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Megumi isn’t quite sure when it started. Maybe there wasn’t even a definitive turning point to begin with. Looking back on it, it probably already began when he swallowed that first finger and sealed his fate.
Itadori is – strange now. Somewhere along the way, the lines separating him, and Sukuna began to blur, to mix, to combine.
The scary thing is, Itadori doesn’t even seem to be aware of the changes in his personality. He keeps acting like everything’s normal and it makes Megumi desperate to do the same, because if he just keeps on pretending, keeps on refusing to see it happen. Then maybe it isn’t. If I don’t see it, it doesn’t exist and all that bullshit.
It’s getting harder to ignore though. Especially when he looks at Kugisaki and sees a glimpse of fear in her eyes when she’s talking to Itadori. Especially when he sees Gojo look at Itadori longer then is considered normal, with a suspicious frown on his face.
It makes him scared for Yuuji, he still needs him in his life. Megumi selfishly can’t let go yet; he’s already lost him once in that awful prison.
Not again, please not again.
~
When Megumi first got to know Itadori, after he moved to Jujutsu High, he liked to compare him to an oversized puppy. A shockingly strong oversized puppy, but hey he’s cousins with Maki-senpai. Superhuman strength isn’t the weirdest thing he’s had to witness in his life.
He can’t get over the way Itadori seems so happy, so pure even after everything he’s been through. His entire life turned upside down in one single night. Still Itadori stands tall and is so willing to help others. Happiness doesn’t exist in the Jujutsu world. Itadori is naïve.
Megumi can’t stand it.
It must be fake, it has to be. There is no way that boy is not resentful at everything life has thrown at him. It has to be an act. It irritates Megumi endlessly, how he keeps smiling, how he keeps carrying Kugisaki’s bags, how he helps that old lady cross the street, how offers to cook breakfast every day, how he smiles at Megumi like he’s sun incarnate, how he – how he reminds Megumi of Tsumiki.
He can’t stand Itadori.
And then there are those rare moments when the sun hides behind the clouds and Itadori turns still. When there’s no smile on his face and there’s a thousand-yard stare in his eyes.
Sometimes he doesn’t react to anything at all, quiet like a wallflower. And Megumi knows, he knows it’s because that damn curse is talking to him. Slithering around his neck like a vice, slowly curling around tighter and tighter. Whispering horrendous things, suggestions like poison in his ears. Murder them, slice them up in small, little cubes and serve them up like a five-course meal. It would be so easy, so delicious, so – much – fun.
It's all conjecture though, it’s not as if Megumi actually knows what’s going on in those moments. He can only guess what horrible nonsense Sukuna is sprouting. After all, Itadori never tells.
In those moments he bumps Itadori or pinches his squishy cheeks a little too hard and tries to subtly distract him with whatever they’re doing. All to encourage a smile back on his face. To bring back Yuuji to him. He still annoys him but.
Megumi can’t stand Itadori’s sad face.
~
Itadori ate another finger yesterday. He’s at 10 now. Nobara isn’t too concerned about it. He dealt fine with the other 9, so what’s one more gonna do? Take over his mind? Nah, Nobara may not show it, but she actually puts quite a bit of trust in her companions. Especially after that whole fight against the death womb paintings. He really brought his own chair to her show and settled down in it.
Sure, he sometimes gets lost in thoughts and has his bad days, but don’t they all? Nothing some shopping with her won’t fix. Or some nail painting or, if she’s feeling generous; some movies. And he pays her back in kind, “offering” to carry her bags and cooking breakfast each morning.
Something she’s looking forward to now as she’s positively starving after last night’s solo mission. As she’s rounding the corner, Nobara slows in her tracks while rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. It sounds like Itadori’s arguing with someone.
“I’m not gonna make you more meatballs! You always complain they’re overcooked anyway, when they’re clearly – oh, hey Kugisaki!” Itadori looks up smiling with a hand on his cheek. “Breakfast’s almost done!”
Nobara’s quiet for a while. That was weird, Itadori’s back to cooking, acting like nothing’s happened, but Nobara clearly heard that.
Why was Itadori talking to Sukuna like that? Like they were friends?
Nobara shakes it off, whatever it’s too early for this. “I better get an egg, sunny side up in the next minute stat Itadori! I’m starving!” Itadori laughs and complies.
Nobara doesn’t think back on it. Not until a month later when they’re all sitting in an American style restaurant after a mission. Gojo-sensei told them to pick anything, since it’d been a while that they’ve been out together like this. And because Itadori had done most of the heavy lifting this mission, Nobara begrudgingly agreed he should be allowed to choose the restaurant this time.
They were sitting together in a round booth with Gojo-sensei excitingly bragging about the long-term mission he’d just returned from, his hand waving franticly around with one arm slung around Itadori. He obviously exaggerated a lot of the details about the mission, but it didn’t stop Itadori from looking like a starstruck idiot at him. Something Gojo was clearly enjoying a lot.
“Itadori, stop encouraging his stupid behavior and Gojo-sensei, act like a goddamn adult for once. I’m too tired for this.” Nobara groaned while slumping forward in her seat. Fushiguro next to her looked just as done with the two idiots.
“Fine, fine you poor party poopers, I see how it is! Nobody appreciates your dear sensei’s stories anymore! I’m positively heartbroken.” Gojo pouts. “This is why you’re my favorite Yuuji-kun. The others hate me, no respect at all” He drapes himself all over Itadori while continuing his dramatic spiel. “I can’t believe this is how you guys treat me, after everything I have done, you know I’m the strongest right? There’s no reason for you to –“
He gets cut off by Itadori pushing him back upright to glance at the poor waitress standing by their table while carrying their food. She looks like she wants anything but to be here, sweat running down her temple and arms trembling from the weight of the plates.
“Oh I’m so sorry for him miss! here I’ll help you with the plates” Itadori quickly grabs the plates from her and sets them down on the table.
“Uhh, th- thank you sir” she glances at Gojo and immediately looks back down when he raises an eyebrow back at her, “e- enjoy your meal!” she quickly bows and practically runs away.
Nobara bursts out laughing “You’re seriously an idiot sensei! Poor girl, she was standing there the entire time, I- I can’t!”.
“Oh please Nobara-chan,” Gojo waves a hand, indignant “she was just amazed by my good looks. You know a lot of people can’t handle my handsomeness, it’s a gift”.
Nobara rolls her eyes. “Yeah right, she was just weirded out by your lame ass sunglasses that you’re wearing at night – in a restaurant.” She glances at Itadori who’s looking a little constipated. “You okay Itadori?”
“Ughh” he spits out a bite of the hamburger, sticking his tongue out, his voice comes out a bit rough, “this is way overdone, disgusting!”
Nobara feels a chill run down her spine. She swallows as she looks at the bite laying on the plate. A piece of almost complete red meat looks back at her. That – was not overdone.
~
Gojo has taken Yuuji with him for some special training. Partly because he wanted to see Yuuji’s progress with handling cursed energy after consuming 15 fingers and mostly because he’s heard some, rather concerning allegations coming from Megumi-kun of all people.
One day after class, Megumi stayed behind to talk to Gojo about Itadori’s newfound behavior. It wasn’t new to hear of some student that got injured during sparring, however it was slightly concerning that Shoko deigned it necessary to inform Gojo about the state Itadori left Maki-chan in. It wasn’t life threating or anything, but it was out of the norm. Especially because it was Yuuji. For all the strength he possessed, he was surprisingly capable of tempering his blows when sparring.
“He’s more aggressive when fighting, it’s usually just when fighting curses, but after today with Maki-senpai… I- I don’t know.” Megumi sighs, frowning. It clearly pained him to talk to Gojo about this. Admittedly, he is a bit confused, Megumi-chan’s always so protective of the pink haired boy. It must be quite serious.
Gojo laughed “Ah Megumi-chan, Megumi-chan, it’s only logical right? You’re not sparring to give hugs to each other, you’re learning to defeat curses and Maki-chan’s a strong opponent. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”
Megumi’s frown deepens, ahh this is probably bad. “No, you don’t understand. He- He’s. Ugh” He growls, Gojo stays silent “It’s almost as if he’s, as if he’s enjoying it… I- I don’t know, he gets this aura of- of bloodlust almost” his shoulders drop down in defeat.
“It reminds me of Sukuna.” He whispers, looking like a kicked puppy.
So clearly Gojo being the great sensei that he is, invited Yuuji along with him on a mission. It wasn’t that difficult, mostly exorcising a bunch of third grade curses in an old, abandoned station. Shouldn’t take too long.
“Listen up Yuuji-kun!” Gojo says while they’re walking through the old rickety entrance of the station, vines curling up against the walls. The station is just one big waiting room with two doors leading to the train tracks, the place smells like mold. “Yes sensei!” Yuuji calls to attention.
“It shouldn’t be too hard for you, just fight like you normally do and try to take out as many curses as possible. If it gets too much for you, I’ll step in, but until that I’m gonna sit right here and suppress my cursed energy so I attract, or well, distract absolutely no curses. This is your fight, not mine.”
He crouches down on old wooden waiting chair, it creeks a bit but stays sturdy enough. “Go on then” he waves Yuuji away “show me what you’ve got”.
“Oh okay then.“ Yuuji walks uncertainly to the middle of the room, it’s quiet for a while and then –
Yuuji suddenly spins around and flashes his right fist forward, just as a spider like curse drops down from the ceiling. His fist charges right through the core of the curse causing it to immediately dispels and bursts into smaller pieces. Well, he was definitely not holding back Gojo notes, and his instincts are on point.
Then it’s game on, curses appearing all around Yuuji like a zombie apocalyptic ambush. Yuuji circles around confidently, right hook, left hook, uppercut all curses dying after just one cursed imbued punch. He high kicks one monkey like curse sneaking up behind him. The poor thing flies back and crashes into the wall making it crack beneath his weight.
More curses show up and Yuuji’s slowly warming up, he’s getting more into the fight. His movements become more fluid and faster. His punches become harder and slowly but surely, his fighting style starts to change. Gojo sits up straighter and analyses Yuuji. His face is no longer pinched in utter concentration, but relaxes, a small smirk curls up on his lips.
Where Yuuji first took care of the fight with quick boxing moves, finishing the curse as fast as possible, he now starts evading the curses. He’s toying with them, Gojo realises, pitting them against each other.
He grabs one incoming curse by their neck and slams him down into another curse. The curses wail out as both their ribs crack under the force of their collision, then he breaks the first curse’s neck.
Yuuji smiles.
He grabs another curse’s fist and drags him forward, when they’re face to face, he rips his hand straight through their stomach area, purple blood gushing out from the wound. The curse grips Yuuji’s uniform desperately, smearing gore all over it until it collapses and disappears.
It goes on like this, Yuuji’s choosing the most cruel way for the curses to die. There’s no efficiency, no logic, he’s fooling around like he’s playing with Barbie dolls instead of cursed beings. It doesn’t stop until all curses are dead – Gojo does nothing.
And then a new curse burst onto the scene. This one’s clearly stronger than the others have been. He’s bigger, more disgusting “T- t- tick- tickets p-please”. Gojo stands up and dusts himself off, he’ll deal with this one. It’s a high grade 1, maybe even considered special grade. Nothing much for the honored one, but for Yuuji whose been fighting for two hours straight it might be a bit tough.
Before Gojo can say anything however, Yuuji whips his head to the curse so fast any normal person wouldn’t have been able to see it. It stops Gojo in his tracks.
Yuuji holds his head high, he’s frowning as if he’s insulted this curse even dared to be in his presence. He raises his hand slowly. The curse stands still, 10 feet in front of him. Then, he slices two fingers through the air.
The head of the curse slides of his body and drops onto the ground. The splatter of blood echoes through the entire room.
Gojo turns to look at Yuuji with wide eyes, there are no tattoo marks on his body. That was still Itadori Yuuji.
And he just used Sukuna’s cursed technique.
~
Yuuji’s out with Kugisaki, Fushiguro and Gojo-sensei, they haven’t hung out in a long while due to all the missions assigned to them. Strangely Gojo doesn’t let Yuuji go without him anymore, the other two go on solo missions all the time.
They’re celebrating completing one year at Jujutsu High with a four-day trip in Kyoto. Yuuji knows better though. They’re here to make some final memories together before he consumes that final finger and gets executed. It paints a whole somber mood over the entire thing that they desperately try their best to hide.
Yuuji doesn’t get it though, as if he’s going to allow himself to be executed by some lowly, old broomsticks.
They’re walking through a market, Gojo’s left behind as he won’t stop looking at all the sweets the stalls are selling. Yuuji’s convinced he’s just desperate to get away from him though. Gojo doesn’t seem to like him much anymore. Not that Yuuji cares all that much, the less sorcerers around him the better. Kugisaki links her arm with Yuuji and Fushiguro and whisks them away. “Let’s ditch him, stupid sensei’s taking way too long. I wanna check out the clothing stalls.”
The streets are absolutely packed and Yuuji feels more and more irritated by all the noice and chaos surrounding him. Kugisaki is still clinging to him like he’s going to disappear any moment. It angers him, as if she’s allowed to touch him so thoughtlessly. She should treat him with more respect.
Just as he’s planning to break away and reprimand Kugisaki a girl bumps into Yuuji and falls to the ground.
“Oh I- I’m so sorry sir, I wasn’t paying attention.” She stammers out looking up at him. He looks coldly back at her.
“Watch your step brat and don’t look me in the eyes, do you want to lose your head?” He spits out, he’s had enough of all these dumb peasants surrounding him all day. He rips his arm away from Kugisaki, who jumps away like she’s been electrocuted.
The girl practically bows down on the ground, shaking like a leave. “N- n- n- no sir, p- please I – “
Kill her, she looks like a decent meal.
Yuuji considers it, it wasn’t Sukuna that gave the suggestion, and it also wasn’t his own voice. It’s been a long time since he’s heard Sukuna clearly separate from himself. They are one and the same now, maybe have always been that way. Yuuji can’t remember.
He realizes he’s been quiet for quite some time now. The girl’s still shivering in the mud of the street. Yuuji tsk’s and stomps away. He needs to cool down and go somewhere quiet.
A few months ago, Yuuji met Kenjaku on a mission. Gojo was with him as per the new norm, but Yuuji was left to his own devices for a few hours while he had to tent to those old, wrinkled bastards. He was out in a convenience store looking for some dinner when in walked the black-haired monk with stitches on his forehead.
Kenjaku told him everything. From his own life to his cursed technique and finally of Yuuji’s birth.
“You know, you come from a very special lineage dear Yuuji-kun.” He dropped a packaged onigiri into his shopping basket, it was tuna-mayo flavored. “Not only do you have three parents with your father being a descendant from the bloodline of the king of curses.” He looked up at Yuuji “I also combined one of Sukuna’s fingers with your soul and body.”
“You are my perfect experiment, my perfect child. You and Sukuna have always been the same yet also very different. But that was to be expected. I’m sure you’ve heard of nature versus nurture and all that.”
Kenjaku laughs “but it all doesn’t matter now does it? You’re completely merging with one another. Soon you will be Sukuna and Sukuna will be you.”
When Yuuji came back to the hotel room from his little midnight expedition he ran to the bathroom and threw up what little food he had in in stomach.
Looking back on it, he’s not quite sure what he was so distressed about.
It was the last day of the Kyoto trip. Yuuji sat alone in his hotel room. This was it, the ending, the finale. He finally figured out the mystery surrounding the last of his fingers; Kugisaki had it.
It was a pretty solid plan, he admits. Nobody would guess a weak little sorcerer student would possess one of the King of curses powerful fingers. Furthermore, her cursed technique would also prove quite annoying in case she was to use it on the finger.
Not that she would do much of anything now, poisoned to unconsciousness as she was. It was surprising how much trust his companions still had in him considering everything. Beyond desperate for any sense of normalcy. How naïve.
He sat on the bed with a little wooden box on his lap. After this he would meet up with Kenjaku at a certain house in Sendai.
He slid the box open and grabbed the wrapped appendage.
He decided to play along with his plans for now, just until he grows bored with him.
He slowly unraveled the sealings until finger fell down onto the palm of his hand.
The King of curses examines the finger one last time.
And down the hatch they go.