Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

One moment Itadori Yuuji was walking through the bustling Tokyo Street eating his ice-cream. The next thing he knew, he ended up face first into a bush of some random foliage after a run-in with a truck that didn’t follow the street sign.

“Bu- gah!” His head popped out from the bush as leaves and small twigs stuck into his pink hair. Yuuji shook his head to get rid of whatever it was that was sticking around his head like a birdnest, closing his eyes shut and blindly grabbing at something solid nearby to pull himself out.

“What happened?” Yuuji grabbed his head before finally opening up his eyes and looked at his surroundings. There were so many towering glass skyscrapers that went high into the sky, reflecting the afternoon sunlight back to the street.

It looked like he’s in some kind of a park. That explained the trees and the bushes.

Yuuji stepped out of the bush as normally as he could, though he accidentally scared a few people that were sitting at a nearby bench.

“Woah, where did you come from?”

“Ah, sorry! I was a little lost,” Yuuji awkwardly laughed and waved at the two people sitting and eating their snacks. “Don’t mind me!”

Then he ran off before slowing down to a jog as he noticed how peaceful this place was. Was this even Tokyo anymore? There were people wearing these weird devices around their wrists, even carrying a square hoister like Kugisaki with her nails.

Surely people didn’t carry around weapons in this world… right?

“Huh, this is kind of weird…” Yuuji talked to himself, looking up at a giant screen on some random building he saw an animated monster flying and throwing attacks at each other. Two people standing on the opposite sides of the stadium grinning as they both called out the attacks.

Oh, it was an ad for some kind of… “KAIBA CORP DUEL DISK SYSTEM II - PRE-ORDER NOW!”

Yuuji just stared at the giant LED screen and wondered if he actually got himself into a new dimension or fell so hard, hit the ground, and this was all just a very elaborate lucid dream. He poked at himself on the cheek.

Nope, he could feel that.

“Monsters? What- I’m so confused right now,” If only he could go around and ask someone where he was at. Yuuji suddenly heard the sound of a couple of cheerings and shouting nearby. Already curious about this new place and the need to gather some more information, he followed the noises until he ended up at a park plaza, where a small crowd of local kids seemed to gather near a central fountain.

Yuuji curiously squeezed through a gap in the small crowd of middle schoolers. Right in the middle of the paved area, two teenagers were standing several meters apart and between them there was a giant floating translucent purple jellyfish monster.

Woah, wait what? A literal curse in daylight and everyone can see it?!

The sorcerer gawked, watching at the scene with stars in his eyes. No way, are they playing some kind of card game?

In their hands, there were different sets of cards. The devices in the two teenagers’ arms seemed to shine a light onto the middle of the dueling area. Like some kind of high-tech hologram only Yuuji had ever heard of in fiction or sci-fi movies.

Or that one movie Gojo-sensei made him watch in the basement.

“Jellyfish attacks your life points directly!” One of the teenagers shouted before pointing a finger right at his opponent. It slapped with its tentacles at the opposing player as the other winced, feeling the stray wind and force from the tangible hologram. The digital counter device on his wrist dropped from 1200 to 0.

The crowd cheered as the duel was over. The giant cards laid on the ground also faded into statics along with the monster, disappearing completely from the field.

“Woah… this is amazing!” Yuuji mumbled to himself, feeling a little giddy. Real life monsters from cards! And he didn’t even feel any kind of cursed energy coming from them. Then a presence from within his mind stirred after sensing his vessel’s fluctuating emotions. Took one glance from the outside before noping out of there.

Yuuji immediately perked up, sensing Sukuna stirred and mentally grabbed him by his scarf before the other could fully retreat. He quietly thought to himself, which in turn held a mental conversation with the cursed spirit trapped inside his body.

‘Sukuna.’

‘No,’ the curse in his head immediately replied.

‘I didn’t even say anything! How do you even know what I’m going to say?’

‘It’s going to be something dumb.’

Yuuji thought about that for a moment. Right. He was going to suggest something dumb- no WAIT.

“Of course not! I was just… you know… wondering about something,” Yuuji slowly started to say with a grin. After the duel was over and the crowds began to disperse, Yuuji also walked in the other direction to maybe head into the city.

First thing, first. Location. Or a map.

‘Wondering about something?’ Sukuna mentally said like a lemon being squeezed into his eyes. A terrible one. ‘We’re literally stuck in some random dimension where people play card games. Try to find a way back, pin cushion.’

Yuuji let out a small hum as he walked. So Sukuna immediately came to that conclusion on his own after looking through his eyes? He didn’t even think they could be part of a cursed technique?

Weird… but Sukuna had always been odd.

There was a sign near the street that said, ‘DOMINO CITY’

Yuuji had never heard of that city name in his entire life living in Japan. 

“Domino City… have you ever heard of a name like that before?” Yuuji scratched his cheek with a small confusing tilt of his head. 

‘... not really,’ Sukuna said, though a little slow.

Yuuji then started to walk in the direction of where the sign was pointing, and also the giant looking building in the distance with the same logo Yuuji spotted on those disks attached to people’s arms.

That must be the company that made them… Yuuji thought, hands in his pockets as he glided through the people like he’s part of the same world they’re in. Everything was surprisingly calm and Yuuji relaxed his shoulder.

As Yuuji reached the multi-story building, walking up the steps and pushed open the heavy glass door. A cool blast of air conditioning hits him, along with the sound of excited chatters from other customers in the store. There were hundreds of rectangle plastic packs lining the shelves. Some colorful card sleeves were also on sale, binders, and those same wrist devices Yuuji saw earlier in the park.

"Whoa..." Yuuji stopped just inside the entrance, his jaw dropping slightly as he looked around at the wall-to-wall merchandise. "It's huge. It looks like a video game store, but for cards."

He wandered toward the nearest glass display case near the front counter, leaning down to stare at a row of foil-stamped cards tucked neatly under the glass. A bored looking clerk behind the counter glanced up, tapping his fingers against the register as he watched the pink-haired teenager gawk at the starter decks.

The cards all have different colors and written texts on them…

Yuuji seamlessly moved to the other row of the glass display case and away from the frontline, just because he felt kind of bad if he blocked the actual customers from paying at the register.

‘Those are monster type cards you're looking at.’ Sukuna mentally pointed to the description of the card before gesturing to the other row inside the glass case. ‘They're different from those other ones, you can tell by the colors of the cards.’

Yuuji's eyes darted back and forth between the rows of colorful cards, following Sukuna's gesture in his head. He squinted at a bright green card, then at a dark red one beside it.

Huh, Sukuna is very attentive to the details.

"Oh! Yeah, I see it!" Yuuji leaned in so close his forehead almost tapped the clear glass. 

"The monster ones are like... orange-brown, and these green ones have a little magic icon on 'em. So it's like magic spells and trap stuff? Man, the art on this burning dragon looks awesome..."

‘And probably costs a lot,’ Sukuna said wryly.

Then electronic double doors at the front of the shop slid open with a swishing sound.

The soft chatter in the store instantly hushed down as people noticed the new arrival. A couple of teenage duelists hanging out by the display racks stopped mid-shuffle, their heads snapping toward the entrance.

Walking into the air-conditioned store was a short boy around Yuuji's age, carrying a school bag over his shoulder. He wore a high-collared blue uniform, but what immediately set him apart was his unnatural wildly spiked hair with vivid yellow bangs and crimson tips, along with a heavy golden pyramid pendant hanging around his neck on a thick chain.

Behind him, two KaibaCorp security guards in black suits held the doors open, one of them carrying a sleek, silver metallic briefcases stamped with the iconic KC logo.

"Ah! Welcome, Mr. Muto!" The clerk behind the counter scrambled to his feet, instantly dropping his bored demeanor and bowing hurriedly, his paycheck was on the line. "We have the prototype you requested ready for testing! Right this way!"

Muto Yugi offered the clerk a warm polite smile, rubbing the back of his head with a laugh. "Thank you so much! Kaiba said the new hybrid field-projector needed a real world test run before the public release, so I thought I'd stop by after school."

Yuuji blinked as he watched the crowd instantly part for the small boy with the crazy hair-

‘Perfectly quaffed hair,’ Sukuna added his two cents on it before Yuuji’s thought could move on to something else.

‘Is that hair all natural?’ That's amazing, completely capturing Sukuna’s attention instead of the old magic seeping out of the boy's necklace that he should probably focus on. The curse had priorities.

Then he thought about Yuuji, who has pink hair. Maybe it's not too far off to say that it was a natural hairdo.

Yuuji mentally nudged his shoulder lightly against Sukuna's side, whispering quietly so no one could hear him talking to himself like a weirdo.

"Check out that necklace..." Yuuji muttered low, his eyes fixed on the heavy golden artifact gleaming under the shop's fluorescent lights. "That thing looks way older than anything else in this high-tech store. And people are acting like he's a movie star."

‘Then he must be an important person,’ Sukuna said offhandedly.

Sukuna’s gaze lingered on the golden artifact resting against the boy's chest. He had a hunch on what it was. Not completely like the cursed energy of the jujutsu sorcerer’s past or modern era. 

But it wasn’t as if he was going to give it all away to Yuuji. He just had to play pretend.

Up at the main counter, the store clerk bustled around with forced enthusiasm that could be seen from miles away, setting down a heavy velvet-lined case.

"Here it is, Mr. Muto! The latest KaibaCorp field-testing unit," the clerk announced, unlocking the latch as the newly designed device was shown to Yugi. "It features the brand-new solid-vision micro-projectors. Mr. Kaiba specifically requested your feedback before the city-wide tournament."

Yugi set his backpack down on the counter, his eyes lighting up as he carefully lifted the sleek silver wrist mechanism from its padding. "Wow... the frame is so light compared to the older models. Kaiba's team really outdid themselves this time."

Yuuji took a small cautious step forward, leaning around a display rack of card binders to get a better view. His eyes were wide with curiosity as he watched Yugi examine the device. He seemed to be in the same boat as everyone else in the store, all silently looking at the new beta-testing duel disk.

"A city-wide tournament?" Yuuji whispered over to Sukuna, keeping his voice down so the security guards wouldn't throw him out. "Man, this whole town really is obsessed with this game. Even the CEO of a huge company is handing out prototype gear to a kid from high school."

‘... you’re also a kid.’

Yuuji flatly stared at Sukuna, but it was proving to be impossible because the other curse spirit was in his head.

As Yugi strapped the silver device onto his left forearm, the mechanism clicked into place, light blue LEDs tracing down the edges of the frame. Yuuji tilted his head, watching the other guy carefully slot a small deck of cards into the device.

The pyramid slowly rolled to the side, showing an eye pointing in their direction. There’s a slight glow to the center of the pendant, before its owner paused in his actions like listening to someone talking then going back to inspect the device on his arm like nothing happened.

Yuuji blinked, rubbing his eyes for a second. "Did you see that? The eye thing on his necklace just kind of... glowed."

‘Hey, Sukuna... you don't think that necklace is a cursed object, do you?’

Sukuna raised an eyebrow, leaning back to try and lay comfortably on his throne of bones… of agony. There’s something off with that artifact.

‘It's a cursed object... but older,’ Sukuna quietly said. If it's a cursed object... then not far-fetched to say it's not just a harmless accessory.

‘Maybe over thousands of years old. Older than Jujutsu Sorcery.’ And that’s all he’s going to share with his vessel.

Yuuji’s eyes widened with a sharp intake of breath. He looked back at the golden pyramid dangling over the boy's chest, suddenly seeing the artifact in a completely new light.

"Wait... thousands of years old?" Yuuji whispered urgently, keeping his voice strictly between the two of them. "Older than sorcery? But he's just carrying it around like a cool necklace! What if it's cursed to eat people's souls or something?!"

‘It's not eating people's souls now, is it?’ Sukuna reasoned with an amused tilt of his head. ‘From the looks of it, nothing happened so far, as the owner of the item didn't even notice what's going on.’

Oh, he definitely does. But he was just being very discreet about it.

While the two were talking to each other, Yugi finished securing the silver device to his arm. As he adjusted the leather strap near his wrist, his hand brushed against the Millennium Puzzle. A sharp shadow across the floor seemed to flick toward Yuuji and Sukuna for a fraction of a second before vanishing.

‘Aibou, someone is watching us. Harmless, I believe, but one cannot be too certain.’

Yugi paused, his purple eyes blinking as he felt a strange subtle chill ripple through the air. He turned his head away from the counter, scanning the store until his eyes landed right on Yuuji.

"Is... everything alright, Mr. Muto?" the clerk asked, holding out a sleek black carrying case.

"Ah... yeah! Sorry, I just thought I felt..." Yugi trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck with a slight puzzled laugh. “I need a moment!”

He took a few casual steps away from the counter, walking toward the display case where Yuuji was standing and pretending to look at the card cases, his curiosity clearly piqued by the unfamiliar uniform Yuuji was wearing.

"Hey there," Yugi said with a friendly smile on his face. He offered a small wave as he stopped a few feet away. "I haven't seen that school uniform around Domino before. Are you here for the local tournament too?"

Yuuji froze like a deer in headlights, his hands still shoved deep into his hoodie pockets as he glanced rapidly between the guy with the crazy hair and other people in the shop looking at the both of them like the next big thing.

‘You’re on your own, Yuuji.’ Sukuna snorted before his presence became a quiet lull at the back of Yuuji’s head. The curse was obviously spectating everything from within his innate domain, but would it kill him to help a guy out?!

‘Traitor’, Yuuji thought fiercely toward his inner domain, though his face quickly melted into a bright easygoing grin in front of a new person.

"Ah, halo!" Yuuji rubbed the back of his neck, laughing nervously as he gave a friendly wave and a cough. “Ahem, hi.”

He then looked down at his Jujutsu High uniform and chuckled. "Oh, the uniform? Yeah! I'm... uh, an exchange student! From Tokyo! Just moved to the area, so everything here is super new to me."

Yugi smiled and quickly offered him a quick welcome. “That’s pretty cool! I hope you’re liking the stay so far.”

“Yeah! It’s awesome and everything looks so futuristic!”

Yuuji then took a step back, gesturing vaguely to the gleaming rows of cards around them. "Though I'm not in any tournament, honestly. I was just walking down the street and saw a giant glowing jellyfish pop out of nowhere, so I followed the crowd in here to figure out what was going on."

Yugi paused, his eyes blinking in genuine surprise before a soft chuckle escaped him. "A jellyfish? Ah, you must have seen someone playing a Water deck outside! The solid-vision holograms can definitely be a surprise if you've never seen them up close before."

Yugi stepped closer, the heavy golden Millennium Puzzle swinging slightly against his chest as an unseen spirit almost identical to Yugi appeared, though he had golden bangs in his hair with a sharper look to his face, floating behind his host and crossing his arms over his chest.

‘A newcomer?’ Yami said a little skeptically.

‘It’s okay, Pharoah. He seems really lost!’ Yugi quickly tried to placate his spirit before anything could happen. 

The spirit being Yugi slowly turned to look at him like he lost his marbles. The last time he was nice to someone, they all tried to kill him, steal his cards, or part of a supernatural cult.

‘... right.’

"I'm Yugi, by the way. Muto Yugi," he offered with a polite smile, leaning slightly to check out the starter deck Yuuji had been staring at through the glass. "If you're interested in learning how to play, this shop actually holds beginner casual matches on weekends. It's pretty easy to pick up once you get the hang of the basic rules."

"I'm Itadori Yuuji!" Yuuji introduced himself, none the wiser to the other spirit lingering near the person in front of him. He bent down a little to look Yugi in the eye before his gaze flicked down to the golden pyramid. He tried to act casual, pointing a finger at the glinting metal. "That's a super cool necklace, Yugi-san. It looks really heavy, though. Is it... part of the game too?"

Both Yugi and Yami stilled, discreetly glancing at each other.

'You idiot! Who introduced himself and asked about the other person's accessory?' Sukuna groaned through their mental link. 'But I suppose it was eye-catching to anyone who spots it.'

‘Sorry, I panicked!’ Yuuji immediately tried to throw his hands up, but then if he did that out in the open then everyone would think he’s crazy, so he didn’t do that. Thank god.

Yugi’s hand instinctively drifted down to touch the cold, polished gold of the pyramid hanging at his chest. His fingers brushed against the smooth edges with a familiarity that showed he wore it everywhere he goes, though a soft, almost guarded look of curiosity passed through his eyes.

"Oh, this?" Yugi smiled, lifting the Millennium Puzzle slightly so Yuuji could get a clearer look, though he kept a firm grip on the heavy chain. He had learnt his lesson from the previous kidnappings.

With an ‘s’

"It's called the Millennium Puzzle. My grandfather gave it to me in pieces, and it took me eight years to solve it." He let out a light nervous laugh, dropping his hand so the artifact settled back against his school uniform.

Yuuji made a curious ‘oooh’ noise.

"It is pretty heavy, honestly! But it's really important to me. It's kind of like a good luck charm... though sometimes it feels like a lot more than that."

Yugi then gestured toward the sleek silver device strapped to his wrist.

"Anyway, if you're really interested in learning the game, I actually have an extra starter deck in my bag," Yugi offered warmly, leaning back and grabbing at his backpack from behind him. "I could show you the basic rules on one of the shop's casual tables if you have some time. It's a lot easier to understand once you actually try drawing a hand."

He then started to walk over to the other side of the room to the gaming area of the shop. Most people had already moved on to do some shopping, while some others lingered to eagerly watch an upcoming unofficial match from THE King of Games.

Yami quietly floated after his partner, though he was looking at Yuuji with a guarded look.

'If you want, you can try your hands at playing the game.' Sukuna reassured Yuuji in his mind. Unknown to the other spirit lingering outside.

Then the curse glanced up at the ceiling of his domain before sighing. Since they’re stuck here, might as well do something productive.

'You were pretty excited about summoning creatures on the field. Learning basics wouldn’t hurt.'

Yuuji's eyes lit up, his initial tension completely melting away at Yugi's warm invitation.

‘Really?!’ Yuuji excitedly said to Sukuna, a grin spreading across his face as he watched Yugi set his backpack down on a nearby wooden gaming table.

‘And yeah, alright... maybe summoning a giant glowing monster on the field actually sounds pretty awesome.’

"Seriously? You'd teach me?" Yuuji asked out loud, stepping closer to the table and pulling out a chair. "That'd be amazing, Yugi-san! I don't wanna take up too much of your time, though, especially since you've got that fancy new prototype thing to test out."

Yugi chuckled, unzipping his bag and pulling out a solid blue deck box alongside a neatly folded paper duel mat. "Don't worry about it at all. Testing out the new Duel Disk is important, but sharing the game with someone new is way more fun."

He smoothly laid out the paper mat between them, placing a structured fifty-card deck on the left side before sliding the blue deck box across the table toward Yuuji.

"Here, you can use this deck," Yugi said, sitting down across from him and giving Yuuji an encouraging nod. "Go ahead and draw five cards from the top. We'll start with the basics. How to summon a monster and how life points work."

Yuuji took a seat, his fingers hovering over the blue deck box for a second before he pulled out the stack of colorful cards. He shuffled them awkwardly between his palms, taking a deep breath as he drew his first five cards into his hand, peering at the artwork with genuine excitement.

Then as Sukuna manifested himself outside through Yuuji’s shadow to watch the game behind his vessel as a shikigami. He heard a quiet ‘oh’ sound from someone on the opposite side of the table.

The two humans didn’t even seem to notice what was going on, but both of them were respectively glancing at their own spirits to see what got them so worked up on.

Immediately, Sukuna raised his head up to find whoever said that. Only for his eyes to catch sight of Yugi’s doppelganger also floating behind his host, staring wide-eyed at him.

‘Oh?’ the curse said as he blinked at the other spirit. The other looked at him up and down, probably mentally cataloging the odd traditional white kimono outfit and literally having four eyes instead of two.

But as soon as the curiosity and skepticism faded, the other spirit let out an exasperated sigh.

‘Oh. Another one.’

Sukuna’s eyes twitched. ‘What do you mean another one!?’