October 30th, 7:30 PM.
Exchange No. 8.
The light rain that had persisted for days finally stopped, but dark clouds still hung low and heavy over the city.
Roughly twenty-four hours remained until the Shibuya Incident.
Hayashi En sat in his executive chair, reviewing the system panel as he made his final preparations.
Just ten minutes ago, he had spent a significant amount of points on his final pre-war enhancement.
[SYSTEM: Constitution increased!]
[SYSTEM: Remaining Points: 40,000.]
Power on the level of an eight-finger Sukuna.
In terms of raw physical strength alone, he was now capable of tearing Grade 1 Curses apart with his bare hands.
Combined with Ratio Technique and Ten Shadows Technique, he was confident he could make a graceful exit even if surrounded by Special Grade Curses.
"Just one more... final preparation," En muttered, staring at his palm.
Just then, the wind chime on the door jingled.
"Excuse me—"
Itadori Yuji walked in, scratching his pink hair with a goofy grin. "En-aniki, you called? Tomorrow's Halloween, so Fushiguro and the others were about to go grab some snacks."
"Take a seat, Yuji."
En smiled and poured a cup of tea, sliding it across the table.
The tea was a strange amber color and gave off a faint, pleasant fragrance. "Here. Have some tea before we talk."
Without a hint of suspicion, Yuji picked up the cup, took a sniff, and downed it in one go. "Thanks, aniki!"
The moment the tea hit his throat, Yuji's eyes grew hazy, and his head slumped forward.
Three seconds later.
When that pink head lifted again, the once-clear eyes had turned a crimson red, and black cursed markings had emerged on his cheeks.
In that instant, malice flooded the office.
Ryomen Sukuna had arrived.
Sukuna wore an excited expression. Without a word, he simply flicked his fingers toward En.
There was no ripple in the air; nothing happened.
—Violence is prohibited within the shop.
But En knew full well that Sukuna had just unleashed a slash, which the shop's rules had fortunately nullified.
Seeing his attack fail, the expression on Sukuna's face faded. He leaned back lazily, crossing his legs and scanning En with a gaze that looked down on him like an ant.
"Using drugs to suppress that brat's soul just to call me out..." Sukuna's voice was low. "What, looking to strike another deal? Manager of that 'Exchange' or whatever."
En maintained his professional fake smile, resting his interlaced fingers on the desk.
"Sukuna-san, let's not beat around the bush. Things are going to get lively in Shibuya tomorrow. I know you crave freedom, even if only for a minute."
En leaned forward, casting the bait.
"I can create an opportunity tomorrow for you to gain temporary control over your body, and I can even help you collect more fingers. In exchange, I want you to 'cooperate' slightly with my movements at certain specific moments."
This was a script En had drafted long ago.
Since he had already entered a Binding Vow with the curses to help Sukuna break free, he might as well squeeze some profit out of Sukuna as well.
A promise from Ryomen Sukuna was worth its weight in gold; it would be the final piece of En's puzzle.
They each got what they wanted; it should have been the simplest of trades.
However...
"Ha..."
Sukuna let out a short, mocking chuckle.
Then, he burst into laughter.
"Hahahahaha! Cooperate with you? Your movements?"
Sukuna stopped laughing abruptly, his gaze instantly turning as cold as eternal ice.
He rested his chin on his hand, looking at En with boredom. "I refuse."
"...What?" En's smile froze for a split second.
"Didn't you hear me? I don't need your charity." Sukuna yawned, and the cursed markings began to fade. "You're too boring right now. Don't annoy me, brat. Otherwise, next time, I'll carve you into three thousand pieces."
With a surge of cursed energy, Sukuna's dominance vanished.
Yuji's head hit the table with a thud as he fell into a deep sleep.
...
The office returned to a deathly silence.
The smile vanished completely from En's face, replaced by an unprecedented gravity.
'This sense of incongruity... what on earth is going on?'
En frowned, pacing back and forth in the room.
'Back at the detention center, he agreed even when I asked for one of his fingers. Why refuse me now?'
'Something's wrong. There must be something I don't know yet.'
His mind raced.
Sukuna was a self-centered hedonist.
If it were an equal exchange of benefits that let him out to breathe and kill, why would he refuse?
Was it because of arrogance?
No, Sukuna might be arrogant, but he wasn't stupid.
Scenes from the original story flashed through En's mind, along with every event since his reincarnation.
Suddenly, he thought of Mimiko and Nanako from a few days ago.
In the original story, they had tried to make a deal with Sukuna, only to be minced into meat by him.
It was because they tried to influence his actions and use fingers to threaten him.
En felt a sudden jolt of alarm.
'Wasn't what happened in the original story essentially identical to what I did at the detention center?'
'If it was a weakling setting conditions for the strong in both cases, why did Sukuna agree to the trade back then? Why wasn't I hacked into mincemeat?'
En began to re-evaluate the King of Curses, whose presence in this world seemed to have been diminished.
He suddenly realized he had been treating Sukuna as a 'rational actor' this whole time.
But who was Sukuna?
Sukuna was absolutely not a normal person.
If one had to summarize Sukuna's purpose in life, it was this: to do whatever he wanted, however he wanted.
He did not accept anyone trying to influence him in any way.
En's thoughts drifted back to the detention center incident months ago.
'Back then, I was also in a desperate situation, trading "one minute of freedom" with Sukuna.'
At that time, Sukuna had agreed almost without hesitation.
En stopped in his tracks, his pupils shrinking.
'So the problem isn't this refusal—it's that he agreed last time!'
Looking back at the original story, Sukuna had developed a massive interest in Fushiguro Megumi at the detention center.
Because he was interested in Megumi, Sukuna performed his first-ever act of protecting someone.
As long as Sukuna was interested, he could do anything.
'Which means Sukuna must have been interested in something to agree to my trade back then.'
'What could he have been interested in?'
En's pupils slowly dilated.
'On that day at the detention center, there could only have been one thing Sukuna was interested in—'
The system's 'Forced Breach' ability En had displayed, and that kind of law-based power.
'Sukuna has his eyes on me.'
En felt a chill run straight to his skull.
Just as he had fixated on Fushiguro Megumi's body in the original story, Sukuna had developed an 'interest' in him back at the detention center.
Sukuna hadn't agreed to the trade because he was threatened, but because he had actively chosen to.
He had at least three objectives in that transaction:
First, to lull En into a false sense of security, making him think Sukuna was a rational person one could communicate with, paving the way to steal his body later.
Second, to personally experience and sense the power of the system's trades.
Third, to use the opportunity to break the system's binding force on him, preventing it from interfering when he eventually seized the body.
If he let Sukuna out in Shibuya without any precautions...
Sukuna wouldn't need to trade with En at all.
He would only need to do one thing: beat En half to death and then force-feed him a finger containing his soul.
No wonder Sukuna tried to attack the moment he appeared.
With En's currently perfect Special Grade body, once possessed, Sukuna would gain power far exceeding the original story. He might even gain access to the 'Exchange'...
Sukuna's current refusal was because he didn't want to pay any price at all.
Once he took over En's body, everything belonging to En would naturally be his.
Including that finger given at the detention center.
'But something's still off... even if Sukuna wants to take my body, why refuse so bluntly?'
'And specifically on the eve of the Shibuya Incident, where he has a chance to break free?'
'It's as if... he already knows something.'
"Ugh..."
At that moment, Yuji groaned as he slowly woke up.
En instantly masked his emotions and asked gently, "Yuji, have you encountered anything strange lately?"
Yuji rubbed his head. "Something strange? Oh, on my way home one day, I felt like a voice was talking behind my back. Something about an 'opportunity to escape'... I didn't hear it very clearly."
En's gaze sharpened.
'That's a message from the curses to Sukuna.'
'No wonder Sukuna is so fearless.'
En sent Yuji on his way and closed the shop door.
"Whew..."
En took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.
Now that he had seen through Sukuna's intentions, there was still a chance.
Fortunately, this test had forced Sukuna to show his hand.
"Heh..."
He was no longer the powerless Hayashi En who had first arrived here.
A slightly crazed smile tugged at the corner of En's mouth.
"To think he'd dare scheme against me..."
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