Could Haruka Be the One Who Ate Sukuna's Fingers?

A low growl rose in my throat. Why, why did it always turn out like this... Was my partner too forgiving of other people? He actually wanted me, the one who had protected him, to bow my head to those who had tried to kill him?

"Well, how do I put this? You went way too far, Haruka. Someone had broken bones, someone had their shoulder gouged out, and someone else got a huge lump on the back of their head."

"That last one was a minor injury."

"Maybe so, but still. That doesn't change the fact that you hurt them, right?"

"Ms. Ieiri was the one who treated them, right? Then I'll only apologize to her."

"Oh, Shoko said, 'It's my job anyway, so it's fine.'"

""Please shut up, sir."" "Yes."

With Yuji holding me under my arms, we glared and growled at each other. At this rate, it would never end unless one of us gave in. Even so, I would rather die than apologize to anyone who wanted to kill Yuji. Our gazes clashed, neither of us willing to yield to the other's will.

Mr. Gojo filmed us on his phone, saying things like, "Wow, it's like a catfight." This wasn't a performance. We didn't need an audience. I'd charge him later.

I nimbly twisted my weightless body, swung around, and lashed out with a kick. Naturally, my target was Mr. Gojo's phone.

But he was our teacher for a reason. He dodged it easily. Shielding his phone with both hands, Mr. Gojo pointed at me.

"Hey, hey, Haruka!? I know you might be excited that you can suddenly move around, but rein it in a little."

"Mmm."

"A cute answer won't get you out of this. Come on, Yuji, give me a body slam-Boschoot."

Whoosh. I was plucked from Yuji's arms far too easily and held like a stuffed toy by our teacher. He rested his hard chin on my head and spoke from above me.

"Time to wrap up this brotherly squabble. Of course Haruka doesn't have to apologize, but why not go ask about Sagami? They used to attend the same school, after all. Maybe you can find something out."

"..."

"Hmm?"

"Fine. I'll go."

If Yuji almost gets killed again, I'll definitely finish him off this time.

Tucking away that secondary audio track-my inner thoughts-I reached out to Yuji and smiled at him.

"Sure, I'll go."

"You're being super arrogant, and you're usually lying when you smile."

What the hell. That really hurt, you know.

Noritoshi Kamo's POV

My injuries from the incident at the Sister-School Goodwill Event counted as minor. Nishimiya had several broken ribs, and I heard Mechamaru had been dismantled so thoroughly that he couldn't move and needed repairs. Miwa had her shoulder gouged out and passed out from hemorrhagic shock. Todo apparently sustained injuries fighting a special grade cursed spirit.

But consider it carefully. "Haruka Itadori single-handedly incapacitated four sorcerers." That was an extremely serious situation.

"The Itadori faction has far too much of an advantage..."

Allowing a special grade cursed spirit-and the vessel of Ryomen Sukuna, no less-to live was utterly outrageous. I couldn't understand why the people at Tokyo Jujutsu High were protecting him, much less why that troublesome Satoru Gojo had taken their side. Then there was Haruka Itadori, a semi-special grade jujutsu sorcerer who wielded his power however he pleased.

Yes. Every single person who wanted Sukuna's vessel to survive was far too strong.

At this rate, things would unfold as Ryomen Sukuna wished, and the King of Calamities might manifest in this world. As the legitimate heir of the Kamo Clan, I absolutely had to prevent that. As a jujutsu sorcerer, I couldn't stand idly by either. No matter what, I had to stop those brothers. With that renewed resolve, I lightly clenched a fist before my chest.

Since I had disgracefully lost consciousness and dropped out of the Goodwill Event, I still had plenty of strength to spare. In contrast, Yuji Itadori should have had nothing left after his fierce battles against a special grade cursed spirit and our faction. Moreover, I heard his threatening younger brother was still asleep from exhaustion and the effects of his Heavenly Restriction.

If there's another chance, it has to be now.

With that thought, I raised my head.

"Oh, there you are!"

His timing was almost too perfect. There he was-the utterly oblivious vessel of Sukuna, running toward me with that stupid face. He waved vigorously, trying to get my attention.

"Um, not Konjac, and not Guardian..."

"It's Kamo."

How did he manage to get my name wrong in such an oddly fitting way? Was he provoking me, or was he simply an idiot? I narrowed my eyes at him despite myself, but he smiled without a shred of guilt.

"Sorry, Kamo-senpai(?). There's something I wanted to..."

The way he pattered toward me made him look less like Sukuna's vessel and more like a dog...

"...Yuji, step back."

He even comes with a 'bonus.'

When the figure hidden behind Yuji Itadori emerged, I felt the urge to look skyward and heave a long sigh. The other half of Sukuna's vessel... Haruka Itadori stood there looking displeased. One eye was covered with bandages, just as before, but the other glimmered a rusty hue. That appraising, penetrating gaze sent a chill down my spine.

"What gives? Didn't we agree you'd apologize properly? Haruka, lying isn't nice."

As expected, it was the older brother, Yuji Itadori, who broke that ominous atmosphere. Apparently intending to make him apologize to me, he said something to his younger brother in a reproachful tone. But the younger brother ignored him entirely, turning his gaze toward empty space with a look of annoyance and playing dumb... like a cat.

Even so, after his older brother had made a fuss for a while, Haruka Itadori narrowed his eyes and gave a slight nod in greeting. The angle was about what one would use to say, "Oh, hello."

"There, I lowered my head. Nobody specified an angle, so we're done."

"Aww, Haruka!"

"...I never once said I'd 'apologize.' I don't think I did anything wrong."

Pure sophistry. Apparently, he had never intended to apologize in the first place. Well, that was only natural. Apologizing to an opponent who had come to kill you made no sense. In that regard, perhaps the younger brother was the more normal one.

"Hey."

The voice interrupting my thoughts was remarkably clear. It was a not particularly low mezzo-soprano, at odds with his age.

"Do you know 'Kai Sagami'?"

The question was extremely simple. Did I know this person? That was all. And I did.

"Ah, I've only heard his name. He's a first-year, isn't he?"

We had barely spoken, and our missions had never overlapped, so I didn't know much about him as a person. I remembered hearing the other day that he had died on a mission... Well, that happened often enough in our line of work. He had simply been unlucky.

As I recalled that, a sudden chill came over me. It felt like a blade had been lightly pressed against me, and my body shuddered involuntarily.

"...?"

No, nothing had actually changed. Haruka Itadori was looking at me just as before, and his older brother was looking down at him in disapproval. Had that chill been my imagination?

"I see. You don't know him."

The younger brother murmured expressionlessly, then lowered his eyes. His lashes, slightly longer than his brother's, cast shadows over his irises. A few seconds later, he raised his eyelids again and casually caught hold of Yuji Itadori's shirt hem.

"What's wrong?"

He asked while attentively studying his younger brother's face, and the younger brother smiled at him.

"Let's head back. I'm sleepy."

His expression didn't quite match his words, but it was fine as long as they left. I had no interest in deliberately stepping into a minefield.

He tugged on the hem he held to send his brother ahead, then pushed at his tall back to hurry him along. They looked exactly like "ordinary brothers who got along well." I could truly sense that, until a few months ago, that was what they had been.

His younger brother is here today too. I can't make a move.

Giving myself that excuse, I decided to leave.

I passed Yuji Itadori, who was indulging his younger brother with an air of "What am I going to do with you?" Then I passed Haruka Itadori, who was pushing him from behind and complaining that he was sleepy.

Whoosh.

"...!?"

Almost simultaneously, a hand with raised, jet-black claws lunged at me.

That arm of Haruka Itadori's clearly did not belong to him. Veins bulged across it, beastlike black claws sprouted from its fingers, and distinctive black tattoos marked its wrist. Asking "What is that?" would have been a stupid question.

But just as it was about to reach my face, the arm suddenly slackened... and stopped dead before the tip of my nose.

Cold sweat poured out of me, and my breath stopped. The overwhelming pressure of a king nearly crushed me. I even forgot to blink, able only to stare at the palm before my eyes.

That movement seemed to say, "I can kill you whenever I want." I could no longer do anything.

The other party seemed to sense that as well, and the tension vanished in an instant. Finally releasing my held breath, I tried to bring Haruka Itadori, who was pushing his brother from behind, into view.

"There won't be a next time."

A voice rang beside my ear, rather high for a man. It was the same voice I had heard earlier.

My throat seized. I swallowed the carbon dioxide I should have exhaled.

As I turned, Haruka Itadori glanced back at me as well. Those vivid, blood-red eyes pierced me. The moment I saw them curve and twist into crescents, I finally coughed out the breath stuck in my throat.

...The truly dangerous one is the younger brother.

Satoru Gojo's POV

I watched the Itadori twins leave the room, saying they were going to "see the people from Kyoto Jujutsu High." Stretching and announcing, "Guess I'll get to work," I set my brain to pondering something. Yes, an incident.

The nature-based special grade cursed spirit that had barged into the Sister-School Goodwill Event the other day wasn't the issue. That cursed spirit had ultimately been nothing more than a decoy. The real targets were the stolen Sukuna's Fingers and the cursed womb: death paintings. It was reasonable to assume someone... no, some people hostile to us had stolen them. But one thing bothered me.

"The seals on Sukuna's Fingers were left there."

All the seals used to suppress Sukuna's power had been discarded in the storeroom. Naturally, that suggested the thief had eaten the fingers.

"Even if one cursed spirit ate that many, as long as it isn't Sukuna's vessel... it can't resurrect Ryomen Sukuna anyway."

What could they have been trying to accomplish by removing all the seals at once? That alone remained a complete mystery.

I scratched my head, irritated by the answer that refused to come. Maybe I should just make some tea and wait for the twins to return. A change of pace-something I didn't usually do. With that thought, I hauled myself to my feet.

Then, a few minutes later...

I welcomed the twins back sooner than expected.

"Welcome back! Have you two made up?"

"I'm back, sir. I'm fine, at least... Hey, Haruka."

"...(Hmph.)"

One was his usual self. The other... seemed to be in a bad mood. He had turned his face away and was pouting, clearly broadcasting, "I'm really annoyed right now." Yep, he was sulking.

I quietly approached Haruka, who looked like a haughty cat, and placed a hand on his fluffy head. As I tousled his hair, which felt just as wonderful as ever today, I casually turned his face so he could see it.

"...!"

Hmm, like a cat that's spotted a Churu treat.

Haruka, letting me move him around, gave a slight twitch of his nose. Then he slowly raised his head, his rust-colored eye gradually widening. The way he stretched his neck with a little "Mmm" really was catlike.

"Tea."

"Yep, that's right."

"Green tea."

"Yep. I brewed it, so it should be proper green tea."

His earlier displeasure had vanished somewhere, and the boy gazed with shining eyes at the table laid out with tea things. I couldn't help chuckling and casually signaled his older brother with my eyes. It meant, "Could you give us a moment?" Yuji caught on, grinned, gave me a thumbs-up, and quietly left the room.

As soon as I took my hand off his head, Haruka approached the table at a snail's pace and plopped down. Was sitting cross-legged a habit of his?

Looking at him sitting there like a cat waiting to be fed made me want to laugh again, but I was afraid he would sulk if I made him "wait" any longer. I approached the table as well and picked up the teapot. It had steeped just long enough, and a respectable aroma drifted past my nose.

I readied Haruka's personal hedgehog mug and poured in the tea.

"...!!"

His eye visibly lit up. Though bandages painfully covered his right eye, the exposed left eye shifted expressively through different shades. Watching those changes was something I enjoyed more than I would have expected.

"Here you go." "Mm."

I carefully handed him the still-hot mug and looked down as he took a sip. From the way he let out a little breath afterward, it apparently wasn't bad.

"Thank you, Mr. Gojo."

That face wouldn't show an expression of "happiness." Even so, knowing that this was the real Haruka Itadori gave me an inexplicable sense of privilege, and a smile tugged at my lips.

"You're welcome. I'm glad a beginner's tea didn't turn out awful."

"It's good. It feels really comforting."

Faced with a student who said something so gratifying, I couldn't resist bringing out my treasured tea snacks... Well, you could say that was inevitable.

"Come to think of it, I haven't told you or Yuji yet. Sukuna's Fingers were stolen."

"...My brother's fingers?"

When I tossed the topic I'd been pondering to Haruka, he lifted his head slightly. Then, seemingly uninterested, he went back to folding something out of a snack wrapper. The absurdly high quality of the head he had folded caught my attention.

"It looks like the cursed spirit that broke into the school ate them. Hmm... Something about it still doesn't sit right with me."

"So someone besides Yuji likes weird stuff."

"Seriously. What would make anyone want to eat something like that?"

"Ask Yuji."

As our low-key conversation continued, I apparently grew thirsty and asked Haruka for a tiny sip from his mug. The unseasonable heat, followed by the rush of astringency and bitterness, made me frown.

"Bitter... You like some pretty weird stuff yourself, Haruka."

"That's different."

When I returned the hedgehog mug to its owner, he turned the rim to the side opposite where I had drunk and swallowed with obvious enjoyment, his Adam's apple bobbing. Watching him, I made a joke, even though I thought it was impossible.

"Could you be the one who ate Sukuna's Fingers, Haruka?"

He stopped moving and set the empty mug on the table.

"No way."

His brows furrowed, the corners of his eyes drooped, and he smiled.

The folded paper tiger on the table seemed to be trying to tell me something, but never mind. I picked up the impressively crafted piece and pestered Haruka to fold two more. In the end, he would only make one.