The moment she saw this finger, what Sukuna had said that morning flashed through Utaha's mind like lightning.
"Wasn't it you who sealed me inside your own body? Like swallowing some specially made finger or something?"
Her heart constricted sharply, and a chill surged from the soles of her feet to the top of her head.
"You're right, little girl." Sukuna's voice chimed in at the right moment, carrying a sense of confirming calm, and even a hint of... nostalgia?
"That is my finger. One of my twenty fingers scattered across the world."
"T-twenty?" Utaha exclaimed in her mind, feeling her common sense being overturned once again.
"A person only has two hands and ten fingers. Where did twenty come from?"
"Hmph." Sukuna let out a disdainful snort.
"Don't measure me by the standards of ordinary humans. I told you, I have four arms. What's the problem with twenty fingers?"
Four arms... twenty fingers...
Utaha recalled the description of "Ryomen Sukuna" in the legends she had searched for—"Two faces and four arms."
It turned out it wasn't entirely an exaggeration.
She looked at the withered finger in the box, feeling the heart-pounding fluctuations of power within it even while sealed, and couldn't help but click her tongue in amazement.
Just one finger had awakened Sukuna's consciousness within her and given her the power to easily kill a Cursed Spirit. If he were at his peak...
"Sukuna-san... you're... not at your peak right now?" She asked tentatively.
"Of course not." Sukuna's tone was matter-of-fact.
"Right now, I'm at most... one-twentieth of my level when I was alive. After all, most of my power and consciousness are sealed away in these fingers."
One-twentieth!
This number left Utaha speechless.
One-twentieth of his power was already so terrifying. At his peak, Sukuna probably really was like the legends said—a god walking the earth, the King of Curses who brought calamity.
Utaha suppressed the storm in her heart, maintaining a calm expression. She closed the lid, walked to the counter with the box, and said to the mystical old woman, "Granny, I'll take this box."
The old woman raised her cloudy eyes and glanced at the black box in her hand.
She seemed a bit surprised and asked hoarsely, "You want this? It's been sitting here for years, and no one knows what it's for. If you want it, give me five thousand yen."
Utaha didn't haggle and paid directly. She didn't want any unnecessary complications.
— — —
Walking out of the Exorcism Shop, Eriri and Megumi both looked at the box in her hand with curiosity.
Eriri asked, "Kasumigaoka, why did you buy that? The box looks so old."
Utaha replied vaguely, "Nothing, I just thought it was a bit special."
At this moment, she was more concerned about another issue.
On the way to continue seeing the two of them home, Utaha urgently asked Sukuna through her thoughts, "Sukuna-san, how do I use this finger? It's not like I actually have to eat it myself, right?"
Thinking of swallowing a thousand-year-old corpse's finger made her feel nauseous, even if the consciousness of the finger's owner was currently living on her face.
"Eat?"
Sukuna sounded as if he had heard something extremely amusing, letting out a burst of wicked laughter in her mind.
"Hahaha! What on earth are you thinking, girl? Although theoretically it's possible, given that look of yours, forget it. You just need to hold it in your hand."
Utaha finally breathed a sigh of relief, but then a feeling of being played surged into her heart, and she had to restrain herself from showing anger.
She took the finger out of the box and gripped it tightly in her palm. The finger felt cold and hard, like a peculiar stone.
The moment her skin touched the finger, a sudden change occurred.
She felt an itch in her palm, as if something had opened and closed. Looking down, she saw the skin in her clenched palm wriggle slightly, and a tiny mouth, similar to the one on her face, flashed for an instant. The finger in her palm had disappeared.
Almost at the same time, a cold, emotionless mechanical prompt sounded simultaneously deep within Sukuna's consciousness.
[Detected that the host has successfully collected a special grade cursed object: Sukuna's Finger.]
[Collection value determined: Extremely High.]
[Reward issued: Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine.]
[Detected that the host already possesses a Domain. Beginning Domain fusion... Fusing...]
Sukuna was uncharacteristically silent for a moment, then let out a low murmur filled with deep surprise and amusement, "Heh... interesting. I take back my own finger, and this crappy system still gives a reward? I'm collecting myself."
...
Night had completely enveloped Tokyo, and bright lights dotted the cold city.
Utaha and Megumi accompanied Eriri, whose emotions were still extremely low, to her home located in a quiet, high-end residential area.
It was an extraordinary European-style villa, boasting a wide, meticulously manicured courtyard and elegant wrought-iron gates. Under the soft glow of landscape lighting, it looked like an isolated castle, exuding an air of wealth and order.
However, this magnificent scene could not dispel the slightest bit of the heaviness and chill lingering in the hearts of the three girls at this moment.
Just as they reached the villa's grand carved gate, before Eriri could even take out her keys, the door was opened urgently from the inside.
Warm light poured out, illuminating a woman dressed in a sophisticated dark blue tomesode kimono. She looked to be only in her thirties, with the same blonde hair and exquisite features as Eriri, tied in a pair of twin tails, though her eyes were currently filled with unhideable anxiety and worry.
She was Eriri's mother, Sawamura Sayuri.
Standing with Eriri, she looked more like a sister than a mother.
"Eriri!" Sayuri's voice trembled slightly as she stepped forward, pulling her dazed daughter into a tight embrace without a word.
She held her so hard it was as if she wanted to pull her into her very blood and bone.
"Eriri... are you alright? Mommy was worried sick. Inspector Megure already called to tell me. Tomoya... how could such a thing happen? You must have been terrified, right?"
Feeling the familiar and warm touch of her mother's embrace and smelling that reassuring, light scent of perfume, the last shred of strength Eriri had been maintaining along the way finally collapsed. She buried her face deep in her mother's shoulder.
The fear, sadness, helplessness, and lingering dread she had suppressed all day turned into uncontrollable, heart-wrenching sobs like a flood breaking through a dam. Her shoulders shook violently, and tears quickly soaked the expensive fabric of Sayuri's kimono.
"Mommy... waah... Tomoya... he's dead and... and there was a monster... so scary... it was really scary..." She sobbed incoherently, her voice muffled and filled with despair.
Sayuri felt as if a knife were twisting in her heart. She simply held her daughter tighter, one hand gently stroking her back over and over, soothing her with the softest voice, "It's okay now, it's okay. You're home, mommy is here, there's nothing to be afraid of anymore..."