Once again, in the gloomy sewers.
"What is this?"
"An experiment to test how large humans can become. Those over there test how small they can become." Mahito enthusiastically introduced his creations to Junpei Yoshino, even handing him a tiny, shriveled human.
"This is... a human?" Junpei Yoshino stared blankly at the thing in his hand.
"Are you used to seeing corpses, Junpei?"
"How should I put it? If this were my mother, I might lose my mind and hate you, Mr. Mahito. But I know how ugly human nature is, so I don't expect anything from others, and I don't feel anything about their deaths..."
Ding-dong, ding-dong.
A special notification sound rang from the phone in Junpei Yoshino's pocket, interrupting him.
Just now.
'Edano: Junpei, Junpei, I can come out and hang out with you now!'
'Edano: Junpei, are you there, are you there, are you there, are you there?!'
Junpei Yoshino put his phone back in his pocket and looked at Mahito again. "Except... my friends."
"Ah~ Friends... Yet someone like you wants revenge."
"Are you saying I'm contradicting myself?"
Mahito didn't answer. Instead, he asked a baffling question.
"Junpei, do you think humans have a 'heart'?"
"Huh? They... don't?"
"They don't." Mahito began explaining his theory about whether the soul or the body came first. "Humans have 'souls,' but those aren't 'hearts.'"
"I'm the only one in the world who understands the structure of the soul, and I can change the shape of living beings by touching their souls. Joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure are all products of the soul's metabolism. Calling that a heart is far too mechanical."
"Humans make too much of things they can't see. To me, who can see them, souls are no different from bodies. There's nothing special about them. They simply exist."
"Do you understand? Life has neither value nor weight. Just as water cycles through heaven and earth, life merely flows through a cycle. You and I are the same: meaningless and worthless."
"That's precisely why you can do whatever you want. You're free to live however you please, so don't let yourself be constrained. Just as you eat when you're hungry, you can kill whatever you hate."
"I'll affirm everything about you, Junpei..."
Those carefully leading words planted a seed deep in Junpei Yoshino's heart.
"Found him."
Ijichi and Yuji Itadori drove slowly behind Junpei Yoshino, looking a little like stalkers...
"That's odd. He's wearing casual clothes."
"Apparently, he hasn't been going to school lately. Though I haven't been around much either. Have Fushiguro and the others been doing okay?"
Ijichi remembered the bunch clowning around on the school's training ground and couldn't help smiling. "Yes, they're doing well."
"Oh, so what do we do next?"
"Use these." Ijichi gestured with his eyes toward the cage on the passenger seat.
"Fly heads. Low-level curses that fall below Grade 4. Once he reaches somewhere deserted, we'll have the fly heads attack him."
"Huh?!"
"One: if he's an ordinary person who can't see curses, you'll rescue him, Itadori. Two: if he can see curses but doesn't know how to deal with them, you'll still rescue him, then ask him about what happened that day. Three: if he exorcises the fly heads with jujutsu..." Ijichi adjusted his glasses. "Arrest him on the spot."
"By force?"
"By force. Even if it's a misunderstanding, that's fine. We can apologize afterward. However..."
"Four: if Junpei Yoshino has the potential to be a Grade 2 Sorcerer or higher, we'll retreat for now and meet up with Mr. Nanami, or wait for Taketori to assist us."
"I should just about be able to handle Grade 2..."
"Huh?!!!!" ×2
"Edano/Taketori, how did you get here?!!!" ×2
Seeing me appear out of thin air in the back seat beside Yuji Itadori, Yuji and Ijichi's eyes went wide, their jaws practically hitting the floor.
"Relax, relax. I forgot to mention it earlier, but this is the cursed technique I just figured out. I can pinpoint a location and use Teleportation to get there. Surprised? Didn't see that coming, did you?" I patted Yuji's head like we were old pals.
"Edano, I'll never grow any taller if you keep patting my head like that!"
"...You really are exceptionally gifted, Taketori."
"Oh, never mind the little details. Anyway, what were you talking about?"
"...Well, Jujutsu Society usually assigns Jujutsu Sorcerers to missions involving cursed spirits of the same grade. That means a Grade 2 Sorcerer is guaranteed to defeat a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit, because a Grade 2 Sorcerer's strength is close to that of a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit."
"...Why don't we know something that important?"
Because Mr. Gojo is far too careless!!! Poor Ijichi sighed inwardly. Despite being a year younger than Gojo, he looked so worn down that they could have belonged to different generations.
"Let's get out here." Ijichi opened his door and got out first.
"It feels like we're staging the whole thing ourselves. Kind of hard to get motivated."
"Hmm? Staging what? Never mind, never mind, tell me on the way!" Better not make things any harder for poor Mr. Ijichi.
Junpei Yoshino walked down the street with his thoughts in a tangled mess. Mahito's words had completely overturned his understanding of the world. He was so upset that even the cicadas, which normally didn't bother him, were giving him a headache.
"Yoshino, where have you been?"
"Huh?"
"This won't do, you know. Skipping school like this."
The man before him was Mr. Tomura, the teacher who had hidden behind a window to watch last time and had his memories altered with cursed speech along with the others.
Junpei Yoshino didn't really want to deal with him, but he greeted him out of politeness. "Mr. Tomura."
Tomura wiped away his sweat. "Have you heard? Sayama, Nishimura, and Honda passed away. You were good friends with them, weren't you?"
Scenes of them bullying him flashed before Junpei Yoshino's eyes, but Tomura kept pressing. "Yet you didn't even attend their funerals. Honestly, you..."
"Enough!" I hurried over, pulling Yuji Itadori along, and was still panting when I stopped.
Yuji Itadori: Actually, Edano, I could've gotten here in three seconds if you hadn't been dragging me.
Like a mother hen protecting her chicks, I swept Junpei Yoshino behind me. "Junpei, stand back. Let me handle this!"
"What? Did I say anything wrong?! Didn't they always come to play with him?!" Tomura tried to hide his guilty conscience by raising his voice.
"Huh? Are you blind, or is there something wrong with your brain? You call that playing with him? Come on, stay right there. We'll play with you too."
Tomura glanced at my "ferocious" expression, then at Yuji Itadori behind me, who looked like an athletic kid whose punches would really hurt. His eyes darted as he wiped away his sweat, then he grew even more self-righteous. "What's wrong with what I said? This boy is withdrawn and hardly has any friends at school. Only Sayama and the others were kind enough to play with him!"
The more he talked, the more worked up he became, and the straighter he stood. "What school do you go to? Already behaving badly at your age! I'll tell your teachers!"
"Ha!" I was so angry I laughed. "Well, that's a real eye-opener. If my teacher heard what you just said, he'd chop you into thirty-six pieces and feed you to Panda!"
"What's wrong with you? People like you are the reason school bullying happens!"
"Ooh, school bullying! So you do know what that is~ Then why did you pretend to be blind when Junpei was being bullied? Hiding behind a window, thinking everyone else was as blind as you!"
"When did I ever hide behind a window?! Besides, they were only joking around with Yoshino!"
"Fine. Since you think that's just joking around, Mr. Tomura, we'll joke around with you too." I shot Yuji Itadori a look. "Yuji, put up a Curtain. Let's have some fun with this teacher!"
"Uh, isn't that kind of wrong?" Yuji Itadori scratched his head, asking whether this was a bad idea, even as he obediently put up a curtain.
"Relax, relax. We'll beat him up, then I'll alter his memories!" With a wicked grin, I backed Tomura into a corner.
"Y-you, what are you going to do?! I'm telling you, this isn't right!"
Ignoring him, I turned to Junpei Yoshino with a radiant smile and invited him to join us. "Junpei, want to beat him up and let off some steam?"
"Sure." Junpei Yoshino smiled and agreed.
Before you continue