[You did not immediately respond to Itadori's question, filled as it was with sincere concern.]
[Your eyes narrowed slightly, your gaze like an X-ray scanner as you stared fixedly at the pink-haired boy's face, letting no tiny detail escape.]
[You were assessing and confirming with extreme caution whether this seemingly harmless, even somewhat guileless and foolish demeanor was actually a deadly facade the exceedingly cunning Sukuna had deliberately adopted to make you lower your guard.]
[After all, that brief but perilous exchange had already taught you, both physically and mentally, just how troublesome that monster was.]
[Judging by the outcome of the battle so far, forcibly subduing him with a rotating bombardment of Cursed Techniques, without killing him outright, was still within your ability to manage.]
[It was certainly more restrictive and difficult than simply going for the kill, but fortunately, as long as you could stall long enough for your "Phantom Parade" to finish analyzing his strange, invisible slashing Cursed Technique, countering him in the future should become considerably easier.]
[But that applied only to "you," an anomaly possessing "Phantom Parade." With utter coldness, you made an extremely objective assessment of his combat strength: aside from the very few individuals like Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto, who already stood at the absolute pinnacle of Jujutsu Sorcerers... any Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer of this era who faced that man without any information could forget about winning. Even a "crushing defeat" would be the best possible outcome, a blessing from heaven. They would most likely be sliced into a scattered pile of flesh the instant they met him, without a shred of dignity.]
[Only after staring at him for several full seconds and confirming that the evil, violent fluctuations of Cursed Energy belonging to the Special Grade Cursed Object had indeed