Chapter 12

Back and forth he went.

From Tokyo, to Kyoto, modeling on the weekends and back to Yuuji, Suiryu hasn't stopped in a week, but so far, things have been progressing.

The students in Tokyo had opted to all try and strike him down when it came to moving on to the next level of the mountain, but once more, they fell short. But he noticed their speed was improving. "Work on your curse energy next, your speed and cooperation are fine, you lack power." He ordered.

Despite the defeat, he saw his students appearing more accepting of his lessons and thanked him for his time.

After that, he went to Kyoto.

There wasn't an argument to be given about him training them. In fact Todo got everyone on the same page on the matter. He happened to have walked in just as he was giving the pep talk to everyone. "Despite where he came from, he showed us our short comings. The fact remains is this, he wasn't wrong. Not in the least bit!" he stated. "We either take this as an opportunity to grow, or we piss it away. I am not going to piss it away, he said my brother is going to need my help. If I don't improve to do that, then what good am I to him or to anyone else?" he said.

Suiryu of course sarcastically clapped. "Oh… beautiful… bravo!" he said in a mocking tone. "I nearly had a tear in my eye… Well one of the four… I don't know which."

Todo sneered at him. "You mock me?"

"Pissing you off is so easy, besides, I am doing it for your benefit too, get that energy of your flowing!" Suiryu snickered. "Now then, whose ready to run the mountain?"

They lasted five minutes today, they made it to the mountain but were instantly overwhelmed by the forces at hand. Still, despite their defeat, they were bitter about it, yet spoke of ways to improve and prepare better for tomorrow. "Increase your energy reserves. I won't tell you again as to how important that is."

With that lesson done, he went back to Yuuji.

Fortunately for him, his brother was unaware of his… alterations.

Not to mention the places where they have gone to destroy the finger bearers happen to be placed Suiryu himself set up. He has been trapping these curses himself for a while, leaving them in isolated areas out of harms ways but putting up a curtain to ensure none escaped and no one went in. The roundhouse was quickly cleared out when they went there. Yuuji who didn't appear to have an appetite was quick to snap up these monsters and devour them! Since then, he hasn't been able to really stop himself either.

Thus the alterations he's been going through.

Yuuji had bloated out as of late. His body accumulating mass and yet he appears unaware of it for the time being. He has at least tripled his original size, but again, has yet to notice anything wrong with himself. How fortunate though that where everything was gathering on Yuuji was behind him in his back. "Oh, hey Suiryu. Done already?" Yuuji asked innocently enough.

"Yeah I am, how do you feel?"

Yuuji paused as his stomach moaned. "Oddly hungry," he said aloud. "But we have plenty of food yet I don't want any of it,"

Suiryu smirked. "Then perhaps we got to clear out more curses…"

He saw his brother licking his lips in a greedy fashion. Despite the fact they have gone out every single day to do this, Yuuji appears oblivious to it all. "Mmm, those finger bearers are really starting to taste good. By the way, what do you do with the fingers?"

"I have them contained for the time being until we know what to do with them. If anything, we should find a way of destroying the fingers first before the sorcerer, or this is going to cause a huge headache later."

Yuuji agreed, he slowly eased himself up as he asked where they would be going today. "Hiroshima" he said. "The ghost town there has been set up for another deployment area for these curses…"

They left that moment.

Upon arrival, Suiryu mainly hung back as Yuuji went to work, the finger bearers were nothing to him… well, nothing more than appetizers to say the least. But this was all part of the plan too. 'He needs to consume special grade curses for this to work, if not, what may come of it will be below par of what is needed for the war to come.' He thought.

Yuuji was at it for an hour. He cleared the area on his own and was satisfied with his work, but at the same time, he began to look sick. His body was shifting and making strange sounds. Yuuji turned to him with concern. "Suiryu… I'm not feeling so good…"

He nodded and rushed him back to their campgrounds. Yuuji was acting up a lot more than usual as of late. His body continued to swell but now, something was occurring. Suiryu saw it too. Under his brother's skin, from his back he could see movement. Hands were pushing up against him and taking form! The problem though was when the limb began to push out of his body. It wouldn't retract back! Ready or not, these things were coming…

His body then quivered. "Ooooo!" moaned Yuuji painfully. "Why is this hurting now!?"

"We need to make you comfortable…"

Suiryu kept Yuuji outside, but he managed to wrangle out a large beanbag bed and had him lie stomach first on to it. As he did, Yuuji cringed in pain as his back and sides began to swell out. "GAH!" he yelped. "Suiryu… something's wrong!"

"Tell me, what do you feel?"

Yuuji's face etched with pain. "Like something is trying to break out of me!" he protested. "GAH!" he gripped the bed painfully. "Oh God, did I eat too many of them!?"

"No, just settle yourself brother and listen to me. I want you to focus. What comes to your mind each time you feel this pain?" he asked.

Yuuji cringed. "I… feel… desperation… loneliness… AH!" he shouted.

Suiryu saw his left side spills out, the flesh contorted into a blob before it was discarded to the ground! Suiryu froze as Yuuji has yet to open his eyes from the pain of it all. But as he looked, the mass began to form, taking shape with arms, legs and a head. It was slow, but it was working!

"What else!" Suiryu called. "What do you feel!"

He kept encouraging Yuuji to talk through his pain, yet as he did, one by one, masses of flesh were bubbling up from his back and his sides some containing limbs and facial features already, only to spill over and pull away from Yuuji as he shouted in pain.

He had done this for the past 4 hours.

Suiryu counted as he saw eight new faces, all of them have a proper human form, but the last one. He wasn't too sure of.

"AAAAHHHHH!" Yuuji shouted. But then, he went white in the face. "No…" Suiryu paused as he saw a mass trying to break free, yet Yuuji refused to allow it. He pulled it back into himself! Suiryu knew something was wrong as the mass was substantial to say the least, also he saw some grotesque features pushing out against Yuuji's back before he was pulled back into his body.

"That's not him! That's NOT HIM!" he shouted.

What was trying to break free was drawn in deeper into Yuuji but then, it began to push back once more, but it quickly reduced down, from there. Yuuji cringed as he screamed into the night one more time, before he passed out.

But he managed to let the last bit go.

Suiryu sighed aloud. "I see now why Sukuna didn't do this… too much pride in his own appearance…" he muttered. He spent the rest of the night moving about the new faces. He dragged them all off to the side and away from Yuuji as he rested. They were slow to wake at first, yet when they did. There was obvious confusion to say the least.

"Wait… how…"

"Eso?"

"Choso?!"

"You know each other… good."

Suiryu sat before them, the curse wombs were all given new bodies and now sat before him. "About damn time you woke…"

However their guard was up. "Who are you?" demanded Choso

"Suiryu," he said rather proudly. "Think of me as a fellow brother to you all!"

They glared at him oddly. "You, a brother?"

The largest out of the lot was more like a sumo wrestler but a little larger than them. He had black markings on his cauldron like stomach that appeared more like veins, they oozed blood like his brothers, but he wasn't the least bit bothered by it. "I don't know who the hell you think you are, but you are no brother!"

Suiryu shrugged. "Okay then," he said in an uncaring tone. "What about him? He's the one that gave you a new bodies to live in." he asked and pointed to Yuuji. He was out cold, muttering in his sleep but sounded like he was in a daze of confusion.

They froze as they stared at Yuuji, as if a connection to him was made. "Younger brother… did this for us?" asked Choso.

"Because he will need your help." Suiryu explained.

Before he could continue, he noticed the oldest and largest look about. "Where is he?" he demanded. "Where is our youngest? Where is Kechizu!"

Looking about, he only realized now that he was missing one of them. "Oh yeah, there were nine of you weren't there…"

Eso suddenly appeared ill. "Wait, I remember… Kechizu wasn't strong enough for this, wasn't he?"

"No, he wasn't," Suiryu said as gently as he could. "But his life force went into another, which makes him your new little brother." He explained.

"A new little brother… wait… yes… I sense it now…" Choso said. "We must find him at once!"

The others rose in agreement.

"Hold it!" Suiryu said in a serious tone. "Before you go wondering off on this, remember. This place has a barrier, he isn't going far, second, he is not the same brother you had before. Third, he goes by a different name!" he stated.

"Tell us then, what name does he wish to be called? We will honor it!" Choso stated.

Suiryu merely smiled. "His name…"

(author's note, to the manga readers, yes, I know Choso isn't dead yet, I am just assuming later on down the line his fate is sealed :p)