The autumn of art, the autumn of music.

One need not be afraid of not having an answer when it came to finding entertainment in this season.

Even though the students of the technical college were Jujutsu Sorcerers, they were also students.

Just as studies were not everything in school life, their lives were not just about training and going for missions.

It was important to be prepared to go on the battlefield anytime but if they do not relax appropriately, it would be quite a burden on them.

They would tense up their nerves when they needed to and they would relax when it was time to relax and rest, it was also important to know this.

They had just completed their exchange event and chased away the special grade cursed spirits, so they were unable to let down their guard, but to Jujutsu Sorcerers, the busiest period had passed. The Kyoto students had returned back to Kyoto and the Tokyo school returned to normal.

In other words, as such, this day, the first years of the Tokyo College seemed to be free.

Especially Kugisaki, she had a face of being bored out of her mind.

“Itadori, are you free?”

“You can tell he’s free just by looking, right?”

“In what way do I look free?”

“People will only clean up the apps in their phone when they have absolutely nothing to do, right?”

“Hey, Itadori. Tokyo, Pass time, recommend.”

“Even if ask me like you’re asking Siri, I also….”

“Then let me ask you, Fushiguro, is there anything fun lately?”

“You are asking the wrong person.”

“Seriously, the boys in my class are so useless….”

This was the season when the coolness of autumn was becoming more pronounced.

But the first years who had nothing to do did not know how to pass the time even if they stayed in the college. Furthermore, their second-year seniors were all out carrying out their missions so they could not find anyone to do actual combat practice.

In this situation, the trio who had a maddening amount of free time wandered to the convenience store near their school.

It was not as though they wanted to buy something.

However, normally, when someone started thinking about whether a new magazine issue was out, if a new drink was on the shelves already or just a simple case of feeling that the outside is cold, then they would go shop around in a supermarket.

Gojou had once strictly declared that a supermarket was “A place which would let Jujutsu Sorcerers who have lost touch with worldly affairs quickly understand what’s trending”, however the students know he was just speaking nonsense. In actual fact, Ichiji just retorted that “I feel that the supermarket is just an emergency supply store for you to immediately get donuts”, and received a hand chop from Gojou.

“Is there any place which is fun? If it’s just around here, I have gone to basically everywhere.”

Kugisaki mumbled as she flipped through the tourist brochures at the magazine section.

Itadori, who was flipping through a manga magazine next to her, replied.

“Today doesn’t seem suitable for wandering around outside, it’s fine to go karaoke though but if we stay there till evening, it feels like it’ll be too long.

“And you can’t even open your vocal chords in this kind of weather. Yosui’s songs would be difficult to sing.”

“You want to start singing Inoue Yosui’s songs?”

“Of course. Besides, I even have to choose songs at your level. I’m ready to sing the well-known “Riverside Hotel”.”

“Right, thanks for thinking about us….wait, seriously?!”

“Why are you screaming like it’s a variety show?”

“The mangas that I have been following have ended! And it’s two of them at once!”

“Ahh, because you have been dead for a while.”

Kugisaki peered at the magazine in Itadori’s hands while coldly replying. She was perplexed at why boys, no matter their age, were such big fans of that magazine that had the words “Shounen” in its name.

“Goodness…I’m shocked, now my feelings are like that of Urashima Tarou.”

“That’s so exaggerated, you probably only been dead for around two months?”

“It was not as though I could go wander around outside, how would I know such things. For weekly serialized magazines, two months is sufficient for it to get cancelled….Fushiguro, you don’t follow this manga, do you?”

“No.”

Fushiguro, who was called by Itadori, did not turn around and even continued to choose a packet of chewing gum while replying. It feels as though he was completely uninterested in manga but Itadori was used to such a reaction from Fushiguro so he did not mind.

“Tch, this manga actually ended at the part I was most interested in.”

“Why don’t you just read it again when the tankobon* comes out?”

(T/N: Published volume)

“You’re right about that….speaking of Tankobon, the manga, games and posters in my rooms are all gone. But well, I did die so it can’t be helped that they got cleared out.”

“I symphatise with you but I think you shouldn’t paste posters anymore. Just think about those who have to help the dead clear their belongings. How do you think they would feel knowing the kind of fetishes that person had in life?”

“Wait, Kugisaki, were you the one who cleared the stuff in my room?”

“It was Fushiguro.”

“Thank you, Fushiguro!”

“If I knew that you were alive, I would have kept it as it was.”

“No, cleaning it a bit is good.”

“Don’t tell me your room has things that you do not want others to see?”

“…I…don’t have such…”

Kugisaki narrowed her eyes as she studied Fushiguro and Itadori’s expressions. However, she did not continue to press on the issue. This was probably considered the considerate behaviour of a girl.

“Also, how long are we going to stand here looking at books?”

“Do you have somewhere you want to go to, Kugisaki?”

“Do you?”

“Shall we go watch a movie then?”

“What’s good to watch?”

“The cinema near here is showing “Galaxy Mad Shark vs Titan Zombie”.”

“Isn’t it some kind of dark humour for you, someone who had died and came back to life, to watch a movie about the undead?”

“I never thought someone would make a joke about this.”

Kugisaki made a prim expression with a look as though she was saying  “You’re serious?” and she stared at Itadori who had no sense of shame. At the same time, her expression was also saying “Is this guy actually sorry that he died?”

“Besides, hasn’t your taste in choosing movies become lousy?”

“It has, hasn’t it? In these two months, Gojou-sensei forced me to watch all kinds of movies. I’ve watched really interesting ones but on the flip side, the ones that were clearly sucky….I probably seen close to a hundred.”

“It feels like that guy has an uber amount of secondhand DVDs from unknown sources.”

“But the Galaxy Mad Shark series are pretty good? I know it’s supposed to be a movie about sharks but there are actually real sharks.”

“I really can’t stand the way freaks like movie buffs recommend movies.”

“Hah?!”

“If you’re going to watch that, I’m going back too.”

“Eh?!”

Faced with Kugisaki and Fushiguro who were honestly baffled, Itadori finally realised that he was more abnormal than he thought, making him feel somewhat hurt.

In a short period of time, he was exposed to a large amount of movies, whether good or bad.

Never mind about Gojou who recommended movies to Itadori, Yoshino Junpei was also another one who could watch a wide range of movies. Since he and Junpei were able to hold a conversation with each other, it could be said that Itadori’s taste in movies has veered towards the non-mainstream.  Itadori originally thought that imitating the antics of “Castaway’s” Tom Hanks was a classic joke but now he was kind of worried that Kugisaki and Fushiguro would not understand and it would just end at that.

Right now Itadori felt a sense of loneliness that was hard to put into words.

“Eh…let me think….”

Since both Karaoke and watching movies would not do, the choices they had were decreasing. Itadori quickly flipped through his magazine, thinking if there were any recommendations inside on where to go to.

However, what he was flipping through now was a manga magazine.

The magazine would not recommend tourist attractions or famous stores that were nearby but in reality, he did not read them in detail. He was just flipping while thinking at the same time.

However, his hands suddenly stopped at the page he flipped until.

What was in front of him was the two-page cover of a hot-blooded manga that was in serialization.

“Ah, there is still the autumn of sports.”

“Did you just think of some lousy idea?”

“Let’s undergo some special training to prepare for next year’s exchange event.

“What?”

After Kugisaki heard Itadori’s recommendation, she had a look of disgust that came from the bottom of her heart while Fushiguro, at this point of time, finished paying for his mint chewing gum at the cash register.

He was thinking that by the time he returned to the other two, the itinerary for what to do after should have been decided, at the same time, he realised that the staff who was asking “do you need this heated up” had a fly head on their head so he exorcised it in passing.

*

Therefore, to these first years, Autumn was the Autumn of sports.

“And here I was thinking what kind of special training you were talking about, so it’s this.”

“I wanted to come over here some time before.”

The three first years left the convenience store, reached the bus stop, and took a bus for about ten minutes.

In the end, they arrived at an indoor sports entertainment facility that had a few branches within the city of Tokyo.

 Of course, this place had baseball as well as practice facilities. Other than that, they could play pool, billiards, indoor soccer, ice skating, golf and Segway machines. Inside, there were also eateries and Karaoke so it could be said to be a great place to kill time.

The boonies also had such a place however regardless of scale or the variety of facilities, they pale in comparison to the same kind of stores in the city. The Autumn of Sports was a phrase that was often heard but Kugisaki was blown out of her mind after coming to this place.

“Who knew you were able to think of such a good place, Itadori. If we come here, even if we’re sick of playing one of the games, there are still many others.”

“Right? Fushiguro, please lead the way.”

“It’s not like I’ve been here before.”

“Lies, don’t you live in Tokyo?”

“What have been doing with your life in Tokyo until now?”

“Shouldn’t it be about time for you two to get rid of such a prejudiced view?”

“How is it prejudiced? That’s only your impression.”

“You have to do some activities other than setting oil covered seagulls on fire.”

“How in the world do both of you see me?”

However, Fushiguro was already used to these two messing around.

In any case, this place has a variety of amusement facilities so whether it was Itadori or Kugisaki, they should be able to find something to have fun with and completely enjoy themselves.

Fushiguro looked towards the introduction poster inside the store and was thinking what he should do to pass the time as those two were playing.

There seemed to be enough machines at the arcade section, however if Itadori found some strange battle game, then he was in trouble. Some time before, Itadori had pestered him to playing a certain game at Akihabara and in the end, it was like torture.

However, the sports facilities seem to be pretty complete here and in addition to Itadori and Kugisaki being the kind to prefer moving around, so they should not want to play arcade games in such a place—Fushiguro thought as he looked towards the position where those two were and he realised that they were already at the register of a shop, excitedly talking to each other.

“Kugisaki, this place is really out of this world, they actually have Segways!”

Seriously? Tokyo is really a futuristic world.

“Can untrained people ride Segways?”

“It’s better to have licenses for small motorized vehicles.”

“I see.”

“If I don’t get to ride it this time, I probably won’t ever have another chance in my life to ride Segways.”

“You’re right. This way, we can imitate “Mall cop”.”

“What are you talking about? Who knows what kind of movie that is.”

“Don’t you already know it’s a movie? The skateboard shaped Segway looks cool, like something out of “Back to the Future”.”

“Looking at you, I really feel like you have fallen into a toxic influence of movies. If you deprive someone of all other kinds of entertainment for a few months and only let them watch movies, do they all become just as freaky as you?”

“Fushiguro, which Segway do you want to ride?”

“I feel the ordinary one is more suitable. It’s gonna look interesting if he rides on it.”

“Yeah, let me think about it….Fushiguro riding a Segway with a prim and proper pose.”
“Right? He’s definitely suited for it.”

“……”

After Fushiguro was stunned for a few minutes, the reality of “Ah, so I have to get on one too?” became clear to him so he stopped looking for other activities to kill time.

Putting aside the situation of when it was just Itadori or Kugisaki alone, when both of them were around, Fushiguro could only obediently go along with them.

*

“Wait, this thing can turn on its own!”

“Relax your body! Every time your centre of gravity goes down once the vehicle will turn once.”

“But if I don’t use strength, there is no way I can accelerate right?!”

“Whose theory is that!”

“The God of Cars, Ayrton Senna’s!”

“Bullshit! Senna better have ridden a Segway before!”

– – No wonder, this kind of vehicle is really not good to control if one had not familiarized themselves with the method of riding.

Kugisaki had the posture of a baby penguin and she controlled an ice skate model* of Segway that had no handles while Itadori was at the side helping her out.

(T/N: Google Segway Ninebot drift)

Afterall, the ice skate model and the skateboard model of Segways had different levels of difficulties so it was normal to not be able to get it right the first time.

On the contrary, Itadori could drive smoothly at once, proving once more that he had such good athletic skills that it put him on a monster class.

Honestly speaking, it would have been great if they could have some kind of coach to guide them from the side—even though Fushiguro felt that way, it was pointless to talk about this at this point of time.

He had the feeling if he tried to get close to Kugisaki, she was going to collide into him and then try to act tough, spouting some words he could not understand. In addition, he was quite bothered with the meaning of what Kugisaki said about oil covered seagulls.

Therefore, Fushiguro stood somewhere further away, gazing at the other two on the other side of track, gliding and arguing at the same time.

“How are these two able to keep arguing?”

Fushiguro was in admiration, thinking that the two of them had boundless amounts of energy.

Honestly speaking, he felt that Itadori and Kugisaki’s personalities meshed really well.

It was just that before, Fushiguro had unintentionally mentioned that “Both of you are close”, Kugisaki showed an expression of disdain, uttered a “Hah?” so afterwards, he never mentioned it ever again.

He always felt that those two were “Board” and “Nails” so they were on the same wavelength; but if he used such a logic on himself, he would end up being a joint and it might end up with Itadori and Kugisaki using an annoying way of making fun of him so he did not continue to think about it.

(T/N: Kugisaki’s name has the character for nails while the Ita in Itadori sounds like the Japanese word for Board and the Fushi in Fushiguro sounds like the Japanese words for Joint. I.e. all construction related.)

But, now that he thought about it—

“….I should be used to it already.”

Fushiguro quietly watched Itadori and Kugisaki fool around and the scene before his eyes felt nostalgic.

No, this was definitely a scene he had not seen for a long time.

Itadori “swallowing Sukuna’s finger” was something that happened in June.

After that, Kugisaki came to the Tokyo College and the time she spent with Itadori was two weeks.

The three first years only spent this short time together, most of the times, they hardly knew each other.

However, whether it was Fushiguro or Kugisaki, during these two months when Itadori was “dead”, the two of them spent their days staring at the “gap”.

The passing of their comrade—

Something like this was not considered rare in the line of a work of a Jujutsu Sorcerer and deaths due to getting cursed or killed by curse users were innumerable.

Even with that said, they could not treat it like it was nothing.

For the people who got killed – though Itadori was an exception—it was the end for most of them once they realised they were dead.

But for those around them, the death of a person they know was merely the start of a series of bitter pain.

When the incident just happened, even though the pain resonated into the heart, the impact dealt to the heart was like a dull pain that flared up now and then like an incurable illness. If they left something like last words, that would just end up being a thorn for the rest of those peoples’ lives.

Fushiguro and Kugisaki were no exception.

An empty dormitory room.

When they walked alongside each other, subconsciously, a space would form between them.

Suddenly they would want to talk to Itadori, only to realise that there was no one in front of them.

Waking up in the morning, passing the day, going to sleep at night, in this normal daily life, the truth of “Itadori no longer being around” permeated into their heart bit by bit, becoming bright.

Even if they tried to change their pace, the past where their friend died, the past where their own strength was insufficient will never change. No matter how hard they trained, no matter how hard they tried to improve themselves, that day, that time where the result was their own powerlessness to rescue their friend was set in stone.

However, bit by bit, they let go, they overcame.  Those countless regrets and the dead steadily faded to merely a memory.

Fushiguro and Kugisaki both successfully walked those paths.

In the end—as though they were startled awake from a nightmare, Itadori came back.

That was the work of the King of Curses – Ryomen Sukuna.

When Fushiguro was fighting against Sukuna, he knew the latter was able to use curse reversal. Therefore, letting his host live was not something to be entirely shocked about.

Even so, being able to see one of the dead standing before him, the ones who were powerless to save him also smiled.

Of course Fushiguro was happy.

At the same time, he was worried.

Given his own evaluation standards, Itadori was a good person.

Yet, misfortune and death would also, in all fairness, descend upon the good people, however Fushiguro felt that, since numerous illogical things exist in this world then this kind of miraculous resurrection was not necessary a bad thing.

It was just that, until now, he was unable to believe that all this was real.

Somewhere, deep inside his heart, he was unable to accept the truth before him.

“Fushiguro, what’s up? What’s with that terrible expression?”

Itadori, who was stepping on a skateboard model Segway came over with a poise like he was familiar with operating the vehicle. After Fushiguro looked at Itadori, he realised that Kugisaki was still struggling with controlling the Segway.

“Who says I have one? Besides, how long do you plan to ride this thing?”

“We’re almost done. This thing is pretty popular so it looks that there’s a limit to how long you can rent this thing. What should we ride next?”

“We’re only playing with stuff we can ride on?”

“Then do you want to jump on a trampoline?”

“Are you just picking things that I suck at?”

“You noticed?”

Itadori smiled cheerfully.

It was a smile that only kind people were able to show, a smile that showed one’s personality.

However, there was something slightly different about Itadori.

After he came back, sometimes he would show sadness.

Behind the eyes that were fully of an intention to smile were ripples, as though they were full of tears, very much like the smile that would appear on someone who was about to leave this world.

Fushiguro could also tell that in those two months before, Itadori “encountered something”. Even though he had never asked for the details, he guessed that Itadori had witnessed his own death as well as the death of someone else.

The deeper they sank themselves into the world of curses, the harder it was to show a pure smile that was not marred with darkness.

The resurrected Itadori had a posture that was more and more like a Jujutsu Sorcerer.

But in Fushiguro’s eyes, it felt like there was some sorrow.

*

“Battle start, I want to fight my hardest and grasp victory.”

“You’re one of those warrior types huh?”

Itadori looked at Kugisaki jabbing her thumb towards the ball game area, saying such words, and he could not help but make such a direct reaction.

“In the beginning, the one who said we had to prepare for the exchange event was you, right? Since we need to prepare, of course we should play those facilities that can soundly increase our skills and techniques.”

“You actually make sense.”

“Oh right, Itadori, since you are so athletic, what club did you participate in before?”

“Occult research.”

“Occult…what?”

“Occult phenomena research club, it’s so comfortable there. The club members were like us, just three of us.”

–Now that I think about it, I wonder if my two senpai are doing well. The memories suddenly flashed through Itadori’s head.

It had not even been six months since he left his previous school.

He heard that the technical college sent people who could treat curses to do the treatment so he believed that Iguchi senpai should have been cured already.

The regrettable thing was that since he left, there would only be two people left in the occult research club so they would not be able to meet the requirements of the number of members.

Furthermore, those two seniors of his were people who loved scary things yet had cowardly personalities and now they truly encountered something terrifying, so he wondered if after that incident, were they able to continue liking scary things—

“Why are you zoning out? Lack of sleep?”

“It’s nothing, it’s nothing.”

Itadori shook his head as though he was going to toss something off and Kugisaki did not press for the reason any further.

“Right, since we are playing this kind of competitive sport, it feels like we need to gamble a bit to raise the tension.”

“It’s not that good to bet on money, is it?”

“Do you think I’m that superficial?”

Kugisaki knew that Itadori was just making a joke on what she said so she only put on a slightly dumbfounded reaction.

“Let’s play a punishment game, punishment game. I don’t want us fellow comrades to be treating each other to meals so the person who gets the lowest score should perform some kind of imitation, right?”

“I approve!”

On the other hand, Itadori immediately agreed to Kugisaki’s suggestion. The thought that he was also part of this activity crossed Fushiguro’s mind and he could not help but furrow his brows.

“As for what’s on our program, you’re choosing.”

“That’s some heavy responsibility for you, Fushiguro.”

“Why are you asking me to choose?”

Even with that said, Fushiguro hated punishment games so he thought it was a good thing to be able to choose what they were playing.

He decided to choose an activity that was introduced in the sports section and chose one that did not require too much luck and even the difference in professional skill will not affect the end result that much.

“Batting centre.”

“You chose that as expected, we did play a baseball match not too long ago.”

“This is practice against the Kyoto school pitcher right?”

“Do not treat that pitching machine as their actual body.”

In any case, this was considered a conservative choice.

At least all of them had an experience at a baseball match during the exchange even. Even if Itadori had abnormally strong arm strength and stamina, they could use technique to make up for this gap.

“Is it alright if I go first?”

“Itadori, you are the last one.”

“Don’t I get a choice in this?”

“Nonsense, the first one is me. Also, if Itadori used that freaky brute force of his to hit a home run, then this match is over. So we are going to hit fifteen balls and decide victory based on the number of hits we get.

“Even I don’t get a choice in this?”

Kugisaki ignored Fushiguro as though it was a natural thing to do and entered the batting zone.

She stood the bat straight on the ground and made an action as though she was rolling up her sleeves. Actually during the exchange event competition, they made an obvious realization that she was the kind to strive to mimic actions properly.

“Open your eyes wide, boys. I am no longer Masahiro of Tohoku, Japan’s Outani Shohei is me.”

“But Outani Shohei is Japanese in the first place, right?”

“Then I am Tohoku’s Outani Shohei.”

“But Outani Shohei also comes from Tohoku in the first place?”

“Why are you picking apart my statements so seriously.”

Kugisaki ignored Itadori’s retorts and put all her focus onto the strike. She first swung her bat and in coordination to the ball that got flung over, she confirmed her estimation on the best time to swing the bat to hit the ball.

“Alright, here it comes, the best path of the ball!”

A “Jang”, a sharp sound of a ball being hit, rang out at the scene.

From the first ball, with a fairly fast speed at the striking the ball, she strongly hit the straight balls from the ball pitching machine into the protective net.

“Kugisaki, I really could not tell you are that strong at striking.”

“Nonsense, I usually have to use my hammer to hit numerous nails in the air and when I hit them, I can’t be off the mark of the nails will get bent.”

“When you put it that way, it sounds persuasive.”

In actual fact, Kugisaki has an excellent kinetic vision and control.

Putting aside the back up Mechamaru from the Kyoto branch that was designed to completely overwhelm its opponents….No, it was a pitching machine. So of course, Kugisaki could skillfully take on the straight ball that was thrown out in the sports entertainment facility.

The two boys were curious about Kugisaki declaring herself as Masahiro and Outani Shohei despite the fact that, for some reason, she made use of the pendulum style, but as long as she got the points, this kind of trivial matter did not matter.

(T/N: The baseball player who uses the pendulum style is Suzuki Ichiro)

However, after around the third ball, the situation changed.

“What?!”

Kugisaki was wondering if the pitching machine was slanted and then with a whoosh, the ball, before her eyes, changed sharply. The baseball bat that was ready to hit a straight ball swung through the empty space.

“Wait, that thing can throw a magic ball?!”

“That should be a breaking ball.”

“The straight ball is also breaking its speed isn’t it?!”

“It was you who set the difficulty of the route of the ball to the highest right?”

Fushiguro only flatly explained the truth when faced with Kugisaki who had turned back to complain.

“Damn Kyoto College! Do you not have the balls to face me fair and square with straight balls?”

“That pitching machine has nothing to do with Mechamaru-Senpai.”

“Shit, open your eyes real wide! Next I am going to demonstrate the skill that I stole by watching Darvish Yu and burst you into bits!”

“Kugisaki’s baseball universe seems to only have pitchers.”

“And she’s still using the pendulum style of hitting.”

Yet, Kugisaki was not affected by Itadori’s and Fushiguro’s calm analysis, even if she had to spend all her energy to handle the magic balls that show up in between, she still continued to push on and gradually, even the magic balls became foul tips.

When Itadori saw what was happening, he could not help but show admiration.

“Kugisaki is uber strong, even a baseball team would have a tough time with that.”

“Perhaps it’s a result from training with Panda-senpai.”

“Oh, is Panda-senpai a pitcher who is good at throwing magic balls?”

After Itadori heard Fushiguro’s words, an image of that Panda-senpai looking like the mascot of a professional baseball team appeared in his head but Fushiguro did not even shake his head.

“I don’t mean that. I’m saying that the way Kugisaki hits is not limited to her basic movements so it’s her adaptability that improved.”

“Oh—so that’s what you mean.”

“When you weren’t around, the two of us did a hell lot of training, so whether it’s physical abilities, vision or thinking ability, they all leveled up.

“Ohhh….I see.”

As though Itadori was chewing on the meaning of Fushiguro’s words, he nodded his head with mixed feelings. On the other hand, Fushiguro intended to say “No matter how hard the two of us worked, we are still overtaken by you” however, he swallowed the words back into his heart.

In the end, Kugisaki put up a decent performance afterwards and her final result was five hits out of fifteen balls and one of them even made a home run.

“What do you think, Itadori. I have a thirty percent hit rate and one home run. I’m basically a trump card batter.”

“Wait, weren’t you the one who said home runs don’t count?”

“Keep quiet, you! Fushiguro, you’re up next!”

“Uh huh.”

After Fushiguro took up the bat, he still walked into the batting zone, unmotivated.

Usually, he just played this kind of game casually but honestly speaking, Kugisaki’s results were outstanding. And during the exchange event, Itadori hit home runs all the way so it was hard to believe that he would do worse than Kugisaki.

If that was the case—then the problem of the punishment game was close to him.

The worst-case scenario flashed across Fushiguro’s mind.

He had to imitate someone loudly but who?

Without even describing in detail, Fushiguro was considered the kind who did not understand why people imitate others.

Of course he had no time to prepare and he did not even think of who he should mimic. If he was punished, his mind would probably draw a blank and he would be forced by Itadori and Kugisaki to imitate some celebrity he resembled and even that was relatively torturous.

With that said, Fushiguro also understood if after getting defeated in this game and he shamelessly said something like “Who wants to play a punishment game anyway, I won’t do it”, it would be an incident of “enraging the audience”.

Right now, the situation that Fushiguro faced was a one where he could not lose, even more than he had imagined.

However……

“……Damn.”

The difficulty of the strikes were harder than he had expected.

The pitching machine had fast balls and magic balls inside it, even Kugisaki who was used to hitting objects in midair was having a tough battle too.

In the instant he started to swing his bat, Fushiguro knew that the timing of his swing and the trajectory of the strike was off so he used a wishy-washy pose and hit air.

“Looks like the punishment game is all yours.”

“Zip it.”

Fushiguro forcefully clenched his hand that was holding the baseball bat.

However, it was not as though he would produce good results just by using power.

Baseball was a sport that was focused on all round abilities. Putting aside the sport known as baseball, if one just talked about just the batting, Fushiguro is starting to admit that Kugisaki has an upper hand over him.

At this moment, he was already starting to think if he should just focus on straight balls that were easier to hit and for the rest of them, he could just depend on his luck to hit as much foul tips as he could.

However, a piece of memory fleetingly went through his mind.

–Megumi, you don’t know how to go all out, do you?

Lately, this phrase said by Gojou a few days ago would occasionally pop up in Fushiguro’s mind.

But he did not have to recall it at this point of time, did he?

Even though he truly and sincerely wanted to avoid the punishment game so he would remember this statement, it was too inauspicious.

–Megumi, the baseball helmet suits you.

This was something that he heard Gojou say to him during the exchange event and it pissed him off.

Perhaps he was playing baseball now so the memory from that time appeared in his mind.

–Megumi, if you had to bring an exercise ball to a deserted island, what kind do you think is better?

Even some unrelated memories were appearing as well.

The Gojou in Fushiguro’s mind just kept talking and talking. The actual person was not even present so why was that guy still so annoying?

At this period of time, Fushiguro actually started to see the white ball flying over as Gojou and there was this constant feeling that the latter was taunting him, saying “Someone like you would just be satisfied with a pass when you go to batting centres~”

Speaking of which….he thought back to the time when he was asked to retrieve “Sukuna’s finger” in the beginning and during that time, he was infuriated and was ready to go back to beat Gojou up.

“Oh, Fushiguro’s batting stance and reaction have improved. Real smooth.”

“But his expression is terrifying, is he cursing the baseball?”

“Kugisaki, he’s gonna surpass your score just now, isn’t he?”

“Ugh….I had thought that he excels in sacrifice bunts, don’t tell me he was hiding his true powers all this time?”

“You sound like one of those rival schools in sports manga.”

“Who sounds like them. How dare he surpass me on his own accord and grow so sturdy?”

Therefore—Fushiguro no longer mulled over the trajectory of the ball, he just hit whatever came to him. In the second half of the game, his results went up by leaps and bounds and out of the fifteen balls, he hit seven so his final results exceeded Kugisaki’s.

In other words, it was confirmed that Fushiguro no longer had to be subjected to the punishment game and he let out a sigh of relief. By the way, he had the bonus of relieving a lot of stress just by putting  his entire mind in smacking a white ball.

“….Great.”

“This is the first time I saw Fushiguro show an ever so slight victory pose….does he really hate the punishment game that much?”

“Probably because the only things he can imitate are funny animals.”

“Can Fushiguro imitate animals?”

“Doesn’t he do it often? Look.”

“Making hand shadows is not called imitation.”

Fushiguro looked at Kugisaki who was using her hands to make a dog’s shadow and could not help but frown.

“The last one is me.”

Then, the finale entered the stage.

Itadori stood in the batting zone and held the bat then appropriately relaced his body and took up a natural batting pose……as if. He was way too relaxed.

Truly, one would not be able to hit the ball if they used too much strength however Itadori’s posture, when seen, would make people think, there is no way his strength would be able to transmit all the way to his hands.

“What are you imitating?”

After hearing Fushiguro’s question, Itadori showed a fearless smile.

“You two are not the only ones who grew, I picked up a new skill during the exchange event.”

“Ah, are you talking about the time you were brainwashed by Todou?”

“What brainwashing. I didn’t mess that up but I still think it’s kinda scary.”

Itadori swung the bat he held onto lightly and at the same time, confidently named his own batting posture.

“I christen this batting method……Black Flash!”

“……..”

Fushiguro also heard some important parts about the aftermath of fighting the special grades. However, he still had no idea that Itadori broke the record of consecutive “Black Flashes”.

Therefore, at that time, Fushiguro could only simply think “ I wonder if he’s going to get a harsh scolding from Nanami-san after this.”

*

“Great! Call me Numero Uno!”

“Why are you able to hit balls with such a random posture!”

Whatever it was, Itadori made twelve hits out of fifteen and became the overall winner.

After all, he was the man who could thrown a lead ball over thirty metres by pitching it like a baseball. What batting posture. There was no difference even if he did not care about the theory behind it.

“Kugisaki, Puuuu—-nishment game!”

“Tch, fine fine! I’ll do it, I was the one who made the suggestion after all.”

“So who do you want to imitate?”

“Guess after seeing it yourself then be astounded by my method acting.”

“You’re in your game mode even for something like this?”

Kugisaki stretched her shoulders, arms and started doing warm ups.

It was just imitating someone so who knows what muscles would be used. Besides, if she wanted to do warm ups, she should do it before batting—Fushiguro thought but he did not get those words out of his mouth.

Kugisaki cleared her throat with a “ehem” and started to perform.

“—Itadori-san, did you make a mistake?”

“Wait, under what kind of circumstances would Kobayashi Kendo address me with a -san?”

“Hah? Do you have something against Kobayashi?”

“I don’t have anything against Kobayuashi! Besides, aren’t you too like him?!”

Compared to Itadori and Kugisaki who were enthusiastic and having fun, Fushiguro was a bit at a loss. A girl would actually pick some comedian to imitate and that baffled him. However, Itadori who was able to give an immediate response was incredible as well.

“Seriously, let me show you what real imitation is like.”

“You also want to do imitation, huh?”

A frown formed on Fushiguro’s brow as he saw Itadori also starting to do warm ups.”

It felt like the situation had turned to a simple imitation competition so what was the definition of a punishment game? Also, was relaxing one’s muscles before doing imitation also the common sense of some world?

Fushiguro was troubled.

After Itadori took a deep breath as though he was going to do something great, he started to perform.

“—Don’t go today!”

“Enough already, stop quoting movies!”

“But you still understood where it was from!”

“Why do you have to pick that scene to imitate Arnold!”

Fushiguro abandoned the two who were playing enthusiastically and walked towards the vending machines calmly. He feels that if their emotions continued, he would forced to imitate something.

*

After that, the three of them continued to play for a while.

While playing table tennis, Kugisaki who was neck to neck with Itadori lost quickly in squash so she was extremely vexed about it. After that, they went to play billiards, but because the three of them were not clear about the rules so with the intelligence of the trio put together, it ended up being some new mysterious competitive ball game.

When the colour of the sky outside was on the verge of dusk, the group finally felt they should rest so they went to the food area to have a seat.

Kugisaki came back with bubble milk tea to where Fushiguro, who was sipping iced coffee, was.

Fushiguro was wondering how long the drink that Kugisaki was holding was going to continue being trendy.

“Where’s Itadori?”

“He’s waiting for his order of Takoyaki to be done.”

Kugisaki set down diagonally to Fushiguro.

“What’s up? You look tired.”

“It’s nothing.”

“Oh.”

Kugisaki started to slide through her phone while Fushiguro kept his head down.

The two of them seated opposite each other. The inside of the shop was bustling with noise but this particular space just had an air of silence handing above it.

The two of them did not have a bad relationship and they were not awkward around each other either.

Fushiguro and Kugisaki did spend two months together as the Tokyo College first years after all. At the moment, the two of them were so familiar with each other that they could get along normally without even speaking.

However, they still had to depend on Itadori to bring life to the party.

Fushiguro looked towards Itadori who was standing at the food shop area. Speaking of which, just now, the one who said he was a bit hungry was Itadori.

At the moment, Fushiguro seemed to have noticed something and raised his head.

“Kugisaki.”

“What?”

“So this whole time you were just asking what “Itadori wants to do” huh?”

“I really do not want to watch a movie about sharks.”

Kugisaki did not clarify the matter. She only put a hand to her cheek and sighed.

“Because that idiot’s expression is so telling. Something must have happened during the period of time he was missing. However, like an idiot, he could play to his fullest and push all his thoughts aside.”

Fushiguro could feel it as well so of course Kugisaki would notice it as well.

However, Kugisaki chose to be considerate about Itadori’s change rather than being puzzled about it. From there, Fushiguro also deeply realised that even though she seems to have a bold personality, her thoughts are actually extremely delicate as well.

“You’re pretty obvious too. You’re feeling troubled, aren’t you?”

“….Do I really look that troubled?”

After Fushiguro heard her say that, he frowned, feeling awkward about it.

Kugisaki pouted, her mouth becoming an upside down ‘v’, as though she was saying “I never thought boys would be this sentimental.”

“That idiot died on his own and then resurrected on his own…I was super pissed off at first and I seriously wanted to scold him till his ears bleed but there’s no point being bothered over such things. Just as we have to accept that someone died, we should also accept it when someone is still alive.”

After Kugisaki said those words, she lifted her chin, motioning to where Itadori was.

“That guy is still alive, standing in front of us. What other kind of explanation do we need?”

“Well……”

Fushiguro smiled slightly, thinking that it was just as Kugisaki said.

Whether it was the past him who was weak or that past incident when Itadori scarified himself, all these will not vanish just because Itadori was still alive. However, all this regret and frustration were not more important than one fact.

And that was Itadori was in front of them.

There was no reason to not be happy about it.

“Thanks for waiting~ what were you two talking about?”

The fragrance of sauce accompanied the cheerful voice and reached where the two were sitting.

Fushiguro and Kugisaki looked at Itadori in unison while Itadori just tilted his head, not comprehending.

“Is there something on my face?”

“I was just thinking why you still look so foolish.”

“Why did you diss me all of a sudden?”

“I want a Takoyaki.”

“Me too.”

With a clatter, Fushiguro and Kugisaki placed some coins on the table and took up tooth picks. Perhaps it was because they did exercise just now, their stomachs got unexpectedly hungry so they reached for the food swiftly.

“Ah , wait.”

However, Itadori frantically called for them to stop. Kugisaki was still looking for the better Takoyaki that had more sauce on it so she did not put her hand down while Fushiguro had already stuffed one into his mouth.

“What? There were three toothpicks on top, doesn’t that mean you intended to share with us?”

“These are Russian Roulette Tokoyakis.”

“You mean one of these has a lot of wasabi inside?”

“Exactly.”

The two of them looked towards Fushiguro.

Seeing that Fushiguro had silently gulped down his iced coffee, they realised that this share of Takoyaki had already lost its entertainment value.

“Fushiguro, thanks, now I can eat this with a peace of mind.”

“Are you trying to pick a fight?”

“Sorry, Fushiguro, they only sell this kind of Takoyaki here.”

Even though Fushiguro wanted to complain ”Why do you have to buy this kind of Takoyaki”, he did indeed devour one before Itadori could stop him so he had no way of forcing himself to blame the latter.

Kugisaki watched Fushiguro’s reaction with glee and at the same time wolfed down the other Takoyaki with feelings of reassurance.

“What should we do next? Since we already ate Takoyaki, it feels a bit early for dinner.”

“Hm….you’re right about that.”

Fushiguro used the ice in his iced coffee to soothe his tongue while looking at Kugisaki. Now he already knew that Kugisaki planned to let Itadori do whatever he wanted so Fushiguro did not go out of the way to interrupt.

After Itadori thought for a while, he also stabbed one piece of Takoyaki.

“I’m thinking that it’s about time that we do what you two want to do.”

Kugisaki heard what Itadori said in a relaxed manner and shot a look at Fushiguro.

Then she remembered that even though from Itadori’s appearance, he looked like a pretty clumsy and careless person, he was definitely not a dense man.

Kugisaki’s expression seemed to be saying “I really can’t beat you” and she shrugged her shoulders with a smile.

“Alright, then it’s about time we go sing Karaoke!”

“Cool, if we go there now, then it should be just around dinner time. It’s not too bad eating right at the Karaoke bar.”

“I never thought that the mere food of the Karaoke bar can satisfy you.”

“Even though the food there is not at the level to make me say delicious, it has a kind of uniqueness. Fushiguro, let’s go sing Yuzu’s songs, Yuzu.”

(T/N: A famous duo in Japan)

“Why must it be two people?”

Laughter filled a corner of the food area.

The three of them do not have to especially say much, they do not need to say “I’m back” or “welcome back”.

This was a normal day which made people want to shout, “Why has nothing changed at all”. However, every ‘today’ was different from ‘yesterday’.

When tomorrow came, perhaps someone would disappear.

When tomorrow came, perhaps they would lose their smiles.

However, at this moment, the three of them could at least tell each other boring jokes. This group of young people were in a part of this cursed world, enjoying their fleeting days of youth.

They do not know if they would be able to die a proper death when their life came to an end in future.

However, even if they were walking this path that was fraught with danger, sometimes taking a detour was not such a bad idea.