Chapter 9
His eyes slowly opened.
At first, he didn't remember what had happened, but then, he began to question. "Why do I feel stiff?"
Slowly, he eased himself up, Sukuna looked about the room but found nothing out of place. Yet still, why did he sleep and why was everything before a blur?
Venturing out of the room, he found Chusi in the kitchen. She bore a rather big smile and teased. "You finally woke up. Did you have fun or something?"
He took a seat at the table, yet appeared utterly confused. "Fun? I don't even remember what I was going before passing out!" he protested. "I still feel stiff oddly enough, my arms mainly…"
Chusi poured him some green tea and sat across from him. "You helped out Kiyoshi the other day, the both of you have been asleep for nearly a whole day. Then again, you two were having so much fun no one really had the heart to stop you."
"Huh?" he asked in confusion. "That brat wouldn't trust me even if his life was in danger. Like hell I would be sparring with him!"
"You didn't spar… you played," she teased. "You helped Kiyoshi with his snow shikigami… well… snow golems since they are not summons or made with curse energy. But you two really went at it. I was impressed to how well you can still whip a snowball!"
He froze oddly enough.
"You mean to tell me I was playing in the snow with the brat's brat?!"
"Yes," she said. "And you two had the best of time."
THUD
Sukuna dropped face first into the table. "The king of curses… frolicking in snow… I am not going to recover from this one…" he muttered.
"Funny you should mention that, you inspired the heavenly restriction students, they want to know how you can weaponize a snowball like that. They have been training all morning on perfecting your method. I think you may want to drop by and see what you started." She teased.
"And get laughed out"
She gave him a stern glare… apparently the concern of being laughed at is not good enough for her.
"Tsk, fine. But don't blame me if we become laughing stocks of this place… who would have thought my reputation would go down like this…"
#
"Huh?"
It… was a rather odd sight to behold.
In fact, the students with no curse energy were taking this matter rather seriously. They have been up most of the morning making snowballs, and as of now, they are attempting to prefect what Sukuna was doing… but he doesn't quite remember it.
One student was throwing a snowball against a tree, the tree quivered but nothing more. "At least the snow is good, if it was too light it would be useless…" he said. But then, Sukuna was spotting.
The student stopped everything and then, rushed him!
"Sensei! Sensei! Please, show us how you did that the other day! You threw a snowball so hard it broke the sound barrier, and then, it exploded like a cannonball strike!"
"It did?" he asked blankly.
"Yeah, and Kiyoshi had an army of snowmen that looked like some of the teachers and people around here, he sent them after you but one snowball from you… BOOM! They turned back into snow! You took out at least 100 of these snowmen with ONE shot!" a young girl explained.
"I did?" he asked once more in the same monotone tone. 'Why can't I remember it?'
"Can you show us how?!" they asked.
"What's there to show?" he asked. "That was just my strength throwing the snowballs as you say, it is what I am capable of."
He thought for certain that the student would become disheartened upon hearing that. However, there came smiles. "You hear that, we have to become as strong as Sukuna to do that!" one of the older students yelled. "If that's the case, let's practice today! First we see what we can do with a snowball, train and see if we can't throw it harder the next time!"
There was an uproar of cheers, children these days… even if they have no curse energy, they are just as crazy as the sorcerers themselves.
He moved along that morning, but it only got stranger from there…
#
"Seriously, that was some good snowball fighting…"
"Just let us know when you are going to do that again, it was fun to watch!"
He didn't escape it, as it appears the curse wombs and their wives were all talking about this. When they saw him, they were… thanking him for the entertainment that day and want to see it again.
Since when the hell did he become the entertainment… Ah… he nearly forgot… he is still a dragon's pet.
"I don't even remember what happened," he said bitterly to the masses.
Which made the table pause oddly.
"What?!" he demanded.
"You don't remember… that's happened before." Toshi said. "Sukuna, are you having trouble recalling events?"
He considered it for a moment, but he does notice as of late when he has been helping someone, he passes out, but can't remember what he was doing. He doesn't even recall the snow battle, but everyone was saying he was having fun.
He wondered…
"Could it be part of a curse?" he asked offhandedly. "It appears any time I assist someone or if something is… fun to me… I cannot recall."
The table fell silent oddly enough. Toshi peered at him oddly before he nodded. "We should look into that for you, it's as if you can't create new, good memories for yourself."
It was his turn to fall silent, he glared at Toshi who continued to eat without looking at his direction… how can that brat say something so blunt like that?!
At the same time…
"Perhaps it's a last gift from Kenjaku. I maybe able to have good moments, but cannot recall them…"
"Then it's something to look into then." Junpei announced.
He got something to eat, but the more he tried to remember what happened, the more his mind refused to recall. 'Damn it, that's it isn't it? To ensure I cannot have a happy memory that doesn't involve death or pain of others…'
"SUKUNA!"
He jumped as he heard a child's voice. He saw the brat's brat Kiyoshi staring at him. His eyes wide as he appeared to be… happy to see him?
"Brat…"
"What we did the other day, it really helped me out. Thank you, if you can do so again today… we don't have to do a snow war or anything like that, but… I appreciated your insight and perspective. In exchange… I'll help you with your elemental power!"
Not a bad deal.
"Can I get a lesson today then?"
"First, what's the element?" Kiyoshi asked.
"Earth," he said quickly. "My strongest elemental draw is to the earth."
The boy smiled. "Okay, I have some ideas we can do. But I can't help you until spring."
Sukuna froze. "What… WHY?!" he demanded.
The boy didn't flinch from his shout. He merely smiled. "Dad said you were smart, let's see how smart you really are when it doesn't come to curse energy…" he said nothing more as he went to get something to eat.
He sneered, now the brat as leverage over him… damn it!