World Only God Knows/神のみぞ知るセカイ 1. Chapter 0: Prologue Part 1

**If you've read any of my previous work, sorry. This isn't exactly up there with the best things I've ever written, but my excuse is that I wrote it in less than an hour, right after I finished power reading an obscene amount of chapters today. Still, I hope you guys enjoy Normal.**

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Normal

"By the time I realized it, I was already in love with you!" Chihiro shouted, her pink cheeks turning bright red as she did so. She took a deep breath, realizing that she had actually done it. She had actually confessed her true feelings for Keima.

She stared straight into Keima's eyes, which were currently wide as saucers. She attributed it to the fact that he had likely never heard anyone confess to him, save Kanon, and didn't think much of it in the moment.

For some reason, as she opened her mouth to make some well-placed quip, she found that she was silent, completely lost in his light hazel eyes, the same color as her favorite chocolates. How fitting, she thought, because Keima was just like chocolate for her, as much as she tried to deny it. He gave her comfort in her toughest moments, and took away her sorrows. He was surprisingly sweet and caring, underneath that icy exterior he kept up all the time.

And to know that she was the one who had seen underneath that mask he kept up was something that gave her great joy. To know that she wasn't the only one who was hiding her feelings, and that there was someone who was willing to stand by her, just a normal girl, was exhilarating.

Even in her band, she was nothing special. Elsie was adorable, and far more endearing than she with her klutziness. Ayumi was a track star, Yui was an heiress to a powerful family, and had the confidence to dress like a man, something Chihiro would never even dream of doing. And then, there was her, with her average looks, average grades, normal personality, and her lack of a special talent.

She wasn't dumb enough not to notice that Yui and Ayumi definitely had feelings for Keima. Yui was definitely more open about it, not afraid to openly embrace and jump him, while Ayumi was more discreet, stealing glances when she could. Hell, even Elsie seemed to have feelings for him, although Chihiro assumed that it was more in the brother-sister vein of love.

And yet, she was the one sitting alone on the rooftop with him. She was the one who was making his heart pound and cheeks redden. She was special, for this precious moment.

Before she even thought about what she was doing, she leaned forward and gently pressed her lips upon his, feeling him squirm, and then relax at the contact. Still being the shy girl she sometimes was, Chihio pulled back a bit, ending the kiss and staring at Keima with a panicked expression.

Desperate to hide her embarrassment at the act, she nestled her head into the crook of his neck, pressing her face up against his collar and closing her eyes so that she didn't have to see Keima's surprised look.

Did she really just give up her first kiss to this crazy gamer? Somehow, she didn't feel bothered at all. After all, Keima really wasn't that bad, as she had originally thought. Really, being Keima's girlfriend sounded like a prospect that she was looking forward to more and more each second.

"Katsuragi…do you like me?" She whispered softly, eyes widening a crack so that she could see his reply.

Wordlessly, he grabbed her roughly by the shoulders and pushed her backwards, holding her a short distance across from his. As she felt the touch of his surprisingly strong hands, she felt her heart beat even faster, if such a thing were possible. This was a development straight out of one of the countless TV dramas she had seen before. He was going to hold her, and answer, with a soft look and shaky voice, "I…"

"There's no way that I would like you."

Chihiro blinked once, then twice as she registered his words.

"Huh?"

There must have been a mistake! Yeah, that was it! He was probably so nervous that the words came out wrong! After all, Keima had never had a girlfriend before, so he probably didn't even know the right thing to say in a situation like this.

"Katsuragi?" She asked again, aiming to get an explanation for his odd behavior. However, he simply ignored her and stepped away from the bench, leaving her feeling incredibly cold and vulnerable.

"How absurd. I'm leaving! Do you think that I would like real women?" He snapped at her, his hair falling over his eyes and hiding them from her as he turned his back to Chihiro.

"Why did you date me?" Chihiro asked, her eyes completely wide in shock.

"This isn't a date. I merely tricked a real women. Idiot!" He insisted, the last word hitting her like a bullet, just as fireworks began exploding overhead. Each crack of the colorful rockets struck her down as each one of Keima's words began sinking in, their true meaning deciphered. Chihiro saw the serious look in Keima's eyes, and realized that he didn't make a mistake earlier.

"You…You're kidding." Chihiro said softly, her voice quivering mightily as she fought against the tears that were welling up in her eyes.

"Tricked me? Why would you say that?" Chihiro asked, still trying to delude herself into believing that he was just kidding around, that he was going to drop the act so that they could continue with their earlier conversation.

"You're always making fun of me, so I got even with you!" He spat, "However, this is enough. Now stay away from me!"

Chihiro could feel the world collapsing around her as she heard his words as they were, completely serious and without any pretense of a joke. He was…getting even?

"Ka-ka." She couldn't find the strength to finish saying his name before the tears came, raw and hot, burning at the skin that she had taken extra care of prior to this date. Unable to hold back, she felt sobs rock her body and pushed past him to run down the stairs, crying all the while.

As her feet hit the concrete of the stairs, she allowed the first visible sniffles to come to her, and as her legs pumped harder and harder, she could feel a noticeable pain in her chest. She had never really believed that someone could really have their heart broken so badly that it actually physically hurt.

Until now.

* * *

Chihiro lifted herself out of bed, slamming her fist down on the alarm clock that finally stopped ringing. Running a hand through her messy bed-head, she sighed deeply and climbed out of her sheets lethargically, far from being fully awake.

The fact that Keima was in her dreams again didn't exactly help.

She staggered into the shower, turning the creaky knob that controlled the hot water, exhaling as she felt the steamy water hit her back, kneading away at the sore and sleeping muscles that resided there. She placed a hand up against the wall to steady herself, just listening to the deafening sound of water hitting the floor of the shower.

Deciding that she needed to get to school soon, she shut off the faucet and stepped out, immediately wrapping herself in a towel to escape the nipping cold of the early morning.

"Good morning Chihiro!" Her mom called out as she walked down the stairs, taking each step slowly.

"Morning. I'll just eat breakfast on the way." Chihiro replied, snatching a piece of toast and shuffling out the front door before her mother could protest the decision.

As she walked to school, she noticed Elsie, along with…him. For a moment, she considered just turning around and calling in sick to school. However, she knew that avoiding him wasn't going to do any good.

After she had gotten caught up with his "conquest" of Ayumi, she had found out at least a bit of the truth about him. That he wasn't just a gamer, but something more. She still wasn't sure exactly what he was, but she knew that "conquering" girls was an important of his job, whatever it was. It made his actions somewhat explainable.

It still hurt like hell to think of him and that rooftop, but at least she had some semblance of an explanation. It was better than nothing.

Swallowing her fear, Chihiro ran up to the two, grabbing Elsei by the shoulder.

"Mornin' Elsie!" She greeted energetically, doing her best to look happy in front of Keima, who was busy playing his PFP.

"Hey Chihiro!" Elsie replied cheerily, the opposite of Keima, who was currently scowling at some unforeseen development in his game.

"So, did you see that there was a fire truck on the news last night? You know, I read about that specific model just a few days ago, it's..." Elsie began, going off on a tangent about fire trucks while Chihiro absentmindedly nodding along, keeping the majority of her attention on Keima, who she was blatantly staring at.

Keima's eyes glanced up from the PFP screen, and for the briefest of seconds, Chihiro saw him mouth the words, "Roof, after school."

And immediately, his eyes went back down to his screen and his mouth shut.

Chihiro's eyes widened at the sudden move and she discreetly pinched herself to make sure that she wasn't dreaming. He had actually made plans to meet her on the roof, right?

The entire day, Chihiro paid no attention to anything in class, not that she really listened that intently during class anyways. Her mind was only focused on one thing, the clock. She stared the hands as they ticked forward at a torturously slow pace.

After what had seemed like an eternity, the bell rang, causing all of the students inside ofh te classroom to collectively stand up and funnel out of the class in a horde, eager to get out of the confinement of school.

"Hey guys, let's just cancel practice for today. We need a break every now and then." Chihiro told her fellow members of the 2-B Pencils, who nodded in agreement.

Having cleared herself of that obligation, Chihiro hurried to the roof while still doing her best not to draw too much attention.

* * *

By the time she had reached the top of the stairs, she found the door already opened for her, and she gulped deeply at the prospect of seeing Keima alone.

What exactly was there to say? She had learned of his unique situation, and made it clear that she understood why he had to romance Ayumi, although it broke her heart to know that he had never really felt anything.

He was her first love, and that was something that was never going to change, no matter what sort of explanations he would throw her way, which she knew that he was going to do. He was going to try and explain her feelings in a way that made sense. However, she knew that love was unpredictable, and it wasn't something that could be easily explained.

Summoning her courage, Chihiro stepped out onto the roof to see Keima staring out at the distance, his feet near the edge of the roof.

"So you came." He whispered softly, not budging at all.

"Yeah. What did you want to talk about?' Chihiro asked, hoping to get it over with as quickly as she could. She had no interest in being put through anymore pain. She just wanted him to say what he needed to and move on.

"I didn't really mean it." He said, interrupting the short silence that had come over them.

"What do you mean?" Chihiro asked.

"What I said that time, I didn't mean it." Keima repeated, turning his head slightly. It wasn't enough for Chihiro to make out his facial features, but it was enough for her to spy a single tear falling from his cheek.

"I'm sorry." He added quickly before he turned his head back to its original position, showing her only the back of his head.

Chihiro nodded slightly, feeling as if they had reached an understanding of a sort in that moment.

"Look, I don't know if this will make a difference, but I still haven't forgotten my first love." Chihiro said, clutching her left arm softly, trying to hold back tears in her own eyes. When Keima didn't respond, she simply looked to the floor dejectedly.

"As these unchanging days only stay the same, I could never fall in love, or so I thought." Chihiro whispered softly.

"It seems you don't need a reason to like who you like." Keima suddenly cut in.

Chihiro couldn't help the smile that came over her face as she heard him speak. He had listened to her song, and that meant more to her than anything.

"In the heart they still remain pure with the memory of my first love." Chihiro continued, stopping to prompt Keima forward.

"The memory of my first love." Keima finished, still keeping his head turned away from her, so that she wouldn't see that he actually had emotions, or at least, that's what the tears running down his face told him.

He was the God of Conquest, a mere visitor in the Real World! And she, just one of the real girls that he was so disappointed in! He was a completely unreadable man with unstoppable methods that had already saved the world more than once.

So how did he let her lift up his mask? How did he let an admittedly normal girl change him?

Maybe it was because she was right.

You really don't need a reason to like who you like.

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**Wow, I just powered through all 223 available chapters of World God Only Knows in the last three days, and just...wow. The ending to the Goddess Arc just had me bawling. **

**Keima really should be with Chihiro, and I hope more people agree. I wrote this partly as a one-shot, but also partly as the first chapter in a possible longer story, so please, if you guys enjoyed it, leave a review or PM! If I get enough interest in this story, I'll continue it, and if I don't, I'll leave it as is. **

**I would really appreciate any and all thoughts, either in the form of a PM or a review. Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 0: Prologue Part 2

**Sorry for the long time in between updates, but I've been too busy and not inspired enough to write this until now. So please, enjoy the continuation of Normal!**

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Chapter 2

"Keima." Chihiro whispered softly as she took a cautious step forward, leg trembling mightily all the way. She was beyond nervous, and it took all the courage she had to continue forward.

"The memory of my first love." She repeated, inching ever closer to Keima's position, trying to reach the elusive man before he would predictably disappear. She just had to know exactly what his words meant for their relationship.

Did it mean that there was still a chance for them? Did it mean that he…loved her? The uncertainty was killing her, and she wanted answers.

"Kami –nii-sama! Where are you?" Elsie's recognizable voice rang out, instantly catching the two by surprise as she came up the stairs and saw the two standing across from each other.

"Chihiro? What are you doing up here?" Elsie asked innocently, not realizing what she had just interrupted.

"Nothing!" Chihiro quickly reassured, stepping away from Keima.

"Actually, I was just leaving!" She laughed before she slowly backed away towards the stairs, transitioning to a full out dash as she hit the steps.

* * *

Chihiro sighed as she sat in class, half-listening to Kodama-sensei, half staring out the window as she precariously balanced a pencil on her desk. The air was thick and suffocating as she could feel her eyelids get heavier with each passing second. The droning of various words in English certainly did not help the situation. If anything, they seemed to be a lullaby to her, slowly lulling her to sleep.

"Pay more attention in class!" Kodama screamed, suddenly snapping Chihiro out of her drowsy stupor. Her eyes immediately honed in on the teacher's target, which was Keima, who was staying extremely cool on his part, eyes not even leaving the screen of his PFP as he simply ignored the ravings of the English teacher, too engrossed in his game.

As she found herself staring at him, Chihiro realized what she was doing and quickly averted her gaze, not wanting to be noticed for the blush that crept onto her face.

Was this emotionless and cold teenager who lived in the world of video games really the same one who had confessed his guilt to her on the roof a week ago? Seeing the current Keima and comparing him to the one she had remembered from the day made her head spin at the enormous differences between the two.

Back there, he had been almost romantic and seemed to be a character straight out of a movie with the way he had acted. The very thought of the Keima from a week ago made her cheeks burn even redder with embarrassment at her own uncontrollable feelings.

Knowing that he had not forgotten about her, and that she had somehow managed to leave an imprint on him was exciting and made her heart swell with joy. However, since that day, he had not so much as glanced at her, much less discuss what had happened on the roof, as if the event had never even happened.

But it had.

And that was why she felt so frustrated. Because she was giving him a perfect chance to discuss the feelings that she knew he had, and yet, he was completely ignoring her and delving ever deeper into his world of games, almost as if he thought that by avoiding his feelings, he could erase them.

However, she knew from experience that things were not that easy. If they were, she would have erased her feelings for him ages ago. But she was still stuck with them, as perplexing and irrational as they were. And nothing she could do would get rid of them, and erase the fact that she liked Katsuragi Keima.

That was exactly why she had to know how he truly felt towards her, and whether there was any future between them. Otherwise, she would be plagued by sleepless nights for the rest of her days, that much she knew.

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"Hey, do you guys want to go stop at the shopping center before we go home?" Chihiro suggested to the rest of the 2-B Pencils as they wrapped up practice. They were really coming together to produce some real music, at least in her own opinion.

"Sure, let's go." Ayumi nodded, "I need some new strings for my guitar anyways."

"And I wouldn't mind looking into some new drumsticks." Yui added, picking up her bag and slinging it over her shoulder in a way that looked innately masculine, at least to Chihiro.

"Sorry guys, but I have some cleaning I need to do." Elsie whined, annoyed that she couldn't go out with the rest of the band.

"Yeah, I have some studying to do." Miyako added, unplugging her electronic keyboard.

"Well then, it looks like it's going to be the three of us then." Chihiro said to Ayumi and Yui, who nodded in agreement.

"Hey, is that Katsuragi-kun?" Yui suddenly asked as the three walked past a video game store. Both Ayumi and Chihiro instantly froze at the sound of their mutual crush's name and peered into the window to find that the gamer was indeed inside the store.

"Say, Yui, should we go say hi?" Ayumi asked before she and Chihiro noticed that the third girl was already gone.

"Katsuragi-kun, I love you!" Yui cried out, surprising Keima with a hug from behind. As he began to struggle in desperation, Yui only squeezed onto his tighter, almost choking Keima with her significantly higher level of strength.

"To think that she could express her feelings so easily." Chihiro whispered, glancing at Ayumi, who was watching the scene with similar concern.

"Should we stop her?" Ayumi suddenly asked, a little hint of jealousy in her voice.

"Yeah." Chihiro replied, running into the store and crossing over to the aisle where Yui had Keima in a tight hold.

"All right, that's enough." Chihiro said with a frown, pulling Yui off of Keima, which was not an easy task, as the girl was deceptively strong.

"Shouldn't we be on our way?" Ayumi asked in a much sweeter tone.

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"How exactly did we get to this point?" Keima sighed as he found himself standing alone next to Chihiro in the middle of the shopping district, the two of them awkwardly standing a small distance away from each other while they waited.

"It's all Yui's fault." Chihiro replied, referencing their mutual friend, who had taken the liberty of inviting the Keima along with them to said shopping district, and suddenly rushing off and dragging Ayumi along when she realized that there was a meeting to take place between the Goddesses, as Chihiro had come to know the beings residing within Yui and Ayumi as.

And so, they were now left standing by themselves, without any clue as to what they should do next.

"Well, since we're already out here, why don't we at least enjoy it?" Chihiro suggested, eager to do something that would break the awkward silence that had come down between them.

Immediately, she clamped up, realizing that Keima might interpret her words as asking him out.

"Why not?" Keima replied, shocking Chihiro with his answer.

Without any warning, Keima began walking away with a surprisingly quick pace, considering his state of fitness. Chihiro struggled to catch up, resorting to a slight jog in order to match pace with the teen, who was completely focused on the task at hand.

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"This is definitely not what I meant when I said that we should enjoy ourselves." Chiho growled as Keima happily browsed through an eclectic mix of games, reading the descriptions of each one with an unparalleled speed.

"Well, I'm certainly enjoying myself." Keima replied, not at all interested in what she had to say, more focused on the contents of the dating sim in his hands.

Chihiro sighed and leaned against the wall of the store they were currently in, blowing a stray hair out of her face. She glanced at Keima, who had a huge smile on his face from being surrounded by his precious games. Was this man really the same one who she had spoken to a week ago on the roof? Compared to now, his behavior seemed like nothing more than an aberration.

"Say, can we talked about what happened on the roof?" Chihiro prodded, hoping to elicit some reaction out of Keima.

The effect of her words was immediate. Instantly, Keima placed the games back onto the shelves and stood silently for a moment, allowing his hair to fall over his face, the brown locks obscuring his expression.

"What is there to talk about?" He asked in a lower tone.

"I just want to know. Do you feel the same way that I do?" Chihiro stammered, already feeling as if her decision to bring up the topic was a mistake.

"Of course not." Keima replied quickly, although it was obvious to Chihiro that he wasn't telling her everything.

Chihiro crossed her arms, with the look of a stern mother, "Why are you lying?"

"You don't understand." Keima insisted, to which Chiho began fuming.

To hell with it! What was so hard about telling her the truth? Did she not deserve to know? After all that she had been through with him, the least he could do for her was to give her a straight answer. Instead, here he was, avoiding the questions, as if she didn't know that he was spewing lies in her face.

"What don't I understand? That you're scared? Is that it?" Chihiro yelled, jabbing a finger in his chest, forcing Keima to step backwards, a shocked expression on his face.

"You know, I still love you…and whether or not you're going to tell me the truth is up to you. Frankly, I don't care anymore. There was a time I did, but that time's long gone." Chihiro managed as she tried to run away. She was lying too, but that's what she always did, wasn't it? Just put on a smile and get on with it, that's what she had always done.

Because she was a normal girl, and there were no fairytale endings for normal girls. Not for her, someone with average looks, average smarts, and an average life.

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**And with that, the prologue of Normal is completed. I listened to your thoughts, and I've thus decided that this story should be expanded, but I'm not going to go back and expand some of the canon events, because that's not what a fanfic should be about, at least in my opinion. I believe that the reason it exists is for a completely different story that would never happen in the actual work to exist, and that's what I will set out to do in Normal. **

**Also, from next chapter on, the story will be set from Chihiro's point of view and will take place after the ending of the manga, given that the latest arc is focused on making sure that the future pans out the exact same way. I think that should give me relative flexibility when it comes to creating my story, as the ending has essentially been set, unless a new arc begins after the conclusion of the Jupiter Arc. **

**Anyways, thanks for reading, and please leave a review or a PM to let me know what I can improve on, and what you guys are expecting from the rest of this story. **


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