Work Text:
2018, Jujutsu High.
Yuji was in the midst of training his cursed energy by watching movies of various genres while channeling cursed energy into a living doll created by Principal Yaga. Yuji was a bit annoyed because the doll always hit him whenever he let his guard down for a moment and stopped channeling cursed energy.
“It’s fun to watch movies to the fullest, but something like this is just a huge lie…” Yuji grumbled while watching the movie; his curse energy channeling stopped unintentionally, and he ended up getting punched by the cursed doll. The movie currently playing is a tokusatsu genre.
Sukuna is getting bored inside Yuji’s mind. All he can do is roll around, zone out, and spy on what his vessel, Yuji, is doing. Even though Sukuna himself is the king of curses, he can still get bored if nothing interesting is happening.
“What kind of entertainment is this? It’s truly disgusting,” Sukuna muttered. Even if he wanted to leave, he couldn’t do it because Yuji was preventing him so strictly that he couldn’t even take control. Sukuna sighed as he sat on his throne. He quietly peeked at Yuji.
-
A few hours earlier, Gojo had brought Yuji to this isolation room to practice his cursed energy, but Yuji hadn’t expected that the way to train his power would be by watching a movie.
“Okay, Yuji! You’re going to learn how to control your cursed energy by…” Gojo picked up a VHS tape from the table. “Watching movies!” he said cheerfully.
“W..watching movies? Really?!” Yuji’s eyes sparkled with excitement. “This is easy!”
Gojo chuckled mischievously, “It’s not that simple, Yuji.” Then he finally tossed the oddly-faced, cursed doll into Yuji’s arms. Gojo explained that Yuji had to continuously channel a steady flow of cursed energy into the doll throughout the entire movie. If the energy flow was interrupted because Yuji got too emotional while watching the movies, the doll would immediately wake up and beat him up.
Yuji was immediately punched in the face by the doll for failing to channel his energy.
“AGH! That hurts!” Yuji winced in pain while the doll taunted him. Gojo took the doll, and it immediately fell asleep, having been infused with cursed energy.
-
In the middle of his training, Yuji felt hungry and thirsty. Whether he wanted to or not, he had to walk to the kitchen to grab a snack and a drink.
“I’m hungry right now… I hope there’s something good to eat in the fridge,” Yuji thought as he walked reluctantly towards the kitchen. He didn’t forget to bring that annoying doll with him so it wouldn’t suddenly punch him from behind.
When he opened the fridge, he saw instant popcorn and a row of cold sodas. Yuji’s eyes sparkled with delight, and he began popping the popcorn while sipping a cold soda.
“Yum!” Yuji said happily.
Sukuna, who was peeking at what Yuji was doing, was confused. He had never seen food or drinks like that in his entire life. Watching the corn pop into food piqued Sukuna’s interest in this new food.
“What a strange way to cook,” Sukuna remarked. Sukuna couldn’t help but feel curious about this strange food.
Meanwhile, Yuji, once his popcorn was ready, returned to the sofa carrying the popcorn, a soda, and, of course, that annoying cursed doll. The tokusatsu movie had already ended while he was making the popcorn. In the end, he chose to watch an old movie about a chef’s cooking battle.
Sukuna, who wasn’t interested at all at first, eventually found himself drawn to the movie because the chef’s specialty was cooking steak, and the steak even looked incredibly tempting for an old movie. Yuji started drooling and lost focus; eventually, he got hit by that cursed doll again.
“OW!! HEY!”
Yuji, annoyed, wanted to hit the doll back, but ended up getting beaten by it as the doll hit Yuji’s head even harder. Sukuna chuckled slightly, watching his vessel get beaten up by that ugly doll.
“Damn…” Yuji muttered. Yuji picked up the doll again and directed his curse energy into it.
The movie played out like a typical story. The main character managed to defeat his rival and became a famous chef. A basic plot. Indeed, the film’s main focus was the delicious food created by the chefs.
Even someone like Sukuna was intrigued. The Curse King felt curious because the chef’s skill in cutting and preparing meat reminded him of Uraume, his loyal servant who used to cook human meat dishes for him.
After watching countless films across various genres, Sukuna began to adapt and understand what was happening in this generation through movies that reflected the prevailing story trends of each era. Through what he watched, Sukuna gradually came to understand the historical lineage of the past millennia, from the collapse of ancient dynasties to the rise of the modern technology that now surrounded him.
He now knew that the metal box that popped Yuji’s corn was called a microwave.
Resting his chin on his bone throne, Sukuna gave a faint smirk.
This new world turned out to be neither as dull nor as boring as he had imagined. There were many interesting things he could destroy later, including studying the mental weaknesses of modern humans, weaknesses that were often shown in the trashy dramas his vessel watched.