Somewhat important note: uploads will slow down somewhat (if that's even possible) since I have a lot to plan and decide for the culling games arc. I plan for it to be a lot longer and expansive than it was in cannon with more OC's of reincarnated characters which I hint at in this chapter. I'll probably do the preparation arc on the "normal" biweekly schedule but once the culling games starts for real, I'll probably take a 2 week break or something to write and plan. Enjoy the chapter.
X-X-X
"Let's talk, shall we?" The monk said in a casual, conversational tone. Not that anyone else was willing to start one. Yuji rushed the man claiming to be Suguru Geto without fanfare.
"Give him back! Give back Gojo!" Yuji yelled while sprinting full tilt toward the robe-dawning man. The man smiled a bit before speaking as well, his volume drastically lower than Yuji's.
"In the mid-Edo era, people drew this strange connection between catfish and earthquakes. They believed a giant catfish swimming beneath the ground was the cause of earthquakes." Geto monologued before a black rift in space, no bigger than his palm, appeared in his hand which faced downward. Before Yuji could cross half the distance between them, a small catfish fell from the rift.
The catfish sank into the ground, as if it was water and not solid asphalt. Nearly a second later, Yuji just fell. He didn't trip over something or was pushed by some force. He just flopped over, as if he'd just landed after falling a great distance.
"Did you think you were falling? From an outside perspective, you just suddenly flopped over." Geto said in a teaching tone which grated on Yuji's nerves. Mostly because he took it as the man taunting him but also because it seemed strangely genuine.
"The strength of cursed spirit manipulation is the great quantity of options at my disposal. I possess several semi-first grade spirits and above, each one wielding its own unique cursed technique which I may unleash once an opponent has figured out the technique of the previous. Of course, I can also simply use them in tandem and pile on the attacks." Geto said to Yuji, slowly closing the gap of twenty or so feet between them.
Geto's shadow moved and blurred as dozens of giant centipedes shot out, each one half the width of Yuji's arm. They smashed into Yuji in a dense line, their knife-like legs stabbing into his skin and ripping him apart. Not even a second later, he felt like he was falling.
He and the centipedes both smashed into the ground as if they'd just fallen from a five-story building, the razor-sharp bodies of the curses digging into his flesh even deeper. The centipedes began to retreat towards their master, jumping into the same black rifts from which they came.
"Last year, during the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, if the curses weren't split between Kyoto and Shinjuku, He would've won instead of Okkotsu. But I guess you had nothing to do with that." Geto continued his monologue, even closing his eyes as he laughed a bit.
The sound of a clap startled him the slightest bit. Upon reopening his eyes, he was met with the tip of a silver sword mere inches from his cornea. He swayed his head to the side, backhanding the flat of the blade away from him before his shadow morphed once more.
The same centipedes Geto used on Yuji shot out in a pillar of tough exoskeletons and knife-like legs. With another clap, Geto and his white-haired attacker were swapped, Geto appearing in the strike zone of his own attack.
Instead of perusing Geto further, Isamu turned around once he got a feel for his positioning. He slashed out at the prone and unconscious cursed spirit, seeking to cut off its head and take its cursed energy for himself. Only then might he stand a chance against Geto.
Isamu felt no resistance as his blade passed through the body as if he'd struck air instead of the curse. Saraswati was sharp but not THAT sharp. Looking down, Isamu saw the curse's body burst into mist.
"A good attempt. Sadly for you, that swapping technique gets a bit predictable after a while." Geto said as the pillar of centipedes split open, revealing the patch-faced curse. A shimmering could be seen on Geto's shoulder as a monkey like curse dispelled whatever illusion it was using to hide, its eyes larger than they had any right to be popped out of its head as its long fingers scratched at itself.
Placing a hand on the unconscious patch-faced curse, Geto forced the body to morph and twist. It was stretched out as if a black hole was rapidly sucking it in and condensing it. After a brief few seconds, all that remained was a small, baseball-sized black and orange sphere.
"I'll say again. Let's talk." Geto said, a smile lying softly on his face as he raised the sphere to his face as if taunting Isamu with its existence. Isamu glared daggers at the monk but didn't act, knowing his position wasn't good. Nanami and Todo had given him some of their cursed energy during Yuji's brief fight with the man but it wasn't nearly enough to take him down.
"I'm sure you're familiar with Maximum techniques, considering you possess one. They are the pinnacle of one's power, excluding their domain expansion of course. The maximum technique of cursed spirit manipulation, Maximum Uzumaki, combines a select number of cursed spirits into one before striking an opponent with a super condensed blast of their cursed energy." Geto monologued, Isamu just standing there with no other option but to sit there and wait out the speech.
"It wasn't very appealing to me at first. It is powerful, yes, but it negates the advantage of cursed spirit manipulation, the great number of moves at my disposal. It was simply a way to recycle low-level cursed spirits in my mind." Geto continued, his hand bringing the ball closer and closer to his mouth as he talked.
"But I was wrong, its true value comes when a cursed spirit of semi-grade one or higher is sacrificed, and its technique is extracted." And with that, Geto popped the ball into his mouth, swallowing it with surprising ease considering the size of the sphere.
"How foolish." The monk said, looking up at the sky after devouring the curse formerly known as Mahito.
"Did you think I would not notice something you sensed?" Far above the pair flouted a flashing small blue light, a flame inside a low-grade cursed lantern. It's carrier part of the only backup Isamu and the others could hope for.
The second after the flame began to flash, three more blue lights could be seen in the air, each one fast approaching the monk. Dashing to the side, Geto easily dodged the three arrows delivered to him by one Noritoshi Kamo from hundreds of feet away.
Before Geto could take a breath after dodging the attack, his hands lashed out as he summoned another curse from wherever the black rifts in space lead, a squid-like cursed spirit appearing between his palms. The curse's flash stretched with the impact of the bullet but never broke, leaving its master unscathed.
"A sniper rifle? I like it! I agree that it's best to use conventional weapons when attacking sorcerers." Geto commented, excited more than anything.
To keep constant pressure on the monk, two students of the New Shadow Style school appeared, each with their own simple domains erected. Miwa behind the man and Isamu in front, both of them unsheathing their swords simultaneously.
Isamu's blade arrived first, forcing the man to duck into the path of Miwa's blade, only for it to be caught by the monk's clenched fist. The blade shattered from his sheer grip strength. Geto stood back up before turning towards Isamu who continued his assault.
"New Shadow Style: Noon Eclipse Sword Drawing." Unleashing the most powerful technique under the umbrella of New Shadow Style, Isamu intended to take the man off guard. He had intentionally increased the time between the first and second slashes to try to make Geto think he'd only used a single slash technique.
Unfortunately, the monk was not so easily fooled. Still, he was caught off guard the slightest bit. He dodged six of the following seven slashes with relative ease but on fifth slash, he suffered a minor, insignificant cut on the outside of his right forearm.
Sending out another wave of centipedes, Geto made space as he considered his wound.
"It has been many years since someone has managed to draw my blood. But what else should I expect from the Prodigy of the Inumaki Clan? I apologize for stealing your kill but that curse's cursed energy is much better in my hands." Geto said, his ever-present smile still plastered on his face. He ran a finger over the small cut, the flesh knitting itself back together from one side to the other as he dragged his finger across it.
It was an obvious show of power but Isamu didn't give it as much mind as the man's words. '…much better in my hands.' Did he know about Isamu's ability to steal the cursed energy of fallen opponents? How? Only a handful of people knew, all of them trustworthy.
"How do I know about your ability? Well, because I-" Before he could finish his sentence, Nanami came charging out of a nearby alleyway, his wrapped cleaver in hand.
"Stop him," Isamu whispered, causing the stone beneath the man's feet the coil around his legs. Nanami activated his technique, aiming his blow right for the neck of the monk.
The man's left hand turned the cleaver away as if fighting a toddler before punching Nanami in the gut so hard he was pushed off his feet about a meter into the air. Geto stepped out of the stone bindings as if they weren't there as he grabbed hold of the wrist holding Nanami's weapon.
"You on the other hand have never been very interesting," Geto said, looking down at Nanami both physically and metaphorically.
"Maximum Uzumaki."
A giant spiral of libs, mouths, and eyes appear behind Geto as he chanted the name of the maximum technique, Isamu rushed forward, the centipedes from earlier having been called back long before. Geto smiled as another black rip in space appeared, a small catfish falling out.
Isamu lost all sense of footing as he began to fall, a giant hole appeared below him in an instant, or that's what he thought happened. He had no time to understand before the Maximum technique darted forward.
"New Shadow Style? Good to see there are masters of its defensive and offensive qualities." Geto commented as the smoke and dust cleared to reveal a giant cavern where Nanami and Isamu had been moments before. On the other side of the cavern stood a single man, the two other first-grade sorcerers kneeling behind him as his simple domain was dispelled.
"Kusakabe… thank you," Nanami said in thanks, nodding his head as he stood, Isamu following him.
"Sure. So he's the one who managed to take down Gojo? Never thought Geto had it in him." Kusakabe observed.
"It's not Geto. He wears the same face but there's a completely different person behind it. He said he hadn't been wounded in years which obviously isn't true considering his battle last year. That and his complete personality change, his different mannerisms, and his increased power…"Nanami said before trailing off, dismissing Kusakabe's claim.
Isamu looked to his left, finding Todo, Panda, a beaten and bloody Yuji, and Kamo all grouped up one or two hundred feet away. Scanning the environment to his right, he found Miwa, Utahime, and the broom girl hiding away in the building Miwa had been kicked into. His attention snapped back towards Geto as heavy footsteps and panting were heard.
"Greetings Choso," Geto said, looking at Choso without turning his head to face the man to his left. A long second passed as several emotions crossed the visage of the death womb painting.
"It appears you have noticed," Geto said, finally turning his head towards Choso, his smile growing a bit.
"So that's the deal, huh?! Noritoshi Kamo!!" Choso shouted, revealing the true identity of the man before them to all.
"If that's true, the thing piloting Geto is over 150 years old, the stain of the Kamo clan himself. It makes enough sense to believe." Nanami commented, a look of genuine surprise on his face.
"Suguru Geto, Noritoshi Kamo, Akane Inumaki. There are simply names. Call me whatever you want." Geto or Noritoshi or whatever his name was said, his tone gaining a humorous inflection as he said the third name, his attention shifting back towards Isamu.
"I believe our conversation was interrupted. Let's continue." The man said, seemingly forgetting about Choso entirely.
"How! How dare you try to make me kill my little brother Itadori!!" Choso shouted, even more enraged by the man's complete disinterest in him and his rage.
"It seems Uraume has abandoned me…" the man said, looking at Choso without turning his head. "Fujiwara! If you would!" The man said, his voice raised but far from shouting.
With no fanfare, a man appeared, jumping from a nearby rooftop to stand beside the monk.
"I don't appreciate you commanding me." The towering man growled. He was big, beyond big. He was giant, the tallest human anyone on the battlefield had ever seen. Easily eight feet tall with massive muscles and fists the size of the monk's head.
He wore armor from head to toe, it was a darkish green like jade. His armor was directly Japanese in origin with minor differences. He wielded a massive war hammer which was nearly as tall as him, its head a giant block of jagged and sharp jade.
"I would too, but it was part of our agreement…" the man trailed off as the man scoffed, turning his entire body towards Choso. Before he could get a word out, his eyes widened a bit. A beam of super-condensed blood struck him right in the forehead, his green helm was bloodied from the impact as he stumbled forward.
He caught himself on a single foot as he brought a hand up to wipe away the blood. Choso's blood, for the most powerful attack in the Death Womb painting's arsenal, was unable to pierce his armor.
"Not bad cursed one. I am the Third Void General! Daichi Fujiwara!! And it is your honor to be broken upon my armor!!" The man yelled, rushing towards Choso with all the grace of a frontline man on the average American football team.
"Now, where were we? Right, your power to absorb the cursed energy of others upon their death. As I'm sure you know, it's not very common. You are the first in existence to ever possess the ability, to my knowledge at least." The man began, dismissing the topic of the man claiming to be a general and the death womb painting.
"Are you familiar with Akane Inumaki? No, you wouldn't be. She was a nobody, a third-rate sorcerer with second-rate potential. Nothing anyone would look at twice. And when she got into an automobile accident and wound up with a scar across her forehead, no one questioned it much." The thing inhabiting Geto continued as a pit slowly formed in Isamu's stomach as the name began to ring some bells.
He began to breathe heavily, an action that quickly became hyperventilating. He stared towards the ground with a very faraway look as he remembered who exactly Akane Inumaki was. He hadn't recognized the name at first due to the woman dying the same day he was born but after hearing it a few times, it came back to him. Akane Inumaki wasn't some nobody. Not to Isamu at least.
"It seems you remember. I'm glad. I've had many sons but none quite match up to you." Isamu's heart rate exceeded any he'd ever had before as the world seemed to crash down around him.
"Isamu, what's he saying?!" Kusakabe asked, both alarmed and ready to defend the clearly distressed young man. Nanami looked back as Isamu signed with shaking hands. Nanami's eyes opened wider than they ever had before as he slowly turned back to Kusakabe.
"He says, the thing inhabiting Suguru Geto was inhabiting his mother during his birth," Nanami said, still not quite able to believe what he was saying.
"And quite the mother I was. I controlled every bit of your creation. Micro managed you for every waking moment for nine months. And once you were born, I knew I had succeeded. Finally, a true step forward for me. A fresh start." The man continued, his smile growing from carefree and casual to sinister and almost deranged.
"If Itadori Yuji is Sukuna's perfect vessel, you are mine." The man added, laughing as he saw the look on Isamu's face, on the face of nearly everyone present. There was no longer any doubt present on the battlefield of the man's identity. He was Noritoshi Kamo. The stain of the Kamo clan. The Most Vile, Evilest Sorcerer in history.
Isamu's mind ran a thousand miles a minute, his hyperventilation doing him no favors. It wasn't just the revelation that his entire life was crafted by this man to be a body puppet but it was the events of the night. Everything was finally resting. With the bit of downtime afforded to him, he finally had time to consider what he'd done.
"Isamu!" Todo yelled from his left side, startling him out of his thoughts as he sprinted over.
"Snap out of it. You are not some puppet for him. You are a jujutsu sorcerer. Leave your thoughts and revelations for tomorrow. For tonight, you have someone you can kill. Someone you can punch as hard as you can and let out all that pain." Todo said, crouching down to his level and placing a hand on his shoulder.
Isamu nodded slowly, his breathing gradually steadying as he clenched his fist around the handle of Saraswati. Todo was right. The battlefield wasn't the time for emotions. Isamu just had to do what he always did, bottle it up and deal with it later.
"Isamu, I'm going to open up a window for you. Once you have a shot, take it. Give it all you've got. You're our best hope at taking him down." Todo continued, earning a nod from Isamu.
Panda charged the man, Yuji following behind him as Kamo readied multiple arrows from behind them. Panda, his gorilla mode activated, raised a palm far above his hand before slamming it down.
Waves of destructive cursed energy shot through the stone, sending multiple chunks of cursed energy infused rubble flying everywhere. Once the man's vision was properly obscured, Kamo unleashed his arrows, each one called with a trace amount of his blood.
The arrows zipped through the rubble as Yuji circled the man. The monk dodged every arrow and somewhat dangerous rock, making liberal use of his cursed spirit, whether it be as a flesh shield or a way of moving around. Yuji rushed in as well, throwing punch after punch towards him as arrows continued to rain down on him.
Nothing landed but that wasn't the plan. Once everything was in motion. Panda sending up another shotgun blast of rubble, Yuji giving it his all in close quarters, and Kamo raining down arrows, the small blue lantern used to signal Kamo only minutes before was dropped from far above, landing right behind the man. With a clap, Isamu appeared.
Cursed energy spiked as it overwhelmed every fighter's senses, Isamu's cursed energy pool was refilled a good amount by Kusakabe, Todo, and Nanami only moments before. He formed his hand sign as he began to chant.
"Domain expan-"
But before he could finish the words, blood exploded from his eyes, nose, and ears. Isamu collapsed to a knee, his hands breaking their hand sign and coming up to his nose, getting showered in blood in the process. The man smiled, not giving Isamu any attention from the start as he quickly dealt with Panda and Yuji, forcing them both to back up with significantly faster attacks than before.
"Having trouble? You see, the brain, when it comes to jujutsu sorcery, is a muscle like any other. You can give a runner all the food and water he wants but without proper rest, his muscles will give out eventually. You've been pushing your limits all night. Maximum techniques, cursed technique reversals, domain expansions. All you've been running off of was the cursed energy of fallen foes without a shred of rest. You were bound to burn yourself out." The man said, turning towards the kneeling Isamu.
"Not that I blame you. You didn't really have a choice in the matter. You had to carry the burden with how weak your allies are." "Geto" taunted, throwing a mocking look towards Kusakabe and Nanami who'd stood by, waiting for Isamu's domain to expand before going in. A plan that had utterly collapsed.
Before anyone could say anything more, a rumbling began. In the next moment, a nearby wall was shattered as Choso came flying through the dust created, his skin torn open and his body covered in fresh bruises.
"I take it back. You are bad." The jade warrior said as he stomped out of the rubble of the half-destroyed restaurant he'd thrown the death womb painting out of. His war hammer was no longer in his hands but strapped to his back. It seemed Choso wasn't even worthy of his hammer.
Walking up to Choso, the man grabbed him by the neck and lifted him into the air. Choso struggled against him but was unable to break his iron grip.
"You've begun to bore me." The general said as his cursed energy stirred into motion. Slowly, jade began to grow from his arm, gradually encasing Choso in a prison of it, leaving only his eyes and nose uncovered. Tossing the death womb painting turned jade statue aside, the giant of a man walked over to "Geto".
"I tire of this place." The man said simply, standing next to the monk, looking over the sorcerers before him with little interest, every one of them too weak to make a move.
"Me too. Care to make our escape?" The monk responded, tilting his head to look up at the man.
"Gladly."
Clapping his hands together, the man's entire body was covered in sharp, indestructible jade. He then raised his hands before slapping the ground, sending rivers of deadly jade in every direction. They moved too fast for anyone to escape or even properly defend themselves from them.
The jade stabbed into their bodies but no one was harmed overly much. No, that was not the purpose of the attack. Once the jade made contact, it began spreading, creeping over their bodies until they were encased, unable to move just like Choso who still lay unmoving a few feet from the general.
"Don't kill them, I need a messenger." The monk said, putting up a hand as he turned towards the general.
"You need only one. The Inumaki will do." The general said, waving a hand dismissively towards the monk as he walked forward, grabbing the hammer off his back. Before he could close much distance, a whoosh could be heard as a chant rang out.
"Tool Manipulation: Wind Scythe!" Nishimya shouted as she swooped down on her broom, dragging the end of it on the ground before whipping it back up, sending a cutting edge of wind towards the general.
The man didn't even move or seem bothered. He just kept walking, his pace not slowed in the least by Momo's most powerful attack. He simply raised his left hand as he retrieved his weapon with his right. A spike of jade about the size of a pencil shot out, stabbing Momo in the shoulder before encasing her in jade as well.
Daichi Fujiwara raised his giant war hammer above his head, ready to smash it down on the first person he came across. Which just so happened to be Yuji Itadori.
Bring his hammer down, the general felt something impact his chest with a force nearly greater than anything he'd ever felt before. His eyes widened as he was actually forced back by the attack, the sound of his armor cracking sending waves of confusion and excitement through his body.
The air was punched out of him as he flew backward, Geto leaning to the side to dodge his approach.
"It's been a while Geto." A feminine voice broke the silence, her fist raised as she stood before Yuji. Retracting her hand, she placed it in her jean-clad hip which paired nicely with her dark sleeveless top.
"Can I get your answer from before? What kind of girls are you into?" The special grade sorcerer asked, her blond hair blowing in the wind as she blew a kiss towards the monk.
"Yuki Tsukumo!" The man parading as Geto all but announced as a smile crept onto his face. Once filled with surprise, interest, humor, and a hint of nervousness.
"Do you remember our talk? About how to create a world without cursed spirits?" Yuki began, her desire to buy time obvious. No matter what method you adopt, human beings will advance one stage higher. The next stage of humanity lies in breaking away from cursed energy." Yuki finished, a smile cracking her face as well. Geto's smile dropped as he countered.
"No, it lies in optimizing cursed energy. I thought you abandoned that method 12 years ago when Toji Zenin died."
"I was talking to Geto, oh well. I came back to the original principles. Besides, your method has a big hole. Compared to Japan, very few jujutsu sorcerers and cursed spirits appear overseas. Tengen's barriers are necessary for optimizing cursed energy. Meaning the only ones able to become sorcerers are those of this country." Yuki explained before continuing her speech.
"That would give Japan a virtual monopoly on cursed energy. A certain superpower and the Middle East wouldn't stand by. Flesh and blood humans are the source of cursed energy. I'm sure you can imagine the suffering that would follow. That is a world far removed from my ideals." Yuki finished.
"So what?" The monk laughed. "For one thing, our objectives are different. I do not desire a world without curses spirits or any sort of idyllic peace. Non-sorcerers, sorcerers, cursed spirits. Those are all possibilities of cursed energy in the form of human beings. and yet, there must be more to human potential." The madman continued, staring at his palm deep in thought.
"I was attempting to give rise to other possibilities to mankind but that didn't work. Everything I created was bound by the limits of my own potential. After much thought over hundreds of years, I came up with two answers. To create something beyond my control, beyond my potential so that I may not hold it back." He shot a glance towards Yuji at that, before turning his gaze towards Ismau.
"Or, to artificially increase my own potential by stealing it from another. To improve myself so that I may give rise to something beyond my current capabilities. To reach a new high, to break another ceiling and I've already finished extracting the technique." The monk said, his cursed energy spiking with his final words.
"Idle Transfiguration!" Slapping a hand on the ground, a large seal appeared both above their heads and below their feet, the monk's barrier techniques activating as he activated the technique of the patch-faced cursed spirit.
"Thank you, Yuji Itadori, Isamu Inumaki. The quality of a cursed technique ceases to grow once absorbed by cursed spirit manipulation. You two pushed Mahito to grow during your fight. I wanted Jogo too but oh well." The monk said, his regular smile slipping back onto his face as he stood.
"What have you done?" Yuki asked her guard now fully up, her stance aggressive and her eyes glaring daggers at the man.
"I remotely cast Idle Transfiguration on two types of non-sorcerer I'd marked beforehand. The people I had ingest cursed objects like Yuji Itadori and people with cursed techniques but who lack the brain to properly use it. To the former, I gave them the strength to be proper vessels, and to the latter, I gave the brain of a jujutsu sorcerer." The man said, his smile becoming a bit playful in a sinister sort of way. He reached behind him with his left to before bringing forward a small band covered in seals which was tied into a smile knot.
"And, as if this moment, I have broken the seals on the cursed objects." The man stated as he pulled both ends of the band and undid the knot.
"Some have been in a deep slumber since I first marked them but they will soon awaken. To deepen their understanding of cursed energy, I will have them fight each other. Think of it as unleashing a thousand malevolent Yuji Itadori's and Junpei Yoshin'os." The monk finished, tossing the band away.
"A thousand? That's not many. Do you really think they'll fight each other just because you gave them power?" Yuki countered.
The thing inhabiting Geto wasn't able to respond before he was interrupted.
"Enough talking. You, lady, you were the one to strike me? You pack quite the punch. Why don't we see if it's enough?!" The jade giant shouted as he walked back over to them. It wasn't the blow that'd kept him on his ass for so long but "Geto's" conversation which he didn't want to interrupt. It seemed his patience had worn thin.
"I am still talking." The monk said, holding up a placating hand in his direction to stop him from charging the woman. "The cursed objects that I provided are what's left of the sorcerers whom I painstakingly made vows with a millennium ago, just as I did when I divided Ryomen Sukuna into twenty fingers."
"No way," Yuki muttered under her breath as she truly realized how ancient this creature was.
"This is the world of the future!" The man shouted, his shadow exploding out as dozens of rifts appeared, hundreds of cursed spirits spilling out of every one of them.
The man turned away from the group, the curses making an exultant smoke screen for the monk and the general.
"Goodbye. Yuji Itadori. Isamu Inumaki. I expect much from both of you. Are you listening Sukuna? It is beginning once again. The world of Heian. The Golden Age of Jujutsu!"