SUMMARY!

In a grand scale of things, it is insignificant. And yet, the change in a single character can give a long lasting effect. For better or worse, no one knows. Let's find out what kind of repercussion this change will bring in this story!

[Self-Insert Hajime/Harem]

FOREWORD!

Greetings, with me, Nagumo Hajime, who humbly present my first fan fiction: "From Common-job Transmigrator to Demon God". This story is the final revised edition of my Self-Insert Arifureta story. In the past, I tried to write one with Kousuke Endo as the self-insert protagonist. However, I decided to change the self-insert target from Kousuke to Hajime after I reread the whole web-novel version and light novels up to volume 8.

This story would follow the canon in the early part with a few twists; for example how my Self-Insert Hajime helped Eri and how Kaori wouldn't fall in love with him. How that happened, you'd find out in the story. This change would impact the story greatly later. For you who liked Kaori and Shizuku characters and wished them to be in the harem, I apologize beforehand, they wouldn't join the harem.

Speaking of my Self-Insert Hajime's harem, the member as the following—

1. — Eri Nakamura
2. — Evalia Attraya formerly named Aleytia Avatar and canonically known as Yue.
3. — Shea Haulia
4. — Tio Clause
5. — Lemia

...only those five female characters, and there wouldn't be any additional harem member in the future, so don't ask for adding other female characters. I don't have the confidence to write their development otherwise.

Next, I'm going to abuse Hajime's Iron Stomach skill in this story, meaning that I'd stretch out the effect of that skill logically and canonically as possible. Other than that, I planned to make both self-insert Hajime and this Alt-Eri descend into the abyss together. Besides that, my self-insert Hajime would be more OP in the beginning than the canon Hajime. There would be a reason for it. You'll find out the reason later in the story. Also, expect dark theme for this story because I wouldn't shy away from character death, a depiction of cruelty, or other elements that could raise the rating into MA, though I'd try to be careful so this story wouldn't violate FFnet's rules. Almost forget! There'd be lemons too! And in a related note, the narration would alternate between 3rd person's point of view and SI-Hajime's point of view. Be ready!

That'd be everything, I suppose. Well, please read the disclaimer first before you advance to the story.

Thank you for your time and happy reading~

DISCLAIMER!

I don't own "Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest". Please support the official release if you can. Thank you.

Beware! This story contains MA materials such as profanity, a depiction of cruelty, sexual contents, and other materials for adults. Please proceed cautiously! You have been warned!

PROLOGUE: HOW IT STARTED AND THE TWIST THIS CHANGE BROUGHT!

"Hah... hah..."

The boy panted for breath, his cheeks bright red. He groaned openly, tormented by his nightmares. The light hospital gown he wore on his body were soaked through with sweat; at just a glance, it was clear that he had a fever.

At one point, a phantom image of a man appeared next to the boy's bed; the man had an indistinct appearance because of the mosaics that covered his whole body, hiding his true appearance. Despite that, the man was very tall, standing at 180cm.

The unknown man outstretched his hand on top of the boy's body, and a warm, gentle light began to shine and embrace the boy's body. It was a different kind of heat from the fever that had been tormenting the boy... This heat was warm and comfortable enough to entrust oneself to. Color rapidly returned to the boy's face, and his breathing evened out.

For some reason, the fever that ailed the boy's body was gone, and the light that covered his body disappeared with a subtle flash together with the mysterious man's disappearance. Only the seven-years-old boy stayed in the hospital room.

"Mmh..."

The boy blearily opened his eyes sometime later. Lying on his back, he blinked until his vision cleared and a brightly-lit white ceiling came into focus. His mind was still hazy, as though there was a fog preventing him from thinking clearly. The fever was gone, but not without consequence. He was still weak, and had yet to recover his strength and stamina. Overwhelmed with fatigue, the boy stared blankly at the ceiling. His mind managed to recover to a point where he could process his thoughts again; pushing his weary body up into a sitting position, he started to wonder about his situation.

"Ugh..."

The boy groaned as a dull pain ached in his muscles, making the boy wince. It might have been a result of the cold he caught, or perhaps from sleeping too much. A glance around at his surroundings revealed a hospital room. The smell of antiseptic stung his nose, making him frown slightly.

This is...

He wondered how he could end up in a hospital. The last memory he could remember was—

"Argh!"

The boy groaned in pain; his body flinched; he clutched his head reflexively to endure the pain. A short while later, he realized something was amiss with his memory. It shouldn't have been possible, but it was almost as though there were two people's memories within him... Something just didn't feel right... rather, something was muddled with his memories.

As he looked around the room in a daze, a sour smell suddenly pierced his senses. The boy noticed the gown he was wearing were soaked with sweat. He furrowed his brow, mind now awakened. With a deep breath, he collapsed back on the soft, springy bed; he felt like lying down for a little longer. He lifted a hand to place against his forehead — but in the next moment, he gasped loudly and stared intently at his hand.

It was definitely his hand... the small hand of a seven-year-old boy. But it was... weird. There was something strange about it...

Ignoring the headache pounding in his head, the boy kicked his hazy brain back into gear.

A child's hand...? I... Wait, I...

Hajime Nagumo, that was the boy's name. He was the only child of an owner of a small game company, Shuu Nagumo, and mangaka of a popular Shoujou manga, Sumire Nagumo. He was seven-years-old and he was growing up while being influenced by his parents' jobs — it meant he was going down the path of Japanese subculture enthusiast. That should have been the entirety of Hajime's existence... So why did he have another person's memories? The memories of a person living in a similar world...

Broken images of various scenes flashed through his mind... They seemed all-too-realistic to be written off as just the imagination of a seven-year-old boy. They showed the life of a completely different person. According to his memories, he was a twenty-year-old university student. No — even now, Hajime was living that life, as if those memories had happened to him just moments ago. A strange unease appeared inside Hajime's stomach, causing him to stare into empty air blankly.

As it happened, this another set of memory trickled into his mind and merged with his memory as Hajime Nagumo into one, creating the new Hajime Nagumo. Because the second memory belonged to an adult, the personality brought by the new set of memory resurfaced and became the dominant one.

In that memory, he was the only child of a pair of workaholic parents. Even though he had had access to their abundant resources and wealth, his old life could not be called perfect; he had never received parental love; he had grown up without knowing what parental love is. Since he was a child, he had been raised by nurses and caretakers who had been hired by his parents. It made him desire the intimate relationship; it was the beginning of his warped personality.

When he was a teenager, he was introduced to the bliss of sexual intercourse and the fake intimate sensation this contact could bring. This was the beginning of his hedonistic lifestyle; with the resources that he could use as he saw fit, chasing women who attracted his attention and taking them to his bed wasn't impossible. There was a few thing money couldn't get in this materialistic world.

Despite that, he needed to be careful with his hedonistic lifestyle. If his perfectionist parents discovered that he lived a hedonistic lifestyle, they would surely become mad because they were very attached to their image as respectable persons; they would confiscate his freedom to use his family's resources. Thus, he lived as a hedonist clandestinely. Fortunately, he could keep his clandestine lifestyle while able to maintain and fulfill his parents' high expectations. In that memory, he was born with intelligence above average that helped him to keep up with his parents' unreasonable expectations and demands.

Besides his hedonistic lifestyle, he had a deep interest for Japanese popular subculture; anime, manga, light novels, and games. How his interest for them started was because of his relationship with a girl in high school; that girl had an interest in the Japanese popular subculture and recommended various interesting franchise to him. His relationship with that girl could be said the longest relationship he had since his hedonistic lifestyle began. Normally, he had only had a short time affair with women who caught his interest. No more than a week, usually. But, their relationship continued for one and a half years until they graduated from high school. The reason why they could stay that long was because of their shared interests. The cosplay sex thrown in was another reason why their relationship could preserve that long.

Unfortunately, they split apart because they enrolled in different universities; she enrolled in a local university while he was told to go to school overseas. They broke apart peacefully and yet they continued their ambiguous friendship; they would rekindle their old passion when he returned back from overseas.

To be accurate, they had a relationship of friends with benefits if you understand what the words meant.

His life at the university felt different from the last half of his high school life. He returned back to his clandestine hedonistic lifestyle while satisfying his interest in the Japanese popular subculture in secret. He still maintained his contact with his ex via voice and video call, and to be honest, he realized that he actually had fallen in love with her. However, he understood that his parents would not approve of their relationship because she was a commoner in their elitist eyes. Then finally, one day, his memory and personality as that person appeared inside the seven-years-old Hajime Nagumo and merged with the boy's memory.

Usually, this happenstance only happened in a fictional story with another world as the setting, which had become popular lately. This made the new Hajime Nagumo think that his second life was a story where he was a self-insert protagonist. The probability of it might happen was ridiculously high, but he never thought deeply into it.

I'm Hajime Nagumo… And yet, I am not… Wait? Hajime Nagumo? My name is similar to the protagonist in this fictional story; From Commonplace to World's Strongest…

The boy became dumbfounded; his eyes became bloodshot and rounded; his mind tried to comprehend what happened to him. Calming himself, he continued to ponder while scratching his head.

Seriously? Am I reincarnated as Hajime Nagumo, or perhaps, it is transmigration instead? Whatever… What's important is I am now supposed to be Hajime Nagumo. Hmmm...

The boy — Hajime closed his eyes and sunk deep in thought, pondering what he should do with this chance. A short while later, he opened his eyes; determination and resolution shone in his brown eyes.

Whatever the case, I have been given a chance to become more. I'm gonna be the strongest, stronger than even my other version in canon. I'm gonna be the peerless Demon God!

And so, the gears of fate shifted and spun in a different direction.

Several years later—

The pleasant aroma of grilled meat and soy sauce wafted through the air. There was a forty-odd-year-old lady standing in the kitchen, an apron wrapped around her waist and her hair tied back in a ponytail. Though she was in her forty, the woman had a youthful appearance that would mistake her as someone in her thirties. The woman, Sumire Nagumo, was skillfully preparing a meal with the help of a young girl.

Standing next to Sumire was a young girl with long flowing black hair reaching her mid back, also tied in a ponytail. Just like Sumire, an apron wrapped around her waist; the young girl was assisting Sumire in preparing a meal. This girl was Eri Nakamura, 14-years-old, and the charge of Sumire and her husband, Shuu Nagumo.

In another world, at another time, the girl called Eri Nakamura was impossible to have any relation with Nagumo household. However, it was different at this time, in this world.

A year ago, Sumire's son, Hajime Nagumo, had brought the girl home. Sumire and Suu were pleasantly surprised and thought that Eri was actually Hajime's girlfriend. However, they were struck dumb when their son explained how Eri had been abused by her parents; she was molested by her stepfather and neglected and even verbally and physically abused by her mother.

The abusive treatment Eri had got from her own parents made Sumire and Shuu become horrified; they turned really mad a moment later. In the end, they filed away a report to the police after taking Eri to the hospital and the psychiatrist to check up her physical and mental condition for the reports. To cut a long story short, their report was brought up to the court and the judge had given his verdict on Eri's parents; they were guilty of all accusations and were sent in the jail for their crimes. In the end, Nagumo household gained custody over Eri since she was still a minor in the eyes of Japanese's laws. From this point onward, Eri started living in Nagumo household as Sumire's and Shuu's charge.

"Alright! Eri, please set up the table while I call that our boys."

"Very well, Aunty."

Eri responded positively and started to move the dishes from the kitchen's counter to the medium rectangular dining table with four chairs around it. Meanwhile, Sumire undid her apron and raised her head up to the ceiling and yelled.

"Hajime, Dear, it's feeding time!"

After a brief silence, a pair of footsteps could be heard heading down the stairs.

"Can you please just call it dinner like a normal person, Mom?" Hajime Nagumo displayed an annoyed face as he entered the kitchen... There were dark bags under his mature eyes; his eyes weren't the eyes of a male teenager. Those were the eyes of a wise adult.

Seven years ago, something had changed in the boy — no, young man, Sumire couldn't call her oddly mature son a boy anymore. Sumire and her husband realized this fact because they knew their son very well. They tried to coax him to tell them what made this sudden change, but their attempt met with indifference and created a gap in their relationship; it saddened Sumire and her husband because they truly loved their only child. Nevertheless, the unquestionable and patient care they provided the boy with succeeded in breaking his shell and opening his heart; they returned back to their normal, functional family. And yet, the reason for his sudden change was still eluded the married couple. They had agreed to forget about it lest they became estranged with their son again, and this time, they wouldn't have a chance to mend their relationship.

And so, the Nagumo household continued their life as normal.

Hajime took a peek at what his mom and his 'adopted sister' had made, and his eyes began to sparkle.

"Awesome, you made Hamburg steak today. No wonder the house smelled so good." Shuu — Sumire's husband; Hajime's father, and Eri's male guardian — popped in with his two cents. He was a slender man with short, cropped hair. Like his son, he too had bags under his eyes.

The pair of men quickly helped to set the table. When the four of them seated themselves in their respective chairs around the table, the two men eagerly dug into the meal Sumire and Eri had prepared; they stuffed their mouths with Hamburg steak and white rice as if they were starving men.

Sumire and Eri giggled as they watched them eat. "No, I think feeding time suits you two just perfectly," Sumire muttered words of disagreement

"Hajime, did you manage to meet your deadline?" Eri chimed in as she filled Hajime's plate with another Hamburg steak; her movement looked like a devoted housewife who was caring for her husband.

When Shuu and Sumire saw that, they hid their sly, knowing smile. They realized that their charge was head over heel for their only child. They didn't have any problem if they started a romantic relationship, though they hoped their son and charge wouldn't give them grandbabies before they graduated from high school.

Knowing how Hajime had a strange taste for female fantasy races like elves, vampire, and cat-eared or bunny-eared women, they didn't need to be worried over that problem; they felt pity for their charge because she had a hard time to make Hajime fall for her instead.

"Mmmgh... Mmnch... Yeah, somehow. Man, I need to finish up the new volume for several stories at once. There's also the positive feedback for Death March and my editor asked me to complete the second volume soon," Hajime responded between his chewing.

Hajime had started his job as a light novel writer when he was still in his fifth grade. Every series he wrote would enter top-ten bestselling light novels in Japanese. Some of his works had been adapted to manga and even anime. Some examples for his works were Highschool DxD, The Testament of New Sister Devil, Sword Art Online, My Teenage Romantic Comedy SNAFU, Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, The Devil is a Part-timer!, Infinite Stratos, Campione! and lately he branched into another world themed story like Death March Rhapsody to the Parallel World, In Another World with My Smartphone, Re-Zero Starting Life in Another World, Spirit Chronicle, How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, How NOT to Summon a Demon King, Overlord, The Magic in this Other World is Too Far Behind, and a few other works.

Unbeknownst by everyone, he wasn't the real creator of those stories; those stories were written by other people in his memory of another life. And yet, it was surprising for a young teenager like him to be dedicated with his job, despite how many works he was doing. It could be said that Hajime was very rich from his novels' royalties. His success made his parents very proud of him. They didn't need to be worried over his future because of his massive savings.

"How about you? Have you finished all the illustrations they have asked you?" Hajime questioned Eri.

Eri nodded casually. "Yes. Though, I still need some pointers from Aunty and her helpers," she replied while cutting the Hamburg steak on her plate with her chopsticks skillfully.

"Don't worry, Eri. Your skill has grown up tremendously since you started a year ago. Be more confident with yourself." Sumire chimed in.

"Thank you, Aunty," Eri responded shyly; her cheeks reddened in embarrassment.

Eri had dabbled in drawing after she saw Sumire's works. In the beginning, she just wanted to help out one of her benefactors. However, Hajime told her that she could become his new light novel's illustrator and he would recommend her to his editor after he saw the quality of her works. She agreed readily; she didn't think about earning her own money at that time; she just felt happy to help the target of her affection. She was surprised when she got her first payout from her illustration, and since then, she had become an artist contracted to the publishing company that published all Hajime's works.

"Speaking of the deadline, how about your deadline, Dear?" Sumire questioned her husband abruptly.

"Gulp..." Shuu swallowed his meal before he responded to his wife's question, "We are in the middle of the debugging phase. The future of the game development branch is riding on this game. Do you have any idea how much we poured into development? I'd be out of a job if the game wasn't good. Though I guess if I lost my job I could spend all my time playing games trying to figure out where I went wrong."

"Dad, they call those people NEETs." Hajime threw in.

"Not a NEET, son, a shut-in. Shut-ins that can make a living for themselves are what we call winners in life."

Shuu riposted brilliantly. Such was his philosophy. The mother was no better in that regard, however.

"Indeed," she replied readily. This was the result of having a father who ran a game company and a mother who was a shojo mangaka. Their mindsets weren't exactly normal.

In addition, their son was a writer of several bestselling light novels and their not-yet-daughter-in-law was an illustrator for some bestselling light novels. Following this fact, Nagumo household was filled with people who dabbled in Japanese popular subculture as their main source of income.

Though his parents weren't what you would expect from a good parental figure and was too lax with their parenting, Hajime was grateful to have a pair of supportive parents like them. At least, Sumire and Shuu were better parents than the couple in his memory of another life.

Before Hajime knew it, Sumire and Shuu were having a truly absurd conversation.

"Speaking of Hajime's works, I'm starting to think our son's got some lolicon tendencies in him."

"He certainly does like loli characters."

Hajime quickly brought his thoughts back to the present and gave his parents an affronted face. He truly felt affronted by their words; he disliked loli despite writing loli characters in his stories. Sitting next to him, Eri sent a dubious glance at him, thinking probably Shuu's and Sumire's absurd assumption was correct.

"Hey hey, no need to give us that face. You're the one who added many lolis around the protagonist in your latest novel, not me," said Shuu.

"So, that doesn't make me a lolicon. You're a grown man; you should be able to tell the difference between fantasy and reality. Besides, I am a staunch supporter of the big breast faction," Hajime declared shamelessly with a proud tone. When he caught the sight of Eri staring at her yet to start developing breasts, he patted her head and consoled the girl. "Don't worry. You still have a chance to grow them up."

Eri's light-colored cheeks turned very red as an apple before she averted her eyes from Hajime. "Hajime, you are impossible," she replied and pouted cutely.

At this point, Shuu and Sumire threw a warm gaze to the two children.

"True, other than your love for big breasts, you're into animal-ears too. Especially rabbit ears. I'm glad my son grew up to be a patrician of such fine taste," Sumire also chimed in.

Hajime returned to his dinner and ignored his parents' teasing. Eri looked troubled; she wanted to help him, but in the end, she refrained herself as the payback for Hajime's teasing earlier. Also, Shuu and Sumire ganged up on their only son like that pretty often, so Eri knew nothing bad would happen despite he was being bullied like that by his parents. Eri didn't mind it that much when Shuu and Sumire teased him because of his strange taste. In the end, Eri believed she had her chance to make her crush hers. It wasn't like they would be summoned to another world and her crush would build up a harem, right?

Poor girl... If only she knows...

"I guarantee you that you'd party up with a loli if you ever got summoned to another world. Just remember, attacking underage girls is still a crime. I'm sure even other worlds have laws against sex with children. They've been cracking down on it in games here recently, even."

"Don't just go around making your own assumptions. And can you please stop calling me a lolicon?"

Fed up with his parents teasing, Hajime got a little testy. However, a part of his mind thought about the future awaiting him and dozens of other students who would be summoned to another world.

Normally, any sane person would choose to stay away from something dangerous such as being summoned to another world and being forced to fight against deadly monsters or hostile other races. However, Hajime had chosen his bed and he only waited until his time to rest on it, so to speak.

He realized that this world had its unreasonable aspect too. He remembered about a certain church organization that fought against the threat from demons from another world that was a close to depiction of the hell in many holy scriptures. There was also going to be a virus outbreak because of a certain blond-haired genius girl in the future. In the end, he needed the power to protect those who were precious to him; his parents, his extended family he'd acknowledged, and the girl he'd cured of her misguided obsession who was also his major investment.

"But you are a healthy young boy, so I'm sure you're interested in all those fantasy worlds with swords and magic. As a matter of fact, aren't your latest novels related to another world? I am curious; would happen if you got summoned to another world?"

"That does sound like the kind of thing a lot of guys would like. And those reincarnated into another world and summoned into another world light novels are getting pretty popular recently. I wouldn't want our son to get summoned, though. What would we do if he couldn't ever come back?"

Shuu and Sumire sunk deep into thought, taking the idea of Hajime being summoned rather seriously. Both of them had an overactive imagination, which were just occupational hazards.

"I don't think I have what it takes to save the world anyway. Most likely, I would try my best to return back home." Hajime replied truthfully.

"That's right. Staying safe is more important than saving the world. But if you were strong enough to save it on your way back, you might as well, right? Hmm, maybe I should make a game that has a protagonist like that..."

"Oh, that does sound like a good idea. There's a kind of surreal aspect to it when the protagonist's only interested in going home but he beats the demon lord and the gods and all that along the way."

Their creative urges got the better of them, and their conversation turned toward how they could use this idea in their works. While he might sometimes lament that his parents only ever thought about their hobby-jobs, he too was their son, and started contributing ideas of his own to their discussion.

Though Eri couldn't follow their enthusiasm, she watched them with a warm gaze; she truly treasured this kind of peaceful everyday life at the Nagumo household.

Several weeks later—

Hajime was on his way back home; He'd come back from his editor place to give her his finished scripts. After a small talk between them, he left for his house. As of now, he was walking in the street near the shopping district. Since it was a weekend holiday, the place was crowded with people.

Hmm? That's...

Suddenly, a commotion took his attention. There were some delinquents circling a little kid and his grandmother. From what he gleaned, the little kid had bumped into those delinquents and the takoyaki he'd been eating had spilled over their clothes. The guys he had bumped into all snapped, and the boy started crying while his grandmother cowered in a corner. It had been quite the scene.

Whatever... It wasn't my problem. They wouldn't dare to harm them. Mostly, they'd intimidate that kid and his grandmother and asked for reimbursement until their temper calmed down...

Hajime then continued on his way. Along the way, he saw a beautiful girl around his age with long plait black hair and warm brown eyes; she was staring at the commotion in a worry. Since he didn't have an interest in a 'normal girl' despite her beauty, he advanced without the care in the world. Eri was a different matter entirely since she was his investment. Despite that, he didn't have interest to Eri before she received her fantasy aspect.

Unbeknownst by him, he'd passed the important event that would shape Kaori Shirasaki's admiration that would grow into love for Hajime Nagumo; that black haired girl was no other than Kaori Shirasaki herself.

In another world, at another time, Hajime Nagumo would help out the little kid and his grandmother from the delinquents. However, it was different at this time, in this world.

Though this version of Hajime remembered the plot and some information about Arifureta story, it was impossible for him to remember everything clearly. He didn't have an eidetic memory or perfect memory recall ability. And so, he ignored this event. Even though he remembered the significance of this event, he still wouldn't help the little kid and his grandmother because he thought it wasn't his problem. He didn't even have an interest in a character called Kaori Shirasaki. As a matter of fact, he only had an interest in fantasy women that only existed in 2D or another world, and maybe, Eri Nakamura because she was his long time investment.

And so, the gears of fate continued to spin and head up towards the wrong direction. Whether this change was for better or worse, nobody knew the answer.

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