Jujutsu Kaisen: Nozomi no Sora

"When I was in first grade, my father and Tsumiki's mother—our respective single parents—got involved with each other and then vanished without a trace..."

Fushiguro Megumi knelt on the cracked mud floor, her fingertips digging deep into the cracks in the ground.

The night wind at the Eighty-Eight Bridges, carrying the fishy smell of the river, filled my chest, and every breath brought excruciating pain to my ribs.

Before my eyes, the remains of that top-tier cursed spirit were dissipating, turning into viscous residue that seeped into the cracks in the ground.

In the center of that pile of filth, a withered, twisted finger gleamed with an ominous dark red light.

It is Su Nuo's finger.

Memory is like a broken projector, flickering fragmented images in the mind.

A suspicious man with white hair said:

"Your father is from a prestigious family of sorcerers called Zen-in. Even I can't stand that scoundrel. He left home and you were born. Hui-jun is your father's strongest trump card to deal with the Zen-in family..."

I'm so angry!

That unrestrained attitude!

However, the mystery has been solved—it seems I was sold to that so-called Zen master.

But that infuriating man helped me resolve the Zen family's matter, securing financial assistance for both of us from the higher education institution by pledging my future career as a sorcerer.

What kind of sorcerer is that!

That's utterly foolish!

Fukuro Megumi struggled to sit up. The dizziness from the depletion of his magical power made him sway unsteadily. He looked down at his hands, his fingertips still trembling uncontrollably, his knuckles covered in blood and abrasions.

Just minutes ago, he forcibly activated his incomplete domain—"Chimera Dark Garden"—to exorcise the special-grade cursed spirit whose strength far surpassed that of the Juvenile Academy.

This time, however, what surged in his chest was not the joy of victory, but a hollow sense of bewilderment.

"Whom am I supposed to help by becoming a sorcerer...?"

Fushiguro Megumi finally collapsed to the ground, exhausted.

"This curse of the Eighty-Eight Bridges was only added later; the curse that put Tsumiki into a deep sleep probably hasn't been broken!"

"Damn it! My head hurts so much!"

The phone in my pocket suddenly vibrated, emitting a piercing buzz on the silent bridge.

Fushiguro Megumi took out her phone, and the screen displayed a caller ID for "Hospital".

"Feed".

"Mr. Fushiguro Megumi?!" The nurse's voice on the other end of the phone was filled with barely suppressed excitement. "Ms. Fushiguro Miki has woken up! Just now..."

Fushiguro Megumi could no longer hear what was said after that.

The night breeze suddenly became very light, so light it was as if it had never existed. He remained frozen in place, still in the position of answering the phone, with only the roar of blood surging against his eardrums and the sound of his own heavy breathing in his ears.

woke up.

The older sister who had been asleep for over a year due to the curse—has awakened?

Just then, two hurried footsteps came from the other end of the bridge, breaking the silence of the night.

"Fukuguro—!!"

Yuji Itadori's voice pierced the night, accompanied by Nobara Kugizaki's anxious complaints, as the two rushed down the slope.

Kugisaki Nobara stopped abruptly, her gaze sweeping over his blood-stained sleeve and torn uniform.

"Are you alright? How did you get like this while playing whack-a-mole?!"

"Cheer up, Fu Hei!" Itachi rushed forward, squatted down, and nervously examined the wounds all over his body.

"It's alright, I'm still alive." He looked at the phone that had just been hung up, slightly tired, and said calmly, "Tsumiki has woken up."

"Isn't this great!" Itadori grinned, revealing his signature bright smile, and patted Fushiguro's shoulder hard, so hard that Fushiguro grimaced. "You should be even happier!"

"After all, our Fushiguro is the type who always has to maintain a cool and aloof image!" Kugizaki pouted, crossed his arms, and stood to the side, but couldn't help but smile.

Looking at the two people in front of him, Fushiguro Megumi finally relaxed his tense shoulders. He opened his mouth, about to say something, but suddenly felt a strange chill.

"Go back?"

A voice suddenly rang in his mind, deep, languid, and with a mocking smile.

Fushiguro Megumi's pupils suddenly contracted, and he abruptly turned to look at Itadori—

Suddenly, a mouth appeared on the side of Wuzhang's face.

The mouth stretched almost to the ears, revealing sharp teeth. The crimson eyes belonging to Ryomen Sukuna slowly opened on Itadori's cheek, looking down at Fushiguro Megumi with amusement in their eyes.

"Is this really okay?" Sukuna's voice seemed to come from the abyss, carrying a sticky malice. "It's a 'Night Parade of One Hundred Demons' there right now, you know?"

"You bastard!" Itadori slapped himself across the face, covering his mouth. "What nonsense are you spouting now!"

Sukuna's mouth reappeared through Khajiitsu's palm.

"You can't even sense such a vast and chaotic magical power? Well, after all, we shouldn't have too high expectations of mediocre people like you."

"If you're going to talk to yourself, just say it clearly!" Itajō shouted angrily. "What are you beating around the bush for? You're really infuriating!"

Su Nuo narrowed his eyes, and the smile on his face became meaningful, as if he had seen some interesting drama.

"You should go back and see for yourself, provided you can still get back—"

Before he could finish speaking...

A dark shadow fell without warning.

The speed was so fast that it exceeded the limits of retinal detection, and it appeared in everyone's field of vision in an instant.

A being with a humanoid outline but covered by an insect-like exoskeleton stood before Yuujin Itadori.

"You're here."

It was a woman's voice, so gentle it was almost eerie, carrying a kind of doting and infatuation that transcended a thousand years.

Itajō reacted with lightning speed, retreating swiftly the instant his opponent reached out, his fists clenched into a fighting stance, cold sweat instantly soaking his back: "What is that?! A cursed spirit?"

However, the other party did not give him any time to react.

"The Spell of the Straw Spirit!"

clang--!!

The deafening clang of metal colliding echoed through the night sky.

Kugizaki's hammer struck the exoskeleton, but didn't even leave a white mark; instead, the impact numbed her hands. The next second, the strange figure before her extended its fist and casually swung it—

boom!

Kugisaki Nobara's body flew backward like a kite with a broken string, tracing an arc in the air before crashing heavily onto the bridge railing dozens of meters away with a dull thud. She then slid softly to the ground and remained motionless.

"Kugizaki——!!"

Itachi roared and tried to charge forward, but a fast, mercury-like metallic liquid suddenly shot up from the ground and instantly wrapped around his limbs.

The object had a metallic sheen, yet it flowed like a living thing, binding Tiger Staff firmly to the spot, and no matter how much he activated his spell power, he could not break free.

"Let me go! You bastard!!" Itajima struggled desperately, veins bulging on his forehead, his face contorted with rage.

Fushiguro Megumi immediately formed a hand shadow of a jade dog, but the aftereffects of overdrawing her curse power erupted at this moment. The shadow had just emerged from the ground and had not yet taken shape before it vanished without a trace like wisps of smoke.

A violent wave of dizziness washed over him, and he knelt on one knee. His vision went black, and a strong, metallic taste of blood rose in his throat.

"Damn it... curse power..." He gritted his teeth, his fingers sinking deep into the soil.

Just as that carapace-covered hand was about to touch Fushiguro Megumi's throat—

A crack suddenly appeared on the side of Huzhang's face.

Sukuna's mouth and eyes reappeared on Itō's profile, his scarlet pupils gleaming coldly in the night, his voice deep and languid.

"What do you want from me?"

The hand that was hovering in mid-air suddenly stopped, and then the person let out a soft laugh, his tone filled with an uncontrollable fervor.

"As expected of you, Sukuna!"

She slowly removed the insect-shell mask from her face.

The moonlight illuminated her face, which was an unfamiliar one.

Her long, jet-black hair cascaded down like a waterfall, and her features were so exquisite that she looked like a lady who had stepped out of an ancient painting.

She ignored the struggling Itachi and the exhausted Fukuro, and slowly turned her head to look at the Sukuna mouth on Itachi's profile, her eyes flashing with a morbid fanaticism.

"It seems you and I are alike, able to sense each other's souls. Why is that? It's love! Love that neither discipline nor hatred can surpass!"

Su Nuo's mouth was tightly closed, and his scarlet eyes were devoid of any emotion as he coldly stared at her, as if looking at a lifeless shell.

After a long silence, the smile on Wan's face gradually froze, turning into a trace of genuine regret.

She tilted her head slightly, a look of disappointment flashing in her dark pupils.

"Oh dear, don't you remember me? I'm Wan, we met a thousand years ago!"