Chapter 18

It happened.

The confrontation everyone in the studio was waiting for.

Suiryu kept himself out of sight for the most part until he decided it was time to make his presence known. The crowd has only grown around Adonis to say the least, but now, it was time to see who is the bigger draw. "Some party going on here…" Suiryu called aloud.

People stopped and froze to his voice. There came whispers of excitement and worry now as Suiryu's focus came upon Adonis himself.

The man was a good two feet taller than him, which was fine, after all. Suiryu's body is still that of a sixteen year old, he isn't fully grown yet. Adonis on the other hand was grinning from ear to ear. "And what is this mutt doing here?" he asked aloud.

People gasped in shock.

Suiryu smirked, 'I see, you're the big dog of this place… people hold you in high regards and take your word rather seriously…' he thought. But his smile only grew. "Well, this mutt as you say… took over your yard when you were suppose to be put down."

The gasps only grew as someone even fainted.

Adonis smirked. "D'angelo… take this boy out of my sight!" he ordered.

However, D'angelo didn't. "Sorry sweetie, but I hate to tell you this. He's is top dog around here. Suiryu Itadori is our biggest and best model here, in fact… I dare to say he's become more popular than you."

Jaws now dropped. Adonis froze, his legions who gathered behind him were rendered still and silent to the news. "Impossible, this mutt…"

"Suiryu," he said gently. "My name… is Suiryu. Or, you are welcome to call me by my rock star name… Ryomen Sukuna." He said rather proudly. "Ryomen is fine," he insisted with a grin.

Those behind him appeared a little pale. Adonis merely smiled to him. "We shall see about that, perhaps you are just a little too young to understand you place."

'Ah, trying to get me to fight already huh?' Suiryu thought.

He merely shrugged his shoulders. "That's okay, you appear to be having the same problem as me. No worries, we will sort the pecking order soon enough," he said in a rather calm and uncaring tone. "D'angelo, what's on the menu for today?"

"Darlings, we have a job, in fact this is a BIG company that hired the both of you to be in their ad. So we got to work together and find balance between you two and making you both shine," he explained.

"Whatever you need to do," Suiryu said.

Adonis however sneered. "What is with that trash around your neck?" he demanded. "Take it off this instant!"

"Trash?" Suiryu demanded. "You talking about my piece here? Nah, you didn't just insult my look, did you?"

"What if I did?"

"Boys, boys, please, not here!" pleaded D'angelo.

"I wanna hear what he has to say about my necklace. It was given to me by a friend who passed away, and you dare to tell me it is trash?" Suiryu asked and yet he instantly changed his tone. He had heard Yuuji sound pathetic before, and he thinks he just got the right tone for it as people stopped and stared at Adonis for his harsh words.

"All I am saying is that it's unfitting for a model to be wearing something like that, it's going to take the focus off of you, isn't it?"

"Not in the least bit, in fact, that's Suiryu's signature look!" D'angelo said rather proudly. "Everyone knows they got the real deal when he wears that. So much so it's in his contract, he can't take it off when doing a photo shoot. Even our buyers are insisting he wears it, so people know it's really him advertising their product."

A sneer came over him, he lost this round. Suiryu on the other hand was smiling a smug grin. "Well, let's get started then, what do we need to wear today?"

#

Needless to say, to get under this guy's skin, Suiryu had to be on his best behavior!

It was the only thing he could think of at the time to ensure that he annoyed this divine user to no end, second, make him look like the bad guy. It was easy to do to say the least. Manipulating the situation into his favor, not to mention acting overly nice to everyone too only cemented his plan. Throughout the day, Suiryu would be polite, kind and do what he is told with no attitude whatsoever. He did act like this often too, despite not liking something, he did it anyway so it would be done and over with.

Today happened to be one of those photo shoots he wasn't interested in. For one, they were wearing business suits, a lot of them to say the least. He had to look sophisticated and classy all at once. He did so with ease, as he found the ladies were really swooning over him this time around.

Adonis also had his adoring fans fawn over him as well, but there was something odd about his entourage. It was similar to D'angelo and those who followed him about, but they… felt very different to him.

'How can I not notice that?' Suiryu thought to himself. He kept to the back of the room, away from Adonis. Mainly it was to observe him, yet he wanted to know more about those who followed him. When Adonis looked towards them, they were all smiles and happy.

The moment he's away or even out of the room, a sense of dread came over their faces. They don't want to be around him, that was the main vibe he was getting off of them. "Everything okay?"

He peered to his right and saw one of D'angelo's assistance. "Peachy," he said with a forced grin, but looked back to Adonis's legions.

"The name is Rufus,"

He paused oddly, looking back, he stared at the man name Rufus. He was oddly tall and strongly built, yet similar to Tanso if he were to compare him to someone, yet preferred a black leather look. He wore black leather pants and a vest yet he looked more like a refined biker than anything. He was bald yet had a rather refined goatee on his face. "You're not… Dating D'angelo… are you?" Suiryu said discreetly.

Rufus snickered. "No," he insisted. "I dress this way for it is D'angelo's image and I wish to honor it. It's not that bad to be honest, he lets me pick and design my own fashion."

Suiryu merely nodded as he looked back at the legions. Their eyes were casted to the ground. They appeared broken and defeated. "What the hell is with this, why does it bother me?" he muttered. Normally he wouldn't care about another person's suffering unless they were close to him. Yet he hasn't met any of these people, he should care even less about them since they follow Adonis blindly.

Still, it ate away at him.

"That's because you see the truth," Rufus whispered.

Suiryu paused. "The truth?"

"If they truly adored him, they would be at his side. They would always be smiling and happy to be in his company. Yet, you already noticed their happy look is forced, when he's gone they are most at ease and relaxed. Why would that be?"

Hint received.

Suiryu paused as he peered them over once more, there was something about their look that didn't with well with him either. Mainly it was nearing the end of summer, the weather was a hot as ever and yet they were wearing turtlenecks.

"What exactly do you know of the divine… Suiryu Itadori?" Rufus asked.

He smirked. "A lot of them are assholes,"

"Yes, but something else you should know too, the more a divine user has in summons, the more energy they gain, increasing their own power through bonds. Even if those bonds are forced."

He turned to Rufus, and yet, he vanished!

Suiryu paused to consider what was said, but it also gave him another clue as to why they want his brother that badly. Not only to increase their legions, but power as well. If someone were to try and make a bond contract with Yuuji, then their power would increase to God knows what. "Thanks for the hint and warning…" Suiryu whispered. "Perhaps something more needs to be done… I'll keep toying with this one for a while…"