Cooking was magical.
It changed with your mood, and liking or hating it affected the results.
Of course something someone made with love tasted good. Even if they were clumsy and it was half raw, anything freshly made was delicious as long as you could feel the care behind it. Conversely, no matter how well it was made, food left to grow cold in the fridge, or made mechanically without any love, tasted bad.
I wasn't the one who cooked. That much was true.
But I liked watching other people cook. I liked watching carrots being peeled with a soft scraping sound in Yuji's hands, halved potatoes on the cutting board being diced, and onions dancing around in the frying pan before softening and turning caramel brown. It all looked like fascinating magic.
And I liked watching Yuji's back as he cooked, too. It wasn't some especially rugged man's back, but I quite enjoyed those little changes, like the way he sometimes whistled and swayed to the rhythm, or jumped when the oil spat.
But Yuji was a little sneaky, and sometimes he made me help. With dishes I absolutely had to help with, too.
Like... tonight's dinner.
Bubble, bubble. Burble, burble.
Pleasant sounds and rising steam. An appetizing aroma tickled my nose.
"I knew I wanted us to eat around a pot!"
Right. We were having hot pot today.
I didn't know what was supposed to be so sad about three men sitting around an earthenware pot with their chopsticks, but that was exactly what Yuji, Gojo-sensei, and I were doing. I couldn't be bothered to pick anything out, so I planned to leave it all to Yuji. It was easier that way, and more nutritionally balanced.
"Mmm, Yuji really is the domestic type."
Gojo-sensei immediately snatched up some napa cabbage and meatballs and smacked his lips as he spoke. Yuji smiled bashfully.
"Huh, really? Does that mean I can get married off?"
"Really, really. Absolutely."
At their silly joking, I clacked my chopsticks together, ignoring my manners.
"Don't say weird stuff. Yuji still has to take care of me."
Yuji smiled wryly at my protest.
"Isn't it about time you graduated from that?"
Gojo-sensei glanced sidelong at the ceiling,
"Heavenly Restriction is a lifelong thing, though," he muttered.
Don't caaare. I'd be fine with Yuji taking care of me for the rest of my life.
Just as I was thinking that,
"Here, Haruka. Your bowl's ready. Eat up."
He handed me my bowl, with just the right balance of vegetables, meatballs, and broth. Setting aside why the bowl had tiger stripes, I shot a look at the teacher who had provided it...
"Yeah, thanks."
Paired with yellow-and-black-striped chopsticks, I accepted it with both hands.
"...Thanks for the food."
As I chewed, happy that I got to eat Yuji's cooking again today, I felt truly content.
We were about halfway through the hot pot.
"Oh, Sensei, wait... Haruka, do that thing. You know."
Yuji nudged me with his elbow as he spoke while I slowly chewed.
I had just finished the last piece of tofu in the pot. Looking at the ingredients and broth left inside, I realized, He definitely did this on purpose. Gojo-sensei seemed interested, too.
"Huh? What is it? What's Haruka going to do?"
He leaned forward, pressing for an answer.
I frowned slightly, then gave up. Once this kind of person got curious, he wouldn't let it go.
I set my bowl and chopsticks on the table.
"Do you guys want rice or noodles?"
I asked anyway.
""If we have to choose, both!""
Teacher and student answered in unison, leaving me no choice. A little annoyed by their perfectly synchronized answer, I slowly stood up.
"It's lazy cooking, so don't complain."
The ingredients were extremely simple. Instant noodles, rice, and a pot.
Though it felt like a waste, Yuji crushed the instant noodles with brute force, and we tossed them into the pot with the washed rice. Then I cooked them a little firm, following the rule: "Low heat at first, high heat in the middle, and don't lift the lid even if a baby cries." Mixing it once it was cooked and letting it steam for about ten minutes kept it from burning as easily.
Then I dumped that instant-noodle rice into the leftover hot pot with a bold... thump.
"Okay, just heat it up one last time to make porridge, and we're done."
I left the remaining steps to Yuji and cleaned up the rice pot.
"Haruka's lazy cooking... is kind of impressive."
An appraisal came from across the table that I couldn't quite tell was praise or criticism. Well, Gojo-sensei looked like he could do anything, and this hardly counted as cooking.
"That's bachelor food for you. Here... if you're eating, take a spoon."
I handed them both spoons I'd brought from the kitchen.
"Heh, this is pretty nice, too. I like it."
"Right? This kind of sinful food really hits the spot."
Watching him happily ladle out the porridge made my face warm a little. I told myself it was the steam and added,
"Add some miso when you want to change up the flavor."
"Ahh, I'm stuffed. Completely stuffed."
Gojo-sensei slumped limply in his chair, sounding satisfied. Why had he even come here?
In exchange for living underground with Yuji, I was now playing the role of "the younger brother who went mad after his older brother died" aboveground. Well, it wasn't entirely wrong.
And the two of us were making do and enjoying our basement life.
"What did you come here for, Sensei?"
I hated feeling each other out, so I asked directly. The teacher, who had moved from the plain chair to the couch, smiled.
"What's this? Am I such a coldhearted teacher that I wouldn't visit my adorable students unless I needed something?"
He draped a hand over my shoulder as if he intended to pester me. What an awful personality.
I brushed his hand away and tilted my head toward the armrest on the opposite side. Men's laps were generally hard. I hated them.
"I just had a feeling you were bringing trouble. My instincts are pretty accurate at times like this."
"Ha ha, don't you always say that? That's practically radar."
Yuji chimed in while clearing the dishes.
You're the epicenter, you troublemaker.
Being able to think it without saying it was the mark of a mature younger brother. I swallowed the words with a mutter.
"Well, you guessed right."
Looking at the smiling teacher beside me, I mentally cursed, See?
"Haruka has a mission in a week.
And Yuji has one in two weeks."
There was something meaningful in his words. I lifted my tilted head a little and listened closely.
"Unfortunately... I won't be accompanying you."
"Meaning you won't protect Yuji even if what happened last time happens again?"
My voice came out lower than I'd expected.
Naturally. This teacher wasn't a bad person, but he bore part of the blame for Yuji's death last time. I neither trusted nor respected the man in front of me.
"Ooh, scary. It'll be fine. What you're imagining won't happen, Haruka. It's a simple mission, and I've paired him with a reliable jujutsu sorcerer."
Gojo-sensei raised both hands as if joking, and the air around us tightened. Almost as if he were showing off that strange barrier.
"...Why separate me and Yuji?"
Since we're hiding here anyway, couldn't he send us on secret missions as a pair? The fact that he isn't doing that feels wrong.
I looked up at him with something close to a glare. His bright blue eyes gazed down at me, his blindfold pushed up at some point.
"For Yuji's and Haruka's growth."
At that answer, Yuji and I both froze with one eyebrow raised.
Yuji Itadori's point of view
Come to think of it, I remembered.
I didn't have room for that now. Rather, I shouldn't have been thinking about anything else.
It had already been "four weeks" since Haruka and I had parted after that hot pot meal.
That time, I'd eaten around the pot with Haruka and Gojo-sensei. We'd talked about the missions, but not in detail, mostly chatting about nothing and watching TV.
What was he doing now? Was he sleeping again? Or was he pushing himself too hard again?
As his older brother, as his other half, my worries never ended.
Hey, Haruka.
For a while now, I'd been working on a mission with a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer named Nanami, and I'd met a guy my age there. His name was Junpei Yoshino. Officially, he was a key witness, but we'd really hit it off, and he was a fun guy. His mom was kind and cheerful, a good person, too. And apparently he could see cursed spirits, just like us.
But, no, maybe... that was why.
When I heard a Curtain had descended over Junpei's high school, I'd rushed over without hesitation.
He had cursed people and become my enemy... and it hurt.
It hurt that I'd ignorantly decided he was in the wrong without understanding his situation, and punched him.
It was frustrating that I was so weak, that the strange cursed spirit who appeared partway through had thrown me into a wall.
And now Junpei, my friend... was about to be touched by that cursed spirit, to be hurt... and I was scared.
The cursed spirit called Mahito walked down the stairs, saying something to Junpei. Restrained by bizarre arms, I couldn't move. All I could do was watch the cursed spirit reach for him. It was a critical moment.
Stop! Run! My head was full of desperate cries.
"...Haruka."
For some reason, what I squeezed out was my younger brother's name.
The name of my other half, who should have been somewhere else entirely, on a mission with someone else, who wouldn't know the pain I was in.
Just then.
"Plop."
The school building's staircase. No, the entire hallway.
The sound of a water droplet echoed through it.
It reached my ears, Junpei's ears, and the ears of the cursed spirit about to touch Junpei.
"If Yuji calls for me, I'll go to him, wherever he is, whenever it is."
The voice spread like ripples across water, and clear cursed energy covered the space around us.
Then...
"Hah, what's this?"
Beneath the muttering cursed spirit, beneath Junpei a short distance from him, beneath me, now freed from the arms restraining me... water rose to our knees. It was incredibly clear and transparent, reflecting the sky even though we were inside the school building.
Water poured endlessly down from the upper steps, like a flood. Inside the school building, which should have been pitch-black, the blue sky in the water illuminated us.
...Several steps above the cursed spirit. On the stair landing.
Water splashed there, and the figure who appeared made my eyes widen.
"...Haruka."
My twin brother, who shouldn't have been here. My other half.
For some reason, the Jujutsu High uniform we'd gotten ready together four weeks ago was in tatters. Unlike mine, his fluffy hair was singed. His arms and legs were bleeding.
He stood there with one eye covered in blood.
The cursed spirit blinked at the sight, then curled his lips upward. I noticed the movement and was just about to act.
A single tear slipped from Haruka's bloodied eye.
"Domain Expansion... Clear Mirror, Still Water."
It was faster than a fleeting gust of wind, faster than sound through the air, faster than light streaming down... faster.
The lifeless concrete and fluorescent-lit ceiling were painted over with blue sky in the blink of an eye. Classrooms, hallways, and stairs all disappeared. Only water and sky remained, nothing else.
I'd seen Gojo-sensei's Domain Expansion, but it hadn't looked like this.
The water covering our ankles was blue, transparent, reflecting the sky.
Stirred by a strong wind, the clouds on the water's surface changed shape.
"Wh-what... is this?"
Splish, splish. With small splashes and a bewildered murmur, Junpei approached me from up ahead.
In this endlessly transparent, beautiful world, in this enormous tank of water, I worried that Junpei would be swallowed up and disappear. Bewildered, I grabbed his outstretched hand and held it tight. I wouldn't let go.
Just as I tried to check our surroundings,
"Yuji."
That perpetually sleepy voice stopped me. There was no need to ask whose it was.
I was about to turn around... but that hand, that blood-covered hand, stopped me. The voice that followed was quiet and weak.
"Yuji's friend?"
He was probably referring to Junpei.
This time, I stopped Junpei when he tried to speak, then nodded. "Yeah."
"He's an important friend of mine."
Beside me, Junpei, whose hand I was holding, drew in a sharp breath. From behind me came a relieved, "I see."
With a small splash, Haruka murmured, "I see," once more.
Then his bloodless hand reached out and took my free hand. I tightly clasped the hand that held mine so gently.
And my battered other half came to stand perfectly at my left side. His slender fingers trembled slightly as he weakly returned my grip.
Then that arm lifted my hand. Haruka hunched his back a little... and pressed his forehead against the back of my raised hand.
As though pleading, as though praying.
"...I'm so glad I could protect your friend, Yuji."
He breathed out in relief.
Before long.
"This touching brotherly love is all well and good."
A voice shattered the mood.
"But how about paying a little attention to me?"
The Cursed Spirit that had been feeding Junpei ideas.
I warily took a fighting stance, but Haruka raised his head and stopped me before I could act. Then he released my hand and stepped forward.
But Domain Expansion consumed enormous amounts of cursed energy. He was nearly at his limit, and badly injured, too.
Am I going to let my little brother protect me when he's lost this much blood...?
Driven by that question and a tangle of emotions, I tried to catch the hand my brother had let go of. But Haruka himself evaded me, and my fingers closed on empty air.
I used to have to lead him by the hand, to carry him when he couldn't be bothered to move. Yet over this past month, Haruka had started walking ahead of me. Acting to protect me. What I'd only vaguely sensed was now laid bare before my eyes.
"That is because you are too weak."
Sukuna's voice came from somewhere. Perhaps it was a voice my imagination had conjured, or perhaps it really was Sukuna.
But...it was a painfully undeniable truth.
Even now, Haruka had his back to me, protecting me as he faced the enemy covered in blood. Without a doubt, I was the reason he had to do this.
"...Haruka!"
I couldn't stop myself from calling his name. The back in front of me, shorter than my own, suddenly stopped.
"It's fine," he said briefly, flicking the blood from his fingertips.
Drip. Red scattered onto the water, its color spreading and dissolving into the clear surface.
"...I'm so tired now, I wouldn't care if I died."
Mahito's perspective
"Drive Yuji Itadori into a corner until Sukuna takes over, then establish a Binding Vow with Sukuna on favorable terms."
That was my goal. And yet, "What the hell is this?"
The collapse of every plan began with Haruka Itadori, standing before me.
"Geto said he was just fast. That was a lie, right?"
"Haruka Itadori." The twin younger brother of Sukuna's vessel, Yuji Itadori. A Cursed Technique that converted cursed energy into speed. He possessed a Heavenly Restriction called "Languor." When he wasn't releasing cursed energy, his motivation and stamina dropped drastically.
...I knew that information. But ultimately, it was only "information."
"Nobody told me anything about Domain Expansion."
Before I could use Idle Transfiguration to change that stupid, useless Junpei, that domain had "destroyed the Curtain" and encroached on this place. The entire building flooded, and even the hallways and stairs fell within his domain.
Then Haruka Itadori appeared, covered in blood.
He looked half-dead and easy to kill, yet for some reason, he expanded his domain again.
The result was this domain, containing nothing but sea and sky. Dagon's domain was a sea, too, but this was different. Clearly different.
The boy before me said nothing. He simply kept his head lowered, letting the wind stir his hair.
"...Say something."
His persistent silence made me think he was boring, unlike his brother.
"My Heavenly Restriction, 'Languor,' supposedly activates when I'm not releasing cursed energy, drastically reducing my motivation and stamina. Is that what you heard?"
He spoke in an emotionless voice without raising his head.
He seemed to be explaining his Heavenly Restriction, much like revealing a Cursed Technique. It matched Geto's information, so I nodded.
Then he raised his head slightly.
There was no expression on his upturned face. No joy. No sadness. No anger. No hatred.
His brother's copper-colored eyes had churned with all kinds of emotions. This boy's held none.
Those hollow eyes frightened even my instincts as a Cursed Spirit. We didn't know what "this" was.
No wonder. Most Cursed Spirits formed from negative human emotions, after all. A human without emotion was something Cursed Spirits couldn't understand.
"But apparently, that's wrong.
The more I lose the will to act, the more languid I become, the stronger my cursed energy gets."
Haruka Itadori's declaration brought his earlier words to mind.
"So tired, I wouldn't care if I died"...For him, wasn't that the highest possible Binding Vow, with his own life at stake?
"How ironic...Wishing I didn't have to do anything makes me stronger than genuinely wanting to save someone."
He gripped some kind of weapon behind his back.
"...Fifty percent release."
The presence of death moved.
It happened in an instant. Feeling a breeze brush my neck, I shifted my body.
Slice...
The right hand I'd shifted into the position of my neck fell off.
"...!"
Just now, he'd definitely "gotten me."
I surrounded my body with what I'd transfigured and took a defensive stance. I knew it wouldn't hold for long, but with his attacks impossible to read, defending was all I could do.
I hardened my body with Idle Transfiguration. I wanted at least a few dozen seconds to think.
Even so.
"I won't apologize."
Shhk.
That blade easily undid my hardening and pierced my body.
"...Huh?"
An emotionless "void" came at me.
What was that Cursed Tool? That was cheating.
The Cursed Tool sliced through my Cursed Technique like paper and stabbed into my neck, sending bloody foam flying.
Amid the red I spat out, several Transfigured Humans fell from my mouth. I hadn't planned to use them, but whatever.
Looking at the Transfigured Humans, I sneered at Haruka Itadori, who had put some distance between us.
"You can't kill people either, can you?"
Saying it while coughing up blood sounded like a loser's whining, but even a small weakness carried enough weight. However.
"Does it matter?"
His voice had no color.
What I felt in that instant was revulsion, fear, anxiety, and panic.
It was no exaggeration to call it a split-second decision. I staked everything on the hazy impression in my mind and formed a hand sign.
"Domain Expansion."
The instant I whispered it, those copper-colored eyes were still gazing into nothingness. He wasn't even "interested."
Then I'll find a way to make you look at me!
"Self-Embodiment of Perfection."
My domain took shape, encroaching on the sea and sky that were far too beautiful, enclosing only Haruka Itadori within its grasp. Countless hands linked together, forming a barrier that imprisoned him and me. A true cage of hands.
It worked. My Domain Expansion was spectacularly effective, even on its first use.
"Haha, now I can touch your soul. I can't let you escape."
Trapped inside this barrier, with countless hands attacking him, he couldn't escape no matter how fast he was. If one of these hands so much as grazed him, I could distort Haruka Itadori's soul in that instant.
"...Is that so."
But his answer still wasn't directed toward me. He didn't even look at me.
His composure was infuriating. I directed every hand in the domain toward him at once.
"Hurry up and die so you can be Sukuna's vessel!"
The hands surged toward him. There was nowhere to run.
But even though I thought this would work without a problem, I couldn't shake an inexplicable sense that something was wrong.
No, this is fine.
I brushed aside my overly cautious thoughts and looked straight ahead.
...This is fine...
Then, the instant my fingertips touched him.
Whoosh. A slender, pale hand rose.
"This is my domain, you know."
Oh, come to think of it, I never heard anything about its effects.
Realizing that now was far too late.
There wasn't even time to register it. The attack tore through my domain and shot toward me like an arrow.
I couldn't even feel the pain of being "hurt."
I was simply pierced over and over, attacked over and over.
I couldn't even manage a "Huh?" as I was pierced dozens, hundreds, thousands of times. I had no sensation anywhere in my body.
It was like an endless barrage of arrows or artillery shells. My body was shredded, and even my soul became indistinct.
...And then, I didn't even hear what Haruka Itadori said as he looked down at me.
"My domain can convert all speed into attacks.
In this space, the speed of sound, the speed of wind, the speed of cursed energy, the speed of a heartbeat...all of it becomes my blades, and attacks rain down on every living thing until the domain is released.
...What you're enduring now is the fastest thing on Earth."
"It's the speed of light, pouring down endlessly from the sky."
Even if I'd known the details of that unfair Cursed Technique, death would still have been my only way out. The instant my consciousness went black, I truly thought it was "terrifying."
Thank goodness I wasn't on the same side as that hollow monster.
Yuji Itadori's perspective
After Haruka was taken into the black domain, only Junpei, me, and the Transfigured Humans whose souls the Cursed Spirit had distorted remained in the space of sea and sky. It hurt to think they'd once been human, but I exorcised them anyway...No, I killed them.
The sensation of my fists sinking into deformed flesh told me, "These are human beings." I accepted that as I killed them.
The thought that I had to save my little brother drove me forward.
As I was about to kill the last one.
It vanished before my fist touched it. All that had happened was a beam of light passing between us.
At the same time, the Cursed Spirit's domain in the distance became riddled with holes and collapsed in an instant.
"It's Haruka!!"
Of course I knew Haruka had done something.
I broke into a run without caring about the water around me. Water splashed noisily beneath my soaked feet. Ignoring it, I charged straight toward my other half.
What came into view were the Cursed Spirit's remains dissolving into ash, and Haruka looking down at them without reacting.
Just as I reached for his shoulder.
A strong wind swept past, and the domain dissolved.
The water receded. The sky became a dark ceiling again.
Haruka's cursed energy drew back into him, and the flowing water was sucked into the plunge pool called Haruka.
After a few seconds, everything returned to normal. Dim fluorescent lights flickered, illuminating the shadowy hallway, while sparrows perched in a tree outside the slightly open window chirped. Everything was as usual. An ordinary school building.
Only the Cursed Spirit on the stairs was gone, and the unnaturally silent hallway felt out of place.
"..."
I looked around, then slowly turned my gaze toward Junpei. My friend had passed out from exhaustion and lay asleep, but all his limbs were intact. I felt a little relieved.
Haruka, meanwhile, was crouched on the stairs. He had curled up against the wall in a shadow the fluorescent light couldn't reach.
I gently lifted Junpei and sat him against the hallway wall, then took off my uniform jacket and draped it over him. Mr. Nanami would understand when he arrived, right?
Then I pressed a hand against my aching back, where the Cursed Spirit had slammed me into the wall, and headed toward my brother. The few steps between us were reassuringly easy to cross.
I crouched in front of the step where Haruka sat, turning my back to him.
"Come on, Haruka. Let's go home."
I felt him move sluggishly. Weak arms draped over my shoulders. Then his upper body flopped onto my back.
I firmly drew the arms I'd failed to catch earlier around the front of my neck, adjusted his position on my back, and supported his thighs.
With a "Heave-ho," I stood up. The shoulder where Haruka's head rested gradually grew warm.
"...Let's take the train home."
"Yeah."
Feeling his comforting weight, I started walking. For my one and only other half.
Otherwise, I honestly felt-and I wasn't joking-that Haruka would cry until he suffocated.
Mr. Ijichi was outside the school gate, but I brushed off his worried greeting with, "We're fine." Since Mr. Nanami hadn't arrived yet, I also asked him to pass along the message about Junpei.
After we left the school, plenty of passersby looked at us as we walked down the street, but I didn't care. Every so often, I hoisted my slipping brother back up and silently continued toward the station.
The station.
"..."
Listening to the routine announcement of "The train departing shortly is...," I lined up at the least crowded entrance I could find. All the while, my brother did nothing but breathe.
"It's so hot."
My back and Haruka's stomach were pressed tightly together, and the summer heat was unbearable. We weren't quite sweating, but I didn't care anymore.
The crowds, the voices, the cicadas at summer's end, the announcements.
Everything seemed intent on erasing our existence.
Soon, a strong wind blew sideways, and a train pulled up in front of us. That whooshing noise when the doors open is so loud, I thought as we stepped through.
The carriage was empty.
Normally, that would have felt eerie and frightening. Right now, it was perfect. I walked to the seats in the middle and had Haruka sit down first.
"...Mm."
"Mm."
Once I made sure Haruka was seated, I sat down on his right.
Then my little brother finally parted his lips slightly. Somehow, I could tell a tear was falling from the eyes above them.
"Domain Expansion: Clear Mirror, Still Water."
Splash.
As the sound of water rang out, Cursed Energy poured from Haruka's body. It turned into crystal-clear water and filled the carriage.
In the blink of an eye, the water had reached our knees.
The surface reflected the sky, distorting now and then with the swaying train, ripples spreading across it. It simply existed in silence. I gazed blankly at the sight.
What would he say if I told him it looked like the Salar de Uyuni?
I was just about to ask him that simple question.
"Yuji, can't we just stay here forever?"
His usual tone. His usual voice. His usual expression.
That was what Haruka suggested.
I didn't make a point of looking up. He probably didn't want me to see.
After a brief silence, Haruka continued, having interpreted it in some way I couldn't guess.
"Inside this domain, we can stay here forever. Nothing from the outside can interfere.
We won't be separated. You won't be unfairly executed, Yuji. You won't get hurt, and you won't have to kill anyone."
...I had a vague idea of what he would say next.
"We won't lose anything important."
When I moved closer, he gave me a tiny nod.
"Nothing painful, nothing sad, nothing that hurts.
We could wait here until the world ends... doesn't that sound nice?"
He looked drained. His little head drooped to my left.
His pink hair, a little singed and grayish, swayed with the clattering of the train.
Watching it from the corner of my eye, I raised my left arm.
Even though he knew what was coming, my little brother neither fled nor ducked away.
"You duuummy."
I pulled his head toward mine and pressed them together. Our foreheads touched, warmth passing between us.
Connected. Touching. At a distance of zero, where we could truly feel each other.
I lowered my eyes and spoke.
"You're such a lazy little slacker, Haruka.
If you're saying we'll stay here doing nothing until the world ends, that we can't save anyone no matter what we say...
...Then, to me, that's no different from being dead."
If Haruka said he could do it, he probably really could. Just Haruka and me, unable to die, like a journey through the end of the world.
The forehead pressed against mine offered no argument. It didn't pull away, either.
That reassured me, and I pressed closer.
"So let's just keep things the way they usually are.
You can laze your way through life, Haruka. And I'll carry you, feed you, and take you to class, just like always.
Even when things hurt, when they're sad, when you can't accept them... I'll pull you along until you can stand, feed you, and give you a push forward."
As I spoke, I leaned gently against the seat back, keeping our heads together.
Before I knew it, tears were gathering not only in my little brother's eyes, but at the corners of mine, too.
"We made a promise, remember? 'Until you get married and find yourself a caring wife, I'll take care of you for the rest of my life.'
...Even if Grandpa's gone, even if your friends are gone, your big brother will still be right beside you."
I couldn't even hear a sob beside me. He must have been shedding Little Konpeitō, one after another.
Whether he'd been putting on a brave face or holding it in before, he was a really ugly crier.
"So don't forget."
The swaying water and sky. The Salar de Uyuni, where we'd promised to go someday.
This was the dream Haruka wished for. A lonely domain, empty of everything... abandoning all that could bring back memories of the past.
"You said you wanted to 'save people with kindness,' didn't you?"
We couldn't forget.
Our childhood promise. Burnt rolled omelets. Our aching heads after Grandpa gave us a good walloping.
The scent of rush grass from the tatami back home. The pleasant breeze blowing in from the veranda. Grandpa's arms, which had grown as thin as dead branches.
The faces of the friends we'd made at our new school, our teacher's hands, how hateful Sukuna was.
"Painful memories, awful memories, words carved into your heart. Carry all of them with you, and become kinder. Go save people.
...I'll help you carry them, too."
His head dropped with a little bump, its weight settling onto my shoulder.
Huff, huff. I heard quiet breaths beside me and made sure he'd calmed down.
Then I looked straight ahead.
Across from us, in the seat directly opposite, he sat with his long legs submerged in the water, wearing a troubled smile.
"Thank you, Yuji."
Gojo-sensei was there, just like when we'd had hot pot four weeks earlier.
Apparently knowing he wouldn't get wet, Sensei rose naturally from the seat opposite us and sat down beside Haruka without hesitation.
"The higher-ups contacted me about a large-scale Domain Expansion. I flew over, and it gave me quite a shock. I never imagined it was Haruka's."
"I don't really understand it either, but Haruka suddenly appeared."
We were talking across Haruka when, suddenly-
"...Huh? What's this?"
I noticed that Haruka had been clutching something in his right hand the whole time.
"Huh? What do you mean? It's a phone."
Just as Sensei said, the phone clenched in his hand had a light-blue case, with a Pokémon charm dangling from it. Blood clung to the edges, and the screen was cracked. It was in pretty terrible shape. But-
"This isn't Haruka's."
"Huh?"
I knew. Haruka's phone had a plain white case. There was no charm attached.
Puzzled, I tried peeling Haruka's fingers away from the phone.
Once he finally released it, Gojo-sensei said, "Well, let's find out whose it is," and pressed the power button.
The phone itself didn't seem to be broken. The screen lit up.
But it was completely black. Only a triangular video play button floated in the center.
Sensei and I exchanged a look without meaning to... then pressed the button.
Playback began with a quiet "clunk... click."
Then-
"Okay, is this working?"
A boy's voice, sounding about my age, came through the speaker.
"No, it isn't." "It isn't." Neither of us could help commenting.
The picture stayed completely black, as if he'd mixed up the front and rear cameras. Whoever had made the video didn't seem to have noticed and apparently intended to keep talking.
"Ah... um, leaving a video like this for Haruka is pretty embarrassing. Well, since we're best friends-supposedly-I'll let it slide. Anyway..."
The person who'd made the video seemed to be Haruka's friend.
Naturally, both Sensei and I listened closely for any information.
"...If you're watching this, that means I'm already dead, right?"
Those words, spoken in a lowered voice, came through with exceptional clarity.
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