Volume 6 (Novel)

Otherside Picnic 6: T is for Templeborn (裏世界ピクニック６Tは寺生まれのT) is the sixth novel in the Otherside Picnic series. It was released in Japanese on March 17, 2021 and November 15, 2021 in English. The series is written by Iori Miyazawa and illustrated by shirakaba.

The cover of Hayakawa Publishing's SF Magazine February 2021 issue features Otherside Picnic. The issue also includes one of the files for Volume 6 and exclusive interviews from the author, Iori Miyazawa, anime director, Takuya Satō, and voice actors Yumiri Hanamori (Sorawo Kamikoshi) and Ai Kayano (Toriko Nishina).

Sypnosis
My name is Sorawo Kamikoshi. I'm just your everyday, plain-as-can-be student attending university in Saitama.

One day, some blonde I've never met shows up and tells me I have amnesia. Before I have time to be confused, I'm whisked away to a mysterious facility in a car driven by a member of the yakuza. What's gonna happen to me?!

T the Templeborn, the net lore that seals all memories of the world that exists alongside our own—the Otherside—attacks Sorawo and her companions!

The tale of two girls' bizarre foray into a world exploration and survival continues with an extra-long story in Volume 6!

Chapters

 * File 20: T is for Templeborn

Additional Content

 * Works Referenced (Vol. 6)

File 20: T is for Templeborn
Broad Chapter Summary: Sorawo encounters T-san, an otherside entity who seals abilities and memories. In the process of investigating him, he attacks DS Labs, and Runa helps defend it. Akari and Toriko defeat T-san, and Sorawo names the shifting, fragment-speaking girl "Kasumi".

Characters in order of appearance: Sorawo, Toriko, Akari, Professor Abekawa, Cultural Anthropology Class, T-san, Migiwa, DS Labs Doctor, Kozakura, DS Labs Nurse, Mysterious Girl (Kasumi), Runa, Benimori, DS Labs Fourth Kinds, T-san Army, Satsuki (conversation fragment)

Locations: Sorawo's apartment, Saitama University, DS Labs, White House, T-san's house, Kozakura's house, Jinbouchou Gate, public bath, Interstitial Space, Interstitial Amusement Park, Backstage, amusement park

Summary of Parts:


 * 1) An amnesiac Sorawo encounters Toriko and Akari, not remembering who they are, on her way to school. Sorawo suggests that she wants to study cuteness, rather than ghost stories, to the class' confusion. Sorawo notes a classmate, who said he was Templeborn.
 * 2) Sorawo tries to remember what T-san was studying, or anything about him, but fails. Sorawo is grabbed by Migiwa and Toriko, along the way noticing strange things like her money and gun. Toriko and Migiwa take Sorawo to a "hospital"- really DS Labs.
 * 3) The DS Labs doctor examines Sorawo, revealing that her right eye has turned grey and "shut down", probably taking her memories with it. Sorawo wonders what her relationship with Toriko is, guessing that they're dating. Toriko uses her hand on Sorawo's eye, reaching for her brain, and "reactivates" it, bringing her memories back.
 * 4) Sorawo, Toriko, and Kozakura discuss the eye and dementia, and Sorawo remembers T-san the Templeborn. Kozakura recognizes the name, and Sorawo explains that he's a ghost-story-destroying meme. The group speculates on his actions and motivations. The mysterious appears, and Migiwa gives an update on her situation (she's doing well). Migiwa, Kozakura, Sorawo, and Toriko go to meet with Runa.
 * 5) Runa, communicating via writing, is complaining about the isolation and wants internet access. She trolls Toriko a bit and seems to still worship Satsuki.
 * 6) Sorawo meets with Akari, letting her know how she's doing, and asks that Akari investigate T-san.
 * 7) The class meets again, and T-san, despite speaking absolute nonsense, gets interpreted as insightful and normal by everyone, including Sorawo. Akari follows T-san into the Otherside, before getting Hah!-ed and appearing standing by an abandoned building. Akari doesn't remember Sorawo and gets suspicious, but Sorawo uses her right eye to unseal the memories. Sorawo concludes that T-san is an enemy, and notices a gate in the abandoned building.
 * 8) Sorawo, Toriko, and Migiwa visit the building, discussing T-san along the way. The gate is gone, but investigating the abandoned building reveals strange traces, and a hidden basement. During their investigation of the basement, a third person joins their discussion, and stands between Toriko and Sorawo, but goes unnoticed. Next week, since school is out, investigating T-san won't be possible.
 * 9) Sorawo and Toriko work on creating a safer way to get up and down the Jinbouchou gate skeletal building, creating inter-floor ladders. Sorawo invites Toriko to a bath afterwards.
 * 10) Next time class rolls around, Sorawo is approached by Benimori, a girl in class, who has a spooky story to share.
 * 11) Benimori held a test of courage in the abandoned building that seems to be T-san's home. Before the story can finish, T-san Hah!s the two of them, announces familiarity with DS Labs, wanders away, and Sorawo wakes up to realize Benimori is gone and it's later than expected. Toriko calls Sorawo, telling her that DS Labs has been attacked by T-san.
 * 12) Toriko, Kozakura, and Migiwa are okay, but the Fourth Kinds all got Hah!-ed, and some seem to have died- except Runa, who got out of her room. Some Fourth Kinds seem dead, while others are missing. The missing ones turn up in Runa's room, who seems to have been able to help them with her Voice. Runa had told T-san to go away, causing him to do just that. The unnamed mysterious girl turns up in the DS Labs Warehouse, having evaded T-san, and hints that she may be a human-turned-interface between the Otherside and humanity. She then vanishes with her ability.
 * 13) Sorawo and Toriko follow her into the interstitial space, and discover that the girl left offerings to the dead Fourth Kinds. They find her shelter in the interstitial space, she admits to having made graves, and points out "tracks" left by T-san before using a mirror cube to travel back to the surface (in Runa's room). Sorawo, now able to see the "tracks", considers tracking T-san.
 * 14) Kozakura, Sorawo, Toriko, and Akari (who had followed the two to DS Labs) get in the company car to hunt T-san down. The tracks lead into the interstitial space, and after a strange encounter with a copy of the car, which was leaving the tracks, they notice T-san already inside their car. He "Hah!"s them...
 * 15) They reawaken, with the car riding on a roller coaster, and in a large amusement park. The rails lead into a haunted house and stop inside. The group discovers the haunted house's backstage, full of T-san story elements and half-finished interfaces. At some point, T-san imitated Kozakura and replaced her, Hah!-ing the group and transporting them to a large white space. T-san announces that he knows Sorawo and Toriko by name, and Sorawo concludes that he's part of an experiment to see what people do when severed from the Otherside. T-san recognizes Akari, and Sorawo uses her eye to send her after T-san. More T-sans appear, and Akari and Toriko fight them all off.
 * 16) Sorawo, Toriko, and Akari awaken in an amusement park on the surface, with Kozakura and the car close by. The group heads to Kozakura's house, then discovers the girl asleep in the trunk. Sorawo proposes Kasumi as the girl's name, who speaks a line that must have been said to Kozakura by Satsuki.