When the time finally came for us to graduate from high school, we made a deliberate and calculated decision for our future. We chose to enroll in the Advanced Nurturing Academy for the next stage of our education.
This is a key difference from the original canon where the setting was a high school; in our reality, this institution functioned as a university-level academy, and by the time we arrived, we were already legally recognized adults.
This legal status was critically important, as it meant that any intimate relationship we chose to pursue, any time we spent making love in each other's dorm rooms, was entirely within the bounds of the law.
Our ages were legal, removing that particular obstacle from our path.
However, in nearly every other aspect, the school's structure remained identical to the canon depiction. The strict uniforms we were required to wear, the divisive class system that segregated the student body, the relentless focus on points and merit, all of these rules and pressures were exactly the same.
Our primary reason for selecting this isolated, walled-off academy was precisely because of its secluded nature. In the chaotic and spread-out reality of the outside world, maintaining our connection would have been a constant logistical struggle, with our lives inevitably pulling us in different directions.
This school, by contrast, provided us with the perfect, self-contained environment for our hidden secret. It offered a controlled and private convenience, a bubble where we could be together away from prying eyes and external pressures.
It's not that we didn't want to publicly declare our relationship. The desire to be open about our feelings was a constant, aching presence. The real, immovable barrier was Arisu's family and their monumental expectations.
They didn't just want a suitable partner for her; they demanded a husband who demonstrated superior competence, a man who was genuinely, brilliantly smart and in no way mediocre.
They would never accept someone they perceived as average or unremarkable.
I could have taken the easy, dishonest path. I could have simply cheated my way to the top, copy-pasting Arisu's own work and flawless answer sheets to fabricate a transcript that made me look like a competent and intelligent high-achiever.
But the people in her world; her family, their associates are not stupid. They are predators who can smell weakness and deception from a mile away. A forged grade report is a flimsy shield; it's pathetically easy for them to pierce straight through such a shallow lie.
They judge you by everything else: by the subtle way you react under pressure, by the quiet confidence or telling hesitation in your demeanor, and most of all, by the sharpness and depth of your words when you speak.
A mere list of grades on a piece of paper is never enough to prove genuine intelligence to people like that. What they truly respect, what they use as the ultimate measure of a person's worth, are your tangible feats, your refined way of articulating complex thoughts, and the sophisticated, calculated manner in which you interact with the world.
That is the real barrier, and it is an incredibly difficult one to cross.
This is the core of the problem. Even though I now possess all of Arisu's memories, a complete archive of her knowledge and experiences, I do not inherently have her raw, natural intelligence and her innate genius-level talent.
I have the data, but not the processor. I can access the information, but I lack the lightning-fast cognitive spark that allows her to synthesize it, to innovate, and to dominate any intellectual battlefield she steps onto.
That fundamental gap is what we are desperately trying to bridge.
"Another me, we will be free soon. There's no need to keep yourself depressed like this," Arisu murmured, her voice a soft, comforting whisper as she snuggled deeper against my arm, her warmth seeping into my skin.
I let out a heavy, weary sigh, the sound filled with a familiar weight. "It feels like this body of mine is just wired for despair. I don't know… maybe it's a skill issue, and a pretty major one at that?"
She reached up and pinched my nose gently, a silent scolding for my dark, self-deprecating joke.
"I understand completely," she said, her tone laced with a shared, painful history. "Living in that house, with the constant, screaming background noise of our parents' quarrels, was never a great environment. It was a poison. And being a minor trapped in that situation made it all so much worse. But we're adults now. We can finally move out. You can manage your own finances, build your own life, completely independent, without ever having to fear being exploited by them again."
She was right.
The only reason I hadn't already moved from that wretched house or flaunted any sign of wealth was precisely because of my age and their ruthless nature.
The moment I had any money, royalties trickling in from my writing, they would swoop in and snatch it away. My father would drain it on alcohol, his addiction a black hole for my efforts, while my mother would lavishly spend it on expensive, frivolous dresses, adorning herself with the pieces of my soul I'd sold for a chance at freedom.
The law gave them the right to it, and I hated that reality with a burning passion.
That's why I never opened a proper bank account, why I stayed. My parents in this life were, without a single doubt, absolute scumbags.
"I guess there's a strange comfort in this," I sighed, the irony not lost on me. "Being comforted by my own female self… it feels incredibly comforting, yet somehow also deeply self-deprecating at the exact same time."
We were the same person, the same fractured soul piloting two separate bodies. This conversation was nothing more than us talking to ourselves, a dialogue with a mirror that could talk back, touch back, and feel everything we felt.
"Hush, don't think too much, my other self. We are one, and we always have been," Arisu whispered, pressing her fingers gently against my lips.
Her eyes glimmered with a deep, seductive intent.
I parted my lips and took the tip of her finger into my mouth, my tongue swirling around it in a slow, wet caress.
A soft, shuddering moan escaped her as she trembled under the sensation, her body ticklish and responsive to my every touch.
"Nngh... Narcissus..."
I couldn't withstand the building tension any longer.
A raw, possessive need surged through me, and I pushed her down firmly onto the bed, looming over her smaller frame.
My gaze was intense, filled with a love that was, at its core, a profound and complicated form of self-love.
"Arisu-chan…" I breathed, my voice thick with desire.
"Narcissus-kun…" she gasped back, her eyes already drunk with lust, her consciousness blurring into the shared ecstasy we were about to create.
Then, our lips crashed together in a desperate, hungry kiss. It was more than a kiss; it was a fusion, a desperate attempt to become one entity again.
As our tongues tangled, I positioned myself between her slender, trembling thighs.
With a single, firm, deliberate thrust, I sheathed my rock-hard cock completely inside her tight, dripping-wet pussy.
She gasped into his mouth, a sharp, keening sound that was pure, unfiltered pleasure.
"Aah! Yes...! There...!"
Her inner walls clenched around his length in a wave of perfect, velvety heat, pulling him deeper, demanding more
I began to move my hips, starting with a slow, moderate rhythm, each thrust a deep, claiming possession.
Her arms flew around my back, her nails digging into my skin as she clung to me with a desperate, almost frantic strength, as if she were afraid I would vanish, refusing to let even a sliver of space come between our united bodies.
Her petite form shuddered violently beneath him, her quiet moans turning into a continuous, breathless litany as his movements grew more urgent.
"F-faster...! Narcissus, I'm... I'm going to...! Haaah!"
"Then come," I urged, my rhythm intensifying, driving into her with a piston-like intensity that slammed deep into her core. "Let me feel it. Let me feel myself fall apart."
The wet, slapping sounds of our bodies joining filled the quiet room.
With every brutal, penetrating thrust, she hugged me even tighter, her legs locking around my waist.
"Together," I grunted, my own control fraying at the edges as I felt her climax begin to peak. "We do this together, Arisu-chan."
Her entire being surrendered to the overwhelming, shared sensation, our two bodies and one soul melting into a single, shuddering, ecstatic whole.
And as we fell over the edge, the only thought that remained was the undeniable, terrifying, and beautiful truth: we were utterly, completely, and forever, one.