Uzumaki Gamu pulled all eighty-eight pieces of Yuji Itadori out of the cage. As he pieced him back together, he said, "Not bad. At least you dodged the first hit!"
"...But this hurts even more than last time!" Even a man made of iron couldn't endure being cut into eighty-eight pieces. Yuji Itadori was crying from the pain.
"So? Giving up?" Uzumaki Gamu asked.
"No, let's keep going!" Yuji Itadori said firmly. He wasn't a coward. Pain was pain; he could shed a few tears and get over it! To become stronger, he would face anything!
"Good. Go fight him again!" Uzumaki Gamu shoved Yuji Itadori back inside.
"Damn it! Is this never going to end?!" Sukuna was utterly dumbfounded. Was Yuji Itadori not afraid of pain?
If pain couldn't scare Yuji Itadori off, Sukuna really had no other options right now.
First of all, he only had one finger's worth of power, nowhere near enough to oppose Uzumaki Gamu. That also meant he had no chance of killing Yuji Itadori. If Yuji Itadori refused to quit, he really could only serve as a sparring partner—and that wasn't what he wanted to do!
Being forced into something against his will infuriated Sukuna, but... what could he do? Just give up?
Doing nothing and letting Yuji Itadori pin him down and beat him would be humiliating. The King of Curses wasn't about to let some teenage brat pound him into the ground!
And so, willing or not, Sukuna could only become Yuji Itadori's sparring partner! (Uzumaki Gamu: Heh. How does it feel to be someone's plaything, King of Curses?)
What followed was an excruciatingly long period of special training...
-Ninja tools in preparation-
Several days later, Yuji Itadori and his two classmates received a new mission: rescue people from the Juvenile