"Oh, right, do you two know what happened here?"
Nagi finally decided to face reality, lifting her head to look at her house, which was in a disastrous state... Even someone as strong as her couldn't help but shed a few bitter tears.
Putting everything else aside, how much money would she need just to repair the huge cracks on the walls on both sides!
It's not easy for a single mother to raise a child, and their family is far from wealthy!
Sukuna, in the Inner World, guiltily touched his nose... Damn it, at the time, he only thought about saving the person quickly and forgot that damaging the house would also be devastating for a family like Yoshino's.
Should he... compensate them for this?
Is his personal stash enough to cover the damages?
Watching Nagi, who was bawling while hugging the microwave, Sukuna felt remorseful.
—As someone who had also been poor, he deeply understood the misery of "the person is safe, but the money is gone."
Itadori was also feeling guilty.
Although desperate times call for desperate measures... Mrs. Yoshino can't see Curses, so he couldn't exactly say he saved her from a ghost, could he? She'd surely think he was a liar and kick him out immediately.
His gaze instinctively fell upon Junpei, who could also see Curses, and he immediately noticed a meter-tall blue jellyfish Shikigami floating beside Junpei.
He froze for a moment. This... was Junpei's Shikigami?
He was quite surprised. Junpei had said he only recently started seeing Curses; he didn't expect him to be able to summon a Shikigami already?
...If his Gojo-sensei saw this, wouldn't he immediately try to snatch him up for the school?
[Stop looking, put the fingers away first! They're on the table!]
Sukuna finally remembered one of the reasons he rushed back and quickly reminded Itadori.
"Oh, right!"
Itadori quickly responded and took a few steps toward the table.
As he passed the dying Curse lying on the floor, cut in half, he didn't forget to give it an extra kick, sending it off to its final destination.
Junpei watched this scene, his eye twitching, and nervously had his Shikigami, Yotsuduki, quietly move back a bit.
When Itadori firmly grasped the cursed object fingers on the table, both he and Sukuna simultaneously sighed in relief.
Thankfully, nothing went wrong. They finally recovered the fourth finger.
Seeing that everything was settled, a relaxed Itadori held up the finger and answered Mrs. Yoshino's earlier question about why he had returned.
"This is a cosplay prop. I forgot to take it earlier, so I rushed back to get it~"
Sukuna: [...]
...Ahem, you're quite proficient at using that excuse, aren't you?
Hearing Itadori say this, Nagi showed an expression of realization.
She knew that kids these days liked to cosplay, and some props were indeed made to look very realistic.
She stopped worrying about it and returned to cleaning up her kitchen, still crying.
Junpei, standing nearby, looked completely unconvinced—
Not only was that thing not on the table when Itadori left, but even if it had been, he could feel the terrifying aura emanating from that finger. It was definitely not some ordinary cosplay prop.
He urgently wanted to know what had happened. A Curse appearing in his home was absolutely not a good sign.
He stared at Itadori, his eyes filled with complex emotions.
Sukuna, meanwhile, frowned internally while looking at the finger.
[Strange, how did that Stitched-Face Curse get hold of my fingers?]
[And why did it put the fingers here? Nagi is just an ordinary person. What benefit is there in going to all this trouble to harm her?]
Itadori began discussing with Sukuna in a voice quiet enough that Mrs. Yoshino shouldn't be able to hear.
"Maybe it was targeting Junpei? The Curse definitely attacked both of them. Junpei probably saw something at the cinema before, maybe it wanted to silence him... but that doesn't make sense either. A Special Grade Curse wouldn't need this much trouble to silence someone, right?"
Sukuna's fingers are such valuable, rare items; were they just used to kill Junpei?
At this moment, Junpei rushed up to Itadori. He had vaguely heard his own name, along with words like "cinema" and "silencing."
He leaned close to Itadori, lowering his voice urgently as he asked, "What exactly happened? Why was there a Curse in my house? Did you cause those cracks on the wall? Was it to kill that Curse?"
The barrage of questions made Itadori hesitate.
Uh... can he talk about all this?
He started worrying about the confidentiality rules Fushiguro had taught him in class.
But... Junpei doesn't seem like an ordinary person anymore, right? He can see Curses, he has a Shikigami, and even though he's never mentioned it himself, Junpei knows the word "Curse"... He should probably be considered an insider... right?
He hesitated for a moment, then leaned close to Junpei's ear and whispered, "Let's talk somewhere else."
Junpei paused, looking back at his mother. He knew Itadori meant to talk away from her.
He didn't feel safe leaving his mother alone in this drafty house, but he also didn't want to drag her into the world of Curses.
After thinking for a moment, he told Nagi he was leaving, pulled Itadori upstairs to his room, and left the Shikigami, Yotsuduki, to guard his mother.
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