The Weight of Our World

Bittersweet Choices

The sun rose all the same as Junpei got dressed and ready for school. He mentally prepared himself to take a lot of abuse from his classmates and then come home as if nothing happened, all so his mom wouldn't worry. He made sure his bangs sat like they were supposed to, brushing out the stubborn knots. When he finished, he grabbed his bag and had been ready to leave. The house had been predictably silent since his mom headed out for work long before the sun rose. The only reason he noticed something had been off is because it smelled worse than the days he forgot to take out the trash.

Junpei felt as though his heart stopped when he saw legs from behind the table. Each step towards them had him, hoping more and more that she just threw up. That she was just suffering the consequences of being drunk, nothing more. He paused at the point of no return. He couldn't pretend this wasn't an issue. He couldn't run from this. For once, he had been faced with an event that couldn't be solved by waiting it out and steeling his heart.

"Mom,"his voice was barely a whisper. She had been split clean in half with her upper torso nowhere in sight, blood and guts spilled across the floor.

Numbness took hold as he did all he could think to do. He went back upstairs and broke several of his things. DVD shards and their boxes were scattered across the room. He reached for his phone when a familiar hand, covered in stitches, stopped him,"Junpei, I came as soon as I realized."

Mahito feigned concern, taking advantage of his confusion and despair. He let Junpei babble on while he held him, mind drifting to the next phase of his plan until the teen stopped. He couldn't care less about how Junpei felt at this stage. This was the finale to the greatest experiment yet. He'd break Yuji and force him to strike a deal with Sukuna. When he finally settled down enough, getting past the initial shock and hysterics, his plan went into motion.

He held up one of Sukuna's fingers in front of Junpei,"I found this downstairs and I think this is will explain what happened. This attracts curses. It's one of Sukuna's fingers."

"Why is that here?"Junpei asked.

The curse suppressed a smile,"Money, grudges, luck. Do humans need a real reason to curse each other like this, Junpei? You know first hand that cruelty doesn't always have an explanation. Some sorcerers do these kind of things for money all the time."

The teen's heart faltered and so Mahito drove the final nail into his coffin,"I heard you met with a sorcerer recently. Hopefully it wasn't Sukuna's vessel. I can't remember his name very well, but I think his last name was Itadori."

It didn't take much more convincing after that before Mahito could put his plan into motion. Junpei would attend school like normal and he would make sure the two would come together. Junpei would pay for his blind trust in Mahito and Itadori would pay for his bad habit of showing kindness to strangers.

Junpei stood outside the gate with Mahito, looking at the school. They had a ceremony going on right now and he knew exactly who they were congratulating because it never changed. The spotlight belongs to those born in fortunate places with money, charisma, and wit.

He wore something out of his mother's closet since he didn't have enough black clothes himself. This was a day of mourning and he knew very few people would attend her funeral. He'd force them to mourn anyway, taking out the one who'd made himself into an idol and, although he wished it wouldn't come down to it, Yuji.

The veil went up and there wasn't any turning back. Ijichi and Yuji were parked in the faculty parking lot nearby and got caught in it as well. Junpei entered the auditorium, Moon Dregs expanding and filling the room, touching almost all the students with its tendrils and delivering a low dose of poison. Only two were left standing. His target stood on the stage, shaken but pretending to be fearless, and a passive witness. This death would be their punishment.