A cold wind swept through the empty street, stirring a few fallen leaves into the standing puddles.
Kaede stepped into the dim glow of a streetlamp. His gait was noticeably heavy, his dress shoes making slow, dragging splashes in the pooled rainwater.
The uniform jacket that had once been neat and presentable was torn to pieces. The horrific puncture wound in his left shoulder was still slowly leaking dark red blood, trickling down his arm and dripping onto the asphalt.
His right hand, hanging at his side, looked even worse. It had turned a lifeless ash-gray, with strands of murky black residue clinging to the skin and writhing faintly as he walked.
And yet, with every slow step forward, the moisture drifting through the air seemed to answer some invisible pull, threading itself toward his battered body, gradually steadying his breathing.
In a small neighborhood park two blocks from Satozakura High, the atmosphere was unbearably tense.
Yuji Itadori was pacing back and forth beside the flowerbed, visibly on edge.
Dust clung to his pink hair, and his amber eyes were fixed on the direction of the school.
Just over ten minutes ago, two terrifying waves of cursed energy had collided there.
Even from two blocks away, he had felt the pressure in the air, like the whole atmosphere was being torn apart.
He had clenched his fists more than once, ready to run back, but reason had held him in place.
He could not go back and make things worse. More importantly, he still had someone behind him who needed protecting.
On the bench, Yoshino Junpei sat curled up like a frightened animal.
His hands were clamped over his head, his thin shoulders still shaking uncontrollably.
Everything that had happened tonight had shattered his entire understanding of the world. The "Mahito" who had seemed to understand him, who had given him power, was a monster who treated human lives like garbage. And the young man who had suddenly appeared and saved him had shown strength far beyond anything he could have imagined.
Then a light but uneven set of footsteps sounded from the corner of the street.
Yuji's entire body tensed instantly. He spun around, knees bent, fists raised in a fighting stance.
Cursed energy flickered around his hands, and his gaze turned sharp and guarded.
Only when the streetlamp fully illuminated the familiar figure did the stiffness finally leave his shoulders.
"Kaede!"
Yuji blurted out the name and rushed forward without hesitation.
But when he got close enough to truly see Kaede's condition, he stopped dead in his tracks.
Yuji sucked in a sharp breath. His amber eyes trembled as they landed on that dead-gray right hand and the bloody hole in Kaede's left shoulder.
Instinctively, he reached out to support him, but the moment he noticed the black residue coiling around that arm, he froze, afraid that one careless touch might make things worse.
"You… those injuries…"
His voice tightened. He forced himself to calm down, quickly scanning Kaede from head to toe.
"The enemy's cursed energy vanished just now. That thing called Mahito… did you exorcise him?"
Yuji's brow was locked tight, his eyes full of worry and a trace of restrained guilt.
He knew exactly how dangerous that special-grade curse was. If not for the person in front of him suddenly stepping in, he might already have faced the worst possible outcome.
Hearing Yuji's voice, Junpei on the bench slowly lifted his head as well.
When he saw that Kaede, who had displayed such overwhelming force inside the school building, was now standing there covered in terrifying wounds, Junpei's lips moved soundlessly.
His hands gripped his pant legs so tightly his knuckles whitened. Guilt, fear, and a kind of speechless shock warred in his eyes, yet he still could not force out a single word.
The faint scent of blood lingered in the air.
Yuji stood half a meter in front of Kaede, not daring to approach recklessly. He simply looked at him with those clear, determined eyes, waiting for an answer while still remaining alert for any danger that might appear.
Under the dim streetlamp, Kaede's shadow stretched long across the puddles.
"Sorry. I wasn't able to finish him off. But he won't be moving much for a while."
Kaede's voice sounded hoarse in the night wind.
He remained standing where he was. The terrible hole in his left shoulder shifted slightly as he spoke, dark red blood sliding down the soaked cloth before falling with a soft drip into the puddle at his feet.
At those apologetic words, the corner of Yuji's eye twitched hard. He shook his head with force, his amber eyes burning with frustration and pain.
"What are you saying? You don't need to apologize for that! The fact that you came back alive matters more than anything!"
Yuji's fists clenched so tightly that his nails nearly dug into his palms.
He knew exactly how terrifying that stitched-faced special grade was. To fight something like that to this extent, Kaede must have gone through a battle so brutal that Yuji did not even want to imagine it.
His mind raced. Mahito escaping was a huge problem, and that soul-warping technique would become an even greater disaster if he recovered. But the most urgent thing right now was keeping the person in front of him alive.
Kaede did not explain further. His gaze slipped past Yuji and settled on the boy trembling on the bench.
"You don't need to worry. The first time someone gains power, it's normal to make mistakes. Besides, you didn't really do anything."
Those calm words hit Junpei like a hammer, instantly shattering the last of the emotional wall he had been forcing into place.
His thin body jolted. He bit down hard on his pale lower lip, then slowly raised his head.
The eye visible beneath his bangs was bloodshot.
The torment he had endured, the despair of being deceived by Mahito, the fear of nearly hurting others... all those emotions broke at once the moment he heard, you didn't really do anything.
"I… I almost… I almost…"
Junpei's voice shook violently, and his eyes turned red at once.
Large tears spilled down his face and dropped onto his mud-stained shoes.
He gripped at his own pant legs as though that was the only thing keeping him anchored in a reality that had completely come apart.
Kaede shifted his attention back to Yuji.
"The exchange event is coming up soon. Why not have this friend join Jujutsu High?"
A faint smile crossed Kaede's pale, blood-loss-stricken face, casual and almost offhand.
That dead-gray right hand hung quietly at his side, black residue writhing over the skin under the lamp.
At the suggestion, Yuji's eyes, which had been clouded by worry, lit up instantly.
"Yeah!"
Yuji whipped around to face Junpei, his voice filled with open excitement and hope.
"Junpei, come to Jujutsu High! There are a lot of amazing people there, and the teachers are solid too!
Okay, there's one white-haired blindfolded guy who's totally unreliable most of the time, but if it's him, he'll definitely teach you how to use that power the right way!"
He'll beat him half to death in training, Kaede thought, recalling those hellish sessions, but wisely kept it to himself.
Junpei froze. His tear-streaked face was filled with disbelief, his lips parted.
From a castoff on the edge of the world, to a half-made curse user who had nearly caused a tragedy, and now these two battered, bloodied people were extending a hand to him.
"Someone like me… really could?"
Junpei murmured the words, his voice so quiet it sounded ready to break apart.
Yuji did not answer right away. He nodded hard, then immediately turned his focus back to Kaede.
Reason won out over emotion. He had already noticed that the sinister black residue on Kaede's right hand was spreading.
"No matter what, we need to call Ijichi right now and get you to Ieiri!"
As he spoke, Yuji stepped forward carefully.
He deliberately avoided the right hand radiating that ominous residue and instead braced Kaede with his own broad, warm hands at the left side of his waist and the uninjured arm, trying to take part of his weight.
"Kaede, hang in there. I'm getting you back."