File 20: T is for Templeborn

1

I closed my apartment door, hurriedly locking it behind me as I rushed off to the university.

I had woken up and then sat around foggy-headed until it was after I was supposed to have left. It was my own fault for letting my guard down because I only had afternoon classes today, but there was something wrong with my eye, and it took me longer than I thought it would to get ready.

It’s a ten-minute walk to the university. By the time I got out the door, it was eight minutes before class started. I ran around corner after corner in the tight streets of the residential district where I lived, dodging cars and gasping for breath. The weather was warm for the start of April, so even if I managed to get there just shy of being late, I was going to be drenched with sweat. That wouldn’t be so bad if I was just going to hide out in the back of a huge lecture hall, but this was a seminar held in a tiny classroom with only a small number of other students.

My name is Sorawo Kamikoshi. I’m just a plain, ordinary student attending university in Saitama. I entered my third year this April.

For my third-year seminar, I chose the cultural anthropology course, just like I had been vaguely intending to since coming to university. The first class was last week, and I’d already met my professor and the other students. Shy as I was, I’d felt pretty tense about it. It was so bad I could barely remember what we talked about.

Running through the front gate of the school, I rushed past the bus station, and towards the School of General Education building.

“Ah...!” In my haste, I tripped over the curb. I pitched forward with no time to catch my balance.

Unexpectedly, someone caught me on my way down.

“Whoa! You okay?”

“I-I’m sorry, I—!” I looked up, flustered by what had just happened, and when I saw my savior, I fell silent despite myself.

Golden hair, pale skin. Indigo eyes looking out from beneath long lashes. Long arms and legs, and a body with proportions you could tell were perfect even with her clothes on. She was ridiculously beautiful. It was like she’d walked out of a painting. For some reason, she was wearing a black glove on just her left hand. That fit her mysterious persona oddly well.

She’s so pretty...

I was so busy gawking at her that I forgot to say “thank you.” As she looked down at me, her brow furrowed with concern.

“What happened to your eye, Sorawo?”

When she asked that, I unconsciously reached for the eyepatch over my right eye. My vision had suddenly gone blurry last week. Life with only one eye took some getting used to, and that was part of why I’d just tripped.

“Oh, it’s no big deal. I’m fine.”

“‘I’m fine’...?” Her brow furrowed.

“See! I knew there’s something weird with you, Kamikoshi-senpai,” said the short-haired girl who appeared from behind the blonde.

It was the girl who had tried to talk to me in the cafeteria last week. She called me Senpai, but I didn’t know her. I told her she’d mistaken me for someone else, but she kept stubbornly following me around, so I got scared and ran away.

“You haven’t been answering your phone either... Not that that’s anything new. When I come to see you in person, you just keep walking, like you don’t even know me. The first time it happened, I genuinely thought I had the wrong person. When I tried to talk to you, you were completely out of it, then you ran away. Do you have amnesia or something...?”

Then the short-haired girl let out an “Ah!” as if suddenly realizing something, then covered her mouth. In a slight whisper, she continued.

“Don’t tell me you’re still worried about the whole nude dancing thing? If that’s what this is about...um, it’s okay. I mean, we’d all been drinking. Nobody remembers it all that well.”

Nude dancing? She definitely had the wrong person. I’d never do something like that.

“G...Get out of my way! I’m gonna be late to class!”

When I pushed her aside, the blonde got out of my way with surprisingly little resistance. I don’t know who they’d mistaken me for, but I didn’t have time for this. Anyway, I took off running, and tried to focus on getting to class. When I reached the doors to the building, I turned to look behind me and that pair of strangers were still just standing there, looking confused.

I was the one who ought to be confused, though.