So where exactly was the problem here?
Why did Hijikata Isamu get to keep all the memories and abilities from his counterpart in this world, while Kuroha Akira got absolutely nothing?
And the fact that Tashiro Kurenai had also asked about this—did that mean she didn't have those memories either?
No, wait. She had that whole dual personality thing going on. Maybe the memories of the two personalities just didn't sync up, like two different save files on the same cartridge.
But what about himself? He wasn't a dual personality case, so why didn't he get memory sharing...?
Hold on a second.
Was he really not a dual personality?
Kuroha Akira suddenly felt a little uncertain. So he did the only logical thing—he asked himself internally.
Hello? Hello? Moshi moshi? Is anyone there?
Um, Kuroha Akira—my other self, my soulmate, my supposed roommate upstairs—are you inside me? If you're there, make a sound or something.
...
Yeah, okay. Stop being an idiot.
If he actually had a dual personality, he would've figured it out ages ago. Like, come on.
In the past six months, Kuroha Akira hadn't shown any symptoms of sleepwalking. No blackouts. No sudden personality shifts where he woke up with amnesia or started acting like a completely different person. If the original personality of this body was the dominant one, then there's no way the transmigrator personality—his personality—could have taken control in the first place.
So yeah. Confirmed. No other personalities living rent-free inside Kuroha Akira's head.
Let's break it down:
Kuroha Akira: No shared memories, no dual personality.
Hijikata Isamu: Shared memories, no dual personality.
Tashiro Kurenai: No shared memories, dual personality.
Three transmigrators. Three completely different situations.
This transmigration system had zero quality control. Like, seriously, what were the gods in charge of this stuff even doing? Were they just slapping random settings on people and calling it a day? Were they taking pointers from a certain blue-haired useless goddess who caused more problems than she solved every single time she transmigrated someone? Because that would explain everything.
To clear up the details, Kuroha Akira pressed Hijikata Isamu further.
"So, Uncle Yong... did you only inherit memories and abilities? Or did your personality also get affected by those memories? Like, do you still feel like you? The original you?"
Hijikata Isamu crossed his arms, a complicated expression flickering across his face.
"Hmm... Akira-kun, that's a pretty abstract question... How should I put this? It's kind of like the Ship of Theseus, I guess."
The Ship of Theseus. Classic paradox. If you replace every single part of a ship, piece by piece, is it still the same ship at the end? Or is it something completely new?
"Even though I feel like I'm still me," Hijikata continued, "I've definitely been influenced by the existence of the guy named Hijikata. I inherited some of his emotions, his regrets... so I guess you could say we fused."
"Fusion, huh..." Kuroha Akira nodded slowly. Dragon Ball style? Or more like a quiet, gradual merge?
"That's right. The me from this world—Hijikata's regrets, his bitterness, his sorrow... I can feel all of them. It's like I experienced them myself."
"Wait a minute. Why is it all negative emotions? Regret, bitterness, sorrow? No good ones?"
"Because he died."
"...Huh? Wait—HUH?!"
Kuroha Akira's brain short-circuited for a solid second. Then the meaning of those words hit him like a truck—an isekai truck, specifically—and his eyes went wide.
Then Hijikata Isamu suddenly turned around and gave him a sly, almost teasing smile. "Hey, Akira-kun. What was your situation like when you first transmigrated? What was 'you' in this world doing at that moment?"
Kuroha Akira answered without thinking. "Uh... I was at high school. First day of high school, actually. Self-introduction time. But I couldn't say anything, so my self-introduction was a total train wreck. Like, legendary levels of cringe."
"Is that so... Sounds pretty embarrassing, sure. But compared to me? That's already a solid start. Because when I woke up in this world, I was literally in the middle of checking out—permanently."
"...Eh?"
Hijikata grabbed his collar and pulled it down, exposing his neck. The friction marks were still there—faint now, but visible. Scar tissue from where a rope had dug into his skin.
No wonder the guy always wore those high-collared jackets that hid his neck completely. It wasn't a fashion choice. It was camouflage.
"When I first opened my eyes," Hijikata said quietly, "there was a rope around my neck. The me from this world? He was in the middle of hanging himself. I'd just died once, and now I was about to die again right after transmigrating. Talk about a shock to the system..."
"That's... that's a total nightmare start."
Like, seriously. Almost getting strangled by a tree branch the moment you wake up? That was even worse than Kuroha Akira's original fear of transmigrating into debt. At least debt didn't strangle you.
"Luckily, I got lucky. My new body could still move. I swung back and forth a few times like a maniac, and then—crack—the branch the rope was tied to miraculously snapped. I fell to the ground, barely alive. Narrowly escaped death... but Hijikata wasn't so lucky. I guess you could say that because he died, it was my turn to inherit his body."
"..."
"I lay there on the ground for a long time, coughing and gasping for air. After the fear finally faded a little, the memories started flooding in—like a revolving lantern show, you know? I saw why the me from this world chose to hang himself. I felt everything he felt right before the end. His despair, his loneliness, his..."
Hijikata Isamu paused, his expression going blank for a moment.
"So my situation? I'd call it 'borrowing a corpse to bring a soul back to life.'"
"Borrowing a corpse... to revive a soul..."
"Yeah. After I came back, I inherited everything. Memories, skills, experiences... and of course, responsibilities. And a mountain of debt."
"...I see."
Kuroha Akira felt a chill run down his spine.
If he had transmigrated into a body with a mountain of debt, his first thought would've been something like, "Yeah, no, I'm out. Peace." And then he'd probably try to run away as fast as his legs could carry him.
But Hijikata Isamu treated that debt like his own problem. That's why he willingly became a corporate slave—working himself to the bone just to pay it off. He took responsibility for someone else's mistakes because, in his mind, that someone else was him now.
Not everyone could bear that kind of weight. That took guts. Uncle Yong was seriously a man who didn't run away—who dared to face a bleak, depressing life head-on.
While feeling that surge of admiration, Kuroha Akira's brain suddenly connected another dot.
"Hey, Uncle Yong... did you tell Kurenai about all this too?"
"Yeah, she came to ask me before you did. So I told her everything. It's not like it's some huge secret, right? And you're all transmigrators anyway."
If it were a normal person from this world, Hijikata might've hidden the truth. But to fellow transmigrators? He didn't think it was a big deal. So he laid it all out.
And in that exact moment—click—
Everything fell into place.
Kuroha Akira's pupils contracted.
He knew now. He knew what Tashiro Kurenai—Original Kurenai-chan—was really trying to do.
Damn it!
She wants to die!
Original Kurenai-chan wanted to end her own life. Wanted to leave her body behind for Kohaku-nee—the transmigrator, the other personality.
After hearing about Hijikata Isamu's situation, she'd naturally come to a terrifying conclusion: If the original owner of this body dies, then the transmigrator can inherit all the memories and emotions. That way, the two personalities can finally merge into one.
The reason Original Kurenai-chan was the way she was—painfully shy, socially anxious, unable to connect with others—was because she couldn't bear it anymore. The fear of humans had become too much. She wanted to escape.
But did she even think about whether memory fusion worked the same way for everyone?
Did she consider that the circumstances of each transmigrator were different for a reason?
What if she committed suicide and nothing happened? What if both personalities disappeared completely instead of merging?
She was way too impulsive!
Kuroha Akira's legs were already moving.
I have to catch up to her. Now.
I have to stop her before she does something irreversible.