Chapter 1: The Narcissist’s Cheat

“”Uwah…”” I reach out and touch the other person’s cheek. She does the same to me.

This was, without a doubt, me. The person in front of me had silky golden-blond hair, sparkling black eyes, and soft smooth skin.

In other words, this woman was dazzlingly beautiful like I’ve never seen before! Therefore, it’s me.

But why am I looking at another me? This definitely isn’t a mirror. It’s a real person.

…Or is it? She hasn’t moved or said anything since we saw each other. But she touched my cheek when I touched hers. Let’s try talking and figuring things out from there.

“”Hi! Who-“”

“”Oops. Excuse m-“”

“”……””

Eh? We’re talking at the same time and are even saying the same things.

…..Huh.

I raise my right hand and other-me does the same. Am….Am I controlling her too?

Oh! Let’s try dancing.

Left, right, pa! Right, left, ha! Wa♪ Wada♫ Ba♪

Like a mirror, the other me dances in exactly the same way.

“”Beautiful.””

Yep! I’m two people now!

……But why do I have a second me?

Huh?

Second me….Two of me….Two…players? Is this supposed to be the “cheat” Catheos mentioned?

…………

“”THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEANT BY PLAYER TWO! Can’t you do anything right!?””

I don’t know if he’s paying attention, but we both yell into the sky at that stupid god anyway.

What I wanted was a way to contact Kouta and let him take over if I ever ran into any problems! I know I’m awesome, but the point of my story was that I was the Player 2 being helped by Player 1! I wasn’t asking for another me!

……

We look back down at each other. So beautiful.

…Oh well.

This isn’t too bad either. I’d rather have Kouta, but another me is like I’ve doubled my excellence. I’ll be unstoppable either way.

But…

“”You…Why are you the wrong gender?””

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I…We….The mes decided to head into the forest to look for a little shelter while I figure things out.

Along the way, we pick up some plants and twigs that might work as temporary clothes. Being completely naked out in the elements is actually really uncomfortable. Wasn’t there anything that god could’ve done?

He seemed stupid, so I guess it’s silly to expect too much.

By the way…it was hard to tell before, but now that we’re doing different things, I’ve noticed that I can see and experience things through my other body as if it were my own. …Well, it is, though.

I’m looking down at my hands which are separating the plant fiber in the big leaf I plucked a while back. At the same time, I’m also watching other self’s hands stripping down ivy to use its stems as string.

This doesn’t only apply to what we see or feel either. It turns out that this isn’t exactly like a second body I’m controlling as a “Player 2”, because I’m also thinking her thoughts at the same time. We’re joined together weirdly like a single person and it’s a little hard sort out which one of us is feeling what, but she also has her own thoughts and feelings.

It’s kind of annoying and complicated to wrap our heads around, but this is something important to understand.

Because we also have different memories.

I’m Takara Beauchene, the almost-perfect human being who came here to protect his precious brother Kouta Beauchene.

…And I’m also Takara Beauchene, the almost-perfect human being who came to this world to protect her precious brother Kouta Beauchene.

Yes, we have the same background and want the same things. When we think of Kouta, the image that comes up is the exact same between the two of us. But the gender doesn’t match.

There’s also small differences in our history and memories, like how male Takara didn’t break his high school soccer records, or how female Takara didn’t sing at the college charity drive.

So which one of me is the real Takara? Both memories feel like they’re real, but it can’t be both either, because I can remember being in two different places doing different things on certain dates like birthdays. Umu…it’s a troubling problem…

Oh, wait! I know! We’re both here to find Kouta! Unless he made a cheat exactly like mine, there should only be one of him! His memories should only match one of ours.

Ah. The bandeau I improvised from plants is finished. I turn my female body around and help tie a knot behind her with my male one. Nn. Not too loose or too tight.

Having a second body is actually pretty convenient. And now that I think about it, it’s like I’ve suddenly done a bunch of stuff I hadn’t in the past. The amazing skills and experiences of “Takara” as a whole have gone up and doubled. I really am cheating at life now.

Anyway, it’s giving me…us a headache trying to figure out which one is real, so we’ll just leave it to Kouta.

---

By the time we finished making our new clothes, the sun had already begun setting.

It’s gotten even colder now. Should we make some shelter now? Or maybe we should find one instead, since there’s not much time before dark.

….Actually, we’re hungry. Let’s find some food instead. I seem to remember some sort of advice about wanting to definitely have shelter before dark, but it’ll probably be fine.

Since it’s the forest, it’s going to be fruit, right? I might be able to catch animals if I tried, but it’s probably going to be super messy and kind of gross to prepare. I just made these new clothes too.

Therefore, I’ll look for fruit.

I and my other self head out and wander around with one looking high and the other looking low.

Haha, having two pairs of eyes at the same time is pretty cool. It’s like I’m looking from a third person perspective.

Hmm…This is supposed to be a whole new world, right? It doesn’t look particularly different so far. The plants seem to be a brighter shade of green and the thickness of the tree trunks and branches are much different from anything I saw around home, but that’s it. Plants like this might actually exist somewhere in my world too.

Oh, hey! Some berries. Colorful red and black ones. There’s plenty of them in the bushes here and there, so they’ll do! Let’s quickly start gathering them up.

I wonder why, I feel like I’m forgetting something here. The sort of thing that Kouta would shout at me for. Kouta’s always fussy about this and that, so I get nagged a lot.

…Haa…I wonder how Kouta’s doing? He must be stressed out now that he’s suddenly had a bunch of another world’s problems dumped in his lap.

Oh, the berries are sweet and delicious. It’s already better than what I’ve bought from stores in the past, how lucky.

Anyway, I think that clumsy god said something about sending him to a special place for Heroes, so that’s where I’ll be heading. Just wait for me Kouta. Your big brother/sister is coming for you.

Ah…While I was occupied gathering up berries, it’d already gotten dark. I guess that means I should build some shelter now.

………

…Ooooh. So that’s why we’re not supposed to wait for it to get dark before we start building shelter. It’s annoying to gather materials and hard to see what you’re doing.

In the end, I decided it wasn’t worth the trouble and just looked around until I found a comfortable enough-looking place to rest at.

The good-enough place ended up being the hollow trunk of a big tree. I’ll probably get dirty, but I guess that’s to be expected in the wilderness. With a second body, tidying up in the morning might be a little easier.

…

Mmm~

My two selves snuggle together to keep warm for the night and I’m quite comfortable and snug to hug♥

Ah…as I start drifting off to sleep, my thoughts go back to Kouta.

Wait for us Kouta. We’ll find and protect you from this unknown world. You don’t have to be a hero for anyone but me. I’ll take care of everything.

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Author’s Ramble:

Oh man. It’s a good thing basically nobody is reading this novel as of this chapter, because I took ages to release a relatively short chapter. Whoops. I don’t even have a good excuse or anything. Something-or rather, nothing just happened.

Anyway, on to the actual talk about the story. Hopefully it wasn’t too obvious until now, but the nature of Takara’s special ability is the reason I’ve been doing my best to keep their gender vague. I don’t plan on setting a “true” gender to them either, and will just leave it up to the readers’ imaginations.

It’s not like this is going to be terribly important, but it’s an idea that I couldn’t imagine going any other way. Plus, it’ll be funny, I’m sure.

It’s worth mentioning, though, that the idea for this entire story sprouted from this one concept of a “Player 2” cheat. That’s neat, I think.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you’re having a nice day! =‿=

• The Narcissist Follows Their Brother to Another World