"Guh. Cough, cough. Cough!!!"
Kokichi Muta jolted awake in the nutrient tank.
A stabbing pain in his lungs made his whole body seize up. He curled in on himself and coughed violently, so hard he nearly coughed up blood.
He had been sure he was going to die.
But as it turned out, the human body was absurdly tough, far removed from anything that could be called "romantic."
Even a body as damaged from birth as Kokichi Muta's could still just barely cling to life.
After resting for a short while, he recovered.
For this boy, pain like that had long since beco routine.
Kokichi Muta had been born cursed by [Heavenly Restriction]. Heaven had forcibly taken his right hand and lower body from him, and in return granted him a terrifying amount of Cursed Energy, enough to cover an entire country. Yet every ti he used that Cursed Energy to control chamaru, the parts of his body that had not been taken away would begin screaming in agony, as if they were the fuel that drove his Cursed Energy.
Kokichi Muta sat alone in the dark.
His world was dead silent and pitch-black.
This was endless darkness, a place where the sun never rose and not even a single ray of light was allowed in.
Because if Kokichi Muta were exposed to ultraviolet light, he would begin to burn and rot like a vampire, his whole body crumbling into dregs and vanishing in the light.
His life had been destined to keep company with the dark, trapped in a damp sewer.
Outside, he was chamaru, a first-year student at Tokyo Jujutsu High, a rising genius of the Jujutsu World with a technique range vast enough to cover an entire country.
But here, he was nothing more than a defective waste born broken.
"It's been a while, chamaru."
From the dense darkness ca a voice as clear and ethereal as wind chis.
It belonged to a stunningly beautiful woman. Though an unsightly suture line ran across her head, her entire body exuded a deadly, soul-snaring allure.
"...You actually have the nerve to show yourself in front of !"
Kokichi Muta shot Kenjaku a cold look.
"When are you going to heal my body!? You promised ! You said that as long as I gave you information, you would restore my body!!!"
"Don't be so impatient."
Kenjaku's tone was easy and unhurried.
"Didn't we make a [Binding Vow]? If either party fails to uphold the agreent, they will imdiately suffer a fate worse than death. Do Jujutsu Sorcerers these days truly know nothing about [Binding Vow] anymore?"
"Of course I know about [Binding Vow]! Naoya-sensei taught !!!"
Kokichi Muta shouted furiously.
"How much information do I have to give you before you're satisfied?! Haven't I already given you enough along the way?!"
"chamaru, please. A boy must never think so little of himself. No girl will like you that way."
Kenjaku covered her mouth and laughed.
"Is your body really worth so little to you? Just a few scraps of information? Equivalent exchange is the foundation of [Binding Vow]. It's true that you've given a great deal of information, but I have not yet prepared to take concrete action based on it, so naturally, the [Binding Vow] remains incomplete. It seems you really didn't listen carefully in Naoya-sensei's class."
"...When exactly are you going to act?"
The bandage-wrapped boy demanded.
"Hmm... I truly never expected you to be this impatient to see Tokyo Jujutsu High completely destroyed."
Kenjaku shook her head sadly.
"How heartbreaking. Do you really want to see your companions get hurt?"
"You promised in the [Binding Vow]! You said you would never harm my classmates at school!!!"
"[I] certainly won't harm your companions."
Kenjaku smiled with playful amusent.
"But as for [my] [companions], who can say? Isn't that right?"
"You despicable bastard!!!"
Only then did Kokichi Muta realize that Kenjaku had trapped him in the [Binding Vow] through sheer wordplay.
"That's your own fault, chamaru."
Kenjaku let out a long sigh.
"Didn't I tell you? Naoya Zenin is a bad man, an evil Curse User who wants to harm Kasumi Miwa. He is the thousand-year-old Mara, Kenjaku. Why do you still refuse to believe ?"
"Shut up! Stop lying! Naoya-sensei is absolutely not the kind of person you say he is...!"
Only now did Kokichi Muta bitterly regret ever choosing to believe the lies this woman had told him back then.
Naoya-sensei could never be a bad person, much less an evil Curse User who wanted to harm Kasumi Miwa.
He was Naoya Zenin. He wasn't anyone else.
"Lying?"
Kenjaku tapped her empty forehead.
"Am I the one lying to you, or is Naoya Zenin the one lying to you? chamaru, can't you understand sothing this simple?"
"Are you still treating like an idiot?"
"chamaru, you may hate , despise , and see as your enemy, but you must never doubt ."
Kenjaku spoke calmly.
"Right now, you need just as much as I need you. The [Binding Vow] is an absolute and genuine contract. If you won't even believe , then who else can you believe? Naoya Zenin, the man who abused Mai Zenin since childhood and personally took Kasumi Miwa away from you?"
"Naoya-sensei... never wanted to hurt ! He has always been helping !"
Kokichi Muta bit his lip.
"And you! You've been lying to from beginning to end! You wanted to betray Tokyo Jujutsu High! You wanted to do sothing that went against my conscience!"
"Hahahaha! chamaru, I only just realized how funny you are when you talk."
Kenjaku clutched her stomach and burst out laughing.
"I made you betray Tokyo Jujutsu High? I made you do sothing against your conscience? I never did anything of the sort. I only wanted to help you, to give you the body you have always dread of! That is why I satisfied those dark desires hidden deep within your heart!"
The thousand-year-old demon appeared in front of Kokichi Muta in an instant, gripping the boy's shoulders tightly with both hands, her expression twisted into sothing almost frenzied.
"You were the one secretly in love with Kasumi Miwa, yet you never dared to confess to her, because you knew you were a piece of trash! A piece of trash born broken! So you pushed that inferiority and jealousy onto Naoya Zenin! You were the one who wanted to kill him with your own hands! You were the one who kept telling that Naoya Zenin was an evil spirit, that he was Kenjaku, the thousand-year-old Mara, and that he had to vanish from this world!!!"
Word by word, Kenjaku cruelly tore open the darkest, most shaful secrets buried in his heart, the ones he least dared to admit.
"You hate Naoya Zenin! Not because he did anything wrong, but because he is healthy, strong, and free. He has everything you will never have in your entire life! He can stand openly under the sun. He can stand beside the woman you like. And you can only hide in this dark sewer, half-crippled, cut off from sunlight, without even the right to get close to her!"
"I-I didn't!!!"
Kokichi Muta's entire body trembled violently.
He wanted desperately to deny it.
But he couldn't.
Because it was all true.
It was his inferiority.
It was his jealousy.
That was why he had lost himself and believed Kenjaku's lies.
It was not because Kenjaku's lies had been flawless.
It was because the desires hidden in Kokichi's heart were too dark.
He was the one who had willingly handed information over to Kenjaku. He was the one who had tacitly allowed everything. He was the one who wanted Naoya Zenin to disappear, who wanted every passerby who could run freely to die.
And all this ti, he had been lying to himself.
Telling himself it was for justice. Telling himself it was to restore his body. Telling himself Naoya-sensei had treated him well. Telling himself he had not betrayed his conscience.
But now.
Kenjaku flung the entire truth in his face, stripped bare and impossible to deny.
"I hit the mark, didn't I?"
Kenjaku bent down, her beautiful yet vicious face drawing close to the boy's ear, her voice gentle and cruel.
"If this goes on, you won't get anything at all, will you?"
This Mara was enjoying herself imnsely.
"chamaru, since the day you were born, all you've ever done is lose. You've gained nothing. Everything you had was taken from you, ruthlessly stolen by heaven, snatched away by those useless fools sitting above everyone else. School taught you benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and loyalty, but what good did any of that do? Are you really going to spend your whole life as an obedient little disabled man? chamaru, being a good person is useless. Good people only get bullied, by , by Naoya Zenin, by everyone in this world..."
"..."
"...?"
Kokichi Muta murmured under his breath.
"Everyone has treated sincerely. Especially Naoya-sensei. He never asked for anything in return. How could I... how could I betray him...?"
"There is no one in this world who gives without expecting anything back. Either they are true saints, or else..."
Kenjaku spoke leisurely.
"They are true demons, and in the end, they will take everything from you."
"chamaru, let hear it. Let hear what you want. Let hear the desires buried in your bones. The choice between life and death is a question you must give yourself. Ask your own heart. In that wild, burning Cursed Energy of yours, is there truly not a single trace of resentnt?"
Resentnt?
Since the day he was born, not a single day had passed without Kokichi Muta feeling resentnt.
After learning that he would spend his entire life crippled, Kokichi Muta's temper beca violent and unpredictable.
During IV treatnts, he would suddenly lose control, yank out the needle, and tear open his own skin.
When he heard laughter from a television show, he would abruptly grab whatever was nearby and hurl it at the surrounding walls.
Humans were human because they could walk upright. Unlike other animals, they did not crawl across the ground on all fours. They stood tall, as if they were the masters of this world.
And yet Kokichi Muta was not human.
He lived in the most reckless years of his youth, but he had lost both his legs.
Running, walking, the future, dignity. All of it was gone.
When he controlled chamaru and watched his classmates at school walking with light, easy steps, free to go wherever they pleased, pain would surge through the boy's chest again and again until he broke down alone and wept.
Disability was not a misfortune.
Disability was torture that carved into him every mont, reminding him every second: you are incomplete, you are powerless, you will never be like a normal person.
Loneliness, fear, pain. Not a shred of hope.
At his most desperate, Kokichi Muta had once sat alone in the nutrient tank, spending hours at a ti thinking intently about death.
There had been a ti when he believed living was nothing but endless tornt.
But later, that desire to die slowly faded.
Because Kokichi Muta chose to beco chamaru and study at Tokyo Jujutsu High.
There, he t a group of truly good classmates.
Especially Kasumi Miwa.
When they first t, Kasumi Miwa was the only one whose eyes sparkled as she circled chamaru's body, praising him again and again, saying she had never seen such a cool robot before.
She was the only one who did not look at him with pity and sympathy like everyone else.
Only Kasumi Miwa treated him like a normal person.
Whenever the school was short on hands, most classmates would not call on chamaru, thinking he needed special treatnt and should not be asked to do that kind of work.
But Kasumi Miwa would run over to chamaru with a bright smile and keep ordering him around, telling him to help.
Though, a lot of the ti, Kasumi Miwa really did not treat him like a person.
Even so, just seeing her smile was enough to heal Kokichi Muta's broken, battered heart.
And it was because of her that Kokichi Muta finally found the will to live properly.
He did not just want to survive.
He had to beco a man who could stand and walk upright!
In this world so full of life, why did I have to be the only one trapped forever?
I want to run too! I want to live under the sun too! I want a healthy body like a normal person too!
I want to beco human too!!!
For the sake of that dream, whether the road ahead led to hell or the abyss, no matter which path he had to take, the boy would do it willingly, without resentnt or regret!!!
"It seems you've made your resolve."
Kenjaku smiled faintly.
"chamaru, you really are exactly the kind of person I imagined. Soone who craves strength, soone who longs to change this world, soone who follows his own martial path and stands against the world. Soone who, to make his wish co true, would not hesitate even if he had to paint the entire world in blood."
Look clearly at the contradictions and ugliness of battle.
Morality?
Social justice?
Those are nothing more than the result of the minority submitting to the majority.
If justice is the one and only absolute value, then that thing itself is absolute evil.
Everyone praises battle and throws themselves into it.
And so the vortex of battle expands without end, until people forget that the essence of battle is nothing more than killing one another. Under the cover of justice, battle grows into war.
Kenjaku looked at chamaru with satisfaction.
As if she were looking at her past self.
"Let us use Naoya Zenin's death to begin the era I have dread of for so long."
She whispered softly.
"That era when Cursed Energy was at its peak. That Heian era where all people obeyed martial law, competed with their own martial arts, and, through the tempering of mutual opposition, sought only to ascend the throne of the Supre Ruler!"
...
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