Things Like "He's in Your Stomach"?

As though the strings controlling his body had snapped, he crumpled to the ground.

Even knowing there was nothing left inside that body, I dragged myself toward him on unsteady legs. Step by step, until I was finally almost there.

A twitch. His fingers trembled.

"...Haruka?"

What answered my call was-

"I heard you, Yuji."

His lowered face slowly lifted, no longer twisted in the pain he had shown before. He pushed his upper body upright.

"Huh, ah... Haruka? Is it really, really you?"

I kept calling his name in disbelief. Then a soft chuckle reached my ears.

"I can hear you without you saying it that many times."

He stood up lightly and walked toward me as I sat frozen.

His body was soaked in blood and covered in incantations. Yet he himself looked full of energy.

"Huh, but... why?"

"I don't know either. Probably one of those things, you know? A protagonist's award for trying hard?"

"...Ha... pfft. What even is that?"

My little brother's ridiculous words amused me, and I couldn't help laughing.

Oh, no. The moment relief let me laugh, exhaustion came flooding in.

"Heeey, Yuji. I'm tired."

"Me too."

Haruka sat down on the ground beside me, where I had slumped.

"Let's sleep until Gojo-sensei gets here."

"Huh? Didn't you say something about him being in your stomach?"

"I'm not as indiscriminate about what I eat as you, Yuji. I wouldn't eat Gojo-sensei. He's probably desperately searching for me right now."

"Poor Gojo-sensei, lol."

We joked with each other for the first time in ages, and heavy drowsiness gradually blanketed my consciousness.

"I'm way too tired. I'm sleeping right here. Be my cuddle pillow and my shield against Gojo-sensei."

"...Haha, I'm not being your shield..."

Well, if Gojo-sensei's coming, I guess it's fine.

I can sleep with Haruka until then, right? I did win the protagonist's award for trying hard today.

The hand beside mine reached out and entwined with it, taking the initiative for once. I grasped it.

Our fingers interlaced so I wouldn't let go this time.

"Good night... Haruka."

"...Good night, Yuji."

With the reassurance of those copper eyes gazing gently down at me, I drifted into a deep sleep.

Haruka Itadori looked down at his sleeping older brother. After giving his hand a firm squeeze-

"Junpei Yoshino. You're there, aren't you?"

He spoke to the figure hiding in the shadows of the platform stairs.

"...You're..."

"I have to wait a little for Gojo-sensei. I still have a few things to take care of, so please look after Yuji."

"Wait, Haruka."

"Please. Think of it as repaying me for saving you, if you want. Take Yuji over to where you are."

"Tch!"

"...Will you? He's my precious older brother. You're the only person I can entrust him to."

As he spoke, he supported his brother by the shoulders... and slowly approached Junpei.

Then he gently rested Yuji's body against Junpei's shoulder, disentangled their fingers... and separated their joined palms. In their place, he took Junpei's hand and made him hold Yuji's tightly.

"Don't let go of this hand."

With only those words, Haruka Itadori turned away.

Ahead lay only darkness. Only a bloodstained platform.

But he turned his back on the light and stepped onto the dark path.

"Sorry."

Junpei Yoshino caught the whisper that barely moved his lips.

???'s perspective

I had a certain duty to fulfill.

Normally, I stayed somewhere like the dimensional gaps between worlds, but occasionally, to adjust their populations, I killed a few people as a "mistake" and had them reincarnate in other worlds.

Well... I suppose I could call myself a god.

A little while ago, one world in the Reiwa era had become somewhat overpopulated, so I was considering reincarnating some of its people elsewhere. But too great a shift in population wouldn't be good either.

Hmm... in that case, it would be better to reincarnate them in a world where they could die easily and kill them off quickly.

As far as settings that had been popular for that until recently went, there was really only Demon Slayer. But things were a little different now.

They probably wouldn't die in Disney Twisted-Wonderland.

Yes, Jujutsu Kaisen would do nicely.

Good, good. That settled it.

First, how about a lazy high school student living an ordinary life? Or a child bored with being alive. Those sorts would be perfect.

With that in mind, I reincarnated several people into the world of Jujutsu Kaisen. But apparently, one of them had caused quite a bit of trouble.

He had done far more than disrupt that world's course and balance. Apparently, he had absorbed every cursed spirit in Japan into his body and refined them into cursed gu. What was more, the "deity" likely to be born there would be among the strongest beings in the world. I couldn't let someone like that obtain divinity. One god was enough.

So I descended into that world and headed to where that heretic was.

"..."

He seemed to have already died from the cursed gu, sitting slumped against the wall of a train platform. Filthy blood stained his surroundings. I had to leave this place as soon as possible.

But I had to wait for the new deity to be born.

I watched a human shape form in the sea of blood, bubbling and burbling.

"Honestly, you've caused me so much trouble."

I reached toward the pool of blood and seized the divinity.

As long as I absorbed this, Satoru Gojo wouldn't ascend to godhood, and the world could remain normal.

Sigh... just as I let out a sigh-

Crack.

My ankle was grabbed from behind.

"Urgh!?"

I was so close to obtaining the divinity. What on earth was this...

A blood-covered hand gripped my leg, and rust-colored eyes looked up at me.

It was the person who should have been dead. Who should have been unable to move.

A rasp escaped his throat, and he spoke with a sneer.

"...Got you."

I jolted awake, surrounded by a noisy, crowded station platform.

The usual departure announcement, streams of people moving in a single direction, dull eyes fixed on LCD screens. I tilted my head at the familiar sight.

Ah, I remembered.

This was when I had killed the troublemaker earlier.

I looked around. I found my target immediately.

Just beyond the platform's yellow line, a boy was leafing through a study guide in boredom.

"That's right. I have to kill him."

My body moved naturally, and I reached out just as the train pulled into the station.

I pushed the still-growing boy's back, sending him off the platform and onto the tracks. Just as relief set in-

"You can go to hell with me..."

He grabbed the hand that had pushed him and pulled me toward him with astonishing strength.

"Urgh!?"

Two mismatched eyes, one rust-colored and one the color of dawn, caught me in their gaze. A horrifying sensation assailed my divine body, as though something unknown were eating away at it.

"Stop! What are you doing!"

Incantations appeared on the boy's body, crawling all over him like living things. They traveled along his arm and crept toward me as well.

"Stop! How dare you treat a god like this!"

Blackness bound me. Restrained me. Dragged me closer.

Hatred, resentment, and all manner of negative emotions unmistakably burned in the boy's eyes.

"There's only one person in this world I hate, and that's myself.

And you, who made that 'me,' are the one I despise most of all."

Suddenly, the support beneath my feet vanished. The deafening screams of countless living beings rang in my ears.

The clattering of the approaching train was piercing too. Its headlights stung my eyes.

"If I'm going to kill a god, I'll need cursed gu."

Screeeeeech-

The train's brakes shrieked through the surroundings.

Ryomen Sukuna's perspective

I dragged in the fool who had pulled a god along with him to death's door.

"You're the stupidest fool I've ever known."

Lying in the direction of my muttered words was a man who spat out a clot of blood.

I hadn't brought this half-dead fool onto the water's surface in my innate domain to say that. But it had to be said.

"That's quite... an honor. A once-in-a-thousand-years idiot, huh-cough."

"Imbecile."

I descended from my throne of ox skulls and walked toward him.

Splash. Water sounded as I knelt on one knee.

"You haven't just stepped outside 'death.' You've stepped outside the 'cycle of reincarnation' itself."

"Haha, somehow it feels like my older brother's always lecturing me..."

I rested his heavy head on my lap and looked at his face.

"Look at that pathetic face of yours..."

It wasn't the face I favored.

It wasn't the face of a beast greedily sinking its teeth into the strong.

Instead, it was the expression of a human who had given everything he had and was utterly satisfied. There was no way I could look at that dying face without displeasure.

"First of all, you went back on your word and tried to come back to life. What the hell were you thinking, giving me the divinity from the cursed gu?"

This hungry ghost had seized the divinity from that so-called god and tossed it to me. I couldn't understand the point of it.

"Divinity from a god of that caliber could probably only reincarnate someone as a human, at best. So it's yours."

"...Didn't you think of using it on yourself?"

It was a genuine question.

Haruka Itadori would die. Then why not use this divinity to reconstruct a new body?

His eyes widened a little at that... then softened again.

"Well, about that."

His blood-covered hand reached out and gently rested against my cheek.

Normally, I would have severed it with a single word-"Insolence"-but for some reason, I couldn't reject it now. Yet I didn't place my own hand over his, either.

I simply looked down at the hungry ghost.

"I've always wanted brothers."

At those words, this time... my eyes widened.

"Our parents were gone when we were little, Yuji and I. Then there was only Grandpa. I was always lonely. I had Yuji, and Yuji had me... but we still couldn't fill that loneliness.

So we made a promise. Someday, once we'd saved enough money, we'd 'go make brothers.'"

What suddenly came to mind was that ridiculous piggy bank.

"Our 'Make a Brother' piggy bank. If we went to Salar de Uyuni and held hands... brothers who looked exactly like us would appear on the water's surface."

"Utterly idiotic."

"Yeah. I knew we couldn't make real brothers in a place like that.

So when I felt like I actually had a real brother, I was so happy."

"..."

That was wrong.

Ryomen Sukuna had merely made a binding vow of brotherhood with him. We shared no blood, and we certainly weren't real brothers.

For some reason, I found it difficult to say that aloud.

"Maybe you had something in mind, big brother. Maybe you approached us with some kind of plan.

...But even if you did, that was fine."

"Because no matter how much money we stuffed into that piggy bank, no matter how many coins, no matter how many bills... you gave us something none of it could buy, big brother."

"...I never meant to give you anything."

"Then that was... your kindness."

The hungry ghost said it as though it were only natural.

To say that Ryomen Sukuna, the King of Curses, "had kindness." What an absurd notion.

"Even if you didn't mean it that way, as long as the person receiving it thinks so, that makes it 'kindness.'

You saved me when I was in danger, stayed beside me when I was hurting... I'm confident you spoiled me."

"Did I do more than I should have?"

I was just wondering whether I had let the hungry ghost I favored get too carried away.

"No, I'm happy.

You did something 'a big brother would do.'"

As he spoke, he lowered his hand.

This time, he took my hand and laid it over his blood-soaked one.

"Even if we aren't related by blood. Even if there's some dark scheme hidden underneath it all.

That doesn't change the fact that you're 'a big brother who cares about us.'"

So this was his thank-you gift, his voice went on.

"As Grandpa's grandson, as Yuji's little brother... I received so, so much. Love, kindness, knowledge, treats, time together, smiles... more than I can count, but I really did receive so much.

So I want you to have those things too."

"...Ha."

A foolish sound escaped me.

Until now, I had hardly ever been given anything.

There had been things offered to me as sacrifices, but never once had anyone simply handed me something and said, "This is for you."

"Turning you back into a human is the first gift I'm giving you as your little brother.

And... the last thing I'm giving you as your little brother is 'a future where you get to receive things.'"

"..."

"You gave Yuji and me so much kindness... but you never accept anything in return.

So.

Please accept this... become our brother."

"...You fool."

"Th-then... I'll give you... the piggy bank too. Cough."

"...Idiot."

The curses I muttered sounded crude against his hand as it slowly slipped away, against his voice as it steadily lost its life.

"With us... as real brothers...

I want you to be my real big brother... can't you?"

His feeble voice grew hoarse.

Those copper eyes, which had finally become the same color as the brat's, flickered... and clouded over from the edges.

At last, his hand went slack, and the moment it slipped gently away-

I caught it without thinking.

"Fool. No binding vow, no scheme necessary... I am your big brother."

Had he felt me catch his hand? Or had he heard my voice?

I couldn't tell, but the corners of Haruka's eyes softened, and he smiled with his eyes alone.

"I wish... I could have... gradu...ated with my big brothers."

I want to graduate with my big brothers.

Hearing that wish made my throat suddenly close up.

Yes. This hungry ghost had tried to protect his big brother from the strongest jujutsu sorcerer all alone, fought the old fossils of Jujutsu Society all alone, overcome his friends' deaths all alone, and absorbed every cursed spirit in Japan all alone.

But... he was still a little brother of only sixteen.

He hadn't wanted to die here, yet for the brat, for me, even for the things the brat wanted to protect... he had gone so far as to define himself as evil.

"You... your kindness is practically poison to me."

Incantations gnawed away at his dead body, which rotted black and fell apart... sinking into the crimson-black spring.

Even so, Sukuna kept a tight grip on the warmth left in his palm.

Ryomen Sukuna "wanted to go on living." It was a thought he should never have had as a curse, yet one entirely natural for a human.

In that instant, every curse in Japan vanished.

Just as Haruka Itadori had wished, every curse in Japan was swept away, and the gate of cursed gu known as the Prison Realm opened.

Out of it came Satoru Gojo, his head bowed as he bit his lip.

And held in his arms was the King of Curses... who looked uncannily like Yuji Itadori.

A small sacrifice had purchased a great victory.

Yet... for the big brother who sprang up and called a single name in a near-mad frenzy, and for the big brother who bit down on the strongest sorcerer's arm and shed the first tears of his life-

This ending was far too cruel.

???

Cherry blossoms drifted through the spring breeze.

It was a fine day for graduation, and Jujutsu High held its graduation ceremony.

Sukuna Itadori yawned through Principal Yaga's lengthy speech. Though he had transferred in partway through, he had persevered for two years with excellent grades and a terrible attitude-a problem child. To his left sat his older brother, Yuji Itadori, who poked Sukuna in warning even as a thin film of tears filled his own eyes. He had caught him yawning red-handed.

Megumi Fushiguro, who was listening attentively, watched the brothers' exchange through half-lidded eyes. Beside him, Nobara Kugisaki was carefully inspecting her nails.

At this graduation ceremony, there was an empty seat to Sukuna's right.

A black photo frame stood there, holding a student's photograph.

It was Haruka Itadori.

When it was time to hand out the diplomas, Sukuna tucked the frame under his arm and walked up onto the stage.

Satoru Gojo wore a rare air of restraint.

"Haruka Itadori."

At the call of that name, Sukuna stepped forward with the photograph.

Just as he was about to accept the diploma without bowing-

"Heeey, hold on!!"

Gojo whisked the diploma back toward himself.

Sukuna clicked his tongue, while Yuji smiled wryly below the stage.

"Whyyy isn't Haruka here??"

"He's napping."

Sukuna answered instantly, and the teacher leaned in. "Could you not say that like it's perfectly normal?"

Then he pulled a whistle out of nowhere, put it to his lips, and blew two shrill blasts.

"All right! Everyone, gather up!! We're going to fetch Haruka, wherever he's sleeping!"

"Yes, sir!!"

Naturally, Yuji was the only one who gave a spirited salute.

Everyone else was already strolling lazily toward the auditorium's exit.

"Huh? I'm the only one?"

The eldest brother muttered forlornly.

Outside, the wind was so strong that petals swept into their faces like a blizzard of cherry blossoms.

"Whoa! They got in my mouth!! Ptoo, ptoo."

When Yuji came out a moment later, Sukuna was standing beneath a tree with his arms folded, looking up.

We all gathered around him and looked up into the tree too.

Then someone let out a little snort of wry laughter.

The teacher quietly said, "Ready," and we spoke in unison.

"Haruka."

At the sound of that name, a head smaller than the one we remembered popped into view.

"I heard you."

Shaking his fluffy pink head, the child smiled as he nimbly clung to the branches with his slender arms and legs.

"Big brother!"

As though it were only natural, he jumped down toward Sukuna's open arms.

Once Sukuna caught him securely, Yuji ran over too.

"Welcome home."

At that perfectly natural greeting, Haruka Itadori smiled and replied.

"I'm home!"