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!

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.

"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.

"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.

"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.

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.