November 19th, 2018, Aomori colony

  “We need to talk.”

  Such were the words that Uro had spoken to the cursed king who stood before her. She had been waiting since yesterday when she first arrived to speak with him. Having seen him submerged in some liquid and didn’t want to disturb a process she knew nothing of.

  While waiting, Uro had put a lot of thought into how she should approach him. Eventually deciding on four simple words to convey what she desired. Though it was precisely that simplicity that made her cringe internally as they spilled from her lips. Having spent so much time attempting to figure out how to engage him properly, only to come to such meager words as her choice of greeting.

  They felt inadequate, as if such a simple statement could fully convey the weight of the things Uro had to say—that they needed to discuss. The things she had done and the things she had to apologize for. She hadn’t thought of how to express her apology beyond another simple phrase. One that would be even more inadequate than her introductory one.

  Sukuna didn’t seem bothered by her statement as much as Uro herself had. His eyes narrowed slightly as he heard her. Beginning to walk towards a block of ice where over a dozen severed limbs rested along with a few heads.

  Uro had long since become used to his… peculiar taste in meat; even longer had she been desensitized to the gruesome displays of the battlefield. So the horrific display didn’t bother her for reasons such as it was disgusting. It instead irked her because it was a testament to yet another way she had failed in her pathetic life.

  “Ryomen. It’s been literal ages since anyone’s called me that, Uro,” Sukuna snickered slightly. A glimmer of nostalgia filled his voice at being addressed by his old name.

  “I presumed as such, Ryomen,” Uro emphasized his name as she spoke. Determined to set her silent challenge.

  The two locked eyes for a tense moment. Uro didn’t look away as he seemingly judged what to do with her. She had no disillusions about what might happen if she drew his ire; she couldn’t fight him even if he wasn’t astronomically stronger than her. The usage of Ryomen to address the king was a point she wouldn’t budge on. Before everything she had to say, it was the most important point. For she was likely the last person in the world who would ever call him as such, and if she stopped doing it. Then--

  “I’m unsure what you want to talk about; but it can come after I finish my meal. You're welcome to have some if you want,” Sukuna merely sighed at Uro’s choice of addressing him. Muttering a word underneath his breath before small flames emerged from either of his hands. Picking up what looked like a leg from the block of ice before he began to grill it.

  “No thank you I’m not hungry.” He shrugged in response to Uro’s polite refusal. Beginning to eat the leg a moment later as he took a large bite out of the severed stump. The quiet sound of meat being chewed filled the otherwise silent area. Uro simply watched as Ryomen ate his meal, waiting till he was finished to begin their conversation.

  Uro wasn’t surprised by how little he seemed to care about her. She had been expecting as much upon seeing him. Sukuna’s mental state was something she had been told of in depth. Even still, it was discomforting to see him be so apathetic. Then again, it was only natural given how long it must have been from his perspective since they had last seen one another.

  For Uro, their last meeting had been just over three weeks ago. A few days before she had taken the devil's hand and awoken in this strange new world. For Sukuna, she had no real way of knowing just how long he had lived in the Heian Era before accepting Kenjaku’s deal. How long he had reigned as a king over an era that had rejected Uro in every sense of the word

  Sukuna ruling over the world that had denied her in every sense of the word, and spreading unwanted destruction in it should have brought her some sense of joy. A perverse feeling of pleasure brought about by karmic vengeance. Rather than feelings of joy Uro felt the exact opposite; Sukuna’s rule only brought her sadness. For it was a testament to how far the boy she knew had been buried beneath the curse that afflicted him. If he was still alive at all.

  November 19th, 2018, Aomori colony

  Uro had nothing to do but watch Sukuna eat as she waited for him to finish. She couldn’t help but notice how ravenously he ate, taking massive bites in quick succession and scarfing them down. It only took him a few minutes to finish the first leg he had grabbed.

  His subsequent meals went by at a quick pace but still slowed down drastically. The second and third limbs took him ten times as long as the first to eat fully. By now Sukuna was on his fourth limb and was only about half awake. His bites had grown in length and were at their farthest apart.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask… Why are you naked?”

  Sukuna set the mass of flesh down on the block of ice as he turned to face Uro. Being greeted by her slightly flushed face. Uro wasn’t completely naked; she put great effort into using her cursed technique to cover her chest and crotch. It had been so natural to her that it completely slipped her mind that he wasn’t accustomed to seeing her like this.

  “I find this era’s clothes to be too constrictive.”

  Sukuna let out a grunt of acknowledgement to Uro’s answer. The two fell into a silence for a moment before he spoke up again.

  “How did you find me exactly? I shouldn’t have been visible through Kogane to you since you wouldn’t have known this vessel's name.”

  “I… I’ve been in Sendai since the game started. When you showed up, I thought you wanted to kill me, so I ran. I followed you after I had calmed down.” It wasn’t a lie per say, just a half-truth. Uro didn’t feel like mentioning her meeting with the sorcerer duo who had come a few days prior. The only thing it would possibly add to was Sukuna’s anger.

  “Why would I want to kill you, Uro?” Raising an eyebrow, v expressed his confusion towards Uro’s presumption of his intentions.

  “... Don’t you hate me?”

  “Again, why? You’ve done nothing to draw my ire.”

  Uro couldn’t conceal her surprise at Sukuna’s denial of hate towards her. Her eyes widened, and her mouth fell open in surprise. Uro could think of several good reasons why he should want her dead. None of which she could or would object to in the slightest. Uro understood why he hadn’t hated her before she had come to this time, but during the time he lived after she had become a cursed object. Surely he would have understood just how abhorrent their actions had been?

  No, he won’t ever realize.

  Uro looked down as a cocktail of shame and anger rose within her. She had hoped that even a tiny piece of revulsion towards her remained in his heart. For it would prove that he still had one, and the curse hadn’t swallowed it whole. Everything really had ended up just how the devil had wanted, and she was to blame.

  “Besides, I figured you’d hate me after what I did,” Taking Uro’s silence as an answer of its own, Sukuna flipped the assumption on its head.

  “You aren’t to blame for what happened that day. All their blood is on my hands.”

  “Even if you believe that, it doesn’t change the fact that I killed them. I don’t care about their lives or any of the others I’ve put down, but I’m not unaware of the feelings that arise in others from their deaths. Hating me because of my actions is what I think constitutes a natural human response. Or so a certain brat would say.”

  Uro stiffened as he spoke. The “natural human response” he had ironically spoken of in a robotic manner was far closer to the truth than she wanted to admit. After returning to find the decimation left in Ryomen's wake, hatred for what he had done ran rampant through her mind.

  It was only after reincarnating that she realized it wasn’t Ryomen's fault. There was no point in blaming the gun for being shot; it was the fault of the one who pulled the trigger. As such, Ryomen didn’t hold any blame for simply following through with what he had been told.

  Before Uro could reaffirm he held no part of the blame, he continued on with his explanation.

  “Besides that man was your father far more than he ever was mine. Not hating me for killing him I think is far stranger than just hating me. Though I’m admittedly far from an expert on such matters.”

  “... My father got what was coming to him. After everything he did there… there was no other way it was going to end.”

  Uro barely believed the words as they left her mouth. She wanted to believe that there had been another way, a better way that had avoided all of the damage they had caused. In the end, even if there was one, it didn’t matter; she couldn’t turn back the clock and put them on the road.

  She could never absolve herself of the sins she had committed; Her father likely knew all that to be the case as well. It was why he had been so willing to lay down his life if it meant he could finally bring his long-cherished dream to reality.

  “Do you think I’m going to get what’s coming to me, Uro?” Sukuna looked at Uro with a slight smirk as he spoke.

  Don’t say that.

  “What exactly do you have coming to you, Ryomen?” Uro feigned a lack of understanding to the king’s question. As if she didn’t know precisely what he meant.

  None of it’s your fault.

  “Come now, you must know I’ve killed quite a few people in my life. If there is a hell, it’s quite clear I’m going there.”

  Even if that's true, you aren’t going alone.

  “As if anyone could ever kill you, Ryomen. You’re immortal as long as you find a new body,” Uro swiftly denied the possibility of a being capable of striking Sukuna down existing. While she was attempting to evade the true topic of conversation, it was a statement she nonetheless believed. He was invincible, just as they both wanted.

  “Hmmm. I’m not so sure. There’s this sorcerer, Satoru Gojo. I think he may just have what it takes to end my life.”

  Uro’s eyes narrowed, searching for any trace of jest in his eyes. After being satisfied he was genuine in his statement, Uro couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it.

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  “You can’t be serious?”

  ““Oh, but I am. He too declares himself the strongest. Longing to feel love even though he knows it’s something he can never have. It irritated me at first and still does in part, but I’ve come to see the situation in a new light.” Sukuna waited a moment before he spoke again. Content that Uro had nothing to say.

  “Both of us have walked different roads to the summit. By besting him in combat I can once again prove the path I walk to be the correct one. The prospect entices me.” The king of curses smirked as he took a small bite from one of the roasted limbs near him. Unable to rein in his momentary hunger.

  Don't say it…

  “...Why bother with such a trivial thing? Don’t tell me you’ve really fought all these years just to prove yourself better then others.”

  Please say anything but--

  “No, it’s just because of a slight desire I have to see if Kenjaku was wrong. I fight because I can; I live my life however I want to and do anything I want. What else is there?”

  The words that spilled from his lips were a dagger that reached through Uro’s chest and cut her heart. Causing her anguish, which she had no way of expressing to the man before him. Ryomen was unaware of the effect his words held and simply stood there waiting for a response. Seeking to rein in the conversation, Uro directed it back to what she originally sought to ask.

  “Why are you helping Kenjaku?”

  Sukuna's eyes widened slightly, probably caught off guard by Uro’s sudden change in subject. After everything she had been told by Kenjaku, Uro had realized this to be the most important step she had to take. She couldn’t start by tackling the root of his curse, but if she chipped away little by little at the things around him that supported it…

  “Why do you think I’m helping him?” Tilting his head in confusion, Sukuna looked at Uro and questioned where she had heard such a thing from.

  “You came to the colony riding a curse spirit. I presume that’s Kenjauku’s current host’s technique. If you aren’t helping him, why stay in contact with him?”

  “Kenjaku is being sought after by the strongest of this era’s sorcerer’s. By staying in his proximity, those very sorcerers will fight me as well. It’s too tantalizing of an opportunity to pass up on,” Sukuna licked his lips as he explained his reasons for staying close to Kenjaku. Thinking only on how his presence would bring the strong to him.

  “Don’t you realize Kenjaku is just using you. You’re nothing more than a shield to guard him from those who wish to put an end to all of this madness.”

  Uro gritted her teeth as she tried to convey to Sukuna the reality of the situation and how Kenjaku was merely using him. She knew she had no right to make this argument given what her intentions had been from the beginning, even still—someone had to try and tell him how it was. Even if it was a lousy hypocrite like her.

  “Even if that is the case, I don’t care much for it. In the same vein that Kenjaku uses me, I’m using him to fulfill my own desires. I’m also somewhat interested in the merger happening myself. The chances of that amalgamation of flesh being a suitable battle seem high to me.”

  Sukuna’s admission of his lack of care towards being seen as a pawn in Kenjaku’s scheme surprised Uro. She thought having him realize such a thing would be the first step of many to going back to how things were, but if that were rendered obsolete then what was she to--

  “Just what exactly are you trying to accomplish, Uro? You come here wishing to partake in a discussion with me, then all you do is ask me frivolous questions. If you simply wanted to catch up with me, I’m not opposed to the idea, but I was under the impression you had something important you wanted to share. If so, hurry up and speak it already.” Growing tired of how the conversation was progressing. The king impatiently suggested that Uro move along and get to the part she deemed ‘important.’.

  It was a request that Uro felt was the epitome of unfairness. To start with, if Uro were to be asked what precisely about their interaction and exchange she deemed ‘important.’ She would simply say everything. Uro had not interacted with Ryomen in long. In that time both very little and very large changes had occurred to him. To Uro, who was confronted with these changes, every moment she got to spend around this new person was invaluable. For if she were to bring back the person he used to be, she must first refine her understanding of the person he had become.

  It was through this important conversation that Uro had gained a further understanding of this ‘new’ Ryomen. She had been told several centuries ago the type of person Ryomen had become; still, she sought to confirm his new mentality firsthand before making any judgments beyond minimal ones. Now that she had, she was able to ascertain fully that what Kenjaku had told her about Ryomen was true. It was a realization that only served to bring sadness to her heart.

  This understanding of who Ryomen had become was the largest reason Uro viewed his request as completely unfair. To Sukuna, it mattered not what values one might hold. His were the only ones that mattered. In that regard, nothing Uro could say could be considered something important to him; it was quite the opposite in fact.

  The emotions she felt within her heart towards the person who stood before her. She knew not the words to convey them to their fullest depth; even if she knew the words, they would never leave her lips. For she knew if Sukuna were to hear and understand the feelings she harbored towards him, it would be perhaps the greatest insult one could tell him.

  It was an insult that he ironically was constantly being besieged by the one closest to him. They too never spoke such things to the king, not because of the knowledge of what Sukuns may do to them if he were to know they harbored such thoughts. It instead was because they knew even if they told their savior their plea, it would fall on deaf ears. For they lacked both the belief and courage to melt his icy heart.

  Having understood all aspects behind his question, Uro looked towards him once more. While she knew she was unable to say something that Sukuna would deem important. She could say something that perhaps Ryomen may consider valuable. Taking a deep breath, she began to utter the three-word phrase she had concocted to express all the emotions held within her over what she had done.

  Shame, fury, pain, and sadness blended together within her heart. She felt as if the words she was about to say could never express the true expanse to which she felt these emotions, forever doomed to keep them locked away in her heart, unable to reach the one they had to. With such a simplistic phrase, she could only view it as a laughable attempt to express these emotions, but she would say it nonetheless.

  “Ryomen, I’m…”

  Having made it to the second word out of three, Uro’s voice lost the strength to carry on. Whatever will she had mustered quickly became snuffed out as she looked into his eyes. There was hardly any emotion behind those eyes save for an unquenchable desire to devour those who he thought might entertain him. They held none of the emotions Uro expected—wanted to see in them. She wanted him to hold nothing but content towards her. She wanted him to hate her

  but he didn’t.

  So the act of apologizing held no merit. It never held any merit to begin with anyway. Whether Ryomen hated Uro or didn’t, her vocalizing of her wrong doings didn’t serve him.

  Sukuna didn’t care about the things Uro had done in their past together. He didn’t even deem it as something wrong or repulsive; she held a sneaking suspicion he was grateful for the things she’d done. It had made him who he was after all. As such, an apology to Sukuna would be an utterly pointless endeavor. He would be completely unaware of what she would be apologizing for.

  Ryomen would’ve hated Uro for everything— at the very least, Uro hoped he would. The lines she had enabled him in crossing. The people she told him he was just in slaying. The pretty words she had spoken because he wanted him to be happy, wanting something she knew he would never have so long as he stayed there. The heart she had watched wither away down into nothing. An apology to Ryomen may yield the response she wanted—his denunciation and damnation of her for everything.

  But even if Uro got the response she longed for, it was the epitome of selfishness. Ryomen was the only one left besides Kenjaku who knew of all the evils she had committed. Thus she had longed for him to hate her, for someone in this world to hold Uro Tanaka accountable for everything she had done. That would have made things easier, too easy. As if recognizing this, the universe refused to give Uro what she wanted, damning her to a fate where the only person left who hated her for her sins was herself.

  She had wanted to take the easy way out and express the guilt welling up inside her heart since before she could even recall. She was a coward for having such a fickle desire. The easy road—like many other things in this world—existed in a realm far beyond anything and everything she deserved.

  Realizing that this had been her true objective in coming to meet with him, Uro added to the list of reasons why she belonged in hell. Thinking such self-deprecating thoughts wouldn't be productive to her desire to assist the man who stood before her. As such, Uro adjusted her words at the last moment, abandoning her selfish desire and working towards the only thing she had left to give him.

  “Ryomen I’m… wondering how you’ve been since reincarnating. You don’t have many points, which surprised me; I figured you would have been the highest ranker by far.”

  “Ah well… that’s a somewhat long story,” Sukuna tilted his head in thought as a pensive expression found itself on his face.

  “If you wouldn’t mind telling me, I’d like to hear it,” Smiling Uro expressed her interest in Sukuna’s conquests since reincarnating.

  While it would be a lie to say she wasn’t interested in the slightest in what he had been up to since awakening in this new world. It was far from being in the forefront of her mind. Likewise to the one who held similar desires to Uro, she didn’t know how to approach the king while working towards the goal she had in mind.

  The nineteen days she had spent looking for a method forward were a drop in the bucket compared to his faithful servant, who had dedicated their life to accomplishing such a goal. So it was no wonder Uro came up empty when looking for an effective way to move towards her goal.

  Her current lack of a plan did not deter her however, instead it had the opposite effect of bolstering her resolve to find a path to her destination. In pursuit of this she would listen carefully as the king told her his tale. Hearing the countless lives he had slaughtered and ruined for no reason other than he could, looking for a way to save him all the while.

  “Then after killing this vessel’s sister, I came back here, and I’m waiting for Uruame to return with my final finger. All that talking made me hungry; give me a moment.” Wrapping up his explanation, Sukuna walked over to the table of ice and began chewing on an arm.

  Uro was left standing half a dozen feet from him and was nearly done processing everything she had been told. She was surprised Kenjaku had let Sukuna reincarnate before the games began, or even let his twenty fingers be spread about. Though given the immense power of their owner, such precautions may have been necessary.

  Uro had been prioritizing anything that she could somehow use to further her seemingly impossible agenda. She unsurprisingly came up empty on that front, but she had heard a name she didn’t recognize quite a few times. One Sukuna had spoken with a certain fondness she thought he was incapable of, having lost that piece of him a long time ago.

  “Who’s Uruame?”

  “Hmmm?”

  Sukuna turned to look at Uro. The arm he had picked up was still in his hand, and a big chunk of its forearm was being chewed in the king's mouth. The way he looked at Uro in confusion only bolstered his primal-like appearance.

  “You mentioned this Uruame person a few times. Back during the time when Gojo was sealed and when you first jumped into this vessel. Who are they?”’

  “Uruame’s my…” Sukuna paused as he struggled to come to an answer; eventually he looked down at the severed limb in his hand, and their title came to him.

  “Chef would be the most appropriate term for their position, I suppose.”

  “I see… Are they not a very powerful sorcerer, then?”

  “No, aside from Satoru Gojo, they’re the strongest I’ve ever encountered. Though I suppose the boy with the copy may be a tad more than they could handle. It would be a close match if nothing else.”

  Uro’s eyes couldn’t help but widen slightly as Sukuna brought up Okkotsu. Having both fought and been defeated by him, she knew he was not one to be trifled with. It seemed insane to think that Sukuna would place such a powerful ally as nothing more than their chef. Something she couldn’t help but ask about

  “If they are so strong, why are you saying they’re just your chef?”

  Uro knew she was chancing her luck, asking so many questions in quick succession, but this Uruame character was one of the few unknown elements in regard to what she knew about Sukuna. Anything she could get out of them would prove valuable. Thankfully, Sukuna seemed unbothered as he spoke back with a reply.

  “Their proficiency in preparing my meals is their quality that I hold the most value in. Also, I would prefer that their title isn’t something akin to a position that would make them bring destruction in my name. I doubt Uruame would take a liking to being referred to as such.”

  “…How did you two meet, Ryomen?” Uro chose her words carefully as she prodded the subject delicately. Intent on finding out more about them and perhaps getting Sukuna himself to realize the kind of bond they shared.

  “We first met a few months after I left that place. Why do you ask?”

  “It’s just you seem rather…intimate with this Uruame person. I haven’t heard you talk about anyone that way in… well, literally ages.”

  Sukuna’s eyes sparkled a tad as Uro’s words reached him. His head tilted as he considered their meaning.

  “...Their no one overly special to me, Uro; I simply find them useful...That’s more than could be said for most people who live,” After a few lengthy moments, Sukuna came to his answer. Such an answer gave Uro a flicker of hope amidst a darkened sky, for it was the first thing she saw him giving a modicum of care towards. Before Uro could continue to prod Sukuna about Ururame he began to walk off

  “I’m going to head to bed now. Feel free to rest in one of the spare rooms around this place, Uro.”

  Uro looked at the entrance to their sanctum and saw that night had fallen. It seemed things had taken longer than she thought they would.

  I probably shouldn’t ask Ryomen about Uruame anymore; better to just wait for them to arrive and ask them directly.

  Uro sighed at the realization and began to walk down one of the hallways opposite the direction Sukuna had traveled in. She hadn’t thought she would accomplish the purging of Sukuna’s curse overnight, but it still irritated her at the lack of progress she had made.

  There was no rush, so she was able to easily quell her frustrations. Despite what Sukuna said about this Satoru Gojo, who may stand as his equal, and Okkotsu’s desire to bring him down—all their efforts would be for naught. The king of curses would never fall in battle, for he existed in a different realm than the rest of the sorcerers.

  Fighting him was tantamount to trying to battle the deity of a shrine. All struggles would be pointless in the end. For no amount of effort or persistence would ever let someone cross over into the realm of divinity that he found himself in. For the curse that he

  harbored enabled him to step foot into a domain beyond that of humans, but it had left his soul a shell in its wake.

  Uro slowly opened the first door she had come across; luckily enough, it led into what she presumed to be a bedroom. Though the bed in this case was more so a decorative stone slab with a thin layer of sheeting over it. Such rough living conditions had been a norm for a large portion of her life, so she didn’t mind it in the slightest.

  Resting her back on the stone slab brought her a certain sense of comfort; it made her remember a simpler time. Back when the only things she had been concerned about were finding tomorrow's meal and being grateful if she had anything more on her.

  You made me a really selfish person, Dad.

  It was his fault really. For the drastic detour her life had taken, for everything that had followed after. All the blood that had been split since then and the hearts that had been left broken. If they had never met that day, then the course of history might have changed.

  Uro couldn’t help a small chuckle at the thought; it seemed like a lie a child would tell about his importance to delude themself into thinking they were someone special. Though rationally speaking, it was far from an overstatement to say that their meeting that day had been what started to turn the wheel of fate. Rather than regret the meeting that had been the seed that blossomed into chaos. Uro couldn’t have been more thankful for it.

  Despite all the pain that had been caused from it, she had been granted happiness and love because of it. To Uro, that happiness was worth all the suffering that had been caused from that first meeting. If they had never met, Uro would never have come to understand how delicate and valuable that sense of happiness truly was.

  Thus it was her father's fault for making her understand what it felt like to be loved. To make her so selfish to be grateful for having experienced such things despite all the pain that had been caused by it. He had made her a truly horrid person, perhaps even more horrid than him.

  Uro stifled a depressed chuckle as a realization of dark irony ran through her. She wasn’t even his blood and had been loved by him fully; this had led to her developing a certain sense of greed. Sukuna, who was under exactly opposite circumstances, also developed this greed, though to compare her to him would be like comparing an anthill to a mountain.

  It left her with an overwhelming sense of irritation, but she had to admit Kenjaku had been right. He always seemed to be right, though she would prove him wrong just this once. She would free the king from the shackles of the loneliness that surrounded him, even if it was the last thing he wanted.