Chapter 62 — Technique Reversal · Miracle
"Hey, Ren," Maki said softly on the return bus, leaning lightly against his shoulder, "how about we come back again this time next year?"
"Would that really be a good idea?" Ren smiled. "Wouldn't you get bored revisiting the same place?"
"It wouldn't be the same," she murmured, lowering her head.
"That night… when we went camping… I actually wanted… to spend it with you."
Ren turned his head and gently kissed her forehead.
"Alright. Then next summer, we'll come back again."
---
As soon as they returned to Tokyo Jujutsu High, Ren immediately sensed something was off.
He was quickly escorted by an assistant supervisor to the school hospital.
"Ren," said Shoko Ieiri, visibly relieved when she saw him, "thank goodness you're back. If you'd taken any longer, I was about to have them call and rush you."
As she spoke, she moved to a hospital bed and began using Reverse Cursed Technique on a groaning patient.
"What happened?" Ren asked.
"Another transfigured human incident occurred in Tokyo yesterday," she replied. "There were a lot of casualties. We're severely short on medical support right now."
"Your Reverse Cursed Technique can be projected outward. You're exactly what we need."
"Got it."
Ren didn't hesitate. He immediately joined Ieiri and began treating the injured.
---
After treating dozens of patients, Ren was about to head to the next ward when Ieiri glanced at him and said quietly,
"That one… there's no need."
"What?" Ren frowned. He could clearly hear pained groans coming from that room.
"That patient… can't be saved."
"They were affected by a cursed spirit's transfiguration technique. The damage isn't obvious externally, but the internal organs have been altered."
"If it were just physical injuries, Reverse Cursed Technique could heal them."
"But when the biological structure itself has been distorted… we can't do anything."
Ieiri lowered her gaze, her tone heavy.
"…I'd like to try," Ren said after a brief moment of thought, walking toward the room despite her hesitation.
Inside, the patient lay writhing faintly, their face swollen and darkened, blood seeping from the corner of their mouth. Their eyes were shut, unconscious, yet soft groans escaped them instinctively from the pain.
Just as Ieiri had said—there were no obvious external deformities. The damage was internal.
Ren picked up a scan sheet from nearby and glanced at it.
The primary distortion was in the liver.
He placed his palm over the patient's abdomen, directly above the organ, and activated Reverse Cursed Technique at full power.
Clenching his teeth, he poured all his cursed energy into the patient, maintaining the flow without interruption.
Time passed—he didn't know how long.
Then suddenly…
The patient stopped groaning.
And gradually, their expression began to ease.
Shoko Ieiri reached out and placed her fingers beneath the patient's nose. She quickly realized that their breathing had stabilized.
"What just happened?" she asked in astonishment, looking at Ren. "How did you do that?"
"A standard Reverse Cursed Technique shouldn't be able to alter someone's biological structure."
"This wasn't just Reverse Cursed Technique," Ren said, wiping the sweat from his forehead. His face was pale, but a faint smile appeared. "It was Technique Reversal."
"I took the positive energy generated by Reverse Cursed Technique and infused it into my innate technique. That created a completely different effect—one that stands opposite to the Limitless-based technique driven by negative energy."
Under Ieiri's astonished gaze, he continued explaining.
"My normal technique—its forward application—is Limitless."
"But its reversal… is Miracle."
"Limitless operates by manipulating probability with myself as the reference point. It can influence enemies, but only indirectly—by altering the probabilities tied to my own actions. In other words, the enemy is affected through changes in my possible outcomes."
"But Miracle reverses that relationship. It shifts the target of probability manipulation from the subject to the object—allowing me to directly manipulate the probabilities of others."
"And because it's powered by positive energy, which is inherently beneficial to living beings, this technique demonstrates exceptional healing capabilities. It's practically a miracle technique—one that can cure almost anything."
He paused briefly, then added in simpler terms,
"My reversed technique will automatically attempt every possible method to heal the target… until it finds the one that works."
Ieiri was left speechless.
It took her a long moment to recover from the shock.
"…Well," she finally said, a hint of excitement returning to her voice, "no matter what, we've finally found a way to deal with that stitched-face cursed spirit."
"The next time we encounter it, we won't just be able to treat the injured—we might even be able to restore the transfigured victims."
"…No."
Ren shook his head, his pale face heavy with fatigue.
"That cursed spirit's technique directly alters the human body."
"Mine, on the other hand, works by trying thousands—tens of thousands—of possibilities until it finds a way to restore the body."
"In terms of efficiency, we're not even on the same level."
"Besides, both Limitless and Miracle are probability-based techniques. Probability is rooted in possibility—and possibility is built on the present state."
He gave an example.
"If that blue-haired cursed spirit tries to transfigure me and I activate Limitless at the same time, I can mislead or interfere with its attack to a large extent."
"But if the transformation is already complete—if I've already become something entirely deformed—then no matter how much I push my technique, I won't be able to return to my original form."
"This time, I succeeded only because the victim's transformation was still minimal."
"If we encounter those who've been fully transformed… there's nothing I can do."
He paused, then concluded,
"So in the end… we still have to exorcise that cursed spirit."
"Speaking of which," he added, looking at Ieiri, "do we have any leads on it?"
Ieiri shook her head, regret evident on her face.
"It never showed itself. It only controlled transfigured humans to carry out the attack."
"By the time our sorcerers dealt with them, it had already disappeared without a trace."
"We tried tracking it through the residual cursed energy at the scene, but got nothing."
"Then what was the purpose of the attack?" Ren asked.
Normally, cursed spirits didn't need a reason to kill or torment humans—it was simply their nature.
But this one hadn't even shown up in person to "enjoy" the chaos.
That meant it had another objective.
And that… was far more troubling.
"Abduction," Ieiri said, her expression darkening.
"After the incident, we discovered that in a nearby district, around 150 people went missing at the same time."
Ren's expression hardened.
"So the victims aren't just the injured and the transfigured…"
"Exactly."
"…Of course," Ren muttered, clenching his teeth.
Those missing people were undoubtedly being used as materials for the next round of transfiguration.
This cursed spirit's level of destruction—and intelligence—was unlike anything they had encountered before.
"We need to eliminate it as soon as possible," he said, looking up at Ieiri with a grave expression.
…