Early the next morning, Sukuna saw Itadori's red, swollen eyes and quickly surfaced to give him a dose of Reverse Cursed Technique before going back offline.
Yep, destroy the evidence! No one could ever find out he'd made Tiger cry!
Itadori felt helpless. His Sukuna always cared about things that didn't matter. If he had that much time on his hands, why didn't he spend more of it studying that Binding Vow?
Sukuna felt helpless too. A whole night had passed, and Tiger still hadn't recovered.
He sighed.
[Yuji, if you keep this up... next time something else comes up, I won't let you eavesdrop.]
[Wouldn't you do the same thing in my place?... you can't let yourself do it and forbid me from doing it...]
Besides, he genuinely didn't think it was such a big deal. It wasn't aimed at him as he was now.
He was still just as free as always, able to play whatever he wanted and eat whatever he liked. It didn't get in his way at all.
"Mm... okay."
Itadori reluctantly tucked his sadness away.
Then he muttered something else.
"You say that like you have a way to stop me from listening..."
Sukuna: [...]
...Could you not undermine me at a time like this?
Itadori quickly put on an unconcerned front and joked around with everyone as usual.
Only Megumi Fushiguro noticed anything different. When Itadori fell behind, he moved closer and asked quietly.
"...Are you okay?"
"Huh?"
Itadori smiled in confusion. "Nothing's wrong."
Megumi Fushiguro looked into his eyes. "Is it about Sukuna?"
Itadori's expression froze, then dimmed.
Seeing that, Sukuna hurriedly opened a mouth to salvage the situation, afraid Yuji might let something slip.
"What, you're bold enough to whisper about me right in front of me? Nothing happened!"
Megumi