Chikamori's Girlfriend
Chikamori's Girlfriend (近森の彼女, Chikamori no Kanojo) is a primary character featured in the short story Censored Equation, part of the Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan: Short Story Collection.
She is a girlfriend of Yuto Chikamori and a student at Jingiin University. During her third year, she discovers an incomplete equation that was claimed to allow access to another dimension. After two years of trying to solve it, she falls into a coma, with half of the equation unfinished.
Personality
She is a person who is deeply curious and both invested and knowledgeable in science. Shortly after discovering the equation, she becomes dedicated to solving it. Over time, she grows increasingly obsessed and paranoid, developing a fear of open spaces and of being alone, constantly feeling as though she is being watched. Despite this, she continues her research and remains relatively composed and self-aware in her Heaven's Door writing.[1]
History
Background
She was likely born into a wealthy family and had a pet dog. She and her parents moved into a different city when she was in elementary school. In college, she went on her first date with Yuto Chikamori to a fishing pond.
In the fall of her third year at Jingiin University, she discovered a dust-covered journal hidden between the shelves of the university library. The journal belonged to a former physics student and detailed an equation that purportedly allowed access to another dimension. Intrigued, she immersed herself in the equation, believing it to be a breakthrough in understanding spatial structures and physical constants. However, solving it proved near impossible due to three major obstacles: unknown constants that require extensive manual calculations, the failure of computers to process the equation, and an eerie, ever-present sensation of being watched that grew stronger as she progressed.
Over two years, she dedicated herself to solving the equation, uncovering cryptic numerical traces left by past researchers in historical records, paintings, and public broadcasts. Realizing she was part of a centuries-long effort, she continued the calculations despite the mounting psychological toll. As she neared a solution, the sensation of being watched intensified to a disturbing level, affecting her daily life. She becomes increasingly paranoid, unable to be alone or tolerate open spaces, yet remained fixated on completing the equation.
One night at 2:17 AM, she successfully substituted the final constant, producing a solution. Expecting something significant to occur, she waited—but nothing happened. Disappointed yet undeterred, she planned to revisit her work the next day. However, as she prepared to leave, she noticed that all the text around her had transformed into numbers. Her name on the sign-out sheet, book spines, labels, and even digital screens had become numerical sequences. When all the numbers changed to a "5," she realized it was a countdown. In a panic, she attempted to erase all traces of the equation, ultimately tearing out the first page and swallowing it as the countdown reached "0." However, she ended up falling into a coma.[1]
Censored Equation
For three years, she remains unconscious, her condition deteriorating with no medical explanation. Rohan finds out about her from Chikamori and visits her in the hospital, believing she is the daughter of a wealthy family since she has stayed in a private room in the hospital for three years. Upon reading her memories through Heaven's Door, Rohan learns that the missing half of the equation had been inside her stomach all along, unknowingly preventing anyone, including her boyfriend, from completing it. After erasing her knowledge of the equation by tearing out the pages, Rohan leaves her hospital room just as she begins to stir awake for the first time in years. Chikamori then enters her room with a bouquet of yellow gerbera daisies and gasps when seeing her awake.[1]
