The autumn wind was bleak. Its mournful chill called to the last geese of the season. Beneath Yasohachi Bridge, wild grass ran rampant, and the shrubs were pressed so low by the wind that they nearly crawled along the ground. Debris spun through the air before vanishing into the wailing gusts.
Above the bridge, an enormous fluctuation of cursed energy suddenly erupted. The terrifying aura made every pore on Fushiguro Megumi's body prickle, and the shikigami within his shadow sent him waves of restless unease.
Fushiguro Megumi raised his head and saw a black domain rapidly spreading, rapidly taking shape. Somewhere beyond conscious perception, he seemed to glimpse a colossal black snake standing at the far end of the past, scarlet eyes fixed upon him as a cold tongue flicked from its mouth—sending a shudder through his body.
This was completely different from the Cursed Spirit he had encountered at Eishu Juvenile Detention Center—more vicious, more terrifying. Its aura alone made his heart tremble.
Kira-senpai is trapped... So that's why he told me to jump down?
To protect me...
Fushiguro Megumi guessed at Kira Nanami's thoughts.
Does he think I'm dead weight?
Fushiguro Megumi clicked his tongue in irritation. He wanted to go back up and help, to prove himself, but he quickly restrained the impulse.
He was not a willful person, and he had never been the protagonist of some anime.
He knew Kira Nanami had made the right decision. In a battle on this level, there was nothing he could do to help.
He would only get in Kira Nanami's way.
'Don't cause trouble for other people, and other people aren't allowed to cause trouble for me.'
Fushiguro Megumi hated this sense of powerlessness.
He remembered six months ago, when Itadori Yuji swallowed one of Ryomen Sukuna's Fingers. He had been just as powerless then, standing there stupidly, unable to do anything.
Fushiguro Megumi lowered his head. Across the river, he stared toward the opposite shore and pressed his lips together.
He waded through the river and walked deeper into the far bank.
Fushiguro Megumi would not cause trouble for anyone. He would not go back up just to become a burden to Kira Nanami, but that did not mean he would give up.
In the end, this had been his problem from the start, a matter he had to settle himself.
If he could not trouble Kira-senpai, then he would solve it on his own.
He still had one final trump card. Even at the very end, he could trade his own life for victory.
That was Fushiguro Megumi's flaw. What he was best at was putting his life on the line. Gojo Satoru had once said that he 'never imagines a stronger version of himself.'
And so he could never imagine himself becoming stronger.
'Divine Dog: Black.'
Divine Dog: Black emerged beside Fushiguro Megumi. Saliva dripped from its jaws, and its glossy fur looked as though it were cloaked in moonlight. A savage crimson gleam burned in its reddish-brown eyes.
'Nue.'
An owl-like bird spread out from between his shadows, opening enormous wings behind Fushiguro Megumi and making him look as though he had wrapped himself in the night.
Drawing a light breath, Fushiguro Megumi took the final step.
The moment that last step landed, the world seemed to change. Everything distorted, and Fushiguro Megumi felt a strange prickling pain across his entire body—then he knew he had entered the domain.
Water droplets splashed into the air with that step. In that instant, through the crystal-clear droplets, he saw row after row of Cursed Spirits emerging behind him from densely packed holes. They had no eyes and no limbs, only heads poking from countless openings like millions of maggots crawling out of human pores.
Divine Dog: Black vanished from behind him in an instant. It crossed several meters in a single leap and appeared before the Cursed Spirits. Its bloody maw opened, blood sprayed, and heads began flying—Divine Dog: Black tore away half a body in one bite.
At the same time, Fushiguro Megumi also vanished from where he stood. Afterimages trailed through the air as his footwork shifted without pause. In less than half a second he had already spun several times, raising a long black cursed-tool blade in his right hand. Cold light radiated from its edge as he carried the force of his rotation into row after row of Cursed Spirits.
Shhk—
Like a kitchen knife splitting watermelons or a sickle cutting wheat, every creature that touched Fushiguro's blade sent its head flying. Fushiguro Megumi carved out a semicircle, three lines of blood spraying as several heads hurtled away!
The nauseating Cursed Spirits were cleanly severed in half by Fushiguro Megumi, their cut surfaces almost perfectly smooth.
It's over...?
Fushiguro could hardly believe it. He stepped backward, then suddenly realized the domain around him had not disappeared.
It was not over.
It was not over!
Squeak, squeak, squeak... He could not tell what was making the sound.
To Fushiguro Megumi's surprise, a bulge suddenly appeared in the rock wall. It pushed outward bit by bit, growing larger and larger—and naturally, this was not because our honored Mountain God had gotten hard at the sight of Fushiguro Megumi.
It looked more like an egg, an egg wrapped in stone and soil.
That familiar feeling. That familiar aura. He had felt it somewhere before...
One should not demand too much logic from the behavior of Cursed Spirits... but the first victim had been killed by the curse six months ago.
And the first time Itadori Yuji swallowed one of Ryomen Sukuna's Fingers had also been six months ago!
This was no coincidence at all. This was resonance, resonance between the fingers. When Ryomen Sukuna's consciousness awakened within Itadori, it served as the catalyst that released the cursed energy of the fingers scattered across the country.
This was resonance between cursed energies.
Fushiguro Megumi finally understood where that familiar sensation came from. It was one of Ryomen Sukuna's Fingers!
Boom.
The stone egg crashed to the ground and burst apart. A black hand reached out from within. The creature had four tiny, bean-sized eyes and a mouth split almost to the corners of its face, filled with neat, spotless white teeth.
If Kira Nanami had been there, he would have recognized this Cursed Spirit immediately. It looked almost identical to the one he had exorcised at Eishu Juvenile Detention Center several months ago.
If anything, this one was considerably stronger!
Fushiguro Megumi had no time to think further. On reflex, he gathered all the cursed energy in his body into his arms and crossed them in front of himself—that decision saved his life. In the next instant, a black torrent of cursed energy swallowed his entire body.
It smashed Fushiguro Megumi violently into the rock. The torrent did not lose any power and blasted straight through the mountain, piercing layer after layer of stone. The forest trembled violently and the mountain itself shook.
Fushiguro Megumi got beaten up again... while Kira Nanami was still showing off above.
His entire body was battered and torn. Half of one arm was already useless, hanging limply at his side. He barely managed to pull himself out of the rock wall and stared toward the source of the cursed-energy torrent.
The Finger Bearer tilted its head, the smile on its face growing even more delighted. It flicked its hand, shaking away the cursed energy lingering around its fingers.
Divine Dog: Black appeared behind it and opened its enormous jaws like an abyss descending over the Finger Bearer. The Finger Bearer reached backward with its right hand, seized Divine Dog: Black by the neck, and hurled it down with tremendous force. The wind pressure exploded outward as the shikigami smashed into the ground and opened a huge crater.
"Bastard."
Fushiguro Megumi braced one hand against the rock wall and pushed backward. Cursed energy gathered in his hand and erupted instantly. Riding the recoil, he vanished from where he stood.
The Finger Bearer instinctively turned its head. Fushiguro's blade was already against its neck, the cold glint stinging its skin. It was too late to dodge. There came a ripping sound—
The blade shattered, breaking into fragment after fragment.
The Finger Bearer's right hand swept across and clamped onto Fushiguro's wrist. It twisted backward, using the leverage to turn his entire body sideways, kept rotating, and hurled Fushiguro away with brutal force!
Then its left hand rose. Fresh cursed energy had already begun gathering, aimed at the boy in the sky—
Boom!
Nue suddenly appeared in front of Fushiguro and carried him away. In the next second, the overwhelming flood of cursed energy surged up through the space he had just vacated and continued straight into the sky, punching through the clouds.
The Finger Bearer vanished from where it stood. It ran along the rock wall, leaving afterimage after afterimage behind. Within a few breaths it had climbed nearly a hundred meters. Then it kicked off the cliff, twisted in midair, and slashed toward Fushiguro with sharp nails reflecting cold light.
Rip. Blood and feathers scattered through the air. Nue cried out mournfully and fell from the sky, smashing into the earth.
A huge crater opened. Fushiguro Megumi lay within it, feeling as though every bone in his body had been pulverized.
Nue's abdomen had been pierced through, leaving it completely unable to fight, so Fushiguro Megumi released the technique.
It dissolved into specks of white light that drifted through Fushiguro's vision. Fushiguro stared blankly at those lights while lying on the ground, staring at the bleak autumn sky and the terrifying Special Grade Cursed Spirit.
Suddenly, he found himself ridiculous.
What was he trying to prove?
In the end, what had he been trying to prove...? He was still the same idiot as always.
What was the point of that unnecessary pride? Wouldn't it have been better to wait for Kira Nanami? So what if he had been treated like dead weight? What was the point of such stupid pride...?
He had already decided not to cause trouble for anyone, but if he died here, he would probably end up causing trouble anyway.
He'd only been treated as a burden, that was all.
Hadn't he been a burden since childhood? Abandoned by his father, sold to the Zenin Clan as part of a deal, then abandoned by the Zenin Clan and bought back by a man named Gojo Satoru. From an ordinary high school to Jujutsu High, he had watched one person after another leave and one person after another arrive... Wasn't he nothing but a burden?
And during the last Ryomen Sukuna incident, what had he accomplished?
Fushiguro Megumi got up from the ground, staggering to his feet. He felt the restless presence within his body, that terrifying stirring—the demon god even he could not control.
He formed the hand seal.
But he could not run.
Within his heart, he recited the name of that existence: Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga.
A true demon god. Once it emerged, the first person to die would be Fushiguro Megumi himself.
He made his decision. He prepared himself for death.
But at that moment, a glimmer of light caught the corner of his eye.
His phone.
The screen was glowing, displaying an unread message.
The timestamp showed that it had been sent ten minutes earlier.
This was a Cursed Spirit's domain, and the signal was extremely poor, so it had taken this long to arrive.
The sender was Kira Nanami. A single line was written on the screen.
'I'll take care of this snake. You take care of the Cursed Spirit inside. We'll split up and finish this faster.'
'Then we can get off work early. You can definitely do it.'
...Get off work early?
Fushiguro Megumi froze.
He stared at the glowing message on his phone and suddenly found himself unable to speak.
His thoughts were in chaos.
Finish this quickly. Kira Nanami believed he could defeat the Cursed Spirit in here?
This Special Grade Cursed Spirit?
He pushed me off the cliff not because he thought I'd get in his way... but because he wanted us to split up...?
Where did that confidence come from? Where did he get that much confidence in me... enough to think I can beat a Special Grade Cursed Spirit?
Fushiguro Megumi released the hand seal.
No. The real question was—
why didn't I have any confidence in myself?
It had been a hot summer day when Gojo Satoru said something similar to him. Fushiguro Megumi still remembered that dojo. Warm sunlight spilled across the corridor, every floorboard gleaming, while lush green leaves rustled outside the window. Gojo Satoru sat lazily in a chair and suddenly said to him, opening the topic for no apparent reason,
"Megumi, you can never really get serious, can you?"
The Finger Bearer dropped from the sky, leaving an afterimage as it swept around behind Fushiguro Megumi in an instant and struck.
"Why?"
The blow landed on Fushiguro Megumi's back and sent him flying. He smashed through an unknown number of shrubs before slamming violently into the rock, feeling as though all his internal organs had shifted out of place.
"Because you always have a trump card. Even in the worst possible situation, all you ever think is that if you sacrifice yourself, you can solve everything."
"You never imagine a stronger version of yourself."
Fushiguro Megumi spat out a mouthful of blood. His entire body felt shattered, flooded with unbearable pain.
"A jujutsu sorcerer may have companions,"
"but when you die, you're alone."
He remembered another summer night—people on the verge of death always recalled all kinds of things.
It had happened in a cemetery. That had also been the first time Kira Nanami ever taught him, proposing a practical combat test. Fushiguro Megumi had lost miserably and lasted only four minutes.
Kira Nanami had told him,
"Just as I expected, you care too much about the lives of your shikigami and value your own life far too little. It's reached the point of becoming a weakness."
"That is what you learned in today's lesson."
Kira Nanami looked at him. His pale blue eyes resembled deep seawater as he said seriously,
"Try being a little greedier."
Gojo Satoru looked at him too, the blue eyes behind his sunglasses impossibly deep, as though reflecting the sky, the vast world, and Fushiguro Megumi's own shadow.
"Dying to win and risking death to win are two completely different things, Megumi."
"Give it everything you've got."
"And be a little greedier."
Fushiguro Megumi opened his eyes and looked wearily at everything before him.
I was unconscious for a few seconds... Divine Dog: Black isn't making a sound... Is it dead?
No. The technique had simply been released.
Crater after crater lay everywhere, broken rock scattered across the desolate landscape. The Finger Bearer giggled, the corners of its mouth splitting happily as it walked toward Fushiguro Megumi.
Looks like this is as far as I go...
"Furube..."
Fushiguro Megumi extended his hand, black cursed energy surging around him.
But suddenly—
he withdrew the cursed energy, leaned against the wall, and spread his hands.
"Forget it!"
Fushiguro Megumi pushed himself upright and smiled, the corners of his mouth splitting into a grin as he simply laughed.
A jujutsu sorcerer's path of growth had never been smooth.
A long time ago, perhaps eight months earlier, they had still been searching for the first of Ryomen Sukuna's Fingers. Back then, he had not yet met Itadori Yuji.
It had already grown late. The streetlamps cast a soft, hazy glow, and Kira Nanami had once told Fushiguro Megumi,
"I'm giving you an opportunity here. A chance to train the new generation... Fushiguro-kun... I trust you. I believe in your ability and your competence, which is why I'm giving you this mission... It's time for old guys like us to step aside... Fushiguro-kun, go embrace your future!"
[Volume Two, Chapter One]
Fushiguro Megumi had always believed Kira Nanami was simply dumping his work on someone else. Even now, he still believed that.
And that was indeed the truth. But there was one thing Kira Nanami had not lied about.
He genuinely believed in Fushiguro Megumi's ability. Kira Nanami never trusted a person's character or virtue, never trusted the human heart, but he did trust ability, because ability was the most practical and visible thing in the world.
He believed Fushiguro could do better.
As mentioned before, Kira Nanami believed in these juniors. He believed that once they grew strong enough, he could retire early—and Kira Nanami longed for retirement.
Then why... why...
couldn't Fushiguro Megumi believe in himself?
Why did he always treat his own death, his own defeat, as his final trump card?
Fushiguro Megumi laughed, laughed happily. The world before him had never seemed so clear. He was like an eagle flying free across the sea of jujutsu, soaring and wheeling as he pleased. He had never felt this free before.
So utterly unrestrained, as though the sky itself rested in his palm.
Be a little greedier.
"Pour out the full depth of my shadow..."
"Forget the exact shape for now. Refine the cursed energy, then release it immediately."
A jujutsu sorcerer's growth curve had never been smooth...
A solid foundation, a little inspiration and imagination, and then all that remained was one small opportunity for a person to transform.
Fushiguro Megumi brought his hands together, then slowly drew them apart.
'Imagine it.'
Thick shadows churned like a pitch-black ocean.
'Imagine it.'
'Freely, without restraint. Imagine the one who has surpassed the limit.'
'Your future self.'
His hands came together once more. The world flashed bright, and then—
"Domain Expansion—"
Fushiguro Megumi laughed wildly, almost like a madman.
"Chimera Shadow Garden!!"
The shadows churned and swallowed everything.
There had never been darkness this deep, cold this bitter, anywhere in the world.
It was like the world-ending flood Yahweh had poured over the earth.
——
No one knew how much time passed. Perhaps only a moment, perhaps several days. At last, the shadow-like flood receded.
Fushiguro Megumi lay weakly on a rock. He had exhausted all his cursed energy, and wounds covered his entire body.
Beside him, an ugly corpse was slowly dissolving into butterflies that filled the sky, beautiful beyond belief.
Fushiguro Megumi looked at the butterflies, exhaustion written across his face.
"Kira..."
"You did very well. The mission is complete."
Kira Nanami lowered his head and looked at him seriously.
"You can sleep now."
At last, Fushiguro Megumi could no longer hold on. He looked at Kira Nanami one final time and closed his eyes.
"Now then."
Kira Nanami was silent for a moment before raising his head and flicking blood from his hand—the blood of the snake-shaped Cursed Spirit from earlier.
He spoke toward a certain corner.
"The rest is work for us adults."
Three Special Grade Cursed Spirits emerged from the darkness, watching Kira Nanami.
One was serpentine, one humanoid with a moth-like face on its back, and one a two-headed monster with empty eye sockets.
Snake Head, Eso, Kechizu.
Kira Nanami looked at them and gave a calm smile.
"Come at me together. It's one in the afternoon."
"I want to get off work early, Cursed Spirits."
Currently Available Information III
Kira Nanami, the last Master of the Amber Mansion, Quasi-Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer.
Jujutsu: Ratio Technique, Collapse.
Can forcibly create a weak point at the 7:3 division point of any object.
Black Flash.
Can use it up to five times.
When cursed-energy impact and physical impact occur at almost exactly the same instant, they create a spatial rupture whose power is the normal strike raised to the 2.5 power.
Shikigami:
Killer Queen.
1) Can turn any object into a bomb. [First Bomb]
2) The nearly indestructible companion shikigami Sheer Heart Attack. [Second Bomb]
3) A timed bomb that can sever the timeline, Bites the Dust / Done Again. [Third Bomb]
Domain Expansion: can be maintained for only 0.3 seconds.
Amber Mansion: Yesterday's Severance.
Separates the causality of the past from the present.
Makes the grandfather paradox possible.
Note: In the grandfather paradox, a person uses a time machine to return to the past and kill their own grandfather. Their present self would then never exist and therefore could not have gone back to kill their grandfather. The paradox was proposed by René Barjavel.
Amber Mansion severs the causality linking past and present, so even if one kills one's own grandfather, one's present self can continue to exist. For example, Mahito in the past was killed by Kira, but that action has nothing to do with the version of him in the present.
When the original Amber Mansion was destroyed, its balance once collapsed, and for a single instant the entire world was enveloped by the effect of Yesterday's Severance. The consequences remain unknown.
Under the jujutsu principle of equivalent exchange, Kira Nanami must pay a price for possessing Amber Mansion. However, because Amber Mansion's effects have weakened, the price he pays is lower than that paid by previous Masters of the Amber Mansion.
Pet:
Stray Cat, Grade 1 Cursed Spirit.
Can control the surrounding air.
Contractor:
Hoshino Ei, Special Grade Cursed Spirit.
1) Inherited the memories of Special Grade Curse User Hase Kaede and possesses exceptional talent with barriers and domains.
2) Innate Technique: Concealment. Can hide her own or another person's presence and cursed-energy fluctuations, even deceiving Gojo Satoru's Six Eyes.
3) Shikigami: Can create mental avatars of herself outside her body. Multiple avatars may exist at once, and each can use the original's cursed energy and techniques. However, if an avatar dies, it inflicts severe damage on the original's soul. At most three can die.
4) The Love of My Life.
Can reconstruct the time of any target to thirty minutes earlier. Cannot be used on herself, can only be used once per day, and even after reconstruction, events that have already happened will still happen. Fate cannot be changed.
Other:
Kenjaku:
An existence suspected to be more than a thousand years old. He once took the identity of Kamo Noritoshi (Ancestor) and created the Special Grade cursed objects known as the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings. He currently occupies the body of Special Grade Curse User Geto Suguru. His objective remains unknown.
He once attempted to seal Kira Nanami.
Cursed Womb: Death Paintings:
There are nine in total, all Special Grade.
They are the children of a human and a Cursed Spirit.
Currently appeared: Eso, Kechizu, Choso.
Tengen:
Her ability is Immortality. She has existed for a thousand years and maintains the barriers covering all of Tokyo. At regular intervals, she must merge with a Star Plasma Vessel to preserve her humanity. Otherwise, she will evolve into a higher-dimensional existence, perhaps something that could be called a god.
Gojo Satoru:
Invincible.
Currently studying coffee.
Best friends with Kira Nanami. [Self-proclaimed]
Ryomen Sukuna:
King of Curses.
Was once pierced by the [Arrow].