"Ah fuck... Screw this fucking game!" I screamed as I threw my RGB mouse on the table, creating a large BANG on the desk I just bought a month ago, bouncing two times across the table and sliding itself until it fell on the floor with a CLACK!.

I screamed in rage and frustration at how increasingly dumber and dumber my teammates were in one of my favorite First Person Battle Royale games. 

"This fucking stupid piece of garbage! Why can't you just literally comprehend the pings that I made just literally ten seconds ago!? You wouldn't need to use your fight or flight hormones to even respond to an incoming enemy arriving in our location! IT'S MORE THAN ENOUGH TIME!" I let out all my anger and disappointment from my teammates as the screen in the computer shows: 

YOU ARE IN 4TH PLACE!

"Hey! Quiet up there!" One of my neighbors knocked on the floor in my room using the broomsticks to hit their ceiling.

"Sorry..." I called them out.

"Sigh... Maybe it's time to stop for a while. Besides, I got homework to pass at 11:59..." I grabbed my phone beside my keyboard and pressed the power button to check the current time.

----------------------------------

11:32 pm

Two messages unread

--------------------------------------

 

"Dear God! No, no, no! Where the hell is the instructions!" I hurriedly grabbed the mouse I dropped on the table. Luckily, it is still functioning even though there are three minor dents on the sides of the mouse.

With nervousness slowly devouring me and the sweat that I secreted in all of my pores, I immediately opened my documents and tabs and sped through the homework.

"Dear God! I'm going to lose fifty points of grades if I don't pass it," I told myself as I typed my keyboard as fast as I could.

I typed so fast that it felt I had become the embodiment of Jim Carrey's Bruce Almighty character, typing through all the prayers he had gotten through e-mail. Replace that with a single essay that needs at least five hundred words.

---

Click click click click click click click click click click click...

11:43 pm

Click click click click click click click click click click.....

11:49 pm

Click click click.... click click... CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK!

11:53 pm

CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK!

"Please... Please!!! Just a few more!" I sweated profusely.

11:55 pm

CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK!

...

 CLACK!

With only one push of a button, my homework is finished. Just that is enough... Please, I don't want to disappoint my parents. Just the send button.

CLICK!

...

The circle buffering logo popped up on the computer screen, and I had to wait a few seconds.

...

...

I'm starting to grow impatient here, for God's sake! 

...

...

Homework submitted!

Sigh... 

I sighed in relief after the most painful, stressful, and anxiety-filling moment in my life. A homework to pass at 11:58pm. Jeeeeeesus... What would have happened if I submitted it past its deadline?

Waiting for two minutes, the homework tab where my current essay is located disappeared, proving that this homework, if not submitted during that time, means that I wouldn't give any chance.

"Phew... My teacher is as strict as usual... Anyways, I guess it's time to head back to gaming? Well... But first, lemme grab some drinks in the fridge," I said as I opened my darkroom where its only light emits from my computer and my RGB lights coming out from my setup.

Tip-toeing through the kitchen lies some dishes unwashed on the sink, a drenched rice cooker consisting of burnt rice stuck underneath it, ready to be scraped off by morning. 

As I approach the fridge, A sticky note is stuck in front of me, showing all the grocery lists I need to buy tomorrow. Opening the refrigerator, I grabbed a bottle of soda and headed back to my darkroom.

Entering my room, I closed the door and opened my cold soda, emitting a loud FIZZ. When I released all the built-up carbonate, I gulped a few volumes of it and headed back to my desk. 

Walking back to my computer desk, I tripped on one of my computer wires on the floor, losing my balance as I tried my best to keep myself from falling. I tried to run forward to stabilize my center of gravity, and because of my carelessness, I couldn't even see the other hazards I left in my unkempt room, where I had scattered my floor with clothes, action figures that I forgot to clean up. Stepping on one of my favorite figurines, it snapped its arm off and, at the same time, gave me a sharp pain in my heel. 

"AAAAGHHH!" I grieved in pain as if the feeling I felt was as if I stepped on a lego. 

I grabbed my foot like a cat that stepped on nails from one of those old twentieth-century cartoons and skipped with my other foot while keeping myself balanced but ended up falling on my bed. However, as I fell on my bed, I hit my head on one of the sharp edges, knocking me out instantly.

---

In a strange yet, familiar street, a heavenly vignette covers the sides of the view while a silhouette of a high school girl in a Japanese-styled school uniform approaches.

"Senpai... There's something I have to tell you... I- it's really important..." A silhouette of an anonymous girl asks in a nervous tone.

"W-what is it?" The voice of a teenage, Japanese boy asked.

"Uhm... it's that, we've been together for a while..."

"Uhh... Y-yes, what are you trying to say?" The nervous teenager asked.

"I- I... Li-"

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

An excruciatingly loud beeping sound is heard beside my ear. That same annoying ringing tone I've been hearing every day before school. I try to leave it alone for a while, hoping that whatever dream I have will continue while my mind is fresh. I don't want to forget a dream that I've been anticipating.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP BEEP!

Closing my eyes and focusing on falling asleep, I tried to keep myself away from the sound, but the sound got annoying and louder over time.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!

"Fine...! I'm up! Jeez," I picked up my phone and snoozed my alarm. Looking at the time, it's still too early. Why did I even bother placing my alarms like this? I put them in ten-minute intervals each as if I wanted to repeatedly annoy myself waking up to it.

The current time I had is at 5:08 am. It's way too early for an online class, and I sure as hell don't care if I woke up or oversleep. As long as I attend my class, I won't be considered late. 

"Thank you so much—my teachers—for being too kind," I smiled as I thought of that.

Closing my eyes, I really want to see how this story went by... Say, that girl looks familiar, and that boy's voice also sounds way similar. Have I watched it somewhere? It doesn't matter. I'm heading to sleep.

The sharp pain resurged back on the side of my head as I grasped on it and tightened my muscles, enduring the sudden pain that I felt.

"Owww..." I held myself, hoping that sharp pain would start to relieve. 

"Oh for fuck... Just let me sleep" My mind has been awakened, and my drowsiness had worn off. I tried to fight my body by making myself fall asleep, but the sudden change in my room started to come across my mind.

With only little light I have in my room, I tried to make out of the images as I have noticed that there has been a few changes. One, my room does not have the same dirty room I had last night. It's as if my room was cleaned. Two, my soda is standing beside the computer, and the bottle is still full. I stood up as I tried to recall the night before I woke up.

"I remember procrastinating by playing a few games, then doing homework. After that, I did grab a soda from the fridge, right?" I asked myself.

I grabbed the soda on the table, and for strange reasons, the soda was not the same brand I drank. It wasn't the red soda that I drank last night but the Green Mountain Dew. I twist open the bottle, breaking the caps below, and making a fizzing sound right after it as if it has never been opened before.

"What in the hell?" I tilted my head.

The RGB lights in the darkroom still bloomed with its rainbow lights as if I didn't even switch them off. Looking back at my phone, I observed the texts as if I had hiragana texts.

"I didn't put this in Japanese, did I?" I asked myself.

I tapped on my settings, nonchalantly memorized the place where the language setting is, and set it back to English. I must have been a bit too overboard on the weeb shit, I guess. Recalling the time when I tried to learn Japanese by studying its basics but ditched the idea after a week. 

A sharp pain throbs on my head as I grab hold of it with both of my hands, dropping my phone in the process. My head hurts so much that it feels like I crammed through all of my exams in one night. It was so painful that it felt worst than a migraine. It's like no other headache that I've felt. 

I kneeled and planted my head on the floor, smashing my forehead on it, trying to relieve the pain as much as possible with more pain. I pulled my hair while rolling on the floor, trying to increase the pain by substituting this throbbing headache with other means. Anything but the headaches, I just can't stand it!

Grabbing the pain relief ointment I left on the desk, I applied it on my forehead, rubbing it around it while massaging this migraine. 

I had the urge to release the food that I ate last night, so I rushed out of my room, headed to the bathroom, and threw up the pork tonkatsu I had for dinner.

As I finished vomiting whatever contents I had, I opened my eyes. The throbbing headache slowly subsided as I started to become aware of the changes in the bathroom as well. 

Looking at the detergent, it wasn't the same detergent I used for washing my clothes.

"This isn't my house, isn't it?" I asked myself as I looked at myself in the mirror. There were creepy changes in my face as if something there made me look like myself but at the same time wasn't.

Losing my familiarity, I kept observing the details of my face as I tried to compare it with my previous face as much as I tried to remember. I barely remembered the facial features I had earlier as if I tried to remember a dream after waking up.

It is as if this face I tried to remember is some stranger, while this face I'm currently looking at is taking over my identity. 

"I need to write this down!" I hurriedly ran across the room and tried to remember the sense of a bit of my old face... Those pimples I had... The strangely round... eyes..? My straight brown hair. I sketched my face as fast as possible, leading it to be a rough sketch... My beautiful old face! I... who... who's this...?

There must be another way! I switched on the lights to find the phone I dropped and grabbed it as swift as possible. Switching the lights off, I tapped on my photos folder to check my selfies and cringe-worthy pictures of my old friends and me. It was me... But it's not me at the same time... 

Who the hell was that guy I drew on the paper!? My memory is fading as if something is erasing my brain while the migraine is slowly going away. A part of me is fading. As if I don't remember where I was before, but I am entirely aware of who I am...

I am Haruto Itachi. 

...right?

Was it Daniel Howell... or Andrew Halberg? Joseph Miles... 

It does not matter. I checked through my computer and tried to find anything helpful. I searched through all my information about myself. Took a picture of my sketch, but there is no one with a similar face. 

I searched every background I had. My old school, my current high school, my middle school. None of it came out. As if those schools don't exist. What the hell is going on?

I searched my parents' information, but none came out.

The sun is starting to rise, and I have school soon. But didn't I have an online class, right? Shaking my head, I readied myself as I prepared my bag and filled it up with notebooks, pens, and others. I tried not to mind all the strange interchangeable brands that these have because I might have another headache if I did so. I headed to my closet and readied my uniform...?

What in bloody hell is this uniform? It's too... Elegant! The type of fabric used is too good to be a school uniform. The blazer's design is dark blue, has a red tie and dark blue trousers. This is not the school uniform I remember wearing! I never even had a uniform this elegant before, all my school had was just a simple beige patterned school uniform, and that's it.

Never mind all that, whatever it is, I'm going to wear it. I sprinted to the kitchen and prepared my breakfast for the morning with an omelet and rice. The rice cooker I remember placing on the sink with a few dishes alongside it. They were all cleaned as if I was the one who washed all that last night, even though I don't remember doing it.

I cooked the rice and made a hearty meal. 

"Right, it's my first week of school, wasn't it? Or was it midterms..." My brain ached as it tried to fight off the two conflicting memories I had, making it a lot worse. 

After munching on my simple omelet, I took a bath, brushed my teeth, and put on my uniform as I readied myself. Wearing my bag and bringing my phone, I headed to my destination outside.

As I closed the gate outside my house, I looked around as it started to become a strange occurrence where my surroundings looked way too similar in terms of direction, but the architecture of the surrounding homes and buildings are Japanese. 

I tried to follow the uncanny route to my high school. A strange deja vu I felt as I arrived at my high school. Looking at it, this high school seems strangely familiar.

---

Kiseki High School

The familiar yet odd surrounding places corresponding to my memories seem to be replaced with a similar Japanese-y style like a nearby food stall switched to a ramen shop. In contrast, another local bookstore has been exchanged for a similar kind of it. The amount of thought to comprehend this is racking my brain cells, and I would not want to think further.

I turned my head back and examined the school's architecture and sort of recalled the school I previously had.

"Isn't this the place to my school, right? Wasn't it usually here?" I asked myself.

I watch the surrounding students with the same uniform gather in the school. It pressured me as if I felt like an alien enrolled in this school.

"I swear to God, this is the place going to my school, right? I totally remember it was here all this time," I thought, but as much as I hesitated, I swallowed my built-up saliva and entered the school premises.

Walking across the school hall, I looked at each class, remembering which class I was in. I looked at the lists of names in each section. It was weird that I could comprehend the Japanese texts with ease.

I roamed every part of the school because I didn't know where this class was. It came to the point that I had to look at every corner I turned. This school has everything! A basketball court, a tennis court, a football field, a tracking field, and others! What type of school could afford this much?

Looking at my phone to check the built-in clock, it is undoubtedly time before class starts. I hurriedly tried to remember where the first years are, and looked through each of the lists with my finger pointing at every text while rolling my eyes left and right like a ball being passed around in a tennis court, finding my name.

Reaching the second to the last side of the classroom, I found my name at last. I smiled and pumped my fist up like I had won a lottery.

I pulled the door, but the door didn't budge. Confused as I was, I rechecked the door and slid it on the left, and when it moved smoothly to the left,

"Yes!" I shouted in joy as I entered the class. Everyone who had heard my voice in the vicinity looked at me with surprise and shock.

Their expressions scream, 'WTF?' as if it was my first time doing this. Yeah, I was so happy to find my classroom, but isn't it a bit strange? They all went back to their usual things, but some seemed to gossip while others were sneering at me. 

I searched for an available seat in the vicinity. I immediately sat on the desk where I knew no one would usually sit, at the corner beside the window where every main protagonist or lead is typically at. Taking out my phone, I checked through the galleries and carefully looked at my videos the day before. Some were strangely blurry, while others were clear as day. All cringe-worthy videos, but at the same time, they are worth remembering. I have no idea how I got here or how I'm supposed to take on this, but there's one good thing.  

At least I know who I am. However, this person, who I think is Haruto Itachi, is some gloomy person. Have I seen him somewhere? No. The memories were then pushed into my brain, and I suddenly realized that I knew a part of who I am, or... who this guy is.

I turned my head back to my screen, and the blurry videos started to wither away, replacing it with the gloomy version of me. It's as if the phone itself has been replacing itself within a second. Every blurred video shows a video of myself crying in the corner, and my normal pictures display me in the worst form possible.

I made a very hesitating attempt to hurt myself through various forms. A knife that is slit through my wrist but failed to even give a slight cut. A small reddish mark is spotted on the skin at my wrist, proving that video I made. Dear God, I knew I was at my lowest some days, but this guy is at his worst. At the same time, the photos and recordings that haven't stayed blurry showed a part of my personality within this guy. A bit of that weird self and my odd ramblings or the cringy voiceovers with a seemingly low baritone voice. I hope it is baritone... I swear I've been imitating different accents to the point that they mixed together in one sentence.

"Oi mate! Zatto guy is my besto friendo!" The recording played.

I scrunched up my face hoping that this guy needs a bit more of that Australian accent in him to make that oi mate work well... Oh, God...

I tried to rummage through the memories of this guy only to remember the fading faces of people around me. This guy is gloomy as fuck. Sleeping in class, no friends to talk to, and... Jesus Christ, a victim of bullying. 

That computer had literally everything I had, but the strange one is that I have no contacts or friends in most of my messaging apps. All I had were my parents and my younger siblings from abroad in the US... But shouldn't I be there? Say, why was he alone in the first place? 

I felt a hand placed on my shoulder as I turned around, and I saw a strangely familiar face.

"Etoo~ my seat is here, Itachi-san. Did you forget where your seat was?" A familiar face indeed it was. Yet, someone I never met. He is a typical high school boy with a height of 172 cm, black hair, and the most average-looking features he has. Though he does have a vibe of being kind-hearted within him. I stood up with a whopping 179 cm, above the average height of a Japanese citizen.

"Ahh... I apologize. I forgot where my seat was, actually. Can you point it out?" I asked as I scratched my head.

"Isn't it just over there?" He pointed at an empty seat located on the last row in the middle. I took my bag, rushed to my desk, and sat there, hoping not to embarrass myself like a lost child in the mall. 

Switching my phone again, I checked through my manga, where I previously downloaded a few chapters I am currently reading. A high school romance harem manga where the main protagonist has to confess his love before the end of graduation and find out the mystery of the girl who told him she loves him before leaving. Re-reading a manga would help me flesh out the story again as I ran out of mangas to read, because dear God, the translation takes a while... 

Wait, if I can understand Japanese, doesn't that mean I can read mangas without translation? But that didn't answer my question on why I've been stuck here with a strange mind alteration trick that replaces everything and my identity, isn't it?

"Itachi seems a bit too weird lately," One of the bystanders in my class gossiped.

"Yeah... Usually, he would be creeping to his seat with a sad look on his face," 

"Did he actually just sit on the other loser's seat? Is he trying to befriend him just because the other loser had nothing as well?" 

I pulled my headphones and listened to one of my favorite English bands and a bit of shuffle of my favorite J rock bands. 

It just helped soothe my morning with a bit of rock, mellow music, or even just a bit of metal, or those cute Pon pon way way way songs. My music tastes are a bit of pretty much everything. Can't judge someone who likes songs that are a bit of everything, huh?

Well, not all of it...

Swiping through the pages of my manga, one of the pages shows an illustration that looked strangely familiar to where I currently am. The drawing showed a typical scene where the main protagonist sits on the corner with his head resting on his hand, gazing through the open window in the early morning as the leaves blossom and wind breeze across his medium-length, dark hair. 

I repeatedly looked at the page and to my left as the scenes looked bizarrely identical. I held my phone out with my arm as I compared the two exact replicas of the illustration and the current scenery.

Yoichi Shimizu looked at me with a questioning look as he wondered why this kid was pointing his phone at him like he was recording a video of him.

"Hey, what are you doing, Haruto?" He asked as he placed his hand on the table.

"No fucking way..." I expressed myself in English.

"Oi! What the hell are you doing?" He stood up and approached.

"N-nothing... Sumimasen, I was finding a good picture, and I saw one right here!" I said as I headed back to my seat. Unconvinced by what I said, he approached me with an annoying look as he grabbed my phone.

"Hey! That's my phone, you bitch! Give it to me," I stood up and hurriedly grabbed my phone, but he swerved along as he searched through my gallery, which showed not a single picture of him.

"Did you delete it?" Yoichi asked.

"Delete what?"

"The picture!"

"What do you mean picture?" I snatched my phone and scrolled through the manga, but nothing showed up, as if it did not exist. The manga that I read must have been deleted.

"No! My manga! What the fuck man," I tapped through every setting but the title of the manga I read was caught in sight as if it doesn't exist.

"You bitch... Did you delete my manga?"

"What manga?"

"Don't fuck with me! I didn't take a goddamn picture of you in the first place. Jeez, what the hell, man? I was reading a manga and just compared it to the same scene, man," I said as I sat back on my seat.

That typical main protagonist. Checking on every nook and cranny to fix a problem. 

"Hey, isn't he a bit too aggressive?"

"Yeah... What the hell?"

"Bastard is a bit too jumpy these days. How about we teach him a lesson?" One of the shady classmates I had who had the eyes of a predator sneered at me as he felt slightly annoyed.

"Manga? Is he one of those otakus, right? Gross..." One of the female students with gyaru features gossiped about each other.

The front sliding door slid open, and a female teacher with glasses, tied up in a bun, with a standard teacher uniform walks up to the desk. Her expressions show that she seems something is in her mind as if she wants to announce something.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new student that will join us in our class," The class gasped as they heard the announcement, excited by who is this new student joining our class.

"Ma'am? Is the new student a guy or a girl?" One of the cheerful classmates asked as he raised his hand.

"Our new member is a girl," the teacher replied.

The class cheered, hearing that the new student was a girl. Are these guys a bit too cheerful for a new student? Or was it that my class just sucked.

The arriving student slowly walked into class in an elegant pose. I swear to God I've seen her somewhere. A natural beauty that looked like a real-life doll with dazzling black hair, a Yamato Nadeshiko-Esque beauty, with her bangs just above her forehead, and her hair swaying from a non-existential wind across the front of the classroom. The fragrance of exotic flowers spreads in the air as she holds hands on her notebook in the middle of her stomach. Her beauty is not as comparable as the other ordinary students, as if telling me that she must have been one of the female leads of a story.

"Wait, isn't she, Misaki Hinagi? The main lead of a manga I read?" I thought as I looked back at Yoichi, recalling the first part of the story.

Hold up? Now I remember, she would sit beside him, and they wouldn't start talking until that bully at the end of the class, one of the bullies asked her to go out with him, but Yoichi would arrive and cockblock that bully. As if he's trying to protect her?

I watch as the beautiful silky straight-haired girl that screams mysterious walks and sits between the empty seat of Yoichi and me. She took out her pen with her soft hand and nodded at the teacher, signaling her to start her lesson.

The teacher then started her lesson. Immediately, the whole class sighed as she made her discussion.

---

My mind came to me when I realized how extraordinarily dense and stupid I was. Am I in the same story as this guy? You're kidding, right? The harem main protagonist is just sitting on the other side, while his first female lead is just sitting between him and me. 

I looked at my left as Hinagi-san seemed to stare at Yoichi as if she was starting to remember a sense of familiarity within him. I raised my eyebrows, waiting for her next move as she jotted down a few notes on her notebook. In a few seconds, she 'accidentally' dropped her pen, which rolled down forward to the middle of two desks.

Attempting to grab her pen from the floor, she hurriedly stood up, leaned her body forward, and showed a bit of what was under her skirt in front of Yoichi as he continuously stared at the beautiful school grounds. At the most unfortunately fortunate timing, he glanced forward, looking at the bliss gracefulness of a pair of striped panties waving across his face.

His eyes widened, and he looked away with a slight trace of blood trickling down his nose. He covered it with his hand and continued looking back at the window as if he didn't see anything.

I wish I have his luck, man! Why wouldn't I be the main protagonist here? I absolutely can't remember most of the stories but that scenario! That scene! Why should I sit beside that beauty right there but place those amazingly huge bazongas that I can't even see right on him? 

I bashed my desk, making a small thud on the desk, startling Hinagi as she looked at her right with a questioning expression, as the confusion on her face showed on her. I turned away from her gaze, hoping I wouldn't let this beauty see my embarrassing face of the frustration I got when this guy had to be "the" harem protagonist.