A/N:

Hello, everybody! Thank you for stopping by!

First off, I'd like to say that I appreciate every single one of you taking the time to check this FanFiction out. This is my first (relatively speaking) big project, and I was happy to see that a lot of people were interested.

I'll be honest and say that I am not very proud of this work. Even at the beginning, I never really gave this project much thought, but when people said it had potential, I decided to continue writing. But as things went on, It quickly became apparent that I didn't know what I was doing. I think one of the problems with this FanFiction is the fact that it doesn't have a "plot"- I didn't know how it'll start, and I didn't know how it'll end. I only made stuff up as I went along based on the suggestions people made in their reviews, but when the suggestions stopped coming, things started going in all directions which resulted in that train-wreck of an ending.

I urge you to not read this (but if you did, I'd appreciate it anyway) - I only keep this here as an example for what not to do in the future.

I'd recommend that you read other author's HachiXHiratsuka-sensei stuff, as I am sure you'd have a lot more fun that way.

Although if you're still interested in my take on Hiratsuka-sensei's youth story, then I'd recommend you to check out my rewrite of this story called "Hiratsuka-sensei in Her Youth is not as I expected, Retold!". I'm not saying that it's gioing to be better than this one, but at least I actually thought things through this time.

Again, thank you everybody for taking your time to check my stuff out!

-Storm

Had I been born 10 years earlier, and met her 10 years later, I would've fallen in love with her

"Ah, thank you for today, guys", said Hiratsuka-sensei, thanking us for helping her with the Service Club's paperwork.

I leaned back on the rolling chair and sighed, expressing the tiredness that entered my body as soon as I put the pen down on the table. It was a very strange day, indeed; I did not spend any physical, nor any brain power on following the club's agenda, yet I felt as if all my strengths were almost nonexistent.

"Hikki, you look so tired. The papers you did were probably too brutal", said Yuigahama as she rested her hand on my shoulders.

"Hikigaya-kun, I didn't know your brain cells were that scarce," Yukinoshita added, though I wish she didn't. No retorts were made back her direction due to the fact that my mental energy was almost gone that I couldn't think of any.

"Ugh. I don't think I could bare to see anymore of these documents"

"Well, I'm sorry for making you guys waste your time on this kind of stuff,"

"It's okay, sensei; it was us that decided to help you", Yukinoshita replied.

But no matter how you look at it, Hiratsuka-sensei was probably a lot more tired than I was. Even after we left the teachers lounge, she stayed in order to finish the other papers that, I'm sure, most of it were about the wellbeing of the Service Club.

The externally aggressive but internally warm, and caring nature – I wondered whether or not those personality was retained from her teenage years. It is possible somewhere along the decade, someone came along and influenced her, much like how she was influencing our lives now.

Who knows, maybe the boys were all over her back then, and somehow ten years later, she's still single. Ha.. ha..

That night, I made my way back home without sending off those girls. Well, actually, it was more like they didn't let me do so. They were saying something about how I might collapse into pieces had I spend any of the energy unnecessarily. I did something I usually I don't do, being what they call "loner" and all; that is to take someone's advice without doubt. Both of the girls, before stepping off the train, gazed at me. I didn't have to ask them to know what they mean, the messages were in their eyes: "Go straight to bed, you hear?"

I did just that.

The papers were probably cursed to weaken someone like me - either that, or the amount of Riajuus I had to see walking past the teachers lounge today just drained all my energy. Nevertheless, I was tired, so much so my eye lid started gaining weight suddenly.

Waking up the next day, I noticed something real strange, it seemed so impossible I thought I was in a different reality. As I opened my eyes, what came to sight wasn't the usual bedroom ceiling, but 2x4 wood planks arranged in a way that each of them are a hand-length apart.

I only noticed it just then, but I wasn't lying down on my bed, in fact, I wasn't even in my own room, it seemed. Standing up and looking around, there were no ceilings, no walls, no furniture, nothing of the familiar; I was standing in a structure of some unfinished house.

"Komachi!", I called for my sister several times, desperately trying to find anyone who could give an explanation. Not getting any reply, a sudden feeling of panic rushed into my body.

"Ah, c'mon. What on earth is going on here.. what the heck happened to my house?", I said as slapped my forehead.

'Ugh, not even mom and dad are around. They're going to blame me for this', I thought. I took out my phone, wanting to call Komachi and meet up as fast as possible.

'The heck? No signal'

The signal bar on the top left was empty; not only that, on the top right corner that usually says the name of the carrier says "No Service". In disbelief, I called several numbers, including Komachi, The two girls, and I even tried calling Isshiki, but results were the same: intercept messages. At that point, I started running from the unfinished structure, trying to get to the train station as fast as I could and go to school to confirm that I have not gone crazy. The label of "loner" alone was already enough for me to shoulder; having to also be labeled as a "mad man" would literally be the same as adding a ton to the weight. I'll surely collapse.

For every building I passed, be it a house or a shop, the feeling of unfamiliarity keep piling up. The places I walk by every single day now feels like another prefecture that I have not set my foot in even once. To put it into a clearer image, the coffee shops, the book store, the arcade are all gone, replaced by some Dango and Moji stores.

This place isn't the Chiba I grew up in, but rather, it feels like a downgraded version of Chiba.

If that's the case, what could have happened overnight, and why? What could have caused this much change?

I reached an intersection where, if I crossed to the other side, the train station would only be couple of blocks away. As I was about to set foot on the road, my attention was drawn away by one girl who was standing in the middle of the road, and was shaking frantically.

"Hey you, that's dangerous!", I shouted.

What? I may be a loner, but that doesn't mean that I'm cold hearted.

"I know! It's just that I.. I can't go on!"

"Ugh, what are you trying to do anyway?!"

"I just wanted to go cross over to the train station, that's all!"

"Look, you're not on a pedestrian crossing.. If you're hit, the charges will be against you"

"I get it, I get it! I'll make it through"

She reluctantly, but successfully made her first two steps, but somehow she just stopped. She made her best effort to move her legs, but she pulled them back to where her last step was, in the middle of the road, no less..

A horn sounding was heard from the left side of the road, but she still stood there, not moving.

"Ah, c'mon..", I said then launched myself from the sidewalk, running towards her. Finally reaching her, I grabbed her hand and ran toward the other side of the road with her. I made it just seconds before the car. I panted hardly, feeling even more tired after all that running through the neighborhood.

"Th- thank you", the girl said. I didn't care about scolding her anymore; all I could think about was the fact that she was safe, and I could finally go on to find out what the heck is wrong with everything.

"Don't mentioned it", I said as I stood up and brushed my pants off all the dirt I got earlier. Having lost pretty much most of my stamina, I just started walking, and she followed suit. I didn't really expect to converse with her more than necessary, fearing that she might get awkward and bail out.

"You.. that uniform.. Are you from Sobu High, too?", the girl asked. I didn't realize until then, but the girl was wearing the school's uniform, and she also looks the same age as me.

"Yeah. I'm in 2F"

"Hey, that's my homeroom. Why have I never seen you before?"

Even if you started talking to me, my opinion on talking with strangers won't change, y'know?

"Ah, well, I get that from my classmates a lot.. but I'm in that class, that's for sure"

She made a face that more or less expressed the phrase "I have no idea what you are talking about".

"No, I'm sure I have not seen you before.. I've done an attendance check a lot of times – never seen you stand up"

Now, that was my turn to do the face, because I really did not know what she was talking about. I've never seen anyone like her do the attendance before.

"Maybe you were just transferred to our class. I myself was away from school for quite a while, so I don't really know, hehe"

Things did really happened over night, did it? If I were to write a song out of this whole thing, I guess I could call it Hachichoubyou to Ichiya Monogatari (Eight Trillion Seconds and Overnight Story) [1]

"Since we don't seem to know each other, what's your name? Maybe I know you", she said.

"Hikigaya Hachiman, that's my name"

"I'm Hiratsuka Shizuka, nice to meet you, Hikigaya-kun"

"Huh?!"

That was when I realized: it's not Chiba that has changed.

In fact, nothing has changed at all.

[1] - Reference to kemu's Rokuchounen to Ichiya Monogatari (Six Trillion Years and Overnight Story)