After Itadori exorcised the sixth Grade 1 Curse during his night training, Gojo-sensei brought him before a Jujutsu Sorcerer named Kento Nanami.
"I can't join you for this mission. Just go with my reliable junior, Nanami~"
Gojo introduced Nanami with a smile.
"He's a very dependable and serious adult, you know!"
Hearing this, Sukuna, who was in the Inner World, couldn't help but inwardly complain—
So you know you're the extremely unreliable and unserious Satoru, Three Years Old!
After Gojo handed Itadori over to Nanami, he quickly slipped away to handle other missions.
Meanwhile, Sukuna secretly observed this Jujutsu Sorcerer he was meeting for the first time from the Inner World.
The tall, slender, blonde man was dressed in a neat, clean, and sharp suit. His expression was so serious that even his greeting was meticulous and earnest.
He looked mature and steady, exuding the reliable aura of an adult.
Sukuna was immediately filled with reverence—
I can't believe someone like this is the junior of that Satoru, Three Years Old... Shouldn't it be the other way around?
If that Gojo had even half the maturity and composure of the man in front of him, he wouldn't have ended up the way he is!
With the mission at hand, Nanami acted decisively, and Itadori immediately followed him.
The two took Ijichi's car to the cinema, the location of the mission.
Three students died here today, their bodies in horrific states.
Although they were supposed to be human, their heads displayed terrifying forms, like mutated Cursed Spirits.
Itadori looked at the photos of the three deceased students and learned from Ijichi's explanation that none of them were directly "killed," but rather died indirectly from cerebral hypoxia caused by the deformation of their heads.
For a Curse capable of this, choosing such a painful method when it could simply kill them normally... this was no longer mere murder... Itadori clenched his fists, rage burning in his eyes.
He absolutely couldn't allow this Curse to continue harming people like this!
[What terrible taste...]
Sukuna also muttered softly.
He disliked this method; it made him feel uneasy.
Unenthusiastically, he said to Itadori: [Finish it quickly and let's go back soon.]
Itadori nodded at his words.
He must eliminate this Curse as quickly as possible!
However, reality soon slapped him across the face—
After he easily killed a "Curse" that suddenly appeared and attacked him, Nanami, noticing the watch on the "Curse's" wrist, took out his phone and snapped a photo of the defeated Curse.
A bad premonition froze in his heart.
Itadori looked at the "Cursed Spirit" in the photo, his pupils contracting.
"Cursed Spirits... aren't they supposed to be unphotographable?"
He looked up blankly at Nanami, the fist that had just delivered the fatal blow to the "Curse" trembling slightly in the rain.
Itadori suddenly didn't dare to contemplate what exactly he had just struck down... "It's human."
In the break room, the voice of Ieiri Shoko came through Nanami's phone on speakerphone, shattering his last shred of illusion.
The being he killed... the one he thought was a "Curse," was actually human.
The young man's other hand tightly gripped the fist that was still trembling.
His heart turned cold—
Although he had vaguely sensed that this day might come after he became a Jujutsu Sorcerer, when it truly arrived, he still felt completely lost.
He killed someone.
He killed a human—
It felt as if a scale in his heart was slowly tilting, and then shattering.
[...Jin...]
[...Yuji...]
[Yuji—!]
Itadori was stunned for a moment, realizing Sukuna was calling him, and quickly whispered, "Mhm."
Nanami was sitting nearby, so he didn't dare to respond too obviously. He didn't know if Gojo-sensei had ever told Nanami about Sukuna's situation.
He kept his head down, listening dazedly as Sukuna spoke to him.
[Listen to me, Yuji.]
Sukuna had to call out four or five times before Itadori responded, and he felt immensely anxious.
Although he felt regret for those mutated humans, he especially didn't want his child to become like this.
Fearing that Itadori might stop hearing him again, he quickly said:
[Before they even met you, they had already been transformed into something else that was no longer human—]
[In that state, they couldn't possibly survive in the human world.]
[Even if you hadn't killed them, nothing good awaited them in the future. You merely helped them escape a cruel fate early—]
[You were saving them!—]
He finished quickly in one breath, pausing his voice here.
Then, he added in a small voice:
[At least... at least if I had become like that... I would definitely prefer someone to help me end my life early...]
Itadori: "..."
The last sentence, coming from his Sukuna, was surprisingly persuasive... Phew... He let out a breath.
He tried hard to stop thinking about it.
What was done was done; no amount of thinking could change it.
He couldn't continue to feel depressed; he didn't want his Sukuna to worry about him.
In the Inner World, Sukuna, who still hadn't received a response from Yuji, continued to speak worriedly and ramblingly—
[If that doesn't work, then think of it this way—]
He racked his brain, trying to figure out the best way to make his Yuji recover quickly.
[It's better for us to do it than to push it onto others... like Kugisaki and the rest, right? See, you didn't just save the victims, you also saved other Jujutsu Sorcerers. Isn't that amazing?]
Strange... He felt like his words sounded weird... Sukuna frowned in confusion but couldn't pinpoint what was wrong.
Ha... Itadori couldn't help but want to laugh.
Why was his Sukuna's thought process so bizarre... But he genuinely felt that encountering this kind of situation once was enough for him; he couldn't let other Jujutsu Sorcerers go through it too.
He was a person destined to "disappear," so it was most fitting for him to handle this sort of thing.
His hands stopped trembling, and the gloomy expression on his face gradually calmed down.
Nanami, sitting beside him, was slightly surprised by the young man's change; he hadn't expected him to recover so quickly.
"Classmate Itadori...?" he asked hesitantly.
Itadori suddenly lifted both hands and slapped his face hard, making a loud *smack* that startled both Nanami and Sukuna.
Light returned to the young man's eyes, as if answering Nanami's question and Sukuna's as well.
"I'm fine now, just like..."
—Just like you said, Sukuna.
"This kind of thing, let it end with me!"
"Let's find that Curse quickly and exorcise it soon!"
"We can't allow any more victims."
His eyes were once again bright and resolute.
Phew... Sukuna, who had been tense for a long time, finally relaxed.
As expected of his child, he didn't fall into a cycle of self-blame.
So... let's hurry up and find that bastard Curse!
It dared to make my Yuji feel so miserable... I'm going to beat it to death!
In the distance, Mahito, who was explaining what Curses were to Yoshino Junpei, who had sought him out, suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.
He quickly sneezed several times, looking bewildered.
Do Curses catch colds? What is this strange feeling?
He felt chilly all over. Should he put on more clothes?
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