(Yuji)... Who was that again?

Satoru Gojo's POV

"It's familial love."

He answered my question with an utterly calm expression.

Yuta Okkotsu had been the same. Love really was a troublesome curse. Once again, that truth hit home.

An endless stream of cursed energy crackled out of Haruka, then returned to his body... Regeneration and absorption repeated over and over.

In this situation, my best option was to attack while he gathered cursed energy. Or rather, I shouldn't let him gather it at all.

I crossed my fingers and murmured.

"Cursed Technique Reversal."

"'86% release.'"

The moment I heard his voice, I knew he was coming.

When I activated Red, he would release his technique and charge in to evade and attack. That was exactly why.

"Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue."

I blasted him away with an omnidirectional attack.

In a space where everything outside my immediate surroundings had been pulverized, I found that battered pink figure. Without hesitation, I charged in and kicked him.

Hurting my own student did sting a little, but if I went easy on this kid, I'd be the one in danger.

My knee sank firmly into his body, and I felt bones break. I frowned at the crack, and was about to concentrate my cursed energy for another attack when-

"It... doesn't hurt."

At that murmur, I raised one eyebrow.

No, it hurts, doesn't it? I broke your bones, you know.

What was he talking about when blood was dripping from the corner of his mouth?

He slumped against the wall behind him, barely breathing. I grabbed his face with one hand and lifted him, his light body dangling in the air.

"Compared to the pain I felt when Yuji died... this is nothing."

His body went completely limp, and I could feel cursed energy churning inside him. Just as I thought that energy was practically Haruka's emotions themselves-

Clatter...

That sound reached my ears.

It was only rubble collapsing. The sound of the walls in Jujutsu High's underground corridor crumbling.

Normally, I would have brushed it off with, "Just apologize if you break something," but for some reason, even that sound seemed strangely significant today.

Then I suddenly remembered.

There's a cursed tool storeroom beneath Jujutsu High.

Shlk.

"Sorry, sensei."

The instant that thing pierced my Limitless and stabbed into my body... almost simultaneously-

"Y-you've got to be kidding...!"

How was this possible?

Beyond the wall Haruka had smashed when I sent him flying was the Armory. And the weapon this light-fingered brat had stolen behind his back was-

The Inverted Spear of Heaven.

A cursed tool once wielded by the Sorcerer Killer, Toji Fushiguro, capable of forcibly nullifying cursed techniques. That thing, which could easily break even the ultimate shield-the Gojo Clan's inherited technique-had now fallen into the hands of the very last person who should have it.

Had my remark when we first met, "Good thing it's stored at Jujutsu High~," turned into foreshadowing? I really wished I could stop that.

I used Reverse Cursed Technique to heal my pierced abdomen, but repeated attacks would put me in serious trouble.

I let out a short laugh and looked at Haruka. He must have noticed me healing myself, but instead of attacking the wound, he merely examined his newly acquired cursed tool. His eyes burned with nothing but pure light, and they should have been nothing like that bastard's in my memory... yet I felt something similar clinging to him.

Then, the instant he slowly turned those copper-red eyes toward me again-

That was the signal to fight.

With Limitless no longer effective, the first thing I needed to do was-

"'92% release.'"

"Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue."

I used its attractive force to batter my approaching opponent with the rubble. With Haruka's fragile body, one large chunk to the head should have knocked him out.

But the instant I saw the rubble gathering before me disappear-

You've got to be kidding. He figured out how to use that cursed tool the moment he got it...

I understood immediately. He had deflected the rubble with the Inverted Spear of Heaven and charged through.

But that meant I knew which direction he was coming from.

I used Limitless to block the rubble flying at me and aimed through a gap.

Honestly, I didn't want to use this. It would probably kill Haruka.

It was something Haruka Itadori, an ordinary civilian, couldn't possibly know about-the technique that had once defeated that bastard.

"Hollow Technique: Purple."

The attack unleashed with those words held enough power to destroy the entire underground area, corridor and all, reducing everything ahead of me to nothing.

There was no sensation of impact. But he probably wouldn't survive.

Watching the dust-filled corridor with my own eyes, I slowly lowered my arm.

Then-

...Tap.

"Huh?"

I could hardly be blamed for making that sound.

With a faint sound, something stabbed into me from behind. The thing that had precisely located my heart was undoubtedly the Inverted Spear of Heaven.

And the person holding it behind me was undoubtedly Haruka Itadori.

"-Ngh, hah."

He exhaled heavily and pulled the thick blade free with a wet sound.

Faced with something I couldn't comprehend, I was stunned. Before I could retaliate, he leaped back several steps. Then he tightened his grip on the blood-covered cursed tool.

I definitely fired Purple at Haruka as he charged toward me. He couldn't have dodged that...

While I healed my heart with Reverse Cursed Technique, he approached me one step at a time.

"Sensei, I didn't charge straight at you."

Yet he was also the one who supplied the answer.

"I knew you couldn't see me at 92%, so I did run straight toward you at first... but I dodged upward halfway through."

The ridiculous clopping of his Crocs sounded strangely loud in the corridor.

"Then something seemed weird, so I hurried behind you before it hit me. That's all."

Hearing his answer, I remembered.

I had been so confident in my own strength that I'd completely forgotten the advantage of this kid's technique. Haruka Itadori's cursed technique was speed.

If I couldn't see him, he could dodge anywhere. Circling behind me, the only escape route, was entirely possible.

I should have known how troublesome the combination of the technique-nullifying Inverted Spear of Heaven and a speed-conversion technique would be.

Ahh, damn. I got completely carried away.

Of course I was the strongest. It was like a law of nature.

Perhaps that belief was so deeply ingrained that I had forgotten... forgotten the existence of mad dogs that would lunge and bite like this, just like that bastard.

"Haha."

When I laughed, my body ached for the first time in ages.

A dry laugh escaped me, and the brat before me looked down at me with cold eyes.

The eyes that had said he wanted to be kinder locked onto a target to kill. The mouth that had said he wanted to be kinder breathed out curses.

"I'm the one who should apologize, Haruka."

I voiced the apology almost to myself.

This boy, burdened with such a terrible contradiction, had been asking for help all along.

"I'll put you at ease right away."

I stared at his outline with my uncovered Six Eyes and crossed my fingers.

"Domain Expansion: Unlimited Void."

"'100% release.'"

Our voices collided. Both our cursed energies opened their jaws like giant serpents and devoured each other.

I didn't know what Haruka Itadori's "100%" meant. But my Unlimited Void placed infinity between perception and cognition. Speed had no chance.

With a soft sound, my domain swallowed the entire space.

"Haruka, you probably can't hear me anymore... but the Inverted Spear of Heaven doesn't work against domains."

An empty space. A place of nothingness.

He stared at "me" without even blinking.

Here, no one could think. Nor could they comprehend. So the image of me reflected in his eyes went unrecognized, too.

I took a step toward him as he stood blankly frozen, unable to determine where to point the Inverted Spear of Heaven in his hand.

"Uh."

Almost at the same instant, I saw his lips twitch.

A glimmer flashed in his copper-red eyes, and his arm rose. The spear tip that should have lost its target found me.

"...!?"

Before I could try to dodge, it had pierced me.

Blood splattered, staining my vision red. A dull pain struck me.

"Ahh, I... missed."

Having thrown away his only weapon, the Inverted Spear of Heaven, Haruka fell onto his back. I stopped, took stock of what had just happened and the wound piercing me above the ear, and held my breath.

It was nothing less than shock at being attacked inside my domain.

I dispelled the domain and returned to the original space. Throbbing pain still lingered in my right ear. Dark-red blood dripped down, forming patterns on the floor.

If he hadn't missed just now... my head would've burst open.

If my head burst open, even I wouldn't be able to repair it with Reverse Cursed Technique in time. I would die easily. That was the danger I had just faced.

Haruka, who had fallen to the floor with a thud, breathed steadily and merely stared blankly at the ceiling, as though utterly exhausted. I couldn't tell what those eyes were seeing.

"...Haruka."

I called his name, but he didn't turn toward me. He kept staring at some point in the empty air.

I sighed softly and was about to call his name again.

But no sound came out.

"I knew it was a lie, saying Yuji died."

Because those words, spoken in a tone whose emotion I couldn't read, cut me off cleanly.

"Haruka, I understand that you don't want to believe it, but Yuji is already-" "You're lying." "...Haruka."

The same words cut off my call, and he lowered his bangs over his eyes. His voice was slightly hoarse.

He tugged lightly at his own bangs and spoke again.

Would he blame us? Say the name of his other half-his brother? Or utter a curse?

I quietly waited for him to speak, but what slipped through his clenched lips was something I hadn't expected.

"Yuji.

Yuji promised he'd make me a brother."

Hm?

...Huh? What was this kid saying?

Confused by that sudden statement, I couldn't help asking, "Wait, make you a brother?"

Did he mean adopting a child from an orphanage or something? No, had they intended to get adopted together? Strange guesses flashed through my mind.

"Salar de Uyuni."

But this time, another completely unrelated term came out.

"Salar de... Uyuni," I echoed, bewildered.

"Yeah." He gave a small affirmation.

"It's a land of salt on the Altiplano Plateau in west-central Bolivia, about 3,700 meters above sea level. It's a vast salt flat stretching roughly 100 kilometers north to south and 250 kilometers east to west, covering around 10,582 square kilometers. Water floods it during the rainy season, and on windless days, you can see a breathtaking mirror-like view."

"No, I know that. Anyway, you don't have to explain it in detail like Wiki〇edia."

"...He said if we went there and held hands, we'd see our brothers on the other side of the mirror. Then there wouldn't be just two of us."

"..."

"We promised to save up and go make brothers together. Both our allowances are in the tiger-shaped piggy bank at home."

"..."

"It wasn't just the promise to make brothers. He also promised he'd look after me for the rest of my life.

He said, 'Until you get married to a wife who'll take care of you, I'll look after my lazy little brother, because I'm your big brother.'"

It sounded just like a child's complaint.

I crouched beside him and reached down to take the hand gripping his bangs far too tightly. As though prying his pale hand away from his hair, I unfolded his fingers one by one. Blood seeped from his palm. It was obvious he'd drawn blood by gripping too hard. But something else surprised Satoru Gojo more.

Haruka's eyes were filled with tears.

Clear tears formed a burning film over his copper-red eyes. Before my eyes, that film thickened and surged toward the rims of his eyes. The dam was about to break.

Large tears welled up, unleashing a flood. Drip, drip, drip, drip. Tears the size of little candies rolled endlessly from his eyes. Deep lines creased his brow, and his lips pressed tightly together as though holding back sobs.

He had always seemed languid, never letting anything show... but now, before Satoru Gojo, he wore a crying face that could only be called a mess. Seeing him like that, I felt guilt unlike anything I'd ever known.

His lips, clamped shut to suppress his sobs, trembled slightly as he tried to say something else. Unlike his usual languid self, he drew a proper breath, and his voice was clear.

"Because Yuji is my family. The only family I have left in this world.

How could I give up just because someone like you got in my way? How could I ever accept that he's 'dead'?"

As he spoke, great tears streamed endlessly down his cheeks and soaked the corners of his eyes.

"The only reason I can exist in this world as 'me' is because Yuji is here. Because he lets me exist, because he acknowledges my existence, I..."

I could almost hear the words that would follow: That alone is enough to make me happy.

For this boy, everyday life alone was happiness enough. He wanted nothing else. And now we Jujutsu Sorcerers had destroyed that happiness... how much hatred, how much resentment must he have felt?

Far more intense than the pain of my pierced right ear, than the pain of a blade through my heart, than the pain of the bones I had broken in Haruka's body...

"It hurts."

He cried. It hurt, it hurt, he kept saying. He had scrunched the chest of his shirt into a wrinkled mess, telling me how much his chest hurt. Tears poured down like rain. Grief, regret, resentment-he put none of those feelings into words. He only cried.

I reached out to comfort the boy, then drew my hand back. I had no right.

Dragging Yuji Itadori into this world, failing to protect him from the mission the Higher-Ups had used to torment him-it was all my responsibility.

But at least I could not let the half left behind be killed.

With that resolve, Satoru Gojo took out a slip of paper. This last resort was something he had prepared for an emergency, knowing how fiercely Haruka clung to his other half.

Though I never expected that moment to come so soon.

"I'm sorry, Haruka."

I reached toward his tear-streaked face and poured cursed energy into the slip.

"Haruka Itadori, forget everything about Yuji Itadori."

I pressed it onto him with a soft slap.

I'm sorry, Haruka.

This is the only way I can protect you.

＜Ryomen Sukuna's Perspective＞

-Plop.

With that sound, something fell into my domain.

Before the soul of the brat who had chosen suicide could reach my innate domain, a different visitor wandered in. When I noticed, I was about to ready myself to tear the nuisance apart, but one glance at the face of the insect that had fallen in made me lower my hand.

"Oh, it's you, brat."

That body, slender as a woman's, and the way he lay face down on the floor of my domain looked familiar. He was the "little brother" who had entered into a brotherly binding vow with me.

Yet he simply lay there in the water of my domain, showing no intention of getting up. The defiant beast he had once been was gone. Now he was like a flame on a candleholder, about to gutter out.

"Hey, you. Stop groveling there and lift your head."

My command met only silence.

What? And here I was hoping for a little killing to relieve my boredom. How dull.

With that thought, I climbed down from the piled skulls and walked toward him. The splashing of my steps seemed to bring the brat to his senses, and he tilted his head slightly.

"Awake now?"

At those words, he merely shook his head sharply from side to side and curled up like a cat. I could tell something had brought him low, but he was making it far too obvious, the fool.

I took another step toward his curled back. "Get up already," I ordered, but he only curled tighter.

I sighed deeply. This was why humans, such insignificant creatures...

Then I reached out, as though to lift a cat by its scruff... no, I grabbed my little brother by the back of his neck and lifted him. His body swung limply, and I wrapped an arm around his torso, carrying him like luggage. I hauled him straight to the top of the mound of bones where I had been sitting.

I tossed him like an object onto the spot right beside my seat... and he collapsed limply. Then he wriggled like a caterpillar, rudely making himself a place to sleep at my side. He even grabbed my sleeve.

"Hey."

I never gave you permission to go that far. I was just about to say so.

"...Elder brother."

A faint voice called to me. No, perhaps "called" was not the right word.

It was merely a monologue. The brat was talking to himself, seeking no answer.

For that very reason, I gave him none, simply resting a hand on his little head. That ought to be enough.

Then, reassured by that shelter, the weakened beast began to speak.

"I think... all my memories of Yuji have been erased."

He whispered it.

I did not answer, merely turning my eyes toward him. Go on.

"...I told him this once, too.

Apparently, no matter how important someone is to you, humans really do forget them after they die. First their voice, then their face, and finally the memories, in that order."

I heard a pitiful sob then, but pretended not to.

"What am I going to do...? I already can't remember Yuji's voice, or his face...

At this rate, I won't remember our memories either... I'll forget his name, and even that I ever had a brother."

His words broke off, and his little back curled up like a cat's again.

Words like "I hate this" and "I'm scared" spilled out in broken fragments, but then he curled up like a bagworm and fell silent.

Humans were a damned nuisance.

I grabbed my little brother's head and forced him to face me. He was not crying. Hmph... well, it was only a matter of time.

"Listen carefully, Lazybones."

There was no deeper meaning behind the name. It simply seemed fitting.

Once I was sure those copper-red eyes were fixed squarely on me, I continued.

"Your older brother's name is Yuji Itadori... and I am Sukuna."

"..."

"That brat Yuji Itadori's face looks almost exactly like mine... no, mine is more imposing.

His looks a little more vacant. And his hair hangs down. His taste in kimonos is poor, too... hmph."

"Mm..."

"His voice is completely different from mine.

Hmm... stupid is the only way to describe it. The moment he opens his mouth, he gives away what an idiot he is, and he's outrageously shameless. Everything he says gets on my nerves."

"...Mm."

"And he's weak. Far worse than you, too fragile to be of any use."

"Hehe, is that so?"

"Ah... yes."

At last, a laugh escaped him, and I tapped his head a few times. His lowered face looked languid, but the evil possessing him seemed to have been driven out completely.

Satisfied, I snorted.

"If you forget, ask me. Just come and look at this face of your 'elder brother.'

The binding vow I made isn't only with you. It connects me to that brat, too."

"Okay."

"Now sleep. Then wake up on the other side.

When you realize your memories have been tampered with, when you remember that brat completely... that binding vow will reveal its true worth."

"...Elder... brother."

As Sukuna spoke, he stroked the neck of the child who had fallen into a deep sleep a few times... then severed it without hesitation. A mocking laugh echoed through the silent innate domain, then faded.

Someone was calling me amid a hazy, sepia-colored landscape. Haruka, Haruka, they called my name over and over as they approached.

I'm still sleepy. Let me sleep a little longer.

Merciless even in the face of that excuse, he yanked off my blanket.

"Ha-ruka."

Whoosh. My warm blanket was swept away, and the blanket-snatching monster filled my vision.

"Good morning, Yorkshire Terrier!"

I reached out toward my white-haired, blindfolded homeroom teacher and his strange greeting.

"Mr. Gojo, hold me."

If I said that, he would usually carry me to the classroom. "Honestly, what am I going to do with you?" he said, scooping me into his arms.

...Then, suddenly, something felt off.

It was a truly tiny, insignificant feeling. No, even I could not tell exactly what that distinct sense of wrongness was.

But something just did not feel right.

With that feeling lodged in my throat like a fish bone, I thought, Oh, well, and drifted back to sleep with the rocking of the Gojo taxi.

Yuji... who was that again?