Chapter 226: Does Sukuna Not Have Any Family?
Though times and circumstances had changed, Itadori Yuji ultimately ended up riding on Kechizu's back.
Kechizu himself never had any concept of feelings for the opposite sex, nor did he care if the person riding on his back was a man. From a human perspective, Kechizu's mental age was probably around thirteen or fourteen; innocent as he was, he knew nothing of such complicated social constructs. If you asked him the difference between men and women, he likely couldn't give you an answer.
Kechizu also didn't feel that letting someone ride on his back was an insult. If doing this meant he could save his friend, then he would do it—his thoughts were just that simple and direct. As for whether this primeval innocence would eventually transform into another shape under the pollution of the modern world, that was something for the far future.
At least in this moment, Kechizu—completely unbothered by secular views—easily rescued Itadori Yuji from the interference of the barrier technique and immediately sprinted at full speed away from the battlefield.
Of course, to ensure that his speed and balance weren't compromised, Kechizu didn't bring along the shield-axe that had been in Itadori's hands. After all, even though he was technically a Special Grade cursed spirit, his strength wasn't so gargantuan that he could run unrestrained while carrying several tons of metal in his mouth. Furthermore, running on all fours meant he had no capacity to pick up any other items.
Despite having Itadori on his back, Kechizu's running speed was unaffected, successfully covering nearly a hundred meters in just a few seconds. Once they reached this range, Kenjaku's strange barrier naturally lost its binding effect, allowing Itadori to shift his upper body weight onto Kechizu.
Itadori's first instinct was to turn his head and check the situation behind them—fortunately, the battle back there didn't look too dire.
By now, Mahoraga had already broken free from the gravity technique's restraint and was launching attack after attack at Kenjaku, leaving the opponent no time to focus on their direction. No matter how much Itadori wanted to go back and help, he knew that returning now would only make him a weak point and a burden.
To successfully release the Ryomen Sukuna inside him, that curse user would surely make Itadori the primary target, forcing his companions to center their focus on protecting him.
The main issue was that if Sukuna collaborated with the enemy from the inside, the curse user only had to bring a Sukuna finger close to him, and Sukuna might quietly absorb it when Itadori wasn't looking. It wouldn't even take many fingers... if the absorbed cursed energy reached the equivalent of just two fingers, Sukuna could at least seize partial control of his body, and then everything would go downhill.
Itadori had known just how vile Sukuna was for a long time. One could not lose vigilance just because Sukuna had been trapped in his body recently, unable to show any threat, or because he had recently become the group's laughingstock. A vile person remains vile; at the very least, their personality wouldn't be changed so easily.
"Dammit... it's all your fault!"
Until now, even though he knew Sukuna was by no means a good person—even unpardonable from a human standpoint—Itadori had never directly attacked him.
Itadori was a kind and easygoing person; he didn't even know what it felt like to hold a grudge against someone for a long time, nor had he ever labeled anyone as an object of hatred. Even if someone had hurt him in the past, Itadori had long ago made peace with himself.
But when his precious companions were trapped in a dangerous battle and he was the only one who couldn't help—and was even a burden—Itadori finally couldn't help but vent his emotions directly at Ryomen Sukuna.
To prevent his own mind from being disturbed by a guy "unpolluted by knowledge" like Itadori, Ryomen Sukuna usually cut off most of his senses to the outside world, only observing through Itadori's vision at specific moments. For an important war like this, he was naturally present.
"What, me?"
Kechizu, who was focused on weaving around the unconscious civilians, took the hit unintentionally and raised his head toward Itadori with a face full of confusion. Fortunately, he wasn't wrongly accused for long, as the intended target spoke in the next moment—
"My fault?
Then have you ever considered that the root of all this is actually your own fault?"
Sukuna's mouth manifested on Itadori's cheek as usual, opening with a barrage of emotional output: "Every tragedy in this world stems from the involved party's lack of ability... If you could kill that curse user, would any of this be happening?
Furthermore, the root of everything... if you hadn't impulsively swallowed my finger back then, none of this would have happened either."
From Sukuna's perspective, it seemed everything was to be blamed on the victim, Itadori; the reality had nothing to do with the perpetrator who forced their will on others. This logic sounded like a desperate reach, yet from the hypothetical standpoint of "solving the problem," it held up.
Coincidentally, Itadori was exactly the type of person to be held hostage by such a concept.
"I'll get stronger sooner or later."
For a stubborn soul like Itadori Yuji, he wouldn't say such things just out of a momentary heat of passion; he would truly give his all to do it.
"Get stronger? You don't actually think your current strength was earned by yourself, do you?
Without that teacher of yours, you'd still be a fool who doesn't know a single technique or special skill. That volcano-headed cursed spirit could have pushed you into a corner with a casual strike.
By the time you actually get stronger on your own, those people will have long been dead.
Well? Even so, do you still think you can do it?"
Simply crushing Itadori's spirit didn't bring Sukuna much benefit, but he simply enjoyed doing it.
He didn't need any other reason; the excuse of finding amusement for himself while trapped in a prison was enough. Moreover, he truly looked down on people like Itadori Yuji.
Someone with no real ability, yet pretending to be a man of great sentiment and loyalty... honestly, besides bringing extra emotions, did such behavior serve any other purpose?
"..."
Itadori didn't know how to refute those words because, even in his own understanding, he fully admitted that a large part of his current self relied on Emiya-sensei's support.
Even just losing the shield-axe would immediately slash his combat power by more than half, making it difficult to deal with even the most ordinary Special Grade.
"Hey, friend... is the person talking to you that, that guy called the [King of Curses]?
Actually, I think you're already very amazing. There's no need to listen to what he says."
Kechizu's words of comfort were much more blunt and direct, and yet Itadori was exactly the type to be affected by such "straight ball" attacks.
"Thanks, Kechizu... I believe that even if my own improvement is small, it's definitely not non-existent."
Hard work might not lead to success, but a lack of hard work definitely leads to failure... this was a principle Itadori believed in most.
Seeing the mood he had finally depressed being lifted again by Kechizu, Sukuna immediately became annoyed.
"You're nothing but a half-breed hybrid of human and cursed spirit. Your intelligence is only a tiny bit better than those brain-dead cursed spirits, isn't it? What use are you?
You probably don't even believe you have the ability to solve problems, do you?"
Ryomen Sukuna's questions always struck the weak points and the core, but this time, he truly kicked a steel plate.
Kechizu, upon hearing this belittlement, didn't argue at all.
He even nodded his head in agreement: "That's right, that's right, I'm very stupid... luckily I have my brothers. They help me think, and I just have to follow their ideas.
[King of Curses]... don't you have any brothers? Or surely you have some other family, right?"
"..."
Sukuna was speechless. A conversation so high in "sugar content" that even he found it unbearable—where had he heard something like this before?
Indeed, calling a fool a fool... the person doing so might be the one judged as a fool instead.
Before Ryomen Sukuna could figure out how to strike at someone whose brain capacity was lower than Itadori's, Kechizu himself suddenly had a huge emotional surge.
"There! Itadori! I feel Aniki's presence right up ahead!"
In his excitement, Kechizu suddenly accelerated, nearly throwing Itadori off his back, but they finally reached the destination Kechizu was pointing to.
"ANIKI!!!!"
Kechizu loved his second brother, of course, but his feelings for his eldest brother were truly the most special. This was probably because the eldest brother was the smartest among the siblings.
Hearing that another of the Death Paintings was right in front of him, Itadori, who had been depressed by Sukuna's words, instinctively raised his head to look forward—only to find that the situation seemed a bit different from what he had imagined...
That guy... the look in his eyes as he stared at them seemed a bit off?!
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