"One always needs an ace up their sleeve, and that applies to me too..." 

****

"Urgh... Jibanyan what time is it now?..." he groaned as he rubbed his eyes, only to stop as he looked at his hands. 

Wait, these were smaller than he remembered. 

"What the--" Suddenly wide awake, he looked around, trying to figure out just what was going on. Where was he? Why didn't he recognise this place? It was his room right?

Upon taking a quick look from his small bed, he decided that no, he was NOT in his room, he had NOT been turned into a kid, and he was NOT dreaming. 

Then he noticed a mirror, and walked over to look at his reflection...

Only to scream like a girl upon realising just why he felt so short.

Because he was. Not only that, but his eyes were so small it wasn't funny! His hair was spiked up in all sorts of directions, and he had a light blue headband keeping his hair from falling.

"What the?!"

Amano Keita had been part of a lot of crazy messes.

But this one was definitely taking it to a whole new level.

****

"Time to get up, whissuuu!"

"Urgh I don't want to...." Shinsuke mumbled. Yesterday's practice had been brutal, and he wasn't looking forward to it again. Why did he have to wake up--

Wait.

Someone was calling him to wake up.

Nishizono Shinsuke lived alone, though.

His eyes shot open, and he found himself face to face with a...

A floating specter.

"Keita-kyun, it's good to see that you are awake!" The.... Marshmallow thing greeted him. "Now, it's time for you to get ready for school whissu!"

Shinsuke stared at him blankly, before he let out an exhausted sigh 

Welp, another crazy day was here, it would seem.

****

"Shinsuke, ohayou!" A brunette male grinned as he caught up with Keita. "Are you excited for soccer practice today?! Endou-kantoku said that we're switching things up today!"

Keita gave him a blank stare for a while, a bit unsure how to react, but he soon smiled and said, "Hey!"

The other boy didn't notice, thankfully, and began chit-chatting about various tactics they could use.

Keita just simply sighed and put his phone away. Well, at least he didn't have to use his phone as a GPS to school. That was a relief.

But he did listen to his rambles, offering input according to his knowledge. 

The other didn't seem to mind, although Keita worried that he was suspicious about the lack of his name. Anyone with a brain would notice and wonder, right? He didn't want to cause any worry for these people. 

One might be confused about why Keita was so caring, but there was a logical reason behind it. 

After 2 years of being exposed to Youkai, Keita had begun to change, and he was grateful for that. He had become a better person through it, learning from his mistakes and growing every day. 

He had also managed to move away from his old school, having realised that his class had been toxic for him, especially his so-called friends. As a result of this, he could notice cues better, and back out of bad friendships before they were formed. His crush had turned into an obsession, after all, and no one had told him that it was bad, not even Jibanyan and Whisper... 

It had only been once he met Inaho AND more people that he began to see things... differently. They had had a talk about this, and his parents had been very supportive. Moving away from the new home beside Fumi's and into a new home near a better junior high school in Sakura New Town was the first step, followed by family therapy as the three worked through their problems. It had been better for him, alright, and his Youkai friends had been even more supportive, growing with him. 

Either way, he was a better person now, so he could try his best to help out Shinsuke and not weird out his friends by claiming he was not the guy and that he had switched bodies with Shinsuke. 

... Yeah, Keita had gotten more logical, and that was great. 

****

"Ohayou, Keita!" 

Shinsuke smiled and sat down on the chair, although he still had some difficulty adjusting to his newfound height, "H-Hey!" 

The sandy blonde male grinned and sat in front of him, while his friend, another male with light blue and red streaks in his hair, expertly felt his way to his own table beside Shinsuke's, smiling at the wall before the other turned it his way, revealing a lack of irises in his eyes, "T-Thanks, Tireni." 

"No prob, Tadeoniu," he smiled. "Anyway, Keita, did you do the homework?" 

Homework? For a minute Shinsuke panicked that he hadn't done it, amplified by the realisation that he didn't know WHAT homework the other was talking about, but after checking his pre-set up bag, he exhaled in relief inwardly upon seeing that yes, he had done the homework, "Yep, I did." 

"You don't usually check your bag, Keita," Tireni offhandedly pointed out. 

"I-I don't?" Here he balked up. How was he supposed to know that?! Dang it, he had screwed it up! 

A mild headache was starting to come up, but he pushed it aside. No time to faint! 

"Are you okay, Keita?" Tadeoniu looked to the other side, which made Tireni sweatdrop as he quickly angled his friend's gaze to Keita, "Ah thanks!"

"Just feeling a little under the weather," he dismissed it quickly. He tended to do that when his friends worried about him living alone in an apartment with his parents going all over the place promoting soccer in poverty-ridden countries (he got into soccer that way despite his height), so at this point it was second nature to him. 

"You sure? You know you can tell us right?" Tireni frowned. 

"It's not Youkai-related is it?" Tadeoniu added. 

He blinked, before he realised that perhaps the two knew about the mythical beings he could actually see, so he answered in what he hoped was Keita's usual response, "Well, Jibanyan was eating chocobo as per usual and made a mess. I had to clean up after him and then rush to school." 

With a lot of tripping, but he wasn't going to divulge that detail. 

Thankfully it seemed to be the right answer, cause the two burst out into chuckles.

"That's so you, Keita," Tireni joked. "You're so kind at times you can't even tell Jibanyan to clean up after himself." 

"The old you would have paper-fanned him out of the window," Tadeoniu smiled at Tireni.

The old him? What did they mean? 

He filed that and the many other questions he had into stuff he had to look into later, and said, "I'm exhausted, honestly. What about you guys?" 

"Same," Tireni yawned. "The homework from the sensei was just brutal."

"You're being weird again," Tadeoniu scolded Tireni, shaking his head as he continued, "It's not the end of the world, and you know it." 

Shinsuke sweatdropped, but just then, he saw a brunette male rush in with--

He gaped. Was that a Youkai or something? It sure looked like one, with the wings and all that! 

"W-Wow, he's quite interesting!" he poked Tireni, trying to act nonchalant although his mind was brimming with curiosity. "He must be a new kid, I guess?" 

The other male gave him a scrutinising look with his baby blue eyes, but said, "Amanokawa Hiro is our classmate, Keita. Don't you remember? He joined around the same time you did." 

"T-Then do you see that Youkai thingie hanging around him?" he tried to calm the churning of his stomach, ignoring the possible concern to gesture wildly to the weird thing following Hiro. 

"What are you talking about?" Here, Tadeoniu blinked. "Keita, I may not be able to see very well, but I'm sure Hiro doesn't have that kind of thing going. You said so yourself when you met him." 

"I-I did--" 

He suddenly screamed as he collapsed onto the ground. His head hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt-- He couldn't see anything--

What was going on here?! 

****

As it turned out, Keita's soccer skills here weren't supposed to be that of a libero, which was his default position back in Hazakura. 

And despite the shock everyone had displayed at first over his fluid yet effective moves, they praised him for it. 

His focus wasn't on that, sadly. 

It had begun as a dull ache, but as he kept on using his own skills, with no "hissatsus", whatever they were, it increased so much that once it was over, he had to take a knee due to how exhausted he was AND painful the headache had become. 

Every word reflected off his head. It couldn't be properly digested due to the migraine.

What was going on? Why did his head hurt so much? 

"-- right Shinsuke?" 

And suddenly it was all clear, and he blinked, "Y-Yeah?" 

"Hey, are you okay?" the male from this morning-- Tenma, as he had learnt-- asked him, concern steadily clear. 

"I-it's fine," Keita shook it off and got up. "I-I'm just going to go home for today, okay?" 

"Maybe you need a trip to the sickbay," a teal-haired first year named Kariya Masaki teased. "You're probably a bit sick if you can play as a libero." 

"H-Hey!" Keita protested. 

"Kariya!" a sempai, Kirino Ranmaru, chided him. 

"It's fine, I need to go anyway," he grabbed his bag, ignoring their gazes. "Seeyatomorrowbye!"

"Wha-- SHINSUKE!" 

****

"Keita-kun, wait, no, whoever you are, are you okay?" 

Shinsuke froze up the moment he heard that. 

The brown-haired male, Hiro, was it?, was sitting there when he woke up, before giving him some water to calm him down. Then he proceeded to ask that very question. 

"You just have to type it out if you want," Hiro held out his phone. "If you say anything you'll get a headache." 

"R-Really?" 

"Yeah. I was the unfortunate first and second person to switch bodies," he explained. "It took a while to figure out the rules behind it, but I recognised the signs when I stepped in." 

"Hiro went weird for 2 days!" the dinosaur-like creature cheered. 

"I did not go weird for those days! It was someone else!" Hiro yelped to him. 

Shinsuke laughed slightly, surprising the others and himself as he wiped some tears, typing out something, "'Thanks for that. I've been confused for this entire day.'"

"No worries!" Hiro smiled slightly. "I felt the same way. Can you please give me your number so I can contact you tomorrow?" 

Tomorrow... 

Somehow, that word gave him HOPE, that tomorrow would come and he would be back...

So he smiled and said, "That would... be nice." 

Hiro laughed while Shinsuke typed his number down, adding his name to it before he handed it back, "So true. This entire mess has taught me a lot, so I hope it does give you something as well... Shinsuke-san."

"I do hope so as well," Shinsuke slowly smiled back. That gave him a fresh zephyr to get through the day. "Also, we're the same age." 

"Well, that's a relief!" Hiro said. "I was worried I was talking to an old man or something!"

Shinsuke promptly snorted, and the two burst out laughing. 

And so, the day went on once he returned to the classrom, and after school, Shinsuke got to try out being a libero. Apparently Keita was part of the soccer team in Hazakura Academy, so it was a familiar wind that always got him to loosen up. 

Turned out, he wasn't all that bad as a libero! He had played a similar position back when Raimon were beginning their revolution, but the libero position was something that really piqued his interest.

Maybe he could consider a switch up in his position. There was Taichi-sempai to keep the goalie position safe, so being a libero would be fun, and a break in his usual pace. Not to mention, a lot of them said that his skills were getting better, and the coach even complimented him for his skills, which gave Shinsuke some kind of confidence. 

As he tumbled into bed, he was smiling in happiness. It was nice, honestly. Who knew that he could be such a dark horse? Sure he snuck onto the Earth Eleven train, but he had been dead weight nearly all the time. He hadn't expected to pull through, honestly. 

"I... wanna try playing... as a libero... like how Keita does...." Shinsuke murmured into the pillow before he slipped into dreamland, waiting for Keita to join him so they could go back. 

****

After all the toxic nonsense Keita had endured in his life while being in Sakura New Town, he was really glad he got the chance to breathe in something new. 

Raimon's lessons weren't challenging, not even close to Hazakura's standards, so in order to stimulate himself he found some puzzles to do in the newspaper and put himself to the test, trying them out as he spent some time on the bench during break solving them. It didn't take long for him to finish it, and Keita was a bit proud of that skill. 

I forgot that I loved puzzles growing up... Probably because of my so-called friends making me feel like it wasn't cool, he reflected to himself with a bit of disdain. While Inaho had retained her status as a watcher, Keita still couldn't bring himself to keep in contact with her. He had opted to just keep in contact with Enma-daiou, preferring to cut ties with anyone from his old school. It just gave him bad memories. 

Getting to do something he enjoyed was definitely a plus for today, he thought. So it wasn't all that bad that he swapped bodies with someone. 

Would he be able to get back to his original body, though?...

Keita would just have to place his hope in that, so he crawled into the covers, pulled himself deeper into it, and snuggled up as dreamland's bus finally arrived to pick him up. 

****

Hiro took Keita aside the next day to explain the situation, and this in turn led to a discussion about his own involvement in Youkai. While they both decided to do their own research into things, they knew it wouldn't be that easy, so Shinsuke was brought in, and the two were added into the forum. 

Keita and Shinsuke's PMs were filled with soccer strategies, especially with Shinsuke's newfound interest in the libero position and Keita's own interest in strategies. They became faster friends than Iruma and Shouyou, and Hiro was honestly glad for that. 

But Keita then brought up a point none of them had thought about before; how they could interact with each other. 

"Wait, are we all located in the same world?" 

And just like that, one part of the picture was complete. 

****

"Huh, so a new dark horse has appeared... No matter, it won't matter... Their headaches fuel me even more."

XenoSaiyan This could be a base to the Hub Moon's 2020s. 

My chats with venusaura inspired the Keita backstory alongside mama_kurogiri's book Change. Do check them both out!