NO. 12 - Hidden Inventory

AN:

Happy Halloween, everyone! Here's a free bonus chapter as my treat to you all.

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[You have pulled: Itadori Yuji's Pain Tolerance! Rank: Silver.]

"I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not."

I watched as the small plastic prize ball in my hand slowly shimmered away once I received my reward. In an instant, the slight pain on my still-healing neck had become a lot more bearable. With enough focus, I pushed the pain to the back of my mind as if I wasn't even hurt at all. Even so, the injury still stung.

I was sitting in my small room, loose papers and art supplies strewn around, as two laptops sat on my desk. Unlike usual, there were no clones slaving away today. The reason was the large stack of manuscripts and a year's worth of weekly chapters sitting in several folders on a cluttered desk.

Safe to say, I was extremely ahead of schedule.

I was even in the negotiating process of selling the first entries to both Harry Potter and Star Wars. It wouldn't be long before my name blew up in this world, well, at least my pen name.

"Use 700 SP." I said as I twisted the gacha's dial. After a few seconds, a new prize ball popped out of the machine.

I hated to admit it, but I was now thoroughly addicted to gambling away my points. Hopefully, my new addition stayed to this gacha machine and not to the blood-sucking casinos this world has to offer.

It killed me at times not to go all in, but I knew I had to be careful with my points. Otherwise, I'd keep hoarding more useless junk from the JJK world. It got to the point that I had to rent an entire storage unit to store all my useless junk.

I already had ten pairs of Gojo's sunglasses. I didn't need more. Even if they were from a designer brand.

[You have pulled: The Inventory Curse! Rank: Silver.]

"Say wha?"

I watched with curiosity as cursed energy began to gather in the space in front of me from seemingly nowhere. After a few seconds, a purple wormlike creature appeared in the air. Before it could fall on the ground, I caught it in my arms.

"Huh, so I can win cursed spirits as well? Neat. Does that mean I can pull Rika as well?" I said as the wormlike curse spirit looked at me with a derpy expression. "Now then, are you loyal to me or what?"

The curse spirit nodded as if it fully understood me. I grinned and lifted it close to my body so it could wrap itself around my torso like it did with Toji.

"Awesome. I'm going to call you… Zaiko. Yup!" I patted Zaiko's head with a smile, causing the spirit to hum. "Zaiko it is!"

I walked over and reached under my bed to grab my only two weapons: Kusakabe's katana and Slaughter Demon. I lifted them towards Zaiko's mouth and watched in fascination as he swallowed them both easily. Causing them both to vanish seemingly. I then reached into its mouth and pulled out Slaughter Demon.

"Now I can always walk around with my weapons. How convenient. You wouldn't happen to have Toji's arsenal, now, would you?" I asked Zaiko. The spirit looked confused and shook its head. "You don't know who Toji is? Hmm, I wonder if this gacha system clears your memories when it brought you here. This only begs the question of whether you were Toji or Geto's spirit that I snatched or if you're an exact copy made by the system itself."

Before I could think any deeper into the possible mechanics of my gacha system, the alarm on my phone went off. I reached over to my desk and hit the snooze button on my phone. Today was the day I would finally meet my editor for my TMNT manga.

She had been pestering and repeatedly asking for an in-person meeting after the sudden rise of my story's popularity. Apparently, communication over email and texts wasn't good enough for her.

Without wasting any time, I quickly used my remaining five pulls. Sadly, I didn't win any more decent rewards—just a bunch of more useless junk like Miwa's black tie and Miguel's funny hat.

"Let's get a move on, Zaiko," I said, walking out of my room to begin walking through the orphanage's hallways. I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out a pair of round sunglasses to place over my eyes.

"Hopefully, this won't take too long."

x x x

[General POV]

The aroma of freshly ground coffee beans filled the air as Mikami Asuka, a red-haired woman with blue eyes dressed in a yellow cardigan jacket and black khaki pants, sat at a cozy corner table in the bustling cafe.

She watched as the barista expertly steamed milk for her latte, creating a mesmerizing swirl in the cup. The gentle chatter of other patrons provided a soothing background noise, and the warm glow of the afternoon sun streamed through the large windows, casting a golden hue over the entire space.

Asuka took a moment to savor the tranquility of the cafe, which was a welcome break from her usual hectic days. She took a sip of her latte. The rich, velvety flavor danced on her taste buds, bringing a contented smile to her face.

Asuka had been working in the manga industry for the past two years now, so her experience in the field was somewhat lacking. Despite that, she was hungry and desperate to secure her spot at the top of the industry. This meant she had to find the next big story to shake the manga world.

That was easier said than done. Even after one year of searching and interviewing several hopeful future Mangakas', Asuka came up empty-handed. All of the stories and one-shots she's seen were generic and boring. There was nothing new and fresh. Nothing that would catch the reader's attention.

That was until she received an email from someone by the name of Gege.

This wasn't unusual by any means. Asuka's email was constantly receiving messages from wannabe artists who wanted her to take a chance on them and their works. But the message she received from Gege was different. His message was short and to the point.

"Read this and let me know when we can start."

Gege's message was one of extreme confidence. Some wouldn't be remiss even to say a bit egotistical. But when Asuka took a look at the attached files, she couldn't help but be unimpressed with the art quality. The drawings were decent, but nothing impressive.

But they didn't have to be.

No, what stood out like a star in the sky was the story.

The tale of four mutant ninja brothers who fight against evil and protect the innocent from the shadows as unsung heroes was attention-grabbing.

It was also the very story she's been in search of this entire time. Asuka wasn't like most people. Most people wanted to see larger-than-life heroes performing grand heroic feats while looking handsome, beautiful, and human-like.

It wasn't a giant secret that the media didn't like to show off those with mutant-type quirks. No, heroes like Gang Orca, Wolf-Man, Super Snake Woman, and many more pro-mutant heroes weren't exactly pushed to be on the front pages or main time slots on television or movies.

Even in today's day and age, people still can't differentiate between those who look different and monsters or villains.

However, a story like the one of the turtle brothers could be the push to help society change. Even if it's a small push. So Asuka instantly agreed to take on Gege and submit his story to Jump. The bigwigs in charge almost didn't accept running the story, but Asuka wasn't one to give up so easily. She pushed and pushed the bigwigs until they agreed to give the story a shot.

And to everyone's surprise, except her, Gege's story was an instant success. The readers couldn't get enough of the tales of the four ninja turtle brothers and their rat father. Week after week, each edition of Jump had massive sales—a large part due to Gege's story.

You can also imagine her shock when she found out that Gege was also a writer as well. He has written the recently awarded New York Times bestseller The Hunger Games.

Asuka had asked to meet Gege on several occasions, but the Mangaka was adamant about maintaining their communication over the internet or by phone. But after working alongside him for several weeks, Asuka wouldn't take no for an answer anymore.

"Fine, we can meet at this cafe in Musutafu then."

That's how Asuka ended up in a lovely cafe in the city of Musutafu. Her face was eager and impatient to meet the man who did so much in so little time.

Glancing around, Asuka noticed a group of young teenagers engaged in lively conversation at a nearby table, their laughter adding a cheerful energy to the atmosphere. The aroma of freshly baked pastries wafted from the display case, tempting her with their decadent sweetness.

"It's almost time. Where is he?" Asuka asked as she took another sip of her drink.

Lost in her thoughts, Asuka failed to notice a young black-haired boy dressed in a black hoodie and white shirt as he looked down at his phone and then at her repeatedly. With a shrug, he walked over and sat in the chair opposite of her nonchalantly.

Noticing the weird kid sitting in front of her, Asuka raised an annoyed eyebrow at him. "Hey, kid, you lost or something? Listen, I don't have time for you. Can you go bother someone else?"

"Kid? Lady, I'm twelve."

"So, a kid," Asuka said with a sigh. She then made shoo-shoo motions at her uninvited guest with an eye roll. "Do you want some money or something? Here's five hundred yen; now go away."

The youth wearing sunglasses took the bill with a shrug and slid it into his pocket. Still, he didn't move and stared at Asuka with a slight grin. The red-haired woman slowly began to feel an odd feeling from the kid in front of her. Almost negative.

This caused Asuka to slowly slide back into the back of her chair. Her reaction caused the black-haired boy's grin to stretch wider in amusement.

"Ah… I-I have to go now." Asuka muttered as she began to gather her stuff to leave the table.

"Really?" The young boy said in an amused tone. "I thought you wanted to meet me, Mikami-san." In an instant, Asuka froze and turned to him with slowly widening eyes.

"Gege… s-sensei?"

"In the flesh."

A few moments later, a long, hushed, high-pitched whine filled the cafe.