Don't come any closer, aaaaah!

That evening, Gojo hauled Itadori off to a new training spot as usual.

After Sukuna switched in to cast a quick heal, Itadori took over again. Feeling the changes in his healed body, he widened his eyes in amazement.

"Th-this is incredible!"

He sounded delighted.

"I really don't feel tired at all!-"

Itadori felt completely refreshed. Before, he had been so sleepy he could barely keep his eyes open; now he felt so pumped up that he wanted a curse to charge at him right away so he could take it down.

Sukuna sat in the Inner World, watching the lively Tiger, and couldn't help feeling a little happier himself.

Watching the cheerful Itadori, he curled his lips into a smile and thought leisurely to himself.

...Ah, his kid really was far too easy to please~

Seeing Yuji this happy made him pretty happy too.

Though doing this made him feel like a utility Sukuna, switching in just to cast a healing spell, as if he were some hidden character class of Tiger's...

Still, having Reverse Cursed Technique felt pretty nice. He could heal his Tiger whenever he wanted from now on, so it wasn't a waste.

...Hmm, but...

He thought for a moment, then couldn't resist speaking up to ask the question on his mind.

[But... doesn't going twenty-four hours without any rest feel awful?]

He certainly couldn't stand it himself. Once night fell, even if he wasn't tired, all he wanted to do was lie around.

"Why would it?"

Itadori sounded surprised, then said excitedly,

"Doesn't that mean I get twice as much time to train?"

Thinking about this wonderful arrangement, he felt incredibly lucky!

Who else could be as lucky as him? Teacher Gojo helped him find training spots, and Sukuna helped him extend his training time!

Sukuna fell silent. [...]

Hmm... all right, then.

This was the difference between the ambitious crowd and the do-nothing crowd.

He couldn't keep up with Tiger's pace.

He just wanted to laze around. He would have to leave the hard work to his Tiger.

-A thumbs-up for Yuji!

Gojo nodded in satisfaction as he watched Itadori. Despite the clear excitement on the boy's face, the Doll on his back still hadn't woken up.

He hadn't expected Yuji to be able to maintain a continuous cursed energy output by only the second evening. His progress was excellent.

Sure enough, using Sukuna to motivate Yuji worked wonders.

Having a goal ahead of him to chase was the best way to bring out the potential of a determined kid like Yuji.

Of course, Sukuna's Reverse Cursed Technique also played a major role, ensuring Yuji had enough energy to train beyond his normal limits.

It looked like he could keep raising the difficulty from here~

"All right~!"

He clapped his hands to get Itadori's attention.

Then he pointed somewhere a short distance away-

They were standing atop a cliff, with a vast, dark, dense forest at its base.

The pitch-black forest loomed indistinctly in the dim moonlight, and the presence of curses kept drifting out from within.

"Your task tonight is still to practice your cursed energy output, but the format will be a little different."

Gojo explained.

"There's a very fast type of grade 4 cursed spirit in the forest below. It's only grade 4, but it's extremely sensitive to cursed energy. The moment something emitting cursed energy appears, it'll chase it down and attack. Since you're carrying the Doll and have to keep feeding it cursed energy, this forest makes a pretty good training ground for you."

"These cursed spirits are very weak, so your task isn't to exorcise them. It's to dodge. Do everything you can to avoid getting hit while maintaining your cursed energy output to the Doll."

"Keep going for as long as possible. Constantly depleting and replenishing your cursed energy will increase your total reserves. When you really can't hold on anymore, you can switch to Sukuna and have him restore you."

"Of course, the fewer times you recover, and the longer the intervals between them, the more your strength will improve."

Itadori understood.

He needed to maintain control of his cursed energy output while concentrating on dodging and moving, unlike during the day when he had fed it out while sitting quietly.

He also needed to handle things himself as much as possible and reduce outside assistance. After all, turning to backup every time he slipped up could become a bad habit, and that would be disastrous on a real battlefield.

"Got it!"

Itadori's eyes sparkled. He felt that completing this task would bring him another step closer to Sukuna.

He wanted to catch up to Sukuna soon and stand alongside him in battle, rather than remain someone who could only provide him with a vessel and needed his protection.

He walked to the cliff's edge and looked down at the drop of several dozen meters, considering how to descend. A few suitable footholds caught his eye, and he quickly calculated his route.

Just as he was about to step out, he suddenly heard Teacher Gojo call from behind him, "Off you go."

Then something abruptly yanked at his back and flung him out, and he was already flying through the air.

...Huh?

Before he could react, a sudden sense of weightlessness hit him, and he plummeted-

The delightful surprise of free fall had caught him completely off guard-

"TEEEEACHER GOOOOJOOOO, AAAAAAAAAH--"

Itadori's terrified scream echoed wildly through the silent forest.

[Stop screaming, stop screaming! Focus on landing!-]

Sukuna yelled inside Itadori's head.

Itadori calmed down, quickly shut his mouth, and began adjusting his posture as he watched the forest below.

This height wasn't actually dangerous for him. The sudden fall had simply thrown him into a panic.

After dropping into the canopy, he immediately used the branches to slow his descent and landed steadily on the ground.

The very next instant, Itadori reached back and grabbed the Doll, feeding it cursed energy just as its eyes opened.

That scared him half to death!

He'd nearly gotten punched again!

Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, he heard Sukuna gasp inside his head.

[Holy crap!-]

[What the hell is wrong with Gojo?!]

[Quick, quick, quick, RUN-!!]

Itadori looked up at his words, and his hair instantly stood on end-

Less than ten meters ahead, a bizarre curse resembling a cross between a leech and a millipede charged toward him. It was two meters tall and three meters long, with dozens of earthworm-like feelers sliding rapidly along the ground.

Its head faced him directly, its circular mouth packed with dense rings of sharp teeth like an electric eel's. Thick fluid constantly dripped from it.

Behind that cursed spirit came more than a dozen similar figures, racing toward him and flickering in and out of sight between the trees.

They charged at him with terrifying speed-

Itadori's scalp prickled, and he turned and ran without hesitation.

He could already tell that these cursed spirits were every bit as fast as him!

And...

His heart filled with anguish.

With all the resentment of someone who had been screwed over by a person he trusted-

Teacher Gojo...! You never said there would be this many grade 4 cursed spirits, aaaaah!-

Itadori was suffering, but Sukuna inside him was suffering even more-

Itadori could only see the dozen or so nearby, but Sukuna's mental perception covered several hundred meters around them, letting him see the hundreds of densely packed curses throughout the forest-

Awakened by Itadori's scream as he fell, they were all crawling this way-

It was an outright massacre for anyone with trypophobia!

And he was the sole spectator enjoying the closest, clearest view.

Help...!

I'm going to die!!

Sukuna covered his mouth, feeling as though he was about to stop breathing.

...He hated slimy, soft-bodied creatures like leeches and earthworms more than anything! What was he supposed to do?!!

You-you stay away, aaaaaah!!!-(screaming)

On top of the cliff, Satoru Gojo shaded his eyes with one hand and watched Itadori sprinting below.

Behind the boy's small figure, over a hundred writhing cursed spirits surged after him in a swarm. They cheered as they rushed toward the feast before them, as if taking part in a grand celebration.

Ah~ Young people really were full of energy~~

Gojo sighed happily, thinking cheerfully to himself.

With all the heartless indifference of someone enjoying the show~

Itadori darted through the forest, dodging attacks from the countless curses around him.

Cursed spirits came from every direction, and the boy twisted and leaped between the trees like an agile cheetah.

He pushed off the ground and dashed forward, avoiding a curse attacking from the side, then immediately took a few steps up a trunk. Kicking off it, he sprang into another tree's canopy, only to be forced back to the ground by a curse that had crawled up there.

More than a dozen curses crowded around him. With great difficulty, he broke out of their encirclement without touching them, only to find another ring of curses waiting outside.

If all he had to do was dodge, he could still manage comfortably, but maintaining the cursed energy output to his back made things difficult.

As cursed energy continuously flowed into the Doll on his back, his stamina rapidly drained away.

He gasped for breath, his chest heaving like a bellows.

In less than half an hour, sweat was pouring off him.

"Su... Sukuna... huff... I think my... cursed energy's... cough, cough... running out..."

During the day, he could sit quietly and feed out cursed energy for an entire day.

But now, most of his attention was focused on dodging, and his cursed energy output kept fluctuating. In just this short time, he felt almost completely drained.

The Doll on his back had already opened its eyes several times. Each time, he had hurriedly restored the cursed energy supply just before it punched him, narrowly escaping disaster.

He desperately needed someone to give him a quick heal.

[...Don't worry...]

Sukuna's voice came through, even fainter than his own.

[...Whenever you... run out of cursed energy, take a close look at those curses-doesn't that make you feel terrified?]

[Cursed energy comes from... negative human emotions... fear is one of them.]

[And there you go. Cursed energy.]

Sukuna didn't even dare open his eyes as he spoke.

He didn't know whether this would give Itadori cursed energy, but it would certainly give him some.

With his eyes shut, he spoke in a trembling voice, feeling as if he might faint at any moment.

He had even withdrawn all his mental perception, afraid that some curse might accidentally deliver a point-blank visual assault.

Itadori: "..."

...All right, that really was a great idea.

He glanced back at the densely packed figures of those grotesque curses.

After agonizing over it for a while, he finally saw the light.

So that was it...!

He understood!

He didn't know whether having these curses around would increase his cursed energy, but he knew at least one thing-

Tonight, he could forget about Sukuna coming out to heal him-

Trypophobic Sukuna was ascending on the spot.

Abandoned in succession by Teacher Gojo and Sukuna, young Itadori began fighting alone.

As he fled, he thought about how to obtain more cursed energy.

Perhaps Sukuna's explanation had helped, because he began trying all sorts of ways to adjust his emotions.

Pain, sorrow, anger...

He kept his emotions in a state of tension, just taut enough.

At last, his stamina consumption and cursed energy output settled into a delicate balance.

Itadori struggled to hold on, enduring second after second with only one thought in his head: he absolutely could not let these curses get hold of him.

Gojo, who had been secretly following Itadori the whole time, felt a little surprised.

He hadn't expected Yuji to go this long without switching to Sukuna.

Itadori's cursed energy had clearly bottomed out, yet he kept squeezing out a little more, thread by thread.

His ability to hold on this long truly exceeded Gojo's expectations.

Once again, he couldn't help admiring the boy's resolve.

If Tiger could have heard his thoughts just then, he would certainly have told him with absolute conviction-

"Not wanting to switch" and "not being able to switch" were two completely different things!

Finally, just as Itadori was about to reach his limit yet again, Sukuna struggled to utter two words inside his head.

[Climb the tree.]

Itadori climbed to the treetop as though he were sleepwalking, then successfully switched to Sukuna just before he passed out.

Watching the curses race up the trunk below, Sukuna healed Itadori at what was almost certainly the fastest speed of his life.

Then he immediately went offline-

Leaving behind Tiger, finally back at full health.

Back in control, Itadori finally let out a breath of relief.

He had almost thought he was done for.

"Sukuna."

He spoke softly.

"Why don't you get some sleep? I'll call you when I need healing."

That way, Sukuna wouldn't have to look at those curses.

[I've been... trying to sleep... the whole time...]

Sukuna answered in a breathy whisper.

Itadori: "..."

All right, then. Clearly, his symptoms were pretty severe.

To reduce the number of times Sukuna's trypophobia flared up, Itadori began putting more and more care into controlling his Cursed Energy output.

Half an hour... forty minutes... an hour... he lasted longer each time.

Only when dawn began to break and the five hours were up did he dazedly realize he had finally finished that night's training.

He looked up at the sky, feeling as though a very long time had passed.

Finally...

Done...

He stared blankly at the steadily brightening sky for a while.

Then he lowered his head and called softly, "Sukuna..."

[...Mm...]

The familiar voice that sounded in his mind was still incredibly weak, barely more than a thread of breath.

The corners of Itadori's mouth curled up. Exhaustion couldn't hide the smile in his eyes.

No matter how frightened Sukuna was of those curses, he had stayed with him through those long five hours.

And every time he called, Sukuna had answered-

Never disappearing for even a moment.

Starlight seemed to sparkle in the pink-haired boy's light brown eyes, which were brimming with laughter.