Chapter Text
"God Dammit, Why must everything in my life try their hardest to make me miserable?!" Subaru cried out while running as far as he could from the scene of the crime, a small abandoned shrine in the outskirts of rural Japan. While Subaru ran back home with his friends on his back from the small abandoned shrine that he had visited with his friends, Subaru was looking back on the Day's events and wondering where it went all wrong.
-------------Earlier that Day---------------
After the School Bell had rang, Subaru was packing up his things to go home when he was approached by two of his friends from the Occult Club. The first friend was a tall normal nerdy guy that loved the occult and the supernatural, his name is Takeshi Iguchi. The second friend was a small petite girl that also held a belief in the supernatural , her name is Setsuko Sasaki. These three had come together to form the Occult club , as they were outcasts and were branded weirdos due to something they decided to do , However despite the prejudice against them for what they believed in, They embraced what they believed in and came together to form the Occult Club.
"Yo Subaru! you'll never guess what we found !" called out Takeshi, one of two of Subaru's only friends.
" Don't tell me it's another abandoned building Kei." Subaru deadpanned at his friend, hoping that this wasn't what he thought it was.
"Not really - Well kind of , but I promise you that this one is really worth going to !" Setsuko, the second friend Subaru has, interrupted with glee on her face.
Supporting Setsuko, Takeshi added in, " Yeah! It's an abandoned shrine that is reported to have ghosts! And not only that, it's reported to have a supernatural object that is inside the shrine!"
"Do I have to come?" lazily asked Subaru.
"Come on Baru! It's not only gonna be a super fun trip between the three of us , but this also acts as something we can do for the Occult Club to help keep it from dying !" Setsuko rattled Subaru's shoulders in excitement, annoying him to no end.
"Alright. Alright. Fine. Ill come with you." Subaru gave in, sighing at his friends conviction. As Subaru sighed, he had felt a horrible feeling about this trip but decided not to voice it.
Since they all agreed to go to this small shrine, they decided to meet after school at Subaru's apartment. Subaru was fine with his apartment being the main meet up area , as he lived alone due to both his parents having passed away and also not wanting to live with his fathers family - The Zenins - due to seeing how horrible it is to live with them firsthand. After they all met at the apartment, they headed towards their destination which took them a few hours to get to as they lived in the city of Kyoto.
After arriving at their destination, the first couple of things that they did was take a couple of photographs of the area , and most importantly the shrine itself. As they checked out most of the areas of the abandoned shrine , Takeshi had noticed something inside the shrine. After finding a special seal that seemed to be trapping a finger looking object, the first thing Takeshi did was call out to his friends and get them over.
"Hey guys! Come check out this weird looking seal!" Takeshi called out, holding his arm up, to his two other occult siblings.
Subaru arrived first, taking a look at what his friend had found. "Hm? What did you find Kei?" When Takeshi yelled out for him and Setsuko to check something out , Both of them ran over to Takeshi to see what he was so frenzied about.
Takeshi held up the finger in glory, like he found some occult breakthrough. " Check this finger looking object that is covered in these seals!"
Once Subaru took a better look at the sealed object , he felt something draw him towards it and told his friends that he was gonna hold onto the finger to which they had no objections. While Subaru was taking a closer look at the object , he again felt strange , like something inside him had been unwoven like a tightened rope.
However as Subaru was in his own world - feeling tons of different things - he also felt a massive sting in his brain and turned around to his friends , and to his horror was being held up in the air by two amalgamated looking monsters which looked like they were curses that were placed on the shrine.
While Subaru was stuck in his own thoughts and fears, he heard his friends whimpering in pain as the creatures began to squeeze the literal life out of both of them.
Mustering what strength she had in her, Setsuko yelled at Subaru " SUBARU .... nghkk .... RUN ! "
This however had the opposite effect to the stubborn man that was Natsuki Subaru, which fueled him to help his friends out - despite his fears and shaking body - and made him break in a run towards his friends and allowing - what felt way to natural to him - a flow of energy that boosted his overall strength , stamina , and reflexes. Using this boost in power and adrenaline, Subaru maneuvered his way over both curses , dodging their attacks toward him and also grabbing his friends out of both of their grasps - at this point both Takeshi and Setsuko passed out from not only pain but exhaustion - and placed them over his shoulders while also holding onto the sealed finger he had been holding earlier with his teeth.
"Why are these curse things even here right now ?!" Subaru desperately asked to anyone to no avail.
While Subaru was busy fending off both of the curses - which he had now dubbed them -, he started to put everything together as to why the curses would even appear so suddenly before them. He now understood that this finger he was holding was probably something that contained power despite its appearance. In a rash decision he ate the finger while hoping for more power to help his friends and to get rid of these two curses.
"C'mon you stupid Finger don't let me down!" After eating the finger, he gagged a bit but felt different.
After consuming the finger, Subaru felt faint and passed out for a moment. However when he regained his conscience, he felt two things . One was the chilling breeze that was freezing his upper body, and Second that there was something foreign in his body that made his body feel weird. After making such observations he realized that the curses were nowhere to be seen and that his friends seemed to be slammed against the wall of the entrance of the shrine.
"What the hell ! What happened when I passed out ?!" Subaru frantically jumped up at the scene before him.
"Quiet Brat." A deep, commanding voice called out to him. Subaru looked frantically around for the person but looked down on his cheek and saw a mouth open upon it.
Subaru, realizing where that voice is coming from , shouts at the top of his lungs, " AHHHHHHHHH, WHO THE HELL ARE YOU ?! ".
"Once again I'm telling you to be quiet you brat! Also how in the hell are you suppressing me !" The voice was irritated at the man's foolish actions, already being pissed about him not being in control.
"Okay ! Okay ! Again who are you ?! And it's my body! Why shouldn't I have control over my body ?!" Subaru was not calming down anytime soon.
"I'm Ryomen Sukuna you brat. THE King of Curses." Sukuna introduced himself to the young man, waiting for some form of a reaction.
Subaru still had no idea. ".....who?"
"..."
"..."
"SAY SOMETHING." cried out Subaru.
Sukuna responded with every inch of malice he had at that moment, " I'm going to destroy everything you hold dear once I get ahold of this body."
Least to say that had not only shut Subaru up, it also had made Subaru shiver in fear of what he might be harboring inside his body.
However, Subaru had more pressing matters to attend to. He had completely forgotten about the state his friends were in.
"FUCK! Kei! Suko!"
As soon as Subaru remembered about his friends also being there with him, He immediately rushed over to both of them and started to inspect each of their wounds - finding out that both Takeshi and Setsuko were bleeding from their foreheads, and Setsuko looked like she had a couple broken bones - and in a moment of desperation he called out to Sukuna and begged to know if he had knowledge or techniques that could help him keep his friends from potentially dying - as by that point Subaru wasn't dumb enough to just shrug off the fact that there were not only curses, but there was another being that now resided within himself. Which cemented the fact that the supernatural exists for him- and to his surprise Sukuna actually responded.
"Sukuna please tell me you have some type of power or technique that can heal people."
"Hm? and why should I help you in the first place ?"
" Please Sukuna ! I'll do anything !"
When Sukuna had heard that this brat would do anything for him to heal these other brats' wounds, he maliciously smirked knowing that he could easily make this worth his while. "So Brat, you said you would do anything right?"
"Yes!"
"Create a Binding Vow with me then."
"A Binding Vow?"
" It is a pact between oneself or another person. There are a set of rules and restrictions that come with them to make sure each party holds up their end of their contract. Binding Vows usually are made with oneself for more strength or power. However, the penalties for breaking a Binding Vows rule intentionally are very harsh and would cause immense pain." As Sukuna began to explain the concept of a Binding Vow to Subaru, he had found something engrained in Subaru's body which caused him to smirk to an insurmountable degree.
He had struck gold. A perfect vessel with just the right thing in it. 'The Ten Shadows Technique huh?'
" Alright then, fine. Lets make a Binding Vow Sukuna."
This caused Sukuna to smirk not only even more but he began to think how he could take advantage of this ignorant brat. ' Good. Very Good. ' "Now then , I Ryomen Sukuna , will heal your friends but after healing your friends and you finishing what business you have with them, you must depart and begin training under my guidance. However, you must accept the following conditions. Condition 1, You must allow me to take possession of your body for at least 5 minutes whenever I want for three times. Condition 2 , You must follow any two orders from me without fail."
After Sukuna laid out the rules and conditions for the Binding Vow , Subaru began contemplating whether or not it was worth it or not. However, being the massive hearted fool he was he accepted immediately.
“I accept”. When those words came out of his mouth, Subaru felt as chains began to rap around his heart but he didn't feel any pain.
Speaking with tons of hope in his voice, Subaru immediately called out to Sukuna. “Is it done Sukuna?”
“Yes, the Vow is now in effect”
“Alright do your thing Sukuna.” Marks and Tattoos began to form around Subaru’s body, a second pair of eyes had opened under his two main eyes, as now Sukuna was in full control.
'This feeling is marvelous! To finally be able to live once again!'
“Alright, before I do anything I need to fulfill this pact with the brat.” Sukuna immediately charged His new vessel with cursed energy and picked up both Takeshi and Setsuko and began to bolt in the way of the closest town - curtesy of using his enhanced senses to track the waves of cursed energy that lingered in the town- in increasing speed.
After reaching the town, Sukuna halted for a moment as he still needed to find the closest area that had a hospital. “Hey brat. Where is the closest hospital?”
Sukuna had some time while Subaru was contemplating the vow to check some of his memories for some information on the new era he had found himself in. Learning a few new things about it.
“The closest hospital should be all the way north near Kyoto.”
Upon receiving the direction he needed to head to, Sukuna wasted no time and began bolting again towards the hospital - looking like a blur to anyone who had seen him running- and while he was on his way, Sukuna applied reverse cursed technique to heal most of the wounds he could on both Takeshi and Setsuko.
Finally seeing the hospital in sight, Sukuna used up the remaining of the cursed energy he had currently - which was merely a fraction of what he usually had - and boosted him speed again for the final stretch.
Sukuna then slowed down as he opened the hospital doors and walked towards the receptionist. “Hey woman. These two brats are wounded. Take care of them.”
He dropped the two -as the receptionist quickly panicked and called immediately for two stretchers- and went and sat on the nearby bench to silently siphon some cursed energy that lingered in the area - which isn’t the ideal method for Sukuna to gain cursed energy back, but he had to deal with what he had currently- to be able to use some of his techniques again.
Using some of the idle time he had, Sukuna rechecked out the body of his current Vessel.
'Seems like the brat's body is average at best, Yet I can work around that. His innate technique is amazing yet he will probably struggle more with taming the beasts within the technique. His cursed energy supply is very high comparable to even mine. His overall potential is outstanding! Seems like I have found a perfect vessel. Though I will have to work to make him even better for my use.'
"I CAN HEAR YOU, YOU KNOW! I AM NOT GOING TO BE USED!"
'Suck it up brat. You have zero choice.'
"FUCK !"
Sukuna had gathered enough cursed energy - Just enough for simple reinforcement - he got up from the bench, left the hospital, and then bolted towards Subaru’s apartment with help from Subaru to get there.
While Sukuna was dashing towards Subaru's apartment, he decided to inform him of a couple things.
'Hey brat.'
"What's up Sukuna?"
'I'm effectively using one of my two unavoidable orders now.'
"Ok then, what do you have in mind?"
"First, You will follow my guidance as per the Binding Vow. Second, I am using my order to force you to allow me to make any changes to your body during the training I have in store for you."
"Fine Fine." Subaru then felt a sharp pain in his heart, as if it was confirmation that he will be forced to comply with Sukuna's demands.
'Good. You are already learning how to be Obedient.'
"OH GO SCREW YOURSELF!"
This earned a malicious laugh from Sukuna.
Soon enough, Sukuna found himself in front of Subaru's apartment building in no time and instead of needing to take the stairs, He Jumped over eight floors to get to Subaru's floor.
Subaru then directed Sukuna to his apartment on the eighth floor and told him to check his pockets for the keys to the apartment. Sukuna immediately found the keys , opened the door , walked in and slammed the door shut.
Sukuna relinquished his control over Subaru's body back to him, who in turn strolled over to his bed and collapsed on it. Promptly knocking out with no care in the world.
—————— The Next Morning ——————
The light from the morning sun was bright as hell as it shone directly on Subaru’s face. This forced Subaru to shuffle in bed a bit and groan as he woke up. He felt groggy as hell. So groggy in fact he found himself barely able to stand up.
“ughhhh….damn sunlight.” Subaru despised the fact he had to get up while he felt like he got hit by a truck as he tried to recollect about what happened yesterday. ‘wait’ it then dawned on him. “Kei! Suko!” He panicked as he worried about their condition.
However, Sukuna - who was irritated from all the sound he was making - decided to speak up. “Stop yelling brat. Your friends are safe. I held up my end of the deal. Now shut up."
“Sukuna! Thank god, I was beginning to worry that you were just some imagination from yesterday’s madness.”
Weirdly enough, the first thing that Subaru remembered was that the fact he had a old ass fossil in his body and that the supernatural was actually real.
“Cease your prattling brat. We have more important matters to attend to, or have you forgot?”
Another realization hit Subaru again. The Binding Vow. He had to abandon this life he had and be trained under Sukuna’s guidance.
“N-No I d-didn’t”
“Good”
“I'm going to mold you into the perfect vessel.” That sent shivers down Subaru’s spine, gulping at the thought of what may await him under Sukuna’s guidance.
”We have a lot of work to do brat.”
After a full year under Sukuna’s training, Subaru had improved a ton. He had fully developed his technique -which Sukuna told him it was called the Ten Shadows- and even began to develop most of Sukuna's own techniques as they began to engrave into his body. He also built his body to have a ripped but lean physique, which gave him good flexibility and strength without use of cursed energy.
Cursed energy use and output was drilled within Subaru's skull as Sukuna taught him everything he needed to know about it. Cursed energy use, imbuement, effective output, even reverse cursed technique. a technique so useful as it heals the user with blinding speeds. If used appropriately will allow the user to regenerate even limbs and fatal wounds and come out unscratched. Though very few could use it to this degree. Sukuna was one such person.
Some of the changes that Sukuna implemented into Subaru's body were not too drastic. Sukuna mostly improved his body to be able to access his own cursed energy reserves and to overall make Subaru's body more ready for battle.
Subaru also began to employ a more colder and calculated personality - which he only used mostly in battle and more serious situations - but he still was a massive goofball.
This was achieved due to Intensive fighting that Sukuna forced Subaru to participate in. Subaru fought a plethora of enemies. Mainly curses. He himself had fought a couple of special grade curses already and got himself addicted to the feeling of battle. Subaru also had fought with multiple sorcerers on rare occasions as they rather decided to avoid him after learning his identity as Sukuna's vessel.
Subaru had also faced against two curses who had the ability to use domain's. He learned that the first curse able to use domain was called Jogo. Though, he still was able to beat him due to Sukuna intervening. This implemented the goal for Subaru to gain a domain of his own. Sukuna had began to feel a sense of accomplishment for once in his life. He had been creating the perfect vessel. He was smug. very smug. His Vessel was growing into something more. Something real powerful. They had gathered the remaining other nineteen fingers over the course of the year with Subaru gaining the last one the week before.
Speaking of Sukuna, Both him and Subaru grew closer as Subaru began to prove himself to Sukuna - gaining his respect in the process - over the course of his period of training. Though lately, Sukuna started being more and more quiet to the point that it freaked Subaru out as he hadn’t ever seen Sukuna this quiet as he usually insulted him in a way that Subaru couldn’t understand.
That pretty much summed up the year that Subaru had with Sukuna as it was very eventful and a huge change in Subaru's life. Subaru himself at first was worried about what would happen but he soon got used to it. But there was one thing he missed. His friends. He hadn't seen them since the day at the abandoned shrine.
He reminisced about the old days he had with his friends. He wondered what would have happened if they never went to the shrine. Would they be fine? Would he still be with them? What about Sukuna? He decided to banish the thoughts from his head. He didn't want to entertain these thoughts at all anymore.
Currently, Subaru was inside a convenience store getting some snacks as a reward for focusing on his hard training regiment for so long.
After a while, He decided to get some instant noodles, nattō, chips, and a protein shake as an extra reward.
Grabbing what was his last item, he walked over to the cash register and unloaded his items onto the counter.
The cashier began to count the items total cost, and stated their price to Subaru.
“That’ll be 500 yen.”
Having Just enough in his wallet, He handed the money over to the cashier.
Subaru always found himself working odd jobs for enough money to survive on. He did need his necessities for a normal life. He needed money for: His apartment, food , bills , clothes, etc... as he was forced to keep watch on his training rather than having an actual stable job.
“Sure”
“Here is your ten yen”
“Thanks”
Subaru gathered his items and put them in the bag and headed outside of the convenience store. Subaru suddenly began seeing distortions in reality. The air was becoming static and a dark purple smoke beginning to envelope him with quickening speed. This immediately put Subaru on guard. He got into a fighting stance, readying his cursed technique to attack on the spot. Subaru's mind immediately began to race and analyze the current situation.
‘A domain?! No , nothing has happened to me yet. If what Sukuna told me is true, I would’ve already been hit by some sort of attack.’ While Subaru collected his thoughts, he saw a shadowy hand lunge at him and after blinking a few times he saw a bright light and the sound of….
‘Carriages? Wait wait wait. Hold up. Where am I? Is this a domain?’
As Subaru was stuck looking around -looking like a lost child - he began to rule out the many possibilities of what could be happening.
‘It cant be a domain. Everything looks too real and the people don't even have cursed energy.’ After crossing out the last possibility he could think of, he had one last conclusion.
“I’VE BEEN SUMMONED TO ANOTHER WORLD!!!"