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There was a section of Jujutsu High’s library that was stuffed with fairytales and old folklore. From children’s picture books to collections of aged paper bound by leather, they could find every myth and legend here in the form of written words.
“It’s important for jujutsu sorcerers to understand people’s fears.” Fushiguro handed Itadori a pile of books from the shelf. “Ghosts and fox-demons…the curses that more commonly appear can change depending on the sort of scary stories trending in an area. The more infamous and widespread, the easier it is for it to produce a curse.”
“So if we go to Europe, we’re more likely to run into a curse that’s like a vampire?”
“Kind of. It probably won’t die by stakes through the heart or garlic holy water though.”
Itadori flipped through the books to judge approximately how long the pile would take him to finish but he stopped when he spotted a colorful cover.
“Why is this one here? It’s not really scary?” He pulled it out, holding up for Kugisaki and Fushiguro to see.
Kugisaki leaned over, reading the title out loud, “The Tale of The Bamboo Cutter. Yeah, that version is for the non-jujutsu sorcerers.” She pointed to another book in the pile, one that was handwritten with ink in calligraphy. “My grandmother said a lot of the history and story had been omitted because those historical folks were involved with jujutsu. Couldn’t have the supernatural leaking out so they kept a separate record of what really happened. Actually, this one has something to do with you too.”
“In the records, it was rumored that the King of Curses had a wife,” Fushiguro added as he stared at Itadori. “They called her Kaguya-hime, the same princess in the Tale of The Bamboo Cutter.”
“Really?” Itadori looked down at his hand. “Is that true, Sukuna? You were married?”
Itadori couldn’t imagine it. There was no way anybody could ever stand Sukuna. However, Itadori wasn’t surprised either. For an ancient evil, it felt like of course there would be long tales of people that Sukuna killed and women battered under his tyranny.
The curse within him didn’t answer. The silence was oddly uncomfortable because Sukuna made no response even as Itadori taunted. Normally, even if the jujutsu sorcerers hadn’t said anything, the King of Curses would have some nasty comments.
This time though, it was just silence.
“I don’t think they ever found out what happened to her,” Kugisaki flipped through some of the books, skimming absentmindedly. “According to the legends, she was the most beautiful woman anyone could have ever laid eyes on but there’s not even a painting of her left behind.”
“Probably because she was executed after Sukuna died.” Fushiguro didn’t sound too confident in his answer. “At least, that’s what Maki-senpai said the Zenin’s record showed. She was Sukuna’s wife so I guess that made sense for that time. But it’s all stories, even the jujutsu sorcerers’ records can be wrong since there really wasn’t much known about this princess. Just that Sukuna had her for a long time and didn’t kill her like he did with the other sacrifices.”
Itadori heard a light scoff but the noise didn’t originate from anywhere in the room. His classmates continued talking amongst themselves while he pinched his face, where the scar under his right eye was.
“Sukuna?”
There was no response.
Thus, Itadori scratched his head and the three of them moved on from the topic since there was still reading to be done and Sukuna wasn’t giving any crumbs of information.
______
“I’ll do whatever you say! Just like how you healed my heart, please save Junpei!” Itadori yelled while the muscles in his arms strained against Junpei’s neck. The short but stocky creature his friend had turned into struggled violently, pushing Itadori into the window.
But Itadori couldn’t care less about the dull pain of metal frames and bolts pressing into his back.
Junpei was thrashing against him. The forced modification made his now twisted muscle spasm, a tremor that travelled down his grey skin. Itadori could feel the vibration beneath his palms even if the body against his felt like stone.
An eye and mouth formed over Itadori’s cheek.
Sukuna’s red eye spun in its socket, glancing up as it curved into a crescent moon as if amused. Itadori could feel it from the way the muscles in his face squeezed.
“I refuse,” announced the King of Curses.
His rejection was followed by more mocking words that didn’t quite reach Itadori. There was ice in the human teen’s stomach, slowly overtaking his core until even the tips of his hair felt numb.
His friend was dying in his arms. A humanoid curse stood across from Itadori in the hall. An ancient curse watching tragedy unfold with glee. Both curses were laughing hysterically, milking misery from pain as if it was sweeter than honey.
Something snapped inside Itadori.
He had been wrong.
This was what a curse really was.
A curse was a curse. No matter the form it took or tongue it spoke.
Junpei had stopped resisting, his body going limp and slowly, he slumped down against Itadori, sliding towards the floor. The monster’s large hands grabbed onto Itadori’s pants, clinging onto one final struggle of hope.
Shakingly and with much difficulty, Junpei asked, “Yuu…ji…why…?”
Mahito’s cackling faded into a light giggle as he wiped invisible tears from the corners of his eyes. “Did he die already? Oops, I guess I was too rough with the transformation so there’s that.”
That was when Itadori’s fist made contact with Mahito’s face. Knuckles sank into the bridge of a nose, digging deep as he sent the curse flying backwards.
Blood dripped down Mahito’s nose.
“I’ll fucking kill you!”
“Don’t you mean ‘exorcize’?” Mahito smirked, hands outstretched as his back arched into a stance better suited for battle.
But then, a small creak sounded from down the school’s hallway. It was a strange noise for a time like this, since all the students should have been unconscious in the gymnasium already. A student perhaps? Or a teacher who stayed back to wrap up other tasks? It didn’t matter though, not for Mahito or Itadori at the moment.
All they needed to know was that it was an opportunity.
Mahito’s arm shot out towards the direction of the noise. His hand transformed into a ball of long spikes, smashing towards the classroom door. Itadori yanked on Mahito’s elbow, shifting the force of the blow to the stairs while he jammed a foot between Mahito’s feet. The next blow that came from the teen was met by the bloated muscles of Mahito’s stomach. What used to be a torso ballooned into a drum, absorbing the impact of the punch but soon, it wrapped itself around Itadori’s fist to hold him in place.
The ball of spike swung back at Itadori.
More blood dripped to the ground. This time a mix of both human and curse.
“Normal people would have let go.” Mahito opened his mouth, letting black blood spill out as a waterfall over the guard of his teeth.
“I won’t let you hurt anyone else.” The side of Itadori’s temple bulged with a bluish pattern of veins. His head bobbed forward violently, smashing into Mahito’s mouth and the two parted.
There was a distance between them now. Just a few steps, enough for them to regather their bearings. Itadori spared a glance at where the noise had come from, trying to see if there was anybody in need of help but behind the cracked classroom door, there was only silence.
Had they heard wrong? Maybe mistook the noise of wind tapping against curtains for something that wasn’t there?
That was when a hand shoved open the door with enough force to shatter the metal hinges. Pieces of the door nearly smashed into Itadori and Mahito but they each dodged it.
“What a ghastly mess,” said the woman with skin paler than the moon. Her slender frame was a willow branch in the winds, thin and frail as if it would snap under a single touch. She was dressed normally, with a white skirt that flowed down to her ankles and a dark blouse. No jewels or any other color decorated her body but even in such plain attire, she was breathtaking.
One glance and unforgettable as a stain that no river of time could wash away.
Half-hidden under long lashes were a pair of eyes the color of blood. The only color on her pale form besides the slightly pink hue of her lips. Although she stood at a distance, it felt as if she had been carved from marble and the flawlessness of her skin gave off an odd impression of cold.
Cold as jade.
Her long hair was braided into a bun behind her head but two wavy loose strands framed her face as she dipped her head. While she studied the sight before her, Itadori felt a strange pull within him.
“So who might you be?” Mahito’s question was followed by an immediate flying object. The curse had tossed a modified human towards the woman. The twisted piece of meat expanded like a sponge that met water, growing and stretching out on six limbs as it howled.
The air cracked and the next thing they knew, the modified human had been sliced in half by a strange looking appendage that poked out from beneath the woman’s skirt. It was a long, whip-like thing but much more agile as it dodged the falling body parts and struck right into Junpei’s lifeless body.
“So it really is you, Sukuna.” The woman looked disgusted as her appendage dragged Junpei to her feet like a harpoon retracting with caught prey. “It ruined my tea just by sensing your power. Couldn’t you have stayed dead?”
Itadori could feel the King of Curses manifesting on the side of his face again. There was dull pain at the back of his head as if Sukuna was going to take over his body but it vanished just as fast. Almost as if…as if Sukuna stopped himself from fighting for control, like he didn’t want to face the woman in this body.
“Muzan!” the mouth on his face rasped. Sukuna’s voice sounded odd, deeper and more reminiscent, almost nostalgic if that was possible for a curse. Sukuna couldn’t stop laughing but unlike his earlier jeer at Itadori’s misery, there was a hint of genuine…happiness if not relief.
Itadori wasn’t dense. There was a magnificent woman–ethereal as if an artwork had come to life–and combined with the legends of the curses, it was simple to put two and two together.
“You’re Kaguya-hime,” he said with certainty as he slapped Sukuna. The wetness of his own blood smeared across his cheek but it wasn’t enough to silence Sukuna.
The King of Curses appeared on Itadori’s other cheek. “Muzan!Been hiding like the scummy rat you are, haven’t you? You’re alive after all!”
Alright, that wasn’t the kind of language Itadori expected from a husband to wife after a reunion. But then again, it was Sukuna so anything that wasn’t instant murder was probably a sign of his good mood. It also confirmed one thing: Kaguya-hime wasn’t human any longer either.
No mortal can live for a thousand years and still maintain her youth.
“No thanks to you,” the woman spat venomously. There was a twitch in her hand and for a second, her nails sharpened into claws. “You rancid turd left a lie that led waves of those jujutsu sorcerers hunting for me even after your death! The secrets of immortality and the key to your strength…I can’t believe any of them ever believed it but they did. You lied to them about leaving your legacy with me so they would hunt me!”
Sukuna laughed, sounding excited. “Isn’t that what husbands and wives do? To share the burden in sickness and in health.”
His words faded into a wheeze as if he had just cranked out the funniest joke known to man. Kaguya-hime–or Muzan–as Sukuna had called her earlier, made a noise of disgust in response.
That somehow made Mahito laugh.
“Jogo said there was a wave of men he killed in the Edo period. They came to him because of a woman so beautiful that the human maggots willing to venture to volcano openings in search of what she sought.” Mahito’s voice was filled with curiosity as he studied Muzan. “A blue spider lily was what she asked. Is that you?”
Sukuna didn’t give Muzan a chance to answer though. He cackled, “Still looking for the impossible? And you said I was mad for splitting myself into twenty parts.”
“Impossible?” Muzan lifted her left hand, pulling her sleeve up to reveal skin the same hue of white as pearls. There was an involuntary twitch in Itadori’s right arm that he forced still when Muzan shoved her bare arm out the opened window.
Sunlight danced over her flawless skin.
“You–” Sukuna’s mouth opened wide.
There was a wicked smile at the edge of Muzan’s lips. “Surprised, dear husband? Look at your pathetic form now. Spending years in slumber just to be trapped in another meat cage. The times have changed.”
There was a bulge in the fleshy appendage attached to the woman. It emptied into Junpei and slowly, his shape began to shift. Like dough or some kind of squishy toy, meat and bones grinded themselves back into the teen’s original form.
Junpei coughed out a bucket of black blood with battered pieces of organs. He didn’t exactly look alive but he was no longer dead either…because…because those eyes–Itadori saw tears in those eyes.
“Junpei?” he called hesitantly.
Veins popped along the back of Junpei’s hand and over his forehead. His pupils constricted but his mouth sagged into a cry for help. “Itadori–Yuuji…s-stay away.”
“Kill him,” ordered Muzan.
The next thing Itadori knew was that he caught Junpei’s fist. Junpei’s attacks weren’t normal any more. Even though jujutsu could enhance a person physically, Junpei only recently came into this talent. Not to mention, Itadori had fought Junpei not even an hour ago. There was no way Junpei could become this strong physically in such a short time.
Also, something was wrong with him.
Junpei’s teeth looked sharper and so did his nails. Drool leaked from the corner of his opened mouth as his breathing turned into an irregular pattern.
“I’m h-hungry. No, stay away from me!”
Junpei’s shouting was met with a pained groan as Mahito’s enlarged fist slammed into his back.
“I don’t know what’s going on but let me join in on the fun too!” Mahito laughed as his arm wrapped around Junpei’s right shoulder. With a yank, Itadori heard bones popping out of their sockets.
However, that didn’t stop Junpei.
His body swung low and Itadori kicked Mahito away. Junpei’s broken shoulder shuddered then the flesh flopped in a wave. Not even a minute passed before he was all healed.
“Wha–” Itadori shut his mouth and ducked Mahito’s sneak attack. Mahito’s leg came into contact with Junpei’s face. Only, Junpei bit down as if he couldn’t hold back any more, devouring a chunk of the curse’s flesh.
Mahito paused and then he ogled Muzan as if he noticed something intriguing. “Oh, is that how it is?”
The human-shaped curse ran towards Muzan and Junpei’s body swayed, jerking as if his legs were going against his own wishes after Mahito. Itadori was on their tails when Mahito’s upper body twisted back in a 180. His arms splitted into two large nets over Junpei and Itadori.
Then there was a deep gush of blood exploding down Mahito’s chest. The curse’s expression went blank as if he couldn’t understand what happened. Neither did Itadori but he didn’t care.
He could kill the curse now.
Their fight landed outside the building, busting through walls and shattered glass. Itadori slammed Mahito into the dirt field in the middle of the schoolyard. Of course, the special grade curse didn’t die so easily. Mahito changed into a slimy eel-like animal, slipping past Itadori.
“Yuuji!”
Itadori looked up. Junpei knelt beside Muzan, crying as the woman stared down at them coldly.
“You disappoint me.” The words that left her tongue had a hiss, the kind that brought chills down people’s spines. Her eyes met Itadori’s gaze briefly and then a paper sliding door opened beneath her and Junpei.
Then they vanished.