Chapter 11

He would train hard.

Harder than all the brothers put together, and yet… Junpei felt that this has been the most fun he has ever had! The brothers aren't bad people, in fact they are often asking him what he wants to do, how to help him get stronger and their suggestions in doing so. His confidence began to grow once more, and today they were sparring as Yuuji watched on.

He and Suiryu have been training together away from the brothers, and yet he was curious to what Itadori could do now.

For today's session though, Junpei was attacked by all 8 brothers. He was able to fend them off rather well on his own, and when he finished it was Tanso that took him down, he was caught off guard.

"Way to go little bro!" cheered Kotsuso. "You're strong!"

Junpei was helped off the ground as he turned to Yuuji. "Whoa, Junpei, way to hold your own!" he cheered.

"Thanks…" he said and then offhandedly asked Yuuji how strong he was.

"Oh, well… I don't like to show it off." He explained meekly.

"No offence little brother, but I don't see you being powerful…" Sho said bluntly. "Suiryu taught us to read curse energy and you don't appear to have much of it."

"It's suppressed," he explained. "I have an ability to hide it, if I let it loose, I could hurt people or even attract more curses…" he explained.

"Do… do you mind showing us?" Junpei asked.

"You may want to stand back a little,"

The brothers were confused, however, they agreed. They took six large steps back as Yuuji took a deep breath, then… the ground began to tremble.

Junpei felt his hair stand on end, his cursed side was telling him to get the hell out! Yet Yuuji kept going. Trees began to fall over, the ground caved and cracked under his feet until he finally settled down. When he did, his energy was back to what it once was.

The brothers looked a little frazzled!

"Whoa…" whispered Noranso.

"Incredible… he was powerful before but… this is on a different scale." Whispered Choso.

Yuuji looked about and saw the damage he caused. "Ooo, sorry about that!" he said and pointed to the trees.

"We asked for it, it's quite alright little one," snickered Eso. "But still, to have that kind of power… what's it like?"

Yuuji paused but shied away from the question. Eso suddenly felt embarrassed for asking it. "I didn't mean…"

"No… it's okay," Yuuji said as he looked to the brothers. "It's not something anyone should want, let alone have. There's so much of it and yet, one wrong move and you can kill a lot of people… honestly… it's a burden." He said. He went as far as telling them he is still possessed, but by a dragon. They didn't quite believe it. Sho thought it was a joke thinking a dragon could fit in Yuuji like that. But he did bring them all back to life, anything was possible at this point!

Junpei had always thought if he were stronger, no one would dare harm him again, the school bullies that he endured would change their ways and leave him be. But when he got his curse technique… it went right to his head. Instantly he thought of killing those who wronged him. Matters didn't help as Mahito toyed with his emotions, using a finger of Sukuna to lure a curse to his house and kill his mother.

But he believed every word spoke to him by Mahito.

He never forgave himself for that. It was because of that curse he learned about the energy within him, had he never met him, perhaps his mother would still be alive.

"Junpei?"

He snapped out of his blank stare. "Sorry what were you saying?"

Yuuji looked to him, worried. "You went quiet all of a sudden… are you okay?"

It brought a smile to his face. "You always are more worried about those around you than yourself…" he said with a sigh. "I'm okay, I'm just thinking about my stupidity of the past."

"We've been there," Choso said aloud. "Suiryu had told me about you being manipulated by Mahito. He did the same to us. Promising a world that we could live in along side them. Looking back at it all, it never would have come to pass. They wanted curses to be the new humans, and yet, we are still part human. We would not have fit in their ideal society…"

"Cogs…" Yuuji whispered.

"What was that?" Sho asked.

"It's… it's nothing, let's go get some dinner. I'll cook this time,"

Junpei however heard it. Cogs. That's how Yuuji feels he is in this world, and he doesn't blame him on thinking that. In a sense, they all are. But for the moment, he will believe he isn't, since they don't fit in anywhere in this world at the moment, but perhaps things will change…

#

The meal Yuuji made was fantastic.

Eso was quite impressed as well. "Little brother, this is remarkable!" he said aloud.

"It's nothing special, it's just chicken meatballs." Yuuji said. They made a huge hot pot dinner out of them, Junpei thought the meal was amazing too. Eso was already working on getting the recipe from him!

When they ate their fill, Itadori peered around the table. He sighed aloud but smiled. "So, I have nine more brothers huh?"

"Well, you have nine," Junpei said offhandedly, but then, the table stared at him oddly. Everyone but Yuuji that is.

"What are you talking about little brother?" Choso asked of him in a calm and yet startling cold tone. "You're one of us, therefore you are also a brother to Yuuji."

"HUH!?" he demanded.

Yuuji snickered. "He doesn't have to claim to be one, we won't force it. At the same time, it's a little weird for me too…"

"But… HOW?!" Junpei demanded aloud. "How does this make me his brother? How are ANY of you his brother? He told me before…"

"It's a long story," Choso said. "But perhaps it's best you understood. We were an experiment over 150 years ago. The nine of us, and our little brother whose place you have taken. Yuuji… unfortunately was also an experiment, but was a success. Since he was created solely to be the vessel to Sukuna."

Yuuji nodded to it all as he began to toy with his spoon. "To think… that's what I was put on this earth for…" he said.

"But not now… I mean. You don't contain Sukuna anymore, you have a dragon in you!" Junpei said.

Yuuji's mindset didn't alter the least bit. "There are people, sorcerers associated with divine energy, wanting the dragon for themselves. They think since I have my curse energy and it came from Sukuna, I would corrupt the dragon. I nearly was killed because of it."

Junpei went silent, suddenly, he heard someone scrapping the table top in anger, only to realize it was Tanso doing so. His eyes even turned to that of a beast!

"My troubles have not gotten any better either. The council and elders still want me dead, thinking I will become the next Sukuna. The divine want me dead to extract the dragon out of me… At the moment… I don't really know what the next course of action would be to take. What would be best for everyone…"

There was silence.

None of the brothers knew what to say, yet Junpei…

"What's would be best for Yuuji?" he asked aloud. Itadori peered over at him, Junpei smiled warmly to him. "There you go again, thinking of everyone else before yourself. That's not fair now is it?" he asked.

"Junpei, you don't understand… a lot has happened, when Sukuna took over me… I… he…" he stammered but couldn't bring himself to speak it.

"The Shibuya incident was not your doing." Choso said aloud.

Shibuya?

Junpei's mind suddenly filled with images as to what happened, so many people were killed. Sukuna took over and summoned a domain, slaughtering everyone within it. Yuuji… Yuuji blamed himself for that.

"I should have kept a better control over him!" he protested.

"But I was the one who knocked you out," Choso said grimly. "That is on my head, not yours. Had I known sooner that you were my brother, I never would have fought you. I would have died protecting you!" he protested. "What happened was because of me!"

"You can't blame yourself for that either, Choso. You didn't know, right?" Junpei asked.

"But as the older brother…"

"It doesn't matter if you were or weren't. What happened has happened. The past can't be changed. We're all aware of that, aren't we?"

A grim nod came from the table. "As such, we need to keep moving forward, it's all we can do."

The brothers agreed, and yet Yuuji didn't appear to be in much better shape than before. "Yuuji… wanna watch a movie with us?"

A small smile came over him as he nodded. "Sure, let's watch something good."