Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The kid appeared on his domain one cold day.

Sukuna had been strolling around the forest when he first heard rustling coming from a distance. Initially, he thought it might’ve been a deer foraging in his domain, but a gurgling sound made him think twice. It sounded like someone was being strangled, annoying more than terrifying.  

For the long period of time since Sukuna had started living in the mountain, he hasn't come across a single curse. If he really thought about it, the last time he remembers seeing them was when he first stumbled to the forest, curses moving out of his way, as he moved up the mountain. At the time, he had assessed that humans were already creating enough chaos by themselves. Humanity and their ideologies, trying to bring peace to the world just to end up rebuilding the same oppressing system, only with another name. Sukuna wasn’t political, but after spending a millennium beside humans, some things had stayed with him: humans were repetitive and boring.

But Sukuna had gone up that mountain at least a century ago, so the unnatural sound was a bit surprising to say the least. 

The struggling sound was getting louder and louder and he decided it was best to check it out, who knows, maybe it was some brave low curse wandering into his domain. Might make things interesting, then again, he hadn’t sensed anything when he first heard the gurgle. 

As Sukuna trailed down the path, he found that everything was unusually quiet, especially for a forest this dense. It was like the wild life, altogether, had stopped their activities to listen in to this increasingly irritating sound. When he moved to remove the branches obstructing his view, his foot managed to hit something squishy, ‘how peculiar’. He placed more pressure on the object and the gurgling stopped. It seemed that had been a trigger of some sort because the forest returned to its normal self after the gurgle had died down; birds and crickets chirped away, the breeze gained strength and rustled leaves, everything had returned to normality. 

His eyes moved away from the forest's scenery to his foot and he got a glimpse of what seemed to be a trembling bean-shaped being. He pressed down on the thing with his foot again and the groggy gurgle returned. 

“Ahh, so you’re the one who has been making that awful noise” 

When he finally removed his foot, what he found on the ground was… a rat. Their exposed lower regions revealed they were male, its naked skin wrinkled, a blush stretching from its face to its body and feet. Sukuna saw as claws closed tightly into fists, it mustn’t have been long since its birth. 

“How disgusting”, he scorned.  

Looking over the being’s face once more, Sukuna found small faded strokes on his cheeks, faded enough that they could easily be mistaken for freckles. Subconsciously, he traced over his own marks where his second pair of eyes laid underneath. Maybe this thing wasn’t just a rat after all, he thought with a raised eyebrow.

As he moved to pick up the newborn, he realized how light and small it was. It barely covered the expanse of his forearm, but it was certainly bigger than a rat. Lost in thought, he didn’t realize how long it had been until he heard a twig snap a distance away. He raised his head up to look for the cause of the sound, but the presence was pretty much gone. 

A low whine left the lips of the being in his hands, but it didn’t struggle against his hold otherwise. If not for the cold weather Sukuna would have guessed the newborn wouldn’t have made a noise to begin with. They seemed to have been content just lying there on the ground as ants circled around him continuing on with their business. 

“You’re an odd one huh”, he grumbled. 

With that Sukuna returned to his shrine, a newborn on hand. 

__

A couple of months passed by since Sukuna first picked up the newborn and he realized the thing he had found deep in the forest was indeed not a rodent, but what appeared to be a human child. However, he still holds his suspicions regarding this, faint stroke marks beneath eyes coming to his mind. The baby boy might be similar to him, a human turned curse, but they were far too young for this to be possible. Sukuna couldn’t remember how old he had been when he turned into a curse, but he did have a vague recollection of doing it to himself. 

Another possibility could be that he came from a cursed womb, like the Death Paintings, but the boy didn’t show any sign of possessing cursed energy, and even if he did, out of all ten Death Paintings only the older one was completely humanoid, making it even more unlikely. He suspects the presence behind the snap of the twig would have the answers but it’s not like knowing what the boy is would worsen or improve his current situation.   

For example, Sukuna found that feeding the baby hadn’t posed much of a problem since the boy wasn’t really a picky eater, that and the only substance of food he could digest was milk. Living on a mountain for so long had enabled Sukuna to find good sources of food, he couldn’t die of starvation but it was a nice thing to spend time on when lying around the tatami floor had become too boring. 

One day, when he had gone out looking for food for the boy, he returned to an empty shrine. He had left the baby lying down on the wood floor at the front, as he normally did when he headed out for the kid’s food, except this time the kid went missing.

Sukuna stood at the entrance, the kid’s food on one hand, and a bored look on his face. 

That day he spent an excruciating amount of time trying to find the boy. Sukuna had checked all the area that made up his shrine, only to meet the soft clinking of the wind chimes. The boy didn’t have any cursed energy so it wasn’t like Sukuna could pinpoint the kid’s location. 

It wasn’t until he was a few kilometers down the mountain that he heard the familiar gurgling sound. As he moved towards the sound, he found himself on a riverbed, and saw a few beavers cutting trees and eating bark; the kid facing up against one of the dams. 

Once he was close enough, Sukuna grabbed the kid's back with one hand and raised him until he was facing him. Upon seeing Sukuna’s blank face, the kid slowly opened his mouth. 

“Don’t you dare”, said Sukuna with a threat at the tip of his tongue, but the boy’s mouth only widened more and started giggling without restraint, small hands reaching out to Sukuna.    

“Brat”, Sukuna grumbled.  

That was the first time the brat had ever giggled and Sukuna found that, compared to the annoying dying sound he constantly made, he wouldn’t mind hearing this again. 

The kid going missing had served as a lesson for Sukuna.

When they got back from the riverbed, brat on his arms, Sukuna went straight to the wind chimes hanging off the ceiling and jerked at two of them until they popped off. Removing the rectangular slip of paper, he tied both bells onto the kid’s left foot. 

“There”, he said with a tone of finality. 

__

Months after having lost the baby, Sukuna had to make a bigger expedition than normal. Curses had been coming closer to his domain. He couldn’t understand what made them want to come near, it wasn’t like he’d changed his demeanor. Before the brat had come around, curses just seemed to instinctively know not to come close to the mountain, just like when Sukuna first arrived, the curses stayed out of his sight. It had been like that everytime he came near anyone, they’d freeze and tremble with his mere presence, he didn’t need to do anything else. He had a kid living with him on the mountain now, but he was confident his presence alone remained the same. Was the kid doing this? Were kids a sign of invitation? Nevertheless, Sukuna decided to check things out himself, maybe something had happened. 

He left the shrine as the sun was peeking out the horizon, ready to give start to another day. The kid was sleeping inside, hidden away from the world by warm blankets, bells in place on his left foot. 

On his journey to the bottom of the mountain, Sukuna got to see the beavers from months back, they had been working as usual. But the way they looked at him was quite unusual, he got a sense they had a vendetta against him. 

Sukuna hummed as he walked by. 

Once Sukuna was near the bottom of the mountain he recognized the source of the cursed energy. Curse energy had been rare to come by when he lived alone, but even when it hadn’t been, at one point in Sukuna’s life it had become boring. Average curses could barely walk, even less say a word or hold a fight. They were like the brat back at his shrine, useless. The interesting thing down the mountain here though was that this presence had more cursed energy than the average curse.

This was a special curse. He hasn’t seen one of those since before he started living in the forest.    

“State your business, Death Painting”, Sukuna muttered. 

The tall man on the other side was clad in black and white, pigtails on top of his head. The form was intriguing, but the thick dark mark running across his nose was proof enough of who he was. 

“You are in possession of one of my siblings, sir”, Choso, the older of the Death Paintings, said with a tinge of nervousness, but a resolute tone.   

“Whatever do you mean? I have no need for one of you”. The only other person with him on the mountain was the brat, who he was sure was still sleeping under a pile of blankets. Obviously, the Death Painting was referring to the kid but he had determined a while ago that the possibility of him being a curse was almost none. 

“They… ”, Choso said with a scowl, “I know they are with you. I can feel them.”

“Why are you referring to him as ‘they’?”  

To Sukuna, it appeared that the man in front of him didn’t even know the kid. What did catch his interest, on the other hand, was that last part. He’ll humour him a bit, see where this takes him: “Nevermind that, ‘feel them’ you say?”

“So he’s a boy… “, the man with pigtails whispered to himself before he gave Sukuna a determined look. “that’s right, I can feel him. It’s only natural for me to be able to. I’m his older brother, it’s my duty to care for him. So I can’t let you keep him, sir. I need you to hand him over to me”. 

So it seemed rather than sensing the presence of someone as one would with cursed energy, this Painting claimed to sense the kid through their alleged familial bond. That’s just sentimental crap, bullshit overall since he doubts they’re related at all. 

“What’s his name?”, Sukuna said with an irritated tone. It was nearing midday and he was getting tired of this conversation. 

“What? I-” 

“His name. What 's the boy’s name? You're his brother right? You should know that much”. 

A name. Choso looked lost with that question. It was an unfair question, especially because it had no real answer but this man had to face reality. Sukuna hadn’t had a conversation in so long and he quickly realized he didn’t miss it one bit with how disagreeable curses like the one in front of him could be. 

“You don’t know, do you?” 

“I do! His name is… Yuuji”. Despite Choso sounding confident when he said the boy was his brother, his tone defiled him when he uttered the made up name.   

“Wrong. The brat’s nameless. You can’t expect me to believe you’re his brother when you clearly didn’t even know he was a boy”. Speaking about the brat, it won’t be long before he wakes up. He sleeps less these days. Sukuna doesn’t know whether that’s normal or bad. 

Upon hearing Sukuna point out Choso’s mistake, a light blush dusted the younger curse’s cheeks. Yeah, it couldn’t be more obvious.

“Just go if you have no other business here”

“I can’t-”

“Go”

Choso had no other choice but to retreat, his form vanishing from behind the canopy of trees.

Sukuna had had enough with the conversation as it showed no sign of progressing, he’d thought things would turn out to be interesting since the man was a Death Painting but he didn’t show any sign of hostility. Nevertheless, Sukuna had to remain on alert, if he learned anything from the conversation it was that the Death Painting was obsessed with family, he wouldn't put it past him to not return another day. 

On his way back to the shrine, he stopped by some berry bushes he found on his journey back for the brat to eat. By the time he got to the gate it was a bit past midday. He slipped into the shrine and walked into the room the kid was supposed to be sleeping in, but there was no kid, just a pile of brown blankets thrown carelessly around. 

Why did this always happen to him?

A muffled sound and the jostling of bells could be heard from the back. The brat wasn’t too far off then. Good, he couldn’t handle more problems for today. 

As Sukuna slid the door from the backyard he saw the small baby crawling trying to reach for a big statue of him. 

The statue was a representation of Sukuna’s original form; a giant impending form, four arms, two faces, a form he no longer went by these days.  

The baby was struggling to get any closer to the statue, a huff leaving his lips. 

What the hell is he trying to accomplish? Sukuna thought to himself. 

Not wanting to disturb the scene Sukuna remained quiet and saw how the baby was standing up on his feet with only a bit of trouble. With how energetic he was, it hadn’t taken long for him to learn how to stand up on his own. 

Sukuna tilted his head to get a better view, the kid’s back was facing him so he couldn’t really see beyond his arms raised high above his head. He wanted to see what kind of face the kid was making. Perhaps, Sukuna thought with a smirk, he had on that pout he made when concentrated. But a snotty sniff coming from the statue interrupted his thoughts. A frown plastered on his face, was the kid crying?

Another sniff, and a babble came out of the baby as he kept trying to reach the four meter statue.

“Kid?” 

Tiny feet turned around to face him until their eyes met. Sukuna saw their flustered cheeks littered with dried tears, new ones forming as soon as they saw him. 

“Ba… Baba”, the baby whimpered with a sniff. 

Was Sukuna gone that long? He knew he took longer than usual, but he’d expected for the kid to be used to him leaving from time to time. 

Sukuna didn’t have more time to think about it because the kid was now moving towards him, hands outstretched and bells jingling, in quick continuous steps. 

“Babaaaaaaaaa!”, the kid wailed, ugly tears staining red his already puffed cheeks. 

Who would’ve thought the kid’s first steps would be like this. The kid wasn’t an experienced walker so it surprised him how quick he was going. 

Not long after Sukuna thought that, the boy stumbled to the front, tripping over his own feet. But Sukuna flashed in front of him, index and middle finger on top of the kid’s forehead to prevent him from falling down to the ground. 

“Don’t cry now”, Sukuna shushed the child. 

That didn’t stop the boy from crying and he only went to hold the arm Sukuna had against his head with both his hands. 

“Ba… baba”, the boy said in between sniffs.  

The kid was calling him ‘baba’, wasn’t that what human babies called their fathers? Sukuna had never introduced himself to the kid as his father. Where had he picked that up?

Sukuna kneeled in front of the boy and raised a finger pointing at himself, “Baba?”. The kid stopped crying, no longer sniffing as much, but still holding tightly onto Sukuna’s arm. Sukuna tried again, this time asking the kid if he meant father, but the kid just looked at him, no sign of recognition. 

“Look brat, what-”. Then the kid started hiccupping, just like he had done that time he got kidnapped by the beavers. Sukuna knew instantly the little shit was up to no good.

“Brat? Is that it? You’re calling me brat?” and the little rascal had the gall to walk up to him, keeping himself steady by using the hand Sukuna still had on his forehead, and hug his midsection all while giggling ‘baba’.

“Fair enough, ba”, Sukuna said as he picked up the boy and walked towards the engawa to sit, ‘ba’ on his lap. He did leave the kid all on his own for way longer than usual all without feeding him, he must’ve been starving.  

How did the kid know the statue was of him though? He thought while feeding the kid the berries he brought back with him. He still had the black marks and the two pairs of eyes but he had adopted a more humanoid form, he wasn’t as tall and he no longer had four arms. 

On a second thought, maybe it wasn’t that odd, the brat hasn’t seen anyone else except for Sukuna and he was the only one with tattoos and four eyes. Speaking of eyes, he thought while looking down at the baby, the kid’s own marks had been turning darker as the time passed. When Sukuna first met him, they were barely there, now they had a soft brown hue to them. 

He wondered what they were. Just birthmarks, perhaps. 

__

After a particularly rough winter, not because of food scarcity, but because of the cold—Sukuna lived at the top of a mountain so the kid got sick very quickly when the nights suddenly got colder—spring was finally here. 

The kid could now hold a conversation with him and Sukuna found that, compared to his talk with the Death Painting some time ago, this was welcomed. 

The kid turned to be very inquisitive yet dumb at the same time. 

The other day while they were out foraging, the brat asked Sukuna what he was called. When he heard that, Sukuna had stopped picking up herbs for their tea—drinking tea on early mornings had become a routine for a few weeks now—stood up and turned around to face the kid. 

Only the two of them lived in the mountain, there was no one else to call Sukuna by his name except for the brat, but Sukuna had never mentioned it before so it made sense.

It was just that Sukuna never really had the opportunity to tell him his name, he wasn’t one to state his own title, he found it childish. 

The kid could’ve gone his entire life not knowing Sukuna’s name, had that been on Sukuna? 

Despite his initial surprise, he thought it wouldn’t hurt to see how far he could take it, so he asked the kid what he thought he was called. 

“Oh! Uhmm… Baba. I always thought you were jus’ baba, baba”. The kid said enthusiastically. 

Sukuna hummed. While that was true to an extent, it wasn’t really his name. The kid did say ‘thought’ so he was obviously questioning his own knowledge. 

What Sukuna wanted to know was what caused the sudden doubt. 

“What brings this up?”. He had never corrected the kid before, at the time that was just what the kid was able to call him as a baby, over the time Sukuna just got used to it. 

The kid told him he was asking because of the story he once told him over winter. It had been cold outside, the kid had a runny nose and couldn’t sleep well. Out of desperation, Sukuna ended up telling him a ‘story’ about three brothers called Eso, Kechizu, and Choso. 

The kid said that he had been wondering for a while why they weren’t called the same, if all bells were called bells, and all beavers were called beavers, then why weren’t all the brothers just Eso or Kechizu. The kid started questioning if the way he referred to Sukuna was even correct at all. That had started a whole other conversation on how things were called, and that individuals could even have a name of their own. 

“What is your name then, baba?” The kid said while leaning against Sukuna’s abdomen, who was sitting up against a tree. 

“My name is Ryomen Sukuna”. He left out his alias, that was another conversation for another day. 

“Liomen”, the kid repeated.  

“Ryomen” 

“Lllllliii-”

“Ryomen, not Liomen, you need to roll your R’s” 

“Aigh khein’t”  

“Stop”,  he said as he took the kid’s hands out of his mouth, “Just call me Sukuna”.

The kid hurriedly turned to look up at him and asked what Sukuna had been expecting ever since the conversation started:  

“What is my name, Sukuna?” 

“Hmmm… ” Sukuna closed his eyes and leaned his head against the tree he was resting on. “Your name is Yuuji” 

The kid wouldn’t stop repeating his own name days later until Sukuna threatened to take his name away. 

__

“What is it now?” Sukuna had been drinking tea on the engawa when the rough clinking of bells coming towards him could be heard. 

“What will we be eating today?” 

Yuuji had been asking that question a lot lately, it seemed he was getting tired of eating fruits and vegetables. 

“Why do you say that?” Sukuna couldn’t care less what they ate, he didn’t need it, he only ate to keep Yuuji company. But looking over the kid, he did seem on the thin side, that hadn’t been an issue back when he was a baby. Maybe he should take more into consideration the toddler's diet. 

“I was thinking… maybe we could try something new?”

“Come up here”. Sukuna nodded his head to the side and the kid hurried to climb over the engawa to sit crossed legged beside him. 

“What do you have in mind?” 

The kid told him he had seen a weasel eat a rodent at the front of the gate. He was wondering if they could also try eating something similar since he had never tried it before. 

That reminded Sukuna of the time he encountered Yuuji as a newborn, all small and wrinkled, he had been so sure the kid was a rat. 

So the kid wanted meat, huh? He could work with that, a smirk formed on his face. 

Sukuna rolled his kimono’s sleeve a few inches back before yanking his left arm out completely. As a curse he had more control of his body, so he prevented the blood from spilling out his joint. Cleaning the mess up later would’ve been tedious. 

“Here, try this”, he said to the kid.    

Yuuji took the offered arm and inspected it. “Is it really okay for me to have this? Won’t you need it later?” 

“I can grow another one later, kid. Go on or it’ll go bad.” 

After hearing his approval, Yuuji didn't hesitate to tear into tattooed skin. On his side, Sukuna leaned into his remaining hand, waiting for a reaction. “How is it?”

“It tastes kind of salty and sour, and it’s getting all over me”, the toddler whined. 

The place he had bitten into was dripping with blood, the red substance falling onto the floor. 

So much for not wanting to make a mess. 

Yuuji looked at his own small arm and wondered out loud if it was best to bite into his own, rather than someone else’s, maybe that had been the cause of the weird taste. 

Sukuna saw how the boy was looking at his own arm, lips stained red. A small frown settled on Sukuna’s face. He hadn’t expected for the kid to… 

“Baba can I-” Yuuji shifted his gaze on his arm to look up at Sukuna, but Sukuna took the arm he had given him and lowered the kid’s arm away from his own bloodied mouth.

The kid had looked so much like him, rustled peach hair, dark marks beneath eyes, teeth tearing into bodies—a time when he still used his grandiose form. 

“I’ll cook something for you. Let’s not do that again, alright?” Sukuna stood up rustling the boy’s peach hair after regrowing the missing limb and incinerating the old one.  

“Alright!”, Yuuji said before wiping his mouth with his sleeve, getting up to join Sukuna inside.  

The day after, Sukuna and Yuuji spent the entire afternoon cleaning up the blood from the wood and the toddler’s kimono. 

__

Sukuna was cutting wood.

Tree leaves rustled with the wind, birds chirped at each other, it was another nice day deep in the forest. 

The brat had gone down the mountain to the river, he wanted to play with the animals there. Sukuna told him he could go alone, he wasn’t on good terms with certain flat tailed animals there. So he only walked Yuuji midway, showing him the path to follow on his way back. 

But that had been hours ago, it was near sundown when he heard the familiar chime of bells. 

The kid had run up to him yelling ‘Sukuna! Sukuna!’ and was currently bouncing energetically on the balls of his feet. 

“So you made lots of friends, you say” 

“Yep! The tiny bears were especially nice”

“I think you mean beavers, brat”. Sukuna had no idea how the kid knew all the names of the animals in their mountain except for his once perpetrators.  

“Can I go again tomorrow?”

“Need me to walk you again?”

“Nope! I can do it myself” 

And just like that Yuuji started going down the mountain every day of the week, until one day he returned looking strangely down. 

Sukuna asked the kid what the matter was and the kid told him he had seen other curses not far from where he usually played. They had smoke coming out of their mouth and had been burning off the berry bushes.  

“They looked like me and you”, the boy said.

The kid only knew of curses. That was also on Sukuna since the only stories Sukuna ever told the boy were of curses. Humans didn’t exist in the kid’s head.   

Sukuna hadn’t sensed any cursed energy entering the mountain, except for the occasional Death Painting, who was still adamant on getting his brother back, but Sukuna never allowed him to go up the mountain, at least not enough that he would be near the river. 

He was sure the ‘curses’ Yuuji had seen were just young humans who had happened to go up the mountain. He’ll keep an eye on them if they decide to come back though. 

The morning after, when Sukuna was getting ready for their bath, he couldn’t find the kid anywhere. He also couldn’t hear the kid’s bells. 

Someone like Sukuna, who had lived very very long, with the brat nonetheless, couldn’t be surprised by this cliche anymore. 

The bells’ part was new, Sukuna made sure the kid always had them on, so he’ll give him that.   

As he made his way down the mountain, he found the bells lying on the ground, they had been near the river. The beavers hadn’t looked too happy to see him looking around, Sukuna was sure they knew what had happened for him to be there. 

“Yeah, yeah, I know”, he grumbled, dismissing them with a wave as he continued his way down. 

He didn’t go that far before he heard the kid talking with what he presumed was a human. 

“Sir Curse, can you please let me down?”

“Sir?! Kid, do I look like your father?!”

“I don’t know”

From where he stood, there only seemed to be three teenagers, one holding the kid above the ground from the back end of his collar, the other two besides him. 

Sukuna got closer to the scene, “Kid, how do you always manage to get yourself kidnapped?”

Hearing a new voice, all three teenagers looked up at Sukuna. 

“And who the fuck are you?”

“Dude, you his father?”

The kid rotated towards Sukuna while on the teenager’s hold. 

“Sukuna! Look! These are the curses I mentioned before!” Yuuji raised both of his hands high up in the air, and Sukuna caught a scratch on his left cheek. 

He narrowed his eyes at the teenager whose hold was on Yuuji, “You touched the brat?”

“The fuck?”

“What if we did?”, said the teenager with a flustered Yuuji on his fist. 

Judging by the look on the kid, he had done that to himself, not the teenager. So nothing happened. Sukuna sighed, he couldn't handle this shit so early in the morning. Calling his domain expansion, he sliced the teenagers into pieces. “He has lice”, he muttered to the bodies as he grabbed Yuuji falling from the air.

“I don’t have lice, baba” 

“That’s why we take baths, kid” 

Sukuna sat the toddler on top of his shoulders, tying the bells again on his left foot as he walked towards their home. 

__

While Sukuna had been rinsing Yuuji’s hair with water, the kid asked him if he had found lice on his hair. Sukuna grabbed a lock of peach hair and pretended to look for the little insects, he told the child the shower had worked because he did not find any. 

Now all dried out and changed, Sukuna and Yuuji were lounging on a comforter they had placed on the engawa. Yuuji asked Sukuna for another piece of chocolate—before returning to the shrine, Sukuna had turned around again to the teenager’s bodies after catching scent of the sweet candy—Sukuna told him eating too much chocolate would slice his head off but Yuuji only whined ‘babaaaa’, and Sukuna relented. 

They spent the rest of the day lounging, eating chocolate, watching as bugs got stuck to the ceiling, when Yuuji asked: 

“Sukuna?”

Sukuna hummed, implying he was listening. 

The child turned around, looking at something in the distance. 

“What is a father?”

“…” 

“A father… ”, Sukuna said after he gave it some thought, “is someone who has helped into creating you”

“Is that it?”

“In certain context, it’s someone who has taken care of you” 

“…”  

“Baba?”

“Hmm?” 

“Are you my father?”

From the corner of his eye, Sukuna saw how Yuuji was looking at his statue a couple of meters ahead, the place where Yuuji had given his first steps, bawling his eyes out because Sukuna had left him alone for too long. 

“Probably”

Chapter Text

Just like that day, the morning was filled with a cool breeze. The floor gave off the smell of damp earth; the air so similar in freshness to mint.

From a distance you could hear the slight cooing of insects that came out of their burrows under rocks and branches to welcome the first rays of the sun only to discover that there were none since tiny drops of water were falling from the sky; a sky mostly hidden by the tree roofs that surrounded that hidden forest in the middle of so many mountains.

Leaning against the door was Sukuna, arms folded inside the sleeves of his kimono, head resting on the doorframe as he watched in silence the little peach-haired boy play with a puddle of water; the boy turned his small face right and left, gently prodding each cheek with wonder before looking up and glancing at Sukuna, then quickly turning his attention back to the puddle like he was hiding a secret. 

What secrets could the small boy hold so dearly in his heart?

The boy prodded at his cheeks again. 

“Come inside or you’ll get wet and catch a cold,” Sukuna said, knowing the child was susceptible to sickness in the cold weather. 

The toddler remained silent, squinting his eyes one last time at his reflection before standing up and running to the curse on the engawa. 

“Something the matter, kid?” 

The boy remained silent, uncharacteristically so. 

“Kid?”

The small portion of the sky visible from the canopy of trees got darker with clouds as the breeze picked up. Leaves gently swayed to the rhythm of the droplets falling from the sky. Like a cup, the leaves held the falling tears in their arms, leaning downwards to let the drop of water fall before bouncing back in position to carry another drop on its journey down. The forest kept moving to the sound of the rain just as the toddler’s shoulders did to the light thuds of water dripping to the ground from the roof’s tiles. Bright eyes filled with sorrow looked up and a small child voiced the reason behind the pain in those light brown eyes. 

As the child finished telling his story, the sky cried louder, sympathizing with the boy’s pain. The forest hadn’t been so cold in spring before, but a deep chuckle was able to bring some warmth back to the air. 

“Is that so? Was that what you skipped breakfast over for?”

“Baba, it’s a rather serious madder”

Amused, a smile ran through the curse’s face, “Look at you, using ‘rather’ and ‘matter’ in the same sentence.”  

A whine left the child’s lips. 

Without a second thought, the curse teased the young child even more, trying to coax him into repeating the reason behind his distress. “Once more, I can’t hear you over the sound of the rain”

“Babaaa! Why can’t I have your eyes?!”

An unanswerable question tormented the young boy indeed.

__

While Sukuna usually enjoyed watching the rain fall from the comfort of his shrine, with the new addition to the mountain, he was reminded that, although still calming to watch, the weather added a new problem to his life; the kid’s immunity was weak against cold weather. He’d thought that with winter over, everything would become easier to handle–no more colds or fevers Clearly he had been wrong because the kid had been sneezing a lot more over the past couple of days. 

“I told you not to stay too long outside with this weather”. Like the other day, the kid had been playing outside with tadpoles sloshing around the puddles of water. Sukuna had warned the kid of the consequences but alas here they were. 

“I don’t think it’s that, Sukuna,” the child said with a pout.  

Sukuna? 

While totally normal to hear his name come out of the child, it had been a while since he last heard the toddler address him in such a way. The last time had been when Yuuji had asked him if he was his father. Not a difficult question to answer since, under normal circumstances, he would be considered the boy’s father, but the two of them were anything but normal, one a forgotten child with unknown origin and the other a former tyrant. There were biological matters too of course. Either way, it was odd to hear his name being uttered after such a long time. 

Was the kid angry? To call someone by their name instead of what they usually called someone had certain connotations to it. Then again, this was usually learned and there was no one around except for Sukuna in the mountain.

“What is it then?” Sukuna asked the young child. 

The child seemed surprised for a second before quickly looking down to the floor, hiding. “Nothing baba”.

Sukuna looked at the kid. Whatever was troubling the boy seemed to be important if he was behaving in such a way. The kid normally didn’t hide things from him, he was very open with Sukuna about everything. One day, Yuuji came up to him, showing him excitedly the piece of candy he had gotten from a few passerbys near the bottom of the mountain. Sukuna had asked how he’d gotten a hold of it and the kid fist bumped the air and yelled, “I grabbed it from their backpacks!”. The kid had looked so innocent while showing the candy bar as he jumped up and down, bells clinking with the movement. “Did you ask?”, Sukuna inquired. But the boy looked confused at this. “Ask what?” the boy had asked. When Sukuna realized what the kid had done, he didn’t know whether to be concerned or amused. He wouldn’t deny that he did feel somewhat thrilled for the kid. This had been his first misdemeanor, so to speak. Of course, for the average human, stealing would be considered an ill-doing, especially for a kid. They would also be reprimanded but Sukuna was a curse and Yuuji was… something. Should he be teaching some kind of moral code to the kid? Nevertheless, the whole ordeal had been entertaining. When he told the boy what his actions had meant, the young boy looked horrified. Cradling the piece of candy with both hands as if he had committed an unforgivable sin, the kid had asked what he needed to do to remedy things; he spent the whole day asking for forgiveness through made-up rituals. Sukuna’s personal favorite was when the boy had served the candy bar, rolling up a freshly plucked leaf into a cup to offer tea to the candy while bowing. 

Yes, that had been a great day indeed.

Yet here they were, the kid hiding something and Sukuna unable to tell what the root of it was.         

“Yuuji, care to remind me what happens next?”

Upon hearing Sukuna’s sharp tone, the child looked up, confused. “I don’t know, baba”

“And do you know why that is?” The kid shaked his head at Sukuna's question. 

“You don’t know because we’ve never been in this situation before,” Sukuna lowered to the child’s eye level, “What should we do then?”

Sukuna saw the bewildered kid look down with shame. 

“B-ba… babaaa!” The boy’s eyes turned shiny from unshed tears. “I’m sorryyy! 

Sukuna wasn’t really bothered by the kid keeping things from him, he’d only been caught off guard since it had never happened before. The boy was a child, yes, but Sukuna would rather have the kid trust him with anything than the other way around. If left unhandled it would turn into a bad habit, and that would only cause more problems. He’s had enough of those already ever since he first made contact with the boy. Knowing the kid, he probably had a stupid reason behind his behavior too. 

“Baba… I- I just wanted to surprise you!”

“Stop crying”. 

If the kid continued like this, he’d only make himself get a cold. Sukuna didn’t need more of that. 

The young boy sniffled as he ran the sleeve of his kimono across his nose. 

“Now, tell me kid, what is it that you were doing”. Sukuna said as he took out a piece of cloth from his sleeve and properly cleaned the boy’s snotty mess.  

“Outside– baba that hurts,” the child whined as Sukuna continued cleaning the boy’s nose.

“Quit whining and continue”. 

“Well… There were these pretty bright leaves outside, but I couldn’t reach them because they were too far up the tree. You should’ve seen them baba, they were spiky… and… and “

The boy quietened down before sneezing once again. Sukuna wondered whether it was already too late to prevent another week of fevers. 

“Go on,” Sukuna discarded the used cloth into a nearby basket and manifested another one from inside his sleeve. 

“Yes baba. The leaves were really spiky and they reminded me of you. I thought they’d look great on you, so I climbed up the tree to get some but the tree was really slippery and I fell. I think my nose has been hurting ever since”

Hearing this, Sukuna moved the boy’s kimono to the side, enough to see the child’s legs, and noticed his knees were scraped. “Does it hurt?”

“Not really, no.”

He inspected the leg up closer. It didn’t look too serious. A little bit of ointment and he’d be alright. 

“How do you feel?”

“Bad”

“And why’s that?” he asked as he stood up and got everything ready to treat the boy’s legs. 

“I couldn’t get any of the leaves I wanted” A sniff. Sukuna knew all too well of the child’s crying habit. He grabbed the ointment he was looking for in a cabinet and approached the child. 

“I really wanted to show them to you”

“Here,” Sukuna sat on the tatami floor, placing Yuuji on his lap, “don’t you think it’s better to show them to me in person? You know I’d go with you if you’d just asked,” Sukuna said as he cleaned the boy’s injury. 

“I know, baba. Sorry”

The kid’s face was flushed red. He must’ve been really upset, quite a rare sight after the kid had grown up from the baby he had once been. He’s usually oblivious to most things, even to his own feelings. He said he wanted to surprise Sukuna. Where did he get that idea? Did he ever mention something like that in any of the stories he’s told him? 

As Sukuna was finishing treating the child’s knees, he heard the boy yawn. “Tired?”

“A little”

The curse stood up and carried the child into another room before going back to quickly pick up the mess from before. Once he returned to the kid’s side, the boy was already on the edge of sleep. Sukuna walked to the door and slid it open, soft thuds filled the room; the rain enveloped the forest with dew. It was cold outside, but not to the point where it was unbearable. It was nice. 

He had to give it to nature for creating such beautiful sights. Sukuna looked back at the child covered in thick blankets. He was fast asleep: his chest gently rising before lowering again. 

Trying to surprise him must’ve really taken a toll on him. He looked at peace whilst sleeping.

While it was nice seeing him like that every once in a while, he could not ignore the ideas the kid had presented him with. Surprises. He knew for a fact he wasn’t responsible for those. 

Something else must’ve caused them. The curse thought, looking outside the sliding doors for the second time. 

“I’ll be back in a bit, kid” 

The door slid shut. 

__

Sukuna had been walking for a while. The ground was damp and somewhat slippery, but despite having rained quite a lot, the earth didn’t betray him and the ground beneath his feet was firm; enough for him to walk without any problems. He and the place had known each other for too long. It was expected for a mutual respect to be born out of their long time companionship. 

Companions for over a century. He wondered what could have possibly changed that for the announcement of the new presence within his domain. 

Being too occupied with the boy over the past days, he hadn’t noticed the weak presence lurking in the mountain. Whatever it was, it wasn’t a curse, not a full fledged one at least.  Otherwise, he would have been quick to identify the source. The kid had been so distracting that he failed to realize that perhaps it was a little too odd for the rain to be so incessant this time in spring. The forest did look more alive than usual. 

Besides the concept of a “surprise,” which had initially roused his curiosity, the spiky-leaf tree the kid mentioned had confirmed his suspicions. Sukuna had been living far too long in the domain; the mentioned tree, never been there before. 

Like a lowly creature that thing had transformed into a tree to attract its target. With the leaves’ shared appearance with his hair, it was clear who their target was. The question was what it wanted from the kid. It shouldn’t take long to find out, he’ll be back before the kid wakes up. 

Sensing the weak cursed energy coming from a particular direction, Sukuna approached the scene. Not far ahead, the pink tree Yuuji had mentioned stood tall and demanding. Greenery bloomed around it like it was some kind of ruler surrounded by his subjects. The kid sure had an affinity to attract odd creatures. The beavers for instance, despite how many seasons had passed, they still glared at him whenever they crossed paths. He wasn’t sure if they would ever find a middle ground. The only thing deterring the beavers and him from direct confrontation was the pouting kid; then again, they had probably already found their middle ground even before they met each other on that river. 

However, unlike with the beavers, he hadn’t been present when the kid had first climbed the tree. Its intentions were unknown to him. 

Standing in front of the tree, he noticed that rather than radiating cursed energy, it radiated with, what best could describe it, natural energy, not so different from any other tree in the mountain. The only exception was that this one was more noticeable than any simple tree. 

Just like the kid had described, the tree’s leaves had a spiky appearance to them. In fact, he was pretty sure it wasn’t mere resemblance, they were actual spikes, flattened to look like leaves. Leave it to the kid to be so naive. He was surprised the kid only showed up with a few scratches at all. 

“Oi, want me to pull you out myself?”

The tree was silent for a minute, unmoving, and he wondered whether it really was expecting him to pull them out of their created illusion, but then the tree started to shake, not unlike a seizure with its quick and erratic movements. 

The branches suddenly elongated into thin elastic straps, leaping out to reach for Sukuna. But it was useless, the curse simply maneuvered away from its reach. “Are you really fighting like that?”

The half-curse was buried in place, its movements were limited to the outreach of its branches. Unless…  Sukuna glanced down. He’d also have to keep an eye out for the ground. If it was capable of modifying its branches then that also meant the roots could also spring out at any moment. However, that didn’t change the fact that it was locked in place. And, if anything, he didn’t necessarily have to be close to it in order to defeat it. 

“Is that all?” 

The branches lashed out, and the spikes went up flying in the air. 

“Ah…” he didn’t have to worry about the spikes getting near the shrine, they were a distance away, but it would be a pain to clean up later. The kid liked to wander around the mountain. In normal circumstances, he would just let him do as he pleased: he knew the wildlife that resided in the mountain. With the recent addition of the tree, he’d have to limit the kid’s outings until he managed to clean up the spikes from the area. A faster approach could be to burn them down, but that might cause unnecessary problems if the fire managed to spread out. 

While looking for alternative solutions, the curse noticed the tree hadn’t been attacking him with the intent to kill. Its extremities lashed out at him, and it threw spikes, but all those things wouldn’t manage to kill him. He could easily dodge its attacks so what exactly was…

“Shit!”

In an instant Sukuna was back at the shrine, sliding the doors to the bedroom open with a loud bang, only to meet a rumpled bed. It was empty. The kid was nowhere to be seen. There was no sign of struggle, and everything else seemed to be in place other than the bed. He wasn’t even hearing the bells. 

“Yuuji!” Sukuna tore the blankets away in hopes to see the kid had been somewhere underneath them. But, he wasn’t. The kid was gone.

He hadn’t detected any cursed energy; the shrine was clean. That only left two possible options: either a human had entered the shrine, or, what made the most sense considering the circumstances, that half-curse had managed to wring up the boy. That’s why the curse hadn’t tried to use the ground beneath to attack him. They had used their roots to take the kid hostage.  

Not having cursed energy to work with made things a bit more difficult. The mountain was wide and tall, with no trace to follow; he'd practically be a blind man walking. There was nothing to give him a hint of where the kid had been sent to. He wasn’t even sure if he was still in the mountain at all. He could have been anywhere. 

It was small but the presence of the curse was still in the same place. It hadn’t moved from where he had left them. While convenient, he couldn’t help but feel a bit vexed by it. Did it really not see him as a threat, or was it planning something else? 

He’ll just have to figure it out. 

__

It didn’t take long to get back down the mountain. He wasn’t in a hurry; the half-curse didn’t look like it was going anywhere. 

When he was in front of it, the tree had just been standing there, like nothing had happened.  Albeit they no longer held spikes, the long elastic branches had returned to their original length, its appearance resembled that of a normal tree again, as normal as any leaf-stripped tree could look like in spring. 

“Are you still not showing yourself?” the curse said with a hint of irritation. 

The tree started to shake, like it had done earlier, but instead of starting another attack, it simply shrank in size. The branches got swallowed by the mass of tissue that protruded out of the inside of the trunk, leaving only a pair of branches to jot out of two of the upper body’s orifices–a poor imitation of eyes. The rest of the tree followed through and got swallowed inside the curse, leaving behind black outlines on its body. 

“n njIak}as{|!osetar ”

“Spare me your apologies” 

The half curse spoke in a language he hadn’t heard since the Golden Age, which was surprising to say the least. Apparently, it also hadn’t been long since their birth, which was even more intriguing. How could a new curse speak a long since dead language? It would have been too much of a coincidence that someone like them was in his domain out of everyone. Curses that traced back to the Heian Era were far too few, nonexistent nowadays, if his guess was true. 

“ mk|’;.;pe||bjers iolm ar ”

“Yeah? And how exactly does that involve me?”

“/; da[aen d\] nja eio/;ni~o’ ”

“The child?”

“ asie{||s df é s<) ”

The curse kept repeating “Mother’s mistake”. Apparently, their sole purpose had been to serve as a distraction and a means of “escape” for the kid. Since they had already fulfilled that purpose they had no other end to pursue. In truth, they weren’t expecting to even be alive for this conversation which is why they hadn’t bothered to escape. They knew it would be fruitless; they couldn’t escape from the King of Curses. 

Obviously, if his title was still worth shit like the curse had implied, it would’ve been enough to prevent being attacked in the first place. Nonetheless, it was quite surprising to find out he was still recognized among curses, even new ones at that. It had been a long time since his last appearance, and he didn’t exactly look the same he did since then. In times such as this he guessed his history was somewhat of an advantage. It definitely saved him time. He hadn’t needed to turn towards other methods to get the curse to speak. 

Yet again, even if the curse had been cooperative on their part, Sukuna wasn’t exactly known for being merciful. 

“Say,” the curse said with a smirk, “what do you think is the best method of cleaning up this mess you’ve made?”

“[ mkloe>}|sds reifs fhe;’a>dos ”

“Well, that’s no fun,” the curse said with a void tone; the smirk disappearing. 

The soft twilight lit the curse’s stoic face as he saw the half curse in front of him burn to ashes; the branches serving as imitations of eyes lighting up like candles, a lilac body slowly giving away, until nothing was left behind. 

No sounds, other than the short, dry crackling of the fire, were heard that evening. 

No insects singing their nightly tune, no wind rustling leaves, no pain-filled screams from curses burning away. 

No sticky hands or soft giggles to keep him company. 

Everything was silent. 

__

When Sukuna approached the gate the next morning he was expecting cries. Unknowingly, he had been bracing himself for them, but they never came. 

The sun rising in the horizon had reminded him of the day he had gone off to, ironically enough, check out another curse. The Death Painting had traveled all the way to look for a kid he assumed was his brother, only to leave empty handed. The child was just a few months old at that time. Unlike then, however, this curse had managed to take the child. What was with curses and their obsession with the kid. 

The trees’ branches hung low, still damp from the rain, glistening from the rays of the sun while round pebbles peeked out from the ground; the rain had stopped ever since the curse had died. 

Sukuna walked to the side of the gate, sliding his hand along the rough wood. The paint had been worn down over the years to a dirty merlot color while the foot had turned almost completely green, most likely from the moss and the rain. There were a few splinters sticking out in the middle, and a few chips here and there. He would have to work on the gates sooner or later.  

While Sukuna was moving to inspect another section of the gate a particular indenture caught his attention. Leaning down to get a closer look, the curse saw lines carved around it: out of a circular shape four short lines stuck out, some a little larger than the rest, almost like hair. On the inside of the circle three horizontal lines were marked down, two on the sides, resembling the marks beneath his eyes, and one on the center. Beside the figure, a smaller version was in place, except this one had a small curve in the center instead of a horizontal one.  

The curse traced the picture with his fingers.  

“When did you make this, huh?” Sukuna said with a chuckle. 

If he thought about it, the curse from earlier must have been the reason behind the child’s sudden interest in surprises. Curses had the power to influence others. Being new, they must have inadvertently shared the concept to the kid when he had been playing around that area. If the curse wanted Yuuji, then why hadn’t they taken him when he had been alone with them? Unless, of course, when they said they had just manifested, they meant it had only been a few days, maybe even less, could've been hours. That explained why he hadn’t sensed them at all initially. 

Had he really been fooled by a newborn? Sukuna’s cackles filled the forest. 

He couldn’t even be mad at them. If curses made more moves like this, then he doubts he would have left at all. 

But that still raised the question: Why his domain? Curses were born out of human emotions. There were no humans in his domain, unless the kid counted, but a single person’s emotions wouldn’t cause a full fledged curse to spring up, not as long their emotions were normal, and the kid was just a kid. The curse had mentioned a Mother. Their title already said enough of their involvement with the sudden appearance of the curse in the mountain. 

“...”

Well… that certainly explained things. 

Before Sukuna could think any further, the presence of a familiar curse caught his attention. It was at the bottom of the mountain, where Sukuna had placed the limit of his trespassing. The curse had been stubborn, coming every single day instead of the usual once-a-week try. Sukuna had gotten irritated by the incessant infringement that he had put up a barrier for the curse. After that day, he no longer personally dealt with the curse. He still remembers the look on his face when he had encountered the barrier; the barrier had been invisible. 

With that image in mind, it didn’t take long for Sukuna to reach the bottom of the mountain. 

“Painting’” Sukuna said with an expectant glare. 

“Good morn-” the curse started before being interrupted by a loud voice. 

“Babaaaaaa!!!” Yuuji jumped out from somewhere behind the black-and-white cloaked curse, running to Sukuna with wide arms once he heard his voice. 

“Babaaa!” Yuuji cried, hugging the front of the curse’s leg, “where were you?!” Sukuna looked down at the child, who was rubbing his face on the fabric of his kimono, “I was dealing with a curse, kid. Stop crying.”

“Were you even looking for him?” Choso cut in, exasperation clear from the tone of his voice. 

“No,” Sukuna said as he ran his fingers through the child’s hair. An indignant look crossed Choso’s face over the curse’s words before looking at Yuuji like he was going to take the child back with him. 

Yuuji snuggled closer to Sukuna’s leg. 

“He would’ve found his way back eventually,” he said, rubbing the child’s eyes with his thumb to clear the drying tears. 

“Oh… well,” the black haired curse said, slightly confused, before looking at the older curse with disbelief. “Sir, did you know I would find him?” he asked. Choso suddenly felt really heavy, like gravity was pushing him down. Cursed energy saturated the air, a dark and incredibly strong thing. Choso felt like taking a step back to get out from the menacing aura coming off the other curse, but he was frozen in place. 

“Find him? I knew for a fact he was taken to you. Don’t talk to me about finding anyone, ‘Painting”. The tree-shaped curse had tirelessly mentioned something about an error in delivery. If that Mother had somehow been involved with the kid, then that must have been when he had first encountered the child.      

“But I brought him back,” the curse said, flustered.  

“Want me to praise you? Of course you did. Otherwise, I would have come all the way to you. Good job!” Sukuna said with a smile and a sarcastic tone. 

Hearing this, Yuuji turned around, curiously observing the curse in front, before smiling wide and yelling “Good job!”  

Choso was awe stricken. 

“Very well. We must get going then.” 

“Sir, wait! If I may ask-”

“No”

“But-!”

“Leave,” the curse lowered down to pick up the child, before turning around. 

“They’ll be short. I swear!”

“No,” Sukuna says as he begins walking back up the mountain. Yuuji climbs up from the curse’s grasp, his midsection well above his shoulder, sticking both hands out, he waves to the black haired curse: “Bye-bye Onii-san!!”

The curses sputter. Quickly regaining his composure Choso smiles back, “ah! Bye! Goodbye!” he yells as he returns the excited wave. 

Sukuna looks at the child in his arms with narrowed eyes before muttering something. 

“Sorry?” 

“His name.” the curse says with amusement as he let’s the other curse know of the child’s name; a smirk forming on his face, mirth on his eyes, he repeats, “Yuuji”. It takes a second before Choso’s eyes widen in recognition. Grinning, he waves back at Yuuji again; “Goodbye Yuuji!”

Sukuna hoists Yuuji back properly in his arms before he resumes walking. “Where did you learn that word, huh?” Sukuna asks once Choso is out of his peripheral. Yuuji looks up at him, a pout forming in concentration, “He called me something like that earlier.”

“What is that, baba?”, the child asked with curiosity. 

“Hmm?”

“Brother”

Sukuna took a moment before responding. The trees were no longer slumped over, and the birds had begun chirping again. The forest had returned to normality. Sukuna looked down at the child in his arms;  

“Something you eat”. As soon as the words left his mouth, tears began forming again in the corner of the child’s eyes; a devious grin formed on the curse’s face.  

“He wants to eat me?!!” 

“He sure does”

Sukuna was approaching the riverbed where the beavers were working hard on their newly formed domes. Sensing the child in distress, they stopped working and began sprinting towards Sukuna, their eyes narrowed in a glare. But before they could reach him, the curse waved his fingers, summoning fire onto the ground a step ahead of the beavers. They tried to dodge the flames but Sukuna was already past their territory when they managed to free themselves of the fire. 

Undisturbed, Sukuna continued walking. 

“What am I gonna do, baba?”

“Why would you do anything,” the curse responded.

“He’ll be sad, baba! Baba, I don’t taste good!”

“Really?”

The child stuffed his face inside Sukuna’s neck and nodded aggressively. “And how do you know that?” Sukuna asked the child. 

Yuuji peeked out from Sukuna’s neck to look down at the arm holding him up before jerking his head back up to look at Sukuna, “because, if baba tastes bad, then I must also taste bad,” the child reasoned. 

The curse shifted Yuuji to his right arm, “Then we must make sure you two never run into each other ever again,” Sukuna said as he flicked Yuuji on the forehead with his free arm. 

“Let’s save him the trouble.”

“Yes, baba!”

__

When they got back to the shrine, Sukuna moved the child so he was sitting on his shoulders as he began picking up the blankets from earlier. As he crouched down, he noticed the child was missing his bells. 

They must’ve fallen off when he was taken, he thought. 

Meanwhile, the child was swinging his feet back and forth. He seemed restless. “What is it?” the curse asked as he stood back up, folding the blanket and putting it back in place.

“Baba, something’s not right!” the child wailed.  

“What do you mean?” 

The child continued swinging his feet, bumping the balls of his feet against the curse’s chest. Sukuna glanced at his left foot. Humming, he took a hold of the child’s foot and brought him forward. 

“oh! Hello, baba!” Yuuji said as he faced Sukuna upside down, his arms and hair dangling off due to gravity. The child’s hair resembled more Sukuna’s in that position. “I think I know what you’re missing,” the curse said pensively as he stopped the kimono from sliding off the child’s knees. 

“Let’s go,” Sukuna said as he walked them outside the shrine, the child still upside down in his grasp. 

“Where are we going?” 

“To get some stuff” 

Near the gates of the shrine, Sukuna took a few minutes to determine the damage on the wood. It would require some sanding and a new paint job–not a lot of work. Despite its age, the wood had managed to remain strong and steady. 

“Baba! Can we climb that?” the child said enthusiastically, pointing to the head of the torii gate. Sukuna looked at the distance trying to look for something, and then looked up to the top of the gate. 

“Sure” 

Leaves rustled as they made way, and giggles echoed around the forest as the child was tossed up in the air, legs and arms spread wide as he tried to reach for the sun. Sukuna was already at the top of the gate when the child reached the top. Grabbing Yuuji from the back of his kimono, Sukuna looked off in the distance again trying to find what he was looking for. 

“Look baba! Light!”

He had found it. 

__

Traveling to a nearby town hadn’t proved to be difficult. It was a long distance away from where they lived, the few humans who had come near the mountain were almost always tourists or teenagers, but they never really reached the top where the shrine was located. They needed paint for the gate, and no one traveled to a mountain with buckets of paint, so the journey was necessary. Sukuna could’ve left the kid waiting in the shrine, but with the recent incident he was more weary of the number of times he left the kid alone. 

The town they found themselves in was rural in aspect with narrow streets and really steep staircases leading to houses and shops. Plants littered the sides and a few vehicles were seen every ten blocks or so. Sukuna only knew of the things from the few tourists he had seen, they’d sometimes come inside of them. They often placed them at the bottom of the mountain. He imagined they weren’t good enough for the rough ground of the mountain. 

Once they neared the shops lined down the street, finding a paint shop wasn’t difficult. The child was excited, jumping up and down in Sukuna’s grasp as this was his first time going somewhere else other than the forest. Eyes wide, he had tried to slip off of Sukuna’s grip to run up to a little statue, strangely similar to the one on the shrine, except this had been smaller. “baba!” the kid had yelled, stretching his small arm towards the figure. Sukuna only glanced at the statue and moved towards the shop instead. 

“Welcome! What can I do for you today?” the clerk said as the two entered the small shop. 

“Three buckets of red,” the curse said as they observed the colors displayed on the wall. 

While Sukuna had been paying for the paint, made possible from the courtesy of the previous teenagers whom he had dealt with, he had to let go of the child’s hand for a minute. When he turned around to look for the kid, he was nowhere to be seen. 

He was really considering putting a leash on the kid. 

Paint in hand, he left the store and looked for where the child might’ve gone off to. He hadn’t sensed any cursed energy so it was the least likely possibility. Unless it was another one of those weird nature curses, but he doubted so. In a town, it was more likely to encounter an average curse than the one like before. 

Sukuna remembered the statue the kid had been infatuated with and walked back where they had come from. From the corner of his eye he noticed a bundle of pink hair, and turned towards it; Yuuji was talking to an old woman. 

“Three of the red one,” Sukuna heard the child say as he got nearer. 

The woman was sitting outside in a chair surrounded by her plants, above her were wind chimes of multiple colors. Hearing the boy’s request she stood up and untied three of the dome-shaped chimes, handing them off to the boy with a smile before sitting back down in her chair. 

Yuuji reached for the inside of his sleeve and took out four wide leaves, handing them to the woman with a stretched arm. When the woman looked down at the child’s hand, she shook her head gently, indicating it wasn’t necessary, but Yuuji simply looked down at his hand before sliding the leaves anyway on her lap. 

“Kid,” Sukuna said as he stopped beside the boy, “what are you up to now”

“Conducting business, baba”

Sukuna raised an eyebrow. 

“You must be the child’s father. You two look so much alike!” the elderly woman clasped her hands together with a smile. 

The curse only grunted, giving a short nod, before taking the boy’s hand and leaving. 

Yuuji waved goodbye, the bells clinking in his grasp. 

__

Back at the shrine, Sukuna sat Yuuji on the engawa while he tied the boy’s recent purchase on his left foot. Yuuji dangled his feet back and forth testing the material and smiling wide once he heard the familiar chime of the bells. 

“What are you doing with this, baba?” the child asked as he poked the buckets of paint beside him. 

“Paint that old thing at the front,” Sukuna said as he grabbed the handles and walked towards the gate, he had already finished fixing the wood. 

“Can I help?”. Sukuna nodded to the kid while putting down the paint and opening the lids. He would need brushes; Uraume might have left some somewhere inside the shrine when they finished setting up the shrine back then. They were always well organized, taking into account even the most unforeseeable of events, but the paint they had picked back then had turned into a murky black thing, and he prefered red. 

He wondered whether they had really taken his advice. But, knowing them, they were most likely in a nearby town waiting for word from his part for further instructions. 

“Wait here. I’ll go inside for a second,” Sukuna told the child. 

When he returned back outside, the first thing he noticed were the red blotches of paint printed along one of the foots of the gate, next to it a boy dripping with red paint, softly patting his hands on the wood. 

“Look baba! I’m painting the gate!” 

“The only thing you’ve managed to paint is yourself, brat” Sukuna said as he moved to pick up the boy, walking towards the shrine again, this time to wash off the paint from the child. 

“There,” he said, rinsing off the boy’s hair for the last time. At one point, Sukuna had to scrub roughly at the boy’s skin. The paint had already been drying on his legs when he had found him outside; it had been hard to remove, but he managed. 

Once dried and changed, the two went back outside to continue the paint job. “Let’s do this properly now,” Sukuna said as he handed a brush to the kid. 

The color was on the lighter side, perhaps a little too on the bright side for his taste. Deciding to darken the color, the curse cut through his arm’s skin with a sharp nail and let the blood trickle down to the buckets of paint. 

“Much better”. He motioned the boy to dip the brush to start painting. He was careful to paint over the section in the wood where the carved picture had been. The marks were still visible even over the red paint. 

Good enough, he thought while observing their finished work. 

“Look baba!” The boy had found two pebbles colored red, most likely from the blood he had used earlier. 

Yuuji placed the pebbles over his eyes; “Your eyes! I can have your eyes!”

“Come here,” Sukuna said with a fond smile, picking up the boy from the ground; huffing as the child hugged him from the front. 

Sukuna’s days of boredom had ended ever since the appearance of the child, and he found that he wouldn’t mind spending his days forward living like this, as troublesome as they may be. 

Chapter Text

The boy was lying on his back, humming to himself a little tune he heard once while shaking his left foot. The bells made a little jingle, and the sound brought comfort to him. 

A gust of wind passed by ruffling the pink locks. And the teenager turned to look where the wind was traveling. Leaves jumped from the ground. Following the movement; he looked at the statue standing in front: the figure was big, muscles littering every section of its body; body crouched, one of the four arms held a spear tightly in its grasp, a predatory smile on its face like it was ready to pounce. 

With a jump, Yuuji stood up from the engawa and walked towards the figure. Despite the time, the statue remained in good condition; the stone was smooth to the touch, yet it radiated with a roughness only possible for the King of Curses, and by extension, the stone statue created to represent him.

“Do you think I’ll ever be like that?” he asked. 

The curse looked at the teenager. The boy had been sitting besides him while he had been sensing for any cursed energy that approached the barrier. When he had confirmed there was nothing, he heard the movement of rustling on his side. His gaze was on the child as soon as he saw him climb the foot of the statue.

“‘Course not,” he snorted. 

The teenager raised a hand, tapping gently along the figure's arms like he was testing whether it was really made out of stone and not flesh. Noting the sturdiness of the stone, he hopped on top of one of the lower arms, his feet on the open palm, and reached for the one above to see if it held anything in his grasp. 

“I wanna be like you,” he said. Noticing the palm was empty, he placed his hand above it and held it on his own. 

Sukuna looked at the old statue. Its form was a long-away memory. It was him yet not at the same time. He didn’t hold any particular affection for the body, nor did he harbor any distaste for it. He was indifferent. Whether he was in a humanoid or a cursed form he didn’t care. But there was something about the boy so tenderly holding his previous form—the kind of reverence not one born out of fear or amazement, but out of something he couldn’t quite place, something soft. 

“Come,” he motioned the boy to sit beside him with a nod. 

“Uraume told me about you. They told me about your achievements and all about your tales!” the boy yelled as they jumped down from the statue, running towards the curse with a wide smile. 

“Since when are they so talkative,” Sukuna mused as Yuuji sat down. 

“They said you had all the women you wanted”. The boy looked at the tiles on the roof in thought, then turned to look at Sukuna, “What is a woman?” 

Sukuna looked straight ahead, thinking of what to tell the curious teenager. “They’re these loud and small things,” he ended up telling him. 

“Can you eat them?” 

The curse couldn’t restrain a smirk, a glint passing his eyes as he recalled his past with the creatures: women nestled beneath his feet trembling; it had been invigorating. “You definitely can. Yes,” he responded with a hint of amusement. That had been long ago. An image he no longer frequented, but one he didn’t mind coming back to with the turn of conversation. 

The boy jerked back, eyes wide in realization. “Like with a brother?!” He looked at Sukuna with bright innocent eyes. 

The curse coughed in laughter, “Yes. Like with a brother”. He looked to his side to see the expression on the kid, only to see the teenager fumble with the sleeves of his kimono, muttering ‘there’s a lot of things you can eat’ with awe. Sukuna continued laughing. 

After a few minutes, the teenager asked another question, and Sukuna shrugged, “You can if you want”. The boy had asked whether the same rules applied to women just as with a brother since they were both edible: “Should I also stay away from them?” the boy had asked. 

“But Yuuji, they can also be companions. Some take them as so. You can build a life with them if you desire,“ Sukuna said, laughter gone to give the boy a more serious answer. 

The teenager hummed in thought, looking ahead at the tall stone figure before sliding closer to the curse. “But I already have you, baba”.

The engawa was silent for a moment. Sukuna looked at the boy beside him; he was already so big. The child never stopped liking being carried around, jumping at him every instance he got the chance to, not bothering to ask. He never did mind, the child might have grown taller and heavier, but to Sukuna that meant nothing; he was still as light as he remembered. Sukuna would hold him the times he wanted. 

“If you say so” The curse said, ruffling the boy's mop of pink hair. 

Leaning towards his touch with a smile, the boy looked ahead, eyes back on the stone statue. Noticing this, Sukuna sighed. “Want to see something?” 

Yuuji’s gaze turned to the curse, “See what?”

Sukuna reached to the boy’s cheek, tracing the marks beneath his eyes. They had grown larger as well, a lot more similar in size to his own. “These,” he said, pointing to his own marks. As soon as he finished saying that the marks gained depth, slits cutting across, blinking as another pair of crimson eyes appeared. 

“Woah!” The boy hopped forward prodding at the curse’s new pair of eyes. His eyes darted up and down, undecided on what pair to focus on. “Will I also be able to that baba?” The teenager said as he brought up his hands to his cheeks, sliding his fingers over his marks. 

The boy was as easily excited as always, carrying with him a lightness only possible for a boy like him. Sukuna wondered what other adventures would come their way in their little hidden part of their world. Would the kid continue growing? Would he stay as innocent as the day he was found? He would have to wait and find out. Time he had an infinite amount of. They’ll figure things out as they go. 

“Of course, you’re my kid after all”