Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! Novel 1 Read online

  Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai!

  (She has Chuunibyou, But I Want to Love Her!)

  Author: Torako

  Illustrator: Osaka Nozomi

  Translation: ultimatemegax

  Editorial Committee: Kaisos Erranon, Parsonator64, Goggen, Zorogou

  “Huh? The cake?”

  “There’s no extensive term for it?!”

  “But you pronounce my name Kazari. It’s not very effective against me.”

  “Aghhhhh!”

  Table of Contents

  Prologue - The prologue is about when I was cool!!

  Chapter 1 – Rikka Takanashi

  Chapter 2 – The Phantom Before My Eyes

  Chapter 3 – After School Study Time Starts

  Chapter 4 – Shinka Nibutani

  Chapter 5 – ChuuniStory and ChuuniBattle

  Chapter 6 – A Custom High School Tradition

  Chapter 7 – After School Study Time in Rikka’s Apartment

  Chapter 8 – Class Trip!

  Chapter 9 – Love Story – Story of Passion –

  Chapter 10 – “Don’t call me Mori-sama!”

  Chapter 11 – Last Day

  Chapter 12 – Absolute Absolute

  Final Chapter – She’s Chuunibyou, but…

  Postscript

  The prologue is about when I was cool!!

  This might be a little sudden, but I have a confession to make. I, Yuuta Togashi, suffered from chuunibyou when I was in middle school.

  Chuunibyou, which affects people while they go through puberty, isn't something that affects people physically or emotionally. No, it’s a much more pathetic disease. It's the kind that makes people see evil all around them, even when they're in public, and I don't mean something as simple as being in a rebellious phase. For example, someone might think so highly of themselves that they feel possessed of some kind of unique, mysterious power. I, too, thought I had something like that. So when I became the self-titled “Dark Flame Master,” I would drive both friends and girls away, using my catchphrase “be engulfed in the flames of darkness!”

  Even though those times are just memories now, I feel like I should just die …. In middle school, that kind of phrase would make me look super cool, but I wouldn’t dare try to use it in high school. It’s totally lame.

  Another thing I used to do in middle school was wrap my arm in bandages in order to seal my power during classes. When I would tell people about why I wore bandages, about the Zero Organization (an organization that helps train people with the potential to gain superpowers), and other things I had invented, they would just laugh at me like I was an idiot.

  Of course, I was completely serious. I’d go around mumbling things like “Those jerks don’t know a thing about me…. Soon they’ll be engulfed in my dark flames,” like I was some hero who hid in the shadows while the world revolved around me.

  Please, kill me right now.

  Or should I ask if anyone else has experienced that kind of life? A time where you'd “awaken with a new purpose in life” with an ability to protect the world?

  I thought I looked so cool shouting catchphrases full of big words at the top of my lungs

  “Classified Sorcery Enchantment! Light of Darkness, arise from the Recidivist! Just go and extend despair and misery to our foes! That’s the might of justice!”

  Now that I think about it, using light of darkness? Justice from despair? I was merely a violent person who looked to get into a fight, wasn’t I? With my flames of darkness, I was certainly prepared for one too.

  Oh there’s still more to talk about. I believed I held a magical force in my right hand so I drew “demolish” on it and a shooting star on my finger. Through training, I believed I would be able to levitate in the air. Now I can see that signs of the chuunibyou virus were all around me.

  In this way, I acted like a fool all throughout my second year of middle school. I would abruptly go “You... What are you doing?! My power is fading!? STOP IT!” during class or comment “This is Closed Space...” around my desk when no one else was in the classroom. Naturally, my grades plummeted.

  Once the summer of my third year came around and high school entrance exams were around the corner, I packed all my delusions away and began frantically studying. Due to the lack of free time I had, I started recovering from this disease. I became a calm, reserved student and while I wasn’t as “cool” as I once was, my grades started to rise rapidly once I used my brain.

  And so you might say, well it’s obvious you passed your entrance exams; you weren’t suffering from chuunibyou anymore. Currently I am a first year high school student and none of my friends act like idiots or could be classified as having chuunibyou. Those days with my classmates from middle school are over. I was able to get into a pretty good high school and not many of them made it.

  There are a few students here from that school, but I’m not familiar with most of them. Since I likely had the worse symptoms of chuunibyou, they probably don’t know who I am. I was just another person in the crowd for all they know, which serves me right.

  Oh well. The past is behind us. I rescued myself from my idiocy and that’s all that matters; no one here knows about my dark past.

  Eventually, in a new environment, with new friends, two months had flown by. They were very fun in an elegant sort of way.

  I couldn’t help but laugh during our entrance ceremony. Our principal came out on stage screaming the school song while wearing one of the uniforms. Besides that, I’ve been looking forward to enjoying an ordinary high school life. There were so many clubs that I had no idea existed (What in the hell is sepak takraw anyways?). Regardless, it was quite fun coming to this school as its tradition of free study suited me well.

  In the end, I chose not to join a club so I could focus on my studies. It looked like it was going to be smooth sailing for me, since I had made plenty of friends in my class. Right now my favorite thing to do is just hang out with them. I had finally regained what was really important after getting over my chuunibyou illness.

  I know, it’s hard to believe that the “cool” me who was alone is now spending time with his friends. That’s because while I’m hanging out with my friends, I forget all about my dark history and just have fun.

  Unfortunately, a sad event had to occur.

  Well, maybe I should say it was bound to occur. I was once a patient of the chuunibyou illness, but had made a spectacular recovery. Or so I thought.

  It was chuunibyou. Definitely.

  And so, beginning with that event, I was bound into a contract with Rikka Takanashi.

  Chapter 1: Rikka Takanashi

  “All right, our class’s first cutest girl competition has begun!”

  “What?”

  I couldn’t think of any other way to reply to the guy walking beside me. What else could you say when they’ve announced a crazy contest? We were at the end of May, so it had nothing to do with the mid-terms we had taken earlier.

  “What do you mean ‘what’? This is an epic battle to see who the cutest girl in our class is! It’s self-explanatory man!”

  “Then say it like that next time! Besides, how do you plan on getting all the guys to vote?”

  “Ah, I should’ve known you’d say that. Anyone would be concerned with the basic principal of a poll: getting responses. Well, no need to fear my good friend. Everyone else has already given me their answer and so now you’re the only one left, Togashi. So your vote goes to…”

  “Why do I have to vote?”

  “I’ve gotta have all of the popular guys’ choices after all. Wouldn’t be much of an evaluation if it were just my opinions.”

  For som
e reason, hearing someone call me popular made me happy. Unfortunately, his compliments were ending there. He continued his passionate speech,

  “Everyone’s already told me who they thought were the cutest in our class, so, tell me your girl!”

  “Hmm…”

  As I began to think about it, I groaned in response. I had come across the real Makoto Isshiki. As you might guess, he acts just like how his name means: devoted to everyone. He’s an interesting guy.

  If asked what devotion brings to mind, you’d think of an athlete or a guy who’d cut his hair to precisely 5 mm long, but those types of people tend to be quite rare. But with how proper he wears his uniform, you could easily get that impression of him. I don’t know why he did, but he joined the disciplinary committee. He has a habit of saying “Stop your whining! You’re disrupting the school!” when he’s checking people for rule violations. And then there’s that bamboo stick he waves around… I don’t want to think about what he does in private.

  But there’s also a part of him that loves women. Well, love is putting it lightly; he’s the type of pervert who hounds after women. It’s such an essential part of him. I mean he came to everyone in our class to ask them about our girls and their charms. He really loves women, but I wouldn’t say he means wrong. He just loves chatting about cute girls; it’s ordinary for him. On the other hand, I can’t help feeling something’s wrong when the same guy obsesses over indecency in public, refuses to nap during class, and yet chats about girls all the time.

  And so my perverted pal and I met instantly after enrolling in this school. We’ve spent quite the time together since then. I can’t say we’ve done anything exciting, just chatting in the hallways and eating lunch together. You know, the types of things you do with your friends at school. I wouldn’t consider him a close friend, but you can still feel the burning power of male friendship!

  And while I was reflecting on the burning power of male bonding, we were walking home from school underneath the sun’s glaring rays. The first big event of everyone’s high school experience, the first midterms, were just over and I felt like humoring him and giving a reply to such an easy question. After all, it doesn’t matter what I say.

  “How about it, boss? I know there’s a lot of pretty lasses in our class, but you can trust me bro. Come on, tell your pal who the cutest of the bunch is.”

  Apparently the burning power of male friendship was getting to him as well. The stress of the situation was starting to kick in. I didn’t feel like responding after he said that.

  “Ahhhh let me see… Who’s the cutest in our class? Well, I’ll have to check during one of our classes and see who the cutest is. There’s no way I could answer without looking around first!”

  “You’re a gentleman until the end! Bro, you gotta teach me a thing or two.”

  As if I couldn’t see right through that cheesy reply. Damn these responsibilities of male friendship. I felt I had to give my vote after that horrible acting job.

  “Oh… I don’t know her full name though…”

  “O…K…? She’s in our class though?”

  “Well, yes, but I’m not sure how to write it.”

  “I got you bro. Here’s the 6 I happen to know quite well.”

  “What?! You’re certainly a prodigy when it comes to knowing everything about girls. What kind of an inspection did you do this time!?”

  “Oh… I just checked for information when looking for data on repeat offenders.”

  He’s certainly earned the name of pervert.

  “Hehe, here’s all the info I gathered!” And with that, he reached into his bag and pulled out a mysterious memo pad. You could tell it belonged to him as you flipped through the contents.

  “Let’s see. If you say Azami-san, Kannagi-san, Takanashi-san, Nabatame-san, Nibutani-san, or Hirakata-san, I’ve got their proper characters.”

  “Amazing. I feel like I got a glimpse of how abnormal this hobby really is. Well, what happens if one of those girls happens to have a different name than the one you have?”

  “Hmm, well, Kannagi-san’s first name is Kazari, like the breeze that rings a bell. She gets quite pissed if you call her ‘wind-chime’ from what I hear.”

  “Certainly the wealth of personal information….”

  I could easily picture him being a private investigator in the future.

  “Ah. Hehe, were you after Kannagi-san’s interests and e-mail address? I can get more right now if you’d like.”

  “…Let me see what’s in that pad right now!”

  He’s even more perverted than what I thought, but he’s also quite the jokester. To be honest, I wouldn’t mind having some information on the cute girls in our class. Even if I couldn’t find a use for it during my lifetime, I’m sure I could profit on it somehow.

  “If you want it, then confess who your cutest girl is. I wouldn’t mind sharing it with a buddy.”

  I looked up. I had a feeling this would happen somehow. But something’s bothering me: how will I be sure he wouldn’t tell any of the girls who I pick? Better to ask before I tell him who I pick.

  “This… this is confidential, right? You promise you won’t tell anyone? If you break this promise, I’ll cry my heart out! Th-this is just the girl I think is cutest! Don’t take this literally!”

  He just nodded his head, saying “You got it man.”

  “I’d have to say it’s Takanashi. You know, the one that sits in front of me. Well… I’m not completely sure it’s Takanashi. I’m Togashi, so the “ta” would be in front of me. I think I’ve seen her write the small and bird characters, so it’s probably in the “ta” category. I’d have to be in the classroom to check though. I don’t know the rest of her name.”

  “Ooh, a Takanashi-san vote! Rikka Takanashi gets one added to her total! I also had to check on how her name was written, so I know what you mean. If you play around when writing small bird, you get Takanashi. I don’t think it’s derived from a bird playing around in the sky like a hawk or else you’d get Takanai instead.”

  You’d expect no less from this devoted pervert. If he doesn’t know something about a girl, he’d go investigate. But I guess it’s time to study though we just had our mid-terms. If I didn’t do well on them, I’d have to go to tutoring.

  As he was saying, “So Takanashi-san eh? You have to admit, she is cute,” his expression looked like there was something else left unsaid.

  I enquired, “Is that all right?”

  Thinking about it, I gave the name of someone I didn’t even know how to write. But this looked like there was something difficult to talk about when it comes to her. For a guy who loves to talk about girls, he certainly looked like he didn’t know what to say.

  I was pretty indifferent to girls during middle school so perhaps I didn’t know what you need to look for in a girl. After all, I wasn’t that important to anyone during those years. I’m pretty sure I didn’t make a mistake; she fits what I want in a girl. Seriously, I’m quite lucky to be assigned to sit behind such a cute girl.

  Isshiki answered with the information he had on Takanashi. “Well, I’ve not heard her speak, but she’s got a very cute face.”

  “I see. Well, if you look at her face, it’d remind you of a child when they first come into this world. Wait… does that mean she’s like one of those organic lifeforms built for human contact, you know, a humanoid interface?! She’s one of those pale beautiful girls whose emotionless face doesn’t react to anyone. And then there’s that bandage she wears over her eye. From there we go to her small frame, which the uniform makes her look like an absolute cutie. I don’t think it’s exaggerating to say that she was what they had in mind to make our girls wear a blazer! And then there’s that slender body that just gets me going. I just can’t help but adore that loli face and small breasts. Yep, she’s obviously the top person in our class based on looks.”

  I thought I had been pretty clear about her good points, but it looks like the guy in front of me did
n’t comprehend what I was saying. I knew her looks pretty well, but all of that is just on the outside… that’s all I talked about, wasn’t it? Isshiki’s quite the talker when it comes to looks, but we’ve not talked about what her personality’s like.

  So what do you like about Takanashi….Why is this such a stressful question? I decided to strike at the core of the matter.

  “So that’s the outside. Is she actually a horrible person?”

  “You’re a good listener eh? Alright, I’ll tell you what I know, but this is just a rumor, alright? Warning: there’s a chance it might destroy your image of her.”

  You know it’s probably not a good rumor if it took this long for him to say something. Then again, it’s just a rumor. It could be something minor that was spread around by some other girls who were jealous over how cute she is. Everyone knows those types of girls aren’t beautiful on the inside. Yeah, that’s how it’s gotta be. I’ve seen Takanashi these past two months and she’s usually alone. She’d make an easy target for others to pick on. Maybe she’s one of those people whose destiny is to befriend those who are alone. Boy, that type of person really appeals to me.

  “I just wanted to make sure you know the situation. Promise me that.”

  “Gotcha. Thank you for the information. It’s just a rumor sir. It’s not a good story sir.”

  “You got it.”

  “So really…”

  And so as he began to talk, his face started to slacken as if he was telling a ghost story.

  “Takanashi-san… Rikka Takanashi-san gradually began to change while she was in her second year of middle school… Up until then she was this bright cheerful girl who enjoyed being around her friends. You could say she was something like a mascot to them… But something changed. It was like she was possessed. She began saying strange things out loud… And so…”

  “It became a Japanese folktale?!” I was wrong. It wasn’t a ghost story after all.