Chapter Text
He's never had a happy memory. He could blame that on a number of things. He could say it was his deadbeat dad. He could say it was because of Bakugou, he could say it was the bullying or the stress of looking after his twin brother. But honestly? It was him. There's this old poem from before the Quirk ages that goes like this.
Monday's child is fair of face.
Tuesday's child is full of grace.
Wednesday's child is full of woe.
Thursday's child has far to go.
Friday's child is loving and giving.
Saturday's child works hard for a living.
But the child that is born on the Sabbath day; is bony and blithe, and good and gay.
They were born on a Sunday but his brother was the one who embodied Sabbath's child. Him? He was sure he should have been born on Wednesday. Every second from the moment he was born has been full of nothing but sorrow.
If he wasn't miserable in school, being harassed by Bakugou and his horde of ducklings. He was being assaulted at home with every measure of misery you could think of. Mom? Devastated about her perceived failures. His brother? A slump of depression held together with thumbtacks and a dream. Then it came to his Quirk.
Legally? He didn't have one. And he wanted to keep it that way. But the truth of the matter? He severely envied anyone who didn't have a Quirk. But he couldn't say that to his mother and brother. Izuku would give anything in this world to have one. If he had a chance to transfer his own burden onto him, he still wouldn't give Izuku his Quirk. His brother was someone who was full of kindness. If good had a personification, it would be his little brother.
This monster inside of him was his alone to bear. There were good days like today where he was only down to snide remarks. And then there were bad days when he was inside of his “innate domain” whatever that means and he would be getting the thrashing of his life. He woke up aching all over, with no marks, no injuries. Nothing to explain his symptoms to. Except for an autoimmune disease. Which he didn't have the gall to correct the doctor on.
You're up early, brat, had enough nightmares have you?
His snickers filled his brain like locusts. An irritating bug that destroys everything it gets its mandibles into. Yuuji knocked his knuckles off his head and Sukuna let out a squawk of indignation when he tumbled through their shared mindscape.
“Had enough being knocked around, have you?” Yuuji said back aloud.
To make his Quirk that much more of a hassle, people thought he was off his head whenever they heard him speak to himself. If he had been them, he would have thought the same thing. At least when they had been in primary school, he could explain it away with an imaginary friend. These days if Sukuna irritated him into speaking, he got a face full of side-eyes that plainly understood him to be positively mad.
At least they've never had to see Sukuna in a bad mood. Anyone would go crazed with fear. He wouldn't wish that on his worst enemy.
Not even the blonde? You've gone soft in these years, boy.
Whatever that means.
===
Sukuna had missed this.
He had missed the brat. More than he liked to admit. When the boy had made his binding vow with him to always be his vessel and then they had died, he didn't expect for them to be reincarnated together. It had been years since they were last alive, there were no more curses, the things that created curses had created superpowered simpletons, attention-seekers and weaklings, if his brat tried hard enough he was certain he could one shot them all.
But that's the thing about reincarnation, you don't remember the important parts. He knew his name was Sukuna but that's all the boy really knew. It had been driving him insane these years they've been fused together. He was hoping that the nightmares would jump-start his memory.
It hadn't succeeded so far but there was always hope when he felt the kiss of cleave and dismantle.
He peered out of his boy's skull to the twin they had been born to, he was born without a Quirk, or that's what they called non-sorcerers these days. It was odd, the doctor who had diagnosed him said. Because he was born without the pinkie bone in his foot but he just hasn't gotten his Quirk. And he likely never will.
Children know so little of their past. It was obvious the boy was Heavenly Restricted, instead of his physical strength being boosted, it was his intelligence and battle IQ. He has never met a genius like him in the centuries since they departed from Todo. The boy was so beaten down by those around him, he failed to see that he never needed a Quirk. Or a technique.
In Sukuna’s opinion, they should have kept them as techniques. Sounds much more sophisticated.
His boy looked in the mirror and Sukuna gave him an eerie smile in their reflection. The boy glared at him then turned back to stare at the food beneath them in disgust.
The good thing about him being “technically” qualified as his Quirk? The boy couldn’t resist his cravings. They were one and the same. Like twins, born in a different millennium but always bound together by the red string, fate, destiny, other such nonsense that was used to explain to the non-sorcerers and mortals why things went the way they did. And with them being born in this world? They wanted human meat.
To his unending annoyance, the mortals hadn’t considered eating human meat any more appetising than they had in their time. You would think in a world like this with zombie techniques that run on meat and blood and having excess meat on your bones, able to detach and regrow that they would have given it more thought.
People have little taste it seems.
The boy smiled at their new mother when she looked at him worriedly. As doddering as she was, she did notice that Sukuna and Yuuji were not like the rest. He wondered if this one, well-meaning sow was the only one who knew what they looked like when they were merged.
===
It’s been 2,000 years since the awakening of the king of curses inside the body of Yuuji Itadori and 1,000 years since the evolution of sorcery to Quirks. In those shadowy years that saw the rise and fall of the demon lord, the brother who opposed him and the birth of All For One and One For All. Nobody has seen or heard anything about the king or the vessel he had taken.
They had forgotten all about them until the birth of the twins Yuuji and Izuku Midoriya. And All For One would soon come to regret enraging the king and his vessel when Midoriya Izuku died at their hands.