The Hollow between us

Chapter 1:Glimpse of the Divine

Megumi knew it wasn't sleep paralysis — even if it felt like it. That heavy presence pressing down on him. The taste of iron in the back of his throat. And that whisper — low and invasive — that slid into his dreams without permission.

He stood in an unfamiliar space again. Black stone. Firelight licking the walls. A throne of bone and blood.

This wasn't his mind.

It was Sukuna's.

Again.

He didn't understand why it kept happening. These weren't dreams. They were intrusions. Or invitations. Depending on who you asked.

Sukuna sat lazily atop the throne, one hand resting under his chin, the other cradling a goblet of something that looked suspiciously like blood. His mouth curled into a slow, devastating grin the second Megumi appeared.

"Welcome back, little shadow."

Megumi didn't speak. He wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

Sukuna liked silence too much.

"You always fight it," Sukuna said, voice low and amused. "But you still come. Curious."

"You drag me here," Megumi replied coldly.

Sukuna laughed — not loud, but with a sound that echoed through the space like a blade unsheathing. "Only when you're vulnerable. When your guard slips. When you think of me."

Megumi's fists clenched. "I don't—"

"Oh, but you do," Sukuna interrupted smoothly, rising from the throne with the fluid grace of a predator. "You wonder why I keep watching you. Why I saved you."

That night still haunted Megumi. The cursed womb incident. When Sukuna could have let him die — should have, by all logic — but didn't. He protected him. Deliberately. No one else noticed it. But Megumi did.

"You're a mystery," Sukuna continued, circling him like a storm. "So much restraint. So much power, leashed behind grief and guilt. You could be a god, and you choose to be a soldier. Obedient. Predictable."

He leaned in close, breath hot against Megumi's ear.

"You're the one thing in this rotting world that still surprises me."

Megumi didn't flinch — but his breath caught, and Sukuna noticed.

"You're disgusting," he said, voice sharp.

"Mm. I've been called worse. But I never lusted after those who said it."

That word hit like a hammer.

Lusted.

Sukuna's gaze pinned him in place — black eyes with slitted pupils, drinking him in like a man dying of thirst.

"I want to see you break, Megumi."

He said it softly, like a vow.

"I want to see what you look like when you stop pretending to be good. I want to peel away your pride, your loyalty, your fear — until all that's left is you, raw and burning."

He stepped closer, until there was barely space between them.

"I want you to want me," Sukuna said. "And I will make you."

Megumi's hands trembled at his sides, but not from fear.

From rage. From shame.

From something darker, coiling low in his gut.

"You think I'd ever give you that?" Megumi spat. "You think I'd ever want you?"

Sukuna smiled, and it was terrifying. Intimate.

"You already do."

He woke up gasping.

His skin was hot. Sheets tangled. Chest tight.

Yuji was asleep a few feet away, unaware of anything. Unaware that something inside him — someone — had just spoken words that Megumi couldn't unhear.

The worst part wasn't the dream.

It was that part of him — some twisted, buried piece — believed it.

Believed that maybe, deep down, something in him had started to look back.

To Be Continued