Prologue – This Life
"My name is Haruhi Isagi.
First year. Mokomi High School."
I muttered to myself as I stood in front of my bathroom mirror, holding a toothbrush half-heartedly in my mouth. I stared at my reflection for a moment, blinking.
"...Still just me, huh."
The mirror didn't answer, of course. Not that I expected it to.
Boring black hair. Boring black eyes. A normal face that wouldn't stand out in a crowd even if I painted my forehead with a bright neon sign that said 'LOOK AT ME'.
Yep. Average in every possible way.
I rinsed my mouth and sighed.
"Nothing ever happens in my life…"
My days were quiet, peaceful, and painfully uninteresting.
No drama. No excitement. No cute classmate falling on me and accidentally confessing her love. No sudden transfer student from another country challenging me to a duel for no reason.
Just the usual, quiet school life.
At school, I always hang out with my two friends: Kouta and Shun.
And they were... well, full-on otaku.
"Yo, Isagi! You have to watch this new anime I found last night. It's got demon maids piloting giant robots while trapped in a dating sim world!" Kouta waved his phone at me the moment I sat down at our usual desk during lunch break.
I gave him a blank stare.
"...That sounds like pure chaos. Is that even a real genre?"
He grinned. "Of course! Everything's an anime genre now! You'd totally love it if you gave it a chance!"
"Hard pass," I sighed, opening my bento box. "I've got enough chaos in my life just trying to make sure the bathroom at home stays clean. Yesterday my mom left hair everywhere. Took me an hour to unclog the drain."
Shun, who was chewing on a piece of onigiri, pointed at me with his chopsticks.
"See?! That's exactly what I mean! What normal high school guy likes cleaning that much?! You're weird, Isagi. In a good way. Like... weirdly refreshing."
I poked at my rice.
"Cleaning's relaxing, okay? I like making things neat. It's satisfying. It feels like... order in this messy world."
Kouta leaned closer, grinning slyly. "Yeah, but dude... you could totally not be wasting your high school life with guys like us. You've got the face, man. Tall, clean, decent hair... Girls would totally love you if you stopped acting like an old housekeeper from a soap opera."
I rolled my eyes and sighed.
"If I was really that handsome, don't you think some girl would've confessed to me by now?" I glanced at the nearby desks where a bunch of girls were laughing. None of them were even looking my way. "Look. Not even a glance. I'm totally background character material."
Shun groaned into his hands. "Oh my god, this idiot... He actually thinks he's average."
Kouta shook his head. "Seriously. You don't get it. You look cool, but you've got zero presence because you keep fading into the background like some NPC janitor. If you tried even a little, you'd be drowning in love letters."
"Love letters? Never seen one in my locker. Not even a prank one. Must mean I'm average."
They both groaned in unison.
I sighed again and popped a slice of tamagoyaki into my mouth. Sweet and fluffy. At least my mom's cooking was consistent. More than I could say for life.
"...But honestly," I muttered between bites, "I'm fine like this. I like my quiet life. No trouble. No drama. No girls screaming 'Notice me, senpai!' while chasing me around."
Shun shook his head with a tired smile. "You're hopeless. Totally hopeless."
Kouta grinned wider. "But that's what makes you interesting, man. Like some mysterious background character in a visual novel who secretly turns out to be the final boss."
"I'm not a boss. Or a main character. I'm just... me."
I pointed at myself with my chopsticks. "Haruhi Isagi. 16 years old. Loves cleaning. No girlfriend. No love interest. No future. Probably gonna die surrounded by dust bunnies and a mop."
"Stop cursing yourself, damn it!" Kouta laughed.
I glanced out the window at the peaceful blue sky. A soft breeze swayed the cherry blossoms outside. It was nice. Quiet.
Just how I liked it.
"See? Nothing exciting ever happens," I mumbled. "Just the same day. Over and over. Like being stuck in a loop."
But what I didn't know—what I couldn't possibly have imagined back then—was that this quiet, boring life of mine...
...was about to get flipped upside-down.
And maybe—just maybe—I was about to realize that I wasn't such a background character after all.