Chasing After Rainbows

With so much changes to the human body, the education ministry has decided to withdraw biology from being taught in schools until the new features of the human body is understood, though a limited range of it is taught only for zoologist, botanist or doctor college courses. Basically anything non-human related, or on a need to know basis. They could have just taught those to everyone, but when people come across subjects on animal reproduction, a lot of people could ask why (the current reproduction system of) humans could only reproduce with man-made products, while animals, monkeys especially for being closely related to humans, could just mate naturally. Also raises the question of the absence of human males if taught that even experts do not have the answer to. Because the transformations causes arousal on the sight of images of "hot men" that make people difficult to concentrate is also difficult to subdue one you see them, images featuring men are banned. Due to how w

After briefing the measures that Powell Research should be doing with the current situation, I had to rush to where Kotomi is: her parent's place. It's not urgent, but it isn't something I should be taking my time to get around to doing either. Kotomi has this curse where she needs to see Itsuki as a male regularly to keep her sanity for years now, but as I head to her place, the severity of what happened earlier becomes clearer, but still filled with unknowns. Judging from Kotomi's call earlier , she doesn't sound like her usual self. However, she did mention that she is aware of it, but unable to do anything about it. She was too shocked to mention where she was, but since her parents and siblings were mentioned, I assume she is with them. The likely place they would be is at her parent's house, though it is possible that they went out. Ever since it happened, I never ever saw anyone being aggressive, though I did hear people whining on why they are unable

It has only been a day after it happened, but it has become clear that every single human in the world now looks like an attractive high or upper middle-class Japanese teenage girl (or slightly older than that) who could only speak Japanese or (not so good) English regardless of their original ethnicity, age or gender. They have also developed a taste of good design, durability, and convenience that anything considered horribly designed is redone. Quite a large number of things in developing countries do fall into that label. To be honest, everyone is forced to behave in a feminine way, even if they weren't before. Existing girls who weren't feminine aren't spared from this either. People voiced how much they hated it or being forced to only be able to wear knee-length skirts that some might find too short (they are longer than Mizuho skirts though). As much as I hate wearing skirt (you see me wearing them all the time only because I'm forced to), the skirt hides wh

(Edited: 7 Jan 2013) It's been weeks since I was sent to the ski lodge to collect the mysterious doll and collect samples from the skiing lodge near there. It is indeed the exact same doll Hatsuya had that went missing decades ago, but, in terms of the condition, the doll seems a bit newer and not a fake. Is this another copy of it, or from earlier in the past than the one we had? We now have the technology to analyse what this thing is made of, but it can't sense any magical presence. The mysterious doll is now in the hands of the Powell Research. The doll was never in Hatsuya's hands (unless you count myself) as it turns out that they were only interested with the ski lodge near where the doll was found and already have existing data about the doll in question. Powell doesn't seem to be interested about it as they mention it as the only man-made shelter in the area from the blizzard that frequents there. I had to distance myself from the research team because Hats

I've been in this insanely cold snowstorm at the mountain range for quite some time, but my body never developed any health problems like hypothermia, or even a common cold. Hatsuya told me that my body could tolerate the extreme cold, but I never paid serious attention to the part where I could still the coldness of it. On top of that, since the ski resort has been closed with nothing else in the area, cellar coverage is very bad here. The terrain here is also bad for building roads. So, searching for an unknown object in a huge mountain range that is likely to be covered by snow is difficult. Perhaps impossible too. However, judging from what it does, there's a very high possibility that it could be that weird doll my home room teacher of Mihara Academy decades ago had shown. Still, the size of that is small enough to not be able to see it in this kind of place. Voice in my head: "Our sensors detected an object missing from one of our earlier experiments some distan

At work, Hitoko (the one whom I rescued a while back ) showed something that required my attention: there is something detected in the mountain ranges at the northern part of the country that is related to the phenomenon of people being turned young girls. Ironically, Hatsuya had also given me the same assignment at the same area with very vague detail and an almost immediate timing that implies that they knew that Powell had already told me. Hatsuya said that I could go there with what I'm wearing at that moment without the need for any additional clothing as my body can withstand extreme conditions that normal people can't, but added that the same doesn't apply to how I would feel about it. Obviously, I don't want to go a mountainous region wearing nothing but summer clothes. Plus, they could track my location and see what I'm seeing, which I can't disable it myself as it's part of my body. For the latter, it's deeply implemented into my eyes that th

Me: "Kotomi, has your first child already told you that I can fix your problem of being unable to see their gender?" She looked as if she wasn't expecting me to ask that, but knew what I'm talking about. Kotomi: "Shortly after my dad became a girl, yes. I completely forgot to ask you about it after my child told me about it. What is it?" The same phenomenon that turns middle-aged men and elderly women into young girls doesn't seem to have spared Kotomi's dad. It caused disruptions due to identity and personality change. It happened during dinner one night at their home in front of everyone present at that time. If you were to examine their bodies, they have the same traits of ordinary teenage girls (born less than 20 years ago as girls), and bare resemblance to the oldest (untransformed) male and female in the family they are close with.

1st Daughter: "Mum, have you seen where my notebook is? I don't remember where I left it." Kotomi: "Oh, how could my son be so careless? You would have a hard time finding a girlfriend if you don't remember things about her. I think I saw it next to the phone." The daughter can't correct her mother that she's a girl and not a boy, so she just played along with her.

No matter where you go, you can't really escape people mentioning things relating to the recent major earthquake, which happened in mid-march, when there is no school besides the graduation ceremony of the final years. This was a month before the start of my college. I felt the quake happening at that time. Although the buildings around me seem to be structurally unaffected by it, those closer to the epicenter and the eastern coast suffered larger damages. What I'm more worried about are the children of one of the supervisors, Isaka-san, as they live in a town quite close to the cost, and not too far from the epicenter. The husband, however, is fine. Isaka-san could not contact her children as communication lines are either jammed or cut off, and what's more worrying was that her daughter mentioned the day before to her that she was heading to a neighbouring coastal town to buy some seafood. According to the data we have, that town in question has been annihilated by th

Kotomi has made it clear that she doesn't want to be a housewife, contrary to what most woman usually do, but that's declining in recent years with many married couples. Well, this isn't exactly surprising to me as she seems to be the career woman, but relaxed enough to think about family. If she works at what she's interested in, she could do well in it. Although, working environment and treatment by co-workers are contributing factors. It seem that almost right after Kotomi said that she doesn't want to be a housewife on being married, Hatsuya as informed me and Itsuki that our working schedule might change. I was originally meant to do everything, but because my schedule includes being Mizuho student and Powell boss, which can't be changed, those times, including the buffer period around it, would have Itsuki or someone to take over. The children would have to be trained to not rely on their parents too much, but at the same time not doing it cruelly. May

The results of the year-skipping tests has arrived saying that I have passed it. I though that the people at Hatsuya headquarters would do anything to prevent me from the endless loop of going to high school for the rest of my life, but they didn't. In fact, they congratulated me for passing it. I wonder why they let me? Did they finally notice my desire? Are they planning to use me for something after college? Looking at the situation, I could be taking care of Kotomi's future children, whoever her husband may be. Kotomi appears to want children, but not interested in taking care of them, I could be tasked to take care of them until the youngest child is old enough. She sees having children as a necessity to replace herself when she can't live on any more, so she doesn't care about the financial burden that it comes with like most couples today. Throughout the rest of the year, I have helped to make Nanami (Kotomi's aunt, though younger than her) feel better fr

After some discussion with Takagi, we decided to name the new employee of Powell Research as simply ヒトコ (Hitoko). No family name, and the given name is written in katakana. I feel strange writing it because it feels like I'm drawing random short, straight, lines. This name is clearly influenced by the nicknames used by song artists that might sing some anime songs. Hitoko has transformed again, but it happened after the previous record of 100 hours. Nobody knows what the maximum is, and, according to the other two Hatsuya staff in the same situation, the transformation can happen more than once while asleep. If this happens for the rest of her life, who else besides me (and possibly Hatsuya) would let Hitoko secure a job if her own identity keeps changing too frequently? It hasn't yet be proven, but in theory, any injury or illness those three may get would disappear at the next transformation. Adding that to the fact that their physical age changes too, they could practi

The closer I brought the friend to Takagi, the more nervous I got about how Takagi would react to it even though I have no involvement on how the friend became what he is like now that has the body to keep changing quite frequently without control. He currently looks and sounds like an office lady, and is unknown when the next transformation is, but an hour with an even number in it would be approaching soon. Transformations frequencies varies between 2 to 100 hours, with the lower end being more common, always happens at the top of the hour, and the number of hours of these frequencies are always dividable by 2 without a remainder. That makes it easier to prepare for it, but preparing for a transformation that could happen between every 2 to 100 hours without knowing when exactly it would be can be quite stressful. Knowing exactly when it would be or, even better, not worrying about it at all, is less stressful.

Girl with long hair: "Where... am I? That flashing green light has knocked me out... Wait, why am I speaking perfect Japanese as if it's my native language, English ability reduced, and forgot the other languages I know? And, did someone adjusted the pitch of my hearing, or have I become a...? Saeko, is that you? I haven't seen you in months. And... who are these two other girls wearing the same outfit as me?" Takagi's friend has woken up from sleep, but is shock at what he has been turned into. The impact of this shock seems small though. Well, if he wanted to have his identity changed completely, he wouldn't want to look like his former self and is willing to accept anything that he would be turned into. I'm also surprised that his language abilities was affected by the change too. Whether this is something that the professor or that mysterious doll has done is unknown to me as I don't have the details.

After that last company meeting, the perception of me to the Powell staff has changed. They used to imagine me as a lady somewhere between the 30s and 40s, doesn't show herself except in the messaging system or important meetings, and, just as the staff personally think they can get away with doing something bad, they would unexpectedly receive a notice from me that I know what they had done. Now they see me as someone they can't fool, has a lot of knowledge of things, and a deceiving appearance of a high school girl instead of a middle-aged woman in formal business suit people imagined me to look like. I could sense that my staff were distracted by how I looked when they talk to me. In terms of what the average staff wears, how old they look, or how they behave, I would stand out a lot. Who knew that what seems like a teenage girl running around like a child is the founder and big boss of one of the largest research companies around? People in high position tend to be greedy

The day of the annual Powell Research meeting that I'm supposed to show up has arrived. I personally don't want to show up, but being the founder, my absence could lead to a negative reputation to many people. Some of the major reasons that I don't want to show up is that my Mizuho student uniform can't be removed until I graduate from there. I entered there only April this year, and Hatsuya Research had made me attend it. Most of my employees almost never seen me in person as their founder, where photos of me were in in my formal corporate attire appear in the company's publications, and press releases from our clients, which I normally wear in official meetings. They have, however, seen me as the high school girl that runs around the company's premises daily, but they never see me as the founder or the schoolgirl as being the same person. The fact that I couldn't take the Mizuho uniform off to wear the formal one, on top of me having to attend the compan

Since the day we rescued Takagi's friend, nothing significant happened. I guess that is what I wanted after a long time of something exhausting that doesn't happen everyday. There's still no news of Takagi's friend so far, and the status is still unknown. This would likely mean that he had made a major decision to change himself and taking time to get used to it. Still, not knowing what he's doing now is making me anxious. My 8th (yes, eighth!) annual high school summer vacation is almost over, and Kotomi should be back any time soon unless she wants to hang out with her university friends for a graduation trip or something. Shouldn't I have graduated from college by now? Why on earth am I repeating my entire high school education for the second time when my academic performance is more than enough to do well in colleges of a similar level that Kotomi went into? Moreover, why am I also a very important person to a particular large company that didn't exist

We both changed into the outfits provided to us, in separate toilets of course. I was too deep in thought about the Kotomi future of my time talking into my head. That I didn't realize that I had already changed with Itsuki talking to me. Itsuki: "Wow, it does make you look like a respectable person just from the appearance alone, even more than mine. I've never seen you wear something like that before." Being someone important to the Powell Research company, this is not the first time I've worn something that would have people to look up to me with respect. Personally, I don't feel comfortable if people treat me at a level of respect that is anything other than as equals.

Yuko: "There's 3 kinds of time traveling this machine has: First, allow us to explore what it's like there as if we are in that time, but doesn't allow interaction and not be seen. This is the most useful to view events that happened in the past where there are no known or surviving witnesses of an incident, and, more importantly, to ensure that the past is not altered. The second one is going there as ourselves in that time. Problem with this is that there's a chance that we may not retain our current memories, wouldn't know what happened during the time difference, and obviously can't go any earlier than one's birthday, or any latter than one's death, with the latter being the unknown and you yourself possibly having died too if you didn't go out of that time before it happened. You would also find yourself at a location and situation at the time you time traveled to, which can put you in an awkward position if you find yourself talking to so

That gardener that I've frequently met randomly in Mizuho was the former principal of Katsura High School, which Itsuki and Kotomi attended. Me: "So, do you think I should tell..." Yuko: "No! He knows that I am a "supervisor" here as he does trim the plants around this building regularly, but I'm not sure if he knows that I'm the same person as one of his former students. He talked about Kotomi to you without mentioning her name. I'm surprised to learn that our director used his own family member to conduct experiments, and Kotomi having brainwashed since birth to behave as what they wanted and do things to her without herself not knowing anything about it, but I can't seem to figure out what that is. There could be a sub-conscious mind inside Kotomi that would notice that her own body and behavior is different than what it could have been. Having possibly lived as she is now since within a year from birth, her memories as a baby might