Chapter 28

They returned back to the others, yet Suiryu shuttered. Someone was staring at them oddly, and they are waiting to pounce. Suddenly, he felt someone's arm come over his shoulder and Yuuji's back. "I see the brothers are all cleaned up after their bath!" he laughed.

"Satoru…" Suiryu growled lowly. "And yes, we had a nice refreshing dip in the stream near by,"

But Gojo's smile only grew. "Oh, I don't think you went there for a bath, besides. I could hear you two screaming from where I was!"

'Wait, he knows?!' Yuuji asked.

'Baited question, he's fishing right now,' Suiryu thought to him. "The water was colder than we thought," he lied. "Now, if you don't mind…"

"Oh of course not… besides…" he leaned in and whispered. "The great lady must be very thorough to clean you two such a way…"

This time, Satoru caught him. Suiryu's eyes widened in shock as Satoru began to cackle like an idiot. He was snickering to Yuuji as well who was now flushed red with embarrassment. "Come on you two I am just messing with you…"

Suiryu grabbed him by the scruff of his sweater. "Breathe a single words of this, and I swear to GOD, Satoru, I will inflict so much pain upon you, you are going to wish you were dead!" he said in a low growl.

Gojo merely giggled off the threat. "Oh come on, it's nothing serious. You're just getting a bath!" he laughed.

Suddenly, Gojo was grabbed by the ear. Yua came out of nowhere as she pulled him out of Suiryu's grasp. "You two with me please," she said and dragged Gojo along.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow. Yua, please let go! Ow!" Gojo protested.

They came to Yua's place, from there she released Satoru and then checked her watch. "Forty minutes," she said. "That's all the time you have so let them rip and never speak of it again"

"Huh?" Suiryu demanded. Yuuji's head crooked to the side in confusion.

"Binding vow I put on him, he has one hour to get it out of his system in make fun of you two since I know he will. But when that hour is up, he can't anymore. And if he does, something just as embarrassing will happen to him."

"You can't embarrass him, he walked around in a sexy maid outfit for two weeks!" Suiryu protested.

"Told you I could pull off that look!" Gojo snapped back.

"Be that as it may," Yua said with a sigh in her voice. "If he breaks his vow, it made it the condition that the embarrassing he will do is something Gojo HIMSELF would be embarrassed to do. So, all the more motivation for him to get it out and never speak of it again."

The two sighed aloud. "Okay…" Suiryu muttered.

For forty minutes, they endured the onslaught of jokes, from tongue baths, to be treated like kittens, and then wondering how does a dragon consider this clean if it's their spit… and so on… as well if she licked every part of them… that was down right disturbing for him to ask!

"Three, two… one… TIME!" she shouted just as Gojo went for another joke, he was quick to silence himself.

Suiryu appeared impressed to say the least. "Wow, he actually shut up!"

She winked to the two Itadoris. "I'm on your side you know, I wouldn't want him mocking me every chance he gets for something that isn't within your control." She explained.

"Thanks…" Suiryu said offhandedly as he took a seat.

She picked up on his tone instantly. "Something wrong?"

He couldn't bring himself to say it, part of him didn't believe it still. 'He's an incomplete dragon' Yuuji said.

Yua paused in shock as she turned to Suiryu. "Wait, what did Itadori say?" Gojo asked.

"Please… no, not yet…" Suiryu pleaded with her.

Yua fell silent but nodded to him. "I'll explain later Gojo, for now. Suiryu… reflect on it." She simply said.

"Oh come on, I got to know now!" Satoru announced. "Please, just let me in on this!"

He glared at him, no doubt the bug is in his ear now. Satoru won't stop until he gets to know Suiryu's little secret. So he sighed aloud. "I'm an incomplete dragon, happy!" he demanded.

Satoru instantly fell silent. "Wait…"

Yua nodded. "Two paths," she said to Satoru. "There are two paths a sorcerer can take to become a dragon. Yuuji's and, in the rarer case… Suiryu's"

"Wait, wait… wait…" Satoru said, as he appeared all the more interested now. "You mean… Suiryu is becoming a dragon too… but it's not the same as Itadori?"

She nodded. "Suiryu's case is even more rare than Yuuji's. Then again, Yuuji is the first sorcerer to actually succeed in reaching as far as he has. For Suiryu though… it's truly a miracle."

Suiryu then paused for a moment, he stared at Yua oddly and asked. "Did you know… Ryujin was dying?"

She nodded to him. "Among many other things…"

'What do you mean Yua?' Yuuji asked.

Suiryu was curious too. "You know something, don't you?"

She sighed aloud and nodded. "Everyone may as well get comfortable, I have something to explain… Suiryu. Please, what I am about to say… don't take the wrong way."

He was confused by her statement, however agreed to hear her out.

#

Moving to the living room, she had everyone get comfortable. Satoru grabbed snacks as she stood before the three. With a deep breath she said. "I knew Ryujin was dying the moment I obtained him, he knew it too. He's been lying to Itadori as to why he couldn't leave… not only did he not have the strength to, but he knew the moment he left, his essence would be released to the world and chaos would ensue. Yuuji has been the buffer in preventing an all out war from erupting all over the world over the dragon's soul." She then turned to Suiryu. "You have probably asked yourself this God knows how many times. Why were you save? Am I right?"

"Yes," Suiryu whispered. "I ask myself that more and more now."

"Well, the reason was. Ryujin wanted to mess with Sukuna one last time, and thought the perfect notion was to have a part of him… live on but become the very thing he would never be." She said. "As well, Sukuna would have to face himself should he ever take form again."

It took a moment for the words to sink in. "Wait, am I just a petty revenge trick?" he demanded of her.

"Remember when I said, don't take this the wrong way. This is what I meant." She stated firmly. "Ever since the purification, he kept you. Had Itadori look after you to see if something could be made from you. That insignificant speck, Sukuna called you that. How did a mere speck became the young man before me?" she asked.

He turned away from her, not out of embarrassment. But the fact that he doesn't even consider himself a young man, let alone anything at the moment. "So, Ryujin was going to purify Sukuna this whole time?" Satoru asked.

She nodded. "He nearly forgot about the plan until Itadori calmed him down when he took over for the first time." She smiled to Suiryu. "Either way, he was going to find you."

"Find me?" he muttered. "Yua… I…"

"Before you speak another word, let me continue." She insisted.

He nodded and held his tongue for now.

Looking to Yuuji, Yua said. "You did a magnificent job by the way. As Ryujin told you before, if the purified part of the soul is not nurtured properly, it will become the very thing it was purified from. In other words, Suiryu would have been no better than Sukuna. Yet, I watched you raise him. Nurture him and show Suiryu want it means to be human in a sense… I don't think there was anyone better for that job, Itadori," she said full heartedly.

'Thanks Yua' he chirped and smiled back to her.

She turned back to Suiryu. "Why save you? What could a small speck like you become? What could you make of yourself? You of all people know I wasn't fussed on you, the moment you became young Yuuji, I felt there was something very wrong about it. You were going to play us all for fools. You were going to trick kind hearted Itadori into reviving Sukuna through you. Suiryu… you've done the direct opposite of what I assumed. The first thing you did was help Itadori and save his friends and Kyoto. Sukuna never would have done such a thing, he would have been front row center to see Yuuji explode!"

"It's true," said Satoru.

"But you have gone and saved lives, changed lives and have tried to better those around you." She said gently. "I have never been so happy to be wrong in my life!"

He peered up at her, she meant every word of it all. Yet, despite the kind words, something still troubled him. "Did Ryujin know… I would end up like this? Being… incomplete?" he asked.

She nodded to him. "I firmly believe he was counting on it," she said. "It was the very thing he needed to put his essence into another, someone born with an incomplete soul."

"Then why is mine the way it is? If I was nothing more than a speck, how did my soul get to where it is?!" he demanded.

Her eyes shifted to Yuuji. "Before you took form, the moment Itadori came to the soul space. You latched on to him for dear life. Your little sphere embedded into Yuuji on the left side of his chest. And you stayed there until he woke up. Do you know why?"

"His heartbeat," Suiryu stated.

"Partly, and your soul was feeding off of his,"

He froze.

Suiryu turned to Yuuji in shock. "I… I had no idea… I am so sorry!" his head quickly lowered.

"Suiryu… no harm was done," Yua explained. "You forget yourself, Yuuji has a very powerful soul, and the energy taken from him didn't do any damage, it was also willingly given."

"Yua… I'm nothing more than a living parasite!" he protested to her. "NOTHING I have is my own! This body, my soul energy, my power… NOTHING is MINE"

She didn't flinch from his outburst. "Your actions are yours. So are your words, thoughts, feelings, senses… all of that, Suiryu, are yours to command and control. Despite how you came to be, are you not happy to exist?"

He didn't speak.

How could he respond to that?

'I'm happy you exist' Yuuji chirped at him. 'If it weren't for you… I don't think I would still be here, I wouldn't. I would have blown up and taken all of Kyoto with me.'

"What he say?" Gojo asked.

"Yuuji is telling him that he is glad Suiryu exists. For if it weren't for him, Yuuji would have died that day in Kyoto… and that is true. His grandfather and I were in the soul space when it all happened. The world there… was crumbling and on the brink of being destroyed, until his power balanced out. You saved millions that day Suiryu, you know that?"

Still no response from him, he tried to look about the room without peering into anyone's face. But he stood up and said. "I don't wish to speak of this anymore,"

'Suiryu?' Yuuji chirped.

"I… I want some time alone," he walked out of the room without another word. Yua didn't try and stop him or anything.

Yuuji was about to go after him, but she placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Let him work it out, he needs to process this,"

He sighed aloud and nodded. "Besides, you have to prepare yourself, Itadori… you're about to be fed again soon."

Yuuji froze in fear to that, he shuttered and then sighed aloud.