Snapping back to reality, Mai urgently reached out to grab the rolled-up sleeve of Roy's shirt at his elbow.
Roy stopped and turned his gaze to her hand clutching his sleeve.
"...Sorry."
Noticing his stare, Mai felt her hand burn and quickly released his sleeve, lowering her eyes apologetically.
"It's actually about family matters, not anything personal..."
This wasn't wrong.
But not entirely true either.
Her purpose was both official and personal.
Half right, half wrong.
Roy studied Mai silently.
"Are you bad at making advances?"
Just as Mai worried she'd angered him again, Roy suddenly asked this unexpected question.
"Ah...?"
Mai froze once more.
The question wasn't wrong.
She'd never made advances before.
While she'd been approached before, she'd always arrogantly chased them away.
She truly didn't know how to flirt.
"Tell me your number."
Roy took out his phone and unlocked it.
"Ah, yes, my number is..."
Regaining her senses, Mai quickly recited her number.
Roy input the digits and called.
After one ring on Mai's phone, he hung up.
"That's my number. But don't call unless it's important."
"...Understood."
Mai's lips twitched, but she obediently agreed.
Of course.
He was a Special Grade, while she was merely Grade 3.
Beyond being from the Zenin family, she probably meant nothing to him.
However, obtaining the number itself was already a huge gain. Compared to yesterday when he had been met with cold stares and nearly came to blows, this could be considered a massive breakthrough.
Watching Roy stride away in front of her, Mai stood in the autumn wind for a long time, lost in thought.
...
After the meeting concluded, Ultimate Mechamaru left the attic and sat beneath a large tree in the center of his private courtyard. The light in his eyes gradually dimmed, and all bodily functions came to a halt—only his enemy detection system remained active.
It wasn't to conserve energy.
This body of his was merely a mechanical puppet, not his true form, so there was no such thing as stamina to begin with.
But to keep the puppet functioning, he had to maintain a constant output of cursed energy, which exhausted him. Shutting down other functions and sitting like this was actually a way to conserve cursed energy.
The others had indeed dispersed to rest, likely retreating to their own rooms to recuperate. The courtyard was empty except for Mechamaru.
At that moment, as if seizing the perfect opportunity, a bird descended from the sky.
At first, Mechamaru didn't notice it.
Only when the bird landed on his shoulder and made contact with his mechanical body did he suddenly become aware.
"No cursed energy! This isn't a living bird—it's something similar to my body, closer to a cursed corpse!"
In an instant, he reactivated all his puppet's functions and leaped to his feet.
The cameras serving as his eyes swiveled, locking onto the bird with vigilance.
Its body was entirely bronze, reflecting a faint metallic sheen under the sunlight. Upon closer inspection, it was unmistakably a bird made of brass.
Just as he thought—something akin to a cursed corpse!
He had his cursed energy detection system active, yet he hadn't sensed this bird's approach at all. There wasn't the slightest trace of cursed energy emanating from it?
"Don't be too loud. And don't be too surprised."
A muffled, low voice emitted from the brass bird's abdomen.
It must have had a vocal device installed there.
"If I wanted to harm you, this puppet of yours wouldn't even have noticed this bird before being blown to pieces."
"..."
Mechamaru remained silent.
That was true.
This bird had no cursed energy signature whatsoever—there was no telling what principle allowed it to move.
If it had attacked him while he was conserving energy earlier, he wouldn't have even detected the source of the assault before being obliterated by the brass bird's self-destruction. There was no need for such theatrics.
"Who are you? What do you want with me?"
Mechamaru relaxed his guard slightly.
But he still didn't fully trust the bird—or rather, its controller. His half-crouched defensive stance remained, ready to channel cursed energy at any moment.
Cursed energy was born from the flesh, so this mechanical puppet contained none of its own. To fight, he had to receive cursed energy remotely from his true body.
This meant that even though Mechamaru was now fully alert, he still emitted no cursed energy fluctuations, drawing no attention from the Kyoto teachers and students resting in the attic.
Otherwise, they'd have to find another way to contact him.
"Come out. Meet me."
The voice sounded again from the brass bird's abdomen.
"The real person is already done for. Those guys can't help restore your body that's been damaged by the Heavenly Restriction. Right now, I'm the only one who can save you. Come out."
As soon as the words were spoken.
The brass bird flapped its wings and took flight, soaring over the courtyard and heading into the distance.
Having his greatest secret exposed so bluntly, Kokichi Muta felt as if he'd been plunged into an ice cellar, a bone-chilling sensation spreading throughout his body.
He had no choice but to stand up. Deliberately muffling his footsteps, he quietly left the courtyard without attracting anyone's attention and chased after the direction where the brass bird had flown.
The brass bird flapped its wings in midair for a while before descending near the forest just outside the attic, landing on someone's shoulder.
"You've arrived, Ultimate Mechamaru... no, perhaps it's better to call you Kokichi Muta."
Mechamaru froze in place the moment he saw the figure, his true body somewhere else involuntarily gasping in shock.
"Roy... sensei? It's actually you?"
The one controlling that brass bird devoid of any cursed energy fluctuations was none other than the Special Grade sorcerer Roy... Now it made sense.
Every Special Grade sorcerer so far had been beyond conventional reasoning. Whatever they did could simply be accepted with "Well, they're a Special Grade."
"What, are you surprised just because it's me?"
Roy smiled faintly, his fingers tracing several talismans before flicking them outward.
The talismans aligned behind Mechamaru, their glowing radiance forming a simple barrier that concealed both their figures and voices.
Though he believed his actions were already discreet enough, caution was second nature to him—he'd grown accustomed to being prudent about everything.
"You're right. Honestly, I'd be surprised no matter who it was."
Mechamaru glanced behind him, recognizing the barrier Roy had set up. He marveled at how uniquely it was constructed but quickly dismissed it upon remembering Roy's status as a Special Grade.
"From what you said earlier... do you already know about my deal with Suguru Geto and the others?"
"Mm, I know."
"How do you know?"
"I have my own channels."
Roy openly admitted to knowing Mechamaru—Kokichi Muta's—secret but remained tight-lipped about his methods.
Okita had already uncovered that Kenjaku indeed had a mole, but that informant was among the higher-ups of the Jujutsu Headquarters, unrelated to Mechamaru.
Still, with Roy's own memories, he hardly needed any insider information to identify the traitors.
"Mechamaru, real name Kokichi Muta. Innate Technique: Puppet Manipulation. Due to the Heavenly Restriction, your body was born extremely fragile and incomplete, but in exchange, you gained an enormous range for your technique and immense cursed energy output. The puppets you control can operate across all of Japan."
"To restore your body, you formed a binding vow with Mahito—you'd gather intel on Jujutsu High and the jujutsu world for them, and once they achieved their goals, Mahito would use Idle Transfiguration to heal you... Oh, and you have a crush on Kasumi Miwa."
"Don't you dare lay a finger on Miwa!"
The real Kokichi Muta, hidden behind the Mechamaru puppet, had been listening calmly until that last remark. He immediately roared at Roy in fury.
The Mechamaru puppet activated all its weaponry—arm blades extended from its wrists, and a cannon emerged from its mouth—fully armed and aimed at Roy.
It was clear he'd fight to the death if Roy so much as hinted at harming Kasumi Miwa.
After all, this Mechamaru was just one of his many puppets—he had every means to go all out.
"That's your first reaction, huh..."
Roy massaged his temples in exasperation.
He didn't mind Kokichi's wariness or bared fangs, but being regarded with such hostility gave Roy the strange illusion that he might actually be the villain here.
"I'm saying, can't you tell who's the hero and who's the villain between us standing here right now?"
"As a teacher, am I really the kind of villain who threatens people with hostages? And you, colluding with the enemy—are you some kind of pure and upright saint?"
Truth be told, Roy wasn't opposed to using hostages as leverage.
But it depended on the target.
At least for someone like Mechamaru, Roy wouldn't resort to hostage threats.
Kokichi Muta choked on his words.
Fine.
He was the one colluding with the enemy—he was the villain here.
"Enough. Put away your weapons. Those things are useless against me. I'm a teacher, not an executioner. Miwa hasn't done anything wrong—why would I harm her?"
"..."
After a moment of silence, Yuta retracted all the armed mechanisms deployed from his body.
Fair enough. His weapons might work against sorcerers below first-grade, but they'd be woefully inadequate against a true first-grade, let alone a special-grade.
"So what do you want?"
Muta couldn't hold back any longer, his voice low as he demanded.
Roy didn't answer immediately. Instead, he countered with another question.
"Are you still passing information to Suguru Geto and his group?"
"...Yes."
Kokichi Muta's voice was heavy.
"Those bastards told me they could rescue Mahito from you. That's why I've been helping them."
He thought Roy was going to settle the score with him.
As a teacher, that would be the normal, reasonable thing to do.
But Roy's next reaction left him utterly dumbfounded.
"Perfect!"
Roy snapped his fingers, a pleased smile spreading across his face.
"I have a job for you. Once it's done, I'll cure the congenital disability caused by your Heavenly Restriction!"
Kokichi Muta's Heavenly Restriction was the exact opposite of Toji Fushiguro's.
Toji's Heavenly Restriction traded innate cursed energy and techniques for unparalleled physical prowess.
Yuta's, however, sacrificed his healthy body in exchange for an enormous effective range for his techniques and first-class cursed energy output.
Since birth, he had been without a right hand or anything below his knees. His legs below the waist had no sensation, his skin was so fragile that even moonlight could burn it, and the pores all over his body often felt like they were being pricked by needles.
He had lived for seventeen years in a state as fragile as glass, always on the verge of shattering!
Throughout history, sorcerers had awakened all kinds of bizarre techniques—but there was one type that had never appeared.
Healing techniques.
Because cursed energy was powered by negative emotions, abilities like healing belonged to the domain of positive energy. Thus, no healing techniques had ever emerged. The only way to achieve positive energy was by multiplying negative cursed energy—negative times negative equals positive—allowing sorcerers to master Reverse Cursed Technique and heal injuries.
But Kokichi Muta's body was congenital, likely even his soul shaped this way from birth. Not even Reverse Cursed Technique could cure him.
So, his only choice was to collaborate with Mahito.
He intended to use Mahito's technique, Idle Transfiguration—which could alter the very form of the soul—to reshape his innate soul and heal himself.
"You can cure my body?"
Muta's voice, thick with skepticism, came through Mechamaru.
Even for a Special Grade, the unimaginable in the eyes of ordinary people, this is impossible!
Even the legendary Gojo Satoru couldn't do something like this!
"Watch closely."
Roy couldn't be bothered to explain further, so he simply demonstrated.
He picked up a woodlouse from the ground, and without any visible action, the insect's body began to squirm rapidly, transforming from a woodlouse into a bee.
"Just assume that after capturing Mahito, I somehow obtained his cursed technique. In any case, I can indeed heal your body now. So, what's your answer?"
Watching as the woodlouse squirmed, expanded, and even changed its species before his eyes, Kokichi Muta finally let go of his doubts.
Hearing Roy's explanation, he couldn't help but nod inwardly.
If Roy had somehow acquired Mahito's technique, then it made sense that he could heal his body.
"I have one condition."
"Speak."
"Do not harm the students of Kyoto Jujutsu High!"
"Seriously? That's what you're worried about?"
Roy couldn't help but roll his eyes again.
"Could you stop acting like some righteous hero? You're the spy here, the villain! Why the hell would I randomly attack Kyoto students for no reason?"
"Fine. Until our deal is complete, I can promise not to harm Kyoto students. Let's make a Binding Vow!"
Roy was confident—the students he had trained would never lose to Kyoto's.
Especially since one of them was a completed Heavenly Restricted powerhouse!
Though…
Kokichi Muta's condition didn't include the Kyoto teachers, huh?