Chapter Text
“Heal him.”
Sukuna’s grin was as sharp as glass.
“No.”
Fushiguro grimaced, and pushed himself off of the rubble he had fallen on. Surrounding him was the aftermath of the battle against a high-grade curse, which now lay firmly dead a few feet away. The killing blow, however, hadn’t been dealt by either himself or Itadori. That honor had fallen to Sukuna after Itadori had been knocked unconscious from blood loss - that’ll happen to you when both of your arms are ripped off. Fushiguro had tried to kill the curse alone, but he had failed - the curse was too strong for him without Itadori’s help.
When Fushiguro had clearly lost, Itadori’s body - still without arms - rose up, and Fushiguro was about to call out to him, but it was unmistakably Sukuna, from posture alone. Why was he here? He looked at Fushiguro for a moment, but then his attention turned to the curse that was about to eat him. Defeating the curse took him moments - a little shame had curled in Fushiguro’s stomach while watching it.
But when the curse was defeated, Sukuna had turned back to him with an unnerving stare, and this time held his gaze, like he expected Fushiguro to say something. Which Fushiguro did - his demand to repair Itadori.
But the refusal...what was he supposed to do about that?
“Why?” Leaning against a wall - his ribs still ached - Fushiguro stared right back at Sukuna, determined not to be outdone in this way as well.
Sukuna found this amusing. “Why? Why would I help this brat here?”
“You just saved his life by killing that curse. What other point is there?”
“I think you’ve misunderstood the situation,” Sukuna replied, walking closer to Fushiguro. It was eerie, without Itadori’s normal arms. “I wasn’t saving him. I was saving you.”
Fushiguro pulled away, at least as far as he could before he felt like he was going to pass out from the pain. “I didn’t ask for that.”
“You should be thanking m--”
“I won’t.”
Sukuna straightened up, putting more distance between them. “If that’s how it is,” he conceded, “then I guess we’re done.” He tilted his head at Fushiguro. Waiting for agreement.
And as much as Fushiguro despised the situation, and wanted Sukuna gone as soon as possible, he needed Sukuna to heal Itadori. There were no other options. He needed to at least see what Sukuna wanted in return, even if it would be something sinister. So, with a half-hearted attempt to remove the heat from his glare, Fushiguro grunted out, “Wait.”
Sukuna’s mouth turned up on one side, although it disappeared quickly.
“I knew you had more to say. Why don’t you start?”
Sukuna wanted to drag this out, it seemed. Fushiguro would not let him.
“What do you want for healing Itadori?”
With a small roll of his eyes, Sukuna said, “Straight to the point. Fair enough. In return for healing this brat, I want three days.” He emphasized the words in a way that made Fushiguro think that if Sukuna had arms, he would be dramatically raising three fingers.
But what kind of request was that? What did it even mean? He narrowed his eyes. “Three days?”
“Yes, three days,” Sukuna drawled. “Seventy two hours. Three days for me to teach you. Not all at once, but three days total.”
It took a moment for his meaning to sink in, but even when it did, Fushiguro still felt like he was missing something. “You want to teach me.”
“Yes, little parrot,” Sukuna shot back. “I already have a deal with the brat, so he won’t be a problem. All you need to do is agree, and I’ll heal him.”
Although he didn’t want to keep repeating Sukuna’s words, it was all Fushiguro could do to make sense of the request. “Teach me what?”
“How to fight, of course. That abysmal show you gave just now should prod you in the right direction,” Sukuna said, nodding his head toward the now-dead curse. “I can teach you how to win against curses like that - stronger than that! I’m sure that’s appealing to you.”
There was something sinister behind those words - at least some ulterior motive. Fushiguro knew that there was more to this than it seemed, but honestly - it wasn’t as bad as he’d thought it would be. Three days - plenty of time for something to go wrong, but it wasn’t forever. It was as good as he could have asked for. But before he agreed, he wanted to see if he could find out one more thing.
“What’s in it for you?”
Sukuna’s grin grew wider. “I’ve never been one to waste an opportunity.”
So he wasn’t going to get a real answer to that one. Fushiguro hadn’t really expected Sukuna to reveal his true motives in the first place, so he wasn’t surprised. Accepting the deal felt like jumping into unknown waters - dangerous waters - but he had already made his decision. He would do it for Itadori.
Fushiguro steeled his gaze. For Itadori.
“I accept.”
Sukuna looked pleased, which did not reassure Fushiguro at all. He wondered if he had just made a huge mistake.
“Then I will uphold my end of the deal.” Sukuna looked down at himself, and with a moment of concentration, regrew arms out of his body. “We will speak again soon.”
And with that, Sukuna gave up control of Itadori’s body. Itadori fell forward, and Fushiguro pushed himself off the wall to kneel down next to him.
“Itadori? Wake up!” he yelled at him. Itadori’s eyes opened wearily, but he was able to lift himself off the ground, and his arms seemed normal.
“What happened?”
Fushiguro saw the moment Itadori’s memory of the fight returned, because he stared at his hands in disbelief. He must know what happened.
“Did Sukuna…?” Itadori trailed off, staring at the dead curse in front of him.
Fushiguro hesitated. Itadori must not know all of it. How much should he say?
Nothing. It wouldn’t help him to know. “He killed it.”
“And…”
“He healed you.”
“But...why?”
Taking a deep breath, Fushiguro answered, this time truthfully. “I don’t know.”
Where’s the catch?