• notes •
I've omitted some canon parts; I'm assuming that you've read the manga or watched the anime.
On a side note, thank you for coming this far with me! I appreciate all the reads, favorites, and likes 3 Please feel free to leave suggestions as well (like if you wanna see a certain fluff scenario). Please enjoy the fluff in this chapter :)
"Yuji, you are pretty exceptional when it comes to close combat. Rin," Satoru looked at Rin (or she assumed he did through his blindfold), "you fight well with a sword. Well, I expected as much for the national champion in kendo."
Yuji looked at Rin with his mouth agape with admiration to which Rin noticed and looked down awkwardly.
The teacher continued, "You're also blessed with Time Manipulation. You also have a basic idea of how to use your Innate Cursed Technique. But right now, I want you to start from square one and learn the basics with Yuji. You two will learn how to control Cursed Energy.
"Every Jujutsu Sorcerer undergoes training to control their emotional state when using Cursed Energy, so when they're emotional, they don't end up depleting their stored Cursed Energy. Rin has already experienced this."
Rin nodded in agreement, recalling the experience.
"Training for this can take on many forms, but you guys are going to do a particularly tough one." Satoru pulled out many CD's. "Watching movies!"
Yuji and Rin exchanged looks of incredulity. "Watching...movies?!"
The teacher gave each student a stuffed animal. Rin scrutinized the somewhat familiar doll and watched in horror as the fist came closer to her face.
"Ow!" Rin and Yuji groaned in pain.
"The Cursed Corpse will wake up and attack you if it doesn't receive a consistent flow of cursed energy. We'll start by watching a movie without waking it up." Satoru walked over to the TV and turned it on. "So which one first?"
"ActionNNGH!" Yuji yelled when the doll whacked him in the face again. Rin clutched the asleep Cursed Doll in her arms in silent laughter.
• • •
In reaction to a whack, Rin looked sideways towards Yuji who was coughing on the floor.
"Not when I'm drinking!" he yelled in aggravation.
Rin silently laughed at Yuji again in attempts to conceal her amusement. She, on the other hand, already learned to release her Cursed Energy steadily; the doll might as well be in hibernation.
"Hey Rin! Why're you just sitting there like you're relaxing at some resort?!" he pointed accusingly at her as she endearingly pet the doll that laid peacefully on her lap as if soothing a baby to sleep.
"Well, I gotta blast now," the teacher interjected. "By the way, Yuji, did you talk with Sukuna while you're dead?"
Rin reacted to the unfamiliar name, and a shadow of a certain individual emerged in her mind. Disregarding the movie, she focused her attention on their conversation.
"Um..." Yuji pondered, "We did talk about something, but I don't really remember."
"I see. Well, good luck!" Satoru cheered and left the room.
"So Yuji, who's Sukuna?" Rin asked curiously.
Yuji laid back down on the couch. "Ah, did nobody tell you about him?"
She shook her head.
"He's basically a Cursed Spirit who lives in my body after I ate one of his fingers."
Rin didn't know what to be surprised about. The fact that Yuji ate a finger or that Yuji's Doppleganger was a Cursed Spirit—thought that explained why he looked like Yuji.
"I see," Rin replied, turning her gaze towards the TV screen. Her thoughts, however, were still on Yuji or perhaps that man who dwelled in his body.
It wouldn't hurt, right?
She stole a glance towards Yuji, who was already engrossed in the movie.
Ah, screw it. If I have the time to overthink... Rin closed her eyes and felt the flow of her Cursed Energy within her. Might as well go for it.
"I didn't expect for us to meet so soon, Rin Aiuchi."
Rin blinked. And blinked again. Then she realized that she was back in that man's Innate Domain. She tilted her head up, her gaze landing on the man: Sukuna.
"What a pathetic fight you've put up out there. You almost made me pity you."
She felt blood rush to her face; she knew that he was watching her. "Hey! It may not seem like it, but that doll is strong!" she hastily defended.
He snorted in disbelief. "Is that so?"
"Yes!" Rin huffed. "If you went against that doll, you would've suffered a blow too."
Immediately, a hand gripped her neck. Much to Rin's surprise, there was so little strength behind it that she didn't feel discomfort. Yet at that moment, she knew that Sukuna could rip her head off as if ripping a piece of paper. Her fear was soon replaced by self-consciousness when he leaned in towards her ear and murmured, "Really?"
Rin stumbled backwards, turning her body away and covering her face in embarrassment. "No," she muttered, an overdue response to his rhetorical question.
Sukuna suddenly appeared at her side, angling his body so he could see her face. "Your reactions make me wanna tease you more," he said, smirking at Rin's redder face.
Her instinct was to push his face away with her palm. "Stop looking at me like that, you creep!"
He threw up both hands in fake defeat. "Okay okay, calm down, woman."
Rin exhaled sharply in indignation and stomped her way towards the mountain of bones. "No invading my personal space," she commanded as if Sukuna was going to comply.
"Sure," he replied half-heartedly.
"Sure my ass," she muttered sarcastically. Shortly after she lowered her body onto some bones, she groaned in pain. "How the hell do you sit on these?"
Sukuna was instantly sitting next to her and smirked knowingly at her future response. "You want to use my lap instead?"
Rin's face immediately reddened. "Y-y-your l-lap? Are you trying to, like, seduce me or something?!"
He stared blankly at Rin before laughing at her absurd accusation. She stared at him with a shocked expression as he continued to laugh without restraint. This was a weird sight, and Rin somehow knew that. She did not know, however, that it was rare for him to laugh so carefreely at nothing of significance; more often than not he would maniacally laugh at one's misery or suffering. Unknowing of Sukuna's true nature, Rin could feel herself being affected by his contagious laugh as a smile tugged at her lips.
He finally stopped laughing to speak, "You're a funny woman, aren't you? Unfortunately, I'm not interested in seducing—" Sukuna's eyes trailed downwards, away from Rin's face. "—flat-chested women."
Unfortunately?! Rin scoffed mentally. With all the anger she could muster at his indecent jest (which was not very much), Rin threw a skull that happened to be under her hand. Of course, Sukuna caught it with ease and tossed it aside casually.
"I suppose time's up," Sukuna said.
Rin cocked her head in confusion.
Sukuna stood up and explained, "While your control over your Cursed Energy has improved significantly during your training, there's still an extent to which you can use your powers." He approached the girl who was patiently listening to his explanation. "And you still don't seem to have an understanding of your limit." Sukuna pressed two fingers against her forehead, and Rin felt her consciousness slip away.
Rin returned to reality in a daze before a doll snapped her out of it with a heavy punch to her face. After her initial shock, she immediately focused on the flow of her Cursed Energy to calm the Cursed Doll.
Damn, I didn't think this through, she sheepishly thought as she tenderly rubbed the painful swell on her cheek. Activating her incomplete Domain Expansion meant an increased output of Cursed Energy, which disrupted the doll from its slumber.
"Woah! You were finally hit for once!" Yuji exclaimed. "That's what you get for laughing at me earlier!"
He remained oblivious to anything that happened inside him; Rin surmised that since Yuji wasn't mentally in Sukuna's Innate Domain, he was frozen in time in the real world due to her incomplete Innate Domain.
"Happy now?" Rin sarcastically asked. The sudden outburst of Cursed Energy left her fatigued—though she was glad that she no longer had to deal with nausea and lightheadedness—and she slumped onto the couch and closed her eyes. "Yuji, wake me up when the movie's done."
"Don't complain to me if you get punched again," Yuji mumbled through a mouthful of chips.
Rin did not hear his warning, already fast asleep.