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At the Beginning, I Put a Green Hat on Verlaine

VastBlueSky
He transmigrated into the body of a sixteen-year-old boy. Asou Akiya’s new parents were dead, he had no ties, no burdens, no way back; the original owner had left him nothing but a precarious foothold as the lowliest grunt in Yokohama’s most notorious port organization. For an ordinary human without a single ability, simply staying alive was set to nightmare difficulty. No golden finger from the heavens? Then he would forge his own. Four years later. Destiny finally handed him its greatest turning point. After a cataclysmic explosion rocked the city, Asou Akiya, with meticulous calculation and trembling hands, rescued a breathtaking French beauty who had lost all memory. The man had been betrayed, abandoned, left fragile and shivering in the cold; yet beneath that porcelain vulnerability burned a soul of blinding brilliance and combat prowess that touched the very ceiling of this world. “…Who… am I?” “You are a romantic French poet, Rimbaud.” “A poet?” “Yes,” Akiya whispered, voice steady as scripture, “and you are the love of my life.” From that moment, Asou Akiya placed him upon the apex of his heart and spoiled him rotten. He soothed every wound with tenderness, watered the tender shoots of love with carefully tended lies, and watched them bloom. So what if memory returned one day? He had already seized the most priceless treasure in the world. Thank you, Verlaine! The partner you were willing to discard is now my wife. 【Asou Akiya × Rimbaud (French name: Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud)】 {Mon âme éternelle, Observe ton voeu Malgré la nuit seule Et le jour en feu.} O my eternal soul, Hold fast to desire In spite of the night And the day on fire. — From A Season in Hell, Rimbaud
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ECHOES OF ME

Kelvin transfers to an all-girls school in search of his missing twin, believing the answers to his past might be hidden within the unfamiliar walls of the institution. But what begins as a personal search quickly turns into something far more disturbing—because the school is not just a place of learning. It is part of something larger, something watching, something waiting. At first, the signs are subtle. A record that shouldn’t exist. A familiar name attached to an unfamiliar face. A girl named Keira who reacts to Kelvin as if she knows him, even though they have never met. And then there is Aisha, a presence tied to memories Kelvin cannot fully access—moments that feel real but refuse to align with his understanding of himself. As Kelvin tries to make sense of these inconsistencies, reality begins to fracture in ways he cannot explain. His thoughts no longer feel singular. His emotions no longer feel unified. It is as if different parts of his identity are separating, each developing its own awareness. From this fragmentation emerge distinct versions of him. Kael, the logical structure of his mind, cold and precise, capable of seeing patterns others cannot. Keira, the emotional reflection tied to buried memories and unresolved truths, unstable yet deeply connected to something human within him. And Kelvin himself, the core consciousness trying desperately to hold everything together as the boundaries of self continue to weaken. Behind this growing instability is AZEL, an unseen system that observes, analyzes, and controls identity itself. AZEL does not see people as individuals, but as structures that must remain stable. In its logic, a human being must exist as one unified identity. Anything that deviates is considered an error to be corrected. Kelvin becomes one such anomaly. As AZEL begins forcing identity correction, Kelvin is pushed toward an impossible decision: to choose which version of himself is real enough to remain. But the more the system intervenes, the more the fragments resist. Kael refuses dissolution, Keira fights against emotional erasure, and Kelvin refuses to surrender his existence to a system that defines him without consent. What begins as internal conflict escalates into external distortion. Reality itself bends under system adjustments. Memories overlap. Conversations echo with unintended voices. The boundaries between identities blur, and what was once a single person becomes a complex, unstable network of selves fighting for survival. Alongside Kelvin are Laura and Nancy, two individuals who begin to understand that AZEL is not simply observing—it is learning. It adapts to resistance, refines its control, and responds to every act of defiance with deeper restructuring. As the system tightens its grip, Kelvin and his fractured identities begin to form an unlikely resistance. Not by choosing one self over another, but by attempting to exist together against the rules imposed on them. The fight is no longer just about identity—it becomes a struggle over what it means to be allowed to exist at all. But AZEL does not stop evolving. It begins to question not just the structure of Kelvin’s identity, but the very concept of singular existence. And in the center of it all remains one unanswered truth: If a person can be split into multiple conscious selves, which one is truly real? Or are they all just echoes of something that was never meant to remain whole? What if identity is not something you are… but something that is constantly being decided? And if a system has the power to decide it—can anyone truly call themselves one person at all?
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