CHAPTER 30: THE GIFT

[Kyoto – Secret Location Beneath the Training Facility]

The fluorescent lights flickered above cold metal walls. A room pulsed with the hum of hidden machines. Standing alone was a figure known not for his strength, but for his silence.

Kokichi Muta—or as most knew him, Mechamaru—stood on human legs for the first time in years.

His flesh and blood body, finally whole.

No more remote control puppets.

No more titanium shells hiding his soul.

Just... him.

But that gift came with a price.

Across from him stood Suguru Geto, arms calmly crossed, and Mahito, a devilish grin smeared across his face.

"You got what you wanted, Kokichi," Geto said. "Mobility, sensation… humanity."

Kokichi's knuckles whitened. "And in return… I gave you everything. My reports. Our plans. My integrity."

Mahito's voice echoed like slime down a drain. "And now... you're not useful anymore."

Mechamaru's eyes widened—but he was ready.

A giant puppet behind him emerged from the shadows. It was one of his ultimate creations, designed for war.

He lunged at Geto and Mahito, unleashing all the cursed energy he had stockpiled in secrecy for this moment.

"This is my atonement," Kokichi growled.

The battle shook the underground walls.

Lightning, puppets, black flashes, cursed spirits—everything collided in a storm of betrayal and vengeance.

Kokichi fought with raw fury. For his friends in Kyoto. For Utahime. For the trio in Tokyo he never even got to truly know.

But Mahito was a shapeless devil.

And Geto—a man with a plan far deeper than anyone realized.

Eventually, his puppet was crushed, his flesh bleeding again, not from disease this time, but from betrayal.

"You… lied…" Kokichi muttered as his vision dimmed.

Mahito tilted his head. "Of course we did. That's what curses do."

And with that, a final twisted touch of Mahito's cursed technique struck him.

Later, only silence filled the base.

The corpse of Kokichi Muta lay broken but defiant.

Mahito and Geto vanished into the darkness, unseen, unknown, unnoticed.

The traitor had fallen.

But the storm his betrayal brought… was only just beginning.