WARNING for minor spoilers of the manga. Eventual manga territory. Trigger warnings will be marked on certain chapters that can be triggering. Will be compliant with canon until it eventually diverges.
GENRE: Canon Divergence AU, Adventure, Angst, Drama, Friendship, Humor, Action… probably Romance in the future?
PAIRINGS: Pairings aren't fixed yet, might take a long while to crawl out. Feel free to leave your suggestions for pairings!
COVER ART: Drawn by my dearest friend omarvinillustrations for this fanfic. Do give him your support!
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I know I said that I'll NEVER start another fanfic again, but here we are... To combat my writer's block, I decided to try a different writing style, so what started off as a prompt to write an OC-Insert villain (cause why the heck not?) suddenly spiraled into something not so OC-insert-ish because my complicated ass wanted to make things more complex, and gradually into multi-chapter fanfic… I kinda wanted to give reincarnation a go, but then I messed up the meaning of SI-OC so I guess this is OC-reincarnation? Heh.
Since the Jujutsu Kaisen Fandom is kind of new, just thought I should post my contribution to show my love. Probably won't be as 'MASSIVE' of a project as my other fanfic HSW, but still relatively big enough, I think? Plot heavy.
So to my new and old readers, welcome~
Cross-posted on AO3 under the same pseudonym xDollfie.
saṃsāra
i. prologue
samsara
noun: HINDUISM•BUDDHISM
the cycle of death and rebirth to which life in the material world is bound.
.
.
.
HEIAN ERA
"What do you think happens after we die?"
"Death."
She chuckled at his straightforward response. "Master Tengen would be disappointed to hear that."
"I don't really care what he thinks."
She grinned. "You never listen to him, do you?"
"And you think I should?"
"Maybe." She shrugged. "You know, I actually asked him about it yesterday. What he replied was interesting. Apparently, death only marks the end of our current life before we continue the passage to the next. What comes next is the infinite wheel of karmic samsara, the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth—to go through countless births and deaths, suffering perpetually until enlightenment is achieved."
"Hah." He sighed tiredly. "That useless immortal really did get to your head."
"Not really." She gazed beyond the cliffs, pausing. "I guess… what he said really stuck to me."
"Mm? Why?"
A somber smile etched her red lips. Fingers feathered gently over the horizontal stitch on his forehead. "Because… I think that it's pretty sad..."
The beginning of her end started on a cold October night in modern-day Japan.
It was to be just another night like any other night. Nearly everything in her screened room would be dark save for the light coming from the television. She'd sit on the cool tatami mat—her usual spot—while waiting for dinner to be brought to her room.
7 pm.
She looked at the sliding door expectantly. That woman would be coming soon.
Everything was right. Just right. Normal. Everyday.
Monotonous.
She heard a bird chirp somewhere outside, singing a soft song and waiting for another to return its call. A single window was pressed to the wall that faced a garden courtyard. It had slender wooden bars that ran across vertically, partially blocking the view. The bird outside called again and received no answer.
She had stopped gazing out years ago.
9 pm.
Jujutsu Kaisen was playing. She liked it well enough. It was a funny series that made for a great dinner show. Today was the last episode of the first season. She wondered when the second season would air.
I'm hungry. She thumbed the hem of her long sleeve. The easy afterthought of 'but I don't care' whispered after. She sighed and focused on the television. Thinking took too much work.
11 pm.
She glanced at the clock. Her dinner wasn't coming.
I'm tired. Lonely. Sad. Hungry. Don't know, don't know.
There was no other afterthought.
12 am.
That woman that always brought her dinner never showed up that night. Other people did. Strangers. Men that looked terrifying. She didn't recognize any of them. The way they manhandled her was despicable and inexcusable. They left her with no way for her to fight back. The way their eyes tore into hers, the way their mouth bit on every word and the way their hands violently dragged her out of her family estate and into a van forced the premature surrender.
They drove to the highlands where unmarked mountain ranges poured over bare landscapes. Rough hands lunged her out of the van and out to the edge of a cliff before making her kneel. Her battered body trembled but put up no resistance.
It was a cold night. Windy. The air tasted like freedom.
The waves crashed against the mountain cliffs.
Ocean.
Her apprehenders spoke for a long time. She didn't listen. It was better to be mesmerized by the ocean beckoning her with its waves. There was no need to pay attention to what they were saying. It was the same thing—demon, demon, demon—over and over like a cycle meant to torment her. Why should she listen to it? They ended their tedious speech with a prayer for her soul, hilarious really, until finally, finally—
They declared that she, aged twenty-three, would die tonight.
What followed a loud splash was the piercing icy water that stabbed her skin. The constriction of the chest as lungs fought for oxygen. Her mortal strength paled in comparison to the ocean's vicious prerogative. Momentous waves and their twisting vigor pelted relentlessly until limbs gave into their heavy and tired bind. Her helpless body no longer fought to resurface.
Buried and engulfed in the depths of the ocean, hands reached out to the moon to savor it for one last time. It had been a while since she looked at it properly.
What bad luck I have…
Soon, eyes fluttered shut as the last of the bubbles escaped.
On the day of her "death", the ocean won the battle effortlessly.
I didn't want to die like this.
"But you already gave it up, didn't you?"
This isn't how I wanted to die—
"What would you do when granted a second chance then?"
She had never put much stock into her future, or what comes after.
There was never supposed to be a need for her to. It's nothing more than a hopeful fantasy anyway. When she sat there alone in that screened room amidst the tatami mats with no one else besides her but herself and the birds so far off behind barred windows—she'd always known better than to believe too heavily in something that she might not even be deserving of.
There was only one thing she was certain was ever-present in her future; one thing that comes for all mortals.
Death.
It was a notion that people often glorify. Philosophers debated the topic regularly, entire religions worshiped the idea, traditions and superstition surrounding it passing down since ancient times. What comes after it, what would happen to your soul, heaven and hell, Nirvana and perfect paradise, enlightenment and condemnation.
"The karmic wheel of samsara will spin even after death," she recalled one of her many teachers saying once, he was a religious Buddhist preacher who'd read dozens of scriptures on the idea of rebirth, "It was the act of clinging and desire that causes us to suffer—an engine of negative emotions and ego so powerful that even when a body dies, the mind continues the clinging and searching, until finally… it builds a bridge to another body and takes birth again."
The idea in itself seemed fanatical and hard to believe—to transcend time and boundaries for another body, for somewhere else to inhabit, for another life to lead.
It was ludicrous, yet she decided, somewhere when she was aged sixteen, that if she were to be reborn again, she'd lead the life she wanted to lead.
Or die trying.
"Give it up, you're too weak."
I don't want to. Never.
Long sharp fingernails dug into flesh, drawing blood. "Fool! I will be the better option—"
No. I want to try again. I must.
MEIJI ERA
Darkness.
I died. Death. Finality.
An endless spread of blackness looming, hovering. Not substantial, not physical… just there, an infinite void of the abyss. It spanned forever, a timeless existence that comforted and embraced as a blur of winding memories raced through her mind, until—
Sounds fell on defeated ears, like distant thuds on floorboards. Her head pounded. She felt hot, static electricity humming in her veins. She could barely make out anything apart from the soft feathering of voices, of someone's presence, of her consciousness tumbling aimlessly through the abyss.
Movement.
Her body was moving. Shifting. Something—a heart? —thumped furiously in her chest. Alive? No, impossible—she was dead, she had to be dead—alive...?
She felt sticky and clammy. A pungent scent wafted into her nose when her lips instinctively parted a soundless gasp. Oh God. It smelt terrible, like a decomposing corpse of an animal that was being feasted on by maggots.
Bleary, murky eyes finally pried themselves open.
Light. So much light. It was so blinding, she always hated bright things—
The blurry world exploded into colors. Underdeveloped eyes blinked multiple times to make through the shapes—another screened room, a futon, lump of reddish-brown— what was that?
Her heart came to a stuttering shudder.
Woman. Mutilated. Corpse.
She did what good babies would do in that situation. She cried, loudly. Eyes squeezed themselves together to chase away the image of the dead woman sprawled across the futon. The sight was too gruesome, it almost made her hurl. Blood drenched the lower half of her ripped kimono, innards spilled over the sheets.
It looked like something; someone had clawed their way out of her abdomen.
"Welcome back."
A soft whisper somewhere above her pierced her hypersensitive ears as frighteningly large fingers curved her head. Confusion filled her entire being.
Welcome back?
Something soft pressed to her skin, bundling around her. Her heart raced—what is going on? I died, didn't I? —and all at once, her body felt suddenly flushed, hot, uncomfortable—
Burning.
The man seemed to have intuitively realized her agitation.
The fabric of his yukata pressed to her cheeks, "It must be hard right now, but it'll get better."
Curiosity was no match for the burning sensation in her chest. Her head felt ridiculously heavy when she struggled to look up. The man's smile looked nostalgic when a foreign name that wasn't hers fell from his lips. His short black hair was slicked back, revealing a straight stitched scar that ran horizontally across his forehead.
His gaze was familiar, but he was a stranger through and through. Somehow, it made her chest ache.
Who are you—
"Master Kamo," another voice said, "the sorcerers are finally making their move."
"I see."
Sorcerers? She didn't have time to even play with that word in her mind. Sticky, squishy large hands enveloped her small body. She was being passed over to someone.
Putrid, red blood dripped onto her cheeks. She blinked, once, twice, three times.
Fear paralyzed her stiff body, and for a moment, she almost forgot about the indescribable burn in her chest, almost forgot that she was completely at a loss at where she was. Her breathing hitched and her mind went blank—a natural reaction for one when they come to a startling realization that they were being cradled by a grotesque three-eyed green monster—
A mesh of emotions ran through her, too fast for her to completely process. Grief. Fear. Terror. Pain. Mortification. Anger. All churning into one pile of gnarly emotional ball until she did the most reasonable thing anyone, adult or infant, in her situation could or would want to do.
She cried until she passed out.
I am scared.
"Why?"
I don't know where I am. There's this monster, a spawn of Satan, and that man—
"That man wouldn't hurt you."
Rebirth. Reincarnation. Re-embodiment.
Or any other word that can be synonymous with re-freaking-birth.
It was exactly as she thought. This was real—she wasn't floating in an illusion, desperate to get away from an unfavorable reality.
Her eyes stared blankly at the slabs of wooden ceilings, the shape of wood grains and the slats reminded her of the room she used to inhabit in her previous life— cypress wood? If she were to move her head—which she tried, but she really couldn't as it was too heavy—she would be able to see the Japanese screens that formed the interior of the house.
It was your typical olden day Japanese home, minus the modern-day lights and electrical appliances. She wondered what era she was in. The yukatas, the wooden slippers, the decorations, all of it brought a sense of nostalgia in her in a world so familiar, yet so foreign.
Second chance.
Another life, one still in Japan, nevertheless.
She bit her lip at that.
Maybe she had gone into shock or just wasn't taking it all in yet, but she felt no panic now. It'd taken her a long time to get over the mess of emotions. Of the memories that were not lost in the process of reincarnating into a new life—she was pretty sure somewhere had botched up, or maybe it was karmic intervention itself—but in totality, she understood there was no denying it any longer.
The cruel murder at the hands of her captors had landed her here—in a new Japan. One where monsters cruised about nonchalantly in daylight as if it was normal.
"Yuwa."
It was the monster again—which she had now affectionately named "Greenie". His deformed fingers clutched around the wooden crib, huge body leaned over to peer at her. Sounds odd that she, who was once rendered paralyzed by crippling fear over the mere sight of him, had gotten accustomed to seeing him around, but there was no helping it.
Greenie oversaw the care of her, an attendant of sorts. The other man—Kamo—who was there on the day of her rebirth was hardly around. She didn't know where he went and the times where she did see him were far and in-between.
Truthfully, she had played with the thought that maybe he was her new father. However, the gruesome afterthought of the dead woman's internal organs cleaved out would hammer it down. No. For starters, she didn't want to think who her new parents were.
She never had a good relationship with any of her parents anyways.
"Yuwa," Greenie tilted his head, voice grating. "Do you need anything?"
As if I can talk even if I want to.
She mustered a sheepish smile, knowing that Greenie liked it. He was nice to her, cautious, and did his best to care for her. She could respect that.
Yuwa was her new name. The name in kanji means "organize harmony." She thought it was pretty ironic after taking into account her dramatic rebirth— really why can't I be born into a simple loving family?
It was a pretty name. Delicate and soft. It didn't fit her, but she decided to go by it from here on.
Because it was the only name she could remember.
Like a completed jigsaw puzzle that was missing out that one final piece—there was a gaping void whenever she tried to remember her previous name. It made her doubt herself.
What if all the memories of her previous life were fabricated?
As the days went by, her worries piled like building blocks when she discovered many of her memories became blended too. Whenever she thought back, she often felt a disconnection, something in the back of her mind was niggling at her that there's something she was missing. Something clearly important. However, because the transition was so natural, like a phenomenon that occurred in infants, maybe she really wasn't meant to remember.
She clung to them regardless, desperate for something to validate she had a previous life. To convince herself she wasn't due for a trip to the mental psych ward.
A gasp parted her lips when something flew into the room from the window. A fly? It was bigger than a mere insect with massive eyeballs the size of a fist, a deformed blue body, and mismatched wings.
Had I gone crazy? Was this the childhood imaginary friend that she so often heard babies cooked up in their heads to fend off loneliness? Unlikely. It appeared more like a creepy apparition that haunted her nightmares than anything else.
Shit. Is it a monster like Greenie then?
She tensed up and clamped her lips, trying her best not to whimper at that frightening thought. Greenie is different. She had grown to trust him with her life, no matter how haphazard he was with his care. There was a screech from the spawn. Eyes squeezed themselves shut when the monster suddenly bolted to her, jaws wide.
It was hard to convey just how frightening it was, to be helpless in that situation.
HELP—
A sharp sound, a splatter, then a screech that came as fast as it went. When she realized that the demon spawn hadn't attacked her and she was still, very, very much alive, she slowly pried her eyes open to find a sharp crimson tendril had emerged from Greenie's hand, piercing the demon spawn to the wooden wall.
The insect-like demon slowly disintegrated into blue specks.
She gaped, wide eyes unblinking at the sight.
HOLY FREAKING SHIT—
"Oh." The crimson tendrils retracted back to Greenie in a blink. He scratched his head, studying the hole he pierced through the wall. "Hmmm… maybe that was a little much?"
Her jaw unhinged wider. A LITTLE MUCH?!
"Hehe." Greenie chuckled, large sticky hands suddenly encased around her small frame. He picked her up. Terror hadn't left her yet and she was still as stiff as a board. "Don't worry, I'll protect you."
Considering the fact Greenie had just launched some killer superpowers, it wasn't very consoling to hear that. She gulped and latched onto him, ignoring the pungent smell that emanated from his mouth. There was no way she was ever going to get on Greenie's bad side—I'd cling to his leg for survival if that was what it took.
"Hm, the curtain should be up, so how did it…"
Curtain? Like what, those you hang on the windows? It was peculiar that Greenie said that. Curtains wouldn't stop that demon spawn from entering.
He nestled her back into the crib. "I need to tell Master Kamo about this, so stay here, Yuwa."
Greenie then looked around the room—she was sure that it was to ensure that there were no more demons left—then three bulging eyes settled on her momentarily, before vanishing out to the door quicker than she could blink.
It was only after she had settled down her wildly thumping heart that she glanced at the hole in the wall again. The wood had splintered from the sheer force.
How terrifying.
This world was terrifying.
She winced. God, where the hell is this place?
It was almost like... a fantasy, really. The world, at least, not her situation. Some weird dated Japan plagued with discord and chaos that erupted with the use of superpowers and demonic monsters. Were they isolated from the world or were they just…different?
It feels familiar.
She chewed on this thought, before sighing. She was getting tired. Thinking was taking a toll on her. Sounds odd, that she, as an adult in mind, needed naps whenever she used a fraction of her brain, but she was in part ruled by the instincts of her new body.
While her motor skills were limited, she'd keep herself busy with trying to understand this world... her new world. For now. Just until she figured out what type of world she was living in and whether it was possible for her to run away and live a normal human life somewhere.
She drifted off with the warm thought of when Greenie would come back.
She hadn't want to admit it, but this new life, no matter how terrifying, was still better than her previous one.
I think this isn't so bad.
"You're adapting well."
It's only because it's better than my old life.
A red-lipped smirk came from the darkness of her subconscious. "Is it…?"
For the longest time, there was a feeling Yuwa couldn't put a name to.
She first realized it was there, heavy in her chest the day after her rebirth. It was a weight she carried about silently, careful not to show any signs of discomfort—she didn't want Greenie to worry, and as an adult she could handle this much—it really wasn't that big of a deal and she didn't think much of it honestly.
It wasn't until she turned exactly a month old that the discomfort had suddenly escalated profoundly to something close to someone stabbing a knife in her and twisting it around her innards.
It hurts, it hurts, it hurts—
Underdeveloped vocal cords did the only thing that she could do. Throat constricted, eyes brimmed with tears, she cried for her caretaker, praying that the often-bumbling monster would be intuitive enough to realize something was terribly wrong with her body.
It hurts—
Pain exploded behind her eyes, it lined every inch of her body and she felt as though somewhere were twisting them back and snapping the bones into tiny little pieces. There was something inside scorching her.
"Yuwa?!" By now, she was nestled in Greenie's reassuring large spongy arms. "Yuwa!"
She cried harder when the pain intensified. There was something wrong. Horribly, seriously, and terribly wrong. She could feel a presence now—a presence was thick in the air. She couldn't quantify it or analyze it or even understand it. It was an all-pervasive horror that she couldn't comprehend—like the devil had opened the gates of hell and breathed terror into the air.
It was crippling.
There was an urgent whoosh of a sound. A blur of colors. Her body felt momentarily light, feathery. Teleportation. When the feeling disappeared, she could barely make out her new surroundings through her indescribable pain. It was somewhere dark, somewhere damp.
"Master Kamo! It's happening again!"
She had never heard Greenie sound so frightened; it had the effect of intensifying her own fear. Was I dying? I don't want to die again—help me—
She heard a shuffling from somewhere. Footsteps echoed on the floorboards, urgent and harsh.
Her cries died down as her body lurched. A sudden wave of coldness washed over her, gentle and curling tight. It spread throughout her body and the pain she'd been feeling creeping along her spine and her chest began to disappear slowly.
Teary eyes peered upwards to Kamo—his gaze still feels familiar—transfixed in the way his hand hovered over her body where a translucent black aura-like ball glowed. The coldness was coming from there. She hadn't seen him in a while, but this was the first time she noticed the blackish aura that surrounded him like flames.
Am I seeing things?
Otherworldly. It was exactly that.
They tugged along with his movements, shifting, glowing in a soft black hue and she realized was curious about how it worked. If she touched it, would she feel it?
The blackish aura reflected in her irises and suddenly, her eyelids were heavy. Yuwa was unable to help the small giddy smile on her lips, small fingers enclosed around one of Greenie's huge finger—they are helping me, I am glad. I am glad...
Thank you.
Kamo's voice was barely above a whisper, "As I expected, the body couldn't contain her. This is only a temporary solution..."
Her eyelids fluttered. Yuwa did her best to stay awake. What was he saying?
The voices started to break, a jargon of words she couldn't fully comprehend.
"Soon… when the… I will… her..."
Kamo...? What would you do...?
Yuwa wanted to stay awake. There was still so much about her new world that to understand—so much to discover—the people that surrounded her were mysterious, frightening and reassuring at the same time. A man with a stitched forehead and his monster companion. Unfortunately, the lull of sleep was too much for her body to endure.
She felt reassured. Comforted. For the first time in such a long, long time she truly felt weightless, weightless, weightless—
"…as her older brother…"
Her eyes fluttered shut.
Peaceful sleep beckoned Yuwa, painfully oblivious to what awaited her in the future.
"You shouldn't trust them so easily. Especially that man."
You were the one who said that he could be trusted—
"He's changed."
Yuwa had felt a lot of different emotions throughout the short time she'd been reborn so far.
Uncertainty was an old one.
It was the wrong emotion to be feeling, amidst the prospect of her brand-new spanking life. It was all she ever wanted once in her old life—to leave the thumb of her oppressors and float away. It didn't matter where, or how, all it mattered was the mercy of a second chance, a clean slate so that she could actively work on—
A future. Her future.
This new world she was born into had monsters, demons, and powers. And judging from the way Kamo and Greenie ignored the corpse on the day of her birth, they were accustomed to the sight of death. Dangerous world, Yuwa realized with a shudder, but what can I do about it?
She was never a fighter.
She hated violence too.
Time was all she had now that she was limited to the mobility of an infant. Soul-searching seemed the best way to utilize it. Okay. So say, by some chance, the entire world was dangerous. What should I do then?
A quiet life away from the terrors would be the most favorable option.
Maybe, hopefully, it was just here ? Reasonable. What kind of a man assigns a monster like Greenie to look after an infant anyway? Chances were a crazy one. Yuwa liked them well enough. But not enough that she'd forsake her peace of mind for them.
Was I being ungrateful? Yuwa thought so. Kamo and Greenie were decent people compared to those of her previous life but—
This is my second chance.
She couldn't screw this up. This was her new life; a rare ray of blessing in a life of darkness.
She peered out the window and watched the colors of the setting sun swirl around her new world and blend them all together. It sent a pang of something sharp running through her, but she merely wrapped that feeling tight in the thousands of others, kept it swaddled and comforted so it would hurt less and less and cut softer.
As it was, Yuwa was silently debatings the details of her grand plans for the future when a loud explosive shrill rocked her out of contemplation. The entire world trembled.
What the heck?!
A thick black liquid suddenly emerged from the sky, covering the setting sun. Fingers shaking, her entire body trembled as she shook from the force of her whimpers. Oh my God, oh my God. Another far-off explosion, followed by a bright light. Yuwa quickly felt her entire world close when she pulled both hands to her chest, curling up and praying, praying, praying—
Another distant explosion.
Yuwa stayed that way for a long time, confused and frightened by the sounds.
Then she heard shuffling. Someone coughed, hacking a few times. She gasped inwardly. She recognized the heavy footsteps. Feet that dragged a heavy body. Her eyes jerked open in happiness. It was him. Her caretaker. Her savior. He'd said he would protect her, didn't he?
Greenie—
Indeed, it was him standing there. Her monstrous three-eyed caretaker. Red putrid blood splattered the sleek, hardwood floors. A strangled gasp filled the air, big hands clutching tightly a stump on his left shoulder—a missing hand, Yuwa realized, shocked.
Everything inside of her burst into flame and chaos. He is hurt—Greenie is hurt—a monster with crazy superpowers like him got hurt?! Holy freak, is something happening?! Are we at war?! Or has he come to kill me?!
His large hand settled on her head and she flinched, ice running through her veins and bile rising in her throat—Greenie…?
Red blood flowed fast and fiercely from the gaping wound and tears were streaming down his cheeks. "The sorcerers are here, Yuwa..."
Yuwa's mind went blank, helpless to even process. She felt her heart twist sharply. Bile touched her tongue and something hot was pressing against her eyes, so she slid them shut.
"Don't be scared. Master Kamo had planned for this. You're just going to sleep, for a long, long time…"
Hot.
There was a jolt of energy from Greenie's palms. A sizzle in her brain before her eyes rolled back and her entire body went limp.
That was the last time Yuwa ever saw Greenie again.
I am scared. Don't want to die again. Can't die.
"You worthless, pitiful fool..."
I want the second chance.
Darkness surrounded her when Yuwa opened her eyes.
At first, she did not know where she was. However, as she reached out blindly, she began to realize they had laid her somewhere. It wasn't the crib. It was somewhere dark and cramped. Sobs overtook her.
No… no … please…
Sobs wrecked her body as unsteady small hands touched the tight walls that imprisoned her. She could hardly move. Hundreds of small papers—yellow talismans—cushioned the claustrophobic confined space.
And then pain.
Yuwa didn't even realize the scream she was hearing was coming from her own lips until she felt the rawness in her throat. Suddenly, her hands were clawing on her chest. Burning. Hot. Hot. Hot. The heavy presence in her chest had returned—something was entering her again, twisting. The parasitic nightmare. Her innards felt like they were being fused together. Dying, she was dying again.
PLEASE—
If there was ever something Yuwa would ever quantify as evil, it would be this. An overwhelming, terrifying, and demonic presence that constantly tortured her. She wanted to be lulled to a sweet slumber, never to be awakened again, but every second reminded her how very, very alive she was, and that all she felt was pain, pain, pain—
She thought the pain would drive her mad.
That feeling of being helpless in the face of overwhelming terror stayed with her for a long, long time. She cried, begged, and screamed for what seemed like an eternity, helpless from an excruciating pain that wouldn't leave— please help me, anyone, Greenie, Kamo, please—
Eventually, as the decades passed, she lost the will to even scream.
And that was how Yuwa stayed, sealed and hidden, patiently waiting to be released from her suffering that would only come 150 years later.
"Are you angry? Fearful?"
I hate them.
"Then put more curse into it."
They did this to me, they locked me up here to suffer—fucking bastards, that bloody green monster and that fucken Kamo—I want to kill them, I want them to die, I want them to suffer the most horrible death—
Red lips curled over a row of canines. "Good girl."
YEAR 2018, JAPAN
Sounds falling dull on her ears, Yuwa felt her own blood stirring in her body.
"Oh, this must be it! Just as he said!"
Eyes blinked slowly, gaze hazy. How long had it been since she heard someone's voice?
Who…? Could it be?
Yuwa waited, taking in sharp gasps of air as slow as she could.
Someone was approaching. She felt the presence. There was a crack, rock shattering, and then brilliant, blinding white caught against the sunlight streaming through some opening. Her body fell out like a lump of flesh and asphalted onto the ground.
Strands of something stuck to her face, clinging with sweat and tears, and she wheezed a sharp breath of fresh air, choking and hacking.
Her mind was muddled—was I saved from the hellish darkness? The pain was gone, but she knew better than to relax. There was terror and confusion. There was immediacy. Things that hadn't seemed important were suddenly at the forefront of her mind—what happened, am I dead or alive—what the hell was going on?
It took her far too long to realize she had actually gotten out, and the seconds that passed after that realization took ridiculously long for her to realize that she was, indeed, still miraculously alive.
"Wow! He was right, Noritoshi Kamo was successful after all!"
Kamo?
Noritoshi Kamo…?
Her body froze over as her heartbeat quickened. Even in her disorientated state of mind, the name sounded surprisingly familiar.
Where have I heard the name before?
She diligently worked through her blurry tearful vision. Blur, blur, blur. A mesh of colors. Then gray. Someone's foot. Boots. An arm outstretched on the stone ground, leading to her—mine…? They were bigger now, adult's hands—have I grown…?
Another plethora of confusion besieged her.
What was this now? Did she suffer brain damage while she was in that hell? Has she been transported to another world again? The mere thought terrified her. But she could think of a few worse fates than being stuck in that hell again.
Something draped over her naked body and a bundle of fabric—clothes? —landed in front of her.
"Mhmm... you look better than I thought for someone sealed for more than a century."
Yuwa said nothing, keeping her hands tight to her chest as her body trembled furiously.
"Hm, what's wrong? Your curse energy seems fine. Get up and get dressed, we're leaving."
Cursed… energy?
"Hey, you aren't dead right?"
Long, cold fingers pushed the strands of long black hair away from her face. Bright. Too bright. After multiple diligent blinks, her vision finally focused.
Who…?
Haziness tugged at the far corners of her mind. Patchwork face. Heterochromia. Dark blue and gray eyes. Long grayish-blue hair draped past his neck, framing that perfectly devious smile—wait, hold up...
Her body shot up in a frenzy, and she continued to stare at him through her black wispy bangs, watching through tears, just to ascertain that she wasn't seeing things—that she really wasn't crazy. Memories of her subsequent rebirth, her time with Greenie, and the mysterious man flowed through her mind, flashing like a broken film reel. She gaped.
Holy shit, holy fucking shit.
The cursed spirit jumped back a little, grinning, "Oh, so you can move—"
This person was the last piece of the mounting evidence that told her where she was reborn to exactly.
"M-Mahito...?"
Mahito's smile grew even wider and he clapped his hands. "I believe the introductions are unnecessary then, Yuwa-chan! Shall we get going?"
Yuwa's heart dropped.
Impossible. Can't be. No, no, NO, NO—
This was the Jujutsu Kaisen universe.
This was a universe in a silent battle. A world where special grade curses would soon wade into existence with bloodthirsty glee, taking on any that get too close. Sorcerers would fight back, manpower would dwindle, a sorcerer there, another here…
This was Japan. A country where the shadow of the impending war among sorcerers and cursed spirits looms deep, and it would soon embroil the entire nation…
This was Yuwa's new world, where she had to survive as the only successful product of Noritoshi Kamo's cursed womb experiment… the tenth-cursed womb...
This was Jujutsu Kaisen.
A world where Yuwa was reborn as a half-human, half-cursed spirit hybrid.
Thoughts? Feedback would be appreciated. (Also looking for beta-readers for this fic!)
Also, I'm Buddhist, born and bred as one. JJK takes lots of references from Buddhism. Naturally, there will be tons of references to this as well.
Hope it isn't so bad! Thanks for reading & have an awesome day~