Chapter 136 - Mechamaru's Counterattack, Toji to the Rescue

The moment that name came out, Toji understood. Puppet Manipulation.

Satoru Gojo stood up. "If my deduction is correct, his real body should still be in the underground facility at Kyoto School. We have to drag him out before he causes any more damage."

"Let's go."

The surrounding space twisted. The scene shifted. They were already standing at Kyoto Jujutsu High. Satoru Gojo strode forward, heading straight for the heavy alloy door. He pressed his palm flat against the metal.

"Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue."

BOOM!

A circular hole the height of a man punched clean through the door. Behind it was the life-support chamber housing Kokichi Muta's real body. But the confrontation they'd expected never came. The cultivation tank had already split down the middle. Countless cables dangled loose, torn from their moorings. They were too late.

Satoru Gojo walked slowly into the chamber, crouched down, and pinched a severed cable off the floor. At the broken end, a trace of familiar Cursed Energy still clung. Idle Transfiguration.

"It's Mahito." Toji frowned.

He'd already checked the entire chamber. No signs of a struggle. Not one. That meant Kokichi Muta had gone willingly. Satoru Gojo rose to his feet, his expression dark enough to kill. He activated his Six Eyes and began tracking the trail of Cursed Energy.

At the bottom of a desolate, remote dam. A massive glass cultivation tank sat filled with dark green liquid. Submerged inside it was a body wrapped in bandages and bristling with tubes. Kokichi Muta. A figure stood before the tank, wearing a smile that was innocent and cruel in equal measure.

"Time to fulfill the contract. Happy?"

He raised one hand, palm aimed at the cultivation tank. That soul-reshaping Cursed Energy began to pour in, slow and steady.

"Go on. Feel what it's like to have a healthy body."

The dark green liquid churned violently. Under the power of Idle Transfiguration, Kokichi Muta's broken, ravaged body began to remake itself. A dozen seconds later, a whole and healthy young man appeared inside the tank. Kokichi Muta opened his eyes. He clenched his fist and felt real muscle contract under real skin, the sensation of genuine strength. He could finally go see everyone.

Walk up to them on his own two feet. Hold her with his own two hands. Mahito watched with satisfaction.

"How does it feel? Pretty great, right?" He tilted his head. "Now then, the detailed intel on Satoru Gojo and that taijutsu monster..."

He never finished the sentence.

BOOM!

Kokichi Muta drove his fist straight through the thick reinforced glass. Mahito instinctively stepped back, a flicker of shock crossing his face. Kokichi Muta stepped out of the shattered cultivation tank, bare and exposed to the cold air. His face held no gratitude. Only killing intent, clean and absolute.

"The contract is already complete."

"I got a healthy body."

"In exchange, I did what you asked."

"From this moment on, I am no longer the mole 'Mechamaru.'"

"I am Kokichi Muta — a Jujutsu Sorcerer of Kyoto Jujutsu High."

"And I will exorcise every last one of you filthy Cursed Spirits right here."

Mahito's shock lasted exactly one second before it curdled into something unhinged. He loved surprises that threw out the script.

"Ha... hahahaha! Interesting! Now this is interesting!" He doubled over laughing, hands over his face. "With a body you haven't even broken in yet, you think you can kill me?"

"Won't know until I try."

Kokichi Muta's eyes went razor sharp. He threw his hand up. An immense surge of Cursed Energy erupted skyward.

BOOM!

The entire dam shook. Chunks of concrete rained down from the ceiling. Above the dam, the still water surface detonated, and a colossal shape tore up through it. A giant mech, roughly twenty stories tall. Heavy armor. Ferocious cannon barrels. A single eye burning red. Every line of it built to destroy.

"Ultimate Mechamaru — Absolute Form!"

"Come on, Mahito!"

"Let me show you just how heavy seventeen years of Cursed Energy really is!"

Mechamaru's colossal Absolute Form stood planted at the bottom of the dam. The heavy specialized armor on both shoulders snapped open, rows of honeycomb launchers packed dense beneath. Seventeen years of stored Cursed Energy was drawn out without a shred of reservation. High-energy beams converged at the main cannon on its chest with blinding speed. Over a hundred homing missiles loaded alongside them. Everything fired at once.

BOOM!

The heat bent the air into waves. The ground cratered meters deep in an instant. At the very center of the scorched earth, Mahito's body was nearly vaporized, nothing left but a dark red smear of pulped flesh. Kokichi Muta gripped the control levers. His eyes stayed locked on the screen. Did it work?

On the vital signs detector, the spectral outline of Mahito's soul hadn't dimmed in the slightest. The charred smear of flesh began to writhe. A pale arm stitched with suture scars pushed free of the ruin. Then a complete half-torso. Mahito rolled his newly regrown neck and grinned.

"Pretty impressive firepower."

He clapped his hands clean. Not a scratch on him.

"Too bad you ran into me. No physical method kills me, no matter how much you pour into it."

Mahito laced his fingers together.

"Playtime's over, mechanical bug."

"Domain Expansion — Self-Embodiment of Perfection!"

Black mire erupted and swallowed the thirty-meter-tall Mechamaru whole. The mecha's thick outer armor held without a dent. But the sure-hit effect punched straight through every physical defense like they weren't there. Countless pale arms sprouted from nothing inside the cramped cockpit, reaching for Kokichi Muta at the controls. One touch. That was all it would take to rewrite his soul.

Kokichi Muta shoved the control lever and activated his last line of defense.

"Simple Domain — activate!"

A translucent barrier flared to life around the seat and locked those pale arms out at half a meter. The energy drain was brutal. His Cursed Energy reserves burned off fast enough to watch. The pale arms tore at the barrier in a frenzy.

CRACK!

A sharp sound. Kokichi Muta looked up. A deep fissure split across the barrier's surface. Mahito's stitch-covered face appeared at the gap. A pale hand pierced through and stretched toward Kokichi Muta's face. Kokichi Muta stared at that hand. His eyes burned red at the rims. He'd only just gotten a healthy body. He hadn't even seen his Kyoto School companions with his own eyes yet.

And there was still Kasumi Miwa. The hand was less than ten centimeters from his face. Kokichi Muta squeezed his eyes shut. He pressed to transmit the intel and waited for the end. The black barrier above the dam let out a sound like a scream. Mahito's reaching hand froze. He looked up toward the barrier's dome.

"Eight Gates Released Formation: Fifth Gate, Gate of Limit, OPEN!"

A roar slammed down from the sky with enough force to rattle the bones. The sonic boom detonated overhead. The pale dome of Self-Embodiment of Perfection cracked under something hitting it from outside with pure, merciless brute force. Sunlight poured through the breach. A figure wreathed in dense green steam dropped through and landed in front of the cockpit.

"Using dirty tricks like that to cut short a young man's Youth Trial!"

Toji Fushiguro flashed a blinding white grin and gave Kokichi Muta a thumbs-up.

"You stitch-faced bastard, the sweat you've put in doesn't even make the grade!"

Toji's right foot lashed out. The air compressed under raw force and burst in a white shockwave. His foot, in a black cloth shoe, came in screaming and connected with Mahito's face. Half of Mahito's facial bones and his eyeball exploded on impact. Chunks of flesh scattered. His body launched backward and blew through three layers of concrete wall.

The black mire of Self-Embodiment of Perfection collapsed instantly. Mechamaru's colossal form stood undamaged where it was. But inside the cockpit, Kokichi Muta had already slipped into semi-consciousness, his Cursed Energy burned through to nothing. Deep in the rubble, something shifted.

Mahito dragged himself upright, his head half-caved in. Flesh and blood writhed and crawled back together. He split open what was left of his mouth and laughed, not scared, not even close. Completely unhinged.

"Hahahaha! Pure physical body! So this is the legendary Heavenly Restriction Tyrant?"

He was itching to get his hands on a soul that vivid. Then Kenjaku's warning flashed through his mind. Mahito swallowed the urge. His body began to dissolve into a pool of black viscous matter, seeping down into the cracks of the sewer.

"I really want to see what color your soul is, old man."

"But not today. Once the stage is ready, we'll have a proper play."

He laughed all the way into the sewage pipe and disappeared without a trace. Toji stood there and clicked his tongue. He released the Eight Gates Released Formation. The green steam around him thinned and faded.

If not for the half-dead kid at his back, he would have gone straight into that sewer, dragged that Cursed Spirit out by the neck, and given him a taijutsu lesson he'd never forget. Toji grabbed Kokichi Muta by the collar, hauled him out of the mecha, and tucked him under one arm. Barely any weight to him at all. Faint heartbeat. Face white as paper.

"Hey, kid. Your youth is just getting started, you don't get to go out like this."

Toji patted Kokichi Muta's face and pulled out his special communicator.

"Satoru. This kid's half a breath from dead. Sounds like there was a reason he became a mole. Get Shoko Ieiri ready at the operating table."

➤ Next: Plan Moved Forward Ahead of Schedule