Unholy!

New old Enemy

Sometimes running away feels like the easiest way out.
Sometimes running away appears to be the best way out.
Sometimes running away seems like the only way out.
But every time, running away is not the right way out.

---

It's morning, so early it's still dark, but too late to call it midnight. Megumi holds the staff card between trembling fingers, and instead of heading for the main entrance, he slips toward the less conspicuous employee door of the ‚Unholy!'.

It's between opening hours, but from experience, Megumi knows this place is never truly closed. He also knows exactly where the security cameras sit and ducks beneath them, like someone who has mastered the art of becoming invisible.

The card feels cold between his fingers when he swipes it across the reader. A red light flashes. A dull, denying beep follows. That feels personal...

„Oh come on", he mutters, jaw clenched. He tries again. Red. And again. Still red. „Damn it!"

Could this be a sign? A last-minute intervention? Is God maybe trying to stop him from doing something catastrophically stupid?

Megumi snorts. There is no such thing as God!

His breath fogs in the cold air. He shuts his eyes for a moment and disappointment flares where hope had just been. Then he remembers: he still has another card. The black one. The one Sukuna gave him. The one that grants access to the lowest floor – the ring.

Maybe... just maybe?

He digs through his pocket and panic flickering when he doesn't find it right away, but then his fingers brush against the hard edge of plastic. A shaky breath escapes him as he pulls it free, staring at it for a long moment. Long enough to question whether stepping into that hellhole is really such a brilliant idea. But there's no turning back now.

The card is completely blank, with only a barcode and single number engraved into it: 1

His heart pounds as he presses it to the reader, and for a long, suffocating moment, nothing happens. Then...

Click.

The blink of a green light makes his chest loosen in relief. It's open!

He slips inside quickly, the heavy door falling shut behind him, sealing the cold and the night on the other side.

After entering the building, his eyes need a moment to adjust to the dark. His feet carry him through the familiar corridors, straight to the staff room where the employee lockers line the walls. He heads for the one with his name on it and swings it open. Inside he finds a neatly folded stack of fresh and dry clothes, and swaps them for the damp, reeking ones he came in with. For the first time in days he feels human again. He doesn't even care that these clothes probably came from Sukuna. Right now, he just needs to stop smelling like a walking trash heap.

Just as he's about to close the locker door, something catches his eye and it hits hard. Underneath the remaining pile of clothes glints a silver tip and Megumi knows instantly what he's looking at. That shape, that flash of metal... Naoya's knife!

There's only one person who could've put it there. Sukuna... As if he wanted Megumi to keep it.

Yeah, well, that's not happening!

No way he's doing him that favor. He's done with all that bullshit, done playing his part in whatever this is supposed to be, and most of all, he's done with anything and everything that has to do with the Zenin family!