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"It's good to see you're okay."
Outside the dormitory, Megumi found Itadori walking calmly through the forest.
"Controlling Sukuna has been quite simple."
Stopping in front of his companion, Itadori sighed as he pulled one of Sukuna's fingers from his pocket.
"That curse seemed to have swallowed this. That's why it was so powerful."
Megumi frowned and, placing his hand on his chin, nodded in agreement.
"I understand now, but how did a Sukuna's finger end up in that place?"
Itadori shrugged in response. He knew Kenjaku had placed it there, but it would be strange to reveal that suddenly.
"By the way, where's Kugisaki?" Looking around, Itadori asked when he didn't find any sign of the girl.
"She returned to the school first. We faced some curses when we were escaping, and her arm was injured." Megumi replied, turning to walk.
Itadori nodded, accompanying him as they walked away from that place.
On their way out of the dormitory, Yuji eliminated some remaining curses and took some time to think about what to do from that point on.
Preventing the deal with Sukuna was indeed important and would prevent many problems in the future, but in doing so, he missed out on some opportunities.
Would he still be trained directly by Gojo? After all, that was an opportunity he didn't want to miss. Since he was already able to use cursed energy, he just needed to refine his control, and receiving tutoring from Gojo himself would certainly help with that.
He didn't have a technique, which meant his strength depended solely on his control over cursed energy. Compared to the others, he had this significant disadvantage.
"..."
Raising Sukuna's finger to his eyes, Itadori analyzed it in silence, Megumi seeing this and raising an eyebrow.
"What are you going to do with—"
Bite
Widening his eyes as Itadori suddenly threw the finger into his mouth, Megumi felt sweat accumulate on his forehead, the hairs on his neck standing up as a massive amount of cursed energy exploded from his companion's body.
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"Ugh... I'll never get used to this." But just as the energy emerged, it disappeared, causing Megumi to sigh in relief.
As they distanced themselves from the forest, Itadori opened a small smile as he looked at his hand.
'I can feel it... My amount of cursed energy has certainly increased.'
Even though at the moment, he didn't have any technique to rely on, he felt it would only be a matter of time until his body assimilated Sukuna's techniques.
He could feel his connection with the king of curses growing stronger, even if just slightly. He knew the best way to acquire his techniques was by eating his fingers to accelerate the assimilation.
Itadori was not a simple vessel, nor a mere prison.
He was a devourer, a creature capable of stealing the techniques of any being he devoured.
A talent not seen in 1000 years.
'I feel this disadvantage won't last long.'
.
"You seem to have handled the situation at the dormitory well, and even got a little stronger."
Gojo smiled as he looked at Itadori. From his arrival, he could immediately notice his growth.
In terms of talent, he could even say that Itadori was on par with Yuta, perhaps even better, since Itadori had been able to manipulate his cursed energy in less than two weeks.
Gojo certainly hadn't been wrong when he said he was a true talent not seen in 1000 years.
"But in the end, I still had to use Sukuna to get out alive." Itadori sighed, sitting on the sofa in the room they were in while looking around curiously. "By the way, why are we here? I thought we would go back to the school dormitories."
Itadori recognized that room as the same place used for training Itadori in the original story, which made him internally excited.
"Plans have changed. It seems the higher-ups aren't very happy with the fact that you're still alive, so you'll stay here until you become strong enough."
Itadori nodded; he knew that, since he hadn't died as expected, he would surely be hunted later.
With his precarious level of cursed energy manipulation, he wasn't confident he could survive without Gojo's presence nearby. Certainly, secret training was the best course of action for now.
"You already seem to understand cursed energy manipulation, so we'll focus on refining your control." Gojo opened a small smile, Itadori raising an eyebrow in confusion when the man suddenly pulled out a small boxing bear from his back.
'Where did he get that from?'
"Since you can already emit cursed energy, your training will be a bit different from what I had planned. I want you to do the same as you did when fighting that special grade curse."
Itadori listened to Gojo's words attentively, his eyes turning to his hands as he recalled the feeling of that battle.
"..."
And in silence, a small smile appeared on his lips as he succeeded, the cursed energy being expelled from his body until it slowly concentrated in his fists.
!
But as he felt excited for succeeding, his eyes widened when a fist suddenly landed in his stomach, his head turning down to see that cursed puppet ready to attack him again.
"You little shit!"
With a vein popping on his forehead, Itadori tried to punch it, but the puppet quickly dodged and counter-attacked with a precise hook.
"It's set to attack the moment you exceed a certain limit of cursed energy, so you'll need to reduce the output until it goes back to sleep. Of course, it will gradually lower the limit."
"Huh?" Blinking, Itadori immediately focused on reducing the amount of cursed energy, which made the puppet immediately return to sleep. "This seems too easy, maybe the biggest challenge will be the exhaustion."
"You think it's easy? Well, then I'll raise the level a bit." Going to a table, Gojo picked up numerous boxes of movie CDs, a smile on his lips. "You'll do all this while watching all these movies, and continue until you achieve decent control of your energy."
"..."
"Okay, that complicates things a bit."
Boom!
"You damned puppet!"