Work Text:
Warm breeze of early September days engulfed his slightly slouched posture. The still visible bruises on his skin didn't hurt as much anymore. The burns on his forehead were hidden from mocking eyes, not letting the world see just how vulnerable and weak he was.
Junpei didn't want to think about all that. He didn't want to remember the nauseating taste of a bug he was forced to swallow. He didn't want to think about all those humiliating videos that circulated online for everyone to see.
But he couldn't stop. Every time he looked in a mirror, every time he showered, he was reminded of being a failure.
A waste of space.
The only way he could gain control over all this suffering was to inflict even worse pain on himself. It drowned out every little bruise, every little burn. The last bits of control he held manifesting as fresh, ruby wounds covered by bandages.
Escaping the choking smell of smoke that lingered in his house, the one that brought back the feeling of defeat, Junpei wandered the streets, leaving behind the world that hurt him.
A hobby of his, the movies, served as a way to escape reality. Just for a short moment he could immerse himself in fiction and forget about everything.
"One ticket, please."
But of course, even then, the world had to remind him just how unfortunate he was. There was no escape.
"You've seen the look on his face?" laughter. "So fuckin' pathetic. Almost takes away the fun of tormentin' him."
Ping.
"Yeah," laughter. "a fuckin' miserable waste of space."
Junpei shrunk back in his seat, hiding himself. Just his fucking luck.
There really was no escape, huh.
"People like him don't even deserve to live."
"Well, at least we got something to make fun of." laughter.
Ping.
"People sure do love those videos." laughter.
If there was a button killing those who I hate, I probably wouldn't push it.
"But shit, that fuckin' loser almost ruined it. Did him good by hittin' him back then."
"Nah, don't worry. Tsubasa is way too fuckin' easy. She gonna let us hit no matter what." laughter.
"Sometimes I think she's almost as pathetic as that little fuck."
But if there was a button killing those who hate me...
"Her only good quality are those big fuckin' boobs of hers."
Ping.
Junpei hated the noise. He hated people with no manners. He hated people who talked during movies. He hated those who didn't obey rules so simple as turning off your damn phone in the cinema. Hated people who spoke of others with such a degrading launguage.
Those acting as if they are better than everyone.
...I would push it without hesitation.
Junpei stared with wide eyes at the deformed bodies in front of him. The flickering lights of the still playing movie shined brightly letting him see the ugly shade of blue painting his bullies' faces. He felt as if the time had stopped. Never before in his life had he seen anything as disgusting as the creations before him.
But he didn't feel bad for them. After all, they hated him.
"Excuse me...?" Junpei asked shakily, his voice still laboured from running.
Before him, in a dark alley, stood a man. A man with pretty, long, dusty-blue hair tied in pigtails. A man whose smooth, porcelain skin was held together by various stiches. A man with the most hypnotizing eyes he's ever looked into.
"Was it-" Junpei uttered. "Are you the one who did it? At the theater...?"
The boy was sitting alone in his room, it was way past midnight. The world, outside an open window, completely quiet except from occasional meowing of stray cats.
"Can I... learn something like that too?"
Junpei laid down on his bed reminiscing about the encounter he had with the mysterious man a few hours ago. Well, not actually a man but, as it turns out, a curse.
It was still foreign to him, the concept of curses existing in real life. Sure, since he watched so many movies, he was familiar with supernatural beings in fiction. But that's the keyword, fiction, he would have never thought something like that actually existed in real life.
Normally he'd think he was going insane. Frankly, it wouldn't be surprising after all he's been through.
But no. It was real.
He was scrolling on his phone, reading yet another article about the tragic incident that happened at Kinema Cinema. Three high school students died 'due to increased pressure to the brain and asphyxiation' during a seance.
He knew the deaths of his bullies were caused by something different, though. The man, no, the curse, Mahito, explained everything. How he has the power to mend human bodies by changing the shape of their souls. He's even showed Junpei various experiments he'd made on his victims.
Junpei felt uneasy, he should be more scared and infuriated after seeing what the curse did to those people. How he turned them into some gruesome creatures that didn't even resemble a person.
But he wasn't. He wasn't at all. He'd always known people are rotten to the core, he experienced it first hand. All the bullying, all the mocking. The lies and how people abandon you when you're no longer of use to them.
"People do not have hearts. At least not the way you put it."
People are cruel by nature, even more so than he thought they were. And frankly, he wasn't surprised to find it out.
He put the phone away and once again looked at his scared wrist. The blood was oozing slowly and the sting brought comfort.
"People like him don't even deserve to live."
He flinched as another dose of fury and hatred struck him. How can people even say something like that?
Deep down, however, Junpei knew they were right. What is the point in an existence that only serves as a means for someone's twisted, sadistic pleasure? Maybe it really would've been better if he'd disappeared.
He reached for the blade again. The skin broke out, showing the fat layer hidden under it. He never went that far, but instead of being scared, he did it again. And again. The intoxicating relief it brought him was way too addicting.
"What are you doing, Junpei?"
He froze in his place, his eyes opening wide in fear. Junpei knew this voice, he knew it too well. Horrified, the boy slowly turned his head to face the source of the sound.
"Mahito...?"
The curse was sitting in the open window eyeing him with curiosity. The night breeze made his hair sway and Junpei felt like he couldn't look away.
"Yup, it's me!" he smiled sweetly. "Thought I'd pay you a visit. I was sure you'd be asleep by now, though..."
Junpei stared hypnotized at the curse before him and couldn't help but think that despite all those sutures and an unnaturally pale skin, he... looked so human.
Mahito's appearance was ethereal, mesmerizing, angel-like. His eyes strangely gentle and his smile so genuine. He knew the man was a curse, but he didn't look like it. It made Junpei felt uneasy, the uncanny valley phenomenon.
"Why?" the boy asked.
"Why?" Mahito repeated. "Because I felt like it, that's why."
He crawled out from the window and stepped into the room. His gaze studied the place carefully like it was the first time he was in somebody's house. It was probably the case. His eyes, finally, locked with Junpei's own and then drifted to his hands, looking at the bloody mess.
"So... What exactly are you doing, Junpei?"
"Huh...?"
For a second he'd forgotten about the wounds on his wrists and the box cutter he was holding in his hand. In panic, he let go of it and quickly hid his bloody hand.
"Nothing...! I was just..."
"Nothing? Pretty sure it is something... I've never seen a person doing such a thing before," Mahito muttered as he approached Junpei and grabbed his hand forcefully making him hiss in pain.
"Oh, I know! You're trying to commit suicide?"
Junpei met the curse's eyes terrified. Suicide? No, it wasn't exactly like this. Sure, he often thought about how it would've been better with him gone, but he didn't actually want to die.
"That's interesting, people never fail to amuse me!" a giggle left his mouth.
"No, I-" the boy stuttered, not sure what to say. "That's not really about dying..."
Mahito looked at him slightly confused. Surely the idea of self-harm was foreign to him. After all, a curse wouldn't understand something like that.
"It's not? But you're cutting your wrist, isn't that what people do to die? I've read about it in a book!"
Junpei stared baffled in those mismatched eyes that looked at him so expectantly.
"I mean- Yes, they do? But-" Junpei turned his eyes away, looking down, not knowing how to explain it. Not even most people understood it, so how could a curse? "I just want to... I want the pain to make me feel better...?"
Mahito gave him a weirded out look, brows frowing and the smile disappearing from his face as if that was the most absurd thing he's ever heard.
"Pain? Make you feel better? What are you saying, silly!" Mahito laughed. "Pain is supposed to feel bad, isn't it?"
The boy squinted.
"It is. Pain does feel wrong when someone inflicts it on you just out of spite," Junpei spat, annoyance straining his voice. "That's why I do it. I can decide myself whether I want to be in pain or not. This way... I have control over it."
"Control?" the curse seemed intrigued by Junpei's answer.
"The... Those you killed at the theater... They bullied me. They used to hit me, kick me and they recorded it. Soon the whole school was making fun of me," he bit his lip upon admitting how weak he was to something as strong as Mahito. "This..." he pointed at his wrist, which was still being squeezed by the man. "This is my way of deciding when I want to be in pain."
Mahito seemed to ponder on Junpei's words. He lessened the tight hold on the boy's wrist and instead went to hold his hand, intertwining their fingers gently. It almost seemed as if the curse wanted to comfort him but, Junpei thought, Mahito probably isn't even capable of feeling bad for anyone.
"Is that so?" Mahito muttered. "I didn't know it worked like that."
Junpei turned to face him once again and was surprised to find the curse staring at him with some kind of understanding.
"You really are something else, Junpei."
At this point, it became a routine. Mahito always visited Junpei after midnight, when everyone was already asleep. The curse'd tell him about his day, new things he had discovered about people and teaching Junpei about how cursed energy worked.
"How are your wounds, Junpei?" Mahito asked one day.
"My-"
"Did you do it again?" mismatched eyes stared deep into the dark orbs which made the boy break the eye contact. It was intimidating, being looked at so intensely.
"No, I- I haven't," Junpei answered honestly. For some reason, since Mahito had started to come by, he didn't feel the urge to do it.
"Hmm, is that so?" the curse hummed. "Why?"
Junpei bit his lips and looked at his hands embarassed.
"You made me feel better about myself."
Junpei could swear he was the main character of some shitty horror movie. First, learning about the existence of curses, and now, his mother's corpse was lying right in front of him. It hardly even resembled her, half of her body missing, a bloody mess.
He couldn't believe his very eyes. What happened? Why was this happening to him? Why?!
"What is this thing doing in my house?!" Junpei shouted as Mahito showed him the cursed object that led to his mother being killed by some curse.
"Someone must have instigated this. Someone wanted your mother to die," said Mahito eyeing the thing that looked like a finger. "Or even worse. Wanted you gone. Are you suspecting someone who could've done it?"
Junpei cried and held onto the man next to him. He couldn't process what was happening. Why his mother? It would've been better if it was him.
"I don't know! I don't know anything anymore! Why is this happening...?" he cried like a lost kid, he felt so weak and useless. He wasn't even able to protect his own mother. What an ungrateful son he was.
"Here, here..." Mahito whispered as he hugged Junpei. "Don't worry, I'm here. I'll always be at your side, okay?"
Junpei looked up at the curse through his tear filled eyes.
"Y-you will?"
"Yes, Junpei. I will always be there for you. You're very special to me," he said pressing a gentle kiss to the boy's forehead.
Junpei couldn't help but blush and bury his wet face in Mahito's chest, crying all his pain out.
And Mahito let him.
Wet smacks of lips were echoing through the dark room. Junpei held tightly onto Mahito's arms as he opened his mouth even wider to let the man explore further.
Junpei felt alive for the first time in a very long time. He felt loved, he felt wanted. He, for once, felt like his life served some greater purpose.
He could finally forget about all the pain he was forced to face.
He let out a muffled whine as a cold hand slipped under his shirt, explorung his torso with care. Mahito's other hand was gently resting at the back of his head, guiding the kiss. Their lips making out sweetly, fitting perfectly, like two lonely pieces that finally were granted connection.
Despite the fact Mahito's touch was cold, his body lacking the heat of a person, Junpei felt so warm in a way he's never felt. He felt so right, so real. Like he could do anything. Sparks of hope and genuine joy igniting his soul. There was someone to whom he mattered.
"Junpei..." Mahito whispered into his mouth, breaking the kiss. "You really are my favorite. You're so special to me."
He'd long forgetten about the fact that the person in front of him, in fact, wasn't a person. Mahito gave him something he'd wanted all this time. Love.
He felt those cold lips, but yet oh-so-warm, at the flushed column of his neck and he trembled. Mahito let out a hum and continued to press down tender butterfly kisses, so tender that even thinking about him as of a curse could be considered a sin. Junpei hugged the man tightly, never wanting to let go.
"Mahito... Mahito..." he chanted the name like a prayer. In his eyes, Mahito was an angel that had come down here to save him. "Mahito I-"
"I love you."
Those words felt so right. They rolled out of his toungue perfectly. Junpei felt like no truer words have ever left him, as if it was all he was ever meant to say.
"You do, Junpei?" Mahito hummed into his skin, petting the boy's bony back under the shirt.
"Y-yes... Ah- I love you, Mahito."
The lips left him, and instead he was met with those eyes, those mesmerizing, mismatched ones that seemed to be glowing in the dark. A smile was adoring Mahito's features, the sight making Junpei's heart flutter, the most beautiful view he's ever seen.
"You're so good for me, so sweet."
Mahito softly grabbed the boy's hand and kissed at his scabbed scars with so much love that Junpei felt like he could die right now and have no regrets about his life. He wanted this moment to last forever.
"Itadori, calm down! Mahito isn't a bad person, he-"
The words stopped in the back of his throat. A cold wave of dread washed over him. Not a bad... person?
Mahito was a curse. A curse born of human hatred. There was nothing good about him. He was a manifestation of everything that was wrong with mankind.
"Mahito, I love you."
An icy-cold hand grabbed his shoulder and it lacked the gentleness it used to have, rough as he's never thought it could be. A cool breath washed over his cheek making him shiver in fear.
"Oh, Junpei... You always spoke about those stupid people and how naïve they were..." the whisper that reached his ear made him freeze in place. "But, as it turns out, you are not very different from them."
"You're so special to me, Junpei"
"And that's why... you will die now."
Pain. That's all he felt, as his body was being twisted and mended into an ugly shape. His vision blurred as everything started to fade out.
Just a day ago he thought he could die without any regrets, that he could be happy and become stronger. That his life could be like those movies he loved. But in the end, that was just a childish wish.
"W-why...?" he uttered to the boy before him.
As the tears fell from his deformed eyes, everything went black. The only thing he was aware of was the crushing pain which overtook his entire soul. He was so weak, let himself be manipulated and played with. To Mahito, he was nothing but a plaything, just an another experiment. And yet he believed the curse's words. He believed he was special.
As he let out his final breath, it finally struck him. No one will save him. He will be the mocked one to the end. He was doomed from the very beginning.
There's no escape, after all.