The curses surounding her—should know better. But they don't, and they attack, and she very much should be a higher grade sorcerer than 3.

"No."

"If I die, you die with me!"

He's wrapped his arm with his belt to stop the bleeding, but it hurts and he knows it won't be enough, if only he could—convince—Sukuna—

"Correction: the fractions of me in this body die with you. I still have eighteen other fragments of my soul scattered around. I'll be fine." He chuckles a bit, the sound reverberating through Itadori's body. "But if you want to switch with me, go ahead and switch. I'll make sure you regret it. Maybe I'll start with your pretty boyfriend, here, make him wish he had never met you before he dies. And the woman? She and I are going to have some fun."

"I'll never let you do that."

"I'm sure. So while you're holding me back, well... they're dying."

But before they can react, Fushiguro pushes Itadori away and throws himself back just in time to dodge a huge burst of energy—of, of cursed energy. Not a jujutsu technique, just pure, undiluted energy. He has... never seen something like this, something this strong.

"Fushiguro!"

That is... too much... he's going to die, the curse is laughing at him and he's going to die...

"Fushiguro-kun! Fushiguro!"

He's going to die. Itadori is going to die, or he's going to give in to Sukuna and that will be worse than death—he should never have come in, he should never—

Itadori slaps him, having at some point found himself on top of him. "Inori," he yells

and Fushiguro snaps out of it and looks at him.

"Find Hayashi and leave. Now. No, shut up, don't interrupt me. That thing is clearly having fun, yes I may die but it's whatever, just run, I will keep it distracted and once you and Hayashi are out give me, give me some signal and I will swap with Sukuna—"

"You are going to die."

"Then let it be just me instead of all three of us. Fushiguro-kun, please."

He looks at the curse, clearly having the time of its life, laughing and swaying from side to side, then at Itadori—

—he runs.

The curse watches him go but doesn't stop him, and just grins more widely at Itadori. "Just you and me, now, eh, boyo?" asks Itadori. "—you are a boyo, right? I'm just saying, you got the pecs and all—"

It's too fast. Again. The curse swipes up with one arm, and the wave of cursed energy is enough to throw Itadori all the way across the courtyard to the wall.

Okay, fuck, he might die.

He blinks the dizziness out of his eyes and tries to look at the curse again, only to see it mere inches away from him, one hand glowing with more cursed energy—

—it slams that hand against him, and he's through the wall, and oh now he knows how Fushiguro must have felt the day they met when he was fighting that curse, he thinks idly as his body ping pongs along the floor before skidding to a painful stop. That is far too much momentum, and why is he thinking of his physics lessons at a time like this, he should be—getting up—he can't move, can't open his eyes, can't get up—everything hurts—he can hear the creature's claws clicking against the floor as it slowly walks towards him—it's having fun, the bastard—

—he has to get up, it's charging something, he needs to stop it—he's up, both arms forward, he needs to stop it, he knows how to project cursed energy so maybe if he, if he does that he'll be able to hold on—

—he can't, the energy is too much, it burns, it hurts, it's eating at his fingers, he only has five of them now he doesn't want to lose them too, but the curse doesn't care, it doesn't matter how much he tries to stop it, it burns his fingers are stubs, it burns it burns it hurts—

—he can't—

His black demon dog is still alive, so he can still track Hayashi, fuck being careful he's sprinting, and there he is, there she is—

He hears her laughing before he sees her. It is… more than a little deranged.

“Why are you running, I thought you wanted to play?!” echoes a voice coming down the twisting corridor. A curse comes barreling through the wall, and then a barrage of needles turn a corner to impale it. It starts dissipating, and then Hayashi rounds the corridor.

“Fushiguro-san,” she says, and her smile is unnerving and her voice is coming out measured and business-like. “Oh, good. Itadori-san?”

That... was terrifying and slightly arousing and he would like to stop being a teenager any minute now is fine thanks.

"Buying us time. We need to leave."

There is the briefest of pauses as she takes this in.

“Damn,” she says, in the same tone of voice. “Exit direction? It’s been slippery, and I need to get close. I can only do this once.”

He nods and takes them there. For a mercy the edge is not too far.