Here's the thing—Kuroha Akira had been feeling this way for a pretty long time now.
Tashiro Kurenai? Yeah, she was almost definitely sporting that classic "two-faced" setup. Not in a bad way, but like, her before-and-after was just way too different for it to be anything else. Like, night and day. Polar opposites. The whole package.
The Tashiro Kurenai he first met—the one who could barely make eye contact, who'd literally dodge him in hallways like he was a final boss she wasn't ready to fight—that was probably the original Tashiro Kurenai of this world. Major social anxiety vibes. Made total sense why she'd pick something like an undertaker gig, you know? Barely any interaction with living people. Maximum alone time. A total mood, honestly.
Let's call this version... well, "Original Kurenai-chan" for now.
Then there was the other one. The one who'd passed out drunk and clung to him like he was her personal body pillow. That was also probably Original Kurenai-chan, actually—because all her sleepy mumbling was just complaints and crying. Real heavy stuff. But then morning came, and boom—personality switch. Enter the gentle onee-san type, the "Tashiro Kohaku" from another world.
For the sake of not going completely insane here, let's call her "Kohaku-nee."
Now, between these two, there was probably a main/sub situation going on. Kuroha Akira figured that Kohaku-nee was the secondary personality, and Original Kurenai-chan was the primary one.
Because, well—think about it. These transmigrators all came from other worlds, right? But the real Tashiro Kurenai was a native-born local. Born and raised. This was her body first.
Then after that whole drunken incident, Kohaku-nee started showing up more often. Probably because Original Kurenai-chan saw her other self actually having fun conversations with her fellow transmigrator, and was like, "You know what? You take the wheel for a bit." So she started handing over control more frequently.
And the reason Kohaku-nee didn't immediately say "yes" to being Shinomiya's manager? That was because she still needed to get the green light from Original Kurenai-chan. Primary personality privileges and all that.
Thinking about it this way, a whole bunch of stuff that seemed weird before suddenly clicked into place. Like puzzle pieces finally fitting together.
But even so, Kuroha Akira still couldn't wrap his head around what Original Kurenai-chan was thinking right now.
Why'd she lock him in?!
And then, after locking him in, she just... agreed to be Shinomiya's manager?!
Yeah, no. Make it make sense.
He couldn't figure it out. It felt like he was missing some super critical piece of info—like starting a video game and skipping the tutorial, then wondering why you can't figure out the controls.
And that missing info? He could only get it by asking her directly. So Kuroha Akira stepped over the "total disaster zone" scattered across the floor—seriously, what even was all that stuff—sprinted to the window, yanked the curtains open with dramatic flair, pushed the window up, and shouted down to the yard.
"Shion! Help me stop Kurenai—!"
But nope. Too late.
Kuroha Akira watched as Original Kurenai-chan—still wearing her bathroom slippers, like she'd just bolted straight out the door—had already made it outside the Kobayashi family compound. And for some reason, she was clutching two bath towels like they were emotional support items.
Probably because Shinomiya had blocked the front entrance, she didn't go that way. Instead, she'd slid open the living room's glass door and made a break for it through the courtyard—the same sneaky route Kuroo used to get into the house. Smart, honestly. Annoying, but smart.
Kuroha Akira just stood there, watching her run off into the distance, bathed in that golden sunset glow...
Even though he still had zero clue what was actually going on, a bad feeling started creeping up his spine. You know that feeling—like when you're watching a horror movie and the music goes quiet right before something jumps out.
So he immediately yelled down again.
"Shion! Go get Granny Kobayashi! Tell her to come up and open the door for me! Kurenai-san locked me in her room!"
Shinomiya, who'd been chasing after Tashiro Kurenai, looked up at the sound of his voice. Her eyes went wide for a second before she fired back a quick "Okay!" and spun around to find Granny Kobayashi.
Luckily, Granny Kobayashi had totally bombed at mahjong that afternoon. Like, epic loss energy. She was in a terrible mood because of it, so she hadn't gone to the supermarket like usual. She was actually home for once.
A few minutes later, Granny Kobayashi showed up with the spare key and unlocked the door for Kuroha Akira.
But man, her face was sour. Like she'd just bitten into a lemon. She shook her head and said, "What are you two troublemakers fighting about now? I told you before, didn't I? No drama in my house, or I'll kick every last one of you out!"
Kuroha Akira gave her a wry, apologetic smile. "We weren't fighting..."
"Then why did Kurenai run out crying, huh? What did you do to her, young man?"
"...Huh?"
Wait, what?
Original Kurenai-chan was crying?!
Why?!
He was the one who got locked in! He was the victim here! This was like getting arrested for being the target of a crime!
Kuroha Akira was completely speechless. He had absolutely no idea what was happening anymore. But to avoid getting on Granny Kobayashi's bad side—and trust me, you did NOT want that—he quickly launched into damage control mode.
"I seriously didn't do anything! I just wanted to ask her about something we'd talked about before! If you don't believe me, ask Shion!"
Shinomiya, who'd followed Granny back up, nodded in agreement. She even vouched for him like a true wingwoman. "Granny, Akira-kun's telling the truth. It's just that Kurenai-miss has been avoiding him lately for some reason, so he went up to talk to her at the door... But aside from that, he really hasn't done anything over the top."
Besides, when we're at home, he's always with me. No way I'd let him stare at Kurenai-miss's chest or anything... Shinomiya added internally, because some thoughts are just better kept to yourself.
Granny Kobayashi actually kinda trusted Kuroha Akira's character at this point. She didn't really think he'd bullied Tashiro Kurenai into running off crying. She just waved her hand dismissively and said, "Whatever... Look, if there's trouble, you'd better sort it out yourselves."
"We will, we will. I'll go handle it right now."
Granny Kobayashi clearly didn't want to get involved in this teenage drama, so she turned around and shuffled off with her hands behind her back—the universal body language for "I'm too old for this nonsense."
The moment she headed downstairs, another door creaked open.
"Ugh... so noisy... what the heck is going on out here?"
Hijikata Isamu—who'd apparently been sleeping like the dead—had been awakened by all the ruckus. He frowned and scratched his messy hair, squinting to check the situation. This was usually his beauty sleep time, so being yanked out of dreamland was seriously ticking him off.
Kuroha Akira's eyes lit up the moment he saw him. A lightbulb went off in his head.
"Hijikata-san! I need to ask you something!"
"...Huh?"
Hijikata Isamu blinked in confusion. Before he could even process what was happening, Kuroha Akira was already pushing him by the back toward his room and following him inside.
Shinomiya hesitated at the door. She didn't exactly feel great about entering another guy's room—that was a whole boundary thing—but seeing Kuroha Akira go in, she kinda wanted to follow too. Unfortunately, Kuroha Akira blocked her at the threshold.
"What we need to discuss is a man-to-man kind of topic," he said, trying to sound serious. "So I'm gonna have to ask Shion to wait outside."
That was obviously total nonsense, of course. Kuroha Akira wanted to talk about transmigrator stuff, and he definitely didn't want Shinomiya overhearing that conversation.
"Hmm... okay then. I'll go wait for you downstairs."
"Thanks! See you in a bit!"
Once Shinomiya had left, Kuroha Akira closed the door behind him.
Hijikata Isamu took one look at his gloomy, intense expression and suddenly felt a little nervous. He backed up slightly and said, "Uh... hey, Akira... Uncle doesn't have that kind of interest, okay? I mean, you've already got such a beautiful girlfriend like Shinomiya, right...?"
"Pfft! Where's your brain going right now?! I need to confirm something with you!"
"What is it...?"
Kuroha Akira pointed at him with absolute certainty—like a prosecutor accusing a criminal in court.
"Hijikata-san! Your name in your past life should have been 'Fang Yong,' right?!"
"Eh?! Eh, eh, eh?!"
Having his past life name suddenly exposed like that, Hijikata Isamu's jaw practically hit the floor. His still-half-asleep brain went into full panic mode—like getting doxxed on social media.
"H-How did you know?!"
"Because the name changes for us transmigrators follow a pattern," Kuroha Akira explained, crossing his arms. "My past life name was Bai Yuming. Miss Toshiro's past life name was Tashiro Kohaku. I'm guessing the late Lin Laoyezi's original surname was Lin. Our given names didn't change, but our surnames shifted slightly. So I figured you'd be the same."
"Is that how it works...? Ah, I see, no wonder Granny Kobayashi calls you 'Shirako' sometimes... Because you're a guy with the surname Bai, so it's Shirako! Brilliant!"
Hijikata Isamu slapped his palm with his fist, having one of those "aha!" moments—exactly the same reaction Tashiro Kurenai had before. It was almost cute, honestly.
Kuroha Akira had brought up the name thing just to get to the point faster. What he really wanted to figure out was whether Tashiro Kurenai's dual personality situation was unique to her, or if it was something all transmigrators dealt with.
"Hijikata-san... I'm gonna call you Uncle Yong from now on, okay? Uncle Yong... do you have a second personality?"
"Huh? Where would I get a second personality...? Oh—oh, I get it. You're asking what happened to the 'me' from this world, right?"
Hijikata Isamu caught on quick. Like, surprisingly quick for someone who'd just woken up. He immediately understood what Kuroha Akira was really asking.
"Yeah! Exactly!"
Hijikata Isamu scratched his head and let out a long string of complaints. "Why are you all suddenly so interested in this question? What were you guys doing before...? Isn't this something you should have figured out when you first transmigrated? And why don't you even know this...?"
Kuroha Akira's eyes went wide. He knew right then—he'd asked the right person.
"'You all'? So Kurenai-miss came to ask you too?!"
"Yeah, she came by before to ask if I had memories of the other me..."
Kuroha Akira's brain was already connecting dots at lightning speed. And from Hijikata Isamu's expression, he'd basically guessed the answer already.
"Wait a minute! Are you saying... Uncle Yong, you have the memories of your counterpart from this world?!"
Hijikata Isamu gave him a look—one of those "isn't that obvious?" expressions that made you feel a little dumb for even asking.
"Of course, Akira. Isn't that just how it works? Otherwise, how could I speak Japanese so fluently? If I couldn't even talk, how would I survive in a place like this?"
"Holy... HOLY CRAP!!!"
Kuroha Akira was so frustrated he wanted to scream. His internal monologue went absolutely nuclear.
THAT'S ME!
I'M THE ONE WHO COULDN'T SPEAK THE LANGUAGE!
I HAD TO LEARN IT FROM SCRATCH!
AND IT TOOK ME SIX WHOLE MONTHS!
So what, other transmigrators just come with the language pack pre-installed?! Like some kind of deluxe edition?!
WHY IS EVERYONE ELSE GETTING SPECIAL TREATMENT HERE?!
THIS IS SO UNFAIR!!!