A Strange Existence

When I was a kid, I made a wish. I don’t know if it was out of spite or out of sadness. Perhaps it was both. It didn’t matter either way. It was here to stay.

When I could have achieved some semblance of happiness, I wasted it on an emotion that had welled up inside me on the spur of the moment.

It was an embarrassment, to say the least, and it was probably why I was sitting here in this classroom alone even though it was lunchtime. After all, it had become public knowledge in this small town of mine that I was the child who had wasted his sole wish at the age of seven.

As the only “wishless” person in the room, it was no surprise that I would be ostracized. The verbal barbs and judging looks stung at the beginning, but I had gotten used to it over the past two weeks.

Honestly, eating alone had its own charm to it. There was no one here to disturb me and I was free to do whatever I wished without worrying about prying eyes or whispered gossip. I was essentially a man on his own island.

I finished up the last piece of my lunch, nodding with satisfaction at my own handiwork. It was a simple rolled egg omelet that I had managed to perfect over the years. My parents were what you could call “wage slaves,” so I was mostly forced to take care of myself.

After putting away my lunch box, I retrieved the latest volume of a light novel that I was still going through. It was one of those generic, run-of-the-mill isekai novels. There was nothing special or unique about its plot, and it didn’t make any attempts to deviate from the tried and true formula.

In other words, it was just perfectly suited for my purposes. Reading something mindless like this was rather helpful for getting my mind off of things, especially when the main character was less of a character and more of a blank slate for the reader to project themselves onto.

The ghost of a smile touched my lips. Even in a world that was blessed with miraculous powers like wishes, we still resorted to such base forms of entertainment. It wasn’t as if the content in these novels were impossible for us to perform.

In fact, there were already quite a few individuals in the world who were capable of feats that could be likened to the magical abilities described in these types of novels.

Despite that, we still depended on the inventions which had carried us throughout most of history. Cars, trains, bicycles, and electricity. It was really quite absurd if you stepped back and took a look at society. With all these wishes, no one had thought to wish for new inventions that would improve what we already had.

You’d think that there would be at least one person who would have wished to create a perpetual source of energy, or maybe even a wish to end world hunger. To my surprise, there were none.

But really, maybe it was just my perspective that was foolish. In this world, there was no one who would want to waste their sole wish on someone else. Human beings weren’t that selfless.

As I thumbed through the next few pages of my novel, I suddenly felt a tap on my right shoulder. It was a crisp and concise motion, and I felt the impact very solidly.

At first, I was tempted to liken it to the motion of typing quickly on a keyboard, but I realized that was wrong even as I whirled around in surprise.

It was more accurate to say that the motion was similar to someone’s finger pulling the trigger of a handgun.

More importantly though, I was currently having trouble comprehending what I was seeing. There before me was an impossibility.

It was a girl so beautiful that even the rays of sunlight streaming through the window were forced to offer their obeisance, wrapping around her exquisite form and framing her long legs and graceful curves like a full-body halo.

Her long hair was the color of the night sky, and the light that reflected off of its glossy surface formed brilliant stars. Her deep violet eyes were mesmerizing to say the least, and her elegantly narrow nose coupled with her small but full lips were framed by perfectly straight bangs which completed the picture.

In other words, she was the picture of a traditional Japanese beauty. If not for the rosy tint of her cheeks, it wouldn’t be too difficult to mistake her as a doll in the right circumstances.

Her lips began to move, and I could tell that she was trying to ask me something. However, just seeing this jaw-dropping beauty was far too much for me right now.

I barely had any social interaction in the past two weeks, so asking me to talk to Miss Perfect here was like asking me to suddenly sprout wings and fly away. It was way too much.

As I sat there in a daze like a monkey who just had his favorite banana taken away, the girl’s eyes flickered over to something on the ground.

She took a step toward me, and a rose-like scent wafted through the air. Unconsciously, I scooched to the side, nearly falling off my chair as I did so.

She bent down elegantly, pushing a stray lock of her hair behind her ear to prevent it from touching the ground. It was only now that I noticed that I had dropped my novel in my stupor. The girl’s elegant fingers were wrapped around its spine as she stood up, her face mere inches away from mine.

Damn, woman! Can you get any closer!? What are you trying to do? Kill me!? I’m a healthy male who hasn’t talked to a single person for the past two weeks! Cut me some slack, will you!?

“‘I Can’t Believe This Cute Elf Actually Likes a Loser Like Me!’” She raised an eyebrow as she read the title of my novel. My cheeks immediately flushed a bright red. “So this is the kind of garbage guys read nowadays, huh?”

I screamed internally. This was absolutely the worst first impression ever. Not only did I look like an idiot for the past thirty seconds, but I also had my tastes dissed by the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. There was probably no coming back from this.

Whatever! I’ve got nothing to lose now, and I’m not taking that lying down! These novels are the only place where absolutely average guys like me can find a little romance! Don’t look down on cute elves!

“Yeah? Well, at least I’m not the one who wasted their wish on becoming disgustingly beautiful.” It was an ironic remark coming from me, but as the words left my lips, a thought suddenly occurred to me. In this small town of mine, I had never seen her before in my life.

The girl blinked, an expression of confusion flickering across her face before she responded. “Are you an idiot? Who the hell would wish for something so stupid?”

She smirked, striking a strange pose. Her left hand covered her left eye and she lifted her right hand upwards, her index finger extended as if she were declaring something to the heavens.

I was stunned not by sheer confusion, but rather the utter stupidity of what I was witnessing right now.

“Hearken, to mine words, mortal! Bear witness to the great Kurokami Izanami’s almighty wish, for I am the bringer of destruction! The one who shall wipe the slate clean and restore the Akashic Records to their once unwritten glory! That’s right! My desire is not something so simple and fleeting, for I alone hold the sole wish and right to destroy this world!”

The sheer force of her declaration coupled with the look of unmistakable confidence in her sole visible eye almost made something in my heart stir, but I was painfully reminded that we were in a classroom by the buzzing of the bell which marked the end of lunchtime.

Regardless, that sole speech had shattered my entire mental image of her, and as far as first impressions went, I was now pretty sure that mine was better by magnitudes.

As students began trickling into the classroom, there was only one thought that ran through my mind as she blushed and quickly departed from my desk.

...What a waste of beauty.