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Title: Duplicate Rose
Nah, nah, nah.
You’ve seen me many times, or rather, you’ve seen me almost every day. What do you mean, ‘Nice to meet you.’ Does Arina have a twin and the other one is playing a joke on me or something? If that’s the case, Arina could learn something from you. If she acted like this, she could make a name for herself as a wonderful beautiful girl[1]. It’s ten times better than the venomous tongue character.
“No, not ‘nice to meet you’. That’s kind of a new harsh remark.”
“
I’m sorry. I apologize if I hurt you.”
“Eh, no, no, no, no, Arina-san? You haven’t bitten off much today. What’s wrong?”
“Did I bite you!? I’m so sorry! I apologize!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! You can sit down now! What’s wrong with you, Arina?!”
Hiwa Arina has completely changed into a beautiful girl.
Her personality was the complete opposite of what it was just a few minutes ago. If the original Arina was a habanero, then the current Arina is a soft ice cream. That’s how much her personality did a 180. The current Arina is too defenseless. It was enough to make me develop a genuine desire to protect her.
If Arina was in this state in her class, the men around her would do their best to follow her. The harem world was complete with all the pampering. Makoto would confess his feelings to her again, and the baseball club’s head would start stalking her again.
“Sui-kun, she’s really Arina.”
“Akakusa-sensei, I already know. Is this an IQ test?”
“No. She’s the real Hiwa Arina.
“Are you talking about the philosophical side of things? Something like defining identity?”
“It might be related. As a matter of fact, she has a dual personality, a dissociative identity disorder.”
Dual personalities.
This was the first time I’ve seen it.
“Dual
 personalities?”
Akakusa-sensei has studied psychiatry, and in talking to her, found out that she had a dual personality. And that was early on.
Hiwa Arina has two personalities.
One is the original personality, the now-gentle Arina. She’s the personality Hiwa Arina has always had since she was born.
The second is the venomous-tongued Arina I’ve always seen. This is the personality that was born at a certain point and has been in control of Arina for a long time.
When Hiwa Arina entered high school, she already had a dual personality. No one had noticed it. There was no such description on her health certificate.
For some reason, the ‘Venomous-Tongued Arina’ kept taking precedence over the ‘Base Arina’, according to Akakusa-sensei.
“The reason I asked Sui-kun to reform Arina-san is because I want her to go back to the same Arina-san she was.”
“Isn’t that what’s happening right now?”
“It’s only temporary. I can only wake her up for a limited time. A few more minutes, and she’ll be gone.”
“Can’t you do something
?”
“She’s going through some kind of trauma. I can’t help her because I don’t understand it. But Arina-san’s main, strong-willed personality could be due to her base personality’s defensive instincts. In fact, Arina-san’s unstable right now. So if her main personality starts to subconsciously believe that it’s not needed, something might change. Well, there’s absolutely no evidence to support that, though. I’m not even halfway through psychiatry.”
“Is that why you asked me to do this?”
“Sui-kun’s character was suitable since your personality doesn’t match Arina-san’s rhythm. Most of the time, with Arina-san’s rejection, everyone will disappear, but you won’t. That would be a factor that would prevent her from achieving her raison d’etre.” [2]
“Ummm. Does that mean I’m going to be a hindrance to the main Arina’s goal of ‘pushing people away’?
“Yeah. I’m sure you’re under a lot of stress, but please put up with it. And when you do, she’ll be gone.”
I shuddered when I heard her story and realized that what I was doing was pretty heavy.
I’d be saving one girl, but at the same time, I’d be eliminating another. In other words, the Arina I’ve been dealing with would be gone. Can I do that?
I can’t see the venomous-tongued Arina as evil. To me, she’s just normal Arina. The mild-mannered Arina in front of me seemed more like a fake.
But that’s what’s bothering Arina right now.
“I wanted to tell Sui-kun about this today.”
And soon the main Arina came back to life. That look of frustration at the world. Normally, I would feel dejected, but this time, I was filled with a sense of relief.
“You look like an octopus. You look so ugly.”
“That sounds like a compliment to me right now.”
Before leaving, Akakusa-sensei said in my ear, “Please. I can’t do anything about it.”
I’ll do it because I have to. But after hearing about her dual personalities, I knew I had to reset our goals again. It’s absolutely useless to do it properly. It would end up hurting Arina.
Arina and I left the school building.
We walked together.
Silence ensues. We should say something. But what should I talk about? I have a feeling I shouldn’t be talking about our dual personalities. It seemed like taboo. A topic, a topic! I can’t think of one!
While I was thinking this, I soon saw the school gates.
“Ahhhhhh!”
“Shut up.”
“Shit! I’m leaving my sister behind!”
“You’re brought your sister with you? You siscon
.”
“Wrong! She said he wanted to go
 phone call, phone call
.”
“I’m going home.”
“Ah! She hang up! Why are you hanging up on me?!”
“Baaaaaaaaa!!!!”
“What is this, a terrorist attack!? Woah!”
I was tackled.
A hunk of flesh dove into my stomach like a bullet and knocked me over.
It was my sister who flew out from the bushes with a strange cry.
“What
 the hell are you doing
.”
“Waiting to surprise you! As expected, when you forgot about me and tried to walk through the school gates, I thought, ‘Fuck you’, but since you noticed, it’s okay.”
“Sorry. I forgot.”
“You’re terrible, the worst. So, who is this?”
My sister’s gaze turned to Arina.
“She’s Hiwa Arina. A dangerous creature with venom as deadly as a tarantula’s.” [3]
“Don’t say weird things about me.”
She crossed her arms in her usual fashion and glared at me.
“So you were Arina-san! I’m Sakaki Ugin, Sakaki Sui’s sister! I’m a third year junior high schooler!”
“I see. Nice to meet you.”
It was a surprisingly weak response. Well, Arina only treats people the same age as her harshly. I wonder if there’s a reason for that as well.
“Hey, Nii-chan, Nii-chan! Arina is such a beauty! Wow! What kind of relationship do you guys have?!”
My sister shakes me.
“Nothing! Like I said before!”
“What did you tell your sister?”
“I didn’t tell her anything! It’s okay!”
“A year from now, you’ll be back in the ground.”
“At least not in the schoolyard
 I don’t want everyone to step on me
”
Arina seemed to be satisfied and spun around to leave. My sister looked at Arina’s back and said, “She’s so dignified!”
It seems that she has been brainwashed, so I’ll fix her later.
Notes:
[1] Raws call her a ‘bishoujo’ which is specifically a young and beautiful girl.
[2] Raison d’etre: the most important reason or purpose for someone or something’s existence.
[3] Sui-san, a tarantula’s venom isn’t actually that deadly.