"Oh, my baby!" Izuku felt his face flush with embarrassment at the public display of affection his mother was smothering him in. After his first impromptu training session, Aizawa asked how Izuku's parents felt about his sudden quirk development. This caused Izuku to slip up and reveal that his mother, Inko, had no idea what had transpired recently.

"Well at least she's a good parent." Aizawa said as he watched the matriarch bury the teen in her grasp. Her worries were justified in every extent. To her, Izuku's life was being held up by puppet strings and the masters were making him dance for their own purposes. If Nezu doesn't balance it and if the H.P.S.C acts recklessly, the boy's entire life would succumb to the grasp that Sukuna holds over him.

"Fifteen years Izuku. I spent fifteen years raising you! Knowing you're in so much danger makes my heart hurt. Oh, I wish I could coddle you like when you were a baby and still wearing All Might onesies." Izuku groaned loudly to try and keep that information omitted from his two teachers, but the distinct sound of All Might struggling to hold his laugh back gave him enough strength to free himself from his mother's iron grip.

"Mom it's okay. Probably. I'm the only person that has the capability to do this." Izuku looked at his scrawny arms. "I can't sit by and let people get hurt. I'm done sitting around. I'll become a hero, a strong one, and I'll help everyone I can!" He proclaimed loudly. Inko couldn't help the surge of emotion that come forth in the form of tears.

"Unshakable resolve. At least you've got the basics of heroics down." Aizawa smirked as he tugged on All Might's sleeve, signaling to the hero that it was time to leave. All Might shuffled alongside as the two departed, both aware of the warmth the house environment gave when they stepped into the brisk winds of the afternoon. The pair began to descend to ground level before All Might broke the silence.

"Call it superstition but I can't shake this unnerving feeling off of my shoulders." All Might said as he deflated. Aizawa glanced over at the man before chuckling.

"I didn't expect you to be the one to jinx it. Normally that's my forte." Aizawa closed the passenger door before grabbing his phone to contact Nezu about their meetup with the Midoriya matriarch. All Might hummed to himself, though remained silent otherwise. He took one last glance at the household before turning the ignition in the car. Putting his hands on the steering wheel, All Might couldn't help but scratch the itch present on his forearms. The same place he had received a direct attack from Sukuna.

-{ ~ }-

4 Months Later

-{ ~ }-

"W-w-why am I S-Rank?!" Izuku stuttered at he looked at the card in his hands. Along the side of the card was his name, some small bits of information like his birthday, weight and height, but most important was the big gold lettering plastered in front of his sloppy mugshot from his time in the HPSC building. For most of the public, heroes were scaled on popularity and strength through the Top 100 Heroes Billboard Chart, but each and every hero has their own ranking, with the lowest rank being C-Rank. Only seldom few were S-Rank, and that letter was usually held by top 10 heroes. Why would a buy like him hold such a prestigious rank?

"You aren't S-Rank." Aizawa stated bluntly. Izuku looked between him and the card with a confused face. Rolling his eyes, Aizawa started to speak, "You aren't S-Rank. You, Izuku Midoriya, aren't S-Rank. The S-Rank is for Sukuna residing inside you. Nezu pulled some strings to get that card for you, so don't lose it."

"O-oh. That makes sense I guess." Izuku stared at the shining gold letter with a hint of embarrassment. He got ahead of himself again. As he stared at the card, he began to ponder once more. "So why do I have it then?"

"Your objective is to collect all of Sukuna's fingers, and you can't exactly do that living your mundane routine." Izuku felt a pinprick of annoyance at the jab directed at his lifestyle but didn't speak on it. "The HPSC is in possession of one finger, at least to my knowledge. You need to eat 18 more. So, we need to keep you around in case any show up. But we also can't just bring a kid to live crime scenes, so you need some form of identification to get through." Izuku hummed in agreeance at Aizawa's explanation.

"20 fingers total. Those things were so gross though." Izuku put the card in his pocket, tapping it twice to make sure it didn't disappear the moment he took his hand off of it.

"Well, you're the only one who can do it. At least the only one we know of." Aizawa mumbled. Izuku felt his heart strings tighten with anxiety. His training over the last four months had been stellar, but he still felt he was still behind any potential peers in terms of quirk control. In his mind, mastery over a quirk was embodied by Kacchan. 'Katsuki.' He muttered internally. Given his connections to Nezu and the HPSC, he was allowed to take his final exams early after a couple rigorous weeks of studying. He passed with flying colors and was allowed freedom from the confines of the gray, life sucking walls of his former middle school.

He made the most of his time, putting his all into training. There was a small incident where he deviated from the training schedule in the middle of the night, but Aizawa had put a swift end to his overtraining session before it could spiral out of control. All Might, upon receiving word of this issue, simply laughed and reminded Izuku about the importance of rest.

Embarrassed as he was, he was also grateful for Aizawa nipping the bud. Izuku knew he had a bad habit of taking an idea and running full speed ahead without pondering the consequences, something Sukuna was ready to laugh at when he inevitably failed.

That was another challenge. Harboring the soul of an ancient deity inside his body always made him tense. It was a valid assessment that he was constantly being watched, given that Sukuna would mock him for any little slip in his daily routine. Most of the time however, Sukuna was eerily silent, just observing the world around him.

"S-so I get to tail you on missions?" Izuku asked slightly excited. Absentmindedly, he clutched on his pocket notebook he kept with him at all times.

"Not all of them, just ones that have a connection to Sukuna's fingers." The boy frowned and loosened his grip on his back pocket. Aizawa could tell he wanted to take notes on his fighting style and techniques. Those notebooks proved to be an interesting read while the kid trained. Obviously, Izuku wasn't aware that Aizawa was snooping into his journals, but what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

A notification from his phone shook Aizawa from his thoughts. He almost swiped the text away, seeing as it was from Nezu and he wanted nothing to do with it, but a key word kept him from doing so.

'Sukuna.'

"Lucky you, Midoriya." Aizawa said. Izuku perked up at his name. "Looks like you'll be using that card faster than you expected. Nezu sent me a crime scene to report to that might be connected to another finger of Sukuna's."

On one hand, Izuku was excited at the prospect of watching Aizawa in action. On the other, he would be closer to a crime scene than the police would allow civilians in the past. Forget close, he'd be an active participant in it. On the good side at least, but still dangerously close. His anxiety started to kick in momentarily, but Aizawa put a swift end to it.

"Relax. It's just a couple of petty thieves. Criminals I could beat down in my sleep. You won't get close to dying today." Izuku simply nodded to reassure himself but couldn't shake that ball of anxiety forming in the pit of his core.

-{ ~ }-

"And you are?" The officer managing the tape barrier looked down at the shriveling form of Izuku. His fear of social interaction led him to try and swiftly follow Aizawa into the jobsite, but the officer was quick to notice the green blur tailing the tired hero.

"I-I-I'm-" Izuku swiftly pulled out the I.D card he had received earlier that day. "I'm here with Er-"

"The kid's a U.A prospect and is authorized to follow me." The officer took his attention away from Izuku's upside down I.D card and stared at Eraser Head, who was properly displaying his hero I.D card. The officer coughed into his hand.

"Alright then. Make sure you look out for him." Eraser Head simply nodded and dragged the trembling green form of Izuku with him. The store they entered was a large one, a part of a much bigger mall complex, but this store specifically was a department store specializing in clothing. From what the current report, it was a run of the mill stick up that turned into something more sinister. The two robbers had, very sporadically, decided to barricade themselves in near the back of the store. No hostages were taken, and they had yet to completely empty the register they were sticking up at the time. Neither of the robbers were mutant types, concluded by eyewitness reports.

Izuku and Aizawa arrived at the back of the store, specifically at a door marked 'Employees Only' where a group of officers were congregated. At the sight of the hero and teen, all officers present dispersed and allowed them entry. Briefly, Aizawa took a look at the building layout on a plaque next to the door. The hallway they were about to enter only presented a hallway to their right, at which point they'd have to go down another hallway to make any progress into the building.

"Ready Midoriya? Just stay behind me at all times." Aizawa equipped his goggles and grabbed a handful of his capture scarf in his hands. Midoriya simply nodded, getting into an awkward stance of his own.

Tipping the door open slowly, Aizawa looked upwards. The ceiling in the hall matched that of the rest of the store. It left him more than enough room to traverse upwards. Peeking behind the door, Aizawa saw that the hallway was completely empty, meaning the criminals had barricaded themselves further into the employee zone.

"Coast is clear Midoriya, let's go." Aizawa entered the hallway with a slight briskness in his walk. Izuku poked his head in, hiding his body behind the door before entering the hallway fully. He carefully eyed his surroundings before walking forward and letting go of the door.

"The building layout is very large, Eraser Head." Midoriya pointed out, having also taken a look at the plaque of the map. "How deep in do you think-"

Ka-thunk!

Aizawa and Midoriya jumped at the sound of the door closing. It was much louder than it should have been. Both of them turned to look at the door but to their shock and horror, it was gone. In fact, they weren't even in the same hallway as before. Gone were the iridescent lights and white walls of the store, instead they were surrounded by murky yellow lights, highlighting equally murky brown walls, lined with pipes and grime.

"Dammit, what the hell just happened?" Aizawa groaned. He turned on his phone in an attempt to locate where they were, but its signal was completely blocked out. Shoving it back in his pocket, Aizawa took note of the hallway they now stood in. It was dark, barely lit by a long series of yellow lights, sparsely distanced from each other. Absentmindedly, Aizawa grabbed Izuku by the shoulder to try and keep the boy behind him, but Izuku brushed the hero's hand away.

"I'm- I'm getting some sort of feeling." Izuku mumbled. He raised his arm slowly, pointing down the way they came from. "I think it has something to do with Sukuna's finger. I'm getting a feeling that I need to go that way!" Aizawa simply nodded and stepped forward leading the way. Izuku followed suit.

Before the pair reached the end of the hallway, a guttural scream tore its way through the air space. Izuku was frightened and stopped moving, but Eraser Head pushed forward even faster, his hero instincts telling him someone was in danger.

At the end of the hallway was a large and empty room. It was a guess, but it looked like it was a part of a sewer system. Numerous amounts of pipes entered and exited the walls and ceiling. There was a pipe large enough for people to walk in opposite of his position. He glanced down and saw a ladder he could use to get down. Izuku had managed to catch up in the time it took Aizawa to scan the room.

"It looks like the only way out would be through the pipe down there." Aizawa said. "You go down first. I'll watch over you." Izuku nodded, looking at the ladder embedded in the wall. There were bits of rust gathered on some of the rungs, but it was solid otherwise. Carefully, he descended the ladder. The sound of his shoes impacting the metal bounced off the walls, making his back shiver. Finally, on the last rung, he dropped down with a small thud. He looked up to see Eraser Head lowering himself with his capture scarf. The hero made contact with the ground and began surveying his surroundings closer.

Izuku couldn't stop himself from shaking in place. These past few minutes had been turbulent. From the tense buildup of entering the crime scene, to being transported to a completely different location, his nerves had been crying, waiting to break down. Here, in this spacious room, he felt comfortable enough to start truly panicking. His breathing got a little heavier. He found his eyesight waning and his clothes felt a little too tight, despite them being loose fitting. Then, there was that nauseating feeling within his chest, constantly tugging on him.

'What is going on?' He questioned in his mind. It wouldn't do him any good to panic, but this place was putting him on edge. Nothing in his life was as stressful as this. Just before it could all compound, a loud crashing sound drew the attention of Izuku and Aizawa. Dust came down from the ceiling, originating from a hole, joining the forming cloud on the floor. Aizawa jumped into a fighting stance, prepared.

"Oh? This is what happens?" Sukuna made his presence known. Izuku gulped as a figure could be seen through the dust and minimal lighting. It was definitely a person, but something was off about their silhouette.

'W-what do you me-' Izuku grasped at his chest as that tugging feeling got stronger. The figure in the dust also got closer to the duo. 'Why is-' That's when it clicked. The unfamiliar environment, the pain in his chest and the sudden interest from Sukuna.

"We-we're in a domain!" Izuku yelled out. Aizawa furrowed his eyebrows but kept his attention on the approaching figure. Before he could ask Izuku to elaborate, the figure stepped out from the dust. It was definitely a person, but their skin was pale white. Each and every muscle in their body was taut against their skin. An odd hole, able to be seen through was prominently centered in their chest. Their facial features were askew. The mouth was there, open in a creepy smile, but the eyes were apart of protrusions that wrapped around the top of their head.

"Stay right there and surrender! If you-" Aizawa was cut off when the person grabbed his face in a show of speed. 'When did-' His thoughts were cut off when he was forced into the wall behind him. Groggily, he picked himself up, clutching at his capture scarf. Looking ahead, the person was cackling to themselves, feeling their own body up as they stood in one spot. Aizawa took this opportunity to charge forward and attempt to combat the person. Keeping his eyes on them, he activated his quirk as he threw his scarf at one of their legs.

The scarf successfully wrapped itself around the targets leg. Yanking back, Aizawa got the person to fall hard on the floor. Keeping eye contact, he grabbed his knife as he went to mount the downed criminal. But just as fast as he approached the person, the disappeared from his eyesight. The scarf that was tied around their leg was torn apart as it fluttered in the open air. 'What?! When-' A blunt force made contact with his face, sending the hero flying into another wall.

Izuku was in a full panic now. He realized too late that this was an innate quirk domain, something he was far too familiar with that the public had no knowledge about. His dreams were plagued by Sukuna tormenting him within his own domain and he'd have many restless nights because of this. 'B-but I was only ever familiar with Sukuna's so of course I wouldn't realize!' He rationalized, trying to lift the weight of the burden on his heart. As his breathing picked up, the pale person decided to turn their attention towards Izuku. He shrieked as the persons head snapped to him. In the distance, he could see Eraser Head's unmoving form embedded in the wall.

"R-run... Midoriya..." Aizawa breathed out before seemingly passing out. Izuku needn't think twice about the command. He booked it immediately, darting towards the tunnel within the pipe. His breath became ragged as he gave it everything he could to escape.

"Woah!" He came to a dead stop when the ground suddenly gave way to another room. Much like the other one, it was filled with pipes but this time there was a pool of water on either side of a concrete walkway. Attempting to catch his breath, he stared at the drop in front of him. Just eyeballing it, it was somewhere near 20 meters, which he couldn't handle with his current physique. A wave of vertigo interrupted his thought process, but then another sense overcame that one.

An overwhelming sense of dread.

He didn't even need to see him to know that the pale villain was bearing over him from behind. His presence alone made every hair on Izuku's body stand on end. Before he could say anything, he felt the person push him from behind.

Crashing into the ground below, Izuku was dazed and barely awake. Somehow managing to push himself up on his hands and knees, he felt a burning sensation in his right arm. His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when he saw the way his arm was bent in 3 different places. Scrambling to his feet, he gripped at his forearm as he held back a choking sob. The pale villain was now walking him down with a cruel smile on its face.

'What do I do?! It just threw me down 20 meters without breaking a sweat! And it put Eraser Head down without a scratch. I-' Izuku looked straight ahead. The pale figure was approaching him steadily. 'I- I need to fight back!'

"Disman-" Izuku held his arm out preparing to attack, but just as quickly as he raised it, he lost it. Izuku held back a scream of terror. The villain held Izuku's dismembered arm like a trophy, howling maniacally as it paraded it between its hands.

'Am I about to die?' Izuku thought grimly. 'All that training, all those years of dreaming...' His emotions grew heavy. His emotions began to crash as reality set in. 'Just when I thought I could do it... But I was too weak to keep myself alive!' Tears welled in his eyes as his recent life flashed in his mind, before it went black.

The villain cocked its hand back, its crazed smile having never left its face, and let a jab fly through towards Izuku.

"I must say, you really are a pitiful brat." The air in the room changed at the drop of a hat. No longer was it musky and stuffy. Instead, it was overflowing with the distinct feeling of malice. The villain could see why but its brain couldn't comprehend its terrible situation.

Sukuna was roaming free once more.

-{ ~ }-

"Guh!" Eraser Head jolted up from his crater. Grasping at his temples, his head was ringing with pain from being so thoroughly rattled. 'How was I thrashed this badly?!' The hero scolded himself for letting Midoriya fall into the hands of danger. 'No, more importantly, where is he right now?!' Shakily pulling himself together, Aizawa scanned the room once more. Nothing had changed from his initial assessment, aside from the impact crater he had just pulled himself out of and the one prior.

Nothing was out of the ordinary visually, but this new spot he found himself in allowed another sense to come on top. Sniffing the air once more, he was greeted by a vile smell he was all too familiar with in his line of work.

The stench of death was heavy in the air.

'Could that villain have...? No... I vaguely remember seeing Midoriya run.' Trying his best to calm his anxiety, he looked closer, sniffed harder, trying to find where this smell came from. Walking near the center of the room, there was a drain in the floor. The smell was awful, no doubt the origin of it all. Creeping closer, Aizawa was able to peer down and nearly dropped to the floor in disgust.

A fresh corpse, stuffed within the drain greeted his sight. There were vague traces of hair, what was left of an eye or maybe a mouth. He couldn't tell without getting closer, but he didn't want to. Even with his line of hero work and his proximity to vigilantes, mutilation of a corpse to this degree was rare.

A fizzing sound distracted him from the corpse. Looking up, the walls seemed to be melting around him. A pipe became dislodged from the wall and crashed into the ground. Yet above all of this noise, Aizawa could hear a scream, followed by a sinister laugh. A laugh that felt eerily familiar, even if he'd never heard it before.

Springing into action, Aizawa ran towards the pipe tunnel that he instructed Izuku to use. The screams and laughs only became louder as he reached the room at the end. Now at the edge of the next room, Aizawa wasted no time flinging himself to the ground with the assistance of his capture scarf. The room was similar in color to the last one, but there was destruction all around the room. Long, deep cuts etched into the walls and ceiling much like animals leaving their marks on the ground.

"Leeching off of my soul and you're still this pathetic? I thought you'd be a little more fun." Aizawa's skin started to crawl. That voice was all too familiar. "C'mon, try harder." Peering down from the destroyed bridge in the center of the room, Aizawa could see Izuku and the pale villain. But something was different with Izuku. The air felt heavy in the room and-

'Sukuna?!' The dots connected. As if he was reading his thoughts, Sukuna looked up at Aizawa, a gleeful smile present on his face.

"I'll play with you in a moment, erasing man." Sukuna waved off the hero, as if to shoo him away. "I'm not done ripping the wings off of this butterfly." Sukuna then clasped his hands together in a prayer like formation.

"Domain Expansion." The water beneath Sukuna's feet rippled. Behind him, the ground gave way to an all too familiar structure. The building from his first interaction with the King of Quirks was unchanged. Its grotesque visage kept Aizawa's hairs on end as it protruded from the earth.

"Malevolent Shrine."

The villain in front of Sukuna stood still in awe and horror. Then, seemingly from thin air, its body was split by five evenly space slits.

"Oh? I was aiming for three slices, but you're so weak you got split into five." Sukuna eyed the body in front of him with a curious look, much like how an artist would look at their finished painting. "Ah, I'll be taking this back." Sukuna reached into an odd hole within the villain's body and grabbed a grotesque purple item. One Aizawa could recognize as another one of Sukuna's fingers. "Now then, time to see you cut loose."

A blur rushed Aizawa's vision. Coupled with the sudden disappearance of the sewer like room around them, the hero was completely disoriented and blindsided once more. A crash rang through his ears, as well as a heavy impact on his back. Grunting, Aizawa tried his best to free himself but found his surrounding area completely devoid of life. Taking just another moment to recollect himself, he was floating in the air, just above the larger mall complex that the store was a part of. Just as fast as he could gather himself, he was swiftly knocked out of his mid-air suspension.

"Show me something interesting Shota Aizawa!" Aizawa could hear the words Sukuna barked at him but was unable to figure out what the ancient man wanted. Pulling himself together, he watched as Sukuna approached him slowly. "I think you're interesting, much more than this brat." Sukuna then grabbed at his shirt and ripped it to shreds. Then without warning or hesitation, he impaled himself with his own hand. Blood flowed fresh from the wound in his chest. The bloody scene was topped off with Sukuna pulling his own heart out.

"What the-" Aizawa couldn't believe his eyes.

"Now, now. Think fast. I can live without this, but the brat can't! If you can show me something nice, I'll save his life." Sukuna then dropped the heart on the ground on stomped it. Izuku's red shoes now gained a darker tint, stained by the blood of his own body. "Oh, and I'll be using this now." Sukuna grabbed the finger he extracted from the villain with his non bloodied hand. "It's such a shame I healed this body by instinct when that pathetic plaything attacked me." The man said before swallowing his own finger.

'Show him something interesting?! What the hell could he want?' Without thinking any further, Aizawa ran forward in an attempt to subdue Sukuna.

"Oh, and you can use your quirk. I won't kill you immediately, what fun is that?" Sukuna swiftly dodged the charging man by stepping to the side. Aizawa flipped himself forward and launched his capture scarf behind him, grabbing Sukuna's outstretched hand, and pulling it downwards. Sukuna attempted to release himself by slashing through the tape but found his quirk ineffective. "Ah so that's why you could peer into my quirk. You can stop quirks from functioning by maintaining eye contact. But just how long can you keep those eyes open without healing yourself."

Aizawa was in prime striking distance. Sukuna was on the ground and unable to use his quirk. Grabbing another strand of scarf, the hero attempted to completely detain his foe, but Sukuna instead turned the tables but pulling the scarf attached to his arm towards him. Aizawa, unprepared for this sudden tug-o-war, was thrown off balance. Sukuna then rushed the hero and buried his fist in his gut. Spitting up saliva and blood, Aizawa was thrown far away, unable to keep eye contact with Sukuna.

"Dodge this. Dismantle." Aizawa, groggy as he was, understood his dire situation. His quirk was ocular and always had been. He had never tried to push the limitations of his quirk besides extending the amount of time he could keep his eyes open, but there was a fire within him, begging to burst forward and keep him alive. In his sights, he could see Sukuna's attack. A black blade of energy charged him, ready to split him in two. He activated his erasure, staring hard at the attack and watched it shatter into pieces.

"There it is, but that can't be everything can it?" Aizawa was struck downwards. Even in mid-air, Sukuna was able to catch up to the hero. Crashing into the ground, Aizawa could barely hear a clapping noise. "That was quite the interesting technique there. Erasing my launched attack midair. Maybe I could learn from that." Sukuna stroked his chin as he walked over the crater Aizawa was in. "But if that's all, then I'm not fixing the boy's heart."

Aizawa stood up, legs trembling, blood burning with new insight. His hair stood up, a glare in his eyes not present prior, shone through the gaps of his goggles. "I'll save him even if it's the last thing I do!" The hero clenched his fists before he shuddered.

"Thanks for reassuring me, Eraser Head." Izuku smiled at the shaggy man. "I wish it could have meant something more- ah." Blood poured from his chest wound. "Looks like, that's all I can withstand. Sorry I couldn't be a hero." With a weak smile, Izuku fell forward, his face falling directly into a steadily growing puddle of blood.

Izuku Midoriya was dead.

-{ ~ }-

End Notes

Ah hmm. It's been a while.

I have been thoroughly rereading Jujutsu Kaisen, like from front to back. I've spent so much time on Discord, Twitter and Instagram just debating what is an isn't good story telling and presentation, but really, who am I to judge Akutami? I should sit patiently and wait for the next chapter to see all the buildup payoff.

I really do want to push this somewhere further. I took some time away from FF but found my creative well unable to cease its spewing into my mind and idle activities. I lost track of many of the stories I followed so I'm going to have to go find new material to keep me occupied.

I also believe I'm the only FF writer to use Sukuna for a JJK cross. I can find many Gojo stories, rightfully so, but maybe during my absence someone decided to take this story idea and create a story around it. I'll find out later. Anyways, R&R as always. Have a good day/night.