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Historically, Ultramen need no sleep.
X, technically, still doesn’t. The closest to anything he could call “sleep” is when Daichi’s phone blinks off from a lack of battery. Even then, it’s just darkness — X, himself, still stays awake. He could suppose that waking up from injuries could count as well, but that isn’t the same as when humans go to bed at night. And even still, coming out of consciousness is not something X has needed to do in a long, long time.
It’s why when X wakes — not like waking up from injuries, but actually coming out of a state of rest — he’s surprised. His relaxed limbs seem almost foreign by the way they slump into the comfortable support below him, and his head feels… lulled, in a way. Like it’s softly rising out of rest to take on the world’s challenges today.
But it’s no use doing today’s itinerary with his eyes closed. As such, he opens his eyes-
Wait. How did he open his eyes again? His eyes shut, then open, then shut, then open again; this is nothing like eyes flickering awake or dimming down. Then, what in the multiverse is this?! He pulls himself upright, immediately tilting his head down.
He looks down to a human arm.
Daichi’s arm.
“Where am I?!”
His own voice. It’s unmistakable. And yet, it’s not coming from his own mouth, currently clamped shut. Even more so, this shriek of horror sounds rather small. Panicked, yes, trying to bounce across the walls, but rather contained.
A quick look to his desk, and there’s his usual residence, flashing wildly.
“Help!” his voice exclaims, “Is anyone there? Someone, help me!”
The terror in the voice is rather uncharacteristic of himself. It is, however, characteristic of a certain someone else.
“Daichi?” X wagers a guess, “Is it you in there?”
“Yeah!” the voice — Daichi — crackles almost instantaneously, “In? Where am I- and why are you me?! Who are you?”
There are too many questions at once, melding in with those X has himself. How did he wake up in Daichi’s body? How did Daichi find himself stuck in the phone? What event occurred for this mix-up to occur? And more importantly, how can it be reverted to normal?
Static emanates softly from the Devizer; ah, Daichi must have come to his conclusions by himself.
“...X? Is that you?”
X can only nod in response; would that provide some comfort to Daichi?
“Yes, it is me,” he flicks his eyes to the ceiling, then adds, “Somehow, we must have swapped our bodies overnight.”
“Then, how do we get them back?!” Daichi shrieks.
“I’m not sure. Should we look it up on the internet?”
“Huh? Bodyswapping’s an unforeseen phenomenon. There’s no way there’s a solution just lying around on the internet!”
Regardless, X tries anyway. It only takes a few seconds to input his query into the search engine. The lack of adequate responses quickly sinks X’s — Daichi’s? — heart. Of course, there would be no one who shares their experiences, but if only there was something to work with.
Even more disheartening is that Daichi is still so audibly unnerved. But it’s no surprise. X has gotten used to his own circumstances. But to Daichi, who has always had the entire world as a travelling option, finding himself stuck in a box of black would be terrifying.
X blinks at the screen again. At the very least, the Internet has provided some results. Then, looking through what the Internet has to offer could at least provide a lead. He clicks on the first link provided, taking a few seconds to adjust to the brightness — an unprecedented first for him personally.
“Televi-Tropes…” he reads the name of the website, “‘Vice Versa’ Voices. Could this be it?”
While the humourous definition confirms his suspicions, it is the examples where X finds anything close to resembling solutions — although fictional, reason should suggest that there is some basis in truth here. Some options, while rather simple, come up repeatedly; X keeps a mental note to try them first.
“X, are you seriously considering these?!” Daichi gripes, “None of these make any sense!”
Keeping his eyes on the screen, X replies, “Do we have any other options?”
No response. As expected. A few long minutes pass before Daichi says anything at all; it is, in the end, yielding.
“I guess they’re worth a try. Let’s do it.”
“Right,” X says, “Ah, one more thing.”
“Yeah?”
It’s been on his mind ever since he discovered Daichi’s whereabouts, really. He points directly at his face on the screen, tilting his head.
“Should we call this the Daichi-Devizer for the time being?”
If Daichi could blink, X is sure he would have.
“Huh?” he answers a beat later, “X-Devizer works just fine.”
A few minutes later, X holds up the X-Devizer to his face, staring eye-to-eye with Daichi. While this isn’t the first option he would choose as a way to switch back, it was by far the most common result he had found on that page. Why many works of fiction would choose smashing heads together as a way to revert their condition is something past X entirely; all he can do is chalk the inventor of this solution up as a sadist.
And it feels quite silly, for one of the parties does not currently have a head. What sane person smashes his head into a phone?
Very well. It’ll have to do. Hopefully, he won’t leave Daichi with a concussion. He takes a deep breath and nods — let’s do this now, without hesitation.
Daichi counts down, “Three, two, one-”
Crack!
A dull, blunt ache pulses through X’s forehead; he winces. For dramatic effect, of course, it’s suggested to wait a few seconds. As such, X counts — one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
“Uh, X? I don’t think it’s working,” Daichi pipes up.
He’s right. There’s no sign of switching back whatsoever. All that remains is the possibility of a bump forming on his forehead. How very irrational of a choice, indeed.
“You’re right,” X replies, “We will have to try something else.”
Daichi sighs, “Alright. What’s next?”
What’s next? Normally, many gimmicks served to switch the two back. And while X is sure he and Daichi could ask Rui to make one, calling for help is generally something Daichi prefers to do last. In that case, back to the list he goes; what’s something that isn’t so violent?
Ah, right. There’s always…
“A kiss.”
This is certainly easier than most other options. While there is no current way to physically feel them, kisses from Daichi have always been pleasant, even if clumsy. It’s the emotions behind it that matter most to X — they, after all, are all he can feel. All he happily matches, due to their shared wavelengths and even without.
The wavelengths must also be why X finds it so easy to move as Daichi, despite never having been human. Since Daichi has given X all of himself, and X doing the same in return, moving as one another must be about as natural as breathing. As a result, pulling the phone towards himself — from the grip on the phone to the speed he moves his hand — can only be described as uniquely Daichi.
He presses his lips against the screen; it is cold and hard. Definitely incapable of passing love through it. And yet, warmth stirs in X’s heart amidst the silence. He’s certain Daichi can feel all the sentiment that lingers behind it. All the love that the two share. All the hope for everything to be normal. Surely, the world will pick up on said hope… right?
A beat. Then another. X’s heart sinks as the clock ticks further; nothing on this end, either.
Pulling away, he eyes the X-Devizer. The disappointment from Daichi is palpable as well, even if the screen remains unchanged.
“Nothing here, either,” Daichi states, “This list isn’t working.”
“Do we have anything else?”
“There has to be! We can’t just go off of these tropes when there’s no basis in prior research! Bashing our heads in or kissing might raise various hormone levels, but that doesn’t seem like a likely option for a solution. Neither is ‘understanding each other.’ But what else…”
What else is there? If no actions of love work, then that closes the most obvious avenue. And, as Daichi said, understanding each other does not work — being connected to Daichi’s personal frequency would have undone this face already. But if it’s something related to him, and also related to Daichi, then is there something that they’ve both missed-
Yes. There is. It’s like X has been surrounded by the very light he and Daichi use to Unite. And that light, as of now, might be exactly what the two of them need. If they become one, surely they can split the correct way.
X points at Daichi; he is certain that if Daichi was in a human body, he would be mirroring the gesture. Their exclamations prove to be the same:
“Aha!”
Twenty minutes later, the early morning breeze whistles past X’s ears. It’s good he followed Daichi’s advice to wear his jacket; his normal immunity to Earth’s weather almost made him forget to put it on. Without it, Daichi’s body could very well have been frozen solid.
There’s no time to lose. X promptly slams the top of the X-Devizer, grasping Daichi as a Spark Doll. How weird that he seize his own body, especially as plastic. The feeling of pressing down the Spark Doll — and not feeling his feet against the X-Devizer — is equally as foreign.
As the device announces their impending Unite, X finds himself frozen with a very important question? What does he shout? His own name? Daichi’s? Does it matter if he yells at all?
He opts to be silent, simply raising his hand into the pose used to rise. Together, he and Daichi ascend; finally, the world appears in the smaller size he’s familiar with. The magnitude of everything he feels as well — the cool air, the day’s first rays peeking through clouds, the ground under his feet — feels… for lack of any other word, normal.
“It worked…?” Daichi asks.
“It seems to be the case,” X replies, “Once we undo our transformation, we should revert to normal.”
“What are we waiting for? Let’s do it.”
Upon disconnecting the Unite, both of them shrink, as expected. X watches as the buildings grow in comparison to himself, while diminishing down, down, down…
Until he stops, not as small as he’d like. He looks down; the fact that he can even do so is enough proof of a failure. All X can do, in the end, is concede defeat. He sighs, and looks up; pink bleeds into the skies above.
“Perhaps, we should ask Rui for help.”