So where, exactly, was the problem?
Why was Hijikata Isamu able to "share" this world's him—his memories and abilities—while I couldn't?
And Tashiro Benika came to ask about it too. Does that mean she doesn't have the memories either?
No… she has two personalities. Maybe the two personalities' memories don't connect.
Then what about me? I'm not a split personality, so why didn't I get any shared memories either…
Wait.
Am I really not a split personality?
Kuroba Akira wasn't so sure anymore, so he asked in his head.
Hello? Aloha? Moshi moshi? Hey, hey—anyone there?
Uh, Kuroba Akira—another me—my soul-bro and kindred spirit… are you inside me? If you are, give me a sign?
"…"
Okay. Enough screwing around.
If I really had a second personality, I should've noticed a long time ago.
More importantly, in the past half year, nothing about Kuroba Akira suggested anything like sleepwalking, and there'd never been any personality switching.
If the local personality were the primary personality, there was no way the transmigrator personality—Kuroba Akira—could be the one in control.
So it was pretty safe to say there wasn't another personality in this body.
To sum it up:
Kuroba Akira: no shared memories, no split personality.
Hijikata Isamu: shared memories, no split personality.
Tashiro Benika: no shared memories, split personality.
Three transmigrators. Three different cases.
This whole transmigration "standardization" thing is seriously a mess. What are the gods in charge of transmigration even doing?
Don't tell me they're like some blue, brain-dead goddess—managing to screw things up even when it comes to transmigrating?
To get to the bottom of the details, Kuroba Akira kept questioning Hijikata Isamu.
"Then, Uncle Yong—did you only get the memories and abilities? Or did those memories affect your personality too? Do you feel like you're still the same you?"
Faced with the question, Hijikata Isamu folded his arms and wore a complicated expression.
"Mm… Akira, that's a pretty abstract question… How do I put it… It's kind of like the Ship of Theseus."
The Ship of Theseus was a famous paradox.
Skipping the story, the paradox asks: if an object's components are gradually replaced, is it still the original object?
"Even though I feel like I'm still me, I've definitely been influenced by the existence called 'Hijikata Isamu' in this world. I inherited some of his feelings, too. So I guess… the two of us fused."
"Fused, huh…"
"Yeah. This world's me—Hijikata Isamu's unwillingness, his regrets, his sense of what-could've-been… I can feel all of it like it's my own… like I actually lived it…"
"Hold on. Why is it all unwillingness, regret, and wistful misery? Isn't there anything nicer in there?"
"Because he died."
"Huh? Wait… what?!"
Kuroba Akira didn't process it at first—and once he did, his eyes went wide.
Then Hijikata Isamu suddenly flipped it around and asked him with a teasing grin.
"What about you, Akira? When you first transmigrated, what was your situation? What was the you in this world doing?"
Kuroba Akira answered on reflex.
"Uh… I was at school. It was the first day of high school, right when we were doing self-introductions. And because I couldn't say a damn thing, my intro blew up in spectacular fashion."
"Yeah… that does sound like a pretty brutal social death. But compared to me, that's already a decent start—because I was literally on my way to dying."
"Uh…"
Hijikata Isamu tugged open his collar and showed his neck. Even now, there were abrasions and scars where a rope had choked him.
No wonder he always wore those stand-collar jackets that covered his neck—he'd been hiding the scars.
"The moment I opened my eyes, there was a rope around my neck. The me in this world was fucking hanging himself! I'd just died once already—then I transmigrated and I'm about to die again. I'm seriously C—… CAO… what is this…"
"That's… a hell-mode opening…"
Starting off by nearly getting hanged from a tree was even worse than the "starting in debt" scenario Akira had imagined.
"Luckily, I got pretty damn lucky. My body could still move. I thrashed around like crazy, and the branch the noose was tied to snapped—like a damn miracle… I barely escaped. But Hijikata Isamu didn't have that kind of luck. Or rather… it's exactly because he died that it became my turn to inherit his body."
"…!"
"At the time, I was sprawled on the ground coughing for ages, gulping fresh air. After the fear settled in, memories started flashing through my mind like a life reel. I understood why the me in this world chose to hang himself—and I could feel what he felt right before he died."
Hijikata Isamu repeated flatly, expressionless.
"So my situation is basically… borrowing a corpse to come back to life."
"I see. Borrowing a corpse to come back to life!"
"Yeah. After I came back to life, I inherited this world's me—his memories, his abilities, his experiences… and of course, his responsibilities and a whole mountain of debt."
"I see…"
Akira felt like if he'd transmigrated and found out he owed a mountain of debt, his first thought would've been, To hell with that, and he'd try to run.
But Isamu treated the debt like it was "his own problem," which was why he'd willingly become a corporate slave to pay it off.
Your mistakes. Your responsibility.
Not everyone could shoulder something like that. It meant Uncle Yong was the kind of man who didn't run—someone who could look a bleak life straight in the face.
While feeling impressed, Akira thought of something else.
"This… Uncle Yong, you told Benika-san about it too?"
"Yeah. She came to ask before you did, so I told her. It's not like it's some dark secret, and you're all transmigrators too, aren't you?"
With other people, Hijikata Isamu might've kept it to himself. But with fellow transmigrators like him, he didn't think it was a big deal—so he told everything straight.
And in that instant, Kuroba Akira understood it all. His pupils tightened.
He knew what Socially-Anxious Benika… what Tashiro Benika was trying to do.
Damn it…!
She was trying to die.
Socially-Anxious Benika wanted to kill herself and leave the body to Onee-san Benika!
After learning about Hijikata Isamu's case, she would naturally think: as long as the body's original owner dies, the memories and feelings can be inherited by the transmigrator—Tashiro Benika…
That way, the two personalities could fuse!
The reason Tashiro Benika was socially anxious was because she was that terrified of people—so terrified she couldn't bear it anymore.
But had she considered that memory fusion was something that happened when transmigration occurred?
Every one of them, every transmigrator, had a different case—there had to be a reason for it!
How could she be so sure suicide would fuse the two personalities? What if both personalities just got wiped out together?
This was way too impulsive…!
He had to catch up and stop her—right now.