Chapter 12:

Yuri was asleep — not deeply or sweetly, more like exhaustedly. Something seemed to be pressing down on his body, growing stronger and more irritatingly stifling with each passing moment. It wasn't like a snake coiling around his neck — rather, the air itself felt suffocating. Terribly and tremblingly suffocating.

He was so worn out that he didn't even want to open his eyes or move. Until night fell — he would lie in this library. It was at least tolerable here compared to the outside world.

If Yuri had his way — he would have stripped down to nothing. But given that his body itself was ignoring the temperature and not sweating, this was more of a psychological stuffiness than a physical one. He didn't even want water — he just wanted to get away from this stuffiness as quickly as possible. However, he also wanted pizza. He had missed the taste of pepperoni pizza terribly. Its sweet-salty sauce and meat. Its appetising smell... of hydrangeas?!

Wait. Something was clearly wrong — why was he detecting such an enticing smell of hydrangeas, making him want to claim it for himself and not let go until he'd had his fill?! Exactly like when he had caught the scent of his new head. Something was clearly off. Yuri needed to open his eyes — he urgently needed to get to the source of the smell! Huh? Why did he need to get to the smell?

But he had already opened his eyes. And this smell was driving him mad. A person, a man, slightly taller than Yuri. His smell — what an appetite-stirring smell. He wanted to inhale this smell to the very last — one more moment and he would have done exactly that.

— Um, could you please stop sniffing my neck so passionately?

[Did I just... very passionately sniff the neck of a random man...?]

The moment Yuri thought that, such a quantity of colour flooded to his face that he didn't simply go red — he began to resemble a rainbow. A rainbow carrying a not entirely wholesome whiff of homosexuality.

[BLEHHH.]

— Blehhh.

And he vomited directly onto the library floor.

— Um, I can certainly overlook the fact that you just vomited on the floor right next to me — but could you please let go of my hand...?

And indeed — Yuri's hand was firmly clamped to the hand of some random man, and the rainbow above his head was growing ever more vivid. But what was even more revolting was the instinctive desire not to let go.

[That sounded way too gay! What kind of rare and rotten garbage has lodged itself in my head?! My mother did NOT raise me like this!]

— Um, could you please not look at me so threateningly — at least blink... Please...?

[DAMN IT, MAN, COULD YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH?! YOUR BODY SCENT IS DRIVING ME OUT OF MY MIND! WHAT THE HELL — WITH EVERY WORD THIS GETS EVEN GAYER!]

While Yuri was in the grip of one of the worst crises of his life, the man he had grabbed apparently found resistance awkward and was quietly waiting for Yuri to make a move.

Which created between them a certain intimate and sufficiently awkward atmosphere.

[B*TCH, YOU SHUT UP TOO! IF YOU CAN'T SAY ANYTHING GOOD — BETTER SAY NOTHING! I REFUSE TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS CRAP! I'M WASHING MY HANDS OF THIS AND GETTING OUT! SKIP]

And Yuri's body instantly transferred to the looking-glass — however, that maddening and enticing smell continued to linger in his nose, causing twitches.

[Please don't tell me I just transported this random man along with me...]

But he really had transported the random man into the looking-glass, and the man — too bewildered by what had happened — was in a state of shock.

Incoherent but deeply embarrassed sounds of an internal girlish scream.

[AAAA, IS IT REALLY THAT HARD FOR YOU TO SHUT UP FOR EVEN A SECOND?! WHY DO YOU COMMENTATE ABSOLUTELY EVERY SINGLE THING I DO!]

Yuri transferred back to the normal world, left the man there — and, tucking his rabbit tail between his legs in cowardice, fled.

— What just happened?

Doctor D needed a moment to process what had just occurred. However, the girl's vomit was somehow giving off a sensation of anomalous energy... Don't tell him that girl was...

...

..

.

Under his blanket in his own room, Yuri was trying to recover from what had happened. His mind was so scattered that it was unusual for him since becoming this.

However, the level of stress he had experienced had long since exceeded certain bounds of normality — so he was feeling it in all its full and multifaceted glory.

Having returned to his former senses, Yuri felt revulsion — not only toward his recent actions, but toward what he had been doing before, and toward what he had come to consider normal. Obviously this was not normal — but it was quite laborious to grasp something that disappeared in the very process of grasping it. Like catching fish by hand in a murky swamp. These feelings of his own humiliation had managed to briefly awaken those parts of his brain that had been stubbornly refusing to even stir. And that meant he had a little precious time right now to check something he had wanted but struggled to do.

First — food. He didn't care what it would be — apples in the canteen would do. He just needed to check.

He skipped  the trip to the kitchen and went straight to an apple. Putting it in his mouth, he began chewing quickly and diligently — but there was no taste. Absolutely no taste — as if he were chewing foam. And even the taste of foam couldn't describe what was in fact absent. It was neither pleasant nor revolting — literally nothing, other than texture.

But even so, a tiny hope remained — and Yuri swallowed the apple.

— BLEH.

But that same apple came straight back out through his mouth. [Damn it, DAMN IT! Anything at all!]

He started putting meat in his mouth. It was slightly harder to manage, but his newly acquired jaws were far more powerful than a human's — so the difference was minimal. The taste...

That was absent too. He couldn't swallow the meat either — the food simply came back out without any vomiting or residue, as if his stomach contained nothing at all.

But what had he vomited in the library, then? It had definitely been a liquid resembling stomach acid mixed with digested food. But he hadn't eaten anything! Not once since acquiring this head had he eaten any food...

[DAMN IT!]

He really hadn't put anything in his mouth — but that didn't mean he hadn't absorbed anything. A tremor spread through his body — as if a thousand ants were restlessly crawling back and forth.

Yuri...

He was trapped in a body capable only of cannibalism, and his mind was calming down too quickly — he had less and less time. If he slipped back into passive mode again — he wouldn't even be able to try to find a way out. He needed to find that man! But he hadn't yet fulfilled his monthly quota.

Which meant he first needed to eat five more people. To eat them in a way they wouldn't mind? Would this nightmare ever have an end? He had been given abilities like a comic book hero — just so he could suffer more? Why then hadn't they simply devoured him completely?!

[Who are you, anyway. And why are you reading my thoughts...]