Disclaimer: I do not own Jujutsu Kaisen. It is property of Gege Akutami. However, I do own any original characters appearing in this work.

2nd Curse

Mysterious Origins

不思議な起源

fushigi na kigen

The petals of the chrysanthemum flowers bobbed as the water from the watering can cascaded over them. I was only half paying attention to what I was watering, only enough to make sure that I didn't drown any of the flowers.

It had been a week since I'd woken up as 'Sato Himawari', and I'd learned a few things about myself so far.

First of all, it wasn't just that my hair was a strange colour. I hadn't thought anything of the itching in my eyes at first when we arrived home from Nayoro Himawari Batake at the weekend, but when it was bedtime, I finally learnt that I was wearing contact lenses after my new mom reminded me to take them out.

I'd wondered if that meant I also shared the same eye colour as Gojo Satoru, as well, but that wouldn't have made sense. His eyes were like that because they were the Six Eyes.

But even if they weren't that iconic light blue colour, this was still an anime that I'd been reborn into.

So, thanks to Anime Logic, my eyes ended up being an equally unnatural lavender colour.

…

White hair and lavender eyes… It makes sense that my mom, Sato Kiku would want to hide that. In Japanese society, the nail who sticks out gets hammered down, as the saying goes. It could have been that she was trying to help me fit in, and not get seen as some sort of alien.

But even though I can understand if that's the case…. What if that's not the case? What if there's more to it than simply trying to fit in?

I can't stop thinking about it.

What was the real reason for my appearance to be hidden?

"Himawari-chan! Did you manage to water everything alright?" the voice of Hana-san, mom's friend came as she returned from out back. She had slightly wavy, dark brown hair that looked black unless you caught it under sunlight, and chocolate brown eyes.

"Yes, Hana-san. I finished everything!" I smiled as I answered, turning to Hana-san, watering can still in hand. She smiled pleasantly, as she appraised the flowers.

"I can see that, now! Thank you for all your hard work!" she nodded and patted my head gently. Hana-san was a university friend of my new mom, and she had her own flower shop in Tobetsu. When my mom was busy, Hana-san would look after me.

After all, I was still only five, as I'd figured out with subtle probing questions to my mom the other day. Although apparently, I was going to be turning six in just under half a year.

But knowing that only got me thinking about the circumstances of my rebirth and why I ended up skipping my birth, and first five years of my second life.

Was I just placed into this body, replacing the original consciousness of the five-year-old Himawari? Or was I always in this body for the first five years, but I only regained my memories when I was at the sunflower farm?

I really hoped it was the second one, because I'd feel really bad if I ended up stealing a life from an innocent child….

"My, why do you look so down all of a sudden, sweetie?" Hana-san asked, bringing me out of my thoughts. She brought her hand to her mouth to whisper, a mischievous look twinkling in her brown eyes. "Say, I have some Mitsuboshi Yoitomake out back. If you don't tell your mom, I'll share some of it with you. What do you say? Does that sound yummy?" she offered, and I gave a small smile.

She certainly knew my weakness. Stomach grumbling unabashedly, I nodded and followed her to the back of the store for snacks.

Even though I'm slowly getting used to being here, I'm still not sure what my connections to the World's Strongest Sorcerer, Gojo Satoru, could be.

I mean… it's not like I don't have any ideas. After all, I do resemble him, underneath this disguise.

But that just raises suspicion against my mom. I mean, we already don't look anything alike, and she never even mentions it, outside of insisting on my wearing these wigs and contact lenses so I can 'look just like mommy.'

It's all too much, that it gives me a major headache.

I already was worried about the fact that I seem to keep getting followed by curses. Weak ones, true, but being stalked by anything in the first place is enough cause for concern.

I hoped that the mystery of my appearance would solve itself because it seemed that I already had a lot on my plate to deal with.

Like the fact that I'm about to go back to daycare now that Golden Week is over, and I'll have to pretend that I'm a five-year-old, in front of other five-year-olds and the daycare assistants. Will I be convincing enough?

The first day back at Daycare came before I felt I was mentally prepared enough. I hadn't been in a place like this in over 10 years. I didn't even remember what it was like. I didn't know what to expect. So even though I'd been going here previous to waking up as Himawari, since I didn't have the memories to back it up, it felt like it was my very first day. Mentally, it was. But in reality? No.

Did I already have any friends, here? Would it be weird if I came back from Golden Week and just flat out forgot their names? And if that were the case, will I still have those friends by the end of the day? Five-year-olds are fickle creatures.

It turned out that two of those said creatures were indeed my friends, and thankfully, I didn't need to ask them their names, since they said them for me while arguing with each other about cartoons.

They were Hotaru, a girl, and Hiroto, a boy. They must have been fraternal twins, and it was a huge relief that it seemed like Hotaru really liked speaking in third person. That way, when she kept whining to Hiroto because he was teasing her about her new Sanrio hair-ties that she got for their birthday being dumb, she helpfully supplied me with hers and Hiroto's names.

Apparently, Charizard was way cooler than My Melody or Cinnamoroll.

When they asked me to pick which one was the best, I got flustered. Both of them were nice in their own ways, but it seemed like they valued my opinion and wanted me to take a side. I eventually appeased them, by meeting them in the middle and picking a cute Pokemon as my favourite character. Neither seemed completely satisfied, but moved on pretty easily, and I let out a sigh of relief.

These were the kind of conversations I'd have to get used to, for the foreseeable future.

Would I really be able to pull off being five? I'd have to dig deep into my memories, in hopes of remembering what I was like at that age.

Even though it was important to fit in with my age-group and act in a way that wouldn't worry the adults… there was also one other priority.

And that was figuring out if I could use cursed energy or not.

I mean, if I can see them, it's because I have cursed energy, right? Maki, who was one of my favourite characters from the manga, didn't have cursed energy so she needed glasses in order to see curses; whereas her twin sister could both see curses, and use cursed energy.

Therefore, since I can see curses, I should be able to use cursed energy, too. That's just logic.

The question was - How did one use cursed energy in the first place?

Even though it was explained in the manga while Gojo Satoru was training Itadori Yuuji, the protagonist, following the same steps ended up being not as simple as I thought. If I was being honest, though, I may have not paid as much attention to the intricacies of it as I wish I had, in hindsight.

'Well… what's done is done. It can't be helped that I didn't predict being reborn here like this… I'll just have to go for it…!' I sighed out as I watched the curse a few paces away from me, peeking out from around the corner at me, as I walked home from an afternoon playing at the local park with Hiroto and Hotaru.

It was shivering and making grunting noises. And worst of all, it was in my way.

I also didn't like the idea of it hanging around so close to home. I don't think I'd be able to sleep well tonight, knowing that thing might be peeking through my bedroom window later on.

And so, I sucked in a breath and held out my hands, hoping to direct…whatever kind of cursed energy attack I could muster.

Cursed energy is made up of negative emotions, right? So, things like disgust, fear or frustration should work, right?

I focused on the little guy, trying with all my might to push something out and shoot it at it. But after several minutes, during which I hesitantly shuffled closer and closer to it…nothing happened.

I let out a deep, frustrated sigh and groaned.

This wasn't going anywhere! When they said it took a long time and a lot of grueling training, they really weren't kidding…

I glanced at the puny curse, who now seemed to be grinning at my fruitful efforts maliciously, as if it were laughing and saying 'you can't do anything about me'. And it kinda pissed me off.

"What're you looking at, huh?! Scram! Get lost!" I snapped at it, swinging one hand forward, hoping that my frustration would give the cursed energy the last push it needed… but it didn't look like it did anything more than make it sway slightly, and that might not have even been me.

I sighed out again, disappointed in myself. I mean, sure, it was my first try and I wasn't expecting anything big, but I'd still been hoping for something more.

"Gggegegege~" It suddenly made a noise, and when I looked back at it, I saw it rushing towards me. And this time, it was the one who looked pissed.

I yelped and took off in the opposite direction.

So, as it turns out, it looked like my first try at using cursed energy was a complete failure.

But… I can't just give up yet, right? Maybe instead of facing off against curses, even if they look like small fry, isn't the best way to go about practicing it.

Yeah… I guess that was a dumb idea, wasn't it?

After running for what felt like forever, I managed to lose it and wobbled inside my home to sit down at the entranceway to take off my shoes, but I didn't do so straight away.

Instead, I just stared up at the front door, panting and shaken up after having been chased by that thing. Even if it was only small, so am I right now, and that was really scary…!

What would it have done if I'd let it grab me? Maybe it would've pulled off my wig, then pulled out all of my hair as well?

I put my hands on my head and felt myself trembling a bit. Realistically, even though it was only a small curse it might've done more. Or it might've done nothing at all, other than pester and intimidate me.

Feeling flustered, I took my hands off my head and hugged my knees.

…I can't let a little set-back like this trip me up, right? If I'm gonna live my life to the fullest this time, I need to overcome this hurdle. And to do that, I need to figure out how to use cursed energy.

But from now on, until I get the hang of it, I'll need to practice on something that I don't have to worry about biting back.

Some sort of inanimate object…like the cans Gojo used to demonstrate cursed energy usage in the manga!

I nodded to myself and wiped the tears I felt in the corner of my eyes. Patting my cheeks to snap myself out of it, I got to untying my shoelaces with renewed determination.

I'll master this cursed energy thing in no time, and then move up to baby curse hunting!

And with that hurdle cleared, I'll finally feel at least a little safer in this world!

'Maybe I won't even need Gojo's help!' I thought to myself, and then immediately cringed, and lowered my head, feeling my cheeks warm up. I patted my cheeks lightly once again, trying to calm myself down. "Let's not get ahead of myself, me…" I scolded myself.

"Is that you, Himawari-chan?" I heard mom's voice coming from the next room, which was the house's small kitchen that connected to the living area, and I turned to leave the entranceway.

"Yes! I'm hooome!" I called back, heading further inside.

"Welcome home!" my mom chimed back, and I smiled.

Even though I know I can never even hope to end up as strong as Gojo Satoru, the World's Strongest Sorcerer, no matter how much I practice… I still wanna become strong in my own right!

I'll live my life to the fullest, doing all the things I want to do.

To do that, I'll need to be strong enough to survive, and to protect those who I hope will become my precious people, if they'll have me!

And the best way to strive towards that goal, is to take the first steps.

After going back over what I remembered of the training Gojo gave Itadori in the manga, I remembered a bit more of what they'd said.

And so, I scoured our recycling bins for some left over drink cans and spirited them away to my secret training area… which for the moment, would have to be my bedroom.

Thankfully I had one of my own, and didn't share with mom, so I could somewhat hide what I was doing and avoid having to explain myself. At least, for now.

I tried to watch some of the movies my mom had on DVD, so I could try channeling cursed energy into my stolen empty can while watching it.

I didn't have that cursed corpse bear that the Principal made, and Itadori got to use, so it'd have to do. Plus, this way, I won't get beat up if I mess up…!

Although… without that, I'd have no way of knowing if I was doing it right. Which sucked. But I'd just have to deal with it and hope for the best despite that disadvantage.

She had a lot of historical dramas, which were boring, but still a worthwhile training tool. But then I found the Exorcist, and mom caught me with that one which wasn't a good look. After that fiasco, mom confiscated the movies that were 'too scary for a five-year-old', leaving only Disney, Ghibli and Doraemon DVDs.

Never mind that I'd been sixteen until a few weeks ago. But she didn't know that.

Anyway, I would have to be a little more creative if I wanted to continue to attempt to train.

Fortunately, Digimon Tamers was currently airing again on the TV. It had several intense, moderately scary scenes but was still a kids show, so my mom wouldn't have the excuse of saying I couldn't watch it because it was for adults.

And through this training while watching Digimon, I finally had my start at successfully channeling cursed energy!

I was proud to say, that after a week or two of doing this I managed to push my cursed energy out and put a little dent in a drink can!

… Hey, we all have to start somewhere! I was just proud enough of myself that I'd gotten this far.

But I couldn't stop there.

After figuring out how to properly push my cursed energy outwards, I had the most basic application of it all down. From there, I set about trying to manipulate it, and make it into a technique.

Simply pushing it out had a repelling effect - pushing the target father away from me.

I was sure that there was something I could do with that, with enough creative thought and brainstorming.

And I had my first real idea when I picked up a twig from the ground one day and while I was holding the twig in my hands, I decided to try using cursed energy to push the end of the twig I wasn't holding, away from me.

The twig snapped in two with a clean crack, and therein lay the inspiration for my first offensive 'move'.

What if I could use cursed energy to push one part of an object in one direction, and pull the other end of the object in the opposite direction? Could I use it to tear the object in two? How about if I could make it twist, like the drinks can did when Gojo demonstrated to Itadori, how a cursed technique looked, over simple application of cursed energy?

Maybe I could create a technique, or at least a style of application that could pull in, repel, and warp or distort? Something similar to… magnetic force.

If it's a simple enough concept as that, I thought maybe I could pull it off, with some work.

Developing a cursed technique without the luxury of an instructor wouldn't be easy. But if I wasn't going to be provided the tools that I was supposedly promised to help me survive and thrive any time soon, then I'd just have to make my own tools…!

And so, thus began the development of my Cursed Technique, with the working title of 'Magnetism.'

I had three steps I wanted to accomplish first, to set up the basics.

1/ Master repelling things away from me with cursed energy.

2/ Figure out how to do the opposite and pull things towards me.

3/ Learn how to combine the two on different points of an object and then use both techniques to twist or distort its shape.

After I got the hang of that, I could finally deal with the baby curse infestation problem before anything bad happened!

Onigiriri: Thank you for all the follows and favourites, so far! And thank you to those who gave a review! I'm glad you all liked it so far. ^^

I hope that this chapter was fun to read. And I hope that you could understand the parts about her Cursed Technique, so far. I do intend to explain it further in future chapters, though. This is just the bare-bones of it, but I hope you like what you see.

Please leave a review if you have the time! And Happy New Year! I'm wishing all the best for everyone in 2022. xxx