Being carried by Gojo Satoru was not the glorious, anime-hero moment my pathetic weeb brain might have once fantasized about. It was, in a word, terrifying. He had me tucked under one arm like a rolled-up newspaper he'd just bought. My head was pointing towards the ground, giving me a dizzying, upside-down view of the pristine garden shrinking away with every long-legged stride he took. My spine felt compressed in ways I was fairly certain a four-year-old's spine should not be. This was not child-friendly transportation. This was a kidnapping, albeit a very stylish and overwhelmingly powerful one.
"Lighten up, little spark," Satoru's voice rumbled from above me, the vibration passing through his arm into my body. "You look like your favorite toy just got discontinued."
I tried to respond, but my brain was still trying to reboot. One moment, I was a quiet prodigy in a forgotten corner of the Gojo clan. The next, I was the designated little sister of the jujutsu world's equivalent of a walking nuclear bomb. My internal monologue, the last vestige of Bob, was a continuous, high-pitched scream.
He called me a spark! Does he know about my past life as an electricity enthusiast? No, stupid, it's a metaphor! Get a grip! He's talking to you! Say something! Anything!
"M-my name is Aki," I managed to squeak out, the words feeling foreign in my tiny mouth.
"Aki! Cute," he said cheerfully. "I was gonna call you Sparky, or maybe Tiny Terror, but Aki works. Sounds responsible. You can be the responsible one, and I'll be the fun, handsome one. It's a perfect dynamic."
He didn't walk out of the compound. That would have been too simple, too mundane. We reached the shattered outer wall, and he just… kept going. The world dissolved. It wasn't a blur of speed; it was a stomach-lurching sensation of space folding in on itself, of reality being pinched and pulled like taffy. Colors bled into each other, and the air crackled with an immense concentration of Cursed Energy. It was his teleportation technique. In the anime, it was an instantaneous flash. Experiencing it from the inside was like being thrown into a cosmic washing machine set to 'eldritch horror'.
The entire trip lasted maybe two seconds. My sense of balance, however, would need a few business days to recover.
When the world snapped back into focus, we were standing in the center of an enormous courtyard. The air tasted different here. Sharper. Thicker with latent Cursed Energy. The branch family home was a quiet country estate; this was the heart of an empire. Towering, traditional buildings with elegant, tiled roofs surrounded us on all sides. Servants in dark kimonos and stern-faced sorcerers in black uniforms moved with quiet purpose, their eyes all snapping towards us. Every single one of them froze upon seeing Satoru, their expressions a mixture of awe and fear. Then, their gazes drifted down to me, the strange, black haired child dangling from his arm, and the awe and fear were joined by pure confusion.
"Satoru-sama! You have returned!" An elderly man, his face a roadmap of wrinkles and disapproval, hurried towards us, flanked by two other elders. Their Cursed Energy felt old and brittle, like ancient paper. "Your excursion was not on the schedule. And you have… acquired something."
His gaze on me was less than welcoming. He looked at me the way one might look at a strange animal Satoru had dragged home, wondering if it had fleas.
Satoru finally set me down on my own two feet. I wobbled, my legs feeling like overcooked noodles. He simply grinned at the elder, a wide, sharp smile that didn't reach his blindfolded eyes.
"Jiro-san, so stuffy, as always," Satoru said, his tone light but carrying an unshakeable weight of authority. "I was just rectifying a gross oversight by our clan. We had a diamond sitting in a dusty box in the countryside. I've brought it here to be polished." He placed a heavy hand on my head, ruffling my hair. "This is Aki. My new little sister. Isn't she cute?"
The three elders stared. I could almost hear the gears grinding in their ancient heads, smoke pouring from their ears as they tried to process this flagrant violation of every conceivable clan protocol.
"S-sister?" the elder named Jiro stammered, his composure cracking. "Satoru-sama, you cannot simply… claim a child from a branch family! There are procedures! Lineage registrations! Adoption rites!"
"Boring," Satoru declared, dismissing a centuries-old tradition with a single word. He started walking towards the largest building, beckoning me to follow with a flick of his finger. I scurried after him, not wanting to be left alone with the sputtering elders. "Procedures are for when you're not sure about something. I'm sure. She's got more potential than your entire generation combined, old man. Hiding her away would be a crime against jujutsu itself."
His voice echoed across the courtyard, a clear proclamation to everyone present. This wasn't a request. It was the new reality. Gojo Satoru had a sister, and they would all just have to deal with it.
He led me through immaculate hallways of dark, polished wood and past priceless-looking ink paintings. Servants and sorcerers bowed deeply as we passed, their eyes glued to the floor. The sheer power Satoru commanded wasn't just in his Cursed Technique; it was in the absolute, unconditional authority he wielded over one of the most powerful organizations in the world. And he treated it all like a game.
"Right, you'll need a room," he mused, tapping his chin. "The North Wing is too drafty. The West Wing smells like old people." He shot a pointed grin back at the elders who were still trailing us at a distance. "The East Wing it is! It's got the best morning sun."
The room he chose for me was less of a bedroom and more of a personal palace. It was vast, with high ceilings and a wall of shoji screens that opened onto a breathtaking private garden with a koi pond. The tatami mats were fresh and smelled of sweet grass. It was easily four times the size of my entire house back at the branch family compound.
"A bit small, but it'll do for now," Satoru announced, completely serious. He clapped his hands. "Hey! Get everything in here! A new futon, the softest one you can find. A wardrobe—no, get rid of the traditional stuff. Fill it with modern clothes. And lots of them. Also, a TV. The biggest one they make. A game console. And snacks! A mountain of snacks! Especially Kikufuku! Mochi is brain food!"
The servants, who had been listening with wide eyes, scrambled to obey. I just stood in the middle of the enormous room, feeling like a very small, very confused doll that had just been won at a carnival.
My System, which had been silent during the chaotic transit, chose this moment to ping in my mind.
[Story Quest Updated: The Strongest's Sister]
[New Objective: Settle into the Gojo Main Compound.]
[Reward for completion: +5% to Cursed Energy Reserves]
[Status]
Name: Gojo Aki (Robert 'Bob' Miller)
Age: 4
Cursed Energy Reserves: 2.3%
Cursed Energy Control: 0.8%
Innate Technique: [Emptiness] - Proficiency: 0.12%
Special Trait: [Mystic Eyes of Death Perception] - Synchronization: 5.2%
Overall Progress to Next Stage [Child]: 15%
The numbers were still laughably small, but they were climbing. Just being in this Cursed Energy-rich environment felt like it was passively boosting my reserves.
The next few hours were a whirlwind. A stream of servants came and went, furnishing the room with an absurd mix of traditional elegance and modern luxury. A sleek, wall-sized television was installed opposite a beautiful, hand-painted screen. A low table was piled high with colorful boxes of sweets and snacks, including a prominent box of Sendai's famous Kikufuku mochi, which Satoru immediately opened and began eating.
He sprawled out on the floor, legs crossed, munching on a mochi while I sat seiza-style opposite him, a perfect picture of a traditional child, though inside I was having a panic attack about what to do or say next.
"So," he said, after swallowing a green tea-flavored mochi. "We know your name is Aki, you're four, and you're my new sister. What else? What's your Cursed Technique? The Six Eyes tell me it's weird. I like weird."
This was it. The first test. My heart hammered in my chest. I had a Cursed Technique that could, in theory, erase him from existence, and another power that could kill him. Revealing that to the most paranoid man on the planet seemed like a bad idea. But he already knew something was there. Lying to the Six Eyes was impossible.
"I... I can make things go away," I said quietly, choosing my words with extreme care.
Satoru's munching paused. His head tilted. "Go away? Like, teleport them?"
"No," I said, shaking my head. "Just... gone."
He stared at me for a long moment, the air growing heavy. The playful energy vanished, replaced by an intense, analytical focus. He picked up the now-empty mochi box. "Show me."
His voice was soft, but it was a clear command.
My hands felt clammy. I took a deep breath. Okay, Bob, you've read about this. It's like a practical exam. Don't screw it up. I focused on the empty cardboard box on the table between us. I reached out with my senses, feeling for that familiar, hungry void within me. I pulled on it, directing its conceptual 'hunger' towards the box.
It was like trying to thread a needle with a rope. My control was pathetic. The Cursed Energy I channeled into the technique was minuscule. For a second, nothing happened. Then, the box flickered. It turned semi-transparent for a heartbeat, a ghostly afterimage, before snapping back into reality.
[Innate Technique: [Emptiness] - Proficiency has increased to 0.13%]
It wasn't much, but it was proof.
Satoru didn't move. He just stared at the spot where the box had flickered. "Huh," he said, a single syllable that held a universe of thought. "Not erasure of matter... more like... temporary negation of existence. You made it 'not there' for a second. That's... new."
He looked back at me, and that terrifyingly wide grin returned. "Okay. That's a good trick. What about the other thing? Your eyes. Sometimes, the flow of Cursed Energy around them goes all funny. Like you're looking at a different layer of the world. What do you see?"
This was even more dangerous ground. The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. A concept from a different fictional universe entirely. How could I even begin to explain it?
"I see... lines," I whispered, my voice barely audible. "On everything. And everyone."
"Lines?"
"If I touch a line," I explained, my gaze dropping to the tatami mat. I could see the faint, spidery black lines crisscrossing its surface right now, even with my eyes 'off'. I had to actively suppress them. "The thing... breaks. It ends."
To demonstrate, I activated my MEoDP. The world snapped into that terrifying, cracked-glass reality. I focused on a single, unadorned clay teacup that a servant had left on the table. It was covered in a complex web of black lines. I reached out a tiny finger, my hand trembling slightly, and traced one of the most prominent lines running down its side.
There was no sound. No impact. The moment my finger finished its path along the line of death, the teacup simply fell apart into two perfectly smooth, silent pieces. It hadn't shattered. It had been conceptually severed. Its 'life' as a teacup had ended.
I looked up at Satoru. His grin was gone. The glasses was still in place, but I felt the full weight of the Six Eyes on me. He was silent for what felt like an eternity. The playful mentor was gone, replaced by The Strongest Jujutsu Sorcerer, analyzing a power that defied the known laws of Cursed Energy.
Then, slowly, he started to laugh.
It wasn't a happy laugh. It was a wild, delighted, borderline-insane cackle. He threw his head back and laughed at the ceiling, a sound filled with pure, unadulterated glee.
"Hah! HAHAHA! Oh, this is perfect! It's better than perfect!" He leaned forward, his face alight with manic energy. "The clan elders wanted to hide you! The fools! A Cursed Technique that conceptually negates existence, and eyes that can perceive and interact with death itself! They had a nuke and they thought it was a firecracker!"
He clapped me on the shoulder, a gesture that almost sent me tumbling over. "You, Aki, are going to be my masterpiece. Forget everything those branch family idiots taught you. Your training starts tomorrow. We're going to sharpen that 'Nothingness' until you can blink a mountain out of existence. We're going to train those 'Eyes of yours until you can kill a Cursed Spirit just by looking at it funny."
I stared at him, my mind completely blank with shock. Masterpiece? Nuke? My only goal until now had been to not accidentally erase my own toes or kill a toy by touching it wrong.
He stood up, stretching his long limbs. "This is great. I was getting bored. All the Curses are too weak, all the old men are too slow. But you! You're a whole new puzzle." He beamed at me, a proud owner looking at his new, impossibly exotic and dangerous pet. "Welcome to the family, little sister. Things are about to get a whole lot more interesting."
He strode out of the room, presumably to go terrorize the elders some more, leaving me alone in the vast, opulent space. The pile of sweets, the giant TV, the beautiful garden—it all faded into the background.
All I could focus on was the weight of his words. My masterpiece.
My path was no longer my own. I wasn't just Gojo Aki, a reincarnated soul trying to survive. I was Gojo Satoru's new project. I was his new toy. And I had the terrifying feeling that he was the kind of owner who liked to see just how far he could push his toys before they broke.
I looked at the two clean halves of the teacup on the table, and for the first time, felt a sliver of kinship with it.
[Story Quest Completed: Settle into the Gojo Main Compound.]
[Reward: Cursed Energy Reserves have increased by 5%.]
[New Cursed Energy Reserves: 7.3%]