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

3rd Curse

Experimentation and Magnetism

実験と磁気

jikken to jiki

As far as my trial and error of using cursed energy and my goals in technique development went, things had been going very well.

After getting the repelling technique, which I called 'Push' down, the rest came surprisingly easy.

It was like a flash of inspiration. Suddenly, it felt as if I was moving by reflex, and within weeks of getting 'Push' down I was able to reverse its effects and was able to 'Pull' the object I was practicing with towards me.

It came flying towards me with such a shocking speed that I had to dive out of the way to avoid being smacked in the face.

And from there, it just kept coming naturally like that.

I felt like I was cheating somehow, but maybe the ease of which everything was coming along was part of the 'preparations' that that 'God' had said were made for me.

Like, maybe they made it so it came more naturally to me.

Either way, after I had Push and Pull down, I was able to move on to combining the two, to try and Twist something.

Once I was able to do that more naturally and quickly, I'd finally be able to start trying it out on those baby curses again.

And this time, I won't be the one running away screaming…!

'Revenge will be sweet!' I rubbed my hands, devilishly grinning and chuckling. I could hardly wait.

Just a little longer, and I would be able to protect the people who've looked after me ever since I woke up as Himawari.

Those pesky curses would stop stealing Hiroto's and Hotaru's toys and making them argue.

They'd no longer be able to make Hana-san's back hurt.

And my mom would finally be able to sleep better at night. Me too.

Time passed without me noticing, and I managed to finish my training and preparations for when I would go out and take down some of the curses milling about. It was mid-July when I hit the streets of Tobetsu, and under the baking hot summer sun, the spoils of my hunt were pretty decent if I do say so myself, even if I did end up a bit sunburnt.

It was tough at first, because I still remembered my first experience with facing off against a curse. The one that I could only tickle slightly with a light breeze before I was promptly sent sprinting for my life from.

It made me nervous at first.

Like what if I still wasn't good enough to actually kill the curses that I faced off against instead of just tug on their limbs?

If I wanted my fights to be decisive, over time I learnt to be more aggressive while chanting to myself, 'they're not human, they're not human...!'

Twist ended up being a pretty violent attack, and if I hesitated by feeling sorry for them, I'd only end up getting myself hurt, so I turned off that empathetic inclination and focused on Pushing and Pulling.

After a while, I stopped feeling gross about it, and August was pulling to a close.

I sat on the wooden balcony outside the glass door in our living room, my feet hanging off the edge. I felt the grass of the lawn tickling my bare feet as I listened to the cicadae's cries. But I was focusing on what was in front of me.

Another curse popped up on our lawn, and we'd been locked into some sort of staring contest, Wild West style.

"Himawari-chan? What have you been doing over there, sweetie?" I heard Mom's voice as the sound of her footsteps padded closer behind me.

Inwardly, I debated whether or not I should answer that question honesty. Even if I told her the truth, she'd probably brush it off as a child's wild imagination, either way.

But for some reason, I felt like telling the truth… just to see how Mom might react.

"I'm killing a curse, mom." I started with, and I heard her audibly gasp. That was interesting. I decided to press it further, looking up at her from the curse as I grabbed one of its arms with Push and the opposite leg with Pull, "Look, see? I'm grabbing it by its right arm and left leg, and then I'll pull them apart, like this. If I do that, it goes away forever." I told her, as I began Pushing and Pulling their limbs in opposite directions and it made noises, flailing in my hold.

I sounded really cold, and maybe I was laying it on a little too thick, but as the curse squealed and dissolved into dark ashes before disappearing, I checked my mom's expression carefully.

Her eyes didn't even move to look at the curse. Like she didn't know where exactly it was. Thinking on it some more, in these past four and a half months since I've been here as Himawari, I've never seen her react to the curses that popped up around us every now and then.

That means that she cannot see curses. She probably doesn't possess cursed energy either. She's a completely normal human being.

And she's looking at me as if she's coming to a horrifying conclusion in her head, but she doesn't want to make it obvious that she's afraid. Of me. Or for me? I don't know what's going on inside her head, but maybe this new knowledge will help me figure out what's going on soon.

Mom gulped and forced a shaky smile to her face, trying to recover from her surprise, and spoke; "Ah, I see. An imaginary monster?" she chuckled, anxious.

I shook my head, "It's a curse. It's gone now. So don't be scared anymore, Mom," I said, and grabbed her apron.

She ignored my correction, and nodded, "I-I see… Well, I think it's fine to kill imaginary monsters. As long as you don't go around killing real animals, or hurting the other children, then I'll allow it, okay?" she said, and took my hand from her apron, holding it. "You're such a brave girl. Thank you…for keeping your mom safe, okay?" she thanked me, and cocked her head slightly, her smile barely staying in place.

I hummed, and nodded, offering her a bright smile.

"I will! None of the monsters will get Mom – not on my watch!" I told her.

Mom nodded, "Yes. Thank you." She said again, and got up, freeing my hand, "I'm making some onigiri. What kind of filling would you like?" she asked me, and it reminded me of a certain guy.

I grinned wider, "Tuna Mayo, please!" I requested.

Mom laughed a little, some of her colour returning as she withdrew to the kitchen again, "I thought so," I heard her say.

I took a seat again on the patio, swinging my legs as I looked up at the blue August sky.

She definitely didn't acknowledge the curse that I just exterminated, but it seemed like she may have known what a curse was, even if she didn't say it outwardly. She even gave me permission to keep killing them, so she probably knew they existed even if she couldn't see them. But because she didn't want to acknowledge it, she didn't even question my insistence on using that term.

Well, they say ignorance is bliss. I'll let her have that.

But if she knew of curses, even though she was playing dumb, it still meant that she could somehow be involved in the world of Jujutsu Sorcery, just maybe not directly. What could that mean?

The centres of Jujutsu Sorcery in Japan were in Tokyo and Kyoto, where the only two schools were located. But here we are in the uppermost island of Japan, Hokkaido, hours away on the Shinkansen from Tokyo and even further away from Kyoto.

What could Mom's connection to them be? And what is my connection to her?

Is she… linked to one of the clans, or something? But how? If she can't see curses, she can't be a sorcerer…

What is it, then?!

I groaned and let myself fall back, my body split halfway inside the house and half way outside. I closed my purple eyes, covering them with my arms.

When will Gojo Satoru fall out of the sky and answer all of my questions…? I even made a wish for it at the Tanabata last week, tying it to the bamboo trees at our local shrine. Maybe it didn't have to be Gojo specifically, but I'd really appreciate it if someone could answer all the questions floating around in my head for me!

I just want this mystery to be solved, already…

"The onigiri are ready!" I heard Mom call and my stomach started rumbling so I sat up swiftly and then pulled myself up to go to the kitchen.

Tuna Mayo onigiri, may you blow away my worries this time as well!

After that little experiment with Mom in late August, it gradually started to become a colder as Summer ended and Fall arrived so we began wearing thicker winter coats out. The leaves began turning golden-brown, yellow or orange in colour and one by one fell to the ground. I spent September and all of October continuing to practice my cursed technique on the curses I came across.

But there was something I noticed in the process.

As I gradually got better and better at using my technique, it seemed like the curses were also getting slightly better. At first, the curses ranged in size of the size of my palm to the size of my head, which wasn't very big at all.

But starting in September, they got a little bigger. Only a little bit, but it was noticeable enough for me to spot it.

Why was this happening to me in the first place? It seemed like they were drawn to me. A while ago, I off-handedly wondered if it was related to the magnetic quality of my cursed technique, but I wasn't sure if that theory was on the mark or not.

Regardless, it felt a little like a JRPG. I knew I was getting stronger. It's like I was levelling up on these low-grade curses, and their 'levels' were scaling to match my progress.

Which was both alarming and comforting at the same time. Alarming because there was a possibility of me being stalked by powerful curses in the future, if this phenomenon didn't stop. I hope that I'm wrong… I don't want to deal with that!

But it is also comforting to think that my had work is paying off, and I am getting a bit stronger. But will it be dangerous to get too much stronger? Maybe I should lay off a bit until I can be sure I'm gonna be safe…?

That worrying thought aside, all my hard work lately was really just an attempt to distract myself from the impending last day of October.

October 31st. The same day I died. Which also happened to be Sato Himawari's birthday.

I could have laughed at the irony, as it seemed 'God' had a sick sense of humour by making my birthday on that date. Even though it was a special day, I didn't really feel like celebrating.

But despite how I felt on the inside, I couldn't show it when my mom organized a small birthday party at our house. She invited Hana-san and my friends Hiroto and Hotaru for cake and a viewing of the latest Pokémon movie, The Rise of Darkrai, together. A movie I missed out on in my past life because I was only four at the time, so it felt like a fresh experience.

But that didn't help that my taste in anime was still more grown-up, so even if I liked the franchise, I couldn't enjoy it in the same way someone who was actually six would… But at least Darkrai was pretty cool!

After the movie viewing, it was time for cake and presents.

I tried to ignore the blush and stutter from Hiroto as he handed his and Hotaru's gift to me, and instead focus on acting excited about the present.

Their gift was a plush doll of Piplup, the Pokémon I'd mentioned to them way back in May and honestly, I was a little touched that they remembered it, even though I'd only mentioned it once.

Because of that, it didn't require any acting when I beamed at the twins and thanked them for the plushie, hugging Piplup tight in my arms.

Hiroto turned redder under my gratitude, and I felt a little bad.

It was obvious that he had a little crush on me, but there was no way I could ever return his feelings. I wasn't into six-year-olds, after all.

But I didn't have the heart to break his heart, so I just pretended I didn't see it.

With any luck, his crush would fade as fast as it developed, and he would move on from this. I didn't even know how much longer I would be here, after all. When I got closer to high-school age, I'd probably have been scouted by the Jujutsu Tech as a new student.

I knew I couldn't remain undetected while I hunted curses on my own out here in Tobetsu. Eventually, someone would notice my activity and send someone to scout the area…

The only question was when it would happen, because there was no doubt that it would come to that.

After my birthday passed, my first few months of being six passed with bitter cold winds and snow piled high. Typical winter weather for Hokkaido, but it didn't make it any more pleasant. When I wasn't freezing my butt off going to daycare with the twins or out hunting curses in the snow, I was bundled up under the heated kotatsu with a piping mug of hot chocolate.

We rang in the new year at the local shrine and gradually, throughout the first few months of 2007, it started to warm up a little.

In late March we said our farewells and thanks to the daycare workers who looked after us and taught us, and the following week in April we began our first year at our local Elementary School.

Because it wasn't my first time attending elementary school and I was already educated up to high-school level before being reborn here the pretend classes were still laughably easy. But that was to be expected, considering my secret. It did make me the go-to for helping the others, though..

I didn't mind obliging the kids, though. I had an unfair advantage over them.

The first two months of Elementary school flew by, with me getting used to the new school routine with more required of me and I juggled it decently enough with my self-imposed jujutsu training.

At this point, I've got the basics down to an art. It's easy to multi-task and grab one part of a curse and then another part and use Push and Pull simultaneously, so I can pull of Twist at a good speed.

I even managed to take on more than one curse at the same time, though I could only focus on Twisting them one by one.

But my theory of them getting stronger and bigger as I became more practiced in my technique ended up being true, which was terrifying.

Why?

Because the curses were now almost the same size as me, and they're faster and harder to pin down, too!

I already had a few close calls!

As confident as I've gotten in my own skills lately, I'm worried that they may outgrow me and I won't be able to handle them anymore.

And I'm worried that I won't level up my skills fast enough to keep up and I might die again…

They keep showing up everywhere I go, too, so I'm also getting really worried about Hiroto and Hotaru… about Hana-san… and for Mom. If this keeps up, they'll be in danger and they won't even know how much.

With these heavy thoughts buzzing around in my head, I arrived at Benkebetsu Elementary School's front gates and stepped inside school grounds, heading towards the building to attend my classes for the day alongside other students.

I looked up at the blue, cloudless sky with a soft sigh;

'Surely, the Sorcerers have noticed by now, all these curses showing up in Tobetsu… I wonder who they'll send over, and if it'll be anyone I recognize.' I thought to myself, and frowned, 'I hope mom's feeling okay…' I added, thinking back to mom back at home.

She was currently home from work, running a fever. I tried to offer to call in 'sick' myself so I could stay home and look after her, but she insisted she was okay on her own and sent me on my way.

"Himawari-chaaan!" I heard the calls of my friends from behind me, and plastered on a smile as I turned to greet them.

"Good morning, Hotaru-chan, Hiroto-kun!" I said to them.

"M-Morning…!" Hiroto replied, cheeks rosy as he squeezed his rucksack's straps in his hands.

"Hotaru-chan says good morning, too!" Hotaru giggled, smiling sunnily.

I nodded to them, and the three of us continued inside together.

That morning as I headed to my first class, I had no idea that later today I was going to come face to face with my first Jujutsu Kaisen character… or the events that would follow that encounter.

Cursed Technique: Magnetism

Basic

Push – Can push away any oncoming attack or object as long as it's solid. Liquid substances or gasses are harder to affect. With further training however, it may be possible to repel liquids to an extent, or at least slow their approach down. It also relies on how quickly the user acts or how much cursed energy is put into using Push.

Pull – Can pull curses, people or solid objects towards her person as if she is the magnet and her target is the metal. Liquid substances are very difficult to affect as it is not a set shape, but the higher the viscosity of the liquid is, the more likely it is that Pull can affect it. It has no effect on gasses whatsoever.

Twist – By focusing on two points of a curse or object (for example, a wrist and a shoulder), they can be twisted and contorted even to a point of breaking them apart. After regulating or restraining its strength, it's possible to twist the target in a way that replicates what Gojo did to Kamiya Juzo's limbs, instead of outright ripping something apart.

onigiriri: I've been getting a great response on the other sites I post this to, and I've gotten a lot of favourites and follows over here, I felt super inspired. So I managed to get this finished way quicker than I thought I would.

Leave feedback or comments if you can, it really helps. Can you guys guess which sorcerer is going to show up in the 4th Curse?