Masochism

[After a little more small talk, Mei Mei elegantly lifted her coffee cup without agreeing to your request outright.]

["Even with my intelligence network, digging up that man's precise movements will take some time. He is a professional at staying invisible, after all."]

[She slowed her speech, her eyes seeming to see straight through people as she watched you through the gaps in her hair and offered a considerate reminder.]

["And hiring that man won't come cheap."]

["If you really have some troublesome dirty work to take care of, why not hire me directly? Whether it's assassination or bodyguard work, I'll offer you a relatively 'affordable' alumni rate."]

[Faced with Mei Mei's probing, you knew perfectly well that without a reasonable explanation, this money-first senior would not only refuse to give you her full assistance, but might even turn around and sell information about your unusual behavior for a handsome price.]

[So you adjusted your glasses and delivered the explanation you had prepared long ago in an almost fanatically academic tone.]

["You've misunderstood, Mei Mei. My interest in Toji Zenin isn't about hiring him. It's because he's crucial to my research."]

["Oh?"]

["I make cursed corpses, and Heavenly Restriction, a trait that exchanges cursed energy for an extraordinary physique, is an important piece of the puzzle in my current research into autonomous cursed corpses."]

["I've been wondering whether that unusual physical structure can be artificially replicated. If I could apply that principle of 'zero cursed energy, high strength' to a cursed corpse's frame, perhaps I could create the perfect weapon."]

[Even the worldly Mei Mei couldn't help freezing for a moment at that explanation.]

[She scrutinized your expression, trying to find signs of a lie, but the fervor in your eyes and the internal consistency of your reasoning dispelled her doubts.]

[After all, before explaining, you had secretly equipped the Life Is Like a Play [R] card.]

[To her, you were simply another eccentric genius trained by Masamichi Yaga, with nothing but cursed corpses and cursed techniques in your head.]

[Though your ideas were fanciful, a pure technology obsessive like you was actually the most reassuring sort.]

["I see. Willing to spend your entire fortune on academic research? How touching."]

[Mei Mei gave you a professional smile.]

["Since it's what my client wants, I'll take the job."]

[Over the next six months and more, you shifted the vast majority of your energy away from making cursed corpses.]

[Because you had already recognized clearly that, in this simulation, you weren't the protagonist who could defy fate and change his destiny.]

[Against a natural-disaster-level monster like Toji Fushiguro, trying to face him head-on after a year of intensive training was nothing but a fool's dream.]

[The true decisive battle would ultimately rest on the shoulders of those two chosen ones, Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto.]

[You were only a mortal, a jujutsu sorcerer slightly stronger than ordinary people who knew a little more about the future.]

[All you could do was hand over a crucial umbrella as the building was about to fall.]

[Before spring arrived the following year, Mei Mei's intelligence came as promised.]

[Aside from the background information you already knew, you obtained more crucial details.]

[He was addicted to gambling, particularly horse racing, and frequently appeared at Fuchū Racecourse on the outskirts of Tokyo. He had been lying low lately, seemingly waiting for a big job, and, most importantly, there was a contact.]

[Shiu Kong, a South Korean broker operating in the gray areas, was currently the only reliable channel for contacting Toji Fushiguro.]

[You silently memorized the name and contact information, and truthfully told Mei Mei that you had no plans to make contact for now. Your funds were exhausted, and you needed to recoup some money before moving on to the next stage of research.]

[Time flew, and the cherry blossoms at Jujutsu High bloomed once more.]

[The annual card draw arrived.]

[The system interface unfolded in your mind, and light flashed.]

[Congratulations on obtaining the card: Masochism [R]]

[Card description: You don't know why-perhaps your neural circuits are wired wrong-but you're simply different from other people. Pain is no longer a warning but a stimulant. It will no longer have a negative psychological effect on you, instead sending you into varying degrees of heightened excitement.]

[Passive effect: Reduces physical sluggishness caused by pain by 50% and slightly increases reaction speed while injured.]

[As you read the card's description, the corner of your mouth twitched slightly. Only after a long while did you mutter to yourself.]

["The name sounds pretty perverted... but this is practically a god-tier skill tailor-made for real combat."]

[This meant that even if your arms or legs were broken in the future, you could keep throwing punches as though nothing had happened, and even slash away with greater enthusiasm. Combined with Reverse Cursed Technique, you would become the most tenacious nuisance on the battlefield.]

[Immediately afterward, the timeline converged.]

[Just as in the previous simulation, Kento Nanami and Yu Haibara joined Tokyo Jujutsu High as first-year students.]

[Some time later, because Shoko could not reach her senior Utahime on a mission in Shizuoka no matter what she tried, the Assistant Supervisor declared contact with the mission team lost.]

[Satoru Gojo, Suguru Geto, and you were dispatched to the scene as reinforcements.]

[Outside an abandoned Western-style mansion somewhere in Shizuoka Prefecture.]

["A fairly complicated barrier has been deployed inside here. And it's the kind that makes people lose their bearings."]

[Suguru Geto rubbed his chin as he looked at the sinister mansion before him.]

["What a pain. Why don't we just blow the place flat?"]

[Satoru Gojo impatiently lowered his sunglasses, blue cursed energy already beginning to gather at his fingertips.]

["Utahime and the others are probably hiding in some corner crying anyway."]

["Wait."]

[You stopped Satoru Gojo before he could begin the demolition, adjusted your glasses, and a sharp glint flashed in your eyes.]

["Forcibly destroying the outer structure could collapse the spatial barrier inside. That would put them in danger instead. Leave it to me."]

[Before Satoru Gojo could object, you had already stepped through the mansion's front door.]

[You couldn't have been more familiar with this mission.]

[The culprit was a cursed spirit with grade-one potential, whose cursed technique was called "Circulating Corridor."]

[In the previous simulation, you had extracted and analyzed this very cursed technique from that cursed spirit.]

[And now, you would fight poison with poison.]

[Space warped inside the mansion, its corridors extending endlessly like a Möbius strip.]

["Li, why are you here?! Be careful, there's no way out of here!"]

[Utahime Iori's anxious voice came from a distance. She and Mei Mei were trapped in a dead end of a second-floor corridor.]

["Don't worry, Utahime."]

[You stood calmly at the center of the warped space, the cursed energy in your body beginning to circulate along that familiar circuit.]

["Circulating Corridor."]