The Service Club's activity room in Shuchiin Academy's high school division was packed.
On any normal day, only Yukino Yukinoshita occupied the space.
Now, students filled every corner, bodies pressed shoulder to shoulder.
A closer look revealed every one of them had transmigrated into the Naruto world as players in the Reincarnation Game.
Everyone except Tomoya Aki and Kazuya Kinoshita.
"Yukinoshita, I rounded them all up for you." Shizuka Hiratsuka folded her arms and stared at the girl seated at the center of the room. "So what exactly do you want?"
This younger sister is even more trouble than her older one ever was.
Yukino lifted her gaze to the players watching her with a mix of curiosity and wariness. "My father died yesterday. Cardiac arrest."
Silence slammed down like a door. Every player in the room felt their pupils contract, memories crashing back to that final moment before they'd returned to the real world: Yukino's father, struck dead in an instant by that bizarre raccoon-like creature.
They also remembered the Reincarnation Game's system prompt from the very beginning: Death in the other world means death in the real one.
No joke after all.
Hayato Hayama stood among the crowd, his throat bobbing once before he spoke. "My father too. Yesterday. Cardiac arrest."
The air in the room turned to stone. Nobody breathed.
"Great. Got it. Can we leave now?"
Airi Akizuki's patience snapped first, impatience sharp in every syllable. The dead weren't her family. She couldn't care less.
And with Makoto Nishikado backing her, she'd never been one to hold her tongue around strangers.
"I'm not finished." Yukino's eyes flicked to the teammate who'd picked fights with her all through the Naruto world. "I want everyone here to join the Service Club."
"Yukinoshita, have you lost your mind?"
Hachiman Hikigaya broke his silence like a whip crack. He'd been invited once before.
He knew exactly why this club existed: to track down Makoto Nishikado.
But the Makoto Nishikado of today... was he someone Yukino Yukinoshita could afford to provoke?
Never mind that Airi Akizuki and Marina Akizuki, Makoto's most devoted followers, were standing right there. Utaha Kasumigaoka and Megumi Kato would never agree either. Where did she find the nerve to say this in front of these people?
Haruno Yukinoshita stepped forward and patted Hachiman on the shoulder. "Easy there, kid. My sister's not that stupid."
He frowned, opened his mouth, then thought better of it.
Yukino continued. "I want everyone to join so we can hold each other accountable. No one uses that power in the real world. If we do, society will collapse into chaos."
Reactions split across the room like light through a prism. Scorn on some faces. Hesitation on others. A few lost in thought.
Only Shizuka looked completely bewildered. She furrowed her brow. "That power? What are you talking about? What's going on? Why does it feel like I'm the only one out of the loop?"
A low laugh cut through the tension.
Utaha Kasumigaoka's dark hair gleamed in the sunlight as she tilted her head, amusement curling at the corners of her mouth. "My, my. Yukinoshita. Even more naive than I imagined."
Her gaze drifted to the underclassman she'd beaten in the other world, and the amusement sharpened into something mocking. "You've crossed over one more time than the rest of us. How can you still not see the bigger picture? The second transmigrating pulled in several times more people than the first. It's only going to escalate. More transmigrations, more people gaining powers. And you think your strength alone can keep everyone in line?"
Yukino's brow creased, her voice cutting cold. "Don't use the situation as an excuse to do whatever you please."
To her, Utaha simply wanted to exploit powers gained in another world to run wild in this one.
The warmth drained from Utaha's expression. Her fingertips twitched, and a kunai slid from her sleeve into her palm. "An excuse? I don't need one. My kunai has never tasted defeat, Yukinoshita. Care to see if your little club can change that?"
If Konohamaru had been present, he'd have had something to say about where she picked up that line.
"Calm down, both of you!" Haruno stepped between them, hands raised. She'd spent the previous night running thorough background checks on every person in this room.
Truthfully, Utaha Kasumigaoka, a non-Pure student whose only claim to fame was one published light novel, wouldn't have been worth sharing a table with before.
But after witnessing her combat performance in the Chunin Exams firsthand, Haruno knew full well that Utaha had the power to flip that table over and break it in half.
And that wasn't even counting the mountain standing behind her.
Megumi Kato raised her head. "Yukinoshita, the world is already changing. It's beyond what any one person can control."
She didn't dislike Yukino. The girl had a sharp tongue but a genuine sense of justice, and the discipline to hold herself to her own standards. But the tide of an era wasn't something one person could hold back.
Try stopping Makoto Nishikado and see how far you get.
The thought of him sent a faint heat to Megumi's lips. Color crept across her cheeks.
Seriously, where did that guy run off to this time?
"Um..." Shizuka finally cut in, bewilderment etched across her face. "Sorry, but what are you all talking about? Crossing over? Superpowers? I don't understand a word of this."
WHOOP. WHOOP. WHOOP.
Sirens pierced through the windows, shrill and sudden.
Every head turned. Dozens of police cars screamed past the building, lights blazing, tearing toward the middle school campus.
"What's happening?" Shizuka strode to the window, watching the convoy shrink into the distance. Unease coiled in her chest.
—
Ten minutes earlier. Shuchiin Academy, Middle School Division. Class 3-A.
Yu Ishigami sat in his corner seat against the wall, head bowed, radiating a cold, unapproachable aura.
Most of the class watched him with open contempt.
The contrast couldn't have been starker. On the opposite side of the room, Ko Ogino sat tall with an easy smile, Kyoko Otomo nestled against his side, eyes full of adoration.
"Ogino, is your injury okay?" A student sidled up to him, voice dripping with concern, then whipped around to glare at Ishigami. "That disgusting creep. Going after Otomo wasn't enough? He had the nerve to attack our club president too. Pure student or not, the school should've expelled him on the spot!"
Ogino waved a magnanimous hand, his smile never wavering. "It's fine, it's fine. Everyone makes mistakes. I think we should give Ishigami a chance."
Admiring murmurs rippled through the surrounding students.
"That's our president! Such a big heart!"
"You two need to stay together forever!"
"And that bastard Ishigami won't even get on his knees and apologize. Unbelievable!"
Nearly the entire class rallied behind Ogino and Kyoko. A chorus of approval.
Only a handful quietly frowned.
"Kei-chan, do you think Ishigami's really that kind of person?" Near the classroom door, a girl with short pink hair in twin tails whispered the question. Her figure was already on par with Airi Akizuki's. Moeha Fujiwara, the third daughter of the Fujiwara family.
Kei Shirogane pushed a strand of silver hair behind her ear, her cute features thoughtful. She glanced at Ishigami hunched in his corner. "I don't think so."
The rumors had been everywhere in the middle school division: Ishigami, consumed by jealousy over Kyoko dating Ogino, had attacked the older boy. But Kei didn't buy it. Ishigami didn't seem like the type.
What no one in the room knew was that Ogino's speech had been the final straw.
In truth, Ishigami had wrestled with it all night. More than once he'd hesitated.
For a third-year middle schooler, the word "kill" carried a weight almost too heavy to lift.
But every time he wavered, the memory surged back: Ogino's smirking face, waving Kyoko's nude photos in front of him, sneering that he'd "share the fun" if Ishigami kept his mouth shut.
And now this... this righteous, benevolent act in front of the whole class.
Rage erupted from somewhere primal, flooding upward until it burned behind his eyes.
If Ishigami had been born an Uchiha, he'd have awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan on the spot.
Under the watchful gazes of Moeha and Kei, Ishigami shot to his feet. His chair shrieked against the floor.
Bloodshot eyes locked onto Ogino. He walked toward the crowd, one deliberate step at a time.
The laughter died. The group around Ogino fell silent by instinct.
Ogino noticed nothing. His smile stayed fixed. "Ishigami, you don't have to kneel or anything. Just turn in your written apology to the teacher and we're good."
Kyoko watched Ishigami approach without a word.
Truthfully, she didn't believe he'd done what everyone said either. But she was a third-year girl, and supporting your boyfriend was automatic.
Then Ishigami looked up.
Twin pools of red veins stared straight into Ogino's face.
Before anyone could react, his hand swept behind his back and came forward gripping a kunai.
One lunge. The blade punched through Ogino's chest.
The smile froze on Ogino's face. His eyes blew wide, staring at the handle protruding from his sternum.
Before he could even scream, Ishigami ripped the kunai free and drove it in again.
Pull. Stab. Pull. Stab.
In just five seconds. The kunai left countless wounds in his chest. Blood erupted like a broken main, drenching Ishigami's uniform.
"AAAAAAH!"
The spell shattered. Boys went white and scrambled backward. Girls screamed until their throats gave out. The classroom erupted into pandemonium.
"He killed him! Someone get a teacher! GET A TEACHER!"
"Help! Don't kill me! Please don't kill me!"
Even the Pure students, raised in privilege and comfort, crumpled to the floor at the sight, shaking uncontrollably.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Slow, deliberate applause cut through the hysteria, and every pair of eyes snapped toward the doorway.
Makoto Nishikado leaned against the frame, a smile playing on his lips as he clapped.
"Knew you wouldn't disappoint me, Ishigami."
The room went mute. Hearts hammered against ribcages.
N-Nishikado?
Everyone recognized him. The upperclassman who'd appeared on crime news broadcasts twice. Who wouldn't know that face?
Makoto strolled to where Ishigami stood drenched in blood. "How do you feel?"
"Hah... hah..." Ishigami gasped, dragging in breath after ragged breath before clawing his way back from the edge of frenzy.
He looked down at Ogino's body, eyes still bulging in death, frozen in disbelief.
After a long silence, a complicated smile twisted across Ishigami's face.
"It felt... good."
But the exhilaration was already drowning beneath a terror that reached into his marrow.
"What... what do I do now..."
"Don't be afraid."
Makoto's hand settled on his shoulder.
His gaze drifted to the window and the world beyond it.
"A world where only the truly strong survive is about to arrive. Those without the power to back it up should start running now." He turned, and something wild kindled in his eyes. "Riding an unstoppable tidal wave, the monsters who'll reshape the entire world... a new era is coming! Heh... hahahaha!"
Ishigami stared at his back, trembling. He couldn't parse the meaning behind the words, but something deep in his bones, something at the level of instinct, whispered a single truth.
Don't be afraid. Follow this man. That's enough.
On the classroom floor, Ogino lay with his eyes still open. Even in death, he couldn't believe Yu Ishigami had killed him.
Sirens wailed less than five minutes later.
Makoto glanced at the police cars rolling through the school gates. "I figured the cops in this country were all useless. They're faster than I expected."
"It's the top school in the country," Ishigami said. "Of course they're fast."
"Suspects Makoto Nishikado and Yu Ishigami! Raise your hands and exit the building immediately! Failure to comply will result in the use of force!"
The man who stepped from the lead car, megaphone in hand, was Inspector Megure, head of the Nishikado task force.
Behind him, officers from the First Investigation Division fanned out alongside rows of armed tactical police, every muzzle trained on the school building.
By then, droves of high school and university students had rushed over, pressing against the police barricade, craning for a view.
The moment they heard Makoto's name, the players led by the Akizuki sisters froze.
He's been back less than twenty-four hours and there's already another body?
"Dad! Inspector Megure! Run! You have to run!" Ran Mouri burst from the crowd, screaming at the officers, panic written across every feature.
Everyone turned to stare. What was this girl talking about?
Isn't Nishikado the one who should be running?
Nearby, Sonoko Suzuki spotted Moeha emerging from the school building. "Moeha! Get over here! Hurry!"
The Suzuki and Fujiwara families both belonged to the highest tier of political and financial elite, one in business, the other in government.
The families had always been close, and Sonoko and Moeha got along well. Sonoko's worry was instinctive.
Moeha grabbed Kei's hand and ran to them.
"They're dead men walking." Sonoko squeezed Moeha's hand tight.
"Yeah, such a waste." Moeha nodded, genuine pity in her voice. "That Nishikado guy was really handsome, too."
She was at the age where a pretty face mattered.
Sonoko rolled her eyes. I'm worried about the police, you idiot.
Under every watching eye, Makoto Nishikado walked out of the school building.
Each step sent a wave of suffocating pressure radiating outward. Sweat broke across faces in the crowd like rain.
"They'll die! They're all going to die!" Saika Totsuka clutched his head, terror spilling from his voice.
He could already see it: yesterday's carnage during the Konoha Crush, about to replay in the real world.
Hachiman pulled him close, arm around his shoulders, eyes locked on Makoto's approaching figure.
Step by step, the armed officers began to shake. An unnamed, irrational dread climbed through their bodies from the ground up.
None of them understood why.
One officer's nerve finally cracked under the pressure. His finger twitched toward the trigger.
Tokyo Metropolitan Police's top sniper: Kogoro Mouri.
A blur of motion erupted from the side.
"No, Dad!"
Ran tackled her father to the ground. Inspector Megure, Miwako Sato, and everyone around them flinched in shock.
When did she get over here?
BANG.
Even without Kogoro Mouri, someone else's fear had already shattered their reason. They pulled the trigger.
Every player watching shared a single thought: It's over.
The bullet screamed toward Makoto's forehead.
An eruption of ash-black flame roared to life across his skin, condensing into a dense shield that swatted the round aside like a gnat.
Then the flames swelled, boiling outward, blotting the sky.
They coalesced into a towering skeletal colossus wreathed in grey-black fire, a demon lord given form, looming over the campus of Shuchiin Academy like something that had crawled out of hell itself.