Sorry I've been gone for so long. School's kicking my ass buuuuut...

GUESS WHO GETS TO OPEN A DEAD BODY TOMORROW NIGHT??? 🥰💖

(It's for my anatomy and physiology class lol. My lab is connected to the cadaver room and it's so fucking freezing ugh)

MIZUHIME HAD BEEN RIGHT: EVERYTHING went wrong. Though, part of it was her fault. No, wait! It was Sukuna's fault!

Here was what happened:

After the car was parked, she, Yuji, and Ijichi all clambered out of the vehicle to follow after Junpei, who was walking around some residential area that must have been where he lived. Since there was no one else around, Ijichi decided it was the perfect time to let the cursed spirits loose.

Around that time, Sukuna appeared and just had to make a mean comment about how ugly her hair looked and how it resembled a bird's nest. Naturally, she got offended and tried to smoothen out any tangles, but Sukuna's bullying wasn't helping.

"Awww, did someone spend the whole night sobbing about their pathetic excuse of a fiance? You see, none of this would've happened if you had just listened to me, but nooo, apparently yOu LoVe HiM." He mocked her cruelly.

"I wasn't crying!" She protested, keeping her voice low to not alert Junpei.

He scoffed. "Yeah? Then why's your face so bloated, huh? You look like a pufferfish," he sneered.

She growled under her breath, "You—" And then she gasped, spotting Junpei talking to another unassuming man while the two curses had already been released. "Guys, someone's with him!"

"Huh?" Ijichi turned and paled. "Ack—!"

"Senpai, protect him, I'll get the curses!" Yuji shouted, jumping to his feet.

"Got it!" She followed suit.

They sprinted forward, Yuji leaping for the curse and her lunging for Junpei.

"STOOOOP!" The pinkette screamed, hands just barely managing to grab the damn thing before it could reach them (not that he had much to worry about since the curse was too weak to cause any damage).

"Watch out!" Mizuhime shrieked next, wrapping her arms around the taller teenage boy, who jumped in surprise.

"W-w-what are you doing?!" Junpei stuttered, gawking at the girl hugging him.

"Um... protecting you?" She answered lamely.

He stared at her in pure bewilderment; he had no idea how hugging him was going to protect him from a tiny winged curse in the other boy's hands.

Yuji managed to land gracefully on the ground, even adding a cool flip that made Mizuhime go 'oooh'. Junpei just stared.

"What is he? A gymnast?" The large man that had been speaking to Junpei mumbled.

"I got it, senpai," Yuji grinned,

"Oh, good," she said, sighing in relief. She finally let Junpei go.

Junpei looked between the two teens, weirded out. To be fair, they did just come flying out of nowhere—literally too! They quite literally flung themselves, the pinkette at the tiny winged creature and the bluenette at him.

But then the bewildered feeling went away when his eyes drifted down to their uniforms. Both were styled drastically different, but one thing was the same: the buttons. Mahito had told him to look out for swirly buttons just like theirs.

Yuji then turned to Junpei. "Hey. Hope you don't mind, but we really need to talk to you—"

"—Hold on, I'm the one talking to him right now! You're so rude!" The older man huffed.

Mizuhime hurriedly began to bow. "Um, sorry sir, but it's really important!"

"Important?! Who are you to say that, kid?!" He demanded.

Mizuhime, who was not good at handling angry confrontations, turned to Yuji in a panic. "Uhhh! Itadori-san, help me!"

"I got this, senpai!" He grinned reassuringly.

But the man wasn't finished yet, "And which school uniform is—"

Yuji never gave him a chance to finish the sentence. He reached out and yanked the man's pants down, showing off his striped boxers for everyone to see. Mizuhime gasped loudly and covered her eyes before she could see any more of that.

"Bye!" Yuji laughed, waving his pants around before bolting for it.

"WHAT'RE YOU DOING, YOU BRAT! STO—STOP RIGHT THERE!" She heard the man shriek in outrage, followed by the sound of pounding footsteps.

Junpei awkwardly turned to the girl who stayed behind with him, her hands still determinedly covering her eyes.

"Um," he cleared his throat. "It's okay, you can look now."

She warily lowered her hands. When she couldn't spot an underwear-clad man around, her shoulders sank in relief. "Oh."

"So, uh, who are you guys?" Junpei asked, scratching the back of his head.

"We're—oh! Itadori-san!" She suddenly exclaimed, looking at something behind him.

Junpei whirled around, and to his surprise, Yuji was there. He looked perfectly fine, as if he hadn't been running around the block in under five seconds. The tiny cursed spirit was nestled in his pocket too, poking his head out to look around curiously.

"I'm back!" He announced. "Well then, let's go."

"How did you get here so quickly?! You already did a lap?!" Junpei's jaw dropped.

"Oh yeah, it was no biggie," he said with a casual shrug of his shoulders. "I lost the guy pretty quickly though, heh."

Junpei looked down. "...You didn't have to go out of your way to do that... you could have just pulled me aside..."

"But you hate that guy, right?" Yuji noted.

Junpei tensed up. "How...?"

"I had a feeling. Ah, was I wrong?!"

"You're not wrong," he shook his head.

"Oooh," Mizuhime marveled. "Itadori-san, you're really observant!"

He ate up the compliment like a puppy receiving praises. If he were a dog, his tail would be wagging behind him excitedly. "You really think so, senpai?"

"You're much better than me!"

"Really?!"

"Um," Junpei spoke up.

They turned back to him.

"Oh right!" Yuji said, as if just realizing that they were in the middle of a mission. "I forgot to introduce ourselves! I'm Itadori Yuji and this is my senpai, Uchiumi Mizuhime. You're Yoshino Junpei, yeah? Come on, let's go talk elsewhere. You don't want someone you hate lingering in front of your house forever, right?"

"...Yeah."

Junpei followed after them. Mizuhime had no idea where they were going, so she let Yuji take the lead. He ended up taking them to an inclined riverbank overlooking the river.

"We'll talk here!" Yuji said. "Before that, lemme just..." He mumbled the rest of his sentence under his breath, pulling out his cellphone. He tried calling Ijichi's number, but he didn't answer.

"What's wrong?" Mizuhime asked him quietly.

"He was able to see the curse, so we need to interrogate him like Ijichi-san said," Yuji muttered. "But he isn't answering my call."

She frowned in concern. "I think he's busy trying to catch the other fly head we released. It might take a while for him to arrive, so I guess we're on our own. Do you, um, know how to interrogate someone?"

He looked at her in alarm. "No! I thought you knew how! Isn't that something Jujutsu Tech taught you?!"

"No, of course not!"

"Shit!" He cursed. "Okay, okay. We can do this... Maybe... maybe we should just copy what they do in the movies! We can do good cop, bad cop!"

She stared at him blankly. "What does that mean?"

He blanched. "You don't know?!"

"I'm sorry," Junpei spoke up. "Is something wrong?"

They whirled around to face him. He was calmly sitting at the bottom of the steps, looking at them curiously.

"No, no, everything's fine!" Mizuhime smiled nervously. "We were just talking about one of our friends..." She trailed off, sensing a sudden tremble from underneath her. She looked down curiously. "Did you guys feel that?"

"Yeah... it's about magnitude 2...?" Junpei wondered aloud.

(That was actually just Nanami fighting Mahito in the sewers.)

"So what do we do?" Yuji whispered to her discreetly, going back to important matters. "How much can we say about the school?"

"I don't know," Mizuhime replied worryingly, wishing she could be more useful. She was more used to exorcising curses, not... interrogating potentially innocent high-schoolers like herself.

"Okay, fuck it. Let's just ask," Yuji decided.

She nodded in agreement. "Alright."

They finally turned around to face the boy, who sat patiently waiting for them.

"Hey, the other day, people died in the movie theater you went to," Yuji said bluntly, lifting up the tiny cursed spirit. "Did you see anything? Something gross, like this?"

"No, I didn't see anything." Junpei replied. "I've only come to see them clearly... recently."

Mizuhime's back straightened, her lips turning down into a frown at his words. His reply made her suspicious, but Yuji seemed to accept it.

The latter's shoulders slumped in disappointment. "I see..."

"Hold on," Mizuhime stepped forward. "You haven't been able to see these things until just recently?"

Junpei began to grow nervous, "Um, yes."

"How recently?" She questioned.

"Er... I don't know... a few days? Or weeks, maybe?" He nervously fiddled with his fingers, an act that she took notice of.

She frowned. "...Are you sure nothing happened in the movie theater? You saw nothing?"

He swallowed inaudibly and shook his head. "No. I really didn't see anything there."

Mizuhime had a feeling that something was definitely wrong here. It was clear to her that Junpei had the ability to see curses like some humans could do, but apparently he only started seeing them until recently. The incident in the movie theaters was pretty recent too. Maybe he really did see something there but was trying to hide it?

She thought back to the grey haired man from the sewers. Obviously he was the one turning humans into grotesque creatures, and he was a curse too since he didn't show up in the security cameras, but was he who Junpei saw?

"What is it, senpai?" Yuji asked her.

Mizuhime bit the inside of her cheek. "Ah, it's nothing," she said. She would've told him the whole thing, but she didn't think it would be a good idea with Junpei still around. "But maybe we should wait around until Ijichi-san comes, if that's alright with you, Yoshino-san."

"Sure..."

"Hey, what were you watching at the theater?" Yuji asked curiously, looking perfectly relaxed now that the 'interrogation' was over.'

"It's an old remake so you wouldn't know even if I told you," Junpei replied in disinterest.

"It's fine! It's fine!"

The older teen sighed. "Worm Humans 3."

The bluenette blinked. "I've never heard of that. Then again, I don't know many movies..."

"Oh, I've heard of it!" Yuji grimaced. "It's really boring, isn't it? I guess that's why I've been punched so many times."

She was aghast. "Why would someone punch you over a movie?!"

"It's just that bad," Junpei emphasized. "But it's a splatter movie, so... maybe we're expecting too much substance from a movie like that... But number 2..."

"But number 2 was kinda interesting, wasn't it?" Yuji beamed.

Junpei snapped his neck to him, eyes wide. "Yeah! That's right! Number 2 just has that kick!"

"I'm so lost..." Mizuhime whined.

"Number 1 was just a splatter film with nothing but poorly-made gore scenes," Junpei explained. "But the sequel was so much better. It isn't really different from 1 and 3 at first glance, but... the emotional transition of the perfectionist who gives up everything is depicted very well."

"Ahhh, that's why you were able to watch number 2," Yuji realized.

"I also didn't know why it was interesting in the beginning, you know," he added. "I purposely watched it three times. 2 was the most gruesome too, so it was hard to watch."

"Why'd you go that far?" Yuji muttered under his breath.

"So it's one of those really scary films then?" Mizuhime shuddered. "Those scare me too much. Bloody scenes make me queasy too!"

Yuji turned to her incredulously. "Huh?! You literally watched all of the Jaws movies with Fushiguro and I last night!"

"Well yeah, but those movies were about super cool sharks!" She protested. "Of course I would watch those!"

Junpei looked at her in interest. "You like shark films, Uchiumi-san?" He wouldn't have pegged her as the type to like those kinds of movies.

"I actually only got introduced to them last night," she said sheepishly. "I don't watch movies that often, so I don't know much about them. Jaws was the first shark film I've watched."

His eyes lit up, "Oh I've got some suggestions for you then! You should watch The Shallows, The Meg, and 47 Meters Down!"

"And Shark Tale!" Yuji added. Junpei stared at him. "What? I loved it as a kid! That female fish was kinda hot too, not gonna lie..."

Junpei looked at him judgmentally, but decided he didn't want to know. "What about you, then, Itadori-kun? Do you like movies too?"

"I'm in a bit of a circumstance," he said, which was a huge understatement of the weird training method Gojo had enforced on him. "So I've been completely absorbed in movies lately. But I haven't been properly watching them in theaters."

"You haven't?" Junpei was shocked. "Have you, Uchiumi-san?"

"I've heard of theaters! But, um... I've never been in them before..." She mumbled. According to Yuta, the movie theaters were basically a place where a lot of people gathered around to watch movies on big screens (but with overpriced food). It didn't sound any different to watching them back in the dorms so she wasn't that interested.

"Never?!" Junpei's jaw dropped. "You guys should really go to the theaters then! It's really exciting when you watch an interesting movie in the theater, you know."

"Next time you have something to recommend, you should take us with you," Yuji suggested.

For some odd reason, Junpei looked genuinely floored by that, as if he couldn't believe someone would willingly want to hang out with him. "A-ah, right! What's your guys' contact info?"

"Here," Yuji handed him his phone first. Before the other boy could take it, a voice called out.

"Hm? Junpei?"

They turned around and spotted a short-haired woman holding a cigarette and a bag of groceries staring down at them from the top of the steps.

"Mom!" Junpei exclaimed.

"That's rare," she noted, walking down to reach them. "Are these your friends?"

"I just met them," he explained, rising up to his feet.

"We just met but it looks like we'll be friends~" Yuji grinned, giving her a friendly wave.

"Ah, hello, Yoshino-san!" Mizuhime scrambled up to her feet, bowing down respectfully.

"Oh, you're polite!" She giggled. "What are your names?"

"Uchiumi Mizuhime," the bluenette replied first. "It's nice to meet you."

"And I'm Itadori Yuji!" He exclaimed. "Onions really don't suit you, mom!" He said, referring to the smell wafting off from the bag.

"Oh, you noticed? I aim to be a woman who doesn't suit onions." She smiled, but before she could say anything else, Junpei snatched the cigarette from between her fingers.

"I told you to stop smoking, didn't I?!" He frowned.

"Okay, okay," she sighed dismissively, before turning to give the other two teenagers a happy look. "Yuji-kun, Mizuhime-chan, why don't you guys have dinner with us?"

"Hey!" Junpei jumped. "It's a bother!"

She scowled, "My food is a bother? Huh?!"

Their argument was cut off by the sound of Yuji's stomach growling. Everyone turned to him and he blushed under their stares.

"Well," Junpei's mother grinned smugly at her son. "Guess there's our answer. Let's go, everyone! To the Yoshino Abode!"

Junpei's mother—whose name was Nagi—cheerfully led them all to their house. It was a modest looking house, smaller than what Mizuhime was used to, but somehow it felt so homey at the same time. It radiated a nice, tender warmth that made her relax on instinct. It was a pleasant contrast from Yuta's house—the only other house she ever visited—which was stifling and almost oppressive thanks to the tenseness of the inhabitants.

Nagi busied herself with preparing a meal while ordering her son to entertain the guests. Junpei awkwardly showed them to his room where Yuji started geeking out over the clear cases full of movies that lined the wall.

They're getting along so well! Mizuhime thought with a smile as she watched the two boys ramble excitedly about some wars in the stars and yoga. Or was it Yoda? She didn't know.

She rose up from her kneeling position, "Um, Yoshino-san, can you show me to the bathroom if you don't mind?"

"Sure," Junpei got up and led the way.

After thanking him, she closed the door and took out her phone to call Ijichi. She was pretty sure he had long since caught the second fly-head and was probably stressing himself out over them. Poor guy. It was a miracle he wasn't balding yet.

Ijichi answered after the first ring.

"Uchiumi-san!" He sighed in relief. "Goodness, I was worried. Are you two alright?"

"We're fine!" She chirped. "We caught the other fly-head too and spoke with Yoshino-san."

"Ah, did you? Which scenario are we dealing with here?" He asked.

"Two," she answered. "Possibly. He was able to see the curse but he didn't have any time to react since Itadori-san captured it. We questioned him a little bit afterwards though. However...."

"...What is it?" His voice lowered, sounding serious.

"Apparently he didn't see anything weird in the movie theaters," she explained. "I'm not quite sure if I can believe that, but I don't believe he's an accomplice either. He seems pretty new to the whole curse thing. I think he's just a regular window who was at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"You're certain of this?"

"Mmhmm," she nodded even though he couldn't see it. "I can't see him going around killing people—he's too inexperienced. What concerns me though... is that there's a chance he might've seen or even met the creepy sewer guy. He spoke about seeing a curse recently—it could be him from the movie theaters."

"I see... that is a concerning matter," he agreed. "We'll need to remain vigilant around him. He might not have been an accessory to those boys' murders, but if he met that man that night and lied about it, then he might've joined forces afterwards. Where are you and Itadori-kun now? I'll come pick you up."

"Oh, we're at Yoshino-san's house." She said simply.

She heard a choking sound on the other end. "HUH?! You're at Yoshino Junpei's house?!"

"Yeah..." She sheepishly admitted. "Sorry. After we questioned him, his mother found us and invited us for dinner. We're fine though, they're very pleasant to us. We're gonna watch a movie afterwards too.

"A movie?!" He sputtered in disbelief. "Ah... well, alright. I'll head over right now. If you feel uneasy, please run away immediately. Relay this to Itadori-san as well."

"Yes sir! Goodbye, Ijichi-san!"

After exchanging byes, she hung up the phone. She was pretty sure Ijichi was weeping to himself in the car from the amount of stress he was in. Bless his heart.

The three teens managed to squeeze in a movie right before dinner. Dinner was a fun affair that night. It was loud and full of laughter. Nobody seemed to care much about proper dining etiquette like sitting up straight, keeping your mouth closed while chewing, and whatnot. Conversations were chaotic too, stemming from random jokes and funny scenarios, not politics and clan-matters.

Mizuhime had never experienced anything like it. Sure she was used to it from eating at Jujutsu Tech, but that was a given since she always hung out with teenagers her age. But this was different. She was eating at someone's house. Usually that pertained to something far more formal, but sitting here with Yuji and the Yoshinos was so relaxing compared to family meals at her home.

Nagi noticed her demure behavior earlier on during the meal and managed to ease her out of her shell with a few jokes and funny-sounding laughs. Nobody had ever done that for her in her own house. It was nice. Really nice. And it felt so free too.

And so, she ate her food, not bothering to follow the strict rules her father instilled in her about the proper way to eat, chewing while poorly attempting to stifle her laughs as Nagi tried to talk about her day.

"And then?! And then?!" Yuji asked eagerly.

"And then?!" Nagi laughed. "Takashi-kun said, full of confidence, 'that's definitely an unidentified species of larva!' so when we picked it up... IT WAS A KONNYAKU NOODLE FROM LUNCH! BWAHAHAHA!"

She burst out into a drunken laugh, slamming her hand against the surface of the table while the three teens watched her in amusement, not quite understanding the joke but entertained by her drunken rambles anyway.

"A KON—! He said it was a konnyaku noodle!" She shrieked, throwing her head back and laughing even louder.

"Mom, you drank too much," Junpei deadpanned.

Dinner was full of more laughter and in the end, all the food was gone and Nagi was passed out on the table. Either she exhausted herself from laughing or the drinking. The teens quietly cleared the table and Junpei carefully threw a blanket over his mother to keep her warm.

"Your mom's a good person, huh?" Yuji smiled.

"...Yeah," Junpei whispered, looking strangely sad about something. "What're your moms like?"

"My mama's the best," Mizuhime grinned brightly just from the thought of her mother. "Papa's super strict, and she's always trying to help him ease up on me. Er, it rarely ever works, but I appreciate the gesture at least."

Out of everyone she knew, she looked up to her mother the most. In her eyes, she was greater than everyone—even her father and Nanami! Perfectly obedient, her father would always say to her, and that she should one day aspire to be like her.

But Mizuhime didn't care about any of that. Her mom made her feel safe. Even under the crushing glare of her father, her mother was always ready to defend her and lessen any punishments or scoldings. There were times where she even lied for her... Before leaving for Jujutsu Tech, nobody had gone against her father for her sake. Only her mother had. Only her...

She quickly plastered on a smile and turned to Yuji, not wanting to delve into her thoughts about her family. "What about you, Itadori-san? What's your mother like?"

"Oh, I never met her," he answered with a casual shrug. "I have a faint memory of my dad though. My grandpa was always the one there for me."

"O-oh," she and Junpei exchanged awkward looks.

"Don't worry about it guys," Yuji chuckled reassuringly. "That sort of thing doesn't bother me."

"Can I ask you guys another thing?" Junpei said nervously. "You're jujutsu sorcerers, right?"

"Yeah," Yuji answered without thinking.

Mizuhime sent him a panicked look. Should they really be telling him this?

Junpei hesitated. "Have either of you ever... killed someone?"

"I haven't..." Yuji trailed off.

"Me neither," she mumbled. Well, there were the transfigured humans, but she didn't like to think about that...

"But someday you'll fight a bad sorcerer or something, right? What will you do?" Junpei asked.

"If... if I have absolutely no choice..." Mizuhime bit the inside of her cheek. "Then I guess I might have to...?"

It came out more like a question, but she really didn't know what else to say. She always knew that there was a good chance she might have to kill someone. There were plenty of curse users around so there were many missions where people would be sent out to kill them, but so far, she was never given any of those missions. Most likely because she was still a Grade 4 and therefore, too weak to go on them. Hunting lower-leveled curses was all she was allowed to do.

But she knew it wouldn't be like that forever. One day she might be sent on one or she might encounter a violent curse user. One day, she'll have to stain her hands with red.

It was easier to kill curses. They were monsters hurting people. They were nothing like her, so it was easier for her to compartmentalize them from humans. Maybe that was why she was so hesitant. Because curses were nothing like her while curse users were human like she was.

But those transfigured humans... she trailed off. Before knowing what they truly were, she had killed them without a second thought and even cheered about it. She didn't want to be like that again.

"Even so, I don't want to kill anyone." Yuji said seriously.

"Why?" Junpei questioned. "You'd be dealing with a bad sorcerer, you know?"

"Well, I mean, once I kill someone... the value of life will become ambiguous... and I'm scared of not even knowing anymore... the value of people I treasure."

Mizuhime looked at him, impressed. That was a much more poetic answer than what she had given.

Suddenly, the tense atmosphere was cut in half by the sound of two phones vibrating.

"It's Ijichi-san," Yuji informed her, checking his screen. "He's coming over right now. He also says sorry for being late. He had to take Nanamin, uh, to the campus."

(He was actually hurt, but Yuji didn't think he should say that out loud.)

Junpei looked disappointed. "Oh, you guys are leaving already?" He was hoping to watch one more movie with them.

"I guess," Yuji said glumly. "Man, I wanted to watch the sequel... Maybe I can ask to stay a little longer?"

But then Mizuhime let out a small yawn, which didn't go unnoticed by a certain curse in Yuji's mind.

Hey brat, his deep voice nearly startled him. Stop wasting your time here with that pathetic fool.

Watch it, Yuji inwardly grumbled.

Don't tell me what to do, he scoffed. Melons is tired. It's time for her to go to bed, he purred.

Yuji frowned, brows furrowed in concern. He didn't like the suggestive tone he used for the last part, but he had a point. Mizuhime did look sleepy.

"Ah... never mind," he said aloud, making Junpei's shoulders slump. "Senpai looks tired and our campus does have a curfew... We can hang out tomorrow though!"

That brought a smile to his face. "Yeah," he agreed. "I'll text you guys. We can go to the theaters too, I heard there was a shark film we can see."

Mizuhime perked up. "Oh? How wonderful! Tell us the details later, okay? And don't worry about the money, I'll pay for everything!"

"Senpai's loaded," Yuji emphasized with a huge grin. "She can totally just rent out a whole theater to ourselves if she wanted to!"

Junpei sweatdropped, "Um, I don't think we should go that far..."

Ijichi came by later on, and they bid their goodbyes after planning out tomorrow's activities. Mizuhime was pretty excited about it; she made a new friend and they had plans to watch a movie about sharks! What could be better than that?

She rambled on to Yuji about more ideas that they should do, with Yuji adding on that they should drag Junpei off to watch a Jennifer Lawrence film afterwards. He then proceeded to list off a bunch of potential movies that starred her, but in the midst of his Hunger Games review, she ended up falling asleep.

━━━━━━･❪ 💧 ❫ ･━━━━━━

When Mizuhime opened her eyes, she was met with the familiar creepy landscape of Sukuna's Innate Domain. Said curse was sitting on his throne of skulls, staring smugly down at her.

"Melons," he greeted her, spreading his arms out as if he were some glorious god that she should fawn over. "Did you miss me?"

She snorted. "No."

"You're a terrible liar," he teased knowingly. "I bet you cried ugly-tears when you found out I was gone."

"I did not!" She protested hotly. "I didn't miss you at all!"

"Your face is all red," he pointed out. "It always does that when you're lying."

She didn't bother to question him as to how he knew that. "I didn't care about you! I was angry because you killed Itadori-san!"

Guilt struck her when she said those words. She knew it was a lie. The second she found out about Yuji's death, she grieved for Sukuna first, rather than the innocent boy he had killed.

"Oh the brat?" He rolled his eyes, waving a dismissive hand. "That was nothing. The brat's fine. I just ripped his heart out, that was all."

Her jaw dropped at his audacity. "That literally killed him!"

"So?" He gave a mere shrug. "It's not like you care about him anyways."

"That's not true," she said fiercely, heart thrumming her chest. She thought back to the times they spent together, his comforting words while she cried about her fiance, the smiles they shared, and how his happiness with Junpei made her feel happy... she cared about Yuji.

But—

Sukuna disappeared from his throne and was now standing barely a foot away from her. Her heart was practically hammering away at her rib cage by now.

"So maybe you care about him a little bit," he whispered, leaning down so she could see his smirking face, merciless and brutal as ever. "But you will always care about me more."

—but I will always care about him more, she finished her previous thought, shuddering at the hot breath fanning her face.

A clawed hand reached out to grab her chin, carefully tilting upwards so her blue eyes would lock with his gleaming red ones. The first thing she noticed, however, was how careful he was to make sure his sharp nails wouldn't scratch her skin.

"I was all you thought about," he continued on mercilessly. "When the brat died, it was me that you were thinking of—and no one else, like it should be. Your heart ached for me, it bled for me, and those pretty blue eyes of yours cried a river over me and only me. Do not lie and tell me otherwise."

Mizuhime could feel her breath stop. His gaze was so heavy and even though his face was stoic, his eyes were full of an emotion her brain struggled to decipher. Everything about him was so maddening; the way he looked at her made her think he was about to reach his hand into her chest to carve his name on her heart. And she didn't think she would ever stop him.

"No matter how much you love those disgusting humans," he murmured lowly. "Your love for me will always outweigh that."

Love? She stiffened. No. No, that can't be it—

He gave her a sickening smile, "Oh, you must be so confused, hm?" He cooed. The hand holding her chin in place spread out to cup her cheek while his free one ran through her hair. "You still haven't remembered a thing."

Her lips began to tremble. "Suku—"

"—I'll make you remember," he said darkly, tilting her head up more. Her breath hitched; he was speaking in that ancient language again. The language she somehow managed to understand. "I'll make you remember, and then we'll bring this wretched Earth to ruin."

Finally, he released her, but his chilling words had left her thoroughly shaken.

"Get ready," he instructed, smoothly opening the front of his kimono to show off his bare, tattooed chest. "Let's resume your training, shall we?"

— author's note —

Me every time I have to write a Sukuna scene:

Me when Sukuna does literally anything:

Okay horny time over 🤡 I know I already apologized about the late update, but school really was kicking my ass (especially the lab portions) aaaaand... I might've been a lil distracted by Genshin Impact hehe. I just started playing like two weeks ago