The funny thing that Taylor Hebert might not have realized was that Sukuna really wasn't in the mood to be walking about just yet. Sure, it was nice. And, sure, it felt good to breathe in the cold air and feel it against his skin again. But, he hadn't planned this. And, truth be told, he still wasn't absolutely certain what made the brat think she could just jump out a window, fall thirty feet, and somehow still be conscious by the time she hit the ground. Nonsense.
But, as much as he wanted to just retreat back into that dimension to continue his very interesting conversation with the alien entity that was connected to the brat's head, Sukuna couldn't. Their Binding Vow ensured that he'd have to keep her away from danger, before he could retreat back into her mind. But, he also wasn't in a hurry. After all, why shouldn't the King of Curses have his fun? So, the first thing he did was walk into the most dangerous part of the city, according to Taylor's memories.
This place was ABB territory or some other such nonsense.
And, lo and behold, even the brat's pale form, however lanky and underdeveloped it might've been, was bound to attract the attention of miscreants. And it did. Sukuna didn't have to walk very long before a gaggle of about fifteen men, armed with clubs and other crude weapons, surrounded his vessel's naked form. Briefly, Sukuna had to wonder if these people even took notice of the mask. Or if they simply didn't care and were ruled almost entirely by lust. Otherwise, they would've, at the very least, hesitated.
"You're coming with us," One of them said. A threat. Not even a good one. But Sukuna could appreciate the directness. No need for small talk. That was how threats were supposed to be made.
"You're technically villains, right?" Sukuna said, grinning underneath the bone mask over his face. Lovely. The Binding Vow depended entirely on Taylor's perception of villainy. And, in this case, it seemed like, in her eyes, these gangsters were, in fact, technically villains, even if Taylor herself was not aware of this. Absolutely lovely.
None of the gangsters were able to let out so much as a single reply as Sukuna reduced their bodies to minced meat, cutting them apart into pieces so tiny that what remained of them were little more than bloody piles and puddles on the ground. Sukuna stared at the remains for a moment, before shrugging and continuing onward, deeper into ABB territory.
"Boring," Sukuna sighed. He killed these ones quickly because they were too mundane. Too boring. He also wasn't in any particular mood to eat any of them. Hey, he might've been a cannibal, but that didn't mean he was going to chew on a foot. That kind of thing was nasty. No. Sukuna preferred to take his time cooking. Human flesh, after all, went really well with some kind of sweet, soy-garlic sauce and plenty of green and white onions. And a good, healthy bowl of white rice.
Yeah, that was the good stuff.
Unfortunately, Uraume wasn't here with him and he also wasn't in the mood to cook.
So, no human meals for tonight. Some other time, perhaps.
No, what Sukuna really wanted to do was to indirectly cause as much destruction as physically possible by engaging in a duel against a particularly powerful Parahuman. And, based entirely on the brat's memories, there was only one villain in all of Brockton Bay that, when given enough time, was powerful enough to threaten the whole city. Lung, the man who thought himself a dragon, would make for an excellent meal - or, at the very least, an amusing toy.
But, Sukuna had no idea where the man himself was and the King of Curses honestly didn't care enough to go looking for him. So, instead, he was going to bring the Dragon right here.
Sukuna closed his eyes and breathed in, catching the scent of the closest place where these gangsters gathered in numbers. Oddly, Sukuna noted that the brat's definition of villain was rather 'loose'. If he had to make an educated guess, based on her personality and her memories, anyone who did anything wrong, ever, would fall under the bracket of "villain" in her mind. Sukuna grinned. As exciting as it would be test out that theory, however, he wasn't in any particular mood for a massacre. No, he just wanted to set a good portion of this city on fire.
Why? Well, what else was he supposed to do on his free time?
These 'Shards' were far more interesting than anything else out here.
So, Sukuna jumped and followed the scent to a nearby warehouse of some kind, where a large gaggle of the miscreants gathered, forcing themselves onto drugged up women. Ah, this was a prostitution den of some sort, Sukuna realized, but the prostitutes were neither willing nor lucid enough to give their consent. According to Taylor's memories, this was one of the reasons why the ABB were apparently so feared by the local population of women. They were known for kidnapping girls right out of the streets and forcing them into a life of carnal servitude.
Sukuna landed in front of the brothel, immediately catching the attention of the dozen or so gangsters who were standing guard, outside. Unlike the ones he'd minced earlier, these ones were almost immediately on-edge, despite the clear and present nudity of his host. They raised their guns. And, with a single wave of his left pointer finger, Sukuna decapitated all of them, save one. Not a single sound was emitted as the corpses fell onto the ground, their blood seeping into the soil and gravel. Sukuna took a single step forward. The lone survivor dropped his gun and fell to his knees, and soiled his pants. "I surrender!"
Sukuna chuckled as he stalked forward. "That was quick."
"Please!" The man pleaded as the King of Curses walked up to him. "Don't kill me! I'll do anything you want! Please, just don't kill me!"
"Call the Dragon," Sukuna said, eyeing the phone that was halfway revealed through the man's front pocket. "If he doesn't come to me, then I'll destroy all his... whore houses... one by one, starting with this one. If he still doesn't come out, then I'll start killing every single member of the ABB, until the whole gang ceases to exist and it'll just be Lung and his little shinobi."
Sukuna loomed over the kneeling man and pushed him into the ground, stepping on the gangster's chest. "Now, pick up the phone and call someone. You have five seconds."
"Okay!" The gangster cried.
And, five seconds later, Sukuna sliced the man's head off with Dismantle, but not before he managed to call... someone on the phone. He doubted a mere guard had direct contact with the head of the organization, but word would spread. For now, he'd make do with his word, starting with the den of carnal sin before him. Truth be told, Sukuna didn't care overly much for prostitutes and prostitution; such a profession was rather common in the Heian Era and it wasn't seen as anything vile or deserving of scorn. In fact, the prostitutes of his time were celebrated and hailed as artists and celebrities.
They also tasted pretty good, whenever he felt like eating them.
These ones, however, were nowhere near the prostitutes Sukuna knew and recognized. If nothing else, these women were closer to slaves. No, they were slaves, trapped by force and narcotics, keeping them caged within their own minds, unable to even properly perceive the world around them. Boring. If you were going to torture someone, then you made sure they felt it. If you were going to enslave someone, then you made sure they were also useful for other things, beyond sex. Boring. At that point, the gangsters might as well be copulating with still-warm corpses.
Sukuna lazily waved his hand in the warehouse's general direction and Dismantled the entire building to dust. Not a single scream echoed out into the darkness of the night. Of the hundreds of people within the whore house, not a single one of them managed to cry out before they were cut down. And, Sukuna grinned as a cloud of dust and debris scattered about him, no backlash from the Binding Vow. That had been a little bit of a gamble on his part, but it seemed as though his hunch was right; the black-haired brat didn't know what to think of the vegetative whores in the warehouse. And so the Binding Vow defaulted and found Taylor's most basic requirements. Were they villains? No. But were they alive? What was Taylor's subconscious requirement before she considered someone truly alive? And did the human vegetables pass her requirements?
They did not. On a subconscious level, it seemed, the brat didn't think the drugged-up whores were alive at all. And so the Binding Vow was bypassed. Can't technically kill something that wasn't, by definition, alive, after all. Her subconscious definition of a living human being included the ability to take control of their own lives, to make choices. That sort of thing probably stemmed from the bullying, but Sukuna didn't care too much to analyze that juicy little tidbit.
The King of Curses was right about the brat, then. She might've been a scared little maggot, but – deep down – the brat had a viciousness about her that very few people could match. It just needed a little coaxing.
"What a cruel thing to feel, Taylor," Sukuna chuckled. Obviously, once the brat realized the error in her mindset, her view would change. But the mind was a malleable thing and this traumatized little shit would be his clay. Because, unlike that other brat, his nephew, Yuji, who – Sukuna very begrudgingly acknowledged and respected – possessed an iron-clad will, Taylor's sense of justice and morality both seemed rather flimsy, easily shaken and altered. Of course, the desire to do good was there, but then that desire also existed in Sukuna a very long time ago, before his ascension - or, rather, before he became the Fallen One.
He cast one more glance at the rubble, before turning and walking away. Already, Sukuna noted, the inhabitants of the nearby buildings had taken notice – humans taking pictures from their windows, accompanied by screams, and hushed whispers. They saw him. They took pictures of him. Or, rather, they witnessed his vessel. And, if he knew anything about the nature of photos and the internet, it's that they had a tendency of spreading out of control – very fast. Oh, Taylor was going to enjoy her newfound fame when she finally awoke.
Still, the King of Curses casually strolled forward, unbothered and uncaring.
"Ah, here you are!" Sukuna stepped into an alley, where a number of ABB gangsters gathered. There were twenty of them, at a glance, taking turns brutalizing a bald man, kicking and punching. Sukuna was pretty sure their victim was quite close to death. But, none of them seemed to notice. The others merely laughed and howled, some even taking videos and photos of the bloodied man on the ground. The alley itself was dark and dingy, and none of them noticed Sukuna as he stepped towards them, not even when the light from a nearby lamp post shined over his vessel's pale form, almost making her glow. And then, one of the gangsters noticed, turning to Sukuna with a confused frown, even when the man's eyes wandered.
"Hey, who's the nude chick-"
Sukuna waved a single finger and all twenty of them died, cut down into little bloody ribbons and painting the alley red, except for one.
This time, Sukuna gave the gangster the chance to scream. And the man did so, soiling his pants even as he struggled to remove the gun from his belt, hands slick and slimy with fresh blood. Sukuna waved another finger and the gangster's right hand fell off at the wrist. Amusingly, it took the man a few moments to notice his lack of appendage. Sukuna chuckled as he stepped forward. "Now, scream a little louder. I think the neighbors aren't hearing you too well."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHH!"
The gangster fell to the ground, having slipped on the entrails of his comrade, further slathering himself in blood and gore and red grime. Sukuna leapt across the air and planted his feet on the screaming gangster's chest, pushing and forcing the man down. "Shut your mouth or I'll slice off every other limb. Now, how about you pick up that phone in your pocket and call the Dragon for me?"
AN: Chapter 11 is up on (Pat)reon! (And holy shit was it a blast to write!)