Jujutsu Kaisen — Chapter 73 - Jujutsu Headquarters the Property Management Company, The Power of Love

The ambulance siren faded into the distance.

Beyond the cordon, more than half of the abandoned elementary school's load-bearing wall had collapsed. Snapped rebar stabbed toward the sky like a monster's bone spurs.

Yuta Okkotsu stared at his own toes. The shadow beneath his feet was dead still.

Minutes ago, that was where a monster had crawled out and crushed a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit with its bare hands.

Maki sat on the ambulance step, roughly yanking bandages around her calf.

Toge Inumaki handed over a bottle of water.

Yuta took it. His mind was a mess.

Would the school reissue the death sentence? Would Jujutsu Headquarters come down on them?

The infirmary.

The sharp reek of disinfectant dried his throat on contact.

Shoko Ieiri held an unlit cigarette between her teeth, palm resting over Maki's mangled lower leg. The white light of Reverse Cursed Technique pulsed, and the grinding crack of bone snapping back into alignment made Yuta's teeth ache.

"You forced the Gate of Rest too hard." Shoko spat out the cigarette. "Next time you come in like this, I'll fix the injury. I won't bother with the pain."

Maki rolled her ankle and swung herself off the bed. Her gaze cut to Yuta, still planted against the wall by the door like he was serving detention.

"What are you, a potted plant?"

Yuta snapped to attention. "I'm sorry!"

"Can you do anything besides apologize?" Maki walked over and knocked the dust off herself. "That last move wasn't bad. Your 'pet' is ugly as sin, but it got the job done."

Toge poked his head out from behind her and stuck up a thumb. "Mentaiko!"

The heat hit Yuta's eyes all at once. He bit down hard on his lower lip.

"Alright, enough." Maki looked thoroughly disgusted. "Go report to the office. That gorilla's been waiting long enough to lose his patience."

Jujutsu High. Conference room.

The mahogany double doors sat ajar. Yuta took a breath and pushed them open.

Suguru Geto was leaned back in his chair, paging through a faxed report.

Toji Fushiguro sat straddling a leather chair like he owned the room, one hand lazily tossing a fluorescent green tennis ball and catching it. Even indoors, that skintight suit was an eyesore.

"First-year Yuta Okkotsu, reporting in." Yuta's voice came out unsteady. His gaze was welded to the carpet.

Suguru Geto turned a page. His voice was flat as a read-aloud: "Encountered unregistered Grade 1 Cursed Spirit. Maki severely injured. Toge suffered backlash. Yuta Okkotsu summoned Special Grade Vengeful Cursed Spirit Orimoto Rika, eliminated target. Two classrooms completely destroyed. Load-bearing wall collapsed."

The conference room went silent.

Cold sweat slid down his temple. The judgment was here.

Destroyed a school building. Triggered a Special Grade rampage. The death sentence would come down any second.

"The responsibility is entirely mine!" Yuta dropped into a ninety-degree bow. "I failed to control Rika! If Jujutsu Headquarters wants someone to blame, pin it all on me. Don't drag Maki-senpai and the others into it!"

A sharp, completely out-of-place laugh landed on the floor.

Yuta looked up. Suguru Geto had his chin propped on one hand, doubled over with laughter.

"You're scared of Jujutsu Headquarters?" Suguru Geto tossed the report onto the desk. It landed with a hard smack. "Yuta, what exactly do you think is going on in the Jujutsu World right now?"

"Ten years ago, those old tangerines loved making a production out of this kind of thing." Suguru Geto stood and walked to the window, looking down over the training grounds. "Now? The school says it's fine, and they don't dare let out a single fart."

Yuta stood frozen. "The rules..."

"The rules here are made by whoever has the hardest fist." Suguru Geto tilted his head, the arrogance of a Special Grade sorcerer sitting plain on his face.

"You think Satoru and Toji beat them into submission for nothing? Jujutsu Headquarters these days — bluntly put, is just a property management company. They clean up our messes and wipe up after us."

Property management company.

The rumored supreme authority with the power of life and death. An ass-wiper.

"Drop the persecution complex." Suguru Geto clapped a hand on Yuta's shoulder. "You're one of ours. You didn't betray your comrades. When the sky falls, your teachers hold it up."

The weight of that, unconditional, no conditions, no asterisks, hit Yuta square in the chest. He forgot to breathe for half a beat.

"That said, the specific evaluation is up to your supervising teacher." Suguru Geto's tone shifted.

The fluorescent green tennis ball stopped mid-arc.

Toji Fushiguro stood. The crushing pressure of the former Star Plasma Vessel assassin rolled off him like something physical, bearing down on Yuta from across the room.

Yuta's breath locked up. His legs stayed nailed to the floor.

"For your comrades, you chose to call that thing out?" Toji looked down at him. His eyes were cold as a dead man's.

"Yes." Yuta held his gaze.

"Didn't play the coward?"

"No."

"Were you afraid?"

The image of Maki getting swatted through the air flashed through his head. That freefall sensation. The certainty of losing everything.

"Afraid." Yuta locked his jaw. "But I was more afraid of losing them."

The air stopped moving.

Then Toji's cold face cracked completely apart.

His eyes bulged. Two thick streams of tears blasted out like they'd been fired from a hose.

"UWAAAAAAAHHHH——!"

A howl that could shatter glass ripped through the room. Yuta nearly sat down on the floor.

"Too perfect!" Toji grabbed at the green spandex over his chest, every muscle jumping. "Hot blood shed for your comrades! Throwing the punch even while shaking with fear! This, this is what Youth truly is!"

The air-raid siren volume hit Yuta's eardrums like a physical blow. A hand with calluses like leather slabs clamped onto his shoulder like a vice.

"You little bastard, you finally look like a real person!" Toji bared his teeth in a blinding grin, a cross-shaped sparkle flaring off the white. "Put on this battle suit, and your soul is locked to Youth forever!"

Yuta started to exhale.

The fervor on Toji's face evaporated.

Tears gone in an instant. What replaced them was the cold, absolute lethality of someone who had survived things that killed everyone else.

"But."

Toji leaned in. His nose was nearly touching Yuta's.

"Power without control minces everyone indiscriminately." Each word landed like a hammer blow. "Today it crushed your enemy. Tomorrow it crushes your comrades too, and you'll be kneeling in the rubble, howling at the wreckage?"

Yuta's pupils shrank. This was it. The fear he'd buried deepest.

A large hand came down and roughly mussed the top of his head.

"Love is the most twisted curse in this world." Toji's eyes went dark. "But it can also become the hardest steel."

"Don't reject it. Don't fear it. Don't be disgusted by it."

Toji's eyes locked onto Yuta's and didn't let go.

"Accept her. Devour her. Master her."

"Use every drop of sweat you bleed to forge that killing power into your own weapon. Let your love become a shield that protects your comrades, not a blade that stabs blindly!"

The blood in his veins boiled over.

Power had no excuses. Weakness was the original sin.

Yuta crushed both fists shut. His nails bit bloody crescents into his palms. He snapped his head up. The cowardice in his eyes broke apart and fell away. What was left looked like something that could bite.

"I will master her. I will never let my comrades get hurt because of me again."

"Yes! Now that's the look of Youth!"

Toji roared with laughter. His arms, each one as thick as an adult's thigh, swung shut and locked Yuta in a bear hug with lethal finality.

Crack.

His ribs sang a short, clear note of distress.

"Ugh... Toji-sensei... they're breaking..." Yuta's eyes rolled back as he kicked frantically against a wall of solid pectoral muscle.

"Broken ribs are Shoko's problem! This is the price of growth!" Toji tucked Yuta under one arm, punched straight through the window, and jumped.

"To celebrate your awakening, evening training, super-doubled! Strap Panda to your back and run a hundred laps around the mountain!"

➤ Next: The Eight Gates Released Formation Course