Prologue

Prologue

I sighed as I dragged my suitcases with me out of Narita Airport onto the Shinkansen to take me towards my destination. Quickly enough, I found my assigned seat and sat down, placing my chin to my hand as I leaned and looked out the window. Dozens and dozens of excited Japanese people mulled around, getting on and off the express. Soon enough, the train started moving, and I began staring listlessly out the window. As I did, the truth of me being where I was finally hit me.

I’m Charlie Miller, And I guess by Japanese standards, i’m a second year high school student even though I'm American. I’m by all accounts an average high schooler. I get decent grades, I was in a club or two, but mostly, I was into Japanese culture. Yeah one of those guys. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t on forums with usernames like asunawaifu34 or anything like that, but I always found everything about the culture and media fascinating and really wanted to live overseas. So, when I saw a chance for becoming and international transfer student, I jumped at the opportunity.

However...there was only one problem. In order to do this transfer, you had to be pretty fluent in Japanese. And I learned something fast. I’m bad at learning languages. Like REALLY bad at learning languages. I tried to study. I really did. I buckled down for weeks at a time, focusing my heart on trying to learn the language, but at the rate I was going, maybe i’d be able to order a salad when I hit forty years old. And high school wouldn’t wait that long. So, I did what any boy my age would do in that situation would do.....I cheated.

If I could say I was proud of such a thing, I would say it was a good cheat. My written comprehension I was able to fudge that with flying colors with the help of picture translating and word by word online searches. The verbal section was a little more difficult. I had one of those instant translators with the help of AI. At first it was a bit clunky, but I managed to make my way through a conversation, both with rehearsing ahead of time sounds that meant nothing to me, and good old fashioned AI translation. Am I proud of what I did? Well, I mean.. Not really, I REALLY would have rather much earned my way the old fashioned way, but what else could I do?

As I pondered my less than stellar way of making it to Japan, my vision traveled outside as Tokyo rushed past me as I let out another sigh. I wish I could be staying in Tokyo proper. That would have been nice. Unfortunately for me, This wasn’t where I was going to be attending my last two years of high school. I was going MUCH further out. About forty miles outside of Tokyo I was told. Kind of the boonies side of Tokyo. Still considered the prefecture, but not the Ginza or Akihabara I knew about. That didn’t really bother me though. I was still here. I made it.

The signs and buildings passed quickly as I stared out the window. The longer I sat there, the less and less buildings I saw. At first it was just a few buildings for every tree. Then it was a few trees for every building, until finally, it was hardly any buildings and mostly trees. After what seemed like an eternity, the train stopped at my station. I looked up, thankfully the station sign was written in English as well as Japanese. I exhaled, gathered my bags, and headed out towards town.

Town was probably the best way to describe this place. There were houses to be sure, and a few apartment complexes here and there, but nothing compared to the bustling metropolis I was used to when watching the animes of my past. A few home owned business lined the street as I walked down the main road. Signs in Kanji I had no idea what they said peppered the street as well as a few people eyeing me like I got off on the wrong stop. To be fair, at that moment, I kinda felt I did.

Eventually, thankfully, I arrived at the apartment rental facility. The woman, a nice lady who appeared to be in her early thirties smiled at me and began speaking in basic English. I internally sighed at this, thanking my stars that she must have thought it would be easier for me to speak English than Japanese. She was 100% right. The fact that I was even able to stay in a place of my own was incredible. Originally, I was going to stay with a host family. However, an emergency came up and they had to leave the country in a hurry to take care of a sick relative or something. At first, I thought my entire new school life was going to be in jeopardy. Thankfully, the school stepped in and stated that because of its distance from Tokyo, many students stay in apartments of their own to stay close to the school. They offered this to me, which I immediately accepted. Staying in a place of my own made the whole “Not speaking Japanese” way easier on me and was actually a load off my chest.

The nice lady lead me to my apartment. The apartment, to be honest, was actually pretty sweet. I mean, by tiny apartment standards. It really looked more like a closet than any sort of actual living facility, but, i’ve actually come to expect that from watching Anime. Still, you don’t realize just how small these apartments are until you actually step into one.

I thank the lady and begin the short process of unpacking my few meager possessions. (Thankfully they had already furnished my place with a bed.... Well..futon). After only a few short minutes, my two suitcases were unpacked and I found myself looking at the room. Yep. Still completely blank and depressing. Awesome. But, still, for the next two years, this place was mine, so I better enjoy it.

Before I forgot, I pulled out my laptop, placing it on a short table in front of me. I needed to call my folks. If I forgot they would have killed me. I was greeted by a very groggy mom and dad on my call app, having forgotten that it was around 2am where they were. Still, they didn't seem upset by the late call. Rather they were relieved and wished me the best, telling me to call again once i'm settled into school and let them know how it went. I agreed, letting them get back to sleep before ending the call.

Finishing my call, I got up and stretched my legs a bit, as I had been sitting on the floor, taking a few steps around my tiny apartment. It was then that I noticed an envelope I had somehow missed was sitting on a desk near the front door. With nothing better to do, I went over and opened it up. I wasn’t shocked to see that it was my welcome to the school. It included my ID card and some paperwork, which, to my annoyance was all in Japanese. Fantastic.

Sighing, I pulled out my phone and began to take photos of the sheet, using an app to translate it. Having done so, I scrolled through it, looking through all the info. Obvious things such as ‘Time of Arrival’, “We’re happy to have you here.’ plastered the paper. Then towards the bottom of the paper, it had the emblem of the school along with the words ‘In the top echelons of Math, Science, and Literature in Tokyo prefecture’. Well, I suppose post what your school’s good at.

However, I found myself a bit curious at that comment. So, back on the floor, I looked at my

 laptop and searched school rankings in Tokyo on several of the topics they said they were amazing at. Hm. Apparently there were 429 high schools in Tokyo Prefecture alone. I typed in Math, and sure enough, they appeared in the top twenty. I nodded approvingly and looked for Literature which appeared fifteenth. So yeah, overall, not too shabby. Guess despite being out in the boonies, this school knows its stuff.

Finally, a thought popped into my head. ‘Huh. You know, I never checked out how good their English was. I wonder if they’re in the top twenty as well.’ All things considered, I probably should have looked this up earlier, but I was just so excited to go to Japan the thought of their English didn’t even cross my mind. I shrugged and clicked on English and began to look for the school, assuming it to be somewhere in the top twenty. I didn’t find it there, but then again, they didn’t claim their English was in the top echelons. So whatever, I thought, they were probably somewhere towards the middle.

I began to scroll down. Nope, not in the top fifty. Whatever, that’s fine. As I was scrolling, the smile from my face dropped more and more and I kept going down the list, not seeing them. ‘Okay, so they’re not in the top half. Well that kind of sucks.’ I took a deep inhale and kept scrolling. Three hundred. Nothing. I felt myself start to panic a little as a bead of sweat appeared on my head as I scrolled further. Three hundred fifty. Nothing. My face became more contorted with fear as I kept going. Four hundred. Nothing.

Finally, the cursor hit the bottom of the screen, almost as if I could hear it with an audible THUNK. There the school was. Four Hundred and Twenty Nine. The school I was attending was DEAD LAST in English. It was the worst school for English in all of Tokyo.

I sat there, a dumb founded expression on my face. Without even realizing it, I had just enrolled in the school with the WORST English comprehension in all of Tokyo. I found myself leaning my head forward, holding it in my hands as I thought this. And...the worst part. I lied and cheated my way into this school. Having them think I know ANY Japanese whatsoever. I thought MAYBE I could get by with them wanting to practice their English on me and fake the rest. But THIS? I found myself blearily looking at the screen, the last place English mocking me.

I let out a shaky sigh as I composed myself, the name of the school and ranking staring back at me.

“Well....” I let out another sigh as I spoke aloud. “Tomorrow’s going to be interesting.”

(Intro plays)