Chapter Text
From the day he had clawed himself out of his mother’s womb, Sukuna was feared by humans..
Even when he was just a baby, trying to survive without anyone to take care of him, when his growling stomach reduced his mind to the most primal of states, people feared him for his first sin–being born.
He hated humans for that, seeing him as something lesser due to his appearance, they were right to fear him, he was a curse, a monster, a calamity.
At first, when he was still very young, still covered in his mother’s guts and viscera, he crawled until he saw a village, back then he still wanted to be loved. He has been a fool, it was all so clear to him now.
The townspeople rejected him of course. A four armed baby, unusually large for his age, something akin to a mask covering the entire right side of his face in addition to four eyes, made people think that he was a spirit to be exorcised.
They took a crying and screaming Sukuna to their shrine to get rid of his ‘impurity’ and when he stayed the same after all their countless purification rituals, they thought that the gods were angry with them and so they had tried to get rid of Sukuna permanently.
The villagers and Sukuna himself had found out that he wasn't so easy to kill. It would have been a mercy that Sukuna would never be granted in this or any other life.
He was beaten with sticks and sliced open multiple times. They burned him, put him in boiling water and hurled insults at him. Even if the words didn't hurt Sukuna, , mainly because he was too young to understand and barely clinging to consciousness, their torture sure as hell did.
Sukuna didn't remember how long this had lasted, but the last thing he remembered was the village completely burned down to its ground, still standing in flames and himself completely untouched by the fire.
He stumbled out of what was left of the village on shaky legs, bruised and battered, but feeling relieved. Sukuna knew that he shouldn't feel good about the death of so many people, even if they weren't kind to him.
Somehow he knew that being treated badly was temporary but death was forever–something bad he should never wish on another breathing thing, someone must've told him when he was still young.
He wasn't sad though, he was elated. He could still feel the adrenaline pumping in his veins.
Sukuna was the only one that survived. If he still believed in the gods that must've cursed him in this and every life to come, he would have thought that he'd been chosen. The one to conquer this world, the strongest, a god amongst men.
Ever since that massacre, Sukuna knew that he wasn't a human, or at least not a conventional one.
He didn't feel empathy towards anyone or anything, even if humans could be cruel, deep down there was still an underlying humanity that came with each one–not Sukuna though. He liked to see others in pain, he adored tearing their flesh apart and consuming it even more, he'd been called a cannibal before, of course now they considered him human.
He’d soon tired of humans and their annoying antics, they were such a bother to deal with. When he was still young, he craved their love and attention like any child would, but then he'd been naive, he's learned from his mistakes now.
So now he was strolling around the forest he called his home, he never slept in the same spot twice, maybe because he was scared that humans would find and destroy what little he had. Sometimes he made a little mountain of dirt and laid on that, only as a last resort though, the bugs bothered him too much, occasionally he found abandoned homes, he liked those best, it felt as if he belonged somewhere for once–his own little place. But he mostly frequented trees; they were almost everywhere and he was protected from strong wind, rain and the rare snowfall they had in this country.
The sun was slowly beginning to set, Sukuna could feel the golden rays of sunshine through the leaves of the tree tops, warming his face. He was searching for a spot to stay the night, a big tree would be ideal, with a huge roof of leaves, with how he'd been growing, it had become hard to find one that would fit him and his awfully many limbs.
Earlier he’d found an actual pathway where humans frequented to travel with their carriages and horses–such beautiful animals, they didn't deserve to be treated so lowly by those fickle creatures, and had started following it instead of painstakingly having to fight his way through branches and weeds.
Sukuna could hear lots of noises in the forest, which in itself wasn't unusual, but he’d seen a lot of humans these past days too, there were far more active than usual. Sukuna had wanted to follow them and see what the fuss was all about, but had to keep to himself regardless.
He followed along the path they were going, hidden in plain sight between the trees, occasionally sneaking a glance at them and even listening in on their conversations.
Sukuna heard only snippets of certain conversations because the humans were faster than him on their horses, but sometimes they slowed down to a trot and Sukuna could hear full sentences.
”There is a cursed child in the village up north. It looks like the disgraced one. Filthy scum, I hope they exorcise it soon.”
“It's a demon, I just know it. The kid’s parents died soon after his birth and almost all of the village’s crops have died recently…They need to purify the village now. I hear that there’s already got a priest on the way.”
“They have given this child mercy and let it work in the shrine for years, because his grandfather was adamant about it being just a baby and now their village elder has passed by a strange disease! They need to rid the village of this impurity immediately!
“All we can do now is pray and hope that wretched child goes back to where it came from.”
It sounded like the typical village gossip of the imbecilic commoners. They just tell the same stories about Sukuna just after he'd destroyed that village. He shivered at the memory.
As much as Sukuna should've felt sorry for how the child was treated and probably suffering, he couldn't even pretend to care.
He has gone through this once before and he didn't deserve it. In a sick way he got satisfaction out of another being treated as poorly as he had been. Unfortunately for the ‘cursed child’ he probably wouldn't be as strong as Sukuna to fight back. He was just a lowly human afterall.
Some people called him a curse, it wasn't completely unfounded he realized.
-
He had finally reached the village.
Sukuna had been walking for the past few days, it had been over a week even.
He scoffed, for what? He didn't even know why he had decided that some legend of a child that supposedly was similar to him intrigued him so much.
Maybe he just wanted to see another suffer to make himself feel better or maybe he just wanted to see someone like him–not be an outsider for once.
He was at the outskirts of the village about to cross the Tori gate at the bottom of a mountain that led up countless stairs to the village's shrine.
Sukuna had never seen an actual temple, he was cursed and shouldn't taint the holy spirit he'd been told.
But with no one around to stop him, he started ascending the stairs either way.
Sukuna had tried to look as normal as possible, he kept his extra pair of eyes closed and his additional hands hidden in the sleeves of his kimono.
It felt good to be rebellious for once. Sukuna knew that he was powerful, so why let himself be stopped by those measly creatures? He was a deity, a god. They should be worshipping him instead of-
Sukuna felt someone bump into him and snarled at them in warning. Who would dare to make him almost topple over? Someone without cursed energy no less. Worthless vermin.
“Ah so sorry!” A boyish voice started speaking from his assailant. “I didn't hear you. Are you here to pray?”
Sukuna looked down at the person who appeared to be a boy around his age, a lot shorter and clothed in pristine clothing, even if not very high quality–glorified rags if Sukuna had anything to say about it. He had pink hair and beautiful, amber eyes that weren't even looking at him.
That fueled new rage in Sukuna. Some commoner runs into him, barely apologizes and then has the audacity to pretend like Sukuna is made of air?
He was going to pay for his blatant disrespect.
“Are you trying to provoke me? Are my looks not pleasing enough for some lowly townboy like you to avert their eyes from me like that? I won't let this slide. Now bow.” He spat at the kid.
Said boy only tilted his head in confusion, still refusing to look Sukuna in the eye. Even if doing so would’ve cost someone else their head on a good day, not acknowledging Sukuna was a new level of disrespect.
“Uhm sorry sir, but I am blind.” The boy stuttered.
Sukuna opened and then closed his mouth again. Now that he actually looked closely, it was quite obvious; the unfocused, blurry eyes, the careful way the boy moved and most importantly, the fact that he didn't immediately run away when he caught sight of Sukuna.
“So you dont know who I am?” Sukuna asked questioningly.
“Sorry, no.” The boy laughed awkwardly, “but we can get to know each other! I’m Itadori Yuuji, but you can call me Yuuji…or whatever you want, really.” He continued.
What a stupid name.
“A knotweed, huh? Fine I’ll bite, I’m Sukuna-sama to you. As long as you can entertain me at least.” Sukuna scoffed.
The Knotweed smiled brightly, “I’ll take your word for it, Sukuna-san!”
Sukuna growled at the casual way his name was said, even if he found that he didn't hate it as much as he would've thought.
Maybe this boy could make his boring life a little more interesting.