The bathroom sparkled.
It wasn't just clean; it was sterile. The porcelain of the toilet gleamed with a whiteness that hurt the retina. The floor, once a mosaic of soap scum stains, now reflected the ceiling light with the clarity of a newly polished mirror.
Kaito stood in the doorway, holding his coffee mug, nodding with silent approval.
"Acceptable," he decreed.
Behind him, Fia sat on the living room rug in a fetal position, trembling slightly. Her divine hands, now red and smelling of chlorine, were hugging her legs.
"I saw things..." the goddess muttered to the floor. "The stain behind the bidet... it looked at me. It was sentient..."
"Trauma builds character," Kaito said, walking past her toward his beanbag chair. "And cleaning builds a habitable environment. Your karmic debt is, for now, settled."
He sat down. The game was paused on the screen. The coffee was hot. The silence (interrupted only by Fia's post-traumatic whispers) was comforting. It was the perfect setting for a Sunday of absolute inertia.
KNOCK. KNOCK.
The knock on the door was light, rhythmic, and dream-shattering.
Kaito closed his eyes. He considered pretending he wasn't home. But the person on the other side had a key. And, more importantly, had an iron will that surpassed his apathy barrier.
The door opened. Mai Sakurajima walked in, bringing with her the hot summer air and a social energy Kaito found deeply unnecessary.
She was dressed to go out: a light summer dress, a wide-brimmed hat to hide her famous face, and sunglasses. She looked like a spy vacationing in the Alps.
"Good morning, Kaito-kun," she said, smiling upon seeing Fia on the floor. "I see the cleaning operation was a success. The smell of bleach reaches the hallway."
"It is the smell of victory over entropy," Kaito replied, without taking his eyes off the TV. "If you came to bring food, you can leave it on the table. If you came to talk, I am busy saving a digital kingdom."
Mai walked to the TV and, with a graceful movement, blocked Kaito's view.
"I came to rescue you," she announced.
"I am not in danger."
"You are in danger of growing moss," she corrected. "It's been three days since you saw sunlight, except through the window. The Koga case is over. The bathroom is clean. No excuses."
She crossed her arms. "Let's go out."
Kaito looked at her. "No."
"Yes."
"No. Going out involves movement, sun, people, and money. Four things I actively avoid."
"I'll pay for lunch," Mai offered.
Kaito's ear twitched slightly. "Go on."
"And we're going to an electronics store. You need new cables to organize that mess behind the TV. I saw it when you installed it; it looks like a rat's nest."
Kaito looked at the tangle of wires behind the console. It was, indeed, a shame to his efficiency.
"And..." a third voice joined the conversation. Fia lifted her head from the rug, eyes shining with the hope of escape. "And the System recommends exposure to Vitamin D for mood stabilization! Besides, if we stay here, I'll keep looking at the bathroom and having flashbacks! I need new visual stimuli!"
Kaito looked at the two of them. The traumatized Goddess and the bored Actress. They formed a coalition of peace disturbance. If he stayed, Mai would bother him until he caved, and Fia would whine all day. The energy spent resisting would be, he calculated, greater than the energy spent walking.
"How..." Kaito turned off the console with a sigh that emptied his lungs, "...extremely troublesome."
The outside world was, as Kaito predicted, horrible.
The July sun was a personal attack. Heat rose from the asphalt in shimmering waves. The crowd in Fujisawa was dense, noisy, and sweaty.
Kaito walked with the posture of a prisoner being transferred. Mai walked beside him, elegant and cool, ignoring the heat with the power of her celebrity aura (even in disguise). Fia, in her ethereal form to avoid rolled-up magazines in public, floated above them, narrating the stroll.
"Look! A dog! Look! An ice cream sale! Look! A couple fighting! The human world is so rich in content!"
"Fia, if you don't shut up, I'm going to buy a handheld vacuum cleaner and suck up your spiritual essence," Kaito thought.
"That is metaphysically impossible, but your threat has been noted," she replied, lowering her volume.
"So," Mai said, adjusting her sunglasses. "How is Koga-san?"
"Alive," Kaito replied. "She sent me a picture of her breakfast today. Burnt toast. Caption: 'Good thing I'm not a cook.' She is embracing mediocrity with alarming enthusiasm."
Mai laughed. "You freed her, Kaito. In a twisted way, you are her hero."
"I am her collateral damage."
They arrived at the shopping area. Kaito wanted to go straight to the electronics store, buy his cable ties, and return to the cave. But Mai insisted on stopping at a convenience store to buy water.
While Mai went inside, Kaito stayed outside, leaning against the wall, observing the flow of people with analytical disdain. Laughing students, couples holding hands, salarymen looking exhausted. Everyone wasting energy.
It was then that he saw her.
Not someone he expected to see there. In fact, his brain took three full seconds to process the facial recognition because the visual data didn't match the mental file.
Coming out of a department store across the street was a girl.
She wore a short, stylish, trendy skirt. A blouse that left her shoulders exposed. Her hair, which Kaito only knew loose and messy, was tied in a perfect high ponytail, exposing the nape of her neck.
The most shocking part, however, was her face.
There were no glasses.
Without the thick lenses and heavy frames, her eyes looked bigger, more expressive... and strangely familiar.
"Futaba?" Kaito murmured, disbelief coloring his monotone voice.
It was Rio Futaba. The only member of the Science Club. The girl who lived in a lab coat, smelled of chemicals and burnt coffee, and despised human interaction almost as much as he did.
But this Futaba... this Futaba looked like a teen magazine model. She was looking at her reflection in a shop window, adjusting her ponytail.
"Kaito, what is it?" Mai returned with two bottles of water, noticing he was staring across the street.
"Over there," Kaito pointed discreetly with his head. "Is that Futaba?"
Mai looked. She lowered her sunglasses slightly. "Rio? Where? That girl with the ponytail?"
She squinted. "The bone structure is the same. But the style... is completely opposite. She would never dress like that."
The "New Futaba" sighed, looking at her phone. She seemed to be waiting for someone. Or maybe just building up courage. She typed something quickly, took a selfie discreetly but at an angle that highlighted her figure, and then put the phone away with a sharp movement.
"This is an anomaly," Fia declared, descending from the sky to float between Kaito and Mai. "The character file 'Rio Futaba' defines her attributes as: 'Scientist,' 'Introverted,' 'Lab Coat.' The subject ahead possesses the attributes: 'Modern,' 'Provocative,' 'Contact Lenses.' Conclusion: It is a doppelgänger! Or an evil twin sister!"
"Futaba doesn't have a twin sister," Mai said. "She's an only child."
At that moment, the sound Kaito feared most in the world—more than the alarm clock, more than Fia's voice—echoed in the air.
DING.
The sound of fate banging on the door of his mental peace with a battering ram.
The world froze for an instant. The translucent blue screen materialized in front of Kaito's face, blocking his view of the "New Futaba."
[ADOLESCENCE SYNDROME DETECTED!] [NEW MISSION: THE SCHRÖDINGER PARADOX] [Target: Rio Futaba] [Threat Level: Existential / Psychological] [Problem Description: The subject presents a quantum division of consciousness based on body dysmorphia and social isolation. The subject's early physical development generated an internal conflict: one part of her desires the validation and attention her body attracts, while the other part feels repulsion for this superficiality and wishes to be valued solely for intellect.] [Manifestation: Physical Duplication. There are now two Rio Futabas. The Scientist (Original/Superego): Rejects femininity, hates her body, isolates herself in logic. The Woman (Id/Desire): Embraces femininity aggressively, seeks attention online, posts risky photos on her anonymous social media to fill the void of loneliness.] [Objective: Reintegrate the two halves before the dissociation becomes permanent or the 'Bold' version does something irreversible.] [Reward: +200 Bond Points, Peace of Mind (Temporary).] [Accept?] (Y/N)
Kaito read the description. Read it again.
His eyes stopped on the phrase "posts 'risky' photos on her anonymous social media."
He felt a part of his soul wither.
It wasn't just a quantum physics problem. It wasn't just a time loop. It was a psychological drama about puberty, body insecurity, and the toxic side of the internet. It was the kind of problem that required tact, empathy, and delicate conversations about feelings and self-image.
It was, in short, Kaito's worst nightmare.
"Photos..." Kaito read aloud, his voice laden with deep horror. "She is posting photos. And I am going to have to deal with this."
"What does the mission say?" Mai asked, seeing Kaito's expression go from boredom to despair.
"It says Futaba split in two," Kaito summarized, massaging his temples. "Because she grew up too fast and now has an identity crisis between being a scientist who hates her own body and a lonely girl who uses that body to get likes from strangers on the internet."
Mai fell silent. She looked at the Futaba across the street—the version with the ponytail and short skirt.
"Ah..." Mai whispered, realization dawning on her face. "That explains a lot. The lab coat... was always armor. To hide."
"And now the armor gained a life of its own and created an Instagram account," Kaito completed. "This is an invasion of privacy on a metaphysical level. I don't want to know this. I don't want to know Futaba's body insecurities. I just wanted her to explain quantum physics to me and leave me alone."
"KAITO!" Fia shouted, shocked. "YOU HAVE TO HELP! SHE IS FEELING ALONE! SHE CREATED A WHOLE VERSION OF HERSELF JUST TO FEEL LOVED, EVEN IF IT IS FOR THE WRONG REASONS! THIS IS TRAGIC! IT IS A CRY FOR HELP!"
"It is a cry for 'trouble'," Kaito corrected.
He looked at the blue screen. The [Accept] button pulsed.
He watched Futaba across the street, absorbed in her reflection, sliding a hand over her own body.
But Kaito was focused on another aspect.
"If there are two Futabas..." he reasoned, cold logic trying to find a way out. "...that means the Scientist Futaba is still in the lab? Or at home?"
"Probably," Mai said. "If this is the manifestation of her repressed desires, the original must be where she always is. Hiding."
"So we have two problems," Kaito said. "One who posts photos and another who hates herself. And I have to make the two like each other."
He sighed, a long, shaky sound.
"Mai, I need you to do something."
"What?"
"You are a woman. You understand these body and image things. You go talk to that Futaba," he pointed to the ponytail version. "Find out what she is doing. Where she is living. If she has a different name."
"And you?" Mai asked.
Kaito turned, looking in the direction of the school, even though it was Sunday.
"I'm going to look for the scientist. And I'm going to ask, with all the delicacy of a sledgehammer, why she let half of herself escape and start a career as a digital influencer."
He pressed [Accept] on the screen with the force of someone pressing a self-destruct button.
[MISSION STARTED.]
"Goodbye, peaceful Sunday," Kaito lamented. "Hello, teenage awkwardness."
He started walking, leaving Mai with the espionage mission.
"Fia," he called mentally.
"Yes, Chosen One?"
"Search the internet. Find the account. I need to know the extent of the damage."
"You want me to search for... the photos?" Fia asked, scandalized.
"It is field research," Kaito said, feeling dirty just saying the phrase. "Just do it. And if you make any comment about her body, I swear the next magazine strike will be fatal."
"Understood..." Fia replied, her voice fading as she accessed the web. "Oh... Oh my God. Kaito... she has a lot of followers."
"How troublesome," Kaito said, walking under the scorching sun toward yet another quantum disaster.
________________________________________
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