c o l d h e a r t e d | r. sukuna [ORIGINAL DRAFT]

x | part iv

It's finally the last part of the 10th chapter.

･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ. *

Sukuna didn't expect the masked man to show up

Sukuna suddenly felt a rage boiling inside of him, a hellish, uncontrollable rage. The masked man was the reason he went to Heian-kyō, the reason he lost, the reason he met Eiji.

But when he saw the masked man, his rage turned to shock. The mask had a diagonal cut though it, and had been glued together with gold. The art of kintsugi had been done.

So that hit did land.

"long time no see," the masked man said.

"To hell with you," Sukuna spat as he turned flames into an arrow and shot it directly at him, causing an explosion of flames, which like before, the masked man didn't get touched by.

"What? So we can fight in hell together?" The masked man made the objects surrounding Sukuna attract to him but Sukuna just sliced it all into tiny pieces.

"Oh, so Red didn't work? " The masked man said, disappointed. "Well then, let's try this."

Suddenly, a purple beam shot out from the masked man's fingertips, which Sukuna dodged.

"Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine"

"Domain Expansion: Limitless"

They were surrounded by what looked like a buddhist shrine decorated with skulls.

"Heh... looks like I lost..." The masked man said.

"Yeah you did," Sukuna spat, throwing his weapons to the side. "And I'm gonna crush your skull with my bare hands,"

"Go ahead," the masked man said. Did he have a death wish? Because he certainly was acting like it.

Sukuna grabbed him by the throat and started punching his mask.

Countless times Sukuna punched his face, but the mask wouldn't break. Anger started to rise inside of Sukuna. "Why. Won't. Your. Mask. Break." Sukuna punched his mask in between words.

"I...can't..." The masked man said weakly.

For some reason, they sounded like Eiji.

Sukuna stopped punching them, and out of pure curiosity, tried to lift the mask off their face, but they grabbed his hand.

"Please... don't..."

Sukuna used another one of his arms to remove the mask, and this time, the masked man couldn't fight back, or more like didn't.

"Eiji?"

Sukuna stood there shocked. It was Eiji who was the masked man. She had blood dripping from the side of her mouth, causing Sukuna to immediately release her, sending her into a fit of coughs.

"Hi... Suki," Eiji coughed.

Sukuna immediately pulled her into a hug, whispering "I'm sorry," over and over again into her hair.

She hugged him back, smiling while she told him "it's okay"

"I love you," He muttered into her shoulder, his ears and cheeks turning a shade of pink.

"I love you too," Eiji whispered back, a single tear falling from her eyes.

･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ. *

"When did you figure out I was the King of Curses?"

Sukuna was back in his more human form, resting his head on Eiji's lap. They were back in Heian-kyō, sitting underneath the sakura tree. It was fall already, marking over 2 years and a half since they first met. All their little interactions over time had added up, and Sukuna couldn't say he didn't like the outcome.

"I knew it was you all along, but when you came to see me under the sakura tree, I got curious. Well, I was curious beforehand about you, but I didn't really know you, I didn't know what you went through, so how could I judge you? And besides, you seemed like a nice person behind your "King of Curses" facade,"

"Huh," Sukuna said. "What about your brother?"

"My brother..." Eiji trailed off. "In all honesty, he has no cursed energy. He wears a pendant embedded with my cursed energy, as to not attract suspicion. He's the head of the Gojo clan, not me."

"Any hierarchy other than strength is worthless. You should be the head of the Gojo clan,"

Eiji let out a light laugh. "I wish, but if I was, I'd get a lot of retaliation and it'd ruin the Gojo clan's image,"

Sukuna sat there, wondering why a man with no cursed energy was head of the Gojo clan and a woman who was on the same level as Sukuna was kept in the shadows. Everyone obviously thought it was Kei who was the one exorcizing curses, but now Sukuna knew the truth. He furrowed his brow in frustration.

"Don't think about it too much," Eiji told him. "Besides, I'm fine with it."

Something told Sukuna that she herself wasn't fine with it, but dealt with it for the sake of others.

"How you manage to piss me off and make me love you more at the exact same time astounds me," Sukuna said with zero emotion, but the light blush appearing his cheeks said otherwise.

Eiji let out a laugh. "Well, I will take that as a compliment."

･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ. *