Delicious food?
Hearing Cain's words, Itadori's eyes lit up.
He knew a bit about Cain's culinary skills.
He could smell the aroma of the lunch boxes the other boy usually ate at school from over ten meters away.
"Then I won't be polite."
Having a rare chance to taste Cain's cooking, Itadori took the wooden box and opened it without any hesitation.
"Uh, what is this?"
"Gourmet food."
"Hey! Don't lie to me, this doesn't look edible no matter how you look at it!"
Itadori Yuji retorted without hesitation.
Opening the lid, inside wasn't the gourmet food he imagined, but a stick-like object also covered in talismans, about the length of a finger.
"Could this be one of those prank props popular on the internet lately? You press a bandage, it unwinds, and something jumps out to scare you."
"It's not that ordinary."
Cain explained, "This thing is Sukuna's finger; a normal person would die of poisoning if they ate it."
"Huh?"
"By the way, Itadori, you're an athlete. If you eat it, you might mutate into a superhero."
"What kind of nonsensical setting is that? And for the record, I'm not an athlete."
Itadori couldn't help but retort again.
Although being an athlete could lead to great success, Itadori himself didn't have any grand ambitions.
For him, living a leisurely and ordinary student life like he was now, and going to the hospital after school to take care of his grandfather, was enough.
"Anyway, this... it's called Sukuna's finger, right? This prop is quite realistic."
"Cain, which shop did you buy it from? I want to buy one for the seniors in the Occult Research Club."
"Forget it. This is a rare item with only twenty in the entire world. You can't buy it."
Cain shrugged, tucked the finger into his robe, and handed the wooden box to Itadori Yuji.
"Take it as a souvenir."
("...")
What's worth keeping as a souvenir about such a common box? Itadori Yuji's soul of retort burned fiercely.
But just then, his peripheral vision caught the clock on the wall nearby.
"Eh? Is it already this time!"
"Oh no, oh no! I have to get to the Occult Research Club; the seniors are still waiting for me!"
Itadori grabbed his bag. "Cain! See you tomorrow!"
Before Cain could reply, Itadori rushed out of the room like a whirlwind.
Seeing this, Cain didn't mind.
Rising from his stool, he looked toward the black-haired boy searching around on the distant playground.
"It's about time for a test."
Pushing Sukuna's Finger into his pocket, Cain left the classroom and walked toward the deserted outskirts to the west.
...
"Not here either."
Megumi Fushiguro scratched his head in frustration.
He hadn't slept for nearly a day.
He originally thought it was just an errand to come to the school and retrieve Sukuna's Finger.
But when he arrived at the place where the finger was sealed yesterday, he found it missing.
When he reported to his superiors, that irresponsible teacher just babbled things like, "For real? That's hilarious," and "Don't come back until you have it," before hanging up.
With no other choice, Megumi Fushiguro had to search for the missing Sukuna's Finger through the night, but even by the end of school the next day, he hadn't found any clues.
"What a pain. Where did it go?"
"Hey! I heard Takagi from the track and field club is going to compete against the Tiger of West Junior High. Do you want to go see?"
"Takagi? Is he racing Itadori?"
"No, I heard it's a shot put competition."
("...")
What is the Tiger of West Junior High?
The frustrated Megumi Fushiguro stopped, thought for a moment, and followed the crowd to the playground.
Almost at the same time, a shot put tore through the air at an eerie speed and slammed into the soccer goal with a loud thud.
"That... is about 30 meters!"
The staff member responsible for measuring estimated the distance and replied.
In fact, there was no need for precise measurement.
With his opponent only throwing 14 meters, this world-record-breaking result was a total landslide.
As for why everyone present was so calm despite a world record being broken...
Well, that's just how gag manga works.
"What incredible physical prowess."
Megumi Fushiguro, not far away, was somewhat surprised.
He could tell Itadori wasn't using Cursed Energy; he was relying purely on his own strength to achieve this.
"Is he the same type as Zenin-senpai?"
After watching Itadori for a moment, Megumi Fushiguro didn't think much more of it and continued searching for Sukuna's Finger.
"Eh? Is it already past four-thirty!"
Just then, Itadori cried out in surprise.
"Goodbye, teacher! I have something to do, so I'm leaving first."
Grabbing his bag from the ground, Itadori called out to his opponent and sprinted away from the playground.
With his superior physical fitness, he bypassed Megumi Fushiguro, who had left earlier, in the blink of an eye.
"Hmm?"
The moment they crossed paths, a terrifying aura surged toward him. Megumi Fushiguro stopped abruptly.
This... the aura of a cursed object?!
"Hey! Wait a minute!"
Realizing something, Megumi Fushiguro instinctively tried to reach out and stop the boy.
But in that brief moment of hesitation, the other party had already run over ten meters away and disappeared around a corner.
"Dammit! He's too fast!"
Megumi Fushiguro hurriedly gave chase.
At this point, he absolutely couldn't let the lead slip away.
...
Time passed, and in the blink of an eye, night fell.
Stars twinkled in the night sky as Cain arrived alone in the mountains near the city.
"This should be about right."
After ensuring no bystanders would be accidentally hurt, Cain took out Sukuna's finger and undid the seal.
The talisman paper covered in strange symbols drifted to the ground, and a gruesome finger appeared before him.
A Special Grade Cursed Object created from the fingers of Ryomen Sukuna, the strongest Jujutsu Sorcerer from a thousand years ago, it carried Sukuna's soul and power.
The moment the seal was broken, Cursed Energy radiating an ominous aura surged in all directions.
Rustling sounds echoed in the woods, and several bizarrely shaped monsters appeared all around.
"They certainly got here fast."
Cain raised an eyebrow.
Although ordinary Cursed Spirit lack intelligence, their perception of cursed objects far exceeds that of normal people.
As he left the school and came to the outskirts, these Cursed Spirit attracted by the finger followed him.
Now that the seal was removed, the Cursed Spirit, having completely locked onto the finger's location, swarmed forward, trying to tear Cain apart and swallow Sukuna's Finger to increase their own strength.
But in the next second, golden lightning fell from above.
Roars echoed in the empty forest as these relatively strong Cursed Spirit were engulfed by lightning and vanished into nothingness.
"There's still... one left."
Using Current Propulsion to sense the surroundings, Cain quickly locked onto the last Cursed Spirit.
"Hiding well, but unfortunately, it's useless against me."
Cain pointed a finger toward the ground.
At the same time, a blue-skinned lizard-like Cursed Spirit lunged out from the ground, its mouth filled with countless swaying eyeballs, a truly gruesome sight.
But the moment it lunged from the earth, attempting to swallow both Cain and the finger, Cain's finger flashed with golden light.
Boom!
Golden lightning burst forth in an instant, piercing through the lizard Cursed Spirit that was attempting a sneak attack.
"Now there's nothing in the way."
After clearing out the last Cursed Spirit, Cain's gaze turned once again toward Sukuna's finger.
As Itadori's 'cheat' in the original story, Sukuna's finger had a specific trait, one becomes stronger after consuming it.
Of course, free power often comes with side effects.
While providing immense cursed energy, Sukuna's finger also inflicts an incredibly terrifying curse poison upon the user, something even a Special Grade Sorcerer could not withstand.
Gulp~
"Doesn't really have much of a taste."
Cain swallowed Sukuna's finger into his stomach.
A terrifying toxicity rose from his abdomen, but it was decomposed and digested in a flash.
Relying on the power brought by his Demon King Body, Cain successfully withstood the toxicity of Sukuna's finger.
Vaguely, he could feel a surging power rising within his body, yet it felt rejected upon contact.
"Next is the soul fragment."
Aside from the terrifying curse poison, the second major issue with Sukuna's finger was that it carried a fragment of Sukuna's soul.
In the original work, the reason Itadori ended up so miserable was largely because he utilized Sukuna's soul fragments to fight, only to have the opponent seize the opportunity to turn the tables.
However, Cain was different from Itadori.
He wasn't just an ordinary physical education student; he was a 'refined' physical education student (not really).
With shared power, both his cursed energy and soul strength far exceeded those of Itadori.
Facing the soul fragment of just a single finger, it wasn't as if he had no chance.
But just then, his phone suddenly rang.
"The vast horizon is my love~ Continuous..."
Cain pressed the answer button.
"Hey! Cain, where are you!"
Itadori's urgent voice came through the phone.
"In the mountain forest outside the suburbs."
"Eh? Why did you run off there!"
"To save the world."
"Hey! Stop joking at a time like this!"
On the other end of the line, Itadori's expression was somewhat helpless.
"Stop wasting time, get to the point."
Megumi Fushiguro, who was nearby, spoke up to remind him.
"Right, I almost forgot the main business."
Itadori's expression turned serious: "Cain, can you come to the hospital? That finger in your hand..."
Cain: "I already ate it."
Itadori: "?"
Megumi Fushiguro: "?"
The air suddenly went silent.
In that instant, the brains of both Itadori and Megumi Fushiguro, who was eavesdropping nearby, stopped thinking.
"Hey! Give me the phone!"
A few seconds later, Megumi Fushiguro was the first to react, reaching out to snatch the phone from Itadori's hand.
"Your name is Cain, right! What did you mean just now? You ate Sukuna's finger?!"
"Yeah, pretty impressive, right?"
"This isn't about being impressive or not! Hurry up and find a way to spit it... Forget it, it's already too late."
Halfway through his sentence, Megumi Fushiguro's brow furrowed and he directly changed the question: "Tell me your current specific coordinates."
"The summit of Mount Myogi."
"Wait there! I'm coming to find you!"
Megumi Fushiguro hung up the phone and ran quickly out of the hospital.
"Hey! Wait a minute!"
Itadori chased after him from behind: "Why is your expression so serious? Is eating that finger a big problem?"
"Yes, a very big problem."
Megumi Fushiguro said with a serious expression: "Sukuna's finger is extremely toxic. An ordinary person would die instantly upon eating it."
"Huh? Really?"
Itadori's expression became solemn.
It was then that he recalled the conversation he had with Cain after school that afternoon.
"Speaking of which, Cain seemed to have said something similar. He also said that if I ate that thing, I could become a superhero."
"What a load of nonsense."
Megumi Fushiguro furrowed his brows: "Sukuna's finger is not that kind of good thing. Even if one's physical fitness is high enough to not die immediately, their body will be occupied by Sukuna's soul."
"That is not a prop for turning people into superheroes; it is a literal Pandora's box. If things go wrong, it will cause a massive crisis and many people will die."
"Eh? Then why did Cain eat it?"
"How should I know! That idiot probably got some bits of information from somewhere and mistakenly thought it was true!"
Megumi Fushiguro ran all the way toward the mountains outside the city.
Similar incidents were not uncommon in the Jujutsu world.
Obtaining a powerful Cursed Object often gave people the illusion that they could use its power to soar to the top.
But reality is often cruel. The more powerful a Cursed Object is, the more likely it is to have deadly side effects, and Sukuna's finger is the prime example.
Passing down through a thousand years to the modern era, countless people have tried to use Sukuna's finger to become stronger, but without exception, all of them died miserable deaths.
"By the way, why are you following? Ordinary people shouldn't get involved, go back quickly."
"How could I go back! Cain is my friend, I have to find a way to save him!"
"Tsk, fine."
Megumi Fushiguro didn't have time to chase him away now.
Praying that no major problems would occur, Megumi Fushiguro took his phone from his pocket and dialed the top-pinned number.
"Moshi moshi~ Is there something..."
"A Sukuna finger has been eaten! I need help!"
"Eh? Is this a joke?"
"Who has time to joke with you! Anyway, get over here and help. Coordinates: the summit of Mount Myogi in the suburbs of Miyagi Prefecture. The target is a high school student named Cain."
"Alright, I'll go take a look."
On the other end of the phone, Gojo Satoru, who had just dealt with a Special Grade Cursed Spirit and was about to go buy some local souvenirs, stopped in his tracks.
He understood very well how dangerous Sukuna's fingers were.
Although he didn't know the specific situation, now that things had developed to this point, it indeed couldn't be left to Megumi Fushiguro alone.
"Let me think... it's probably in this direction."
Recalling the coordinates Megumi Fushiguro had just mentioned, Gojo Satoru used 'Blue' to launch himself into the air.
The surrounding scenery changed rapidly, and he soon crossed half of Japan to arrive at the target location, where a terrifying aura rushed toward him.
"Oh~ this is quite unexpected."
Gazing at the black-haired youth before him who was emitting an enormous amount of cursed energy, Gojo Satoru let out a sigh of admiration.
"I didn't expect someone could actually withstand the toxicity of Sukuna's finger. It looks like I'll have to move a bit."
"What are you going to do?"
"Of course... hm?"
Gojo Satoru, who was loosening up his arms, froze for a moment.
Looking at the youth before him, whose gaze was calm and did not emit any killing intent or hostility, he fell into a rare moment of deep thought.
"Just to be safe, let me ask: are you the legendary Ryomen Sukuna?"
"No, I am Cain."
"Then where is Sukuna?"
"I ate him."
Cain let out a burp, looking completely satisfied.
As expected of the strongest from a thousand years ago; the benefits gained after digesting him were more than he had anticipated.
...
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