|
There was a woman watching him.
Or, he’s pretty sure there is. Yuuji can’t really see the woman at all, there’s primroses covering his eyes and more flowers blocking him from looking even if he turned, and he didn’t really want to confront her. Yuuji is almost certain she’d react the same like most of the people who’d be confronted for staring for a little longer than needed.
Although he had taken a peek awhile ago, and by a while he was pretty sure it was like.. Ten minutes ago, which was far longer than even the villagers would, but how would he know what it would be like to see someone with “unholy” marks for the first time? Maybe he would stare for a few minutes too..
It didn’t really make much sense though, because the woman had stark white hair. It was so obvious, that even though she was at the treeline Yuuji could see it so clearly amongst the colorful foliage of the meadow he laid in. She wasn’t even old! Old ladies had bent knees and this weird aura where you could feel that they were old, he would know! He had a grandpa. But maybe she was shy and just needed help?
That kind of made him feel bad, what if she needed some directions? It wouldn’t even be surprising, he got lost within the forest at times too - which was saying something because the forest was somewhere that he had hunted daily, but its trees often seemed to twist and turn. A maze in itself if you didn’t know how to escape its grasp correctly.
It was decided then, Yuuji would in fact help this woman to where she needed to go! If she accepted it at all..
With an unsurprising lack of effort, he jumps from his spot across the meadow, positioning himself towards the woman with a grin, waving his hand briefly before speaking. It was rather easy to spot her at the treeline, the darkness looming behind her like a halo.
“Are you alright over there!” He shouts, his hands cupping his mouth as if to try and make it reach farther.
It would be nice to help her too, in any case. His grandfather was determined to get those traps back by today, and he didn’t seem like he would take any excuses either. Yuuji sighs, pushing his eyebrows into a furrow as the woman simply walks away and back into the inky blackness of the forest.
“Uh, hello?” Yuuji mutters, crossing his arms and turning his face away in a pout. He didn’t even do anything, why was he getting ignored?
Whatever, it wasn’t like he even had to go get those traps just yet either. The sun was still pretty high up, and dinner tonight was going to be simple, just some rice and steamed fish or something like that. Whether or not it wouldn't matter all that much either, grandpa would eat whatever he made him, or more likely he would force Yuuji to remake everything altogether.
He huffed, collapsing onto the flower bed again, hiding within the array of primroses surrounding him. His grandpa would totally make him do that too, even if it took hours to redo! Yuuji would obviously listen, he always did but it would be incredibly tedious. The flowers shifted beneath him as he moved with a grimace, burying his feet into the leaves and soil, a grin quickly overtaking the grimace at the delightful feeling.
His thoughts rapidly moved onto the woman again, a sigh echoing into the air.
Yuuji raised one of his arms into the sky, staring at the markings decorating his skin, a void like black unlike what he’d seen of the ink that adorned some villagers. Were these markings so terrifying? Was the man related to them so terrifying, that Yuuji himself had to face retribution just for looking a bit similar?
It was the same thoughts that plagued him every time he caught a glimpse of them. Questions that he would never really get an answer to.
He groaned, allowing his hand to hit the earth with a silent thud. His eyes quickly drawn to something else - a butterfly.
There was a butterfly on his nose! It was sudden enough that he found his thoughts short circuiting in its beauty. This one was frighteningly vibrant, dark crimson wings with such a beautiful yellow trailing its veins it practically looked gold in the sun. Yuuji held his breath, afraid of startlingly the small thing off of his nose and into the sky again.
It wasn’t like this didn’t happen often, butterflies or insects in general flew to his direction like he was a lighthouse at sea - not unexpected with bright pink hair - but this one was truly beautiful, it had him wanting to stare for just a few more seconds than usual. And behind even that small excuse, was an urge to keep it like those pets he’d try to bring home when he was younger, just to hide it away and look at it just a little more before it regrettably died the week it entered his life.
The butterfly had swiftly left just as quickly as it had come, flying off in some nowhere direction that had even Yuuji losing track of it in mere seconds. He crawled into a sitting position, head in hand grumbling, it would’ve been nice to stare just a little longer, but it was a good time for it to leave anyway.
It was time to leave. The sun wouldn’t set anytime soon, sure, but those traps took forever to take down, he was sure that he’d even have to leave one of the river traps behind in the process. Yuuji whined, leaning back as he moved to a stand, looking behind him in pure desire to stay.
The flowers however, did not seem to share the same sentiment. All of them absolutely crushed beneath the weight of a teenage boy and left to wilt against the ground. Yuuji could feel his mouth slightly part in dismay.
“What?” His hand rubbed the back of his neck, voice echoing some sort of regret. No wonder that butterfly flew away, he ruined their little meadow.
Yuuji bent down in remorse, hunched over trying to raise the flowers up again before they would just fall to the ground no matter how long he’d try to hold them up; there was no way to stop their process of decay. Yuuji sighed, pushing his face into his hands, wilting for a few moments just as the flowers had, before pushing up and into a stand once more.
Those flowers were not coming back.
He turned away with a pep in his step, the flowers would grow back eventually, and likely even prettier than they had been only a bit ago. Hopefully Yuuji could see them again come spring after the coming winter passes by.
“Time to get these traps!” He grinned, breaking into the barrier of the treeline. Feet sunk into soft underbrush, dew covered moss tickling them with every step.
Yuuji narrowed his eyes, peeking through the branches of trees and large roots that stuck up from the earth. It was better to be wary - even if he kept up with traps daily they still attracted predators after a while if they caught something. It was a lesson well learned after he gained a scar from one that got a little too spooked by him.
Although there was very little need to be worried about his hushed breathing to be picked up, despite his anxiety only a small percentage of the forest were still asleep, so it wouldn’t be likely he’d scare something away or scare something into attacking him like last time. He felt his shoulders lax under reason, his fingers combing through underbrush with ease, harvesting some wild herbs that could be used for home or otherwise, along with the tinier traps that collected small things rather than bigger ones, like honey or birds.
Those would be easy to tuck away into his pouch and fairly weightless the ones he was worried about were in the river, they always had growth on them because he didn’t have to continuously take them back like the other traps. Yuuji groaned, slouching backwards in contempt, at least there weren’t a lot of them - his grandpa didn’t want to outfish what the river could provide, since the villagers had cut them off from the crops they harvested a long time ago.
“Stupid villagers.” Yuuji complained, kicking at open soil with his bare feet as he traversed the dimming forest.
It had been a long time coming when it happened, before that they had continued to close them off more and more, although they were far smaller than just stopping them from harvesting at all.
When it had first he had remained resistant to the change - after all his grandpa was getting too old, and the forest wasn’t a reliable way of scavenging when providing for an elder and a growing twelve year old boy; but Yuuji could remember the first time his resistance was spotted by the other villagers, the bruises that lined his body gave the clear impression.
‘Come back, and it wouldn’t just be bruises.’
After that he stopped going, kept out of the village entirely, even during festivals when they happened to be just a bit more tolerant, or when merchants swept by on the way, travelling deeper into the empire or farther away and into Sukuna’s territory. When you’ve depended on the forest for three years it wasn’t hard to keep out of their way, if he really wanted to he could walk anywhere in this forest on pure memory if he wanted to, even with its twisting branches and gnarly trees.
Yuuji narrowed his eyes, looking up across the dimming sky. Barely anything was visible with the canopy above, but he could see just enough to tell that the sun was starting to lower more than he’d like it too.
The boy rolled his shoulders back, picking his pace up just a bit more, then more - until he was practically racing across raised roots and small running animals. Sure he could figure his way out just based on memory - even he knew it wouldn’t be impossible - but frankly, it was much harder to do when there was no light and the invisible curses that would run amok were suddenly far more available when the sun came down. Ergo, running towards the last three traps.
He could still see, there was still enough light to see any major obstacles, most animals ran if they could hear him running anyway,so it wasn’t that difficult of a task to complete in the end.
Yuuji could hear his laughter echoed in the wind as he flew through the air while animals scattered beneath his feet, every landing a warning to anything nearby. Running like this was always freeing, like whatever boundaries were unshackled when the breeze whipped his hair into his face so hard it hurt. It was a freedom he rarely received with the villagers always watching no matter where he was, with eyes that saw everything and mouths that would bite if they caught even one more unnerving thing, and anything could be wound as unnerving when you lived in fear.
Perhaps it wouldn’t be weird if he had no markings, maybe even celebrated, but he did have markings. Things that screamed of everything they hated, and stuck him in a cage that was uglier and smaller than they could ever be in themselves. But when Yuuji felt freedom, true freedom, with no eyes or mouths to tie him back, he felt as if he could soar amongst the skies themselves.
Or maybe it would be gliding because his feet hit the ice cold river water, he can’t stop the shriek that rips through his chest at the frigid water lapping at his bare feet. A string of curses flying out as he hops his way back to the safety of land and away from the rushing river. This was like the third time this week! He wasn’t even wearing socks this time either.
“Why wasn’t I looking at the floor!” Yuuji whined, hunching over to try and hold his feet in his hands that were certainly warmer than the autumn soil. He held that form for a while - hunched over, holding his feet until they warmed again.
“At least I’m here.” He sighed, straightening his posture as he wandered closer to the edge of the river again and towards the traps.
Two were the normal netted types, one with elongated shape while the other was more rounded out. Those ones usually didn’t catch too many fish, but they caught enough to feed every other day, they were also the two that would ultimately be brought back since they were far easier to carry.
A silent tune floated throughout the forest as Yuuji started tying the rounder, smaller one to the belt across his waist, the fish would be kept inside the small barrier as some sort of protection. Although he did frown as he looked at the more elongated trap, that one would have to be carried instead of tied around his waist.
“Whatever they were being brought back for better be good.” He grumbled, moving the thing to the side temporarily to get a good look at the one deeper in the water, slouching to get a better look at the thing. It had fish in it sure, plenty for a long time as it always did around autumn but it was buried amongst the rubble of the river to be kept in place and not only that the trap was huge in general, thin wooden planks that stretched out into a different area of the river to keep the fish contained in one place if they swam into the tiny hole at the front.
Yuuji frowned, crossing his arms together. That one would just be left here instead, it was too bulky to be brought back by himself and none of the villagers would help him - it was a sad thing to do, leaving all that food there just to rot, but it would have to do.
“It’s such a waste.” Yuuji muttered, itching at his neck as he turned to leave, feet covered in wet dirt after being buried in the river and subsequently into soil again, leaning down to snatch the leftover trap.
CRACK.
A snap bellows throughout the forest, so loud Yuuji swore he could hear his ears ringing as he whipped his head towards the noise. It sounded like it was more towards the east, but that didn’t mean anything when you can’t hear the footsteps either.
“What the fuck was that?” He whispers despite the insistent urge to scream, something huge enough to make anything snap like that was a predator to run away from, certainly not something to stick around and see.
Yuuji breaths in once, then twice, racing across fallen trees and raised roots, he swore he could hear it stomping behind him but the ground didn’t shake and the animals didn’t quiver in response either. Memories raced past, trying to remember anything that would help except to get past that fucking treeline somehow.
Was it an animal? No, no animal could possibly make a noise like that - even the biggest bears he’d seen couldn’t cause a tree to snap in half, or whatever that snapping sound was. It had to absolutely be a curse! There was no way it wasn’t even if the ones here were usually far tamer than whatever this one was.
Yuuji tries to inhale as heavy and stuttered as he jumped over roots and rocks, fatigue numbing the heels of his feet as he tried to run faster, he couldn’t risk fighting something intangible. If he stopped even once it would create the possibility of meeting one of those things and if he really came face to face with one.. There was no way he’d survive. Not against a curse.
Something wailed behind him, far enough that when he saw the end of the treeline Yuuji could feel his heart breath a sigh of relief, a sense of confidence that he wouldn’t be eaten by some malformed curse. The treeline meant safety today, to breach it meant the villagers would have to intervene because they would be the curse’s prey next if it got its hands on Yuuji at all.
Terror crawled up his legs, ate away at his stomach as his feet rushed through the maze of the gnarled trees and towards his saving light, the surviving river trap banging against his leg. Oh gods, just another thing to worry about! If the fish didn’t survive in that little barrier he’d lose more than just an ear tonight. Yuuji could feel the exhausted cry trying to bubble up from his throat, it felt like he was racing against more than whatever curse was hunting him down.
A rumble echoes out right behind him, so much closer then where it had been previously that it had Yuuji crying out before his feet finally breached the treeline, stumbling down the hill into a tumble, back crashing into the ground beneath him with a yelp.
With every inhale he could feel the aching in his back slowly subsiding, quietly exhaling allowing the pain in his feet to numb in a way he hadn't felt sense he was a child running far too fast for his grandfather ever to keep up.
Yuuji had reached the end of the forest, his safety net, but his ears were met with no sound at all, no people running to help, and no wild beast ravaging past the treeline. Slowly he raised his head that had been buried in his arms, glancing up towards the forest, squinting his eyes as he tried to peer into that inky blankness, yet he saw nothing.
“What the fuck?” Yuuji whispered, moving to glance at the trap at his side. The netting was frayed, broken entirely in some parts after the tumble, but the fish inside didn’t succumb to too much injury at all. Jumbled certainly, some scales missing too but that didn’t mean too much when he was going to descale them anyway.
He moved to a stand, and sparing one last glance towards the forest before looking forward, his home only a ways away in the distance, and a few hundred feet from that, the village. Not safety, never safety, but home in a way that was just familiar enough.
His mind quickly travelled right back to whatever was in that forest. Eyes quietly narrowing in thought, it was definitely a curse, nothing like that could have been animal or man. What would have happened if he had been caught by that curse? Death? He had heard some stories varied, person by person but..
The case was, Yuuji wouldn’t be entering that place for a while, and that meant looking for another location to hunt and gather from. He groaned, leaning back to stare up at the sky as he got closer and closer towards his home. How would he find somewhere else to do that? The forest surrounded the entire village if he excluded the lake, and the villagers were barely tolerant of him grabbing water from that place!
His dirtied feet met wooden flooring, finally reaching the home without further obstacle, except the pending worry of where they would find food from now on. The only good thing about the man being bedridden was that he wouldn’t have to see dirt cling to the wood like it was doing now. Yuuji gently dropped any empty traps outside their door to let them dry or for further management, emptying the last river trap of its prized possessions before he entered.
“Grandfather, I'm home!” Yuuji yelled, sliding open the panel door and wiping off any loose dirt on the matt which would ultimately do nothing at all.
“What took you so long, Yuuji?” Came the quick response of his grandpa, brittle with age but nonetheless stubborn, he could imagine the cold glare of the man and even the concern that would tinge the wrinkles of his face.
“I got chased by a curse on the way back, I think.” He huffed, pouting at the lack of a welcome, readying his supplies for dinner. He could properly see his grandpa when he was done, after all the man couldn’t leave his own bed without struggle.
“You think?!” Wasuke shouts, “You do not just think a curse chases you, did you see something chasing you or not?” Yuuji refrained from rolling his eyes, lest the man somehow feel it in his old bones somehow.
“No, I didn't see anything chasing me grandpa.” It felt like this happened every night, yelling across the house just so the other could hear them despite the thin walls. Sometimes it was different, Yuuji would bring Wasuke out from his bedroom and place him on one of the chairs somewhere near - but tonight was not one of those nights, not with how on edge the man seemed.
“Well, at least you're safe.” His grandfather grumbled, just loud enough for him to hear, leaving the boy to snort underneath his breath.
“Were you able to bring back any of the traps, then?” Yuuji shrugs as if the man could see such a thing, with his bones being able to tell if it rained maybe he could, still Yuuji responded
“I grabbed some of them, but I had to leave two of our fishing traps behind. The thing got me right at the river - or near it, something had snapped pretty far away but you could still hear it from where I was.” The sound of chopping filled the room, the gentle sound of fire crackling as water boiled above it, a comforting array of sounds familiar in the way it could get his heart to even out after such a frightful encounter.
“You know what the weird thing was? It stopped chasing me after I left the treeline - maybe because of the village or something, but it feels too weird for it to have just stopped right there, or even earlier than that.” When no response came, Yuuji continued on.
“I mean, I hadn’t even tumbled all that far either when I tried to look back and I still saw nothing.” It felt like he was just rambling to himself at this point, as his talking descended into silent mutterings, a recent habit over the fact that his grandfather would stop responding mid conversation rather frequently. After all, there was no need to keep talking to someone when they would provide no response.
His grandfather seemed to daydream more often now, and sometimes when Yuuji looked for a little too long it felt like the man was thinking about things far more grave then he could ever realize.
Those thoughts were always particularly upsetting, he could feel his face pull taut into a frown, the grip on his knife tightening until his knuckles turned white beneath the pressure. For once, he just wanted to know what exactly his grandfather was thinking about, what he questioned or planned beneath that old gaze that spoke of things Yuuji would never know.
Maybe he didn’t want to know, not really.
The water boiled, and rice was quickly added into the pot, when metal burned beneath his finger tips he laid the freshly cut fish across it, seasoned well for what they had. The motions were a blur as Yuuji thought about nothing at all really, just stared at the markings decorating his skin. Was that what his grandfather thought about so deeply all the time? What they could do about them? How to get rid of them? Or maybe, how to get the villagers to truly accept that they weren’t what they thought they were?
Yuuji shook his head, as if he could simply wave those thoughts away like they were pests. He was sure that wasn’t it - even if some deeper part of him whispered it was, the man was his grandfather after all, despite the fact he was rather a mean old man.
A heavenly smell wafted throughout the home that left Yuuji drooling after running amok the entire day. He prepped their plates carefully, pulling cooked fish and rice onto their platter with very limited sides; holding both in his hands as he traversed his way across the house. It was all.. Clean. Or clean enough that it didn’t leave him itching to pick at things as they ate.
“Dinner is ready.” He grinned, sliding the door open with his feet to stare at his father laying on his futon, grumbling under his breath as he slowly sat upright, Yuuji gently setting their food in front of him.
They had quickly come to the conclusion that it was useless moving his grandfather back and forth between the rooms needlessly after he started having problems moving from his bed, so after a while they had just started staying and eating inside of the man’s room instead.
The first time it had happened it had lit something warm inside his stomach, outside of these dinners Yuuji had rarely been able to come inside and look around before he was kicked out and banned from entering, despite the fact he had never broken anything. A point that was often ignored when he begged to come in when he was far smaller than he was now.
“How was your day grandpa?” Yuuji questioned needlessly, he always got the same response no matter the day it was.
“How else could it be? Dreadful. What else am I supposed to do inside this house except rot, Yuuji?” Wasuke supplied with ease, chewing his food without looking up. It was always the same tug and go, but this time Yuuji wouldn’t grant the man a response.
Not tonight, at least, but it seemed that the old man would fill the air with his own voice instead.
“It’s a good thing you grabbed those traps, you're leaving soon.” The boy's head snapped up, looking at his grandfather with a startling curiosity.
“Leaving? We’re leaving soon?” He echoed back, his head tilting while continuously shoving food into his mouth, looking down every other moment while he waited for a response.
“You are leaving soon, not us.” Wasuke sighed, as if they had gone through this before, and maybe he did, just inside those daydreams instead of reality.
“What?” He hesitated, a tilt to his tone less questioning then it had been previously, he had a feeling of what the man meant.
“Don’t act ignorant Yuuji.” His grandfather chastised, a mocking undertone hidden beneath. “We both know you won’t be able to take me too.” The man seemed to pause, expecting a response, but none came.
“I’ll be dead by that time, and I’ll certainly be dead soon. There’s no point in denying it anymore, Yuuji, I’m too feeble for you to do that, I can barely get out of bed now.” He snapped.
Dead? Of course Wasuke would die - but Yuuji was still fifteen? Sure his grandfather was old, but Yuuji had been so sure that he would survive until Yuuji was at least eighteen, until he was old enough to traverse his own path. He knew he would die, everyone dies, but right now? Soon? What does all of this mean?
He was lucky his breathing was even at all, because it certainly felt as if it shouldn’t be. It felt like the food he had swallowed only moments ago would come up at any second, could feel the tears glaze his eyes, that the only thing that was stopping it all was pure will, the wish that his grandfather wouldn’t see him as weak.
“The point is, you can’t stay here after I die.” The man scowled, continuing on. “They will kill you, and don’t pretend like they won’t. They've been eyeing you up since you’ve been born, the only reason they haven’t hunted you down is because I’ve been here. What do you think will happen when I’m not?” He questioned, pushing his food away to stare at Yuuji.
“They’ll kill me.” He muttered, looking down at his food even as he followed suit and pushed it all away, his stomach couldn’t handle it all. Not right now, not while he discussed the death of his only remaining family. None of it made sense to him, why would it make sense to anyone?
Why did he have to leave?
Why couldn’t he mourn his own grandfather in peace?
His hands squeezed each other in his lap, trying to even out his stampede of emotions even as his knuckles turned white underneath his grip, even as tears threatened to spill.
“Yes, they will.” Yuuji looked up, the tone so different from what it usually was, as broken and quiet as their old windchimes. “You’re going to promise me something, as my only grandson, my only family left. I don’t want you to die here, surrounded by the hatred and disgust of these people as you have been since you were born, I want you to leave somewhere else. Somewhere where they will love you when you have everything and carry you when you have nothing.
“You deserve love, more than what I can give you.”
All he could do was nod, if he had said something Yuuji wasn’t sure it wouldn’t end in sniffling and tears, not with how choked his grandfather was. He didn’t know how long he sat there, just that when he stood to grab their plates that Wasuke had already moved to lay down, staring up at the ceiling with the same look he saw more and more recently.
Right step, then left step, one foot meets air the other meets the soft wood of their home, focus on anything but the death of his only familial connection left, let alone his only loving relation. It was muscle memory that pushed him to close the sliding door shut, muscle memory that allowed him to traverse the house with any sense of physical ease, and the thing that put the dishes in the basin. He could wash it all tomorrow.
He pressed his skull to the cold cruelness of the wall, breathing in a sigh of relief when something in him started to center, maybe not everything clicked but something felt right. Maybe it was the dirt between his toes, the aching of his back, or the silent pulsing of his head, but he could finally hear things aside from his own breathing.
Owls screeched from the forest, distant but present, crickets chirped from right outside and footsteps echoed from the crunch of fallen leaves as winter neared closer. Footsteps?
Yuuji’s eyebrows scrunched together, head quickly lifting away from the frigid wall. There shouldn’t be anyone outside at this hour, let alone near his own home. What was happening? Quietly he moved towards the window, careful not to make a sound even when he moved the thin paper material away from the window, peeking out into the wilderness.
Fire whistled through the air, breaking past the old wood of his windows to hit him square in the chest and the first thing he registered was pain. His old kosode catching fire with ungodly speed, and the people who stalked outside seemed just unrelenting because Yuuji could hear wood breaking and glass shattering, feel the fire that licked at his feet and torso even as he tore off his kosode, shrieking in the endless pain brought by it.
Tears wet his face as he dragged his arms across his chest, Yuuji could feel his eyes swivel in frantic search, trying to register what was going on as wood careened into the floor. A series of coughs apart from his own brought his thoughts to a halt altogether.
“Grandfather!” Yuuji screamed, the floor burnt his feet the deeper he got, instinct pulled to go in the opposite direction but his grandpa couldn’t die here, he couldn’t be burnt to ashes that Yuuji wouldn’t be able to separate from their home, a jumble of thoughts put on repeat until he barged into Wasuke’s room.
“The villagers - they’ve set everything on fire, I need you to hang onto me.” Yuuji stuttered, coughing into his arm as he got nearer to the man who hadn’t moved an inch. Who wouldn’t move an inch even when Yuuji got close enough to tug at his clothes and push at his body.
“Listen to me.” Wasuke turned, his eyes gazing at Yuuji with nothing but coldness. “You’re going to leave me here, and you're not going to look back.”
What?
“No, no no I’m not doing that, you’ll die here!” The words tore themselves from his throat in an angry cascade even as his grandfather's coughs filled the room and smoke blinded his sight. “I don’t want you to die yet.” An empty sob echoed throughout the room as he buried his face into the clothing of the only family he had left.
“I was going to die anyway, whether it be now or not you would have seen my death, Yuuji.” A sigh permeated the room, brittle in a way he hadn't heard from the man in years.
“Look at those burns on your body, boy. You won’t be able to carry me to safety and I won’t let you die here as some delusional martyr's death.” Old, wrinkled hands grabbed onto his shoulders, a gesture that would be comforting if his grandfather had not shoved him away and out of his embrace.
“Leave, Yuuji.” A command barked out with a sudden influx of rage that left Yuuji obeying on instinct, even as tears poured from his eyes and dripped onto the blazing wood with feet that pounded into the wood of a dying home that was once his own.
Especially when the roof of his grandfather's room collapsed inwards causing an uproar of gurgled screams and the sound of crushed bones. He couldn’t look back - if he did, Yuuji knew he’d just run towards whatever was left of his last of kin. Instead he let the sound of collapsing wood and raging fire bury the sound of his pained screams.
There was an ending to this hell, just like when he was in the forest but this time it wasn’t a treeline but a door and there was no light to follow, just the darkness of night.
Yuuji wrapped his hand around the door of his home, a home that was now destroyed beyond repair by fire that wouldn’t end its relentless hunger until nothing was left but ash. He could feel his eyes glaze over at the thought even when he slid the door open and walked into the field, a crowd of familiar villagers quickly arriving to meet him at the sight.
It seemed they wouldn’t leave him alone, not even when he had nothing left for them to take, nothing left to fight for.
Something inside him recognized them, but not their faces. No he recognized their fear, the hatred that pulled their faces taut, and the awe that made their eyes widen when they looked for a little too long. The most familiar though, was the enjoyment spread across their faces at the pain they had wrought against him with their very own hands at the sight of the burns covering his body and the tears coating his cheeks.
Had they not just burned an innocent man to death? Tried to sentence him to death when he had done nothing? Were they just mere executioners sentencing a devil?
The creatures don’t move an inch from where they stand around him, even though Yuuji can see the temptation cross their minds too, the temptation to spill his blood across the field they stood in. Instead they chant, not with their words, never with their words, but it’s through their faces that he sees their thoughts. Nevertheless it’s all the same to him. He can see it all so clearly across the masses, even though their legs tremble and their backs stiffen underneath his gaze, he can hear it too well.
Demonic! They cry, as if they know what a true demon incites.
Unholy! They weep, as if they know what holy means with the blood that coats their hands.
Sin itself! They shriek, and perhaps they are right, but only because they all are sinful too.
Maybe it’s different when you are the embodiment of it, and not the result of it.
Still, Yuuji only stands there, at the edge of his collapsing home, staring at the beasts who had brought upon its destruction despite his grandfather's promise of their protection until he died. The man had always been a liar, someone who hid, but Yuuji had never blamed him for it, but maybe he will now. Maybe it wasn’t odd that his last of kin was the same species as these creatures, despite the small differences of them all they still shared the same torment.
“Are all of you what I am supposed to embody, as sin itself?’ He mutters to himself, it would be a pitiful life to lead, one full of cowardice the same as they had done now, trying to burn him inside the house until he turned to ash.
One of them rushed forward, ignoring the mutterings Yuuji, perhaps the creature was tired of being complacent? He had no means of really knowing, but there was no pain when they shoved their weapon into his arm, and no pain when the crowd started to copy their bloodthirsty leader, even when his knees gave out and his body collapsed to the ground.
Would it be better to die here? To end this silent suffering in peace, or whatever was left of it all? Even if it meant leaving his grandfather’s wish unfulfilled, maybe that was better than whatever torment this was. Maybe a few minutes ago, the thoughts would’ve sparked a sense of frustration, but he was so..tired now, he couldn’t even put up a fight against these savages.
But there was something else, something that tugged, then, amidst the rambling of his thoughts there was a rope, a thing that begged to be pulled when faced with these questions. Would pulling whatever this thing was better then what was happening now? It had to be, because even with the haze blocking his brain, Yuuji knew it would be better because the rope promised him things.
You will be stronger than these creatures, it whispered into his ear, like a loving melody.
Fear will not guide you any longer, it sang, and that promise felt particularly sweet on his tongue.
It wasn’t lying, he knew it wasn’t whether feeling or instinct, this thing did not lie, so he pulled on it hard, begging for what it promised to give him and it did. Power, familiar in a way he had not expected flowed throughout his body and his eyes snapped open in response. When had they even closed?
Everything felt like it vibrated, it felt as if the very atoms he consisted of were lit ablaze. It felt like freedom. True freedom than when he would run in those woods, double whatever he felt whenever he flew through the air - it was unlike anything he had ever felt before.
For the first time he breathed.
For the first time, he stood, standing amongst the crowd of beasts who had brought him so much pain in just a mere moment of it being available, he could still see the joy on their faces, taste the happiness it brought them to bring him to his knees. Would it be the same for him, if he brought them to their knees, but this time their heads would be removed.
It was worth it to try, he didn’t want to miss out on anything, not when it looked so invigorating.
It was difficult to do at first, the creatures had not stopped their movements, had continued to kick and swing at him with their weapons, but it became much easier when he hit the first creature. They were weak like the rest, had fallen to its knees right after despite having braced for the impact, choked on blood that flooded his mouth from the inside. The ease of crushing their bones beneath his fists had never subsided; even when he slipped on the blood beneath him, so did they, even when he choked on his own breath because blood trickled in it wouldn’t compare to the blood that flooded their own.
Yuuji remembered the fire, gone now after running out of its fuel, he felt like that fire. The hunger to give the creatures what they had so vehemently deserved, and the fuel as their bodies, hitting the ground in a silent rhythm until there weren’t anymore to create such a melody, leaving him to stand in silence surrounded by the dead and drenched in their sinners blood.
It was warm at first, before it had faded to a dull cold that reminded him of his grandfather in a way. Cold gazes, cold words, and a colder embrace. Perhaps he had rotted away inside that home, maybe the home had simply dragged the warmth of his embrace away to fuel his delusions.
He wouldn’t be delusional any longer.
Yuuji echoed a tune, empty and barely there for even a moment before the rope tugged hard within the abyss of his mind, dragging his eyes towards the treeline. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion, before it morphed into understanding. There were people there, both familiar but in different ways, he recognized the woman with stark white hair with memory, but the man or giant maybe? He was familiar in the way of instinct.
He couldn’t help but try to narrow his eyes in response, even if they closed every other second fighting to keep them open only to see the duo get closer, jumping a few feet any time his eyes shut in exhaustion. Fatigue causing his knees to collapse underneath him until his entire body hit the ground like those fallen trees he’d seen within the forest. In the end, Yuuji was left to stare up at the duo as they got closer and familiar with every step.
It’s only when he’s able to truly see the man that he figured out why he’s so familiar. There are markings decorating his skin and pink hair vibrantly adorning his head. He was the reason Yuuji was almost burnt to death - he was the reason his grandfather was burned to death.
“Sukuna.” Yuuji whispered, looking up at the king standing above him. He tried to fight, pull on the rope that gave nothing in return, swing his arms or legs, but nothing would move.
He was hopeless to do anything to defend himself before the king of curses, and it was getting harder and harder to keep his eyes open, closing entirely just as his undoing lifted him from the lake of sinner's blood Yuuji had poured himself.
|
