Chapter Text
It was a shadow, crouched at the foot of an old wall.
That she was the last blood of a fallen house, that the streets of Heian-kyo were still strange to her, that she had eaten nothing all day: Higata Mei forgot all of it for a moment.
Beyond the wall, where she had put out her hand, a small thing sat gripping a stone.
Ready to throw it. No, he had thrown it already, more than once. There were scrapes on the back of his hand, and dried blood on the ground by his feet. Whether it was his own or someone else's, there was no way to tell.
Mei crouched down.
The child flinched back. He had four eyes. Four arms as well. Mei closed her eyes and opened them again, not out of fear, but because she understood that this was the reason he had been made into what he was.
And then she smiled, softly.
"Are you not hungry?"
The child went still.
His grip on the stone tightened. Mei did not move. She did not run, either. She only stayed there at his eye level, waiting with the same face she had worn a moment ago.
A wind went past.
"...You're talking to a curse."
The voice was young. Cracked and hoarse, but young.
"A curse, you say?"
Mei tilted her head.
"That is not how it looks to me."
The child sneered. Or rather, tried to.
"Are you blind?"
"My eyes see well enough."
"I have four arms. Four eyes too."
"Yes."
"Is that a person?"
Mei pretended to think about it for a moment. In truth there was nothing to think about.
"I believe that you are."
The child's eyes, all four of them, took Mei in. They went over her, up and down, as though searching for something. A trace of fear, or the scent of a trick.
But Mei was simply there. Crouched on the cold dirt, as if it did not trouble her in the least.
The stone fell to the ground.
Whether he dropped it or let it slip, there was no telling.
"...What do you want from me."
"I want nothing."
"Liar."
"It is not a lie."
Mei drew a small bundle wrapped in cloth from her sleeve.
"I have been meaning to give you this for some time. You were wary of me, so I was only waiting for the right moment."
A rice ball. The child looked down at it. Then at Mei. Then at the rice ball again.
"Is it poisoned."
"It is not poisoned."
"..."
"If you doubt it so much, I shall eat with you."
Mei broke the rice ball in half and put one piece in her mouth. The child watched her to the very end. Watched her swallow. Watched her throat move.
Then he snatched the rest.
He ate fast. So fast that he could hardly breathe. Mei said nothing. Not until he had finished. Not until he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
"...You. What's your name."
For the first time, the child spoke first.
"I am called Higata Mei."
"Higata."
He said it low.
"Isn't that house wiped out."
"It is."
"And you're alive."
"As you can see."
The child was quiet for a while.
"I don't have a name."
Mei nodded.
"Is that so."
"...Is that all right with you."
It was a strange question. To ask whether it was all right. As if he were asking permission. As if he worried that having no name might displease her.
Mei smiled again. Softly, as she had the first time.
"Then may I give you one?"
He nodded. As though granting her leave.
"Sukuna."
The child's eyes narrowed.
"Do you mean Ryomen Sukuna. They call me that to spit on me. I don't want it."
"It is not Ryomen Sukuna."
Mei said it once more. The same sound, the same warmth.
"Sukuna. What I am calling you is Sukuna."
The child closed his mouth.
"That is not an insult, is it."
There was nothing to argue with. The child, Sukuna, looked at Mei. Searching for something, again. For mockery, or amusement. For some sign of being played with.
There was nothing.
Only Mei. Crouched on the dirt, saying a plain thing as though it were plain.
"...Sukuna."
It was the first time the name had ever left his own lips.
Strangely, it did not feel unfamiliar. It was not like hearing it thrown at him as an insult. The same word. Certainly the same word.
"Does it please you?"
Sukuna did not answer.
He did not answer, but he did not pick up the stone again.=