In the city of Sendai, within the quiet confines of Miyagi Prefecture's Sugisawa Third High School, Megumi Fushiguro was nursing a headache.
He couldn't fathom how a Special Grade Cursed Object—a fragment of the King of Curses himself—could be left so carelessly in a common thermometer box. Nor could he understand why the higher-ups had sent him, a student who hadn't even formally started his first year, to retrieve it.
The entire mission felt like a setup for a bad joke.
"Forget it," Megumi sighed, his eyes scanning the rusted metal of the school's exterior. "I'll just assume they're short-staffed and I'm the designated errand boy." He knew his teacher, Satoru Gojo, was exactly the type of person to delegate world-shaking responsibilities just to take a nap.
Megumi walked up to the thermometer box and clicked it open.
"..."
Empty.
Maybe I opened it wrong, he thought, his heart sinking. He closed it and opened it again. Click. Still empty. He tried it again. And again. Click-clack-click-clack.
After the eighth attempt, Megumi finally accepted the grim reality. The Special Grade Cursed Object was gone.
The following day, the sun beat down on the school track during a fifty-meter dash test. A group of students crouched at the starting line, their muscles coiled like springs as they waited for the whistle.
Among them, a boy with spiky light-pink hair drew every eye on the field.
"How fast do you think Itadori will go this time?" one student whispered.
"Five seconds flat, easy."
"You're lowballing him. He's going to shatter his own record of 4.13 seconds."
"Is that really the 'Tiger of West Junior High'?"
"Shhh—look!"
The whistle shrilled. Yuji Itadori shot forward like a bullet. The sheer force of his takeoff sent a gust of wind backward, nearly knocking over the runners in the adjacent lanes. In the time it took for the others to take their second step, Yuji had already blurred past the finish line.
The PE teacher fumbled with his stopwatch, his jaw dropping as he stared at the digital display. "Three... 3.27 seconds!"
The teacher sprinted over to Yuji, grabbing his shoulders with a frantic, desperate gleam in his eyes. "Itadori! Listen to me! A talent like yours belongs on the track! I have connections in the Department of Education. I guarantee you: with this speed, you can conquer the Nationals. You could win Olympic gold for the country!"
Yuji scratched his head, offering a bashful, lopsided grin. "Sorry, Teach. I'm just not interested in that stuff."
"NOOOO!" The teacher wailed, clutching his head in a display of pure, unadulterated heartbreak. It was the look of a man who had found a diamond only to watch the owner use it as a paperweight. "Don't tell me you're still in that bizarre club!"
"It's the Occult Research Club, sir!"
"Stop wasting your time on things that don't exist! Your gift is a blessing from the gods..."
Yuji quickly covered his ears, making a break for it before the teacher could start a second lecture.
At the local hospital, the air was sterile and heavy. Wasuke Itadori, Yuji's grandfather, was gasping out his final breaths.
"Yuji... you're strong," the old man wheezed, his eyes cloudy but fixed on his grandson. "Help people whenever you can. Even if you're lost, even if they don't thank you... just save them. You should die surrounded by people. Don't end up like me."
Without giving Yuji a chance to argue or say goodbye, Wasuke let out a final, rattling breath and went still.
Yuji felt a sharp pang of grief, but he steadied himself. He remembered his grandfather's earlier words: If I die of old age, you should be happy for me. He swallowed the lump in his throat and began the paperwork for the funeral.
As he turned a corner in the hospital corridor, he ran straight into Megumi Fushiguro.
Megumi had been wandering the city for days, tracking the cursed object. Yesterday, he had finally pinpointed the source to Yuji's bag, but the boy had been too fast: vaulting over fences like a parkour master and vanishing into the streets. To achieve that level of physical prowess without cursed energy was, frankly, absurd.
But today, Megumi had him cornered.
"You're Yuji Itadori, right?" Megumi held up a photograph, his expression grave. "I'm Megumi Fushiguro from Jujutsu High. I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but that object you have is extremely dangerous. I need you to hand it over right now."
Yuji blinked, reached into his pocket, and handed Megumi... an empty wooden box.
Megumi stared at the void inside the container. "..."
"Oh! Right!" Yuji punched his palm as the realization hit him. "I gave the thing inside to my seniors at the club!"
Watching Megumi's face go pale with genuine terror, Yuji scratched his cheek nervously. "Is it... really that bad?"
"It's more than bad," Megumi snapped, already turning to run. "People are going to die!"
Back at Sugisawa Third High, the school was draped in the silence of the evening. Inside a darkened classroom, Sasaki and Iguchi were huddled over a desk, illuminated only by the flickering light of a single candle.
"Sasaki-senpai, I have a really bad feeling about this," Iguchi whispered.
"That's just the atmosphere of a real occult discovery! Come on, help me get the paper off."
With the reckless curiosity of youth, they peeled away the ancient, weathered talismans. As the last layer fell away, a gnarled, purple finger was revealed.
In that instant, every cursed spirit within a five-mile radius felt the surge of power. Like sharks smelling blood in the water, they turned toward the school in a mindless, ravenous swarm. Shadows in the classroom began to stretch and twist into impossible shapes.
Terrified, the two students scrambled out of the room, nearly colliding with Megumi and Yuji in the hallway.
"Itadori! Run!" Sasaki screamed. "There are monsters in there!"
Megumi knew they were out of time. He shoved Yuji toward the exit. "Get them to safety! Now!"
Ignoring his own safety, Megumi burst into the classroom. The air was thick with the stench of rot. Cursed spirits were already crawling over the walls, their mindless eyes fixed on the finger.
"Divine Dogs!"
The black and white hounds manifested from his shadow, tearing through the minor spirits with savage precision. Megumi lunged through the fray, his hand closing around the cold, leathery finger of Sukuna.
Outside, Yuji had escorted his friends to the gate, but he couldn't just leave. "Stay here!" he shouted over his shoulder. "I have to go back!"
Using his superhuman strength, Yuji vaulted over the school fence in a single leap. He sprinted toward the building, his eyes widening as he saw the monsters—the "Curses"—pounding against the windows.
He burst into the room just as a massive spirit was closing its maw around Megumi.
"What are these things?!" Yuji yelled. Despite the horror, he didn't hesitate. He swung a haymaker with the force of a wrecking ball, his fist connecting with the curse's face.
The battle for the future had officially begun.
.......
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