A/N:

Just a quick note: I'm using they/them pronouns for Tengen.

;

Culling Game rules:

1. Once a player awakened their jujutsu, they had to declare their participation in the Culling Game at the colony of their choice within 19 days.

2. Any player who broke the previous rule would be subject to jujutsu removal.

3. Non-players who entered a colony would become players at the moment of entry, and would be considered to have declared participation in the Culling Game.

4. Players scored points by ending the lives of other players.

5. The point value of a player's life was decided by the game master. By default, shamans were worth 5 points and non-shamans were worth 1 point.

6. Excluding the point value of the player's own life, a player could expend 100 points to negotiate with the game master and add a new rule to the game.

7. In accordance with Rule 6, the game master had to accept any proposed new rule as long as it didn't have a long-lasting effect on the game.

8. If a player's score remained the same for 19 days, they would be subject to jujutsu removal.

…

..

.

Emiya pinched his nose bridge in recollection of the rules. Immediately after the earthquake in Shibuya, cursed terrorism called a "Culling Game" had consumed all of Japan, and in a superhuman effort to bullet Emiya and Nanami to safety, Touji had incidentally dragged them straight into a barrier colony for the Culling Game.

Forehead. Palm.

The Culling Game's rules also possessed hidden details one wouldn't know without questioning the game's "user interface," a type of shikigami called "Kogane" that appeared in front of players for announcements or when summoned. For example, Rule 3 didn't detail that civilians already inside a barrier colony at the start of the game were given at least one chance to exit safely. Not that the civilians were promised protection from players to safely reach a colony's barrier. Ten days into the Culling Game, Emiya had begun categorising anyone remaining in the barrier colony as a player or as collateral damage.

Emiya hadn't seen Okita since the incident at Shibuya Station. He hoped she had been able to eliminate her target.

So that she could no longer complicate Emiya's own mission.

Emiya still had trouble pinning down his target's identity and location. Okita had described his target as a curse with stitches, but after Shibuya, Emiya's intuition had shattered as if his target had been rendered into a concept. Strolling through his barrier colony, Emiya's instincts told him that his target was everywhere. Alaya had at least determined that he could still accomplish his mission in the current timeline.

"So, you got a girlfriend?"

Emiya glanced aside to a fire hydrant he had just passed by, now serving as a stool for Touji. Lampposts dimly lit the streets with pockets of yellow light, but even in the day Emiya doubted he would have sensed Touji sneak up on him. Ever since Nanami had caught Touji up on his son's life to the best of the blonde's ability, the two men had agreed to cooperate as Emiya's "zombies" long enough to at least rid Japan of its cursed terrorism issue. It was a noble goal. It also meant that since then, Nanami and Touji had been honing their ability not just to survive, but thrive in the barrier colony, racking up points to hopefully add a rule that would benefit shamans caught in the game. Emiya only earned points from defending himself against persistent enemies, but otherwise spent his time in the colony searching for clues on how to complete his mission. Touji sometimes joined Emiya's patrols to check if his son, Megumi, had entered the colony by a stroke of misfortune.

Emiya continued walking. "Why do you ask?"

Touji soundlessly caught up with him, hands in his pockets and a curse coiled around his torso. Emiya didn't shudder at the sight of it. "Eh, you never talk about yourself."

"I don't have a family."

"Friends?" Touji prodded. "Coworkers? Weekly book club? Nanami and I don't even have a name for you." At Emiya's look, he amended, "A nice name for you."

"…Archer."

"You don't seem to be lyin'," Touji remarked with a squint. "Huh. I better tell Blondie."

List of people Emiya would have to kill when he had the time and privacy:

Fushiguro Touji

Nanami Kento

The list was two people too long.

Unfortunately, the barrier colony was too populated for Emiya to risk using visible magecraft to kill Touji. Nanami already strongly suspected that Emiya's low juryoku wasn't a result of him suppressing his presence, that his "zombie" technique wasn't jujutsu, and that Emiya couldn't be keeping an infinite supply of arrows and falchions hidden somewhere. However, one of the few advantages of being marooned in a barrier colony was that Nanami and Touji didn't have anyone they bothered to share their suspicions with, as anyone who wasn't in their little group was either a source of points or a civilian-turned-player who knew less about juryoku than they did. For the sake of cooperation, they also didn't try sharing their suspicions with anyone.

Still, at the start of the game, Emiya had insisted that Nanami and Touji stuck to his side so he could ensure they weren't telling anyone about his "abilities"; this restriction had loosened into Emiya tailing Nanami and Touji when the two would go off to hunt down points, before eventually relaxing into Emiya checking in on Nanami and Touji every hour or so while everyone pursued their goals. At the end of the day, the three of them would always end up together in an abandoned apartment serving as their home base to catch up with each other.

Rather, Nanami and Touji would catch up with each other. Emiya only participated in conversation to check that the two men weren't divulging his vague skills to anyone. Touji enjoyed snarking that the world didn't revolve around Emiya, the "princess." After lying to Emiya and claiming Touji was actually a genuine relative of the imperial family, Nanami and Touji quickly learned that Emiya could narrow his focus to sense deceit in a heartbeat.

Emiya glanced Touji's way. "What do you two call me?"

"Where do you get your weapons?" Touji asked at the same time.

Silence fell.

"Thing is, I can see your weapons," Touji remarked, "which means they aren't produced by juryoku, but somehow you never run outta arrows – or falchions that look like the one Nanami destroyed."

"I'm a weaponsmith."

"…That ain't a lie," Touji muttered. "Maybe I'm losing my touch. Are you cookin' tonight?"

"Did you find anything worth cooking today?"

"Nanami and I offed a couple of curses haunting a konbini chain."

And had thus expanded the trio's territory. Emiya insisted they didn't draw attention from stronger players, but he couldn't stop humans in the colony like Touji and Nanami from getting hungry, and resources were turning scarce. A territory war was inevitable. Even though Touji's juryoku-related form of Presence Concealment allowed him to slip in and out of the barrier colony for food, it didn't help that civilians who hadn't been able to escape the barrier colony yet – and players who had been non-violent people before the Culling Game – were drawn to the trio's territory for safety and scraps of food. They were too scared of curses and violent players to try escaping the colony or surviving on their own. Nanami and Touji thus periodically helped escort at least the civilians out of the barrier colony.

Emiya massaged his temple. "Yeah, I'll cook."

"Nice, I'm telling Nanami we're having hot pot!"

"I didn't say––"

Touji darted off in the direction of their apartment. Emiya reluctantly decided to hurry through his patrol. Suddenly, his head twitched aside, his awareness drawn past concrete walls and nearby highway pillars.

11:00 PM. Shinjuku. November 10, 2018.

I sense you.

Emiya's gaze flicked towards his apartment before reason won out, and he pivoted towards the presence he recognised as a heroic spirit. As he approached, his hawkeyes fixated on a silhouette under a street lamp, the harsh illumination dwarfing the figure.

From a kilometre away, Emiya could see her clear as day: a thin female with delicate features and an unfocused stare directed at the ground. Her gentle eyes could have been twin rose petals, and she was dressed simply and conservatively. Loafers…stockings…a cuffed, high-collar dress…. Every inch of skin was covered from her neck to her wrists and the tips of her toes. Her clothes were as dark as her long, straight hair, so that even her navy dress appeared black under the yellow light of the street lamp. The contrast against her pale skin made her appear bloodless, like a life-sized Japanese doll. She could have been thirteen or thirty years old.

Emiya landed silently at the edge of the street lamp's halo, just out of sight for someone who would be blinded by the light.

As if by coincidence, the female decided to lift her gaze at the same time and turn his direction. By straightening up, the street lamp caught her directly from above, casting almost no shadow except those down the planes of her face and the edges of her dress.

She was as angelic as she was gloomy.

She bowed primly, not a wrinkle out of place. Then rose as steadily as air trapped in the sea.

"Greetings. I have been called to temporarily assist you in neutralising the current threat. Please use me effectively."

Emiya silently watched her, then turned to stroll down the street. The woman unhesitantly slipped out of the light and followed at his shoulder one step behind. It had been no coincidence. The fragile saint graph that Emiya had detected was indeed Alaya's impermanent back-up: a human who hadn't reached the potential to become at least a local legend when they had been alive, and whose potential now allowed them to serve as mankind's white blood cell.

Emiya started first. "How much have you been briefed on the situation?"

The woman's voice floated quietly. "To what extent is enough, senpai?"

"…Names?"

"Apologies," the woman murmured. "I know one target started a culling event centred on jujutsu. However, names that are relevant in this conflict escape me."

Emiya exhaled. "I haven't discovered my target's name, and I was honestly hoping Alaya would have imparted the information to you. However, it is rare enough that Alaya sent back-up at all, so I'm grateful. What should I call you?"

"Asagami Fujino," the woman introduced. "Written with asa for superficial, gami for above, and fuji for wisteria. Therefore, I am a flower that's above shallow beauty. I would be happy with however you address me."

"Emiya," he responded. "Written with katakana."

"Ah…."

"One target's name is Kenjaku," Emiya continued. "From what I've gathered, he's a curse user that has existed since the Edo period, which is why Counter Guardian Okita — or 'Majin' — is chasing him. Let her do her job. Our mission is to neutralise the Culling Game."

"We are to kill everyone?"

"Within the barrier colonies? Yes, if necessary." Emiya gestured for Fujino to walk alongside him, and she caught up. "If our target is the one who started the Culling Game, then it should be Kogane – an omnipresent shikigami. Your intuition must be pointing everywhere, to every centimetre of this barrier colony." At her nod, he continued, "However, anyone with juryoku can theoretically create shikigami to take Kogane's place should we eliminate it. Alaya would merely shift our target to the new shikigami, or replace us with another counter guardian for the mission. What, then, truly fuels the Culling Game?"

Fujino pondered. "The game itself."

Emiya nodded. "I don't know why Alaya is threatened by cursed gladiator fights, but we've been pulled into the conflict regardless. We can't add rules to the game that have a long-lasting effect, like an 'end' condition. Thus, the best way to stop the game is to erase all of humanity's ability to play, and I'm currently investigating a covert means of accomplishing this. Your help in this investigation would be greatly appreciated, but it will require you to be able to handle yourself without standing out. I must ask: can you?"

For the first time, Fujino's blank face filled with emotion. Her red eyes shone like pools of blood. "I have been briefed on what juryoku is. I can use it."

Emiya glanced at her. "Your soul has the information to produce and manipulate it?"

He didn't ask if Fujino had experienced the basic negativity linked with juryoku. No one who ended up a counter guardian had led an idyllic life. Hatred, sorrow, suffering…whether it had come from themselves or it had been heaped on them by others, they were well-matched for a land cycling in cursed energy.

"I descend from demon hunters who had bred with demons," Fujino shared. "If the soul contains all of a person's information, including their genetic makeup, then yes. I am not unfamiliar with negativity, and my family has a history of it."

Demons were a phantasmal species that ranged from oni to dragons, and their mixed descendents had the capability to perform acts that Emiya would not be able to do no matter how much he trained. Oni-type mixed-bloods gravitated toward psychic abilities; incubus-type, toward illusions; dragon-type, toward vitality. Producing juryoku, a concept tied to a foreign timeline, probably wasn't beyond Fujino by virtue of demons having a universal presence and thus influence on the supernatural. With Alaya's imparted information, Fujino likely had what she needed to at least try. Still, merely producing juryoku wouldn't be enough to disguise non-jujutsu phenomena.

They arrived at an intersection where a Lawson and a 7/11 stood across from each other. When Emiya stopped, Fujino halted and followed his gaze to a distantly towering apartment complex.

"I wouldn't recommend growing close with the locals," Emiya shared, "not unless they can serve a purpose. I'm currently supervising two: one named Fushiguro Touji, a martial master whom I can blame my work on if necessary; another named Nanami Kento, a shaman keeping Fushiguro's mouth in check for me."

Fujino hesitated. "Shall I avoid killing them?"

"Don't bother trying to kill Fushiguro," Emiya warned. "He's a peerless martial artist whom I can see living on in people's memory five generations from now. It's a wonder the current generation of shamans and curses doesn't recognise his name. If he had a proper saint graph, I'd classify him as an Assassin. Ah, but if you put this 'Inverted Spear of Heaven' he has talked about in his hands, fighting him would probably be like fighting a Lancer."

Fujino's eyes swam, and she gently shook her head. "Apologies, senpai. I haven't heard of a classification system. I thought all souls were unique."

"They are." Emiya scratched his cheek. "Sorry, I got carried away. Are you familiar with computers?"

Fujino nodded, curious.

"Good, because otherwise this would be more difficult for me to explain." Emiya knelt and drew a diagram in nearby gravel. "Think of your saint graph as a processing unit or CPU. It runs instructions to your body based on information from your soul. Unlike your immutable soul, your saint graph can be modified to run different instructions, which are categorised between…a lot of classes. It's uncommon to be able to modify one's saint graph, so usually once someone identifies your saint graph, you become predictable to them. Well, as predictable as a program run by a human brain."

Fujino followed in interest. "Then, what class is senpai?"

"Archer," Emiya answered easily. "I doubt my saint graph can be modified into anything else."

"Archer…."

"I can't tell you what class your saint graph is," Emiya admitted. "The best person to deduce it is yourself."

Fujino nodded. "Anything else I should note?"

"Remember your place," Emiya emphasised. "While Alaya has mankind's complete knowledge, we are not privy to it no more than your pinky has access to your inner thoughts. If you encounter shamans, curse users, or curses, beware that their jujutsu can and will fall out of line from your own common sense. What they explain to you will hold truth, but can also carry misinformation and lies. Also…."

"Hm?"

Emiya coughed. "…When you are able to use jujutsu, please let me know. This isn't required in your role as a counter guardian. However, if possible, please keep me updated."

Fujino watched Emiya's face, then gently smiled. "I would be happy to feed senpai's curiosity."

"Of course, the mission comes first."

"Of course."

X

Fujino strolled out of an old theatre, delicately fixing her school uniform while Higuruma Hiromi followed behind her with ashen skin. Fujino was glad her last battle against a player hadn't involved violence. The experience would have been uncomfortable.

Higuruma tentatively drew her attention. "Do you have a place to go home to, miss?"

The man's behaviour with Fujino had drastically changed after he had caught her in his domain expansion and forced her into court. Once he had reviewed his shikigami's insight on Fujino's "criminal" actions, Higuruma had instantly regretted putting her on trial. So far as the lawyer was concerned, Fujino had paid for her sins in her past life. Still, Higuruma should have been killed due to his knowledge of concepts that fell outside the status quo. Heeding what Fujino remembered of Emiya's advice, however, she had decided to keep Higuruma alive and close to her side in case he could serve a purpose in her mission; she had thus made it clear to Higuruma she was only allowing his continued existence so that he might help her somehow. Higuruma had readily agreed with a binding vow, establishing a temporary contract between himself and the Counter Force.

A young man with a hat and a pink-haired teenager strode around the corner into view, startling at the sight of Fujino and Higuruma.

"Uh, hey!" The pink-haired one waved. "I'm Itadori Yuuji. I'd like to talk to you, Higuruma Hiromi-san."

Higuruma straightened, positioning himself between Fujino and the two strangers. "What about?"

"Adding a rule to the game," Itadori answered, peering at Fujino. "Who are you?"

"A—"

Asagami Fujino. But she was part of a whole now, and couldn't act against or separate from it. A recently-added rule that allowed player names and stats to be viewed meant Fujino and Emiya had to maintain low scores and avoid drawing attention. Fujino faced more difficulty with a surname that possibly still carried even a little meaning in this timeline, and she had no means of checking. Fortunately, the game rule didn't help anyone connect names with faces, and Fujino had a better chance going by a fake name — even if it wasn't in the player list — so long as she didn't give the player "Asagami Fujino" a reputation. She could later ask Kogane for a list of players with low points and choose one of them as her "real" identity.

Fujino straightened up to more confidently declare, "—Archer."

Higuruma snuck a glance her way.

"Nice to meet you!" Itadori beamed. "You guys wanna sit down somewhere? I've got more than I can say within a minute."

Higuruma slipped his gavel into hand. "Try."

"Oh!? Uh –– I want to help players who don't want to play get out of here!"

Fujino perked up. It had been two days since she had last seen Emiya, and if either of them had progressed in their investigation, they would have sought out each other to share the news. She strolled past Higuruma into a cafe with shattered windows, fixing her dress as she settled at a table.

She looked up at three pairs of eyes. "Shall we talk?"

Everyone joined her at the table and listened to Itadori's plan, gradually warming up to him when the teenager produced onigiri from his pockets and shared the food with the group. Amai Rin and Higuruma had both been relying on procuring food from players they – or in Amai's case, his bullies – defeated, and hadn't tasted homemade lunch in too long. Fujino carefully ate a bite to blend in as a human, obliviously spurring sympathy from Itadori and Amai as they misunderstood the action for her savouring rare food.

CRASH!

They and Higuruma were naturally protective the instant Touji suddenly crashed the scene, sending Higuruma flying to the back of the cafe with a warning punch. Itadori and Amai leapt to shield Fujino, who was faster and had formed a force field against debris, thus protecting Itadori and Amai who had been behind her. Fujino's telekinetic barrier had been purely instinctual, a result of a lifetime of frailty that translated to an A+-Rank magic resistance – but her next action was not, as she deliberately returned Touji's blow with a twist of his arm.

Golden mystic eyes narrowed when the dust settled, revealing Touji's animalistic instincts had spared him the brunt of Fujino's attack and had only cost him a bloody, dangling hand. Juryoku spiked with Higuruma's recovery as he shook off rubble and lengthened his gavel into a staff. Higuruma, Itadori, and Amai glanced at Fujino suddenly cradling her stomach and immediately jumped to conclusions, their protectiveness of an "injured" girl triggering.

Touji apathetically glanced at his grotesque hand before zeroing in on Higuruma and Fujino. "You there, suit – thought you could wander into my territory without riskin' a brawl? All kinds of mobs have been whingin' my ear off about you. Sayin' there's a lotta innocent blood on your tab."

Higuruma stepped closer to Fujino, completing a protective formation with Itadori and Amai. "The law is just."

"And you, girlie," Touji drawled. "I know a fellow serial killer when I see one."

"Dakiniten," Fujino interrupted non sequitur, cutting through the tense air.

Everyone blinked, startled. Touji paused. "What?"

"My jujutsu," Fujino smoothly lied. "It's based on the Dakini mantra."

The scar on Touji's lip quirked. "Do I look religious? For that matter, what does a Catholic doll like you care about Buddha?"

"When this spell is chanted," Fujino recited, "the faith in me reaches everywhere––"

Touji instantly moved to neutralise her, intercepted by Higuruma and Itadori who hammered Touji and body-slammed him down the street respectively. Since Touji had only meant to drive Higuruma away from his territory, he hadn't drawn Playful Cloud from the demon he kept wrapped around him, leaving him to face Itadori and Higuruma with his bare fists – still not a challenge, but he was mildly impressed by the pink-haired kid's spirit. Touji also had to fight cautiously, uncertain who among his opponents was responsible for his twisted hand.

"…Evil and misfortune will be abolished and luck and wisdom attained; suffering removed and comfort achieved; and pain…transformed into delight."

Juryoku faintly flared from Fujino just before Touji threw Higuruma and Itadori into an abandoned truck, which collapsed and flew down the street like a crushed can. Touji whipped his gaze to Fujino anticipating a violent culmination of her jujutsu, only to see the young woman passively standing with no longer golden, but red eyes.

Touji tensed, squeezing Playful Cloud out of his curse. "You used Revealing One's Hand, girlie; I was expecting more."

She tilted her head, arm lowering from over her stomach. "My jujutsu affects only me, alleviating or increasing any pain I've received in a fight."

"Ha? What's the point of that!?"

Fujino said nothing, having decided at the last second not to twist Touji's body to death while a witness like Amai was quivering nearby. Touji's distorted hand could be blamed on a failed punch – however, if Fujino killed both Touji and Amai, she wouldn't be able to blame their injuries on each other. Fujino would be the only suspect of their murders. So far, she had managed to disguise her telekinesis as jujutsu by producing juryoku in her appendix when she'd use her mystic eyes; even if her telekinesis wasn't a product of twisting enemies with juryoku, the locals of this timeline readily accepted her ability as voodoo or some other remote technique. By imitating Revealing One's Hand, Fujino could further convince the people around her that she was a curse user. However, Itadori wouldn't remain cooperative if he suspected she had killed his associate, Amai.

Well, Fujino had another reason she had refrained from killing Touji before he could kill her. Alongside her mystic eyes, Fujino possessed clairvoyance.

Tap.

"Senpai!"

Higuruma and Itadori ran back into the fight, only to hesitate at a new arrival perched on a nearby street lamp.

Emiya met Fujino's gaze. "Don't kill him."

"Yes, senpai."

Touji lowered Playful Cloud, boxed in by Fujino and by Higuruma and Itadori, but Emiya's passive reaction to the scene eased Touji's nerves. The red mantle and the red-eyed girl knew each other?

Itadori panted. "You okay, Archer?"

Fujino nodded while Touji shot an accusing look at Emiya at the name. "What have you told me that isn't a lie?"

Emiya landed next to Touji, still not drawing the falchions on his back. "Archer, this is Fushiguro Touji."

"Don't ignore me!"

"Ah." Fujino strolled over, causing Higuruma, Itadori, and Amai to warily join her, baffled. "Senpai, this is Higuruma Hiromi. He's my friend just like Fushiguro-san is yours."

"Seriously?" Touji clicked his tongue at the two counter guardians. "She can zombify too? And what's with the names? Don't tell me you two are related – I won't believe it. Unless you're married to each other."

Emiya choked while Fujino's impassive expression didn't change. She gestured. "And this is Itadori Yuuji; he has information on the outside world. Itadori-kun, tell senpai what you told me about this Kenjaku."

Touji cut them off with a wave of Playful Cloud. "Now hold on – are we all buddy-buddy now? What about this white collar trespasser here? Our residents have been complainin' how he's been killing them off!"

Emiya frowned. "We don't have residents, and Higuruma-san hasn't killed any of ours or even trespassed. Our territory is one street over."

"Ha! So you admit we got territory!"

"You know about Kenjaku?" Emiya moved on.

Itadori eyed the dark-haired man with a familiar surname, then the white-haired man who had been in Shibuya. "Uh…yeah. The super old curse user, basically a walking brain? He started the Culling Game and seems to have this plan…."

Emiya ran a hand down his face as Itadori filled them in on everything that Itadori and his allies knew, including how Kenjaku had been able to force normal people into becoming players. The ancient curse user had apparently used a jujutsu called Idle Transfiguration to alter the brains of not only certain people in barrier colonies, but people across all of Japan into being able to use jujutsu. Kenjaku's reach essentially extended everywhere down to the very air Emiya breathed.

Which sounded annoyingly familiar.

"I thought you compared Kenjaku's jujutsu to possession," Emiya interrogated Itadori.

The pink-haired kid nodded solemnly. "Yeah, but while Kenjaku was in his vessel's head in Shibuya, he was able to use his vessel's jujutsu to absorb Mahito and restore his vessel's body. Then he used Mahito's jujutsu to destroy one of Tengen-sama's barriers and turn a lot of normal people into curse users." Itadori expanded the term to include anyone with jujutsu, while he still restricted "shaman" to allies of a jujutsu high school system. "Kenjaku can basically use the abilities of his vessel and the curses he absorbs alongside his own techniques."

Emiya grit his teeth, mind racing. "This Mahito – was he a curse with stitches across his body?"

"The same!" Itadori confirmed. "Did you encounter him before?"

Majin

Okita

SOUJI!

Emiya exhaled heavily through his nose. It was difficult to sense his target's location given Kenjaku's presence was technically everywhere, which meant that despite Emiya's reservations about Okita's abilities, his best chance at finding Kenjaku was by asking for Okita's help. Last he recalled, she had been hunting Kenjaku down, after all. Maybe if he was lucky, Okita hadn't lost track of Kenjaku and was simply taking her sweet time covertly killing him. Otherwise, Emiya couldn't explain why Kenjaku was still alive.

Fujino took control of the conversation. "Where would one find this Kenjaku?"

"Right now? No idea," Itadori admitted. "We only know he's going to eventually seek out Tengen-sama, which is why Chousou and Tsukumo-san stayed behind to protect them. My classmates and I are joining the Culling Game to locate a player called Angel who can help us free Gojou-sensei from his prison."

Emiya clicked his tongue. "Is this Gojou that useful?"

He was met with stares.

"…Gojou Satoru?" Itadori emphasised. "The wielder of Six Eyes and Limitless?"

Six Eyes, huh. Okita had mentioned it before. "Oh yeah, him."

No one looked convinced.

"So," Itadori pressed, "will you help us, Higuruma-san? My friends and I could also use all of your guys' help too!"

Higuruma straightened. "I do as Archer-ojou-chan commands."

Emiya's head jerked. Where did Fujino find such an obedient partner? Said young woman turned to Emiya awaiting his input. He nodded.

Fujino held her hands in front of her. "Higuruma-san, please add a new rule…."

RING!

RING!

RING!

"A player has added a rule to the Culling Game! Rule 10: Players may transfer any number of points between one another!"

X

X

Codex entry: Jujutsu

Jujutsu, or "cursed techniques," is defined by the use of maryoku or juryoku.

Through maryoku:

Jujutsu refers to magecraft performed through a reversed flow of maryoku. It is most commonly used in traditional potions, shamanistic medicines, spiritual exorcisms, and curses that use a material medium like straw dolls; jujutsu is thus considered by modern magi as a cliché practice. However, the power of a geas isn't questioned. Reversed maryoku can also be used to create a type of bounded field called a Cursed Boundary Layer. Nearly as rare and complicated as a reality marble, it projects the caster's hatred against a target onto the world, altering it into one where the target will die unless the caster or their hatred is erased. As a complete Holy Grail, Matou Sakura can deploy a Cursed Boundary Layer that manifests as a black shadow.

One example of a unique jujutsu is Tamamo-no-Mae's Dakiniten Dharmic Law, a magecraft that can discern an individual's abilities and time of death to bless them with influence. For men, this influence manifests as increased status and fortune; for women, it manifests as the gained favour of influential individuals. "Dakiniten" refers to the goddess whose blessings the Dakini mantra in Buddhism invokes, also known as Kiko Ten'nou, or the "Venerable Fox Deva-King." The full Dakini mantra is:

"When this spell is chanted, the faith in me reaches everywhere, and by the true power of the Buddhist precepts, evil and misfortune will be abolished and luck and wisdom attained; suffering removed and comfort achieved; and pain transformed into delight."

Through juryoku:

Jujutsu also refers to any skill accessed through the manipulation of juryoku. These skills fall under multiple categories: juryoku manipulation, cursed techniques, cursed objects, cursed tools, cursed corpses, and cursed restrictions.

All skills except cursed techniques follow a clear cause-and-effect, and are theoretically accessible to anyone with juryoku. However, the conditions to use these skills can vary in difficulty. The simplest skills include detection of juryoku residuals or the imbuing of tools with juryoku. More complicated skills include the sealing of curses into puppets as cursed corpses, or spatial distortion through an enhanced physical strike called Black Flash.

Cursed techniques do not always have clear conditions and are sometimes only accessible to a select few. Barriers, for example, are simple enough to erect, but specifying them to allow only certain people to exit requires advanced skills and creativity. Reversal of juryoku is a similarly complex process. A seemingly inherited cursed technique can't be reproduced outside of the associated bloodline; only members of the Kamo clan, for example, can perform Blood Manipulation. A cursed technique that is unique to one individual is categorised as an innate technique; only Toudou Aoi can wield Boogie Woogie, for example.

;

A/N:

Emiya: maybe if i ignore my problems, they'll go away

Touji: we need hot pot to feed our citizens

Fujino: if senpai can have a pet or two, then so can i

I deliberated on what Fujino would call her fake jujutsu for waaaay too long, and ended up just having her choose a Buddhist-inspired label she might know as a Japanese that doubles as ironically a real jujutsu in Fate. For more irony, she does quickly gain favour from certain individuals in this world — specifically, Itadori, Amai, and Higuruma.

I also got stuck on the colour of Fujino's mystic eyes when activated. The spirals she creates look dichromatic to Ryougi Shiki, and Fujino's eyes glow redder in the anime, but her FGO art shows golden eyes. I settled with following FGO's depiction.