Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter1
Golden Time 1: Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Tada Banri ran, half crying.
One o’clock in the morning on a Tokyo street, as usual pitch dark, with no signs of life, not even a light by good fortune placed by a window. During the day today (or rather, yesterday already), in spite of it only being April, it had been so warm he had been wearing only a T-shirt and drinking iced coffee, muttering to himself, "It must be global warming." Now he was shivering from the cold. The sleeves of his hoodie pulled down to his fingertips, his too-unsteady footsteps making a flapping sound from the sandals on his bare feet, anyhow, if he could just get to the main street... He should be able to. He wanted to. With all his heart he ran.
"A young man, turning nineteen this year, running through the streets at night, teary eyed...", he thought. He understood Banri's feelings.
If he were in the same situation, he might cry too.
He had come to the capital together with his mother, who for the sake of her son who was starting a life alone, had arranged for furniture, appliances, gas, water, electricity and so on. She’d gotten through various minor formalities here and there, and then this afternoon (already, so fast!) she’d already returned home in a Hikari bullet train.
And then, finally, he had truly started the first night of his life alone. Only this night kept him from tomorrow morning’s college entrance ceremony. Late at night, as the new day was starting, unable to sleep from the worries, in order to distract himself he did as he supposed any resident of Tokyo would do: he went from one convenience store to another, losing his way in the streets. Worse, it appeared that somewhere, somehow, he had lost the key to his new home. In any case it wasn’t there in his pocket anymore.
Banri’s feet suddenly stopped, and walked all of three steps back the way he’d come. He saw a map of the residence area standing by the edge of the sidewalk. "Saved", he said to himself as he approached, and searched for the apartment building where he now lived, "Motomachi", tracing a route with his finger from "you are here". Anyway, once he had returned to the front of the apartment building, he intended to walk all the way back to the convenience store, searching for his keys.
But… ahh, enough.
If this voice could reach Banri, it would say, "Look more carefully at the map. That 'Motomachi' is the 'Motomachi' in the next district!'" No rather, pulling your hand quickly, it would tell you, "You left them in the apartment in the first place, forgetting to lock up! They're in the room!" Unfortunately, it cannot do that.
For the time being, all I can do is pray for him so that if Banri could just get back to the apartment somehow and get to sleep quickly, then perhaps he would survive tomorrow’s entrance ceremony without problems. Just how important can one day in your life be, this new college student entrance ceremony? Even for me, though--- having become a wandering soul, I understand.
The spirits of men, once they have left their bodies, remain themselves to the end of the world, and to those whom they watch over, their very existence is inconceivable. This side of the world was hidden, so I have only recently found this out.
I am, so to speak, a ghost.
I was formerly known as Tada Banri.
This voice nobody hears, nobody notices my existence.
I just keep watching this new Tada Banri who continues to live, even though I, his spirit, have fallen out of him.
"Young man, at this hour what---, what happened---"
All of a sudden, the living Tada Banri turned his face forward and a light shone straight in his eyes, freezing him like a deer in a car’s headlights.
"Ah, wha... I, I got lost..."
"Do you have a license, a passport, anything with you that can prove who you are?"
"Eh, ah, huh..."
He was being subjected to the first police interrogation of his life. This was going to be a long night. Was this situation a crisis? Was it a gift from god? You can never tell where Banri is concerned.
Anything and everything thrown together, his current state of affairs was one of “Great Trepidations”, thought Banri as he looked around.
The weather, however, was truly excellent.
A snowstorm of cherry blossom petals from the clear blue sky danced around frantically, as they wanted to spend their lives as spectacularly as possible. The auditorium, located amongst a number of old gray office buildings, seemed to welcome the moment of drama.
The scene looked like something from a painting. Cherry blossoms against an April sky. Young people gathering for opening ceremonies. Men and women alike wearing brand new suits and leather shoes, bright smiles breaking out all over the place, anticipating college life. If you’d reached out and touched the edge of that picture, and snipped off the dark corner with a pair of scissors and looked, I’ve got a hunch you’d find my current self in a similar place.
A constant stream of friendly conversations passed before my eyes. The auditorium entrance was beneath the eaves of the building. For the moment, Banri and everybody else had the same brand new suits and the same brand new leather shoes, in their hands they had envelopes with the names of their colleges. With dark circles beneath his eyes from lack of sleep, he didn’t look the typical freshman. His right sideburn curled out at a strange angle and some of the hairs near his ear stuck inside, rustling around, bothering him.
He couldn’t get to sleep until two in the morning. He’d been a wreck since last night.
Getting the idea, in the dead of the night, to go out and buy something, getting lost in the streets of an unfamiliar neighborhood (a rather dumb thing to do), taking time away from a policeman’s duties, explaining his situation and getting sent back to his apartment, with great difficulty getting to sleep, but due to his nerves, he woke up at six in the morning. But it was better than sleeping in late, he thought, as he slowly laid out his clothes while he thawed some rice his mother had put in the freezer, then ate breakfast. After that he took a shower, and dried off his hair while sitting on the bed. That much he did right. His body heated up by the shower, the still brand-new sheets comfortably cool, he had lain down without intending to. He didn’t remember closing his eyes. "Eh... What’d I do now... What the heck...", he said when he realized it was already past nine o’clock. The opening ceremony was to start at ten in the morning.
Jerked awake like a puppet, he fell into a state of panic when he looked in the mirror, his newly washed hair now a mess from having slept on it, but he didn’t have enough time to wash his face again. Somehow he cheated a bit with the dryer, he threw on a suit and flew out of the apartment. In that moment, he was even more on the verge of crying. He got on two trains later than he should have by the schedule, the right shoes on, but the wrong socks. Without even realizing it, he had put on his customary ankle-baring sneaker socks. Indeed, with his stiff new shoes, when he sat, he felt a weird chill around his ankles. He felt helpless.
He dashed from the station, somehow or another arriving at the college entrance ceremony on time. Taking his seat, he composed himself like a perfect freshman while the visitors were welcomed, though he found himself disassociated from the grand occasion, he thought. That wasn’t from lack of sleep, nor from bedhead.
It was because he realized he was entirely alone.
He wasn’t even trying to be observant: the place was noisy the whole time from people talking. It was because everybody else had somebody to talk to. If they’d come up from an affiliated high school, they’d already formed groups of friends, guys and girls together, and if not, they were usually seated with their parents. Usually.
"Parents these days don’t go to college entrance ceremonies!" “That may be so at Toudai, but at this place that’s overdoing it. Everybody's going to think I’m some sort of mama’s boy!" "Absolutely ridiculous!" Parents don’t normally come to college entrance ceremonies! After Banri’s complaints, his mother had returned home the day before. "Just in case, I brought this, OK?", she had said, then put an admission ticket for the ceremony back into her wallet. Whatever. He hadn’t been all that seriously wishing for her not to come. But then he whined absurdly like a little kid, "I don’t want you to come.", in what he thought was a normal parent-child relationship.
And now, having gotten here, already discouraged, but above all feeling guilty of being disloyal to his parents. It weighed heavily on him. He hadn’t even waved. His mother’s back had gone through the Yaesu north entrance ticket gate, disappearing as he saw her off.
Without realizing it, he let his breath out pathetically, as he stood still in the entrance, seeing the hair color of people descending the steps, laughing together.
From where he stood, he could not see anybody else who was alone. He rubbed his eyes with his middle fingers. Maybe it was pollen, or perhaps lack of sleep, but his eyes were itching strangely. A guy who forgot his handkerchief certainly wouldn’t have brought eyedrops with him either.
Things aren’t looking good--- yeah, even from here, it looks like things are going to keep on going badly.
"You gonna ride the train? Or walk?"
"Why bother going up to the station? It just makes me tired. I prefer to walk."
In front of the paralyzed Banri’s eyes, two guys walked by in suits, loosening their neckties.
From the auditorium, he had to make it over to the freshman orientation, one hour later over on his department’s part of campus. Having said that, according to the guide map that had been passed out to them, it was only one station away by subway. Even though he had just arrived in the capitol, that didn’t mean he’d just crept in from the wilderness, nor that he was all that nervous about what he had to do. What was confusing from Banri’s point of view was that the crowd leaving the auditorium, for some reason, was dividing in two.
Perhaps, the people turning north were going to the station. Those going south were walking. With the nice weather and all, he wanted to walk, but the walking route wasn’t noted on the map. The memory of last night’s disaster still fresh in his mind, he didn’t want to get lost by himself again in the streets. But if he couldn’t go anywhere by himself… but it figures… he stood there, still hesitating for a while, then Banri finally made up his mind and went down the steps to the street.
<~~17% Completed~~>
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