Chapter Text
The Curtain is gone, Fushiguro Megumi thought as he watched the inky barrier dissolve from the sky. The Special Grade Curse has been exorcised.
From beside him, Kugisaki was watching the Curtain fall too, probably thinking along the same lines as he was.
Now we wait for Itadori to come back…
Megumi stuck his hands in his pockets to keep them from fidgeting visibly, instead thumbing at the scrap of fabric he was able to pick off of Okazaki Tadashi’s body. The scrap of fabric that Itadori had been able to loosen, undoing its stitching.
Pink hair appeared from behind the remnants of the barrier, followed by fair skin. A dark uniform with a red hood.
Itadori.
”Hey, Potato Head!” Kugisaki jeered, shoulders falling with relief despite her squaring them. “Took you long enough!”
Except…
That wasn’t Itadori.
Even Kugisaki must have realized by now. She stiffened as Itadori’s body took a step closer, and then another, and then another. Silent, aside from the way his footfalls seemed to echo in the open air.
The sheer presence radiating off of Itadori, no, Sukuna, was like a physical force that was pushing at Megumi. If he were any weaker, he might have fallen to his knees at the weight of it.
As it is now, he couldn’t stop his hands from shaking. His entire body trembling.
Kugisaki took a panicked step back, tripping over her own ankles and stumbling, but staying standing by pure stubbornness alone.
”…Potato Head?”
”That’s not Itadori,” Megumi told her harshly, because expelling the air from his mouth was hard enough without choking, any more gently and he may as well be silent.
Itadori’s head raised, revealing four open eyes.
And they were red.
”We’ve not yet been introduced,” Ryōmen Sukuna, the King of Curses, the Disaster, the Calamity of the Heian Era, spoke like it was a divine edict.
One thousand years ago, cults popped up around powerful Curses and powerful Sorcerers in equal measure. Megumi thinks that, now, he can understand why people would liken them to deities.
「My name is Ryōmen Sukuna. May I have yours?」
“Name’s Kugisaki Nobara. Remember it when I beat you,” Kugisaki gritted out, hammer in one hand and nails in the other. “Now give us back the idiot.”
(It wasn’t quite the sound of rattling chains, but Kugisaki Nobara giving Ryōmen Sukuna her name came with the snap of something clicking into place.)
Megumi refrained from entertaining the Calamity.
”I have two hours before Yuuji reawakens,” Sukuna announced.
Megumi’s skin crawled at hearing Itadori’s name uttered so familiarly, but he forced himself to keep his eyes on the Curse. To catalogue every bit of information he can, to make himself a fighting chance. Like Gojo taught me…
Itadori’s hand was healed, which means that Sukuna can use Reverse Cursed Technique… Megumi put his hands out, interlocking his thumbs for Nue, the bird. He was able to use it on me when Itadori first swallowed that finger, so he’s not like Gojo-Sensei; he can use it both on himself and on others.
At the same time, there was also the sound of Kugisaki’s hammer hitting her nails.
”Weak,” Sukuna taunted, flicking two fingers at the nails as they drew close to him and —
And then the nails were split into dozens of little pieces, flecks of iron losing momentum.
Sukuna takes a step forward, foot falling on the iron dust.
”Were those even Cursed Tools? Or were they mundane specks of metal? Either way, they are useless without training or creativity.”
As of right now, Kugisaki is, unfortunately, the weakest of the Tokyo students, Sukuna thinks. She’s strong after she’s trained for the school event. And she’s ambitious, when she has a goal. But right now she’s too prideful for her skill level… defeating her in a single hit should fire her up when next she wakes… give her a goal, give her an ambition, give her a motivation that’s not killing Yuuji while she’s asleep…
Ignite the flames that make Kugisaki Nobara survive until the end
Sukuna’s eyes languidly slant over to Kugisaki, sheer disinterest in his gaze.
“Useless… as are you, right now.” Something about the words seemed… disingenuous for some reason.
Megumi tenses, knowing that he won’t be fast enough to save her—
And then Kugisaki is falling over, blood spurting out and splashing on pavement moments before she joins it on the ground. She’s out before she lands.
There’s no time to check if she is even alive. Megumi hates that he cannot be sure, hates that there is any uncertainty.
(But what is hatred other than fuel for a Sorcerer’s Cursed Energy?)
Nue, Megumi calls. Feathers fall from his shadow before the massive bird appears, flying out from it.
Sukuna only leans back when Nue flies by him, avoiding the attack gracefully. But Megumi isn’t finished — with the snake sign, he summons the Great Serpent, Orochi.
Its jaws come up from the ground, but Sukuna just steps aside, avoiding that attack too.
He raises two fingers, pointing them at the snake. But he doesn’t move them, just stands there, looking meaningfully at Megumi.
Megumi understands the threat there.
He recalls Orochi, but times it with Nue’s return—
And Sukuna just steps aside for that too, fingers raising —
Megumi recalls Nue too.
“All you do is rely on your Shikigami, one at a time, very little synchronization,” Sukuna says disdainfully.
And suddenly is behind Megumi.
He didn’t even see him move.
“But, in all honesty, they’re not that weak. So why did you run?”
‘Why did I run?’ Is he saying… I had a chance? Against that Special Grade?
Megumi doesn’t even register the dull thudding pain at first, just the fact that he’s hit a balcony wall and it’s crumbling around his body as he falls.
“Your Shikigami use shadows as an intermediary. It’s very practical. If only you used it more effectively…”
Oh. He kicked me, Megumi thinks as he hits the ground, dazed, before forcing himself to stand back up.
It’s not just his sorcery that makes Sukuna strong, he realizes as he tries to form a strategy, but his immense physical strength. And agility. He’s on a different level!
Sukuna doesn’t so much as appear as it seems that he had always been there, had always been holding his fist cocked back, had always been winding up that punch.
And punch he did, the King of Curses forcing Megumi to try and sidestep, to try and parry the punch by redirecting it.
And I can’t match that…
But the punch was too fast, too forceful. Megumi shot back, back hitting the wall again and cracks spider-webbing around him.
My Shikigami are all at risk of being destroyed, and I’m about out of Cursed Energy either way…
Megumi puts his hands out in front of him, forcing himself to stand again, forming fists. One above the other. Outwards.
“With this sacred treasure, I summon…”
Interest sparks in red eyes.
“Don’t move; you are no longer human!” Fushiguro Megumi puts two fists - one above the other - outwards. “Under Jujutsu regulations, Itadori Yuuji,” shadows begin to coalesce, “I will now exorcise you as a curse!”
”That’s the one you were going to summon on the rooftop when I first incarnated,” Sukuna notes, turning to face him in his entirety. “When you announced you were going to exorcise my Vessel…”
Megumi grits his teeth. He’s not proud of it, not proud to always resort to this one, but he’s not strong enough to do anything else.
”Eight handles…”
It’s just… it’s just so obvious how seriously Sukuna isn’t taking him. Letting an opponent Shikigami user summon a Shikigami? That’s what you’re not supposed to do, in any scenario.
Not that it matters to someone as powerful as the King of Curses. It is a taunt, it is declaring that he is so powerful that, even with another Shikigami, the Summoner is too weak to bother taking seriously.
It is being so confident, so self-assured that, no matter what happens, he has already won.
”Why would you announce your intentions? You could have easily done a sneak-attack, and I would have been none the wiser.”
‘None the wiser.’
Hah. As if.
”Then why would you save me?”
Megumi tries to force himself to continue, but realizes that he can’t. Not even under the eyes of Sukuna, the King of Curses.
Not even under the eyes of Sukuna, which belong to Itadori Yuuji’s face.
…
”I didn’t save you because it was the logical thing to do,” he confessed, trying to speak to Itadori who was somewhere behind Sukuna’s utter apathy, who had to be somewhere in there.
He had to be.
Itadori had to come back.
“I didn’t want to see a good person, no matter how dangerous, die. I did have to think about it. In the end, it was a selfish, emotional decision. But that’s okay…” Megumi’s fists uncurled. Fell to his sides.
“I’m not a hero. I’m a Jujutsu Sorcerer. That’s why I never regretted saving you. Not even for a moment.”
Megumi looked at Itadori’s face, looking for any familiarity. Searching for just a hint of Itadori.
But…
Why isn’t he coming back?
Was Megumi wrong? Was Itadori… was Itadori gone?
Sukuna blinked slowly, as if just registering that Megumi was done talking. As if that moment, where Megumi was pleading with anyone who could hear him for Itadori to return, was nothing but the wind.
Megumi was shaking again.
”…Itadori?” He asked. Begged. Pleaded.
Sukuna put a hand on Megumi’s face, covering his eyes.
And pushed.
Megumi fell down, toppling over like a discarded chess piece, physically unable to continue standing anymore.
“Itadori,” Megumi repeated, feeling like a broken record.
Itadori’s body stared down at him for a moment longer, dispassionately, before turning away. Turning his back on him.
“Itadori,” Megumi felt like a ghost, unseen, unheard. Unable to interact with the world.
Itadori’s body stepped away, again, and again, and again. Walking away. Leaving him.
”Itadori, please!”
Itadori kept walking. His form becoming blurred with the burning tears in Megumi’s eyes.
”d- Don’t leave me!”
But it was not meant to be.
Soon, Itadori was gone.
And Megumi was alone. Again.
Is… is he crying?!
No. No way. I’m just seeing things…
…
Fuck, I’m such an asshole…
…it’s for the plot. For the plot. Character progression. Yeah. Get stronger, kid, you’ll need it.
Sukuna is already firing a Dismantle through a paper Shikigami before she’s fully realized that she’s being attacked.
She sidesteps another one, taking the time to reevaluate. And to notice that she’s not alone.
”Where are they?” Ijichi Kiyotaka demanded in a frail, fragile whisper. Terrified out of his mind, but determined to get an answer. Shaking and sweating all over.
Sukuna tilted her head at him, curious.
A sneak attack, like she had just lectured Fushiguro. Huh.
“Back there.”
The man didn’t want to take his eyes off of her, didn’t want to turn his back on her.
But it seems that his concern and care for the students outweighed even the inevitability of certain death. He turned from her, and ran to the students.
Sukuna couldn’t help a surprised laugh.
Ijichi Kiyotaka. Surely he could sense the residuals of Cursed blood on her, could see the remnants of the slaughter she used as a teaching moment for Yuuji. Maybe he caught the wetness of human blood glistening on her dark uniform, the blood from Kugisaki Nobara’s fountain spray when she was hit with the lowest-powered, dullest Dismantle Sukuna could manage with the faintest amount of Reverse Cursed Energy woven within.
“Oi,” she called before Ijichi could get too far. The man froze.
When she didn’t continue, he turned so that he could see her again.
Sukuna pulled the mummified finger out from her pocket. Really, it was hard to think of it as her own.
Ugh, was she really going to do this?
…
Fuck it, we ball.
She tossed it back.
It landed on her tongue.
It didn’t even reach her throat before blinding teeth from all directions shredded it and absorbed it into her soul.
(One thousand turns to two thousand turns to three thousand turns to four.)
She let the tension rise, the fear bubbling up in the Assistant Manager’s throat was visible along with the man’s meager Cursed Energy. But he didn’t dare attack, fight, run, move, do anything.
“Funny how that was here, don’t you think?” She asked rhetorically before she smiled, turned away, and waved as she walked off.
She had one hour and, like, forty five minutes left before Yuuji would be able to take over. Though, if he remains asleep, maybe she’d have more? That would be nice.
(Ijichi didn’t dare turn back and run for the students until Sukuna had disappeared behind a corner. But as soon as Itadori’s body was out of sight, the poor man booked it for the other students.)
When Sukuna bargained for two whole hours (or, just threw out a suggestion for time expecting Yuuji to negotiate down and he just… didn’t) she didn’t really think too far ahead on what she wanted to do other than teach the kids a little lesson on power and strength. And by that, she means that she wanted to show them how far they had to go if they wanted to so much as survive in this cruel, unforgiving world of Gege’s love for pain and suffering.
But, now that she thinks about it, wasn’t Kenjaku supposed to be nearby with Jogo (the volcano Curse) and Hanami (the weird nature Curse with the Eldritch speech)? And the baby Cthulu.
Sukuna’s teeth ached as she dragged her tongue over them, elongating into sharper fangs.
Well, she had put this off for future!Sukuna, hadn’t she? And it is the future now so…
Fuck it. We ball.