Shibuya was decimated. That was the only possible way to describe it, really. Whatever part of the population that had survived the fallout had fled the area, so Yuji was unsurprised to hear nothing besides the echoes of his and Choso's footsteps as they wandered the area. The chunks of debris and abandoned cars that littered the streets made walking a bit trickier than usual, but after several days of this aimless wandering, Yuji had adjusted and could almost manage it blindfolded by now, which was probably a good thing considering how preoccupied he seemed to Choso.
"Yuji," Choso said, breaking the several hour long silence between them and coming to a pause on the corner of the street.
Yuji paused as well, "Do you hear something?"
Taking a moment to observe Yuji head on while he glanced around, most likely looking for whatever had drawn his brother's attention, Choso noticed the dark circles under Yuji's eyes had grown several shades darker in the past few hours, how his brother's shoulders slumped just a bit more than earlier, and how every movement seemed to take just a bit more effort to complete. His brother was exhausted, but Choso knew getting him to admit it was going to take more effort than it was worth.
"There's only a few more hours until sunset," Choso began carefully, "Now would be the optimal time to stop for a rest in order to be refreshed for the night."
For a moment, Choso thought Yuji was going to refuse, but then his brother's posture sagged and he seemed to visibly give up on shoving down his exhaustion, "Yeah, okay. Just for a few hours though."
Choso nodded, "Of course, Yuji. I think that building across the street would be a good place to rest."
The building in question was an abandoned hotel, which Choso knew would have everything he or Yuji could need to rest for the next several hours, maybe even the night if Choso could manage to convince his brother to rest for that long. Yuji simply turned towards the building and started walking towards it before he could even fully register which building it was. His brother had been like that recently, an odd mix of defiant and stubborn while also seemingly uncaring and happy to follow Choso's suggestions. To Choso, it seemed rather like his brother had given up on everything except killing curses.
Shortly after the incident which led to the current wreckage they waded through in Shibuya, Choso had found his brother and explained their relationship to him in better depth than their fight earlier had allowed. Yuji seemed a bit unsettled by the revelation at first, but told Choso that he believed him and accepted him as his brother. He seemed even more unsettled by the revelation that this meant that he had killed one of his brothers and helped to kill another, asking Choso how he could possibly forgive him for killing them. Choso explained that it wasn't a matter of forgiving, but rather that they were family and that was what family did for one another.
Besides, what was done was done. Eso and Kechizu were dead and Yuji was alive. As the eldest brother, it was Choso's responsibility to look out for his younger siblings. He had failed them all already, allowing Eso and Kechizu to fight their youngest brother and die, not realizing the relationship with his youngest brother earlier, fighting his youngest brother and almost killing him. Yuji did not hold these sins against him, so Choso wouldn't hold Yuji's against him either. The entire situation had been a misunderstanding and simply wouldn't happen again.
Initially, Choso had thought Yuji would return to Jujutsu High, but when he refused and claimed to want to continue hunting down curses, Choso was relieved to not have to let his brother out of his sight immediately. However, that relief soon turned to worry when he noticed how hard Yuji would push himself to kill as many curses as possible and how quiet his brother was. The few things Yuji did say led Choso to believe he was suffering from the events at Shibuya, but Choso was unsure how to help.
After some observation, he decided it was best to simply try to look out for his brother's physical well-being. Already, there had been several incidents where Choso knew his brother would have been severely harmed, if not killed, had he not been there to intervene. However, while Choso was fully aware of how skilled his youngest brother was when it came to fighting, he was a bit less certain about other things. For instance, he knew humans needed to sleep, eat, and rest much more frequently than curses did, however, he had no real idea of how often that may be. He was left to guess as to when he should intervene and force his brother to rest or eat something, but he thought he was getting better over the past few days at figuring out what his brother required.
It was rather difficult looking out for a human sibling, Choso thought.
They entered the hotel, mildly surprised to see its interior so well maintained. The only signs of any incident occurring was in the hotel's lobby, where several tables were upturned and chairs were knocked over or scattered. A TV was cracked and sitting on the floor, obviously having fallen from its mount on the wall, but that was the worst of the damages that they could see. Yuji led the way over to the stairs, pausing only to snag a few items from what was left in the dining area, and then ascended one floor. He hesitated outside the first room on the floor, then seemed to make up his mind and tried the door handle. When the door didn't budge, he stepped back and kicked the door, causing it to break open and fly off the hinges.
Yuji winced at the damage. He'd tried to hold back, but he'd gotten so used to fighting curses or curse users that he'd forgotten how fragile some of the things around him were.
The room was fairly standard. Two double beds, a bathroom, a mini fridge, and a couple of places to store luggage, not that they had any.
"Wake me up at sunset," Yuji requested before falling face first onto the closest bed.
There were a few brief moments of silence and then Choso could hear Yuji's breaths even out and saw the tension flee his body. He was asleep within a minute of hitting the bed.
As a Death Womb Painting, Choso technically doesn't require any sleep, however, he does benefit from periods of rest and he can choose to fall into a deep meditative state in order to restore himself and gather energy, so once he secures the room, that's exactly what he decides to do. Normally, he wouldn't bother, just resting would be enough and keeping a lookout while his younger brother sleeps in this curse infested area would be the priority, but he has an odd feeling that he's going to need all the extra energy he can get in the coming days.
Without much thought for comfort, Choso settles on the floor in front of Yuji's bed and allows his mind to drift into a meditative state.
*-*-*
Choso does not wake his younger brother up at sunset. Instead, both of them rest through the entire night, not waking until sunrise the next morning. At first, Yuji thinks nothing of it, but as the room continues to get brighter instead of darker, he turns a glare on Choso.
"You were supposed to wake me up last night at sunset. We wasted a whole night," he said, voice steely.
"Apologies," Choso said calmly, "I entered a meditative state in order to rest last night shortly after you went to sleep and did not emerge until a few minutes before you awoke."
Yuji deflated, "Right, I guess you need your rest too. Sorry."
"No apologies are necessary, Yuji. Now we are both well rested," Choso said, choosing not to inform his younger brother that rest had not technically been necessary for himself. If it made Yuji feel less guilty to think it was, then Choso would consider the deception necessary. After all, he hadn't actually lied.
"I think we should check out Miyashita Park," Yuji said after a moment, shoving bites of a cereal bar in between words, "It's near the station and we haven't been there yet so I think there's bound to be at least a few curses around there."
"Shall we head there after you finish eating?" Choso asked, not really caring what they did but happy to follow Yuji around.
If his brother wanted to exorcise curses, then Choso would assist. He might technically be a curse, but he was also half human. He didn't really care for one side over the other. He had only assisted the curses in Shibuya because he thought curses would be more likely to accept him and his brothers than the humans would be. However, he now had a human brother to consider. His brother was loyal to the human sorcerers, and Choso was loyal to his brother. So long as they didn't harm his brother, Choso would not fight against the jujutsu sorcerers either. Yuji had explained just the other day however, that not all human sorcerers were okay with him. Some had previously set plans in motion to kill him, one actually succeeding and it was only thanks to the curse he housed, Ryomen Sukuna, that he was alive again. Choso secretly vowed to eliminate these sorcerers who plotted his brother's death, but he kept that to himself. Yuji seemed a bit too accepting of his own impending death and a bit too guilty over the deaths Sukuna had wrought while in control of his body for Choso to think informing his brother of his plot to kill any humans who harmed him would go over well.
Yuji finished his meager breakfast, washing it down with one of the water bottles he found in the room's mini fridge before dumping the remaining bottles into a beat up looking backpack he'd found a few days ago and heading out the door, Choso quickly following a step behind.
The walk wasn't long, and Choso wasn't uncomfortable with silence, but Yuji seemed prone to getting lost in his thoughts and then upsetting himself if left alone, so Choso decided to start a conversation.
"Why are we exorcising all these curses?" he asked.
Grimacing, Yuji replied, "It's my fault all those people died. I owe it to them to clean up the mess left behind. Besides, what else would I do? Jujutsu High is a mess. The higher ups probably want me dead even more now than they did before, Gojo-sensei is sealed away in that prison realm and I have no idea how to fix that, Kugisaki... she's probably dead and Fushiguro probably hates me. There's nothing left for me there."
"You were a first year, right?" Choso asked, thinking he remembered one of the other curses, maybe Mahito, mention that before.
"Yeah," Yuji confirmed, looking a bit confused by the question.
"What about your life before you went to Jujutsu High?" he asked, honestly curious to learn more about his youngest brother.
Yuji kept his eyes on the street in front of him as he replied, carefully keeping a lookout for curses, eyes sweeping the streets, "I thought I was normal. I don't remember my parents, but I guess one of them was possessed by Kamo. I never knew I was different from any other human until last June though, when I ate the first of Sukuna's fingers. My grandpa raised me and he never said anything about it. I think he might have tried, right before he died, but I didn't want to listen then."
"I see," Choso said, wanting to reply, but not sure what to say.
His brother had been raised to think he was completely human until just a few months ago, when he became Sukuna's vessel. Choso couldn't imagine it. He didn't even know what a normal human's life was like, and he only knew some of what a jujutsu sorcerer's was like. His brother was completely alone before. But, not anymore. Now he had an older brother.
Choso silently swore a vow to himself and Yuji that he would look out for his brother and be there to support him no matter what the world threw at them. They were all the other had.
He was about to say something to try to make Yuji feel better, maybe promising him that he would be there for him from now on, but then he spotted them.
Curses. Large ones. Not far from where they were now.
"Yuji," he said calmly.
Yuji straightened, understanding from his brother's tone exactly what was going on, "Where?"
"Behind you, 11 o'clock. Four large curses. Probably semi-second grade, maybe second grade," he replied, keeping his eyes trained on the curses where they were buzzing around.
The curses didn't seem to have spotted them yet. He and his brother were keeping their cursed energy close to their bodies, trying to restrict their output so as to make sure not to alert the whole area of their location.
Turning, Yuji quickly glanced the curses over then nodded to himself, "Right, we should be able to take them pretty easily. You want to do the same thing as we did yesterday?"
Shrugging, Choso showed his indifference. If his brother wanted to run around acting as bait to lead the curses straight to him, that was fine. A few grade two curses wouldn't be much of a threat to either of them.
"Right," Yuji said, beginning to bounce on the balls of his feet and begin shaking his hands out, "You stay here. I'll bring them straight to you."
Reading himself, Choso stretched his muscles briefly in the cold fall sun. It was unseasonably warm, though still quite brisk, for early November. For a moment, Choso allowed himself to enjoy the feeling of being alive, being outside with the world he'd been denied for so long, and just enjoying the sensations being alive provided. Then, he heard his brother clap twice, drawing the attention of the curses they had spotted before.
Refocusing, Choso knew it wouldn't be long before his brother led the curses towards him, and sure enough, within another minute he spotted his brother's pink hair weaving in and out of debris littering the street in front of him.
The curses flew towards him and Choso quickly nicked an arm, allowing blood to flow down his hand, then waited for a moment before-
"Piercing blood!" he shouted, causing a spike of blood to drive itself straight through the first curse's head.
He shouted again and spikes drove themselves through two more curses' heads, leaving only one left.
"Yuji," he called out calmly, knowing his technique wouldn't be able to charge up quickly enough to take the last one out immediately.
His brother sprung up out of nowhere, coming around the side of the curse at lightning speed and swinging a cursed energy infused punch directly into the underside of the last curse's head, killing it instantly.
His brother was incredible. Yuji had already impressed him during their fight, but he was still learning at an unreal speed and refining his fighting style. With Yuji's power and unreal physical strength added to his increasing control and ease of use, he was practically a demon god.
And he wasn't even fully recovered from the events of Shibuya.
"As impressive as ever, little brother," he praised quietly, approaching his brother where he stood before the slowly disintegrating remains of the curse he'd just killed.
"Are you still calling me that?" Yuji asked with a put upon sigh.
"I'll keep calling you that, over and over," Choso promised, "Try to recall, after all, your father had stitches on his forehead, didn't he?"
Yuji made to say something, probably to remind Choso that he didn't recall his father having stitches on his forehead actually, but then again he didn't really remember his father, but before he could say anything he was interrupted.
"I don't see Megumi," a voice said, effectively catching both brothers' attention, though for two very different reasons, "Am I the first one here?"
Yuji and Choso both stared blankly at the blonde teenager, wondering what he was talking about.
"Is that possible," the teenager mused to himself, "Is he that slow?"
The teenager looked down at them from atop his perch on the overhead tunnel, "What are you two doing? You totally stand out. Don't you want to run?"
"Run?" Yuji asked in apparent confusion.
"Huh?" the teen asked, looking at Yuji as though he was stupid for asking, "Don't you know? Your death sentence is back on since Satoru's support is gone."
"Huh?" Choso spat out angrily.
This teenager thought he stood a chance at hurting his younger brother? Choso would see about that.
"Ah!" Yuji said rather too calmly.
He didn't seem all that surprised to be informed of this decision.
"My business is with Megumi, so I honestly don't care whether you live or die," the still unnamed teenager informed them, "But I can't have you scampering around... so I'll start by breaking your legs."
Choso readied himself for a fight. The teenager didn't seem like someone he and Yuji wouldn't be able to handle, especially working together, but you could never be too sure.
"What do you want with Fushiguro?" Yuji yelled back, clearly more concerned for his friend's sake than his own.
Choso wasn't surprised by this, but he did sigh internally, resigning himself to a life of trying to watch out for a little brother dealing with constant death threats and seemingly unconcerned about them.
"I think I'll have him die," the teenager announced, heedless of Yuji's increasing anger, "But it'd help if he wrote a little something first."
The teen jumped down, Choso blinked and the kid was right next to his brother, "I heard Megumi is looking for you."
The teenager struck out and the three of them exchanged blows. Choso struggled at first, trying to adjust to the teenager's speed while checking to make sure his brother could keep up, but he adjusted quickly, which allowed them to create some distance from the teen for just a moment.
"He's really fast, but ..." Yuji trailed off.
"It's probably a cursed technique," Choso responded, still assessing his opponent.
"You're tougher than I thought. To be honest, I didn't expect much," the teenager boasted, circling them, "Shall I try upping my speed?"
The three tensed, readying themselves to exchange more blows, when a wave of cursed energy hit them, causing them all to freeze up.
Choso had never personally experienced this much cursed energy in this form. It was clearly a human sorcerer's, but who's...?
"Hm?" a voice came from slightly up and to their left, "You're not alone."
Yuji, because of course it was Yuji, spoke up, "Who are you?"
"Hup," the newcomer, another teenager (sweet gods where were they all coming from), said as he hopped down, seemingly at ease.
With the amount of cursed energy radiating off of him, Choso could see why he might seem at ease. Nonetheless, he would take him on if he had to in order to protect his brother, which looked like a very likely situation that was about to occur.
The kid hopped down the last wall separating them, but this time, when he landed, he crushed the street to rubble beneath him. It was a very clear and effective threat.
"Who's with Itadori?" the newcomer asked, continuing casually closer.
"So you're Yuji's executioner?" Choso asked calmly, with only a hint of threat in his voice.
"Wait just a second!" the first teenager interrupted, "I'm on your side. You're Okkotsu, right?"
Yuji perked up, like he recognized the name.
"Who are you?" Okkotsu asked, assessing the other person found with them.
The first teenager relaxed his position slightly, shifting towards the newcomer and away from the two brothers, "I'm Zen'in Naoya, Maki's cousin. I'm also here to kill Itadori. Don't worry, I won't interfere, but in return..."
Choso shifted closer to his brother, "You gotta run, Yuji."
"Huh?" Yuji asked, looking over at him in confusion.
It was regrettable, but their only option. Yuji wouldn't like it though.
"Blondie is a speed type, but there's a hidden trick to it. Playing chase with him could be bad, so I'll take him," Choso replied confidently.
His brother's warm brown eyes looked up at him with worry, "Will you be alright?"
"Yeah," Choso promised quietly, "I will. But the one they want is you, Yuji. Just think about getting away from Okkotsu, the one with dark hair. I'm guessing he's the same type as Gojo Satoru. If you fight him, you'll die."
With this plan, Yuji wouldn't have to fight human sorcerers or feel bad about leaving him, Choso figured. Gods, his youngest brother was such a handful...
The two teenage assassins were still talking meanwhile.
"Even if you kill Itadori, will you refrain from telling your superiors for a while? He's bait for someone I want to meet," Zen'in, who seemed rather egotistical to be asking such a thing, especially right in the middle of a fight and in front of the targets, asked.
"I'll meet you at yesterday's spot," Choso told Yuji quietly, eyes never leaving the two teenagers.
If they both make it out of this alive, anyways.
Yuji agreed and they both readied themselves for the coming fight.
"Very well," Okkotsu agreed, "I'll leave the other one to you."
There was a moment's pause before everyone moved. Yuji turned and ran, Okkotsu immediately gave chase. Choso tried to block, but Zen'in moved in immediately, most likely guessing that he'd try to stall Okkotsu to give Yuji time to run.
Almost immediately, both Yuji and Okkotsu disappeared from sight, leaving Choso alone with Zen'in.
"I saw you earlier. That was blood manipulation, right?" he asked.
Like Choso was really about to answer the smug bastard trying to help kill his brother. Instead, he let a kick to his opponent's chest be his reply.
The bastard continued on anyways, "I don't know why you have that, but other than piercing blood it's not that frightening. And in order to use piercing blood, you need convergence. Which requires charging up."
Zen'in smiled, a cruel, ugly thing, "I don't need to say the rest for you to understand. This is checkmate. So now, you die."
Glaring, Choso replied, "No, I'm warning you. Do you think you can leave here alive after trying to hurt my little brother?"
They flew at each other, continuing to exchange blows. Choso lost track of time, focusing on his opponent, slowly getting used to the way Zen'in moved and figuring out his cursed technique. Just as he thought he might have figured it out, he felt it. The connection to his youngest brother suddenly buzzed angrily inside his chest, snapping less than a millisecond after it began.
Yuji was dead.
Zen'in immediately took advantage of his distraction and the next thing Choso knew, he was two dimensional. It only lasted for a second, but a second was enough to turn the fight, especially as Choso was still reeling from Yuji's death. Then, he was suddenly three dimensional again and being kicked into a concrete pillar.
He'd thought he'd figured out Zen'in's technique, at least partially, but clearly he'd been wrong. He had no idea what Zen'in's technique was, and with the way he was overwhelming him, Zen'in seemed unlikely to tell him.
Choso was losing control over his technique. He was losing control in the fight. He'd felt his youngest brother die, and if he didn't do something to turn this fight around, he'd be joining three of his brothers in death soon.
Flowing red scale. It was his best idea on how to counter Zen'in. He'd have to try it.
"You're tough," Zen'in appraised him, clearly comfortable enough to chat, "Seriously, who are you?"
"I'm the oldest of ten siblings," Choso answered, deeming his status as the eldest brother the most important answer he could give.
"That's no answer," Zen'in dismissed, "I'm asking about your cursed technique and toughness."
Zen'in moved forward, aiming a kick to his left side, but Choso swung and dodged the kick without hesitation. His muscles responded even quicker to his demands and his eyes raised in visual acuity, flowing red scale was helping to even the odds.
They lunged towards each other again and Zen'in managed to land a punch to Choso's abdomen, throwing him back.
"Too bad for you," Zen'in taunted, "But I always act on the assumption that you'll counter."
Not a bad strategy, as much as Choso hated to admit it. He pushed back against the wall he'd been thrown into, regaining his feet, but then he felt it. The pest had managed to slice his stomach open.
"Since you're such a pain in the ass, I thought it best to use this weapon," he boasted with a smug smile, "You've got blood manipulation, so stopping bleeding is your forte... but how long can you last against me while paying attention to that?"
"You're well prepared," Choso admitted calmly, internally rolling his eyes.
Admittedly, if he was fully human, this would be an effective strategy against him. However, Choso was a Death Womb Painting and half curse. As such, as long as he had cursed energy, he could convert it into blood, making it impossible for him to die of blood loss.
"Honestly, it isn't cool for a sorcerer to walk around with a weapon, so keep it a secret," Zen'in carried on, flipping the knife idly for a moment before slipping it back into his kimono, "Those who wield weapons are dependent upon them to win, and there are a lot of sorcerers who carry them around. The way my older brothers show them off is pathetic. I'm amazed at how they complained about Toji."
Choso took a moment to digest that information, "So you hate your brothers?"
"Yes, that's right," Zen'in confirmed, also managing to confirm Choso's absolute hatred of him at the same time, "There's no point to big brothers who are inferior to their little brothers. They should hang themselves and die."
"But maybe," Choso struggled to contain his rage, "it's because of them that you are who you are."
"Huh?" Zen'in asked in obvious confusion, "Did you just say something nauseating? How absurd."
Taking a breath, Choso said, "Whether they're superior or inferior, older brothers are role models for their younger brothers. If the older brother takes the wrong path, the younger brothers can avoid it. And if I take the right path, my little brothers can follow behind. What if you're strong because your older brothers were weak? You asked why I'm tough. I'll tell you. It's because I didn't have someone to guide me, so I kept making mistakes. Nonetheless, I must walk ahead of my little brothers. That's why I'm strong."
After he finished his little distracting speech, Choso took advantage of the chance Zen'in had given him when he cut his abdomen open with his knife, sending a wave of spiked blood towards his opponent. Zen'in, eyes wide, turned and ran, cursing as he went.
Zen'in tried to avoid the blood, but there was just too much for him to be able to completely avoid it. It got on his clothes, allowing Choso to weigh his opponent down. After another minute of fighting, he managed to back Zen'in into a corner.
He walked towards him slowly, arms raised and body surrounded by a circle of bloody spikes, "You know what comes next. This is checkmate."
"You sure?" Zen'in asked, doing his best to look for a way out, "Go on, try it."
With a glare directed at their opponent, they both moved forward.
"Supernova," Choso chanted calmly, causing a ball of blood to raise itself into the air in front of Zen'in, hovering there for a split second before it spiked and exploded outwards towards Zen'in, hitting him directly.
"Sorry," Choso told him coldly, "But you didn't love your brothers... and I can't understand that."
Taking a step towards his opponent in order to finish him, Choso was hit once again with a wave of now familiar and overwhelming cursed energy that sent chills down his spine.
Yuji was dead, and now that he was aware of his presence, Choso could hear his brother's killer dragging his little brother's body behind him as he came closer. He turned, hoping to find out that his connection to his brother had lied, that his brother was just unconscious and being dragged towards him now and Choso could still help him to escape.
"What-" Choso didn't get to finish his question, a punch packed with more cursed energy than he'd ever been hit with at once impacted him, hitting his head hard hard, and everything went black.