"So… Benika-san has two personalities?"
After they got back home safely, Kuroba Akira told Shiginomiya Shion about Tashiro Benika's split personality while applying ointment to her wounds.
Luckily, Benika-san had been wearing stockings. Even though she'd scraped her knees and bled a little when she crawled on the ground, the wounds weren't serious. They probably wouldn't scar.
As for the hanging incident, he skipped that part—after all, it involved "transmigrators," the biggest secret of Kobayashi House, and there was no way he could tell Shiginomiya at this stage.
So in the end, the story became: Benika-san's two personalities had a disagreement, and the other personality had social anxiety, so she couldn't accept the manager job—though fortunately, everything had been settled now.
Shiginomiya stared at Tashiro Benika's face in fascination. Something like split personalities felt like a plot that only happened in novels; in real life, it was just too rare.
Strictly speaking, this wasn't "split personality" in the traditional sense. It was more like a new personality had been stuffed into an existing one—closer to "one body, two souls."
But there was no way to explain that to Shiginomiya, so on the way back, Akira and Onee-san Benika had agreed on a lie: they only told Shiginomiya about Benika-san being kidnapped as a child, and said the onee-san personality was the one that had formed back then as self-protection.
Sitting on the couch, Onee-san Benika smiled.
"Yeah. To make it easier to tell us apart, Shion-chan, you can call me Benika."
"Okay, Benika… hehe, it feels like I've got an older sister now."
In Japanese, it'd be written like "aka-nee"—literally, "red big sister." But that kind of address was usually only used for an older woman you were close with, or for your actual older sister or cousin. Strangers or juniors basically didn't use it, which was why Shiginomiya said that.
There was also another term—anego—an honorific form of "big sis," but it wasn't the same as "onee-san" at all. Anego was more like what you'd call a gang boss's wife or a female boss—basically, "big sis boss."
Onee-san Benika had mature charm, sure, but she didn't have that hard-edged "boss" vibe.
If Kobayashi-obaasan—who went out to play pachinko every day—were forty years younger, then she might qualify as anego… as things stood, she was just a delinquent obaasan.
"Then… is the other Benika-san listening right now too?"
Onee-san Benika shook her head.
"No. She's asleep."
On the way home, Onee-san Benika had tried calling to her other self, but got no response, which meant she really was asleep.
Shiginomiya found it incredibly interesting—honestly, it was the most interesting thing she'd heard in a while—so she was practically buzzing with excitement.
"This is that thing, right? When one personality falls asleep, the other one wakes up and takes over the body! That's how movies always do it!"
You fall asleep at night, the other personality wakes up, your personality flips completely, you do all sorts of outrageous things in secret—then the original personality wakes up confused, and chaos ensues, because the primary personality doesn't even know the other one exists.
As a movie, sure, that made for better suspense and contrast.
But Benika-san's case wasn't like that.
"My situation's probably not like what you're imagining, Shion-chan. Usually we're both awake, and it's not like when I'm 'inside' I have zero awareness of what's happening outside. This body's sensations are shared between me and her, and we can talk to each other in our heads."
"That's so interesting!"
Shiginomiya looked thrilled—then realized she'd gotten too loud. Her cheeks turned faintly red as she covered her mouth with her hand.
"Ah… sorry, I'm being noisy, aren't I? I'm not going to wake the other Benika-san up, am I?"
"It's fine. As long as I don't do anything too stimulating over here, I won't wake her up."
Onee-san Benika yawned and continued.
"Haa… I'm kind of sleepy too. It's just that… hmm, should I call it willpower? Endurance? Anyway, I can stay awake longer than she can."
That was probably because Benika's soul-age was older, so her mental threshold and patience were higher.
"Like before, when I got drunk—both of us were totally out of it, but I sobered up faster than her, and I could keep more of my rationality."
Hearing that, Akira had a sudden realization. No wonder last time, when she got drunk she'd been Socially-Anxious Benika, but when she woke up she'd become Onee-san Benika.
Honestly, his suspicions had started back then—because she'd said something like, "I didn't think even I would be affected," which really did sound like something a split personality would say.
"Then when you're inside, Benika, you can't control the body—you can only watch? But whatever the other Benika-san does, you can feel it too?"
"Yeah. It's kind of like playing a full-dive VR game—except I don't have control of the character."
And Onee-san Benika had said before too: she couldn't forcibly seize control. Only when Socially-Anxious Benika willingly yielded the body, or lost consciousness, could she take over.
"Full-dive VR… Current VR can't do that yet, right? But I saw on the news that the folks next door are researching something like it. Even if it's possible someday, it'll probably take another ten-plus years… Humans entering a game world and all that—it sounds so sci-fi."
Ten-plus years? More like several decades, if it was even possible.
Even in Akira's previous world, full-dive tech was still far off. For this world—which still used flip phones—it was even farther.
At first, Onee-san Benika had wanted to know whether Akira and Hijikata Isamu also had split personalities like she did. But after secretly observing for a while, she realized neither man showed any signs of it.
Before, it had just been a guess. It was only after asking Hijikata Isamu recently that she could confirm it. Socially-Anxious Benika realized she was a special case, and that's when she started thinking about fusing personalities.
"But don't worry. The other me has already agreed to be your manager, Shion-chan. You'll have lots of chances to interact from here on out."
After all, Akira had already laid out a "game route" to treat her social anxiety, and "getting close with Shion" was her very first starter quest.
And now Onee-san Benika started creating opportunities for her other self too.
"Speaking of which, the other me is really good at makeup, you know? If Shion-chan lets her do your makeup, and I help you pick outfits, you'll definitely turn into a super beauty who captivates everyone!"
"Makeup… Akira-kun, what do you think? Can I… wear makeup?"
Shiginomiya glanced at Akira, tempted.
She'd never worn makeup before. She knew about as much as a boy who didn't understand cosmetics at all.
After all, in the past, it wasn't just that she didn't care about being prettier—she'd even thought about ruining her own face… Now, Shiginomiya was very, very glad her past self hadn't acted on impulse. She would've regretted it for the rest of her life.
If it was for Akira to see, she was willing to become prettier—she wanted more of his praise.
But Akira, completely lacking in romantic sense, said,
"I was planning to ask Benika-san to do your makeup, yeah—but it's not so you'll get prettier."
He snapped his fingers and pointed at Shiginomiya, flashing his signature smug grin like everything was under his control.
"Shion, you need to get uglier next."
The training plan was about to enter its second stage.
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