In a parallel universe, far, far away… the setting of our story exists within Japan, so what if it happened in America?
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My name is James Michael A. Smith. Let me tell you a little something about myself.
Apparently I’m a mob character. In a world of superheroes, teenage dramas, romantic-comedies and whatever there is, apparently only I’m the only mob character. It certainly doesn’t help that my name is as generic as can be, quite possibly generated out of a whim.
I’ve faced numerous hardships these past few weeks, but in order to nd myself a role in this cruel world, I stuck with the 4 geeks. Namely, Samuel Brooks, the reasonable one; Henry Grant, the unlucky one; Sid White, the idiot; and stly, Jack Edwards, the silent one.
Note: Together, they are the 4 geeks!
Of course, including me, that makes it 5. With introductions out of the way, I think we can continue now.
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One fateful, normal day in our high school in America within… where are we actually? Maybe we don’t need to answer that question.
Anyways, I go to school with the same expression as usual. Tired.
I yawn out of drowsiness and stretch my arms outwards as I enter the hallways.
As usual, I see the red lockers, the graffiti, and the… bully?
“Oh.”
Right in front of me, I see William Joseph Dairy, one of the school bullies. I say ‘one of’ in the sense that there are countless cases, but they happen to be assigned to the 4 geeks, which now included me.
“Nice seeing you in the morning, William,” I greet.
“Funny running into you, James. What a fine and dandy morning to you too?”
“To what do I owe the pleasure of meeting you?”
“You know, I’m feeling kinda generous today, so how about you just lend me your lunch money?
Of course.
“Yeah, not feeling like it.”
“Oh, really now?”
He reaches for my behind and tries to wedgie me. The cssic.
“Now what did you say?” William asks me again.
“I said what I said. I’m not changing my mind, dummy.”
Honestly… this is so childish.
“Why, you-”
Luckily for me, I spot something from a distance and my eyes widen.
“Ooh, the jocks are here.”
Right on time.
“Huh?” he wonders as he turns around.
From sheer terror, he lets go of me and I nd on the ground where I pick myself up and stand aside.
“GYAHH!!!”
Unable to run in time, he gets run over by the couple of jocks continuously chanting, “The Football Nationals are ours! The Football Nationals are ours! Glory to America!”
“Defeated in usual cartoonish fashion,” I mutter.
I continue my walk across the hallway and see many students reach for their red lockers and grab their superhero suits.
Uh, guys. I can totally see you.
Well, this is nothing new anyway. With a comic world like this one, where everyone is a protagonist, that includes a plethora of vilins to defeat, so they have to keep working all day round.
Must be tough being a superhero. Would like a cut of those powers though.
As the students, now in superhero outfits, they fly past me leaving some lockers open, which also show some other superhero suits hidden.
Finally, I see two of the geeks, Samuel and Henry.
“Yo.”
Samuel and Henry wave their hands at me and I do the same.
“What time did you guys get here?” I ask.
“I arrived just a while ago,” Samuel replies.
“I think I arrived after Samuel, though,” Henry replies, “Where’s Sid and Jack?”
“Sid’s gonna be absent today,” I decre, “Apparently, he got scammed by a catfish online, so he’s trying to dispute the issue right now. I don’t know about Jack.”
“Haha! And here I thought I was unlucky!” Henry boasts.
“Didn’t you lose all your money to William yesterday?” Samuel recalls.
“Uh, we don’t talk about that.”
“Didn’t you also lose all your money when we went to Las Vegas that one time?”
“Come on! Gambling seemed fun!”
“Sure, but not when you keep wasting your money away,” I butt in, “Not to mention wasting all that money for games.”
“There is intended allotment for games,” Henry says to me with a straight face.
“Whatever you say buddy.”
Why gotta pay anything when you can pirate? You don’t need DLCs.
“Anyway, shouldn’t we help Sid? He’s in a real pickle right now. It’s our duty as friends to help him!” Samuel shouts full of passion.
“Hmmm…” we wonder.
Then the two of us look at each other.
“Nah~”
I speak, “He did this to himself, I ain’t gonna help that loser.”
“L-Loser? He’s our friend!” Samuel insists.
“A friend in debt. Remember what Sun Tzu said? ‘Cut off friends in debt, they will pull others in debt.’”
“I don’t think Sun Tzu ever said that.”
“Hey James!” Henry faces me, “I have a grand idea!”
“What?” I inquire.
“Let’s send him bot emails! I know of a website that allows you to send tons of spam email!”
“Wait… you might be onto something.”
“Uh… guys?” Samuel worries.
“I know! I can also send him scam links! You know how much he’s willing to go touch a link right?”
“BAHAHAHAHHA! I can’t wait to see his face deeper in debt!”
“BWAHAHAHAHA!”
Note: They’re best friends, by the way.
Eventually, we reach the cssroom. I don’t know why we took so long to get there, though? It’s just a floor above ground.
We settle in our seats, then from looking around my surroundings, I see that one of the ‘superheroes’ haven’t left yet. His name was Matthew Edwards.
Please don’t tell me he’s still menting his parents.
From a gnce I see a reflection of a whole ass picture frame with both of his parents, with the signature blue hair. By the way, he has blue hair too.
“With great power, comes great responsibility…” he whispers.
I think that line was used in another work already.
Disregarding him, we, geeks gather around Samuel. Only minutes ter, Jack makes an appearance by the front door. He drops the back in his seat and goes near us.
“Took you a while, Jack. What’s the holdup?” Samuel asks.
“I travelled by car,” Jack says monotonously.
“Why’d it take long then?” I question.
“I took the wrong car.”
“How does one take the wrong car…? Wait, did your father even drive you?”
“I hitched.”
“Why?!”
“To save money.”
Jesus Christ, Jack.
As you can see, they’re a bunch full of idiots. I’m not included, of course. They’re my friends though.
Henry sparks a conversation.
“Anyways… do you guys have any pns for prom?”
Prom… the day for dancing, love... and couples.
I shiver thinking about the sheer disgust when that comes.
“I’m not going to prom, who the hell would choose me anyway?” I answer.
“I haven’t thought about it yet. Though, I’m considering asking out Marie,” Samuel responds.
I swear… this pyboy…
“How about you, Jack?” Henry queries.
“Don’t know. Lonely.”
“Come on guys, be a man! Prom only happens once in our lives. Good for you though, Samuel.”
“It’s too early to celebrate…” Samuel responds.
Yeah, I’m totally not going. I have no reason to. I’m just gonna stay at home, read some comics and py some games.
“Speaking of which, you have a little sister, right James? Her name was Natalie, no?” Henry questions me.
“Don’t you even dare.”
Besides, she’s pretty much set up to fall in love with her fellow cssmate anyway. Curse you, Tom Tyler.
Note: Tom Tyler is Natalie’s cssmate.
“Oh well, worth a shot.”
Hm… now that I think about it, prom actually is a big thing, even in comics right?
Then I come to a realization.
Wait, this could be a turning point, right? I can use this opportunity to boost my reputation, significantly increasing my chances of becoming a protagonist of a higher tier. I might join after all…
“Alice Okada seems worth asking no? She’s one of the prettiest girls in school, not to mention an unparalleled genius, and…” Henry comes closer and whispers, “…she’s half-Japanese too!”
Honestly, I couldn’t care less about her lineage. But…
“NO! NOT THAT VIXEN! SHE’S A WITCH! ANYONE BUT HER!” I scream.
The students near us stare from my sudden outburst, but I couldn’t care less. Alice Okada, she’s a vile woman. A master of many disciplines, but at heart, a narcissist who degrades everyone. She’s gotten me into debt!
“Urgh…”
Okay, I may have gotten myself into debt by asking her expertise in the past, but my points still stand. Anyone associated with her, would be driven to insanity.
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12:00 NN, Lunch time
Just as we were about to head to the cafeteria, I hear a voice, so grating, so nasal, so raspy, that it immediately brought shivers to my spine up to my head. Yes, it was that powerful. Okay, I’m exaggerating a bit… it’s just a feminine voice. BUT IT’S-
“Hey James!” Alice shouts from the front.
Pretending I hadn’t heard her, I make sure not to make eye contact and continue onwards my destination – the cafeteria.
“Hey! I know you can hear me.”
Ignore her, ignore her, ignore her…
I hasten my pace, that even Samuel, Henry, and Jack notice, and eventually, I begin running.
“James?” Henry wonders.
Alice pushes them all out of the way essentially trampling over them.
“James Michael Smith! You promised to be my b rat, you fiend!” she says as she hunts me down.
“Alice Okada! I’m not ready yet! Wait for a month!”
“You think I can wait a month?! You underestimate a scientist’s time! Come over here and submit yourself to be my test subject!”
“NEVER BITCH!”
We both run around the hallway. Of course, this is not allowed, so a loyal officer of the Student Council witnesses our behavior and because of that we have the vice-president on our tail.
“Come on! Why did I have to get involved in this mess?!” I scream.
“This is the Vice-President of the Student Council, Chloe Hill! No running in the halls!” she shouts whilst holding a stick.
“Damn it all! I wanted to make some progress!”
But it seems I have to steer myself of these freaks.
“James! Come back here!” Alice shouts
She takes a volumetric fsk with a red fluid inside and throws it at me. Thankfully enough, since I was watching their moves, I dodge to the right.
Once the fsk broke upon intact with the red lockers, they explode causing other lockers to be destroyed and fall like dominoes, in typical cartoony fashion, happen to obstruct my way.
“Hup!” I yelp as I jump over a destroyed locker.
“Rule breakers… must… be punished!” Chloe yells as she throws an indiscriminate number of sticks.
Just how many sticks does she have?! Where does she even have room to store them?!
Disregarding that question, I focus on dodging the sticks that target every part of my body, literally.
“You can’t run forever, James!” Alice yells.
She overthrows three test tubes, with fluids colored green, yellow, and blue. It goes over my head and nds where I was about to run off to, somehow melting the floor and the floor below it.
“Darn it.”
“There’s nowhere to run, James. Are you ready to become a hamster?” Alice smirks menacingly.
“Detention. Reprimand. KILL!!!” Chloe says as she turns into a medusa.
“Damn it… DAMN IT!!!”
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“BWAH!”
I look around everywhere and see that I was only in bed. To make sure, I open the curtains and see that it was still very dark.
“Wh-What kind of dream was that?!”
Will that happen to me if I don’t pay my debt to Arisu?
I shiver at the thought of the creature I’d turn into the moment I offer my body.
“I… don’t wanna sleep for a while…”
At least it was a dream… I wouldn’t know what to do if ever it were to come true.
“Plus… who the heck is James supposed to be? Urgh…”
Yeah, I think I really need to watch more anime…
END OF EPISODE 32.5
Legit Author Afternotes:
While it's safe to say that I watch little to no American-reted shows or cartoons anymore, mainly because of... woke propaganda, it would be criminal if I didn't pay tribute to it, because before I eventually and permanently switched to anime and manga, I started with those like Disney and stuff. I read things like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and even now I still love that, so perhaps that pushed me to write this chapter? Do tell if you liked this chapter, I'm certain I definitely missed a lot of tropes I could have used, but then again my typical limit is 2,000 words.
