“Huh?”
I had no clue what just happened. A second ago, I was leisurely reminiscing in the smoking area of an izakaya, but suddenly, I was at home. What the heck?
I blinked hard and pinched my cheeks over and over, but I really was in my old bedroom at my parents’ house.
After graduating from high school, I’d moved to Tokyo by myself for college. The izakaya I had just been in was by the station nearest to my apartment, so of course it was in Tokyo. But my parents’ house was in Gunma Prefecture, about two hours from Tokyo by train.
When had I left the izakaya and gotten on a train back to Gunma? No matter how I tried to spin it, I couldn’t reconcile where I currently was.
In the first place, I’d been nowhere near blackout drunk today. Plus, it felt as if I’d instantly teleported from one place to another. The more I tried to understand the situation, the more confused I became.
I should go talk to mom and dad first, I thought. However, the moment I tried to move, I was assaulted by a bizarre sensation. I lost control of my balance and collapsed onto the floor. When I tried to stand up, I felt dizzy.
What the...?
The sensation wasn’t like being drunk; it felt closer to motion sickness. I couldn’t control my body properly—it was almost as if I’d swapped bodies with a different person.
“I heard a loud thump. Are you okay?” a clear voice called as the door to my room swung open.
My sister? I haven’t heard her voice in a while! I rarely went home to visit, so it had probably been around a year since I last saw her.
Holding back the nausea, I turned to the door and saw my younger sister dressed in her middle school uniform.
“Uh, are you cosplaying?” I was so surprised that my nausea completely vanished.
“What are you talking about, onii-chan?”
My little sister, Haibara Namika, was in her second year of college. She was way too old to be accidentally wearing her middle school uniform around.
However, standing before me was my sister from her middle school days. Her hair was no longer permed or dyed blonde, but straight and black again. Her mature face from my memories had regained its baby fat, her height had shrunk, and her chest had also disappeared.
The way Namika had called me “onii-chan” seemed way off too. From the moment she’d entered high school, she’d dropped that cutesy nickname and always called me “aniki.”
Impossible, I thought. Then I remembered what I’d wished for just moments ago.
“Hey, Namika... What year is it?”
“Huh? It’s 2014. Why?”
No way! It’s supposed to be 2021. I could see someone being off by a year or two, but being off by seven years is just absurd.
But Namika didn’t seem to be joking. She looked at me, head tilted to the side, with an expression that said, Why are you asking the obvious?
If she was telling the truth, then did that mean I had flown back seven years? That would be ridiculous! As I tried to digest what was happening, I stood up in front of the mirror in my room.
“You gotta be kidding me...”
That was me in the glass, except it was the me from middle school. The glasses were a dead giveaway; I’d started putting effort into my appearance and ditched them once I entered high school.
Before my infamous high school debut, I had long, unkempt hair that covered my eyes, tacky glasses, and a noticeably round belly. To see myself back in this state made me feel sick. I didn’t want to admit that I used to look like this.
Namika said it’s 2014. That means I’m either in my last year of middle school, or I’m a freshman in high school right about now.
Well, that definitely checked out with my current appearance. Namika also clearly looked like a middle schooler. I could only conclude that I had somehow traveled back in time.
At first, I had thought this was some kind of hidden camera prank, but no joke would go that far. A gag of this magnitude would have taken a lot of effort to set up, but I wasn’t even a very amusing target. It’s not like I had any friends who’d want to prank me in the first place.
I pinched my cheek once more to double-check if this was just a dream, but the pain was very real.
“Onii-chan, what’s up with you?” Namika shot me a puzzled look.
Around this time, Namika had been a kind and honest girl. All things considered, we were still only about as close as your average pair of siblings, but by the time she entered high school, Namika had grown to hate me.
“Nothing. I was just feeling a bit off.” It wasn’t a lie. I definitely felt some sort of disconnect from being inside my younger body. When is this nausea going to go away? I wondered. Though, I do feel better than before.
“Hmm. Do you have a fever?”
“Nah. I’m sure I’ll feel better soon.”
“Well, it’s a good thing you got sick after your graduation ceremony. Get some sleep.” With that, Namika turned around and walked back to her room.
I closed the door behind her and then sat down on my bed. Sitting alone helped me calm down, not that being calm changed anything.
I was still back in the past. In manga and anime, I’d seen this phenomenon referred to as a “time leap.” It was hard to believe that something so unrealistic could take place, but that’s clearly what had just happened to me.
I let out a sigh and then tried to change gears. Nothing would come from brooding over something I didn’t understand. I needed more information. My nausea had mostly subsided, so I decided to investigate my room.
The first thing I looked at was my clock. It was 5:06 p.m. on the tenth of March. If my memory was correct, that was actually the date of my graduation ceremony. Namika had also mentioned the ceremony being over. That pretty much confirmed my suspicion; I had somehow gone back to my past self, just after I’d graduated from middle school.
Next, I inspected my bookshelf. Sure enough, it was filled with my old manga and books. Wait. As a dedicated otaku, a sudden realization hit me hard. If I can’t return to the future, that means I won’t be able to read the next chapter of all the series I’ve been following for seven whole years! That was obvious, though. Because I was seven years in the past, only anime, manga, and books from at least seven years ago would exist.
Back in 2014, I had already checked out all the series that I was interested in, so if I wanted to find something new to read or watch, I’d need to look at series that I’d previously disregarded.
Hah. Looks like I’ve already discovered a downside to time leaping.
Wanting to ignore the grim reality of my situation, I looked at the smartphone on my desk. It was a model from long ago—one of the first to be sold. What a throwback! I’d received it in my second year of middle school, and it’d lasted me until I entered college.
I picked the phone up and unlocked it without any issues. Luckily, when I’d gotten a new one, I had kept the same password. For a moment I’d been worried about what I would do if I didn’t remember the password, but I wasn’t the type of person to change it. Instead, I’d rather memorize a handful of passwords and then reuse those for everything.
I opened RINE, a messaging app. The only contacts I had saved were Namika and my mom. My dad was still using a flip phone at this time. How nostalgic.
Next, I opened Twister, a social media app where you could make quick public posts. My feed was full of content from official anime and manga accounts, manga artists, novelists, and illustrators. I was what you called a Twister lurker.
There were also several old social games on my phone. That’s right; everyone was into Puzzle & Tigers in 2014. I used to be crazy about that game too, but I stopped playing it in college.
“Hmm...” I finished looking through my phone and then put it back down on my desk. My textbooks and notebooks were stacked nearby, with my middle school diploma carelessly thrown on top.
I heard the front door open while I rifled through my old things. Mom had probably just got home from work, right on schedule. Both of my parents worked full time, but my dad didn’t live with us because he had been transferred to the Tohoku region.
My mom came into my room. “Natsuki, are you home? Congratulations on graduating! I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to the ceremony. Work got hectic and—” When she saw my face, she paused her chattering. “Natsuki? You look pale. Are you feeling sick?” Seeing mom still acting and looking the same as she did seven years in the future was a relief somehow.
“Yeah, just a bit,” I replied. “Can I nap until dinner?”
“Of course, of course. Did you take your temperature? Oh, where on earth did I put the cold compresses?!”
“It’s nothing major. I don’t need all that.” My mom was a worrywart, so I shooed her out of my room before she could go into overdrive.
I really was feeling bad, and all the confusion had made me sleepy. I lay down in my bed and the drowsiness hit that much harder. I gave myself over to the sweet relief of sleep.