Chapter 1: The Vanishing Witch's Final Ledger
A snap cracked the air like a bone breaking.
的家 opened her eyes.
The sterile white apartment swam into focus—sharp corners, reflective surfaces, a single wall of floor-to-ceiling mirrors that turned everything into a looping, grotesque dream. The air tasted like antiseptic and something else, something metallic and mean, like the echo of a blade.
She blinked. Once. Twice.
Her hands flew to her face. They were smaller. Softer. The fingers trembled against cheeks that felt different—rounder, smoother, dusted with something warm and golden. Her tongue touched her lips and found them fuller than they had been a moment ago. She tried to speak, but the sound that came out was a small, breathy thing, a whisper caught between confusion and wonder.
"What—"
The word didn't sound like her. It didn't sound like anyone she knew.
The witch stood beside the mirrored wall, arms crossed, watching with the patience of someone admiring a finished painting. She was tall and angular, draped in dark fabric that swallowed the light, and her smile was the kind that made you want to hide behind your own hands.
"There she is," the witch said. Her voice hummed with something like affection, but it was the affection of a collector, not a friend. "My little masterpiece."
的家—no, that wasn't her name anymore, was it?—stared at the woman. Her heart hammered against ribs that felt new, too small, too fragile. She wanted to run, but her legs wouldn't move. She wanted to scream, but her throat was tight with a fear she couldn't name.
"What did you do to me?" she whispered. Her voice was high and sweet, a melody that didn't match the chaos in her chest. It cracked on the last word, and she felt tears prick at her eyes. She didn't understand why she was crying. She only knew that something was very, very wrong.
The witch tilted her head. "Do to you? I gave you everything you never knew you wanted."
She stepped closer, her heels clicking against the white floor like a countdown.
"Let me introduce you to yourself, shall I?"
The witch gestured toward the mirrors, and 的家—she had to call herself something, even if the name felt like a stranger's coat—caught her reflection. She gasped.
The girl in the mirror was small and delicate, with skin the color of warm honey and hair that fell past her waist in a cascade of midnight black, streaked with electric blue and violet. The hair was styled in an extreme layered cut, shaggy and bold, the kind of thing that screamed lesbian aesthetic in a way that felt almost like a costume. It smelled faintly of lavender and something sweeter, like vanilla, and it moved when she moved, impossibly long and heavy against her back.
Her face was heart-shaped, with wide, innocent eyes the color of dark chocolate and a small, upturned nose. Her cheeks were dusted with freckles, and her lips were full and pink, parted in a permanent expression of soft confusion.
"This," the witch said, "is you now. Your name is Yuki Tanaka. You're eighteen. You're a lesbian. And your first language is Japanese, which, I'm afraid, you don't actually speak. But you'll learn. Or you won't. Either way, it doesn't matter."
Yuki—she had to accept it, didn't she?—touched her hair. It was soft and thick, and it fell over her shoulders like a curtain. She tugged at a strand, and the blue-violet color caught the fluorescent light.
"I don't understand," she said, and her voice wobbled. "I was—I was a man. I was thirty-eight. I had a job. I had—"
"You had nothing," the witch interrupted. "You had a life that was slipping through your fingers, and you didn't even notice. Now you have something better. Something beautiful."
She reached out and cupped Yuki's chin, tilting her face up. Her touch was cold, and Yuki flinched.
"Your mind is different now, too," the witch continued. "Sweet. Innocent. Forever young. You have autism—severe, the kind that makes the world too loud and too bright and too much. You'll need help with things. You'll need patience. But you'll also have a heart so full of love that it spills over."
Yuki shook her head, but the witch's grip held her still.
"Your body is new, too. Every part of it. I took my time with you. I wanted you to be perfect."
The witch's eyes traveled down Yuki's form, and Yuki became suddenly aware of the clothes she was wearing. A soft pink bra that hugged her small, sensitive breasts. Matching panties that sat low on her hips. A cropped lavender top that showed a sliver of her stomach. High-waisted jeans that hugged her curves—curves she hadn't had before. And on her feet, white sneakers with rainbow laces.
"You're dressed like the lesbian I always wanted," the witch said, her smile widening. "And your body—well. Let's just say I have a signature style."
Yuki's face burned. She could feel it now, the unfamiliar weight between her legs, the plump, sensitive flesh that hadn't been there before. It ached in a way that was foreign and humiliating, and she pressed her thighs together, trying to make it stop.
"Your job," the witch went on, "is simple. You're a cuddle companion. You'll be paid very well to hold disabled young women. To comfort them. To be soft and warm and present. You'll be good at it. You have the heart for it."
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. She pressed it into Yuki's trembling hands.
"Your family tree. Full background. Parents who love you, a sister who adores you, a grandmother who taught you how to braid your hair. They don't exist, of course, but the paperwork says they do. You'll remember them if you try hard enough. The memories are there, just under the surface."
Yuki unfolded the paper. The names swam before her eyes—Tanaka Hiroshi, Tanaka Mei, Tanaka Sakura. Faces she didn't recognize but somehow felt like she should. Tears slid down her cheeks.
"Why?" she whispered. "Why would you do this to me?"
The witch leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead. Her lips were cold, and they left a mark that Yuki couldn't see but could feel, a brand that sank into her skin.
"Because I could," the witch said. "Because you were wasting your life. Because I wanted to."
She stepped back, and her body began to dissolve into smoke—dark and thick and smelling of burnt sugar.
"Be good, Yuki. Be happy. I'll never see you again."
And then she was gone.
The smoke cleared. The apartment was silent.
Yuki stood alone in the sterile white room, her reflection staring back at her from a dozen angles. Her hair was too long. Her clothes were too bright. Her body was too new. Her mind was a fog of confusion and fear and something else—something soft and trusting that she didn't recognize.
She sank to her knees. The floor was cold against her bare skin, and she wrapped her arms around herself, rocking back and forth.
She didn't know how long she stayed like that. Minutes.Hours. The light from the ceiling didn't change. The mirrors didn't blink.
Eventually, she looked down at the paper in her hands. The family tree.The names. The memories that weren't hers.
She traced her finger over the name Tanaka Sakura. A sister. She had a sister.
She didn't remember her. But she wanted to.
She wanted to remember something. Anything.
She looked up at the mirrors. The girl staring back at her was beautiful and broken and too young to understand any of it. Her eyes were wide and wet, and her lips trembled.
Yuki Tanaka.
She would have to be Yuki Tanaka.
Because there was no one else left.