🖋️ Chapter 34: Echoes of the Wild Moon
> Scene context: This flashback is triggered by Sukuna's devastating punch in the present. As Arkais is flung backward, a memory from his lonely past resurfaces... shaping his resolve.
The punch landed like a meteor. Sukuna's fist, layered in cursed energy, collided with Arkais's chest. Bones screamed, earth shattered, and the impact threw him backward through space and memory alike.
Before he hit the ground... before pain registered...
He saw trees.
He saw the jungle.
He saw her.
The jungle had always been his home.
Not by choice.
By exile.
Years ago, after his father Hiroki's death in battle, the villagers cast Arkais out — labeling him cursed. Born with strange marks, born during a blood moon, born as an omen. He was nothing more than a shadow of sorrow in their eyes.
He grew in silence, fighting beasts and hunger alike.
No words. No friends. No future.
Until that day.
He remembered the moment like a scar he never wanted to fade.
It was dusk. The sky was a deep shade of purple, crows silent, wind unnaturally still.
He was meditating beneath the oldest tree — its bark blackened by cursed storms, twisted like the bones of the dead.
That's when he heard it.
> "...Is someone there?"
He opened his eyes.
A voice — human. Light. Hesitant.
A girl's.
He stood instantly. Quietly. Tracking the sound through the dense foliage.
With each step, he felt it — not cursed energy, but something else. Like a ripple of presence not meant to exist in that part of the jungle.
Then, he saw her.
A girl, maybe fourteen or fifteen, trembling between thorned bushes. Her clothes were torn, her face streaked with dirt. Her breathing was uneven, her eyes wide with fear.
She looked up — and froze when she saw him.
So did he.
He knew how he looked — tall, scarred, eyes glowing faintly in the twilight, covered in remnants of cursed fights.
But instead of running, she stood her ground.
He stepped forward.
She flinched.
He raised a hand, slowly, offering help.
She hesitated. Then took it.
> "You're not… going to hurt me?"
He shook his head.
> "Then… will you help me get out of here?"
Again, no words — just a nod.
He turned, guiding her through jungle paths only he knew. She followed, stepping carefully. Once she tripped, and his hand caught her instinctively.
They continued in silence.
As the sky darkened behind them, and the jungle thinned, she finally spoke again.
> "You don't feel like a monster."
He said nothing.
> "People think I'm strange too. I hear voices sometimes… feel things. That's why I ran. They said I was cursed."
He stopped. Slowly turned toward her.
> "I'm just... different," he said quietly.
She smiled — a real, human smile.
> "Same."
At the tree line, she paused. Looking back at the jungle and then at him.
> "I'm coming back tomorrow. You better be here."
He didn't respond.
> "Okay then," she said with a grin. "See you later, Forest King."
Then she left.
He stood there for a long time.
No one had ever said they'd come back for him before.
And she did come back.
Every day.
She brought wild fruits. Water. A comb once, which she forced into his hand and taught him how to use — which he stubbornly ignored at first. They'd sit by the river, or under his favorite tree, speaking little but understanding more.
She never asked why he lived alone.
He never asked where she came from.
One day, she finally asked him:
> "What's your name?"
He answered softly.
> "Arkais."
Her eyes lit up slightly.
> "Arkais... Sounds powerful. Fits you."
He looked away. That name… was all he had left from his father. The final thread to the Hiroki name. He had never told anyone before. But somehow, it felt… right.
That night, he whispered it into the fire again.
> "Arkais…"
For the first time, it felt like his name was his.
And then…
She stopped coming.
No warning. No goodbye.
He waited. A day. A week. A month.
Nothing.
He searched deeper into the jungle. Once, he found blood in the leaves near the western cliff.
Not hers — not entirely — but human.
In rage, he torched that entire section of the forest.
After that, he stopped hoping.
Stopped feeling.
He trained harder. Slept less. Spoke even less than before.
He didn't let that part of himself surface again.
But her memory... her smile... her presence in that jungle… never truly left.
And the name?
He carried it with him.
Arkais.
Back to Present…
Sukuna's laugh echoed like thunder.
Blood poured from Arkais's mouth. The battlefield around him was cracked, the sky churning with cursed pressure.
But now... his eyes had fire in them.
The old wound had opened again — but this time, it didn't weaken him.
It reminded him why he stands.
> "You think I'll fall that easily?"
"You have no idea what's buried inside me."
His cursed energy exploded in a surge of silver and obsidian.
She once called him different.
But one day... someone will call him king again.
And this time — he'll earn it.
✅ End of Chapter 34: Echoes of the Wild Moon