[The dead man’s Inverse technique had genuinely piqued your interest.]

[Deep in your consciousness, the comparison had already been drawn against Limitless.]

[Inverse, by contrast, held an overwhelming advantage in both mental load and base energy consumption.]

[It accepted minor injuries as the cost of doing business, allowing each unit of Cursed Energy to generate disproportionate defensive returns against lethal strikes.]

[A shame it had been wasted on garbage.] 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

[For you, efficiency and practicality were the only metrics that mattered.]

[Two figures in the trademark white military uniforms of Q stood on one side: Kokun and Bayer, both already cataloged in your intelligence files. Facing them down were two uninvited guests. The first was a girl in a Renchoku Girls’ Junior High uniform, bangs cut straight across her forehead. The second was a man whose face was grotesquely ugly, gripping a heavy iron chain that tethered a low-grade mutated Cursed Spirit the way someone might leash a dog.]

[One thing you could confirm with absolute certainty, a student in a Renchoku uniform had zero business being here out of concern for a classmate.]

[The only variable separating this timeline from every prior simulation was you, wearing Toji Fushiguro’s skin, dangling that astronomical bounty as bait. No ordinary schoolgirl stumbled into Riko Amanai’s orbit by coincidence.]

[Rather than some prodigious young Curse User, you suspected something far worse lurked beneath that skin. Some veteran killer who’d used deeply vile methods to assume a teenager’s appearance.]

[The ugly man, Niji Ebina, wrenched his chain hard. Greed twisted every line of his face as he snarled.]

["That bounty’s worth a fortune! I don’t care if it kills me today, I’m taking the Star Plasma Vessel’s head and cashing in! You two freaks in white think you’re keeping it all for yourselves? Dream on!"]

[Bayer of Q flicked a cold glance his way. Fanaticism and contempt dripped from every syllable.]

[The girl disguised as a student let out a raspy giggle, utterly at odds with her innocent appearance.]

[Ebina glanced at the two Q members and bit down on something bitter.]

[You watched the three-way standoff without a flicker of expression.]

[Your footsteps snapped the silence. Every head in the corridor turned in unison.]

[By all rights, the appearance of a Jujutsu High sorcerer should have put these Curse Users on edge.]

These career criminals, shaped by years of violence in the underworld, instinctively classified you not as a righteous protector arriving to save the day, but as some deranged competitor who’d come for the same bounty they had.]

[Q’s Kokun and Bayer were, in a twisted way, the most straightforward of the bunch. They hadn’t come for the bounty at all. Long before the black-market contract had surfaced, these zealots had already committed themselves to killing the Star Plasma Vessel and tearing down the jujutsu world’s existing order.]

[You had no interest in whatever drivel they’d exchanged before your arrival.

Break down the door together, kill Riko Amanai, confirm the death, then split the bounty. No one would be stupid enough to start an internal bloodbath in the corridor and burn through their fighting strength before the real target was dead.]

[Ebina, the one with the chained spirit, the one whose face looked like it had been assembled from spare parts, yanked his iron chain and bared a mouthful of yellowed teeth in your direction.]

[At that moment, Panda, who had been draped over Touma’s shoulder since the beginning, maintaining the perfect stillness of a lifeless stuffed toy, turned his head a fraction of an inch and whispered in a voice only you could hear.]

[Your eyes didn’t so much as flicker. Your arms hung loose at your sides.]

["No. You don’t need to move yet."]

[In truth, you had no habit of dual-wielding. The only reason both weapons were in your hands was practical... you were about to switch Innate Techniques.

[Cold steel filled both fists. You ignored Ebina’s barking entirely.]

["Is there anyone among you... who hasn’t killed before?"]

[No one answered the question. No one dignified it with anything beyond sneering contempt.]

[Kokun and Bayer had already raised their hands without hesitation, Cursed Energy surging to their fingertips, clearly prepared to blast you into paste the instant you took half a step closer.]

["I see. That’s your answer, then."]