Jan 25, 2019
Everything is going so wrong.
Before he died, Gojo wiped out the old bosses of the Jujutsu Society and asked them to follow Gakuganji, but Gakuganji was killed rushing onto the battlefield right when the cataclysm started to give the young sorcerers a chance to flee from Shinjuku.
Yuta didn't even understand what was happening at the time, and he was just arriving in Tokyo when it started.
He didn't want to retreat until he saw Sukuna run so fast to get away from the newly-birthed Alghera that his feet spun out from under him like he was a cartoon character after taking making just a few attempts to attack.
They've just come from their second attempt at Alghera, a fruitless and depressing effort that ended with Yuta dragging an unconscious Sukuna to their makeshift base. Sukuna's head is split open, and he can't currently use his cursed technique due to over exhausting it, so he's not sure if Sukuna is actually going to live.
Yuta wants Sukuna to die from an incredibly deep part of his soul, but he also knows that at the moment, their best shot at figuring out what to do about Alghera is Sukuna. It's hard to imagine even if they have a plan that fighting him would be viable without Sukuna's incomprehensible strength.
During the battle, Sukuna pissed Alghera off and she batted him around like a cat playing with an insect, and that was genuinely terrifying because of how much stronger he was than any other sorcerer.
A blood trail is left behind as he drags Sukuna to the infirmary that Shoko has set up.
She is always about business, and she knows that even though Sukuna killed Gojo, they need him, so she puts on her mask.
Shoko and Yuta are both disgusted and disappointed at the idea of having to help save Sukuna, but he also basically tanked the monster for them and if he hadn't been part of the assault, Alghera might have killed them all.
"You should try to get some sleep, Yuta."
Yuta looks up and says, "We failed, Ms. Ieiri. What are we even going to do, if we have all this strength and it was just a joke to that monster?"
"I wish I had answers. I'm your elder. I should have some answer, right? But I don't."
He turns and sees the bed in the corner empty, and asks, "Is Maki feeling better?"
"For now."
"What was wrong with her?"
"You'll have to ask her. Doctor-patient confidentiality."
Yuta says, "I think that only applies to real doctors, right?"
Shoko starts roughly stitching Sukuna's head closed, and says, "Maki is pregnant, Yuta."
It's like the last bit of hope finally deflates from his body and he just stares at her, despondently.
There are no leaders in the Jujutsu Society. Kusakabe's no good, the Big Three clans have all been wiped out or are close to it, the elders are gone, Gakuganji is gone, Yaga is gone, Gojo is gone…
No one knows what to do, and the Great Curses have spread out now, leaving only one in Japan, and they still can't do anything. People just die, all day every day. There's no end to it, no remedy, no place ordinary people can go.
Hajime Kashimo is trying to take control of the Jujutsu Society. Shoko is worried Kashimo will assassinate Yuta in order to fully gain control, and Yuta is objectively more important to the future than Kashimo is.
And so Yuta is watching the world burn to ash as the leader of sorcerers who can't do anything to put out the flames, struggling against Kashimo, mourning the loss of not only his mentor but also his family that was killed.
At only seventeen years old, he is carrying the world on his shoulders, and amidst everything, now there was an unplanned pregnancy.
Love is his Achilles Heel, after all.
Yuta just wants to sit on the floor and cry, because Maki's comfort and support is the only thing holding him together, and now she's carrying a child. Even if the world was more perfect than it had ever been for him and Maki, it would be a bad idea. But things were the way they were.
They didn't even know if any humans would be left alive once Alghera was gone.
Shoko says, "I got pregnant when I was about your age. It's embarrassing to be a teenager with a baby on the way, and scary even if the world isn't like this. Being a woman with a baby at the wrong time in her life is hard and it is sad. I wasn't in love, just dumb, so it was easier, I guess. Maki is carrying the child of the only person who has ever loved her, and I'm sure she feels some kind of way about that. I can't tell you what to do, and it'll be sad however it goes. But it's not a good time to have a baby, Yuta."
Yuta stands there in his bloody jacket and says, "I don't really need you to tell me that. How do we…how do we not have a baby?"
"You'll have to go on a scavenger hunt for some specific medicine I don't have here, but it's just a couple of pills. She'll have a miscarriage and be down for a couple of days."
Okkotsu just frowns. "Okay."
Sukuna's eyes open and she jumps backward, knocking over a tray of instruments.
Sitting up, he looks around, and heals the wound on his head.
"Not going to take your chance?" he asks, glancing from Shoko to Yuta.
Shoko lights a cigarette and says, "You can live for now. We'll fight some other time."
This was clearly a joke as Shoko never had any intention of ever sharing violence with Sukuna.
Yuta asks, "Why doesn't the technique you used to kill Gojo work? It's…it's something different."
Sukuna frowns. "I wasn't sure the first time, but now I am. Alghera is using something you can probably just consider anti-infinity. If infinity is everything that is everywhere, anti-infinity is the power of nothing that exists nowhere."
Shoko asks, "So what are we going to do?"
The King of Curses pops his neck and answers, "We require a tool that allows us to neutralize an abstract property of matter that does not exist in a place that is not real."
"So we're just all going to die?" Yuta asks.
Sukuna explains, "They won't kill all of us. Cursed spirits can't live without humans. Sorcerers especially; we basically make the oxygen they breathe. It's the reason Alghera doesn't drop in on us. Cursed Current is going to fuck us over here in Japan for sure."
"What is that?"
He stares. "What is what?"
"Cursed Current?" Shoko asks.
He wonders if people became stupid while he was transversing the world as mummified fingers, or if it's forbidden knowledge in 2019 to discuss the Cursed Current.
"It was well-known in my time? Cursed energy and negative sentiment move around the world like the weather, but it rains the most in Japan. The Great Curses are massacring people all over the world, so Japan is probably going to start churning out thousands of cursed spirits, and many of them are going to be special grade, who will continue to kill."
Yuta feels odd having a full conversation with Sukuna, but they'd talked quite a bit before their attack. He asks, "How do we stop it?"
Sukuna says, "That requires killing all the Great Curses and as we've already established, we don't have a way to do that. The small fries don't matter, but your camp should focus on keeping the strongest among you alive."
"Alive for what?" Shoko mutters, taking a long drag from her cigarette.
"The world of curses balances itself. If the cursed spirits are so powerful, sorcerers capable of stopping them should enter the world. There are no Gojos left, but someone with an infinity manipulation ability could be born—there's no rule they are the only family that will ever have that ability, or someone with a unique reversal technique…Okkotsu's little mistake has an astronomically high chance of winning big in the sorcery birth lottery."
Shoko feels instantly embarrassed and regretful that Sukuna was evidently awake and heard their conversation.
Sukuna suggests, "Maybe let it be born and see what technique it gets and then decide if you should kill it? That takes what, four, five years? They are still easy to dispose of at that age."
Yuta gives him a look, like someone has flipped a switch, and he growls, "You shut your mouth, you…" Monster? Freak? Villain? Murderer? Does a word for what he is even exist?
Sukuna bursts out laughing. "It cracks me up when you make that serious face. You look like a baby or a killer and never anything between. But honestly, who knew you had it in you? I would assume that between that woman and you, she might get you pregnant, she's so tough. Do you let her slap you around first? It's always more fun if it's violent!"
"Get out of here, you fucking pig, or I'll kill you," Yuta growls.
"Easy, Loverboy. You keep talking like that and that woman will have that baby because it's the only part of you that's not dead. That's the kind of foolishness women get into when they're in love," he answers.
Shoko steps between them. "If you're not in need of my services, it's probably time for you to go."
Sukuna decides that as fun as it is to poke at the sorcerers, he actually wants to find somewhere to settle in because the immediate future is clearly going to suck. He's not really interested in it at all. As much as he enjoys violence, death, and doom, it's significantly less enjoyable when other people are causing it.
If things really devolve and Japan's cursed spirit population exponentially increases and pancakes the population, he has no idea what the world will even look like.
It's foolish to think it's the end of the world or that things will always be this way; even his own reign as the King of Curses in the Heian Era had its final moment. Alghera and the others would too, and since they were protecting themselves with such a bullshit technique, Sukuna assumed that once they stripped their armor off, the rest might actually be quite easy.
After all, beyond infinity, Satoru Gojo was still human. These creatures are still cursed spirits, and sorcerers are the predators made to hunt them.
He finds a note in his pocket while he is actually quite far off and returns to the makeshift headquarters of the Jujutsu Society. The note asked to meet by the 'big tree,' so he looks for the biggest tree he can find and wonders who put the note in his pocket. He assumes it wasn't Yuta, because Yuta doesn't ever want to look at his face again.
Shoko Ieiri is sitting on an old bench under the tree, leaning her head against it.
If he'd known it was her, he wouldn't have come.
"How is someone like you going to ask for an audience?" he asks.
Ieiri shrugs. "I thought I'd try my luck. In the end, we'll all be cursed to death by someone. It doesn't really matter if it's you or someone else."
"What do you want?"
"Could I talk you into killing Hajime Kashimo?"
"Who?"
Shoko thinks this response would hurt Kashimo more than any physical blow ever dealt to him in his life. One man, obsessed with proving his strength over the other, who blankly says 'who?' at the mention of the name.
"Electrical guy. You were fighting when everything started happening."
Sukuna tilts his head. "I thought I already did? Why wasn't he part of the assault team?"
"Politics. Said it wouldn't work, people would die, split the sorcerers on whether to try. Now that it went bad, he's pointing out what a bad decision it was."
Sukuna says, "Is Okkotsu the leader? There are no older people? I don't think the Jujutsu Society is traditional a hierarchy of strength. Surely there's someone around. You're an elder, right?"
"Yuta is the one. And the thing is, he's so young. In a battle, he's probably only second to you now, right? Could you agree with that statement?"
"Sure?"
Shoko says, "He doesn't understand how people are. Kashimo lived to be old as hell in his own time. He doesn't care about being alive, or about the people who are alive now, or anything else but his own ego. When Gojo was around, Kashimo was friendly, but you know how it is."
"Kashimo doesn't have to behave himself now that Gojo is dead."
"In a one-on-one fight, Yuta would eat his lunch."
"And then feed his corpse to his pet. No question. If they fought to the death one hundred times, Kashimo would win zero times."
Shoko says, "I believe Kashimo is going to kill Yuta by sneaking up on him or doing some other worthless coward move. He wants to be the boss. Can't stand the idea of answering to such a young person. He wants to have his big battle with you, and he's not going to get clotheslined by Yuta on the way because Yuta isn't the damn King of Curses. Yuta is just a kid who had a mental breakdown five days ago and had to go out and fight again today.
"And of course when Kashimo does it, we'll lose Yuta. And then the other kids will kill Kashimo, so he'll be gone. Then the leadership situation will be even worse."
Objectively, if they found a solution for the anti-infinity technique the next day, and a large number of sorcerers needed to stage an attack, Yuta Okkotsu is the most important sorcerer from the Jujutsu Society that would be needed.
Okkotsu's talent would be considered generational if he wasn't born a decade after Satoru Gojo.
Of course, what Shoko Ieiri is doing is politicking too; Sukuna is assuming that there are factions starting to form within the Jujutsu Society and the lines are probably split on the former Gojo loyalists and those who were antagonistic toward him. The neutral parties probably fell more into Yuta's camp.
It's absurd, really.
According to Shoko, Yuta is naïve and is clearly trying to create a future where they work together, but that's not possible. He sees Kashimo's power and experience as an asset and not an imminent threat to his life, and to be fair, the world is literally burning down, and this seems petty even to Sukuna.
Shoko says, "I think that in addition to hoping he can somehow bring unity, Yuta wants to keep Kashimo alive so his ability is available if we are able to attack. But there's way to have Hajime Kashimo's technique without Hajime Kashimo, you know?"
"What's in it for me?" Sukuna asks.
Shoko says, "I have nothing to offer you. I could owe you a favor, but I can't imagine what you'd ever want from me."
"Neither can I."
Sukuna contemplates what to do about this situation. Okkotsu is naïve, still hoping for a happy ending and in many ways, still hoping he can learn how to walk in Satoru Gojo's shoes.
Gojo was so much more powerful than everyone else that other people in the Jujutsu Society were somewhat hampered by his will. Kashimo couldn't assassinate Yuta in a world where Gojo still existed; that wasn't even a thought that could exist in his mind for very long before realizing Gojo would kill him if he knew about it.
None of that really mattered.
The only thing that mattered was that Kashimo was creating a situation where only he or Okkotsu would exist in the future, and Sukuna had an opinion about which one would be more useful to him. Kashimo dying could make Okkotsu more powerful, but Okkotsu dying would just be a massive loss in the available power of sorcerers.
Okkotsu has the Technique Extermination ability in his deck, so if they find a way past the anti-infinity field, Okkotsu can 'exterminate' the technique so it can't be reactivated, and the door will open.
Since Hana was lost in the first assault when they had no idea what the Great Curses were or what they were capable of, Yuta being lost would be a major blow to basic any strategy.
He doesn't really believe that a favor from Shoko will ever be worth anything, but Yuta Okkotsu is.
Sukuna finds out from Shoko where Hajime Kashimo is and finds out that he is chasing down a lead that is likely worthless with Atsuya Kusakabe.
He hunts them, and when appears before them the next day, Kusakabe puts his hand on his sword.
"Ieiri sent me," he says.
Kusakabe takes his hand off the hilt of the blade and starts walking backward.
They weren't 'chasing down a lead,' someone made up some bullshit story to get Kashimo away from the base so no one would try to help him. This is an assassination orchestrated by Fail Elders, Shoko Ieiri and Atsuya Kusakabe to keep their precious Okkotsu alive.
When it is over, Sukuna removes Kashimo's head and holds it out to Kusakabe. "A little treat for the Queen."
Kusakabe is terrified to be alone in such close proximity to the King of Curses, but he puts his hands out and feels the warmth of Kashimo's blood dripping through his fingers.
He swallows nervously, and Sukuna says, "On your way."
Yuta is later that night laying in bed with Maki, staring at the ceiling.
There are wet spots from her tears on his t-shirt; it's so strange to see her cry. It's such a logical decision, because obviously, they can't have a baby right now.
An unplanned pregnancy between teenagers was basically always rough, and they'd taken some precautions. Maybe there was a time or two when they were uninhibited.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he hears Satoru Gojo's voice in the back of his mind, telling him 'love is the most twisted curse of all.'
Because he loved Maki, she was suffering.
And the greatest love they could probably show their baby was to not let it be born into the world.
Maki's side is his happy place, the last refuge in the storm, but suddenly, it's become sad and difficult, like everywhere else.
Maki feels like such a burden to him at the moment, like she just gave him something else to carry. It was her plan to take care of the situation quietly, and not tell him, because he relied on her. She was angry at Shoko for disclosing it, and she doesn't want to hear any crap from her about how she shouldn't handle the situation alone because that's not fair to her.
He quietly says in a voice barely louder than a whisper, "I wonder what we'd do, if none of this had ever happened? If everything was still okay, would we have a baby? That would so strange, wouldn't it? I used to think about stuff like that happening in the future. In my brain, we get married in a few years and then maybe have a kid or do. Live happily ever after, sorcerer edition."
Maki wonders if she should tell him that she used to look into her own crystal ball and see the same thing? About how when she was growing up, she told herself a million times that if she ever became a mom, she'd make sure her kid always felt all the love that she never felt? Of course she's not going to say any of those things, because it's hard for her to talk about her feelings.
Yuta feels like if their assault on Alghera had been successful, maybe the discussion would be different. Maybe if they'd stopped everything from turning out so badly…everything was like it was because the Jujutsu Society failed, and that was them. They were the ones who failed, and Yuta wonders, among the billions people fleeing and trying to survive, how many are having this exact conversation about unwelcome miracles.
"Even if the world was fine and we were still students, I think we could be okay. I bet Gojo would be supportive, right? And probably pretty silly about it, calling himself the Number One Uncle, even though he was my tenth cousin."
With a tiny grin, she says, "He really didn't miss any opportunity to be stupid to make us happy, did he? I wish he was still here with us every day. It's so hard with him gone."
"Yeah…"
Maki squeezed his hand. "I can't really explain myself or how I feel. I want to have the baby."
Yuta is incredibly surprised to hear her say this, but he feels she is speaking from the parts of herself that she protects most fiercely.
It's such a scary idea, and yet, there is a part of him that's so relieved she feels this way even though every other part of him has no idea what's going to happen or if they're even going to be alive in a week.
Sukuna's theory that Alghera can't kill all the sorcerers is the only explanation raised as to why they're still alive after only one month even though it's so bad. Everywhere is hell.
Okkotsu asks, "Do you want to get married? I can promise you my forever and ever, for whatever amount of time that actually means for us. Otherwise, when our kid gets older, he'll think I'm a jerk."
This implies, of course, that there will be a future, and they will all exist in it together, and that is certainly not promised.
Before she can answer, they're interrupted by a knock on the door, and Yuta is told to go downstairs for a delivery.
It's quite late, but he dresses and heads down to find Kusakabe standing out front with his canvas travel bag on the ground in front of him. It's stained in blood around the bottom, and Yuta is concerned.
"What's going on, is everything all right? Did you and Kashimo make it back safely?"
Kusakabe answers, "Kashimo is dead."
"What? What happened?"
The older sorcerer ponders how to explain, and then just says, "Sukuna got him."
"Sukuna? He left here and killed Kashimo? Why?"
With a long and very tired sigh, Atsuya answers, "Because we asked him too."
Yuta doesn't ask why, because he already knows. There are the people who don't support him, and then the people who do. But the people who supported him most wanted Kashimo gone because he was causing problems and most believed Kashimo was dangerous. Yuta believed Kashimo wouldn't do anything too bad and that preserving his combat ability was important.
As his eyes fall on the bloodstained backpack, his expression darkens. "What's in the bag?"
"A gift from the King of Curses to the Queen of Curses."
Yuta picks up the bag and looks inside, and lifts Kashimo's head out by the hair.
Was he so wrong about Kashimo that the people trying to help him went behind his back and asked their mortal enemy for a favor?
Was he failing?
Kusakabe didn't notice it before because he was horrified the most lethal curse user of all time gave him a very warm severed head, but there was something poking out of Kashimo's mouth.
The teacher reaches out and pulls the pointy corner of what turns out to be a folded up greeting card.
It's covered in rainbow glitter and the front of the card says, 'Congratulations on your Baby!' The inside has a little pop up cardboard bassinet, but on the inside, there's a recipe penned in neat handwriting including herbs and spices and '1 baby (human).'
It's clear that Sukuna shoved in Kashimo's mouth before he gave him the head, but Kusakabe is just confused.
"What the hell?"
Yuta feels so angry that his heart pounds in his ears. Beyond the fact that Sukuna is mocking the situation, the implication here is clearly that he should eat his own child.
Sukuna is a monster, disgusting, terrible, evil, all things bad somehow stuffed into one huge body. He mocks the human experience despite being human, as if all their triumphs, tribulations, dreams, and disappointments are silly, petty, and worthless. It's like he thinks they are impediments to what he feels life is truly about, the empty pursuit of violence and murder.
Okkotsu looks into Kashimo's eyes, with his final expression etched in, one of pure fear, and he remembers that this is not Kashimo's body. He stole this body from someone else, someone who had to go along for a terrifying ride, unable to control their own arms or legs or to stop Kashimo from pursuing a death at Sukuna's hands.
When he looks up at Kusakabe, he says, "This world is a cruel place. Sukuna is the worst of them all. He's just having fun at my expense, because he found out that Maki and I are going to have a baby."
He summons Rika and feeds her the head, and then sends her back right away.
Being a high school teacher, kids just were what they were, and Kusakabe just felt bad for them. They were so young, and everything was going wrong.
He feels like it would be disrespectful for him to remind Okkotsu that it is not the right time to bring a child into the world. Clearly, everyone knows that, and they certainly know if they didn't want to do that, they didn't have to.
They sit together on the steps outside the mountain inn where they've taken refuge, and Yuta says, "You know what I was thinking about earlier?"
"What?"
"Because we feel like we need Sukuna, we've stopped talking about getting Fushiguro back. We are choosing the vile monster over our own friend and ally. If I had a button that I could press and it would kill Sukuna and give Fushiguro back, and we all had a vote about whether I should press it, what would happen?"
Kusakabe shrugs. "We're in strange times. Sukuna wants to kill those things too. The guy invented a new technique just to kill Gojo. We need him, but we all know we're going to pay a price for dealing with the devil. We just don't know what it is yet. Fushiguro is one of us, so I think he understands that we are in a really bad position, and that we're doing the best we can."
Yuta thinks for a moment and says, "I just feel so low. Like such a failure. I made wrong decisions that were so bad the people cared about me went behind my back to Sukuna for help and even Sukuna must think I'm an idiot because he did it, didn't he? I can't even scratch the monster that's just out killing everyone out there. I can't protect the woman I love and have caused her more trouble. I have no idea if our child will even ever be able to be born. I abandoned Fushiguro for Sukuna. I told everyone it was more important for us to live than to die in the cities, so we're just here and everything is falling apart.
"How can we have a baby?"
XXX
Fall 2026
Fate is supplying them with the ingredients that they need to cook.
Sukuna knew it would happen, but actually seeing proof of it was fascinating.
He has brought Okkotsu and Smaller Okkotsu back to the farmhouse to ponder this development. It's obvious that Yuta is uneasy about disclosing his son's technique, but everything in creation seinevitable.
Cursed techniques evolved slowly over time, sometimes making subtle changes. Sometimes, maybe two techniques hybridized or an exceptional person came along or times were dire, and a huge leap would take place.
Ryosuke Okkotsu seemed to be an example a leap in the evolution of his technique.
Ryosuke has what is very clearly a radically evolved form of Ten Shadows. He's not sure if even calling it that would be correct for his situation. Once he subdues a shikigami, instead of summoning them, he can temporarily merge their souls with his, a process somewhat akin to using his body as a vessel for their power.
On the surface, not being able to bring a bunch of summons onto the battlefield might seem like a bummer, but being able to enhance his body with the abilities of the shikigami is a much better deal.
Ten Shadows was certainly a powerful powerset for someone who can even summon six or seven shikigami, but summoning has its limits. Summoners have to spread their cursed energy across the summons on the field, so it disperses their power, and most are weak in their bodies. Megumi was a dazzling fighter to Sukuna right from the start because unlike most summoners, he had no problem stepping into melee combat.
Ryosuke's ability is just incredibly powerful and exotic, involving a body that can be radically transformed by the shadow.
Even with just the demon dogs, it's something.
With short black hair and dark blue eyes, Ryosuke looks more like a Zenin than Yuta, but when he calls the spirits of the demon dogs, his body gets considerably larger, faster, and more powerful. A little patch of his hair turns white, and his teeth get longer.
Sukuna says, "Transformation abilities aren't that rare, but ones that do such drastic changes are?"
Just thinking about all the special abilities that each shikigami had, if this little rascal worked his way all the way up, he'd have access to so many techniques.
Including that of Mahoraga.
Limitless Six Eyes was godlike and bizarre, but this just looked like so much fun?
All that being said, Sukuna understands why Ryosuke has been brought to him.
Their camp doesn't have any information about Ten Shadows because Megumi grew up away from the Zenin clan, they're gone, their stuff is gone, and the two living users of Ten Shadows happen to reside in the same body.
If they were living in better times, Okkotsu probably would have kept his son away from Sukuna, but getting strong wasn't a matter of family pride or fun or whatever—Ryosuke and Sayuri had to become strong or they won't even survive, much less be useful.
The world is incredibly fragile, and no one's place was guaranteed as long as the Great Curses could kill any of them at any time.
Yuta knows his son being able to channel the Ten Shadows means they might have a path to Mahoraga's power, but having a path to it and being able to unlock it are two very different things. After all, Sukuna himself is the only sorcerer who has ever tamed the beast and used Mahoraga's incredible abilities outside of a murder-suicide scenario.
The process of summoning and subduing the shadows is incredibly complicated and time-consuming.
Ryosuke had been gifted the allegiance of the demon dogs when his technique first manifested, now four years ago, and he hadn't summoned any of the others. He didn't have defeat all of the shadows; they all had different levels of aggression toward the summoner and a different thing they required in order to be 'subdued.' Mahoraga was the only one requiring a fight to the death; Nue, for instance, was subdued when Megumi managed to grab its foot and hold on while it flew around.
That was something Ryosuke could do, because he seemed enormous and strong for his age. At least, compared to Sayuri. She was older by some months, but he was bigger than she was, stronger, and so much further along with his technique. He'd been more advanced than she was at age four when he first transformed.
He quietly ponders if Satoru Gojo's brat is a dud, because she looks that way compared to Ryosuke.
Regardless, having two different weapons that might be able to neutralize the anti-infinity barrier was clearly better than one, so Sukuna could play ball.
Besides, it suits him for Ryosuke to grow up strong because it seems like a no-brainer that the most fun Sukuna is going to have is going to be to stealing this kid's body when he gets older.
Megumi has been, over the years, gradually eroding the barrier between them, and Sukuna thinks it might be some measure to stop him from ever leaving Megumi's body. If the lines get blurred enough and their souls can't be separated, Sukuna can't force Megumi to leave his own body, so he might end up stuck.
Whether Megumi will actually be successful in this endeavor is quite a question. There aren't any living people that he thinks might be able to serve as his vessel except Yuji Itadori and Yuta Okkotsu, and he doesn't think he'd be able to control either.
He could leave as fingers, but if Yuji found them and ate them, that would be the worst fate.
So, time will tell if Megumi will be able to save his little cousin from suffering the same fate as him.
Suddenly, things are kind of exciting.
Sukuna has never documented anything concerning Ten Shadows because teaching others and passing along his knowledge are not things he is at all interested in. Or at least he wasn't until teaching became a vehicle to escape the unfathomable boredom that had become his life.
Yuta is clearly incredibly pissed off that the only way to help his son move along in his development of his technique is to ask Sukuna for help, and that makes it a little sweeter. Yuta's unending, blistering rage toward Sukuna over some guy he cut in half almost eight years ago never fails to amuse him.
If Yuta knew Gojo's baby was tangled up in his spiderweb, it would be even more fun, but Yuta would fight him over that, and they had to play nice for the time being.
Ryosuke is an incredibly fast learner, and figures out how to summon Nue with little help. The movement of his hands, his stance, the placement of his hands…he follows along well, and then the next half hour is spent with Ryosuke trying to grab hold of the shikigami while it dive-bombs him and knocks him down.
Nue is weak in this form because Ryosuke is weak, and quite gentle.
He doesn't quite get it and is forced to end the ritual when he finally scratches her cheek badly enough.
"Once he gets Nue, let him practice with her for six months and then bring him back," Sukuna says, pondering how much he can mess with Yuta this way.
Ryosuke is out of cursed energy, and the two men stand together while the kids play.
Yuta says, "Your daughter seems very fragile. I don't know that I would have recognized it back then, but it's clear to me now. The ridges in her nails, that strange look in her eyes, the discoloration of her skin…you starved her, didn't you?"
"I actually did not. I wasn't about taking care of her in the first place. She ended up outside when her wretch of a mother was killed. Not every place wants another mouth to feed. I haven't mistreated her."
"I find that very hard to believe."
"I bet you do."
Yuta pressed his lips together, briefly, and then asks, "Are you looking to get rid of her? I will take her back with me, raise her alongside Ryosuke. No questions asked. You wouldn't have to be annoyed with it. We both know raising a child takes love, and we also both know that you've never had a single drop of that to spare for anyone."
Sukuna laughs at him, because it's all so ridiculous. The reality is that Sayuri wandered into his world and not Okkotsu's, and she can't escape from him.
Yuta can't stop thinking about this poor little frail girl, living out here in the country with Sukuna. He believes that the absolute best case scenario, Sukuna might be looking after her out of some sort of narcissistic tendency, but it's more likely that she is useful to him in some way.
Sukuna doesn't 'love,' but that doesn't mean he doesn't have sex, so it's not necessarily impossible to believe that he fathered a child. It becomes harder to believe that he let her be born, or decided to be kind to her.
Yuta asks, "Did you have a child in order to make a new vessel for yourself?"
"If that was the case, one would think I'd have been taking better care of it."
"You are going to use her though."
"It's not something for you to concern yourself with."
"If there is ever anyone in your life that you might show mercy toward, shouldn't it be your own child?"
Crossing all his arms, Sukuna just laughs at him.
Yuta thinks all the time about back then, when Kusakabe told them that for relying on Sukuna, they were going to pay a price, and they just didn't know what it would be. It was like they were quietly running up a bill and there was going to be a day in the future where maybe they would finally be free of the Great Curses. And there he will be, with his bill, ready to make them pay for all of it.
Since he's spent these years getting stronger, he feels ready now. Their camp has plans and they are training every day, because they know that in order for the world to be free, they have to eliminate the Great Curses and then turn around and immediately deal with Sukuna too.
Yuta takes his son home but is left feeling sad and a little helpless about the frail little pink-haired girl.
Once they go, Sukuna takes Sayuri inside, and finds she's quite tired from her outing and then running around outside with Ryosuke.
Even though she's tired, he tells her to cook dinner. The new servants will arrive the next day, so it's the last day they have all the normal chores between them. Besides, he quite likes her cooking; she has a good sense of what things to put together and how to spice food properly. The way she chops makes him feel like she's going to cut one of her fingers off at any moment. It's a bit nerve-wracking, not because he is worried about her fingers, but because it is annoying to watch someone be bad at something.
While she cooks, he says, "I wish that's the kid I stole. You're not much compared to him. He's bigger, stronger, probably smarter. You're a girl, so your base potential is already limited. Look at him compared to you. You're worse in any way we might measure the two of you."
Sayuri, who is standing on a stool in front of the stove, says, "You know what that means?"
"What?"
She flipped cuts of meat in the pan, and answered, "We both have a crush on Ryosuke Okkotsu. Now that we've both fallen madly in love with Okkotsu, I think that makes you my love rival. I'm not worried. You don't have much going for you. You're big. You're mean. You're ugly."
Sukuna drums his fingers on the counter in irritation as he sits on a barstool, watching her cook. He's irritated, but also mildly amused at the fact she returned his verbal aggression with humor and insult.
"You are behind, and you're older. He has super strength, superior knowledge of sorcery, superior everything," he says, simply.
Sayuri answers, "Are we both going to make Ryosuke chocolates on Valentine's Day? That might be awkward. He doesn't love you. He loves me."
"I know you are joking, but obviously having a boyfriend is forbidden. I don't want to hear about boys."
The girl answers, "That's not in the rules. The rules don't say anything about it, so maybe I'll have ten boyfriends."
"You take after your father."
"Did he have a lot of girlfriends?"
"No."
