22:29.
Tokyo Metro Shibuya Station, B2.
"...Did I lose?"
Choso steadied his mangled body and leaned against the wall with a deep sigh.
After his final fight with Fushiguro Megumi, he had no memory of anything after getting slammed head-on by Guan Yu.
It was only after he woke up here, having been sent flying through countless walls by an impact with absurd rebound force, that he realized the location had changed.
"I really thought he was someone I could beat."
That black-haired boy was stronger than he had imagined.
If he had known a little more about the opponent, maybe things would have been different.
But now that he had already lost, there was no excuse.
Originally, he should never have fought Megumi in the first place.
As long as Sukuna was targeting Megumi, touching him meant poking Sukuna’s reverse scale.
He had told the others he didn’t know who it was, but Kenjaku had already figured out the target and deliberately held his tongue.
It was the result of a scheme to make the curse spirit faction, which had become a useless burden after Gojo’s sealing, destroy itself together with the jujutsushi.
In any case, Choso, ignorant of all that, wept at the misery of defeat.
"Eso, Kechizu. I’m sorry your useless big brother couldn’t do it...!"
He had wanted to avenge them, but his stubborn body refused to cooperate.
Now, with quite some time having passed since he had passed out, other jujutsushi were probably swarming in to subjugate Shibuya as well.
Yoshino Junpei had surely already gotten out. If he was unlucky, he would have run into Dagon or Mahito and died.
It didn’t matter anymore. That was no longer his concern.
"Hk, hhhk..."
With no strength left even for revenge, there was no reason to keep living in a world without his brothers.
Choso’s heart broke once, and with it he let go of the will to live.
He thought he would go to hell when he died.
He had killed innocent civilians in Shibuya.
Even if Jogo had forced him, in the end he had still stained his own hands with blood by choice.
His brothers were different.
None of them had chosen to be born, or to side with the curse spirits.
All responsibility for everything his brothers had done belonged to him. So he would shoulder even their sins and go to hell himself.
If there was an afterlife, if there was a god, then he prayed that his innocent, pure brothers would attain paradise.
"If, by some chance that’ll never happen, we meet in the next world, then let’s all go on a picnic together..."
That was when it happened.
A thunderous crash rang out above Choso, who had been muttering to himself like a madman.
Thud
"What... was that...?"
Choso sniffled and looked up.
All he could see was the ceiling, but the impact sounds above it were growing closer and closer.
Thud!
Again.
Now stone dust was falling from the ceiling, and cracks were spreading.
"Someone’s fighting up there! Who is it?"
KRAAANG!
"Ghk!"
The cracked ceiling caved in, and concrete rained down.
Choso instinctively threw himself aside, and two men came crashing down in front of him.
"Guhk!"
"Haha. Serves you right, Itadori!"
They were the source of the thunderous noise he had been hearing.
"Mahito?"
"Oh? Choso. What are you doing here?"
Mahito and Choso. Itadori Yuji.
At the end of this catastrophe, that bizarre three-way reunion came to pass.
------------------------------------
Mahito and Itadori Yuji.
In raw ability, Mahito was superior, but because of their matchup, the two were nearly even in overall strength.
The thing that decided their struggle was
"Aaaah!! Save me!!"
"I don’t want to die!!!"
the non-sorcerers who had somehow survived and were wandering Shibuya.
They were the survivors of the fierce battles that had raged until then.
And yet, meeting Mahito here only meant their luck was even worse.
Smack!
"Ghk..."
"Oh dear, you died again. I didn’t hit your brain or any vital organs, you know? This one’s on you."
"...Shut up."
Teasing him with the threat of transformation while using non-sorcerers as shields, Mahito began driving Yuji to the edge.
He made Yuji kill human beings who still had a chance at salvation with his own hands.
"You killed them! People are dying because you’re alive!"
"This is all your fault!"
Hit and run, over and over.
He never exposed his own body, bombarded Yuji with transfigured humans, and crushed his mental state by using ordinary people as shields.
It was a vicious guerrilla tactic, executed exactly as planned.
"I knew it was the right call not to ask Dagon for help. Leaving the humans alive was the best choice."
If left alone, they died. If they fought back, they got swept up and died. Humans were bound to die.
But stopping here or running away was unacceptable.
Yuji, with his firm conviction, had no choice but to keep playing along with Mahito even knowing what lay ahead was hell.
As he pursued the pathologically close-combat-averse Mahito, Yuji’s body and mind slowly wore down.
And then, after twenty long minutes had passed, the balance tipped.
While searching for Mahito, who had hidden himself in a restroom, Yuji heard the voice of an immature child crying.
"Mom... Mommm..."
"A child...?"
No. This was definitely Mahito’s trap.
But that made it an opportunity. He wouldn’t be able to slip away in a cramped place like this.
If Mahito was going to use a cheap trick and cut off his retreat, then this was where Yuji had to settle it.
Yuji’s instincts, sharpened by having lived through similar situations too many times to count, were still keen. A moment after he hesitated, cursed energy wrapped around his fist.
He was about to drive a straight punch into the door from which the crying was coming.
But that was not what Mahito truly wanted.
"Satoshi! No!"
A woman who had been wandering the station, searching for the voice of her lost child, burst in.
"You can’t go in!"
"But that was definitely Satoshi’s voice..."
The timing slipped, and Yuji’s turn was lost.
Boom!
The human bomb Mahito had set as bait inside detonated, and the shockwave swept over Yuji and the woman.
Yuji was blown backward and rolled across the floor, where he saw the woman’s body torn to pieces and killed in the most horrific way.
"Love really is something magnificent. A mother’s love even more so. You agree, don’t you?"
Mahito appeared, giggling, holding the dead child’s head in one hand.
He had killed the child hiding in the restroom and imitated the child’s voice to lure the mother in as well.
At the sight of him trampling and exploiting even the most sacred emotion in the world—
Snap
Yuji’s reason broke.
"I’m going to kill you!!! Mahitoooo!!!!!"
He had thrown away even the resolve not to lose himself to rage.
Now, a crack appeared in Yuji’s ironclad stance.
"Many-Soul Transfigured Body."
Thud!
"Ghk..."
The transfigured humans widened that opening,
KRAAANG!
"Hahahaha!! This is great, absolutely great!!"
and Mahito shattered him completely.
The plan had been executed perfectly.
At the long-awaited moment, Itadori Yuji collapsed in exactly the way Mahito had hoped.
The sorcerer’s conviction had been broken by the malice of a curse.
At that instant, Mahito shuddered.
"This is thrilling, my talent!"
Ah, I really am...
I am the one who...
"...is a 'curse'!!"
[Black Flash]
Black flame does not choose who it smiles upon.
KRAAANG!
Mahito’s final blow landed, and the ground that had barely been holding together collapsed.
--------------------------------------
And so they arrived at the B2 level of Shibuya Station.
Yuji lay fallen, Mahito stood. The outcome was clear.
Mahito laughed uproariously in front of Choso, who sat there blankly.
"Ah, you should have seen it too. That brat collapsing in front of me."
"Even if you say that, I don’t find it very amusing."
"Why are you so unmotivated?"
Alive or dead, what did he care?
He had no intention of indulging this bastard’s disgusting hobby.
He just wanted to die quickly before he committed any more sins.
"Deal with your own business yourself. I’m not doing anything anymore."
"How boring."
Boring, my ass. The only disgusting thing was you getting a kick out of this.
Choso swallowed those words and closed his eyes.
Leaving the observing Choso alone, Mahito strode forward and raised an arm transformed like a scythe.
His target was Itadori Yuji’s heart.
"That was pretty fun for an appetizer! Well, I’ll forget it soon enough anyway♡"
Death seemed unavoidable.
Just as Mahito’s attack was about to come crashing down on Yuji’s helplessly twitching torso,
Thump
"Huh?"
all at once, Choso’s head filled with
an "existence that never existed."
[Big brother Eso, this is delicious enough to die for!]
[I made karaage-style fried shrimp with a Japanese twist. It’s my masterpiece.]
[As expected, lunch boxes are your thing, big brother!]
[Aren’t you eating, big brother?]
[This big brother is full just watching you all eat.]
[Aww, but you worked so hard packing it, Eso!]
[Come on, big brother too!]
A picnic, all together.
Lunch boxes carefully packed by Eso, whose cooking skills were exceptional.
Himself, looking on with a satisfied expression at the happy family.
And the one offering him food was...
"No way. Why are you..."
"Choso?"
A single tear rolled down Choso’s face.
Mahito, who had been about to bring down his scythe, paused at the sight and checked Choso’s condition.
After a long moment of clutching his head in confusion, Choso’s gaze turned to the fallen Yuji.
"Could it be..."
"Huh?"
"So that’s what it was...!"
It was the effect of his technique.
Changes in his brothers linked by blood could be sensed no matter how far apart they were.
"Death." For living beings, it was the final and greatest change.
Now that all the brothers he had shared flesh with were dead, he had thought he would never experience something similar again, but why?
"Why?"
The answer was simple.
Right before his eyes, he had sensed the death of his "brother."
He could see it clearly in that "existence that never existed."
The face of Itadori Yuji, smiling as he offered him food!
"Little brother!!!"
"Huh? Eh?"
Before Mahito could stop him, Choso hurled himself forward and swiftly snatched Yuji up.
With little strength left, what he had to prioritize now was the lives of himself and his brother.
Choso immediately blasted blood from his feet and flew through the hole in the ceiling to escape.
"?????"
In the spot where the two had vanished, only Mahito remained, standing there in a daze.
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