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Gojo had felt Sukuna’s awakening from the very place he stood, kilometres apart from where he’d sent Megumi on a supposedly easy mission.
He did not wait for his student’s text to teleport to the school, still surprised to come face to face with the King of Curses himself.
Sukuna was spectacular. Strong, boasting, arrogant. He was beautiful.
The marks on his –the vessel’s– skin were riveting, and Gojo was gripped with the urge to reach for them. He refrained, and watched as the teenager regained control of his own body, holding the King of Curses off effortlessly.
Gojo had to admit he was impressed. A little disappointed, too, as he’d been wanting to see more of the curse he’d heard so much about, but his disappointment was easy to temper. He knew he’d have other chances.
Gojo easily lifted Yuuji’s looming execution order. The kid had been unjustly dragged into the Jujutsu world, and the least Gojo could do was take him under his wing. It was a good thing the kid immediately took a liking to him, no doubt reassured by Gojo’s confidence.
The sorcerer was content with it. The kid was nice, and more importantly, it allowed him to constantly keep an eye on Sukuna.
The Curse rarely made an appearance, but Gojo knew he was there, intently watching Yuuji’s every comings and goings and analysing his surroundings. He made a few uncalled comments which never failed to offend Yuuji and make him try to smother the curse. But Sukuna’s words were always directed at his vessel, and Gojo wanted to hear more. He wanted to hear what Sukuna could say beyond the ‘You’re annoying’ comments.
Wanting to get a reaction out of the curse, Gojo obtained another one of his fingers and fed it to Yuuji under the guise of testing his ability to hold Sukuna off. Yuuji, the good kid he was, dutifully swallowed it with barely a face.
Gojo had hoped Sukuna would show up, so maybe they could re-enact their fight on the roof from the first night, but Yuuji successfully contained Sukuna, and the curse remained sealed and silent. It frustrated Gojo to no end. He wanted to see more, but he had to accept that he would have to summon his patience.
And then, the detention centre happened.
Gojo had not seen it coming. Not Sukuna taking Yuuji’s body hostage and killing the boy in the process, or Yuuji’s resurrection.
And without having realised it, Sukuna had given him the perfect opportunity to coerce him out. Yuuji was in shock after his own sudden death, and Gojo brought him to his house to keep him safe while he was dealing with the potential fallout of Sukuna’s actions.
This was as if Sukuna had offered himself on a silver plate, and Gojo had not hesitated in the slightest to reach for it.
He wasn’t surprised then, a few days later, when Sukuna talked to him in the dead of the night, after Gojo had gotten back from a mission.
He found Yuuji fast asleep on the couch, the cursed doll resting at his side, unmoving.
Gojo stepped closer, watching him for a moment before he grabbed a blanket on the back of the sofa, and laid it on the teenager.
‘You reek, sorcerer.’
Gojo did his best not to let his surprise show. He’d seen Sukuna stir under Yuuji’s skin, but he had not expected for the curse to address him.
‘Disgusted by the stench of your fellow curses’ spilled guts?’ Gojo asked teasingly as he stood back up and looked at Sukuna’s opened eyes on Yuuji’s cheek.
The King of curses tsked. ‘I delight in the stench of death,’ Sukuna was compelled to answer, as if to defend himself. From the outrage of being considered as a sentient being, probably.
‘It is you,’ the curse started again, ‘who is stinking out the room.’
Gojo smirked. ‘I get it,’ he said, heading towards the stairs, ‘you’re just eager to see me freshly out of a shower.’
Sukuna did not answer, so Gojo threw him one last glance. Wanting to elicit a reaction, Gojo winked, singsonging ‘I’ll be right back.’ He ignored the groan coming from the basement.
Usually not one to take a quick shower, Gojo went surprisingly fast this time, ignoring the way his bathroom barely had the time to steam up before he pushed the door open and stepped outside.
True to his words, Gojo walked down the basement stairs with only a towel wrapped around his waist, his skin barely dried and still red from the heat. He knew Yuuji was still asleep, and watched with rapt attention as Sukuna’s eyes sized his body up.
‘Enjoying what you’re seeing? Gojo asked.
Sukuna huffed. ‘Hardly. This is not the body of a man who could overpower me,’ the curse commented.
Gojo refrained from frowning. He’d been hoping for a reaction, but had not expected this one. He wanted to shake Sukuna, make him look again, just to make sure the curse had not missed a thing.
He did nothing of the sort.
Instead, he stretched out, arms pulled over his head as he let his back muscles roll in front of the curse’s watchful gaze. He walked to his room to get changed.
When he was back in the basement, Sukuna had retreated, and Yuuji was snoring loudly. Gojo tucked him in the guest’s bedroom.
When Gojo came back home the following night, he found Yuuji asleep on the couch again, and Sukuna peering at him from the boy’s cheek.
Gojo wanted to ask him if he was trying to turn this into a habit, but refrained. It would only scare Sukuna away, and this wasn’t what Gojo was looking for.
Instead, he lifted Yuuji from the couch and led him to the guest room. There, he laid the boy on the bed, tucking him in.
‘You are deceptively gentle with the brat, sorcerer.’ Sukuna observed, and Gojo paused.
‘Deceptively?’
Sukuna hummed. ‘You have killed with those hands. And yet you are pretending to display a gentleness that is not yours.’
Gojo stood frozen, hands hovering over Yuuji’s limp form. He held himself back from swallowing.
As Sukuna did not add anything, Gojo set moving again. He grabbed the cover and arranged it over the sleeping boy.
‘How would you know?’ Gojo asked finally, curious. His voice betrayed nothing of his emotions.
‘I told you,’ Sukuna said, a smirk in his voice, ‘you reek.’
Like a moth to a flame, Gojo kept coming back to Sukuna every night.
Every night, they exchanged a few words. Sukuna making cryptic comments, and Gojo answering with innuendos.
It was a developing habit Yuuji seemed none the wiser to. And maybe it was better this way. As if he already knew he had crossed a line, Gojo refused to mention it to the younger boy. He couldn’t imagine mentioning it to anyone else, either.
Unsurprisingly, it came to a point where Sukuna was the only thing Gojo could think about. For hours on end, Gojo kept wondering about what the curse would say when he saw something that caught his eye, imagining the no doubt terrible output he’d give unprompted.
More than anything, Gojo wanted to know. Know what Sukuna thought about when he wasn’t here. And when he was here, too.
Gojo wanted to know what Sukuna felt, too. Trapped in Yuuji’s body, confined in the limit of his own domain, and the head of a 21st century teenager. Gojo wanted to know if Sukuna felt the air shift whenever Gojo entered a room, just like Gojo felt his own heart rate go up whenever Sukuna spoke up?
He wanted to know if– ‘Sensei?’
Gojo blinked. ‘What?’ he said, throat dry, having no memory of having been in the presence of the kid before.
‘You’re not listening to me, Sensei! What is the last thing you remember me saying?’
Gojo could feel Sukuna watching him. He licked his lips. He slicked his hair back, trying to pay attention to his students’ words. ‘Ah, I’m sorry, Yuuji-kun, I got a little distracted here, I’ve gotta admit,’ he answered sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand.
Yuuji crossed his arms, giving him a disapproving look. ‘Whatever, I’ll tell you about the movie when you feel like listening.’ He paused, looking at Gojo with a frown, ‘So, what did you want to tell me?’
Gojo grinned. ‘Well, Yuuji-kun, ready to go back to class?’
‘What?!’ Yuuji spluttered, arms falling to his side. He did not notice the slight widening of Sukuna’s eyes on his cheeks. Gojo did.
Though he’d been thinking about it for the past few weeks, or tried to, at least, Gojo had forgotten to think about how the reintroduction of Yuuji into Jujutsu Tokyo High would impact his and Sukuna’s interactions.
He’d grown so used to the presence of the curse that the first night Yuuji spent on campus again, Gojo almost went to check on him. He abstained.
But not for long, though. On the fourth night, Gojo’s resolve cracked.
He waited patiently for his students to fall asleep in his room provided by the school. He knew the kids’ sleep-schedule by heart, creatures of habit.
When the last of them had fallen asleep, Gojo rose from his chair. He crossed the school grounds in quick strides, mindful of his footsteps.
He stood outside Yuuji’s door for a few minutes, holding his breath. This was crossing yet another line, and Gojo wasn’t sure he’d be able to return after this. Somehow, he suspected he was already past the point of no return.
The door did not creak as he pushed it open. Yuuji was sleeping under the covers, Sukuna’s eyes opened on his cheeks. The king seemed to have expected him. Gojo briefly wondered if the curse had done it for the past days in hopes of seeing Gojo pass the door. He knew he wouldn’t have an answer if he asked.
‘Took you long enough.’ The curse, and it was the closest to admission Gojo would get.
Gojo closed the door behind him. He hummed as he sat down on a chair. ‘Did you miss me?’ he asked teasingly.
Sukuna did not answer. He watched him sit down instead.
They remained silent for a while, before Sukuna talked again. ‘I will not give you the satisfaction of complaining about my punishment,’ he said petulantly.
Gojo frowned. ‘Punishment?’
‘Putting me back in school with insufferable kids constantly talking my ears off, I don’t see it as any other way.’
Gojo snickered. ‘That is one way of putting it. But who knows, maybe I wanted to have better access to you?’
‘Better than in your own house?’ Sukuna asked doubtfully.
Gojo nodded. ‘It’s easier to restrain your yapping with people around.’
‘So this was a punishment after all.’ Sukuna said. He made no comment about Gojo’s allusion.
For all the many disagreements and bickering they had, Gojo and Sukuna did not argue much.
If anything, they pissed each other off from time to time, but nothing too serious.
Until the stunt Sukuna pulled this afternoon.
Gojo had sent Megumi and Yuuji in a duo mission facing a low-level curse, confident in their abilities to achieve their tasks.
Sukuna had messed with Yuuji, trying to take over his body during the fight, leading to both he and Megumi being hurt by the curse in the process.
Sukuna had retreated with a cackle, leaving the two teenagers dazed in front of a hyped up curse.
Thankfully Ijichi had been nearby, and had fled to the kids’ rescue, killing the curse himself. He had called Gojo afterwards, and the teacher had rushed to their assistance.
Now, hours later, Gojo was still unable to calm down.
He slipped inside Yuuji’s room with barely concealed fury, not waiting for Sukuna’s eyes to open before he spoke. ‘Never do something like this again.’
Sukuna deigned to crack an eye open. ‘Or what?’ he asked. ‘You’re going to lock me somewhere? Force me to be in the constant presence of screaming teenagers?’
Gojo huffed. ‘This is why you did this? Because you’re bored?’
Sukuna clicked his tongue. ‘Do not lump me with you humans. I do not need reasons to act, I simply do as I please.’ He answered coldly.
‘Human or curse I don’t give a shit. I’m telling you now that you’re never doing this again,’ Gojo said with authority, ‘do not harm my students ever again.’
There was silence, and then a sound. ‘Sensei?’ Yuuji’s sleepy voice broke through the fog of his anger.
The asshole. He’d roused Yuuji.
‘What are you doing here, Sensei? Is there something wrong?’ Yuuji asked, already sitting up.
Gojo rose from his chair. ‘No, no, Yuuji-kun, don’t worry. I was just making sure you were sleeping well, yeah?’
Yuuji’s confusion did not melt away. If anything, his frown deepened.
Gojo would have to use another card. ‘Sometimes I get nightmares, and it helps to see one of you safe and sound,’ Gojo falsely admitted, knowing it would pull at Yuuji’s heart.
‘Oh,’ Yuuji said, and Gojo’s guilt thickened as he ruffled Yuuji’s hair.
‘I’m sorry for having woken you, Yuuji-kun, I won’t do it anymore, promise!’ Gojo exclaimed, already heading for the door.
‘It’s okay, sensei. I don’t mind. You can come to me if it happens again.’ Yuuji, sweet boy, offered.
Gojo’s smile was genuine when he nodded and bid the boy goodnight.
Gojo was pissed, but he let nothing show. Sukuna’s actions from that day had left him seething for a whole week before he was finally able to settle down.
In the meantime, he did not visit Sukuna. He did not feel the need to.
If anything, their time away made Gojo reflect on the situation, on the way his obsession with Sukuna had grown.
He’d been aware of it for a while now, but time away from the curse had allowed him to take a step back and think about it fully.
There was something wrong with his relationship with Sukuna, that much was obvious. Right from the very beginning, he’d been drawn to the curse.
It was to be expected. He’d heard about him so many times, to be able to meet him in real life was exciting. But it seemed Gojo had wanted more. Having the opportunity to have the curse by his side had made Gojo greedy. He wanted to see the extent of the curse’s power, to fight him.
Gojo wanted Sukuna for himself, and he was pissed he couldn’t have it.
There was a knock at his door and Gojo startled.
It was the middle of the night. Gojo frowned. He grabbed his sunglasses on the nightstand and got up to open the door. He almost froze at the sight on the other side as he pushed it open.
There Sukuna stood before him, dressed in Yuuji’s sleeping clothes, face neutral as his eyes were fixed on Gojo’s.
The latter blinked, dumbfounded, before he asked ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I made a deal with the brat,’ Sukuna explained, waving his hands in the air.
‘Which implies…?’ Gojo asked, frowning.
‘I can take over the kid’s body for a minute, on the condition that I’m not hurting anyone.’ Sukuna explained as he stepped inside the room, eyeing the decoration with visible disdain, before he sat on Gojo’s bed.
‘When?’ Gojo asked.
‘After I killed him. It was the condition to revive him.’
Gojo gnawed on his bottom lip. What are you hiding?, Gojo was itching to ask, but he held himself back. He didn’t need to ask upfront, it’d come up soon enough. The fact that Sukuna revealed it to him was telling enough.
Instead he watched as Sukuna made himself comfortable on his bed, lazily lying on his side. He acted like he owned the place, and it made Gojo want to wipe the smirk off his face.
Especially after the last few days. Gojo wanted to mark him, permanently leave traces of his fingertips on his throat. He wanted to show Sukuna that, even if the curse had control over him, he wasn’t free from Gojo’s grasp either.
But this wasn’t Sukuna’s body. It was Yuuji’s, and Gojo couldn’t do that.
Gojo had no desire to hurt his sweet student.
He usually didn’t particularly want to hurt Sukuna either, but this was a changing sentiment.
A thought crossed Gojo’s mind. If only Sukuna could have another vessel. One Gojo would not fear hurting. And one who wouldn’t look so much like his precious student.
His eyes widened as he realised his own thoughts.
Despite his obsession with Sukuna, Gojo was put off by the fact that the curse was in his student’s body, face looking so much like Yuuji’s. But Gojo could remedy this. If Sukuna was in another body, it would change everything.
Everything would be different if Sukuna had another vessel.
But if Gojo considered providing him such an asset, what would it make him, if not complicit in a murder? Because, of course, no one was as resilient as Itadori Yuuji. No one else would be able to withstand Sukuna’s soul in their body. And it wasn’t what Gojo wanted, anyway.
No, if he was doing this, he needed the transfer to be complete. He wanted Sukuna to have his very own mortal coil. As mortal as anything bearing Sukuna could be, that is.
But could Gojo really do that? Throw an innocent man to the wolves because he selfishly wanted to see Sukuna in the flesh? Surely, there had to be other ways.
Inwardly, he knew there were none.
Maybe, then, he could compromise. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if the man wasn’t innocent?
Somehow, the murder in itself didn’t bother Gojo the most, he’d been desensitised to it for a while now. No, what really bothered him was his students’ reaction. Could he bear to see the kids’ disappointed puppies’ eyes when they would understand Gojo’s action?
This was the only facet making him reconsider the whole thing.
The thought wormed its way into Gojo’s mind in the following days.
He kept finding new excuses going along with his idea, and he could feel his resolve crumble as the excuses stacked up.
At first, Yuuji was at the centre of Gojo’s preoccupations.
After all, first and foremost, the change would be for Yuuji-kun’s good. Rid of Sukuna’s presence, Yuuji would not have to suffer the consequences of the curse’s acts any longer.
He would not have to bear the burden of being the King of curses’ vessel any longer, and he would not have to fear hurting his own friends if he ever lost control of the monster inside him.
Then, Gojo’s thoughts turned pernicious, more self-centred.
He personally wanted to see Sukuna at full potential. He wanted to fight him, to feel the same thrill as that night on the roof he’d been chasing ever since.
Sooner or later, Sukuna would take over Yuuji’s body by force. Giving him a body before it would happen was a way to spare Yuuji-kun’s life, and to control Sukuna’s new vessel, Gojo reasoned.
Those arguments were for him only, though. He would not speak about this to anyone else. He knew they would not understand.
One would think that, due to the rarity of jujutsu sorcerers, the higher ups would keep track of everyone, even those who had left the jujutsu scene. And yet, it was far from being the case.
The three big clans were the ones controlling the Jujutsu world, and they were quick to dismiss anyone deemed unworthy enough, blood-relatives included.
Gojo had seen it for himself when he’d kept an eye on Nanami when the latter had quit the sorcerers’ ranks. No one had ever come for the blond, or even uttered his name, the moment he had left the scene.
Gojo deemed it an unwise behaviour, but it served his case right. Plus, he was no wise man.
Gojo’s quest to find the perfect vessel started unceremoniously. First, he looked for the school’s former students’ register in the archives, and found it almost too easily.
There, he drew up a list of now Curse Users, and arranged them by techniques and attractiveness. If Sukuna was to possess his physical traits, Gojo wanted the best.
Then, he started to hunt them down. Some were harder to find, but he quickly reduced his list to only a handful of profiles. He spent a few days trailing each man, observing their environment, their comings and goings, and the amount of people they interacted with.
After a month of observation, Gojo had singled out one man.
Only then did Gojo submit the idea to Sukuna.
The curse was sprawled on Yuuji’s bed, disinterestedly
Sukuna hummed. ‘Supposing you have a compatible candidate, then yes, that could work.’
‘I have a candidate.’ Gojo said eagerly.
Sukuna’s mouth opened slightly in surprise. ‘You have?’
Gojo nodded. ‘Yeah, I scoured the defector’s lists, found a few potential candidates, and deemed this one interesting enough.’ He paused before adding ‘He has a nice face.’
Sukuna watched him with wide eyes. ‘Remind me why you’re doing this, again?’
Gojo sent him a sultry look. ‘To be able to take you in a proper fight, of course.’
‘So, are you in or not?’ Gojo asked.
Sukuna grinned.
Gojo racked his brain for days trying to find an approach before Sukuna suggested one himself. ‘Why wouldn’t you use your face? That’s what you’re good at, being pretty. Lure him in with that,’ he’d said.
Having no better option, Gojo followed his words. He showed up to the man’s place one afternoon, nicely dressed, hair loose around his face, pretending to be lost.
He found him in his garden, bent down towards tomato plants. Gojo called for him, and the man looked up. From afar, he didn’t seem too wary, and Gojo was pleased to notice he looked even better in person.
He explained his situation, and the man set down his tools. Slowly, he pulled off his gloves, stuffing them inside his back pocket and walking to the fence where Gojo stood.
The man got closer before he squinted, and froze. ‘The Gojo heir…..’ he whispered.
Gojo frowned, confused, before realisation dawned on him. He’d forgotten for a moment that the man was a former sorcerer. He knew Gojo. Of course he knew him.
Well, it worked either way. The man was not running away, so Gojo considered it a success.
‘Hi,’ he greeted. ‘Honda, right?’
The man startled at the sound of his name. ‘Huh, yeah.’ He bit his lower lip. ‘Is it really you?’ the man asked in disbelief.
An admirer, maybe? Gojo nodded. ‘Yep!’
‘What are you doing here?’ he asked, getting closer.
‘We’re recruiting sorcerers, in preparation for a battle against Sukuna. I’m scouring,’ he came up with.
‘Sukuna?!’ The man asked.
‘Yeah,’ Gojo answered offhandedly, focusing on the man’s face, imagining Sukuna’s features instead. He objectively looked good.
Slowly, Gojo raised his hand. His fingers grazed the man’s jaw, his cheek, his temple. He almost touched his hair, but retracted his hand. He could feel the man’s eyes on him, wide, disbelieving.
‘Have you considered dying your hair?’ Gojo asked.
‘What?’ the man asked.
‘Pink, have you ever thought of it?’ Gojo asked again, examining the man’s hair more closely. He did not look the balding type. Good.
The man swallowed. ‘N–No,’ he stammered.
Gojo sighed as he stepped back. ‘Well I guess we’ll see that pretty soon anyway,’ he waved a hand.
The man looked even more confused. ‘We are?’ he asked.
‘Oh, not you.’ Gojo explained. You’ll be dead before that, Gojo did not add. The man could very well make the connection on his own, but Gojo did not particularly want to chase him, so he was fine with keeping him compliant up until the end.
He stepped back, turning to the place where he knew Sukuna stood. Slowly, Sukuna stepped out of his hiding place.
The sorcerer froze at his sight, terror dawning on his face.
Gojo watched as Sukuna severed his–Yuuji’s finger and force-fed it to the poor man. Unable to resist, Sukuna easily took over his body, leaving him no choice.
Gojo knocked Yuuji out before he could realise anything. He caught the boys’ hand in his and cauterised the wound. Gojo lamented on the maiming of the boy’s finger, but Sukuna had been pretty clear about the requirements for the technique to work.
Once again, Gojo reasoned it was for Yuuji’s good. It just appeared to be for Gojo’s, too.
Sukuna seized him, and Gojo let himself be moved away.
Gojo grabbed him by the throat, almost lifting him off the ground as he pressed him against the wall. ‘Finally,’ he said in a hushed voice, eyes fixed on Sukuna’s lips, ‘I’ll be able to bruise you as I wish.’
Sukuna’s grin widened.
‘Yuuji doesn’t need to know.’ Gojo whispered against his lips.
‘You really think he’s going to accept it without saying anything?’ Sukuna asked, amused.
‘He won’t have a choice,’ Gojo growled, shutting Sukuna up with a kiss.
Gojo stepped closer. He sighed, tucking a strand of hair behind Sukuna’s ear, ‘I will miss Yuuji’s cute face.’
Sukuna scrunched up his nose. ‘Don’t say shit like that. There’s nothing worth keeping in the brat’s mug.’
Gojo snorted. ‘You say that, but you would have never caught my eye otherwise.’ he explained. ‘Though I guess the hair colour probably played a huge part, I guess,’ he added as an afterthought.
‘Still,’ Sukuna said, ‘don’t speak of him.’
Gojo did not mention the boy was still lying at their feet, knocked out. He’d have a lot of explaining to do when Yuuji would wake up.
But with the grip of Sukuna’s hands on his hips, and the promise of many fights to come, Gojo found he didn’t mind.