[You cannot take cursed objects out of the mirror world; the curse has been converted into 50 points.]
Hayashi stood in place, slightly disappointed. As expected, he couldn't take items out of the mirror world, which made sense. If he could bring objects from the mirror world into reality, it would throw everything into chaos.
However, gaining 50 points from a special-grade curse, which was equivalent to exorcising 50 cursed spirits, was quite acceptable. At least now he had a viable strategy for farming points in the future.
In the real world.
Two days later.
During these past two days, Hayashi lived a relatively peaceful life in the real world. He checked in with Itadori Yuji, who said everything was normal on his end.
Hayashi refrained from mentioning Junpei's situation to avoid causing any unintended changes. While he could reverse time in the mirror world, that wasn't possible in the real world, and every mistake could be irreversible. However, the future could still be altered.
Over these two days, Hayashi had traveled back and forth between the real world and the mirror world, visiting the latter two or three times a day. This helped him accumulate a large number of points, but he hadn't profited much after deducting the cost of reversing time.
During this time in the mirror world, Hayashi had also been learning how to fly an airplane. He even stole money from a bank to pay for the lessons, as he wouldn't have had enough otherwise.
Additionally, he used the points he earned to enhance his cursed energy output. Initially, his cursed energy output had a range with a diameter of about thirty meters. Now, it had expanded to a full diameter of three hundred meters, a significant improvement.
"Hayashi, are you in your room? Come out for a minute," came the voice of Nobara Kugisaki from outside.
Hayashi had just been about to enter the mirror world but paused when he heard her call. "Uh, what's up?" he asked, opening the door. There was a faint scent lingering on Nobara—something subtle yet pleasant, though Hayashi couldn't quite place what it was.
Nobara looked Hayashi up and down suspiciously before making a puzzled expression. "Hayashi, you've been acting really strange these past few days."
"Strange?" Hayashi glanced at himself, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. "What's strange about me?"
Nobara rolled her eyes at him. "I'm not saying your body's weird. I'm talking about your behavior. These past few days, there've been strange noises coming from your room, and when we've trained together, it feels like you're completely drained, like you're exhausted."
Hearing this, Hayashi felt a bit awkward. The strange noises were just him laughing to himself in his room because he was happy. As for feeling tired during training—that was simply because he had been tirelessly farming curses in the mirror world. No wonder he was exhausted.
Hayashi had also been practicing his jujutsu techniques with Maki, since his proficiency with cursed tools was far inferior to hers. That might have made everyone notice how worn out he was.
"I'm fine. I've just been staying up too late these past few days, so my energy isn't great," Hayashi replied casually, brushing it off.
In the mirror world, he had fought against Nobara and the others, so interacting with them now felt a bit... odd.
"But," Nobara continued, "Fushiguro and I have noticed that you've been leaving the school grounds frequently. What's that all about?"
Her tone was more inquisitive than accusatory. Normally, Nobara wouldn't care what Hayashi did, but his unusual behavior had piqued both her and Fushiguro's curiosity.
She had noticed him sneaking out, but luckily she hadn't caught onto the real secret. Hayashi said, "Oh, that? I've just been going out for walks, like I'm about to do right now."
Hayashi had originally planned to enter the mirror world from his room, especially since Gojo-sensei wasn't at the school today, making it a safe time to do so.
Now that Nobara had called him out, he'd have to leave campus before entering the mirror world.
"You're acting weird all the time. Don't hold us back when the exchange event happens soon. You know I don't like losing," Nobara said, crossing her arms as she watched Hayashi walk away.
"I don't want to lose either," Hayashi waved as he turned the corner and disappeared.
Five minutes later.
"Finally got away from them. Time to get moving," Hayashi said, quickly entering the mirror world.
Once inside, Hayashi headed straight for the local airport. He stole a small plane and rewound time to when the special-grade curse Shingo was still alive. Hayashi then took off, piloting the plane into the sky.
To avoid flying too high and risking an accident, Hayashi kept the small plane at around 200 meters altitude. Looking down at the houses whizzing by, Hayashi felt an unprecedented sense of exhilaration. It was far more satisfying than driving the Audi R8. Since he hadn't experienced flying before, he had to try it out. After all, life was about experiencing everything at least once.
Flying was much faster than driving a car, mainly because there were no traffic jams in the sky.
Before long, Hayashi saw the towering Heisei International Group building in the distance. From his vantage point, it looked like a massive target.
Covered in crimson armor, his face hidden by a red helm, Hayashi resembled a mix between "Madara" and "Iron Man."
The plane sped toward the Heisei International Group building, crashing straight into it.
"Boom!"
A massive explosion shook the area, sending plumes of smoke and fire into the air. Residents hundreds of meters away rushed out of their homes to see what had happened, witnessing smoke billowing from the middle of the building as if it had been hit by a missile.
"Oh my god!"
"Get out of here! This might be a terrorist attack."
"Could it be that lunatic Ladin? That guy will bomb anything!"
"Ladin, my ass! If you don't want to get caught in the blast, just run!"
The plane's explosion tore through the building, but Hayashi rolled safely into the interior. The place was a wreck, but since it was a weekend, the floor was mostly empty, and Hayashi didn't see any casualties from the crash.
As for the outside world's reaction, that had nothing to do with him.
"Shingo, come out now!" Hayashi shouted, raising his hand like a war god.
"You've destroyed everything I've worked for! I'll make you pay back a hundredfold!"
A furious, terrifying voice echoed as the purple figure of Shingo materialized, exuding a sinister and eerie aura.
It had meticulously planned this for so long, but now this maniac had wrecked everything. The damage to the building would cost it a significant amount of time to recover.
Shingo couldn't comprehend it—were modern jujutsu sorcerers insane, flying planes into buildings?
Who did that?
In the mirror world, all the rules were the same as the real world, except for one: Hayashi. He could ignore all the laws of the world. To outsiders, Hayashi was an anomaly.
"No time for small talk. I'm in a hurry, so just die already!" Hayashi laughed as he spread his arms wide and clasped his hands together. "Domain Expansion—Sun and Moon!"
A black domain instantly enveloped Shingo. With a look of disbelief on its face, Shingo was killed by Hayashi, who then extracted the silver iron talisman from its body. Without wasting time, Hayashi rewound the timeline and flew off to Hokkaido to kill the cursed womb, Ryomen Sukuna.
After that, he went to exorcise the curse at the juvenile detention center, where another one of Sukuna's fingers was located.
Finally, Hayashi rewound time to the moment when Sukuna's finger appeared at Sazaki High School, stealing it before moving on. This completed his efficient point farming routine.
This method had been Hayashi's go-to lately, as it was the most time-efficient. Rewinding further back in time wasn't worth it due to the immense point cost, so there was no need.
Whether or not new locations would offer opportunities to farm points in the future, Hayashi would need to consider carefully. For now, this strategy worked just fine.
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