Backstab

"What are you doing, Junpei!"

Yuji Itadori stood in the doorway, the glaring afternoon sunlight behind him.

His gaze swept over Ito, who had collapsed in the corner and wet his pants, then over the students on the floor and the chubby teacher trembling off to the side, before finally settling on Junpei.

Junpei slowly turned around. The Jellyfish Shikigami floated behind him, its tentacles spreading slightly.

"Stay out of it, jujutsu sorcerer. This has nothing to do with you." Junpei's voice was cold.

"How can it have nothing to do with me!" Itadori stepped forward. "You're my friend!"

Junpei said nothing more. He simply raised his hand, and the Jellyfish Shikigami's tentacles snapped taut, stabbing toward Itadori.

Itadori sidestepped. A tentacle grazed his shoulder and embedded itself in the door behind him.

He gritted his teeth and charged at Junpei.

The two clashed in the center of the gymnasium-Itadori's fists slammed into the jellyfish's tentacles as Junpei directed his shikigami to surround him from every direction.

After several exchanges, Itadori found an opening and kicked Junpei in the stomach. Junpei went flying, shattered a window, and fell from the second floor.

At the last moment, the Jellyfish Shikigami cushioned him from below, absorbing the impact of the fall.

Junpei rolled over and ran toward the School Building, with Itadori close behind.

In the School Building's hallway, after taking a venomous sting from Junpei's shikigami head-on, Itadori tried to talk Junpei around, just as he had in the original story.

"How touching."

A cheerful voice came from the end of the hallway. Junpei's body abruptly stiffened.

Itadori turned and saw someone emerge from the shadows at the end of the hallway-Mahito.

Itadori immediately bristled with hostility and told Junpei to get away, fast. This guy was dangerous.

Still in the dark, Junpei tried to explain that Mahito wasn't a bad person.

Just then, Mahito walked up beside Junpei and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Idle Transfiguration activated.

Itadori watched helplessly as Junpei's body twisted, swelled, and changed before his eyes.

In a single second, the outline of the boy who had talked about movies with him vanished, replaced by a grotesque monster. His eyes still held terror.

"Junpei-!"

Itadori lunged forward, only to be swept aside by the monster's arm.

He got back up and lunged again, clinging desperately to that misshapen arm. "Junpei! Can you hear me!" The monster's struggles suddenly stopped for an instant.

His clouded eyes slowly shifted, as though struggling to focus. His lips moved, releasing an incredibly faint voice: "...Why... did it turn out like this...?"

"...Sukuna!" Itadori shouted, trying to get Sukuna to save Junpei.

Then a mouth split open on his cheek.

Sukuna's laughter rang with undisguised mockery. Standing a short distance away, Mahito watched the scene, the corners of his mouth lifting into a supremely flippant smile.

"Wonderful. That expression is just wonderful."

Itadori didn't answer.

He looked down at the body in his arms, now lifeless, gently laid Junpei on the ground, and stood up.

Then he charged at Mahito, without tactics, without thought, driven only by instinct-to smash the bastard before him, crush him, beat him until he could never hurt anyone again.

After exchanging several blows in the hallway, the two burst outside the School Building.

Mahito had intended to touch Itadori and awaken Sukuna, but was rebuffed.

He attacked Itadori again, and just as one of his sneak attacks was about to land-

Kento Nanami stood in front of Itadori, his cleaver wrapped in a yellow-and-black tie held across his chest.

"You people really are underhanded," Mahito said, looking from Nanami to Itadori with a hint of reproach in his voice.

"Two against one?"

Neither Itadori nor Nanami answered.

They took up attacking stances, one in front and one behind, cutting off Mahito's escape.

Mahito tilted his head, his smile deepening. "But I've got help too."

He raised his right hand, palm facing down.

A twisted figure emerged from his hand-first the shoulders, then four arms, and finally an enormous three-meter-tall body landed on the paving tiles.

Four eyes opened at once, their murky whites giving off an eerie glow. An oppressive aura radiated from him, like the coils of a python. Merely standing there, he made their hair stand on end.

Nanami's pupils abruptly contracted.

He instinctively stepped forward to shield Itadori, gripping the cleaver so tightly that his knuckles turned slightly white.

"Yuji," he said in a low voice, "this transfigured human's aura is completely different from the others. You can't keep fighting with the idea that they're still human-Mahito has already killed them."

"All we can do now is put them out of their misery."

Itadori stared at the three-meter-tall monster before him, his lips pressed into a thin line.

After a few seconds of silence, he gritted his teeth and nodded.

"Then I'll handle this. Yuji, support me from the side."

Watching this, Mahito threw back his head and laughed.

His laughter echoed through the empty hallway, especially grating.

"How pathetic, Yuji Itadori! You watched me kill Junpei with your own eyes, and you're still agonizing over whether these transfigured humans are human? That weak-hearted compassion of yours will get everyone around you killed sooner or later."

He doubled over with laughter, wiping nonexistent tears from the corners of his eyes.

"Fine-I'll use this specially made specimen today to show you what true despair looks like."

At the same time, that icy command rose from the depths of Gu Yanzhi's consciousness-Attack. Kill them both.

He moved.

His four arms hung at his sides as his three-meter-tall body slowly leaned forward. Unable to withstand the pressure, the paving tiles beneath his feet cracked into a web of fractures.

Nanami tightened his grip on his cleaver, lowered his center of gravity, and took up a stance for a thrust. Itadori gritted his teeth and bent his knees slightly, preparing to strike from the side.

Both waited for him to make the first move.

But Gu Yanzhi didn't charge at them.

He spun around, his enormous body whipping up a gust as it twisted.

His four arms drew back, and his right fist swung out from behind him, carrying all his strength. The full weight of his three-meter-tall frame bore down behind that punch.

His spine snapped straight from the small of his back, every muscle fiber exploding into action at once. All four eyes locked onto Mahito, who was still laughing behind him.

The expression of laughter still lingered on that face, traces of wiped tears still marked the corners of his eyes, and his mouth was still curved open.

He saw Gu Yanzhi turn. He saw the fist hurtling toward him.

But his body couldn't react in time-his mind was still stuck on the certainty that transfigured humans could not disobey orders.

His punch at the Movie Theater had missed. Back then, he couldn't see cursed spirits and had relied solely on his body's senses to judge Mahito's position. He had been a full foot off.

Now he could see.

His eyes fed him precise information on Mahito's outline, distance, and angle.

This punch wouldn't miss.

His fist tore through the air with an explosive crack so sharp it was almost piercing.

The rapidly growing fist reflected in Mahito's mismatched eyes. Then it slammed squarely into his face.

The shock wave shattered every window in the adjacent School Building. Broken bricks and dust burst into the air, burying Mahito beneath the rubble.

Everything fell silent.

Gu Yanzhi slowly withdrew his fist. This time, he hadn't missed.

"You got it wrong."

"It's three against one!"