Tyrant's Favorite | Sukuna Ryomen x Reader

024. Beyond

"How do you win a man over?"

The journeys through the Impossible Belt left scars on your mind. The hardest days you could remember. Crossing those colossal mountains required at least three strenuous days, or two if luck was on your side, though it rarely was. Yorozu, your mother and you moved forward in a silence laden with exhaustion and expectation, driven only by the promise of the elegant balls in Gojo kingdom. The bare trees, the biting wind and the frozen ground whispered warnings, threatening you to go back home. Even so, you continued onward. The dense mist enveloped the landscape, a cloak not only hiding the path, but also the curses that lurked, invisible and dangerously close.

The cold was the commoners' worst enemy. When skin freezes, the threat becomes tangible: disease, suffering, and for the less fortunate, death itself. The best way to keep warm was to wrap yourself in three or four blankets, those blankets always ended up in the hands of your mother, who claimed them with the authority of someone in charge. So you and Yorozu had no choice but to sleep embraced, sharing the comfort of a single blanket that barely managed to contain the cold of the night.

"Why do you ask?" Yorozu whispered to not wake her mother, releasing a small trail of steam.

"If I don't get married soon, Mom will be furious," you explained in the same tone, shivering in her arms from the cold. "How do you make all the men crazy about you?"

Yorozu was stupidly beautiful, but there must have been something beyond her appearance that caught the attention of men like moths to a flame. Whether in the humble commune or in the elegant halls of the Gojo kingdom, she had a magnetism that aroused unspeakable desires, even among those who knew her sharp tongue well. Her beauty could dazzle, but her personality repelled, still and all, men continued to fall under her spell, as if the contradiction itself was part of her appeal.

"Men are simple creatures. You just have to look pretty, give them a flirtatious smile and make them believe that they are the most interesting man in the world," Yorozu commented with a certain arrogance.

Yorozu was fascinated by men, but not in the conventional way. To her, they were simple toys. She was like a cat being entertained by a field mouse, catching it by the tail every time it tried to escape, just to prolong the fun. If that was the trick to bewitching them, you had no hope. You let out a resigned sigh, accepting your defeat with a mixture of frustration and envy. Yorozu instantly caught the disappointment on your face and, as expected, smiled with a glint of mischief in her eyes.

"But since you are my favorite sister, I will tell you my secret technique." Yorozu took pity on you.

"Really? "

"You just have to promise not to tell anyone." She warned you.

"I promise".

"Listen carefully, I call this technique: 'Pull and push.' It is foolproof".

Yorozu's technique was as simple as it was effective, a dance in two perfectly calculated and consecutive movements. First, she gave them exactly what they craved, letting them taste a hint of what they could have. Then, with impeccable coldness, she ignored them, leaving them in the abyss of unfulfilled desire. She never failed: they always came back, begging for more. That was how Yorozu pulled the strings of obsession.

"Isn't that manipulation?" You asked worriedly.

"Call it what you want, but it always works".

"But what happens when they get bored of chasing?".

"Oh, sis. It's obvious you don't know anything about men". Yorozu mocked, ending up in a coughing fit due to the cold darkness. "Men are hunters by nature. They don't rest until they get what they want".