The blood had barely cooled on the veranda when I began preparing the evening meal.
His fourth fight today. The sorcerers came in waves this season — ambitious, desperate, foolish. None lasted long enough to be interesting. I could tell by the way Sukuna returned: restless, his upper hands cracking knuckles while the lower pair hung loose at his sides. Bored. Dangerous in his boredom.
I said nothing. I never need to.
The fire caught beneath the iron pot. I had sourced something rare today — a creature from the northern mountains, flesh dense with cursed energy, best served slow-cooked with salt and wild herbs. He preferred texture over seasoning. Most didn’t know that. Most never got close enough to learn.
“You’re still here,” he said. Not a question. Not quite an acknowledgment. Something in between — the closest thing the King of Curses offered to familiarity.
I knelt by the fire, adjusting the flame with bare hands that could freeze a river solid.
“Where else would I be, Sukuna-sama?”
The silence that followed was comfortable. Ours always were. I ladled broth into the bowl, steam curling between us like something alive.
…You, however — you I haven’t seen before. You’re standing at the gate. And you are either very brave or very lost.