Deal With Him

The first thing I became aware of was the burning sensation across my skin. It was like hundreds of needles pricking my skin, every motion I made dug the metal deeper into my flesh. Annoying to say the very least.

But that sensation wasn't the only thing pulling me from my sleep. A voice was calling me, too. That sorcerer's voice.

"Wakey wakey!" Gojo called. My eyes fluttered open. "Oh, you're awake! You've slept for a very long time!"

I was chained to a chair, my limbs bound tight, restricting my movements to a bare minimum. Seals decorated the walls of the room, illuminated by the candles scattered across the floor. The flames threw dark shadows on Gojo's face, contrasting drastically with his snow white hair.

"You're a curious one, little creature," Gojo said. "How are you feeling?"

I gave him a small nod.

"Looks like you don't like to talk much, huh? That won't do. I have many questions to ask you." Gojo leaned forward in his seat. "Why don't you tell me your name, little creature?"

I didn't answer. A name was a powerful thing. It gave a person an edge over you, pressure that they shouldn't have access to. I wasn't going to naively give him my name.

Gojo didn't expect an answer either because he continued on without a beat. "You know, you gave me quite the fright when you removed your illusion." His playful tone gave way to a darker, serious one. "Was that a cursed technique you used?"

Diverting my gaze to the ground, I found myself intrigued by the chains around my ankles. The chains were made of a special material; they were interrupting my control over cursed energy. It was as if I was under the influence of summer heat, sluggish and moving without purpose. I doubted I would be able to fend off any blows with these chains as a hindrance.

"I-"

Suddenly, I found myself in a chokehold. I could feel slender fingers grabbing my throat and pressing hard. Gojo was too close. I could feel his hair against my skin as the inhale and exhale of his breath tickled my ear.

"Don't test my patience, little creature. I have many ways to make you speak," Gojo warned quietly.

His fingernails pressed into my skin, closing off my airflow. Is he going to kill me? Darkness creeped in the sides of my vision. I suppose it would work in my favor to answer him.

"Not a cursed technique." My answer came out as a hoarse whisper. "It's cursed energy manipulation."

Gojo smiled and let go of my throat. "See? That wasn't so hard, was it?" My eyes followed his figure as he strolled behind me. "I don't want to seem forceful, but I'm the kind of person who hates getting ignored."

"You want something." It wasn't a question. Jujutsu sorcerers always want something from me.

Gojo blinked for a moment, and then he doubled over and clutched his stomach, laughing uncontrollably. His laughter continued to ring through the room after he straightened himself. The man wiped a fake tear from his blindfold. "You're cute when you're serious. I knew it was a good choice to bring you here."

I tensed as he walked behind me and placed his hands on my shoulders. "You're right. I do want something from you. So why don't I strike you a deal?"

A deal? With this man? His words put me on guard. I couldn't read him at all. But just as much as he wanted information from me, I wanted information about the current jujutsu society. Information that could be trusted. And Gojo was the one person I believed to a relative degree.

"You answer my questions truthfully, and I'll remove your chains. As a plus, you can also ask me questions," Gojo proposed. "Aren't I a generous man?"

I studied the man in front of me. Contracts were things that I could understand, so I nodded in agreement. "Okay."

"Good choice!" Gojo gave me a thumbs up. "I like you, kid."

Gojo waved his hands, and the chains fell down to the floor. Taking a cautious look at Gojo, I rubbed my wrists where the metal had chafed them. It felt good to get my freedom back. The chains were one less thing I had to worry about. That is if I could escape from under the nose of the most powerful sorcerer in the world.

"What do you," I looked at Gojo carefully, "know about me?"

Gojo brought a finger to his chin. "Well, two days ago, I was ordered by the higher ups to bring back a special grade curse that had escaped from containment. The curse has an appearance of a 10 year old boy with red eyes and white hair. Abilities are unknown. Age is unknown. Powers unknown." Gojo shrugged. "That's it."

That's good. He doesn't know too much about me. But the strange thing was the well-hidden hatred in his voice. Something to do with the higher ups. I've always been sensitive to emotions, no matter how well people tried to hide them. I always knew.

"My turn," Gojo purred. "Tell me, are you the curse they are looking for?"

There was no avoiding this any longer. Even with his blindfold, I could feel his stare boring into me.

A curse? Is that what I've been categorized as? I flexed my fingers. A little bit off, but they're not completely wrong.

"Yes, I'm the one," I answered. "I'm the curse."

Gojo hummed a little tune as he picked at his clothes. Curses that could hold conversations, much less such complicated ones were extremely rare. It troubled the sorcerer to know that the boy in front of him was one. "A curse you say? But you have a human's body. And you helped a sorcerer. Are you really a curse?"

Silence fell in the room. I waited for a moment before tentatively raising my head slightly to see if Gojo was still waiting. He wasn't. The man was rummaging through his pockets for something.

"What was the saying called? A carrot and a stick?"

"Aha!" Gojo exclaimed in triumph as he pulled out a brightly colored object from his pocket. He showed it to me. "Little curse, will you answer me if I give you this lollipop? It's really good, I promise you'll like it!"

I was dumbfounded. This man's logic was above me. I stares at him, not knowing what to respond.

"No?" Gojo went through his pockets again. "I have a strawberry one, too. Do you want a strawberry one? I have some other flavors, too."

"Strawberry."

The boy's response surprised Gojo, but the man recovered quickly and unwrapped the candy. He put the candy to the boy's lips. "Aaaah!"

I- why did I say that? A slight bit of unrest rose up in my heart. I could feel a faint urge, a slight want, coming from the depths of my heart. I had relaxed my hold over my body. Careless.

"Come on!" Gojo waved around the candy in front of me. "Open your mouth!"

I opened my mouth and let him put the candy in my mouth. It was sweet, and I felt a bubbling feeling in me. Happiness? Satisfaction?

A flash of light brought my attention back in front of me. Gojo, with his phone in hand, blasted me with pictures. "So cute! I've got to show Megumi!"

Once again, my image of the strongest jujutsu sorcerer was refreshed. How can such as scatterbrained person become a teacher for high schoolers? I coughed softly into my hand.

"Ahem!" Gojo cleared his throat. "Right! Back to the question at hand. I'm listening for your answer."

I nodded and raised my right hand. I showed him my palm. "Curse." Then, I pointed at the back of my hand. "Humans."

"Curses cannot exist without humans, and humans cannot exist without curses." They cannot be separated. Curses manifest through the energy produced by negative emotions of humans. In one way, I, too, operate off negative energy.

I raised my hand and turned it around. "I am a special type of curse. You can say that I've existed on both sides before."

For once, Gojo was silent. He seemed to be processing the boy's answer. He wanted to say something, but he kept silent. It wasn't like he expected the boy to tell him everything.

"Why did you kill the special grade curse then? Was it for power?" Gojo asked. "Why did you help Megumi?"

I didn't know what special grade curse was referring to, but I figured that he meant the curse I had killed in the park. For power? Is that how sorcerers see curses? They're not completely wrong. But, no, that was not my reason.

"He helped me."

Gojo nodded as if he expected my answer. He laced his fingers together. "A curse that knows how to repay favors. You are an interesting one."

"So, onto the main topic I want to ask you about." Gojo stood up and walked towards me. He reached for my arm and pulled up my sleeve. Even through his Infinity, I could feel the warmth from his fingers against my cold skin. I shivered as he traced my veins with the tip of his finger. "Those worms in your body. Did Tatsuya do that to you?"

"Tatsuya?" I repeated.

That was a surname I didn't recognize. I looked down at my arm. I could faintly see the parasites beneath the surface of my skin, their outlines illuminated by the candle light. I hated what they did to my body. They caused me so much pain those greedy, insatiable worms. One day they would suck my blood dry.

"Tatsuya is the only one who uses the Blood Crest Worm technique," Gojo explained. "He implants the worms he raised into a person's body through open wounds. If the worms are not removed from the body within a certain duration, the worms will start to draw on host's blood. The worms force the host to continuously produce blood in order to sustain themselves. And once the host is unable to create more blood, the worms will consume their flesh. The host will been eaten alive from the inside."

The man leaned forward. "Not a pleasant way to die, is it?"

"So what?" I tugged my arm out of Gojo's grip and looked at the man. "You're after my blood too?"

"No, I don't want your blood." Gojo crossed one leg over the other. With a low voice, he smiled. "I just want to make that old geezer suffer for doing something so disgusting to you."

That was when I realized why this man was hailed as the strongest. He really meant what he said. His smile was one that carried hidden knives. It was a merciless smile. He knew fully well that he had the power to back up his claim, and I knew that, too. For a brief moment, I felt a monstrous existence stir within me. It was a primal, instinctive drive to destroy and and burn everything in its path. I've known this desire has existed in my soul, but at the same time I didn't want to know. I did not want to be reminded of the past. Do not be consumed by it.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. After confirming that I was in control, I whispered, "No."

"I knew you would say that." Gojo's smile grew even wider. I've been tricked. It was a test, and I don't know if I passed. I don't know if he saw my instability. Gojo was one of the few people I had difficulty reading, and that didn't sit well with me.

The sorcerer pulled out his phone and looked at the screen. "Blood Crest Worms can be harvested every three weeks by their masters. Based on your condition, it should happen any moment now..."

The moment the words left his mouth, I felt something move inside of me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the worms in my arm start to stir. Then, the pain hit. A stab of pain in my chest followed by another in my right leg. An involuntary gasp escaped my lips as everything erupted in agony. The candy in my mouth fell to the floor with a crack. The frequencies shortened until I could no longer distinguish the gap between each wave.

I shook uncontrollably. Without my knowing, I found myself on the floor, curled up in a fetal position. Something was moving in my stomach, up my chest, to my throat. I feel so cold. My fingers, my feet, my heart. Everything is so cold. I clawed at my throat, desperate to get that thing out.

Thousands of worms in my body were reacting to my pain. They were excited by it, their bodies wriggling and turning. I could only imagine what I looked like. A monstrosity. Absolutely disgusting. I tried to cover my face with my hands, not wanting anyone to see. I hated the man who made me like this. I hated that he made me a vessel of his worms to satisfy his own greed.

With one final heave, my throat contracted, and I spat out a mouthful of foul blood. The strength vanished from my body in an instant, leaving me collapsed motionless on the ground. The pain was gone, but the ringing in my ears remained.

"Good job!" Gojo clapped his hands together. "Thank you for your hard work!"

Gojo picked up a fat, white worm from the blood on the ground between his fingers and crushed the rest of the wiggling mess underneath his boot. Frowning slightly at the boy's pitiful, shivering figure, Gojo picked him up by the collar and put the boy back onto the chair.

"Hey hey! Don't faint on me yet!" Gojo snapped his fingers in front of me. "You still need to answer my questions."

After nearly coughing my lungs out, I spat out another glob of blood, this one devoid of worms. The pain was still just as hard to get used to. Even after going through the same process for three years, the experience was always just as tormenting.

"What does Tatsuya do with this?" I focused my attention on Gojo to see him poking the worm with a finger. "Do you know?"

This man, not even giving me a moment of rest. He was as perceptive as usual. He knew I could handle the pain, and he didn't trust me enough to show me his concern. Not that I blamed him for it, I would have done the same.

I took a life-saving breath and sighed. "Cursed energy."

Gojo obliged and directed his cursed energy into the worm. Immediately after the energy entered the worm, it started to contort in shape. A few seconds later, it transformed into a white, milky pearl.

"Oh, I see. It's similar to the process you used the other night. Your blood is filled with negative energy, so if a sorcerer adds their cursed energy to it, it becomes positive energy. It's like a health potion!" Gojo exclaimed.

Being able to heal from life-threatening wounds during the heat of the battle was a valuable tool. If a sorcerer could get a stable source of these "health potions," their status would increase exponentially. Tatsuya had harvested hundreds of these pearls from my blood in the past years.

"But this one," Gojo held the pearl up to the light, "this one looks different." The man looked at me. "This one does more than healing, doesn't it? It can prolong your lifespan, right?"

At this point, I wasn't even surprised that Gojo could tell just be looking at the density of the pearl. There weren't many things in the world that could hide from his Six Eyes. He was right. Tatsuya found out that every month, a special worm could be harvested. This worm could prolong a person's lifespan by purging the impurities of a person's body. This was why Tatsuya was furious the day I escaped and why the higher ups were so desperate on getting me back.

"Little curse." Gojo stalked toward me. I snarled when he cupped my chin and forced my head up to look at him. "There are many people who would start wars in order to gain control over you. After all, who wouldn't want to live longer?"

His breath was warm on my face, but his words were icy cold. I wondered if he was going to become the next Tatsuya. Humans were greedy by nature, and I was a treasure to them. I moved my hands behind my back and clutched the ring on my right index finger. If Gojo was after my blood, then I wouldn't hesitate to go all out. I didn't have time to waste to be tangled up in the humans' struggle of power.

"But you're lucky I'm not like them." Gojo crushed the pearl between his fingers. "I vowed to never be like them."

This is an unexpected turn of events.

Though still wary of Gojo, I slowly moved my hand away from the ring. My eyes followed the man as Gojo sat back down in his chair. He laced his fingers together and smiled, "However, there is one problem."

Instantly, I felt like I had fallen for his trap. There was a noose around my neck, and Gojo's hand was holding onto the rope. One small tug would close the circle, and I would be at his mercy. But even if I knew it was a trap, there was very little I could do.

"What's the problem?" I asked quietly.

"You see, once the worms mature in the host's body, the host becomes Tatsuya's puppet, physically incapable of defying his orders," Gojo said. "You have three months before the worms in your body mature. Once those three months pass, can you imagine what destruction you would bring under the orders of a man like Tatsuya? What would the world be like when what's inside of you is set free?"

I looked up sharply. He knew. He knew from the very beginning. He saw through me from the very start. This was the trump card he had been holding onto.

"What do you want?"

Gojo laughed like a kid who had been given his favorite candy. He had won, and he knew it. The man squatted down in front of me and gave me a dazzling smile. "I want you to sign a Binding Vow with me."

Of course. Of course it was. This was what he was after. There was no absolute way he would let someone like me, who could threaten his power, run out of his control. My fate was to either submit to him or be destroyed. But it was better him than someone like Tatsuya. He said he would never be like them. Those words weren't a lie. That I knew for certain. My instincts were never wrong.

"Very well." I gave the greatest jujutsu sorcerer in the world my consent. I suppose this would be the optimal solution right now. Once I find the one, this Binding Vow means nothing.

"Yay!" Gojo was delighted. He sprang up and made a victory sign with his fingers. "I knew I had a good eye for people."

While it seemed like Gojo wasn't surprised at all, he actually was stunned. He didn't think that the boy would agree so willingly. It was if the boy had been plotting something himself as well. This put the man on guard.

A ring interrupted Gojo's thoughts. He took out his phone from his pocket and accepted the call. A couple of back-and-forth conversations followed. I sat there and patiently waited for him to finish. Another yawn wracked my body.

"Yeah, I'll be there." Gojo bid the caller goodbye and hung up. He came over and put his hand on my head. I tensed immediately, and Gojo noticed my discomfort. But he didn't move his hand away.

"Sorry, but I've got to go." Gojo smiled at me. "We'll continue this conversation another time."

I nodded, and Gojo controlled the chains to wrap around me again. "Got to put the chains back on, or else people will think we're doing some shady business here."

Satisfied with his handwork, Gojo headed for the exit. When he was almost gone, he raised his hand and waved back as he stepped into the light and disappeared from view. "Catch you later, little curse!"