Two days earlier.
“You’re sure your plan will work?”
There was almost no natural light inside the abandoned underground warehouse connected to the sewer system.
The only illumination came from a dim electric lamp and the faint red LEDs on the robot-shaped communicator, glowing like a pair of eyes.
Atsushi leaned back with both hands behind his head.
Then Mechamaru’s voice suddenly came through the communicator.
“Absolutely.”
“I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t certain.”
Atsushi was lying comfortably in the hammock after cleaning the dust from it.
Hearing Mechamaru question him, he picked up the communicator shaped like a robot’s head.
“I know what you’re thinking.
Obviously, our best chance would be to ask Gojo Satoru for help.”
“But since you’re also bound by a Binding Vow, you should understand the problem.”
“Even if we recorded everything we know and left it on a device, playing that recording before the agreed-upon event would still count as breaking the vow, and the backlash would hit immediately.”
“In other words, asking Gojo for help was never an option.”
“Of course, if your body weren’t in its current condition, you could probably find some excuse to stay glued to Gojo and use him as protection.”
“But that’s definitely not an option for me.”
Hearing the faint mockery in Atsushi’s voice, Mechamaru gave a cold snort.
The hammock creaked softly as it swayed.
Silence settled over the room again.
“Why Fushiguro Megumi?”
After a long pause, Mechamaru’s heavy, suspicious voice came through once more.
“Stop testing me.
I don’t have much patience.”
A trace of irritation appeared in Atsushi’s eyes.
“With Puppet Manipulation giving you access to information from all across Japan, there’s no way you don’t know what the Zenin Clan’s inherited technique can do.”
“My goal is to force Fushiguro Megumi to summon Mahoraga during the Goodwill Event.”
“Even I don’t have complete information on every inherited technique of the Three Great Families.”
Mechamaru’s low voice came through the communicator.
“But I think I understand what you’re planning.”
“You want to sacrifice Fushiguro Megumi to eliminate a Special Grade cursed spirit, right?”
“Sacrifice?”
Atsushi looked genuinely confused by the word.
“Are you seriously worrying about the other Jujutsu High students now?”
“You think I’m the kind of person who’d sacrifice my classmates just because I’m afraid to die?”
Mechamaru’s voice turned icy.
“Oh, my mistake.”
Atsushi’s reply was dripping with sarcasm.
“So even though you sold Jujutsu High’s information because you wanted your body healed, willingly participated in their plans, and knew perfectly well that countless people could die because of it…”
“Deep down, you’re still a good person who treasures his friends and would rather die than betray them.”
“Is that it?”
Atsushi tore straight through Mechamaru’s self-justification without the slightest mercy.
“If you’re still going to make deals with me while clinging to that kind of self-righteous fantasy, then honestly, you’d be better off telling Gojo everything right now and letting the backlash from your Binding Vow kill you.”
There was no sympathy in his voice.
He spoke as though addressing someone already dead.
“You’re the one who’s going to die after the Goodwill Event, not me.”
A long, suffocating silence spread through the underground warehouse.
Atsushi lay quietly in the hammock.
Aside from the occasional drip of water, the only sound was the faint electrical static coming from the communicator.
Eventually, Atsushi sat upright.
“What exactly is your plan?”
After suppressing his anger for a long time, Mechamaru finally asked.
“It’s simple.”
“Fushiguro Megumi’s Ten Shadows Technique has one final shikigami.”
“Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga.”
“It possesses combat power on the level of a Special Grade sorcerer.”
“More importantly, the Sword of Extermination attached to its right arm can output positive energy similar to Reverse Cursed Technique.”
“Against cursed spirits, that makes it essentially a one-hit kill.”
The robot-shaped communicator fell completely silent.
Mechamaru might already have known that Fushiguro possessed Mahoraga as a last resort.
But the effect of the Sword of Extermination was clearly new information.
“And Fushiguro can’t control it.”
“In fact, no Ten Shadows user in Zenin Clan history has ever successfully tamed Mahoraga.”
“So the only way he can use it right now is by exploiting the rules of the taming ritual and dragging an enemy into it with him.”
“Basically, mutual destruction.”
“And for him to resort to that…”
“He has to be pushed far enough.”
Static crackled through the communicator as Mechamaru silently evaluated whether Atsushi’s plan could actually work.
“Your job is to make sure Todo Aoi and Itadori Yuji don’t meet.”
“And protect Fushiguro Megumi just enough to keep him capable of fighting until the situation becomes desperate enough for him to summon Mahoraga.”
“So we’re having someone else do the killing for us.”
Mechamaru finally understood.
“Exactly.”
“With our current strength, the two of us have no chance if we challenge them all at once.”
“But we don’t need to.”
“We can strip away their strength piece by piece until the entire alliance falls apart.”
Atsushi pictured the delicate balance between Kenjaku and the four Disaster Curses.
And he fully intended to be the one who broke it.
“Will Fushiguro die?”
Mechamaru asked again.
“If he’s lucky, probably not.”
Atsushi rubbed his chin, looking completely detached from the situation.
“His odds of dying are still lower than yours after the Goodwill Event.”
“Besides, neither Ryomen Sukuna nor Gojo Satoru wants him dead.”
“So go ahead and do your part.”
“Think of it as being for Miwa Kasumi.”
The moment Atsushi mentioned Miwa again, Mechamaru clicked his tongue.
“I’m warning you.”
“If anything happens to Kasumi during the Goodwill Event, I don’t care if it kills me.”
“I’ll expose everything about all of you to Jujutsu High.”
That would actually be perfect.
Atsushi kept the thought to himself.
Out loud, he reassured him.
“She’s just an unremarkable Grade 3 sorcerer.”
“Nobody besides you is paying that much attention to her.”
“Relax.”
“Once the Goodwill Event plan succeeds, I’ll contact you again.”
“Then we’ll move on to the Ship of Theseus plan.”
With that, Atsushi ended the call without hesitation.
The warehouse returned to its endless silence.
Back in the present, inside the forest hosting the Goodwill Event.
The moment the pitch-black Curtain descended from the sky and an abnormal surge of cursed energy, far beyond that of an ordinary Special Grade cursed spirit, erupted in the distance, Atsushi knew the plan he and Mechamaru had arranged had succeeded.
And now, in a forest so saturated with danger that even birds had fled, Atsushi and Todo Aoi, who had been beating each other half to death only moments earlier, were sprinting one behind the other toward the source of Mahoraga’s cursed energy.
“Hey.”
Todo glanced toward him while running.
“You were coughing up blood and looked half-dead a minute ago.”
“How the hell are you running around like nothing happened?”
The instant Mahoraga’s terrifying cursed energy appeared, Atsushi had practically risen from the dead and jumped back to his feet.
Todo had witnessed the entire thing and couldn’t help asking.
“Come on.”
Atsushi slid Dragon-Bone back into its sheath while breathing heavily, the air carrying a faint scent of blood.
“Coughing up blood and dying are two completely different things.”
Todo apparently assumed Blood Manipulation was responsible and didn’t bother questioning him further.
What Todo couldn’t possibly know was that a translucent interface visible only to Atsushi was floating deep within his field of vision.
Even while running, Atsushi was simultaneously interacting with the Hextech System at high speed.
[Guardian’s Horn purchased.
750 gold spent.
Remaining gold: 61.]
[Guardian’s Horn effects: +150 Health.
Passive effects: Recovery and Indomitable.]
[Recovery: Restores 1 Health per second.]
[Indomitable: Reduces damage from all sources by a flat 15 points.]
[Only one Guardian item may be equipped.
After equipping Guardian’s Horn, Guardian’s Blade, Guardian’s Hammer, and Guardian’s Orb will be removed from the available purchase options.]
The reason Atsushi could get back up and run despite suffering ruptured organs and coughing up blood during his fight with Todo was entirely because of this item.
The instant I bought Guardian’s Horn, it felt like roughly ten percent of my stamina came back.
My body isn’t fully digitized, so the system can’t display an exact HP value.
I can only estimate based on how I feel.
But if I work backward from that…
At full condition, my maximum health should be somewhere around 1,000 to 1,500.
Then after subtracting the thirty percent penalty from [Glass Cannon]…
My actual maximum health is probably somewhere around 700 to 1,050.
Atsushi could feel a strange force steadily repairing damaged muscle and injured organs inside his body, little by little, once every second.
The corner of his mouth rose slightly.
So as long as I don’t take any more damage…
It’ll take at most around 900 seconds, and at minimum around 550 seconds, to return to full condition.
Guardian’s Horn.
No wonder it’s one of the strongest starting items in ARAM.
Wind roared past his ears.
Towering trees blurred backward through his vision.
Ahead of him, an overwhelming storm of cursed energy raged with enough force to make the entire forest tremble.
Running through the devastated woodland toward it, Atsushi couldn’t help smiling.
Because now.
The real climax of the Goodwill Event was about to begin.
(To be continued.)