Chapter 1: Wandering Around During A Day Off

In modern times, there were a small number of things that could things that
could be considered “unshakeable truths”. That number was three.
First, Mito Koumon would always be victorious in the end.
Secondly, the animation “Sazae-san” would air on television every Sunday.
The last would be that Kugisaki Nobara would go shopping for a very long time.
Therefore, when Fushiguro heard Kugisaki say that “I want to go have a look
around Ameyoko-cho”, he had already made the mental preparation for a drawn-
out resistance. Furthermore, this situation was comparable to the one with
Gojou earlier. On a certain Sunday morning, Gojou suddenly suggested “Megumi,
shall we go to Shima Spain Village together to play?”
However, unexpectedly, Itadori showed little interest.
Afterall, Itadori could be considered someone who liked watching television after
all so he had thought that he would be interested in an iconic tourist attraction in
Tokyo such as Ameyoko-cho.
“I’ll pass. There’s other places that I want to see.”
“I see. Then let’s meet up at some other place later on.”
In the end, they ended up doing their own activities.
Fushiguro had gradually grown used to being pincered between Itadori and
Kugisaki and getting wrapped up in the various spontaneous and crazy antics of
those two for no rhyme or reason, so right now he was as surprised as someone
learning that Hijiki* had very little iron content.
(T/N A kind of brown sea vegetable)
Of course, Fushiguro was glad to be left alone.
He wanted to go home as soon as he could and continue reading the books that
he bought a few days ago. He also wanted to clean up the drawers of his desk
and clothes cabinet a bit.
But fundamentally, Fushiguro was a sensible individual.
Could he really allow the vessel of Sukuna, Itadori, to run around on his own?
That worry had crossed his mind.
Speaking of the area of Ueno-Okachimachi, it was a street that was full of trendy
things and history.
This shopping street managed to persist with its flourish since the end of the war,
but behind its prosperous front, there might be strange tales being spread widely,
hiding bombs known as curses that had yet to detonate.
Furthermore, Itadori was the kind of person who would run to buy some lame-ass
sunglasses once you took his eyes off him and would even say “Tachikawa is part
of Shinjuku”. It would not be strange if he accidentally got lost and went to the
Chiyoda district, believe that the Shoumenzuka* was a must-visit spot and then
take a photo to post on Instagram to show off.
(T/N: It’s the grave of a samurai general by the name of Taira no Masakado. It was
built to pacify his ghost.)
Therefore, in the end, Fushiguro decided to go with Itadori….truth to be told,
Fushiguro deeply regretted it.
“Fushiguro, didn’t you say you weren’t interested in Akihabara? Why did you
follow me then?”
“None of your business. Why are you asking so many questions?”
“Oh. I wanted to take a look around Akihabara since a long time ago.”
“You want to buy something right? They only sell stuff like manga, games and
appliances though.”
“I wanted to sight see. Places like Shibuya and Shinjuku are pretty great and all,
but the Akihabara I saw on television has some kind of alternate world feeling,
like a theme park.”
“There’s that kind of feeling?”
Someone who stayed in Tokyo was not able to empathise, but Akihabara was
indeed a very unique place.
The atmosphere in front of the train station was already distinctive. Aside from
being obviously influenced by the anime and manga culture, the number of
advertisements was so dense that it was breathtaking.
The billboards that were full of smiling game characters that could be seen
everywhere truly gave people the impression of a theme park.
Other than that, among the crowds of people, one could occasionally see people
cosplaying and there were also maids who were focused on handing out flyers on
the streets. Then in one second, one might be able to see a rare import car racing
down the amazing streets and the next second, the sight of truck transporting a
giant robotic model to some unknown location would cross one’s eyes.
Would Itadori be able to suppress the curiosity he had of this place? Of course
not.
“Fushiguro, this place is really wild, the number of arcades is as much as the
shops.”
“Because this is Akiharabara.”
“Fushiguro, this place is really wild, the maids keep approaching on their own.”
“Because this is Akihabara.”
“This place is really wild! Fushiguro! That’s a pervy game, right? That’s an
advertisement board about a pervy game, right? Is it really alright to display it like
that in the open? …..Crap, I’m still underaged. I wonder if I’ll get scolded just for
looking at it.”
“You’re too damn noisy!”
Akihabara itself was already a downtown area that was fill of hustle and bustle,
but to Fushiguro, Itadori was noisier than his surroundings by about three times.
And it was still a few hours before they would meet up with Kugisaki.
Itadori had already transformed into an ultra-curious child and once Fushiguro
thought that he had to stay at Akihabara and accompany such an Itadori by
himself, it gave him a massive headache.
Yet Itadori was still self-absorbed and never noticed Fushiguro’s troubles at all.
“It’s lucky that you’re with me, the roads around here are a mess. I’ll probably get
lost if I’m on my own.”
“It should be better than someplace like Shinjuku though.”
Don’t use your Tokyoite standard all the time to look at things. I mean in the
whole of Japan, only the city of Tokyo would have vending machines that can be
paid for using cashless methods everywhere or have Pepper robots outside
shops, you know?”
“There aren’t that many stores with Pepper Robots.”
“If it was Sendai, you probably can only see that at “Capsule Hotel TOPOS”.”
“Don’t use some shop name from your hometown as though it’s obvious, would
you? What place is that anyway?”
“It’s a public bathhouse compound.”
(T/N: Capsule Hotel TOPOS is a capsule hotel with a bathhouse.)
“A bathhouse actually has a Pepper Robot? That’s actually pretty advanced.
“Yeah, anyway, rather than me walking around by myself, I feel more secure
when there’s someone who knows the way around. Even till now, I still don’t get
how to take the metro line.”
“Is there anyone in this world who would get lost within the Yamanote Line?”
“Ah, you’re using your Tokyoite vision to look at things again.”
“You wandered around randomly for a few days, but in actual fact, you didn’t
really get lost, did you?”
“Right, Fushiguro, let’s go get some kebabs to eat, kebabs.”
“Have a proper conversation, would you?!”
Fushiguro had already gotten a feeling that Itadori and Gojou were extremely
similar in terms of personality and the way they talked, but now, having a
conversation alone with Itadori made the feeling even more apparent.
However, if one had to use a game of catch as an analogy, speaking with Itadori
would at most be like playing catch before the game transformed to dodge ball.
Speaking with Gojou would be more like a game in the golf course or the batting
center where the ball flew and never came back.
Speaking of Gojou, he had not seen Gojou at all, whether it was in their dormitory
or inside their school. Even though it was a day off today and it was Gojou’s
freedom to go wherever he wanted, it dawned to Fushiguro once more that Gojou
was a man of many mysteries.
At the same time Fushiguro was pondering where Gojou could have gone, he
activated his listen-and-forget mode and Itadori’s words went into one ear and
out of the other.
After all, when Itadori talked, it was about the same frequency as the hustle and
bustle of the pedestrians around them, so as long as he did not try to focus on it,
he could handle it like background noise.
It was rather tiring to give a proper reply anyway, so no one would blame
Fushiguro for using this method to conserve his brain’s energy.
“……Ah?”
When he came back to his senses, Itadori was gone.
Fushiguro glanced around his surroundings in a panic and after some trouble, he
finally noticed a figure with faintly red hair walking into an arcade.
*
“What in the world are you doing?”
“Playing a video game. Ah, or are you asking me the title of this game?””
“I’m not asking you these things, you special grade moron.”
After Fushiguro came up to the fourth floor of the electronic games area which
was located in a narrow building, he finally found Itadori.
It was further in from the fighting games sections. After leaving the area which felt
like a place where expert players would gather, he came to a place where there
were rows of old-fashioned machines that cost fifty yen per round and Itadori
was at one of the corners.
And he was in fact, sitting in front of one of the arcade machines that did not
seem to have a particularly interesting game.
Itadori pouted, explaining to Fushiguro why he was at this place.
“You’re not? I only thought that since we have a couple of hours to kill, it did not
seem practical to just wander around outside so since there were so many
arcades nearby, it just nice for passing the time.
“At least tell me before you come here, right?”
“I did.”
“……..”
In the end, the blame laid on himself for not listening to Itadori properly. Feeling
awkward about it, Fushiguro quickly changed the topic.
“Besides, what game is this that you’re playing?”
“No matter how you look, you would know it’s “Fighting! Corporate Warriors:
Workplace Chaos”, right?”
“No matter how I look, I really can’t tell it’s “Fighting! Corporate Warriors:
Workplace Chaos”.”
“Actually, this is also the first time I’ve seen this game so I’m not too sure what
it’s about.”
The game that Itadori chose felt so boring that it could be considered a miracle.
It seemed like this should be considered a fighting game but the characters were
almost all uncles who were salarymen and dressed in neatly pressed suits, it was
difficult to differentiate them.
Even though each game only cost fifty yen, Fushiguro was still baffled that Itadori
was still determined to pay money for this kind of game and at the same time. He
thought in jest, no wonder this person still dared to swallow Sukuna’s finger.
Itadori ignored Fushiguro’s reaction and kept with what he was doing.
But it seemed like he was looking for a competitor to go against him.
“I wanna ask instead, aren’t you playing, Fushiguro? This is a competitive kind.”
“I do not wish to spend my money on this kind of game.”
Fushiguro frowned as though it was formed from the disgust from the bottom of
his heart.
However, competitive battle games were only fun if you played against someone
else.
Furthermore, if the game was one that one could tell was boring from just a look.
It was far too empty, so no matter how uninterested Fushiguro was in this kind of
game, Itadori still hoped that he could play a few rounds with him.
“Why don’t you just join me for a bit? Or could it be that you suck at video games,
Fushiguro? You don’t have to confidence to beat me?”
“It’s not that I have no confidence – I just don’t want to play it.”
“If you don’t play this with me, then I’ll take it as my victory through a walkover,
I’m the victor! You’re alright with this?”
“Whatever you like.”
“Just play a round would you, please! I’ll pay for your share! Play already!”
“You’re actually serious about this? ….Sheesh.”
Itadori even used the tactic of paying for other people to play games. Fushiguro
was unable to worm his way out of this and he could not bear to let the other
party pay for his so he used his own money and sat opposite Itadori.
Anyway, for something like fighting games, of course it was only interesting when
two people played.
Itadori showed his sincere gratitude towards Fushiguro who was willing to
accompany him and ecstatically chose his player character.
“Then I’ll use “President Yamada”.”
“….I’ll use “Chief Oozaki”.”
“What, you’re actually using the very first character in the character selection
list? Ah, but those characters tend to be easier to control so it should be alright
for a newbie like you.”
“Didn’t you say this was your first time seeing this game?”
“Actually before you came here, I have already finished the third stage of the one-
player mode.”
“So I actually selected a small fry character, huh.”
And like this, the two started their battle within the game.
“Take that! Have a good look of the sure win combo that I came up with in fifteen
minutes!”
“Your training time sure is short.”
From the start of the battle, Itadori continuously used the simple move “Name
Card Shuriken” to keep on the offense.
The Chief Oozaki that was controlled by Fushiguro jumped to dodge President
Yamada’s shuriken that were flying towards him at an equidistance, and at the
same time, he kept drawing closer to his opponent. Just when one thought he
would use a heavy kick on the President after closing the distance, he actually
thew the President a distance away and continued to thrash the other party at
the edge of the screen.
“Eh, wait, Fushiguro, are you using the game’s loophole? This is a loophole,
right?!”
Fushiguro continuously used a light punch, a light punch and a medium strength
kick. Then, once the moderate kick technique landed its low, the overtime gauge
became full and he activated his special move “Overtime Fists of Fury” and
finished the battle.
It was obvious who won and who lost.
“Are you kidding?! Fushiguro, why do you know how to use those skills? Are you
actually good at this game?”
“The button pressing method for the skills are on the screen.”
“You’re cheating!”
“You’re actually bad at games, aren’t you?”
“As if, I won’t lose as long as I know how to activate the skills! One more round!
One more!”
“Are you serious, you actually threw a few coins in….”
After Itadori challenged Fushiguro for around an hour, he still had more losses
than victories.
*
The two of them went down to the first floor where the claw machines were, and
after buying some soda at the vending machines, they felt a strange sense of
emptiness that was beyond compare.
The expressions on their faces were that of a feeling of loss after a withdrawal
from getting fired up.
“Sigh—why did I spend a thousand yen on such a crappy game….”
Fushiguro looked at the despondent Itadori and felt that the other party was
really silly from the bottom of his heart.
“If you had enough fun, let’s get out of here. Sure, arcades are pretty good at
passing the time but they also eat up your purse.”
“You’re right about that….Ah!”
“What? Don’t tell me you found another crappy game. I’m not playing along with
you this time.”
“No, look over there, look over there, quickly!”
Fushiguro squinted and followed the direction where Itadori was pointing.
After that, his eyes widened in surprise.
“…That’s Gojou-sensei?”
“Right? That’s sensei alright.”
Positioned at the end of their line of sight was truly Gojou Satoru himself.
If they thought about it carefully, Gojou was the only person in this world who
would be dressed in all black and enter a dimly lit arcade centre with a black
blindfold.
“Um….Hey, Fushiguro, what is Gojou-sensei doing?”
“He’s playing a crane machine game, those kinds with snacks inside.”
“Why would he play that? Don’t tell me Sensei came here by himself to the
arcade just because he wanted to eat snacks?”
“How would I know.”
“Ah, he gave up on playing.”
“That’s too fast, isn’t it.”
It looked as though Gojou was pouting in dissatisfaction, and with a swagger,
headed for the exit of the arcade.
It could not be figured out what he was planning to do here, but in the first place,
he was not someone who was easy to figure out so this should not be that
strange—
Fushiguro decided not to dig deeper for a reason in the end.
However, Itadori was not giving up.
“Alright, let’s tail him.”
“Why do we have to tail him.”
Itadori prepared to dash out of the arcade, following Gojou’s tracks. Fushiguro
hurriedly finished his soda, discarded the can, and gave chase.
“Because, Gojou-sensei should not be working today, right? I suddenly reaslised
that I don’t really know what Sensei does during his free time or on his off
days….”
“So?”
“So we’re going to follow him now.”
“Can you not say it like it’s something naturally obvious….”
“But, the truth is I really want to know what he’s up too. I keep getting the feeling
that I don’t know Gojou-sensei well. Of course, Fushiguro, if you don’t feel the
same way, you could just stay here by yourself and wait for me to come back.”
“…………….”
There was no need to mention what kind of dilemma Fushiguro had within his
heart. In any case, both Fushiguro and Itadori decided to tail Gojou to find out
what he was up to.
Gojou was without doubt a teacher who was dependable as well as a Jujutsu
Sorcerer worthy of respect.
However, in the eyes of the students, he was a teacher with a flippant attitude,
who was busy with his job, who popped out of nowhere and his thoughts and
area of activity were all unknown. A person who was full of mystery. Therefore,
seeing him strolling around leisurely was an absolutely rare sight.
Simply put, Fushiguro went with his curiousity.
Or one could say that his mental state was weakened from playing that lame
game with Itadori, so he came to this result without much thought.
Anyway, the two decided to look for their teacher, Gojou who they had lost track
of.
*
And they found him without much trouble.
“Fushiguro, that’s Gojou-sensei right?”
“…It really is.”
When the two noticed Gojou again, he was walking while eating a crepe.
From the packaging, it should be a crepe from that popular store that was across
the road.
There was cream, tiramisu and macarons piled on top of it. There was also
coloured chocolate rice scattered on it.
There was a tall man with a height of around 190 centimeters holding onto a
crepe that looked like something out of children’s dreams and was walking and
eating it with relish at the same time.
“Fushiguro, Sensei is amazing. Is that something someone can do just because
they thought about it?”
“I wouldn’t not even think of doing such a thing.”
“Could Sensei be doing some sort of cursed sorcery training?”
“If one could get stronger just by walking while eating crepe, then we don’t have
to have such harsh training.”
The two kept a fixed distance from Gojou and continued to follow this grown
adult gobbling a crepe.
Even in a dream like district such as Akihabara, this scene should still be eye
catching.
A short while later, after Gojou finished eating his entire crepe, he stopped in
front of a store that seemed pretty old fashioned.
“….Vacuum Tube Specialty Store.”
Fushiguro watched as Itadori read out the store’s name with look of puzzlement.
Gojou pondered for a while and entered the store that had its goods displayed in
a haphazard manner.
“He went into a store that few people would go to.”
Fushiguro looked bewildered while Itadori tilted his head.
“I’m just gonna ask, I have heard the term vacuum tube but what is it exactly?”
“It’s a kind of part in electric appliances. It’s mainly used in older kinds of radios
or speakers.”
“So he’s an audio maniac?”
“No, he should be considered the kind who would be fine just listening to music
on YouTube.”
“Yeah—he does give people that kind of impression.”
During the time the two were talking, Gojou left the store with a paper bag in
hand. He probably bought something.
“Oh no, we got to keep up.”
Itadori chased after Gojou who had turned towards a small road and Fushiguro
followed closely.
The two were a step too late and Gojou’s figure was no longer within their line of
sight. However in less than a minute, they found a tall and black figure within the
crowd.
“Fushiguro, I found him. Gojou-sensei is really tall. He really stands out after all.”
“That’s because he’s almost two meters tall.”
“It feels that he’ll be really good at basketball.”
“Though I completely cannot imagine him playing basketball.”
“Me too.”
The two of them gave similar opinions while tracing Gojou’s steps closely.
Yet, it took a rather large amount of effort to keep a certain amount of distance
while tailing someone on the complex streets of Akihabara.
Furthermore, being a tall person, Gojou had large strides, so he walked quickly.
When they had to follow him while keeping a distance, it felt like they would lose
track of him anytime.
Afterwards, Gojou entered a secondhand record shop and started to sift through
black vinyl discs that were wrapped in paper.
“Fushiguro, even though you said that Gojou-sensei is not too particular about
music, but it looks like he’s a pro audio maniac after all?”
“There’s no way.”
“He was looking at a record from Bach though.”
“Do you think he looks like someone who would like classical pieces?”
“Nope. He feels more like an alternative-rock kind of person.”
“Right? There’s definitely something strange about this.”
After browsing through the floating bin area that was full of vinyl records for a
while, he bought a long play record that contained the soundtracks of an old
western film and left the shop.
Itadori and Fushiguro continued to follow only to be more baffled the more they
followed.
Doubts even started to form in their brains and they thought they only had
preconceived misunderstood impressions of Gojou and he was actually
extremely interested in classical music. However, they immediately thought
“That definitely can’t be possible”.
This time, Gojou who had been walking around, seemingly without a goal,
stopped in front of a shop with a yellow signboard.
“Fushiguro, what does that store sell?”
“……capsule toys. It should be store that contains capsule toy machines.”
“What? A capsule toy machine specialty store? Those kinds of stores exist.”
“This is Akihabara, of course they do.”
“I see. Ah, Sensei is getting one.”
“I really do not want to see a teacher I know turning a five hundred per play
capsule toy machine…Besides, what kind of capsule toy is that?”
“It should be key rings of various kinds of mushrooms. They look pretty realistic.”
“If they cost five hundred yen per play, wouldn’t it be better to just buy actual
mushrooms from the supermarket?”
“Fushiguro, you don’t understand….Capsule toys are only interesting because
you don’t know what you’re going to get.”
“I don’t ever want to understand.”
“Ah, Sensei is opening the capsule, who knows which mushroom he got.”
“From the picture on the machine, it should be the poisonous mushroom. He
looks super sulky about it.”
“Uwahahahahaha, if it’s a poisonous mushroom then it’s not edible!!”
“No matter what mushroom it is, you better not eat a mushroom that came from
a capsule toy machine.”
Gojou stuffed the keychain into his pocket disappointedly and then continued to
shop around.
Just when they thought he had enough fun playing with the mice in a computer
accessory shop, he actually went to an electronic appliances shop to use their
massager to massage his shoulders.
Once they realized he had disappeared from their sight, they turned only to see
him standing in a book store reading manga; and when they thought he had just
turned a corner to who knows where, he was actually engrossed at looking at
second hand video game cartridges in a bargain bin. It seems like Gojou was just
moving on a whim and was walking and shopping wherever his mood took him.
“….It looks like he’s not specially aiming for any particular place.”
“Yeah.”
Itadori responded to Fushiguro’s muttering while wearing a pair of toy goggles
that could calculate one’s attack powers. Who knows when he got it.
“Where did you buy those goggles?”
“Some secondhand shop. Since Gojou-sensei actually reads manga then he
would probably find this get up of mine funny.”
“I think you burnt a large hole in your wallet.”
“Men are living creatures that would spend their money on moments when they
shout, “this is it!””
“Then is the garbage game from just now considered one of those moments?”
“Ah, Gojou-sensei entered that building. No, that’s not it, it should be Gojou
sensei’s “spirit” has entered that building.
(T/N: Because Itadori was wearing those goggles, he was pretending that he
could see people’s fighting spirits or auras.)
“You don’t have to rephrase it.”
“Crap, we’re gonna lose him. We got to catch up!”
“Hold on a minute.”
“Ugh!”
Just as Itadori was going to step into the building, Fushiguro pulled the hood of
his jacket and stood still. However, it was actually dangerous to do such a thing
so good children should not imitate such an action.
“Are you trying to kill me?! What, we already followed him to this point and now
you want to stop? Don’t just give up halfway.”
“You….don’t you see what’s written on the signboard on the building?”
“Eh?……Eh!”
After Fushiguro said that, Itadori looked up.
While looking at the words of the advertisement drawn on the signboard,
Fushiguro’s expression grew more and more impatient.
–Angel maid café [SHOW EVIL « Cupid].
On the second floor of this building was a café that seemed to be for otakus.
But it was not any kind of sensual café. There were only going to be maids that
came to greet the customers, it was an extremely healthy café.
Even so, it was still under the category of shops that required normal people to
summon up large amounts of courage before entering.
Even more so for teenage boys who were going through puberty.
Even someone like Itadori would find it embarrassing to go into such a store.
“….I really can’t go into this store….Gojou-sensei is really unexpectedly……”
“He could have been aiming for this thing.”
Fushiguro pointed at the flyer on the wall and it seemed to be advertising the
following – [Authentic French Flavour! Specialty Pancakes that even professional
patisseries have high praises for!]
No wonder. Itadori nodded his head, thinking that finally the situation made
sense.
“Sensei must have come here for those pancakes, even though he at quite a lot
of sweet stuff already.”
Gojou-sensei would eat more sweets the longer he’s busy….”
“Since we already solved the mystery, then let’s call an end to our tailing. It’s way
too embarrassing to enter this kind of shop.”
“With your kind of brain, it’s a surprise you managed to come up with such a
rational decision.”
“—Masters, welcome back!”
“Eh?”
“Eh?”
A shout that was energetic but yet full of professionalism came from the behind
the two of them.
That’s right, it was a maid who had the experience of a seasoned warrior and
after feeling that these two had the look of “guests who were hesitating whether
they should enter the store”, stealthily got closer and intended to earn large
amounts of revenue from them. In the end, whether it was Itadori who was
blessed with genius athletics or Fushiguro who developed the ability to detect
the aura of curses through immese amounts of training….neither realized that
the maid, whose job was to invite guests, had appeared behind them.
*
In a blink of an eye, Fushiguro as well as Itadori were brought into the maid café.
Fushiguro could not help but think if this was karma from doing something
terrible in his past life.
Once they entered the store, someone ran over to place halos and wings made of
plastic and wire on the two and said this was to let them “Enjoy the feeling of
Heaven in the shop”, making the two receive a huge shock, whether in terms of
their appearance or on their psychology.
On the other hand.
“For masters who have arrived for the first time, we always recommend this
honourable set meal – Emo Emo Set A—”
“Un…I see. Since it’s my first time here, I think it’s right to listen to the staff’s
recommendations. Then we’re take two honourable sets and make it full of
emo.”
“Got it Reincarnation «.”
“Wah, that word sounds really cool, is it getman?”
“It’s English «.”
“Oh, so it’s English–!”
Itadori had already grown accustomed on how to talk to the maid.
People with a naturally lively personality or those who are party animals, in other
words, extroverts, should become accustomed to this place quickly.
As for stoic people like Fushiguro, it was hard for them to blend into such an
atmosphere.
Wearing the halo and the wings and sitting while facing Itadori – just
acknowledging that this was reality was enough to kill his heart.
“By the way, Fushiguro, I want to tell you something important.”
“What?”
“Sensei’s goal seems to really be eating pancakes.”
“……you’re right……”
Fushiguro had intentionally sat at a window seat that allowed him to look at the
wall of the neighbouring building and the important factor of the reason why they
were here was elegantly enjoying his pancakes together with tea.
He wore that angel costume in a natural way like he was wearing formal attire
and was sipping his cappuccino with sitting pose that was like that of a cold
character in a mystery novel, letting out an air that he was “leisurely enjoying”
the moment, very much unlike Itadori and Fushiguro who had come here for the
first time.
However, even if one did not consider the fact that this was the first time
Fushiguro was here, he had already endured to his breaking point and if possible,
he did not want to stay in this store a second longer.
“Oi, since we already know Gojou-sensei’s goal, we achieved what we wanted,
let’s go.”
“Eh—but we already ordered food.”
“We can leave after we pay up right?”
“It’s a waste of food if we don’t eat what we ordered.”
“….Well, you are right about that.”
Fushiguro had intended to just pay and leave but with his serious personality, his
idea of leaving was dismissed by Itadori’s reasoning.
However, his eyes that were as deep as the night that peeped out from the
bottom of a deep ditch became even more lifeless.
Fushiguro tried once more to switch off his self-awareness.
Numbness was the safety feature of life. If he did not think of a way to protect his
spirit, it would not be strange if a curse was born.
Fushiguro was a sharp contrast from Itadori who was in high spirits and was
restlessly excited.
Even so, the maid café’s real baptism was only just about to start.
“Masters, thank you for waiting—these are the honoured set meals that you
ordered – Emo Emo set A—”
They were unable to figure out what was in the honoured set based on what was
on the menu but it turned out to be just omurice.
There was even an image of a panda drawn on the plate using ketchup—it should
just be a coincidence but the image was too much like Panda-senpai, causing
Fushiguro to feel apologetic about it.
On the empty space of the plate were the lines “My heart is fatigued…because of
honour….!” But the one whose heart was really fatigued was Fushiguro.
However, Fushiguro had completely grown used to this place.
“Now, I would like to invite out guests to add Emotions—”
“How are we going to add Emotions?”
“Dear guests, among the anime that you like, please choose a scene that makes
you feel emotional, honoured and tugged at your heart strings! If you can make
me feel emo without telling me the title of the work, then you pass—”
“Uh….oh crap, that’s hard to choose….then, I choose the one where the main
character is that little boy who idolises heroes.”
“I watched that one, I recommend that one~”
“I remember in that show, there’s this guy who will have low self-esteem in front
of his dad. I love the part when this guy remembered the initial reason why he
wanted to become a hero and then use the “left hand” which he never used
before.”
“Ah~ That’s a really classic scene~ but that scene is too ordinary, choose
another one!”
“Ah, then another anime. That scene where the main character was
discriminated in the ninja village and then after he grew stronger and was able to
stand up for himself, people were tossing him into the air.”
“Ah! It’s so emo~”
“And the part where his teacher who was the only person on his side got teary
eyed after seeing the main character being tossed into the air by his companions
was really touching too.”
“Ah~~ The most touching line also showed up here~~”
“”Right now, the hero is before me.””
“I get it, I get it~~~~It’s so full of emotions. Since I have received a deep sense of
Emo, I’m going to add a side dish.”
“Ah, your store actually operates like this?”
“I’m going to add the “Emo potato” from the potato dishes which costs four
hundred yen—”
“Wah, that’s great–! But anyway, this meal is full of carbs already!”
“Then please shout with me, emo emo ~~~~!”
“Emo emo—–!”
The staff placed the additional potato dish onto the plate in a slightly careless
manner.
It seemed like it cost four hundred yen for this potato that looked like frozen food.
Of course, one would not care about an item’s price if they could feel this happy
eating here, but Fushiguro was very concerned about it. In fact, he was extremely
concerned about various things in this store.
Unexpectedly, this staff member turned the target of her conversation to
Fushiguro.
“Dear guest, please shout with us as well!”
“Quickly, Fushiguro, then you can get the side dish too.”
“Say it with me, Emo emo~~~”
“Emo emo——–”
“……..”
Fushiguro did not make any response but the activity still persisted.
“Since we have the side dish then let’s use an instant camera to take a photo
with the dish. Alright, come closer, closer~”
“Eh, so this store actually has photo taking service.”
“Because both of you ordered the honoured meal.
“Oh—I only just ordered without much thought. So it actually includes this!”
“It feels like heaven, doesn’t it?”
“I don’t know, does it? It does feel a bit like that.”
“…….”
“Then I’m going to sit next to you, excuse me.”
“Eh? Aren’t you too close? It’s a bit embarrassing.”
“You must go through such embarrassing feelings so you can become an adult!”
“Is it like that?”
“It is~ Alright, we’re going to go clicky «”
“C, clicky!”
“……………….”
“It’s done, thank you very much~”
“Ah,–so embarrassing, it’s super embarrassing taking a photo like that! Wah, my
face is so hot! It feels weird like I just offered up something important! Is it really
alright, I’m still underaged!”
“Ara~ You’re really innocent, that’s so cute~ Then, this nii-chan here, let’s take a
photo together too.”
“Fushiguro, you have to be careful. This kind of close contact is not like a folk
dance*, it’s really super duper embarrassing. Super duper embarrassing without
any compare!”
(T/N: You see students dancing around a fire in some Japanese anime. That’s the
dance Itadori was referring to.)
“Alright, please prepare to do clicky!”
“Fushiguro, they’re going to clicky.”
“…………………………no.”
A voice that was extremely, extremely soft, like the sound of a duck before its
death could be heard.
“…………….I…………don’t need it………”
Fushiguro still had a look like he reached his breaking point.
*
“Ah—I never thought we would eat so much but the flavour is just so-so.”
“….The potato makes my mouth dry.”
After about thirty minutes.
Fushiguro and Itadori managed to safely –the entrance fee was five hundred yen-
leave Heaven.
“Fishiguro, I have the instant photos, do you want them?”
“If you make fun of me again like just now, I will shove an entire bell pepper up
your nose.”
“That’s because you don’t like that kind of place! Alright, I get it, just now that
was the most extreme you could endure!”
“There is a shrine around the Kanda area, let’s burn the photos there.”
“You actually want to specially make a trip to a shrine to burn them?!”
“A cursed photo can only be exorcised by burning it to ashes in a shrine.”
“It’s my fault! I really didn’t know it was that hard for you to stay in that store.”
From Itadori’s point of view, Fushiguro always seems to be in a bad mood no
matter the time or place but today, he had truly witnessed a “Really furious
Fushiguro”.
Now that things have come to this state, Itadori was unable to grin and laugh off
the issue like he always did.
He scratched his face awkwardly, thinking of what to talk about with Fushiguro,
but in the end, he decided to pull the topic back to what started it all.
“An, anyway, it seems like we lost Gojou-sensei.”
“Yeah, not like it’s a problem.”
“Ev, even so, I wonder where he went off to….”
“What are you two saying about me?”
“Wahhhhhhhh?!”
Gojou appeared behind them at a completely unexpected time point and roughly
dispelled the slightly stiff tension that had originally stirred up between the two.
Furthermore—
“Go, gojou-sensei! When did you appear behind us….wait, that’s weird, why is
Kugisaki here as well?”
“It’s not a why question, you bastards.”
Kugisaki used eyes full of displeasure, one might even say it was full of loathing,
to glare at Itadori as she appeared from behind Gojou.
To Itadori, another classmate who was in a foul mood had appeared.
“Ah, anyway, Gojou-sensei, are you actually off today?”
“Hey, don’t ignore me!”
Itadori had the feeling that in contrast to Fushiguro, Kugisaki would use more
physical actions to lay out his crimes in front of their teacher so he decided to
change the topic directly.
But, in the end, it was about the same matter.
“Nope, I’m working as per usually today.”
“Eh? But I saw that you wandering around the streets and eating crepe……”
“If you worked to my position, you would be swarmed with work. If it’s not
because of my job, would it even be possible for both of you to see me loitering
around the streets. Even though I look like this, I’m actually working seriously.”
“What kind of job are you talking about?”
“I’m looking for a dungeon.”
“….A dungeon?”
“To put it another way, I’m looking for a cursed spot to serve as a training grounds
for the first years to gain experience.
“……what?”
The memory of an incident that happened just after he transferred to Jujutsu high
crossed Itadori’s mind.
That day, they originally planned to tour around Tokyo but suddenly it became an
activity where he was forced to eliminate a cursed spirit in an abandoned
building.
Gojou then continued nonchalantly.
“That tall building that was next to the maid café seems to be a commercial
building that’s abandoned. And lately, some strange rumours popped up on this
supernatural forum over the internet. And since that building had a record shop
with a rather long history, it made that rumour about a curse ever more
believable.”
“Ah, so that’s why you sat at that window and looked outside even though all you
can see was a building.
“And I actually only wanted to handle it after setting a date but who knew all you
three first years happened to be here. So rather than choose a date, why not just
go with the coincidental timing. You all can challenge it today!”
“Eh….eh?!”
“It’ll be fine. I already activated the tube amplifier that was in the building and
followed the contents of the rumours and put a record in to provoke the spirit.
You all will be able to face a lively and active spirit.”
“……I see.”
Itadori immediately turned to look at Kugisaki.
Now he knew why Kugisaki had a face of such loathing.
Yet, Fushiguro’s attitude was completely different and he looked like he was
ready for action anytime.
“Alright, let’s go.”
“Wait, why are you so enthusiastic about it!”
“Compared to the time at the arcade and maid café, your mood is too good isn’t
it?”
“What? You guys went to a maid café? Never mind Itadori, but even Fushiguro
went? Even if a man looks prim and proper, his bones still conceal a silent
pervert.”
“There were unavoidable factors.”
“What do you mean never mind me?!”
“Alright, you two, let’s go.”
“Like I said, Fushiguro, why are you completely in battle mode already!”
“Because Megumi didn’t get the chance to show off his abilities in the previous
abandoned building, he’s all sulky about it.”
“I am not sulky.”
“What do you mean you’re not, aren’t you being all sulky now?”
“You’re really the type to remember grudges.”
“Then, the three of you, be careful on the way. I’m still eating sweet buns so I
won’t be seeing you all there.”
“Sensei! You still can eat?!”
“Let’s go already.”
“Stop rushing me! Damn, goodbye, my off day—!”
“Goodbye my Ameyoko-cho—-!”
Fushiguro’s rest day which had a change in tone suddenly returned to a Jujutsu
sorcerer’s “Normal day” and coming into contact with a familiar atmosphere, he
more or less regained his spirit.
However, Itadori’s fulfilling day off was brutally cut short and Kugisaki did not get
to eat the Ameyoko-cho signature product –The cut fruits from Hyakkaen.
Gojou sensei only watched with a faint smile, as per usual, as the three noisily
went off to eliminate a cursed spirit.
“Hm?”
Something seemed to have drifted out of Itadori’s pocket.
Gojou tilted his head in puzzlement as he picked it up to check.
And in the next second, he burst out laughing.
“Ahhahahahaha.”
Looking at the contents of the photo through his blindfold, Gojou could not stop
laughing.
“Ah, ku ku ku, teenagers are teenagers after all ,how youthful.”
Eighty percent of his laughter came from how comical it looked.
Twenty percent came from the relief he felt.
Gojou held the group photo of Itadori and Fushiguro with angel wings that they
took with a maid and laughed on the spot for quite a while.

[T/N: The group photo had the message: Megumi-sama , please come back
soon!!”

Chapter 2: Resurrection Puppet

Nanami did not dislike business trips.
After all, this could be considered an all-expenses paid vacation and he was able
to openly visit places that he had no chance to visit.
Furthermore, the destination this time was Hokkaido.
Whether as a Jujutsu sorcerer or as a person who had stepped out into society, it
was great chance to be able to be apart from his colleagues, to be alone, to relax
himself, to create a space that allowed his soul to breathe in fresh air.
If the air that one breathed never changed, they would become depressed.
The key to being able to work for long hours laid in whether one was able to take a
breather at appropriate moments.
For Nanami who had such a mentality, the company of a senior Jujutsu sorcerer
had already made him lose all his enjoyment—in addition, as the person who
came along was also Gojou Satoru, the situation had evolved into a painful
errand that gave him a migraine.
“Nanami, let’s play a trivia game about Hokkaido.”
“Do it yourself.”
“Alright, first question. What is my favourite flavour of the local Hokkaido dessert
“Sanporoku*”?
(T/N: A kind of Baumkuchen cake that has chocolate drizzled onto its exterior.)
“Please go and check what is the meaning of trivia ten times before you play this
game.”
“Then let’s play a game about potatoes with butter. The rules are simple.
Whoever likes eating potatoes with butter more wins. Alright I win. Because I’m
number two in Japan when it comes to liking potatoes with butter.”
“Then who is number one?”
“Matsuyama Chiharu*.”
(T/N: A Japanese folksinger who was born in Hokkaido.)
“The number of times you spout lies is more than the number of times you
breathe, isn’t it?”
“If that’s the case, I can reduce carbon emission.”
“The amount of carbon dioxide generated from my sighs probably offset that.
After all, what situation in this world could be more tragic that two adult men, on
top of that, two Jujutsu sorcerers having to come all the way to Hokkaido.”
“It’s not bad. It’s like we’re recording one of those variety shows.”
“Since when is there a variety show that is this boring.”
Nanami and Gojou were walking along the bustling road with clearly different
expressions.
The roads of Sapporo were like that of Kyoto, designed in a grid pattern.
As long as one looked at the road signs, it was basically hard to get lost.
If they were just sightseeing, it would be troublesome to judge whether they were
going down a one-way street, but as long as they leave the central district, it was
pretty much a piece of cake. They could also find a location to get their bearings
on their map pretty quickly.
“Even though the roads here aren’t all in the shape of a grid, it is quite easy to
plan your route for sightseeing.”
Gojou held a small booklet.
After opening it, it was clear that the image that was in it was a simplified map of
the central district and there were several red circles drawn onto it.
“What’s that map for?”
“Hey hey hey Nanami, hey hey hey, hey-“
“Your way of speaking is strangely irritating.”
“Will you get a grip on yourself? Of course the only thing I will pull out at this time
can only be a map of Gojou Satoru’s chosen desserts.”
“Didn’t I say earlier to do these things yourself?”
“Even though I’m your senior, I’m not able to show my greatness in front of
someone like you.”
“You aren’t any kind of respectable senior in the first place.”
Nanami had sighed so much that he felt that his own lungs were going to
collapse.
When Gojou was having a private conversation with someone, ninety percent of
the words are just nonsense.
Essentially, he would just care about what he wanted to say, so those who were
listening would only tire themselves out if they tried to give a serious answer. But
even just listening with the words in one ear and out the other was also annoying.
This may be difficult to understand for people who never worked with Gojou
Satoru before, but once someone like him was your own boss, senior and a
powerful individual who was considered invincible, it would cause an immense
amount of stress. For people such as Ichiji, the problem just multiplied by many
folds.
“….speaking of which, can you tell me honestly why you are on this trip with me?
This case should not require the mobilisation of two Jujutsu sorcerers. On top of
that—”
“On top of that there’s no need to mobilise the handsome and the strongest
Jujutsu Sorcerer Gojou Satoru, right?”
Nanami was really tired of responding to such a conversation so he chose to
ignore it. Even though Gojou did not receive a reply, he still continued to speak.
“I honestly am not worried about the case. Even though the upper echelons only
sent one person to investigate, since the person handling it is you, you probably
can complete it even if you are working solo.”
“Then why are you here.
“Probably because I want to transform a case that one did not have to be
concerned about to a case that one “absolutely” did not have to be concerned
about. Though it’s enough to just leave this mission to one person, they actually
sent a first grade sorcerer out to do it. Also I heard that the situation this time had
to do with a “vicious” curse user.”
“……You’re saying that the opponent could be a curse user whose abilities are on
par with a first grade or special grade?”
“Right now, it’s still merely a “possibility”.”
“You can’t be the type that would specially make a trip here just for a matter that
has such a high degree of uncertainty.”
“You know me so well, you have completely grasped every single part of me.
Anyway, just treat the matter as such for now. Perhaps I’m just too tired from my
hectic work and just wanted to come to the north for a vacation.”
“When you put it this way, it means you have something to hide….”
“Ah, Nanami, look at that, look at that.”
“Can you please listen to other people when they’re talking? Forget it, there’s no
point telling you.”
Looking in the direction where Gojou was pointing, there was an exquisite
roadside store.
Large red words, “Potatoes with Butter”, that stood out were written on the
orange gold sign board.
“Now that I think about it properly, people who set up stores to sell potatoes with
butter much be super confident about their own dish. Because they are just
selling a baked potato with some butter on it. This kind of dish is not that
problematic to make at home.”
“This is probably the beauty of achieving the same dish through different means,
that is, roasting potatoes over stone.”
“Now that you mention it, that’s probably the case. As expected of Nanami, your
focus is under your shades.”
“You just talking about the location of my eyeballs, aren’t you?”
“Anyway, do you know what the Jagaimo in Jagaimo means?”
(T/N:ジャガイモ (Jagaimo) means potato in Japanese)
“There’s a saying that potatoes were imported into Japan from the harbour of
Tanjung Priok which is why it’s named as such.”
(T/N: Tanjung Priok is a district in North Jakarta, Indonesia. So potatoes became
termed as Jakarta-imo (root vegetable of Jakarta) and therefore Jaga-imo.)
“You’re really scary, why are you able to answer such a question without missing
a beat?”
“I’m the one who wants to ask why the person who’s second in place in terms of
loving potatoes with butter does not know the origin of the word Jagaimo.”
“Anyway, being second place in terms of liking something means I’m only second
place. If I had to set a goal, I should set my eyes on the first place….so, boss, one
portion of potatoes with butter please.”
While they were chatting, Gojou headed towards the roadside store far too
naturally so Nanami was not able to react to the situation quickly.
“You want to eat that?”
“Of course. I am the man who takes the second place of loving potatoes in
Japan.”
“We are here to work.”
“Then you don’t have to eat. I shall enjoy the delicacies of Hokkaido myself.”
“I intend to eat them.”
“So do you want to eat or not?”
There were two men seated on a bench in Sapporo Oodori Park. One was in a
dress suit while the other dressed casually in black. The two of them were
wearing sunglasses and they sat next to each other, eating potatoes with butter.
As this was the big city of Sapporo, even if there were performers or cosplayers
on the street, most pedestrians would not find it strange, but these people were
still pretty attention grabbing in this city.
“Wah, this is really good. It’s piping hot too, piping hot.”
“Even if I made this at home, I won’t be able to bake it to such a flavour.”
“Really, I have looked down on potatoes with butter. No wonder the store owner
dares to sell this when all they do is bake it.”
“I feel like drinking beer. Looks like it’s better to wait till after work before eating
something like this.”
“Beer….actually I don’t get it, this is already pretty good by itself so why must you
drink beer with it? Eh, what’s this?”
“What is it?”
“Nanami, why is your potato with butter different from mine?”
“I added Shio-kara, it’s delicious. But I won’t give you any.”
(T/N: Seasoned seafood viscera)
“I don’t want it. And the appearance looks a lot like the cursed spirit that I
exorcised a while back.”
“……………”
Nanami had looked forward to taking a relaxing break if the job in Hokkaido went
smoothly.
Who knew that he ended up accumulating some stress.
*
As law abiding adults, after enjoying the steaming potatoes with butter, of course
they took care of the trash properly. They went towards the Sapporo TV tower and
headed for the east side of Oodori Park.
After they left Oodori park from there, there was a road that headed south east
near the bus interchange.
This large road could be considered the artery of the city but unexpectedly, there
was only a sparse number of pedestrians.
However, this had to do with the structure of this city known as Sapporo.
“Oh yeah, what kind of ambitious curse user are we investigating this time? Wait,
actually we aren’t even sure if the other party is a curse user.”
“You came along without even finding out what’s going on?”
“The person in charge is you anyway, Nanami.”
“If that’s the case, can I request that you not follow……Also, you just ate a potato
that requires some time to digest and now you’re actually eating a soft serve.
”Aren’t you eating as well?”
Gojou skillfully licked his cheese and milk flavoured soft serve while not letting
the soft serve melt and drip everywhere. At the same time, he naturally walked in
front of Nanami.
Nanami was rather puzzled at where the other man wanted to go. A person who
did not grasp the contents of the mission fully should not be walking in front like
this.
What Gojou said was that they have come all the way to Hokkaido, yet the soft
serve that Nanami ordered was not chocolate flavoured but cookie flavoured.
Because he could not bear to watch, he walked in front. However, Nanami felt
that this should not be the words of someone wearing sunglasses upon his face.
Nanami wanted to tell Gojou “Don’t walk the wrong way” but when he thought
about it afterwards, he might as well tell him about the mission first.
And logically speaking, if it were the usual Gojou, even if Nanami did not ask, he
should have known the details of the mission already.
However, Gojou just intentionally questioned Nanami which would mean he
completely had not received any information related to the task at hand. In other
words, Gojou was very sure that this case did not require his intervention to get it
done.
However, he still followed Nanami to Hokkaido.
Now, it was Nanami who wanted to know Gojou’s motive for coming on this trip.
After all, he knew that Gojou could not possible be so free that he could make a
long trip to the north for a vacation to kill his free time.
At any rate, he can only quickly finish this “Disturbance caused by puppets”
before he could get Gojou to reveal his true motive.
With the consideration of work efficiency in mind, Nanami decided to briefly
explain the contents of the mission.
“The incident seemed to have originated from a website called
“Yomotsuhirasaka*”.
(T/N: The road to Yomotsu – the afterlife)
“What an amazing naming sense.”
“That website seems to be fixed to an independent server so it’s not possible to
find it using the usual search engines….Ichiji managed to dig it out using
whatever information he had.”
“That guy is really great.”
Based on Gojou’s tone that did not have a shred of surprise, it felt like he was
saying “Of course I know he was the one who found it.”
Once Nanami heard that statement, it dawned to him “Ah, seems like this guy
placed Ichiji’s neck in a chokehold and forced him to reveal my whereabouts.”
Ichiji Kiyotaka was by no means some super hacker.
However, as long as this man had a clear idea of the target he was searching for,
he would be able to find a “Method of locating the target”.
In this modern society where there is an explosion of information, sometimes the
ability to look for information is more important than having knowledge of the
profession.
When it comes to this point, Ichiji was a valuable asset.
Even though he was a valuable asset, it was another matter on whether he
should use a kind attitude to show his gratitude to this person who had leaked
information. Nanami planned to find Ichiji and get him to confess after they go
back.
“Anyway, what’s the point of setting up that kind of vulgar website? There
shouldn’t be some hilarious video clips that’s posted on there, right?”
“That website’s design is extremely simple, so simple that it’s nostalgic.”
“So there is a visitor counter and once they reach a certain number of visitors, it
would be announced on the site?
“How annoying, I actually feel nostalgia.”
“We aren’t exactly young.”
Nanami noticed that he had eaten his soft serve to the point that it was a flat top
so he ate a mouthful of the waffle. And after taking a breath, he continued to talk:
“In the end, it seems like that website is a window to contact a certain curse
user.”
“Window?”
“There’s a simple text entry box on the website. You just have to input your
request and submit it and then there will be a pop up of the address on where to
send the cash to, then you can buy their products.”
“A mail order where you have mail your payment, how old fashioned.”
“The address that was indicated on the website is a property owned by a small
real estate management agency in Hokkaido. I heard that it’s a shared house
that’s about one tsubo* in size.
(T/N: Approximately 3.3 sqm)
“What kind of shared house is only one tsubo?”
“There are twenty mailboxes there and it seems like they become the personal
mailboxes of the Yakuza to make their dealings.”
“Isn’t this method completely like what someone from the Yakuza would do? It
doesn’t seem like an idea coming from a curse user.”
“Furthermore, you could count it as a good or a bad thing, a jujutsu sorcerer with
a certain history or lineage would never come up with the motivation to set up
such a business model.”
“……In the end, what is that website even selling? Is it some curse user who went
astray scamming people by selling cursed tool that can only exorcise cursed
spirits that are at the level of fly heads or are they earning some spare change by
cursing others……But if the opponent is only at this kind of level, the upper
echelons don’t need to send you to handle it, Nanami.”
“Your observation is ever so astute.”
“Who do you think you’re talking to now. The people up there have sent you on
this mission yet they didn’t inform me of the details of this mission, so I suppose
the old geezers at the top want to hide this case.”
“If the situation is as how you put it, then have you thought that I might have
received orders that “forbade me from revealing anything details about the
mission”?”
“It doesn’t matter if it’s forbidden or not. Even if I want to know, I can’t force you
to spill the beans. Anyway, at the very most they can only “not let me know what
had happened”. In other words, my appearance here has ruined all their efforts.”
“I keep thinking, since you’re so smart, why do you still need me to explain
what’s going on? You would know if you just went to investigate.”
“For a problem like this where I can understand as long as I put my mind to it but
the process is troublesome, it would be settled the fastest if I just order my junior
around.”
“…………sigh…………”
Nanami let out a long sigh.
It was not as though he was hesitant to divulge the information, it was simply
because he wanted to sigh at this Jujutsu sorcerer senior of his who did things in
a tyrannical manner.
Nanami took in another breath forcefully. Finally, he was going to mention the
crux of the matter.
“—resurrection of the dead.”
“…What did you say?”
This was a rare moment when Gojou doubted his own ears.
The matter that Nanami spoke about was that ridiculous. Nanami also felt the
same way himself so his tone started to show signs of exhaustion.
“The object sold on that website is a “new vessel” that could call back the souls
of the dead……the seller seems to call them “Resurrection Puppets”.”
“….why are you telling a joke that isn’t funny again?”
“Most likely it’s just some scam. Except…”
“Never mind, I get it.”
Gojou lightly waved his hands.
In this summarized conversation, he has already understood the case to a point
that it could not be any clearer.
“Even if it’s most likely, even if there’s a ninety nine percent chance that it’s a
scam….but if by the slightest minute chance it’s real, we can’t leave it alone.
That’s what you wanted to express, right?”
In this world, there are several truths that do not need to be doubted.
Such as: The sky will turn bright after the night has passed, ice is cold and apples
will fall from trees.
Because of the existence of these laws which were so simple that they brought
smiles to people’s faces, this world could function.
On the other hand, if these laws got flipped on their head, this world would fall
into chaos.
One plus one did not equal to two, all the concepts of mathematics will be
crushed in a go; just the absence of light after night had passed was enough to
destroy this planet.
If there were changes to this matters that were simple to the point that it made
people smile, no one would be able to smile.
Time could not turn back. That was one of those laws of truth.
Just as how one cannot put split water back in a basin, it was the same logic that
there was no treatment for regret. Once time had passed, it could not come
back.
The easiest to understand representative phenomenon would be “death”.
“No wonder the upper echelons did not want me to know. After all, they intend to
completely bring the life of Sukuna’s vessel to an end.”
“Seems like you figured things out.”
“Aren’t they looking down on me? They actually believe I will use such
unorthodox methods?”
“Even though it’s less than a one percent chance, those individuals with power
are still cautious and fearful and plan to eliminate all possibilities. No wonder
they can still hold onto their absolute power and stay on their ivory towers.”
“Though I feel that this is hundred percent a scam.”
“I think so too. After all, if the dead can return to life—”
“If the dead can really return to life, this world would have been doomed.”
The dead could not return to life. Because resurrection was not possible, people
could give up on the past. Because resurrection was not possible, they would at
least want a meaningful death.
If the dead could come back to life, then to this world, that would probably be a
curse that is so large that it had no equal.
It probably can be called the King of Curses, a curse that stood above all others.
“However, this suspicious product seems to be limited to “reviving infants”….If
it’s like that, that raises another vague possibility.”
“Only for reviving infants? Now what’s this about?”
“Right now, I only know that’s how the website limits its clientele. My job this
time also involves investigating this matter.”
“We can’t even be sure if the dead will really get revived and you still have to
investigate this matter?”
“It’s not as if I can leave it alone. I still have to do my job after all.”
Gojou raised his head and bit the sweet waffle of his soft serve with a crunch.
After licking off the soft serve that had melted and dripped onto his thumb, an
expression of complete exhaustion appeared as he looked at Nanami through his
sunglasses.
“Nanami, do you think the job of a salaryman is lousier than being a Jujutsu
Sorcerer?”
“Putting aside the suitability for the job, I feel that this is just a pot calling a kettle
black.”
“Looks like this society is going to get cursed.”
“It can’t be helped that something like that is said.”
“Nanami….that person who’s selling the puppets……let’s just call him the
“Puppeteer”. You should have an idea of where that guy is already, right? Where
should we go from here?”
“We already went past our destination because a certain someone decided to
lead the way wrongly.”
“Eh? It’s my fault?”
“Please do not make me think that because a salaryman like you doesn’t exist,
the world is in a slightly better place.”
For a while, Nanami quietly thought about whether he wanted to stay in this
profession in future.
*
A city was not something that only expanded horizontally.
In a city where the density of development on its surface had been pushed to the
limit, it will basically stop expanding horizontally and start expanding vertically.
All in all, the heights of buildings would keep growing or more spaces would keep
getting dug out.
“I see, an underground street.”
“There are a lot of entrances on the surface that lead to underground so it’s
pretty convenient to come down here but we have already gone in a huge circle.”
The completeness of the underground transport network that held various
railway lines was one sign whether a place could be considered a city.
In comparison, the underground passageway in front of Sapporo station was
more modern and so, the tunnels were also wider. From there, one could access
almost all the major facilities between the front of the station to Susukino.
It was because of these underground pedestrian paths that led to the roads on
the surfaces having very few pedestrians. This space that was affected by traffic
signals or weather had become a city beneath a city.
“The space here is pretty modern. It’s underground but there are still skylights.”
“Whether it’s supermarkets, bookstores, terraces or library teller windows, they
are all available here. You can even find beauticians and fortune tellers. Many
kinds of occupations are gathered in this place so most likely the “Puppeteer” is
among them as well.”
“By the way, why didn’t we just come directly to the underground street from the
start?”
“I had intended to come here immediately. But someone did not listen to me and
went to eat potatoes with butter on a whim.”
“Are you serious? If I see that person, I’m gonna tell him off for you.”
“If you want to look at a mirror, they’re available in the toilets.”
“Anyway…this place really is trendy. Not only is there an exhibition area, but
there are also events and even performances. The liveliness is even more
vigorous than that on the surface. But because that is the case, I have a bad
feeling.”
Gojou had reason to cause deeper creases to form on his brow.
Sapporo is a unique city.
Humans are living creatures where ten people have ten different manners.
Different kinds of personalities existed in this world.
For places like Tokyo, Shibuya, Asakusa, Shinjuku, Akihabara and so on, each
district has their own distinct traits and people would gather at these different
districts based on their own personalities. Once a person was referred to with
vocabulary such as the Shibuya-type or Akihabara-type, it was clear what their
personality trait was.
However, they were all jumbled together in Sapporo.
Trendy shopping areas where youths gathered at, anime and manga
merchandise stores where nerds navigated towards, shopping streets that
contained old brand stores with long histories and areas that held the desires of
adults.
These districts were probably only separated by a distance of one street and
were all mixed into one.
Of course, all the “thoughts” that gathered in these areas also get thrown
together.
Resentment, jealousy, anger, partiality, stubbornness, envy, disgust, selfishness.
The negative feelings of humans were supposed to drift apart naturally based on
the area’s specialty, but this city was not divided based on special
characteristics.
After that, it would be the space that became an underground pedestrian
pathway.
The underground street that had wide paths and took up a lot of space.
Various kinds of people go through these round tunnels that were carefully
designed for convenience and connected almost all the city’s major facilities and
head for the stations. At the same time, all the negative feelings they were
carrying were brought into the same space with the people who held them.
At the first glance, this underground artery was magnificent and lively, but in the
eyes of a Jujutsu sorcerer, this was a huge cauldron of human thoughts.
“Because of somewhere like this, we can easily stiff out where the stink comes
from.”
“Yeah, I can feel some sort of evil aura just from looking.”
In the first place, the air in this underground street where large groups of people
came and went was stagnant
However, there was definitely some sort of peculiar air of gloom in this kind of
environment.
For Jujutsu sorcerers who could find cursed spirits based on the remnants of the
cursed technique, finding the source of this aura was easier than finding the
source of a gas leak.
Nanami and Gojou followed the source of the aura, weaving through the crowds
of people who were coming and going and continued to move south down the
underground space.
After walking for about ten minutes, the two came to the end of district that had
been replanned and refurbished and entered the older district that had a
distinctly different atmosphere.
Compared to the refurbished area, the old district’s structure was more
complex, with more branching paths or roads that went towards the metro.
Even so, the amount of human traffic did not decrease and instead became even
more congested.
The flow of humans was like a river that was close to breaking its embankment.
However in this kind bustling crowd of people….two people felt a kind of
“stagnancy”.
“Nanami.”
“Yes—–that should be a clue.”
At the end of the line of sight of these two Jujutsu sorcerers was a mother with
children.
The mother carried an infant while a boy of about five or six years old stood next
to her.
Gojou and Nanami pricked up their ears to listen to the conversation between the
mother and child as they carefully got closer.
“—Akito, why aren’t you listening to me?”
“No! Mommy, don’t carry that kind of thing and walk around! I hate it! I hate it!”
“You are the big brother, so stop being willful for no reason. Look….Natsuki is
crying again.”
“I hate it! I hate it! I’m not an older brother!”
After the mother shifted the position of the baby called Natsuki in her arms, she
made a face like she was at a loss of what to do.
She probably treasured that child who was called Akito as well.
Of course, people who were parents would not be able win against babies. That
mother’s attention did not leave her youngest and she carried his tiny body while
swaying continuously. From her expression , one could tell that the love she had
for her youngest was close to insanity.
The woman, on one side, was feeling troubled by the boy who was throwing a
tantrum while on the other side, she was coaxing the small baby in her arms.
In the eyes of normal people, this was a heartwarming scene that was extremely
normal.
When a younger sibling was born, children who became older siblings would lose
their temper once in a while because they feel that their mother suddenly got
snatched away. Adults could only say “This happens all the time” and smile to
brush it off.
However, from the degree of protests from this boy by the name of Akito, it was
too fierce to say that the child was just throwing a tantrum.
He was indeed unwilling to let his mother get snatched away by his younger
brother.
However, the amount of animosity he felt towards his brother was far too
intense.
The woman, as a mother, should have realized it as well. Her expression that
started off as a wry smile slowly morphed into one of being bothered and finally it
became languish and anger.
“Why do you say such a thing?!”
“Because, because!”
“He is your little brother, isn’t he? Don’t you feel bad for him?”
“That thing is not my little brother!”
“Aki, Akito!”
The furious mother lost her sense of reason and raised her palm up high.
But when she swung her hand down, there was no heart wrenching sound of the
boy’s face getting slapped.
Because Nanami had grabbed the woman’s arm.
“This…wh, why did you grab my arm for?!”
Obviously, the mother became panicked.
After all, to her, Nanami and Gojou were suspicious strangers who have barged
into the daily lives of her family.
Even though the mother understood that she ought to get chided for using
violence, she still had to properly discipline the boy who made harsh remarks
towards her baby. Therefore, she found it hard to accept that outsiders were
sticking their nose into her domestic affairs.
However, Nanami and Gojou had sufficient reason to reproach this mother.
Aside from being adults like her, they were Jujutsu sorcerers.
“Please let go of me! This is a problem between me and my child!”
“Sorry, I cannot allow that. May I ask if you know what is it that you are holding?”
“What are you saying….”
“I see, so this is that so called puppet.”
“Eh!”
Gojou stuck his face closer from opposite Nanami, looking up and down at the
baby that the woman held.
“And there I was thinking what kind of object the so-called puppet was….so it’s
only this. Taking out such a thing to sell and saying something like reviving the
dead, a scam which has no qualms about ruining people’s lives!”
“Pl, please don’t be like this! Don’t touch Natsuki!”
“Oh, you care about “that thing” that much? More than that child who is crying
and screaming next to you?”
“What nonsense are you spouting! For the sake of this child, I endured intense
pain to—”
“Buy it?”
After the woman heard Nanami’s words, her movements stopped as though she
had frozen.
She felt a sense of chill and despair run up her body, as though someone had
directly stuck their arm into her intestine and squeezed her spine.
The woman understood that only the people who understood the inner workings
of the matter would be able to say such a thing.
*
“—Cursed corpse?”
This mother ruminated, repeating the noun that Nanami said.
Perhaps she was not familiar with such a noun so it sounded forced when she
pronounced it.
“Yes, simply put….let me think….It should be easy to understand if I say it’s a
puppet that was made with curses.”
From the way Nanami explained it, one would realise that he had considered that
normal people know absolutely nothing about curses.
Gojou had actually secretly praised Nanami by saying “Nanami used to be part of
the workforce, so he can communicate with others better on such matters.”
“You say that this is a puppet….but this child looks like a real person.”
“This puppet is so intricately made that it leaves people in awe. If a normal
person sees it, they probably can’t tell whether it’s a real baby or not.”
“This child is real.”
“That child is not real. You made the purchase so you should be clear about this
more than anyone else, right?”
“…..”
“Reasonably speaking, the number of Jujutsu sorcerers who can make cursed
corpses so human-like are few and far between….If I deduce from there, when
you requested for this puppet to be made, the other party should have asked for
something else other than money, am I correct?”
“Yes….”
The baby in the woman’s arms was really wondrous.
He would move his arms and legs like he was grabbing air and even puff up his
tiny cheeks that had a bit of pink, these were all prime textbook examples of
standard baby movements that would stimulate maternal instinct.
Even so, these were only superficial.
In the eyes of a Jujutsu sorcerer, it was only spine chilling.
It was only normal for someone to feel like that because—
“I suppose the other party—”
“Wanted you to hand over the corpse of the baby you wanted to revive.”
“….Gojou-san.”
Because a normal person could not possibility move the body of an adult, that’s
why he only limited the resurrection to infants.”
Nanami had originally wanted to get the truth out innocuously, however once he
heard Gojou reveal his own deduction in a blunt manner, he weakly slumped his
shoulders.
Seeing how the woman looked uneasy, Gojou’s deduction was probably spot on.
This cursed corpse that moved like a living person was made using corpses as its
material.
If one had a certain degree of understanding of cursed techniques, they would
know that how nefarious and profane this cursed technique was and a matter
that depraved people.
However, this puppet was enough to let normal people live the sweet dream of
“resurrecting the dead”.
To wake people from such a nightmare, they definitely needed the truth to be
thrown on them like cold water just like Gojou had done. Gojou might have
proactively said such words as a show of consideration to Nanami, but whether
he really thought about such a thing was unknown.
No matter what his original intention was, Gojou continued to speak to the
woman:
“That thing might look like a living person, but it’s actually no different from a
robotic pet that follows pre-programmed actions.”
“You’re lying! I confirmed over and over again….the other party promised that
Natsuki would return to my side, that’s why I paid him.”
“A mother should be able to know better than anyone else what kind of small
actions, what kind of small expressions that are full of emotions that their own
child would have……however, that baby in your arms now does not even have the
air of a person with a living soul, right?”
“…….”
“Furthermore—”
Nanami’s eyes which were under his sunglasses threw a glance at the child who
was called Akito.
A boy who was only around five years old pressed himself against the woman’s
leg as he raised his head to look at his own mother with an uneasy yet
determined expression.
“—that child seems to be very clear about what’s happening. He knows that his
mother’s mind was about to be taken away by some unknown object.”
“That….”
“Every person has a different definition of what is reality. If what you want is “A
reality where you did not lose any of your children”, I have no right to lecture
you….”
Nanami used his middle finger to push up his sunglasses and then paused.
Sometimes children were stronger and had more resolve than adults could
imagine.
This boy called Akito should know that “I have to hang on to my mother with all I
have”. His actions might be touching, but seeing that a child was forced to face a
matter because of how cruel the truth was, it only made one inevitably let out a
sigh.
So Nanami could only quietly pray while giving a reminder.
“But the matter that you are turning a blind eye to, “The child who worries about
you is still alive” is also reality, correct?”
“……Uu….”
This mother’s heart had understood everything.
She understood that what Nanami said was correct; she understood that what
she had done was merely an escape from reality.
Even so, Nanami also knew well that he could not end everything by saying “It’s
good you understand”.
He could also understand how cruel it was to lose someone you have gotten
back once more.
So he did not force this mother to make a decision.
*
“Eliminating a human’s attachment to the past is more difficult than exorcising a
curse.”
The mother of the baby was described aptly with the words that Gojou muttered.
The two finally retrieved the cursed corpse among her tears and the sound of her
sobs.
They were underground so they were not too sure about the situation outside, but
at this moment, the sun should already be setting. If they forcefully took away the
cursed corpse, the wound in the woman’s heart would never heal for the rest of
her life, so the two could only wait till this mother was ready to let go on her own.
Nanami kept telling Gojou “If you aren’t working, at least help to carry this”,
Gojou excused himself three times but in the end, he was forced to carry
Nanami’s bag.
The bag contained the cursed corpse which they took from the woman.
“Nanami, you placed this object in your hand carry bag, it’s kinda heavy to hold.”
“It’s not as though we can just chuck it somewhere. Furthermore, it’s an
important clue. Use the cursed energy that’s placed inside the puppet and then
rely on some of the remnants so we can go straight for the other party’s base.”
“That’s true. Anyway, it seems the “Puppeteer” who is selling this thing had
covered his tracks intentionally….but this guy is just some trash amateur, his
methods are really crude.”
“Yeah, seriously.”
In the end, the two of them easily and with no trouble at all, found the
perpetrator’s stronghold.
They came to a district that could be considered especially old fashioned in the
underground street.
A wide space that was connected to many paths, and after going through one,
they made it to the basement of some tall building. After that, they went to the
back of some stairs that went to the upper floors and then entered a complex zig-
zagging road.
Originally, this place should have been rented to run an Izakaya.
However, as the location was terrible, it felt like it was not fit for running
respectable businesses. However, it was perfect for fishy activities.
Even though the other party used a technique with the same principle as a
“curtain” to hide from people.
But all in all, the method to conceal himself could only be called crude.
Nanami and Gojou chased after the remnants of the cursed technique and even
when they reached this place, they could see the traces clearly as though the
path taken by the other party had never been cut off.
“This really makes me feel that we are really short on Jujutsu sorcerers. This kind
of third-rate sorcerer built his stronghold so openly and he’s actually allowed to
continue his crimes.”
“All the strong cursed spirits are gathered in the city center, so the movements of
Jujutsu sorcerers are limited to the big city. Naturally they will overlook the
situation at places that are more underdeveloped.”
“Though it won’t cause a huge problem even if we left a rogue sorcerer of this
kind of skill level alone.”
The two did not care who went first.
But they did not make any particular signal to each other either. They only just
happened to both step forward.
“But now there are victims such as that mother…”
“We should crush them as soon as we can.”
The two Jujutsu sorcerers kicked down the door at almost the same time.
The fallen door clattered, ringing out on the scene and dust flew everywhere.
After the owner of the house—the “Puppeteer” saw the two Jujutsu sorcerers
appear in an imposing manner like characters in a yakuza movie making a furious
debut, he got so scared that his knees gave way.
“….wh, who the hell are you….”
“Hey trash, if you think we are guests, go see an eye doctor.”
“We are bona fide Jujutsu sorcerers.”
“Not some inferior bastard like you.”
Gojou’s voice was full of contempt.
The inside of the house that the two barged into was crude and haphazard.
It was not known if they were going for an interior décor that was Japanese,
Chinese or Korean, but it seemed like the owner just wanted to create a
mysterious ambience.
There were display pieces that looks like lions, something that should be an
imitation mummy, pit viper preserved in formaldehyde and masks that were
painted with a single colour, looking like it came out of a souvenir shop—
Among them, the worst was the owner’s –the “Puppeteer’s” clothing.
He was wearing something that could either be the clothing worn by an onmyouji
or a priest and from the crude fabric, it might be rented from some prop and
costume shop.
And on those clothes, he even wrapped some crudely made talismans that could
barely release cursed energy around himself like bandages.
In the eyes of Jujutsu sorcerers, that appearance could only be considered role-
playing.
Even if his targets were the general normal population, if he thought he could lie
to everyone with such a get up, then it was too foolish of him.
Actually, he had succeeded in his scam and someone was hurt because of it, so
he was even more unforgivable.
His entire existence could be said to be an insult to Jujutsu sorcerers.
“Jujutsu sorcerers………? I, I I, I see….so yo, you are Jujutsu sorcerers as well……”
“What do you mean “as well”? Don’t tell me you consider yourself a Jujutsu
sorcerer?”
“Please cooperate with us and stop this meaningless struggle. It’s actually quite
tiring having to hold back.”
Nanami’s thoughts should be the same as Gojou’s.
A deep crease had already formed on the brow that was beneath his sunglasses.
This deep crease revealed the biological disgust Nanami had for this puppeteer’s
existence and his utter lack of humanity.
Even though he had not held his weapon in his hands, he put up an offensive
pose, ready to strike anytime.
The puppeteer was just some fake Jujutsu sorcerer but even a normal person
would be able to feel how oppressive the aura that was coming out of a first
grade Jujutsu sorcerer such as Nanami was.
On the other hand, if the puppeteer was still able to view his own situation in an
optimistic manner then he was either stupid beyond words or……
Unable to think normally anymore.
“Ah, ah, ahhhhh….why are you here?”
“We already reached this point so if you still don’t know why we’re here then just
shut up. A person who is too stupid is not cute.”
“I, I, I don’t have much ti, much time left!”
“I’m the one who wants to say that I don’t have much time left. It’s almost four.
Even though I’m on a business trip, I do not wish to work overtime.”
Nanami and Gojou stood side by side and walked towards the puppeteer at the
same time.
In the small room, the two of them standing side by side would block the
entrance so the other party had nowhere to run.
One could say that the puppeteer was at a dead end.
The number of options he could take was limited.
He could dance with death and push Nanami and Gojou aside to escape out of
the room or he could wave some blunt tool and try to resist meaninglessly. If not,
he could obediently surrender.
–In the end.
The option taken by the puppeteer was completely out of their expectations.
“He, he, he, he—help me!”
“What?”
“I, I’m, I’m so glad….I’m so glad. I was going to look for you. Actual Jujutsu
sorcerers! He, help me, I have lots of money! So, so……”
The person who should be the puppeteer actually crawled next to Nanami’s leg—
and begged him for help.
At that moment, both Nanami and Gojou felt that something was off.
The puppeteer definitely could not be considered a Jujutsu sorcerer.
However—he was ridiculously weak.
The curse inserted into the cursed corpse could not be considered strong.
Even so, he was way too weak.
This man who was at Nanami’s feet should not even be able to use that level of
cursed technique.
With that being the case, the same cursed energy from the cursed corpse still
seeped out continuously from this man’s body.
To sum it up, there was only one truth.
“—Nanami.”
“There’s no mistake. We had believed that you were cursing people all over the
place thinking that it was fun—but it looks like the one who got cursed is you.”
The conversation between the two felt like some kind of signal and the
puppeteer’s body started to become strange.
Many of the countless talismans that were originally wrapped around the
puppeteer’s clothes had torn apart—several “arms” flew out from underneath
the clothing like whips.
“Tch.”
Nanami wanted to use the smallest amount of movement to dodge the attack
but he changed his course of action in an instant.
Because in front of the “arms” that swung over were several lifeforms that
resembled small insects. Nanami dodged the attacking arms and at the same
time, roughly took off the blazer of his suit and swept it at those insect-like
things.
“….that’s….”
The puppeteer’s body had become a fleshy puppet.
It was a combination of a human and a puppet, an appearance that looked
grotesque. The puppeteer managed to barely maintain his own head and left arm
but anything below his left chest was too disgusting to look at.
A puppet’s face that felt like it became fierce and contorted because of a grudge
was fixed at where the heart should be.
Several sharpened wooden skeletal structures that seemed to be made of
bamboo stuck out of the combination of fleshy masses and humans and more
than seventy percent of the puppeteer’s body was replaced by a puppet, making
him look like a spider.
“Ah, ahhhhhhhhh, help me, help me. Money, money, I have money, quickly help
me exorcise, exorcise this thing! Help me get rid, help me get rid, help me get rid
of this monster!”
Because of pain and terror, the puppeteer lost control and made huge
movements of his countless arms like his was swinging multiple whips.
The power from the dancing arms were like a storm. If humans got hit by them,
they are sure to have their bones broken but the real power was from another
attack.
The fiercest were actually the countless small bugs that gushed out of the
puppet’s stomach, landed on the man’s skin and squirmed around.
No…if one looked carefully, they would know that those small insects were
actually tiny swarms of cursed corpses.
These worms were feeding on the puppeteer’s body from the start and together
with the “infant corpse” that he hid under his clothes, they were multiplying and
growing.
“….Seems like these are cursed corpses that use the body as a cursed corpse
production plants and at the same time, are able to reproduce on their own.”
There were several cursed corpses that were slowly becoming a form by building
tissue structures and hair.
The man was already able to talk, probably because his body had been severely
corroded.
Finally the last doubt that Nanami and Gojou had in their minds had an answer.
“And I was wondering “If he only used the body’s skin provided by the parents to
make a cursed corpse, then where did the rest of the flesh go?”….so it was used
to replace his own flesh that had been eaten.
“What I was puzzled about was even though he used the corpse, how in the world
was he able to make such an intricate cursed corpse…?”
“Modern Jujutsu sorcerers are not able to make such cursed corpses easily. He
should be a descendent of some Jujutsu family with a long history and because
he became poor and desperate, he dug up some cursed tool from his family’s
warehouse……a cursed object that had gone out of control.”
“Seeing how he made the payment so complicated, in the beginning, he probably
just wanted to earn money, In any case, there’s conclusive evidence for this
man’s sins, not that he had any leeway for us to make light of his crimes.”
Nanami let out a sigh, as though he felt helpless from the bottom of his heart.
“Never mind corpses, this puppet even eats the flesh of the living, we shouldn’t
let it hang around for long.”
A puppet that ate human flesh and turned them into puppets.
He collected dead bodies to provide the puppet with the human flesh it required,
but because the puppeteer could not keep up with the demand, he became
possessed by the puppet instead.
Those two should not exist in this world.
Nanami and Gojou seemed to have expressions that said that.
They planned to handle the situation calmly.
They already looked like they have accepted the reality.
However—to the puppeteer who was looking to be saved, this was not something
to be delighted about.
“Eh, ah, ah, you’re….no, not going to save me….?”
“You can’t be saved, probably, you should know that as well right?”
“If you weren’t infected so badly, Ieiri-san might have a way to cut it off.”
Nanami reached his arm to his back.
He carried a weapon that had a wide blade, perhaps the most apt term for it was
a hatchet, on his back.
Nanami always carried that hatchet.
He, who had forgone his job as a working class and chose to walk the path of a
Jujutsu sorcerer, always carried this hatchet which he could take out to use at
any time.
“Wa, wait, what do you mean?”
“Seven to three.”
Nanami used his hatchet to gesture in the air.
“My cursed technique allows me to split my opponent in a line…on the point
where the ratio is seven to three and forcefully create a weak point. It works
regardless of my target being living or non-living. For something like you who have
merged into a living and non-living creature, it is appropriate as you would still be
seen as a body.”
“….wh, what the hell are you talking about….”
Nanami revealed his technique.
The effect of “binding” to increase strength of a technique involves the
disadvantage of publicly revealing information about one’s technique to increase
their attack power.
To Nanami, this was the same as declaring that he would definitely annihilate the
enemy.
“Even though I feel bad for you ending up in this state, the cause of this entire
situation was because you used some dangerous cursed technique to earn
money.”
“….hey, hey hey, hey? Are you kidding? I, I I I I am a human, you know? Even if you
are a Jujutsu sorcerer, you, you….want to, want to use th, that blade….against a
human and?”
“Your body can no longer be saved.”
“No, no, no no no. Eh…why do I have to be treated like this?! I revived the dead! I
saved people! I saved people’s hearts! Why am I the only one! Who, who gets this
kind of treatment….ke, ke, ke, ke ke ke ,k eke ugh! Ugh, ugh! Kugh! Kagh! Kagh, ka
ka!”
“His ability to speak and self-awareness has reached an end. Most
importantly—”
Nanami deftly raised in hatchet in the small space.
Just using his naked eye, the puppeteer knows that the action of Nanami raising
his hatchet was full of an intent to kill. When a person is forced to a dead end
there were only a number of actions he could take.
Fear and anxiety controlled the puppeteer.
Then….what Nanami said completely tore apart the tension that had been
stretched thin.
“—you, who went around cursing people, have become a curse yourself.”
“I’ll kill youuuuuuuuuu!”
The puppeteer screamed and lunged towards Nanami.
He raised the human arm that he barely managed to retain and the countless
puppet arms.
Nanami did not budge an inch.
He only used the flexibility of his own body and swiftly swung the blade that he
had raised up high.
“You’re already an adult so take responsibility for your own deeds.”
One cut.
“—-Ah.”
There was not a peep of a wail of pain.
Nanami used his technique that had been reinforced by revealing details about it
and accurately cut open the puppeteer’s body in a seven to three ratio.
The puppeteer’s body was cut diagonally and it perfectly separated the puppet
portion and human portion and each part collapsed onto the ground.
The puppet should originally be able to move because it absorbed the
puppeteer’s soul as nutrition so now the part that had been cut apart made a
“rattle rattle” mechanical sound and not soon after, it stopped moving.
“….ah…..ah…..ah, ah…….ahhh……“
The puppeteer softly groaned with a voice that did not become words and finally
became motionless, like a puppet with its strings cut. In a while, the small cursed
corpses that looked like small insects also stopped moving one after another like
infants that were cut off their source of nutrition when their umbilical cords were
cut.
What was ironic was that at the point of death, the puppeteer was able to leave
the puppet and one could say he went to the afterlife as a human.
Even though this incident was not able to eliminate the gloom in anyone’s
heart…this attack from Nanami was able to change to puppeteer back to a
human. That was an undisputable fact.
“Good job, Nanami.”
After Gojou patted Nanami’s shoulders, the latter rotated his arms to relax his
shoulders.
“If you intervened, I won’t have to be this tired.”
“Even though this person is a piece of shit, in order to let him die as a human, it’s
still more suitable to use your technique.”
“I don’t want to be suitable for such a thing.”
“Let’s remove the curtain first and leave the rest to the pros. I really don’t know
how to handle corpses.”
“You did not do anything at all.”
After Nanami let out a huge sigh, the room returned to silence.
The lion decors, the imitation mummy and the pit viper soaked in formalin were
still quietly sitting in the house that lost its owner.
Was the owner of this house a human or a puppet.
Even with these two Jujutsu sorcerers around, one was not able to give the right
answer.
However, right now the floor had a pool of blood, clearly proving that he was a
human.
But not long after, the blood would be cleaned up completely as though nothing
had happened before.
And the only thing left in the end would be the silence of underground.
*
“Some people would say that doctors are the ones, on the contrary, who do not
take care of their own health.”
Gojou suddenly mumbled such a thing as he swayed the wine glass at the bar
counter of a bar.
Because this sentence came out of the blue, for an instant, Nanami did not
realise that Gojou was talking to him.
“…Are you talking about the puppeteer?”
“I’m talking about all the Jujutsu sorcerers. Because handling curses is akin to
handling the negative emotions of people who have sunk into despair. Also, the
number of jobs that make you feel unhappy after completing them would far
outweigh the other result.”
“Are you talking about the risk of sorcerers accumulating curses on
themselves?”
“Even though I’m used to the way of this job, my mood will still be bad and I even
want to get myself piss drunk.”
“Didn’t you order a “Florida”? There’s no alcohol inside, is there?”
“Because I didn’t do anything this time, so I don’t have to get myself piss drunk.”
“Can you not say that in such a frank manner?”
Gojou watched as Nanami downed his “Gimlet” and smile to himself.
“Nanami, you sure show a lot of emotions.”
“Why are you suddenly talking about this.”
“Because you can discern between personal and job-related matters but your
heart doesn’t get affected at all right? However, when one becomes an adult,
they would have a few methods here and there to get rid of feelings of conflict
and condemnation. Because of this, alcohol becomes an efficient medicine for
the soul.
“What a boring topic, are you planning to continue?”
“I’m not planning to ridicule you.”
Through his sunglasses, Nanami showed a doubtful gaze but after being sure
that Gojou did not have his usual frivolous smile plastered on his face, he went to
back to listening quietly.
Gojou realised it as well and continued to speak
“As long as one is human, there would be one day when they develop curses.
And the students that I am in charge of teaching will one day have to face the evil
deeds of those scum.”
“…Because they are Jujutsu sorcerers.”
There were countless things in this world that were unreasonable.
Not only Jujutsu sorcerers, normal people would also have to deeply experience
the evil intentions of humans and after humans generate curses, they would get
a taste of suffering, learn to give up and grow up to become adults amidst the
despair they have accumulated.
Nanami knew this very well.
And Gojou knew that that Nanami became an adult after experiencing such
realities.
Which was why he decided to talk about such a topic with Nanami.
“For people like us, we naturally know how to get rid of the poisons within their
heart. But for youths who hold onto a lot of sentimental feelings, it’s another
matter altogether. Their heart might collapse just from getting struck by poison
once.”
“Isn’t it an adult’s duties to rid poison from a child’s heart? As a teacher, you
should know this better than me, right?”
“Of course I know that’s my duty, which is why I’m talking about this with you
here.”
After Gojou finished his drink, he ordered more drinks from the bartender.
“Two glasses of “Cinderella”. Thank you.”
“Are you kidding?”
Gojou ordered a cocktail that was even sweeter than the one he had before and
after Nanami heard Gojou ordering his share as well, he narrowed his eyes.
Of course, this was also a non-alcoholic cocktail and tasted a lot like fruit punch.
Gojou ignored Nanami who looked like he was going to protest and while looking
at the shelves of alcohol behind the bar counter, he continued to talk.
“There is a child who I want you to help me take of.”
“It’s not Fushiguro, is it?”
“I’m talking about Itadori Yuuji, you know him, correct?”
“………………I heard that he had already died.”
“His body contains the King of curses, you can’t even put him in the same page
as that “Resurrection puppet” scam.”
The bartender lightly placed two glasses on the bar counter.
In the glasses were amber liquids that resembled the setting sun.
From the name of the drink, perhaps it was supposed to be the colour of the full
moon, but it might even be the colour of the hair of the youth they spoke about
just now.
This cocktail tasted very sweet just like a fairy tale full of romance and welcomed
a happy ending.
Gojou grasped his own glass and continued to talk while swaying it.
“Because I’m busy with work, it feels like it’s a rare chance for me to talk to you
without any disturbance.”
“I know you hate the current Jujutsu world but I still stand on the side where there
are rules. However, I am not sure what kind of opinion you have about Sukuna’s
vessel.”
“I’m not talking about Sukuna’s vessel, but a human by the name of Itadori
Yuuji,”
“I believe his situation is not so optimistic that one can discuss those two
identities separately.”
“Yuuji is a very straightforward child.”
Gojou ran his fingertip lightly over the edge of the glass.
The glass made a soft high pitch sound like a string instrument.
“He has determination, courage as well as the decisiveness needed in a battle.
Even so, there are some things which he’s too straightforward about. I worry
about what would happen if a child such as him should have his heart broken.”
“What do you expect me to do after telling me all this?”
“Didn’t I say so just now? I’m busy with work so I am unable to take care of his
growth at a mental level. If you can take care of him for a while, I would be very
grateful.”
“You want me to help you with this?”
“That’s why I’m asking you to help. Let’s put aside the matter of him being a
Jujutsu sorcerer or Sukuna’s vessel….Please take this as a request from an adult
who just wants a young person to grow up stably.”
Gojou Satoru usually spoke in a frivolous, casual manner that made it difficult for
people to tell if he was joking or not. Because of that, if he was being serious, he
was definitely being serious.
“I want an adult such as yourself, who understands the scars of humans to take
care of him for a while.”
“….You specially came to Hokkaido just to talk about such naïve things?”
“You know me. I love sweets more than my life.”
(T/N: The Japanese word for naïve sounds like the Japanese word for sweet.)
Gojou smiled and touched the edge of his glass to Nanami’s.
The amber-coloured cocktail had a sweet and tart flavour.
Nanami stared at his drink that seemed to contain the slightly sour taste of youth
for a while.
“I don’t like sweet stuff.”
The two did not coordinate beforehand and just happened to down their drinks at
the same time.
“It’s really sweet.”
“It tastes great, doesn’t it?”
Contrasting bright voices rang out in the quiet bar.
The night of the Jujutsu sorcerers wore on.Their hearts carried numerous intense
fluctuating feelings of bitterness as well as a bit of sweetness, like that left on the
tips on their tongues.

Chapter 3: Fables From The Dark

If you want to hide a tree, put it in the forest.
So from this, if you wanted to hide a person, you should put them in a city.
With that thought in mind, it made sense for a cursed spirit that resembled a
human to set up their secret base in the city.
But in reality, cursed spirits that existed in mountains, forests and other places
fraught with dangers making it hard for humans to live in were, on the contrary,
able to survive peacefully.
However, for the group of cursed spirits that planned to flip the modern world on
its head, establishing a stronghold in the city allowed them to go on offense and
defense easily, so there was a certain meaning to their actions. Also if they built a
stronghold in the city, they could gather as much negative emotions as they
could.
In any case, a group of workers belonging to a certain gang of scammers were all
killed because cursed spirits wanted to build their stronghold here.
“It’s so easy to kill off targets like these. Not only do they choose a place that’s
away from prying eyes and ears, but they’re also all gathered together so I can
clean them up at one go.”
Jougo smiled as he forcefully stepped on some remnants that were burning.
About two minutes ago, the office still had six humans.
They were thinking of various ways to commit their massacre but in the end,
decided as a group that burning was the most convenient, so Jougo quickly burnt
their targets to a crisp.
“But this is a building that was used by humans before, right? If the humans
managing this place are still around, wouldn’t that make matters really
troublesome?”
Mahito asked as he poked at a vase placed on the cabinets which looked like it
came from a person who struck gold.
Most people do not need to worry about such things and Jougo smiled, intending
to reply Mahito when he was interrupted by a statement of unknown meaning.
[bcdaiyz]
“Eh, Hanami, don’t say anything! It makes my scalp crawl!”
Hanami was only able to make sounds that do not form words, however for some
reason, what he intended to express would be directly transmitted into the other
party’s brain. Jougo seemed to feel that this brought him discomfort, so he
became extremely impatient.
Jogou felt that Mahito was looking at him with a “there they go again” expression
and continued to explain, still feeling impatient.
“Hmph….all of do not need to worry about anything, I have already asked Getou
why he chose this place. It seemed like for these humans who commit their evil
deeds in the shadows, those who manage them seem to understand what is
taboo.”
“Oh—in other words, as long as they know that all this was caused by curses,
they would not come close to this place instead.”
“That’s right. Generally speaking, this was already a place that ordinary humans
would not approach. If we want to set up a secret base in the city, there is no
more suitable place than this.”
“Is it really that suitable?”
“What, Mahito, it feels like you’re unsatisfied. Are you worried about something?
I think that this place is at a good location. It’s convenient whether you are
preparing to do something big in the city or whether you are trying to flee at the
last minute.”
“Hm….I mean you’re right but….”
“What? Speak quickly.”
“I think this house is too tacky.”
“What?”
“Boom” -The volcano on Jougo’s head made a small explosion. The contours of
his single narrowed eye were like a gentle hill.
“It’s nowhere like the current trends. A vase with a glossy surface placed with a
golden shiny lion display piece plus a utensil cabinet that looks cheap.”
“What bloody nonsense are you spouting! I don’t know what sort of things
influenced you but lately, you are really noisy when it comes to things like these!”
“It’s the movies.”
“Movies? Those things that make humans look glamourous and hype them up?
Are they really that interesting?”
“I can use them as a reference when I’m studying souls.”
Mahito returned a smile for no reason.
If humans could see him, they would probably feel that he had some aspirations,
like am elementary schooler who had read something and was sharing the
knowledge that he studied about from those books.
“Honestly, I also think that the plot of those movies aren’t that interesting but I
don’t dislike the visual taste of beauty that humans have. Speaking of which, this
room has far too many unnecessary colours, it’s visually disorienting.
“At any rate, this is your personal problem….isn’t it fine if you just incinerated or
tossed away the eye sores?”
“Forget it, I’m going to find a place that’s suitable for me.”
“What? Ah, hey, where are you going?”
Mahito did not wait for Jougo to finish talking, he only waved lightly behind
himself and then like puff a smoke, a gust of wind, he disappeared into thin air.
“Geez. Who knows if it’s because that guy was born from the fear that humans
feel. From a cursed spirit’s point of view, he’s the type the just do whatever he
wants. And he still talks about movies….”
At the same time Jougo was muttering and griping, he took out his pipe from his
clothes and stuck it in his mouth.
However, the external appearance of the pipe was different from the pipe that
humans used, it even looked like a face and it would scream when it was sucked
on.
“But, that Mahito….”
Jougo used his single eye to survey his surroundings.
“After hearing him say that, even I’m starting to feel that this place is rather
distasteful.”
“aiyz”
“I already told you to be quiet!”
*
He had to search on his own two feet to be able to find a secret base that was
suitable for himself.
Mahito walked leisurely and aimlessly around the city. Once he hit a traffic
signal, he would turn, alternating left and right or he would accompany a stray
cat or when he saw a cloud in the sky with a shape that he liked, he would walk
forward, in the direction of that cloud.
And like this, Mahito roamed around the city and because of that, deeply
acknowledged something amusing about humans.
This was supposed to be a city belonging to humans yet out of all the people who
walked around the streets, not one of them were more unrestricted than Mahito.
Every person seemed to be chained up, restricted by their connections or vanity
and in this vast and wide city, they lived, constricting their vision.
The humans completely ignored the endless sky above their heads and through
what they acknowledged within their hearts, they portioned out the already
portioned cement constructed city and lived a narrow and petty life.
A while back, Mahito learnt some vocabulary that had to do with the concepts of
the actions of humans.
Such as something they called philosophy; something they called common
sense; something they called emotion.
When the soul received external stimuli, it will generate a mechanical reaction
and transfigure.
The bodies of humans were controlled by these concepts and they cowered
under the gazes of orders, catered to the standards of the world and were willing
to abandon their freedom to live.
“—what a huge pity.”
Everyone in this world were bound by the pretentious locks that humans inflicted
on themselves.
Because of this, curses need to make changes to cater to these humans. If these
humans could only live a pathetic life like ants under this vast sky, then they
should ask the humans to hand the world over.
Mahito was deep in thought.
He was thinking with his soul and going against the wind.
Not long after, the sun started to sink in the west and he heard the gushing sound
of a river.
*
“This place looks fine.”
The secret base that Mahito found was located under a bridge that went across
the river.
It was a tunnel that was as open and wide as a monastery.
There were multiple pipe like objects that went through the tunnel and there were
even clear streams that went towards the river. It should be domestic sewage
that have gone through purification and let out so it did not look that dirty.
The air was rather humid and there was a peculiar plant like smell that seemed to
come from moss. What entered his eyes was a wide space that he could frolic
around in as a cool feeling emitted from the concrete.
Cursed spirits also had seasons that they liked.
The negative emotions of humans kept accumulating between the end of winter
to the entirety of spring.
When the spring rain season arrived, it was time for the negative emotions to
mature and explode.
In this damp tunnel, it just happened to have the air that reminded him of spring
rain. In this wide and dimly lit environment, there was a gloomy atmosphere that
made it easier to cultivate fear. All these made Mahito comfortable beyond
compare, like moisturiser to his skin.
“Yup, I’ve decided that this is it.”
When choosing a living quarter, it would be better to go with one’s feeling.
Even though it was the same for humans, most likely, humans were not able to
choose their living space without hesitation like Mahito did. If roaming all over
the place was freedom then settling down in a place was also freedom.
Mahito happily knocked against the concrete ground that felt tough with a
“thump thump thump” and slowly stepped into the tunnel.
In this comfortable space, the transfiguration of his soul was rather smooth.
However….
“Hm?”
After Mahito took a few steps, he felt the existence of “that”.
At first, he thought it was garbage that was illegally disposed of by humans. From
its silhouette, it looked like a draw string burlap bag quietly resting against the
wall.
At first glance, it seemed to only be a battered bag wrapped around something.
But that object actually had the shape of a soul.
–Eh, that thing is alive.
The reality was just as how Mahito had figured out, that was a human.
Torn fabric covered that person’s body and his hair and beard were completely
untrimmed so his external appearance did not look to be that of a human but that
was definitely one.
Just from the appearance, he could not determine that person’s age. Perhaps he
was around sixty? Or more than eighty? In any case, from his appearance, it
should be an elderly man.
Mahito thought, great, now it got troublesome.
He managed to find a secret place with much difficulty but someone was already
living in it.
To Mahito, it would be a piece of cake to get rid of the other party but he just felt
that it was unpleasurable to leave a stain on the wall of his new home under such
circumstances.
In any case, if he wanted to handle it, he should be decisive.
Just as Mahito made a firm decision, he exhaled slightly and stretched his arm
towards the elderly man.
Unexpectedly, the elderly man suddenly spoke.
“……If I have upset you then I must apologise.”
“Hm?”
“Even though I do not know what you came here for… I’m sure your mood must
have been ruined by seeing that there’s an old man like me living here. However, I
have nowhere else to go.”
Mahito was at a loss.
The elderly man was clearly speaking to Mahito. However, if this was two humans
having a conversation face to face, there was nothing to be surprised about.
But Mahito was a cursed spirit.
The eyes of normal humans should not be able to capture cursed spirits.
But if was not as though all humans could not see cursed spirits. There were
plenty of humans who were born with cursed energy and could see cursed
spirits.
But what bothered Mahito was that this elderly man did not have “eyes”.
More accurately, he did not physically have eyes. His two eye sockets which
were supposed to contain one eyeball each had been mercilessly sealed up by
burn injuries.
Even if he was a Jujutsu sorcerer, he would need to see the world through his
eyes.
After acknowledging the existence of cursed spirits, they had to still use their
eyes to see them. Because of this, most Jujutsu socerers would wear sunglasses
to hide their line of sight. Most of the times it was so that cursed spirits would not
notice where they were looking or it was to maintain the steadiness of their heart
in this world that was full of curses.
However, this man was not like them.
“You can see me?
Faced with Mahito’s question, the man silently nodded his head.
“I can also feel your presence.”
“But you can’t see the world, right?”
“Of course. Not only can I not see the scene around me, but I am also unable to
be sure of what you look like, your skin colour or if you are a man or a woman.
Even so…… I know you are there.”
“….Are you a Jujutsu sorcerer.”
“I don’t believe I am.”
“Your replies are really vague, it’s about yourself you know.”
“From a long time ago, the thing I’m most vague about is matters about myself.”
Mahito noticed that there was something that was a bit strange.
He was able to feel the shape of a human’s soul.
Souls would sometimes carry a shape with thorns, sometimes they would shrink
like they were cowering, sometimes they would sway energetically and Mahito
was able to detect these reactions to the soul’s transfiguration.
But this elderly man’s soul did not transform at all.
It was like a grassy plain that did not have wind, a sea with no waves, a blue sky
with no clouds.
No, a more appropriate comparison should be that of a rock.
He soul was like a rock by the roadside, untouched by erosion, simple and
unadorned, unshakable, motionless. It just sat quietly, allowing moss to grow
upon itself, peacefully allowing the hands of time to move forward.
This elderly man’s soul had this sort of shape.
Yet for normal people, no matter how steady their soul was, no matter how old
they were, their soul would always waver.
Even as they age, their common sense would not disappear, their desires still
exist and as usual, they were unable to overcome their fears.
However, the elderly man before his eyes was different.
His soul was as stable as a mountain. He had accepted from the bottom of his
heart that the time he had left was counting down to zero but he did not
intentionally give up on life. His existence was no different from that of mother
nature.
This was the first time Mahito encountered a human such as this.
*
The tunnel became Mahito’s temporary home.
He hung up a hammock that he gotten from somewhere on the pipes in the
tunnel and laid on top to read, passing his time leisurely.
Mahito watched a certain movie that depicted the life on a deserted island and
seeing the human live his hardest to stay alive, that human made a hammock
and managed to get back a temporary but beautiful peace in his heart. Mahito
felt that sleeping on a hammock seemed pretty comfortable so he imitated the
character’s actions and was extremely pleased with himself.
In the tunnel that was away from all the noise, the only background music was
that of the sound of flowing water that gently caressed the ears. This was an
extremely suitable environment for quietly calming the soul.
Mahito freely read books to learn knowledge and occasionally stared
absentmindedly at the top of the tunnel or with the same kind of attitude, looked
down at the elderly man who sat in the corner.
“It’s amazing that he’s still alive.”
In the end, Mahito did not kill the elderly man.
It was largely because the elderly man did not disturb him at all. Mahito only felt
that it was the same whether he was there and it was troublesome to get rid of
him.
The elderly man was quieter than a stray cat and only silently and motionlessly
remained at a fixed spot.
Among the knowledge that Mahito had picked up, there was a saying that
“Humans are reeds that can think”.
This phrase meant to imply that humans were as weak as weeds but they are
also proud souls that are controlled by their thoughts and Mahito felt that this
point was amusing so he quite liked this phrase.
The elderly man could be considered a reed that did not think.
No, he was quieter so he was more like something such as carpet grass or moss.
Anyway, this elderly man just remained where he was, not uttering a word.
Sometimes, Mahito would realise that the man had left the tunnel to go
someplace without him noticing and then at another unknown point of time, he
returned and laid down to sleep. He could have gone to forage but there was no
sign that he put on weight. If one used a scale of one to ten to rate his figure then
his eating and drinking only restored him back to a ten when his body shrunk
down to an eight.
The way he lived was far too natural. Rather than calling him a biological life
form, he was more of a simple phenomenon.
“So, you can see me?”
Mahito suddenly brought up this question.
He was not trying to have a conversation with the elderly man, it was just that the
tone he used to talk to himself sounded like he was looking for someone to talk
to.
However, even with that conversation that was meant for Mahito himself, the
elderly man’s soul did not budge. After Mahito noticed this, he finally decided to
have a chat with the elderly man.
“How long have you been here?”
“Let me think, I remember that I spent quite a number of winter days here—But I
do not recall the exact duration.”
The elderly man replied slowly as though he was mumbling to himself.
Mahito felt that since there were actually two souls present here and they could
get to know each other, it was more natural to just have a bit of a chat.
“Don’t you feel bored?”
He engaged in small talk lightly and the elderly man also replied lightly.
“I already forgotten what it feels like to be bored.”
“What do you usually do here?”
“I don’t do anything, I just listen to sounds.”
“What sort of sounds?”
“The sound of flowing water.”
“…is listening to such a thing interesting?”
“Not at all. However, I have forgotten what needs to be done to make things
interesting so I do not get bothered by such issues.”
I see. Mahito nodded his head.
This elderly man’s soul has been worn down so much that he did not feel like he
was in pain even though he was bored.
Rather than saying his soul was worn down, it was more like it was polished.
Humans on the streets suffer because they feel inadequate, they toil to
overcome their difficulties but once they were satisfied, they desired more.
Because of this, humans keep accumulating negative emotions like cellulite,
making their soul fattier.
However, when Mahito observed the elderly man’s soul from this point of view,
he realised that though the elderly man was skinny, he could be considered
slender.
The swollen and bloated souls of humans start to generate fear from the worry of
losing their beautiful reality and this fear eventually becomes curses.
“You—it’s so troublesome addressing you as that, what’s your name?”
After Mahito asked that, the elderly man seemed to hang for a moment.
“I already discarded such a thing. You may call me whatever you wish.”
“Is there such a thing as humans with no name in this world? Even curses have
names….”
“You only need a name when you are interacting with others.”
“Isn’t it bothersome to not have a name?”
“At what occasions?”
“When you enter your grave.”
“I will not enter a grave that requires names, I think I will be buried in those
nameless mass graves or decompose and return to earth without anyone
noticing.
“Can’t you tell that I’m just joking?”
“….Was that a joke?”
The elderly man did not laugh, neither did Mahito.
However, Mahito felt a sense of childish innocence within the elderly man,
contrary to his appearance. Perhaps this elderly man had a simple personality
where he did not obsess over anything and this allowed his soul to look younger
than his appearance.
An interest towards the elderly man welled up within Mahito.
This was the first time he encountered such a human and the first time he felt
this kind of soul. To Mahito, this elderly man was a valuable reference sample.
What kind of life did one have to lead to create such a human.
How should he manipulate this kind of human soul to amuse himself? What kind
of foul deed can he do by making use of such a human?
More importantly—what kind of curse will be born from such a human.
Following his interest, Mahito started to chat with the elderly man.
“Why are you living here?”
“…………….Why?”
The elderly man raised his head to look at the ceiling through his bangs that have
not been trimmed in ages.
His eye sockets have already been sealed and he definitely could not see a thing,
but when humans were thinking about something, they will always look towards
a place where there was nothing. This satisfied one of Mahito’s curiosities.
“I mean, it’s not possible that you were born and raised in this tunnel, right? You
are a human so you should have been staying in that noisy city outside before.”
“Yes, you’re right. Last time, I was considered to have lived a rather busy life,
after inheriting my family’s business, I worked hard to earn money, to raise my
family.”
“So you used to be a person who had a position in society, huh.”
“I suppose you could say so, at least in the human society. But now that I think
back, such things are meaningless.”
“Then why did you start living in this kind of hole like some kind of rat?”
“Because I lost everything – the position I had before, my money and the roof
above my head are all gone.”
“All gone?”
“I was tricked by someone. At that time, my eyes were burnt so I also lost my
sight.”
Mahito suddenly recalled that company that was attacked by Jougo.
“So you got scammed, guess you’re a nice guy.”
“I got scammed willingly so it doesn’t make a difference.”
“You’re a weird gramps. You got tricked by someone yet you feel happy about it?”
“When someone wants to trick me, it means that I am someone who deserves to
be tricked. The culprits were an old friend of mine and my wife. They fabricated
an accident and burnt my eyes then took away my rights under the pretense that
they were taking care of me and when I realised it, they took away everything
from me.”
“You fell into a huge scam, didn’t you? Why are you talking like you’re talking
about someone else?”
“To me, getting tricked is only secondary. More importantly, this entire scam
made me understand that the two of them loved each other and only I’m the one
who is not loved by anyone.”
To Mahito, the vocabulary used by the elderly man when he was explaining his
circumstances was far too difficult.
Love. Was this word really that important?
It seems like in this world, there were curses born from self-love and there were
extremely strong ones among them. However, Mahito did not understand how
this mechanism known as love between humans was any different from a cat
pining for a blanket.
But from the knowledge that he picked up, humans were unable to distance
themselves from love.
“You don’t hate the people who tricked you?”
“There’s nothing to hate.”
“There’s nothing to hate? Usually, if humans encountered a situation such as
yours, they would be furious and full of hate and because of this, their soul would
take on a negative form.”
“It’s as you say. For me, it’s just that I don’t have to energy to think about revenge
or to let them have a taste of suffering.”
“……I see.”
Mahito nodded, understanding the elderly man’s situation.
Temporarily putting aside whether Mahito was capable of imagine humans’
emotional fluctuations, he thought back to the movies, novels, poetry and the
humans he messed around with till now and compiling them all as his
references, he thought and finally analysed the meaning of what the elderly man
said.
“In other words, at that time you were in despair and it’s so much despair that
your soul was on the verge of dissipating. So you just skipped over the stage of
generating loathing and curses and became how you are now.”
The elderly man slowly shook his head.
“I might have been disappointed before but you seem to have assumed that what
I encountered was a situation where I was in extreme disappear.”
“Isn’t disappointment and despair the same?”
“They’re not the same but only those who had these experiences would know.”
The elderly man raised his head like he was recalling something.
“That time, my heart did not burn with rage nor was there overflowing grief. I just
felt….really tired. Work, reputation, social standing, responsibilities, socializing,
wealth, prestige, I was probably……so tired about all these things, so tired, so
tired to the point that both my body and mind were exhausted.”
“So even though you were tricked, you did not get angry all the way till the end?”
“I was released. The so-called disappointment was my soul becoming light.”
The elderly man’s voice was extremely calm.
His voice was like muddy water that had been purified, it was that clear and
refreshing.
“My vision, my wealth and my love, after I lost everything….as I was walking, I
suddenly felt that all this matters don’t matter anymore. In the end, even the
scenery of the city which I had been gazing at became vastly different.”
“I thought you’re blind?”
“Yes. When I could not see anything, I could only experience the sounds and
wind that spread across large distances. I could not even see the walls that
separated streets in front of me, as though it was a starless sky, it was just dark.
That was the first time I understood, so the world was this vast and at the same
time I felt….Ah, I’m free now.”
Mahito blinked forcefully.
The elderly man’s mentality could not be compared with any of the cases of
humans that he had collected till now. Even though he had finished listening to
the elderly man’s past, Mahito was still unable to understand the elderly man’s
mind.
However, in his eyes, this elderly man was indeed free.
Even though the elderly man stayed in a tunnel, he was still able to understand
that the sky outside was endlessly vast.
Perhaps this elderly man understood even more than any of those humans who
were walking freely in the society, regardless of their social standing, just how
boundless the sky was, just how gentle the wind was and how melodious the
sound of flowing water was.
His appearance only looked like that of an old man who was a failure, having lost
his wealth and position and even cut off the ties he had with other
humans…..however, he understood “freedom”, something that was difficult to
comprehend, and just possibly achieved freedom which he could call his own.
The elderly man had no worldly attachments, no fear—no hate. He only existed
on the world, lived on this world.”
“In other words, not all who wander are lost?”
“You actually quoted one of Tolkien’s famous lines, isn’t that too heavy?”
Mahito heard the elderly man immediately understand a phrase that he used that
he got from a book that he happened to read earlier and smiled.
“Did you use to love reading?”
“I read in order to cram their contents into my brain and increase my knowledge.”
“Being knowledgeable is a good thing.”
If humans generated curses because of fear, then can the elderly man before
him be considered a human.
Right now, it was very hard to classify Mahito’s expression with the usual
emotions.
But he felt very much at peace.
Since the time he started encountering humans, this was the first time he felt
inner peace.
“if the humans of the world are like you—perhaps I would not come to this
world.”
Mahito’s eyes returned back to the book that was in his hands.
The old mans stared into space just like he always did and went back to silence.
Curses were born from humans but yet they killed humans. The two could not co-
exist.
Even so, there was a curse and a human co-existing in this tunnel.
Even though this defied logic, a peaceful time still slowly passed in this place.
*
It was extremely justifiable for humans to hate and fear other humans.
Because humans could not see souls, they would imagine what the inner world
of other people was like.
In the end, they were taken for a ride by their own emotions.
Humans don’t even know where their own souls were, naturally they would not
know whatever they did was just a reflex on external stimuli on their souls and it
was just a soul’s metabolism.
Mahito used the elderly man as his reference.
He realised that because of his lack of sight from blindness and losing the
connection he had with humans, the amount of stimuli his soul received
decreased.
And exactly because there were no unnecessary matters tugging on his thoughts,
the number of chances he had to face his own inner mind increased.
“He’s basically similar to monks undergoing training. A strong introversion would
increase the time of himself facing his own soul.”
Mahito walked on the road as he quickly flipped through a worn and tattered
Heart Sutra.
Buddhist scriptures were textbooks to controlling the soul. Ancient humans
seemed to have done their research on ways to cut the soul from external matter.
Who knew that the life led by this elderly man had already reached the realm of
what is mentioned in Buddhist scriptures.
As such, so he learnt how to feel souls in the dark—Mahito’s final conclusion was
this was why the elderly man was able to come into contact with curses.
“He should have a knack for this in the first place….In general, introverted
humans have an easier time training such a skill.”
If he could look into the elderly man further, perhaps he would be able to figure
out the many ways Jujutsu sorcerers trained and made use of their curse energy.
This way, he should be able to, with his own ability, “cultivate” people with the
innate ability to Jujutsu sorcerers or curse users.
And then let the curse users who had curses prepared take on Jujutsu sorcerers.
This seemed to be a rather interesting test. After all, if the opponent was a
human, it was easier to shake the soul of a Jujutsu sorcerer compared to the
times they exorcised a spirit. Sukuna’s vessel should be of no exception.
Even so.
–There did not seem to be a rush to do this.
That’s right, Mahito thought leisurely.
Right now, he was a free spirit. He would move when he felt like moving and he
would rest when he felt like resting, so he was not in the mood to enthusiastically
carry out the plan in his mind.
Right now he would rather accumulate knowledge and meditate to his heart’s
content.
He also managed to get some new books and wanted to read his fantasy novels
in the quiet tunnel while enjoying the comfortable environment.
Mahito’s pace became light, he followed the crowd of people as he went and
even started to hum a little song.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of arguing from a space between buildings.
“—That pisses me off so much.”
When he moved his gaze towards the source of the voices, he discovered two
young men. One had long hair and looked scrawny while the other had a crew cut
and a burly body.
The long-haired man before his eyes laughed as he heard the crew cut man
ranting in a furious mood.
“But seriously, they’re such party poopers. Everyone there is just there trying to
look tough, but in the end, after giving a bunch of excuses, the only thing that’s
amazing about them is their mouth. I really want to kill them all off.”
“Even if you say that, if you really get so mad that you want to kill someone, can
you really do it?”
“It’s just killing someone, what’s so difficult about it?”
“Are you serious?”
Mahito squinted and listened to this conversation, wanting to inject.
He could be considered the type to admire those who stay true to their word
without trying to hide their heart’s desires but he knew that the kind of people in
front of him could only be “just talking about it.”
“Ah—anyone would do, I really want to slaughter someone.”
Why do you have to say you want to kill someone, just do it.
He might as well demonstrate a “killing method” on this person—Mahito wanted
to do that but the hand he wanted to reach out felt the weight of his books and
made him dismiss that idea.
Rather than sacrificing his free time to intervene, he much rather return to his
comfortable tunnel to read.
“I will definitely find someone to kill.”
The crew cut man’s mumbling did sound like he was reciting a curse.
However, his words did not carry any thoughts or power. Seems like at the very
most, this person would only hide in the space between buildings and talk to
himself.
This kind of person was better off being locked up in a cramped alleyway and
continue to mistake that he was singing praises of this massive world.
Mahito turned his gaze away and continued his way back.
*
“Why would Gregor become a bug?”
(T/N: The Metamophosis by Franz Kafka)
Mahito suddenly asked the elderly man as he read his novel.
He was reading a famous work by Franz Kafka.
The content of the story was about someone suddenly transforming into a
poisonous bug.
“Most people believe that that bug is a kind of metaphor.”
“Metaphor?”
“The character in that book had gone so low that he was hated and bullied by
society, just like becoming an insect in the eyes of humans. Just like this old man
in front of you who suddenly got scammed and even had his eyes burnt.”
“So that guy is a joke?”
“Not exactly.”
The conversation between the two were calm without any emotional fluctuations
however when Mahito asked, the elderly man would reply. To Mahito, speaking
with the elderly man was like talking to a dictionary.
The elderly man was knowledgeable.
And he was relatively intelligent as well. He knew how to use simplified terms to
bring relevant knowledge into the conversation.
This showed the finer changes between humans’ culture and their spirits.
For Mahito who was planning to analyse the souls of humans through novels and
movies, speaking with the elderly man provided some assistance.
When would humans get angry and why would they feel sad?
What must one do to make humans trust others and how do they get betrayed?
For Mahito who was observing humans from a philosophical point of view, there
were too many parts of them that were too difficult to understand but the elderly
man would give additional explanation to help him understand.
As for this elderly man who was not too much like a human and had experienced
living among humans, he stirred up a deep interest within Mahito.
“In the end, Gregor who had become a bug did not take heed of the warnings to
hide and still showed himself in front of others and ended up dead….Gramps,
why do you think Gregor did that?”
“You cannot find peace by avoiding life.”
“Are you quoting Virginia Woolf?”
When Mahito said the source of the quote without missing a beat, the elderly
man raised his brow slightly.
“Seems like you like to read books too. It’s nice being able to chat leisurely like
this.”
“Don’t tell me you want to return to where the people are?”
“If I no longer harbour feelings to the human world, then there is no need to run
nor is there any need to face them.”
“I see.”
Mahito responded but his gaze stayed on his book.
Even though the elderly man was blind, he still had a peaceful soul and it still
gave off light in the dark. Mahito treated the light emitted by his soul as a candle
in the dark room and buried himself in the world of books.
The silent days passed in the darkness.
The air of summer outside the tunnel had quietly came to an end.
*
The time to say goodbye came out of the blue.
One day, after Mahito roamed around the city at the whim and picked up a
collection of poetry discarded by someone and returned to the tunnel, he felt
some kind of disturbance that should not present.
There were three wavering souls.
One of them was a familiar shape but it was extremely frail now, just like a
flickering flame in the wind that was close to being extinguished.
Mahito entered the tunnel with his usual pace.
The elderly man was still at his familiar spot after all.
However what differed from the normal was that he was collapsed on the ground
in a strange position.
There were also two young men who pincered the elderly man, looking at the
elderly man with their heads down.
“Hey—we’re screwed, he seems to be really dead.”
The long-haired skinny man said in a tone that could not be considered anxious.
“Didn’t I tell you earlier, it’s just killing someone, how difficult could it be?”
The burly crew cut man replied with a flippant tone.
“Even so, you only did it at the heat of the moment, right?”
“This old man can’t even walk steadily and he’s still arrogant enough to ask us to
scram, he was looking down on us. Of course I can’t help but kick him.”
The crew cut man probably did some sort of exercises as his legs were as thick as
logs. To him, kicking an elderly man to death might be easier than flattening an
empty can.
The two men seem to treat the elderly man’s life, the elderly man’s soul in a
dismissive manner.
There was no grudge or clear motive or intention to kill.
The probably just came to this tunnel while they were leisurely wandering around
and then acted violently against another person in the heat of the moment,
beating the other because they felt like it.
For humans, these actions can also be considered freedom.
Mahito squatted on the ground and looked at the elderly man’s face closely.
That face that already had its eyes burnt to the point of blindness was beaten till
it was badly swollen. However, even though he was on the brink of death, the
elderly man still had a peaceful expression.
“Are you going to die?”
Mahito asked lightly as though he was talking to himself.
“……………I should, be…………”
The elderly man replied in a raspy voice. He probably did not even have the
strength left to force his voice out, so the two men who were talking loudly did
not seem to hear what he said.
Mahito stared at the elderly man, observing his soul.
His soul already had no more movement, no wavering, no anger or sadness, it
was just quietly preparing to welcome the end of life.
Mahito was very moved.
Because the elderly man before him was a real free person, he had already
escaped from all the links he had with this world and even before his death, there
was still no change.
Mahito was extremely relieved that he was able to witness such a moment with
his own eyes. He stared at the dying elderly man like he was watching the
moment a plant withered.
However—
“Gramps?”
He had a premonition.
It was like turning the page of a book and seeing that the content of the text
developed in a direction that was not expected. It was the same as knowing the
contents of a box before opening it.
This unease spread out within Mahito.
The alarm bells should be ringing, telling his to stop watching. But just as Mahito
was hesitating, everything about the elderly came to an end.
“…….I thought I was going to die alone.”
The elderly man’s soul trembled a bit.
A smile appeared on his swollen face.
“……There’s actually someone who would see off……an old thing like me.”
Perhaps the shaking this time was so miniscule that it was no different from a
small bead of water falling on onto the surface of water.
Even so, it was at the moment the elderly man died.
At the final of final moments, his soul “metabolised”.
“…………………Thank, you………………”
And like this—
The elderly man’s life ended with a smile on his face.
“…………………..”
Mahito’s eyes widened and he froze on the spot for a while.
He had thought that the elderly man was different from other humans, a human
who was truly free.
He had thought the elderly man’s philosophical take on things was a special
situation, allowing him to break out of all his bonds.
Even so—all this came to naught when the elderly man was close to death.
He escaped from the reality of dying alone and depended on someone just when
he was about to die.
The elderly man was a human after all.
After being satisfied, he died normally like a normal human being.
“………………”
Mahito was speechless.
There was only a chill in his chest, as though a gust of cold dry air blew past him.
He did not know the term that humans had for this kind of feeling. He was just
aware that what felt like a tangled bunch of wool started to move around
randomly and then snapped at one go.
His whole body was stuck in a place that felt like the barren wild.
“Say something….”
The crew cut man’s voice came from nearby.
“The police won’t investigate seriously. This is just some old dude who came
from who knows where.”
“If I think about it….it’s just as you say.”
The long-haired man said lightly.
“I mean seriously, the one who picked the fight first was that old guy.”
“You could say he deserves it. He should see who he’s going up against.”
“I’m more bothered that my pants got dirty when I kicked him.”
“That’s funny. You’re actually concerned about something so trivial after killing
someone.”
“This thing can’t even be considered a human. Also, you know that I like
cleanliness? Eh, I don’t know if I can get the blood stains off, I don’t think water
would do.”
“It probably won’t work. But don’t you feel that you’ll get hungry once you’re
relieved? Let’s go get some grub at the supermarket.”
“I wonder if the supermarket sells good detergent.”
“How would I know, let’s just get some bento first and search for that later.”
Mahito suddenly stood up as though he gave up browsing through items at a
store.
The feeling of burnout had spread throughout his body.
It was frustrating to hear this conversation that had no head or tail, that was full
of excuses, escaping reality and the volume was so loud that it rang throughout
the tunnel, covering the sound of flowing water.
Mahito felt weary from the bottom of his heart and walked as though he was
going to pick up trash that fell on the ground and went straight for the crew cut
man.
Idle transfiguration. In an instant, his skill surged.
After that, he clapped his hand against the crew cut man’s back and the man’s
external form was no longer that of a human.
“Yi——–“
If he killed them directly, their bodies would be very much in the way so he
“folded” the human, while still alive, to the size of his palm and would then
discard them some other time.
Then with a wave of his hand, the other person was also folded.
“Argh———”
The quiet had returned.
After Mahito picked up the two people who have shrunk to the size of chess
pieces, he lowered his head to look at the elderly man’s corpse that was the only
object left in the tunnel.
This elderly man was now nothing more than bones contained in a bag made
from human flesh, it no longer had a soul he could manipulate with idle
transfiguration.
Mahito was troubled for a while, thinking that humans’ bodies were the hardest
to handle.
In the end, only the sound of water was left in the tunnel.
*
–On a clear day.
Clouds peeked through the gaps between buildings and passed by comfortably
under the blowing of the wind.
Mahito was leisurely strolling around the city.
“It’s been a while since I watched a movie, I shall go watch one.”
He chose a cinema that looked old fashioned and slipped inside.
Lately Mahito was feeling quite enthusiastic, all the fatigue on his soul had flaked
off so he was feeling lighthearted and the frequency of him manipulating
humans’ souls also increased.
He thought that if he could fold up a human to a small size, he should be able to
expand them so he experimented on this all night long. He was quite happy with
the process but he knew that he was a bit too engrossed in it and also felt that it
would be harmful to himself if he worked too hard.
So it was nice to have a change of pace once in a while.
Mahito did not check what kind of movie was showing at the moment. Basically,
it should be some plain and boring B-rated film, but if he did not have any
expectations, perhaps he would be able to unexpectedly enjoy an interesting
story.
What was unexpected was that he had this kind of feeling.
While on the way to the movie theatre, Mahito felt the inside of his shirt and his
hand touched some of those “tiny humans” that have gotten larger.
–Speaking of which, he had already felt that these things had become an eyesore
earlier.
He grabbed a few at random and tossed them onto the pavement in front of the
cinema.
Then he opened the door and went into the screening hall.
Perhaps because it was a weekday, there were only a few members in the
audience seats. The figures of people who appear to be students were seated in
small groups around.
Mahito stood at the corner of the screening hall and waited for the image to
appear on the screen.
Not long after, the screening hall became dark, taking over the announcement on
the screen that the movie was about to start.
Chapter 4: The Hardworking Ichiji-Sensei
At the second half of August when the autumn heat was still showing its prowess.

Itadori had collapsed on the sofa.“Ah——-…….”Yet, he did not feel hot. The air
conditioning was on after all and the space he was in was relatively cool.
This was expected as currently, Itadori was not in that simple underground
audio-visual room that Gojou set up for him.This was a certain apartment of a
certain condominium somewhere in Tokyo.To make it clear, it was where Ichiji
lived.–I need to go on a business trip for something. Because it’s somewhere
pretty far away, it might take a few days this time. Also, logically speaking, it
would be quite troublesome for you to hide in the same place, so for these few
days, you can go stay with Ichiji, it should be interesting—”
Gojou had said to Itadori.
So Itadori went to Ichiji’s house to impose on him for a few days.
Even though the situation was like this—It was only the first day and itadori was
bored already,
Boredom was a toxin that could kill off a person’s soul. But before that, Itadori’s
body already contained a lethal poison.
“…….Hm.”
Lately, Itadori did not even have the time to feel bored.
After he enrolled at Jujutsu Technical College, he was busy grouping with
Fushiguro and Kugisaki, busy exorcising curses and experienced many life and
death situations. In the end, he really died.
After reviving after many twist and turns, he went into hiding. Other than happily
watching the movies Gojou gave him, he also underwent training as a Jujutsu
sorcerer. In these few months, it was like riding a roller coaster ride with no
tracks.
And now, he had to suddenly get off that roller coaster, living a new kind of life at
Ichiji’s home.
Yet the days here were so uneventful that it was frightening.
However….Ichiji seemed to spend almost all his time after returning home in
front of the computer.
“What are you doing? Are you reading a blog or something?”
Itadori took a peek with a grin on his face only to realise that what was displayed
on the screen was a form that was so full of words they were like the compound
eyes of an insect and the top was listed full of numbers making him quickly rein
in that happy and cheerful attitude of his.
On the screen, he could see forms about management of petty cash, the
standard scale for monthly salary, fixed assets, plans to renovate the school
grounds, flow of cash, also something about taxes, legal affairs, gifts and
monsters….
In any case, even Itadori could tell that Ichiji was handling some difficult work.
If he was too noisy, he would disturb Ichiji’s work, so Itadori decided to kill time
on his own—
“Ichiji-san, can I go read something?”
“Sure, you can get some books from the bookshelf over there.
“…This [Leviathan], is it some kind of sci-fi novel?”
“No, it’s a book often mentioned by the teachers during social sciences class.”
(T/N: Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes.)
“Ichiji-san, don’t you have manga or something in your house….?”
“I left those that I bought at my parents’ home.”
“I see.”
So there was no manga here.
With some difficulty, in the end, Itadori found a book in the shelf that seemed like
a novel but after flipping through a few pages, he found the content not to his
liking so he gave up on reading it.
Having no other choice, he turned on the television at a low volume.
However, at this time, it was between the period of noon time variety shows and
the prime-time slots at night so there was nothing interesting to watch.
After flipping through the channels quickly for a round, he realised that all the
television stations were airing either about celebrities going on a leisure trip and
tasting delicacies in a travelling and food programme or the news. Itadori chose
the travel and food programme based on elimination.
“Ah, I suddenly feel that it’s a refreshing feeling to watch television at this time.”
“Because usually you’re in school at this kind of time.”
Itadori did not expect that Ichiji would tag onto the conversation. He thought as
long as he did not disturb Ichiji’s work, perhaps it would be fine to talk so he
decided to start a topic.
“You’re usually working at this time as well, right, Ichiji-san?”
“I am working. However, as long as we are able settle our work, it’s alright to work
from home. This is the part where this job is more flexible than other typical
jobs.”
“Oh—I see.”
Until now, even though Itadori encountered quite a few adults who were Jujutsu
sorcerers, as a student, he still did not understand what an adult “doing the job
of the working class” was like.
He tilted his head and returned his gaze back to the television.
“Oh, the guest is Takada.”
“Is that person very popular?”
Itadori only mumbled to himself but he never thought that Ichiji would react to it.
He felt that this was a chance he should grasp and felt that if Ichiji had just a bit
of interest, perhaps he could take this as an opportunity to have a talk so Itadori
excitedly started to explain.
“You could say that lately her exposure is pretty high. She has a pretty fresh
personality. Even though she’s trying to go down the cute path, because she’s
real tall, so a lot of the audience seem to like that kind of contrast.”
“I see. So these kinds of celebrities are the ones that are popular these days.”
“Also, she also played a minor character in one of those Getsuku dramas that
ended recently.”
(T/N: Getsuku or 月 9 refers to dramas that are aired by Fuji television station on
9pm on Mondays (月曜日) )
“Really, she acts as well?”
“Ichiji-san, are you the type that doesn’t watch drama series?”
“I mean it’s true I’m not too familiar with them….but I don’t hate to watch them. I
just feel that the drama series of late are not my cup of tea. I used to watch
dramas like “Pure Vacation”.”
(T/N: A parody of the 1996 drama series Long Vacation)
“Hm? When did that air?”
“More than a decade ago. Speaking of which, Matoko was also very tall.”
(T/N: The actress of the female lead of Long Vacation is called Tomako.)
“Matoko is……?”
“A very popular actress at that time…but after she got married, she completely
left the acting circle. Kids these days should not know her, I suppose? But that’s
pretty normal….”
“I, I see. Then , did you watch any variety show recently.”
“I don’t watch variety shows either. Because I haven’t been watching drama
series so I don’t really know those celebrities who appear on variety shows.”
“People like athletes and such appear on variety shows too.”
“I don’t watch sports matches either. I was never good at sports in the first place
so I’m not that interested….”
“….Ah, don’t tell me that rather than those prime time shows, you prefer those
late night shows instead? I really like that show that airs at midnight, they will
bring in lots of celebrities who just started out. Even though I know I’ll be tired the
next day, I can’t help but stay up.”
“Ah, no, I don’t really like those shows either.
“….Then what do you usually watch, Ichiji-san?”
“The news…and, and I quite like Rakugo!”
“Rakugo~”
Even though Itadori was a television kid*, Rakugo programmes usually aired
mostly on Sunday evenings, during this time, students were basically out playing
so even he never encountered this programme. Furthermore, he felt that Ichiji
might be trying to soften the atmosphere so after replying that he only watched
the news, he intentionally added Rakugo to the list of things he watched.
(T/N: In Japanese, this just means a child who likes watching television
broadcasts and watches television for a long time. In other languages, it carries a
more negative connotation of children who are “babysat” by their television
because their parents are too busy. So don’t assume that Itadori got neglected!)
Itadori was considered a chatty person but he gradually felt that both of them
had a gap in their interests so he slowly spoke less and less.
After throwing a glance at Ichiji, he noticed that when Ichiji was talking to him, the
latter continued to type on his keyboard. If Itadori kept trying to force a
conversation, even he would feel sorry for Ichiji.
Right now, the television was showing their regular host and the guest Takada.
They were giving all kinds of reviews to the food in Nagoya.
But the lackluster content did not display the advantage that should come from
inviting a guest on the show. Anyway, the rating they had for food was only the
word “Delicious”.
–Since they already invited Takada onto the show, they should be able to talk
about more interesting things. Seemed like the problem laid in the script. The
main point of this show was not the food ratings but to let celebrities endorse the
dishes so rather than the food, logically speaking, the audience looked forward
more to any interesting conversations—
Itadori liked to watch television in the first place.
In addition, lately he was forced to watch many movies so that increased his
ability to appreciate video works by quite a fair bit. To put it from another point of
view, he could more or less understand the intention behind how a certain
program was made.
In other words, in his eyes, shows with boring content became even more dull.
If this programme was the only available programme other than the news, it was
too hard to watch.
But there was no other show on other television stations.
Itatdori wished within his heart that the show would become interesting while
enduring and continuing to watch the show. However the comfortable room
temperature and softness of the sofa made his urge to sleep grow.
“—Itadori, I have to go out for a but to handle something, do you want to come
along?”
“Uwohhhhhh Metal Tamori!”
“Metal Tamori?!”
“Sorry, sorry, I had a snooze and had a seriously weird dream.”
“What in the world did you dream about?”
“I have no idea what I dreamt about either. Besides, you’re going out?”
“Ye, yes I am….If you still want to sleep, you can go back to sleep. I’m fine with
heading out by myself.”
“I want to go out! I want to photosynthesise!”
“I understand, it’s just that a human’s body composition does not allow them to
photosynthesise.”
“….Ah, but if someone realizes that I’m still alive, wouldn’t we be in trouble….”
“About that, you can just disguise yourself simply. Even though I can’t let you
freely wander around by yourself outside, I can ferry you around in the car so it
should not be an issue. Gojou-sensei also said that it’s about time to let you
breathe the air outside.”
“Gojou-sensei did….I see.”
Itadori stood up from the sofa. It was better to accept deferentially than to
decline courteously.
Anyway, he was truly bored here so if he could go out, he could ask for nothing
more.
“Then, please wear this.”
“That’s so sick—this get-up looks like part of the Men in Black!”
Ichiji held out a pair of sunglasses that seemed to have especially large lenses
and after Itadori took it, he casually held the lens towards the sun light.
“Are these sunglasses yours?”
“That is my personal belonging.”
“Don’t tell me, you actually dress pretty flashy for private affairs, Ichiji-san?”
“N, no no no, it’s not what you think. Because curses are quite sensitive to
people watching them and I have to take care of investigative work pretty often so
I have to hide my gaze!”
“Ah—I see. No wonder Gojou-sensei also wears a blindfold.”
“Uh, there’s other reasons as to why he wears a blindfold.”
“I wonder which place sells that kind of blindfold that he’s wearing? If I wear the
same kind of blindfold, would I look like the real deal?”
“Uh, I don’t think that’s something he bought from somewhere.”
After Ichiji put on the sunglasses, he took turns with Ichiji to look at himself in the
full-length mirror then placed his hand under his chin to strike a cool pose.
“Ichiji-san, what do you think of this? Do I look like a special agent?”
“Umm—”
More like a thug—but because he was an adult, Ichiji did not express his thoughts
out as words.
*
Actually Itadori had very few chances to sit in a car to look at Tokyo.
Itadori watched the buildings go by continuously outside the window and his
expression was clearly happy. Even though he liked to watch television,
compared to those food programmes at locations that one could only see but not
be able to go to, the scene in front of his eyes was more worth watching.
“Amazing—this is the first time I went up on the highway in Tokyo in a car.”
“Because at this time, the other roads would be a bit crowded. Is going on the
highway that interesting?”
“Because it feels like I would be able to see people drag racing.”
“I thought that was something of the past. How did you know about this?”
“The arcade.”
“So it’s the arcade, racing car games huh….I played that last time.”
“Eh, don’t tell me you bought this expensive looking car because you played
those games?”
“This car isn’t mine, it belongs to the technical college so I’m always careful not
to get it scratched….and I will try my best to avoid those narrow roads which
might scratch the car.”
“Oh—This point seems to show the toughness of the real world.”
Itadori realised that in the adult world, issues about cars were more complex
than he had thought.
On the way, Ichiji was more enthusiastic about talking about all sorts of things as
compared to when they were at home and when they left the highway, they even
deftly weaved through a road with heavy traffic. Itadori, who was in the back seat,
had just finished listening to what Ichiji said about cars so once they were near
another car, he got worried if their car would get scratched.
The car drove on for a while and it took them around thirty minutes to reach their
destination.
The place before their eyes was a gray building that looked like boxes stacked
upon each other.
“Is this the district office?”
“Yes, I’m going to hand up some forms.”
Ichiji took out nicely arranged documents from his briefcase.
Itadori looked from the back seat and saw that the briefcase was still full of
various other kinds of documents but they were clearly sorted out with folders of
binders.
“That’s really thick, does it really need that many pages?”
“If I gather all the documents that have to be submitted to public agencies, they
tend to accumulate.”
“Wouldn’t it be more convenient to just submit it as an email or some data file?”
“The methods you speak of are definitely very convenient….but Itadori, when you
play video games, have the thought that it’s annoying to have many different
game consoles?”
“Ah—yeah, yeah.”
“An electronic file would be something like that. On the contrary, hardcopy
documents can be read by anyone especially for government agencies like here,
they still prefer hardcopies….this is probably why fax machines still exist.
“Oh, so it’s like that…..Doesn’t that mean you have to print every single one of
those pages?“
“It is indeed troublesome but all in all, you can have everything in black and white
for hard copies and they can also be destroyed.”
“Oh right—”
Itadori looked towards space, feeling that he seemed to understand what Ichiji
was saying but yet not at all.
However, he also became aware that Ichiji was “meticulous” in such matters so
rather than enjoying his leisure moments, he was an adult who did things
carefully.
“Can I just ask as well? What sort of documents are those?”
“Proof of usage of certain facilities when getting rid of curses, application to seal
roads due to transport of large equipment, application for road works, proof of
insurance for on-site workers….mostly these kinds.”
“Road works?”
Itadori tilted his head his head.
Whether as a Jujutsu Sorcerer or whether he was in school, it felt like he did not
have the chance to hear such a term. Ichiji also thought that “People who heard
this would be very puzzled about its purpose” so he explained.
“Currently cursed spirits have appeared on a mountain road where many traffic
accidents have happened so we applied for this so we can cordon off the scene
easily.”
“If it’s about cordoning off the scene, wouldn’t it be fine to just put up that
“curtain” or something?”
The experience he had at the youth detention centre went past his mind.
He vaguely recalled Fushiguro explaining to him that the curtain was a barrier
that was set up to prevent normal people from getting close.
“It’s true that normal people can’t approach the scene once the “curtain” is
down. But…to people in a regular society, we still have not explained properly
why “the road can’t be used”, right?”
“Oh, you’re right about that.”
Itadori knocked his hand with his fist with a “thump”.
Then as though replying to the rhythm of Itadori’s action, Ichiji forcefully pushed
his spectacles up.
“If the time taken to get rid of a cursed spirit drags on, people will start to think
that something is off. At this kind of time, if we don’t prepare a reasonable excuse
beforehand, the human society would get a sense of incongruity.”
“But all these matters related to exorcising cursed spirits….aren’t they carried
out with some kind of “understanding”? Besides, I heard before that Jujutsu
technical college is being run by the nation or by Tokyo.”
“Even so, the technical college still portrays itself as an independent school….so
if there are matters that cannot be settled with documents that had to do with an
independent school, then we need appropriate evidence to create a reason that
can be used in a normal society without anyone finding it strange. If we are telling
external parties that we are doing “works to clear fallen rocks” then we need
various supporting information as a file.”
“Wow—it’s more work than I thought.”
“Of course, when carrying out the mission, there are times when we have no
choice but to release some information.”
Itadori suddenly realised something.
He had completely assumed that “the existence of cursed spirits” was
something completely natural.
But after hearing what Ichiji had said, he recalled that last time, before his life got
involved with Jujutsu sorcerers, he did not know that cursed spirits existed in this
world at all.
Itadori watched as Ichiji left the car and at the same time, he was deep in
thought.
Fighting with cursed spirits, exorcising cursed spirits.
These actions really protected people’s lives and protected everyone’s normal
lives.
It was also the most direct method to solve the problem.
However, curses actually come from the fear of humans so if the uneasiness
inducing truth “there are curses in the world” spread, that would be the most
dangerous problem.
Curses were born from people’s hearts.
And the root of the issue was that in order to protect the hearts of people, the
most important thing should be to not let the hearts of humans contain fear.
Itadori was not sure if he was able to transform his thoughts into a few concrete
statements. He could only vaguely recognise this matter anew—
Securing the peace of peoples’ daily lives was perhaps far more difficult than
what he had imagined.
“Thanks for waiting, Itadori.”
“Oh, you’re done?”
Itadori subconsciously straightened up to welcome Ichiji who had left the district
office.
*
The next place that Ichiji visited was a small building and the sign that hung high
on it had frequently seen beverages printed on it.
“Is this a company that sells soda or something?”
“It’s a contractor that has affiliations with drink companies. Their main job is
setting up facilities and replenishing vending machines.”
“Oh—why are we here? Don’t tell me some curse that had to do with vending
machines appeared?”
“Nope. Since we happened to be passing by, I’m just dropping in to say hi.
Because we requested this company to manage the installation and
maintenance of the vending machines inside Jujutsu technical college.”
“Oh. I see.”
During the time when Itadori was still in the technical college, he had seen some
middle-aged men in overalls going in and out of the school grounds once in a
while.
That time he did not pay much attention to them but now when he thought back,
those men did not really look like people of the Jujutsu world.
“But to think you actually go out of your way to greet them.”
“Because to the outside world, the Jujutsu technical college is an independent
religious school. As the school management want to keep all the internal affairs
to ourselves as far as possible, for contractors like these, once we start working
with them, we pretty much won’t change to other contractors. Itadori, it’s
actually pretty important to greet those companies we have a long working
relationship with.”
“Oh—……”
“Ah, right. Itadori, what kind of drinks do you like?”
“Me? Um- isotonic drinks I suppose…and those that are not that sweet.”
“Then I’ll see if can do a gentle negotiation with them. In any case, our school has
very few students so it should be easier for them to do their job. When you return
to school, perhaps the vending machines will have the drinks that you want to
drink.”
“Seriously? That’s great, thank you!”
Itadori bowed as he watched as Ichiji go into the office.
A few minutes later, Ichiji came back and behind him was a man who was
wearing overalls. He seemed like a nice person. He should be seeing his guest all
the way out.
After Itadori watch the man give a polite bow and Ichiji return one, he started to
think if he should get out of the car to greet the man as well.
However, he was “ a person who is currently dead”. Once he thought that the
other party could be considered a person who had dealings with the technical
college, he could only hold onto his anxious feelings and give up on such a
thought.
“Thanks for waiting, Itadori. Let’s go.”
“Yeah, ok.”
After Ichiji started the car, Itadori looked out from the back seat through the
tinted glass windows.
The man who was wearing overalls still bowed with sincerity even though the
other party was a car. Itadori, who had good eyesight could see that the man’s
hands had prominent joints and they were rough.
He was probably someone in a supervisor’s position but still did laborious work
with his own hands.
Itadori thought back to their visit to the district office just now.
Logically speaking, normal people should not have any connections with curses.
However for the people from this company who go in and out of Jujutsu technical
college, they have come extremely close to an “abnormal” place.
Once he thought to this point, Itadori felt a twinge of pain in his chest.
Through the glass, he watched as that man’s figure became smaller.
Itadori faced that man’s figure while in the car and returned the bow.
*
Ichiji suddenly pulled the car over at a road shoulder.
“Ichiji-san, what’s wrong?”
“Sorry, wait a bit.”
Itadori saw Ichiji take out his vibrating mobile phone from his breast pocket so he
knew that a call had come in. Just as he was thinking who called—
“Yes. This is Ichiji. Thanks for you hard work, Gojou-sensei, is something the
matter?”
“It’s Gojou-sensei?”
Speaking of which, Itadori only knew that Gojou went on a business trip
somewhere far away but he was not sure of the details so subconsciously, he
eavesdropped on the conversation.
“……You want to detour to someplace else? Why do that all of a sudden…ah, I
see, so something like that happened. Please wait for while, I will return your call
after I finished investigating.”
Ichiji hung up the call first.
Then while checking against the small notebook in his brief case, he went
through the contact list on his phone.
“Ichiji-san, what happened to Gojou-sensei?”
“He originally wanted to look for someone but on the way to his destination, he
said he wanted to make a detour to the other scenes so he asked me to check if
there are ways to contact the “windows” who are around the scene.”
“Window? I seemed to have heard that term before.”
“They are individuals who are affiliated with the technical college. Even though
they are not Jujutsu sorceres, they can see curses. So they help to provide
witness accounts and residues about curses….they also help to trace residues
left by curses and help to coordinate some matters.”
“Ah—I remember now, I heard of this as well at the youth detention centre.”
Suddenly Ichiji’s shoulders tensed up and the hand that was flipping through the
notebook also became motionless.
“Ichiji-san?”
“It’s nothing.”
“By the way, why are you checking your notebook and phone at the same time?”
“About that, because my contact list is arranged according to the alphabet but
it’s really difficult to be sure who lives at what district so I had to compare it with
the addresses on my notebook.”
“Wait, when you say districts, don’t tell me it’s not just Tokyo but you have
information about “windows” around the whole of Japan?”
“Usually I don’t need to know the information for the whole nation but Gojou-
sensei pretty much only asks for the information from me….”
“Ah, I get it.”
“Besides, no matter how good that guy’s brain or memory is, he just refuses to
memorise troublesome things. Other than information about windows, he
actually asks me about the kinds of desserts sold in supermarkets as well as the
train timings.”
“That really is tiring.”
Itadori really had to take his hat off to Ichiji. He could clearly imagine the kind of
shadow left on Ichiji from facing Gojou who gave all kinds of troubling requests.
During which, Ichiji should have found all the information he needed and he
made a call.
“Ah, hello, Gojou-sensei, if it’s around that area…wait, you can’t say that, I done
it pretty fast already, didn’t I?! No, I mean I did return the call within one minute
before….your ice cream melted while you were waiting for my call? That has
nothing to do with me, right? Wait wait, why should I have to be punished by you
when you get back! Note it down?! Are you asking me to make a memo about you
punishing me?! I don’t want to do that, why do I have do specially put down you
punishing me for no reason into my schedule! Please forget all about this!”
“Wow.”
Within the cramped car, Itadori could clearly hear what kind of cruel treatment
Ichiji received. Even Itadori who was only listening from the side could only feel
helpless at Gojou’s pushiness.
“Eh? Yes, you took the principal’s cursed corpse to train Itadori before…what
about the cursed corpse…..what?! How can you take that thing out without
permission?! If you want me to help you return it then where is it…. What? You
left it in the basement?! That’s not good……ah, yes, yes, I understand, anyway, I
will go get it from the basement….eh? You purchased the movies in that room?
You can’t get reimbursed for that. You can’t. No way means no way. Yes, ah, if
it’s like that, I’ll try my best to check….”
“…….”
No matter how big or small, for the whole day today, Ichiji completed various
tasks.
Therefore, Itadori was able to show an expression that expressed “Ichiji-san,
your work is really tough” the most today.
*
During the time when they were racing all around Tokyo, the sun outside the car
window almost completely sunk into the west.
The setting sun had already sunk behind the buildings so the lights that switched
on throughout the city looked especially dazzling instead.
“We went to a lot of places today.”
“We spend more time than I had imagined….It should have been smooth if we
went according to our schedule.”
“It’s Gojou-sensei’s fault, isn’t it?”
“Well, yes….”
“Even though he’s really reliable, in the eyes of the other adults, he’s a tough one
to handle.”
“Actually he is truly a dependable person. He has strong abilities and he excels in
various aspects. But on the contrary, he tends to hold other people up to the
same standard, thinking something like “I’m sure you can do such a thing if you
just worked harder.””
“Yeah—teachers tend to be like that.”
“He’s only nice to his students.”
“So you don’t really hate him?”
“Of course I don’t hate him. Even though I don’t really want to say these, he is a
skilled and charismatic individual. Gojou Satoru is idolised by plenty of Jujutsu
sorcerers even though I really don’t want to say these things.”
“You just said the same thing twice.”
In any case, perhaps it was thanks to the atmosphere built up by these two taking
a car ride together, Itadori and Ichiji got along more harmoniously as compared
to when they were at home.
Perhaps when they were in a more relaxed environment, they were able to have a
chat without putting defenses up.
Then, Itadori suddenly said:
“I always feel that you are a super busy person, Ichiji-san.”
“Do I really look that busy?”
Ichiji smiled, somewhat troubled, and replied.
“Because I see that you have to compute a whole bunch of things, prepare
documents, greet others and you’re even the errand boy to Gojou-sensei….”
“You don’t have to add the words errand boy.”
“Sorry. But even though you’re this busy, it looks you’re doing work that has
nothing to do with being a Jujutsu sorcerer.”
“Hahaha, my job is really unremarkable, isn’t it?”
“Hm…honestly, that’s what it is.”
“Actually that’s a good thing. I mean, I’m an amateur when it comes to fighting.”
“But, on the other hand, Gojou-sensei and the rest pushed a lot of work onto
you….”
“Well. You’re right about that.”
Through the mirror, Itadori could see that Ichiji’s eyes became dull for an instant.
Itadori thought that this issue should be something that touched a nerve so he
looked away.
“I mean, even with that said, I still think that this job is pretty good. I mean if it
were the Jujutsu sorcerers who are at the front line, they would easily think that
Jujutsu sorcerers and the Jujutsu technical college are existences that are
separate from the society.”
“Uh huh, that was the kind of thought that I was having earlier today.”
“But in actual fact, as long as we exist in this society, we need to seriously and
properly handle these trivial and unremarkable matters.”
“Yes, I understand that now too.”
Itadori looked at the glow of the streetlights that passed by in a steam and
nodded his head.
As the colour of the night sky descended upon them, the lights that appeared in
the city also increased in number.
This scene was like a starry sky on earth, hundreds and thousands, countless
lights lit up. However, each and every light came from the hands of humans and
the lights spread across the whole of Japan and even the world.
In the end, the Jujutsu technical college was a place that faced the darkness but
they still belonged in the light that was lit by people –Itadori felt it with his own
heart and finally understood this matter.
“Thank you, Ichiji-san.”
“What? Why are you thanking me all of a sudden?”
“Your job really is unremarkable.”
“Well, that is true but no one would say such a thing another time, right?”
“But I feel that all thanks to this unremarkable and tough job, the Jujutsu
sorcerers are not detached from this world entirely. So I feel that I really want to
say thank you to you.”
“….Thank me?”
Ichiji’s voice seemed to have become smaller. Even though it was difficult to see
what his eyes were like under his glasses due to the reflection of the headlights
from oncoming cars, from the expression reflected on the rear-view mirror, it did
not look like it was one that could be considered happy.
Then for a short period of time after that, the only sounds within the car were the
rubbing of the wheels against the tarmac while driving as well as broadcasted
music coming through the car’s speakers.
Only the chorus of the song that was playing right now had been heard countless
times.
The melody of a popular song that was full of rhythm continued as such after the
lyrics have come to an end before it fell to complete silence. At the same time,
the air within the car seemed to change.
This time Ichiji seemed to treat the end of the music as a signal and started to
talk.
“………Um, Itadori, rather than being thanked by you, actually I feel that I need to
apologise to you instead.”
“Huh? Why?”
Itadori blinked his eyes a few times when he heard the topic of the conversation
turn to himself.
If Itadori completely never expected Ichiji to apologise to him, then most likely he
had absolutely no clue right now. Itadori widened his eyes with an innocent look –
he should be completely at a loss.
Ichiji saw how Itadori was acting and frowned then abruptly continued.
“It was me who sent you to your death a while ago.”
“Oh, that incident….”
Itadori could not help but let out a light sound. At the same time, he recalled the
series of battles he had with the special grade spirit.
That was truly a painful experience but he had never resented Ichiji because of
that so he did not have an agitated reaction.
However, Ichiji’s voice sounded ever graver.
“I told all of you that it was just a rescue mission and even told all of you to avoid
fighting. I admit I persisted on just supervising from the side. Even so, that was
expectedly a place that year one students should not be allowed to enter. In the
end, you sacrificed your life.
“Um…but I’m alive and kicking now.”
“But I definitely caused you to die once.”
Ichiji’s voice was shaking.
Itadori had intended to gloss over the matter with a light smile but after hearing
the other say as such, he went silent again.
Currently, Itadori had experienced someone close to him die. He had also
experienced his own death.
But he was still unable to figure out how much agony could be caused by
“someone dying because of me”.
However, Ichiji’s feelings of remorse grief tightly clung onto Itadori’s heart.
“Even though I said earlier that I feel that this job is pretty good…in the end, I am
a Jujutsu sorcerer who is unable to fight. The only job that an adult like me can do
is to send students who are younger than I am to carry out dangerous missions.
Even if you died and resurrected, the one who sent you to the battlefield…is still
me.”
The sound of Ichiji swallowing his saliva was mixed with the sounds of the car
engine.
“So as an adult, at the very least, while all of you are fighting, I will try everything I
can to provide the perfect support. I will work even harder from now on.”
“……Ichiji-san.”
Perhaps he was apologising or perhaps he was disputing with himself.
Perhaps today, Ichiji’s action of letting Itadori see what he was like while doing
his job was a part of his atonement and he wanted to use this to prove his
resolution.
“I will do my job properly.”
His trembling voice reverberated. It felt like he was deeply apologetic. It also felt
like he was close to collapsing.
Ichiji’s voice did not let people feel secure like Gojou’s did, it was also not as
awe-inspiring like the principals. But from there, one could continuously feel that
he was more distressed and sincere than anyone else.
Ichji, who was unable to battle, would surely not say “I will not let you die another
time”.
Even so, he still had to send Itadori to carry out his missions.
For an adult, this was an excruciating decision—even though Itadori was not able
to understand.
But what Itadori understood was that to Ichiji, these were sincere words from the
bottom of his heart and also the words he wanted to say the most.
So he accepted Ichiji’s apology and held it close to his heart then he smiled.
“I still have to thank you after all, Ichiji-san.”
Itadori muttered, looking at his own face that was reflected in the window glass.”
“I might do many kinds of shocking things from now on and I’ll make you
worry…but this is still a decision I made on my own so I can’t back down
anymore.”
“Yes, your personality is like that.
“So Ichiji-san, after this, I’m going to get so strong that you don’t have to worry
anymore. Also, if I encounter something that I don’t know or don’t understand or
something that can’t be resolved through fighting, you have to help me out,
okay?”
“……Alright.”
Ichiji’s hands that were holding the steering wheel trembled slightly.
Even though Itadori saw it clearly, he felt that adults also have a side that they did
not want children to see and right now Ichiji was one of those adults so he
decided to pretend that he did not see anything.
Because of that, Itadori used a lighthearted tone and changed the topic.
“Ichiji-san, are we going back home after this?”
“Yeah…but I’m getting hungry and since you even made the effort to disguise
yourself, let’s eat outside before we go back.”
“Can we?”
“You managed to have the rare chance to get out, wouldn’t it be too boring to
only let you observe me working?”
“Hahaha, sweet, you’re a reasonable person, Ichiji-san.”
“Itadori, is there anything you would like to eat?”
“Meat!”
“That’s easy to understand, excellent. Which do you prefer, steak or Yakiniku?”
“It’s hard to choose between the two…wait, let me consider for twenty minutes.”
“Isn’t that too long?”
“Hehehe”, the sound of laughter rang out in the car.
The taillights of the car flashed through the roads at night as though to sweep
away the tears.

Chapter 5: A Guardian Phantom Patrolling

The air of the night sky was so cold that even time itself seemed frozen because
of it.
The lingering days of summer started to fade and the wind that caressed the
tarmac road was extremely dry.
Itadori listened to the bustling of the city from the distance and walked under the
dim lights of the streetlamps by himself aimlessly.
According to Gojou, he planned to publicly reveal that Itadori was still alive in the
near future. At the same time, he also told Itadori that if it was at a time and place
when and where there were very few people, he could go out to take a breather.
Once Itadori recalled that he had “died and revived once” and went through a
period of time of hiding that could not be considered short, he felt that the
chance to be able to walk around without restrictions like this was precious.
Right now, the moon hung high in the sky and the time was already nine at night.
He took care to avoid the area around Jujutsu technical college as well as the city
centre where related personnel could be at and chose one of the satellite towns
which was quieter to stroll around in. At this time, the downtown area was full of
people’s voices but the amount of traffic on the roads of the residential areas
were far sparser, yet he could still feel that there were people doing their own
things nearby.
Sometimes he could hear faint laughter coming from one of the houses nearby.
This sounded so melodious to him.
“I seemed to have walked pretty far.”
Itadori walked till he was in front of a main road and thought that it should be
time he headed back. He took a turn, leapt across a small street and went back
to where he came from.
Unexpectedly, once he walked into a side road, the scene before his eyes had a
large change from earlier.
“Strange, once it’s night, the crows would disappear without a trace. I wonder
where they have flown to?” Itadori inadvertently raised his head to look towards
the overhead electric cables and thought about things that were insignificant.
He kept walking and walking, just going where his legs took him.
Admiring the different appearances of the homes that slowly went past the
corner of his eyes, he continued to move forward.
And like this, he walked for around ten minutes. The walls that have stretched out
next to him came to its end and the view before his eyes opened up.
“Wow, there’s actually a park here.”
Itadori discovered a park built in the residential area as though it had been
stuffed there.
There was a slide and a cube like climbing frame as well as an empty ground that
looked out of place but it seemed like there used to be a merry-go-round there.
Itadori could not help but feel that it looked dreary.
Suddenly, the creaking sound of metal rubbing against each other reached his
ears.
Following the sound, he found that there was a swing moving. There was no wind.
Under the light from old fashioned streetlights, he could see a small dark figure
swinging on the swing.
–It was a boy. He thought it was an elementary schooler but the other party
looked far too mature to be one. He should be a middle schooler.
The swing slowly moved with a rhythm as though the boy was saying “I’m not
swinging here because it’s fun”, the boy’s expression also gave off the same
message.
In the time when Itadori blinked a few times, he observed the situation and went
towards the boy.
“Hi, what are you doing?”
“….eh?”
The boy raised his head in an instant when he suddenly heard something talking
to himself.
When he first looked at Itadori, he seemed to be wary. Perhaps he felt that he got
targeted by a delinquent. After all, there was a hoodie underneath Itadori’s
uniform and he had a head of hair that appeared to be dyed.
But as Itadori got closer and the streetlights showed his face, the boy could
clearly see that naturally warm smile and he quietly relaxed his nerves.
“Are you thinking about something?”
“….Yeah, you’re right, I’m thinking about something.”
A slightly low creaking sound rang out around the place. It turned out that Itadori
had sat on the swing next to the youth. However in this playground that was
meant for children, it did not seem like it could support a high schooler who was
just built of muscle.
“It definitely is nerve wrecking to talk a stranger who you don’t even recognise or
know the name of. Nice to meet you, I’m Itadori Yuuji.”
“….I’m Minato Kairi （湊海里）.”
“That’s a cool name.”
“I heard from my granny who passed away last year that the sea is a man’s
romance so she gave me this name.”
“Seems like your granny has a romantic personality. That’s a good name.”
“If I really had to say it, when my granny was alive, she was really tough. I heard
that when she encountered an Asian black bear, she really went to fight it and it
seems like she even won.”
“Your granny has personality.”
The boy kept talking about unexpectedly interesting experiences and Itadori
listened, his expression changing. When he heard about the boy’s grandmother’s
deeds, he faintly thought about his own grandfather.
He could not help but sigh in his heart. No matter how tough the grandmother
was or how much his own grandfather liked acting cool, as long as they were
people, they would meet the inevitable fate of death.
But, Itadori did not forget the issue at hand.
“Your granny might be tough but that might not be the case for your father and
mother, right? It’s pretty late. Won’t they be worried that you haven’t gone
home?”
“Ah…….”
Perhaps this boy by the name of Kairi already had the feeling that Itadori was
going to ask him such a question. He made a expression that said, “You asked it
after all” and then looked up at the streetlights.
Perhaps the filament of the bulb of the streetlight was old, so it flickered from
time to time.
The appearance of the small insects, forgotten by the summer, reflected by the
flickering slight made people think of those old movies projected from damaged
film strips.
Itadori did not push the boy to answer and just waited for It while swinging the
swing.
After pushing both feet against the ground, the swing will swing back and forth
with a creak. This kind of equipment had the comfort of a cradle. Perhaps that
was why when a person was thinking of something, it was suitable to do so on a
swing.
After the time taken to take four breaths, Kairi finally spoke.
“I can’t go home.”
“Did you argue with your parents or something?”
“It’s not because of that kind of issue. It’s an issue that has to do with actual
physical properties.”
“Physical properties? Is your home far away?”
“Nope, my home is nearby….I can tell you the reason but you have to promise not
to laugh at me after I’m done talking, alright?”
“I won’t laugh because you have not laughed at all.”
Rather than seeing a serious expression, Kairi only managed to relax his brow
that was scrunched up from unease after hearing Itadori’s undoubtedly sincere
voice.
Still, the matter he was about to speak of was not a trivial one.
So Kairi took a few breaths again and after sucking in a deep breath, he finally
started to explain the reason.
“Because a demon will appear at my home.”
“Demon?”
“Once it’s night, a demon about this big….it’s not that big, would show up in front
of my home.”
Kairi made a gesture like he was hugging a beach ball.
It seemed like when he was making the gesture, some kind of actual existence
appeared in his memories so he was able to show such a specific size. As though
he could see that “demon”, he spoke of in the darkness.
After a while, Kairi stopped gesturing and then raised his head, seemingly to have
realised something, then he frowned and showed a deeply apologetic
expression.
“…….You probably don’t believe what I just said.”
“No, I believe you.”
“Eh?”
“Since you said there’s a demon, then there should really be one. I just have to
use my eyes to know if you are really bothered by this. Even though I can only say
I’m going by my feeling.”
“So you believe my words?”
Itadori thought back to his encounters.
Even though his history as a Jujutsu sorcerer could not be considered long, the
number of cursed spirits he had encountered was close to exceeding the number
of fingers he had on both hands. Until now, he had encountered various kinds of
curses. There were strong ones and weak ones.
In addition, this demon appeared in a regular residential area and Kairi had
described the size of the demon from his memory.
From these points, Itadori could deduce that it should not be a strong curse.
Also, Kairi who had seen it was also unhurt so it probably had the strength of a fly
head or even at most a third-grade cursed spirit.
“Because I have also seen plenty of similar things.”
Itadori forcefully swung the swing two, three times then after it created a huge
arc, as though he was preparing to leap in a long jump segment, he leapt from the
swing and landed.
“Alright, let’s go.”
“Ah? ……go where?”
“Back to your home.”
“Didn’t I say a demon would appear?”
“You don’t have to be scared, I’ll go back with you. If things start to go south, we
can come back. Also, earlier, you managed to get close enough to see it but
nothing happened right?”
Actually Itadori did not think too much about the matter.
Things like he could finish the demon off without much effort or this was a good
chance to look cool or even something like this was the duty of a Jujutsu
sorcerer. Such thoughts never even crossed his mind.
Itadori just simply felt:
“It must feel terrible to not be able to go home.”
He decided to lend a helping hand just based on such a simple logic.
*
Itadori followed Kairi and they left the park and walked for about ten minutes.
In order to lower the tension as they walked with the night wind, he spoke to Kairi
about daily life things such as club activities, favourite movies and manga.
The streetlights lit up sections of the road that were shrouded in darkness.
One of the streetlights just happened to shine on the entrance way to a house. It
was a normal house with a triangular roof and the appearance was a deep blue
that was close to being swallowed by the darkness.
When they reach a place where they could see the house clearly, Kairi suddenly
stopped dead in his tracks.
“—There.”
He barely managed to move his dry throat and squeezed out a sound.
Because of an instinctiveness nervousness, both his legs were unable to move.
Itadori, who had been walking behind Kairi the whole time came before him for
the first time. After that, he fixed his gaze at the darkness.
A dark figure slowly walked out from the shadows of the pillars in front of the door
of that house that was shone by the streetlights.
It was not the size of a human nor did it feel as adorable as an animal.
The black figure was different from humans in a way that was difficult to
describe. Also an air of evil oozed out from within it, making one feel disgust from
the bottom of their soul.
That was definitely a curse.
“Mo—————————–ther———-”
If one used the appearance of a human as a standard, there were two mouths
growing at the place of the cursed spirit’s eyes.
The nose looked like it was shaved off and it had no ears while its original mouth
was sealed up.
The peculiar traits of its body that looked like it showed its entire muscle
structure were short legs, a short body and long and thick arms with large fists at
the end.
The side of its head also grew two strange structures that seemed to be made of
entangled blood vessels and the silhouette made people think of the horns of
demons.
No wonder, this did indeed look like a “demon”.
The demon gritted its teeth in its two bizarre mouths with a grinding noise like it
was growling to intimidate Itadori.
“Issssssssssssssssittttttttttttttalrightttttttttttttnowwwwwwwwwww?”
“…….Itadori……”
Kairi’s voice was shaking out of fear.
In order to soothe Kairi’s fear, Itadori stood between the boy and the demon and
slowly spread out his arms.
“Don’t worry, I’ll figure out a way to get rid of it.”
Itadori’s voice was extremely calm.
Even though this cursed spirit was termed a “demon”, it was not as though it was
as strong as a demon. Even with a conservative estimate, this was at most a
third-grade cursed spirit. Since it was a cursed spirit, Itadori could not just leave
it be and it was at a level that Itadori could handle.
Itadori decided to exorcise it at one go.
His actions were not to show his excessive strength nor was he looking down on
the curse.
He just wanted to bring Kairi a peace of mind.
Itadori’s wish was to help him get rid of the fear within his heart so he will be able
to walk on the roads back home without worry.
“Kairi, you need to back up a bit later.”
Itadori curled up hands into fists and the demon also made a pose like it was
about to get ready to fight.
The demon bent its short legs forwards and waved its arms up and down. Then
using the recoil from squatting deeply, it leapt to a high place. Its bizarre body
covered the moon light.
“Issssssssssssssssittttttttttttttalrightttttttttttttnowwwwwwwwwww?”
At the same time the demon landed, it swung down its arms like it was swinging a
hammer. As this attack was simple, Itadori lightly avoided it with a sidestep.
The demon’s body might be small but its arms were abnormally long. After
swinging both its arms in an arc, it swept them forward. Without rushing, Itadori
took a step back to increase the distance between them.
“Issssssssssssssssittttttttttttttalrightttttttttttttnowwwwwwwwwww?”
The demon seemed to be in a panic because it kept throwing straight punches.
“Alright, take this!”
Itadori felt that it was a good chance to strike while the other party was using this
set of simple attacks so he twisted his body and raised his arm. After dodging the
demon’s fists, he immediately leapt forward. This time it was the demon that
entered the range of Itadori’s fists.
–Divergent fists.
The demon’s small body took the strong blow from the fist and was sent flying
into the air.
“Mo———————–ah——ther———-”
There was a short delay from the cursed energy which became a second blow.
The demon in the air was struck torn into pieces as though it was shot by an
invisible cannonball.
This battle in the residential area came to an end in a few blows.
“Alright, done.”
“Eh? May I ask…what’s going on….?”
“I finished off that demon, now you can go home with no problem.”
“…..”
After Kairi saw Itadori give a smile, he blinked his eyes a few times.
Even though he had a look of hesitation, after a few seconds in this silent area
under the night sky, he finally bowed deeply.
“……Thank you for your help.”
From the tone, it sounded like Kairi still had no clue what had happened but he
still gave his thanks and kept bowing at over and over again towards Itadori
before he slowly entered his house.
After Itadori saw the boy off with a smile, he finally ended the slightly long night
stroll and headed back.
However he was bothered by the expression on Kairi’s face while they were
talking. It was the same as when he was alone in the park.
*
A few days later, Itadori walked on the roads at night again.
Although there was nothing interesting about just strolling, he was able to enjoy
the freedom of being alone. Every time Itadori went out for a walk, he would
change his route but today, he subconsciously walked to the residential district
he went to the last time.
–Speaking of which, it was only during that walk when he encountered a small
issue.
Perhaps Itadori was recalling that moment as he walked so naturally, he went
with his feeling towards the same side road.
After that, just like before, he went to that same park.
Then—Itadori could not believe his own eyes.
“……….Kairi?”
A boy sat on the swing with his head lowered.
Kairi had the same melancholic expression that he had the previous time and
was gazing at the streetlights in the park at night by himself.
“Ah….Itadori.”
“What are you doing here? Isn’t the demon already gone?”
“…..”
Kairi silently turned his face towards Itadori and showed an apologetic
expression.
Just this action was enough to make Itadori extremely uneasy.
“Don’t tell me….!”
With the momentum like he was going to leap somewhere, Itadori sprinted out of
the park.
This time he left Kairi and rushed to the road where the residential district was by
himself.
Large movements from his arms sliced across the dusky night, his hurried pace
dug into the tarmac road. The cold night air buried into his lungs made his chest
feel some pain.
The reason his heart was beating so furiously was definitely not solely due to the
intense exercise. The complex feeling of anxiety became that of alarm, urging
Itadori to run.
He used his highest speed to run, to keep running.
Finally, he reached the front of that house.
The object reflected in his eyes was—
“—How can this be?”
The same demon from that day.
The same cursed spirit from that day showed the same pose as that day before
his eyes.
Were there two demons?—But that doubt immediately disappeared. Because,
from its appearance and the air it gave off as they faced each other was scarcely
different, it was not two demons that looked identical, this was the demon from
that day.
“Mo—————————–ther———-”
“Guh….”
Once the demon realised that Itadori was “looking at” itself, as though to repeat
the same image from a few days ago, it leapt into the air and swung its fists down
at Itadori.
“You monster!”
After Itadori avoided that blow on reflex, he struck back immediately, using
divergent fists.
“Mot————-AHHHHH!”
Whether was it the distance of attack or the opening created by the demon when
it attacked, his own body remembered it. Therefore, with hardly any effort, his
fists landed a critical hit on the target and the demon’s body was sent flying by
the impact of the cursed energy.
In a way that was so easy that it was strange, he exorcised this demon once
more.
“……”
After having defeated the demon, Itadori stared at his own fists and clenched it
and relaxed it repeatedly.
There was definitely the feeling that it hit, he definitely gave it a lethal blow, he
definitely exorcised his target.
All in all, the feeling he had when facing this demon a few nights ago was exactly
the same.
That night he should have successfully exorcised, successfully gotten rid of his
opponent.
–If so, then what was the demon he fought against just now?
“Please don’t waste your effort anymore, Itadori.”
A voice suddenly reached his ears and Itadori turned his head to look at the
source. Even without looking into a mirror, he knew that the current him was sure
to have a face full of doubt.
“……Kairi.”
“That demon….probably can’t be defeated.”
In comparison to Itadori who sounded troubled, Kairi sounded especially calm.
His voice sounded way beyond his age, full of fatigue and expressed that he had
completely given up.
“I know you are an extremely strong person…but I get the feeling that even if that
demon was defeated, it would probably keep coming back.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Kairi stopped talking and raised his head to look at the roof of his own house.
Itadori also followed that gaze and observed the roof then his eyes grew wide.
“That demon is probably protecting this house.”
“…….”
“So no matter how many times you defeat it, in order to scare away the bad guys,
it is sure to continue appearing at this place.”
Even though Itadori was listening to Kairi’s words, he was unable to think any
further. The chaos growing in his heart took precedence over his brain and his
widened eyes could not close at all.
An unexplainable phenomenon was before him.
That familiar silhouette had appeared on the roof with its back against the moon.
That demon had appeared before Itadori once more.
*
“—So such a thing happened.”
“I see.”
The next day, Itadori told Gojou about the incident with the “demon”
As they were going to wait till the “Kyoto sister school exchange event” to
announce that Itadori was still alive, so right now, he was hiding in the house that
Gojou had prepared, leisurely living his days away out of sight and hearing from
others.
Gojou was wearing sunglasses, sportswear and looked like he was dressed to
lounge at home. He quickly flipped through a magazine of sightseeing spots
while talking to Itadori.
“And after that?”
“There isn’t an after that. What I mean is that I am unable to defeat a curse that
can revive like that so I wanted to say that if you handled it, Gojou-sensei, you
should be able to settle the problem more quickly.
“But I’m busy.”
“You don’t look busy at all right now.”
Gojou held the magazine with both hands and paced around then he laid down
on the sofa and even started to eat daifuku. Itadori frowned and lowered his
head, looking at Gojou.
“Then I’m going to ask Nanamin to help me.”
“Can you please not treat a first-grade sorcerer as your support center?”
“I can’t?”
“You defeated that demon with ease, right? And from the description just now,
that cursed spirits ability can’t be more than a third grade. You don’t have any
reason to need my help, right?”
“I already said, no matter how many times I exorcise it, that demon will still show
up….even though it has not caused any harm, but if we just leave alone, it might
become some kind of terrible disaster……”
“Then wouldn’t it be fine if you kept exorcising it until it no longer come back?”
“If I could do it then I wouldn’t be so troubled.”
“Yuuji.”
Gojou raised his head from the magazine and looked at Itadori through his
sunglasses, his face not showing his usual frivolous smile.
“What do you think is the main reason why someone is unable to help others?”
Itadori froze.
Large amounts of memories, as though erupting from the depths of his body,
filled his brain in an instant. Countless images crossed his mind and his vision
felt like it kept flashing.
A human that warped and transformed, a human with impure intentions, a
mother and son he could not save.
As well as himself, powerless.
“….Because they’re too weak.”
At the same time when Itadori replied, his heart felt so much pain that he
frowned.
Gojou let out a slight sigh and then got up from the sofa.
“That is indeed one of the reasons. But the strength of one’s abilities do not
determine everything.”
After he got up, he walked towards Itadori who had his head lowered and stood
beside him.
The incidents that occurred before at the cinema and Satozakura high school –
Gojou only knew the details after a report about it was written up.
But he was able to imagine how torturous the tragedies that happened at these
places, also the realities that Itadori had experienced for himself, must be
towards Itadori’s soul. He also knew that until now, Itadori was still brooding over
those matters.
Even though Itadori had the makings of a Jujutsu sorcerer both in terms of his
body and mind and also had peculiar physical abilities, in the end, he was only a
youth who was only past the first decade of his life, someone who just entered
the Jujutsu world.
Cursed energy and physical abilities could be made stronger through training,
but it was not that easy for his heart.
Even so—Gojou still did not want to see Itadori be ruined by such a thing.
“In this world, there are far too many tragedies that can only meet a tragic end,
it’s the same even though they should have been saved. However, the real terror
isn’t in the lack of strength or not being able to reach out in time.”
Gojou did not look at Itadori’s eyes but only walked past him lightly. At the same
time, with a gentle strength, he lightly stroked his student’s head.
Then with a gentle tone, he said some stern words.
“It’s forgetting that they have the ability to help others.”
“——————“
After hearing these words, Itadori suddenly raised his head.
These words were not powerful to let Itadori definitively understand the direction
he should take to move forward but it definitely was enough to let him reexamine
his current standing.
After Gojou saw Itadori’s reaction, he smiled, satisfied.
“Also, let me revise something with you. What do you think is the main reason
curses are born?”
“Let me think….a human’s negative emotions, right?”
“Then you should know the answer to this problem already, right? After all,
winning a cursed spirit and exorcising them is not some magic pill.”
“Ah, I get it now.”
“Yuuji, you really are pretty straightforward so you can find the answer quickly.
This is also your strong point.”
Gojou’s smile became his last push forward.
Right now, Itadori’s mind was clear and even his body felt nimbler so he went to
take action once more.
“Sensei, then I’ll go over and have a look.”
Once Itadori finished speaking, he rushed towards the bright streets.
After Gojou watched Itadori sprint towards the door, he went back to sit on the
sofa. He looked at the closed magazine, having completely forgotten which page
he had read until.
“It’s easier to pull up a child that had fallen on the ground but as a teacher, my
duty is to teach children how to stand up on their own….but to them, that’s no
easy matter.”
Rather than being a vessel of Sukuna, Itadori’s will to fight on tirelessly was
definitely a skill that made him even stronger.
Also because of that reason, once his heart was hurt, it would become a
terrifying curse.
Furthermore, what was more troublesome was that to get rid of this cruse, one
could only face their own heart.
So when cultivating his students, rather than providing spiritual support, he
might as well teach them to have the correct mindset.
“Seriously, this is more difficult than teaching cursed techniques.”
Gojou complained but he smiled, not matching what he was saying, and
continued to bite on the daifuku that he had not finished.
*
Itadori had completely familiarised himself with the route he was threading upon.
As it was daytime, the atmosphere on the road was different. He could see a few
cars as well as sporadic number people who came out to empty their garbage, do
grocery shopping or even gather around to chat.
And it was too coincidental.
Itadori encountered a woman who should be Kairi’s mother in front of Kairi’s
house.
“—Are you Kairi’s friend?”
“Yes, I guess we’re friends even though there’s some gap between our ages.”
She seemed to be an extremely kind person.
Her age should be more than forty but at the first glance, she looked younger. The
woman saw Itadori, a high schooler, yet only asked “are you Kairi’s friend” first.
From there, he could tell that she was friendly towards people.
Compared to Kairi, this lady did not seem to be bothered by any curses so she
should not know that the house that she lived in had a demon.
Itadori talked about Kairi with this woman and just from that, she showed
emotions of happiness.
From her words and gestures, he could feel that the woman was a harmonious
and amiable person who also felt much love towards Kairi.
Because of this, Itadori felt it was painful to ask this question.
“Did Kairi not come home at all?”
“….Oh it’s about that.”
The woman should have been mentally prepared for Itadori to ask about that
incident.
She frowned sadly but her attitude was calm.
“Actually he did come home. But I’m ashamed to say that me and my husband
have no idea when he came home. He seems to only sneak back home after we
have fallen asleep….If we switch off the lights earlier to rest, he will come back
before ten.”
But that guy is still a middle schooler, right? Isn’t it too dangerous for him to
come home that late?”
“Yes. Hm….it is very dangerous. At one point of time, I did think whether I should
go find him and drag him back home…it’s too much, isn’t it. I really have no right
to call myself his mother.”
“Ah, I have no intention of criticizing you.”
The woman’s expression was extremely sorrowful, even Itadori felt his heart twist
into a knot upon looking at her.
As a mother, she actually left Kairi to roam around at night. This point would
definitely bring about criticism. However, Itadori did not have say it. The woman
had probably blamed herself multiple times. Also, sadness and fatigue peered
out from her eyes made all this self-evident.
–I’m definitely not here to blame the person in front of me.
Itadori reexamined his position as well as his goal for coming here.
“Um, I want to ask you something weird….have you heard anything about a
“demon”?”
“Demon?”
The woman’s expression froze in an instant but she did not seem as bothered as
Itadori had imagined. Instead, she went straight to the core of this question and
was so frank that it was unexpected.
“Could you have heard it from Kairi?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“….That so called demon is actually a story that that child’s grandmother told
him. I guess it could be considered discipline. His grandmother always said that
demon would look for bad children so I suppose it’s something like a
Namahage.”
“Ah, so it’s Kairi’s tough granny who told him.”
“That’s right, that’s right, that child told you about his grandmother after all.”
The woman smiled, her expression mixed with nostalgia and loneliness. Itadori
was quite bothered by this woman’s sorrowful smile.
“Kairi likes his grandmother that much?”
“Yes…he does like her a lot. To that child, his grandmother was equivalent to his
parents. So when his grandmother passed away, he was heartbroken……”
“You said that his granny was equivalent to his parents?”
“Yes, that child’s parents died in a traffic accident not long after he was born.”
“Wait, then auntie, you are—”
*
As the sun started to sink, the air grew colder.
The sky changed from the sun to the moon and after the city slowly sank into
darkness, the artificial lights started to shine. If was as though the born was
changed anew from the sky and the scenery on the ground also followed suit,
changing the appearance of the world.
Itadori continued to move forward in the night, not knowing how many lights, that
shone on the ground, he had passed on the streets.
Curses existed in this world.
Curses were like the dark night that even swallowed up shadows, seeping into
everyone’s lives.
However, Itadori was not able to exorcise all the world’s curses like the sun
eliminated darkness, the current him could not even compare to the faint moon.
Even so, he still had ways if it was just saving one person.
He still had the chance to become the light to shine on the path that was going
forward.
“Kairi.”
“As expected, Kairi was in such a place.
At the same time, in the same park.
Just like before, he slowly swung on the swing and the old metal parts made the
same creaking noise.
“Itadori….Hello.”
“Hi.”
After Itadori gave a simple greeting, he sat on the old swing that was next to Kairi.
However, once he came into contact with the playground equipment that had
become ice cold from the low night temperature, he felt the chill burrow deep
into his body. Itadori felt the cold within him and at the same time observed the
part. The scene seemed especially desolate.
Within the part, there were only the sounds of bugs occasionally chirping and the
creaking when the swings moved.
Itadori and Kairi only kept looking forward and did not look at each other as they
slowly moved the swings. The swings were like a moving metronome and using
the beat from the swings, Itadori counted when he should get to the topic.
“That demon is still at that house, right?”
After the swing went back and forth a few times, Itadori broke the silence first.
Kairi continued to look forward and nodded.
“I guess that demon is probably going to stay at that house from now on.”
Even though Kairi’s voice was calm, there was some sense of strong bitterness
within it.
His voice was extremely low as though he was confirming a reality that would
definitely not change. At the same time Itadori was listening, he occasionally
raised his head to look at the street lights.
“It was your granny who told you about the demon, right?”
“….Who told you that?”
“Your mother.”
Itadori used this term without thinking.
However, he did not know how he should describe Kairi’s expression. It felt like it
could be described as pulling a long face or it could be described as someone
putting salt on his wound. Whichever it was, it was obvious to the discerning eye
that he did not wish to talk about it.
Even so, Itadori persisted in the conversation.
“If you don’t feel like calling that person “mother” then I’m going to apologise
beforehand.”
“….Since you’re already saying this, it seems like you already know the details
and you know that they’re not my biological parents.”
“I should have noticed. The name plaque on the door of that house is not Minato,
but Okazaki.”
“….It’s not that I wanted to hide it form you on purpose. It’s just that I’m not used
to my new name so I used my old one when I introduced myself.
“I thought that might be the case, it’s fine.”
Kairi was not speaking his words clearly like a child who was being scolded. On
the contrary, Itadori sounded light and steady.
“Didn’t your granny say that the demon would look for bad children?”
“Yeah.”
“Then Kairi, why do you think that ghost appeared?”
“That’s because….”
Kairi words stopped for a few seconds.
That did not mean he did not know how to reply but it was because the answer
was too obvious and he needed a certain amount of courage to speak out.
Not long after, Kairi lowered his head as if to hide his feelings and continued to
answer the question from earlier.
“I’m a bad child.”
“….Why are you a bad child?”
“Uncle and Auntie Okazaki have no blood relations with me but because they live
nearby, they are familiar with granny and I….when granny passed away, I had no
one to rely on so Uncle and Auntie adopted me. But….I feel like I have no right to
stay at that home.”
“It’s not that you don’t feel like you don’t want to be there but you feel that you
don’t have the right?”
“Because I’m not their family so I feel that they are always apprehensive about
me. Even though they give me food to eat and let me go to school…but I’m afraid
that I’ve become a burden to them.”
“So that’s how it is.”
Itadori ruminated on those in his words in his mind for a moment, leaving a gap in
the time.
Rather than saying he needed to arrange his thoughts, he needed some time
steel his determination. After a few seconds, Itadori took a deep breath and
spoke.
“That demon is a curse created by you.”
This was the first time Itadori looked straight at Kairi.
“Because this is a curse created by you, only you can get rid of it.”
“….Me? How is that possible, how did I do it? Besides, what do you mean a curse
I created, I don’t even understand what you’re saying.”
“Is it alright even if your mother is in danger?”
The sound of the moving swing came to a stop.
Kairi’s shaky vision looked towards Itadori. Currently, his gaze was filled with
much more fear than it had a few days when he saw the demon.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“That demon always appeared near your house, right? Have you ever thought
that the demon might attack the people within it?”
“How could that be?! That demon would only cause trouble for me–”
“But a few days ago, it attacked me, right? So there’s no way anyone would be
able to guarantee that nothing regrettable is going to happen….you actually really
love that family, don’t you?”
“….about that….”
“That demon is a curse born from your fear. If you feel that whatever I just said is
prying into your business, it’s fine. But…if you really want to return to that home,
then I’m begging you to help me out. But we have to act fast and get rid of that
demon before your home disappears.”
Itadori got off the swing stood in front of Kairi.
He held his head out towards Kairi and the lights behind him were like spotlights
shining on him.
“I feel bad saying this but I can’t defeat the demon with my own power.”
“…………..”
The hands of the watch happened to stop at nine thirty.
Kairi grabbed the large palm that Itadori stretched over and stood up from the
swing.
*
The two of them ran all the way back.
Kairi was very bothered within his heart about one thing that Itadori said — Have
you ever thought that the demon might attack the people within it?—this thought
kept repeating in his mind. When he came back to his senses, he had not
realised that he was running ahead already.
He was choked up by the cold air all the way and coughed frequently and his
heart beat like crazy.
Under the dim lights, thoughts of unease kept crossing Kairi’s mind. The thoughts
of that demon that had attacked Itadori and the faces of the Okazakis who had
adopted him appeared one after another repeatedly.
After an unknown number of turns, he finally ran to a familiar small street.
He just had to rush straight and he would be able to reach that house.
But—
“Ita, Itadori….”
“Seriously? It actually got bigger.”
Even though there was still some distance till they reached the house, they could
see that demon clearly.
“Issssssssssssssssittttttttttttttalrightttttttttttttnowwwwwwwwwww?”
The demon that was originally the size of a beach ball was now the size of a van.
And as though it wanted to block the road, it spread its thick and powerful arms
and gritted the teeth of the two mouths that were on its eyeless face with grinding
noises, baring its teeth to threaten Itadori and Kairi.
Itadori probably knew the reason why the demon grew big. This curse came from
Kairi so if his fear increased, the demon would also become stronger.
To Kairi who had faced the matter of going home, the fear in his heart and long
grown huge.
At the same time, it increased the curse’s power.
“No, I can’t do it! I can’t do it after all!”
Kairi turned tail, wanting to run but Itadori did not grab hold of him.
He only shouted from behind Kairi.
“Are you sure about running away?”
“But if I don’t run–!”
“If you’re scared and ran away then does that mean you don’t care about what
happens, when you really become homeless?”
“—-This!”
Kairi stopped his legs that were prepared to run and warily looked towards the
front of the road.
Before his eyes was that same giant and ugly demon. Fear gushed up from within
the depths of his heart, screaming at him to “Run away now, run away now!”
However the next scene made Kairi’s mind turn blank for a moment.
“Kairi!”
The demon used its arm to block Kairi’s and Itadori’s way forward and that
woman was actually on the other side.
Perhaps she happened to be out for a walk or perhaps after talking to Itadori, she
had a change in mindset and left the house to look for Kairi.
Regardless of the reason, she was indeed standing right there.
She was standing next to the demon.
At that moment, the demon’s attention seemed to shift from Itadori and Kairi to
the woman.

“Mom!”
Kairi did not think about anything else.
As though he dashed froward just solely on reflex.
He was not intending to run – his two legs took him straight towards his house.
And as he ran, he shouted “Mom”.
“Issssssssssssssssittttttttttttttalrightttttttttttttnowwwwwwwwwww?”
The demon that originally had its eyes on the woman returned its gaze to Kairi.
To any normal person, the pressure that came from being faced with a curse was
the same as a nightmare.
Even so, Kairi did not stop moving.
Rather than facing the demon seriously, he was more afraid of losing the person
he called his mother.
He steadied his steps and sped up, as though he was going to trample a hole into
the ground.
As though he intended to blow away the darkness that was nearby, he dashed on
the road towards home.
Then–
“Issssssssssssssssittttttttttttttalrightttttttttttttnowwwwwwwwwww?”
“Yeah—I think it’s alright now.”
Then a figure as fast as the wind overtook Kairi.
A right arm that was filled with cursed energy was raised up high.
This time he would not leisurely dodge the enemy’s attack before striking.
He had to defeat the enemy in the shortest amount of time with the fastest
speed. Itadori pushed against the tarmac ground.
And leapt into the air under the moon light.
“—Divergent fist.”
With a fist that had a shocking amount of power, he hit the demon’s face heavily.
Even though the demon swung its arms that are as big as round logs in an arc, it
did not make it in time to block Itadori’s attack.
“Al—–right.”
The cursed energy pierced through the demon’s body.
That ginormous body was really unexpected. The demon’s body actually got
bounced by the impact and like a deflated balloon, it just grew smaller and
smaller as it flew.
The punch from the Jujutsu sorcerer cleared the cursed wall that had blocked the
road.
The nightmarish night had reached its end.
On the road that was unblocked, the mother and son were finally reunited once
more.
“Mo….! Mom, mom……!”
“Kairi….sorry, you must have been very lonely by yourself….!”
Kairi kept shouting “Mom”, as though he was hurriedly trying to make up for the
emptiness he felt during this period of time.
Perhaps they will not be able to close up this gap in such a short time.
But at the very least, Kairi should not be hiding in the park to pass the time away.
*
“Itadori, thank you very much.”
“You’re welcome. You have to get along with your dad as well.”
A few minutes after the fight ended, or perhaps it had been much longer than
that.
The three of them finished talking at the side of the road then Kairi bowed several
times to thank Itadori before heading back home.
This time he was not alone, his mother was with him.
Itadori watched the two, feeling some bitterness within his heart as well as the
urge to cry…. however, on the surface, he just watched the two people he
managed to save leave.
After the figures of the mother and son were completely gone, he happened to
look at the road and this time he noticed a being about the size of a beach ball
had fallen on the road.
“This thing….”
Itadori increased his cautiousness but dismissed it as quickly.
This demon was already close to death and it looked at Itadori with its eyeless
face.
The lips that have been sealed shut tore open bit by bit.
“Kairi has gone home.”
When Itadori said that, the demon’s shoulders shook a bit.
After that, the face that only had mouths showed a grin with a “hee” and then
disappeared.
This road did not have the remnants of the commotion caused by a battle, nor did
it have a mother and son that left the world without intending to and there were
no demons. It was truly enveloped in the tranquil silence of the night.
“…Could that demon actually be Kairi’s granny?”
Yet, there was no evidence to really prove that.
But it that really was the case, Itadori could only believe that Kairi’s grandmother
was seriously tough.
And believe that the grandmother protected and worried about Kairi more than
he thought.
“Looks like I shouldn’t let Gramps worry too much about me either.”
It was Itadori himself who decided on the reason to join the fight.
However, he did not forget the words that his grandfather left behind for him on
his death bed.
His own two hands were sure to be able to save more people, he did not have the
free time to stay where he was.
Once he thought to this point, Itadori naturally started to walk down this road at
night.
“Right, not just Gramps.”
When he thought back to the day when he himself died.
Who knew how Fushiguro felt at that time.
Kugisaki was probably upset too.
“—I have to go back as well.”
He had to show up full of vim and vigour.
And then with a cheerful smile say, see, there’s nothing to worry about.
He had to become stronger and reach this pair of hands to an even further place.
At the same time Itadori made this decision, he also stepped on the road back
home.
Itadori walked for a long time and finally the stroll reached its end.