Chapter 35
The next day…
"What the hell…"
He tried to understand what he was watching with his own eyes. Sukuna peered on as the children who often sought him out were training. These were the monkeys with no curse energy, and yet the regiment they were doing… perplexed him.
Even their teachers were rather confused to what they were trying to accomplish. "What the hell is this? I didn't teach you any of this shit!" protested the male named Toji.
The older student began to explain. "We got the idea from skipping rocks. However, if we are able to skip one of our own, they could get in, make the kill and use the momentum to get out of harms way before a counter strike could be made."
'Wait, they got this from me?' Sukuna thought. The two strongest decided to try and demonstrate, they were strong, no doubt but the method was flawed. One, they are not on water, the skip wouldn't happen naturally or go as smoothly as they intend on making it. Second, the strength needed to allow the body to complete and use that momentum to their advantage. Lastly, the angle as well as the situation that the move could be used as well, the drawbacks of such a strike.
He continued to watch on, not realizing his lower right arm was holding his chin as he thought over the move. It wasn't a bad one, it just needs a lot of refinement.
When they finished showing off the move, their teacher was skeptical. "It's not a bad idea, but that needs a lot more improvement, and you two have to be a lot stronger. Even if you take the strongest and someone who isn't the move cannot work properly." He explained.
"You lack direction," chimed Sukuna.
The teachers paused. "Oh?" questioned the woman named Maki. "Are you going to make a suggestion then?"
He caught himself, shaking his head and turned and walked away from it all.
"SUKUNA SENSEI!" the children called out, but he ignored them. Like hell he is going to help them any farther!
"Ah, there he is, the man servant!"
He cringed to the voice of Suiryu, his human tone, not to mention… look. Despite how similar he is to that Itadori brat, part of Sukuna was disgusted each and every time he stared at the face of this unwanted clone. "Leave me be," he growled. "I want my personal time!"
"Okay, fair, but… we want to give you a chance here. To fight for your freedom since after all, you don't want to be answering our every beck and call, right?" the brat Itadori asked.
"What's the catch?"
Suiryu smiled. "Simple, Yua gave us this idea. It's simple, land a physical hit on Satoru, in an hour time slot. If you do, we will break every bind on your body, you will no longer be a slave to us or Yua Tooru, and we will even let you have a 24 hour head start and you can do whatever the hell you want in that time. I personally would recommend escaping, and don't bother to try and hide, we will find you." He stated in a rather calm and voided tone. "But, if you don't… you remain here… and we will increase your duties around here… including teaching."
He snickered at the comment. "Teach? You want me to teach?" he demanded. "Fuck you," he said right into Suiryu's face.
"What if we sweeten the deal?" Itadori asked. "Say for example… we can't use OUR curse energy against you? We can only use our born abilities?"
This, got his attention. "You have nothing more than a heavenly body, increased reflexes and strength that is nothing compared to my own… tempting…" he said and pondered the odd deal.
But his mind kept screaming this was a trap. Why would they dare make such a notion to him? He wasn't buying it the least bit. "Only natural abilities huh? Have you improved since?"
"Well, we died and were reborn. Does that matter?" Suiryu asked.
"Reborn?"
"Transfiguration reincarnation ring a bell to you?"
He paused. "THAT method? You actually used THAT method?" he snickered. "That takes far more than your curse energy, you do realize that?"
"And how," the two muttered.
This caught him off guard, both have used this method before? Still, there was a drawback to using it too. One, a lot of curse energy was needed to bring back a sorcerer, second, your own curse energy has to go into the person you are trying to revive to ensure they have enough energy to break out of the host body. Lastly, the person they bring back, is far stronger than what they were before, but that all depends on the host… these two were on par with him, meaning those who have been brought back by them, are quite strong. Which only made him question… who brought them to life once more after they died? "So I am to understand, no curse energy or technique will be used against me? Satoru can't fight back?"
"Nope, and we can't use it against you either. Is it a deal?" Suiryu asked as he stuck out his right hand.
"When does this start?"
"The moment you shake my hand. Satoru is teaching a class right now, but he is made aware of the binding vow that I have in placed, the moment you agree, the start of the hour time limit you have."
There were so many variables, but he couldn't quite figure out these two and what they are planning. They kept a rather stern look on their faces. Suiryu more than the brat, the boy, Itadori appeared almost out of it. But then, he reached over and took Suiryu's hand.
The binding vow is in place. "One hour… good luck," Suiryu said as he and Itadori suddenly vanished.
"They must have mastered warping… no matter… hitting Satoru should be easy, especially if he has children to protect…" Sukuna said with a greedy grin.
#
"Okay kids! Listen up! Today we are going to talk about proper control of your curse energy!" Gojo said in a rather upbeat tone.
The children were no more than five to seven years of age, they have just discovered they have a curse energy, but not proper methods on how to use it. Watching from a small distance was Yua, she held Shin close as he taught his class. "Now, why is this important?" he asked.
Some children raised their hand, a little girl stated. "We could hurt someone,"
"That's right! Sometimes people don't have proper control of their power, too much and you can really, really hurt someone, if you don't use enough, you may not have the power to defeat your enemy. So we have to learn about how to properly channel your energy." He paused as he sensed him coming. Sukuna was running at full speed towards him!
"Now, we have some helpers today to explain how to control your power, this is very similar to curse ability, but they are doing to demonstrate using raw strength." He explained.
"AAAHHHH!" he heard Sukuna scream. Gojo turned, just as he was within striking distance, until a dragon's tail came out of nowhere and pounded the King of Curses into the ground.
The earth trembled as Sukuna was now embedded into the earth. "Everyone remembers Yuuji and Suiryu right? You know what they really look like?"
He turned as two massive dragons lingered behind him. Yua was snickering as Suiryu gave a dragon grin before ripping Sukuna from the earth with the tip of his tail. He soon snapped out of the strike but froze to what grabbed him.
"WHAT THE F…"
"BBBBRRRRRRRRR" Gojo took out an air horn blocking Sukuna's super swear.
"Now then, being this big and powerful, Suiryu could EASILY crush Sukuna using the tip of his tail couldn't he?" he asked.
The children nodded as their wide eyes refused to blink at the two dragons before them. "Now then, being this strong, they cannot use too much force or they will kill him, but look…"
As he turned around, Suiryu appeared to be playing hackie sack with Sukuna! He was screaming, swearing and cursing up a storm until he was volleyed over to Yuuji who began to do the same thing!
"Now, he's hurt, still hurting, but he isn't dead. They are very careful with how they are going to play with Sukuna, one wrong move and he will die, won't he?"
The children nodded until a little boy put his hand up. "How strong are they?"
Gojo paused. "Let me think… hmmm… how strong do you think they are? Could they move the mountain if they tried?" he asked.
The children nodded. "Think of the strongest superhero you know… but the size of a dragon," chimed Yua.
The ground trembled once more as Sukuna hit the ground. His head was spinning by the looks of it, he could barely keep on his feet as his sights set on Satoru once more. This time, he tried using his curse energy of dismantle! Despite the children being there, he didn't care if any got caught in the crossfire.
Yet, as he launched his attack, Yuuji's tail blocked the blow and he even flicked Sukuna back over to Suiryu who now tossed him in the air after catching him in his jaws!
"YUUJI!" called Yua.
He peered down as she held Shin to him. The children froze as the tip of his tail came in close, gently, Yua sat on his tail as he lifted her up carefully and back down again. "Had he done that too fast, Yua would be harmed and my son would be as well, but look. He is extremely careful with them, Yuuji is very good at controlling his strength. GOOD JOB ITADORI!" he called.
Yuuji puffed his chest out proudly as he eased Yua back down. She was quick to step away as Sukuna was once more slammed to the earth!
The ground trembled at that.
"Now, Sukuna is a very powerful vengeful … well… sorcerer, he is trapped in that body of his, before he use to be confined in a curse object but was awakened by a demon vessel. But he is in his own body now, and he is quite durable as you can see." He turned and saw Sukuna slowly peeling himself out of the ground, coughing up a mouth full of earth before he stared at Gojo with such hate and at the same time fear.
"THEY ARE DRAGONS!? THOSE TWO BRATS ARE DRAGONS?" he shouted.
"You never asked if they were or weren't." Gojo said with a careless shrug. He then checked his phone. "You still got twenty minutes." And turned his back once more. "Now then students, what's the lesson here?"
"DON'T ANGER SENSEI YUUJI OR SUIRYU" they called back in unison.
"That's right, and…"
"Be mindful of your own strength!" they called.
"Very good, I know you guys were a smart bunch! Now that is all for today, you can return to Panda Sensei."
Sukuna healed over, slowly he got back to his feet but felt this battle was no longer worth fighting. He glared at Gojo but then turned and saw Suiryu and Yuuji smiling those dragon grins, waiting for him to do something. Instead, he sat on the ground and did nothing!
"Oh giving up so soon?" Gojo teased.
"It was a screw job from the start!" he snapped back. "Had I known they were dragons, I never would have agreed to this! NOT ONE BIT!" he roared in anger. But then turned to the two brothers. "YOU LITTLE SHITS! HOW DARE YOU TRICK ME LIKE THIS!"
"Uh, I wouldn't be calling them little, granted, they are merely baby dragons. Only a year old but still…"
Sukuna turned a different shade of white, he glared at Gojo and said. "I am sick and tried of these jokes you constantly spew!"
"No joke," called Yua. "They are still baby dragons, born only a year ago." She said.
He trembled.
For the first time, Gojo has seen Sukuna tremble at the news of all this. Yet, in this brief moment of distraction he suddenly stood up and stared at Yuuji and Suiryu who were eying him like a toy. But then, he turned and tried to land a strike against Gojo! The blow was easily avoidable, but now, Sukuna was doing everything he could to land a single physical strike against him. After all, the moment he does, he gains his freedom, but as the rules dictated. Gojo merely can't use limitless to block the strike, there was no rule stating he couldn't use curse energy to avoid the blows!
It didn't take long for his injuries to catch up to him. Although he is well versed in reverse jujutsu, his wounds weren't healing as fast as they should. "Something wrong?" Gojo teased.
Sukuna's legs shook in weakness, Gojo felt it was the end of the fight as he teased the king of curses and leaned in, nearly within striking distance. "Well?"
He collapsed, just as the hour ran out, Sukuna laid his hand on Gojo's foot. "Ooo, two seconds too late… literally." He snickered.
Suiryu and Yuuji turned back to their human forms. "You know, he makes a GREAT hackie sack!" Suiryu said and laughed aloud. "I can't wait to play with him like that again!"
"We should be careful though, I mean, that would be animal abuse if he is our pet," warned Itadori.
"Ah, true, I nearly forgot, thanks for reminding me." Suiryu paused. "Huh, why is he this beaten up? I mean, we didn't push him that much…" he said offhandedly.
Yua wondered over. She snickered aloud as she explained. "You forget, dragons are on a whole different level when it comes to dolling out punishment. Your strikes hurt more, and take far longer to heal. After all, he isn't use to this kind of abuse now, is he?"
"Nope," chimed Yuuji and Suiryu. "Still, rather satisfying, he is paying a small price for what he put us through."
"We better take better care of him if we want him to last a LONG time," teased Yuuji.
"You boys do that, for now, leave him be. I'm sure he will come too soon enough. Whose ready for some lunch?" Yua asked aloud.