"Nanamin, am I just a stumbling block to you? Please take me with you next time."
Nanami Kento gazed steadily at the boy in front of him.
His tone was quiet, but beneath it was unmistakable resentment and pent-up fury.
This was the first time he had ever seen the boy angry.
"My friend died. But I wasn’t there. Because I’m just a kid."
"I hate that kind of thing."
While Nanami was fighting the ragged special-grade vengeful spirit, he had been meeting Yoshino Junpei.
He must have been angry that Nanami had been off playing around while his comrade was locked in a life-or-death struggle. He could understand that much.
But from the fight, he had learned something.
He still couldn’t let this child meet that guy.
"No."
"!"
"As you know, the enemy is using modified humans."
There are people in this world beyond saving.
As long as you keep doing this work, there will come a time when you’ll have no choice but to kill someone.
But that time is not now.
Please understand.
"The fact that you’re a child is never a crime."
At those hard words, Itadori bit his lip and lowered his head.
He knew all too well that he wasn’t prepared to be a jujutsushi yet.
He couldn’t kill a person. Not yet.
Whenever he stood before this man, he felt like a naked child.
"From here on out, I want you to keep watch over Yoshino Junpei."
With that, Nanami left Itadori behind and started walking.
There was no telling when another victim might appear. They had to exorcise that thing as soon as possible.
Working with the second-grade jujutsushi, Ino Takuma, this time for sure...
After Nanami left, Itadori sank into thought, reviewing what he himself could do.
But misfortune always begins without warning.
Before long, Ijichi burst in with a frantic expression.
"A report has come in from the Curtain. An unauthorized barrier has appeared at Satozakura High School."
That was Junpei’s school.
-----------------------------
With nothing black to wear, I opened Mom’s closet and threw on the first thing that caught my eye.
The morning air, familiar with its familiar smell, the route to school I knew by heart—today, all of it...
Junpei headed for school.
Nothing registered in his eyes, and he couldn’t even feel his own feet moving.
It was a bright morning, but to him it might as well have been a black-and-white screen.
He no longer knew what was right or wrong.
All that remained was killing intent.
Junpei crossed the schoolyard and headed blindly toward the source of the noise.
That was how he reached the auditorium.
Inside, an awards ceremony seemed to be in full swing, the host’s voice mingling with children’s laughter and chatter.
At that ordinary scene of everyday life, something sticky and foul rose up inside Junpei’s heart.
I’m in this much pain.
So why are they so happy?
How can they laugh?
Grinding his teeth, Junpei quietly opened the door and moved toward the back of the auditorium.
No one there noticed him coming in.
As he looked around, Junpei’s gaze locked onto the boy standing on the stage.
A smug-looking guy grinning as he accepted praise from a girl.
It was Ito.
The one who had burned a cigarette into his forehead, and the de facto owner of this school.
The instant Junpei saw him, his hatred exploded.
"Moonlit Wave."
At the same time, a barrier made of dark cursed energy enveloped the school.
--------------------------
"Come out of the darkness, blacker than darkness itself, and purify that impurity."
Grrrrrrrr
The black barrier wrapped around the entire school at Mahito’s spell.
"Ohhh. There we go, there we go."
"Mahito, sorry. I couldn’t leave my residue behind. How’s the Curtain effect?"
"No one can get out from inside, and no one can get in from outside. At least, not if their cursed energy is weak enough to count as a civilian."
"An unannounced Curtain in a residential area. The Curtain people will be on it soon. I hope the picture you’re imagining comes true."
"Should be fine, right? The flow was set in motion the moment Junpei made contact with Sukuna’s vessel."
-I’ll force Itadori Yuji into an unfair binding vow tilted in Sukuna’s favor by making the two of them fight.
At those words, the special-grade curse user, Geto Suguru, nodded with satisfaction.
"If only Jogo were as levelheaded as you."
"He’s honest and cute in his own way~ More importantly, is it really okay? That finger is a precious cursed object, isn’t it?"
If Junpei had heard that, he would have trembled with betrayal.
In fact, it had not been Ito who brought Sukuna’s finger to Junpei’s house, but Geto Suguru.
And the one who had proposed the plan in the first place was Mahito, who had recognized Junpei’s usefulness.
"It’s fine. The finger that was in the detention center was swallowed by Itadori Yuji right away. We just need the finger left at Yoshino Junpei’s house to be recovered by Jujutsu High."
Hand the finger over to the higher-ups at Jujutsu High, who were already pushing for Itadori Yuji’s execution, and stir up conflict between them.
That was the final bit of chaos Geto had set in motion.
"A scheme?"
"Exactly. Well then, I’ll be taking my leave."
"You should stay and watch too, Geto. It’ll definitely be fun."
The foolish little brat, dying right before his eyes.
Mahito grinned as he said it.
What kind of expression would Sukuna’s vessel make when he was shown his friend dying in front of him?
It would be unbelievably thrilling.
------------------------
It began without warning.
-Thud
"Huh? Hey, what’s wrong!"
"What’s happening back there?"
"S-someone collapsed!"
One by one, starting from the students standing in the back rows.
It took less than two minutes for them all to lose consciousness and fall.
The panicking teachers soon followed.
"Hey! What’s wrong with you guys? Snap out of it! Are you okay?"
"Ugh..."
"What the hell is going on...?"
The only ones still conscious were Ito and Teacher Sotomura on the stage.
As Sotomura shook the unconscious students and checked their condition, Junpei appeared before him.
"They won’t die."
"Yoshino... W-what is this...? Not you? Do you know what happened...?"
"Teacher."
Cutting off Sotomura, Junpei lifted the hair covering the right side of his forehead.
The exposed skin was horrific.
Flesh grotesquely raw from being burned with cigarettes in several places was packed across the area above his eye.
Only then did Sotomura realize why Junpei hadn’t gone to the funeral.
"Look carefully."
"You, that wound!! That’s..."
"Everything that’s happened so far, and everything that’s about to happen now."
Junpei passed by Sotomura without a second glance and walked calmly toward the stage where Ito stood.
"Yoshino..."
"I have a question."
"What is it...?"
"Was it you who left that thing at my house?"
"? What are you talking about...?"
-Squelch
Ito is not the real culprit.
But Junpei didn’t know that, and even if he had, it wouldn’t have mattered.
The left arm pierced by the thorn of [Moonlit Wave] was already beginning to stain black with spots.
"H-huh...? What the hell!! What did you do to me!!"
The poison raced through his veins at terrifying speed and soon spread to the left side of his face.
With his eyes and legs no longer obeying him, Junpei finally reached Ito’s face.
"You really don’t have the basics down."
He poured cursed energy into his raised right arm.
Feeling the weak arm swell with power, Junpei swung with all his might at Ito’s face.
-Bam!
The force was enough to make Ito’s body buckle, something the old Junpei would never have been able to do.
He wanted to scream in pain, but his tongue seemed paralyzed too, and the sound only circled helplessly in his mouth.
"You still think you’re in any position to answer a question with another question?"
-Bam, smack, crunch, smack, smack, smack
Junpei mercilessly kicked the fallen Ito.
Mahito’s words kept echoing in his ears.
Life is worthless.
Yes, it is.
It feels like stepping on a bug and bursting it open.
"You’re going to die. Whether the answer to my question is yes or no. I have no way to see through your lies, and even if you weren’t the one, you’ve been doing plenty of things that deserve this."
-At least show some sincerity at the very end.
Saying that, Junpei lifted Ito up before delivering the final blow.
Strangely, his heart was calm.
Even seeing the bastard who had been his enemy rolling miserably across the floor didn’t stir anything in him.
Had his emotions died too?
Thinking that, he waited for Ito to open his mouth.
"S-sor...ry..."
As expected. Not a surprise.
That was the common trait of trash who crush others through violence.
Whenever stronger violence appears, they drop to their knees and beg for forgiveness.
"So?"
He hadn’t come here to hear some obvious apology. So say no, or yes.
That would at least make me feel a little better.
"So?"
Ito did not open his mouth again, as if that had been his last word.
What a disappointment to the very end.
Trash like this, with no value in living, would be better off gone from the world.
Just as Junpei thought that and raised [Moonlit Wave]’s thorn, the auditorium doors flew open.
It was Itadori Yuji.
"What are you doing, Junpei!!!"
"Stay out of this, jujutsushi."
Now the friendship game is over.
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