Night fell.
Hayashi En was sitting in the shop, a transparent screen in his hand.
Multiple arcs on the screen converged at a single point.
That was Mechamaru—the hiding place of Muta Kokichi.
At this point in time, Muta Kokichi had already sold out the information regarding Jujutsu High to the cursed spirits.
Hayashi En originally wanted to find him as quickly as possible to stop his actions, but the boy was hidden too well; it was only today, with the help of system items, that he finally located him.
Hayashi En pulled out a black card, and after a minute of chanting...
A flash of black light passed, and Hayashi En vanished from the shop.
...
A hidden corner of Kyoto Jujutsu High.
This was a warehouse where discarded cursed corpses and mechanical parts were piled, a place few people ever visited. The air was thick with the scent of machine oil and dust, along with a faint hint of mold.
"Creeeak—"
Hayashi En pushed open the rusted iron door, carrying a warm yellow storm lantern.
The dim light flickered, casting his shadow long and thin.
"Come out."
Hayashi En's voice echoed in the empty warehouse, calm and certain.
"I know you're here, Muta Kokichi-kun."
Dead silence.
Only the sobbing of the wind through the window cracks remained.
There was no response.
"Or should I call you 'Ultimate Mechamaru'?"
Hayashi En wasn't embarrassed by the silence. He walked over to a corner of the warehouse where several broken puppets and a mess of tangled cables were piled.
"A 'Heavenly Restriction'—exchanging a physically frail body for immense cursed energy output."
"Despite possessing power far beyond your peers, your actual body can only lie in a sterile bathtub, where even skin contact with moonlight is as agonizing as being burned by fire..."
Hayashi En adjusted his glasses, the lenses reflecting cold light in the dimness.
"That feeling... it must be painful, right?"
Before he finished speaking—
"Clack."
From the shadows deep within the warehouse, the sound of machinery operating finally came.
A somewhat crudely designed humanoid puppet slowly walked out. It was a spare unit Mechamaru used for activities on campus, and it looked a bit worn.
Red light flickered in its electronic eyes, and a low, guarded male voice came through:
"Who are you?"
"How do you know my name? And my physical condition?"
Mechamaru's voice carried undisguised killing intent.
His real body was hidden in an extremely secluded location. Aside from the principal and a few high-ranking officials, no one knew his true identity or position, let alone the details of his Heavenly Restriction.
This man who had suddenly appeared... was dangerous.
"I'm a merchant."
Hayashi En pulled over a dusty old chair and sat down, his posture relaxed, completely ignoring the other's hostility.
"Don't be so nervous. I'm not interested in your secrets; I'm only interested in a 'transaction'."
"A transaction?"
Mechamaru sneered, his voice coming through the speaker with a bit of electronic static.
"I have nothing to trade with a suspicious guy like you."
"If you don't want to die, leave this place immediately."
The puppet raised its arm, and the cannon in its palm glowed faintly with cursed energy.
"Really?"
Hayashi En didn't move; he just pulled a photo from his pocket and placed it gently on the ground.
In the photo was a girl with long blue hair, smiling warmly at the camera.
Miwa Kasumi.
Boom—!
Mechamaru's machine frame shuddered violently, and the red electronic eyes flared brightly, as if overloaded by an electrical current.
The cursed energy originally gathering in its palm instantly dissipated.
"You..."
Mechamaru's voice became rapid and angry, as if a raw nerve had been touched.
"What do you want to do?!"
"If you dare touch a single hair on her head... I will kill you!!"
"Calm down."
Hayashi En shrugged.
"I just want to ask you a question."
Hayashi En pointed to the photo on the ground, his gaze deepening.
"What if I said I have a way for you to see her with your 'real body'?"
"Not through this cold machinery, but with your own two feet, standing in the sunlight, holding her hand."
The warehouse fell into dead silence once more.
Only the sound of gears turning inside Mechamaru was exceptionally clear.
After a long while.
"What nonsense are you talking about?!"
Mechamaru's voice carried a hint of a tremor—a form of hysteria after being poked in his sore spot.
"My body... that's a Heavenly Restriction that not even Reversed Cursed Technique can heal!"
"In this world, besides a monster like Mahito who can change souls, no one can cure me!"
He was a mole.
The reason he sold Jujutsu High's information to the cursed spirit group was to obtain Mahito's Idle Transfiguration to heal his body.
This was his only hope.
"Exactly."
Hayashi En nodded, not refuting it.
"Mahito can indeed heal you."
"But, Muta Kokichi-kun, do you really trust cursed spirits?"
Hayashi En stood up and walked step by step toward the trembling puppet.
"Mahito's Idle Transfiguration is, in essence, a forced distortion of the soul."
"He can indeed give you a healthy body, but at what cost? Your soul will be polluted, and you'll become his plaything."
"Furthermore..."
Hayashi En stopped in front of the puppet, looking down into those red electronic eyes.
"Do you think those cursed spirits will let you go the moment you truly recover your body?"
"They'll kill you, and they might even kill that girl you want to protect."
Mechamaru fell silent.
This was his deepest fear.
As a mole, he had been walking a tightrope, gambling his life every day. He knew he was playing with fire, but he had no choice.
"But I am different."
Hayashi En reached out, a faint cursed energy light flickering at his fingertips.
"I don't need to distort your soul."
"Remember Maki?"
"That bottom-tier failure the Zenin family considers trash."
Hayashi En smiled.
"Just a few days ago, she was a weakling who couldn't even defeat a Grade 2 curse."
"But as you saw today, she suppressed your classmate Mai using nothing but physical strength."
"I did that."
Mechamaru snapped his head up.
He had seen Maki's changes clearly through the miniature surveillance puppets he left near Mai.
That kind of transformative power... that sense of lightness as if freed from a curse...
"How did you do it?"
Mechamaru's voice trembled—the longing of a drowning man seeing a piece of driftwood.
"This is my 'merchandise'."
Hayashi En pulled a glass bottle filled with black liquid from his pocket—the cursed energy residue extracted from Maki's body.
"I can strip away the negative effects brought by a 'Heavenly Restriction'."
"Of course, your situation is much more complex than Maki's."
"To be fully healed requires time and an expensive price."
"However..."
Hayashi En put the glass bottle away and looked at Mechamaru.
"I can give you a 'sample' first."
"To allow you to escape that damn life-support system for a short time and walk out of that dark room on your own two feet."
"Even if it's only for ten minutes."
"Want to try?"
Temptation.
It was an irresistible temptation.
For a boy imprisoned in darkness for over a decade, even one minute of freedom—even just to see the sun with his own eyes and see the girl he liked...
He would give up his soul for that without hesitation.
"I..."
Mechamaru's voice became raspy, with a hint of a sob.
"What do I need to pay?"
"It's simple."
Hayashi En produced a contract and placed it before the puppet.
"First, stop providing information to those cursed spirits. Or rather... only provide the information I allow you to."
"Second, continue to cooperate in the events to follow."
Hayashi En leaned close to the puppet's ear and whispered a few words.
Mechamaru's electronic eyes flickered several times, seemingly weighing the options.
After a long time.
The puppet reached out its cold mechanical hand and pressed it onto the contract.
"Deal."
"If you can really cure me... what harm is there in giving you this life of mine."
Hayashi En tucked the contract away with satisfaction.
[SYSTEM: Contract transaction complete!]
[SYSTEM: Obtained item: Long-term cooperation with Muta Kokichi.]
[SYSTEM: Service revenue: 15,000 points.]
[SYSTEM: One-time rule execution cost: 7,000 points.]
[SYSTEM: Net profit: 8,000 points.]
"A wise choice."
"Now, as a down payment..."
Hayashi En exchanged for a bottle of Life Support Potion (Potent Version) from the system mall and placed it in the puppet's hand.
[SYSTEM: Item Name: Life Support Potion (Potent Version)]
[SYSTEM: Price: 1,000 points.]
[SYSTEM: Effect: Briefly relieves physical pain, maintains vital signs, allows survival for 1 hour even away from life-support equipment.]
[SYSTEM: Current Balance: 20,240 points]
"Tonight, you can have a beautiful dream."
"In the dream, you can stand in the sunlight and hold her hand."
With that, Hayashi En picked up the storm lantern and turned to leave.
Along with the sound of the iron door closing.
Dead silence returned to the warehouse.
Mechamaru looked at the potion in his hand and then at the photo on the ground.
Red light flickered in the electronic eyes.
"A real... body?"
He gripped the potion tightly.
"Miwa..."
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