I couldn’t really relate to an average male main character that likes a peaceful everyday life.
Even though I myself was a painfully average high schooler.
Let me use an example.
A story that starts with a beautiful female childhood friend waking you up from bed in the morning, colliding with a tsundere transfer student as you turn at a junction on your way to school, A cool beauty female senpai who thinks highly of you at school, and an impish yet cute female junior who stays close to you for no reason. d.a.m.ned innate normie main character.
[ ── Actually, I really like my plain everyday life── ]
After hearing him narrate this lazily, the only emotions that welled up within me is…
“Duh!”
I retorted as I exhausted all my blood and sweat. I couldn’t find any bit I could relate to.
On the other hand, there would be occasional works that were the complete opposite of the earlier description, with main characters that felt really realistic, with few beautiful girls and living a ‘plain everyday life’. But if you ask me if I could relate to them, that would be a different matter. Here’s another example…
[Dusk. The sound of the students’ idle chatter and laughter, along with the soft echo of the wind orchestra practices, were mixed with the noise of the sports club coming from the gymnasium. As usual, the school day ends plainly…]
I, Amano Keita, who was studying in the second year of high school ── really loved such a plain everyday life from the bottom of my heart.
Even if I said this in the tone of a tough guy──
“I-Is this a manly warrior who had braved countless battlefields…?”
In the end, I couldn’t help feeling a difference in values that was different from the example earlier. That doesn’t mean I dislike such main characters, in fact, I am quite fond of them. But relating to them was another issue.
In conclusion, a person who had lived an absolutely plain life since birth… Especially boys and girls in their teens, I couldn’t imagine at all why they would like their plain everyday life from the bottom of their hearts.
At least I ── Amano Keita, a plain 16 year old high schooler──
Still spend every night deluding in my bed about being summoned as a hero to a different world.
……
Eh, you’re already in your second year of highschool, if you have the time to do that, think seriously about tertiary education or joining the workforce── To be honest, I felt the same way too, but I just couldn’t help it.
Before I knew it, I realized that I had been dreaming about not being plain anymore.
When traveling on vacation, I would hope on becoming a detective dragged into a murder inside a mansion on a isolated island; When I visit the convenience store at night, I would feel nervous, wondering if I would run into a heroine that hunts monsters in the dark night; When there was nothing to do in cla.s.s, I will try to levitate a mechanical pencil with telekinesis, attempting that about once every month.
And of course, I didn’t really believe those things would really happen.
But I hope that I am permitted to live on with the hope of striking the lottery.
That was because ──
My personality was despairingly ‘plain’.
Amano Keita, 16 years old, second year of high school. Blood type A, zodiac sign: cancer. Short and thin.
I live together with my parents and a brother two years younger than me, a family of four. I didn’t feel any trouble growing up in my middle cla.s.s family, my paternal and maternal grandparents are still alive, and our relations.h.i.+p with our relatives were cordial.
It was probably thanks to me and my brother being raised as good kids, even though we would fight sometimes, our family had never flipped out on each other. The relations.h.i.+p of our parents were wonderful, and every year or two, our family will go on a domestic vacation trip (mostly nearby places).
My school club experience was by joining baseball during elementary and middle school. But I only treated it as a place to hang out with friends, and didn’t put much pa.s.sion into it. I lacked talent, and was an unathletic burden instead. When the match was a blow out for either team, I would be sent out on the last inning as an act of charity. To be frank, I had no intention of troubling the team by playing. And of course, I still partic.i.p.ated seriously.
I wasn’t too stupid, and had confidence in my academics. I don’t know if I was dragged down by my arrogance or I played too much games, my results dropped a lot in middle school, and ended up entering a public high school that had a low entrance score… Otobuki High School.
After I graduated, as most of the friends I knew got into other schools, my social network had to start over from zero.
But back then, I hadn’t grown out of the super naive nature of elementary schoolers and thought: “I will make friends naturally!” So I started really late, and didn’t get to know anyone really well before a year past.
After the cla.s.ses were reshuffled for my second year of high school, I was still spending my time after school playing my phone or portable game console alone after school. Even though I was the so called ‘loner’, and would be mocked and laughed at occasionally, no one really bullied too openly. I was the type that was used to staying at the bottom of the campus relations pyramid.
Naturally, when I talk to my cla.s.smates every now and then, the contents were really superficial.
Speaking of which, of all the conversations I had in my high school life, the friendliest ones was with a loud boy chatting with a group beside me…
“Neh neh, Amano, which type of JUMP reader are you?”
“Huh? Ah, erm, well, I read in a normal way, from the cover page in sequence…”
“Isn’t that right! See, I told you guys Amano is the in sequence type! You all owe me a drink!”
That was how it went. And I was in a great mood the day that conversation took place.
… To the people who are saying in their heart: “Aren’t you one level beneath ‘plain’...” please be quiet for a while, I will feel hurt if I hear that. Living my life plainly made my heart as brittle as gla.s.s. I was the type who would become depressed the entire day if the game I like was criticized harshly.
Getting a girlfriend was just a fantasy for a guy like me. The love related event I experienced in high school was just…
[ When I was loitering around aimlessly on campus after school was out, I ran into a couple french kissing at a rarely used staircase, as they caressed each other’s body. Even though time stopped for an instance, it would seem weird if I turn back. So I pretended I didn’t see anything and walked pa.s.s them. When I was feeling relieved after going downstairs, I heard the couple upstairs bursting into laughter for some reason. ]
That was my experience… To be honest, I wasn’t sure if my reaction back then was correct.
Ah, you want me to talk about my own love story? Eh~~ if 2D could be counted ── Ah, no? I see. Well…
Yes, I had zero experience.
Cough. Anyway, I couldn’t be anymore plainer, without any aura of popularity or outstanding talent. But on the other hand, there wasn’t anything negative about me that attract attention too.
For everyone in cla.s.s, I was like a background ‘mob character’. That’s me, Amano Keita.
If I had to point out my only character trait, that would be my name was very similar to the main character of Yo-kai w*tch, and also…
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“My hobby is gaming.”
That was all. You could probably tell from my earlier self introduction that I like gaming. I like video games from the bottom of my heart. There wasn’t any special reason, I just like it unconditionally.
I felt the happiest whenever I played an interesting game, and I could overcome most detestable things if there were fun games to play. This behaviour helped release the chuuni urge building in my heart. From this perspective, even though I wasn’t summoned to a different world, I think it was great to enjoy fun games in this world. That’s how much I love gaming.
The gaming time after reaching home and before dinner could only be described as my utmost happiness. I would occasionally scream and shout as I played against my brother in video games, such times filled with laughter were really precious.
However… There were countless people in the world who liked gaming to such an extent.
In conclusion, my trait wasn’t really a trait, and my character didn’t have much personality.
And so, the story that I am about to recount──
This story about me which very much goes against my personal preference, and regrettably.
After blabbering so much, in the end──
The story still started with the plain high school boy being chatted up by a beautiful girl, in a cliche and astonis.h.i.+ngly relatable way──