Not long after the old men at Jujutsu Headquarters ordered Itadori Yuji’s execution, an emergency summons came down.
The reason was, naturally, the special-grade cursed womb that had taken root in the West Tokyo City juvenile detention center.
The police had already been dispatched and were controlling the scene at the detention center. Beyond the police line, the victims’ families could do nothing but stamp their feet in anguish.
Seeing it like this really drove home that curses were real.
"You stay outside."
"Okaaay."
"Ijichi, could you look after Minami for a while?"
"Of course, Daisuke."
This time, I was leaving Minami with Ijichi.
Normally, Minami would have whined that she wanted to come along too. But perhaps she realized from the chaotic atmosphere at the scene that this was no time to complain; she quietly got into Ijichi’s car.
"I’ll say this again: none of you are to push yourselves too hard. This mission is to confirm and rescue any survivors. Normally, such a dangerous mission should never be assigned to you, but..."
"Gojo-sensei is away on business."
"Please, be careful."
After Ijichi once more emphasized the focus of the mission to the first-years, he saw us off one last time and lowered a curtain.
Sticking our heads into a cursed spirit nest with no reliable information was insanity. This wasn’t a mission for fledglings who hadn’t even reached Grade 1.
If not for Jujutsu Headquarters’ meddling, anyway.
"This is..."
The inside of the building was bizarre.
Buildings and pipelines tangled together in a maze that called to mind Kowloon Walled City. One glance was enough to tell that this place was anything but normal.
It had already transformed into the cursed spirit’s innate domain. The entrance we had come through had long since vanished.
Before long, we found three corpses that appeared to be victims caught up in the domain. Two of them had been crushed and fused together beyond recognition.
When Itadori started arguing that we should at least take the bodies back to their bereaved families, while Megumi argued that there was no need to save trash who had run someone over while driving without a license, I heightened my senses.
It should be about time. Until Kugisaki disappeared and the special-grade cursed spirit with the cursed energy of one of Sukuna’s fingers appeared.
"What if the person you save kills somebody else tomorrow?!"
"Then why did you save me?!"
"You two, knock it off already!"
Hmm...
It seemed like the time had come, so why wasn’t it showing up?
Even if things were following the original plot, we were inside a special-grade cursed spirit’s domain.
If we let our guard down, it wasn’t just Itadori—with Sukuna as his one-coin continue. Megumi, Nobara, and I could all end up getting killed.
It was a pain, but it was clear that the course of events had changed somehow. To quiet them down, I approached the corpse Itadori had so strongly insisted we take back.
Ugh. Even so, touching a body that had actually been split in half felt disgusting...
"Daisuke?"
I opened my shadow and put the corpse inside.
Itadori’s face immediately brightened, while Megumi fell silent as though he had just realized something.
If I just left it at that, it would be like I was only giving Megumi grief, so I should add a little something as a courtesy, right?
"The shadows of the Shadow Technique can be used like an inventory, too. Megumi could probably do it as well, but since I can’t summon shikigami, it feels like these miscellaneous functions are enhanced instead~ You could call it a kind of binding vow, I guess? Something like that."
"Daisuke, thanks!"
"Daisuke, you’re pretty good, huh?"
Itadori and Nobara showered me with praise.
Megumi looked a little stunned, perhaps shocked that he had never thought of doing that.
"Hey, sea-urchin-haired mister, don’t look so down. Unless you’re twisting your whole body into knots with shadows like me, it’s natural not to know."
"...Sorry."
"If you’re sorry, buy us dinner when we get back."
"Oh~ So it’s decided? Megumi’s treating us at the next group dinner?"
"Tch...!"
Itadori piled on and made Megumi awkward, but perhaps he felt too guilty at the moment; unlike usual, the sea-urchin head couldn’t fire back.
They had been bickering so fiercely just moments ago, yet Itadori immediately lightened the mood. He really did have the gift of being a people person.
But strangely, one voice was missing.
More precisely, it was like I couldn’t smell Nobara’s makeup powder anymore.
"Where’s Kugisaki?"
"...!!!"
"Wait, when did she—?"
Kugisaki Nobara had disappeared.
Thoom.
Then the owner of the juvenile detention center domain appeared: an unnamed special-grade cursed spirit.
-
What followed proceeded as it had in the original: once the others had withdrawn, Itadori would switch places with Sukuna, who would kill the cursed spirit.
Honestly, aside from the enormous amount of cursed energy that came from Sukuna’s finger, it was merely a cursed spirit without any noteworthy technique. If the current Itadori, Megumi, and I joined forces, we were more than capable of defeating it.
Besides, Nobara had lost after struggling against low-grade cursed spirits that weren’t even special grade, running out of nails in the process.
Seriously, they were way too weak at this point in time.
"Ijichi. Please take Nobara to the hospital first. I’ll wait for Itadori here."
"Understood. What about you, Daisuke?"
"I’ll wait with him."
Because of my binding vow with the higher-ups, I couldn’t leave until I confirmed Itadori’s death.
And while I was at it, I gave myself two additional missions.
1. Conceal Mahoraga’s existence from Sukuna and prevent the countless tragedies that could happen in the future.
2. Even so, kill Itadori once, then bring him back to life.
"Screw it. I’ll give it a shot."
"What...? The cursed spirit’s domain?!"
Right after I sent Ijichi away, the juvenile detention center’s cursed spirit died and its domain was dismantled.
Then Ryomen Sukuna, the King of Curses, appeared before us while possessing Itadori’s body.
"...!!!"
"You don’t need to be so frightened. I’m in a good mood right now. You tried to use me without placing any restrictions on me, so you’ll have to pay the price."
Perhaps delighted by the freedom he had gained for the first time in effectively a thousand years, Sukuna talked to his heart’s content as he mocked Itadori, then ripped out his own heart.
"I can live without a heart, but the brat can’t. Switching back with me means death... What are you doing?"
Megumi’s face was filled with shock. Sukuna, meanwhile, wore a blank expression like he had seen something he shouldn’t have.
Both of their gazes turned to me.
"Oh, this?"
I picked up the heart Sukuna had torn out and stored it in my shadow.
Once something was inside the shadows, it was basically cut off from contact with oxygen.
It wasn’t some absurd ability where time stopped like an inventory in a novel, but simply preventing decay would improve Itadori’s chances of revival later.
And—
"I figured I’d need it to revive Itadori after I beat the shit out of you."
"Fine. I’ll kill you first."
It was also perfect for drawing Sukuna’s aggro.
Clang—!
"Megumi! Just pepper him with lightning from range using Nue! Don’t summon any shikigami that need to get in close!"
"What the hell are you— [Nue]!"
"...?"
Megumi hesitated for a moment, as if he couldn’t process the situation. But then he looked at me, came to his senses, summoned Nue, and put distance between himself and Sukuna as I had told him.
Perhaps, in that brief instant, he saw a glimmer of hope that we might actually win.
"What is your name?"
"You’ve been inside Itadori this whole time, and you still couldn’t remember it? I’m not telling you, dumbass~."
Because I had blocked Sukuna’s strike.
The moment he attacked, I pulled a single ink-black sword from my shadow.
A special-grade cursed tool that the higher-ups had advanced to me as payment for this mission: [Star Mutation Particle].
Skipping all the detailed backstory, it was a fucking strong weapon!
The current Sukuna had, at most, the power of three fingers. On top of that, he had ripped out his own heart to teabag us, so he was basically an event-exclusive boss whose HP had dropped below half.
As long as I didn’t chicken out, I could win!
"Oh? So that cursed tool is durable enough to withstand my attacks? Then..."
"Daisuke!!!"
Both hands holding the sword were cut off.
But that, too, was within my expectations. I immediately activated Reverse Cursed Technique to heal my arms, then drove my blade into the throat of the overconfident bastard.
"Reverse—Cursed Technique?!"
"Fry him! Megumi!"
Bzzzzzt—!!!
"GRAAAAAAH—!!!"
Nue’s lightning alone probably couldn’t inflict anything beyond a numbing sensation on Sukuna.
The important thing was not giving him time to use Reverse Cursed Technique.
As I twisted and pulled free the sword embedded in his throat, Sukuna’s body crumpled.
I hadn’t defeated him yet. I had merely pierced his cervical vertebrae. If I left him alone, he would recover with Reverse Cursed Technique.
I had to stack up as much damage as possible before he rose again.
I hacked at him with my sword until his body became a shredded rag. First, his fingers. No matter how weakened Sukuna was, if he unleashed [Malevolent Shrine], it was game over. I severed every finger he could use to form hand signs.
Next came the tendons in all four limbs, then I shattered his collarbones and pelvis. Then his organs. His lungs, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, kidneys, adrenal glands—everything in his abdomen, I minced it all up and mixed it together into bibimbap.
The sound of his blood boiling rose in place of screams. No, this was—
He was trying to recover with Reverse Cursed Technique!
Crunch.
"Ghk—AAARGH—!!!"
I poured cursed energy into my leg and kicked his balls until they burst.
Perhaps even the King of Curses had never trained his testicles—or perhaps it was pain he had never experienced before. His scream cut off as he let out a soundless howl.
More importantly, the lightning had stopped. So Sukuna had been using Reverse Cursed Technique—no wonder!
"Megumi! Don’t stop the lightning!"
"Stop, stop it! Daisuke! At this rate, Itadori really will die!"
"No, we need to beat the shit out of Sukuna first if we want to have any chance afterward—"
"Domain Expansion—"
Ah, fuck. He recovered.
"[Malevolent Shrine]."
-
In the end, we survived.
Sukuna had activated Reverse Cursed Technique in such a rush that he ended up with six fingers.
His hand signs were off, so the domain expansion failed. Then Sukuna’s consciousness fell asleep from the accumulated damage, and the situation ended just like that.
But... I can bring him back to life, right?
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