Work Text:
The fight with Sukuna had been over, Shinjuku had mostly been reduced to rubble, the only remaining inhabitants being curse users and curses themselves, wandering around the area to feast on any of the fallen.
It was a strange mirror to Shibuya. Yuuji had set out again to clear all the coagulating curses like he had done before.
This time he was alone.
Everybody else had been too busy with other things of more importance to deal with the rubble. Saving Yuta was a main priority. Megumi was still in recovering from the strain of being Sukuna's vessel, and any remaining sorcerers had bigger things to deal with.
Nobara had offered to come with him, but Yuuji declined. She was busy too, and still recovering herself. So Yuuji had taken to wandering the wastelands of Shinjuku by himself. A part of him felt like it should still be his job anyway.
Not quite curse, not quite human.
The city was indescribably hollow, and Yuuji swore he felt the residuals of everyone who had fallen here. Gojou, Higuruma, Sukuna, Chousou.
He missed Chousou, he missed everyone. Yuuji remembers their last conversation before they left to fight, it had been strangely ordinary. Now his brother's last words were forever ingrained in his mind. Yuuji would be the only one left to properly remember him. Chousou never got to meet most of his friends, Yuuji wonders if he would've got along with Nobara.
A crash in the background disturbed the rubble that had been dutifully resting. A curse probably, most curse user's had fled the area a couple of days ago. Yuuji went to approach the area, it hadn't been that far from where he was, this would likely be his last exorcism of the day.
He could pick up two cursed energy signatures the closer he got, one definitely that of a curse, the other... he couldn't tell. It didn't matter, at least not until he heard a loud groan up ahead.
A human sounding groan. Whoever it was sounded young too, far too young to be a curse user. Yuuji's steady pace had picked up into a sprint towards the area, hands already preparing to use shrine.
The curse was the first thing he had seen, bulging eyes and misshapen limbs slapping on the rubble and pavement with a disgustingly wet squelch. Bent fingers and deformed claws were reaching out in a desperate attempt to grab something. Yuuji didn't waste anytime using Sukuna's technique, two dotted lines appearing on the curse's furthest reaching limbs before they got sliced clean off. Its screech was ungodly. Yuuji had to cover his ears before they bled.
He ran up towards the curse, it wasn't that powerful looking at it more closely. A grade one or two maybe. It wouldn't take much for Yuuji to beat it. A couple of well placed punches had already got it to near death, with a black flash managing to land at the end.
The curse let out another sickening cry, purple blood and teeth falling out of one of the cavity's Yuuji had impaled it with before it fell over in an unsatisfying thump.
Yuuji looked around the area for a moment, cooling curse remains slowly sticking to his uniform. He couldn't see the other person who had been running away, even with his increased vision. He could only hear the echoes of pained grunts some place below.
The dust had made everything hard to see, but Yuuji had a good idea of where the kid was. The other had been letting out small sobs for some time. Was he injured? His cursed energy felt familiar. It made Yuuji's heart beat erratically in his chest, like it was trying to escape the confines of his ribcage. It made the remains of the god left inside him thrum.
He clawed his way into a small place between some rubble, where the other had been trapped. He couldn't help but widen his eyes at the scene. If he were any other person, he would have screamed. If he were any other sorcerer, he'd kill him without a second thought.
But he was neither of those things, not quite human, not quite a sorcerer. So Yuuji couldn't help but feel tears start to form around his eyes.
A scrawny pink haired boy was curled up in between a crevice, four blue eyes watery as he used all four of his grubby hands to try and pull out one of his legs stuck in the rubble. He looked up to Yuuji with a foreign expression on his face, one of desperate hope. One that was asking Yuuji to save him.
Not at all a curse, so indescribably human.
Yuuji couldn't tell what the damage to his leg was. He knelt down in front of him, slowly grabbing the piece of rubble his leg was trapped under.
"I'm gonna lift it up," Yuuji coughed out, his voice was raspy from disuse. "Are you ready?"
The boy looked scared. Another look Yuuji thought he'd never see on the other, but he nodded fervently. Determined. Yuuji nodded, waiting a couple seconds before he lifted the structure up.
The younger backed away until his foot was completely out. It was bloody, Yuuji couldn't tell how damaged it was at first look. He let the piece of wall fall back down with a uncerimonius crack, going closer to inspect what he thought was more important.
"Can you give me your leg?" He asked, hands gently hovering over the injured limb.
The other said nothing, but slightly moved it closer so Yuuji could put in his lap to inspect it. His leg wasn't hurt that badly, Yuuji could see two black bands inked around his ankle. He had still kept his tattoos.
He never had to use it, but Yuuji had gotten the habit of keeping a first aid kid in his bag whenever he traveled. Chousou had done that for him when they were wandering Shibuya, he couldn't use reverse cursed technique at the time. Now, he carefully took out the supplies and began to treat his wounds, gently cleaning off the area until he disinfected it.
"Where are we..?" The boy finally spoke, his voice was small now, scared even. But it was still familiar.
Yuuji stayed silent for a moment, ruminating over all the words jumbled in his skull, "Shinjuku," He finally answered. "Do you remember?"
The younger shook his head, hot tears still streaming down his cheeks. "No.. I don't know how I got here. I just remember running."
Yuuji began to wrap a line of bandages around the wound, making sure it wasn't too loose or tight. The bits of information he had picked up from everyone were useful. Chousou and his grandfather had tended to tie bandages too tight, while other's like Megumi would sometimes make them too loose.
"Do you remember your name?" He hesitently asked, making sure to tie off the end strongly. His grandfather had taught him that part.
"No," The boy admit. There was a mixture of confusion and something else in his tone.
"It's Sukuna." Yuuji answered honestly.
"Does it mean anything?"
"Dunno," He shrugged. He wasn't being as honest this time, but it was something Yuuji found no reason to answer.
"Who are you then?" Sukuna asked, there wasn't any malice in his voice, just curiosity. An innocent interest that made Yuuji's chest tighten.
"I'm Yuuji," He reached over to hug Sukuna, wrapping two arms around him. The younger returned the gesture after a while, four arms hesitently finding their way on his back. "We're family."
Yuuji didn't know if Sukuna understood the meaning of those words now, but he stayed quiet, allowing the older to speak.
"Do you want to come with me?" The question repeated aloud for a second time, ignoring every single problem the world would have just like it had done before "There isn't much left out here."
Sukuna stayed silent for a couple seconds, contemplating the words as his fingers scrunched up Yuuji's ragged uniform. "What's gonna happen?"
"..I don't know." It was the truth, Yuuji didn't know what would happen. What his friends, what everyone else would do. He was holding what everyone thought was a calamity in his arms, a curse who had almost destroyed all of Japan. But he wasn't that anymore, and Yuuji's answer wouldn't change even if he was. "I'll figure it out, that's what I'm supposed to do, I'm gonna be your big brother after all."
The two of them had stayed still for a while longer, more tears threatening to roll down Yuuji's cheeks. "Okay," Was all that Sukuna eventually said, healthy leg aimlessly moving back and forth on the ground. The answer was so simple that it almost made Yuuji laugh. A huff still escaped his lips despite his best efforts.
Yuuji stood up a bit to get a better idea of the younger's state, he seemed to be in better condition than before.
"Can you walk?"
Sukuna nodded, going to stumble up before Yuuji offered a hand. The two of them made their way out of the enclosed space, making their way past the now cooling corpse. Sukuna's eyes trailed along it, looking at the carcass with a mixture of anxiousness and shock. He somehow kept a good pace despite his injury, Yuuji didn't know if he should offer to pick him up.
He had barely started to clear out the remains of Shinjuku. Yuuji wonder's if he even managed to exorcise ten percent of it, it had been a couple days already. It was a mirror to Shibuya, was setting out to clean the remains of Sukuna's cataclysm just as he had done before.
Now Yuuji had found himself back with him again, existing alongside the other in a way foreign to what had been before. Yuuji had taken off one of the cursed tools around his arm so Sukuna would have a more human hand to hold on to, his fingers were the larger ones now. Sukuna's hand was now about the size of his palm.
The scars on his body still ached, another constant reminder of what had happened. Yuuji wonders if it was luck that he found Sukuna here, how everything might've turned out of he hadn't. Would he have grown up into the same person again?
Really, it didn't matter. Sukuna had someone now, and Yuuji wasn't going to be there for the sake of the world. He was just going to be there for <em>him.</em>
'Sukuna... let's try it one more time. Living not by cursing someone, but by existing alongside them.'
'Even if no one else will accept you,
I'lll live with you.'