Tokyo: After years of stagnation, the heiress of the yakuza arrives.

"Did you go to school?"

After Miyazaki Ritsuko came downstairs, she frowned as she looked at the leftover breakfast on the table.

Xiaoqing in their family never had the habit of wasting food...

If we rule out the possibility that today's food was simply not to our liking, then it seems there's only one other possibility left...

Something's up!

Miyazaki Ritsuko seemed to realize something, her pupils contracted, and she hurriedly took out her phone, scrolling through her contacts for a while before finally stopping at the name "Kogao".

Before her finger fell, she glanced at the table one last time.

I only ate a few mouthfuls of rice, there was still more than half of the salmon that I had remade, two pieces of tamagoyaki were missing, and I only took a little bit of spinach. The glass of warm water next to me was half drunk. Judging from the food pairings, the portions, and the taste, it didn't seem like the chef had suddenly lost his touch today.

Moreover, Xiaoqing just said that she only had some insomnia last night and that she didn't feel any physical discomfort.

She wasn't sick, and there was nothing wrong with breakfast, but after eating only a little bit, she suddenly picked up her schoolbag and went out.

Even the most basic eating schedule was interrupted. This was not just a simple anomaly; it was as if a new instruction that no one had ever seen before had been inserted into a program that had been running stably for more than ten years.

As Miyazaki Ritsuko thought about it, her expression grew increasingly serious. She had a feeling that something was wrong. After waiting for a moment, the phone was finally answered.

"Ritsuko-neechan?"

Shuangyue Gaoli's voice came from the other end, as if she had just finished something. There was a very soft rustling of papers in the background: "Calling so early, is there something wrong with Xiaoqing?"

"Xiao Gao, how did you know?"

There was a half-second silence on the other end of the phone.

"At this time, Ritsuko-neechan is usually either getting ready to leave or already in the car on her way to work. If she just wants to chat with me, she wouldn't forget to say good morning."

Ritsuko Miyazaki: "..."

Don't talk to Xiao Gao like that, it makes me sound like a bit of a jerk...

As expected of professionals, they're just different...

"Haha, you're so clever, Xiao Gao. It really is Xiao Qing. She was acting very strangely this morning," Miyazaki Ritsuko said in a low voice.

Even though she had already left the house, she still habitually glanced at the direction of the stairs: "Xiaoqing overslept today. The people downstairs and I knocked on the door for a long time but there was no response. We had to go in to wake her up. After waking up, she said that she had insomnia last night."

"Insomnia alone does not necessarily mean there is a problem."

Shuangyue Gaoli's tone remained calm: "Occasional sleep disorders are very common. Stress, changes in environment, emotional fluctuations, or even just exposure to information that continuously stimulates attention before bed can all lead to delayed sleep onset. Xiaoqing has experienced a lot recently, so one occasional event cannot be used to make a direct judgment."

After hearing this, Miyazaki Ritsuko breathed a slight sigh of relief. Sure enough, when encountering such a situation, it's best to seek out professionals rather than scare yourself unnecessarily.

But before she could fully relax, her gaze fell on the table again.

"Xiao Gao, is it unusual that Xiao Qing didn't finish her breakfast after she got up?"

"Xiaoqing usually finishes her food..."

Ritsuko Miyazaki muttered to herself.

The sound of papers turning on the other end of the phone stopped.

Ritsuko Miyazaki didn't notice this and continued, "She ate very little, at least half of her usual portion, then picked up her bag and phone and left. When I came downstairs, she was gone, and the driver was with her too."

Shuangyue Gaoli did not answer immediately.

"Xiao Gao?"

"Ritsuko-neechan, don't worry, let me confirm a few things." Shimotsuki Takari's voice became noticeably serious: "Was breakfast made according to her usual standards? Were any ingredients changed, or was there any flavor she didn't like?"

"No, it's all the usual stuff. I even made another batch after the first one cooled down."

Are you feeling unwell?

"She said no, but I touched her forehead and her temperature was normal."

"How were you feeling when you left? Were you noticeably anxious, agitated, or losing control of your movements?"

Ritsuko Miyazaki recalled carefully.

After coming downstairs, Xiaoqing remained calm. She made no mistakes in walking, eating, or picking up things. Even her uniform and long hair were neatly arranged as usual. However, her reactions were a little slower than usual, and she even lost focus for the first time while eating.

"She hasn't lost control; she seems perfectly normal."

"That's alright."

Ritsuko Miyazaki breathed a sigh of relief.

"But this could also be the most troublesome situation."

Ritsuko Miyazaki: "..."

The breath I had just taken in came right back.

"Xiao Gao, can you finish your sentence in one go?" Miyazaki Ritsuko couldn't hold back any longer. Her nerves were constantly shifting between relaxation and tension, like a rubber band. Who could stand that?

Do all psychologists and experts speak in this tone?

What a twisted sense of humor...

"Sorry, it's just a professional habit."

Shuangyue Gaoli paused for a moment, then continued her serious analysis: "If it's just ordinary insomnia, Xiaoqing will readjust her plans for the day after she wakes up, taking into account her breakfast intake, departure time, and route..."

"Even if sleep deprivation reduces efficiency, I won't give up on something I'm already halfway through, unless there's an external event that I consider to have a higher priority and that must be dealt with immediately."

"External events?" Ritsuko Miyazaki frowned.

Ritsuko Miyazaki immediately looked out the window, but the car had already left the courtyard and its taillights were no longer visible.

Did she receive a phone call, see a message, or spend a long time focusing on something before she left the house?

"Her phone!" Miyazaki Ritsuko remembered: "She took out her phone while eating, and only put down her chopsticks after looking at it. Although I didn't see what was on the screen clearly, she must have decided to go out after seeing it."

Shuangyue Gaoli fell silent again.

Insomnia.

oversleep.

I have trouble concentrating after waking up.

The feeding plan was interrupted.

Stimulated by some information on their phones, some people temporarily change their travel routes or even postpone their original school schedules.

Each of these behaviors, taken individually, can be reasonably explained, but when all of them are applied to Kiyoshi Miyazaki and occur simultaneously on the same morning, the situation becomes entirely different.

"Ritsuko-neechan, did Kiyoshi say where she was going before she left?"

"No, I was still upstairs at the time. She must have just sent the driver somewhere else."

Did she bring her schoolbag?

"I brought it."

"Then the destination is most likely in the same direction as the school, or she thinks she can continue to the school after she finishes dealing with this matter."

Upon hearing this, more than a dozen possibilities flashed through Miyazaki Ritsuko's mind: kidnapping, threats, secretly filming videos, someone who knew about Xiaoqing's abilities deliberately sending her a message, or even someone using her phone to lure her out alone.

No, Xiaoqing isn't an ordinary child. If someone really tries to do something to her in this way, the one who will ultimately be worried is probably not Xiaoqing.

It's the other party.

After all, you can't defeat an enemy that's been turned on but not off...

Forget about winning, there are very few ways to even put up a fight. For detailed steps, please refer to Kuroba Shido's disclaimer and magic incantation...

The Tokyo morning news might add an extra item at the last minute.

An unidentified person was completely dismantled on a spiritual level by a female college student passing by through verbal communication. He is currently squatting by the roadside rethinking his life. After the police arrived, the victim insisted that she was fine, but suddenly felt that she had lived a very unsuccessful life over the years.

Ritsuko Miyazaki: "..."

Thinking about it this way, it seems there's really no need to worry too much about physical safety... My mental state is too good.

This level of perfection seems to be comparable only to Kuroba-kun...

"Kogao, could it be the situation we talked about before?" Miyazaki Kiyoshi asked, seemingly remembering something, and started talking about things from the past.

"Which situation?" Shimotsuki Takari asked, puzzled.

"Second Personality." Ritsuko Miyazaki's decisive voice came from the phone.

The phone went completely silent.

The more Miyazaki Ritsuko thought about it, the more sense it made, and her speaking speed unconsciously increased.

"The last time Xiaoqing exhibited behavior completely different from usual, you said it was possible that her second personality was starting to take over. Although no memory gaps or obvious behavioral breaks were found later, you also said that Xiaoqing's self-system was too stable. Even if new emotional sources and behavioral drivers appeared, she would forcibly integrate them into her original logic."

Shuangyue Gaoli: "..."

These are indeed the words she said.

Every word could be found in the past chat history, and even the order was correct. But why, when Ritsuko rearranged the words, did it sound more and more like she had diagnosed Xiaoqing with some extremely serious disease?

When did Ritsuko-neechan become so professional?

In that instant, Shimotsuki Takagi even began to doubt her own professionalism...

"Sister Ritsuko, let me clarify first. I was talking about a probabilistic analysis, not a confirmed diagnosis," Shimotsuki Takari corrected.

"I know."

Ritsuko Miyazaki answered quickly, clearly not having truly taken the advice to heart.

"So now, is the newly emerged personality starting to become more active? The usual Xiao Qing is self-disciplined, calm, and doesn't waste food, but this other Xiao Qing stays up late, oversleeps, only eats a few bites of breakfast before suddenly leaving the house, and gets distracted while staring at her phone?"

"From a clinical perspective, behavioral changes cannot be simply attributed to another personality," Shimotsuki Kori added after a moment of silence.

"What about from a less simple perspective?" Ritsuko Miyazaki countered.

Shuangyue Gaoli: "..."

That's a really tricky question.

She paused for a few seconds, then could only continue to deduce based on the existing information: "If we have to use the previous model, what Xiaoqing is showing now doesn't seem like a completely independent second personality, but rather like her suppressed emotions and need for external connection are breaking through the behavioral framework she has maintained for a long time."

Ritsuko Miyazaki didn't understand.

But then I heard about a breakthrough.

It sounds very serious.

What will be the consequences?

"It's hard to say for now. If things are going well, it might just mean she's starting to accept normal emotional fluctuations and is willing to change her plans for someone or something."

"If things go in a negative direction, it could disrupt the original self-balance, leading to sleep disorders, distorted judgment, excessive attention being focused on specific objects, and other behaviors that wouldn't have occurred before."

Ritsuko Miyazaki's expression changed little by little, becoming increasingly unpleasant as she spoke.

Sleep disturbances have already appeared.

The offset is suspected to be present.

When your attention is excessively occupied by a specific object, that unknown thing on your phone could very well be it.

More behaviors that never happened before, such as leaving halfway through breakfast, have already emerged!

The chain of evidence is now complete.

"Kagami, they've all appeared." Miyazaki Ritsuko's voice became much softer, less defiant than before, clearly lacking confidence. The joy she felt from being right had vanished without a trace.

Because this doesn't seem like a good thing...

Shuangyue Gaoli: "..."

Ritsuko-neechan, you could actually find some time to talk about these important things...

Shimotsuki Takari's tone also turned serious: "Ritsuko-neechan, think about it carefully again. Did you miss any details from last night to this morning?"

Ritsuko Miyazaki closed her eyes and recalled little by little from the moment her daughter returned to her room last night until this morning. The maid said there was no movement in the room, so she went upstairs and knocked on the door. Xiaoqing did not answer. The spare key was not inserted correctly the first time. After entering the room, she saw her daughter lying on the bed with a frown on her face. When she woke up, her eyes were unusually dull and confused.

and many more.

confused!

Ritsuko Miyazaki suddenly opened her eyes.

"When she woke up, she seemed unaware of what had happened for a few seconds. She looked at me first, then at the people at the door, and finally asked me what I was doing."

Shuangyue Gaoli: "..."

Ritsuko-neechan, what you said is practically the same as saying nothing at all...

Shimotsuki Takari now feels that, compared to the possibly split-personality Xiao Qing, her dear Ritsuko-neechan is the one who hasn't woken up yet...

It's perfectly normal for someone who's been forcibly woken up from a nap around 4 a.m., having only slept for less than three hours, to feel disoriented for a few seconds after opening their eyes.

The problem is, that person is Kiyoshi Miyazaki.

Even when Miyazaki Kiyoshi woke up in an unfamiliar environment, he could quickly determine his location before he even opened his eyes by listening to changes in sound, smell, light, and the psychological activities of the people around him. He rarely experienced even a half-second of confusion, let alone being disoriented for a few seconds.

Shuangyue Gaoli originally wanted to explain it by saying she was sleep-deprived, but then she swallowed the words back down.

"Did she ask herself why she was there, or experience memory loss?"

"No, she recovered quickly."

"This does not conform to typical personality switching, but we cannot completely rule out the possibility that the abnormal state lasted too short or that memory sharing has already been completed between the two behavioral systems."

Ritsuko Miyazaki gripped her phone tightly.

Memory sharing.

Two behavioral systems.

This sounds even more serious than a typical secondary personality disorder!

"Xiao Gao, does this mean that the other Xiao Qing can now appear without us noticing?"

Rationally, Shimotsuki Kori felt that this conclusion was reached too quickly and that the evidence was seriously insufficient, and that it should be corrected immediately.

But when she rearranged the details that Miyazaki Ritsuko had just provided, and recalled Miyazaki Kiyoshi's increasingly obvious abnormalities these days, she couldn't find an answer that could explain all of his behavior in a unified way.

"That's not a definitive conclusion."

"So it's possible?"

"Theoretically, it cannot be completely ruled out."

"Then it exists!"

Shuangyue Gaoli: "..."