The Epic Region Has Seriously Joined the Fight Against Sukuna

"Huh? You're... Shiratori Gotsu?" Okkotsu had a vivid impression of the man standing before him with a strange green bar over his head.

After all, someone who seemed weak in every respect had suddenly barged into his fight.

After making a mess of everything, he had inexplicably transferred 18 points to Okkotsu, then fled in a flash.

After the battle, Okkotsu had chatted with Ryu Ishigori, who had brought Shiratori up no fewer than ten times, each time calling him "shit!"

That showed just how deeply Shiratori Gotsu's antics had left their mark.

More than ten minutes later.

In Shiratori Gotsu's temporary base, soft yellow light filled the living room.

He had used the Cursed Energy Storage Coin's red-hot function to boil water and made Yuta Okkotsu a cup of hot tea.

"Thank you!" Okkotsu accepted the cup and held it in his hands. "Actually, there's something I've never understood. Why did you do that back then?"

Shiratori Gotsu slurped up an entire strip of bracken starch rice cake coated in soybean flour in one go. He chewed for nearly a minute before answering, "Break the domain barrier?"

"No." Okkotsu sipped his tea. "I mean when you suddenly transferred 18 points to me."

"We didn't know each other before, did we? We'd never even met, so why did you suddenly give me your points?"

Shiratori Gotsu tossed a cod sausage into Okkotsu's hands, looking as if the answer were obvious. "It's normal that you don't know me, but I know you."

"Haven't you realized how famous you are? You're a Special Grade Sorcerer!"

"The points were no use to me anyway, and you looked like you needed them, so I just gave them to you."

"I see..." Okkotsu smiled gently. "You're really easygoing. You don't seem like a Jujutsu Sorcerer at all."

"Jujutsu Sorcerer or whatever, it doesn't matter. Forget about it." Shiratori Gotsu waved a hand and slurped up some tonkotsu ramen. "I'm not a Jujutsu High student. Strictly speaking, I'm an outsider."

"By the looks of you, you haven't rested well these past couple of days. Why not take this chance to relax?"

Okkotsu looked at the utterly relaxed Shiratori Gotsu, then at the hot tea and cod sausage the other man had so casually pressed into his hands.

He felt his body and mind, which had been tense for so long, suddenly relax.

"Shiratori, you're a kind person."

He spoke from the heart.

Then he suddenly changed the subject. "I'd like to invite you to join us in fighting Kenjaku."

"Cough, cough!"

Shiratori Gotsu choked badly at the sudden invitation.

He pounded his chest twice, coughing up the noodles he had inhaled into his windpipe, then pointed at himself, looking utterly bewildered.

"Me? I can't fight at all."

"You exorcised Kurourushi, didn't you? You're quite strong, Shiratori."

"How did you know that?!" Shiratori Gotsu was genuinely shocked this time. How could he just go and dox him like that?

Okkotsu scratched his head. "Well, I just asked Kogane."

Shiratori Gotsu: ...

Seeing that he still wore a "Really?" expression, Okkotsu explained in more detail. "Kurourushi was one of my targets too, originally."

"After my fight with Uro and Ishigori that day, I was going to take care of Kurourushi too, but I found he'd already been eliminated at some point."

He looked at Shiratori Gotsu and smiled.

"So I casually asked Kogane about it. To be honest, I really was surprised to learn that you were the one who exorcised Kurourushi."

"And thanks to the 18 points you transferred to me, we have enough points now."

The smile on Okkotsu's face was sincere, and there was nothing to fault in his tone.

"I see..."

Thinking about it carefully, in all the time since Shiratori Gotsu had entered the Sendai Colony—or rather, come to the world of Jujutsu Kaisen—he hadn't really had any meaningful interactions with anyone else.

The original story character he had interacted with most was even Kurourushi... They had at least attacked each other, and Shiratori Gotsu had stabbed him to pieces twice.

Now, receiving Yuta Okkotsu's sincere invitation, Shiratori Gotsu felt very conflicted.

Before transmigrating, he had lost both his parents when he was very young and had lived alone.

Without realizing it, he had grown used to being lonely and had no friends to speak of.

Looking at Yuta Okkotsu's sincere smile, he thought about how, even if he could return to reality someday, he might not be able to change his lonely life in the slightest...

He looked at Okkotsu, the corners of his mouth rising.

"You leave me no choice. Well then, I look forward to working with you."

"Let me introduce myself properly. I'm Shiratori Gotsu. I guess you could call me a Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer, and my Cursed Technique is called [Fate Track Binding Curse]."

He pointed at the "health bar" over his forehead, which had been there ever since he had gone out to shop for free. "This is a visible manifestation of my Cursed Technique's effect."

After spending about thirty seconds explaining his Cursed Technique to Okkotsu, Shiratori Gotsu felt from the bottom of his heart that it was wonderful to be able to talk to someone face-to-face like this!

"I see! It's a new, modern type of Cursed Technique, like Hakari's!"

"That's right." Having finished his explanation, Shiratori Gotsu deactivated his Cursed Technique and lowered his head to continue slurping his noodles.

Okkotsu tore open the cod sausage's wrapper, took a bite, then sipped his tea again. "Actually, I was curious about that green bar from the start, but I was afraid it would be rude to ask."

"So it really was an effect of your Cursed Technique. I'm so glad you told me on your own, Shiratori... Yokatta!"

"Cough, cough...!"

That sudden "yokatta" caught Shiratori Gotsu off guard just as he slurped up a mouthful of noodles. He immediately broke composure and choked again.

The next moment, his loss of composure and choking caused his Cursed Energy output to fluctuate, and the Cursed Energy Storage Coin hanging from his chest turned red-hot yet again.

"Argh!"

"Are you okay, Shiratori?!"

"Damn it, if I'd known, I wouldn't have deactivated my Cursed Technique!"

Meanwhile, in the Tokyo No. 1 Colony.

Megumi Fushiguro, the domineering CEO, woke up in his 60,000 cm² hotel bed.

Hana Kurusu stood by the floor-to-ceiling window and turned to Fushiguro.

"Morning. Did you sleep well, my destined one?"

"Hiss..." Fushiguro covered one side of his face and shook his head. "How long was I asleep?"

"I'm asking you, Itadori."

He looked at Yuji Itadori, who stood by the floor-to-ceiling window in a bathrobe, swirling a glass of red wine.

"Two days... I think." Itadori was a little excited because it was his first time wearing a bathrobe. "It's the evening of November fourteenth now."

"Oh, you're awake, kid!"

Fumihiko Takaba burst through the door carrying bulging shopping bags. "You must be hungry. I brought back a bunch of stuff from the convenience store!"

"Is there anything mint chocolate flavored?" Hana Kurusu went over to him without hesitation.

"Pino!" Takaba pulled a box of mint chocolate ice cream from a bag and handed it over. "Here. The store still has power, so the frozen food actually survived."

"I just don't know why the power's still on."

Hana Kurusu replied, "The Culling Game isn't a natural disaster like an earthquake. It wouldn't cause a power outage."

Megumi Fushiguro sat on the edge of the bed and joined the conversation.

"It's also possible that Kenjaku decided not to cut the power after discussing it with the higher-ups, to keep the Culling Game running smoothly."

"Either way, I'd like to wash up first, then go over what happened these past two days."

"That's about it," Yuji Itadori explained. "After I parted ways with Hiromi Higuruma, I happened to run into Mr. Takaba on the way."

"Mr. Takaba happened to have met you, so I teamed up with him to look for you."

"Then, while we were looking, we just happened to see the angel Hana Kurusu flying overhead with you."

"And that brings us to now."

After hearing the whole story, Megumi Fushiguro looked speechless. "You guys... don't have any sense of caution at all?"

"Ahaha... We're fine, we're fine..." the three replied with awkward laughs.

"I'm sorry, and thank you for saving me." Fushiguro lowered his head in a slight bow.

"It's fine, it's fine, haha..."

"But more importantly..." Itadori excitedly held up Kogane for Fushiguro to see.

"Hakari got 100 points, and Okkotsu and a companion he met along the way actually got 203 points between them. Add your points, Mr. Takaba's, and Kurusu's, and we have 372 points in total now."

"That means we've reached our goal!"