Chapter Text
Cursed Womb Arc
"When the evacuation rate reached 90%, we closed the facility after evaluating the scene. Our 'Window' confirmed the existence of the cursed womb about three hours ago."
The drizzle gradually shifted into a heavy downpour, bringing with it a fog that made the Eishu Detention Center look even more ominous. Under different circumstances, the sound of the rain might have been a serene melody, but not today. Not for this mission.
"At the inmates' hospital second lounge, five patients were left behind with the cursed womb."
Ijichi concluded. He was a man with a weary expression, looking much older than he actually was. He adjusted his dark glasses as he finished his report.
"We predict it will become a Special Grade cursed spirit. That is, if the cursed womb manages to metamorphose..."
'Special-Grade?'
Yuuji turned the word over in his mind. It carried a heavy weight—though he didn't quite understand why yet. He looked at his teammates; Megumi Fushiguro and Nobara Kugisaki stood with their postures uncharacteristically rigid.
Nobara had stopped complaining about the raindrops ruining her hair, which in itself was a major red flag.
And Megumi was just being... Megumi.
"Woah! What's with the long faces? Did you guys swallow some lemons or something?"
"You're either an idiot or just plain clueless, Itadori!"
"HEY! I still don't know much about this Special Grade stuff!"
Nobara's irritation dissipated, replaced by a look of pure disbelief. She was incredulous at Yuuji's lack of knowledge.
Ijichi quickly took control of the situation, explaining the meaning of each grade to Yuuji—and the power metrics used to define a cursed spirit's capacity.
"Amazing!" Yuuji said, impressed by Ijichi’s easy-to-digest explanation. The older man gave a small, warm smile, feeling a brief sense of pride at the young man's praise.
"Naturally, Sorcerers of an equal grade to the cursed spirits are assigned to missions," Megumi added, his gaze fixed on the concrete structure ahead. "In today’s case, that would be someone like Gojo-sensei."
"Well then, where is Gojo-sensei?"
"He’s away on a business trip. Gojo has better things to do than just hang around the school.
*Woah, rude. 'Better things to do?'* Gojo seemed to enjoy being a teacher too much to consider this a minor issue, Yuuji thought, about to speak his mind.
However, the look in Megumi's eyes showed the truth in his words; Gojo-sensei definitely wasn't there.
Yuuji pouted, giving up on trying to spot the blindfolded man anywhere in the dense forest surrounding the district. His gaze, for a moment, fell on the entrance blocked by yellow tape—on the desperation of the people waiting to know if their loved ones were okay. He clenched his fists.
It was a horrible feeling.
"You have two choices against a Special Grade cursed spirit," Ijichi’s serious tone drew their attention back. His eyes were focused on the three of them behind his glasses. "Run or die."
Yuuji felt his throat tighten for a moment. So that was why the words 'Special Grade' felt so heavy, huh?
"Please, follow your fear," Ijichi continued, a hint of genuine concern in his voice. "Don't forget that your mission is only to confirm whether there are any survivors. And if there are, strive for rescue until the bitter end."
"Hey! Hello, excuse me!!"
Yuuji immediately turned his eyes toward a woman. She was one of the people being held back from the detention center. She was trying to keep her composure, but her eyes were beginning to well up with tears.
"Is—is my son okay!? Please, tell me! Tadashi! His name is Tadashi!" the woman cried out, only to be held back by an official explaining there had been a "gas leak" in the building.
"Oh my God, that’s horrible..." the woman murmured, the tears finally falling.
Watching kind people suffer like that, so unfairly...
"Kugisaki, Fushiguro," Yuuji said suddenly, his voice firm and determined. "Let's save them."
"Of course," Nobara replied. Her expression mirrored the boy's seriousness. Megumi simply gave a sharp nod, his eyes already tracking the shadows of the facility.
"Let's go in."
The footsteps of the three echoed against the damp asphalt as they approached the main entrance. The metal gates were closed but easy to bypass.
As the distance between them and the police barrier grew, the desperate cries of the civilians seemed to be swallowed by the sound of the rain and the rustling leaves of the forest.
Ijichi stood at the entrance, his fingers forming a ritualistic seal:
"Emerge from darkness, blacker than black. Purify that which is impure."
Yuuji stopped a step before the threshold, feeling a chill run up his spine. He looked up.
High in the sky, the fog was being devoured by a viscous, pitch-like substance. It oozed from an invisible point in the air, expanding into a perfect dome.
Despite it being clearly visible to Yuuji, neither Nobara nor Megumi seemed to mind, barely glancing at the darkening sky. Where the "Veil" touched, the daylight died, replaced by a sort of artificial twilight.
The symphony of water, for a moment, stopped
"It's getting dark..." Yuuji whispered, watching the last sliver of natural light disappear above their heads.
"It's a Curtain," Megumi said casually, used to the procedure on high-risk missions. "It hides us from the outside world and forces curses to reveal themselves. From here on out, we're on our own."
"Finally, the rain stopped falling on my hair," Nobara muttered to herself victoriously, running her fingers through her brown locks with a smirk.
"Good grief"
"What-- tsk, you boys don't understand beauty! Open the door already, Fushiguro!"
"Wait a second." Fushiguro clapped his hands together, his fingers weaving into a silhouette that resembled the pointed ears and snout of a dog.
"Divine Dogs!" he exclaimed. From Megumi's own shadow, a liquid as viscous as pitch began to churn and then briefly becoming a black fire, from that a white wolf emerged. It sat pollitely, letting out a howl as a greeting.
"He'll let us know if the curse gets close," Megumi said, his back turned to Yuuji—who, meanwhile, was kneeling as he petted the white wolf, cooing about what a 'good boy' he was.
Then, with a heavy groan, the metal door swung open. The sight that met them left all three frozen in their tracks for a moment.
"The- Hell?"
The towering concrete walls seemed to have tripled in height, stretching into impossible heights, vast. The concertina wire that once topped the exterior now draped like twisted decorations throughout the interior. Chain-link fences snaked alongside distorted structures, and the radial cell blocks now bled into the main corridor. Massive pipes and giant ventilation shafts lunged across the construction as if veins of that weird place.
It was like... the monster house!
"Wait, what? What’s going on here? I could’ve sworn this building was only two stories high," Yuuji said in a casual tone, staring up at the bizarre construction and its intimidating height. "Right?"
"You—you definitely got it wrong!" Nobara coughed, sounding like she was trying to convince herself more than Yuuji.
"The door!" Megumi suddenly barked
The three spun around. The door they had just stepped through was gone, replaced by a seamless wall of tangled pipes.
Yuuji and Nobara looked at each other, both sweating nervously. They both, in burst of panic, they began to chant in a sing-song voice, clapping their hands in a happy rhythm:
"What do we do?! What do we do?! What do we do?!"
"Knock it off!" Megumi snapped, interrupting that whole nonsense "It’s alright. The Divine Dog can still track the scent of the entrance"
Yuuji and Nobara’s faces instantly brightened, looking at the wolf as if it were the most adorable thing in existence.
Megumi couldn't help but stare in disbelief:
'I could feel the tension from a mile away seconds ago'
They both dove toward the white wolf, burying their hands in its thick fur
"Good boy! Who’s a good boy?! You’re a life-saver!" Yuuji cheered, ruffling the wolf's fur
"You're the cutest little thing in this godforsaken place, aren't you?" Nobara cooed, her tough exterior melting as she hugged the shikigami
"Yes you are! Have some snacks! Have ALL the snacks!" She spoke in an almost megalomaniacal tone, finishing her phrase with a evil laugh
"Focus, you two!" Megumi sighed, rubbing his temples. "We have a job to do."
The three followed Megumi, navigating through bizarre corridors that looked like twisted, nightmare versions of radial cell blocks. Luckily, nothing seemed to be happening yet.
Yuuji hummed a low tune to distract himself before he felt something and whipped his head around, almost by instinct.
Deep in the shadows, something pale was watching them. It looked like a small, white cat with weirdly long, tufted ears.
A cat? In a place like this?
He blinked, and the creature was gone, just like that. Yuuji shrugged it off; between the "Monster House" and the Special Grade, a stray cat was the least of his worries.
"Guys, over there," Megumi’s voice cut through his thoughts, it seems they've finally arrived in the prisoners' area.
Everything happened too fast after that.
One moment, they were staring at the mangled remains of the inmates, the cruel death of those people. Yuuji gripping a name tag that read Tadashi, his fists tightening as he realized he couldn't bring the body back.
Nobara yelled about how pointless the argument was and how stupid they both were being, trying to defuse the situation, but
It happened too fast.
A hole opened beneath Nobara’s feet, a dark maw that swallowed her whole before she could even draw her hammer
"Kugisaki!"
"ITADORI!" Megumi barked, his jaw clenched, body in a defensive stance. His Divine Dog lay nearby or what was left of it. Its head was torn off and crushed against the hard concrete wall, staining it with the shikigami's dark blood. "We have to RUN! We find Kugisaki later—"
It was as if the air had been ripped from their lungs.
Right behind them, the creature loomed.
It was humanoid, its flesh a sickly, pale blue, reminiscent of a bloated corpse. Four bulging eyes sat unevenly on its head, unblinking as they stared directly at the two teenagers, as if amused.
The Fingerer didn't move. It simply was. And in that silence, Yuuji realized that every instinct in his body was screaming a single though:
'I need to move, I need to move, I need to move'
Help them.
Yuuji's body reacted, drawing the combat knife from its sheath and lunging at the cursed spirit with a determined cry. However, it had the opposite effect.
He only realized what had happened when the hand holding the cursed tool flew to the other side of the room, the knife shattering in the process.
Megumi looked on, horrified. "Itadori... damn it," he muttered, cold sweat trickling down his forehead as Yuuji stared at his bleeding wrist
However, the pink-haired boy didn't despair
"It’s too close for us to run, Fushiguro," Itadori said after a moment, tightening the leather of his sheath around his wrist to stop the bleeding. "Hey, Sukuna! If I die, you die too, right? If you don't want to kick the bucket, then come help me!"
Yuuji frowned at the mouth that formed on his right cheek. Sukuna’s grin widened. "I refuse. Even if you die, brat, there are eighteen other fragments of my soul out there. Besides..." His lone red eye drifted toward Fushiguro.
"If you want me to take over, just say the word. But I’ll kill the black-haired brat before I even lay a finger on that curse. And then I’ll kill the girl. She’s far too smug. It’ll be fun."
"I won't let that happen."
"That’s what I thought. But if you keep suppressing me, all your little friends are going to die."
Then, an explosion. For a moment, all Megumi could hear was a high-pitched ringing. They had barely managed to dodge in time.
The cursed spirit inhaled and released a blast of pure cursed energy, obliterating part of the floor. It wasn't even a technique; it was raw cursed energy. Shit.
"FUSHIGURO! GET KUGISAKI AND GET OUT OF HERE! I’LL KEEP IT BUSY UNTIL YOU BOTH ESCAPE THIS HELL! Once you’re safe, give me a signal! And then..." He glared at the spirit. "I'll switch with Sukuna."
Yuuji shouted over the spirit's cackling. The creature gestured wildly, arms raised as if it were having the time of its life.
"This is a Special Grade! And you’ve already lost a hand!"
"Just look at it," Yuuji interrupted. Megumi turned to face the spirit. It was pressing its clawed hands against its own cheeks, wearing a wide, bizarre grin. Bouncing from side to side in a mockery of joy.
"It's mocking us. It's having fun at our expense. Making a joke out of us. I’ll find a way to buy some time."
"No!"
"Fushiguro... please." Yuuji gave him a sympathetic smile that made Megumi’s jaw tighten in frustration.
"Don't die," Megumi snapped, then vanished into the shadows, moving stealthily to avoid a surprise attack.
Yuuji faced the spirit again. It seemed even more amused now that the choice had been made. The spirit immediately understood it was being challenged, tearing away the tattered rags that restrained its four eyes fixed on Itadori
"Kugisaki would hate your fashion sense," Yuuji said with a smirk, eyeing the loincloth the spirit wore. But it didn't take long for his expression to turn serious again.
'I just need to buy some time—' Before he could even finish the thought, a blast of cursed energy slammed into him, pinning him against the wall. His lungs burned, and he could feel blood trickling from his nose after the impact.
Before he could even attempt to stand, his eyes widened. A streak of light, a punch from the spirit, who wore a massive, lewd grin caught him square in the stomach. The force of the blow sent him flying, crashing into another gargantuan room within the innate domain.
When Yuuji’s eyes finally opened, he saw the spirit looming over him, in the hole in the wall that it made by punching Yuuji. Arms spread wide as him grin, it gathered a blinding mass of cursed energy - all of this pointed directly to Itadori
He immediately forced his trembling legs to move, standing up, bracing himself as if he could actually intercept the raw power of a Special Grade.
The initial shock of the attack shattered the ground and finally reached Itadori, slowly scorching the fingers of his remaining hand until they began to turn to dust. Yuuji's jaw tightened, hot tears welling in his eyes.
'It hurts, it hurts, it hurts... damn it, it hurts too much! What the hell am I doing here? If I hadn't grabbed that weird finger... if I hadn't eaten it... if I hadn't—'
"Stop it..." he wheezed, his face was smeared with the trail of blood running from his nose. "Stop thinking!"
I’m going to die here. Alone. In a place that doesn't even exist. Is this really a proper death? I want to run away, I want to run away--
The spirit unleashed the full charge. A ball of yellow-greenish light flew towards him, reflecting in his pupils
He closed his eyes tightly.
"STOP THINKING! JUST MOVE!"
And suddenly, the symphony of the rain returned.
Yuuji felt it instantly, instead of sensing an agonizing heat of the cursed energy blast, there was only the sensation of silk. A soft, flowing fabric brushed against his skin.
He then opened his eyes; it was a white cloak—too clean for the place they were in, flowing with the wind resulting from the attack, almost heroically.
Through the edges of the cloak, he saw her.
What shocked Yuuji most wasn’t the fancy outfit, but the fact that, around her, the air seemed to have regained its color.
Where the cursed spirit had brought an unbearable weight, that invisible tar that made breathing difficult, the blue hair girl’s presence brought some kind of clarity. She shone.
Too vibrant for this world.
The girl gripped her sword firmly, blocking the spirit's attack head-on. Most of her face was hidden; white bandages etched with weird glowing yellow scripts, covering her features. Only her left eye was visible, where he cound see a deep, sea blue.
Then, she took a firm step forward, nullifying the attack with a single, decisive slash of her blade. The spirit, previously grinning, stared in confusion, almost irritation, at the girl in bandages. She looked exhausted, yet she took a deep breath, holding her fighting stance.
She reached back with a gloved hand toward Yuuji. A strange, bluish energy flowed from her. The energy, however, changed its tone from light blue to a dark color midway through the journey, as if there had been a shock. Slowly mending his hand and regenerating his fingers.
'A magical girl?', the thought went through Yuuji's mind. She seemed like something out of a Sunday morning anime, but her glow seemed real enough. "Hey--"
Before Yuuji could say a word, the spirit let out a sound of protest, offended by the girl's intervention.
However, before it could launch another attack, a bright yellow ribbon snaked around the spirit's body, tying it up like a gift - even adding a bow to the curse's head.
Yuuji couldn't help but smile at the sight.
The girl jumped high, closing the distance, and with a victorious cry, she drew her blade and cut the spirit in half. Letting out a sigh of relief.
The cursed spirit dropped Sukuna's finger from its body, which the girl looked at curiously.
"Hey! You saved me!"
The girl immediately spun around. Her determined gaze shattered into pure astonishment, as if she had realized she’d just committed a HUGE mistake. The sword in her hand clattered to the ground, dissolving into blue light before it even hit the floor.
"Are you some kind of magical girl!? What's your name? I'm Yuuji Itadori!- wait, dont pick-up that!"
Ignoring his warning, the girl snatched Sukuna’s finger from the ground, staring at it with a mix of curiosity and relief, clutching it against her chest as if it were a life-saving medicine
"Wait! That thing is dangerous!" Yuuji tried to reach out, his legs feeling like lead.
She didn't answer; the young girl immediately leaped through the craters in the walls to an almost unreal height - her white cape following her and flowing with the wind. She disappeared into the rain and fleeing from the place.
It didn't take long for innate domain to succumb.
Without the Fingerer’s presence, the inate domain started to collapse back into the reality of the destroyed detention center. Yuuji forced himself up, his breath coming in gasps. He looked at his hands, the fingers were back, smooth and whole. How was that possible?
I need to know if Fushiguro and Kugisaki are okay.
He stumbled determined through the now shorter corridors, his vision blurring. He felt exhausted but he wouldn't give up.
Finally, he saw the exit, and Megumi standing there, one of the divine dogs summoned - about to give the safety signal to Yuuji.
"Itadori! You're..." Megumi stopped, his gaze dropping to Yuuji's intact hand, "How?"
"Fushiguro... you're not gonna believe this," Yuuji wheezed, his head lolling back and then gesturing dramatically with his hand "She flew right over me and blasted the curse with her laser vision!! It tried to run, but she picked it up with her mind powers and shook it like a doll!"
Megumi stared at him, completely deadpan "What the hell are you talking about?"
"She was like... a magical girl..." Yuuji’s excited voice trailed off as his knees finally buckled. "And she took... the finger..."
Before Megumi could grab him, Yuuji’s world went black
Inside of Yuuji's mind, in the darkness of the Malevolent Sanctuary, Ryomen Sukuna sat atop his throne of skulls, chin resting boredly on his hand. His four eyes, however, weren't bored. They were narrowed, fixed on the lingering image of the blue-haired brat.
"She held my fragment as if it were a treasure... or a meal. How insolent. I'm going to hunt down that brat, thinking that a part of my soul belongs to her."
After a moment of silence, he let out a dark chuckle. He had noticed it. The way the Cursed Energy coated her like a second skin, a crust of filth that didn't touch her core. She was a hollow thing.
The way she attacked the cursed spirit wasn't a counterattack - it was a almost like denial. How interesting.
"Kukuku, it seems that the unbearable life of this brat is finally going to become more interesting to me."