Chihiro's mouth opened wide. She pointed at Rin and Hana, trembling in place. And then she fell back in a complete dead faint.

Yuri facepalmed. "Rin Senpai..."

Rin turned to look at Yuri. Then she looked at Chihiro completely passed out on the floor and Suzume trying to wake her up. Then Rin let out an embarrassed laugh. "...Ehe... Sorry?"

Yuri sighed.

===

When Chihiro woke up, there was a long conversation convincing her that, one, the office definitely wasn't haunted and that she wasn't seeing a ghost, two, she wasn't being haunted by the vengeful spirit of Rin who had died a tragic death (she definitely hadn't), and three, this wasn't retribution for her becoming a gyaru as soon as the school year started again.

Though, considering Chihiro's reaction, Yuri was sure the current gyaru, formerly a bit strange high school girl, had a giant guilty conscience...

But that wasn't too important right now. Instead...

The girl who looked a lot like Rin cosplaying Hana Homura bowed her head and then said, "It's nice to meet you properly!" She straightened her body and then waved at everyone. "I'm Hana Homura! But I think you already know me, right?"

...Yeah, figuring out this situation was more important.

Chihiro peeked out at Hana from behind Yuri and said, "H-Hana? Really? But..." She stared at Rin who was standing right beside Hana. "I thought that Senpai... but you're right there. And she's right there. But we're over here. And they're over there. And-"

Yuri shook her head and said, "Just sit back for a bit and process it, Chi-chan."

"Y-Yeah..." Chihiro nodded and leaned back in her chair, covering her face. "I... I need a bit."

Yuri glanced between Rin and Hana. And then she rubbed her face and muttered, "This is really messing with my head too..."

Rin giggled. "Sorry about all this..."

Hana giggled too, sounding exactly the same. "I didn't mean to scare everyone."

Chihiro's eyes snapped open and she let out a strangled scream. "Could you STOP!?"

Yuri nodded. "Yeah... this is really messing with us. Right Suzume?" She glanced to the side to check on Suzume... only to see Suzume closing her eyes and muttering a series of Buddhist chants while making hand signals.

Hana noticed and then huffed, stomping her feet. "Hey! Stop trying to exorcise me! I'm not a ghost!"

Rin nodded. "Yeah! Hana is Hana!"

Yuri groaned and said, "You are NOT helping, Rin Senpai... Who exactly IS Hana anyway? Do you like have a twin or something?"

"Hm?" Rin tilted her head and said, "Of course not. Hana is just Hana, and I'm me."

Hana nodded. "Yeah!"

"..." Yuri sighed.

Rin sat down across from the Prodigy girls. Hana followed suit, sitting right next to Rin.

...It was really creepy. If Yuri didn't know any better, she'd think that Rin was in two places at once. Although Hana looked different, she didn't look THAT different. It was just like if Rin had put on some make-up, dyed her hair, and wore an idol uniform. Then there was the fact that their voices were EXACTLY the same...

Rin huffed and looked at Hana. "I told you sneaking out was going to make people confused!"

Hana looked guilty and said, "But it's boring! And Mister Titor said it was okay!"

"Well, look at our kouhais! They're terrified!"

Hana's face flushed and then she lowered her gaze. "I'm sorry..."

Rin sighed.

Yuri shook her head and said, "Okay, Rin Senpai. Please, just give us a straight answer."

Chihiro nodded furiously and said, "Y-Y-Yeah! D-D-Don't tell me that Hana is a body snatcher or something...? I-I-Is Rhea going to show up and try to take my place too...?"

Hana giggled. "Of course not, silly! You're you, and Rhea is you too!"

Chihiro's voice raised up a pitch and she said, "T-That doesn't help! Or explain anything!"

Yuri groaned and said, "We have a stream in a few hours and we STILL haven't decided on how we're going to do our collab, Rin Senpai. So, for the last time, PLEASE explain."

Rin nodded. "Okay, okay." She hummed and said, "Well, first of all, this really is Hana." She poked Hana's arm and said, "She's not REAL real. After all, Hana is a virtual idol. But since we have the IDOL bodies, she is!"

Yuri blinked. "Idol bodies?"

"Yeah!" Rin smiled and said, "They're the fancy virtual reality body doubles that Mister John made for us to do real life meet and greets!" She paused and then tilted her head. "...Did Mister Kai not explain them to you yet?"

Yuri stopped to think about that. "...I think I remember him saying something about a special costume for real life events. But..." She stared at Hana. Hana, who looked completely like a real person and was even breathing too.

"...Is Hana a robot then? No, an AI?"

"Huh?" Rin tilted her head and said, "Of course not. Hana's definitely human! And squishy flesh!" She reached over and pinched Hana's arm.

"Ow!" Hana jumped and then puffed her cheeks out. "Why'd you do that?!"

"Oh come on, it doesn't hurt that much- OW!"

Hana huffed and said, "See?"

Rin rubbed her arm, frowning. "...Meanie."

Yuri sat there, parsing all the information that was just dumped on her. And then she said, "Okay. So... I guess Hana is something like the main characters from Near Automata... And she's been bored so she's been going around pretending to be you, Rin Senpai?"

"Yeah!" Rin nodded.

"That's right!" Hana smiled.

"...I need a drink." Yuri mumbled.

Chihiro nodded. "Me too..."

Suzume's ear perked up and she instantly looked towards Chihiro. "You've been drinking, Chi-chan?"

"O-Of course not! I meant... h-hypothetically! S-Sheesh..." Chihiro looked to the side and said, "I-I'm not even of age yet, so I would never... I mean, Riri can, but I can't so it's not like I would sneak off to buy some pretending it's for Dad and drink them behind the school or anything..."

Yuri had a lot to say. Especially about how everything seemed to suddenly be an episode from a drama or something. But she focused and looked back towards Rin. "So to sum it up... Hana was bored, snuck out to be Rin Senpai, came back here, and when she heard us all, came down to check on us?"

Rin nodded. "That's right!"

Hana nodded too and said, "Exactly!"

"...But that doesn't explain how Hana is moving on her own and everything?" Yuri wracked her mind and said, "I think Uncle Kai said the IDOL bodies were just like a remote controlled thing... Does that mean you're controlling Hana right now, Rin Senpai?"

Rin tilted her head. "Why would I control Hana? She's my best friend."

Hana nodded. "Yeah! And I'm me."

Yuri frowned. And then she realized it.

'Oh. My. God. Rin Senpai is legitimately crazy.'

The IDOL bodies were just empty mannequins basically. Very realistic ones, but just mannequins. It was impossible for them to get up and move by themselves since it required 'someone' to be controlling the body.

And didn't Hana say it to Chi-chan? 'She said that Chi-chan was Chi-chan, but Rhea was Chi-chan too. But Rin Senpai said Hana was Hana and Rin Senpai was Rin Senpai, meaning... Rin Senpai had a split personality. An ACTUAL split personality... who was moving the IDOL body around as Hana. No, her split personality WAS Hana.'

Did Chihiro realize it too? Her eyes went wide, revealing her pink sparkly contacts. And then she gulped and shimmied closer to Yuri. "Haha... that's cool, Senpai..."

Rin smiled. "It is, isn't it?"

Hana nodded. "Yeah! It's nice being able to walk around and stuff instead of just being stuck inside Rin's head!"

'Oh yeah, definitely crazy. Is there no one normal at this company...?'

Yuri didn't know anymore. In fact, she didn't understand anything about what was going on.

So she did what she always did these days when something incomprehensible came up: treat it like it was normal and move on.

"Anyway," Yuri said. "What are we going to do for our collab, guys?" She looked at Chihiro and Suzume and said, "We only have a few hours to prepare... should we just talk?"

Suzume stopped her chanting and hand signs. She reluctantly looked away from Hana and then said, "I am fine with anything, Riri."

Chihiro took a deep breath and pointedly ignored Hana. Then she nodded and said, "Yeah. At this point, whatever is fine."

...

Yuri resisted the urge to sigh. Instead, she looked at Rin and said, "What do you and the others usually do for collabs, Rin Senpai?"

Rin hummed and said, "I usually just do karaoke with Alphy and Asako... But I think you three don't really like singing, right?"

Chihiro blushed and muttered, "Well, yeah. I suck at singing..."

Suzume nodded. "Only Riri has a good singing voice."

Yuri felt her face heat up and said, "I-I'm not THAT good. I just did a lot of karaoke in the past..."

And thinking back on the past...

...Yuri was really a bit wild, huh? To think she had been smashing doors in and forcibly recruiting people to try and make the perfect dish before she met John...

Hana raised her hand and said, "Oh! I know a fun collab idea!"

Yuri looked over and said, "Sure, Hana... Senpai?"

"Yep!" Hana giggled and said, "I'm your Senpai too, Miya! But anyway!" She clapped her hands and said, "Since you're all stressed... how about an onsen stream?"

"...What?"