Sacrifice

After Satoru Gojo and the others left, Wasuke Itadori called Uraume, who was far away in Tokyo.

Uraume glanced at the children playing nearby and said nothing more.

"That dinosaur is huge! I wish Grandpa could see it too."

Yuji Itadori pressed himself against the Exhibition Hall's glass, excitedly looking at the life-size dinosaur model the staff had built inside.

"Brother, you can ask Little Ume to take a picture."

Beside him, Alluka tugged on Uraume's sleeve and told him she wanted a picture when he looked over.

"Then you two need to stand a little closer~"

Smiling, Uraume set his phone to take a close-up, practically pushing it into Alluka's face to capture every bit of her smile. As for Yuji Itadori's face coming out blurry in a few shots? That was none of his concern.

Noticing a teacher approaching with a group of students behind them, Uraume let his smile fade and pulled Alluka and Yuji aside.

"Is Nanika still all right?"

His voice was so soft that anyone not listening carefully would have struggled to make out what he said.

All this time, it had seemed as though Alluka was the one who appeared most often, but in truth, she only appeared when Nanika was asleep.

Alluka only appeared in the interval after Nanika's requests failed and before she made requests of the next person, after the person receiving her requests left, or while Nanika slept after healing someone.

Nanika occupied this body most of the time. Alluka actually had very little time of her own.

The person who would pay the price for Toji Fushiguro's last wish had yet to arrive. Several days had already passed, and Uraume was a little worried that Nanika would lose control.

"She's actually doing okay... just a tiny bit hungry."

Alluka blinked and rubbed her little belly.

Rather than granting wishes, Nanika's ability was more accurately described as equivalent exchange.

The price of the previous person's wish was paid by the next person.

In the meantime, Nanika temporarily covered that price herself. Once she found the next person to make a wish, she would extract the price of the previous person's wish directly from them.

Toji Fushiguro had wished for over a hundred million in cash, and Nanika had used cursed energy to transport large quantities of banknotes from various places.

Because the past two days had been somewhat unusual, and because there was no one around besides Yuji and Uraume who met the conditions for her demands, Nanika had temporarily refrained from making requests of anyone else. But this could not be delayed indefinitely. Nanika would only find it harder and harder to control herself.

"Are you a little hungry, little brother? Then shall we go eat?"

Yuji Itadori had no idea what cryptic conversation the two were having. He leaned his face over and gave them a slightly goofy smile.

"Come on. Let's go eat."

Uraume took Alluka's hand and brought Yuji along to find a restaurant for a meal.

After they finished eating, returned to their lodgings, and he coaxed them to sleep, Uraume called Toji Fushiguro.

"If you don't make your move soon, I will."

Uraume was getting impatient with the wait.

He had spoken with Toji Fushiguro that day, but since Uraume only intended to use him, he had not clearly explained the rules for making wishes to Alluka.

Who knew whether that bastard Toji Fushiguro had been blinded by the money, but he had actually agreed to find a sacrifice for Nanika.

Finding a suitable sacrifice was not particularly easy. Society was different from what it had once been. Ideally, the person would have few social connections, with no jujutsu sorcerers or politicians among them. Otherwise, dealing with the aftermath would be a real headache.

Uraume's idea was to capture a curse user.

Curse users had little psychological resilience. Like rats in the gutter, they only dared hide in damp sewers. Even if their corpses rotted away, no one besides their fellow curse users would know.

"I found someone. Will tonight work?"

Toji Fushiguro clicked his tongue and punched the wrinkled old man beside him.

"...The address."

After settling the details with Toji Fushiguro, Uraume hung up.

Toji Fushiguro rubbed his chin curiously as he studied the old man he had traveled all the way back to Kyoto to abduct from Jujutsu Headquarters.

That white-haired curse user did not seem particularly bright.

Just a few words had been enough for him to pick up on something strange about that cursed spirit's cursed technique.

Taking other people's lives to replenish its depleted cursed energy?

He had never heard of such a sinister cursed technique in the Jujutsu Society.

A jujutsu sorcerer's cursed energy came from their own negative emotions, and their cursed techniques were powered by that energy.

Perhaps some special Cursed Technique Release techniques required burning through one's own life to amplify their power, but he had never seen a technique that replenished itself by draining someone else's life. Was this the difference between cursed spirits and humans?

If that cursed spirit could freely take other people's lives for its own use, could it also use that ability on someone else's behalf?

Toji Fushiguro knew this ability sounded sinister, but he still wanted to test the vague idea forming in his mind.

There shouldn't be an upper limit to what you could wish for... right?

Perhaps...

"Toji Zenin, what are you trying to do?!"

When he pulled the filthy rag of unknown origin out of the pampered old man's mouth, the administrator from Jujutsu Headquarters spoke in a furious outburst.

"Nothing. I just want to test an idea."

Toji Fushiguro effortlessly lifted the man by the back of his collar.

As he was hoisted into the air, the old man's collar constricted his throat. The suffocating sensation made him flail desperately, the muscles in his face twitching uncontrollably.

"Sorry. I forgot you were a useless piece of trash."

Without the slightest hint of remorse, Toji Fushiguro punched the old man a few more times and took him to the Abandoned Factory.

The buildings here had long stood unused. With low-level curses lurking inside, even stray dogs did not dare venture near.

And because the curses were too weak, no jujutsu sorcerers had come to help even after Window reported them to their superiors. It really was an excellent location for a transaction.

The starry sky hung low, and the moonlight lay still and heavy as water.

In an open space piled with discarded tires, the white-haired curse user stood holding a small child's hand.

Under the moonlight, the black-haired child's smile was pure and gentle. When Toji Fushiguro tossed the man over, she slowly spoke.

"What is your name?"

Happy Winter Solstice, everyone, and thank you to Izuna and all the other sweethearts for the gifts! I owe you a chapter. My partner's mom is coming over in a bit to make dumplings with me... oh my gosh... let me get through that first, then I'll see if I can write it later tonight qaq