Professor Hasegawa

Professor Eiya Hasegawa is Arata's Egyptology teacher, and his ally.

History
Professor Hasegawa has been teaching Egyptology at the local high school for decades. He befriended a teenage immigrant named Bae, who was one of his star pupils. One day he brought in what looked like a genuine artifact—part of a golden scarab amulet. The professor examined it, and it proved pretty real-looking. Bae went back the next day, and disappeared. A year later he returned, but he was a totally different person—traumatized, paranoid and full of crazy-sounding theories. What he talked about intrigued the professor, who became his confidante until his therapists convinced him to stop talking crazy talk. They lost contact for a while.

Hasegawa first met Arata during detention, when he got distracted from his homework by one of the books he’d been translating. Arata had caught a mistake he’d made, in fact. The two became good friends, particularly after they discovered their connection.

Personality
Professor Hasegawa is excitable and rather flighty. He tends to flap his arms as he moves, too, and he’s very untidy—differently organized, he insists. Forgetful, skips from one thing to another, except when it comes to his passion—Egyptology. Then he becomes intent, passionate and even brilliant at times. Mostly he’s very amiable and socially unaware, especially when he’s being mocked.

The professor goes out of his way to make sure Arata doesn’t do anything dangerous, not wanting a repeat of what had happened to Bae. He still blames himself for that incident, so he stifles his otherwise overpowering curiosity whenever Aaron brings up something that could put him at risk. He worries about his young student, though still forgetful and easily distracted when it comes to anything but the Egyptology stuff.