Potential Self

!!

Mo Hei lay on the floor and suddenly opened his eyes. He tried to stand on instinct.

"Ow!"

But the numbness and stabbing pain throughout his body made that impossible.

He turned his neck slightly and looked around.

He was still in the same space as before.

Perhaps because he, the "villain," had been defeated, the surroundings had reverted to a classroom.

"You're awake."

Mo Bai sat beside him, staring blankly at the blackboard.

By now, Mo Bai was certain he had subdued him.

Mo Hei could use Cursed Technique Reversal, but Mo Bai suspected that was only because of something unusual about Sonoro.

Mo Hei was nowhere near the level of a special-grade jujutsu sorcerer who could normally use Cursed Technique Reversal. He did not even know a technique like Reverse Cursed Technique.

"You're not going to kill me?"

Mo Hei did not understand Mo Bai's decision.

"Even after beating you, I still haven't gotten back the half of my Cursed Energy I lost. If I kill you, there's no telling whether that energy will return or disappear for good."

Mo Bai explained.

"Tch. So it all comes down to what's best for you?"

"What else would it be?"

Mo Bai answered Mo Hei's irritated question as if it were obvious.

As far as he was concerned, Mo Hei had picked the fight. He only wanted back what had been his to begin with.

"So you're just going to sit here with me? What about that Moqu?"

Mo Hei looked up at the ceiling, changing the subject.

"Our personalities are different, but you have some of my memories. You should have a pretty good idea what I'm like, right?"

"Yeah."

Mo Hei nodded at Mo Bai's words.

He put his own safety and interests first, and helped his friends when the mood struck him.

Moqu wasn't in any danger of dying, so he probably wasn't in a hurry.

That was how Mo Hei saw Mo Bai.

"By the way, I still haven't asked why you wanted to kill me," Mo Bai said suddenly.

"..."

When Mo Hei did not answer, Mo Bai took a guess instead.

"Is it the same answer as before? The classic anime plot where the second personality wants to take over?"

Mo Hei only sighed at the question, then turned to look at him again.

"No."

As he spoke, he studied Mo Bai's face.

He found no anger or panic there.

Mo Bai risked losing half his Cursed Energy. Moqu was still somewhere in Solaris, waiting for him to bring him out.

Yet Mo Bai's face held nothing but calm.

Mo Hei was Mo Bai's opposite, and he knew most of Mo Bai's memories.

Those from before he came to this world, and those from after.

That was why he could not understand how Mo Bai could be so calm.

Could it be for something as absurd as friendship...?

In the end, Mo Hei could only think of Lynae and the Rover.

They were among the few friends Mo Bai had made in this life, people he could trust with his back.

He had them behind him now.

It stung...

"You still haven't told me why you attacked me," Mo Bai reminded him.

"No special reason. I was bitter, and I wanted to get back at you," Mo Hei answered.

"..."

Mo Bai said nothing to that.

He and Mo Hei were complete opposites, but they came from the same place.

So he understood what Mo Hei meant.

He had not had many friends before. Looking back, even his relationship with his roommates had never gone beyond polite acquaintance.

It was not that he was cold. He simply did not know how to make friends.

Whenever he saw someone with a "best friend" or a "brother for life" at their side, it left him bitter.

At times like that, he desperately wanted someone who understood him.

But that was his own bitterness.

He knew Mo Hei's was different.

"You feel like I abandoned you?"

"Yeah."

Mo Hei nodded without hesitation.

"You found friends you cared about, then left me far behind, like some toy you could throw away whenever you wanted."

Mo Hei gave a bitter laugh as he spoke.

"..."

This time, Mo Bai did not know what to say.

Because he agreed with him.

Cursed Energy was the manifestation of a person's negative emotions.

Generally, the more "twisted" someone was, the more Cursed Energy they had, and the stronger they became.

Mo Bai had never known the limit of his Cursed Energy, but he suspected he had quite a lot of it.

At first, he had put it down to luck, or thought the goddess had done something to him.

Now he knew better.

Mo Bai looked at Mo Hei's face again as he lay on the floor.

That face, which resembled his own, belonged to the friend he had once longed for most.

"Yeah. You're right."

Mo Bai nodded, making no attempt to deny what Mo Hei had said.

After meeting the Rover and Lynae, he had rarely thought about his past.

Both his parents were dead. He had not had a single friend, nor had he accomplished anything great enough to leave his mark on history.

He felt that life was not worth looking back on.

So when he "discarded" that life and devoted himself entirely to the present,

he had abandoned Mo Hei, the friend who once lived in his imagination, along with it.

Until he entered the Dark Side of the Academy.

Because of Cursed Energy and something unusual about Solaris, Mo Hei had appeared before him.

The Dark Side of the Academy.

This Sonoro was a place where students faced their inner demons.

Mo Bai, who had dismissed it at first, was no exception.

He had been unable to leave that corridor because he had refused to face himself.

"So what's your answer now?"

Mo Hei could feel his body slowly fading.

It meant Mo Bai was close to finding the answer that would let him leave the classroom.

He and Mo Bai had never been equals.

In the past, he had only been an imaginary friend Mo Bai had conjured up to keep himself company.

Now he was merely a stepping stone, something for Mo Bai to overcome as he climbed higher.

"Thank you."

Mo Bai smiled softly, thanked him, and held out a hand.

"Because of you, I can finally take a good look at myself."

As Mo Bai spoke, Mo Hei felt his body gradually melting into the shadows.

Into Mo Bai's Ten Shadows Technique.

"I thought you'd cast me aside again..." Mo Hei wore an expression somewhere between laughter and tears.

"I can't even bear to destroy my own Shikigami. You're my shadow, my opposite, and another me."

Mo Bai watched Mo Hei's body sink into the shadows as he spoke.

"You're not afraid I'll make a mess of your shadows?"

"This time... I think I understand myself a little better."

Mo Bai hesitated at Mo Hei's question, then answered with a smile.

"I see..."

Mo Hei nodded faintly, then disappeared completely into Mo Bai's technique.

Afterward, Mo Bai clenched his fist and felt that all his Cursed Energy had returned.

At the same time...

He had gained a "Shikigami" of his own.

"Great Serpent!"

"Hissss!"

The Great Serpent fully manifested, bursting through the entire floor of the building and carrying Mo Bai toward the academy plaza.