Work Text:
18:05:06 JST
Yamabiko Shinkansen, Fukushima Station, Fukushima Prefecture
Suguru yawns when the bullet train starts moving again. Only one more stop until he’s finally in Sendai. He’s so tired –
“Sleeping on the job, are we?” Satoru teases him over the phone. Of course he heard that .
“Just remind me why I have to do this, again?” He sighs and presses his face against the cool window pane. Maybe he really should have quit after the star plasma vessel incident – incident. Murder. It was murder. He murdered Riko and no one batted an eye –
Satoru interrupts his spiraling thoughts, “Well, according to my absolute dearest council of fools, Yuta and I have, and I quote, ‘sucky people skills’.”
“They’re not wrong.”
“Hey! I’m great with people!”
“But that’s not at all what I meant,” Suguru says, “Why is this a special grade case? Nothing but curse wombs is ever a special grade.”
“Ah, you don’t know?” There’s an undertone in his voice. Like he’s smug about something – oh no.
The only thing worse than regular Satoru is smug Satoru. “You haven’t read the report, have you? Hehe, some teacher you are, my dearest Suguru!” Then, thankfully, he chokes on his own malevolence and Suguru holds the phone far away from his ear as Satoru coughs his lungs out.
“When you’re done,” Suguru says, though he doubts Satoru hears anything over his own pathetic noises, “you could be a good friend and tell me what’s in the damn report. I only know that this Mr Itadori called with some wild stories about his family members being possessed or something.” It was two days ago, and the man called the higher-ups directly . Nobody knows how he obtained the phone number. Not even Satoru has that number, let alone Suguru (he didn’t even know the old fuckers had a phone ).
“Fine, I’ll tell you.” Satoru concedes after making a successful recovery after – Suguru checks the clock – yep, four whole minutes. Satoru clears his throat, but his voice is still a little hoarse. “Listen up!” Two loud claps. “The wonderful Satoru Gojo will give you a professional and extremely informative rundown of the Itadori family!”
Suguru fights against the fond smile wrestling its way onto his face. It’s in moments like this that he’s incredibly thankful for Satoru. Then, there’s the other moments… He swallows the jealousy crawling up his throat.
“So, the dude who called is Wasuke Itadori, 79. His wife’s been deceased for a hot minute, so it’s unlikely this has anything to do with her. According to our registry, he has no notable cursed energy whatsoever. This goes for the whole family, by the way.”
Which makes it even weirder that he called the higher-ups. Nobody outside of jujutsu society even knows they exist.
“Yeah, you can probably guess where this is going.” Satoru laughs, way too cheerfully. “Someone got an extra paycheck, here!”
“Satoru.” Suguru’s not in the mood to entertain Satoru’s gripes with jujutsu society right now (he’s busy with his own).
“Yeah, yeah. On it. He lives with his son, Jin Itadori, 41, who’s a… bore, as far as I can tell, and his wife, Kaori, 39. And oh boy, the grandpa’s got a problem with her, ha! He’s convinced that she came back as an evil zombie after she had a nearly fatal accident when she was 22. There’s a few quotes in here, they’re golden: evil wretch, vermin, disgusting parasite – oh, he called her a slut, too! Do you think they had to drive some of the higher-ups to the hospital afterwards?”
“It’s not entirely impossible that something possessed her after the accident, though.” Suguru says, foregoing Satoru’s last jab. Souls close to death are weak, after all. Easy prey for hungry spirits.
“You’re right, but… this reads like he’s mostly upset she suddenly wanted kids afterwards. Said she has evil world domination plans.”
“Because she wanted kids,” Suguru echoes slowly. Maybe he should just stay seated and not get off in Sendai. Avoid this whole mess.
“Yup. Speaking of the kids – this is the real kicker, and probably why this is your job, by the way. They’re twins, Yuji Itadori and – this is it – Sukuna Itadori!”
18:21:01 JST
“Sukuna?” Suguru raises an eyebrow. “As in Ryomen Sukuna, the king of curses?” There’s not one sorcerer unfamiliar with that name. As Yaga put it so eloquently in that one staff meeting six years ago, when they’d just retrieved another one of these damned fingers from a special grade spirit, if he reincarnates, they’re fucked.
“Uh-huh.” Suguru can hear Satoru unwrap something. The next sentence is accordingly muffled as he talks over the candy in his mouth. “Same characters and everything. Wasuke claims the boy is ‘evil reincarnate’, which is an interesting way of putting it.”
“That’s why it’s special grade.” Suguru sighs. “They’re expecting the worst case scenario. A reincarnated Ryomen Sukuna.”
“Which makes no sense.” Satoru says. “The fingers are – at least in my humble opinion – too weak to sustain a proper reincarnation. And their power has been dropping rapidly these last few years.”
“And nineteen of them are at Jujutsu Tech.” Suguru adds, because that’s probably the most important argument against the elders’ paranoia. Ryomen Sukuna with only one-twentieth of his power is maybe a semi-grade one. Nothing they can’t handle.
“Exactly! Those old fucks are just grasping for straws to make our lives harder than they need to be.”
Lest you get bored and decide to slaughter them for fun, Suguru thinks. The higher-ups know very well the two of them would prefer the council six feet under.
“I’m curious, now.” Suguru sits up and rolls his stiff shoulders. He so needs a coffee. His eyelids feel like they’re made out of lead, ready to fall closed any second. I wish you were here, though. This would be much more fun if I wasn’t alone.
He misses his student days.
“It could also just be a rebirth,” Satoru says. “That’s not nearly as cool and doesn’t happen very often, but it’s not like it’s unheard of.”
Suguru simply hums and doesn’t bother to point out that rebirths don’t just not happen very often, they’re incredibly rare. Which Satoru would know if he’d paid just a little more attention in their classes.
“The next stop is Sendai Station.”
“It’s probably just a grumpy grandpa and poor naming choices on mummy’s part. She did hit her head, after all.” Satoru drums his fingers against his desk. “Bring Kikufuku for me if you find some, yeah?”
“I will.”
“And I want a detailed report with all the juicy details on the family drama.”
“Of course.” Suguru smiles as he watches the platform appear in front of the window. “Time to go. See you later.”
18:25:17 JST
Special grade sorcerer Suguru Geto arrives at Sendai Station, Miyagi Prefecture
18:38:30 JST
The black coffee he downed at the train station is finally kicking in. Which is a blessing, because Suguru was seriously starting to worry about whether or not he would even be awake when the taxi finally arrived at the Itadori residence.
Unfortunately, there’s still that traffic jam between him and his destination. Suguru sighs and cracks his neck. The driver has already apologized several times, but it’s not like it matters. The Itadoris don’t know that he’s coming in the first place.
He has finally found enough energy to pull up the mission details on his phone and has spent the last few minutes memorizing the faces of the twins. Which would be impossible, because they look exactly the same , if it wasn’t for the fact that Sukuna Itadori has two sickle-shaped scars under his eyes that his brother Yuji lacks. And they are scars. The information includes several childhood photographs of the two, and in those they are indistinguishable.
Suguru does not want to think about what that might imply. Fuck.
18:51:29 JST
The house is surprisingly fancy. Well, fancy as far as suburbans go, at least. But it looks like it has been ripped out of a picture book. Everything is clean, there’s not one stray leaf out on the lawn. Uncanny, that’s the word you’re looking for.
Suguru slowly walks up the steps to the front door and suppresses a bodily shudder as a familiar taste creeps into his mouth. No entry in the registry, my ass.
The house is brimming with cursed energy. This is a masquerade.
This is going to be interesting, one way or another. Suguru takes a deep breath to mentally prepare himself for the charade to come before pressing the door bell. Let’s get this over with.
18:52:03 JST
“Just a second!” A woman yells from inside the house. “I’ll be right there.”
So he’ll be meeting Kaori Itadori first. Suguru recounts what he knows about her. 39. Had a nearly fatal accident. Mother of twins. Target of her father-in-law’s ire. And, according to the registry, not a jujutsu sorcerer.
Then the door swings open and all Suguru can think is, that last one is definitely a lie. A huge fucking lie. Ginormous.
In front of him stands a tall woman, elegantly dressed, her black bob neatly styled. A fantastical iteration of the stay-at-home mother. Everything about her is flawless, except for the stench of cursed energy mingling around her and the lumpy scar running across her forehead in a straight line. Despite his best efforts, Suguru’s gaze catches on it.
“Hello?” She says. “Can I help you?”
Time to play.
“Sorry to show up unannounced,” Suguru says as he bows and puts on the best iteration of what his students call his ‘customer-service-smile’. “I’m Suguru Geto, from the Sugisawa temple.”
He carefully watches the reaction on Kaori’s face, but her mask is solid, even though her suppressed cursed energy stinks to high heaven. She definitely knows jujutsu. Which likely means that, by now, she has also put together that he knows jujutsu. And that he knows she knows jujutsu. If he had to guess, probably a grade two. Maybe semi-grade one. Nothing Suguru can’t deal with.
“A certain Wasuke Itadori called two days ago,” he continues, “He expressed concern about your house being haunted.”
“Wasuke, huh?” Her face hardens. “That old – sorry. Wasuke is my father-in-law. I’m Kaori Itadori.”
She catches herself and puts on a polite smile. Again, her mask is really good .
Kaori continues, “Unfortunately he’s not very fit anymore mentally. I’m afraid you’ve wasted your time coming here.”
He definitely hasn’t, and she knows. Now it’s only a question of how much of Wasuke Itadori’s fairy tale is the truth. “May I talk to him?” He asks and turns the customer service smile to 100 per cent.
Something flickers in Kaori’s eyes, and her cursed energy wavers for just a second. Suguru wonders if she will attack him the moment he crosses the doorstep. But then she steps aside, and Suguru sees his own hollow smile reflected back at him.
“Sure, come on in. He’s been going on an on about this ghost stuff for weeks, so maybe a professional addressing this topic will calm him down.” The way she says ‘professional’ sends shivers down Suguru’s spine.
He takes his shoes off at the entrance and steps into a hallway as immaculate as the exterior of the house. There’s probably not even a speck of dust to be found. Again, the word ‘masquerade’ comes to mind. Masquerade as non-insane, normal humans instead of jujutsu sorcerers with more screws loose than usual.
Kaori leads him into the combined kitchen and living room. Here, too, everything is neatly organized, except for one jarring detail. Suguru can’t help it, his eyes immediately find the bloodstained rag in the kitchen sink. Kaori notices, and gives him another one of her insincere smiles. “One of my sons got into a fight,” she says and sighs. “He’s a bit of a troubled kid.”
Troubled kid, huh? Suguru doesn’t believe her for one second. The woman is lying through her teeth, and probably hiding a body somewhere. But – she doesn’t strike him as careless enough to leave a bloody cloth out in the open if it was in any way incriminating. So is it really just from something as simple as a bloody nose?
“Please have a seat, Geto-san.” Kaori gestures to the couch. “Would you like some tea?”
“Sure. That’d be lovely.” His eyes slide up to the scar on her forehead again. Is it really sixteen years old? Does it not look too fresh for that?
Unbeknownst to Suguru, by the time Kaori disappears into the hallway to call for her husband and father-in-law, fear has crept into his heart.
A moment later she’s back. “My husband and father-in-law will be here shortly.” She says as she moves around the kitchen to prepare the tea. “Though there’s a chance Wasuke does not even remember calling you, I’m afraid.”
“That’s alright.” Suguru says. All his senses are glued to her cursed energy. Something about how she talks to him, as if he were a normal guest, and they don’t both know that the other is more than they pretend to be – it bothers him. She behaves like someone who knows they have the upper hand, and Suguru is starting to think that maybe she does.
Heavy silence falls over the room for a few minutes. Do I says something? Suguru wonders as he watches Kaori prepare the tea. No, it’s better to keep up the pretenses. Besides, he’s not even here for her, not really. The first mission objective is and remains Wasuke Itadori.
Speak of the devil and he doth appear.
19:02:44 JST
Muffled conversation sounds through the house, though Suguru can’t make out the words. The stairs groan, and there’s more grumbling.
Then a middle-aged man with pink hair appears in the doorway, supporting an older man who can only be his father. Jin and Wasuke Itadori.
Kaori introduces them politely while Jin ushers his father to sit on the other sofa. The old man seems to have trouble walking, Suguru notes. Jin greets him with stiff politeness. Wasuke says nothing, instead glaring daggers at him. Neither of the men have an unusual amount of cursed energy and shouldn’t be much of a threat should worse come to worst.
Again, uncomfortable silence falls over the room until Kaori serves the tea. The saucer clinks loudly against the glass top of the coffee table.
But Kaori is undisturbed. Her mask is really fucking good. She sits down next to Suguru, brushing her skirt to the front as she does, elegant and untouchable. No wonder her father-in-law is afraid of her.
“Father-in-law, Geto-san says you called the Sugisawa temple because you thought our house was haunted?”
“Temple?” Wasuke huffs. “I didn’t call any temple. I need a jujutsu sorcerer!”
19:06:09 JST
“That thing masquerading as my daughter-in-law needs to be exorcised!”
Oh. Suguru’s world narrows down to the blood rushing in his ears. Oh no. This is not just grandpa being senile, Satoru. And I’m seriously starting to doubt mom just made a poor naming choice. The way this is going, Suguru almost expects the twin to be Ryomen Sukuna in the flesh.
“Father,” Jin sighs, “We talked about this. Kaori had an accident. She’s not possessed.”
Suguru just barely manages not to raise an eyebrow. Are you sure about that?
“Yes, we did.” Wasuke says. “And I’m still amazed my own son is this shallow.“
“I’m so sorry about this.” Jin says to Suguru. “The doctors warned us that this might happen sooner rather than later.”
“That’s alright.” Suguru says, again. He forces his next breath to be slow and steady, like the situation isn’t slipping from his grasp with every passing second. “Do you mind if I ask your father some questions?”
“No, go ahead. That is what you’re here for, isn’t it.” Jin’s laugh comes out a little forced.
Suguru smiles politely and leans forward, resting his arms on his thighs.
“Itadori-san, why do you think you’re daughter-in-law is possessed?”
As expected, the old man points to his forehead. “She had this ‘accident’, and then she came back with that nasty scar. And suddenly she wanted children. The Kaori I first met never wanted children, and neither did my son, by the way.” The last sentence is clearly a jab.
“Opinions change, father-in-law.” Kaori says, calmly.
“I get that.” Wasuke snaps. “Don’t act like I am a demented old man just because I have figured you out! You’re like cancer, worming your way into my family –”
“Father!” Jin interrupts him. “Please, we have guests.”
And Suguru, again , finds himself saying, “That’s alright.”
“Itadori-san, none of those things are signs of your daughter-in-law being possessed.” And he means it. Changing your mind about wanting children after a nearly fatal accident is not a sign of possession. The woman is definitely no saint, and her presence makes Suguru fucking uncomfortable, but he can’t convict her because she wanted children. At least, not yet. “She is allowed to have a change of heart, especially after a dangerous accident.” he continues.
“See, I told you.” Kaori smiles. “You have nothing to worry about, father-in-law.”
That doesn’t mean I won’t ask Jujutsu Tech to keep an eye on you, though , Suguru thinks. She sounds much too smug for his liking.
“But that’s not all.” Wasuke protests, his face turning an ugly shade of red. “Her son is a monster! And she named him after Ryomen Sukuna, that imaginary god!” Which is, admittedly, tasteless, but not a crime.
Jin sighs exasperatly and rubs his face. “Father, we all know you prefer Yuji over Sukuna, but must you really make such a fuss about this?”
“I’m not making a fuss! I’m protecting this family from –”
19:17:28 JST
The door buzzes and Wasuke trails off as everyone turns their heads towards the entryway. A few moments later an excited voice fills the hallway.
“Anyway, you won’t believe what Takagi-sensei did! He didn’t want me in the occult club, so he rewrote my club application! Then the student council president wanted to throw the occult club out of the library but I challenged Takagi-sensei to a duel in shot put, and I won, so now I get to go back to the occult club…”
The excited chatter fizzles out as the pink-haired kid steps into the doorway to the living room. His face immediately falls when he sees the situation in the living room and he takes a step back. No scars, so this must be Yuji.
“What is it?” Sukuna asks from the hallway. His voice is a little deeper. And rougher. Smoker, Suguru figures. “Cat got your overactive tongue?”
“It’s nothing.” Yuji turns on his heels. “Let’s go upstairs for now.”
Yes, go upstairs. You don’t have to witness any of this.
“No, come in!” Wasuke yells at that moment. He gives Suguru a pointed look, and Suguru feels the dread settle in his belly. He really doesn’t want the children in this mess.
There’s a very audible sigh outside before Yuji steps back into the living room. Behind him is Sukuna.
Sukuna, whose cursed energy knocks the air out of Suguru’s lungs. Unlike his mother, he makes no effort to tame it. It’s just there, roaring into the room. If Suguru had to guess, he has roughly twice the amount of Yuta’s cursed energy. Special grade, definitely. If he catches me off guard or at close range, I’m done for.
“Yuji, this is Geto-san.” Wasuke introduces him, spit flying everywhere. “He’s a Jujutsu sorcerer.”
Yuji opens his mouth to greet Suguru properly, but his grandfather has other plans. “He’s here so we can clean this family of all the vermin that’s been squirming among it.” He points at Sukuna. “Starting with this monster!”
Yuji shifts his weight from foot to foot. A nervous habit. “Grandpa, could you please not say stuff like that? Sukuna looks exactly like me.”
“But he’s not like you!” Wasuke yells. If he could, he probably would have jumped up. “Look at how disgusting he is! A vile brood from this cunt’s –”
“Father!” Jin interrupts him with more sterness than Suguru thought him capable off. As he scolds his father in hushed tones for calling his wife a cunt, Suguru focuses on Sukuna. It’s unlikely that this is the first time he’s been confronted with something like this. He remains behind Yuji, stone-faced, eyes focused on something outside the window.
At that moment, Suguru bins the reincarnation theory. He’s never thought it very likely to begin with, but seeing the teen stand there, with more cursed energy than the rest of the room combined, not moving a finger to defend himself – the king of curses would never let anyone treat him that way.
He just looks like a boy. A boy from an incredibly fucked up family, who happens to be the rebirth of an incredibly powerful sorcerer from the Heian era.
“We’ll be upstairs,” Yuji says from the doorway and turns around to usher his twin back into the hallway.
“Stay where you are.” Kaori’s voice cuts through the room like a knife. “I want to know what my dear father-in-law has to say about my child.”
The twins freeze where they stand, and Jin and Wasuke drop their conversation immediately. It’s so silent Suguru can hear his own heartbeat in his ears. Her mask has dropped.
Suguru watches as Wasuke’s ears turns beet red. “You dare to use that tone on me?”
Kaori laughs, then leans back and crosses her legs. “I do. We have a deal, after all.”
19:21:04 JST
“The deal was a vessel.” Wasuke says, slowly, sucking in his spit inbetween the words. “Not this abomination.”
Vessel?
“What deal?” Jin sounds genuinely confused. “And abomination? Father, you are really cutting it close here –”
“You are living under my roof! And this thing is not welcome!” Again, the spit. There’s nothing grosser than being spat on.
When Kaori only smiles, Wasuke pushes himself up from the sofa, albeit shakily, and stalks over towards the twins.
Yuji protectively moves in front of Sukuna. “Grandpa –”
“Silence!” Wasuke pushes past Yuji, who lets him, with conflict written all over his face. He doesn’t want to hurt his grandfather, but he doesn’t want his grandfather to hurt his twin, either.
Wasuke grabs Sukuna’s chin and forcefully lifts it. “Just look at him.” Sukuna flinches when the old man’s spit hits his face. “Four eyes, like that monster –”
“Only because you cut me open!” Sukuna hisses, confirming Suguru’s worst fear.
“You insolent brat. Don’t talk back to me!” Wasuke’s knuckles turn white as he tightens his grip.
And nobody says anything.
Yuji doesn’t dare to. Neither does Jin, it seems. But he had no problem standing up for his wife, so – he just doesn’t care about his son being treated like this?
Kaori watches with eyes like a vulture, waiting for the first blood to spill.
And Sukuna – his gaze is searching for his mother’s. What does he want? Help? Permission?
No, Suguru realizes, he’s scared that she’ll side with her father-in-law. Nobody except his twin seem to hold any positive feelings towards Sukuna, whether it be out of fear or disgust or something in between. His grace hangs in the balance at his mother’s whim. Because she needs him to be useful. For reasons unknown, he is somehow a more desirable outcome to whatever Kaori and Wasuke agreed on in their mysterious deal. A deal Jin doesn’t even know about.
This fucking family.
“Itadori-san, that is enough.” He hears himself saying. “Let go of the boy.”
“Yes, let go of me!” Sukuna snaps, encouraged by Suguru’s words, and pulls his grandfather’s hand off his face.
“Sukuna, behave.” Jin says, coldly.
Sukuna takes a deep breath. “Sorry, father. ”
Yuji tries to put a hand on his shoulder, but Sukuna shakes it off. He’s tense all over, and his cursed energy reeks. But still, the outburst Suguru thinks would definitely be appropriate, considering the circumstances, doesn’t happen.
Something ripples through the room and Suguru suddenly feels like he overstepped. All eyes are on him now, and most of them are more or less pissed that he dared to open his mouth. As a guest. An outsider.
“So, Geto-san.” Wasuke staggers forward. “You have opinions on this now, don’t you?” He looks at him expectantly, like he wants to challenge Suguru.
“Yes.” Suguru says, his voice much calmer than he feels. “I do. I think that this is an environment completely unfit for children and I’ll be contacting the youth welfare office to have both of the twins removed from this home immediately.”
He stands and brushes off his pants, a motion that’s more grounding habit than necessity. He wants to get out of this fucking house, away from all of these people… If he could, he’d crawl out of his skin and hide far, far away.
But the ugly relief on Sukuna’s face makes it all worth it. He sees Yuji squeeze his hand behind his back, a genuine smile on his face.
The rest of the room, understandibly, isn’t that happy.
Kaori clenches her jaw.
Next to her, Jin sighs.
Wasuke’s face morphs into something vile.
He turns towards the twins.
19:26:00 JST
The thing about guns is – they have no cursed energy. Jujutsu sorcerers can’t sense them, no matter how hard they strain their senses, and the bullets travel too fast to be stopped once they’ve been fired. Suguru knows. But he’s convinced himself that it would never happen again.
Bang.
Nobody else would ever be killed in front of him like Riko was, ripped from life by a piece of glowing hot metal.
Bang.
He can’t breathe. He can’t. Breathe.
Time stops, and everything happens all at once.
19:26:03 JST
“Kuna!” Yuji’s face is painted with blood splatters. He sinks to the ground, pulled by the dead weight of his twin brother in his arms. One of his hands is pressed against Sukuna’s neck, over a sputtering artery.
“How dare you!” Kaori shoots up from the couch, cursed energy surging –
Bang.
Suguru stands frozen by the sofa still, as a bullet buries itself into Kaori’s shoulder. Her husband reaches out as she topples over, but she catches herself.
On the white carpet, a red halo blooms.
“Kaori, please –” Suguru hears behind him, through the room drowning in cotton.
“Don’t.” Kaori warns. Her tone has gained a dangerous lilt that echoes strangely in Suguru’s ears. “Don’t try to stop me, Jin. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Why would you ever hurt me?”
“Oh, Jin.” Kaori says, almost wistfully so. “You’re so wonderfully naive. Even the old man’s quicker than you.”
Her clothes rustle as she straightens. From the corner of his eye, Suguru can see her aura, can smell that awful cursed energy – “That’s why I have to kill him.”
19:26:55 JST
The gun in Wasuke’s hands starts to shake and drops.
19:26:56 JST
Special grade curse user Kaori Itadori kills Wasuke Itadori with her innate cursed technique, Antigravity System.
Suguru can feel it, the cursed energy rushing past him, the drop in his stomach as gravity increases, the vibration of the floor as Wasuke is smashed like a fly.
Then, everything is red.
Everything is screams and cries and –
I can’t do this.
This can’t be happening.
Suguru wants to rip his ears off, gauge his eyes out – anything to not have to experience this awful squelching sound…
19:27:41 JST
Kaori Itadori kills her husband.
“Geto-san.” Yuji’s bloodshot eyes stare up at him, pupils blown impossibly wide. “Please.”
In his lap, Sukuna is struggling to breathe. But he’s still alive . The countdown has not yet reached zero.
19:27:43 JST
Suguru Geto releases the special grade imaginary vengeful spirit mysophobic deity.
20:41:52 JST
Yamabiko Shinkansen, Fukushima Prefecture
There are few memories as terrifyingly clear in Suguru’s mind as the moment he realized that Satoru had surpassed him by miles and miles and he would never again be able to call himself his equal. Jujutsu sorcery is like an individual sport. You can only ever really rely on yourself, which is what makes mastering it such an intoxicating experience. Which is what makes it dangerous .
Suguru recognizes the look in Sukuna’s eyes, even as the teen stares out into the darkening world behind the window. He knows that he’s high on the success of mastering reverse cursed technique on the brink of death. He could probably slaughter the entire town right now. Suguru has doubts he himself would give him any trouble. They’re both special grades, but there’s miles between them.
He mastered reverse cursed technique sometime in the first weeks after he graduated. Ironically, that was also when he stopped seeing all the people trying to explain it to him. It wasn’t anything grand, just a calm evening, him in his own apartment, taking a break from jujutsu, chain-smoking the sorrow out of his soul.
On Sukuna’s shoulder, Yuji starts talking in his sleep. Suguru watches as Sukuna first pulls an annoyed face, then changes his mind and rests his head on his twin’s.
“What’re you staring at?”
Suguru wrestles his emotions back under control. He’s the adult here, the kids need to know absolutely nothing about his wounded ego or the jealousy that crawls up his throat whenever he thinks back to those years. It’s gotten better. They’ve talked it out. But the heart is much harder to take control of, and the feelings come and go at their own whim.
“I’m simply curious,” he says, “What are you?”
Sukuna sighs. “Not whatever mom intended when she had us.”
“What did she intend?”
“A vessel. For Ryomen Sukuna.” He pauses. “Yuji is. A vessel, I mean. Mom sealed a cursed object inside him when he was born.”
Interesting. So that’s where the last finger went.
“And I’m – worse.” Sukuna finishes.
“A rebirth.” Suguru explains. “You are the reborn soul of Ryomen Sukuna.”
“Does that mean I’ll turn out like him?” There’s the barest waver in Sukuna’s voice.
“No. There’s no predetermined path you have to walk on.” Suguru hesitates before adding, “But for what it’s worth, there’s no denying that few have shaped the history of jujutsu like he has.”
21:03:06 JST
Yamabiko Shinkansen, Koriyama Station, Fukushima Prefecture
The train comes to a stop. Both of them look out onto the lively platform, onto the normal people living their normal lives because they live their's in bloodshed.
As they start moving again, Sukuna clears his throat. “The school you’re taking us to – will they even let Yuji stay? He has no cursed energy.”
“Don’t be so sure about that.” A voice says from behind Suguru, and a second later Satoru sits down next to him, in his civilian clothes. He waves at Sukuna, who looks slightly disturbed, and pats Suguru’s shoulder for good measure.
“I heard it went absolutely fucking awful.”
Suguru grins, despite himself. “It did. You were right about the rebirth thing, by the way.”
“Aw, no need to tell me. Problem is –” he pulls down his glasses. “The higher-ups want to kill both of them.”
“Of course.” Suguru groans.
Sukuna’s eyes widen in horror. His hand on Yuji’s arm tightens, and his aura bristles.
Satoru sees his distress and laughs. “Don’t worry, Sukuna. We’re not gonna let that happen. We’re the strongest, after all.”