Chapter 28

Even Satoru Gojo hadn't expected those people to actually release that Special Grade Cursed Spirit, much less that he would escape before even reaching Jujutsu High.

Things were going to get interesting.

Yuji Itadori scanned the people around him as he walked. Fortunately, it was late enough that there weren't many people out.

"A person with chains. Chains, chains." Yuji Itadori committed the keyword to memory.

To be honest, although Satoru Gojo had said the other party wasn't dangerous and had been very dismissive about it, the fact that he was a Special Grade Cursed Spirit still made them a little nervous. The Cursed Spirit they had defeated at Sugisawa Third High School last time had only been grade two.

Besides, was there really a Special Grade Cursed Spirit controlled by humans?

Jujutsu High was amazing.

Just then, he heard the unmistakable sound of an ambulance. He turned the corner and saw a warning triangle set up in the middle of the road. Paramedics were giving someone emergency bandaging, and the man's screams echoed incessantly through the intersection. Nearby, the driver who seemed to have hit him kept explaining to the traffic police that he hadn't broken any rules and that the other man had suddenly darted out against a red light.

The ambulance swiftly took the man to the hospital, and the driver went along as well. The car involved was moved somewhere it wouldn't obstruct traffic. Yuji Itadori blinked, then ran across the road when the light turned green and continued searching for the man with chains on him.

The street on the other side seemed removed from the bustle of Chūō Ward and looked rather dim. Since there was just an ordinary little park here, hardly anyone was around.

Just as Yuji Itadori was about to head back the way he had come, he heard a crisp sound.

"Huh?" Yuji Itadori walked toward the sound and saw a young man sitting in a corner of the park. He was staring ahead and eating an apple. The crisp sound had been him biting a piece off it.

...That sounded kind of tasty.

It was dim here, and the only light came from a yellowish streetlamp three meters away. Yuji Itadori couldn't make out his face, only his green-tinged eyes and the half-eaten apple in his hand.

"It's very rude to stare at someone."

Yuji Itadori jumped when the other man suddenly spoke.

"Ah, sorry! Have you seen anyone strange around here?"

"What counts as a strange person?" Kamiki Yūhaku stood up and walked into the light, his deep green eyes meeting Yuji Itadori's.

Yuji Itadori instinctively took a step back, then looked down and saw the chains hanging from his wrist.

"Ah! Chains!"

"You mean these?" Kamiki Yūhaku raised his hand and looked at the chains on it, then suddenly laughed. "They're a marker."

Yuji Itadori hurried back, retreating three meters before calling Satoru Gojo and telling them he had found the man.

Kamiki Yūhaku watched calmly until he finished the call, then spoke. "Jujutsu High kid, move aside."

"Huh? Why?" Yuji Itadori scratched his head, looking bewildered.

"Never mind why. Just move."

"All right, then." Yuji Itadori took a step to the side, then, apparently feeling that wasn't enough, took another step back.

As Yuji Itadori wondered what was going on, a sparrow chirped from a tree branch in the park, and a blob of bird droppings landed right where he had just been standing.

If he had stayed where he was, it definitely would have hit him.

Yuji Itadori: ...?

"See? I wasn't trying to hurt you," Kamiki Yūhaku said.

"Huh? How did you do that?" Yuji Itadori stared in surprise, then suddenly thought of something.

"Wait, do you know I'm a Jujutsu High student?!"

"I do." Kamiki Yūhaku nodded.

His eyes held a smile. "Jujutsu High hasn't changed its uniform design in years. It'd be hard not to know, wouldn't it?"

Chapter 28

"How did you do that?" Yuji Itadori was referring to what had just happened.

"It's a Cursed Technique." Kamiki Yūhaku crunched through the rest of the apple. "As a Jujutsu High student, you should know what a Cursed Technique is, right?"

"Huh?" Yuji Itadori, who had only just enrolled at Jujutsu High and knew absolutely nothing, scratched his head. "What's that?"

Kamiki Yūhaku looked him up and down. "Oh? You're a special case."

"Wait, you're a Special Grade Cursed Spirit." Yuji Itadori immediately moved away from Kamiki Yūhaku. "You'd better not come near me."

At those words, Kamiki Yūhaku immediately sighed. He turned and walked away, muttering as he went, "What a boring student."

"Hey, where are you going?" Yuji Itadori hurried after him. "Gojo-sensei said you escaped. Is that true? Where were you before? Why did you escape? Aren't you a Special Grade Cursed Spirit? How come you're different from the Cursed Spirits I've seen before?"

Yuji Itadori fired off a string of questions but didn't get a single answer. Kamiki Yūhaku walked on, eating the apple in his hand. He soon finished it and casually tossed the core onto the ground.

Shouting, "It's so uncivilized to litter!" Yuji Itadori picked up the core and sprinted across the road to throw it in a trash can. Then he raced back at great speed and resumed following Kamiki Yūhaku, keeping a moderate distance.

Watching his initiative and his physical abilities and speed, which far exceeded those of an ordinary person, Kamiki Yūhaku nodded to show he had heard him, then continued walking.

After being followed for a whole block, Kamiki Yūhaku stopped and looked at Yuji Itadori. "Can you stop following me?"

"Of course not," Yuji Itadori said. "My task today is to find you."

"And you've already found me."

"But you haven't gone to Jujutsu High yet."

Kamiki Yūhaku was standing in the road now. It was a disused lane, and on this night there wasn't a single person or car around. Kamiki Yūhaku gazed calmly at Yuji Itadori, his green eyes utterly devoid of emotion. Only after a moment did he speak.

"Take a step back."

"Huh? Why?" Yuji Itadori remembered the bird droppings. "I'm not unlucky enough to be favored by two birds, am I?"

"It's something even scarier." Kamiki Yūhaku smiled. His smile was light, and it made him look as innocent as a child, though paired with his deathly pale appearance and green eyes, it was a little frightening.

Kamiki Yūhaku said, "Did you know? My Cursed Technique is special. I can foresee the future. I foresaw a car hitting you and sending you flying, thirty seconds from now. If you step back now, you can escape it."

"A car?"

Yuji Itadori shook his head. "You're lying to me."

"Huh?" Kamiki Yūhaku tilted his head. "Why do you think I'm lying to you?"

"Because there's no way a car would send me flying. Even if one came at me, I'd just jump out of the way."

Kamiki Yūhaku gave him a look that was hard to put into words.

Seeing that Yuji Itadori wasn't moving aside, Kamiki Yūhaku didn't try to persuade him further. He simply backed away step by step, a hint of amusement in his green eyes. Yuji Itadori was just about to follow him when a pair of headlights shone straight at him. The driver had the high beams on, and the light hit Yuji Itadori's eyes in an instant.

He instinctively closed his eyes, but Yuji Itadori's physical abilities were exceptional. Using the car's trajectory before he had shut his eyes, he dodged to the side as fast as he could. An instant later, the vehicle tore past him like a gust of wind, grazing his body. Its window was open, and as it passed, Yuji Itadori caught a strong whiff of alcohol.

The driver had been drinking, and might even have been drunk.

"Humans produce negative emotions, and negative emotions form Cursed Spirits. So would you say the pleasure caused by alcohol is a positive emotion or a negative one?"

Yuji Itadori was bewildered, one, two, three question marks popping up over his head.

"You don't understand?" Kamiki Yūhaku smiled, then turned and continued walking.

"I really don't understand what you're talking about, but there's something I want to ask you." Yuji Itadori followed him. "You told me to take a step back just now, right? But if I had, I would've been right where that car came through, wouldn't I? Did you do that on purpose?"

"Take a guess."

"That's why I hate guessing games." Yuji Itadori frowned. "You really are dangerous."

Kamiki Yūhaku yawned, the silver chains hanging beside his face.

"Didn't your teacher tell you? You can't trust what a Cursed Spirit says."

"I didn't need to teach him that. Looks like he's already figured it out."

A voice sounded from the side, and Kamiki Yūhaku turned to look. Satoru Gojo was walking over from a short distance away, a blindfold covering his eyes and making him look like a perfectly blind man. Kamiki Yūhaku stopped, then thought for a moment.

"Are you... little Satoru?"

"You actually remember me?" Satoru Gojo looked Kamiki Yūhaku up and down. "It really is you. Did that bunch of old men at the top really let you out? No way. They were actually willing to do that?"

Kamiki Yūhaku's eyes lit up. "So you think it's strange too?"

"Whether it's strange or not doesn't matter now." Satoru Gojo reached out and grabbed the chains around Kamiki Yūhaku's wrist. "Anyway, you're coming back to Jujutsu High with me."

"Can't I stay out a little longer?"

"Of course not."

"I can trade you your future for it."

"Only an idiot would believe the future you talk about." Satoru Gojo pulled Kamiki Yūhaku along. "Stop causing me trouble. Talking to those old men at the top is exhausting."

Kamiki Yūhaku smiled at him. "You're all so strange."

"Every day, you hope I'll give you a prophecy, but every day you say you won't believe the future I tell you about. Do you believe me or not? Oh, right, those people seemed to let me out because I made a prophecy about you. Want to hear it, little Satoru?"