The streets of ruined Shibuya.
Tap-tap!
A boy was running through the wreckage.
Itadori Yuji leaped over debris and broken terrain with quick, agile movements, while more than a dozen curses chased after him.
Even while being pursued, Yuji casually glanced back and sent a signal to the comrade waiting at the destination.
"Choso!"
"Got it."
[Piercing Blood]
Fshhh!
The blood laser fired from Choso’s fingertips pierced straight through the heads of the curses chasing Yuji.
The tightly packed swarm was exorcised in an instant and turned to dust, and Yuji sprang toward the curses that were still alive.
When countless tentacles and grotesquely twisted limbs lunged at him, he did not dodge. He met them head-on.
Crunch!
A plain punch infused with cursed energy. The force behind it was anything but plain.
With enough power to smash through their guard, the curses’ limbs were crushed and they were sent slamming into the wall.
Only the biggest one remained, lumbering along at the very back.
"This time too?"
"I’ll handle it alone."
Leaving Choso behind, Yuji hefted a huge chunk of rubble from a nearby building.
The curse staggered when he hurled a fragment packed with exposed rebar and struck it.
As soon as its balance broke, Yuji closed the distance in a flash and kicked one of its legs hard.
Crack!
"Grrrooo...."
The leg supporting the curse’s massive body snapped helplessly, and it collapsed to the ground.
Without stopping, Yuji moved his legs, stepped once, twice, and jumped.
Using the giant body as a springboard, he shot up over its head and brought his strike down, crushing the curse’s skull.
Crunch!
The giant lizard-like curse, its head shattered, dispersed and vanished.
Watching Yuji casually shake off the blood splattered on him, Choso admired him inwardly.
'He’s grown even more over the last few days.'
After the Shibuya Incident ended, Choso had not joined Jujutsu High. Instead, he wandered the area and hunted curses.
He had fought Megumi once already, and seeing Junpei and Nobara made things awkward.
On top of that, as a member of the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings, it felt too uncomfortable to travel around with sorcerers. His younger brothers were still at Jujutsu High, but if he stirred up trouble in a nest of already on-edge sorcerers, who knew what would happen.
Then Yuji had come looking for him not long ago.
'Yu, Yuji?'
'...What you’re doing. I want to do it too.'
That was the first thing he said after showing up with a haggard face, like he hadn’t slept properly in days.
Choso had agreed before he knew it, but it still bothered him.
It wasn’t just that he had become a wanderer. Yuji had no intention of going back to his lodging at all.
He would come out early in the morning and vent his frustration by beating down curses, then drag himself back only very late at night.
He seemed to be getting better, as if he were sorting out his thoughts, but he still looked drained.
"How long are we doing this today?"
"Until this whole area is clean."
"......"
Still?
Choso let out a long sigh and spoke.
"I’ll ask you straight. Is this because of Sukuna? Are you having trouble with Jujutsu High because of him?"
"No."
"Then why do you keep trying to distance yourself from them?"
After a moment of thought, Yuji spoke with a bitter expression.
"Because I almost got Junpei killed when I couldn’t control Sukuna."
"....!"
"I had a chance to finish it, but instead of helping, I ended up becoming a hostage."
His consciousness had sunk away, but because he had been awake when he swallowed the finger, he could see it clearly.
Junpei fighting Sukuna desperately.
The sight of himself failing to absorb Sukuna and turning into something like a cursed object instead.
If Nobara had not stepped in during that final confrontation, things might have become irreversible.
The memory of nearly killing people, including his close friend, with his own hands was horrifying enough, but that was not all.
Through the resonance of souls, Yuji, who had lost consciousness, could recall another memory.
"Do you know why I came to find you?"
"...No."
"I remembered."
His father holding him as a newborn baby.
His grandfather scolding that father.
And his mother, joining the conversation.
'Father, what are you talking about?'
The woman presumed to be his mother had a stitched scar on her forehead.
The reason Choso had kept calling him his little brother.
The scar on the forehead. Yorozu. Geto Suguru. Kamo Noritoshi. Kenjaku. Sukuna’s finger.
The fragments of information connected, and that was more than enough to infer the secret of his birth.
"I think... you really are my older brother."
"Y-Yujiii!!"
He had never listened no matter how much Choso said it, but now that the person himself had admitted it, Choso was overwhelmed with emotion and forgot they were in the middle of a serious conversation.
While Choso teared up, Yuji looked down at his own hand with a self-mocking expression.
'What was I trying to do in Shibuya?'
I couldn’t save Gojo. I lost to Mahito. I couldn’t control Sukuna.
I couldn’t save Nanami either, or Ijichi.
I was the one who was weak enough to be useless, yet still carried a giant bomb inside my body.
No, was I made for that purpose from the very beginning?
'Save people. Because you’re strong.'
Maybe the reason his grandfather had left those words at the very end was because he knew the truth about what Yuji was.
He didn’t understand anything anymore.
"From the start, I was probably made to be Sukuna’s vessel."
"Yuji...?"
"How many people are going to suffer because I’m alive?"
If I end up killing more people than I save....
I don’t know why I should keep living.
"I’m a monster. I don’t deserve to stand beside my friends."
"......"
And yet he still could not die, still kept living like this, because he had not given up on the belief he himself had set down: a "proper death."
Even after everything, he still could not bear the misfortune right in front of him more than the disaster waiting in the future.
So until he found a clearer reason to die, or a reason to live, he decided to keep doing what he could.
He should never have been born.
But if he could swallow Sukuna whole and die.
If it was something only he could do.....
"U...ughh....!"
As Yuji bowed his head in self-reproach, Choso heard a strained groan through clenched teeth.
When he looked up, he saw Choso—no, himself—pouring out tears like a broken faucet.
"Choso...?"
Yuji asked in confusion, but Choso, already lost in a trance, could not hear him.
'Your little brother is suffering this much, and what have you been doing all this time, Choso!'
Choso, overcome with self-reproach, wiped away his tears and spoke in a deliberately solemn tone.
"Yuji. I’m always on your side."
Even if the whole world calls you a monster and tries to kill you—
I will never turn my back on you.
Because that is what brothers do.
Snrk
His words were smooth as silk, but the tear tracks still on his face made it look ridiculous.
That sight comforted Yuji a little.
With a faint smile, Yuji got to his feet and headed back toward the road to summon more curses.
"Anyway, let’s finish up today and..."
"So you were here."
At the unfamiliar voice from above, Choso and Yuji looked up.
Two men stood on the fence above the overpass.
First-grade sorcerers who had come under orders from Jujutsu Headquarters to arrest Itadori Yuji.
"......."
"Long time no see, Sukuna’s vessel."
They were Kusakabe Atsuya, the second-year homeroom teacher, and Gakuganji Yoshinobu, the principal of Kyoto High.
At the unexpected appearance, the two of them swallowed hard.
"What is this about?"
"An order has been issued."
-The reprieve on the execution of Itadori Yuji is revoked. He is hereby sentenced to immediate execution.
At those words, Choso and Yuji’s expressions hardened.
'I expected this much, but....'
With Gojo Satoru, the backer who had protected him, gone, there was no one left to shield him from the upper echelon’s claws.
At least, that was how he saw it.
Whoosh
Kusakabe and Gakuganji jumped down from the fence.
Both of them looked thoroughly displeased, but they did not seem inclined to go easy on him.
The guitar strings hanging around Gakuganji’s neck trembled faintly as he threw off his outer robe.
"Execution...."
If he died here, then Sukuna with fourteen fingers’ worth of power would die with him.
Rationally speaking, the right thing would be to die obediently.
But was that really the "right" thing?
If this kept up, he would remain nothing more than a simple idiot.
Remember.
Why did I become a sorcerer? Why do I save people?
He could not die yet when he still had not found the answer.
Click
Yuji settled into his stance, his eyes shining with resolve.
-----------------------------------
Meanwhile, Megumi sat dazed on a park bench, watching people pass by.
"Dad, I want ice cream!"
"Three scoops? Or five?"
"Five!"
"Why does she get to buy it, though!"
He could see two siblings walking hand in hand with their father.
A perfectly happy family.
The touching, nostalgic sight brought back the only memory he had left from childhood.
'Did you hit someone again, Megumi?'
'.......'
'Did you win?'
'I did.'
'Then that’s fine.'
He was a hopeless father.
A drifter who had no interest in him at all and only spouted nonsense whenever he happened to come home.
And then, when Megumi was eleven, he vanished after abandoning both him and Tsumiki.
By now his face was so blurry Megumi could barely remember it, but he had seen him then.
'Sorry, Megumi. I’m playing father one last time.'
That man.
The mysterious man who had smiled sadly even after his whole body had been turned to charcoal.
In his final moment, he chose to save Megumi instead of attacking the enemy in front of him.
Once the situation was under control and before Megumi could even sort out his tangled feelings, shocking news arrived.
'In fulfillment of the agreement with Fushiguro Toji, Fushiguro Megumi is to be accepted into the Zenin clan and elevated to clan head.'
Wasn’t I supposed to mean nothing to him?
Megumi wanted to drag him out of hell by the collar and demand answers.
"Why."
Why make that promise after abandoning us and leaving?
Why save me?
Why.
Suddenly choked up, Megumi pressed hard at the corners of his eyes with his fingers.
"Damn it."
I thought I’d never have to see you again for the rest of my life.
What is this?
This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.
You were supposed to stay a bad person forever.
You were supposed to remain an irresponsible drifter I could hate without guilt.
If you were going to die, you should’ve gone quietly, so why.....
After a long while, Megumi lowered his head and calmed his emotions, then looked up at the sky with empty eyes.
"What do I do now?"
He still couldn’t face Yoshino.
Back then, he should have desperately stopped him and stayed behind alone.
If he had, Nanami and Naobito would not have died.
He needed more time to find his courage.
He had become the Zenin clan head, but he had no intention whatsoever of going there.
Who would welcome a stone that had rolled in and shoved aside the one already there?
He’d be lucky if he didn’t fall into a trap and die.
"That bastard father of mine... I don’t need this kind of thing..."
Megumi let out a sigh at the weight of a gift he had never wanted.
Then,
"Then can I take it?"
A presence caught in Megumi’s senses.
When he turned around, a man with a thug-like face was standing there, grinning.
"Who are you...?"
"Well now, you look just like Toji. This is our first time meeting, ain’t it?"
The man, chuckling, swept back his hair and introduced himself.
"Zenin Naoya. I’m your uncle."
If you’re meeting your uncle, the least you can do is greet him first, you rude little brat.
Thud!
Naoya’s fist vanished from sight and slammed into Megumi’s stomach.
"Ghk!"
"What’s this? Why are you so pathetically weak?"
Naoya shook out his fist, a vicious smile curling on his face.
As Megumi staggered to his feet, Naoya made his declaration.
"Sorry, but drop dead here."
The useless position.
Mind if I take it instead?
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