Chapter 22

The next day…

Geto froze.

He stared up at Sukuna who was staring him down. "What's the meaning of this Tooru?" Sukuna demanded with both arms crossed. "You are wasting my time"

"Partly yes, at the same time… I think you may like what I am about to have you do." She said offhandedly.

Suddenly, he appeared interest.

Yua then turned to Geto. "You have him?"

He nervously nodded.

Geto didn't understand why he was asked to come here. Yet after dinner last night. Satoru came by and told him Yua wanted to speak with him tomorrow and to have Naoya out and ready.

Currently, Naoya was hiding behind him.

"What's going on? Why am I out?!" Naoya demanded.

"I thought you would be happy to be out and about, make up your mind already…" Yua scolded. "Anyway, this is a little… payback for what happened a while ago. Geto was risking his life to save mine, entrusting you to have his back. You are a tamed curse now…"

"Tch, yeah right. Him?" Sukuna said. "More like a pathetic wanna be sorcerer with no talent…"

Normally, that would set off the proud Zen'in man. However, he, for once appears to be considering who is standing before him, uttering such words.

"Is that what this is about?" Suguru asked in confusion. He remembered summoning Naoya to run Yua back to the village… but he didn't complete his task? Suddenly, he turned and glared at him. "What did you do? Or what didn't you do?" he demanded.

"You got knocked out, I couldn't run any farther with her with you in such a state, so…"

"Bullshit," both Sukuna and Geto stated.

Suguru paused as he turned to Sukuna who called Naoya out on his actions. "Really? You expect me to believe utter garbage… you're a worthless curse too apparently." Sukuna stated. "You merely didn't wish to do what you were told, you could have easily kept going with Tooru in your arms, despite him being knocked out. As long as he had curse energy, you could have kept going… instead you called it quits… should have done it a lot sooner. I could have had a Tooru meal!" he protested.

"YOU WHAT!" Suguru snapped at him. "I risked my life for nothing if you didn't complete a simple task like that!"

"You're still alive… so is she," Naoya said rather carelessly. "So what does it matter?"

Suguru began to see and understand Yua's reasoning for this. "I'm sorry, Yua…" he said with great sincerity.

She only smiled to him. "I'm not out to punish you Geto. It's him, I already told him that too. He would pay for his laziness. And today is the day he does so." Suddenly her smile grew, and it only startled those around her, including Sukuna!

"I am to understand that curses can grow stronger through combat, I know they mainly feed off of negative emotions and what not but they can also use other curses as a method of growing stronger, not to mention getting brought to the point of death to summon more power… so I am going to test a little theory…" She then turned to Sukuna. "For the next three hours… I want you to spar with Naoya here… don't kill him, don't bring him to the point where he will he exorcises… merely… rough him up if you will. Let's see if this sort of training will help him be a special grade curse after this…."

Suguru smirked, he turned and saw Naoya appear a lot more pale than before! "What… you're joking right?"

Sukuna forced a small smile. "Three hours?" he asked offhandedly. "I merely need minutes… seconds…"

"I know, but… drag it out, don't go too overboard and… have some fun for yourself." She said and patted his lower left arm.

"You are really allowing me to do this?" he asked curiously. "Why are you allowing me some small form of amusement?"

Yua paused, but then said. "I am still figuring out this reasoning myself, at the same time… I am not capable of punishing a curse like him in my state. I also know you like to… test out various means of torture. But it's just not on someone innocent. Also… he pisses me off." She said offhandedly.

Naoya was clenching on to Suguru's shoulders. "You… aren't really going to leave me to THAT are you?" he whispered nervously.

Suguru only smiled to him. "You bet your ass I am!" he grabbed Naoya and pushed him forward. "Glad to see you are going to make some new friends around here!"

"Remember Sukuna, not too rough," Yua gently scolded.

Suguru peered back, only to see a darkened look come over the eyes of Sukuna.

"I think I may have lost a tamed curse…" Suguru whispered as they began to walk away.

"No, I told him not to kill him. So he shouldn't. I guess we will see how strong these cuffs are on Sukuna and if they carry the weight of my orders." They were silent as they began to walk away, Suguru shuttered as he heard Naoya scream aloud very suddenly. But… that wasn't his concern at the moment.

Suguru peered at Yua oddly. "Why are you punishing him?"

"Did I not explain before? When you got knocked out, he said it was as far as he could go, he didn't try to help me the moment you fell unconscious. Nor did he try to help you, that alone chapped my ass." She said rather bluntly. "I know… those who fought to save me, were risking everything to do so. Question is, why did you take such a risk?"

Suguru paused, sometimes not even he knows his reasoning. But… the moment he sensed Sukuna and then Yua for a brief moment…

"You're my best friend's wife… if I had stood around and did nothing. I know for sure, Satoru would never look at me as a friend again. At the same time… I've only gotten this much stronger… because of you."

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

They didn't bother to turn around as Naoya screamed into the air once more. But they did snicker about it!

"Thank you, Suguru…" she said gently. "I truly appreciated you looking out for me."

He merely nodded. "It's a step in the right direction… I just need to keep going in that direction. As you said, I have a lot to make up for."

"And how!"

"HEY!"