The unnamed male protagonist, known only as Watashi, is a tall and lanky third-year Kyoto University student with black hair, pale skin, blue eyes, and glasses. He typically wears a white collared shirt and blue pants. Entering college yearning for an idealized rose-colored campus life and romance with a raven-haired maiden, he repeatedly faces disillusionment as reality falls short. Trapped in recurring narrative loops across multiple timelines, he joins different student circles such as the tennis club, film society, literary circle, and clandestine organizations, each time hoping for a better outcome but encountering similar disappointments. His troublesome acquaintance Ozu, whom he perceives as a demonic or impish figure connected by a black thread of fate, often influences his choices. Despite resenting Ozu’s manipulations, he remains dependent on their friendship, the only constant relationship through the timelines. He harbors persistent romantic feelings for Akashi, a stoic second-year engineering student who fears moths, but struggles to act on them or return her lost mochiguman keychain. Internally, he battles his libido, represented by a cowboy named Johnny, and grapples with his self-image as a bitter Black Cupid who sabotages relationships. In one incident triggered when Ozu spills Coca-Cola on the only air conditioner remote in their apartment building, a time machine is discovered, and he participates in time travel attempts to retrieve the remote. At one point he hides in a closet for an entire day to avoid disrupting past events. Later, he becomes trapped in a metaphysical tatami maze embodying his isolation and regret, growing a Beard of Sorrow before escaping by rejecting the pursuit of idealized alternatives and accepting his current reality, including imperfect relationships with Akashi and Ozu. A time traveler from the future named Tamura, strongly implied to be Akashi’s son, confirms that the protagonist eventually forms a lasting romantic relationship with her. Throughout his journey, he serves as an unreliable narrator whose rapid-fire, self-reflective narration and biased perceptions shape how other characters appear to him.