Chapitre 9: Chapter 09

To Sukuna, Itadori was an interesting person.

Of course, he disliked the boy simply because he was trapped in his body, but the fact that Itadori was able to be so contained was enough to pique his interest.

Itadori seemed to be the perfect prison for someone like Sukuna, given that there were a few things that made him the ideal vessel.

Sukuna was unable to access any of Itadori's memories or thoughts, limited to merely observing what was happening outside through his eyes.

To Sukuna, it felt like being trapped in a cell, limited to observing the outside through a small window.

Itadori also seemed naturally capable of preventing him from manifesting in any way, whether through thoughts or by manifesting through his mouth.

It was irritating, but at the same time, quite interesting. The fact that someone could keep another's soul trapped in this way was definitely not something that should naturally be possible.

Moreover, Itadori seemed quite talented, as he had been able to manipulate cursed energy in a short period of time.

Sukuna could see all of this. Itadori was definitely someone who could become powerful in the future.

But the idea of letting that happen left a bad taste in Sukuna's mouth.

He was someone who liked to cut problems off at the root. He had no intention of letting someone like Itadori grow to that extent.

The existence of Itadori irritated him simply because he was a perfect prison for him.

Compared to someone like Gojo, Itadori was insignificant in terms of Sukuna's return, but the simple fact that he was able to imprison his soul made him a target Sukuna needed to eliminate, or at least dominate his soul to gain full control of his body.

"What an irritating kid."

But those were plans for the future. Sukuna had more important matters to attend to.

Opening his eyes, Itadori suddenly found himself in an environment shrouded in darkness, his eyes narrowing as he looked around cautiously.

"So this is what it's like inside my soul?" Frowning, he sighed when he found nothing but pure darkness stretching infinitely. "How tedious."

Sitting on the ground, Itadori clasped his hands together and took a deep breath.

In the end, he had been unable to face the special grade curse without Sukuna's help. Fortunately, he wasn't like Itadori, who was too affected by the fear of death, making it difficult for him to regain control of his body.

Itadori still felt his connection with Sukuna, and didn't think he would have difficulty making the switch. In fact, he was even surprised by how easily he could do it.

This led to a question that Itadori periodically took time to think about.

What had really happened to the soul of the original Itadori?

Mark, now Itadori, had some theories about this, but they were all based on his own assumptions.

The first was that he and Itadori had had their souls fused, which somehow would end up strengthening it when combined into one. This would be a great answer to why he could contain Sukuna so much more effectively, since unlike the original Itadori, he could not only contain Sukuna's manifestations but also switch at will.

This had some counterpoints, as aside from the memories of the original Itadori, he had nothing else to prove this, as he felt more like Mark than Itadori, despite having his disposition affected by the kind-hearted Itadori's memories.

The second was that his own soul had swallowed Itadori's soul, which would ultimately result in the same outcome as the first theory.

The third was that the original Itadori's soul had been completely replaced, leaving only his body and memories behind.

Mark did not believe this theory to be true, simply because he didn't believe his soul alone could contain Sukuna better than Itadori, who had been created with this purpose in mind.

Moreover, it would go against the logic of that world, where soul was body and body was soul.

Itadori scratched his chin, his mind brushing away those thoughts as Sukuna began his fight against the special grade curse.

"I guess I can think about this later; for now, I should focus on absorbing as much as possible from this fight."

With the special grade curse finally defeated, Sukuna turned calmly as he walked away, his gaze hardening as he stopped for a moment.

"Hey, kid! If you're going to switch, hurry up!"

"..."

"Little shit?"

Receiving no response, Sukuna broke into a huge, devilish grin, his body turning to leave.

But before he could move, a strange sensation coursed through his body, his smile disappearing completely.

"I tricked you."

With the marks disappearing from his face, and his second pair of eyes closing completely, Itadori resumed control of his body, to Sukuna's irritation.

"You really thought I wouldn't come back? How naïve." With a mocking smile, Itadori began walking towards the exit of the dormitory.

"You piece of shit." With a second mouth opening on Itadori's cheek, Sukuna spoke in an irritated tone, which drew a smile from Yuji. "I'll relish killing your friends when—"

*Slap

"Shh! I want to enjoy my freedom." Silencing him with a slap, Itadori continued on his way with a satisfied smile on his lips.

'The only reason I paid so much attention to this fight was to observe the use of reverse cursed energy.'

Rubbing his chin, Itadori frowned.

'And seeing Sukuna use it, I was able to understand...'

"..."

'I was able to understand that I didn't understand anything.'

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Chapitre 10: Chapter 10

I'm thinking of giving Itadori a love interest in this story. Who would be the ideal girl?

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"It's good to see you're okay."

Outside the dormitory, Megumi found Itadori walking calmly through the forest.

"Controlling Sukuna has been quite simple."

Stopping in front of his companion, Itadori sighed as he pulled one of Sukuna's fingers from his pocket.

"That curse seemed to have swallowed this. That's why it was so powerful."

Megumi frowned and, placing his hand on his chin, nodded in agreement.

"I understand now, but how did a Sukuna's finger end up in that place?"

Itadori shrugged in response. He knew Kenjaku had placed it there, but it would be strange to reveal that suddenly.

"By the way, where's Kugisaki?" Looking around, Itadori asked when he didn't find any sign of the girl.

"She returned to the school first. We faced some curses when we were escaping, and her arm was injured." Megumi replied, turning to walk.

Itadori nodded, accompanying him as they walked away from that place.

On their way out of the dormitory, Yuji eliminated some remaining curses and took some time to think about what to do from that point on.

Preventing the deal with Sukuna was indeed important and would prevent many problems in the future, but in doing so, he missed out on some opportunities.

Would he still be trained directly by Gojo? After all, that was an opportunity he didn't want to miss. Since he was already able to use cursed energy, he just needed to refine his control, and receiving tutoring from Gojo himself would certainly help with that.

He didn't have a technique, which meant his strength depended solely on his control over cursed energy. Compared to the others, he had this significant disadvantage.

"..."

Raising Sukuna's finger to his eyes, Itadori analyzed it in silence, Megumi seeing this and raising an eyebrow.

"What are you going to do with—"

Bite

Widening his eyes as Itadori suddenly threw the finger into his mouth, Megumi felt sweat accumulate on his forehead, the hairs on his neck standing up as a massive amount of cursed energy exploded from his companion's body.

"Ugh... I'll never get used to this." But just as the energy emerged, it disappeared, causing Megumi to sigh in relief.

As they distanced themselves from the forest, Itadori opened a small smile as he looked at his hand.

'I can feel it... My amount of cursed energy has certainly increased.'

Even though at the moment, he didn't have any technique to rely on, he felt it would only be a matter of time until his body assimilated Sukuna's techniques.

He could feel his connection with the king of curses growing stronger, even if just slightly. He knew the best way to acquire his techniques was by eating his fingers to accelerate the assimilation.

Itadori was not a simple vessel, nor a mere prison.

He was a devourer, a creature capable of stealing the techniques of any being he devoured.

A talent not seen in 1000 years.

'I feel this disadvantage won't last long.'

"You seem to have handled the situation at the dormitory well, and even got a little stronger."

Gojo smiled as he looked at Itadori. From his arrival, he could immediately notice his growth.

In terms of talent, he could even say that Itadori was on par with Yuta, perhaps even better, since Itadori had been able to manipulate his cursed energy in less than two weeks.

Gojo certainly hadn't been wrong when he said he was a true talent not seen in 1000 years.

"But in the end, I still had to use Sukuna to get out alive." Itadori sighed, sitting on the sofa in the room they were in while looking around curiously. "By the way, why are we here? I thought we would go back to the school dormitories."

Itadori recognized that room as the same place used for training Itadori in the original story, which made him internally excited.

"Plans have changed. It seems the higher-ups aren't very happy with the fact that you're still alive, so you'll stay here until you become strong enough."

Itadori nodded; he knew that, since he hadn't died as expected, he would surely be hunted later.

With his precarious level of cursed energy manipulation, he wasn't confident he could survive without Gojo's presence nearby. Certainly, secret training was the best course of action for now.

"You already seem to understand cursed energy manipulation, so we'll focus on refining your control." Gojo opened a small smile, Itadori raising an eyebrow in confusion when the man suddenly pulled out a small boxing bear from his back.

'Where did he get that from?'

"Since you can already emit cursed energy, your training will be a bit different from what I had planned. I want you to do the same as you did when fighting that special grade curse."

Itadori listened to Gojo's words attentively, his eyes turning to his hands as he recalled the feeling of that battle.

"..."

And in silence, a small smile appeared on his lips as he succeeded, the cursed energy being expelled from his body until it slowly concentrated in his fists.

But as he felt excited for succeeding, his eyes widened when a fist suddenly landed in his stomach, his head turning down to see that cursed puppet ready to attack him again.

"You little shit!"

With a vein popping on his forehead, Itadori tried to punch it, but the puppet quickly dodged and counter-attacked with a precise hook.

"It's set to attack the moment you exceed a certain limit of cursed energy, so you'll need to reduce the output until it goes back to sleep. Of course, it will gradually lower the limit."

"Huh?" Blinking, Itadori immediately focused on reducing the amount of cursed energy, which made the puppet immediately return to sleep. "This seems too easy, maybe the biggest challenge will be the exhaustion."

"You think it's easy? Well, then I'll raise the level a bit." Going to a table, Gojo picked up numerous boxes of movie CDs, a smile on his lips. "You'll do all this while watching all these movies, and continue until you achieve decent control of your energy."

"..."

"Okay, that complicates things a bit."

Boom!

"You damned puppet!"

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