Chapter 3: A Normal World

Isekai.

The staple genre that never ended in my past life. Some of my memories regarding it came back when I saw tou-san reading an isekai-themed manga. In the cases of it or even reincarnation, there are many supernaturals. Onmyojis fighting against demons, magicians pursuing the truth of the world, youkais that inhibit desolate places… Those are some of the extraordinary events that I remember.

The sole evidence that they exist? My cheat. I mean, an ability to manipulate time surely is not mundane.

That's why I tried to find such beings… or at least I tried to.

"Everything is completely normal."

Not once did I find an unusual event. There are no gas leaks, no unexplained earthquakes, nothing. This is why I came to accept this as a completely normal world. Since there are no magic and the like, stuff like magic became impossible, too.

This woke me up at the fact that I have to live enough with this short life.

Half a year had already passed since I discovered my cheat. I lived an ordinary life, which is to read books at home and play with my little brother. That is, until, three months ago. My parents decided that it is nigh time to be sent to the land of heaven or hell, school.

Thanks to my intellect, I managed to skip kindergarten and two grades few years back. It was only now did I enroll as a 3rd Grader.

As expected, I became quite bored with the kids there.

Well, I am to blame for deciding not to skip grades easily and enjoy this responsibility-free phase. It's not like I would like to communicate with adolescents as a five-year-old kid. My age did not change as I was born on February 5, a month behind Ryuu.

Funnily enough, my name came from my dad's favorite Sake Brewery in Niigata, Hokusetsu. Its founder's name is Nobu and he founded the brewery in Winter, which coincides with my birthday. This resulted in my name being added to the list that my Tou-san and Kaa-san made.

"Can someone solve this?"

My teacher began teaching us Mathematics.

""...""

Nobody wanted to answer.

"If no one wants to answer… Nobu-kun."

Looking at the equation on the board, I could feel my 11th-grade Mathematics being wasted here. Anyways, you'll just use the PEMDAS rule and…

"It's fifteen, Sensei."

*****

In the end, I managed to get through by writing in my small notebook. There, I write any future events related to the stock market–the opportunities included in the currency market, derivatives market, bond market, and so on.

My study in those ten years did not go to waste. I can do crazy leverages and take home these goldmines with certainty.

Leverages are the multipliers in the investment, allowing someone to invest in something far more than the money that they currently have. It's a double-edged sword as those multipliers can cause bankruptcy instead of profiting. However, it becomes my sharpest sword with the events of the future recorded in.

The ice cream store entered my sight. After school ended, I went back home alone. My school is only a street away from it, so there wasn't much to worry about. The street that I take home is always populated, too. Though I still go with the group of kids until I separate to go to this place every day.

"Jii-san. One strawberry popsicle."

I tiptoed to the counter to grab the attention of the sleeping uncle, the shopkeeper. I placed the popsicle on top of the counter.

"Oh..? It was just you, Nobu."

"Yes, yes. I want this popsicle."

"Sure…"

With a lazy tone, he took my meager sum, a hundred Yen coin. After doing so, I left the shop and was about to go home when I saw the familiar pink-haired girl. She is sitting on the bench while staring at the slide.

She's not been here for three days. Did she make new friends? Chances are… she did not.

"Hey. You made new friends?"

"A-ah?!"

Looks like I snapped her out of her deep thoughts again.

"N-nobu-kun."

"Looks like you did not." I said before sitting down on the bench. I swiftly tore down the pink packaging and grabbed the popsicle stick. Slowly, I let it melt inside my mouth while I took a small bite out of it.

"Fu…"

Cold air went out of my mouth. Hearing the cicadas in the tree and this glaringly hot temperature, I could feel the summer heat going in me. If not for the tree blocking off most of the sunlight, I would not choose this as my usual spot.

I watched the girl puff out air as she said with confidence:

"I made some friends!"

For once, it felt very convincing. I know that she said this more than five times in rebuttal to my jokes, but it feels kind of true this time.

"Really? Mind telling me their name?"

"I-it's…" Her voice became lower and lower, just like a mosquito's.

I take back my words. Gotou-san is still the usual her. "

Social Anxiety" is the correct term for her condition, I recall. She finds it difficult to initiate any sort of conversation with others. In my case, I am lucky enough to converse with her for the first time–just enough for her preferred pace that, while she is still anxious, her determination is enough to talk with me.

"Anyways, how about your days? I haven't seen you here in three days."

"T-that! My grandparents visited us three days ago. T-this is why I could not come here."

I see her hastily explain with a panicked expression. She is afraid of having misunderstandings, something that I came to know after some time with her. This is the reason behind her anxiety.

"I see. No need to be flustered that much."

"H-huh?!"

I saw her fall into a deep thought once more. Only she knows about her internal monologue.

"What about you?"

Gotou-san suddenly asked me a question.

"Hm… Aside from school, I don't have anything else to do except read. You could say that it is boring."

She seemed dumbfounded after hearing my response. My guess is that–

"Y-you don't have any friends?"

–I knew it. I laughed lightly while tapping my lap to vent out my excessive emotion.

"I do." I said. "You are my friend."

"Ah?"

Perhaps, it is due to my peculiar experience that I could not consider those kids as my friends. They are busy with idiotic stuff like shouting "Unko! (Poop!)" or chasing after their puppy love. Meanwhile, I am busy writing down the significant events related to investment.

We are different.

As for Gotou-san, we just hit it off. She is different from others in a way that fits just right with me–she does not act as childish as others. That is enough for me.

She has a problem, however, when reaching out to others. She has a "fear" of some bad possibilities whenever she thinks of initiating a conversation with others. This is something that I'm trying to help her with.

"It turns…"

I heard her murmuring something but I did not hear the rest of it.

For the rest of the time that we met, I ate the entire popsicle while talking about some mundane stuff with her. We shared some of our everyday thoughts. They might be just the normal stuff that we encountered as our life is not some story where extraordinary stuff happens to us frequently. Our world is just a normal one filled with the struggles of mundane life.

"I have to go. You should go home too!"

I said before holstering my backpack into my shoulder. After a minute of walking, I arrived at my usual streetlight and intercepted some of its electricity. A familiar wave of relaxation came into my body once more, relieving me of some stress that I have recently.

'How should I tell this to my tou-san…'

There are only less than six months left before the start of that main event–the 2013 Financial Crisis. It is the time when Dollar's Value started to spike down which is unpredicted. Most professionals and the American Government themselves are confident with their fortifications. Though, they could not resist the trend of the entire world.

This is the ripe time to multiply our assets by a maximum of fifty times. It is the highest amount of leverage allowed in the stock market. Even with that, we could still surpass my initial predictions.

In total, two such financial crises happened within the next ten years. If we miss this, we will lose the chance to earn money. That's why I am facing the current predicament of how to convince my tou-san into allowing me to invest.

Granted, even dumb people who did not study stocks could use it now in 2012 thanks to the advancements of technology, but letting an eight-year-old kid into stock trading seems very outrageous.

"I mustn't give up before the fight."

My attention was then redirected to my energy tank. I could feel that it is almost filled up. Maybe I could use my cheat again in the next thirty days, it seems.

I wonder, what should I use it on next?

*****

Gotou Hitori, a girl with social anxiety. She does not know when it started, but she has overcome her fears whenever she tried to connect with someone.

"That's it?"

"Boring."

"Lame."

She feared that she would be seen by others in a negative light. At first, it was just her being more conscious about her appearance, mannerism, and speech. But it soon evolved into its current state. Her parents were very worried about her condition, thinking that she would not have any friends.

'They were wrong! I have a friend!'

Hitori's nose became incomparably tall while she felt proud of her achievement. Everyone, including her, thought that she was a loner (hitoribocchi).

Well, they are dead wrong! They are greatly mistaken! For she, Gotou Hitori, has a friend!

She had long treated Nobu as her only friend. It was just that she was worried that he did not think of her as one. Fortunately, his indirect confirmation untied the knot in her heart and made her extremely proud of this achievement.

"It turns out that he is also a loner!"

When she heard him say that he did not have any friends, she was about to cry. After all, they are the same! At least that's what she thought. She also thought of how loners can have a "loner" radar that allows them to detect each other.

This is how humans act. When they discover that there is someone who is suffering the same things as them, they would feel lighter.

Though, the responses of her parents were completely different than she had expected.

""A friend?"" The shocked voices of her parents rang out.

"Is it a ghost?"

"Is it an imaginary friend?"

"Dear. We need to bring her to the exorcists."

"Seconded."

Thus, it was decided that Gotou Hitori will be brought to a nearby shrine tomorrow…