Of Flames and Cursed Energy

*****

After Sukuna had spoken his name, he willingly relented his control and settled back down, cackling all the way at her Uncle's look of utter despair and horror.

In a second, all emotions left his face and is now watching her, observing her with a flinty gaze.

Yuuka internally winces at the state he is left in after Sukuna's dramatic identity reveal, the man not taking the news very well. Carefully, she walks towards with measured steps akin to approaching a wild animal, all the while, Toshi watches her with a blank face, but nonetheless did not stop her from coming any closer.

Once close enough, Yuuka slowly takes his hand in hers, concern in her eyes as she gazes up at him.

"Uncle Toshi?" She tries, a flicker of unsurety crosses the man's heart, his face remaining unmoved.

Ah. Yuuka comes to a realization. He's unsure if I'm still me, yet… she squeezes the limp hand in her hold. He doesn't want to hurt me as an initial reaction.

This trickles warmth in her ancient heart.

"Ugh, you and your sentimentality. I want nothing more of this bullshit." Sukuna states in disgust, his presence leaving the forefront of their mind, most likely sequestered again to his throne of bones.

"You don't have to worry, Toshi, I'm still Yuuka." She gives her signature impish grin that crinkles her nose and shows off her dimple. "Your one and only pink-haired adorable niece that kicked your ass fourteen minutes ago."

Itadori Toshirou's mask of indifference doesn't quite break, but the fingers in the warm hand she's holding twitches minutely.

Yuuka pouts at his non-reaction.

"You really think that a grumpy sour puss like that can be as adorable as me? Please, that guy's a nihilistic barbaric prude! Hell, he even called this very cute outfit of mine whorish, can you believe that?" Yuuka's pitch goes high at the midst of her rant, still a bit cross of the brat's sensibilities. And her skort isn't even that short, it reaches just above her knees!

Because Sukuna isn't 'with' her at the moment, the usual snarky comments didn't come.

"His fashion sense is still in the dark ages like where his nasty patriarchal bullshit belongs!"

Well, for someone who grew up and reveled in a patriarchal society, Sukuna wasn't that bad and was actually surprised how the modern era had progressed with women being able to work in a 'man's' job, he was surprised, but didn't comment much on it. But sometimes, the curse could be just condescending in some ways, like with her Philosophy Teacher, Mrs. Tanaka getting some things wrong in her teachings from the olden schools of thought, Sukuna cited that it was because she was a woman that she didn't understand the harsh concepts of men.

Which is very infuriating because Yuuka is also a woman — at the moment — and she very much understands the complexity of men, her being some all-understanding ancient being with several lives spent as a man notwithstanding.

Amusement blooms in Toshi's soul, so Yuuka keeps on ranting.

"Not only that, he kept threatening to take over my body to kill Jii-chan, which is a big no-no. Believe it or not, this is only the third time he was out. First was when I impulsively swallowed his finger, second was when I let him eat some Hamburg Steak as thank you for teaching me history and third is today to introduce you to him. Argh, if I only knew that he was going to be so rude and an asshole to you I wouldn't have. Sorry Toshi, I swear I won—"

Her tirade of fast paced words was interrupted by a big hand covering her mouth.

She looks up to olive eyes examining her, a look of wonder and disbelief in them.

Toshi probably thinks she is not autonomous to herself anymore, that Sukuna is using her as a flesh tube instead of him being her prisoner. Yuuka is a little irked about this, but she gets it. Sukuna is supposed to be an all powerful Big Bad™ of this world and she's nothing but a middle school girl, when pit against each other's wills the expected one to win would be obvious from the outside perspective.

But Yuuka is not an ordinary middle school girl. Nothing about her whole existence can ever be called ordinary and Toshirou doesn't know that part of her, maybe he has an idea that there is more to her than the surface cutesy schoolgirl, but beyond that, he has no idea who she really is.

(Or what she is. Yuuka doesn't even know it herself, unsure and unable to put a label to it and its terrifying truth.)

"Yuuka?" He questions, the edge of unsurety to it can never be more obvious.

Still not letting go of his other hand, Yuuka holds on to it tighter and uses her free hand to remove the hand on her mouth to intertwine her fingers there too.

"Yeah? This is Yuuka."

That simple confirmation lets light return to those eyes.

"I knew it, the King of Curses couldn't possibly be a loud idiot."

"Hey!" Yuuka glares at him in mock offense. "I'll have you know, that this 'loud idiot' has always been the top of her class since nursery, that means your opinion is invalid and incorrect."

The man squeezes her hands almost painfully before retreating and with great speed that Yuuka had never seen him use, flicked her on the forehead.

"Ow!" Her hands immediately flew to the growing goose egg because Goddamn was she flicked hard.

It felt more like he pitched a rock straight to her head.

Yuuka isn't going to complain, she kinda earned that.

She massages the bump that is quick to die down because of her healing factor, within three seconds it's gone.

"Okay, I earned that one, so I'm not going to tell you on Jii-chan for that."

For her cheek, Toshi grabs her by the cheeks and pulls. "You fucking brat, of course you earned that, in fact I don't think that's enough for the shit that you just pulled."

He pulls her cheeks this way and that, ignoring her hands that were trying to slap them away. A glimmer of sadistic glee peeks through his olive eyes as he watches her struggle, an almost fascination as he molded and kneaded her cheeks like clay.

"Owowowowowow! Stwop ift! Lert gwo!"

It goes on for almost a minute, Toshi sneering in glee at her slapping attempts until she had enough and tried to knee him in the crotch. Finally, it got him to let go.

Toshirou retreats a few steps back with a toothy smirk before laughing when he takes stock to her face. Yuuka puffs her cheeks with air and that is a mistake, it was just recently taken out of torture and stretching them hurt.

Yuuka's cheeks must be really red and bullied for the man to laugh at her like this, another point to the similarity he shares with Sukuna, they both have a taste for schadenfreude. Finding amusement in someone's pain is their idea of entertainment.

Maybe they're more related than Yuuka is to Sukuna who is a maybe and probable ancestor to this body of hers.

"Fuck! You look like a fucking tomato." He points and laughs just to be more obnoxious.

Yuuka remembers a time when Toshi would barely say a word to her with a fortress of blades wrapped around his steel-trapped heart, now he's comfortable enough with her to be his true asshole self. She can't say if this is an improvement or not, but at least he's no longer a statue of hardened flesh like what he reverted to earlier.

The pain in her cheeks lessened like the tremble she felt in her heart.

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up." She sighs, massaging a cheek absently. "I'm sorry for springing that on you,"

Toshi sobers, mirth lost in his countenance but it wasn't the same chill of indifference as it was earlier.

"It just happened and I had no idea that consuming his finger would end up like that, maybe a ruined stomach. I was just curious because all those globs are gunning for it, fighting for each other for it, something tells me that it would be bad if those things took it."

And her intuition did say that, THEY said that. But she threw caution to the wind and took the matter to her own hand, and from what the Omnia told her — or so tid bits of truth from the tapestries of fate, her future is deeply connected to Sukuna, that in one way or another she would be his vessel as this realities Child of Destiny — they were already intertwined in their future, so she just took a shortcut to get there.

"And it's not entirely my fault, it was placed in a school full of children! Why was it even there? What if an ordinary kid took it? That could have made it worse, what were those Exorcists(?) thinking, placing it in a place full of civilians?" She aired out longstanding questions one after the other.

It really confused her when she thought about it in retrospect. Why would this hidden society hide such an ominous artifact in such a public face when it's not even concealed or sealed to oblivion. Sukuna's finger was just there, in a little shrine inside a lacquered box. There wasn't even a lock in place! Just a simple latch to keep it close.

Were these sorcerer(?) exorcist(?) people just banking on the innate Japanese culture tendency to keep to themselves? They're banking on a bunch of hormonal kids to not get curious and desecrate a little shrine in their school grounds?

Where is the logic in there? Or perhaps that shrine had always been there and the school just happened to be built in its area. 

But they still could have moved it! It's a tragedy waiting to happen, and the power on the talisman paper the mummified finger was sealed into has barely any power left. It's like they're asking for a genocide to happen.

It's completely baffling and illogical, even Sukuna was speechless when she said she found him on school grounds, because it's the height of idiocy to neglect an all powerful evil entity like that.

Even Sukuna reluctantly agreed with her assessments and they both barely agree on anything.

This generation of sorcerers' minds have most likely declined, the King of Curses said, or it might have been arrogance and pride over their triumph over him that they thought none of regularly monitoring him. It's their own folly and blunder, they most likely didn't expect for it to be stolen, or that a person can hold Sukuna as a prisoner.

Sukuna is very partial to the conclusion of these Sorcerer's just being arrogant, something about pride in their might and power, it's utter bullshit in Yuuka's opinion, because one shouldn't assume that they're infallible, it's like asking the universe to prove you wrong. Sukuna only agreed to that take because he thinks that he's the bigger man in this picture, and referred to the human sorcerer exorcist guys as nothing more than ants in front of a mountain in retrospect to himself.

Which is very on brand for him, this haughtiness and arrogance most likely didn't come from an empty place but please, he was the one cowering under Yuuka's boot the first time that they met. But in all honesty, his statement holds water to it, not that she's doing the crazy power scaling thing, but as the one holding him back from mass murder, it is safe for her to say that he is strong.

She holds a mere 1/20th of his true power yet he's fully capable of being above and beyond the mass hordes of blobs she sees everyday, Sukuna isn't even comparable to them in the slightest. A different league of his own.

Maybe that's why he holds the title of King of Curses, because even amongst the vilest of them all he is still infinitely worse.

That's why it deeply baffles Yuuka, it deeply vexes her that someone of his magnitude, an artifact of his, was lying around in public spaces like a catastrophe in waiting.

It's like they're asking for it. 

So who can blame Yuuka? If anything, it's leagues better than an unfortunate, very civilian person picking it up rather than her. The negligence alone is a tragedy waiting to happen.

Yuuka only did them a favor by letting her curiosity get the best of her. It's not her fault entirely, if anything she's doing them a massive favor. A community service if you will. She might be excusing her impulsive actions by a mile, but it's still the truth.

Better her than someone least equipped for it.

"The finger… was in your school?" Her uncle asks her in disbelief, like he can't quite get the grasp that such a malevolent artifact is lying around a building full of children and civilians.

Yuuka nods firmly, ponytailed hair bouncing with the brisk movement. "Yeah. I found it in a tiny shrine at the back of the school near the soccer field. Only a latch is keeping it from getting looted."

Slowly but surely, a scowl takes over his face as Toshi starts professionally cursing.

He basically says "Those arrogant careless sonuvabitches.", but in a more elaborate way.

Looks like Sukuna was onto something, not that Yuuka was surprised. It's pretty standard for people with power, wealth or fame to be in a different league of arrogance that it's to the point of stupidity. Humans or any sentient living being tend to have a sense of superiority once they excel at something, even Yuuka is not exempt from it, she's self-aware enough to admit to it.

(I mean, who wouldn't be? Why wouldn't she? Immortal doesn't even encompass what she is, if she is to relate herself to anything comprehensible to the human mind to what she truly is, a Lovecraftian Eldritch creature thing would suffice, which Yuuka may or may not have any contribution to that beautiful piece of fiction. Despite being eternal, she still experiences death like any mortal being because Yuuka made it so, she could be deathless if she wants to, but that's too boring, remaining the same for all eternity, the monotony of it might as well drive her to a different kind of insane. That's why she prefers living akin to a mortal, stillness isn't Yuuka's thing, spontaneity and randomness is.

The point is, Yuuka has every right to be an arrogant bitch as the number one beloved 'child' of the universe.)

"I'm guessing that these sorcerer guys are also rich in terms of hubris and ego." Yuuka says dryly.

Mutual snorts entered her senses, both from Toshi and Sukuna, the latter done with whatever he did in his domain and once again entering the forefront to spectate their family drama.

"Got it in one."

"A more than accurate insult."

Yuuka's face folds into something sour, an awful conclusion dawning with her foresight.

"Let me guess, they also have a council of elders that are sticklers to rules and tradition and all that boring stuff."

The pink haired man sneers, his flinty gaze shifting to the left, "They sure do. Geriatric shitstains like them are unreasonable bigoted pieces of shit." He kicks a stray rock by his feet, it flies to the air and indents itself on a poor tree. 

His eyes shift back to her. His heart is beating to a frightened tune yet he doesn't let it show in his face. He looks older all of a sudden, akin to his original birth age rather than the one Yuuka biologically changed him to.

Itadori Toshirou looks incredibly tired yet determined.

"They won't stand for your existence."

They'll kill you is what he doesn't say, not letting it leave his mouth as if it would become a curse that will come true.

"They're really scared of you huh?" Yuuka asks her inner guest.

Sukuna gives the air of satisfaction. An apex predator lounging in his throne. "As they should."

"I guess that arrogance is well-deserved." She lets him have it.

And it does, if even after centuries of being sealed, the descendants of his detractors quiver before the mention of his name without even experiencing the calamities seen by their ancestors. He must be such a great terror written in history books, a spoken world-ending creature with unparalleled might, the boogeyman that rules above and beyond his globy mindless curse kins.

To them, Sukuna is akin to an ancient sealed cursed deity of immeasurable power. But to Yuuka, Sukuna is nothing more than a brat with a brow-rising title behind his name.

(As they say, he is 'easy pickles' compared to her, for what is a cursed man-made deity to her, a being remade from whispers of TRUTH and the cosmos and every bit of everything and nothing all at once. Yuuka knows as much that she might be born a human, she suspects that she was something else before she was born as one, because how else would she have heard the world around her even when she was a babe who hardly understands everything?)

(Yuuka is a concept of something or multiple something, she has her suspicion of what it truly is but she doesn't want to name it, because that would mean that when she first breathed her oxygen as the boy with a toobeautifulenchantingsurrealunreal beauty, she was already hollow.)

Sukuna doesn't deign her a reply, giving her an equivalent of a mental shrug.

Yuuka scoffs and turns up her nose, crossing her arms as she does so.

"If they didn't want this to happen then they should have had better security."

Her nonchalance struck a nerve with the man. "Aren't you the least bit concerned?!" Toshi took hold of her shoulders and started shaking her as if it would instill some sense into her.

Right, he doesn't know that she's far more inhuman than the curse stuck in her soul.

"This is your life we're talking about brat! This isn't a joke anymore! They won't care if you're teenage girl or a literal child, they'll fucking kill you!"

Sukuna harrumphs. "I'd like to see them try."

"It would be funny if they see me literally come back to life." Yuuka agrees.

The curse snorts but thankfully shuts up so Yuuka can focus on the now.

Especially her family who is slowly spiraling down.

Concern, worry, fear. He's even biting down his lip. Gone was the composed countenance that Toshi tried desperately to fake, gone was the cold rational man, the one she's facing right now is an anxious man frightened at the thought of losing her, his family.

A familiar warmth envelopes her chest and lets it settle there like a warm hug. 

She smiles, her eyes conveying nothing but warmth, love and care that it startles the man to stop shaking her.

Yuuka let her Flames out to dance and extend it to the man as an invisible weighted warm blanket to calm his frazzled mind. The effect wasn't instant, lent by her careful maneuver of trying not to douse the ex-assassin with sudden calm harmony as that path would only lead to more panic for the man. She lets the harmony of her Sky Flames linger in the air, and she watches as he gradually releases the tension in his shoulders, his crushing grip loosening to a gentle hold.

Yuuka takes hold of his forearms and pushes them away, her hands sliding to take hold of his larger pair once more. Her uncle doesn't resist.

"Don't worry Toto-jiji, nobody knows about my vessel status just yet and Sukuna agreed to keep our circumstance a secret for how long we could continue undiscovered." She looks up at him, eyes imploring. "That's why I'm asking what curse energy is, the curse technique thingies that Sukkun accuses me of. I want to know more about the sorcerer society too, these clans, the important figures, the old windbags, how they work, their power system and their traditions, because as much as Sukkun is cooperating at the moment, he won't tell me everything and any information he might have might already be outdated. So please, explain it all to me. "

The hands she's holding returns the grip to a bruising degree, the tremble in his heart still there but there's a new found determination and drive rather than apathetic resignation. Yuuka envelopes it, encouraging this will and fortifying it.

All the while Sukuna watches this exchange in great interest. He's clearly curious on what Yuuka is doing, what kind of 'technique' she is using to calm Toshi to get a better grasp of her abilities and what she truly is, but since he's too much of a Tsundere, he would wait it out before asking her. He likes to believe that he knows everything as far as Yuuka knows.

Well, goodluck to him, even Yuuka doesn't know what she's supposed to be. Omnia did say that she's an unknowable creature that's greatly loved by everything.

"Fine." Former Fushiguro Toji sighs with a great exhale. He grips her hands tight before letting go, turning his back on her and starts walking back to their picnic spot. "But you better listen closely because I'm only giving you a lecture once."

*****

Yuuka watched Toshi watch her, measuring her reaction to the info dump he just gave her.

He's waiting for her to say something and Yuuka will not disappoint.

"So basically, this Curse Energy is powered by negative emotions and only sorcerers can use them although everyone has them. Well, except for a select few like Uncle."

Toshirou nods, urging her to continue to measure if she really got everything in order. Which she did because Yuuka already has the basis for different powers in other realities to compare it too.

"And each individual sorcerer has their own innate technique unique to them, but there are those who inherit theirs from what bloodline clan they come from, in which there are three Great Sorcerer clans ruling at the current era. These are the Gojo, Kamo and Zenin Clan. The Gojo have the Limitless and Six Eyes. Kamo has Blood Manipulation. And the Zenin has the Ten Shadows Technique."

"Correct. Now, what are the two types of Cursed Energy?" He prods, taking a solid bite of the Curry Bun she packed for him.

"Negative Energy is the base form of Cursed Energy that usually comes from the gut, then there's Positive Energy or Reverse Cursed Technique, it's produced when Negative Energy is multiplied to itself and it is usually directed by the brain. It's the thing-y you said that I do to heal." She purses her lips at her last statement, not at all sold on the idea.

To be frank, Yuuka can see why he would confuse Cloud Flames as Positive Cursed Energy. Dying Will Flames are produced through the will and emotions of the User, and Cloud Flames have the property of Propagation, it can basically Multiply anything if the User is skilled or imaginative enough. In her case she can use it to heal unlike most Clouds — there is history of those who tried and only gave themselves and others cancer or a mutation — reproducing the cells and tissues of the body to help it heal, which is what Reverse Cursed Technique can do.

If she has to categorize her Cloud Flames to this world's power system it would be an innate curse technique, not only her Cloud, her Flames in general. It's unique and inherently hers to wield and use. All seven flames of the Sky — eight if you include the Night Flames — can be labeled as an innate curse technique of their own because they have their own properties and abilities to fall into.

Maybe she can claim Dying Will Flames as her innate ability, but with the annoying elders already in her way as the holder of Sukuna, that would make her even more ridiculously powerful in the eyes of Jujutsu society, armed with mastery of Eight different Flame types that she is.

(Excluding all her other abilities and powers and true form.)

Yuuka should probably restrict herself to visibly only using Cloud Flames, emphasize on the visibly. She tested that one on Toshi, he can't see her Flames when it's not on the visible spectrum of light, and Sukuna is only seeing it because he's borrowing her eyes to see the world.

It's fine to Yuuka if that would become the case from now on, Cloud Flames are pretty versatile and the most intimate power that she's been using for eons other than her Sky, and it's what she closely identifies with.

Plus the fact that it's the Flames that she's been actively using that Toshi already knows she uses. It would cost less suspicion and complication this way. As much as she wants to be honest with him, the moment he learns what Sky and Mist Flames could do, he'll start suspecting Yuuka and she can't have that. A seed of doubt is all that's needed with such a wary and cautious man like Toshirou for a relationship with him to start to fray.

(It's selfish she knows, Yuuka has always been selfish. What's hers is hers, and Toshi is already hers the moment he took her hand when she healed him, Yuuka would have let him go if he didn't want to come with her, she still would do it now because she isn't a hypocrite and she values freedom. She won't tie him down to her. But she also doesn't want to let him go where he won't let her follow or visit.)

Now she just have to spin this story to sell it and make it work. And Yuuka is a great story teller, if not one of the greatest, it's not because she's a great liar but because she can narrate the truth wholeheartedly with a sincere heart.

"Yeah," Toshi confirms through his bite of his third Curry Bun, making Sukuna hiss at his mannerless behavior. He raises an eyebrow at Yuuka. "Are you saying that you aren't?"

"I think," Yuuka starts, "It's my own Curse Technique."

This statement catches both the human and the curse's attention, with Sukuna sitting up straighter and Toshi giving her a measuring look.

"Why do you think so?"

Yuuka picks up a yellow ginkgo leaf from the ground and activates her Cloud Flames. The piece of foliage coated in bright purple flames didn't burn at all with her fine control over her Flames, instead copies of the leaf started falling away one by one until a small pile of leaves was made. As an added flare to her demonstration, Yuuka lets the ginkgo leaf between her fingers burn like it would to fire, turning it to ash.

"I awakened this ability when I was five." She picks up one of the leaves on her pile to Toshi who takes it and starts inspecting. Rubbing it in between his fingers and sniffing it.

Investigate it all he wants, that leaf would remain a leaf until she wills it not to be.

Out of all Cloud Flame Users she's the only one who has no trouble propagating bio-organisms, replicating them as clones of the original life form, hell she could probably clone a sheep or herself, the only trouble about is that it would have no life, no soul, to occupy it, only a husk.

(But if she pulls out her not Flame related powers but her Eldritch Mystery Creature powers, the short answer is that she could.)

"So in the end you're going to feed him a lie, Creature." The curse states with much amusement, rolling his tongue as he said the word 'Creature'. "I thought you don't like lying to your 'loved' ones."

"But I'm not lying." Yuuka shrugs. "I really awakened my Flames when I was five in this world, alongside all my memories. It's my first life in this reality after all." She gives him a mental smirk. "So technically not lying."

He gives a mental shrug in return, as if to say, 'Fair enough.'

"I called it Dying Will Flames because I thought it would be a cool and appropriate name for it to have."

Sukuna comes out once more, opening an eye and a mouth on her left cheek only to give a derisive snort at her naming sense. Wow, he really is a cocky asshole, she shouldn't be really surprised.

"FYI, I wasn't the one who named it that. It's already established and coined that way by the immortal earthlings of that Universe."

"Immortal earthlings?"

"To make it short, they're the guardians of the earth who kept the world in balance using their Flames but if they fucked up with that, the world would literally end. It's not a surprise that they eventually fizzled out from all the stress of providing their Flames, essentially their soul as an energy power plant to keep the world in harmony. And they also rarely reproduce, there's only one left living in that world."

Sukuna makes a noise that conveys his interest.

Meanwhile, Yuuka continues her story time. "I can still remember it even when it happened so long ago, when I was in kindergarten I was pushed by one of my classmates while I was on top of the jungle bars and banged my head twice on my way down." 

"No wonder you're so stupid, Wench." Sukuna says out loud in contrast to her uncle's worried frown.

"Shut up, Unloved Child." She replies mentally and only gets a shrug in turn as if to say, 'Pfftt… Try harder, stupid.'

"Fair enough."

"It was after we were let out early and we kids who weren't fetched by our guardians decided to go to the park together to continue playing and so no adults were around, it was just us kids, and as you know, kids can get pretty wild." 

Toshi nods appropriately like he knows how those small chaos gremlins should work.

"I remembered crying about it because my head hurts so much, it didn't bleed or anything like that, just a giant goose egg. The only thing bleeding was my skinned knees so I didn't really think much of it when I went home. So I got home and Jii-chan wasn't there. I was supposed to tell him what happened but I suddenly felt dizzy and tired, so little me went to bed right away and that's where… it gets hazy." Yuuka confesses, because up until that moment, she still wasn't conscious of who she truly is, and at that moment she was truly just a small human child.

"In hindsight, I think I had a concussion, or maybe even an internal head hemorrhage but I'm not quite sure since I wasn't really diagnosed and checked over. After I went to sleep, a fever developed. I can sorta remember Jii-chan trying to wake me and finding out I have a fever, he even gave me medicine and placed a cold towel on my forehead."

"But there's one thing I could clearly remember that night." 

She gives a deep exhale, almost a sigh, picking up a leaf from the pile and twisting the stem between her fingers.

Yuuka can feel Toshi's trepidation despite his stoic front, all the while Sukuna is waiting where she's going to take it. The leaf between his fingers crumples.

"My head was hurting so much that I couldn't call out for help or move. I felt cold and hot at the same time, nauseous and everything was just spinning. At that time, five year old me thought she was going to die, she was sure of it, and I think I did."

Toshi's breath hitches, there's a look in his eyes that he can't quite believe what she just said. His chest stills before it resumes its normal breathing pattern.

"But two things were clear in my delirious mind." A sardonic smile tugs at her lips. "'I don't want to die yet.' and 'I don't want to leave Jii-chan alone.'. Those two thoughts kept running around my head until it's the last two things I had in my mind when the pain, no, when I started to fade away. The last thing I remembered was seeing a pretty purple fire in my mind's eye before everything went blank."

The wind blows dramatically, carrying the pile of propagated leaves through its current. Yuuka lets it burn to non-existence, purple fire dancing in the breeze intermixed with non-replicated autumn leaves.

"But as you can see," She gestures widely to herself, grin wide, amber eyes sparking purple and pink tresses swaying to the wind. "That didn't happen. I woke up the next day without the injuries or the fever and with the ability to see curses and catch myself in purple flames."

As if to emphasize her point, Yuuka activates her Cloud Flames to cover her whole body with it, it catches both Toshirou and Sukuna by surprise letting out their favorite expletive at the same time breaking the somber atmosphere.

After three seconds, she puts it out and starts laughing uproariously.

"Ahahaha! You should have seen your faces! Pfft—hahahahaha! Hahaoomphskgkds—"

Her laughter seizes as she starts choking on a piece of meat bun shot through her mouth, caught off guard, she starts coughing her lungs out as both human and curse start laughing at her like maniacs.

Taking pity on her and still laughing like a hyena, Toshirou gives one strong pat on her back that launches the mushy piece of bun out of her mouth and onto the horizon.

Yuuka coughs some more as her own body fixes itself with the use of Flames. When she stops hacking out her lungs, she immediately takes hold of the room temperature tea to further soothe her throat.

Two can play it that game, huh.

Without warning, she catches one of Toshi's hands — the one he used to pat her on the back — and pulls him towards her and shoves the bottle of tea directly to his cackling mouth. Simultaneously, Yuuka manifests a mental manifestation of herself directly behind Sukuna to shove him off his throne of bones.

The only reason she managed to do both is because they're both distracted and didn't expect immediate retaliation. Toshi has some unreal reflexes for a human and the same could be said to her freeloader. Yuuka doesn't want to toot her own horn but perhaps Toshi trusts her enough to not do anything, and for Sukuna's matter, it's a matter of arrogance and skill issue. He probably didn't expect Yuuka to have the ability to occupy two consciousness at once, something that's so silly to her.

Really, it's her own body and soul, why wouldn't she be able to do such a thing? He should really know by now that she's no ordinary human.

Yuuka stands up from her seat, snatching her backpack, she stuffs the trash that they accumulated in it along with the remaining food she prepared, all the while Toshi tries to catch his breath, burning holes at the side of her head. Sukuna simply disappears from her cheek, a spark of purple flame once again sealing the would be scar.

"Oh, look at the time, it's getting late. Better head home now before Jii-chan could start worrying." She slings the backpack on her shoulders and starts walking, not looking back at the man with murder in his flinty eyes.

"I'll get you back for this you little brat."

"You'll pay for this insult, wretched creature."

Yuuka only giggles at them, such cute little threats from two not so dissimilar people.

"You guys really are the same."

With snarls that range from different octaves, they both retort in chorus.

"No, we're not!"

"No, we're not!"

She only giggles some more, further infuriating the two.

"If you guys say so~"