Takahashi Hiroshi, fifteen years old and in his final year of junior high, considered himself the definition of average. Born and raised in Okinawa, he spent most of his life drifting through days quietly, never attracting attention. He did just well enough in school not to fail — and just average enough not to stand out.
"Hiroshi! Time to go to school!" his mother called from downstairs. She had woken early, preparing breakfast for everyone in the house.
Hiroshi rubbed his eyes, the sunlight slipping through his curtains.Morning already?He hadn't slept a wink, having spent the entire night binge-reading manga.
"Ahh, geez… I'm going to be a full-on zombie today," he muttered, stretching his arm that had gone numb from being used as a makeshift pillow.
"And on a school trip day, of all days…"He rinsed his face, threw on his uniform, and stumbled down the wooden steps, his feet thudding loudly.
He slumped into his seat at the dining table."Good morning…" he mumbled, barely audible.
"Hiro!! Did you stay up all night reading manga again?" His mother barked, glaring at him with icy eyes.
"No!" Hiroshi waved weakly, spooning cereal drowned in juice.
She snapped.
"You, liar! You're eating your cereal with juice instead of milk."She tossed a magazine at him — it smacked him on the head with a dull thump.
"Ohh, how I miss being young," Takahashi-san's father said wistfully, gazing up at the ceiling. "I used to pull all-nighters too, back in the day."
"You are encouraging him," his mother snapped, whacking Takahashi-san with another rolled-up magazine.
Hiroshi stumbled outside, the sudden sunlight slapping his face and forcing him to squint.
"If I collapse, I can't just blame it on the weather…" he muttered, shielding his eyes.
"Takahashi-san!"A familiar voice rang out behind him — loud, bright, and impossible to ignore.
It was Kamado Sayuri, the boisterous girl he'd known since kindergarten.
The moment Hiroshi saw her, he sped up."No… no… no…"He turned stiffly, like a malfunctioning robot, hoping she hadn't noticed.
"Takahashi-saaan!" She called again, louder this time, already running toward him.
Hiroshi broke into a faster walk — which, for him, was the equivalent of sprinting.
But Sayuri caught up instantly and trapped him in a headlock.
"That's no way to treat a friend," she scolded, still squeezing him.
"I didn't see you…" Hiroshi muttered, pouting like a sulking child.
"You liar! Hmph." She released him, crossing her arms.
Just then, a car rolled past in front of them.
Cats were driving it.
"Let's go fight those damn dogs," they spoke
Both of them froze.
"Ah—did you see that?" Sayuri gasped, grabbing his sleeve."C-cats were driving the car!"
"Nah, didn't see anything. The sun must've blinded you," Hiroshi said immediately, striding away as if nothing had happened.
"They were talking!" she added.
"That was the radio," Hiroshi said.
"Ha…? Is he in denial?" Sayuri thought, eyes widening.
"Takahashi… Takahashi!" She called after him, but Hiroshi simply kept walking, whistling off-key as if nothing had happened.
Soon they were sitting in class, and the teacher walked in.
"TODAY'S CLASS—IS ON HUMAN NUCLEAR PASSWORDS," a robotic voice boomed.
The voice came from a towering metal machine, twice the size of any student, rolling into the classroom on squeaking wheels. Its digital eyes blinked unevenly, as if constantly rebooting.
Sayuri leaned toward Hiroshi, whispering loudly,
"Takahashi, look! When did we get a robot for a teacher?"
"No, no," Hiroshi replied without looking. "It's, uh… a new look. Very trendy. It was on TV. Probably."
He turned his face toward the window, avoiding the giant machine entirely.
Then he froze.
"Ahh—!"
He almost screamed but slapped a hand over his mouth just in time.
Outside the window, a green woman soared through the sky on a broom.
A witch.
Pointy hat and all.
"I should have slept yesterday… Now I'm hallucinating," he muttered, lowering his head onto the desk like a defeated old man.
Lunch finally came, and Hiroshi sat with his friends under a tree in the courtyard.
"Today has been weird," Yoru said, adjusting his round glasses. He was small and nervous and always carried gigantic books that looked heavier than his soul. "I've been seeing monsters and ghosts. Seriously, what is happening?"
They all murmured in agreement, discussing the bizarre things they had witnessed.
Yuji, chewing on a rice ball, turned to Hiroshi.
"How about you, Hiroshi? See anything strange?"
"Nope," Hiroshi said, biting into his bread lazily. "Haven't seen a thing."
"WHAT!?"
All three of his friends shouted in unison.
They stared at him, jaws dropped, while Hiroshi calmly sipped his juice as if the world wasn't breaking in half around them.
""Look! Doesn't that look like the principal—flying? He's being carried by a dinosaur!" Yoru pointed frantically at the sky.
Hiroshi glanced up.
Sure enough, Principal Takayoshi was dangling helplessly in the air, gripped by the claws of a massive pterodactyl-like creature. His legs kicked wildly as he screamed:
"Help! Help me!"
Yuji, Yoru, and Sayuri all turned toward Hiroshi with sparkling, expectant eyes.
Surely this time he would acknowledge reality.
Hiroshi blinked slowly.
"No, no, no. Such things don't happen. Obviously they're filming a movie scene."He waved his hand dismissively, brushing them off.
"EHHHHH!?"All three friends fell backwards at once, crashing onto the grass.
"What a strong guy…" Yuji murmured, wiping tears from his eyes. "He's so deep in denial he just… filters out anything weird."
"Wow… what a great guy," Sayuri added, sniffling dramatically. "Weird things don't stand a chance against him."
The three of them gave him a shaky thumbs-up, wiping their tears away.
Hiroshi simply stared at them blankly, expression calm and unbothered — as if nothing unusual had happened at all.
By the end of the day, everyone finally returned home — exhausted, confused, or traumatized.
Except Hiroshi.
He opened the front door and froze.
A goat stood calmly in the middle of the living room, chewing on the corner of the sofa.His parents were nearby, both wearing aluminium foil hats shaped like little pyramids.
"Hiro!" his mother shouted. "Did you hear? Aliens are abducting people!"
His father nodded seriously. "We need to protect our minds. They read thoughts, you know."
Hiroshi stared at them.Stared at the goat.Stared at the hats.
Then he let out a long, slow sigh.
"Nope. Not dealing with that," he muttered.
He walked past all of it.
He collapsed onto his bed and fell asleep instantly.
For Takahashi Hiroshi, everything was still perfectly… ordinary.