Chapter 3: My Past Self… Was I This Weak?
After leaving the hospital and saying a proper goodbye, Yuji felt far more at ease.
He knew how awful loneliness was. Even the most stubborn person would have that one moment.
His grandpa's mouth was hard, but his heart was soft.
He didn't want to waste anyone's time.
He didn't want anyone spending their time on a dying "useless old man."
But he still wanted someone to stay with him…
So Yuji stayed for one night.
That was selfishness, nothing more.
Yuji's tightly clenched hands slowly loosened, and the murkiness in his eyes loosened with them.
"If Grandpa's death is inevitable…"
"Then the others won't be."
After he let go,
his recovery suddenly sped up—he regained another half of a tenth, reaching one-tenth of his total strength.
About the strength of one of his fingers, back then.
'If I make big moves now, I'll alert people.'
'And the time I can stay here will shrink a lot.'
'First, I'll go take a look at the school.'
'That high school I only attended for two months.'
Yuji thought back. This point in time mattered—it was when he ate the first finger.
It really was nostalgic.
And Sukuna, too.
…
Time passed in a blink, and it was 4:30 PM.
Miyagi Prefecture.
Sugisawa Third High School.
The Occult Research Club—really, just a club.
"This is really okay, right, Sasaki-senpai, Iguchi-senpai? Alright—let's start."
"Kitsune-sama, Kitsune-sama! Please tell us how to defeat the Student Council President Creature!"
"Ice! Sea! Angel!"
"Isn't that just fodder? Hahaha!"
Three people.
Two boys and one girl.
They were playing something like a spirit-writing game. The mood was perfect, the room pitch-black.
When they got their "answer," they all burst out laughing.
Ice Sea Angel was a drifting soft-bodied creature—how was that supposed to defeat the president?
This game, seriously…
The next second,
the student council president barged in and slapped down a sheet of paper!
"I already told you before. Clubs without real activities, give up your room! Vacate this place!"
"You can't underestimate our club's upperclassmen," young Yuji said.
Sasaki-senpai pulled out a file of strange-incident records and started analyzing their "achievements," like finding some kind of ghost or spirit.
The student council president didn't listen at all.
"What grudge spirit? That was a tick! What supernatural phenomena? They don't exist."
"And a club needs at least three members."
"Yuji Itadori, you applied for track and field, not the Occult Club!"
"So you only have two right now."
The student council president laid it out logically.
Sasaki and Iguchi gave Yuji a grim stare, and Yuji hurried to explain.
"Huh? No way! I definitely wrote Occult Club!"
At that moment, the track club advisor, Takagi—a man tanned almost pitch-black—suddenly appeared.
"I'm the one who changed it, Yuji!"
"We're going to dominate the nation, and we need you!"
"Your long-distance running is outstanding—you might even run the Hakone Ekiden someday!"
"You're great at other events too!"
"So I'm definitely taking you!"
He was also a PE teacher.
He'd noticed Yuji's athletic talent early on, and because of that, he absolutely wouldn't let him go.
"You're so persistent. Haven't I rejected you a bunch of times!?"
"No!"
"No, huh!?"
"But I'm not heartless. Beat me and I'll give up on you. Let's settle it with a fair track-and-field match!"
"Interesting. Then let's do it!"
And so they started a competition, drawing a huge crowd.
They competed in the shot put—!
And then Takagi shamelessly chose the one event Yuji wasn't good at.
World record: 23.12 meters!
National record: 18.18 meters!
Takagi threw 14 meters!
Young Yuji…
in front of everyone's shocked eyes, threw an incredible 30 meters!
A world record!
"Alright! I win!"
Young Yuji was full of energy!
The scene turned bizarrely stunned—every student watching in black uniforms had their mouths hanging open.
Still,
a lot of them didn't really grasp the numbers, only that he threw it about twice as far as the teacher.
"The Tiger of West Junior High… that nickname's wrong. He's more like a gorilla," Sasaki-senpai said.
Sasaki-senpai, Iguchi-senpai, and young Yuji walked along chatting.
Not far away,
Megumi Fushiguro, who had come to investigate a Special Grade cursed object—Sukuna's finger—also saw the scene.
"No cursed energy, yet that much raw strength… Is he the same type as Zen'in-senpai…?"
He muttered.
Suddenly, young Yuji remembered something. "It's 4:30—I have to head back. See you, teacher, I've got something to do!"
He waved and bolted, vanishing in an instant.
As young Yuji left, the aura around him grabbed Fushiguro's attention again.
But he was too fast—there was no way to call out to him.
"He runs way too fast, right!?"
"I heard he can do fifty meters in three seconds!"
The world record was 5.47 seconds…
A few passing students holding a soccer ball said this beside Fushiguro.
"Is that… supposed to be impressive? Back then, was I really that weak…?"
Suddenly,
a deep, unhurried voice drifted by.
A hooded man walked onto the sand field, picked up the shot put that had just been tossed aside, and walked back.
He stood at the marked line.
"Hu!!"
He tossed the shot put high into the air.
Curled his fingers, then flicked.
The flick struck the exact center of the black iron ball with perfect precision!
"BOOM—!"
A dull, powerful impact rang out!
A gale followed right after!
Sand and dust exploded into the air!
Only a handful of people saw it—a black streak cutting across the sky, flying out of the campus and smashing into a big tree!
It punched a hole clean through the trunk!
And the distance…
If it went beyond the school grounds, it had to be at least a hundred meters!
"Cough—cough, what was that!? Who turned on a powerful fan!?"
"No—someone threw the shot put!?"
"Are you kidding me!"
"No, I saw it too!"
"It flew straight out of the school!?"
"T-this is even more insane than the Tiger of West Junior High!"
"How can a human have that kind of strength? That shot put has to be fake!"
Even louder waves of disbelief rose up.
Gasps and shouts overlapped.
Some track club members felt their worldview cracking, and Teacher Takagi was completely dumbfounded.
He seriously suspected his eyes were malfunctioning.
Because he saw it too.
"A… freak!"
"With results like that, the Olympics and world records can't even tie his shoes…"
Yuji's level was already beyond his understanding.
But this…
Fushiguro also turned quickly. Hearing the commotion, he was just as shocked.
"Who was it?"
"A sorcerer…?"
"If he used cursed energy to assist the throw, it wouldn't be strange—but I didn't sense any cursed energy at all…"
That meant it was pure physical talent.
He forgot about the Special Grade cursed object and even about Yuji, desperately searching for the person who threw it.
But the one responsible was already gone.
Yes.
It was Yuji.
He had just done it.
He'd only used a little strength—he didn't think it was surprising.
He only thought—
even without cursed energy, his past self should've been able to do that much.
"Did he go to see Grandpa one last time?"
"Tonight, if I remember right, is the night the senpai reveal Sukuna's finger's 'talisman.'"
"The beginning of everything."