One had to admit, that black-haired boy seemed to have quite keen senses.
When the sound of shattering glass emerged from Kaiser's body, he was clearly stunned for a moment.
"What was that sound?" The boy said in surprise and some confusion. "Where did that person go?"
The man who had just been walking into the classroom without wearing a uniform had somehow vanished without a trace.
The other students noticed this too. First they froze, and then they saw that person outside the classroom, walking toward the other side of the hallway, as if he had never entered at all.
"What's going on?"
This question didn't just surface in the hearts of the crowd; it also appeared in the black-haired boy's muttering.
However, the boy quickly stopped caring.
Because an acquaintance sitting in front of him had begun to talk to him.
"By the way, Godou, what did you do during spring break?"
It was a middle school classmate who had passed the entrance exam and enrolled in this private school with him.
So, upon hearing the question, the boy let go of the earlier matter and began sighing as if recalling something terrible.
"Don't even bring it up. I almost couldn't make it back."
The boy began to complain.
"My grandpa had something he needed to return to an old friend, so I went to help him with that."
"You'd never guess—his friend lives in Italy, and not just anywhere in Italy, but on the southern island of Sardinia. Just flying there took half a day."
"And that's not even the worst of it. When I arrived, there was all sorts of weird weather—strong winds one moment, heavy rain the next, then earthquakes, then explosions. The city was almost destroyed."
"I…"
The boy kept on complaining, basically saying he had suffered terribly there. He frequently encountered abnormal natural disasters, was almost caught in catastrophes, narrowly escaped death, and only after managing to return the item to his grandpa's friend, there came a super storm and an enormous blizzard, forcing him to evacuate along with the citizens.
By the time the evacuation ended, all the tourist activities in Sardinia had been suspended, and many flights were canceled, delaying his schedule so much that he only managed to catch a flight back yesterday.
If not for that, he might have missed the first day of high school classes.
"Speaking of which, you probably won't believe it, but I think I saw a gigantic wild boar in Cagliari…"
After talking about natural disasters, the boy started talking about supernatural phenomena.
However, he had no idea that his friend wasn't actually talking to him anymore and had gone to another seat to chat with someone else.
Sitting in front of him wasn't his middle school buddy, but Kaiser, who had just walked into the classroom.
Kaiser didn't say a word. He simply sat there, quietly listening, and the boy just kept talking as if chatting with an invisible person, naturally launching into one topic after another.
"So that's how it was. You didn't get involved in the incident after all…"
After learning about the boy's experience, Kaiser muttered.
According to the original trajectory, this boy should have encountered Verethragna, who had lost most of his incarnations and memories, shortly after arriving in Sardinia. After forming some connections with him, due to the appearance of Erica and the "Boar," he would've been dragged into the incident on Sardinia.
The item he was supposed to return to his grandpa's friend was actually a divine instrument with rather strict usage conditions—the Prometheus Grimoire.
It was a divine tool capable of stealing Authorities and wielding the powers of gods.
As long as the user had prolonged contact and regular communication with the target, the divine tool could be used to steal the target's Authority.
Once the Authority was stolen, it would be stored directly in the divine tool. Upon release, it would disappear, thus it could be used as a one-time Authority.
The original owner of this divine tool was a witch from Sardinia. In her youth, she had studied abroad in Japan. At that time, she encountered a Heretic God wreaking havoc in the human world. She used cunning and words to converse with the god for an entire night, then used this divine tool to steal his power, turning him into a hollow shell and sealing him away.
Later, the witch enshrined the divine tool there to guard against the god's possible resurrection. But eventually that place became abandoned, and no one there knew what to do with the divine tool. So they contacted the witch's friend from her study-abroad days—namely the protagonist's grandfather—and entrusted the divine tool to him, asking him to return it to the witch.
That was why the boy—Kusanagi Godou—had gone to Sardinia, encountered Verethragna, became entangled with the war god, and ultimately walked the path of God-Slaying.
The Prometheus Grimoire's power also became the key to Kusanagi Godou slaying a god. Without it, he absolutely could not have succeeded.
Incidentally, this divine tool not only had strict usage requirements, but also inflicted severe side effects when releasing the stored Authority.
It was power far too great for a human to bear. Once used, it would cause one's brain and entire bloodstream to boil, leading to a very painful death.
In the original story, had Kusanagi Godou not succeeded in God-Slaying and reincarnated as a Campione, he would have died long ago.
Now, because Kaiser had encountered Verethragna first, Kusanagi Godou lost the chance to become connected to the war god, and did not meet Erica. In the end, he was merely swept up in the incident caused by the "Boar" and managed to deliver the divine tool to the Sardinian witch, returning it to its rightful owner.
As for the subsequent series of supernatural phenomena on Sardinia, Kusanagi Godou experienced them like a normal person—encountering them, evacuating, and nearly being unable to return due to flight cancellations.
As of now, he was nothing more than an ordinary person, with absolutely no relation to gods or Campiones.
"Well, then."
Watching him still chattering away, Kaiser couldn't help but smile.
"Congratulations on getting your wish—staying far away from the mystical side of the world and returning to a normal life."
That was what he had always longed for in the original story.
Now, that wish had come true.
Of course, from this moment on, the original protagonist would essentially cease to exist.
The rest of this world's story was fated to have nothing to do with him.
Kaiser stood up, left the classroom, and deactivated Kyōka Suigetsu's complete hypnosis.
Normally, to activate Kyōka Suigetsu's ability, one had to let others see its Shikai. But Kaiser could directly borrow part of his exclusive weapon's power. Just like how he could use the abilities of Hyōrinmaru and Ryūjin Jakka without drawing his Zanpakutō, he could execute the hypnosis procedure even without presenting Kyōka Suigetsu.
That sound of shattering glass earlier had actually been equivalent to Kyōka Suigetsu's Shikai.
Therefore, those who had been looking at Kaiser at the time were effectively witnessing Kyōka Suigetsu's Shikai.
And having seen it, they naturally became prisoners of Kyōka Suigetsu, falling under Kaiser's complete hypnosis.
The intensity of the hypnosis wasn't high, since Kaiser had only borrowed part of Kyōka Suigetsu's power. But against ordinary people, it was more than sufficient.
After leaving the classroom of High School Year 1 Class 5, Kaiser was just thinking of strolling elsewhere when he ran into the class beauty from the neighboring class.
"You—you really are here!"
Mariya Yuri shouted as she ran over, panting heavily, and grabbed hold of Kaiser.
"You found me this fast?" Kaiser was a bit surprised, but then he realized and smacked his forehead, saying, "I almost forgot—your intuition is ridiculously strong. You'd probably be able to roughly sense where I was just from instinct."
Mariya Yuri didn't respond to Kaiser—or rather, she had no energy to.
She seemed to have truly run very hard, now gasping for breath, cheeks flushed, drenched in sweat, looking like she might faint at any moment.
"W-what are you doing here? You didn't do anything excessive, did you?"
Finally catching her breath, Mariya Yuri immediately launched into a barrage of questions.
"I—I saw you come out of the classroom next door. What were you doing there?"
"There was an unusual aura flowing through that classroom. Did you use some sort of power?"
"Please answer me honestly!"
Maybe because she was too anxious and too angry, Mariya Yuri had dropped all honorifics, replacing them with blunt accusations.
The way she looked was like a strict student council member catching a delinquent, exuding a kind of unspoken authority.
"So you can get angry too, huh?" Kaiser said with a rare grin. "I thought you'd always be the timid type."
Unfortunately, Mariya Yuri didn't take the bait.
"Talk!"
The girl really seemed furious and wouldn't let it go, insisting on knowing what Kaiser had just done.
But as always, the more serious she got, the more Kaiser wanted to tease her.
So, Kaiser pointed around them.
"Before that, you might want to take a look around. Everyone's pretty curious about the relationship between you and me right now."
At those words, Mariya Yuri suddenly came to her senses and looked around.
At some point, the area had become crowded with people. Even the nearby classrooms' windows and doorways were filled with students peeking out, murmuring and gossiping.
"That's Mariya-san, right?"
"Mariya-san… why is she grabbing a guy and not letting go?"
"What's her relationship with that guy?"
"Don't tell me…"
All sorts of stunned, curious, bewildered, and even incredulous stares came flooding in, as if they couldn't believe that Mariya Yuri would act so intimately with a strange boy.
Her flushed cheeks, teary eyes, and hands tightly clutching Kaiser made it all too easy for people to get the wrong idea.
Mariya Yuri's face turned even redder.
This time from embarrassment.
"Come with me!"
She dragged Kaiser off toward the other end of the hallway.
However, rumors about her and Kaiser spread at an astonishing speed, to the point that Mariya Yuri's high school life for the next three years would never know peace again.