Chapter 1: Self Proclaimed Otaku Part 2: Again?!

Alex looked out the window, he still questioned what just happened to him. He spaced out and overthinks this situation, maybe he was just imagining things. As he looked out the window he also noticed that his eye color was now back to normal. In an instant, a bell began to ring throughout the school indicating to all students that the school day was over. It was now three pm and the students could leave and since Alex was a socially awkward otaku and since his friends weren't at school today, he decided to immediately go home. The teacher spoke to all the students before they rushed out of the classroom like they normally do.

“Have a nice day, Class 1-B. Make sure to have your homework paper in by next week.”

Alex stood up slowly, he felt his energy was still low and it took around ten seconds for him to stand up. Alex looked around and noticed once again that his friends weren’t here, he wanted someone to indulge in but of course, when he needed them most they weren’t here.

“Seems they're not here today, weird.”

Alex said to himself as he was trying to look around, but the people he was looking for weren’t there. He glances towards the door as he begins to walk to it. Except before he leaves something or someone steps in front of him, due to him looking downwards all the time he didn’t notice the thing before he walked into it, he looks up seeing a masculine figure, it was his history teacher Mr.Aburaya. He looked up as he tried to move past him but the teacher stepped in front of him quickly.

The man speaks with a concerned tone as he notices Alex’s lack of eye contact. Alex wasn’t feeling too great ever since that situation that happened a few minutes ago. He felt like his energy was completely gone. It was hard to even walk away but now he had another problem to deal with.

“You should look at others in their eyes, that’s something I always notice about you, Alex.”

“Aburaya-Sensei, I do well at least I think I do sir.”

“You don’t, all you do is sit down and look out the window and smile weirdly when someone talks to you.”

Alex said as he quickly walked past the teacher, he stayed smiling as he made it out into the hallway. He didn’t like his teacher; he spoke to himself in his head about the situation.

“America and Japan are quite different. You know that’s what I used to do back then, maybe it was normal. Anyways I’m leaving.”

Alex said in a sassy and annoyed tone as he left the classroom.

Mr. Aburaya watched as Alex left the classroom, he didn’t do anything and just let the boy walk away. He knew he couldn’t change the boy’s attitude. The only reason he stopped him was that he thought maybe just, maybe he could get into Alex’s state of mind, but, no he couldn’t and he might never will.

“Authority figures expect nothing else but to do what they tell them, I'm listening seldom. I hate him.”

He averts his eyes down as some lingering students walk by him speaking. He turns around noticing that they were a couple he sighs and looks at the couple’s hair, The boy also had blue hair, the girl had purple hair. Alex sighs as he feels a bit envious. He turns around letting out a sigh as he speaks to himself, he pulls out his phone and plays some music, and pops earbuds into his ears as he continues walking. More students pass by Alex. They were all in the same black uniform he was in.

“Lucky Bastards so even in Japan I can’t get a girlfriend, god damn it, anime lied to me. God must hate me too to punish me like this.”

Alex sounded like a broken record. He felt jealous of couples in school because he had no luck or skill with women. His head shifted up looking up to make sure he was heading to the entrance of this rather large school. He still had the word stop on his mind, his head was still filled with voices.

“Jealous?”

He was freaked out, confused, more or less dumbfounded.

He kept walking past classrooms as teachers were in front of their classrooms, he wasn’t worried about them and just continued walking past them, he thought to himself as he did. He kept thinking of what he did in the classroom, how time just stopped, and how everything and everyone just stood still. He wanted to reason when and how he did it and why he felt that way when he did so. He thought of these things making his facial expression change, he whispers things to himself making people who pass him give him weird looks.
“How, It makes no sense, a voice and everyone is still. Am I going crazy?”

As he steps outside, he gets the smell of the cherry tree, and the smell of grass as well the smell of sweetness, and an unexplainable scent that was somewhat familiar to him which was this school. He walks towards the gate as he makes it there fully, he turns around to see the school behind him and a name on the school. The school above average in size, in the distance, could be seen a tennis court, an inside gym, a pool, three floors, and a cafeteria. He knew his parents sacrificed a lot for him to be here. It was very hard for him to come here, it was also hard for his mom and sister to learn the Japanese language. This school was well funded because it was one of the top schools in Tokyo. Outside of the school, we went right into the Tokyo streets. There were a bunch of signs with Japanese and English writing. The school name would have a rather pinkish text on the front of the school, Alex read it then said it out loud.

“Lotus Flower High School.”

Alex was in Tokyo, the most popular city in Japan with huge billboards and neon-lit skyscrapers and people passing by. Random people on the sidewalk were passing by and cars were passing by on the road. Alex looks to his right as he sees a sidewalk and begins to walk onto it, he pulls his phone out, changes the music on it, and puts on some lo-fi. He speaks to himself in his head, Speaking in a kind of bored and confused tone.

“What was that earlier in class? I felt like time wasn’t even moving, everyone was still. It is creepy, but kind of stressful.”

Alex thought to himself as he continuously walked, his steps were loud, he breathed in and out as he then stood still abruptly stopping himself. He tapped his chin as an idea came to his head to try the situation once more. He smiled as he would know this could maybe prove him wrong and his previous experience was just his imagination. He was kind of excited and scared at the same time, he thought his boring life could get better. He took out both of his headphones in his ears and shoved them into the pocket of his bookbag.

“Let me try it again.”

Alex stretches out his hand in front of him as he tightens his body he tightens his hand and holds his breath in. He stood there for a brief moment as he realized nothing was happening. He speaks to himself in a confused way as he was wondering why it wasn’t working. His body was somewhat warning him, his breathing began to increase suddenly as he felt his anxiety filling his head with nonsense. He left the school zone and is now in the main city of Japan with a bunch of larger buildings in the background.

“What the hell, It won’t work? Maybe I was just daydreaming? I need to stop overreacting.”

As soon as the word stop came into his head, he subconsciously blinked his eyes, as everyone does without realizing it's as natural as breathing. He felt a weird feeling in his eyes as he suddenly opened his eyes once more, noticing the unnatural silence that once pierced his soul again. Sudden tiredness hovers over his whole body as it makes him shiver. He speaks to himself again in a panic tone as he realizes that it is happening again just like in the classroom.

“T-this isn’t fake, h-how?”

Alex said to himself with a stutter in his voice as his voice shook, looking for a reasonable explanation for this situation. It wasn’t fake. This is real life that hit him like a brick as he noticed that his breathing suddenly spiked unnaturally. He freaked out why his surroundings stopped, nothing was alive to him, everything was still these were questions he kept asking himself over and over again as he fell onto his knees going into the fetal position. A voice said a few words into his head, something only he could hear as if there was another presence in his head; it had a shaking and chilling voice. This didn’t fit into the realm of possibility but still, this was happening right now. The people in the biggest city of Japan were all standing still and nothing was moving. It was as if time had completely come to a halt. He looked at his hand as he saw the familiar black glow that surrounded his body once again.

“A gift.”

Alex's body shakes in fear wondering what the voice was and why he was hearing it of all people. He started to question his sanity, but it was all unnatural like something straight out of an anime or light novel. He felt, even more, his energy being drained like before in the classroom when everything would stop around him. He felt the tightness around his neck once more, he felt his stomach burning and in an instant, he coughed up blood as it dripped down his chin onto the floor. Since the tightness around his neck was so severe it caused him to fall on his knees and since he was in fear he insecurely and fearfully went into the fetal position on the Tokyo sidewalk. Once again as more blood spilled from his mouth just like before a voice said something to him.

“Exchange.”

“W-why what the-.”

He tried smiling to make himself feel better but it wouldn’t work. He just wanted everything to go back to normal to continue. He closes his eyes as he wishes for these things to happen to continue. As he imagined the words “continue” he heard sounds of cars passing by something so normal but so reassuring to Alex. He doesn’t know how this continued happening. He was always an overthinker and a wimp but this is crazy. He thought to himself this ability is something that would be a gift to any otaku to like Alex but this is freaking him the hell out.

He stands up getting out of this scared fetal position and standing up some people were looking at him for the few seconds that he was on the ground. His face goes red for a moment once he notices that he was in the huge city of Tokyo with more than a dozen people staring at him. He was still a bit scared. He stood up as he began to run, wanting to get home as soon as possible hoping no one from his school would see him and make fun of him for it tomorrow at school he knew how much rumors spread, especially in school. He needed a reason on why this was happening to him; he wondered these things as he ran off.

His energy felt drained but still in fear of what was happening to him he wanted to go somewhere where he knows where he is safe and secluded and that place is his home. His house was far, His family couldn’t afford to live in the most infamous Tokyo, Japan so they lived where they could, which was Nakano, Japan. He had things on his mind and decided on the goal of what he was going to do about this new situation that hit him. His goal is to find out what, who and where his powers come from.

“This can’t be real, there has to be a reasonable explanation.”

Alex thought to himself.

A figure in dark black robes would watch from afar that Alex couldn’t see he looked at Alex run away as it said some words. A hoodie was over his head and a mask was covering his face, his hair slipped out from the top of his head revealing a pink spike. Its face wasn’t shown but it had a masculine figure, and their eyes were glowing black as they watched Alex from a dark area. Their black eyes glowed off the dark corner. It was talking to another person or maybe it was talking to himself, but a few confusing words came out of its mouth as It watched the young boy run away.

“He needs a challenge, His eyes are like mine, his Kagayaku I can feel it.”

The man then disappeared further into the alleyway, for some reason he didn’t want to approach Alex just yet. Maybe it was to watch him from afar, who was he and why was he watching Alex? Only time will tell.

Alex kept running way past his school and down a few blocks. It seems that he lived a little far away from the school. He stopped in his tracks since he was out of breath. He turns to his left as he sees a fast food restaurant named “Sentucky Fried Chicken.” He wasn’t hungry so he looked back in front of him and walked now since he was too tired to run anymore. He felt like things were watching him and he wanted to get home as soon as possible. He runs faster as a plethora of fast food companies are on the right and left sides of him. He passes by a Mobdonalds’s and a few food shops. He was low on stamina as he continuously stopped running and continued running. He ran around in his beautiful city of Tokyo, Japan there were trains in train stations and a bunch of larger buildings. It had a certain smell with a mix of food perfume and a whole mix of other things.

He ran and eventually went to a new place in Japan. Instead of the rich atmosphere of Japan and cool and flashy looks, where he was running looked fairly different. It wasn't an extremely poor town but it wasn't an extremely rich town either. It was a middle-class town, A sign on the street signifies where Alex’s home was and that was Nakano Town. There were a few large buildings but not as many as in Japan. He looked to the other houses on the street, he spoke to himself as he watched the windows of another empty house.

“Hiroto isn’t home yet?”

He finally makes it to his home out of breath after running a few miles. He was sweating and was about to fall from tiredness. Stress was piling on him also from all the schoolwork he has to do to live up to his parent’s expectations.

He lets out a sigh of relief as he looks at his front yard. The grass wasn’t cut, something that was his chore. He smells his familiar house smell. It smelt like flowers with a mix of eggs and bacon. He didn't worry about that and just wanted to head inside. He opens his door as he closes it behind him and heads upstairs. It seems his mother or father or even his little sister wasn’t home since the house was completely quiet. He guessed that his mother and sister were out doing something, he didn’t know what was going around with his dad. He was busy because he was involved with the government so him not being home didn’t bother him. He opened his room door as he headed into his room and collapsed onto the bed. He attempted to come to terms with his experience.

“Am I Insane? I search for reassurance that I'm real.”

The silence he heard when he stopped time the eerie feeling would draw fear through his body into his mind and his soul. He tried to relax for sleep even though it was only four pm. He wanted to sleep mostly because of his scary experience but also because of his late-night gaming sessions. He hadn't had a good night’s sleep in weeks, now he just wanted to sleep. A tear fell from his eyes as he slowly but surely began to drift off.