Yuji Itadori POV
The snow in this dream was not falling so much as it was being thrown.
It came sideways in dense sheets that should have made it nearly impossible to see more than a few meters ahead and the wind that carried it had the kind of bite to it that makes you feel cold inside your bones rather than just on the surface of them.
None of that seemed to matter to Sukuna though.
He walked through the woods with his arms loosely at his sides, his haori doing very little to keep him warm by any practical standard against conditions like these, and his four eyes were constantly scanning his surroundings.
I walked beside him the same way I always did in these dreams.
'You know,' I thought watching a particularly aggressive gust throw snow directly into his face and register absolutely no reaction from him, 'this is probably not the best time to be wandering around outside. Even for you Sukuna. Although building a snowman would be kind of fun to do right now...sigh it's a shame Fuyuki isn't anywhere near Christmas yet.'
No response to my words, as to be expected.
I stuffed my hands into the front pocket of my hoodie out of sympathy for myself even though I couldn't actually feel the cold and looked around at the woods.
The trees here were older than the ones near Sukuna's old village had been. Their trunks were wide enough that two people couldn't wrap their arms around most of them and the canopy above, even stripped of leaves, was dense enough to form a ceiling of black branches against the white sky.
Everything underneath was just peacefully quiet.
'Where are you even going?' I wondered.
Sukuna's nose twitched slightly.
Then his pace changed by one degree towards a certain direction in the forest curious I followed his line of sight through the trees.
There was a break in the woods ahead and beyond it the outline of buildings became visible through the snow.
A compound of some kind, the structures arranged in the deliberate pattern of a japanese clan residence, surrounded by a perimeter wall of stone that had probably looked imposing in warmer weather.
Right now, though it mostly looked buried and empty like a graveyard.
We crossed into the compound through a gate that had been left open and I stopped walking within the first few meters of passing through.
The bodies were everywhere.
Frozen.
Some of them had clearly been dead long enough for the snow to have begun covering them. Others were more recent. All of them bore the same cause of death which was something having to do with extreme cold applied from the inside out. I could see it in the quality of the ice that had formed across their skin, wrong direction for natural freezing, and spreading from points on their chests and throats rather than their extremities.
I shivered at the sight it never gets easy seeing dead people 'okay,' I carefully thought, 'okay. Don't think about it just keep on moving.'
Sukuna was already moving deeper into the compound.
The fire was visible from the second courtyard.
Small, carefully maintained, and producing more heat than its size suggested. Beside it crouched a boy who could be around or slightly just about my age. He had white hair that was dusted with snow and on both sides of his head were red markings that made him stand out.
He was cooking something over the fire on a rough iron skewer and did not look up when Sukuna entered the courtyard.
"There are bodies everywhere in this place," Sukuna announced his presence without any particular tone attached to it.
The boy unphased by the appearance of the stranger turned the skewer once, "yes."
Sukuna looked at the boy for a moment, "tell me what's your name boy?"
"Uraume," the boy replied still not looking up.
"And the bodies?"
"My family," Uraume said, "and the rest of my clan."
A pause stretched between them. The fire crackled and sent a small thread of orange ember upward into the falling snow.
"So..you did this," Sukuna said with no tone in his voice to give away what he felt of this information.
Uraume's hands stilled on the skewer for just a second then resumed their steady rotation, "yes."
'But why would you kill your own family?' I mentally thought with a frown.
"Why?" Sukuna asked the same question.
The boy was quiet for long enough that I thought he might not answer.
Then he finally opened his mouth to speak, "they never saw me as a person. I was just a tool. Something they kept alive because the cold I could produce was useful to them. They talked about me that way in front of me as though I couldn't hear. My doners tried to arrange a marriage for me with an old noble due to my feminine looks" a small pause, "so I decided enough was enough and took matters into my own hands that's all."
I felt something familiar pull tight in my chest.
The same tight pull from the village dream. From watching the boy Sukuna with four arms sit in the corner of his mother's house.
'Another boy my age whose life had a terrible beginning....Fate how can you be so unfair?' I inwardly wondered to myself.
Uraume glanced up at Sukuna with an expression that had the strange calm of someone who had already moved past fear.
"Aru you going to kill me sir," Uraume asked with not a sign of fear but more so resignation.
I held my breath.
Sukuna's four eyes moved from Uraume's face to the skewer.
He took one step forward and crouched beside the fire and looked at what was cooking with the focused attention of a man taking a genuine culinary inventory.
I looked at what was on the skewer and instantly turned away from what was on the skewer.
'Oh God,' I thought with unholy disgust.
'That's- that is absolutely-'
My stomach performed a full revolution.
'I am going to be sick,' I thought at no one in particular while pressing the back of my hand against my mouth, 'I am going to be actually and genuinely sick in this dream and I don't even know if that's possible but I might just find out it right now.'
Sukuna leaned slightly closer to the fire.
"Human meat," he observed with a tone that was neither approving nor disapproving.
Uraume watched him steadily, "food is scarce in these winter days. I only ate to survive," the boy replied without flinching.
Sukuna made a sound that was almost contemplative. He turned to look at Uraume again and this time his expression had shifted into something that wasn't quite interest but was several degrees closer to it than anything I'd seen from him in a while.
"Your ice," he said, "can it preserve things."
Uraume blinked once, "yes. Indefinitely if the temperature is maintained correctly."
"And you can cook human meat without the possibility of being infected with a disease?" Sukuna questioned.
"Yes I know how to cook and purify the meat," the white-haired boy replied.
Sukuna was silent for a moment and then extended out one hand.
Uraume looked at the hand then at the skewer then back at Sukuna's hand. He shifted a piece from the skewer to Sukuna's outstretched palm without hesitation.
I made a retching sound and turned around to face the opposite wall of the courtyard to avoid the sight.
There was a stone lantern mounted there, unlit, with snow built up along its top edge like a small roof. I stared at the lantern with tremendous focus and dedicated all of my available attention to its specific dimensions, its texture, and the way the snow had accumulated on it.
I didn't listen to what was happening behind me.
I absolutely didn't.
"Hm," came Sukuna's voice from behind me.
Another pause.
"Alright I've decided your coming with me Uraume," he said.
I turned back around.
Uraume stared up at Sukuna with both hands loose at their sides and something had shifted in their expression. Not relief exactly but something a bit close to caution.
"As what?" Uraume carefully asked.
"Your quite useful," Sukuna answered, straightening back to his full height and turning toward the compound gate, "you can cook, your ice preserves meat, and you haven't bored me. That's sufficient for me so come along with me."
Uraume stood up a happy glint now in his eyes from what I could tell and picked up a small cloth pack that had been sitting against the courtyard wall.
Finally, he followed after Sukuna.
I watched them go and then smiled a bit.
'The current version of you is a bad person no doubt,' I thought while staring at Sukuna's retreating back, 'but least you have a friend now.'
The snow kept falling.
The fire burned itself down to embers in the empty courtyard.
I stood there until the dream folded itself away.
.
.
.
Once I woke up I hurriedly changed into a new pair of clothes that Nanami had bought earlier in the morning while I was still asleep, brushed my teeth, and then styled my messy pink hair with some gel.
After that I went down for breakfast which was just some rice, miso soup, and grilled salmon.
"Your school is approximately eight minutes from here by car," Nanami informed after setting his soup bowl down, "class begins at eight-thirty. I will drop you off this morning, however I will be occupied with police work this afternoon."
He reached into his jacket and set a key on the table between us.
"That one is yours," he said, "keep it on your person. You'll be walking home after school and I expect that you don't make any other stops understand Yuji?" Nanami inquired.
"Yeah, yeah I heard you Nanamin ya don't have to grill me about this," I complained while pocketing the key into my brand-new red hoodie.
"I wouldn't have to, but given what you did last night you'll have to forgive me for making sure you listen this time," Nanami replied without a single change in his expression.
"Well, a little faith would be nice at least," I murmured with a pout.
"In any case do you have any other questions before we leave?" Nanami asked.
"Actually, what are we going to do for my training?"
"Hmm for now the weekdays will consist of sparring with another. Weekends I'll be teaching you magical knowledge and refining your current abilities," he explained.
"Any chance you could teach me that cool move you did last night. What'd you call it again...Black Flash?" I unsurely asked wondering if that was the right now.
Nanami paused thinking about it before sighing "very well I'll teach it to you-" a wide smile appeared on my face "but only if you can knock me out once during either of the day this week," and just like that my hopes are dashed.
"Ahh fine I can manage that," I grumbled hoping to whatever entity out there that I wouldn't get my ass kicked too badly.
.
.
.
The school was a standard looking building.
Clean, rectangular, with a shoe locker entrance and the standard bulletin boards plastered with committee announcements and upcoming event schedules. It smelled like chalk dust and floor cleaner.
Nanami walked me to the front office, exchanged whatever adult information needed exchanging with a woman behind the desk who smiled at me and then he crouched down briefly to my height in the hallway.
"Alright I'll be leaving now this lady here will help you with wherever you class is," he informed before turning to leave.
"Wait" I called out to him.
He paused waiting to hear what I had to say.
"I forgot to tell ya, you be careful at work today to okay," I said giving him a wide smile while waving.
He stared at me for a long moment before nodding with a grunt and left the office.
The office woman smiled at me again and handed me a small piece of paper, "alright you'll be in Class 2-B, Itadori. Your teacher is Yamashiro-sensei. Third floor, second door on the left."
I looked down at the paper.
"Thanks, miss," I said and headed for the stairs.
.
.
.
I knocked twice and slid the classroom door open.
Thirty sets of eyes turned toward me with intense curiosity.
Yamashiro-sensei was a short woman in her mid-thirties with reading glasses pushed up on her forehead and an expression that was warm but stern. She smiled and gestured me forward to the front of the room.
"Class," she spoke, "we have a new student joining us today. Why don't you introduce yourself?"
I looked at the room and bowed once.
"Hello everyone I'm Itadori Yuji!" I exclaimed with enthusiasm practically dripping, "I just moved to Fuyuki from Sendai. My grandfather taught me to cook and arm wrestle, I am really good at both, and I'll accept anyone's challenge here if you want to."
Someone in the back giggled.
Yamashiro-sensei made a sound that wasn't a laugh, "...thank you Itadori. That was very thorough of you," she looked down at her seating chart, "there's an open seat by the window. Please go sit next to Miss Tohsaka over there."
I picked up my bag and started down the row.
The desk she was pointing to was beside the window, second from the back, and sitting next to it was a girl with dark hair in twin-tails and a dark ribbon.
Her blue aqua eyes were on me already and they were wide.
Very wide.
I stopped walking.
The girl's expression had just gone through four different things in the span of about one second.
My brain had just done the same.
She pointed at me.
I pointed back right back.
"IT'S YOU!" we both yelled at the exact same time
-end of chapter twenty-
Hah surprise motherfu*ckers I bet you guys were not expecting this sudden update from yo boi ahem, ahem I sincerely apologize for my delayed update.
I've recently been feeling really out of it with writing especially for this fic I am already at like twenty chapters which I am quite proud of but you know how these things go. As you progress further with a story sometimes the initial moment of motivation and excitement you have with writing a fic drastically decreases. Not to mention the fact that I have some summer uni courses I am taking but anyways I've been watching some Modulo Yuji edits to get my motivation back and its worked for today.