Shiori Novella, a member of hololive English's 'Advent,' wakes up one morning to find her body has turned male. She screams as she sees herself in the mirror. Rushing to the next room, she finds Bijou, now a girl with long flowing hair and a soft feminine figure. They point at each other and shriek in unison.
Nerissa arrives, now a boy, her cool demeanor intact but her voice deeper, and she sighs at her reflection. Fuwa appears as a girl, and even her relationship with Mococo and Abyssgard is
hololive Gender Panic! ~Shiori's Observation Diary~ - An old book taught me about a confession of love!?
Evening. The living room of the House of Advent was wrapped in a heavy atmosphere.
A room that should have been twenty tatami mats in size felt strangely cramped today.
Four people sat sunk into the L-shaped sofa.
On the table sat plates of dinner, long gone cold. The cream stew Bijou had made no longer gave off any steam.
No one spoke.
Only the occasional clink of a spoon against a plate broke the silence.
"…Hey."
A single word, spoken quietly.
Fuwawa lifted her face, clutching the hem of her skirt with both hands.
Her fluffy silver-white hair drooped, somehow looking dejected. Her large, pale-blue eyes were glistening, as if tears might spill at any moment.
"If I've swapped with Mokoko… what am I supposed to do…?"
Her voice sounded like she was about to cry, but she was desperately holding it back.
"I was supposed to be the one protecting her… but now, Mokoko's the one protecting me. It's wrong. I'm the big sister."
"Fuwawa…"
Bijou gently stroked the back of Fuwawa, who sat beside her.
Her black hair, long enough to reach her waist, swayed softly. Her violet eyes gazed at Fuwawa with tenderness.
"It's okay. I'm sure we'll get back to normal."
"But we don't even know how to get back."
A low voice echoed through the living room.
Nerissa.
Her deep, purple-tinged black hair was tied back in a single tail, her left eye still hidden behind her bangs, arms crossed. Her sharp, reddish-brown eyes glared at the cold stew on the table.
Since becoming a man, Nerissa's voice had dropped even lower. She apparently didn't like it, letting out a small sigh every time she spoke.
"*Sigh*… I've been looking into it since morning, but zero leads."
"Streaming's on hold, and we can't go outside. At this rate, we don't even know how long we'll be stuck in these bodies."
Silence fell again.
Outside the window, the sun was beginning to set.
Orange light stretched long and thin across the living room floor. The shadows of houseplants swayed against the wall.
"…Right."
Suddenly, Shiori stood up.
Her black-and-white two-tone short bob bounced with the movement. Her large amber eyes sparkled.
"As the Archiver, I can't just leave a situation this interesting alone. The cause, the way back—it's all written somewhere. Books never betray you."
Even in a man's body, Shiori's first-person pronoun remained "watashi."
Sometimes she'd almost slip and say "ore," then blush at herself. Just now, too, she gave a tiny internal fist pump for managing to say "watashi" after finishing her sentence.
"…There she goes again, the archiving maniac."
Nerissa tilted her head back toward the ceiling in exasperation.
"Isn't it fine? It's way better than doing nothing."
Bijou let out a small laugh.
Seeing that smile, Nerissa's brow relaxed—just a little.
Shiori walked over to the bookshelf lined against the living room wall.
A large bookshelf built across the entire wall. Thick encyclopedias and reference books on the upper shelves, novels and essays on the lower ones. It wasn't just Shiori's personal collection—books each member had brought were mixed in.
"Let's see, curses, curses… oh, here—*The World's Bizarre Curses: A Dictionary*. This looks interesting."
She pulled out a single volume and flipped through it.
"Gender-swapping curses… not here. Hmm, then how about this one."
She returned the book and picked up another.
"*The Complete Compendium of Magic, East and West*. Not this either. *The Boundary Between Curses and Wishes*… oh my, this title—something about it catches my eye."
Just as she reached for the spine—
*Clunk.*
From the bottom shelf of the bookcase, something fell with a sound.
"…Oh?"
She crouched down and looked at the floor.
A single book had slid out from behind the bookshelf.
It was old.
Clearly different from the others.
The binding was a dull, parchment-like color. On the spine, something was written in faded gold lettering.
"…Enigma Codex?"
The moment she read it aloud, something ran down her spine.
Not cold—hot.
The heat of curiosity welled up from deep in her chest.
"Everyone! Come here! Major discovery!"
She turned and shouted toward the three in the living room.
"Loud. What is it?"
Nerissa reluctantly rose from the sofa. Bijou and Fuwawa followed behind her.
Shiori placed the old book on the table.
Four pairs of eyes gathered on the single volume.
"It was hidden behind the bookshelf. I've never seen a book this old."
"…You're right. There shouldn't be a book like this in our shelf."
Nerissa furrowed her brow.
Shiori slowly opened the cover.
The discolored pages rustled softly.
On the first page, written in ancient script, were these words:
*"Concerning the Curse of Gender Exchange"*
"…Eh."
Bijou caught her breath.
Shiori's fingers turned the page.
*"The Curse of Gender Exchange shall be broken by a confession of true love."*
"…A confession of… true love?"
Bijou's voice trembled faintly.
"Wait. There's more."
Shiori, eyes gleaming, read the next line aloud.
*"However, should one confess to the wrong person, the curse shall grow stronger, and the original body shall never be regained."*
The living room froze.
The smell of cold stew. Silence. Outside the window, a crow cawed.
"…Um."
The first to speak was Fuwawa.
"W-what's a confession!? Fuwawa has to confess to someone or she'll stay like this forever!?"
Fuwawa shouted, flailing both hands.
In her panic, her hand hit a glass on the table.
*Clatter!*
Water spread across the tabletop.
"Eek!"
"Hey, Fuwawa! Calm down!"
Nerissa promptly fetched a dishcloth from the kitchen.
"But, but! Fuwawa doesn't understand romance at all! A confession is saying you like someone, right!? Who am I supposed to say that to!?"
"Calm down. First we read the rest of the book."
Nerissa placed a hand on Fuwawa's head with a soft *pat*.
Nerissa's hand—now a man's hand—was large and bony.
Fuwawa, at the warmth of that hand, calmed down just a little.
"…Okay. Sorry, onii-chan."
"Drop the 'onii-chan.'"
Nerissa said with a bitter face.
Shiori watched the exchange between the two with sparkling eyes.
"…Amazing. Truly amazing. When gender changes, even forms of address change. I have to record this too."
"This is not the time for recording."
"It absolutely is. This is a historic event, after all."
Shiori pulled a small observation diary from her chest.
A leather-bound, A5-sized notebook. She'd kept it on her person at all times ever since the gender transformation occurred.
"Let's see—current situation. Discovered an old book, the *Enigma Codex*. Contents: the gender-swap curse can be broken by a confession of true love. However, confessing to the wrong person means never returning. …Yes, recorded perfectly."
She wrote in the notebook with quick, smooth strokes.
"…Shiori-chan, you're so calm."
Bijou murmured, gazing at Shiori's profile.
"Panicking won't help anything, right? So I record, analyze, and solve. That's the Archiver's way."
Shiori lifted her face and smiled at Bijou.
At that moment—
Bijou, as if startled, averted her eyes from Shiori.
Her pale cheeks were faintly flushed.
"…What's wrong, Bijou? Your face is red."
"Eh!? Ah, um… Shiori-chan, your voice is…"
"My voice?"
"Um… it's really… low, and calm…"
Bijou fidgeted, twisting her fingers together, and continued in a voice so faint it nearly vanished.
"And also, your hands are… so big…"
Shiori looked at her own hands.
Knotted and bony. A man's hands.
"Ah, right. They've been like this since morning. Is something weird?"
"They're not weird! It's just… they're cool…"
By the end, Bijou's voice was barely audible.
"Bijou."
A cold voice cut in.
Nerissa.
"…That's not relevant right now."
Nerissa's voice was deliberately cold, dismissive.
But her eyes weren't looking at Bijou.
She was looking at the setting sun outside the window.
"Ah… sorry."
Bijou shrank back, deflated.
Nerissa said nothing more.
But her crossed arms were clenched tight.
"…Onii-chan, your face is scary."
Fuwawa gave Nerissa's sleeve a small tug.
"It's the same as always."
"It's not. Onii-chan, whenever Bijou-nee-chan talks to Shiori-chan, your face always gets scary."
"…Fuwawa."
"Ah, sorry! Did Fuwawa say something weird!?"
Fuwawa covered her mouth with both hands.
Shiori watched the exchange with wide, saucer-like eyes.
"…I see. Nerissa's expression changes differently when talking to Bijou versus when Bijou talks to me. This is important data."
"You really can't read the room, can you?"
Nerissa pressed a hand to her forehead.
"Reading the room matters less than recording the truth. Now then, everyone—could you line up over there for a moment?"
Shiori readied her observation diary.
"Why?"
"To identify who meets the conditions for a true love confession. Who feels what toward whom. I'll record behavioral patterns and analyze them."
"…You're serious."
"Completely serious. Dead serious. This is a scientific approach to breaking the curse."
Shiori edged closer and closer to Bijou.
"W-wait, Shiori-chan, you're too close…"
"Bijou, just now, the moment our eyes met, your blinking increased by two. Your pupils also dilated slightly. That's a sign of nervousness. Recording, recording."
"S-stop…!"
Bijou backed away.
Shiori then approached Nerissa.
"Nerissa, when you look at Bijou, your gaze always enters from the lower-left diagonal. That's a sign of hesitation. Fascinating."
"…Don't move another step. Back off right now."
Nerissa's voice dropped even lower.
"I won't back off. This is part of the observation. Now, next is Fuwawa."
"Eh!? Fuwawa too!?"
"Of course. Fuwawa, you've been sneaking glances at my diary for a while now. Trying to learn about romance? Recording that too."
"I-I'm not! I wasn't looking!"
Fuwawa waved her hands frantically.
"Shiori, you're too close!"
"Quiet. I'm in the middle of something good."
"You're the only one having a good time!"
Nerissa grabbed Shiori's shoulders and pulled her away with a sharp tug.
"Ah—hey! My recording!"
"You can compile your records later. Right now, confirming the contents of this book together comes first."
"…Hmph. Fine."
Shiori reluctantly closed her observation diary.
But her eyes were still sparkling.
"Still, today's observations revealed a lot. Everyone reacts differently. I could write a book about this."
"Don't turn us into material for your books."
"The Archiver turns all phenomena into books. This is a perfectly respectable record."
"…*Sigh.*"
Nerissa let out a deep sigh.
"Anyway. If what's written in this book is true, we can't return to normal unless someone seriously confesses to someone. And if we get it wrong, it's over."
"…That's how it is."
Bijou gently stroked the garnet bracelet on her wrist.
"But who's supposed to confess to whom? Even if you suddenly ask about someone I like…"
Bijou's voice grew quieter and quieter.
"Fuwawa doesn't even understand what 'liking someone' means yet…"
Fuwawa buried her face in a sofa cushion.
"…Anyway, it's late. Let's think about the rest tomorrow."
Nerissa picked up the old book from the table.
"I'll hold onto this. So none of you do anything weird in the middle of the night."
"What do you mean, 'weird'?"
"Because you're the type who would."
"How rude. I'm the Archiver. I don't do weird things."
"The Archiver is the one who does the weirdest things."
Nerissa left the living room, the old book in her arms.
"…I'll head back to my room too."
Bijou glanced at Shiori, somewhat reluctantly, then climbed the stairs.
"Fuwawa's going back to Mokoko too… I'm kind of tired today."
Fuwawa stood up unsteadily and left the living room as well.
Left alone, Shiori sat back down on the sofa.
On the table: the cold stew, and a dishcloth soaked with water.
"…A confession of true love, huh."
She murmured quietly.
Something pricked faintly deep in her chest.
"Me, confessing to someone? Or someone confessing to
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