I Can't Stand You, You Workaholic!

[Also known as My Second Personality Makes Me Give Up, and I Work for My Frail and Helpless Boss Mom]

When Asou Rie was six, her mother, who had always kept her company and urged her on, suddenly disappeared.

As a little girl, she always thought her mother had left without a word because she hadn't tried hard enough or been good enough.

So, from elementary school onward, the name Asou Rie became every child's nightmare.

"Look, Asou from your class gets first place every year!"

"How can there be such a well-behaved little girl as Rie? Look at you, stealing bird eggs from a tree!"

A little kid, fed up with being scolded, blurted out, "So what! She's a wild child with no parents."

Rie thought that if she became the best child, her mother would come back.

But when she gave a speech as the outstanding graduate at her elementary school graduation ceremony, the faces of the crowd below blurred together, their shifting light and shadow clouding her vision. Her mother hadn't come.

"Then why the hell are you still working so hard? I stayed up writing your speech last night, and my hand hurts like hell." The other "Rie" living inside her spoke for the first time in six years.

"Who cares if she comes back? I'm giving up."

Even after starting middle school, Asou Rie still held fast to her beliefs. From the day she enrolled, the title of top student at Kitagawa First Middle School never left her hands.

She ignored the mysterious bruises that appeared on her body and studied for six hours straight despite her aching muscles.

Then she woke up in agony from the bloody, mangled wound on her back. It was the first time in eight years of school that she had ever taken a day off.

"Come clean. You've been taking side jobs behind my back?"

"Uh, I was just helping an organization with a little job. They said they had news about that woman."

After that, Rie worked her little "side job" into a mission schedule.

"Seriously? I just wanted to make a little money. You're making me work for them now...?"

Working for them was one thing, but Asou Rie went from taking only outsourced jobs to climbing the ranks of the Black Organization and meeting the final Boss, only to discover...

Uh, the Boss looks a lot like my missing mom.

Bonus Scene 1:

"I want to change my name. This 'Rie' doesn't suit me at all."

"Fine. I'll be Rie, and you can be Noe."

"Hey, what the hell? Are you making fun of me?"

"Don't go on about your mom. She's not only my mom."

Bonus Scene 2:

Asou Rie, the top student at Kitagawa First, turned down a recommendation to Aoba Johsai, but in the end she showed up at Karasuno High School's freshman welcome party.

A former middle school classmate once came over to ask her quietly, "Weren't you going to Shiratorizawa? How did you end up here?"

For once, she was at a loss. "I was an idiot on exam day."

"Wait, who was it that had such a bad stomachache that she couldn't even think, and made me tough it out and sit the exam for her?!"

Theme: Self-improvement