Yu had to admit that he planned on trying to find these three who seemed to be in on some secret.
However it was clear that whatever was going on, they had decided to leave as soon as possible, which in turn made finding them an almost impossible task in a city the size of Tokyo.
So he didn't try.
Instead he simply got on his scooter and drove off.
The problem was that he didn't want to go home yet, so what else could he do.
Ah, of course, he could go and watch a movie.
With his mind made up, he proceeded to travel towards the only cinema he knew the location of in Tokyo, ready to spend an evening watching whatever new release had come out.
XXX XXX XXX
"Are you sure?" a rather scruffy looking man with dark hair and rectangular glasses, dressed in a cheap suit asked Mariya Yuri as she sat in seiza position at her temple, her heart beating faster than normal due to the horrific circumstances.
A Heretic God was one thing to have rampaging in the city but to have two Campione in the same school as each other was another all together.
"Yes, he was definitely a Campione," she stated with the poise and dignity someone of her station was expected to possess despite her current unease.
"Do you know anything else about him?" the scruffy man inquired, unlike her, he seemed to be completely unaffected by the news, then again, he wasn't exactly normal at the best of times.
"Only his hair colour and that he looks to be around eighteen years old," she admitted, as she thought back on what she had seen of him.
That stare that she couldn't read, that complete lack of reaction towards Voban's name… she was certain he was either extremely powerful or extremely arrogant if he could dismiss that man's name so easily.
It was likely arrogance from becoming a Campione.
But an arrogant Campione is still a Campione and so far beyond human capabilities that a fly is closer to matching a human than a human is to matching a Campione.
Well, outside of a few notable exceptions anyway.
But even these exceptions were still little more than wasps to a Campione and they were few and far between, let alone numerous enough to be a danger to one.
"Well, let's see…" the dark haired man muttered as he looked at something on his phone, "ah, I think this person fits your description."
And so he showed the Hime-miko the profile that he had managed to get sent to his phone.
"Yes, that's him," she stated with utmost confidence, earning a small frown off the man.
"Name, Yu Narukami, age, eighteen, previous school, Yasogami High, Inaba," the man started listing off, "top of his year in exams, the star of the basketball team, member of the drama club, took three part time jobs, caretaker at the local kindergarten, janitor at the local hospital and private tutor to a middle school boy… also very social, an overachiever if I ever saw one."
"You don't look happy about that," Mariya stated calmly, honestly what she had just heard sounded like a rather reliable person, she just hoped he hadn't let his power go to his head.
"The problem is that he came from Inaba," the bespectacled man stated calmly, earning a look of confusion from the teenage girl, "last year there were three murders and five kidnappings there."
"That's horrible," Yuri stated in disgust at the facts she had just been told.
"The thing is, that the culprit was eventually apprehended but the method he used to commit the murders is still a mystery," he admitted easily, "we always thought it was just some random serial killer but now, knowing that this boy is a Campione… it's put some doubt in my mind about the credibility of that assumption."
"You think he may have used his power to do such things?" she asked him with a fear of the unknown Campione once more stirring in her blood.
"Maybe, or maybe the incident was caused by the God he killed," the messy haired adult said with a shrug, "it could even be that I'm looking too far into it and it was just some random serial killer with no abilities."
And thus the two went back to silence.
"Are you going to contact Narukami-san and see what organisations he has had contact with?" Mariya asked him seriously, after all, whenever a heretic god descended on the world there was always an organisation that noted their presence and while the History Compilation Committee may be the largest one in Japan, it certainly wasn't the only one.
And a Campione could possibly keep themselves under the radar through fear if they tried, especially against a smaller organisation.
After all, in a contest of angering all the worlds mages or angering a single Campione, the answer was always clear.
You anger the mages.
"I'll take to the chief first, see what she says," the bespectacled man stated calmly as he pulled out his phone and started pressing the screen to get his boss on the line, "with Kusanagi-san we chose you because of your relationship with his sister and because you attend the same school as him."
"For Narukami-san, we don't have any 'ins' like your connection to his sister, so it's probably better for a higher up to to see him, it's possible that she'll go and meet with him directly," and with a couple more presses he had finally finished getting his phone ready.
"I see," and so she waited for the man to update his superior and decide what his organisation would do next.
XXX XXX XXX
Yu had to admit, it was nice to watch a movie every now and then.
Even if it was so much better going with a friend.
Of course, the movie had finished over an hour ago and he had returned home after getting some fried chicken.
He was actually rather happy his parents didn't spend much time at home, it meant that he had the whole apartment to himself during most of his stay, which in turn meant he could do whatever homework he had in the lounge without any actual distractions.
Which was exactly what he was doing right now.
Pretty much every subject was so easy that he barely had to think about the answers, then again with his knowledge base and ability to understand things easily, it would be a bigger surprise if he struggled at his homework.
It was also a surprise when the doorbell rang at around half nine, making the grey haired teen look up from giving his work a final look over before he rose from his seat and switched to a persona with null sleep, just in case he met anyone that tried to knock him out.
What greeted him upon opening the door was someone about his age, with shoulder length red hair and a serious expression on her face.
"Yu Narukami-sama," immediately the transfer student knew something wasn't right, nobody referred to him in such a respectful tone, "my name is Sayanomiya Kaoru and I am here on behalf of the History Compilation Committee."
"Sorry, but I'm not interested in whatever you're selling," he responded calmly as he prepared himself to close the door.
"I'm not here to sell anything," her response seemed almost annoyed but he barely noticed it, meaning they were hiding it rather well, "I'm here to ask you about certain event's that my organisation believes you have been involved in."
Yu found himself raising an eyebrow at this persons tone and the way they talked about knowing something to do with him.
"And what sort of events are you planning on asking about?" he asked, curious as to what he was dealing with right now.
"Event's that we believe may have occurred in Inaba," at that statement, Yu knew this wasn't just some salesperson, if they knew about him living in Inaba then it was likely that their organisation really was a genuine thing.
"Alright," the grey haired teen stated with a sigh, "why don't you come in."
"Thank you for your time Narukami-sama," he found himself once again wondering why this person was talking to him with such a honourable suffix but decided to ignore it in favour of one simple question that popped into his mind.
"Can I ask a question without you taking offence at it?" he asked, earning a nod off the person as they passed him.
"It's about my gender isn't it," the knowing way Sayanomiya said that sentence made it clear it was a normal occurrence.
"You are a girl aren't you?" he could see a small hint of surprise flash across their face before it was buried as if it had never been there to begin with, the sheer speed and efficiency with which the person did it let him know he was dealing with someone that was good at hiding their intentions.
"I'm surprised, most people ask if I'm a boy," the redhead said calmly, "but yes, I am a girl. I am curious as to how you realised so quickly."
"Back at my previous school I had a good friend who dressed as a boy and you reminded me of her," he didn't see any real point in keeping that fact away, it wasn't like it was going to make any difference to whatever this person wanted.
"I see," the woman responded, clearly understanding his belief that she was a woman now that he had told her.
Closing the door and turning around to face the woman he was surprised to see her standing next to a sofa without moving to take a seat.
"Feel free to take a seat, do you want any tea?" he asked her pleasantly, earning a much larger look of surprise off her, "is something wrong?"
As soon as he asked the look was gone and the calm and collected individual from before was once more looking back at him.
"My apologies, I was simply unprepared to be asked such a question," her tone was firm and completely calm as she explained her shock away so easily, "but, no thank you, I do not wish to inconvenience you."
Yu found himself frowning at her reason for turning down a cup of tea but decided to ignore it, the way this woman had been talking ever since she arrived had been incredibly formal so he supposed there was some rather important reason this organisation wanted to speak to him.
"So tell me," he decided to ask lightly as he took a seat facing the androgynous female, "what is the History Compilation Committee?"
"We are an organisation whose main purpose is to monitor and ensure that all supernatural activity in Japan is kept secret from the public."
Yu found himself frozen to the spot.
An organisation that deals with the supernatural and keeps it a secret from the public?
"And if you really are part of some organisation that deals with things like that, why have you come to me?" he really didn't know what to do right now, he thought only the rest of the investigation team actually knew about there being supernatural events going on in Inaba, but was he wrong?
"Because one of our associates at Jounan academy confirmed that you are a Campione," she stated with her usual air of calmness, "a God slayer."
Now he knew this wasn't a prank.
There was no way anyone would use such a ridiculous line if they were trying to pull a prank after all.
They would probably try and pull a Harry Potter and say 'you're a wizard Yu,' or something like that, but to say that he had killed a god meant that they actually knew such a thing was possible… though not necessarily permanent.
"How?" he didn't need to say anymore, the mere fact that he could be identified as having killed a god meant that they had some way of telling and he wanted to know what it was.
"There are some Hime-Miko with a skill known as spirit vision, I myself possess some skill in it, though the person that saw you possesses an unrivalled talent in the art, thus she was capable of identifying your nature on sight without trying," she informed him, making Yu nod his head in acknowledgement.
"So, why are you here? I'm not going to talk about things like that with those that aren't in the know so we shouldn't have any conflict right?" he asked, earning a furrowing of the redhead's brow.
"Tell me, am I the first member of a mages association you've been approached by?" Kaoru asked him earning a nod of acknowledgement in return.
"That doesn't' make any sense," her expression went from serious to obviously concerned upon hearing that piece of information, "if a Heretic God descended to the world then they should've been picked up by at least one association."
"I don't know about Heretic, but the deity I killed did split herself into four pieces and focus her power on creating and maintaining another world, accessible via TV's," he decided to try and help her out, apparently what he said made things fit into place for her as she let out a sigh of acknowledgement.
"Yes, I guess that could explain why we didn't pick up on it," she gave a nod and then decided to ask one simple question, "so what was the name of the God you killed?"
"Izanami-no-Okami," he could see shock appear on the redhead's face once more and it stayed there longer than before but was eventually squashed down by her calm demeanour.
"Well, I wasn't expecting your first god to be one like that," she admitted seriously, earning a small laugh off the male.
"Yeah and I wasn't expecting to meet a god but I did," he admitted with a shrug, earning a small smile off Sayanomiya.
"Well, I suppose it is my responsibility to let you know just what sort of position you're in right now," the HCC representative stated, causing Yu to raise his palm as a sign to wait.
"I don't know much but I do have a question before you start explaining things to me," he decided to ask, "do you have to talk so formally?"
"Does it displease you?" her response was measured and he found himself simply letting out a sigh at the way she said it.
"Well, no but I would feel more comfortable if you weren't quite so… formal," he admitted only to blink in surprise upon hearing a sigh of relief.
"I see, that's good, acting like that's a right pain in the ass," everything about her suddenly changed, her expression went from serious to relaxed, her posture went from rigid to loose, her tone went from no-nonsense to easygoing, all in all it was as if he was now talking to another person.
"So, since we're going to be more casual now, do you want any tea?" he decided to ask again, wondering if she had simply turned down his previous offer out of some need to appear completely serious about the subject at hand.
"Nah, it wouldn't feel right to have a King serve me tea," the flippant way she made her statement caught the grey haired boy off guard as he processed exactly what she said.
"Wait, what do you mean 'King'?" he asked cautiously, earning a grin off her in response.
"Exactly that, since no one can stand up to a Campione, it's accepted that they are the highest authorities in the world, higher than any government or corporation," the redhead told him with a grin, "makes me happy to know that you're a decent guy."
Yu found himself frowning at that, so these people just accepted Campione as a higher authority than them without even trying to fight back?
"But surely one person can't stand against an entire country," he said with conviction in his tone, earning a sad smile from the representative.
"The last time people tried to fight against a Campione… an army of fifty thousand was slaughtered in less than an hour and the Campione left without a single scratch… that was over one hundred years ago," the way she said it made it clear to him that she wasn't exaggerating the numbers, that an army of fifty thousand really was annihilated by a single person.
And he apparently held that sort of power.
"There are only two things that can fight a Campione," she didn't get a chance to finish her statement as he already predicted it.
"Gods and other Campione… right?" the nod of acknowledgement he received was completely expected given what he had just learned.
"Yeah, I'll admit, most Campione are the type of people you want to stay out of the way of but aren't particularly bad," the woman told him calmly, "there is only really one exception but he's considered to be the oldest and strongest Campione out of them all so fighting him is a foolish endeavour, even for another Campione."
"I see… so what else can you tell me about Campione in general?" he definitely needed knowledge if he wanted to understand his current position, that was one of the things that truly made itself clear in his mind.
"Well, their bodies are much stronger than a normal human's, they are quicker to heal and the most important part, the bit that puts them so far beyond regular mages… is the authorities they have usurped," her words made him furrow his brow at using the word 'authorities' in that sentence, "we call the magic of the Gods 'authorities', since it is a natural part of their nature and they don't need to learn anything to use them… the same applies to the Campione that usurped their authorities."
That made him think, what was he capable of doing if he wanted to? These 'authorities' were supposedly something that came naturally to anyone that held them so why hadn't he noticed these abilities before?
He decided to focus inwards, looking at his personae, only to stop focusing on them for once and instead looking for anything else within him that could possibly count as one of these usurped abilities.
A thick fog, a thousand curses, a storm of lightning, eyes that could reduce even the strongest of humans to within an inch of their life… all in all, he could now see every ability he had faced when fighting Izanami.
Which meant they had always been there within him, somewhere he never thought to look, like he had gained another heart, it was something that was obvious when you looked for it but wasn't noticeable if you didn't even consider its existence.
And he knew how to enact them all.
It was no wonder these mages were scared of Campione, using any of those powers would put him beyond practically every human around.
Hell, if it hadn't been for Izanami taking the group so easily to begin with and him unlocking his ultimate persona, which just so happened to be designed to defeat her and he was certain they would've lost badly.
They almost had even when she hadn't been taking them seriously.
"I see… I never thought about anything like that so I never noticed," he decided to let her know about his lack of consideration about his own power.
Even if his power did explain how he could use his personae without the fog.
Because he wasn't.
It now made sense, since he was now the source of the fog, all of his personae was constantly under its effects and therefore just as effortless to summon as they had been in the midnight channel.
"So, is there anything else I need to know?" he asked calmly, sure he may have been getting some rather unexpected surprises just now but he was more than capable of handling a lot more.
"That you're not the only Campione in Japan," that was to be expected, for her to have so much information on the people who killed gods there clearly had to be more than just him, "and it just so happens that the other one goes to the same school as you."
Yu had to raise an eyebrow at that information, he hadn't expected there to be another one so close to him.
"And how many Campione are there in the world?" he wondered just how high the number actually was for two such people to learn at the same school.
"Including yourself… there are currently eight known Campione in the world," the shrug she gave at that information made him blink, he had expected there to be more than that but quickly shook his head.
"There is one other thing," the redhead started, making him look at her rather calmly, "while you're now considered a King, there is one thing that the people expect of you… you are to slay any Heretic Gods that descend on the world."
"Huh? Sorry, but can you explain what you mean by Heretic God?" he definitely needed an explanation for that one, that much was for certain.
"Alright, how's the best way to put this… Gods come from myths and legends right?" he nodded, wondering exactly why she was trying to dumb it down for him, "well, these myths and legends are an actual place… well, not actually a place but…"
"A metaphysical area that exists within the collective human psyche?" he decided to have a shot at guessing exactly what she meant and given how myths and legends tend to be told by people… well he thought it would only be natural that if they existed anywhere it was probably linked to human conscious.
"Yeah, that's right," the smile she wore when she said that made it clear that she hadn't expected him to get it, much less on such a small amount of information, "anyway, sometimes Gods will grow tired of their legends and manifest in the real world, when they do they bring calamity, like how if a God of the ocean appears, there will be massive floods."
Yu nodded at that, she didn't really need to explain anymore but there was one thing he wanted to make clear.
"Alright, I understand what you're asking of me and I will help you deal with these Heretic Gods if they show up and cause harm to people," the emphasis he put on the word and made the redhead blink and look at him questioningly, "I told you before tha Izanami split herself into four pieces right? Well one of those pieces was left in the form of a human with no memory of anything except language."
"She became someone very close to me and then when she finally remembered her purpose and what she was… she tried to die to protect me, my friends and the rest of the world from her power running awry," he explained, earning a look of shock off the representative, "we managed to stop her and she continued to live on until we defeated Izanami."
"She left the world to learn how to control the power that she was forced to house when the other parts of her were defeated," he explained, noting the look of shock on the redheads face, "if a god like her, who just wants to live a normal life appears, I won't kill them, no matter how much anyone tries to make me."
"I understand, honestly I'm finding what you're saying really hard to believe but I won't argue with you since I wasn't there," she said with a shrug, earning a snort of amusement off the persona user.
"So do you have anything else you need to tell me?" he asked, earning another shrug off the representative.
"Nothing of vital importance that can't wait for another day," she said with a wry grin, "besides, surely all work and no play isn't any way to live," the way she nodded towards his homework that was strewn across the table, earning a shrug off the greying teen.
"I went to the local cinema and got some KFC before coming back so it's barely taken me an hour to do this," he informed her casually, earning a few blinks of surprise in return.
"Really? Damn, you must work fast," she admitted with a hint of disbelief in her tone.
"There was a reason I was the top of my year in my previous schools," the wry grin he wore when he said that only made her chuckle and shake her head.
"Well, if you're so damn good then why not give me a hand with my own?" she asked with a laugh.
"Sure, just don't expect me to do it for you," the god slayer said without dropping his grin.
"Well, I didn't bring it with me so we'll have to wait for another day," the way she shook her head made it clear to him that she hadn't expected him to actually accept her joking request for help, "if you have any more questions, feel free to give me or any of my associates a call."
He noted the business card she lay on his table, complete with several phone numbers and names adorning it.
"I'll be sure to do just that," he informed her as he pocketed the card, he would probably put the numbers in his phone later but for now he would just put it away.
"Well, I'll see you sooner or later Yu-san," and with a simple wave over her shoulder, the redhead left the apartment.
With her no longer around, it was time for him to do something he felt he had to do now that he'd learned something so important.
Pulling out his phone, he scrolled through the numbers and selected the first that he would call and put it to his ear.
"Hey Yosuke, you'll never believe what I've just found out."