Fearsome Womb

Kiyotaka Ijichi, the assistant manager, lays out the situation for the first-years at a juvenile facility. Surveillance has flagged a cursed womb there, one that might give rise to a special grade, and five inmates are still trapped within. Should such a foe actually emerge, Ijichi warns, the realistic choices narrow to escaping or perishing. The team's narrower assignment is confirming and pulling out anyone still alive. When a frantic mother begs that her son be brought home, Yuji is fired up and convinces Megumi and Nobara that no one gets left behind. A Curtain conceals the team, and a White Divine Dog is loosed to scent any threat.

Crossing the threshold, Megumi recognizes the curse's innate domain around them. The detainees they locate have already been torn apart, the mother's boy Tadashi among the dead. Yuji wants to recover the body; Megumi shuts him down and presses on the dream of granting proper deaths, asking what becomes of an innocent later harmed by someone Yuji rescued. Yuji turns it back, wanting to know what drove Megumi to save him in the beginning. Their standoff snaps as a curse hauls Nobara down through the floor, and Megumi realizes his sentry was slain without him noticing.

Both boys freeze before the special grade. Yuji swings the Slaughter Demon, but the blade snaps and his left hand is laid open. Mounting Nue, Megumi peels off to find Nobara, who is hemmed in by towering mask curses and down to her final nail. With no command of cursed energy, Yuji takes a savage beating, yet Megumi pulls Nobara clear of the swarm in time. Convinced death is upon him, Yuji weeps, then drives his despair into a cursed-energy-wrapped fist and charges. The curse snatches the blow effortlessly. That stall, however, gives Megumi the opening he needs to flee alongside Nobara, and a howl from the Black Divine Dog tells Yuji he can safely surrender the body to Sukuna.

Sukuna takes over, grousing about the troublesome boy, and almost by accident restores the severed hand. He toys with the special grade, offended that they share a rank, then unleashes Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine, carving the spirit apart and reclaiming the finger that birthed the womb. Annoyed at being used for the brat's benefit, he orders Yuji to retake control; met with silence, he flashes a wicked grin, grasping that the boy will not switch back.

This installment covers how the Eishu Detention Center is cleared out and is the first to draw on more than two source chapters. Both Ijichi and Tadashi's mother debut here, and a Juju Stroll segment riffs on quirks people show during phone calls. Megumi reveals Tadashi was held for striking a young girl while driving on a second offense, which fuels the boys' clash over who deserves rescue. The adaptation adds fresh material throughout, expanding the trek through the domain, the curse encounters, and Sukuna's taunting, while giving Malevolent Shrine a far more elaborate formation than the page did.