Uraume had seen Lord Sukuna in fury before. Seldom did he cross paths with anything or anyone that got under his skin enough to send him into a rage, but his temperament was one where one avoided such an outcome if at all possible. No matter what side of the line of jujutsu one stood upon it was agreed that Ryōmen Sukuna was not someone one wanted to get up from his throne.
And then Nadja blew into his temple one winter night and changed everything.
Uraume could not fault their lord, not really. Nadja was a striking and fascinating creature, but Uraume could not understand why their lord had allowed her such free reign for so long. And now she was gone, having stolen off in the night some time after they were married. Uraume had to commend her. She'd done a marvelous job hiding her condition from Sukuna, who found himself in perpetual conflict with the Fujiwara. She'd even accompanied him in battle against the Fujiwara, and returned healthy and hale. They were to be married shortly after.
And then one night, Uraume watched as Nadja gathered her weapons and provisions, saddled a horse, and rode off into the night never to be seen again. Sukuna had expected it, as Nadja's own duties called her abroad often. She had promised she would return as early as the winter.
It was nearly spring.
There was no word, despite Sukuna's efforts. He knew she could not be killed, but she had told him it was he who could not kill her. It left the very real possibility that she had come against a foe capable of removing her from the world. Sukuna did not pray to any gods, having established only the need for his own strength, but he wanted his fugitive to return. Uraume watched as Nadja's absence slowly drove their lord to a madness that became a cold and enduring fury that settled in the lines of his face as surely as a river carved out paths in stone. Uraume could not believe it. Someone had broken their lord's heart.
It was a transgression that Sukuna carried with him through the ages, promising that if he ever saw his fugitive of heaven again, he would kill her.
Shibuya District, October 31, 2018 23:03
Sukuna looked down at Nadja's lifeless body, the satisfaction of snapping her neck already chased away by an indolent emptiness and something heavy tugging at nerveless heartstrings. All of what she was to him weighed him down like a stone and he hoped she would revive in time for her to watch him tear their daughter to pieces before her eyes.
Then he would keep killing her in every way that mattered, until her soul was as stripped and starved as his own.
"What the fuck is your problem?" Sundari demanded. "She can't die, dumbass."
Sukuna's eyes flashed a dangerous warning of red, like tail lights in the dark, and his gaze snapped to hers like a whipcrack. He saw only a brief hesitation but she stood her ground and glared back, her eyes the color of blood spatter. There was no fear in her, only a fearsome determination. Good. Sukuna allowed himself a manic grin. Very good. He expected nothing less of something born of his seed.
"And when she returns," Sukuna said, turning to face her. "Her first sight will be your severed head in my hands."
Sundari shifted into a defensive posture, raising her four hands in a combination of offense and defense. Sukuna spotted the maw on her belly and wanted to laugh. The only child of his that ever survived and she was magnificent. Had she inherited his technique? Had she developed her own? He was so eager to taste her power so he could humiliate her.
He would not suffer even a worthy rival at his back. All who challenged him died. This was his way. The only way.
He beckoned to his daughter, watching as her expression echoed so much of his own: the wrinkling of the bridge of her nose, the sharp-toothed snarl. Nadja's frighteningly symmetrical beauty but his savage and vicious ferocity. Gods she was perfect.
"Land a hit on me and I'll grant you a less humiliating death." He said, offering her the same chance he offered countless others. He wanted to see just how much his whelp measured up or if her bitch of a mother had been lax in her training.
Sundari snorted and then made her counter-offer: "Go fuck yourself."
Well, she certainly inherited her father's attitude.
She moved faster than a blink. Sukuna was impressed by her speed, catching two fists in his palms before redirecting their momentum. She moved like poetry and art, a deadly brushstroke that flowed with him. They danced in the street, composing a song no one but the two of them were capable of understanding. A song made more sweet when they sang it together.
Sukuna had never felt so alive. His daughter was ferocious and bloodthirsty. He was reminded of the art of multi-limbed goddesses he used to collect. Goddesses with sharp teeth, fever-bright eyes, and dark faces. His daughter was one such creature, and since she had inherited her mother's immortality and youth, Sukuna began to understand the puzzle Nadja presented him when first she'd crossed paths with him a thousand years ago.
He knew what she was, and understood it as Sundari's technique activated and began to wither away his cursed energy, devouring it, storing it…no. No! Not withering…something else. His eyes went wide.
Purification.
This type of jujutsu was beyond him. It was holy magic. Divine magic. If his daughter had access to such powerful techniques, then what had she inherited from him aside from his physique and immense cursed energy? Certainly she could not open the furnace doors as well?
Nadja's blood…her heavenly restriction…those damnable blades that unmade his cursed technique as if they were toys to be batted away on a whim. All of it screamed divine origin. And her immortality was not due to her pact. That left two options, and neither of them boded well for him.
For the first time, Ryōmen Sukuna was worried.
"What's wrong, old man?" Sundari taunted, meeting him blow for blow, never landing a hit, but matching him nonetheless. "Looking a bit winded!"
Sukuna threw out a measured pulse of dismantle, and Sundari guarded herself with cursed energy like a shield, healing easily for the slashes that did not miss their mark. Her reverse cursed technique was also on par with his own. Fuck, she was magnificent, and she had not trained under jujutsu sorcerers here in Japan. Everything about her fighting style was foreign to him. Even the mudras she made were unfamiliar, the chants of her lower maw in a tongue he'd never actually heard spoken before.
"You've a sharp tongue, brat," Sukuna sneered, clasping one of her arms and tossing her over his shoulder. For good measure, he sent out a slash of cleave, and then watched her wither the cursed energy of his attack away as she turned in midair, landing on her feet, the asphalt cratering beneath her strength. A light sheen of sweat glistened on her bare torso, the flames of their war painting her in a violent smattering of orange and yellow, making the stark lines of her tattoos glimmer in the light. Her eyes were fever-bright, the garnet irises glittering like the sharp facets of cut gems. She wore a grin on both her mouths, the tattooed tongue snaking out in an open taunt. Sukuna marveled at her, and then wondered if she would make a better vessel than this brat he currently occupied.
No, he decided when he caught another one of her blows and it sent him staggering momentarily before he quickly recovered. Her will was strong, and she had a firm grasp on her own soul if she was able to resist that patchwork curse. He would need the full of his power to transfer his soul to her body.
He needed to subdue her quickly. Doubtless the monk would want to use her for his plans. That would make this battle less fun since he wouldn't kill her, but still if she was as strong as he hoped, she would survive. Then, when he regained his full power, he would subdue her in truth. And if Nadja happened to be alive, he'd breed her again and start the whole process over. What better way to assault her soul until she deigned to tell him how to take her life in truth? He wanted her begging for death before he decided to give it to her.
Sundari came at him again, a beacon of cursed energy. Not only was her technique a startling one, her fighting prowess was on par with his own. She moved with a skill that spoke of decades of experience. Nothing in her expression betrayed that she was nervous about fighting him, and every move was followed through. Strike and counter, she never stopped moving. Neither did he. It thrilled him. Their manic grins echoed one another's.
He could do this all fucking night but he knew it was only a matter of time before the brat regained control.
"As entertaining as this is," Sukuna said as he slashed Sundari across the chest, flaying it open to the bone of her sternum and driving her to her knees. "I have other business to attend to. Your mother should be up and about soon, perhaps she will know what to do with your corpse." He lifted his hand, preparing to take her head.
Sundari looked up at him, blood in her eyes, trickling from her mouth, spilling down her chest. She was already using reverse cursed technique, but he was about to strike and she needed to get off her knees.
Another large presence spilled into Shibuya, giving them both pause as their heads turned in unison toward the source of the new power.
"No way," Sundari whispered, coughing as she healed her slashed chest. Sukuna lowered his hand, frowning. Sundari got to her feet as he began to walk away.
"Hey!" She cried. "Hey wait! We aren't fucking done!"
Sukuna looked over his shoulder once, affording her nothing short of his disdain, but a grudging respect. He kept walking.
"Where are you going?" She demanded as he bounded off. She knew he was heading toward the source of the immense cursed energy and for a moment she thought perhaps that other special grade spirit had gained power. No, that wasn't it. The cursed energy tasted…different.
Sukuna said nothing as she came to stand beside him, and surveyed what he was looking at. He watched her with his lower eyes and she watched him with hers. What they both saw put their own battle on pause.
"No way," Sundari repeated, breathless at the immense power. "What the hell kind of shikigami is that?"
Sukuna snorted, watching as the massive humanoid shikigami made its way toward the piece of shit sorcerer making an attempt to crawl away with his miserable life. Sundari frowned when she saw another sorcerer leaned against the wall, blood spattered like a halo around his head. She recognized him from Satoru's phone.
Megumi Fushiguro. Oh no.
She didn't think, and before Sukuna could stop her she was on the move. She was so fast, even after their skirmish, snatching the crawling sorcerer by the scruff before the shikigami could turn him into paste. Sukuna joined her shortly after, confirming his suspicions.
"It's a subjugation ritual," he explained, coming to stand over Megumi's motionless body. "And that piece of shit you're holding onto is part of it. If he dies, Megumi Fushiguro dies as well and the ritual is over."
Sundari frowned. "How do we stop it?"
Sukuna sneered. "We? Tch. I will defeat this shikigami as an outsider and void the ritual. You ensure that little maggot doesn't die in the meanwhile. Can you heal others?"
Sundari shook her head. "Not yet."
Sukuna sucked his teeth in annoyance and Sundari tried not to parse why that stung her pried. Using reverse cursed technique on others was a highly advanced skill even Satoru could not grasp. Sukuna placed his hand on Megumi's chest, circulating cursed energy into positive energy to stabilize his life, keeping his eye on the massive shikigami on the approach. Sundari was still holding the other sorcerer, who began to whimper.
"Shut up." Sundari and Sukuna snapped in unison, then tried not to meet one another's gazes. The sorcerer fell silent as Sukuna approached the shikigami, and Sundari watched as the strange wheel above its head—a strangely familiar wheel—began to twitch, as if it were coming online.
"Time for me to have a little taste," Sukuna said, and Sundari heard the insatiable hunger in his voice. The hunger her mother had warned of in the past. The hunger Sundari feared lay dormant within her, waiting to come alive. And then the battle began.
Sundari watched as Sukuna—her father—engaged the shikigami. There was an eager smile on his face, a glint in his eye that she was all too familiar with. He was enjoying himself, even as the shikigami knocked him into a dark storefront and he knocked it into another across the street. He emerged, slurping a soft drink with a bucket of popcorn in the other hand. Sundari resisted the twitching of her lips into an amused smile. He was a fucking showoff, just like Satoru.
Just like her. Fuck.
"Excuse me," came the tremulous voice of the sorcerer she was holding. She glanced down with her lower eyes. "Can you set me down?"
"If you run, you will absolutely die."
The battle escalated almost immediately. Sundari moved to shield Megumi and the other sorcerer from the falling debris and rubble as Sukuna and the shikigami took their battle to new heights…literally.
"Well," Sundari said. "I guess I'd better get Megumi to the infirmary." She leaned down to pick him up, slinging him over her shoulders. Then, she began the trek back towards the bridge where she'd encountered Shoko and Yaga.
Needless to say they were shocked to see her. Nadja herself was already there, having resurrected.
Trying to explain the absolute chaos going on in Shibuya was difficult, especially when Sundari was carrying the culprit of the disruption of their only tenuous intel relay network.
"Don't harm him!" Sundari warned as Yaga made to split the blond sorcerer's skull. "He's currently locked in a shikigami taming ritual with Megumi. If he dies then so does Megumi."
"And where's the shikigami being subjugated?" Yaga demanded. Nadja's mouth thinned into a grim line as she watched them seal and restrain the blond sorcerer.
"Well," Sundari said rubbing the back of her head. "Sukuna's fighting it."
The silence that followed was deafening to say the least.
"You left your father alone to fight that thing?" Nadja demanded.
"Her what?!" The blond curse user shrieked.
"Shut up!" Came Sundari, Nadja, Yaga, and Shoko's collective ire. The sorcerer cowered in his bindings, falling silent again.
"It's not like he needs my help," Sundari said. "But I wanted to get Megumi out of harm's way. I'm gonna go back and see if I can help beat that thing before anyone else gets—"
In the distance Sundari saw the telltale signs of fire in Shibuya. Not just any fire, but the flames of the divine, which were pulled directly from Yama's realm. Sundari knew it because she wielded those same flames. There were terms and conditions surrounding use of those flames, exacting rules that were followed in order to access them. She had never heard of Sukuna wielding them before in the records she had access to, and she could not recall her mother ever mentioning flame. She'd told her he'd called down lightning during their time together. But not flame.
Where had he gotten permission to use such power? What vow did he undertake?
Nadja looked haunted and Sundari understood all at once what she was experiencing: her mistake.
"I guess it's too late to join the fray," Sundari muttered quietly. Nadja's brow furrowed as she watched the plume of flame lick into the sky like a violent tongue, and then die down. And they all knew that nothing was left but a smoking crater. Things had truly gotten out of hand.
In the silence, both women could hear the acute and distinct sound of a young boy weeping and knew Sukuna had returned to dormancy, leaving Yuji Itadori with the immense burden of the lives taken by his hands through Sukuna's sadistic and chaotic whims.
"When you fought him," Nadja said quietly when she could bear the boy's pain no longer. "How did you feel?"
Sundari knew what she meant. She looked at the ground, her other arms receded into her body. Shoko was deft enough to hand her a spare shirt and she wore it. It bore the Jujutsu Tech symbol on its chest.
"He made me work for it," she said softly. "And he can do things that shouldn't be possible. Mother, what the fuck were you thinking getting with a creature like that?"
Nadja blinked rapidly, not expecting to be put on trial before half of jujutsu sorcery's own. It was the only indication she was taken aback, and she pursed her lips.
"It was a different era and he was a different person. Though I fear all that remains of the man I knew is the worst part of him. Nonetheless, the things he can do are an anomaly, much like Satoru himself."
Sundari looked up sharply at the mention of Satoru, remembering.
"The Prison Realm!" She hissed, and before Nadja could stop her she took off, charging back toward the Meiji Shrine station. Nadja was not worried, Sundari was more than capable of defending herself. What she was not looking forward to was explaining Sundari's existence to, well, anyone. But the cat was out of the bag as humans liked to say, and it was only a matter of time before Sukuna was at full power. Only then would she be able to truly act and finish their tale once and for all.
"The ritual is ended," she said to Yaga, and pointed to the blond sorcerer. "It is my understanding that he's the one who has been killing the assistant managers. You may kill him if that is your wish."
She walked away, allowing herself a smirk at the blond sorcerer's sniveling and whimpering as his fate was once again put in the hands of his enemies and his technique burned out for the day.
"Hikmat!" Shoko called and Nadja stopped as the other woman caught up to her.
"If you find any of our people down there, bring them back," she said. "No matter what state they're in. They must be properly disposed of to prevent more—"
"I'm well aware of how it works, Ieri," Nadja snapped irritably. "It's the whole reason Sukuna has persisted for centuries. You sorcerers get killed by anything other than jujutsu and turn into curses yourselves. You mourn too long and curse the memories of your loved ones. I know. Gods above I do not care!"
There was a stunned silence. Nadja took a breath.
"I am going to help with whatever can be salvaged but you sorcerers would do better to be more of a community and not a collection of insular, self-serving cliques. It is that way of thinking that has landed us all here."
She was dreading what she would have to do.
Shoko placed a hand on her arm, her expression devoid of its usual acerbity. Instead there was a rare note of empathy and compassion in her gaze. Nadja relaxed.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I am being faced with the fact that my daughter and her father may very well kill each other if we do not contain and exorcize him soon."
Shoko nodded, understanding why Nadja was here. Why she had always been here. She did not understand what Nadja was, but she understood a weapon cast by the hand of the divine when she saw it. Nadja was a dagger throw through time. Something only Satoru seemed to understand.
And she was aimed for Sukuna's heart.
"Is there any chance the boy can be spared?" She asked quietly. "Gojo would have…"
Nadja frowned. "The best case scenario is that he can be healed before the window passes, but the possibility is slim. Sukuna won't make any of this easy."
Shoko had not expected anything less. She nodded.
"Bring Gojo back," she said and turned to walk back to the infirmary.
Shibuya District, October 31, 2018 23:12
"Fuck!" Sundari cried in a rage when she returned to B5 and found the crater empty where the Prison Realm once sat. She knifed her fingers through her disheveled curls, tears of frustration pricking her eyes as her fury mounted. She knew that Geto had organized the chaos of unleashing Sukuna, and now Shibuya was in shambles and he had absconded with a captured Satoru Gojo in his grasp to gods knew where. The only comfot was that Satoru's cursed energy residuals were so powerful that no other cursed spirits or transfigured humans would come near the area.
She felt her eyes go dry as her resolve returned. Satoru was the strongest, and none of these worms were strong enough to fight him. That's why they trapped him. As long as he didn't go insane and kill himself inside the Prison Realm, there was hope of freeing him. And there was too much left unspoken and undone between them for him to give up. She meant what she said to Geto: she would wade through the blood of any who sought to keep Satoru from her.
And then…Sundari let herself smile savagely as she surveyed the area. And then she would tear the thing possessing Geto's corpse out and feed it to the maw on her belly.
The visceral reaction shocked her. It sounded so much like her father and she shuddered. Not all of it was unpleasant. She turned her mind to the task at hand.
Too many people had died tonight already, she had to prevent more deaths if this night was going to be salvaged at all. She focused her senses, seeking Yuji's cursed energy. There was so much interference after her father's battle with the unstoppable shikigami. His cursed energy residuals were like a scar across Shibuya.
And she could not get Yuji's weeping from her mind. Her father was tormenting that poor boy, all because her mother had loved him once.
She gritted her teeth against the thought. Her mother had loved a monster and she was the result of that love. Although from how Sukuna had dealt with her Sundari could see no love there. Nadja had said he was stripped down to the worst parts of himself.
She would have pitied her mother if she wasn't so fucking angry with her.
Instead, her mind was running a mantra of the only thing that mattered to her in that moment.
Satoru.
In one of the photo booths, a presence stirred.
Tokyo Skytree, September 19, 2018, 22:30
"And you're absolutely sure they don't know we're doing this?" Sundari asked, her voice a whisper. Satoru smirked at her and she got the distinct feeling his eyes, though blindfolded, were on her. They always were—she could feel his gaze as surely as if he were touching her. It was unsettling at first, but had become comforting over the last few months as they grew closer.
"Well, you're suppressing your cursed energy so it shouldn't be too much trouble, right?" He teased and Sundari frowned at him before he tapped a fingertip to her nose. The wind was blowing this high up, making it hard to hear anything and yet they heard one another perfectly, as if—
Sundari stared at him. Was he using his Infinity to play with sound?
Satoru smirked as he watched the realization cross her face.
"You're insane," Sundari whispered, shaking her head with a laugh. Satoru shrugged as if he already knew. He offered his hand and she took it and their fingers laced with eager familiarity. He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze and walked her to the edge of the rooftop platform. The wind was strong enough to topple ordinary people, but both of them were so far from ordinary that it may as well have been a pleasant breeze.
"I come up here when I want to have a good look at the city while I work," Satoru told her as she stared with scarce concealed wonder at the veritable blanket of twinkling lights that spread as far as her eyes could see.
"The prince surveying his kingdom, hm?" Sundari teased and Satoru chuckled, leaning in to brush his lips against her temple.
"No, nothing like that, but as the strongest I've got a duty to handle the biggest threats to humanity," he told her. "And I came to the realization that I can't do this alone. I will because I have to, but it's why I take in the students that I do. I want to raise a generation of sorcerers who strive to be as strong as I am."
Sundari watched him, the city forgotten, as he explained his dream to her—his vision of a very different jujutsu society. For one who had been catapulted to the very height of that society's social hierarchy, she found him to be surprisingly humble when it came to his dream.
And it was in that moment that she realized that she was truly in love with him.
"And you want me to do this with you?" She asked quietly. Satoru took his blindfold down, meeting her gaze with a guileless and fearless clarity that made her pulse leap.
"Yes," he said simply. "Your awakening doesn't have to be a disaster, Sundari, and these…" he reached up, traced the sharp and elegant lines of the markings on her face, the crown limned on her brow. The brands that marked her as Sukuna's own seed, carrying his curse in her blood and on her skin.
"These don't have to be a curse," he said to her. "You can turn that strength toward anything you want. I'm just offering you the best way to do that."
Sundari smiled. "Satoru, I understand. You promised me worthy opponents…"
Satoru canted his head. "I did. That's why you and I are going north to retrieve another of Sukuna's Fingers."
Sundari's eyes widened. "What?! Right now?!"
Satoru grinned and replaced his blindfold. Without warning, his arms came around her and she instinctively wrapped her arms around him, stepping close until the heat of their bodies twined together and Satoru could see the vicious barbs of her cursed energy held tightly to her. Concealed to everyone else, but he would always see his goddess no matter where she was.
"Right now," he said, his lips hovering a breath from hers. Sundari grinned at him, all four eyes glimmering with anticipation, and Satoru returned it.
"Alright then," she said. "Let's go."
Sundari kissed him, then, deeply…and then threw them both off the ledge.
Satoru's laughter and Sundari's manic shriek of unfettered and utterly thrilled joy echoed between Tokyo's skyscrapers as they tumbled like tragic lovers toward the ground, clinging to one another.
"You are insane!" Satoru cried but he was grinning right there with her. He merited one of her full-throated laughs in return.
The world rushed past them before Satoru activated his technique, vanishing before they were halfway to the ground.
Shibuya District, October 31, 2018 23:14
Nadja found Nanami on her way to Sundari, and he looked worse for wear.
"Nanami!" She cried out to him. He seemed unable to hear her, and she quickly closed the distance between them, reaching to touch his uninjured shoulder. He whirled around and Nadja barely had time to block his blade with her own. The burst of his cursed energy was immediately extinguished as he recognized her.
"Hikmat?" His voice came out exhausted and raspy and her brow furrowed.
"Yes," she confirmed. "What the hell are you doing? You need to get to Shoko immediately."
There were footsteps coming from the same direction, and Nadja turned her head, saw Yuji rounding the corner.
"Nanamin!" He cried and it seemed whatever had taken the sorcerer away seemed to be brought back. Nadja saw the alertness return to his remaining eye and he glanced from her to Yuji.
"Itadori…" Nanami said, and it was a pain just to breathe. Nadja frowned. He couldn't think he was so tired and in so much pain. He wondered why he couldn't figure out reverse cursed technique. He wondered when he would get to rest.
"Itadori," Nadja said and the boy looked up and she saw the haunted look in his eyes and the fierce determination that burned like a perpetual fire, with his pain as kindling. Good. He would need that determination for what awaited them below.
"Are you ready?" She asked. Yuji nodded.
"Nanami," she said. "Get to Shoko. The way should be clear, now. We'll take it from here."
For a moment, Nanami and Yuji shared a glance. He must have seen it in the boy's eyes too: that determined flame, that unbreakable spirit. There would be time to mourn the dead later, right now, they needed to finish the fight. And Nanami had done enough. He needed to heal and rest.
Nanami left them, heading back toward the infirmary.
"Will he be alright?" Yuji asked, looking after where Nanami retreated. Nadja placed a hand on his shoulders.
"He will," she assured him. "Let's go finish this fight and get Gojo back, eh?"
Yuji nodded, steeling his resolve as they turned and bounded into the darkness.
Nadja lived for the moments like these, for she could taste victory in the air. She knew with her and Sundari on the field they were more than capable of tracking down the remaining curse and its curse user ally. Sundari herself could level the remainder of Shibuya that her father hadn't decimated were she so inclined.
Nadja hoped Sundari could contain her fury. Satoru was imprisoned but not dead. She did not want her daughter's fury to be goaded by thwarted romance. She wanted her daughter's fury to cut with the precision of a surgeon's blade. She needed to hone and focus her fury and give it true purpose and direction.
Love was not enough.
The sound of battle greeted them as she and Yuji descended the steps.
Sundari was engaged with Mahito's transfigured humans, tearing them apart, her fury palpable as her cursed energy pressed up against everything in the area. Nadja could not feel it, nor were the transfigured humans aware of her yet. Yuji, for his part, was momentarily stunned by what he saw. He'd never seen Sundari before, Nadja realized. That had been Sukuna in control. Yuji stared at the Amazonian woman with four arms and tattoos that haunted his psyche, but Nadja placed a hand on his shoulder to still him.
"She's with us," she told him. Yuji looked at her, shocked.
"Is she another vessel?" He asked. "Did she swallow one of those Fingers?"
Nadja shook her head. "No, she's his daughter. And mine."
Yuji's eyes were as wide as saucers but Nadja's gaze hardened as she drew a dagger from a hidden sheath on her torso, the cursed energy bursting forth from it as she launched it end-over-end with lightning precision. It found its target in Mahito, who had increased his energy at the last moment while Sundari was distracted. The dagger pierced the curse's arm, blowing it off before embedding in the wall behind it.
Mahito's wide eyes found Nadja closing the distance, but Yuji was just as quick and he had a score to settle with the cursed spirit. Sundari grinned with malicious satisfaction as Yuji proceeded to rain blows down on the cursed spirit's body. Like before, he kept up the pressure to keep it from transforming at the moment of impact. And when it tried to flee, Nadja was there, deadly and undetectable, disrupting its transformations with her blades, of which there were innumerable.
Sundari made a mudra with one hand, siphoning the cursed energy around them and purifying it. Yuji didn't hesitate but he did notice the difference in the energy.
Mahito needed to flee, being outnumbered and possibly outclassed, and before he could he felt the shock of pain in his entire body. His double had taken a blow aboveground, and Yuji grinned in triumph.
Kugisaki was giving the cursed spirit hell.
As above, so below.
Mahito broke the line of their offense, scrambling toward the steps to flee. He tossed another transfigured human, creating a wall of flesh which Sundari promptly shredded without hesitation. She blinked in momentary confusion when a second Mahito came running toward them, followed by—
"Run! Kugisaki!" Yuji screamed at his classmate and friend. Nadja looked up, seeking to cut off one of the cursed spirits' path. Sundari launched herself forward.
But Mahito was faster, and he reached out, his face contorted in malevolent triumph: mouth too wide for his face, mismatched eyes glimmering with pure, unadulterated malice. His hand was as cold as a corpse's as it made contact with Nobara's smooth face with an echoing smack. Nobara felt a change in her, reaching to touch where the spirit had marked her.
Sundari understood what was happening too late as Yuji went to Nobara hoping that what happened wasn't happening.
"Itadori," Nobara said, and there was a resigned contentment in her voice. A sorcerer dying without regret. "Tell everyone that I lived a good life."
Idle Transfiguration.
Can you heal others?
The silence that followed in the aftermath was deadly. Nadja stopped her assault—because she knew the girl was dead before her body hit the ground—her expression grim. Yuji stood there, stunned, his friend's blood splattered on his face. Sundari moved quickly, coming to her knees by the girl's side, catching her before her body his the ground to guide her gently downward, but even then she knew she was too late.
Can you heal others?
She tried, she really did. But reverse cursed technique was already hard enough as is. To transfer it to another was a skill that seldom appeared. Sundari had only known one other in her lifetime with such a capability, but she'd seen her father heal someone else when he stabilized Megumi hours ago. She wished she could ask him how he did it, but she knew he would never be her ally when next they spoke. Again she wondered what her mother saw in the man, why she chose to bear his child.
He was a different man, then.
Can you heal others?
There was a loud whine in her ear, like the feedback from a microphone too close to the speakers. It was deafening as her trembling hands hovered over the girl trying to remember the mudras that healer made as she brought comrades from the brink of death.
"Black! Flash!"
The blow was sudden, and it was her own fault for letting her thoughts run away in the heat of battle. Her entire body was electrified with pain beyond reckoning, and she heard several of her ribs crack under the force of the blow from the cursed spirit's fist. It knew since it could not mutilate her soul, it could try to mutilate her body.
Sundari tumbled several feet, scrambling to her feet as her mind returned to the battle.
Can you heal others?
Nadja was already moving but the cursed spirit had entered the zone after delivering a powerful technique. It took out Itadori next, targeting him specifically, screaming about ideals and wars and all manner of nonsense and Nadja was exhausted with it all. She silently cursed her pact for robbing her of the ability to use any of this magic or jujutsu, and understood why Toji had taken pleasure in thrashing sorcerers.
Yuji coughed up blood, as did Sundari, who was already healing herself. She still could not summon her domain as that risked killing everyone and not just the cursed spirit, but she could continue to siphon its energy. Nadja just wondered what she planned to do with all of it. She had to expend it at some point.
Clap!
Yuji vanished before Mahito could strike the decisive blow and Mahito found himself stumbling and swiping at air. Disoriented, he looked around and saw Aoi Todo on the approach.
Yuji, for his part, curled up on the ground, Nobara's loss still fresh and bloody in his mind, and besides that, Sukuna's rampage that killed thousands.
Sundari was healed but Nadja could see she was tiring of this fight. This curse was stubborn and pesky, and she could have ended this fight ages ago if there weren't so many innocents around. If only she had inherited her father's cleave and dismantle techniques. She envied the precision of those techniques. Siphoning and converting cursed energy was exhausting and dangerous as it was not precise unless she was close enough to her target.
And storing up all that energy would kill her if she didn't do something with it. She needed to cast soon or she was going to burn out her energy trying to hold in all this power.
Nadja knew of Todo's ability, and she nodded to him in understanding as they closed in on Mahito. Nadja was open-handed, as her heavenly restriction made her highly resistant to cursed techniques. What should have killed her barely grazed her and like Toji, she had a body that was impervious to simple methods.
And she was quick.
Mahito soon found himself caught betwixt hammer and anvil and sledgehammer as Todo gave a brutal round of applause.
Now Yuji, hooking right then left, his cursed energy snapping like a latent sledgehammer.
Clap!
Now Nadja, a darkling whirl of deadly steel, disrupting the flow of his cursed energy, the very stuff of his existence. She took another arm, her good eye burning with cold focus and murderous intent.
Clap!
Now Todo, delivering a devastating flurry of blows to Mahito's face, causing him to cough up blood, choking and gagging.
They did not let up.
Clap!
Blood flew.
Clap!
Yuji's war cry seemed to drive his fists further as he knocked Mahito through the wall.
Clap!
Todo launched into the air, and switched places with Nadja. She came down like an avenging angel, burying a wickedly spired set of serrated blades in the cursed spirit's back, disrupting the shape of his soul momentarily.
Clap!
There was no switch! Only the pain of Nadja's blades tearing his flesh, and Yuji's fist caving in his chest.
"No!" He cried, blood making his voice warbled and gurgled. "I won't let it end like this!"
He fled, stumbling and shapeshifting into a winged monstrosity, and the trio gave chase.
Mahito stood, wild-eyed and mad, arms spread as if in welcome. Nadja's hand went to her sword, a blade different from the rest and marked with the delicate script of a language that had never been spoken on this plain of existence. It thrummed with positive energy.
An Executioner's blade.
Mahito, being a cursed spirit, was not aware of the hierarchy of the worlds, of the Six Paths. It was born as a congealed amalgamation of humanity's ill intent toward each other, but it lacked the knowledge and wisdom of those truly born from the spirit realm.
Nadja's heavenly restriction was divine, a project created when the strength of cursed spirits were far mightier than this desperate child challenging the will of the gods. But it was not just her heavenly pact that made her powerful, it was who she was.
Mahito met her gaze and saw his own reflection. And in Yuji, the same.
Death. And in his own gaze: fear.
This one doesn't survive this encounter.
Sundari's words had been a curse of sorts because no matter what happened, they intended to exorcize Mahito come hell or high water, fire or brimstone.
They started with hell.
"Domain Expansion: Self-Embodiment of Perfection!"
In that instant several things happened:
Todo activated his Simple Domain.
Yuji launched a frontal assault.
Nadja launched two disrupting daggers.
And Mahito confronted not one but two malevolent souls in Sukuna's innate domain.
"I take it this time I'm off the hook," Mahito said with malicious and smug satisfaction. Sukuna smirked at him, saying nothing.
"I'm going to devour you," Sundari snapped.
"I'll kill you before you can touch me," Mahito said back, then turned his attention to Sukuna. "And I'll kill Itadori before you can switch so just shut up and watch me work."
Sukuna didn't stop smirking, even as the connection was broken and Mahito took the lesson of Gojo Satoru to heart. A domain expansion of 0.2 seconds, just enough time to maim and kill at least two of them.
"Domain Expansion: Tripura Purification."
Unless a more refined domain dominated his own, which it did.
This time, Mahito stood in the courtyard alone, and Sundari stepped forward, her lower hands placed in a mudra of power just above the mouth on her belly which chanted in a tongue Mahito didn't understand, vocalizing and harmonizing with her main mouth. He was immobilized by the massive shadowy silhouette of a multi-limbed, multi-eyed deity with a long, forked tongue.
"I warned you," Sundari said with her main mouth, even as her belly's mouth continued to chant the binding spell, rendering Mahito powerless.
"I fucking warned you," she growled.
And that was when Yuji struck a decisive blow from behind. Sundari held her domain intact with no barrier, watching with cold, furious eyes as Yuji took Mahito to task with enviable and cold-eyed determination.
And Mahito knew true fear for the first time in his cursed existence.
It was only when the curse lay shivering and mangled that Sundari shifted the domain.
Snowfall, and the growling of wolves on the hunt.
Yuji stood over Mahito, his eyes cold.
"I am you," he said. "But that doesn't matter, because I'll just kill you."
Mahito's eyes went wide as Yuji's shadow fell over his own. Above, in the starry sky of Sundari's domain, the silhouette of a multi-limbed goddess moved in the vast spaces between the stars. Below, Yuji closed in on him and he knew he was truly done for.
"If you come back, I'll just kill you again."
Sundari's chanting became a frightening susurrus of whispers as Yuji brought his fist down. Mahito barely scrambled away in time as the stone beneath Yuji's fist crumbled.
Sundari dismissed her domain.
It was just Yuji and Mahito, crawling away like a miserable maggot. Sundari smiled, cruel justice flaring in all four of her eyes.
Mahito crawled faster until he was at the sandaled feet of Geto. Desperately he tugged on the monk's robes, who looked down at him with tender but cruel eyes and a smile of poisonous benevolence.
"Getooo!" Mahito cried, a desperate and frightened whine in his voice. Geto tilted his head.
"Mahito," he said in an almost cooing, motherly tone. "Do you want me to save you?"
Sundari frowned. After using her domain expansion she needed to regain her energy. She could not remember how to do it quickly, her past still a fragmented and shattered thing.
Can you heal others?
She was sure she could do it, she just needed to remember how. The mantras and sutras were engraved on her soul, she need only cut deeper within herself to access them.
Satoru.
Sundari and Yuji both had the same idea as they took off toward Geto who…held up a finger to pause them?
Sensing an attack, it brought both fighters up short. And then Geto did something that shocked them further still and began the process of absorbing Mahito. Sundari realized that the thing wearing Geto's body was using Geto's technique. Cursed Spirit Manipulation.
They'd been played from the beginning.
"Yuji…" Sundari said and the boy looked up at her quickly, indicating she had his attention. "We have to get the Prison Realm from him no matter what."
Yuji nodded firmly and the two took up a dual-defensive posture. One might say they were locked in. Nadja took her time, helping Todo, who had severed one of his hands in an effort to negate Mahito's last-ditch effort in his domain. She managed to staunch the bleeding, tying it off with her leather baldric that secured her Executioner Blade to her back.
"My brother has come a long way," Todo said as Nadja positioned him to sit up, bracing him against her lap. "And that goddess beside him: your daughter?"
Nadja looked off into the distance where Sundari and Yuji faced off against Geto and as she narrowed her eyes she balked.
Uraume.
"Yes," she said. "My daughter."
"And Sukuna's," Todo said and Nadja's gaze snapped to his. Todo gave her a shrewd look.
"People think I'm stupid because I excel at fighting, but idiots don't excel at fighting. Warrior are scholars too. And I recognize the markings."
Nadja smiled, a bit of pride in her gaze as she tilted her head.
"If you and she are as old as you say, and that sword you carry is what I think it is," Todo continued, "I think that makes you one of the divine ones, huh?"
Nadja said nothing. Todo smiled softly, closing his eyes.
"It was an honor to fight by your side," he said. "I hope we get to do it again someday."
And with that, Todo slipped into unconsciousness. Nadja reached out, stroked his head tenderly, as if he were her own son. So wise for one so young, and so inordinately perceptive of those around him. He was shrewd about the company he kept, and protective of those he deigned worthy of his regard. He'd solved a puzzle Sukuna himself had not yet unraveled, but that wasn't all there was to it.
Nadja looked on, her expression pensive.
The Dewed Lotus, 424 AD
Pregnancy and labor were rough work.
Nadja had found her way to the mainland after fleeing Japan, striking out to the southwest, until the Himalayas hid her tracks. As her belly grew heavier, she found herself unable to move with the same lissome grace she had laid claim to all her life. She took to traveling with caravans, who were happy to lend aid to a pregnant woman, and for those who sought to take advantage, were swiftly disabused of the notion when they saw her skills with a blade.
By spring, her belly was swollen enough that she thought she was carrying the very moon. Her back ached constantly, her legs and feet ached, and she finally found herself in a small town in the shadow of the mountains, and being who she was hid amongst the outcast women of the community: in the brothel.
The Dewed Lotus was owned by a sorcerer named Vanhi, who had the look of the preternatural about her. Nadja had never encountered her before, and Vanhi had been careful to avoid her notice. Whatever her technique was, it brought her great fortune. It also helped that the town was situated on a popular crossroads along the trade routes. Brothels tended to prosper in such circumstances.
Nonetheless, when Nadja introduced herself and Vanhi took one look at her swollen belly hidden beneath her cloak, she'd welcomed heaven's bastard daughter with open arms, her soft brown eyes reminiscent of a feline.
Over the course of the weeks, Nadja used her wealth to buy her room and board in the brothel, sequestering herself away for the remainder of her pregnancy. She was afforded all the niceties befitting her wealth, of course, and she befriended many of the women who worked in the brothel. They cared for her, cooing over her swollen belly like a gaggle of aunties eager for the birthing of a long-awaited niece or nephew.
Women of all backgrounds and ethnicities, women Vanhi had freed from slavery or dangerous situations, and who had chosen to work beneath her aegis. Nadja came to understand that the brothel was not just a house of leisure and hedonism. It was a training ground. The women all had that same svelte danger about them, like serpents more than women.
The Vishkanya.
Nadja could have laughed, and she did. Of course she had wandered into a den of female assassins who worked under a sorceress whose name was a spear in the sides of many men in their world. She could not have picked a better place to give birth.
And so it went that in the spring, Nadja was given leave to use the sacred pools deep within the Lotus, where holy rites were performed, and there she gave birth to a strong and healthy daughter; her birthing blood staining the medicinal waters pink; her body shuddering in relief as the pain of tearing finally ended and one of the women brought the wailing babe to her, wide-eyed with shock.
"You were touched by a god?" She asked and Nadja's brow furrowed, wondering what she meant. That was, until she saw the babe swaddled at her breast.
Oh. Oh no.
Nadja had thought she could birth this baby and that they would come out with no markings of their dark heritage. No reminders of who their father was.
But there it was, clear as day. No birth marks, these, but the markings of her father. She had all the soft innocence of a newborn, but the angry black markings on her face clashed with her softness. Nadja wanted to weep. The tiny little scars under her eyes were no scars, but eyes as well. And four wrinkly fists reached for her, finding her breast and latching on. Unexpectedly, Nadja let out a choked sob, smiling.
Despite it all, she loved this little being that had sati n her belly for so long. The back aches, the exhaustion, the labor. All of it had been worth it. But the markings, the little maw on her belly, the four arms. Oh she was her father's daughter in every way that mattered, and a few that didn't.
Vanhi took one look at the newborn and understood.
"What have you done, Nadja?" She asked one evening. "I have heard the stories of the Disgraced One even all the way out here. It is said he eats the progeny of his concubines that none of them may grow and one day unseat him."
Nadja looked grim as Sundari suckled at her breast—the girl was ravenous, not unlike her father.
"He did," she said quietly and noted Vanhi's raised brows. "But he wanted us to be wed before I left. Told me he wanted me to bear him a child, a worthy heir. He thought his power and my lack of cursed energy would beget something wondrous, I suppose. And if it didn't, I assumed he would dispose of the child."
Vanhi crossed her arms. "But you ran."
Nadja glanced at her sharply, her pride stung by the lashing of truth in Vanhi's words.
"Yes," she said begrudgingly. "I was afraid. For her. I couldn't bear the thought of willingly feeding my own child to him. I do not understand how his concubines did it."
"He never gave them a choice most likely," Vanhi said, sounding only slightly sickened. "Why didn't you kill him?"
Nadja didn't answer. Vanhi snorted.
"You fell in love with a monster and got scared when you remembered he was a monster. Gods, Nadja, you couldn't be anymore of a neophyte at this if you tried. All that immortality and you're just as foolish in love as a girl of 16."
Nadja felt the words like lashings. Pride. Foolish pride is all it was. But she did not have the heart to tell Vanhi that she'd never truly been in love before. Not like this. And she'd certainly never bore any children from her previous lovers. This was a divine mandate in her arms, nestled against her breast. This was some variable in the cosmic equation to redress an imbalance. Nadja did not understand what or how this would be accomplished, but she could only do as she was bid or risk the ire of beings greater than even Sukuna's wrath.
She tried not to think about it.
But she thought about it.
"You're right." She muttered, hating herself. "But regardless, Sundari is here now. And she wears his curse, as I'm sure is one of the reasons he was adamant about not siring any heirs."
"Until you," Vanhi said. Nadja sighed.
"If I didn't know you favored women over men, I'd say you were jealous." Nadja said slyly. "Do you think Sukuna will leave the seat of his power and come searching for me, Vanhi? Do you think he will steal me away from you?"
Vanhi's brown cheeks blossomed with heat and Nadja grinned impishly at her.
"It is not that," she said quietly. "He does not have to travel to have a hold on you. I see the way you look at Sundari, searching for him in her face."
Nadja looked away, guilt a hollowing fist in her gut.
Vanhi gestured to Sundari. "When she comes into her powers, I will train her."
Nadja looked up, surprise coloring her features. Vanhi smiled warmly.
"Did you think I would let you give birth to the daughter of the Disgraced One and leave her to become a danger to herself and others? She will be a powerful force, best she get the basics down at least."
And Nadja allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief for the first time in months.
Shibuya District, October 31, 2018 23:45
When Nadja heard the name Choso called Geto, she thought perhaps she might have taken a severe blow to the head. Mahito had landed a Black Flash on her, perhaps her body was still recovering. But no, she'd heard correctly.
Kamo Noritoshi.
Her stomach lurched as she stared at Geto and finally saw what she'd been overlooking. The stitches. The fucking stitch scars across the forehead. Just like Noritoshi had. Nadja felt sick, and she was glad when Utahime joined them to take to tending Todo while she got up and rejoined the fight.
"Nadja!" Geto waved. "Long time no see!" He greeted her like an old friend. And Sundari's lip curled.
"Your daughter has grown to be such a charming and beautiful young lady," Geto continued. Nadja approached, prepared to draw her Executioner Blade.
Geto held up a finger.
"Ah ah ah," he admonished, wagging his finger at them. In his other hand he brandished the Prison Realm, the blue eyes roving and searching.
"We're going to play a game," Geto said, "and we will see who deserves to inherit this new world! I expect great things from some of you…but you most of all, Sukuna. It's beginning again, a new age of curses. Let us finally see who is truly the strongest."
And then Geto was gone, taking Gojo with him.
Sundari's fury was palpable as she stared at the spot Geto had just been standing in. Her heart was sick, and she had no way to express her fury without tearing someone apart. Her hands clenched and unclenched before Yuji reached out and took her hand, startling her. He looked at her, and there was a fierce determination in her eyes.
"We'll get him back," Yuji said. Sundari nodded.
"Yeah," she said. "Yeah we will."
Nadja felt something shift, as if the world was adjusting itself. Her ears rang and she saw spots before her vision.
What…?
The pattern made itself known. A brief flash, like if she blinked she'd miss it. Patterns and shapes and impressions of emotion imprinted on her brain, on her bones, on her soul.
Her divine mandate was changing.
Nadja felt the compulsion well up in her soul, shifting it, rearranging, the terms of her pact rearranging itself.
She had to kill Sukuna.
And then she had to kill Sundari.
Author's Note:
And that concludes our story, folks! Leave comments [please god I'm begging], leave kudos, and let me know what's up. Likely there will be a sequel once I do an outline and figure out some other details. For those who did not understand Nadja is an asura, a celestial being.