Sleepiness: late, but here at last

[You still have the finger, right?]

At last, there was no one around, and Sukuna began asking after his rare item.

"I do."

Itadori pulled the finger out of his pocket and washed it under the faucet in Junpei's bathroom.

-Then swallowed it in one gulp.

"Cough, cough, cough-"

He coughed a few times. Though this was already his fourth time eating one, the way it scraped his throat was still excruciating.

"Sukuna, your nails are so long..."

Sukuna: [...]

...Aaargh, don't say it out loud! It wasn't like he wanted them that way!-

Life was hard enough without you pointing it out, okay?!

"Sukuna, do you feel sleepy this time?"

After swallowing the fourth finger, Itadori asked with some concern.

He was worried Sukuna would fall asleep after eating the finger, just like last time.

Sukuna immediately checked how he felt-he seemed to feel nothing but nausea.

Perhaps his finger had spent too long in Mahito's hands-they had already learned the Special Grade curse's name from Junpei. There was a trace of Mahito's Cursed Energy residue inside it.

He hurriedly scrubbed it over and over with his own Cursed Energy until that trace had completely vanished.

Phew...

He really should collect all the fingers as soon as possible. He didn't want to eat a bunch of weird-flavored fingers with extra ingredients.

Elsewhere, Mahito suddenly let out an "Ah."

"The Cursed Energy in that finger really is gone~"

He spread his hands at Kenjaku in disappointment.

Kenjaku ignored him.

What, did you want to track Sukuna down and ask him on a date?

He took out a new finger and handed it to Mahito.

"Hurry up and get to work. Next time, remember to choose somewhere farther away from him. He won't sense it if it's far enough."

Mahito: "...Fine."

Then he miserably began sealing Cursed Energy away once again.

The next day, Nanami found Itadori.

"Where's the finger?"

His expression was very serious.

While questioning Yoshino and his mother the previous evening, the "cosplay prop" Itadori had been carrying had come up.

He had known immediately that it was Sukuna's Finger, and had come straight to the school that morning to find out what had happened.

Influenced by Nanami's grave expression, Itadori immediately grew serious too.

"To be safe, I ate it yesterday!"

Nanami: "..."

Noticing something was off about Nanami's expression, Itadori immediately asked nervously.

"Was I not supposed to eat it? Teacher Gojo told me to eat every finger I found..."

...Gojo...

Nanami took a deep breath.

"...It's fine. Eating it works too."

Itadori immediately relaxed.

Nanami was silent for a moment, but still asked one more question.

"Then...how is Sukuna?"

At that, Itadori's face immediately fell, looking utterly dejected.

"He fell asleep again."

Yes, sleepiness-late, but here at last.

Sukuna had fallen asleep once more.

And he was not doing particularly well right now-

In his Inner World, Sukuna lay on the bone pile, his eyes tightly shut. Cold sweat kept seeping from his forehead, soaking his white kimono through.

Pain showed on his face, and his eyelashes kept trembling, yet he could not open his eyes no matter what he did.

It was as though he were trapped in a nightmare.

He clenched his teeth. Only the sound of air slipping past escaped his faintly trembling lips.

It hurt... Agonizing pain spread throughout his body.

He felt as though something inside him was draining away little by little, leaving him increasingly cold.

It was as though his chest had been cut open and something was gnawing at his heart, bite by bite.

Fear rose within him. He opened his mouth, but could not make a sound.

He could only press his lips shut again and grit his teeth, enduring the torment of the nightmare.

A long time later.

The nightmare vanished, and he let out a breath with difficulty.

He began panting rapidly, as though he had narrowly escaped death.

What...was that...?

...Was it his memory?

What exactly had happened a thousand years ago...to leave him with such a terrifying memory?

He opened his eyes, his gaze still somewhat unfocused.

The familiar ceiling of vertebrae that greeted him brought him back to his senses a little.

He struggled to sit up. Even awake, he could still feel pain throughout his body, as though he were being gnawed away bit by bit.

He suddenly began to feel afraid of his own memories, of his past from a thousand years ago.

He seemed...

Not to want his memories back quite so much anymore...

He sat where he was for a while, recovering.

The lingering pain in his body-or rather, his consciousness-finally disappeared completely.

He got up and moved around a little, habitually glancing at his surroundings.

Then he froze-

Inside his Innate Domain, atop the original pile of bones-

-A little house had suddenly appeared, looking somewhat like the strange structure at the center when he opened his domain?!

The house did not look large. Its exterior resembled the structure that appeared when he released his domain, but it lacked the four mouths facing in different directions and the enormous ribs extending over the roof. In their place was the wooden construction of an ordinary old-fashioned house.

Facing him was a slatted door that could slide open to either side.

Puzzled, Sukuna walked over to the house and stood in front of the door, hesitating for a long time.

After the dream he had just experienced, anything that might be connected to his memories made him a little apprehensive.

...If he opened this, a curse wasn't going to crawl out, was it...?

The corner of his mouth twitched.

He cautiously extended his mental senses inside, but detected no sign of any living creature or curse.

All that came from within was dense Cursed Energy, exactly like his own-

Abundant Cursed Energy that made him feel comfortable all over.

He agonized over it for a long while before finally deciding to open it and take a look-after all, Tiger would see this thing when he came in later. If there really was any danger, Sukuna could deal with it ahead of time.

He placed both hands on the door handles, gritted his teeth, put himself on full alert, and, thoroughly prepared, slowly pulled it open-

With a soft creak, the door of the wooden house slid open.

When he saw what was inside, Sukuna's eyes widened in utter bewilderment!

"..."

...Could someone tell him...

...Why, inside this newly appeared little house-

...There was...

Uh...

A bed-???

Sukuna stared at the bed, his face blank.

He reached up, rubbed his eyes, and opened them.

Then he took a step back, closed the door, opened it again, closed it, and opened it again-

The bed was still there.

Sukuna: "..."

Wait, wait, wait, wait!-

Sure, he had wanted a bed in his Innate Domain...but wasn't this wish coming true a little too quickly?!

Had he activated some wish-granting treasure, like Aladdin's magic l*mp or a blue robot cat?

He carefully thought back to when he had made that wish.

Then he abruptly clapped his hands-

So that was it!!

He had made that wish on his birthday!

...Who knew birthday wishes actually worked this well!

He was both delighted and conflicted.

...Damn it...he wished every day could be his birthday!