So, a collective amnesia, is it?

Kyosuke Hojo stood frozen in place as soon as he opened the door to his rented room after returning from the station.

“Strange, why did I get home so late? Today’s kendo practice time is almost running out.”

Shaking his head to dispel the thought, Kyosuke stepped inside, quickly stripped off his school uniform, changed into shorts and a tank top, and began practicing overhead strikes on the balcony. Since he lived in an apartment building, he avoided kendo moves that required footwork.

The night passed without incident.

Early the next morning, Kyosuke jogged to the school gate carrying his sword bag.

“Phew, luckily I’m not late.”

This morning, he had missed the train that would have gotten him to school on time, so he had to run the last stretch. Fortunately, his residence was only two stations away from the school.

“Hey, what are you carrying?”

Two upperclassmen responsible for enforcing school discipline stood at the gate, sleeves rolled up, with intimidating expressions. Seeing Kyosuke with his sword bag, one of them asked.

“It’s a shinai,” Kyosuke replied, opening the bag to show it.

“Why are you bringing a shinai to school?”

He had intended to say he was joining the kendo club, but noticing one of the seniors holding a shinai, wary of drawing attention, he hesitated and then said, “I want to join the kendo club, so…”

Kyosuke didn’t know how to spin it further. If it were Sakura, she would have instantly come up with an irrefutable excuse. He missed her a bit.

Fortunately, the senior holding the shinai came to his aid.

“Hey kid, you’ve got good taste. The kendo club’s the strongest club in East City. If you join, you’ll be my junior.”

“Kenji, you’ve been going on about the kendo club nonstop,” another senior grumbled.

“Remember my name—Takehiro Kenji. If you join the kendo club smoothly, I’ll have your back. Now get inside.”

Kyosuke thanked the enthusiastic senior and hurried inside.

The reason he brought the shinai was that he had sensed something odd about the school the day before. Although it was renowned for its high university admission rates, the school was surprisingly violent.

First, there were no restrictions on hairstyle. Yesterday, in his class, a student had a bright yellow, poop-shaped hairstyle; another had a purple airplane-shaped cut; and yet another a brown bun. He knew some people had unusual hair colors in this world, but he had never seen such extreme styles at school before.

During introductions, these five students brazenly declared themselves delinquents, calling themselves the “East City Five.” The nearby teacher remained indifferent.

Second, from classmates’ discussions during breaks, Kyosuke learned that genuine delinquent groups existed within the school.

Lastly, what convinced him something was amiss was a girl he saw by the school gate on the first day.

[Tokyo Revengers · Hinata Tachibana (Supporting Character)]

Where there are celebrities, trouble always follows; Kyosuke was certain of this. So he decided to carry his shinai at school from then on. Ninety percent of his skill lay in kendo, and while any stick-like object would do, nothing was more convenient than his shinai.

Jogging into the classroom, the morning reading bell rang just as he entered.

At his new school, he still sat in the protagonist’s designated seat.

Picking up an English reader casually, Kyosuke surveyed his classmates.

Sitting in front of him was the yellow poop-shaped hairstyle student, apparently named Takemichi Hanagaki. His entrance exam rank was within the top ten. With such good grades but such a ridiculous hairstyle, Kyosuke wondered if he was a chūnibyō fantasizing about debuting as a delinquent.

To his right was another yellow poop-shaped hairstyle, neater and shorter than Hanagaki’s, wearing glasses and looking very sharp. This was Tetta Kisaki, who had placed second in the entrance exams and was now engrossed in his English textbook.

Oh, right, there were actually two acquaintances in the class.

Kazuki Shimada and Masaya Ishida. Kyosuke wasn’t surprised they got into East City; Shimada’s grades were always excellent, and Ishida had become diligent after being ostracized by peers, studying hard every day.

Soon, the first class began. Being new, Kyosuke didn’t immediately doze off but listened attentively, even though he had already self-studied the math curriculum.

Suddenly, a loud shout interrupted the teacher’s lecture.

Hanagaki, sitting in front of Kyosuke, abruptly stood and yelled—it was his voice.

Then he just stood there, dazed.

“Hanagaki, are you okay? Do you want to go to the infirmary?” the math teacher asked anxiously, noticing Hanagaki’s sweaty forehead and pale face, ignoring the disruption.

“I… I…” Hanagaki ignored the question and stared at his hands.

“I wasn’t pushed onto the tracks, right? Then why am I here? Is this my middle school classroom? Does that mean behind me is the Sword Demon, Kyosuke Hojo…”

At that moment, a message appeared in Kyosuke’s mind:

“Detected temporal disturbance unrelated to ‘celebrity’ status. Correction executed.”

What Kyosuke did not know was that after this system message appeared, Hanagaki’s memories of the future vanished instantly, like a diary deleted from Mitsuha Miyamizu’s phone, leaving only one thought:

“I must acknowledge Kyosuke Hojo as my leader! I must save Hinata Tachibana!”

“Hanagaki! What’s wrong with you?” the math teacher raised his voice, seeing Hanagaki still standing silently.

“Huh? Why did I suddenly stand up?” Hanagaki blinked as if waking from sleep.

“Teacher, sorry, I suddenly felt unwell.” He quickly apologized and sat down.

“Are you sure you don’t need the infirmary?” The teacher worried, since Hanagaki was a top-ten student.

“No, I’m much better now.”

“Then let’s continue the lesson.”

The lecture resumed, while only Hanagaki’s so-called East City Five friends cast concerned glances at him.

But Hanagaki only wanted to understand the strange thought in his mind. Why would he want to recognize a bookworm as his leader?

Indeed, despite his good grades, Hanagaki despised high-achieving students, thinking they were boring nerds. That was why, after graduating elementary school, he and his friends dyed their hair and styled new cuts, vowing to debut as delinquents in middle school.

Better to be my underling—that’s more like it. And that Kisaki, too, I’ll make them my underlings so they can do my homework later.

Maybe I should make Atsushi give up the leader position to me—after all, I’m about to have two underlings. How can I still be second in command?

And who’s Hinata Tachibana? Why do I want to save her?

Dismissively pushing the thought aside, Hanagaki continued dreaming of being a gang leader.

Kyosuke didn’t dwell on it either, returning to his own thoughts.

He had just noticed a missed call on his phone from Hida City, timestamped yesterday evening, lasting only one second before hanging up. After pondering, he couldn’t figure out whose call it was and decided to treat it as a prank.