[ Bright white night, a moon myopic and the eye of the world wakeful, alive. Feel of its caged-bird’s heartbeat in his hand, in the whelp’s hand, in ten (count them) fingers fast curling. Spatters of salt water and swill. He spits once, blooded. Again, and it’s not his. Swallows.

He’s kept Itadori Yuuji in the familiar riches of ragged breath and flimsy step, body’s balance off kilter. Doesn’t carry his weight well, never in the first blinks when shadows make man make monster, before possession's complete. Sukuna's is the slow seep of power stretching out a boy's flesh til his stitches groan. Spine rippling straight, unwinding a feline arch. Then, he moves.

Silence gathers around corpses, scavenging. This isn’t enchaining, not when Itadori Yuuji slips dominion freely. No conditions, no allegiance, no thought for tragic women that never make it out of the dark. Nothing to see here. Carry on. Sukuna did.

In the wake of it: scratch of coin rattling loose in a modern priest’s alms bowl; the drip of an earring from Sukuna’s loose hand, thick spittle and an ear’s flaxen cartilage, after. The priest’s gasped breath. No scream.

Stone is sharp and bitter underfoot. He doesn’t run. There is no hunting like the hunting of man who’s prey willing. By the time he’s stumbled on Fushiguro Megumi, the woman’s second earring’s burning weight in Itadori Yuuji’s pocket, passed between fingertips (...eight-nine-ten).

Here, he nearly falters. Errant motes of neon light paint Fushiguro Megumi in livid contrasts. The inevitable scrutiny, owner’s prerogative: his Zenin thing’s a butchered painting, rips in the canvas of a high cheekbone. He reeks of blood old and temptation new, shadow scattered like a wasteland.

There’s the quick animal knowing, the cleaving of Sukuna’s grin on Itadori Yuuji’s face, tongue blatant when it slips over each of his teeth in telltale reminder. His arm snags over Fushiguro Megumi’s shoulders like a noose, red-smeared earring rolled between fingers. )

You wear Gojo Satoru’s scent well. ( Don't, next time. )