Chapter Text
"Brat, stop running after the cat. You look stupid."
"But why?" Yuuji whines, pouting at the statement.
"Because I say so, Brat." Sukuna scoffs.
The cat jumps over the fence, out of their sight.
"Ha, you can't even catch a damn cat!"
"You are mean, Sukuna!" Yuuji wails with a broken expression. It's not uncommon for Sukuna to mock him like that, but it still annoys him. Sukuna only sneers in response.
"You think I care what a maggot like you thinks?"
Yuuji knows he doesn't. He made that very clear when the King of Curses first appeared in his head. With the cat nowhere to be found, Yuuji decides to return home.
"Tch."As Yuuji keeps walking, he notices curses lurking in an alley. They are watching him from the shadows, and Yuuji can't help but watch. As always, his thoughts get interrupted by Sukuna speaking up.
"Don't look and just keep walking normally. I don’t want to have to save your sorry ass, Brat. They aren't even strong. It would be pathetic seeing your ass get beaten by them." "They are creepy..."
"And if you continue staring at them, they are going to attack you, and I am NOT in the mood to play hero."
While Sukuna continues chatting, Yuuji carries on towards his home. He already knows what curses are and what they do to humans. Sukuna had explained it to him once when he was eight years old—and not in a child-friendly way. He remembers Sukuna sitting in his ominous domain, telling him everything. That was until he got annoyed when Yuuji started to cry because apparently, if you tell an eight-year-old child what curses are and what they do to humans, it will start bawling it's eyes out.
"HEY BRAT! Stop daydreaming and watch out for the damn street unless you want to get hit by a car." Sukuna yells.
Yuuji stops abruptly and realizes that he is only one step away from walking into the bustling street. He looks sheepishly around and is happy that nobody really saw what has happened. When the traffic light finally turns green, Yuuji resumed walking again.
After a few more minutes of wandering through the streets he finally reaches his home, where he lives with his grandfather, Wasuke Itadori.
"Hello! I'm back!," Yuuji shouts while stepping inside and taking his shoes off.
"Welcome back Yuuji," he hears his grandfather say. He runs up to his room and throws himself onto his bed with a thud into his soft blankets. Taking a break from the exhausting hours of school he closes his eyes, resting them. After a good amount of time he remembers his homework from earlier, his teacher has given him. Sighing annoyed he sits up slowly trotting over to his desk, falling into his chair, preparing his papers he stares at his assignment hopeless, but decides to try anyway. At the end of the day he really hates math homework. Complex thinking isn't his strength. He is fast and strong but as soon as there is a math problem, he looses all interest.
As time went on and his thoughts were full of numbers and equations, his stomach growls and he decides to head towards the kitchen.
"I have finished my homework! What do we eat for dinner?!," Yuuji yells."Quit yelling boy," a gruff voice comes from the counter. Yuuji walks towards him and sees him preparing Sushi.
"Can you set the table for dinner?" "Of course, Ojiichan!" Yuuji takes the plates and the chopsticks and places them on the table. He sits down and waits until his grandfather finishes the food.
"So what did you learn at school today?," his grandfather asks. "Nothing special, except my teacher commented on how fast and strong I am!" Yuuji answers while he takes a bite of his sushi. "That is because of me, Brat." "Ojiichan, Sukuna is being mean again!" "Quit complaining brat, I saved you from getting hit by a car today. And give me some of the sushi too." Yuuji glances up at his grandfather who just sighs but continues to eat in silence, thinking.
Wasuke Itadori knew something was wrong, from the moment Yuuji was born. As soon as he saw this monster of a mother looking at Yuuji with a smile that wasn't a mother's, he knew that Yuuji was different, when he looked at the baby who had two slices beneath his eyes which looked like another pair of eyes. Before Yuuji's parents disappeared and left him in Wasuke's care, he has always seen that she didn't give Yuuji any motherly love and only looked at him as if Yuuji was just a tool. He hates it. He hates how he noticed it too late, how she disappeared with Yuuji's father and left Wasuke to care for their baby all alone.
Thinking back, he remembers the only words she spoke to Yuuji were her telling him that he is a perfect vessel. At that time he didn't know what she meant by those words. A vessel? What for? He didn't want to believe it at first, why would he? But after years of living with Yuuji, a boy who would always look into shadows too long, as if there was something staring back. When he noticed Yuuji talking to himself, he just couldn't deny it anymore. Then, out of nowhere, when Yuuji turned 6 years old, a mouth appeared on Yuuji's cheek. It all happened so suddenly, he didn't know how to react. The mouth talked, but it wasn't Yuuji's voice.
The voice was much deeper and lacked any form of sympathy or empathy. The mouth disappeared as quickly as it came. Sometimes the second pair of eyes opened and looked around, but they always closed again. Years of living with Yuuji and the thing in Yuujis body, he learned many things. It's name is Ryomen Sukuna and he is the King of curses. Curses kill humans and are the cause for many deaths considered 'abnormal'.
He also learned that the reason Yuuji always stares into shadows for too long is because the curses are hiding there, staring back at him. It's also the reason why Yuuji has so many nightmares. Wasuke also learned that Sukuna has homicidal tendencies but is incapable of doing anything in a child's body. One would think that Yuuji would be a grumpy and troublesome child with Sukuna in him, but it seems like quite the opposite.
The now 11-year-old boy is a pure ray of sunshine. Nobody would even suspect him of being the vessel of the King of curses. Wasuke would protect this innocence with his life.
Yuuji takes one Sushi with his chopsticks and brings it to Sukuna's mouth on his cheek. The older Itadori watches them with a small smirk.
He doesn't likes Sukuna one bit. He may be the King of curses but he is also a part of Yuuji. Sukuna always talks about murdering everyone but he himself hasn't really done anything bad yet. Sometimes, Sukuna complains on how it isn't fair that he can't use his curse techniques.
He hopes that Yuuji will be able to suppress Sukuna forever.
As they finish eating, Yuuji helps his grandfather to clear the table and clean the dishes.
"Goodnight Yuuji. And Sukuna, let the boy sleep and don't tell him another horror story."
"No promises~"
"Goodnight Ojiichan!" Yuuji walks up to his room, jumps into his bed and falls fast asleep.
The next time Yuuji awakes, it is not to his grandfathers gentle voice but rather to Sukunas shouting.
"WAKE UP BRAT!"
"What- Ahhhh!" Yuuji screams. He notices a really big curse in his room. Yuuji quickly jumps out of his bed and dodges an incoming strike. The door slams open, standing in it is his grandfather.
"Yuuji what is going on?!" Yuuji hears his grandfather shout.
"OJIICHAN!" Yuuji cries out, running up up to him. "There is a curse in my room!"
Wasuke lifts his grandson up as quickly as an old man can do, and carries Yuuji out of his room. He slams the door shut and hears a thud, probably the curse who tried to attack them. Wasuke reaches the kitchen with Yuuji in his arms.
"If you give this brat a knife, then I can try to infuse curse energy and you can try to kill it. Normally meeting a curse means death. You should be grateful to have me around." Sukuna argues through the mouth on Yuuji's cheek.
Wasuke sets Yuuji down on the floor behind the counter to hide him and begins to search for a knife. Suddenly, they hear the door of Yuuji's room crash.
"IT'S HERE!" yells Yuuji from his hiding spot.
Time seems to slow down, as Yuuji watches the curse attacking his grandfather, the knife falling along with his arm on the ground. Wasuke falls to the ground, trying to stem the bleeding with his remaining hand but it is all in vain, the colour leaving his face.
"OJIICHAN!" Yuuji wails from where he is standing with trembling knees.
Wasukes voice is raspy. "You are a strong kid, save as many people as you can and be surrounded by those who care about you."
Yuuji can't contain his tears as his grandfathers head falls right of his shoulder, rolling towards him.
He cant help but just stand there watching as a pool of blood formed around the body of his grandfather, the curse demolishing the body causing more blood to gush out of the freshly made wounds. Yuuji stands still in a moment of shock before everything hits him at once causing him to let out a blood curling scream, gaining the attention of the curse who looks at his new prey.
"BRAT THIS ISN'T THE TIME TO BE A CRYBABY! GRAB. THE. KNIFE!," he hears Sukuna growls, but Yuuji just continues to cry, too consumed by fear as the curse prepares to attack.
"You leave me no choice." The curses strike comes to an halt as the boy stands up, tattoos appearing all over his skin.
"I hate this. I can barley do anything with this pathetic excuse of a body. Well, that won't stop me from having some fun... starting with you-!," Sukuna looks at the curse with a wide grin, moving his fingers easily slicing it into two. He moves towards the corpse of Yuuji's grandfather and takes the knife to infuse some Curse energy.
"This could still be useful later." Sukuna mumbles as he walks out of the door.
"Time to create some Chaos." It is midnight by now and there are no clouds in sight. He takes a deep breath as he feels the moonlight touch his skin. Sukuna looks around and walks over to the door of a neighbor. A young innocent woman opens and looks at Sukuna.
"Oh, hello Yuu-," she is abruptly cut off as her head falls from her shoulders onto the ground, her body following swiftly. Sukuna watches in amusement as the blood tickles to the ground.
"What is going on?," the voice of a man. Sukuna looks at the man in the hallway behind her and smirks as the man screams in horror. He walks over the corpse, entering house. Sukuna's feet step into the pool of blood.
"Dismantle." Sukuna watches as the mans body gets split in half. The blood and insides of the man painting the walls beautifully yet horrifying.
"That is why I hate being in this young body. The cuts just aren't clean and my cursed energy is already used up."
Sukuna decides he had enough. With a twisted grin, he made up his mind to set this house ablaze—watching it burn until nothing remained. And while he was at it, he would turn Yuuji's house into ash as well. If he was going to destroy something, he might as well make it personal.
He admires his work with a sadistic grin as the fire continues to spread towards the neighboring houses, towards innocent people who have no idea what fate has in store for them. He watches in amusement as people begin to wake up screaming, their voices filling the silent night being music to his ears. People begin to rush out of their houses and cry for help. Sukuna just loves the smell of burning flesh, the smell of blood rushing into his nose as the screams of terror and fear echo in his ears. Some people are on their phones, filming the fire, some are trying to help, others are just panicking. Oh these weak and defenseless humans..Sukuna thinks to himself with a wide smirk.
Sukuna notices a man and a woman rushing into an alleyway in panic. Annoyed, Sukuna decides to follow them. With a malevolent smile, he takes out the knife, attacking the first human with inhumane speed, slicing his arm off. The screams that follow bringing delight to him. While the woman fills the air with anguished cries, Sukuna turns his attention to the man who is taking a defensive stance.
"You think you stand a chance against me?" Sukuna laughs darkly.
Without a second to waste Sukuna lunges forward, aiming straight for the heart. The man tries to block the oncoming strike, but even in Yuujis body, Sukunas raw strength is unfathomable. He plunges the knife deep into his chest, twisting it painfully, ending it with pulling the knife out as the blood starts to gush out of the man's body. The man falls to the ground but Sukuna just continues stabbing into his stomach, over and over again, until the man is only a bloody mess with the insides sticking out as the screams die down.
Sukuna turns his attention back to the woman who is now crying hysterically and begging for her dear life on her knees. He ignores her pleas as he throws the knife with precision, aiming for her head. It pierces her left eye with a crack of the skull, causing her to fall over, landing on her back. She is barley alive, the knife now stuck in her head. Sukuna creeps closer, putting his foot onto the knife. with a wide skin-crawling grin he pushes it down as the air gets filled with more cracking and screams as the woman's life ends in a miserable way.
Taking the knife out he looks down at his clothes, now covered in blood. He puts the knife back in his pocket and leaves the alley, looking around to make sure there weren't any onlookers. He doesn't want the sorcerers to notice him just yet. In his current state, he is an easy target to eliminate. Sukuna walks to a quiet stream, far from any human presence, and rinses the blood from his hands and the blade.
Washing his clothes however will be a more difficult task, so he decides to just switch back and let the Brat figure it out for himself.
"Worry not, Brat, I took care of the Curse but I may have accidentally overdone it just a little~" Sukuna laughs as the tattoos begin to fade. As they completely vanish, the mocking laughter quickly turns into the horrified scream of a 11-year old boy.
"Oh God, oh my God! WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Yuuji breathes hysterical as the memories hit him all at once. The echoing screams of fear, pain and terror. People who hadn't done anything wrong died because of him! The blood on his clothes makes him sick to his stomach. Yuuji can't contain his disgust as he vomits onto the cold ground, staggering helplessly as his vision starts to blur. He continues to cry until he exhausts himself to his limits and trips backwards, falling on the grass. He can't even be bothered by the cold and dirt as everything fades to black.