Chapter Text
You were walking through your small village when you first heard about the King of Curses.
“Poor kid, really got himself mixed up in mess.” One of the elders of your clan was talking to another as they shopped at a nearby food stall. “It’s a miracle he survived.”
“It’s a miracle he’s lived this long, sounds like a dumbass,” the other one said. “What kind of jujutsu sorcerer doesn’t know not to eat cursed objects?” You rolled your eyes at this and kept walking, away from the elders.
Your clan had once been part of the whole jujutsu sorcerer thing, but due to a series of events that were no longer spoken of, they’d separated and gone to live in their own established village away from everyone. It was ironic that they still talked about what the sorcerers did these days considering they had no part in it. They watched from their little hidden village and judged without a care in the world. You hated it.
“_____.” You heard your name from one of the elders who you’d been eavesdropping on. You turned around and bowed politely. “How’s your training going?”
You simply smiled. “Good so far. I think I’m finally making some progress.” They simply nodded and went on their way, turning away from you.
You instantly dropped the smile, letting it turn into a scowl. You were lying through your teeth. The elders weren’t training you properly, and you knew it. You knew they didn’t want you to catch on that they were supressing your cursed energy. So you continued to lie and pretend everything was fine and dandy, waiting for your opportunity.
That night, you snuck into the store house where they kept many of the ancient texts. You’d stolen from there several times, learning all that you could. Some of these texts would not be found anywhere else in the world, as the clan had taken them when they self-exiled.
You searched through the archives, finally finding what you were searching for. A book on Ryoumen Sukuna, King of Curses. You were going to get out of here one day, and you wanted to know what sorts of threats lay on the outside.
“Why did we have to come here again?”
“Because there might be someone here who can help us with Sukuna, did you not even listen?”
“He was sleeping the whole way here.”
“Yuuji! Seriously what’s a girl gotta do around here to get grouped with decent people?”
“Fushiguro she just insulted you too.”
“No she didn’t.”
Well, this was new.
Your village wasn’t entirely unheard of, you got tourists coming through here and there. It was a secluded place in the forest, filled with trees that bloomed beautifully in Spring. But these three had mentioned Sukuna, a name not easily thrown around. On top of that, you were definitely sensing something strange about the pink haired boy. An energy that was far out of the ordinary.
You watched them walk down the lane from your spot sitting in an overhead tree. Three of them, one girl and two boys, all wearing the same uniform with the swirling symbol of jujutsu sorcerers on it. The elders are not going to like this…I need to keep an eye on them.
You jumped out of the tree and started trailing them. You focused your attention on the pink haired boy, trying to get an accurate gauge on his cursed energy. It was almost as if he had too much cursed energy inside of him, as if there was two…
Is that Sukuna’s vessel?
With that thought your curiosity peaked, and you knew that if the elders discovered this the three would be in trouble very soon. Jujutsu sorcerers were one thing, but a curse? They were always taken care of before you even got the chance to see one.
The three teenagers were bickering and paid you no mind as you continued to follow them through the small village. It didn’t take you long to realise they were walking in circles, but they didn’t seem to realise. You took a short cut through some alleys and came out in front of them, waiting for them to walk by you.
“Excuse me,” you interrupted, and the three stopped walking and looked at you. “Um…you guys have walked past here three times. Are you lost?”
“Eh?” The pink haired boy gave you a confused look. Not a thought behind his eyes, that one.
“N-no! We know exactly where we are!” the girl with short ginger hair exclaimed. You just smiled and started laughing silently, your shoulders shaking.
“Yes, we’re lost,” the other boy said, this one with black hair. Ah, he must be the sensible one. “We’re not too sure where we’re supposed to be going, to be honest.”
You laughed. “Not too many places here anyone would want to go. Are you tourists or here on business?”
“Business,” the girl said, eyeing you warily.
“So you probably want to see the elders then, right?” you said with a smile. The girl and black-haired boy nodded.
“Who are you?” the pink haired boy asked.
“_____ _____,” you replied. “Come on, I’ll take you there.” They agreed, looking visibly relieved to finally have some guidance. You started walking with your hands in your pockets and the three fell in line beside you.
“I’m Itadori Yuuji!” Pink haired kid.
“Fushiguro Megumi.” Black hair.
“Kugisaki Nobara, thanks for helping us out. Do you live here?”
“Yeah,” you replied. “Born and raised, never left. It’s honestly boring.”
“So you’ve never been to Tokyo?!” Itadori exclaimed, and you shook your head with a smile.
“The elders don’t like the younger ones leaving,” you explained. “Even if I am technically an adult now. Something about the technique our clan has.”
“Oh, that’s actually why we’re—” Itadori was cut off by an elbow to the side from Kugisaki. You smiled at their antics, before smirking with an idea.
“Wanna make a bet?” you asked. “If I can guess why you’re here, you owe me a favour.” Itadori nodded.
“Seems harmless,” Fushiguro said. You wondered if he always looked grumpy like this. Maybe it was just his resting face.
“Hang on, what kind of favour are we talking here?” Kugisaki asked, eyeing you suspiciously.
“Nothing too major, I’m not an asshole,” you replied. She sighed and nodded. “Okay…I bet, you’re here because you heard about our clans ancient technique of cursed energy manipulation and you came because you want to use it to help Itadori there get a hold over Sukuna.”
A moment of silence.
“What the fuck?” Kugisaki growled, taking a step to stand in front of you, glaring menacingly. “Were you spying on us?”
“How do you know I’ve got Sukuna?”
“You talk loudly and you walked past me three times,” you said nonchalantly. “Not hard to connect the dots. Plus the elders like to gossip. I know Sukuna recently got a vessel.” They still just stared at you. “Don’t worry, your top secret mission isn’t going to get ruined by me. No one talks to me here anyway.”
“You just said the elders gossip,” Fushiguro pointed out.
“They do, just not to me,” you said with a wink. “Oh by the way, this is my house right here! Mind if I make a quick stop?” The three gave you mildly confused looks, glancing at the small house that you had led them to.
“Uh, sure,” Kugisaki said.
“You guys can come in while you wait,” you added, ushering the three of them into the house without giving them room to argue. You saw the three of them sharing glances, knowing just how suspicious this would seem to them. You had promised to lead them one place and took them straight to another.
Closing the door behind you, you looked carefully at the three who were now standing awkwardly in the hallway of your house. They stared at you with distrustful eyes.
“Okay,” you said, letting the fake smile drop into a sadder one. “I’m going to cash in that favour now. All I need, is for you three to trust me.”
“That is the craziest thing I’ve heard all day,” Kugisaki said, scowling. “Did you just kidnap us?”
“I can give you a better explanation later,” you said, rushing to the room where a bunch of texts were covering all surfaces. You grabbed a bag and started shoving them in, and you noticed that Itadori was peeking around the corner at you, probably while the others scanned the area. Dammit, there’s no time to explain everything…
“Please,” you said, coming out of the room with your backpack now full of the books you had yet to study. The book on Sukuna was in the backpack as well, carefully placed at the bottom where it couldn’t fall out. The three were still there, having just stopped whispering amongst themselves. “I want to help you. The moment the elders in this village realise that you’ve brought a curse in here, even one as powerful as Sukuna, they will try to kill you. All three of you.” Their eyes widened.
“How do we know we can believe you?” Fushiguro asked, arms folded.
“That’s why I’m asking you to trust me,” you sighed. “Just, come to outside the village with me. If you still don’t trust me, we can stop and I’ll explain everything. But we need to get out of the sensory range of the elders.” You walked to the kitchen and grabbed a few final things to shove in your bag. “I’ll try and explain what I can on the way. Please, hear me out.”
The three looked at you apprehensively, and took a step back to talk amongst themselves for a minute. You waited, fiddling. No one comes into this village without being checked by the elders, and with the clan technique it would be almost impossible for Itadori to escape notice.
“Fine,” Fushiguro said. “We’ll hear you out, but if we don’t trust you by the time we reach the edge of the village, we’re not going any further.”
“That’s good enough for me,” you said. You held out your bag to the black haired boy, who gave you a deadpanned look. “I’m leaving the village with you, but if they see me carrying a backpack they’ll know somethings up.”
“I can carry it for you!” Itadori piped up.
“Fushiguro seems more responsible,” you explained. “There are some very important books in there.” Not to mention, you weren’t going to hand the book about Sukuna to Sukuna’s vessel.
Fushiguro took the bag, and you thanked him before leading the three outside.
“Walk normally, don’t drawn attention,” you said as you took them outside, walking at a reasonably normal pace towards the outskirts of the village.
“Care to start explaining?” Kugisaki said, frown visible on her face. You nodded.
“You know about the clan technique right?” Kugisaki and Fushiguro nodded, while Itadori looked at you with confusion. Right, he’d slept through the briefing.
“Cursed energy manipulation,” Fushiguro supplied. “But not just your own, you can control the energy of others too.” You nodded.
“Exactly. Have you noticed it?” you asked, only to receive looks of confusion. “The moment you walked into the village. It feels like a pull, trying to lull you to sleep. You don’t feel like fighting, you couldn’t gather enough cursed energy to fight if you tried.”
“Now that you mention it…” Itadori said slowly, looking down at his hands.
“They do it to everyone,” you said. “Everyone who has the ability, mainly the elders, are restricting your cursed energy. They do it to each other, they do it to me. Now, you could get away with that, it’s a widespread attack, not a direct one. But, the most common level that anyone inherits of this technique is the ability to see cursed energy with more ease than a sorcerer normally would. I could tell Itadori has two sources of cursed energy the moment I laid eyes on him.”
“Why will they try to kill us though?” Itadori asked.
“This village has been secluded from the world for hundreds of years,” you said. “In its isolation, the values and ideals of the people have…gotten out of hand. A curse is impure and must not be allowed to live, no matter the cost. Human life means almost nothing to them if it’s for the so-called greater good.”
“Then why are you helping us?” Kugisaki asked. “Why are you different?”
“Because I—”
“_____, step away from the sorcerers.”
You looked up to see an old man standing before you three, scowling deeply at you.
“Oh hey Gramps, fancy seeing you out here,” you said with a cheerful smile. You turned to the three teenagers. “This is the head of our clan.” There was a warning behind your voice, and the three were instantly on high alert.
He sighed. “Surely someone as pitiful as you can see that the boy is Sukuna’s vessel. He must be disposed of.”
You pouted. “I think you’re delusional old man. They’re kids.”
“So be it,” he growled, and in an instant you sensed more people nearby than you had noticed, and realised your mistake.
From everywhere around you, people of your clan appeared and grabbed the three behind you. They pulled their arms back so they couldn’t get their weapons or make hand signals. You were snatched by who you recognised as one of the stronger sorcerers in the village, and upon touch instantly felt the internal shove on your cursed energy, a barrier forming around it, preventing any type of counter attack.
The clan head sighed and walked up to where Itadori was struggling against the five holding him down. You could tell he wasn’t trying his hardest, probably worried about what would happen to his friends if he escaped.
“Sukuna’s vessel,” the old man said, placing a hand on Itadori’s shoulder. “Your time is up.”
You watched as Itadori stopped struggling, and took a look at the cursed energies inside of him. Itadori’s cursed energy was depleting, fast. Not just that, but he wasn’t doing any damage to Sukuna at all. Crazy old man was as weak as the rest of them.
“Oi gramps!” you yelled. Itadori was a kid. You would not let this happen so easily and quickly before your own eyes.
You extended your own cursed energy through to the person holding you. They started to feel slack against you, sliding down until they were on their knees gasping for breath. Your elder’s eyes widened, staring at you.
“No…”
“Hell yes you motherfucker,” you muttered, before putting your hands together in a jujutsu hand symbol, closing your eyes and concentrating. Your clan’s speciality was cursed energy. Many had a heightened sense of cursed energy, a handful had the capability to manipulate the cursed energy of others, meaning reshaping and restricting. Simple things that didn’t have much effect overall. Those were the ones holding onto the three now, preventing them from using cursed energy.
But a rare few had been born with the troublesome technique, the one that had left the clan outcast from the rest.
Every clan member holding on to one of the three sorcerers, you could see all of their cursed energy. And instead of just being able to manipulate it…you could deplete it. Drain it out of them and leaving them powerless. Immediately, their sway over the three sorcerers vanished as you began draining them.
The moment the three realised that their own cursed energy was no longer being restricted, Itadori easily fought off his group which caused enough of a distraction for the others to make their move.
“Run!” you yelled, pointing at the exit. They did so without hesitation.
“_____,” the clan head said carefully, glaring daggers at you. Well, you’d done it now.
“Sorry about the gramps,” you said with a cheeky smile. “You were killing Itadori.”
“I was killing Sukuna.”
“Potato potato,” you shrugged. You felt it, the clan trying to fight back against you. All this time and they really still thought you were the weakest of them. “Are you going to let me go?”
“We’ll deal with you how we deal with all the ones like you.”
You sighed. Of course. Those with the technique are killed. Clan law. You let your frown give way to a smirk, making a symbol with your hands.
“You leave me no choice then,” you said, smiling menacingly. His eyes widened, and he started backing away. “I’ve never done this before, it’s incomplete, but I’ve wanted a chance to try it.
“Domain Expansion: Forest of Vitality”
You smirked. “You were all assholes anyway.”
You were on the train to Tokyo with the three jujutsu sorcerers, who were all pretty confused at this stage.
“Please explain,” Fushiguro asked.
“Yeah, what the hell just happened?” Itadori whined. “What was the old geezer trying to do to me? Why did it feel so…wrong?”
You sighed. “Cursed energy manipulation. Most of them were only restricting the three of you, but he was depleting your energy. One of the few in the village who can. If he’d kept going, the imbalance of energy in your body would have been too much and Sukuna would’ve taken over, permanently. He wasn’t managing to harm Sukuna in the slightest.”
“Then I assume it was you that stopped the rest of them from controlling our energies,” Fushiguro said, thinking out loud. You nodded.
“But…” Itadori started. “What happened to the person holding you?”
You smiled sadly. “I assume the texts all say our powers only extended to cursed energy.” The three nodded to confirm. “That’s…not entirely true. The true technique of the clan is control over energy. Cursed energy, life energy, anything that runs through the body.” You frowned. “It’s the real reason the clan separated from the world. Having the power to just…kill someone by draining everything out of them, it drove a lot of them mad. So they made the village and started restricting everyone’s cursed energy. Anyone who had the technique…they were executed, and eventually less people were born into it.”
“How does that relate to the person who was holding you?” Itadori asked, while understanding looks came over the other two. You gave the same sad smile.
“I have that technique,” you stated. “No one there ever knew, I was always careful. They would have killed me if they found out.” You paused. “Don’t worry, I didn’t kill them. I’m not strong enough to do that even if I tried. They’ll just be knocked out for a while.” You didn’t mention the incomplete domain expansion that you’d used to escape.
“So, we came here looking for someone with the technique that you have,” Fushiguro said. “You can suppress and deplete cursed energy. Does that mean you can keep Sukuna under control?” Itadori looked at you with wide hopeful eyes, and you smiled.
“I’m sure I can.”
“Like hell you can, brat.”
You didn’t know how to react to the mouth that had appeared on Itadori’s cheek, the red eye beneath his own staring at you with a glare. You blinked a few times, while Itadori just rolled his eyes.
“Oh?” you said, leaning in close to the menacing snarl. “You must be Sukuna.”
“Sorry about that _____,” Itadori said, slapping at his cheek to no avail.
“It’s fine,” you said with a smirk. “After all, supressing curses is my speciality.” And with that, you reached a hand up to Itadori’s chest, using a blast of your cursed energy to shove Sukuna back down into his domain. The mouth disappeared and the eye closed again, and all three looked at where it had been in surprise.
“He’s quiet,” was all Itadori said. You smiled.
“How do you feel about a trip to Jujutsu High?” Kugisaki asked, awe shining in her voice.
“Anything is better than that hell hole of a village,” you replied, relieved to finally have a new path in life.
Sukuna was seething.
He was going to kill you. No one pushed him around like that, no one could shake him off like he was nothing. He was the King of Curses. And he was going to get his revenge on you. He kicked a skull off the mountain in his domain, watching it fly off into the distance. It did not satiate his anger.
Right now, that lingering energy holding him down, that was the problem. It wasn’t strong though, a flimsy layer of protection. He’d get through it soon, take over this brat and then kill you.
Yes, that’s what he growled to himself as he settled on his throne. He wouldn’t let you beat him.