Sukuna and Amara walked through the imperial city together, their eyes searching for any disturbance or strange activities. Everywhere they passed people greeted them with warm smiles, recognizing them as imperial warriors.
Sukuna felt odd at each person that greeted him, usually people looked at him with either fear or disgust, it was like that in the Heian Era. In the Outskirts, because he was weak, he was looked at with mocking and contempt. Here in the Nightmare, people actually treated him nicely which made him feel things that were unfamiliar yet welcomed.
Sukuna shook his head and cleared his thoughts. He had to remember that this was a Nightmare and the people were merely illusions created by the spell, his current objective was to find out how to conquer this Nightmare and return to the waking world. 'I can't afford to be distracted now, I need to return as soon as possible.'
Sukuna subtly studied Amara up-and-down, despite being a warrior, she seemed more like an assassin type. Someone who would strike from the shadows than fight head on, her steps were quiet and her posture, while relaxed, seemed ready to spring into action. He had already thought of ways to end her if she tried anything. Luckily she didn't.
After a while of looking and finding nothing out of the ordinary, they decided to take a break and get something to eat. They went to one of the food stalls, when Sukuna realized he had no money on him to pay, so he just clicked his tongue in annoyance and crossed his arms.
Amara looked at him with confusion and asked. "Are you not going to order?"
"I don't have money." He stated flatly.
Amara nodded then ordered two skewers, after paying she walked up to Sukuna and held out one of the skewers for him, "Here."
Sukuna raised an eyebrow, he stared at her suspiciously and asked in a cautious tone. "What's the catch?" He didn't believe this was simply out of the goodness of her heart. Amara simply stared at him, her hand still outstretched to give him the tasty meat. They both stared at each other for a few minutes, neither willing to back down from this.
Amara sighed and spoke. "We both need to be at the top of our game for this mission and you starving yourself prevents that." Sukuna was still cautious, but didn't see any reason to refuse, and so he took the skewer and began eating. He had to admit that it tasted pretty good compared to the synthpaste rations he managed to scavenge in the Outskirts.
After finishing the skewers, they continued their mission without speaking to each other till night finally approached. "Let's return to the captain and inform him we found nothing on this side of the city." Amara said,turning around without waiting for Sukuna. Sukuna just followed without saying anything.
They reached where they had originally met and waited for the others to return from their patrol. Sukuna decided to check his attributes, he had been too ecstatic to actually see what they do.
[Cursed Existence] Attribute Description: "You are not meant to exist, yet you still do. Your being is rejected by not only fate, but the world itself, and so will be met by only the most harrowing of trials.
[Mark of Divinity] Attribute Description: "You bear a faint trace of divinity, as if touched by it."
[Cursed Energy] Attribute Description: The most vile and negative emotions of both worlds. Only you can harness such abhorrent power.
Sukuna looked at his attributes with both curiosity and slight disappointment. They didn't do anything combat wise, but he had a feeling they would evolve along with him in the long term. When he read the description of [Cursed Existence], he quickly figured out what it meant.
Both fate and the world knew that he did not belong here, that he was no more than an outsider, a parasite. Naturally, they would seek to exterminate the pest that entered it without its permission.
Sukuna only frowned with bitter resentment. It seemed it didn't matter whether it was his world or the next one, he would forever remain an unwanted and unloved wretch that was despised by everyone.
Sukuna decided not to delve more in his negative thoughts and just closed his runes and waited for his 'companions'. Finally, all the teams had returned and there were now six people with only the captain missing.
Strangely enough, all of them were curious about meeting Sukuna and getting to know him. They asked him some questions that he answered since they were rather trivial, however when one of them, a blue haired man asked him for a spar, Sukuna with a large grin agreed readily as he was about to draw his sword, unfortunately the battle couldn't happen.
Arriving with heavy footsteps was the captain, covered in blood that didn't seem to belong to him.