Edited by absolem B)
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Lilly teleported to Yūji, wondering what sort of shenanigans he was up to. She was just about to dig into a chocolate soufflé she made when her right palm started to burn. The arcane symbols of death burned itself into her skin. She felt the warning came from Yūji's blessing and so she teleported over to him.
It was alarming that she was warned he received a fatal injury. Wasn't he supposed to be the Hero™? With the addition of Sukuna, she had thought that the Story™ had only just begun. How could he already be dying?
She was momentarily surprised at what she saw. Yūji was completely overtaken by Cursed Energy with dark marks over his body. He held out his own literal heart: the fatal injury.
"I'm taking this brat hostage," Yū–no, no, that voice must have belonged to the Curse currently controlling his body.
How rude, Lilly thought. She stepped delicately onto the wet concrete in front of Megumi. Although… his temper reminds me of some old friends.
It made her smile fondly in memory.
"Ara, ara," she cooed. "Can't you children play nice?"
"Hoo? And who are you?" the Curse sneered at her.
Lilly curtsied with her dress and apron. "Lilly. And you?"
"Heh." He tilted his chin up to sneer down at her. "Sukuna."
"Well Sukuna," said Lilly. "You can't take that boy hostage."
"And yet," he said as he carelessly tossed the heart into the grass, "that is exactly what I did."
She tilted her head to the side. "Are you persuadable?"
Sukuna's red eyes were filled with malice. His grin was wicked and sharp. "Am I? What do you think?"
My gut says no, Lilly thought.
His energy was… dark. Reminiscent of many demons she had met previously. It was drenched in malevolent desire. She was reluctant to use the word evil–Lilly hated that word because she found that things were never so clean-cut–but she was tempted.
There was a twisted hunger embedded in his energy and laced throughout his nature.
A warmonger? A sadist? Or was it something more?
She didn't know him well enough to judge one way or the other. A cursory glimpse into his energy was a surface-level assessment.
She wondered what his memories would look like.
He was once human, wasn't he?
Was his humanity lost upon the transformation, or did a portion of it remain?
Those were questions to be answered another day.
She had to tango with the Curse first.
"In that case," she said as she extended a hand, "will you dance with me?"
"That's some nice confidence," Sukuna returned. He cracked his neck. "I'm finally outside. Let's use this open space."
"As you wish," she agreed, then moved.
She did not bother manipulating time. The current Sukuna did not feel like enough of a threat to her to warrant such a precaution.
While he had more energy than Tora or Ame, it wasn't by a large margin. It would be interesting to feel his power at max, considering what she currently faced was only one-tenth of his power from the two fingers Yūji had swallowed (Satoru had given the boy another finger to swallow on purpose). Supposedly. It wouldn't surprise Lilly if it was more like one-twentieth and when all fingers were found he was able to double his power at that point. That was pretty standard.
One-tenth or one-twentieth. It didn't matter.
She had fought bigger baddies. She didn't always live, but she still won.
And she did have a trump card up her sleeve, disregarding time.
He wasn't a big enough worry to pull out her aces.
At that moment, he was only–
She grabbed his hands tightly–too tight, really, as she could feel the bones shatter under her grip–and tossed him into the air with enough speed there was a thunderous boom a second behind him.
"Megumi, baby, stay back okay?" Lilly said.
"Yes ma'am."
Lilly flew up into the air. She clapped her hands together and a rush of butterflies emerged from her. They went to work on putting up an illusion of the area so no one would notice their… disagreement.
She had tossed Sukuna with enough power that he had shot up well above the raining clouds. She burst through the clouds and saw him in the air.
"Surprisingly fast for a woman," Sukuna haughtily remarked. He did not look the least bit disgruntled at having been tossed. He flexed his hands, instantly healing the bones Lilly had previously crushed.
He had gathered energy at the bottom of his feet and condensed it into an invisible ledge for him to stand on.
Lilly found it ironic that Sukuna "flew" the same way Yūji was learning how to.
Two peas in a pod, really.
"Ara," giggled Lilly. "You're the type who's super into degrading others, aren't you? Bit of an S hmm?"
Sukuna jeered. "You're the type who blabbers until forcibly silenced, hmm?"
"We seem to have reached an understanding."
He leapt at her, Cursed Energy radiated from his form. Each movement made had an echo of raw power that rippled through the air. He swiped at her, and even though his hand did not reach her, the echo of Cursed Energy slammed into her.
Because she was flying, she didn't have anything to really ground herself to–nor was she actively trying–so it did push her back a meter.
Lilly blew out and a thick fog comprised of her spiritual energy enveloped the sky. It was dense and heavy; and because it was filled with her essence, it would not be moved from the heavy winds. She could have infused it with poison–she had so many delightful surprises kept inside her stomach lining–yet refrained. It was not intended to harm Sukuna, but rather to hide her presence.
She moved quickly, phasing through her fog so it would not even stir at her presence. She wrapped her hands around Sukuna's eyes from behind and cooed, "Peek a boo!"
He grabbed her wrists to throw her, but it was too late. The gaseous cloud she had created disappeared in a dramatic flourish as soon as she touched him.
The moment her hands were around his eyes, she sent a shot of her spiritual energy inside of him. The energy had conformed to a substance very similar to electricity, yet not so dangerous. It was designed to specifically target neurons and the messages from the brain to the rest of the body. At least that's how it reacted with physicality.
A Cursed Spirit did not have the same body as a human. They could function perfectly fine without a head unless the head was destroyed by spiritual or Cursed Energy. Cursed Spirits were made up of that energy and interacted with the world through it. Any disruption to their energy severed that ability.
Sukuna possessed Yūji's body by infusing it with his energy and puppeteering it accordingly.
Her attack disrupted both his energy, and the neurons in Yūji's body. It was a layered attack to ensure that even if Sukuna could use Yūji's body without his energy–which Lilly doubted–the body would still be difficult to control.
It was not a flawless attack. It could be dodged by changing the state of energy to non-conductive or doing a partial-phase. It was also easily remedied by flushing out the bad energy and replacing it with newly produced energy straight from the soul.
Those were ways Lilly would deal with it.
She was curious to see how Sukuna would deal with it.
Did he have the ability to purge the Cursed nature of his energy to create fresh energy and counter it? Or was he able to reverse the technique entirely through pure skill?
What did he know? What could he do?
She knew so little. She had to start somewhere.
Considering how shady the Jujutsu Society was, she didn't trust them to keep accurate records of a creature they plainly hated.
Evidently it was not an attack he was familiar with because he pitched forward as the body trembled. Low and gurgled noises crawled out of his mouth. Lilly flipped around and deftly caught him. She rubbed his back.
"I'm surprised that's not an instant heal," she said. "So sorry, I was too curious not to try. I'll wait for you to heal then we can start again."
She held the twitching Sukuna.
If I heal Yūji's heart now, will Sukuna do worse?
It didn't matter physically what Sukuna did to Yūji. Lilly was intimately familiar with Yūji's soul; she could literally recreate his body from ash and summon his exact soul to the newly created body. She confirmed resurrection was possible in that world without major consequence, therefore she held little regard for physical damage.
Mentally was a different story. Yūji had a stout heart, but he hadn't had many mutilations. Sure, in the occasional intense session he lost a limb or two but it was always fixed up in no time. Losing a heart, or getting decapitated, could be scary for her boy.
She had to remind herself that while she was comfortable getting hurt, Yūji might not be.
She wanted him and Sukuna to have a chance for an amicable relationship. The bond shared between a disembodied soul and their vessel was a chance for something truly unique and deeply moving.
"Ah… wait…" Lilly readjusted the still-twitching Sukuna so he was on his back with his head in her lap. She smiled down at him. "That way you can still see the sky."
It was a pretty sky after all. Even if she was constantly using her aura to rebuff the intense wind from their altitude, it was a lovely moment. Probably something Sukuna hadn't been able to experience in many centuries.
Although she was surprised it took Sukuna a solid minute to stop twitching. He sat up slowly, deliberately. Still seated, he turned to face her, his expression articulately observant.
"You're not human," he observed.
You're surprisingly calm, she thought. Given his malice, she thought for sure he'd be hot-tempered.
A calculating Big Baddie? Oh boy. She was glad she didn't have to deal with him in one of her earlier lives. When she was younger–weaker and naïve–she might have misinterpreted his calmness as a sign of friendship.
No, no.
Calm did not equate to kind. That applied double for anything that lived a long life.
Calm meant intelligent. Calm meant patient. Calm meant dangerous.
Especially, especially, when combined with an ancient being that everyone swore up and down was evil.
Only a few lifetimes ago Lilly could remember a calm rival. They never lost their temper when she bested them. Not once. Lilly thought they were friends because of their temperament. Oh how she was so terribly wrong. Beneath that tranquil mask was a bitter jealousy that seeped in cold contemptment. As soon as she was vulnerable, they pounced and slit her throat.
She didn't have any of her memories during that life so she didn't know any better.
She didn't have that excuse now.
Just because he wasn't immediately trying to kill her, didn't mean he was any less of a threat. If anything, his potential just shot up.
Patient enemies were so annoying to deal with when Lilly actually had people she didn't want to lose.
"Yes and no," Lilly answered him.
But, hey, wouldn't be the first time. Probably wouldn't be the last.
If there was a chance for him and Yūji to become friends, Lilly wasn't going to ruin that for her son. It should be their choice to burn that bridge or not.
"What you did there wasn't a Cursed Technique," he went on.
Lilly smiled. "Correct. I used the raw form of the energy instead of letting it turn into a Curse. Here." Lilly held out her hand, palm flat. She channeled raw spiritual energy to the surface and condensed it until it was visible. "You can touch it if you'd like."
Sukuna poked it with one finger, his expression gave away nothing of his thoughts.
"You're strangely nice with someone who has your child hostage," said Sukuna, his red eyes moved up to meet Lilly's gaze. There was an undertone of mockery in his voice. He was either subtly accusing Lilly about not caring for Yūji, or implying she did not grasp the situation.
"You don't really," said Lilly. "No matter what you do to that body, I can fix Yūji up. Even if you destroy it until there's only a bit of hair left, I can put him all back together again. I know my boy's soul like the back of my hand." She giggled. "Resurrection in this world isn't forbidden, you know?"
"I hadn't realized Reversed Cursed Techniques had evolved to standardizing resurrections," he said.
"They haven't. At least I don't think so. I'm just… not standard," she said. "And neither is Yūji, nor yourself. You both have very similar signatures–bloodlust aside, of course." Lilly beamed.
Sukuna didn't get a chance to respond to that because Yūji abruptly woke up. The tattoos immediately faded from his skin, and the extra two eyes closed shut. As soon as Lilly saw the tattoos fading, she Paused time and regrew a fresh heart for him. She patched him up good as new, then held onto him.
She Resumed time, and his full weight pressed into her. Since Sukuna was no longer in control, Yūji couldn't stay flying by himself.
"I think I had a gnarly dream," Yūji mumbled into her shoulder.
Lilly kissed his head. "Yes?"
Yūji lifted his head up. Realized they were thousands of kilometers in the air. Then proceeded to body-hug Lilly as he squeaked out, "I don't think it was a dream, actually."
"Probably not, baby."
"Sukuna's a dick."
Lilly couldn't resist smiling at that.
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As Lilly floated back down, Yūji ended up passing out on the way. She teleported them home to tuck him into bed. She then teleported back over to Megumi.
"Oh sweetie, you're soaking," she cooed. "Come home with me, let's get you into a warm bath and I'll prepare a change of clothes, okay?"
"Miss Suzuran, is Yūji okay?" Megumi asked as Lilly teleported both of them into her home.
"He's sleeping right now. Don't worry, I fixed him up," she reassured him. "Where's your teammate?"
"Trying to get in contact with a Special Grade Sorcerer," Megumi explained.
"Mmm." Lilly guided Megumi into the bathroom. With a wave of her hand, the tub was filled with steaming water and a pile of clothes dropped out of her void space and onto the bathroom counter. "Take your time, sweet child."
She left the bathroom and headed over to the kitchen to make some warm tea. She had made cookies that morning that she'd include with the tea.
While the kettle started to warm up, she headed up to Yūji's room to check up on him. He was still asleep, cutely bundled up under the covers. She used some quick cleaning spells to get rid of the grime and blood, and with another wave of her hands, she magicked some pajamas on him.
He'll need the rest, she thought.
She'll have to talk to him about why Sukuna was unrestrained for so long. If there was an external factor, she'd need to look into it.
She suspected it was due to fatigue. As a sensor, he probably wasn't having a grand time feeling Sukuna inside him all the time. It couldn't be helped given the situation. He simply needed time to acclimate.
Time The Jujutsu Society would not be willing to give him, it seemed.
Lilly heaved a sigh.
It seems like it would be best, then… I better call Satoru.
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Yūji didn't have a completely formed mind space. He had an identity, and could differentiate his mind from Sukuna's but his world was not defined. It was fire: loose and wild. Entering it wasn't easy–he had to meditate, he couldn't simply look inward like Satoru, Yūta, or Lilly.
Waking up in his mind space, at the very edge, was an odd thing.
He hadn't done such a thing in his sleep before. Any time he entered, it was always deliberate.
Yūji squinted at the morbid space that Sukuna resided in. It was a sea of blood filled with skeletal remains.
"Don't look inside me without permission," drawled a familiar voice. "I hate it, brat."
Sukuna stood in front of Yūji, at the edge of his own space.
Why does he look so much like me? Yūji wondered.
Sukuna was a mirror image of Yūji, the only exception being the tattoos, white and black yukata, and the air of pompous arrogance.
"I hate getting my heart ripped out," Yūji rebutted. "Guess we're both screwed, dick."
"Why so hostile?" Sukuna's voice was drenched in sarcasm.
"Oh I don't know. There's just something about getting my heart ripped out that rubs me the wrong way," Yūji snapped. "You're a bastard."
Sukuna smirked. "You're the one who's holding me prisoner. What do you expect? A thank you?"
"I–" Yūji bit his lip. "Fuck. Don't argue with logic, I'm mad at you." Yūji crossed his arms across his chest. "Well?"
"Well what?"
"I've never dreamed of my mind space," Yūji blithely pointed out. "You're the only new addition to my life, so I'm guessing you called me here. You must have a reason. Well?"
"Let's form a pact," said Sukuna. "If we're going to be stuck in this situation, might as well… cooperate."
"I hate the way you said that word. It screams sus," Yūji muttered. He shuddered. "I feel like a stranger just offered me candy to get in the back of a van."
Sukuna sighed. "Fine. I'm more than happy to try ripping out a different part next time–"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. I didn't say no. Middle ground is nice," said Yūji. "I want two things out of the pact. One, you don't try to get me killed, and two, you don't attack my allies. If there's a chance you're going to be able to pop out whenever I let my guard down, I want those stipulations."
Sukuna frowned, thoroughly unamused. "Why does it matter? Can't that woman heal?"
"That doesn't make it any less okay," Yūji said. "Not everyone likes getting maimed, you know. Or, on top of being an evil jackass, you're a masochist?"
Sukuna narrowed his eyes. There was a shift in the air that made Yūji's gut clench uncomfortably. "You should treat your betters with respect, brat. I won't warn you again."
A shiver of fear crawled down Yūji's back.
Yūji bit his lip to keep from retorting. He sucked in a deep breath of air then let it out slowly.
If Sukuna wanted to mess with me, he probably could. Antagonizing him is like messing with Gojō.
Yūji once tried to prank Satoru Gojō as a birthday present for Yūta.
He never made the same mistake again.
He could be impulsive, but he wasn't stupid. He knew better than to needlessly prod a sleep dragon.
"Sorry," he reluctantly said. "What are your conditions?"
"One, whenever I say Extension you'll hand your body over for five minutes. Two, you cannot reveal this deal."
If he can't hurt me or any of my friends… it's not a bad deal.
Five minutes was a long time, but surely he couldn't cause that much damage. At least not until Lilly or Satoru arrived.
It wasn't ideal, but Yūji couldn't think of a better deal given the circumstances. He wasn't strong enough to force a pact with Sukuna, nor did he want to run the risk of not having any contingency in case Sukuna took over.
He didn't understand the reveal stipulation, which made him uncomfortable. Sukuna knew Yūji was a sensor so there was no way to hide a pact from him, but why still make Yūji try to keep it a secret? What was the harm?
And why only five minutes? Did he think Yūji wouldn't agree to more or did Sukuna think five minutes was enough to handle whatever happened?
Argh! What a frustrating situation.
Still…
He just couldn't see a way around it.
"Would it be okay to add a stipulation that this pact can be revised if we both agree to it?" Yūji added after another minute of thought.
"That's agreeable."
"Okay," said Yūji. "We have a deal."
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Bonus:
Toge: Yūji moved into the dorms apparently
Yūta: Now I understand.
Toge: Want me to pretend to be sad and sappy and ask your mom if I can stay with her until you get back?
Yūta: Haha no, it's okay.
Yūta: If Gojō got to Yūji, he'd definitely try to persuade you too.
Toge: I wouldn't give in. :]
Yūta: (:
Yūta: Thanks Toge.
Yūta: Gojō is a tricky opponent, though. I'd really rather just kick his ass than try to do these sneaky things. Much easier.
Toge: Assuming you *can* touch him.
Yūta: One day. There's no such thing as a flawless ability.
Yūta: I'll find its weakness and ruthlessly exploit it. (:
Toge: If you need/want any help say the word
Toge: I've got your back.
Yūta: I couldn't ask for anyone better.
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Bonus 2:
Yūta: [uploadedgifiwillkillyou]
Satoru: [uploadedgiflmaowheezing]
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
Idk for certain if Sukuna can canonically fly. Some chapters look like he can, and is just faster at running / jumping so he doesn't use it often. But until it's animated or explained… *shrugs helplessly and gestures wildly to wiki pages*
My knee jerk reaction is to write Sukuna as a tsundere, but he's not. :'(
Answer: Satoru - Sir Cutie; Sukuna - M'lord; Yūji - Baby boy and/or my son
Question: How do you unwind after a stressful day?
Reviews are love!