Chapter 26: The Standoff in the Morgue
The morgue was in the basement of the technical college.
The temperature was low and constant. Formaldehyde and disinfectant lingered faintly in the air, mixing into a sterile smell that seemed to cling to the back of the throat. Stark white lights shone down over the stainless steel autopsy table, casting a cold gleam across the room.
Shoko Ieiri stood beside it in a white lab coat, a cigarette hanging lazily from the corner of her lips as she pulled on a pair of rubber gloves with practiced indifference.
Lying on the autopsy table before her was Yuji Itadori.
His body had been cleaned roughly. The hole in his chest had been washed out just enough to expose the severed blood vessels, torn muscle, and empty cavity where his heart should have been.
"How grim."
Shoko let out a quiet sigh and picked up a scalpel.
"I do feel a little bad for Gojo, but orders from the higher ups are orders. We need to confirm Sukuna's complete death."
She looked down at Yuji's still body and spoke almost casually.
"So sorry, Itadori-kun."
"I'll try to be gentle."
She raised the scalpel.
Just as the blade began to descend—
Snap.
A bandaged hand shot out from the side and caught her wrist.
Shoko's eyes widened slightly. She turned.
Yami was sitting in a chair beside the table, pale as a sheet, but fully awake. His face looked terrible, and his body was still wrapped in fresh bandages from the battle, but his eyes were clear and frighteningly steady.
He had arrived with Gojo.
Despite being severely injured himself, he had refused immediate treatment and insisted on coming to the morgue first.
"Shoko-san."
His voice was soft, but there was no give in it at all.
"If you cut there, he'll really die."
Shoko frowned and tried to pull her hand back, only to realize that Yami's grip was much stronger than his condition should have allowed.
"Yami, I know you're grieving."
She exhaled and kept her tone patient.
"But as a doctor, I can tell you this with certainty. His heart stopped. His breathing stopped. His heart itself is gone."
"In medicine, that is death."
She looked him straight in the eye.
"And not just for ordinary people. Even a sorcerer can't survive without a heart."
Yami released her wrist.
But he showed no sign of backing down.
"Really?"
He glanced at Yuji's body.
"What if we stop treating him like a normal human?"
"What do you mean by that?"
Shoko narrowed her eyes slightly.
A lazy voice suddenly drifted in from the doorway.
"I'm curious too."
Satoru Gojo was leaning against the frame with his sunglasses in one hand, idly spinning them between his fingers. He looked relaxed, almost bored.
But there was no smile in his pale blue eyes.
He had been standing there the whole time.
Like a lion guarding the entrance to its den, he had planted himself at the door and made sure no one uninvited disturbed this room.
Yami looked at Gojo, then at Shoko.
He took a slow breath, rose unsteadily to his feet, and walked toward the table.
"Because I can see it."
Gojo tilted his head.
"See what?"
Yami lifted one hand and touched Yuji lightly between the brows.
"The soul."
Shoko's cigarette nearly slipped from her lips.
"Even though the body has already crossed the line of death..."
Yami's fingers remained steady.
"His soul hasn't accepted it."
He lowered his gaze slightly.
"Or rather... the thing living inside him refuses to let him die."
The moment the words left his mouth—
Yuji's body jerked violently.
Then—
"WAAAAAHHH!"
Yuji bolted upright on the autopsy table, clutching at his chest as he let out a scream so loud it nearly shattered the morgue's sterile silence.
"OW! OW! OW! WHY DOES IT HURT SO BAD?!"
He looked down.
Then froze.
There was a giant hole in his chest.
"...Huh?"
His face drained of color.
"Wait, what the hell?! There really is a hole!"
His hands trembled.
"Where's my heart?! Why is my heart gone?!"
Clang.
Right at that moment, Ijichi, who had chosen the worst possible timing to enter with a stack of paperwork, pushed open the morgue door and witnessed Yuji Itadori, who had definitely been declared dead, sitting up and screaming about his missing heart.
His eyes rolled back on the spot.
He collapsed instantly.
The documents scattered across the floor like snow.
Shoko's scalpel slipped from her hand and hit the tile with a crisp metallic ring.
For once, the famously unflappable doctor looked genuinely stunned.
She stared at Yuji.
Then at Yami.
Then back at Yuji again.
"This..."
Her voice faltered.
"This isn't dead?"
She took half a step closer, utterly baffled.
"The Sukuna vessel really is this absurd?"
Her eyes sharpened in fascination.
"This is beyond medicine. This is a miracle."
Gojo watched the entire scene unfold in silence.
Then, at last, the smile returned to his eyes.
He ignored Yuji's continued shouting and turned his gaze toward Yami.
The boy was smiling faintly now, as though this outcome had always been within his expectations.
"Seeing souls..."
Gojo murmured under his breath.
The Six Eyes allowed him to perceive cursed energy, techniques, structure, flow, and far more than almost anyone alive.
But even he could not directly observe something as vague and elusive as the soul itself.
And yet this boy, who possessed no cursed energy at all, could.
"Yami."
Yami turned.
"What is it, sensei?"
Gojo walked over and reached out, ruffling Yami's already messy hair.
The gesture was casual, almost intimate.
But the meaning underneath it ran far deeper.
"You keep surprising me more and more."
His voice was low and warm, carrying a strange reassurance that settled over the room.
Then his tone shifted.
The lightness remained, but a sharper edge slid in beneath it.
"Now that we know he's alive..."
He glanced at Yuji, who was still clutching his chest and panicking over his missing heart.
"There are a few debts we need to collect."
The blue in his eyes cooled.
"The truth behind this mission."
"And how exactly we're going to make those rotten oranges pay for it."
The temperature in the morgue seemed to drop.
But it was no longer the cold of death.
It was the beginning of revenge.
Yuji looked between all of them with a dazed expression.
"...Eh?"
He blinked.
"What rotten oranges?"
He scratched his head.
"Are we eating fruit?"
Gojo and Yami exchanged a glance.
Then both of them smiled, the kind of smile that meant trouble for someone else.
"Yeah, Yuji."
Yami patted him lightly on the shoulder.
"Someone's treating."
"We're about to have a very big meal."
Outside the basement window, the rain had finally stopped.
The first pale threads of dawn pierced through the clouds and cast light across the old school building.
A new day had begun.
And with it, the world of jujutsu was about to start changing.
.....
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