Chapter 2

It was his favorite spot of the domain.

Sukuna had a nice little area that the Toorus preserved, not even Tanso's familiars have traveled to this section, even now despite the fact he is a dragon. But here, he gets solace, peace and the quite he needs to perfect this method.

After all, Chusi left it with him.

"You should be the one to tend to this…" she said one morning, holding a new necklace that contains the soul of one Tsumiki Fushiguro.

"Me?" he asked with great under certainty. "Chusi…"

"YOU helped cause this," she said bluntly to him. In that he froze, he had no argument to that fact. "You USED this as an opportunity… and you used Megumi to do it. You heard him before too, he will only listen to you if you bring back his sister. We have one part down, but there is much more to do. So, for the time being. Maintaining her soul… is YOUR responsibility"

As such he has tried to maintain the soul, but his knowledge of that is severely lacking. "I can carve a man to millions of pieces so there is nothing left… yet I can't nurture a soul?" he muttered.

Much to his surprise though, he has had help on the matter. In fact, she came by again. "Maintenance time?"

He peered up to see Lady Tiamat.

"Yes, it's getting more difficult." He said honestly. "I'm not one for nurturing…"

"Coming from the sorcerer with a newborn child?"

"Anyways…" he muttered. "I'm having trouble with the energy, what I used before worked well, but… I can't get that…"

Lady Tiamat smiled as she sat across from him. "Ryomen, listen to me. Think of the festival… what you did… how you did it… what do you remember?" she asked gently.

He remembered a lot of things from it, but, he could see the looks of joy on the faces of the humans more than anything. Whenever he thought of that, he felt hot in the center of his chest.

"Now, that energy you feel now, right in your chest… channel that to her." He took a deep breath and focused. He sent the energy from his chest, up his arms and then to his hands. There, he saw an odd glow of white emit from them, but that light was quick to absorb into the little orb in his hands. When the sensation vanished, he peered down and saw the orb got a little brighter.

"Is this good?" he asked and let lady Tiamat hold on to it. She never took it from him, instead, her hand hovered just before the orb. She smiled and nodded. "Indeed, it's more than good, that helped rebuild some of her soul… I am rather impressed."

"It is my first time attempting to use this odd energy… I don't even know what that is…"

"I wasn't speaking to you," Lady Tiamat said as she looked to the necklace once more. "The fact that this young woman has placed her faith in you… trusting you to help her…"

That in itself was a task.

#

Before the whole festival even happened. Sukuna and Chusi had to figure out how to help Megumi's sister.

Chusi taught him how to go into a meditative state, from there, she linked with him and Tsumiki. The three were in a white room, yet the moment her eyes came upon him, she sneered.

"YOU BASTARD!" she roared. "HOW DARE YOU USE MY BROTHER!"

"Wow… I didn't think you would be more upset over that than him taking your life…" Chusi said offhandedly.

"Who are you?"

"Chusi Tooru… You have already met Ryomen Sukuna… but let me reintroduce him to you, since the Sukuna you encountered is not the Sukuna that I know and have since married."

The girl's face contorted oddly. "Married?" she whispered. "You… Married…" her voice trailed off as she stared at him.

"You're not the first to react that way,"

Chusi snickered. "Let's move on from that… Tsumiki, please understand that I know what has happened to you was greatly unfair, unethical as well as down right disgusting." She said bluntly. "Everyone, who has harmed your family, does indeed need to pay for their actions. This is the start of it, Ryomen?"

He knew what needed to be done, after all, this young woman is aware of his… personality when she was possessed. He wouldn't do what he is about to had he not changed.

He prostrated himself, forehead to the ground and stayed there.

"Tsumiki Fushiguro… I regret my actions, my stance, as well… abusing my power. I cannot give back what has been taken, but at least… please… let me try and give you something in return…"

There was silence.

"Uh… Chusi is it? Is… is he serious?"

"You can raise your head, Ryomen."

He sat up, but didn't stand. Tsumiki, stared at him oddly enough. As if she were trying to find something. "I didn't want to believe what you said, Miss Tooru. But… how can I see this?"

Sukuna was confused as he peered at Chusi who smiled. "You see an odd swirling mass before you, different colors, some dark, some light with the light trying to absorb the darkness, correct?" she asked. Tsumiki nodded to her rather fearfully. "What you are seeing is his soul." She explained. "Since you, yourself are a soul now. You see the very essence of life before you. You can see if the person is lying or truly speaking from their heart… Ryomen is still a little rough around the edges, but… he has been doing better."

Tsumiki, suddenly stood before him. "Why… did you use my brother? Is he safe now?"

"Yes," he said gently. "Your brother, Megumi is safe. As to why I used him… he had a talent I haven't seen before… it became obsessed with it… wanting it for myself… In madness, you never think or consider of the people you harm. The only reason for such actions is because I wasn't getting what I wanted fast enough. No excuse, but that was my logic."

"Are you still after my brother?"

He smirked. "I can no longer harm him, in fact. The whole reason why I am doing this is so I may assist him… he refuses to listen to what I have to say, I don't hold that against him. But, his condition was that I bring you back. If I bring you back, he will consider hearing me out and assist him. At the moment, there isn't safe method to do so."

"We also know you won't want to take over another person's body either. Since you have experienced that yourself…" Chusi said gently.

She sighed with relief. "Thank you,"

"Which is why this is going to take time," Sukuna said. "As such, we are making a binding vow here and now. Since you have no curse energy I am making one through Chusi since, one doesn't make a vow with the dead like this…"

"A binding vow can only be made when two parties are alive, so I will be your catalyst, so you know that Ryomen will in fact, do everything he can to help you, and get you back to your brother." Chusi explained.

"Before that, I need to go off the subject here…" his arms crossed as he looked to Tsumiki oddly. "Are you aware he is in love with you?"

Chusi froze to this, as did Tsumiki. "Megumi? But I'm…"

"I like to call this the curse of the Zen'in." Sukuna stated. "They have been keeping in the clan for generations, since I was part of Megumi. When you died, a part of him went with you… he loved you… but more than just a sibling."

"Ryomen, why are you…"

He gently raised his hand to silence Chusi. She nodded as he continued. "The reason why I speak this is this, if I tell him that I have your soul and will try to bring you back. I know he will help. At the same time, nurturing a soul… isn't quite in my expert skills list. I may fail… which means… you could still die. If I fail and he is aware… I will break in him a way that he will never recover from."

"Then why did you ask me if I knew…"

"What are your feelings towards him?"

She looked a little confused but explained that he was her brother, nothing more or less. "As such we need to nip this…"

"We have time, Ryomen. We don't know how we are going to assist her yet either…" Chusi explained.

"Indeed, but, just as long as you are aware of it… That might be something that should be addressed sooner…"

"I never thought he would be that concerned over incest…" muttered Chusi.

"I'm not!" he protested. "You forget what era we lived in, but the fact remains that it has been proven otherwise there is no benefit to this as well you are killing your own clan…" he shook his head of it. "I, at least understood and knew better when it was explained to me, the Zen'in kept doing it since I was sealed!"

She giggled to that as did Tsumiki. "That is rather creepy."

"I am trying not to add to that dynamic. I am determined you will return… but I don't want Megumi to think it is for THAT reason!"

"See, this is the cute side of him that no one sees often…" Chusi explained.

"I wouldn't call it cute…" Tsumiki replied with a giggle.