Work Text:
Sukuna awoke to a throbbing headache.
He kept his eyes shut hoping to stave off the onslaught of pain from the sunlight he felt on his face for just a bit longer. Groaning he turned on his side, the pain was excruciating; it felt like someone had driven a spike into his head. He hadn't felt like this since the time he and Yuuji snuck and finished a bottle of Sake from their Grandfather's liquor cabinet a few years back.
What did he and Yuuji do last night? All he remembered was their club members were going to open something and visiting their Grandfather at-
Everything came rushing back.
Their Grandfather's death. The race back to the school with a bespectacled girl. The attack on their clubmates. His only remaining family member about to be eaten by a Curse!
"Yuuji!!" Sukuna yelled as he sprang up on the bed he was laying on and opening his red eyes.
He then immediately hunched over groaning and held his head as the sun burned his eyes and sent the spike deeper into his head. After a few moments of groaning and agony, he noticed that he felt bandages around his forehead. The teen squinted open an eye and noticed that his hands had been given the same treatment down to his wrists.
He also noticed the off white sheets that pooled around his waist and that he was in pale green scrubs. Had he been taken to a hospital?
"Oh good you're awake!" An overly cheerful voice yelled to his right. "Aww, here I was thinking you were cursed into sleeping forever~ !"
Sukuna grimaced at the loud noise of the yelling and the slammed door. He turned and through his pink hair, that normally styled back, he could make out a grinning white haired and blindfolded man, wearing a black outfit, standing in front of a door and holding what looked like a white plastic bag.
This man was clearly not a doctor.
"Who-," he closed his eyes and sucked in a breath trying to get through the pain. "Who are you?"
When he opened his eyes he saw the man now straddled on a chair that was now on the side of his bed. Sukuna stared wide-eyed at the now much closer man, how did he get so close without making any noise?
"Mah, I thought Maki-san mentioned me to you already." The man opened up the bag and took out what looked like a plastic container of...Mochi. "I am the Gojo Satoru, the Strongest Jujutsu Sorcerer in the world and best teacher to first years at Jujutsu Tech!"
The self proclaimed strongest sorcerer, opened up the plastic container and put one of the treats in his mouth. He really seemed to like the treat with the way a big doopy smile split his face, if Sukuna was in an anime he's sure he'd be seeing cherry blossoms floating around the older man's stupid mug.
Wait, wasn't Maki the name of the glasses girl? She also mentioned she was a sorcerer as well. But that was not important right now.
"Where is Yuuji, asshole!" He really didn't need this right now.
"Hmm, oh you mean the other injured pink haired teenage boy that looks like you and was found on the high school roof?" The man said with his mouth full and as he popped another one of the treats into his mouth.
"He is my twin brother!"
His growl turned into a grimace from the spike of pain that it garnered him. It also kept him from jumping off the bed and strangling the older man. leaving him only able to keep holding his head and sending a glare at the weird man.
"Geez dude, don't have a cow. He's right over there." He said with his mouth still full and pointed to his right.
Sukuna followed that hand and saw that there were a row of hospital beds on the far wall mirroring the ones on his side of the room. There he saw his twin brother wrapped up in an equal amount of bandages. There was no visible pain on his sleeping face. He was lying on his side, mouth wide open, with drool falling out, soundlessly snoring away.
Sukuna's shoulders dropped and his eyes shone with softness as he gazed at his mirror image.
"Okay, now onward to important matters." The man clapped his hands, causing Sukuna to flinch and turn back to the man glaring. He really hoped that jackass could see his glare through that stupid blindfold. He seemed to be done with his treats as he no longer spoke around any food in his mouth and the tray was gone.
"Maki-san told me about what happened when you three reached the school's roof."
--
The curse was a giant ugly thing, Sukuna thought curses couldn't get any uglier than the pulsing mass of mouths and limbs that attacked Sasaki and Iguchi back in the school hallway. But this one was up there with its six legged tadpole like body, multiple red eyes, and a giant mouth with an eye riddled tongue.
He and Yuuji had followed the curse as it forced the ponytailed haired sorcerer girl, she said her name was Zen'in, through a wall and onto one of the high school's roofs and jumped after it.
They both got its head with a punch causing it to stop it's assault on the sorcerer. The momentum caused him to continue forward, landing on the roof in front of Ponytail, while Yuuji continued his assault on the curse weaving through the air avoiding it's numerous hands and landing blows where he could.
"Sorcerer girl! Talk to me!" He shouted as he made his way to the woman on the ground. Her glasses had been thrown off her face, the red spectacles were nowhere to be seen nor the furry knife she had been running around with earlier.
"The only way you and everyone else are going to survive this is if you two twins take the other two out of here! You need curse energy to beat a curse!" She shouted back as she struggled to get back on her feet. She ended up hunched over panting on two legs and bleeding in multiple places. She was definitely out of this fight.
"As if we could leave!" Yuuji shouted as he trapezed through the air. "We can't just leave you here to die…"
"It would leave a bad aftertaste in our moves if we did." Sukuna finished as he turned from the sorcerer and faced the curse raising its arms trying to still grab at and attack his brother, he advanced forward to join the fray.
It was a good thing too given as his brother's luck just ran out. One of the curse's massive hands grabbed him from the air, Sukuna could only watch as the monster began trying to force Yuuji into its mouth.
He clenched his hands tighter and felt pointed edges dig into the skin of his hand, he reflexly opened his palm. In it lay a tiny wooden two headed wolf figure no longer than his index finger. It was because of this totem, cursed item! a voice in his head reminded him; that suspiciously sounded like the girl behind him, that everything was happening here tonight.
If he was a weaker man he would have wished that he and Yuuji never went to that hutch and took the totem out of its spo for their clubmates. He would have shut the doors and dragged his twin away to do something else that night and never thought of the item again. But Sukuna was not a weaker man and all he could do was push forward.
"Hey! You ugly Fuck !" He yelled out at the curse at the top of his lungs, he saw the red eyes on the curse's head shift in his direction and a few of the eyes on its tongue also looked at him. "Isn't this what you want! You weak fuck! You need to eat this so you can gain a grain of strength, right !"
The curse let out an angered screech as it charged at him, no longer trying to shove Yuuji into its gaping maw, he knew his taunt would do the trick. He brought his other hand to grasp both of the two heads of the totem as he left the body in his other hand's grasp.
" What do you think you're doing !" He heard growled from behind him.
"Relax, you said cursed energy was necessary to defeat a curse so all I need is a little curse energy." He stared down at his hands not even looking up at the rumbling in front of him or the cry of "Aniki!" from his brother. "Besides, the spirit sealed inside here is supposed to be a guardian spirit, Prez said so."
He then snapped the totem in two.
The force of the energy released from the snapped totem might as well have been an atomic bomb and it was all directed at the curse in front of the teen. He stared stunned in front of him at the shockwave that flattened the face of the curse and blew off two of its front arms, he wanted to follow the arm that held his brother but his vision stayed fixed on the curse's body. For a moment the tadpole shaped curse pushed against the shockwave, and despite its flattened face and severed arms, it looked like it was going to make it through the wave and reach Sukuna, but the force in the shockwave was stronger.
The curse was sent sailing back across the roof and into the wall of the school. The force had let out such a deafening roar of sound at its epicenter the pink haired student was sure his eardrums had both burst and he could even feel the blood dripping down his ears, but impossibly he could still hear the swirling winds and as they died down they turned into the twin howls...of wolves ?
As Sukuna had snapped the totem and released the shockwave of energy, he hadn't noticed the moon becoming covered by the clouds, but now the moon shone as if beconded by the cries of the canines. The moon revealed the settling dust of the area in front of him and a figure that was standing with his back to him flanked by two massive dogs, one white and one black, howling at the moon.
"Ahh, so this is the feeling of moonlight," Sukuna again impossibly heard the figure whisper, even through the howls of the dogs. "I feared I had forgotten it."
The student could only stare in amazement at the beautiful face that was basking in the light of the moon. The person was a few inches taller than him with a slight build, making it seem like a strong breeze could send him flying. He wore a black kimono with red edgings that looked right out of a period piece he remembered his brother forced him to sit through once. He wore no footwear of any kind revealing bare dainty feet and deceptively skinny ankles. His hair was as black as the night and typed back in a loose ponytail at the back of the figure's neck and skin so pale Sukuna was sure the moon was jealous.
He hadn't been expecting much when he had snapped the totem, he hadn't been expecting anything when he broke it really, but it definitely wasn't this gorgeous creature of the dark.
The dogs ceased their howls, and began to look around sniffing the air acting like normal dogs. Nothing about this situation was normal.
He heard shifting of concrete in the distance and saw the bloodied and mangled body of the curse beginning to rise from the rubble of the school building, he noticed that the dogs also took note of the curse's movements as they both swiveled their heads in its direction. He turned his attention back to the man still soaking in the moonlight.
"Ahh, you two are right, it has been centuries. Devour. " Was all the dark haired man said and the two dogs sprang into action with a snarl and a growl.
It was honestly hard to follow along with the dogs movements, as they moved as fast as shadows and seemed to even melt into the shadows and spring forth from them. The curse had only been prayed upon for a few seconds but it was over, there was not much left of the curse as dogs literally devoured it alive. Their movements were so fluid, vicious, and precise that the movements that the curse had used earlier to keep his nimble brother on his toes and entrap him, looked like a toddler waving its arms in comparison.
It was a dance of slaughter.
"You there. The one that freed me and my dogs. Are you a sorcerer of this era?"
A voice tore him away from the carnage and he looked back at the man. Deep green eyes stared past his red eyes.
"No, you are not a Jujutsu sorcerer. Your curse energy is much too new. You've probably only awakened your awareness recently." His gaze left Sukuna's. No that was not gonna happen.
"Hey! Eyes on me Sweetheart! I was the one who let you out!" That got those beautifully framed emeralds back on him. The man stared back at him wide eyed and slightly slack-jawed, he wasn't sure if it was from the endearment or the declaration of being the one who released him.
The figure turned from the direction of the moon and fully faced him, the green eyes travelled down his face and rested on his hands where the remains of the totem rested.
"So it would seem."
"Yeah...like you said I'm new to all this but I'm sure me-" a blinding pain hit him from behind interrupting his declaration. It started from the top of his head and continued down past his head, neck, shoulders, back, legs and to the heels of his feet. It was like the very layer of skin was being torn off. He gasped as it brought him to his knees, he groaned as he struggled to get back up on his feet but then he crumpled to the ground.
"I do thank you Itadori Sukuna . You released me and my divine dogs from our prison, and even gave a... sufficient offering. So I will take my toll from you and devour your companions."
As he struggled to stay conscious he was reminded of a legend he remembered in a fairy tale from his childhood: Of beautiful creatures with equally lovely voices who used both to lure people to the sea and their death. Beauty could easily be a cover for deadly.
"You truly are strong, normally beings die when I take my toll."
The beauty walked toward him, but Sukuna knew he was not the target; it was the two behind him he needed to protect, he couldn't be the cause of two deaths tonight. Not again.
He reached his hand out before he could stop himself, a useless gesture but it was all he could make his body do.
In his last moments of consciousness he again heard the man's impossible voice as he threw his head up and looked into the sky.
"So another six-eyes has been born in this era as well then." He stopped right in front of him and sighed. "Oh well, I guess I will have to cut this evening short."
He made a gesture toward where the dogs were, but Sukuna was unable to see what happened given his position on the floor but the wet sounds of tearing stopped.
The black haired beauty then brought both his hands together in a steeple-like shape and he began to get smaller right in front of Sukuna's vision. It took a moment for him to realize he was sinking into the ground.
No! He needed to stop him. He thought as he somehow managed to work past the agony and ended up pushing himself up on his hands and knees. His vision swam and he felt nauseous but he needed to put the monster back in it's cage. He needed to stop this curse. He needed to fix this. He needed to-
"My name is Megumi, King of Curses." The monster spoke to him, his green eyes met his red as the curse's lower face was already below the concrete he laid on. "Come find me when you are stronger, Baby Sorcerer. I'd like to see your strength again."
And with that the curse was gone. A curse that he had unleashed onto the world, Sukuna could only wallow in that fact as blessed darkness took him and the concrete ground rushed up to meet him.
--
"...So to recap as Maki explained it a second curse showed up. Grabbed the totem and broke it accidentally instead of merging with it. Which then unleashed the King of Curses, who took care of the curse. Then attacked you bunch and turned tail and ran when it felt me on the way. Correct?" Gojo finished with a clap, bringing Sukuna out of the memories of that dreadful night.
"Uh, what?" He blinked and turned back to the older man, noticing the frown on his face.
"Okay, it looks like I wasn't clear before." He got up from the chair he had been straddling and brought his face within a breath of Sukuna's face. Even though the man was blindfolded Sukuna could feel his gaze pinning him to the spot. "Now once more, I need you to confirm the recount of last night that I just told you. Cause if it is in fact not what happened last night and you were the one to unleash the King of Curses onto the world; you and your brother would get labelled as evil Curse-Users and be scheduled for immediate execution. Which I would then have to carry out right now and right here. Am I clear?"
The air around the red eyed teen suddenly felt cloying and thick. He remembered Zen'in mentioning about higher-ups and a teacher that had sent her on this mission. His instincts told him if he made a wrong move here it would be over for not only him but his twin as well. This man was telling nothing but the truth.
"Y-yes, what you said is exactly what happened last night." He choked out and turned away from the blindfolded man and stared at his still sleeping twin.
"Excellent! Glad to hear that Itadori Sukuna!" He clapped his hands again and Sukuna watched as he sank back into the chair. "It would have caused a lot of problems for me and Maki if you hadn't confirmed that. Given how I already started the paperwork for your enrollment and curse affliction classification as well. It would have been a lot of work for nothing. I would get an earful too for mishandling paperwork."
The man droned on about how gracious he was for doing all this supposed work and mentioning things Sukuna didn't comprehend. But a combination of words got his attention and he asked:
"What does a curse affliction classification mean?"
The man surprisingly stopped his ramblings, he could feel a studying gaze on him, and it made him want to rip off the man's blindfold given how it felt like the man could stare right through it.
"A curse affliction classification means a process where we Jujutsu Sorcerer's identify what type of curse has been afflicted on someone. It can be an interesting process especially on curses that haven't been seen for at least a thousand years."
So he and his brother did get cursed last night. It kind of made sense they did interact with 3 of them last night, he wondered if it was like radiation exposure just being in the vicinity meant gaining something.
"It makes sense; us getting cursed last night, we did come into contact with a few curses last night." He interrupted and turned from the man to stare at his still slumbering brother, he could sleep through an earthquake. He actually did once and he and Grandfather got so mad at him. "What kind of curse did we get hit with?"
"Oh Boyo! It's not like radiation!" the sorcerer responded as if he had read his earlier thoughts and laughed. "To curse someone you need to do so with intent and a truly strong desire. And you Itadori Sukuna have been hit with quite a big one~"
The white haired man's smile revealed perfectly white teeth that made Sukuna want to punch them all out.
"What curse was I hit with then!" He gritted out, he could feel the pain of his headache coming back the more the man spoke to him.
"Well, It is a pretty famous curse and like I said it hasn't been seen for at least a thousand years. Some even thought it was a myth. But the beauty of this curse is that seeing it makes it easy to understand what the affliction is." With that Gojo got up from his seat and rounded the bed so he was standing on the side of the bed closest to the window, his smile had gotten only bigger like he was about to reveal a punchline to a favorite joke. Sukuna followed the bastard's trek, hoping he would make sense soon. "Turn your head and take a look at the wall opposite from us, with the door on it. I promise your curse will reveal itself then."
Not liking having the bastard at his back, there was no way he trusted the Weirdo yet. But his desire for answers outweighed his distrust, so for now he would play ball. He turned his head and looked at the off yellow coloured wall opposite to them.
He wasn't quite sure what time it was, but the sun was angled enough to create a myriad of shadows throughout the room. He was able to clearly make out the shadow of the bastard standing at his bedside, the triplicate shadow of the three beds on his side of the room, he could even make out the shadow of the one bed lamp that was sticking out.
The only thing missing from the shadows on the wall was his own.
In shock he raised his hand knowing it would catch the light and as physics dictated would make a shadow on the wall. It didn't.
Sukuna didn't have a shadow.
He turned from the bed and stared at the wall by the beds his brother rested on. He could easily make out his brother's form on the wall, blissfully unaware of his twin's panicked state.
"Am I dead…?" He couldn't stop the question from leaving his lips.
"Oh heavens no!" The older man was now making crude and bad shadow puppets on the wall. "The King of Curses also went by another moniker before he gained that title. It was the Master of Shadows, it seemed like besides the 10 Shikigami he was famous for using he also had a pension for stealing peoples' shadows. Most died from the pain and others were killed for being shadowless. Many believed that if the Master of Shadows took your shadow he also took a person's will and they were just a puppet for him to use or they were no better than Shikigami themselves."
He didn't have a shadow. He was still grappling with this new fact about himself. Then a memory of a soft voice flitted into his mind: I will take my toll from you … That Minx stole his shadow. Oh when he got his hands on that pale neck, he was going to-
"While your shadowless state is hilarious, it also helps me segway into making you and your brother my new students! And how you two are both coming with me back to Tokyo! I can't wait to ride the bullet train again and get new traveling snacks!"
"Wait what!" That pulled him from his thoughts of his missing shadow and pale skin and green eyes. "What makes you think my brother and I are going anywhere with you?"
"Hahaha!" The man threw his head back and laughed. "Of course you both are coming with me. You both need to learn how to handle your new found curse energy, which Jujutsu Tech can provide. Your condition is not exactly concealable, so someone will notice and attack you and your brother. And lastly don't you want your shadow back and can't you feel something pulling you toward it."
Sukuna felt that piercing gaze again, but that wasn't what hit him. Now that he mentioned it he had been feeling a slight tugging sensation in one direction. It was weird. The sorcerer was right; he needed to fix this.
"If I did have those feelings like you said, are you certain you could teach us how to fight back and defeat curses."
"Definitely." The grin he got to that could have been considered down right feral. "It wouldn't be too hard, you and your brother seem to have a good base so I'm sure we can get you too both handling and exorcising curses in no time."
The man leaned back on the chair still holding the back of it, keeping himself suspended and seemed to stare right out of the ceiling.
"It is going to be rough though. Curses are not as easy as the one you ran into last night. Think you can handle it?"
"I can't speak for my brother," he looked at his bandaged hands and flashes of the previous night with his brother, clubmates, and ponytail hurt, he clenched his hands into fists. "But I want to learn how to fight curses and I want my shadow back, so sure I'll go with you and become a sorcerer."
He looked back at the man and saw him peel back the bottom of the blindfold and revealed one piercing blue eye.
"You do have a few screws loose don't ya?" The sorcerer said as he brought himself forward and stood up. "Well having a few screws loose is not necessarily a bad thing. Rest up, you had quite a rough night. We'll hash out the details once your brother is up. Okay~?"
Sukuna watched as he cheerfully made his way to the door, slid the door open and with an overly cheery wave exited the room then slammed the door closed behind him.
He turned from the door and stared at his still snoring brother.
"Hmph, figures." He sighed and fell back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling looking for answers. He didn't know if he had made the right decision or not, but at the moment he didn't regret his actions so far.
Now if only he could get those green eyes out of his head.