Partner (manga)

Partner (パートナー) is a shōjo manga by Miho Obana. Partner stands out from Obana's other work as much darker than her old work. High school freshmen and twins, Nae and Moe, and Ken and Takeshi, enjoy their lives as students and close friends. Until Moe suddenly dies in a traffic accident...and her corpse disappears? Between the vanishing corpse and a pharmaceutical corporation, her three remaining friends are struck with the reality that something is amiss in their world...

Characters

 * Nae Ousawa Nae is a high school freshman. Her twin sister, Moe, looks exactly like her except that her hair style is different and she seems to be more girly.  Nae is very skilled with the katana.  Life seems normal until Nae realizes that Moe has known that Nae had liked Moe's boyfriend, Ken Soeda.  The two fight, and in the end, Moe gets killed by a hit-and-run driver.  Nae has a connection to this.  She senses that something is not quite right with Moe.  The Ousawa family and the Soeda twins arrive and after what seems to be a huge confusion in the hospital, it is discovered that Moe's corpse has disappeared.  Earlier in the story, the foursome watch TV and learn that a lot of corpses have gone missing.  After Moe's death, the three remaining friends go on a vacation.  During that vacation, they see a figure that looks exactly like Moe.  It IS Moe...but she is different than what she was before.  The three end up working for the horrible faculty of Professor Koushin.
 * Moe Ousawa She is the younger twin sister of Nae. She started going out with Ken half a year ago before the story starts.  She, for some reason, had known all along that Nae had liked Ken.  After telling Nae about this, Nae becomes angry and yells at Moe, telling her that she hated her.  Soon after, Moe dies in a car accident and becomes the fourth successful L.S.P., aka Living Stuffed People.  She belongs in a so-called family, which are pretty much the other stolen corpses.  Moe is 'married' to another L.S.P.,Toshiaki.  The two have a baby, and the baby was from Moe Ousawa's uterus, and this makes Ken go crazy when Moe takes him to see her baby, which looks very much like a creepy alien.  Later, Ken takes her on a date, and he commits suicide, knowing that he and Moe can never be together.  In the background, the professor behind this inhumane experimenting, says two words: good luck.
 * Ken Soeda He is the older twin brother of Takeshi. He becomes jealous after knowing Toshiaki is married to Moe.  This is strange, since Ken knows that Moe is not the real Moe he knows.  He keeps fooling himself because of this.  He later signs a contract stating that once he dies, his body will be used as the next experimented corpse.  He desperately wants to go back to the days when Moe was still alive, but Ken commits suicide once realizing he truly cannot be by Moe's side.
 * Takeshi Soeda He is in love with Nae and cares deeply for her. He cares for his brother because he is worried about losing him.  Takeshi wants to make sure Ken doesn't do anything crazy, and both him and Nae are confused when Ken takes the L.S.P. Moe on a date to the beach.  He also has a connection to his twin, which occurs when Ken commits suicide.  The reader can infer that later on, Ken Soeda's corpse will be used as the next L.S.P.  But, it depends on how much the damage on Ken's body after the suicide incident.

Throughout the story, you can wonder how the parents of the twins are like. They take no action to search for them, and they do not seem to worry. The only other way the parents aren't involved is that they may assume the three were still on vacation, or the faculty simply does not have a TV.

Volumes

 * 1) ISBN 4-08-856200-3 published in April 2000
 * 2) ISBN 4-08-856222-4 published in August 2000
 * 3) ISBN 4-08-856244-5 published in December 2000