Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

His hands are the first thing he feels, second is the breeze. Breathing through his nose he sighs. It had all gone dark before. The sound of slaughter raging into silence, the scatterings of Japan under his feet. Sukuna is gone. 

And then darkness. 

Then his hands. 

He sighs softly, his body feels off. There’s no pull of muscles he should have, he feels bigger too. The tether of taut skin and scar tissue on his face is lax now, and he smiles. It feels like a night on the cusp of summer. He must be in heaven, the only thing missing is—-

“Under jujutsu regulation I have to exorcise you!” He looks up and sees… a hiss escapes his mouth. It is the skin Kenjaku wears, the long hair and bangs— he puts up his hands in a fighting stance. He had just escaped, he can’t… the merger! 

Then his eyes wander to the skins’ forehead. His mothers body is unblemished by stitches. It’s not his mothers body?

Yuuji blinks, “where am I?”

The sorcerer who was once only a memory takes a step back, “You…”

A torrent of curses runs at him now, summoned from nothing. He merely waves his hand, cleaving through them and their souls with no effort, purple gore flies into the air and onto the concrete. They were nothing but low level curses, not enough for him to use even slight energy. It felt hollow using Sukuna's technique, his own now. 

He looks down and sees stripes, tiger stripes line his arms in a facade of the markings Sukuna once bore. His lip upturns teeth bared to the world. 

“No… no!” He cries, throwing himself back from the sorcerer, “No! Not again!”

“You!” He looks up at the sorcerer, “this is a trick. Isn’t it? Why am I here?”

He almost runs forward, “How are you hiding them! You son of a—“

A rush of memories flowed over him like water, this body ran forward after Suguru Geto. The kind boy in a strange uniform had told him to stay back. This body is not his own. Ryomen Sukuna had rushed forward to find answers about what was happening. The gluttonous curiosity had led him into a death trap, the sorcerer trying to keep him safe but this foolhardy child had rushed forward with full intent of beating the monster he had seen into submission. 

And it had led to him eating a cursed object. A tiny tiger shaped statue, barely large enough to leave a sore feeling in the throat. 

Yuuji heaves a little, “No! You useless idiot!” 

He slams his hands against his skull pulling his vessels hair, it is the same pink he had. The same pink… he snarls as he turns to the sorcerer.

“Kill me!” He hissed, stalking forward before he is stopped by a hand grabbing what shreds were left of the uniform's jacket, he turns back and immediately stops in his tracks, “Damn it you bastard!”

Megumi Fushiguro stares down at him, “Suguru is this what I think it is?”

His nonexistent heart stops.

“Sensei I couldn’t stop—“

Yuuji feels like his brain is being pulled in multiple directions, and suddenly he is pulled back into the recesses of a mind, it doesn’t feel like his own anymore, “what are you doing with my body!”

Sukuna's voice is less mature now, childish in the way a fifteen year old delinquents might be. It cracks slightly. 

“You’re…” Fushiguro looks on at the teenager as the tiger stripes recede into his skin, his eyes going from bright neon pink back to a dull red, slit pupils widening back into circles, “you can hold him back?”

“Him?” 

“The king of curses.” Megumi says, and Yuuji freezes, “Itadori Yuuji. You ate the cursed object?”

Sukuna scratches his neck, “listen it was either that and die or just die. This guy looked upset when I was about to be ripped in half and I didn’t want to kick it yet.”

Megumi sighs and then does something unexpected, slapping the back of the pink haired kid's head, “That was stupid… Can you let the curse out for ten seconds?”

“Sensei!” Geto looks flabbergasted, but then huffs out through his teeth, “this is where Satoru gets it from.”

Sukuna frowns, but does as told. Yuuji almost didn’t want to come out, but the ability to talk to Fushiguro… he could change this.

Tiger stripes cover the boy's body again, his nails lengthen and sharpen and his eyes change to that of a cat's. 

Megumi looks at him expectantly. Yuuji wanted to jump forward to hug him. His hair is a little longer, little scars covering his face, he looked older both with the new stress wrinkles and an air of confidence that Yuuji had never thought to see. 

“You should kill the vessel.” He says instead. Yuuji wants to be selfish but he knows what he deserves.

Both sorcerers share a look of surprise, “Now why would you want to kill the thing keeping you alive too?”

The question sounds sharp from Megumi's mouth.

Yuuji sighs, wanting nothing more than to crawl forward and cry in his friends arms, “What am I? What stories have you heard of me?”

Suguru frowns, almost confused. 

“The King of Curses. The Tiger of the Heian Era.” Yuuji lets out a surprised chuckle, “A monster with four arms and a demons face, who slaughtered those who got in the way of his prize.”

“And what is my prize?”

“That was lost to time, unless you want to enlighten us.” Megumi crosses his arms. The ten seconds is up yet he had not asked Sukuna to switch back.

Yuuji covers his face with his hands, breathing. They will not believe him if he plays nice but he cannot play mean. It’s not who he is. Who is he? Where is this world? Is this his punishment? Has he not been punished enough. 

“My prize was my family.” His family who died to the curses, his family of bond instead of blood, “but they aren’t here… not anymore. So how about you follow your jujustu regulations and kill me and my… vessel?”

Suguru frowns, “Sukuna doesn’t deserve to die. He may have been an ass but he wanted to help me.”

He turns to Fushiguro, his teacher. 

Megumi looks at him as he is pulled back into his domain. He decides to turn away  and stop paying attention until they die. Megumi is smart, hopefully as he grew up he’d realize keeping a vessel alive was his worst mistake. 

His domain is beautiful, and he finds himself selfishly and stupidly glad it’s not like Sukuna's malevolent shrine. Instead it feels cold instead of hot, the snow soft under his feet instead of the crunch of skulls. The trees are somehow clinging to the last fledging of life, leaves not yet barren. There’s a path too, clear of snow and lined with pebbles that he notices are shaped like tigers. 

Call a guy Tiger of the West Middle once and suddenly he's the king of curses!

A small chuckle courses from his mouth without permission.

Then he feels a disturbance and groans, turning to the intrusion. 

 there is a body in the snow. 

He looks down at Sukuna, he looks… young. He’s passed out much like his outside world counterpart—being carried like a baby by Megumi. He feels a little jealous! 

Just kidding.

Did he look this small when Sukuna first saw him, and if he did, how did the man feel such cruelty?

Then the boy groans and he almost understands, and he kind of feels bad for poking him with his foot. At least he didn’t kick him!

Then Sukuna glares up at him, his eyes squinting up at him. That look reminds him so much…

“You!” Sukuna yelps as he is dragged up by his head “You did this to me!”

“I didn’t do shit! I just didn’t want to die and I didn’t want that dude out there to die! How about you not be a tiger statue!”

It seems Sukuna didn’t remember anything. Yuuji keeps hold his face and shakes, pursuing any sort of recognition only to find nothing. Sukuna only stares at him with nothing, eyes roving over his cursed face. His teeth poke out slightly here—like an oni mask. At least Sukuna seems to find him more interesting than grotesque.

Who cares about what Sukuna thinks, he flares up angrily. 

He drops Sukuna back to the ground and turns away to his domain. Going down one path he doesn’t design to turn around, and in the distance wolves begin to howl. Sukuna follows him with a cuss, “don’t fucking leave me to die here! Where are we!”

Yuuji sees in the distance a small cabin, and next to it a hot spring steaming, the ground next to it untouched by snow. 

“Don’t ignore me!”

“I’ll do what I want!” He says childishly, Sukuna had scorned him when he had asked him to try to look through the rage. Yet Yuuji had given him chance after chance when he had killed everyone that Yuuji had loved. A compassion that he feels stupid for. 

He steps into the hot spring immediately with a sigh, “you’re going to be executed for being a vessel. All you did was pull me into this world when I was trying to rest.” 

I want to be with them. I was supposed to die and see them again.

“I’m going to what?!”

Yuuji sighs, and waved into the frozen distance, “that’s what sorcerers do, if I am that big of a threat then they will do anything to kill you as well. They’ll kill you to stop me from existing. As they should, it is their jobs.”

“You don’t sound like the guy who slaughters all who gets in his way.”

Yuuji isn’t a guy who slaughters people, he was still trying to wrap his head around being a curse right now. He was supposed to be dead. He probably deserved to be cursed after how badly he had failed his friends and family, how he had eaten his brothers, and caused the destruction of Japan. 

Frowning he turns, “think what you want. We’re going to die together.”

Then a laugh comes from him. 

He had cursed himself. Let’s try again, Sukuna. You and me. You can learn to be better and love life.

“We’re in the execution room right now.” He could feel the pressure of the talismans digging into the skin of this body. There are voices that he can hear through Sukuna's ears. 

“Stop acting so nonchalant about this! I don’t care if you want to be suicidal but I wanted to live!”

“Live for what?” He turns, there were some differences he could see looking through the meme prices that Dukuna practically threw around in his brain. Sukuna has a Grandma Yuka instead of Grandpa Watsuke, but he also didn’t have parents in the picture. He didn’t have a lot of friends other than those he made in the horror movie club. Sukuna seemed rather sad, he didn’t know what to do with his life. He didn’t want to be a doctor or a firefighter like Yuuji had, he didn’t know what he wanted when he had been such a delinquent when he was a kid, “you have almost less to live for than me.”

“I’ll find something to live for. There’s so much in this world that I want to try and do,” Sukuna said with a growl, “Because I’m not going to lay down and die!”

Yuuji looks up and for a second he sees himself standing there. Arrogant in the way all teenage boys are, stubborn, and mostly scared.

Why is he acting like this? 

“So my two options are to die now or die later?” Sukuna almost growls, but he was quite happy with the idea of not being put down right now like a dog. 

Fushiguro sighs, “I’m sorry, that was the most strings I could pull.”

Turns out this emo guy is the Strongest, one of the only Ten Shadows users to take Mahoraga down and take him. That gave him power, him and his charge seemed to be the big names in this Jujustu world. 

“It’s better than what the king-guy said.” He huffs.

“You talked to the King of Curses?” Megumi hummed thoughtfully, “What is he like?”

“He’s damn suicidal!” Sukuna complained, “and he said it’s sorcerers' jobs to kill curses. It’s kinda sad.”

Sukuna didn’t tell Megumi that Yuuji was raging in the headspace right now. 

Finally Yuuji went quiet.

“Well you’ll be studying Jujustu to help us find the rest of his statues. Then once he’s completely recovered you’ll still be executed, I’m sorry about that.”

“I’ll find a way to change that.” Sukuna said, “If there’s a way to get rid of him without me dying, I’ll find it.”

Megumi almost smiles at him, “I hope we can find it. You seem like you’ll get along with Satoru.”

He holds up another little tiger statue, this one is a soft brown color. Yuuji knows it’s the color is Kugisaki’s hair, and he frowns. 

“Gotta make sure it wasn’t a fluke first.”

“Yay…” Sukuna takes the tiny statue and swallows it whole. His arms shake, stripes lining his body and then receding, his eyes flash another color but return, “Yup. Easy. This guy doesn’t seem like King material to me honestly. All he did was tell me to die and that he was tired.”

A mouth appears on his cheek, “Don’t say that! I’m older than you! Respect your elders you shithead!” 

Yuuji didn’t realize how weird that was to do. His little pink eyes roving around until it looks at Megumi. 

“Shut up!” Sukuna slaps the mouth and Yuuji nips at the fingers, “Hey stop that shit!”

 “So Yuuji right?”

“Fushiguro Megumi.” He says it just to feel the words on his tongue. He’s tempted to do the same for everyone, listing off each person he wished to see doing well, “How did you tame Mahoraga.”

Fushiguro raised a brow, “Why, you asking to fight?”

The little eye that sprouted on Sukuna's cheek rolled, “No… I just haven’t— I knew someone who had that technique and he had trouble. He used it only as a threat.”

“You knew a Ten Shadows user in your time?” Megumi leaned back with his arms crossed, “and got along with him well enough to speak fondly?” 

“Of course I speak of him fondly!” Yuuji pouts, genuinely pouted! It was so weird talking to Megumi that wasn’t His Megumi. Like this Sukuna isn’t His which is good, “He was my best friend.”

Sukunas hand comes over his, fake-whispering, “So how is this guy the most feared curse like ever? He honestly seems kind of…”

“I will kill you if you finish that sentence.” Yuuji growls, “I’ll have you know I was a sorcerer once, I was a sorcerer much longer than I was a curse.”

Yuuji’s maw opens wider on Sukuna’s cheek.

Sukuna clenches his fist and finally Yuuji finds it a good time to recede back into his domain. It was peaceful but he was sure it would get boring at some point if he was going to keep living in a vessel. With no evil schemes other than kill him and his vessel, he had nothing to do but… contemplate.

Moping.

Fushiguro looks up at Sukuna and sighs, “Try not to let him do that around the others please. I’m not sure it inspires confidence.”

“I think he does it mostly around you.” He huffs, “he didn’t even care to speak to Suguru other than to scream that this was his fault.”

He shudders, “Only time he felt like a curse.”

Fushiguro makes a face, “It seems he’s more complicated than we thought.”

Which makes this a lot harder than if he was just evil. He seemed ready to kill his students, and scorn Sukuna from what has now heard about the curse. But he seemed… excited to talk to Megumi. Which felt uncomfortable, but he had a feeling it had to do with this ten shadows user he knew.

He leads Sukuna to the school and braces himself for what is about to happen. 

“So this is the King of Curses vessel!” Nobara grins evilly, getting closer menacingly with her hammer, “you don’t look like much. Probably just stupid enough to swallow a cursed object. Gross!”

She then leans back and taps her chin, “so… I know you chose the option to live now and die later to save your own ass, but why decide to be a sorcerer? You could just sit around and do nothing while we bring you the statues.”

Sukuna frowns, “I…” 

Tell her the truth, Yuuji whispers in his mind, she is the type to agree with your reasons rather than some altruistic words. 

“I want to experience more. I want to go out into the world and eat new things, fight new things. I need to experience as much as I can before I either die here or until I find a way to exorcise this guy without killing myself.”

Kugisaki's face lights up, “Not some stupid shit. Good. You have to honest with yourself to put your life on the line for this shit. I’d have killed you on the spot if you gave me a optimist crap.”

Sukuna makes a face, “That’s… good.”

“She’s kidding.” Fushiguro said with a sight, “you have to stop messing with the kids.”

“You’re so boring!” Kugisaki said with a frustrated huff, “I wouldn’t have liked you if you gave me a stupid answer. All sorcerers are crazy, and you need to show what makes you crazy to get respect around here. Kick some ass and experience the world.”

“Welcome to Jujustu Tech. You’ll probably get along well enough with the first years this year. Don’t kill anyone.”

She waves them off, “I have a last minute mission, so I can’t make any more introductions. Megumi here is better with you guys than me.”

“You just took the principal position for the slight raise.”

Her grins makes him shudder.

“Don’t mind her really.” Fushiguro huffs, his solemn face looking rather annoyed now, “She likes to piss people off, and scare kids. But she will do anything for this school and everyone in it. She was one of the ones who went with me to the elders to plead your case.”

Sukuna nods along, staring contemplatively at the walls as he passes, his lips parted and then closed.

Best not to tell Fushiguro-sensei that Yuuji seemed so familiar with them. 

The school seems huge, “how many sorcerers are going to be here?”

“With you being a newer student… you make the fourth first year. You’ll meet them soon, but the second years are on a mission, and the third years are always busy. Altogether there are… ten or so students here. And that’s because the Kyoto school is under renovations right now.”

Sukuna’s face pulls into questioning gaze, “Then how the hell do you get anything done with so little people coming in?”

Megumi looks at the sky, “we’re doing well for the short numbers. It’s another reason they’re letting you live.”

“That’s… not inspiring.”

Megumi hums, and points to a door, “It’s not, but I think you can do well if you work towards it. You’re a good kid. Now that is the common room. The other first years are there, once you meet I’ll get you settled in a room. Sounds good?”

“Yeah, that should be fine.” He mutters.

As the doorknob clicks open he hears a cacophony of voices and sounds. First the sound of things being thrown then voices. 

“You’re gonna get us in trouble throwing the fucking pillow around Satoru stop!” It’s a girls voice, “bunch of animals!”

“He started it!” Another voice, more childish and not familiar. “He’s trying to kill me, sensei help!!”

Geto is doing his best to smother a white haired boy with a pillow. As soon as he sees his teacher and the boy he saved, he throws the pillow away from him and sits properly.

The white haired boy jumps up, “Fushiguro is this the mysterious new guy?! He looks kind of plain, hey your cursed energy is fucked up. You feel kind of like a curse!”

Megumi sighs, and it seems he regrets being born, “Satoru calm down.”

The boy—Satoru if the teacher is to be believed— frowns but then comes back just as exuberant, “I’m Satoru Gojo! I’m going to be the strongest.”

He sends a playful glare at their teacher.

Megumi smiles at the behaviour, they must be familiar with each other. Perhaps even more than Suguru or the other first year seemed to be with the teacher. 

“Ignore him, he likes to be in everyone’s business.” The girl stands, and with her waves of cigarette smoke and incense trail by, “I’m Shoko.”

“Nice to meet you guys.” Sukuna says shortly, it seems like a lot. And there’s also the guy in his head screaming like he’s being shot. Instinctively he pulls up a fist and slams it into his head and hisses.

“Sorry. This guy won’t shut the hell up.”

“What guy?” Shoko asks, and Suguru pulls a face. 

Fushiguro takes this as his cue to jump in, “this is Ryomen Sukuna, vessel of Itadori Yuuji. He will be helping us retrieve all the relics of Itadori.”

Shoko is the first to react: she reaches out a hand and pokes his face as if expecting his skin to fall off. Gojo reacts near the same time, with a loud screech. 

“That’s why your energy is fucked!”

“Language.”

Sukuna sighs, “yeah yeah I’m the idiot who ate a totem. Kinda already facing the consequences so don’t be weird about it.”

Suguru seemed fine, getting close, “Sensei what dorm is he in, we can help him get settled. You look a little rough.”

He always looked like that after visiting his best friend the principal.

“The room next to yours.” Megumi says, and tactfully doesn’t say that it’s between Geto and Gojo’s room for a reason. God forbid something did happen he knows these two could take on the King at what level he is right now.

And maybe he is testing something.

This King might be playing tricks, but he seemed ready to go under the guillotine at any moment.

Something wasn’t right.

Geto smiles softly, “Then I’ll know the way. Come on, do you have stuff outside you need to grab or?”

Megumi waved at them, “I had Yaga’s cursed corpses bring them in, all it should be unpacking.”

Sukuna blinks, he doesn’t remember going through his stuff. Damn that probably means all of his fun stuff was left in his once family home. He is hit with a pang of grief that feels twofold.

They’ll have brought you other things. Fushiguro is thoughtful like that.

Sukuna huffs, not responding to Itadori. It’s unsettling to have the curse know so much about these people— as if he knew them. But they all seemed terrified or at least unsettled by the curse. It can’t be anyone they know.

He has to stop Gojo from going through his shit and tossing it around with a harsh kick that seems to stop centimeters from where Gojo actually is.

“Horror movies huh? Of course you’d be the type.”

Breath. Do not fight the white haired guy. He’s another student and Sukuna needs to be on his best behaviour so he doesn’t literally die.

But it is tempting to beat the shit out of Gojo.

No no I think you should fight him.

Sukuna frowns and whispers, “would I win?”

No he’d kick your ass, it would just be a little funny. 

He grumbles, damn annoying curse. Hell never get a moment of peace with this King in his head, not to enjoy poetry or any movies.

Shoko pokes his again, “so can you talk to him? Is he super evil?”

“Not from what I’ve heard.”

“Neat. When you die can I autopsy you?”

Sukuna blinks, and it’s a genuine question. He has a feeling this woman is actually itching to cut him up. 

She is. Look at her hands! She’s twitching. Jesus.

Sukuna entertains her for two seconds before lightly slapping her hand away, “I’ll be dead so I won’t care. But you have to wait until then.”

“Cool. I like you, new guy.” She flippantly returns to pulling books out of boxes and onto shelves for him. Nice they did actually bring him his cool stuff. 

Oh his bow! He snatches it out of Sugurus hand with glee, “I was worried this was left behind!”

“You know archery?” Geto asks, his eyes trailing the bow. It was nice, one of the fancier things that Sukuna had to save for years for.

“Since I was a kid.” He had a whole routine that he did for festivals in his town with flaming arrows. The adults around him were always shocked and amused but his favorite part was that the fireworks happened right after. He had stopped when they moved to Sendai, his grandmother's health failing.

“Maki-San will love you then, she’s always on us about cursed tools.” The woman was always on them about honing their bodies and their skills, especially the ones without cursed energy. Her complete heavenly restriction had been a sight to behold, strength unknown and untold while she fought.

The three that knew her shuddered at the name.

“I can use a bow to fight curses?” Sukuna hums, even more interested in all this fighting business, “I look forward to meeting her.”

When most of the boxes are unpacked, Shoko gets up and yawns, “I’m going to bed now, y’all should too. It’s training tomorrow bright and early.”

Gojo looks at his watchless wrist, “I guess so, you don’t seem too bad, big guy.”

The comment is chosen as a compliment, though it is hard to swallow it as such. 

“Goodnight Sukuna.” Geto says, “If you have any issues with…” he gestures to his head, “You can come to my dorm and talk.”

Sukuna knows this is a friendly gesture, but he only hums. He will deal with this himself. He can’t show them if he’s weak if he wants to live.

He shucks off the uniform and very carefully throws it onto the floor. He changes into sleep pants and knows he’s gonna be annoyed tomorrow by the clothes on the ground. Whatever. It’s been a long day…

The snow. 

The scenery is different, the path is longer than the one he remembers. This must be the other side in Yuuji’s weird dreamscape, he doesn’t feel cold though he walks barefoot and shirtless through the snow. 

Little branches snap to the floor as he walks, the breeze picking up as he enters a clearing. In the middle of the clearing there is an altar, a stone slab of an altar, covered in dead moss that acts like a chair. 

Yuuji sits at the top of the throne and his eyes lazily blink open.

“Why are you here?”

Sukuna guffaws, “I don’t even know where here is!”

The curse blinks and then as if remembering who he is talking to he leans forward, “This is a domain, it’s like an extension of the soul. And I didn’t bring you here.”

He huffs and shakes his head, “I’ve never been on this end before, usually I break into domains. I have no clue why you’re here. Go shoo and dream about something.”

“Damn it, I don't know how to leave.”

Itadori throws himself back on the altar chair, “the only way I know how to send you back is kill you. But then you just wake up and you maybe drift back here.”

Good payback.

He grins, imagining getting payback for every injury in this domain, not noticing that the breeze is pulling Sukuna towards him acting on his whims. Ripping his heart out, cutting his head off, cubing him… slicing off his fingers one by one.

Make him eat them.

When he looks up from his ponderings he seems a scared boy kneeling in front of him. The domain crushing his soul into position as if waiting for Yuuji to do it, act on it, make him pay for what he did.

He clutches his chest, “Let go.”

The scared boy scrambles back. A teenage boy with baby fat clinging to his cheeks despite being more muscular than many boys his age. So…

He sighs with resignation, trying to hold it in. Is this what being a curse is? Hatred and nothing else? What is happening to me?

Yuuji waves a hand and suddenly the sun rises through the clouds and shines a warm circle on a rock shaped almost comfortably, “Try and sleep here. I’m not going to kill you for the crime of being here without knowing.”

The sunshine feels warm, and Sukuna cannot help but notice the curse looking at him with solemn eyes while his monstrous teeth grind in thought.

He does not apologize, but it feels like one enough.

The greenery under his feet led him to a cherry blossom field. At the end is a boy, with both chubby cheeks and a lankiness that came with puberty. He couldn’t be more than eleven. His pink hair stands out in the way it blends with the tree's hue. 

The boy is eating an onigiri, his face pulled into full concentration. 

“You’re going to make yourself sick, Yuuji.” An old man’s voice calls. The wind blows through his hair while a bell in the distance goes off.

The man walks over to Yuuji, patting his head with a sigh, “You eat so much, I’m surprised you haven’t turned into a ball.”

“It’s for all my energy Jii-chan. You said I use a lot, so I need a lot of food!”

“I should stop feeding you.” Despite this he gently grabs the boy's hand, the one unoccupied by onigiri. His voice is fond, but it crackles occasionally. A smoker's voice, yet he didn’t carry the tarry scent, “come on, we need to go home now. I hope you didn’t spoil your appetite with those things.”

Yuuji giggles, following along.

A blink.

There are voices. It’s Yuuji speaking with a woman in hushed tones.

“My grandfather just died.” His voice is steely yet his eyes are already spilling over his face. The only thing not blurred is his face, twisting up slowly.

“I knew it was going to happen soon…” there is a soft sob and then a quick succession of sniffles. Then his voice is muffled, as if he is bowing, “I love you Jii-Chan. I’ve got it from here.”

A pause.

Destruction, a blaze of nothingness like never seen, buildings in tatters. Cracks make up more of the sidewalk than concrete. Everything sits in a vague smoke with nothing living for miles.

Except a laugh. There is a boy on the ground.

The boy laughs and laughs and then cries. He howls, like a dying cat. His eyes aren’t open, no they are squeezed shut in pain as his body begins to crumble fully into the ground. 

Screaming and gurgling. The noises join together and he can see white-yellow teeth fall out of his face, with new ones rapidly taking their place. Blood pools into his nose and down the divots of his face and neck. Long fangs protrude out from his lips, his back bubbles like a third degree burn before the pustules pop and erupt into new arms. 

New flesh ripples, almost alive as gashes open up along his arms and back and face. Old scars written over like a glamor, as the gashes solidify like a rapidly healing wound. Where once was blood and sinew and muscle exposed to the world, instead lay black markings.

Sukuna wakes up. 

He wakes up with a start, his heart pounding with fear. In that last moment of the dream he swore the sorcerer turned beast had looked upon him. Neon sick eyes tracing where he’d been a mere spectator, like being eyed by a predator.

“You are not giving me nightmares.” He growled, clawing at his cheek, “I’m not doing this every night!”

Yuuji’s prescient stirred, almost as if he too was sleeping, “What nightmare? I don’t control your dreams so whatever you saw—“

“It was you with an old man!” He hissed, “and then you a ruined town. Or something, it was hazy. You were transforming.”

It was silent for a moment, and he could feel waves of emotion from the curse, but he couldn’t catch them all in depth. A passing curiosity, fear, wonder.

“Go back to sleep. You have a few hours until class.”

I’m sorry you had to see that

So quiet, and then he is gone.

Chapter Text

Sukuna enjoys studying. Well, he doesn’t enjoy studying for real school subjects other than literature. His favorite things to do included reading poetry and creating his own, though he felt he would never be a poet. But in this new world he feels like he has everything interesting he could ever want at his fingertips. 

“The library is usually off limits to first years,” Fushiguro-sensei says, though he doesn’t look like he cares, “As long as you don’t destroy anything, you can look as long as you want.”

He seemed pretty pleased that one of his students was so demonstrably excited to read a bunch of old texts. Megumi had been the one who did a lot of reading when he was in school, and Satoru never followed his lead— instead learning through doing. 

“I just don’t know where to start.” Sukuna muttered, “Is there anything here that will help me learn how to use cursed energy or..?”

Megumi frowns, “No none here, sadly. Most sorcerers learn their techniques and how to use it when they’re seven. I can teach you about that soon though. We’re just not sure you’ll even be able to use it.”

Sukuna frowns and flexes his fingers. They feel cold. 

“But I did contact Maki-san about getting you a cursed bow and some training. She will be here tonight.” Short notice but give Maki a target to talk about cursed weapons and relying on your body, she will drop what she’s doing and rush. It’s the only time Megumi has seen her so excited since Mai…

The teenager nods excitedly, “Yes! I want to know everything.”

Megumi smiles at him and then makes a mental note to make sure this kid gets library time as much as possible. He’d expected the vessel for the king of curses to be cruel, or stupid, or maybe just dead. Yet the pink haired kid just kept looking at their world like he wanted to devour the knowledge of it, as if he alone could keep every secret and tome in his clutches. 

That’s the kind of crazy he is.

“There’s a couple of books you may want to read. I’ll show you to them but soon you’ll be able to navigate this place yourself.”

Sukuna follows him, his hands twitching with excitement. 

Heian Era Sorcery

History of Technique

His body stops without his permission in front of the next one. 

The Language of the Soul— Yuki T .

“You should read that one.” Megumi murmurs, “It’s not an easy read, but this is full of interesting theories. And it may help you in getting your passenger out of your body.” 

A pink eye forms on his cheek, then a mouth, “Yuki! She wrote a book? You should read that, that lady was super strong, she taught me most of what I know about soul work, though she has a better handle on explaining it.”

He seemed excited. Sukuna and Megumi share a look. 

“You knew her?” Yuki was said to be one of the first Special Grades, with her lifespan being twice that of a normal human. She had been around during Yuuji’s time, now that  Megumi thinks about it. 

“She was an incredible sorcerer.” Yuuji gushed, “her technique was so strong, and she was super fun to be around. Bubbly!”

Sukuna grabs the book, and his fingers trace the spine, “If she’s strong enough that the King of Curses knows her, then she probably had good insight.”

“I’m pretty sure most of her work was about how to stop the creation of cursed spirits though.” Yuuji murmurs, “To turn all humans into sorcerers. One of her theories… she never tried it though.”

Megumi nods along, “and she taught you?”

Yuuji seems to shrink when he realizes what he is doing, “It was mostly because she was fascinated by me. Her and my brother also dated before they died.”

“You had a brother?”

Yuuji shrinks even more, the mouth disappearing and the eye just staring.

Megumi looks at the two of them with a thoughtful look, “perhaps if you talk more well understand more about your history. There’s not a lot of information on you.”

Sukuna remembers the dream, the memories he saw. There’s a pit in his stomach as he recalls each horrific detail and how he didn’t want to stop looking. 

You can tell your teacher what you saw. His voice is soft in the back of his, perhaps the most kind he had heard the spirit, if it is troubling you. 

Sukuna ponders on it, but then the connection is gone. Yuuji is giving him space. The pervasive feeling of someone in your head isn’t something he thought he would get used to so quickly. He didn’t even notice his head felt lighter until now, when Yuuji had sunk fully and quietly back away from where he could watch.

“I saw one of his memories last night.” Sukuna mutters, “A couple actually.”

Megumi looks completely open, not asking more, not telling him to be quiet. Curiosity flickered in the man’s eyes, “I hope nothing troubling.”

Sukuna thought to the little boy in long robes and unruly hair, then to the monster. He didn’t feel like he should share the soft moments. They weren’t his to tell, not really.

“Do you think becoming a curse hurts?” Sukuna pondered out loud, “It looked gruesome. And he was just howling and screaming and laughing.”

Megumi frowns down at him and then lays his hand on the students head, “there aren't many records of people becoming curses as sorcerers until they die. Then it’s a quick transformation, a cursed womb.”

“It didn’t look quick.” Sukuna hummed, and then turned back to the bookshelves, “I’ve never seen anything like it…”

The change jingling in his pocket in case of a vending machine being near sounds like teeth clattering into a pile on the rubble.

“What else do you recommend reading?” Sukuna was going to read everything in this library, he was going to consume the knowledge and fashion it to his own. He just needed the most important stuff first. 

Sensing the topic is over, Fushiguro casts and glances at one bookshelf, “over there is a book on common and uncommon curses.”

The book he was referring to looked more like a cement block than a book. A large spine cracked down the middle as the leather caved from overuse. Sukuna hefts it into his arms with a strength he had always known. 

“This looks like good light reading for now.” Sukuna says, almost cheekily. 

His teacher laughs, “Don’t lose track of time. You still have extra training with Maki-San at six. If you’re late she will run you ragged.”

“I wouldn’t miss it.” With his face already in the book, he sets a timer on his phone for 5:30. Then he begins the long journey to reading through some of his books.

Before parting, Megumi tells him that the books sadly cannot be taken out of this room, but he will be granted access to the library any time he pleases as long as he isn’t busy with school.

Sukuna only nods to the information, chewing on his lip and he begins making notes in a little black notebook.

Five hours of reading goes by in the blink of an eye, and Sukuna had filled up his notebook nearly halfway already. His eyes droop, and he realizes with a start that he is starving.

His stomach growls at him with a force of the raging sea. 

There is a kitchen in the school.

Sukuna startles, slamming the book with more force than necessary. 

You just spent five hours in this dusty place! 

The teenager rolls his eyes, “Good god you can’t just pop up like that.”

And he does in fact pop up, as a mouth on his hand, his little pink eye twinkling with mirth, “Sorry, but if you are going to train with Maki then you need to eat. You’ll keel over if you try it in your state.”

Despite the curse having a point he still grumbles. As he gets up and reshelves the books he pockets his little notebook.

“So boring…” Yuuji yawns, “You are a nerd.”

“And you are annoying.”

He doesn’t know where the kitchen is.

“You know where the common room is? Go to the left past the dorms and you’ll find it at the end of that hallway.”

How the hell does a curse know that!

He grumbles to himself as he follows the directions. And damn it, there the kitchen was. Searching through the fridge he finds sparse ingredients, but there’s rice in the cabinet. Two eggs, a miso base, and some rice. 

Breakfast for lunch. 

Sukuna sets to cooking, and while he does he feels like Yuuji is pushing in on the head pace, clambering to watch what the sorcerer is doing. 

“Can you please back off or do something? It’s weird.”

There’s a huff from the inside of his head, I used to cook for myself all the time. It’s fun. I’m bored.

Sukuna lets out a breath through his nose, “If I knew you’d be more annoying than evil I might have actually begged to die.”

Yuuji growls and does something that makes his eyes blur, if you’re not going to die then don’t joke about it. 

Weird advice. 

“Will you stop being annoying if I let you help?” He cannot believe he is saying that, he feels stupid. Sukuna wonders if this is an act, if this curse is trying to whittle their guards down until he has the moment to strike.

Yet when he offers the headspace lightens up, YES.

Okay seems like he’s cooking with a demon. Whatever. 

“You cannot hurt anyone while you’re out. If someone shows up you go back.” He threatens.

Yuuji does the best approximation of an eyeroll he can do with only the vibes, yes I pinky swear that if you let me out to cook I will not cause untold horrors to this world. I just want to be in the kitchen. I’d shake on it.

It feels like it has more weight than a promise, so against his better judgement he gives control to the curse. His body shifts slightly, and the king of curses sighs out. 

“I understand why he didn’t wear a shirt now.” Yuuji mutters about someone Sukuna doesn’t know. Thankfully the curse keeps all of Sukuna uniform on his body.

He begins to finish what Sukuna started, though he hadn’t gotten far. The curse was good at this, as if he could understand modern kitchen tech.

How do you know how to work this stove? Or the rice cooker?

Yuuji waves the question off, “I just do, if it makes you feel better I kind of go through your memories. I can’t help it! There is nothing to do when I’m in your head.”

You have a hot spring. That’s pretty nice. Why not fuck off there?

“Okay so you think I’ll be happy just sitting in hot water for what? Years? Until I either get a body and get murdered or we both die? No thanks, if I’m going to be stuck here I’m not going to go crazy doing nothing.”

Sukuna huffs in the headspace but it is rather nice to take a moment and let the curse cook. His body felt stiff from sitting still all day, and he was sore from morning training. Yet when Yuuji was in charge of the body it all melted away.

“And besides, you’d hate to be cooped up doing nothing. Your whole thing is hedonism. Let me indulge in that too.”

I am not—

“Ya you are.” Yuuji singsongs and then food is done, “Can I have some. Since I helped.”

Yeah okay. Whatever.

No untold horrors happened while Yuuji cooked, just as he promised. The curse claps his hands excitedly and shovels two bites into his mouth and sighs, “God real food tastes so good. I don’t remember the last time I ate anything that wasn’t… bleh.”

And with that the king gave back control willingly and easily, almost pushing Sukuna back into the forefront.

Just in time to, because Gojo enters the kitchen. 

“Awww you cooked nothing for us!!”

Sukuna glares, “Didn’t know I’m the chef of this place. Make your own food.”

“I’ve been banned from touching the stove! You set something on fire once and suddenly you’re not allowed to even get near the food.”

A laugh echoes in his head.

You should cook for your classmates when you’re not in a time crunch. 

Why?

Because you need friends. Hell, I'll cook for them! Let me in the kitchen again. 

How the hell is he supposed to respond to that, he’s probably going to poison the food and kill off the sorcerers for good. 

That’s dramatic, I’m not a subtle type. And either way even if I did want to you can take control back whenever you want. And they called me stupid.

“Helllooooo earth to Sukuna? You good?” Gojo is waving his hand in front of Sukuna's face, and for a moment he wants to slap this idiot's face. 

“I’m fine, I have training with Maki-San in like thirty minutes, so can I eat in peace?”

Gojo rolls his eyes, barely visible behind his glasses, “Fine, just because you might die later with Maki beating your ass.”

Sukuna takes his food with a semi friendly wave, and leaves to eat it as quickly as possible before running to the training grounds. And the food is good. Like better than his cooking, though he’d only learned out of necessity. 

I’m a great cook, don't seem so surprised.

He ignored the curse, now realizing the more he spoke back to him, the more the curse chimed in. Like it was getting more comfortable with him. 

Yet still all he can remember is bubbling skin and the unyielding malice that had come from the curse in his domain.

He doesn’t know what to think.

“You’re Sukuna yeah?” Maki is fast, though he keeps pace following her to the tools room. She had immediately whisked them away from the training grounds to go looking for the objects with a singleminded devotion. 

“Yes.” 

Maki looks him over, stopping in front of a door, “You look strong. Your teacher told me you situation but don’t think I’m going to treat you different. No special treatment or anything.”

She shrugs, and open the door and lining the walls are cursed tools. Her face finally morphs into something other than vague stoicism, she grins. 

“I don’t give a shit if you have a curse.” Her flippancy is refreshing, she didn’t ask any questions, didn’t poke nor prod. She only wanted a willing person to hammer the knowledge of weapons into, “I only care if you can actually live up to my standards.”

And Sukuna was startlingly okay with that. This woman had no cursed energy yet she was a Grade One sorcerer, and she could fight with the best of them from what he heard.

She grabs a bow, it was plain looking but there was a strange vibe to it, it made his hands feel hot just looking at it, “This is the Charming Flame, it has three arrows and they will come back after successful attacks. Some people can’t handle it, because if you miss too often it catches on fire.”

Her eyes sparkle before grabbing two other tools, a blade, and a staff, “You’re going to spar with me, and then when you’ve proved you can handle yourself I’ll have you try all of these.”

Charming Flame…

The training field is still empty. He has yet to meet the second or third years. And he feels almost thankful for it, he may not need them to like him. Yet he felt itchy when people looked at him with disgust, he felt the need to cover his face and snarl.

Maki stands in front of him, her scarred arms crossed over her chest. 

“If you disappoint then you’ll just be doing physical training with your teacher and you’ll have to get the permits for the bow yourself.” A rabid smile etched on her face, “If you can land one blow, you win.”

Then it begins.

With speed unmatched she darts forward. Dodging out of the way with a roll, he could feel the wind move when her fist flew past his face. 

He rolled out of the way again and cussed when he barely made it back to his feet before she’d come back again with a force. 

Sukuna threw himself forward, the ground cracking with the force he’d propelled himself with. Aiming for her legs, he swept his own out towards the back of her knees. 

She jumped up, avoiding the hit and somehow maneuvered herself to land behind him. Her boots smacked into his spine, with the force of a fright train.

He hissed through his nose but took the hit with as much grace as he could handle. Turning he grabs for her ankle and barely misses the mark, this time he’s prepared for when she jumps.

Maki has to roll midair to avoid him jumping up with his fist out. In a grapple it could go both ways, even though Maki will still win.

He just needs to get a hit on her.

Sukuna whirls around and follows her, she dashed away in a circle before coming back with another roundhouse kick. Thankfully he dodges because it would have made a nasty bruise on his face. 

She grins at him, standing still for a second, “Come on, I saw that strength!”

For a moment he felt reinvigorated, “you’ll feel it too!”

Running forward he notices the smallest movement towards the left. She was going to go right, he knew it now. Maki knew how to throw her opponents off, but he was going to get this right. He wanted more than anything to get his hands on Charming Flame.

His elbow makes contact as he feigns going left with her movements before diving right. Instead of being surprised she only smirked. Then she coughs, “Damn kid!”

And then she grabs his arms and swings him like a stone. 

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU EAT?” He screeches as he is flung into the side of the building. He ribs the back of his head but then goes back to the fight with his fists raised. 

“I think that’s enough.” Fushiguro's voice calls from beside the wall Sukuna crashed into, “I’m surprised he can still stand after that.”

Sukuna was already flying when the words left his teacher’s mouth, Maki grabbing his fist quickly, but he wrapped his legs around her arms and used the momentum to try and throw her over. 

It didn’t work.

The teenager hung from her arms while she laughed, “He’s good! A little more training and this kid could seriously give me a good fight.”

She drops him with no hesitation though and he sputters as his back hits the ground.

“That move would have worked on anyone else.” He muttered.

She gives him an amused look, “It would have if I didn’t bench four times your weight. It’s always best to see what your opponent can do first and work around that. Not everyone can brute force it like me.”

Still he felt like he could have done better. But when she pats him on the back he feels a bit better about the loss.

“So I get to train with Charming Flame now, right?” His fingers twitched.

Maki hands him the bow, “yeah, we can get targets set up in a moment. You know the rules of archery, yeah?”

“Of course I do.”

“Okay well here’s the most important one,” she raises her finger, “don’t shoot a target unless you’re sure it’ll finish them or you could take them one on one.”

Sukuna’s brow furrows but it’s solid advice enough. Probably also a threat from her saying if he accidentally shot her, he was good as dead, “Heard.”

Fushiguro stood over the side, still watching as they set up the targets for him to practice on. Sukuna grabs the quick quiver with arrows in their spots. From what little he has heard about cursed weapons he has a feeling this one is a lot more complex of an enchantment. Arrows coming back when a target is hit seems like it would take a lot of thought and effort.

Maki walks over to Fushiguro, “How’d the mission go?”

He punches his brow between his fingers, “Another grade one, it’s light work now but it’s getting to be concerning how many are popping up now.”

“It’s a balance, Satoru caused the same thing when he unlocked his six eyes. Now it’s Sukuna who unearthed the King.” She pats her cousin on the shoulder, “From what I can tell though, the group you’ve got here has a lot of potential.”

She flexed her wrists and yawned, "I have an early mission tomorrow in Okinawa, and Nobara is meeting me at the barrier.”

Fushiguro nods her off, “I know the blade and staff are going home with you. I’ll make sure Charming Flame gets put away probably.”

“Not sure that’ll be a problem.” The kid had treated the bow like it was the most precious artifact he had ever seen. It likely was, but he was a natural after the first few tries. 

Maki departs and Fushiguro finally calls for Sukuna to finish up. 

“Are you able to put Charming Flame back correctly?” He asks as they turn towards the weapons room.

“Yeah.” He still sounds in awe, “It’s one of the more rare ones, right?”

“Yes, not many people get to use it, nor feel the need to.”

Sukuna still holds it like he might break it, and when he puts it away he is sent off back to the common area. 

He goes straight to his dorm shower and washes off the day. The dust that was still clinging to him from the library and slamming into a wall had caked with sweat, his hands reaching for the cold water.

The torrent of water wasn’t strong, but I was better than nothing. He lets the cold droplets spray over his face while he rinses down before reaching for his body wash.

He was lost in thought, some of it being the fact he was sore from the fight, how he felt like he could have done better. And even now, seven hours later, his mind raced with the theories of the soul. Despite Yuuji being familiar with the woman she made no notes on the King of Curses in her notes. 

After drying his hair with the towel, Sukuna sighs. 

“Maki is cool.”  Yuuji’s mouth opens on his hand.

 Sukuna swatted at the little face but was surprised when it shifted up his arm to dodge, “stop doing that.”

“No.”

Whatever, “She is cool. I think she’s going to come back to keep teaching me. I’ll need at least until I can use cursed energy. If I can.”

Yuuji’s pink eyes scan around the room, “you’ll be able to, at some point. You might even be able to use my technique. Though I’m unsure of which one.”

“You have multiple techniques?”

Yuuji clicks his teeth closed, so it seems that topic is done for now.

His skin is back to being skin, no mouth or eyes. Plugging his phone into the wall, Sukuna starts on his new nightly ritual: staring at the wall and hoping he’ll be able to buy a television soon.

On the other side of the table is a man, he’s dressed in traditional clothes, though he doesn't look the type to follow tradition. His hair is pulled up into little space buns, and his face has a long black stripe over the bridge of his nose. 

“They gave you permission.” The man says, softly while holding three glass vials.

“I still feel bad.” The voice says, it is familiar, “I don’t want to eat them.”

The man reaches across the table with his free hand, “lf it will help keep you alive, our brothers will give up their potential vessels.”

“Choso…” the voice is Yuuji’s. He finally sees the body behind the voice. The boy is wearing tattered black clothes, almost formless from how many stitches are ripped, “I’m going to win.”

He watches as the scarred boy swallows the small flesh like things out of the bottles. He coughs and his face twists at the taste. Choso leans over and takes the boy in his arms.

“I’m sorry.”

He wakes up, not in his bed, but in the snow.

He looks up to see Yuuji asleep on his throne. His clawed hand cups the side of his face to keep him propped up. Letting his eyes roam, Sukuna sees shadows in the woods. There aren’t any howls, but he wasn’t worried about the shadows being wolves. They looked like people out of the corner of his eye.

He hears laughing. Then something like dancing. Feet crunching ice. 

Stillness takes hold once more, the breeze replacing the laughter.

Looking back up, Yuuji is staring at him. 

Sukuna isn’t sure what to say.

The pink neon of the curse’s eyes keep tracking each minute movement. The twitch of his hands were followed as if at any moment he would be pounced on. 

A quick whiplike noise starts him to turn around, and he watches a swath of trees cut in half. 

“I’m not playing these games with you. Either kill me or be weirdly nice for a demon, but it’s confusing me why you’re doing this.”

Yuuji keeps staring at him, “I’m still not sure what I’m doing either.”

It’s not reassuring to hear.

The breeze feels like summer for a mere second, but the sun is back out, making the domain bright with reflections. He stands still, his arms shaking, it’s to the point where frustration makes him want to fight the curse. 

As if summoned by the thought Yuuji is five feet away from him in an instant.

He holds his hands up. Waiting for the flippant hand that had cut those trees and slaughtered those curses to swing and take his breath with it. Awaiting pain, he opened his left eye to see Yuuji still standing there. 

Yuuji circles him then, “We can fight when you’re not shivering at me looking at you. I don’t fight children.”

He climbs back to his throne, but Sukuna follows. The shock of hearing the statement had made him even more pissed.

“You have been doing nothing but annoying me and making me look at your pathetic memories!" 

Yuuji turns with slit eyes, “I will rip out your heart and eat it. I could do it a million times, for how many times I have been called pathetic.”

The beast slinks forward, his claws on Sukuna’s chest, pressing down just enough to feel the sharpness dig into flesh. There’s a flicker of that bloodlust that he was told of in the monster's eyes. 

“My family was the only thing I lived for. “

Instead of making good on the heart threat, he pushes Sukuna down the stone steps, “I would like to get along, and as soon as I can stop you from seeing my memories the better.”

He sighs and sinks into the stone chair like it is a luxury.

Sukuna sits with the knowledge that he still doesn’t know what to think about this demon. There are moments when he does feel some semblance of pity, and some where he feels that he should bow should he want to keep his head. 

He doesn’t like bowing.

“So you don’t know how to do any of this either. It’s almost like you barely know more than me!”

Sukuna should have held his tongue. Take the out, wait for the curse to get bored and maybe give him a cozy place to rest until he learns how to not be in this domain.

There’s still little divots in his skin from claws touching his chest, and it seemed like the wind spoke rudimentary words as it whipped past his ears.

Kill him.

Take payback.

Show him the true power.

Sukuna stands still and glares at the curse head on still. If he was going to be killed or tortured in various ways he will not sit here and beg for mercy. It’ll just show that he’s doing the right thing, that this curse is truly evil. It would take a weight off his mind to not feel thrown in every direction.

The curse’s face twists a little, it’s still such a simile face to his own yet each detail grows different and uncomfortable as the silence persists like chains on his wrists. His hair is longer, his arms look more like sinew and muscle. A window of flesh showing a smattering of bones.

As if the moment comes to a crescendo, the King merely turns away from his supposed insolence. 

“Have you ever been a passenger in your own body?” Yuuji shakes his head, then rephrases the question, “this has not happened to you before, you know what it is like to have me here now, but vessels are not common. They are either a rare phenomena or they are created, and I have never been in a vessel before. Much like you, you have never had to share your body before, correct?”

Sukuna nods, “can’t say it is a normal Tuesday just yet.”

And Yuuji pauses, and his belly shakes from the lighter that escapes him. It is a genuine thing, the curse snorting through his nose for a moment.

“Exactly. Not a regular Tuesday quite yet. So as you are learning to cope with sharing your body, I must come to terms with the fact I also have no body of my own. It is a new kind of magic to learn, and a new set of boundaries that we must set to lay down.”

Yuuji turns to him, “it is the nature of a curse to beget violence, it is also within my nature as who I was to deny myself that same malice.”

His words make some semblance of sense, yet he acts as if his being a curse is different from who he is. Isn’t that against what the same Curse says? Is there a reason he acts this way, after thousand years of dealing sleep, what nature does Yuuji Itadori truly have?

Sukuna yearns for answers.

He gets none when he is awoken suddenly by a presence in his room. The change in scenery always feels like being thrown off a bridge, the blustering snow exchanging for a dorm room.

“Wassup.” It's the Gojo brat.

Sukuna rubs his eyes with a yawn, “what do you want.”

Most importantly, why is he in his room?

“Your energy went wack for a second, I was making sure Itadori isn’t roaming around your room waiting to strike.” His face irritated Sukuna for reasons he doesn’t understand.

“Well thanks, I’m good.” He sighs, “And what do you mean quite by my energy went wack.”

Gojo moves around the room with an ease that he shouldn’t, seeing as this wasn’t his dorm. Yet he only cautiously looks at Sukuna’s things, taking only one trinket to fiddle with in his hands. A small misshapen wooden figure he’d gotten from a shop with his grandmother. 

“Your energy spikes when you sleep, and I won’t lie: the other night you woke me up yelling about how you weren’t going to deal with nightmares.” Gojo stares at him head on, his blue eyes searching in darkness, “are you… good? You know? You’re kinda in a shitty situation.”

Rolling off the bed, Sukuna pads over to where his phone is charging. 100% and the time reading 3:30am.

“Yeah, but I don’t need pity.”

“I’m not offering pity.” Gojo says mulishly, as he crosses his arms, “I’m just saying if I were in your position, I’d want some friends backing me up.”

Sukuna looks up at him, the other guy has about three inches on him, he changes the subject, “I’m looking for a way to separate Itadori so when execution rolls around I can still keep living.”

Gojo blinks in surprise, “Really?”

“I’m not going to just die. I have too much to do, too many things I want to experience and learn. I refuse to let this get in my way.”

Thoughtfulness looked strange on the usually flippant and childish boy, but while it was unusual it was worn well, “I think that’s a good idea. I’ll help.”

What does he get out of this…

“Why?”

Gojo sidesteps the answer smoothly, “You know, I grew up with Fushiguro being my caretaker.”

“Yet you don’t share his last name.”

“My last name is one I use out of spite. I mean, I was a bastard child, and the Gojo clan only wanted me after I’d already been taken in. They wanted me for my techniques.” Gojo takes a seat at Sukuna’s desk chair, his legs swinging, “but clan life sounds fucking unbearable.”

He had yet to learn much more than what big clans there were in this world. Sukuna hadn’t seen it as important enough yet, to get into the politics that seem to crawl through this world. He might need to, as it seems like every turn he takes it leads him to be lost in these kinds of conversations.

“Clan life?”

“I was treated like a god.” Gojo sounds more bitter than proud, “that having the limitless and six eyes is the pinnacle of our clan. It’s all politics, strength. Think of feudal lords with superpowers and you’ll have an idea of it.”

Sukuna nods, he feels surprisingly well rested for not having much real sleep. Between seeing memories and having a cat fight with the curse in his head, he should feel exhausted, “So you didn’t join the clan, not really?”

“I took the name because it pisses them off for me to make no move towards joining them.” Gojo grins sharkishly, and Sukuna understands more than he’d like to about Gojo. Now he almost seems… relatable. An honest to god ally in this, “but Megumi is my real family.”

It makes sense from what interactions Sukuna has witnessed, “I understand.”

Then Gojo stands up, and holds out his hand, “How about you call me Satoru. If I’m going to help you we are going to end up being friends.”

“Then I guess you can call me Sukuna.”

“Already on it Suku-Chan!”

“I suddenly remember how much you irritate me.”

Satoru grins and leans forward into his personal space, “Awe come one we just had a heart to heart!”

He leans back before invading Sukuna’s space though, “sorry for waking you up though, I did kind of think Itadori had done something. Couldn’t just let you be tormented in your sleep. Does he do that kind of thing, torture or whatever?”

It’s asked so casually, ‘ do you get tortured in your sleep by the demon in your head?’ Like it was just a regular thing. Though with the stories he has heard about Yuuji Itadori he’s sure it’s a realistic question. 

“No he doesn’t.” Sukuna says finally, “Mostly just sits there menacingly.”

Satoru hums and then claps his hands, “Alright good! Don’t torture my classmate while he sleeps Oh Mighty King.”

The same screaming that sounds like Yuuji being shot goes through his head. Then a frustrated yowl.

“Please refrain from talking to him.” Sukuna mutters, “Sometimes he likes to respond.”

Satoru glances at him, and the wincing he’s doing, “Yeah alright fair. Don’t suppose he’s any fun to talk to.”

Finally Satoru decides to go back to his room, “See you later Suku-Chan. Don’t forget we’re having a movie night later after class!”

Chapter Text

That night, Sukuna stayed up and wandered to the library. Fushiguro-sensei gave him access, and he was already there this morning so… he’s not breaking any rules. Not that he’d usually care. More often than not he’d break rules just because he could. But with an execution looming, he had to play is smart…

Scheming there?

Shut the fuck up please. You’re the reason I can’t sleep.

Whatever. Are you gonna read anything interesting?

Sukuna frowns and stares around the shelves. So far he has no clue what Yuuji would find interesting. He glared at a shelf and just sighed. He has the distinct feeling that the King of Curses might show his displeasure in the material with a stream of annoyances. 

He lets himself decide slowly though, snarling quietly whenever Itadori shows a sign of saying anything. How is he supposed to find a good book to read when he’s getting bombarded? 

Instead of any intelligent response, he gets a jingle. A tune hummed into his brain.

Then a sight jumps forward to him. 

Special Grades: Eldest Records to 2004

Sukuna opens the book to read about the author, yet all he sees is the initials Y.O. It’s written is slightly outdated language, yet it catches his attention and the humming stops. It’s enough of an intrigue that he sits down on the floor next to the shelf and sets up a camp.

It seems even the curse was pleased at the pick.

Sukuna woke up later than he’d liked and walked straight to class with only a granola bar. His normal routine of eating a decent breakfast before the others woke up was thwarted by his late night studying. Shoko, Suguru, and Satoru all sat outside the door to their classroom, eerily quiet as they pressed their ears on the door. 

Sukuna looks at them with a raised brow and Geto waves him over to listen. Though he also makes the shushing noise when he notices Sukuna had been about to speak.

“It’s too early.” Fushiguro-sensei’s voice was tense.

“We can’t keep him here without a mission much longer.” Kugisaki-sensei sounded no different, but she held an air of finality in her statement.

“Its only been three days, you remember what happened to Kirara and Hikari.” 

Satoru’s face twists a little when he hears those names. 

A hiss, “of course I do.”

A pause, then sighing, “look Megumi. I hate that they do this too, but you’ve already done better than our sensei. It’s only a grade three and you’re sending all of them. It’ll be fine, I’m sure of it.”

Fushiguro-sensei sounds exhausted, “I guess.”

The four students scramble away from the door as the conversation comes to a close, and they turn down a hallway to pretend like they’d all woken up and got ready together. Shoko flickers her lighter open and closed thoughtfully, while Gojo and Geto seem to manufacture an argument out of thin air. Or maybe they’d decided to hash out their laundry debacle as a distraction and still managed to get on each others nerves.

They pass Kugisaki-sensei, and she gives them a smirk. She ruffles Gojo’s hair, flicked Geto in the forehead and winks at Shoko and Sukuna. They breath a sigh of relief, they may have gotten away with eavesdropping!

As Satoru opens the door he sees Fushiguro-sensei staring at them with a raised brow. 

“You need to get better at hiding your cursed energy.”

Satoru whines, “We were doing so good too.”

Suguru slaps him. Sukuna wonders if that’s what friends are supposed to do, he couldn’t slap someone like that. If he did he caught trouble at school, because his definition of a light slap isn’t the same as everyone else’s.

“You’ll have a mission in three hours.” He says with finality, “all four of you should be ready.”

The case files are already on their desks. 

“You know sensei, we are technically Special grade.” Suguru says as he flips through the case, “me and Satoru go on missions all the time. And Shoko does too.” 

He’s trying to keep you safe, your teacher.

Sukuna frowns at this information, unsure of how to feel about it. He knew there would be dangerous things down this way, but he was also excited for them. What could Fushiguro-sensei even want to protect them from? It couldn’t be curses, since their whole job is to exorcise those…

“You are always accompanied by another teacher or sorcerer who’s been around for a while. Since you are first years I didn’t want any of you to be sent without a supervisor.” He gestures to himself, “I have a mission in Hokkaido, and everyone else is busy, so they assigned you four for this mission.”

He still sounds tense. Satoru only turns to them, “Sensei here likes having us work with him more than any other sorcerer too. This will be easy work, no problem.”

Fushiguro-sensei shoots Satoru a look, but then sighs, “If all else fails and things get messy, then you will leave the mission. No one should be badly injured, got it?”

“No issues here!”

Kugisaki-sensei re-renters the room with a scowl on her face, the door was opened with slightly more force than necessary, “they’re sending Shoko and Satoru to another mission. Alone.”

Something is off. 

Fushiguro-sensei grits his teeth, “where?”

She has two more case files, “two hours away.”

The students look at each other, wondering why the mission already seemed to go askew. Suguru bumps Sukuna’s shoulder, “Hey we got this. I’m sure grade three will be easy work.”

It’s obvious that something is wrong! Open your eyes, and people called me an idiot!

Sukuna nods, his face only slightly twitching to show he’d heard the comment, “I’m sure we can do it just fine.”

Kugisaki- sensei takes Satoru and Shoko with her, as they will now be leaving an hour earlier than thought. Formless pits seem to sink in his stomach, a black hole that opened up under anything. He ignores the feeling.

As he looks through the mission file Fushiguro-sensei gets a call, and he answers it while leaving the room.

“Seems easy enough, a detention center curse?” There are a lot of negative emotions there, he’s sure.

“There might be multiple low level curses so we have to keep an eye out, but this is the easiest mission I’ve seen on paper.” Suguru shrugs, “What weapon are they allowing you to use?”

He knows he won’t get to just use Charming Flame for a good long while on missions, maybe not even ever, but he’s still sulking on that fact.

“Something called Slaughter Demon. It’s kind of a stupid name…”

Suguru laughs, “All the cursed weapons I’ve seen either have pretentious or stupid names. I’m not really surprised.”

Sukuna shrugs and Fushiguro comes back into the room, “You’ll want to meet up with the Window outside in thirty minutes for the drive. Sukuna make sure to grab your weapons from the tools room. And only your weapon.”

Damn there goes that plan, not like he was gonna do it!

“I gotcha sensei.” He still can’t wrap his head around how big this place is for a school barely housing enough to fill his homeroom from before.

Yuuji looks up interest. The detention center sits before him, and he remembers his first mission here. 

Glee overtakes him, they’re going to die! He’ll take Sukuna with him, and this world will be safe. While Yuuji is the biggest threat so far, and he didn’t really care to cause havoc, that means whoever orchestrated the creation of a vessel in this universe is still a problem. Whether it be Kenjaku or not, he would stagger the plans of this cursed user out of place.

Then he’d see his friends again.

Sighing, he leans forward on his throne, the view is especially good now, with the cursed energy being so high.

There was also the fear his teammates would get hurt, but this kid is the one who went on to cause the whole merger in the first place. Best case scenario Kenjaku’s would-be skinsuit lives but doesn’t defect, worst case is the dude dies and has no chance to hurt innocents.

Yuuji feels like he should be more upset about his reasoning, but there’s a cold hard stone in his chest that hates to give the name apathy.

He listens in on the conversation, “the doors gone.”

Sukuna looks around and tries to find another exit, though he seems nervous about this. Where did his bravado go, even when he was finished off he had more confidence than this. 

Suguru waves a hand and a cursed spirit flies up, “they can find the exit, don’t worry. All we have to do is exorcise this.”

His teeth are grit, and Yuuji knows it’s because he’s trying not to seem shook up either. An incomplete domain, a cursed womb that evolved rapidly with the ingestion of what of his little statues.

Yuuji wonders if the monster will be the same.

The two teenagers roam around, finding smatterings of a body. Neither are grabbing name tags or worrying about the people. Yuuji wants them to find that woman’s son, she was a mother making a request. Take his name tag at least! 

“It has to be here somewhere.”

“This is a domain isn’t it?” Sukuna says, eyes widening, “It’s not complete so there shouldn’t be any sure hits, but we’ve been walking for a long time and the detention center isn’t that big.”

Suguru blinks, and looks around, “You’re right. We need to find the curse to destroy the domain.”

A trilling clicking comes from behind them in the shadows. Both boys leap backwards, Sukuna brandishing his blade and Suguru about to summon a hoard of cursed spirits.

What comes from the darkness is quadrupedal, arms and legs long and lanky with its face being that of a magpie. It clicks at them and raises its head to shriek.

It crawls closer, human eyes boring into them.

Suguru sends a barrage of flyheads and grabs Sukuna. The buzzing is cut short quick as the creature slices through each of them with ease, before leaping back into the fray with another high pitched shriek.

Sukuna raises his blade, turning to see that the wall is closer, “we have to kill it, right?”

Suguru sends another spirit out to hopefully find them an exit, “let’s get it done then.”

Slashing forward Sukuna uses as much moment as he can to fling himself up, the blade cutting the beasts shoulder as it dodged the head on attack. 

It claws at the curse Suguru sends out, having to defend itself again four now. Suguru though knows he doesn’t have that many strong curses right now. The only big one is rainbow dragon and he isn’t sure it would even beat this.

“It’s an unregistered Special grade! Ryomen look out!”

Sukuna hisses as he barely misses being skewered by the things back legs. The needle-like appendages skittered when it missed its hit, then crawled up the wall and ran at them sideways. 

The curse roars loudly as another cursed bird flies at its head, with its beak open they can see rows and rows of shiny sharp teeth. It takes a bite out of the other curse— it’s mouth unhinging.

“How do they misclassify this?!” 

Suguru starts infusing his kicks with cursed energy, unable to keep summoning cannon fodder. The beast seems mildly phased, and grabs him with its four fingered hands, squealing in his face as it begins to crush him in its grip. Suguru rips one of its nails off with brute energy, but it wouldn’t be sustainable to use that amount however many times it took for the curse to regrow it!

“Hey over here!” Sukuna raises his blade and slams it down into the creatures back leg , slicing deeply. Had it been human it would have severed sinew and muscles and touched bone. Sukuna had an unnatural strength, Suguru noticed immediately. It wiggles the appendage and throws Sukuna back, who yells out and holds onto the thing's leg and starts climbing.

His fingers grip into the cursed skin, nails like a hot knife through butter as he climbs higher. He wasn’t even using cursed energy!

It drops Suguru, reaching around and trying to grab the unwitting rider with its hands. Sukuna raises his blade with a sharp smile, yet as the blade flies through the air, down to the thing's neck, it throws itself sideways. Slaughter Demon crashes into a wall, the handle and blade detaching from each other. 

A crater forms where Sukuna was thrown, and he growls to himself, shit. The curse is getting closer! He drags himself upwards, ignoring the feeling of his back bruising.

“Come on I need—“ his eyes sharpen on the curse, throwing a punch that flared with cursed energy. 

Suguru’s eyes widen when Sukuna lands a punch on the curse. It barely does anything, but it’s cursed energy! The punch itself made a dent in the cursed skin, something seemed to light in him after though.

Sukuna throws another punch with energy, his eyes flickering over to his broken weapon. He swings again. Darting around the things legs, tackling each one to try and get it further down. With its extended range of motion he wouldn’t be able to get on its back and land a killing blow before it grabbed him.

 The thing squeals as if looking at a toddler and stabs its leg at him. 

Suguru yells, “Wait no—!”

“Phones don’t work inside Veil’s right?!” Sukuna leaps backwards, the slicing blow barely missing, “Get out of here and call Sensei!”

 His legs move by themselves, and Suguru thinks he might be able to distract it long enough to get away. Sukuna had clear stamina, and as soon as Fushiguro-sensei hears about this they will get back up. 

Footsteps echo behind him, catching up quickly despite Suguru’s head start, they might both be able to get out of here, “let’s fucking g-“

It sends the leg right down into his chest. A loud squelch is heard as it removes its leg and does another stab. Playing with its food.

“Fuck— fuck!”

Geto swivels around, his eyes widening. He can't stop this from happening can he? What is he as The Second Strongest if his first mission with someone new he couldn’t get rid of the issue. He may have been able to beat this curse with warning, or if he didn’t have another person to look after. 

The curse stops stomping on the boy, and suddenly turns to him. Its chirping at him with such a high pitch it feels like getting turning forks stabbed into his eardrums. 

His body reacts for him again, soles hitting concrete with a single determination. 

A stitch in his side makes him stumble, but as he falls he turns, about to throw another punch. He just needed the one good hit—

The creature slides in half, exploding into a mess of guts… that technique!

Itadori stands, in Sukuna’s flesh, with a small smile. He flexes his wrists and twists around a little. He looks cramped in that body, Suguru notices with a dazed feeling. He just survived that Special Grade and now he had to cut down his friend; a new classmate who could be a good friend.

In his hands he holds a statue, black as night.

“Don’t start fighting me when I just saved your life.” The curse sounded genuinely annoyed, as if he had any reason to trust him. His shirt was shredded, the tiger stripes striking against skin. Suguru wonders if the teeth being longer and almost curled make Sukuna’s mouth hurt when he changes back.

“You were waiting this whole time!” Suguru stands, backing away with a scowl, “When Sukuna dies you get the body don’t you? That’s why you’ve—“

Itadori moves faster than lightning, but no blow lands, his body just gets moved down into a kneeling position. The curse leans forwards so they’re eye to eye, “Look at this body. Is there a huge bleeding injury?”

There is not, and Suguru says as much. 

“Sukuna is exhausted and cannot take control now, but he is alive and will be back to sorcery tomorrow.” Then the curse sits in front of him, cross legged, “what you’re going to do is come with me, while I go and eat ramen, and then I will stop taking hold of the body. It will look like Sukuna passed out. You will not tell your elders that I took hold, do you know why?”

Suguru couldn’t think about that when the king of curses simply spoke to him, face to face, instead of killing him. And for some reason he doesn’t feel threatened at all.

The curse took the silence as confusion, “he will be executed.”

“Why are you not just… killing us all then? You have a chance right now. We’re almost even, I have no cursed spirits big enough to do anything but run.”

And you hold another statue of your power in that very hand…

“Because I want to eat real good food.” Itadori says nonchalantly, “also I used a shit-ton of energy slicing that thing in half and healing this idiot, if I don’t eat he’s going to wake up and feel like he was stabbed through the chest.”

Then Itadori pops back up on his feet, and holds out a hand as if to help Suguru get up. He doesn’t take it and Itadori only shrugs, “I’ll need to find a shirt, but I can depress my energy enough so no one notices I’m out for a while.”

Then he starts walking, Sukuna’s boots tapping against the concrete.

His neon eyes turn upon Suguru when he doesn’t follow along, the pupils dilating from slits into wide blackholes. It feels like being hunted, “I know that thing didn’t bust your ears, you responded just fine a second ago. Come on, unless you want to fight to uphold your ‘views’ on curses. I’d prefer we not make a bigger mess than this.”

“What about the assistant manager?”

Yuuji merely waves, “ditch ‘em.”

And off they go to the ramen shop. Suguru didn’t even realize why he was doing this. He could probably take him on, the Curse himself said he’d expended a lot of what energy he had to heal Sukuna. He even slightly admitted to slicing that thing in half as a show of prowess and a quick end so he wouldn’t expel any more. It seemed like he was almost displeased by the quick fight.

Yet he didn’t want to hurt the boy the curse possesses, it was just a part of him not wanting to injure innocents. There was also just… no hostility. In these few moments he has seen the curse he was doing; A, telling Suguru it was his fault for something and then asking to be exorcised—or B, asking for ramen and semi-saving his life. 

“You are allowed to tell Gojo and Fushiguro.” Yuuji says as they walk, his voice jovial enough to almost convince the teenager that they’re just classmates making a late night ramen run, “and Shoko, she is your friend too, yes?”

“Yeah, she is.”

“Good, she’s smart.” Yuuji hums a little tune, clicking his tongue as his eyes squint, “Ugh, I swear it was down this road. There!”

He grabs Suguru's arm and pulls him to the ramen shop, the jacket he had was less than ideal of a shirt but it worked well enough. Itadori just looked kind of homeless. When they go in, none of the other people realize what calamity they could have in their midst. Instead the waitress kindly points Itadori to the men’s room when he asks, then Suguru is brought to their table with two menus.

“Late night study fuel?” She asks, not unkindly as she looks at him. 

“Yes ma’am.” Suguru responds sheepishly, amicably chatting with her, “rough assignment, you know how it is.”

“Don’t I!” She giggles, “I was in high school once, I understand completely.”

She recognized the school uniform but only as a school uniform. Her name tag reads “Arata.” He looks over the menu, but refrains from ordering until Itadori gets back. The Curse comes back looking less like a dumpster that got caught fire, his hair slightly wet and his face clear of the first in the detention center. 

“What kind of assignment leads to you boys looking so…”

Suguru winces, expecting there to be some kind of pushback from Itadori for the slight against him, however small. Instead the curse laughs, “Oh we have a science class where we’re supposed to find a few creepy crawlies, I fell in the mud and accidentally dragged him.

Itadori turns and he bows at Suguru, “Sorry about that again. Ramen will be on me.”

Technically it will be on Sukuna’s wallet and not the curses.

Arata laughs, “Aw well did you find any?”

The pink haired beast in man’s clothing merely shakes his head, smiling nervously, “No I crushed that thing.”

The waitress laughs again, “You’ll get it next time I’m sure!”

She seemed too lively to be a night shift worker, but who was Suguru to complain about? The easier this goes the better. He sighs as he hears Itadori ask for tonkotsu ramen with two helpings of pork dumplings, and a red bean mochi icecream sandwich thing that Suguru hasn’t heard of before. Arata turns to him with a pleasant smile, asking what he wants.

Before he can say that he wasn’t hungry, Itadori shoots him a look, “You really need to eat, so don’t go skipping. You should get the special!”

Suguru sighs, he didn’t even really read the menu so he just accepts this, “that would be good for me, thank you.”

Arata nods and pats Itadori on the shoulder, “Such a sweet kid! I’ll be back with the food shortly.”

Itadori sips at his soda with the same reckless enjoyment he seems to get from everything, “You really should eat, you expended a lot of cursed energy today and you’ll regret not eating when you have a chance. Now that you and Sukuna “defeated” an unregistered special grade you’ll be sent on even more dangerous missions.”

He seems old yet young at the same time. 

“Enjoy the ramen, take time to rest when you can get it. You never know when you’ll be thrown into another catastrophe again, so these moments are more special because of it.”

Arata comes back with the dumplings first and a refill for Itadori. She just seemed to adore him, thinking he was the most adorable thing. Despite looking homeless, despite the fact that this thing that just brutally tore apart a curse with a hunger in his eyes, had stories told about him across sorcerer clans like the bogeyman— and he was chatting it up with this random waitress with such sincerity Suguru almost believed him.

“So,” Itadori inhaled a pork dumpling like it was going to run away, he made sure to swallow before he spoke, “tell the official report that you and Sukuna defeated the curse, that Sukuna had been hit and passed out right before the domain fell.”

Suguru stares him down, “And how do I explain us being gone for about an hour after the domain fell? Or the statue?”

“The assistant manager wasn’t there when we left.” Itadori said, and Suguru belated realizes he was right. The manager was nowhere in sight or else they would have had a harder time leaving, “so they wouldn’t know how long we were gone. You’ll say that we were trapped in the rubble and got out with minimal injury. I'm going to be eating that before dessert, to get the taste of wood out of my mouth.”

Suguru nods along, still lost in the fact this beast with sharp teeth was using those teeth to tear into the chicken with his ramen. He himself had barely touched his ramen, but at the scolding look he was thrown by the curse he found his appetite back enough to take a few more bites.

It was really good ramen too.

He looks up and sees Itadori drop the statue in his mouth and swallow it easily, “This doesn’t taste bad! I’m used to eating cursed objects and stuff, they usually taste like—“

“A rag soaked in vomit?”

“And left out for days to rot.” Itadori nods and then looks Suguru over, “I forget, you also eat curses. I should have remembered, or I wouldn’t have completely destroyed that curse. It seems you’re low on them now, yes?”

“Other than low level…” which meant yes.

Itadori nods along, “The best thing to get the taste out is red bean, why I chose the dessert honestly. It’s not too sweet yet it masks the flavor pleasantly.”

What is his life? Getting advice from the King of Curses?

“Why did you choose to keep Sukuna alive?” 

“Other than self-preservation?” He takes another bite of the dessert, twirling his chopsticks in his fingers, “I had a change of heart. Getting your heart stabbed out hurts, and I suppose there’s sympathy still in me.”

He looks at Suguru searchingly, “I know this may come as a surprise, but I’d like to be friends with you sorcerers. You all remind me of the people I knew before. If you can find it in yourself, call me Yuuji, yeah?”

Sukuna watches as the thing comes down on him. He can’t believe he’s going to die like this, obviously it was a possibility when he took this deal, but he’s not ready for it yet. At least hopefully Geto can get out of here.

It hurts. 

It's the worst pain he has ever experienced, and he had done a lot of stupid things when he was younger. The thing's leg is so sharp, he thinks he can feel every nerve and artery in his heart as it is crushed and rammed through. He can’t even scream, his mouth is filling with blood and he can’t—

The pain stops.

He’s in the snow.

Yuuji sits before him, on the throne-like altar, and he stares down at him. The curse says nothing at first, taking a look at his state. Sukuna himself can’t get any words out because there’s so much blood in his throat.

“This is the end.” Yuuji says, his voice light. But his eyes are cold like stone. 

The King gets up and walks towards him, Sukuna wants to fight back. Stupid curse, stupid detention center, stupid him.

He’s crying. Angrily he wipes at the tears before slamming his hands back to his sides. He can’t show weakness. He could never do that even in his last moments. Still tears fall, hot down his face, and he can’t seem to stop making them.

Itadori face flickers from beast to boy. When the flame-like edge dissipates, the monster stares at him and takes Sukuna’s face in his hands. This is where it ends, this bastard is going to break his neck and finish this dance. Of course this is how it ends. Sukuna was an unwanted child even by the King of Curses.

Itadori cradles his face and wipes the tears, his claws not leaving any mark. 

“This isn’t fair to you.” Itadori says quietly, “I haven’t been very fair.”

The numbness dissipates, and Sukuna is left trembling with adrenaline and the absence of pain. The blood that was flowing freely down every surface of his crumpled body evaporated like steam. It feels good, like a soft warmth enveloping him, then a cold ice pack over where it had hurt most.

“You’re not going to die.” Itadori says pleasantly, “I won’t let you. Make a promise to me first, before I let you sleep okay?”

Sukuna splutters, his eyes trying to droop from the crash, “I don’t… Why should I trust you? Why are you doing this?” 

The words I hate you, almost tumble from his lips, yet he doesn’t know why he should hate. Maybe I want to die and never see you again.

Itadori pulls him closer, four arms curling his body up like an infant while he begins walking, “I haven’t done much to make you trust me, but I will try. It’s hard to fight the nature of your soul, but there have always been ways. You know? Then I will take care of the curse and get your friend to safety. You’ll wake up in the morning. I swear.”

It feels like a band around his heart when the curse holds out his only free hand of the four, his pinky outstretched, “I cursed myself, without realizing it, all you have to do is promise to stay alive. With me. To live a good life, to learn not to seek out destruction.”

“With you?” Sukuna asks, but his head is still being pressed to the Curse’s collarbone with a gentleness he doesn’t remember ever feeling. 

His grandmother was the only person who had stood by him. His parents abandoned him, for when he was born it was discovered he had killed his twin in the womb. 

His grandmother had simply taken him in.

She loved him, but she was old. The woman had no patience for the delinquency Sukuna would get into. Yet she had stayed until her death with him.

The woman had never been much for physical touch, a pat on the head here, an arm around his shoulder. Holding his hand when they crossed the street. 

Wasn’t that the only affection he had gotten growing up? No one wanted to play with him. His teeth were too sharp, and his body was too strong to play with the other kids and roughhouse. Sukuna would only end up hurting them.

He didn’t feel strong right now.

“You’ll stay with me, yes. That also means I won’t leave you.” Itadori still held out that pinky promise, like a fish hook, “Even if I incarnate into my own body, we can be friends, family.”

Sukuna’s ears are ringing. The curse pets his head with one hand, scratching his scalp pleasantly. 

“And I will not kill anyone you hold dear. Of course.”

“What happened to you wanting to die? To kill me.” There’s indigence in his voice. What made the curse change his mind? Pay back, kill the vessel, the claws on his chest.

Itadori hums, the noise traveling more through vibration than sound, “You haven’t done anything wrong, so why should I let you die like this? The world is beautiful as it is, there are still people and relationships and joy and good food to be had.”

He sounds wistful.

“Maybe it’s selfish to bring you back. I’m being foolish, rambling on when I’m not sure you’ll understand where I’m coming from.” 

Sukuna takes the curses pinky in his own and locks their fingers. 

“I do hope you’ll let me out to cook more though.” The curse says cheekily, and Sukuna laughs. 

It’s all so absurd. Everything feels out of place, yet he can’t say he regrets his decision, when he sought out this comfort so often. Now it was being demanded of him to rest his head on someone else’s shoulders. A part of him roars at this, some foreign body that screams that he is not made to be held. He is cursed. Perhaps he had always been. 

“Now sleep, you’ll wake up in the morning. I’ll take care of it from here until then.” He is laid down somewhere soft.

That foreign body quiets, and Sukuna falls asleep.