After the events of the first volume, this one revolved around the Seiryou Festival. For Nao for the first time, she continued going to school uninterrupted, as Sunao wasn’t going to school for a month. Though as we get introduced to the former student council members, Suzumi Mori and Shun Mochizuki. They provide the news that the Literature Club is in danger of being shut down. Given a clear goal of selling more of the club’s magazine called Zine, the 3 members went fast to work.
A very interesting proposition from Ricchan to Mochizuki to have their clubs collaborate and do a play together on the last day of the festival. Mochizuki was interested only if he could play the prince to Mori’s princess. Mori herself played a notable role in this volume. As she aided in painting the cover for the novel that Ricchan would write up.
Though the real surprising reveal is that Mori herself is a Replica like Nao and Aki. In fact, Mori’s replica, whose name is later mentioned as Ryou was searching for doppelgangers like her if there was some way to save her original. One thing that seems clear is that, unlike Shuuya, whose life isn’t at risk while injured. The same can’t be said for the Mori. We do know from the last volume it doesn’t matter what happens to the replica. As long as the original is fine, they can call back the replica. However, that wouldn’t help Ryou save her original.
Much like Nao and Aki, Ryou had her own original story. It is similar to Nao in that Ryou was created for a problem that Mori wanted help with. When she was in kindergarten, she didn’t want to play the wicked stepmother, as one would imagine that role isn’t one a little girl would want to play. Also, unlike Nao and Sunao, their parents found out about the Ryou and divided the two and sent Ryou to live with Mori’s grandparents. Mori and Ryou are a scenario of what if Sunao’s parents learned about Nao’s existence. It should be mentioned that Mori’s mother gives a feeling of a woman who lacks empathy, while Sunao’s mother does seem to truly love her daughter. So even if Nao got caught who knows if she would have done what Mori’s mother did.
A consequence of Ryou being Mori’s replica is Mochizuki. Who confessed to Mori at the fireworks festival in July and hasn’t heard back from her since? It really stems from how awful Mori’s parents are because they want their daughter not to lose out on the progress she made in school, not thinking, is she even going to be living? Forcing Ryou to act as the daughter of the parents that looked at her as a monster.
For Ryou she truly loved Mori’s grandparents. From how she described living with them, it seems they truly treated her as their daughter. Interesting that the play that they end up doing is “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter”. Ryou who plays the role of Princess Kaguya ends up having to leave her grandparents to go back to the moon. Much like how Ryou is forced to leave her grandparent to pretend to be Mori for Mori’s parents. As the play has an emotional resonance in Ryou that leaves her in tears because she can empathize with Kaguya.
As the play starts, the performance mostly goes how everyone expects it. However, through Nao’s journey in the past October, she learned that Mori is actually a replica named Ryou. She knows of all the pain she has gone through. Rather than making Ryou endure another unhappy ending as she plays Kaguya as she leaves her parents. Nao allows Ricchan to change the script to allow Kaguya to stay with her grandparents. Which is more than what Ryou can ask for.
From this point on, this volume really starts to be quite cruel. At first, happiness for both Nao and Ryou as they read the letter that Mori wrote to her. Despite being separated from Ryou she truly loved her. As she didn’t want to force Ryou to play the role of stepmother when she was in kindergarten, as that falls more in line with Mori’s characterization. She even went behind her parents backs to ask her grandparents about Ryou.
It is at this point Ryou realizes why she does everything for Mori. Her feelings range so far, but she loves Mori. She brought her to this world, and despite all the pain that came with it, she wanted to make Mori happy. So that is why she agreed to pretend to be her. It does make you wonder if this is a love condition or if it is baked into these replicas. While Replicas can have their own feelings and desires, they are forever to love their original.
Tragedy happens when Ryou disappears and gives the answer of what happens to the replica if the original dies. As we learn from the last volume, a replica can’t die in the ways that a human dies. Rather, they are equivalent to an AC adapter plugged into the wall outlet. A replica can always come back if there is electricity. But once that electricity is gone, a replica can no longer be brought back. Replicas can have their own feelings and desires, but their life is dependent on their original. They seem unfair.
To even add more about Mori’s parents, even after the death of their daughter, they still give the letter from the original Mori to him. What does that do for him? He knows for sure that the Mori he was with wasn’t the girl he confessed to. It is an insanely cruel thing to do to the boy who was in love with their daughter. They must have known their daughter loved him too.
The light novel’s title is “Even a Replica Can Fall in Love”. Which really illustrates the story of volume 1. Meanwhile, volume 2 is much more heartbreak for Nao. She meets another Replica, and they bond and become friends. Nao couldn’t die, but she sees her new friend Ryou die because of the connection she has to her original. The saddest part for Nao is that the death of Ryou is not mentioned because it is better that people don’t learn about replicas. But with the papers mentioning a doppelganger in the school, there is no doubt there is about to be fallout from here. This volume title could be “Even a Replica Can Experience Heartbreak.” The pain Nao feels is akin to what every human experiences when they lose a friend or loved one.
As Nao returns home, she knows what Sunao plans to do going forward. Sunao will not be attending school every day. Nao has grown up in these past 2 volumes, where she has wanted more than just to be useful to Sunao. Of course she can’t pretend to be Sunao forever, and it is good Sunao plans to really go to school. But you can’t help but feel bad for Nao as she learns how to live, and now everything is crashing down.