Jujutsu Kaisen — Chapter 106 - The Death of Yuji Itadori
Inside the twisted Innate Domain of the juvenile detention center, the nauseating stench of blood and rot was scoured away in an instant, swept clean by something far older, far more savage.
Ryomen Sukuna.
His four crimson eyes swept the space, and the Special Grade Cursed Spirit that had been untouchable moments before, Cursed Womb: Under Heaven, went rigid.
Its malformed body trembled on pure instinct, writhing in place.
The most primal fear. The kind written into the bottom of the hierarchy of life itself.
Like a mouse that rounds a corner and finds a python coiled at the entrance of its den. The thought of fleeing doesn't even form.
"ROAR—!"
But survival still overpowered terror.
Cursed Womb: Under Heaven let out a piercing shriek. Its pallid hand split the air with a howl as it clawed straight for Sukuna's heart.
Strike first. Strike fast.
Sukuna didn't lift his eyes.
He didn't even bother to block.
"Shut it."
Two words. Flat as stone.
Tch.
An invisible slash, faster than sound, faster than thought.
The arm Cursed Womb: Under Heaven had swung forward, along with half its shoulder, separated from its body in an instant. Both dissolved into wet shreds of flesh before they hit the air.
The attack stopped cold.
The monster looked down. It stared at its own empty right shoulder, blank and uncomprehending.
It hadn't even felt the pain.
"That's all you've got?" Sukuna's mouth split into a slow, mocking grin. He stepped forward. "And you dared bare your fangs at me?"
He raised his hand.
"Cleave."
SQUELCH,!
Countless fine slashes materialized from every direction at once, an invisible meat grinder snapping into existence around Cursed Womb: Under Heaven's entire body.
The sound of it was enough to set teeth on edge.
The Special Grade Cursed Spirit that Kenjaku had so carefully cultivated couldn't even scream. In the space of a single second it was carved into over a thousand uniform chunks, splattering across the ground in a wet, cascading heap.
One second. Dead.
The blood in Megumi Fushiguro's veins went ice-cold.
He stared at Sukuna, hand already pressed against the Cursed Tool pouch at his waist. Cold sweat slid down his temples.
Sukuna ignored him entirely.
He walked to the pile of flesh and waved a hand. A gust of wind scattered the remains.
A withered finger lay in the blood, wrapped in black mucus, quiet and still.
Sukuna bent down and pinched it between two fingers like it was something mildly disgusting, turned it over once, examining it the way someone might examine a broken toy.
"Adding the one this brat swallowed at the school before... that's the third."
He said it softly, almost to himself. Then, like flicking away trash, he tossed the finger into his mouth.
CRUNCH!
BOOM!
A wave of Cursed Energy pressure, magnitudes greater than before, detonated outward from Sukuna at its center.
Megumi Fushiguro was blasted back 3 steps before he barely caught himself.
He saw it. The black markings on Yuji Itadori's face had grown deeper. More savage.
Power, reawakening.
"Hey. Itadori."
Megumi forced the tremor down in his chest and called out low. "It's done. Time to take your body back."
Sukuna turned around slowly.
All four crimson eyes fixed on Megumi Fushiguro with something like amusement. The smile at the corner of his mouth was all malice.
"Take it back?" Sukuna let out a short, contemptuous sound. "Brat. Have you misunderstood something? Control of this body was never in his hands to begin with."
Megumi's heart dropped straight to the bottom of his chest.
It's over.
The worst-case scenario.
"What do you want?"
"Nothing much."
Sukuna rolled his neck. Something cracked. "I just think you and the little girl over there are a bit in the way."
The words had barely landed.
Sukuna's figure vanished.
Megumi Fushiguro never tracked the movement. An irresistible force slammed into his abdomen like a wall falling on him.
"PUH—!"
Blood sprayed from his mouth.
He flew backward like a kite with its string cut, smashed through 3 thick iron pipes one after another, and hit the ground hard.
At least 5 ribs. Broken.
His insides felt like someone had taken a hand and stirred.
"You bastard, " Megumi clawed at the ground, trying to push himself up. His body wouldn't listen. "Give Itadori back!"
"Don't rush."
Sukuna's figure materialized before him like a ghost. He looked down at Megumi Fushiguro the way a person looks at an ant underfoot. "Your turn is coming soon enough."
He raised his foot. Aimed it at Megumi's skull.
Then Sukuna's movement lurched to a stop.
On that face, Itadori's face, something surfaced. A flicker of struggle, sharp and impatient.
"Get lost, brat." Sukuna hissed it through his teeth, his jaw tight, fighting something inside.
"Megumi, " A voice. Weak, but set like iron, forcing itself out of Sukuna's mouth one syllable at a time. "Run... hurry and run..."
Itadori.
Megumi Fushiguro stared at that face, twisted in pain. Something stirred in his chest that he couldn't name.
"I can't run anymore..."
"It's okay, Itadori." Megumi pressed a hand to his ribs. He smiled, thin and broken. "At least... you survived."
"You—!"
The words detonated something in Itadori's consciousness.
"What do you take your own life for!"
The roar came from somewhere deeper than a voice.
Sukuna's expression changed.
Impatience went out. Shock, genuine, absolute shock, took its place.
He looked down.
Yuji Itadori's right hand was no longer his to command.
With a motion like a door slamming shut on everything, it drove itself into its own chest.
SQUELCH!
Flesh tore.
Under Megumi Fushiguro's frozen gaze, that hand closed around a heart still hammering violently and ripped outward.
Blood sheeted down.
Yuji Itadori had torn out his own heart with his own hand.
"BASTARD! Have you lost your mind?!" The roar that came out of Sukuna held something it almost never held. Disbelief.
"If I die, you don't walk away clean either."
Itadori's voice carried a smile in it. Quiet. Settled.
He looked at the warm, wet thing in his hand. His fingers closed without hesitation.
POP!
The heart collapsed into nothing.
The black markings on Yuji Itadori's face bled away. His body swayed once.
He fell straight back.
"ITADORI!"
Megumi found strength from somewhere that had no right to exist and lunged. He caught Itadori before he hit the ground, pulling him in, holding on.
The body was already going cold.
Megumi's voice came out in pieces. "You idiot... why did you do this... why..."
Itadori smiled.
His consciousness dropped into the dark.
---
It dropped into a blood-red sea.
Yuji Itadori opened his eyes and found himself standing at the base of a throne built from countless bones.
Ryomen Sukuna sat above him, his expression so black it looked carved out of stone.
"Interesting." Sukuna's voice was cold as he looked down at the small human soul below. "Throwing your life away for mere companions. Foolish doesn't even cover it. It's laughable."
"Better than letting you out to slaughter innocents." Itadori's fists were clenched. He held the gaze without flinching.
"You think dying can trap me?" Sukuna sneered. "The moment I find the next finger, I incarnate anew. And you? You become a pile of dry bones."
"Then come and try it!"
Itadori roared and charged.
1 second later.
Sukuna swatted him away like a fly. His soul body nearly came apart on the spot.
Itadori dragged himself upright and charged again.
Swatted away again.
Charged again.
Sent flying again.
Again and again and again.
By the time it stopped being countable, Itadori's soul had thinned to near-translucence, the edges of him fraying like smoke in wind. Like he might dissolve at any moment.
He got up anyway. Every single time. The look in his eyes hadn't dimmed even a fraction.
For the first time, the smile left Sukuna's face.
He watched this stubborn, mule-headed brat haul himself off the ground over and over, willing to come apart at the seams rather than kneel, and felt something close to impatience begin to set in.
This cage was sturdier than he'd expected.
"Enough." Sukuna's voice cut through. "Brat. I'll give you one chance."
He stood and came down from the throne of bones.
"You don't want to die like this, do you? Think about your comrades. Your teacher. Think about how devastated they would be."
There was something in Sukuna's voice, a low, coiling pull. "We can make a deal."
"A deal?" Itadori was breathing hard. His eyes didn't leave Sukuna's face.
"A Binding Vow." Sukuna raised one finger.
"I use Reverse Cursed Technique to rebuild your heart and bring you back.
In exchange: when the word 'Enchain' is spoken, you surrender control of the body to me, unconditionally, for 1 minute. And you cannot kill yourself."
Itadori went quiet.
The pull of it was almost unbearable.
His grandfather's dying words. His teacher's expectations. The people standing beside him.
There was still so much left undone.
"How do I know what you'll do once you have the body?"
"You don't." Sukuna smiled. "But that's what makes a deal interesting, isn't it?"
Itadori's jaw tightened.
He knew he had no choice.
"I accept." He raised his head. His eyes were steady as iron. "But you agree to one condition."
"Oh?"
"That 1 minute — you don't touch anyone."
"Deal."
A smile curled at the corner of Sukuna's mouth. Deep. Unreadable.
---
The real world.
Megumi Fushiguro held Itadori's cold body against his chest. His eyes were red. The tears wouldn't stop.
"Fushiguro..."
A weak sound, from somewhere nearby.
Nobara Kugisaki.
She came back to consciousness slowly, one hand pressed to her aching head. She took in the scene in front of her.
"Itadori... what happened to him?"
Megumi Fushiguro lowered his head. The tears kept falling.
"That idiot..."
He held Itadori tighter, his voice breaking apart around the words.
"To save us... he died."
➤ Next: The Vicious Adults