As soon as these words left his mouth, the expressions on both their faces froze for a split second.
Senior Kamiyado was the first to snap back to reality, giving a soft nod. With his right hand, he snatched up the knife, while opening his left palm wide, hovering it right above the dough, intending to slice open his palm with the sharp blade.
His movement was swift, without a shred of hesitation.
Sukuna’s pupils contracted. He flashed behind Kamiyado in an instant, grabbing his wrist and stopping the blade just as its tip brushed against the delicate skin of his palm.
Suppressing his irritation, he cursed in a low, husky voice: "Idiot..."
Whether he was talking about himself or Senior Kamiyado was anyone's guess.
Senior Kamiyado blinked, and the knife in his hand was suddenly snatched away by Sukuna.
The young man turned his head sideways to look at him, only to see Sukuna glaring at him with a fierce expression, his brows knitted tightly together.
His voice was fierce too: "Who gave you permission to hurt yourself?!"
"The only one who is allowed to leave scars on your body is me! Not even you yourself can touch it! Did you hear me?!"
Senior Kamiyado narrowed his eyes, lost in thought for a moment, then smiled and muttered an affirmative, before asking once more: "So, how sweet does Sukuna want it to be?"
Sukuna: "Manager... half sugar, I guess." He didn't dare talk nonsense anymore.
He had realized that Senior Kamiyado apparently couldn't tell whether his words were meant as teasing or spoken in anger; he would simply carry them out with absolute, deadpan seriousness.
Even if it meant harming himself...
What an absolute, irredeemable idiot... Sukuna sighed softly in the privacy of his own mind.
He really had to keep a closer eye on him...
After mixing several spoonfuls of white sugar into the dough, Senior Kamiyado placed a heavy cutting board on top of it to help it ferment more thoroughly from the inside, making it fluffy and tender.
Then, he began preparing the actual breakfast—simple fried eggs and ham sandwiches.
Mainly because time was tight; Itadori still had to head to the hospital soon to take his grandfather's remains to the crematorium. This kind of breakfast was the simplest and the fastest.
Senior Kamiyado was slightly worried that Sukuna might not be used to eating this sort of thing, but when they sat down to dig in later, his fears proved unfounded.
The two of them ate their simple meal in silence, the atmosphere suffused with a plain, quiet warmth.
Suddenly, Sukuna had a feeling of intense familiarity with the scene before him, as if they had done this exact thing countless times before.
He lowered his crimson eyes to look at the unremarkable sandwich.
Human food, which had previously only ever filled him with disgust, was actually evoking a long-lost... appetite?
Was it because the person who made it was different...? Or...
Regardless of the reason, he had still inevitably lost a bit of face today.
Sukuna let out a silent click of his tongue, displeased by how dependent he had become on this human's daily routine.
Caught in a state of extreme internal conflict, he ate the entire sandwich bite by bite.
The nauseating urge to vomit did not rise up; instead, a uniquely sweet flavor spread from his stomach all the way up into his mind.
It was just like... the taste of Senior Kamiyado's flesh that he had devoured last night—a delicacy that struck straight at the soul...
Abruptly, Sukuna set down his cutlery and asked in a dangerous, low voice: "Did you sneak your blood into this?"
Senior Kamiyado was dumbfounded and cried out in grievance: "I did not! I won't do anything you tell me not to do."
Sukuna stared in silence at the now-empty plate.
Right at that moment, a "ding" echoed from the kitchen oven. Senior Kamiyado hurriedly smiled and said, "The little cake is ready, I'll go get it out."
With that, Senior Kamiyado got up, went into the kitchen, and pulled a small strawberry cake out of the oven. With quick and deft movements, he added the whipped cream and topped it with chopped strawberries.
While waiting, Sukuna sat alone at the dining table.
His lips parted slightly, and he whispered into the empty air: Liar...
You told me you wouldn't leave me, wouldn't abandon me all alone again...
Yet here you went and left without a single word...
Big liar.
Before long, Senior Kamiyado walked out carrying the beautifully crafted strawberry little cake, cheerfully humming his own upbeat protagonist-entrance BGM.
"Ta-da-da-da~! Sukuna's post-meal little treat has arrived!"
With an exaggerated smile, the young man bounced lightly over to Sukuna's side, spun around in one fluid motion, cleared away the empty plate, and set down the cake.
Yet Sukuna didn't even glance at the cake. He simply stared deeply into Senior Kamiyado's face: "If you don't feel like smiling like that, then don't."
The curve of Senior Kamiyado's lips stiffened for a second before slowly flattening out, returning to his usual calm and gentle expression: "I was just trying to liven up the mood since you looked a bit unhappy..."
Sukuna kept watching him in silence, his gaze making the other man's scalp tingle slightly.
Senior Kamiyado was practically ready to raise both hands in surrender: "I really didn't put any blood in it..."
"No, it's not because of that..." Sukuna cut him off, but chose not to pursue the subject any further.
He reined in the gloomy, oppressive aura around him, but he no longer had the mood to slowly savor the cake Senior Kamiyado had specially made for him.
He took a couple of hurried bites, then left behind a single sentence: "I'm heading back for now. I'm a bit tired and want to sleep for a bit."
He swapped places with Itadori, who was still standing there looking dazed.
Senior Kamiyado pressed his lips into a thin line, and only after a long moment did he smile and urge the boy to eat the breakfast he had prepared for him.
To his surprise, Itadori looked at him too, speaking in a hesitant tone that mirrored Sukuna's almost verbatim: "Senior Kamiyado... if you don't want to smile at me, you don't have to."
The smile on Senior Kamiyado's face vanished entirely. He asked flatly, "Is it that obvious?"
Itadori nodded with absolute certainty, even describing the feeling in detail: "It's like your skin is smiling while your flesh isn't, or maybe your flesh is smiling while your skin isn't—anyway, it's just really weird, kind of terrifying."
He even gave a little shiver.
Senior Kamiyado closed his eyes for a second and asked in a low voice, "Is he alright?"
Itadori scratched his head: "Should be fine, right? Probably just ate his fill and wanted to sleep? Anyway, I feel like I can't eat another bite... ugh, even though it looks so good."
Senior Kamiyado was silent for a moment, his voice as light as a breath: "Then let's just assume he ate his fill..."
Itadori didn't catch that clearly and looked at Senior Kamiyado with a puzzled expression.
"It's nothing. I'll clean up, you hurry up and get ready to leave."
"Oh, right! We need to be at the hospital before eight-thirty. Gotta hurry, gotta hurry! Sorry for the trouble, Senior Kamiyado!"
Itadori slapped his own forehead and scrambled frantically into the bedroom.
As for Senior Kamiyado, he cleared the dishes back into the kitchen, tossing the strawberry little cake—which had only had a couple of bites taken out of it—directly into the trash can.
Meanwhile, Sukuna was lying on his side on the bed.
Yes, before leaving yesterday, Senior Kamiyado had used Cursed Technique Construction to forge a room directly inside Sukuna's inner world.
It looked remarkably similar to the room in his memories where he had last seen Senior Kamiyado.
Sukuna clutched the snow-white blanket in his grip, feeling that same smooth texture, just like the one in his memories.
He squeezed his eyes shut, his tall frame slowly curling inward.
Then, he pressed his palm against his heart, pushing down with so much force that veins bulged across the back of his hand.
It was this damn feeling of palpitation again...
To think it had made him flee in such a humiliating panic...
Sooner or later, he was going to chop up... no, beat up that big liar...