After losing Kai Sagami, I sank into a deep depression. My other half, Yuji, did exactly as he had promised, doing everything he could to care for me when I could barely move.
And, unexpectedly, there was someone else, too.
"Harukaaa, say something funny."
Gojo was lying on the couch, holding me like a body pillow. My teacher often stayed by my side, as though trying to comfort me in my grief.
"Your pecs are softer than Yuji's."
"Huh? No way. Really?"
I had meant it as a joke, but Gojo took me seriously and started kneading his own chest.
"Wow, is it because I haven't been exercising properly lately? Have I really lost to the younger generation?" he muttered. But, sir, I thought you ought to pay a little more attention to reality.
Because the guy reading a newspaper on the couch diagonally across from us had ducked behind it, looking as though he had seen something filthy. He had definitely gotten the wrong idea.
But my teacher remained oblivious, lost in his own little world, so I couldn't be bothered to do anything about it.
I gently rested my head against his chest, which was distinctly harder than Yuji's.
"Good night."
Just as I was about to fall asleep as usual-
"Ah! Sir!!"
An enormous shout interrupted me, driving my drowsiness away.
"Let's hurry over to everyone else."
My other half, Yuji, was full of energy first thing in the morning... far too much energy. Frowning, I buried my face in my pillow-Gojo-and endured the roaring noise battering my ears. I had thrown any sense of shame out the window long ago.
But the merciless footsteps drew closer. "Oh," he exclaimed again.
"Haruka and Nanamin are here, too."
His voice seemed to come from directly above me, so I reluctantly lifted my head.
"Mmm... so sleepy."
Once I had lain down, getting up again made my head swim. My other half didn't understand that suffering.
I spoke in the raspy voice peculiar to someone who had just woken up, and heard wry chuckles from two directions.
"Haruka, want something to drink? You probably shouldn't go see everyone with your voice like that."
"That voice is amazing. Can I record it?"
Anyway, the latter was absolutely out of the question. Shaking off the urge to let my head fall backward again, I slammed my forehead into his face.
Then, moving as slowly as a bear emerging from hibernation, I climbed off my now-silent blanket-Gojo-and walked over to Yuji.
"Fruit tea. Strawberry."
"You got it. Not green tea for once, huh?"
"...Mmm. Not in the mood for that right now."
Chatting like that, I followed him to the kitchenette.
Slurp, slurp...
Making noises that had no business accompanying black tea, I sipped the liquid in my cup. Its sweetness and tartness stood out more than ordinary black tea's, flowing down my throat and deep into my stomach.
"Whew. My throat's probably better now."
I said that after drinking half the iced tea, and Yuji smiled from the seat opposite me.
"Yeah? That's good."
His sunny smile calmed me down. Then I offered my cup to the adult pretending to sleep beside me.
"Gojo, you can have the rest. It's a little too sweet for me."
The moment I finished speaking, a hand darted out and snatched the cup from me. Still lying down, he drained it in one go.
He let out a long "Pah!" afterward.
"Is it really that sweet? It's not sweet enough for me."
Hearing that, I frowned and glared at him.
"Future diabetes patient."
"Completely agreed."
The agreement came from the newspaper-reading guy diagonally across from us. Despite it being summer, he had a steaming cup of coffee beside him.
"Also, Haruka, giving others something you've already drunk from is inadvisable, both in terms of personal development and hygiene. Please refrain from doing so."
The man offering this thoroughly reasonable opinion was apparently Yuji's companion on missions, a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer named Mr. Nanami. My other half had told me he was "a good person," but I hadn't learned anything else about him.
"Okay. Got it."
I answered with a brief nod, receiving only a look of approval filled with adult authority. However-
"Aww, I'm not some stranger! I'm Haruka's actual teacher."
Childish Gojo apparently wanted to make a nuisance of himself. He sprang upright and hugged me, but I wished he wouldn't. Pressed against his warmth, the drowsiness that had faded was about to return.
My fervent wish was in vain, though. His solid body pressed snugly against mine, warm and cozy.
Ah... I'm going to fall asleep.
Too lazy even to complain, I closed my eyes.
His warmth, his firm chest, and the steady thumping of his heart soothed me, drawing me toward sleep.
"Hey! Haruka! We're going to see everyone. You can't sleep."
My other half actually interfered.
Using nothing but arm strength, Yuji pulled me out of Gojo's embrace and gathered me up like a child. He was carrying me bridal-style.
Sway, sway.
I hung in the air in Yuji's arms. Looking up at us, our teacher said-
"Oh! I've got a great idea!"
Maybe I should have just stayed asleep earlier.
Mr. Nanami and I exchanged looks for a few seconds as he sipped his coffee, then nodded and sighed as though reaching an unspoken understanding. At that moment, I became certain he was the most normal person in this religious school.
"Here, Haruka, wrap this around yourself. Yuji, get in this box."
"Bandages..." "...A box and a cart."
We stared blankly at the things Gojo had prepared.
One of us fixed Gojo with a deeply suspicious stare, while the other looked at the same man with sparkling, expectant eyes.
"Well, isn't this supposed to be a touching reunion? We don't get many chances like this, so I wanted to make it a surprise☆"
No, a surprise...? We weren't elementary school kids.
But Yuji was practically bouncing with excitement beside me. Spoiling his fun by being difficult felt a little cruel.
With no other choice, we followed his instructions and began methodically preparing the surprise.
"But, sir. I don't really need to do anything, do I?"
"Well, you could wear an eye patch over your right eye instead... but bandages really suit the edgy role-player look better."
What exactly does this guy think I am...?
In the end, I wound up being the one pushing the cart with Yuji's box on it.
"Wait... Sir, this thing weighs a ton."
There was no way someone as weak as me could push something with a person sitting on it. I pushed with every ounce of strength I had, but it didn't budge.
"Oh dear. You really don't have any muscle, Haruka."
"Haruka, want me to take over?"
"No. If you come out, Yuji, it won't be a surprise. That'd just be a surprise with the present already exposed."
"Oh, true."
I pushed Yuji's peeking head back into the box and held both arms out toward my teacher.
"Too much trouble. Carry me."
As his long arms lifted me effortlessly, I thought-
Why didn't we just do this from the start?
Gojo carried me over his shoulder while Yuji was transported inside the box on the cart. We moved at quite a speed, then screeched to a halt upon spotting a crowd.
"Sorryyy to keep you waiting!!"
Overexcited, my teacher made sure to cut right through the middle of the crowd. Impressive.
Being carried like that had already left me half-dead. I fought to keep down whatever was rising in my throat.
"Huh, Haruka... it's you." "! You..."
Kugisaki and Fushiguro stared at me, wide-eyed.
It really had been a long time since I had seen those two. Counting from before my mission, it had been over four weeks.
"Hey! What happened to your eye?!"
Despite this being our long-awaited reunion, Kugisaki abruptly grabbed my face, her gaze fixed on my right eye.
"Oh... this?"
The spot I gently touched was my bandage-covered eye.
It was an injury from the mission. Probably a scar that would remain "incurable" for the rest of my life.
"Just a little injury."
"That doesn't look little by any stretch."
Fushiguro looked at me with concern, too. He glanced toward the infirmary, as though asking, "Why not have Ieiri treat it?"
But I wouldn't accept that suggestion. This injury couldn't be erased.
"There's a sight reflected in here that I don't want to forget."
The red dawn illuminating the mountaintop. The broken sword planted in the ground, gleaming in that light.
And... that figure from behind, seared deep into my vision even through my hazy consciousness.
I couldn't forget. I absolutely didn't want to forget. That sight remained there.
A sharp ache. Enduring the pain in my chest, I raised the corners of my mouth and smiled.
"Well... don't worry. I'm fine."
"Exactly! Haruka's just having a slightly late-onset edgy phase lately. Don't pay him too much mind."
Gojo returned after greeting the people standing opposite Kugisaki and Fushiguro. In the process, he swept away the slightly heavy atmosphere.
"Huh...?"
"See? It seems to have gotten worse since he entered this world."
...I should just stay quiet and leave this to him.
He draped an arm around my shoulders and turned toward the crowd opposite us.
"Haruka, Haruka. That old man in the corner was one of the people who supported executing Yuji last time. He's the leader of that group, in fact."
He pointed at an old man in the corner who looked exactly like the sort of elder who made everyone's life worse.
"And he said, 'Yuji is a scourge on the world, so we have to kill him.' What do you think?"
Throwing such a troublesome topic at me... he knew perfectly well what my answer would be.
"Then it's simple. We just smash that rotten world... without Yuji... to pieces."
"Right?☆"
I thought I had answered quite seriously, but some people gave me pitying looks, while others stared at me in utter fear.
Seriously? Was it that edgy?
Feeling a little self-conscious, I touched my right eye, then suddenly noticed something.
Yuji, inside the box on the cart.
"Yuji, are there no air holes?"
"I'm... dying of heat."
He lifted the lid halfway and panted for breath.
Of course being shut in a box without air holes in summer would be unbearably hot. But still-
"You've spoiled the surprise, you know?"
"Uh."
Yuji threw the lid open, and Kugisaki and Fushiguro were already surrounding him with quite the expressions on their faces.
Watching them, I let out a little snort of laughter.
Yeah. This is how it should be.
To hide my happiness, I watched Yuji's friends getting angry with my other half. Thank goodness their faces hadn't turned gloomy, and the Yuji standing before them wasn't wearing a dark expression.
"Now... where should I go?"
Scratching the back of my neck, I stepped forward with my right foot. Watching the almost excessively dazzling trio, I turned my back on them and slowly walked away.
Just then-
"Ah..."
"Hmm?"
Suddenly, I met the eyes of the boy in the corner. There was something clinging and sticky about the atmosphere around him, and a little envy showed in his gaze... or so it seemed.
"You're the friend who was with Yuji back then, right?"
I asked to make sure, and received a nod and an affirmative reply.
"Yes. Um... thank you so much for what you did back then."
He thanked me earnestly and was about to bow, but I gently stopped him.
"No need to thank me. Helping Yuji's friends is only natural for me.
More importantly, go over to him."
"Huh? But..."
I gently nudged his hesitant, shrinking back.
"Come on. If you don't hurry, he'll come looking for you."
I gave him a light pat there.
This time, I really did turn my back.
"...I really couldn't say which side I envied."
No one there heard that murmur.
Well, despite making a stylish exit from the crowd, sixteen-year-old Haruka Itadori had gotten hopelessly lost.
Anyway, I kept walking through somewhere that looked like a forest, killed a few disgusting-looking monsters I ran into, and finally reached a place with a proper building.
"Ah... I can't sense anyone I know."
One, two, three... seven.
There were seven people, but I didn't know any of them.
Well, if I'm lost, I can just be honest and ask them to take me back to everyone, right?
I ambled leisurely toward the place where they were gathered. As I got closer, they seemed to be discussing something... no, they were holding a strategy meeting.
I felt bad about interrupting them... and was just about to stop.
"Sukuna's vessel, Yuji Itadori, must be killed."
"Huh?"
The sliding door muffled his voice a little, but the old man's remark wasn't something I could ignore.
That one sentence was enough to hit my sore spot, and he kept talking.
"That creature is not human. Therefore, no one will be held accountable. Everything will be treated as an accident.
There is no need for concern or hesitation."
Announcing plans to assassinate my other half right under my nose... seriously, how little did they think of me?
Fortunately, my heavenly restriction suited stealth, too. I could become so utterly languid that even my very existence registered to those around me as nothing more than an anonymous passerby... that was within my capabilities.
As my mind grew cold, I let out a heavy breath.
Then I slipped soundlessly into the room behind that sliding door... and no one noticed me.
"I hear Yuji Itadori's previous death was a suicide..."
"That's not right."
Ah, crap. I was going to quietly cut the old man's head off, but I got so angry I spoke without thinking.
My icy voice echoed softly through the room.
At the same time, I felt everyone's eyes snap toward me.
"What? Where did you...!"
The voice came from behind me, from a narrow-eyed man.
"Ah, when did you get here?"
Diagonally behind me, a woman glared at me fiercely, standing as though she were shielding one arm.
Other piercing stares came from all around, but the old man in front of me mattered more right now.
"Yuji didn't kill himself. You drove him to that point, didn't you?"
I spoke with my hand resting on the Inverted Spear of Heaven at my waist, and tension instantly gripped the room.
"What are you trying to do, Haruka Itadori...!"
I felt disgust toward this man, who only took off his villain's mask at crucial moments.
I could strongly sense negative emotions like hostility and fear all around me... even murderous intent.
"'What am I trying to do'...? Are you out of your mind?
You decided to kill my other half on your own. Could you seriously not imagine I'd retaliate?"
Seven against one. I was at a complete disadvantage, but I could easily turn the situation around.
I eased my hand away from my waist and slid it up to my face instead.
"Huh? Um... I remember Satoru Gojo saying something about a 'character with delusions of grandeur,' right?"
A girl with strange bangs said that. Unfortunately, she'd guessed wrong.
I caught the end of the bandages that teacher had wrapped tightly around me and unwound them with a swish.
Then I gave them a hard tug. They came away surprisingly easily, and the white strips fluttered through the air.
And beneath them... an eye scarred and colored like the morning sky was revealed.
"This eye can't reflect anything anymore. But... there's a scene burned into it that won't go away.
It looks like it's about to start crying any second, doesn't it?"
A small tear pooled at the corner of my eye and slid down.
My left eye, which still reflected reality, caught the approaching bullet, fist, wind blade, and something made of blood.
Are you really that scared of one kid? My lips were just beginning to tremble...
"All riiight, that's enough."
Clang, thud, splat, squelch.
Along with that flippant voice, something warm covered my right eye, and everything stopped mere centimeters away from me.
Bullets, blood, slashes, all hanging in midair.
I only knew one person who could pull off a trick like this.
"Satoru... Gojo!!"
The gazes that had been glaring at me shifted to a point just above me. Receiving those stares, my teacher laughed overhead.
"Oh, well, I heard my kid got lost, so I came to pick him up."
His warm hand brushed gently over my exposed eye.
"Look, look. Haruka was so scared after getting lost that he cried, see? You were lonely without everyone, weren't you?"
He cradled my head from behind and stroked it gently, as though soothing a child... or treating me like a cat or dog.
I was about to protest, but the hand stroking me covered my mouth.
Clatter, clatter...
The sound of bullets hitting the floor.
At the same time, I felt a suffocating weight press down. I tilted my head slightly in the icy air.
"So? Who was it... that made my student cry?"
I realized the voice came from directly overhead.
I looked up, and there was Gojo-sensei, still dressed entirely in black, with his black blindfold and that strange hairstyle of white hair standing on end. Except the aura surrounding him was unusually oppressive.
As he carefully covered my right eye to keep anyone else from seeing it, he radiated menace in every direction.
"I... I don't know. That brat acted first."
"Ohh, is that so?"
He gave the old man's answer a dismissive response.
Then, with a little "up we go," he hoisted me onto his shoulder and smiled.
"Well, if anyone had done something to Haruka, I was planning to kill them, you know."
That wasn't something to say with a smile. Besides, wasn't saying "kill them" a little inappropriate for a teacher?
I gave him a reproachful look, but he didn't even glance at me. Nor did he seem inclined to put me down.
"All right, then. We'll be going."
He strode brazenly on his long legs through the dumbstruck men and women.
Swaying on his shoulder, I picked up the fallen bandages on the way.
"Haruka? There's a limit to how much you can go off and do whatever you want."
"No, I really just got lost."
"Huh, really? I gave you a map and everything, didn't I?"
"...Which way is north, south, east, or west?"
"Ah... so that's what we're dealing with."
We had that conversation as he carried me through the forest. He shifted me from his shoulder to tucked under his arm... though I kind of wanted to walk myself.
I gently patted his back, but he didn't put me down.
"Hm?"
He'd kept saying things like "Walk on your own a little" before.
As I wondered about that, the Gojo taxi suddenly stopped. Then he repositioned me so he was holding me against his chest.
"Hm??"
I tilted my head slightly, and he gave a somewhat hesitant "Hmm..."
"Haruka, you don't have to push yourself."
That was what he said. There wasn't any teasing in his voice, and my eyes widened a little.
"You're using your Cursed Technique to 'pretend' you're living normally, aren't you?
I understand that you don't want Yuji to worry, but if you push yourself until you collapse..."
"Mm-mm, that's not it."
I gave a wry smile at my teacher's mistaken guess. Only after he mentioned it did I notice my exhaustion, and I rested my heavy head on his shoulder.
That much was true. I was releasing my Cursed Technique a little.
But that was because...
"Sorry for worrying you. This... isn't conscious."
"Not... conscious..."
This time, he seemed to be the surprised one.
But there was nothing strange about it to me.
"The reason I release my Cursed Technique like this just to be 'normal' is that I'm afraid I won't be able to protect someone important because of something like 'languor.'"
The heavenly restriction I received before coming to this world: "Languor." It was true that I'd asked God for "a world where I could laze my days away."
But that wasn't what I really wanted. It wasn't what truly mattered.
What truly mattered was the people around me who made it possible for me to spend my days being lazy.
Yuji, Grandpa, my brother, Gojo-sensei, Kugisaki, Fushiguro... and Kai.
I should have known that, yet I'd forgotten even something so simple and lost a friend. That was unacceptable, and I would never let it happen again.
"While I'm asleep, someone important might get hurt. While I can't move, I might lose someone important.
Without even noticing, I could be the only one being protected... and a life might slip through my hands.
To avoid that, I have to be someone who can fight 'normally' and protect others 'normally.' Maybe that selfish thought is driving me unconsciously."
I grinned.
Normally, my facial muscles wouldn't move. Normally, I wouldn't ramble on this much, either.
Gojo-sensei looked at me through his blindfold, and whatever he was thinking, he suddenly brought his face close.
Our foreheads touched.
Well, he was wearing his blindfold, so there was fabric between us.
"...Haah, honestly. Aren't you a little too good?"
"Not as good as Yuji."
"If you ask me, you're about the same."
He sounded so exasperated that I felt a little annoyed.
"Well, all right. Whenever you're with me, you can sleep."
"Sensei, were you listening?"
My brow furrowed further at the sudden suggestion.
But he lifted the corners of his mouth smugly and said, "Of course."
"Because I'm the strongest."
Then came that familiar line.
"I'm the strongest, so nothing can hurt me, and you don't have to worry about me either, right, Haruka?"
"..."
I thought that was some seriously flimsy reasoning, but I'd never beaten him, so I couldn't deny it.
"So," he said with a smile.
"Whenever you're with me, you can be as lazy as you want, sleep as long as you want, and drink whatever you want."
"..."
"It's okay to put on a brave face around Yuji. Around Megumi, Nobara, and Junpei, too.
But if being around them starts to hurt... come to me then."
"...If you say that, I might never leave, you know?"
"My adorable student is more than welcome."
"You won't get angry, no matter how lazy I am?"
"I won't. Who knows, I might even start lazing around with you."
"You'll keep it a secret from Yuji?"
"Of course. It'll be our secret, Haruka."
"...Will you have green tea?"
"I don't drink it, but I'll get some for you."
...After all that, I'd lost completely.
I gave up resisting, relaxed my whole body, and wrapped my arms around Gojo-sensei's neck.
"Then I'll take you up on that."
Yuji was surrounded by lots of friends, smiling at the center of them all. As his other half, that should have made me incredibly happy, too... it should have.
But I couldn't stop myself from wondering.
Why wasn't Kai by my side?
Not even one of Yuji's many friends was beside me.
Watching Yuji and the others like this, I would be crushed by that feeling... so empty and lonely.
That was why I was truly grateful for Gojo-sensei's suggestion.
Even if he served sweets sugary enough to kill me, I would probably forgive him as long as there was green tea... that was how happy I was.
Kamo's point of view
After Haruka Itadori nearly ambushed the principal, and Satoru Gojo barged in.
We reaffirmed our objective for this sister-school exchange event.
"Eliminate both Yuji Itadori and Haruka."
During the ambush, Haruka Itadori had appeared before the principal without a sound. Not one of the seven people present had noticed him.
He was an enormous threat. Furthermore, Mai Zenin and Todo had fought him before; one had lost an arm, while the other had reportedly been saved by Satoru Gojo.
His bandaged right eye also remained a mystery.
We had already received intelligence that he could use Domain Expansion, but the details were unknown.
(...Then the first one we need to kill is Sukuna's vessel.)
Upon spotting our target facing off against Todo, the four of us quickly readied our respective weapons, preparing to eliminate him.
Beams, guns, arrows, blades, fists.
He was alone, with nowhere to escape.
I loosed an arrow at that stupid, astonished face, and at that very instant-
"Moths to a flame. That describes you lot, doesn't it?"
The voice came from overhead.
It was... the voice of one of our elimination targets, who had suddenly appeared during the strategy meeting.
(Impossible. I'm up in a tree!)
When I looked up.
I saw Haruka Itadori lounging on a slender branch, looking down at us.
He was like a supple cat... no, those eyes brought a feline predator to mind. His mouth twisted... and he pointed at us.
"Haze Strike."
Meanwhile, Satoru Gojo was in the monitoring room with Junpei Yoshino, Utahime, and the principal of Kyoto Jujutsu High, watching the screens... or not. He was staring at his phone screen, wrestling with something.
"What are you doing at a time like this...?"
Utahime asked wearily, and Gojo lifted his head a little.
"I'm wondering whether I should pick up some Gyokuro Tea while I'm at it~."
"Huh??"
Before you continue