Okay, first line of business, immediate next action, and making a plan. 'Well,' I analyzed my current clothes and lack of a working phone and figured that might be a good place to start.
I scanned the ground while aerostepping. I saw quite a few curses on the ground below, but I fixated on the one I saw cornering a family of 3 in an alley. I smiled, turned over in the air, and used a quake to shoot myself down at it.
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3rd Person POV
A middle-aged Japanese man of average height stood in the way of a huge curse and his family, his arms outstretched to try and protect them.
The curse was nothing short of gratuitous, its huge elongated human head was caved in on the left side but it beat like a heart. Its rotting teeth were dribbling saliva and ichor onto the street. Its back was rife with flowing bushy fur. It lacked a right arm, but had a huge clawed left one to make up for it.
"Giiii—GIIIiii—GIIAAAH" It moaned as it closed in and the man and his family backed themselves further into the corner.
It moved to jump off its tiny, but muscular, hind legs before—
BOOM
Its giant head was slammed into the road and its body exploded, courtesy of a certain grey-haired teen landing and crushing the curse.
He remained crouched on top of the smushed back of the curse, still maintaining a significant height advantage over the family. The purple blood rained from the exploded curse, and he looked to the man and smiled.
"Hey, you wouldn't happen to have a phone I could borrow for the night, do you?"
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Shinji POV
I was very fortunate to run into such a kind family.
They even deactivated the passcode on it when I asked them to. Truly the Japanese were too kind to their fellow man.
Now where to go?
And by that I mean which colony I should go to for the culling games. Because there were only really two options: either go to Tokyo and fight Jujutsu High and Kashimo, or Sendai and fight Uro, Ryo, Yorozu, and many other special grades.
The real problem with both of those is that either way I go I'm fucked.
And I can't go to the other colonies because let's face it, they were so weak that they weren't even written into the story. I needed some place that would push me, but every way I go I'm dead, and for one simple reason.
I was so new to sorcery. I could feel how far I was from my full potential. Even now after those three black flashes, my reinforcement was improving by the second. But worse I didn't know squat in the ways of barrier techniques.
Meaning no simple domain or hollow wicker basket so I'm one bad domain expansion away from instant death. I wish I could learn from Jujutsu High or from Ui Ui's weird soul swap cheating, but Kenjaku nuked that path.
The best case was if I could isolate one of the more reasonable members of Jujutsu High so that I wasn't a threat. Another reason to go to Sendai seeing as how I knew Yuta would come solo to check it out.
Or would he? I might have changed canon, but I doubt the presence of one measly special grade could have changed that much.
I sighed thinking of alternatives, and which of the incarnated sorcerers would be the most agreeable. Kashimo was a solid fuck no, he wouldn't even know half of what I want to learn. Yorozu wasn't even active for a time so she was also off the list.
Reggie Star knew Hollow Wicker Basket, which while worse than simple domain was wayyy better than nothing. Plus Sukuna chose to use it over a simple domain so it was definitely still good. On top of that, his subordinate knows RCT so they might be able to learn that too.
But as I am I really don't think that fight would be really all that challenging. Plus there was a pretty good alternative from Sendai. Takako Uro and Ryu Ishigori, both of whom also knew domain expansion, and most likely knew a hollow wicker basket. Plus it was pretty heavily implied that Uro had RCT so if I could learn from them that would be great.
Plus worst case, with the amount of points in Sendai if I just cleaned house there I could add a rule of some kind to get others to teach me about Jujutsu instead of dying or something.
I kept aerostepping until I was out of the city, before dropping down to the ground. I pulled out my new phone and checked around me for a place to get new clothes and a place to sleep for the night.
There was a clothes shop a 5-minute walk from me, I smirked and ran it in under half a minute. I broke in the front door, and smiled, thankful I was reincarnated in the modern age.
I walked over to where the pants were. It was hard to find a pair that fit because I was quite a bit taller than the average person, but I found a pair of baggy black cargo pants.
I peeled my ruined shirt off me too, having to rip it most of the way off. The curse blood had mostly evaporated from it and me, but it was still ruined. I scanned the nearby clothes lines and found a nice, slightly oversized grey hoodie that matched my hair.
I pulled out my phone and looked for a hotel at least 30 minutes away from the city. There was a 3.5-star motel an hour and 15 minutes from me. It was also in the direction of Sendai.
I put that out of my mind, opting to sleep on it instead. I ran and it took me all of 15 minutes to get to the motel. I wanted something with poor security, so that I could break in for the night without anyone noticing. I didn't have money after all.
I wasn't a monster, I didn't rob that poor family in the alley, I just asked if they would let me borrow their phone.
The motel was very nearly empty and I smiled. I gambled on a room, walked to the door, and put my hand on it. I channeled my cursed energy into it, visualizing it shaking the locking mechanism.
The doorknob quaked violently for a moment and I stopped channeling my cursed energy into it. I didn't even need to turn the handle and the door opened.
I sweat dropped. I might have broken the door. I walked in regardless trying to be as quiet as possible. Of course, I gambled wrong and walked in to see a woman in her late 80's naked, cuddling with a naked 30-something-year-old man.
I stopped, the image being seared into my brain, before closing the door. It cracked open slightly. I sweat dropped again, deciding to gamble on another room on the opposite side of the motel.
I was luckier this time—there was no one else in the room. The door to my new room was also broken, so I took the chair to the miniature desk and braced it under the broken doorknob to keep the door closed.
I sighed, slipped out of my clothes, and took a short shower. The warm water on my skin was like nirvana after the night I had had. I put my underwear back on, a little peeved I forgot to get sleepwear, and slipped into bed.
I shifted my focus to my cursed energy. Projecting it out and visualizing a barrier forming in the palm of my hand. My hand lit up with my unique color of cursed energy, but no visual barrier formed.
I had a thought and smiled. If Jujutsu is all about subtraction then why not go back to the basics? I visualized my cursed energy forming a barrier around me and my room, speaking softly, "Emerge from the darkness, that which is blacker than black, purify that which is impure."
The chant was a touch chuuni for me, but I felt my cursed energy start to form into a shell-like structure around me and my room. I tried to keep concealment in mind when I formed it, willing it to hide me.
No clue if it worked or not, but it was better than nothing and the drain on my cursed energy was outpaced by my regeneration of CE. I smiled at the instant success. I don't know how talented I was in sorcery, but after the black flashes, this doesn't feel too hard at all.
I tried to do the same for Hollow Wicker Basket forming the hand sign for it and visualizing, but that didn't do anything for the 20 minutes I tried it. And I mean nothing, no clicking, nothing.
It did feel easier to "weave" my cursed energy around itself, but I felt I was missing a pivotal part of the technique. I sighed and tried to use RCT.
And whatever Gojo said about multiplying cursed energy against itself did nothing to help. I tried smashing them together like a fusion reactor, but I couldn't even split my cursed energy.
It was really hard to cut something in two when you've been using all of it as one the whole night. Plus I wasn't even sure that smashing two streams of cursed energy against each other is what he meant by multiplying the two together.
I tried again for another half hour getting better at manipulating my cursed energy, but still no luck with RCT. I decided to finally give it all a rest for the night. I laid my head on the pillow and fell asleep in moments.
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I was broken from my slumber by a curse breaking through my wall—the curtain didn't last the night it seemed. It was huge with a wolf-like head and a mouth split into four sections, all aiming to clamp down on me.
I groggily punched it, and it exploded backwards even without me using my technique. I rubbed at my eyes, before opening them and squinting at the light of the rising sun.
I blinked rapidly and marveled at the sight of the sun.
I pulled out my phone and saw the time was 6:03 am. I stretched my hands above my head, my back and shoulders popping at the action. I got out of bed and put my clothes back on.
I was hungry. I opened my phone and noticed that it was close to dying—23% left in the charge.
There was yelling outside, probably about the curse I just turned into abstract art. I walked out of the motel room and saw a nearly naked man running out of a room with an oddly broken door.
…I'm sure I knew nothing about that.
Blocking out the traumatic memory I recentered and opened the directions app on my phone. Decision time.
Go to Tokyo or go to Sendai.
Tokyo was probably the safer option unless I ran into Kashimo and Hakari. I could rack up a good amount of easy points. In contrast, Sendai was rife with danger, probably the strongest incarnated sorcerer in the form of Yorozu, and a higher concentration of special-grade sorcerers and curses than 99% of all of history.
It was pretty easy all things considered. I set my destination in my phone and started running.
After all, Sendai was damn far and my phone was about to die.
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An hour of running later, my phone was on its last 8%, but I was at the city limits. I took in the sight of the non-destroyed city and took a step forward. A streak of grey appeared in my line of sight and a floating grey larva-esque shikigami stared down at me.
"Do you wish to become a player?" It asked me and I tilted my head. I had thought I would be one by default, but I guess that's not how equivalent exchange worked.
This was the last chance I would have to back out so my response was swift, "Absolutely." There was no doubt, I knew this was the right…, nah I don't really care about the "right" path, this one was all mine.
"Player: Newgate Shinji, has been added to the Culling Games," it intoned before beginning to follow me.
"And you're following me why?" I asked, not too comfortable with the idea of something so closely tied to Kenjaku always being around.
"I follow you around to give you any information on the culling games and any updates to the rules," it said almost exuberantly, and I blinked, forgetting about that small detail.
I shrugged, continuing to walk before pausing. "Did you just announce that to all other players?"
"Yes," it said, floating just a little bit behind me.
"Oh…" I responded dully, continuing my trot into the city. I walked for a while longer. Half an hour longer. Walking in the middle of the street. It was almost alarming how fast non-players evacuated from the cities, or were killed by the curses and players.
That's why they stood out—three cursed energy signatures, tiny compared to mine. But now that I was at max capacity after sleeping I realized something: I was the one with the crazy cursed energy capacity.
The most dense one stepped out first. He was abnormally tall and very heavy-set. His hair…
Well, he didn't have any hair.
He was wearing a white T-shirt with blood staining the edges, and black cuffed joggers. Behind him stepped out two similarly tall men. Unlike their leader, both had a full head of hair and were fit unlike their apparent leader.
"Hey kid," the rotund one started, "Sorry, it's no hard feelings really, you're just easy points is all," he finished with a menacing grin.
Suddenly the gravity around me exploded and the concrete beveled under me.
'Oh?' This was interesting. I haven't seen or heard of a gravity technique. I moved my arm dully—it was harder sure, but it wasn't like the gravity was crushing.
I looked up and saw a 4-meter-wide chunk of the road being hurled at me. On top of that the world flipped on its axis upside down.
'See now this…this was interesting,' I thought to myself. I vanished from where I was standing before the rock hit where I was standing.
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3rd Person POV
The three Daichi brothers, Taiga, Doi, and Riku, were players born with a technique, but not the brain to use sorcery.
Taiga, the leader and largest of the three, was born with a technique that allowed him to throw chunks of "earth".
Doi, the most fit of the three, was born with the technique to bring someone closer to the "earth" by increasing their gravity.
Riku, the smallest of the three, was born with the technique to invert someone's sense of the "earth" and invert their gravity.
They had 36 points between them, and no sorcerer kills.
Newgate Shinji was the first-ever true sorcerer the brothers would face. So they were entirely unprepared and unaware of the world of Jujutsu and the monsters it could produce.
The chunk of the road that was launched impacted where the silver-haired boy originally was. None of them saw him move. So sure of their kill were they that they had already started to move before they heard a voice behind them.
"So why'd you guys team up?" Each of the brothers snapped their heads to the calm voice. There sat Shinji upside down on a traffic light like nothing was wrong, his left leg crossed over his other.
They gaped in shock, and Taiga activated his technique again throwing the rock in front of him at the boy. The other two moved to close the distance. "The two with the gravity I get, commonality and all that," Shinji started, vanishing from his spot once more, a loud crack and boom emanating from where he sat.
The two that started charging made it two steps before Shinji was in the middle of their formation. "But you…you don't fit," he said, staring Taiga in the eyes. His two brothers turned, but it was too late.
Shinji leveled a devastating jab with his right hand and Taiga's head snapped back. Shinji then stepped in and sent a crushing elbow to his solar plexus.
Taiga vomited blood as his chest caved inwards, and he was sent rocketing into and out of a building overhead. The gravity returned on Shinji, this time far stronger—empowered by the rage Doi felt at his brother's demise.
Doi sent a wild haymaker at Shinji's head and it passed through where his head was. But Shinji had ducked and leveled a devastating rising uppercut to his chin. His jaw shattered, and his skull fractured and split as he was sent careening up and over another building.
Riku sent a roundhouse at Shinji's back, but Shinji was no longer where he stood. Riku's eyes went wide as saucers and—
A hand speared through his back, welcoming him into the doughnut club. He vomited up blood, and Shinji retracted his reinforced arm. Riku grasped desperately at the new hole in his chest, before his body went limp, twitching every few seconds.
Shinji stared down at the corpse. His face was blank and blood was dripping down his arm.
He stared a moment longer, but his introspection was broken by Kogane. "You have eliminated 3 sorcerers. 15 points have been awarded." The boy did not smile, looked to the sky, and closed his eyes for a moment.
He breathed in. And kept walking, not once did he look back.
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Shinji POV
Those three were really weak. I wanted to ask them more questions.
Or better yet, get answers to the ones I had already asked, but uhh.
In my defense, I really thought they would be stronger.
Even when my reserves were that low after "fighting" Jogo and recovering I was never that weak.
I sighed—it was whatever. They weren't who I came here for anyway. They couldn't teach me anything about Jujutsu at all. Although I do wonder why they were working together—that wasn't like the culling games at all.
'Gravity, Gravity, Throwing rocks—what connects gravity to rock throwing aside from the obvious?' I thought, tilting my head.
'Maybe it has something to do with the concept of "earth"?' I shrugged. They were dead and I wouldn't get any answers—
A presence.
And strong.
I looked to the sky and saw…her.
She was gorgeous, with flowing pink hair dancing in the sky. Her outfit was a feat of Jujutsu, the sky warping around her in an entrancing display. She had a dark violet choker, and gold half-loop earrings.
Her eyes were equally as outstanding, her sclera blacked out, acting as a backdrop to her bright pink-red eyes.
Takako Uro.
"Well then," she purred out, "a new challenger."
'Damn,' I thought, and smiled. 'Just who I wanted to see.'
This was going to be really fun.
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A/N
Aaaaaaaaand done. I'm really happy with how that chapter turned out. Next chapter will be the Uro fight, I'm super stoked for writing that. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, Have a great night.
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