The Twins’ Unique Ability

Half a day after beginning his assignment as the twins’ bodyguard, Tōru had once again lost the ability to tell them apart.

Since nothing particularly troublesome had happened, Tōru spent his time observing the girls, hoping to discover some way to distinguish them.

He couldn’t figure it out at all.

When the magical clock announced noon, the floor below suddenly grew noisy.

“It seems the employees have started taking their lunch breaks.”

“This building even has a cafeteria?”

“Yes. Until our parents died, most of the employees ate in the cafeteria. Nowadays, the majority eat elsewhere.”

Just as the twins had said, the commotion moved from downstairs to outside, spreading into the street behind the merchant company’s headquarters before dispersing in various directions.

Tōru watched the employees scatter from the window before turning back toward the twins.

“Aren’t you two going to eat anything?”

“We don’t need anything right now.”

“Fair enough.”

One of the twins was lying on the double bed, casually flipping through a book. The other was drawing pictures and writing something on a sheet of paper spread across the desk.

Apparently, these twins could understand Japanese, English, and German to some extent.

Even more surprisingly, they could apparently read books from other worlds entirely unfamiliar to Tōru.

“Researchers who study Otherworld Relics translate the languages into our own and compile vocabulary dictionaries. Although they don’t contain very many words.”

“Having you around makes reading much easier, Tōru-san. You’re quite an unexpected find. We’d almost like to keep employing you even after your bodyguard assignment ends.”

“Guess there are eccentric people in every world.”

Tōru had never particularly enjoyed studying back when he lived on Earth. Although he was impressed by the twins, he couldn’t help looking at them as though they were strange, incomprehensible creatures.

It wasn’t exactly the sort of gaze he should have directed at his clients, but the twins seemed accustomed to such reactions. They continued turning pages, occasionally asking Tōru how to read certain characters and writing pronunciation guides beside them.

For some reason, Tōru found himself remembering his old school library back on Earth.

Unlike students in a school library, however, the twins could hardly be described as well-behaved. One was sprawled across the double bed, lazily flipping through a book, while the other sat on a chair with one knee drawn up, scribbling away with a pen. She had skillfully balanced an open dictionary on her raised knee.

Having completely lost track of which twin was Euphie and which was Mary, Tōru was addressed by the one sitting in the chair.

“Can you read these characters?”

Tōru examined the writing beside an oddly detailed drawing of a bird that appeared to be a doodle before answering.

“That’s read as ‘kōgyoku.’ It could mean ruby or apple, depending on the context.”

“Apple?”

“There’s a variety of apple called Kōgyoku.”

“I see.”

Looking somewhat puzzled, the girl wrote “ruby” as a pronunciation and meaning note above the characters.

At that moment, Tōru noticed something peculiar and examined all the writing on the paper.

Realizing that the words were almost exclusively names of minerals and gemstones, he turned his attention to the book being read by the other twin, who was sprawled rather unladylike across the bed.

The girl on the bed held up her book’s cover toward Tōru, even though he should have been outside her field of vision.

The title on the cover read A Guide to Beautiful Minerals.

Taking her eyes off the book, the twin on the bed looked toward Tōru and smiled.

“Looks like you’ve noticed.”

“No, something feels strange, but I haven’t actually figured anything out.”

“You’re surprisingly slow on the uptake.”

“I’m an idiot, okay? Got a problem with that?”

“There’s nothing wrong with being ignorant. The problem is choosing to remain ignorant.”

Irritated by the harsh remark, Tōru voiced a theory he wasn’t particularly confident about.

“Do you twins share each other’s vision?”

If they had already extracted the unfamiliar characters from the book, asking Tōru about them one at a time would have been inefficient. It also seemed strange that one twin was still reading the very book from which the questions originated.

That was what had prompted his guess, although Tōru had considered another possibility as well.

“Or maybe you share your thoughts.”

“Impressive. You’re certainly not ignorant, Tōru-san.”

“Incidentally, what made you suspect we share our thoughts?”

“Because in the entire half day I’ve spent with you, you haven’t exchanged a single word with each other.”

Both twins smiled simultaneously.

“Exactly right.”

“Ever since we were born, we’ve been able to share-”

“-our thoughts. When we were little, our individual identities were rather vague, and it felt almost as though-”

“-we were one person with two bodies. Nowadays, we’ve learned to separate our thoughts, and we each-”

“-have our own sense of self, though.”

The twins spoke fluidly, each seamlessly continuing where the other had left off.

In other words, the twin lying on the bed had been reading the book, while the one sitting in the chair had been writing down the unfamiliar words and asking Tōru about them.

The twins standing before him were the living realization of a childish fantasy: what if you had another body?

Tōru immediately recognized that their unusual ability had enormous practical potential.

“How far apart can you get before this thought-sharing ability stops working?”

“We’ve managed to share our thoughts from opposite ends of town. We haven’t tested anything farther than that.”

“So, by using the two of you, it’s possible to communicate between distant locations?”

The twins giggled, regarding Tōru with the expressions of teachers looking at a particularly promising student.

“Hehe. The speed and accuracy of information are among the things merchants value most, you know.”

“Now I understand why Harran hasn’t simply driven you two out or had you killed.”

If Harran’s only objective was to seize control of the Ubaz Merchant Company, he had no particular need to marry the twins. He could have simply exiled or assassinated them instead.

There was always the possibility that Harran was merely a coward, but considering how deserted the residential quarters on the first floor had become, Tōru doubted the man would hesitate if he considered such measures necessary.

The twins evidently thought the same way, which was precisely why they had hired Tōru as their bodyguard.

“There are other reasons, of course.”

“But Harran chooses to remain ignorant.”

The twins directed cold gazes toward the floor below.

However, their expressions quickly brightened. They clasped their hands together and turned toward Tōru with delighted looks in their eyes.

“Tōru-san, since you’re an Otherworld Relic, why don’t we unusual people become friends?”

“This is a professional relationship. We don’t need to be friends.”

“Oh, come on. We’re interested in you. For starters, what was school like?”

“Are you from Japan?”

“What does riding in a car feel like?”

“Please tell us more about these things called video games.”

“What exactly is the internet?”

“What is dashi, the foundation of Japanese cuisine?”

“Have you ever eaten instant cup noodles?”

As though revealing their own secret had entitled them to learn all of his, the twins bombarded Tōru with one question after another.

Unable to escape from the two girls because of his responsibilities as their bodyguard, Tōru sighed and raised both hands in surrender.

“One question at a time, please. I’ve only got one brain and one mouth.”