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After Story #5 by Raikaku Rei
The rain that was pouring throughout the morning had all but stopped. Sukuna loitered distractedly along the pathway wet with rain. At the moment, he was acting on his own, independently from Yukari.
Ever since losing their clan’s secret base, Sukuna and Yukari had become fugitives and kept moving from one temporary place to another, not getting a permanent address anywhere. They also had yet to have a proper talk about what to do from now on. Should they search for a hideout in this area, or maybe start a life in a place far away from the Kanto region now that the Slate had been gone, or, alternatively, set out on a journey as wanderers…?
To Sukuna, it didn’t matter either way. He was content to just let Yukari make the decision. But it wasn’t like Sukuna gave up on life altogether. His goal at hand was to find a goal at all. Now that Nagare was no more, Sukuna, who had made Nagare’s dream his own and chased it, no longer had anything he wanted to achieve. That’s why, at present, first, he had to find something to live for. He didn’t care much where exactly he would find it.
‘Will there ever come a second time when I have a place I can call home again, I wonder…’ Sukuna gave a small bitter smile at the thought.
Although only by a little at a time, Sukuna’s super power positively appeared to be weakening. When he stopped to think about it, it felt to him like that special something that he got from Nagare was leaving his body and scattering away, and he wanted to cry at the helplessness and misery that a.s.saulted him then. But that was how defeat was supposed to feel like in the first place.
For now, he didn’t really think of himself as weak yet, but at this rate, with his super power gradually fading away, eventually, there would come a day when Sukuna would turn into an ordinary child. One that would only be a burden to Yukari. The fact that Yukari seemed to be determined to stick with the boy despite that came as somewhat of a relief to Sukuna.
He even thought about learning the sword from Yukari. So that he would be able to hold his own in a fight even after losing his super power.
He still had quite some time until the scheduled meeting with Yukari. He had nothing to do until then, but at the same time, he didn’t feel like spending the time in a cafe either, so he chose a street with relatively little traffic and, finding a dry spot, plopped down right onto the road surface. Taking a portable game console out of his pocket, he turned the power on.
The pitch black LCD screen came to life with colors, and the game started. The game itself couldn’t have been more ordinary, with a cheesy plot full of cliches about a hero fighting to save the world. Sukuna, however, didn’t exactly hate that kind of corny setups. They were easy to understand and being a hero who was saving something was pretty cool, he thought.
'Still, what Nagare tried to create wasn’t a game where only the chosen hero gets to fight, shouldering the weight of the world, but a world where everyone - the king, the princess, the old man from the inn and even villager A - has power and lives like he or she wants.’
“Oh great hero, please save us!” Unfocused, Sukuna watched the villagers beseech the hero on the small screen of the game console.
“Gojou Sukuna,” came a clear voice of the reality from somewhere very close suddenly.
Sukuna raised his head, to find a girl with a doll-like face of about the same age as himself peering at him from above, hands on her knees, said knees slightly bent. After a moment of daze, he recognized her and the hair on his whole body stood on end. “The Red King, Kushina Anna…!”
'What a moron I am! This is the territory both Homura and Scepter 4 prowl, and I knew it! How the h.e.l.l could I let my guard down so much as to practically sit on their doorstep!’
Badly wanting to click his tongue at his own carelessness, Sukuna hurried to half-rise to his feet, and Anna took a step back, rising her hands to show that she had no hostility towards the boy. “Wait. I have no plans to fight or capture you.”
Sukuna rose slowly, his eyes never leaving Anna. “Are you sure though? I’m one of Jungle’s leaders, you know?”
“I’m not Scepter 4. For me, capturing you serves no purpose.”
Sukuna straightened from his battle-ready stance, but without relaxing his guard. “…Why did you decide to talk to me then?”
“Because I was curious. About how you are doing these days.”
“As if I’d answer! Why the h.e.l.l should I inform the enemy of my affairs?”
Anna didn’t appear to take offense even at the hard rejection she was given as she just continued to fixedly stare Sukuna down with her big eyes. It seemed that she really didn’t plan to do anything to Sukuna.
What a weirdo, Sukuna thought. When it occurred to him that for her to be chosen a king despite her being just a brat, she had to be a real weirdo, another recognition followed, that when Nagare became a king, he was about the same age as the girl in front of him. That meant Nagare’s reign as a king was longer than Sukuna’s entire lifetime.
Somehow, Sukuna suddenly didn’t feel malicious anymore.
Casting a look around, Sukuna found a vending machine nearby. He headed towards it, and Anna trotted after him. Buying two cans of cocoa, he tossed one to Anna. “Okay, a temporary cease-fire, but only while we drink these,” he said, seemingly groping for an excuse not to take up arms.
Anna nodded and opened her cocoa drink.
“…At present, Jungle is picking up pieces. Then again, it’s not like there’s much for us to do anyway. As to what we’re gonna do from now on… I don’t know,” Sukuna muttered, apparently in reply to Anna’s earlier question that he had refused previously.
Anna only nodded, “Uh-huh. As to us, we’re pretty much the same. But I think we will change little by little soon,” she added as if to return the favor.
“Hmph,” Sukuna made a meaningless noise.
Change little by little, huh. Talk about obvious. Now that the Slate had been destroyed, the system of kings and clans would have to change, whether parties concerned liked it or not.
For a while, the two stayed silent, just leaning against the wall of a building and sipping their cocoa. Anna, despite being the one who had started the conversation, didn’t try to keep it alive. And so, the two mutual antagonists, standing next to each other and making for a bizarre sight, were busy silently emptying their canned drink, content to just let the time pa.s.s.
Sipping the last of his remaining cocoa, sugary with the concentrated sweetness of the dregs from the bottom of the can, Sukuna was the one to open his mouth at last. “Have you ever thought about changing the world with your power of a king?”
Gazing at Sukuna, Anna shook her head slowly. “I haven’t. I wasn’t someone that great. I just wanted to protect what’s precious to me.”
“And for that, you fought Nagare, huh.”
“Since I was the Red King, I wanted to be fittingly cool.”
“A hero wannabe then, are you?” Sukuna meant for it to sound sarcastic, but he wasn’t really repulsed by Anna’s words. If anything, he even found their simplicity pleasing.
Sukuna was perfectly aware that to the world as it was, he and the clan he was part of was evil. A legit evil that messed up the world. Nagare, however, never considered himself to be evil. He just believed that a new and true world would be born out of the mess that was the old one. And Sukuna really adored Nagare and his thinking.
But now they would never know whether Nagare was right or wrong in the end.
Sukuna finished his cocoa and threw the empty can into a garbage bin. Anna followed suit. With that, the cease-fire was over.
“Earlier you said that you had no plans to fight me, but it’s not like you have absolutely no beef with me, right?” Sukuna provoked, turning to face Anna again.
Anna didn’t answer, but her eyes answered affirmative for her.
“Okay, you can hit me then,” Sukuna tossed casually.
The moment he did, a red shoe nimbly took a step forward. A punch to Sukuna’s left cheek, delivered by a small fist, promptly followed a big full-body windup. It was nothing like what the fist of a doll-like girl should have been. It was the fist of the Third King instead.
The impact flung Sukuna sideways, and he hit the wall and crumbled down to the ground.
He said she could hit him, so she did. Kushina Anna was a honest and straightforward girl like that.
'You gotta be friggin kidding…’
This was no 12 year old girl’s punch. Sukuna should have known. She may have lost the Sword of Damocles, but she still was a king who had experience fighting others like her and fairing pretty well against them.
Shaking his head as these thoughts raced through his mind, Sukuna raised his eyes to look at his opponent. Anna, still standing with her fist thrust forward, looked somewhat appeased as she straightened to re-a.s.sume her ramrod straight-back posture, making herself look like a doll again.
Sukuna spat out the blood that collected in his mouth and stood up, patting his dirtied coat to clean it up a little.
“…” Well then, what signoff line he should voice before taking his leave, he contemplated, but Anna cut his thoughts short as she, fixing him with the gaze of her gla.s.s marble-like eyes, offered, “You can hit me, too.”
“Huh?” Sukuna looked understandably shocked.
Anna’s gaze, boring into Sukuna, never wavered, as she continued, “I knew that if the Slate was destroyed, Hisui Nagare would die, but I went through with the plan anyway.”
These words of the quiet girl landed a heavy blow to Sukuna’s feelings, shaking him up to the core. All kinds of emotions swept through him within the next moment: anger, sorrow, despair… They stirred up a storm inside him and made him feel pain; there was a burning sensation in the corners of his eyes, and he had to ball his hands into fists and grit his teeth with all his might to stifle the sudden urge to cry and stop the tears, that were already welling up, from falling.
But violent emotions never last long, and within the next few seconds Sukuna’s shoulders relaxed again. “…Like h.e.l.l I’d hit an unresisting girl,” he finally said weakly.
Anna just continued to gaze at Sukuna, not saying a word.
Sukuna lifted his head and stared back. “Besides, back then, we were enemies. That’s why we fought. …And our side lost. That’s all there is to it. Right now, I have no reason to hit you anymore. I’m not gonna disgrace myself with fighting outside the arena just because I lost. But,” Sukuna’s eyes narrowed, “if we end up on the opposing sides again some day, I’ll fight you and I won’t hold back then.”
“Okay,” Anna nodded seriously, accepting his words.
Having nothing more to say to Anna, Sukuna turned on his heels to leave. Behind him, he felt that Anna, too, started walking away.
Suddenly, he stopped and turned around. “Kushina,” he called towards the back in a red coat.
Anna turned to look at him.
“You really okay with it? With the fact that the Slate is destroyed and you’re no longer a king?”
Anna stayed silent for a short while, seemingly in thought. “The red of the Third King was terrifying. Despite that, to me, it was also something precious. …But, I think it’s better this way. I have no regrets,” Anna replied slowly, carefully choosing her words as she spoke.
“I see,” Sukuna acknowledged shorty, about to resume walking.
“Sukuna.” This time it was Anna who called out to him.
Sukuna faltered for a moment at being called by the name so suddenly and casually and looked at her.
“I hope we can talk again,” Anna said and gave him a tiny smile.
“N-No way,” Sukuna managed, fl.u.s.tered for some reason, and started walking with a determined gait, intent on leaving this place for good this time.
*
When Sukuna met up with Yukari, the man stared at him with eyes round in amazement.
“Oh my. What happened to your face?”
“Bug off. It’s nothing.” Sukuna turned away from him, as if to hide the left side of his face bearing the marks of having been punched.
Yukari didn’t try to pry any further, just chuckled a little. “Be sure to tell me if you’re getting bullied. I’ll laugh at you then.”
“You’ll laugh?!” Sukuna fumed.
Yukari, though, simply started walking with an amused look on his face. Sukuna caught up, walking next to him, as Yukari started humming a nursery rhyme about rain, 'Amefuri’.
Sukuna looked up at the blue sky. “The rain stopped though, you know,” he remarked.
“Indeed,” Yukari returned in a light tone.
The rain that was pouring throughout the morning had all but stopped. Sukuna loitered distractedly along the pathway wet with rain. At the moment, he was acting on his own, independently from Yukari.
Ever since losing their clan’s secret base, Sukuna and Yukari had become fugitives and kept moving from one temporary place to another, not getting a permanent address anywhere. They also had yet to have a proper talk about what to do from now on. Should they search for a hideout in this area, or maybe start a life in a place far away from the Kanto region now that the Slate had been gone, or, alternatively, set out on a journey as wanderers…?
To Sukuna, it didn’t matter either way. He was content to just let Yukari make the decision. But it wasn’t like Sukuna gave up on life altogether. His goal at hand was to find a goal at all. Now that Nagare was no more, Sukuna, who had made Nagare’s dream his own and chased it, no longer had anything he wanted to achieve. That’s why, at present, first, he had to find something to live for. He didn’t care much where exactly he would find it.
‘Will there ever come a second time when I have a place I can call home again, I wonder…’ Sukuna gave a small bitter smile at the thought.
Although only by a little at a time, Sukuna’s super power positively appeared to be weakening. When he stopped to think about it, it felt to him like that special something that he got from Nagare was leaving his body and scattering away, and he wanted to cry at the helplessness and misery that a.s.saulted him then. But that was how defeat was supposed to feel like in the first place.
For now, he didn’t really think of himself as weak yet, but at this rate, with his super power gradually fading away, eventually, there would come a day when Sukuna would turn into an ordinary child. One that would only be a burden to Yukari. The fact that Yukari seemed to be determined to stick with the boy despite that came as somewhat of a relief to Sukuna.
He even thought about learning the sword from Yukari. So that he would be able to hold his own in a fight even after losing his super power.
He still had quite some time until the scheduled meeting with Yukari. He had nothing to do until then, but at the same time, he didn’t feel like spending the time in a cafe either, so he chose a street with relatively little traffic and, finding a dry spot, plopped down right onto the road surface. Taking a portable game console out of his pocket, he turned the power on.
The pitch black LCD screen came to life with colors, and the game started. The game itself couldn’t have been more ordinary, with a cheesy plot full of cliches about a hero fighting to save the world. Sukuna, however, didn’t exactly hate that kind of corny setups. They were easy to understand and being a hero who was saving something was pretty cool, he thought.
'Still, what Nagare tried to create wasn’t a game where only the chosen hero gets to fight, shouldering the weight of the world, but a world where everyone - the king, the princess, the old man from the inn and even villager A - has power and lives like he or she wants.’
“Oh great hero, please save us!” Unfocused, Sukuna watched the villagers beseech the hero on the small screen of the game console.
“Gojou Sukuna,” came a clear voice of the reality from somewhere very close suddenly.
Sukuna raised his head, to find a girl with a doll-like face of about the same age as himself peering at him from above, hands on her knees, said knees slightly bent. After a moment of daze, he recognized her and the hair on his whole body stood on end. “The Red King, Kushina Anna…!”
'What a moron I am! This is the territory both Homura and Scepter 4 prowl, and I knew it! How the h.e.l.l could I let my guard down so much as to practically sit on their doorstep!’
Badly wanting to click his tongue at his own carelessness, Sukuna hurried to half-rise to his feet, and Anna took a step back, rising her hands to show that she had no hostility towards the boy. “Wait. I have no plans to fight or capture you.”
Sukuna rose slowly, his eyes never leaving Anna. “Are you sure though? I’m one of Jungle’s leaders, you know?”
“I’m not Scepter 4. For me, capturing you serves no purpose.”
Sukuna straightened from his battle-ready stance, but without relaxing his guard. “…Why did you decide to talk to me then?”
“Because I was curious. About how you are doing these days.”
“As if I’d answer! Why the h.e.l.l should I inform the enemy of my affairs?”
Anna didn’t appear to take offense even at the hard rejection she was given as she just continued to fixedly stare Sukuna down with her big eyes. It seemed that she really didn’t plan to do anything to Sukuna.
What a weirdo, Sukuna thought. When it occurred to him that for her to be chosen a king despite her being just a brat, she had to be a real weirdo, another recognition followed, that when Nagare became a king, he was about the same age as the girl in front of him. That meant Nagare’s reign as a king was longer than Sukuna’s entire lifetime.
Somehow, Sukuna suddenly didn’t feel malicious anymore.
Casting a look around, Sukuna found a vending machine nearby. He headed towards it, and Anna trotted after him. Buying two cans of cocoa, he tossed one to Anna. “Okay, a temporary cease-fire, but only while we drink these,” he said, seemingly groping for an excuse not to take up arms.
Anna nodded and opened her cocoa drink.
“…At present, Jungle is picking up pieces. Then again, it’s not like there’s much for us to do anyway. As to what we’re gonna do from now on… I don’t know,” Sukuna muttered, apparently in reply to Anna’s earlier question that he had refused previously.
Anna only nodded, “Uh-huh. As to us, we’re pretty much the same. But I think we will change little by little soon,” she added as if to return the favor.
“Hmph,” Sukuna made a meaningless noise.
Change little by little, huh. Talk about obvious. Now that the Slate had been destroyed, the system of kings and clans would have to change, whether parties concerned liked it or not.
For a while, the two stayed silent, just leaning against the wall of a building and sipping their cocoa. Anna, despite being the one who had started the conversation, didn’t try to keep it alive. And so, the two mutual antagonists, standing next to each other and making for a bizarre sight, were busy silently emptying their canned drink, content to just let the time pa.s.s.
Sipping the last of his remaining cocoa, sugary with the concentrated sweetness of the dregs from the bottom of the can, Sukuna was the one to open his mouth at last. “Have you ever thought about changing the world with your power of a king?”
Gazing at Sukuna, Anna shook her head slowly. “I haven’t. I wasn’t someone that great. I just wanted to protect what’s precious to me.”
“And for that, you fought Nagare, huh.”
“Since I was the Red King, I wanted to be fittingly cool.”
“A hero wannabe then, are you?” Sukuna meant for it to sound sarcastic, but he wasn’t really repulsed by Anna’s words. If anything, he even found their simplicity pleasing.
Sukuna was perfectly aware that to the world as it was, he and the clan he was part of was evil. A legit evil that messed up the world. Nagare, however, never considered himself to be evil. He just believed that a new and true world would be born out of the mess that was the old one. And Sukuna really adored Nagare and his thinking.
But now they would never know whether Nagare was right or wrong in the end.
Sukuna finished his cocoa and threw the empty can into a garbage bin. Anna followed suit. With that, the cease-fire was over.
“Earlier you said that you had no plans to fight me, but it’s not like you have absolutely no beef with me, right?” Sukuna provoked, turning to face Anna again.
Anna didn’t answer, but her eyes answered affirmative for her.
“Okay, you can hit me then,” Sukuna tossed casually.
The moment he did, a red shoe nimbly took a step forward. A punch to Sukuna’s left cheek, delivered by a small fist, promptly followed a big full-body windup. It was nothing like what the fist of a doll-like girl should have been. It was the fist of the Third King instead.
The impact flung Sukuna sideways, and he hit the wall and crumbled down to the ground.
He said she could hit him, so she did. Kushina Anna was a honest and straightforward girl like that.
'You gotta be friggin kidding…’
This was no 12 year old girl’s punch. Sukuna should have known. She may have lost the Sword of Damocles, but she still was a king who had experience fighting others like her and fairing pretty well against them.
Shaking his head as these thoughts raced through his mind, Sukuna raised his eyes to look at his opponent. Anna, still standing with her fist thrust forward, looked somewhat appeased as she straightened to re-a.s.sume her ramrod straight-back posture, making herself look like a doll again.
Sukuna spat out the blood that collected in his mouth and stood up, patting his dirtied coat to clean it up a little.
“…” Well then, what signoff line he should voice before taking his leave, he contemplated, but Anna cut his thoughts short as she, fixing him with the gaze of her gla.s.s marble-like eyes, offered, “You can hit me, too.”
“Huh?” Sukuna looked understandably shocked.
Anna’s gaze, boring into Sukuna, never wavered, as she continued, “I knew that if the Slate was destroyed, Hisui Nagare would die, but I went through with the plan anyway.”
These words of the quiet girl landed a heavy blow to Sukuna’s feelings, shaking him up to the core. All kinds of emotions swept through him within the next moment: anger, sorrow, despair… They stirred up a storm inside him and made him feel pain; there was a burning sensation in the corners of his eyes, and he had to ball his hands into fists and grit his teeth with all his might to stifle the sudden urge to cry and stop the tears, that were already welling up, from falling.
But violent emotions never last long, and within the next few seconds Sukuna’s shoulders relaxed again. “…Like h.e.l.l I’d hit an unresisting girl,” he finally said weakly.
Anna just continued to gaze at Sukuna, not saying a word.
Sukuna lifted his head and stared back. “Besides, back then, we were enemies. That’s why we fought. …And our side lost. That’s all there is to it. Right now, I have no reason to hit you anymore. I’m not gonna disgrace myself with fighting outside the arena just because I lost. But,” Sukuna’s eyes narrowed, “if we end up on the opposing sides again some day, I’ll fight you and I won’t hold back then.”
“Okay,” Anna nodded seriously, accepting his words.
Having nothing more to say to Anna, Sukuna turned on his heels to leave. Behind him, he felt that Anna, too, started walking away.
Suddenly, he stopped and turned around. “Kushina,” he called towards the back in a red coat.
Anna turned to look at him.
“You really okay with it? With the fact that the Slate is destroyed and you’re no longer a king?”
Anna stayed silent for a short while, seemingly in thought. “The red of the Third King was terrifying. Despite that, to me, it was also something precious. …But, I think it’s better this way. I have no regrets,” Anna replied slowly, carefully choosing her words as she spoke.
“I see,” Sukuna acknowledged shorty, about to resume walking.
“Sukuna.” This time it was Anna who called out to him.
Sukuna faltered for a moment at being called by the name so suddenly and casually and looked at her.
“I hope we can talk again,” Anna said and gave him a tiny smile.
“N-No way,” Sukuna managed, fl.u.s.tered for some reason, and started walking with a determined gait, intent on leaving this place for good this time.
*
When Sukuna met up with Yukari, the man stared at him with eyes round in amazement.
“Oh my. What happened to your face?”
“Bug off. It’s nothing.” Sukuna turned away from him, as if to hide the left side of his face bearing the marks of having been punched.
Yukari didn’t try to pry any further, just chuckled a little. “Be sure to tell me if you’re getting bullied. I’ll laugh at you then.”
“You’ll laugh?!” Sukuna fumed.
Yukari, though, simply started walking with an amused look on his face. Sukuna caught up, walking next to him, as Yukari started humming a nursery rhyme about rain, 'Amefuri’.
Sukuna looked up at the blue sky. “The rain stopped though, you know,” he remarked.
“Indeed,” Yukari returned in a light tone.
