The two figures lying on the ground suddenly jolted awake.
"?!"
"What's going on?" ×2
"Where are we?" ×2
"Why does my voice sound like this—" ×2
"And this body too?!" ×2
"You, the blue-haired one! Who are you, and why are you copying me?!"
"Hmph↓ And who's this red-haired wild child? You're not even wearing clothes—what shamelessness!"
Right from the start, the red-and-blue duo achieved an Xyz combo of four sentences in perfect sync—excellent potential for a pair of future Number 39: Utopia enthusiasts.
Judging from their emotional volatility, it seems neither of them suffered the same loss of affect that I did.
Watching the two nearly start bickering again, the golden-haired girl ticked another box off her mental list of hypotheses.
After another brief round of noisy squabbling, the red and blue girls finally calmed down enough to look around—only to spot the silent golden-haired figure who had been observing them the whole time.
"Wait, what?! There's someone else here?!" ×2
Another perfect combo.
"It's our first meeting… my other selves." The golden-haired girl's tone was calm—but her words were a thunderclap.
As expected, both froze. The red-haired one even tried to retort.
"What the hell are you babbling abou—"
Her protest abruptly stopped mid-sentence.
A strange familiarity seeped out from deep within her soul, whispering the truth of who the person before her really was.
"Exactly what you're thinking," the golden girl said with a nod.
If they truly were all parts of the same self, then those words alone would be enough to make them understand.
"We were once a single being—but some power divided us into three separate individuals."
"You're my dad's illegitimate daughter!"
Golden You Ling: "…"
The gap between individuals was greater than expected, and being interrupted like that left her utterly speechless.
"We're the same person?!"
The red-haired You Ling blinked, dumbfounded.
"Y-you—what nonsense are you spouting?! There's no way I'm—"
"Quiet. Give me your hands."
Abandoning inefficient verbal explanations, the golden You Ling chose a far more direct method.
Despite their confusion, both of the smaller girls obeyed instinctively and offered their hands.
Her tone hadn't been harsh—but it carried a kind of pressure that made defiance impossible.
Golden You Ling took one small hand in each of hers.
In the next instant, a faint pulse of resonance ran through them, like an electric current sparking from soul to soul.
"Eh?! This feeling… it's weak, but it's like our souls are still connected somehow."
The red You Ling looked amazed.
"More precisely, it's the gravitational pull left behind when a single soul is torn apart."
The blue You Ling frowned. "That makes no scientific sense…"
The golden-haired girl released their hands, letting the lingering connection fade into the air.
"Tell me—what do you remember before you lost consciousness?"
"Ah! I remember! I was in the middle of a duel, and then—whoosh!—everything went white, and that's all."
The red one waved her hands dramatically.
"Same here. My memory's basically identical to hers," the blue one said, folding her arms.
"And you?"
"As for me… I retained a sliver of awareness after that. I could feel my soul being split into three pieces by that light."
"No way!"
The red You Ling's jaw dropped.
"If my soul was really torn into three, how am I even alive—much less with my mind intact?
And you're saying you and this blue-haired freak were split off from me?!"
Interesting. She instinctively assumes herself to be the original—so each of us now perceives ourselves as the primary self.
That realization told the golden You Ling something crucial: this wasn't a simple "one core, two clones" situation.
This was true separation—each fragment of the soul becoming a fully independent being.
A broken soul couldn't persist; it would have to cocoon itself anew, to emerge as a new life.
Then… the ones who rewove our cocoons of existence—it must have been you… the Egyptian Gods.
As the thought surfaced, she lifted a strand of her golden hair before her eyes.
The blue You Ling, who had been silent until now, did the same with her blue locks, rubbing them thoughtfully between her fingers.
Not to be outdone, the red You Ling grabbed a fistful of her own hair and began inspecting it, too.
2000 YEARS LATER…
Eventually, bored with the hair analysis, the red You Ling poked at the blue one.
"Hey, what are you nodding about? Did you figure something out?"
"Hmph↓ Amazing how much lower the IQ drops after the split. Looks like I'm the version that shed your mediocrity and stupidity."
"What did you just say, you blue-haired brat?! You were the one yelling 'That's not scientific!' five minutes ago!"
"And what's this about 'mediocre'? 'Stupid'? You short little—say that again if you dare!"
"Ugh, you're so loud! Be quiet, you red-haired megaphone!
Losing the part of me that embodies calm and intellect clearly turned you into a thoughtless fool."
"You—!"
"Bickering with yourself is amusing, but can we return to the matter at hand?"
The golden You Ling's distinct voice cut through their argument, silencing both right away.
"As you can tell, there's still a faint link between us—likely because our souls were only recently split and our new ones haven't fully formed yet.
But I can already feel those ties fading.
I can't even sense your emotions anymore. It seems we're each developing into fully independent beings."
The blue You Ling nodded thoughtfully. "So in biological terms, it's like meiosis.
Our 'nucleus,' or soul, divided and is now regenerating into separate cells—differentiated by external influences."
"Uh?"
The red You Ling's face became the very picture of "??"
"Exactly. And those 'external influences,' I suspect, are the powers of the Egyptian God Cards.
Evidence: our current faces look almost identical to the genderbent figurines of the Three Gods you—well, we—had on display that day."
Skipping over the confused redhead, the golden You Ling elaborated:
"The gods' power fused with our fragmented souls, making them whole again.
But since an adult's soul was divided into three smaller parts, our bodies and apparent ages also regressed—to what you see now."
Only then did the red and blue ones finally look down and start inspecting their childlike forms, using the conveniently reflective rock beside them as a mirror.
As they busied themselves, the golden You Ling continued:
"As for why we look like this—perhaps divine irony.
Or maybe the gods, while reshaping our souls, simply used the nearest reference model.
Or, perhaps, this is just the natural form born from the fusion of human and godly essence."
After a full-body self-examination, the red You Ling concluded with admirable simplicity:
"You two are overcomplicating it. Meiosis, soul fusion, divine intervention—whatever!
Bottom line: we got screwed by the Egyptian Gods!
Tch—should've known better than to chant their incantations out loud! Why are those Egyptian geezers enforcing cosmic law across dimensions?!"
"Well, that's basically the gist of it," the golden You Ling said mildly. "Though calling it punishment might not be entirely accurate."
"What do you mean 'not punishment'? You're saying you're happy about this?!
I like waifu cards, sure—but that doesn't mean I wanted to become one!
That was my manhood! My comrade of decades, my battle buddy!
Why—why did I have to sculpt them as female versions of the Three Gods?! Waaaahhh~~!"
The red You Ling began wailing like a revving motorcycle.
So the body isn't the only thing that's regressed. The mind has, too.
"The 'little head' overruled the big one back then," the blue You Ling quipped dryly.
"Now that the little head's gone, I'd say poetic justice has been served."
"You—you heartless freaks!
Don't you even care?! That was the ultimate cheat code of the transmigrator! The most sacred relic of manhood!"
"The loss of an organ that, outside of urination, serves little practical use hardly concerns me," the blue You Ling replied coolly.
The red You Ling stared at her in horror. Was I really ever this cold?
Her shock was cut off by a light clap.
"Enough," said the golden You Ling. "I didn't mean punishment in that sense. I meant… this."
She slowly raised one hand.
A soft ring of golden runes spread out from her palm, rippling through the grass and over the nearby stones. Where the light passed, simple garments of white and gold—scaled-down versions of her own—materialized over the red and blue girls, covering them from shoulders to knees.
Red blinked. "Clothes?!"
Blue's eyes narrowed. "Direct divine-concept materialization… so you're the Ra fragment."
"Correct," the golden girl said. "Which means—"
From the forested slope below came the faintest rustle. A bird took off in panic.
Farther still—boots on dirt. Several sets.
And down at the coast, a Den-Den Mushi crackled to life.
Someone had reached the island.
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