Fight! Fight! Fight!

Not long before, outside the restaurant, the young elementary schooler had begun to flag after they finally made it through the line and bought the Summer Special treats.

It was about mealtime anyway, so the two started looking for seats.

"Sakura... I told you that you could sit off to the side and wait for me."

"But it's something Sakura wanted! I can't get it without doing my share!"

The little girl could be quite stubborn about certain things. She had insisted on standing in line with him, refusing to leave to eat and rest even when her stomach was growling.

Aikawa Kaze smiled and picked her up, feeling a peculiar sense of relief—he had offered to carry Sakura while they waited in line, but judging by the weight in his arms now...

She wasn't heavy, and carrying her into the restaurant to find seats was no problem. But holding her for an hour would definitely have been too much for him.

If every child in the world were this considerate, Aikawa Kaze thought parents everywhere would probably weep with joy.

"Haha, what a sweet little girl!"

Clearly, Aikawa Kaze wasn't the only one touched by her behavior. The owner bustling around the restaurant felt the same.

"The little one's starving, isn't she? Young man, are either of you afraid of dogs?"

Under their puzzled gazes, the owner pointed toward the restaurant's back courtyard.

"If you don't mind, you can eat at the stone table out back. That's where I usually eat, so it's quite clean. It's just that I keep a big yellow dog in the courtyard."

"A doggy!"

Aikawa Kaze naturally wasn't afraid of dogs, and Sakura liked furry animals too. Neither minded, so they followed the owner to the stone table and stools in the courtyard.

"What a lovely courtyard! We really lucked out this time."

The courtyard was designed in a Chinese style too, with ornamental rock formations and leafy trees. Lotuses bloomed in a small pond, and beside it lay a big yellow dog, chewing on something that might have been food or a toy.

It was practically VIP treatment.

The dog was very gentle. At the owner's command, the dog obediently stayed to one side without bothering them, happily keeping occupied.

Aikawa Kaze and Sakura ordered plenty of dishes that caught their interest and happily dug in.

Perhaps because they had ordered plenty of meat dishes, such as ribs and chicken feet, the big yellow dog turned to watch them as they savored their food.

Big Yellow's bright eyes brimmed with longing, and drool dripped uncontrollably from the dog's mouth.

"Hefeng..."

Seeing Sakura hesitate, Aikawa Kaze shook his head.

"Sakura, our food contains lots of additives, including soy sauce and things like that. They're not very good for dogs."

"Okay..."

Sakura nodded, finding it hard to bear Big Yellow's pitiful gaze.

But Hefeng had a point. Eating things dogs shouldn't eat could make them sick.

Sakura could only force herself not to look into Big Yellow's yearning eyes, much to Aikawa Kaze's amusement.

"The owner should have some dog food. In a little while, we could..."

The owner seemed like a nice man, so Aikawa Kaze thought he might be willing to let the little girl feed the dog.

What he hadn't expected was that their frequent glances seemed to give the big yellow dog the wrong idea. Big Yellow tilted that furry head, then ran over with the object held between those jaws and set it down a short distance from them.

Big Yellow nudged the unidentified object toward them with a paw, then looked back at their plates.

What a clever dog. Big Yellow even understood trading.

"Hefeng, that thing the doggy brought looks like... a chicken foot?"

Sakura wasn't afraid of dogs. Curious, she walked over and crouched to look at the object.

"This chicken foot has such a long nail! It looks so dirty... It's all black. It definitely hasn't been washed!"

Sakura was rather disgusted by the chicken foot wrapped in what might have been paper or cloth. But she also felt that the dog had offered it out of kindness, and felt sorry for a dog with only this to eat.

The white strips around it were soaked with drool. The dog seemed to have been chewing on it for a long time.

She couldn't help taking out her handkerchief, intending to use it to pick the thing up and throw it away.

"Hefeng, can dogs eat chicken feet, then? Let's throw this bad one away and give the doggy a fresh one!"

"If it doesn't have any additives, it should be fine... Wait! Sakura, don't touch that!"

It was far too long to be a chicken foot!

And that long, black nail, along with the stuff wrapped around it...

Aikawa Kaze shot to his feet as realization struck.

Unfortunately, he was already too late.

As they spoke, she had already taken out her handkerchief and picked up the "chicken foot." The sealing strips, chewed nearly to pieces already, broke apart and vanished.

That vaguely familiar object finally matched something in his memory.

-A special grade cursed object: Ryomen Sukuna's Finger.

The next second, a monster three stories tall, covered from head to toe in eyes, burst out of the ground and seized both Sakura and the finger.

"Sakura!"

At that moment, faced with a monster countless times larger than himself, Aikawa Kaze's thoughts ground to a halt.

Fear spread through his entire body like an instinct.

What should I do?

Aikawa Kaze had always been self-aware. He knew exactly what kind of person he was.

He wasn't a hero or some paragon of goodness, but neither was he evil. He was simply an ordinary person who would lend a hand when something was within his power.

Emotionally, of course he wanted to save Sakura, but rationally, he would weigh his own capabilities.

If he had successfully summoned a Heroic Spirit earlier, he would have chosen to fight without hesitation, confident that he had the ability.

If he had no preparations or means of dealing with a cursed spirit, he would have chosen to flee. Staying would have been pointless; there would have been nothing he could do.

But now he was in the most troublesome third situation.

He hadn't summoned a Heroic Spirit, but that morning he had obtained equipment and items related to Heroic Spirits-things that would probably be called "cursed tools" in this world.

In theory, those weapons could affect cursed spirits, but he couldn't be sure how much damage they could do.

Likewise, having never fought before, he had no idea how strong he was in combat.

Calm down! I need to put together everything I know and make an accurate judgment!

I remember Jujutsu Kaisen saying that Jujutsu Sorcerers and cursed spirits could be divided into different grades based on strength. From weakest to strongest, there were Grade 4, Grade 3, Grade 2 (Semi-Grade 2), Grade 1 (Semi-Grade 1), and Special Grade.

Assuming ordinary weapons could affect cursed spirits...

Grade 4 cursed spirits were small fry that could be driven off with a wooden bat. Grade 3 cursed spirits could be handled with a handgun.

Grade 2 cursed spirits could barely be handled with a shotgun. Against a Grade 1 cursed spirit, even deploying a tank might not put you at ease. A special grade cursed spirit would require carpet bombing with cluster bombs.

Then what grade was the cursed spirit in front of me? What grade was the weapon I'd drawn? How much fighting power did I actually have?

There wasn't enough information. He couldn't judge any of it.

The tangle of thoughts left his mind completely blank.

Whoosh-

When he came back to his senses, he heard the sound of a sharp blade cutting through the air.

It wasn't some savior arriving as in a movie. It was the sound of him swinging the Jewel Sword himself.

His brain couldn't reach a conclusion. He couldn't decide what he should do.

But his body seemed a little more straightforward than his mind.

He had forgotten where he had heard it, but there was a saying: when you didn't know what to do, just follow your heart.

-Was this my "heart"?

Holding the Jewel Sword, Aikawa Kaze's expression gradually shifted from fear and panic to calm resolve.

The fitness training he had learned in the Detective World had helped after all. At the very least, he had just severed part of this cursed spirit, making both the special grade cursed object and Sakura fall.

Unwilling to lose Sukuna's Finger, the cursed spirit abandoned Sakura and chose to catch the finger.

He had wanted to avoid fighting not because he feared battle itself, but because he was worried about his fighting strength.

But if his sword could hurt this cursed spirit, then it wasn't an unbeatable enemy!

Compromise and retreat were useless.

Now, all he could do was fight! Fight! Fight!