Chapter 1: Self Proclaimed Otaku Part 3: Friends?

He didn’t dream but as he awoke he heard a loud noise. It was a beeping noise that wouldn’t stop. He opened his eyes as he then sighs realizing that he has to go to school. He turned to his head as he recognized that it was a phone alarm. He sits upon his bed as he reaches for his phone and turns off the alarm. He checks the time on his phone. It is eight-thirty. He usually wakes up at eight am so he is a bit late.

“God damn it mom is going to get pissed if I don’t get up.”

Alex said as he stands up and he stretches, he yawns as he looks around for some clothes to put on after he takes his morning shower. A loud voice could be heard from a lower position of the house as the voice made out words that sounded like a middle-aged woman's voice. It was bossy and loud.

“Alex woke up. It's time for school!”

He knows this voice and responds to it out of respect and a bit of fear of being punished by his strict mother.

“Yeah Mom, I know.”

He said back in a loud voice to his mother as he turned around to face his closet, he went into his closet and looked around.

Alex’s room was your stereotypical otaku room. It had figures of anime girls in it and light novel’s stacked in book holders. The light novels consisted of basic stereotypical isekai fantasy in which the main protagonist gets transported to a magical world and gets a harem with super overpowered abilities. Alex liked these books because he could use this as an escape tactic from his real boring life. After he was done talking to his mother he turned around to face his closet, he went into his closet and looked around. He grabs some boxers that had a blue color on them, he then smiles as he grabs his uniform that is all black. He grabbed his backpack and stuffed some manga and light novels in there as well as his gym clothes which were just a basic white shirt with blue shorts. The messy-haired boy sighs in a bit of a happy way, Alex then walks out of his room.

When he leaves his room he looks behind him, he makes sure to close his room door, and then he heads to the bathroom. Before he made it to the bathroom he looked down near his stairs and downstairs. He makes it to the door as it suddenly opens from the inside signifying that someone is in there. A dark-skinned girl opens the door. She was a cute girl. She had black lengthy hair, remained rather messy and she is rather skinny and had rather nice eyelashes. She smiles as he makes a faint sound with her mouth as she says. Her facial features resembled Alex’s like her dark brown eyes and skin.

“Hehe”

A bathrobe was around the girl’s waist and chest as she then opened her eyes to see Alex there. She wasn’t naked although it was pretty weird for her brother to look at her in a towel, but because it seems they were close she didn’t care and smiled as she opened the door and said something loudly. This girl was Alex’s younger sister Aya Zuki.

“The bathroom is open big bro.”

Alex sighs as he then replies to his little sister, he smiles at her making eye contact with her.

“Yeah whatever you’re pretending like it's a store Aya.”

“Heh, whatever Alex.”

The little sister Aya said as she then walked away, Alex didn’t look back not having any interest in his sister because that would be weird. He heads into the bathroom, dropping his backpack, brushes his teeth, and heads into the shower where he talks to himself. He made sure to take off his clothes before he stepped into the shower of course.

“I have the power to stop things somehow ha, No one would believe me, that sounds ridiculous plus sometimes it doesn’t even work.”

Alex said under his breath, As he then laughed quietly and continued to rub soap all over his body as the water kept hitting his body. He was in the shower for around 20 minutes. He liked to take long-ass showers, and due to this, he heard a loud bossy feminine voice from before.

“Alex hurried out of the shower!”

“Alright, Mom I’m coming!”

Alex nods to himself as he moves his hand over to the shower knob, and turns it off. He quickly got his new fresh school clothes from the floor where he put them. He grabs them and puts his shirt on then his boxers, and after that his pants, and finally grabs his backpack. He gets out of the bathroom fully clothed in his black school uniform. Alex was a bit angry that he was going to have to leave the shower so early, but he couldn’t do much. He did wake up late.

He heads downstairs and smells something familiar he had before he smelt eggs and bacon and something else. as he sees his sister and mom sitting down as they were both eating food. He tightened his hand into a fist as he realized his father wasn’t there but that was nothing new but it still angered him a tiny bit. He looks at them as his sister from before was smiling at him and speaks in her cute and teasing tone. His Mom and little sister were both at the table eating western dishes. It was eggs, bacon, and pancakes. He was originally from America so this was something he ate a lot. The dinner table was normal. It had a cover over it that was pink. The dinner table had four seats and three plates with food on it.

The news was in the background, It had a building on fire. The news line had a title that read “mysterious building fire comes out of nowhere.” It also had a few victims on the ground with deep burn marks on their necks, legs, and arms. Alex turned his head and thought it was weird, But this wasn’t anything new, people all around have been getting injured from unknown objects or people. Alex simultaneously listened to the news line and listened to Aya at the same time.

“What were you doing so long up there?”

“None of your business I don’t ask you about your showers. Are you becoming a pervert, my dear little sister?”

Alex said as a remark to Aya, His voice was still in a playful tone as he continued to talk to her. Simultaneously he looks at the dinner table and realizes that his father wasn’t there. He did barely come home. He had a lot of work to do. It wasn't anything new to him. He guessed ever since he moved here he hadn’t been seeing his father often, he thought that he must be busy with government work.

“Oh shut up you took 20 minutes, I-I’m not a perv stupid!”

“Yeah and?”

Alex said as he sat down, dropping his backpack onto the floor. His mother looked at him with a smile as she was a sweet middle-aged black lady with the same black hair that Aya had. It seems that Alex’s white hair was unnatural. His mother was short and not that loud as she spoke to the two siblings in a loud tone as they argued.

“You two should be nicer to each other you are siblings, you’re both Zukis “

Aya and Alex both took a bite of their bacon as they both simultaneously said the same they both had the same tone and it had a firm and direct response.

“Never.”

The mother sweats as she feels the intensity between the two, she gets up and looks in the fridge for something. As she did this she looked out of the fridge for a moment and looked at her watch. It was over eight-thirty it was now eight fifty-five, she gasps loudly as she looks at her kids Aya and Alex as she then yells.

“You two should head to school now, Aya keeps up the good work and Alex brings up your history grade.”

Alex heard this quickly as he was finished with his food, his sister looked at Alex as he got up and spoke to his sister in a low tone. He ignored his mother not wanting to talk about his low grades and tried to leave the house as soon as possible. He made sure to grab his backpack that was sitting on the floor by his leg, Aya already had hers on.

“Alright tiny we should go.”

“H-hey don’t call me tiny, just because your five, nine doesn’t mean anything !”

“Yeah ok, You're only five, five though Aya.”

Alex said, smiling a bit as he teased her and they bickered back and forth for about a minute. He stopped and then quickly got serious. It seems that this was normal between the two; they were siblings after all.

“Alright, let’s get going.”

Aya nods towards her brother, he nods back towards her as he gets up and heads towards the door. His sister was also now up as he moved his hands towards the doorknob. He opens the door as the early sunlight hits them hard as fall leaves are in front of his door. He heads outside, seeing the street in front of his house he begins to walk on the sidewalk. Alex turns his head to the side of his front yard as he sees the flowers in front of his eyes, he smells the fresh air and smiles as he mentally prepares himself for today. His sister followed closely behind him. He walked as cars passed by, his sister’s middle school was coming up as he kept walking and they did about two lefts as they made it to Aya’s school, the school name was at the front gate the school name read “Senbuki Junior High.” Aya smiles as she looks at Alex and begins to wave towards him and begins to nod as she hugs her big brother and begins to walk away from him so she could go to school. More students were also going into the school from all directions.

“Well, bye Alex, I don’t need you to pick me up today I’ll be doing an after-school cheerleading”

“Alright, Bye have a nice day.”

“You too big brother!”

Aya says smiling as she turns around and then walks into her school. It was quite big and had some things that other schools didn’t have like a pool, and a huge sports field, and floors. Aya had walked up to a group of girls as she smiled and waved at them. They were pointing at other girls and laughing. Alex had already turned around at that point so he was oblivious to what was going on he had his own problems of course.

Alex let out a sigh of relief as his sister was now gone into the school, he smiles as he then turns around and begins to walk forward past the middle school. He pulls out his phone, reaches into his pocket he pulls out some wireless headphones, and pops them into his ears. He smiles as he looks at his phone and puts his finger on the middle button on the phone opening it. He goes into his messages and types into a group chat. The group chat was with his friends that had three other people in the chat. He turns around the corner as he makes it into a familiar area. His ability to stop time was still fresh inside of his mind, he had thought of the name stop time from watching an anime that had a similar ability in it.

Since he already had his phone out he might as well text his friends he thought. He smirks as he goes into a group chat and texts into it.

Should we meet at the gate, I was looking for you guys yesterday. Where were you?”

No one answered the group chat’s text, he sighs as he keeps walking towards his school's destination. He thought to himself as he was a bit insecure about people looking at him. He thought as he remembered the time experience from yesterday. Maybe thought for a second that maybe he could tell his friends but even if they probably wouldn’t take him seriously he can’t even control it. He kept walking and was now in Tokyo as people passed by. Keeping his vision on the floor but also looking up from time to time, he was listening to his music still kind of like a background white noise. He crosses the street as a train from above goes by, a bunch of cars and people pass by as Alex keeps walking. Alex smiles as suddenly more cars begin to appear as Alex approaches a building that was quite large, having a good structure.

There was a front gate and as he looked up he read the school name. The School’s name read Lotus Flower High School. Alex smiles seeing some girls pass by while they were in their full black Japanese uniform. He also noticed in his familiar trees that pink petals were nice sakura trees that had certain autumn leaves since the seasons were changing. As people passed by Alex they laughed at him, this wasn’t an unknown occurrence for Alex everyone considered him a loser anyway so he ignored it.

Something suddenly happened as Alex was pushed by some unknown person. Alex looked behind him as he saw a familiar friend, someone that he met before, it was, Daizen who had a blank face as he then calmly talked to him. A smile came to his face as he looked at Daizen. The more popular upperclassmen with good looks and he was athletic were here now. But he has been Alex's rival somewhat in every sport since sixth grade, he was excited that his friend was here now he could have a real reason to come to this hell we call, school. Alex thought he was even somewhat lucky to be friends with a popular kid.

“Oh, it seems you're here Alex, let’s wait for the rest of the group, alright?”

Daizen said as he stood a bit higher than Alex, he was 6’1 and had a very athletic build it seems that he was also rather wealthy from his appearance wearing very expensive watches and shoes including jewelry. He was in the regular black school uniform, he had a blue tie on instead of a black one though. He was white with a Japanese appearance and he had short blue hair that covered one of his eyes, his eyes were blue also. He had light freckles on the right side of his face. He had a deep burn mark on his hand and left and right arms as well as his neck. Alex sighs as he lets out a breath of relief, he then gets a bit angry punching Daizen in his stomach Daizen barely flinches but laughs. Alex punched him because Daizen pushed him for no reason. Alex didn’t punch him seriously but even if he did punch him seriously Daizen is stronger and faster than him.

“Don’t push me like that Daizen you scared the shit out of me by the way where you were yesterday?”

“Oh come on Alex it’s not that serious and I had some after-school things sorry man we can hang out today if you want.”

“Oh, well next time tell me Daizen. I was alone yesterday and I was bored.”

Alex said, sighing, Daizen and Alex were still both smiling, keeping that happy vibe as they looked at each other. He was happy that at least one of his friends was at school today and he still had his time-stopping ability in the back of his head. Alex opened his mouth to move his lips in speech but suddenly he felt something on his back. He turned his head in a bit of shock. He saw a girl with green hair and white skin. She smiles as she giggles a bit, she begins to speak to Alex in a friendly tone.

“Good Morning!”

The happy girl said as she pushed more of her chest onto Alex’s back on purpose, it seems that this girl was a friend of Alex’s since she was comfortable touching him most people wouldn’t want to touch him since he wasn’t very approachable or touchable to strangers. He blushes his face getting bright red as he notices that the woman's chest was on his back. Alex talks to the unnamed girl, his face still bright red. He can't lie this wasn’t what he expected a girl’s chest to feel like. He stutters a bit out of embarrassment towards the woman. He adjusts his bookbag as he sighs once more. He couldn't see that he didn’t like the feel of a woman's chest but this was just unexpected.

“G-good morning Fuzumi.”

Fuzumi smiles as she then nods, getting off Alex’s back, and then begins to stand up and then looks at him again. He fully turned around and looked at Fuzumi. She was 5’6 very much shorter than Alex. She had green hair that was a twin drill hairstyle and was chubby a little but she also had a cute vibe about her. She always seemed happy-go-lucky. Her hands behind her back and always skip around her green eyes looking at them both. Fuzumi was giving off innocent vibes, when Alex looked at her she giggled once more and then spoke. Her eyes are dark green as she looks at Alex in his eyes talking to him. She wore the school uniform differently from other girls. Usually, girls are supposed to wear stockings when they wear a school dress but she didn’t. Alex thought of Fuzumi as a popular German pretty girl that he luckily got to be friends with. Alex even though he couldn’t get with her he still was lucky to be friends with her and her amazing looks.

“Anyways Alex, we should wait for Hiroto, I heard he was sick yesterday.”

“Speak of the devil Fuzumi.”

Alex said as he looked behind him, suddenly another skinny man began to walk up to Daizen.

It was Hiroto Kashikoi. He smiled as he looked at Daizen and Alex and spoke in a deep tone. His hair was long and amber and was in a down position, his hair was quite long reaching his back, His eyes were also yellow and were bright and stood out between the three of them. He had blue glasses on his face and used his right index finger to push them back up. He was weirdly wearing the uniform, tucking his school shirt into his pants.

“Hello, Alex and Daizen.”

Hiroto said he was around 5’8 a bit taller than Fuzumi, But not as tall as Alex or Daizen. Fuzumi pouts at Hiroto for not saying hi to her too, she got up all in his face as she spoke in an annoyed tone. Hiroto backed up looking at Fuzumi with a weird and concerned face as he shook his head wondering what was wrong. Alex thought of Hiroto as one of his closest friends, he is smart and better looking than him. Alex knew that all his friends were better than him in all the most important aspects, this is why he doesn’t take them for granted. Hiroto lived and still lives right across from his house when he moved to Japan, Hiroto was arguably the smartest kid in school.

“Oh I see you can’t say hi to your other childhood friend, I’m right here you know idiot!”

Hiroto scratched the back of his head as he had forgotten, he smiled as he spoke as well back to Fuzumi’s little comment. He thought she was overreacting but he didn’t have the energy or capacity to argue with her at the moment, so he would just take the most peaceful option and apologize.

“My mistake Fuzumi, Good Morning.”

“That’s what I thought, Hiroto!”

Fuzumi said as her face was still pouty, her pouty face slowly turned into a smile as she backed out of Hiroto’s face.

Alex sighed as he quickly stepped in between the two of them, he had an annoyed face and was tired of the arguing even if it was friendly and he wanted to eat breakfast already. He spoke to all of them as he grabbed Fuzumi and Hiroto. He grabbed both of them by their shoulders as he shook his head wanting all of this to end.

“Can we just stop and eat? I'm hungry as hell right now.”

Alex lied, he wasn’t hungry but this was his attempt to stop them from arguing and even giving them an excuse to.

Daizen smiles as he then nods at Alex and then replies to his comment, he was the most mature out of all of them and he didn’t want a fight to start he just wanted all of his friends to get along. Some of the female students that were passing by laughed at all of them not loudly but the group of friends heard them laughing. They were pointing at Fuzumi’s weird look, her green hair and green eyes looked strange and stood out between the four of them, she also had different facial features since she was German and not Japanese like everyone else in the school.

“I agree with Alex, Let’s go.”

Fuzumi nodded as she agreed to go, closely following behind Alex and Hiroto as she did.

Alex nods at Daizen as a bit of a thank you for helping the situation, He kind of felt lucky to have all these friends. He also heard and saw some students looking at all of them and pointing and didn’t want to ruin his friend’s moods so he was trying to leave the front gate as soon as possible. He thought of this as he headed to the front among the female and the two other male friends he so dearly cared for. He walks into the loud school as then the pressure sets in, he looks down not trying to look at anyone, he quickly rushes towards the cafeteria looking up for a quick second to get there. Alex and his friends entered the cafeteria, The cafeteria was large and had ten large rectangular tables where kids ate food at. He looked at his friends as they were still smiling at him. Daizen looked up as he heard a voice say something to him from across the room. There were multiple girl's voices, it was very feminine and it was a happy voice.

“Daizen, come here!”

Daizen nods towards the women as they wave as they are still waiting for him, maybe they had a crush on him since they were surrounding him. Daizen knew these girls were his friends and he was too nice just to leave them alone so he decided to stay. It seems that Daizen was somewhat popular with ladies and that was something Alex lacked and envied.

“Coming!, Sorry guys I’ll talk to you later in Mr.Abhuraya’s class! I’ll see you at the gym, Alex.”

“Yeah. See ya.”

Alex, Hiroto, and Fuzumi said at the same time, Daizen nods as he walks away going to his other friends. He thinks of how Daizen is so popular. Alex was wondering why he was even friends with him; he shook as his thoughts took over, he was always an overthinker he couldn’t control it too much was happening he was going to mention his time-stopping ability but then he felt his body tingle. A bunch of thoughts fill his head he was anxious because of his fear of his unbelievable power and how everyone looked at him like a loser he knew he was pitiful everyone avoided him for that and he still had no girlfriend that’s when the voice from before spoke in his head it wasn’t his thoughts but it was something else entirely,it was a being.

“You are a loser, you’ll never amount to anything. Dirty human.”

He wanted to think without all of this noise the voices of people talking in the cafeteria. He had to breathe harder as he felt like he couldn’t breathe regularly, eyes on him, and his head filled with insecurities. He was scared that he would stop time again as he did earlier, he felt anxious. He couldn’t control his head as he looked at his friends. He was thinking of his stopped time ability. He was thinking about telling his friends but they wouldn’t believe him anyway. His eyes flickered black indicating that his power activated for a quick second. It was weird though no one could realize that his eyes suddenly changed color he felt his energy being output he felt some aura around his body. He looks at his hand for a quick second and realizes a black glow is surrounding his body; he closes his eyes in disbelief. He heard a door open and close in the background.

He doubts himself while speaking in his head.

“I-i’m crazy, I-I can stop time why am I freaking out? I need to calm down.”

Alex thought about telling others about his ability to stop time, like his friends but he already had that weird weeb label and it sounded ridiculous to tell others. He didn’t say it out loud his head was rambling with thoughts as something touched him on his shoulder and something spoke. This snapped him out of his little panic and his anxiousness suddenly went away as he heard the voice.

“A-Alex? Alex?”

The voice echoed as he began to shake his hands in fear as he then closed his eyes. Suddenly, he was snapped out of it, he looked up at the person and he saw Fuzumi and Hiroto. He was happy not seeing or hearing thoughts. Alex smiles as he then begins to shake his head. His face was a bit troubled and he quickly fixed that by trying to get back into his normal face. The aura that was once surrounding his body was now gone, he sighs in happiness as he looks at Fuzumi once again. Fuzumi began to laugh a bit in a joking way as she tapped his back. His body seemed to calm down, it’s as if anytime he felt like talking about what happened his body tingled. To others, he was just sitting there but mentally and physically Alex felt a tingle throughout his body, and a sudden second thought to not tell them he plays it off as he speaks to his friends. The voice was in his head like before it said a familiar word.

“Another gift?”

“You ok Alex? You’ve been just staying there for a few seconds now. It's creepy.”

“Heh, I'm a good F-Fuzumi.”

Alex said lying, putting his true feelings aside he wanted to keep his happy and funny persona going, he also had a stutter due to the shock he was feeling. He didn’t want to bother them; he kept overthinking and didn’t want to involve them. Fuzumi looks at him and then smiles once more, she is innocent and naive so she believes him and then begins to talk to Alex.

“Oh ok, Alex you want to get some breakfast I’m hungry.”

“No no, I’m not hungry. I ate at home, I’ll see you two in class.”

Alex said walking to his class not listening to Fuzumi or Hiroto even if they said anything he wouldn’t have heard any words from either of them. It was too loud for him, usually being with his friends calmed him down but due to recent events, he was extra paranoid. The cafeteria was too loud for his liking. He didn't want to be there. He felt eyes on him he couldn’t tell but he felt like others were judging him. This wasn't a new feeling but due to his new ability, he felt weird and began to question who he got it from or why he has it. He couldn't think straight with this feeling he had to leave. He walked into the hallway ignoring everyone as he walked out, he didn’t look up at anyone but he felt as if they were looking at him.

He takes a deep breath in as he walks forward moving in the halls in a fast like without running, not drawing any attention to himself he walks up some stairs as he walks into the upstairs hallway. Alex approached his classroom as he looked around seeing one person in a male uniform that is black. He ignored the male as he sat down right next to the window. He also put his book bag on the back of his chair. The male looked away from him as soon as he sat still wondering about his power as he questioned this ability he felt safe here and eventually put his head down falling into a deep sleep.

“Am I insane?”

He mumbled these words inside his mind, over and over again he wondered if he was insane. No one would believe him. It made no sense, he slowly lost consciousness as he fell asleep in the safe and boring atmosphere of a classroom. The voice in his head that normally talked to him as he slowly fell asleep. This voice was alive and was speaking or maybe he was going insane only time will tell.

“Challenge, you're not insane. You are mine. You're a loser, you’ll never amount to anything.”