Chapter 4

By the weekend, he was down to four teeth.

Yuuji was frustrated to say the least, not to mention he found there being little point to keeping the four that he has in his mouth much longer. Yet he sat at the table with Suiryu, admiring the meal his brother was eating and wanting to have some too. Yet now, no food tastes right to him. It's sour and has an odd flavor to it, even beverages are off limits with the exception of water.

The smell of it all too, as savory as it smelt before, when he starts to crave to eat it, the smell then changes to something repugnant. As if telling him 'No, you can't have that!'

He sighed to it all, but didn't notice the odd look Suiryu was giving him. He appeared rather annoyed as he ate, his eyes spoke that rather clearly.

He went for another mouthful of food, when suddenly, he lowered his chopsticks. "Fuck it, let's go," he announced.

"Go?" Yuuji asked.

"See this doc you've been going to, I wonder if she truly that good at her job…" he muttered in annoyance.

"Suiryu… maybe this is just a curse as you said before…"

"Curse my ass," he muttered. "If it were, you would have lost all your teeth at once! This is happening in stages… this… isn't right" He sneered. "Besides, I can't stand to see you look so pathetic, you haven't eaten in three days!"

It was true, but, it's been more than three days since his last, full meal. In fact, when he took a bite of that kimchi burger was the last solid thing he ate. He has tried to eat, but found that his tastes have change and his stomach gets upset if anything heavy hit is. Yet for a strange reason, he feels as if he does get something to eat at night, he wakes up full the next morning, but as of late, he needs more of it. "Let's go see Dr. Shoko again…"

Suiryu nodded in agreement.

Abandoning the meal they went to the medical lab, Suiryu merely barged in as the doctor was at work, but once she saw the two she appeared to put a stop to it. "Oh, you again huh?" she asked. "Look, I checked everything over with you, there's nothing I can do about your lost tooth…" she said.

"Try teeth now," Suiryu muttered. Yuuji opened his mouth and revealed his last four teeth, and one just happened to have dropped out of his jaw!

He was quick to cover up again, but she appeared stunned. "How?" she muttered. "I even checked your mouth before, this isn't a jujutsu to say the least!"

"That's what I was thinking," Suiryu said as he began to reflect. "If it were, I would have sensed it and he could easily reverse the technique, but this… this isn't curse energy doing this."

"Then what?" Yuuji asked as another tooth flew out.

He sighed with defeat, reaching into his mouth he took the other two out by force and threw them against the wall. They didn't shatter… but they took a good chunk of the wall along with them! Suiryu was even impressed. "Remind me to switch to your toothpaste…"

Yuuji glared at him, just as his stomach roared.

"UMPH" a strange sound came out of Yuuji! It sounded like an odd bellowing chirp, yet it was loud that the whole room heard it!

Suiryu glared at him. "What the fuck was that?!" he demanded.

Yuuji didn't know, it just came out of him! "Young master?"

He jumped as Kitsune came out of nowhere. "Kitsune… my teeth…" he said in an embarrassing tone.

She wasn't worried to say the least. "Teeth grow back young master, but how are you doing? Have you eaten well?"

He shook his head no to her, just as his stomach roared in hunger.

She paused for a moment as her eyes glared at Suiryu. "What?!" he demanded of her.

"You will not mock him for what I am about to offer, understood!" she demanded.

"Whatever," he muttered.

Suiryu however watched closely as Kitsune pulled out a rather long pitcher with a nub at the end of it. As she passed it to Yuuji, he caught the smell emitting off of it.

The stench of it all made his nose scrunch. "What the hell is that?! It reeks!" he protested.

Yuuji sniffed the bottle but didn't find it gross. He was quick to suckle it down and finish the pitcher when he passed it back to Kitsune. Instantly he felt full and satisfied. "Thank you, I needed that," he said gently.

"Kitsune…" Suiryu demanded in a warning tone. "What did you just feed him?"

She merely smiled to Yuuji. "It's… a specialty of the divine creatures…" she said but appeared too distracted. "If young master desires more, I will be more than happy to supply him more." She said and lowered her head. "Don't be shy now young master, there is plenty for you."

"Thank you, if it can keep me full like this I'll happily take it… food isn't appealing to me at all," he said honestly.

She merely nodded and vanished shortly after. Yuuji appears that he, himself doesn't know what he is consuming. Suiryu appeared more distrusting of her by the minute.

"Uh, who were you two talking to?" Dr. Shoko asked.

"Oh right divine creature… nothing," Suiryu lied. "Let's go bro, we got to talk…"

#

As they walked out of the lab, the distrust in Suiryu grew. "She knows," he said bitterly.

"Huh?"

"Kitsune, she knows what's happening to you."

He froze to the news. "Wait, if she does then why…"

"That's what I want to know." Suiryu said. He tried to think this over once more, time and time again, but nothing was coming to mind. There was something familiar about all of this but he couldn't put his finger on it. "We have to confront her on this,"

"How?" Yuuji asked. "Kitsune wouldn't hide something from me… would she?"

"I don't know, foxes are crafty to say the least, but at the same time she has tended to you well so I doubt this isn't to harm you…" he trailed off as he turned to Yuuji again. "Can you make that sound once more, at will?" he asked.

He paused and tried, but he couldn't get himself to make the noise. "It's weird, it was like it came from my sides and just… erupted out of me! I've heard it before too, it's like a baby alligator, they make a chirp or bellow something like that, but they sound like a laser gun."

"Baby alligators…." Suiryu muttered. 'Damn, why is this so familiar?' he thought to himself.

"You okay?"

"Are you? You just lost all your teeth, how are you even talking properly?!"

"Oh, jujutsu, make a small barrier in my mouth to mimic teeth… but ironically I can't make this barrier chew food for me… not that I want it anyways." He muttered.

Food…

"What did that drink taste like to you?"

He thought it over. Yuuji appeared to try to explain the taste of it, yet couldn't. "I… really don't know, all I know was it tasted good, it was thick like cream going down my throat and it filled me up."

"I still don't like where this is going…" Suiryu muttered with his arms cross. "Losing your teeth, lack of appetite, odd noises… huh…"

"Maybe it's not that big of a deal and we're just blowing it out of context?" Yuuji paused as his throat appeared to be sore. He cleared it briefly but sighed aloud. "That's also been bothering…" his voice cut out but he regained it again.

"Still think it's no big deal?" Suiryu smirked. "If only I were as naïve as you…" he sighed. "Brother, this isn't blowing it out of context, you heard me say so, and a jujutsu would have taken all your teeth at once. Being as powerful as you are, you would have lost perhaps one or two, and then transfigured yourself new ones. You can't do that right now at all can you? You said so yourself, you tried," he protested. His head hung shamefully. "Bro, this isn't curse energy at work,"

His eyes widened. "Divine?" he whispered.

"Yet to be proven, but I am strongly leaning towards it." He sighed aloud to it all. "Best you go and get some sleep. Rest up and we will have clearer heads for tomorrow."

As Yuuji went off to bed, Suiryu circled back to the medical lab. He took the teeth back from Shoko but she was insistent on having at least one of them. "This is fascinating, also I wanted to study Itadori up close…" she began to say.

But he took the tooth anyways from her. "Not until you have his permission." He warned. "Besides, sometimes, it's best not to pry too deeply into your own curiosity." He warned.

He pocketed the teeth.

Heading back to the dorm, he took one out and inspected it. "Not a speck of blood or tissue…" he muttered. The tooth was in perfect shape, there was no rot on it, let alone reveals the reason why it dropped out of his mouth. But the more he looked, the more it didn't sit well with him.

"What's happening to him… I should know this," he scolded himself.

But he heeded his own advice.

Reheating his meal he ate it before going to bed, and yet he couldn't ignore the fact he was missing something…

4 hours later…

He was just drifting off to sleep when he heard it once more.

The strange sound that came out of Yuuji back at the medical ward, he woke and decided to see for himself. Sneaking out of his room, Suiryu crept towards Yuuji's, but merely opened the door part way. Peering in, he saw her.

Kitsune was holding Yuuji up as she appeared to be bottle feeding him!

All the while, her eyes gazed down at him lovingly. Yuuji was still asleep, but drank whatever she brought as he slept!

"She's treating him like a baby…" he whispered.

Then it suddenly hit him.

"Oh fuck…" he muttered.