Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Yuuji Itadori was born into a perfect world. And that was hardly an exaggeration. The only son of Jin and Kaori Itadori had the good fortune to live in one of the few universes that could be described as heavenly. In some places, life was grandiose, and in villages like the one in which our protagonist grew up, simple; but it was always joyful. Because they were loved by God. But it hadn't always been that way.

Even the elders hadn't experienced it, but centuries earlier, the earth's resources were limited and difficult to access. Animals had no respect for human authority and could turn violent at any moment. The idea that the human species could once suffer from “alterations in their state of health manifested by a set of signs and symptoms, due to internal or external causes” called diseases, seemed implausible today. Some could not be cured or could only be cured at great cost.  The notion that things or services had a monetary cost, now seemed equally surreal. Wealth and poverty, class warfare between rich and poor, propaganda urging the poor to fight each other... all these were now just scenarios from fiction novels and historical films. If someone wanted something, all they had to do was ask, and many naturally volunteered to give it to them or help make it. If someone felt shy, they could ask for the thing they wanted at any church, and God themself would make it appear for them. If something seemed impossible, international television was happy to film the attempts of motivated challengers.  Most of injuries healed fast, for something to be fatal, it had to be voluntary. The passage of time was the leading cause of death, and there was a reliable option for avoiding it. A way had been found to copy an individual's memory into that of a vessel. The way this was viewed varied from one part of the world to another. For some, it was the merging of two souls; for others, it was a way of extending one's own life in a younger body. In Japan, it was seen simply as a way of preserving the knowledge and skills of the deceased.

Yuuji himself shared this view. And who better to have an opinion on the subject than him, when he himself was the vessel of Ryoumen Sukuna, his father's twin brother. The best healers in the world had failed to cure his sadism. The priests had then asked God for advice, who had told them that there was no way to cure a character trait.  Before being seized by the authorities, Sukuna had kidnapped Yuuji when he was just four years old, and performed the operation illegally. While Yuuji's memories of his uncle had matured, his personality had remained unaffected, or at least he hadn't become a clone of Sukuna. It hadn't been without after-effects, however. He needed many years of therapy after being confronted with the acts of torture and rape committed by his captor, and could recall his uncle's pleasure as if it were his own. All this reconstruction had robbed him of many life experiences that could never be returned. He had wondered many times why, if being evil was in Sukuna's nature, God hadn't cursed him at the rite of passage where all were judged.

After screaming for days for your mommy and daddy to come save you, now you're calling out to God? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. No. I shouldn't make fun, others did the same after all, you brat, at least you have the excuse of youth. But this whole world is naive. God doesn't give a damn about you. Otherwise he'd have come to your rescue by now. He doesn't care about anyone, or he would have stopped me a long time ago. All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring.

So close to his eighteenth birthday, he didn't feel ready to become an adult any time soon. "Our family will always be there to help and support you-" his mother responds cooly; her words echoing through his mind, wisdom from the day before, "- and your friends too. All you have to do is give the right answer to the question and all will be fine."

"What question?” asked Yuuji.

Looking forward, her jaw snaps shut and she doesn't respond any further. She is most likely in no position to say more on the topic; as memories of this encounter with the divine were vague to all. Only priests could serve as reliable messengers, and they kept the secret. If Sukuna had passed the test without a hitch, then Yuuji, a good and helpful boy, was in no danger. In the end, it seemed that carrying his uncle's cruelty inside him only made him more beneficent, gentle, generous, human. Did this mean that Sukuna still lived inside him? He doubted it. But if this possibility could reassure those who didn't trust God and feared death, he saw no harm in pretending it did. It was a fear so prevalent in the Old World, but today the vast majority of humans were satisfied enough with the life they had lived to make the choice to die only once. Everyone's death was often planned. After the age of one hundred, the body starts to become too weak, and it was only then that people began to think about their date of death. After an average of one week of festivities (some celebrated for just one day, others for a whole month), the elderly person died among loved ones, often in the same chamber as their life partner(s). Today, on his way to the church in their village, accompanied by his grandfather, he wasn't sure he was ready to accept that one day he would have to leave. He remembered that, at seventy, the man still had fifty years of life left in him, which calmed his anxiety in part, but not completely. For this was the day of his rite of passage into adulthood.

The day was shrouded in mystery. Not long before their eighteenth birthday, each of them was presented before God, who showed them “the truth about how this world works” and asked them a mysterious question No one was apparently allowed to divulge any more. And memories of Sukuna's own passage into adulthood were too hazy for Yuuji to have an exact idea of what lay ahead. The way this world worked... Yuuji was extremely curious. Why, almost a thousand years ago, had everything changed so suddenly? It was a question children inevitably asked. A question to which adults gave a fairly satisfactory, but far too vague answer: “Because God heard our prayers and decided to put an end to our suffering”. The history books gave no further details. What was even the point of learning that today, if he was about to forget it immediately? What was the point of a test, if God already knew everything about each one of his children?

"What are you thinking so hard about, kid? Hurry up, your parents are already there!" Wasuke urged, slightly pushing Yuuji along to go fatser.

"You were probably more nervous than I was at the same age."

"Don't you dare! My poor son is far too gentle with you. Disrespecting your elders is one thing, but I hope you express yourself before God with proper deference."

"Of course, of course..." 

The clamor of a crowd could already be heard. It had gathered around the Church, which like all the others, had appeared on the day of the creation of the New World. According to legend, it had sprung from the earth made of flesh and blood, before the matter turned to gold and the tiny precious stones that formed the splendid frescoes Yuuji could admire almost daily. The crowd parted as he passed, revealing his parents and his others grandparents near the gigantic main door. They smiled tenderly at him as he crossed the remaining distance alone. White rose petals were thrown at him. As was the custom, the closer he got to the entrance, the more those around him was close to him.   Before grasping his parent’s outstretched hands, Yuuji gave one last confident smile to his group of friends, who returned it with tenfold enthusiasm. His girlfriend Yuko Ozawa embraced him briefly, saying in a whisper:

"Have faith and don't worry about gossip, you're the most deserving person I know, it's only a formality."

"We'll be waiting for you outside! Don't be too bored without us!"

"Not a chance!"

He opened the doors of the church. His mother stood at his right and his father at his left. They crossed the aisle leading to the altar, covered with various offerings. All the candles were extinguished, but in the natural late-day light streaming through the stained-glass windows, he could see that the decoration had been changed. The pews were all covered with white sheets. Purple asters dominated the floral arrangements. On either side of the carpet, aquamarine stones were sown without restraint. But what caught his eye the most was the huge statue standing in the priest's place. It had the appearance of a person of great beauty whose gender it was difficult to guess. He assumed it represented God.

"What an idea to be late for the most important sacrament of your life,” sermonized his father.

"Don't exaggerate, darling, he arrived just in time,” defended his mother.

They stopped in front of the altar. Kaori took the time to kiss her son on the forehead before Jin gently led her out. A formality, eh? Yet he felt himself trembling. He was about to meet a being who not only had immeasurable power over his own existence, but over the whole world. His insecurities rose up from the deep hole where he had buried them. He wondered if he had enough social skills not to commit clumsiness or tactlessness that could lead to serious consequences. But he pulled himself together almost immediately. God had created them in his own image, and he'd always been good with people. Despite the preconceptions some people had because of his past (i.e., his connection with the only serial killer the last ten generations had known). Sometimes, all it took was a conversation to turn their grimace into a smile. It wasn't manipulation; he was just unabashedly himself. His entire group of friends had been through this before, and some of them were far from being paragons of politeness. Just a formality.
Suddenly, a thunderous sound came from the statue. A jagged, stitch-like line appeared on the finely sculpted face. At that moment, it came to life. Gaining color, it began to move with a stiffness akin to that of someone who had stood still for too long. It cracked it's neck, and Yuuji couldn't help admiring the movement of its long, knee-length black tresses. It opened it's mouth and greeted him warmly. Or at least, with as much warmth as a disembodied voice could emit.

"Yuuji Itadori, I've been waiting impatiently for your moment. The spirits talk a lot about you, you know? Such a pure soul..."

The young man fell to his knees and bowed humbly. Embarrassment at not having done so immediately colored his cheeks.

"It's indeed me, O Lord, I salute you and thank you for giving me the grace of your presence."

He remained motionless and felt his stress rise as he was confronted with long minutes (or was it only seconds?) of silence where he could only hear his own breathing and the beating of his heart, which accelerated more and more. The statue was now alive, and it was now he who was reduced to immobility. He felt the being move closer to him, until it was so close he could feel its breathing and a few strands of hair brush against him. It was hard to resist raising his head to continue admiring this divinity. She gave a delicate little laugh, as if she could hear his thoughts. When she spoke again, her voice was much more human, deep and suave:

"Yuuji, have you ever heard of the Omelas dilemma?"

"No, Lord, I'm sorry."

"It's nothing,” he replied lightly.

The being wrapped his slender fingers around his chin and forced Yuuji, with a touch of brutality that was conspicuous with his previous display of gentleness, to raise his head and meet his gaze. His eyes were a stunning violet.

"Listen, when I arrived on this Earth- "; as he spoke, images materialized all around them, showing the facts recounted in perfect synchronization, "-I went to meet the strongest sorcerer who existed at the time, Michizane Sugawara. He was very confused to see me. He was used to seeing non-human spirits, but they all oozed an evil aura. The term demon probably sounds familiar to you, and it almost is. People like him called them “cursed spirits”. Whereas I, you see, am a god. Humans are naturally as attracted to me as demons are repulsive to them. So he didn't know what to do. Not that he could have done anything; I was far more powerful than he was." 

Yuuji had never been so attentive. There, still kneeling on the ground, he felt for the first time a feeling he hadn't understood until then: that of adoration. The deity took his hands and brought him to his feet. The touch was as warm as real human contact.

"Don't misunderstand me, young man, being immortal gets boring after a while. I've always had a scientific mind. I like exploring this vast universe and immerse myself in interesting experiments."

Cold sweat ran down Yuuji's back. God's tone had become playful... but he could detect a tinge of cruelty in it.

"What's your point, my God?"

"Patience, patience, I'm almost there. And please, call me Kenjaku. We're closer than you can imagine, in another dimension."

"What?"

"To sum up, here's what I asked him: If I promised you and your kind paradise on Earth, in exchange for the suffering of just one person. Would you accept?"

"What?!"

"Yes Yuuji, you heard me right. The person I used back then is long dead. Today, well, let me show them to you."

He made a grand gesture, and two little flesh-and-blood girls appeared amidst the images still lingering in the background. Their bodies were covered with hideous scars, and some wounds were still open. They immediately feel to the ground, and held one another weakly, they didn’t try to get up, the probably didn’t have any strength left. The young man's eyes widened in horror at this display.

"Twins, Nanako and Mimiko."

Yuuji ran towards them without thinking, but they disappeared before he could reach them.

"You can save them, if you so desire."

"How can you claim to be a benevolent god, you monster!"

"Poor boy, that's the whole point of deception, to pretend. Ha ha! I never tire of the disgust on your faces when I reveal the true nature of this world."

Yuuji charged towards him and delivered a powerful punch. He heard bones crack, but they weren't the creature's. His body wasn't even shaking with pain, but with anger. Kenjaku laughed again.

"You saw me transform before your very eyes. Did you really think you could fight a statue? Even if you could break it, this is just a receptacle. A real receptacle, not this absurd technology your kind invented. It can't even be used as a learning tool, because there's nothing left for you to learn, now that everything is served to you on a golden platter."

Yuuji already knew, if he survived this encounter, that the laughter of this thing would haunt his nightmares. Along with Sukuna's.

"The whole village is waiting to celebrate. It would be rude to prolong this conversation any longer than necessary. Do you have the answer to my question?"

"What must I do to save them?"

"Renounce all the advantages I've given to humans since my arrival. The world will go back to the way it was, and you'll be responsible. You will be responsible of the fate of millions of children that will suffer as much as they are suffering."

"But why me? Why I am the one you chose to torture like this? Because you think my soul is pure?"

"Oh, it's not just you. Everyone over the age of eighteen has agreed to sacrifice these children, they just don't remember."

"That's a lie!"

"Is it really, is that not the only thing that would make sense?"

Yuuji can only muster up silence, his eyebrows furrow with stubborn grief. Kenjaku gives an easy grin, and hends torwards the youth. It is evident that Kenjaku's grin is made from the depths of malice itself.

"No proof could satisfy you because I have the power to create them from scratch. But think, concentrate. You've seen that I'm a monster. A monster wants to be as cruel as possible. And what could be better than to make innocent people like you realize that all your loved ones could be so monstrous... But is it monstrous? A small sacrifice for the common good, is it really such a big deal? If I hadn't changed things, many people around you would already have died of diseases, in accidents, victims of human violence, or victims of cursed spirits."

"...Can I take their place?"

"Of course you can't." His grin falls, and is replaced with a look that mixes of sneer and disgust together on Kenjaku's face as he looks down at the mortal as if his entire soul deserves riducle and judgement. After a few moments of silence, Kenjaku speaks.

"So, what is it? Your answer to the question."

Chapter Text

The world awoke with a scream. Yuuji stumbled on the surface he was standing on, it was weirdly textured, like gelatin, like rocks. He looked down, and beneath his feet were human bones and corpses in a more or less advanced state of decomposition. The crowd was shouting and screaming in horror, he was pushed and landed on the “ground”. Flesh and blood was surrounding them. It was the walls, it was the sky. 

“Yuuji ! Thank God, you’re here!” Yuko was in front of him, smiling. She knelt on the corpses to be at his level, and held him tightly — desperately — and he returned it with the same fervor. Her chest was a familiar place, a place he was used to see as safety, so he buried his face in it and forgot about the noise. People were bumping against them, however, they didn’t break their embrace. 

All the human beings trapped in this infinite cage of death, heard a voice now remembered by all the adults.

“Gate, open.”

It took weeks, months (for some people, it might take them years) to accept their new reality. Once the panic and confusion settled, it was not hard to deduce what really happened. The idealistic world they lived in was some kind of illusion. While they were gone, life in the real world continued without them. It was strange, how all of them were children born in the Dream. The power of God was always mysterious. People had various reactions to that new situation, two of them were particularly extreme : there was those who were far happier here than in the Dream, because Reality was new and challenging ; others couldn’t accept their new situation at all, many killed themselves on the first same week, damn, on the very day it happened. 

Yuji didn’t kill himself. Don’t be fooled, it doesn’t mean he was one of the optimists. He felt immense, paralyzing, guilt. And this  was preventing him from feeling any kind of wonder. Some things still warmed his heart, like Yuko staying with him despite his terrible mood, helping him hunt and cook, refusing the offers to join clans if Yuuji wasn’t invited too, or didn’t want to come. It’s true, he was the only person she knew and trusted in the part of the world they ended up in, and was strong enough to protect her. But, her genuine smiles and the tenderness in her voice couldn't be faked. To still be loved in a world of scarcity, it felt good. Sometimes, it lifted up his mood enough for him to laugh with her next to the fire. The fear he felt, that other people would know he was to blame for this terrible misfortune, started to fade. One day, Yuko got hurt. So, a few months after their return to Reality, Yuuji finally accepted the proposition from a big clan. 

It has been decided that half the clan was to be awake at all times, Junpei chose the night. He was reading a book, next to his new friend, his only friend here, really, and this friend couldn’t find sleep. The sight was pitiful. He could feel it, Yuuji was made to be confident, he was made to lead them to a better world. He closed the book.

“Please, stop looking so anxious, they have no way to know that it’s you, trust me. I have ears everywhere, there’s no rumors.”

Yuuji straighted up and gasped.

“What are you saying?”

“Fear not.”

“But…” Yuuji came closer. “How do you know?” he whispered in a trembling voice.

Junpei knew that people were surprisingly not mad at God, the Father who deceived them, made them dependent and then left them to fend for themselves in such a cruel world. They were not mad at God but they were furiously mad at the one who broke the deal. And for what? Two girls? Many violent groups searched them, as most of them knew their faces, but they didn’t forget about the traitor. A lot of young people were killed, just in case it was them. Saying you were eighteen was a death sentence. That’s why, they had to keep watch at all times. This clan decided to protect the youth. The higher ups were not perfect, but Junpei respected them for this. In a religious society, going in a quest to kill children to sacrifice a cruel god they knew was real, and had a high chance to like it, was actually not that insane. The majority of young people were abandoned by their groups in exchange of goods or to not be threatened. Those who survived usually joined them, so it made their clan, not only really big, it was also really strong. Young people could adapt more easily, and were strong. 

“It was just a guess.”

“I knew I should have kept my mouth closed…” Yuuji laughed nervously and averted his gaze.

“Stop worrying and live your life. Keep your head high, you made the right choice.” Junpei put his finger below Yuuji’s chin and lifted it up as he was saying this. He hoped his love and admiration was visible in his eyes. He decided to not take chances and voice it anyways. “I wish I could’ve shown the same courage. I can’t be the only one to think this, you’re a hero. You freed us from a lie. From divinity. Who ever did better than this?”

“No you’re wrong, I can’t be a hero, a lot of people died because of me! ”

“Shh!”

Yuuji looked around nervously, hoping nobody heard him. He saw no one, so he let his body relax. When he turned his gaze back to his friend, Junpei wasn’t looking at him anyomore, but at  for a few seconds, and then turned back to him.

“Dying in reality is better than living in illusion.” 

Yuuji didn’t agree.

“To me, nothing is more precious than life.”

“I understand. However, what’s done is done, there’s not point to lament about it. Go to sleep, eat, be strong enough to save lives now.”

And Yuuji did just that. 

A few days later, Junpei approched him in the middle of the day, which was unusual. Without even a “hi”, he took his hand and began to drag him behind him.

“I finally caught you, come, there’s something I want to show you.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t draw attention to us.”

“I won’t, you’re doing it all by yourself.” Yuuji laughed and broke free from his grip, walking next to him instead. For a second, Junpei seemed disappointed at the lost of contact. Soon after, he stopped in front of a door.

“What’s that?”

“My bedroom.”

He was frozen before it, fidgeting. Before Yuuji could ask what was wrong, he took a deep breath and opened the door. The pink haired man didn’t see what was making him so nervous. It was a very normal room, except that it was full of books. Maybe he was nervous about the thing he wanted to say in it. Junpei was always well informed, was it possible that he got news about Yuuji’s family? He hoped nobody died… No, he was reading too deep into it, surely. Junpei was fixing him in silence.

“You see nothing weird?”

“No, why?”

Now, he noticed something… heavy, in the air. He thought it was their silence’s tension. But no… he was pretty sure, it was a physical thing. Maybe it was a lack of oxygen ; Yuuji went to the window and opened it. Somehow, it got worse. He heard an angry whisper behind him, sounding like “stop this”. The pressure diminished. 

“Stop what?” 

“What?”

“I’m pretty sure I heard you say stop.”

“Just talking to myself.” he justified while sitting on the bed, Yuuji joined him and took the time to look around.  Yuuji had never been in there, but he could recognize the books Junpei often read.  He salvaged the medical books their doctor Gakuganji didn't need and those they had in duplicate. The hunter group Yuuji was joining often, took everything they found without bothering about the inventory. They took everything they could find, resources were still scarce. To be fair, they grew extraordinarily fast in little time. Yuuji felt proud, and regretted to not have joined sooner. His eyes got caught by the cover of Harrison's Principals of Internal Medicine, Davinson's Principle And Practice of Medicine, Frank Netter's Atlas of Human Anatomy and Jacque Martel's Grand dictionary of illness and diseases were all familiar, but he could also see the...

“I didn't know you read poetry,” said Yuuji, looking at the cover of a book entitled Giant from the Clouds by Gege Akutami.

“It's not mine.”

His friend stared intently into the void, before shrugging his shoulders and turning his attention back to Yuuji. He changed the subject:

“I have it from a reliable source that Kenjaku is not the only divine spirit.”

“Huh?” 

The dark-haired man bent down and took a box out of a drawer in his cupboard. These books were in an even more pitiful state than the ones they usually found (damaged by time, but less than you'd expect after a thousand years of neglect). He opened one of them to the image of a man resembling a Japanese priest, with delicate features and long black hair. He smiled kindly, but was surrounded by an aura of darkness. Now that he thought about it, the sinister atmosphere of the room made no sense, could it be linked somehow? Before he could ask himself any more questions, Junpei interrupted his train of thought.

“He is the appointed judge of humans, sorcerers and gods.”

“A judge? He doesn’t look like one.”

“As the saying goes, ‘the clothes don’t make the monk’”

“What?”

“An old pun, I tried to make a joke, forget about it.”

“It was funny!”

“You didn’t laugh.

“Sorry.”

His pitiful guilty puppy expression made Junpei laugh instead.  Yuuji took one book to hide behind, then unexpectedly quickly started to read it. The dark haired man silently encouraged him to sit more comfortably on the bed. He gave pointers each time he saw Yuuji frown when the dated Japanese became too difficult to understand. 
“You said Kenjaku was one of these spirits, yet everyone was able to see him.”

“Don’t you think everyone could see him because we were in his illusion? maybe his domain?”

“What’s a domain?”

“I will explain in details later, it’s just a theory. To keep it simple, it’s a magical being’s inner world, projected into reality.”

“Huh?”

“A physical representation of a person’s soul.”

“So cool… Actually, where did you find those books? Seems like something Gakuganji would gatekeep.”

“Yeah… I wanted to track God, so I visited some temples. Those books were in archives, protected by magical seals I couldn’t break.”

“So how did you break them?”

“I got lucky and got some help. I was considering teaching you some things he showed me, but… I was wrong. 

“About what? Why so shy?”

Junpei said something unintelligible before grunting and falling backwards gracelessly, his upper body now lying on the mattress and looking defeated. Yuuji rolled himself into a ball on the other half of the bed and resumed reading. They remained in silence for a while.

“I want to get revenge on Kenjaku.

“You’re the first one I hear saying this, I shouldn’t be surprised, you look like a punk.”

“Thanks?”

Their eyes met and they laughed with some kind of relief, happy to be on the same page.

“I agree to be your partner in crime. As a matter of fact, you don’t have a choice. Teach me how to be one of those sorcerers.”

“You have to be born with it… Cursed energy.”

“It says it’s a physical manifestation of negative emotion, how it is supposed to give people powers?”

“All people have “powers” related to their personalities. Cursed energy is just the power source, the electricity making it work. You have so much of it, for some reason, and you don’t leak it, like a sorcerer. However, you can’t see it.”

“See what?”

“Them, they are everywhere, especially here.”

“Divine spirits ?”

“Cursed ones.”

“But we’re pretty happy here? No? No? Aren’t they born of negative emotions?”

“Any negative emotion by people untrained create weak ones, we feel that everyday. Don’t worry, I kill them easily.”

“There’s one here?”

“More than one. I thought you were just pretending to not see the curses, it can’t be, you’re too much of a shitty actor. One, is trying to make it impossible to ignore him.”

“So I can’t help you, if I can’t even see Kenjaku. He could be watching us right now.”

“Most likely not, relax.”

“’Most likely’ isn’t reassuring enough!”

“It’s all I have. I’m glad there’s no more secret between us, at least.”

“Can I still help in any way?”

“You can watch the ceremony, if you want to.”

“A ceremony?”

“This judge, I will ask them to judge Kenjaku.”

“Oh…”

“I need a sacrifice of one thousand curses, so I will most likely ask other sorcerers to join. It’s hard to find them, harder to find people who aren’t still worshiping Kenjaku.”

“You know, I’m flattered you trust me this much, thank you Junpei.”

“You’re the less shitty human in centuries, if I can’t trust you, no one is deserving of my trust.”

“Ha ha, I love you too.”

The sorcerer blushed hard, and it was his turn to avoid eye contact because of embarrassment.

“Don’t say things like that, Yuuji, or I could fall for you.”

Something seemed wrong with the world, for just a second. Like Yuuji was about to pass out. He lay down in the bed while laughing. 

“Would suck for you, I’m faithful to my girlfriend.”

“What a shame… Thinking of her, did you tell her about what you did?”

“…No.”

“You should, she is worried about you.”

“Why are you so wise today?”

“I am always wise.”

“Someone wise wouldn’t try to fight a god.”

“I will not do it myself.”

Junpei leaned down next to him, they stared at the ceilling for a long time. At some point, Yuuji took a book and resumed his reading.

“Wait, Junpei, you said earlier, more than one curse here? Why? Did you kill them already?”

“No, I was trying to see if a room full of curses would awake something in you. Fail attempt. 

“Full?”

“Hum? You want to try something?”

“Who are you talking to?!”

Inexplicably, Yuuji felt a strong pressure around his neck. He heard Junpei’s scream but was too panicked to understand the words. Air was stuck in his lungs, he struggled desperately against something he couldn’t see. His vision was becoming fuzzy, dark spots appearing and disappearing fast. Was he about to die?  To a curse? Or was it the divine punishment he deserved? He didn’t want to die! He still had to find his family, they were still there, somewhere. He wanted to… wanted to do… so many more things…

He realized he lost consciousness when he got it again. His vision was fuzzy. He heard screaming that seemed really far away.

“CONTROL YOURSELF. YOU KNOW HE IS PRECIOUS TO ME AND YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HIM!”

“I wasn’t going to, look, I didn’t harm him, just gave him a little scare.”

“WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU DO THIS?”

“You want the logical reason, or the truth? Wait, my idea! It worked! Look at him, looking at me!”

“Yuuji?!”

Junpei dropped to his knees to check on him. When did Yuuji fall on the ground? 

“Are you okay? That looks bad, I’m so sorry, I never thought he would attack you!”

His friend’s hands were all over him but didn’t really touch him, like he was afraid that the smallest contact would hurt him more. His attacker made a long sigh and in less than a blink it was alongside Junpei, who glared at it but didn’t physically stop it from touching Yuuji’s neck again. Instead of inflicting more pain, those hands took away all of it.

“That’s all! You’re as good as new! I’m Mahito, a cursed spirit with a soul manipulation technique. It’s common knowledge for beings like me that some humans can see us when we are about to kill them. However, I never had the occasion to threaten a human I didn’t intend to kill! It’s now confirmed that it’s your terror that creates that possibility, not my intent. Fascinating.”

“You can’t just decide to experiment on him! Yuuji Yuuji, are you feeling alright?”

“I’m sorry Junpei, apologized Yuuji without taking his eyes off the stranger. I can’t stay here.”

It was the warning Yuuji gave before bolting out of the room. 

He tried to calm down at the other side of the clan. He didn’t want to pass out again, but his breathing wouldn’t slow down.

“Hey man, you okay ?”

He looked up, and his breathing stopped all together. In front of him was the most gorgeous man he ever saw. He had the bluest eyes, the sky itself seemed trapped in them. His white hair helped the comparison, it seemed as soft as clouds.
 
“Come on, don’t die on me, I’m not that hot.”

Yuuji let out a strangled laugh, then a few cough, and after all this trouble, he could finally breath again. 

“If someone hurt you, I could beat them up, if you want.”

“No need, it’s nothing.”

“Nothing? I saw you in a gruesome battle, and you never flinched.”

“You saw me?”

“You’re looking like a delicious peach, how could I miss you?”

Yuuji stared a few seconds at that perfectly symmetrical face. 

“How could I miss you?!”

“That’s my little secret.”

Yuuji’s smile faded a little.

“I don’t find secrets so appealing anymore.”

The whited haired man made a thoughtful pout before continuing in a cheerful tone:

“I’ve done my tasks, if you’re free, we can go out?”

“… Go out?  Is that a date or something?”

“I never talked about a date. Just a stranger, cheering up another stranger, in a beautiful place I found outside these boring walls.”

The offer was tempting, but the flirtatious tone was unmistakable, and Yuko and him were monogamous. 

“Another time, maybe.”

“Alright, see you soon pretty peach.”

“See you… What’s your name?”

Already far away, he turned back and mouthed a name Yuuji couldn’t hear. He stared at the direction the stranger went to during quite a long time before moving again. He returned  to the buildings, feeling weird. Take a breath. One thing at a time. A talk with Yuko was sorely needed.