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Yuuji shivered as a gust of wind blew by. He wasn’t wearing anything warm as he had used them to keep his brother warm instead. It wasn’t often that his brother got sick. After all, he was the stronger one. His brother had always protected him, especially when their grandfather passed away last winter. He supposes that perhaps it was now his turn to take care of him, an exchange of favours of sorts.
He dug around the compost of a pavilion hoping to see if there were any discarded meals that he could salvage. That or he could beg from the pretty nee-sans for something. They were usually kinder than the restaurants and eateries when it came to begging for food. That wasn’t to say that they weren’t kind, like there was a baker who would often offer him and Sukuna something to eat but he had moved away to help his ailing parents. It was just that his brother had gotten into a fight with the other kids, and with that the restaurants and eateries didn’t want kids fighting over scraps they can’t even pay for.
His stomach growled and a thought wandered into his mind. He had heard of people who fed their flesh to their family. Would that help Sukuna get better? Yuuji wonders. He shakes his head to scatter the thought away. Sukuna would probably hate it if he did that. He’d probably go on a rant about how useless it was eating an equally useless brat.
“You!”
“Me?” Yuuji points at himself.
“Yes, you! Come here.”
The person who called him was an affluently dressed woman. She was probably the owner of the establishment, if that was something to go by. Reluctantly he does as the woman instructs. She then harshly grabs his arm.
“Too skinny. Ah, but you will have to do. I’ll turn you into a beauty that could crumble empires.” The woman muses as she inspects him.
She then proceeds to feel around his neck in search of something. When she reaches a particularly tender spot on his neck, he couldn’t help but nearly yelp. A pleased look graces her face.
“Say, come and work for me and I can give you food and a place to stay.”
“I-I don’t know if I can, I can’t leave Sukuna all alone!”
“Sukuna?”
“My brother, he’s sick.”
“Hmm, wait here.” She tells him as she retreats into the building.
She returns with another woman who was carrying a cloth parcel.
“These are tonics that should help whatever sickness he may be suffering from. Have him take it once in the morning when he wakes and once before he sleeps. There are also buns that’ll hopefully help him regain his strength.”
“Once he’s well, come and you can keep your end. You’re lucky we have our own apothecary.”
“Thanks ma’am!”
“Yeah, yeah. Now go!”
With that, Yuuji scrambles away with relief and happiness.
✸✸✸
Gingerly, Yuuji opens the door to the little hut that they resided in to not let the cold air blow too harshly and so that he wouldn’t disturb Sukuna. Then as quickly as he could he closes it so that he can start to sort through what the Madam of the pavilion and her apothecary had given him.
From the parcel he notes that there are two corked bottles, a few dried herbs, and 6 buns that the apothecary mentioned she had added. A sigh of relief for Yuuji as that meant that he could spend more time tending to Sukuna rather than scourging for food that he might not even find. He opens the bottles to see which was which, but from wafting their scents it seemed that it was the same medicine.
“Suku-nii! Suku-nii!”
“What is it, idiot? What’d you do now?” Sukuna grumbles.
“I have medicine that might help, I need you to sit up for a bit. I also got you some buns!”
“Where in the hell did you get your hands on that?!” Sukuna yells in shock, which causes him to cough rather violently afterwards.
“Please just trust me, Suku-nii! Focus on getting better! You can’t scold me if you’re gone! Especially when I’ve found a way to keep us both alive!” Yuuji pleads as he rubs Sukun’s back to soothe him.
With that, Sukuna huffs and lets Yuuji feed him the medicine. He’ll find out soon enough he guesses.
✸✸✸
Yuuji squirms in his seat as he and Sukuna wait for the pavilion’s madam.
“When you said that you found a way to keep us alive I wasn’t meaning this, idiot.” Sukuna mutters under his breath.
He understands that all Yuuji wants to do is survive even if it means turning to work that many would consider to be highly undesirable. Honestly, he would pursue something as foul in the trade of human lives, and it will be something that was bound to happen even if Yuuji thinks that this would keep him from doing so.
The door opens. Yuuji sits up and corrects his posture as much as he can. The Madam was here.
“Good to see you’ve come to keep your end of our little bargain. And this is?”
“My brother.”
She reaches out to see if she could also have Sukuna in her employ. However, before she could even be as close as an inch towards him, Sukuna bites the Madam's hand. He was having none of it. In turn, she gives him a glare full of vitriol. She checks if she could still properly move her hands so that she could still play her koto. She may be the madam of the pavilion, but that doesn’t mean she sits around twiddling her thumbs.
“Please forgive him! I swear he wasn’t this violent before he got sick!”
It was a lie in a sense, but Yuuji knew that Sukuna usually only retaliated if someone started the fight first. Don’t poke your nose into things you probably shouldn’t was the mindset that was given to those who did indeed dare anger Sukuna.
The Madam sighs. If only she had bagged two instead of one and his monster of a brother. Ah, but what can she do? Useless orphans with no clue about presentation sickness. Typical too since they don’t have anyone with them.
“So long as he can keep himself from lashing out again, he can stay with you. He may also work as an attendant if he also wants to earn his keep.”
Yuuji gives Sukuna a pleading look. It isn’t like he doesn’t know what this would entail, but he hopes that it’s enough to keep the two of them alive and at least somewhat together for now.
“I’ll more than earn my keep, hag. I have to make sure that this brat doesn’t make an embarrassment of himself if he’s gonna do what you want him to.”
✸✸✸
“Which one do you want to learn, Yuuji?” The Oiran that he’s learning under asks.
Yuuji, who had never encountered such instruments, was suffice to say, overwhelmed with the array of choices. He had only just finished getting through his etiquette lessons, and now a new challenge had been sprung on him.
“Just give him the shamisen.” The Madam gruffly comments from the doorway.
“Which one is that?” Yuuji asks.
“This one.” The Oiran says as she holds out the instrument.
Yuuji marvels at the shamisen. Yuuji attempts to strum the strings with the bachi. He is surprised at the sound. A sound which can only be described as plain awful according to those who had heard him.
“That’s not how you do it, idiot!”
Sukuna takes the instrument from Yuuji and begins to strum a tune he had heard the other ladies at the pavilion play.
“Where’d you learn that from?”
“Observing.”
“How about-”
“No way in hell, hag!” Sukuna grumbles.
“At least use yourself as an incentive for him, he might as well be tone deaf.”
✸✸✸
Days turn into months and months into years. Yuuji’s ear piercing playing had turned from dissonant cacophonies into mellifluous tunes, courtesy of Sukuna and the oiran who had taken him under her wing.
“Aren’t you excited for your debut?”
“I’m a little nervous.”
“Ah, I was too, but trust me you’ll do fine.”
Yuuji found himself dressed in a mainly scarlet uchikake adorned with golden butterflies, underneath it was a peach underlayer, and to match it was a deep pine green obi. His hair is then done up and adorned with several sakura designed kanzashi.
“How do I look?”
“Good enough.” Sukuna mumbles while hiding a blush.
“Absolutely stunning! If I say so myself!” The Oiran proudly declares.
“Alright, enough dilly-dallying we have patrons to entertain and a new flower to debut.” The Madam says to take them out of their trance.
Yuuji is led to the main stage of the pavilion. He and his mentor stood side by side as they waited for the other courtesans to start playing their instruments. With a twang from a biwa, they began to dance. The patrons watched in awe at Yuuji’s prowess in dancing despite the fact that this is his debut. That said, those who were regular patrons had been looking forward to watching him perform. The music ends and Yuuji’s mentor leaves the stage.
It was Sukuna’s cue as he handed Yuuji his shamisen for his solo. His performance starts with a gentle intro before following it with an energetic and rapid melody. Yuuji ends the song with a gentle outro. With their performances done, the courtesans and Yuuji began to mingle with the patrons who had come to watch.
Sukuna felt helpless as he watched his brother parade himself to these nobodies. By nobodies, he meant that man with stitches on his head and his entourage of weirdos as they were the loudest of the patrons who had come to watch Yuuji’s debut. Sukuna had noted that the man with the stitches seemed to have taken interest in Yuuji, which was the point, but Sukuna would rather that it was someone else. Who? Well, he’d rather not say.
A patron reached over to caress Yuuji’s face. A loud crack followed with a scream. Before he knew it, he had broken the patron’s hand. The Madam really will have his head. He didn’t feel bad about hurting the patron at all. That slimy thing had dared touch what wasn’t his.
Yuuji stands in shock. The entire room is silent save for the patron’s screaming. All eyes were on Sukuna and the patron.
The Madam briskly rises from her chair and promptly heads towards Sukuna. He let the enraged Madam drag him by the ear to the pavilion’s back garden. He shouldn’t make it worse for Yuuji.
“Sukuna!” Yuuji yelled as he regained his bearings in the unfolding chaos.
Not caring how he looked to the others, Yuuji followed them to the pavilion garden. And upon reaching the garden he sees the Madam and Sukuna glaring at each other.
“Fix this mess of a brother of yours! If you can’t, then pack your things! I better not see either of your faces in the morning.” The Madam orders once she noticed that Yuuji had joined them.
The Madam leaves them alone with a huff as she would rather not deal with whatever issue that the two brothers had and instead focus on pacifying the patron.
“Sukuna… Why?” Yuuji said as he took note to see if the Madam had done Sukuna any harm, not that she could in the first place but he worried anyway.
“He tried to touch you.”
“As will other people. It’s part of my job, Sukuna!”
“He doesn’t deserve to touch you.”
“Well, I rather it not be!”
“Why are you so against it after being okay with me training to be one? I’m just trying to make sure that we have a roof over our heads and that we’d never go hungry again!”
Sukuna remained silent.
“That’s what I thought. You know that I’d never leave you to fend for yourself. It’s just that this time, it’s my turn to help us live. Is that what you’re upset about?”
“If you go too far, I can’t protect you.” Sukuna mumbles.
He really hated these types of conversations. He supposes that he should bear with it for the sake of his brother. That and he’d rather not show such weakness, even to the person he held closest to his nonexistent heart.
“Then, I suppose we’ll have to go then.”
Sukuna looks at him in shock. This was supposed to be when they’d part ways. He was supposed to tear apart their bond so that his departure would cause him less pain. How was he supposed to keep Yuuji from being deflowered by some stranger who didn’t gain his approval when all he makes is something that can barely buy out an Oiran for a night?
Sukuna looks at Yuuji with pity. He wasn’t one who would create an expression such as that, but then again Yuuji does bring out parts of him that he has difficulty controlling. Yuuji has to stay here, even if he hates it in more ways than one. After all, Sukuna had decided that ever since he had met the Madam of the pavilion.
✸✸✸
When he woke, he was surprised that he was still in his room at the pavilion. The events after talking it out with Sukuna were hazy and somewhat spotty.
The side of his bed was empty. Everywhere was empty. The Madam stands by the door of his room. He sprints towards her.
“Where is Sukuna? Where is my brother?” Yuuji begs at the Madam’s feet.
The Madam lets out a puff from her kiseru. The flower she had cultivated was crying. Was it her fault though? Not at all. Ah, if only his stupid brother hadn’t gone ballistic, he would’ve had one of the most remarkable debuts under her pavilion.
“Stop your crying. It is unfitting for a courtesan. He has chosen his path and you’ve chosen yours. If fate smiles on you, you will see him again.”
“Will I?”
Yuuji slumps to the floor. He fiddles with his sharp sakura kanzashi.
“Don’t be so hasty with that, he bargained with me so that you could stay. Don’t waste his efforts or mine.”
“Did he at least say anything for me?”
The Madam shook her head.
✸✸✸
Yuuji pauses his lesson from the balcony as he spots a procession of sorts that can only possibly mean that a courtesan was about to be bought off.
“Momokawa-san what’s wrong?” One of his students asked.
“Oh, it’s nothing. Nothing at all.”
Yuuji and his students peek out from one of the pavilion’s walls. They seem to vibrate with excitement while he stands perplexed. He doesn’t know this particular buyer and there haven’t been rumours or discussions of one of his sisters getting bought off.
“What brings you here, o mighty and terrible King of Curses?” The Madam sneers.
Yuuji and his students stared at each other with awe. The Madam was either out of her mind or had balls of steel. From what they’ve heard, the King of Curses could simply lay waste to a city if he was particularly pissed off. He was so feared that even the imperial court didn’t want to mess with him. What was he doing here?
“I’ve come to claim what’s rightfully mine, simple as that.”
The King of Curses motions for his retainer and his other servants to bring forth multiple caskets filled with gold and precious stones, along with multiple bolts of fine silk and soft fabrics.
“Does it suffice?”
“Oh it does, but the bigger question is, do you think he’ll accept?”
“And here I thought you’d keep your end of the contract we’d made all those years ago?”
The King of Curses had a contract with the Madam? Since when and for who?! Yuuji questions.
“I may be a woman of greed, but trust that I’ll never let my poor flowers end up where they’ll wilt. I’ve invested far too much time and effort than to let them fall into undeserving hands. I’ll be leaving that for him to decide. Aren’t I right, Momokawa?”
Shit . Yuuji thinks as he and his students were outed to have eavesdropped. He makes eye contact with the Madam and points to himself questioningly. Something that she responds to with a harsh nod. His students had caught onto what the Madam was trying to do. They push Yuuji from their hiding spot and into the open area between the Madam and the King of Curses. He tries to return to his hiding spot with the students, but the Madam holds onto his collar and places him in front of his buyer.
The King of Curses before his eyes is quite different from the stories that were often exchanged by patrons and merchants. Well, in terms of appearance they were quite right. The King of Curses’ form was truly monstrous. It was his disposition that was boggling his mind. He could tell that he was not fond of the clothing he had decided to wear, as he noticed that whenever given the chance he would adjust the collar. Why would the King of Curses subject himself to something he clearly has displeasure with?
“Do you remember me?” He asks as he tucks a stray lock of Yuuji’s hair back.
There was the answer. Though tinged with the passing of time, he knows that voice. The voice that had often scolded him, teased him, but in those had glimpses of care. The voice which Yuuji dreamt of hearing again. Yuuji didn’t know if he should laugh or cry. The scene before him was far too absurd. His brother had come to redeem him.
His brother had come to redeem him .
This was something he had daydreamed of for years upon years as he worked. A day he never thought would come. A dream he had long buried to stave off the loneliness and grief of being left alone.
While he was keeping a tight lid on his sorrows as he performed night after night. Sukuna had been out there making a name for himself. His brother had turned into a calamity for his sake.
Ah, but for all the heartache he had suffered would this really be right? Yuuji felt dizzy with all the actions he could possibly take. On one hand he could reject his brother’s offer. That said, something told him that it would lead to some unfortunate events with a bloodbath tacked on at the end. Along with heartbreak that he knows for sure that he’ll never survive. And on another hand, he could go with his brother and be on his merry way. He really could if he wanted to. After all, why would Sukuna leave him after that night and then only return as the King of Curses?
“I remember! Of course I remember! How could I forget?” Yuuji says as he attempts to hold back his tears from falling.
“Then will you come with me?”
“I’m coming with you! There’s no way that I’ll let you leave me alone ever again.”
“Well, you heard him hag. I’ll be taking him with me.” Sukuna smugly announces.
“I heard, I’m not deaf. Do as you’d like.”
Sukuna hoists Yuuji up onto one of his arms. An action which surprises Yuuji and causes him to yelp.
“Wait! Wait! What about the lessons?”
“Just go. Don’t worry about them, I have my ways. That and with your brother’s payment you’ve already more than paid off whatever you two owe me.” The Madam huffs.
With that, Sukuna and his entourage waste no time leaving with Yuuji in tow. Much time had been lost with their separation, time of which Sukuna was more than willing to make up for.