I'm Strong... So I'll Protect Haruka

Yuji Itadori's point of view

"...Haruka, Haruka! Where are you, Haruka?!"

Calling my younger twin brother's name, I ran all over Shibuya Station.

While I was facing Choso, water had suddenly risen around my feet... then vanished in the blink of an eye. Not just Choso, but all the other cursed spirits that should have been there had disappeared too.

I immediately realized it was Haruka's Domain Expansion, so I abandoned the fight and ran off to find my brother.

As I ran, calling Haruka's name, I came across Kugisaki helping an injured Fushiguro along. I wanted to help, but Kugisaki stopped me. "Go find Haruka!" she said. So I forced down my worry and followed the traces of cursed energy.

Splash, splash. The sound of splashing water grated on my nerves.

I wanted to take off my sneakers, heavy with the water they'd soaked up.

"Haruka! Haruka-!"

My voice echoed through the station, but it didn't seem to reach the person I wanted to hear it.

"Where are you, Haruka?! You're here, right?!"

I ran down the stairs, looked around, and rushed toward anything that looked like a person. I did that over and over, but I couldn't find that slightly hunched back or that pink ball of fluff.

...This used to happen a lot.

"Haruka! Where'd you go, Haruka-?!"

I'd call his name like that, over and over, running all over town.

When I got back to Grandpa's house, all I found was a black schoolbag carelessly dumped on the floor. My brother was nowhere in the house. Worried, I forgot all about my plans with my friends and ran out to look for him.

Haruka was good at "hide-and-seek." No matter where I searched or how many neighborhood ladies I asked, I couldn't find him.

But I kept looking without giving up, calling his name again and again.

It wasn't until evening, as the sun sank in the west, that he finally answered me from a tree, looking guilty.

A little annoyed, but a little embarrassed too.

"You don't have to keep calling. I can hear you."

The voices overlapped, as though the memory of the past had layered itself over the present. I whipped my head toward the sound.

The voice had come from... the opposite platform.

Haruka stood there alone, looking at me with the same eyes he'd had back then.

But his bloodstained hands, the curse markings covering his body, and his ominous cursed energy all showed he was no longer the same.

"Haruka..."

I stopped, my feet suddenly heavy, and an unusually loud splash rang out.

"...I've been waiting, Yuji."

My brother watched it all with emotionless eyes, none of the sluggishness of his Heavenly Restriction left in him, and jumped down from the platform onto the tracks. Water splashed outward around Haruka... glittering under the station lights.

As gravity drew the droplets back down to the water.

"We both have things we won't back down on."

That utterly familiar voice declared it.

His eyes, one rust-colored and the other the color of dawn, pierced through me, conveying a will that would never bend.

"You understand, don't you, Yuji?"

He roughly wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his fist and tightened his grip on his blade.

Seeing that, I knew I had no choice but to commit.

I'd planned to give Haruka a talking-to and one good punch, then call it done. Looks like that won't settle this.

I understood now. A lecture alone wasn't going to stop him.

"...Yeah. I do."

I answered him and jumped down from the platform onto the tracks too. Splash! The spray rose like a wall dividing us.

At the sight of it, Haruka readied his weapon and spoke.

"I hate it. This thing called jujutsu.

It took away my ordinary life, took away my friends, and now it even wants to take Yuji."

His dawn-colored eye lowered slightly, its color deepening as though sinking into memories.

"So I've decided. I'm going to destroy that world.

A world that abandoned the ocean, a world that wants to erase Yuji... I don't need any of it."

I could feel his grip tighten around the blade.

That alone showed how firm Haruka's resolve was.

"...Haruka, even so, I need this world."

I said the exact opposite. I'd indulged Haruka's whims countless times, and I'd always considered myself someone who understood him.

But this was the one thing I couldn't back down on.

"This world is incredibly cruel. There's plenty of pain and sadness.

But there are kind people too. Like Gojo, Fushiguro, Kugisaki, Nanami, and Junpei.

I know there are lots of people like them."

I tightened the fists I'd raised too.

"So if you're saying you'll destroy this world, then I'll protect it."

I kept my gaze fixed ahead, glaring at the enemy before me.

"Just like you're willing to turn everyone but me into corpses to protect your convictions...

I'll crush those convictions... and protect my friends, and your heart too!!"

After I said that, Haruka kept his gaze fixed on me... and lightly tossed something over.

Splash... clank.

That dull impact was Haruka's blade landing on the tracks.

"...!"

I stared in shock, but Haruka simply watched me with those emotionless eyes. Ignoring my confusion, he gestured toward the fallen blade with his chin.

"Pick it up, Yuji."

"...Haruka."

"Pick it up, Yuji."

"...!"

It felt as though a cold, towering wall stood there. Somehow, that was the impression I got.

As though something heavy had crushed the thread connecting Haruka and me, separating us.

"The people here aren't 'Yuji Itadori' and 'Haruka Itadori.' They're you, called 'Yuji,' and me, called 'Haruka.'"

In a way, those words were the same as severing our bond.

"'Crush my convictions'... If you think that's all it'll take to stop me, you're dead wrong.

If you want to stop me, if you want to protect your friends... make me stop breathing. Show me you've got what it takes."

My brother was suggesting we kill each other. I bit my lip and grasped the cursed tool. The cold blade weighed heavily in my hand, as though it were the weight in my heart.

I tightened my grip again.

"86% release."

With those words, the small figure before me vanished from sight.

Then the blade I'd reflexively raised, sensing an attack coming, collided violently with something slashing down at me.

My arms felt heavy. Numb.

The blow had come too fast to see, and its weight was terrifying.

The grating noise of blades locking, rubbing, and scraping against each other made my skin crawl.

"Ugh... ngh, aaah!!"

Realizing my arms wouldn't hold, I knocked the strike away with brute force alone.

Haruka really is trying to kill me...!

If I hadn't sensed the attack aimed at my neck just now, he would have sliced it open and killed me. I had to take this seriously too.

The instant I thought that.

A sharp impact slammed into my chin, rattling my brain. The scene before me warped, and I became slow to sense the next attack.

"Naive. Far too naive."

I'd barely realized Haruka had kicked my chin when a blade pierced my shoulder. The tip deliberately gouged into it, forcing me back to awareness.

Using the clarity the pain brought, I sharply turned the hand holding my cursed tool. Then I drove the blade into Haruka's thigh.

"...Ngh!"

With a sharp intake of breath, he fell backward. I didn't let the chance slip away.

I pressed down on him and gathered cursed energy in my fist, preparing to unleash Divergent Fist. The first strike would be purely physical, the second infused with cursed energy... but the instant I thought that.

Dull silver flashed, and agony shot through my arm.

"I'm not taking your second punch..."

Haruka glared at me, his cursed tool buried in my arm.

Then his leg swept off the ground, slicing through the air, and kicked me away from the side. The kick struck the wound he'd gouged into my shoulder, and I flew backward with a groan.

I landed badly too. My head and upper body slammed into the steel rails, the impact like a blow from a blunt weapon.

"Ugh...!"

I tried to push myself up through the pain, but he wasn't going to give me a chance to breathe.

"Die!!"

Pink, slightly darker than my own hair, came into view. A streak of silver flashed amid it.

Instinctively, I thrust my left arm in front of my eyes.

It must have been because I was afraid of my brother bringing that blade down over my head.

The rust-colored eye I glimpsed through his bangs gleamed sharply. I swallowed. It shone with the savage light of a wild beast.

With a wet sound of pierced flesh, the blade emerged from my hand... no, it had pierced straight through my palm.

The fear of death and an uncontrollable exhilaration coursed through me as the blade's tip came close to stabbing my eye.

Haruka had swung down with both hands on the blade, seemingly intent on piercing my skull. Realizing it immediately, I gripped the blade with my left hand, now numb and without pain, and set my sights on his exposed flank as he pinned me down.

"...You're the one who's going to die!!"

Then I drove the weapon in my right hand into it.

A wet stab. Human blood sprayed, staining my hand.

"Urgh, gaaah!!"

I kicked the groaning Haruka off me... forcing him backward.

"Hah, hah... hah."

My ragged breathing, my aching body, my flowing blood. All of it only stoked my emotions.

The guy I'd kicked away rose, drenched in blood and dragging one leg.

"...If you say that's not enough, I'll give you a reason."

"...Hah, hah... a rea... son?"

We were both panting, but neither of us looked away.

"I ate the Prison Realm."

"!!"

Haruka deftly moved his bloodstained hand, tracing a finger from his throat down to his stomach.

"Your beloved 'Gojo' is right here."

"You bastard!!"

At the sight of his sinister smile, my rage erupted.

Ignoring my body's pain, the unending blood, and my breathless gasps, I lunged at the enemy before me. What was this... this feeling, like my body was about to boil and something deep in my chest was burning to ash?

His weapon knocked aside my raised fist, and the blade grazed my cheek. Even so, I couldn't stop. Knowing I'd be cut, I still swung a backfist with my left hand.

Thud! My fist slammed into his torso, and I felt it connect solidly.

"Gah, hah!... That... hurts!!"

He used that damn kick again, nearly catching my chin.

It would be bad if I blacked out again like before. I tried to guard with my left arm, but Haruka was a step ahead.

I'd completely forgotten he was ambidextrous and could use his left arm too. I failed to notice the fist coming from my blind spot.

Bam!

A straight punch hit me square in the face. It landed solidly and sent me flying onto the platform.

"Guhah!!"

I spat blood, more dripping from my nose... and my shoulder slammed into a pillar on the platform.

"Urgh!!" The double impact tore an incoherent groan from me.

I forced my body onward as it slid down to the ground... trying desperately to get up.

My legs trembled like a newborn fawn's, and every part of my upper body hurt so badly I wanted to curl up. My arms were so numb I felt I couldn't lift them, all sensation gone, and my head was foggy... yet it also felt scorched by a single emotion.

I opened my eyelids, too heavy to lift... and looked down below the platform.

Haruka was dragging his body painfully, trying to stand too.

"...Get up, Yuji."

His voice was thick with bloody phlegm.

"Open your eyes."

In time with his voice, I forced my heavy eyelids open.

"Clench your fists."

I tightened my fists.

"Plant your feet."

I planted my feet firmly on the ground.

"Now, face forward."

I forced my heavy, sluggish head to turn straight ahead.

There, Haruka stood on the tracks, glaring at me with his fists clenched.

"...You can see him, can't you? Your loathsome enemy. The one who took Yuji's precious companions away, and now intends to destroy the world you cherish... The enemy you should hate is right there."

A beast stood there, its eyes bloodshot.

I let blood drip from the corner of my mouth and wove words with trembling lips.

"...Ugh, ah, you can...see him too, can't you? Me, the one you hate so much you can't stand it."

I steadied my feet, slippery with blood, and looked down at the beast.

"I dragged you into this cruel world..., took your friends away, yet want to save mine..., and even decided on my own to erase the very one responsible... You hate me so much you can't stand it, don't you... Haruka?"

I knew.

"Haruka..., I know.

Ever since we were kids, you've...gotten angry much more easily than me."

I knew because I was his older brother.

"You've been angry all this time, haven't you?"

Though at some point, he had started hiding it beneath that soft smile.

"You've been hating me all this time, haven't you?"

I knew Haruka Itadori was quick to anger, the kind who held a grudge forever. I knew he had hated me all along.

"...Yeah, that's right. I've hated you all along."

After a moment of silence, Haruka answered.

"And now, Yuji, you hate me too."

A metallic click rang out. It was the sound of him returning the cursed tool he had been holding to his waist.

"Then all we can do is kill each other with our own fists, our own feet, our own blades.

The enemy we should hate is right in front of us... Come on!!"

Before he finished speaking, his small figure leaped onto the platform and charged at me, so agile that he seemed uninjured.

"Yeah, that's right. The enemy I hate is... you, Haruka!!"

I charged too, raising my fist.

This was no ordinary quarrel between brothers. Nor was it a simple clash.

Each of us saw the other as a hated enemy, pouring everything we had into our own fists... It was a fight to the death in every sense.

"Guh!!"

As Haruka's fist slammed into my face, I punched him in the stomach.

"Gah, hah!!"

He spat stomach fluid and blood, his body swaying. But my brain was rattling too, and I couldn't tell whether I was standing straight or leaning. I strained to focus on my shaking field of vision and finally found my footing.

A flicker of pink confirmed that my enemy was still in front of me, and I swung my fist down again.

"Ugh, gaaah!!"

The groan from above told me my blow had landed. But Haruka wouldn't let it end like this.

"Urgh!!"

With a soundless cry, something pierced me with a wet squelch.

I wanted to check whether a knife had stabbed me in the back, but my body was already battered, covered in wounds.

"...Hah, hah, hah...ugh."

Leaning against each other, we slid toward the ground. Perhaps tumbling down like an avalanche would have been more accurate.

That was how exhausted we were, how completely our strength had run dry.

"Haruka...Haruka."

"Hah, hah...huff, huff, ghk. Wh-what?"

Every time he coughed against my shoulder, warm liquid pattered onto it and spread. I couldn't even feel it as we collapsed limply to the ground.

"I...won't lose. I absolutely...won't lose."

I declared it.

"I'm strong...so I'll protect you, Haruka.

Not because I'm your older brother. But because I want to."

To keep him from leaving-him, who had somehow already set off down a distant path-I felt around, searching...and grasped that blood-soaked, battered hand, crawling with curse markings.

"Your excuses..., all your lies...none of that matters anymore.

I...will protect the heart of the Haruka...who told Grandpa that day, 'I want to be kind.'"

The cold tiles felt freezing to a body that had lost so much blood.

I planted my slick, blood-soaked hand on the floor and pushed myself up. Bracing my feet firmly against the ground, I stood.

At my feet, Haruka propped up his upper body, his expression faintly gentle, his brows lowered. It was the look of a child embarrassed after doing something wrong.

It's all right now, isn't it?

I reached my bloodied hand toward him.

Then...Haruka would slowly lift his head and take that hand.

"Thank you, Yuji."

The instant I squeezed the hand resting in mine-

A red light suddenly flashed in Haruka's eyes.

At the edge of my vision, I saw his other hand raised high, gripping a knife.

"I've been waiting for this moment."

At that snickering laugh, my eyes widened.

Ryomen Sukuna's Perspective

Indeed. Ever since I made my pact with Haruka Itadori, I had been waiting for this opportunity.

No one had expected him to swallow the Prison Realm, much less do something as insane as devouring every cursed spirit... But thanks to him, I had been spared the trouble.

To turn himself into a cursed object, Haruka Itadori had extracted his own soul, leaving his body driven by cursed energy alone... And as the source of that cursed energy, taking this body was child's play for me.

Haruka Itadori held Black Butterfly in his hand.

If I brought this blade down on that brat, I would be the only one left in the vessel.

...In other words, I could take that brat's body completely.

Heh. How perfectly things had worked out.

Wearing a vicious smile the body's original owner could never have made, Sukuna swung the cursed tool down at Yuji Itadori.