Chapter 43 - What is old, what is new, what is gone, what remains
The sky above the devastated shopping district rippled with emerald energy as Sukuna descended, his four arms held slightly away from his body for balance.
He landed with deliberate precision on the cracked pavement, creating a small crater from the impact.
Before him stood a figure that was simultaneously familiar and foreign - a young man with distinctive pink hair and slitted eyes that gleamed with malevolence.
Though the body was that of Yuji Itadori, the presence controlling it was unmistakable.
"Sukuna," the four-armed being acknowledged - a courtesy, since he himself has long gotten used to the name Megumi, his multiple eyes assessing the vessel before him.
The pink-haired youth's lips curved into a contemptuous smile, his eyes narrowing as he studied his counterpart. "What is this?" he asked, his voice dripping with disdain. "Some pathetic imitation dares to wear my face?"
"Not an imitation," Sukuna replied evenly. "Another iteration. From this world."
Shibuya Sukuna circled slowly, examining the four-armed figure with theatrical disgust. "This world must be truly pitiful if this is what passes for me."
He gestured dismissively. "Look at you. Four arms yet no presence. Multiple eyes yet blind to your own degradation."
The shopping district around them lay in ruins, evidence of Shibuya Sukuna's brief but devastating presence in this reality.
Storefronts had been sliced apart with surgical precision, concrete pillars bisected by invisible blades, and the scattered remains of those unfortunate enough to cross his path lay in meticulously arranged pieces - a grotesque display of artistry in death.
"I see you've been entertaining yourself," Sukuna observed, glancing at the carnage with detached assessment.
"Merely stretching my legs after being confined for so long," Shibuya Sukuna replied, casually stepping over a severed limb.
"This vessel fought admirably, but the dimensional transition weakened him. Finally, I have what is rightfully mine."
"Release your hold on Yuji Itadori," Sukuna commanded, his voice resonating with authority.
Shibuya Sukuna's laughter echoed through the ruined shopping district, sharp and mocking. "Hah? You're giving me orders? How amusing!" He wiped an imaginary tear from his eye. "Why would I relinquish what I've claimed? This flesh is mine by right of conquest."
"You've forced his soul to bear the brunt of the dimensional transition," Sukuna stated. "Weakening him enough to finally chain and control him. Relinquish that control."
"Or what?" Shibuya Sukuna challenged, his smile turning predatory. "You'll fight me? Please. I can sense your nature from here." His expression twisted with revulsion.
"You reek of humanity. Of compromise. Of weakness. Whatever version of me you are, you've fallen so far you might as well be human."
Sukuna's four eyes narrowed slightly, but his expression remained controlled. "I see you still cling to the delusion that isolation equals strength. That cruelty equals power."
"Delusion?" Shibuya Sukuna scoffed. "It is the natural order. The strong devour the weak. I am Ryomen Sukuna, the King of Curses. My dominion is absolute."
"A king without subjects rules nothing," Sukuna countered. "A king without purpose is merely a tyrant with a title."
"Purpose?" Shibuya Sukuna's face contorted with disdain. "What purpose does a god need beyond his own satisfaction? What meaning exists beyond power itself?"
Sukuna regarded him with something almost like pity. "You still don't understand. After all these years, you remain blind to the most fundamental truth."
"And what 'truth' would that be?" Shibuya Sukuna sneered.
"That true strength lies not in what you can destroy," Sukuna stated, "but in what you choose to preserve. Not in how many fear you, but in what you're willing to protect."
Shibuya Sukuna's expression shifted from mockery to genuine disgust. "You sound like that insufferable Gojo. Or worse, like the vessel itself." He spat on the ground. "I can't believe you're a version of me. You're soft."
"I am still the King of Curses," Sukuna declared, his voice carrying the weight of absolute certainty. "But a king evolves or becomes obsolete. A king adapts or is overthrown. You have remained static, trapped in the same patterns of thought for centuries."
"Evolution? Adaptation?" Shibuya Sukuna laughed bitterly. "You mean surrender. Compromise. Weakness."
"I have not surrendered," Sukuna replied, his four arms tensing slightly. "I have transcended. Where you see only destruction, I see potential. Where you see only domination, I see connection. Where you see only consumption, I see growth."
"Poetic nonsense," Shibuya Sukuna dismissed. "If you were truly me, you would understand that power is its own justification. That strength needs no purpose beyond itself."
"I was you," Sukuna acknowledged. "Arrogant. Isolated. Convinced of my own superiority. But I have become more."
"More?" Shibuya Sukuna's voice dripped with contempt. "You've become less. A shadow of true greatness. A domesticated beast who's forgotten his fangs."
"My fangs remain," Sukuna stated coldly. "I simply choose when to bare them."
"Then bare them now," Shibuya Sukuna challenged, sliding into a combat stance. "Prove you're still worthy of the name Sukuna."
"I don't need to prove anything to you," Sukuna replied. "Especially not to a version of myself still trapped in childish notions of power."
"Childish?" Shibuya Sukuna's rage was palpable, cursed energy swirling around him in violent patterns. "I'll show you the difference between your 'evolution' and true power!"
He lunged forward, fingers extended in the familiar formation for Dismantle, the cutting technique that had slaughtered countless sorcerers across centuries.
Sukuna didn't dodge. With a single, fluid motion enhanced by the "smart atoms" now integrated into his being, he struck - not at Shibuya Sukuna's physical form, but at the barrier between souls within Yuji's body.
His fist connected with Shibuya Sukuna's abdomen with devastating precision, cursed energy bypassing physical defenses to strike directly at the spiritual boundary.
The impact sent ripples through both visible and invisible planes of existence.
Shibuya Sukuna froze mid-attack, his eyes widening in shock and disbelief. "What-" he gasped, as something fundamental shifted within the vessel he had claimed. "What have you done?"
"I've reminded you of your place," Sukuna stated, his voice carrying the full weight of his authority as the King of Curses. "You are not the master here. You are a parasite, feeding on a strength that was never truly yours."
The vessel's body convulsed violently as the barrier between souls shattered. Something dark began to emerge from Yuji's mouth - a finger, blackened and twisted with cursed energy, followed by another, and another.
"Impossible!" Shibuya Sukuna snarled, his voice distorting as more fingers forced their way out. "No one can break the binding vow! No one can separate me from my vessel!"
"I am not 'no one,'" Sukuna replied calmly, watching as the cursed objects were expelled one after another.
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"I am Ryomen Sukuna, the King of Curses. And unlike you, I understand the true nature of our power - not just how to use it, but why it exists at all."
"You speak of purpose as if it matters," Shibuya Sukuna spat, even as his control over Yuji's body weakened with each expelled finger. "As if power needs justification beyond itself."
"Power without purpose is merely violence," Sukuna stated. "Strength without direction is simply destruction.
You could have been more than a curse, more than a nightmare whispered in the dark. You could have been a king in truth, not just in name."
As the last of the fingers emerged, Shibuya Sukuna's presence began to fade from Yuji's body, coalescing into a spectral form that hovered above the expelled cursed objects.
"I refuse to accept this. All I see is a king whose hold has become soft," the specter accused, its voice growing fainter as its connection to the physical world weakened. "A pale shadow of what we once were."
Sukuna stood impassive, unmoved by the accusation. "Of course," he replied, his tone matter-of-fact rather than defensive. "I've lost, after all."
The admission seemed to confuse the fading specter. "Lost? What nonsense are you-"
Its words cut off as the last of its presence was forced out of Yuji's body. The young man's natural eye color returned, his eyes clearing of Sukuna's influence for the first time since the dimensional transition.
Yuji blinked, disoriented, as he took in the four-armed figure standing before him and the spectral form hovering nearby. "What... happened?" he managed weakly, his voice hoarse.
"You're free," Sukuna stated simply. "Temporarily, at least."
Yuji's gaze fell to the cursed fingers scattered around him, then back to the four-armed being who had somehow expelled them from his body. "Who... are you?"
"Someone who understands," Sukuna replied. "Better than he ever did."
Before Yuji could respond further, his eyes rolled back in his head, his body going limp as exhaustion and the trauma of the forced separation overcame him.
He collapsed to the ground, unconscious but free from Sukuna's control for the first time since crossing the dimensional barrier.
Sukuna regarded the fallen vessel and the expelled fingers with a contemplative expression.
The spectral form of Shibuya Sukuna still hovered nearby, weakened but defiant, tethered to this reality by the cursed objects that contained fragments of his soul.
Eventually, they would need to be dealt with. The dimensional merger would not allow duplicates to exist indefinitely, even in this separated state.
But for now, they could remain as they were - a reminder of what he had once been, and what he had chosen to become.
The King of Curses turned his gaze to the rippling sky above, where green energy continued to pulse with increasing intensity.
The merger was accelerating, reality itself becoming more unstable with each passing moment.
There was much to be done, and little time remaining. But at least one task had been completed - one piece of himself established
As he lifted Yuji's unconscious form from the ground, Sukuna felt the weight of his choices - past, present, and future - settle upon his shoulders like the mantle of the king he still was, despite everything that had changed.
A king evolves or becomes obsolete. A king adapts or is overthrown.
And he had no intention of being either obsolete or overthrown.
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(Author note: Hello everyone! I hope you all liked the Chapter!
Yeah, I believe it was high time to truly show the changes Sukuna has gone through's effect on his mentality.
He is still the one who follows his pleasure and destroys all that displeases him, but he has found pleasure in family, connection, preservation, growth, ruling.
So yeah, do tell me how you found it and I hope to see you all later,
Bye!)