"80% release."
The instant the child before me murmured those words, cursed energy that I hadn't been able to sense at all began bubbling over.
(...Amazing. So a cursed technique like this exists.)
My cool-headed analysis lasted only an instant.
The child's figure vanished from in front of me, and I sensed a bone-chilling killing intent overhead.
Nice moves, but that killing intent gave him away completely.
No need to activate Limitless. I'd just dodge, or intercept him based on his windup alone.
But then-
"Gojo-sensei! He uses two blades!"
Megumi's shout jolted me to attention. The child plunging down from above had exposed the hand holding his cursed tool, but cleverly concealed the other.
Haha, I see. He really could be terrifying if I let my guard down.
Heeding Megumi's warning, I dodged the downward strike. Sure enough, a second followed, so fast my eyes could barely keep up.
It was clearly aimed at slitting my throat. "Scary," I said, bringing up a hand to block... Ah, damn.
The second knife.
I'd relaxed after deflecting it. That wouldn't do.
Click.
Only when I heard that sound did I finally realize the second knife wasn't an ordinary blade.
Looking closer, I saw the thing in the boy's hand spinning as elegantly as butterfly wings.
(A Butterfly Knife...!)
A Butterfly Knife was a folding knife that could be operated one-handed. With enough practice, you really could switch your grip in an instant.
And with its blade reoriented, it had my eye squarely in its sights.
The instant the blade swept past as though to hook the fabric of my blindfold, I made the decidedly immature snap decision to activate Limitless.
Creak.
A grating sound rang out as the infinite space between the cursed tool and me warped under pressure.
"...So dull."
"Ouch..." slipped out of my mouth, too. Though the boy facing me showed no change in emotion, I definitely heard him murmur that.
Realizing his blade hadn't connected, the child immediately sprang back to put distance between us, though his feet remained on the rooftop.
His landing just now hadn't made a sound.
That subtle finesse reminded me of Toji Fushiguro, and I lightly clenched my molars.
Fortunately, the Inverted Spear of Heaven was stored at Jujutsu High. The cursed tool that could nullify techniques hadn't fallen into this child's hands.
But even accounting for that, the boy before me still possessed "abnormal speed" and "no presence whatsoever." He had cursed energy, yet I couldn't sense it or his presence. In a way, he might be more troublesome than Toji Fushiguro.
I might even have walked right past him while I was lost inside the school building...
That thought sent a little chill down my spine.
"Hey, you. Can you see curses?"
I posed the question to my opponent, whose entire body was relaxed, yet who might pounce at any moment.
"I know how religious recruiters operate."
He rejected me from a very unexpected angle.
Hmm... This was a headache.
I hadn't seen any emotional fluctuations from him this whole time. He'd said things like "That hurts" and "I'm tired" plenty, yet he didn't seem to feel either.
The most effective way to break an opponent was to manipulate their emotions, but that didn't seem to work on this child, either. He was acting purely to keep his older brother, who had swallowed Sukuna's Finger, from being killed.
And Megumi's earlier remark had made him see us as enemies outright.
He definitely wouldn't listen to what we had to say, let alone any proposal.
"...Well, I really don't want to use this."
It really was immature, and I didn't want to use it.
But I suspected wide-area attacks were this child's weakness. He could easily dodge an attack focused on a single point, but a wide-area attack would probably take him out before he had time to escape.
As it happened, my cursed technique had just the thing.
"Cursed Technique Lapse... Blue."
In an instant, the ground was gouged out, and the surrounding area split apart with sharp cracks.
The rubble was about to slam into both me and the child.
"92% release."
Amid the sound of rubble colliding, those words reached me with unnatural clarity.
"...Huh?"
By then, he was already before my eyes.
What an explosive burst of speed at the very last second. That thing you could call human instinct kept me unscathed.
Mere millimeters from my eye, the child thrust his cursed tool at me, its blade shattered.
You've got to be kidding me. I had Limitless active.
Neither my converging technique nor the Limitless that separated me from the world had harmed him in the slightest. Faced with that "presence," something instinctive inside me was shaken.
Before I even had time to properly register my surprise, his other arm was already attacking.
But at that instant-
A trace of emotion flickered through the boy's eyes.
(Ah. Right there.)
It wasn't that his descending weapon stopped. Nor had its trajectory shifted.
It was simply that, for that instant, he... had been possessed by some intent.
I didn't miss my chance. I drove a hard kick into the child's flank.
He felt unnaturally light, and I thought I heard an unpleasant crunch.
"...Huh."
Did I just break his ribs? The thought had barely crossed my mind before the child's body went flying far away with alarming ease.
Sukuna's vessel deftly slid into position and caught him.
"Ah, Haruka!"
Huh. Hearing him cry out so sorrowfully made me seem like the bad guy...
An inexplicable surge of guilt made my heart ache, and I turned to Megumi.
"What the hell are you doing?"
He gave me a look that said I was being incredibly immature.
Huh... Was this my fault?
That impact really had felt nasty. Leaving him without treatment would be too cruel.
I didn't know what his cursed technique was, but if he had cursed energy, Reverse Cursed Technique could heal him.
"Okay, move aside a little."
I walked over to the boy serving as Sukuna's vessel and the younger brother in his arms, and addressed them.
But the older brother was completely on guard, shielding his younger brother with his own body.
"No."
He murmured his refusal, refusing to let go of him.
"Itadori..."
Even Megumi calling his name got no response.
Oh dear... He'd seemed so friendly. Had I stepped on a land mine?
As I was thinking that, he spoke up himself. "You're that Suku-whatever, right?"
"I'll lend you my body. In exchange, protect my little brother."
The instant he voiced his wish, a sizzling sensation spread... and Sukuna's presence grew stronger.
It really did resonate with the young man before me.
"...Oh?"
Then, when he raised his head-
"Are you giving me orders?"
He had already handed his body over to Ryomen Sukuna.
Ryomen Sukuna's perspective
For some reason, I couldn't take possession of the brat who had become my vessel.
Yet he had surrendered that body to me himself.
"'Protect my little brother'... was it?"
Who would obey an order or bargain like that?
If anything, the fool who trusted me enough to hand over his body so casually was laughable.
My gaze drifted downward.
In my arms lay the human who had just demonstrated his skill at surprise attacks.
I see. So this one was his younger brother.
I'd thought he could fight somewhat better than the brat. I see. How frail.
His slender arms, no different from a woman's, hung limp, holding fragments of the shattered cursed tool.
His breathing was steady, but his core had gone slack. He was clearly exhausted.
Should I abandon him, or snap his neck?
I studied his face as I considered it.
"Ahh... So you came out after all."
From overhead, I sensed the loathsome presence of a jujutsu sorcerer.
Black clothes, white hair, a blindfold, and a mocking air. With that fellow before me, I thought, This will make a little exercise, and started to rise.
"...Wait."
Pat.
I noticed someone had grabbed the hem of my kimono... No, it was the little brother of the brat I had intended to abandon.
Should I cut that hand off?
Just as I was about to act on that thought-
"I can't accept this. Let me do it. Please."
His voice vibrated against my eardrums.
It was a simple plea, yet it held emotion so intense it could be called a "curse." It would be a shame to discard it.
I looked back. The little wretch seemed to have mistaken me for the brat.
"There's no part for Yuji in this."
As he spoke, he propped up his battered body, gripping fragments of the shattered cursed tool.
Rags were wrapped around the hand holding those fragments to secure them.
(Ah... I see.)
That sight reminded me.
In the past, humans like this had occasionally appeared. Stubborn souls who resisted absolute power or injustice to the very end, driven by an obsession that could not be called resolve or conviction, an emotion bordering on hatred.
That was why these insects called humans were interesting.
Feeling a thrill I hadn't experienced in ages, I gave a low chuckle deep in my throat.
"Hmph. 'Brother.' Go."
Perhaps my order made him realize I wasn't the brat. The little wretch glanced back, then looked straight ahead and kicked off the ground with his "completely relaxed body."
"Wait for me, big brother."
His voice drifted back on the wind, lifting the corners of my mouth.
Before you continue