About a week ago, Futaba Rio realized the existence of another self.
That day, because she was feeling unwell, Futaba Rio didn't go to school but asked for sick leave. However, when she went the next day, she learned from her classmates that she hadn't asked for leave, and even her howork had been completed and handed in.
Futaba Rio imdiately realized sothing was wrong. Obviously, no 'Snail Girl' (folklore creature helping with chores) helped her finish her howork.
When the corrected howork was returned, Futaba Rio carefully observed the handwriting on it and found it was exactly the sa as her own, with absolutely no trace of imitation. Even the train of thought was pretty much the sa.
But the problem was Futaba Rio had absolutely no mory of this. Howork, going to school—she had no mory of any of it. At the sa ti, she clearly rembered lying at ho for almost a whole day to recuperate...
After realizing the problem, the first thing Futaba Rio thought of was 'Adolescence Syndro' that Shinra told her about during the sumr vacation.
Futaba Rio made a prompt decision and planned to take out her phone to contact Shinra.
At this mont, a strange scene happened. She couldn't contact Shinra.
Obviously, Shinra's na was clearly visible in the LINE contact list on her phone, but she just couldn't open the chat box.
Wanting to make a call, she couldn't press the dial button either.
Going to Sobu High to find Shinra offline, she would pass him by for various reasons.
She had also tried to contact Shinra through Sakurajima Mai before, but whenever she ntioned Shinra to Sakurajima Mai, the other party seed not to hear it at all...
The connection between her and Shinra was like two unrelated parallel lines, unable to intersect no matter what.
Just when she was about to give up, she was surprised to find chat records with Shinra appearing on her LINE.
It's just that the one sending ssages wasn't her, or rather, it was another her.
Futaba Rio still rembered the first sentence the other self sent to Shinra—[I'm at Sobu High. Can you co pick up?]
At that ti, Futaba Rio realized the other self ran to find Shinra.
Followed by confusion: Why can the other party contact Shinra?
While I can only watch.
Could it be that I am actually the fake one?
When this thought appeared, Futaba Rio inevitably began to feel fear. Combined with the quantum chanics she learned, she gradually dared not even return ho, worried that eting the other self would cause her existence to disappear.
Just like Schrödinger's cat: before opening the box, the cat has two states; once opened, it collapses into one state.
These two days, she basically stayed alone in a private room at a 24-hour internet cafe. She didn't even go to school today, worried about eting the other self before seeing Shinra.
Miraculously, since the other self t Shinra that day, Mai-senpai, who hadn't heard her 'call for help' in the afternoon, contacted her that night and helped her arrange the ti and place to et Shinra.
Facing this situation, Futaba Rio had several guesses in her mind.
She couldn't contact Shinra not because she was a fake, but because of the other Futaba Rio.
Secondly, the reason she could contact Shinra later was most likely that Shinra had realized there were two of her.
After all... those photos were obviously not sothing the original her could take.
Although she couldn't contact Shinra, she could see the conversation between the other self and Shinra clearly.
Mm... want to die.
When she saw the other self sending such shaful private photos to Shinra, this was Futaba Rio's first thought.
Later, unknown if it was because too many were sent and she gradually got used to it, this sense of sha slowly subsided, followed by a strange stimulation. She began to speculate on Shinra's psychological state after seeing these photos.
Like? Dislike? Or so other emotion?
It wasn't until they t that Futaba Rio gradually understood why there was another self, and more or less guessed why she couldn't contact Shinra while the other self could.
Undoubtedly, with her current personality, she was destined to be two non-intersecting parallel lines with Shinra in this life. Only the other self who made changes had the opportunity to talk to him, know him, and create a bond.
Although saying this was a bit unfair to Mai-senpai, Futaba Rio had to admit she indeed cared a bit about Shinra.
Perhaps because she had never made male friends since childhood, Shinra, as her first male friend, naturally occupied a special place in her heart.
Whenever Mai-senpai talked about Shinra, this special emotion brewed a bit more in her heart, until it could no longer be suppressed, turning into a disease nad Adolescence Syndro and erupting completely...
Futaba Rio didn't know what words to use to describe this feeling, but whenever she saw the other self sending various private photos to Shinra and even shalessly inviting him for offline viewing.
She knew the other self was already incurably ill.
Or rather, she was already incurably ill.
Although she didn't want to admit it, one point she had to admit was that the other Futaba Rio was also the real her.
Both Futaba Rios were real; there was no saying which one was a fake. Also precisely because of this, Futaba Rio felt it was tricky.
"About those photos..."
Futaba Rio gathered her thoughts and looked at the boy in front of her again.
"I will keep the secret."
Shinra guaranteed imdiately.
His mouth had always been tight, not to ntion this concerned Futaba's innocence; he would never leak it no matter what.
"Mm, I believe you." Futaba Rio's cheeks were slightly red. She knew if Shinra wanted, he could actually go to her ho to observe on the spot...
But he didn't do so. Instead, while stabilizing the other Futaba, he contacted her through Mai-senpai. This action alone was enough to prove Shinra's reliability.
Of course, after recognizing her own heart, Futaba Rio also thought it would be better if Shinra weren't so reliable.
"Can you tell what's going on? I want to hear your view." Shinra asked.
"There are two of ." Futaba Rio pushed her glasses, her voice flat, as if stating sothing unrelated to herself.
"About a week ago, there were two Futaba Rios in this world."
"A week ago... coincides with mine and Mai's speculation." Shinra touched his chin.
The earliest ti Futaba Rio asked Mai about outfits was a week ago. Therefore, Shinra and Mai inferred that Futaba Rio's Adolescence Syndro started at this ti.
"Speculation?" Futaba Rio was smart and imdiately realized the basis of their speculation.
"You two can't et?" Shinra asked again.
"I'm not sure about this." Futaba Rio shook her head, a trace of confusion flashing in her beautiful eyes under the lenses. "But after realizing her existence, I indeed consciously avoided her. This also led to being unable to return ho recently and only living in an internet cafe..."
"Living in an internet cafe?!" Shinra didn't expect Futaba Rio's situation to be this bad.
"Just lived for two days." Futaba Rio indicated it wasn't a big deal.
"In an internet cafe, safety is hard to guarantee, right?"
Although Japan's public security ranks among the best in the world, known as the safest country in the world.
But... those who understand understand. Although Japan's cri rate is indeed very low on paper, how much of it is a statistical charm mont is probably only known to themselves.
Therefore, even if the area where Futaba lived belonged to the wealthy district of Chiba, and the public security level was obviously a notch higher than other districts, her safety at night still couldn't be guaranteed, especially in a mixed place like an internet cafe.
Futaba Rio, a female high school student with such an eye-catching figure... could be said to have a quite high danger factor.
"It's okay, right?" Futaba Rio also knew her distinctiveness. Therefore, when in the internet cafe, every ti she went out, she would wrap herself in the white lab coat and hunch her body as much as possible to hide herself.
However, even so, Futaba Rio could clearly feel the gazes around her increasing these days.
After all, the internet cafe is only so big. Usually, people staying in internet cafes are idle n in society. Won like Futaba Rio living in internet cafes—can't say there are none, but they are extrely rare.
Especially since Futaba Rio looks not bad, and the rational temperant on her is even rarer, looking like a young lady from a scholarly family at a glance.
Such a person in an internet cafe—it's okay for a short while, but over ti, it's hard not to be noticed.
Regarding this, Futaba Rio originally planned to change internet cafes every once in a while.
If it really didn't work, she would go to a hotel.
As for why not go to a hotel directly... that was because she was worried the hotel would verify identity, causing the quantum state of her and the other self to collapse.
Unless necessary, Futaba Rio didn't want to take risks.
"This isn't a question of okay or not. Sorry, it was my negligence. Yesterday I should have considered this and settled you at Mai's place first."
"No need to apologize. After all, this is my own problem." Futaba Rio wasn't the kind of girl who liked to make trouble without reason.
She knew clearly that the reason for her Adolescence Syndro was entirely attributable to herself. Neither Shinra nor Sakurajima Mai had any responsibility.
Their willingness to help was out of affection; not helping was duty.
Shinra was a bit strange. He asked: "Since the problem was discovered a week ago, why didn't you co to find ?"
Shinra rembered giving Futaba Rio a preventive shot (heads-up) during the sumr vacation, right?
Asking her to contact him imdiately if there were problems.
"I tried, but couldn't find you." Futaba Rio briefly told Shinra about her encounters these past few days.
After listening, Shinra fell silent. Okay, this really can't be blad on Futaba Rio. Facing this kind of completely unreasonable supernatural event, many things are beyond her control.
Being able to contact him before things beca irreversible was already a blessing in disguise.
Shinra guessed the reason she couldn't contact him was that he didn't realize there were two Futabas at that ti.
In terms of quantum physics, at that ti Shinra could only observe Inner Futaba; Surface Futaba was in a completely unobservable state for him.
In a sense, before realizing there were two Futabas, there was one and only one Inner Futaba in Shinra's world.
"Then stay at Mai's place for now. I'll tell Mai later." Shinra said.
Regarding letting Futaba Rio stay, Shinra believed Mai wouldn't disagree.
After all, staying at Mai's house was better than staying at his house.
Moreover, Futaba Rio was Mai's best friend. Staying overnight at each other's house should be normal between best friends, right?
"...Sorry for the trouble." Although Futaba Rio really didn't want to trouble others, the solution proposed by Shinra was indeed the optimal solution in the current situation.
Going to an internet cafe, safety was always an unavoidable issue. Moreover, she indeed didn't sleep well in the last two days, and her ntal state beca very poor.
Plus the other Futaba sent photos to stimulate her from ti to ti. If this continued, she really couldn't be sure how long she could hold on.
"I'll tell her." Futaba Rio didn't want Shinra to speak for her.
After all, telling your girlfriend to let her best friend live in her house—what kind of thing is that?
Reasonably and emotionally, Futaba should tell Mai herself.
"Then you do it." Shinra also understood this and didn't insist.
While Futaba Rio was typing, Shinra suddenly asked another question.
"Since you split into two people, how do you log into LINE at the sa ti? Could it be the phone also split into two?" Shinra was curious.
"Not sure, but the phone in my hand should be my own, no mistake." Futaba Rio took out her phone.
Futaba Rio's phone was the latest smartphone, without any protective case.
Very consistent with her minimalist personality.
"However, there are quite a few idle new phones in my house. Presumably, she took one of them to use?"
For a family like Futaba Rio's, a mobile phone was similar to a piece of clothing for ordinary families; there would basically be spare phones at ho.
In fact, her parents' company issued the latest smartphones as employee benefits every year, so Futaba Rio's family didn't lack phones at all.
As for the SIM card, Shinra guessed one of the two Futabas should be using a secondary card.
Even if not a secondary card, getting another one was not difficult at all for the little rich woman Futaba.
"Senpai agreed." Futaba Rio showed the phone screen to Shinra.
But at the sa ti, Shinra also received a ssage from Mai.
Sakurajima Mai: [Key temporarily kept by Rio. Also, you are not allowed to stay overnight at my house.]
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