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A lot has changed in 1000 years, Sukuna observing the new world through the eyes of his vessel. Buildings were taller, people dressed a lot differently, it was a lot noisier and busier in every way. But jujutsu sorcerers were still shit compared to him, and that was most important to him. Sukuna couldn't even bear to watch the training of these new young sorcerers at Yuuji's stupid school. Out of all of Yuuji's classmates, you seemed like you would be the first to die. Not that you weren't particularly strong, but you were constantly pushing those stupid metal things up your face in the middle of battle.
It's not that you couldn't see curses without them, unlike that Zenin girl, as he sometimes saw you without them, and you could still see curses and cursed energy. How could you allow yourself to be hindered by those round pieces of glass which invaded your vision and required adjusting every other movement you made?
.:.
One day, after you saved his vessel from being torn to shreds by a curse, Sukuna took the liberty of repaying you himself by deigning you with his presence. You had slumped over with your hands on your knees as you gasped for breath (you had sprinted quite the distance to make it to Yuuji in time). You still had energy to bristle when you felt Sukuna's cursed energy in the air. Before you could say anything, the curse had ripped your glasses off your face. You held your breath, hand itching over your weapon as you waited to see what the infamous Sukuna would do to you. You had never spoken to him before, so you had no idea why he had taken your glasses, and you hoped you would live to wear them again.
"Why do you wear these stupid things? They're impractical and as fragile as you," Sukuna mused, pulling the legs of your frames apart until one snapped off with ease.
You gulped, praying it wouldn't be your legs next, "I can't see very well without them."
They have a cure for blindness in this era? Sukuna peered through the clear glass, but it only made his vision more blurry. You were too scared to find the sight of Sukuna squinting through your glasses funny.
"You lie."
"They are corrective lenses. Your vision is perfect so it will only make things look worse for you because there isn't anything to correct."
"Of course my vision is perfect."
Questions answered and ego sufficiently fed, Sukuna saw no reason to stick around any longer and returned to his domain within Yuuji, erasing the conversation from Yuuji's memories, leaving you stupefied. You never mentioned it to Yuuji.
After your conversation, Sukuna found himself noticing more often when you push your glasses up or wipe them, especially in battle. The first time Sukuna vocally commented on your glasses habits was when the blood of a curse splattered across your lenses, and you had to quickly swipe it with the sleeve of your uniform before neatly finishing off the curse.
"How stupid."
Yuuji slapped a hand on the mouth that had appeared on his cheek, both you and the vessel left stunned and clueless.
During training Sukuna made the extra effort to push Yuuji to attack you when you were pushing your glasses up, trying to catch you off-guard, but he had yet to achieve that. Sukuna supposed your reflexes made up for your wasted movements pushing your glasses up, but how much quicker would you be if you didn't waste time pushing them up?
"How stupid."
Sukuna noticed that despite the dirt on your glasses, you were still able to fight without any issues. Your accuracy decreased the dirtier they were, but your power allowed you to exterminate the curses with ease.
One day you were forced to fight without your glasses as you were having your lenses changed and the mission was issued too suddenly for you to find a replacement. Sukuna scoffed as you had your eyes squinted for the entire mission, your classmates reading signs for you and steering you away from objects in your path that you couldn't see. However, the power of your cursed energy you had used in the mission during your encounter with curses was unmatched by any of your classmates. He figured that you were overcompensating for your lack of vision and accuracy, but he still couldn't help the smirk tugging at his lips as the curse you were fighting exploded from the sheer power of your impact on it.
Maybe you wouldn't be the first to die (though you were bedridden for a day after using too much power on the mission, both cursed energy and your body physically aching).
Still curious about your glasses; Yuuji one day found himself mindlessly taking your glasses from your face and cleaning them with his shirt. He didn't even realise he was doing it until you didn't take them back from him immediately, both of you pausing and staring at Yuuji's outstretched hand holding out your now clean glasses. The lenses were thinner than Sukuna expected and cleaned easily, though it was more like pushing dirt to the edges.
In summer your glasses got dirtier quicker due to sweat from the heat, which meant you wasted even more time in fights wiping them. You even began to wear them on the top of your head when they weren't strictly necessary. Sukuna was quietly surprised at how much your face changed without your glasses.
In winter, your glasses would steam up upon entry to warmer rooms, though you never seemed to mind when they would steam up from hot drinks, often laughing about it. What Sukuna noted in particular was that your glasses steam up when you cry. He learned this when Yuuji came back from the dead, though you still managed to laugh amongst your tears as he snatched up your glasses again to clean the steam and tears off. Neither you nor Yuuji mentioned the glasses cleaning habit, and Sukuna would now smush the glasses onto your face after cleaning them since you and Yuuji's gawking every time he did it annoyed him. One time a threatening red eye opened on Yuuji's cheek when you nearly got a fingerprint on the lenses he had just graciously cleaned for you. After your initial shock, you giggled and silently thanked Sukuna- not Yuuji. Either you were brave or weird.
.:.
This was it. You knew the mortality rate of your job was high, so knew you would have to face death sooner or later, but you figured it wouldn't be this soon given the average life expectancy in Japan is 84 years old. You held your breath as you heard the telltale growls and grumbles of the curse lurking around, looking to finish you off. Your head was beginning to feel light from your lack of oxygen; you needed to breathe.
In the blink of an eye, the curse was besides you. You managed approximately 5 steps before your vision went white. You came to on the floor, vaguely making out the shape of your glasses several metres away from you, having been flung from your face from the hit. You liked that pair, and they were fairly new. Feeling a shiver up your spine, you forced yourself to roll away, hearing a heavy thud behind you, where you were previously laying. The curse twisted its face to look at you with an expression you could hardly see, though its bloodlust was clear as day. You couldn't stare for long as your body shuddered with a cough, the ground beneath you stained red. That can't be good.
You knew the curse thought of you as food, and it liked to play with its food, so you could afford to take the time to build up energy so long as it promised good entertainment. And you were determined to do just that. With gritted teeth, you forced yourself to your feet and focused on building up your cursed energy from the pits of your stomach and filling yourself to the tips of your fingers, pushing it down again to condense it and fill yourself again, repeating until you felt like you could explode. You squinted your eyes on your target in hopes to see its weak point better, let alone see it altogether clearly. You waited for it to come to you because you couldn't move, otherwise your cursed energy would dissipate. You had one chance, one hit only. The curse seemed delighted at this and happily lunged at you.
You wake up to realise you're slumped with your back on a tree, head hanging forward. Your arms were definitely broken and you can see a notable amount of blood collecting in your lap which was probably dripping from your head. Your throat feels itchy, so you cough as best you can, which adds more red to your lap. You eventually notice a pair of feet next to you. Feet are usually connected to legs, which are connected to a person. Your vision swims and head spins as you try to see which person the feet belong to. You don't have it in you to try and squint to see who it is, so conclude that this person must just have a blurry face. They seem to be frozen, but it's not like you can move much either, your head doing too many acrobatics for you to even think.
"Why are you looking at me like that? Oi, brat."
You remember that you were fighting a curse and shift your gaze to your surroundings to find the ugly thing. In front of you is an ugly thing made more ugly in its disembowelment, the pool of blood around it worse than the one you saw in your lap. That pool of blood was also purple and yours was red. Well at least it had a worse death than you- so you win, even if you're about to die.
"What are you babbling on about? You're not going to die."
Well, whoever said that was wrong, you think as the world spinning and twisting before your eyes becomes too much and you close your eyes. You think people die with their eyes closed, so you're definitely going to die now your eyes are shut.
"Hey! Y/N! Open your eyes! Now!"
Despite your exhaustion starting to really set in now you had closed your eyes, you make an attempt to open them. When you do, you wonder why the last thing you see before you die is Sukuna. When did he get here and why? Oh- he was probably here for your glasses, as usual. You probably won't need them anymore anyway, so he can have them. You look past the curse trying to find your glasses.
"Glasses?" You ask the curse, giving up on trying to see past the four glaring red eyes filling your view.
"Don't talk you idiot. And why are you looking for your glasses now?"
"You can keep them."
"I don't care about those bits of metal and glass you brainless mortal!"
"These ones are plastic-"
"That's enough, you are not dying," Sukuna growled with what sounded like frustration before you felt an arm snake between your back and the tree and another under your knees, then the floor beneath you disappeared, "I refuse to even try to reason with you when you're clearly delirious."
"I'm dying," You corrected, earning a threatening snarl from the curse holding you, though Sukuna's threats had no effect on you now you were about to die anyway.
Besides, you stopped feeling scared of Sukuna when he began to clean your glasses for you and try to put them on your face, the brush of his fingers on the bridge of your nose or ears causing a different type of shiver. So to have Sukuna holding you; you should be feeling fireworks, but you unfortunately can't feel anything except the most intense pain you have ever felt in your life. You couldn't even tell if your eyes were open at this point.
You try to express this to Sukuna, trying to muster the right words to let him know that you're literally about to implode with pain, "I'm seriously dying,"
"Stop being dramatic," You think he said. You can't think straight anymore, let alone think of something to say back.
But your worry of being a bad conversation partner is gone as quickly as it came, your vision filling with brown as you realise you're in your room. How did you get here?
Your insides feel shrivelled up and painfully empty, and at the same time your muscles ache like you'd run marathons consecutively to exhaustion. You curl in on yourself, moaning as while it relieved your funky feeling inside it made your muscles screech in agony. You want to cry but you feel too drowsy and fuzzy.
Then Gojo and Ieiri are next to you, Gojo stepping out as Ieiri attempted to check you physically. You groaned and complained and even cried a bit as she got you to sit up to check your heart rate and breathing. You weren't entirely sure what her conclusion was, but she reassured that it was good, you weren't dying, but you should rest some more. She spoke in a low tone to Gojo who came in and asked something about Sukuna.
"He broke my legs," you managed out between quiet sniffles. You fell asleep before you saw Gojo leave.
The sky outside was pitch black when woke up again. You were about to go to sleep again until you heard someone come in your room without knocking. You squinted your eyes at your unannounced guest.
"I didn't break your legs."
"You broke the legs of my glasses."
"They were flimsy."
"They were my favourite pair."
"Your new ones were better-"
You bolted up, "You think so?"
From sitting up too fast, your body retaliated with ringing ears and your vision going white for a second. Your vision came back to reveal Sukuna perched on your bed, one hand on your shoulder, four eyes watching you. You stared back. His eyes held no clear emotion, but you were sure yours were a window straight to your racing heart.
"Are my glasses broken again?" You barely whispered.
Sukuna frowned, his brows furrowing a little.
"It's no problem, I can buy new ones-"
"Shut up."
You swallowed hard, telling your heart to calm down and not to jump to any conclusions.
Sukuna stood up, turning his back to you, "Stop breaking your stupid glasses."
You nearly stopped breathing, your heart thumping so loud you were sure Sukuna could hear it. Sukuna headed towards your door-
"Wait! Come with me to pick new glasses?"
Sukuna paused at your door, resting his hand on the handle.
"Ask that damn brat."
"But I want you to help me, if you want?"
“How stupid.”
You asked Yuuji in the end, who was more than happy to help. While trying on hundreds of pairs, you occasionally felt a second pair of eyes staring intensely, your ears hot as you decided to keep those pairs to try on again later.