"Yoshino. I’ll repay this debt even if I have to do it after I’m dead."
Right now, Megumi was kneeling in front of Junpei, his face streaked with tears and his eyes swollen red.
When Tsumiki woke up, the siblings spent a long time in tearful reunion. Afterward, they immediately called a doctor to check her condition.
When Megumi heard that she had fully recovered aside from a slight drop in physical ability from having lain in bed for so long, and when he was told by the doctor from Jujutsu High that the curse had vanished without a trace, he went straight to Junpei and began expressing his gratitude in his own way.
"I get it, so could you please stand up, Fushiguro?"
"......"
"Fushiguro?"
No matter how many times Junpei called, Megumi refused to loosen his posture, his teeth clenched tight.
Junpei found the whole situation deeply uncomfortable.
He had indeed broken Tsumiki’s curse, but he wasn’t a healer.
In fact, if he had handled it carelessly, he might have made things worse. He wasn’t sure he deserved such a heavy show of gratitude for something that had just happened to work out.
"You can just leave him alone. He can’t get up right now because his legs are numb."
"...?"
"....."
At Tsumiki’s perfectly timed jab, Megumi flinched.
When the children’s icy stares landed on him, sweat trickled down his forehead.
"You really don’t want to be that broken, huh...."
"That’s honestly pathetic."
"Ghk...."
In the end, they decided to leave Megumi alone as he secretly massaged his legs and watched them nervously, and turned their attention to Tsumiki instead.
The beauty before them had a sharpness to her features, but there was also a certain purity to her. She was still wearing a hospital gown. She looked a little gaunt, but that only suited her delicate features better, giving her an air of decadence and stirring an urge to protect her.
She gave them a weak smile and bowed her head.
"Sorry for the late introduction. I’m Fushiguro Tsumiki. This is the first time we’ve actually spoken face-to-face, right?"
"Hello...."
"Nice to meet you!"
"Yes, it’s a pleasure to meet you...?"
"Hehe, you don’t have to be so stiff, everyone. I’m the one who’s been helped here, after all."
As Tsumiki slowly looked over the three of them standing awkwardly there, her gaze settled on Junpei.
"You’re Yoshino Junpei, right?"
"Yes..."
"The doctors all said they’d given up on me.... Thank you so much for curing me."
"No, it wasn’t that amazing a thing to do..... And I’ve already gotten plenty of thanks from Fushiguro anyway."
"Still, I think I should thank you personally. If it hadn’t been for you, I’d still be lying in that bed."
Tsumiki grabbed Junpei’s hand and looked up at him with tearful eyes, leaving him speechless. Nobara’s eyes practically lit up with fury.
"Thank you again. I’ll never forget this kindness."
"Haha..."
"......"
Junpei felt like he was dying on the spot.
It was because of the ominous atmosphere radiating from Nobara standing behind him.
He had already worried her by fainting just a moment ago, and now he’d gone and held hands with another girl right in front of her. He couldn’t see it, but her eyes were definitely spinning.
At the same time, it felt wrong to shove aside Tsumiki, a patient who had only just recovered.
"I’ll definitely repay you...!"
"You don’t have to repay me, but if you insist, then I suppose I understand."
"...? Why are you talking so fast?"
"This is just how I normally talk, though?"
"I don’t think it was...."
"Anyway, your body still hasn’t fully recovered, so please get plenty of rest today, and we’ll be going now!!"
Feigning stupidity on purpose to distract Tsumiki, Junpei kicked the door open and ran out.
If he dragged this out any longer, the pressure would crush him until he turned into dried seafood rather than the Sea God.
".....Did he hate talking to me that much?"
As Tsumiki slumped in disappointment, Nobara approached her with a slightly smug look.
"Hey, Tsumiki."
"Yes?"
"He’s mine, so don’t even think about it."
"....?"
"Just so there’s no misunderstanding, Junpei was just embarrassed because he’s naturally awkward. Don’t go reading into it the wrong way, okay?"
"What are you even talking about...."
"Anyway, that’s that. Congratulations on recovering, and if the chance comes up, let’s meet again."
After saying her piece, Nobara also left the hospital room after Junpei.
Left behind all alone, Tsumiki and Megumi stared at each other, dumbfounded.
Somewhere nearby, Yuji had come over with popcorn and was quietly watching the whole spectacle from the side, chewing away.
"....Why is Kugisaki acting like that?"
"She probably thought you had feelings for Yoshino."
"You mean like that?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, come on. No way. I was just showing my gratitude to my benefactor."
Even as she denied it with her mouth, Tsumiki’s face was slightly flushed.
Noticing that subtle change, Megumi’s mouth fell open and the drink he’d been sipping spilled down in a stream.
"Tsumiki.....no way?"
"What?"
"Don’t dodge the question. I mean Yoshino."
"......Do I show it that much?"
Megumi recalled the type of person Tsumiki had once said was her ideal.
She had definitely said she liked delicate pretty boys.
And she had also said she liked men who would save her like a prince on a white horse.
Unfortunately, Junpei fit both descriptions.
Before long, Tsumiki’s face had completely become that of a teenage girl in love.
"It doesn’t have to be a deep relationship yet.... Maybe if we start as friends, there’s a chance?"
Had she been influenced by keeping Yorozu inside her for over half a year?
Her eyes looked a little dangerous.
Megumi began to worry about how he should treat Junpei from now on.
-----------------------------
After visiting Tsumiki, the others gathered in Junpei’s room in small groups.
Tsumiki’s recovery and Junpei’s fainting. The vanished mark.
There were still things that needed to be explained about all of it.
"So what happened?"
Under those serious yet slightly excited gazes, Junpei hesitated a little.
'Will they believe me?'
He still wasn’t sure, but he decided to tell the truth anyway.
Even if they were likely to dismiss it as a hallucination, this was too important to leave out.
The black jellyfish was clearly his own ability, so he could leave that part vague, but the naked woman was different.
That woman had definitely been sleeping inside Tsumiki.
And the thousand years she had spoken of. Her fixation on some unidentified "he." And the strength that had far exceeded anything he expected.
If he stayed silent about this, he had no idea what might happen.
"So... when I touched Tsumiki’s forehead, I fell into some kind of space."
"Mm."
"It was like a huge jar. Looking back now, I think it was probably my Innate Domain."
"Ah, I’ve had a similar experience, so I know what you mean."
"You too, Yuji?"
"I went there once when I died and came back to life. It wasn’t mine, though—it was Sukuna’s Innate Domain."
"Okay, okay, let’s hear that story later. So what happened next?"
"I was wandering around, looking at things here and there... then suddenly the lights came on overhead and a woman appeared."
The development was so absurd it felt like a ninja massacre-level twist, and the children’s reactions exploded.
"A woman?!"
"Who was it? Who?!"
"C-calm down, Nobara. I don’t know her name."
"Tell us exactly what you said to that woman, down to the last word!"
"It wasn’t much of a conversation. She just blamed me and tried to kill me. She was probably the one inside Tsumiki. The source of the curse that put her into unconsciousness, too."
"......"
"She said she’d waited a thousand years, and that I’d ruined everything, and that because of me she couldn’t go see him anymore, so she was going to kill me and take my body."
The children’s faces hardened at the more serious-than-expected content.
Especially Yuji’s.
Doesn’t that sound familiar?
"...A vessel. Like Sukuna’s finger."
"I agree. That could’ve gotten a lot worse."
"If the conditions had been met, she probably would’ve taken over Tsumiki’s body and incarnated right there."
"What was that about a thousand years ago?"
At Yuji’s question, Megumi’s expression turned stiff as he continued his explanation.
"A thousand years ago would be the Heian era. The golden age of jujutsu, and a chaotic time when curses and vile curse users ran rampant."
"So that woman was a jujutsushi from a thousand years ago?"
"Probably. She must have either made some kind of contract or learned how to turn herself into a cursed object and crossed time for a purpose."
"And that purpose was probably..."
"To meet 'him'?"
"Wow.... Love is heavy."
"A psycho yandere like that almost took over Tsumiki’s body?"
Yuji’s chilling remark made Megumi shudder.
"Just imagining it is horrifying. Tsumiki turning into some crazy bitch..... Once again, thank you, Yoshino. You saved Tsumiki and me."
Listening from the side, Junpei could only nod in agreement this time as well.
That woman had definitely been beautiful, but her head was completely screwed on wrong.
A madwoman who stole the body of someone precious. Whoever came up with that was monstrously vicious.
"Then who is 'he'?"
"I don’t know. That woman did say a name, though—Uraume, I think..."
"Hold on, kid. I’d like to join this conversation too."
An alien voice cut Junpei off.
For a brief moment everyone was stunned, and then a small mouth and eye appeared beneath Yuji’s eye, twisting into a sinister smile.
"Could you tell me more about that?"
------------------------------
"Sukuna....!"
Ryomen Sukuna had suddenly appeared.
For Junpei, who was facing him directly for the first time, it was all he could do to swallow hard.
Yuji slapped at his own cheeks over and over, but Sukuna paid it no mind.
"It seems like someone I know, so I couldn’t just ignore it."
"If you’d stayed put, I would’ve told you everything. So why come out now?"
"Kihihit, it gets boring staying inside all the time. Think of it as a momentary diversion."
And you’re curious too, aren’t you?
About who that woman was, and how she ended up clinging to your sister’s body.
He spoke politely enough, but what was that rotten curse thinking, making an offer like this?
There was no doubt he had some bad motive.
"Let’s not listen to this bastard. There’s nothing good to be gained from it."
Junpei had learned that lesson the hard way from Mahito.
No matter how much they looked like humans, spoke like humans, or acted like humans, curses were still curses.
Trash whose only thoughts were about trampling others and stealing their happiness.
Shaking his head, Junpei suddenly remembered that the woman he had absorbed earlier was also a vessel of a cursed object, just like Sukuna’s finger.
He didn’t know how it worked, but he could absorb curses.
Then...
Couldn’t he pull Yuji out of the fate of harboring Sukuna?
He had been thinking about it for a long time anyway.
He wanted to help his friend, who was constantly facing death threats everywhere just because he had taken that monster into his body.
And now he had the power to do it.
If he absorbed Sukuna, that black jellyfish would probably come out again inside his Innate Domain.
If it was the jellyfish he had seen then, maybe it could crush the king of curses and whatever else stood in its way.
This might actually work.
"Yuji, wait a second."
"Junpei...?"
"There’s something I want to try."
Having made up his mind, Junpei reached toward the Sukuna beneath Yuji’s eye.
He would absorb Sukuna right there and kill him with that black jellyfish.
He meant to cut the chain of curses off at the root, right then and there.
But the moment Junpei’s hand touched Sukuna—
-shnk!
"Ghk!"
"Junpei!"
A small slash burst across his palm, leaving a red line behind.
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