Chapter Text
There always has been something wrong with me. Maybe it was the way I walked when I was younger, all jagged movements with the sense of something wrong. Maybe it’s how the other kids ran when I got close by, like there was a predator near them.
Though I’ve gotten better at walking now. I talk normally now too, nothing like the quiet rasps that made even Gramps shiver. The one thing that Gramps never quite beat into me was how… wrong my taste in meat is. I know now to hide it, but there are still times the Predator rears its head.
When I was younger, Gramps always cooked my meals for me, making sure I stayed healthy. It got harder after he passed. There was no income anymore, and the house had been foreclosed. I lived in the woods for a while until the accident, and I still showed up to school everyday, so I suppose no one asked where Gramps was.
Living in the woods got easier, and I knew a bakery that always threw out enough stale leftovers for me to stay full, so I survived. I should’ve known it wouldn’t last long. I was only 8, hungry, and the Predator was getting stronger after Gramps died.
I didn’t fight Predator anymore too. It got harder to without food. So, I let Predator take over. We were one and the same, two halves of the same broken whole, and it was easy to only think of getting food when it got so lonely some nights. And if I didn’t take back over, would it really be so bad?
hungry. MeatmeatmeatfleshfleshbonescarnagehunrgyhungryhungryhungryhUNGRYHUNGER. Meat. Rabbit? Food. Foodfoodfood! Predator chases. Grab rabbit. Predator has teeth. Teeth sharp. Teeth kill. Rabbit alive. Predator pin down prey. Food scream. Predator happy! Sink teeth in neck and blood. Bite off head and pick out eyes. Eyes bad. Feel bad. Put down body. Eat all of head. No waste. Spit fur. Out.Bad. Learn new. Use claws split prey in half. Eat meat avoid bones. Meat gone and Predator full. Knaws on bones gets tasty! Eat all of bones. Now done! Give back body? Yuuji want back. Predator wants keep. Predator keep for self. Now stay full longer! Will do Yuuji things my way! Yes yes yes! Goodgoodgood. Predator sleep now. Goes back to cave stronger. Sleep, then will do Yuuji things. Will do Predator things until Predator is Yuuji. Easy and good. Now rest till sun. Go to school. And become anew.
People, as they tent to do, notice when predators join their midst. They noticed how ‘Yuuji Itadori’ walked a little funny, how he talked like he had only learned how recently, how his teeth were too sharp, and why did the eyes keep following them. But, all in all, Itadori Yuuji was a good kid, just a little strange. (No one wanted to remember how the best predators mingled among their prey)
Predator had been in control for 3 years now. It was also much better at being human. Yuuji had been gone for a while. Predator was 11 now. Or that was what the humans kept telling him. It should have deer for dinner then to celebrate another year survived. It was also getting hungrier recently. Predator thinks that it heard there was a bear population nearby? Maybe that would soothe it’s hunger…
Predator was 15 now. It was the best it had ever been. Its claws had been growing stronger and sharper and blunt teeth had been pushed out and now teeth meant to rip and tear had replaced them. The hunger grew stronger again when its teeth regrew. No matter. Predator would hunt more to survive. It had the claws and teeth to prove it.
Predator stayed late after school one day. It’s classmates asked it to after all. And what was Predator if not generous?
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The meet up started fine. Predator was complacent until they unwrapped that finger. But Predator was still calm- at first. It stayed calm after the other predator came inside . It stayed calm after the intruder attracted other predators. It kept being calm after they fought over the finger. Then the intruders made a mistake. They mistook it as prey. They attacked as a group at first until they realized that it decided the finger was it’s for the taking. The finger was in Predators grasp. Then the intruders caught up and started crushingcrusHINGCRUSHING as it clawed and bit until it was stopped dead in its movement. There was an unknown. It stared the boy down until the boy looked away to summon two wolves that ran towards it. Predator panicked for a hold as it grabbed the finger and swallowed in a panic. The finger went down down down until for the first time since it was eight got pushed into the back of its mind. It knew this feeling. It wasn’t in control right now. But it would be damned if it didn’t fight for control back.