TBHK with characters swapped

Picture perfect, part 3

Sousuke and Minamoto stood in an empty school hallway. The muffled sounds of the movie echoed over the walls.

"Come on, I wanna see the movie with everyone!" Minamoto whined, looking through the glass door into the assembly hall.

"We have more important things to discuss," replied Sousuke. "Why did not you tell me about Shijima? I was thinking I was going crazy!"

"I did tell you this world was not real. I do not know the details. But..." Minamoto delayed. "Did you have fun today? I sure did."

"Hurting my hand in an explosion and then cleaning the pool is not my idea of fun. Then Akane and Aoi fell apart."

"So you don't like this world?" Minamoto inquired.

"It is beautiful like a picture on a wall, but some things are horryfing. Like when people fall apart, and then everyone tells you this is normal and happens often. What if it happened to me? Or to you? Why do you participate in this?"

"You know that my wish is to be a normal human," with these words Minamoto transformed and revealed his supernatural form.

"Eeek!" Sousuke was terrified to see the long bone wings growing from the back of his friend, dark raven claws in place of hands, and a huge eyeball in the middle of the black t-shirt, even though he has seen it before.

"Calm down, I'm not going to harm you," told Minamoto. "I was going to show you this."

The image in the windows changed. They no longer showed dark summer sky with myriad of stars; instead, they showed an image of younger Kou Minamoto at the acceptance ceremony. The images changed as Minamoto continued, "I inherited the power of the raven. The mirrors and windows in the school remember the events that reflected in them. I watched Kou's first day in the school, how he met you, two years of his school attendance, up to his day of death. I saw his exorcising adventure with you, and how his ghost died again. I observed this, but I did not experience it."

"Then how about giving it a try?" suddenly an image of Aoi's face filled the window.

"Gah!" exclaimed Sousuke.

"Relax, this is just a recording," replied Minamoto.

"An artificial world, where you can be a human, go to the lessons with classmates and live a normal life," Aoi continued.

"It happened exactly as she told," continued Minamoto. "I feel alive in this world. In this world I have never died. If I had never died, we would steel be classmates, sit next to each other and be friends. Would not you want this?"

Sousuke bit his lip. "Dumbass! We could still be friends in the real world despite you being dead!"

"Yeah, right. Since I became School Mystery, you have never visited me once."

"I was worrying about you!" exclaimed Sousuke. "You did not visit me either, but it's you who can travel through mirrors among two of us."

Suddenly Minamoto had an idea. "Stay in this world! We've got so many things to try and experience."

"No way," denied Sousuke.

"But why?!"

"Shijima told us, if I stick in this world for too long, my memories of the real world will fade and disappear."

"So be it!"

"So be it?! So be it?!" Sousuke was suddenly yelling. "How did you feel when you appeared behind the mirror without your memories? Hmm?"

He continued, "Your memories IS your life. If you wipe out the memories, it's as if you never lived in the first place."

Sousuke revealed a photo of Minamoto from the football album. In the photo, Minamoto was about to score the goal. Sousuke ripped the photo in half, then in half again. The scraps fell to the ground. "This is what happens when you erase memories. Everyone is talking as if it's a normal thing to happen, but it's not normal!"

Sousuke was pleased to see Minamoto's shocked face. Yes; he was pressing the right buttons. He continued, "You tell me that your wish is to be a normal human. But you wanted to be a human in the real world, not in this fake one. Minamoto that I know does not flee from the problems.

"Let's escape together to the real world and find a way to turn you into human there!"

"It is impossible," replied Minamoto.

"How do you know? If ghosts exist, and travel between worlds is possible, then magic is also possible. How do you know if you never tried?

"We will ask Tsukasa if he knows a way. He can make a new rumor if need be!"

"Sorry but I cannot let you ruin everything," Minamoto's bone wings came to motion, reaching out for Sousuke. They grabbed and restrained him.

Was Sousuke wrong to trust him?

"And here I thought you promised not to harm me," he quipped.

"I won't. Just give up the plans to escape."

"Think of your own memories!" Sousuke came up with another argument.

"What are you talking about?"

"Your memories, the ones you obtained from the mirrors. If you stay in this world long enough, they will also fade and disappear!"

"Yes," replied Minamoto. "I would forget that I'm a monster and I'd remember that I'm a normal schoolboy who goes to classes with his friends."

Sousuke's eyes widened, and then he lowered his gaze. Yeah... his friend's perspective was completely different from his own. What was horrible for Sousuke, was a dream coming true for Minamoto.

"Study with your friends..." Sousuke started, "I thought you called me a friend."

"Yes."

"You have a ton of friends. Why do you need me? One friend more, one friend less... who cares?" Sousuke made asking puppy eyes to his best ability. "Let me return to the real world. Pwease?"

Minamoto averted his eyes. "No... you don't understand. You..." Minamoto struggled to continue.

Sousuke did not understand it indeed.

"You are... important..." mumbled Minamoto.

"Why?" inquired Sousuke.

The grip of wings weakened, and Sousuke found himself free. Minamoto slided down a wall and ended up sitting squatting on the school floor. The bone wings wrapped around him several times.

"Yes. This would be better for everyone," admitted Minamoto with dropped voice. "You will return to your world, and I will stay here. I won't be helping you, but I won't stop you either," his voice was trembling.

He covered his eyes with his raven claws and started rocking back and forth.

Sousuke was completely stunned by the sudden change.

"You... you'll be missing me, right?" he asked tentatively.

Instead of answering, Minamoto raised his eyes on him. They were red and wet from the tears.

Sousuke was shocked, even if for a split second. And then he started smirking. "Tee hee hee!"

It was Minamoto's turn to be completely dumbfounded. "What's so funny?"

Sousuke turned his face away from his classmate. "The thought of you missing me. I found it extremely funny."

Minamoto went from tears to rage in a second. "You little!.."

"Now that is sorted, we've got the easy part," Sousuke announced. "We've got to find a way out of this world without killing you or daikon-senpai."

"What?!" exclaimed Minamoto.

Their argument was interrupted by arrival of Nene Yashiro carrying Amane.