Chapter 35
The next day, the photos were released to the world.
The photo shoot that Suiryu and Nobara did with Yuuji was going to be printed today and featured in the main article. D'angelo gave Suiryu a heads up and advance copy of the magazine they would be featured in.
However there was something odd going on, the article written and posted in the fashion magazine that D'angelo happens to edit, had NO pictures of Yuuji in them! In fact, they were all of him and Nobara! "Wait… did he…" Suiryu muttered as he paused and read the article. It was made up fluff on how Suiryu and Nobara got together, there was nothing about them having a child in it, but how they came to be and what attracted Suiryu to her to begin with.
It was a well-written article of fluff to say the least, and yet, why did D'angelo do this for him?
He would have to ask him later on it, at the moment, his focus has been back on Yuuji.
Things haven't been the same since yesterday. Yuuji went down for his nap after 'burrito time', Suiryu took him to his 'nest' and laid down next to him for his nap. Normally he would sleep for three hours before being full of energy once more. Yet, after three hours passed. He didn't wake up.
Yuuji has remained asleep for the past day, and there was no sign of him waking up.
"Yuuji… Yuuji…" Suiryu would say gently and carefully try to cox him awake, but there was no effort on Yuuji's part to do so. There have been loud sounds coming from the kitchen. In fact, Nobara dropped a pan just twenty minutes ago and it sounded louder than usual. Yuuji didn't even flinch or react to it.
He's always been sensitive to noises!
It was starting to get worrying for Suiryu, he called for Choso to see if he could offer some insight, yet as Choso placed his hand on Yuuji's back, he paused. "I… can't wake him," he said gently. "Little brother's mind is closed off… I can't sense what is happening to him… perhaps a growth spurt?"
"But he's never slept this long before" Suiryu protested. "No, something isn't right here…"
"Do we ask Satoru?"
"What would he know? I got more knowledge than him, he won't know a damn thing about this… shit… what's happening to him now? Where's the great lady too? Shouldn't he have been fed by now!?"
He has never felt this way before, something in Suiryu was making him feel strange, as if he had no power over the situation at hand. There was a pit forming in his stomach that wouldn't go away, as well… thoughts that have never come to his mind began to flood into him.
'Is this my fault? Did I do something wrong? Did I miss something? Mess something up for him to fall asleep like this? What can I do? How do I fix this? Can I fix this? Can I use jujutsu without harming him?'
"Suiryu?"
He jumped as a hand came onto his shoulder. Choso snapped him back into reality. "Sorry… just going through things in my head…"
"This isn't your doing." He said gently. "Little brother is perhaps growing, or this is the final part of the test he has to take?" he suggested.
But he didn't know anymore. Whatever it was, it didn't sit well with him.
#
Meanwhile…
Sukuna knew something was afoot.
The brat has been acting very odd as of late, they still spar each day, and he is certain that he doesn't allow the kid to obtain any of his energy or learns how to absorb it through strikes, yet he is noticing an odd pattern. Despite the constant defeat, the brat keeps up with him, he alters his moves and makes foolish mistakes that allow Sukuna to capitalize on them. Still, why is he doing such a thing?
No matter how badly he is defeated, he is never bitter about it. He takes it in stride and thanks him for his time. Nothing more. He doesn't care where the boy goes when the spar session is over, half the time, he finds him in his personal hot spring! That alone pisses him off, but at the same time he has to maintain this front he painted for the boy. He has to prove to him he IS the other half that he is missing from his soul. That way he can overwhelm him and return to the living world.
Today, it was different.
Sukuna wondered about the domain, looking for the boy, but found no sign of him. "Brat?" he called oddly. But there was no answer. He continued to look about, until he sighed aloud and didn't care anymore. He will wait for the boy to come to him for a spar session, in the mean time, he will bide his time on his throne of skulls.
Just as he was about to ascend the mountain of skulls, he froze for someone was sitting in his seat!
The boy sat there with such content!
As if he owned the place!
"What the hell are you doing!?" he demanded.
He merely smirked as he peered about. "I think it's about time for a change of scenery…" he said offhandedly, the odd thing was, the kid has picked up on his mannerisms and tone!
"Oh?" he asked curiously. Perhaps this was the moment, the brat is fooled into thinking that Sukuna is indeed his missing half. "Why didn't you say so! I agree, this is getting a little boring isn't it?" he said and smiled wickedly.
Yet the boy didn't move from his seat. "Oh? You assume you're coming with me?" he demanded. But then snickered. "Oh that's a good one, yeah, no…" he said and shook his head.
Sukuna paused. "What do you mean? We're the same!" he protested.
"Prove it,"
"What?"
"Prove to me we're the same, quite frankly, I've noticed you are… lacking in many areas…"
Lacking? Is this boy serious?!
Sukuna froze before he forced a smile, he clenched his teeth and said. "Oh… really?" through them, trying not to give way his true nature. "Then please… enlighten me!"
He stood up off the throne, but then vanished. Sukuna knew he went behind him and turned to see him lingering, it was a chance to strike, and yet, he didn't fall for the bait. The boy ALWAYS falls for a chance at an easy strike!
"It occurred to me a while back… the 7639 battle we had… we have fought quite a bit, every day in fact and it feels like a thousand years… so we've fought at least 360000 times…"
"365000. But, whose counting and you lost all of them!" Sukuna snickered. "So why are you suddenly lecturing me about lacking?" he asked in a rather annoyed tone, but he did so with a smile on his face.
The brat merely smiled back. "I lost on purpose you know," he said. "After all, how often can you use the same move over and over again? Did you not realize it at the time? No matter how often I fought you, I merely switched up my moves just a little bit, but it forced you to act more carefully at times… then, it forced you to use more power… than more skills… more evasion…" he asked offhandedly and yet, gave a sinister look as he explained himself. "You see Ryomen… I now know and understand how you fight, from your footwork… to your stance… to your jujutsu… I know it all now!"
He smirked. "Really?" he demanded. "If that's the case, then you realize we are one in the same, you jujutsu is the same as mine…"
"That in itself is a fluke."
Sukuna froze. Did the brat really figure that out on his own?!
The boy stared at his arms and back at him. "Let's prove it, shall we?" he was fast, nearly too fast to see the strike! Yet Sukuna avoided a blast that took out a good chunk of cow skulls at the base of his throne!
"Not bad…" he said offhandedly.
"Better than yours,"
His rage was getting the better of him now. "You wouldn't know ANYTHING, if it weren't for me!" he protested. "We're one in the same so FUSE WITH ME NOW!" he ordered and put out his hand.
Itadori brushed it off. "We're far from it, you're too weak to be my equal, let alone missing half."
"You… you son of a bitch!"
In his rage, Sukuna went at him, although he has thousands of ways of defeating and shutting him up, his mind couldn't choose just one. And yet, each time he went for a strike… it was countered, blocked and pushed aside! It was just like the first time he fought in his innate domain, the problem was… Sukuna was losing!
He was too fast, he moved with ease and saw the strikes coming ahead of time. The smirk on his face only grew as he began to act more like himself, he really was rubbing off on the kid! Still, he won't let this go. There is NO WAY that boy is stronger than him!
The parallels however became to rear their ugly head as Sukuna found himself feeling the same frustration the brat did when they first battled. They even took the fight up the rib cage just like the last time, and yet, Sukuna was the kid and the one being toyed with!
"Impossible, this is impossible… YOU CAN'T BE STRONGER THAN ME! I'M THE KING OF CURSES, YOU ARE A NOBODY, A STUPID BOY!" he shouted in frustration. He tried to go for another blow, mustering his strength to go as fast as possible when he was suddenly cut off, and tripped! Sukuna quickly got to his feet but was then carelessly kicked of the side! He landed face first in the ground below in a shallow pool of water. Before he could even get up, he was forced down again as the brat landed on his back and took a seat rather contently.
He snickered to it all. "This feels familiar, and yet oddly satisfying to me. Something tells me this happened once before, but I can't quite put my finger on it…"
Sukuna tried to stand up, yet somehow the boy felt as if he weight far more than he should! The back of his head was grabbed as he was shoved face first into the water once more. "Hey, I didn't say you could get up. Stay down," he ordered and continued to sit on him.
"By the way, I knew you weren't part of me the moment you tried to fuse the first time around and our hands were repelled. I had someone whisper in my head, 'don't trust him, get stronger first' and so, I trusted that voice more than you."
"Shut up…"
"I still don't know my own name, but I know it's not Sukuna. I am hearing voices… one in particular… sounds a lot like you but has meaning in their words…"
"What the fuck are you talking about!" Sukuna demanded. "Do you even hear yourself?! If you know I am not part of you, what makes you think there is something out there with MY voice trying to encourage you!" he demanded.
He shrugged his shoulders to it all. "I don't quite understand it myself, but still, that voice… it puts my mind at ease. I hear it when I meditate, by the way, your hot spring was a great source of curse energy." He said and snickered. "You never realized that your own curse energy went into that damn hot spring you treasured so much… it was like a place to recharge and gain more vitality, even thought it wasn't mine…" he laughed.
"YOU….."
"Ah, ah, mind yourself…" the boy gently scolded as he suddenly started to toy with his hair of all things. "After all… I still haven't figured out yet how to leave this place. You won't be coming with me to say the least. Yet, at the same time; thanks for the lessons, the energy and the knowledge I gained, it made it all the more easier to defeat you…"
He started to toy with his hair, then, maliciously started to pluck them off of Sukuna's head! "This can't be happening to me! THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!" he shouted in rage.
The boy didn't even flinch from his tone, he merely sighed aloud out of boredom. "You no longer amuse me," he said in a flat tone. Suddenly, the brat grabbed his head and began to pull back, slowly, and with more and more force!
"Stop! What the fuck are you doing stop! STOP!"
Snap…
#
He stared down at him. Perhaps he could call him a mentor of some sort, but the fact remains, whoever this guy was, had been using him for plans of his own. Itadori knew it the moment their hands became repelled the first time he offered and tried to fuse with Ryomen.
As he heard the spine snap, he released his grasp upon him, dropping Ryomen face first into the water. There were a few bubbles as he tried to move, but eventually he fell silent and the bubbles stop. "I know that won't kill you, since it didn't kill me the last time you did that… let's see… ah, I remember, fight 328. I hit you for the first time and it pissed you off…" he recalled, but that was in the past now.
He took and memorized every defeat he had. After all, Itadori adopted a simple philosophy. He could lose ten thousand times, but he only had to win once. In those defeats, he saw everything Ryomen possessed. As such he kept pushing him to reveal more of his tricks and methods until nothing was left to learn. There is no doubt still more to absorb in knowledge, but for the time being, he was rather satisfied to his gain.
"Now, to get out of here…" he muttered and peered about the domain. "Needless to say this place isn't mine, I don't think I am this twisted to concept something so decrepit," he said aloud. But peering down to Ryomen, he merely smirked. "But apparently you are…"
He finally got off of his back and looked about once more. "I know I hear that voice whenever I meditate… Now, where to do such a thing… well, perhaps a view from the top is best." He made his way back up the throne of skulls and took a seat. From there he focused.
Itadori has seen a lot of things come and go in his mind, many of them don't make sense to say the least. He sees people who call him by his name, and yet, he doesn't remember any of them.
"Who are you people? Why are you in my thoughts and meditation?" he muttered as he began to try and muse once more. He saw one man with a blindfold over his eyes yet walked the world unhindered. There was a wild and yet savage woman with short orange hair who made him shutter. Then, there was someone similar to age in him, with strange black hair that spiked all over the place. But his face was rather stern as his voice was straight forward and oddly calming.
Yet one face haunts him.
The one that nearly made him doubt the voice that warned him of Ryomen.
He was the spitting image of him, and yet, when he looked into the face of this person, there was a strange and yet odd difference. There was light and life in his eyes, he smiled with great sincerity too. "Oh come on, you can't tell me you haven't tried that before?!" the stranger demanded.
"I don't know, I mean, is it safe?" Itadori heard his own voice ask. He felt as if he were watching everything through his own eyes.
"You doubt your own brother?"
"I wouldn't say doubt… leery, yes!"
He rolled his eyes to it all. "I won't have you try and anything that would seriously harm you. I ain't that Sukuna bastard you know!" he protested with a slight pout on his face. "Besides, this could be fun…"
His eyes snapped open. "Why… is he there?" Itadori muttered.
Yet the more he tried to think, the more he heard something echoing the domain. It was like a whisper at first, until the voice grew stronger. "Please… please wake up, Yuuji, please…"
Yuuji… he heard that name spoken before. But… is it referring to him? "Is that my name?" he wondered.
But the voice grew louder.
"For the love of God, Yuuji, wake up!" the voice protested. "You HAVE to wake up! I… I can't do anything to help you… I… I never felt so powerless before… Please, you have to wake up. I… I don't know what I would do if something happened to you… You were the only one who saw me, who cared for me, that lone grain of kindness in a deplorable bastard. How could you see something like that in Ryomen Sukuna!"
His eyes narrowed down. Ryomen was just coming too, healing himself as he sat up from the water.
"Ryomen Sukuna…" Yuuji said aloud.
He reacted.
"Figured it out have you?" he smiled wickedly towards Itadori as he picked himself off the ground. "So what now, brat? You still have no idea who you are, and yet… I do. I know EVERYTHING about you!"
Itadori merely stared at him. "Hmm, I sincerely doubt that you do…"
Sukuna snickered to him. "It doesn't matter if you do or not, either way. You are trapped here with me! A permanent limbo as it were, but this domain… IS MINE!" he decreed.
"And I should care, why…" Yuuji asked in an unimpressed tone. He stood up off the throne of skulls, only to pause to hear someone weeping.
Even Sukuna heard it. "Who the fuck is that?" he demanded.
"Yuuji, please… please wake up!"
Suddenly, Sukuna froze. "That's my voice…" he muttered.
Itadori reacted, in no time, he was on the ground, holding Ryomen by the throat. "So you do know that voice…"
"Of course you idiot it's MINE!" he snapped back, but there was confusion written all over his face. "But how is it outside of here?"
Itadori could already see the gears turning in Ryomen's head. He was quick to throw him into the pile of skulls, he was rather content to see the lire impaled on a few of the horns. "So… it's YOUR voice… but it's not you… then who is it?" Itadori demanded.
Sukuna was already prying himself out of the skulls, he tore them out of his body before he sneered. "How should I know!" he snapped back.
The smile came over Itadori. "And you said you knew EVERYTHING about me… I want you gone,"
This time, Sukuna smirked. "Oh really? Then do it yourself, BRAT!" he demanded.
Itadori sneered at him, but then, he felt his heart beating oddly. It was a strange rhythm, and yet, as he felt it, it began to resonate throughout this place! "What… what's happening!?" Ryomen demanded. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"
The throne of skulls collapsed, in fact, the whole place was coming down! "WHAT'S HAPPENING BRAT? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Sukuna screamed. Itadori didn't know, but a black hole suddenly opened up and pulled everything into it!
Well, everything but him. He stood and merely watched this world around him fall into itself and get pulled into the hole. Even Sukuna who held on to the ground for dear life! "NO, I AM SO CLOSE, SO CLOSE!" He screamed, but he too was pulled in, until the world around Itadori became nothing more than white…
