Shukumei 宿命 ⋮ Sukuna Ryomen

Omake (紫野): Chūjitsuna Lavender

Year 1922
Taishō Era

"Are you really going to drag me here for every season?"

It's mid-summer. They sit somewhere in Oishi Park at Lake Kawaguchi.

The girl grins, "If you really didn't want to come. Then you wouldn't have."

He rolls his eyes and leans his face against the palm of his hand. The man hates that she's right. Sukuna sits in a field of lavender with his knees pulled to his chest. He watches this girl bask in all the purple that surrounds them.

She takes a deep breath and exhales with satisfaction through her mouth, "There's just something about lavender..."

At her words, there's a faint smile that creeps onto Sukuna's face. Lavender held a lot of sentimental value for the man and he wonders for a moment if he should remind this girl the meaning behind this flower and what it meant to them (even though her subconscious likely knows, if she ever digs deep enough). But then he thinks, perhaps another day, when the time is right. This girl has no recollection of her past lives and Sukuna's unsure of divulging such information to her yet. His mind continues to wonder why he keeps running into different versions of this person over the course of these 700+ years. At the same time, he's not upset about it. Because there was a time he thought he'd never see her again.

The girl notices the man's extended silence, so she turns to see where his attention is. And what she finds is his soft eyes staring at her.

"What are you smiling at?" She leans closer to the man and she wears a smile of her own, "Hm????"

Sukuna's hand comes down. His face rids of any emotion he was currently feeling and he immediately turns the other way, "Nothing."

"Oh, come on!" She grabs onto his arm, "You don't have to be embarrassed!"

The man turns his head slightly back in her direction and the corner of his eye catches her growing smile. Maybe all the repeated asking him to 'smile more' is finally doing something to him. He says nothing.

"It's because you think I'm pretty." Her smile forms into a grin and she's yanking at his arm gently for an answer, "Isn't it?"

"Pretty weird." He says in jest and his tone holds much seriousness.

His answer earns him a small shove and a pout from the girl. She crosses her arms over her chest. The sarcasm is evident in her voice, "Ha. Ha. You're so funny."

"Thanks." He says flatly and in jest again. This time, it actually makes her laugh.

"You're so....." her scrutinizing gaze wonders how someone could be so apathetic and impassive more often than not and the only time she's ever seen anything past this cold-hard exterior of his was just some months ago, when they shared a kiss (or if he's purposely irritating people). Her mind deviates, "....have you ever been in love?"

Sukuna returns the side of his face to the palm of his hand and his eyes lock onto hers for a moment before he looks out into the open field. His mind travels back to a time when this so-called 'love' destroyed him. The man's expression remains vacant.

The girl ignores his unresponsive self. She's thinking he's likely never been in love or even experienced it. She leans closer and coos, "Do you want to be in love?"

The man narrows his eyes and makes a face at her. He knows the subliminal message she's trying to insinuate. If only she knew what it was like the very first time they met, back in the Heian period. How she was nothing but a body; a number. And yet, as the seasons changed, how it was her that eventually allowed him to experience love for what he knows it to be. How it was her that built him up (even if it wasn't intentional) and her that also broke him down to nothing, all at the same time. He exhales through his nose silently.