Movie Theater

By the time Gu Yanzhi arrived at the movie theater, the others were already standing neatly at the entrance.

The four stood in a row like schoolchildren being punished. As he approached, they all straightened their backs at once.

"You're here early."

Gu Yanzhi walked over with a smile, his tone as friendly as though he were greeting old friends.

Blondie still had the bruise on his forehead from knocking it against the ground in the alley that morning. Seeing Gu Yanzhi smile only made him more nervous, and his voice came out strained. "Y-you too, sir."

Gu Yanzhi walked up to the counter, pulled the wad of crumpled bills from his pocket, and slapped it down. "Five tickets for Earthworm Man. Keep the change."

Blondie caught sight of the faint dark-red stains on the bills and swallowed.

Beside him, Buzz Cut muttered, "Why does that money smell like piss?" Brownie elbowed him in the ribs, shutting him up.

Tsubasa hadn't said a word the entire time. She clutched her movie ticket so tightly her knuckles turned white.

"Let's go."

Gu Yanzhi took the tickets and headed into the screening room first.

There weren't many people inside. Gu Yanzhi chose a seat near the middle, toward the back, and Brownie and the other three sat neatly beside him.

On the screen, the Earthworm Man began crawling out of a sewer. The effects were so cheap that traces of poorly secured glue were still visible along the edges of the rubber worm costume.

It had every staple of a B-grade horror movie-a screaming blonde, a flashlight that always failed at the crucial moment, and a supporting character who insisted on investigating alone despite having already seen the monster.

After about twenty minutes, Gu Yanzhi leaned back in his seat and started dozing.

The four behind him, however, were on pins and needles.

Blondie rested both hands on his knees, his back ramrod straight and his eyes fixed on the screen, not even daring to breathe too loudly. Buzz Cut wanted to cough but clamped a hand over his mouth and forcibly muffled it.

No one spoke. No one ate popcorn. None of the four dared so much as move, afraid of waking the sleeping man.

A chill startled Gu Yanzhi awake.

He opened his eyes but didn't move right away.

Light still flickered across the screen. The Earthworm Man was tearing into the third supporting character, and the heroine's screams blasted from the speakers.

Everything in the screening room looked normal.

But every hair on the back of his neck stood on end, and a fine layer of goose bumps rose along his forearms.

Mahito had arrived.

He couldn't see cursed spirits, but his body knew.

Seven people's worth of physical ability was stacked inside this high schooler's body. His muscle density and neural response speed far surpassed an ordinary person's, granting him not just strength and speed, but something more primal-the most fundamental alertness a creature felt in the presence of its natural predator.

His skin, his bones, every muscle fiber sent the same signal to his brain at the same instant: something had come in. It was here, very close.

He remained leaning against the seat back, his half-open eyes aimed at the screen as he scanned the entire room with his peripheral vision.

In the dim light, everyone else continued watching the movie, oblivious.

He knew exactly what would happen next.

According to the original story, Mahito would kill the people who had bullied Junpei. Then Junpei would chase after him and strike up a conversation, fall under the spell of Mahito's logic, and slide step by step into the abyss.

The four behind him were now as quiet as frightened quails. That morning, they had still been Junpei's bullies. Now, they didn't even have the courage to wake Gu Yanzhi.

All it took to turn bullies into frightened wrecks was a round of slaps.

He rested his head against the seat back, watching the cheap effects flash across the screen frame by frame, while his mind worked through something else entirely.

I could do nothing. Pretend I haven't noticed. Let Mahito turn us into transfigured humans and kill us as planned. Then Junpei would chase after him, and everything would stay the same.

That had been his plan all along: use the transfiguration to keep stacking his physical abilities.

It was the optimal solution he had set for himself earlier: find Mahito, get transfigured, grow stronger. Everything would proceed step by step.

But then what?

After being transfigured, keep switching accounts, keep stacking physical abilities, keep being a spectator in every life. Watch the original plot advance frame by frame, change nothing, leave nothing behind.

He had fled from Suguru Geto, had his brain flooded with junk information inside Satoru Gojo's Unlimited Void, and torn apart one transfigured human after another at Shibuya Station.

He had survived, but what had he changed? Nothing. Suguru Geto had still massacred the village. Satoru Gojo had still been sealed. And in the near future, Mahito would still transfigure Junpei into a sorcerer, after which he would die without a sound.

He was like a spectator who had wandered onto a theater stage, weaving between the sets and getting battered by props, yet never once stepping into center stage.

I have six or seven people's worth of physical ability now. I can beat thugs until their teeth scatter across the floor, send a rich kid's lackey flying with one slap. Can ordinary people do that? But so what? Does bullying a few high school punks make me strong?

This little bit of strength is worth jack shit against a cursed spirit. I don't even have the courage to face one right now, so what's all this talk about making myself a Heavenly Tyrant?

Pretty pathetic, huh?

Now that I've gained some strength, why not use this chance to see what I'm really worth?

I'll probably still end up a transfigured human anyway. It won't derail the plan.

The air in the back rows suddenly grew heavy.

Gu Yanzhi could feel the chill welling up from deep inside his body intensify, growing so thick it almost seemed solid.

The breathing of the four behind him changed-as though some force were suppressing them.

Ordinary people couldn't sense cursed energy, but when its density reached a certain level, their instincts would still notice.

Blondie's breathing grew shallow and rapid. Cold sweat broke out on the lackey's forehead, and Tsubasa's nails had already dug into the faux leather of the armrest.

Gu Yanzhi lowered his eyes, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly in what looked like self-mockery.

He took a deep breath and clenched his right hand where it rested on his knee.

Then he stood and threw a punch with all his strength, straight toward the direction every muscle fiber in his body was screaming about.

"Mahito, get past me first. Then we can talk about the future!"