Work Text:
I: when Inanna went to the underworld –
Ereshkigal: oh, this again
I: you had her strip naked and then killed her and hung her body on a hook for everybody to see
Ereshkigal: well, it’s not as if it took
I: let’s talk about Dumuzid, your sister’s husband
Ereshkigal: yes, why not
I: you killed him too
Ereshkigal: my sister hung dead in the underworld and he never even mourned her. He disrespected a goddess and was sentenced to spend six months of every year in my custody, I hardly think that counts as murder
I: you were the one who killed her in the first place
Ereshkigal: [eyes flash dangerously] yes, and I earned that right.
-- “Scorned Women Interviews (2)”, by Joan Tierney
(0)
“Megumi, Megumi – look! Look what I made!” Satoru braids electricity between his fingers, tangles lightning strikes into the air. He holds the spark-and-light of it up to Megumi and grins.
Megumi’s eyes are blue like Satoru’s – why wouldn’t it be? They are brothers, nothing-and-everything comes in pairs, in some myths they are lovers, in some they are parent-and-child, teacher-and-student. In this one, they are brothers.
Satoru creates lightning and Megumi nods in acknowledgement, but he doesn’t smile. Neither of them knows this yet, but they are at the first day of creation.
**
(Still 0), because the myth for day-night hasn’t existed yet
Megumi is of-the-dark. Satoru has always known this, Megumi is his baby brother and his to care for and Megumi exists in his shadow.
Satoru’s proverbial shadow or Megumi’s own dark-as-night and twice as alive shadow?
Well, yes. Megumi is of-the-dark, master of shadows, like how Satoru is of-the-sky and master of light. God of nothing, and god of everything. Satoru did say they come in pairs.
So it is surprising when Megumi meets the new god first.
Satoru found the last one – goddess of sound and metal Kugisaki Nobara took one look at Satoru and bared her teeth: “your standards are bullshit and I will not play to your games. This world is not your black-and-white chessboard. Leave.”
She doesn’t tell Megumi to leave though.
That’s good, that’s good – the last thing that Satoru would want would be for Megumi to be lonely.
“I don’t know what the new god is god of?” Megumi tells Satoru.
“Do you at least know his name?” Satoru wonders. It’s odd because Satoru is many-eyed, it’s rare that he doesn’t see something before Megumi does. An unknown god that Satoru doesn’t see…that might be something else.
“We’ll see.”
**
(Still 0) daylight will be born in 6 months, so bear with it for a bit
Geto Suguru is god of curses and he laughs in Satoru’s face, but bring Satoru’s favourite sweets whenever he visits. Ieiri Shoko is goddess of life and death, she peers at people through a veil of careless smoke.
Satoru is with Suguru when Shoko with Nobara in tow, face grave. “You need to see this,” Nobara insists.
The first thing Satoru notices when he touches down is the smell. Earth-cooked metal and death. It smells like heat, Satoru chokes on the scent of it. The sounds of the dying – moaning in pain, weeping, and whimpering – there is nothing worth saving around.
There is red.
Red and death. So much death – Megumi’s shadow is buzzing in between dead bodies, squirming against decaying flesh like maggots. Megumi himself is in the centre of it, pale and terrified.
Megumi stretches his shadow far – far across the ground, a desperate kind of frothing-fretful as he tries to find any signs of life from the corpses and groaning dead around.
There is nothing around. Just – just so much decay and dying.
Satoru touches down and Megumi looks up at him, so much horror and guilt in his face that Satoru’s stomach twists. “Sukuna,” Megumi croaks. His shadow is still stretching-stretching, trying to find something alive. “His name is Ryoumen Sukuna.”
“You didn’t do this,” Satoru realises. Megumi’s shadow snaps back to him with a gasp.
Satoru reaches for Megumi, hoping to comfort his baby brother, but then –
“Fushiguro Megumi.”
The voice is something earthen and chthonic, it calls to mind long-buried things and bone and blood. Megumi turns away from Satoru and this is the first time Megumi turns away from him and also the first time Satoru meets Ryoumen Sukuna.
First though: Ryoumen Sukuna is monstrous.
Many-armed and many-eyed, Shoko once explained how someone can eat their own twin in the womb and Satoru cannot imagine doing that to Megumi – but Ryoumen Sukuna must have. He must have eaten his own sibling, raw and whole and blood, even before he was born. Ryoumen Sukuna is a murderer and he wears the face of his first murder.
Ryoumen Sukuna stinks of death, but not in the way Shoko does. The stench-of-death on Shoko is clean and mournful, a so-it-goes that has a silver sheen to it, gone in the next exhale of Shoko’s cigarette. Ryoumen Sukuna stinks of death like he sunk his hands in-between ribcage and squeezed all that flesh-and-skin-and-marrow, like it’s a cheesecloth to filter blood.
He calls Megumi’s name like he’s eating out his own heart in the desert.
Satoru grabs Megumi’s arm and drags him behind him. Ryoumen Sukuna watches, eyes curious and bright and red. He nods once, in greeting, or maybe in understanding. And he walks away.
“Megumi, what…” Satoru turns and his words die in his mouth as he watches Megumi try and fail to hide the flush high on his cheeks. Megumi’s shadow seeps silently to the ground around them, simmering quietly and the dead drown into it.
(None of them know that yet, but it was the summer solstice. Things you are seeing for the first time and don’t understand can be terrifying. Especially when daylight hours start growing less and less even before daylight is born.)
**
(0) In 3 months now, so just a little longer
Satoru thinks of it as a kind of hostage exchange.
Megumi blushes pretty as a bride, there had been a whole season of death. Trees slaughtered into vivid reds and genocide orange. Walking through a forest is to have a million dead things crunch underfoot.
Ryoumen Sukuna had grinned when Satoru finally approached him to get the killing to stop. “What do you want?” Satoru snaps.
“Fushiguro Megumi.”
Satoru still doesn’t like the way Ryoumen Sukuna says Megumi’s name. He says it like he owns Megumi already, today and tomorrow and next year and the year after.
It’s a hostage exchange, because Sukuna weighed on his four hands the weight of the wolrd and decided that is what Megumi is worth. He holds the same world hostage in exchange for Megumi.
Now if only Megumi would be less shy about it.
Satoru gives Megumi over to Ryoumen Sukuna and –
This is the first time Satoru sees his baby brother laugh.
Satoru gives Megumi over to Ryoumen Sukuna, and Sukuna picks Megumi up like he weighs nothing and they fall into their own world like that, jubiliant giggles and kisses between laughter.
The first time Satoru sees Megumi laugh, and he does it in the arms of a killer.
Sukuna keeps holding Megumi and it’s the intimacy of when he presses his forehead to his, trading promises and secrets – that’s what does Satoru in.
Satoru had asked Sukuna before this meeting: “what are you the god of?”
Sukuna had simple grinned: “why don’t you tell me?”
“Chaos-bringer,” Satoru calls. Sukuna startles into putting Megumi down. “You – I have a condition for you.”
“What, Satoru-nii –”
“Don’t worry about it, Megumi-chan,” Satoru smiles. “Just making sure he treats you right. Think of it as my blessing: he cannot touch you in his light. And Megumi, you cannot step out of your shadow.”
Satoru is god of everything, and Megumi is his brother – while Sukuna ruminates over his surprise, Megumi grabs Sukuna and drags him down, sinking into his own shadows out of Satoru’s sight.
Megumi turns away from Satoru for Sukuna, and the leaves are still murder-red, but on that day, they begin to fall. (When daylight is born and humans start putting together calendars, this day will be called the autumn equinox.)
**
Day (1) daylight sees the world for the first time
Megumi is of-the-dark, god of nothing. Satoru knows well how Megumi’s home is hos own shadow and oh-how far and wide that shadow can stretch.
Whatever it is Megumi has done to loophole from Satoru’s blessing, it still exists. Satoru doesn’t care to know what Sukuna does with his baby brother when he can’t touch Megumi.
Or maybe – or maybe he can.
Megumi hides Sukuna from the world, from Satoru’s light – and warmth disappears. All of daylight is lost and all the rose garlands in the world dies even though Satoru’s eyes are lakes.
Shoko has a theory on what Sukuna is the god of. “The god of decay,” Shoko suspects. “The god of fire,” Nobara theorises. “A sun god,” Suguru offers, to join in the fun.
Whatever Sukuna is god of, he can’t stay with Megumi forever. Satoru won’t let it. Satoru blankets the world in white – all things snowy and opposite of Megumi’s sabre dark to flush out Sukuna. Snowflakes and icicles and diamond dust to see where exactly whatever the hell Sukuna is.
He doesn’t find Sukuna.
Instead – he finds a light spirit in a jar. The energy of it feels suspiciously like Sukuna, but it isn’t.
This is how Sukuna bypassed Satoru’s blessing: he actually put his light into a jar. The existence of the jar infuriates Satoru to no end because it means Sukuna did lay hands on his baby brother.
There are myths, that caution against opening jars handled previously by gods. Remember the lady? Pandora – all-gifted. There are myths about spirits of hope being trapped in a jar that should have never been opened to begin with.
But this is not that kind of myth, Satoru is not a bride made by gods to spite hindsight – Satoru is the god of everything, he opens the jar.
Daylight!
Daylight! Satoru names this light spirit Itadori Yuuji.
Itadori Yuuji is – at once, the spitting image of Ryoumen Sukuna, and not. Itadori Yuuji is not many-armed and many-eyed, he is young and sun-eyed and he has hair like the rosy-fingers of nerborn dawn. This is the twin Ryoumen Sukuna ate in his womb.
Daylight being but born yesterday, takes his time blinking awake at the world. Staring in fascination and awe at the world around. Resting when adventuring becomes too much.
Satoru remembers that Megumi’s birthday is sometime around this time (December) – but winter solstice and the growing daylight of the world happens because Itadori Yuuji is released from his jar.
**
(89)
It takes 90 days for Sukuna to come out. Surprising. Satoru didn’t expect Megumi to keep him for so long, but ah – Sukuna did put away a significant chunk of his power, didn’t he?
Satoru is waiting for him with Yuuji when Sukuna comes out of Megumi’s shadow. Sukuna stares impassively at Yuuji, far less concerned than Satoru expected him to be.
“We are technically brothers now,” Sukuna points out drily. “It’s bad form to be on bad terms with family.”
“I never asked for you to be my family,” Satoru sneers. “What are you the god of?”
“Oh, haven’t you figured it out? Don’t you see?” Sukuna smiles.
For the impunity – Satoru takes way all of Sukuna’s memories.
If Sukuna can’t remember Megumi, this whole fiasco won’t ever happen again, Satoru is sure of it. And spring comes back in rustling shade and apple blossoms fill the air.
**
(181)
A new myth appears: the day-night cycles are because Megumi is looking for Sukuna, and Yuuji looks so much like Sukuna, doesn’t he? Megumi chases after him across the sky.
The new gods are Zenin Maki and Zenin Mei. They are goddesses of warcraft. Zenin Maki is goddess of strategy and pre-battle plans. Zenin Mai is goddess of compromise and contact-with-the-enemy. Strange how gods almost always come in pairs.
“Smart of him,” Zenin Maki notes when Suguru tells her about what happened with Sukuna and Megumi. “We gods are restricted by our domain. If no one knows what his domain is, then no one can prevent it from happening again.”
Satoru puts down his drink, counts the days. And realises that it’s summer again.
It’s impossible, Saotru thinks. There’s no way.
Nobara and Shoko come to him, and it’s déjà vu all over again. The world is a-washed in slow deaths and sunlight, Megumi eats all that death up in delight.
“Megumi,” Satoru realises in horror. “What did you do?”
“Satoru-nii,” Megumi greets. “I found Sukuna.”
**
(274)
It happens again and Satoru can’t stop it. Sukuna probably doesn’t remember Satoru to ask for his permission, either way – Megumi brings Sukuna into the shaodws and the death-red, dessicated gold leaves start falling.
**
(454)
Satoru watches Sukuna warily, a new spring arriving in the world. Satoru had peppered the world with snow again to find Yuuji and Yuuji mentioned being eaten sometime before summer and then spat out during autumn.
“So you’re the one who found it,” Sukuna hums at Satoru, his eyes darting between Yuuji and Satoru. “I suppose I should have hidden it better.”
“What are you the god of?” Satoru demands.
Sukuna just blinks at him. “Why does it matter?”
“You!” Satoru bites down the urge to scream. “You seduced my baby brother for a second time and you dare –”
“Second?” Sukuna wonders.
Satoru’s eyes widen at that, because Sukuna wasn’t lying. Sukuna doesn’t even remember Satoru. Megumi found Sukuna and Sukuna laid a whole world waste for Megumi in courtship all over again – and he doesn’t even know he’s doing it the second time again.
Satoru suddenly realises that – Sukuna might have known what he is god of before, but Satoru had wiped the memory clean from him. Now nobody knows what Sukuna is god of, least of all Sukuna.
Satoru made a mistake.
He wipes Sukuna’s memories clean again and spring comes back in rustling shade and apple blossoms fill the air.
**
(546)
Satoru took Megumi with him throughout all of spring, making sure neither he nor Sukuna lay eyes on one another.
There are sunflower growing where the first time Sukuna laid out his courtship of Megumi, Nobara brings them to Megumi to cheer him up. Megumi finds distraction in sparring with maki. Shoko stares oddly at Megumi, even though it’s not the first time they’ve seen one another.
“Fushiguro-kun,” Shoko says quietly, Megumi turns to her, but Shoko just gapes, struggling to put to words something she isn’t sure she’s allowed to say.
“Fushiguro-kun, did you change?”
Megumi blinks curiously at the question while Satoru peers at Megumi with his many-many-many eyes, trying to see what exactly lead to Shoko’s question.
“Because,” Shoko considers, dragging on her cigarette. “Because I’m no longer god of death. I’m god of medicine.”
Satoru doesn’t see what Shoko is not-saying, but déjà vu hits him like a punch to face. Megumi still doesn’t understand what Shoko is not-saying, but Satoru checks.
The world – is on fire. Ryoumen Sukuna who says Megumi’s name he’s eating out his own heart in the desert, bitter-but-mine – could not have possibly courted Megumi any other way that is bloodless.
Sukuna recovers is memories all on his own and this time, Megumi laughs in Satoru’s face. Megumi laughs so hard he cries.
**
(7-- who even cares anymore)
“WHAT ARE YOU GOD OF? WHAT THE FUCK GOD ARE YOU?” Satoru screams at Sukuna during spring.
“Who even are you?”
Satoru sees red, and the next thing he knows is that his fists are stinging and Sukuna is on the ground. Satoru snarls at Sukuna, who just stares at him with so much oh-look-at-me I’m-so-innocent. “How many more times is this going to happen? How? You can’t keep fooling around with Megumi – just stop! Just stop – you made my baby brother Death!”
Sukuna’s eyes widen at Satoru, still stunned. His silence just fuels Satoru’s rage and the sky crackles-splits, fissures of pure light in Satoru’s hands.
“You killed for my baby brother!” Lightning splits the ground charring new spring-born ground black. Sukuna dodges the next strike and Satoru screams. “You took my baby brother from me– why – WHY?”
Electricity scorches the air, singeing anything and everything it can touch. There’s just burning everywhere Satoru can breathe, and the smell of it just reminds Satoru of the first time Sukuna started this.
Satoru growls as the dust settles, Sukuna is unharmed and that just pisses Satoru off even more.
“So, we’re brothers,” Sukuna tucks his hands into his sleeves calmly. “Technically, family. We should get along – you and I.”
Satoru slams the earth with lightning – by the time the air stopped smelling charred, there is a crater in the earth. At the bottom of canyon is Sukuna, unconscious, but alive. Satoru wipes his memories, because if he doesn’t Sukuna will just steal his way back to Megumi, but even that precaution doesn’t still tastes bitter.
Satoru screams his frustrations into the fissure he left into the world.
He still doesn’t know what god Sukuna is.
**
“What do you even do with Megumi?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“I’m his brother!”
“I don’t know you,” Sukuna says wryly. “I’m Megumi’s husband and I think he would mention a brother.”
“Oh – you don’t need to worry about that. I officiated your fucking wedding, you’ll forget – we’ll be here again,” Satoru bares his teeth. “Tell me why you deserve Megumi. Tell me what god you are.”
Dry humour vanishes from Sukuna. His many-many eyes blink out-of-time curiously at Satoru. Sukuna is almost confrontational during spring. Why would he be? He is in a good mood, he was just by his husband’s side. He probably thinks he’s just going to pop out and pick Yuuji up and hide him someplace else.
Instead, it’s this – this furious blue-eyed god who says he’s Megumi’s brother and demands to know what Sukuna is.
“You held the entire fucking world hostage for my baby brother,” Satoru bites out. The clouds churn and darken, flickers of lightning obscured by the atmosphere. “You made him the face that sank a thousand ships. I am entitled to ask what you’re doing with him.”
“You think I’m hurting him,” Sukuna realises, fury beats confusion to death across Sukuna’s face. “He’s mine. You – you made me forget.” Sukuna’s eyes dart to Yuuji. “You’ve done this before – use Yuuji as a trap to lure me out because…what? You think I’m hurting Megumi?”
Lightning slashes the air and Sukuna just scoffs at where the ground is blackened. “You invented this, brother-in-law. Whatever hurt you think Megumi is in because of my marriage with him – you invented it.”
Satoru is god-of-everything, but this, the vitriol and truth Sukuna says – Satoru will renounce it with prejudice.
Satoru strips Sukuna of his memories and the world rends itself again – Sukuna falls into the depth of some dark and nameless trench. The sky cleaves itself open and pours rain-and-rain-and-rain.
**
Satoru is never going to find out what Sukuna is god of from Sukuna himself, and the novelty of this trapping-and-hide-and-seeking wears itself out.
Satoru makes a new god out of his seeking ice-and-snow, their name is Uraume. They get so good at tracking Sukuna's energy and finding where Sukuna hides Yuuji before he goes to Megumi – that Sukuna greets Uraume with a smile and a "thank you for your hard work" each spring when Uraume hands Yuuji back to Sukuna.
**
The problem, Satoru think – isn’t just that he doesn’t know what Sukuna is the god of. It’s also – he doesn’t know how Sukuna gets into Megumi’s realm.
And that’s a thing Megumi has now. A realm. A cache of summer-after-summers, gifts from Sukuna.
Because Megumi-of-the-dark, Megumi, god of nothing – is now god of death too. That’s what Shoko was not-saying. Sukuna’s courtship has turned Satoru’s baby brother into Death.
Satoru think sometimes Megumi brings Sukuna into the realm of the dead himself, stretches night-time across the world and falls the dead leaves and escorts Sukuna down – but Satoru has tried keeping Megumi by his side. And in those times, Sukuna finds Megumi’s realm.
There isn’t a year where Sukuna doesn’t hide Yuuji into a jar and finds his way to Megumi. There isn’t a year where Sukuna doesn’t gift Megumi with the wholesale slaughter of the world.
The other gods place bets now on how this year of Satoru-fucked-up would turn out and Satoru laughs with them until he has to scream in private. It’s normal, Satoru knows it’s normal because Megumi laughs with the other gods until he doesn’t and cries.
Satoru can’t console his baby brother, can’t pat his head and tell him how sorry he is and wipe away his tears. Whatever this is now it’s something Satoru created and he can’t fix.
“Megumi,” Satoru can’t remember the last time he called his brother Megumi-chan.
“Gojo,” brave Megumi, lonely Megumi, Megumi who cries alone in the dark. He rubs fiercely at his face and turns to Satoru. Satoru goes down to Megumi’s level and hopes he doesn’t hate him.
For a moment, Megumi just glares at him, eyes-red-rimmed and furious. Satoru wants to blame Sukuna for this, but Sukuna isn’t here, is he? It’s barely even summer yet – who knows if there is going to be a summer this year? There will be – but will there?
“Why didn’t you tell me you liked Sukuna, Megumi?” Satoru wonders. “Am I such a bad older brother that you felt like you couldn’t trust me?”
Megumi blinks at him, confused – and then betrayed swallows it whole.
Megumi’s shadow spreads, whipping through thin air in sheer indignation. “Don’t you dare make this about me, don’t you dare blame me,” Megumi snarls.
“Why do you do this?” Megumi snaps back at Satoru. “I don’t understand – tell me, Satoru. Why did you do this? Sukuna is mine. And we kept to your conditions even though they were stupid and cruel and – why do you keep taking Sukuna from me?”
“I didn’t know,” Satoru hisses back. “None of us know what god he is – I can’t safely give you to him! You’re my brother, Megumi! You’re all I have!”
“YOU HAVE EVERYTHING,” Megumi’s fists clench as his shadows swallow all the light around whole. There’s the howl of the dead in them – a night-sound rumble-roar. “Satoru – you have everything. I was god of nothing until Sukuna made me something! You can’t –”
“Megumi –”
Megumi’s shadows give the dead a voice, a colour – a wail splits the air and something with teeth crawls its way out of Megumi’s shadow. Satoru stares at Megumi in horror. Megumi grits his teeth, a growl trapped in his throat as his shadow claws around them.
“Megumi!” Satoru snaps.
Megumi snarls at Satoru wordlessly – half-an-animal himself, he throws his arm and catches the shadow-beast and wrangles it back down, drowning it back into the roiling sea of dark-on-dark.
Satoru straightens in alarm as Megumi glares. Megumi heaves in a breath, and then another – and then another – a mimicry of calm. The dead continue to shriek through Megumi’s shadow but Megumi snaps at them into silence.
There’s a trembling in the air – gods were never meant to fight gods, least of all nothing-against-everything. Satoru can’t tell whose fear it is saturated in the air, his own, or the fear of the dead.
“I’m a god in my own right, Satoru,” Megumi grits out, still breathing harshly. Before Satoru can answer, Megumi turns and snaps at something in his shadow, it barks back angrily until Megumi growls. “I can make my own choices.”
“Did you?” Satoru wonders, he reaches for Megumi, but Megumi slaps him off. “How does Sukuna find you? How did he find you?”
Megumi gestures with his hands, and his shadow creeps home reluctantly, slithers back around Megumi’s feet. “I don’t know – the first time I saw Sukuna. He told me there was no such thing as death, just waste.”
God of decay, Shoko had said, but – but how does decay translate to light? How does decay translate to Yuuji-made-of-daylight? “What is he god of, Megumi?”
“You think I would know?” Megumi shakes his head at Satoru. “You stole him from me every time! You took him from me every time! Each year is different, Satoru.”
It hits Satoru then that – Sukuna was right.
Which is a shitty, shitty thing to have in his mouth, but Megumi being lonely and crying is a seasonal kind of grief and rage and doubt, inherited from a lifetime-and-more under Satoru’s shadow and watching his older brother take everything.
Satoru reaches for Megumi again and his heart breaks when his baby brother flinches from him. “I’m sorry,” Satoru whispers. Because it’s his fault. He did this. He made it that Megumi is alone in his shadow and Sukuna sent dead things to Megumi to keep hm company there and it’s Satoru’s fault.
“I’m so, so sorry.”
His apology breaks Megumi, and his shadow collapses into sobs. ““Why did you do this? I don’t understand. I still don’t understand, Satoru. Why did you do this?”
This time when Satoru reaches for his baby brother, Megumi lets him. Lets Satoru rub his back as Megumi breaks and cries. “I’m sorry,” Satoru murmurs. “I’m so, so sorry.”
“Is he good to you?” Satoru whispers when Megumi cries himself into exhaustion and calms down, his shadows is a liquid thing – spilling over everywhere. “That’s all I want to know, Megumi. Is he good to you?”
“He doesn’t set stupid conditions on me and curse me in disguise of a blessing,” Megumi mocks, his shadows are already writhing – finding some purchase to get up.
“I won’t look for Itadori Yuuji,” Satoru promises. “If you find Sukuna, or if Sukuna finds you – just keep him. I’m sorry, Megumi.”
Megumi just nods and walks away from Satoru.
Satoru keeps to that promise. It snows anyway because Uraume is nothing if not diligent.
Spring comes and Satoru is surprised to find Sukuna with Uraume. They’re drinking amazake as they watch the snow melt and the first flowers of spring. Megumi is there with him, tucked into Sukuna’s side and drowsy from alcohol and springtime.
The next line after “and apple blossoms fill the air” is “but I have a rendezvous with death, and I shall not fail that rendezvous.”
“What are you the god of?” Satoru asks.
“Cycles,” Sukuna answers. “Binaries.”
“How long have you been god of cycles and binaries?”
“A little longer than Megumi has been god of death,” Sukuna admits, pressing a kiss to Megumi’s temple anyway. Megumi squirms into his lap, fitting himself comfortably into the shadow of Sukuna’s embrace. Sukuna considers Megumi thoughtfully. “Since I made Yuuji to be with Megumi and you released Yuuji to create spring and daytime.”
Satoru looks across the small table at Uraume – spirit of winter – far too pleased with themselves. “What were you god of before that?”
“Horizons. Blurred boundaries between life-and-death, and day-and-night, and everything-and-nothing,” Sukuna plays idly with Megumi’s hair before admitting: “before that, I was god of change.”
Huh. “Are you going to massacre people again this summer?”
“Are you going to take my memories again today?”
Megumi fusses, burying his face into Sukuna’s robes, shadows writhing in threats. Sukuna hushes him gently, rubbing his clenched fists with more patience than Satoru thought he was capable of until Megumi’s shadow is just a shadow.
“It’s a new year,” Satoru decides. “Let’s try something new.”
Uraume toasts him at that and Megumi relaxes. Sukuna hides a smile in Megumi’s hair and Satoru wonders if this year he’d change into a new kind of god too.
Afterword:
It’s a happy thing when Megumi’s shadows are everywhere. Megumi’s home is his own shadow and where he shares it, it means he’s sharing what makes him happy. His husband and his brother get along now, Megumi is happy.
It’s a little odd though, because the gods seem to like to paly a kind of telephone game with Megumi’s shadow. And there is a rumour a-buzz, and collectively, everyone has decided to Not Tell Satoru.
Which makes Satoru nervous, because the last time he was Not Told something, Megumi got married and became Death.
It's Sukuna who takes pity on him, oddly enough. Satoru is still navigating
where he stands with Sukuna. Yuuji is easier, because Yuuji is always happy to see Satoru.
Sukuna passes the message along, sending a great red bird to Megumi. And when Megumi arrives, he scowls at Satoru.
Oh no.
And because Sukuna can’t not be affectionate with Megumi, he laguhs and drops a kiss to Megumi’s hands and leaves to give them some privacy.
Oh no. Oh no.
“You’re pregnant,” Satoru moans in distress. “No – Megumi! No!”
“What.”
“Megumi, please – no, I’m too young to be an uncle…Megumi…”
“Look!” Megumi snaps. His hands clasp together. “Look, Satoru! Look what I made!”
A dog barks and Satoru yelps out of his stupid. Megumi summons up a three-headed dog from his own shadow and Satoru blinks in surprise at it.
It is huge. Three snarling, snow-white heads with six glowing-blue eyes. Eyes just like Megumi’s and Satoru’s. It eyes Satoru and barks, and Satoru suspects it recognises him.
“It’s for you, Satoru-nii,” Megumi pets one of the heads, soothing it. Satoru remembers summoning lightning to cheer Megumi up. Megumi urges the dog forward.
Cautiously, Satoru offers it his hands to sniff, and it howls in response. The sky rumbles, and if there was a sound equivalent to the sky being sheared by lightning and shared – this is it.
“Thunder,” Satoru decides. Running his fingers through the dog’s fur and feeling electricity spark. One of the head yips at Satoru and Satoru grins back. “Your name is Thunder.”