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Thick black ink coated Yuuji’s glowing fist, as the fish-bowl head of the curse shattered from the force of his punch. The curse let out one last dying screech before dissolving into a puddle of ink.
My stooooone…! Give back…
Yuuji frantically wiped at his cheek, shuddering as the ink smeared further. No matter how many curses he faced he never quite got used to the sensation of curse gunk. Thankfully, this was a pretty weak curse, he’d rate it about grade 3, so his clothes were still in good shape. Weird that another dimension with magic (Magic!) would have curses, but cursed energy comes from negative emotions so maybe it wasn’t all that weird.
“What was that?!” Ace asked, disbelief written all over his face. “I thought you didn’t have magic?”
“It’s not magic exactly. Just cursed energy and a good ol’ punch. I can’t summon wind or cauldrons like you guys.”
“Cursed energy?”
Yuuji didn’t get a chance to answer because Deuce ran over to give Yuuji a friendly tap on the shoulder, his other hand clutching the torch Yuuji had quickly thrown to him when the curse appeared. “That was awesome! You knocked it out with one punch!”
“Thanks!”
Yuuji felt his cheeks warm with the praise. He grinned, raising a hand to rub the back of his neck. It felt nice for his strength to be acknowledged, even if it was for something as small as defeating a grade 3 curse. Then again, these guys were mages not sorcerers– Yuuji tilted his head in confusion. That didn’t sound right. Sorcery also means magic, but sorcerers didn’t use magic… or they did? Ahh whatever, no cursed energy, no defeating curses. They could see the curse though?
Sukuna scoffed derisively in the back of his head, drawing Yuuji out of his spiraling thoughts.
What excessive praise for child’s play. Here I thought magic-users would offer better entertainment.
Yuuji ignored him in favour of joining Grim, who had taken advantage of the curse’s attention on Yuuji to slip away and nab the magestone it had been guarding. Deuce and Ace followed sedately behind him. Grim tentatively stepped around the ink puddle on two legs, magestone cradled in his front paws.
The direbeast grinned smugly at Yuuji. “As expected of the Great Grim’s henchman!”
Yuuji gave an exasperated, yet fond sigh, but patted the cat monster on the head. He would never admit it to Gojou-sensei, but Grim kind of reminded Yuuji of his white-haired teacher.
“Still not your henchman, but thanks Grimmy.” Yuuji gently grabbed the magestone and presented it to Ace and Deuce with a wide smile. “Magestone acquired!”
“All right!” Deuce cheered. “I won’t have to tell my mum I’ve been expelled.”
“Yeah, yeah that’s great. Cheers and celebrations later, right now I’m ready to go home.” Despite saying so, Ace was clearly much more relaxed and smiled with relief.
Yuuji hooked his arms around Ace and Deuce’s necks. They sputtered as the sorcerer brought them into an impromptu group huddle. “Aww don’t be like that Ace. C’mon, gimme a victory five!”
Yuuji released them –placing the magestone in his pocket– to raise his palms in invitation, gaze expectant. Deuce and Ace shared an uncertain glance. Yuuji wiggled his eyebrows. They gave in to the high-five. It was just like being with his usual team, he couldn’t help but be happy.
Yuuji bent down to high-five Grim as well, which the monster reciprocated with enthusiasm. Clearly proud of the perceived joint achievement.
“Huh? What’s this?” Grim sniffed at the ink puddle.
Pausing in the mini-celebration, Yuuji looked down. There was a shiny, black stone sitting in the center of the puddle. Yuuji leaned over to inspect it, frowning at what he sensed. He could see little wisps of what he assumed was cursed energy coming off it. Yuuji was still pretty new to the curse scene, but he was fairly certain curses didn’t drop gems.
“Is that a part of the monster we just beat? It looks like... a magestone? But it's black as coal. I've never seen one like that before.” Deuce peered over his shoulder.
“Not sure. It feels like cursed energy though.”
“You still haven’t explained what that is.” Ace commented.
Grim’s eyes lit up with hunger. “Whatever it is, it smells amazing! Betcha it’s some kinda fancy monster candy that it was hidin' from us!”
Ace shot the direbeast an incredulous look. “Are you insane?”
Against Yuuji’s better instinct and what sounded scarily like Kugisaki telling him not to pick up random cursed objects on the ground, he picked it up. However, he couldn’t even bring it closer before his palm split open in a very familiar scene and the stone was swallowed up by Sukuna.
The mouth on his palm licked its lips and vanished after a single comment of, “Not terrible.”
Yuuji, Ace and Deuce were struck dumb, gaping at where the stone used to be. Then, mayhem.
“What the hell Sukuna! That wasn’t your finger, why’d you eat it?!”
“A mouth just appeared on your hand and you’re asking why it ate trash?!”
“Yuuji, your hand!”
Ace shook Yuuji’s shoulders while Deuce grabbed Yuuji’s wrist, staring at his palm in concern.
“NOOO my candy!!” Grim pawed at Yuuji’s pants leg trying to reach his, now empty, palm. “Give it back, henchman! Fu-nya!”
“Are you possessed or something?” Ace demanded, disturbed, which was a totally normal reaction to Ryomen Sukuna, and also an alarmingly accurate guess.
Yuuji sent a mental middle-finger to the curse living rent-free in his head (and not the good kind). He really should have listened to the Kugisaki-voice. He could only hope the ink stone wasn’t the magical key to freeing Sukuna. Then real-Kugisaki (and Fushiguro) would yell at him. And a lot of people would die.
He’d worry about that later though, right now, he had a lot of explaining to do.
Hopefully this wouldn’t end in another execution order.
…Yuuji really hated Sukuna.