Archive of Our Own ^beta

Megumi stared at his teacher, both incredibly surprised and relieved to see him.

(The smallest bit of tension left him, knowing that Gojo-sensei was here – if anything were to go wrong now, they could all expect it to be much lesser in extent with him present.

It was a… comforting thought. First of such kind in a While.)

The aforementioned teacher kept smiling – though now perhaps with a bit more sharpness before.

“Y’know, from the horribly panicked pleas for help I got from Ijichi,-” He pulled his phone out of a pocket swiftly, showing off a screen full of received messages and notifications. “-I was expecting a bit more of a bloodbath. Glad it’s not, though.”

Gojo-sensei shoved the phone back into his jacket, and continued talking. “I only saw the texts and many calls not so long ago, but got here as quickly as I could.”

He leaned down a bit, grin steadily bright - if maybe yet another bit sharper. “And well, that’s quite quickly.”

The sorcerer straightened up, looking at the three humans through his blindfold – as if assessing their conditions, despite most probably having taken note of it earlier.

There was a very brief but noticeable pause as he looked at Ijichi-san.

(Megumi could be mistaken, but for that moment his teacher seemed to have a glare hidden by the covering over his eyes.)

“I see you’re all mostly well and fully alive despite the panic, though.”

He put both hands on his hips and tilted his head a bit. “You even got yourself a fun little disturbing campfire going, how nice.”

The last word was said with an underlying cadence implying that Megumi’s teacher did not, in fact, think it nice at all.

Finally, after seemingly ignoring him so far, the white-haired sorcerer turned to Sukuna – and so did everyone else’s at least partial attention as well.

(The curse didn’t seem particularly bothered by the previous lack of inclusion, though – he simply sat there silently and observed everyone with an unreadable, calm expression.)

“I’m guessing it’s your work, oh King of Curses?”

Gojo-sensei smiled, once more back to his usual cheerful-like manner. “As far as I know Ijichi doesn’t usually drive around places with a hacksaw in the back of the car.”

He waved a hand, wiggling his fingers in a way meant to convey an ‘ooh so creepy’ feeling.

“Only a special cooler for severed limbs in case someone were to run into a curse with the temperament of a saw~”

(From the corner of his eye, Megumi noticed something change in Sukuna’s gaze at both the mention of the cooler and severed limbs.

He didn’t exactly want to think about it, but for half a second his mind decided to connect the fact that the King of Curses was very-much-so a cannibal with the ability to cut things up with the wave of his hand – and might be interested in ways of preserving that for later.

The teen shuddered slightly, as subtly as he could.)

Sukuna didn’t interrupt Gojo-sensei whilst he talked, merely tilted his head a bit and waited until he was done.

Then, once that happened, the curse finally spoke.

“World’s Strongest, how nice of you to join us.”

He tilted his head to the other side for a moment. “Quite the… Unexpected surprise.”

Megumi frowned, thinking back to him very obviously alluding to a possible ‘additional guest’.

Sure it is… he thought, indignant.

The white-haired sorcerer just laughed for a moment though - echoing his student’s thoughts in a way.

“You didn’t expect me? Then who’s the seat for?” he said, pointing to it with a lazy yet accusatory gesture.

Sukuna turned his gaze onto the piece of wood in question for a moment, before it returned to the sorcerer - expression just as unreadable as before.

“Why, anyone that may turn up of course. Which, in this case, is you.”

He shrugged, the gesture never becoming any less unnerving than usual. “Besides, I simply found this arrangement more pleasing.”

He tilted his head once again, head laying on a raised hand propped up on his knee.

“I suppose I may have guessed you could possibly join us, but it was unlikely. If you were planning on being here, you would have either done so from the start somehow, or informed your students of your possible late arrival – due to your ‘business trip’ I presume –  beforehand.”

The curse stared at the white-haired sorcerer with an unclear, yet at least somewhat amused, expression.

“I don’t believe that you’re one to leave the little sorcerers potentially anxious over their survival for no reason in particular.”

Sukuna grinned slightly and raised a single brow, amusement now very noticeable in his eyes.

“Or am I perhaps wrong on that account and you're more cruel than I thought, in the end?”

Gojo-sensei stayed silent for a tense moment.

Then, he grinned himself.

“So you couldn’t have guessed, then, ‘cause it would have gone against what you know of the situation huh?”

Megumi blinked, wondering why he put such an emphasis on those two words.

Then, he started thinking over just what this all could imply.

He couldn’t have guessed, and yet clearly didn’t seem nearly as surprised as he says he supposedly was.

Gojo-sensei may not know that part, but he did act like he was certain of someone coming around, earlier.

One person only, though – which wouldn’t have made sense for any normal reinforcements…

The sorcerer in question unwittingly interrupted his student’s thoughts. “Hmmm, so I really was just a pleasant surprise?”

The curse proceeded to simply smile in a manner that explained nothing, eyes filling with an unreadable yet almost mirthful emotion - any other miniscule reaction to the questioning over as soon as it started. “’Pleasant’ is an overstatement, but yes – as I’ve said before.”

(All of this still wasn’t adding up to Megumi.

Something in the back of his head kept telling him that Sukuna was lying, and he was inclined to believe it.

But why, and on what account exactly he lied… The teen simply couldn’t guess.

From the corner of his eye he noticed Kugisaki having a slightly sceptical look herself, despite not having the same context as he himself did.

Both she and Itadori could be idiots sometimes, but he definitely appreciated it whenever they showed that they did in fact have working braincells somewhere in there.)

“I see, I see.” said both of the teens’ teacher, unwittingly interrupting his students’ thoughts once again, and started to make his way towards the supposedly coincidental extra seat.

He plopped down onto it, almost dramatically.

The Strongest Sorcerer turned to the King of Curses, seemingly amused. “Well, oh King of Curses, you’re gonna have to simply deal with me being here – pleasant or not.”

It was clearly meant to be a bit of verbal bait, and yet the curse didn’t seem to be bothered by the statement at all.

With a mellow tone and at the very least a façade of calm on his face, aside from a slightly raised eyebrow, Sukuna replied. “I suppose so.”

Not a moment later, Gojo-sensei looked away from the curse once again – clearly trying to annoy him with the lack of attention at this point – and turned to his students and coworker.

“By the way, not that I’m not glad to see a lack of that ‘incredible bloodshed’ thing I mentioned before, but could someone enlighten me as to why there’s not much of it here?”

He pointed a thumb towards Sukuna, who simply looked on – neither amused nor visibly irked by the rude gesture.

“Did you manage to tame the almighty ‘Walking Calamity' while I wasn’t looking or something?”

He grinned, fully embracing his current energy of a frustratingly cheerful human being.

“Hope you didn’t offer any limbs as a little snack so he’d behave or anything!”

Megumi wasn’t sure how to respond to that, a measure of anger definitely present on his face now.

What the hell is this clown doing! he thought, suddenly getting reminded of just why his teacher could be aggravating sometimes despite his status in the Jujutsu world.

(And despite the affectionate way he reluctantly thought of the adult, if he were to be honest – though he wouldn’t say that outright to his guardian’s face even if bribed with all the riches of the world.)

We might know why he’s not doing anything, but he has no idea! And Ijichi-san is still vulnerable!

The white-haired sorcerer, unwitting of his ward’s annoyance at him, pursed his lips in a thoughtful way for a moment.

“Or maybe he’s just sooo weak right now that you two were able to bully him into calmness-?”

“Itadori made a Binding Vow with him.” interrupted Kugisaki sharply, before their teacher could go on some sort of even more insulting tangent.

(When the black-haired teen glanced at Sukuna once again, he noted that the curse… Didn’t look in the least bothered, still.

Intrigued, if anything.

The King of Curses may be the freakiest curse Megumi has ever met just by virtue of that constant, almost fucking serene attitude – whenever not all smiley, bored, or just plain annoyed.

Absolutely uncanny.)

Gojo-sensei paused for half a second, then faced Kugisaki properly. “A Binding Vow, you say? What kind, exactly?”

The brown-haired sorcerer clearly noticed that a note of seriousness has returned to his tone, and she answered the question with an ever-so-slightly furrowed brow.

“Apparently, his murderous majesty-“ A very slight huff of amusement(?) resounded from Megumi’s left, but he didn’t pay it any attention. “-is not allowed to kill or even hurt anyone right now, besides that one already dead curse, on purpose. Except in self-defense, sort of.”

She glanced at Ijichi-san, who himself looked understandably uneasy.

“I’m pretty sure that wasn’t ‘self-defense’, but the Vow clearly allowed it.”

“I seeee,-“ The teacher addressed his understandably nervous coworker. “-and say, Ijichi, how come your shoulder is like new instead of a piece of human tartare considering all that blood?”

He smiled, amused but still genuinely curious. “A suddenly discovered RCT talent, maybe? Should I say congrats~?”

“I- well, not that-“ the assistant director tried replying to the question, but Sukuna interrupted him.

“Sadly no, it was simply a little recompensation on my end. I may have been slightly too enthusiastic and ended up, hm, ‘mauling’ him a bit too much.”

(He didn’t seem to have much pride in the fact that he was capable of healing people (and trees??), as it was said completely matter-of-fact-ly).

Gojo-sensei looked at the King of Curses with an unclear expression for half a moment.

Then, he grinned at him sharply. “Huh, who would have thought that you would be willing to use Reverse Cursed Technique on someone else. How unexpectedly gracious of you!”

Sukuna just… Huffed at that, unimpressed by the other’s antics.

“Hm, gracious. However you want to call it I suppose, but it was simply less of a bother to do so rather than having to listen to the brat's whining if the man were to bleed out and die.”

Apparently that was one of the few things that actually ticked him off, as the curse all of a sudden looked ever-so-slightly annoyed.

“He may have even grown enough anger-driven audacity to deny me an occasional taste of the things he gets to cook, or simply eat, himself. Or to cease other interesting activities as a whole, in some form of protest.”

He tilted his head, looking at Gojo-sensei with an almost bored expression.

“I do value my long-term entertainment more than whatever joy I may have gained from slaughtering the poor fool who expected to sacrifice himself anyway, so you ought not be so surprised.”

The curse let out a small breath, a feeling of not-exactly-frustration seemingly accompanying it as he shrugged and waved a hand as well. “Besides, he has managed to impress me a little I suppose – enough to consider letting him live regardless of my Vessel’s probable reaction.”

Gojo-sensei turned his head ever-so-slightly in Ijichi-san’s direction for a moment, hearing the last two statements.

(Megumi could tell that the assistant sorcerer would have to answer some questions about it all, later.)

The visible boredom on Sukuna’s face turned into something almost akin to a pleasant smile. “You will find that I care not for preconceived notions about me; if I want something, I shall simply do whatever is needed for me to have it. Although it is only up to a point, I am not above ‘graciousness’ if it’s required - I also prefer to be cordial if not compelled to be otherwise.”

He raised a singular brow up. “I would weave a warning against deliberately trying to find my limits, sorcerer, but I have a feeling that you would not heed it anyway.”

The sorcerer in question put a finger up to his face alongside a head tilt, looking mockingly thoughtful for a moment.

Then, he smiled, air just as bordering on mocking as a second ago. “Nope!”

Still smiling, he continued. “Buuut, speaking of ‘graciousness’-“ He bent his head the other way.“-what did your oh-so-evil self want from Yuji-kun for something as annoying as it must be for you, being bound into just sitting around and not slaughtering innocent people for funsies?”

Sukuna didn’t wait long to answer, saying simply “Nothing.”

Gojo-sensei paused, clearly blinking in surprise under the blindfold. “Pardon? I must have misheard you, there is absolutely no way you just said ‘nothing’.”

Megumi decided to interject there. “It’s not really ‘nothing’, sensei, but in terms of the Vow it was.”

His teacher turned to him (just as did everyone else), urging him to continue.

He glanced at Sukuna briefly, but much to his surprise (or maybe lack thereof at this point) there was absolutely nothing indicating that he was irked at his attempt of explaining the situation himself.

…Ass-backwards freaking curse. he thought, and continued.

“He got to torture the newborn Special Grade curse for fun,-“ Gojo-sensei didn’t seem surprised at that, but Ijichi-san swayed in his seat slightly at the reminder. “-, didn’t have to lose the Fingers Itadori already ate due to his death, and apparently didn’t ‘lose’ Itadori himself.”

At the last part, Gojo-sensei had a bit more of a reaction.

Turning to the King of Curses, he grinned sharply. “What is it that I hear? Gotten attached, have you? How cute!”

(Megumi had a feeling that the question was meant to dig deeper into that possibility, rather than simply be a joke on the curse’s behalf.

Obviously, neither did his teacher actually find the idea cute.)

Sukuna merely scoffed, though. “Attached is a highly inaccurate term and you know it, sorcerer.”

He waved a dismissive hand, and rolled his eyes a little. “But he has been an acceptable host, all things considered - and is a good-enough Vessel in the physical sense as well.”

The curse hummed. “Suspiciously good-enough, frankly speaking. Performing the small feats of jujutsu today felt oddly natural, despite our obviously very different physiques.”

(All three humans who have witnessed the gigantic explosion of fire in the sky were not exactly thrilled to hear that the curse considered it all to be ‘small’ feats.)

He drummed his claws on one of his legs for a bit.

“If not for the fact that the brat very clearly has an almost ludicrously resilient, completely his own and fully-existent soul, I would have thought that the body was meant to house me.”

Megumi couldn’t help the extremely alarmed thoughts the last sentence gave him (and most probably everyone else.)

(What the hell did that mean!? Did-

Did he want to get rid of Itadori somehow just so he could take over what is apparently a very good Vessel ferever?

Wait-)

Clearly uncaring of the sheer turmoil he has sown in everybody, Sukuna just continued with an almost disappointed air – even accompanied by a freaking sigh.

“Too bad, I suppose. It’s not as if his, as aforementioned, ludicrously resilient self is going anywhere -,” The curse had the audacity to simply shrug at that, much to Megumi’s irritation.“-so I might as well learn to enjoy his occasionally not-so-annoying presence and simply await the possible day I gain a proper Vessel of my own.”

He waved a dismissive hand, leaning back a bit. “It would most likely suit me better, anyway.”

(The only comforting thing that could be taken away from the entire monologue was the fact that, apparently, Sukuna was convinced that it would not be possible to actually get rid of Itadori from his own body.

After the panic Megumi felt earlier, it was certainly a good thing to hear.

And yet…

And yet.

No one could be truly sure if the King of Curses was being truthful, could they?)

Finally, someone else spoke up.

It was Gojo-sensei.

“Have any plans for that, oh King of Curses?”

He was grinning, but his black-haired student could tell that he was being completely serious in wanting to know.

(Kugisaki and Ijichi-san could have most probably guessed the same thing as well, though, to be fair.

In this particular case one didn’t need to know the adult sorcerer as well as Megumi did, since it was rather obvious.)

Sukuna answered in an almost amused way, apparently uncaring of his suspicions.

“Now, what plans could I possibly have for such a thing from the inside of a Vessel-cage?”

He even freaking chuckled.

“I can most definitely understand being suspicions, but are you not perhaps overestimating my capabilities – whilst in such a disadvantageous position – a little? Why be worried over some simple wishful thinking of mine?”

And then,

the King of Curses grinned.

“Overthinking cannot be good for your health, World’s Strongest. You ought to learn how to relax.”

The Strongest Sorcerer - whom may as well have been called The Most Irritated Sorcerer after hearing such a ridiculously smug and condescending thing from the King of Curses – was about to reply,

when all of a sudden the curse’s presence seemed to get ever-so-slowly muddled.

Sukuna hummed, holding his chin in a mockery of a thoughtful gesture. “Apropos relaxation, it seems that the brat has finally decided to cease his napping.”

Napping?

Before anyone could react to the statement, the curse changed which leg was crossed over in his stance and… Put both his arms down on his raised knee in a crisscross pattern, laying his head with closed eyes in them as well.

It looked precisely like something Itadori may have done to, indeed, nap.

From that position, he opened one main eye again, smirked, and slightly waved with just his hand - as if in goodbye.

His presence became even less palpable.

“I suppose it’s my time to leave.”

The black markings on his skin disappeared, secondary eyes closed completely alongside the one cracked open previously,

the fireplace’s flame swayed, lessening in its brightness

and suddenly

it was as if he was truly gone.

(Obviously, no one would be truly capable of forgetting about the horrible being caged in the pink-haired teen’s body – but it was a relieving feeling nonetheless.)

No one said anything for a moment, simply observing what must have been just Itadori now.

He didn’t move at first, though - the only clear sign of life being the slow, rhythmic rise and fall of his back as he breathed.

After a few longer beats, Kugisaki decided to speak up.

“Oi, Itadori-“ Her voice was ever-so-slightly annoyed, yet still relatively soft in its delivery. “-gonna wake up or-“

She didn’t get to finish her thoughts, as suddenly Itadori uncrossed his arms and raised them to the sides and up, straightening up with a large yawn. He also uncrossed his leg, putting both feet on the ground properly instead.

As he slowly opened his eyes, he pulled his arms back down and to his sides onto the wooden seat – and then registered that he was in a very unfamiliar place, with a campfire softly glowing in the middle of a circle of seats, all whilst four people stared right at him.

“-Huh?” The pink-haired teen smiled, if a bit unsurely, and glanced at both the people and the forest around him. “I mean, what’s up, everyone?”

“You don’t remember?” quickly asked Megumi.

(He needed to know if Sukuna messed with his memory or something.

And if… he witnessed everything the curse did whilst in control.)

Itadori was staring at some tree at the moment, but turned back to the front and looked at Megumi.

“I mean, I do remember making a deal-? No, Vow with Sukuna and then just sort of… falling asleep?”

He tilted his head a bit, expression thoughtful. “It was kinda different than that last time we switched out, honestly, but not in a bad way?”

The teen grinned brightly with his eyes closed, head still tilted in a manner almost bringing to mind a happy freaking puppy.

(What a weird contrast - such a similar gesture yet so utterly different from how it felt when Sukuna did it.)

“I feel suuper rested, y’know? And I didn’t even really need the stretch earlier but it’d have felt weird not doing it heh. A bit of an odd feeling, but for sure nice!”

Odd but… Nice? The aftermath of a complete possession?

Megumi certainly wasn’t expecting to hear that, at all.

“So what you’re saying,-“ Kugisaki put her head down into her propped-up hand for a moment. “is that you were actually napping?”

Itadori looked at her, turning a bit sheepish. “Uh, yeah. Apparently? I mean, Sukuna even ‘wished me a peaceful slumber’ so I guess that was the idea?”

Megumi frowned.

That means he was able to influence the way the ‘switch-out’ happened despite, apparently, not discussing that with Itadori. The sinister bastard.

Before he could delve into the thought further, his classmate continued to speak.

“But, uhh,-“ the pink-haired teen seemed unsure for a moment. “-did he get rid of that Special Grade? I know the Vow thing is very bad to break and all but I wanna be sure-”

He cut himself off, striking a fist onto an open palm - realising something. “Oh, right, and he wasn’t supposed to hurt anyone if they didn’t attack him so did he,-“ He pursed his lips a bit. “-I mean, is everyone alright?”

Megumi felt himself get confused at the last question.

Can’t he see that Ijichi-san-?

He blinked, looking over at the adult in question.

With the way he was sat, angled slightly away from him with the previously injured shoulder, and the now dimmer campfire – it may indeed have been a bit difficult to notice the holes in the suit and the dark, mostly dried splotches marring it as well.

Just as the shikigami user was about to speak up, their teacher did so instead.

(He was… Oddly silent up until then, for some reason.)

“Well, Yuji-kun, good news is that yep!” He grinned, almost as brightly as his student. “Mr. Evil King sure did, how surprisingly reliable of him in the exorcism department!”

Itadori smiled, happy to hear that.

“But, bad news, he did maul Ijichi a liiittle bit before he skedaddled.”

This time, the teen turned to the assistant director properly – and, upon looking carefully, noticed what he missed earlier. His eyes widened a bit, smile lost from his face.

He was about to stand up, probably to check on the adult sorcerer better, but Gojo-sensei leaned over and pat his shoulder in a way that stopped the movement – making his student look at him as well.

He smiled, in what was clearly supposed to be reassurance.

“Sukuna did also heal him right afterwards, in some sort of ‘apology’, though! So he’s fine now.”

Itadori furrowed his brows a bit, but turned to the other adult again – concern clear on his face.

“I- Yeah, ok, are you fine though, Ijichi-san?”

(Megumi could tell that Gojo-sensei wanted to interject with something along the lines of ‘Aw, don’t believe me?’ but decided not to, in this case.

The shikigami user certainly could appreciate the, for once, restraint on his part.)

The assistant director smiled a bit at the teen, touched by the concern.

“Ah, yes, Itadori-kun. I actually feel better than before, oddly enough.”

He exhaled a slightly shaky breath. “Frankly speaking, he could have done much, much worse other than some partially accidental injury. I’m… Glad to be alive and in one piece, even if he insisted on me not expressing any gratitude for it.”

At that, Itadori outright frowned – something making the expression less angry and moreso almost somber.

“Well, he shouldn’t have done even that, anyway. I’m pretty sure that you weren’t even really trying to kill him or anything, so it’s good that he at least doesn’t expect thanks for not freaking killing you, but still.”

Your expectations for the King of Curses are clearly way too high, Itadori.

(It was already an utter miracle that Ijichi-san was only hurt as much as he was, and even healed.

A mercy no one would have expected, or could have predicted – however almost pathetic it may not be to feel grateful over something like that.)

His student didn’t get to properly stew in his frustration, though, because Gojo-sensei chimed in once again.

“Sorry to interrupt your understandable outrage at the King of Curses, but there’s also another piece of Bad News, sadly.”

Everyone turned to look at him, wondering what he could mean.

“I’m preeeetty sure that this whole ‘Mission’ here was actually meant to be an unofficial execution for Yuji-kun.”

All four pairs of eyes widened, staring at him in shock.

The teacher grinned sharply, not happy at all. “Damned be collateral damage, too.”

He turned to his coworker as well, addressing him directly.

“But I feel like you were already suspecting that, eh, Ijichi?”

“You knew!?” Kugisaki didn’t sound happy with the adult in question at all at the moment, but he grimaced a bit and replied.

“No, at least- W-Well, I started to indeed suspect if that wasn’t maybe the case at one point because-”

He got cut off by Gojo-sensei, who leaned back, faux-nonchalant. “Because you couldn’t contact anyone, especially not for help?”

Ijichi-san swallowed thickly, clearly nervous. “Y-yes. For some reason, I- suspect sabotage, absolutely no one picked up a call, or answered any messages – assuming they even came through. It seemed unusually unclear if that was the case.”

He leaned down a bit, looking almost defeated.

“…Not even Fukumoto-san.”

Gojo-sensei paused for a moment.

(Both Itadori and Kugisaki, meanwhile, just looked confused.

Megumi wasn’t faring much better, even if he vaguely recalled hearing the name sometimes.)

“Damn. Not even Ms. Walking Phoneline herself? Wasn’t she supposed to be in the area now, or am I remembering wrong?”

The assistant director sighed.

“N-No, you’re remembering right. I tried calling her first, whilst still on my way out of the Curtain to save time, but no one answered. I thought that perhaps something simply delayed her in her previous assignment, but…”

He clasped his hands in a self-soothing gesture.

“No one else answered either. I… suspect that she has gotten different orders without my knowledge, to ensure no chance of me being able to contact even her.”

“And,-“ chimed in Gojo-sensei. “-I was oh-so-conveniently also called off to a ‘business trip’ that’d make sure I couldn’t catch a whiff of anything before it was too late.”

He seemed to frown under his blindfold. “Even though I decided not to delay my going there for once, if not for Yuji-kun’s dangerous but ultimately smart idea to make Sukuna help you all out in a safe-ish way...”

The teacher’s expression was clearly fighting to stay in any way neutral, but not succeeding very well.

“I would have only found anything out way after he, most probably alongside Nobara-chan, Megumi, perhaps you, and some innocent bystanders, was very dead.”

(Megumi could tell that he was on the verge of visible anger, thinking about it.

It may have not been completely obvious, but… He could tell, and the rest could probably guess similarly.)

“And, considering all the effort those, hm, damned Higher-ups apparently put into this whole operation – I don’t think they’re gonna stop at one attempt.”

Everyone grew completely silent after that declaration.

The only clear sounds anyone could hear in-between the conversation’s absence were the gentle rustling of leaves,

a rhythmic pitter-patter of the rain falling upon the canopies above them

- and the soft crackle of the campfire.

After a long, long pause, Kugisaki decided to speak up.

“I mean, we don’t have to worry about Itadori dying, you know?”

Both Gojo-sensei and the teen in question turned to her, curious over what she meant.

Megumi decided to add some context to her declaration. “You’re talking about him ‘not being allowed to die’.”

(For some reason, Itadori looked confused for a moment, hearing that.

Then, didn’t anymore.

Megumi could only guess just what that was supposed to mean.)

Kugisaki nodded. “Yeah, his murderous majesty was very clear on that. So,-“ She waved a hand. “-it’s not like they’d be successful with it anyway?”

She grimaced. “The, well, collateral is a different story but at least the terrible King of Curses doesn’t want us, me and Fushiguro, dead too soon either? Because it’d be annoying for Itadori to be sad or something like that.”

Megumi’s classmate crossed her arms halfway, raising one up to her face and putting one of her thumb fingernails between her teeth.

She, very softly, - clearly in an attempt at not actually damaging it - gnawed on it for a moment. “But yeah, I don’t think anyone else has that ‘priviledge’ right now. Still a kinda shitty situation, huh.”

Gojo-sensei hummed. “That’s both kiiiidna concerning but also good to know! Thank you Nobara-chan, Megumi.”

The aforementioned Megumi turned to Itadori, wondering what his reaction to everything was.

He blinked.

Itadori was… Frowning, and clearly deep in thought.

Before he could call out, and ask just what exactly was on his mind, he spoke up.

“Gojo-sensei…” he started, gaze still turned slightly downwards.

The sorcerer in question looked over at him. “Yes, my dear student?”

The pink-haired teen looked up, to where his teacher’s eyes would vaguely be.

“I- Haven’t done anything wrong, right? Nothing, you know, that would make them wanna kill me? Other than the whole ‘Vessel’ thing, I guess.”

Gojo-sensei sighed, still sort-of lighthearted but definitely not happy with the situation. “No, no - you did nothing wrong, Yuji-kun. I guess they’re just trying to take advantage of you still being inexperienced as a sorcerer, which means an easy target, and hoping to get rid of Sukuna early - if temporarily.”

He scoffed a bit. “They obviously wouldn’t care about his possible eventual return if they’re gonna be dead and buried by then anyway. Bunch’a old farts, most of them.”

Itadori tilted his head a bit in thought.

“So, if I wasn’t an ‘easy target’ they’d stop?”

Gojo-sensei drummed his fingers on the wooden seat. “I think they should stop regardless, and I will try to make sure they know that.”

He pursed his lips in annoyance. “But they might still find some way to weasel out of my demands anyway, or make us all ‘wanted people’ or something. If it was just me, it’d be annoying – especially since they’d probably try to cut off my money flow – but I’d survive. You all, though…”

The young sorcerer blinked at the small rant, as did everyone else.

(The idea of Gojo Satoru being a man on the run was equally as ridiculous as it was unnerving.)

“Uh, that- That second option especially doesn’t sound good? But, my question?”

The white-haired adult shook his head a bit. “Hm, right. Well, I think they might give it up, then. They apparently expected you needing to face a Special Grade to die as a newbie, I doubt they’d want to have to risk anything much more ridiculous if you were to become more trained.”

He crossed his arms. “At least not as elaborately as today.”

Itadori nodded, mostly to himself.

“I- Might have an idea, then? But I dunno how possible it’d be? Or if it’s any good.”

His last idea involved asking the King of Curses for help. thought to himself Megumi, hoping that this one wouldn’t be nearly as insane.

Gojo-sensei gestured for him to continue, and so he did.

“Ok, so maybe we could fake my death, spy story or- anime style? At least for some time? And, you know, do some ‘secret training’ so when I ‘turn out’ to be alive they won’t want to go along with all these plans anymore?”

What the fuck.

(Megumi clearly hoped for too much.)

Everyone looked at Itadori in various states of shock, and the teen got a slightly sheepish, and nervous, look on his face.

“I mean, if they already want me dead, we might as well act like it worked for a while? You keep saying how unreasonable the Higher-ups can be and all that, so I dunno if I want to see what they’re gonna do if they find out I’m not…”

He frowned a bit.

“And sure, Sukuna said that he’s not gonna ‘allow’ me to die from now on, but… Kugisaki was right about other people maybe being ‘collateral’ to the attempts anyway.”

His eyes flickered to Ijichi-san for half a second.

(Ah.)

“And what if next time, you know… Things go worse?”

He massaged his bare wrist – sleeve cut up by the Special Grade earlier - a bit.

“Or, if not next time then eventually?”

For a few beats, no one was sure what to say.

Both of the other teens looked away from the somber sight of their classmate being so unusually outwardly worried - and turned to Gojo-sensei.

Megumi decided to ask, first. “Everything else aside, is that even possible? Making them actually believe Itadori is dead without him dying?”

The aforementioned pink-haired teen looked up at their teacher as well, anticipating his answer.

Gojo-sensei didn’t say anything for a moment, tilting his head to the side with a long hum.

Then, “Well, honestly speaking I think that’d be kiinda hard to do – if not impossible. I am completely sure that they would not be convinced of anything without seeing a whole, you know, corpse and maybe even being able find no pulse themselves. Something I doubt even Shoko could make happen without actual death, if she were here.”

He grimaced. “I’d call them paranoid but in this case, unfortunately that’s just smart.”

He certainly didn’t look happy to admit that. “Bleh.”

The sorcerer uncrossed one arm and pointed with it vaguely in his coworker’s direction. “Besides, assuming Ijichi sent out other messages that were in any way similar to the ones I got, there’s no way we could convince anyone that the Special Grade somehow still got you.”

Ijichi-san started to say “My- apologies, I-“

But was waved off by Gojo-sensei. “Eh, you couldn’t have known we’d be thinking something like this up.”

Itadori deflated a bit, realising that his insane idea wouldn’t be possible to use.

(‘Honestly, that’s probably more of a good thing than bad.')

Gojo-sensei grinned at him slightly in reassurance. “But hey, the plan itself is kind of brilliant!”

The teen looked up at him, a bit of his signature brightness returning to his face.

“I mean, not only would it be a giant middle finger to those stuck-up Higher-ups, which is almost always a good idea, and let me train you up without their butt-ins – it’d also definitely allow you to be less anxious over the whole thing, huh?”

Itadori smiled a bit, but still looked a bit somber “Yeah…. I just, you know, don’t want people to get hurt…”

Gojo-sensei leaned over, and pat his shoulder a bit. “We’re gonna try our best to not let that happen, how about that?”

Just as the other teens were about to chime in with a similarly reassuring sentiment, they heard a very familiar and very unnerving voice resound from their classmate’s direction.

“If you wish, I could make that an almost certainty.”

It was Sukuna, manifested on his cheek – one terrifying red eye accompanying a mouth of sharp teeth.

(Everyone could feel a shift in the air happen, if in a lesser intensity than when he was possessing the teen fully.)

“What I mean by that is of course doing so by utilising your plan. If you would like me to, I could make you, my Vessel, look and feel dead – yet not, ultimately, be.”

“Uh, you could?” asked Itadori, both confused and almost hopeful.

“The state would, quite obviously, be temporary. I need no corpse-like Vessel – such a thing would be boring beyond imagination.”

“But how-“

He got cut off by Gojo-sensei, who finally took the hand off his shoulder, stood up, and walked swiftly over to where Megumi was sat.

Instead of sitting down next to him, though, he simply stood by the seat, crossing his arms.

He then grinned down at the partially manifested curse. “Oh? And you’re just gonna be helpful like that? No strings attached?”

Sukuna rolled his eye in response. “Don’t act a fool, I do obviously wish to gain something in return for my graciousness.”

(Megumi could have bet, at that moment, that Gojo-sensei was irked at the reminder of the earlier discussion.

And what using the word may imply in this context.)

“And what might that be? I don’t think you expect us to even consider this before we know, right?”

Itadori decided to butt in a bit – understandably, though, since the entire thing was pretty much about him. “Right, yeah. Gotta know what I agree to and all.”

(Gojo-sensei looked a bit proud, hearing that.

Sukuna, meanwhile… Had a weird expression for a moment – as much of an expression as what he currently looked like could even have.

It was clearly some form of happiness, though – which was certainly weird to witness.)

“Why of course.”

Even though no one could see it, his tone felt very nonchalant – almost as if he leaned back in a comfy seat and was about to talk about weather.

Not a deal to falsify a death.

“First, although this is not absolutely necessary for me to comply, I would like to regain my third Finger – the one brat number three currently has in her temporary possession.”

Itadori and Gojo-sensei instantly turned to look at Kugisaki, very curious – and perhaps a bit alarmed.

She leaned back, seemingly annoyed at their shock a bit. “Hey, he gave it to me to try using Resonance on, for some reason - but I wasn’t stupid enough to actually do that, ok?”

The teacher nodded seriously, but spoke up with a smile.

“Wonderfully smart of you, Nobara-chan, as expected! But, where did he even get it from to give to you? I don’t think that there’s any Creepy Cursed Finger vending machines anywhere around here. Or maybe-”

Before the sorcerer could try to spout any outlandish theories, Megumi interrupted him. “Apparently, it was ‘stolen’ by that Special Grade, probably as a reason for its increased danger level.”

He frowned slightly. “And he… Retrieved it, somehow.”

“It was crudely embedded in its body, obviously not even close to a proper assimilation. It was a simple enough matter of tearing it out.” chimed in Sukuna, helpfully – if slightly unnervingly with the mental image.

(Itadori grimaced a tiny bit as well, hearing that.)

Gojo-sensei hummed thoughtfully. “What an odd coincidence, huh?”

Everyone turned to look at him.

“It’s pretty darn unlikely that the Higher-ups would have used Sukuna’s Finger as a catalyst to kill his Vessel so it’s obviously not their fault in that. For once.”

He tilted his head, seemingly staring straight at the manifested curse. “What a lucky, lucky coincidence for you, isn’t it?”

(Itadori looked a bit nervous with the atmosphere and indirect unhappy attention.)

Sukuna just stared back at the sorcerer dispassionately. “Indeed. A very lucky one.”

(For some reason, Megumi had a feeling that he didn’t actually believe it - which part, though, he had no idea.)

A moment of tense silence passed.

“If you do not mind, I shall return to what we were discussing before this tangent.”

No one protested, so he continued.

“As aforementioned, I would like to regain the Finger. It, hmm, might be more difficult for me to perform such a delicate task without it.”

He smiled. “And I presume that you’d prefer to lessen any chances of complications, if we were to go through with it all.”

Megumi grit his teeth a bit. Sinister bastard. Of course we would.

Gojo-sensei uncrossed his arms and tapped his hand on one hip in thought.

“I guess that’s not completely unreasonable. Yuji-kun’s gonna have to eat all of those eventually.”

He paused. Hummed.

“But how about you don’t dance around it and just say what you really want, hm?”

Megumi, both his classmates, and the other adult started paying even closer attention.

A click of the tongue. “Tch, quite impatient aren’t you.”

Sukuna rolled his eye. “But I suppose I may. What I ‘really want’ is simple; a Binding Vow wherein one time in which my Vessel would find himself in lethal danger, I would be able to temporarily take over without asking or negotiating – in order to, for lack of a better word, save him from death.”

…What.

The curse scoffed. “I would, of course, prefer to be able to do so every time but I am well aware that such a thing would be asking for far too much.”

After a beat, Itadori spoke up. “…Would you still, you know, agree to that ‘only self-defence’ thing?”

You’re actually considering it-!?

“Itadori-“ Megumi tried to interfere, but was cut off.

“Hm, I cannot be certain of the exact scenario in which my part of the deal would apply, so no.”

The pink-haired teen frowned. “Then-“

“But,-“ Sukuna didn’t wait for him to finish. “I am willing to limit myself to a maximum of, let’s say, ten human deaths only which would ensure I do not simply blindly slaughter everything around me – and, if you wish, I may also exclude your classmates from potential harm by my hand fully.”

Megumi blinked.

(Huh.)

“I would not be allowed to injure them at all, not even in ‘self-defense’ - of course not counting accidents on my part.”

He smirked. “We wouldn’t want anyone to martyr themselves into me unwillingly breaking a Vow, would we?”

Just as Itadori was about to say something, Gojo-sensei did so instead – an almost audible raised eyebrow accompanying it.

“Ten human deaths is a bit much, wouldn’t you say? Yuji-kun just said that he doesn’t want people hurt and that’s what you’re proposing?”

He tilted his head. “And how ‘temporarily’ taking over are we talking?”

Sukuna did the closest thing to a raised brow he could, whilst having just one eye, as well.

“That is a beyond generous number on my part and you know it. If not for my interference today, that ‘Special Grade’, however weak to myself it may not have been, would have likely gone on its own rampage and killed at least dozens before it was eliminated.”

He huffed. “Who knows just what sort of insane idea these ‘Higher-ups’ of yours may come up with next? There could be hundreds they’d be willing to sacrifice, just to ‘get rid’ of me for some time.”

Itadori grimaced again, clearly uneasy.

(Megumi, meanwhile, frowned.

It wasn’t exactly… A completely unreasonable assumption.)

“Besides, I said maximum. I just might decide to be merciful and keep that number lower anyway.”

(No one looked convinced of that actually happening in Megumi’s opinion, but it was a true point - of sorts.)

“In terms of time, I was thinking…” The curse hummed, in a manner more befitting the contemplation of a meal at a restaurant, not this. “Fifteen minutes. That ought to be sufficient for me to rectify even the direst of potential situations.”

“Fifteen minutes? I’d have thought you wouldn’t need such a long time for some measly escape~” Gojo-sensei taunted.

(He clearly wanted to jab at Sukuna’s pride, hoping that he’d lower it.)

Sukuna just huffed. “You must think me a fool, oh Strongest. Were I in my prime form from the beginning, any caution wouldn’t have been needed – but I cannot be certain of the situation which I would need to uncoil, and thus am not going to foolishly assume anything.”

A short hum. “But I suppose I may ask.”

Huh?

“Since this is very directly related to your wellbeing, brat number one,” Itadori jumped a little bit, surprised to be addressed all of a sudden. “– I may compromise the time down to ten minutes if you wish. Although do keep in mind that it might mean me not being able to, hm, help you properly.”

“Uh, sure?”

The teen didn’t seem certain of himself there, but was clearly happy to lessen Sukuna’s leverage.

The curse made a vague sound of annoyance, but didn’t protest it. “I suppose I ought to have expected that. Ten minutes it is, then.”

Itadori nodded. He still looked unsure, but definitely less than before. “Yeah. That’s- better, I think.”

Gojo-sensei crossed his arms halfway, and put his cheek in the just partially crossed hand – clearly contemplating the situation.

Megumi thought about it for a few moments, too.

Now that I think about it, wouldn’t this… Maybe apply to the Execution itself? That’s… Definitely lethal danger, right?

He glanced at his teacher.

But… He hasn’t mentioned it at all.

He pursed his lips a bit.

And Gojo-sensei might be a ridiculous human being sometimes, but I can’t call him ‘Stupid’. Not by a long shot.

So… There’s probably some sort of loophole there that I’m not seeing, and he just doesn’t want to point it out to the bastard so that he wouldn’t change it.

He sighed, as subtly as he could – exhausted by the entire ordeal.

I shouldn’t bring it up either, then. Hopefully I’m not wrong about this.

Finally, the white-haired sorcerer ended the silence. “Hmmm, I guess this isn’t a horrible deal.”

He grinned down at the manifested King of Curses.

“And it’s not like I’m planning on any of my wonderful students being unprepared for danger if they do come across it, so you might not even be able to use the Vow at all, no? Willing to risk that?”

(In Megumi’s mind, that confirmed the idea of the Execution being exempt from the Vow somehow, so he relaxed ever-so-slightly.

He definitely didn’t want Itadori to have to die to it, but… There must have been other ways of preventing that than relying on the evil being that is Ryoumen Sukuna.)

The curse stared at him without any passion once again. “That would simply mean less effort on my end, Sorcerer. I sincerely hope that you will prove yourself a competent teacher – it’d be a rather pathetic display of today’s sorcerers’ prowess otherwise.”

Gojo-sensei laughed, and grinned – almost mockingly. “Ha! Hopefully I won’t disappoint, then.”

Without waiting for an answer, he turned to Itadori. “Buuut, most importantly, what do you think about this, Yuji-kun? We’re talking possession of yourself so of course your opinion is most important!”

The teen held his chin in his hand (another oddly similar, yet incredibly different mannerism) and looked up and to the side thoughtfully.

(He seemed noticeably less stressed now, even if not completely back to his full bright self.)

“Well,” he looked back at their teacher. “-it’s probably not that bad? In comparison, I mean.”

He pursed his lips a bit, this time slightly angry. “I’m not happy about the whole ‘human deaths’ thing, at all – and just so you know if you do end up killing anyone just to save me I will be incredibly angry at you, Sukuna. I’m serious.”

Megumi felt himself cringe a bit.

I- Don’t think that that’s nearly as threatening as you think it is, Itadori.

“I shall take that into account.” Replied the curse in question, nonplussed.

(‘Sure you will.’)

Itadori glanced down at his cheek for a moment, returned his gaze further up, and continued – determined. “But… Yeah. Yeah, if this will actually stop all that collateral damage that could happen – it’s… Fine with me.”

He blinked, and leaned back a bit. “Uh, the possession thing. Not the killing part.”

Kugisaki chimed in, raised brow and ‘no-shit’ tone fully engaged. “Yeah obviously, you potato-head. We all know you’re like the opposite of homicidal – not like mr. #1 Murder Lover over there. No need to keep clarifying, we get it.”

Her tone may have been a bit abrasive, but it was very clear that she was trying to make her classmate feel better.

And it worked, especially when the other people around him nodded in agreement.

The pink-haired teen smiled at her gratefully. “Ah, yeah. Thanks, Kugisaki.”

She waved a dismissive hand, but was very clearly relieved to see him brighten up. “Oh shush, you freaking pink retriever. I just reminded you of something obvious. You can thank me later if you want.”

Itadori brightnened up even more. “Sure thing, Kugisaki.”

For a few moments, the tense situation was almost forgotten about.

It was… Nice. Even Megumi could admit it.

Just not verbally.

He did smile a bit, though.

(Sukuna didn’t even comment on it all, much to his surprise.

It would have been the perfect moment to break up with something sinister, after all.)

A few lighter-hearted beats passed, but the problem wasn’t done being resolved yet.

As such, Gojo-sensei spoke up. “Sorry to butt in, my wonderful students, but we do still have one thing to clarify.”

They turned to him.

“How, exactly, is this faked death supposed to happen? You didn’t exactly clarify on how that’d work, oh King of Curses.”

Right. The, arguably, most important part.

Sukuna answered calmly, as freaking always. “Hm, the exact details of how you would like this to look I leave up to you all to discuss. I can maintain my Vessel’s body in a death-like state regardless of what ought to be a truly lethal injury, if needed.”

He hummed. “My only stipulation is that I would prefer not to have to deal with a decapitation, or otherwise utterly severed spinal cord.”

Itadori blanched a bit, but the curse didn’t stop to note his reaction.

“It might be possible for me to reconnect the parts afterwards, but I would suggest keeping the damage to severed limbs or, hm, severely injured organs. Loathe I to admit it, otherwise may be beyond my capabilities as I am.”

Megumi did not like any of those mental images.

“Uh,-“ the pink-haired teen started, slightly nervous. “-wouldn’t any of that like… Really hurt? I mean, if it’s needed-“

He got cut off. “Obviously not, brat. Whatever shall be decided on, I will ‘switch out’ with you first. I am not nearly as easily affected by pain, thus any amount of error in creating the ruse would be eliminated.”

Itadori looked relieved, and so was Megumi.

It might be motivated by him just wanting the plan to go perfectly, but that sure is helpful. I’m not sure if any of us would have had the stomach to deliberately hurt Itadori enough to be a convincing corpse…

“Actually,-“ Kugisaki raised an arm a little, but didn’t wait for a prompt to continue - almost as in a school class, but not. “Before all that, how are we supposed to say that he died?

“The Special Grade is out,-“ She gestured to herself and her classmates. “-and it might be hard to believe that us two managed to defeat something that did Itadori in when there were three of us.”

The teen lowered the arm fully, and drummed her fingers on her leg. “Or, if something like that would even appear right after the Special Grade? At least not without mentioning how there was a Finger here, so that’d probably make them even more suspicious over his murderous majesty getting involved in keeping him alive.”

She glanced at their teacher, ever-so-slightly unsure. “Right?”

Gojo-sensei hummed, and nodded. “Mhm, Nobara-chan. And if we say that I got here just in time to save you two and Ijichi, it’d definitely be hard to believe that I somehow didn’t manage to get Yuji-kun to Shoko for emergency treatment – or haven’t at least tried to.”

He shrugged. “They might not exactly like me, but ehhh, probably not enough to think I’d be that randomly heartless about a kid y’know.”

For the first time in a longer while, Ijichi-san spoke up as well. “There’s also… The issue of Residue. A curse that strong would leave a very noticeable trail.”

He played with the cuff of his suit nervously. “One that would be very obviously not here.”

Everyone got deeply in thought.

Then, after a while of them considering the possibilities, an unexpected source of solutions (as he kept being, weirdly enough) spoke up.

“You may blame it on me, if you wish.”

The King of Curses let out a breath, most likely of annoyance yet not… feeling that way.

“Although it is not true, I hardly believe it’d be difficult for you to convince your ‘Higher-ups’ that I was… Displeased with my Vessel enough to dispose of him and simply attempt to Incarnate later.”

Silence.

“The loss of only this much power wouldn’t be particularly painful to myself anyway. It’s a… Rather believable excuse, wouldn’t you say?”

(Itadori looked oddly thoughtful about that statement all of a sudden, if only for a moment.)

“…Hm, you’re right.” Answered Gojo-sensei. “Absolutely no one would believe that you might be helpful like this without seeing it with their own eyes,-“

He grinned.

“-but you being petty enough to temporarily die just because you’re not perfectly happy with Yuji-kun as a Vessel? Now that’s believable.”

Sukuna rolled his eye, but didn’t contradict the assessment.

The teacher clapped his hands, almost lightheartedly. “If we have the perpetrator down, the method is left.”

He motioned to Itadori. “It has to be something practically instantly lethal, so we’d avoid suspicions about not even trying to ‘help’.”

He tilted his head. “Limbs are off the table, you all know how to apply a tourniquet and temporarily deal with worse cases, so it wouldn’t make sense.”

Kugisaki chimed in. “And anything to do with the head is not gonna work either, I don’t think even his murderous majesty could use jujutsu without a working brain.”

(Sukuna neither confirmed nor denied the assumption.)

Megumi turned to Itadori, who seemed to be thinking about it too.

(Apparently, his unease over the entire thing has been slowly leaving him, because he didn’t look nearly as distressed as he probably should be about it.)

He spoke up. “I don’t know too much about anatomy and stuff, but I think there’s… Not many options, then? The brain’s most important, then there’s the heart,-“

There was the smallest twitch to Sukuna’s eye there.

(Megumi could have been mistaken about it though, since he barely even saw it despite being so close.)

“-and what, the liver? I dunno if I want to have my stomach open, even if I’m not gonna be, uh, awake for it. All the food going through there…”

The pink-haired teen did a slightly exaggerated shudder of disgust in tandem with Kugisaki.

The aforementioned young sorcerer perked up, and pointed at Itadori with enthusiasm. “Got it! Collapsed lung! It’s a classic and pretty darn lethal!”

Just as the two were about to agree on their brilliance, their teacher butted in.

“Ah, sorry kiddos but Shoko treated some unlucky soul for that a few weeks back. They got a bit of permanent damage but survived despite having both lungs done in.”

He tilted his head.

“Somehow. Shoko talked at me about some kind of jujutsu theory that explained it, but I’m not all that interested in the biology aspects, y’know.”

He wiggled his fingers a bit. “I’m more of a physics guy myself~”

(Megumi couldn’t help but sigh at that.

Ieiri-san has truly always been an incredibly patient person, pun unintended, to be able to deal with the man as a friend.)

Itadori nodded, face a bit unhappy again. “Guess it’s gotta be hurting my… Heart, then? I know it’s only a metaphor about the feelings and stuff but I dunno if I’d want to lose it either…”

“Not losing it may be the easier way of going about this, frankly speaking.” Suddenly interjected Sukuna.

The young sorcerer looked down at his cheek. “What do you mean?”

“I do require some form of, hm, signal in order to know just when to perform the ‘revival’, and I will be just as blind to most happenings as you will be in such a state.”

It felt as if he would have crossed his arms there, if he had any physically available.

“If I were to take the whole heart out and the rest of your companions utilised the… Cooler in order to sneak it into the place in which your ‘corpse’ will be stored, it could be put back in – that I would be able to sense, and proceed accordingly.”

…How long, exactly, has he had this planned?

(Since the moment he heard about the cooler-?)

Obviously unaware of - and unlikely to care for even if otherwise - the teen’s disturbed thoughts, Sukuna continued.

“My initial plan involved waiting until some form of invasive examination was performed, as a deep enough cut ought to have been noticeable – but this might be a better idea. I cannot be absolutely certain if by that point no one unwanted would be monitoring such a procedure.”

Gojo-sensei, who started pacing a bit, stopped once again. “But with the heart, it’d obviously only be done by someone ‘in the know’.”

He smiled, almost honestly amused. “I know I said it before, but you sure are quite the strategist, huh.”

Sukuna smiled. “Hm, I certainly do try.”

(‘What a weird freaking response.’ thought Megumi to himself.

Regardless of that part, though, it was true. That sort of plan, especially without knowing much about modern cadaver treatments…

It was truly concerning to witness.)

Gojo-sensei stood up completely straight, and clapped his hands again.

“Alright, so the Vow is;-“ he pointed at the manifested curse. “-Sukuna will ‘switch out’ with Yuji-kun, ‘kill’ him by taking out his heart – but give it over to us – and, once the heart is back in, hm, Yuji-kun’s chest, will restore him to full health. And he won’t injure anyone besides Yuji-kun during this entire process.”

He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Unless specifically given permission to, I guess. We may come up with something to sell it all better later, it’d be better not to cut that possibility off completely y’know.”

The sorcerer grinned a bit. “Hope you don’t mind the addition.”

Sukuna certainly didn’t sound like it when he replied. “I do not, although I do want to add something as well.”

The other tilted his head slightly. “Go on.”

“If a week has passed and the heart has yet to be returned, I will become able to simply ‘revive’ us with no signal. Otherwise, if anything were to happen to it I would be Bound to keep my Vessel in that state and I sincerely doubt you would want that.”

(Itadori let out a little “Brr.” response to the possibility.

Understandable.)

Gojo-sensei nodded. “Hm, that is a good addition. It shouldn’t take so long, but it’s a good timeframe.”

“Now,-“ He continued. “-in exchange, Sukuna will gain the ability to switch out with Yuji-kun one time without any sort of obstruction, for ten minutes, and with a maximum of ten human deaths by his hand allowed in that timeframe – in a scenario that would have most likely been deadly to Yuji-kun otherwise.”

He hummed. “Additionally, during that time he cannot hurt any of Yuji-kun’s classmates at all unless completely accidentally on his part.”

Itadori decided to interrupt him there. “Wait, actually what does classmates mean here? Fushiguro and Kugisaki? Or… Whoever’s in the other years too?”

Good question, but he probably only meant us two. I doubt he’d risk that kind of thing with people he doesn’t know-

“Although it technically ought to only mean the two, I suppose I may grant this mercy towards the other brats as well.”

-I’m starting to think that trying to predict this damned curse is a dumb idea. deadpanned Megumi, if internally.

The ‘raised brow’ was audible in Sukuna’s voice when he continued. “But I will say that you should keep in mind that they, whoever they may be, might be part of the danger. Ergo, it may not be wise to demand such a thing of me.”

Itadori frowned a bit. “I guess, but I kinda doubt that. Fushiguro may have not mentioned them a lot, but the second-years don’t sound like people that’d do that to me. And I dunno about any other classes but they probably aren’t much worse either?”

(Megumi thought back to some vague memories of a third-year student that got suspended with some amount of doubt.

He couldn’t pass any true judgement on his likeliness of trying to murder Itadori, though, so he merely pursed his lips a bit and stayed silent.)

He nodded to himself. “Yeah, I would like you to include them.”

Sukuna didn’t protest nearly as much as expected – actually, he didn’t protest at all. “I see. Hopefully you won’t make us regret it, but I shall do as you ask.”

The young sorcerer smiled a bit. “Thanks, heh.”

The King of Curses pursed his lips, perhaps annoyed by the thanks, but didn’t say anything at that.

Gojo-sensei coughed theatrically. “Then that’s it. Both of you agree to the Vow?”

Itadori nodded resolutely. “Yeah, I agree.”

Sukuna, meanwhile, simply replied in a rather monotonous voice. “I agree.”

The eye closed, and the mouth disappeared.

Itadori grinned, and gave everyone a thumbs up. “See ya later, and don’t worry about me, ok?”

He lessened the grin into a smile, but it was not much less bright. “With a whole Vow it’s not like Sukuna can do anything different anyway, heh.”

Kugisaki smirked, lighthearted – or as lighthearted as the situation allowed. “See ya later, potato-head. Have a fun nap, again.”

Megumi nodded at him, as warmly as he could bring himself to look. “See you, Itadori. Hopefully this will be the last of this kind of insane plans.”

Gojo-sensei couldn’t help but be a bit dramatic as he leaned down and pat the teen’s shoulder a few times in quick succession. “We’ll make sure that you return to us in one piece, my dear student!”

Even Ijichi-san nodded at him with a slight smile.

Then, Itadori closed his eyes, breathed in a deep breath, breathed it out,

and switched places with the King of Curses once again.

The black tattoo-like marks appeared, and two Red eyes opened alongside the equally as red secondary ones.

(The campfire grew in brightness.)

Sukuna smirked, and waved – a gesture that would have been friendly if not done by him. “Hello there, again.”

Silence met his greeting at first.

Then, before he could most likely complain about them all ‘ignoring’ it, conceited being that he is, Gojo-sensei waved back with a sharp smile.

“Hello indeed, oh King of Curses! Dreadful to see you as always~”

The curse raised a brow, unamused. “How rude. I am helping you right now, very generously might I add.”

Gojo-sensei hummed, holding his chin as if in thought. “Hm, true, I do acknowledge that, but counterpoint-“ He pointed double finger-guns at the other. “-you’re pure evil!”

(Ijichi-san made a strangled noise off to the side at the theatrics, all whilst Kugisaki also made her disappointment at them very apparent on her face with an expression of almost disgust.

Megumi, meanwhile, barely stopped himself from facepalming.)

The teacher put a finger up to his cheek and tilted his head. “Aaaand you’re about to horribly maim my student, even if helpfully. Can’t blame me for my opinion, can ya?”

Sukuna stared at him dispassionately for a moment more.

Then, he tilted his head as well. “Fair, I suppose. I indeed cannot blame you for your opinion, even if I stand by my assessment of your rudeness.”

(Megumi had a weird feeling that his teacher expected a bit of a worse reaction, considering the almost disappointed – even if not very obvious –air he gained right afterwards.)

Letting out a short hum, Gojo-sensei proceeded to return to his ‘accidentally there’ seat on the curse’s other side.

As he sat down, he turned to his coworker – who was once again ever-so-slightly visibly nervous, despite no longer being in direct danger from the King of Curses. “Say Ijichi, could you maybe bring the cooler over here?”

The assistant director blinked, surprised. “I- I suppose I could, but wouldn’t it be faster if you were to do it, Gojo-san?”

Gojo-sensei moved his head in a ‘so-so’ gesture, and did so with his hand as well. “Normally I’d say so, yeah, but I haven’t really worked with the thing often so it’d probably be better if you took it out y’know.”

He shrugged. “I might pull on some cable or screw or thingamajig and then the entire plan would go straight out the window,-“

He smiled, pleasantly yet with an underlying pressure of compliance. “-so I’ll rely on you this time, m’kay?”

Ijichi-san seemed a bit uneasy, but nodded. “O- Of course, Gojo-san.”

He stood up stiffly, and proceeded to walk off in the direction of the destroyed part of the fence – and ergo, the car.

Megumi couldn’t help but comment on the interaction. “You can be a real jerk sometimes, you know. You could have just taken him over there and back with you instead of making him walk.”

His teacher just let out a short laugh at that. “Ah Megumi, you’re so sweet to worry about poor Ijichi!”

Sweet? thought Megumi, annoyed.

(Kugisaki didn’t seem particularly convinced of the classification either, considering her deadpan face he noted out of the corner of his eye.)

Their teacher held both his palms together and then off to the side. “But there’s no need – he’s much tougher than he might look~”

…True.

The black-haired teen shared a glance with his classmate, remembering the fact that he was planning on withstanding horrible torture from the King of Curses himself just so they could have a chance of escaping.

Very true.

(If he didn’t know any better, he could have sworn that the aforementioned King of Curses did something almost akin to a nod himself, there.)

Gojo-sensei stared confusedly at the weird bout of non-verbal communication for a moment, but didn’t ask anyone to elaborate for now.

Then, he turned to the curse sitting nearby, and spoke.

“You know,-“ He began, tone seemingly lighthearted – yet not exactly.

“I didn’t want to bring it up with the kid still present, sensitive subject in an already stressful situation and all, buut,-“

The sorcerer tilted his head, as if thinking of something - despite obviously having come to some sort of conclusion a while ago.

“…You want to interrupt Yuji-kun’s eventual Execution with that Vow of yours, is that it?”

Megumi stared at his teacher, as did his classmate - eyes widened on both their faces.

Wait- He did think about it and- It DOES apply?

There wasn’t some sort of loophole!?

Unaware - or perhaps uncaring - of everyone’s alarmed thoughts, Sukuna merely smiled.

(It was the smile of a cat who caught the canary – of one that was about to brutally devour it.)

“Why yes, although I don’t truly believe that the Vow will be useful in that manner. It is merely… An insurance.”

What?

The curse’s smile widened further, sharp teeth gleaming between parted lips.

“I’m quite certain that you aren’t planning on letting the Execution happen anyway, oh Strongest. One would hardly think that you’d have given the so-called ‘go-ahead’ for my Vessel’s agreement on the Vow otherwise.”

(Sukuna sounded way too sure of something so… Potentially traitorous on Gojo-sensei’s end, in Megumi’s anxious opinion.

And yet, he couldn’t deny that the explanation made a frightening amount of sense.)

The King of Curses tilted his head, stare fixed firmly on the holder of the two most powerful jujutsu traits combined.

“Or is it perhaps that whilst you lack the cruelty to be a happy participant in the death of your student, you lacked the intelligence to understand my intentions in the moment?”

Megumi just stared at the two powerful beings alongside his fellow observer, wondering what this would all lead to.

Gojo-sensei didn’t speak for a beat.

Two beats.

At the third, much to (almost) everyone’s relief, he finally broke the silence with a grin of his own.

“Quite the surprising amount of insight into yours truly! Someone could think you’re a bit obsessed, you know, hearing all that about themselves!”

(Sukuna let out something akin to a snort at that, making Megumi wonder just what part of that was so funny to the sinister bastard.)

The white-haired sorcerer grinned even wider for a moment, apparently happy to make light of the situation anyway. “Good thing I’m me and not ‘someone’ though, this way I can certainly understand the intrigue~”

He shrugged, shaking his head a bit in a ‘oh what can you do’ manner.

“But well, I suppose the cat is out of the bag then huh?”

(If Ijichi-san were there, he most probably would have choked on air once again, hearing that.

Neither teen still present was much better off, to be fair.)

As Megumi and Kugisaki kept staring at their teacher in shock, the sorcerer in question shrugged, leaning back a bit on his seat – his face looking up at the sky in a thoughtful manner.

“I mean, I’m not completely opposed to the idea if it comes down to it,-” he straightened his neck back down, his covered gaze now turned to Sukuna. “-but I only really want you dead, oh King of Curses. Not Yuji-kun.”

(Megumi felt… Weird, listening in to such a conversation when Itadori wasn’t even there to hear it.

Or was he? The black-haired teen couldn’t even be perfectly sure how exactly this ‘switching out’ thing worked, maybe the ‘falling asleep’ part would only start to work later this time?

His teacher seemed to believe otherwise, but who knows.)

Gojo-sensei waved a hand, oddly nonchalant despite the circumstances.

“Delaying that whole thing until a way to get rid of just your evil-stain-on-the-world self is found, especially once we manage to get all the Fingers for Yuji-kun to eat and do it once and forever, well-“

He put his hands palm to palm and off to the side in an almost happy gesture, tilting his head slightly as well. “-I’d say that’s a splendid idea that I’ve come up with!”

Megumi simply kept staring at Gojo-sensei alongside Kugisaki for a second more.

Then, he slowly turned his gaze properly towards the King of Curses, slightly anxious over his reaction to the whole thing-

-He’s smiling!?

Much to Megumi’s shock, not only was Sukuna smiling (again!), it was the sort of smile one would only really give someone if they were truly happy about something.

His eyes were almost fucking gleaming.

(Slightly further away, if he wasn’t just imagining it, he saw a glimpse of Gojo-sensei’s seemingly also shocked reaction – albeit a much more subtle one.

For a moment he glanced moreso to his right, and caught Kugisaki looking quite understandably disturbed as well - a droplet of cold sweat falling down the side of her face.)

Then, apparently tired of simply smiling, the curse started to talk.

(The almost purr-like quality was once again present in his voice, much to everyone’s disgruntlement.)

“A splendid idea indeed, I must say. I am truly glad to see that I was not mistaken about you at all, sorcerer.”

(That particular statement made Megumi ever-so-slightly shudder in both disgust and anxiety.

Sukuna knowing Gojo-sensei ‘well’ in any capacity was NOT a good thing – at all.)

The sharp smile widened into a grin.

“So caring, yet so smart and pragmatic about it. A truly fascinating being you are, World’s Strongest.”

Sukuna let out a close-eyed chuckle, tilting his head backwards for a moment.

Then, face once again turned back down and in the direction of the aforementioned ‘World’s Strongest’, he finished his thought with some clear amount of amusement.

“Almost admirable to some, I can bet.”

Gojo-sensei seemed to blink under his blindfold at the whole declaration, calm yet clearly slightly surprised.

(More than slightly, perhaps – he looked almost disturbed in Megumi’s eyes.

He could have been mistaken, of course.

He hoped he was.)

Finally, the adult sorcerer spoke up – his tone seemingly just as bright as before, yet marred with an undercurrent of something.

“Hmm, I am starting to wonder if you really aren’t obsessed, mr. Evil King. Such compliments all of a sudden?”

He tilted his head and held a hand over his heart in a dramatic fashion. “I hope you don’t expect any back! I don’t exactly have any more nice thoughts about you right now - what with you possessing one of my wonderful students~”

Much to nobody’s surprise at that point, Sukuna didn’t seem to be even remotely taken aback by the rebuttal.

He even freaking shrugged.

“You’ve said so yourself, one cannot blame me for being intrigued. As for the lack of reciprocal ‘compliments’, I neither need nor require any.”

He smirked a bit, clearly amused.

“Not that you would have cared for my needs or requirements, I presume?”

Gojo-sensei smirked right back, and replied. “You got that right!”

He clearly wasn’t finished yet, though, vaguely gesturing to the curse with a hand.

“Aside from that though, you don’t seem all that bothered by my plan. Think we can’t do it?”

Sukuna lost a bit of the smile, looking almost thoughtful – in a manner most probably meant to be mocking.

“Hm, on the contrary – I do believe such a thing may be possible for you to achieve.”

…Huh? He just- What?

(Kugisaki seemed to not want to keep her surprise as internal as his, since Megumi could hear her confused ‘HUH!?’ from his right.)

The curse bent his head to one side, amusement not yet fully gone.

“But, frankly speaking, it would most likely hardly be a quick endeavour. Which means that until then, our goals of keeping the pink brat alive and in one piece align.”

He shrugged, the gesture just as uncanny as always.

“I shan’t simply allow you to end me once the time for your potential plan’s start comes of course, but until that point we can be considered…-”

The smile, and the weird gleam in his eyes, once again returned for a moment. “-Tentative allies in that particular sense.”

Well.

That… statement left every single human sitting by the curse quite uneasy.

(Allies? That must have been one of the absolute last things to want to hear from the goddamned King of Curses.

Megumi couldn’t have even imagined what his teacher must have felt, indeed hearing that.)

Before any of them could truly reply to it though, the Assistant Director had walked back through the foliage growing around the clearing – disturbing the charged air a little.

In his hand was the medical cooler, and on his face was a similarly uneasy expression - despite not having been there to hear the source of everyone else’s.

(Megumi stared at the innocent-looking, usually helpful plastic box with dread.

Here it was, the start of fulfilling a horrible deal Itadori decided to take.

For their sake.

Again.)

Ijichi-san cleared his throat, holding the box up. “Here’s the… Cooler. But I should clarify that it’s- Not exactly made with organs in m-mind-“

“That does not matter.” Interrupted Sukuna, matter-of-factly. “I would prefer to reduce rot and completely dead flesh, but even if the heart were to completely disintegrate I could simply make us a new one. It’ll be sufficient for this.”

He waved a hand at the nervous sorcerer. “You may prepare the ‘cooler’, however it may be needed, whilst I temporarily procure the subject of the deal.”

Ijichi-san was very clearly reluctant to do so, but nodded and proceeded to do that after walking a few steps back again.

Paying him no more mind, the curse leaned back a bit. Then, he looked at both the anxious teens – seemingly ignoring their teacher for now.

“You need not observe the deed itself, little sorcerers. I’d imagine such a sight not being particularly pleasant, knowledge of it being temporary or not.”

Megumi frowned, trying to read into Sukuna’s expression.

(He didn’t seem dishonest at the moment, but the teen couldn’t really know what he freaking meant.

It’s not like he had any real reason to want to spare them the sight, so what the hell was that? Reverse psychology? Did he want to see them be disgusted and horrified? What did-)

After about half a second of processing the statement, Kugisaki spoke up - breaking Megumi out of his consternation.

“Nah, sorry but we’re not just gonna let you do whatever you want supervised only by Ijichi-san and the blindfolded guy. Super-ultra eyes or not.”

(Gojo-sensei may or may have not made a slightly offended sound at that, but didn’t interfere more.)

She glanced at her classmate. “Right?”

Freaking hell, she’s probably not all that eager to watch either. But…

“Right.” replied Megumi. “We may be ‘little’ sorcerers but we have both seen our share of ‘unpleasant sights.”

He frowned, and stared directly into the King of Curses’ eyes - determined not to show how tense the imagining of what’s about to happen was making him.

“If you really think that this might be enough for us to simply leave Itadori like this, awake or not, maybe you should rethink what you actually know.”

For a few tense seconds, the black-haired teen continued to stare into those horrible red pits of Hellfire as their owner simply sat there silently.

Shit, was that too much? He always seems so smug about knowing things, maybe I actually pushed a button there… thought Megumi, wondering if he hasn’t accidentally made the curse likelier to make things more difficult on purpose or something.

Just as a droplet of cold sweat slid down halfway of the teen’s neck, Sukuna spoke up, tilting his head. “I suppose you may be right…”

The tone was uncharacteristically mellow, almost as if it was forced to be that way.

I definitely hit a button there.

(Before, Megumi may have been glad to finally find at least one weakness of the bastard.

And yet, in that moment he simply hoped that this – which was clearly suppressed anger for what else could it be – wouldn’t end up being in some way detrimental to Itadori.)

Sukuna straightened his neck back up, and, with a barely less mellowed tone, continued. “I shall endeavour to remember I ought not underestimate you two in such a manner looking forward.”

That’s… Good I guess?

Differently from Megumi, Kugisaki was happy to react to the statement with some enthusiasm. “Yeah, you shouldn’t.”

She grinned, only the slightest bit of nervousness present in the expression. “Or else you may regret it, you know.”

Megumi wasn’t exactly a fan of her taunting the King of Curses, ‘harmless’ at the moment or not, but he wasn’t about to show it right then either.

(Not exactly when she probably needed some good humour.)

The curse in question didn’t seem to care about her almost brash attitude, once again looking quite amused by it instead.

“Indeed. I will try my best not to do such a regrettable thing, little sorcerer.”

Then, he let out a breath (why? it’s not like he had any reason to be nervous about anything) and finally turned to the two’s teacher.

“Do you require any clarification upon what is needed of you to do later, before I proceed?”

Gojo-sensei shook his head a bit, smiling - yet with an undercurrent of something somber.

“Nah, I’m gonna make sure Yuji-kun’s precious heart is in tip-top shape when we put it back in.”

Then, he suddenly lost the smile and became almost uncharacteristically serious for a moment.

“But I’ll be keeping an eye on you too, y’know. Don’t you dare fumble this for my student somehow, or I will find a way to make you pay for it before you die – almighty King of Curses or not.”

Holy shit. thought Megumi, staring at his teacher in shock.

(‘Sure, he’s definitely capable of being serious sometimes but that was… Just outright hostile!’

Both teens weren’t sure what to think of that.)

Before either of the young sorcerers could react though, the King of Curses simply replied to the threat in an annoyingly calm voice.

Obviously, he also smiled – in what may have been a reassuring way, if it didn’t come from whom it did.

“I wouldn’t expect anything less from you, oh Strongest.”

He then hummed, tapping one knee with his claws a bit.

(If Megumi didn’t know better, he may have thought that Sukuna seemed oddly… Anxious.

He did know better, though, so it must have been simply one of the curse’s weird mannerisms.)

“You may of course ‘keep an eye’ on me, but I assure you that I would not be enough of a fool to attempt fumbling something described in a Binding Vow.”

Gojo-sensei crossed his arms. “Hm, yeah, I don’t think you would be either.”

He grinned sharply.

“Just wanted to make sure that we’re on the same page.”

Sukuna stared at him for a moment more.

Then, he closed his eyes, let out a breath (again, why?) and stood up.

He then opened his eyes and nodded at the white-haired sorcerer, expression mellow but otherwise unreadable.

“I assure you, we are.”

He then gestured to a bit further into the trees.

“It will sadly mean all of us getting pelted with water for a few minutes, but I would suggest relocating to a less shielded spot of the greenery.”

He turned to look at Gojo-sensei properly, and crossed his arms halfway – continuing to gesture with the freeier one.

“Otherwise, whoever comes over here to retrieve my Vessel’s ‘corpse’ will find some rather… Suspicious bloodstains as well.”

Gojo-sensei nodded, smiling up at the curse in a seemingly friendly way.

(Apparently, he got over the… Disturbing conversation from earlier completely.

At least it looked like he did.)

“I was thinking something similar! Guess you really are at least somewhat of a genius~”

Sukuna didn’t react to the bait at all.

(As freaking expected.)

“But, before we proceed,-“ He turned to Kugisaki, who looked a little taken aback by the sudden attention. “-I would like to regain my Finger, if you wouldn’t mind.”

The young sorcerer moved to look for it somewhere in her pouches after a moment, and made a slightly disgusted face at finally getting it out.

Then, she stood up and walked up right to the curse - as casually as anyone could in the situation.

Sukuna held one hand out, palm up, and she put the Cursed Object onto it.

(For obvious reasons, the curse made sure that his claws had no contact with her hand.)

“There it is, one creepy mummified Finger.”

(Some amusement returned to Sukuna’s eyes.)

The brown-haired sorcerer put a hand on her hip, and stared at the curse without backing down. “Have fun, I guess.”

Sukuna smiled, now clearly amused, and retracted his extended arm. “I shall try, little sorcerer.”

He then turned to leave and waved for everyone else to follow. “We may proceed, if you will. It need not be far.”

Megumi and his teacher both stood up, despite the grating assumption that they’d obey the command – since that was the plan.

(Ijichi-san quickly finished setting the cooler up, and straightened up with it as well.)

As the curse walked, Megumi noted the moment he pulled his head back, raised the arm holding the dried-up Finger up to it, and most likely proceeded to swallow it whole.

(Even though the teen didn’t see it in detail, he definitely found the mental image quite disgusting – as did Kugisaki, judging by her shudder.

The fact that Itadori has already done the same exact thing twice did not help the feeling at all – perhaps made it worse, even.)

After finding a sufficiently un-shielded spot, Sukuna stopped, and turned to them.

“This ought to be rainy enough to get rid of the less obvious, yet most suspicious, splatters.”

He looked at Gojo-sensei.

“I shall give the heart to you so that you may to store it. With your Infinity’s shield you won’t become bloodied yourself, after all.”

The sorcerer didn’t say anything, simply making a mock-salute at him.

The King of Curses didn’t seem impressed, but clearly noted that he understood.

Then, he proceeded to tear Itadori’s upper uniform’s front apart just enough to make most of his chest, and stomach, visible.

(Megumi, and most likely everyone else, noted the black markings they’ve yet to see previously – even if some weren’t possible to see fully.

In the context of the situation, it looked almost unnervingly like they were framing what was about to be a horrifying wound.)

The curse raised an arm up to right around the middle of his (Itadori’s) chest, and, with what felt like agonisingly slow movements, cut out a deep elongated circle in it with his claws.

As he pulled it off (as if it was merely some lid on a plastic container), blood – alongside an overall dampness associated with the internal workings of the body – seeped out of the gaping wound, and dribbled off the ‘disk’ of flesh, skin, and bone onto the ground.

(The rain was not strong enough to completely clean the crimson liquid off of it - not so quickly with this amount, at least.)

It was… Clearly an imperfect, yet sufficient, way of getting rid of the centermost part of the sternum.

(The lighting may not have been perfect, yet still revealed a truly horrible sight of what should not usually be visible – a glimpse of glistening, rhythmically moving lungs was especially noticeable in-between the cut-up walls of the Vessel’s chest.

And behind them…

The soon-to-stop beating heart.)

Before Megumi could look any closer at the removed structure, Sukuna clenched his hand, crushing the ‘disk’ with a horrifying sound of cracking bone – alongside the squeak of utterly compressed meat.

Crrunch.

Squeee.

(Neither Megumi nor Kugisaki could help their involountary shudders at the sight and sounds.

They have, indeed, seen their fair share of unpleasant sights – as is typical of anyone actively involved in the Jujutsu world.

And yet seeing something like this happening to their friend, so slowly, as they couldn’t do anything, was horrifying nonetheless.

The adults at least seemed slightly less affected – even if they definitely weren’t used to… the exact situation.)

When Sukuna opened his hand, the remains of the ‘disk’ looked less like the crushed-up mushy thing everyone expected, and moreso like fine dust – even if still obviously damp, and becoming even wetter by the second due to the rain.

(He clearly did something else besides just crushing it.)

He threw the remains somewhere off to the side, like the world’s most disturbing glitter.

(An amusing thought, certainly -

if not for the context.)

Then, the curse used both hands to slightly widen the created opening – the internal structure compromised enough without the center piece to become disturbingly malleable, especially with his strength.

And, just as he used a few fingers to carefully move the left lung off to the side in order to access the heart properly,

he started to hum.

(The sound felt almost soothing, like something one would hum to oneself or someone else to make them less anxious.

Hearing it come from the utterly evil being in the middle of essentially killing Itadori – according to plan or not –, though, felt like an utter mockery.

Megumi grit his teeth, barely stopping himself from telling the curse exactly what he thought of whatever the hell he thought he was doing.

Not now.)

The sound, the melody, continued, and the King of Curses put his other palm over the heart, holding it in an oddly gentle manner.

All the while working with the humming in order to move between the lungs’ contractions, he made a few sharper movements of the hand in a vaguely rotating manner.

(If Megumi were to guess, he was probably cutting the organ out of the veins, arteries, and other things connected to it.)

Then, finally, the hand constricted in a slightly tighter manner,

and the curse smoothly pulled it out from in-between the cut-up ribs.

Blood flowed out of the still lethargically pulsing heart, splattering crimson across the grass and dirt  – the sharp claws and hand caging it, as well as part of the curse’s front, becoming horribly red with it as well.

(Surprisingly, though, the… cavity didn’t seem to bleed all that much throughout the process – not nearly enough for it not to be something unnatural.)

Sukuna let go of the slightly repositioned lung, letting it return to an almost normal-looking view if not for the obvious absences of skin, muscle, and bone - and put the other hand over the extracted organ.

He stopped humming.

(He looked almost… somber, staring down at it for a moment.

Obviously, though, Megumi must have been mistaken in that interpretation.

He must have been simply sad that he couldn’t eat it, or something equally as disturbing.)

There was some sort of movement that almost seemed to happen when the upper hand landed on the relatively small mass of red flesh marred by blue veins and yellow nerves, but it did not.

Instead, the curse turned to the white-haired sorcerer whom was observing the entire ordeal.

Knowing what they planned on earlier, Gojo-sensei held out his hands, and Sukuna oddly carefully laid the heart on them.

(The bloodied mess showed the slight invisible gap around the sorcerer’s hands very clearly – even more clearly than the rain falling on everyone did.)

As the Infinity-shielded hands carefully curled around the heart, the curse retreated his own arms and spoke. “Here it is. You may now proceed with your part of the plan, sorcerer.”

“Mhmm, right~” trailed off Gojo-sensei as he turned away and walked up to the cooler.

As Ijichi-san helped him store it inside properly, Sukuna stared at the happenings with an unreadable, passive expression.

He’s probably interested in how it works. Not for any good reason, I’m sure. thought to himself Megumi, unamused.

Then, the King of Curses decided to speak once again.

“I presume that your ‘Higher-ups’ will wonder just what happened to my Vessel’s heart since they won’t be able to find it.”

Although his expression did not change, he put a bloodied hand on his hip.

“Since we’re putting all of the blame for the ‘death’ on me, you may as well say that that was my doing as well – it ought to stop them from wondering about it further.”

Gojo-sensei, still crouched, turned to look at the curse, and grinned sharply.

“Oooh, as a little snack for the road, is it? Smart and disturbing, as expected from you~”

(Megumi glanced at Kugisaki, and noted that she did indeed find the vision disturbing as he expected her to – as did he, to be fair, which is precisely why he expected it.)

The white-haired sorcerer stood up, turning to look properly at the other.

(His hands were squeaky-clean despite being utterly caked in blood just a moment earlier.

Perks of Infinity, indeed.)

“Thanks for the suggestion, oh King of Curses!”

Sukuna looked neither impressed nor annoyed as he stared at the sorcerer for a moment more.

Then, he nodded.

“I bit the tongue slightly, earlier – in case they decided to look for signs of such a thing on the inside of the brat’s mouth, and what has already gotten there as a result of the ‘lethal’ injury was not sufficient. Of course, I healed it immediately after as well.”

I bet that the bastard enjoyed the taste. thought to himself Megumi, noting Kugisaki’s disgusted face and Ijichi-san looking slightly faint.

(Most likely, he remembered the moment he was asked whether his blood may be eaten.

It might have ended up not happening, but one couldn’t blame him for feeling uneasy about the prospect anyway.)

“Now, I suppose it is time for me to ‘pass out’ and begin that part of the plan properly-“

He got interrupted by a very unexpected source.

“-W-wait,-“

It was Ijichi-san.

“-before you ‘pass out’, c-cut one of my hands off. Or- at least a few f-fingers.”

Megumi stared at the once again incredibly nervous sorcerer, eyes wide as saucers.

What!?

Sukuna turned to the assistant director, just as did everyone else, eyes questioning.

Ijichi-san swallowed thickly.

(He clearly didn’t expect having to actually explain himself before the curse did in fact injure him as asked.)

Noticeably unhappy with what he was about to say, but steady in his conviction to say it anyway, he continued.

“We- Will need a p-plausible reason to take the cooler out of the car - and for no one to stop us for an inspection of it. An emergency like that, although not l-lethal, will take me straight to Ieiri-s-san.”

He drummed his fingers on the side of his leg, highly uneasy.

“That way, I’ll- be able to in-inform her of the plan as quickly as possible as well, and she’ll most likely immediately store Itadori-kun’s heart p-properly.”

A pause from everyone.

A blink.

And the King of Curses spoke up.

“…You are truly much more than you may appear as at first, sorcerer. Your involvement in this matter shall not be forgotten.”

Sukuna’s tone was… odd. There was clearly a degree of surprise in it, yet at the same time a perhaps genuine sliver of appreciation?

(‘He must be glad he didn’t kill Ijichi-san now, huh.’ thought to himself Megumi, unsure of the whole situation.

‘He's keeping up with the King of Curses’ ‘hope’ that he’ll keep being ‘determined on their behalf’ – no wonder the evil bastard likes it.’

And yet, regardless of everything, Megumi found himself admiring the assistant director’s bravery even more now.)

He walked up to the assistant director calmly, yet still clearly making the other more uneasy with every step.

He stopped, voice mellow but almost friendly.

“Your hand, if you may.”

Ijichi-san held out his left hand, which was ever-so-slightly trembling.

Sukuna let out a short hum. “I suppose letting it all fall onto the grass would be more realistic. If any complications happen to occur with the healing due to the dirt, I will be willing to remedy them.”

Ijichi-san’s eyes widened, but before he could say anything, the curse swung his hand in a small, lazy arc

– immediately, part of the sorcerer’s palm fell into the ground below alongside a few fingers.

He hissed, holding onto the heavily injured appendage with an apparently previously prepared bandage, but said no true words of protest.

Then, he crouched down to retrieve what got severed from him.

Sukuna stared at the other for a moment more, and proceeded to walk a few steps back to where he stood before.

“Now, I shall await your ‘signal’.”

For the first time in a longer while, he smiled.

“If my Vessel happens to join me in my Domain in the meantime, I assure you-“

The smile widened further, a sign of very clear amusement in his eyes.

“-I shall be just as welcoming of a host as he has been to me.”

What!?

“Wait, what do you-“

Before Megumi could let out the full question, Sukuna (or maybe Itadori, the tattoo-like markings disappeared almost instantly this time) collapsed onto the ground with a rather loud crash

- and splash.

(The campfire off to the side immediately died down as well.)

All of a sudden, the gigantic, open wound in Itadori’s torso bled just as profusely as it should have been all this time

- after all, every single most vital vein and artery got completely severed off to take the heart out.

(Of course all of it would be bleeding out like an open faucet, if not held inside by something.)

Ijichi-san finished putting his own severed pieces into the cooler whilst everyone else digested the last spoken statement of the King of Curses.

Then, Megumi spoke up – voice quiet but clear in its delivery. “…Itadori isn’t safe from harm during all of this.”

The teen turned to Gojo-sensei, and noted how uneasy Kugisaki looked as well.

She probably came to the same conclusion as I did.

“And he might have to share some form of space with the bastard that enjoys torture.”

The Strongest Sorcerer - who could not be called unintelligent by any means - immediately understood his meaning, of course.

(Most likely, he also understood his possibly enormous mistake in terms of setting up the Vow.)

Although he smiled, it was pretty obvious that he took the situation seriously.

“I guess we have to try our best to hurry, then, huh?”

(Indeed.

Indeed they should.

They would hash out the details of everyone’s roles in the plan on their way back, rather than waiting any second longer here.)

A bit of time has passed since Itadori ‘died’.

(No, he really did die.

He really did die .

The fact that it was going to be temporary did not erase the fact that his corpse was slowly growing colder, back there by the Detention Center.

All whilst they were trying to come up with a more concrete plan of action for the ruse, riding inside of a car.)

Megumi looked at the… Cooler containing Itadori’s heart he was holding onto, and tried not to think of how disturbingly casual Sukuna was whilst taking it out.

(He tried not to think about the blood, about the glistening lungs, about the sharp claws,

– about the humming.)

As his attempts to keep whatever he has eaten earlier that day down continued, he suddenly heard Kugisaki address their teacher who was currently driving the car – unusually carefully for him, even if still decidedly not smoothly.

“…Hey, sensei?” she asked, just as muted as Megumi was feeling himself.

“Yes, Nobara-chan?” answered the sensei in question, seemingly almost jovial despite the circumstances.

(Megumi could tell that he was trying to act as aloof as always, but the teen would bet that the situation didn’t leave him completely undisturbed either.

He was the one handed the heart directly into his freaking hands, after all.)

Kugisaki didn’t hesitate for long before she finished her thought. “…When did you teach the- Itadori about Binding Vows?”

Megumi turned to her, suddenly finding himself curious as well.

That’s right, he wouldn’t have just known about those. He’s a Jujutsu newbie.

Gojo-sensei, though… Didn’t say anything for a second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

(The young shikigami user started to feel a strong disquiet enter his veins at the silence.)

Then, finally, with a rather odd, almost airy tone – as if realising something – the adult sorcerer answered.

“I didn’t teach him about them.”

The sound of a single, quiet inhale echoed in the suddenly crushingly silent car.

“And I’m guessing neither have you two, nor Ijichi.”

The assistant director - busy with putting one bloodied gauze onto his healed shoulder to simulate an injury there, and adding a fresh one onto his injured hand - shook his head absentmindedly from the seat to his right.

“I have not, Gojo-san.”

The two teens, meanwhile, glanced at each other, trying to discern if either has had somehow witnessed such a thing - or done so themselves.

“No.” said their simultaneous headshakes and muttered answers.

“I see.”

Gojo-sensei sighed, if shallowly.

“I know for a fact that Yaga has not. Then, unless he somehow found out about them himself – which I doubt, Yuji-kun is a pretty curious student but I don’t think he would have looked for information on Jujutsu contracts – there could have only been one person to do that, no?”

Ah.

“…It was the freaking murder monarch, wasn’t it?” guessed Kugisaki, grimacing a bit.

Gojo-sensei let out a single, ever-so-slightly strained laugh. “Ha! Those nicknames of yours sure are accurate, Nobara-chan!”

Then, he continued, once again moreso seriously.

“But that is what I suspect. We’ll really have to talk with Yuji-kun about it when he wakes up and check for any misinformation he may have been fed about them.”

As they stopped at some red lights, he finally turned around - looking at the two of them from in between the front seats with his exact gaze hidden behind the black blindfold.

The white-haired adult all a sudden had a grin plastered onto his face once again, strongly contrasting with the previous atmosphere.

"We can’t have the King of Curses undermine myself as a teacher, now can we?”

Kugisaki, clearly not expecting it, snorted at the sudden change of tone.

Megumi himself couldn’t help either the roll of his eyes, nor the smallest of smiles that slowly formed on his lips at the antics.

For a moment, everything seemed just the slightest bit less grim and the young shikigami user minutely relaxed.

(And yet, as the white-haired, goofy adult kept hamming up his ‘Amazing Teaching Skills’ and talking about how, he’s ‘gonna show that guy who is the REAL deal around here!’–

clearly an attempt to ease the tension the two teens were under

– Megumi simply tried not to think of just…

why -

-the King of Curses has given Itadori the means to seemingly control him in the moment.

Why did he do so, when he knew that the teen was desperate for help anyway – and why he supposedly didn’t ask for anything concrete in return.

Sure, he may have admitted that Itadori is not ‘allowed’ to die, and apparently neither is he nor Kugisaki,

but Sukuna could have prevented that without letting himself be bound with a Vow.

Megumi tried to think even less on the topic of just what the second Vow may really mean for his pink-haired, overwhelmingly bright classmate

- nor about just why Sukuna decided on being so ‘helpful’ with their issue today to acquire it, as if was truly important enough to do so.

(Not to mention Itadori possibility ‘joining’ the King of Curses in his Domain at some point from now, whatever that meant exactly.)

All of this couldn’t possibly be as simple, nor relatively ‘harmless’, as the curse tried to portray it as.

Not with this curse.

Not with the King of them.

Not with Ryoumen Sukuna.)