Yuji Itadori woke up in a room covered in barriers.
Above his head, the ceiling was painted with intricate cursed seals. The walls were plastered with yellow paper talismans. A faint, musty smell hung in the air, reminiscent of incense from a shrine.
This room was designed to suppress Sukuna's consciousness.
He lay on a simple bed covered with a plain blanket. His right wrist was attached to the bed rail by a silver-white metal ring—the ring was very light, cool to the touch, and its surface was engraved with fine, glowing patterns.
"Awake?"
A voice came from the side.
Itadori turned his head sharply.
A man with white hair was sitting on a chair in the corner of the room. He was wearing a black student uniform and a pure black blindfold over his eyes. He was sitting with his legs crossed, playing with… an edamame whipped cream wrapper.
This was the man who had appeared on the playground yesterday and made Sukuna disappear with a single blow.
"Gojo… Satoru?" Itadori recalled the name he had heard yesterday, his voice a little hoarse.
"Bingo~" Satoru Gojo snapped his fingers and tore open a new sweet wrapper. "How are you feeling? Any discomfort? That guy didn't have a party in your head, did he?"
Itadori moved his body. Surprisingly, he felt no discomfort at all. On the contrary, he felt more energetic than usual, as if he had slept well all day.
"I'm… fine," he sat up, and the metal ring made a soft clink on his wrist. "Where is this?"
"One of the containment rooms at the Jujutsu Technical College~" Satoru Gojo took a bite of the sweet and squinted with satisfaction. "Don't worry, it's very safe here. Sukuna can't get out. And those talismans—" He pointed to the wall. "—are barriers specifically designed to suppress special-grade cursed objects. Although the effect on Sukuna is limited, it's better than nothing."
Itadori looked at the metal ring on his wrist. It wasn't tight, but it was sturdy. He tried to move his wrist, and the faint patterns on the ring immediately began to glow.
"This is…"
"A special-grade cursed tool, the 'Soul Binding Ring,'" Satoru Gojo explained. "It monitors the cursed energy fluctuations in your body. If Sukuna's consciousness tries to take over, it will immediately sound an alarm—by the way, the alarm is the opening theme of Demon Slayer. I chose it myself."
Itadori was silent for a few seconds. This "Satoru Gojo-sensei" seemed to deviate somewhat from the image of "the strongest sorcerer" he had imagined.
"Will I…" He took a deep breath and asked the question that worried him most. "Will I be executed?"
Satoru Gojo's action of eating his sweet paused.
"Theoretically, yes," he said calmly. "Swallowing a special-grade cursed object and becoming Sukuna's vessel—according to the rules of the jujutsu world, you should be executed immediately. After all, no one knows when Sukuna will fully control your body and go on a killing spree."
Itadori's heart clenched. But Satoru Gojo's next words stunned him.
"But I'll get you out of it," Satoru Gojo took another bite of his sweet, speaking a little indistinctly. "The reason I gave to the higher-ups was this: Since Sukuna's twenty fingers can't be destroyed, and the existing sealing containers are insufficient, it's better to let you live and wait until all twenty fingers have been eaten before execution. That way, not only will Sukuna's power be fully concentrated, but the problem can also be solved at once."
"Twenty…" Itadori repeated. "What if I can't eat them all?"
Satoru Gojo laughed. The cunning in that smile was palpable even through his blindfold.
"Then I'll leave your sentence suspended," he shrugged. "As long as you don't eat twenty, the death sentence won't be carried out that day. Actually, Sukuna's fingers are scattered all over Japan. Some are heavily guarded, some are missing… Finding all twenty could take a very, very long time~"
Itadori's eyes widened. He understood Satoru Gojo's implication: this was an indefinite suspended sentence. As long as he "cooperated," he could live indefinitely.
"Why…" His voice trembled slightly. "Why do you want to help me? I'm just an ordinary person…"
"Because I think it's ridiculous," Satoru Gojo said as if it were obvious. "A vessel for Sukuna—a vessel capable of suppressing Sukuna's consciousness, a once-in-a-millennium anomaly, Yuji Itadori—it would be a waste to have him executed by that group of old men."
He stood up, walked over to Itadori, crouched down, and looked at him at eye level. Although Itadori couldn't see past the black blindfold, he could feel those eyes looking at him through the special material.
"Besides," Satoru Gojo's voice lowered with rare seriousness, "I think you can handle it. Suppress Sukuna, control his power, and then… use that power to do the right thing."
Itadori clenched his fists. His nails dug into his palms, causing a distinct pain.
"The right thing…" He repeated.
"Like," Satoru Gojo smiled, "saving more people. Exorcising more cursed spirits. Let that Sukuna guy be inside your body and watch as you use his power to save the people he once tormented and killed as he pleased—that's a fun thought, isn't it?"
This reason was very "Satoru Gojo." Itadori felt something warm ignite in his chest.
"You're strong. You need to help more people. And you should die surrounded by everyone," his grandfather's words before he died echoed in his ears.
"I…" He looked up, his eyes firm. "I want to try."
"Very well~" Satoru Gojo patted him on the shoulder and stood up. "From today on, you'll be a first-year student at the Tokyo Jujutsu High. Classes, training, missions… it'll be very tough. And you still have a problematic tenant inside you. You'll need to learn to 'coexist peacefully' with him."
He walked to the door, opened it, and winked back—even though his eyes were blindfolded and he couldn't see.
"By the way, I'll prepare dessert for the welcome party. What do you want to eat? Sweets? Strawberry cake? Or…"
"Beef bowl," Itadori said.
Satoru Gojo was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing.
"Okay, beef bowl! When you get out of the containment room, I'll take you to eat the best in Ginza!"
The door closed. Footsteps faded away.
Itadori sat alone in the containment room, looking at the "Soul Binding Ring" on his wrist, feeling the sleeping, vast, and malevolent power inside his body.
Ryomen Sukuna.
The King of Curses.
And now, he was the "tenant" of this body.
"I won't lose," Itadori whispered, not sure if he was saying it to Sukuna or to himself.
---
At the same time—a high-end dessert shop in Shinjuku.
Shoko Ieiri had been sitting at a window booth for ten minutes. In front of her was a cup of black coffee. She held a slender cigarette between her fingers, the smoke rising slowly in the afternoon sun. Today, she wasn't wearing her white coat, but a simple black suit. Her long hair was casually let down, now a pale blue-black from years of staying up late.
"The latecomer treats—"
Before Ieiri could finish her sentence, the shop door burst open.
Satoru Gojo walked in, humming a tune, still carrying two paper bags from a pastry shop. He immediately went to the booth, sat down across from Ieiri, and put the paper bags on the table.
"I bought them. It's not that late, is it?"
"I'm barely counting on you to be on time," Ieiri glanced at him, then looked toward the door. "Where's Geto? Late again?"
"He's on his way. He said he'd pick up Nanako and Mimiko first," Satoru Gojo waved over a waiter, ordered an ultra-luxurious parfait, and added another cup of coffee for Ieiri. "But more importantly, Ieiri, I have huge news~"
Ieiri raised an eyebrow. "What huge news could you have? Which building did you demolish this time?"
"Much more interesting than that," Satoru Gojo leaned forward and lowered his voice. "Sukuna has revived."
Ieiri's cigarette stopped mid-air. She stared at Satoru Gojo for three seconds, making sure he wasn't joking.
"Where's the vessel?"
"A high schooler named Yuji Itadori, from Sugisawa Third Middle School. He swallowed Sukuna's finger but suppressed him—it was amazing."
Ieiri took a deep drag of her cigarette and slowly exhaled.
"So the higher-ups decided to execute him?"
"I stopped it," Satoru Gojo dug a spoon into the parfait that had just arrived. "Let him come to the college, slowly collect Sukuna's fingers, and then execute him when he's collected all twenty—of course, that's what I told the old men. Actually…"
He smiled. "I plan to train him to become a sorcerer who can fully control Sukuna's power."
Ieiri was silent for a moment, then gently shook her head.
"You really… never play by the rules."
"Common sense is boring," Satoru Gojo scooped up another spoonful of ice cream. "And that's not the most explosive news. The most explosive news is…"