Somewhere, This All Went Wrong (Oregairu x JJK)

[ArtemisAvant]

I don't get it, what's with the glasses?

Click to shrink...

Explanmation lifted form space battles:

Her sister wears glasses, needs to to see cursed spirits, and apparently Mai wears contacts normally but Naoya forced her to wear glasses instead? At first I thought it was a taunt that he had Maki killed and those were her glasses, but Naoya does know of any connection between Hachiman and Maki, he just knows he cares about Mai.

So it's a power play to torment her, but I don't get how it is supposed to do so.

Click to shrink...

Hachiman mentions a bit how he noticed how Mai-

she didn't even have her uniform, instead wearing casual, smart clothing that clung to her form. She must have been suddenly summoned by Zen'in Naoya.

Click to shrink...

-was basically thrown on to the mission without warning. So as we know now Mai needs to wear contacts normally, you know , to be able to see easily, she has to bring something to see while she's relaxing. I imagine she's likely just chilling on a day off, too lazy to put on her contacts- just to rest her eyes- because contacts can get uncomfortable. Then Naoya being Naoya, takes along Mai before she can get ready in anyway. So she doesn't have time to put contacts on, was probably out of the dorms with just her backup glasses, but now she's also going to a missions=danger. Mai isn't stupid so she can't just not bring glasses, but still she hesitates to put them on before really needing them, because of the association with her sister and that messy relationship.

So on the train she's just absentmindfully playing with the case.

Naoya being Naoya sees an opportunity and geos for it. It's a taunt that says, I can make her do Anything. It's not a taunt to Mai, because to Zen'in Naoya, she already know this, she's boring without a reaction. It's a taunt to Hachiman as Hachiman realizes that Naoya is doing this purely to hurt him without even really considering mai's feelings on the matter.

Belittling her, hurting her was never the point. It simply, didn't matter to him. In his eyes, the person known as Mai never existed. It couldn't be called cruelty, it couldn't even be called sadism. It may have began that way, but it long had stopped being anything else but a habit. A familiar ritual he did ever so often, as if to remind himself of the fundamental truths of this world.

Click to shrink...

One that says, both I know Mai more than you ever will, and look how powerful I am!

Maki doesn't factor much into this, because Naoya doesn't really see her as a factor even as she's slicing him up canonically, like Mai is to Hachiman, he just uses Maki to twist the knife deeper in to Mai habitually.

I hope that explains everything! If there's no spoilers involved in the answer, I'll answer any further questions the best I'm able!

 

[doge]

In that moment, hearing the train shuttle us across the land, my hands still and one gripping my wrist with the hairtie squeezed stark against my skin underneath it, the heat of Mai like a physical thing against my side, I realized something, I realized something about myself.

Click to shrink...

This is probably already answered in the text, but I was wondering where the hairtie cane from? Reiko? It seems like it gets mentioned a fair amount.

 

[ArcanaVitae]

-was basically thrown on to the mission without warning. So as we know now Mai needs to wear contacts normally, you know , to be able to see easily, she has to bring something to see while she's relaxing. I imagine she's likely just chilling on a day off, too lazy to put on her contacts- just to rest her eyes- because contacts can get uncomfortable. Then Naoya being Naoya, takes along Mai before she can get ready in anyway. So she doesn't have time to put contacts on, was probably out of the dorms with just her backup glasses, but now she's also going to a missions=danger. Mai isn't stupid so she can't just not bring glasses, but still she hesitates to put them on before really needing them, because of the association with her sister and that messy relationship.

So on the train she's just absentmindfully playing with the case.

Naoya being Naoya sees an opportunity and geos for it. It's a taunt that says, I can make her do Anything. It's not a taunt to Mai, because to Zen'in Naoya, she already know this, she's boring without a reaction. It's a taunt to Hachiman as Hachiman realizes that Naoya is doing this purely to hurt him without even really considering mai's feelings on the matter.

Click to shrink...

So basically he forced Mai to come when she wasn't prepared so she needed to bring her glasses and he's in charge of her so he can do stuff like that.

One that says, both I know Mai more than you ever will, and look how powerful I am!

Maki doesn't factor much into this, because Naoya doesn't really see her as a factor even as she's slicing him up canonically, like Mai is to Hachiman, he just uses Maki to twist the knife deeper in to Mai habitually.

I hope that explains everything! If there's no spoilers involved in the answer, I'll answer any further questions the best I'm able!

Click to shrink...

Mai is a means to an ends for Naoya to play power games against Hachiman.

 

[ArtemisAvant]

This is probably already answered in the text, but I was wondering where the hairtie cane from? Reiko? It seems like it gets mentioned a fair amount.

Click to shrink...

Huh... I just realized. I have an entire part of chapter 2.1 (As said it lingers until the end) that I just totally forgot to post...

That has important character building and everything. Gonna go back and re-edit that in. Re-read it if you want, but I'll still post a chapter today!

I can't believe myself... A full 2000+ words, just sitting there, innocently. The hairtie I keep mentioning was supposed to be in that as well!

 

[Kaichou9779]

My impressions of this series

Wow you manage to make the depressing shounen more depressing using Hachiman pessimism point of view

In twisted way I love it but can you give him a break? He already got many in his plate

At this point even changing pov won't work because all JJK sorcerer is crazy

(I am still in the execution chapter)

 

[ArtemisAvant]

Hoping In Spite, We May All Keep Our Roles (6.4)

…​

Steam surrounded us, sulfuric and dense, thick with evaporated water vapor and thermal vents from deep below boiling ground water and shooting it up to be tapped, cracked, opened to air through the slightest movement of tectonic plates in this upshot of rock.

So to say, a heavy mist rolled through as we ascended up the mountain. Constantly, a droplet echoed in the ancient sylvan forest, pine needles with a thin film of water, everywhere. Light dappled through, sunlight hot and vibrant, long beams of light that hung in the woods. So despite the mist and steam, and the humidity fogging up our eyes, it was quite easy to spot the gently rusting, overgrown, sign that indicated we were well on our way to the village.

Itadori slowed his pace to match mine, as I had elected by myself to lead from the rear, keeping an eye on everyone at all times. He eyed the smooth bone white of a katana sheath on my hip, taken out from its wrapping after we were sufficiently far away from the main roads— I wanted nothing more than this mission to be as done as quickly as possible. He struggled, starting and stopping, scratching at his neck, where a slight hint of a bruise welled up, finally Itadori asked, "Is… she okay?"

That bruise… I'd have to thank Kamo-san later for ensuring that Itadori didn't intervene, and as nice of him to try, doing that would have only served Zen'in Naoya. Giving him any chance for justified retaliation, and Itadori would be dead. I'd have to really thank Kamo-san, because I was also fairly sure that he was under very unsubtle orders from his clan to allow Zen'in Naoya to kill Itadori Yuji, Vessel of Sukuna. But these were minor, dim thoughts, that echoed without acknowledgment in my head as I stared at the straight back of Mai, further ahead of all us.

What she was thinking, what was behind that stagnant placidity… I didn't know. I didn't know anything, even though she had told me everything, I still didn't understand. Thinking I would understand, just because I was told, how fucking arrogant. How disgustingly egotistical of me.

"Itadori," I said, instead of saying any of that, "Don't do that again."

His face scrunched up, and a flash of confusion, turning into expected anger. Slight, but there. Eyebrows, dark and sharp, the set of his jaw solid, and gritted.

Before he got the wrong idea, I explained, carefully, not bothering to whisper. Everyone already knew, just being tacitly complicit in our silence. Good thing I was never that good at following everyone else. "Zen'in Naoya, the guy who you tried to, I don't know, what, punch out? He's looking for any chance to kill you right now. So watch your back. Don't try anything," I grit my own teeth. "As fucking unfortunate as it is," I glanced over, ensuring that I met Itadori's eyes. "He's stronger than you, easily."

Quietly, he asked, "You're telling me to not do anything, even when—"

I cut him off, smiling broadly, so wide it curved my eyes. So wide it hid my teeth. "Yes, so let me handle it, okay?"

"That a promise?"

I didn't respond immediately, exhaling out the brisk air, thinner up here, closer to what I remembered from the scant flashes of panic, instinct, and lightning thought of the Leviathan Exorcism. "If no one has told you yet, Itadori, I will. Sorcerers don't make promises, we don't leave behind regrets, we don't bet on the future." Suddenly, I picked up my pace, looking back on the stunned young man. "The only ones who do that, are the very stupid, or the very brave."

Those who never believed they would die, those who believed that they would die happy. Those who lied.

"...It's not a promise. It's something much more reasonable." Something perfectly natural. Something only we could do. Something that was passed down on us. Don't become a curse.

Our feet crunched in the fallen, discarded bits of leaves swept from the shrinking path through the forest, their noise simply another note among many in the sound of the forest.

"...What then?"

I snuck another glance over my shoulder, as Itadori's face cycled through a variety of emotions, confusion, anger, irritance, sadness, a feeling of the lost, too much to decide on any and eventually settling on a slightly pinched look.

He asked again, "What is it then?"

Never leave a curse. "A belief."

…

As the only one of us with any competency regarding social etiquette, and not being as fresh as newborn daisies, Kamo-san took the lead in introducing ourselves to the sleepy little village. "Hello there, pardon our intrusion," he swept his arms to the side, gesturing to the sneering Naoya standing offset to everyone else, to Mai distantly staring at some point far off in the sky, and to Itadori and I closing the rear with a stormy expression and exhaustion respectively. "But as you can see, we're a little," Searching for a diplomatic description Kamo instead said, "lost."

Who in what world, gets lost in a mountainous forest without any camping supplies, Kamo? I understood we didn't give you much of anything to work with, but please! Become better at lying!

Wiping the condensation from her brow, the woman stared blankly at us. Dressed in simple, and loose clothing, I couldn't tell what her profession was, nor her reason for standing in the vague center of town was. Slowly, she repeated, "lost?" A shattered crumble of stones spread out in a vague-er circular pattern around her, whatever path worn long away and thickly enwrapped with a creeping lichen that seemed to have swallowed most of the village in pale green.

Kamo did his best to give a genial smile, forgetting our party consisted of the most violent looking individuals this side of the Pacific, kami's sake, you even had a scar across your eye! "Indeed. We're," He winced, "very lost?"

Zen'in Naoya looked over, annoyance thick in his tone, "Are you still talking, Kamo? Do you need me to show you how a real heir does things? Are you that incapable?" Said heir calmly ignored the Zen'in, still showing as friendly an expression he could muster.

Itadori clenched his fingers tight enough to pale. His still unstable control of his cursed energy(emotions) violently lashing against my perception. I understood the urge well enough, kami I understood, but pick your battles! Kamo could handle it, I hoped, afterall, this was the person who survived a class of Mai and Todo. He had been insulted, had his dignity as a man trampled over, and had been stolen from by an unrepentant thief; through all of that he never retained with anything more than a stern word, except when he shot a man with his blood technique who was totally totally falsely accused, and never even opened his eyes while doing so!

Eh? When did it start to sound like I was damning Kamo with faint praise?

Mai walked in front of everyone and forced the woman to direct her attention to her. Coolly, asking, "Do you have somewhere we could stay at? We can pay."

…enough of my tired jokes. If Mai of all people was participating, hardly the time. I felt rather than saw, someone's cursed energy perk up, as if readying a cursed technique. Zen'in Naoya. It did not coalesce, yet. With my focus divided, my perception forced to constantly cycle between the conversation, my 'companions', and the potential Curse around this Village…

This was bad. Forget worrying about the Curse plaguing this village, before the night even set in, before we even would get a chance to set up a barrier(Curtain), we would all kill each other. Too many sorcerers, too many potential collateral casualties including Itadori.

This was very bad. I couldn't concentrate on both protecting Itadori from Zen'in Naoya, and at the same time leaving my back open to the Curse here. Its power and abilities were both unknowns, and while the low concentration of cursed energy in the surroundings here suggested that it likely would be only a minor threat, even a minor threat with the right circumstances, with the right Innate Technique could distract/kill/ruin everything.

The woman didn't respond. Her eyes, empty like a mirror facing the sky, simply watched us for a long while, until it stretched over the span of a cicada's call.

Before any of us could go to shake the woman, a man emerged from an unlit house, running out barefoot, "Kaa-san!" Furiously flushed, he berated her, gripping her tight by the shoulders. "What are you doing outside!"

"So-tan, stop shaking me."

He shook her even harder, "Have you taken your medicine today!"

"I have, So-tan"

Said So-tan rushed over his mother's words, "Drank water? I didn't see you touch your food, Kaa-san!"

"That was because I finished it, So-tan."

"Don't talk to strangers!"

She replied, "They talked to me." In the exact same tone she used for the three previous replies. I shuffled my shoes a little.

"They could be violent thugs, just look at them!"

"They're students, So-tan." Her eyes slid back to us. "I recognize a uniform when I see one."

As evidenced and proved thrice over, So-tan continued to ignore her, instead looking back at us with the desperate smile of someone trying to please their landed nobility. "G-Good sirs and miss, thank you for finding my mother, you," He eyed us, one of us, with a greedy eye, especially the unhidden finery that Naoya's clothing peacocked so easily. His tune sure changed quick to blubbering sycophant. Impressive, really. I was almost tempted to ask for his acting resume. "For your benevolence, we would be perfectly willing to host you!"

Kamo jumped on the offer, "If you are so able that would be fine, but," he glanced at the house So-tan had leapt out of, and its smallness. "... I'm not sure you can host all of us."

"No, no, don't even worry about a thing! My friend, I have my own friends who are perfectly willing to help me out!" So-tan smiled thinly. "We're very friendly here. Very good people!"

This was the most blatant scammer I had ever seen.

If I was seeing things right, this village didn't have any building big enough to host an elaborate hot springs inn, but this region was full of thermal vents… Considering how far off the beaten path we were, the state of their clothing: durable but rough and the cheap t-shirts with messy logos everywhere swaying in the wind, the decaying and rough-hewn housing, I assumed a hot spring inn opened up closer to the road and with a more available trek, slowly dried up the influx of people, yen, and trade to this little village.

But that didn't particularly matter. Staying some time here was unfortunately necessary, without any immediate surveillance or confirmation on the Curse's characteristics, we needed to gather information ourselves. Plying the people here was just another way to do so. The basis of any relationship, transaction and mutual desires.

Good grief. Was I going to have do the mission, exorcize a curse, instruct Itadori, and handle Zen'in Naoya all at the same time? Not to mention all the various intrapersonal connections and interpersonal communication with the villagers…

It, simply, couldn't be done alone.

…

Takeru, the 'friend' of So-tan, languidly waved off our thanks. "No need, it's simply nice for an old man to see the young still exploring our beautiful nation." Japan was incredible, obviously, and I proudly saluted this man's adoration for our country, but at the same time.

Itadori scratched his head, "Eh? But how old are you?"

Naturally, Takeru replied. "22."

"Wow! You are old!"

He grinned crooked, undoubtedly pleased. "Right?"

And that was that.

I sat stiffly on the linen futon our host had spread out for us, staring at the mix of modern paper, and rustic thatching of the ceiling. Panning over my eyes over the room, the wooden barred windows that slowly cycled air and noise back inside, the creaky beams reinforcing the house. In the end, Itadori, Mai and I had been paired up to live in Takeru's house. While Kamo-san and Zen'in Naoya took the rooms at So-tan and his mother's, Naoya claiming So-tan's room for himself as his host practically slavered at his feet.

Strangely, Naoya didn't fight the decision all too much, seemingly disinterested by my refusal to engage with him. His cursed energy also seemed to settle, returning to its' placid normality that still dwarfed everyone else's cursed energy in size. Naturally, I didn't trust that for a moment.

Naturally, something needed to be done.

This was not my first time preparing against a Sorcerer, and I thought a little wryly, not my last. But my objectives at this time had been changed, and increased massively in difficulty and complexity.

Quietly, I whispered into the air, "Mai."

"..." She was awake, I could tell. Even if she didn't say anything, it was hard to ignore the eyes prickling at the side of my neck.

Movement in the dark, the rustling of fabric, loud even in the shifting noises of the woods protruding in from the open windows, no loud because of it, a human noise distinct from the nature so close. The soft padding of her feet against the tatami mats, stopping at the wall. The soft push of air as she leaned against it.

I sat up, my eyes adjusted to the dark, making my way to stand by the other side of the window besides her. Features shifted, changed, murky in the darkness, unreadable and unseen. However, it'd be conceited of me to claim that if I could see through the night, I'd be able to understand what Mai was feeling at this time.

She was, as ever, impossible to understand.

"It's a little funny," Her hair soft, glasses glinting in the slivers of light that sliced through the window. Voice was so quiet, I needed to strain to hear it over the dripping of leaves. "How angry you look right now, Hachiman."

"... Do I look angry?" I asked, honestly. Then, not so honestly, "That's just my face."

"Oh. So you just naturally look like you want to kill someone. Wonder why you want to save Itadori(me) so badly then." She let out a forlorn sigh, shaking her curling hair against the grain of the wood. I noticed, dumbly, that it spilled jet black nearly to her shoulders now. I remembered it had crested beside her neck before… "It'd be easier to just," her thumb swept against the smoothness of that neck, nail leaving raised reddened skin, a bead of bright red welled up.

She did not seem to notice. Or perhaps she did not care. Or… she did not feel it.

The glasses tilted low, dark eyes peeking over their silvered edges. Eyelashes thick and weighty with sleep, but nothing here could be attributed to a dream. "Don't you think?"

I said, "Maybe."

Maybe it would be easier. Maybe I should even, deontologically, justifiably, pragmatically.

"But that's not what you're going to do." Mai's eyes closed, those lashes fluttering shut against her cheeks, magnified in the glasses. Her skin almost seemed transparent, the delicate miniscule veins and arteries a pale blue. "I don't need you to save me, Hachiman."

It was strange to hear, a little shocking, but somewhere, I wasn't surprised at all. In the moonlight that shone through the cloudy night, full and luminous, we looked like phantoms, ghosts of ourselves, whispering, talking about things that couldn't be. Something was rotten, something had long died, something had grown old in the refuse. My desperation, my hope.

Some people couldn't be saved.

The dead… and those who already saved themselves. Which was Mai?

Who was Zen'in Mai?

She rubbed at her arms slowly, unmarked by gooseflesh, lower, her legs intertwined together like white snakes. "Did you know?" She asked, brightly. "They, the Zen'in, didn't know I had Construction at first, how could they? Maki's heavenly restriction rested on me as well. Not even a tenth, not even an iota, not even the smallest particle of Cursed Energy could be felt from me."

Her eyes, they focused somewhere in the dark, behind my ear.

She said, causally, disconnected from the events she described. "They thought I was dead. A stillborn walking in the shape of a child. I had neither the strength, the quickness of ability, the sharpness of sense." Pondering, self-amused, "Maybe I was. They certainly thought so. After Maki abandoned the clan, and it turned out I was, unfortunately, existing, alive. they decided I should be made useful. And for them, only cursed energy could be useful."

"..." She had hinted at this, when she had told me about her family, the act that drove me to fulfill those three impossible wishes, never spoken about it in full, but then again, I never asked. I listened, but to know it again, without the distance of inference…

I had compared Mai's cursed energy to my own before. But that was her cursed energy, increased after years, more than a decade of growth, while mine at the time had been fledgling, only found in the wake of my shelter under Geto. Barely a year's worth of intermediate focus on increasing my reserves.

Cursed energy reserves had an upwards scaling, a parabolic curve that hit a plateau at the top. The years of most growth were when you first developed a Curse technique, around 4-6 years of age, and then at the tailend of maturity it plateaued into your final level of cursed energy reservoirs. An advantage sorcerer clans noticed, was that the cursed energy resources generally tended to be higher than newer generational sorcerers, perhaps due the child growing up in that environments' knowledge and understanding of their own cursed technique likely outstripped someone like say Tsurumi Rumi who had never known this mirror world.

Mai's amount of cursed energy now, had already been dwarfed by my own long ago.

"Naoya," like the funniest joke, had been told to her, and the traces of it still lingered in her voice, "has always been useful. Exceptional. His cursed technique: Projection Sorcery, like his father, enables him to move at 24 actions per a single second. The faster you are, the more space you can cover in those 24 frames, therefore the more actions you can do." Mai told me the intricacies of Naoya's technique as if she had used it herself. "If he touches you, you must also abide by that 24 frames rule, or get frozen in a 'Frame'."

She knew it because she had been tested for every single Technique the Zen'in family ever owned, thought of, hypothesized. But she understood it for an utterly different reason. Construction was an immensely powerful cursed technique, able to replicate any Cursed Tool the user had ever seen. The Inverted spear of Heaven Geto as described to me, Nanami's cleaver, Playful Cloud that three-set staff that Geto had simply shown me, and the Split Soul katana that could cut directly beyond flesh and at something else, closer to the 'self'. Or with Construction, one could potentially even create new unique cursed tools, at a greater expense of cursed energy.

But all Mai could do with it was construct a single, extra bullet. Not even a 'cursed' bullet but only a physical article.

I wondered if Construction lended its user an intuitive grasp over other's cursed techniques, like my Cursed Technique defined the base of my own understanding. Mai had been, afterall, one of the few people who understood exactly the experiment I had proposed to her in a single explanation(using my cursed technique to increase her reserves).

"Does this mean… you'll help me ensure Itadori Yuji lives?" I asked, not because it was necessary, or that it even needed to be asked. It was a pointless, meaningless question, but still one that forced a response. And because of that response, Mai would have to choose.

She fixed her glasses. Softly, "Don't ask stupid questions, Hachiman." Coming from her mouth, it lacked any insult. It almost seemed gentle.

A sweet refusal. A kind answer.

Or was it… because I was asking the wrong question?

We stared at each other. Content to let the space be filled with something other than our voices. A long pause where neither of us spoke, as slowly my ears refocused on the drip dripping of accumulated moisture outside, the noise of our breaths in and out, and slight scrape of her shirt against the wood.

She looked odd with her glasses, obviously. But unlike what Zen'in Naoya declared, I couldn't see the Maki-san at all. The facial structures, perhaps, and how the shadows fell across the face, but their expressions and mannerisms had delivered clearly, carving different partners into their skin. Mai smiled cruelly, mockingly as if she was constantly ready to slip a knife made of words into your back. Maki had the cocky grin of a challenge, bright and forceful with maybe being a bit overstepping. The glasses only highlighted the difference. With the too cool Maki, they sharpened her features, sharply delineated them and forced you to focus on her keen gaze.

On Mai… it lidded her eyes, low on her face and hanging a bit precariously, so that you had the urge to push them up. Made them even a bit hazy, unblinking and lazy like a cat's.

They shot open, flashing in the moonlight.

Suddenly, she barked at the silent lump of futon and person that had been listening this whole time, "Are you done pretending to be dead yet?" When he didn't respond, she did. "Really, I want to know."

Muttering, Itadori slowly rolled out of the futon, his eyes heavy, but serious. "I wasn't doing any of that."

Flatly, "Then you couldn't be bothered to not listen in?"

I understood, how difficult it was to respond to Mai when she was like this, because she constantly like this. Really, just an awful person all around. A wicked witch through and through. Mean to the bone. Naturally then, I said nothing and just watched Itadori clumsily try to defend himself. Hmm? Was this bullying? Was I being a bystander? Impossible, I was actively participating in schadenfreude at his expense and the relief of my own. Was this what it felt like to not be at the target of her tender mercies?

"That's, ugh, you guys were already talking, so I didn't want to interrupt, and then I couldn't sleep because, I heard everything…" He looked up, earnest in a determined way. "Your family—"

"Why don't you think about your own twisted little blood, Vessel? And leave my family to me."

His expression shuttered, flinching at the acidity, and I saw as Itadori was reminded forcibly of his own circumstances. Finally, he said. "My family is gone."

Mai said, slowly, drawing each and every word out with sincerity. "I wonder why."

I said, tiredly. "Because they're dead. Every sorcerer, everyone in this shitty Mirror World is a victim to their own past. Itadori, every sorcerer you meet will have lost someone, something, irrecoverable. Mai, your senpais, Fushiguro and undoubtedly Kugisaki as well, Kamo-san, and you. No one is exempt. We are all special, special and uniquely hurt and then to hurt others."

Itadori looked at me, eyes dark in the light. He went to speak—

Mai laughed. She opened her eyes, happy, curved like semicircle smiles. "Itadori, Vessel, Sukuna. Just find a nice place to die, okay? And then slit your own throat. The world will go on. Someone will cry, someone won't. It's okay. That's the only way out of being a sorcerer. Pushing up daisies."

The sound outside quieted, the moonlight finally cut through the clouds, and the room was bathed in a flooding effervesce.

Sharp, tongued with malice and stretched with proud mania, Sukuna's mouth bared its gleaming teeth. If the room tinged with red, then that must have only been our body's instinctive desperation to grasp something we couldn't. Our brains trying and failing to communicate Sukuna in a way unnatural.

He said, in a voice richer and deeper than Itadori's yet alike, "I once knew a Sorcerer with that Technique." An eye peeled open from the markings on Itadori's face, slicing the skin open and with just a bloody sight for a pupil. "You… are not anything similar. Construction… is it truly—"

Whatever red there may or may not have been there faded the moment Itadori slapped the King of Curses as you might do to a disobedient cat, just a light hit against his own cheek. Another mouth opened on the back of his hand, like it simply moved directly from cheek to hand, and Itadori whacked that too.

The mouth moved simply again to that hand's back, bemused I watched as the King of Curses and Itadori exchanged the most petty and honestly pathetic fights I had ever seen. Itadori went to slap again, but the mouth was still on the previous hand's back. "Enough brat!"

Itadori smiled at us, apology tight in his voice. "Sorry, he gets like this sometimes."

Mai said, drily, "Excellent control you have over Sukuna, Vessel."

"Amazing. You're treating the King of Curses, Scourge of the Heian Era like a self-directed game of whack–a-mole." Despite myself, it was a little hard to take Sukuna seriously now that Itadori had resorted to trying to step on his own hands.

Sullenly, Itadori pouted. "It works, doesn't it?"

Mai smiled at him. "Does it now."

As I observed their strange, offbeat interaction that could only be barely described as congenial, barely constrained to civility; Underneath that a bubbling tide of unrestrained dislike. I felt that the person in front of me known as Zen'in Mai became more and more incomprehensible the longer I knew her. The closer we drifted, the more I failed to perceive her. Conversely, paradoxically, the distance that we had tried so hard to bridge made it so that I couldn't understand a thing about her. I knew everything, I understood nothing, and Mai remained a stranger.

Both perfectly natural, and utterly impossible. Had she been changing… no, she was always changing this whole time. That was what it meant to be alive.

Change defined itself to external perception simply: revealing, or altering oneself.

The only thing was, I could not say which of the two I was witnessing now.

Or in other words; Had this always been Mai? Or did I never know the genuine Mai at all?

Itadori looked Mai dead in the eyes, he had come to a decision, a realization. "I won't kill myself. Not like that, and not alone. No matter how nice it is... When I die," he inhaled, fortifying himself. "It'll be a proper, crowded, busy, death."

"Good for you." Mai replied. "It must be lovely… being able to decide that so confidently."

"Because it will happen."

Mai said, cheerily. "I can't wait to see it."

…

A.N.

Mai, don't bully the weak! Also. Itadori's stronger than you already. Well, bullying the strong is fine too.

 

[ptbptb]

"As fucking unfortunate it is," I glanced over, ensuring that I met Itadori's eyes. "He's stronger than you, easily."

Click to shrink...

Missing an 'as'. from "unfortunate as it is"

 

[doge]

stolen form bny an unrepentant thief

Click to shrink...

form bny -> from by

The faster you are, the less you more space you can cover in those 24 frame

Click to shrink...

Something's off around "the less you more,"

Looks like Sukuna is foreshadowing something about Construction. Itadori is getting more and more of the bleaker parts of sorcerers too.

 

[ArcanaVitae]

Huh... I just realized. I have an entire part of chapter 2.1 (As said it lingers until the end) that I just totally forgot to post...

That has important character building and everything. Gonna go back and re-edit that in. Re-read it if you want, but I'll still post a chapter today!

I can't believe myself... A full 2000+ words, just sitting there, innocently. The hairtie I keep mentioning was supposed to be in that as well!

Click to shrink...

It shows him in recovery from when Kenjaku showed up to torture and traumatize him. Also it has him talking about his sister. It also seems really important for Hachiman and Mai's relationship.

That bruise… I'd have to thank Kamo-san later for ensuring that Itadori didn't intervene, and as nice of him to try, doing that would have only served Zen'in Naoya. Giving him any chance for justified retaliation, and Itadori would be dead. I'd have to really thank Kamo-san, because I was also fairly sure that he was under very unsubtle orders from his clan to allow Zen'in Naoya to kill Itadori Yuji, Vessel of Sukuna. But these were minor, dim thoughts, that echoed without acknowledgment in my head as I stared at the straight back of Mai, further ahead of all us.

Click to shrink...

Naoya was trying to get Yuji to attack him so he could kill him and Kamo stepped in like a bro.

Quietly, he asked, "You're telling me to not do anything, even when—"

I cut him off, smiling broadly, so wide it curved my eyes. So wide it hid my teeth. "Yes, so let me handle it, okay?"

"That a promise?"

I didn't respond immediately, exhaling out the brisk air, thinner up here, closer to what I remembered from the scant flashes of panic, instinct, and lightning thought of the Leviathan Exorcism. "If no one has told you yet, Itadori, I will. Sorcerers don't make promises, we don't leave behind regrets, we don't bet on the future." Suddenly, I picked up my pace, looking back on the stunned young man. "The only ones who do that, are the very stupid, or the very brave."

Those who never believed they would die, those who believed that they would die happy. Those who lied.

"...It's not a promise. It's something much more reasonable." Something perfectly natural. Something only we could do. Something that was passed down on us. Don't become a curse.

Our feet crunched in the fallen, discarded bits of leaves swept from the shrinking path through the forest, their noise simply another note among many in the sound of the forest.

"...What then?"

I snuck another glance over my shoulder, as Itadori's face cycled through a variety of emotions, confusion, anger, irritance, sadness, a feeling of the lost, too much to decide on any and eventually settling on a slightly pinched look.

He asked again, "What is it then?"

Never leave a curse. "A belief."

Click to shrink...

Hachiman this feels like it's the building blocks for Hachiman's true/awakened mentality. Todo would be so proud of him.

Good grief. Was I going to have do the mission, exorcize a curse, instruct Itadori, and handle Zen'in Naoya all at the same time? Not to mention all the various intrapersonal connections and interpersonal communication with the villagers…

Click to shrink...

He has to juggle a lot of things right now.

"But that's not what you're going to do." Mai's eyes closed, those lashes fluttering shut against her cheeks, magnified in the glasses. Her skin almost seemed transparent, the delicate miniscule veins and arteries a pale blue. "I don't need you to save me, Hachiman."

It was strange to hear, a little shocking, but somewhere, I wasn't surprised at all. In the moonlight that shone through the cloudy night, full and luminous, we looked like phantoms, ghosts of ourselves, whispering, talking about things that couldn't be. Something was rotten, something had long died, something had grown old in the refuse. My desperation, my hope.

Some people couldn't be saved.

The dead… and those who already saved themselves. Which was Mai?

Who was Zen'in Mai?

Click to shrink...

You can just feel the Mai route getting further and further.

I had compared Mai's cursed energy to my own before. But that was her cursed energy, increased after years, more than a decade of growth, while mine at the time had been fledgling, only found in the wake of my shelter under Geto. Barely a year's worth of intermediate focus on increasing my reserves.

Cursed energy reserves had an upwards scaling, a parabolic curve that hit a plateau at the top. The years of most growth were when you first developed a Curse technique, around 4-6 years of age, and then at the tailend of maturity it plateaued into your final level of cursed energy reservoirs. An advantage sorcerer clans noticed, was that the cursed energy resources generally tended to be higher than newer generational sorcerers, perhaps due the child growing up in that environments' knowledge and understanding of their own cursed technique likely outstripped someone like say Tsurumi Rumi who had never known this mirror world.

Mai's amount of cursed energy now, had already been dwarfed by my own long ago.

Click to shrink...

Okay so Hachiman has gained more Cursed Energy due to having more time spent as a sorcerer and with all his fighitng.

I had compared Mai's cursed energy to my own before. But that was her cursed energy, increased after years, more than a decade of growth, while mine at the time had been fledgling, only found in the wake of my shelter under Geto. Barely a year's worth of intermediate focus on increasing my reserves.

Cursed energy reserves had an upwards scaling, a parabolic curve that hit a plateau at the top. The years of most growth were when you first developed a Curse technique, around 4-6 years of age, and then at the tailend of maturity it plateaued into your final level of cursed energy reservoirs. An advantage sorcerer clans noticed, was that the cursed energy resources generally tended to be higher than newer generational sorcerers, perhaps due the child growing up in that environments' knowledge and understanding of their own cursed technique likely outstripped someone like say Tsurumi Rumi who had never known this mirror world.

Mai's amount of cursed energy now, had already been dwarfed by my own long ago.

Click to shrink...

Okay so Hachiman has gained more Cursed Energy due to having more time spent as a sorcerer and with all his fighting.

She knew it because she had been tested for every single Technique the Zen'in family ever owned, thought of, hypothesized. But she understood it for an utterly different reason. Construction was an immensely powerful cursed technique, able to replicate any Cursed Tool the user had ever seen. The Inverted spear of Heaven Geto as described to me, Nanami's cleaver, Playful Cloud that three-set staff that Geto had simply shown me, and the Split Soul katana that could cut directly beyond flesh and at something else, closer to the 'self'. Or with Construction, one could potentially even create new unique cursed tools, at a greater expense of cursed energy.

But all Mai could do with it was construct a single, extra bullet. Not even a 'cursed' bullet but only a physical article.

I wondered if Construction lended its user an intuitive grasp over other's cursed techniques, like my Cursed Technique defined the base of my own understanding. Mai had been, afterall, one of the few people who understood exactly the experiment I had proposed to her in a single explanation(using my cursed technique to increase her reserves).

Click to shrink...

Construction is some really strong bullshit that's held back by Mai's horrible reserves.

I said, tiredly. "Because they're dead. Every sorcerer, everyone in this shitty Mirror World is a victim to their own past. Itadori, every sorcerer you meet will have lost someone, something, irrecoverable. Mai, your senpais, Fushiguro and undoubtedly Kugisaki as well, Kamo-san, and you. No one is exempt. We are all special, special and uniquely hurt and then to hurt others."

Click to shrink...

Jujutsu Sorecery is a death world full of tragedy, Hachiman has come to understand that. Also the final line gives me Tokyo Ghoul vibes and is really awesome.

Sharp, tongued with malice and stretched with proud mania, Sukuna's mouth bared its gleaming teeth. If the room tinged with red, then that must have only been our body's instinctive desperation to grasp something we couldn't. Our brains trying and failing to communicate Sukuna in a way unnatural.

He said, in a voice richer and deeper than Itadori's yet alike, "I once knew a Sorcerer with that Technique." An eye peeled open from the markings on Itadori's face, slicing the skin open and with just a bloody sight for a pupil. "You… are not anything similar. Construction… is it truly—"

Click to shrink...

Sukuna respects the technique but not the person.

As I observed their strange, offbeat interaction that could only be barely described as congenial, barely constrained to civility; Underneath that a bubbling tide of unrestrained dislike. I felt that the person in front of me known as Zen'in Mai became more and more incomprehensible the longer I knew her. The closer we drifted, the more I failed to perceive her. Conversely, paradoxically, the distance that we had tried so hard to bridge made it so that I couldn't understand a thing about her. I knew everything, I understood nothing, and Mai remained a stranger.

Both perfectly natural, and utterly impossible. Had she been changing… no, she was always changing this whole time. That was what it meant to be alive.

Change defined itself to external perception simply: revealing, or altering oneself.

The only thing was, I could not say which of the two I was witnessing now.

Or in other words; Had this always been Mai? Or did I never know the genuine Mai at all?

Click to shrink...

Hachiman's whole thing is he wants to find something genuine so this whole thing must really be shaking him.

 

[ArtemisAvant]

But, Inevitably, They Find What They Are Looking For (6.5)

...​

The next day I met up with Kamo, Mai and Itadori trailing behind me.

I looked at the scattered plates, the air still full of the simple and warm smell of rice and salted meat.

"Hikigaya-san. Good to see you."

This guy. Always so formal. I patted at my neck, wincing at the incessant crick that had formed there from mediating between Mai and Itadori descending from childish name-calling to nearly biting each others heads off last night. Someone would snore, someone would make a snarky comment, I'd have to tell both of them to shut up and go to sleep, and then Mai would stick her tongue at me, daring me to bite it, while Itadori would pester me for a cool new move, or 'teach me how my technique works, senpai!'. How would I know? Ask Sukuna!

"Same. Where's the bastard."

Kamo's eyes were likewise ringed with dark bags so heavy they seemed to slouch even his impeccable posture. Demonstrating the sheer unlikability of one Zen'in Naoya, he hardly batted an eye at my language, instead of berating me like an overly strict daycare manager. "He will not be joining us… citing that the weak should take care of the weak."

Yeah right, I could see, neither of us believed that for a second. A believable reason, for sure, but I knew the moment we began to fight the curse, Zen'in Naoya would strike. The village was small, isolated, and I had the feeling that Naoya wouldn't care overmuch for silencing some non-sorcerers. The simple fact, none of us had a 100% chance to respond in time to prevent Naoya from using his Cursed Technique to instantly end Itadori's life, by say; Snapping his neck, or simply using bodily reinforcement to shatter his bones, to do so. Especially if we were to be say distracted from exorcizing a curse.

So, far away enough that we couldn't intercept him, and close enough that he could reach Itadori within 24, likely within less frames so he could appropriately respond to our position and current circumstances. A quick test last night, done mostly because if they(Mai and Itadori) were going to waste time not sleeping, they might as well make themselves useful to me.

It was determined that Itadori had the fastest reaction speed of all of us, but had trouble understanding the stipulation of acting in 24 frames in a single second. Not that any of us could claim any proficiency in such a strange and unnatural way of acting as if we were key animation frames. Then followed Mai, able to track it with her eyes, and instinctively react a little slower than Itadori, and finally myself.

I imagined that Kamo would actually be the slowest of all us, having constantly drained himself of blood and worked on a permanent deficiency in order to fuel his blood bags for his technique. Even the slightest decrease in blood pressure had blood sugar would reduce reaction times, especially at such speeds. … also, I refused to be last, seriously, what kind of ridiculous physique allowed Itadori to have better reaction speed than me! Mai, I understood, barely, she was a sharpshooter, but Itadori?!

I sat down, leveling myself with Kamo. "Alright then, mind if we discuss the strategy then?"

"If you would," He inclined his head at me, and then at Mai and Itadori, who elected to lean against a doorway and the other to start snacking a bit on the leftover rice, respectively.

Dispensing with the pleasantries, "We, myself and you, Kamo specifically, should take front and center for investigating for the Curse." He nodded, hand to chin. It only made sense, as we were the two with the highest combat potential, but also the weakest reaction speeds. Additionally with Singularity, I could ensure that any not-immediately fatal blow on Itadori would prove survivable, and he didn't have a proper grasp on reinforcing himself with cursed energy anyway so his natural physique would hold him through. However that would also significantly drain most, if not all my cursed energy and leave me vulnerable to Naoya to inflict further damage. Thus, Kamo. Hopefully, he would have then been able to quickly exorcize the curse as I engaged with Zen'in Naoya, and the justification would be lost. Would that stop Naoya? No, likely not, but it may give him pause.

Unfortunately, I couldn't count on Kamo or Mai to directly assist me against Naoya, but neither could Zen'in Naoya confidently assume they would assist him then.

The strategy, simple and therefore efficient, relied on three factors. Upon finding the curse, Kamo would attempt to exorcize it as quickly as possible, then assuming Naoya would strike, Itadori would do his best to dodge, hide, or counter Zen'in Naoya long enough that my reaction would catch up and I would then enter combat. Then it would start a game of deadly keep away, where I prioritized keeping Itadori alive and keeping Naoya's attention on me, while using as little cursed energy as possible. Using Singularity on myself if necessary to restore my own cursed energy reserves, at the cost of significantly slowing and depriving myself of cursed energy bodily reinforcement and my cursed technique for myself.

Or maybe…? Huh, there was a thought. A desperate, foolhardy one, but a thought nonetheless.

Both Itadori and Myself could be killed freely(relatively) by Zen'in Naoya, but not the heir to one of the three great sorcerer clans. He would not be able then to intercept Kamo from exorcizing the curse in any meaningful way. Which meant, he'd have to take on me directly without any tricks or with me being distracted by the curse, in the best case scenario. If he was smart, he'd disengage at that point, but if the Clans were really that desperate in killing Itadori Yuji, he wouldn't. That would be the worst case scenario.

On a side note, attempting a Curtain would be Kamo's job, if we managed to narrow down the relative position of the Curse and isolate it from the village and its inhabitants.

"I see." Did you? Kamo looked at Mai and Itadori. "I assume they will follow us behind in a staggered formation?"

"Correct. Full points." I said, approvingly.

"That is a poor impression of Utahime-sensei." He sounded faintly amused, less tense.

My cheek twitched. It was just habit! It wasn't l-like I did it on purpose! This was the only natural result of human interaction, imprinting and taking on the faint impressions we had of other people. And all that tactical and strategic planning, it reminded me of the scenarios Utahime-sensei used as discussion and theoretical preparation for infield missions. Ugh. Just take the compliment, you sulky broody b-baka!

"Wow, Hachiman," Mai faked a heart wrenching sniff, "I didn't know you missed us all so badly."

"Truly a heart of soft beige behind his rotten facade," agreed Kamo. You weren't even being facetious like Mai, you honestly meant it, that made it three times as worse! Again, this color of beige for me? Gold. It was gold.

Itadori chimed in, "... you guys, are all actually pretty close, huh."

I denied it immediately. "Don't associate me with them."

Mai sneered, "What, us? Are you stupid? Genuinely, are you stupid?"

Kamo frowned. "Itadori-kun, even though we may all hail from the same Kyoto Jujutsu Tech, claiming that we are something as all encompassing as friends would be impossible."

"Exactly," Mai added, "That's like saying we're buddy buddy with… Todo."

"As crude as you put it, Mai-san, I agree with the sentiment."

"..." Slowly, everyone's eyes turned to me.

I looked away. What a particularly interesting construction of materials this house was made of, very… house-y. Truly, I had never seen something that was more like house-adjacent and house-lite in all my houses.

Mai tched. "Softie." Like you might describe a particularly weak-willed, shelled organism that had slimed its way out of its keratinous chitin and found itself lost on the road of life.

Kamo intoned, "How disappointing, Hikigaya-san."

"Shut up."

Itadori repeated, in the exact same monotone. "Like I said. You guys are pretty close." It sounded a bit wistful, a little envious.

Idiot.

If you wanted something, then reach for it.

…

In the cast of the sun slipping towards the inevitable horizon, where the shadows grew long and the water vapor thick in the air made breathing a chore.

We stepped along stone paths. In grown and gnarled, black and rotting roots pierced through the ancient cobblestone… which meant, there should be a mine nearby. And along, the constant dripping, they did not collect on simply pine needles as I previously thought, but linen silk banners that had faded within the trees, their brilliant white long faded into spotted green. Soundless bells, gleamed in the reddening light and the slowly, inexorably I saw the telltale signs of a shrine somewhere nearby.

But without any to tend to it.

"—any strange sights, odd feelings, please share them with us. It's not much, but to repay your kindness for hosting us, we can do a small ritual, for peace of mind you understand, and my friend here," Kamo indicated myself, wait what? "He's an accomplished student of the natural world, so he can put to rest any ideas of gas leaks, or perhaps a sulfuric vent that caused some kind of… panic?"

Wait, wait one moment, that was lifted straight from Utahime-sensei's hypothetical situation and interacting with civilians! Practically textbook, you damn honor student. That stuff was from back however long ago, kami above, you sounded positively ancient.

Don't tell me you thought this sounded normal, Kamo-san?

I did my best to affect a look of scholarly presence anyway, or whatever that meant, my education was the exact same as yours, Kamo! Just because I didn't look like a priest, didn't mean you had to foist off this role on me.

So-tan, still hadn't gotten his actual name, scratched at his stubble. "Trouble? Here? Dear guests, I haven't the faintest idea of what you mean."

Kamo opened his mouth, stopped. I saw the line of his back straighten into a panic. In the lecture, the next line would be, My gratitude to your sharing, rest assured we'll do our best to clear up any strange air! Visibly, I witnessed Kamo flounder as he realized he couldn't use the standard script for interacting with someone.

…I had so much faith in you too. Give it back. Return to me my faith, and with it your notes for class. You were meant to be the one communicating for all of us. Weren't you a clan heir? Actually that made me feel better, knowing that my meager social skills beat two out of the three clan heirs. But in all seriousness, this mission was really full of the absolute worst people for communicating with people, wasn't it? Who arranged these missions anyway?

Oh nevermind, this was a heavily influenced and fucked up mission in the first place, in that case, let's just definitively blame it all on the clans.

Itadori piped in, slapping Kamo on the back, "You alright, man?" Then to So-tan, "Seriously, don't worry about it. We're just here for the ghost stories!"

A light of recognition in So-tan's eyes. "Ah… Those kind of tourists."

Itadori snapped his fingers, "Yep! So," A sneaky, creepy smile crawled on to his face, and he snickered as evil as he could look. It… was pretty underwhelming still. Ganbatte, keep trying. "Any cold chills, electromagnetic fluctuations," Were you part of an Occult club or something? You were just listing off the basic supernatural elements for ghost hunting, Curses may share some of those qualities but at the same time… ghost hunting. "Weird smells, impossible voices, issues with lighting? That kind of stuff, you know?"

So-tan made a vaguely congenial smile, as if he was attempting to seem interested. "Yes… I would, know, exactly whatever you are talking about."

"Perfect!"

"Indeed… perfect?"

We weren't going to get anything out of precious So-tan here.

I turned away from that conversation, and pulsed my cursed energy. Immediately, three sources right besides me, Itadori, Naoya, and Kamo, and a little further, the flicking dimness that was Mai that barely merited an inverted sonar wave back to my perception. Other sensors described feeling out the residuals of cursed energy, nut cursed energy left residue everywhere, or rather, humans left their own mark in the cursed energy wave frequency unconsciously or not. It was simply, too general a term, at least for how I used a bastardized pulse and sonar system to detached Cursed Energy. But besides my minor rant on terminology aside, I didn't feel anything out of the ordinary, just minor responses as I pinged off the people around. No object lingering with excessive regret, no space where the pulse slowed due to concentrated cursed energy that might be the trace of a Curse, Nothing.

I opened my eyes, interrupted the increasingly awkward chat of Itadori egging on So-tan with scary stories. "Is there a shrine nearby?"

Back to my first operating methods, back to the beginning. Curse birth theory postulated that curses were born in place where many human resided, especially if they also had heightened emotions like a school or hospital, as well as the places that were associated with those turbulent sentiments akin to a graveyard. Or… a shrine.

"A shrine?" So-tan was scratching at his neck, using nearly his whole hand scraping against the side of it. Swatting at a reddish mark there, mosquito bite small. "I'm not… sure? We would have visited one if there was one notably nearby," To our blank looks he said, easily, "It's harvest season. I've been thinking we might get a good rain soon."

It wasn't harvest season. Also, it had been raining up and down since I had gotten back from Malaysia.

What a tool.

Kamo and I met each other's eyes, nodded minutely, and mutually agreed it wasn't worth talking any more with this man.

…

The hammer slammed into the wooden beam, cracking it as splinters of wood, minuscule, nearly invisible in their smallness, slivers rained against the long weeds. So-tan's mother carefully pried rusting nails, and dropping them in a bucket, bleeding orange, replaced them with a deft, experienced hand. "A shrine… A Kami, we worshiped."

I crossed my arms, lifting the other bucket with the 'new' nails closer to the woman. "Just thought we should pay our respects. I saw the bells." We had a new system, one person elected by committee would go and talk. No interruptions, no tangents on the efficacy of using a vacuum to exorcize cursed spirits. For my gracious idea, I was summarily chosen to speak. The wonders of democracy, so in my next action as democratically elected official, I would be immediately using my presidential power to force Mai to speak. That wasn't in my power to do so? Good, impeach me.

"Forget them, there is nothing more to worship there." The hammer struck, shaking the beam until dirt rattled out of the softened earth. On her wrinkled, skin ragged and saggy, hung loosely and knobby against the joints of the hand, red welts spread over her hand. The supposed sickness, I assumed, she took medicine for.

"...As in the Kami has left?" That, if I was to be understanding this in the metaphysical religious sense, would be a result of the shrine being unintended to for long periods of time. Common tradition upheld that Kami were fickle, tether-less, and wandered frequently. I could understand that a village, finding itself without a dedicated religious bent would gradually lose the 'favor' from the Kami and thus 'forget' the shrine.

She did not answer, the nail sparking against the rusty hammer.

I asked again, conscious of the elderly's faltering senses. "Where's the shrine anyway?

"Don't listen, never listen."

"I'm not your son."

The hammer cracked something other than wood. The rhythmic sharp crack of metal on wood, replaced with a fleshy squish. Empty eyes searched mine, as if meaning to steal everything right from under me. Even as flesh and bone of her fingers curled like the limbs of a dying spider. Gummy teeth stretched into something resembling a grin. "No… you are not." Her blind pupils locked onto mine. "Up the mountain, follow the bells. Follow the silence, Motherless thing."

…

Through a winding trail, through the overhanging of many branches pulled together by salted ropes, incense sticks stabbed into each and every cord of the straw, unburnt.

All of us were silent as we gazed upon the end of the trail, where the vines and clean stone had receded into bleached slate.

A shattered, statue with many arms stared up balefully from it had fallen to the side, no, had been pushed to the side. The eyes, once chipped with some sort of precious metal or gem, had been gouged deeply by a knife, still silver shards where the blade had snapped still spilling out. The enormous, smooth carved piece, priceless beyond measure and painstakingly crafted out of some rare natural formation, had been torn out of its pedestal and pissed and shit on. Scraps of skin lingered in its clenched fists, and in the dark stone of its construction, iron tools embedded in it and caked in soot.

Animal guts, rotting and crawling with maggots had been shoved into its snarling mouth, the strewn apart carcass of birds, small mammals and a common garden snake carefully and artfully arranged as if to drape it in skins. Each of the statue's eight arms, pulled off in varying degrees of success, like how ants may kill a queen. I noticed, detached, that their fingers looked as if they had been smashed by something.

"... what, what is this?" Itadori asked, not truly asking, but simply attempting verbalizing his non-understanding. His nose wrinkled, and his voice wavered as if about to retch.

Neither Mai, Kamo, nor I had the urge to do the same. Too familiar with the smell of human excrement after brutal death. Yet all the same, I couldn't find an answer to his question. It was only human cruelty, only the disgustingly vivid macabre joy of the twisted, where the sick had beaten their god to death, but this… The ropes, the incense, the over-tang of salt on the air.

The weak slaughtered the strong.

They had obviously been ashamed about this, and yet… So-tan acted like nothing out of the ordinary, not even remembering a shrine, even the other villagers who even in passing greetings gave natural smiles, perfectly mundane. It couldn't be a lie. It couldn't, it simply wasn't logical, something like this, cracks would split in the mind, ravens in the psyche would appear and even to an idiot, they would be obvious.

Something was terribly wrong here.

"...there's no blood." What?

Kamo stared at the statue, his eyes tracing the animal remains, the tools, and the torn skin on the clenched fists. Gently, he kneeled down, and touched the skin, as if to confirm even to himself that this was still human. "There's no blood at all."

"Let's," I swallowed. "Let's just go back."

The dark had set in, and still without any sign of the curse, lingering in the night, felt a step too far.

…

"I'll take first watch." Staying outside, staying inside. Neither were good options, we still hadn't even seen the Curse yet, and even if… that was its traces, there were no residuals or even concentrated cursed energy at the shrine, impossibly. It didn't make any sense, any act so violent would have forced extreme negative emotions into my perception, and yet in my pulsation of cursed energy it was merely background radiation… I could only assume that this was also a 'trace' of the hitherto unseen curse.

Kamo made his way to Naoya, to both explain our findings and stay with him in So-tan's house for the night. While Itadori, Mai and I retired again to Takeru's. We could stay outside, in the forest slightly aways from the village, and honestly I wished not a little for that choice. The villagers clearly could not be trusted, if they ever could. Information from civilians always carried the risk of being contaminated by the inherent nature of a curse, but even with my most unsubtle prying questions, Takeru and I'd assume So-tan claimed confusion and innocence at there even being a shrine. Yet at the same time, houses provided a thin measure of channeling any attempted attacks through observable entry points.

The peeling paper, the drip of moisture from dark leaves, the croak of cicadas and the silence of rusty bells, I sat against the wall, a katana sheath resting in my lap, one hand resting on the hilt as I stared at the door, my ears focused on the barred window.

I knew that Itadori's eyes were staring, unblinking into the ceiling. And that Mai, though her eyes were closed, had one hand on her revolver in a white-knuckled grip. Even though it ruined the point of the first watch, I didn't rebuke them. Frankly, I had taken up the first watch intending to then take the rest of the watches throughout the night, and to finally use Cursed technique Reversal: Singularity on myself as soon as dawn emerged.

Mission parameters had once again changed, the Curse was obviously much more dangerous than originally suspected, and I needed to talk to Zen'in Naoya. I couldn't imagine such a person agreeing to a ceasefire, his arrogance alone made that impossible. But the situation had degenerated to the point of necessity. Going now to talk to Naoya, was also likewise out of the question. Someone needed to keep an eye out, and be ready in case of imminent attack. As the most experienced one and also the one with the understanding of how to disable people without killing them, I needed to stay with Mai and Itadori.

Traveling through the night was also an incredibly shortsighted idea.

I also reasoned, that perhaps letting the idea stew in Zen'in Naoya's mind for a night may convince him. Though I wasn't betting on it.

If Zen'in Naoya couldn't be reasoned with, and in all likelihood he wouldn't be, I'd force everyone else to immediately abandon the mission, damn the consequences. If it were only Kamo and myself, a Second grade sorcerer and a First grade, that'd be ludicrous to even suggest, but with Itadori, too fresh to be anything but a liability, and Mai, in much the same boat, and with the villagers already compromised…

Retreat was the only logical answer.

A curse with unknown, yet visibly depraved abilities, an unsafe location, and too much collateral that could turn on us at any moment, Sorcerers were the same. Just human, just as easily worn thin. There were too many possibilities to even estimate what the curse could do, beyond a clear destabilizing effect on the village, and still… still, not a trace of it's cursed energy or even a sighting of it. The chameleon(isolation) curse I had once fought had a similar ability, hiding in plain sight with it masking its own presence in the brutalization of Tsurumi Rumi, but the cursed energy around the village was too low for me to make that same mistake.

Where was it? Had it already left? What was its cursed technique to cause that scene at the shrine…

Not alone, but separated in the dark, we all thought on these questions over and over and over until they devolved into meaningless static.

…

A.N.
The situation degrades even further, and underneath it all, ugly politics and secrets writhe in the shadows. The Curse shows it's beginning act, and the crumbling facades will be revealed.

 

[ArcanaVitae]

This guy. Always so formal. I patted at my neck, wincing at the incessant crick that had formed there from mediating between Mai and Itadori descending from childish name-calling to nearly biting each others heads off last night. Someone would snore, someone would make a snarky comment, I'd have to tell both of them to shut up and go to sleep, and then Mai would stick her tongue at me, daring me to bite it, while Itadori would pester me for a cool new move, or 'teach me how my technique works, senpai!'. How would I know? Ask Sukuna!

Click to shrink...

Hachiman knows how this works already, also the bit about asking Sukuna was great.

Kamo's eyes were likewise ringed with dark bags so heavy they seemed to slouch even his impeccable posture. Demonstrating the sheer unlikability of one Zen'in Naoya, he hardly batted an eye at my language, instead of berating me like an overly strict daycare manager. "He will not be joining us… citing that the weak should take care of the weak."

Yeah right, I could see, neither of us believed that for a second. A believable reason, for sure, but I knew the moment we began to fight the curse, Zen'in Naoya would strike. The village was small, isolated, and I had the feeling that Naoya wouldn't care overmuch for silencing some non-sorcerers. The simple fact, none of us had a 100% chance to respond in time to prevent Naoya from using his Cursed Technique to instantly end Itadori's life, by say; Snapping his neck, or simply using bodily reinforcement to shatter his bones, to do so. Especially if we were to be say distracted from exorcizing a curse.

Click to shrink...

Naoya is an asshole but he knows how to play this smartly to play things to his advantage.

Both Itadori and Myself could be killed freely(relatively) by Zen'in Naoya, but not the heir to one of the three great sorcerer clans. He would not be able then to intercept Kamo from exorcizing the curse in any meaningful way. Which meant, he'd have to take on me directly without any tricks or with me being distracted by the curse, in the best case scenario. If he was smart, he'd disengage at that point, but if the Clans were really that desperate in killing Itadori Yuji, he wouldn't. That would be the worst case scenario.

Click to shrink...

He hasn't really thought about how Naoya can freely kill Mai I'm guessing it's because he doesn't want to acknowledge that.

"Correct. Full points." I said, approvingly.

"That is a poor impression of Utahime-sensei." He sounded faintly amused, less tense.

My cheek twitched. It was just habit! It wasn't l-like I did it on purpose! This was the only natural result of human interaction, imprinting and taking on the faint impressions we had of other people. And all that tactical and strategic planning, it reminded me of the scenarios Utahime-sensei used as discussion and theoretical preparation for infield missions. Ugh. Just take the compliment, you sulky broody b-baka!

Click to shrink...

I like that Utahime has been shown to influence him and that he treasures his memories of his time in Kyoto.

"Exactly," Mai added, "That's like saying we're buddy buddy with… Todo."

"As crude as you put it, Mai-san, I agree with the sentiment."

"..." Slowly, everyone's eyes turned to me.

I looked away. What a particularly interesting construction of materials this house was made of, very… house-y. Truly, I had never seen something that was more like house-adjacent and house-lite in all my houses.

Click to shrink...

Hachiman is bros with Todo and he's willing to admit it to himself.

Itadori repeated, in the exact same monotone. "Like I said. You guys are pretty close." It sounded a bit wistful, a little envious.

Idiot.

If you wanted something, then reach for it.

Click to shrink...

Yuji wants what Hachiman has which is a lot of friends who care for him. Hachiman's thoughts about if you want something you should reach for it shows the mindset he's devloped.

The hammer slammed into the wooden beam, cracking it as splinters of wood, minuscule, nearly invisible in their smallness, slivers rained against the long weeds. So-tan's mother carefully pried rusting nails, and dropping them in a bucket, bleeding orange, replaced them with a deft, experienced hand. "A shrine… A Kami, we worshiped."

Click to shrink...

That Kami is likely a Curse.

"... what, what is this?" Itadori asked, not truly asking, but simply attempting verbalizing his non-understanding. His nose wrinkled, and his voice wavered as if about to retch.

Neither Mai, Kamo, nor I had the urge to do the same. Too familiar with the smell of human excrement after brutal death. Yet all the same, I couldn't find an answer to his question. It was only human cruelty, only the disgustingly vivid macabre joy of the twisted, where the sick had beaten their god to death, but this… The ropes, the incense, the over-tang of salt on the air.

The weak slaughtered the strong.

Click to shrink...

Damn that's messed up and it shows that Hachiman, Mai and Kamo are familiar with this kind of stuff while Yuji very much isn't.

If Zen'in Naoya couldn't be reasoned with, and in all likelihood he wouldn't be, I'd force everyone else to immediately abandon the mission, damn the consequences. If it were only Kamo and myself, a Second grade sorcerer and a First grade, that'd be ludicrous to even suggest, but with Itadori, too fresh to be anything but a liability, and Mai, in much the same boat, and with the villagers already compromised…

Retreat was the only logical answer.

A curse with unknown, yet visibly depraved abilities, an unsafe location, and too much collateral that could turn on us at any moment, Sorcerers were the same. Just human, just as easily worn thin. There were too many possibilities to even estimate what the curse could do, beyond a clear destabilizing effect on the village, and still… still, not a trace of it's cursed energy or even a sighting of it. The chameleon(isolation) curse I had once fought had a similar ability, hiding in plain sight with it masking its own presence in the brutalization of Tsurumi Rumi, but the cursed energy around the village was too low for me to make that same mistake.

Where was it? Had it already left? What was its cursed technique to cause that scene at the shrine…

Not alone, but separated in the dark, we all thought on these questions over and over and over until they devolved into meaningless static.

Click to shrink...

Hachiman made the right call here but he really hates that he has to make that call. Also he's very aware just how horrible the situation is.

 

[ArtemisAvant]

The Truth Is, He Never Understood (6.6)

…​

Honestly, being the catch-all prison for some old geezer with a worse attitude than your average 5 am grocery bagger wasn't so bad. Besides the dreams of constant decapitation where this Sukuna dude released his pent up whining about all of Yuji's life choices, it really wasn't so bad. Sukuna mostly kept to himself and from some of the stories he's heard from his friends, he could have worse roommates. Yuji's had weirder dreams come to think of it. Like that one with the exploding blood which then transitioned to mom taking what probably was his diaper then zipping it up in a plastic baggie with the same expression of what you might expect from a dead mom. Blank. Surgically clinical. Like an autopsy!

Yuji's been having a pretty great time out here, considering. Sure, he was fairly certain all his rival senpais were allergic to human contact, and the types to isolate at the drop of a hat— looking at you, Fushiguro, Yuji hadn't forgotten his 'self-proclaimed' best friend in waiting!

Well, all, except Mai, but she was kinda a bitch. Kinda a bitch in the same way, a stick was a piece of wood… she obviously had reasons for it, and honestly?, Yuji easily imagined himself being just as awful as her if she had to live with that Naoya-ass her whole life, like as a defensive mechanism or whatever. But still he thought, profoundly, that doesn't really excuse her behavior, does it?

Kamo had a stick up his ass a kilometer long, but that was okay, Yuji could easily run that in a minute. Pretty cute that for all that his fancy schmanciness, the dude was clearly very lonely. Sagely, Yuji had nodded to himself and resolved that he should introduce Kamo to the wonders of online gaming. That way he could take the time to type out and carefully police his response before ever saying anything; Not a bad idea if Yuji'd say so.

Hikio-gaya whatever-his-name-was Hachiman had the exact opposite sort of problem from the rest of them. Beyond looking like he walked out of a Yakuza cosplay, Yuji reckoned the guy was trying to play up the reasonable, responsible and reliable mentor figure– but couldn't decide he wanted to dissect Yuji down to his bare essentials or join in with Mai's bitchiness or just sleep for a year. A loner that wasn't alone. Kinda the same vibes of Fushiguro actually.

"Itadori, you ready to head out?" Thin, dark eyes hung steady onto Yuji's own, who met them without hesitation, even as the scarred and strangely marked flesh on his face looked all the more worse with the panda thick bags under them. Still, Yuji would give the weird guy this, he could be damn cool. Even if that cool seemed more like the calm of an unrepentant murderer, occasionally. But since Gojo-sensei was also totally cheerful about the fact he'd kill Yuji one day, no remorse, that was probably just a quirk of strong sorcerers…

A little scary to think Goju-sensei wanted him to be that one day.

Yuji gave a lazy salute that may or may not have whacked his cheek instead of his forehead, right on the eyebags, oowwww. "I'll be in your care, senpai."

"Haven't you always been. Call it a binding vow even." Hikio replied without hesitation, the slight curl to his lip showing how much of a bastard he was. This guy and Mai, they really were, how did Kugisaki put it? Right, 'cut from the same cloth'. So naturally… naturally…

Yuji glanced over to Mai, seeing out of the corner of his eye, Hikigaya doing the same, huh. No snarky comment?

She blinked. "... what."

Still in the periphery, Hikigaya's eyes narrowed, but nothing came out of his increasingly severe frown. In that case, Yuji would ask for the both of them. He challenged, "Got nothing to say?"

In the space meant to be filled with her rude comments, the drip drip of the disgusting humidity only got worse, and the phlegm clogging throats made a wheezy, low breathing noise mix with the rustling of leaves. It was so hot, and the air so thick, it felt like, ugh, someone was pressing overheated skin directly to his own.

She rubbed at her arms, a dark look crossing her face. She sighed. "Nothing. Mind your own business."

It was not nothing.

That, even Itadori Yuji could see, as plain as day.

…

"Hey, you got a little something here," Yuji pointed at the spot of red at Hikigaya's temple, either a pimple or another mosquito bite.

Though it wasn't really a spot, more like a uniform pattern of red dots, like he fell asleep on a hairbrush and the needles left an imprint. Maybe it was a squad of mosquitoes? Those things were everywhere here, but like, Yuji hadn't seen any trace of this hot spring that was supposed to be around here? Mosquitoes liked humidity right? Maybe it was because they had been pretty busy… chasing down this unknown curse(don't think, don't think about that shrine) and planning around Yuji's upcoming assassination by that douchey asshole that kind of looking like Fushiguro, if you had bad eyes.

Even now they were walking to that house to organize a retreat. Which felt like running away, and party of Yuji burned to know it was because of him, but at the same time… there was something deeply fucked with what happened at that shrine. He'd assume it was just a Sorcerer thing, some kind of sudden throw into the deep end, if not that everyone, including his rival senpais, seemed out of it and bewildered cause of it. This was not normal Sorcerer Curse Shit.

At least that he could use that to comfort himself when they left these people in the presence of something they didn't understand either.

Fishy-looking eyes flicked over to Yuji's neck. "So do you. Kamo really didn't hold back, didn't he? With your constitution, I'd have thought it would have already healed."

Slowly, Yuji squinted. "Why are you talking about me like I'm an alien. Also," Kamo? What did Kamo have to do with a mark on his neck? "What are you talking about? He didn't, do, anything?" Did he get bitten by a bug too?

"...What." The full force of Hikigaya's attention zeroed in on him, and involuntarily, Yuji felt himself gulp at the intensity.

But by then, Zen'in Naoya was already advancing down from that creepy dude's, So-tan and his even creepier mother, house. Walking at a hurried pace, and the arrogant sneer wiped from his smug face, his eyes practically blazing.

Hikigaya took one look at that, cursed softly under his breath, and swept his arm to push Yuji back.

"Where is that pathetic Kamo brat?"

"I should be asking you that, Zen'in." Yuji shivered, that was some animosity towards that family name. Jeez, He sounded like he wanted to kill every last one of them. Hikigaya stepped forward, one hand on the hilt of his katana. It felt like something was rising in the air, that the tension that had been there under the surface, had finally been unveiled.

Naoya stared, at that hand, a smarmy, sharp grin working his way on his features. "So that's how it is? Sending Kamo down for reinforcements, or… did you kill him because he knew the right choice…"

Were they going to fight here? In the middle of the village? Sure, there was something obviously wrong with the people here, but that didn't mean you guys could immediately start duking it out! Yuji didn't even register Naoya's ludicrous claim that Hikigaya killed Kamo, didn't even acknowledge it for a second before erasing it from his brain.

"I don't know what you're talking about…" A sickly smile, "Unlike you, I don't need to kill people I disagree with. Only animals, only savage rabid monkeys, do that." Coldly, Hikigaya asked, "So what did you do with Kamo, you shit-slinging trash."

Naoya looked perplexed, honestly bemused. "Are you… seriously threatening me? Have you forgotten who's at your back? Her, and Sukuna's vessel? You may have killed those dying elders before, but do you really think you can fight me alone?"

The first thought: Fuck Hikigaya really did kill people.

"I haven't forgotten a thing," Yuji startled, restless, feeling a desperate need to say something, anything, but without the words to say, should he cheer his senpai on, or tell him and Naoya to stop? Hikigaya didn't have the same problem. "... if neither of us know where Kamo is, this is pointless." His hand on the sword hilt didn't relax, but the tension in the air, the cursed energy Yuji realized, lowered from its breaking point. Hikigaya gritted his teeth, swallowing a tirade back.

"We need to find him, as soon as possible." With difficulty, and Yuji could see it, every taut line in his back, the back that turned on Zen'in Naoya. Hikigaya began to walk away, and Yuji, in that moment, relaxed a little—

An airy sigh, the tension in Zen'in Naoya relaxing as well.

He closed his eyes. "Well… I was tired of waiting anyway."

He moved. Too fast for Yuji to see anything but brief flickers of still images, and even as twice as slow, Hikigaya's sword still flashed out, but Naoya had already his foot buried in the hollow of the knee, one hand easily angling the weapon away from himself, and the other preparing to slam Hikigaya's head into the ground.

Then Hikigaya exploded.

And, naturally, everything went to hell.

…

I sprinted at the fallen Naoya, stunned after my hasty applying of Phase Shift: Reactive Armor shot him backwards.

If my understanding of his cursed technique was correct, he'd be too disoriented to immediately program in those 24 frames! That was one of the two weaknesses of any technique. The human Self and the Enemy. I seized him by the forehead, my fingers digging into his skull, and thrust his head into the beam that blind mother had shattered her fingers on. Further disorientation, increase vulnerability and exploit weakness. How many sorcerers died to my hands. How many more.

No, that wasn't right. How many Monkeys will.

"Cursed Technique Application: Disrupt—" Blackness. Void. Suddenly the person I was about to kill stared up at me, involuntarily, my breath left me. My Cursed Technique flailed and fell apart before it could act. Kamo… ? My vision flickered again, like a bad connection, and my right temple cried out as a foot connected with it and sent me spinning through the air to land disgracefully in the ruined stones.

"Trying to kill me, ME?! You bloodthirsty savage! You wretch!" He laughed, the loud noise shaking in my head, as contrasting images swam between my eyes, the burnt skin from my temple scraped off from how fast his foot had hit me. In the right eye, where a thin film of red distorted the image, I saw Zen'in Naoya hands on his hair cackling like a lunatic, and in the glassy left, I still saw that impossible image. Kamo.

Hallucination? No, someone was manipulating my perception. Not someone, a Curse.

How long… had I been under the effect of the Curse? The reddened skin on Itadori's neck walking under the misty boughs, So-tan scratching at his neck, the blind mother's skin disease, the spots on my own face that Itadori had pointed out… Marked. We were all marked.

Compromised.

As I forced myself up, I felt weight, a foot rested on my head. Muddy dirt and earthworms wriggling my hair. Zen'in Naoya stood on my head, shadowed by the clouded sun. "Are you trying to get up?" Kindly, "Here, let me help." He stomped down, my head shattering into brief unconsciousness again.

Concentration broken, cursed energy reserve high, activation time too slow, my only option then. My mouth thick with dirt, I flooded my fingers with my cursed technique, and bursting it forward, grabbed ahold of Zen'in Naoya's ankle, and clenched.

Cripple him.

"You fucking beast!" But his foot slipped out of my hand, and his heel slammed down on the fragile delicate intricate construction of my metacarpals, grinding them into the stone. "How vicious, how insolent!" He sounded elated, drunk. "Is that how you clawed your way into becoming the Second Sorcerer Killer? Come on," His hands gripped at my shoulders bruising tight and lifted me up, "Show me more! Make me work for it!"

I spat at him, lunging forward despite the image in my head and went to strangle him. Easily, gliding through my slowed, disoriented movement, he batted them aside and pushed me back.

What had I said? There were two weaknesses in a technique, the enemy… and the self. Momentary shock, capitalized into cascading failure.

As much of an asshole as he was, he was right. Off balance like this, head spinning and blood blinding my eyes, I would die. To him, or the Curse lurking in the background. The situation was unattainable, no win condition, not like this.

I sucked in a breath. Suddenly, I shouted, "Itadori! Mai! The Curse is nearby, don't trust your eyes!" That was all I could give them. With that, my full attention narrowed down onto the corpse in front of me.

"What on earth are you talking about?" Naoya stood languidly in the middle of the village, where anyone could see him perform impossible feats. Any secrecy or concern for the non-sorcerers' psyches and exposure to curses had long gone out the window. "Did I hit you too hard already?"

Arguing with him was pointless, communication a dead end. He was too wrapped up in himself to even entertain the thought a curse was nearby, not when he already determined for himself there wasn't. The curse too, too clever by far. Similarly to Zen'in Naoya who wished to use the exorcism as a distraction to kill Itadori Yuji, the curse likely wished to use our rising tensions and infighting to weaken us in order to then kill and entrap us all in its manipulation. That was why Kamo was missing, it targeted him knowing that the lack of trust between us would descend into a fight. A fight would have taken place anyway, but now it was a fight that exhausted the sorcerers and benefited the Curse no matter the result. Thus, I needed to finish this as quickly as possible to assist Mai, and Itadori.

Was Kamo dead? Had I… killed another? Because of my weakness?

"Oh my, you really are out of it." What— I felt my stomach go concave, lagging behind where Naoya's fist had nearly buried itself in my rupturing vital organs, and for a brief moment was lifted high in the air, another three, five blows onto my abdomen, before a lazy kick sent my body stuck in that slowed time rocketing towards a house. Accumulated kinetic energy in those frames redirected into one direction.

Before I could pull myself out of the splintered wood, and extricate myself from the shattered glass, a fist was already sending my head bouncing up off the pointed ground, sending shards into my face, and then back again deeper as another fist bounced my head up and down like a ball.

I had underestimated his speed. The sheer bullshit of his Cursed Technique. 24 frames in a second did not sound particularly fast compared to something like a high speed camera, but if the average reaction speed stayed around 200 milliseconds or 12-18 frames, and my own hovered around 16, the more I was disoriented and reeling, the more my reaction speed fell into disarray and the more actions Zen'in Naoya could take to further reduce and eventually cripple my movements.

A viscously negative cycle.

"... I suppose you are counting on someone else to save you? That's the reason why, right? For your pathetic performance here. Now that I think about it, what is actually your track record? The elderly and women?" He tutted. Lecturing, "That's not strength."

I hissed out through bleeding teeth, "What's… yours? A catalog of people who can't fight back?"

He kicked me hard enough to split one of my ribs in half, leaving me gasping, coughing as the broken bone squirmed in my body.

This quickly— it only had been less than five minutes, but I was already this injured?! I just couldn't fight back against his speed, I was just too slow. Stop, Stop. Stop it! That was useless, thinking only of my failures only led to more failures, I needed to think of a solution. Think. He rolled his foot on my head. Think, pushing it bloody into the splinters and glass shards.

He said, smugly, "Include yourself in that too."

I wanted to… I wanted to tear out his throat, ram my katana through his skull. Break his legs, crush his organs. Feel my fingers slip in his grey matter. I wouldn't use Phase Shift.. Not until the end. So that not even ashes would be left. Distantly, my mind imagined it in vivid imagination. A desire. A reason. This was not revenge, this was not idealism, this was a grudge born from inherent dislike magnified into hatred and pronounced by actions.

I just needed a way to make what I wanted into reality.

He lit up at the look in my eye, no longer flinching back. "You look like you want to kill me. As if that was everything that matters to you." But then, his expression darkened, at the sound of a footstep on wood, someone had entered the room. Realization looked ugly on him. "Is… it because of her?"

Mai? She stood stiffly in the house we had crashed into, her revolver still in her hands. What was she doing here?! What happened to Itadori? Was this an illusion? But if both Naoya and I saw it, and I heard her footstep on wood, it had to be real. Right?

Then what was she doing here? Did she think, she'd be better be able to help here, or was this... her way of saying she was leaving Itadori Yuji to his fate.

Naoya made a noise of disbelief. "For Zen'in Mai? Really?"

"Naoya. Don't." Mai spoke, her voice soft, monotone.

"Shut up, you, I'm talking to him."

Instead of answering such a pointless question or listening to this again or spinning around pointless questions in my own aching head, I pulled myself up.

"Do you even know, of course you wouldn't, of course!" A syrupy sweet tone, but delighted in its honesty. "As one man to another, I'll give you some advice. There's nothing worth caring for in that woman."

On unsteady feet, I stood, glaring at Naoya as he spouted off nonsense. "That's…" I inhaled, furious. "Something I'll decide for myself." In the corner of my eye, I saw someone flinch.

Casually, uncaringly cruel. "She's broken, you know. Utterly worthless goods, second hand in every way." No flinch, no reaction. As if that was true. As if it didn't even surprise her.

I pulled the sheath and katana from my hip, taking it with both hands. The sword that had stabbed into me more times than I should have survived, the sword that had been stolen and had been returned only to be stolen again. I had taken it as a legacy, a reminder.

I exhaled. Utauken stilled in my grip, my left hand mangled yes, but my right was able and willing. "Spare me the reasons to kill you, Naoya. I don't need any more."

Why Mai was here and not assisting with exorcizing the Curse or moving to attack Zen'in Naoya, what happened to Itadori and Kamo, I put it all out of mind. Point and aim, there was a corpse in front of you, put it to rest. Never leave a curse.

The rest would come later.

Genuine confusion appeared on his face. Like he couldn't understand— "Are you… You are… you're misunderstanding me. You actually think I would lay with that? That anyone would?"

I stopped before I could begin. Utauken remained in its sheath, and my focus cracked. Slipping between Zen'in Naoya and Mai.

Incongruity. A fundamental mistake. Somewhere, somewhen, a misunderstanding was made. "What… what are you talking about." My eyes, as if drawn by some terrible force, pulled to Mai's terrifyingly empty face. I couldn't tell what she was thinking not at all. She had let her hair down, in preparation for the ensuing conflict, long, in disarray, and their curling frenzy only tamed by those glasses. "Mai?"

She looked away. Went to speak to Naoya instead of to me, opened her mouth. And I saw, in excruciating detail, as she realized it would be pointless. That nothing she could say would convince him to stop. That whatever would be soon revealed could not be undone.

So in the end, I was forced to hear, forced to think. If, if even that was not what he had been implying. Then what was?

The thing I had ignored, the flaw I refused to understand. The people who couldn't be saved… was not the dead, the ones who already gave up, but also the ones who had already…

"Zen'in Mai killed her first man the day Zen'in Maki left." The words could be unheard, they could not be taken back and in their new existence, they demanded me to listen.

Naoya said, calmly. Using the same tone you might use to explain a particularly simple concept to a helpless child.

He wasn't done.

"Poison. We didn't even know she had a Cursed Technique before that, so to learn that one half of those misfortunates was born with Construction of all things? What an irony. What a hilarious shame for the clan."

I… had wondered, how exactly had the Zen'in Clan determined that she had Construction? But at the time, dismissed the thought as unimportant. rationalized the question away. I stared at Mai, searching for any sign of a lie, any sign of, of anything.

She just stood there. She just had her eyes closed there, like a stringless puppet.

"Mai was punished naturally, oh father was furious, furious and roaring with laughter." This was why the Zen'in Clan never overly concerned themselves with Maki. Why even though a user of heavenly restriction(Fushiguro Toji) had been proven to even match a fledgling user of limitless and the six eyes, they did not care. They were waiting for Maki to die… so that Mai could become their golden goose. Why care about some traitor who left the clan proclaiming to come back and destroy it, when their twin had already started destroying(killing).

"She killed her second during her disciplining, pretending her gun was unloaded and then fired her phantom seventh bullet into their head."

How young… was Mai? The morality that rotted away in her, by her own hands or by the Zen'in? People didn't come out of terrible situations cookie-cutter perfect, they hardly came out whole at all. Then at the very first moment I learned of the depths of the Zen'in clan, I should have realized the fatal inconsistency of Zen'in Mai. Sure, she was cruel, sure she was every bit unkind, but comparably… she was impossibly normal. Insincerity leaked from every saccharine cruelty she spit out, but when you set her against the rest of us…

It should have been obvious who was lying.

Naoya looked faintly approving, wistful even. "A natural born murderer. Honestly," he shook his head, held out his hands as if to say 'what can you do'. "I couldn't even believe it myself when I first heard it? Mai? That dumb serving girl? The help? So I took my own look."

"...stop." Who said it, me or her, I couldn't tell. Maybe it was both of us.

He didn't. "There she was, beaten so badly that her face was nothing more than a collection of purple and yellow, infections all over. What a pitiful thing, I had thought. Laying so still in her cell, I remember thinking the flies growing from her wound had eaten her whole."

To do that, that would have been inviting death on a silver platter. She should be dead. 'They thought I was dead, a stillborn... maybe I was'.

Naoya was never done. "I didn't know at the time, but this was the third attempted murder's punishment. Once, to show her potential, twice to show her fangs, but nearly thrice? And a member of the Hei nonetheless? Her own father? She killed him all but name, made him impotent." He sighed, shrugging. "Father had already given up on her, you see. A wild animal, impossible to control. Impossible to understand! Simply not worth it anymore."

Once upon a time, I thought to myself proudly, foolishly, that Zen'in Mai would not have asked for such simple wishes. And assumed that her secret, third and final wish was to leave the Zen'in Clan, to stop being a sorcerer altogether despite her never asking for it. Live the life she always wanted.

She hated this world, that couldn't be only my assumption. Could it? That was the fragile shred of connection that bound Zen'in Mai and Hikigaya Hachiman together. Our shared antipathy towards this mirror world. Towards the whole of Jujutsu Society.

But that was right, wasn't it? To Mai… she did not take bets. She didn't compromise. She did not believe in Itadori Yuji's potential to rid the world of Ryoumen Sukuna, and she did not believe that the too dangerous should be allowed to live, not in the world that did not see curses.

I just… didn't realize that included herself.

"So I, too young to appreciate the danger, opened the cell door. Easy enough to slip the keys with my Cursed Technique, after all… I stretched out my hand to her, and her eyes opened." He recalled it, in a trance almost. But I didn't take the chance, the lapse in attention, to attack him, to stop him. I couldn't. I was just as trapped. So Naoya continued unabated. "I'll never forget it, the eyes she had," he looked down, staring at me and seeing someone else. "Just… like yours."

Her eyes were open now. Wild, unflinching, pupils fully dark so to intake all available light, so as to best plan for a method to slaughter the thing in front of her.

He quirked up his mouth, in wry remembrance. "She had coated her nails with Ricin, and tried to make me her fourth. It was only because of this technique, my inheritance that allowed me to survive. I saw it then," Something stared back from his eyes, something that could not be called human. "What she could be. Mine. Just like my inheritance, an exclusive gift to the heir of the Zen'in!"

They were all mad… every single one, twisted and warped so far from people that they couldn't even be called curses, not even monkeys… just mad lunatics in clothing of nobility, no, humanity.

"So I shattered every bone in her arms, every finger bone, and every little thing in her wrists. The punishment fitting the crime, so to speak. Then, I tossed her into the Disciplinary Pit."

I had seen Mai's arms before, she… she kept them out and bare in the summer. And I saw them now. They were blemish free, but the kind of damage Naoya would have inflicted on her… scars would have been the least of the permanent effects. Even if they immediately brought her to Ieiri-san, even if said user of Reversed Cursed technique would assist the Zen'in, my own face proved that the scars would stay.

Unless… her own cursed energy? Construction required an impossible amount of cursed energy to make something from nothing, and Mai had once confessed to me that she didn't truly make a real complete bullet for her seventh shot, she reused the casing still in the chamber, the lingering gunpowder in the barrel, and only used Construction to form the actual launched bullet. Considering how small her reserves were, how, just how efficient was she with her technique?

Reversed Cursed Technique did not depend on the user's reserves, but rather their understanding and control of their cursed energy.

Or, the other possibility, Ieiri Shoko knew of this mistreatment and healed Zen'in Mai…

A blissful smile, a dreamy expression. "It took only four days in there to break her. No one else!" he declared, pounding at his chest, imagining past doubters before him. "No one else thought she'd have survived it, not with the curses in there that'd kill even a second grade, but I did! I knew she would." Conversationally, he added, like we were friends, as if he truly liked me. "She screamed for the first night, you know, to pretend she was hurt, like a mountain lion imitating the cries of an injured woman." Naoya chuckled. "She sure stopped that quickly. The second day was so quiet, I admit, even I was worried. The third, I wondered what she was eating in there. Finally the fourth, I checked."

She had told me about that pit. Never in relation to herself, but just as added context for the punishment and discipline members of the Zen'in family inflicted on themselves.

Mai. You liar.

"Mai had made her own water and food, apples, drawing enough cursed energy from her own rotting body to feed it, suppressing her presence to the point where not even a curse would think she was alive." But curses were cruel. Even towards dead, unliving things, they gnawed and chewed and bit for cruel mirth. It was simply their nature, they existed from human failure, and predated both on and with human weakness. To lay still, to the point where even a curse would think you dead, to be able to overcome the natural instinct of Curses with the reality you presented. "And when I arrived, exorcizing every curse in that pit in an instant, she looked at me with those eyes again."

The eyes of a…

"The eyes of a dead thing. " He looked rueful, almost embarrassed for himself. "I had broken her a little too much. I, heh, always was a little rough with my toys. She was basically useless after that, never using poison or complex strategies to kill those in her way after that. Just sticking to my side like a ghost." Lay still, pretend you are dead, survive.

Then… who was the Mai I had met at Kyoto Jujutsu Tech? Who was the Mai that stood in front of me now? How could the abused escape their abuser, when their very name chained them to it? Why had I never realized…

That I had never known the genuine Zen'in Mai?

Wasn't I supposed to be good at seeing through lies?

"Hikigaya Hachiman. You can't save the dead. There's nothing to avenge, not here, not for her." Naoya snorted.

"You could even say she did it herself already."

…

 

[drake_azathoth]

Haha, wow, every time I think there's no better reason to destroyf the Zen'in clan they just keep exceeding my expectations.

Definite overachievers when it comes to being stupid evil.

 

[TheFarBeyond]

That was painful... classic Oregairu pain combined with Zen'in jerkassery, oof.

Now, kill him. There's time to mop or talk to her later, once this monkey's dead, or turned into non-sorcerer. Don't even think of allowing him to turn into a Curse either.

 

[doge]

The first thought: Fuck Hikigaya really did kill people.
....
"I should be asking you that, Zen'in." Yuji shivered, that was some animosity towards that family name. Jeez, He sounded like he wanted to kill every last one of them.

Click to shrink...

Well, Yuji finally realized that.

"Cursed Technique Application: Disrupt—" Blackness. Void. Suddenly the person I was about to kill stared up at me, involuntarily, my breath left me. My Cursed Technique flailed and fell apart before it could act. Kamo… ? My vision flickered again, like a bad connection, and my right temple cried out as a foot connected with it and sent me spinning through the air to land disgracefully in the ruined stones.

Click to shrink...

Kamo's technique or the curse interfering here? Either way, this is where Naoya probably would've lost otherwise

Kind of strange that nobody else jumped in while Naoya was talking too, I'm guessing they're all in a domain.

24 frames in a second did not sound particularly fast compared to something like a high speed camera, but if the average reaction speed stayed round 200 milliseconds or 12-18 frames, and my own hovered around 16

Click to shrink...

round -> around?

also if 200 milliseconds is 0.2 seconds and there's 24 frames per seconds, that implies the average reaction speed is 0.2 * 24 or ~4.8 frames unless there's something about the technique that doesn't map seconds/frames linearly?

 

[ArcanaVitae]

Well, all, except Mai, but she was kinda a bitch. Kinda a bitch in the same way, a stick was a piece of wood… she obviously had reasons for it, and honestly?, Yuji easily imagined himself being just as awful as her if she had to live with that Naoya-ass her whole life, like as a defensive mechanism or whatever. But still he thought, profoundly, that doesn't really excuse her behavior, does it?

Click to shrink...

Yuiji is really observant about social stuff.

Hikio-gaya whatever-his-name-was Hachiman had the exact opposite sort of problem from the rest of them. Beyond looking like he walked out of a Yakuza cosplay, Yuji reckoned the guy was trying to play up the reasonable, responsible and reliable mentor figure– but couldn't decide he wanted to dissect Yuji down to his bare essentials or join in with Mai's bitchiness or just sleep for a year. A loner that wasn't alone. Kinda the same vibes of Fushiguro actually.

Click to shrink...

He has a really good read on Hachiman, the loner who isn't alone is a good description.

"Itadori, you ready to head out?" Thin, dark eyes hung steady onto Yuji's own, who met them without hesitation, even as the scarred and strangely marked flesh on his face looked all the more worse with the panda thick bags under them. Still, Yuji would give the weird guy this, he could be damn cool. Even if that cool seemed more like the calm of an unrepentant murderer, occasionally. But since Gojo-sensei was also totally cheerful about the fact he'd kill Yuji one day, no remorse, that was probably just a quirk of strong sorcerers…

A little scary to think Goju-sensei wanted him to be that one day.

Click to shrink...

Yuji thinking that Hachiman is cool but not wanting to be like him and Gojo is sad since that's how he's going to end up.

Even now they were walking to that house to organize a retreat. Which felt like running away, and party of Yuji burned to know it was because of him, but at the same time… there was something deeply fucked with what happened at that shrine. He'd assume it was just a Sorcerer thing, some kind of sudden throw into the deep end, if not that everyone, including his rival senpais, seemed out of it and bewildered cause of it. This was not normal Sorcerer Curse Shit.

Click to shrink...

Spot on Yuji, good instincts.

"I don't know what you're talking about…" A sickly smile, "Unlike you, I don't need to kill people I disagree with. Only animals, only savage rabid monkeys, do that." Coldly, Hikigaya asked, "So what did you do with Kamo, you shit-slinging trash."

Naoya looked perplexed, honestly bemused. "Are you… seriously threatening me? Have you forgotten who's at your back? Her, and Sukuna's vessel? You may have killed those dying elders before, but do you really think you can fight me alone?"

The first thought: Fuck Hikigaya really did kill people.

Click to shrink...

Yuji is starting to understand that Hachiman is a beast.

I sprinted at the fallen Naoya, stunned after my hasty applying of Phase Shift: Reactive Armor shot him backwards.

If my understanding of his cursed technique was correct, he'd be too disoriented to immediately program in those 24 frames! That was one of the two weaknesses of any technique. The human Self and the Enemy. I seized him by the forehead, my fingers digging into his skull, and thrust his head into the beam that blind mother had shattered her fingers on. Further disorientation, increase vulnerability and exploit weakness. How many sorcerers died to my hands. How many more.

No, that wasn't right. How many Monkeys will.

Click to shrink...

Damn Hachiman got the drop on Naoya with the Reactive Armor.

I sprinted at the fallen Naoya, stunned after my hasty applying of Phase Shift: Reactive Armor shot him backwards.

If my understanding of his cursed technique was correct, he'd be too disoriented to immediately program in those 24 frames! That was one of the two weaknesses of any technique. The human Self and the Enemy. I seized him by the forehead, my fingers digging into his skull, and thrust his head into the beam that blind mother had shattered her fingers on. Further disorientation, increase vulnerability and exploit weakness. How many sorcerers died to my hands. How many more.

No, that wasn't right. How many Monkeys will.

Click to shrink...

Damn Hachiman got the drop on Naoya with the Reactive Armor.

"You fucking beast!" But his foot slipped out of my hand, and his heel slammed down on the fragile delicate intricate construction of my metacarpals, grinding them into the stone. "How vicious, how insolent!" He sounded elated, drunk. "Is that how you clawed your way into becoming the Second Sorcerer Killer? Come on," His hands gripped at my shoulders bruising tight and lifted me up, "Show me more! Make me work for it!"

Click to shrink...

Naoya seems to have his own twisted respect for Hachiman given that he's basically Toji 2.0 reputation wise. Damn that's so creepy.

"Zen'in Mai killed her first man the day Zen'in Maki left." The words could be unheard, they could not be taken back and in their new existence, they demanded me to listen.

Naoya said, calmly. Using the same tone you might use to explain a particularly simple concept to a helpless child.

He wasn't done.

"Poison. We didn't even know she had a Cursed Technique before that, so to learn that one half of those misfortunates was born with Construction of all things? What an irony. What a hilarious shame for the clan."

I… had wondered, how exactly had the Zen'in Clan determined that she had Construction? But at the time, dismissed the thought as unimportant. rationalized the question away. I stared at Mai, searching for any sign of a lie, any sign of, of anything.

She just stood there. She just had her eyes closed there, like a stringless puppet.

Click to shrink...

Naoya looked faintly approving, wistful even. "A natural born murderer. Honestly," he shook his head, held out his hands as if to say 'what can you do'. "I couldn't even believe it myself when I first heard it? Mai? That dumb serving girl? The help? So I took my own look."

Click to shrink...

Naoya was never done. "I didn't know at the time, but this was the third attempted murder's punishment. Once, to show her potential, twice to show her fangs, but nearly thrice? And a member of the Hei nonetheless? Her own father? She killed him all but name, made him impotent." He sighed, shrugging. "Father had already given up on her, you see. A wild animal, impossible to control. Impossible to understand! Simply not worth it anymore."

Click to shrink...

Respect to Mai for being badass like that and getting her chunk of flesh.

"So I, too young to appreciate the danger, opened the cell door. Easy enough to slip the keys with my Cursed Technique, after all… I stretched out my hand to her, and her eyes opened." He recalled it, in a trance almost. But I didn't take the chance, the lapse in attention, to attack him, to stop him. I couldn't. I was just as trapped. So Naoya continued unabated. "I'll never forget it, the eyes she had," he looked down, staring at me and seeing someone else. "Just… like yours."

Click to shrink...

The eyes of a killer.

A blissful smile, a dreamy expression. "It took only four days in there to break her. No one else!" he declared, pounding at his chest, imagining past doubters before him. "No one else thought she'd have survived it, not with the curses in there that'd kill even a second grade, but I did! I knew she would." Conversationally, he added, like we were friends, as if he truly liked me. "She screamed for the first night, you know, to pretend she was hurt, like a mountain lion imitating the cries of an injured woman." Naoya chuckled. "She sure stopped that quickly. The second day was so quiet, I admit, even I was worried. The third, I wondered what she was eating in there. Finally the fourth, I checked."

She had told me about that pit. Never in relation to herself, but just as added context for the punishment and discipline members of the Zen'in family inflicted on themselves.

Mai. You liar.

Click to shrink...

Then… who was the Mai I had met at Kyoto Jujutsu Tech? Who was the Mai that stood in front of me now? How could the abused escape their abuser, when their very name chained them to it? Why had I never realized…

That I had never known the genuine Zen'in Mai?

Wasn't I supposed to be good at seeing through lies?

Click to shrink...

Hachiman seems to be questioning if he really knows Mai which has really shaken him.

"Hikigaya Hachiman. You can't save the dead. There's nothing to avenge, not here, not for her." Naoya snorted.

"You could even say she did it herself already."

Click to shrink...

Hachiman's hate for Naoya is now personal instead of ideological.

 

[ArtemisAvant]

An Interlude for the Empty Boulevard of Dreams (6.7)

...​

"Oh this is interesting." The Curse crooned, Sukuna splitting open Yuji's skin to spy on the surroundings before him with a haughty eye. "You can't see it, brat?" He lauded it over him, hung it over his head like a prize still dripping with condescension.

Yuji didn't really care to pay attention to his shitty roommate at a time like this, not when he was dodging the barest flickers of sensation just before something hit him hard enough to paint his skin into a constellation of bruises. Worse, and yes, it got worse, his skin was fucking peeling off.

Literally.

Every other touch this, Curse-thingy, left on him, accelerated some kind of skin-bound poison. Bumps and cysts formed and popped with yellow pus, and some patches of skin couldn't be felt at all. The other hits just sliced him apart with some kind of really fast projectile. Iron in the air, the smell of something dying, and the flash-kick of burnt flesh.

Yuji flipped over and onto Takeru's house, swiveling his head quicks for any sign of anything. A sign of disturbed dust, a splash in a puddle, he didn't know, the movements in the humidity?! A hard piercing thing shattered upon his back, and he fell nearly a story up and flat on his face.

"This lowlevel thief. It's not an illusion, at all, is it?" If you could stop being cryptic and actually provide useful, relevant information, o' king of all curses, Yuji would fucking love that. Wiping the dust from his mouth, he sprang up, his fists ready and near his face to shield any attacks. Also for insulting the Curse, you sounded almost approving there, Sukuna.

"Shut your mouth, brat. Stuck in you," Sukuna said you in the same you might describe the rotten bottom of a cesspit. Utter disgust. Completely and utterly disinterested to the point of actively despising its presence in his 'glorious' sight. "I hardly get to see anything interesting. This is the most enjoyment I've had in a millennia."

Wow. Wowsers. Did that line work for you, Sukuna?

Yuji decided to say it for everyone, "Dude, you need to get laid. Seriously, I heard if you don't use it, and you haven't for a millennia? The thing's about to fall off."

"I will salt and desecrate your grave so that not even nature would dare reclaim you." Sukuna replied, calmly.

"Love you too."

Incandescent rage and creative torture waiting for him the next time he dreamed aside, Yuji was still kind of in the middle of something. What had Sukuna said, something about him being able to see it? But how was that possible, if Yuji couldn't? Well, he supposed they didn't share eyes… no… they didn't. Currently lacking the ability to grow eyes out of any body part he wished— he tried, that was a no go— Smartly, Yuji decided against his first intrusive thought about gouging his own eyes out and hoping he'd be able to American Daredevil this curse into a coma.

Eugh… that meant he had to think, and as Kugisaki pointed, not his strong point. Yuji was humble enough to admit that. Honestly, he kind of wanted to give up on that and just start swinging. Bound to hit something at some point, right? Ooh. but what if he hit someone that wasn't that ass Naoya?

A memory, a flash of an image, Yuji standing over another boy the same age of him, but shell-shocked, staring at his fist, and how it had bent the other boy's arm to nearly stab the broken bones into that boy. He was strong. Really really, strong. That meant he could hurt people, bad. The other stuff, blame, culpability, circumstances? They didn't matter. Not in the face of when you truly hurt someone. And those weren't things that could be easily forgiven, easily be returned. The thing that lasted, the thing that couldn't be illusion. It could only be pain.

You couldn't fake that.

So what did he know about the Curse, Yuji put his thinking pose on! Hand on his chin, and one arm under that one for comfort. Sure he was leaving his body open and unprotected against the curse, but if nothing else, he trusted in his durability. Mom and dad built this body strong! It wouldn't die to something as silly as super skin cancer!

"...how are you still alive."

Yuji blinked. Sukuna quit his hissy fit, early? The last time he had pissed off the King of Curses to point of inarticulate screaming in his head— really not so bad, he had listened to death metal before— the guy hadn't deigned to grace Yuji for days.

But anyway, back to, shudder, thinking. What did he know about this curse? It made his eyes not be trusted, as Hikigaya-senpai said to both him and Mai, but since Mai fucked off somewhere, Yuji would ascribe that advice for only himself from now on. Sukuna mentioned he could see it, so it wasn't some kind of invisibility cloak stuff like in the movies, and he also said it wasn't an illusion… Hm. Wait, didn't Sukuna also call it a thief? If it was a thief. Then what was it stealing?

Nothing? Yuji felt fine, well, besides the peeling, exploding skin, but that wasn't the point. He didn't have anything missing, not that he could tell— eyes widened, a light bulb flickering in that head of his— Kamo. That son of a bitch, that curse! He stole Kamo!

Then he wasn't fighting a Curse right now, he was fighting Kamo!

"You imbecile, you're fighting both!" Huh? But Yuji didn't get much chance to devote his limited critical thinking to decipher Sukuna's words as a shape, a fist, sunk into his cheek and the force behind it sent Itadori flying and rolling painfully against the ground.

A disembodied voice, a familiar noise. Kamo. "As I thought… You will no longer deceive me, Curse! The blood I felt through my fist was human! Apologies, Itadori Yuji, the curse steals your perception and apparently, how others perceive you!"

Yuji stood up, for perhaps the fiftieth time since this 'fight' began., cracking his jaw back into place, and rubbing at the sure-to-bruise there. "No biggie, Rival. That was a good punch!" He looked up. Nothing but air. "I'd give you a high-five, but I got no idea where you're at."

"That is regrettable, Itadori-san. So let us combine our efforts to extinguish this curse as quickly as possible." Kamo said from… somewhere.

But before they could get their ass-kicking into high gear, the Curse revealed itself in truth. The illusion fell away, no, it had simply realized that further deception would be inefficient.

Emaciated, gaunt, stick thin to the point where its limbs descended into sharp points that looked nearly to the point of snapping at the slightest touch, hands and feet protruding in disturbingly long touch. It was a sick, dying thing. Naked. Weak. And… utterly foreign. It opened its mouth, a permanently gaping maw, and an ancient language spilled out, then another, and then another. Finally it landed on Japanese, but of it, a dialect that predated Yuji by long. Something closer to the patterns the sailors used in the time the Dutch arrived for trade. Closer to the time when gunfire had first thundered on this nation. Still understandable, but only just. "Seen through. Open. Perceived."

Softly, it whispered on the air, hot breath flowing out of its mouth, a thousand borrowed words on stolen air. And it struck Yuji then, the hollow realization and the details that hid the devil all along. There had never been a hot springs. There had never been oppressive humidity… all along, it had been breathing on their necks. The drip drip of leaves and moisture, its drool slipping out onto the ground.

"Long ago, they beat me away with sticks. Weak, the thing not yet me fled and cried out in despair, in cruel hunger. "

Kamo was visible now, and Yuji slowly circled closer to him, as they watched a growing tide of villagers emerge from the forest, stumbling, walking forward and unseeing of the curse. Unseeing of anything truly.

"Then… when they had silvered sticks and they rode across hills on tame beasts, they called me Divine. A holy judgment. Stigmata of the sinners."

Quietly, Sukuna echoed. "You were not a Curse born in Japan at all. No… you are… "

"They named it Leprosy. The sick who beat their hands bloody on the stones of their prisons, who walked until their feet could not walk anymore on their colonies, named me God." The Leper Curse spoke, its words knives on the wind, and its eyes wet holes in its reddened, distorted skin. This was not a Curse that had appeared ex nihilo in this sleepy mountain village, but a traveling Curse, a swarm of locusts that wandered through the lands. Impossibly ancient. Impossibly still alive.

Sukuna suddenly appeared on Yuji's face once again. "You… How many Curses have you devoured, Old Thief?"

It tilted its head, pink drool edging down its jaw and tracing the thin bones. "Any I have seen, all have been meat." Since time immemorial, humans have feared disease, that cruel, indiscriminate killer that paralyzed, ruined, and made humble even the proud. Then… naturally, there should be thousands of powerful curses with the name of Disease, and not just the feeble masses of endless chaff for the scythe of the Sorcerer. Unless of course, they already existed in, singular Curses.

Kamo gasped, his voice shaking. "The desecrated shrine… You, there was no cursed energy residuals, because of you? The Kami of the Land here, that was a Curse too, wasn't it! That was why there was no blood, and such depravity… You made them," Kamo swept his arms out, gesturing at the totality of the villagers. "Beat their own kami to death, and then you ate it."

It was not a strong curse, it was born only with the meager ability to steal other's perception, like disease stole joy. Even now, it couldn't be differentiated from the tiny flickers of cursed energy that the villagers produced. Because It had been born in a time before Gojo Satoru, because It had emerged in a time and place where only a few humans dwelled. But that was enough. That was more than enough for It to drape itself in the skins of men and animals, to taste its brethren and imprint their grudges on its flesh.

The Leper Curse: Old Thief.

…

 

[ptbptb]

Yuji decided to say it for everyone, "Dude, you need to get laid. Seriously, I heard if you don't use it, and you haven't for a millennia? The thing's about to fall off."

Click to shrink...

Next generation will have to deal with the 10 fingers, and one dingdong, of Sukuna.

Vecna is typing something...

 

[ArtemisAvant]

Next generation will have to deal with the 10 fingers, and one dingdong, of Sukuna.

Vecna is typing something...

Click to shrink...

The next Itadori Yuji like: Nah. Just Nah.

For the sake of the future, future Vessel, there are 11 fingers. Yep. 11 fingers. Totally.

 

[ArtemisAvant]

The Curses Left Behind (6.8)

…​

The things we lost, the things we gained, in these insignificant moments in my life, I learned the truths of this world. That there were none. People lied, people lied to themselves.

I knew that.

Condense, crystalize and boil down everything into its simplest form— I couldn't do that. That, of anything, proved how terribly emotionally involved I had become, separating my viscerally fluctuating mental state from the task before me was utterly impossible. Asking to do so proved to be only a waste of time. Everything was personal, and everything was intimate.

Mai had lied to me, she had weaved together a story of untruths and truths so beautifully tragic I had not bothered to inspect the splits in its seams. The dead left swinging in the wind. Tattered trust gone somewhere far away. Hilariously, so funny that it fell right into a total lack of humor, Zen'in Naoya had been the most honest one to me out of everyone. He was a disgusting, trash-filled, shitstain of a person, but he never hid that for a moment.

That. Was his arrogance.

What did I feel like doing? What did I want?

What was I looking for? Who the fuck cared.

Really, I chuckled, who the fuck cared about a worthless thing like that.

I pulled the sword from its sheath, and let the bone white sheath clatter to the ground, dragging my left hand over my torn face, and sweeping off most of the glass and splinters from my cheek, forehead and temples, I felt blood and debris (trash) settle into my hair. "... Naoya, I should thank you."

He grinned wide, buoyed up to a near giddiness at my proclamation. "Now you're getting it, Hikigaya-kun, no, we're close enough now for that, Hachiman!" You damn Zen'ins. All the same. You couldn't run from family.

He ignored Utauken, bounding over with his hand outstretched. Utterly confident. One meter away.

"I should." One half of a meter. "But I won't."

He stopped, shock contracting his features into something unpleasant.

I let a sick smile crawl onto my face, feeling that phantom memory of someone long dead smile the same at me. The too happy slant of his mouth, the semicircle smiles of his eyes, and most of all… the hatred that stayed with him all the way onto death. The imperfect smile of that woman in the rain. "You made me lose something. So to prove its meaning to myself.

"I'm going to kill you."

Utauken flashed out and impaled its way through his knee, his shin, and his foot, anchoring him to the ground. As surprise, pain painted his handsome features, my fist slammed into his cheek so hard I felt something crack underneath the force. Teeth, jaw, skull. The impact bent the space into monochrome, a black and white world where the only thing that mattered was caving in Zen'in Naoya's head with my bare hands. The only hint of color, a distant spark of red sharpened with black.

Distantly, I was aware that I had just achieved Black Flash. Presently, I couldn't give a damn.

I threw a second punch, he dodged that one, his cursed technique activating, 24 frames of pre-programmed actions beginning in the span of a single second. I targeted his vital organs, intent on bruising them from the outside, he blocked. How many frames could you devote to blocking when you had so many spaces to protect? Heart, throat, lungs, kidney, liver, groin, brain, eyes, solar plexus. 9 places to protect, I had every option, he had to do them all. With his entire body open to being attacked, the advantage swung to my favor… then, compounding on that, I used bursts of cursed energy to propel my limbs faster and faster until they became blurs even to myself and with each strike. Both of our bones rattled, both our skins bruised, and our skin split apart. Another Black Flash, easier now. Even less important.

Naoya didn't even have time to say something else, too busy trying to remove Utauken from his leg, but I just kicked at the leg to shake the blade inside it every time I thought he'd try. So, every second. Remembering the feeling of that blade vibrating in my palm, I wondered how it'd feel like cutting the bone from the inside. If it hurt.

Kamo again in my eyes, his pupils blown wide in fear. I punched. Itadori now, pink hair slicked back with red. I shattered the bridge of his nose. Mai. I punched Zen'in Naoya so hard that my own knuckles fractured and something soft popped against the bones of my fingers.

A third Black Flash.

I was going to kill him. I was killing him. Not as a curse, but as a man.

"Enough, ENOUGH!"

Something impacted my stomach, hard. I looked down. A tanto?

Strangely, I almost felt betrayed that it was there, like it simply refused to make sense in my brain. Lodged there, gently scraping the inside of my intestinal lining. I touched the hilt, feeling it shift in my insides.

I looked up.

Naoya had finally pulled out Utauken from his leg, the silver blade gleaming red in the sunlight. Just to match him, I pulled out his tanto with similar flourish, observing it's fine but simple make, before lazily flinging my blood at him. He swung out Utauken in a picture perfect slash, catching the blood from touching him. "Disgusting."

"Cursed Technique Reversal: Singularity." The hole in my stomach decided that it shouldn't exist, my knuckle knit back together, pulling the splintered pieces of bone back into place, a similar feeling burning in my ribcage, and my ruined left hand snapped back into place, squishing and making a liquid noise as blood and muscle moved around in sudden renewal, bits and pieces of dirt, glass and wood fell from my face, and skin regrew on my temple.

Well this was unfortunate.

Naoya was still alive. I had just used my reversed cursed technique and now lost access to cursed energy reinforcement. In a sense, I had just crippled myself by restoring myself. But he didn't know that. One of his legs was immobile, and his organs damaged if not ruptured by my attacks. His left eye had burst in his occipital lobe, and only his own cursed energy reinforcement was keeping him, conscious. Internal bleeding would leave him dead soon enough, this far away from any hospital and anyone else with reversed cursed technique.

He knew that. I knew that.

So the only option then was to drag me to hell with him.

Or, suddenly Naoya was in front of me, holding Utauken to my throat, hissing. "If you do not use your Reversed Cursed Technique on me, I will…" Ah, so he had done his research on my previous encounters. It'd be easy enough to determine that I had somehow healed Ui Ui in the finality of my execution of Mei Mei, ergo, a Reversed Cursed Technique capable of healing others.

His words faded to a silence. By the look in my eyes. Disbelieving.

"You're willing to go that far? You… " Naoya stared at something else, looking beyond me. A cornered animal in his eyes, spinning around in its cage. It'd do anything, try anything, latch onto the first thing it saw and bite. Never letting go.

"Fine. Let's test your determination!"

How was he going to do so? The answer was simple. Mai. He was going to hold her hostage to make me use Singularity on him.

That was fine too, he wouldn't be able to know the other stipulations of Singularity, and in fact I had planned for that.

In my planning, a possibility of using Singularity offensively had come to mind, removing his ability to use his cursed technique on himself and disabling one of his most dangerous aspects, his speed. With our current states, I'd then be able to get the drop on him as he attempted to use his speed, take advantage of his instinctive use of it, the shock of dumbness from being unable to do so, and quickly remove his hand from Utauken. Then… it would be a simple matter of dismantling his body until he died.

The choices that defined us, the tiny miniscule mistakes in a battle accumulated until they culminated in a fatal flaw that led to defeat. If you saw the world only as you wished it to be, the dissonance between reality and your own perception would just as surely drown you as deep water.

So. Like I said before, a corpse was already before me.

Naturally, I saw this proven firsthand as Zen'in Mai shot Naoya.

Directly into his only functional knee, instantly sending him and all his inertia to roll to a crumbled lump in front of her.

"Wh-what?" Naoya did not understand.

"...This .44 magnum bullet travels approximately 530 meters per second. The Cursed Technique you inherited from Zen'in Naobito divides a single second equally into 24 frames, in between each frame is about 42 milliseconds, and in that time, my bullet travels 22 meters… The fastest point to me is always in a straight line. You can dodge my reaction, but you can't dodge a bullet, Naoya."

Or in other words: he was already shot in the first frame.

Mai knelt down to look him in the eyes. Explaining it calmly, as if to a child that did not understand the question, she let out a noise like a sigh. "...I really didn't want to do this."

"Then, why?" I watched, knowing that Zen'in Naoya could get up, crawl on the ground and snatch Mai's gun to kill her, but just as I was trapped listening to him revealing the truth earlier, he was helpless to do anything but ask so as to resolve the impossibility in his mind.

Her voice tinged with something like regret. "You can't break something that is already broken, Naoya. Just as you realized something as you saw me in that cell, I realized something too. You were perfect." He made a small noise, a gasp, maybe a strangled question. "Someone so stupid as to open my cell. Then even stupider to think he was capable of using me. You were my ticket to survival." Mai cupped his face unspeakably softly, said fondly, "My seventh bullet. My poison against the clan."

I saw, in utterly clarity, the formation of realization in Zen'in Naoya's body, the shuddering, terrified truth as he understood. She had never been really afraid of him. Never afraid of what he could do to her. Mai… had never cared whether she lived or died at all. As soon as her sister left the clan. She had the knowledge that if not her, someone would destroy the Zen'in Clan.

Destroying it was the point, everything else… was a luxury.

All this time, she had an excellent counter to Zen'in Naoya's technique, the silver bullet that used his own arrogance, the belief she would never turn her gun to him. All this time, she could have killed him. God created men, a bullet sent them back.

If he believed he had power over her then she would survive, so she hid in his abuse, pretending that she was just a broken, servile thing.

This was the second incongruity of Zen'in Mai.

Zen'in Mai smiled, sweet and a little sadly. "You always were so pretty when you cried. Always pathetically. So very Ugly. So ugly, you looked a little cute." Quietly, she lifted her revolver to his head. Just a mundane tool. Just a man-made, fashioned with machines, and cared for by human hands, a weapon without a cursed technique. Just the sheath of cursed energy wrapped around a bullet.

She gently squeezed the trigger.

Red splattered out and everything was quiet.

In the seconds that stretched into eternities. I observed as Zen'in Mai stood up, took a calm breath, swept the dust off her knees, and reloaded her revolver. Two casings clinking softly onto the ground like brass bells. Finally, she hesitated, but clenching her hands pale, tried to look me in the eyes.

She couldn't.

Neither could I.

Slowly, I made my way to where the bone-white sheath had fallen, picked it up, and went to where Naoya's corpse lay, and then a bit further, where Utauken had fallen out his grip. I didn't sheath it. Despite the quiet outside, telling me that whatever Curse there had been, either Itadori had somehow exorcized it or… everyone was already dead outside. Each movement a choking gasp, each unsaid word a strangled story.

Eventually. "Aren't you going to kill me too."

"Don't try to joke. Hachiman. It's not funny."

She was right. There… really was nothing funny about it at all. Her words were rote, just the long worn habits we had carved into ourselves. Robotic and automatic.

What was it that she said, I'm not like those weaklings. I know when to bend my neck?

What a liar.

And what had I responded with, Forget it? Not even a binding vow would make me trust your word?

Two fucking peas in a pod.

"Why… didn't you tell me?" Pathetically cliche, disgustingly vulnerable, but still. It must be asked. It must be said.

Did she think I would care? That she murdered those monkeys? Her methods? I almost wished them still alive so I could burn them alive. We both were killers, always going to be killers, judgment on either of our parts for something as concrete as that, would be pathetic. Did she think I would condemn her for slaying those who hurt her, who trampled on the weak and lauded themselves as strong? Better that than Hikigaya Hachiman who grew up safe under Geto Suguruu's philosophy of eradicating the weak. No… she knew the answers to those questions already.

Then what was the purpose of keeping of the ruse?

Mai held her arm, replied as callous as she could manage, even as her voice cracked. "You lied too. So… It was," She sucked in a breath, her voice hitched, raw. "What else could I do?" She asked, truly, asked what else she could have done.

The worst thing, I understood. They made sense, and only made sense to the two of us.

In order to keep this fragile facade of normalcy, in order to not shatter me and be shattered in turn. We lied. She lied. I understood, oh I understood the all-encompassing fear of being perceived, the agony of hiding it all for the sake of the nameless fire that drove you forward. That was, afterall, how I killed those monkeys and how I survived. It became habit, it became your shield, it became your first knife and the one that you threw first in any situation.

It became you.

When falsity became necessity to live, did lies become blameless? Did secrecy become the only choice? There was no other way to survive, to live, so Mai lied.

"I don't know." I didn't know the answer. I, it seemed, didn't know anything at all. Cruelly, my mouth shaped the words I couldn't vocalize even to myself. "How did it feel? Seeing how proudly I tried while I couldn't even see through you."

But in the end. Hikigaya Hachiman was never all that good at lying. He… just didn't have the stomach for it. It could be said then. In that regard, Zen'in Mai proved herself to be stronger than me.

She took my justified venom well. Smiling, flecks of blood stained on her glasses, Mai curved her eyes until it looked painful. "Terrible. It felt awful. I hated everything about it."

"Good." I allowed myself another injury, letting out a sigh into the clearing air, no longer drenched in humidity.

Was that enough? Could I even, rationally, right now, even declare that for myself? I would not be blinded by her past, by the circumstances that created her, the choices she had made were all her own. The horror and madness of the Zen'in Clan defined her, but they did not survive her. That was both my kindness in seeing Zen'in Mai for who she was, and my ruthlessness in refusing for her to be automatically forgiven for the same reason. That wasn't how it worked, you didn't get to blame it all on someone else, and be your own person. In the end, you had to be everything you were. All the mistakes and all the goods.

The past would catch up, the secrets would come to light, and we all had to exist in the world. For better or for worse.

I put Utauken back into its sheath, and began to make my way out of this broken home.

I didn't look back. I couldn't. This much, this was all I could do currently.

Whatever would come after… would come after.

…

A.N.

I'd like to invite you to think about the parallels of Hachiman using Mai's revolver to reveal his true technique back in Volume 1. We call that, Foreshadowing.

 

[TheFarBeyond]

Get fucked, Zen'in filth.

Edit: also, 3x black flashes already? We have 5 more to go for 8x next time, 8man.

 

[ArcanaVitae]

Yuji didn't really care to pay attention to his shitty roommate at a time like this, not when he was dodging the barest flickers of sensation just before something hit him hard enough to paint his skin into a constellation of bruises. Worse, and yes, it got worse, his skin was fucking peeling off.

Literally.

Every other touch this, Curse-thingy, left on him, accelerated some kind of skin-bound poison. Bumps and cysts formed and popped with yellow pus, and some patches of skin couldn't be felt at all. The other hits just sliced him apart with some kind of really fast projectile. Iron in the air, the smell of something dying, and the flash-kick of burnt flesh.

Click to shrink...

Damn that's a pretty vicious attack that would likely wreck someone that isn't Yuji.

Yuji decided to say it for everyone, "Dude, you need to get laid. Seriously, I heard if you don't use it, and you haven't for a millennia? The thing's about to fall off."

"I will salt and desecrate your grave so that not even nature would dare reclaim you." Sukuna replied, calmly.

"Love you too."

Click to shrink...

Holy shit Yuji you're out here taunting Cthulu which is your natural habitat but goddamn.

A memory, a flash of an image, Yuji standing over another boy the same age of him, but shell-shocked, staring at his fist, and how it had bent the other boy's arm to nearly stab the broken bones into that boy. He was strong. Really really, strong. That meant he could hurt people, bad. The other stuff, blame, culpability, circumstances? They didn't matter. Not in the face of when you truly hurt someone. And those weren't things that could be easily forgiven, easily be returned. The thing that lasted, the thing that couldn't be illusion. It could only be pain.

You couldn't fake that.

Click to shrink...

Yuji accidentally hurting someone really badly when he was younger and having that deeply effect him makes sense, he's just to physically superior to not have hurt someone while he was a kid.

Quietly, Sukuna echoed. "You were not a Curse born in Japan at all. No… you are… "

"They named it Leprosy. The sick who beat their hands bloody on the stones of their prisons, who walked until their feet could not walk anymore on their colonies, named me God." The Leper Curse spoke, its words knives on the wind, and its eyes wet holes in its reddened, distorted skin. This was not a Curse that had appeared ex nihilo in this sleepy mountain village, but a traveling Curse, a swarm of locusts that wandered through the lands. Impossibly ancient. Impossibly still alive.

Sukuna suddenly appeared on Yuji's face once again. "You… How many Curses have you devoured, Old Thief?"

It tilted its head, pink drool edging down its jaw and tracing the thin bones. "Any I have seen, all have been meat." Since time immemorial, humans have feared disease, that cruel, indiscriminate killer that paralyzed, ruined, and made humble even the proud. Then… naturally, there should be thousands of powerful curses with the name of Disease, and not just the feeble masses of endless chaff for the scythe of the Sorcerer. Unless of course, they already existed in, singular Curses.

Click to shrink...

Old Thief is an old monster and Sukuna can respect that because it's meant he's lived for a really really really long time.

It was not a strong curse, it was born only with the meager ability to steal other's perception, like disease stole joy. Even now, it couldn't be differentiated from the tiny flickers of cursed energy that the villagers produced. Because It had been born in a time before Gojo Satoru, because It had emerged in a time and place where only a few humans dwelled. But that was enough. That was more than enough for It to drape itself in the skins of men and animals, to taste its brethren and imprint their grudges on its flesh.

The Leper Curse: Old Thief.

Click to shrink...

Old Thief is scary as hell sure he's a special grade but that's mostly due to the raw experience it has which is what makes it scary it's not a raw power monster but it's still Special Grade strength level.

The things we lost, the things we gained, in these insignificant moments in my life, I learned the truths of this world. That there were none. People lied, people lied to themselves.

I knew that.

Condense, crystalize and boil down everything into its simplest form— I couldn't do that. That, of anything, proved how terribly emotionally involved I had become, separating my viscerally fluctuating mental state from the task before me was utterly impossible. Asking to do so proved to be only a waste of time. Everything was personal, and everything was intimate.

Click to shrink...

Hachiman is aware of who he is as a person and for him it's a lot more personal then it is for others.

Mai had lied to me, she had weaved together a story of untruths and truths so beautifully tragic I had not bothered to inspect the splits in its seams. The dead left swinging in the wind. Tattered trust gone somewhere far away. Hilariously, so funny that it fell right into a total lack of humor, Zen'in Naoya had been the most honest one to me out of everyone. He was a disgusting, trash-filled, shitstain of a person, but he never hid that for a moment.

That. Was his arrogance.

Click to shrink...

Naoya has been nothing but honest to Hachiman which is something Hachiman values but he still deeply hates Naoya and thinks he's arrogant.

What did I feel like doing? What did I want?

What was I looking for? Who the fuck cared.

Really, I chuckled, who the fuck cared about a worthless thing like that.

Click to shrink...

I let a sick smile crawl onto my face, feeling that phantom memory of someone long dead smile the same at me. The too happy slant of his mouth, the semicircle smiles of his eyes, and most of all… the hatred that stayed with him all the way onto death. The imperfect smile of that woman in the rain. "You made me lose something. So to prove its meaning to myself.

"I'm going to kill you."

Click to shrink...

He's getting into the zone where he's going to go apeshit, he's stopped caring about bullshit and is focused only on murking Naoya, he's getting that mindset of the Strong.

Utauken flashed out and impaled its way through his knee, his shin, and his foot, anchoring him to the ground. As surprise, pain painted his handsome features, my fist slammed into his cheek so hard I felt something crack underneath the force. Teeth, jaw, skull. The impact bent the space into monochrome, a black and white world where the only thing that mattered was caving in Zen'in Naoya's head with my bare hands. The only hint of color, a distant spark of red sharpened with black.

Distantly, I was aware that I had just achieved Black Flash. Presently, I couldn't give a damn.

Click to shrink...

Damn he got a Black Flash on the first hit that's impressive, also it's going to improve Hachiman's abilities with Cursed Energy which is great.

I threw a second punch, he dodged that one, his cursed technique activating, 24 frames of pre-programmed actions beginning in the span of a single second. I targeted his vital organs, intent on bruising them from the outside, he blocked. How many frames could you devote to blocking when you had so many spaces to protect? Heart, throat, lungs, kidney, liver, groin, brain, eyes, solar plexus. 9 places to protect, I had every option, he had to do them all. With his entire body open to being attacked, the advantage swung to my favor… then, compounding on that, I used bursts of cursed energy to propel my limbs faster and faster until they became blurs even to myself and with each strike. Both of our bones rattled, both our skins bruised, and our skin split apart. Another Black Flash, easier now. Even less important.

Naoya didn't even have time to say something else, too busy trying to remove Utauken from his leg, but I just kicked at the leg to shake the blade inside it every time I thought he'd try. So, every second. Remembering the feeling of that blade vibrating in my palm, I wondered how it'd feel like cutting the bone from the inside. If it hurt.

Click to shrink...

Smart of him to cripple Naoya's speed and movement the fact that he did it with a weapon is awesome.

"Cursed Technique Reversal: Singularity." The hole in my stomach decided that it shouldn't exist, my knuckle knit back together, pulling the splintered pieces of bone back into place, a similar feeling burning in my ribcage, and my ruined left hand snapped back into place, squishing and making a liquid noise as blood and muscle moved around in sudden renewal, bits and pieces of dirt, glass and wood fell from my face, and skin regrew on my temple.

Click to shrink...

Singularity is so damn useful and strong, sure it basically resets when normal RCT can heal but I'd say that Singularity is stronger because it heals stamina and CE even if it leaves a weakness.

Naoya was still alive. I had just used my reversed cursed technique and now lost access to cursed energy reinforcement. In a sense, I had just crippled myself by restoring myself. But he didn't know that. One of his legs was immobile, and his organs damaged if not ruptured by my attacks. His left eye had burst in his occipital lobe, and only his own cursed energy reinforcement was keeping him, conscious. Internal bleeding would leave him dead soon enough, this far away from any hospital and anyone else with reversed cursed technique.

He knew that. I knew that.

So the only option then was to drag me to hell with him.

Or, suddenly Naoya was in front of me, holding Utauken to my throat, hissing. "If you do not use your Reversed Cursed Technique on me, I will…" Ah, so he had done his research on my previous encounters. It'd be easy enough to determine that I had somehow healed Ui Ui in the finality of my execution of Mei Mei, ergo, a Reversed Cursed Technique capable of healing others.

His words faded to a silence. By the look in my eyes. Disbelieving.

"You're willing to go that far? You… " Naoya stared at something else, looking beyond me. A cornered animal in his eyes, spinning around in its cage. It'd do anything, try anything, latch onto the first thing it saw and bite. Never letting go.

Click to shrink...

Naoya is dead and Hachiman is willing to die to make sure it stays that way.

So. Like I said before, a corpse was already before me.

Naturally, I saw this proven firsthand as Zen'in Mai shot Naoya.

Directly into his only functional knee, instantly sending him and all his inertia to roll to a crumbled lump in front of her.

"Wh-what?" Naoya did not understand.

"...This .44 magnum bullet travels approximately 530 meters per second. The Cursed Technique you inherited from Zen'in Naobito divides a single second equally into 24 frames, in between each frame is about 42 milliseconds, and in that time, my bullet travels 22 meters… The fastest point to me is always in a straight line. You can dodge my reaction, but you can't dodge a bullet, Naoya."

Or in other words: he was already shot in the first frame.

Click to shrink...

Her voice tinged with something like regret. "You can't break something that is already broken, Naoya. Just as you realized something as you saw me in that cell, I realized something too. You were perfect." He made a small noise, a gasp, maybe a strangled question. "Someone so stupid as to open my cell. Then even stupider to think he was capable of using me. You were my ticket to survival." Mai cupped his face unspeakably softly, said fondly, "My seventh bullet. My poison against the clan."

I saw, in utterly clarity, the formation of realization in Zen'in Naoya's body, the shuddering, terrified truth as he understood. She had never been really afraid of him. Never afraid of what he could do to her. Mai… had never cared whether she lived or died at all. As soon as her sister left the clan. She had the knowledge that if not her, someone would destroy the Zen'in Clan.

Destroying it was the point, everything else… was a luxury.

All this time, she had an excellent counter to Zen'in Naoya's technique, the silver bullet that used his own arrogance, the belief she would never turn her gun to him. All this time, she could have killed him. God created men, a bullet sent them back.

If he believed he had power over her then she would survive, so she hid in his abuse, pretending that she was just a broken, servile thing.

Click to shrink...

Well played Mai well played. She had a hard counter to Naoya and was just using him the whole time.

She gently squeezed the trigger.

Red splattered out and everything was quiet.

Click to shrink...

No one deserved to kill him more than Mai did.

Did she think I would care? That she murdered those monkeys? Her methods? I almost wished them still alive so I could burn them alive. We both were killers, always going to be killers, judgment on either of our parts for something as concrete as that, would be pathetic. Did she think I would condemn her for slaying those who hurt her, who trampled on the weak and lauded themselves as strong? Better that than Hikigaya Hachiman who grew up safe under Geto Suguruu's philosophy of eradicating the weak. No… she knew the answers to those questions already.

Then what was the purpose of keeping of the ruse?

Mai held her arm, replied as callous as she could manage, even as her voice cracked. "You lied too. So… It was," She sucked in a breath, her voice hitched, raw. "What else could I do?" She asked, truly, asked what else she could have done.

The worst thing, I understood. They made sense, and only made sense to the two of us.

In order to keep this fragile facade of normalcy, in order to not shatter me and be shattered in turn. We lied. She lied. I understood, oh I understood the all-encompassing fear of being perceived, the agony of hiding it all for the sake of the nameless fire that drove you forward. That was, afterall, how I killed those monkeys and how I survived. It became habit, it became your shield, it became your first knife and the one that you threw first in any situation.

It became you.

When falsity became necessity to live, did lies become blameless? Did secrecy become the only choice? There was no other way to survive, to live, so Mai lied.

Click to shrink...

Hachiman hates that Mai lied to him but he understands why since he's done the same thing.

"I don't know." I didn't know the answer. I, it seemed, didn't know anything at all. Cruelly, my mouth shaped the words I couldn't vocalize even to myself. "How did it feel? Seeing how proudly I tried while I couldn't even see through you."

But in the end. Hikigaya Hachiman was never all that good at lying. He… just didn't have the stomach for it. It could be said then. In that regard, Zen'in Mai proved herself to be stronger than me.

She took my justified venom well. Smiling, flecks of blood stained on her glasses, Mai curved her eyes until it looked painful. "Terrible. It felt awful. I hated everything about it."

"Good." I allowed myself another injury, letting out a sigh into the clearing air, no longer drenched in humidity.

Click to shrink...

Damn that was mean of Hachiman.

The past would catch up, the secrets would come to light, and we all had to exist in the world. For better or for worse.

I put Utauken back into its sheath, and began to make my way out of this broken home.

I didn't look back. I couldn't. This much, this was all I could do currently.

Whatever would come after… would come after.

Click to shrink...

The only thing they can do now it move forward.

I'd like to invite you to think about the parallels of Hachiman using Mai's revolver to reveal his true technique back in Volume 1. We call that, Foreshadowing.

Click to shrink...

You magnificent bastard.

 

[ArtemisAvant]

The Liar (6.9)

CONTENT WARNINGS FOR:

-Zen'in Clan

-Language

-Unhealthy Adoration For Murder

-Mai and everything you might expect from someone in her position.

...​

When I held the wooden handle of my revolver… Smith and Wesson Model 629 like an old friend, still slick with blood in my happy dreams.

The world made sense, if only in the distance between me and the trigger. Just pull, don't think. If you didn't have to think, you didn't have to be. The sight before me divided neatly into what was in line with my sights and what wasn't. Everything else… was luxury.

Self-destruction, self-annihilation in the name of a gun. Sure. I knew it was bad. Unhealthy even, an ultimately defeating mindset. This was the opposite of introspection, selfish intoxication, this was death from beginning to end. But why stop? Why stop for anything and for anyone? The world had cursed us from the moment we were born, calamities in the shape of girls. And I for one, aimed to exceed.

Tell me a reason to stop. Say something, anything. Use your words until your throat bled raw with the hopeless sincerity you always spoke with. Please.

But, funnily, I didn't think I'd listen either way.

We just weren't that kind of people, this wasn't that kind of world.

Thirteen 200 grain bullets, six sleeping in the chamber, seven scattered around my body, and… one .44 Remington-Mai hollow point resting in my mind's chambering. With these I could kill Twelve people, watch their brains mix with their skull, a hole well with red in their chest, their necks chunk into viscera.

After this, no matter what or who we explained it to, the clan would punish me again. Naoya, after all, was dead and I was not. Reality was what you have made of it afterall. And oh, I did kill Naoya, but you helped… oh, you helped… Our first murder together…

It was probably not a little fucked up that I shivered at that thought. But well. End as you began and all that.

To that affect:

I wondered if they would finally kill me this time.

…​

You had to be special, extraordinary, unique and your own kind of fucked up to be able to decisively stare down another person and pull the trigger. They trained soldiers to do that, it didn't just come easy. It was one thing to wildly shoot at the first thing that you saw, like a shitty cop gunning down another helpless kid, or an idiot finding his daddy's Colt and putting the shiny barrel in his mouth, accidently painting mommy's ceiling red fuchsia instead of magenta. A wholly different thing to look upon on your friend in arms who protested a little too loudly and now had to be put down in front of your nation's beautiful flag.

So what did they do then? They trained the other part of you, the simple animal hindbrain begging for treats and whimpering against the stick. Listen well, and don't get hurt, walk loud and carry a whip. Follow every order they say, and they taught you well, didn't they? Drop down and give me head! Make sure your shirt is tucked tight unless you want me to smother you in your sleep! I'll fuck your mother and pass her around to all my buddies if you don't kill that target shaking, pissing, and shitting itself in the corner!

The bullets rang out like silver bells.

Good. Be proud. You just saved the world. Served that pretty thing we call idealism and nationalism in the grandest theater of war Earth has ever known. What was it called? Heh. Identity. For the realization of yourself, for that understanding you defined yourself by, whether that was by nation, by loyalty, or by simpler motivations like money greed, not wanting to wake up with a knife in your back or end up just like the children on the other end of your gun; what wouldn't you do? Wars had begun with religion, ended with greed, and endured with survival.

I was no different.

Naoya had called me a natural-born killer.

I… didn't think that was true. I messed up on the dosage of my own daddy after all. But I guess mixing together every anti-testosterone drug known to man's shrinking balls and trying to overdose him on viagra all at the same time just made him kill his next breeding wife. That was what you got for trying to be clever, Mai. Just make him choke to death on his own blood next time. Punishment fitting the crime was for fairy tales, all we could ask for is that we made them pay in blood.

Besides, what sort of natural born killer didn't even have the decency to kill our mother from birth? Wasn't that supposed to be easy? How many women had died in childbirth afterall. We were twins even. Could have popped her like cherry soda. Fucking Maki. Failing me again.

Maki. My twin, my other half, the one who I had been raised with, the one who had raised me, the one who I had raised. In those endless days of tedious misery, we only had each other. Clinging together like feral beasts, injured and fledgling— how could I describe being born into hatred? I shouldn't need to. Everything that was me, came from them. I was the result of their sins and she, Maki was everything in spite of them.

That self-righteous bitch. Destroying the family? Making them fall to their knees before you? How could you do that so far away. Pick up your spear! Swing that stick around, Monkey! Let's race! See how many we can kill before they smash our brains pink!

I already got started. So catch up.

At some point, those stray cats had diverged long ago, and one, the white and strong cat left the weak, dirty, ugly, broken cat behind. It… was the right decision, I knew that. Staying longer, would have only broken bones and shattered that graceful beasts's legs. But still. But still… I couldn't forgive you.

Because you were me and I was you.

Twins, the same person in two different bodies, even the world thought that.

I hated those two cats, both the one that crawled out of its rotting grave, and the one that sunk ever deeper. I hated them and I refused to look at them. So when I die, Maki. I'll curse you, I'll damn you, I'll drag you back. You'll get everything you wanted, your strength, your freedom, and your triumph. At the cheap cost of devouring your own twin, and finally putting to right that mistake you made so long ago of not consuming in the womb.

But that's not what you wanted was it…

If you weren't me, if you weren't my sister, if you and I are not the same person. Twins but different, blessed and cursed in utterly different ways, then…

…​

No one was innocent. No one deserved to live in Hell, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan.

If there… was a god, a Kami that smiled so beatifically down on us, who watched this with an unchanging expression. And allowed it.

I'd shake their hand, praising them for their unmatched cruelty. And then I'd kill them. No! Better yet, destroy everything they saw, blanket it with Anthrax, salt the ground with unstable radium, dirty nuclear bomb the place and throw in some mustard gas for fun! Then they'd still be smiling gently, and I'd laugh and laugh.

Defiance never mattered to those who didn't care in the beginning afterall.

Did you get it yet, Hachiman?

I didn't ask you to save me out of some stupid wish to kill myself. I could do that anytime with my beloved gun. Smith and Wesson Model 629 finally, at long last, claiming the little girl's life whose hand touched it all and dreamed of hope so very long ago.

I refused you because you, as idiotic, as defenseless, as beautifully broken, as incredibly, indescribably, impossibly, unbroken you were… I just…

I just wanted.

All this time, I only wished that you wouldn't follow me into this hell.

So…

If saving you meant making you hate me, if saving you meant becoming the thing you detested most in this world of lies, well…

I was already in hell.

…

A.N.

The Third and Final Inconsistency of Zen'in Mai's self. Why she lied, why she didn't tell everything to Hachiman on that sleepless night and all the nights after.

 

[ArcanaVitae]

CONTENT WARNINGS FOR:

-Zen'in Clan

-Language

-Unhealthy Adoration For Murder

-Mai and everything you might expect from someone in her position.

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This shows the chapter is going to be even darker then the usual chapter.

When I held the wooden handle of my revolver… Smith and Wesson Model 629 like an old friend, still slick with blood in my happy dreams.

The world made sense, if only in the distance between me and the trigger. Just pull, don't think. If you didn't have to think, you didn't have to be. The sight before me divided neatly into what was in line with my sights and what wasn't. Everything else… was luxury.

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Mai is an extremely obsessive person and this show that.

After this, no matter what or who we explained it to, the clan would punish me again. Naoya, after all, was dead and I was not. Reality was what you have made of it afterall. And oh, I did kill Naoya, but you helped… oh, you helped… Our first murder together…

It was probably not a little fucked up that I shivered at that thought. But well. End as you began and all that.

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Wait she's into murdering people with Hachiman and kinda wants to do more of it?

To that affect:

I wondered if they would finally kill me this time.

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Yeah the Zenin Clan are going to be pissed.

Good. Be proud. You just saved the world. Served that pretty thing we call idealism and nationalism in the grandest theater of war Earth has ever known. What was it called? Heh. Identity. For the realization of yourself, for that understanding you defined yourself by, whether that was by nation, by loyalty, or by simpler motivations like money greed, not wanting to wake up with a knife in your back or end up just like the children on the other end of your gun; what wouldn't you do? Wars had begun with religion, ended with greed, and endured with survival.

I was no different.

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Mai is understandably extremely cynical.

Naoya had called me a natural-born killer.

I… didn't think that was true. I messed up on the dosage of my own daddy after all. But I guess mixing together every anti-testosterone drug known to man's shrinking balls and trying to overdose him on viagra all at the same time just made him kill his next breeding wife. That was what you got for trying to be clever, Mai. Just make him choke to death on his own blood next time. Punishment fitting the crime was for fairy tales, all we could ask for is that we made them pay in blood.

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Huh so Mai wanted to go for the poetic vengeance and only ended up making her "father" impotent.

Besides, what sort of natural born killer didn't even have the decency to kill our mother from birth? Wasn't that supposed to be easy? How many women had died in childbirth afterall. We were twins even. Could have popped her like cherry soda. Fucking Maki. Failing me again.

Maki. My twin, my other half, the one who I had been raised with, the one who had raised me, the one who I had raised. In those endless days of tedious misery, we only had each other. Clinging together like feral beasts, injured and fledgling— how could I describe being born into hatred? I shouldn't need to. Everything that was me, came from them. I was the result of their sins and she, Maki was everything in spite of them.

That self-righteous bitch. Destroying the family? Making them fall to their knees before you? How could you do that so far away. Pick up your spear! Swing that stick around, Monkey! Let's race! See how many we can kill before they smash our brains pink!

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Mai's thoughts about Maki has a lot of dark humor to it.

I hated those two cats, both the one that crawled out of its rotting grave, and the one that sunk ever deeper. I hated them and I refused to look at them. So when I die, Maki. I'll curse you, I'll damn you, I'll drag you back. You'll get everything you wanted, your strength, your freedom, and your triumph. At the cheap cost of devouring your own twin, and finally putting to right that mistake you made so long ago of not consuming in the womb.

But that's not what you wanted was it…

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Huh that actually makes it seem like her canon actions was her entire plan from the beginning.

Did you get it yet, Hachiman?

I didn't ask you to save me out of some stupid wish to kill myself. I could do that anytime with my beloved gun. Smith and Wesson Model 629 finally, at long last, claiming the little girl's life whose hand touched it all and dreamed of hope so very long ago.

I refused you because you, as idiotic, as defenseless, as beautifully broken, as incredibly, indescribably, impossibly, unbroken you were… I just…

I just wanted.

All this time, I only wished that you wouldn't follow me into this hell.

So…

If saving you meant making you hate me, if saving you meant becoming the thing you detested most in this world of lies, well…

I was already in hell.

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She wanted the fairy tail rescue from Hachiman and hates that she hurt him by lying.

 

[doge]

It was so hot, and the air so thick, it felt like, ugh, someone was pressing overheated skin directly to his own

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Based on sb commentary, this segment is significantly creepier when you realize it's the curse piggybacking on Yuji to hide the cursed energy signature.

With these I could kill Twelve people

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Is twelve capitalized for style reasons? If not, typo.

All this time, I only wished that you wouldn't follow me into this hell.

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I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess pushing 8man away won't work, from what I know of Oregairu canon. Possibly due to Haruno meddling or everyone showing up like after Mei Mei's death. Parallels abound!