She didn't see either of them move. One moment, she'd heard that chant, uttered by something dark, ancient, and evil; making the very air itself thick with cursed pressure with its mere speech, the oppressive aura left by those fingers seeming like an unpleasant scent in comparison.
The next second, no, the next moment in time, Toji- who was just then, slouched over, his face creased with worry and posture like a kicked puppy- had disappeared, Megumi staring with wide eyes as his father's fist ploughed ahead just inches away from his own nose, Toji's fist driving itself into the underside of Yuji Itadori's jaw, .
No. Not Yuji Itadori. In an instant, Itadori's casual, spikish aura had been replaced with that of a timeless evil , a dark, horrid cursed energy all but exploding from every orifice of his body in constant, violent bursts, like the uncontrolled spray of blood from a severed artery. Ryomen Sukuna's tattoos had not even finished manifesting before Toji punched him clear across the room, his teenage vessel obliterating the tiled floor with each violent bounce.
"RUN!" Toji roared, the veins in his neck bulging as he immediately assumed raised his fists for battle; placing himself between the ancient curse and the two teenagers. Maki's mouth hung open, her loathing for the man forgotten in favour of thinking would she still be alive, right now, if Toji hadn't moved?
"S-Sukuna!" Megumi acted, spinning on his heel as his cursed energy swelled. He raised his arms, the idiot making the hand signs to summon his shikigami as if that were of any use against the King of Curses! "That's- no, Itadori can suppress him, how-"
Maki sprung into action, clapping a hand over Megumi's shoulder as she yelled in his ear. "You want to fight him!? Run, you idiot!" With that, she roughly tugged the younger Fushiguro by the arm, making for a staircase that led deeper into the metro as Toji had, ever so thoughtfully, decked Sukuna in the direction of the exit.
The moss haired teenager suddenly felt the immediate threat of death hovering over her, its frigid teeth tickling the sides of her neck; like a jaguar's jaws on the jugular of its prey. She looked over her shoulder, and wondered how that goofy, unserious pink haired boy in the year below her own could ever wear an expression so terror inducing; features draped in an impenetrable shadow, except for its two eyes, pin-prick dots of blood red piercing through every layer of composure and security she had. That face, that demonic visage that had to have been taken from the depths of hell because nothing in this world was capable of instilling such terror into the human heart, was not even focused on her, but the boy next to her.
Though, that demon did not make it any closer, a large, powerful hand clutching its ankle with a grip that could press iron, arresting its momentum midair. Toji's eyes were two narrow slits between a curtain of raven hair, slanted so dangerously she could only liken it to the gaze of a viper; with its prey trapped within the unforgiving clutch of its jaws.
Then, Sukuna was thrown in an arc, Toji slamming him into the ground once, twice, thrice, before throwing him into the wall with enough force to flicker the lights; sparks exploding overhead as the structural integrity of the tunnel was threatened by his power.
"RUN!" Toji reiterated, his voice low and guttural; that scroll of fingers clenched tightly in one hand while the other wound up another destructive blow.
How many fingers had Itadori eaten, leading up to that point? Maki faintly remembered that it was something like three, or four at the most.
The fingers. Ten of them, right there- if Sukuna ingested those fingers, it was over. Shibuya would be lost. His aura, the unfiltered stench of his power, filling the room with such terrible miasma each step felt like trekking through molasses, was this awful at only the fraction of power he had now. There was no doubt in her mind, Shibuya- no, Japan would be lost, if Sukuna obtained an additional half of his full strength.
Maki could not find it in herself to feel ashamed, when she impulsively thought that maybe the higher ups were right. Maybe the order to postpone Itadori's sentence was foolish. Maybe the pink haired boy, all bright and sunshine, unable to hurt a fly, should have been executed the moment he allowed that ancient, terrible evil to reincarnate.
Would Toji be enough to stop him, even at this state?
Now it was Megumi pulling Maki along, the Ten Shadows user now realising that this fight was way beyond them. "R-run," the teenager rasped, his breath stolen by the horror induced by Sukuna's mere presence. "We- we have to run."
The sound of battle erupted behind them, sending violent gusts of wind throughout the hallway that was much too small to contain the ferocity of the clash between two legendary sorcerers. Dust and debris fell from the ceiling, each collision of force between the two behind them sending a tremor through the entire underground itself. Megumi and Maki did not dare to look back, running at full tilt as both teenagers placed all their faith in the hope that Toji could, at the very least, hold Sukuna back long enough for them to… to…
…to do what? Was it not just a matter of time, now?
"This has happened before," Megumi coughed out, once the air was easier to breathe. Maki's head snapped to her side, engaging the shikigami user with an intense stare.
"Elaborate."
"When we were sent on that mission, the detention centre where Itadori had… died, Sukuna managed to seize control of him that time too." The words came out like a confession, like something Megumi had hidden away, presumably to protect his friend. In any other case, Maki would find it honourable. But now, her veins laced with ice and terror raising every hair on her body, Maki could only respond with anger.
"Y-you, you didn't think to tell anyone that!? We have all been operating under the pretence that Itadori could keep a handle on Sukuna, with- with no issue! That's the only reason they have not executed him yet!"
"No! They, no, they wouldn't understand!" The black-haired sorcerer exclaimed, his brows set into a fierce expression. "Listen! Itadori lost control back then, but that was only when he was beaten to the verge of death! Any other time, his handle over Sukuna is absolute!"
Maki blinked her eyes a few times, her irrational rage dying out before resurging once again. "Why didn't you START with that, you dramatic idiot!"
Ignoring her outburst, Megumi continued. "Just now, where I'd found him; he was battered to a pulp; just like he must have been at the detention centre. I think… I think Sukuna is able to assume control at times that Itadori has been beaten into unconsciousness."
The Zenin swordswoman stayed silent, waiting for Megumi to present the good news to this; if there were any. If Sukuna had gained control of Itadori's body back during that mission, and Megumi Fushiguro was still here to tell that tale, then surely, surely, that meant that there was some upside to this revelation. "...Well? How did you get out of that situation the last time?"
"Itadori." Megumi said, his tone laden with surety. That was how Megumi survived Sukuna at the detention centre, afterall. "It's all on him. He has to wake up."
The two teenagers ran through the winding maze that constituted Shibuya's underground transit network. They rushed past obvious signs of battle; blood coating the walls, transfigured and ordinary corpses alike, alongside the countless grievous fractures in the ground, structural damages that would cost the public billions of yen.
The pair charged past a row of commercial booths and kiosks, desolate in the wake of the catastrophe wrought by those curses.They passed some photo booth, its curtains tugged closed, Maki's mind racing as she questioned the greater purpose of this attack.
Was it all meant to draw in Gojo Satoru, and seal him? Was all this destruction, and the losses that group had incurred, all to seal the strongest? Or was there some deeper, underlying goal behind the seemingly senseless destruction? Toji had terminated two of the four disaster curses, whilst the plant one she and Megumi had fought at the exchange event was also reported to have been exorcised by Gojo before his sealing. That only left one, right?
Chances were, with all but one of the disaster curses exorcised, the group behind the attack had already cut their losses and retreated with their sensei in tow. Leaving the sorcerers with the mother of all shitshows to deal with, here in Shibuya.
Maki did not at all envy what administrative elements of the Jujutsu world were going to be responsible for dealing with the aftermath of this attack.
So, if Megumi was correct, and Itadori could regain control over his body in just a matter of time… Then one way or another, they would win, right? Sure, they'd be down the strongest sorcerer to date , but would that group be capable of ever striking them again, down to a single disaster curse and whatever curse users were pulling the strings of the attack?
Maybe not, but Maki let the optimism lift her spirits regardless; the stress of multiple near death experiences back to back was beginning to wear on her.
And Toji. Where the fuck did that man come from?
Megumi Fushiguro wasn't a very open teenager, and very few knew of his family matters; but Maki somehow found herself within that select few. She knew that Megumi's mother had died when he was young, just a baby, and his shitty father was barely present in the first few years of his life, at some point marrying Megumi's step mother before they both had suddenly disappeared without a trace, leaving Megumi under the care of his step sister.
Both children had spent a matter of years alone, supported only by the kindness of an elderly woman who lived in the flat across from their own. Until Satoru Gojo had decided, seemingly on a whim, to whisk away Megumi and his sister once the Zenin clan had made the move to incorporate the two into their ranks.
The Zenins had been furious with the Gojo clan over it. The Ten Shadows technique was to the Zenin clan, what the Limitless and Six Eyes was to the Gojo. And Satoru Gojo, already the strongest man on Earth, had decided to steal away that talent that they believed was their bloodright.
That was something she could personally testify to. She could remember it even then, the tension that thickened the very air at the Zenin compound, as the upper echelons of the clan bickered on the issue; on whether the Ten Shadows technique was worth challenging the Honoured One over. Even if it came to blood.
It was a very close thing.
Maki butt heads with their immature sensei at just about every chance she got, yet she could begrudgingly admit; taking in Megumi Fushiguro and his sister, saving them from a lifetime of clan misery and manipulation, was perhaps one of the most admirable things she'd seen from anyone in her life.
So, Megumi's useless dad. He was back. Why?
Maki had once pressed Gojo on the whereabouts of Megumi's father, wondering where that heap of trash must have fled to after abandoning his children. If he would try coming back if he ever found out the value of Megumi's technique. Gojo had laughed it off then, saying the man was "long gone," and "not a problem anymore at all, really!"
And now that man had appeared in the wake of the most catastrophic cursed incident recorded in modern Japan, a whirl storm of power and violence as he easily eviscerated half of the enemy's powerbase on his own. He certainly did not seem like the unremarkable, unimportant figure Gojo had said he was.
How does a man like that stay under the radar of Jujutsu society for years?
For a while, Maki had half-suspected that Gojo had actually killed Megumi's father. That would certainly explain whatever sense of responsibility he felt he owed to Megumi and his sister, enough to risk war with the Zenin clan over.
Well, seeing as the man was alive and kicking, she couldn't have been further from the truth. (Had Gojo been covering for him, this whole time?)
So, why? Why did that man abandon Megumi, if he seemingly cared so much? Was that whole show just some kind of charade, carefully crafted bullshit that was so expertly executed that Maki, despite all her disgust towards this monster of a father who had abandoned his children when they were hardly babies , feel… Jealous? Of what?
"Don't care if I don't deserve it. I'm going to protect my boy, non-negotiable."
(She couldn't help but envision some faceless father speaking that way about her , seeing her as something more than a curse, a blemish on the clan record. As if she were a precious treasure, a blessing worth protecting. She wished she had a father that cared half as much as Toji was able to pretend.)
Whatever it was; it didn't erase the fact that Toji had abandoned his children. It wasn't as if he could erase the childhood he was absent for, the years he'd missed from his childrens' lives. Megumi didn't owe the man his mere attention, nevermind anything else.
A bead of sweat suddenly trickled into Maki's brow. Megumi, despite his faults, was a very astute, and capable sorcerer. He was competent beyond his years; eventually… Eventually, even he would see the visual similarities between himself and his father.
It was disconcerting actually, how alike the two looked now that she thought of it. Maki had been so absorbed of her awe of the man, upon his vicious entrance, and his...admittably admirable performance defending evacuating civilians against the volcano curse, that she hadn't stopped to think how the guy really did look like a bigger, meaner Megumi Fushiguro with more agreeable hair. They actually looked… really, uncannily similar; how old would Toji's dad be again?
At least in his late thirties, right?
Toji hadn't looked a day over twenty five.
"Say…" Megumi spoke, for the first time in several long, uninterrupted minutes. "What was with you, back there? I left to go check on Itadori's condition, and when I came back, you both were at each other's throats."
Then Megumi swallowed, fixing Maki with a serious expression. "What did that man say? Is he… Is he an enemy? "
'He's your shitty deadbeat excuse for a father,' Maki wanted to say, but the words stuck to the back of her throat. "U-uh." She said intelligently, unable to come up with… anything.
Luckily, she was saved from that awkward topic, as the two had made it to the bottom of a stairwell; an army of the transfigured humans left behind by the patchwork curse filling the sublevel. "Look alive, Fushiguro!" Maki yelled, unfolding the Playful Cloud as she let the heat of battle thaw the ice in her veins.
The shikigami user clicked his tongue, expanding his shadow as his Divine Dog: Totality emerged from the inky darkness generated from his technique. Without further ado, the two sorcerers leapt into the fray, Megumi using his shikigami to carve his way through the horde with Maki utilising her superior athleticism and strength against the mundane transfigured foes. She was a whirlwind of death, the Playful Cloud in her hands brutalising the soft, inflated flesh of the transfigured.
She thought of Toji's unstoppable strikes, his attacks so unnaturally fast that there was nothing his enemies could do but watch as they were reduced to red mist. Maki was physically incapable of blitzing her enemies the same way, forced to bob and wave through the net of limbs that stretched out to end her comparatively fragile life. Each monster required multiple blows to destroy, the Playful Cloud , while powerful, unsuited to cutting down a horde of creatures set on trapping her within their mutated grasp.
The sensation of her weapon bludgeoning her enemies was unnerving, but Maki could not let the hint of revulsion tickling the back of her throat slow her attacks, each carefully calculated movement the difference between an enemy down or being grabbed by an oversized monstrosity, and killed.
Speaking of the devil, a massive hand wrapped itself around her lower leg while she was midair, prompting her to curse out loud as the monster swung her into the ground with tremendous force. The tiled floor shattered like glass under her back, driving the breath from her lungs as she fought against the flood of limbs suddenly falling down upon her.
Then, in a flurry of movement, Megumi's summon had reduced the crowd around her to ribbons- red blood exploding outward in a gory display as the Divine Dog swept Maki from the ground and placed her at Megumi's side.
"Maki-senpai! Are you injured?"
Maki swung a fist into her ribs, forcing her diaphragm to do a forced reset as she took in a pained breath. "Just fine," She choked, cursing her body, her weakness, her lack of cursed energy, everything!
"You have to focus, there's still half of them left!" Megumi raised his fists, rushing forth with his summon to mow down the crowd with twice the damage Maki had inflicted; even with the same cursed weapon Toji used to shred two special grade curses in a row.
Was this all just a pipe dream? She could count several instances in this night alone where she would have been killed, if it weren't for the narrow intervention of a stronger, more capable sorcerer each and every time. Was Maki… Was it really possible for her to become a sorcerer, with neither the raw strength nor the cursed technique necessary to protect herself?
With a start, Maki moved; strafing to the side as she narrowly avoided the tackle of another amorphous creature, its flabby arms catching the ends of her hair as she dodged another sudden attack. With no choice, Maki spun the Playful Cloud with furious speed, building centrifugal force until she was able to pummel the transfigured humans charging her one by one.
No time to think, no room to breathe, Maki swung the special grade weapon with a focused fervour, each crippling thud against soft flesh, every crunch of bone erving to heighten the strength she forced into her limbs; an involuntary yell tearing itself from her throat as she pushed the unrelenting horde of mutated monstrosities back with nothing but cursed nunchucks and sheer spite.
The final monster of the pack charged towards Maki on six bovine limbs, trampling the bodies of its deceased brethren as its carnivorous mouth, splitting its still human head in two at the frontal lobe, opened wide in attack.
Maki met its charge, ducking underneath biting jaws and throwing her shoulder against the muscled chest of the monstrous creature. Her feet dug into the floor, pulverising it beneath her heels as she forced the monster to halt.
Then, she wrapped her arms over and around its long, gross neck. The monster strained itself against her hold, but Maki's grip was ironclad- another hoarse battlecry announcing her attack as she lifted the transfigured human, ten times her size, and suplexed it into the floor.
Spiderweb fractures exploded from the point at which she buried the creature, its limbs flailing as it failed to remove itself from the Earth. Without skipping a beat, Maki spun the Playful Cloud, wrapping its chains around the creature's neck, and pouring all her strength into the most brutal choke she could muster- the roar she produced sounding less human than the monster's own grotesque grunts and squeals- until the thing's head exploded like a melon under a hydraulic press.
She shoved the creature's upper half off of herself, her chest rising and setting with exertion as she detachedly stared at the ceiling.
"I did it," She whispered, not to anyone specific.
"We did it, Maki-senpai," Megumi, ever the tone-deaf man, appeared before her, his hand raised in offering. There was the slightest of smiles on his face, some kind of pride making itself visible there. Maki wished she could feel the same way, yet the victory felt hollow. The dark blood on her hands and face stuck to her skin uncomfortably, filling her with a sense of discomfort rather than glory.
Nonetheless, Maki raised her hand to take Megumi's in her own, before she raised her eyes to the figure behind him.
Without warning, Maki tossed Megumi several feet away, before detonating the floor beneath her as she too, took the air.
Megumi, to his credit, didn't admonish Maki or make any unnecessary remarks- immediately landing on his feet and assuming a battle stance as his upperclassman landed right at his side. Maki spun the Playful Cloud, building momentum as she appraised their newest opponent. Shit. She was completely wrong, before. "Itadori told me about this one," Megumi murmured, under his breath. "No matter what you do, do not let it touch you. Or its game over. "
A sickening blast of cursed energy rolled off the fourth disaster curse in waves, embroiling it with a menacing aura that stunk of rot and death. The patchwork curse, its greyish blue hair tied off into three, pompous strands. Stitches criss crossed its face, separating its multicoloured eyes; one a metallic silver, the other a deep, soulless blue.
The curse giggled, its voice a wretched noise; she could liken it to nails on chalkboard. "Oh! I thought I'd suppressed my cursed energy just then! I guess you can see curses, even with that little bit of cursed energy! My bad!" And then, like a child, the curse rubbed the back of its head; looking genuinely apologetic.
Megumi and Maki shared a glance, both their faces stricken with anxiety. The shikigami user was nearing his limit; his cursed energy reserves expended from the non stop fighting he's had to endure since the night had started. Maki was not in any better state, the physical exhaustion beginning to wear at her muscles even despite the rush of adrenaline generated by her fight or flight instinct. And of all the curses they could fight, they had to fight the one with a lethal one-hit technique.
"Huh, you're weird!" The curse spoke again, holding its chin in its hand as it assumed a pose that was so human it unsettled her. "Barely any cursed energy, but you're way stronger than you should be! And your soul, it's even weirder! I haven't seen anything like it! Why're you missing half of it? No- that's not right, do you have a clone by any chance?"
Maki blinked. What?
"Hah, whatever! I wonder if it'll snap quicker than the others? I've never experimented with a stretched soul before!"
And with that, the patchwork curse lurched forward with terrifying speed, its limbs moving erratically, beyond what should be organically feasible. Two blades sprung out from its arms, each heralding the promise of death upon contact. Maki brought the Playful Cloud up to parry the barrage of slashes Mahito launched, each blow forcing her a step backward as she fought to keep the curse's skin from touching hers.
Megumi shot into action, his toad shikigami binding both of Mahito's arms while the sorcerer himself dove forward, slamming his heel into its stomach while Maki swung her weapon into the side of its head, a loud crack! reverberating throughout the subway; the dual attacks forcing it several feet back.
Maki stumbled back, standing at rank next to her underclassman as they both observed the curse, pressing a hand to its temple, chortling grossly as it shook its head like a dog. Then, it stared both of them in eyes, sticking out its tongue as it shook jazz hands towards the pair. "Bleh! No damage! You guys are really weak!"
Then it rushed them again, seemingly with the same arm-blades; only to rapidly metamorphose mid-charge, its limbs becoming long, deadly chains that tore ridges through the walls and ceiling as they whipped towards Megumi and Maki. Both sorcerers hardly managed to dodge, leaping out of the way of the destructive whip just before it reduced their previous position to rubble.
Maki flipped through the air, calculating her landing only to watch as a massive, worm-like creature hurtled through the subway; its massive maw opened in preparation to swallow her whole. "What the FUCK!?" She screeched, curling up as she braced for impact; just for Megumi's toads to rip her from the air- saving her from sudden ingestion.
She had no chance to even thank him, the pair once again pushed back as the patchwork curse charged them with a diverse arsenal attacks; its limbs constantly changing and shifting between different tools of murder; rendering their surroundings into debris whilst it extracted small nuggets from its clothing, rapidly transforming them into grotesque objects of destruction to control the battlefield.
Maki dashed under the swing of a giant arm, rushing towards the patchwork spirit to deliver a blow- only for a wall of flesh to explode outward from nothing on her right, sending her flying into the opposite end of the room. Her head slammed into the wall, stars exploding in her vision while she fought to retain her senses, forcing her legs to instinctually dive forwards, narrowly avoiding a chainsaw-like appendage from bisecting her where she last stood.
Megumi attempted to pressure the curse to relieve Maki of its offensive, sending his Divine Dog: Totality to harass it with a barrage of slashes. The shikigami's claws ripped through the curse's array of organic weapons, momentarily keeping up with it physically as the curse responded to the attack with exhilarated laughter.
The Ten Shadow's user rushed to Maki's side, pressing her against his side as he helped her stand. "Can you move?" He queried, his voice belying the undercurrent of stress despite his best efforts.
Maki groaned, attempting to respond only for an unintelligible slew of words to come out instead. She grit her teeth, willing her mind to get itself straight before trying again. "Ugh, I- Yes, yeah I can move."
The pair looked up, watching in horror as Megumi's summoned was impaled against the wall by another one of the curse's miniature weapons (a part of Maki wondered, what significance those small multicoloured objects bore to the curse's technique), forcing the shikigami user to release the summon lest it be permanently destroyed.
"Awwwhhh!" The curse whined, its lip jutting outward in a childish pout. "I was so close to figuring it out! Hey, did you know those creatures you use have a soul? Isn't that crazy? Hey, hey! Doesn't that make you some crazy, evil puppet master?"
The pair of sorcerers assumed battle positions again, realising with dread that the curse had blocked all exits with those strange, worm-like creatures it was capable of releasing.
"Ehh, it's okay! I don't judge, I've done way worse!" And with a wave of its arms, several shifting masses of flesh detonated outward from the walls, gyrating rapidly as they tore grooves alongside the subway's flooring.
The two sorcerers could only flee, leaping and dodging the continuous assault of massive creatures; one so large it took up the entire train track as it barreled through the subway tunnel Maki and Megumi intended to use for escape. The two narrowly dodged its charge, landing onto the platform, just as the patchwork curse began walking up to them, almost casually.
Around the combatants, a ring of transfigured worms circled incessantly, each rotation bringing them closer and closer; a wall of flesh that marked the boundary of battle.
Maki's heart thundered in her chest, exhaustion making her limbs feel as though they were made of lead. She could only assume Megumi was in no better state, no, he was likely worse; having fought against that special grade's domain twice earlier.
There was no way they could win. Not against this special grade, with an instant-kill technique and immense reserves of cursed energy. No escape, no plan, nothing.
She wondered then, should she tell Megumi of his father? The fact that he met the guy who abandoned him and his sister back when they were babies, like, ten minutes ago?
No, she shook her head, even as the curse neared, the solemn reminder of death hanging over her head. What point would it serve? To grieve him now, when they were pushed to the brink?
Honestly, Megumi didn't quite seem the type to find solace in closure, or anything like that.
"Maki-senpai," He said, his eyes hidden behind a drape of black hair, his mouth set in a firm line. "I am sorry. I... I will try to create an opening for you, but I can't guarantee..."
Ah. So he was going to use that. She'd admonish him any other time, but truly, at this point she saw no other course of action.
"Go ahead," She muttered, hanging her head back. "Damn it. Didn't think it was going to… end like this."
"Do you two need a moment?" The curse chimed in, interlocking its hands as it rocked back and forth on its toes, mocking them as it drew closer. The ring of worms was closing in, drawing closer with each second.
Megumi raised his hands, assuming a summoning pose as his cursed energy began to surge exponentially. "There hasn't ever been… a single sorcerer in jujutsu history whose managed to subjugate this one."
Maki breathed. In, and out. She wondered what Mai was doing right now.
The curse spirit only seemed to smile with glee, its eyes gleaming as it waited to see whatever ace Megumi had up his sleeve.
"With this treasure… I summon…!"
Then suddenly, a gross noise erupted from behind the wall of rotating worms; the unmistakable sound of gore splattering against the walls and floor. The noise stopped Megumi's chant cold, Maki pausing her final thoughts as she watched the wall of rotating flesh halt.
Another gross squelch came from the other side, and the worm visibly lurched, deformed under the force of whatever attacked it from the outside.
"Oh?" The curse grinned, all teeth as it too watched the occurrence with excitement.
Then suddenly, without warning and totally unlike the previous blows, the worm was totally eviscerated in an explosion of dark energy, crimson lightning igniting the very air itself as sparks flew across the air alongside a massive shockwave, reducing the patchwork curse's worm summon into bloody chunks and sending the patchwork cursed spirit, who had been closest to the attack, hurtling head over heels several metres away.
Gore rained from the explosion, sticking to the walls and ceiling as it came down in pieces. Maki felt her heart soar at the sight of an ally, the special grade breaking out into loud laughter as it pointed towards the new arrival.
" You! It's you again!"
A broad, dependable figure, bandages bound to his head and his arms, stood under the spilling carnage wrought by his Black Flash, utterly unshaken. The man's normally well kept blonde hair was in disarray, ruffled and messy- whatever strands not slicked down by blood stuck out randomly in a wild visage- serving as curtains that shadowed his dark eyes menacingly. His blue dress shirt, worn and torn by prior battle and sleeves ripped away, was utterly ruined by the mess made from the worm's remains. His cleaver, dripping with blood, was clutched tightly in his dominant hand, the other wrapped in his yellow polka dotted tie as cursed energy swelled off of that tightly clenched fist with boiling intensity. Angry veins ran like wires over his exposed forearms, showcasing the impressive power contained within as the man's cursed energy pulsed off of his form with ferocity .
Maki and Megumi cried out in unison, their voices filled with hope ;
"Nanami!"
Every cell in his body was filled with lightning. There was no stillness at any point since he'd heard that chant; his body had moved before he'd even mentally registered the words. It was as if it were certain that he would die if he halted, for even a second.
Once the kids had run far enough away, Toji had flung himself at Sukuna with just about everything he had; his flight tearing up anything that wasn't welded to the floor. His hand, only one free as the other held ten of Sukuna's fingers, took in fist-fulls of Yuji's, or rather Sukuna's, collar, tearing him off the floor before pitching him into the ceiling with such raw force it caused sections of the Earth above to collapse into the subway, the lights exploding as the sublevel's electric grid was rendered utterly destroyed.
Toji launched himself from the ground, collapsing the floor beneath him as well as he bodily rammed into Sukuna, driving them through another floor all together. He slammed his fist into Sukuna's face in a rapid barrage of blows, not letting up even as the two tore through an entire slab of Earth, the neon lights of yet another sublevel washing over his form as he blasted the King of Curses into a wall with a vicious backfist.
The lights flickered, the damage caused by the pair's entrance threatened the electricity on this level as well. Toji took the moment to breathe, for the first time since Sukuna had assumed control. His kid, his kid is safe, Megumi got away, Megumi is safe. Breathe.
His heart didn't slow at all. Sukuna, a terrible presence surrounding him like a thick miasma straight from the depths of Hell itself, as if the King of Curses were himself a glimpse into the infernal resting place for sinners. A promise of death, of destruction, of torture. But none of it mattered to Toji, his heart racing not from fear, but from vicious, overwhelming parental instinct.
The blood rushed through his veins with such ferocity each beat of his heart felt as if it would take him off his feet. His chest felt it could explode with the amount of raw energy pulsing through every muscle in his body, running through him like an electric current.
The King of Curses seemed to almost disintegrate into thin air, with the speed he moved to engage. Tiles from the floor and ceiling were torn asunder by his movement, his claws outstretched as he made a leap for Toji. The taller man met the charge, fisting Sukuna by his collar and burying him into the Earth with the mother of all overhead throws. Then, he felt a palm touch his leg, and for a moment Toji remembered Sukuna's Shrine technique. He pictured its activation in his head, a spike of panic surging through his chest as he imagined his leg being severed at the thigh.
With a split second reaction speed, his leg blurred forward to make contact with Sukuna's stomach, carving a long trench through the room as the strongest sorcerer in history's body was blown into the other side of the sublevel.
'He could have lopped off my leg, just then,' Toji realised, both horror and confusion racing through his head at the fact. 'Why didn't he?'
It wasn't even a second gone by, but Sukuna had reduced his previous spot to dust as he rushed towards Toji; his speed so great it took genuine concentration to track. Toji stood his ground, squaring his shoulders and widening his stance with a roar as he cocked a fist back.
But Sukuna did not target Toji, rather, the King of Curses lunged for the scroll clutched tightly within the grip of his right hand.
'Oh. OH. '
Almost nonchalantly, Toji ripped the scroll away from Sukuna's flight path, sidestepping him entirely as the curse slid several metres away in a desperate bid to halt his momentum. Toji looked over his shoulder, his gaze utterly cold as he waited and observed Sukuna's next move.
The King of Curses clicked his tongue, before raising an arm and uttering a chant.
"Dismantle."
Toji stood perfectly still, as a flurry of slashes, terrifying in the way they instantly and totally tore through his surroundings, reducing any and everything they spawned upon to nothing. Not a single scratch appeared on Toji himself.
"Hah," Toji huffed, a manic grin slowly pulling at the corners of his mouth. "Hahah, hah,"
Then suddenly, a hysterical laughter ripped its way from his throat, exploding outward as he failed to contain the boisterous outburst. Hysteria blurred the edges of his vision, making him throw his head back to laugh even harder, each insane belt of laughter louder than the last.
'He can't hurt me,' Toji remembered, the terms of Sukuna and Yuji's binding vow returning to him in a sudden burst of clarity. 'He can't touch me.'
And just like that, the murderous haze that had wrapped itself over Toji's sight and had his heart in a chokehold seemed to disperse.
"What's wrong, oh King of Curses!?" Toji all but screamed, tears of laughter building in the corners of his eyes. "All those years as a finger made your aim rusty or something!?"
The curse, wearing Yuji Itadori's face, stiffened; his eyes narrowing into a positively intimidating expression. Toji's heart soared.
"I'll give you this one chance." Sukuna stretched out an arm, his hand opened expectantly. "Hand over those fingers, and I'll let you live."
"Huh? These fingers?" Toji queried, unfolding the scroll to reveal that assortment of ten mummified fingers, spilling a pungent aura into the air like crude oil into water. Sukuna's pupils constricted into two, bright red pinpricks, as Toji stuck out his tongue, one finger tugging down at his eyelid in tease. "Come and get 'em."
Sukuna seemed to reappear in front of him the next moment, again reducing that half of the room to rubble and debris as the air pressure fought to catch up with his insane speed. In one move, Toji rolled the parchment shut again, before catching the King of Curses by his neck and slamming him into the ground with tremendous power once more.
Not letting go, Toji pushed a knee onto Sukuna's chest, before rocking him with a punch that utterly destroyed the ground they lay on, a web of cracks erupting from their position. Sukuna's arm snapped outwards, reaching for the scroll in Toji's grasp and receiving another blow to the jaw for his troubles.
"Dismantle!"
The ceiling suddenly began to collapse, as Sukuna's technique tore through layers of concrete and Earth. Toji leapt off of Sukuna, narrowly dodging falling debris as he jumped and punched his way to the surface; his single fist reducing any oncoming projectile to dust.
He clung to a slab of falling debris, leaping off of it with such force that it broke into several pieces as he shot through the rain of concrete, breaking through the Earth as he once again made it back to street level. Toji hung in the air for a moment, turning his eyes downward to see Sukuna's form whistling through the air on a straight trajectory for himself.
Toji grinned viciously, bunching up his fist and hammering it into Sukuna's head, an explosive shockwave erupting from the point of contact as he sent the King of Curses flying into an office, an entire story's worth of windows shattering from the impact.
He adjusted himself midair, hopping from streetlight to streetlight and jumping through the window he'd broken, landing in an empty office. Sukuna stood at the other end of the office, standing menacingly with his fists bunched up and two crimson eyes piercing through the darkness. He looked extremely angry.
"Yikes, look at all these damages." Toji huffed, examining an entire street collapsed into the metro below as a result of their brief scuffle. "You know the public's taxes are gonna have to pay for this, right? You truly are the enemy of the common man, how evil."
Sukuna appeared before him again, but was sent hurtling away with a disrespectful kick to his stomach, several cubicles destroyed in his wake.
"Ahh, it's a real ego booster kickin' you around like this, but y'know, you haven't landed a single hit on me!" Toji scratched his chin, tilting his head mockingly as he continued to berate the King of Curses. "Yeah… Yeah, I'm good but I'm not that good. So, I'm thinking that maybe the brat has a tighter leash on you than I thought."
Sukuna pulled himself off of the pile of destroyed desks he was laid on, a positively livid expression contorting his face.
"Let me guess- Kid got you to agree to not putting your hands on anyone when you take over?" Toji smirked, one thumb pressed against his chin as he bared his teeth. Sukuna's eyes widened minutely, an imperceptible twitch to anyone other than Toji Fushiguro. A cocky grin overtook his face. "Oh? Was I right on the mark?"
Those eyes, unblinking in the darkness of the abandoned office space, seemed to narrow into slits, pupils trembling ever so slightly with rage. Perfect, he was losing his composure.
"...Also, if you ask me? A guy livin' inside another guy? Kinda suspect."
And somehow that did the trick, as Sukuna launched himself from the other side of the room, his index and middle finger pointed outward towards Toji as he blew up every piece of furniture in his path. Was he trying to use that forced unconsciousness move that Gojo had once used on Yuji?
Toji snapped his hand out to grab Sukuna by the wrist, intercepting the oncoming hand, before catapulting him outside the open window with blinding speed. He then blasted off the carpeted floor, broken glass billowing from his leap as he landed a whip-like kick to Sukuna's form, launching the ancient sorcerer up even further up into the city skyline.
'How exhilarating,' Toji thought, the wind in his hair as his inhumanly powerful legs carried him further and further up a skyscraper, heels carving into steel as he rapidly pursued the King of Curses. Glass buckled and shattered under the power of his dash, somehow quick enough to catch up to the King of Curse's flight path. 'How invigorating!'
Then, with another leap that reduced a sizable radius of glass and steel into broken shards , Toji appeared in front of the King of Curses, greeting him with the heartiest of smiles as he wrapped a large hand around Sukuna's face.
Sukuna's eyes were wide and furious between the gaps of his fingers, as he then began to plummet dozens of metres towards the open rooftop of yet another office building. The two, with the built up momentum of a bullet train, crashed through the rooftop and then all of its stories; each layer of concrete and metal collapsing under the force of Toji cushioning his descent with Sukuna's head. Every window of the building was blown out by the severe force of the meteor-like impact, the very Earth itself shaking as they impacted the final floor. Moonlight streamed into the blown apart office lobby, the moon shining directly overhead through the continuous hole carved by Sukuna's body.
Debris lay around the two, Sukuna's battered form- healing, because of that broken ass Reverse Cursed Technique, strewn over the rubble whilst Toji stood over him, looking at the King of Curses from below his nose, hands in his pockets.
There was a lot of humour, an irony that only he could recognise, to be seen in this position, Toji realised. And with a deep, throaty chuckle, he decided to bring the scene to life .
"The moonlight's illumination…" He began, grinning sharply as Sukuna rose to his knees, staring into space with quiet wrath. "...Makes it easier to see how pathetic you are. "
Sukuna did not move, and somehow that sort of indecipherable, invisible rage was much more terrifying than having the King of Curses actively lunge at him with malicious intent and murder written across his face.
"Forget the white haired shit." Sukuna seethed, his voice flat yet guttural, carrying a menacing promise of hurt in his tone. "When I gain control of my vessel... I'll cut you, limb from limb, and have you paraded ass to mouth on a pike."
The threat was spoken so seriously, with such unshakeable certainty that Toji, despite his superiority over five fingered Sukuna, felt a chill travel through his spine.
"Putting your pole through another man? Yikes. You're, like, freaky freaky , you know that?" Toji shivered, disguising the impending sense of doom with revulsion of the mental imagery generated by his joke.
Sukuna did not grace him with a response, his suffocating presence beginning to fade as Toji supposed his sixty seconds had expired.
A whole minute passed, really, really slowly when you were fighting at sonic speeds, Toji realised. As Yuji Itadori came to, his previous wounds healed from Sukuna's possession, Toji waited patiently, wondering if Sukuna could spam enchain as many times as he wanted. As the King of Curses did not resurface, he breathed out a sigh of relief.
Really, what a power trip. Bullying the King of Curses like that, and all it cost him was putting himself at the top of Sukuna's kill list.
"Huh?" Yuji suddenly spoke, standing up suddenly as he whipped his head left and right. "Where- what the heck!?"
Toji sniffed, alerting the boy to his presence; the aforementioned boy jumping several feet into the air with a girlish shriek at his 'sudden' appearance. Right, no cursed energy.
"Who- Where did you come from!? Where am I!?" The poor kid yelled, a hand slapping itself against his head as he struggled to catch up to the situation. "I was in the- Did I hit my head, or something?"
"Nah." Toji piped up, deciding to spare Yuji the dementia allegations. "Sukuna took over. You don't remember anything?"
"He WHAT!?" The teenager screamed, his jaw hanging open. "But- he can't, I have a handle on him! He can't come out unless I let him, and I- No, I'd never do that!"
"You sure?" Toji frowned, leaning his head side to side to sort out the crick that had been there since Jogo got that one lucky hit in. "He said a chant, enchain , or whatever, and took over. Thought you two had a binding vow, or something, I dunno."
Yeah, maybe using his meta knowledge was cheating, maybe he was even being painfully obvious about it. But who gave a shit. It wasn't like he was here to change nothing after all. Canon was destined to a bloody, horrible death the moment Toji had incarnated into this world, reborn a new man. He was going to twist fate with his bare hands.
Yuji looked horrified at the implication. "No- I never made any sort of agreement with him! He's evil! "
"Calm down kid, not accusing you or anything. And he didn't hurt anyone, relax." Toji waved the scroll in his hand then, drawing Yuji's attention with the horrid aura it produced. "He was after these."
"Are those…" Yuji pointed timidly at the parchment, able to tell its contents simply by the presence they exhumed.
"Yup." Toji confirmed, before shoving his hand- scroll and all, these jeans had some crazy deep pockets- back into his pocket. "Guessin' he thought taking them from me would be easy pickings, no cursed energy and whatever, maybe he thought I was some civilian. Bleh, what an idiot. You can tell I'm a badass just by how I look, right?"
Toji squared his shoulders, standing up straight and smirking as he flexed his physique a bit to impress his presence upon Itadori. Though, with the state of his ripped up clothing- half his backside exposed to the elements- ruffled hair and burnt arms, he just looked like he was homeless, lest that fact be known to him.
Yuji gave him a flat, disheartening stare. "Uhh… Who are you by the way?"
'Ow,' Toji had never felt so unimportant in his life, ever. Actually, no, he'd felt pretty unimportant for most of it actually; the innocent Yuji just had a way of really making the sensation sting. 'The main character doesn't know who I am! How unimpactful and insignificant of a person I must be!'
"Toji Fushiguro," he introduced himself, his mouth running itself before his brain could catch up. Yuji looked up at him in clear confusion. Oh, fuck, well that was one way to drop the bomb. "Nice to meet you, Itadori."
"F-Fushiguro has a brother too? Why does he never tell us these things!?"
How flattering, did he really look that young? Ah, he might as well clear things up now before a misunderstanding springs up later.
"Not a brother, he does have a father though."
Yuji's eyes bulged out of their sockets, and unlike earlier where Megumi's presence had stolen the humour from his heart, Toji belted out a boisterous laugh at the pink haired boy's expression.
"Y-you? You are- but I thought- Fushiguro's father is- huh? What?" Yuji sputtered, shaking his head like a dog as Toji folded in half, wheezing at the reaction.
"He never told you guys about me?" Toji gasped through the laughter, "That boy- Always forgetting about his old man! Least he could do is send a text, y'know?"
Not that they had cell phones in hell.
"I- I see it!" Yuji's eyes bulged further, as he raised a finger to point to Toji's face. "You two's faces, you look the exact same!"
"Duh," Toji grinned, puffing his chest out with pride. "He's my boy after all."
"That guy- He really doesn't tell us anything! I'm sorry sir, I had no idea!" Yuji bowed at the waist, causing Toji to sputter in shock. "Forgive me for my disrespect! I assumed you were a non sorcerer because of your lack of cursed energy!"
"Oi, hold on- Stand straight, quit bowing!" Toji insisted, his face flushed. "I'm uh, I'm similar to that upperclassman of yours; Maki. A heavenly pact, no cursed energy in exchange for being a total badass, and all that."
"Oh! I see!" Yuji stood up straight, a finger coming up to his chin. "So that's why I couldn't sense your presence! Wow, now that I think about it, you're pretty much invisible!"
"It's pretty nifty, huh? Anyways," Toji took a few steps forward, placing a hand on Yuji's back as he began leading the kid through the heaps of rubble surrounding them. "There is still an ongoing terror attack, so you and I had better get back to the fight. Your friends are probably somewhere nearby."
It could be said that Toji was not looking forward to talking to Maki again, jeez.
They climbed out of the wreckage made of the first floor, Yuji's jaw dropping as they made it out onto the open street. "Holy crap! What the hell happened!?" He yelled, seeing an entire canyon in place of a street, as well as two skyscrapers turned into hollowed husks, steel and glass debris resting on the obliterated street.
Huh, and this was only one city block; void of civilians. If only Yuji knew the scale of destruction that could've been unleashed if Sukuna had ten more of his fingers. 'No,' Toji concluded, stone-faced as he set his jaw. This was exactly why he was here; to spare these children from the trauma and injustice they faced, to save them from the unfair hand they had been dealt.
Fate wanted these children to suffer. Toji didn't. And Toji thought he could probably beat Fate in an arm wrestle, so it looked like things were gonna go his way.
"Erm, not my fault," Toji lied, scratching the side of his head. "That Sukuna- he was really tough, our glorious battle was hard to contain to one spot." The less said about the compulsive urge for the destruction of public property, and the dopamine rush induced by collapsing a skyscraper with another guy's body, the better.
"So you really- you fought Sukuna, alone?" Yuji's eyes sparkled with admiration, which sent a stab of guilt through Toji's heart. He did not deserve that look. He didn't deserve the uplifting joy it gave him. "You must be really strong!"
"U-uh," Toji replied smartly, "Yeah uh, he really isn't all that- he's only at what, a quarter of his power right now? That volcano head probably coulda taken him at this point." A blatant lie, Jogo at his fullest strength had been much less intimidating, much less terrifying, and-despite Kenjaku's words in canon-much less physically capable than facing Sukuna at five fingers. And that was with Sukuna unable to actually attack him. He may have dominated the battle simply on account of his superior speed and power, but if Sukuna had been able to use his Shrine offensively…
Really, was anyone other than Satoru fucking Gojo able to counter that?
"So uh, where are the others?" Yuji asked, stepping over a block of debris as he ooh'd and ahh'd over the carnage left by Toji's throwdown with Sukuna.
The aforementioned musclehead scratched his chin. His senses were sharp , extremely so, that he could faintly pinpoint concentrations of cursed energy from far distances. He could tell there was a sickly, rotten, pestilent-like stench emanating from Shibuya station, in the underground labyrinth below; and he could guess that was Mahito.
His eyes widened with the realisation that the kids had retreated deeper into the subway tunnels, meaning their meeting with Mahito was imminent.
Shit! How much time had he wasted just then? No more than two minutes, right? Surely he could catch up in time… He only had to scour, what, several kilometres of metro to find them?
"Itadori," Toji spoke, his severe tone shocking the younger boy. "The patchwork curse, you're familiar with it; correct?"
The pink haired boy's expression hardened into something made of stone, fury lighting itself within his eyes. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."
"It's somewhere in the metro below, I can sense it." Toji hastened his step, searching for another transit entrance further ahead on the street. The way they'd come had been fully collapsed and likely untraversable, meaning they'd have to use a different entrance. "Your senior, Maki, and my son are somewhere down there. We're going to have to split up to find them; both just got out of a very exhausting battle and are in no state to fight that curse, if they come across it. I've heard you're a perfect match against the patchwork cursed spirit, so if you find it, I want you to rock it's shit. You understand?"
It was somewhat risky to allow Yuji to roam about, free, but if Sukuna knew what was good for him- he'd know that the very moment he'd repossessed Yuji, Toji would come running and rock his shit a second time, if there even was a second time for that whole enchain vow. Knowing the fraud's pride, he would spare himself the embarrassment of getting kicked around again until he was able to secure more of his fingers. Which were stashed safely in his pocket, Toji keeping a constant hand in there to ensure no accidents.
Toji scanned the rooftops carefully, unable to recognise any cursed energy signatures around them. Uraume, Sukuna's loyal aide, should have sensed Sukuna's presence earlier; but they had not appeared at any point during the battle. That, and Kenjaku- no matter how much he extended his senses, he could not pin any single greatly unique presence. He couldn't sense any significant aura other than Mahito's below, ingraining the very Earth with the scent of pestilence.
The fact only filled him with unease. But, at this point there were no further precautions that could be taken. Honestly, he could probably scour the entirety of the metroline on his own in a matter of minutes if he pushed it, but it was best to give Yuji something to do. This was meant to be a turning point in his growth, right? It would be good to give him that; with the clear exception of the deaths of his friend and mentor, of course.
Toji would make sure of it. No one was dying tonight, not under his watch.
The teenager snapped upright, kicking his legs together and throwing up a stiff military salute. "Sir! Sir yes sir!"
Toji wanted to cry. This kid, this kid…!
'He's just a cutie patootie!'