Shun quickly locked onto the boy surrounded at the center of the field.
The kid had apparently just broken some kind of record, and the classmates around him were cheering over and over.
Pink, spiky short hair with black at the roots, light golden eyes...
Shun went over the boy's face detail by detail, cross checking it with the version in his hazy memories.
Reality and the anime he had watched in his previous life did not match perfectly, but overall, Shun was still fairly sure of the boy's identity.
He just needed more confirmation whether this really was Itadori Yuji.
And whether this Itadori was actually Sukuna's vessel... that was another question entirely.
Reality often differed wildly from anime.
Sometimes Shun even suspected the "plot" he remembered might itself be some kind of curse.
"Shun, which cute little girl are you staring at? Tell me, okay?"
A slightly sickly sweet voice suddenly brushed against his ear.
The cursed Kurumi.
Shun's heart skipped a beat.
This time, unlike the gaze he had felt from Kurumi that morning, he was actually startled.
What is going on?
Why had he not sensed her approach at all?
"Strange, right? You are wondering how I suddenly appeared next to you without you noticing."
The cursed Kurumi smiled like she could read his thoughts.
"As long as you tell me which little girl you were watching, I will tell you the reason."
Shun asked, "If I tell you, what are you going to do to her?"
Kurumi tilted her head, then lifted one hand in a gun shape.
"Bang."
She made the sound of a shot with her mouth.
"I will kill her."
Shun sighed. "So you really are a yandere."
"Yes, so Shun, do not cheat on me. Otherwise, one day I might really carry your head around the world and go sightseeing."
She could say terrifying things with a smiling face.
"I do not have any sort of relationship with you," Shun said honestly.
From the start, he had never understood why this cursed spirit acted like they knew each other so well.
"If there is nothing between us, then why do you think you could not sense me coming?"
Kurumi slowly stepped closer.
Shun took a step back.
Any closer and she would be inside his comfort zone.
Their conversation might have been peaceful so far, but he had never once lowered his guard around her.
"Guess I am just not as good as you," he said.
Kurumi laughed.
So cautious.
She stopped where she was. "You should have more faith in yourself, Shun. If not for some very special reason, there is no way you would fail to detect me."
On that point, Shun actually agreed.
When it came to concealment and detection, his training partner since childhood had been Gojo Satoru.
If he could handle that ceiling, there was no reason for one cursed spirit to stump him.
So what on earth was so special about her?
Even while staying alert, Shun's curiosity was only growing.
Maybe he was a little twisted too.
The way Satoru's true nature bordered on madness, perhaps Shun himself had reached a similar level when it came to curses.
"Do you want to know how I did it?" Kurumi asked.
Shun nodded.
She giggled. "Too bad, I cannot tell you yet."
Shun frowned.
So it really was some kind of activation condition or restriction on her technique?
But what was the actual effect once it was active?
"Watching you frown while thinking about me makes me really happy, Shun."
Kurumi hopped lightly onto the edge of the rooftop, bouncing on her toes.
One misstep and she could fall, but for a cursed spirit like her, that hardly mattered.
"Ring ring..."
The bell signaling the end of class rang out from below.
The cursed Kurumi stopped and looked back at him.
"That girl is probably coming to find you again."
She meant the human Kurumi.
"She is actually your true body," Shun said, putting on an expression like he had already uncovered the truth.
Kurumi's lips curled. "Is that what you think? Then why not test it? Kill her and see if I die."
Her smile was eerily amused.
"..."
Shun fell silent.
He had just been fishing for a reaction.
But this cursed spirit had not shown the slightest slip,
So that was not it.
"Anyway, Shun, you should take good care of that child," she said softly. "She really is quite pitiful."
It felt like she could see straight through him.
"And also, whether it is her or us, we will not hurt you."
With that, the cursed Kurumi vanished without a trace.
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