I’ll Take On The Modern World—And Dominate It—Relying On No One But Myself. - Chapter 3: An Unfamiliar Body.

An Unfamiliar Body.

When Isurugi Kagetaka opened his eyes, he found himself in an unfamiliar room.

(Where… am I?)

As his consciousness gradually returned, Kagetaka realized he was in a hospital room — the white ceiling above and the sterile scent of disinfectant made it unmistakable.

A sharp pain throbbed in his wrist.

There was a stitched wound there — evidence that something serious had happened.

(This doesn’t even feel like my own hand…)

“Shouta! You’re awake!”

A woman, seemingly older than him, entered the room and spoke with relief in her voice.

From the context, she appeared to be someone close to him — but…

“Who… are you?”

He had no choice but to ask.

“—!”

Her expression stiffened in an instant.

“Shouta? Do you remember what happened?”

He tried to recall, but no recent memories surfaced.

“Um… who am I?”

“Shouta… don’t tell me—”

Her reaction was exactly what he expected, but there was no other way to say it.

The name she was calling him by didn’t match the name he knew himself as.

Eager to understand the situation, Kagetaka looked into a mirror — and was utterly stunned.

(Wha—WHAT?!!)

The face that stared back at him was not his own.

It belonged to someone who looked about twenty years younger.

If he explained things exactly as he saw them, chaos would surely follow.

“It seems I’ve lost my memory… I’m sorry, but could you tell me about yourself, and about me?”

After some hesitation, this felt like the best possible response.

The woman introduced herself as Hiiragi Masako. She said his name was Hiiragi Shouta.

Given the situation, there was no way he could declare, “I’m Isurugi Kagetaka.”

Masako quickly called in a doctor, and Kagetaka underwent several tests and interviews.

The doctor’s diagnosis pointed to a possible brain injury due to lack of oxygen — likely a form of post-coma cognitive disorder.

Curious to learn more about this Hiiragi Shouta, he asked Masako, who handed him a mobile phone.

(A flip phone… this is nostalgic… wait—what?!)

Fortunately, the phone wasn’t locked, allowing him to use it. But the date displayed on the screen was approximately twenty years before the last date Kagetaka remembered.

He couldn’t recall exactly what year it had been, but this strongly supported the idea that he truly had lost his memory.

And he had no memories at all of being Hiiragi Shouta.

Later, Shouhei — Shouta’s father — entered the room after Masako contacted him. Apparently, his older sister Ao lived in Tokyo and couldn’t come right away.

(Tokyo…?)

According to Kagetaka’s own memories, he had always lived in Tokyo.

“Excuse me… where am I?”

“!!”

Even knowing he had amnesia, the question clearly shocked them.

He felt bad, but until he understood the situation, they would have to get used to this reality.

“You’re in a hospital in Sendai. Your mother and I live nearby,” Shouhei replied gently.

Their calm and supportive demeanor gave Kagetaka some reassurance — at least, there didn’t seem to be any familial hostility.

Assuming the identity of Hiiragi Shouta, he explained what he could about his condition.

“Um… I don’t remember anything about myself, but I can speak normally and read without issue.”

Though disappointed, his parents seemed somewhat relieved.

They appeared to assume that Shouta had tried to take his own life following some painful experience.

Their relief likely stemmed from a desire to avoid reopening those wounds.

After consulting with the doctor, the family decided not to force memory recovery. Instead, Kagetaka would begin rehabilitation and gradually ease back into daily life.

“Shouta, what’s this?”

Masako handed him something flat.

“—!!!”

Kagetaka nearly cried out in shock but barely restrained himself.

It was something that should not exist in this world.

***

After completing his rehabilitation, Kagetaka was discharged and returned to what was now his home.

Shouta, it seemed, had been commuting to university from this house.

Kagetaka was shown to Shouta’s room.

Before this point, he had gathered as much information as he could from Shouta’s parents.

Both sides had carefully avoided discussing the reasons behind Shouta’s self-harm.

He was a fourth-year university student in Sendai and already eligible to graduate. He even had a job offer from a local company.

He wasn’t a loner — he had friends, though apparently no romantic partner. Still, he might have hidden that from his parents.

His phone didn’t show any signs of such a relationship either.

Kagetaka turned on the PC in the room. It was password-protected, but as long as the disk wasn’t encrypted, it posed little challenge to him.

“Might as well say sorry,” he muttered as he began reviewing the computer’s contents.

To any outsider, this would seem completely acceptable — but to him, it felt like violating someone else’s privacy.

He first checked the emails.

Since passwords were saved, he could access most services.

“Newsletters… job hunting… university updates…”

Nothing unusual. He’d already reviewed the mobile phone, which mostly contained messages between friends.

Next, he searched for diary-like documents by filtering for file extensions.

There were some school reports, but it didn’t seem like Shouta kept a diary.

Browser history showed no signs of visiting sites for journaling or mental health support either.

“So… what now?”

Continuing his life as Isurugi Kagetaka was out of the question.

Cases of souls swapping across time simply didn’t exist — not in this era, nor the one he had come from.

Even if he consulted someone well-versed in science fiction, this wasn’t a problem that could be solved by simply explaining it.

“I’ll have to live as Hiiragi Shouta.”

He arrived at that conclusion.

But that brought up two major issues.

First, if he went ahead and joined the company in Sendai, there was a high chance he’d run into people who knew Shouta personally.

Given only the limited information he had, impersonating him successfully would be extremely difficult.

Second, if he ever encountered the same trigger that had driven Shouta to attempt suicide (as was presumed), he could find himself in serious trouble.

Even if Shouta had retained his memories, this might still have been an insurmountable issue.

After careful deliberation, he concluded that it would be best to start fresh — somewhere outside of Sendai, where he could build a new network of relationships.

“I’ll start looking for a job.”

Thankfully, spring break for university students was long.

Although the formal recruitment period was over, many companies in Tokyo were still hiring.

He wouldn’t aim for top-paying, popular companies — but as long as he was open-minded, he could probably find something.

Given his past experience, an IT-related role would suit him best. In that case—

He told his parents he wanted to move to Tokyo for work and live on his own.

They agreed, on the condition that his sister Ao would support him until he got settled.

***

“—And that’s how I joined Axis Staff and ended up where I am now.”

What Hiiragi had just recounted was beyond anything Kagetaka had imagined — unbelievable, even absurd.

“This is… difficult to accept at face value…”

Kagetaka said as much — but there was a strange sense of conviction behind Hiiragi’s words.

It was as if everything he might have said to convince himself had already been seen through—leaving him with the uncanny feeling that his thoughts were laid bare.

***

“Shall I tell you who you’re in love with right now, Isurugi-san? Someone who’s both your senior and your mentor—”

“Ah! Ah! I surrender!”

Hiiragi had just revealed the one piece of information Kagetaka most desperately wanted to keep hidden.

“So then, Hiiragi-san, what is it that you want?”

“If I really were someone from the future, wouldn’t I have something I wanted to do?”

Hiiragi declared this with the air of someone who had already seen straight through it all.