Chapter Text
Waking up came slowly; languidly. There was the sound of the wind, the feeling of clothes on his back and the ever-present gnawing hunger, though for once it was almost easy to ignore. Opening his eyes to the curse before him, he sent an off-handed cleave, only to surprise himself at how quickly the curse disintegrated. Must have been a particularly low level one.
Sukuna stretched, allowing himself to take the time to look around, noting the many skyscrapers and fluorescent lights that littered the city before him. He grinned, his cursed energy unfurling and spreading out, finding himself feeling surprisingly settled in this body.
“Hm, I wonder what those buildings are made of,” he muttered. Perhaps he could find a library around here, assuming they still used signs and all.
He turned around, finally acknowledging the sorcerer that was attempting not to quake in their boots.
Sukuna studied the sorcerer closely. He appeared to be young, though the fact he was still standing even with Sukuna’s cursed energy weighing on him spoke of some sort of experience with dealing with strong opponents.
The sorcerer looked pale. Likely his doing. Well, seeing as he may be Sukuna’s only source of information for a while, depending on how fast communication traveled in this era, he settled for withdrawing his cursed energy back into himself.
The result was noticeable, the sorcerer begins appearing less weighed down and his breathing evened out, he seemed quick to regain composure. A good trait, Sukuna noted.
“Hey, kid. Do you know where the closest library is?” He asked, only to grimace at the fact his Japanese may be outdated. He’ll have to try and look through the memories of his vessel soon enough. Possession still was rather new to him, thinking it over this may have been the first time it’d actually succeeded. How much time has passed while he was in hibernation?
Seeing as the guy didn’t respond, aside from a spike of his cursed energy, (was he planning an attack?) Sukuna opened his mouth to speak only to find himself interrupted.
“What do you think you’re doing with my body?!” His voice asked, except it was not his now, was it.
He blinked, “fascinating. I hadn’t considered the fact you would still be conscious,” he admitted to his vessel.
The vessel did not seem to care much for his words, “give it back already,” he insisted.
Well. This could prove a beneficial grace period to get Sukuna caught up to speed. Not to mention it was an exciting factor in and of itself, considering most vessels usually did not have the mental capacity to hold another consciousness at all, let alone one his age and remain conscious. He wondered what he would be able to do with this information.
Obliging, he let the other soul within his body (now that he felt it he found it much more noticeable) take over, leaving him within his domain.
There was a lot of work ahead of him, lots to catch up on. He grinned. This would be interesting.
——
Megumi watched in horror as Itadori swallowed the cursed finger, bracing himself for the excruciating death he was about to witness. What came instead, however, was infinitely worse.
Itadori slumped down like a puppet whose strings were cut, then slowly, as if winding up, his back straightened out. He flicked his finger, and the curse in front of him crumbled as if it were chalk. Without warning, a blast of cursed energy enveloped the surrounding area, the force of it leaving Megumi both winded and suffocated. (He never knew cursed energy could feel quite so ravenous until today.)
Swallowing the lump in his throat, Megumi ascertained one thing. The being in front of him was no longer Itadori, it was no longer even human. It was now the reincarnation of the King of Curses. The worst case scenario.
He heard the curse murmuring under its breath before it whirled around, pinning him with its glare. He stopped breathing. The next moments ticked by painfully slowly until the air began feeling less claustrophobic. Was the curse attempting to make itself less intimidating? Deciding not to mull it over, curses tended to act without reason, he took the time to gather his thoughts. He wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, even if said horse was the Trojan horse.
Finally, the curse spoke up and, in a dialect he could barely understand and a rough voice that did not help in clarity, asked for directions to a... book house? Book store?
…huh? Megumi openly stared in mild bafflement. He had heard in the legends that the King of Curses was once a renowned scholar before falling into the ways of depravity and violence, but he was not expecting this. He reasoned that it was most likely some sort of trap and did not attempt to respond.
The curse opened its mouth once more, only for Itadori’s voice to come through.
“What do you think you’re doing with my body?!” Itadori demanded, surprising them both.
The glint in the curse’s eyes that sparked upon this revelation left Megumi feeling pure dread.
It spoke in the same outdated dialect, but then fell silent. Megumi stared as the oppressive cursed energy seemed to be completely sucked back into Itadori’s body as if it were never there to begin with.
He desperately wanted to believe it was really Itadori that had managed to take over, however he could not dismiss the very real concern that this was just a particularly crafty curse and was attempting to put him in a sense of ease.
He took in a breath, a half-baked plan already forming. If the curse truly was completely in control, he would have to eliminate it now before it got stronger. If it was Itadori… there was a chance he would stop being able to suppress it… he needed to be eliminated either way.
“You’re no longer human,” he informed what he hoped was Itadori, “under Jujutsu regulations, I must exorcise you; the curse known as Yuuji Itadori.”
The teen raised his hands in surrender, “woah, woah, it’s me, not Sukuna! See how I’m not talking in ancient script? We’re both pretty beat up, why don’t we head to the hospital, yeah?”
Megumi faltered. If Itadori was indeed able to suppress the curse, did he still need to exorcise him? He grit his teeth, emotions conflicting and leaving him at a standstill.
“What’s the situation?”
Being so stuck in his own head as he was, he startled when Gojo-sensei emerged into existence next to him, feeling like he was about to jump out of his skin.
“Wha-“ he stumbled, “when did you get here?!”
“Wasn’t planning on coming at first,” Gojo-sensei admitted, “but then the higher ups got involved because a cursed object went missing- wow, you’re really beat up,” he interrupted himself midway through to snap some pictures of Megumi’s face, “so I agreed to come if it meant I got to sightsee.”
“So…” Gojo-sensei drawled, “did ya find it?”
Megumi averted his gaze.
“Uhm,” Itadori raised a hand, “I ate it,” he said, sounding as apologetic as possible.
Gojo-sensei froze, tensing for just a moment, something most people would not have noticed lest they grew up around him as Megumi had, before his easygoing mask snapped back into place, “for real?”
“For real,” the two echoed, Megumi sounding much more exasperated.
Gojo-sensei leaned into Itadori’s personal space, tilting his head to examine him thoroughly, “hah, would you look at that! You’re not kidding, they’re combined. That’s hilarious.”
“How does your body feel?” He asked Itadori, “any phantom limbs? Strange feelings that aren’t your own? Anything out of the ordinary?”
Itadori hummed, seeming to mull it over, “I guess… there’s pressure in my brain? I don’t know how to describe it, just feels like somethin’s there.”
Gojo-sensei’s brows furrowed before his expression cleared, “makes sense, that seems to be where most of Sukuna’s soul’s accumulated. As far as I can tell. Can you switch with him?”
“Uh… probably?” Itadori guessed.
Gojo-sensei began stretching, “ten seconds,” he decided, “take back control after ten seconds.”
Itadori frowned, “are you sure? I mean, he’s being pretty quiet right now, he might be asleep…”
Gojo-sensei grinned, “wake him up. I can handle him. I’m the strongest Jujutsu sorcerer after all.”
Itadori sent him a dubious look, but upon seeing Megumi’s much more at ease posture (and the fact he did not refute the statement) the pink haired boy conceded.
Said strongest sorcerer proceeded to throw Megumi a paper bag.
He blinked, already tired of the man’s shenanigans, “what is this, Gojo-sensei?”
“Kikufuku mochi.”
His eyes twitched. Had he gone sightseeing while this was happening?! Megumi was so going to punch him.
——
Sukuna was only in his domain for a couple of minutes before he felt a tug at his soul once more. The vessel was calling to him already? That was fast. He had figured he wouldn’t bother checking, thinking it was unlikely anything too exciting would be happening until more sorcerers (preferably not fresh-faced children) arrived.
Safe to say he was rather surprised to find himself at the roof of a school only mere minutes later, brought over by sheer force of will. He would have to ensure that does not happen again.
There was another occupant now inhabiting the rooftop, some vaguely familiar looking albino man with hair that stuck up like an angry porcupine. (What was it with the hair of this era? Was he expected to suffer through horrible haircuts for the next few decades?!)
Interestingly enough, he and the kid seemed to be discussing a flavour of mochi Sukuna had never heard of before. He walked over and waved, causing them both to tense, one more noticeably than the other.
“Never heard of that flavour, what are the ingredients? I have not dabbled in mochi creation in a while,” he began, hoping his dialect was slightly more understandable now that he’d filtered through some of the vessel’s vocabulary.
The albino tilted his head, “huh. ‘Gumi, you sure pink hair ate the right finger? For the ‘King of Curses’ he seems strangely docile. If you ignore the whole cursed-energy-trying-to-eat-you bit.”
Sukuna stood straighter, eyes suddenly gleaming, “oh? It was a fight you wanted? You should have simply said so-“
Only to be cut off once more, after exactly ten seconds of freedom had passed. He was back in his domain. He huffed, shuffling a few books aside from a desk and settling in to parse through more memories. He would have to establish communication with the vessel eventually, but for now he would settle for relearning the ropes.
——
Satoru wasn’t expecting much for a simple retrieval mission, let alone the reawakening of an ancient curse. Hell, even with the ancient curse! He knew how to deal with those, beat them into submission and move on, easy right? So why was a curse who’s cursed energy literally tried to devour people so… normal?! Such a thing was beyond dangerous. If they stop being able to differentiate curse from vessel…
He looked down at the kid in his arms, knowing the curse would almost surely be the end of him one way or another.
“What did you do?” ‘Gumi asked.
“Knocked him out,” Satoru replied.
Megumi had that look on his face, the one that said he wasn’t satisfied even when he himself wouldn’t voice his concerns.
Satoru turned to him, “if he wakes up and isn’t possessed, it’s likely he can be deemed a vessel. So. What do I do with him?”
Megumi sighed, “even if he is a potential vessel, Jujutsu guidelines indicate he must be executed,” his expression hardened, a determination in his eyes sparked, and from that expression alone, Satoru knew he would have quite the interesting discussion with the higher ups, “but I don’t want to let him die.”
Satoru grinned, “is that a personal opinion?”
“Yes, it is. Do something about it,” Megumi stated, and well, how could he not? A precious student of his was asking!
“Leave it to me,” he assured.