Their Respective Pasts

In a clearing.

Maki and Mai stood facing each other, their eyes locked.

Both sisters, along with Fushiguro, had been born into the Zenin Clan, one of the Three Great Families.

In that powerful, feudal clan, perfection was taken for granted.

Anyone who failed to inherit the Cursed Technique passed down through the Zenin Clan's generations could only begin life as a sorcerer already branded a failure.

Sometimes, women were not even allowed to stand at the starting line.

How could anyone outside the Zenin Clan be called a Jujutsu Sorcerer?

How could anyone who was not a Jujutsu Sorcerer be called human?

Maki had been born into that heartless clan. Without any cursed energy, she had endured more scornful looks than she could count.

Bang, bang!

Mai's Revolver gave two muted reports, sending rubber bullets hurtling toward Maki in the distance with tremendous kinetic energy.

Yet Maki swung the Tachi in her hands, intercepting the incoming bullets.

With precision and grace, she sliced them in two.

Then she darted behind a tree.

Mai did not dare lower her gun or let her guard down for even a moment.

"What good will hiding in a blind spot do? You actually put distance between us. What an idiot."

Suddenly.

The branch beneath her feet snapped. A weightless sensation washed over her as she fell toward the ground.

"She's right below me!"

Mai reacted immediately, firing rapidly at her sister as she charged in with her sword.

Yet Mai's expression remained perfectly calm. She moved in a blur, dodging the bullets before whipping a kick into her younger sister's stomach.

Thud!

The blow sent Mai flying.

"Damn it."

Ever since she was little, Mai had known that her sister possessed a talent she lacked. Even the mockery and criticism of their relatives never bothered her.

A scene from their childhood surfaced in her mind.

Her sister, still very young, wore an unconcerned expression as she urged her to hurry along.

"Mai, come on."

But Mai could see a weak Cursed Spirit blocking the roadside.

"No, there's something there."

"Again? Oh, fine."

"Here, close your eyes. I'll lead you by the hand. If you can't see it, it's just like it isn't there."

Mai's face twisted with the anger and hatred of being abandoned. She stopped herself from stumbling backward and fired at her sister again and again, demanding:

"Why have you always been like this, charging straight into the future as though nothing ever scares you?!"

Maki stopped and looked at her sister, whose eyes burned with hatred.

"You've fired six shots already, haven't you? I'm not letting you reload."

But a triumphant smile spread across Mai's face. "You don't know what my Cursed Technique is, do you?"

Inside the gun, a bullet made entirely of cursed energy slid into the chamber.

Construction Technique: creating matter from nothing, using one's own cursed energy as its foundation.

However, it differed from Domain Expansion, which manifested an Innate Domain within a barrier.

Matter created through the Construction Technique would not disappear even after the technique ended.

As a result, it consumed an enormous amount of cursed energy and placed a heavy burden on the body.

Mai's limit was one bullet per day without harming her body.

"I win!"

Taking advantage of her sister's carelessness, now that she believed all six rounds in the Revolver had been fired, Mai suddenly fired the bullet constructed entirely from cursed energy.

Then she froze in disbelief.

Maki had only reacted when the bullet was right in front of her eyes.

But with a quick flick of her right hand, she caught it.

Watching the bullet fall from her sister's hand, Mai wondered whether something was wrong with her eyes.

"She caught... the bullet with her hand?!"

Maki possessed a heavenly binding vow. She should have been born with a Cursed Technique, but had traded it for physical abilities far beyond those of ordinary people.

Yet the Zenin Clan refused to acknowledge that talent.

Maki stood beside her dejected sister. "I won, right?"

"Why... did you leave home?"

Surprised by the question, Maki replied, "You know without me having to tell you, don't you? How could anyone stay in a place that awful?"

Mai erupted at her answer, pouring out all the grievances she had bottled up over the years:

"I never wanted to be a Jujutsu Sorcerer!"

"It's all your fault!! Because you worked so hard, I had no choice but to work hard too!"

"I've had enough of the pain! I've had enough of being afraid!"

Tears filled her eyes as she looked at her sister, falling apart:

"What was so wrong with being ordered around in the Zenin Clan?"

"Couldn't we just do a few chores and live our lives?

Why couldn't you stay at the bottom with me?!"

Maki's gaze softened with a hint of pain. Back then, she had resolutely said goodbye to Naobito Zenin, the head of the Zenin Clan, because she wanted to prove herself.

"If I'd stayed that way forever, I would've hated myself. That's all."

"I'm sorry."

With that, Maki turned and left. She still wanted to watch Araki Itsuki's fight against Todo and Itadori.

Mai sat alone with her back against a tree, hugging her knees and crying.

"Liar. I hate you..."

Elsewhere.

As Panda repeatedly called him his fellow Cursed Corpse, a man submerged in a nutrient tank grew furious. His entire body was wrapped in clean bandages, with not a sliver of skin exposed.

Countless machine cables and infusion tubes hung above him, feeding various nutrient solutions into his broken body.

"What would a worn-out doll know?!"

Outside, Mechamaru's right arm transformed and reassembled, revealing a sharp black blade.

"Blade Source Release, Thrust Acceleration!"

The sharp black blade slashed at the bouncing Panda with unstoppable force.

Even after he dodged it, its power did not diminish, cleaving through several thick, sturdy trees.

The crash of the ancient trees falling was unmistakable, startling a squirrel in the branches.

Click, clack.

Mechamaru's arm returned to normal, and he taunted Panda. "You're pretty good at dodging!"

Panda glanced at the ruined trees and asked curiously, "You're strong. What grade are you?"

"Do our grades for fighting Cursed Spirits matter right now? Still, I don't mind telling you."

"I'm Semi-Grade 1."

Mechamaru's palm opened, revealing a black gun barrel in its center aimed at Panda.

"Great Exorcism Cannon!"

A tremendous blast erupted from Mechamaru's palm.

Even with his right hand firmly bracing his left arm, the powerful recoil sent Mechamaru's body sliding backward.

Boom!

The intense white light cast the surrounding trees' shadows into bizarre shapes, like twisted monsters.

Then it slammed into Panda's raised arms, engulfing his entire body in the blast.

A long while passed.

When the tremendous blast dissipated, Panda's cute appearance had become filthy and battered, with patches scorched black, as though he had fallen into a garbage heap.

Cursed Corpse was the general term for a nonliving object that housed a curse and could move independently.

Artificial Cursed Corpses had a core that served as a heart. Panda was the greatest masterpiece of Principal Yaga, the foremost authority on puppet jujutsu studies.

Panda was not a panda, but a Cursed Corpse born with emotions.

With Mechamaru's arm desperately needing to cool down after firing, Panda seized his chance and closed in.

His massive fists whipped and hammered at Mechamaru, attacking with movements humans could never predict.

Mechamaru's blocking arms faltered under the pressure. Panda slammed a fist into his face, sending him flying backward.

"If there were another guy like me out there, I would've heard a few rumors, right?"

"If there aren't any, that means you're not a Cursed Corpse. You're a real Jujutsu Sorcerer controlling this body remotely from somewhere far away."

At that point, Panda suddenly shouted at Mechamaru:

"Even so, don't get mad just because I mistook you for a Cursed Corpse!"

"Don't you want to talk to me? You'll hurt my feelings!"

When no answer came, Panda studied Mechamaru and continued his analysis:

"Judging by your cursed energy output, your real body can't be too far from here, right?"

"But tracking you down would be too much trouble. I'd rather smash this body of yours."

At that, Mechamaru replied coldly, "You won't accomplish either."

"Have you heard of a heavenly binding vow? Unlike an ordinary binding vow you place on yourself, it's a binding vow forcibly imposed on my body from birth."

"I was born without a right hand or any flesh below my knees. I have no feeling below my waist, and my skin is so fragile that even moonlight burns it."

"I'm also frequently in pain, as though needles have pierced every pore in my body."

Mechamaru touched his face, as though trying to feel the sunlight:

"In exchange for that price, I gained an enormous Cursed Technique range and cursed energy output beyond my own strength."

"This isn't power I chose to obtain. If giving up jujutsu would let me have a healthy body, I'd welcome it!"

Then he stared at Panda with hatred and tilted his head high. Layered steel cannon barrels, lined with neat little holes, extended from his mouth.

"I..."

"This world tramples on and ignores a person's dignity and rights, yet lets a Cursed Corpse doll like you live free and easy."

"I can't stand it, no matter what!!!"

Terrifying cursed energy gathered inside the barrels, locking firmly onto Panda within their firing range.

"Cannon Curse Enhanced Form!"

"Triple Great Exorcism Cannon!!!"

An intensely brilliant beam roared through the forest, carving a scorched furrow into the earth as it blasted into the distance.

The trees in its path were uprooted, unable to offer the slightest resistance.

Mechamaru retracted his curse cannon. The spot where Panda had stood was empty.

"Dead?"

"No, the concept of death doesn't apply to you!"

But just as he turned to leave, a dull rumble suddenly sounded behind him, shaking the ground.

"Hey, I'm feeling a little pissed off now!"

A gorilla far larger than Panda's previous form appeared on the battlefield.