The crematorium was quiet.
Too quiet.
The kind of quiet that pressed down on the chest, made every breath feel heavier than the last. Incense burned in neat rows, thin smoke curling upward toward the ceiling like pale ghosts reluctant to leave the world behind.
Yuji Itadori sat on a wooden bench outside the main chamber, hands resting on his knees.
Across from him, Satoru Gojo leaned back casually, hands folded behind his head, blindfold tilted slightly as if he were staring up at the sky. Naruto Uzumaki stood nearby, arms crossed, gaze unfocused—listening not with just his ears, but with something deeper.
"So," Gojo said lightly, breaking the silence, "who passed away?"
Yuji didn't look up.
"My grandpa," he said. "He was more like my dad."
Gojo's smile softened. Naruto inclined his head slightly.
"I'm sorry," Naruto said quietly. "For it to happen at a time like this, too."
Gojo nodded, expression uncharacteristically serious.
"Yeah. Timing's cruel like that."
A pause.
Naruto studied Yuji for a moment. "So," he said, "have you decided what you want to do?"
Yuji didn't answer right away.
Instead, he asked, "Are deaths from curses… common?"
Naruto exhaled through his nose. "This particular curse is exceptional. But the damage?" He shook his head. "That happens all the time."
"It's a good night," Gojo added, "when someone dies normally after encountering a curse."
Yuji's jaw tightened.
"A body torn apart, disemboweled or decapitated..." Gojo continued casually, "that's actually on the better end of outcomes. We actually find something."
Yuji flinched.
"If you're going to hunt Sukuna," Gojo went on, voice sharp but honest, "you'll see scenes worse than this. And I can't promise you won't end up the same way. A lot of the people you'll work with probably will, despite our best efforts."
He leaned forward.
"So choose your hell, kid."
Yuji stood.
He walked into the crematorium without another word.
Inside, the air was warm.
The smell of ash clung to everything.
Yuji knelt before the remains, carefully gathering bone fragments with practiced hands. His movements were slow, deliberate. Respectful.
As he worked, his mind drifted.
Don't end up like me.
Wasuke's voice echoed in his memory.
Help people.
"If all of Sukuna's parts were gone," Yuji said quietly, still facing the urn, "would fewer people get hurt by curses?"
Naruto answered from behind him.
"…Kind of. It's complicated."
Yuji glanced back.
Naruto stepped inside, Gojo following. The humor was gone from both of them now.
"Cursed energy operates on a balance," Naruto said. "A wheel."
He gestured with his hand, slow and circular.
"Stronger curses mean stronger sorcerers are born. Weaker curses, weaker sorcerers. It also works vice versa. It's self-correcting. It wants to maintain equilibrium."
"And it never stops," Gojo added. "Ever."
Yuji frowned. "How does that make any fucking sense?"
Naruto snorted.
"No idea."
Gojo grinned. "'It is what it is' is how I cope with cursed energy at its extremes."
Naruto shot him a look. "You have the Six Eyes. No one should understand cursed energy better than you."
"Exactly," Gojo replied. "And because of that, I know it's utter bullshit."
Naruto sighed. "This half-assed attitude is why you can't beat me, even with Limitless and the Six Eyes."
"Oh?" Gojo rolled up his sleeves. "Those fighting words?"
Naruto smirked. "What do the Six Eyes tell you?"
Satoru lunged.
They crashed into each other, wrestling—in the middle of a crematorium. A cartoonish dust cloud appeared somehow with smoke and dust obscuring the fight.
Yuji stared, wondering if he should even interrupt or remind them where they are.
"…Do you still have that finger?" he asked loudly.
Satoru, mid-headlocked , tossed it over.
Yuji caught it.
He stared at the shriveled, blackened thing in his palm.
"…It's disgusting."
Then—
He swallowed it.
The building seemed to hold its breath.
Satoru and Naruto froze.
Black markings crawled across Yuji's skin.
Sukuna's laughter bubbled up—low, delighted—
And vanished.
"BLEGH!" Yuji gagged. "That's so gross it's funny!"
Naruto wordlessly handed him a soda, though he seemed to be deep in thought.
Satoru stared.
That's the second one.
A tenth of the whole.
This isn't just tolerance.
He's suppressing Sukuna without effort.
We haven't seen talent like this in a thousand years. How exciting.
"Something wrong?" Yuji asked.
Satoru smiled. "Nah."
"So," Satoru said, "you've steeled your resolve?"
"Not really," Yuji admitted. "I still don't get why I have to be executed."
He closed the urn.
"But I can't do nothing. That last request's gonna be a pain in my ass, gramps."
He stood.
"I'll eat every part of Sukuna. I don't care what happens after. I've already decided how I'm going to die."
Gojo clapped. "Nice! I like people like you!"
"Sounds like a fun hell," Naruto said dryly. "Pack your bags."
"…Why?"
"You're moving to Tokyo."
Yuji grinned. "Alright!"
He picked up the urn.
"I'll be back!"
When Yuji left, silence returned.
Gojo glanced at Naruto. "So. What did you want to talk about?"
Naruto's expression darkened.
"Kenjaku."
Satoru's posture stiffened.
"You remember Noritoshi Kamo?" Naruto continued. "The truth. A Body-hopping technique. Discount Soul displacement."
"Hard to forget," Satoru said. "That revelation shook jujutsu society. Especially the Kamo clan, who had spent all that time cursing their ancestor. They were in mourning for a month for fuck sake."
"It fully restored the Kamo clan's name," Naruto said. "And let the Uzumaki take the majority vote to officially become one of the big four clans… we already were, but that's besides the point. Our contribution to revealing the truth earned the Kamo clan's favour, and with your clan as well, the Zenin couldn't say anything to dispute us."
He paused.
"I was indefinitely assigned to track Kenjaku after that. His technique can probably fool even the Six Eyes, since there is no real separation between the soul and the body.. I also think he might have had a hand in the prevented Star-Plasma vessel incident, since he is the only one with a possible reason to prevent Tengen from assimilating."
Gojo frowned, the scar on his crown aching faintly in phantom pain.
"I can trace souls," Naruto continued. "The soul is the body. The body is the soul. I can detect and discern when a body has more than one soul inhabiting it, since I also have that feature thanks to my furry friend."
He looked toward the road Yuji had run down.
"It seems Kenjaku entered the body of Kaori Itadori after her death in a car accident almost 20 years ago."
Gojo's eyes widened.
"…Yuji's mother."
"That's why I became a teacher," Naruto said. "It was just for Yuji, In case Kenjaku came back."
"You think Yuji's like the Death Paintings?"
"No? I'm not sure, but he could be. I originally wasn't sure why Kenjaku would have Yuji, but his suppression ability?" Naruto shook his head. "It's unnatural. Definitely engineered."
"We Uzumaki are biologically designed to be vessels to anything. Heck, we might even be able to seal Mahoraga within one of us if we wished. Even with that talent, the sealing requirements are insane, and suppressing the sealed cursed spirit is a constant effort if they aren't on good terms. Rarely does a vessel's complete control over its prisoner happen unless they are physically as strong, and also have a seal capable of preventing escape."
"Yuji does it instinctively, with Sukuna with no seal and no idea of how to even manipulate cursed energy."
Gojo cursed softly.
"Don't tell the higher-ups about this," he said. "The Uzumaki ones will keep their mouths shut but the others? They'll kill him immediately. It's best they think this is just spontaneous talent."
Naruto nodded.
"Anyways, I had tracked him down, but Kenjaku escaped," Naruto said. "Using an open Domain Expansion."
"He has that? Like your cursed spirit Kurama?" Naruto nodded and Satoru grimaced. "Of course he does. Annoying Heian era sorcerers and curses."
"An open domain lacks a barrier. No enclosed space, or guaranteed hit. But considering the cursed techniques of those with the potential to manifest an open domain, that guaranteed hit might not even matter." Naruto explained.
"Right," Gojo said slowly, "it manifests directly into the world, and can affect objects with or without cursed energy."
"An Open domain is truly a divine act. Like painting a picture in the air without a canvas, absolutely obscene. A domain clash will still happen if an Open and Closed domain were simultaneously activated. Aperson with an open domain expansion is more likely to have the stronger domain than the one with the closed domain, unless there is a clear battle potential difference in the imbued cursed technique. On the contrary, it likely takes more energy to manifest and maintain. I was so surprised that, if not for Kurama taking over and using his own open domain, I might have been in serious trouble. I was fine but Kenjaku was able to easily slip away using one of his stolen cursed techniques, a gravity one."
"Probably the woman's cursed technique." Gojo said with a frown. "Those Open Domains are so unfair. We have to figure out how to attain them."
"You just want to make Infinite Void an observable thing to outsiders, you prideful prick. But yes," Naruto confirmed. " Perhaps if we study our domain expansions enough it might come to us on a whim. It may not be that easy, but I'm sure mastery and barrier manipulation a necessary step."
Gojo exhaled. "So Sukuna…"
"Might have even created it," Naruto said. "Or perfected it, if it was common back then."
Gojo laughed bitterly. "Figures."
"When Yuji's settled in Tokyo," Gojo said, "come to the Gojo estate."
Naruto nodded.
"We need to talk more about open domains." Gojo says. "I wanna drag Limitless into the world!"
"Gojo I swear to God, if you doom humanity, I will maul you on our way to hell." Naruto says.