Chapter Text
Neither Yuji nor Megumi could answer the exterminator when the man asked where the snakes might have come from. They were in the middle of the city, far away from forests and mountains, and if there had ever been a rat problem in their building, Yuji was sure they would have found out sooner rather than later. All that aside, how could snakes even fit through the tap in their kitchen? It beggared belief.
“Shouldn’t you be the one explaining what’s going on?” Megumi’s unimpressed stare made the exterminator’s frown deepen, but the man wisely kept his voice even.
“Well, it’s a good thing neither of you were bitten - these snakes are venomous and they don’t like being touched.”
After a thorough sweep of the apartment, particularly the dark nooks and crannies of the kitchen, the exterminator packed up his tools and left after Megumi had paid him.
Yuji listened quietly all the while. As much as he tried to offer some sort of help, he was frozen where he sat in the living room, unable to move. He should get up. He should do something. But he couldn’t budge and his thoughts were so loud that his head throbbed with them.
“Yuji?”
The couch dipped next to him and the cup of green tea in his numb hands sloshed over. It was a good thing it had already gone cold, so it was icy against his skin when it soaked through his shorts, shocking him out of his stupor.
Megumi had already wrapped a hand around the cup, plucking it out of Yuji’s hands before he could drop it. “Hey, talk to me.”
“It’s Sukuna.” That was the only thing that made any sense. The snakes must have been made of cursed energy, just like Maki-sempai’s sister could construct physical things out of cursed energy. Yuji’s blood ran cold as he imagined the sheer amount of cursed energy that would require - a single bullet couldn’t be compared to at least a dozen living snakes.
Yuji couldn’t fully process his own thoughts, but they came spilling out of him in a long exhale anyway, “It has to be him - he’s a giant fucking snake spirit! I just don’t understand why or— How? Are cursed spirits supposed to be able to do that? Is he something else? What’s going to happen— No, that’s not— What does he even want?”
Megumi squeezed Yuji’s hand hard enough that Yuji’s knuckles started to ache, cutting off his babbling. “I’ve been consulting with the Zenin about all this but no one knows much about him.”
Before Yuji could interrupt him, Megumi went on with a huff, “However, he has been mentioned a few times in Heian-era sutras and he sounds like an imaginary demon. He’s almost always associated with snakes, but also with immortality and appetite.”
Yuji turned his hand around and gripped Megumi’s hand, as if it were the last thing keeping him from being swept away into the turbulent nightmare. “You should have taken me with you! I could have helped look through things—”
“They don’t want anything to do with you,” Megumi cut him off, green eyes turning flat and shuttered. “Trust me, I tried, but one of the conditions of using their library was that I would be the only one there. I was going to tell you when I found more information, but there really isn’t much.
“So I tried looking for similar gatherings instead, particularly ones with the same mark as the one on your chest. You can’t even imagine how common this is, and it was by pure luck that I found several instances where the victims died the same way, poisoned by concentrated cursed energy. They were all rituals but they didn't seem to do anything even though they were completed.
“It was the same in the shrine we went to - practically bursting with cursed energy one day, then extinguished the next, gone along with all traces of the deity. Yuji, this has been happening for millennia.”
“I know,” Yuji started, startled, and realised that that knowledge had been brooding in the back of his mind all along, given clarity only when Megumi had put everything in so many words. He released Megumi’s hand and rubbed his own knuckles as he continued, “I feel— I’ve always known that I was a part of something bigger and that it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. I told you, I told you! You should have stayed in Jujutsu Tech—”
“And I said no!” Megumi grabbed Yuji by the shoulders, his eyes wild with the spark of fire that had always struck Yuji with awe. Now, it only deepened the pit that had opened up in Yuji’s stomach, filling him with dread and regret. “I’m not going to leave you to deal with this alone! The fact that someone like you exists - cursed yet living - means that this time is different. We will find a way.”
Yuji studied Megumi’s face, desperate for any sign that might nurse his habitual optimism back to life, but all he felt was a painful swell of tenderness that did little to lift his spirits. There was no answer to be had because there was no question; they wouldn’t find a solution because everything was going according to plan.
You understand.
“I’ll leave a message with Gojo-sensei and then call Ieiri-san. We’ll see her tomorrow,” Megumi went on, his voice low and filled with steel, ready to take on the entire jujutsu world for Yuji’s sake.
Yuji didn’t deserve Megumi. He had nothing to offer him, no ability to wake Tsumiki, and death hovered closer than ever to finally snatch him up. The thought of what would come made goosebumps ripple over Yuji’s skin, but he found comfort in Megumi’s arms around him and his chest against his face, surrounded by furiously protective warmth.
Megumi continued to talk but his voice lost its edges, softening into a soothing drone. Yuji was vaguely aware of the phone call to Ieiri-san and the brief but urgent message to Gojo-sensei, and then some murmured plan about containing Sukuna within their apartment with a curtain. It was right on the tip of Yuji’s tongue to say that he wasn’t sure it would work that way, if it worked at all, but it couldn’t hurt for Megumi to try, could it?
No, it wouldn’t.
The voice was louder this time, but before Yuji could begin to question its existence, a loud banging came from their front door and made both of them jump. It was curt at first, then heavy with impatience, until the knocking became one long hammering that made the door shudder like a leaf in the wind. The loud noise made every thought in Yuji’s head rattle until he could no longer stand it. He hurried from the couch and yanked the door open.
The corridor outside was empty; there was no one outside.
Megumi peered outside. “There’s no one on the stairs.”
In the sudden silence, the sound of sloshing water was abrasive. Yuji turned and saw the flooded balcony at the same time that Megumi did. “Fuck!”
Kicking the front door shut, they rushed back into the apartment in search of mops and buckets to save their living room from further water damage.
“You’re distracted.”
Yuji jolted guiltily, caught in the act of spacing out even though he had been the one to insist on making dinner. Everything was calm and quiet when they really shouldn’t have been.
“You feel it too?” Megumi stopped trying to drown the vegetables and looked at the door Yuji had been staring at, his brow furrowed.
“Everything’s just so… normal.” Yuji grabbed the chicken mince from the fridge and sat back on his heels. He forced a smile and gave Megumi a reassuring pat on the back when he straightened again. “I shouldn’t be complaining. Yesterday was difficult, and the school usually doesn’t just hand out off days like this.”
Megumi frowned harder, his dark eyes trained on Yuji now. “They’re the reason we were even in that shrine in the first place - it’s the least they can do.”
Yuji tossed all the meatball ingredients into a big bowl and mixed them. “It’s still sort of weird to do that when we’re just fine. What if someone needs our help?”
The corners of Megumi’s lips twitched up into a smile, no doubt amused by the fact that Yuji thought Jujutsu Tech would respect their day off if anything came up. Still, Yuji couldn’t shake off the feeling that they should be somewhere, but if Megumi hadn’t said anything, then it couldn't have been anything important, could it?
“Yuji, let’s go out for dinner.”
“What?” Yuji pointed at the bowl, just in case Megumi had suddenly gone blind. “I’m nearly done making these. Relax. Dinner will be ready soon.”
“I just watched you pour sugar into the chicken.”
“There’s sugar in this recipe, don’t you remember? You should always put a little bit in, just like you’d put some salt into chocolate cake.”
Megumi was already taking the bowl away, resolutely ignoring the pleading look Yuji was giving him. Utterly put off, Yuji picked up the kitchen knife and proceeded to cut up the vegetables even as he said, “Seriously, Megumi, what’s up with you today?”
“Does the mark hurt?”
Just like that, Yuji’s annoyance fizzled out and he deflated. He stopped chopping up the vegetables quite so aggressively though he didn’t look up. “No, but I can feel it. It’s like having a second heart. I can feel it pressing against mine, like it’s trying to crush it.”
Never.
“Never,” Megumi echoed, even though he couldn’t have heard that other voice. “I’ve thought about this for a while now, but I want to negotiate a Binding Vow with Sukuna to release you.”
The dread that rocked through Yuji was so intense that it left him feeling faint. Through numb lips, he gritted out, “Don’t joke about it! What are you even going to offer him? Your own body? We’re not doing that! There has to be another way!”
“Don’t make me say it again - I’m not leaving!” Megumi sighed and lowered his voice, softening its impact even further with a hand on the small of Yuji’s back. “Look - I’m already part of this no matter what.”
Yuji didn’t want to see, but he dragged his gaze up to where Megumi had tugged his collar down to show Yuji the marks on his neck. They had been pink when they had had sex for the first time, but now, they had deepened into a solid black. “When did this happen?”
“I don’t know, but they were there when I looked just now.” Megumi’s hands were gentle when they settled against Yuji’s cheeks, as if he were precious and fragile. His eyes were almost black in the shadow of his wild hair, but Yuji could read the concern there with no effort. “I’m not going to lie to you - I don’t know what to do, but I’m not letting you do this alone no matter what.”
Yuji recognised that tone of Megumi’s voice too. He meant every word that he had said, but consciously or not, he was also referring to himself. After years of friendship and something a little more, Yuji still didn’t know the entire story, but he knew just enough to understand how precious the bond between them was. Yuji might not deserve any of it, especially not now, but Megumi thought he did and Yuji wouldn’t betray that trust.
“I don’t want to be alone either,” Yuji finally admitted. The mark on his chest still ached but it was nothing compared to the burning within. Whether it was anxiety or panic, it cinched around his heart until he felt like it would pop and gush red. “I’m scared, Megumi.”
Megumi had no words of comfort to offer. All he had were insistent lips and arms that engulfed Yuji in a suffocating hug. They pushed reality away and restricted what Yuji could see and feel, rejecting everything outside of themselves. In that instant, Yuji was all that Megumi cared about, and Megumi was the bright star in the twilight of Yuji’s existence.
“You’re important to me.” Had he said that to Megumi, or had that been Megumi whispering into his ear?
Give me another taste of him.
Yuji gripped Megumi’s jaw with one hand and gripped his hair with the other, and leaned in to renew their kiss. It only took the barest hint of pressure for Megumi to open his mouth to Yuji’s tongue. Their lips slid together, clumsy but eager, until Megumi warmed up to Yuji’s hand on his crotch and their kisses turned wet and hungry.
When they peeled apart to catch their breath, Megumi’s cheeks were pink and his eyes were heavy-lidded. Had Megumi’s eyelashes always been that long, and were his eyes always that perfect green that was neither brown nor blue? His mouth, still shiny with spit, was red and kiss-swollen, begging Yuji to bite into them like ripe fruit.
Yuji pushed Megumi against the kitchen sink. “I want you.”
I want him.
“Then what are you waiting for?” Megumi yanked Yuji closer with a hand twisted in the front of Yuji’s hoodie. He opened Yuji’s trousers with just as much preamble and wrapped his hand around his cock.
They fumbled around artlessly, their inexperience made up for by desperate desire and a need for closeness. They worked on stripping the clothes off each other but a touch here and a kiss there kept distracting them, until Yuji turned Megumi around and bent him over the sink with a growl.
Even through the thick fog of want, Yuji remembered how uncomfortable it had been for him at first, and how Megumi had done all he could to make things good for him. Yuji wanted the same for Megumi, and a part of him wanted to take Megumi apart and to see him come undone again while speared on his cock. Patting around the counter yielded the bottle of oil he had been using, and he used it to get his fingers slippery enough for Megumi.
Megumi gasped when Yuji eased a finger in, and when Yuji worked him up to three fingers in rapid succession, Megumi gripped the edge of the sink until his knuckles turned white. His breaths came in harsh pants that twisted into wrenched-out cries when Yuji shoved his fingers in just right, so much so that Yuji thought for a second that he had been too rough. A glimpse at Megumi’s erection, trapped and oozing pre-come, told him all he needed to know about Megumi’s enjoyment.,
Yuji was ready for more. He needed to be inside Megumi, sinking into that hot tightness. Yuji reached for the bottle of oil again only to knock it off the counter along with the kitchen knife. A bright explosion of pain flared through Yuji’s foot, even as the bottle shattered on the floor, but that didn’t slow Yuji down. This time, when Megumi tried to straighten up again, Yuji pushed him back down with a strong hand on his nape.
“Yuji! Yuji, what’s happening?”
“Broke a bottle and dropped the knife, but I’m fine.”
“What? Yuji—”
Whatever Megumi had been about to say dissolved into a strained cry as Yuji slammed into him with a rough snap of his hips. He tried to shuffle back against Yuji, but he yelped in pain when glass crunched under his feet. Yet, that didn’t stop them, and it certainly didn’t slow them down.
Every thrust jostled them, making the broken glass grind against bone and screech against the tiles. They made the cuts worse and smeared more blood over the floor, but every time Yuji thought to stop, Megumi pressed back against him, and lust overrode all else once more.
When Yuji finally came, just moments after Megumi, it was hot and sticky and excruciating. Megumi wiped Yuji’s face with a swipe of his palm; Yuji kissed the cold tears from Megumi’s cheeks. Wrung out and shivering from overstimulation, they clung to each other until the blazing agony in their feet became too much.
As Yuji had expected, the floor was a gory mess of crimson and amber, and the knife lay next to his foot, red to the hilt. Somehow, there was no wound on top of his foot, though it was covered with flaking blood.
With arms around each other, Yuji and Megumi hobbled over to the bathroom, leaving a slick trail in their wake. They didn’t say a single word as they took turns picking glass from each other’s feet with pairs of tweezers. Yuji wiped Megumi’s feet down with iodine when he was done, then wrapped it up securely in gauze after Megumi returned the favour. Cleaning up took the last of Yuji’s energy, so instead of getting rid of the spilled oil and the broken glass in the kitchen, he ended up dozing off on the couch in Megumi’s arms.
“Love you…” Megumi murmured in his ear and Yuji snuggled closer, glad for his continued presence, if nothing else.
The last thought Yuji had before drifting off was that his skin felt dry and too tight, but that was a problem that he could wait until he didn’t feel like he was on the verge of collapse.
“Mmm, Megumi?” Yuji lifted his head from the pillow groggily, straining his ears for the sound of footsteps or the sound of a door closing. Megumi was quiet and moved around like his shadows, but Yuji had keen ears and he always listened for him.
But Megumi hadn’t come home and he wasn’t in bed next to him.
The beads around Yuji’s wrist clicked softly in the quiet of the room as he sat up reluctantly, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. A stream of moonlight spilled into the bedroom, guiding the blue night along the floor and connecting it to Yuji’s feet. That was odd - the window was supposed to be behind him, not in front of him.
Yuji got up and followed the light to the balcony, where the full moon dominated the sky. It was suffused with a silvery light, lit blue at its very core, and it was larger, closer, than Yuji had ever seen it before, so that even the rain couldn’t diminish its glory. Everywhere the moonlight struck his skin, he felt a cool, quiet quickening that made all his senses shiver to life, blow wide open, until he could experience everything, exactly the way he was meant to.
His shirt was getting in the way, so Yuji took it off.
“It feels good, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, it does.”
“Come closer.”
Yuji turned. Where he had expected a tree big enough to cradle the world, there were instead scaled, grey coils that were as wide as he was tall, winding possessively around a huge mound of pale rock. All around him, caught between the coils, were human skulls and other bones picked clean, evidence of the unfortunate acolytes that had come before him.
“Would you rather share their pathetic fate, brat?”
Yuji blinked rainwater out of his eyes and looked up at where the voice had come from, “No, I’ll climb.”
Four points of pale blue light yawned into existence in the dark, distant sky. “You’ve seen so much. There is nowhere else you can go.”
“I know where to go.”
And Yuji did. He knew this place well: he’d spent half his life studying the patterns the scales made, meditating on their dangerous secrets, and when the world outside of his safe place grew too much, he needed only to return in dreams to find comfort between the muscular coils, in the sweet rain.
Every step Yuji took then, he had taken before. He knew the collection of grooves near the base of the rock and how his own feet had worn them into steps that took him up to the first coil. This one was different from the ones that sat higher up. It was calcified and fused to the rock, dead weight that anchored Sukuna to the interstices between worlds.
Yuji wished he could do something to free Sukuna, so that he could find his rightful place once more, presiding over earth and spirit.
“But you can.”
“How?”
“You know how.”
Yuji looked around, and as if his desire resonated with that of Sukuna, he found what he was looking for right away. He climbed higher, hand over hand, with confident leaps and bounds, until he stopped at the seam in the coil. It ran all the way up, far beyond what he could see, but he knew exactly where to start. It didn’t matter how long it might take - now that he knew what was needed of him, Yuji was filled with boiling determination.
Though the rain never stopped, Yuji was able to slide his hands through the seam, under what he now knew was moulted skin. The new skin was strangely warm under his hands, but what surprised him most was the answering thrum of a heartbeat there, echoing and amplifying his own. He had to free it. There was simply no other way.
Yuji grabbed the edges of the seam and jerked hard on them in opposite directions, ripping the moulted skin. It fought against him, screeching like an enraged animal, but Yuji tucked his chin to his chest and fought against the resistance.
“Very good. But you can do so much more.”
Yuji preened under the praise but it wasn’t yet time to stop. There was still so much to do; every time the moulted skin tore in his hands, he grabbed another handful, and yet another handful, peeling away all that lifeless grey to reveal the black and orange and green gold underneath. The heartbeat grew steadily louder, until it filled Yuji’s chest and made his heart sing. It expanded and spilled out of him, and the air vibrated with it until it all culminated in the loud peal of an invisible bell.
The coils Yuji had been leaning against moved suddenly. They rearranged themselves to reveal a figure at the top of the stone mound, and with an undulating motion, they heaved Yuji up until he came face to face with Sukuna.
“It’s you.”
“It’s you.”
At first glance, Sukuna looked just like Yuji, but the longer Yuji looked, the less of himself he found in that fiercely striking face. He remembered the golden horn arching from the centre of Sukuna’s forehead, the four eyes, the four arms, and the large maw stretched across his abdomen that Megumi must have seen in the cave shrine. Past his hips, Yuji had less distinct memories: Sukuna was an immense serpent, green gold and blushing with swaths of orange scales, striped with black.
Sukuna reached for Yuji, easily cradling all of the back of Yuji’s head in the palm of his large hand. He pushed his head down until Yuji came face to face with the mouth in his stomach. “Finish it.”
Yuji needed no further instruction. He curled his fingers around the furled edges of the torn skin and pulled with all his might, stripping away the last of what bound Sukuna to the rock. The maw in Sukuna’s stomach bared its teeth, but the triumphant roar of laughter came from higher up.
The sense of victory was potent and infectious, sweeping away any lingering uncertainty Yuji might have had. After so many years, after millennia, Yuji was the drop that made Sukuna’s power overflow. The rain poured in celebration, whipped up in furious spirals by the wind, pushing Yuji forwards, towards Sukuna.
Yuji caught himself with his hands splayed on the hard muscles of Sukuna’s abdomen. The belly maw was unexpectedly yielding against his palms, and it was delightfully responsive when Yuji pressed his cheek against it. The delicious scent of honey and plum wine surrounded him as he kissed that mouth, chasing away all thoughts from his mind.
He couldn’t hold back ecstatic laughter when the maw split open and a tongue swiped over his chin. His laughter grew more breathless when his tongue brushed against the maw’s larger one, spilling the taste of fire down his throat. The tongue twisted and curled, pouring into his mouth, reaching deep into him until he choked and whined in entreaty.
In his boundless kindness, Sukuna hauled him off the tongue of the maw and dug his nails into Yuji’s scalp so that he knew to go lower and to lick along the break between pale scales below Sukuna’s hips. He used his hands too, massaging and stroking, until something swelled and grew under his touch, pushing out of the opening there. It took Yuji a long moment to recognise what he was looking at, and a longer one to shake himself out of his stupefaction.
The nails in his scalp scratched roughly, made sticky blood run down his temples and slick his jaw. Yuji tilted his head and drew closer to Sukuna’s monstrous cock, trembling both in terror and in exhilaration. He ran his fingertips gingerly along the shaft first, testing its texture, curious to find out if the short spines it was covered in were as sharp as they looked. To his surprise, they were smooth and silken when he stroked downwards, but when he moved his hand up, the spines split his palm open and grew slick in his blood.
He should have backed away, should have turned and run, but he swayed closer and opened his mouth wide to swallow the bifurcated tip. Surely he couldn’t fit one head, let alone both heads of Sukuna’s cock, but the spines glided through skin and flesh like a fish through water, making space for the perfect fit. A distant part of Yuji’s mind registered the blinding agony, but where panic and sick fear should have been, a mad desire bubbled up instead. His cries of pain melted into groans and helpless whimpers, until nothing made sense in his mind anymore.
But nothing had to make sense, and Yuji didn’t need to move on his own. Sukuna kept his hold on the back of Yuji’s head and moved his hips to thrust roughly into the bloody ruin of Yuji’s mouth. All Yuji could do was hold on tightly and let Sukuna take everything he wanted from him. They smeared a slurry of blood and heavier pieces down Sukuna’s scales and Yuji’s chest, then a burning mess down Yuji’s throat and splattered over his face when Sukuna came.
Sukuna’s coils heaved Yuji up once more, but before Yuji could marvel at how his face was somehow whole again, Sukuna shoved his face against his chest and sank his fangs into the middle of his chest where his mark was.
Yuji’s voice rang out in the rain. In a heartbeat, the wind snatched it away and gave him a new voice in exchange.
“Yuji! Yuji, where are you? I know you’re here!”
Not just any new voice, but one he already knew.
“Yuji! Answer, damn it!”
Sukuna lifted his head when Yuji looked over his shoulder. He knew Sukuna had spotted Megumi, who was a lonely speck at the bottom of the mound of stone, when Sukuna reached for him with one of his four hands.
This was Yuji’s place, but it was a hostile land to Megumi. It took only a heartbeat for Yuji to heed his gibbering instincts. “Megumi— Run!”
Yuji hit the floor with a nauseating thump. Even when his body had stopped moving, his mind seemed to continue lurching forwards, until the ceiling snuck under him and rolled him over, knocking him flat on his face.
He felt strange. Something was wrong and he had to take action right now.
He closed his eyes. The room kept spinning, spinning, spinning, even as his stomach tried to climb up his spine and out of his mouth. He put a hand on the ground to push himself into a sitting position but his palm slipped on something small and hard: mala beads.
Oh. Oh, fuck! His granddad’s bracelet.
Through eyes that refused to stay open for long, Yuji patted the floor drunkenly until he found more of the beads. As hard as he looked, he couldn’t find more than twenty of them, so twenty of them would have to do.
Twenty.
Were there supposed to be more?
His fingers brushed against something brittle and dry, large enough to wrap around him twice. A snakeskin? Funny, he’d never seen one so large before. Yuji’s concentration skated off the moulted snakeskin as if on a thick layer of oil; the beads mattered more, anyway.
Yuji fiddled with the ends of the broken string and threaded the twenty beads together. Then, he tied it securely around his wrist again, feeling vaguely better. He got up on prickling feet to go to the kitchen, but his feet turned on their heels of their own volition to face the couch.
Just as Yuji reached up to scratch his head in confusion, the same hand yanked away the blanket on the couch while the other one hauled a sleeping Megumi to his feet.
Megumi had always been a light sleeper and this night was no exception. He jolted awake in the blink of an eye and clutched Yuji’s elbow. The light in his eyes went from bright to dark, but his voice was steady when he said, “Sukuna, I would propose a Binding Vow: let Yuji go and you can have anything you want from me.”
Don’t be stupid! Run while you can! Yuji’s mouth refused to move, so he could only scream in impotent fury in his own mind.
“Why are you so determined to court death? Does this brat command that much loyalty from you or are you really that crazed with desire? Have I broken you already?”
“It’s not like that. I doubt a creature like you would understand, but Yuji is important to me.” Though Megumi’s face had blanched, his voice remained steady and confident, as if he stood any sort of chance against Sukuna.
Sukuna released his hold on Megumi, dropping him in the couch unceremoniously, but his hand shot out and grasped Megumi’s chin in the next instant. “How important?”
“Above all else, I want to see him happy, and that cannot happen when he lives with the burden of being marked by you.”
“Poor, naive sorcerer - can’t you see how closely bound we are?” Sukuna’s - Yuji’s - hand slid down and wrapped around Megumi’s throat in a deceptively gentle hold. “This brat and I cannot be separated, now that we are one, but I can make sure you will never be parted from the person most important to you.”
The cursed energy that had flowed so naturally through Yuji whipped out through his fingers and activated the marks in Megumi’s neck.
Megumi didn’t stand a chance. His entire body jerked once and he went limp, becoming dead weight. His eyelids fluttered shut and his eyes rolled, his hand fell slackly from Yuji’s elbow, and though he worked hard to speak, he only managed a stuttered, “Don’t—”
Sukuna, Don’t— What are you doing to Megumi?
Yuji’s nails grew into black claws. As he watched in horror, Sukuna ripped Megumi’s shirt off and stabbed his index fingers into the centre of Megumi’s chest much like he had done to Yuji in the cave shrine. Unlike Yuji, however, Megumi let out a strained scream even through his paralysis.
Sukuna! Please, stop this—
Blood welled up around Sukuna’s claw, even as what appeared to be golden ink flowed under Megumi’s skin, swirling and freezing in the form of Sukuna’s sign, the same one Yuji bore. It turned black within seconds.
“He’s not hurt,” Sukuna said, with the air of someone reassuring a whiny child. “I will give him exactly what he wants.”
Yuji fought for control of his body, but he had no grip and no leverage, and what did brute strength mean when he was trapped inside the cage of his own body?
Megumi choked when Sukuna withdrew, and when he wheezed for breath, a red froth bubbled from his mouth. Thicker blood dripped from his eyes, nose, and mouth, and he only stopped screaming because he had lost the strength to do so.
Sukuna picked him up and carried him to the bedroom, an intruder in a space that was only Yuji’s and Megumi’s. Sukuna didn’t mind, or he didn’t care. He closed the door and created a barrier of cursed energy and the concentrated desire and hunger that already suffused the apartment. From what felt like the earth itself, Sukuna tapped the well of power he had accumulated over millennia and let it spring forth in a final outpouring.
“This is how you wanted him, isn’t it?” Sukuna shrugged off the last of the clothes Yuji had been sleeping in and advanced on the bed. He climbed on top of Megumi without hesitation, caging his limp body with his four arms. “Helpless, weak under you, waiting for you to take everything you deserve from him.”
No! Yuji threw everything he had against the power that held him back, to no avail. Don’t touch him!
“Why?” Sukuna eased his hands down Megumi’s sides, his leanly muscled arms, petted over his stomach, and then squeezed his pale thighs. When Sukuna’s hands tingled with anticipation, so did Yuji’s.
Yuji was beside himself with fury. Keep your hands off him!
“If I make him mine, he will remain ours for always.”
Sukuna, please! Please let him go! He has nothing to do with this.
“He knows my name and my face. He bears my mark now. He has everything to do with this.” Sukuna pushed Megumi’s thighs open and back, spreading him open so that he could sink into Megumi in one long stroke.
Megumi’s mouth fell open but no sound came from him. His brow was creased in anguish and in pain, and he clawed at the meat of Sukuna’s forearms, but rather than deter Sukuna, it made him more eager to force his spined cock inside of Megumi.
It was rapturous - Megumi was unbearably tight and his body held on greedily. His inner walls seemed to cleave to the spines of Sukuna’s cock, sending a trill of pleasure through Yuji.
It was pure torment - Megumi’s voice, when it came out in strained sobs, struck straight at Yuji’s heart. Yet, Megumi still looked straight into their eyes and searched fruitlessly for Yuji in Sukuna’s gaze. His mouth moved in a fervent chant that Yuji couldn’t quite make out.
There was no way to tell if Megumi had hooked his arms around Sukuna’s neck to hold him closer or merely to hold on, just like it was impossible to tell what his sounds meant as Sukuna picked up the pace and fucked him brutally, dyeing the sheets crimson with Megumi’s blood and torn skin.
“Come back. Please, come—”
Sukuna’s hips snapped forwards, one long stroke in, then two short, jerky drags out. He pulled out slowly, cruelly, until only the split tip remained inside of Megumi.
Megumi wrenched hard on Sukuna’s shoulders but he succeeded only in hauling himself up rather than pulling Sukuna down. Yuji didn’t understand what he was trying to do until his sticky lips pressed against his ear—
“Yuji, come back.”
As Yuji reeled from his exhortation, Sukuna thrust back into Megumi and split him open, making him scream. Yuji split apart too, but he didn’t realise how until he collapsed on top of Megumi and their limbs tangled in a heap of slimy, tacky fluid.
Blood. There was so much blood. There was something clear and slick too, like what came out of a lanced blister. Yuji’s stomach was covered in cooling come somehow, and he was still buried hilt-deep inside of Megumi, though he was sliding out on a trickle of something hot and pink.
“Yuji?” Though Megumi’s eyes were clouded with ill-concealed pain, his ragged voice was hopeful.
“Megumi! Megumi, fuck, are you all right?”
All the warning Yuji got was Megumi’s eyes widening in shocked horror, before claws plunged into Yuji’s back and ripped out his spine.
Yuji had to be dead. At the very least, he must have been dying.
The claws returned to grab ahold of the torn edges where his spine used to be and pulled him apart. The pain came swift and bright, making Yuji’s vision fuzz over with white, setting every nerve on fire, but just as Yuji thought that he couldn’t take it anymore, he suddenly felt light and hollowed out, as if a lifelong burden had been lifted from him.
“Am I free?”
He was human. He had two arms, two legs, a torso, a head; he was himself again.
“Yes,” a voice said behind him. It moved higher and higher, towering over him, and its shadow grew long enough to cover both him and Megumi. “And so am I.”
The first drop of rain hit Yuji on his right shoulder; the second one splashed on the corner of Megumi’s left eye and dripped down the hollow of his temple, carving out a pale line through the blood like a tear. More raindrops followed after that, through a ceiling that was no longer there, washing both Yuji and Megumi clean.
The moon hung fat and round over them.
Where the rain trickled over the bed, it stripped away the fabric and metal and wood, replacing it with recessed rock. The shallow pool that their bed had once been filled with rainwater up to their shoulders, and when it spilled over, it washed away the floor, the balcony, the street below, and rebuilt it in the image of Sukuna’s domain, of Yuji’s safe place. How far it would spread, there was no way to tell, no way to contain it.
Out of Yuji’s flesh, Ryomen Sukuna was finally born again.
Megumi clambered out of the rock pool and Yuji tried to do the same, but he floundered when Sukuna’s tail coiled around his waist, pinning his legs together and rendering him motionless.
Megumi stopped in his tracks and turned back to stare at Yuji and the monster he had always belonged to - Yuji could see his turmoil in every line of his battered body.
“Go.” It was what Megumi should have done since the start.
Megumi’s lips pressed into a thin line and his eyes simmered with resentment, but he was looking past Yuji, at Sukuna. Without another moment’s hesitation, Megumi walked back to Yuji and took his hand, threading their fingers together. “I’m not leaving you, Yuji.”
As if to prove a point, Megumi cupped Yuji’s jaw and stole an iron-flavoured kiss from Yuji even as he shivered with anger. They were interrupted when Megumi staggered, a hand clutching the centre of his chest in an action that was hauntingly familiar to Yuji.
And outside what used to be their apartment, Yuji saw a pale-haired person staring up at them as they crossed a bridge of ice over a roaring river, where the street had once been.