Nadja had been all over the world, and experienced all manner of seasons, but she maintained that winters in Japan were second to none. If any who knew her still lived, they might say her opinion was just a tad biased, given the memories that came with winters in Japan. Nadja wouldn't have cared either way, there was something comforting about winters in Japan, which was why she always came in the winter when she decided to visit. Of course, the season wasn't the only reason she came. She did have a promise to keep, after all.

She had known somewhat how Sukuna's story would end in that era, and part of her regretted not making their goodbye more memorable. She had also known he would find a way to survive. Though, over the centuries, Nadja's focus had turned to other matters, and each visit to Japan had told her that not only was Sukuna dead, but had not been seen since she last saw him. With no access to the jujutsu society that had evolved after the Heian period, she had no information on what happened to him or even how he'd died. She'd fought him and he'd been one of the strongest beings she'd fought on the planet. And since then, jujutsu society had become rather snobbish and uppity. Those who lacked cursed energy or techniques were looked down upon, and the clans fought one another for titles and petty squabbles rather than the glory of cleansing the land of curses: the whole reason any of them had those abilities to begin with.

How disappointing.

She had kept up with what she could when she could, and was surprised when she learned one year that the Gojo clan, which had been in decline for a while, finally got their miracle in Satoru, who was born with not only the Six Eyes, but the Limitless. Nadja knew a portent when she saw one, and she secretly dispatched none too few assassins on the family's behalf after beind hired. They knew who she was, and those who actually did their reading could deduce what she was. She would never raise her steel against one who was so obviously chosen by the divine, but she did cross paths with one who might.

Someone like her, whose very body was locked in a pact with the divine. It was the one time Nadja had been allowed to explain what she was to the only one who needed to understand. Toji Zenin had spent his life being ostracized for not being able to touch this one piece of magic and culture that made his clan—and the society his clan occupied what it was.

Now he scowled at her from across the table of the restaurant, and she simply stared back. Outside, the entirety of Tokyo's outskirts were powdered with snow, but inside it was toasty and warm, smelling of fresh ingredients and ramen.

"Why are you back?" He asked. "Finally change your mind about letting me go all those years ago?"

Of course he'd open with that line, Nadja thought. Everyone in that circle of death knew about her personal code. She wouldn't kill anyone that carried clear karmic or divine debt, and she certainly wouldn't kill , living as long as she had, the latter was harder to avoid than the former. War cared little enough for the living, and least of all children.

Toji had no such moral qualms, and he often wondered how a creature as long-lived as Nadja still had any.

"Have you changed your mind about going exclusively after sorcerers?" She asked, breaking her chopsticks as she began to eat. Toji did the same.

"If the price is right, I'll get out of bed," Toji said casually. "And the price for this is right."

"The fucking Star Plasma Vessel, Fushiguro?" Nadja demanded. "You don't think you're taking it a little too close to the sun, here?"

It was as close to a warning as she would ever give, and Toji stared at her with those cold, green eyes. She saw it in him: the emptiness, the void where there should have been some semblance of humanity. Of regret. But there was an ugly black hatred he was carrying, one she could not coax him to put down. If his late wife couldn't get him to set that burden down, she certainly wasn't going to try anymore. Still, this was one of those 'karmic debt' situations that nagged at Nadja's mind. Why couldn't anything in this fucking world stay fixed without someone deciding to tip the fucking scales?

"Are you here to stop me, Hikmat?" Toji asked after their long, tense silence, broken only by them slurping noodles.

"No," Nadja said firmly. "Contrary to what you may think, Fushiguro, I enjoy simply being in Japan sometimes."

Toji snorted derisively, rolling his eyes. Nadja likened him to an overgrown crocodile.

"So if you aren't here to stop me, then what are you complaining for?"

Nadja glares at him sharply. "I'm not complaining! I am…trying to understand why you're going through with this."

Toji did not answer, nor did she expect him to, and so they ate in silence.

They fought—or fucked—and fought and fucked.

By the time he darkened her apartment's doorway it was anyone's guess. He didn't greet her, and she didn't pretend to be offended. She had nothing left to teach him, but that wasn't why he came to her. They moved in a blink, the door slamming behind him as she reached out and yanked him inside. It was a war of skill versus skill. She pulled her first blade from the nape of her neck, and Toji's quick reflexes had it sheathed again as he pinned her hand to her neck in a sure and unyielding grip.

A second length of steel slid from its sheath, even as Toji caught her wrist and squeezed until it clattered to the ground from nerveless fingers.

Nadja glared up at him, one eye burning like a lit coal. Toji smirked down at her, even as his grip on her remained true.

She moved, quick as a snakestrike, turning to bite his forearm, drawing blood. Toji endured it, even as he watched his blood stain her mouth. She reversed one grip, balling her hand into a fist before delivering several rapid, short-range blows to his torso. It forced him to let go of her and their battle began in earnest.

Nadja could not recall being so thrilled. Not since she fought Sukuna had anyone thrilled her. Toji was magnificent, matching her blow for blow, until finally they shirked civility and grappled one another in earnest.

He pinned her wrists to the wall above her head, sending a framed picture toppling and shattering on the ground, a few cracks spider-webbing from the point of contact. She wrapped her legs around his waist, squeezing hard enough to make him grunt. He stepped inside what remained of her guard, forcing her knees up until he had her completely pinned to the wall with his strength and weight alone. Nadja locked her ankles at his back, maintaining her pressure.

Nadja also couldn't help herself: she arched, felt the bulge of his cock pressed against the swell of her cunt betwwen their clothed bodies. The intimate contact gave them both pause. Toji knew Nadja had killed lesser men in such a position before, with far less clothing between them besides. It didn't matter who came before, or who would come after…he'd make sure his name was never far from her thoughts.

"You're slipping," Toji purred, leaning in until his mouth was a hair's breadth from her own. "You never used to let me get this close without a blade between us."

Nadja smiled, her gaze heavy-lidded and pupils blown.

"Come here, baby," she whispered, her voice husky. Toji leaned in, she nipped his lower lip, teasing him. He nipped her lip in turn, then kissed her, open-mouthed and eager, and then hissed when she drew blood, but not from her bite.

Toji drew back quickly, released her wrists, and wrapped his large hand around her throat. Nadja grinned at him, a razor clenched between her teeth. She flicked her tongue and the razor vanished back into her mouth. Toji felt his cock twitch at the sight.

"You wily little bitch," he hissed, licking the cut on his mouth. It stung, but she hadn't cut deep enough to truly wound, just a warning. Very viperous of her.

The blade she pressed against his throat made him smirk. It was thin enough to part his skin with barely any pressue and he hadn't even seen where she drew it from.

"You made the mistake of letting your cock lead you to my door, Toji," she said, applying just enough pressure to see a thin trickle of blood trail down his lovely throat. "And now I've got you by the balls. Do you yield?"

Toji stared down at her.

"I have a better idea," he said. Nadja smirked. He squeezed her throat just enough to make her breath stutter and eyes flutter. Then, he eased up, keeping a loose but threatening grip. He hoped it bruised. If not, he could think of several things to bruise her throat with.

"I bet you have a few ideas, baby, but that's not what I asked you." She began to cut a tad deeper. Toji hissed, and for a moment his instincts went from lust to deathly serious. Nadja felt her nape prickle in warning, and her free hand moved as if to plant itself on his chest, but Toji swore he saw a flash of steel. One could never be sure with her.

"What do we do about this situation?" He asked. He removed his hand from her throat, planted his hands on the wall, hooking her knees over his elbows. Every press of his body nudged the blunt head of his cock against her cunt through their clothes. Her blade never left his throat. He had never been so fucking hard in his life as in that moment.

Nadja's smirk returned.

"What do you want to do, Toji?" She asked him, her voice only slightly huskier for having been gently choked by the larger man.

Toji answered her. He answered her until several framed artworks rattled off the wall.

She fought him, of course. Several times Toji found himself with a blade at his throat, even as they crashed into her living room, shattering her wooden coffee table as she pinned him down. They kissed as if they sought to devour one another rather than indulge, and always her blade was at his throat, steady and threatening.

Toji's hands cupped the perfect swells of her rear, riding her out of her clothes until he could see the sensual topography of soft suede straps and sheaths that housed her seemingly innumerable blades of various sizes and lengths. Where he had used a cursed spirit for his inventory, Nadja's inventory remained unchanged, yet none had lived long enough to figure out how she stashed it all. She allowed him to roll them over, and she lay splayed on the living room floor, looking like a succubus fresh from hell.

"Fuckin' look at you," Toji whispered, taking her in. She was as well-honed as he was, if not more so. Every single part of her seemed sculpted with divine intention, and he reached out, tracing all of her flawless skin amidst the suede straps. She spread her legs for him before he even asked, knees up, thighs wide, and his gaze wandered before his hand followed, settling on the bald swell of her cunt, slick and glistening with arousal. He traced the shape of her pussy with his fingertips, watched as her lips parted in a soft, breathy sigh, before she bit the lower lip to stifle her reactions.

"Oh nah," he said smugly. "Neighbors already heard us making noise in here, they might as well hear you sing for me." He slid one thick finger into her and groaned at the feel of her. She was so damned wet and ready, but he needed to take his time. He needed to savor it.

"More," she snarled at him, tilting her hips upward as he slid a second finger into her. Her head fell back, the sculpted muscles of her lower abdomen flexing as she held her hips up, moving them against his scissoring and thrusting fingers. For a while it was only her soft moans and the wet, erotic sound of her cunt being worked by Toji's skillful fingers.

"You're so fucking greedy," he said to her, and she gave him a lazy smile in response.

"Would you want me any other way?" She asked, and Toji simply curled his fingers. She let out an involuntary, unstrung cry, and her hips began moving seemingly of their own accord. Soon after, his thumb joined the fray, rubbing concentric circles over her swollen clit.

Nadja didn't speak, not for a long while, and Toji strung her along, keeping her orgasm just out of reach until she made soft, whimpering sounds while her gaze threatened him. It was hotter because he knew she could make good on those threats if he let her, so part of their encounters was that he had to immobilize her before she could plant a blade in his ribs.

There were quite a few scars from his failed attempts. The bitch just couldn't help herself.

He leaned in, and she watched him, watched as he spit directly onto her pussy, before lowering his mouth to taste her. The first brush of his tongue was so goddamn good, she let out an involuntary shout.

"There she is," Toji purred in triump from between her legs. She writhed, and Toji withdrew his soaked fingers in order to spread her pussy open as he met it in an open-mouth kiss, slurping on her like she was the finest dish he'd ever had. Nadja was shivering.

"Oh fuck, Toji…!" She cried.

"You're close," Toji growled in a rare moment of him coming up for air, his lips and chin glistening with her juices. "I can feel it."

Nadja said nothing, but he could hear the cries she swallowed as her orgasm took the reins. He wrapped his lips around her clit and sucked. Then, his green eyes watched with smug fascination as her gushing pussy convulsed around his tongue. He had that pussy quivering with release, and he lapped her up as if she were a fountain and he was a thirsty man. She didn't look the least bit embarrassed for it. None of that shy hand-wringing, and all of the pride and glory of her own pleasure. In fact, as her vision refocused, she seemed…hungrier.

"That all you going to give me, Fushiguro?" She taunted, only slightly breathless. "A little pussy talk and a smirk? Where's that big dick you're always swinging around? Or are you feeling shy today?"

Toji's smirk turned into a sneer.

"You want me to break you, Hikmat?" He snarled, his mouth still a kiss away from her cunt. Nadja sat up on her elbows and laughed, heedless of how he had her spread open, her sex still dripping and throbbing in his face. Lesser men had died in the same position he was in, now. She'd been the last supper for many.

"What is it you all say? Do your best."

It took three hours for them to sate their lust. And they barely made it to the bedroom. Toji had opted to fuck her right there on the living room floor, folding her in half and keeping her knees pinned to her chest while he pounded her pussy until she couldn't speak. And when she'd recovered, she taunted him again, so he fucked her throat while looping her hair around his fist with one hand, and gripping her jaw with the other, relishing the sight and feel of his thick cock bulging her slender throat with each thrust. She took him and then some, tears running down her face, drool and seed dripping down his balls as she fought for air and lubrication. He fucked her face until he spent himself down her throat.

And as he watched her make her way to her bedroom, he took her again, and they tumbled like warring wildcats, dragging the plush, feather-stuffed comforter of her bed to the floor. He got her on all fours, then, pushing her down to keep her ass in the air, thighs spread wide. Then, he spread her ass cheeks and spit into both her holes, making her moan.

He fucked her again on her bedroom floor, until the carpet rubbed them both raw, and then he'd taken her ass with ruthless abandon, sodomizing her until she'd come, shuddering and milking the length of his cock with that tight, hot ring of muscles. Toji took that time to pull out, and painted her beautiful backside with his seed. Nadja shuddered as hot, milky ropes splattered onto both her cheeks, between them, and all over her dripping cunt. She laughed and moaned when Toji leaned in, keeping her spread open as he lapped at her cunt, almost apologetically, until he teased her clit with his tongue, laughing when she swatted at him.

After, Toji carried her to the bathroom and they showered. It was the first time they weren't intimate since he'd come into her apartment earlier. Instead, they showered like two team mates in the locker room, wordless and efficient. Occasionally he'd steal a glance at her, admiring how her dark skin glistened so beautifully covered in soap, and she'd peek at him as he leaned against the wall to let the water pour over his body. She bit her lip. To think, someone like her existed now, and for a brief moment, she no longer felt alone.

He caught her gaze.

"Knew you fuckin' loved me," he said with a laugh, making her scoff but with none of her usual agitation.

Maybe just a little.

Nadja was traveling when she got the call from Shiu.

"Hikmat," she said by way of answer. Shiu didn't hesitate or waste any time, but the words he spoke felt like anvils dropping anyway.

"Zenin's dead."

Nadja blinked in the harsh light of the sun. Her view was a vista of the savanna, a herd of white cows peppered over the plains, grazing in docile contentedness. A few of the tribesmen in charge of herding them saw her, raising their hand in greeting. She did the same.

"I beg your pardon?" She asked. Shiu sighed, and she could practically smell the tobacco from those disgusting cigarettes he liked to smoke.

"He's dead. Tried to take on the Gojo heir and got blown apart."

Nadja was no stranger to losing friends, lovers, and colleagues. Still, even after millennia, it never ceased to fall on her nerves like ice water, nor did it fail to leave a foul taste in her mouth. How long would she be forced to endure this? When the fuck would they release her from her torment?

"I see," was all she said. "Thanks for the news, Shiu. What about…his son?"

She could see him shrugging in her mind's eye.

"Not my problem anymore," he said with a resigned sigh. "My guess is he'll go to his next-of-kin, who happen to be the Zenin clan. Christ, he would have hated that, the piece of shit."

Nadja allowed herself a cold and grim smile. Toji had revealed to her once that he had plans for his son. She had ventured a guess a to what they might be, but speculation and actually witnessing were two vastly different experiences. She wondered what would become of little Megumi. She'd never met the kid, and had been strict on keeping discretion above all else. Her encounters with Toji had always been in the field, and rarely. Still, they'd found an easy understanding in sex. Physical contact that didn't have to end in killing one another had helped, but he'd rarely mentioned his son, or his son's mother. Nadja could tell he'd locked that part of himself away after his wife died.

Heaven wasn't done punishing him either, she guessed.

"Well, see you around, Shiu." She said.

"I fuckin' hope not."

The call ended, and Nadja sighed into the vast, open space of the savanna.