Haruka Was Someone Who Could Overpower Satoru Gojo

Kai Sagami's perspective

I was what people called a "reincarnator." I knew what this world was like, and I knew what would happen.

God had asked me, "Is there anything you want?" But had I given the right answer back then? Even now, that remained an enormous question.

But now I understood. A "best friend" was enough.

The strongest weapon, the strongest ability, a comfortable environment, a peaceful, secure life.

I wanted all those things, but they certainly weren't what mattered most to me. They weren't what I truly longed for deep down.

What I wanted was someone who needed looking after, someone lazy and easygoing, but a little strong-no... someone who loved being spoiled, like a little brother, with an absurdly small sense of personal space. Someone I could talk nonsense with, someone I could sit with in silence without feeling awkward... Ah, right. I almost forgot the most important thing. His name was Haruka Itadori.

I had been searching all along for a friend named Haruka Itadori.

Until just a moment ago, I hadn't even known his name, his face, or where he was, much less when we would meet. But after talking, traveling, bathing, going on missions, getting hurt, protecting him, and being protected by him, I understood clearly.

Haruka Itadori was the very gift God had given me.

"Haruka, you're still not better, huh?"

As I spoke, I stepped in front of my one and only friend.

Until now... or rather, over these past four weeks, I had either walked beside Haruka or followed behind him, since he always looked ready to fall asleep. Thinking about it, this might have been the first time I had ever stood in front of him.

"We can win."

Hovering above our heads was a god. It was enormous enough to cover the shrine on the mountaintop, and it was looking down at us.

You even went out of your way to look like a final boss. Thanks to you, I'm scared out of my mind.

Cursing inwardly, I tightened my grip on the sword.

The seal covering its blade, which had never once come undone, vanished. The sheath I had never managed to remove, no matter how I prayed or regretted, fell easily to the ground with a soft click.

Haruka watched with a mixture of amazement and confusion in his eyes.

Seeing his face, seeing his eyes, honestly hurt. But I had to do this.

I turned back toward my friend. In the end, I couldn't bear to leave him. I ran to him and wrapped him in a tight embrace.

"...Haruka."

Hard.

Harder than ever before. So hard that we could feel each other's presence clearly.

I held the body that had pushed me out of harm's way countless times, ending up battered and covered in mud each time. I held the body of someone who believed in treating others kindly, only to be poisoned because he was too kind.

"Sorry. This is where we have to part."

The spreading poison had probably left him unable even to speak. He panted heavily. His fingertips scratched weakly at my back.

All of it was so precious. I loved every bit of it so deeply.

"I'm sorry. I really never wanted to make you look like that.

...But this is the only way I can save you."

I was sure he had wanted to save me all along, too.

But that was called "playing the wrong role."

I was only a Grade 3 Jujutsu Sorcerer, the lowest rank among countless sorcerers. I wasn't from some prestigious family, nor had I been born with a powerful cursed technique. I was a nobody.

Haruka was the protagonist's younger brother, someone who could overpower Satoru Gojo, someone who had quietly begun making a name for himself in Jujutsu Society. Someone capable of changing that future.

Facing those eyes that seemed to accuse me, asking, "Why? How could this happen?" I gave a bitter smile and stroked his head.

"The noble answer would be that I'm doing this for the future.

...But honestly, that has nothing to do with it. I just want to save my friend."

My friend. My only friend in this world.

"I want to save Haruka."

I felt I could give up everything to protect him.

I loosened his limp arms and gently laid him flat on the ground.

"...I'm sorry. You don't have to forgive me. You can cry and curse me for as long as you want.

But just for this moment, let me protect you."

I wiped his tear-filled eyes just once.

Then, unable to let go, I gently stroked his soft hair one last time.

I let go.

He walked forward alone and tightened his grip on the sword again.

"Futsu-no-Mitama Sword. This will be your first battle, and your last.

I will give my body, my life, my cursed energy-everything I have-to unleash you."

This sword had never answered anyone. No one had ever drawn it.

But at that moment, when a man named Kai Sagami gave everything he had and prayed with all his heart, even that sword shone as it never had before. Seeing its light, the man fearlessly looked up at the enemy high above and smiled.

"My role was only ever to be a shield, as planned. But in exchange... I won't let so much as its shadow touch you!"

The god moved.

As though mocking the insignificant human, it displayed its overwhelming power.

Curses spiraled together, gathering into an enormous mass of energy before erupting in a catastrophic strike. The attack was vicious and powerful, far beyond anything an ordinary cursed spirit could unleash. That immense curse, that hatred and agony, came crashing toward the man in a single blow.

He raised his sword and met the god's curse head-on.

"AAAAAAAAAH!!"

He roared. But his voice soon gave out.

His cheeks burned. But his skin soon festered and peeled away.

The thunderous rumbling was deafening. But his hearing soon vanished, too.

His shoulder was pierced, his leg bones snapped, and something seemed to gouge open his abdomen, sending blood gushing out.

And yet... even then, the man did not lower his sword.

His shining sword continued to hold back the curse, refusing to let it come even half a step closer to Haruka.

His Highness is safe. He'll be all right. I know he will.

Even as the curse ate through the man's entire body and reduced him to ashes... his resolve and his sword remained unbroken.

Within his crumbling body and fading consciousness, Kai Sagami thought of only one person.

It's a little lonely, but this is fine.

This is the first time I've ever tried this hard. That alone makes me happier than anything.

Haruka Itadori. My... best friend.

I'm so proud that I could give my life for you!

Haruka Itadori's perspective

Haruka Itadori watched it all through his tears.

His friend taking up the sword, embracing him, then facing the god's strike head-on. He missed not a single instant, burning every moment deep into his eyes.

He vanished, and the sword broke after withstanding that catastrophic blow.

His body wouldn't move at all. He couldn't make a sound. Even his thoughts had grown hazy.

Haruka felt something in his heart suddenly disappear. The god sneering above him, the people whose faces were twisted with frustration-none of it mattered anymore. He didn't even care that his body couldn't move.

Had Kai brought it? Orange dawn light spilled quietly between the mountains, illuminating everything before him.

The mountains, the town, the trees, the humans, the cursed spirits, me... the broken sword. Everything. Every last thing.

As everything took on the colors of dawn, a single tear slipped from one of my eyes.

Ah, at this point, none of it mattered anymore.

Despite that thought, my mouth naturally recited the incantation.

"Domain Expansion: Clear Mirror, Still Water."

Plop. The sound of splashing water.

At the same time, the entire space around us was replaced by water and sky.

The sky was a blue so clear it seemed you could see through everything, with a few white clouds floating across it. A beautiful, mirrorlike surface of water reached our feet, reflecting the sky.

It was a lonely, empty world with nothing left but beauty.

The people chattered noisily, stirring up violent splashes. The god floated in the air, looking confused.

I knew exactly what to do to them.

All I had to do was gently raise one hand and "turn that speed into an attack."

"Be erased by the speed of all things."

With those words, everything was erased. At the same time, the god's final death throes-a black shadow-pierced my right eye. I accepted it willingly. I don't care if I die.

In the end, I failed to die.

I survived, sprawled on ground gouged out as though a meteor had struck it. Cold and lifeless, the earth steadily absorbed the blood flowing from my right eye, slowly changing color.

"...Ah."

A faint sound escaped.

It came from no one else. It came from my own mouth.

What did I want to say? What did I want to call out? What did I want to lament?

I didn't know. I understood nothing.

I simply stared at the broken sword left in that empty clearing, an uncontrollable urge to say something welling up inside me.

The morning sun shone on us. On the mountains, the trees, the bare ground, the broken sword, and this person called me.

There were no noisy crowds here, no god looking down from above. It was a quiet, peaceful world, as though time had stopped.

When I realized there was no one and nothing around me, only empty space.

Tears began tumbling from my eyes.

"Ah... ngh, ngh...! Kai... Kai..."

I formed that name. Though I knew I had no right, I couldn't stop myself from calling it, saying it, crying it out.

The loss and sorrow eating away at this body were all for that one person.

But at the same time, rage surged up as though boiling from the pit of my stomach. That, too, was aimed at this person called me.

Why had I accepted the Female Shop Owner's tea and drunk it? Why hadn't I pushed Kai far away sooner? Why hadn't I abandoned this mission? Why had I watched him pick up that sword? Why couldn't my body move? Why was I the only one who had survived?

Countless sins and mistakes weighed down on me.

Of course, not every cause lay with me alone-my mind, sunk into emptiness and drawing conclusions at abnormal speed, had already arrived at that answer. This mission had been wrong from the very beginning.

Why pair an inexperienced Temporary Special Grade Sorcerer with a Grade 3 Jujutsu Sorcerer of the same age who rarely interacted with others? Why had an additional assignment come through Kai after the mission seemed finished? Why send me, carrying the Inverted Spear of Heaven, to a place that worshipped a god? Why had the local residents obstructed us, finally even trying to offer us as sacrifices?

The answer was simple.

Everything. Every last bit of it had been arranged.

"To kill me."

They probably wanted to eliminate me now, the person most opposed to Yuji's execution within that Mad Religious Group, someone who could even threaten the executioner. Even though Kai Sagami posed no threat to them at all.

Then they should have just let me die alone... "It would have been enough if only I died."

My death alone should have settled everything.

But what had actually happened?

I, the one who should have died, had been saved by Kai Sagami, the one who should have lived. He had protected me... at the cost of his life.

"Why... why?"

At myself for only realizing it now, at myself for only now gaining the power to kill a god, at myself for only now finding the words that might have stopped him.

Anger, regret, hatred, resentment. Seething with anger, regret, hatred, resentment.

My nails dug into the cold, unfeeling ground. Dirt lodged between my nails and skin, but even breaking my nails and drawing blood wasn't nearly enough.

I clenched my aching fingers into a fist and raised it. Though I knew it was pointless self-harm, I slammed it into the ground and sobbed until my voice broke.

He was my first friend. Probably the first friend I had made since coming to this world.

He had been a little timid, always worrying about something, keeping a small step between us. But that distance gradually shrank, from a full step to half a step behind me, then from half a step behind to walking side by side. He walked naturally beside me and took my hand with care.

He knew so many things I didn't. Games, manga, anime, things like that. He promised we would play together someday.

He knew a happiness I didn't have, and although he was a little embarrassed, he told me about it with a hint of pride. About his mother. He suggested we go see her together when we got back.

He told me about a me I hadn't known. The me who was so much weaker than everyone around me, yet worked harder than anyone. He told me with a serious expression and honest eyes.

"...No... no, Kai."

There were so many things I had promised to do with you.

There were so many things about me that only you knew.

There was only one place as my friend that only you could fill.

"Kai, Kai. Kai... Sagami."

No matter how many times I called, there was no answer.

No eyes looked back at me.

No hand reached toward me.

"Ah, ngh... aaaaah."

I made hoarse, wordless sounds, pouring out my emotions. Letting them overflow.

I wanted to drown in the tears spilling out of me. I wanted to drown in my own tears, in the tears that flowed because I missed Kai.

Just as I bowed my head and cried, almost rubbing my face against the ground.

Thud. Something hit my head.

Whatever struck the back of my head was hard, but didn't seem very heavy.

I slowly lifted my heavy head and picked up the thing that had hit me.

It was a rectangular phone with a black screen and an ugly Pokémon charm dangling from it.

I stared at it, my eyes wide.

"...Th-this is... Kai's."

What I held in my hand was Kai Sagami's phone.

Why was it here? Why had it hit my head?

As I thought about all this, I suddenly remembered that moment. When Kai had hugged me.

"...Did he put it in my hood?"

He must have slipped the phone into the hood of my uniform jacket when he hugged me. Right up until the end, he had been-how should I put it-so careful.

I gripped it tightly and pressed it to my chest.

(Other than this phone, there was nothing left to prove Kai had existed... Had he entrusted this to me?)

A cold, cold, lifeless screen.

It could not begin to compare to those warm, gentle hands. It was nothing more than an object.

The fingertips that had wiped away my tears, the hand that had stroked my hair so reluctantly-all of them were gone. Nothing remained of his body. That fact lay bare before me.

I bent my knees, curled in on myself, and bowed my head... clutching the phone as though it were his body.

Even without warmth, even without softness, no matter how small it had become, it was all I had left to prove Kai Sagami had existed. So I pressed that tiny proof of his existence tightly to my chest.

"...I'm sorry, Kai."

That "I'm sorry," laden with so many meanings, escaped as a faint sigh.

How long had I stayed like that? Dozens of minutes? Hours?

As I crouched there, motionless, a numbing sensation, almost like pain, suddenly shot through me.

A voice reached me, calling to the other half of me.

"...Haruka."

It was a voice I should not have been able to hear, one that should not have reached me. Why could I hear it? Was I hallucinating? None of that mattered now.

Only that the voice was so desperate. So much like that moment just before I lost Kai.

"My other half is calling me."

That feeling alone set my mouth and the Cursed Energy flowing through my body into motion of their own accord.

I could not let my other half suffer this pain and anguish.

That almost selfish thought alone drove my body and this world.

Shallower, still shallower. Wider, still wider.

Go find my other half, who is calling me. My tears will surely reach him.

As I felt the droplets falling from my eyes seep into the ground and spread in an instant, I opened my mouth.

"Domain Expansion: 'Clear Mirror, Still Water'."