My Voyage as a Treasure Hunter is Bizarre as Expected!

There's a kind of lie we tell ourselves to survive. That we're special. That if we were in a different place or in different circumstances, we would be something else—something greater.

Maybe that's why the concept of being transported to another world is so popular.

The ultimate escape.

The total reset.

A place where your faults are rebranded as quirks, your apathy becomes stoicism, and your solitude becomes mystery. But the truth is, that fantasy, is just another way to run from reality.

I should know, because I had done the same.

And now, here I am. In another world. Yay me.

It didn't happen with flashing lights or magical chants. One moment I was staring at my ceiling, contemplating my life, and the next I was on a deserted island under a blue sky in the middle of nowhere, in a world that didn't even notice my arrival.

The grand adventure the light novels promised never came. No princess in need of saving. No overpowered stats. No sudden charisma boost. Just... me, Hachiman! Alone…

The loneliness here is of a different breed. Back home, loneliness was a choice. A wall I built brick by brick to protect myself from disappointment.

Here, it's an ocean, literally. Endless and swallowing. No one listens, because no one is around.

And when I do find people, I'm a stranger, a foreigner, an oddity to be ignored or used. And in the back of my mind, there is this feeling, the constant reminder that I don't belong. That I'm not meant to be here.

It was like being a social outcast, but on a far different level.

Back home, I at least knew the rules. I hated them, but I understood them.

Here, I'm lost—physically, mentally, existentially. Every step was full of risks, and every path is full of danger. And you are alone, every step and every path, only you are in it.

I missed my room. I missed my bed. I missed the way Komachi would nag me over nothing, I missed how Yukinoshita would insult me over everything, I missed Yuigahama's over-cheerfulness, and hell, I missed Isshiki's cute slyness.

Maybe I was wrong all along. Maybe people do need each other. Maybe connections, as fake and fragile as they seem, are better than this.

Or maybe I was lying to myself. Pretending that if I just endure long enough, if I persist, things will get better.

That someone up there will decide my suffering is enough, and I will have everything I always wanted.

And this thought presented itself in many different ways across my life.

Being a house husband, having something genuine, and now, returning home.

Somewhere in my mind, I naively believed that someday, I would get all of that, or at least some form of it.

All I have to do is endure a bit more. Even if I acted stupidly, impulsively, or ignored a thousand or so facts, I will reach it in the end.

But I know better. Or more like, I should have known better…

No woman would want a useless and average-looking guy as a house husband.

Me, Yukinoshita, Yuigahama, will soon graduate from school, and every one of us will go in a different way.

That I and Yukinoshita won't stay together, and the huge difference in our background will be detrimental to our relationship.

And no matter how much urgent or detached I acted, going back home will never be a short or an easy process.

Especially when you impulsively act like a hero at every chance on the way.

I was never the protagonist, I was always the extra, the guy on the side who watches the Riajuus from the background.

It didn't take long before I was reminded again of this exact fact.

This world is vast, ancient, and cruel. Its problems are older than I am, and its monsters don't care about my personal growth.

You think you've seen horror when someone rejects your confession in middle school?

You think you had suffered because you were shunned, ignored, or bullied by a bunch of kids.

Heh, try watching a ship full of people being destroyed, and all the people in it drown and die with fear and despair everywhere for a horror show.

And the monsters responsible for this shake their shoulders and shrug, as if it were not personal.

It was really not, it never was. This is just work. And we happened to be there, collateral damage.

What? You will fight back? You have some chunibyo powers that you will use, thinking that you may have a chance?

The result is, sooner or later, you will be crushed, killed, and discarded into the sea like an insignificant waste.

For you are no protagonist, and the world won't warp the causality to give you some kind of power to defeat you adversity.

And here you are, or here I am, drowning.

Water rushed into my mouth the moment I tried to breathe.

Salt burned my throat, my lungs. I coughed, and more water flooded in. My chest spasmed, desperate for air that wasn't there.

'SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT!!!!'

My ribs felt like broken glass grinding against each other with every pathetic attempt to move.

Blood leaked from somewhere on my side, probably where that bastard hit me with a bullet.

One shot. That's all it took. Like I was nothing.

Because I was nothing.

Just some scrawny high school kid who thought he was a delusional Isekai hero. Thought he could jump straight into danger and save the day.

The water was so damn cold. Its coldness cut through my clothes, through my skin, straight to my bones.

Every nerve screamed. My fingers were already going numb, and I couldn't tell if it was from the cold or the blood loss or both.

I tried to swim up. Had to get up. Had to reach the surface.

My arms moved like they were trapped in molasses. Each stroke sent fire through my shoulders, my back. The fishmen had done a real professional job. He'd known exactly how to hurt me without killing me outright.

No, they'd saved that for the ocean.

I couldn't see the surface. Everything was blue-black darkness above me, below me, around me. The water pressed in from all sides like it had weight, like it was alive and hungry and wanted to squeeze the life out of me.

'IT HURTS!!!!!!!'

My lungs burned. Heaven, they burned. Like someone had stuffed hot coals into my chest and was stoking the fire.

I needed air. Needed it now. But there was nothing. Nothing but endless water in every direction.

'This was it, wasn't it?'

'This was how I die.'

Not in a hospital bed with all my grandkids around me. Not even in a car accident. Just... drowning. Alone. In a world that wasn't even mine.

I don't want to die…

My chest convulsed again, trying to force me to breathe. The instinct was too strong to fight. Water rushed in, and I tasted my own blood mixing with the salt. Something was torn inside my lungs. Something important.

I was bleeding internally. Drowning from the inside and the outside at the same time.

I don't want to die…

'ARRRRGG! IT HURTS!!!'

The pain hit me in waves now.

Not just the physical agony—though that was bad enough—but something worse.

I am going to die…

The realization that I was going to die here. Really die. No take-backs. No do-overs. No, waking up in my own bed to find it was all just some twisted nightmare.

I don't want to die…

I thought about Komachi. Would she wonder where I went? Would she wait for me to come home from school? How long before she and my parents will give up looking?

'NO...….'

The thought made something crack inside my chest that had nothing to do with broken ribs.

She'd blame herself. I knew she would. She'd think it was her fault somehow. That she should have done something.

She'd carry that guilt around like a stone in her stomach, and I wouldn't be there to tell her it wasn't her fault.

It wasn't her fault that her big brother was a failure.

I don't want to die…

My vision started to blur. Black spots danced at the edges, growing bigger. The water felt less cold now. That was bad, wasn't it? When you stopped feeling the cold, that meant you were dying.

I was dying.

Actually dying.

I don't want to die…

The thought should have been abstract, philosophical. Death is a concept to be analyzed and dissected. But there was nothing abstract about the terror clawing at my brain like a rabid animal.

I Don't Want To Die…!

God, I Don't Want To Die!

Not like this. Not now. Not when I hadn't... when I hadn't...

'HELP!!!!!!'

I tried to scream. Tried to call for help. But I was underwater, and all that came out were bubbles that floated up toward a surface I couldn't see.

'HELP ME!!!!!!'

I Don't Want To Die!!

'PLEASE! SOMEONE! ANYONE! HELP ME!!!!!'

I'd never asked for help before. Never wanted to admit I needed it. But I was asking now. Begging. I didn't care about pride or maintaining my cynical image.

'PLEASE HELP MEEEE!!!!'

I just wanted to live.

I Don't Want To Die!!!

The darkness was closing in faster now. My heartbeat thundered in my ears, irregular and desperate. Each beat felt like it might be the last.

I couldn't move my legs anymore. They hung useless below me, dead weight dragging me down. My arms were barely functional, making weak pawing motions that accomplished nothing.

This was what dying felt like.

Cold, Painful, Lonely.

So fucking lonely.

I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!!!

'SOMEBODY!!! HELP ME!!!!'

But then something changed.

I don't know if it was because of my eyes failing or because of the darkness. But I saw something phase out of me.

'EH…?'

It phased out like a ghost, it moved almost slowly until it was in front of me.

The Box.

The mysterious thing that had appeared when I first got to this world.

It was... moving. Phasing out of my chest like a ghost made solid.

I could see it even through the darkness clouding my vision. Brown wood, simple decorative carving, floating in the water like it belonged there. Like it was meant to be there.

My hand moved without conscious thought. Reached for it with fingers that should have been too numb to feel anything. But I felt it.

Warm, real, solid.

'SAVE ME!!'

I didn't think it. Didn't pray for it. I demanded it. Commanded it with every dying cell in my body.

'I Want To Live. I Want To Survive. I Don't Care What It Costs Or What I Have To Do. Just Let Me Live.'

And the Box responded.

Its lid opened, slow and deliberate.

From inside, a small brown cloth sack floated up. My fingers, clumsy and desperate, clawed at the thing, and something small and green popped out from it.

A bean.

A stupid little green bean.

But I knew what it was.

I knew with the certainty that this would save me.

But before I reached out for it, the bean was floating out of my reach.

And at this moment, something strange happened again.

The Box floated out on its own, caught the bean with its open lid, and floated back to be, pushing the bean to my mouth.

I opened my mouth and let the bean enter, and then bit down hard. The taste was simple, with an underlying sweetness that reminded me of home.

The effect was immediate.

The pain vanished.

Not gradually, not slowly—gone. Like it had never existed.

My lungs cleared, my ribs straightened, and the wound on my side sealed shut. Even the exhaustion that had been dragging me down disappeared like smoke.

I felt... good. No, better than good. I felt like I was at my peak condition.

I tried to breathe and remembered I was still underwater.

'Right, surface! I needed to get to the surface!'

But when I started to swim up, the Box moved again on its own.

It moved to my hand and closed its lid tightly on it, and then it rose through the water, pulling me with it at a considerable speed.

The rays of light were becoming closer and closer. And soon after, I finally reached the surface.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAASP!!!"

The surface broke around me like a membrane, and I gasped for air that tasted like freedom.

'Air! Air! Finally Air!!'

Sweet. The air was so damn sweet.

I floated there for a moment, just breathing. Just existing. The sun on my face felt like a blessing. The worst thing in the world had just happened to me, and somehow, I was alive.

Voices carried across the water.

'Survivors, yes, there were other survivors.'

I saw the wreckage from the ship spread across the waves. People clinging to debris and wider ones were serving as makeshift rafts.

Some crowded into lifeboats that were too small and too few.

On one of the makeshift rafts, Gilbert—the merchant I brought the Devil Fruit from—spotted me and waved.

"Over here!" he called. "Grab my hand!"

I swam over, my body moving with impossible strength. Gilbert hauled me up onto a wide piece of the hull that was serving as a makeshift raft.

Many people were on the raft, I think I saw Gilbert's wife and child behind him too, and many other people.

But the moment my leg touched the wood, I collapsed.

'I-I-I am alive. I am still alive. I wasn't dead!'

From my blurry vision and the weak sobbing I was hearing, I was crying.

I was alive. Against all odds, despite everything that had happened, I was still alive.

I wasn't going to die,

I can still live.

I can still see another day.

The thought of being alive continued to echo in my mind.

I am Alive!!

I Can Breathe!!

I am Alive!!

I Can Still Live!!

The relief was so overwhelming that I started crying more loudly, tears mixing with the salt water still dripping from my hair.

"You did well," Gibert said, patting my shoulder. "You survived. You are alright now."

He stayed with me for a while until I calmed down a little and stood with his wife and child.

Not a long time later, my breakdown lessened a bit, but my mind was blank. And at the same time, it wasn't shutting down like I had drunk too much coffee, keeping my mind wide awake even though it was tired.

'But I don't feel tired or exhausted, was it because of the bean?'

At the thought of the bean, I looked at my hands, finding that the brown cloth sack was still in my hand; I had unconsciously kept it in my grip all this time.

I held it much closer to me. It made sense that I was unconsciously keeping hold of it, right now, it was now my most precious treasure and my greatest lifeline.

As if it were on cue, my mind started working again, and I stood up and looked at my surroundings.

The sight of the disaster treated me.

In the background, the broken, sinking hull of the ship was haunting, some parts of it were still on fire, the smoke painting the sky with a dark hue.

People were swimming away from it, some were huddling together on the debris of the ship, some were in the small rowing boats, and some were still in the water.

The desperate shouts of the people calling out for their missing loved ones, the cries of the children, and the groans of pain were all over the disaster area. The smell of smoke and blood mixed with the smell of the sea made the scene more haunting than it is.

'This is all because of-NO, Get A Grip Hachiman! It Is Not The Time For This!!'

Now is not the time to get emotional. What I need at this moment is the rational part of my mind.

I am alive, yes, we were alive, but we were still stranded in the middle of the ocean with limited supplies and no real means of getting to safety.

And if that was not enough, I heard someone shout something about sharks.

We were all going to die out here if it continues like this.

Whoever survives today will die tomorrow. The lifeboats were just delaying the inevitable. This piece of wreckage wouldn't last long. And even if it did, we had no food, no fresh water, no way to sail.

'We need to get out of here.'

I closed my eyes and concentrated, calling the Box to me with a thought.

This time, it didn't just appear on the ground like it always does. No, it phased out of me, hovering at eye level like it was defying gravity itself.

Now that I had summoned it like this, I noticed the difference immediately.

My mind was connected for the first time with the Box, and for the first time since I saw it in this world. I knew what it was.

'A Stand!'

The Box was a Stand.

Like the Stands in Jojo Bizarre Adventure. But it was not a normal Stand, but one artificially inserted into me.

I can't awaken a Stand as I was just a normal high schooler in a completely normal world with no special power whatsoever. And I don't think anyone in this world, nor the previous world, can awaken one either.

So, this wasn't a Stand that had awakened naturally, and it wasn't a normal Stand.

During all of this time, it had remained in a half-dormant state because I hadn't been strong enough to fully awaken it, but my near-death experience had changed something fundamental.

'Even then, it was such a special Stand that I could use it even when I hadn't fully awakened it.'

As for who had given such a powerful thing to me – that was obvious. The same entity that had transported me here had also given me the tools I'd need to survive.

Whether that was kindness or just part of some larger plan, I couldn't say.

I focused on the immediate problem. We needed better transportation, something that could carry all the survivors and actually navigate the ocean.

I directed my Stand, the Box, to submerge itself beneath the waves, watching as it sank with purposeful movement.

The Box opened one of its lids underwater, and in an instant, the large block of seawater underneath disappeared immediately, causing the raft to shake as the seawater around it began to fill its place.

People panicked behind me, but thankfully, no one had fallen into the water.

I actually wanted it to absorb a larger amount of water, but from what I felt from the Box, this was our limit for now.

After absorbing an impossible amount of water, I made the Box return to the surface, and I focused on what I wanted it to make.

The other lid opened, and something big appeared in the air instantly!

What appeared was nothing short of miraculous. A ship – a proper vessel designed for ocean travel – materialized on the surface of the water.

It was small, suitable for carrying about a dozen people, but it had sails and a sturdy hull.

The survivors around me gasped in amazement, some shouting in excitement, others muttering prayers. They couldn't see the Stand that had created it, so to them it must have looked like divine intervention.

A ship literally materialized out of thin air to save them.

"Where did it come from?" someone whispered.

"Does it matter?" another replied, his voice filled with wonder. "It's here, and it's exactly what we need."

"But would it be enough? It looks a bit small."

'Yes, this is why we will need a few more. Around three more.'

With that thought, I moved the Box again.

…

A/N: Okay, That's it for now.

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