Kaito woke up the next morning to the strangest sensation.
Not groggy. Not sluggish. Not with the usual half-dead shuffle of a seventeen-year-old who'd stayed up too late binging anime and instant noodles.
No, he felt good.
Actually, scratch that. He felt… amazing.
His body was light, like gravity had called in sick. His muscles didn't ache from sleeping on the same old futon that had the shape of his butt memorized. His lungs filled with air so clean it was almost suspicious.
Kaito blinked at his ceiling. "…Did someone replace me with a premium edition model overnight?"
He pushed himself up. Even that felt weird. His arms didn't wobble. His shoulders didn't crack. His head didn't throb from dehydration. He almost expected to see cheat-code notifications popping up in the corner of his vision.
Still half-convinced it was a dream, he shuffled to the bathroom, rubbing his eyes.
Then he froze.
The mirror.
"…Huh?"
His reflection blinked back at him. Same pajamas. Same toothbrush dangling stupidly from his lips. But his face…
The jawline. Sharper. Defined. The kind of angles you could slice bread with.
The hair. Still messy, but in that effortless, "styled by the gods" way instead of "I lost a fight with my pillow."
The eyes. Brighter. Sharper. Alive, almost glowing compared to the usual dead-fish stare he'd practiced in class for years.
Kaito leaned closer until his nose nearly touched the mirror. His voice cracked. "Did I… did I just hit puberty again overnight?"
The bathroom door rattled with a sudden bang.
"Kaito!" his mom shouted from the hallway. "If you don't hurry up, you'll be late for school again!"
He jolted, dropping his toothbrush into the sink. "Y-Yeah! Just… brushing extra hard today!"
His pulse was going haywire. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe it was dehydration. Maybe he was hallucinating from expired cup noodles. Yeah, that had to be it. Definitely imagination.
But when he stepped into school twenty minutes later, that theory collapsed faster than a card tower in a hurricane.
The moment he entered the classroom, three girls turned their heads at the exact same time.
One gasped.
The sound was sharp, clear, and for some insane reason, it rang in Kaito's ears like a bell.
Ding!
[GASP DETECTED: +5 fire attributes]
Kaito's soul nearly jumped out of his body. "W-What the hell was that!?"
No one else reacted. His classmates just kept chatting, scrolling through phones, or pulling last-minute homework. Only him.
"Whoa…" a girl near the back whispered, her eyes wide. "Is it just me, or is Tanaka… kind of hot today?"
Another frowned, squinting suspiciously. "Wait, has he always looked like that? I swear he didn't."
Kaito's brain short-circuited. Hot? Me? Did I fall into a parallel universe where being mediocre is attractive?
Before he could process, heavy footsteps approached.
Yuna. His childhood friend. The girl who'd once shoved him into a pond for calling her "flat" back in elementary school. Her arms were crossed tight, her expression somewhere between annoyed and… embarrassed? Her cheeks were suspiciously pink.
"…Kaito," she said, glaring at him like he'd committed a crime. "Did you do something to your face?"
"What? No! This is my face!"
She leaned in closer, eyes scanning him like she was about to file a police report. Then she muttered under her breath, just loud enough for him to hear:
"…Seriously, when did you get this fine?"
Ding!
[MULTIPLE GASPS DETECTED: +15 fire attributes + 5 mana points]
[Fire Attribute: 120]
[Mana: 25]
Kaito staggered, gripping his desk like it was the last lifeboat on the Titanic. Heat surged under his skin, spreading like fire through his veins. His heart pounded, his breath hitched. Nobody else seemed to hear it. Nobody else noticed the invisible notifications flashing before his eyes.
Just him.
Kaito Tanaka, background extra, invisible nerd…
…was suddenly the main character of something insane.
And he had the distinct, terrifying feeling that his day was only going to get worse.
The classroom atmosphere had just started to settle when the doors slammed open.
Bang!
Every head turned instantly. A path cleared through the room as if invisible hands were sweeping desks and bodies aside.
Riku Kanzaki had arrived.
Tall. Broad-shouldered. Perfect hair that somehow looked wind-blown indoors. His uniform was worn just loose enough to look rebellious but polished enough to make girls swoon. And behind him, like shadows orbiting a sun, came his three ever-present cohorts: Taro, Jun, and Keisuke. Together, they looked less like students and more like a delinquent boyband.
"Move," Riku said casually, and students moved. Nobody argued with him. Not when he was the strongest of the first-years. An A-rank fire mage, blessed with talent and power that made teachers brag about him in the faculty lounge.
By comparison…
Kaito Tanaka: F-rank fire mage. Bottom of the barrel. The guy everyone forgot existed unless they needed someone to copy homework from.
Riku's sharp gaze swept the room before locking onto him. A grin curved across his lips.
"Hey, Tanaka." His voice carried easily, smooth and mocking. "I saw you slipping out of class yesterday. During history. While everyone else was actually learning."
Kaito froze mid-sip of water, nearly choking.
Riku took a slow step forward, the floor practically trembling with the weight of his arrogance. "So tell me, where did you go? Oh—" He snapped his fingers, pretending to realize something. "Wait, don't tell me. You went to meet your fellow non-existent, F-rank friends, right?"
The room erupted in laughter.
Chairs rattled, desks banged, and even a few teachers passing by poked their heads in, smirking at the spectacle.
Kaito's face burned. His grip tightened around his desk, knuckles white.
Normally, he would've laughed awkwardly, shrugged, and prayed for invisibility. But for the first time in his life, he didn't just want to hide. He wanted to say something back. He wanted to act.
And judging by Riku's smug grin, he wasn't going to leave until he humiliated him properly. But unlike what was expected, Kaito noticed that Riku's gaze wasn't on him, but on someone else beside him. And the person…?? Yuna!