Challenging Gojo and finding out which would win, the true damage granted by my system or Gojo’s [Limitless].
Inside a dark, damp, abandoned underground warehouse, the air reeked of machine oil mixed with rot.
Atsushi sat atop a pile of discarded wooden crates with his eyes closed, while his mind raced at full speed.
But if I go along with this, won’t I actually have to fight Gojo?
At that thought, the excitement that had been building inside Atsushi gradually faded, and reason once again took over.
Still, considering how unlucky my start has been, ending up in this situation isn’t actually that bad, is it?
Atsushi calmly reviewed everything that had happened since he transmigrated.
Whether it was his initial encounter with Kenjaku, his battle with the Grade 1 cursed spirit Ko-Guy, or even Mahito’s probing attack, he had been only a step away from death every single time.
Ever since transmigrating, Atsushi had treated this second life almost like a game, so death still didn’t feel entirely real to him.
But even so, he had no desire to die.
Not being afraid of death and actively looking for it were two very different things.
The situation was fairly clear.
Since Kenjaku wanted to use him as part of the plan to seal Gojo Satoru, Atsushi’s current role was also his greatest protection.
In the original story, Kenjaku, the mastermind manipulating everything from behind the scenes, had recruited not only cursed spirits but also a large number of curse users.
What eventually happened to those curse users was another matter.
But as long as Atsushi continued moving roughly along the original course of events, he should be safe for the time being.
His current goal was simply to level up as much as possible, become stronger, earn gold, and purchase equipment.
So whether he sided with Jujutsu High or the curses didn’t particularly matter to him.
That said, working alongside dangerous people was one thing.
Working alongside cursed spirits was considerably worse.
That was why Atsushi had formed a Binding Vow with Kenjaku.
For as long as the Binding Vow remained in effect, Kenjaku and the cursed spirits allied with him could not deliberately attack Atsushi.
In exchange, until Gojo Satoru was successfully sealed, Atsushi could not reveal any information related to Kenjaku and his group to any being that possessed a soul outside their faction.
In the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, Binding Vows were one of the fundamental principles governing cursed energy.
Once a Binding Vow was established, even someone on the level of Gojo Satoru or Ryomen Sukuna would not casually break it.
Violating one could bring severe and unpredictable consequences, potentially even resulting in death.
Kenjaku had specifically worded Atsushi’s restriction so that he could not reveal information about them to “any being possessing a soul.”
He had probably done that to stop Atsushi from exploiting some loophole by passing the information through a nonhuman intermediary.
With that thought, Atsushi brought his wandering thoughts back under control.
His dark eyes slowly opened, his pupils shifting slightly in the dim light.
He turned his head, his neck giving a soft crack as his gaze swept across his new “home.”
It was an abandoned underground warehouse connected to the sewer system.
The place was larger than he’d expected, somewhere around fifty or sixty square meters.
The walls were coated in an old layer of green waterproof paint, most of which had already peeled away in large patches, exposing the dark gray concrete beneath.
Several thick drainage pipes ran across the ceiling.
One of them was slowly leaking, droplets sliding down its surface and collecting in a small puddle of murky water directly below.
Aside from the wooden crates Atsushi was using as a seat, the only thing in the warehouse that could remotely be called useful was a dirty hammock in the corner.
One end of the hammock was tied to a rusted iron pipe, the other to a hook embedded in the wall.
A faint layer of dust covered the fabric.
It looked as though nobody besides Atsushi had been here for at least the last couple of days.
Still, the place wasn’t without its advantages.
Atsushi listened carefully to his surroundings.
Aside from the occasional sound of water flowing somewhere deep within the sewer system, it was so quiet that he could clearly hear his own breathing.
The area wasn’t just silent.
It was practically empty.
There wasn’t even the faintest trace of cursed energy nearby.
Atsushi withdrew his gaze and quickly reached a conclusion.
Kenjaku would definitely arrange for a cursed spirit to monitor him.
Even after establishing the Binding Vow, Kenjaku had claimed that Atsushi was free to move around, and Atsushi hadn’t noticed anything unusual when he went outside earlier.
But Atsushi knew Kenjaku would never simply allow him to slip out of his grasp.
After all, the next stage of the plan still required Atsushi’s cooperation.
At the same time, given Kenjaku’s personality, he probably wouldn’t keep Atsushi under flawless twenty-four-hour surveillance either.
In Kenjaku’s own words, that would probably be too boring.
Besides, Atsushi’s current strength on paper was only around that of a Grade 3 sorcerer.
He was still far beneath the level where Kenjaku or the four Disaster Curses would consider him a serious threat.
If an ordinary sorcerer were in Atsushi’s position, they would probably have no choice but to obediently follow Kenjaku’s instructions and act exactly as he demanded.
Unfortunately for Kenjaku, Atsushi was not an “ordinary sorcerer.”
After confirming that he wasn’t currently being watched, Atsushi slowly slipped his right hand inside his clothes.
His fingertips touched a cold metal object.
It was round, with small grooves and seams across its surface.
He pulled it out and rested it in his palm.
It was a communicator shaped like the face of a small, round robot.
Although it appeared to be made of metal, an extremely faint trace of cursed energy could be sensed inside it.
This was one of the contingency measures prepared by the sorcerer known as Mechamaru in anticipation of the Shibuya Incident.
As for how he had prepared for the Shibuya Incident in the first place, don’t ask.
Originally, these communicators wouldn’t be discovered until after the Shibuya Incident had already begun.
But Atsushi knew the plot.
The moment he gained his freedom after establishing the Binding Vow with Kenjaku, he went straight to Shibuya, located one of the communicators ahead of schedule, and took it.
Two faint red lights blinked on the front of the device, alternating between bright and dim like the eyes of some living creature.
Atsushi lowered his head and ran his thumb along the side of the communicator.
Then he pressed down.
Click.
The connection opened.
“Hey.
Is everything you told me really true?”
A hoarse male voice came through the communicator.
Static crackled heavily through the transmission, but the tightly suppressed caution and unease in the speaker’s voice were still obvious.
Atsushi raised the communicator to his mouth and answered slowly.
“Yeah.
It’s true.”
“You’re going to die horribly, and your plan has absolutely no chance of succeeding.”
His tone remained flat, as though he weren’t describing another person’s future death.
“In the end, all you’ll accomplish is putting your classmates…”
Atsushi paused.
“No.
More accurately, Miwa Kasumi and the others, in a situation they may never be able to escape.”
The other end went silent.
The silence lasted more than ten seconds, long enough that Atsushi almost wondered if the connection had been cut.
But he didn’t rush him.
He knew the other person would respond.
Sure enough, the voice eventually returned.
“Why should I believe you?”
The speaker’s voice was even lower than before.
But Atsushi could clearly hear the hesitation beneath the hoarseness.
A faint smile crossed his face.
“Because of a Binding Vow, I can’t tell you anything about them.”
“But I’m sure you already know what kind of people they are.”
“After all, you probably entered into a Binding Vow similar to mine.”
Atsushi paused for three seconds, giving the other person time to process that.
Then he continued.
“How about this?”
“I’ll tell you a few things about yourself instead.”
He raised his free hand and tapped his chin with one finger, thinking for a couple of seconds.
“Mechamaru…”
“Or rather, Muta Kokichi.”
“A victim of Heavenly Restriction.
A traitor to Jujutsu High.
Someone planning to have their cursed technique repair that ruined body of yours.”
Atsushi stripped away the other man’s identity one detail at a time.
“Your cursed technique is Puppet Manipulation.”
“Because of your Heavenly Restriction, you were born without a right arm.
You have no sensation below the waist, and your skin is so fragile that even direct moonlight causes you pain.”
“But in exchange for those defects, you gained an enormous amount of cursed energy and a technique with an effective range that covers all of Japan.”
The other end of the communicator went completely silent.
Even the sound of breathing became carefully restrained.
“You sold information about Jujutsu High.”
“Your plan is to let them use their technique to heal your body, then turn against them and hold out until Gojo Satoru arrives to save you.”
Atsushi’s voice softened slightly, though there was now a faint trace of mockery in his tone.
“Unfortunately, that’s never going to work.”
He brought the communicator slightly closer and lowered his voice almost to a whisper.
“Your trump cards are Simple Domain and the cursed energy you’ve spent more than ten years storing.”
“But you really think that’s enough to threaten them?”
After laying every card Muta Kokichi possessed face-up on the table, Atsushi stopped talking.
He simply held the communicator in his palm and waited.
The breathing on the other side grew heavier.
Sharp breaths struck the microphone, turning into bursts of static.
“Who the hell are you?”
“How do you know all of this?”
The question finally exploded through the communicator, filled with fear and frustration.
Atsushi could more or less imagine the expression on the other man’s face.
His own remained relaxed.
He leaned back against the wooden crates and casually crossed one leg over the other.
“Because you’re not the only one trapped under someone else’s thumb.”
Atsushi slowly finished the sentence.
Then he adjusted his posture, leaning slightly forward as his voice became more serious.
“But I have a way to undo what you’ve done.”
“Maybe even…”
“Kill them.”
Silence.
A long silence.
Then Mechamaru’s voice returned, clearly forcing itself to remain calm.
“…What’s the price?”
Atsushi was slightly surprised by the question.
“So you understand after all.”
“Everything has a price.”
“That was true when you made a deal with them, and naturally it’s true if you make one with me.”
“Then let me ask you this.”
Atsushi raised the communicator to his mouth and slowly asked the most important question.
“If fixing everything, if saving Miwa Kasumi and the others, required you to give up your life…”
“Would you still do it?”
The other side fell silent again.
But this silence was different from the ones before it.
Previously, the silence had come from shock and suspicion.
This time, it was much deeper.
“I don’t know what you’re planning, but forget it.”
Mechamaru’s voice finally came through.
“I’m not going to die for your plan.”
“But if one of us absolutely has to die, me or Miwa Kasumi…”
“I choose myself.”
“This body of mine is already so broken that I don’t exactly have much reason to cling to it.”
Atsushi slowly shook his head after hearing that.
“Tch.
You’re really hopeless when it comes to her.”
He moved the communicator away from his mouth, his expression clearly saying that he’d expected exactly this answer.
He moved the communicator away from his mouth, his expression clearly saying that he’d expected exactly this answer.
“But according to my plan, you dying in place of Miwa Kasumi and the others is only the worst-case scenario.”
Atsushi spoke slowly.
At that moment, his mind was full of the way Kenjaku had manipulated him earlier, and without realizing it, he began imitating the man’s manner of speaking.
“The best-case scenario…”
“All of you survive.”
“You’ll just have to die once first.”
The voice from the communicator immediately became confused.
“…Die once first?”
“What does that mean?”
Atsushi didn’t answer.
Instead, he asked another question.
“Have you ever heard of the Ship of Theseus?”
“Theseus…
the ancient Greek hero?”
“What does that have to do with your plan?”
“If you already know it, this will be much easier to explain.”
The corners of Atsushi’s eyes curved slightly.
Yeah.
Being the one moving the pieces felt a lot better than being a piece on someone else’s board.
So this was what Kenjaku had been enjoying earlier.
“My plan is…”
(To be continued.)