I likely switched the names - for some reason I had it in my head that the original had the single syllable and the copy had the extra added syllable.

And yes.

Nao has one very good opportunity - she can continue to exist full time rather than being subject to Sunao’s petulant whims. If that were to happen (by whatever chance), Nao would be free.

But if that were to happen, Sunao would be pretty much screwed - she can’t compete and her spirit would likely be terminally crushed. So I assume that’s relatively unlikely.

A quick side note in all of this - in poking around yesterday to try to learn more about this, I discovered that the original is a light novel, and it won the Dengeki Novel Grand Prize for its year of publication.