Chapter 8: Red headed girl

Sukuna sat quietly in the courtyard of the Xiao Manor, arms folded within the sleeves of his white kimono, the moonlight tracing soft lines over the black markings that crawled across his skin. Crimson eyes glowed faintly in the dark as he peered up at the stars, but the distant constellations offered no comfort only silence.

“…It’s not helping,” he muttered, his voice sharp yet subdued. “Fragments… scraps... barely enough to build the full picture of this world anymore.”

He scowled, fingers twitching slightly under his sleeves before releasing the tension.

“Tch. Whatever.”

His thoughts drifted, slowly turning inward to a world long lost and his parents… the people who had raised him. He had never been particularly sentimental, but now, staring at an unfamiliar sky in an unfamiliar world, a flicker of sorrow bloomed behind his eyes.

“…I hope they are safe and doing ok without me.” He paused, then gave a small huff of amusement. “And that you're not mourning me too long. That damn ROB said he’d give you a new child. Guess… I’ll never get to meet them huh.”

He looked down briefly, his smile soft but distant and sad as he felt his chest tighten up. The moment lingered in silence until his head suddenly turned to the right, his senses prickling.

“…How peculiar.”

Without another word, he stood. And then, in a blur of space and air, his figure vanished.

---

Sukuna reappeared high in the mountains beyond Floating Cloud City. The cold wind rushed past his robes as he narrowed his eyes, scanning the area.

“I felt a ripple from here… faint and chaotic.”

He stepped through the brush silently until he noticed faint footprints in the dark soil. Following them carefully, his senses caught something familiar, a scent of decay masked behind potent spiritual fluctuation. He moved faster now, his shadow flickering as he advanced forward.

And then he saw it.

Below, in a clearing ringed by blackened vegetation, stood Xiao Che. But Sukuna’s gaze immediately locked onto the figure lying motionless on the ground. It looked like a young girl, no more than twelve or thirteen her crimson hair shimmering faintly in the starlight.

Sukuna’s eyes widened a fraction. ‘That girl…’

Fragments of his memory pieced themselves together like splintered glass about this particular scene infront of him. ‘Yes… I remember this, the poisoned girl xiao Che met at the very beginning.

As Xiao Che knelt by her side, Sukuna remained cloaked in shadow, observing.

“How can there be… such a beautiful girl…?” Xiao Che whispered.

Sukuna narrowed his eyes. Even he couldn’t deny the girl’s unnatural beauty. ‘On Earth, not even the most genetically engineered or surgically modified face could rival this level of supernatural charm,’ he thought. ‘She’s akin to a walking catastrophe of allure.’

He stepped forward silently as Xiao Che reached out. The boy’s hand pressed against her cold chest and that’s when the greenish light of the Sky Poison Pearl began to glow, faint but alive.

Sukuna's brows furrowed. “So… this is how it cleanses the poison. Direct soul-to-core detoxification.”

He watched as the poison was pulled out of her slowly, threads of darkness being absorbed into Xiao Che’s hand. The fluctuations in her energy began to change. The deathly aura receded minutely but noticeably.

Then she opened her eyes slowly.

Those abyssal black eyes met Sukuna’s first, if only briefly, blurry and unfocused, but instinctively locked on him. His red eyes and marked face. A stillness that made her soul jolt at the peculiarity before dismissing him due to the lack of cultivation.

Her focus quickly shifted to Xiao Che.

“Sky… Poison… Pearl…?” she murmured.

Sukuna’s eyes narrowed. Hooo~ She knows it. That’s no coincidence.’

He remained still as Xiao Che reacted in stunned disbelief.

But the next moment shocked even Sukuna.

“Little girl, you……ah!!”

She had lunged biting his finger. Her grip like iron, unshakable. She drank his blood like a newborn starved of light, greedy and determined.

“…A little vampire, huh?” Sukuna muttered, his voice low, dry with amused venom. “No, not quite. She’s extracting something… the Sky Poison Pearl’s essence… from his blood.”

He watched, fascinated, as Xiao Che struggled and failed to break free. The girl’s strength was baffling. Even weakened by lethal poison, she overpowered him.

After moments of feeding, she finally stopped. Her hand loosened. Xiao Che staggered back, his expression dark and confused.

She lay still once more silent, breathless. Like a porcelain doll abandoned in the night.

Sukuna tilted his head. “What now…?”

Then it happened.

A cold wind blew, stirring the clearing.

And then mist.

Her body dissolved like smoke, carried away into the darkness. Only a white skirt, black shoes, and a red butterfly clip remained.

Xiao Che stood there, shocked. But Sukuna already understood.

“…Hooo. So that’s it,” he said softly. “She’s inside the pearl now.”

He glanced at Xiao Che’s left palm his senses piercing through. Within the depths of the boy’s hand, slumbered a presence which was faint, but unmistakable. The red-haired girl… was feeding and Siphoning small streams of energy from the Sky Poison Pearl like a child on lifeline.

Sukuna gave a low chuckle, his smile tinged with curiosity.

“This story… might finally get interesting.”

‘If only I could remember it fully then it would’ve been much more fun… oh well’.