Yuji Itadori

"Kokkuri, Kokkuri, please tell us what the student council president is afraid of!"

On a school campus, three lively teenagers sat around a table in their clubroom, excitedly pressing their fingers onto a coin.

Pushing against one another, they slowly spelled out three words through a method that was neither scientific nor supernatural:

Naked... sea... butterfly?

"Pfft, hahahaha! A sea angel? That's so lame!"

A boy with short pink hair burst out laughing, his movements carrying the bright cheerfulness unique to youth.

It was our most adorable boy, the Heavenly Emperor in his juvenile form, known as "West Middle's Tiger"-Yuji Itadori!

His exaggerated antics sent the other two into fits of laughter as well, filling the space around their table with merriment.

But soon, a bespectacled boy with meticulously combed hair and a single tuft sticking up pulled open the clubroom door. He could hear their howling from outside, and the sight inside was even worse.

A barely tidy clubroom, all sorts of bizarre objects, and a straw doll lying in the corner... wait, wasn't there a particularly prominent piece of straw sticking out of its head, with several needles stabbed into its body?

Goddammit...

"Spirit Research Club!" he roared, clutching a sheet of paper. "You freeloaders never even hold any club activities!"

He slammed the paper onto the table, cutting off the Kokkuri game they had been playing with all the finality of a death sentence for their club.

The three immediately turned their eyes toward the paper, still grinning.

The student council president said, "For a research club with no actual activities, according to the regulations... I will be reclaiming your clubroom."

Those two statements sounded perfectly official, but when he saw that the three before him were utterly unconcerned and seemingly had nothing to fear...

The student council president, a mere mayfly of a creature, twitched at the corner of his mouth. Turning his face aside and adjusting his glasses, he shouted angrily, "Now get out of here, all of you!"

Heh heh~

Yuji Itadori leaned casually back in his chair, smiling confidently. "President... don't underestimate us."

Then Sasaki, the club president, immediately stood and deftly grabbed a record book from a shelf. Her movements were swift and precise, as though she had spent ages training for this very moment!

With a bang, the thick book landed on top of the notice, as though it were the most compelling evidence imaginable, capable of instantly refuting his claims.

"What the hell is this?"

The student council president had no idea and could only ask.

The moment he did, Itadori, Sasaki, and Iguchi all gave him smiles of positively nuclear friendliness.

He asked. He actually asked!

Just as I expected, just as I expected!

No... I can't laugh yet.

But I can't hold it in!

"You know the rugby field was closed, right?"

"So?"

"How could a bunch of strong, healthy people suddenly get sick? That place must be crawling with evil spirits!"

"And?"

"This is a newspaper about Mr. Yoshida from thirty years ago. He was last seen at that unfinished rugby field. He must have been buried alive underground, and the resentment he keeps giving off is making them sick!"

"What is that even supposed to mean?"

The student council president's face was practically creasing into wrinkles. Just as he thought, these rambling lunatics had no meaningful activities whatsoever!

"Are you kidding me? A club isn't a game of playing house! You people need to knock it off!"

"Besides, your club doesn't even meet the minimum membership requirement!"

He pointed, nearly jabbing his finger into the still-bewildered Itadori's forehead. "Yuji Itadori, you're not even in the Paranormal Research Club! You're a member of the track and field club!"

Yuji Itadori: Me?

I didn't join the Paranormal Research Club?

That's not right. I remember signing up here. How did I end up in track and field?

"That was my doing!"

Suddenly, a panting older man with thick eyebrows and small eyes appeared out of nowhere, dressed in a green tracksuit. Fortunately, he didn't have a bowl cut, or he really would have looked like a certain Blue Beast.

Still, this guy was every bit as deranged, shouting the moment he arrived.

"I changed your application to the track and field club, you..."

"Yuji Itadori! With your abilities, you have to join the national team and bring glory to our country! I will not let you waste your youth here!"

Spit flew everywhere, and the bespectacled student council president quietly shuffled away from the man.

Wow... someone even more bizarre than the Spirit Research Club members showed up. Is this guy really an adult?

And a teacher, at that. Where did the school find this absolute character?

"Huh? No thanks. Track and field sounds really busy, and I have things to do after school."

"Then let's settle this fair and square! Through track and field!"

"Uh, about thirty meters?" a student innocently announced the brutal truth.

After accepting the eccentric teacher's challenge, Yuji Itadori had gone to the field for a shot put contest, which that same eccentric teacher had insisted on.

Incidentally, this was what the man considered his own strongest event. He had shamelessly made Itadori compete in his specialty, with no fairness to speak of.

But when Itadori hurled the shot like a baseball and produced a result far beyond the world record, everyone present was stunned.

If his aim hadn't been so precise that he hit and bent the metal soccer goal, it could have flown another ten meters or so.

Are you a human catapult?

Just then, a spiky-haired boy wearing the standard uniform of the local Jujutsu High appeared in the crowd.

Even from a distance, it was obvious how hard this guy was trying to look cool.

This was our supreme king of self-destruction, the man who refused to take any pressure-Megumi Fushiguro!

He had received a mission issued by the school to accompany Satoru Gojo to the location of a specially sealed cursed object and retrieve it.

But that unreliable white-haired bastard had actually run off midway to shop at the mall, leaving him to complete the mission alone?

He had been left to disguise himself as a student and openly sneak into the school to try his luck.

I really regret agreeing to leave the Zenin Clan with that guy...

That was right. Unlike in the original story, Megumi Fushiguro had not initially been handed over to Satoru Gojo.

Since a certain Sorcerer Killer was still alive, Megumi had not been resold to Satoru Gojo. Instead, he had been renamed and dumped into the Zenin Clan as a caged songbird with no real authority.

As for Toji Fushiguro, he remained dutifully among Suguru Geto's original followers, serving as a bodyguard.

The reason?

Kamo Xu had ordered it.

Technically, since Toji Fushiguro had failed to stop Satoru Gojo, the mission should have counted as a failure, and his entire annual paycheck should have been docked.

But Kamo Xu heard Toji Fushiguro explain that Satoru Gojo, in a hurry, had fired off a purple cursed technique on the spot, leaving him and Miguel no choice but to turn tail and run.

Otherwise, being too slow to turn tail would have meant losing their heads...

Looking at the man's miserable face, which practically screamed that a pay cut would leave him in dire straits, Kamo Xu chose not to give him a hard time.

Hollow Technique: Hollow Purple. Even he would struggle to take that imaginary technique head-on, let alone an "ordinary person" like Toji Fushiguro.

So Kamo Xu gave him a different objective: continue protecting Suguru Geto's other family members, and hand Megumi Fushiguro over to Satoru Gojo to play with.

Toji Fushiguro: So I can keep earning money just by selling my son? What a sweet deal!

He agreed on the spot...

Then Toji Fushiguro quietly found a time to meet Satoru Gojo. Upon hearing that Kamo Xu had asked before leaving that he raise Megumi Fushiguro for fun, Gojo agreed without a second thought.

He also lowered the hand with which he had been about to unleash Red and sent off a cold-sweating Toji Fushiguro.

And so Megumi Fushiguro ended up getting sold three times, just like that.

Zenin Clan → Kamo Xu → Satoru Gojo.

A servant of three surnames, basically...

Then Satoru Gojo brazenly hauled the adolescent boy out of the Zenin Clan, changed his surname back to Fushiguro, and left him to toil miserably as a first-year workhorse at Jujutsu High.

A cause for celebration, and a cause for lament.

Back to the point: Fushiguro had come this time for a Special Grade curse.

That curse was extremely malevolent: a finger belonging to the King of Curses from a thousand years ago. He had four hands, two eyes, and two mouths, supposedly because he had eaten his own twin brother alive in the womb.

Thus, he had been born with an immense amount of cursed energy, which became even more terrifying once he reached adulthood. After wantonly slaughtering innocent people for years, he died of unknown causes.

But a centipede did not stop writhing just because it was dead. The bastard had gathered all his cursed energy into his twenty fingers, and that dense energy instantly turned them into thousand-year-old bone-in chicken feet that would never rot or decay.

One bite, and crunch-tastes like chicken.

Their target this time was one of those twenty fingers.

"Goddammit... I'm definitely punching that white-haired bastard when I get back."

Megumi Fushiguro had followed the traces of cursed energy to the school. He had intended to try his luck somewhere crowded, but while wandering around, he discovered a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit. By the look of it, it had formed from resentment buried deep underground.

A little farther ahead, he happened to witness the iconic sight of Yuji Itadori bending a soccer goal with a single shot put throw, leaving him marveling at what a person could see if they lived long enough.

That much strength from his body alone, without any cursed energy? This guy is impressive...

He must be the same type as my upperclassman Zenin.

Megumi Fushiguro couldn't help thinking of Maki Zenin, who was likewise famous for her physical strength.

Then he turned away, paying no more attention to the boy his own age.

His mission was to find a chicken foot. He didn't have time to watch a superhuman show off.

"Ah! It's already this late. I have to go." Yuji Itadori scooped up the schoolbag he had casually left on the ground and waved at the still-dazed track and field teacher. "Well, see you tomorrow, sir!"

Whoosh~

His feet flew, his legs pumping too quickly to make out.

In an instant, he passed right by Megumi Fushiguro...

Boom!

The moment he passed, an icy chill crawled up Megumi Fushiguro's spine. It was pure malice, a curse taken to its absolute extreme!

It became a pitch-black shadow, opening four scarlet compound eyes as it lunged at Megumi Fushiguro!

Is that... the aura of a cursed object?

Does this guy have it on him?!

"Hey, you! Wai-"

Woohoo~ School's out!

Running at full speed, Yuji Itadori never heard Megumi Fushiguro's shout. By the time Megumi recovered from Ryomen Sukuna's aura and called out, they were already fifty meters apart.

Shit, he's fast!

The people around them had long since grown used to sights like this. Amid their murmuring, Megumi Fushiguro even heard them say this guy could run fifty meters in three seconds!

Megumi Fushiguro: ∑(ﾟ⊿ﾟ)???

Is he human?