The Expected

"Hey man, can you help me out with this paperwork? I'm really busy with the network script, so could you do the updates for the next sprint?", a white collar worker asks the protagonist.

"Hm? Yeah, sure."

And right here is our protagonist.

Although young, he is already fed up with life.

Here is a quick rundown of his story and how he ended up where he is today:

Back in middle school he was an extremely fascinated and excited person, perhaps the most excited person in the world!

He realised his full potential, and wanted to do all sorts of thing; Get the top in his school despite being at the very bottom, becoming the world's most sexiest man alive, becoming so physically strong that I could one day do every single calisthenics and gymnastics move known to man perfectly, become the world's first trillionaire, create SAO in real life, take over the world, create immortality, and more importantly, find his future wife and marry her.

He had it all planned out from the beginning, his enjoyment for life knew no bounds!!

"STOP DAYDREAMING AND BE FUCKING REALISTIC!", his parents shouted.

His excitement reached the point that he wanted to talk about it with those he loved, not expecting anything, but just wanted to be allowed to speak.

However, that's not how things turned out, "You're so, crazy…", one person after another, even though he was already alone before, he eventually started focusing more on his surroundings and started to feel lonely about it.

'This sucks! Well… I know! In anime, the most enjoyable life is supposed to be in high school, right? I'll work hard to get ready for my high school debut, and finally get some friends!'

He then trained his body every day, eating the right kind of foods, and even attempting to train his mind in order to understand people better through videos on the internet.

However, that last point was actually his downfall.

'Wait a minute, I can think about thinking?! Man, I feel like a genius!'

The original kick was amazing, but then he became so obsessive over the absolute truth, that he eventually starting developing philosophies.

'Phhh, these idiots are all on their phones and their best throw at me is that I'M crazy? Geez, at least stop looking at the rectangle you're so addicted to.'

And then he kept search for more answers to more questions that popped up in his head, 'Wait, even though I know that, how come I stare at the TV all day like right now? I should just stop that.

Wait, no, what about life balance?

But isn't balance bullshit?

If I want to become my ideal self, I must rid all forms of entertainment!'

Although he managed to get some friends, and even became popular at that, they weren't genuine, and the constant act to be nice just to not be lonely again really ate at him.

He wanted to become genuine himself again, so that way he could see the friends he made in a a genuine light.

With each attempt to make himself better in the real world, he would relapse in less than a day.

"What is wrong with me?

If said that exact same thing every time, that's another habit I have…"

'Oh great, I said all that out loud. Have some self control!'

And it kept going on and on and on.

That's when he lost his emotions completely.

At times he would even curl up in a ball, hoping that he would at least feel sad about his situation, 'I just want to be the old me again, I just want to be the old me again, I just want to be the old me again.'.

Eventually, he even grew numb to the numbness itself, and began to exist for the sake of existing.

And now he is 21, where we are today.

'Haaaa… I don't even remember what it's like to be genuinely normal. And from the looks of things, everyone else is the same.

They all do the same things. They work, they speak out of obligation, they laugh awkwardly thinking that it's making the other person happy that they're a 'naturally' cheery person, and then they go back to their desk and have a stiff face the entire time.

…

Why am I even analysing things still? I've already though of this exact same thing thousands of times now…'

[Several Hours Later]

'Over time is over now. That means I'll get home by around 12AM.'

As he waits for the train, he listens to his playlist, not because he jams to the beats, but because he once did, and now his body doesn't let him not listen to music when nothing is going on.

But then he remembers something as he starts drifting through the junk in his mind on autopilot, 'Meditation? I forgot that was a thing I tried. Hm… from what I remember, it did work to some extent.

Considering how I've pretty much given up now, I guess even though it doesn't meet my original intentions, at least I might cope better if I bring it back.

He takes the earphones out of his ears and listens to the trains stop at the surround platforms and feels the breeze against his face.

However, he even his senses have numbed.

'What's up with that? Maybe I'm just distracted.'

He tries to concentrate, but he doesn't know on what or how.

'Well there's a problem… oh come on, am I really still trying to become better? Why? Having I given up?'

The train arrives and steps on before his knows as as he thinks more to himself.

One the doors close and the train starts moving him and a few other passengers, he then thinks about how all of this started again, '…I can't remember…? No, wait, let's actually TRY…'.

He tries to force himself to remember, but his mind keeps wondering.

'Damn it. Concentrate! Why am I even yelling in my head? I'm not even angry- CONCENTRATE!'

Although he can't immerse himself into his past, he can remember key words like "daydream", "observation", "future wife".

As he keeps diving deeper and deeper into these ideas, he then realises something, 'Oh yeah, wasn't I a chuunibyou? And a proud on at that.

I remember now this one time where listened to the first song on my playlist, and the anime girl on the cover image in my daydream was supposed to be my future wife, and the two of us went on a secret date every time me and my family did things on the holiday I was having.'

*open*

*close*

*step step step*

*stop.*

The young man turns his head to the person who just entered the railcar he is on, and sees a woman with a cloak on, hiding her face.

He then looks away, and thinks to himself about why she would be wearing the hood of the cloak indoors, 'Maybe she's a chuunibyou?'.

He looks at her through the reflection of the glass door, and notices that she's staring at him.

He tries to get her to stop by making her feel uncomfortable with eye contact as he usually does, and plays it off as though it was by accident by nonchalantly by making it seems as though it's the sides of his bag that he is looking at.

'Ok, she's officially a crazy person. She's one hundred person looking at me with some strange perspective that I don't want to be dragged into.'

He then gets out his phone to pretend that he's looking at some messages, treating it as though he is checking for an update for a meet up plan with a person he may know, by going through his messages and making a subtle surprise expression.

He then puts the phone back in his pocket, and begins to walk to the opposite end of the railcar, planning to reach the door and and go to the next railcar, and as many rail cars as he needs to until he gets away from her without making this potentially crazy person ticked off.

As he walks, this time he is able to focus his senses some more, and every step he takes, he makes sure if he can hear a second step behind him, as he does the same 'look both ways behind him casually' tactic.

She doesn't seem to be following him.

"Zack.", she calls out his name.

He freezes.

'Shit. How does she know my name? Did I have a stupid tag hanging from my bag or something?'

He turns around, and despite their large distances apart, he feels an unsettling presence.

He checks the time left till the next stop from the display above the door that is behind her.

'If I ran, I'd have to run without getting caught for over 10 minutes. Fuck.'

He points at himself with an innocent expression as to come across as harmless.

She nods with her narrow eyes.

He decides that what would be logically best is to continue this friendly act by walking up to her to continue the conversation that is about to start, but all his instincts right now is telling him to not get any closer.

'What is wrong with me? I didn't know I could still feel scared.'

He walks closer anyways, trying to hide his fear.

"Yes? That's me. How do you know my name-"

The girl closes the gap in an instant, her face is staring him down at a freakishly close distance.

"!"

Her hood came off, and her hair is floating in the air as though it's in zero gravity.

He stumbles back and lands on the floor from the sudden spike of adrenaline.

Though, he feels more confused than scared in this moment.

On closer inspection, now that her face is no longer concealed, he gets distracted again, 'I guess anyone really can go crazy. This is my first time seeing an attractive, random psycho.'.

He then tries to get up by using his hand without taking his eyes off of her, only to feels something warm and wet on the floor.

He quickly looks at the ground and then back up at her.

"!"

He looks back down.

Blood.

His blood.

"A-AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!"

He quickly looses mobility in his limbs and is stuck laying in a pool of his blood while hyperventilating from the fright of this moment.

'Oh my god I'm going to die. I haven't even properly begun my life yet and I'm going to die.'

The girl walks over the top of him, 'Why am I not saying anything? She's my murderer! Has that not settled in yet? DOES IT MATTER IF IT'S SETTLED OR NOT?', "WHY?", he shouts.

She then smirks, and her cloak disintegrates.

'What the?!'

Her attire becomes that of a fantasy character, and her ears are now pointed, like an elf.

"EVERYTHING! TELL ME EVERYTHING!! EXPLAIN YOURSELF BEFORE I DIE RIGHT NOW!!! YOU BITCH OF A WITCH!", as he continues to scream and shout at her, she levitates his body in the air.

He notices but it's the least of his concerns right now, he's going to die. At the very least, he wants answers. Answers to something, anything.

'Am I really just going to die to the thing I might have a reason to live for? I'm seeing so many new things, and it'll really all be my last?'

Then suddenly, his blood begins to glitter, and float above him.

It's colour then turns golden.

Her smile then grows devilish.

Then, suddenly, all of his surrounding excluding the elf girl, begin to quickly vibrate and warp into a vortex, and his entire surrounding become nothing but the black void of space and the particles of his golden blood rushing around the two of them into a the shape of a sphere.

Her smile grows more and more crooked the more space warps in on its self, as he is uncertain about whether she is getting closer or further away from him.

And then…

*whistle*

He sees bright blue.

He starts to gain strength back in his body, and starts to feel the breeze against him.

He looks around, the girl is gone.

He then turns around while still floating, and then realised that he's actually falling.

The sensation of the wind gets stronger as he gains more strength, but also the sense of gravity.

"AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!"

Below him is a great distance before reaches the ground.

And as he plummets towards the ground in fear and confusion, he sees a grand tree in front of him, seemingly bigger than anything that he could imagine.

As he cries, he suddenly feels a heat in his chest.

He looks over his body, "NO BLOOD?!".

The heat in his chest gets hotter and hotter, and that's when, but complete instinct, he channels this heat like a stream into his left arm, and uses it to cast magic.

He doesn't know what's he's doing, but he's quickly picking up on how to use it in order to desperately save himself from dying from the fall.

He ends up making his body spin in the air since it's all coming out of one arm, and then he decides to channel the magic into all 4 of his limbs to balance himself with the same thing I did before.

It's hard to balance, but the more and more he tries, the slower his fall gets and the closer to a human rocket he becomes.

Finally, he manages to get down to the ground after accidentally flying himself backwards and bumping his head on the grassy field.

He breaths heavily and winces from the pain in his head from the head bump.

It takes him a long time before he realises that he's safe and alive.

…

"What *hyperventilating* THE FUCK?!"