Chapter 30

"His strength continues to grow to this day, we have seen no sign of Sukuna's power, this is all his own…"

"This is still concerning to us, for his growth is so rapid, it should have happened in a mere 2 months!"

"Gojo is insisting that he boy is fine, his lessons are just being taken seriously and straight to heart according to him."

"Gojo says a lot of things,"

"What are the options then? End the boy before he gets too strong?"

"I would to be safe than sorry, or we could have just another Sukuna on our hands now wouldn't we?"

The elders met in private, out of Tokyo all together to speak of the matter of Yuuji Itadori. His strength has increased greatly, too much for a mere first year student, second of all, how he is capable of doing such a thing. "He doesn't leave his room at night, does he?" one asked.

"There has been not evidence that he has,"

"So that also means that there is no evidence that he IS in his room at night either."

"From what the school says, his cursed energy never leaves that room, it would be hard to miss if he did leave suddenly wouldn't it?"

They mauled over ideas and other notions before deciding. "We must keep a closer eye on this, we may have made the greatest mistake of our lives,"

"If we have, it will need to be corrected right away."

#

"Sensei is facing a Special grade?"

The three were taken down into the abandoned distract, one of the directors had explained that there was a curse in the area that needed to be dealt with, but they would be doing it alone since Gojo sensei was taking on a special grade curse solo. They were tasked to take care of it themselves this time around, much to their surprise. "Are you sure about this?" asked Fushiguro.

The director nodded. "I can trust you three to take this one out, you are all improving greatly, and with your teamwork, you should be able to handle it."

"We won't let you down!" Yuuji said proudly. "Let's go!" he called.

"Chipper as always…" muttered Nobara.

Fushiguro sighed aloud as he found himself going along with the others.

His mind wonders as he still tries to figure out how Yuuji has grown so strong recently. He no longer feels heavy in the morning, he has gotten faster and physically greater than before. It doesn't make sense to him. Not to mention his curse energy. How can he have so much of it right now if he doesn't have Sukuna in him?

He snapped out of his train of thought when Itadori acted oddly. He sniffed the air and froze. "It's close…" he said.

"What's close?"

His focus turned to the left side of the abandoned district. "There," he said.

"Itadori, where the hell are you going!" Megumi shouted. "We don't know if it's there!"

"It's there alright…" he said defiantly, but he shuttered. Suddenly, he backed up carefully. "We need help, we can't face this alone."

"HOW THE HELL CAN YOU KNOW THAT!" Nobara demanded. "Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you!" she demanded.

Fushiguro suddenly got defensive, he took up a position as Yuuji stood at the ready for a fight, there they saw it peer out of the darkness. It looked like those Finger bearers they have fought before with great difficulty.

They were prepared to strike until it made a hand gesture…

"Domain extension…."

The three were pulled into a primitive demonic domain!

Fushiguro looked about and found nothing but utter darkness. The three kept together, back to back as Yuuji was on edge. "Dark plain…" he muttered. "Something else is wrong... anyone else feeling that?"

"What are you blabbering about?"

"Dark plain, Fushiguro can't use shadows. But there's another affect to it... Nobara… be at the ready."

He wanted to prove him wrong, and tried to summon the wolves, but was unable to. His curse technique would be of no use.

"Nobara…" Yuuji said. "I am going to use myself as bait, don't miss, got it?" he asked.

"Wait, what?!"

"They are waiting for us to do something, there's more than one here and they want to divide and conquer. I'll go first, be at the ready got it?" he asked again.

"Since when did you become so serious?" Megumi demanded.

Yuuji however made up his mind. He stepped forward and looked about, anticipating something until… He ducked as a claw came out of the shadows, he then jumped as another aimed for his legs.

"ITADORI!"

"Don't worry about me!" he protested. "Be at the ready!"

He was suddenly blind-sided. His sides torn into, his back and front slashed open as he rolled across the ground. He was hurt bad! "YUUJI!"

However, as he fell, the curses began to turn their sights on him and Nobara…

#

'I was foolish… I thought… I thought I could catch them off guard…' Yuuji thought.

His eyes were fading out on him, the blood loss was adding up but then, he saw his friends getting attacked! Fushiguro held his own for a while, but since he couldn't summon his shadows, he was only able to fend off the attacks. Nobara tried to land a nail in these creatures, but they appeared to avoid the strike just in the nick of time. He also saw the curse energy in them start to diminish.

Then they started attacking, they slashed at them, tossing his friends in the air like rag dolls. They screamed out, as Yuuji felt his heart aching for them.

His body pulsed with pain from it all, this damn pain that has echoed throughout his core, down to his bones for the past two weeks now, it hasn't gone away, it refuses to. "No… I have to help them… I need to be stronger, I have to save my friends!" he protested.

His strength was gone.

He collapsed, but pleaded. "Please… give me the power to save them… please…" he whispered.

'I can grant you that,'

His eyes shot open, a new voice came into his mind. It wasn't Sukuna's but one that spoke to him in a gentle tone.

"Can you?" he asked.

'Yes, but it will come at a price, there is no going back if I grant this to you…'

"Please," he said. "Please, let me have it… I have to save them. I don't care about me, I have to save them!" he begged.

'So be it,"

#

He couldn't move. Fushiguro laid on the ground, battered and bloodied as he tried to find the strength to stand. Nobara was in the same position. "This place… it drains you of your energy…" he whispered. "No wonder we couldn't… fight back…"

"Too little, too late…" whispered Nobara.

Two massive curses stared down at them, with hunger in their eyes. They lunged forward to snap up the two into their jaws. Megumi braced for the strike, but then froze when nothing happened. He felt a drop of drool come down his cheek as he saw something caught the beast's mouth!

Peering up, he saw it.

He saw the face of his dear friend change to something more sinister. His body covered in curse marks, he possessed four eyes that glared at the beast trying to resist his power. "Sukuna…" he whispered fearfully.

The domain expansion didn't effect him, with brute strength he tore the beasts jaw in two, the other creature was caught… by the second set of arms! It was effortless on his part as he tore the two in half, their body laid on the ground until he stared at them with a lick on his lips. Megumi froze as he watched his friend devour the fallen, he then looked about and until he made a fist with all four of his hands.

A single strike he landed on the ground, the domain became unstable and shattered!

The darkness vanished.

They were outside once more, but… how did he do such a thing?

His strength returned quickly, yet the moment his eyes came upon him, Fushiguro made his move. "Rabbit escape!" the street flooded with shadow rabbits as he grabbed Nobara and ran for it. She quickly regained her senses before realizing they were out of the curse domain.

"What the hell is going on!"

"Keep running, keep running!" he ordered. "Sukuna is back!"

Her eyes widened in shock as she began to keep pace. Yet as they turned down one street, he stood there. Waiting.

They quickly turned to go down the other way, but he was already there too! He appeared confused to their action, but he is merely toying with them. They stood at the ready to fight to the end. "Damn it Yuuji… why did you lie!" he shouted.

It was like a flash. They were suddenly grabbed, thrown to the side as Sukuna caught the arms of a special grade curse! It came out of nowhere and would have crushed them if it weren't for that demon!

He caught the curse's arms with his dominate set, the bottom, he used and slashed up its middle into slices! It was like the first time he saw Sukuna use his power to defeat a curse monster. It was simple, and it was easy.

But he had never seen Sukuna devour his opponents before.

He finished the curse off and fed from the remains before he turned back to the two of them. They were at the ready to fight, but once more, caught off by his speed!

Instead of being held by the throat, Fushiguro realized, he was in a heartfelt embrace! "You're okay, thank God, you're okay!"

"Wait… Yuuji?!"

He pulled away, there was a genuine smile on his lips as his friend laughed off the question. "Who else would it be?" he asked.

He turned to Nobara, who was white as a ghost. "You okay?" he asked gently.

"What… Yuuji… what did you do?" she asked in a terrified tone.

"What did I…" looking down, he saw it. The extra arms were working now. The curse marks that were gone reappeared. He froze to it all. The shock then hit him as he stumbled back and away from his friend in fear. "I… I didn't know…" he said. His other set of eyes opened, only to scare him even more. "Oh God… this was the power I asked for… I asked for this…" he whispered.

"Itadori…"

"Stay away!" he warned. "I… I don't know what happened to me, just… stay back until I know!" he pleaded.

Fushiguro nodded but kept at the ready. "Yuuji, you're still you, right?" he asked.

"I… I think so…" he said in a worried tone. "I mean… I had to get stronger to save you… I had to or else you would have died. But, I didn't think this would happen… I… I don't regret it… but… I didn't think…" he said.

"Itadori…" Nobara said gently. "Can you prove to us you are who you claim to be?"

He froze, but then shook his head to her. "Anything I say, a demon could say. How the hell do I prove it's me?" he asked.

"That's good enough of an answer for me," she said with a smirk.

"Huh?"

"You didn't try and bullshit your way through this, Yuuji. It's you… wait… those marks… those aren't Sukuna's!" she said.

Fushiguro looked as well, they were drastically different from the demon that possessed him. They were thicker, not to mention going up his arms in an odd circular shape, on his chest, before Sukuna had markings aiming down his shoulders and along his stomach. But now, they were aiming upward like horns. There were no circles on his shoulders but a strange pattern. His face was similar to that of Sukuna, but the side of his face were thicker and boarder markings, there was one that came down the side of his nose, only to go up the middle of it and divert off to the side on over his eyes.

What concerned him was the massive black mark in the middle of his forehead, as if it were waiting for something to form.

Still, Yuuji trembled with the knowledge. "Guys… are you okay with this?" he asked meekly.

"You're a bigger idiot than I thought…" muttered Megumi. "You ain't Sukuna!" he protested. "I've seen his marks on you before, those aren't his!"

"But… I have demon marks!" he protested.

"What do we do?" Nobara asked. "We take him back, they are going to kill him for sure…" she whispered.

"I know, but where the hell is he going to go?" he asked.

Suddenly Yuuji's eyes rolled back, he collapsed on the ground and passed out. Megumi was brave enough to get a closer look, and found his friend truly was asleep from the trauma. "We need to call sensei…"

"No need, we're here to pick him up."

They froze and saw the second year students had arrived. They peered down at Yuuji with disgust. "Should have known he was lying…"