I own neither JJK nor PJO.
Chapter 0
"How do you intend to keep living on with that disgrace?"
"You lost your body to me, killed your own sister, and you still refused the hand that reached for you,"
"That's right, the brat you saved ended up slaughtering thousands,"
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"Give it up,"
"You'll never live a righteous life again,"
"Let me handle things and stay out of my way..."
. . .
Sukuna spat vitriol and insults time and time again in the space between souls to his host. Megumi Fushiguro's potential had interested him, but ultimately he was pathetic. At first, despite the inconvenience, he could have said he respected how Megumi fought for his body every step of the way as he butchered and mangled his friends. But after the boy couldn't even muster the will to grasp the brat's hand, he came to a single conclusion.
Megumi Fushiguro was undoubtedly weak.
It irked him fiercely that he was forced to degrade his host in this manner to maintain control of his body as he fought the annoying brat with ideals that transcended his own life.
He grit his teeth manically as he felt the superficial domain around him slice away at the barrier between his soul and Megumi Fushiguro's. Everything was finally adding up. All the sorcerers he had fought this day, the girl's resonance technique, the brat's black flash combinations, and his domain that he had surely just awoken were all dragging him closer and closer to defeat
To death.
He refused to acknowledge it.
He would never go so meekly to the cycle of reincarnation as his host surely would. With a sneer decorating his brutalized face that conveyed every ounce of contempt and hatred for the brat in front of him, he swung with his fists. Each strike a brutal, exhausted stroke that undoubtedly would still shatter bones and pulverize flesh despite his immensely weakened state.
"You goddamned brat, it's not over yet!" he growled, voice practically dripping with ire.
He felt a fist thunder into his face, likely shaking his very brain in his skull, which only served to make him even more wrathful. He would never accept it, not while he lived. He would never accept losing to this brat with no strength beyond his ideals. He immediately began rushing forward after the punch that shook his head, before feeling the exact same impact slam into his face without the brat even moving a muscle. A time lag? How could he have forgotten that pathetic technique. It embodied the lack of strength and control that the brat exhibited in all that he did.
Sukuna glared balefully at him as he watched him wind up for another blow that he knew he couldn't block. His brain was scrambling for any options as he staggered from the blow. With his pitiful amounts of cursed energy, he couldn't possibly muster a domain, let alone even a dismantle. His body was exhausted and was barely responding to his will from the soul-striking attacks of his opponent. He couldn't even use the reverse cursed technique to heal, such was the damage to his body and brain.
"Sukuna... it's time we ended this cycle of curses,"
Oh, he truly, truly hated this boy. He was sure of it. In his one thousand years of existence, fighting all manner of enemies, no other could inspire such a raging inferno of pure loathing in him.
"BLACK FLASH!"
The brat swung his fist with all his might and unleashed the final black flash. In a brilliant shower of black and red sparks that dazzled and danced in the air, Sukuna felt his body go flying. He knew that something had just cracked and broken in him, something irreparable.
He idly noticed through the agonizing pain that the domain collapsed into shards of cursed energy as his consciousness was dragged into the space between souls once more.
. . .
Megumi Fushiguro, who had been so downtrodden that he hadn't raised his head in a whole month, was staring at Sukuna, his eyes unreadable. His soul's image was awful.
Dark bags under his eyes showed his restlessness and defeat, yet there was something in his eyes that provoked Sukuna. Was there a flicker of something, defiance even?
"Why do you sound so desperate?"
Sukuna wanted to do nothing more than to spit on his unwilling host and grind him into dust, yet couldn't do anything or say anything in response as he felt his soul slowly, yet surely, being ripped and dragged off of Megumi's body.
"If you die here, your last finger won't help you. You will truly die, Sukuna,"
"All those things you said, even though it was to destroy me, I wonder how much of it was meant for you as well,"
He felt the barest embers of rage leap up. What was Megumi Fushiguro implying? What was he assuming about him? Yet, he couldn't do anything as he felt the last specks being sucked into nothingness.
Megumi glanced at his feet, his eyes still defiant. A light that had been snuffed out since the atrocities he had been forced to commit by Sukuna had returned.
"I never intended to live a righteous life from the start,"
"It's obvious, but there are more people in the world than oneself,"
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"I think..."
"I'll try living for someone else once more..."
. . .
With a start, Sukuna felt his essence fully separated painfully and suddenly from Megumi's body as he was sent flying. The brat still stood there with his fist out, and the sparks of a black flash still fluttered about in the wind.
With no body to anchor to and as weak as he was, all that was left of the great King of Curses was a smoldering pile of cursed energy that was slowly dissolving and disintegrating away.
Sukuna wheezed as he tried to move his immaterial cursed energy to grab hold of Megumi and reintegrate with him, knowing fully well that he couldn't. Still, in a spot that he knew deep down was unrecoverable, Sukuna refused to acknowledge defeat.
To die was to be defeated.
To be defeated was to die.
It was a mantra that had echoed in Sukuna's mind since the Heian era.
He felt his essence sag against the crumbling roof of the building he had been fighting the brat on. There was almost nothing of him left.
While he desperately tried to haul himself over to the unconscious Megumi, he was suddenly cast in shadow.
He turned to see the accursed brat looking down on him. On him! There was no way for Sukuna to describe just how much he hated him. No words, no form of communication would ever be enough.
One thousand years of traveling and fighting to be done in by this fool. He already knew what the brat was going to say before he even said it. It wasn't surprising. Gojo, Kashimo, even Yorozu, all these so-called strong sorcerers all tried to do the same thing.
They all believed that they could teach him and themselves something unknowable and profound. Each and every one of them craved strength and companionship. It was ridiculous. It was self-contradictory. It was so incredibly human.
To value strength is to shun humanity and companionship. Sukuna knew this but it seemed his fellow sorcerers could never understand it. They all wanted the power and ability to achieve anything, and were shocked when they found themselves at a peak that no one else could reach, leaving them alone.
This brat in front of him was simply the culmination of their ideals.
"What are you going to do Sukuna?"
His mind went back to what the brat had said when they were in his domain.
"Release Fushiguro. Return to my body again, and I'll spare your life,"
Completely unacceptable. Sukuna wouldn't even deign to give the brat a response to the ultimatum that they both knew he was referring to.
He watched the fool shift awkwardly, still uncertain in everything he did. Still, he crouched in front of what remained of his essence and picked him up.
"Sukuna... you are me. Unknowingly burdened with a curse from birth, what kind of monster we could've became just depended on luck, but I had my grandpa and you had nothing,"
Despite the rage, Sukuna could admit that it was admirable of the brat to stick so unflinchingly to this... ideal of his. His ideal of humanity. The brat's eyes looked at him through a blood-soaked face, twisting uncomfortably. It was as if he was going to shed tears for Sukuna.
"Sukuna... let's try again,"
"Not to curse someone, but to live with someone,"
"Even if no one accepts you... I alone can live with you," he finished, a small, brittle smile on his face.
Sukuna listened with half an ear while dissolving. He could barely formulate a thought to give any kind of response. To be pitied like this made him want to rampage, but nothing could be done. Even he could understand now there was nothing he could do. Well, there was one option but when the option was to rejoin the brat, it was no option at all. He was truly going to die here.
He had lived according to his own pleasure and displeasure. He thought to himself that he had never needed another being by his side to satisfy himself.
Yet, now on the brink of defeat, of losing against this ideal that the brat spouted about, he couldn't help but wonder if he had possibly been wrong.
It didn't matter in the end. Sukuna would never give him even the slightest satisfaction of being possibly correct.
Still, he had lost to him, Yuji Itadori. There was no denying it now.
"I'll commend you for keeping up this act... Yuji Itadori," Sukuna spat, finally using Yuji's name for the first time ever since they had been forced to know each other.
"Don't look down on me... I am a curse to the end..." he whispered as the last dregs of his cursed energy and consciousness drifted into the ether.
With those final parting words, the King of Curses finally died.
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Sukuna opened his eyes blearily. What... where was he? He looked down expecting to see his body covered in injuries, but instead found himself unharmed. Why would he be injured, again? His mind felt muddy. He thought about it for a second before remembering everything.
Ah, so he had lost and in such an ignoble way as well.
To think he'd actually die to Yuji Itadori...
He looked up. Now that he thought about it, why was he conscious and aware of this inky blackness that surrounded him? He should've been well on his way to the cycle of reincarnation. He started as he felt the presence of another behind him.
Whipping his head around, his tense face relaxed a smidgen.
In front of him, in her short stature, was his trusted servant, Uraume.
She looked down shamefully, as if she had failed him in some way.
"So you passed on too... Uraume," he said gruffly, grabbing her shoulder gently and guiding her to his side, as she had been for over a millennia.
"Sukuna-sama, it seems I've failed you," she spoke simply, eyes closed and head bowed.
He snorted in response.
"What are you so down for Uraume, it doesn't matter anymore. From here on, nothing will be the same," he said, chuckling a bit to himself.
He found himself feeling... almost freed now that he knew he had been defeated. All the anger that he had been holding onto while he clung to life now felt meaningless.
"Come, let's see what's beyond the veil," he commanded, though his voice was far softer than before.
Together the two ambled in the darkness. He didn't know how long they wandered before a figure came into view. Sukuna squinted at it briefly before recognizing who it was.
"Howdy Sukuna!" Mahito said slyly, sitting cross-legged.
"Well, well. What is this, our third conversation?" Sukuna sneered at the cursed spirit.
It brought him no joy to see Mahito here, he found the spirit annoying just like most of its brethren.
"My technique messes with souls after all. Welcome to the pathway all souls walk on their way to the cycle," Mahito responded to Sukuna's remark and continued on.
"I meant to ask you. You were lying weren't you? To yourself and everyone else. You weren't truly living according to your own stature."
Sukuna raised an eyebrow at the cursed spirit. Where was he going with this?
"You wanted revenge, didn't you? Revenge against those who resented and persecuted that cursed, unwanted little wretch," the cursed spirit finished, a smug smile plastered over his stitched face. His question and expression made Sukuna narrow his eyes.
"What difference does it make?" Sukuna responded dismissively, "I lived the only way I knew how. That's the path that was left to me,"
That being said, he felt the words ring hollow. Perhaps when he was alive he would never have admitted to it, but the cursed spirit was right. There had always been a part of him that knew he had hated and raged against the world that had abandoned him. He dragged himself to the pinnacle of strength on his lonesome and decided that he would live according to strength and victory. That his pleasure and displeasure would define how he'd act and that he would never need another being as a companion.
Him winning for over a millennia had cemented his mindset and assured him that he was correct.
But standing here on the brink of reincarnation, he understood the hypocrisy as he glanced down at Uraume.
Personal strength had deluded him, and the people he had fought had all failed to imprint the knowledge he had wished for. It seemed despite living for one thousand years, he had still more to learn. As he looked at Uraume, he felt a strange sense that he had never known.
Regret.
Perhaps he could've allowed Uraume to live a better life, unattached to his troubles. Normally, he would've said to himself it didn't matter and it was far too late. Yet, did they not stand right before a second chance? He thought back to Yorozu and her love he had dismissed. Had he been wrong to dismiss her? He had been so self-assured in his worldview and its validity, but now here he was questioning everything. How aggravating.
. . .
It was all because he lost. Yes, he understood now. A frustrating combination of acceptance and annoyance warred within him at the thought of Yuji Itadori. He had assured himself of his view through victory after victory on the battlefield. He used it as evidence that he was correct.
To die was to be defeated.
To be defeated was to die.
He always repeated to himself that if he was defeated, then it was the same thing as dying. Now being defeated, he could finally admit that he may have been wrong.
"Actually... no. I had different paths I could have traversed. Two to be precise," he said finally, "Should there be a next time, perhaps it would be nice to walk a different path," he said with an air of finality. Sukuna watched as the cursed spirit stared at him in confusion, as if he were trying to solve some puzzle that only he could see in Sukuna's words.
After a moment, it seemed it finally dawned on Mahito what Sukuna meant, and his face screwed up in consternation.
"What! That's so boring! You've gone soft..." Mahito exclaimed.
The King of Curses ignored him and walked past him, "Obviously... I lost, after all,"
"Why is it that even though Sukuna-sama was near me, you never not get cold?" Uruame asked him as they walked. Her large eyes staring up at him. It made him remember how they met after she had mistakenly killed her parents with her technique. Ha! To think she was so bold as to question him now. Well, she was right to think so, it had been a long time since he had been in such a good mood.
With a chuckle he responded, "That goes for you as well, Uraume. Why didn't you ever got cold being by my side,"
And he could tell Uraume was satisfied with his words. She smiled as she walked hand in hand with him.
It was strange, now with everything he had left behind, he could honestly say he felt a sense of peace. He pulled Uraume a little closer to himself as they continued on. In the next life then, he would try this thing others called companionship and see what happened. A small smile found its way onto his lips as glanced down at his servant and wondered if this was anything similar to what his reincarnated twin felt as he guided Yuji Itadori. He closed his eyes as he could tell he was going to enter the cycle of reincarnation.
Only for his eyes to snap open as he felt a hand touching his back.
He turned his head to see the cursed spirit glaring back, a wild smile on its face as he grabbed both Sukuna and Uraume.
Before he could even smite the cursed spirit for daring to touch him, he felt a tugging sensation in his gut and froze.
"Enjoy the surprise!" Mahito smiled with sick glee.
And with a flash of light, Sukuna knew nothing.
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When Sukuna awoke, the first things he noticed were the sun and the trees. Trees he had never before seen that stood taller than any he was familiar with surrounded him. He realized he was sprawled on a forest floor and grunted as he picked himself up, the dirt crumbling under his feet.
Where was he? This wasn't how reincarnation was supposed to go. He still had his memories and clearly he still had the same body. His 4 arms both crossed themselves over his chest as he growled. To think that damn cursed spirit had somehow interfered with his reincarnation process irked him. He was enraged to think that it got a one up over him.
Another surge of rage flowed through as he realized Uraume was also nowhere to be seen. With a shout, he unreleased pent up cursed energy. Trees suddenly fell, crashing into each other and the ground as they found themselves with a clean cut straight through their trunks. He vaguely heard the panicked squawking of fleeing birds and the rustle of bush leaves as alarmed animals scattered.
He had thought he could use his second chance at life in reincarnation to live completely differently. Yet, now he stood as himself in a random forest and without Uraume by his side. He could only stare angrily at the sky as he considered what his next move was.