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"Yeah sorry, but he isn't going to be coming back."
Yuuji gasped at the sound of the familiar voice. He turned around and was met with the sight of Megumi, but he knew it wasn't him. The markings on his face and the now open eyes under his own told him that.
"There's no reason to be scared. I'm in such a great mood right now. Let's just chat for a bit." Megumi, no, Sukuna walked behind him. Clearly enjoying his new found freedom after being dormant for over a thousand years. "He had it coming for just using me without making any kind of a deal, and now it feels like he's having some trouble switching back." Sukuna smiled and pulled his hands up to his chest, gripping Megumi's shirt tight, "But then no matter what he did, this would have ended up the same." he claimed, ripping the shirt off of his body.
Yuuji just stared, unable to form any words at the sight.
Megumi had been the only person in years that was able to control Sukuna, so why all of a sudden couldn't he?
"So I've been thinking about all the different ways I can do this!" Sukuna lifted his hand up, and before Yuuji could say a word he plunged it into Megumi's chest. Yuuji gasped, eyes wide as he watched. The king of curses laughed as blood poured out of his vessels mouth.
Yuuji took in a shaky breath and willed himself to speak, "What- What the hell are you doing?!"
Sukuna said nothing and ripped Megumi's heart out of his body. Blood gushed out of the wound, a little bit landing on Yuuji's face.
"I'm taking this kid hostage." he replied like it was something so simple, like he hadn't just ripped someones heart out.
"What do you mean?" Yuuji asked, even though he knew damn well what the curse meant. He couldn't think straight, his eyes glued on his friends heart in the curses hand.
"It's simple really. See I can live without this, but that ain't true for your punk friend." he answered, then he threw Megumi's heart on the grass beside them like it was nothing. Like it wasn't the heart of one of the best people Yuuji knew. "Switching out with me means he dies. Oh, and also," Sukuna reached into his pocket and pulled out one of his fingers, "for good measure." then he put it in his mouth and swallowed it.
'Sukuna's finger. The special grade in there must have swallowed it. No wonder it was so strong.' Yuuji thought, he was unable to move. His feet were glued to where he stood, he could do nothing but watch as Sukuna basically killed his best friend.
"I'm now as free as a bird, and now you can be frightened, because I'm about to kill you just for the hell of it!" Sukuna announced, and Yuuji narrowed his eyes.
"I'd like to see you try." he challenged.
Sukuna laughed, "I like your fight kid. I can't wait to see your face when you fail!"
Yuuji moved his feet into the same position he did everytime he trained and put his hands up, prepared to fight for his friend. "You don't get it, but I do. Fushiguro is coming back. Even if that means he'll die. He'd rather die than allow you to run free and do whatever you want." Yuuji declared, maybe they hadn't known eachother for all that long, but he knew that Fushiguro was quick to accept that being a Jujutsu Sorcerer, being Sukuna's vessel, came with death, and in Yuuji's eyes it may not be a proper death, but it sure as hell was a noble one.
'You give him too much credit. His resolve seems stronger than other humans but he doesn't want to die for this." Sukuna claimed, wiping the blood from his mouth, "You should have seen him a minute ago, he was scared out of his mind with no idea what to do. Prattling on about how this isn't how he wanted to die, how he needed to live for his sister, and that this wasn't a proper death death as you'd say and all that nonsense. So it's obvious, the guy doesn't have the guts to kill himself!"
Yuuji examined the situation, noticing Megumi's hands. 'His left hands back.' he thought back to the moment it had gotten cut off, Megumi had tried to attack the special grade with the weapon Nanami had given him during their last mission, but the curse worked even faster, slicing the hand clean off before the hit could even land. Megumi and Yuuji could do nothing but stare as blood gushed out of the nub left on his hand. 'Healing. He can use reverse curse techniques, and Sukuna's incarnated. So even though he can live without a heart it should still damage him. I'll make sure he heals that heart before Fushiguro returns. I just have to try and convince him that he can't beat me without a heart. I'm sure I can do it. I know I froze up in front of that other special grade but I have to be able to do this now. Fushiguro jumped into action. Why can't I?'
Yuuji's hands shook as he held them in front of him, gathering his blood from the cut he kept fresh on his arm in his hands. He ran towards Sukuna, throwing his hand up to splatter it on the curses face.
Sukuna didn't even react to the attack, putting his arms up by his head and continuing to smile, "Oh, it feels so good to be back outside again! Let's use all this open space!"
The blood on Sukuna's face errupted, and Yuuji dove at him, attempting to punch him, but he easily dodged, despite the distraction.
Yuuji continued to try and fight him, throwing punch and kicks in his direction as well as he could.
Sukuna continued to avoid his attacks, dancing around him like this was all just some game to him. He brought a hand up to wipe the left over blood off his face, "How interesting. You can use your blood manipulation for far ranged attacks, but you still come at me yourself." Yuuji ignored his words, and continued to come at him.
Sukuna blocked all his attacks easily, smiling like a kid playing tag at recess, "Give me more! More!" he continued to mess with Yuuji more. Sukuna grabbed Yuuji's fist after one of his punches, and he threw him to the side, Yuuji didn't falter, just began to attack even harder. "Put more curse behind it," Sukuna encouraged, before punching Yuuji himself, "when you strike me!"
Yuuji flew back, planting his feet into the ground to make sure he didn't fall. With a groan he reached into his pocket, grabbing a blood bag that he usually carried on him for fights and threw it at Sukuna, the bag exploded and the blood wrapped around Sukuna, trapping him in a type of net, "Crimson binding." he muttered, watching Sukuna carefully to see how he'd react to this part of his technique. Once Sukuna was ensnared he used convergance, and clapped his hands around it, aiming it right at the king of curses. Then he shot it out, Sukuna laughed and easily moved away from the bullet of blood speeding towards him, proceeding to then break free of the blood that trapped him.
Yuuji gasped, he knew it wasn't likely to actually keep a hold of him that well but he didn't expect him to break free so easily. Suddenly Sukuna was behind him, grabbing onto his shirt, "Now, what did I say?" he pulled Yuuji backwards and threw him to the side, "Let's use the open space!"
Yuuji flew over buildings, and gasped again when Sukuna was in the air in front of him. Sukuna kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying onto buildings. Sukuna punched him again, causing him to go even further. He groaned and tried to find a way to land, a way to stop letting Sukuna get the best of him. He noticed a nearby building that he was heading straight for anyway and prepared himself to land there, it wouldn't be a graceful landing by any means but at the very least he'd have his feet on solid ground again.
He looked at Sukuna, who was coming at him once again. As well as he could while soaring mid air he reached his hands out, shaping his blood into a dagger and directing it right at the curse, though it was hard, he managed to stab it into Sukuna's shoulder. Yuuji held on the dagger, keeping it in place there as they headed for the ground.
Sukuna laughed, but made no move to remove the dagger, instead he kicked Yuuji again, causing his grip on the blood weapon to loosen. With a scream he dug the dagger even deeper into Sukuna, and refused to let go.
Eventually the two made contact with a building, crashing into the wall with a pained grunt from Yuuji. Once he was on the ground he finally let go of the weapon and ripped it out, blood dripping onto his clothes and face.
Sukuna chuckled again and took a few steps back, "That was a smarter move than expected from you, forcing me to let you land by connecting us. That's the kind of power I want to see from you!"
Yuuji glared at him, breathing heavily and trying to ignore the fact that he was covered in his friends blood. 'What do I do now? He's too fast for me to be able to actually hit him with any attacks, and if he sends me into the air like that again I won't be able to use that move again to land, and I'm losing too much blood anyways, I'd risk bleeding out before I can even try to convince him to heal Fushiguro's heart. Dammit. What do I do?' Yuuji's thoughts were panicked as he tried to come up with a strategy, anything to be able to beat the king of curses, or atleast get Fushiguro back alive.
"You use your own blood for blood manipulation, don't you?" Sukuna asked, smile never leaving his face. Yuuji didn't bother with a response, Sukuna already knew the answer to that.
However, Sukuna didn't say anything, he held the silence between them until Yuuji answered him. Yuuji took a deep breath, "So? What does that matter?"
Sukuna put a hand to his chin, as if in thought, "There's just one thing I don't get. Why did you run back then? Your bloods poisonous to cursed spirits, isn't it? You easily could have taken out that special grade. Kind of a waste of your talents." he said, before looking to the side, "Ah whatever. Either way that certainly won't be enough to fix this." he pointed at the hole in his chest, telling Yuuji that he knew what the was trying to do all along.
'He figured it out huh? Well that doesn't really matter anyways.' Yuuji leaned forward, preparing himself to get up.
"Risking your life for useless shit. This kid isn't even close to being worth the efforts."
Yuuji stood up, thinking about Fushiguro and how he hadn't understood his want to save everyone he can, "This guys a bad person! Why do you even want to save him?" his voice echoed, it was something he had said while they were inside the Juvenile Detention Center, when Yuuji had talked about bringing the body back for his mother. He ended up listening to Fushiguro and just taking the name tag off the guys uniform, hoping it'd be enough to bring her atleast a little bit of closure. Yuuji smiled as he thought about it.
'Not everyones a good person, but everyone deserves the chance to be saved. The chance to become a good person. That's what I believe. Even though life is unfair, people deserve a chance to live a good one.' he thought about his brother Choso, who was probably waiting at home for him to call once the mission was over and tell him all about it, just as he usually did.
"Not everyones good, that's just a fact of life that we have to accept, but people can change. I think it's good that you want to give them that chance." Choso had told him with a smile during one of his bad nights where he was worried that maybe saving everyone was a bad idea, that maybe he should only save people who deserve it.
'Choso was always a good person, he helped me learn how to use my technique, and even showed me how to use his own special move, but he was still punished. Our brothers were still killed. Our parents still left. I never really knew any of them so it didn't affect me much but he knew and loved them all. He didn't deserve that. I'm sure our parents are probably off somewhere enjoying their life while we suffer through all this, but a part of me thinks they still deserve that. They deserve to be happy, just as everyone else does. So I'll continue to save as many people as I can. No matter what they've done.' Yuuji put his fists up, prepared to continue fighting, and Sukuna gasped, then grinned.
"That's the way! So this is where you start burning through your life! Now I see." Sukuna began to walk towards him, "Well in that case, Yuuji! Show me what you got!"
Yuuji's cursed energy flowed around him and he gathered more of his blood, preparing to use the move his brother had taught him. A special move that only they knew how to do. Then a thought struck him. He let the blood dissipate and lowered his fists.
"I know we don't see eye to eye on our views about who deserves to be saved, but I do think your conviction is a good one. Good people do deserve a good life, they deserve happiness, but I believe that even people who've done bad things deserve a chance. No matter what they've done, everyone deserves a chance to be happy. Even so, when I saved you I didn't see you as just another person to check off on my list of people I've saved, you were different. I had to save you because you are a good person. You deserve happiness more than anyone. Even if we don't have the same vision for the future, you're still one of the best people I've met. There are some people that I regret saving, some people who wasted their chance to do good, but you'll never be one of them." Yuuji confessed with his usual bright smile on his face.
Slowly, his second pair of eyes closed and the marks on Megumi's body began to disappear, until it was like they were never there at all. Megumi gave him a soft smile, something Yuuji had never seen before. "Right. I don't think your view is a bad one, you're a good person Itadori. You deserve happiness too, that's why I saved you too." blood poured out of the wound onto his chest and formed a puddle on the floor. Megumi groaned and squinted his eyes, "I guess this is it. I'm glad I met you Itadori, Kugisaki and Nanami too." his voice was strained and he struggled to hold himself upright until finally he fell forward, "Continue to be happy for me." he said before falling face first on the ground in front of him.
Yuuji stared down at the body of his best friend, the man he loved, and cried for the first time in a while. Megumi was set to be executed the second he ate that finger, but he never deserved to die like this. Yuuji's knees buckled, and he fell to the ground. Noticing the rain pelting down on them for the first time since this fight started. He was soaked, and covered in Megumi's blood. That thought broke him even further. He sobbed, moving Megumi's head to rest on his lap. Holding him as he cried, cried for his friend, cried for an amazing person who never deserved to die, cried for the boy that- despite only knowing him for a few weeks -he had allowed himself to fall in love with.
He wondered if Megumi loved him too.