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Yuji had no work to bring to the demon’s home today. At least, not any he wished to explain in detail nor had the means of working on without his history textbook present and accounted for. Would bringing it be the equivalent of a walking spoiler alert? For Sukuna, anyway. What constituted a history for Yuji had yet to pass from the demon’s place in this timeline the teenager was happily skipping over.
While Yuji may also share hints about a time that had yet to come, the teenager and his textbook were not one and the same. He could not be so easily picked up and prodded for information just as the demon had done with his earlier writings… Actually—Never mind.
Unfortunately, his information wasn’t as useful. Or as detailed as the many pictures, photos, maps, and diagrams which lie within the book he’d abandoned on his desk in favor of a small, dusty box of red themed chiyogami paper he’d received during the last holiday season.
One of his grandfather’s nurses had gifted it to him, teaching him how to fold paper cranes which would soon litter his grandfather’s room until the old man woke up and demanded Yuji remove them from sight.
Instead, there had been enough mangled cranes from Yuji’s attempts to pass around the entire wing. His grandfather had yet to remove the one Yuji stuck against the heart monitor by his bed. If anyone asked the old man directly, his grandfather would scoff at his own laziness for not getting rid of it himself, but ultimately, he would leave it be. It was those small things the old man did that reminded Yuji how much he cared.
Why his grandfather insisted on coming off as an angry and bitter old geezer was something Yuji just couldn’t understand.
“Do you know what origami is?” Yuji’s mind jumped back from his memory to the present, laughing at how that thought could easily get mangled when the estate he was sitting in was built before him and his grandfather were ever born.
The teenager was currently in the midst of another visit to the demon who kept requesting his return. Sukuna’s meal had been presented and consumed, placing them within that awkward window of basking in each other’s presence until the demon had enough and dismissed him for the day. Conversation was always awkward when there was nothing particularly important to talk about between them that required little era-specific knowledge for the demon to understand Yuji’s ramblings and vice versa. However, when Yuji found topics that might align, it was worth taking a stab at them.
Today was folding paper into fun shapes because Yuji read somewhere that origami may be a lot older of an art than he first thought and honestly, if he didn’t use the rest of this paper now, it would have probably rotted in his desk once it became forgotten for a second time.
“Origami?” The demon repeated, eventually shaking his head. “The word is unfamiliar. What, pray tell, is origami and what purpose is there in bringing it up?”
“It’s the art of paper folding. And I brought it up because I brought some paper to do it with. And it’s fun. Sukuna-sama has fun now and then, right?”
Uraume’s face twitched in amusement just as a glare revealed itself in Sukuna’s leering eyes. Yuji did his best not to linger on either for long, turning his attention to his back to pull out the stack of intricately detailed paper which cycled between five or so varieties of flowers to choose from for the two to see. Uraume, being closer, was the first to receive a piece.
“This is paper?” Sukuna’s servant was gentle, pinching at the ends as they assessed the paper given to them. “Where did you get this?”
“Isn’t it pretty?” Yuji beamed at Uraume, quickly taking a piece for himself to begin folding on a whim once the first crease locked in what animal he’d do first. It did not take long at all to end up with an insect with two uneven wings in hand when finished. “These were a gift from one of the nurses looking after my grandfather. I haven’t done this in a while, but I think this looks like the butterfly it's supposed to be.”
“A gift… I can certainly tell.” The demon mused, picking up the butterfly to tug on both ends of its wings.
“I can teach you how to make some other animals, if you would like.” As soon as the offer came out, Yuji quickly realized that the small square pieces he had were too small and possibly too fragile for the demon’s hands to work with. “Or maybe not! I mean, it’s mostly a craft for children—”
“Go on and impress me with your knowledge, Knotweed.”
“Ok.”
Yuji accepted the piece of paper being returned to him, flicked back into his direction between two of the demon’s fingers just within his reach. A pressure had emerged along his back. The weight of the demon’s interest had Yuji bending forward as he worked, using the tatami before him as a flat surface whenever he needed it. He honestly couldn’t tell if the demon was enjoying himself or about to invoke some kind of punishment for his unintended insult, but that would not stop Yuji from recalling the necessary steps to make his next creation.
“Behold, a fish!” Using his hand as a pedestal underneath the paper fish he held up, Yuji showed off another simple creature before rapidly moving onto the next one. It would take double the time to complete, not only with numerous additional folds but with Uraume hovering just close enough to increase the previous feeling now causing his hands to shake.
“And this is…” Yuji was proud and rather pleased with the ears and pointed face. This sitting position it was in was also quite endearing. As he’d done with the butterfly and fish, he would show it off before placing it gently down next to the other paper creatures in the line that was forming. “A shifty fox!”
“You’ve captured its likeness rather well.” Uraume praised.
“Thanks! For a while, I only knew how to make a flat face without a body. If I had more of my things, I could make something much larger, but I like this version of a fox a lot.” The teenager didn’t object when Sukuna reached to pick up the fox from the rest of his paper friends. He’d initially flinched at the incoming hand, but the feeling was short-lived as he moved on to start work on the animal for which he had the most practice:
A paper crane.
Yuji had made dozens of these before. Possibly hundreds, as they were a great pass time during class when his attention span had reached its end for the day. Any type of paper would do. If not using the sets of paper sold intending to be used for origami, notebook paper, or even receipt paper from the convenience store were simple substitutes.
It was out of habit that Yuji could not just fold one crane when finished. He hadn’t even registered that there had been no desire to show off his bird when he’d already got to work wrapping up the second. And once he was just about done with his third, that was when Sukuna tapped the mat in front of him to get Yuji’s attention. The teenager was finally aware enough to stop.
“You’ve made that one already.”
“I like cranes.” Yuji squeaked, knowing that wasn’t a good enough explanation for why he suddenly decided to begin flooding the estate with paper birds. “There’s a legend that states, if someone crafts one thousand of them in a year, they can make any wish, and it will come true.”
That was one version Yuji had heard at different points in his life. Most of the time they were rumors children spread when making paper cranes became a small fad within his class, one that came and went once the novelty wore away, only to resurface a couple of years later. The nurse who’d given him his first set of origami paper had told him they were also gifts to wish for someone’s recovery. One thousand cranes could grant a miracle. Yuji was old enough to doubt there was any magic behind it, but given recent events, perhaps there was something to those stories after all.
“If a thousand cranes could grant you something, what would you wish for, Sukuna-sama?"
“Wishing is pointless.” The demon scoffed, now picking up the paper bird to compare with the fox. He looked annoyed, and his voice sounded as such. “It’s something the weak do when they can’t attain what they desire for themselves. I have no need to rely on pity from a bird, no matter how sacred.”
“Yeah, well, I wish Sukuna-sama was nicer.” Yuji grumbled the sentiment under his breath, turning his head as he’d done so to avoid being heard and his pouting face from being seen.
“What was that?”
Oh, crap.
“I said I’m going to show Sukuna-sama how to make a frog next!”
The teenager was truly scrambling now. First struggling to grab another piece of paper with his fingers who’d thought now would be the best time to become slippery, then second with getting the folds just right on the creature being crafted within his palms. His visible panic must not have helped in relieving him of suspicion, but before Sukuna could say anything further, a small friend was ready to be shown off with the press of his finger.
“Watch him go!” Yuji pushed down on the origami frog’s backside, using the folds he’s created to cause the paper creature to seemingly bounce out of his hand at his order. In his rush, Yuji had accidentally set the trajectory a bit too far to his right, sending the paper frog flying at Uraume.
Luckily, Uraume had a paper shield to protect their face. That did not stop Yuji from apologizing profusely as he reached to retrieve the mangled paper frog.
"I’m so sorry!”
“You made that creature jump at me.” Uraume curled the piece of paper in their hand and swept the paper frog toward Yuji so that the teenager would not have to crawl on his knees after it.
“I just poked him a little…” Yuji muttered. “I won’t do it again.”
“Not so fast,” Forced to halt his movements at the demon’s request, Yuji gave Sukuna his full attention while enduring the less than flattery angle his body was in to do so. The demon was still holding his crane. “If you can make the frog jump, can you make the birds fly as well?”
“Not those, but uh… I can make something else that does. It’s not flying-flying, but you’ll see what I mean in a minute.” With another sheet of paper, Yuji began his work on the first paper creation every child learned before they even learned what origami was. A flying contraption, initially folding along the diagonal of the paper until a triangle shape that was stable enough to ride the air was formed from subsequence folds. He would not name it, providing very little time for either Sukuna or Uraume to get a proper glimpse at the object of his excitement on his way to the edge of the room.
He had the entire yard to work with. And with a strong arm, Yuji reeled his creation back before thrusting it forward to catch the next gust of wind while he himself struggled to keep his balance on the foot he’d stepped forward on. A little skirting on his part had shunted him from the room, but the cold air did wonders to help him loosen up a bit more around the other two.
Yuji’s paper creation, his airplane, would glide across the snow and catch an upward stream to form a massive arch upon its return. A quick twist at the end would continue the motion until a full circle was complete, with the plane landing on the top of the snow without the unceremonious plummet he was so used to experiencing.
“That one didn’t go far, but the loop was pretty cool, right?”
“What manner of creature was that?” Uraume stepped out after him, a hand over their eyes to shield their vision from the bright reflections of the sun in their search for an answer.
“Not a creature. More like, a thing? Vehicle? No, that doesn’t make sense…” Yuji hit his thumb against his head, trying to find the best explanation that doesn’t involve a tangent of giant metal birds that fly entire groups of people. “It’s an airplane. Because it moves in the air. It doesn’t fly like how Sukuna-sama must have imagined, but it’s as close as I can get. I can make a few more?”
His offer was neither rejected nor was he stopped as he got to work making another small pile of these contraptions designed for classroom disruptions. Once a sizable handful was formed and the planes were stacked on top of another, Yuji eagerly handed them out so that each person and demon had a plane in hand. Uraume’s plane moved gently and with little flare as Yuji’s was quick to nosedive into the ground a little over a meter beyond where they stood. The teenager didn’t expect Sukuna to bother throwing it through the air, but from his seat, he aimed between Yuji and his servant so that his plane would not only join the other two in the air, but exceed their height and remain airborne longer than the rest… Unfortunately, the upward turn the demon managed by watching Yuji’s throw had directed the poor plane into the branches of the trees just along the clearing’s outskirts.
And it was pierced through the wing too…
Sukuna did not sound thrilled if the quiet rumble of a growl was anything to go by. Yuji had assumed this mark of displeasure was something the demon didn’t want him to make note of, as it stopped the moment Yuji turned around. Still, maybe it was time to clean up and put their paper crafts away just in case.
“I’ll go get them!” Yuji laughed while backing away from the estate. He’d almost tripped over the steps, but caught himself just in time to turn around and descend them properly. It would be best to retrieve everything now. While paper was biodegradable, why take the chance of leaving evidence behind?
The ones in the yard were easy enough to grab and lightly toss back toward the building, but the one in the tree was going to take a little extra work.
“That’s unnecessary, Mononoke. I can—”
“Don’t worry about it, Uraume-san! I can do this. Besides,” Yuji patted his hand against the hefty tree, already formulating his plan to reach the upper branches. He’d almost hoped the act in itself would bring the plane down to him, but it was stuck firmly into place. “This guy has my back!”
Any further objection was drowned out by Yuji’s desire to see his task complete. He was grateful for his gloveless hands to avoid any interference with his grip that the cold weather already provided. His boots didn’t make it easy, however, but that wouldn’t stop him from reaching greater heights on his way to the top.
“Knotweed, return to the ground where you belong.”
“But I’m almost there!”
Against the demon’s wishes, Yuji climbed even higher before reaching his target. The branch it had been caught on was above a much larger and sturdier one, capable of holding Yuji’s weight as he clamored over to sit upon it before reaching out for the plane and throwing it back toward the ground by Uraume.
His initial plan was to immediately return to the pair after that, but the ability to gaze at the surrounding scenery had caught Yuji’s attention. Endless rolling hills and a forest stretching along the horizon no matter which direction he turned his head, Yuji finally understood just how divorced Sukuna’s estate was. Not just from his home, but from the rest of the world within this very era. The teenager felt smaller than ever, caught in awe as he attempted to imagine what this scene would look like on a cloudless day come spring or summer. The colors would be astounding.
Reaching the top never felt so rewarding.
“Knotweed—” Sukuna was sounding more and more like his scolding grandfather each second and that was most certainly not a good thing.
“I’m coming! I’m com-ING—!”
The branch was covered in a thin layer of frost. Yuji had known this, yet still managed to not only succumb to its trickery by sliding off his perch, but also find surprise that it happened in the first place. The next second was a blur. Literally. He’d fallen so fast that the world ceased to hold its shape until he collided with the ground—Not the ground. The ground would have been far more painful and less forgiving than the arms that had caught him instead.
It was when disorientation had faded, and Yuji could look up with nausea gripping his stomach, did the very same feeling threaten to return. Sukuna was standing over him, for it was his arms that had saved him from his fall. How the demon moved so quickly, Yuji was only left to imagine, but now the teenager was more embarrassed than ever for having the audacity to drag Sukuna from his home all because he’d refused to listen.
“Oops.”
“Is that all you have to say?”
“Sorry, Sukuna-sama.”
“Don’t—” The demon sighed, turning his head back toward his estate while his free hand kneaded the crease above his nose. “—Do that again. The prospect of having to heal your injuries from something as preventable as this is headache inducing. Understood?”
“I-I Understand. Completely. One hundred percent… Could you please let me down?”