Chapter Text
To the Benefit of Only One - Chapter 1
Shifting Balance - Chapter 1: Kage Adachi
Deep within the ground, beneath layers of centuries -no, millennium- old dirt and animal refuse, was a single weaved basket imbued with ancient Cursed Energy. Within, a talisman -imbued with a Cursed Technique which could only trigger upon a certain set of circumstance- burnt up and withered away.
Within the vessel, a Cursed Object taking the form of a mans left hand rotted to nothing in an instant, from within it's technique a haze of red and blue light (like that of an aurora) faded away from that place - gracing one who'd one day become a great sorcerer. Guided by the burnt talisman, the curse of on ancient prophet was set in motion.
Jewel of Plenty . Jewel of Turning Back on the Road . Mirror of the Deep
Early Morning, 9th December 1991. Southern Fukuoka, the Adachi Household
Slouched on a couch before a thick CRT-TV, was an infant boy. Barely a foot tall with pale and clammy skin contrasting his messy straight black hair he looked the poster boy for sickness and misery. Not helped by the harsh light of the television flashing through the near complete darkness of the living room - the boy having muted it and looking off to one side as not to gaze directly at it.
This was Kage Adachi, son of Akane and Hiroshi Adachi who had, two days ago, celebrated his second birthday.
Suffering through the woes of an agonizing migraine (his very first mind you) which sent his vision blurring and ears ringing as his brain felt like it was being forcibly liberated from his skull with a rusty spoon via his temples, the happy memories of just two nights past seemed almost a lifetime ago.
It was in this state that his father found him, face half lit by the flashing colours of the televisions in the unlit room hours before sunrise. Flinching as he saw his sons pale visage (and subtly placing a hand of his heart once he saw it was indeed just his son) he looked upon him with concern. "Kage?" early morning grogginess filling his voice "you alright bud?".
Placing a hand onto the boys shoulder, seeing that he was indeed already up and dressed despite it being so early that even the birds weren't up yet, his brows furrowed. The small child let out a low grunt and leaned into the mans cool embrace on childish impulse.
"Shi-" the man suddenly cut himself off as his fingers, which had been moving to smooth the boys hair up and out of his eyes, brushed against his forehead and recoiled in surprise. Instead of saying much of anything else, the man picked up the small boy and quickly carried him out of the living room.
Being owned by two parents in their late twenties of the lower middle class, the Adachi residence was rather frugal. A single story suburban home with a small amount of attic space which was composed of only 6 rooms (4 larger and 2 smaller) all connected to a central hallway which connected the front door and the back door in one straight shot.
The living room was the first door to the left of the front, and the bathroom was the second, which was where the child was being taken - Hiroshi turning off the television as they left.
Setting Kage down on the edge of the sink, the boy groaning -arms covered over scrunched eyes desperately to block the dazzling white luminance from the humming lightbulbs- as his father supported his back with one hand while the other riffled through the cabinet above the sink.
After half a minute of rummaging and knocking things down and into his boys lap, he'd found what he was looking for. Grabbing the thermometer, which he then cleaned with the bottom of his pyjama shirt, he got down to business.
Shaking Kage's back, the man tried to grab his attention. He didn't respond. "Kage?" he said, shaking with slightly more firmness "Kage-" the boy wrapped his hands around his ears.
Now, being a father who one could in fact call competent, he put two and two together rather quickly. Be it his son's aversion to light, flinching from his voice, or watching the wall next to the television while it was on mute, something told him that his son really wanted the dark and quiet right about now. So with a fumbling grasp at the light switch, the room was plunged into shade - lit only by the hallway light peeking under the door.
"Kage?" the father again said, this time in a whisper. He didn't get a response once more, but this time his son moved his arm up from over his eyes to look at him, "I'll need you to bite down on this," he said, offering the end of the thermometer "Say 'ahhh',".
In the darkness before daybreak father and son sat for a long moment, Hiroshi massaging his temples as he waited for the reading to be complete. Pulling it from his sons mouth, the child slumping in his loose embrace, he struggled to see the temperature through the black which embraced the room.
Picking up his son once more he edged to the single window at the far end of the room, as while it only faced the side of their houses fence it still had a spark of trickling from the outside -and he didn't want to open the door to the hallway's lights before he knew how bad Kage was doing.
39.5°C
"Fuck," he swore, hissing through his teeth, Kage giggled at the curse.
"Hiroshi?" the door to Kage's room opened, from which Akane Adachi entered having heard the low murmur of her husbands voice, her long and silky black hair still messy from sleep. Inside the blinds were drawn and taped against the wall to block the sun's assault from entering. Dead on her feet and with drooping eyes, the mother of Kage looked ready to drop to the floor with exhaustion.
Before she could say even a word more a sharp 'shh' came from within, accompanied with a low groan and the dull clatter of bare feet against carpet.
From within Hiroshi came out, grabbing her by the wrist and slouching as if to whisper in her ear, a palm quickly resting on the small of her back and guiding her out of the room. Standing in the yellow din of the hallways luminance, the two parents faced each other. "You gotta be quiet,".
The mans spouse's face twisted with concern "What're yo- shouldn't you be at work? The -uhm- those ones 'ill try and low ball you if you're late. You remember what they pulled with their boiler" she drawled groggily.
"I know, I know," he sighed, a hand rested on her hip and his head resting on her shoulder as he deflated into her. Tired as she was she didn't return the embrace, confused and slightly indignant for (in her eyes) attempt to distract her. Trying to shove him lightly off of her, he relented with a pensive frown. "Kage's sick so I-".
At this all thoughts of her husbands work left her minds eye as she turned to her door "He is? How bad- why didn't you tell me? We agreed to talk about stuff like this"
He looked away guiltily "Yeah- you have that meeting though. It wasn't worth waking you when I know I should be the one to cover it, all I have is maybe one lowballed invoice-" before he could continue, the woman hit him in his upper arm with a hiss.
"It's not your place to decide- you can't just try and- and deal with everything without me again," she gripped his forearm, her nails digging into his wrist through his sleeve "You said- you promised, that if something came up that- he is ok, right?".
Having assumed that, should it be bad enough, her husband would have taken their son to the hospital, now was the moment a pang of guilt shot through her chest and she inquired into the wellbeing of her son. Despite being busy voicing her misgivings.
Pulling lightly on her hips, holding her closely, he mumbled into her ear "He's fine, he had a bad fever but it only lasted an hour. He just has a migraine now, I'll stay with him to make sure he's alright, 'K? If it doesn't let up I'll bring him to the doctor,".
"I just said- don't go deciding things all on your own," she ground out through clenched teeth.
A grunt was all she was greeted with, before he soothed out a slow answer "Just this once, ok? It's special, remember- it took so long for you to go to sleep, I didn't want to waste that. Next time I promise, just-" he sighed "I know... I get it, but this time I kinda had to. We both know how much this- how important this is, so let me cover for you just this once,".
For a moment silence hung between them, before she finally pulled herself close to him, "don't do this again- I mean it, you gotta talk to me more,". His head shifted into the crook of her neck as they hugged in the silence of the early morning, until Hiroshi began -tentatively- began kissing up her collar.
Like teens they giggled against each other until Akane pushed away, flushed and grinning. They had things to do after all, work and looking after their son, so they both got to it; Akane blitzing through her morning routine in less than fifteen minutes to have more time to invest apply subtle traces of makeup while Hiroshi made his way back into Kage's room.
His son, for the first time since being brought into his room, was sat up in bed. Covers fallen in his lap and frowning, a muttered 'gross' sending his father chuckling.
Somewhat predictably, the young child was restless within the confines of his bedroom. Even if his fever had mostly cleared other symptoms remained, dizziness and that all encompassing piercing migraine both stubbornly in place, yet despite that Kage Adachi wished to move. His father, despite the amusement seeing his son's petulant insistence that he was fine, refused still to let him strain himself.
And as such the boy was still in bed.
However, it was in this period of time where he was sequestered away from the world and waited on by his father that the boy experienced something rather peculiar. Something which would put his entire life so far within wider context, revealing something he hadn't noticed yet always known.
That something was awfully strange about him.
As the young boy sat in bed, the sun passing by overhead as midday came and went, he played as most 2 year olds tended to do. Two figurines in hand, a transformer in one and a power ranger in the other, he mimed them fighting one and other with little thought, vivid effects flying this way and that in his minds eye. The details of which were quite similar to that he'd seen on the television the days before.
However, in doing so, he'd muttered something that he -a non-sorcerer boy- had no right to know. Something that he said with not a thought but on pure instinct, as if the words had been hidden deep within the back of his mind. As he crashed one figure into another he exclaimed a simple "Black Flash!" as he threw it to the side and into the wall besides his bed.
Embarrassingly enough in retrospect, Kage didn't notice what he'd said for a long moment, as he instead leaned to one side to pick back up his toy to continue playing, until a question popped into his head.
What's a Black Flash?
Well it was the application of Cursed Energy to a blow within one trillionth of a second of contact. When it occurs space is distorted, Cursed Energy flashes black and the power of the strike is raised to the power of 2.5.
It seemed obvious, as the boy though about it, as if one was remembering where they'd misplaced something they'd been looking for hours for. However, in the instant after more questions followed. 'What's Cursed Energy' was one. Another was 'What am I even thinking about?'.
And then, like before, information flooded into his head; a deluge of knowledge coming forth from the back of his mind.
Head pounding once more, as if it were a watermelon seconds from splitting down the middle, the boy yelped and fell backwards onto his pillow as he clutched at his eyes. Pressure built and built as something pulsed behind his eyes. (His bedrooms was lit in a blaze of crimson light as above his ceiling was covered in an aurora of dancing red, something the boy couldn't see through writhing agony).
His father soon returned to his room with food, only to find his son curled into a ball on his side and facing the wall with a pillow tucked over the top of his head.
Nothing could rose him and his meal was left on his bedside table, his father sitting at his bedside until night fell and his mother returned home. Out in the hallway the two talked, Kage could hear them even if their words were unintelligible through the sensations rushing through him still, their worry readily apparent.
At around midnight was when Kage had recovered to the extent which he could untuck his head from his pillow and stair up into the darkness. Arms and legs spread wide as he tried to think as little as possible despite the revelation running through him.
In the moment following his questioning of his strange thoughts a maelstrom of information had befallen him, something he now slowly sifted through in the quite shadow of night.
'Jujutsu Kaisen', a manga that first started publishing in Shonen Jump in the later half of the 20'teens. Ending in the 20's and leading onto a sequel which was set over 60 years after the events of the story, where a bunch of aliens show up. Along with those, a cannon mobile game called 'Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade' was released and several cannon light novels were published as well.
What caused Kage such confusion was how his memory insisted this to be true, despite the content of this intellectual property was set to be released over thirty years from now. Yet despite the fact that it should clearly not exist -being from the future and therefore obviously fake- he could perfectly recall each and every panel, every single piece of dialogue.
Not only that, but as the young boy tried to parse the information flowing through his mind endlessly on repeat, he too realised that this wasn't the only thing which he'd gained.
As so too had a flood of general knowledge polluted the back of his mind. Information on words, on math, on politics -both past and future- and much more. It wasn't anything that a boy of the ripe old age of 2 should know, yet over and over again he'd catch himself thinking on these topics despite him having no right to know anything about them.
The only difference between the general knowledge born from the 'future' and what he now knew about 'Jujutsu Kaisen' was that he couldn't think on the general knowledge at will. When it came to things about that manga then he could simply recall the memories as if they were his own, yet with the general knowledge he only subconsciously drew upon them.
Should he attempt to actively recall anything from that wealth of knowledge he'd be met with absolutely nothing. How helpful.
Now, as he lay on his bed, the majority of the splitting headache retreating away from his consciousness, he could think clearly on his past as well and could link these two phenomenon to something else.
This wasn't the first time something like this had happened. Walking, talking, reading and writing, they had all came to the boy exceedingly quickly, like cycling after years away from a bike it felt as if all of these were ingrained into his muscle memory.
And he didn't know what to make of it...
Knowledge he both could and couldn't draw upon at will as well as a history of knowing things he shouldn't. He had a slight inkling as what it could mean, but it was so absurd that he didn't want to jump to conclusions.
So for almost the rest of the night Kage stayed up writing down every stray thought he could catch himself thinking. Words like 'Economy', 'distribute', 'fuck' and so on were all written down with what he thought their meanings were besides them until an entire page was taken over with words and their meanings.
It was then that Kage got up from his bed and snuck over to his door.
His plan was simple. If he wanted to reach a conclusion on these thoughts of his, he first had to prove that they were real or not. So he'd compare words he thought were real to a dictionary - if they were there and he was right, then he could move forwards knowing these memories were real and if they were made up, then he could go forwards knowing he'd lost it.
All of this to say that Kage snuck into his parents bedroom to find a dictionary.
On several occasions in the 2 short years he'd been alive had Kage slept in his parents room and when he did he could see that -in the corner of their shared room- a makeshift office sat. While he didn't know if there was or wasn't a dictionary there or not, if there was one in their house, it'd be there.
Creaking open his door as silently as he could he crept over to the opposite side of the hallway to where his parents room was, doing the same and crawling on all fours into the pitch darkness. Timing his shifting movements forwards towards the desk with the subtle in and out of his mother and fathers breathing, it took almost two hours for Kage to reach the desk, search and leave with his prize in his hands.
A short comparison between the dictionary and the words written in his notebook confirmed that, indeed, his new memories were real - the truth being revealed more and more with every word he confirmed.
Checking off the last word and it's meaning was correct, Kage staired at the proof of his strange memories and felt the reality of the situation fall over his shoulders. Memories from a past life, lived in the future, had somehow found their way into his head.
And all that was left once all of it had passed was a single thought: 'What a useless reincarnation'.
All the lottery numbers, sports results and similar shit he could use to accrue a vast sum of wealth was locked away in his subconscious and -should he not catch his stray thoughts- he wouldn't be able to recall them at all. The only thing from his past life which he could remember freely was a manga that would come out in his twenties.
Tossing the two books to the floor, the boy star fished onto his bed and let out a hard and deep sigh.
And then years passed him by, life falling back into a set routine -a familiar rhythm- with Kage's newfound revelation in tow.
At the age of four, Kage was enrolled in a local elementary school, having lost any connection with his peers due to his shift in demeanour, his relationships were further burdened with the transition into a new institution.
Under the understanding that, should he try to inform anyone of his situation regarding his new found memories, he wouldn't be believed, Kage began to take his memories for granted. It was a simple fact of life that was neither good nor bad, simply being.
But soon, three years after his influx of memories from his past life, Kage would again be confronted by the supernatural, assailed by a second revelation -not born from his rebirth, but instead his lineage.
Jewel of Plenty . Jewel of Turning Back on the Road . Mirror of the Deep
Midnight, 15th December, 1994. Kage's bedroom
Monsters were real.
To the layperson, should they look on the boy and somehow know his thoughts, they'd be rather disturbed. A five year old laid out flat on his bed, arms and legs spread like a starfish, alone, staring wide eyed at the ceiling and thinking about monsters? That was definitely abnormal.
Silence hung in his bedroom, once a relatively clean and ordered space, now a monument to chaos. Dirt tracked across the carpet and stationary strewn across the floor alongside sheets of messily scribbled upon pieces of paper and card.
Yet, despite the boy being on his lonesome, the room was alive with motion. Crayons rolled about the floor, papers crumpled under unseen weight and a glass of half drank water rattled off of his bedside table to the floor with a jolt and clatter.
The boy paid it no mind, after all to him, he wasn't the only one in his room.
"Woof!" an energetic bark shot through his temples, and looking to the side, Kage saw a jet black dog staring back up at him, play bowing onto it's front paws and it's tail wagging this way and that. It was a Shikigami, his Shikigami.
The twin of the black dog, a white dog, lay it's head on his lap and looked at him with concern out the corners of it's eyes.
What was before him was proof of something most absurd, proof that Jujutsu Kaisen wasn't just a story who's author likely hadn't even been born yet, but instead the world he now lived in.
What the fuck.
It'd all started earlier today, in the morning. In the yard where his elementary school held it's recess, Kage had been sat off to one side and scribbling into a notebook he'd been bought by his parents for his fifth birthday and drawing the building before him.
And then, with no warning, grotesque forms availed themselves to his sight. Dozens of monsters warbling off in the middle distance, looming over the other children at his school and retreating every time his vision fell onto them (they were scared of him, not that he'd known that in the moment).
Cursed Spirits.
It was a concept within Jujutsu Kaisen where the titular 'Cursed Energy' congealed over time into beings of concentrated negativity. Curses unto the world, who's bodies were formed through that wholly negative energy.
His reaction, he thought, was appropriate to the world suddenly being filled with monsters.
Recoiling in disgust the boy had gawped at the lumbering forms and scurrying figures of the curses. Survival instinct, however, had quickly overtaken his shock and he'd ran to go inside.
Only for his panicked sprint to be blocked by one of the teachers.
They'd asked him if he was ok, reminding him that if he wanted to go inside to use the restroom that he should inform one of the teachers before hand (the school being small enough that one or two teachers could oversea all of the children from kindergarten to Grade-5 without much issue, thus knowing if they were all there or not) as if putrid monsters weren't infesting the grass field like they were in some twisted facsimile of pokemon.
It had thrown him through a loop to such an extent that he found himself sitting back down in his corner wide eyed, observing the thirty or so children from ages four to eleven as they played and socialised amongst themselves as if the giant blobs of flesh and drool didn't exist.
Thirty minutes passed and recess came to an end, they were all herded inside, Kage being the last in -so caught up in his thoughts as he was.
They couldn't see them.
It was the only conclusion that made sense, that or he was seeing things, but when one such creatures brushed it's bulbous form past his leg with a sensation like tree bark and scabs, he dismissed the notion.
There was about five Curses across the classroom his final lesson was held in, the smallest was about the size of a small dog and the largest being twice his own size; he dared not look at any of them directly and instead only sent furtive glances out of the corner of his eyes.
(Kage thought, his hand stroking the fluff at the dop of the white dogs head, knowing now that these were the creatures that Gege Akutami depicted, that the man -through no fault of his own- failed to capture the pure malignance of their existence. He would liken the pallor of their skin to a corpses and the shape of their forms to bulging tumours. Cursed Spirits are revolting).
He was now no longer able to hold his attention on the subjects at hand, distracted by the small creatures that ducked in and out of the room at their own leisure, leering at them like particularly juicy cuts of meat.
Was he hallucinating? He desperately reconsidered the option.
If not, then what were these creatures? The idea that these repugnant and clearly malicious (one particularly small fly head hadn't stopped it's solitary quest to gnaw through the side of one of his classmates heads, causing the girl to massage her temple in pain - definitely malicious) had surrounded him without him knowing was deeply perturbing.
Worst of all, there was nothing that Kage could do.
And so for the rest of the day he sat in his seat near the back of the cramped classroom ignoring the low level curses as they came and went; pondering just what these monsters could be.
On the drive back home at the end of the day, he would get his answers.
Winding through the streets of the neighbourhood, Kage lost in his own world in the back seat as his father drove their family car with sluggish hands. His late shift the previous day gouging deep bags into his eyes and slouching his shoulders in inattentiveness. Soon, halfway home, they stopped at a four way intersection.
Once the light turned green his father began to accelerate the car and just at that moment, a large curse -the size of cow he'd say- with six legs and puss draining from great cysts across it's form, walked from the sidewalk and into the road. Blocking the road and directly in their paths.
Kage, seeing the creature with dozens of teeth and emanating a revolting musk he could smell through the windscreen, feared for his life.
"Stop-! Ghh!" Kage tried to call out to his father before they lurched forwards into the gross amalgam of limbs and sinew, but he was too late in his warning.
(He remembered early in the manga in one of the volume extras, just after Yuji and Nobara exorcised their first curse together, that Gege said that curses at particularly low levels of Cursed Energy could turn intangible at will and move through solid objects.
Kage, who at the time hadn't even known what was before him was a Curse, didn't know this and thought he was about to die in a head on collision with a puss filled cow thing).
The Curse choose to become intangible instead of indulging in being hit by a car -even if the mundane object would do no damage to it- causing the car to drive right through it. To the boy however, all he saw was the monster's bulk blurring towards him, moving through the car like it wasn't there, until it filled his vision with it's form (and his nostrils with it's miasma - it smelt really bad).
And what followed was the moment that contextualised his experiences until now, and told him that he lived in a world he thought was fiction.
In that moment of panic and shock, thinking the monster would hurt him or his father, his hands had flown up on instinct and something deep within his gut (his Cursed Energy flowing from passive reserves throughout his body and into active output in his naval), he activated his Innate Cursed Technique for the first time.
The patriarch of the Adachi family spluttered slightly, looked in the rear-view mirror as he accidentally stalled the car -ignoring the sharp honking from cars behind him- and snapped around to look at his son in the back, who had suddenly screamed for absolutely no reason.
"Wh-! Are you 'lright? Kage you good?" twisting in his seat, his father tried to make eye contact with him.
Yet his effort wasn't reciprocated by Kage, who's body was pressed back into the back of his seat, his eye's locked onto a patch of empty air in the backseat.
Or, that is what it appeared to Kage's non-sorcerer father, to Kage, who's hands had flown together into the shadow puppet of a dog's head on primal impulse, he was now locking eyes with a pair of twin dogs. Liquid Shade dripping from their fur from the shadow -his shadow- that they'd just emerged from.
One white and one black, red symbols across their foreheads and about the size of a wolf, the two canines panted at Kage with excitement. The white one moving to lick his face and the black -having been summoned on the edge of the seat and jostled by the cars sudden stop- was flat on it's back in the foot well and rolling about presenting it's stomach for patting.
(Needless to say, white's tongue slobbering over his face, Kage didn't give his father a response quickly).
These were Gyokuken.
The Divine Dogs of the Ten Shadows technique, the Cursed Technique inherited by both Megumi Fushiguro and Yuuka Okkotsu and usurped by Ryomen Sukuna. They were real and they had been sitting next to him in the back seat of his family car.
Kage had been absolutely speechless (and spluttering as white's pink tongue continued to assault his face, despite his protests) his father resumed driving despite his son's lack of answers. Looking back at him in concern every now and again until they finally reached home.
Right now it was... Kage rolled to his side and looked at the blue clock mounted on his wall... around eleven at night and he was still not any closer to getting any sleep as he was when he'd first gotten to his room. And, in all honesty while his existential crisis was the main reason, these two menaces weren't helping him any.
Cautious that his only proof that he wasn't insane would disappear, Kage hadn't moved to dismiss either of the two Dog Shikigami, so for the past few hours the dogs had flanked him and moved unseen as the afternoon had dragged off into night.
Which he was coming to regret somewhat, the little devils flaying his nerves as he tried to think (how had a paw print gotten onto his ceiling, he really wanted to know) . And, as a result of his unresponsiveness to their pestering, they had taken to finding their own means of entertainment.
Unfortunate with them being just as invisible as the Cursed Spirits and all.
When he'd gotten home, they'd jumped out the backseat and trodden on his dads feet, they'd dashed around the front garden like they owned the place and, once his mother came home at around six, they had tried to eat his food off of his plate at dinner. Even now, they were the cause of the mess across his room.
Well, the Black dog was, the White Shikigami dog was currently laid out across the bottom of his bed -it's head rested across his thighs- while the black one tore across his room in great circles. It bumped into this and that, bounding here and there while panting with it's pink tongue flopping this way and that as it ran.
Kage laid his arm over his eyes.
The moment that he'd laid his eyes on the animals he'd recognised them and he was still reckoning with what that meant.
For one, that meant the monsters he'd been seeing were Cursed Spirits, considering that was the only explanation that he could think of that answered both how he could summon dogs out his shadows and what the invisible monsters were.
Ten Shadows, Cursed Spirits, Cursed Energy. That was all fiction, it wasn't real, it was causing him no end of mental anguish trying to reconcile his own existence now that all three had proven themselves to exist.
What did it mean from him if he existed in a world he thought was only a story? Was he real? What even were these memories that he had lived mostly pathetically with for the past three years?
Kage's frown deepened, and Gyokuken white's face shifted from his thighs and onto his stomach, the canine nudging it's head under his hand and looking up at him out the top of it's eyes.
Sighing and indulging the dog with a scratch under the ear, he decided it'd be best if he just slept on it, he wasn't going to be making any progress any time soon anyway.
When he woke the next morning, the dogs were gone. Though the traces of their existence were still obvious in their absence, a large indent in his mattress right next to him from where white had laid itself and the chaos that black had left in it's wake.
It'd seem that he couldn't keep them summoned when he was asleep.
(That made sense, he remembered how Gyokuken: Kon -the totality of Megumi's dead white dog with it's surviving twin- had been dismissed when Megumi passed out when fighting the finger bearer. Kage had to consciously focus on keeping his Shikigami summoned).
After cleaning up after his dogs mess, Kage went through the motions and, once again, found himself in that very same school yard.
Curses, born from the negative emotions of the students and teachers of the establishment coiled around the children like monstrous barnacles, distasteful parasites. Kage had, for his part, tried his best not to think about the recent developments in the... unnatural he'd been having, but -once he again was left with nearly forty minutes to waste away- he decided to try out his new found abilities.
Frowning to himself, Kage wrapped his right hand over the top of his left, forming a dogs head and tried to activate his Cursed Technique, muttering "Gyokuken...".
A gust of wind blew through the grass, ruffling his hair, nothing.
Kage blinked down at his hands... maybe it was his mittens, it hadn't worn them in the car when he'd summoned the dogs yesterday, where the heater had been on full blast, so maybe they were getting the way. With his mittens now off, Kage huffed out a breath to concentrate -the respiration sending a plume of fog into the winter air- before he again chanted "Gyokuken".
Kage could see tumble weed bouncing along in his minds eye...
What the hell was he doing wrong! Kage grit his teeth in frustration (sending a quick glance up and -yup, curses were still real, he definitely hadn't imagined them- why weren't the dogs coming out his shadow?
Frustration bubbled and settled in his gut.
And then, as his emotions boiled, the boy had an idea. It was because of his lack of control of Cursed Energy that he couldn't use his technique. Yesterday, in the car, he'd followed his instincts by accident in a moment of fear and everything had fallen into place, but now he had to do everything himself, he had to actually try and use his reserves.
In that moment, Kage's quest changed from 'Use Cursed Technique,' and into 'Use Cursed Energy,'.
For the next ten or so minutes, Kage fooled around, crossed legged on the cold winter grass, trying his best to feel for the same esoteric energy within himself that he had the day before. Ironically, none of the meditation esque strategies worked to achieve this goal, and instead it was when recess was about to end and he was on the cusp of shouting in frustration that he first successfully accessed his Cursed Energy.
Something warm spluttered out from his gut and was shoddily guided into his fists as he swung them in petulant anger - stopping and starting on it's slow and far from fluid journey. A spark of orange-ish energy fluttered around his fists as his eye's snapped open from their scrunched closed state.
He watched in awe as the energy coiled around his fist, the emotional use of his energy staining it an unstable orange hue (hadn't that happened to Yuji... that was anime only right?) but as he focused on keeping it a consistent middling level, it soon calmed from twin raging bonfires and down into two stable blue flames.
Jarring, it was jarring. At least at first, the sight of blue fire, coated in ink like black highlights around the edges, looking exactly like it did in the show - but around his hands?
A fly head landed next to him and that jarring feeling gave way to giddy excitement.
Kage raised an open palm over towards the curse, it was barley a foot away from him, and aimed it with his other hand coiled around his wrist. Imaging what Gojo did to that can in season one (as well as the Detention centre Curse's entire move-set) he tried to fling out his Cursed Energy in a ranged attack.
A woosh and a pop, his Cursed Energy lanced out in a wave of blue light, the bolt of eldritch energy crashing through the curse and gouging a small hole out of the dirt behind it.
Now he could work with this, a grin spreading across his lips as he marvelled at the splattered form of the curse -bleeding foul smelling purple blood- turned to dust and floated away.
And like that, Kage gained the greatest fulfilment he'd every felt in his short life. For as long as he explored the depths of Jujutsu, the loneliness he felt deep in his hear born from his unnatural being would be warded off.
So he began to explore, to experiment and to pry into the deepest confines of his Technique and his Cursed Energy. He came to love curses.
Jewel of Plenty . Jewel of Turning Back on the Road . Mirror of the Deep
Two in the Morning, Mid February, 1995. The Back garden of Kage's Home
Months had passed since he'd gained knowledge of his existence within the world of Jujutsu Kaisen -or one operating somewhat similarly to it- and Kage was hitting a brick wall... both literally and figuratively. More specifically, his houses brick wall facing the back garden.
In many regards, the boy had made a lot of progress in terms of Jujutsu, using his knowledge from the show to make leaps and bounds others likely wouldn't in his situation. Par for the course, he had a wellspring of knowledge describing the highest level of Jujutsu in explicit detail, it'd be a bit embarrassing if he couldn't manage this much.
However, while his initial plunge into had been largely successful, he was reaching a dead end now that he was reaching the more advanced applications of his technique.
The basics of Cursed Energy manipulation, the activation of the Ten Shadows and Summoning of his Shikigami as well as his subjugation rituals (he'd only began one, not finishing it for obvious reasons). All of them had been covered and understood by the boy.
However one aplication was out of his reach, being the ability to summon a Shikigami's abilities without actually summoning the Shikigami. The most obvious examples which came to mind being the times Megumi borrowed rabbit escapes cloning ability in his domain or Sukuna's piercing water.
He'd failed to achieve it. In fact, he'd been failing badly.
What he'd been trying to achieve was the recreation of Yuuka Okkotsu's (Yuta's granddaughter in JJK Modulo) 'Savage Jaw Strike,'. It was the ability summoning of Gyokuken, were you make you hands act the claws/jaw of the dogs. In practice making your nails and Cursed energy sharper and more crushing.
Meaning in both slashing and two handed blows are greatly buffed. Essentially allowing you to have you finger nails act as deadly weapons.
Sol (Gyokuken white), barked over to Stella (Gyokuken black) who had snuck through a cracked wooden board in the wall of the back gardens shed and was now -from what he can tell- hunting rats. That fucking guy, the boy heaved a sigh as he relaxed his posture and turned to face the two playing Shikigami.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't draw out the ability of his Shikigami, perhaps because he simply wasn't familiar enough with the process of summoning or the mindset needed, but nonetheless, the failure was upsetting.
Facing the wall, Kage's hands and bloodied finger tips again took their stance as he prepared to continue.
Kage again brought his hands together into the hands sign of his dogs, chanted "Gyokuken," prepared to strike, and unleashed a clawed slash with his nails straight into the brick wall.
He felt his fingers crack under the impact, his nails skidding painfully across the hard surface.
Again, he made the hand sign, chanted, readied himself and struck.
And again, and again.
This was the one thing he was good at, the one thing he had fun doing, why couldn't he-
Biting his lip, rubbing his eyes, the child again made the hand sign, chanted and struck.
Objectively, the young prodigy's progress was unprecedented. Only the most talented of Sorcerers could progress so quickly, yet none before him had done so as young as the boy. Only two months since his awakening as a Sorcerer and his Cursed Energy reinforcement equalled that of some Grade-2 Sorcerers. His advancement through his technique was, similarly, absurdly swift.
However, to the boy who only had his family and his new pets alongside his technique, it was not enough; especially considering when he had the progress of the strongest Sorcerers in the modern era pictured clearly in the back of his head to use as his measuring stick. Simply put, the only thing the boy could think to fend off his building isolation was the pursuit of Jujutsu.
His parents growing concern over his lack of connections be damned.
And so, as he failed to make any more progress, the boy decided to go for drastic measures.
Jewel of Plenty . Jewel of Turning Back on the Road . Mirror of the Deep
Midnight, End of February 1995. Kage's Bedroom.
He'd had enough.
Kage was at his wits end. Perhaps he should have focused more on reinforcing his fundamentals before going into more advanced applications of his technique, but no. No he wasn't going to do that. It didn't matter that it might not be the right move, he'd spent so long on it that, at this point, it was much more personal than just what was the smartest move.
There was no world where he'd move on from this before he got savage jaw strike.
However, despite that, his lack of progress was eating away at him. For a while this (loneliness) frustration bubbled behind his eyes, but he'd then thought of a way to kill two birds with one stone.
Why not just subjugate one of his Shikigami?
Guaranteed progress alongside the perfect opportunity to learn a new application of his Cursed Technique, what wasn't there to love? Perhaps going into live combat wasn't the smartest idea considering that he was still five and had been a Sorcerer for a shorter time than end of season 1 Yuji, but what could you do?
It was just a frog anyway, the first and -probably- easiest to subjugate
(After the Megumi V. Todo fight -in the extras- there was a list of the Ten Shadows Shikigami which showed Gamma (Toad) numbered at #2t. It was pretty small against the inverse guy -only about waist height- and the largest it ever had been was about five foot during the detention centre arc where it was used to retrieve Kugisaki from the curses attacking her... it was easy pickings).
So, when Kage was sure that his parents were asleep, he crawled out his bedrooms window as quietly as he could and into the back garden, ready for a fight.
He'd thought about arming himself, perhaps with a knife from the kitchen or something like that, but that would defeat the entire purpose of the subjugation, so he instead entered this combat empty handed.
"Gyokuken," hands clasped together and taking deep breaths, Kage made the hand sign and summoned his two loyal dogs, who flanked him on either side. "Support me," was his short command, and the two dogs hunched into combat readiness, baring their teeth as they to readied themselves.
Before he began, he ventured into the shed using the same path that Stella had -navigating through the near pitch darkness with great difficulty- to pick up a plastic tarp. Dragging it back to the house, he draped it over to his parents window to prevent them from seeing what he was about to do next.
Two flash lights were then laid out on the ground amid the grass, taken from his homes laundry room and meant for black outs, the thin blades sending long and sharp shadows between the pale white light of their rays. He could see now, at least, there wasn't anymore he could do, so he began.
"With this treasure, I Summon:-" his hands weaving into the face of a Toad, Cursed Energy began to spring off of his form. Just like it did when Megumi summoned Mahoraga, yet it was much different from what Kage thought the Divine Generals aura would be. Kage wouldn't call the feeling of Gamma's subjugation weak, instead he'd say it was subtle, subdued even.
The shadows cast by the torch light deepened as liquid shade began to rise from it. Ignoring gravity, thick droplets fell upwards and into a ball of darkness which ebbed and waned like the ocean; soon enough Kage reached the point of no return, and the Subjugation Ritual took full effect. This would not end until he or the Shikigami were dead. "Gamma,".
As he spoke it's name, the floating ball of liquid darkness took shape, becoming a pure black statue of an immense toad that -after hanging in place for a moment- fell to the ground with a wet plop. Once it landed, it's form gained colour, and the six foot tall toad, Gamma, of the Ten Shadows looked down on him.
Pure black eyes, a dark green hide and a tan belly. A black oval sat on it's front, it's inside a bright white with a symbol depicting the 'Mirror of the Deep,' tattooed front and centre.
Did Kage expect the Toad to be six feet tall and about four foot wide? No. Did that change anything? Also no.
He'd kill it all the same and he'd figure out how to use ability summoning. There was no other option that he would accept.
For a long second silence reigned, Kage glaring at the Shikigami as it loomed over him some dozen feet away, his twin hounds growling as the tension built. It's giant form cast a great shadow on the fence behind it and it's deep black eyes regarded the three of them dispassionately.
Then, rather smugly (how did a toad look smug) it let out a deep ribbit and struck.
It's tongue, thick and rubbery like a bungee cord, snapped to one side of the garden, grabbing a plant pot to Kage's right before thrusting it's whole body in one great motion. The porcelain tub was thrown towards the boy and the pin dropped.
"Shit!" Kage ducked under the plant pot, his two dogs darting out to attack the Shikigami, the boys attention (however) was instead on the pot. It was careening through the air and towards the far side of the garden, a flight that would surely break it, and with it, his fathers hard fought pea shoots.
Cursed Energy reinforced his feet and he leapt to the side after the projectile. Stats, however, were not dependant on Cursed Energy alone, so while his rather advanced level of Cursed Energy reinforcement for his age did launch him, the other half of the equation was his physical body, which was that of a five year old. In other words, his CE reinforcement was let down by his weak body.
So while the few strides he took were impressive, kicking up dirt and chunks of grass as he ran, it wasn't fast enough to get to it in time.
But he didn't need to get to it, he just had to get within range to use that.
Kage retched his feet from under him and slammed it flat on the ground mid stride; the shadows beneath his feet bubbled and then shot forwards into the light, ending directly bellow where the pot would land. The plant fell into his shadow (and adding weight onto his back) with no issue.
While that was nice and all, Kage's body caught up with its momentum and -with his foot slammed down mid sprint- he had no footing to recover with and instead rolled across the ground in a painful thud. Thankfully, Cursed Energy reinforcement saved him from anything too serious, but the rough landing did knock the wind out of him.
Darting his head up to look to the other side of the garden, where the Shikigami were busy having a fight to the death.
Gamma shot out it's tongue at one of the dogs, either catching it or missing. Should it manage to bind one, the other twin would swoop in and snap at the tongue, causing it to reel it back in panic. It'd seem that Gyokuken was enough to keep Gamma occupied, but they weren't making any progress.
Yet the Toad wasn't dumb, it'd seem, seeing it's strategy to just eat one of the dogs was failing, instead of binding them it instead resorted to hit and run tactics. It used it's legs to jump over one as they lunged at the toad and flailed it's tongue like a whip at the other as it did so, forcing them both to keep their distance.
A perfect stalemate...
But just as it hopped over Stella, Kage joined the fight and broke that balance, his fist coated in a blue inferno of his Cursed energy. He cocked back a punch and uncorked it -putting all the momentum behind his dead sprint from the other side of the garden into the single strike.
A ring of blue energy exploded from the strike, his Cursed Energy -used at it's Maximum Output- enhancing his limb and flowing into Gamma in a haymaker, which rattled Kage's bones. It skidded back, it's body skipping like a stone and crashing into the house. It's back sending a dull thwack throughout the garden before it fell forwards onto it's stomach amid the flower beds.
Gamma's mouth opened, red blood pouring out like a waterfall, the Shikigami staggering -and failing- to return to it's feet from the strike.
...well he'd expected it to take a couple more hits then that. It didn't bode well for him if one of his support Shikigami was this weak.
Both Sol and Stella were dismissed, Kage letting them fall away by purposefully loosing focus on them. Kage had to give his Shikigami active willingly, and that stole a bit of his focus away, so to be able to fully focus on one thing he returned them too the shadows.
Instead he closed his eyes and focused on what he could do to achieve his other goal for this Subjugation.
(And, unknowingly, achieved the second condition to succeed in activating ability summoning. Using the ability of a Shikigami counted as summoning the Shikigami in full. One cannot summon multiple instances of the same Shikigami and, as a result, if you wanted to summon a Shikigami's ability, the Shikigami cannot already be summoned when you tried to draw on the abilites.
This was not considered by Kage, who was hamstrung by his knowledge.
Knowing Sukuna could summon both Mahoraga and the Dharma Chakra wheel, he didn't consider that summoning his Shikigami would disrupt his attempts. As to him, ability summoning and Sukuna using Mahoraga's wheel being one and the same.
However, in years to come, the distinction between ability summoning and Sukuna summoning Mahoara's whell would become clear to see).
Kage brought his hands together into the hand sign of a dogs head, chanted "Gyokuken: Savage Jaw Strike," and splayed his fingers. His nails extended and the Cursed Energy coiling around his hands roared into the shape of two snarling dogs heads.
Grinning Kage loomed towards the Shikigami, as it tried to get to it's feet and flee. Finally success.
Juju-Sanpo: The day after
(GabFr: Jujutsu Kaisen Parody)
Just after Gamma's Subjugation, Early February 1995. The Adachi households living room
"I'm sorry..." Kage said, his head down.
His mother, newspaper open and frowning heavily didn't respond, his father instead spoke with a deep and unimpressed intonation. "For?..." the man said, sipping a cup of black coffee as he did so.
The boy closed his eyes and straightened his back "Waking you up when you have work in the morning," his mother turned the page of her newspaper. Silence hung heavily and Kage knew they were waiting for him to continue.
"And for sneaking out at night,"...
"An-And for putting a tarp over your window!" the boy really was grasping at straws now, he couldn't think why else they'd be mad.
Just after the boy had finished off Gamma, he'd been startled by his parents slamming open the back door and staring at him, crouched over the flower bed, tarp over their window and flashlights lighting up the garden. A strange sight to be sure.
He'd been ferried off inside by his mother as his father tided up after his son, they'd sat in silence in the living room until his father came back almost three minutes later with a hot cup of coffee looking absolutely livid.
Taking a peak from under his eye lids, he saw his father take another sip from his cup and narrow his eyes at him.
Kage couldn't think of what else he'd want him to say.
Silence hung, with Kage fidgeting in place as his parents (either staring through his soul or at a news paper, which was worse? He didn't know) continued to scrutinize him. Sighing, his father sat back onto the couch, spreading one of his arms over the backboard. "Just go to your room and think about what you have to be sorry for,".
A lance of guilt and panic (and a little bit of indignation) shot through Kage's spine as he -on instinct- bowed slightly at his father and scampered off into his room.
The two adults left behind were silent for a moment.
"Damn," was his mothers first words, folding the newspaper into her lap, "ain't his rebellious phase a little early?" earning a little chuckle from her husband.
Rubbing the bridge of his nose, the man seemed to try and banish and early morning headache "I just want to know where my pea shoots are..." earning an eyebrow rase from the woman.
"He stole you pea shoots?" her question was filled with her bafflement.
Shaking his head the man sighed "The whole damn plant pot, I couldn't find it anywhere back there. Why'd he even do that?"
Kage lay in his bed, summoning his Shikigami and cuddling up to them. He felt heavy, his bottom lip quivering slightly, this was supposed to be a moment of victory for him! He'd figured out how to use ability summoning and subjugated Gamma, but now he was just sad.
Guilt weighed him down and-
Actually... Kage had been reinforcing himself for a bit now, why was that?
The five year old wracked his brain, until he opened his eyes in shock. Darting up in bed (earning a startled yip from both of his dogs) he jumped down onto the floor and opened the depths of his shadow and expelled everything inside.
Emerging onto the ground of his bedroom was a plant pot.
Shit, how was he going to get that back outside?
A good question, one for another day, as the boy shuffled the Pea shoots into the corner of his room and returned to bed. He was too tired to deal with this.