Chapter Text
we're making our way down the streets when sukuna gestures towards me with a finger to come close and i lean my ear forward for him to speak.
"i have a place we can talk privately in, but we need to be subtle about going there." his breath fans my face and a strange dizziness sweeps over my senses. my eyes blur, my nose burns, eyes droop, skin prickles and before i know it he's grabbing me and our surroundings fade into a bright flash of white. it is over in a split second but nausea wraps its hold around my neck and i take deep breaths in to not puke on sukuna's brightly polished black shoes.
"that needed to be done forcibly, it wouldn't have worked otherwise."
i clutch my stomach and exhale once, deeply before looking up from the white bony ground very similar to the carpal castle.
maybe he took me back there, is the thought in my mind but i look up and it's a strange, dark and humid place that fades into obsidian at the edges.
there are piles of bones and skulls littered around like the heaps of fallen maple leaves back in the human world that i've seen in photographs. in the middle of the huge space, right in front of us, is the biggest pile of them all and on top of it a throne.
i've never seen such a delicately carved thing in all the time i've spent in this world. the carpal castle had its own aesthetic but the throne in front of me, which sukuna now walks towards and sits on—looking powerful and intense— has incredible minute detail. i don't perceive what the smaller details are, but i see blades and hands and armours and vines from the place i stand. the throne begins as an extension of the skulls below it, polished white, and slowly darkens upwards and ends in blood red. it reminds me of a picture the signor had given me from the mortal world— two hounds feasting on the corpse of a deer atop pristine white snow. the throne reminds me of the blood-stained snow in the picture and a chill runs down my spine.
i run my eyes around the space, the realization dawning on me about where sukuna had brought me. i have only ever heard of these private spaces one expands from their minds and into reality.
"welcome to my domain." sukuna's voice is tough and smug, which indicates he is certainly proud of this little space he has created for himself. it also asserts his dominance in this moment. i am in his domain— which is only something extremely skilled demons can obtain by devoting themselves to murderous adventures for years on end— i am under his control and mercy.
it frustrates and scares me.
demons who can create these spaces are rare...and certainly more dangerous than the average demon. being in the presence of someone who can expand their domain and trap people in it for a variety of intentions does not sound like the safest option for me.
"but you're already trapped here." i grit my teeth. another thing about domains is that the expander has absolute control over the other's senses. meaning, sukuna knows exactly what i feel and what i'm thinking about.
this is the worst place i could be right now.
"oh? why so?" he looks at his black painted nails and smirks, his dark eyes coming back and latching right onto mine.
"why did you bring me here?" i refuse to think about any of the thousand things i should be hiding from him. it takes a lot from me, but i try to keep everything away from my mind and focus on this moment. which of course i fail spectacularly at, because my mind is racing from one place to another. images from the carpal castle, images of the signor, images of my mind conjuring up the worst scenarios possible about sukuna.
a deep chuckle reverberates around me and i look down at my tattered boots. "you sure have a splendid imagination for a mortal." he says and then after a beat of him reading through my mind, he clears his throat. "i brought you here so you can tell me all about why you seek the exodus, where you think you can find it and what leads you've found so far."
"i want to go back to my world, because as you clearly seem to understand— i don't belong here. i don't know where i can find the exodus and i have no leads."
there is a moment of silence and then he says, "no one knows where exodus is."
"someone might. i have to find it." frustration bites down on my heart and i try to calm down the fast-beating muscle.
"trust me, you can't." sukuna snorts, adding fuel to fire. i close my eyes and breathe. breathe. breathe.
"why? have you tried leaving before?" opening my eyes, i look at his expressionless but intense face. he stares at me head-on, which heats my cheeks. he doesn't answer. silence. again. "you know i'd appreciate it if you didn't answer everything with silence." i snarkily remark, looking away.
"you think i ca—" i cut his repetitive monologue off.
"yeah, yeah. i know you don't care." i throw my hands up, pissed off, sighing consecutively twice.
"what are you so irritable for?"
"go get holed up in hell for nine years and then try asking that again."
at that, sukuna laughs, pushing a large hand into his nicely styled hair and it makes me feel incredibly ridiculed.
"this is ridiculous. i cant spend my days with you like this! can you just meet me in three days back in that alley? i swear i won't run away." i try again.
"want to make another oath when you haven't completed your first?" he replies with a quirk to his lips, which i find incredibly annoying. but i shut up after that.
"look, little curse, i've got pursuers just like you do. it'll be easier to evade them together don't you think?" i raise my eyebrows at his indirect proposal of us teaming up for the time being.
"i don't see how i would be of any benefit to you," i mutter, turning around and looking around his domain again. when i turn back toward him, my hands folded against my chest, he's grinning his ominous smile again.
"no, whatever it is, no." whenever he has that strange smile on his face, i've noticed, there are always dangerous and strange tricks up his sleeves.
"we need to make money for food. aren't you hungry?" the bastard had heard my stomach growl a while ago and he's playing me when i'm on my weakest.
"on the off chance that i do agree, what would i have to do?"
"sell yourself of course," he says it so nonchalantly that i find myself thinking about it for two whole seconds.
"what?" i ask, shocked.
"what?" he gives me a pretentiously innocent blank stare and i sigh.
"i think you already know, but having human slaves is a sport. plus you have that look about you, you'd earn us some hefty amount."
"what look?"
"you know, the look of a pathetic, dirty human who needs protection and shelter and in return, they commit their lives to you."
"seriously?"
"seriously."
"skies, help me." i rub my face and take a deep breath. my stomach growls again.
"i'll come steal you away," he says as if to reassure me. somehow, i know he will not be abandoning me. not until he gets his payment, anyway.
i hear his stomach growl too and he smiles sheepishly.
"can my debt to you be paid this way?"
"you said you'll buy a curse."
"who are you trying to fool? you just need money, i can see. who cares if i buy something from you or just pay you?"
"well, you won't entirely pay me back. half of the debt will remain, then."
"i'll take it."
"alright." he dons a shocked face at my agreement, as though he didn't again push me to do this stupid thing that could possibly hurt me.