If I ever got back to my world I was going to kill that bastard. But at this rate, it was looking unlikely. I was probably going to end up dying in this world.

It all started a week ago. When on the recommendation of a "friend" I started reading SS Spirit Punch, an action, comedy, shonen, battle manga.

I binged through a bunch of it over the course of a few days and then suddenly, without any warning, I woke up in its awful world as the main character.

What I wouldn't give to have chosen better reading material.

You might think that the situation doesn’t sound too bad and you'd be wrong, so very, very wrong.

This action comedy. Emphasis on the comedy, it really turned this place into a world of horrors.

For example, waking up sucked, why you may ask? Because my alarm clock came in the form of a beating.

What?

How?

Why was I getting woken up with a kick and a punch?

Because apparently it's funny, that's why. Peak comedy is physical violence.

It's a running gag. God, how I hate and curse gags, running or otherwise.

"I told you to stop doing that!" I yelled.

"I'll stop when you stop sleeping in," Tomoe said back to me.

I glowered at Akato's childhood friend while I rubbed the spots where she had hit me.

"There are better ways to wake someone up than this," I hissed out.

She huffed at me and then exited back out through the bedroom window.

Crazy bitch. I thought to myself.

I stood and walked over to the window. I was sure that I had latched it, so how did she get in? Unsettling, I thought as I got dressed for school.

I had been trying to wake up earlier but for some reason, it just wasn't working.

No matter how early I went to bed or whatever else I tried I just wasn't able to wake up early.

Back in my world, I was also a late sleeper but if I wanted to wake up on time I wouldn't have much of a problem.

For some reason, I found that skill completely lost to me now. In the manga, the main character was a late sleeper.

Did our late-sleeper tendencies combine or something? Or was it that he could never wake up and so now I couldn’t either? I was putting money on the worst option.

Walking out through the kitchen I saw a note on top of a lunch box.

‘I'll be gone for a few days. Sorry for the short notice. Good luck, champ. signed: Gramp's’.

There was a smiley face drawing at the bottom.

Honestly, the main character's grandfather was one of the only good things I had encountered in this hell.

But like all parental figures in fiction, if you were lucky enough to have any: they'd be aloof.

I'd only ever seen him three times in the seven days that I'd been here.

I took the lunch box, placed it into my bag, and exited onto the street.

I found Tomoe waiting for me just outside like always. Tomoe was a conventionally attractive blond who had a lot of tsundere tendencies. Typical really.

"You know you don't have to wait for me right?"

She gave me a look that indicated that I was some sort of idiot.

I guess I technically was. Well, not me, Akato was.

Like many Shonen main characters, his intelligence was questionable. That didn't mean that I wasn't bothered by the, you're an idiot, look.

"What?" I asked as she continued giving me the look.

"You'd end up in trouble."

"Trouble?"

"Yes."

"Waking me up, following me around to keep me out of trouble.

What are you, my mom? Are you gonna start spoon-feeding me next?"

A bit of helpful advice that I've learned since then. Don't tempt fate. At least not out loud.

"Fine then," Tomoe huffed and angrily stormed off.

I congratulated myself for getting rid of the crazy girl. Then took a slightly different route to school. I had been walking there with her for the past week and I had pretty good spatial awareness so taking a few different side streets wouldn't get me lost.

I wasn't some idiot that walked into trouble.

The first side street I took had some real shady-looking shit going down. An all-black car was parked against a curb and a man dressed in mafia attire was yelling at some street punks. The situation looked volatile.

I being completely sensible, promptly turned away from the situation and walked back to the path that I had been taking with Tomoe.

I could see her blond ponytail up ahead, her hair contrasting with the black uniform making it easy to pick her out from the other students.

I kept my distance, as she could be super angry, murderously violent, and lash out at me for practically no reason. Typical.

Tomoe was the daughter of a pair of martial artists.

Her whole family were martial artists if I remembered everything correctly from the manga.

But I didn't know how accurate my knowledge of this world was.

For example, I'd been here for seven days most of which I had spent walking around in disbelief, panic, and denial.

I had kept mostly quiet doing anything I was told. All well inwardly praying to every and any Gods I could think of, begging to be sent back to my world. Which didn't work. Sad.

So, eight days now that I've been here, and other than a few characters and locations. Plus these awful gags. Nothing from the story had happened.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

I just got violently woken up each day. Followed Tomoe to school. Followed her back. Declined any after-school activities. And maybe ran into the old man back home, repeat.

Clearly, something was wrong, right?

Had I knocked the plot off script?

The whole situation was beyond stressful.

Nothing could prepare a person for suddenly finding themselves in what they had assumed was just a work of fiction.

Naturally, my first thought had been that I had lost my mind. But coming to that conclusion didn't really help me. If I had lost my mind, was there anything I could do about it? And what if this was all somehow real like I suspected it was?

I shook my head. Thinking about things didn't help. I was going to assume that what all my senses were telling me was reality.

So I was stuck in this world whether I liked it or not, whether it was real or not. And I had to do what I could about the situation.

I had knowledge of every arc up until the end of the grand tournament arc.

So I needed to prepare for everything that was going to happen and also make myself more comfortable. Because it didn't seem like there was any way out.

And I didn't want to just continue moping around.

"Better to embrace it than pity myself endlessly," I muttered.

With newfound purpose, I pulled out a notebook and a pen from my bag.

The notebook was completely empty. Figures, I thought.

I began to write down anything important. Along with things I needed to do.

I started thinking about the first arc.

I didn't remember the name of it but It was mostly, slice of life, comedy, and wacky situations that introduced all the characters and world.

I had skimmed through most of it trying to get to the later and what some would consider the better parts.

I racked my brain trying to pull up every detail.

‘Befriend Grey.’ I wrote down.

Grey was part of the main cast of characters.

He transferred into black diamond, getting put into the same class as the main character. An event that happened in the first few chapters of the Manga.

I was reasonably sure.

From there the main character involved him in shenanigans and basically annoyed him into being friends.

I definitely had to befriend him as well.

He was the brains of the group.

‘Beat up Jason.’

Jason was also part of the main cast. Another student of black diamond.

I hadn't seen him around which was strange because I was pretty sure he was supposed to be in the same class as me too. He challenged the main character for his position and promptly got beat.

After that, he considered himself a subordinate to the main character. He was an invaluable fighter. I didn't know how beating someone up, somehow earned you their lifelong loyalty and friendship. and I hadn't ever really questioned the trope before. But I was digressing.

I paused as a terrible question struck me. Did I know how to fight?

I didn't have any experience fighting. Unless you count a small scuffle in third grade which I didn't.

I also didn't get Akato's memories when I received his body.

But did that mean I hadn't gotten his muscle memory for fighting? Was that even a thing?

Oh my god, I was screwed, this was a battle Shonen.

Fighting was like ninety percent of everything. I reasonably started panicking internally.

I took a few deep breaths to calm myself as I continued walking.

I didn't know anything for sure. I reassured myself.

‘Figure out if I can fight.’ I wrote down.

I took a few more deep breaths and looked back to the second thing that I had written down.

‘Figure out the gang thing.’ I added to my notebook.

Right, so the main character was technically the leader of black diamond high’s gang. A school gang that claimed the surrounding territories as their own.

So, when I say he's the leader of a gang everyone except for the main character knew this. An oblivious leader situation.

A few key personality traits about the main character. Love's to fight. Doesn't back down from a challenge. Cares about his friends. Is sort of a goody two shoes and of course, is mentally challenged.

Or until the author wrote himself into a corner. Then the main character would miraculously find a few extra brain cells only to promptly lose them right after. Typical really.

I decided to write down his personality traits. This got me thinking about how I hadn't acted like the main character and that the plot might be off-script.

But more importantly, nobody had questioned my behavior in the slightest. I had been extremely quiet and emotionless this whole time. Not how the main character would act at all.

Granted I had only really interacted with the main character's grandfather and childhood friend.

The gang thing made it so that everyone at school avoided me.

But still, two people who would know the main character really well and they hadn't said anything.

‘Ask Tomoe and the old man .…’ I paused. Should I ask them anything? What if I brought it up and they started asking questions? Suspecting me?

Suspecting me of what? That a person from a different World or dimension or whatever had suddenly taken over Akatos body? The notion that anyone would think something like that was absurd.

If someone you knew started acting differently from their usual self. The first thought you would have was not that they had their body stolen. Damn it this whole situation was just so absurd.

I closed the notebook, putting it back into my bag, and rubbed my forehead.

I probably shouldn't start making long-term plans without confirming if the plot was still intact.

Tomoe gave me one last look as we neared the school.

Probably to confirm that I hadn't gotten into trouble somehow.

Which of course was the perfect time for another classic, a two-for-one special if you would. A gag and some fanservice. A girl speeding past me on her bike somehow fumbled, shooting herself into the air, giving me an absolutely perfect view of what was under her skirt.

I swear the whole thing played out in slow motion.

I of course averted my eyes away as soon as possible.

Which was never fast enough.

Tomoe appeared beside me in a flash delivering a punch and yelling out that I was a pervert. Just as the bike girl crashed into the wall behind us.

"I'm so sorry about him," Tomoe said, as she started helping the girl up.

I had to hold myself back from cursing at the blond-haired girl.

These situations as you might expect were common occurrences. Somehow in some way. Reality would bend over backwards and I would end up in some situation where I was exposed to things unwillingly.

And the key word was unwillingly.

I didn't go looking for these situations. In Fact, I hated them with my very being.

I shot Tomoe a glare that she didn't notice as she walked away with the bike girl.

If I was going to live in this world I was going to have to fix these completely unjustified attacks.

‘Talk to Tomoe about her behavior.’ I added to my list.

Nearing the school, students gave me a wide berth. They rushed to walk on the opposite side of the street from me.

Some hid behind objects. Well, others crouched down and started murmuring prayers.

This was also common. Everyone was scared shitless of me.

The main character from the manga was completely unaware of events like this of course. It was a long-running joke.

Even when other characters explained the situation to him he simply wasn't able to fathom the idea.

A goody-two-shoes character unknowingly being the leader of a delinquent gang was humorous to some degree.

But the joke got old really fast.

There were only so many times you could laugh at the same thing, something the manga seemed completely oblivious to.

I ignored the situation and continued on as normal. Instead of running away, some people froze in place and gave me a bow.

Those would be members of the gang.

I stopped in front of one of the bowing guys.

"Listen.... Wer-” I paused, clearing my throat and mentally rephrasing my words.

“Tell everyone to assemble after school for a meeting," I said in the best tough-guy voice I could muster.

And it seemed to work.

"Right, of course, dark king, sir, I'll tell everyone right away," the boy hastily executed a few more bows then dashed off.

Ok, so now I just had to figure out what to actually do about the gang.

I didn't want to disband them as they were important in the later arcs: especially the gang war arc. But they also caused some problems that I'd rather not deal with. So I had to give them orders to avoid doing certain things. Like starting fights with the neighboring gangs.

As I walked upstairs I encountered,

Stripe face. I didn't know his name, he was just a background character as far as I could remember. I met him on the first day that I woke up here. After Tomoe walked me to school and then went off: I was at a complete loss as to which class I was supposed to be in. So I walked up to Stripe Face. He had been a trembling mess as I talked to him but he was able to help me out after a few minutes of incoherent mumbling and shock.

Even now he turned into a complete mess as he spotted me, sweat forming on his brow, his whole body trembling, and by the expression on his face you'd think that I was about to strike down his whole family.

"Morning," I said, not sure of what else to say as I passed him.

"Mo-oo-mor-ning," he managed to sputter out.

As I opened the sliding door of the classroom everyone inside went silent and shuffled to their desks.

It was like I was a judge about to deliver some terrible verdict.

I walked to the cluster of empty desks at the back of the class, sitting down at the one next to the window. The designated seat for all main characters.

Man, this is awkward, I thought.

Everyone just kept still and silent looking forward. The only things you could hear were the slight breaths of the students and the small amount of movement they made as they shifted in their chairs or took out their books.

A funeral was more lively. Luckily it only lasted a few minutes before the bell rang and the teacher entered.

With his entrance, they somehow worked up the courage to whisper at one another and relax.

I was baffled. The classroom wasn't really in the manga except for a few panels here or there. And then it was just the characters telling one another things and walking out or walking in.

"All right, before we begin I would like to introduce you to a new classmate," the teacher spoke.

When I finally processed what he had said I almost shot out of my seat. It was the main plot. Had it finally begun?

A tall brown-haired boy with glasses walked into the classroom.

"Hello everyone, it's great to meet you. My name is Grey. I hope we can get along."

"Yes, thank you, Grey, you may take any open seat."

Grey walked down the row of desks and took the seat next to mine.

It was time to make a friend.