A New Day... Probably

"D-Damn it..."

While Gu Mo was mulling things over, the battlefield below changed again. Itadori, who had previously been darting and leaping around as nimbly as a monkey, finally made one misstep and was caught in midair by a massive arm.

All he heard was the howling wind. A black shadow, too fast for the naked eye to track, flashed past, followed by a tightening around his waist. Like a python, the huge hand wrapped around him and seized him at the waist, lifting his entire body into the air with tremendous force.

Panic surged through Itadori. He instinctively struggled wildly, trying to pry apart the huge hand wrapped around him, punching and kicking with all his strength, but it was completely useless...

Then, the enormous hand suddenly clenched!!

"Urgh—hah!!"

Itadori's expression froze instantly as a pained sound escaped him. It was not a scream, but the sound of nearly all the air in his chest and abdomen being violently squeezed out without warning. The force was so intense that he nearly lost consciousness on the spot.

It was like the way a python strangled its prey, yet different from the slow process of crushing something to death. This was an instantaneous burst of force that nearly snapped the boy in half at the waist, as easily and cleanly as crushing an empty soda can.

"Itadori!!" Fushiguro Megumi cried out, only to immediately realize that his own situation was no better.

The massive Vengeful Spirit extended another grotesquely long, bloated arm, scooped Fushiguro Megumi off the ground, and brought him back toward its gaping maw.

The farce was over. It was the final winner. As long as it swallowed the Special Grade Cursed Object on this little insect, it would gain immensely powerful Cursed Energy and advance further along the path of a Vengeful Spirit.

"So it's ending just like that?"

Gu Mo, watching from above, raised an eyebrow before immediately dismissing the possibility. There was no way it could be this simple. There had to be another twist coming.

Though he knew that just standing here and watching did seem somewhat wrong, and not exactly decent behavior, when he thought about it seriously, there was not really anything he could do. It was not as if he could call the police for them.

"Hmm?"

At that moment, the corner of his eye caught a faint flash of red. He slightly lifted his gaze, and his vision precisely caught an unknown ID moving swiftly through the darkness beneath the night sky—

Behind "???" was a bright red Health Bar.

—Could it be that unknown ID he had seen earlier?

Gu Mo's mind raced, and his expression grew somewhat solemn. They said that when the mantis stalked the cicada, the oriole waited behind it. Could this situation be following that script? Was an even stronger unknown monster lurking in the dark night, waiting for its chance?

At the same time, as his gaze shifted over, the unknown ID and Health Bar that had been rapidly approaching abruptly came to a stop.

Huh? What was going on?

Gu Mo was slightly surprised, but in the very next moment, as if responding to his speculation, the situation below changed once more.

Gu Mo immediately perked up. He hurriedly focused, dismissing all the bizarre thoughts in his head as he continued watching closely. The situation that had seemed hopelessly one-sided was forcefully turned around by that boy named Itadori!

Let's rewind slightly.

"What—what are you doing?! Are you insane?!"

Fushiguro Megumi was being carried toward the massive Vengeful Spirit's mouth, and he knew what fate likely awaited him. But what he had not expected was that, as his body passed Itadori, the latter—who seemed barely alive and utterly drained of strength—suddenly raised his head, opened his mouth, and bit down on the Cursed Object clutched in his hand.

"Let go..."

Straining to lift his head, Itadori clamped his teeth tightly around the dried finger Fushiguro Megumi held in a death grip and spoke through his mouthful.

He tried not to think about anything disgusting. After all, it was a dried, dehydrated severed finger. Not only had it been mummified, it also seemed to have belonged to some kind of monster.

Then again, if it had been a human finger, that would probably have been even more disgusting, right?

"...Didn't you say those monsters want to eat this thing... so they can gain powerful Cursed Energy?"

Itadori spoke with difficulty through clenched teeth while tugging at the finger and shaking his head, trying to pull it free from Fushiguro Megumi's tightly clenched hand.

"Then if I eat it... I can get that Cursed Energy too, right?!"

On the way here, he had asked Fushiguro Megumi about it and learned this much. And his earlier experience of trying to fight a boulder with an egg, along with the helplessness he had felt, had driven home that Fushiguro Megumi's words made sense. Ordinary people without Cursed Energy could not fight in this realm beyond common sense. Under normal circumstances, they could not even see these things.

Only curses could fight curses!

So this was their only chance. If he could eat the finger before the monster did, could he gain powerful Cursed Energy too? If that happened, would he have a chance to fight this monster and save them both?

"You're insane! Humans and Vengeful Spirits aren't the same..."

Fushiguro Megumi snapped at him. Vengeful Spirits could directly devour Cursed Objects and gain powerful Cursed Energy because they were fundamentally of the same origin—both were collections of curses.

But humans were different. Especially when this was Sukuna's Finger, a Special Grade Cursed Object and an object of extreme poison. If a human swallowed it directly, forget gaining powerful Cursed Energy—dying completely was probably the only outcome...

But before he could finish, he suddenly felt his hand go empty. Perhaps because he had lost too much blood and was too seriously injured, his strength had drained away. No matter how tightly he clenched his hand, he still could not hold onto the Cursed Object finger. It was pulled free by the other boy's teeth.

Knowing there was no time left, Itadori did not hesitate at all. He simply tilted his head back and swallowed the disgusting dried finger whole!

A story could make this sound long, but in reality, the entire process took only a few seconds. Yet it meant that the originally one-sided situation had suddenly changed.

The massive Vengeful Spirit had no idea what had happened. It suddenly sensed the Cursed Object's aura disappear and visibly froze. In the next instant, a terrifying wave of Cursed Energy erupted from the giant hand tightly clutching one little insect. Its entire arm vanished, like saltwater completely evaporating under intense heat!

Other nearby parts of its body evaporated as well, disappearing from the world as though pencil marks had been vigorously erased from paper.

"Cough! Cough cough—"

Fushiguro Megumi fell from midair and slammed heavily onto the ground. He coughed violently and spat out another mouthful of blood. The impact made stars burst before his eyes and sent darkness washing over his vision. A blow that normally would have been nothing nearly became the last straw that broke the camel's back.

For one brief instant, he almost thought he was about to leave this beautiful world.

His vision kept darkening. He forced his eyes open, and through the bloodshot redness clouding his sight, he saw moonlight break through the nighttime clouds and fall upon the mountain-sized Vengeful Spirit, giving its ignorant, chaotic consciousness one final ray of light.

In the next moment, with a forceful swing of "Itadori's" arm in midair, the massive Vengeful Spirit's entire outline and existence were silently erased from the world!

"...!!"

Fushiguro Megumi's pupils shrank to their limits. He knew the worst had happened.

"Itadori" landed lightly on the ground. Under the cold moonlight, the skin on his cheeks, less than an inch beneath his eyes, suddenly split open, revealing two more narrow eyes. They looked eerie and terrifying enough to chill anyone to the bone.

He was no longer human...

He was some strange thing wearing human skin.

"Hahaha..."

His mouth slowly stretched into a grin. A low, unhurried laugh emerged from "his" throat, growing louder and more unrestrained—

"Hahahahahahaha... Feeling the moonlight in person really is the best!"

Excited, "he" extended both hands, which had somehow become sharp like claws, and tore apart his shirt in one motion, exposing his upper body. His muscles were knotted, and strange tiger-like markings covered his skin. Like a werewolf standing upright, he laughed madly at the moon.

Under the moonlight, madness radiated in every direction. This scene was enough to be called a nightmare.

"Cursed Spirit flesh is so boring. Where are the humans?! Where are the women?!"

"He" turned his head and looked around. All four eyes on his face gleamed like those of a hungry wolf, and the words coming from his mouth were utterly horrifying. Though his tone carried a mocking, playful quality, anyone could tell this was absolutely not a joke. He was calmly stating what he truly wanted to do.

Then, as if sensing something, "he" raised his gaze and met the pair of eyes above the school building.

Prey had appeared!!

Cruel, cold-blooded, and fond of slaughter, Sukuna immediately grew excited. Whether Cursed Spirits or humans, they were merely livestock whose lives and deaths were his to decide. To celebrate his return, he might as well have a little feast first.

That was right. Sukuna had always followed only one principle in life: whether he was happy or not. Naturally, this moment was no exception.

Even as only one-twentieth of himself, his essence would not change.

So...

Sukuna bent his knees slightly, then explosively pushed off, leaving behind only a blurry afterimage where he had stood.

At the same time, Gu Mo, who had watched the entire sequence from above, frowned. This was different from the two-faced, four-armed Oni God he had imagined. That boy had merely gained some tiger stripes?

Well, all right, he had also gained another pair of eyes, but overall, from the character art to the model, the changes were not that significant.

Just as he was thinking this, something like an electric current shooting through his nerves and harsh static sounded in his mind.

"Bzzzt... %￥#... mis... sion... Exiting current sub-#$%&..."

The incomprehensible, fragmented static made Gu Mo instinctively frown. At the same time, he felt that his vision had suddenly... well, gone black.

After quite a while, he realized that his eyes were still closed. Slightly confused, he slowly opened them, his gaze somewhat blank.

He stared at the dim room for a moment, then turned toward the bedside table. The glow of the electronic clock flickered faintly in the darkness, displaying the time—

12:00

Several seconds passed before his ability to think slowly returned.

He realized that he seemed to have woken up after sleeping. A new day had begun...

Wait...

Something seemed off?

"Hm? He escaped?"

Amid the billowing dust, Sukuna, occupying the high school student's body, let out a questioning sound. "He" frowned as he surveyed the surroundings, discovering that his target from moments ago had vanished without a trace.

"He" looked at his palm, and a hint of confusion flashed through all four of his eyes.

Had he hit him just now?

The question seemed meaningless, because judging from the result, that was clearly what had happened.

Recalling the scene he had seen just seconds ago, when he had launched his surprise attack and caught sight of the other party at the final moment—the calm gaze and utterly unruffled expression—Sukuna suddenly felt that he understood something—

In truth, it was because everything had happened too fast and too suddenly. The person involved had not even known what happened, so his expression had remained unchanged.

—But the same thing could be interpreted completely differently under different circumstances.

Combined with the current situation, Sukuna naturally believed that "calm" expression had actually been contempt. The other party had been mocking his overestimation of himself.

His expression slowly darkened as "he" gradually clenched both fists and burst into laughter at the night sky. "Hahahahahaha! Good, very good. I'll remember you. No one has ever been so bold..."

The furious laughter abruptly stopped. As if sensing something, Sukuna suddenly turned to look below.

"Teacher!"

Fushiguro Megumi's weak yet delighted voice rang out. His unreliable teacher had finally arrived at the last possible moment. He had thought the man might have gone somewhere for a late-night snack.

"Still didn't make it in time..." A man with conspicuous white hair, standing over six feet tall, stood before his battered student. Looking up at the boy on the upper floor, he could not help feeling a little annoyed. "Was that what that person intended?"

He actually could have arrived earlier. But as soon as he approached the school, that mysterious person had immediately noticed him and cast a "cold" gaze in his direction.

The mysterious person was an existence even he could rarely see through at all, and his student had been right beneath that person's eyes. Naturally, he was not reckless enough to rush in while ignoring every possible threat. Instead, he cautiously stopped, prepared to deal with whatever might happen next at any moment.

Yet what he had not expected was that the mysterious person did not act next, nor did he seize the Special Grade Cursed Object. He simply watched leisurely as that boy swallowed the Oni God's finger, then quietly withdrew in a manner no one could understand when Sukuna attacked without distinguishing friend from foe.

Could it be that this had been the other party's plan from the beginning?

Looking at the boy possessed by Sukuna above, the man also felt a headache coming on.