Spring blossoms, autumn fruit

Kenjaku had not chosen to leave.

The moment he gave birth to those two children, his role as Kaori Itadori should have ended. All he needed to do was withdraw and watch his own child, the vessel of the King of Curses, grow up. Then the plan he had spent a thousand years laying out would be complete.

But he had stayed.

He had not killed Jin Itadori, stolen the Innate Cursed Technique that controlled gravity, or moved on to the next stage of his plan...

Why?

Kenjaku did not know, nor did he want to think about it.

He told himself there was plenty of time.

Of course there was. Everything he had spent so many years arranging was already in place. All that remained were minor adjustments to make the whole plan even more perfect.

In that case, wasting a little more time hardly seemed to matter.

He would consider it a precaution for the vessel's mental health and spend a little longer with Xia Xia and Yuji, as their mother.

After all, he had not done all this for some grand ideal. He was simply bored. Kenjaku was the sort of person who followed his whims and needed no reason whatsoever.

Boredom could drive a person mad. With enough years and a long enough life, it could also twist someone into a monster without conscience or humanity. Whatever cruelty such a monster committed was entirely to be expected. There was no point trying to understand it through an ordinary person's mind.

Jujutsu Sorcerers were all monsters.

Fortunately, he was not bored now.

He was Kaori Itadori, the mother of two children, living in a home where his father-in-law did not welcome him, alongside a husband and children who loved him deeply.

A few more years would make no difference.

Cursed Spirit Manipulation, the Star Plasma Vessel, Tengen, Idle Transfiguration... Was there enough time? There was plenty.

It's settled. I'll leave when Xia Xia and Yuji turn ten. By then, these two children should at least be able to take care of themselves.

By then, even after losing their parents and being left with their grandfather-even if they have to live with that troublesome old man, Wasuke Itadori-they should still be able to grow into capable adults.

Kenjaku never doubted that these feelings were real.

That was what being a mother meant. To play the role well, he had to experience it firsthand. He had taken over Kaori Itadori's body before she became pregnant, carried his own children for ten months, and given birth to them. Although he had been through similar experiences before, a mother was still a mother. Hormones affected the brain.

Kenjaku was nothing but a brain. From a scientific perspective, he believed the hormones during pregnancy had played a major part in making him this way.

Let me look at them a little longer. Let me stay with them a few more years.

This is enough.

Xia Xia, Yuji, my beloved children, please grow up as quickly as you can before this fairy tale is shattered. Life in the future may not be as wonderful as it is now.

While I'm still your mother, before this rather entertaining game of playing house comes to an end...

Please cherish the time you have now.

Xia Xia did not like his grandfather.

Grandpa always liked to speak badly of his mother in front of him. Whenever he mentioned her to Xia Xia, his father, or his younger brother, he rudely called her "that woman."

As though his mother were some terrible harbinger of disaster.

Grandpa said his mother had died long ago, and what was alive now was a monster from who knew where.

Grandpa said his father and mother should never have had children. That monster had taken over his mother's body, which was why Xia Xia and Yuji had been born.

Although he did not know what would happen later, Grandpa believed that the person wearing their "mother's" face would one day bring misfortune upon the family. When that happened, the monster would kill their father just as it had their original mother...

Xia Xia thought Grandpa was old and senile.

Mom was Mom. How could she possibly be a monster?

Grandpa said Mom had taken over this body and given birth to Xia Xia and Yuji. Then Mom was their mother. Even if she really was a monster, so what?

Xia Xia was unconcerned.

Grandpa was always like this, always speaking badly of his mother. But once he grew used to hearing it, it no longer bothered him. Maybe old people just liked telling ghost stories to scare children?

Wasuke Itadori seemed to notice that his words had turned his grandson against him. His son had not visited in ages, and only his eldest grandson occasionally came to keep him company. If he kept saying these things, perhaps Xia Xia would stop coming too.

That would never do.

Whatever that woman was could wait. If such a well-behaved grandson stopped speaking to him, Wasuke Itadori would truly be an old man left all alone.

"Uh, my dear boy, let's stop talking about your mom. How about Grandpa tells you a new story?"

"What story?"

"How about the story of the great demon from a thousand years ago, Ryomen Sukuna, the King of Curses?"

After mulling it over, Wasuke Itadori ended up circling back to himself. As someone's reincarnation, he knew everything about that person's past like the back of his hand. Oh yes, child, oh yes. There are nine more great stories like this one.

"Yes, yes! Xia Xia wants to hear about the great demon! And legends about onmyoji too!"

"That's not fair, big brother! You came to hear Grandpa's stories all by yourself. I want to listen too!"

Yuji Itadori ran in from the yard, his little face still flushed and beaded with sweat from his run. Xia Xia did not mind his younger brother's sweaty face and took a tissue to wipe it clean.

"How many times have I told you not to run around everywhere? What if you catch a cold with your clothes soaked in sweat? Tuck a tissue under them."

"Hehe, I knew you'd say that, big brother."

Yuji grinned brightly. What could he do with an older brother who liked looking after people just as much as Mom did?

Looking at the two lively brothers, Wasuke Itadori felt much of the worry weighing on his heart lift.

Xia Xia was not wrong.

Rather than worrying day and night about disasters that might happen, wasn't their peaceful, leisurely life now all the more precious?

Forget it.

He was only a decrepit old man with one foot in the grave. He could change nothing. Rather than agonize over the future, he might as well simply watch. Watching was all he could do anyway.

"Children, are you sitting comfortably?"

"Grandpa, we're ready."

"Legend has it that a thousand years ago, during the Heian Era, a farmhand's wife gave birth to a child with two faces and four arms..."

Xia Xia did not usually like Grandpa, except when Grandpa told stories to him and Yuji. As long as he did not speak badly of Mom, Grandpa was a good person too.

The days passed, one after another.

It was another peaceful afternoon...

Grandpa sat in his wicker chair as always, telling the two children stories, even though they had heard them many times before.

Stories of the onmyoji and great demons of the Heian Era, and the King of Curses who always appeared in them.

The monster named Sukuna in those stories had eaten his own twin brother before birth, breaking the curse of twins and entering the world with two faces and four arms.

For some reason, hearing this brought a violent, twisting pain to Xia Xia's heart. It was as though something was telling him that this very moment marked a crucial divergence in his life.

Twins were an ill omen. Each robbed the other of half their fate and power.

"If you wish to escape this destiny."

"If you wish to know the truth of your life and your brother's."

"Answer me."

"Love me deeply."

"Curse me."

In a daze, Xia Xia saw it.

He saw the world turn transparent.

His body was transparent too, empty inside, clean and pure as a pane of glass.

But beside him, an object had already been placed at the center of Yuji's body: something long and slender, shriveled and twisted, unlike anything human-a finger.

What was that?

Merely looking at it felt like having his heart squeezed. It seemed that if he moved even a little closer, he would catch a glimpse of death.

Evil, vicious, beyond compare.

It was Ryomen Sukuna's Finger.

His mother had chosen Yuji as the vessel for Sukuna's resurrection.

"So that's how it is."

A god, or some other being that did not belong to this world, bent down so tenderly to kiss the boy's eyes, granting him the most malicious wisdom, the cruelest destiny, and a tragic end doomed to ruin.

"You are destined to kill all your blood relatives, all your family, save one."

"You are destined to stop that cursed blood from spreading through this world again."

"You are destined never to be understood by others."

"You are destined to be plagued by suffering."

"You are destined to die a wretched death."

"With these five commandments as a Binding Vow, your ears shall hear clearly and your eyes shall see keenly, allowing you to glimpse the truth you wish to behold."

"With these five commandments as a Binding Vow, you shall wield knowledge as a blade and kill the living beings whose secrets you have seen through."

Xia Xia saw, and then etched all that forbidden knowledge into his mind-he had gained his own Cursed Technique.

What followed was a pain of crystalline clarity.

The Cursed Technique's principles were unclear, its type unclear, its true name unknown. Its effect was tracking: tracing and sorting intelligence, knowledge, and information. Merely touching something related and acquiring enough information would allow him to glimpse fate, and thus know everything.

Its additional technique was this: if Xia Xia acquired enough information about a person, to the point of knowing them inside out, he could use that knowledge to manifest an object. After inflicting harm upon that person, the object could kill them once and for all.

The price was...

"Big brother! Big brother!"

"Your eyes are bleeding!"

Yuji's frightened cries pulled Xia Xia out of that state of "spiritual vision."

Crimson tears spilled from his left eye socket, falling drop by drop onto the floor and staining half the boy's face like a vengeful ghost's. His other eye was already bloodshot, with blood streaming from it as well...

Itadori. That surname. That family's destiny.

The devoured twin, the King of Curses, the reincarnation of the King of Curses' brother, souls and wills.

The plans laid a thousand years ago by the person with stitches across his head, the perfect vessel for Sukuna's resurrection, the blood ties needed to bring that resurrection about.

Mother, my beloved mother.

Was everything Grandpa said true?

His mother had said it, though only silently in his mind, and Xia Xia had just heard it: It's settled. I'll leave when Xia Xia and Yuji turn ten. By then, these two children should at least be able to take care of themselves.

At the time, he had also thought: While I'm still your mother, before this rather entertaining game of playing house comes to an end...

Yes, that was how it was. He had seen it all, heard it all. Xia Xia had engraved these cold taboos, these cruel realities, into his mind.

"I'm fine, Yuji."

"Pour me a glass of water, Grandpa."

Xia Xia took the towel Yuji handed him and wiped away the blood trickling from the corners of his eyes. He watched Grandpa rise from his chair and hurry to the kitchen to fetch him a glass of warm water.

Leave it at that, for now.

Because Xia Xia concealed the truth, the incident was left unresolved.

After they returned home, Yuji kept their promise and did not tell their parents about it. Besides, no one would believe everything a child said.

That night, he looked out the window.

Summer was almost over. Autumn would come next.

In autumn, the leaves on the trees behind the house would turn yellow, wither, and fall, painting the streets a brilliant gold.

This was his seventh autumn. Three years remained until the tenth, and in those three years, he had to prepare.

He clenched his fists, took a deep breath, and calmed himself completely. He buried all the thoughts and feelings that had built up deep in his heart, steadying himself until he could put on that innocent, gentle expression again.

But there was no going back.

The warm happiness, the joy of being loved by his family-all of it was gone.

It had been a drifting dream.

A delusion that would end in time.

"Father, Mother, Grandpa, Yuji..."

He shed tears one last time.