Climbing out of a shadow behind Kamo-Sensei, I blink in slight surprise to see him looking right at me.
Riiiight, my Cursed Energy isn't so sneaky anymore. Tsk.
I wanted to make him jump.
"Yo! Kamo-Sensei!" I greet with a smile and a raised hand, glancing about briefly. I must have caught him at a good time, since we're in a simple garden where he appears to have been drinking some tea. "Your favourite student has arrived!"
"Sukuna-kun is my favourite actua—"
"Your favourite! Student! Has! Arrived~!"
"Oh my~! Narauko-kun~!?! My favourite student~! I'm so happy to see you~!"
Smiling smugly, I flick my hair backwards and buff my nails against my chest.
"No need for flattery, Kamo-Sensei~. A teacher shouldn't have such biases~."
He nods sagely. "You're right. Sukuna is actually my favourite though."
I giggle a little at that and slap his shoulder as I pass him, moving to sit at the little table with his tea.
"Are you finally done pondering, Narauko-kun~?" Kamo-Sensei asks after a brief moment of silence where I shamelessly steal his tea for myself.
Ooolala~, an indirect kiss~.
"Eeeh~," I wave my hand in a 'so-so' kind of way. "I guess..."
Another short silence follows as Kamo-Sensei for once seems to recognise that he doesn't need to fill every silence with his own voice.
"Kamo-Sensei." I begin, my tone somewhat solemn in thought. Unsure what his answer will be. "Am I a good person?"
"Brazenly so, Narauko-kun~." His response is immediate, and I don't know... I think it's just perfect. "You could do with Cursing things a bit more~."
I can't help the way I laugh. The joy, the sheer happiness that hearing these words fill me with is difficult to explain. Maybe impossible.
The best way I can explain how I feel is by referencing a study I vaguely remember some scientists doing. They discovered the chemical formula for insanity.
Dopamine, Serotonin and Oxytocin. Easily manufactured in a lab, an imbalance of these chemicals in the brain is a leading cause of all sorts of nastiness. Insanity, schizophrenia, paranoia.
It is also the same chemical formula for love.
I feel.
I feel like I may have crested that metaphorical mountain.
I don't know, really. Maybe I'm just being dramatic because I am in love? Kami knows how many times I did or said some dumb shit when I was younger because I had a crush that stopped my brain from working.
But it is funny, Kamo-Sensei's words.
It is sad too. But in a good way. That doesn't make sense.
A parent doesn't want their child to fall over and hurt themselves. However, should their child trip and scrape their knee, is that not a great opportunity for the parent to express their love by helping their child understand the pain?
I'm sad because his words make me realise that he just doesn't understand me. Not fully. Not like only Sukuna does.
But I'm also happy, because this means that I can explain myself to him. That I can connect the thread of friendship that binds us ever tighter.
So I get my joyful laughter under control and I meet Kamo-Sensei's pouting eyes with a bright grin.
"I am a Jujutsu Sorcerer," I begin, reiterating a point that only seems to grow deeper with meaning every time that it is said. "I'm just prettier than anyone else. The prettiest princess~ hahaha~."
He gives me a blank stare, which is fair enough, but I just couldn't avoid making the joke even if I know he won't understand it.
"In my last life, there was this idea of 'pretty privilege'," I explain. "The idea being that if something or someone appears pretty, then more about them can be forgiven. If some ugly monster complimented your skin, you might think that it wants to tear it off of you and do horrible things. But if a pretty, delicate woman, or man, were to say the same most would likely take it as flirting instead. Morals have aesthetics. Killing a cockroach is celebrated but a butterfly is mourned."
Kamo-Sensei nods. "That sounds appropriately irrelevant for the beginnings of one of your rants."
I ignore him.
Actually, no. I don't.
I laugh, because it's funny and because I love him. I'm so happy to be his friend that I cannot explain it. His simple words implying that he knows how I think just fill me with joy.
So fuck it, I throw myself forward and hug Kamo-Sensei instead, to his visible surprise.
Quietly, conscious of the short distance between us, I decide to give my teacher a solemn promise.
"I will never call anyone Sensei before you, Kamo-Sensei."
For a moment, he remains still. But then I feel his hands briefly pat me on the back before pushing me away.
I'm grinning wide enough to feel the burn in my cheeks when I meet his eyes again, watching his incredulity with no small amusement.
"Here I was thinking that it was just Sukuna that I couldn't predict anymore." I laugh again at his words, because I understand them. Likely more than even he does. "At least I don't need to worry about you killing me~."
"Of course not~! My Curse on you is much more insidious~!" He raises a brow at my words, but I just keep grinning. "It's pretty privilege, Kamo-Sensei. That's what I have discovered about me. That's the truth of me."
My smile dims a little bit, because I'm honestly unsure how I feel about this. The usual mixture of contradictions no doubt.
"The truth is that I am a Curse just as dreadful as Sukuna. The only difference, is that my Curse is pretty enough that people are willing to pretend that it is no Curse at all."
My father was right, in the end.
I can be a kind person, but I am Jujutsu Sorcerer in the end.
I cannot be a good person anymore.
"Is that so," Kamo-Sensei hums. "This pretty privilege of yours must be pretty strong, because I am struggling to see how anyone would view you as a Curse on par with Sukuna-kun. You know that guy is like straight up evil right? He cut my head off! Totally unprompted!"
Of course you don't see it, I think to myself, pink hair flashing through my mind with a feeling of longing. There is only one who truly can.
It's been lonely without him. But we both needed the time, I know this.
It was so hard not to fight him, back then in the capital. So hard. I know he felt the same.
We both needed the time apart, because otherwise, one of us would have thrown a punch, and I don't think either of us would have been able to stop afterwards.
Luckily, time has passed and I plan to visit him next.
"I don't know how to articulate it all properly," I admit to him with a shrug. "If I had to give an example though... I'd say that you're stuck with me."
He raises a brow, and I shrug again, smiling softly at him.
"You can't die anymore, Kamo-Sensei. I won't allow it. No matter what happens in the future, I will Love you forever and ever. Even if you do die, you won't escape me. Even if you reincarnate, I will find you. Even if you change completely and hate me or love me or feel nothing for me at all, I will still stand beside you. Always."
I realise that I'm sounding like a yandere, but that's probably not too far off the truth. I Love too much to let go so easily.
Suzaku-chan's funeral was something of a wake-up call for me, I think.
None of you are allowed to leave me behind.
"Sukuna only kills and hurts. His Curse is painful and ugly but it is quick." A pause, as I consider really admitting this, but I don't want to hide anything from the people I Love.
"Unlike him, I will continue to Curse you forevermore."
///
Minamoto no Yorimitsu
///
Minamoto no Yorimitsu whistles softly to himself as he watches white clouds pass through the sky.
With his hands casually held behind his head as a pillow and his back to the soft grass of an idyllic hill, he enjoys this moment of peace.
"Yorimitsu-sama, are you listening?"
Turning his gaze down his nose, Yorimitsu regards the simple looking woman staring down at him in disappointment.
For someone with such an unimportant bloodline to deign to look upon him in such a way would usually be unheard of for any but the most mindless. This is Yumiko though. She was assigned to him back when his Technique manifested and he proved himself to not be just another Cursed birth because of his brother.
Twins are inauspicious, after all.
She even stayed with him when he 'betrayed' his Clan for Michinaga-sama.
"I am listening," Yorimitsu blithely lies, turning a sardonic smile to her afterwards. "The news of late has been rather repetitive, do you not think? The dead have all been accounted for, so all that is left is the endless praise of Narauko-kun and Sukuna-kun. It is a little excessive, no?"
"A canyon has been opened bringing seawater to Heian-kyō," is the dry riposte, to which he chuckles in both agreement and some honest disbelief. It's a little bit absurd what they've done, both of them. "You are the future of the Minamoto Clan, Yorimitsu-sama. You must take these matters seriously."
"Yoshiie-kun is the future of the Minamoto Clan," Yorimitsu calmly replies, "I am a traitor, remember?"
Yumiko nods her head deferentially, but her stern gaze remains. "My point remains, Yorimitsu-sama."
He sighs and bonelessly collapses back against the grass.
"They even cancelled the tournament." Yorimitsu complains. "No one else got the chance to show off. Might as well have just arranged us all around Narauko-kun to sing his praises and be damned with the rest of it. Tch, so annoying."
"Jealousy is unbecoming, Yorimitsu." He rolls his eyes at Yumiko's chiding. "I am sure you could have resolved the situation at the capital just as well as Sukuna-sama."
Yorimitsu laughs. More like a huff really, as he only lets out a single peal of laughter.
Yumiko is a Sorcerer, she wouldn't have been assigned to a prodigy as him if she were not. But she is only Grade Four and honestly shows little to no interest in the actual practices of Sorcery.
She is a servant first, after all. Anything else comes second.
Unfortunately, this means that there are certain things that she is simply unable to understand.
Such as what it means to be fully acknowledged as The Strongest.
"I am sure I could have," Yorimitsu agrees, because it is true that he believes he could have resolved the situation with ease. After all, if he were there instead of Sukuna, then the main issue would have been absent in the first place. He doubts that that Curse he has heard of would have been able to do so much by its lonesome.
If it came down to having to fight Sukuna directly?
Eeeeh~.
He gives himself three-in-ten odds.
Yorimitsu is, ultimately, rather strong himself, so he feels it's a fair assessment.
"Regardless," Yumiko continues, not allowing him to doze off. "You should pay attention, Yorimitsu-sama."
He lazily waves a hand to get on with it without bothering to sit back up, just watching the clouds instead.
He has always enjoyed the sight of clouds in the sky. He has no idea why.
"You will recall, I hope, the rumour that Narauko-sama and Sukuna-sama had experienced a falling out over the events of two weeks ago?" He does, and it didn't surprise him one bit at the time. Yorimitsu may have only interacted briefly with Narauko, but he could not fathom that boy being in any way forgiving of Sukuna's actions.
It's honestly rather relieving, not that he would ever admit that.
Those two being together is a scary prospect. He'd rather they be enemies.
"...I shall take your silence as a yes," Yumiko continues. "Well, it appears that these rumours were presumptive, as the two have returned to being a duo."
Is it a crime to speak of hopes before they are realised in full? Yorimitsu complains in his mind, groaning indignantly out loud in a way that is only possible because of the company present. Can you two not just kill one another already? Better Sukuna be the one to die, but honestly, I would take their number being halved even if it meant an unreserved Sukuna. What a pain.
"You are certain?" He asks, mostly out of childish petulance he can admit to himself.
He somehow always feels younger when he is alone with Yumiko. A result of her having been a constant in his life since young, no doubt.
"Indeed. The higher-ups wanted to split them up for efficiency's sake," and no other reason, I'm sure, "But Narauko-sama refused them. When he was ordered to comply by the higher-ups, he laughed in their faces, dragged Fujiwara-sama into the sky and dropped him before leaving. Fujiwara-sama survived with minimal injuries."
You are making me doubt my ability to understand people. Did that Black Flash change you so much? It is not unheard of...
Each of the major Clans have a representative among the Jujutsu higher-ups, alongside a couple extras. Those figures are typically considered to be of the untouchable type. A requirement is to be Grade One at least for a start, but it's hardly their personal strength that's the important part.
Yorimitsu mentally shrugs and smiles simply because there is nothing else to do.
What a waste of time, he laments, thinking on the great plan that has been delayed by the mere presence of two absurd births.
If there is any consolation, it is that Yorimitsu can guess that Narauko's reason for acting this way would be because he wants to spend more time with Sukuna before they kill one another in about two years. That sounds in-character.
He really wishes them the best in that. Hopefully they'll both die.
"Does not really change anything in the end," Yorimitsu comments. "If anything, this is better. We cannot do anything to either of them anyway, better they be together so that there is more space that they are not."
"That is Minamoto-sama's thoughts on the issue," Yumiko agrees with a short bow.
"Anything else?"
"Many things," Yumiko quickly answers. "Much that I am sure you will ignore. For one, reports have confirmed that the monkeys in Heian-kyō largely believe that Yōkai to be responsible for the latest destruction of the capital. The Principle Clans would sooner choke than admit the Yōkai actually protected so many monkeys from the Himejima Head's actions, and no one wishes to earn their ire for no gain, so that fiction has taken root."
Yorimitsu is somewhat sceptical of what the Yōkai was doing there in the first place. The Principle Clans may be arrogant bastards, but he doesn't disagree with them overmuch. There is no way that Yōkai was there for any good reason.
He doesn't really care either way, but still.
"Additionally, due to the death of Kiyohara no Motosuke at the hands of Taira no Masakado; Kiyohara no Nagiko shall be assuming her father's position among the Five Men of the Pear Chamber by the end of the season. Then, for the achievement of executing the traitor Taira, the Emperor himself has decided to award Narauko-sama with a Noble Title, granting him the honour of founding his own Clan in recognition of his efforts."
Yorimitsu perks up slightly at the emphasis put on 'the Emperor himself'.
These days, the will of the Imperial Family have become more or less simply the will of Fujiwara no Michinaga-sama. From Yumiko's tone, however, he can only assume that this is a decision that actually came down from the lax Emperor himself.
How interesting.
The part about the Kiyoharas is as expected, so he doesn't react to that beyond feeling yet more annoyed at the hurdles constantly springing up in the way of his Clan.
The Pear Chamber is nominally the combined representative of the middle and lower powers. All those Clans with only one line or three Sorcerers or whatever. All together, they probably only add up to one Taira Clan. Maybe a bit more.
Still, it's an annoying collection for the Five Great Clans.
If the Abe ever decided to hop off their fence and join that collection, then it would easily become an entity greater than any one single Great Clan.
So annoying. First Tokibumi and now Nagiko. It is a shame that you are too competent.
"Anything else?" Yorimitsu asks, his tone uncouthly grouchy.
A Black Butterfly emerges from Yumiko's shadow and both their eyes track it as it flies onto her hand.
A silent moment passes as she listens to the message and he waits before she finally answers him as if there was no interruption.
"Only that our net has finally closed on the Shinobi that Sumitomo-san made use of."
"Finally!" Yorimitsu laps to his feet with a grin. "Where?"
He's been waiting so long that he's already visited the sites of those freaks' respective battles. Now he's spent over a week lazing about in his mansion waiting for something to do.
Those lot tend to stay out of things, they are Shinobi after all. It's a rare thing for one of them to be spotted, and few have any idea how much work they do or how many of them there are.
He's fairly sure that there is only one Shinobi village hidden away somewhere, but if there's one then there is bound to be smaller offshoots.
Typically, Shinobi are left alone whenever they do show up. There is a tacit sort of understanding there. If a Shinobi stands before you—or behind you more likely—as an enemy, then it is only natural to do one's best to kill them.
However, it is understood that should the Shinobi in question be fleeing or simply passing by, they are to be left alone.
No one wants to make an enemy out of a people who dedicate their entire selves to the arts of assassination and sabotage after all.
However, Michinaga explicitly ordered that he hunt down Sumitomo's Shinobi and execute them.
Presumably, Michinaga has his reasons. Yorimitsu believes that it is supposed to be a message, or perhaps a warning, that the Shinobi have crossed some line or other.
Yorimitsu doesn't really care too much. It's just another group of annoyances that he'd rather be dead.
But if there is one positive thing to say about this order, it is that it is interesting.
He has never killed a Shinobi before.
"On the South-Western border of the Bingo Province."
Incredibly vague and imprecise, Yorimitsu notes with some humour.
It won't matter.
"Prepare tea," Yorimitsu commands as he turns to face the appropriate direction. "I shan't be long."
He only has to cross half the realm, after all.
Yumiko bows lightly in deference, while Yorimitsu raises a hand and points forward with a smile.
A deep breath goes in, and then he lets his Technique loose.
A buzzing, cracking, static churns to life under his skin. As if a million angry wasps were trying to escape his bones.
It leaves him feeling light. Full of so much energy that he wants to just run and run and run around and scream at the top of his lungs.
It also leaves him feeling as if his skin is going to fall off of his flesh and his bones are going to turn liquid.
The world around him shifts, slowing and slowing until nothing at all remains in motion. Even the rays of Amaterasu-Ōmikami's radiance become visible to him, the only thing in this state that retains any form of motion, however faint.
Invisible paths of Cursed Energy form Lichtenberg figures as they flow out of his finger and across the sky in energetic bursts.
It is not lightning. Not yet.
Yorimitsu has found that no one truly understands what lightning is. They equate it to fire, or to a simple discharge of energy.
But it isn't.
Lightning is a connection. It is the light that bridges the valley between Curse and Blessing.
Yorimitsu is a Jujutsu Sorcerer. He is a Negative existence.
The world is not Negative. It is inherently Positive, if only lightly so.
However, nature exacerbates this. Trees and flora of any kind are all bastions of Positive Energy. No mere tree will have a lot of energy to it, but in nature Positivity is concentrated.
And thus, his Technique Neutral Connective Manifestation, bridges the distance between his own Negativity and the Positivity of a distant tree.
Only once that connection is struck does Yorimitsu move. Chasing down that invisible path through the sky as the world around him remains in perfect stillness, as if a painting for he alone to admire.
No one understands what it means to be The Fastest.
It's a matter of perspective.
Yorimitsu has a lot of time to think. He feels older than he is.
It takes him two hours to reach the end of the path his Technique had carved through the sky, leaving him standing at the tip of a tall tree in the middle of nowhere.
The instant he finishes the path, the world around him resumes it's normal pace with the crushing sound of thunder echoing from his back. He does not need to turn around to know of the trail of blinding lightning reaching from his back all the way to his home.
That is all anyone else sees of it. They see his Technique, and they believe that he can become lightning. That he can travel entire provinces in only a fraction of a second.
He can, but it is never so quick for him.
Orienting himself, Yorimitsu releases his Technique a second time. Then a third. A forth. Fifth. Sixth.
On his seventh use, Yorimitsu exits his Technique by the side of one of Michinaga-sama's men.
The cry of thunder that follows him startles the man, and Yorimitsu takes what enjoyment he can get from seeing the man so befuddled at his abrupt appearance.
After a full day of running through the sky, his mood is always poor.
The man clearly does not take long to recognise him though, as he is soon bowing instead of preparing to fight.
"Which way?" Yorimitsu asks before the man can speak, not in the mood anymore to talk. "Just point."
The man does so, and Yorimitsu's Technique activates an eighth time.
He doesn't have to travel so far this time, thankfully. The difference may be negligible for others, but he much prefers to use his Technique over short distances.
Still, it is Shinobi that he is hunting, so even with Fujiwara forces hemming them in, he still has to use his Technique twice more before he finds an active pursuit.
He arrives just in time to see a squad of Fujiwara men lose their throats, and then he has to activate his Technique again as the sound of his arrival prompts a number of kunai to be thrown at him.
With the world once more frozen to stillness, Yorimitsu steps around the floating kunai and walks down to the earth, observing the group with severely diminished interest.
It is a group of four, all dressed in what one would expect of a Shinobi really.
The only odd thing is that only one appears to be an adult, while three seem to range from eleven to fourteen, at a guess. The youngest, a brown-haired boy, even still has the rosy cheeks of youth.
He knew that the Shinobi started their training young, but sending them out on missions at this age seems a little wasteful.
Perhaps there truly aren't that many Shinobi after all.
Yorimitsu walks into the centre of the group, surrounding himself.
His Technique ends, thunder booms, and four pairs of eyes snap in his direction.
A kunai touches to his throat and his Technique activates again.
I suppose there is no opportunity for dialogue then, he muses as he steps around the man's thrust. My fault for expecting Shinobi of all people to hesitate at all.
Shrugging the thought away, Yorimitsu walks around the man and draws his sword.
One other unfortunate fact of his Technique is that his brother is the one that got all of the destructive potential. So Yorimitsu cannot simply behead all of them as they are unable to fight back.
It doesn't make much difference in the end, but it'd have been nice.
So instead, Yorimitsu simply swings his sword down right as his Technique ends, cutting through the man's neck as he flinches from the thunder before instantly reactivating his Technique and repeating the process three more times.
Only once his Technique ends for the fourth time, does blood finally spill from the first man's neck as they all collapse as one, separated from their heads.
Yorimitsu's eyes glance over the corpses briefly as he sheathes his sword. He doesn't feel anything.
The sound should have been enough to attract the remaining Fujiwara forces, and he doesn't feel like giving a report or any such thing, so Yorimitsu simply activates his Technique again.
And again. Seven more times in a row until he is once more standing on his favoured idyllic hill behind his mansion.
Yumiko walks up the hill as he is seating himself back on the grass; carrying a tray with a steaming cup of tea and plate of snacks, he perks up at the sight.
"Yorimitsu-sama," she greets with a slight bow as she sets the tray down on a pillow before him.
He nods bud doesn't acknowledge her beyond that, simply reaching for his tea and taking a long, long sip.
"I am done for the day," he informs her plainly. "Unless it is the Emperor himself, turn away anyone seeking my time."
Yumiko bows deferentially and swiftly leaves.
She knows that he prefers to be alone after having to travel.
A long sigh leaves him as he puts his cup back on the tray and collapses back into the grass, watching the clouds.
"What a pain," he softly complains, near whispering as he glares at the clouds. "Why won't you all just kill yourselves?" He isn't sure who he is referring to exactly. Maybe no one specific.
Maybe he just wants everyone troublesome to die.
That way, he wouldn't have to kill them himself.
"I'm tired."
///
A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
Okay, I have decided how I'm gonna be doing the next few chapters.
I'm gonna have them all be 1 part Narauko (and probably Sukuna) playing around or going on some adventure and generally enjoying themselves and their halcyon days (I really like that term if you hadn't noticed) and 1 part some serious stuff going on elsewhere with other people.
It'll be like a side-by-side to create contrast, hopefully. Everyone is basically just preparing for the Suku v Nara fight, but I wanna highlight the difference in preparation between the participants and everyone else.
We'll see how things go.
Also, I feel like it's been longer than it has since I wrote Narauko and Kamo-sensei, so if either of them feel ooc(out of character if you didn't know what ooc means) then let me know :P
(Also, also, I did a bunch of pointless research again, this time into lightning and electromagnetic discharge, very little of which was anything I needed to know -_-)