Kyoto Sister School Goodwill Event - Team Battle, Part 5

The duel between Panda and Mechamaru gets underway. Panda assumes the two are alike, both cursed corpses, but Mechamaru is actually steered from afar by a sorcerer whose own body has failed him. Their opposing worldviews fuel an all-out contest, and Panda holds nothing back to secure the win. By the end, a long-held secret about Panda himself begins to surface.

Hidden away in a distant spot, a heavily bandaged Kokichi Muta stews over Panda's claim that they share the same nature, dismissing Panda as nothing more than a doll. Piloting Mechamaru remotely, he shifts into Sword Option with Boost engaged and unleashes Ultra Spin, an attack Panda dodges as it shatters a nearby tree. Curious about an opponent he knows little about, Panda asks his rank and is taken aback to hear semi-grade 1. He weathers the next strike, an energy beam called Ultra Cannon, while Kokichi realizes raw power means nothing unless he hits the core.

The narration reveals Panda's origin as an Abrupt-Mutation cursed corpse, one that emerged with awareness and feelings, crafted as the masterwork of Principal Yaga, the leading expert in puppet sorcery. Where a heart would sit, Panda carries a cursed-energy core, and in close range he clearly outmatches Mechamaru. Understanding that Kokichi's true body lies somewhere beyond the arena, Panda concludes his only path is to wreck the puppet immediately. Kokichi then confesses to a Heavenly Restriction that floods him with cursed energy at the cost of a ruined body: skin that cannot bear sunlight, two missing legs, and a lost arm. Resentful that a doll lives so freely, his fury triggers Mechamaru's Albatross Mode.

Part of the Kyoto Goodwill Event Arc, this Volume 5 chapter was adapted in Episode 16. Mechamaru seizes Panda, who deliberately takes the hit to shield Nobara from the line of fire, then gets struck by a full-power Ultimate Cannon. Believing a doll unworthy of death, Mechamaru is stunned when Panda's voice rings out from the settling smoke. Panda emerges enraged and reveals a brand-new transformation, Gorilla Mode, overturning the assumption that he is simply a panda.