Something was off.
Gojo Satoru had felt that unease for a long time.
The large-scale terrorist attacks against Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu Technical High School, himself included.
The security that was being breached far too easily.
And above all,
the enemies who kept showing up at every destination, as if some curse had settled over them.
Even the incident during the exchange event, when someone broke through Tengen’s barrier and infiltrated the interior of the Hongseong Palace, had been strange.
Hanami’s origin in the forest had certainly helped it exploit the barrier’s weakness, but the placement of personnel and the timing of the Curtain were too perfect.
It looked as if they were tracking this side’s movements.
Absolutely not normal. Something was wrong.
There was a traitor selling out Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu Technical High School’s information.
That was Gojo Satoru’s conclusion.
He had suspected there might be an informant even before the exchange event, but after that he became even more certain.
He had his clan investigate the upper brass, who had always been at odds with them, and one suspicious man turned up with a recent pattern of strange destinations.
And that man was a hunchback with a spine bent by nature.
At that point, he could roughly guess the terms of the deal.
He was probably trading information in exchange for treatment through that ragged curse user Mahito’s technique.
He had sold out promising young students to danger just to preserve his old body.
Exactly the kind of rotten-mandarin behavior you’d expect from someone who cared about nothing but self-preservation.
Once he understood the situation, Gojo quietly dealt with him, but it was only a stopgap.
The Zenin and Kamo clans, excluding the Gojo clan, still supported the upper brass.
Even if he quietly buried the man in an “accident,” they’d just seat someone similar in his place.
There was no guarantee there was only one informant, either, so it had been little more than an act of frustration.
The dead man’s sphere of activity wasn’t very wide. He had almost no ties to the Tokyo side of the school, so there was no way he could have passed along such detailed information himself.
There had to be a middleman.
Someone who stayed close to the students, gathered information, and passed it on to the upper brass’s informant.
The real traitor.
It wasn’t the Tokyo students.
The third-years were suspended and had temporarily left the jujutsu world, so they were out of the question.
As for the second-years, looking at each of their circumstances, there wasn’t a single reason any of them would betray anyone. None of them were the type to excel at espionage or subterfuge, either.
The first-years were always together, so even if they didn’t want to know, they’d end up knowing anyway.
That naturally shifted the candidates over to the Kyoto students.
There was no hard proof, but that was something he could investigate from here on out.
As he eliminated each possibility one by one, one suspicious figure remained.
A person who had lost all physical ability due to a Heavenly Restriction.
A person who boasted near-omnipotence in surveillance and communication thanks to a puppet-manipulation technique that covered all of Japan.
Mechamaru.
Muta Kokiichi.
--------------------------------
“There’s an informant selling Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu Technical High School’s information to the enemy.”
“.....?”
“Go catch him. Utahime will go with you.”
“That’s it? We just heard something huge, didn’t we?”
“He was sleeping so confidently, I thought it wasn’t a big deal......”
After hearing Gojo’s brief briefing, the four first-years of Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu Technical High School headed toward Utahime.
“This way.”
Utahime waved at them from afar in the rain.
After entering the building, they went down to the basement while she explained the situation.
For now, he was only a suspect, so the goal was capture and interrogation.
Since he was a Kyoto student, the Tokyo students had been dispatched.
If there was an unregistered puppet of a very small size, communication and information leakage would be entirely possible.
He had long wanted to heal the penalty of Heavenly Restriction.
“Yeah, if it’s Mahito’s Idle Transfiguration, it might be possible.”
Idle Transfiguration was a vicious technique that could turn a person into a half-broken wreck with a single touch, but its versatility wasn’t limited to destruction.
In the end, its essence was “transformation.” The better it broke things, the better it could fix them.
If it had been given to someone decent instead of Mahito, it probably would have been used for healing.
Muta Kokiichi, Mechamaru’s true body, had no right arm or anything below the knee, and his skin was said to be extremely fragile.
It had managed to manipulate a complex brain structure in an instant, so that much would be child’s play.
Junpei’s feelings were a little complicated.
He was angry that the guy had sold him and his friends out, putting them in danger of death, but...
He couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to be born disabled.
Muta Kokiichi had spent seventeen years in a bathtub that came up to his waist.
He couldn’t bask in the sun, couldn’t walk, and couldn’t go outside to meet people directly.
The little more than one-pyeong space that protected his frail body was both a nest and a prison.
But what if there were hope of escaping it right in front of him?
He would surely sell his soul to the devil.
Because humans are creatures that hunger even more for what they can’t have.
And Muta Kokiichi was, above all, deeply human.
(Here.)
Lost in thought as they walked, they had already arrived in front of the room where Muta Kokiichi lived.
Megumi and Junpei formed hand signs and summoned their shikigami, while Nobara fished out her hammer and entered combat stance.
At the front of their naturally formed line, Yuji infused his fist with cursed energy and knocked on the door.
Boom!
The iron door caved in and flew away with a deafening crash.
For a moment, their tension gave way to blank disbelief at the barren scene inside.
There was nothing there.
All that remained was a shabby chair barely fit for one person to sit on.
“We’re too late.”
“But on the other hand—”
“So this confirms it was Mechamaru?”
“We have to assume so.”
While the hollow conversation went back and forth, Utahime let out a sorrowful sigh.
“Haa......”
“Utahime-sensei?”
“Are you okay?”
“.....I’m fine. I’ve shown a pathetic side of myself. Let’s go back.”
“Aren’t we going to look for any traces?”
“If he moved not only the life-support system but all the puppets he had with him too, then we’re already far too late. That kid is meticulous to the bone, so he wouldn’t have left any traces behind. There’s nothing we can do.”
Muttering bitterly, Utahime turned her back, and the children followed after her.
All the way to the car, Utahime never once looked back.
What had her betrayed student been thinking?
He was such a quiet, serious kid that she had never realized how desperate he was.
“Muta.....”
Why did you do it?
Why?
Couldn’t you trust us more?
Were we really that unreliable?
If I had paid you a little more attention, would this never have happened?
I’m sorry. For not noticing.
At least send word whether you’re dead or alive.
Her empty questions echoed inside her mouth.
-------------------------------
Meanwhile, at that very moment.
Muta Kokiichi was welcoming guests in a hideout he had secretly prepared.
“Hurry up, you piece of trash.”
“Be grateful, you lower-than-trash bastard.”
Paaaat
As Mahito’s hand touched him, his ruined body began to bloom anew.
Skin that had been rotting even under moonlight became the skin of an ordinary human being.
Fresh flesh sprouted where his right arm and leg had never existed.
After a short while, there was no patient left in that place.
Instead, there stood a young man with a neat tied-back ponytail, looking down at his new body in wonder and flexing his right arm this way and that to savor the sensation.
The skin that met the light pouring in through the open door no longer hurt.
A cold metallic sensation ran through the soles of his feet planted on the floor.
Still half-convinced it might be a dream, he bounced lightly in place, but everything remained firmly attached.
The normal body he had always dreamed of.
He had lived locked away for seventeen years as the price of being given talent.
Even if he had to give up that advantage, he wanted an ordinary life.
With his comrades,
with his teacher,
with the lover he loved.....
His dream was fulfilled here.
“You’re not very cute. Why don’t you look happier?”
Mahito clicked his tongue at Muta’s unexpectedly calm reaction.
“That’s.... after the job is done.”
The “bond” that said he would repair Muta’s body in exchange for information had already ended.
There was no more cooperation now.
What remained was only the slaughter between sorcerer and curse.
“Fair enough. That makes sense. Then.....”
Shall we begin?
As Mahito transformed both hands, Muta’s puppets rushed at him, and the battle began.
Crash!
Mahito’s enlarged left arm swept through and scattered Muta’s puppets.
Mahito turned his head this way and that, searching for his opponent, but Muta had already vanished from sight.
“Did he run? Well, I guess there’s no reason to fight. But right now I’d rather have a battle than a hunt.....”
Rumble......
“De.”
The ground beneath Mahito collapsed, and the entire base exploded.
Soaked through with water, Mahito dashed outside, and before his eyes a massive figure rose up through the center of the lake.
Ultimate Mechamaru 0 Mode: Absolute.
“Hah, nice. So you were secretly making something like this. You weren’t just living as some shut-in loner after all.”
Mahito’s gaze drifted toward the cockpit in the giant’s head, where Muta Kokiichi was probably located.
From the head of the armored puppet, Muta watched him through the display screen as well.
“You’re no Gojo Satoru.”
A Curtain was deployed.
Escape was impossible, and even radio waves were blocked, cutting off all contact with the outside.
The victory condition was contact with Gojo Satoru.
Somehow, he had to get in touch with him, deliver the Shibuya plan, and request protection.
So if he could break through the Curtain, I win.
But Mahito was too dangerous to ignore while focusing on the Curtain and Geto, who was controlling it.
The odds were slim, but it could be done.
Seventeen years, five months, and six days of being locked away.
Even through those hellish moments, my power had been steadily building.
I’ll pour everything into this.
And then I’ll go back.
Back to everyone.
--------------------------------
Hey, Mechamaru.
“Charge one year! Ultra Cannon! Burn him to ashes, Mechamaru!”
Boom!
Can I come visit you in the hospital this time?
“Charge two years, Miracle Cannon!”
Boom!
Ever since we played baseball at the exchange event... I feel like I’ve gotten a lot closer to the others.
“I’ve got four chances...! I’ll finish this in one shot!”
Bang!
“I’m telling you, it’s pointless. What the hell have you been looking at all this time..... huh?”
Maybe because sorcerer is the kind of job it is,
up until now, even when we were close, there was always some line we kept between us.
“Charge five years! Secret Viola!”
Crash! Crash! Crash!
“Oh? Depending on the situation, right here and now.....”
“Take this!”
“Domain Expansion.”
<u>-Self-Embodiment of Perfection
“All right, this is the end.”
“I’m going to meet everyone!”
When you get too close to someone, it hurts when they disappear.
Thud
“Hah?!”
“New Shadow Style. Simple Domain.”
But I like the way we are now.
That day, Mechamaru didn’t get to join the baseball game, did he?
“Woooooah!!!!”
“Simple Domain...!”
“That’s the end of watching from the other side, Geto! Mechamaru, fire!”
Boom
“Mahito?”
Kreeeeek
Didn’t I manage to stop him? But there’s still one Simple Domain left! I’ll drive it in myself and finish him off!
Come on, Mahito.
“I want to get closer to you too.”
I’ll win and go back with my head held high.
Back to everyone!
“And then...!”
“So...”
To you too, Miwa.
“I’ll definitely come see you someday.”
............
Sorry.
Miwa.
I don’t think I’ll be able to keep my promise.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register