Experimentation

After a while, Qing Yue let go of me and I turned back around to face the girl with purple hair, still staring curiously at me. This made little sense. Yesterday, she was all cold and distant like Yu An Xue, but today she's calling me her big brother intimately? As I struggled to deduce the reason for this to happen, Yu An Xue walked in the room.

I looked to her and signaled for her to try to talk to her sister. She noticed my gaze and gave a slight nod back. Qing Yue glanced between the two of us suspiciously and I made a mental note to myself to make it up to her later. I then moved out of the way, dragging Qing Yue along with me, and motioned for Yu An Xue to come over, which she did. But the seated girl didn't even notice, just continued following me with her eyes. She remained quiet, however, perhaps thanks to my 'shhh' gesture from earlier. Truly...an obedient little sister.

Qing Yue also stayed silent, reading the mood. She was a clever girl, so I had no doubt she had already figured out what was going on. We watched on as Yu An Xue walked towards the purple-haired girl, who still didn't even realize she was there. Or perhaps she did, just didn't care - in which case that would make things a lot more difficult.

"Um...hello there," Yu An Xue began, trying to get her attention.

The girl didn't respond, just continued staring in my direction.

"Ah...c-can you hear me?" Yu An Xue tried once more.

Again, the girl remained silent, as if oblivious to Yu An Xue's entire existence. I decided to do something to help.

I walked closer and bent down a bit. "Er...do you recognize the girl standing beside you?"

Hearing my words, she finally showed a reaction. Tilting her head, she gave a slight shrug with a puzzled expression on her face. I sighed. Turning to Yu An Xue, I shook my head. "It seems that she doesn't remember who you are."

"I-I see..." she murmured in reply. She tried to hide it, but I knew that deep down, she was hurting. Agonized over the sister she had lost for so many years to reappear before her again, only to not recognize her anymore. "But why does she respond to you?" she questioned, having realized something.

"To be honest...I'm not sure either. Yesterday she was acting cold and indifferent just like- actually, nevermind. But today, as soon as I entered the classroom, she sprang up and suddenly hugged me while saying 'Onii-chan'." I was about to say 'just like you', but decided against it in the end.

"That's...weird." Yu An Xue sat down in her chair across from me dejectedly, and sighed. Then, after a while, she looked at me and spoke. "Could she...maybe have multiple personalities?"

I nodded twice. "That is certainly a possibility. I guess we'll have to run some...experiments to find out."

"You're correct. So how will we be doing that, exactly?"

"I suppose we must wait until tomorrow, and see if her personality reverts - or perhaps even change to a new one altogether."

"Hm...I see."

"Oh oh! I'll help too!" Qing Yue joined in. "Just as long as she doesn't ever call you 'onii-chan' again," she said with a wink.

I looked to Yu An Xue for consent, and she nodded in return. I then gave a smile to Qing Yue and said, "Thank you, Qing Yue. We'll be needing your help."

"Heehee, no need for formalities like that between the two of us!" Qing Yue replied happily. "Oh, and what about Feng Mian?"

This time, it wasn't me that responded but Yu An Xue herself. "She'll be a great help as well. If you wouldn't mind...could you ask her for me? I...don't really know her. The only person that I really have a connection with, is...Xuan Kai."

Qing Yue squinted her eyes at Yu An Xue, as if inspecting her. After finally realizing her request, she replied, "Hmm...? Well...I guess I can do that."

"Don't worry - Feng Mian isn't the type to reject someone in need."

"Thank you," she said to Qing Yue. Then, turning to me, she smiled bitterly. "I'm envious...you have someone that you can say you understand them with confidence."

"You'll find someone like that too...just interact with them more, and soon enough you'll begin to understand them," I replied in a comforting tone.

"Interact with them, huh..." she echoed. "I wonder...if I'll be able to understand you like that, someday."

She spoke faintly, but I heard it. "You definitely will...someday."

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- The Next Day -

It was time for school once more. As an aside, Yu An Xue's sister clung to me for the entirety of yesterday, and attracted a lot of attention. But none of the students in my class said anything, possibly because they were now looking at me with fear in their eyes. I could feel it.

Was it because I destroyed the Awakening Orb? Possibly. The student council had passed it off as just an unfortunate incident where the orb had exploded due to it being used for a long time now, but the students of my class, at the very least, didn't believe that one bit. They tried to, but alas, couldn't deny what they saw with their own two eyes.

Anyway, when I got to school (again, earlier than everyone else), not surprisingly, the purple haired girl was sitting at my desk once again. Yesterday she had moved after me telling her to, so I could sit down, but she had insisted on sitting on my lap instead. Nothing I could do, so I reluctantly complied, while receiving death glares from Feng Mian, Qing Yue, and even Yu An Xue. Sorry, okay? I'm not harassing your sister. Really.

This time, she didn't immediately jump up and call me 'onii-chan', so I sighed in relief. Time to see if her personality reverted to the cold, indifferent one, or a new one altogether. Having two personalities was rare enough, but three is almost unseen before. I walked closer to her.

She picked up on my presence, and stood up calmly from her chair. Then, taking out something from behind her back, she offered it to me, looking away and blushing slightly. "I-I didn't m-make this for you or a-anything!" she yelled loudly with her eyes shut tight.

...A tsundere? These are some...interesting personalities she has. What kind of trauma has she experienced to have three such cliche identities in her? I took the neatly wrapped gift box from her outstretched hands, and she ran away in a furious fluster.

"Hey-" I began, but she was already out the door. I decided against chasing her since I would have to report this to Yu An Xue and the others.

By the way, Feng Mian had accepted helping Yu An Xue, just like I said she would. And after hearing what happened yesterday morning from Qing Yue (who had apparently just let it 'slip out' while informing Feng Mian of Yu An Xue's request, which I didn't believe in the slightest), she started chasing me while launching spikes of ice at me, which I absorbed conveniently and turned it into mana. This made her even more mad, but regardless, she accepted. I didn't even know why she was mad in the first place...

I opened the gift box and inside was a heart-shaped chocolate. I grabbed it out of the box and took a bite. Mmm...delicious. Nothing like Qing Yue's...homemade cooking. This was perfect and had just the right balance between sweetness and bitterness, just like a dark chocolate should have.

Soon after, Yu An Xue, Feng Mian, and Qing Yue all arrived and I reported what happened this morning to them. We all agreed further experimentation was necessary.

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- The Next Day -

Once again, I arrived early at the school. It was confirmed that Yu An Xue's sister had at least 3 separate personalities, which was extremely rare already. If she had 4...well, that would be pretty much impossible. We would have to begin thinking of other possibilities.

As a side note, Yu An Xue's sister was not seen again for the rest of the day yesterday, leaving my seat my own once more.

I entered the classroom, and found her sitting at...yeah, my desk again. However, this time, even when I got close, she didn't stand up. At first I thought she had finally reverted back to her first personality, the one similar to Yu An Xue's. Though to be honest, Yu An Xue's been getting closer to Qing Yue, Feng Mian, and I, albeit the same couldn't be said about other students.

But then, she looked up at me, and threw her arms around me without making a sound. I winced. This was definitely a new personality again. She looked up and puffed out her cheeks, making a cute chubby face expression. But in reality, she had no expression at all. As in, her face looked completely blank, showing no sign of emotion. That being said, she was still hugging me tightly around the waist (she was sitting, I was standing).

Is this...a kuudere? I've read some manga from Qing Yue's mega collection, so I knew about the basic few types of girls in them. The tsundere from yesterday, and today's kuudere personality. Don't tell me...tomorrow's going to be a yandere?

After a while, the girl let go, and still remaining expressionless, she spoke. "Good morning."

Uh...you're supposed to say that first, not after you hug someone for 10 minutes straight. But I didn't tell her that. I muttered a greeting in reply, and grabbed a chair from elsewhere. I placed it in between 'my' desk and Feng Mian's. As a reminder, there was supposed to be a short walking space between desks, but Feng Mian had took up that walking space by placing her desk in between Qing Yue's and mine. So today, I was going to be squeezed between Yu An Xue's sister and Feng Mian. I sighed.

After a little bit of waiting, the trio of girls arrived once more, and I told everything to them in full detail.

Today, when Mr. Wang got into the room after all the other students had arrived, he immediately spotted the purple-haired girl beside me - Yu An Xue's sister, though he didn't know that, of course.

"Ah! Student Amethyst!" he called out. "I heard from some students that you were here a few days ago as well, but left the room before I could get here. Come up to the front, and do a little introduction."

Her name was...Amethyst? Hm...that was a rare name around these parts. It sounded foreign. Because of this, I knew immediately it wasn't her real name. It didn't begin with a 'Yu' for one, and second, it didn't sound like a name from here either. So then who had given her this name...? Herself, perhaps? I looked over to Yu An Xue and saw that she too, had her brows furrowed in thought.

Remembering that Amethyst didn't pay attention to anyone else, I prompted her to go up to the front and give an introduction about herself. She nodded and followed my instructions obediently. Then, as expressionless as ever, she began her introduction, eyes still focused on me.

"My name is Amethyst," she said.

...And that was it.

"Ah...i-is that all you want to say?" Mr. Wang asked, scratching his head.

She didn't give a response. I sighed and mentally smacked myself. In a desperate attempt, I discretely motioned for her using sign language to nod and then come back to me.

Surprisingly enough, she understood my meaning, and followed my instructions once more. Feng Mian and Qing Yue from beside me both witnessed this, and glanced over at me in surprise. Hey...don't expect me to have an answer. I'm just as confused as the rest of you are.

Making a mental note to inform Yu An Xue of this later, I began trying to find an alternative possibility as to why Amethyst was acting like this, other than having multiple personalities.

...And I still have to ask Yu An Xue for Amethyst's real name.

I keep forgetting...