Hijikata Isamu still didn't realize that sharing his transmigration experience had given Tashiro Benika the wrong idea.
It was only now that it hit him that the other two's situations might be different from his, and he asked with a bit of curiosity.
"Come to think of it, if you're asking me this, that means your cases aren't quite the same as mine, right? Akira, what about you and Tashiro-san? What's your situation? Don't tell me you've got split personalities too?"
But now that he'd figured out what was going on, Kuroba Akira didn't have time to keep chatting with Hijikata Isamu.
Before, he hadn't thought Benika-san running off was all that urgent—but now it had turned into a life-or-death emergency!
"We'll talk about it later when we get the chance! I've got something urgent—I have to go out! Uncle Yong, you should go back to sleep!"
"Oh…"
Hijikata Isamu watched in confusion as Kuroba Akira rushed out of his room. He scratched the back of his neck, but in the end didn't chase after him. Since he was already awake, he might as well go work…
...
As Akira ran downstairs, his brain spun at full speed.
Should he call the police?
Would there even be time?
No. There definitely wouldn't. By the time the police arrived and started searching, she'd probably already be—
What mattered most right now was figuring out where she'd go…
Don't panic. Panicking wouldn't help. The thing to do now was to pick the right place—if he chose the wrong direction to search, it would be too late for everything.
He stopped halfway down the stairs and glanced at his right palm. Class Rep's Talent helped him calm down fast, refocus, and think.
First, in terms of method: any way of dying that would damage the body could be ruled out. If the body's functions were ruined, there was no guarantee she'd "come back to life."
So he didn't need to worry about her jumping off a building or slitting her wrists.
A "leave the body intact" method like overdosing on sleeping pills was the most likely—but Akira remembered that when he'd seen Tashiro Benika running out from the second floor just now, she'd been holding two bath towels… She probably meant to use those towels as a noose.
The question was: where would she go to hang herself?
But it wasn't like he had no leads.
Time to put himself in her shoes—if I were Benika-san, what would I do?
Tashiro Benika didn't truly want to die. Her ultimate goal was to sacrifice herself and fuse the two personalities.
So even though there were countless ways to commit suicide, she'd still chosen hanging—in order to imitate Hijikata Isamu's experience as closely as possible, and make sure the fusion process went smoothly.
Which meant that besides choosing the same method, she'd most likely choose the same place of death too!
The moment that clicked, Akira spun around, took the stairs in huge strides back up to the second floor, and rushed to Hijikata Isamu's door.
"Uncle Yong! One last question—where were you when you first transmigrated?"
Hijikata Isamu, who'd been about to close his door, froze and shot back a question.
"Uh… you mean where I was when I tried to hang myself?"
"Yes!"
"Mm… I don't remember the exact spot anymore. That place was creepy as hell, and I bolted out of there as fast as I could… But I remember I ran into Kuro and Kobayashi-obaasan not far after I got out, so it was probably that abandoned shrine around here…"
An abandoned shrine!
There was only one abandoned shrine nearby!
The one where he'd first met Shiginomiya Shion!
"Good! That helps a ton!"
"Uh, Akira-san—don't do anything stupid…"
"I'm not going to! I haven't even gotten to live an easy life yet—there's no way I'm dying this early!"
Akira waved him off and charged back downstairs again.
When he got back to the first floor, he didn't have time to give Shiginomiya any extra explanation. He only tossed out, "I'm going to find Benika-san!"—then ran out the door with Tashiro Benika's pair of red high heels in his hands.
He'd brought those heels upstairs earlier to look for her, intending to "threaten" her with her precious shoes so she'd hurry up and make a decision. But before he could even use them, she'd shoved him into the room and shut him in.
This time, he took the shoes with him because his gut told him they were a key item—something he might be able to use to talk her out of suicide.
Once outside, Akira tried hard to recall where the entrance to that abandoned shrine was. He only remembered it was in a small wooded patch beyond the residential area…
Damn it. He couldn't remember exactly.
If he had Shiroi Shiori's Talent—[Memory B]—right now, that'd be perfect… Class Rep's Talent—[Academic Ability A]—boosted memory too, but only for rote memorization. It didn't help with recalling things, so it couldn't help Akira remember the shrine's exact location.
A grid search was out of the question. All he could do was look for the entrance while shouting.
"Kuroo! Kuroo, are you here?!"
"Meow~"
Kuroo appeared on a nearby wall, sitting neatly as it meowed at Akira.
You're actually here! Perfect timing!
He couldn't exactly count on a cat's intelligence, but at this point, all he could do was hope Kuroo could understand him.
Akira had tested before whether Kuroo could understand human speech, but the results were basically Schrödinger's cat. Sometimes Kuroo acted uncannily smart; other times it completely ignored people and was no different from any other little beast.
"Kuroo, can you take me to that shrine you took me to before? I'll buy you canned food after!"
"Meow, meow!"
After two meows, Kuroo jumped down from the wall, ran forward a short distance, then looked back at Akira as if telling him to follow.
It was the people-smart Kuroo! That was totally a "Deal!" just now!
Akira ran after it, and as he did, his own memory slowly stirred awake—this was the road he'd taken back home with Shiginomiya that day!
With Kuroo leading the way, Akira quickly found the entrance to the abandoned shrine.
He really had no idea what was going on with this place—to be left abandoned in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward, where land was worth a fortune, was absurdly wasteful.
But now wasn't the time to care about that. Akira rushed through the torii gate, sprinted up the stone steps, and entered the shrine grounds.
Trees surrounded the shrine—he remembered they were called the "chinju no mori," the guardian grove—but none of the trees here were big enough.
If Hijikata Isamu had hanged himself, he should've picked a large tree, which meant it was probably the sacred tree wrapped with shimenawa rope. That should be obvious.
He didn't see anything like that in his line of sight, so he cut across the approach path and ran straight behind the worship hall. Sure enough, beside the main sanctuary he found a thick sacred tree—and a pair of bathroom slippers.
Japanese people take off their shoes before suicide. That meant his guess was dead-on. Tashiro Benika really had come here to hang herself!
By now, Benika-san had already tied the bath towels to a branch into a noose. She'd dragged the offertory box in front of the shrine altar over as a "chair," climbed onto it, and slipped her neck into the loop.
"Wait! Benika-san! Don't do anything rash!"
"Mm…! Ghk…!"
But Akira's shout only panicked her further. In her flurry, she kicked the offertory box out from under her, and her body dropped.
"Damn it! Don't you dare die in front of me!"
Akira lunged forward, grabbed her swinging legs, and heaved up with everything he had.
With her legs supported again, Benika-san was hauled back before she even had time to fully feel the suffocation.
He'd made it—barely.
Kuroba Akira stopped Tashiro Benika from taking her own life.
---
T/N: oh right i changed blacktail to kuroo