"I'm excited to meet you in the world of the living...Sukuna."

He began panting heavily as he opened his eyes. His heart beating rapidly against its chest as he struggled to regain his breath.

Looking around, he realized that he was no longer in Nuritoboke's domain expansion. He found himself laying on a comfortable futon in a familiar white room. Looking down at himself, he noticed that he has covered in bandages and a white yukata.

It was a beautiful day outside with birds chirping along and voices of adults and children in the hall. As he looked up towards the ceiling, all he could see was writing on the wall that said; "Infirmary".

When Sukuna heard a sudden snore next to him, he would look over and look down by his side; only to see a familiar black-haired boy around his own age. With a chuckle softly, he could not help but smirk. Happy to see his friend Taiyou right there beside him.

Although his friend almost got him killed, he felt grateful for his friend's loyalty. Just seeing him the moment he awoke made him feel better. It's better to wake up with someone by your side than all by yourself.

Suddenly, a thought struck him. It was Taiyou's greed that caused him to be in the infirmary in the first place. He nearly died due to him. His anger flared strongly and radiated off his body.

Slowly opening his eyes, Taiyou began yawning as tears formed on the edges of his eyes. A huge silly grin spread across his face as he was seemingly glad that his friend had finally awoken.

"You're finally awake!" He called out his friend by his nickname. At this moment, Taiyou was totally unaware of Sukuna's anger and rage as his body was being coated with it.

The moment Taiyou was about to embrace Sukuna, he realized Sukuna had summoned a small amount of curse energy to his hand. He raised his fist in the air, preparing to slap the shit out of his champion.

"I can't describe how glad I am to see you awake! I was so lonely without you-"

After he finished his sentence, Sukuna punched Taiyou in the face, sending him crashing into a Japanese wall. Hearing other people scream in surprise. Taiyou's inherent resistance to pain made his vision a bit dizzy, causing swirls in his eyes. Quickly shaking his head, he looked up to see Sukuna emerge from his bed. He had a dark smile on his face and was approaching the dark-haired boy while cracking his knuckles.

"Ohayou gozaimasu, Taiyou-kun." Sukuna said as he sang his name in an uncomfortable tone of voice.

"O-Oi Su-kun!" Taiyou said, stuttering a bit, "E-Easy now! There's no need to act this way! Let's just relax and talk about this!"

Sukuna stared at Taiyou, not enthused at all. "Oh?"

"Y-Yeah!" He exclaimed, "I was worried sick about you! Come on let's just sit down and chat!"

"Chat?" Sukuna took a step forward, "You want to chat?"

That's when Sukuna chuckled darkly, not amused by Taiyou's words at all. Of course, he's trying to sweet-talk his way out of this. The injured boy didn't care about his wounds at all, all he wanted was to beat up his friend for putting him in such a predicament in the first place.

In a fit of rage, he grabbed ahold of Taiyou's yukata, jerking him back and forth violently and screaming in his face. The injured boy was pissed beyond belief. Sukuna didn't care if shaking him made him dizzy. No matter how much he valued his companion and their friendship, he couldn't help but feel enraged towards him.

"You moron!" He yelled. "You're the one that's to blame for me being in this mess! If it wasn't for your greed then none of this would happen in the first place!"

"You're making me dizzy!" The boy cried, feeling dizzy.

After forcibly knocking him to the ground, Sukuna would grunt and raise his leg up into the air and kick Taiyou from behind; not caring who was in the room at all.

"Su-kuuun! !" yelled Taiyou, "You're so cruel!"

"GOOD!" screamed Sukuna, "YOU DESERVE EVERY ASS-KICKING YOU SON OF A-"

A sudden presence behind the boy caused him to reel back in shock, turning his head and seeing an old familiar face staring down at him. One hand held a wooden pipe while the other held his yukata's sleeve. His eyebrows rose as it was clear he was not amused by the situation either.

He wore a simple striped black and grey yukata with a loose earthy green haori. He had short grey hair with piercing red eyes. His fox-like smile did not disguise the fact that he was certainly not pleased with the current situation in front of him; an aura of intimidation surrounded his body. Although he looked young, he was known to be one of the strongest sorcerers in his lifetime.

"M-Marin-sensei," Sukuna stuttered, no longer beating up Taiyou but soon bowed respectfully towards his master. "I didn't realize you were present."

"Of course not, child," He said, taking a puff from his pipe, "You were too busy beating up Taiyou."

"With all due respect sir," Sukuna interjected, sighing a bit, "It was well deserved, I feel very upset towards my friend due to the fact that it was his fault for putting me in this condition in the first place."

"So mean, Su-kun!" pouted Taiyou, slowly getting up from his spot and rubbing his sore bottom. "Why throw me under a rock with this!"

Shooting a glare at Taiyou, he was no longer bowing towards his master. Instead, he huffed his chest up and crossed his arms over his chest. "Because you deserved it."

At that point, Taiyou and Sukuna had gotten into each other's faces as they yelled at one another. Sukuna grabbed at Taiyou's yukata, and Taiyou did the same. At that point, both boys started fighting again. While they were fighting amongst one another, they forgot their sensei was present. Marin sighs and takes another drag from his pipe.

While he blew out a small puff of air, he turned the pipe over and watched the ashes fall from the opening. As he placed it in the pocket of his obi, he soon removed his sandal and gripped onto the sole.

He walked towards the two boys bickering, raised his hand into the air, an evil glint in his eyes as his mouth turned into an evil grin. As his evil intent started to show through his aura, the boys suddenly stopped fighting and turned their attention to the older man. Nervous sweats came down their faces as only one expression was presented on their faces. One thought crossed both boys minds as they looked at each other;

They both messed up.

As Sukuna and Taiyou released one another, they sat down slowly on their knees, hands on their laps as they looked down to the ground. Not liking the punishment they could potentially suffer.

Witnessing their sensei slowly approach them, they saw the man approach them. Hearing him slap his slipper into his hand just before the two boys were about to be given a beating of a lifetime.

"Now boys," Marin spoke, too confidently for their own comfort, "what did I say about fighting your teammates?"

Following a good hour of punishment, Sukuna was back on the hospital wing's futon with Taiyou by his side; now both covered in bandages. That was definitely not something he had in mind when he told his bandages-covered friend about what was going to happen. He couldn't help but smirk at his misery.

Taiyou's gaze shifted to Taiyou and snapped "Why are you smirking over there?"

"I'm happy that you finally got what you deserve," he said with a smug look on his face.

As Taiyou wanted to raise his hand and punch Sukuna's shoulder, he ended up wincing in pain and laid himself back onto the futon. Grumbling to himself about how much of an ass Sukuna was.

The boy laughed a little, looking back towards his Master, who was sitting in the window, smoking a pipe. He was no longer angry, but now more relaxed. Observing birds and spirits flying by as each entity co-exists with one another through the window.

Even though they received discipline from their teacher, Sukuna was confused by his sensei's silence. Not once did he mention the incident, not a word about their childish decisions that nearly got them killed.

His silence bothered Sukuna greatly.

Looking down at his blanket, the boy asked, "Can I ask you a question, Marin-sensei?"

"Sure," he said, puffing smoke out of the window.

He hesitated at first, unsure of how he should approach this question. There are so many questions he wants to ask regarding what happened. It is unclear how he was able to escape the Nurotobike in the first place and why he was able to survive.

He looked up toward his teacher, letting out a small sigh. The boy only wanted answers.

"What happened?" Sukuna started, "After I was caught by the nuribotoke. I blacked out. The next thing I know, I'm back in school. How did I end up here?"

The injured boy held his side of the head, recalling the girl, whether it was real or a dream. He never forgot how beautiful she was for her age, how strong she was. Never in his life did he encounter anyone so...bright.

Despite knowing his name somehow, she knew who he was.

"When you forced Taiyou out of the Domain expansion, he returned to the school in a hurry to seek help. So myself and whoever was available the time headed over. The last thing I wanted was to lose another student I care about."

Hearing his sensei's kind words made Sukuna blush a bit. Soon looking away for a brief moment, he tried to conceal his blush. Even though he tried to hide it, he could hear the sensei chuckle. The boy stuttered a bit, turning back again towards his teacher.

"S-So you saved me then?"

Suddenly, the bird that was once on his sensei's finger flew away when he asked that question. Sukuna was not expecting the next response as he felt he wasn't prepared.

Looking back at his pupil, He responded, "I didn't. Someone else did."

Watching his teacher rest his arm against the ledge of the window, he would continue his response. Giving the injured boy the full explanation of what happened.

"We all got there in time to see the Nuribtoke's Domain Expansion shattered in pieces, indicating that the spirit had been defeated. Regarding the entire situation, I have to say that I was very surprised myself."

Upon hearing those words, Sukuna's eyes widened in shock.

"Someone else?" He exclaimed, "But who?! The only person who could even break a domain expansion is you!"

With his back pressed up against the wall, he turned his body to explain the event that happened next. It seemed impressive that his teacher was so enthusiastic about it.

I thought the same thing too, besides me: only a few of us can do it. And yet it appears I was wrong." He explained, tilting his head to one side, "My dear boy, have you ever heard of Pure Energy?"

"No...what is that?" Sukuna replied.

A shiver went through the boy's limbs as he watched his master summon a bit of cursed energy into the palm of his hand. The blue and black flame flickered in the palm of his hand. Swaying back and forth as it was calm.

"As I taught you and the other students here at this school, cursed energy is born from negative emotions such as grief and anger. In human nature, it is common to feel such things in our day-to-day life. Of course, the more intense your negative feelings are, the stronger you get. But of course, there are severe consequences when you push yourself too far."

Sukuna watched the shape of the flame change, it was now an image of a body. Marin-sensei looked towards the boy, his emerald green eyes locked onto Sukuna's light brown eyes. Soon it shifted over to Taiyou, who happened to be sitting up and was paying attention this whole time they were talking.

"Tell me, how is a cursed spirit-born?" Marin asked his friend, Taiyou. Who happened to be awake.

His black-haired student held his chin in thought as he raised his hand in thought. As he narrowed his eyes towards the ground. A flash of information suddenly appeared in his mind, before bringing his focus back to his teacher.

"Curse is born with strong feelings directed toward specific aspects of life."

As the poor boy watched his master's flame change before him, the body held on to the head and slowly turned into a deformed monster. Causing him to jump.

"You are correct. The stronger humanity's fear and anger are directed towards an aspect of this world, the more powerful the curses spawned from those negative sentiments will be. So with that being said, in order to exorcise the evil spirits, we use our own variation of curse energy. But, Pure Energy, also known as essence, is a completely different ability far from our own."

Sukuna blinked a few times, now deeply interested in what his teacher had told him. The boy was now full of eager curiosity, eager to grasp the concepts in his teacher's words.

Using his other hand, Marin-sensei managed to summon a new source of energy. It wasn't like the blue and black flames from before:

But instead, there was a small spirit that suddenly appeared in his hand. A cute-looking creature that was the size of his palm. It had the body of a rabbit, but with cute butterfly wings on its back; it would fly up from the palm of his hand, soon flying around the room a bit as it radiated warm energy.

"The abolition of the evil spirits is accomplished by using positive energy, as opposed to negative energy like we do, in other words, the power of will, determination and hope. "These types of sorcerers utilize life energy from the Earth for their power, however, they can also receive assistance from the spirit world."

"Wait a minute," Sukuna said to himself, inquiringly, "if such power exists, I wonder how come we aren't using it? It seems to me to be far better than whatever we have right now, let alone more powerful."

That's where all the trouble comes in, He explained, watching the small rabbit-like spirit soar around. "If you are prone to wielding a power like that, you do have to learn what it means to let go."

"Let go?" Sukuna asked again, "What do you mean to let go?"

"You must let go of your grief and anger," said the familiar voice, cutting off Marin's words. "If you let the darkness in your heart dictate how you live, you will never be able to use pure energy."

Everyone turned their heads toward the entranceway of the room after hearing the voice; there was now a new figure in the doorway holding a bouquet of sunflowers in her hands.

It was a girl who had beautiful black hair with blue tinges in it. She wore a simple black kimono with stars spread across the fabric and her hair was pinned up perfectly. Yet despite her external appearance, the thing that captivated him most about her was something so familiar to him;

Was her eyes.

The same galaxy-filled eyes that he saw in his dream.

'It's her' Sukuna thought to himself, 'She's the one from my dream...'

His thoughts were interrupted when Taiyou smiled wide at the girl, beaming his eyes wide in delight.

"Hikari-san!" Taiyou beamed, "What are you doing here?"

Despite not saying anything, for some reason, the girl turned her gaze to Sukuna, which caught him by surprise. However, as she gazed at him, she bowed modestly towards him. Smiling softly, causing him to blush slightly.

"I wanted to see how Sukuna is recovering," Hikari replied, walking towards the small table with a vase on top. The sunflowers were placed inside. "However, I was not expecting you to be lying next to him. You were supposed to support him, not join him."

"Yeah well..stuff happened ok?" pouted Taiyou, scratching the side of his cheek. "And of course I supported him, I never left his side!"

Sukuna furrowed his brows together, watching Hikari and Taiyou. "How long have I been out for?"

"A week," She replied, turning her attention back towards Sukuna, "To be honest, I was starting to get scared you weren't going to wake up. I thought I didn't reach out to you in time."

"Reach out to me?" he asked, puzzled and annoyed by the vague replies. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Feeling his friend's irritated response, Taiyou flinched a bit, biting his lower lip in frustration. As he was contemplating his next words, he knew they would upset his friend. Sukuna glanced back towards the black-haired boy and saw his perplexed expression on his face. He just stared at him till he finally responded.

"Remember how Marin-sensei said you were saved by another person?" Taiyou asked, attracting Sukuna's attention.

"Yeah, what about it?" He asked, his gaze narrowing towards him.

"Well...it was Hikari-san that saved you." Taiyou pointed to the girl. "If it wasn't for her, you would've died."

With Sukuna's eyes widening in shock, his attention now turned to Hikari. He wasn't sure why, but he couldn't accept that. The injured boy couldn't shake the thought that he nearly died trying to take that spirit down, he put his life on the line. How can someone like her defeat an extremely hard spirit when he couldn't?

Yet the impossible was accomplished by a simple girl.

"I don't believe you for a moment," he said slowly getting up from his futon. "I don't believe you for a second."

The boy continued to glare at the girl before him as he arose. His yellow eyes bore into the girl's, never once looking away. Even as he rose weakly from his feet, anger increased in his chest with every passing second. Each time he took a weak step to approach the girl, he got closer to her.

His friend pleaded, "Please stop! You're going to get hurt again!" Taiyou echoed.

But he didn't listen, he kept walking towards her, as anger raged in his body with every step he took. Based on the expression on her face, she does not appear scared or phased at all. The stoic expression of her face was rendered undecipherable; no words were spoken.

His anger was fueled solely by her silence.

"I do not believe it for even a single moment that someone like you has managed to save me!" In a loud voice, Sukuna exclaimed, "I am one of Marin-sensei's best students, his student even! I stayed on his side, I learned everything I could about how to defeat evil spirits and stop them from roaming this land."

Standing in front of the girl, he glared down at the girl, his hands shaking in his fist. At this point, his male pride was so strong that all he could see was red. The creature, he thought, was stronger than anyone and he couldn't defeat it, he didn't want to believe it could be defeated by a girl.

"Please just listen to me!" Taiyou pleaded, "Don't do it, you're going to get hurt!"

But Sukuna didn't listen, reaching his hand out towards Hikari, he would grab a hold of her kimono, she would lift her up slightly off the ground. He ignored the pleas of Taiyou telling him to stop, but he didn't care. He needed answers, his pride was too high for his liking.

It was a straight-up insult for him.

"Despite the training I endured, even I wasn't able to defeat the spirit and nearly died in the process!" He screamed, shaking her in the process, "So what I can't seem to wrap my head around is the fact that a simple girl such as yourself was able to do the impossible! What makes you so special?! You're just an incompetent little girl, who can't take care of herself-"

Within a few seconds, the tables have suddenly turned for Sukuna. What happened next was something that he never expected to occur.

When he started shaking Hikari, those galaxy-like eyes started glowing brightly and she felt a sudden rush of energy sweep over her body. While observing her glowing body, Sukuna felt something hit his stomach sending him flying backwards. His body flew through the air, but he was caught by Taiyou before his body crashed into the wooden panes.

Groaning in pain, he held onto his stomach. Coughing uncontrollably as he tried to draw air back into his lungs. When he raised his head, he wondered what hit him to begin with. The boy's eyes widened as he turned to see Hikari surrounded by a fox-like creature, growling towards the injured child and lowering its head.

'A shikigami?' He thought to himself, 'No...it's not radiating any curse energy at all...is this the pure energy that Marin-sensei spoke of?'

Thinking what the spirit could possibly be, he was interrupted by the sound of his master sighing loudly. All eyes now turned toward the older man. Placing his wooden pipe back into the sleeve of his robe, he gracefully moved forward towards Hikari and placed his hand softly on her shoulder.

The small figure would turn towards Marin-sensei, her eyes bright and fierce, but she was quick to realize who it was, as her eyes grew soft towards the aged man.

After seeing her fierce expression turn calm, Sukuna realized the fox spirit was no longer standing in front of the girl. Instead, it moved its body over to stand right beside her.

Sukuna watched her reach out her hand and pet the creature's fur, and the creature purred in delight. When she looked over at Sukuna, her eyes bore into his once again as she petted the creature.

"Believe me or not, that is up to you," She replied, "For today, I'll let your stubbornness slide. Only because of your near-death experience."

When she walked away, Sukuna saw her approaching the entranceway with the familiar by her side. As she stood in front of the door, she glanced back towards the boy. Now glaring at him, which caused the boy to be taken aback at her sudden change of expression.

"However the next time I see you, I won't hold back. I will make my way to the very top and prove to you that an incompetent little girl can be just as strong in the sorcerer world. So I look forward to working with you alongside you...Sukuna."

With that, she was gone out of everyone's sight. Hearing a heavy sigh escape from Marin's lips, he would look back towards the injured boy. Raising an eyebrow towards his pupil.

"That is not how I wanted that encounter to go." He said, narrowing his eyes towards Sukuna. "I hope you're prepared because once Hikari-chan declares her goals, she'll do whatever it takes to prove the other side wrong."

"I don't care who she is," snapped Sukuna, "I refuse to let anyone take my spot as the top student in this school. I'll keep proving everyone else wrong, even if it means going against her."

"I understand that," His master replied, "but perhaps you can show her a little more respect next time."

In response, Sukuna narrowed his gaze towards his master. "Why should I? It's not like I'm going to see her again."

Then he chuckles to himself, soon heading towards the door. "Oh, but you will my dear boy~" he chirped.

"Why is that?" Sukuna asked, calling out to the elder man before he left.

Having stopped at the entranceway, he glanced back towards Sukuna and gave him a smirk. As he laughed uncontrollably for a second, he soon left the room saying his final words to the boy.

"Because," He said, "Hikari is going to be your new teammate."

[END OF CHAPTER THREE]