Chapter 34

That night…

Yuuji waited for her, she was going to come tonight anyways, and it was part of his training. It would be nine o'clock before Kitsune appeared before him. "You knew?" she asked with a smile.

"I figured as much, I'm ready to learn," he insisted.

She paused. "Why are your arms tied back?" she demanded.

Yuuji turned and blushed. "Oh, Nobara did that to try and help me get use to these ones here. She ate my dinner…" He said and moved them about slightly. "I was going to try and untie myself with them… I'm not having much luck,"

She rolled her eyes to it all. "Just break the ropes, you can do that…"

"I know, but still, I need the practice." He insisted and tried again, the lower arms were still rather weak. He barely controlled them. Not to mention, the headache he gets when he does move them about. However Kitsune was quick, she cut the ropes before glaring down at him. "That's your day training, night training belongs to me" she insisted.

He nodded in agreement. "Where are we going tonight?"

"Into your own subconscious." She said. "To the soul void that Sukuna made in you, but now, that space is yours."

"Huh?" Yet she touched his forehead.

He woke in an empty space, surrounded by nothing. Kitsune appeared before him. "Make this however you feel," she insisted.

If they were going to be training, it should be an open field, so he envisioned that. A wide, grassy plain with nothing to interfere with the exercise for the night. When satisfied he nodded and sat down. "Okay Kitsune, what's the lesson?" he asked.

She remained standing. "We are going to be studying Sukuna's technique first hand." She explained. "We are going to have to look at some very disturbing things to better understand his methods…"

Yuuji froze. "Wait, we are going to have to… I don't have memories of those, I don't want to have memories of what he did!" he pleaded. "Isn't there another way!"

She shook her head. "This is the part of training where I told you, it will only get more difficult from here. We have to look back and see what he did, to better prepare you. Young Master, I wouldn't dare put these thoughts into your head without reason." She said gently. "But we have to witness the past to better prepare for the future."

He trembled at the thought of it all, but there was no choice in the matter. He sighed and gave a nod to her. "Okay," he whispered. "Let's do this then."

Her fan unfolded, from there he felt he was taken from the space he created and brought to the past. Looking about, he remembered the place well, the correctional facility.

It was shortly after he sent Fushiguro out to get everyone to safety, he just failed in trying to land a strike against the finger bearer curse, when Sukuna took over. "I… I don't remember any of this…" he said to Kitsune.

"You wouldn't, he took over, but now we observe. Watch his movements and take into consideration his strength at this moment. He has merely two of his fingers that you ingested in him. Correct?" she asked of him.

He nodded as the memory play before his eyes.

Still, his flesh crawled at the sight of this demon that possessed him. He watched in aw as the creature Yuuji had trouble battling, was a mere piss on to him. The blast he deflected with one hand and caused no harm to himself troubled him. Not to mention how easily he healed his hands. "I… I couldn't even scratch that thing," Itadori muttered.

"Keep observing," Kitsune insisted.

He did as he was asked, and continued to watch the battle… well… a one sided beat down.

The creature Yuuji faced, the one that took both his hands with ease and overpowered him was no match for Sukuna. Everything that he did, was effortless. He didn't even try and it was merely a child's game to him.

"Neither you or this brat really understand what curses truly are…"

The words haunted him.

Yuuji felt them echoing in his mind, he still has no concept to it all, but what did Sukuna mean by it? Was this what Kitsune was trying to teach him? He said nothing as he continued to watch on.

It was then he saw the hand movement. "Domain Expansion"

Suddenly, he was jolted from the memory.

Yuuji was catching his breath as he tried to figure out what was shown to him. "Why did you stop?" he asked.

"To see if you observed the same thing I did," Kitsune explained. "What did you learn?"

He paused to think about it, he hung his head and said. "He was a lot more powerful than I realized, that was just two fingers I had consumed… and strength I had given him…"

WACK!

She struck him with her fan!

"OW!"

"No," she scolded. "Just so you know, no matter how uncomfortable, I will make you watch these memories over and over again until the lesson sinks in," she warned. "We watch again,"

He spent an hour watching the same thing over and over again. But then, something clicked. When she stopped the memory was just as he summoned domain expansion. She turned to him to ask what he learned.

Yuuji was mimicking the same hand movement he saw Sukuna do.

Her smile returned. "What are you doing?" she asked curiously.

"You always stopped that memory at that point, that's what you were trying to show me, his hand movement for domain expansion…" he said.

"Very good, and what is the lesson?" she asked.

"To watch for that hand movement,"

She nodded with satisfaction for the moment. "Let's finish for the night here, tomorrow we will continue to observe the past."

"Yes Kitsune Sensei…"

#

The next day was just as difficult.

Gojo sensei caught wind of Nobara's idea on how Yuuji could train himself in getting his arms to move independently, so for the day, his dominate arms were tied up as he walked about trying to get the lower ones to function. He lost out on breakfast to Nobara once more, despite making it for himself!

Yet as he started to train with his main arms tied back, it became a long, frustrating process. There was little movement coming from them, despite his best efforts. Yet throughout the day, his head began to pound.

It grew more intense throughout the morning, until finally. "GAH! I CAN'T TAKE IT!"

Yuuji shouted in the middle of the class, he was sweating, his head hurt as his heart raced in his chest. The lesson was paused as Gojo sensei smirked. "Got something on your mind?" he asked in a playful tone.

"Sensei, my head hurts, no matter what I do, and it doesn't stop! My other arms won't work either, it's becoming a pain in the ass!" he protested.

"Oh?" Gojo asked as the smile grew. "What else?"

"What do you mean, what else?!" Yuuji protested, but then froze. He was emoting everything with his arms… the lower arms were moving about like his regular ones would. "Wait…" he began to toy with them, picking up a pen with one hand, and then texting with the other. "Wait, I can get them to work!?" he said with amazement.

He snapped the rope off his dominate arms and began to test them out, he was drawing with the upper right, then writing with the lower right, the lower left was reaching for his bag as the dominate left held his phone and scrolled. "Ha… haha… HAHA! I DID IT!" he cheered.

"Still creepy and damn, I got to make my own dinner tonight," Nobara muttered.

"Excellent! After lunch we will start on domain expansion!"

"YES!" Yuuji cheered.