No wonder Kairi thought it was a demon.
The two distorted mouths gnashed their teeth, and the demon
roared threateningly.
“Tryyyyyy agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain.”
“Um … Itadori?” Kairi’s voice was shaking with fear.
Itadori stepped between the demon and Kairi as if to block the boy and loosely spread his arms wide as if to soothe the demon. “Don’t worry. I got this.”
This cursed spirit, this “demon,” wasn’t a strong curse. A precise evaluation would probably rate it grade 3. He couldn’t just overlook it, but it wasn’t something he couldn’t handle, either.
He decided he would exorcize it in the most uneventful way possible.
It wasn’t that he wanted to show off how easy it was or that he took this lightly. He just wanted to put Kairi at ease. He wanted to wipe away the boy’s fear, calm his nerves, and send him home. That was all Itadori had in mind.
“Stay back, Kairi.”
When Itadori’s hands formed fists, the demon also warmed up for action. It flexed its short legs and swung its arms in broad arcs, up and down. Then it did something like a squat and sprung up, jumping high, high into the air. Its unusual silhouette blocked the moonlight.
“Tryyyyyy agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain.”
Using the momentum from its fall, the demon struck downward with both hands as if they were hammers. The attack was so simple that Itadori dodged with a casual sidestep.
The demon’s body may have been small, but its long arms were a threat. It swung them to the side. Without breaking a sweat, Itadori stepped back, putting distance between them.
“Tryyyyyy agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain.”
As if already tiring of this, the demon threw a straight punch.
“Enough already!” Itadori shouted.
Seeing that simple attack as an opportunity, Itadori twisted and swung. He dodged the demon’s fists, closed the distance, and drove his fist into its torso.
Divergent Fist!
The demon’s small form lifted in the air.
“Moooooooooooooooooooo—agh!”
The second impact, charged with cursed energy, struck it a moment later. The demon flew up and burst apart as if struck by an invisible cannonball. The battle in the residential neighborhood had ended so quickly that it was a bit of a letdown.
“Heh!” Itadori chortled. “All finished!”
“Huh? Um, what just happened?!” Kairi asked.
“I wasted its ass. So you can go home now.”
For a moment, Kairi blinked his eyes at Itadori, who was grinning.
Kairi seemed hesitant, but after a few seconds of silence in the night, he bowed deeply. “Thank you.” His voice suggested that he was still confused, but he expressed his thanks anyway. Bowing over and over, he went into the house.
Itadori smiled and watched him go. His nighttime stroll had
grown a little long, but now he could finally head home. As they parted, however, Itadori couldn’t help but wonder why the look on Kairi’s face was the same one he’d worn earlier when he was alone in the park.
A few days later, Itadori was walking around town again. A simple walk wasn’t that interesting, but he did enjoy the time alone. He changed the route every time he went out, and today found himself revisiting that neighborhood.
Oh, right … I had a minor dustup here the other night.
Perhaps because he had been recalling the incident, his steps had naturally set him walking down the same streets. Just like before, he turned the corner. Just like before, he walked the same path. Just like before, he arrived at the same park.
And he couldn’t believe his eyes.
“Kairi?”
The boy was sitting on a swing and hanging his head.
Kairi was sitting in the park, staring at the streetlight, and wearing the same glum expression.
“Oh … Itadori.”
“What’s wrong? The demon’s gone now.”
Kairi was speechless as he looked at Itadori apologetically. That was enough for Itadori to sense his unease.
“Surely not!”
Itadori ran out of the park with a sudden burst of speed.
This time, he left Kairi behind and raced down the streets of the neighborhood alone. He swung his arms in great arcs as he rushed through the darkness and tromped across the asphalt. The chilly night air dug into his lungs, making his chest hurt. His heart was pounding, but not from the exertion. Intense internal disquiet was sounding an alarm and driving his footfalls. He ran and ran as hard as he could.
He arrived in front of the house.
“No way!”
Just like the other day, the demon was there. It was the same curse in the same form.
Itadori’s suspicion that there had been two curses soon disappeared. He didn’t believe this was a different curse with the same external appearance. Its form and presence weren’t the least bit different.
“Moooooooooooom!”
Sensing Itadori’s eyes on it, the demon leapt high into the sky almost as if reenacting their earlier encounter.
“Why, you … !”
Reflexively evading, Itadori immediately counterattacked and hit the demon with Divergent Fist.
“Moooooooooooooooom!”
Itadori’s body remembered the timing and the opening he could exploit in the demon’s attack. His strike was dead-on, and the impact of his cursed energy sent the demon flying.
It was disturbing how easily he had exorcized this demon for a second time.
Itadori opened and closed his fists as he stood and stared. His attack had definitely worked. He had definitely finished it off. He had definitely exorcized it. However, he sensed the exact same presence that he had confronted the other night. He’d been certain he had expelled it then too, certain he had killed it.
If so, then what was the demon I just fought?
“Don’t feel too bad about it, Itadori.”
Itadori spun around at the sound of the voice. He didn’t need a mirror to know how confused he must have looked.
“Kairi?”
“I doubt there’s anything you can do.”
In contrast to Itadori’s voice, which was in the grip of confusion, Kairi’s tone was calm. It was laden with resignation and an exhaustion that seemed unfitting for his age.
“I can tell you’re really strong, Itadori. But that demon will probably come back again and again. I can’t be sure, but I think so.”
“What do you mean?”
Kairi looked up at the roof of the house. Itadori followed his line of sight and stared at the roof, and his eyes widened.
“I think the demon is guarding the house. It’ll show up here over and over to drive away bad people.”
Itadori listened to Kairi’s words, but he couldn’t comprehend them. He became bewildered and his eyes widened. They saw something he couldn’t explain. A familiar silhouette was perched atop the roof as if holding up the moon.
The demon had reappeared yet again.
“Anyway, that’s what happened.”
“Yeah, okay.”
The next day, Itadori told Gojo about the demon.
Itadori had revealed he was still alive to his peers before the Kyoto Sister School Goodwill Event, and now he was leading a relaxed and secluded life in a room that Gojo had arranged for him.
Gojo was in sunglasses and sweats, comfortable clothes for lounging at home, and flipping through the pages of a regional tourism magazine as he listened to what Itadori said.
“Then what?” Gojo asked.
“There’s no ‘then what,’” Itadori said. “Obviously, a demon that resurrects is beyond my ability. Shouldn’t you come with me?”
“Well, I’m busy.”
“You don’t look busy.”
Gojo was rolling around the sofa, holding the magazine in both hands, kicking his legs, and somehow also eating daifuku.
“Then I’ll ask Nanamin,” Itadori sighed.
“Don’t treat grade 1 sorcerers like your support center.”
“Huh?!”
“That demon’s a cinch to waste, right? It doesn’t sound like this particular cursed spirit has a cursed energy over grade 3. There’s no need for me to get involved.” said Gojo.
“But it comes back no matter how many times I exorcize it! There haven’t been any casualties yet, but if we let it go, something bad might happen, and then it’ll be too late!”
“So exorcize it until it doesn’t come back anymore.”
“If I could do that, there’d be no problem!”
“Yuji.” Gojo raised his face from the magazine and looked at
Itadori from behind his sunglasses. He wasn’t wearing his usual flippant smile. “What do you think is the main reason people can’t help other people?”
For a moment, Itadori froze. His head filled with memories, as if they were erupting from the pit of his stomach. Countless scenes passed through his mind, so many as to make his visual field flicker.
Warped human beings. Twisted human beings. A mother and son he couldn’t save.
He hadn’t been able to do anything.
“Because they’re weak.”