Chapter Text
Sunny walked slowly down the road. His legs trembling in a weird way that made it hard to walk.
It was not because it was cold. It was since it was late in the day, but not cold enough for someone who had spent the last few years going around exotic places.
It wasn't because of fear either. What could he be afraid of? He had faced a Supreme in the face and rejected her proposal, over and over again. So surely it wasn't fear, right?
[ "You are nervous, Sunny." ] Yuji pointed out.
"No fucking shit." Sunny cursed aloud.
It was because he was nervous. After years of working towards this seemingly unaitable goal, he had finally achieved it. He was going to meet Rain and save her.
They were going to be a family again.
Him, Rain and Yuji. The three of them would live happily, surely.
'At least it's just my legs that are shaking.' He thought.
[ "Hate to burst your bubble, Sunny. But your arms are shaking as well and if you keep chewing on your lips you are going to become lipless." ]
For a moment, perhaps because of the sillyness of the word "lipless", Sunny laughed.
"Damnation, is it that bad?"
Why was he nervous now? He had done it, hadn't he?
So why was he getting nervous now?
[ "It is normal to feel this way, Sunny. When something is important to us, we stop being afraid of it, and instead become afraid of what could happen that would ruin it." ]
Sunny felt a sensation spread around his shoulder, althought, that might've been his imagination.
[ "You have worked hard for so many years, Sunny. And you can't let yourself screw it up. So, let me give you some confidence." ]
For a single moment, Sunny felt his view shift.
In front of him, he could see something else besides the road where the Dream Gate had opened. He could see a foreign street full of lights and wide streets.
It was Yuji's inner domain.
The place they normally used to train when Sunny was sleeping.
And in front of him, there was him. The man that had helped him in this long way.
Yuji Itadori. Or, as he came to learn, Itadori Yuji. Heh, he still felt weird how he used his family name before his name, then again the Song clan seemed to do the same.
Anyway, Yuji had been with him from the start of his journey, from the point where he decided to save Rain. He had learned from him, from martial arts to normal education.
He had to admit, that he was called soft by everyone on the outskirts because the way Yuji had raised him. He still felt like he was selfish and greedy.
All he wants is peace. He will do what he needs for survival, while keeping being... himself.
He knew that he wasn't the best person. He knew that there was something lacking in his mind, but he knew that he would never go on a too dark of a path, because Yuji would catch him.
He couldn't tell what Yuji was for him.
A father? He already had one, even if he barely knew him.
A brother? He was too old for that.
A grandfather? Sunny was pretty sure that grandpas don't throw you around a dojo.
A teacher? In a sense, yes he was. But he was way more important that just a teacher.
Yuji was Yuji.
And so he knew...
[ "Everything will be alright. And even if something bad happens. Aren't I here? I can do more than just fight, you know?" ]
Sunny found himself smiling.
He knew that Yuji would be there with him... Because Yuji Itadori was his family.
'You are right... I think, I'm calmer now. Thanks, Yuji.'
[ "Anytime, Sunny." ]
He continued walking, this time his steps were steady, his arms weren't shaking and he was no longer chewing on his lip and gritting his teeth.
Eventually, he found it.
The house that had the number indicated by Ki Song.
As he walked into their front yard, he looked through their window.
A family of five was playing around the table, seemingly playing some kind of board game. Because of the angle, he couldn't tell who was who.
Well except that he could tell that there were two young children running around, as for the three, well there was one shorter than the others, but nothing else could be refer from that.
He breathed slowly and looked at himself.
Why was he worrying? It's not like he couldn't take care of her, right? He had money, and soon he would have a job, wouldn't he? So he was sure that he wouldn't be a burden to her.
[ "You won't, so just step forward." ]
And so he did.
Step by step, he reached the door and rang the bell.
He awaited something. His trained senses picked up a sudden freeze of movement in the living room not that far away. And then he heard a flurry of steps approaching the door, while someone shouted a reprimand.
The door opened in a sudden movement, almost startling Sunny.
The light of the inside spilled like a carpet onto the street illuminated by the last sunlight in the approaching night.
He was expecting her new parents to open up, but instead what he was met with was...
Rain.
'She... she looks like a younger Mom.'
When their mother died, she was in her twenties, but their similarities were so close to each other, that it was hard not to see it.
The girl had long black hair and the same onyx eyes that seemed to swallow the surrounding light. She was around thirteen years of age, and she should have, considering their age difference.
"Are you... Rain?" He asked hesitantingly.
The girl that was already somewhat startled to seeing someone so... familiar, showing up at her doorstep when she was expecting her classmates to show up for her sleepover to show up instead, became even more startled.
'How does he know my name?'
"Y-yeah..." She answered.
What she was doing was against every "Stranger-Danger" lesson thought by her mother. But there was something in this boy that looked barely older than her, something that felt so familiar, almost instinctive.
Sunny breathed in, swallowed in dry and breathed out.
"I'm... My name is Sunless."
Rain's eyes widened. This was the first time she had met someone with a name as weird as hers.
"I'm sure you don't remember, since you were just three years old..." He continued.
She watched as he seemed to gather courage to say every single word.
"... I'm your brother." He finally said.
Her eyes widened even more as something insider seemed to try and process it.
'Brother?'
For some reason... It didn't sound that wrong.
She knew she was adopted for a long while. And even if she was young she knew that she had projected a lot of feelings to her now late adoptive older brother.
She didn't know what kind feeling she had been projecting at the time. But if what Sunless was saying was true, then...
Could she had been trying to see her adoptive brother as a substitute for her biological one?
As she was about to ask more, like their parents and why he wasn't adopted, a set of steps angrily approached from behind.
Before she could react, her father's hand settled on her shoulder and pulled her behind him with slight agressiveness.
She watched the previous tender, yet nervous, look of Sunless become furious as he watched what her father had just done.
'Is he that angry for me?'
"The spell you are not!" Her father exclaimed.
"Sir, I know this might be hard to believe, bu-"
"But nothing! I know your type, you think you can just approach the house with an adopted child and scam the spell out of them, don't you?!"
Was that what it was? She didn't really felt like it, though.
She saw Sunless' face contort in offense and surprise.
"What? No, sir, let me explain, I really am-"
"You are not. Anyone that goes to the registery can find out that Rain is adopted, you think my brain is made of sand?"
She watched as her father approached Sunless, trying to intimidate him to leave.
"Sir, I am from the outskirts, just like her. How could I possible find out about her adoption if I am not even a citizen?"
The adult scoffed.
"So you are a beggar, that somehow heard of it and decided to try your luck is it?"
"You motherfu- You are being unreasonable!"
Her father let out a laugh mockingly as the eyes of the young boy become more and more hostile.
"Father, I think-"
"Not now, Rain. Go to your room."
"But... Dad, I think..."
"You don't think nothing, Rain. This boy is obviously lying."
Sunless seemed to reach his limit, stepping forward, his hands closed into fists.
"I'm lying?! I might not be the most honest, but I wouldn't lie about this! I'm her brother!"
"And I'm saying that you are not! Because Rain didn't have a biological brother!"
With that, all the anger in Sunless' face was replaced by confusion.
"Huh?"
"Caught you in your lie, didn't I?" Her father said with mocking pleasure.
Was her father... right?
Was Sunless... a scammer?
She looked at him, really looked. Black hair and eyes, among other things she could notice things on his facial structure.
Things that she looked everyday on the mirror.
"This is why you don't open the door so carelessly, Rain. As for you, go rot somewhere else." And with he closed the door with agressiveness.
She was surprised.
In all the years that she had lived in this house, she never saw her father behave this way. Not even when her adoptive older brother had died.
She had seen him dealing with political rivals, scammers and threats calmly.
So why did he react so strongly to a guy that was perhaps fifteen?
On the other side of the door...
'If I go through the window, I might catch him by surprise and fold him into quarters.' Sunny's angered thoughts echoed inside his head.
[ "Are you sure you want to do that?" ]
'Are you going to stop me?'
[ "Only if I feel that it isn't what you really want." ]
'...'
Sunny walked away from the door and sat on the edge of the road.
'Yuji, what was this all for?'
[ "..." ]
He had worked so hard. He had shed blood, tears and sweat for the sole purpose of one day reuniting with her. To have a life with his only family.
His mind felt like it was ringing.
He heard a sound that seemed to engulf the whole place.
'My dreams were crushed because and adult was resolute in not having me near their family.'
[ "..." ]
The sound reminded him of rain.
Perhaps it had started to rain, considering the wetness in his face, that must surely be it.
He greeted his teeth in anguish.
'What... What was I expecting?' He thought.
"What was I even expecting?! They didn't want me then! Why the fucking hell would they want me now?!!" He screamed
He punced the sidewalk he was sitting on, feeling the skin break and the blood pouring. He kept punching.
"In the end is always this bullshit! No one wants me! Because I'm a problem! A parasite! A cockroach!"
His arms trembled due to the pain radiating from his knuckles.
"Who am I even supposed to trust, in this world?"
No one...
No one could be trusted.
Because everyone would eventually betray him.
[ "You can trust me." ]
It was a simple set of words, and for a moment, Sunny realized.
It was not raining, he had been crying.
And Yuji was here. He was not alone.
Even after so long, even after knowing there could be a better vessel for him somewhere.
'He wanted to stay with me...'
A new set of tear spilled forth, a new emotion carried within them.
"Thank you... Yuji."
[ "Anytime, kid. You know, I am pretty sure I promised to show you an arcade a few years back. What do you say I show you one. I'm pretty sure there is one in my inner domain." ]
"Y-yeah, that would be cool, Yuji."
Meanwhile, in Yuji's perspective. His senses picked up something shifting inside Sunny's soul, and as if resonating, his as well.
Whatevere it was that had appeared there when they entered the Dream Realm, had bloomed.
'I will tell him tomorrow, there is no need to stress him further. Main objective: Cheer up my sad student. Mission Start!'