wasteland, baby! [fushiguro megumi]

27: heavenly paradox

19 October 2018

kyoto prefectural jujutsu high school

third person pov

"mechamaru?!" itadori could barely make any sense of what he was just told.

the tokyo first years were following utahime down the dark corridors underground of the kyoto school, where the supposed 'real mechamaru' was being held at. the path sure was eerie, as if curses and cursed spirits would ambush them at any moment, and yet keiko could hardly detect any clear traces of cursed energy around them, which made her frown.

"it isn't that hard to believe, you know." kugisaki sighed.

"she's right. by process of elimination, it only makes sense for mechamaru to be the mole. given his heavenly restriction, he attends school remotely via his proxy so we can kinda say that he has two physical entities, and that gives him the opportunity to do god knows what with his real body residing somewhere else. if anything, he would be the perfect spy for the enemy." keiko explained, but judging by the look on itadori's face, it didn't seem like he managed to grasp even the slightest gist of what she was saying.

"i thought he was just in a robot suit!"

it didn't take long for the group to descend the last flight of stairs and take a turn before reaching an isolated door.

"the real mechamaru, kokichi muta, is down here." utahime gestured. "it's like what keiko said, we don't suspect him because he's suspicious – we came to that conclusion by process of elimination. puppet manipulation ... it's range, thanks to his heavenly restriction, reaches the entire nation. using unregistered puppets that act as moles to steal information would be easy for him."

"really? but it'd draw a lot of attention if you ask me."

"what if the puppet was as small as a fly or a mosquito?" the kyoto sensei took another glance at the first years, frowning at the redhead's expression. "what is it koko?"

it then struck her, the unusual lack of cursed energy. it should've been almost overwhelming, considering the need for kokichi muta to be manipulating the mechamaru that's running around in the school, yet there they were completely unaware of the lack thereof.

did utahime let her guard down? because keiko was more than certain that their target had already fled.

"he's gone." she simply replied, her eyes slowly drifting to the tacky door that utahime was about to have itadori bust open, which he did anyway.

unfortunately, it wasn't to their surprise that they found an empty room, its remnants all shredded apart, evidence that a fight had broken out not too long ago and of course no sign of kokichi muta. the trace of his cursed energy, the one keiko could briefly recall from the sister school event, lingered subtly in the air.

"so this means ..." megumi muttered.

"it's confirmed, mechamaru's the mole."

looking over at the grimace on utahime's face, keiko silently stepped forward, gently grabbing onto her hand and wrapping it within her own. anyone could see the apparent guilt painted all over the kyoto sensei's face, for how could she have prevented her own student from going astray?

"he got us ..." utahime mumbled, giving keiko's hand a light squeeze before turning away. "i guess there's no other reason for you guys to be here anymore. thank you for your time, you best be getting back to tokyo."

utahime had insisted on sending the tokyo first years off at the airport, despite having the more pressing issue of dealing with the mole that had been confirmed was mechamaru. she gave a last hug to keiko, and honestly she didn't want to pull away. to remain in this moment, to suspend time, for her time was ticking to bring her back to the kyoto school and face the consequences of her student's actions.