Time wasn't on his side, the longer he walked the more he was forced to think about his current situation. He wasn't waking up. Morning birds chirped away endlessly. He wasn't waking up. The air that had cooled last night was already starting to heat and rise up, mixing into a gentle breeze. He wasn't waking up.

He, Denji, had already walked for more than an hour and yet he hadn't left the woods surrounding his home. 'Why? Why?' There wasn't a definitive question he was asking, he didn't even know what he wanted to know.

He was simply breaking down; he had been able to put up a composed facade simply because his Core had been using up a massive amount of his negative emotions as fuel. However, his Core had got tired and now his emotions no longer had a heatsink, so his brain was being flooded with panic and fear.

'Why did I kill him? What's wrong with me?' His father was dead, he killed him. 'I-it was me or him. He was going to kill me, the quest said so. No! I did it because this was a dream. My dad killed me, so I killed Denji's dad, i-in a dream.' His mind had been impaired, he couldn't be responsible for his actions. It wasn't really real anyway, and so on.

His mind was a festering pit of disordered excuses hiding beneath a layer of denial.

He wanted to vomit, but he didn't want to waste food.

Even though his body was no longer malnourished, he was still —now— a eight year old child, there was only so much walking he could handle. His legs didn't exactly give out, but they started to scream in pain with every step. He couldn't stop yet, he was still in the thick of the forest.

"Huhg-han-ha." His lungs felt like they were freezing and burning up. The sun was already in the midday position, and Denji was still surrounded by trees. He had occasionally heard a distant car and truck, but he couldn't even find a road.

Warm tears threatened to fall from his eyes. 'I'm lost— No! Stop! I'm almost out!— I want to go home!' As it turns out, his brain was a component of his young body, there was a limit to the amount of stress he could handle. 'Think!' Although it wasn't something he liked to acknowledge: he was fairly good at handling kids, he just didn't like dealing with them.

He needed something to distract himself, and something to motivate his young self. It was almost universal that children had seemingly boundless energy, he just needed to find that reserve.

"Ha-hamburger." Memories of a fast food staple flashed through his mind, from their scent, texture and taste, everything that embodied the essence of a burger was simulated inside his brain.

And from there a craving formed, the phantom experience brought forth shadows of chemical releases but they weren't good enough, he needed the real thing.

"When I make it to town, I'll get a burger. I don't care what gets in my way." A firm declaration that filled his body with determination. 'Really? This is what I'm going with?— Yes. Nothing will stop me.' And with his resolve strengthened, his tired legs took a step forward, the CE lingering in his Coils vanished and —like a geyser— energy shot through his body, revitalizing him.

[Binding Vow - Resolution: Activated!

Effects: Restore vitality once. Objective: Enter a town and get a burger.

Time Limit: 8hrs. Failure: Decrease END by 10%.]

"Ooh, fuuuck yeah." Everything clogging his mind was rapidly being drained away as fuel for his revitalized Core, leaving him feeling as mentally refreshed as his body currently was. Not so much as a toe felt sore, he could probably run a marathon right now.

'Binding Vow Resolution?' He didn't need to, but it felt good to stretch as he sorted out his thoughts. 'More JJK, but it wasn't exactly a concept that had been deeply explored, so I don't know much about it, but this seems straightforward enough.'

Denji stared at his hand, then he focused his CE into it. He didn't have a teacher or a tutorial, and there was only so much he could figure out on his own. He tried reinforcing his hand, it felt like plunging his hand into boiling tar and he was only wearing a thin oven mitt for protection.

'I want to reinforce my body with Curse Energy.' Even though he understood the risks, or at least what he believed the risks to be, he still needed to accomplish this much at least. 'I might hurt myself, my CE isn't standard. If I'm incapacitated and don't finish up this Vow, then I'll lose some END. I'll be making myself easier to kill, is testing this out really worth it?— Yes!'

"Cursed Energy Reinforcement!" The instant those words left his mouth, it felt like the heavens themselves struck him down with divine lightning. His Coils pumped and Circuits pulsed as Cursed Energy flooded through his veins and nerves, then into his muscles, tendons and bones.

The world seemed brighter, louder, and more… alive.

His consciousness lagged behind, before he could even comprehend the neurons forming his desire to run, his body exploded forward. His body ran, it dashed over roots and ducked under branches, with each step he displaced dirt, pebbles and twigs.

He bursted through the edge of the forest and onto a worn down mountain road. His right foot met the pavement for a brief moment before he took another stride forward, his left foot landed on the top of the steel railing meant to safeguard against falling down.

Denji saw the overview of a small city surrounded by another forest and bursting with life, then his foot kicked off the railing and he was sent plummeting down.

The sunlight was bright and warm, the wind was gentle and cool, his body crashed against the ground in a crouch before it shot off into a mad dash once more.

It was hard to pinpoint the exact moment it had happened, but he knew when he realized it. The reinforcement had run out of CE to fuel it, and his body was being propelled by momentum and his survival instincts alone. His bones shook with every step, and the propagating accumulation of force shooting up his body was destabilizing his already precarious balance.

It was like he had been in the passenger seat of a race car, he had simply been in awe of how well the driver handled the extreme speeds, but then the driver vanished and gave him the wheel to a speeding coffin.

There wasn't even enough time for adrenaline to suffuse through his bloodstream.

Death wasn't creeping up behind him, it was waiting for him with open arms. It wasn't nipping at his heels, he was on a direct collision course to it.

Luck was the only reason he was currently alive, even though desperate and frantic moves prevented him from dying, it was by pure luck he was allowed those brief windows of life.

It would simply take one pebble placed at an unlucky angle for everything to come crashing down.

He needed to take luck out of the equation.

The moment his arms were in the motion of raising to protect his head, his balance finally gave out.

He was almost parallel with the ground, his left foot had barely found purchase, and if he took another step he'd just be propelling himself forward.

In a desperate gamble, he kicked off at an angle and ducked with all the force he could muster.

He tucked his legs in as the tip of his hair grazed the ground, and in the next instant his upper back crashed down.

…

Denji's eyes snapped open, the sun right above him was pretty blinding. "Ooooouh." His groan was distinctly clear and dry, so he probably wasn't bleeding internally. His muddled mind struggled to piece together the order of events, he knew he had prepared himself for a roll, but then everything became a blur of pure pain.

'Did adrenaline finally kick in?' Although he felt tired and worn out, he didn't feel any crippling pain.

[Cursed Technique: Cursed Energy Manipulation has leveled up!

(Level: 4): Grants the ability to manipulate your own Cursed Energy.]

[Cursed Technique: Cursed Energy Reinforcement has leveled up!

(Level: 2): Grants the ability to reinforce your body with Cursed Energy.

10 CE for 15% Boost.]

'Math doesn't math.' He was still loopy from his near-death experience, but he was pretty sure what he just experienced hadn't been a simple 10% Boost to his Stats. He wasn't arguing, but he really wished his System-thing explained some more about what was happening.

He was pretty confident that he had been reincarnated, but he didn't know anything else that was happening.

'Fuck! Fuck!' The instant he tried sitting up, his body screamed in pain and resisted.

He then became acutely aware of where the pain was. In his back was a rather dull pain, in his left shoulder was in stiff pain, in his right wrist hand was a shocking pain, and in his right ankle was in a sharp pain. The rest of his body was sore, lightly bruised, and was littered in scraps.

Denji closed his eyes and tried focusing, but after a few minutes he gave up. 'What the fuck does multiplying energy even mean? Let's just forget it for now, even Gojo couldn't grasp RCT easily.' Without a way to regenerate the damage already done, he needed to focus elsewhere while the pain died down.

The sky was pretty clear of clouds, though he did see some birds and bird-like spirits flying about. Even though it was pretty peaceful, he didn't forget that his Core had a limit and that he was in the middle of a Vow. If he started down a negative spiral again, with his injuries, he would probably fail and lose some Stats.

He began cursing himself for being impatient and riding a high he hit from emotional clarity, but he stopped after he began to develop a headache. He could feel that CE started to dissipate from his head. 'Ah, Curses. I guess that could be taken literally. Oh, yeah, I was Cursed wasn't I? What was up with that?'

As he recalled what had happened earlier, he remembered that he had been 'cleared' of a Curse twice. The first one had been with the body from before he reincarnated, and the second had appeared after he killed his father. He hadn't felt anything different, well he hadn't been in the best state but still, he didn't even notice when it had disappeared.

Denji sent a wave of CE washing through his body, the effects of leveling up his skills were apparent because he could clearly feel his body. Aside from taking notice of exactly where his body was injured, he didn't feel much else.

Without much thought, he mentally shut down his Core, then negative emotions surged back up and flooded his mind. It made it a little harder to focus as he moved around the CE in his body, but he eventually managed to clear out his Core, and inside he found something else.

[Cursed Spirit - Resentful Parasite: 'Tsutsugamushi' (Rank: 2): A tick-like parasite that feasts on human blood, born from cursing someone who survived where others have died. It contains a deadly poison that eventually kills the host. It can reproduce by infecting the descendants of the host with larvae.]

'…oh yeah, Denji also inherited his mom's heart condition, I guess in this world it was a Curse.' Rather absently he toyed with the unhatched larvae inside his heart, his Curse Energy poking and prodding it. 'I guess when I was uncursed, this thing returned to being an egg, but I don't know the requirements for it to hatch so I guess I should probably kill it.'

"Do I have to?" Denji asked himself as he stilled his hands.

'Yeah, this thing killed my mom and it'll kill me too if it could.'

"But… but…" He stalled for an excuse that made sense, even he —himself— didn't know why he was doing this, but as memories from JJK became clear, he understood the reason. "We were both given birth by our mom, it's our family."

In a similar fashion to the Death Paintings, but with different details. Where they were born from a Curse Spirit, a woman, and a man that had mixed in his blood into the womb, Denji and the parasite were born from a man, a woman, and the Curse Spirit infecting her. It could technically be said that they were family.

Denji's mother had died, succumbed to her illness —the Cursed Parasite— after giving birth.

Denji's father had died, murdered… by a person who had taken the place of his son.

Denji, was he alive or dead inside the body? He didn't know. Although he had some memories, he couldn't recall everything, but he was still being influenced by the brain pattern of the young boy, so it was unclear if he was alive and had simply been combined or killed and assimilated.

The parasite was just a Cursed Spirit but it had yet to kill anyone, so by what standard was he given permission to kill it? Was it just because it was born to kill, to fulfill its reason for existing? That seemed good enough, but…

'Ugh, I hate philosophy, morals suck.' Ethics were a complex topic, especially for a teenager currently inhabiting a child.

[Quest: Parasite's Fate!

Mandatory Goal: Decide how to deal with the Parasite! - Reward: ???

Optional Goal: Keep the Parasite! - Reward: ???

Optional Goal: Remove the Parasite! - Reward: ???

Optional Goal: Kill the Parasite! - Reward: ???

Time Limit: ??? - Difficulty: F - Failure: ???]

Almost instantaneously he recognized a way he could get three rewards, by deciding to remove and then kill the parasite. However, then he realized another way he could get three rewards, by deciding to remove and then keep the parasite. It hadn't harmed anything yet, and he could probably teach or tame it later.

As his resolve solidified, the unhatched Cursed Spirit in his heart faded away and then a small yellow bead fell on his forehead. He had been momentarily shocked until his CE recognized it as the same thing he had been sensing.

[Quest: Parasite's Fate!

Mandatory Goal: Decide how to deal with the Parasite!

Optional Goal: Keep the Parasite!

Optional Goal: Remove the Parasite!

Accomplished!]

[Rewards]

[Cursed Core has evolved! And gained the Trait: Pure Heart!

Cursed Core - Pure Heart (Rank: 2 - Quality: 3): Transform negative emotions into Cursed Energy.

Max 40 CE / 1s]

[Trait: Poison Resistance (Rank: 1 Quality: 1): Resist 5% of Poison Damage.]

[Cursed Object - Demon Flesh: Blood Horn (Rank: ?): The horn of what was once considered a fearsome demon.

Like the yellow egg had before, a red horn fell on his head, he had flinched and turned his head away from the pointy end. Then he realized that although his body was mostly in a state of dull pain, he could actually move.

Denji sat up, and sure enough, his right wrist was fractured and his right ankle was sprained. His flesh was purple and swollen, but if he focused he could channel all the pain into his Core, effectively ignoring it. He placed the egg and horn into a pocket of his shorts on the opposite side of his father.

He stood up, his CE output spiked up in response to the influx of pain. It didn't matter if he suffered any injuries; as long as he was alive, he could level up and recover his health points. But right now he needed to hurry up and get a burger, he had a Vow to finish.

…

The sounds of the city weren't that loud or intense, aside from the occasional car in the street and rare person on the sidewalk, the entire place was almost abandoned. Even so, he eventually found a fast-food place.

'Family Burger? Oh, okay, makes sense I guess.' Sure, he would've preferred a McDs, he's heard that locations in Japan served amazing food, but he wasn't complaining. It wasn't like it had actually mattered.

Denji walked around the building until he found an alleyway that led to the back, and then he found a large garbage disposal in that alley. He had to use CE Reinforcement to climb up and open the lid, then he went diving.

There was a surprising amount of fries and nuggets thrown away, he probably would've never been hungry if he knew this existed. Nevertheless, he couldn't find a burger there. He had also managed to find a newspaper, it had slipped his mind before, but now he knew it was April, 2009. So, that gave him about ten years before the story officially started. If this was following JJK canon at least.

"Hmm? Yeah sure."

Denji's musing was brought to a halt as someone began speaking after opening a creaky door. He held his breath and listened.

"No way. Ha! Really? Damn." He sounded like a teenager talking over a phone, and he was pretty nonchalant, so it probably wasn't anything important.

Still, Denji didn't want to be discovered, even if he got away he would still have been witnessed around the day his father died. He would prefer that no one could connect him to his crime. So he waited, but as he sat surrounded by greasy fast food waste, his stomach growled. 'Fuck.'

"Oh, hang on for a second." The boy talking on the phone went quiet.

The light sound of shoes taking a step closer reached his ears. Denji hastily reinforced his fist before smashing it against the metal container he was in. A loud metallic bang echoed through the alleyway.

"SKWEE-KEE-SKWEE!" It seems he had awoken or frightened some rats that had been inside the container with him. "SKWEE!" Their shrill squeals were rather ear-piercing, and they only grew more intense as he punched the metal wall again.

A creaky door was slammed shut. Before the echo of that sound could fade, Denji gripped the rim of the trash can and flung himself out.

Then he froze as he saw something standing in the middle of the alleyway.

"I'll… take yyourrr orrrderrr." It was rather human-like, just grotesquely malformed.

Denji stared down the Cursed Spirit that was roughly his size, that was to say child-sized. 'Well, I need to fight eventually.' But he had to be quick about it, if his Core gave out then he would be crippled with pain.

In his previous life, he had probably been in only two actual fights, as in a battle between opponents. Unfortunately, he had a rather short and explosive temper as a child, and although he thought he learned to manage, it turned out he had just been repressing it until it reached a boiling point.

As his hands formed fists, he loosened the valve a bit and felt his Core kick it up a notch. He was probably increasing the chance of exhaustion but it was probably worth the risk.

"Cursed Energy Reinforcement! Venomous Fire!" He hadn't really experimented with what was apparently his CE attribute, but now was a good enough time. As he felt everything become clear, he noticed that it felt rather lacking in comparison to earlier today, which was probably for the best.

The Cursed Spirit bristled in response to the surge of energy. Its form morphed a little more and it stood taller. Its throat seemed to swell and bubble up as flaps on its chest opened up.

There was only a distance of about ten feet between them, probably more than enough for the monster's projectile. Denji dashed forward in turn, he had definitely lost the first move but if he waited then the Cursed Spirit might be able to charge up its attack, the only thing he could do was risk getting closer and interrupting it.

He might be able to deflect or dodge the attack, or at least that was his hope before the throat-bubble popped and spewed out a large amount of liquid. 'Great.' He probably wasn't cut out for predicting the moveset of monsters that weren't based on video games.

Denji crossed his arms over his face and kept dashing forth, a sizzling sound reached his ears mid-stride as something acidic(?) splashed down in his back, but he didn't feel any unbearable pain so he kept running.

Either he was lucky, or the Cursed Spirit had been really dumb, whatever it was, it allowed him to get in a clear tackle. As they both fell over, Denji kicked his legs out before hitting the ground, and after getting into a straddling position, he rained heavy punches down on his opponent's face. He didn't stop even after it became a mushed up mass of meat, he didn't stop until it dissolved away.

As the battle ended, Denji dismissed his CT, bottled away his emotions and cleared his mind. He didn't really notice anything different in regards to his CE attribute, perhaps he had failed to use it properly.

Then he picked up on the scent of deep fried meat, it was coming from his arms and back. 'Had that been oil? I see.' Aside from the long term health effects, the scariest thing inside a fast food place might very well be the deep-fryer, he's definitely heard enough stories of people being burnt beyond repair.

'Ah, score.' After getting up off the ground, he noticed a half eaten burger resting nearby.

While he was munching down, his mind wandered.

'What was it? Uh, oh, oh! It's 2009, so I have at least nine years until canon, if it's there at any rate. It should be more than enough time for me get strong enough for most things, but in order to be truly safe regardless of what's to come, I need to find a way to handle a space-rending slash.'

The constant flow of CE from his Core dipped a bit.

'I need to find another Cursed Spirit fast and level up before my injuries take me down.'

Demji scrambled his way into the roof and overlooked the city again, there was no clear indication of where a hospital or school building was, but he did see a large black dome in the forest sitting between the city and a large mountain. It would probably take more than an hour or two to make it over there, but it would take an indefinite amount of time to find a Cursed Spirit on his own.

AN: Thanks to everyone who favorited and followed, and a big thank you to everyone who left a review.

Feel free to let me know what you'd like to see in the future, I have plenty of ideas already but I could always use some more.