Chapter 1: A new beginning
As consciousness slowly seeped into my mind, I found myself in an unfamiliar setting, surrounded by the elegance of a traditional Japanese mansion. Confusion fogged my thoughts, blurring the lines between reality and dream. But it wasn't long before a disturbing realization pierced through the haze. My cursed energy, normally under my control, was leaking uncontrollably, seeping out of me like an ominous mist. My usual impeccable control over curse energy had been dulled for reasons I couldn't explain.
My focus in trying to control the leaking curse energy was shattered by the realization from the presence of unfamiliar faces within the room, their expressions of sorrow. Among them was a clearly weak and frail woman lying nearby me. With the six eyes, I was able to see her soul flickering, barely able to sustain her life. With a growing sense of unease, I reached out to her, only to realize that my hand was small and feeble. As I looked around, I came across a window, withIn the faint reflection of a nearby window, I beheld the shocking truth, I had somehow been thrust into the body of a child.
My memories shrouded in a fog of uncertainty and confusion, I was still unable to grasp what had happened that led me to this point. But before I could make sense of this bewildering revelation, the ominous presence of high-level cursed energy drew my attention as it slowly approached. Its approach is marked by the subtle placement of talismans in the halls beyond. The walls could not block my six eyes, I could definitely tell this person had set these talismans to limit and contain my power, even though it's seeping away from me right now.
As the door slid open, a figure of a tall lady with pink hair, shrine maiden attire and fox-like ears had come into the room. We both locked eyes for a brief moment but in that moment, I felt like she had eyes on my cursed energy, could she be aware of it? As I thought this, I began to sense hostility from her. I stood vigilant yet powerless with the current condition I am in. I began to think of ways to defend myself, but in a twist of fate, the woman by my side whom I presume to be my mother, came to my defense. Her dying wish is a plea for my safety. And so, I found refuge within the grand Narukami Shrine, my home in this bewildering new world.
During my time in the grand narukami shrine, I had slowly come to my senses and had a vague grasp of what exactly had transpired. My latest memory of what had happened before my new life started, was that I had lost and was seemingly on the verge of death during my clash with Ryoumen Sukuna, in the fight between the strongest sorcerer in history vs the strongest sorcerer of today. In the end, I have lost, my body severed in half and my mind aimlessly wandered as my imminent death approaches. I recalled feeling a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction during our fight as I was finally able to go all out and did not have to die of old age without finding a worthy opponent.
But despite all that, despite claiming to be satisfied, it appears that my subconscious proved otherwise, just like my past fight with Fushiguro Toji, I refused to admit defeat and after that, it was purely speculation as to what happens next. I suspect that I had somehow subconsciously formed a sort of binding vow with myself, which transferred the soul into this new body in this unfamiliar world, reincarnation if you will. Alongside that, it even transferred my cursed energy reserve which was too much to handle for this current child body causing it to disperse uncontrollably in the beginning. Although I've gained better control over it now. I have also maintained the Six eyes which are supposed to be hereditary impossible by others outside of the Gojo clan. This led me to believe that the binding vow had somehow bound the six eyes directly to my soul. The only thing I've realized which was missing is my innate cursed technique. I realized I could no longer use infinity due to this new body and brain not having it engraved within them as every other sorcerer's physiology works. Right now I'm essentially just someone like Yuji who can only use the basic applications of cursed energy. However that doesn't bother me as this much should be enough and I figured I could think of ways to bring back my cursed energy sometime later in the future.
Throughout the passing weeks turned months, I've researched, experimented, and trained my cursed energy control to get back to my old self's level of proficiency. During that time I have come to a conclusion that, based on Yuuji's testimony when fighting against a cursed spirit who could manipulate the soul, the body simply reflects the soul, and based on my own experience, reverse cursed technique basically repairs the body by mirroring the soul. This theory led me to believe that I might be able to regain my old body if I just perform a full body reverse cursed technique to reflect my soul. Unfortunately that proved to be way too difficult and energy consuming. At best it might be possible to be done through ritual but at this moment, I am still unsure of the outcome or possibilities. I still need to do more research regarding this matter.
Amidst the challenges of adjusting to my new life, I found solace in occasional mischief, teasing the shrine maidens to pass the time. After all, what harm was there in indulging in the carefree antics of childhood? Yet amidst the laughter and pranks, a deeper curiosity stirred within me, driving me to explore the archives of Yae Miko, the head shrine maiden who had taken me under her wing. She seems to have all sorts of books under her possession, quite the interesting ones if I had to say, it might be worth reading them as a means to pass free time in a more productive manner as I still need to gather lots of information about this world.
I delved into the archives, finding comfort in the familiar cadence of the Japanese language. It was a language that echoed the one I knew, albeit having pretty advanced kanjis for normal people to read. I was unsure why this world uses the same language I use back in my home world. It poses a thought that perhaps this could be a parallel world which may explain the many similarities but I find that not to be the case as I delve deeper into the information within these books. The first few books I read were about the grand narukami shrine and rituals.
From here I've learned a lot about all sorts of rituals, incantations and chants. This intrigues me as this was not present in my old world, nor in any jujutsu teaching, but if my understanding of jujutsu is correct, these rituals and chants should be applicable and it might come in handy for me in the future to get back my original body, so I made sure to remember these informations. Besides that, I also learned more about the shrine itself. It is a religious organization similar to the ones we had back in jujutsu tech, it vaguely reminded me of my old friend Suguru Geto. He once led a religious organization like this one as well. I shook my head to forget about that painful past and focused on the texts in front of me. The shrine's duty is to guide the people of narukami island's faith, assisting them to pray to the god of this nation. Speaking of gods and nations, it seems like that's a thing in this world, although I have very little knowledge about that at the moment.
Eventually, I was caught by Yae Miko herself, sneaking around her archives reading her books and sacred ritual text. I had expected a scolding or even being banished but to my surprise, she seems rather amused by my actions. I can't really blame her as I'm basically still only around 10 months old, not even a year has gone by since my birth. Yet, this supposed child is sneaking around under her noses and reading difficult contents and potentially secrets she wished no one would know. The little messes I've made on the floor and walls marked with chants and symbols as I practiced these chants and incantation was an apparent enough answer to her that I was able to understand the contents of the book. A smile of amusement plastered onto her face, she gestured to me to follow her. Soon after, she introduced me to another one of the many shrine maidens, her name was Kano Nana. Apparently she was one of the few shrine maidens she trusted the most. From that day, she tasked Kano Nana to oversee and taught me more about shrine maiden duties, rituals, and chants so I could better understand them in real time.
As the years go by and my day to day routine within the shrine continued, I have now grown to be the age of 5. I've basically learned all I needed about rituals, chants and incantations the shrine maidens could ever teach me. Somehow I feel like there's more that Yae Miko has yet to teach me about but for now, I feel like I've had a sufficient amount of understanding. A lot of these techniques are pretty vast but almost every one of them are only used for either purification, containment, subjugation, suppression, exorcizing, and plenty of other things that didn't quite line up with my goal in amplifying cursed energy outputs. That being said, the knowledge didn't exactly go to waste as I found some of the knowledge quite usable if I ever feel the need to make talismans or even cursed tools and objects. Not that I would need it in the first place though. Of course my years weren't spent only on aimless study of these techniques. I've grown to lessen my antics and mischief since I do feel bad for the shrine maidens from time to time, so I helped them out with cleaning or even performing rituals since that's my greatest feat. Of course I do this all half assed since it's always a chore but I still did it willingly most of the time.
Outside of that, I've done some physical training on the side as well so that my body and senses won't dull. Of course I try not to have anyone see me do this as it would cause quite a stir so i always train in the woods below the mountains. However I couldn't go too far as Yae Miko would always show up out of nowhere and dragged me back. It was pretty annoying to say the least. What was interesting though was the fact that the physiology of the people in this world seems a little different. I've noticed my body has significantly grown stronger as I train everyday, far past the normal feats of humans back in my world. At first it might be something only akin to me and perhaps I instinctively reinforced my strength with cursed energy, until I saw some kind of an adventurer who was taking commission to clean up the shrine's rooftops, they effortlessly leapt a story building without much effort. I figured the human physique here simply has more room for improvement the more it is trained and not as limited as the humans from my world. This was an interesting revelation as it reminded me of Yuuji's superhuman body.
Now that i've hit the age of 5, i've been deemed old enough to roam around Narukami island more freely, i've even had errands to run back and forth from time to time to go visit the nearby cities and buy materials necessary for rituals or taking care of the shrine. Today was also that day as I walked towards Kano Nana and waved my hand.
"Ah Satoru, are you setting off today?"
"Yeah big sis, are you sure this is everything we need?" I pulled out a shopping list she handed me yesterday
"It should be enough, please be careful on your way, and don't get into trouble!"
"Geez I won't, stop worrying, see ya later"
With that, I waved my hand and turned my back on her. Kano Nana had taken care of me ever since i was little, she had taught me all it is i needed to know such as everything about this world. How this world is something called Teyvat and that it is occupied by 7 different nations like this one, each with their own wonders. There's plenty of things she taught me that I obviously had yet to see for myself but I have a feeling I'll be seeing that soon enough.
As I scaled down the mountain and entered Chinju forest, I stopped on my track and scanned my surroundings. Over the past few years, there was something I've noticed which had really bothered me. During the passing of every year, I could sense the traces of Cursed energy across this island slowly start to grow stronger. This was something all too familiar to what I experienced back in my world. My birth had shifted the balance of the jujutsu world, and I was afraid that it might have caused the same here. That being said, the curses here had no manifestation as far as I know. But with this rapid development, it won't be long until it will start to manifest a physical form. That being said, I've been sensing a high amount of cursed energy within this area specifically over the years. Now that I've finally had the chance to leave, I might finally have the opportunity to exorcise it.
Surely enough, the moment I got closer, the cursed energy I sensed through my six eyes which was spread around started to move. In an instant, sharp-like objects were launched at me from three o'clock. Knowing what was coming I swiftly stepped to the side evading the attack. I turn to see a dark lump of mass forming into a gruesome blob of deformed humanoid entity. Without a doubt, this is a cursed spirit. The monster had an eerie smile plastered onto it, at the same time, I too felt my cheeks ache as I reflexively formed a smile. It has been 5 years since I've been put out of commission due to my circumstances. I've trained my body for years to gain back my edge, and I will rightfully come back as the strongest!
Next the cursed spirit swung his grotesque limbs at me trying to crush me. I moved away at the last second before it had impacted me, missing me completely and instead shattering the ground as a loud boom was heard. I was surprised at my mobility, even without reinforcing my body with cursed energy, i feel really light. Was this how Yuuji always felt? Occupied by my thoughts, the cursed spirit tried to catch me off guard as it did a follow up attack by swinging his limbs to the side trying to sweep me away. This time however I did not dodge, I clenched my fist and clashed my fist against the cursed spirit. As our attacks collided into each other, another loud bang rang across the forest as the monster's hand was completely blown apart. At the same time I felt a stinging pain as my hand too had been completely destroyed in the process.
"Darn it…" I clicked my tongue
It seems like my control is still lacking, this body is still far too weak for attacks i'm trying to launch back in my prime days. On top of that, I'm having a hard time controlling my cursed energy as my physical body is too fast for my circulation to keep up. I wasn't able to properly reinforce my fist, which probably caused it to take more damage than it should. It also caused the same divergent fist phenomenon that Yuji does as his cursed energy lags behind his inhuman speed. Of course this is my first time doing this in a body I'm not used to controlling, this won't happen the next time.
The cursed spirit screamed in anger as it slowly regenerated back it's limb, at the same time I too had repaired my damaged arm through reverse cursed technique. This is getting troublesome, I don't want to cause too much ruckus in these woods but I don't want to miss the opportunity to train either. Very well then, I suppose I'll end it in 2 shots. As i've decided that, the enemy started rushing at me this time trying to do a tackle. I simply jumped over it before landing a ground slam on the top of the cursed spirits head, this time my control was accurate and my attack did not lag behind. The resulting inhuman strength combined with reinforced cursed energy had caused the ground underneath us to form a large crater. Launching debris all around the forest and effectively stunning the cursed spirit.
"Now then, let's end this"
With the second hit I wanted to try something different this time. Without cursed techniques I lack a significant firepower in my arsenal, and obviously fists alone won't do the job efficiently as it'll be taking too much time against enemies as big as this one. So now I want to try something similar to what Yuta would do. As I pulled back my fist a bit, I opened my palms and focused my cursed energy into one spot. After charging for a brief second, I let go of all the condensed cursed energy into one giant blast of pure cursed energy. The blast had caused a massive explosion launching me backwards crashing onto a tree as everything else within that crater gets blown up and incinerated.
"Ugh.. okay maybe that wasn't a good idea.. But still…"
That was weak.. Way too weak, it's nowhere near the destructive amount of power reversal red produces, on top of that, this costs way too much cursed energy. Unlike using cursed techniques, launching a raw cursed energy blast is just like opening a massive hole in a pressurized can. It's all pure energy pouring out and it doesn't get filtered by my six eyes. Unlike using cursed energy to reinforce or reverse curse technique to heal or using cursed techniques in general, the six eyes would always process the use of cursed energy so efficiently that it costs almost nothing to perform. But in this case it's just using raw cursed energy.. I can't use this reliably multiple times and I can't use it when i'm running low on juice, I'll have to think of ways to work on this. As it is now I'm nothing more than a third grade sorcerer.
Walking out of the messy destroyed forest that my battle had caused, all the while healing the wounds from the battle through reverse cursed technique, I continued to descend downwards to the nearby city continuing my errand before it gets too dark outside and Kano Nana nags at me again. As I walk I glance back at a familiar presence through my six eyes. I knew she'd be here. Yae Miko. Far away from the distance of the Chinju forest, Yae Miko had observed the entire fight with an astonishing expression of pleasant satisfaction.
"Hehe, this boy really is something, it seems he even caught me spying. Very well, I'll leave him to do his own thing, as long as it's nothing dangerous to anyone else. That being said, i wonder how else will you amuse me, Gojo Satoru"