Twiceborn: A Tale of Two Friends

Chapter One: Toddler Troubles

Pain.

That was the first thing she registered as the memories flooded through her head and she remembered who she was. Hands went to her head. Small hands. Hands that weren't hers, and a face came into view – peering down at her, concerned.

"Risa-chan, what's wrong?"

Tears spilled down her cheeks, the pain in her head growing. It felt wrong. Everything did. Her face felt too small, her skin too tight, and more importantly she wasn't Risa-chan... whoever the hell that was. She couldn't be. Her name wasn't Risa. It was Lilly. She couldn't be two people, could she? That was impossible... unless... something had happened to her. To Lilly. Static filled her head, buzzing like that from an old television crackling over everything, the world whitening as she tried to piece things together. Memories blurred together, overlapping one another as if to prove her wrong. Memories from Before, when people had called her Lilly, and fuzzy memories from Risa-chan. What kind of a name was that, anyway?

Who added a chan onto the end of someone's name... unless...?

Maybe Risa – she – was Japanese? Chan, from the little she could remember clearly, was an honorific.

That was right, she realised, mulling over the strange new memories. She was Risa now. There was no mistaking that little fact. Dimly, she could remember learning how to speak in this new strange life, and the small bit of what looked like weird squiggly symbols that were no doubt kanji and kana. It was foreign to her old memories, though thankfully Risa's mind – her mind... it was her mind now, not Lilly's – seemed to automatically convert it for her. She could remember learning it – and what's more, she actually understood it. Well, what Risa... she had actually learnt, which was no doubt lacking... considering she was now, biologically, three years old.

It was odd for her to actually accept that fact, but then again, as Lilly she'd always been good at adapting to new situations. Good at pushing all her worries and fears to one side to focus on the job that needed to be done. She needed to be logical. She needed to figure out what was going on... what had actually happened to Lilly... her old body... because the only reason she could think of for a sudden body switch was the fact that Lilly might've... Risa shook her head. She couldn't think about that. She wouldn't think about that. Not yet, at least.

The fact of the matter was whether she liked it or not, she was going to have to be Risa.

She couldn't be Lilly anymore.

She was Risa now.

The memories told her that much. Her name was Risa. Risa. Not Lilly.

She didn't have time to dwell on the fact she had no idea what had happened to make her end up in the body of Risa. She couldn't think about it. Memories would return in time, she assured herself. They had to. Though she had a sinking feeling she'd always been there, always been Risa, not Lilly. Her younger brain just hadn't been capable of processing those old memories till that very moment.

So maybe she hadn't ended up stealing someone else's body... That was right. She wasn't a body-snatcher. She was Risa. Only Risa now... Lilly was from Before. Lilly was gone. Lilly didn't have Risa's memories too... but what happened to Lilly?

The last of her memories from Before were greyed out and fuzzy, which was never a good sign in her opinion. Not that she'd ever been displaced from one body to another before.

She'd never become someone else before... but was that really what she'd done? Was she some amalgamation of Risa and Lilly? Or was she just Risa? Lilly's body was gone, and somehow she doubted it was coming back anytime soon. That made her just Risa, didn't it? Risa had always had those memories... she just hadn't been able to remember them, up until that very instant. She'd been nothing more than a child up until that point.