Chapter Text
It's dark. Nighttime. The wind whips at his face, the icy caress doing little to soothe the sudden confusion gripping at him. Confusion, giving way to an intense panic.
How did he get here? He was literally in bed a moment ago. If he closed his eyes, he could almost feel the warmth of his iPad screen underneath his fingertips, the volume turned to the lowest possible setting, the almost overwhelming stuffiness of hiding his laughter under his thick blanket in an attempt to avoid being heard. He was supposed to be asleep!
Oh, he’s in so much trouble now! He doesn’t think he turned the iPad off. Stupid, stupid stupid what if Mom walks in and sees? She hates those skibidi toilet videos- doesn’t understand how absolutely peak they are - but that isn’t the problem now. Why’s he outside?
Maybe he sleep-walked outside? But he doesn’t remember falling asleep. He’s looking around, his eyes surveying the damage. The place he's in right now is unfamiliar, he’s never been here before. Turning around, he notices his body feels…weird. Off. Bigger, somehow. He clenches his fists, bringing his hands towards his face, noting the tattoos ringing his wrists and the long purple nails adorning one of his hands.
Hah? Nails?
He finally notices the sounds of someone attempting to stifle the sounds of their breathing. His eyes dart around and land on a black-haired boy, who’s watching him warily, arms out and hands fisted. Why does he look so scared? Oh, the kid is bleeding. On the head. A lot. Maybe that’s why? He’d be scared too. It looks too much for a bandaid to fix.
“What happened to you??” he blurts out. The kid flinches then narrows his eyes, his expression baffled, but doesn’t respond. Bro’s staring at him like he’s asked a stupid question. Jeez, teenagers. His sister’s like this too, not bothering to explain things to him because he’s “too little and dumb to understand”. He’s eight! That’s literally almost ten!! Stupid.
Maybe it’s a good thing the emo looking teenager didn’t respond. Stranger danger, and all that. Mom would be mad, and that would mean no iPad for a long time.
Hey…but the emo looking teenager looks familiar…He squints at him, trying to place the boy’s face.
“Hey, what are you doing?” He hears someone ask, although he can’t pinpoint where the voice is coming from, and looking around doesn’t reveal the speaker.
Where did that voice come from? It sounds familiar, just like the emo. The familiarity scratches at his brain, but in the midst of all the confusion (he still doesn’t know why he’s outside in the middle of the night) he can’t exactly focus on that.
“Give it back!” Huh? Nothing makes sense here! Although maybe the weird disembodied voice isn’t lying? He didn’t have weird nails. And eww, purple! That’s a girl’s color!
His hand twitches, arm twisting upwards so it can grab at his face. He squeaks.
“Nuh uh! Finders, keepers!” He has no idea if that works for something like this, but he won’t admit it. Besides…It’s not his body, but if he doesn’t have a body where will he go? You’d die without a body, right? Like, where else would you go? Disappear? Does disappearing mean you die? He doesn’t want to die.
He’s suddenly even more scared.
The voice in his head is still talking, and the black haired guy still has his hands in front of him, and something clicks, fear momentarily forgotten. The pose is familiar because he’s seen it somewhere before!
“MAHORAGA!!! YOU'RE SUMMONING MAHORAGA!!” THE BOY IS MEGUMI???? FROM JJK?!? Phew. He's dreaming. But it's such a cool and realistic dream! That means he won’t get in trouble, because it isn’t real.
The boy—Megumi— flinches once more, an uncertain expression flitting across his face, something akin to fear. BUT MAHORAGA! The fight between Mahoraga and Sukuna was insane! He saw the shorts and all the edits. Too bad Sukuna isn't here because that'd actually be so goated…wait.
The voice continues yapping, but his admittedly short attention span leaves it ignored. If THAT’S Megumi, then wh-?
Before his flailing mind connects the dots, something tugs at him inwardly, a sensation that pulses outwards whilst simultaneously pulling at him and he feels himself… falling? He’d hold his hands out to brace himself for the fall that’s sure to come, except he can’t feel his arms anymore.
SPLASH!
It didn’t hurt, but he spends a while coughing out the water that inadvertently made its way into his lungs.
…
…
Water?
It’s red. Clear, but red. Ew. He doesn’t think it’s water.
Actually, the whole place is red. It’s like a cave, except the ceiling is weird and there’s like…a lot of bones. And a creepy throne of them. And the ground is pitch black and he can smell something burnt in the air. He looks down at the water he’s landed in, and the reflection reveals pink hair, a small face with tattoos all over it and four large red eyes blinking incredulously back at him. IT’S SUKUNA? HE’S SUKUNA?
“ERM…WHAT THE SIGMA??!?”
THIS IS SO FREAKING COOL!! But he still looks like a kid, and Sukuna’s a grown up, but his mom always says beggars can’t be choosers and frankly this is cool enough as it is. He stands up and notices the white jumper with the blue hood that he’s wearing. He’s pretty sure he has never worn it before, never even seen it before, but he remembers the dress Sukuna usually wears and is glad. He checks his feet and no, no flip flops, just sneakers.
‘It’s not a dress,’ his sister would retort whenever he brought it up, “it’s a kimono!”
He looks around, but he’s alone in the big red bony place, and honestly it’s so emo and edgy, even more than Megumi. He scrambles to his feet and kicks at a bone, watching the patterns the movement makes in the water. He’s inside Sukuna’s domain expansion but just not expanded! So sigma. Peak cinema. He’d clap, except he’s a bit distracted by the tattoos on his wrist revealed by his sleeves riding up.
And apart from the sounds of the water as he wades through it, it’s very quiet. He wants to know what’s going o-
“Can you switch with Sukuna?” Huh? Who’s talking? HEY, he’s Sukuna now, so the person is asking for him? He continues listening, the words flowing into the cavernous domain from an unknown source.
“Gojo-sensei, I don’t think that’s a goo-“
“Nah, it’ll be fine. Think you can do it?”
GOJO??? IT’S GOJO!
HELL YEAH LET HIM COOK! Now he’s Sukuna, he really really REALLY wants to try fighting Gojo. He can practically hear the edit music in the background.
‘OH JUST A HOLY FOOL, OH BABY IT’S SO CRUEL, BUT I’M STILL IN LOVE WITH JUDAS BABY-‘ he cuts himself off, because he wants to hear the rest of the conversation, although he’s humming under his breath.
“I don’t think-“
Bruh why isn’t he being let out now?? Yuji —that’s who he’s in, because he’s Sukuna— is taking so longgggg.
What the actual sigma???
“Uh, he seems agitated.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I’m hearing a lot of excitement(?). He seems pretty eager to fight you. Also he’s said “sigma” like, twice in the last few minutes. And…he’s humming a song.”
“Didn’t take the King of Curses for a stats nerd. Or a music enjoyer. Huh.”
“…I think he’s using it as an expletive.” Oh yeah, he is, because Yuji’s taking a long long time!
“Huh. Well, it’ll only be 10 seconds, anyhow. Don’t worry, I can handle him! He’s got nothing on me.”
Coming from someone who’s literally DIED to real-Sukuna and Mahoraga tag-team, Sukuna doesn’t think he can talk. He’d be better off working at McDonald’s and dishing up fries for customers at this point.
“Eh?? He says you’ve died to him!? How does that even work?” Yuji sounds incredulous, his voice tapering at the end.
“Ah, he’s got high hopes. That’s great!” Sukuna can hear a snort from the man, and fumes.
“Is he supposed to sound like a k-“
“Your 10 seconds start now!”
Sukuna’s vision fades out, and suddenly he’s back on that deserted rooftop he found himself on originally with Megumi, except now Gojo’s there too. His eyes snap to Gojo’s face, the man currently yapping about some dessert he brought with him.
“GOJO! LOCK IN, LIL BRO” Why the hell is he yapping now of all times. Gojo’s attention should be on him.
Gojo’s head snaps towards Sukuna, who’s got his hands in a mudra with the goofiest smile on his face. He’s practiced the hand sign so many times while playing with his friends, it’s practically muscle memory.
“DOMAIN EXPANSION: MALEVOLENT SHRI-“
But it doesn’t come, because Gojo’s knocked his hands out of the handsign and he’s now sitting on Sukuna. How dare he??
He’s face to face with Megumi. Gojo tuts, adjusting his position on Sukuna’s back.
“Didn’t expect you to be so reckless, Sukuna~ Although I suppose a thousand years can make anyone rusty.” He’s making fun of him, Sukuna just knows it, and it’s annoying him.
“Get off me! You already proved you got your degree in Yap-ology, and probably from McDonald’s. Ugh.”
Gojo tilts his head, mixed parts amused and confused. Megumi just blinks.
“Awww, is the King of Curses salty that he lost so fast? But it was fair and square, don’t you think?”
“Rematch. Now.” That was not fair. What the hell.
“How about ~no~”
“Man, you guys are so boring~” He’s disappointed. Megumi didn’t summon Mahoraga, Gojo didn’t let him use his domain expansion and “8…9…10!”
He’s fading away, like before, his limbs growing leaden as his vision fades to the already familiar red of his domain. Terrible dream, 0/10.
And he’s locked up again. Dang it. Sukuna scowls at the ground, kicking at the water.
Now what?