Chapter 17

"My son... Junpei!" "I want my son!" "Please, Junpei!"

Itadori could feel the agony of what had once been a loving, protective mother with her son.

Nagi Yoshino, that's what she called herself.

At least, that's what she used to call herself, before Mahito turned her into a giant pile of flesh who lived only because she wanted to see her son one last time.

Itadori had no words to describe it.

Seeing her suffer only made him feel guiltier.

All of this, all the deaths at the school, including Junpei's death, and his mother's horrible fate, were his responsibility.

He could never escape it, it was something that, from that day on, he would live with for the rest of his life.

And he understood that very well.

As a grown man, he knew that he had responsibilities, and that his actions affected not only him, but also the people around him.

But now, living as an Itadori, he had to understand that his actions didn't only put the people around him at risk.

But also people who had nothing to do with him.

The curses, especially Mahito, would not hesitate to kill thousands just to affect him.

The only thing that mattered to them was Sukuna, and Itadori had to deal with that.

He was now a sorcerer, and many people would depend on him.

The future of his allies, and of thousands of people, depended on how far he could go, and how much advantage he could bring to the sorcerers' side.

He knew he couldn't do everything himself, but as long as he became stronger, he felt confident that he wouldn't let something like this happen again.

"..."

Approaching the now deformed woman, Itadori let his hand rest gently on her skin.

And for a moment, she seemed to cease her pleas for her son, letting the silence become palpable in the air.

"Forgive me, Miss Yoshino." Itadori apologized honestly in the face of that silence. "I was unable to save your son."

In that situation, he couldn't do much to save the woman from her condition, but... The least he could do was let her rest in peace.

He didn't want to keep her alive so that she would continue to suffer.

"But I promise you that I will avenge him, so please rest now."

Letting the cursed energy flow from his arm into the woman's body, Itadori closed his eyes as her breathing gradually began to weaken.

"I hope you can find your son on the other side."

"..."

But as the woman slowly closed her eyes to enter an eternal sleep, Itadori opened his eyes when a female voice, different from the distorted one before, sounded from in front of him.

"Thank you very much."

And it was with a final thank you that that beautiful woman said goodbye to this world.

Happy to have the chance to meet his son again.

"Goodbye, Miss Yoshino."

.

Slowly opening his eyes to see a bloody scene, Sukuna could see the ribs of what must have been a skeleton stretching endlessly around him.

This was his innate domain, the place he was confined to as long as he was tied to the boy.

Yuji Itadori.

"So in the end, he really did assimilate part of my cursed technique." Sitting on his throne, Sukuna scratched his chin with an indifferent look. "How interesting."

Seeing the boy using his cursed technique really surprised Sukuna. It wasn't something he expected to happen, but from the looks of it, the boy must have had a really special body.

That, as interesting as it was, was annoying.

Even though Itadori had caught his interest, seeing him use his technique so carelessly irritated him.

What's more...

"Such an insignificant boy using my technique... It gets on my nerves."

He couldn't accept that the boy would eventually completely assimilate his cursed technique.

That would be like a punch in the gut to his pride.

Sukuna refused to allow it.

"But it doesn't matter... It's only a matter of time."

But letting those words hang in the air, he let his chin rest on his fist, his eyes slowly closing so that he could return to sleep.

.

"Congratulations, Yuji!"

Walking through the corridors of the house in which he was being kept, he was surprised when Gojo suddenly appeared from behind him.

"Oh, Gojo Sensei!" Turning to look at Gojo, Itadori saw the man with a small smile on his lips.

"You've become much stronger, Yuji! I'm congratulating you on that!" Gojo, with his usual cheerful attitude, took something from his back and showed it to Itadori. "A knife, brand new!"

Itadori blinked as he saw the blade being placed in front of him, and taking it from Gojo's hands, he noticed that there was nothing very special about it.

"Uh... What's that supposed to mean?" He soon realized that it wasn't really a gift, his eyes flicking forward to see Gojo crack a dangerous smile.

"We still have 15 days until the goodwill event, so until then, you will learn how to perfectly imbue your cursed energy into a cursed object."

"..."

Itadori didn't show much reaction to the teacher's words, his eyes roaming over the blade in his hands for a moment before his attention returned to the man.

"And I'll warn you straight away, it's not going to be easy! Follow me!"

Seeing Gojo turn around and start sprinting away, Itadori turned to a clock on the wall, which read exactly 11:00 p.m.

"..." Scratching his head in irritation, he began to follow the teacher. "Has he gone mad?"