The Phantom of "Haruka Itadori" Protecting the Brat

Ryomen Sukuna's Perspective

"I've waited a long time for this moment."

With those words, I raised the cursed tool.

If its tip pierced Yuji Itadori, he would die... becoming a completely "empty vessel." That irritating resistance would disappear, too.

Imagining my complete resurrection, I curled my lips into a smug sneer.

I looked down at the brat, whose blank expression said he had no idea what was happening.

Now, die.

Squelch.

With the sound of flesh tearing, that familiar red splattered out. It stained the ground like rubies, the scattered drops joining, breaking apart, and changing shape until they formed a narrow stream.

"How... could..."

The brat's eyes widened in shock, staring at me in disbelief.

That's right, brat. Be afraid. Despair.

Hurry up and die. Disappear and hand this body over to me. Unable to save your little brother, robbed of your own body... vanish in despair.

Then my vision tilted.

Thud.

The sound of something heavy hitting the ground. The brat's despairing face vanished from view, leaving only the ground and the red spreading across it.

"Huh...?"

A dry sound escaped my throat.

At the same time, warm liquid trickled down from the corner of my mouth.

Wh-what? What happened...?

Was I lying facedown on the ground? No, impossible. I had struck that brat with my own hands...

Yet a stabbing pain kept spreading through me. Something gurgled out of my body. Those two things pointed to a different answer.

My head trembling with shock and agitation, I turned to look down at my body.

This body lay collapsed on the ground, drenched in blood.

The hand holding the cursed tool called Black Butterfly had plunged it into my own heart... that was what I saw.

The blade that should have taken the brat's life had pierced Haruka Itadori's body. The blood staining the ground belonged to Haruka Itadori.

"You bastard... Haruka Itadori!"

I knew full well that brat could never have countered that strike.

Only one person could have done this. I'd thought Black Butterfly had absorbed his entire soul, but had fragments remained?

Well played, you little wretch.

I gathered the cursed energy remaining inside me and used Reverse Cursed Technique on the place where the blade had pierced me.

Blood still dripped steadily, but it was nothing serious.

This wretch's body could still move, and it was obvious that brat couldn't kill him. All I had to do was hurry up and finish the brat off, and everything would be settled.

My foot slipped in the blood... I planted it firmly and pushed myself up.

"Just what I'd expect from the human who originally owned the vessel I chose. I never thought a beast would bite me here..."

Was it because the body no longer possessed a soul? Because it had become a cursed tool? Or because it had endured too much pain? Whether blood spilled or flesh tore... this body gave no response.

"But this is where it ends, brat."

I looked ahead. The thing whose eyes had been unfocused with shock and despair just moments ago... was now glaring at me with hateful defiance.

Those irritating copper eyes were fixed firmly on me.

"...It won't end. I won't let it end, Sukuna."

Seeing him spout nonsense on the verge of death, I couldn't even be bothered to laugh.

"Then can you kill your little brother, Haruka Itadori? Can you ask that of the family member who devoted his body and soul to you more than anyone else... who even gave his life?"

Stupid little wretch.

Haruka Itadori had caused all this trouble for that brat anyway. He'd said, "I don't know anything about some older brother," but his heart had always been turned toward his brother. There was no way I wouldn't notice.

His own power. His friends. His body. His heart. Even his life.

He would give everything he had to protect his older brother's future.

Could you kill a brother like that, Yuji Itadori?

Just like the look in Haruka Itadori's eyes after he'd lost his friends. Red-black. The blade, steeped in that murky color, rose once more.

"Pay for the sin of making your little brother lose everything, right here!"

This time, it would reach him.

Not a trace of Haruka Itadori's soul remained in this body. And Yuji Itadori, his older brother, could never kill him. Let alone point White Butterfly's blade at his little brother... he couldn't do that, could he?

I swung the blade down toward the neck beneath that face staring straight at me.

A red line should have opened there, blood flying.

...But it didn't.

Creak... grind.

The blade came to an abrupt halt. Just before it could reach Yuji Itadori.

Why? Why couldn't this blade reach him?

Satoru Gojo was inside the Back of the Prison Realm. He couldn't interfere with the outside world. And Yuji Itadori, who should have been struck, hadn't moved so much as a finger, let alone an arm.

I brought Black Butterfly down with greater force.

Grind.

As though something blocked it, the blade produced nothing but a scraping sound.

"...Tch. What the hell?"

I instantly lifted the cursed tool and slashed from another angle.

This time, I aimed a diagonal slash across his chest.

Clack.

But something blocked that, too.

What? What was happening... what was getting in my way?

I slashed upward from his torso. Downward from his shoulder. Straight down from above his head.

Not even the tip could reach Yuji Itadori. All it produced was a dull sound, as though striking something.

Even so, I swung again and again, was deflected, and then... as I brought it down toward his neck once more-

"Sukuna, I haven't lost everything of Haruka."

Another grinding sound.

Whatever had blocked the blade again made a noise, and Yuji Itadori drew it from his waist, as though he knew what it was.

His stance was utterly wrong. His grip looked nothing like that of someone who had ever held a weapon.

Even so, the blade pointed straight at me.

"Haruka's heart is still here!"

Squelch.

The instant the cursed tool bearing the name White Butterfly pierced the heart.

Ryomen Sukuna unmistakably saw "it."

A figure stood behind Yuji Itadori, holding the Inverted Spear of Heaven. His murky, rust-colored eyes shone as he stared at me. Wearing a smug smile unlike his usual expression, he used the object in his hand to block the blade I had swung down.

The phantom of "Haruka Itadori," protecting the brat.

"..."

At a loss for words, I collapsed.

Cursed energy was rapidly sucked away, disappearing. The inside of my body was hollowed out... and in that instant.

Those copper eyes seemed to soften slightly at the corners.