear."
"Stop… please, stop…"
"Your true feelings are: you wanted to be with your grandmother longer. You didn't want her to die. You didn't want to be left alone. —That's it."
Yuuhi's knees gave out.
Tears fell to the floor.
"Grandma… I… I couldn't say anything to you… that I wanted to be with you longer… that I didn't want you to die… I wanted to say it…"
Yuuhi collapsed onto the old school building's floor, hands pressed down, sobbing.
Tears they had never shown anyone.
The true sorrow hidden at the bottom of Yuuhi's heart—bright, energetic, like the sun.
Now, for the first time, it was laid bare.
"Yuuhi isn't wrong!"
Neon shouted.
"What you're hiding isn't weakness, it's kindness! You just didn't want to worry anyone, so you carried it all alone! Don't go deciding that's weakness on your own!"
Neon lunged at Double Yuuhi.
"In the way."
Double Neon swung one hand.
Thud.
"Gah…!"
Neon's body slammed hard against the wall.
"Neon-chan!"
Neon slid down the wall and stopped moving. Unconscious.
"The strength to protect someone is born precisely because you know weakness!"
Ruri stood in front of Yuuhi on trembling legs.
"I know how much Yuuhi-san has endured until now! So please, don't cry alone anymore!"
"You're in the way too."
Double Ruri swung a blade of light.
Slash.
"Ah…"
Ruri's shoulder split open.
"Ruri-chan!"
Ruri fell to the floor. Their fingertips grew even more transparent. They couldn't move.
"Don't be captive to the past!"
Satsuki raised both hands.
"Tell them how you feel right now! That's the only way to break the curse!"
Light overflowed from Satsuki's hands. They were using everything to repel the curse.
"Futile."
Double Satsuki flicked away Satsuki's power with a fingertip.
Crack.
"Guh…!"
The old scar on Satsuki's left cheek split open.
From it, black miasma gushed out.
"Satsuki-san!"
Satsuki dropped to their knees, then pitched forward.
Three of them had fallen.
Neon. Ruri. Satsuki.
All of them, trying to protect Yuuhi, had fallen.
"Look."
Double Yuuhi pointed at the three fallen.
"As long as you keep hiding your true feelings, these ones will disappear. They'll become transparent, and eventually vanish from this world."
"Stop… don't make everyone disappear…"
"Then say your true feelings. With your own mouth, put them into words."
"My… true feelings…"
Yuuhi raised their tear-streaked face.
Looked at the three who had fallen.
Neon. Ruri. Satsuki.
All of them, for Yuuhi's sake, had been hurt.
"…I want to protect everyone."
Yuuhi stood up on trembling legs.
"What can someone with no power do?"
Double Yuuhi formed a blade of light.
"Even so, I…!"
Yuuhi lunged at the double.
But the double's power was overwhelming.
The blade of light aimed to pierce straight through Yuuhi's chest.
—In that instant.
"My true feeling is that I want to be with everyone forever!"
Yuuhi's scream echoed through the old school building.
That voice, for just a moment, severed the Reflect Mirror's resonance.
"Guh…!"
The doubles grimaced in displeasure.
"…Interesting. That voice did indeed disrupt the resonance."
Double Yuuhi extinguished the blade of light.
"But that's all. On the night of the thirteenth day, the curse will be complete. If you cannot convey your true feelings to everyone by then, you will be trapped inside this mirror forever."
"The night of… the thirteenth day…"
"Remember it. The time left to you is a little over one day. That's all."
The doubles slowly vanished back into the mirror surface.
Silence returned to the room.
"…Everyone!"
Yuuhi ran to the three who had fallen.
"Neon-chan! Ruri-chan! Satsuki-san!"
Neon slowly opened their eyes.
"…Idiot, you reckless fool."
A weak smile. They couldn't even stand.
"Neon-chan… I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…"
"…It's not your fault, you know."
Ruri gently grabbed the hem of Yuuhi's clothes.
"Yuuhi-san, you've already realized, haven't you."
The transparency of their fingertips had receded a little.
"…Yeah. I've been hiding it all along. I couldn't say I was lonely about Grandma. But I won't hide it anymore."
Satsuki, pressing the scar on their left cheek, raised their upper body.
"The night of the thirteenth day… that's the real time limit. In my case too, Shiori disappeared on the thirteenth day."
"Satsuki-san…"
"Tomorrow, let's tell everyone. I'll… tell everyone about Shiori too."
Satsuki's jade-green eyes looked straight at Yuuhi.
"And you too. Tell everyone your true feelings."
"…Yeah. I'll tell everyone my true feelings. Today, I'll tell them everything."
Yuuhi's voice was trembling.
But their eyes were no longer wavering.
—It was the moment Yuuhi, who had always been passive, for the first time became the one reaching out to convey their feelings to their comrades.
The four left the old school building, supporting each other's wounded bodies.
Outside, it was sunset.
Orange and purple mixed and spread across the whole sky.
The same color as Yuuhi's eyes.
The color they had seen together with Grandma.
"…Grandma."
Yuuhi looked up at the sunset sky and murmured softly.
"You look different somehow."
Neon said, gazing up at the sunset beside Yuuhi.
"…I've been hiding it all along. I couldn't say I was lonely about Grandma. But I won't hide it anymore."
"That's what true strength is."
Ruri smiled softly.
"Tomorrow, let's tell everyone. I'll tell everyone about Shiori too."
Satsuki said quietly, but certainly.
Between the four, a quiet, certain bond had been born—different from the comedic back-and-forth they'd had before.
The sunset stretched their four shadows long.
Tomorrow, they would tell everything.
That promise alone, for now, was warm.
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