Fury

Nanami opened the door to the underground training room and walked out.

"Mashiro, Gojo-sensei, I'm heading out." Itadori turned back to say goodbye, then followed Kento Nanami out.

On the way, Itadori studied the adult Mashiro had called dependable, feeling a little curious.

"Um, Mr. Nanami, do you know Mashiro well?"

Nanami glanced back at him. "Just as Mr. Gojo is Miss Mashiro's liaison with Jujutsu High, I serve as her liaison with Window."

"Oh, I see. Mashiro's really strong, isn't she? I wish I could be as strong as her someday."

At that, Nanami stopped and turned to face Itadori.

"Listen closely, Yuji Itadori. You don't get stronger just by talking about it, much less reach Miss Mashiro's level."

"I won't go easy on you because you're her younger brother. Besides, I don't even recognize you as a jujutsu sorcerer."

"You don't recognize me as a jujutsu sorcerer?" Itadori stopped as well, puzzled.

"You need to prove through your actions that you're useful, even with a ticking bomb like Sukuna inside you."

Itadori looked into Nanami's eyes, his expression turning serious. "Even if I don't like it, I know I'm weak right now. I'm no use to anyone."

"But I'll get stronger, no matter how hard it is. You don't have to tell me to prove it through my actions."

"I want to stand beside her and protect her too, whatever it costs."

Nanami looked at the boy before him. A fire burned deep in his eyes, familiar, as though Nanami had seen it somewhere before.

Ah, he remembered now. Kujo Mashiro-the fire in her eyes as she faced a grade 1 cursed spirit.

Kento Nanami couldn't help smiling faintly. "You two really are alike. Then work hard and prove your worth."

"Right!"

Kento Nanami parked by the roadside and switched off the engine.

They were in an old residential neighborhood on the outskirts of Tokyo. Window's observation report indicated that abnormal cursed energy had been detected in the area for three consecutive days.

It wasn't particularly strong, but its fluctuations were strange, different from the usual readings.

"Get out." Nanami pushed open the car door.

Itadori got out after him and looked around.

For a residential neighborhood, it was far too quiet. No birdsong, no sign of people, not even the sound of wind.

"Mr. Nanami, why is the cursed residue so thick here?"

"Because there's more than one victim." Nanami drew his short blade. "The observation report lists at least three missing people, all residents of this neighborhood."

"I don't know whether curses have any concept of efficiency, but normally, they concentrate their efforts in one place."

Itadori clenched his fists, a flicker of disgust crossing his eyes.

They walked about two hundred meters down the alley, an unnatural stench growing stronger with every step.

The first victim appeared at the end of the alley.

It looked as though it had once been a middle-aged man. It was still wearing pajamas.

But now its torso had been stretched to nearly three meters long, its spine protruding from its back in sharp spikes. Its legs bent backward as it crouched like a reptile on the roof of an abandoned house.

A human expression still lingered on its face. Its brows were tightly furrowed, its mouth opening and closing as though it were still a human trying to speak.

Itadori involuntarily stepped forward.

Nanami held him by the shoulder. "There's no saving him."

Itadori didn't look away. He stared at the thing that had once been human, at the cursed energy churning in its eye sockets, at the black blood spilling from the corners of its mouth. He drew a deep breath and called out.

"I know, but if he's still conscious, if he can still hear us..."

He shouted at the creature. "Hey!"

The transfigured creature whipped its head around, its ruptured eyes fixing on Itadori.

It let out a hoarse roar and lunged down from the roof.

Nanami sidestepped its attack and cut a deep gash across the seven-tenths point of its abdomen with his short blade. As its flesh burst open, he could feel that the body's internal structure had been thrown into complete chaos, its muscles and bones forcibly dismantled and rearranged.

The wound in its abdomen didn't stop it. The moment it landed, it sprang up again, thrusting the spikes along its spine toward Nanami.

Itadori rushed in from the side and kicked it in the shoulder.

The kick knocked it off course. Its spikes stabbed into the wall, gouging a long crack through it.

It thrashed wildly as it hit the ground, sweeping a leg toward Itadori.

Itadori jumped back to dodge. Before his heels had even touched down, the creature had gathered its strength and launched itself straight at him, opening a mouth full of hooked teeth to bite into his neck.

Itadori raised his arm to block, the bony teeth scraping several shallow bloody cuts across it.

He didn't retreat a single step. Lowering his center of gravity to steady himself, he drove an uppercut into the creature's chin, forcing its mouth shut before it could bite down.

The crack of teeth colliding and shattering mingled with the dull thud of cursed energy striking home.

The creature's head snapped backward, fragments of bone spraying from the corners of its mouth.

Itadori pressed the attack, following a left punch with a right elbow. Three consecutive strikes hit the same spot, the last wrapped in cursed energy and punching straight through its chest.

The creature slammed into the ground, still twitching.

Nanami walked up to it. Its lips kept opening and closing, as though it were repeating the same words over and over.

He bent down and listened carefully.

"...Help...help me..."

Hearing those words, Nanami had to admit that the anger within him had caught fire too.

Itadori stood beside him, his fists still clenched. The cuts on his arm were slowly healing.

Nanami drove his short blade into its heart. The creature stopped struggling, and cursed energy leaked from its body, dissipating into the air.

Itadori looked at that twisted face. He couldn't shake the feeling that its final expression wasn't pain, but the relief of finally being allowed to die.

"He had no human awareness left." Nanami pulled out his blade and wiped away the blood. "Those were probably the last words he said before being transfigured."

"I know," Itadori said, his voice a little hoarse. "Those bastards actually dared to do this. What do they think human lives are?"

Nanami looked at him. Uncontrollable fury burned in the boy's eyes.

As they passed an apartment building, two more transfigured creatures lunged down from a second-floor window, one on either side.

"Itadori," Nanami called.

Itadori didn't answer. He kicked off the ground and rushed the one on the left, drawing it away so it couldn't flank Nanami with the one on the right.

He ducked low beneath its first swipe and drove his right fist upward into its head.

An enormous amount of cursed energy gathered around his fist. That single punch made the creature's head burst apart.

"Sorry. I helped you find release as quickly as I could." Itadori straightened and shook the sticky remains off his hand.

Nanami sheathed his blade and glanced at the three corpses on the ground.

Three things that had once been human, precisely cut down by his short blade or struck head-on in their vital points by Itadori's fists. There had been no surprises.

Nanami exhaled and patted Itadori's shoulder, acknowledging his performance.

"Do you know why I acknowledge Miss Mashiro?"

"...Why?"

"She's harder on herself in battle than anyone else. But that isn't what matters most."

Nanami looked into Itadori's eyes. "What matters most is that she earned her strength through every injury she suffered. Not a single bit of her power came from relying on someone else. You're a lot like her. But you're not strong enough yet."

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Production team announcement:

Mashiro's appearance bug has been fixed, and all earlier passages have been updated. The Dharma Wheel above her head is back now!

The little wings on her head will only appear when she opens her domain.