"Fox... can't you do the spell here?" Gojo says, as they all walk out of the shrine.

Yuki held tightly onto Seiichi's hand as the fear of being close to a sorcerer scared her. Last time she saw eye to eye with a sorcerer was when her master was killed.

"It sounds easier, but to do this I'll need a much more stable place that allows cursed energy to flow..." Seiichi replies, squeezing the girls hand.

"Huh? What do you mean, allow cursed energy to flow?" Gojo questioned.

Sukuna let's out an obvious sigh so Gojo could hear. The tall man turns his head, glaring at the curse.

"Is something boring you, Sukuna?" Gojo grunts.

"Yea, you. Use that big brain of yours to figure out why, instead of asking." Sukuna says, rolling his eyes.

Seiichi releases a soft sigh of annoyance and speaks up, ignoring Sukuna's comment.

"The energy that will be present will attract curses and birth new ones. Both strong and weak." He says, turning around to the two.
"Especially when we are exposing Sukuna's finger—agh I mean, Yuki in her most vulnerable state." He continues.
"We need to be somewhere, away from human civilisation."

Principal Yaga looks around his surroundings, raising a brow at the foxes comment.

"Isn't this civilised enough?" The principal asked.

Seiichi looks back confused. He looks out at the perfectly planted field of flowers.

"This is a flower field, planted by humans. They must maintain them every few days or weeks... Which means they're at risk." He says, looking down at the white flowers by his feet.
"If a curse escapes your attacks, or becomes attracted to the cursed energy humans emit, it'll cause a problem." He finishes, continuing to walk ahead.

"Hmph... For a Yokai demon, you got a point." Principal Yaga says. Seiichi smirks at his comment and tilts his head back.

"Don't get me wrong. I could care less about these humans..." He looks out at the distant flower field, grinning at his thoughts.
"It's explaining this situation to the higher ups about a certain batch of curses running lose, causing havoc around a tiny village, that exhausts me."

Gojo and Yaga hold their tongues as they look at Seiichi's profile. They didn't think of that. If curses do escape from them, the first place they'll run to is an area with high levels of negative energy.

Explaining to the higher ups about why they released countless of unregistered curses into the world, would be tiresome. They would surely not let this slide in the future if they discovered what they were doing.

Gojo glances at Sukuna at his side, and frowns. If the higher ups discovered they purposely released Sukuna from the vessel, they would only give Gojo an unending earful of annoyance.

"And do you have any idea where this place would be?" Gojo says, looking back at Seiichi.

"Of course... Where I originally placed the tails inside her." He smiles.
"Rural Kyoto... there is a place the Yokai-kind use to seperate the human world and yokai world... in simple terms, its the entrance to the Yokai world." Seiichi says, still holding onto Yuki's hands.

"Huh! There's a such place?" Gojo gasps.

"Hm? You kill 'evil energy' humans create, for a job? However, you find a demon world hard to believe in?" Seiichi raises a brow, watching the sorcerers reaction.

"Trust me... I've seen a lot of wacky shit in my time, and believing in an actual Yokai realm, only told in myths, is harder to believe in." Gojo replies bluntly.

"Hmph... you won't be able to enter the realm, nor will any curses, but it's the best spot to do this." Seiichi huffs, entertained by Gojo's reaction.

"Well Kyoto is on the other side of Japan. So I expect you to start scribbling your little symbols into the ground." Principal Yaga grumbles, crossing his arms.

"Yea... about that." Seiichi says, holding his laughter in.
"I'm only able to use that ability once." He smirks, knowing the sorcerers would need to use their own money to fly them there.
"Yuki and I can get there pretty quick, however you'll need to fly over." He finishes.

"You're joking right..." Yaga says, unimpressed with the words that came from his lips.

"Don't expect so much from me." Seiichi scolds.

"I'm not that powerful... We all have limits don't we?" He huffs a laugh.

Sukuna frowns, his eyes trailing down to the little girl. This entire time his mind was some place else. How was he going to devour this cursed child.

I could just eat her, but...

He lifts his lids towards Seiichi and frowns. He knew Seiichi would protect her. And by the time the child is no longer of any use to them, Seiichi will have all 9 tails to use against him.

It will prove difficult to lay a finger on her.

Sukuna tilts towards Gojo and the Principal, knowing they'd be thinking the same thing.

I'll have to act quick. The second the ritual is complete, I'll have to attack. But these restraints...They'll be a pain.

Sukuna let's out a sigh, catching the attention of Seiichi.

"What are you sighing about?" Seiichi frowns. Sukuna grins, letting a small chuckle escape his lips.

"I don't need to explain the obvious to you." He says, a smug smile on his lips.

Seiichi's fingers squeeze the little girls hand, leading her in front of him.

"And you think (y/n) will approve your actions?" Seiichi lashes back. Sukuna smile dissipates, turning into a frown.

"Well she won't know will she?" Sukuna says.

Gojo nudges Sukuna forward, breaking up the small talk the fox and curse were having.

"Stop bromancing over each other and get moving." Gojo says, with a bothered tone.

"What did you say we are—" Sukuna tries yelling back, before stopping himself when Gojo starred at him.
"Hmph... Don't tell me you're jealous?" Sukuna jokes, walking behind Gojo.

"Why would I—Gah. Stop waisting time. Don't we have your girlfriend to save?" Gojo says back.

Sukuna's eyes widen and shuts his mouth. His eyes shift to the side and goes silent.

"Well that shut you up. Remind me to use the girlfriend card again in the future." Gojo laughs, sticking his hands into his pockets.

Seiichi steps between them with a serious look in his eyes and hands a small red Amulet to Gojo.

"We'll meet you their. This will lead you the way when you get to Kyoto..." Seiichi places the amulet in Gojo's hands then faces towards Sukuna.
"I'm guessing you know the place I'm talking about. I'll be collecting a few necessities for the spell, so until then, you can figure out what to say to (y/n)"

Sukuna's raises a brow, confused by his comment. Seiichi watches his face and smirks.

"I'm gonna assume Akio has restored some of her major memories. This will be the first time meeting her as herself in over a thousand years." Seiichi continues.

Sukuna clenches his jaw, knowing what Seiichi was talking about. It's true that by now, she should have some memories forcefully returned to her, meaning her feelings should have returned with them.

Deep down Sukuna's heart ached as he imagines the image of her in pain, and waiting for him to save her.

Seiichi watched the curses emotions display on his face and cringes at the sight. He's seen the many faces Sukuna pulls, but the one he hates seeing is the face when he's thinking about her.

"Hmph... right, Yuki." He chuckles before crouching down beside Yuki.
"Do you know how to shift?" He says.

"Yes of course." She says silently.

Seiichi turns back around to Gojo and points down at the Amulet in his hand.

"Don't loose that. Though if you do, Sukuna knows the way...though." He glances over at Sukuna who was still in thought.
"I wouldn't trust him with directions. He was never good with them a thousand years ago, so I doubt he's any better now." He says, rolling his eyes.

"Sure, thank you Seiichi." Gojo says, looking down at the Amulet.

"I don't want to hear your thanks. I'm not doing any of this for your benefits." He scoffs, disappearing in a thick fog. Yuki bows at Sukuna before following Seiichi's actions.

Sukuna watching the leaf and pink petal fall to the ground, huffing a sigh. He glances at Gojo who had already been watching him. Sukuna scoffs and trudges passed him.

"You can have the brat back, but the second we arrive in Kyoto, I expect him to let me out." Sukuna says, retreating back into Itadori's mind.

His eyes shut and Yuji comes through, still passed out. He tumbles over, landing in a patch of flowers.

"Kid!" Gojo yells. Crouching at Yuji's side, shaking him awake.

"Huh, w-what's going on...huh what happened, where are we?" Yuji, jolts up, his eyes still half lidded and drool dripping down his mouth.

"You feeling alright?" Gojo says, helping him to his feet.

He rips the sigils from around his wrists and checks over him.

"Yea... it kinda feels like I was knocked out for a while." Yuji says, scratching his head, looking out at the field they were in.

"I mean. You kinda were. Don't worry. I'll let you in on everything." Gojo turns towards Principal Yaga and nods.

He grabs his phone from his pocket and calls a taxi to pick them up.

"Were you conscious at all, during that...or something?" Gojo asks.

Yuji looks up, still dazed from being passed out for so long.

"Aghhh-no. I don't remember anything?" He looks behind them and tries to understand what they went through.
"Wha-wait Gojo did we find (y/n) yet?" Yuji asks.

"Well we're about to." He hits Yuji's back, nudging him to walk forward.

•••

Seiichi appears from a thick fog in front of a large faded tori gate. In his fox form he gazes up at the grand appearance of the gate.

He remembers last time he was here was when he sacrificed his tails for (y/n).

Then beside him, a soft jingle of a Tamari ball sounds out the silence of the area. Yuki steps through a thick fog, gently touching her feet on the bare ground.

Her plain drapes turn into a beautiful red Kimono and a brightly coloured ball drops into her palm. Her dark brown hair turns black and neatly tucks around her ear.

"Hm? Um, Seiichi w-what happened to me?" She turns around, not realising Seiichi was a fox.

He sits back on his hind legs, gazing at the girl. His snout opens and his usual voice comes through.

"The closer you are to our natural energy source, the more our true identity takes form." He says.

"So this...is what I'm meant to look like?" She says, looking down at her clothes and the ball in her hands.

In his mind, Seiichi smiles, but on the surface, his face was cold and absent.

He transforms into a human, crouching beside her. With his palm, he places it under hers with the tamari.

"Here." He lifts her hand, and with it the tamari floats around her shoulders.

"Wha- how!" She follows the ball around her shoulders with a smile.

"You're a Zashiki-warashi. You own power... You don't know?" He asks, gazing at her.

"Not like this." She replied.

He sits up, tucking his hands into his sleeves. He couldn't understand what this girl knows and doesn't.

She should be over 180 years old. How does she not know her own power? She's had to use her powers after she died as a human... Unless.

"Do you have any memory of your life before meeting Hina?" He questioned.

Yuki thinks for a moment, her eyes searching her head.

"I don't think so... I vaguely remember pranking adults and playing with some kids my age, but it's mostly black memory." She replies.

So she's lost her memory... Hina must have used the finger to wipe the memory of the Yokai and curses she kidnapped and experimented on.

"Well, you're able to levitate and move objects. I'd recommend you learn quickly." He says, walking through the gates.
"Come on, we don't have much time." He lends his hand out, and Yuki takes it.

They both walk through the tori gate, and the brightly lit area slowly turns into a dark dim forest, with little blue flames lighting the way through the dark forest.

"The Yokai realm is a reflection of the current world. When it is light, it is dark here." He slowly transforms back into a fox and nudges the girls shoulder.
"Let's go."

They both walk through the dark forest, following the blue orbs towards the brightly lit town below the mountain.