Tokyo Soft Rice King.

Leaving the story aside, the question posed by this paradox is: if the constituent elements of an object are replaced, is it still the same object?

"Although I feel like I'm still the same person, I have indeed been influenced by a being named Hijikata Isamu and inherited some of his emotions, so I guess I should say that I've merged with him."

"Merger, ah..."

"That's right, I can truly empathize with Hijikata Isamu's resentment, regret, and sorrow in this world... it's as if I experienced it myself..."

"Wait a minute, why are all these negative emotions like resentment, regret, and pity? Aren't there any better emotions?"

"Because he's dead."

"Huh? Wait... Huh?!"

Kuroba Akira was momentarily stunned, and after understanding the meaning of those words, he was even more speechless.

Then Hijikata Isamu suddenly turned around and asked him a question with a mocking smile.

"Amin, what was the situation when you first transmigrated? What were you doing in this world?"

Kuroba Akira answered reflexively.

"Uh... I was at school, it was the first day of high school and it was time for self-introductions, but because I didn't know anything, my self-introduction was a disaster."

"Is that so... It sounds pretty terrible, but compared to me, it's a pretty good start, because I'm really on my way to death."

"Uh……"

Hijikata Isamu pulled open his collar, showing his neck, where scars from being strangled by ropes still remained.

No wonder he always wore a stand-up collar jacket that didn't expose his neck; it turned out he was trying to cover the scar on his neck.

"I opened my eyes and found a noose around my neck. In this world, I'm actually hanging myself! I just died once, and now I'm going to die again after transmigrating. What the hell is wrong with me..."

"This is truly a hellish start..."

He almost got hanged from a tree right from the start, which was even more hellish than the debt-ridden start that Kuroba Akira had imagined.

"Fortunately, I was lucky and could still move. After shaking back and forth a few times, the tree branch with the hanging rope on it miraculously broke off... I escaped a disaster, but Hijikata Isamu wasn't so lucky. In fact, it was because he died that I was the one to inherit his body."

"...!"

"At that time, I lay on the ground coughing for a long time, breathing in fresh air. After a wave of fear, memories flashed through my mind like a slideshow. I realized why I had hanged myself in this world, and I also felt his emotions before he died."

"Tu Fangyong..." Fangyong stated again, expressionless.

"So my situation should be considered as being resurrected in another's body."

"So that's it, resurrection through possession!"

"Yes, after I came back to life, I inherited the memories, abilities, experiences of this world's me... and of course, responsibilities and a mountain of debt."

"I see……"

Kuroba Akira thought that if he were to find himself drowning in debt after transmigrating, he would definitely think, "To hell with it!" and then try to run away.

But Fang Yong treated his debts as his own business, which is why he was willing to work like a wage slave to pay them off.

You must take responsibility for the mistakes you make.

However, not everyone can handle this kind of thing, which shows that Uncle Yong is a true man who doesn't run away and dares to face the bleakness of life.

While feeling admiration, Kuroba Akira thought of something else.

"Uncle Yong, you've told Miss Hongxiang about this too?"

"Yeah, she asked me before you, so I just told her everything. It's nothing to hide, and you're both time travelers, aren't you?"

If it were someone else, Hijikata Yu might have chosen to hide it, but he felt it wasn't a big deal to tell his fellow transmigrators, so he told them everything truthfully.

In that instant, Kuroba Akira understood everything, and his pupils contracted.

He knew about the socially awkward Akari... and what Akari Tashiro really wanted to do.

Damn it...!

She wanted to die!

Socially awkward Hongxiang wants to commit suicide and then leave her body to the mature Hongxiang!

After learning about Hijikata Isamu's situation, she naturally thought that as long as the original owner of her body died, she could pass on her memories and emotions to Tian Hongxiang, who was a transmigrator...

This will allow the two personalities to merge!

The reason why Tashiro Kurenai is socially anxious is because she is so terrified of humans that she can no longer bear it!

But did she ever consider that memory fusion only occurs when time travel happens?

Each of us time travelers has a different situation, and there must be a reason for that!

What makes you so sure that suicide can merge two personalities? Maybe both personalities just perish together?

That's way too impulsive!

We must chase after her and stop her right now!

Chapter 142 You're Not Allowed to Die in Front of Me

Hijikata Isamu was unaware that sharing his time-travel experience gave Tashiro Kurenai the wrong impression.

It was only then that he realized the other two might be in different situations than him, and he asked them with some curiosity.

"Speaking of which, the fact that you're asking me this question means your situation is a bit different from mine, right? And what's your situation with Ms. Tashiro, Amin? Do you have a split personality?"

However, after figuring out the reason, Kuroba Akira no longer had the time to continue chatting with Hijikata Isamu.

He hadn't initially thought that Tashiro Kurenai's escape was a particularly urgent situation, but now it had become a matter of life and death!

"We can talk about this in more detail later! I suddenly have an urgent matter to attend to and need to go out! Uncle Yong, you can continue sleeping!"

"Oh……"

Hijikata Yu watched in bewilderment as Kuroba Akira rushed out of his room. He rubbed the back of his neck but ultimately didn't chase after him. Since he was already awake, he might as well get back to work...

As Kuroba Akira went downstairs, his brain raced.

Should we call the police?

Can you make it?

No, it's definitely too late. By the time the police arrive and begin the search, the person will probably be dead.

The most important thing now is to figure out where she's going...

Don't panic, panicking won't help. What you need to do now is 'find the right place'. If you choose the wrong search direction, it will be too late.

He stopped in the middle of the stairs, glanced at his right palm, and the class monitor's talent helped him quickly calm down and refocus his thoughts.

Firstly, in terms of the manner of death, all methods that would cause bodily damage can be ruled out, since if bodily functions are damaged, there is no guarantee that the person will survive.

So there's no need to worry about her jumping off a building or cutting her wrists.

Actually, the most likely way to die is to 'leave a whole body' by taking an overdose of sleeping pills, but Kuroba Akira remembered seeing Tashiro Kurenai running out from the second floor with two bath towels in her hands... She probably wanted to use those two bath towels as a hanging rope.

The problem is, where will she hang herself...? It's not entirely without a clue.

Here we need to put ourselves in their shoes: what would I do if I were Tashiro Kurenai?

Kouka Tashiro didn't really want to die; her ultimate goal was to sacrifice herself and merge her two personalities.

So even though there are many ways to commit suicide, she still chose to hang herself, in order to replicate Hijikata Isamu's experience as much as possible and ensure that the process of personality integration could proceed smoothly.

So, besides hanging, he would most likely choose the same place to die as Hijikata Isamu!

Thinking of this, Kuroba Akira quickly turned around, took a few big steps and jumped back to the second floor, rushing back to Hijikata Isamu's room and asking.

"Uncle Yong! One last question for you: where were you when you first traveled through time?"

Just as Hijikata Isamu was about to close the room door, he paused for a moment and asked in return.

"Uh... do you mean to ask me where I hanged myself?"

"Correct!"

"Hmm... I can't remember exactly where it was, after all, that place was kind of creepy, I ran away as fast as I could... But I remember running into Kuroo and Granny Kobayashi not far from where I ran, so it should be some abandoned shrine nearby..."

Abandoned shrine!

That's probably the only abandoned shrine left around here!

It's the shrine where I first saw Murasaki no Miya!

"Great! You've been a huge help!"

"Uh, Ah Ming, don't do anything rash..."

"No way! I haven't even had an easy life yet, I'm not going to die so young!"

Kuroba Akira waved casually and rushed down the stairs again.

Back on the first floor, he didn't have time to explain further to Murasaki no Miyako. He simply said, "I'm going to find Miss Kurenai!" and then ran out the door with Kurenai Tashiro's pair of red high heels.

He had taken these high heels upstairs to find Tashiro Kurenai, intending to use them to 'threaten' her into making a decision quickly. However, before he could even use them, she pushed him into her room and locked him up.

He brought these shoes with him again when he went to see Tashiro Kurenai because his intuition told him that they were a key item that might be used to persuade her to give up her suicidal thoughts.

After leaving the house, Kuroba Akira tried hard to recall the location of the abandoned shrine, only remembering that the entrance was in a grove of trees outside the residential area... Damn it! He couldn't remember!

If only Shirai Shiori had her talent "Memory B" at this moment... Although the class president's talent "Academic A" also boosts memory, it only increases it when memorizing and doesn't help with recalling, so it can't help Kuroba Akira remember the exact location of that abandoned shrine.

A thorough search was definitely not an option, so Kuroba Akira could only call out as he searched for the entrance to the abandoned shrine.

"Kuro-Tail! Kuroo-Tail, are you there?!"

"Meow~"

Black Tail appeared on the nearby wall, sat upright, and meowed at Black Feather Akira.

It really is here! You've come at just the right time!

While you can't rely on a cat's intelligence, you can only hope that Blacktail can understand what you're saying.

Akira Kuroba had previously tested whether Kuroo could understand human speech, but the results were like Schrödinger's cat. Sometimes Kuroo would act very intelligent, and other times it would completely ignore what people said, just like any other little beast.

"Kuroo, take me to that shrine you took me to before, okay? I'll buy you canned food then!"

"Meow meow!"

Black Tail barked twice and jumped off the wall. After running a distance, it looked back at Black Feather Ming, as if calling him to follow.