[Geto’s eyes, usually half-lidded with lazy amusement, had gone wide. He stood rooted to the spot, blinking in open disbelief.]

[In his memory, there had only been one other time someone had gotten the better of Satoru Gojo. That was ages ago, when you first demonstrated the edge Phantom Night Parade gave you over the rest of them, grinding Gojo’s face into the dirt in a way none of them had ever seen before or since.]

[Yet here it was again. After all this time, after Gojo’s Limitless had matured to near-perfection and his strength had skyrocketed beyond anyone’s reach, you’d shut him down without resistance. You hadn’t even struggled. His proudest technique had been dismantled in a blink.]

[Geto’s mind raced. Since that sparring match, you’d always been the quiet one, the type who never showed his hand. How much stronger had you grown in the shadows?]

[Had you reached a level where you could face Gojo head-on, Six Eyes, Limitless and all, and match him? Suppress him, even?]

[...Or was there an uglier possibility? A chill crawled up Geto’s spine as the thought crystallized: had you ever shown anyone your true ceiling at all?]

[While everyone stood frozen by the sheer impact of what they’d witnessed, you’d already released Gojo and stepped back.]

[You turned around as though the person who’d just manhandled someone into a car with terrifying force had been somebody else entirely. That warm smile slid back into place, and you waved casually toward Geto, Riko, and Misato.]

["Stop standing around, we’re burning daylight. Though I’m afraid I’ll have to ask Miss Kuroi and Riko to squeeze into the back seat with Satoru."]

[Misato had been drowning in a mix of awe and fear. Being addressed so gently, by name, caught her completely off guard.]

[She snapped back to attention, hands waving in front of her, her voice respectful and just a touch timid.]

["No trouble at all! It’s fine, Mr. Hayase, we can squeeze in, no problem!"]

[Geto still hadn’t moved. You called out to him.]

["Suguru. Let’s go."]

["Ah... ? Oh..."]

[You stood in place, watching the Assistant Manager’s black sedan pull away from the hotel entrance, carrying its shocked passengers down the road.]

[The moment the car vanished around the corner, the warmth drained from your face. What replaced it was something cold and fathomless.]

[From your pocket you produced a second phone, a flip model registered to no one. Your fingers dialed Shiu Kong’s number from memory.]

[The call connected. You spoke.]

[But the voice that came out was no longer the clear, pleasant tone of Jujutsu High student Touma Hayase. Through precise control of your vocal cords, you’d replicated it perfectly, the low, languid growl of Toji Fushiguro, edged with danger.]

[You told Kong the situation in clipped sentences. The pack of idiots at the hotel who’d tried to poach the kill were all dead.

The Star Plasma Vessel, Riko Amanai, was en route to Renchoku Girls’ Junior High. He could release her location to the black-market betting pools. And he needed to begin preparations immediately for the kidnapping of the Star Plasma Vessel’s maid, Misato Kuroi, per the original plan.]

[On the other end, Kong listened to these terrifyingly precise instructions and couldn’t quite mask his surprise.]

[The crisp click of a lighter, a slow exhale. Smoke curled into his question.]

["Hey, hey. You’re awfully well-informed, aren’t you? You know those cannon fodder got wiped out, you know exactly where the Vessel’s headed... I’ve never seen you this invested in a contract before. Don’t tell me you’ve been watching from the scene?"]

[Kong couldn’t have guessed the truth if he’d had a thousand years. The mastermind who’d posted that exorbitant bounty wasn’t some shadowy figure pulling strings from a distance.

You were walking alongside the target’s own escort, and you were the one who’d personally cut down every last one of those "idiots" you’d just mentioned.]

[From Kong’s perspective, it seemed like the Sorcerer Killer, that money-obsessed mercenary, was personally tracking the mission’s progress even during this early phase meant only to wear Gojo down. That was wildly out of character for a man who never showed his face until the final moment. It could only mean Toji was taking this contract dead seriously.]

[You held the phone, a cold smirk curling your lips with the manic edge of a gambler who smelled a winning hand. In Toji’s voice, you let each word land with deliberate weight.]

["What can I say... this is a rare catch. I’m planning to take the payout and ride it all the way to another big win at the races."]

[You hung up before he could dig any deeper.]

[On the other end, Kong listened to the dead tone and shook his head, letting out a quiet, unsurprised laugh.]

[If you actually had the luck to win at the track, Toji, you’d have retired ages ago. Wouldn’t need to keep doing this blood-soaked work. And you sure as hell wouldn’t have married into a family just to mooch off them.]

[You pocketed the phone.]

[You knew exactly what would happen next. With the information released, your astronomical bounty would act like a magnet. Renchoku Girls’ Junior High would soon be swarming with Curse Users.]

[Not a ripple of concern touched you.]

[It wasn’t blind faith in Gojo and Geto’s growing power. True, their combined strength at this stage far exceeded what you’d seen in previous simulations.

But their ideals still carried the softness of students.

Against hardened Curse Users, killers who’d long since stained their hands with blood for money, those two would probably still extend naive, unnecessary mercy. They wouldn’t go for the kill.]

[The real reason you weren’t worried was curled up in Riko Amanai’s arms.]

[Panda wasn’t just capable of protecting Riko from assassins on his own. In this chessboard of manipulation and calculated moves, he was one of the few pieces you trusted to watch your back.]

---

[Meanwhile. Renchoku Girls’ Junior High.]

[Midday sun scattered across the surface of the outdoor pool.]

[Riko, fiercely protective of her normal-girl identity at school, had been horrified at the thought of classmates spotting these weirdly dressed strangers following her around and getting the wrong idea. She’d unceremoniously banished Gojo, Geto, and Misato to wait by the empty poolside.]

[But guarding their mission target was the last thing on Geto’s and Gojo’s minds. Both of them were consumed by a single subject.]

[You.]

[Geto sat on a poolside bench, fingers laced together. The questions gnawing at him finally won out, and he turned to Gojo.]

["Hey, Satoru. Back at the hotel entrance, when Touma shoved you into the car... were you deliberately letting him..."]

[Before the words "holding back" could leave his mouth, Gojo whipped around like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. Behind those sunglasses, his glare could have cut steel.]

["Deliberately my ass!?"]

[That was all the answer Geto needed.]

[He knew his best friend’s pride too well. That instant of total suppression hadn’t been some gracious concession. It was a complete, undeniable domination in both raw power and technique.]

[Geto lowered his gaze.]

["So... Touma really is that strong..."

"What is Touma hiding... ? What does he want...?"]

[It was in that moment, while each of them churned through their own unease, His face went tight..]

[His senses caught it. Several of the low-grade Cursed Spirits he’d scattered across the school grounds had been killed. Instantly.]

[He shot to his feet, his voice hard.]

["Something’s wrong. We need to get to Riko. Several of my surveillance spirits were just exorcised by force. We’ve got rats."]

---

[At that very moment, in the silent corridor outside the music room, Riko Amanai was staring down a threat she’d never been prepared for.]

[She clutched Panda against her chest with both arms, her back pressed to the cold wall. Terror had stolen the strength from her legs, and they trembled beneath her. She was trapped, boxed in from both ends of the narrow hallway.]

[Ahead of her stood a middle-aged man in a striped kimono, a white headband tied across his brow. Round spectacles perched on his nose gave him a deceptively mild appearance, but his bony fingers held several talismans that pulsed with malice.]

[Worse still, something crouched at his feet. A grotesque, mutated Cursed Spirit. Its lower half was a single enormous human hand that it used to drag itself forward, while its upper body was a bloated lump of flesh with two bulging eyes and a gaping maw. Reeking drool oozed from between its teeth.]

[Behind Riko, cutting off any retreat, loomed a massive figure. A crude brown paper bag covered his head.]

[Killing intent radiated off him without the slightest pretense of concealment.]

[The man in the headband eyed Riko, penned in like a lamb for slaughter, and greed bled openly across his face. He rubbed the talismans between his fingers, his voice a rasp.]

["Looks like the intel was good. All I gotta do is kill this little girl, huh? With a bounty that absurdly high... today really is my lucky day."]

[The paper-bag man at the other end took a step forward, cracked his knuckles with a sound like snapping bone, and growled at the older man.]

["Back off, geezer! That bounty’s mine! She’s my kill. Get lost before I put you down too!"]

[Riko, who had spent her life sheltered from anything like this, couldn’t pretend she wasn’t terrified.]

[Tears of panic brimmed in her wide eyes. Her head swiveled between the two monsters flanking her, despair written across every inch of her face.]

[Then, in the instant before the two Curse Users turned their greed on each other.]

[The plush Panda cradled tight in Riko’s arms made a faint click.]

[In the next second, under the stunned gazes of both Curse Users, Panda’s black-and-white body erupted with a dense, roiling wave of Cursed Energy, and without a shred of hesitation, he launched himself from Riko’s trembling arms.]

---

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