Chapter 25
A few days later…
"Someone tried to set Yuuji on fire?!"
He had just finished doing his rounds with the brothers, Junpei was circling back when he saw Eso and Tanso outside along with Suiryu. The brothers appeared devastated, Suiryu explained Yuuji has gone into his third elemental phase, however he has been planted.
"Think of him as a really big tree right now…" he said, but sounded pissed off. "The damn councilmen, they sent others out to do their dirty work… do they have ANY idea what would have happened if Yuuji died from that?!"
Junpei and the brothers froze. "What would have happened?" Eso asked nervously.
Suiryu smirked for a moment, shaking his head to it all. "An explosion of elemental power would be an understatement… consider this, I don't know if you are aware, but if Yuuji mixes divine and curse energy together without proper balance, he could take out half of Japan. Now, when it comes to elemental… same thing but the place would be terra formed into a rainforest."
Junpei gulped.
That serious… imagine if they tried to take him out when he was a walking volcano… or when he was trapped in the water… it would have been a devastating disaster!
"He's a walking nature bomb…" whispered Eso.
"If you try to kill him, yeah!" Suiryu snapped back. "I dealt with those who hurt him. Kitsune punished them serverly, all who set Yuuji on fire, are suffering with third degree burns and will continue to do so until this phase ends." He was about to speak farther until his phone went off.
Junpei snickered as he heard the voice of D'angelo, the photographer. Begging Suiryu if he knew a band that could play. When he hung up, Suiryu turned to the three of them with a devious look on his face. "You… are all good at playing those expensive instruments I got you, right?" he asked.
"We can play anything we have heard once." Eso explained. "Doesn't matter the genera."
"Oh good!" he said as the smile grew. "I think we're about to become a rock band…" but he paused and stared at Junpei. "This… needs work." He said motioning to all of him.
"Oh… uh…"
Suiryu rolled his eyes as he suddenly tore a hole in the fabric of reality!
"What the hell!"
"Curse storage," he explained. He began to rummage through until he found something, pulling out two massive jugs, he offered them to Junpei. "Drink up, but focus on what kind of body you want."
"Huh?"
"Your curse ability, and I saw you do this before, your body will grow and adjust itself to hold more blood. Take this shit into you right now and modify your beanstalk frame to that of a rock star… use me as your guide" he said and posed rather dramatically. "You can't be a rock star looking like a pre teen. So drink up!"
He wanted to refuse, and yet his side mouths were starting to drool with anticipation. Taking his shirt off, he drank the blood through his side mouths. From there, he started to push it around his body. He was able to broaden his shoulders, but looked disproportionate.
"Well that's awkward…" Suiryu muttered. "We need to get you more blood…" he checked his storage once more.
"Why do you keep curse blood?" Junpei asked nervously.
Suiryu paused, he took a moment to consider what he would say but then shrugged. "Wanted to see if it would keep in storage, you know when you take out a curse they tend to just… disappear right? The blood however is rather viable… so I stored it just in case, sometimes it can be used as a bait to get other curses to come out of hiding." He explained.
In short, Junpei felt Suiryu merely kept the blood just for the hell of it.
He was fed more and more of it, until he grew four inches and put on fifty pounds of muscle. When he was done, Junpei… didn't look like himself anymore. He even took a moment to look in the mirror and saw his face matured. He appeared older and stronger but at the same time… he looked good!
"Not bad, buffed, but not too buff. Okay, let's go." Suiryu called.
"Wait, what are we going to play? Who is going to sing?"
Suiryu turned to him and smirk. "I'm going to be your lead singer here, as for what we play… you guys heard of Disturbed? That singer has a baritone voice like me. I can mimic that perfectly, as well I like some of the gruff stuff they sing."
#
They made their way into the studio.
Junpei kept hidden and out of sight for the moment, Suiryu explained that D'angelo's client was looking for a horror metal band in a sense. So they were going all natural. Suiryu even paused and asked if Junpei would play with his shirt off. "You got the look…"
"But the mouths…" he whispered discreetly.
"Use them to our advantage, besides…" he took off the dragon fang, his curse marks came in full. "I am going in like this… you think I want to exploit that bastard's look, but I am going to use what I got," he decreed.
Tanso didn't change at all, his still wore his black leather pants with various strips of fur attached to his waistline.
Eso was wearing a black leather pants, and had a rather odd leather strapping coming around his chest area. Yet he sighed aloud and went into the bag he brought. He put on a leather vest to cover his back.
"I am still not comfortable with that…" he muttered.
"Whatever, come on let's freak these guys out!" Suiryu called.
#
It was… fun.
Junpei never thought he would play in a band, let alone be this good at guitar. And yet, he couldn't help but get caught up in the moment of the performance. Suiryu was a dead ringer for the Disturbed led singer, and the brothers didn't miss a beat… he never knew Tanso and Eso listened to this band!
But when it was all said and done, they were speaking alone with a sorcerer. One who hasn't associated with the jujutsu council or society. Inei is able to gather curse energy into his cane, and then, he can use what he has gathered to expel that energy into an attack. Curious, even Suiryu was fascinated by his technique.
But what really caught him off guard was the fact that Inei knew the death paintings and pegged them right away!
Then again, they all have that certain… look you could say.
"So… who are you really? Suiryu Itadori…" Inei asked.
Suiryu got comfortable and explained everything to him, even Junpei and the brothers. "To be honest, I am just trying to help out D'angelo since the previous guys you were suppose to see sucked. Yet, after doing one song, I find this rather amusing and fun… I wouldn't mind doing it again… but on a bigger stage. Better still…" Suiryu suddenly stood and began to pace about in thought. They had spoken earlier about naming their band Ryomen Sukuna for various reasons; the main one, to change his name from being feared to being loved. Curses feed off of fear of course, and there is no sorcerer in this world that wouldn't know his name!
Yet, to humans, if they associate Ryomen Sukuna with a rock star, and a damn good one at that… it will be beloved, cheered and therefore the negative energy being given to the name… will be outweighed by positive energy.
That's the idea though.
But there was something more going on for Suiryu; his mind appears to be racing as he soon bore a devious grin. "Gentlemen, I propose we make the biggest rock event of the year… no… a rock OPERA!" Suiryu said with great excitement. "The Ballard of Ryomen Sukuna and Kiju Itami!"
Junpei froze, so did the brothers. "Wait, a rock opera? Suiryu, we JUST started playing!" he protested.
"This is all very sudden…" Eso muttered.
Tanso nodded in agreement.
Suiryu however, was determained. "At the moment, I think we NEED to do this, not for the sake of making a name for ourselves, but for Yuuji. Ever since the incident… he has not been a happy camper. Quite frankly, I am worried he is getting depressed. SO, with that being said, I think we need to cheer him up with a special show just for him. But the world will be watching!"
Even Inei appeared shocked. "Are you suggesting we do a rock opera of the demon vessel?" he asked in disbelief. "Quite fankly, if we do this, the elders will have us killed!"
"Well, you sure. How the hell are they going to kill me?" Suiryu asked curiously.
He didn't mean to sound like a smartass about it. It was a legitimate question!
Suiryu may not have to worry, but everyone else in the room did! "Look, this is going to be MY idea, MY vision. So if the elders are going to be pissed off at anyone, it's gonna be me. SO, with that being said. I think we need to do a grand performance! For the sake of my brother… we need to do this."
That last part… Junpei didn't realize how serious he was. Looking back, the opera wasn't made to piss off the elders… it was made to help Yuuji heal from his past trauma…
