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It was really late. He knew it, his friends and teacher knew it, hell even Sukuna did and he didn’t really experience how time really passed in his domain. But Yuuji was hungry. Really hungry despite eating a large family’s worth of food a few hours ago.
Maybe he could grab a snack from the kitchen or make something himself. Everyone else was asleep so he didn’t have to worry about getting questioned about his late night appetite.
Making it to the kitchen, Yuuji searched for something tasty to eat. Lately he had been craving meat or anything meat flavored. It was a bit weird since he typically never really craved meat like a drug addict, but his stomach grumbled and those thoughts were pushed out of his head.
In the cupboard, a bag of fish flavored chips were found, along with a large container of chicharrónes. In the refrigerator, there was leftover wings with fries.
He had finished eating everything, but his stomach still grumbled like Yuuji hadn’t eaten anything yet. This food wasn’t really doing much in terms of satisfying his hunger.
Getting out a knife and a cutting board, Yuuji went to gather up supplies to make something else to eat. Something more fulfilling.
It had felt like a second had passed. Then Sukuna spoke up from his cheek.
“You might want to stop now.”
Yuuji looked up in confusion. “What are you even talking about? I’m still hungry.”
“I’m just saying this for your own good, brat.”, the curse said with a hint of concern, something that Yuuji hadn’t really thought was possible before but it was slowly appearing more and more in Sukuna’s actions and words. “You wouldn’t want to scare your friends do you?”
“Scare them? Noraba and Megumi aren’t scared of me. Neither is Gojo.”
“They are scared of you. They are terrified of see what you are capable.”
Yuuji slammed the knife down on the cutting board.
“I’m not a monster.”, he said despite not believing in it himself. “I wouldn’t hurt my friends.”
“You sure about that? I mean a normal person, as you so often like to mention, wouldn’t be so unstable to have snapped that chicken’s neck and bite and chew it’s head off. So are you still sure about that, brat?”
“Chicken?”, Yuuji asked confused. What was Sukuna talking about?
Yuuji looked down to see his white undershirt now stained with the chicken’s blood. His mouth was covered in it and blood was dripping down his jaw and onto his shirt. The hand holding the remains was stained with the red liquid and the chicken was slowly leaking the blood out. He gave a small squeeze. The blood gushed out from the opening.
God, it looked so appetizing that he should take another bite.
Shocked at his thoughts, Yuuji dropped the chicken on the floor and watched as the blood splattered. Feeling now more horrified, he threw the corpse away in the trash and began to clean the every inch of the kitchen. Tiles were scrubbed until they looked like the aftermath of one of those cleaning advertisements. Dishes were clean off. So clean that you could see your reflection on them. The very hard to reach spots were clean to perfection. Yuuji was determined to leave no evidence of what had gone down there.
Once he tripled checked that no spot was missed, Yuuji crept quickly back to his room careful to not wake anyone in the vicinity up. After locking his door, he took a breath. He had so many questions.
’Why did that start to fill me up?’
‘Why did it look so appetizing?’
’Why did I want more?’
’Just where the hell did that chicken come from?’
’Why did I not realize what I was doing?’
‘What caused me to do this? I haven’t done this before.’
‘Maybe the fingers?’
’Why don’t I remember?’
Yuuji’s body went into autopilot as he completed the same motions to get ready to sleep. Everything was completed. His shirt was carefully folded and put out of view so that he could wash it at some point and not be questioned about it by his peers. He went to lay down and hopefully put this incident behind him. Thankfully, Sukuna hadn’t said anything else about this.
———-
Despite it being a few hours since the kitchen accident, Yuuji still laid awake, tossing and turning under his covers. Those burning questions from earlier were making sleep avoid him. This was an absolute mess. He couldn’t afford to lose control now so late into the game. Just a few more fingers and it would be over. It would be okay. Everyone would be okay.
If anyone were to asked about the chicken in the trash can, he would say that he was trying to make a new dish but the chicken wasn’t good. No sense in worrying anyone yet about this. He could handle it. Yuuji was certain. He could do it.
———
Inside his domain, Sukuna smiled. It was funny to see how restless his vessel was over a dead chicken. He had tried to warn him just for shits and giggles but this was a good change. The brat’s developing taste for raw meat was surprising, but not at all unexpecting. After that ‘fight’ and Yuuji’s resolve to be a better vessel, their souls had started to mixed and merge. It was an incredible feeling, being so impossible close to someone else. Not that Sukuna would ever tell his stubborn vessel. He rather get Cleaved a thousand times than to admit it.
This change and acceptance on both sides had led to some “quirks” to be transferred leading up to a very distinct one appearing for Yuuji coming from the King of Curses.
It seems like his vessel is finally starting to realize how tasty fresh meat was. Good. Though the brat had thrown away his latest course, the fact remains that he wanted to keep eating. That was good. Once he got over the raw part of the meal, they’d finally have something to bond over as the brat had wanted early on. Then maybe the curse could introduce something a bit more human to his taste soon.
Sukuna was excited about this new development.