A Story About that Girl

From childhood, Nobara never blended in. She gravitated toward newcomers such as Saori and Fumi and bolted from her cramped village at the earliest opening. To both girls she had promised a reunion someday. Now, with Mahito's technique ravaging her, she wants those nearby to understand that her life, all told, had not been so bad.

The chapter looks back on Nobara's early years. Fumi relocated to the rural village roughly when Nobara entered grade school, and her light-blue backpack clashed with classmates carrying only red or black. Coveting that uncommon color, Nobara offered a swap, and their friendship took root. Disliking the villagers, she stuck mostly to Fumi, frequently dropping by to play Super Smash Bros with Fumi's father. The village was so tiny that staying a stranger proved harder than forming bonds, a smothering closeness Nobara resented; Fumi only grasped why years later, when a neighbor delivered red bean rice to mark her coming of age. Nobara once brought Fumi to her secret base, the house of an older girl named Saori who had arrived after Fumi and always welcomed them in. Fumi sensed Nobara grew more poised after befriending Saori. Following repeated vandalism of her home, Saori departed the village, and all Fumi retains of that goodbye is Nobara's tear-streaked face.

By June 2018, Nobara secured permission to transfer to a Tokyo school, her enrollment delayed by her grandmother's objections. She and Fumi gathered to say farewell at the train, Nobara swearing she would never come back. Fumi felt ashamed and guilty that Nobara cried for Saori but not for her, and neither had touched the subject of Saori since the day she moved on. Nobara told Fumi that the three of them ought to be together once they meet again, blushed, and Fumi wept in agreement. In the present, a grown Saori works a late office shift and ignores word of trouble in Shibuya, telling a coworker about a young girl named Nobara she once knew and fearing they would now be let down by her. At the same time, Nobara remembers learning at Jujutsu High that being a little crazy is not so bad, calls up the faces of those she loves, and tells Fumi she is sorry that a future meeting between them can never happen. She asks Yuji to make certain everyone hears it was not so bad, an instant before her face swells and her left eye bursts under Idle Transfiguration, spraying blood across his face.

This is a backstory-focused chapter that introduces Fumi and Saori as named characters and deepens Nobara's history. It corresponds to Episode 43 of the anime and ran in Weekly Shonen Jump issue 45 of 2020. Its emotional weight lands directly against the brutality of the ongoing battle in Shibuya Station.