After the incident with Kugisaki, Yuuji took great care not to give Sukuna another chance to hurt anybody else like that. He spend more time alone in his room, only socializing with his classmates and teacher when it was absolutely necessary.
Of course the teen was aware that this behavior was definitely going to worry his friends, but after thinking about the alternative, he'd come to the conclusion that he'd rather have them worried then hurt, or worse.
Honestly, Yuuji wasn't even sure if he really wanted to be close to anyone right now anyways. Ever since Sukuna had forced him to have a taste of his female classmate's flesh and blood, his thoughts had started to occasionally spiral out of control, making his actions and responses to some things unpredictable and dangerous at the best of times.
The subtle changes he'd noticed in himself ever since consuming the first finger had only continued to intensify by this point. If it had something to do with him being more aware of them now that he'd crossed a line no human should ever cross, or if Sukuna and himself were merging faster now more then ever, he really didn't know.
Maybe, he was starting to get a bit paranoid.
Each time he ate, he, or Sukuna, thought about how nice it would be to have raw meat instead of whatever normal, human food they were having. Often, Yuuji found himself skipping meals all together, completely disgusted by the thought of food.
He told himself that this was normal after what that damn curse had forced him to go through, tried to rationalize his odd behavior in some way, but deep down he knew that this was only wishful thinking.
Slowly but surely, he was loosing his mind.
His humanity, his sanity and his will to live were something he'd always been proud of, but now, none of those things seemed important anymore, at least not now that he'd lost them all together.
Whenever Yuuji allowed himself a small moment of peace, a few happy thoughts or a simple conversation with one of the people close to him, Sukuna would force him to imagine every horrible thing the curse was planning to do to them, should Yuuji ever give the a chance.
He told himself that it was better to stay away from everyone in order to protect them from Sukuna, but as the days went on, he slowly realized, he was protecting them from himself at least as much.
How long would he still be able to keep this up? How long until he lost himself to whatever madness that curse was forcing into his head for good?
By now, one week had passed since their shopping trip gone wrong.
So far, Yuuji had managed to prevent anything else from happening. Right now though, he had at least something keeping his mind busy. After all, he was still attending Jujutsu tech, which included going on various missions to exorcise curses. This had also become the only time Yuuji found himself feeling at least a little bit at peace.
Of course, this was, if one thought about it, not very good either, but at least, he still felt right about something in his life, even if that something entailed killing another living being,
They were currently investigating an abandoned church. Gojo-Sensei had told them that during the last two weeks, multiple people had reported strange happenings around the place. Apparently, even a few dead animals had turned up. Of course this could easily be a prank by someone with a sick sense of humor, but Satoru had insisted on them going anyways.
Yuuji suspected this whole thing being more about him getting out of his head then anything else, but since he really didn't have a choice, he just silently went along with it.
He could feel Sukuna getting more attentive the longer they took looking around the building. During the last few days, the curse had done his best to get Yuuji to make a mistake and to tire his host out as best as possible. The rose haired teen hadn't slept more then a few hours, had been dragged into Sukuna's domain on multiple occasions, whenever the curse was annoyed or bored enough and had barely managed to eat and actually keep his food down longer then a few minutes.
Also, Yuuji still could feel the effects from Sukuna's "Punishment" from a week ago. This ordeal had left him tired and aching for days. Sure, none of the injuries Sukuna inflicted upon his host showed on Yuuji's body, but that didn't mean he wasn't feeling them any less.
"Yuuji?"
Flinching violently, he turned around, only to stare into the blindfolded face of his teacher. At the mere sight of him, he could feel Sukuna getting irritated again. The King of Curses was greatly offended by the fact that Satoru's technique prevented him from hurting the sorcerer at all.
"Sensei? When did you get here, I thought you wanted to wait by the gate?" Earlier, the white haired male had only made a comment about this being something his students should take care of themselves. The three of them had decided to split up to cover more ground after that.
Megumi had taken the main building, Nobara every other building on the premises and Yuuji had been left with checking the outside, which included the dark and silent graveyard he was currently walking across.
"Well my dear student, I just thought you might like some company. After all, you've been hauled up in your room for quite a bit now. That must have been a bit lonely, don't you think so?"
Yuuji just shrugged. "It wasn't really though, Sensei. Also, I'm never alone, don't forget that." He really didn't mean to sound this brash, but since he'd decided to keep his distance from everyone from now on, being a bit cold couldn't hurt, right?
In the dark, he could almost feel his teacher's gaze linger on him, piercing and sharp, despite the blindfold. "I haven't. In fact, that's why I decided to join you. Spending all your time with that asshole isn't healthy."
Instead of answering, the teen simply walked a bit faster, hoping Gojo would just leave them alone for the time being. Behind him, he could hear the man doing the same, while turning on a flashlight. The brightness that suddenly enveloped them was almost too much to bare for the teen, who really hadn't had any problem with only the moonlight on the dark graveyard so far.
Hissing angrily, he quickly pulled one arm in front of his face. "Damn it Sensei, was that really necessary?!" Somewhere in the back of his mind, he could hear and feel Sukuna agreeing with him. The Curse wasn't too fond of the sudden brightness either.
'I'm going to rip out his damn eyes…'
"Haha, my bad, sorry. I just thought you might like to not break your neck when you trip over something in the dark."
There was something in the man's voice, Yuuji couldn't quite place… Before he could dwell on this further, Satoru was nice enough to turn the light away from them for now. "Thanks, but I really don't need it."
"Well, if you say so…"
After turning off the light, the two of them walked in silence for a few minutes. The teen really enjoyed the quiet. When they'd split up earlier, he'd volunteered to take the outside, going to the most creepy place there was, only to escape all the noise that was constantly enveloping almost every place he went.
At the dorms, he could always hear other people moving around, pipes gurgling and electricity humming quietly in the background. Also, there was something else that was bothering him whenever he was on school grounds, he was sure none of his fellow students and maybe not even his teacher had thought about in detail.
Since the place was designed to train Jujutsu sorcerers and mostly keep curses out, all the different kinds of talismans and seals used in almost every corner of the place were bothering him quite a bit. When he'd first gotten there, he'd barely noticed them, but as time went on he'd started to feel their presence more strongly with each day. There was really no fitting way to describe the cold and sick feeling he got each time he got too close to one of those dreaded things.
This was one other change, he hadn't informed the others about. There was nothing they could do about it anyways, so why bother, right?
"You know kid… I was wondering about something…" Without him noticing, Sensei had caught up to him again. "Ever since last week, you've been acting pretty weird. Did Sukuna say or do anything else since then? I mean, there's really not much I can do to help you with him, but the least I can do is listen."
Sighing, Yuuji shook his head. "I appreciate it Sensei, but he really didn't do anything out of the ordinary." Really, could that man not leave them alone for now?
"Oh? So he did do something then?" The playful tone Gojo was using sounded innocent enough, but the teen had known their mentor long enough to know that it was anything but. "Also… Yuuji, do you really think we haven't noticed something is seriously bothering you right now? And I doubt that the only thing going through your head is what happened on our way home the other day."
Now, they had stopped walking. Looking at his teacher in shock, the young curse vessel noticed that the man had taken off his blindfold. The rare sight of those eyes almost took Yuuji's breath away. It was really something to see, especially when one wasn't expecting it.
"S-sensei… I don't know what...-"
"Aw, come on kid. I know a lot of good liars, but you're not one of them. You're good at hiding stuff, but that's it. If you tell me you're okay, I know it's a lie for two reasons. First, I can see through your BS easily. And second: No one would be fine while housing the king of curses, so please just drop it and tell Sensei what's going on, 'kay?"
Satoru's voice still sounded gentle, but his eyes were cold as ice. Yuuji knew, he wouldn't accept 'no' for an answer.
'Brat, If you tell him anything, you know he's gonna kill you, right? And even if he doesn't, I certainly will, do you understand?
Now, he was caught between a rock and a heart place. If he disobeyed Satoru, things could get ugly. Yuuji was certain his teacher wouldn't kill him right away, but anything else was still a very real possibility. If the man suspected him to be unstable, it was very likely, Yuuji would be locked up in that underground prison again. Of course, this may very well be for the best, but the simple thought about being tied up in that place made him shiver. He didn't need to hear Sukuna's warning growl or feel his immense displeasure at that thought to know that going back to that place simply wouldn't do, no matter how safe it would keep everyone.
But if he didn't listen to Sukuna, things could go south just as well. The curse had a knack for extreme violence and Yuuji was sure he would suffer a fate worse then death if he started talking to the other sorcerer about anything important now.
The teen could feel rage and annoyance grow inside his chest. Suddenly, he was struck with the strong urge to lash out and … do what exactly? Hurt Sensei? Simply destroy something? Shaking, he used all the strength of will he still had left in order to refrain from following through with those dark desires. Never before had he come this close to giving in to the insanity that was slowly taking a hold of him.
Gojo seemed to have noticed something wrong with him as well. The man had taken a step back and had narrowed his crystalline eyes slightly, muscles tense and ready to act at a moments notice if necessary.
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Initially, Satoru really had thought that maybe going out on a mission with his first year trio might help them all move on. Ever since Sukuna's attack on Kugisaki, the girl had been a bit jumpy around Yuuji, Megumi had been watching his classmate like a hawk and the pink haired teen in question had been acting rather… odd.
Outside of mandatory lessons and training, the curse vessel had rarely left his room at all for an entire week. Of course, some trauma was to be expected after something like this, but after a few days, he'd had the feeling that things had gotten out of hand.
So, as the good teacher that he was, he had jumped at the first relatively easy mission he could find and had then preceded to drag the three reluctant kids out of bed at one in the morning and ordered them out here to this church in the outskirts of Tokyo.
He'd really hoped the three of them would pull themselves together and work as a group, but sadly no such thing happened. Once the group laid eyes on their target area, the decision to split up was made almost instantly. The only good thing that came from all of this was the fact that he'd have a bit of time to talk to Yuuji privately. Ever since their conversation after the incident, the teen had avoided him like the plague.
Once the kids had split up, he did a quick check of the area, just in case. Thankfully though, he only found a few very low lever curses, nothing his students couldn't handle on their own.
Using his teleportation technique, he warped himself close to the spot where he could feel Yuuji's presence, or should he say Yuuji's and Sukuna's presence? It hadn't escaped him that the cursed energy of those two had been… changing somehow. Right now, it seemed as if his student and the curse inside of him had somehow started to sick together even more closely then a few months ago, sometimes making it difficult to distinguish between the two of them at all, even for him.
Something told him, that Yuuji knew about this as well. The thing that bothered Satoru the most about this was that he had no idea about what this meant for his student. On a few rare occasions, he also could have sworn that he'd made out a dangerous crimson glint in those warm and kind golden eyes.
Sighing, he looked around. Now, he was standing in the middle of a small and quiet graveyard. A few meters in front of him, he could make out his student. Oddly enough, the kid wasn't using the flashlight Satoru had seen him carry earlier.
With his six eyes technique, he could see as if it was day, even without artificial light to brighten up the dark, but Yuuji? As far as he knew, the kid didn't have abilities like this.
After making his presence known, he turned on the light he was carrying himself, only to look on in surprise as Sukuna's vessel shied away from the brightness while making a sound, no human should be able to produce. Also, as their conversation continued, Yuuji got even more closed off and defensive then he had been all week.
After letting this continue for another couple of minutes, he had enough. Whatever was happening couldn't go on and in order to help his charge, he needed to know exactly what was happening to him.
However, as soon as he started to verbally pressure his student into talking, something interesting occurred.
Just when it looked like the kid was about to answer, his face turned pale and he started shaking like a leaf. If he didn't know better, it looked like Yuuji was going into shock or something similar to it.
A deep growl could be heard from the teen as Satoru watched his student take a few shaky breaths. With clenched fists and barren teeth, the kid stared at him out of unfocused, bright golden eyes and… was there a shimmer of red in those warm, caramel orbs again?
This wasn't good. For all he knew, it looked like Sukuna was seriously trying to either take over, or force Yuuji to do something he really didn't want to do, but on second thought… He really didn't feel any more of the Curses presence then normal, so that couldn't be it.
Very carefully, he moved back a few steps, fingers crossed and ready to cast his domain if needed.
Suddenly though, with a deep exhale, as if he'd just been holding his breath for too long, Yuuji's eyes lost that strange gleam and the kid stopped shaking.
"Yuuji? You okay there?" Of course not, he knew that much already. But maybe showing that he cared could help, so he waited patiently for the teen to calm down a bit before continuing. "So what was that all about? What did he do?"
At this point, he really didn't need to clarify, who he was talking about.
Yuuji shook his head. "Sorry about that, Sensei, I'm okay now. I just haven't been feeling all that great for a while now, that's it." his voice was shaking lightly and Gojo could see a look in those warm eyes that almost screamed at him to stop asking questions and just accept this sorry attempt at an excuse.
Just as he opened his mouth to answer, a loud noise from the direction of the church forced his attention away from Sukuna's vessel.
Without waiting for permission, he grabbed Yuuji's arm and teleported them back to the church. Once there, he noticed his charge almost jumping away from him in order to bring as much space between them as possible. But as odd as all of this was, they had bigger problems right now. The old church in front of them looked like a meteor had hit it. Part of the roof had caved in and smoke was rising from the inside of the building. Also, the soft glow of bright, orange flames was shining through the night.
A sudden shout from somewhere in the building prompted him and Yuuji to run towards the raging inferno that was devouring the inside of the small chapel.
Once the pair had made it inside, a scene that looked to be straight from hell greeted them. Some and fire were everywhere, and right in the middle of it stood the other two first year students, currently busy with fighting something that looked like a bunch of rapidly moving, brightly burning lizards with way too many eyes.
"Damn it guys, where the fuck have you been?!" Kugisaki looked ready to murder anything and everyone who was dumb enough to cross her path right now.. Wielding her hammer and a few nails, she ran past them and used her technique to kill another flame lizard. "We've been at this for at least fifteen minutes!"
"Uups, sorry" From the way things looked, the fight wasn't going too well right now. Neither side seemed to be able to gain the upper hand and in the few seconds they'd been here, the area had, if possible, turned even more chaotic.
The strong smell of singed fur pierced his nose as Megumi and one of his shikigami dogs ran past them, chasing another couple of small, burning reptiles.
Just when Satoru turned towards Yuuji in order to ask him to join the fight, he noticed that the teen had already done just that.
In fascination, Satoru watched as the pink haired kid ran around, using his superior speed and strength in order to catch one lizard after the other. It had been a while since the teacher had seen his student fight like that. Yuuji was not only fast, bur far more agile and graceful in his movements then he remembered him being in the past. With the way he moved, he looked almost like a wild animal.
And there was one other thing that struck him as odd. He'd never picked this particular teen as one to honestly enjoy fighting a lot. But right now, the look on Yuuji's face spoke of pure bliss, breaking out in a mad grin whenever his fists smashed through one of the smaller curses and-
Suddenly, something caught his eye. One of the reptiles seemed to simply fall to pieces just after Yuuji had lazily waved in it's direction.
Had he just imagined this? Whatever just happened had looked like a highly precise and extremely deadly cursed technique, something the white haired sorcerer knew, Yuuji shouldn't be capable of.
Of course, he knew someone else who was...
Very early on, he'd suspected some of Sukuna's ability's to rub off on the teen, but was this really what was happening here? There were just too many things that didn't fit together. Also, if Yuuji had indeed been the one to slice up that poor little curse just now, he needed to make sure to keep an eye on the development of this specific ability. Who knew how dangerous it was if it was coming straight from Sukuna himself?
After only a few minutes, the fight was over.
Megumi and Kugisaki stood now both close to him, gawking at their classmate, who'd just killed off a bunch of curses that had given them tons of trouble only a few moments ago as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Apparently, they had noticed something being off as well.
And Yuuji himself… The rose haired teen stood, just where he'd killed off the last curse, a strangely relaxed air surrounding him. Now that Satoru thought about it, this was probably the most relaxed he'd seen the kid in a long time. Also, that smile he wore just… didn't fit him very well. His face still covered in orange blood, grinning almost madly, his teeth glinting in the dim light, just a bit too long and sharp to be normal, looked nothing like the gentle and headstrong young man, he'd first met a few months ago.
Still though, something was still not adding up. All the time the kid had fought, Satoru had not even once felt Sukuna's presence getting stronger then it normally was. There had been nothing indicating that the king of curses had interfered here at all.
It worried him a great deal.
If that curse wasn't responsible, then what else was? Yuuji surely couldn't have developed such skill without them noticing, right? And not only that, but the kid's personality seemed to have changed somewhat as well.
Had his spirit finally broken and submitted to Sukuna? If Yuuji willingly did as that monster commanded, then there wouldn't be any need for Sukuna to interfere in the first place, which would explain why he hadn't felt that awful presence.
No matter what it was, he needed to do something about it. If their elders found out, they'd undoubtedly kill his student right away, which he certainly wouldn't let happen just like that.
But really, what could he do? As long as Yuuji didn't talk to him, there was no way of knowing, what exactly was happening with him right now.
"Fuck, Itadori! First you don't show up at all and then you just decide to take it all for yourself?" Kugisaki glared at her friend with a very strange look on her face. To an outsider, the girl seemed pissed, but to Satoru, who was very good at reading people, it was clear as day that the girl wasn't. To him, it was obvious that she was scared out of her mind right now.
Next to her, Megumi nodded, at least a little bit more composed then his female classmate. "She's right man, and anyway, since when do you fight like that?" Still grinning, but not as viciously as before, Yuuji looked at them, now completely back to normal. "Ah, sorry guys, I guess I just had some extra energy, so don't worry about it!" Chuckling he waved them off, before using his sleeve to wipe away the quickly evaporating blood from his face.
"Well, duh, you haven't done anything then mope around in your room for the last couple of days!"
Like that, the first year trio continued to bicker among themselves as Satoru continued to keep a close eye on them.
However, this, for his kids, normal kind of behavior did nothing to quell his worry, especially when seeing the almost disappointed look flashing over Yuuji's face as he watched the last of the curses blood disappear from his clothes into thin air.
No matter. Whatever was going on, he wouldn't figure this out right now. They needed to get back to school. He wanted to have Ieri check his kids over, just to make sure none of then were hurt. Megumi and Kugisaki both looked quite roughed up.
Clapping twice, he called them over, explaining that Ijichi would take care to explain the destroyed chapel to the responsible priest.
And with that out of the way, they squeezed into one of the school's cars and swiftly drove back to campus.
At least, they made it there without another incident.
################################################################################
On their way back, a particularly sweet smell filled the car. Yuuji really tried not to think about it too much, but the longer they spend in the small space, the more his senses seemed to focus on it.
No matter what he tried, he just couldn't get his mind off it.
The rich scent was undoubtedly coming from Megumi, who was grumpily pressing his hand against a deep cut on his upper left arm. Thick and dark liquid was slowly soaking into the dark fabric of his uniform.
For the first time in days, The rose haired teen felt something akin to hunger.
Shaking his head, he grit his teeth and stared out into the night. The urge to just lean over and indulge the cravings he was feeling became stronger with each minute that passed, soon forcing him to almost bite a hole through his lower lip in an effort to control himself.
He was fairly sure that, as long as he didn't look at it, he could hold himself back from trying to take a bite out of his hurting friend.
When finally the car stopped, Yuuji shook with the effort to control himself, completely disgusted by his body's demands for this particular kind of food.
"Oh, how nice. Now it's already 'Food' instead of 'friend'? Little one, if you wish to be more at peace, you should just go for it."
He shuddered at those words. Sukuna was, unfortunately, right. In his tired and confused state, his brain had instinctively decided to narrow it's thought processes to the simplest things needed for survival. He could feel tears stinging in his eyes. Had he really just considered one of his best friends as food? This was getting out of hand, and way faster then he'd thought possible.
"Well kitten, I told you that you were part curse right now, didn't I? You should just accept it already. If I were you, I'd simply let go and start actually LIVING for once. You already had a taste of how good it can feel to take someones life, to devour it, so why not do it again? You have, after all, nothing left to loose..."
Dragging a hand down his face, Yuuji started stumbling away from everyone and towards their dorm. If this kept up, Sukuna's baiting was going to actually have an effect this time around.
The sudden and strong grip on his shoulder came so suddenly, He couldn't suppress a violent flinch. Turning around, he looked at his teacher, who was still holding onto him.
Immediately, He could feel Sukuna's anger rising in his chest again, taking his breath away for a second. He could actually feel the color drain from his face at this unexpected onslaught of emotion. He couldn't even breathe right anymore.
"Woah, sorry to startle you kid, but we're not done yet. I want the three of you to get checked over by Ieri real quick, okay? Megumi is hurt and I just want to make sure that my other two troublemakers are not bleeding as well."
Was he serious right now? Yuuji could immediately tell that neither he, nor Kugisaki were hurt and he was sure, Gojo was aware of that as well. Forcing himself to smile, he tried stepping away from his teacher as another hot stab of anger raced through his body. Judging by the slightly surprised look on the older man's face, he hadn't managed to completely hide this one.
"Fine Sensei, but can we get this over with quickly? I'm getting really tired." At least, that wasn't a lie. Since sleeping was pretty low on his activity list right now and he actually felt exhausted from all that had happened tonight, he yearned for the relative privacy of his room.
With an unreadable expression, his teacher nodded. "Sure, I bet Ieri will tell me exactly the same thing." After a moment of contemplative silence, the man added another comment. "Aaand speaking of which, the dark circles under your eyes can rival hers by now, so make sure to actually sleep later, okay?"
Mutely nodding, Yuuji followed after the man and the other two teens into the tallest building the academy had. With every step, the pressure of the hidden seals and spells were making him more and more nervous. It was really aggrevating how easily things like that were able to tick him off these days.
Without noticing it, he started growling quietly.
After finally reaching their destination, a very tired looking Ieri-sensei asked them to sit down while she quickly checked them over. Except for a couple of small scratches, Kugisaki was fine.
However, when she asked Megumi to take off his jacket, Yuuji couldn't help but stare.
Bright crimson was covering his pale skin, leaving enticing patterns on its way down the teen's arm. When a few drops landed on the ground, he couldn't help but shudder slightly, feeling a strange sense of loss.
What a waste…
By now, Yuuji's mouth had started to water.
Swallowing, he tried once again to distract himself, sadly without any result. Blood was rushing in his ears, almost drowning out the mad laughter ringing through his mind.
He needed to get out. Get away before he hurt someone, and this time, without Sukuna forcing him to do so.
Everything was fuzzy, he felt as if he was drowning…
Before Yuuji knew what he was doing, he'd left his spot in the infirmary and was running through the dark and deserted hallways of the building, away from every living being he could smell and hear. Still though, the sweet scent of blood lingered, almost as if it had etched itself into his brain for good, making him unable to forget.
The sheer thought of sinking his teeth into real, bleeding and warm flesh was almost too much to bear. Bracing himself against the nearest wall, he bent over, snarling viciously.
"Aww, my poor little vessel. You would feel better if you just gave in. If you want me to, I'd be more then willing to lend you a hand…"
He was so caught up in his own dilemma that he completely missed the silent sound of feet approaching his position.
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The second they had arrived on campus, Satoru had known something was off.
Yuuji had started acting very weird yet again, spacing out and actually trying to sneak away just wasn't like him. Once they had arrived at the infirmary, he was certain something was seriously wrong. The entire way there, he'd heard a strange sound.
First, he'd thought his cursed charge had quietly been talking to Sukuna, but after listening for a bit, he realized that the teen was quietly, but very obviously growling, the volume increasing with every minute they walked further into the building.
The only good thing so far was that the other two kids hadn't noticed yet, since they were busy talking among themselves.
Looking over his shoulder to get a glimpse at his most troublesome charge, he noticed a very distant look in those honey colored eyes, indicating that he wasn't even aware of the sounds leaving his throat right now.
Maybe he should let Ieri do, what she'd wanted to do since the day he'd brought Yuuji to the academy. Back then, he hadn't allowed her to perform more then a normal physical exam on the boy, despite her insisting that doing more testing would maybe be beneficial. Back then, he'd declined due to Ieri often going way overboard if allowed to do as she pleased, but now he wasn't so sure, he'd made the right call back then.
Back then he'd only wanted to protect Yuji and not give the kid any more reason to fear them then he already had, but now, he started to think that his good intentions may actually have had the completely opposite effect.
His regret grew even more once they were all safely seated on the infirmary beds. His eyes never left the young curse vessel and if he was quite honest, he really didn't like what he saw.
As far as he knew, Yuuji had no injuries to speak of, but still, the boy was shaking and looked as if he couldn't focus at all. If he didn't know better, Satoru would say Yuuji looked like a cornered wild animal right now.
His concern grew even more once he realized that the kid actually wasn't spacing out, but instead watching the blood drip down from Megumi's arm onto the floor.
However, just as he was about to say something, Yuuji suddenly bolted.
He knew, the kid was fast, but to see this kind of speed and mobility inside a building sure was impressive.
"What the F-"
"Yuuji?!"
His other two kids seemed just as surprised as he was. From all the uncharacteristic behavior Yuuji had shown today, this was the most concerning so far.
"Well, that was… interesting." Ieri's deadpan comment didn't really help much, but since she'd basically voiced his own thoughts, he decided not to comment on it. "You sure you don't want me to...-"
"Actually, I think you should take a closer look at Yuji as soon as I've caught him. Please take care of the other two in the meantime." Not elaborating further, he got up and left the room.
Following Yuuji wouldn't be a problem. The boy's cursed energy was a complete mess right now, making it very easy to pinpoint it's owners exact location.
Man, the kid really was fast. He'd actually managed to get away quite a bit in only a matter of seconds and was still getting further away. Suddenly however, he stopped.
Figuring that this may very well be the only chance he may get to sort this out more or less peacefully, the sorcerer quickly teleported close to Yuuji's location. When he laid eyes upon his charge, he had to stop and take a second to process exactly, what he was seeing.
Yuuji was facing the wall, bracing against it with both hands and shaking like he was about to freeze. This however wasn't, what had Satoru so concerned.
The kid was actually snarling loudly, mouth opened wide as saliva dripped from his definitely too sharp teeth onto the floor, making him look like a rabid dog.
What should he do? This was way beyond bad. It looked like his student had completely lost it just now.
Should he risk talking to the kid or knock him out right away and take him back to Ieri? Talking wasn't guaranteed to bring him any results, but at least, he'd manage to preserve, what little faith Yuji still may have left towards him. However, the second option would be way more easy.
No matter what he did, one thing was for sure. He needed to calm Yuuji down before anything else. Slowly approaching the kid, he carefully extended one hand towards him, while hiding the other one behind his back, ready to use his domain, should Yuuji, or Sukuna, decide to attack him. It really wasn't making him happy that he actually was considering doing this to the kid for the second time in just as many hours right now.
"Yuuji?" The sound of his voice seemed enough to distract the teen. Startled, the younger man jumped backwards a couple of meters, hissing at him and glaring pure death. His warm eyes were currently both drowning in crimson. If he hadn't known better, he would have sworn, his student wasn't in there at all anymore.
"Come on kid, talk to me, what's going on with you?" Slowly approaching, he kept his voice even and gentle, hoping to at least get a response.
When he did however, it wasn't from the person he'd hoped for.
"You know sorcerer, It's really interesting to see a bunch of idiots not noticing what's going on. Seriously, are you some kind of idiot?"
Staring at the extra mouth that had manifested on Yuuji's face, he took off his blindfold and glared at the single extra eye the curse had opened just now. "Oh? And I suppose, you do know, isn't that right?"
Chuckling, the curse grinned. "Of course I know, what a dumb question. I share this body with that idiot of a vessel, so how could I not know?"
"Yeah, okay, that actually makes sense. So then, mind enlightening me, oh great king of curses?" He knew, patronizing Sukuna wasn't his best option, but he couldn't help it. Every time he had contact with that particular curse, it just royally pissed him off.
"And why should I do that? Are you so pathetic that you actually have overlooked something this fundamental when dealing with this brat? I mean, I knew that this was going to happen to some extend from the second this idiot swallowed my finger and I may have done something to speed it up, but even I couldn't have expected such a strong reaction. This is really quite entertaining to watch."
Of course he wasn't getting anything from that asshole. But… at least the curse had not caused this wired behavior, which was kinda good, right? "So, I guess this has something to do with what happened last week, right?"
"Hmm, maybe, maybe not, you'll have to figure out the rest by yourself I just kick-started the process, otherwise, this may have taken years. And wouldn't that have been boring…." Without another word, the curse disappeared back into it's hosts body.
Really, what had he expected? That Sukuna would actually be helpful? Still though, the little information the curse had maybe hinted at didn't put his mind at ease.
Approaching his student again, he decided to forego his previous efforts and simply take the kid back to Ieri by force. Teleporting right behind Yuuji., he used a technique that would put the kid to sleep immediately. Catching the teen before he hit the ground, Satoru then preceded to teleport back to the infirmary.
To his surprise, Ieri was the only one there.
"I send the other two off to bed."
"Thank you, I'm sure that wasn't easy."
"Yes, they insisted on you telling them what's going on with Itadori as soon as you can though, so I reassured them that I would relay the message."
"Of course. Listen, the spell I put our dear Yuuji under won't let him wake up for at least five hours. Until then, I want you to thoroughly examine him. Whatever is going on is apparently not caused by Sukuna, so it's gotta be some sort of physical condition. Maybe, we'll be able to help."
Raising her hand, she silently shut him up. "Would you mind elaborating further? I didn't even realize something was wrong until just now."
Sighing, Satoru relayed everything he'd witnessed in detail, also including, what the king of curses had told him earlier.
"I see. I may already know what's going on, but I still need to do a few tests and examine him in order to know how bad it really is. I'll call you in a couple of hours."
Before he could say anything else, she'd shoved him out of the room and had closed the door. For now, he was forced to wait.
Sighing, he decided that he could just as well go and check on his other two first year students.
Unsurprisingly, both teens were still awake, none of them looking like they were going to bed anytime soon. As soon as Satoru entered the first year's dorm, both were on their feet and asking questions over questions, making it absolutely impossible to understand anything at all.
Raising one hand, he managed to make them shut up. Sighing, he decided to just honestly tell them what he knew. Those two wouldn't accept anything but that when it came to their friend anyways.
"Listen, I know you guys want to know what's going on, but unfortunately, I don't know myself. Of course, I have a couple of theories, but sharing those without any proof wouldn't help, so please don't ask until Ieri finishes checking Yuji over, okay?"
"Satoru…" Megumi looked at him out of intelligent and expressive dark eyes. "This is really bad, isn't it? I mean… of course we've noticed something being seriously wrong with Yuji after last week, but… The way he acted today was just so not like him at all…"
Tapping her foot angrily, Kugisaki nodded. "Yeah, of course something's wrong. Just be honest with us, okay? If he's losing control over that curse, we need to know!"
"Nobara...-"
"No, Megumi. We need to know, otherwise, we won't be able to help that idiot!"
"Yes, but even if you're right, is there even something we can do to help? I mean… If he doesn't want our help, there's really not much we can do."
"Stop being so complicated! Don't forget that I have gotten a piece bitten out of me that last time something went wrong with that curse, so if I'm willing to do all I can to help, you shouldn't have the slightest problem with it either!"
"I haven't, but I'm just being realistic! We don't even know what exactly is happening yet, so how can you just say you'll do anything to help!? What if Sukuna get's out again? What should we do then in order to help? Maybe hand him over to the elders and watch them kill him? You saw just as well as I have how he fought tonight! Are you really telling me that he didn't scare you at all?!" The dark haired shadow user was starting to look really angry right now.
"Of course I was scared!" Tears were gathering in the young woman's eyes. "It was as if he wasn't even there anymore… I don't want to loose him..."
Okay, so maybe it had been a good thing those two hadn't seen the way Yuji had acted earlier. Deciding to step in before things got out of hand, he loudly clapped a couple of times. "Oooookay, let's just calm down, okay? Right now, no one is going to die and as far as I know, Sukuna is still safely contained. Ieri is currently working on figuring out, what exactly is wrong with our young friend and until she's finished, we can't jump to any conclusions."
Now that he had his student's undivided attention, he continued. "Listen to me now very carefully. Whatever is happening right now, I'm sure Yuji will need all the support and help we can give him. What I witnesses earlier when I went to retrieve him wasn't pretty. To be quite honest, I'm not sure if the Kid will ever be the way he was when all this started and we may have to accept whatever is happening with him may be indefinite. What I do know is that he is suffering right now, and not in a way any of us can even begin to understand."
"So, you're saying there is basically nothing we can do?" The look on Megumi's face was very similar to what it had been back when Tsumiki had become bedridden and unresponsive.
"No, that's not what I was saying, Megumi. Only that we may have to make some adjustments once we know what exactly is wrong with our dear Yuji. I actually managed to speak to Sukuna earlier and, even if he was being intentionally difficult and unhelpful, he still revealed to me that this wasn't his doing and hinted at a couple of things that, even if not sounding good at all, may have given Ieri the exact info she needs in order to figure this out. She'll contact me during the next couple of hours, so why don't we all try not to worry too much and get some rest until them."
Stepping forward, Satoru did something, he rarely was comfortable with. Dropping his cursed technique, he pulled both teens into a tight embrace. "Don't worry, you two, Sensei will figure this out…"
He just hoped not to disappoint them. For all he knew, they may have already lost Yuji for good...