Falling

"What the hell?"

He watched a child turn into something monstrous, pitch-black hollows where the eyes should have been, the facial features impossible to make out.

Toji Fushiguro involuntarily tightened his fingers.

Many years had passed since he left the Zenin Clan. He had seen countless cursed spirits, jujutsu sorcerers, and curse users, but never anyone as eerie as this child.

At that moment, Toji Fushiguro felt that what he held was not a little child, but an abyssal monster formed from malice and cursed energy.

"Little sister! Can you and my little brother get away from the bad guy? Hic..."

Seeing his little sister Nanika appear again in response to his call, Yuji Itadori sobbed so hard he could barely breathe.

In Yuji Itadori's mind, his little sister and little brother often played hide-and-seek with him.

Whenever his little sister appeared, Auntie Little Ume never let him make any unreasonable requests, but she had fulfilled everything he had ever asked for. He had once secretly wished for candy, and somehow, his little sister had made candy appear.

His little sister had never refused any of Yuji's requests. Seeing his little brother captured, young Yuji pinned his hopes on his all-powerful little sister.

"Okay."

Nanika answered slowly, her hollow features seeming to smile.

The instant she agreed, the child in Toji Fushiguro's hands felt as heavy as an eerie stone statue. His arms seemed to weigh a thousand pounds, leaving him unable to lift them.

His hands sank uncontrollably, and he stubbornly tried to raise them.

Heavenly restriction had pushed Toji Fushiguro's body beyond the limits of human strength. His power spoke for itself, yet even when he fought that woman Yuki Tsukumo, nothing this bizarre had happened.

After a brief struggle, Toji Fushiguro could only watch as the child dropped to the ground through his hands. With a dull thud entirely at odds with the weight he had just felt, Nanika landed lightly on her feet.

"Little sister!"

Breaking free of Wasuke Itadori's hold, Yuji Itadori ran over.

The child seemed chillingly sinister to Toji Fushiguro, but Yuji Itadori hugged her as though he felt nothing of the sort.

In Yuji's arms, Nanika laughed contentedly.

Her laughter was not as clear as Alluka's. It was shrill and eerie, with a warble like an answering machine.

Seeing Alluka escape Toji Fushiguro's grip, Uraume relaxed for the moment.

Uraume was not surprised that Nanika had appeared without three demands being fulfilled first.

He had once seen Alluka call out herself and surrender her body to Nanika. He moved in front of the two children and glared at Toji Fushiguro.

"Are you the Sorcerer Killer, Toji Zenin?"

The name Toji Zenin was famous among curse users. Relying on a body with zero cursed energy, he had hunted down countless sorcerers. A few years ago, he had retired for a while, and no one knew when he had resurfaced.

Uraume did not take jobs on the Curse User Website, so he had paid little attention to the man.

The name the curse user had muttered as he fell had merely sounded familiar. When Alluka was lifted into the air, Uraume remembered who it belonged to in a flash.

"Tch, I told you, I married into my wife's family. My surname's Fushiguro now."

Toji Fushiguro clicked his tongue irritably, seemingly loathing that surname.

"Since you're not here to steal my business, there's no point fighting anymore."

He shrugged, returning to his listless expression.

No curse user would bring two children and an old man along on a job.

Toji Fushiguro had never heard of a white-haired curse user this powerful. He could keep fighting if he had to, but the person before him knew reverse cursed technique, and that child was strange. Toji Fushiguro thought it might be a real hassle.

He only took jobs for the money in the first place. These people were neither his targets nor competing for his pay, so Toji Fushiguro had no intention of killing them too. No one was paying him for that.

Uraume's muscles tensed, and he instinctively tightened his grip on the ice cone in his hand.

He watched warily as the dark-haired man sauntered forward, pulled out his cursed tool, then lifted the corpse and began stuffing it into the ugly insect's belly.

The Insect Cursed Spirit struggled to accommodate the curse user's body, which was far too large for it. Several times as it swallowed, it looked ready to vomit, and overflowing saliva dripped from the corners of its mouth onto the floor tiles.

Wasuke Itadori and Yuji Itadori could not see the cursed spirit. All they saw was the tall, dark-haired man inexplicably making the corpse disappear.

Yuji held Alluka's hand tightly, remembering the horror movies his grandfather had been sneaking lately.

Despite his young age, he already knew about ghosts and monsters. The sight of something so bizarre frightened him until his little face turned deathly pale.

At some point, Nanika had disappeared. Alluka looked up and gave Yuji a huge smile.

"Don't be scared, Brother."

Her voice rose slightly at the end, and her sweet, coaxing tone calmed Yuji down.

My little brother isn't even scared. How can I, his big brother, let a ghost frighten me this badly?

Yuji sniffled and murmured his agreement.

Seeing Toji Fushiguro finish stuffing away the corpse and prepare to leave, Uraume crouched beside the dark-haired child.

"Alluka, can you make demands of that man?"

"...Huh?"

The dark-haired child looked up at Uraume in confusion.

"Yuji just made a wish, didn't he? That man hurt you earlier, so why don't we make him pay the price for the wish?"

His voice was soft as he patiently explained his idea.

Whenever someone had made a wish to Alluka, the next person had always paid the price for the previous person's wish.

At its core, Nanika's cursed technique was an ability based on equivalent exchange.

Uraume believed that Yuji had just wished for her to escape Toji Fushiguro. It was neither a particularly great wish nor a trivial one.

Given the stories he had heard about Toji Fushiguro and the sorcerers he had killed, the price of escaping his grasp should not be too small.

In everyday life, Alluka often wheedled things out of Wasuke Itadori, Yuji Itadori, and him. He had to reset the price that needed to be paid.

If he simply grabbed someone at random and they suffered a gruesome death like Rope Person's, it might bring other trouble down on them.

If a curse user like Toji Fushiguro, who had enemies everywhere, died, then so be it. It would not implicate "ordinary people" like them.

During their exchange, Uraume did not believe that someone like Toji Fushiguro would hurt himself to fulfill Alluka's demands.

"Okay, Little Ume."

Not knowing why Little Ume had said that, Alluka nodded with a radiant smile.