Itadori Yuji’s first death occurred during the juvenile detention center special-grade curse incident, that is, the [Coffin] of the Iron Mountain affair.
It was part of the upper brass’s scheme to eliminate him, the vessel of Sukuna, but astonishingly, he succeeded in reviving in just about a day.
His heart had been removed, and yet he suddenly came back to life. If you ask whether that makes any sense, there’s not much to say—but for Sukuna, trapped inside his body, it was possible.
Itadori Yuji himself may not remember it, but before he woke up, he had formed a [bond] with Sukuna.
In exchange for being saved, if he shouted [Open], he would hand over control of his body to Sukuna for one minute.
During that one minute, Sukuna could not harm anyone.
-Except Itadori Yuji and Sukuna himself.
It was a completely fraudulent contract, but there was nothing to be done.
That was because Itadori Yuji always put others before his own life.
So instead of thinking about the suffering others would endure when Sukuna took control, he never considered the option of self-harm.
Thanks to that, Sukuna, who casually rewrote the contents of the [bond] to suit himself, slipped in a scam clause under the contract like tiny 1pt print at the bottom of the page and quietly excluded Itadori Yuji from the scope of "anyone."
"Heh heh. What a foolish brat."
From the beginning, Sukuna had been thinking about transferring to another body.
To put it simply, Itadori Yuji’s body was trash.
It was a little too sturdy and strong, sure, but Sukuna could imitate that much anytime with his own cursed energy control and hand-to-hand combat.
Itadori Yuji, who lacked the most important thing—a technique—was, to Sukuna, like a police holding cell.
A frustrating prison that was weak and boring, yet annoyingly stubborn enough to keep him locked up.
After being sealed in a finger for a thousand years and waking up only to find himself in some prison, what a joke.
Of course he didn’t want to die together with a brat, and even if he didn’t die, he wanted even less to live uselessly inside him, unable to do anything.
Thanks to Kenjaku, he had already experienced being turned into a cursed object, so if he just waited for the right moment, he could escape this body.
"I’ve laid the groundwork. Now the question is who to switch to."
The first person he set his sights on was Fushiguro Megumi.
He had potential comparable to Gojo Satoru, yet was an idiot wasting it away.
He didn’t fully understand the near-limitless versatility of the Ten Shadows Cursed Law or the existence of the "trump card," but Sukuna wanted Fushiguro Megumi for himself.
His seeming coldness, despite having a surprisingly fragile mentality, also played a big part in selecting him as a candidate.
"The problem is...."
He couldn’t be sure whether he was resistant to poison.
Itadori Yuji, designed from the start to be a vessel, could naturally withstand Sukuna’s poison, but could Fushiguro Megumi do the same?
If he took a gamble and Megumi just dropped dead from poisoning, that would be the end of Sukuna that day.
As regrettable as it was, Fushiguro Megumi was out.
The risk was simply too high if he failed.
While he was searching for the next candidate, the second person who caught his eye was Yoshino Junpei.
"This is pretty...."
In some ways, he could be seen as an upgraded version of Fushiguro Megumi.
Since his cursed energy was poison in nature, he would naturally have resistance to poison, and Sukuna also liked the fact that his personality was weak.
He had watched quietly, thinking that the Sea God art would never surpass the prestige of the Ten Shadows Cursed Law, but the moment he witnessed Junpei’s awakening in Shibuya that day, his judgment was overturned.
"You’ve done splendidly in captivating me...!"
Yoshino Junpei was already a finished treasure.
Either take him into his own hands, or destroy him so no one could have him.
After wavering between those two choices, Sukuna soon chose destruction.
"Sukunaaaaa!!!"
He wasn’t confident he could subdue him without killing him.
With it not even being his own original body and only fourteen fingers available, capturing Yoshino Junpei alive was impossible.
When he won the domain battle, it had seemed like there might be a sliver of possibility, but that got shattered the instant that damned woman barged in with a finger in hand.
As a result, Sukuna was forced to lie low for a while, and he kept thinking within his mind.
"I need to somehow recover the finger that woman has."
The [bond] that said he couldn’t harm anyone was quite a nuisance.
First of all, the target he transferred into absolutely had to have enough resistance to poison not to be harmed by Sukuna’s finger.
And when taking the finger from Kugisaki Nobara, subduing her was impossible too. No matter how gently he knocked her out, he couldn’t know how the [bond] would judge it.
While he was turning his brain over for a long time, the Culling Game began.
"How are they planning to carry out the promise?"
The [bond] he had formed with Kenjaku when he was turned into a cursed object a thousand years ago.
Kenjaku surely knew that he had ended up like this, didn’t he?
Just as his doubts deepened, a clue that would resolve Sukuna’s worries appeared before his eyes.
The Angel.
An opponent he had once defeated before.
Now, by contrast, she had become his natural enemy, a dangerous figure who could kill him at any time.
"Ah."
It was clearly a dangerous situation, but Sukuna laughed instead.
That was because...
"The incarnated player was modeled after the brat, wasn’t it?"
When Kenjaku created incarnated players with Idle Transfiguration, he gave them the "strength" needed to serve as vessels capable of bearing cursed objects.
Where, then, had that standard of "strength" come from?
Obviously, he would have referred to the design of Itadori Yuji, the first prototype.
Enough to withstand the cursed object’s poison, but not enough to seize control.
That hypothesis turned into certainty when he was told the Angel would be given the game master’s authority.
"Kenjaku, was all of this your intention too?"
What a chilling line of thought.
To keep a promise like this and create a chance to deal with the Angel in one shot.
"If this goes well, I might even be able to kill Gojo Satoru and Yoshino Junpei too."
If it was the Angel’s technique, it would be possible.
Her technique, Gojo Satoru’s [Limitless], and Yoshino Junpei’s mapari were all mutually incompatible.
It was a little unpleasant that it felt like he was being made to handle all the cleanup himself, but if it was Kenjaku, he could let that much slide.
And so Sukuna waited.
Until the perfect moment arrived.
"Let’s laugh."
The moment he was swept up in Takaba Fumihiko’s technique,
a sinister smile rose to his lips.
At last, the time had come to get out of here.
Kugisaki Nobara was more flustered than ever before.
Sukuna’s seizure of Kurusu Hana’s body was shocking enough, but what was even more urgent was...
"Nobara...!"
"It’s gone.."
"What?"
"Sukuna’s finger is gone!"
It should have been hidden tightly in her arms.
When on earth did she drop it...?
"Looking for this?"
The answer came from Kenjaku, smiling with a fishy grin.
Teasing her, Kenjaku tossed Sukuna’s finger back and forth and kindly explained why.
"You were swept up in Takaba’s technique earlier and turned into a doll."
Did you think I’d just sit there and do nothing?
I couldn’t kill you, but I took it back right away.
So you couldn’t use your technique to keep him in check.
"If that was the plan, then why didn’t you take it when you caught me in Shibuya, why...!"
"I didn’t know the exact circumstances either. I only found out later from the footage the curse recorded. That you were holding one finger."
Only then could Junpei understand this situation.
Why Kenjaku had incarnated the Angel.
Why he had recklessly driven Takaba’s technique, which couldn’t kill people, into overdrive and made such a pointless struggle.
Why Junpei had quietly stayed out of sight and watched while he collected 1000 points.
Everything had been a meticulous smokescreen for this moment.
All this time, they had been dancing in the palm of Kenjaku’s hand.
With a face drained white, Junpei stammered out the words.
"From the beginning... this was your intention?"
"Yes. Incarnating the Angel, who can close the Culling Game, and using Takaba as a bomb to split you all apart."
"Takaba-san believed in you until the very end...!"
"On the contrary, that made things easier. Because he didn’t refuse to resonate with me, I was able to trap all of you and pair Itadori Yuji with Kurusu Hana."
Kurusu Hana had already obtained the game master’s authority.
And now that had been handed over to Sukuna.
"If I hand the host authority over to Sukuna like this, the Culling Game can be restarted at any time."
He had unconsciously forgotten it for a while.
How much malice Kenjaku had been nursing for a thousand years.
A guy who had seized his chance would never act this sloppily.
"With this, the Culling Game will continue forever. As long as Sukuna, who stole the Angel’s technique, sits in the administrator’s seat, no one can end this game as they please."
He knew Kenjaku was insane, but he hadn’t realized he was this meticulously mad.
Kenjaku had predicted all of Sukuna’s behavior, laid the board exactly as needed, and painted the picture he wanted.
Junpei was stunned by that absurd, mania-soaked obsession.
"Did you really have to go this far?"
"Keeping the Angel alive would be a burden for you too. And if you entered someone else’s body, there’d still be unstable elements left over. This was the best option."
"That grotesque rationality is exactly what pisses me off. This is the last time I’ll move the way you designed."
"I know."
Kenjaku, having summoned Kogane, was about to hand the host authority over to Sukuna.
"Kogane."
"Yes."
"Transfer the host authority to Kurusu Hana..."
No.
I have to stop it.
If that happens, it’s all over.
-Thud!
Junpei’s body was already moving.
"The others are seriously injured."
Sukuna had so efficiently subdued everyone except Junpei and Nobara.
Okkotsu and Todo had been hit so hard they were buried in pools of blood, breathing raggedly.
Choso and Kusakabe had been hacked to pieces and lost consciousness.
Maki was nowhere to be seen, and Hakari had been driven upside down into the ground, for all Junpei knew.
Yuji and Megumi at least looked relatively intact, but they were still bleeding from slash wounds.
Everyone had survived thanks to Takaba’s technique, but they were badly hurt.
That said, asking Nobara, who had lost Sukuna’s finger, to fight those two together was too cruel a demand.
Here, he had to do it alone.
-Shrrrk
[Fortress].
-Fwoosh!
[Bullet].
Junpei, using every technique at his disposal, kicked off toward Kenjaku.
He meant to pour everything into one strike and kill him before he could transfer the host authority.
But before the attack could land, a white light shot in from somewhere and swept past Junpei.
-Pssshk
"!"
"That won’t do."
By Sukuna’s [Jacob’s Ladder], fired like a beam, all the techniques surrounding Junpei were dispelled and his bare body was exposed.
Through that opening, Sukuna’s kick, black wings flapping as he flew in like a bolt of lightning, smashed into Junpei’s back.
-Baaang!
"Guhk!"
He had already pushed himself through back-to-back battles against Kashimo and Takaba.
The price of taking a fresh Sukuna’s blow with his bare body was horrific.
As Junpei coughed up blood and was sent sprawling, Kenjaku, who had been waiting in front, kicked him in the face.
-Pow!
Even as his consciousness dimmed, Junpei barely managed to summon mapari and wrap it around his body.
"He’s already using Kurusu-san’s technique!"
This is bad.
Sukuna, already a monster to begin with, had gained [Jacob’s Ladder] too.
Can I really win here?
"Transfer the host authority to Kurusu Hana."
"Approved."
"Damn it!"
In the end, Kenjaku had handed the authority over to Sukuna.
As he muttered something, Junpei could see the vanished barrier being raised again.
It felt like all the hellish effort of the past three days was being reduced to nothing, but right now he had to focus on the opponent in front of him.
"No choice. I have to do it first!"
Riding mapari to create distance, Junpei loaded a vortex at maximum output.
No matter how much [Jacob’s Ladder] could erase techniques, it wouldn’t be able to stop something with this much power.
"I can think about saving Kurusu-san later."
He didn’t think Sukuna would die from this one blow anyway.
And if, as he expected, Sukuna moved the way he wanted...
He could turn this atmosphere around.
"Full Moon, Eternal Exhaustion, the tide of resonance."
"That again."
Sukuna, sneering at Junpei, began chanting the spell in response.
"Dragon Scale, Rejection, a pair of meteors."
The clash of the two strongest forces that had unfolded in Shibuya happened once more.
"Vortex."
"Dismantle."
-KOOOOROOOOOM!
The blue beam and the invisible slash collided, unleashing a deafening roar.
A similar situation to before, which had ended in Junpei’s victory.
But this time, the result was a little different.
-Sssssss!
"!"
The slash.
It erased the vortex and flew onward.
"How...!"
"The Angel’s technique was a good model. I got a sense of how to deal with your damned jellyfish."
[Jacob’s Ladder] + Dismantle.
The slash that erased every technique it touched came flying in—
-Slash!
—and pierced through mapari to reach Junpei.
"Khh...."
-Thump
A sword wound that cut across half his body.
His muscles lost all strength, and blood sprayed out in front of the sinking Junpei.
"All that talk about being the strongest, and yet to me you just look like a slightly bigger fish."
Sukuna looked down at him arrogantly as his hand slowly formed a seal.
"The day I faced you, I think I’ve come to understand the name of the feeling I had."
Weak as you are, the fact that you try to stand in the same place as me is unbearably disgusting.
You should have spent your whole life chewing on your misfortune.
Why are you so desperate to resist?
"Not bad at all, Yoshino Junpei."
"Sukuna...!"
"Farewell, you commoner who was merely born in an era without me."
[Coffin of the Iron Mountain]
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