Back on my bullshit because I can, but @rizukinocte showed interest in the tea cult (Also, drop the fic plz 👀), and @pinktulipandyellowpetunia asked a really good question, but it needs info dump to understand how to answer it!
First, let's hit yall with backstory and context. (Warning; Reglious themes, Canon typical cannibalism, human sacrifice; we're going into SIkuna's past, so buckle up because people will be shitty)
SIkuna only has knowledge up to the detention center arc, but had pretty much been spoiled to hell and back by one of his friends. He was a horror writer, and mostly liked horror manga and movies, with a side interest in history and odd facts. He dies of course, but he does so in a Liminal space which... makes things a little funky...
Born in his tiny ass village with a distant starving mother, they are both shunned as his human alive form, which I headcannon as having the four eyes and the ability to have mouths appearing all over his body, (Though his belly mouth is his curse form; as a human he had a lot more control, so his mouths only appeared when necessary or desperate.) he has both hands full keeping himself alive, the saving grace being his mother is the only priestess of their temple, and you don't kill someone of faith least you anger their kami. (Doesn't hurt that the man who got her pregnant died one hell of a violent death, making people think she is still favored) their relationship... distant as Sukuna has grown seeing her starve herself not touching offers for her God, only taking the bare minimum for her and the child she takes care of out of duty and some weird sense of responsibility. One of the very few, if any kind of bonding they do, is tea ceremonies they have in honor of the kami they have at their shrine, more tasting of water then anything but time still shared.
But the times are ever changing; good times are ever changing with the bad, and vice versa... the bad just seems to feel so much longer.
Doesn't help this is a time of famine, a golden age only for the nobles and Sorcerer's at the top, with an emperor who thinks more of the dead and animals then his very alive people starving. Faith can only last so long, especially shown in how offering decrease, in how more people start to see them more as a scapegoat then to be respected.
Sukuna was lucky in a way, because after his mother of died of illness when he was about 4 or 5, he got picked up by some kooky monks/witches a few months after leaving his village before they could toss him out (this unknowingly first change to the story to differentiate Sikuna from OGkuna; a difference in time and people met, because i headcannon that after OGkuna was chased out, after wandering he meets up with a slightly crippled hunter, who while also teaching him, takes just as much advantage of him). Of course, in the months before SIkuna met those crazy guys, he learned hunger, learned desperation, and relearned cruelty over and over again.
(His healing was always great, amazing how, even at two fingers, basically 1/10 of his power, OGKuna could restore Yuji's full hand with the reverse curse technique. At three he could restore his life... SIkuna may only know bits and bobs of the story, but with a desperate hunger and baby fat that still clings to him...
Well, exhaustion is easier to deal with than a demanding stomach; helps his pain tolerance is really through the roof too!)
Back to the monks, they were the ones who helped him actually learn family and hope, even at the darkest of times. (How many nights of terror haunting his dreams, to wake to a cup of tea at his side but no one else their to see his sore eyes, to times he leans in for the rare want of comfort, watching as the woman more of a mother to him lazily whips up a quick cup of tea. To tea eggs being a treat he gets for being really good, something smuggled amongst ill gains.)
Also, they were the fount of knowledge of how unaware people could protect themselves, the purification rituals that worked to cleanse cursed energy, the means to fight back, and what could be done to sense/see the unseen; his mother, while distant, was not cruel, was also willing to teach her child all about her knowledge, which the monks built upon.
Skipping ahead, so for reasons that SIkuna does not want to really think about, he gets several villages under his control that revear him as a god while still fucking alive. And what do you offer in these trying times?
Women especially; why, the fancier and well bred, the better! Look, this one knows the arts!
Sukuna has a fucking headache. The woman offered to him, he gives them choices, working in other temples he knows are legit, if they have their own exit strategy, or if the want to work for him. Because while he is a monster of a man, a killer who heals so that a debt of flesh can keep getting paid by those who owe him (after all, once you're dead you can no longer heal, and ain't that just a waste of meat?) He does have his bottom lines; some of these girls are only considered woman because of the time he's in, and despite knowing the cruelty of children, it is at least an honest cruelty he can acknowledge.
Sadly, very few can take his offer, as they really have no where to go, so SIkuna does make use from them; from learning what they know because he has the time now (because God damn it he misses internet), has them act as entertainment with singing and dancing, acting as well. Let's them learn to fight, to struggle and rise up, whether as Sorcerer's or Shamans(Gonna use this as a term for regular peeps who can fight curses, I like the sound of it). He let's then be, as long as they're loyal to him.
(He let's them teach, grow, and prosper; doesn't look at them as lesser than because nothing is really as great as him, so he sees them as they are. Many have been loyal for less.)
Tho, one of the things Sukuna really gets into with his 'prestiesses' is tea; it is so fucking useful, practically any flower and/or weed can be made into it, it can enhance and preserve food, it's part of some of his fondest memories of his faint mother but also the Monk/witches who helped and guided him... he really likes tea. (Generally loves all food and drink, but tea is a soft spot/special interest now.)
And the people who follow him see this; they react accordingly; our two faced God, the healer and the killer, eater of flesh and drinker of tea.
Sukuna, hearing this, thinking of the trivia fact that some tea companies have cult history; lol, yes, let's do it. (Man devises a whole ass tea ceremony made to honor him and his name, making really special, hard to make tea with some ritual purified cursed energy infused in it to make it a challenge but also offer training.
If he's gonna have a cult, why not go all out!... of course, this ceremony is practiced to the modern age, one of the few rituals that can purify cursed energy still surviving :3 )
But again; times are ever changing... and betrayal happens to the best of us.
(His people do their best, they have done all they can... but Sukuna is but a man in the end, one consumed by rage even to the end...
Is it any wonder then, he comes back twice as strong, four arms grasping and strangling, the roaring maw on his stomach ever consuming... his people, what remains of those alive and uncaptured, stand willing behind their god reborn, watching as he seeks retribution and carnage.
Blood and flesh will be paid with blood and flesh; with interest.)
So yeah! Curse!Sukuna is even more monster of a being, even going so far as to capture his own assassins and train them up out of boredom and want of a challenge; some of them even train the next generation in hopes to provide a surprise that might just kill him. I'm pretty sure tho some do fall victim to Stockholm, and become loyal, so there is that..
But as you can see, history knows a fucking lot about Sukuna, and with his cult having cursed techniques at hand, a lot gets preserved, so more then just the death records is known, even if it gets confusing just how Sukuna finally died.
(Fun fact; when Sukuna was alive, he developed a misunderstanding that Kenjaku wanted his body, and even when he became a curse, still wanted it for experiments... which isn't wrong, but it was only a thought that crossed his mind once or twice, but he really did want to experiment with it more. He is in part a large reason Sukuna decided to end it all; he will die in a blaze of glory as a king, not a pawn.)
So yeah, Sukuna's Cult (Probably need a better name for it but eh) and the Jujutsu clans have been butting heads for over thousands of years, both sides have in fact tried to wipe the other out, but in the end had to settle for peace because the world is ever expanding and the Sorcerer count is ever so small. In the end, binding vows in place and treaties made, peace is made even when ideologies clash.
Sukuna is a much debated figure tbh, like some look at him and the times he's from, while others just say he is a monster and always was. Some to this day still see him as a god, their god who will come back one day, free and unbound...
Like, Sukuna wants the code names for more than one reason, mostly Kenjaku, but he's pretty sure the Jujutsu world is still cursing his name and would love to kill him again.
All that said, Ghostfeed crew (born of all the jokes of just feeding the ghosts to the old man/honor buzzfeed only known to author; ghost busters can still be a nickname, but can't be used legally because copyright) get up to shenanigans when SIkuna warns them there are Sorcerers up a head, so he's gonna probably dip out for a bit and hide his aura as much as he can.
On the Sorcerer's side, this is probably the first and second year's doing a training session to get ready for the Goodwill event, which in this verse also has the cult kids involved, it's not just Kyoto school kids, so the tension is even more ramped up here in different ways. But then in comes a group of what everyone of them thinks is normal people, none of them really care to watch ghost hunting, but a few do recognize them from memes.
So the interactions are gold!
Like, just Megumi interacting with Iguchi and Sasaki as they film, so deadpan while the seniors being so goofy with their off the wall theories.
Panda-senpai and Maki doing their best to hide said Panda from being filmed, Junpei just worriedly looking at Maki from time to time.
Yuji being confused but patient with Inumaki-senpai while Sukuna perfectly understands him for some reason. Yuko and Nobara becoming fast friends and already exchanging numbers in the background.
It's all great! Until they keep on bumping into each other, Panda gets revealed in one particulaly rough case, Sorcery gets shown, but people only think it's for the lore and special effects. The Sorcerer's on the other hand are starting to wonder if these guys are from the cult, because a lot of habits and rituals carry over, but they're also really different and honestly have no idea about the cult.
(Because things can get lost in time, changed for the better in the cult, but also because Sukuna is always about adaptability and flexible minds; it's what makes one survive.)
Gojo won't appear for a bit, but he's a bit salty/bitter about Sukuna's cult.
(Because imagine, a world where it is proven that non-Sorcerers once had the means to purify their cursed energy, had the means to protect themselves, but had been systematically ruined for greed by Sorcerers and Curse users alike... how would Geto react to something like that?
Either world, seems like Geto is involved with cults; this one, he's just alive and well enough to continue to do so.)
But yeah, Sukuna ain't revealing his name anytime soon, and Gojo, when looking at Yuji, it seems like a vessel situation (there are a few around, so it's not too rare, just uncommon) where it looks like the curse/spirit is well contained, so while he does poke and prod, when nothing happens, well, he evaluated the group as Shamans in training from a minor group using them; it happens, neutral groups testing waters here and there, but honestly they're doing no harm and they'll probably give the elders a migraine, might even give a stroke to a few!
But if any of the kids get threatened... if they get hurt or someone tries to use them... :)
Sukuna will come out and play.
