Samsara

by sinisteruto

Yuji is a late bloomer in terms of curse energy manipulation, but he is the descendent of the progenitor of both curse users and jujutsu sorcerers. Inheriting the legendary rinnegan of his ancestor, Yuji is able to save his friend Junpei and becomes a special grade juiutsu sorcerer with the potential to surpass both Gojo and Sukuna. Parings undecided yet, possibly Mai and Maki.

Disclaimer: I do not own Jujutsu Kaisen or any other series I might use for inspiration.

Author Note:

Hello everyone. I guess by now everyone knows I'm a big Naruto fan. I'm also a big Jujutsi Kaisen, Fate/Zero, Fate/Stay Night, and Bleach fan. This story is basically a culmination of my fanboyism og those anime.

So with that said, this will be a rinnegan Yuji story. Yuji will be strong and have multiple curse techniques in this story instead of zero curse techniques like it is so far in the anime. He will be very powerful.

No pairing is decided yet. It literally could be anyone, Mai, Maki, Utahime, Mei Mei, Nobara, literally could be anyone. We'll figure it out as we go.

The Progenitor's Eyes

My name is Yuji Itadori, and I am Jujutsu Sorcerer at the Tokyo School of Jujutsu Sorcerers, a first year student to be more precise.

It all started when I died, came back to life, and Gojo started training me. He had me watching movies while one of Principal Yaga's curse corpses monitored my use of curse energy. I had to keep a steady flow of curse energy channeled into the curse corpse while going through the different emotions the movies brought out of me.

Something surprising however happened after a week of doing this training. I went to brush my teeth before I went to bed and, well, I discovered that my eyes were now completely different. I almost had a heart attack as I wondered if this had anything to do with Sukuna.

My eyes were no longer their original color, they were now metallic grey with concentric rings around the pupil. I couldn't believe what the hell was happening to me. How could my eyes just change like that? As I started to panic, I realized that my vision was rapidly changing, I could now see my curse energy clearly just like I could see my face on the mirror. Not only that but my eyes kept flickering between normal vison, infrared vision, and xray vision.

It was creepy as hell, and it took everything in me not to scream and cry out for help. Instinctively, I knew that, despite my paranoia, this had nothing to do with Sukuna. This was my innate ability kicking in. How I had one, and one so strange, was of course beyond my understanding at the time.

I knew that if I concentrated and practiced like I did with the curse corpse, I would get it under control in no time at all. And I did, I was able to activate and deactivate my x-ray vision at will. I also realized that my curse energy reserves had increased dramatically. They were at least four times what they were before my eyes changed. Well, let's just say that I wasn't complaining one bit.

Needless to say, Gojo was shocked to the core when he found out what happened to my eyes. When I asked him how serious my condition was, he got super excited, like a kid at the candy store. He told me that these were the eyes of the progenitor of curse users and Jujutsu Sorcerers, the first human to discover Jujutsu Sorcery, or more specifically, the first person to discover the ability of humans to use curse techniques.

Apparently he travelled the country looking for people with potential and found three people with exceptional potential to use Jujutsu Sorcery. These three students would go on to found the three main families, namely, the Zenin, Kamo, and Gojo families.

Later, the families would found Jujutsu High and the rest is history. It was said that the progenitor was known as the sage of the six paths, and that his given name was Hagoromo. Allegedly, he never married or fathered a child, and therefore had no descendants.

Gojo questioned the historical records. He claimed that I was proof that the sage of the six paths must have had descendants, that either the historical records were falsified, or the sage kept his family a top hidden secret from everyone.

It was at this point that my training was taken to another level entirely. Gojo wasn't much of teacher, tending to explain things in vague and round about ways, but what he did was beat the shit out of me in sparring, so much so that I was certain at one point that he was actually trying to kill me.

Nevertheless, that helped a lot because being near death basically forcefully activated my innate rinnegan abilities, rinnegan being the given name for my eyes. According to Gojo, there was supposed to be six of them, known as the six paths of the sage. He didn't know what they were but he knew they had some connation to Buddhism.

Well, I was forced to activate my deva path's gravity manipulation in order to counter against Gojo's limitless: infinity. My understanding was that Gojo's ability is basically to create an infinity between us, meaning that no matter what I try, I could never get close to him.

I was however able to use the visual prowess of my eyes to dissect his ability and discover that actually, what he was doing was slowing down my movements significantly. He wasn't stopping me from moving, he was just slowing me down, although even that was an over simplification.

In any case, by creating gravitation distortions around myself, I was able to disrupt his spatial manipulation and cancel out his ability, enabling me to reach him. However, I was still much to weak to beat him in a hand to hand battle, so I ended up losing the fight. I did give him a bit of hard time because not only did I have x-ray vision but I discovered that I also have three sixty degree vision. That, coupled with my ability to accurately read curse energy made me a formidable foe, but he was just way stronger so I lost.

Still, I had an idea about how to get stronger. I figured subjecting myself to a consistently much higher than normal gravitational force would make me stronger, and I was right. It also helped that my body was actually in the process of adapting to high gravitational forces anyway.

Long story short, within a month I was already strong enough to go toe to toe with Gojo, and in doing so, I discovered another path, namely, the preta path's curse energy absorption seal. Gojo actually used his combination technique, purple hollow on me. The nerve of the guy, now I know the fool was actually trying to kill me. That technique was way too much overkill.

Nevertheless, thanks to the preta path, I was able to absorb his technique, thereby completely nullifying it. The amount of curse energy was insane, in fact, I got a major curse energy boost from that attack. My body adjusted to producing and containing much higher curse energy reserves afterward.

The power boost from the absorption of his technique was almost enough for me to pull the rabbit out of a hat, but that guy had another trick up his sleeve, his domain expansion. His expansion fills your mind up with so much information that you cannot move at all. However, I was able to overcome this obstacle because of my rinnegan's ability to rapidly process, interpret, analyze, and dissect information. This ability was however underdeveloped at this point so even though I could move within Gojo's domain, I wasn't anywhere near my full speed and mobility and started getting the crap beaten out of me.

At the brink of unconsciousness, I found myself inside an inner domain, which is how I discovered my ashura path. My inner domain is the unlimited blade works, which I access via the gate of Babylon. The unlimited blade works is a forge within my inner domain. It is the ability of creation and construction, the ability to manifest into the world my imagination and creative mind.

Gojo went away on a long term mission, and I spent the whole time he was gone going on missions with Nanami-sensei or honing my skills. I also spent a lot of time researching and learning the art of weapons forging, technological engineering, and mechanical engineering. I also researched curse tool creation as of course, that was important for my new ability. I felt like these were essential pieces of knowledge to maximize the potential of my unlimited blade works.

Since then I have actually forged tens of thousands of weapons in just a month. From ordinary weapons to special grade curse tools. The gate of Babylon is also convenient for this ability because it means I can use the warp gates to teleport the weapons and use them as projectiles. In fact I discovered I had a strong affinity for both close quarters and long range weapons combat, although close combat weapons specialty isn't much of a surprise given how easy it was for me to use slaughter demon.

Anyway, I haven't been able to unlock any other paths yet. So for now, I'm still stuck with three, the preta path, deva path, and asura path. I'm actually glad in all honesty because this has allowed me to work on fully mastering my abilities instead of just scratching the surface. I don't want to be a jack of all trades and master of none. I want to be a master of all trades.

Two months went by, not as quickly as one would imagine given how single mindedly immersed I was in my training. I guess part of the reason was because I couldn't wait to see my friends again. I went on a couple of missions with Nanami-sensei, but that was it. Nanami-sensei said that I had one more mission before I can go back again, and it involved a couple of deformed, mutated humans who were killed at a movie theatre.

Some high school kid named Junpei Yoshino is a person of interest and because I am his age, I was ordered to be the one to investigate him and get close to him if possible. It makes sense I guess, even though I know that Nanami-sensei is up to something. I feel like he has found the actual culprit and is going to be fighting him or her while I investigate Junpei Yoshino. I don't know why he won't let me join him, but I hope he makes it back in good health.

Currently:

"What the! How did you go around the block so fast?" Junpei asked incredulously, unable to believe that anyone could move that fast, certainly not any normal person.

'And why the hell do his eyes look like that? That's so creepy. Is he even human?' Junpei pondered, unnerved by Yuji's eyes, especially because they showed a lifeless, emotionless disposition, contrary to what the rest of Yuji's facial and body language was displaying.

'That button on his jacket? He's a jujutsu sorcerer, he has to be. Which means he probably used some kind of cursed technique to get around the block that fast.' Jumpei thought warily.

"I ran really fast. Now time for you to answer my question, how is it that you can see this cursed spirit? Are you a curse user?" Yuji asked curiously, holding out the small, relatively harmless curse spirit in his left hand.

"I've only recently began to see them, and only recently began discovering my abilities. I didn't kill those students if that's what you came to ask me." Jumpei replied dismissively.

"But you're not sorry that they're dead." Yuji stated matter of factly.

"Not even slightly." Junpei retorted.

"I see. So, you know who did it? Where can I find them? What are their abilities? And what is their connection to you?" Yuji asked directly.

"You're not a very subtle person are you?" Junpei asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, is that a problem?" Yuji asked casually.

"No, I like it. No nonsense, no bullshit. So with that said, the person responsible has become my friend, so I won't sell him out no matter what you say or do to me, and I'll fight you if I have to." Jumpei said with a grave undertone.

"You'll lose, but that won't be necessary. I like honest and loyal people like you. Word of caution though, that can get you into big trouble very quickly. If it was anyone other than me who asked you these questions and you answered like that, you'd be tied to a chair right now and probably have the information tortured out of you. I also want to warn you about making friends with someone who places such a low value on human life that he or she would kill random strangers for some sick experiment, because it means they place very little value on your life as well, after all, you are a human yourself." Itadori said gravely, Junpei's eyes widening as a little realization began to dawn on him, wondering if his own body modifications to allow him to use curse energy were not just another experiment for Mahito, the curse spirit responsible for the deaths of his bullies and for countless other human deaths.

"……"

"Anyway, I don't have many friends either, especially since everyone thinks I'm dead. I'm Yuji Itadori, I like tall girls with big asses like Jennifer Lawrence. Nice to meet you." Itadori said as he bowed respectfully.

'W-what? Are those things you tell someone right off the bat? Just who is this guy?' Junpei thought with both incredulity and amusement.

"My name is Junpei Yoshino. I uh…like uh….a beautiful, open minded woman with a kind heart and a good sense of humor." Junpei stuttered, using his mother as a baseline for his description as he hadn't interacted with enough girls to really formulate his own opinion on that matter.

"I see…very interesting." Yuji said with a kind smile.

"Yeah, uh…so I also like reading and analyzing movies as a hobby." Jumpei added as an after thought.

"You for real? Man I also like watching all sorts of movies. I mean I only recently developed a liking to it but before that I never knew they could be so thought provoking and mentally stimulating. Movies are great man. We should go and watch some at some point." Yuji said excitedly, creating a gravity field in his left hand that completely crushed the curse spirit in his hand, effectively exorcising it.

"You killed it? Wasn't it your pet or something?" Junpei asked curiously.

'And what was tha just now? It looked like some kind of invisible force suddenly crushed the curse spirit.' Junpei thought in both awe and trepidation.

"What? Hell no! Jumpei, understand this, curse spirits are the natural enemies of humans. Attacking, torturing, and killing humans is their natural instinct. Sure, some have far more sentience than others, but even then, it's not like those instincts are not there. Quite frankly, I don't believe for one second anyone can trust a curse spirit. Junpei, never let your guard down, okay? Don't ignore your survival instincts!" Yuji said gravely.

"….."

"I…I understand." Junpei said eventually.

"Good, now lets get out of here before your teacher comes back. Know a good place where we can hang out?" Itadori asked warmly.

"Yeah, sure, I know a place." Junpei said excitedly, happy to finally make a true, genuine friend, or at least, hopeful that this was the chance for him to get one.

Two Hours Later:

"Yo! Junpei-kun! Whose your new friend? It's getting late you know!" A woman shouted from up the park stairs, Yuji and Junpei turning around to see who it was, at least Yuji wanted to see who it was, Junpei already, of course, knowing who it was as he knew the voice of his mother like the back of his hand.

"Mom! I…uh….this is….!"

"Is this your new friend? Why didn't didn't you tell me you made a new friend. I'm so happy for you!" Junpei's mom said as she quickly climbed down the stairs to meet her son's new friend.

"Miss Yoshino! My name is Yuji Itadori, and yes, Junpei and I have become good friends. We have so much in common it's crazy!" Itadori said excitedly, getting up on his feet and bowing respectfully.

"Oh my, strong, handsome, kind, and he has manners too. Careful with this one Junpei-kun, he might just accidentally steal your mother's heart." Miss Yoshino said tauntingly.

"Mom! Stop that! You're embarrassing me! And didn't I tell you to stop smoking! You promised you would stop mom!" Junpei complained.

"Oh God I totally forgot I had this piece of evidence in my hand. Oh Junpei-kun I'm so sorry, I promised I wouldn't smoke in front of you didn't I?" Miss Yoshino said as she casually unlit her cigarette and threw it away, Junpei clenching his fists in frustration at the fact that his mom was twisting the meaning of their agreement because he had made her promise to completely stop, not just when he wasn't around to see her.

"……"

"Anyway I was going to prepare a special meal for us today. You should join us young Itadori. I would love to get to know more my son's new best friend." Miss Yoshino said excitedly.

"Mom no stop bothering hi…."

"I would love to Miss Junpei!" Yuji said excitedly, cutting off Junpei before he could protest, Junpei realizing in that moment that there was nothing he was going to be able to do to stop this.

It was just as well too as the three of them had a wonderful time. Junpei could honestly say that that was the best supper that he had ever had, and he was sure that his mother enjoyed Yuji's company just as much as he did. He was concerned though because of the fact that Yuji and Mahito were enemies, because he knew that at some point he would have to choose a side, and that was not going to be easy.

If chose solely on a morality basis, Yuji was the obvious choice. His mother liked him, and he was a good person, that was very easy to see even for a pessimist like him. However, Mahito had given him powers and taught him how to use them to protect himself and the things he cares about. That made him feel like he owes Mahito his loyalty and trust. How the hell was he supposed to figure out what to do when it inevitably came down to it?

'Damn it! Why did I have to meet Yuji this way? But then, would I have met him if Mahito didn't kill those guys? Yuji came here to investigate, and we only met because I was a person of interest in his investigation into Mahito's killings. So if not for Mahito, we wouldn't have even met. That's just so insane how fates can be intertwined like that!' Junpei thought as he struggled to fall asleep that evening, stressing over the tension that his new friends were causing in his life.

Meanwhile: Back at the Jujutsu High Morgue

"You know we really need a new base of operations. Meeting at the morgue all the time is depressing." Itadori said incredulously.

"You're right of course. This is no place for a child like you to spend the majority of his time." Nanami Kento replied with a neutral and professional tone, a tone that Yuji suspected was designed to hide Nanami's kind hearted nature so that people wouldn't think of him as a softy.

Nanami is a tall, well-built man with blonde hair styled with a neat part. He has very thin eyebrows as well as small eyes that are covered by his signature sunglasses, which don't have arms that wrap around the ears. He is fully dressed in a business suit, which consists of a white dress shirt underneath a tan blazer with matching slacks and light shoes. Attached to his dress shirt, there is a holster that sheaths his blunt sword, hidden by the back of his blazer. He is also wearing a necktie that shares the same dotted pattern as the bandages around his blunt sword.

"Hn, damn right I'm right. So anyway, how did it go? Did you kill the guy? Cause it looks like he did quite a number on you." Yuji said observantly.

'What? He actually noticed? I cleaned up all the blood and had the wound healed by Shoko with reverse cursed technique. Granted it still hurts like hell because the doctors here don't know how to heal a soul wound, but I was sure that I wasn't showing any signs of being hurt. Gojo said that Yuji is a special grade sorcerer, but I didn't bring him with me because I didn't believe someone could grow that much in a short time. But maybe there is more to Yuji than I thought.' Nanami thought warily.

'There more pertinent question I suppose is whether he noticed because he is Sukuna's vessel, or because of those terrifying eyes of his. Both scenarios are equally possible.' Nanami thought.

"I….yes, well, I'm honestly not sure if I successfully killed the Special Grade Curse Spirit Mahito. He proved to be incredibly difficult to kill." Nanami replied.

"What about you? How did your mission go?" Nanami asked curiously.

"Junpei and I actually hit it off immediately. I think he and I are gonna be great friends. However, I believe that the future of our friendship depends on whether you successfully eliminated that cursed spirit, Mahito as you say. Jumpei has a kind heart, but he is a little too naïve. He believes the curse spirit is actually his friend and that he can trust it. He's fiercely loyal and is willing to endure torture if need be. He won't sell out, and I respect that I guess, even though it worries me when it comes to his long term safety." Yuji said with concern.

"I see. Well then, if that's the case, then maybe you should continue to keep your eye on him. But if Mahito shows up, do NOT engage! Call for back up and let me take it from there! Do you understand!" Nanami said firmly.

"Yes sir!" Yuji saluted comically.

"Good. Now, get some rest. We'll resume tomorrow." Nanami ordered, Yuji bowing his head and thanking Nanami for his mentorship before heading to his makeshift bedroom.

Following Day:

"Junpei! What the hell are doing?" Yuji asked angrily, surprised that Junpei was at school in the first place but also at his dress code as Junpei was dressed in all black as if he was going to a funeral or something.

"Yuji! What are you doing here? Look, it doesn't matter! Just stay out of this! Nobody has to get hurt, only that evil son of a bitch has to die!" Junpei said angrily.

"You mean Shota Ito? I know he's one of your bullies, and that he's a piece of shit! But why does he have to die? The punishment doesn't seem to fit the crime to me." Yuji said incredulously.

"And involving all of these people, what's up with that? These people are innocent! Couldn't you have waited until he was alone in an alley or something?" Yuji asked, confused.

"My mother just died and you want me to wait in an alley somewhere to kill the bastard who cursed her?" Junpei asked angrily.

"What? Your mother is dead? N-no way! H-how? How is this possible! When did this happen? Who would want to curse your mother? Such a kind and loving woman!" Yuji asked with tears free flowing down his eyes, Junpei taken aback by the raw and genuine pain and agony Yuji felt over his mother, a woman he only met yesterday.

"Humans have no hearts! It's all just a fantasy. Emotions are just a metabolism of the soul! Don't you see! I have to believe that, because if humans actually have hearts, it would mean that humans cursed me and my mother with those very same hearts!" Junpei said as he fell down on his knees and cried uncontrollably.

"Junpei! I swear we will avenge your mother! I'll help you and I'll do whatever it takes to make sure we avenge her, no matter who cursed her! However, let us first investigate and find out who actually did it! Junpei, join Jujutsu High with me and become a Jujutsu Sorcerer. Let us work together to avenge your mother and all of the innocent people like her who have suffered because of curses!" Yuji said with conviction, wiping the tears from his eyes as his pain and agony became replaced by resolve.

"Join Jujutsu High…..?" Junpei asked in disbelief, but also with hope in his heart as he had been wondering what he was going to do now that his mother was gone because he was now left with nobody, all alone in the world.

"Junpei, I know I only met you yesterday, but I feel a genuine bond with you. You and I, I feel like we could have been like brothers if we met earlier, and I don't believe it's too late for us. Please Junpei, I will never make you forsake your revenge, not when I also want to avenge Miss Yoshino so badly, all I'm saying is that let's do it the right way. Let's make sure that we get the right person…and let's make them pay!" Yuji said angrily.

'There's no way it was that kid. This is all Mahito's doing. However, I can't tell Junpei that now, he won't be able to comprehend it. When he calms down and really thinks about it though, he'll figure it out.' Yuji thought analytically.

"My my what a ruckus you two children have caused here." Yuji and Junpei heard an all too creepy voice from up the stairs, a young man with light blue hair and a human male body that looked stitched up walking down the stairs towards Junpei.

"Junpei! That's Mahito isn't it? Get away from him! I'll exorcise him!" Yuji said as his curse energy spiked, his curse energy shocking both Junpei and Mahito to the core as they both couldn't believe the amount of curse energy output that was coming from him, feeling like they were both about to drown in a sea of cursed energy.

"No! Yuji! Don't do it! Mahito is not a bad person!" Junpei said as he jumped right in front of Mahito, who was more than willing to use Junpei as a shield, wary of Yuji's unknown potential as he just couldn't comprehend how he had so much curse energy with only a few of Sukuna's fingers.

'Damn it! Junpei you idiot!' Yuji thought as he painfully watched Mahito transform Junpei into one of his abominable creatures, Junpei turning into a blue, deformed monstrosity before attacking Yuji at Mahito's command, Mahito laughing ecstatically throughout the whole ordeal.

"Unlimited Blade Works: Samehada." Yuji said with a neutral voice, a portal opening next to him on his right hand side, from which he pulled out a gigantic sword made out of purple scales, using the gigantic sword to smash Junpei into the floor with one powerful swing, immediately putting him down for the count and rendering him unconscious.

'What was that? Where did the sword come from? Is that thing even a sword? It's wriggling and making sounds like it's alive, plus it clearly has a mouth with some razor sharp teeth. What's going on here? Where is Yuji getting these abilities? Are these Sukuna's abilities?' Mahito thought warily.

"Junpei! Snap out of it! Don't become his puppet! Damn it!" Yuji exclaimed in frustration.

"Yuji….I'm s-so s-sorry!" Junpei stammered, fighting hard in order to regain control over his mind, Mahito laughing throughout the whole ordeal, which both pissed off and frustrated Yuji to no end.

'He's dying. His life force is fading rapidly! N-no! This can't be! I have to so something!' Yuji thought in a panic.

'His soul! This guy manipulates souls! What if I could….!' Yuji thought, realization dawning on him as new information suddenly filled up in his mind, letting go of Samehada as stretched out his right hand and touched Junpei on the head, the result being that he pulled out Junpei's soul from his body, creating an extremely foreign and weird sensation, Mahito looking on in horror, confusion, and awe all together.

'He pulled out his soul? But how? Does he have the ability to manipulate souls too? But that's kind of more advanced than my ability in a different way! I can manipulate the metabolism of souls to transform the body but I cannot entirely separate them from the body. This is something else entirely! Is thie one of Sukuna's abilities, or is it Yuji's?' Mahito thought warily.

'I removed his soul, and I think I can manipulate it like Mahito did if I tried, but….that's dangerous. Mahito conducted numerous fatal experiments in order to get his technique mastered, and even now it doesn't seem like he has complete mastery over it. I think….I think maybe I would be better off fixing the pre existing corpse and then returning the soul into the body instead of metabolizing a new body for Junpei. If that fails, then I'll still have the soul metabolism option.' Yuji thought as his curse energy spiked again, a large figure that looked like a demon's head rising up out of the surface, the demonic figure possessing the same rinnegan eyes as Yuji.

'What the hell is that? It has the same eyes as Sukuna's vessel! Is it some kind of shikigami? What does he intend to do with it?' Mahito thought warily, watching in morbid fascination as the demon head stuck it's tongue out and wrapped it around Junpei's mutated corpse and pulled it inside of its mouth.

'It's chewing the corpse. Is it eating it? What's going on?' Mahito thought in confusion, shock and realization dawning on him when it finished chewing and released a completely healed, back to human version of Junpei, Mahito unable to believe what he was seeing as he watched Yuji put Junpei's soul back into his body.

'He's alive! He has a pulse! It worked! Thank goodness!' Yuji thought excitedly.

'And now it's time for me to take care of that bastard Mahito! But…I have to get Junpei out of here!' Yuji thought as he got up on his feet.

"Samehada! Junpei is still unconscious due to the trauma his mind and soul have suffered from being mutated an then turned back to human again. Merge with him and take control of his body and then get him out of here! Leave the veil entirely if you can. In the meantime, I'll exorcise this filthy curse spirit!" Yuji ordered, Samehada wriggling and he made unintelligible noises to the normal human or curse spirit ears and did as instructed, merging with Junpei as instructed, the effect being that Junpei turned into a humanoid shark.

"I'm on my way boss! Good luck!" Samehada said as he broke through the window and jumped out, using Junpei's vocal cords in order to speak human language.

'That creature, what is it exactly? Is it curse, a shikigami, or curse corpse, or a curse tool? I can't tell at all!' Mahito thought in frustration, not happy at all about the turn of events as his plan to force Yuji into a pact with Sukuna was not working at all.

"Now, as for you, Mahito! I'm going to kill you!" Yuji said from the deepest depths of his soul, with so much raw and primal hate and rage that Mahito, for a second, almost ran away with his metaphorical tail tucked between his legs.

"Hahahaha! Perhaps it might have been possible if you had simply allowed Junpei to die, but you've used up a majority of your massive curse energy reserves just now. Those two techniques, the soul removal and the demon head, you're not used to using them are you? In fact, I'm willing to bet it was the first time you used those techniques! That's why you used up so much of your curse energy. Right now, you're easy pickings!" Mahito said analytically.

'I'll just have to beat him up and torture him until he makes a pact with Sukuna!' Mahito thought malevolently, a sinister smirk morphing onto his facial features when he saw the demon head sinking back into the ground, proving his point that Yuji was low on curse energy.

'It's true. With my current reserves, I won't be able to even open the gate of Babylon, and I won't be able to use my higher tier gravity techniques like shinra tensei and bansho tenin. I suppose I could try and absorb more curse energy from Mahito with the preta path, but from what Nanami-sensei told me about him, Mahito doesn't use any energy techniques or energy projectiles. He's a hand to hand and weapons specialist via his soul transformations.' Yuji thought analytically.

'Putting him in a submission hold and then directly draining his curse energy won't work either. I can't submit someone who can morph their body like he does. That will just get me killed. However, not even that will is going to stop stop me from killing this bastard!' Yuji thought as he suddenly appeared in front of Mahito at a speed that Mahito did not anticipate, a black flash of curse energy forming around Yuji's fist as he punched Mahito on the face with an incredible amount of force, a force so hard that it broke all the windows on the floor from the shockwave alone and sent Mahito flying through the wall and out of the school building.

'That…..that was a black flash. Nanami-sensei told me about this move, a distortion in space that occurs when cursed energy is applied within 0.000001 seconds of a physical hit, causing the cursed energy of the sorcerer to flash black. According to Nanami-sensei, the destructive power of their strike is equal to a normal hit to the power of 2.5.' Yuji thought in awe.

'But that's not all. According to Nanami, the difference in the ability to understand the essence of cursed energy among those who have used and those who have never used the Black Flash, is the difference between heaven and earth. This must explain this feeling of omnipotence that I feel right now, like I know and understand everything about curse energy manipulation better than I did before.' Yuji thought as he looked himself over, unable to believe the amount of control he had over his own curse energy.

'Thanks to be rinnegan, I understood and comprehended everything about curse energy on a visual, mental, spiritual and analytical level, but now I also understand and comprehend everything on physical, emotional, and instinctive level. I feel….I feel complete!' Yuji thought elatedly.

'But, my reserves haven't returned to normal, I still can't use the higher tier gravity techniques or open the Gate of Babylon in my current state, but with this level of control and understanding, I can do so much more with the little curse energy I have. I'm taking down Mahito no matter what!' Yuji thought with determination, clenching his fists as he jumped through the hole that Mahito made and landed outside, just as Mahito finished reconstructing his face.

'He only now managed to reconstruct his face? I could have finished him if I hadn't been frozen in shock by my own black flash. He'll probably be extra careful now that he knows I can attack his soul directly. He won't let me get close so easily.' Yuji thought warily.

"You piece of shit, filthy human! You'll pay for what you just did to my face!" Mahito exclaimed as he turned himself into a metal spiked ball and extended his spikes, trying to perforate Yuji while at the same time trying to make sure that Yuji couldn't close the distance for fear of getting perforated.

"Black Flash Barrage!" Yuji exclaimed as he launched super fast, consecutive black flashing punches in rapid succession, causing violent shockwaves and spatial distortions that completely obliterated Mahito's spikes, forcing Mahito to quickly transform back into his human form so that he can evade for fear of getting destroyed at a molecular level by the spatial distortions, growing wings on his back and flying away, hoping to escape with his life still in tact.

'This is insane! How has Sukuna's vessel become so strong in such a short time. I thought human growth potential was supposed to be a slow and steady process! It's only been two months since he disappeared but it feels like its been years…' Mahito trailed off as he was punched hard with a black flash in the torso, unable to understand how Yuji had managed to get above him and in front of him, crashing hard onto the ground, causing a loud explosion that sent dust and debris flying everywhere.

'Aaagh! It hurts! It hurts so bad! How is this possible! How am I losing to this kid who hasn't been a curse user for more than three months!' Mahito thought as he groggily got up, directed a rage filled gaze at Yuji Itadori, rage that quickly turned into shock and confusion when he realized that Yuji was actually flying, but without wings.

"Y-you can fly? How?" Mahito asked incredulously.

"As if I'd tell you that, you filthy curse!" Yuji said condescendingly as he descended from the sky like a Death God or something, at least, that's the impression he gave especially with his black flash induced pseudo omnipotence.

'I may not have enough curse energy to use higher tier six paths techniques, but I don't need much to use gravity release to levitate and fly.' Yuji thought confidently, certain that there was no way Mahito was going to escape his wrath.

"How does it feel to be trapped in your own veil? You thought you were trapping me and Junpei in here, but in actuality, you only managed to trap yourself in here….with me." Yuji said maliciously, scaring Mahito to no end, creating a role reversal as it usually was humans who were scared to death of curses, whereas now it was the curse who was terrified of a human.

"No! I cannot die here! There's still so much I have to do! So many things I want to do! I haven't lived long enough! I won't accept a world where humans rule! Never!" Mahito cried out as he seemed to be unravelling.

'But how do I beat him? I can't escape! Running won't help! He'll just follow me! Flying doesn't work because he can fly too! Which means I have to kill him! But I can't do that, we need him because of Sukuna! What do I do! What do I do! I can't even use Idle Transfiguration on him, if I try to get close he'll obliterate me with a black flash barrage! Isn't there a way I can transfigure him without getting close! There has to be! There has to be! There has to be! I know there is! I can picture it in my mind! It's right there! I can….!"

"Domain Expansion: Self-Embodiment of Perfection!" Mahito exclaimed elatedly, summoning his inner domain into the physical realm as both he and Yuji became trapped inside a pitch black domain, a dimension with gigantic hands floating all around the place.

However, Mahito did not get to enjoy the fruits of his labor for more than a second before his consciousness was summoned into Sukuna's inner domain, shock, confusion, and fear hitting the Special Grade Curse like a freight train when he suddenly found himself face to face with the great Sukuna of a thousand curse techniques.

Sukuna's Inner Domain

"I know what you're trying to do. I know that you're trying to force that brat into a corner so that he can make a pact with me. I also respect your methods, the strings you pulled on that Junpei brat and the way you tried to manipulate the situation to your favor is something even I would be proud of." Sukuna said with a tone that was neither friendly nor threatening, looking down on Mahito from his perch at the top of a pile of human corpses.

Sukuna is, well, he looks like an older version of Itadori, or at the very least like an uncle or an older cousin to Itadori, which is something that Mahito found to be quite peculiar. His dress code is completely different, more resembling clothing that would typically be worn during the Feudal Era of Japan.

"However…." Sukuna trailed off with a grave undertone, his tone no longer neutral as there was clearly a threatening edge to it now, which caused Mahito to freeze in place like a child who was about to get a hiding from his terrifying father.

"No amount of admiration or respect would ever cause me to let you get away with touching my soul. How dare you, a mere peasant, touch my soul! Cry in agony and lament the impunity of your actions as you gurgle your own blood, peasant!" Sukuna exclaimed in a fit of rage, blasting Mahito out of his inner domain, which of course is not all he did as he completely obliterated Mahito's domain expansion and on top of that sliced him into four pieces with an attack made entirely of pure curse energy, causing the domain expansion to collapse almost immediately after it was formed.

Back in the Real World:

'What the hell just happened? Did Sukuna do that? That bastard! Since when can he attack people without taking control of my body? I didn't know he could do that!' Yuji thought warily, needless to say, very concerned about this new development as it could possibly mean that Sukuna could actually kill anyone he was close to at any moment in time, at his own whim, without Yuji being able to do anything about it.

'Damn it! He and I are gonna have to have a serious talk about boundaries! I can't allow that maniac to just do whatever the hell he wants!' Yuji thought angrily, nevertheless focusing on his current mission for now as he flew down at Mahito with the intention to finish him off.

'Mahito can regenerate himself even from the smallest pieces of his soul that remain in tact, at least it looks that way. I need a wide scale attack to ensure his demise, an attack that will leave nothing behind. I don't have anything like that in my current state, but I have an idea!' Yuji thought as he prepared another black flash, except this time attempting to imbue the curse energy around his fist with gravity release cursed energy at the point of impact.

'The black flash creates a special distortion around the relevant body part at the point of impact. If I successfully create a gravitational field within the distortion, I can possibly expand it and create a singularity, kind of like a black hole. I just hope this doesn't backfire on me somehow!' Yuji thought, his eyes widening when he saw another curse come out of the ground and cover itself and Mahito with a wooden barrier, a curse that he recognized too well as it was the plant-like one that helped Jogo escape when Gojo was interrogating him.

"Damn it! Not again! I won't let you get away! Black Flash!" Yuji exclaimed as he punched the air, something that even he didn't expect happening as, instead of flashing black, his curse energy flashed dark purple, and of course, even more surprising, was the level of spatial distortion as it was like the difference between earth and heaven in comparison to a normal black flash, a black hole the size of the entire school yard forming rapidly and destroying the entire yard before imploding in on itself immediately after, causing a large hole where the school grounds used to be, a hole so big that Yuji couldn't tell if it even had an end to it, the shockwave after the implosion causing all the windows in the building to get smashed into smithereens.

'Wow! What was that? A purple flash? So that's what happens when you use gravitational distortions to enhance the spatial distortions of a black flash? That's crazy!' Yuji thought, concerned because of the sheer level of damage, because if he had used that attack inside the school building, everyone inside would have been wiped off the face of the earth.

' Wow wait a minute! Something feels weird with my curse energy. What's going on?' Yuji thought as he looked himself over, surprised when he realized that the entirety of his curse energy, throughout his whole body, was flashing black, as if his whole body was covered by a black flash.

'I feel so much stronger, and so much more in control of everything. It feels like I can do anything. Nanami-sensei said there was a myth about those who are chosen by the black, but somehow I doubt this is what he meant. This power, this form! I have to remember this feeling, to etch it into my very soul and body. I must be able to summon this power at will and not by some crazy fluke.' Yuji thought as he committed everything to memory.

Five Minutes Later: Outside the Veil

"Yuji! What happened! Are you alright? Where is the Special Grade? Did you encounter Mahito? I thought I told you not to do anything without me!" Nanami said angrily, having just arrived to the scene.

"I'm sorry Nanami-sensei, but I wasn't going to let Mahito get away with what he did to Junpei! It's not like I wanted to disobey your orders, but I just couldn't let it slide! I had to make him pay!" Yuji said angrily.

"……"

"Yuji, the fact that you made it out of there in tact, are you telling me that you actually defeated Special Grade Curse Mahito?" Nanami asked in disbelief, especially after he had such a hard time with that particular Special Grade and couldn't even truly hurt him in any significant way.

"I defeated them, but I can't confirm their deaths. Given the plant curse's talent for escapism, I would think that it is safer to assume that they survived and escaped somehow, although they definitely won't be making any moves any time soon, not with the way I hurt them." Yuji replied somberly, not at all happy about his potential failure to take not one but two dangerous curses off the board.

"W-wait a minute! What did you just say? There were two of them? And you fought them alone! Oh my God Gojo is so going to kill me! How could I let this happen!" Ijichi exclaimed, hands on his head as despair and fear took hold of him.

"I didn't fight the both of them. The plant one just sort of appeared out of nowhere as I was about to finish Mahito off. It appears as though it has a special talent for stealth." Yuji retorted.

"Yuji, I'm confused. You said you were about to finish off Mahito. That would imply that he was badly hurt. How exactly did you do that? I can only think that you would have forced him to deplete his curse energy, rendering him unable to regenerate his body parts, but you weren't fighting him long enough to have completely depleted his reserves, after all, I should know, seeing as I was the first one to fight him. The only other explanation is that you have a curse technique that can attack his soul directly and bypass his physical body." Nanami inquired analytically.

"It's not a technique per se. My body houses two souls, so I am uniquely aware of my soul and other people's souls, which enables me to be able to attack the soul with my curse energy. Besides, I can see souls with my rinnegan anyway." Yuji deadpanned.

"I…..I see. That…actually makes a profound amount of sense. So you are his natural enemy. Then I suppose it was a good thing that you were the one on the scene, although I would have still preferred it if you had waited for me." Nanami praised and chastised at the same time.

"I will try and remember that next time, sensei. However if you don't mind I would like to check on Junpei now." Yuji said apologetically.

"Yes, well, about that, I'm sure you're aware of this, but your friend is a humanoid Shark now. I'm surprised however at the fact that he has his mental faculties in tact, not to mention the fact that he is still alive. It seems counter productive for Mahito to allow him so much freedom doesn't it? Unless of course, this was his way to hurt you? I'm also concerned by his powers. Previously morphed humans did not have any special powers, but this one can shoot water jets out of his mouth and he absorbs curse energy, which makes it nigh impossible to hit him with a curse technique. Thankfully he was able to talk and explain that he was on your side and isn't an enemy. He wouldn't let us take him into custody until you returned though." Nanami explained the situation so that he can hear Yuji's own version of events.

"Junpei is not a morphed human. He was unconscious and in the line of fire, so I told Samehada to merge with him and take him outside of the veil." Yuji said as he walked towards the humanoid shark.

"Samehada? Merge with him? First of all who the hell is Samehada?" Ijichi asked incredulously, Yuji however ignoring him as he seemed to no longer be focused on him or Nanami anymore.

"Samehada, I'm so grateful to you. Words alone cannot describe how amazing you were today. Thank you so much. You job is complete, you can go back to the domain now." Yuji said with open arms, Samehada ejecting himself from Junpei's body and wriggling happily before fading out of existence, returning back to Yuji's domain, Junpei's now unconscious body falling into Yuji's arms, who picked him up and headed back to his comrades with him.

"Yuji, what the hell was that?" Nanami asked with an uncharacteristic emotion in his tone, unable to believe what he just saw.

"That was Samehada. I'll explain later. Right now I'm going to take Junpei home, I intend to spend a week with him at his house. He shouldn't be alone right now, not after everything that has happened. You should know that during our battle I asked him to join Jujutsu High and work with us to take down Mahito and his partners. He seemed on the verge of agreeing, but that was the heat of the moment. I want to give him a chance to mourn, but I also want to protect him in case Mahito comes back for him. And then, when he is done mourning, we'll have that conversation again. I won't put pressure on him, and I'll make sure he understands exactly what he is getting himself into, but naturally, I'm hoping he'll join us." Yuji explained his reasoning.

"My natural instinct is to outright refuse your request. However, it's not right to protect a child from the opportunity to grow and mature. Being over protective can stifle the growth of a child. So, I'll allow it, on the condition that you accept that there will be 24 hour surveillance on the both of you, and of course, on the condition that you write out a full report on the events of today as soon as you get home, and when I say full report, I mean full. Leave out no detail whatsoever!" Nanami said uncompromisingly.

"You have my word." Yuji said with a firm nod of the head.

"Good! Now wait here until we have organized your security detail. Do not leave until then!"

Two Months Later:

It's been two months since that incident. Junpei, understandably, was devastated. Losing your mother is bad enough, but losing a friend too, and finding out that that friend was the one who betrayed you and killed your mother, and then used you as a puppet in a scheme that was meant to end in your death is another thing entirely.

However, I was never going to let him go through that alone. I was there, with him, all the way through. After a week, Junpei was ready to embark on the path of vengeance not just against Mahito but against all curse spirits and all evil curse users in the world. A good friend perhaps would have tried to warn him about the dangers of the path of vengeance, but how could I, when I too was on that same path. How could I not encourage him when I too wanted revenge.

Still, I did tell him about the kind of death I wanted, and I think that helped a lot. I think saying it out loud made us both realize that seeking revenge does not mean missing out on the other good things that life has to offer, such as good friends and family. It just means we have to work extra hard to ensure that we have the power to protect those things.

In any case, this marked the beginning of our training regimen. Mahito seemed to have intentionally trained Junpei to overly rely on his Shikigami. We had to change that, we had to make sure that he knew how to fight hand to hand and with weapons. Who better to teach him than me.

Gojo told us that we only had two months before the Tokyo and Kyoto interschool's tournament, which is when he wanted to present us. He said he had pulled some strings to make sure the timeline was extended so that we can prepare Junpei. Given the amount of time, it made sense for me to lend Samehada to Junpei.

Jumpei needed to increase his curse energy reserves fast, and he needed to learn how to fight hand to hand and with weapons in short space of time. To do the former, it was essential that I share my energy with him using Samehada every time he ran out of his own, and to achieve the former, it was necessary to use Samehada to heal his injuries and replenish him when he was fatigued so that he can train for a much longer time than he normally would.

The plan worked perfectly needless to say. In just two months Junpei's hand to hand and weapons combat abilities improved significantly, unfathomably actually. That's not the only thing that improved though as we discovered that, after improving his curse energy quantity and quality, Junpei could summon a much, much larger version of his shikigami, Moon Dregs.

We discovered that, the true form of his Shikagami was exponential larger than a skyscraper, and that it could split itself into many smaller versions. Which means that, depending on the amount of curse energy he used, Junpei could summon different size and strength variations of it. He could also summon them in numbers, basically, it could split itself into numerous clones depending on the number he wanted to summon and the size of the clones he wanted.

He also has immunity to all forms of poison, like me, meaning that, like Sukuna, he is a master of all forms of poison. With all of this in mind, I decided to forge him his very own curse tool weapon, a gigantic sword known as the Kubikiribocho.

The head cleaver is a nigh indestructible, special grade cursed tool, and is sharp enough to cut through anything and everything. However, in the event that it does, unlikely as it is, run into something that manages to somehow break it, it can regenerate simply by applying curse energy into it. In other words, it is a curse tool with a self imbued revere curse technique.

The tool also has another ability, it serves as a curse energy conductor. That means that it is not only possible to further increase its durability and sharpness with curse energy, but it is also possible to release a compressed, destructive, or penetrative force of cursed energy for mid and long range attacks.

Finally, because Junpei can make his own curse energy poisonous, it means that he can poison you with a long range attack if he channels his curse energy through the sword. Needless to say, he's more than ready. Experience is the only thing missing now, although it's not like he has zero experience, we've been on two missions since our training began.

Naturally, I've also been training myself to the ground. I've since mastered my black flash full body form and I have also mastered how to control the range of my purple flash singularity. I've also mastered teleportation, at last. In fact, I have two versions of teleportation.

The other one is the Ashura Path's Gate of Babylon: Jumper. This is a variation of the portals I use for the Gate of Babylon in order to teleport and launch the weapons of my unlimited blade works. It is an instant teleportation technique and it allows me to teleport others with me as well.

The second one is the space-time migration, a variation of my Deva Path's gravity release. This one forms a spiraling vortex that can be used for casual travelling by creating a controlled singularity using my gravity release, although it can be used in combat too to teleport long range techniques to another location as a defensive strategy.

Furthermore, not only have I mastered the two paths I activated during my fight with Mahito, namely, human path and naraka path, but I have also discovered and mastered a new path, the animal path, which makes it six out of six. The animal path is a very convenient path, giving me the ability to summon numerous shikigami to use in for a variety of functions. Even more conveniently is that, like the Naraka Path, the shikigami I summon also have the rinnegan, resulting in me being able to share vision with them so that I can see the battlefield from all angles.

All that's left now is to talk to Sukuna. I cannot return to Jujutsu High just yet. I'm confident now that Sukuna made a pact with me when I died and made me forget somehow. I can't see myself, even that naïve and inexperienced version of myself, willingly making a pact like that. So he either tricked me into agreeing to the deal, or utilized a loophole in the deal to make me forget after the fact.

Either way, a re-negotiation is in order. Normally I would expect him to outright shut me down, but I'm confident that the deal I have for him is something he can't, in his right mind, reject. Granted Sukuna's mind is not exactly right, in fact far from it, but there is no way he can reject this one.

Sukuna's Inner Domain:

"Yo, Sukuna! It's been a while." Yuji said with a casual wave of the hand.

"Yo, stupid little brat….who isn't quite as stupid as I imagined….at least not as stupid as you actually were four months ago." Sukuna said, casually sitting on his corpse throne as he looked down at Yuji.

"Hn, I guess you already have some sort of idea why I am here." Yuji retorted.

"Visiting me the night before you return to your precious friends at Jujutsu High? Yeah, I'd say it's obvious why you're here! You're here to grovel at my feet because you realized that you made a pact that you can't even remember! Hahaha! You can forget about it you weak, filthy peasant! I'll never tell you what the terms of the pact are, nor will I ever agree to renegotiate! Ahahahaha! Hahaha!" Sukuna laughed maniacally.

"Well okay then, I mean, I was going to offer you your guaranteed freedom, at full strength, but if you're not interested then I guess you know, I'll let you keep your current deal. Cheers!" Yuji said as he started fading away from the inner domain.

"Wait you useless brat! What do you mean? Hey! Come back here damn it! Hey look, stupid! I'll listen and seriously consider your proposal! Okay wait! If your offer is seriously and factually better than the current pact, I'll accept it! I promise! Come back here!" Sukuna exclaimed angrily, Yuji re-manifesting himself at the sound of that.

"Hehe, so lets make it official! We both agree to form this binding pact, where if, after hearing my proposal, and your true thoughts and feelings are that my new offer is better than our current existing pact, then the proposal will become the new sole pact between us, effective immediately?" Yuji said with a confident smirk.

"Yes yes now get on with it. I don't have all day. I don't want your weakness and stupidity to rub off on me!" Sukuna said irritably.

"My man! Okay great! So listen up. I'll start with the disadvantages to you of the new pact, and then I'll list the advantages to you, and finally, I'll list what our mutual advantages and disadvantages are. Is that okay?" Yuji asked.

"That is acceptable." Sukuna replied plainly.

"Good. Now don't interrupt until I've told you everything. You may only interrupt if you are unclear about the meaning of something I said, okay?"

"Yes, get on with it already! Damn brat!" Sukuna said impatiently.

"My man! Okay, you cannot take over my body unless one, I give you either verbal permission or I initiate the swap with you. Two, there are exceptions to this rule , which are that you may take over my body without my consent if I lose consciousness during a battle, and in doing so, you are and/or have the intention to act in my best interests, or both of our best interests. Furthermore, you may not attack anyone even from within me, by this I'm referring to what you did against Mahito or something similar to that effect. However once again, there are exceptions. If a situation like the one against Mahito arises, feel free to act, and of course, if it is in any way towards my best interests or our mutual best interests, you may act in that particular manner. Bare in mind however my best interests means that it must be what I believe, or would believe to be in my best interests, not what you think is good for me. Those are my conditions, the ones that are to your disadvantage at least." Yuji said, pausing in order to give Sukuna a chance to voice his own thoughts on the conditions that negatively impact him.

'This would put me in a position that is even worse than I was before the original pact. What could he possibly have after making those conditions that would be to my benefit. It seems like he closed every single loophole. Does this idiot seriously think I'll accept such a nonsense deal?' Sukuna thought incredulously, nevertheless deciding that there was no harm that could be done by listening to the rest of the proposal, aside from the monumental waste of his time.

"Carry on, brat." Sukuna said with a bored tone of voice.

"Your advantages. Simple, if you agree to the aforementioned conditions and abide by them, I will release you once I have devoured all the fingers, completely. I will create a full body for you that will be able to contain your full power. You can decide later whether you want it to be a curse body or a human jujutsu sorcerer body. However, I will need your help with that part. I have the technique to do this." Yuji offered, Sukuna's eyes widening in both surprise and confusion, surprised that Yuji would ever allow him to go free but also confused as he couldn't figure out how exactly Yuji planned to do that.

"Were you dropped on your head as a baby or something? You stupid brat, do you realize that you cannot lie in a curse binding pact?" Sukuna asked incredulously.

"I'm not lying. You saw how I returned Junpei to his normal human form right? I have been practicing in my inner domain, where you can't reach. Your job is to figure out how to split us without killing either of us, and then from there, we'll manifest you outside of me in your own physical or curse body, depending on your preference. Naturally, manifesting you at your full potential will take a lot out of even me, so I'll need you to donate half of your curse energy for the technique." Yuji explained patiently, Sukuna unable to believe what he was hearing with his own ears, and also how he was unable to come up with this idea himself after seeing what Yuji could do.

'That naraka path and human path are even more advanced techniquea than I thought. It's troublesome. I'll have to kill the brat as soon as I manifest!' Sukuna thought maliciously.

"Fair enough. What's the third part?" Sukuna asked warily.

"Simple. When we have completed phase 1 and 2 of the deal, you may not attack me or anyone I care about until we have both fully recovered and recuperated. Two, you and I will both, permanently, forget everything we know about each other's skills and abilities. This will not bar us from re-learning about each other's abilities from other people or from future encounters, but retrieval of pre existing information will be impossible. These are my conditions, all of them." Yuji stated, putting the ball in Sukuna's court.

"Hehehe! Hehehe! Boy, you're even crazier than I could have imagined! Fine! I will accept your deal, but under one condition. I just want to add a little detail to your proposal. That is to say, neither of us can tell anyone else about our respective abilities. Meaning, any of my abilities that you currently know about, or will learn about in the course of collecting my fingers, may not be disclosed to anyone, and of course, that applies vice versa. Also, any abilities of mine that you acquire from my fingers, apart from the ones you already have, will be lost forever once we are separated, and vice versa." Sukuna added.

"You have yourself a deal." Yuji said, causing Sukuna to laugh maniacally, unable to believe how fortunate this turn of events was turning out to be.

'I know why the brat is doing this! He doesn't want to die anymore. He has found something to live for. He wants to separate us from each other because there will no longer be a point in executing him if he is no longer my vessel. However, knowing him, he wouldn't let me run amuck if he didn't believe he could stop me. In other words, this is a challenge of sorts. It will be a race to see who will be able to kill who in a one on one battle to the death. Although given who his allies are and their potential, perhaps I should start thinking about collecting allies myself. There is nothing barring me from that in our agreement. Perhaps I should have treated that Mahito brat a little better.' Sukuna thought, thinking about how troublesome it would be to deal with both Gojo and Yuji at the same time.

'And then of course, there is that Fushiguro kid. He has some potential too.' Sukuna thought, not aware that there was in fact another threat to him, someone whose existence both he and Yuji were not aware of, a young man known as Yuta Ikkotsu.

Following Day:

"What the hell kind of teacher are you! How can you bring souvenirs for the opposing team and not get us, your own students, any gifts at all? Are you intentionally trying to demotivate us? Asshole!" Maki exclaimed angrily, unable to believe the nerve of the insufferable idiot known as Satoru Gojo. Of course, she didn't actually want any souvenirs from him of all people, but if he was going to hand them out anyway, then he should have been handing them out to them, and not the Kyoto team damn it!

Maki of the Zenin clan is a young woman with a tall athletic build. She has small golden eyes and long dark green hair tied into a short ponytail. She has fringes of hair over her forehead with smaller strands framing her cheeks and also has a pair of glasses. Her student uniform consists of the traditional long sleeve black jacket with a black skirt along with black leggings and black shoes.

"Huhuhuhuhu! Oh but my beloved students, I got you an even better and more useful gift, two gifts in fact. If you would just look above you, then you will see the surprise of your lives!" Gojo said while pointing up above, everyone, including the Kyoto students and the principals of both schools, looking up and truly seeing the surprise of their lives, at least, those who knew who Yuji Itadori was, the Kyoto students, of course, having no idea who the hell he was, in fact so did the second year students of the Tokyo team.

"Yo, Fushiguro, Kugisaki. It's been a while hasn't it? Check this out, I made a new, reliable and powerful friend, he's our newest first year. Everyone, meet my brother, Junpei Yoshino." Yuji said casually, as if he was just someone who went away for a school holiday and this was the first day back at school, which royally pissed his friends off because obviously, they spent four whole months thinking he was dead.

"Y-you! You bastard! How long have you actually been alive? Did you actually let us believe you were dead for four months? Do you have any idea how inconsiderate that was! I'm going to kill you! Get down here now so that I can kill you God damn it! And how the hell are you flying anyway? And what the hell happened to your eyes, why do your eyes look like so creepy?" Nobara Kugisaki exclaimed angrily.

"The eyes, yes, well, apparently I awakened a doujutsu, kinda like Gojo's six eyes technique. Speaking of flying, it's one of my acquired abilities. I haven't just been sitting on my ass for the last four months you know. I've been through a lot, we both have." Itadori said as he looked at his friend and brother in everything but blood, the two of them sharing a look of understanding before Itadori looked back at his old friends.

"Anyway, I'm sincerely sorry for not telling you I was alive. It's not that I didn't want to, I just wasn't allowed to, for my sake, and for your sakes. I'm sure you know there are those who do not approve of my existence, and that is precisely the reason we ended up in that situation where I died. It was a set up, and you were supposed to be the collateral." Itadori explained much to the surprise of, well every student there, including the second years, and of course the Kyoto team.

"If you think about it, not revealing my alive status was a stroke of genius. I wasn't allowed to get back to you until I became strong enough to protect myself and others from any unexpected situation. That served as motivation for me to get stronger. For you, losing a friend made you all the more determined to train harder and get stronger so that you never have to go through that again, and of course, so that you yourselves don't meet a similar fate to mine. That was the idea, at least as far as I could deduce." Yuji explained patiently, but also sympathetically as he understood that his friends would likely be pissed off irrespective of the reasons.

"So then, you're okay now? You're strong enough to protect yourself, from any threat, internal or outside?" Megumi Fushiguro asked with concern, and also as a way to measure how much Yuji had grown.

"I can answer that with a resounding yes! You kids should know, Yuji and I sparred 20 time, and I only defeated him 17 times…..AND…..that was two months ago! He's been training with young Junpei for the last two months, but who knows how much he has grown since then? He also defeated two Special Grade Curses in a two on one battle also around two months ago! Finally, his Jujutsu Sorcerer card has been upgraded. Yuji is now…..a Special Grade Sorcerer just like me, and it has nothing to do with being Sukuna's vessel! He earned that rank with his own merits! He hasn't received anymore of Sukuna's gifts than he had when he died! How amazing is that? Huh!" Gojo exclaimed childishly, however, his attention actually on Principal Gakuganji as he said those words, wanting to make sure that he rubbed that information fully in.

'That idiot! Did he have to tell everyone that! Now all the people that want to kill me will put even more of an effort into killing me!' Yuji thought in dismay.

'But then again, the information could cause them to back off a bit. Given how scared everyone is of Gojo, if that info would give me even a quarter the respect and fear that he garners from everyone, then things should settle down a bit.' Yuji thought.

'A Special Grade Sorcerer? Yuji is that strong now? Strong enough that Gojo didn't win every single spar with him? That's impossible! Isn't it?' Megumi thought incredulously, every other student thinking along the same lines.

'But then again, he is Sukuna's vessel. We have a guy like that too in our grade, Yuta Ikkotsu.' Panda thought analytically, who, of course, looked like a literally human sized and talking Panda.

"Oh and let's not forget about Yuji's brother from another mother Junpei Yoshino, also a first year….and…..a grade 1 sorcerer!" Gojo said elatedly.

"Alright, that's enough, Gojo-sensei. You've scared everyone enough." Yuji said as he floated down to the surface, Junpei, who was using his Jelly fish shikigamai like a flying carpet, also floating down until he was low enough to simply step off the Shikigami, which disappeared immediately after.

"It's nice to meet you everyone. I've heard only good things about Megumi and Nobara from Yuji, I'm sure the rest of you are just as wonderful. I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you." Junpei said politely, nobody answering him though as everyone seemed to be still trying to process everything that they heard about Yuji.

'This isn't going quite like I imagined. Yuji said these were nice and kind people and that they would be overjoyed to have a new comrade, but there is so much tension and hostility that I can't even imagine such a scenario anymore. Well….anyway, it doesn't matter. As long as I have Yuji I don't need anyone else.' Junpei thought.

"I know you all have your questions and maybe even suspicions, but Junpei is someone that has earned both my unconditional love and trust, he is my brother in everything but blood. However, I understand that Tokyo was not built in one day, so of course you won't trust him off the bat even if I vouch for him, but you can trust one thing, no one hates cursed spirits more than Junpei. If you do not believe in his love, at least believe in his hate. It's the real deal." Yuji said gravely, trying to lighten the tension but only serving to increase it even further.

"And as for you, Principal Gakuganji…." Yuji trailed off as he walked away from his peers until he was standing a meter and a half from the Kyoto School principal.

"I don't know for sure if you were directly or indirectly involved in what happened to me and my friends, but I know in my gut you were not completely uninvolved. With that said, I have this to say to you, I don't mind if you attempt to kill me, in fact, I understand exactly where you are coming from, so I have no problem with it." Yuji said much to the surprise of, well, literally everyone, even Junpei, and especially Principal Gakuganji.

"What? Yuji! Did you fall on your head or something? What the hell are you saying?" Megumi asked incredulously.

"Megumi, I understand your reasons for protecting me too, and I'm so grateful to have met a person like you. However, both you and Gojo-sensei saved me not just because you're good people, which you definitely are, but also because you both were banking on Gojo-sensei's strength. If something goes wrong and Sukuna takes control of me and manages to regain his full power, you're both banking on Gojo-sensei being able to defeat and stop Sukuna. However, not everyone is as strong as Gojo-sensei, so they don't have the luxury to take the risky decisions that Gojo-sensei can take. It's easy for Gojo-sensei to look down on them and judge them from up there on his perch of greatness, and Megumi, it's easier for you, who is Gojo-sensei's student, to have that kind of unbreakable faith in Gojo-sensei." Yuji said, taking a momentary pause before carrying on from where he left off.

"However, Principal Gakuganji, the council, and the major clans do not have that luxury. They don't have Gojo-sensei's Godly power, and they don't have the kind of bond you have with him so they don't have the kind of faith you have in him. I'm strong, at least I think I am, but I've also been weak too. So I am in the fortunate position to understand both the weak and the strong, unlike Gojo-sensei, who doesn't know what it means to be weak. That is why, I understand perfectly the reasons why the council and the major clans acted the way they did. However….." Yuji trailed off with a grave undertone.

"I don't approve with you involving my friends and innocent people in your assassination schemes! I don't approve of you using my friends as collateral! No amount of fear or weakness can justify the evil deeds that you committed on that day! Assassinating me, the vessel of Sukuna, is one thing, but treating the lives of the innocent and the lives of my friends as pawns to be sacrificed is another entirely! Principal Gakukanji, this is not a threat, I want you to understand that. It's a promise! If you intentionally put the lives of the innocent or the lives of my friends in danger again…. I will murder you, the entire council, and all the heads of the major clans!" Yuji said from the deepest depths of his heart and soul, frightening everyone with the magnitude of his raw and primal murderous intent, even Principal Gakuganji shaking in his boots, though he did incredibly well not to show it.

"……."

'Did he just declare war with the entire council and the three major clans? Hehe! And he calls me brash and over confident!' Gojo thought elatedly.

'I haven't seen him train, spar, or fight in the last two months, he stopped training with me and decided to focus on Junpei's development, but I have no doubt that he has been training himself to the ground in those two months. I wonder how much stronger he has gotten. Based on how quickly his strength and skills developed over the first two months, I would say probably a heck of a lot. I won't be able to hold back at all the next time we spar probably, not if I want to survive, and definitely not if I want to win. The very thought itself gives me goosebumps just thinking about it!' Gojo thought excitedly.

"Well, anyway, now that Yuji has made his intentions clear, can we go back to the inter school event? When is everyone gonna fight? Huh?" Gojo said with childish exuberance, successfully lightening the mood and simultaneously getting things back on track.

"Ahem! The exchange event will take place this afternoon at mid day, meaning that you have just over an hour and half to prepare. Good luck!" Principal Yaga instructed.

30 minutes Later:

"Come on guys, are you seriously not talking to me? I told you it wasn't my choice. Gojo-sensei and Nanami-sensei insisted that I not tell anyone." Yuji said apologetically.

"Yeah, what's up with that, Toge, Maki? It's not like we ever met this guy before today, why are you two cross with him?" Panda asked incredulously.

"Bonito Flakes." Toge said, shaking his head in the negative, denying that he had any ill will towards Yuji and Junpei.

"What? What am I supposed to say to them? We literally don't know anything about them. I neither hate em or like em, they're just people that I just met." Maki said with a bored tone.

"Okay, listen, since nobody's talking, I'm going to talk then. I don't know anything about the Kyoto students, but I noticed one of them has a broom. Since jujutsu sorcery is as close to witchcraft as anything I've ever seen I think it's safe to say that that's a flying broom stick, which means that she's probably their scout. I think we should let Junpei go after her and take her out before she either identifies the location of the Grade 2 Curse Spirit or identifies our location. Junpei is the best man for the job seeing as he can fly too with his Moon Dregs." Yuji suggested.

"Yeah but you can fly too, so why not you?" Panda asked, confused.

"I can fly too, but I'm also the muscle. Like I said, I don't know anything about the Kyoto students, but that Todo guy seems like he is their muscle. He seems dangerous somehow. There's just something about him, which is why I think I should handle him if we end up running into the Kyoto team anyway." Itadori replied.

'The muscle? Well, sure he is, definitely, but he's also an excellent scout with his x-ray vision, telescopic vision, microscopic vision, and curse energy vision plus detection. Why didn't he disclose that? Is it because he doesn't trust the second years yet? He doesn't seem to have met them before today so I guess that makes sense.' Junpei thought.

"You're right. There was an incident last year known as the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, where thousands of curse spirits were unleashed in Kyoto and Shinjuku. In that incident, Todo defeated a Special Grade cursed spirit and five other grade 1 spirits on his own. So yes, Todo is extremely dangerous. In fact, before you turned up, our main concern was that he alone could wipe us all out. So we had a strategy where Megumi would play the sacrificial role and hold off Todo while we focus on exorcising the grade 2 cursed spirit. But if you really are a special grade jujutsu sorcerer, then you can not only hold Todo off, but you can actually defeat him right? At least, in theory." Maki asked curiously.

"My brother defeated two special grade curses on his own, one of which was one of the two that got away from Gojo himself. Todo would lose in literally 0.000001 seconds if my brother went all out, but even if he doesn't go all out, he should win comfortably." Junpei replied confidently.

"I see. Heh, hehehe! Then this should be a piece of cake!" Maki said confidently.

"Salmon Roe!" Toge said with a confident thumbs up.

"Sorry Megumi, I know you really wanted to fight Todo but this seems like the more logical choice. Plus, having one scout on the ground and one in the air is better than just having two up in the air you have to admit." Maki said apologetically.

"No, it's fine. I don't mind. So long as we win this event." Megumi said calmly.

"Damn you're so low key it's quite frankly disturbing." Maki said with a weirded out facial expression, Megumi however just barely registering her words as he didn't seem to care all that much.

1 hour and 10 minutes later:

"Heh! So everyone decided that the most effective measure to win the event is to have you distract me while they go on ahead and finish the event? Not a bad strategy! Although I assure you it's not going to go quite as planned. I bet they're banking on your so called Special Grade ranking to get you over the finish line, but those rankings don't mean horse shit to me! Especially when I'm up against someone who hasn't even earned it and only got it because of some ancient curse from a thousand years ago living inside of him!" Todo said confidently.

Aoi Todo is a tall young man that stands about the same height Gojo, meaning that he is around around 1.90 meters tall. He has a very defined, heavy muscular build and relatively tan skin. He has small black eyes and shoulder-length black hair that is almost always tied into a top-knot bun. One of his most notable features is the large scar running down the left side of his face and the fact that he is not wearing any clothing whatsoever on his upper body. He is also wearing black martial arts pants and slippers and his choice of pants is very loose and stops above the ankle with a bright blue sash wrapped around the waist.

"I'm pretty sure Gojo-sensei made it clear that my ranking has nothing to do with Sukuna." Yuji deadpanned.

"The hell it doesn't! You couldn't even see spirits before you became Sukuna's vessel! Your ranking has everything to do with him! I won't acknowledge you until you have proven to me your skill and mettle in battle!" Todo argued.

"Yeah, well, problem is I don't actually care about your acknowledgement. I don't know you and we're not even friends." Itadori retorted with a bored tone and posture, his hands in his pockets like he wasn't about to get in a battle against one of the strongest Jujutsu Sorcerers in the world.

"Fair point! Okay, so listen up! My name is Aoi Todo, 3rd year student and 1st grade Jujutsu Sorcerer from the Kyoto Jujutsu High School. My goal is to become the strongest Jujutsu Sorcerer that ever lived. See, now you know me and everything about me, even my personal goals. We're friends now, so answer me this question, what kind of woman do you like?" Todo asked with a dead serious tone.

"Wait, what? How the hell did we get there? I thought we were about to fight." Yuji asked incredulously.

"Never mind that. I'm trying to evaluate your potential both as a Sorcerer and as a friend. Just answer the question." Todo said as he took on a fighting stance, something that Yuji didn't fail to take note of as he wondered whether the question was a trick to get him to let his guard down, nevertheless deciding to entertain Todo as much as possible.

'After all, my job is to delay him as much as possible. If I can do that without fighting, who am I to complain.' Yuji thought with a shrug of the shoulders.

"What kind of woman do I like huh? Well, a tall woman with a big ass is definitely my favorite, like Jennifer Lawrence." Yuji said casually, raising an eyebrow when he saw the shock and excitement on Todo's facial features, followed by vacant look as if he was on some far off land or something, which in turn was followed by him spouting some nonsense about how the two of them had been best friends since they were kids.

'Alright, I guess he has the same taste in women as I do. I can see how that can potentially make us become good friends in the future, but he seems to think that fact alone created some alternate reality where we have been best friends forever. Is he certifiably insane?' Yuji thought incredulously.

"Alright! My new best friend! I hope you don't think our friendship will make me hold back on you, because on the contrary, who wants to lose to someone they are going to have to see and talk to all the time? You understand right? I'm going to have to go extra hard because you're my best friend. So please, my new best friend! Don't die on me!" Todo said with an unhealthy amount of delusion, at least as far as Yuji was concerned.

"Too bad, because I only need a fraction of my power to deal with yo…." Yuji trailed off as Todo closed the distance on him at a much faster speed than Yuji expected, although that wasn't a problem for someone with his superhuman abilities and martial arts skills as he deflected Todo's straight hand to the side using his left shoulder, causing Todo to over reach and stumble slightly, leaving his face and body wide open for a counter attack.

Without missing a beat, Yuji launched a counter right hand that landed flush on Todo's face, causing Todo to fly rapidly as he crashed through a tree and fell on his back, his body digging a trench on the ground before he flipped himself over and regained his footing, skidding to a halt some distance away.

'He completely defused the power and momentum of my punch by deflecting it upwards with his shoulder? That is a boxing technique known as the shoulder roll technique. It's a technique that prioritizes timing and precision over power output, yet he sent me flying and not only that, but he broke my nose too. What kind of power do you have to pack to do that to me with a precision strike as opposed to a power strike? If I take just a few more of those I could get seriously hurt or even flat out die. I might have to use my curse technique to win this one.' Todo thought analytically, and warily.

"You're still alive? Wait, never mind alive, but you're still awake as well? Damn that's one tough facial structure!" Yuji said, impressed by Todo's durability.

"Hahaha! It's gonna take a whole lot more than that to defeat me, my new best friend! All you managed was to break my nose that's all. Not like I need a nose to beat the crap out of you though." Todo retorted as he wiped the blood off of his nose.

'That exchange alone was enough for me to be able to tell. He is definitely stronger and faster than me, and he has incredible boxing ability, far superior to mine. Timing usually beats speed, but what do you do when a guy has both timing and speed on you? Well, you change the game entirely. Being good at boxing doesn't mean that he's an overall brilliant martial artist. How is his karate, his judo, his muo thai, his kick boxing, his wrestling? And how does he deal with all of that when I introduce the boogie woogie into the game? This battle is far from over!' Todo thought excitedly, his excitement however quickly replaced by anger and confusion when Yuji suddenly dodged a bullet that was aimed for his head, followed by a number of rounds that could only have been shot by one sorcerer, Todo's school mate Mai Zenin.

Mai looks identical to her twin sister, Maki Zenin, but with her hair cut shorter. She has mid-length green hair that reaches just to her neck, dark brown eyes, and thin eyebrows. Mai's school uniform consists of the traditional school uniform, except wearing a customized, baggy version of the school uniform seemingly in order to hide her revolvers and bullets, which are seemingly her weapons of choice.

Yuji however easily dodged all the shots fired at him as he did a number of acrobatic flips, Mai quick to adjust though as, instead of focusing on trying to hit Yuji, she switched to trying to steer him towards her sword wielding school mate, Kasumi Miwa, who tried to use her new shadow style domain to slash Yuji with a hyper accelerated sword but only to miss completely as Yuji acrobatically jumped and flipped over her attack and in fact flipped over her body entirely.

'W-what? He actually dodged that attack…in that situation? H-how? Granted I hesitated slightly but there is no way he should have been able to dodge that attack!' Miwa thought incredulously.

Kasumi is a beautiful, innocent looking young woman who has long, light blue hair that extends past her shoulders and frames her forehead. She also has dark, triangular eyebrows and asymmetric bangs. Kasumi is wearing a black, long-sleeved jacket over a light-colored button-down shirt and a black tie, pants, socks, shoes, and a belt that she uses to hold her sword.

'Wow looks like Principal Gakuganji didn't waste time trying to assassinate me again. I didn't expect him to use the students for something like this though. What a bold guy.' Yuji thought as he saw a robot looking guy and another long range weapons specialist, this time a bow user, arrive and take strategic positions that were meant to block all of his exit points.

'Junpei should have taken care of their scout, so how did they even find me so quickly? Their scout is not here for this assassination attempt, which means that Junpei actually did do his job. So they have another means of tracking besides her?' Yuji thought analytically, however, just as he was about to make his next move, he found himself standing on the tree that the bow user was standing on, looking down at the bow user, who was now standing where Yuji himself was previously standing.

'What the hell just happened? Whose technique was that? How did I get teleported over here?' Yuji thought incredulously, and also warily, wondering who the hell had such an advanced technique, the same exact thoughts going through the bow wielder's mind, Yuji taking note of this as he realized that everyone else was just as confused as he was, with the exception of only Todo.

"Kamo! What the hell do you think you are doing? Did I not tell you not to interfere with me!" Todo exclaimed angrily.

"No you didn't it. You only said that we shouldn't order you around!" Kamo retorted.

Noritoshi Kamo is a tall young man who stands above all his Kyoto High peers save for Todo. He has gray-colored eyes that are normally kept completely shut and black hair. His hair is kept in an orthodox style with wo strands of hair wrapped in front of his face while the rest of his hair flows behind his head down to his neck. He is is spotting a dark blue shozoku version of the Jujutsu High uniform with zori sandals with white socks. For weapons, he has a quiver on his back and carries a bow go shoot arrows as part of his fighting style.

"Same thing! Stop interfering in my battle….or I won't be held accountable for what happens next...! Todo trailed off with a menacing undertone.

"Stop trying to act tough you asshole! Your nose is clearly broken and you're bleeding. On the flip side, Sukuna's container has no injuries to speak of! You're obviously losing the battle! You won't defeat him on your own, not even you can do tha….!" Mai trailed off as Itadori appeared behind her with impossible speed, so much so that nobody saw him move at all, as if he was in one place a moment ago and behind Mai the next moment, Yuji holding a tri pronged kunai with a seal on it around her neck.

"Listen up, Kyoto High School students! Yield and concede victory of the spirit bash race to Tokyo High or your friend's head will roll…what the….!" Yuji trailed off as Todo clapped his hands, Yuji finding himself all of a sudden standing where Todo was, with Todo now being the one who was standing behind Mai.

"Oooh! How you have shamed me, my new best friend! Hiding behind a woman like a coward is not something my best fiend since childhood would ever do! Please, my best friend! Change your ways, or I can't be friends with you anymore!" Todo said with what appeared to be genuine shame and anguish.

'So that was Todo's technique after all! What a convenient ability, to be able to swap any two people's positions.' Noritoshi Kamo thought, realizing just how truly dangerous Todo was if he could do something like that on top of his martial arts, brute strength, and speed.

"As opposed to what, ganging up on me in a 5 vs 1 fight? How shamelessly hypocritical of you." Yuji said as he adopted the same posture he had before, everyone looking at him strangely as they wondered what the hell he was doing, until it became clear immediately after those thoughts registered as Mai was instantly teleported in front of Yuji, in the exact same position she was before with Yuji holding on tightly around her waist with his left hand and his right hand hovering a tri pronged kunai mere millimeters away from slicing her throat.

"As far as your swap technique goes, two can play that game. Also, if I even suspect that you're about to clap your hands, her head will definitely roll this time!" Yuji said with a grave undertone.

'Impossible! He has the same curse technique as me? No! That's not it! He didn't swap her with anything, he just teleported her. She was here the one instant, and there the next! Can he literally teleport other people to any location, or is it specifically towards where he is?' Todo thought with a mixture of emotions, surprise and confusion at the forefront of it all, thoughts shared by all parties present as the situation was so insane and not to mention diabolical that everyone was frozen in place, unable to move or even think about what could possibly be the appropriate move to make in order to rescue Mai.

'Good thing I put a marking on Mai earlier. I can teleport other people with my jumper technique, but only when I am physically touching them or my curse energy is touching them. To circumvent this short coming, I created seals that contain my curse energy and use them to mark places and people so that I can teleport them even from a distance. Initially I designed this variation in order to protect my comrades better, I had Junpei's safety in mind when I designed it, but it does also have offensive applications.' Yuji thought with a proud smirk.

"Kidnapping the girl doesn't guarantee you victory Itadori. At best it guarantees a stalemate, at worst, you kill her, which isn't allowed in the competition, and you get disqualified and executed afterwards. You may think you have established an advantage for yourself, but you haven't done anything." Mechamaru said analytically.

"Correction, killing is not prohibited, it is just frowned upon. Secondly, seeing as your goal is to assassinate me, this can be considered as killing in self defense. Finally, you're wrong, my intention is not merely to hold her hostage, my intention is to negotiate her life with you. The terms are simple, all of you go down on your knees, bow your heads, and declare that you forfeit the spirit bash race on behalf of Kyoto High, will have no direct or indirect involvement from here on out and will abandon your assassination mission until the end of the competition. Do that, and I'll release the girl. Needless to say, if you refuse, I'll slaughter her and then kidnap the next person, and so forth." Yuji said gravely, stunning everyone into silence at the insane and diabolical game that he was playing with their lives.

"……"

"Alright, her head rolls in 3….2…." Yuji trailed off as everyone hastily prostrated themselves and made the declaration just as Yuji instructed, all except one, Aoi Todo, who was glaring daggers, scythes, and maces at Itadori, a look of unbridled anger and hate on his facial features.

"Todo! What the hell are you doing? Do you want Mai to die? Go down on your knees and forfeit, now!" Noritoshi exclaimed angrily.

"I thought I told you to stop ordering me around!" Todo exclaimed angrily.

"It's not an order, it's common sense! We can't let a dear comrade die over a meaningless competition!" Mechamaru exclaimed, still prostrated as he spoke, along with the others.

"Foolish! And weak! Curse spirits play these games all the time! Do you think it makes sense to surrender to a curse spirit and let it kill both you and your captured comrade, or does it make better sense to take the route that gives at least one of you a chance to survive and exorcise the damn thing?" Todo retorted.

"This has nothing to do with curse spirits. Surrendering here doesn't lead to death, it leads to the safety of everyone. Stop trying to sugar coat it, the real reason you won't surrender is because you would rather Mai die than swallow your pride!" Noritoshi argued.

"Foolishness! If I surrender here and now, that means I'll surrender when the going gets tough against a curse user or a curse spirit. The fact that Yuji would use her life as a bargaining chip means that he is automatically disqualified as a jujutsu sorcerer. No self respecting jujutsu sorcerer would resort to these tactics. Yuji Itadori, you are a vile curse user, I no longer recognize you as a Jujutsu Sorcerer or even as a human being, and also importantly, and most heart breaking, I no longer recognize you as my new best friend!" Todo declared with an accusing finger pointed at Yuji.

"Hehehe! So, what will you do, will you sacrifice your comrade? That doesn't sound like something a worthy Jujutsu Sorcerer or someone with a human heart would do you know." Yuji retorted.

"Of course it doesn't! That's why I also will be unworthy when all is set and done. I'll drop out from Jujutsu High after this battle, and I'll mourn Mai's death, but….I won't ever rest again until she has been avenged! Even if I lose an arm or a leg, a nose or an eye, whatever it takes, I'll definitely take you down no matter what! You have my word!" Todo declared passionately.

"……"

"Hehe! Hehehe! Well well well what a surprise! Congratulations, you passed my test, my new best friend!" Yuji said as he teleported Mai back to Todo's side, everyone face faulting at what they just heard, even Todo.

"W-what?" Todo stuttered, outwardly expressing what everyone was thinking.

"I needed to know what kind of man you are, in fact, I was testing all of you. I see now that despite your assassination attempt on my life, none of you are inherently evil. Honestly, I'm relieved. Most importantly, my new best friend, I also appreciate the fact that you know and understand that there are times when hard choices have to made, and that you are willing to hold yourself accountable for making that choice instead of brushing it off as a necessary evil. You truly are a great man, my new best friend!" Yuji said with a proud smirk.

"Y-you bastard! How dare you use me like that! Just for some stupid test!" Mai exclaimed angrily, pointing her revolver at Yuji, even though deep down she knew that it was quite literally useless, after all, Yuji had already proven that he could dodge her shots with his speed alone even when he was caught off guard, and now that she knew he could instantly teleport, firing at him felt even more useless than it was before.

"As I said, I wasn't only testing Todo, I was testing all of you. Your friends were willing to forsake their mission and even lay down their weapons and surrender for your sake. I don't believe it was the right move, but I understand and even respect it. No evil person would have made such a decision." Yuji replied.

"That doesn't justify using me as a pawn in your schemes, you stupid peace of shit!" Mai exclaimed on the verge of tears, how dare this bastard use and manipulate her like that!

"I understand why you would feel that way, but Mai, you're not listening to me. I said I was testing ALL of you, that means including you." Yuji replied, only knowing her name because not only had Nobara and Maki talked about her, but also because, well, it was easy to tell that she was the twin and not the other sword wielding girl in the team.

"M-me?" Mai asked, eyes wide in surprise.

"A test of courage and honor, which you passed with flying colors." Yuji retorted, surprised a little when Mai's face contorted into an angry expression.

"Courage! Me? Are you mocking me? What did that bitch Maki tell you about me?" Mai exclaimed angrily.

"Nothing much, I only overheard her and Nobara talking about you. All I got was that you and Maki hate each other for some reason. That's all." Yuji replied.

"You expect me to believe that? You just happened to decide to test how brave I am without knowing about my past? Without knowing how much of a….how much of a coward I really am…?" Mai said, anger, shame, and despair taking hold of her.

"A coward? What do you mean?" Yuji asked, a confused frown on his facial features, realization slowly dawning on him as Mai told him her story, about how she was always terrified of curses and didn't want to be a Jujutsu Sorcerer but was forced to be one because her sister chose to defy the family. She also told him about her curse energy, how it was nothing special but was weak and pathetic and that even though she had an innate technique, it was a useless one because she could only construct one bullet a day and even that left her weak and vulnerable after it's use.

'I'm surprised she revealed that much, but maybe it's because she is feeling especially vulnerable right now. Still, her innate technique sounds very similar to my asura path's unlimited blade works, at least as far as constructing items out of nothing. Our levels are completely different, the gap between us in terms of construction is greater than even the gap between heaven and earth. But, maybe there is a way I can help her.' Yuji thought analytically, and also sympathetically.

"Mai, I'm sorry for all the pain and suffering you have gone through, but I do not feel pity for you, in fact, I feel proud and inspired by you." Yuji said with a heartwarming smile, Mai and everyone else looking at him like he had grown a whole new head on his shoulder.

"W-what the hell are you talking about? Idiot!" Mai exclaimed bashfully, a deep red blush spreading across her facial features.

"Hehe, you really need to pick up a dictionary or an encyclopedia every once in a while." Yuji retorted.

"Are you calling me stupid? An idiot like you?" Mai exclaimed angrily, although it didn't have even a quarter of the intensity that it did before.

"Haha, of course not. Listen Mai, courage cannot exist without fear. You cannot be brave if you are unable to feel fear or if you are too strong to be scared of anything. Courage, by definition, is the ability to overcome fear and do what needs to be done. If you are exponentially more afraid and more terrified than all of us Jujutsu Sorcerers, and yet take on and complete the same missions that we do, then it goes without saying that you are by far the most courageous and bravest of us all. Mai, you overcome a crippling fear that would render others unable to move on a daily basis, you are the bravest of us all, and I have proof of not only your courage but also your kindness." Yuji said much to the surprise, again, of everyone.

"W-what proof? What are you t-talking about, teme!" Mai stuttered incoherently.

"When I held you hostage and threatened to kill you, you were so terrified that I could feel your bones rattling. You were shaking like a leaf, afraid for your life. And yet, not once did you beg for your life. In fact, you did the opposite. You were discreet about it, but I was paying attention. I saw you signal for Kamo to shoot his arrows right through you and aim for my heart, and I saw you signal for your friends not to surrender when I offered to spare your life in exchange for their surrender. Despite being terrified and scared for your life, you never once acted selfishly throughout the whole ordeal. How can anyone not admire and respect you for both your courage and your kindness. Mai, as of right now, you're one of the most amazing sorcerers I have ever met." Yuji declared with sincerity, Mai openly crying by the end of his monologue, unable to contain her tears anymore and in fact not caring anymore if anybody saw her crying, after all, she had just received the greatest acknowledgment she had ever received in her life, the only acknowledgement in fact. She couldn't remember a time that she had ever felt so much joy.

"And Mai, with regards to your fighting style and your abilities, let's talk again before you return to Kyoto. I have some information and ideas that I think you might find interesting. If my ideas work, you'll become a grade 1 in no time at all." Yuji said with a thumbs up.

"Y-you asshole! First y-you praise me and now you offer to help me get stronger? What's the big idea? Are you going to perform some creepy experiment on me?" Mai asked suspiciously.

"Hahaha! That's a very good question. I love it. Always ask those kinds of questions. Never let anyone use and manipulate you. That said, no, nothing like that. No dangerous, creepy experiments, I promise okay. Let's talk about it over dinner. I know a fancy restaurant I have been scoping nearby. I made a lot of money recently when I defeated two Special Grades, not as much as if I exorcised them but apparently you still get paid a lot for making them retreat." Yuji said with a warm smile.

"Ahem! I don't know if using this situation to score a date is a low and dirty move or a stroke of genius, but I hope you haven't forgotten, my new best friend! Everyone forfeited, except for Me and Mai. I doubt she still has the resolve to kill you after those wonderful and heart warming words you spoke to her, but I'm still in the game! I didn't forfeit, which means I still get to kick your ass!" Todo said excitedly.

"Hehe! Don't be silly! That whole thing was just a test. I don't mind throwing these hands with all of you! Come at me!" Yuji said with a confident smirk, taking on a fighting stance as his excitement began to rise in anticipation of a good fight.

"Hell no! Listen up, all of you assholes! Itadori is mine, and mine alone! Get the hell out of here before I kill you all…!" Todo trailed off as a large explosion occurred some distance away, all the way to the other side of the forest actually, and almost immediately after, a veil began to form around the whole forest, causing Todo's eyes to narrow as he realized that something out of the ordinary was happening.

"Something's wrong…." Noritoshi trailed off gravely, echoing the same thoughts that were going through everyone's mind.

"Yeah, we're definitely under attack. Hold on, let me scope out the enemy and hopefully find out what's going on." Yuji said as he adopted a ram hand seal.

"How do you plan to do that from here?" Kasumi asked curiously.

"One of my innate rinnegan abilities, mind's kagura of the eye. Basically, it's total vision, namely, x-ray vision, telescopic vision, microscopic vision, 360 degree vision, and curse energy vision." Yuji explained, shocking everyone with that revelation.

'His eyes can do all that? Those alone are incredible innate abilities! To think that he can instantaneously teleport too on top of that. What else can he do? No wonder Principal Gakuganji insisted that we assassinate him before he fully realizes the powers of those eyes. I can't even imagine what would happen if Sukuna managed to get control of Yuji's body and harness that power on top of the already ridiculous power that he has.' Kamo thought warily.

'That curse energy! And that appearance! That's definitely the curse spirit that saved Mahito. Junpei is heading there, so everyone should be fine for now. The other two presences within the veil are however unoccupied right now. We'll have to split up and deal with them accordingly.' Yuji thought analytically.

"Okay listen up, we're under attack by two grade 1 curse users and one special grade curse. In fact, this special grade is the one that got away from both Gojo and I in the past, and right now it's attacking the Tokyo Students." Yuji said much to everyone's surprise.

'So he can not only detect curse energy over a wide range but he can also evaluate and rank it according to class rankings? And that is on top of the insane abilities that he has already shown? That's my new best friend for you. Simply amazing!' Todo thought excitedly, everyone thinking along the same lines except without the excitement part.

"S-so what do we do now?" Miwa asked warily.

"We eliminate them. Todo and I will go after the Special Grade Curse. Sword girl and Mai will go after one of the grade 1 curse users, and finally, Robot dude and Kamo will go after the other grade 1 curse user. When we arrive on the scene, I'll heal the others and send them to your locations to back you up just in case. Todo and I should be more than enough to deal with the special grade." Yuji instructed.

"Y-you want just the two of us to deal with a grade 1 curse user? M-my name is Miwa by the way, Kasumi Miwa." Miwa stuttered, not liking the nickname "sword girl" at all.

"And mine is Mechamaru." Mechamaru added, also apparently not liking the "robot guy" nickname.

"Yes, Miwa. The teams are well balanced. A close to mid range fighter and a long range precision fighter to back you up and fill in all the gaps. Also, like I said, I'll be sending back up soon, so do not worry." Yuji replied confidently, easing a bit of the tension and self doubt in Mai and Kasumi.

"My best friend, you understandably don't know this, but Noritoshi and Mechamaru are semi 1st grade sorcerers, whereas Miwa and Mai are both grade 3 sorcerers. Wouldn't it be more prudent to switch teams between Miwa and Mechamaru so that each team has a semi 1st grade in it?" Todo argued.

"I know what grade they are Todo, after all, I did just use my mind's kagura of the eye. I do however think that Kasumi and Mai are more compatible as partners, and of course, I have something in mind to boost Mai's abilities." Yuji said cryptically.

"M-my abilities? How? Do you have a cursed tool or something?" Mai asked incredulously.

"I could forge one for you, but I'm not talking about a copout like that. I have some advice for you Mai. Commitment!" Yuji exclaimed theatrically.

"Huh? What the hell are you talking about, idiot?" Mai asked incredulously, Yuji, in response, calling Mai to the side so that he can talk to her privately, Mai hesitating slightly before deciding what the hell. The guy had ample opportunity to hurt or even kill her when he captured her, if he wanted to hurt her, he would have done it already, and he wouldn't need to trick her to do it, hard as it was for her to admit.

"Okay, I don't have all day bird brain so spill it. What's so important that you have to drag me to the side to talk about it?" Mai asked with exasperation, even though she really was excited to hear about this so called secret that Yuji wanted to tell her that could boost her fighting abilities.

"I feel like the reason you're only third grade is because you're not committed enough to your fighting style. I noticed it earlier. You're a long range fighter, so why do you channel your curse energy the same way short range and any other regular sorcerer would?" Yuji asked, which actually caused even more confusion for Mai.

"Huh?" Mai asked with even more incredulity in her tone.

"Listen, Mai. Jujutsu Sorcerers subconsciously and consciously divide their curse energy for a number of functions. There is curse energy allocated to boosting speed, strength, durability, and curse technique. But you're a long range fighter, so why do you use the same ratio of curse energy for durability and strength as a close range fighter?" Yuji asked rhetorically.

"You asshole! Are you saying I should leave myself completely defenseless?" Mai asked incredulously.

"Not at all, I'm saying you could have a different way to defend yourself. You should take sixty percent of the curse energy you use for strength enhancement and use it to further boost your speed and reflexes, take 60 percent of the energy you use for durability and re enforcement and use it to boost the speed and force penetration of your bullets, and take a further twenty percent from each of the aforementioned categories and use that to boost your senses, leaving only twenty percent for strength and twenty percent for durability." Yuji explained.

"I don't get it, what would that achieve?" Mai asked, confused.

"The first 60 percent would make you exponentially faster, agile, and flexible, the second 60 percent would obviously exponentially boost the attack power and attack speed of your curse technique. The two twenties would yield a forty percent increase in your senses and therefore boost your ability to perceive an enemy's movements and your reaction time. Since you are a long range fighter, you have no use for physical strength and would be best served by adding that power to your actual preferred method of attack. Durability is useful in order to survive physical attacks, but of what use is that when you have elite senses, reactions, speed, agility, and flexibility? Your defense will lie in your ability to evade attacks and counter with your firearm. Even if an opponent somehow closed the gap on you, you would have enough speed, reactions, and evasiveness to avoid those attacks while re-establishing distance. That is what I mean by commitment to the fighting style. A wise man once said: I fear not the man who has practiced a thousand kicks, but the man who has practiced one kick a thousand times." Yuji explained in detail.

"Practice one technique and be so exceptionally good at it that others with many techniques cannot contend with you? What a very unorthodox but interesting way of looking at Jujutsu Sorcery." Mai thought out loud.

"I understand what I have to do now. I promise you, Miwa and I will deliver the victory without fail! You may send your reinforcements, but the battle will be over by the time they arrive." Mai said with the kind of confidence and conviction that she has never felt before in her life.

"Great! Time to go and kick some ass! Space-Time Migration." Yuji said as he adopted a ram hand seal, forming three different spiraling portals, one behind Miwa, one behind Noritoshi, and one behind Todo.

"Mai, and and Miwa take the portal behind Miwa, Todo and I will take the one behind Todo, and Mechamaru and Kamo will take the one behind Kamo. No time to waste."

'So not only can he instantly teleport himself and others from one place to another, but he can also open multiple portals from one place to another? What an incredible curse technique user! Gojo beating him only 17 times out of twenty instead of twenty out of twenty is starting to sound more and more believable by the second.' Kamo thought

Earlier:

'If I'm not mistaken, that's the curse spirit that saved Mahito from dying at Yuji's hands. Panda, Inumaki, Kugisaki, Maki, and Fushiguro are trying to deal with it. They're doing well to stalemate it while trying to make their way out of the veil, but there is no telling how long this stalemate will hold. More importantly, Inumaki is the one most likely to burn out. His skill is essential for immobilizing the curse spirit and preventing it from attacking, but to completely immobilize a spirit that strong is bound to take a lot out of a person.' Junpei thought as he looked over his shoulder at his passenger, a short, blonde haired girl who was lying unconscious on Moon Dregs, whom Junpei was using once again as a flying carpet.

'I cannot just leave her unattended while she is unconscious, but I also cannot just float around in the skies while everyone else is dying. So what should I do?' Junpei thought, wondering if he should interfere or let the others handle the special grade curse spirit.

'No, I cannot do nothing, but I also shouldn't interfere in their battle. They seem to know each other and their individual strengths pretty well, but they know next to nothing about me and how I fight. Joining the team now could cause an imbalance in their teamwork. I'll just keep following them for now, if they win and exorcise the spirit, then all is good in the world. If it looks like they're about to die, then I'll intercede.' Junpei thought as he continued to follow from the distance, however surprised when Inumaki suddenly reached his limit, the curse speech user failing to immobilize the curse spirit as he started coughing uncontrollably and spitting out blood.

'That was faster than I thought it would happen! The balance has been shattered. Do they have a plan B or should I intercede now?' Junpei thought indecisively, surprised however when Inumak suddenly got up and started walking towards the Special Grade, this time attacking it with the words "blast away" instead of trying to immobilize it with the word "stop", successfully blasting the special grade away but only dealing superficial damage that was quickly healed by the curse spirit.

'It seems to have an automatic, almost instantaneous reverse curse healing technique. That's going to be troublesome.' Junpei thought as he watched Panda, Maki, and Fushiguro try to defeat the curse spirit, switching from a defensive retreat formation to an attack formation as they seemingly realized that escaping the special grade was impossible without Inumaki's ability to immobilize it as it was just too fast and too durable.

For a while, it seemed the trio had the upper hand. Between Maki's skill with the special grade weapon playful cloud, Panda's super strength and durability in his gorilla mode, and Fushiguro's merged divine dog, the three students actually did so well that Junpei wondered if it wouldn't have been better to go on the offensive from the start, when Toge Inumaki was still at full strength.

Nevertheless, this played out similar to a soccer match between a top of the table team and a mid table team. Sometimes the mid table team will do so well at the start of the game that they will completely outclass the top team. However, the only reason for this is adrenaline and the mid table team pushing themselves beyond their limits.

By the second half of the game, the mid table team's performance will begin to drop progressively, after all, you can only push yourself beyond your limits for so long, and adrenaline doesn't last forever. Slowly but surely the top team will begin to re assert control over the game and then eventually, the game will be flipped on its head and the top team will completely overrun the mid table team.

That is exactly how the fight between the three students and the special grade played out in Junpei's view, as the students began to tire whereas the special grade was clearly able to fight at such a high level for an extended period of time, after all, to him, it was probably just his normal level of power and intensity. Eventually Panda was taken out, or so Junpei thought, surprised to see him get up after what should have been a fatal shot.

'Panda should have died, or at least been immobilized. I'm certain that his core was taken out. Could he possibly have more than one core? He doesn't seem to be able to use the Gorilla form anymore though. Clearly, he has been weakened by that previous hi…' Junepi trailed off as Fushiguro was also taken out, leaving only Maki still standing, who too was immediately taken out soon after by a tree root that shot out from the curse spirit and seemed to have been headed for her heart before she somehow evaded at the last moment, causing the root to dig into her left shoulder, that was of course, before she was quickly wrapped up and entangled in a bunch of roots.

'Up until now, the special grade hadn't used his curse technique and had been using only hand to hand combat to fight. However now that he thinks he has secured victory, he has no concerns about revealing his technique. A wood style user huh? I guess Yuji was right, this curse is like a humanoid plant or something.' Junpei thought analytically.

'It doesn't look like Panda can do anything about this situation. I guess I have no choice. I have to intercede!' Junpei thought as he jumped from his jelly fish shikigami and headed towards the ground, removing his sword from his back and swinging it downwards as he shouted out his technique.

"Getsuga Tenshou!" Junpei exclaimed as a black, compressed cursed energy ejected from his sword, the energy shaped like a large crescent moon as it descended and sliced off the roots that were wrapped around Maki, a large explosion occurring that caused water and debris to fly everywhere, causing the special grade to be blind sided, therefore unable to see what was going on on the other side.

Taking advantage of the debris shield, Junpei quickly retrieved Maki's special trade curse tool, playful cloud and threw it back at Maki, slicing up the roots that were immobilizing her so that she can catch the three section staff. Following that, Junpei quickly channeled his curse energy into the curse buds that were growing from inside Fushiguro, causing them to quickly wilt and die after absorbing his poisonous curse energy.

"H-How did you do that?" Megumi asked in disbelief.

"My innate ability is poisonous curse energy. I can give the properties of all sorts of poisons to my curse energy. This time, I turned it into a poison that specifically targets plant life. The Buds, just like the special grade said, were all too eager to absorb my curse energy, which lead to their deaths and immediate decay. I can't heal your injuries though, I'm not that good at reverse curse techniques." Junpei replied in detail.

"Another sacrifice has joined the fray. Will you die and become a sage too, young sorcerer?" The special grade asked when the debris finally went away so that it could see its targets.

'My buds….they're gone. Did this young sorcerer destroy them? But how? The roots should have been deeply embedded into that Zenin child. How is this possible?' The Special Grade thought warily.

"Shit! This thing just won't go away! But it looks like it's a plant type, can you do to it what you did to those plants? Because if you can do that, I'm sure Megumi and I can finish it off." Maki said with determination, Junpei looking at hers, Megumi's, Panda's, and Inumaki's physical condition and concluding that everything she just said was pure nonsense.

'Protecting people from harsh truths is not the same as kindness. In fact, it is the cruelest thing you can do to someone. If I keep quiet and say nothing, and let them fight with me, they'll just get in the way and end up dead. Worst case scenario is that I end up dead because of it. I have to be honest and firm with them. It's the only way to protect both them and myself.' Junpei thought as he steeled his resolve.

"I'm sorry Maki-san but that's not gonna happen. You'll all just get in my way. You're not in any physical condition to help me right now, and I'm not good at reverse curse techniques to heal your respective injuries. I'm an offensive type you see. Besides, even if I could heal your injuries, you'd still probably just get in my way. I was watching your whole battle with this thing from up above. You didn't even manage to make it break a sweat. It didn't even have to use it's innate technique. For now just stay in the sky and observe." Junpei said as he manifested another jelly fish shikigami above his head, the jelly fish flying down until it was low enough for the others to step onto it.

"This is moon dregs. Think of him as a magic carpet. He'll keep you all out of range while I deal with the special grade. Besides, I have history with this special grade. I have a score to settle." Junpei said with a no nonsense tone, Maki about to blow a gasket at Junpei before she saw Megumi shake his head at her, signaling to her that they should wait and observe for now as he wanted to see more of Junpei's abilities. Besides, although he was new, Junpei was actually their superior on the battle field seeing as he was a grade 1 sorcerer. He had the authority to give orders out to them. They weren't actually allowed to disobey his orders.

"A score? To settle with me? Funny, I don't recall ever doing anything to you." The Special Grade said warily.

"You work for the same organization that Mahito works for, and Mahito, one of your generals, murdered my mother and tried to have my brother Yuji kill me by turning me into one of those deformed monstrosities. When Yuji was about to kill him, you appeared and saved him, denying both Yuji and I out vengeance. Do you deny any of this?" Junpei asked with a grave undertone.

"I see. So you are that child, Junpei Yoshino is it. Yes, everything you said is true, and I do not apologize for any of it, not on Mahito's behalf, and not on my behalf." The Special Grade said, Junpei taking a deep breather as he tried to get his breathing under control.

"What is your name, special grade?" Junpei asked venomously.

"Hanami is my name." The Special Grade replied.

"Hanami, I will send your head to Mahito on a platter! Maki, Megumi, Panda, get yourselves and Inumaki on the jelly fish….now!" Junpei said with a tone that promised hell to pay if his directive was ignored, his curse energy spiking up rapidly, it's potency and magnitude enough to get all three aforementioned individuals to get as far away from him as possible, the trio doing as instructed as they got on the jelly fish and flew away into a much safer vantage point.

"Damn it! Are we really going to let that kid fight our battles for us? This feels all wrong! I feel dirty just even thinking about it!" Maki angrily thought out loud.

"We fought the Special Grade Hanami and gave it our best, and we still lost. Even more than that, Junpei was apparently watching the whole thing. If he says we'll get in his way, it's because we're simply not strong enough. Besides, he seems to have some sort of history with these curse spirits. If he has survived previous encounters with them, then we have to assume he knows exactly what he is doing." Panda retorted, causing Maki to grit her teeth in frustration, Megumi simply looking down at the battle field with a vacant look in his eyes, which caused Maki further frustration as she hated the fact that Megumi never seemed to show any emotions in these situations.

'His comrades are getting away, but they seem to have stayed close by so that they can watch the battle. That's good. If I kill this boy, that shikigami they are using to fly will disappear and they will fall down to earth again, where I can then swiftly eliminate them.' Hanami thought with conviction, sending dozens of large roots that covered a ridiculously wide range at Junpei, the roots so large and covering such a wide range that there was no hope of dodging to the side.

"Getsuga Tenshou Barrage!" Junpei exclaimed as he slashed his sword multiple consecutive times at different angles, fifteen times to be exact, all in a matter of split seconds, causing the fifteen Getsuga to get released at roughly the same time, which resulted in his own practically unavoidable technique, the result being that the giant root barrage was sliced into multiple microscopic pieces, effectively vaporizing the entire thing, much to shock of both Hanami and the Tokyo students who were watching the battle.

'I'm still weak. Yuji would have only needed a six punch black flash barrage to destroy those roots. But I'll get stronger!' Junpei thought with determination.

"Is that all you've got, scum?" Junpei asked condescendingly.

'He destroyed my root barrage with a single attack? The only person to succeed in doing something like that is Jogo. This child, I must not underestimating him. If I do, I might actually get exorcised. He must be a grade 1 sorcerer, one of the strongest ones. How has Mahito's play thing become so powerful in such a short time? Is this what they mean when humans talk about karma? This is…' Hanami trailed off as a spiraling portal opened up on his left hand side, which was of course, Junpei's right side, Junpei of course recognizing the technique for what it was as he knew exactly who it belonged to.

'Brother….' Junpei trailed off in thought as Yuji and Todo came out of the portal, peaking both the curiosity and wariness of the special grade cursed spirit.

'Sukuna's vessel…? Is that his technique, or does it belong to that other man? I can't tell. Sukuna's vessel almost killed both Mahito and I two months ago by creating a wormhole with a purple flash. If he can create wormholes, then it's possible and maybe likely that this is his technique. What should I do? Sukuna's vessel is extremely dangerous. This Junpei child was already causing me some level of stress, with Sukuna's vessel here and this other unknown factor, it might be more prudent to retreat. But…..have I bought Mahito enough time to complete the mission?' Hanami thought with concern.

"I see….." Yuji trailed off when he saw the look in Junpei's eyes, kicking himself for not realizing that of course Junpei would want to personally kill Mahito's ally in order to get revenge.

"See what exactly? I can't find the others! Where the hell are they? Don't tell me those weaklings are dead already?" Todo asked incredulously, even though Yuji could tell that Todo was actually concerned for the safety of the others.

"They're fine. Look up there." Yuji said as he pointed up above, Todo looking up to see not one but two jelly fish shikigami floating high up in the air.

'That's the technique that Junpei kid was using to fly when we first met him and Itadori. So he can make more than one huh? It's seems like a convenient technique for evacuating injured comrades. But how good is he in a fight? He certainly has a lot of curse energy, he actually has more than me, and its potency is off the charts. I wonder what kind of women he likes.' Todo thought with intrigue.

"Todo, my new best friend. I'm afraid we might not get a chance to use our no doubt potent tag team moves after all. This curse spirit was involved in a plot that resulted in the murder of my brother Junpei's mother. This battle we just walked into, it's a personal one. My brother's pride is on the line! We cannot get in his way." Yuji said with conviction, hoping that Todo would be understanding of Junpei's feelings.

'Aaah….so that's why his demeanor changed as soon as he saw Junpei? Damn it! What do I do? I really wanted to fight this special grade curse! I guess I'll follow my new best friend's lead. His good taste in women means that he is a man with a discerning spirit and sound judgement. I'll have to trust he knows what he is doing.' Todo thought.

"Fine, whatever! Like I care that much about fighting some low level curse spirit!" Todo exclaimed obnoxiously.

'Me? A low level curse? What an obnoxious personality! But, I can tell by his curse energy. His confidence is real. It isn't some form of delusion. He must have a troublesome curse technique.' Hanami thought with both righteous indignity and concern.

"Okay, great! Thank you, my new best friend! I knew you'd understand! Now, let me go and heal the others so that they can back up the ones fighting the curse users. You stay here and keep an eye on the battle. As for you, Junpei, keep your eye on the prize. Make sure you kick his ass and exorcise him, got it?" Yuji said with a deadly tone, Junpei smiling slightly, actually happy that his brother was here because when they were together, even if they weren't fighting together, Junpei always felt like everything was going to be okay in the end no matter what.

"Don't worry brother. Leave everything to me." Junpei said with conviction.

"Good." Yuji said as he disappeared from his position with a sonic boom, causing Todo to cover his eyes and ears and well, his entire body as a shockwave washed over him, Yuji flying upwards at a ridiculous speed.

'That was fast! I knew he could fly but I had no idea it was that kind of speed. This is bad. I no longer feel certain of my victory, no, actually, in all likelihood victory became a pipe dream as soon Sukuna's vessel and that man appeared. But, maybe I can manage to kill this one. I'll have to close the distance fast so that I can stop him from using that troublesome getsuga.' Hanami thought as he tried to speed blitz Junpei, the two of them meeting in the middle as violent, destuctive shockwaves were released with every single clash between them, Todo being forced to retreat and watch from a safer distance lest he get caught in the battle.

Meanwhile: Up Above

"Yo." Yuji greeted with a casual wave, startling everyone with his sudden appearance, levitating just a short distance above the others.

"Y-Yuji….! What have you and that fr….brother of yours been doing? How are you so strong all of a sudden?" Megumi asked incredulously.

"A lot of training." Yuji deadpanned, causing everyone to face fault at his ridiculous response, as if everyone elss wasn't training whatsoever.

"No time to chat though. Maki, I need you, Nobara, and Mishimiya to go and back up Mai and Miwa. Right now the two of them are going up against a grade 1 curse user. They should win comfortably if Mai took my advice to heart, so don't worry, this is just a precaution." Yuji said confidently.

"What the hell? Mai and Miwa are only grade 3 sorcerers, how the hell are they supposed to defeat a grade 1 curse user? And what use are we gonna be? Nobara and Mishimiya are unconscious, and with my injuries, I'll probably be a liability." Maki retorted.

"It's fine, I'll heal all of you. I'm good at reverse curse techniques." Yuji replied.

"What about Megumi, Inumaki and I? If those three will back up Mai and Miwa, what are we to do?" Panda asked curiously.

"You, Megumi, and Inumaki will back up Kamo and Mechamaru. Now, let me heal of all of you quickly!" Yuji said as he made a cross hand sign, the result being four puffs of white smoke which later revealed four identical clones of Yuji, much, again, to everyone's surprise.

"W-what the hell? How did you do that, asshole?" Maki asked incredulously.

"This is my asura path. It is the power of construction. I can construct not only inanimate objects but also organic material." Yuji replied, referring to his clones and of course his living sword Samehada with regards to the construction of organic material.

"T-that's….that's insane." Maki thought in awe.

"No time wasting. Other me's, heal Maki and the others, I'll heal Fushiguro." Yuji ordered.

"Yes boss!" His clones saluted as they all went about doing their business, Yuji as well as he used what he referred to as the mystic palm technique to heal everyone, his right hand glowing with a green curse energy that seemed to rapidly heal injuries and even restore curse energy reserves.

'This is incredible. Four months ago he couldn't even see curses, and now is master of numerous high level curse techniques. I knew he was exceptionally talented, but this is ridiculous.' Megumi thought incredulously.

"There, all good. Looks like Kugisaki and Mishimiya have also woken up. My clones are busy filling them in on what transpired while they were out cold and of course, on our plan of action." Yuji said pleasantly, deactivating the mystique palm technique after making sure that his friend was fully recovered.

"Thank you, Yuji. Really, you're amazing. I'll send my divine dog to track down the others so that we can back them up asap." Megumi said, truly grateful to have someone as compassionate and talented as Yuji as friend and comrade.

"That won't be necessary. I know exactly where they are. That won't be necessary anymore. Miwa is injured, but she'll live. Mai on the other hand has got her opponent on the run. She's busy chasing him down. As for Kamo and Mechamaru. They're having a much harder time, but they seem to have the upper hand. They're opponent is on the defensive, but he's not backing down. He doesn't seem like the type to be taken down easily." Yuji retorted.

"Wait, what the hell? How do you knoe all of that from all the way here?" Maki asked incredulously.

"I'm watching the battles as we speak." Yuji replied, quickly explaining the extent of his visual prowess as he already knew what Maki's follow up question would be, Maki unable to believe that his, according to her, creepy looking eyes, could do all of those crazy things.

"Send us in! I don't care what advantage you think they have. We have to make sure those assholes don't escape! We need to make an example of them so that in future, people will know better than to attack Jujutsu High. This attack is the symptom of a complete lack of fear and respect by our enemies." Maki said angrily.

"Salmon Roe!" Toge said enthusiastically, voicing his agreement with Maki.

"……"

"Hmmm…..okay fine. Do as you wish." Yuji said as he put up a ram hand seal, causing two spiraling portals to appear, one behind the jelly fish that Toge, Panda, Megumi, and Maki were flying on, and one behind the jelly fish that Mishimiya and Kugisaki were flying on.

"Hey, asshole! How do you expect me to go into that portal all the way over there. Tell your friend to bring the other jelly fish closer. Not everyone can fly like you." Maki said irritably.

"Are you sure about that." Yuji said as he stretched his right hand out at Maki, causing her to lose control over her body as he levitated her and flew her to the other moon dregs, Maki too shocked to throw any insults at him this time as all she could do was be in awe of the fact that she flying across the sky.

"Okay guys, try to make sure you don't kill your opponent. We need at least one of them for interrogation purposes." Yuji said to the remaining three male students.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. There is a good chance that this is part of a larger plot." Megumi replied.

"My man! Glad you understand. Good luck!" Yuji said with a happy go lucky tone and demeanor.

"You too. And Yuji….it goes without saying, if you die again….I'll kill you!" Megumi said with a threatening undertone.

"Don't worry Megumi, I won't leave you guys again. I'm here to stay this time." Yuji said sincerely.

"Good. See you later." Megumi said as he ran and jumped into the portal, Panda and Inumaki following right behind him as Yuji immediately closed the portal afterward, of course, also closing the other portal in which Nobara, Maki, and Momo went.

'Junpei has dispelled his shikigami summoning. Even in the heat of battle against a special grade, he seems to have full awareness of everything happening to his shikigami and the space in and around them. That's very convenient ability.' Yuji thought as he directed his sights back at the battle.

Back on the Surface:

'This is unbelievable! I have at least triple the curse energy that he has, and I'm physically stronger than him, but at this rate, I'm well on my way to getting exorcised!' Hanami thought as he got his body sliced in half by a getsuga tenshou, a new lower body immediately shooting out of the wound as his instant regeneration kicked in.

'If I try to establish distance or retreat, he attacks with a getsuga barrage, if I successfully close the distance, I still can't get an advantage as he just slices me into pieces with his unbelievably fast sword play. If I try to use my roots to attack, his getsuga barrage quickly obliterates the attack. More over, I can't help but feel like I'm getting weaker and slower somehow, even more than I should from the rapid loss of curse energy from regenerating myself. Could it be? Could his getsuga be doing something to my body?' Hanami thought warily.

"I must give you credit, you filthy curse. You have some crazy resilience. My getsuga tenchou you see, is made out of my poisonous curse energy, which is then compressed and amplified by my curse tool. The poison type I've been using on you is the same one that killed your curse energy absorbing buds in mere seconds. I've poisoned you more than twelve times, but somehow you're still standing. That's incredible, unfathomable actually." Junpei said out loud.

'Curse energy poisoning? That's his innate ability? No wonder! I am getting slower and weaker after all! I….I have to cure myself! If I don't, I'll die!" Hanami thought as he tore the cloth that was covering his left arm, revealing that there was in fact another arm hidden beneath the cloth, one that looked vastly different from the right arm, and looked more dangerous too.

'I get it now. He's not using as much curse energy as I thought. If its ability is compression and amplification, then his curse tool is actually creating an effect several times superior to the amount of curse energy put into it. To think that I thought I could outlast him, how silly of me.' Hanami thought as he bent down and touched the earth with his released arm, causing the life to drain out of the environment as he absorbed all the life energy from the grass and trees around.

'This arm converts the life force of plants into curse energy. Typically I do not use the curse energy produced from this arm for myself, but I have to make an exception this one time. I'll use the curse energy to purge the poison from my system.' Hanami thought as the flower at the shoulder part of his arm began to bloom, Junpei, not wanting to see what result that would yield, deciding to attack Hanami while he least expected it, six jelly fish stingers coming from under the earth and quickly stabbing deep into Hanami's limbs and torso, effectively immobilizing him.

"Aaargh!" Hanami cried out in pain.

'These stingers, they look like jelly fish stingers! Did he have another shikigami summoned and hiding under ground the whole time?' Hanami thought with trepidation.

'This child! He isn't just talented with curse energy and sword play, he's actually a strategic genius! I don't have a choice! If I don't use it right now I'll die!' Hanami thought anxiously.

'Time to end this!' Junpei thought as both he and Hanami prepared their next attacks.

"Getsuga Tensh….!"

"Domain Expan….!" Both Junpei and Hanami trailed off in shock as the veil that was covering the entire battlefield became shattered into smithereens, an oppressive and overwhelming curse energy washing over the entire battlefield as Gojo appeared in the sky.

'T-that….that's Gojo! I'm not foolish enough to hang around when he is here! It was arrogant of me to stay this long in the first place with Sukuna's vessel floating over me!' Hanami thought warily.

'Hmmm…..one of the curse users has apparently gotten away, but one has been captured. The special grade has been immobilized by….Junpei Yoshino. What a surprise, I felt sure it would have been Yuji who took care of it. Anyway, I have some steam to blow, so sorry Junpei, I'm going to land the finishing blow. I have a score to settle with that curse spirit!' Gojo thought as he began his technique.

"Curse Technique Amplification: Blue!" Gojo said as a large blue sphere of curse energy formed on his left hand side.

"Curse Technique Reversal: Red!" Gojo continued, a red sphere forming on his right hand side.

"Curse Technique Combination: Purple Hollow!" Gojo said as he combined the red and blue spheres, the result being that they turned into a giant spherical mass of purple energy that he shot at the curse spirit Hanami at break neck speeds, the attack deleting everything its path as it dug a ridiculously long and deep trench into the ground.

'The blue sphere has an attractive force, and the red one has a repulsive force. By combining them, he can create basically the effects of a contained black hole. It's similar to my chibaku tensei, but mine takes far less time to form and can be used in a more versatile number of ways. Still, it's a very potent technique in its own right.' Yuji thought analytically.

'The problem is that we can't even tell if the curse is dead or not!' Junpei thought in frustration, Todo thinking along the same lines except with amusement on his part as opposed to frustration.

"I'm sorry bro. I know you wanted to be the one to exorcise that Special Grade Curse Spirit. But don't worry, you'll get another chance." Yuji said as he put his left hand on Junpei's shoulder.

'I was so distracted I didn't even notice him flying down, or even that he was next to me.' Junpei thought, slightly startled his brother's voice.

"Another chance? So Hanami is alive? He survived that? How do you even know that?" Junpei asked incredulously.

"I saw him. He has the ability to merge with nature, and he covers distance at an insane speed when he does, it's almost like teleporting. He's badly injured though, might even die…or get exorcised I should rather say." Yuji replied.

'Of course! I forgot about his visual prowess. If anybody saw what happened to Hanami, it's him.' Junpei thought, realization dawning on him.

"I see. Thank you brother, for letting me fight Hanami." Junpei said with a warm smile.

"And thank you for being strong enough that I don't have to worry about you getting your ass whooped." Yuji replied with a playful smirk.

"Jerk!" Junpei replied as he punched Yuji on the shoulder, the two brothers laughing together as the tension left Junpei's body.

"Ahem! Not to budge in on your honey moon parade, but I gotta say, those were some quite impressive skills you displayed there, Junpei! I'm impressed, very….very impressed, which is why I have to ask…..what kind of girl do you like…Junpei?" Todo asked with a grave undertone, Yuji resisting the urge to burst into a fit of laughter when he saw the incredulous look that Junpei was directing towards him, shrugging his shoulders as a response, as if he didn't know anything about what was going on.

"I uh….well it depends. Do you mean physical attributes or personality?" Junpei asked curiously.

"Everything, but start with physical attributes. That's the most important one." Todo said gravely.

"Well, I suppose you have a point. It's the physical attributes that initially get your attention because you only get to learn about the personality once you start talking and getting to know each other. The truth is, I love all kinds of women, but if I had to choose my favorite type, it would be a tall woman with a big ass, like Iggy Azalea." Junpei replied, Todo's eyes widening in surprise, a look of utter delight on his facial features before it was replaced by a vacant look, Todo involuntarily creating an alternate reality in his mind in which he, Yuji, and Junpei were childhood friends and Yuji and Junpei helped him get over a broken heart when a girl he liked rejected him.

"Ohohohohoho! Junpei, I like you, my new best friend! You, Itadori, and I are going to make some fun memories together!" Todo said excitedly, extending his gigantic right hand for a hand shake with Junpei.

"So….you don't want to know what kind of personality I like anymore?" Junpei asked as he shook Todo's hand.

"Oh don't you worry about that my best friend, you've already earned my trust and loyalty. Nothing more need be said!" Todo said with a shit eating grin.

"O-okay, cool." Junpei replied awkwardly.

'I guess Yuii was right. Jujutsu Sorcerers are kind people.' Junpei thought, not realizing that this conversation would have been completely different if he had given a different answer, and of course, would have been much more physical.

End Chapter

Okay so uh, Yuji's mom in the manga was revealed to have some gravity related abilities. If I understood properly, it was that she has anti gravity abilities, and that Kenjaku took over her body in order to gain her abilities, but that he uses curse technique reversal to turn the anti gravity into a positive gravitational force….or something like that.

So that got me thinking, why don't I make a story where Yuji has the gravity powers, which of course, just lead me to the rinnegan, lol.

I also like the powers of Archer from Fate/Zero and Archer from Fate/Stay night, so I combined their powers and made them the asura path, which summons mechanical weapons from other dimensions. So basically, combining Pain's Asura Path with Gilgamesh's Gate of Babylon and Shirou Emiya's Unlimited Blade Works.

Junpei's Moon Dregs, in this story, is inspired by Tsunade's Katsuyu. Katsuyu as you all know is incredibly large and the parts we've seen Tsunade summon are only portions of her. It's the same for Moon Dregs here. I also combined the Kubikiribocho and Zangetsu.

Oh yes, you might have noticed that I also combined the rinnegan and Byakugan here.

So basically, this is a Yuji who is a legitimate special grade threat like Yuta, Hikari, and Gojo.

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter.

Cheers.