K – Return of Kings: After Stories c2

After Story #2 by Raikaku Rei

The arm Sukuna seriously injured in the last decisive battle had healed, and he was finally able to take off the sling it was suspended with. Moving it still gave him some discomfort, but that was going to disappear soon, too.

Yukari turned his head to glance at Sukuna, who was walking behind and to the side of him. The look in Sukuna’s eyes was distant as he walked without paying the action much mind. The kid had a lot of things to ponder about, Yukari supposed.

On Yukari’s shoulder, Kotosaka was perched, croaking quietly. Since that last battle - since they had lost Hisui and Iwafune - Kotosaka, too, was quieter and more docile than usual.

“Sukuna-chan, let’s go have a cup of tea,” Yukari offered as they were pa.s.sing a cafe that had an open air terrace.

At that, Sukuna’s eyes, that were gazing somewhere past his companions, focused on Yukari’s face. Blinking a few times, the child finally answered, “Okay.”

They were shown to the seats on the terrace, but almost immediately after, Sukuna excused himself to go to the bathroom. Yukari decided not to wait for him and made an order.

“Look, look, isn’t he cute?” Yukari heard a female voice whisper.

When he turned in the direction of the voice, he found two young girls snuggling together and watching Kotosaka from the table next to the one Yukari occupied. His and the girls’ eyes met, so Yukari smiled at them, and the two blushed, embarra.s.sed.

“Um… he is a parrot, right? It’s amazing how he is obediently sitting on your shoulder like that. Does he never, you know, fly away from you on his own?”
“He does. He goes flying to where he wants and when he wants, but then comes back,” Yukari answered.

That made the girls squeal.

“No way! He always comes back, huh?”
“Can he do some tricks? Or talk?”
“Parrot-kun, h.e.l.lo~”
“h.e.l.lo,” Kotosaka replied, repeating the word one of the girls said to him, like a true parrot, perhaps trying to be considerate of the girls.

The two girls squeaked at that in real joy.

Suddenly, Yukari sensed another presence. Turning around, he saw Sukuna who just came back from the bathroom standing directly behind him and watching their conversation with the girls. On his face, it plainly showed that he considered it very stupid.

“I took it upon myself to order something appropriate for you, too, while you were away, Sukuna-chan,” Yukari informed him.
“…Yeah, okay,” Sukuna returned with a sour look and sat down on his chair cross-legged.

About the same time, the girls, who had already finished their meal, stood up, leaving their seats.
“I wonder what’s the relations.h.i.+p between those two?”
“Maybe they’re brothers? No way they’re a father and a son, right?”
“Nah, no way.” Yukari heard them chat in lowered voices as they went to pay for their order.

What was the relations.h.i.+p between him and Sukuna, huh. ‘That’s a difficult question,’ Yukari had to admit inside.

In the past, the two of them were comrades, that much was certain. And they probably still were, even now. But what connected Yukari and Sukuna was Jungle and Hisui Nagare. Now that they had lost both, yet still stuck to each other, it became difficult to define their relations.h.i.+p in one word.

Yukari had had experience of living with other people before. He had shared the same living s.p.a.ce of the secret base with the other Jungle top members, and before that, he had lived under the same roof with another disciple of Miwa Ichigen, Yatougami Kuroh. Except that wherever he lived, he could never break away from the guest status. So compared to that, this time he felt a little out of his element.

Resting his chin on his hands, Yukari gazed down at Sukuna. Sukuna, with a pout on his lips, was glaring at Yukari with a pout - no, at Kotosaka, perched on Yukari’s shoulder.

“Tricks, huh. So stupid,” Sukuna grumbled under his breath. It appeared that he didn’t like those girls’ words from earlier. “And you’re no better. What’s up with that "h.e.l.lo”? Pretending to be just an ordinary parrot.“
"They were cute girls, so maybe Kotosaka-chan wanted to respond in kind to them.”
“Well, he’s a G.o.dd.a.m.n parrot, so he should quit flirting with girls,” Sukuna pouted.

So it looked like despite always calling Kotosaka stupid bird himself, it p.i.s.sed Sukuna off when others underestimated the parrot.

Kotosaka flapped his wings, taking off Yukari’s shoulder and landing on the table. Not showing much of a reaction to Sukuna’s words, he spread his wings and began preening his feathers.

“…He’s being a little listless, ain’t he.”

Yukari refrained from voicing 'you, too,’ and just agreed instead, “Indeed.”

Throwing himself to the surface of the gla.s.s table, Sukuna peered at Kotosaka from beneath. “Kotosaka was by Nagare’s side till the very end, wasn’t he. I wonder if he talked to Iwa-san in his last moments, too.” Rather than talking to Yukari or Kotosaka, it sounded like Sukuna was musing to himself.

Kotosaki didn’t react, continuing to preen his feathers.

“Thank you for the wait,” a waitress, carrying a tray with their order, said in a cheerful voice. She put a parfait in front of Yukari and kid’s lunch in front of Sukuna.

Seeing the plate, made to be attractive to children, put before him, Sukuna’s cheek gave a twitch. “Why the h.e.l.l kid’s lunch!” Sukuna, red faced from embarra.s.sment and indignation, glowered at Yukari.
Unfazed, Yukari answered easily, “You haven’t eaten lunch yet, have you? You should then, or it will be bad to your health.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about! Why did you have to choose kid’s lunch, of all things! I’m not kid to eat s.h.i.+t like this!”
“Oh, you are a child though.”
“Don’t treat me like a kid!”

Watching Sukuna fuming with anger, Yukari couldn’t help thinking with delight that it had been a while since he had last seen Sukuna being so lively.

“You haven’t had much appet.i.te lately. And kid’s lunch offers a little of all popular stuff. I was being considerate here, you see.”

Sukuna shot a look full of scorn to Yukari. It was written all over his face that he wanted to complain more, but decided against it, probably resigning himself, and just took the fork.

“…I’ve never eaten things like this when I really was a kid.”
“Oh, really?”

Sukuna poked with interest at the heap of chicken rice on top of which a flag was mounted. “Why does this have a flag in it?”
“To make children happy when they see it?”
“…Come to think about it, Iwa-san used to stick a flag made from a toothpick and some paper into omelet rice sometimes, too. For such a unkempt old man he sure was diligent about the most weird things,” Sukuna commented, his expression softening, as if he was reliving a memory. “Iwa-san always tried to treat me like a kid and it p.i.s.sed me off mightily, but food he made was yummy,” he said, and then, as if trying to shake off the sadness he felt, took a furious stab at a potato, tossing it into his mouth.
“Indeed. His omelet rice, fried rice and curry were delicious. Although all of those are something that anyone can cook, it is a difficult task to make them taste really good, and Iwa-san proved to be surprisingly excellent in it.” Yukari smiled, recalling what it tasted like.

Biting at the p.r.o.ngs of the fork lightly, Sukuna cast his eyes down. “I always saw him only as an old man who sluggishly vacuum cleaned the room or made meals, sipping beer all the while, and it still hasn’t quite sunk in that Iwa-san was a king, too.”
“It’s fine that way, Sukuna-chan. Be sure to remember Iwa-san as a scruffy man who loved beer and made delicious meals.”

Sukuna wanted to say something, but couldn’t find the right words, moving his mouth soundlessly as his gaze wavered. “…I’ve never properly seen Iwa-san, or even Nagare for that matter, fight. …I wish I could have though,” he finally said, words spilling out of his mouth unchecked. It was the tone of voice that revealed that as far as strength of emotions was concerned, for Sukuna, the purity of the boyish admiration he held for the Green King won over the dampness of sorrow.

Hisui Nagare had been defeated, his dream never coming to fruition. While Yukari did find the fact disappointing and cheerless, he didn’t lament it. And he a.s.sumed that defeated Hisui Nagare himself felt the same way. After all, Hisui Nagare wasn’t a person to have regrets. He was someone who, to a terrifying extent, lived only facing forward, straight towards his dream.

Yukari gazed at the boy in front of him. When the boy learned of Nagare’s death, Sukuna broke down crying without holding back. He wept and bawled, unable to even keep up his usual adult act, but soon after, he stopped crying and got up, walking with his own feet.

Yukari did know that Sukuna had bet his everything on Nagare’s dream. And with betting everything he had, including his life, he threw himself fully into the game Nagare had set up. And now that Sukuna had lost it, he still hadn’t found a new goal, a new destination to head towards.

Still, it didn’t mean that Sukuna was wallowing in despair either. Sure, he was listless and lost, but his brain inside that small head of only a boy yet kept working, kept pondering on all kinds of things. The time Sukuna spent with Hisui Nagare and Jungle was ripening inside the boy, struggling to morph and take a shape of 'something’.

Suddenly, Yukari remembered the face of his former mentor. Yukari always believed that he wasn’t cut out to raise and mentor someone, unlike that person, but now that he had ended up in that role, he found that it wasn’t so bad, actually.

—I wonder just how much you really foresaw, Ichigen-sama.

“Yukari,” Sukuna called, breaking Yukari out of his reverie and returning him to the present.
“Yeees?”
“We haven’t had mock fights for a while. My wounds are pretty much healed already, so how about having one?” Sukuna said, taking a sip of his soup, his eyes downcast and staring at the soup’s surface.

Yukari had to blink slowly before answering, “…Despite there being no plans for us to wage war on anyone anymore?”
“There’s no need for a reason to get stronger.”

Yukari felt satisfied with Sukuna’s answer. “In that case, I don’t mind,” he nodded, and that make Sukuna smile with a smile different from the smirk of fiery determination that Yukari was used to seeing from him. The one Sukuna showed now was soft, with the ends of his eyebrows gently lowered.

Kotosaka, sitting on the table, was watching Sukuna’s face intently. Sensing the bird’s gaze, Sukuna looked back at him, too, and the two ended up eye-locked for a while.

“……Want some?” As if having read something in Kotosaka’s eyes, Sukuna skewered a piece of potato with his fork and brought it near Kotosaka’s beak. Kotosaka opened the beak and started pecking at it. After nimbly finis.h.i.+ng it, he said, “Yummy.”
“Oh really. Good to hear.”
“Sukuna, cheer up.”
“Shut up. Like you’re one to talk.”

Watching the bickering boy and parrot, Yukari finally put a spoonful of his own parfait into his mouth.