The base two, four with reversal, applications of my technique couldn't be refined much past 'cutting on the atomic level' with the Six Eyes. Not that I actually split an atom, but I did feel the trillions upon trillions of tiny little things becoming effective targets for Cleave as soon as I pushed the Six Eye's perception to their limits. But I could bind atoms together with Sew and Stitch.
I did not dare do that until I was in the modern era and knew what binding this and that atom with each other would do. Do not mess with the foundation of reality without extreme preparation, care and caution.
My Divine Flames… well, I basically became a firebender but a lot better. It was borderline Pyromancy what I was doing. I could just slash the air with the tiniest of Dismantles and Cleaves to fulfill the requirements and then I could go ham. I'd even managed to compress my flames into streams of plasma, which was the limit of what I could manage.
I'd cast a barrier around the clearing which prevented my flames from leaving it and burning the forest to the ground as I threw around fire with martial arts moves. I didn't have to do them, like a firebender would, but they felt cool, alright!
There were negative consequences to implanting the Six Eyes into myself, believe it or not. I was basically walking around with a constant minor headache as my plebian mortal brain was trying its best to keep track of the sheer amount of information blasted into it, though RCT was helping with keeping it minor. But even just this day of walking around with them has made it clear that I'll need glasses, at least, or a blindfold since I keep losing my train of thought whenever something new passes by my field of view.
Also, I have yet to stop trickling Reversed Cursed Energy into them. Despite integrating their biology into myself, probably allowing for future descendants to inherit them, they were inherently supernatural eyes based not on reality, but on Jujutsu. So, I heavily suspected that if I did stop supplying them with healing, they'd probably shut off and start decaying. Only a body born with them could avoid that. Sucks, but the RCE wasted was less than the Cursed Energy I generated by a landslide, so I'm only hampering my stamina, which was made up for by the eyes themselves. Just can't have my CE be disrupted for more than an hour or so.
"Truly, you're a god amongst mortals!" Yorozou had decided to come and watch from outside the veil, as did Uraume. My Ume had already known that I'd been planning what I'd done with the eyes, why else would I have her store them? So she wasn't as surprised, but the stern talking-to I received for leaving her out of the dangerous operation wasn't fun.
But I'd respect her wish for involvement, which is why I had to explain 'atoms' to her, so she could give her opinion on whether I should mess with them. Consensus was: NO. Or, at least, not yet.
Fuga's reversal hadn't yet come to me and pushing RCE into that part of my technique still yielded no results, and neither did forcing my Domain. Yorozu said she was close to achieving her own and I'd pushed her in our spars to try and make her do so, but she hadn't yet.
So, now that I was as invulnerable as I could be, I decided hunting down the group of weaklings after me was a good idea. "Is it time?" I'd been teasing the spiky-haired woman with the plan of going after them and, as I let the veil fall and thanked Uraume for extinguishing my budding forestfires, she hopped up to me and asked.
"Sure. I can sense a whole lotta Cursed Energy southward, so let's head that way." We didn't have any stuff to pack, the eyes now in my head, so I waved my hand, destroyed the Survival Cabin™ and started running, the girls following after me.
Well, we had stuff, but after my latest spar with Yorozu I was on my last pair of pants, so not anymore.
The forest whizzed by as Yorozu and I made small talk. "What's your favorite food?" She asked, again.
I smirked. "Riceballs." I answered, only to see her try to make it. I have yet to tell her my actual favorite food, but the way she made an excursion into the nearby village the last three times to try and make whatever I described for me was cute in its own way.
"And your favorite color?" Came next as we dodged a few trees. Uraume watched the conversation with quiet content and amusement.
This, I answered honestly. "Red. Bright and vivid, to be precise."
"Ah, so romantic!" She preened. "And what's your favorite way to kill a Sorcerer?" That reminded me what kind of people we were. It was morbid to be this easygoing about death, unthinkable to the person I was eighteen years ago, but it had become my way of life. Humans adapted and, despite my appearance, I was human.
"Well, I usually like to see their techniques first, but otherwise I go for decapitation. Instant, clean and effective." I explained.
"Ah, I like to test them! To see all they have to offer, to push them and myself! Most don't stack up, but what can you do? At least my search is over, I've found you, after all!" That checks out with what she's told me of her philosophies.
I hummed in understanding and the conversation sunk into a comfortable lull. It wouldn't pick back up either, as I finally began seeing traces of other's Cursed Energy in the area and slowed us down to sneaking speeds.
My senses told me that a group of multiple different Cursed Energy signatures was rapidly approaching, so I placed my hand on a few trees, marking each with Stitch and creating a constellation of strings running through a dozen trees.
My trap set, I waited, marking the tree that they would pass by the closest on the estimated path they were running along last. As I couldn't not pull things with the strings, I just decreased the amount of Cursed Energy I fed Sew so that the trees didn't yet snap off their roots. Not until I gave it enough power to do so.
"I'll take out as many grunts as I can before engaging the strongest fighters. Yorozu, you'll be with me. Uraume, you'll have our backs." Both nodded, the former grinning in anticipation.
"I'll get to finish what I started, then!" She whisper-shouted her declaration.
When I first began practicing with Stitch, I had problems with exactly what I was currently doing- setting traps. My technique simply wasn't made for it, it wanted to activate instantly, especially Stitch, which adjusts its pull strength to whatever I attached it to. But the Six Eyes let me ignore such minor obstacles by throttling and regulating how much energy I used at what intervals, as well as allowing me to feed it Cursed Energy even after already being manifested.
My eyes caught the glimmer immediately, some sort of weapon, and focusing in on it, I saw a group of people barely peeking out from behind the trees a long distance away. But they were heading this way, thankfully. Most of them wore a simple, if refined garb, but four people were wearing full-black almost ninja attire.
The last person… wasn't wearing anything but the sky itself. She had long, pink hair that flowed through the foliage as she floated barely below the leaves, pulling at reality as if it was a rubbery blanket.
"They're here." I whispered. They moved fast, but slow. It was weird, I knew they were moving fast, almost blurringly so, but my eyes, my perception, saw each twitch of their muscles as they drew closer, each attempted step or rare misstep.
Then, two thirds of the thirty people or so were inside the net. "Stitch." I whispered, the delayed Chant still boosting the effect. Every tree around them was ripped from the ground and pulled to the center most one, the eye of the wooden storm.
Most simply shouted as they were flung away, bones broken, or they dodged- but three were too weak, not durable enough to avoid being turned to a red mist. Immediately, the four black-clothed people were attacked by the Liquid Metal Yorozu is known for.
"Traitor!" I heard one of them roar, one with a scythe of all things in her hand. Wearing a metal mask that showed the snarling visage of a demon, the Void General cut through the Liquid Metal with her weapon easily, the fur at the convergence between the blade and handle rustling in the wind. A Cursed Tool of some kind- but Yorozu had already donned her armor, so I let her enjoy herself with the generals.
When the dust and the splinters cleared, an amalgamation of trees stood in the middle- multiple trunks fused together at odd angles creating something decisively unnatural out of the posterboy of nature. Fusing things back together, adding 'knitting' as the reversal of 'cutting'- completely disregarding the Kitchen theme.
Is it because I'm not like the original Sukuna? Is my theme different while still enveloping the normal applications of Shrine? Was it never a Kitchen in the first place for me? Well, when I start delving into the soul, I'll find out more.
For now, I've got more pressing matters to attend to.
There were three distinct groups forming from the survivors in front of me, all gathering at the other end of the newly created clearing. One wore heavy armor with a sun emblazoned upon the chestplates, golden trims decked all over. Six of them stood there, proud and weary, all wielding warhammers. Each piece of their equipment was Cursed in some way. The Sun squad, probably.
Next up were a group of four that all stood under Takako Uro, the woman tearing at the sky who'll incarnate into the future Culling Games if I haven't already changed too much. Their equipment was very individual, one was a short woman with tanned skin, which was weird for this side of the planet, while wearing light leather armor over regular clothing. I noted that her left hand was burning with blue fire without harming her, probably her technique.
The next was a man who… looked entirely too emo. He wore obnoxiously intricate coats and cloaks that all overlapped, every single thing he had clothed himself with being black. Next up was a tall and burly man who… had no face? Where his facial features should be was just… blank skin. Huh.
My head was starting to hurt from analyzing all these techniques.
The last member of what I'm guessing is the Star Squad was a bearded elderly dude with insane valleys of wrinkles running along his body. He looked almost fossilized. But his stance, bent backwards and slightly crouching at the knee, while wielding two gauntlets with jade knuckledusters, spoke of vigor unseen for people of his apparent age.
The third troop, the Moon Squad, was evidently the one with the weakest members, since nobody remained. I saw corpses with pale-blue combat robes strewn all over- oh, wait, one is still alive-! oop, Uraume just sliced open his throat with an ice knife. Guess not, then.
"Of course that bitch would betray us." The tanned girl spat, looking towards where Yorozu had launched her fight with the Void Generals, deeper into the forest.
"Only I get to call her that." I narrowed my eyes at her and saw her shiver, but her taunting grin remained, if shakily.
Before the banter could continue, I saw the ground below the faceless man shatter as he dashed towards me. With a frown, I let him run right into a net of Dismantles, completely deleting him. "Three to go… or not?" I blinked once and then, he was alive once more, seemingly unharmed, standing in the crater he'd made himself.
"Ooo~ It's always so fun watching them figure it out!" Tanned dudette jumped in place out of giddiness.
My eyes saw another technique activate, the edgy guy's. He sunk into his own shadow and his entire being was converted into raw Cursed Energy that traveled behind me in a split second. I didn't bother turning around to blow him to smithereens with Dismantle, hearing only the tell-tale whoosh of instant death via my technique.
But the entire team took advantage of the distraction, even if it resulted in a death. Uro was floating above me, fist radiating with Cursed Energy, primed to strike me and probably perform that offensive move of hers. Faceless guy was doing the same head-on attack that he did the first time around. My entire ride side was alight with blue fire as flanking ranged support was provided.
The elderly man wasn't directly attacking, hovering behind faceless man and waiting for an opportunity to strike.
My response was swift and graceful. One hand blew out its own stream of flame, completely overpowering Tanned's and forcing her to jump out of the way, lest she suffer the same fate as most of the greenery that laid within the path of attack- turned to charcoal and ash.
I simply tilted my head to the side and grabbed Uro's wrist as she was about to trigger her move on my shoulder instead, Cleaving the hand off smoothly and throwing her away hard enough to shatter the tree she impacted.
Faceless man was eviscerated just like before.
"Suffering Leaves." I began to Chant, not only my instincts regarding my technique guiding me, but the Six Eyes as well. Each syllable, each strum of my vocal cords, coincided with a specific fluctuation in both my Cursed Energy and in the foundation of my technique itself. So, it was easy to find the optimal words for my desired variation of the Divine Flames.
"Don't let him finish that!" Uro shouted angrily, tearing at the sky to warp a fireball at me at an odd angle. I side-stepped it, the maybe-monk was there to catch my dodge.
I turned my evasion into a flip and grabbed his head as I did so, tearing it off his shoulder in one clean motion. He was obviously a speed-based fighter, since I didn't see his approach, but he wasn't durable for a Sorcerer. "Sealed Fate."
The faceless man reappeared in the same spot he'd started the fight in and dashed at me exactly like he did twice already- a suspicion regarding his technique was starting to form in my mind. "Thousand Maw."
"Freedom Breaker." I announced my technique and saw everybody preparing themselves for a massive attack- Uro warping space to shield herself, Tan bolstering her enhancement and faceless… was dust again before he could reach me. He was starting to get annoying.
But instead of anything big happening, a ball of fire simply appeared in my hand. I looked down and my eyes told me it had worked. "Now, who to hit?" I mused. Uro evidently presented herself as a target, rushing down at me. I stretched out the hand holding the orb but she dodged.
I sent a few Dismantles at her new position, but she twisted space, letting them distort and miss her. The back of my eyes was starting to hurt, my brain overflowing with the sheer amount of information forced into it with each use of their techniques. The ball of flame in my hand wavered and flickered before returning to form, my control wavering as I felt liquid trickle out of my eyes.
Suddenly, my stomach was contorted inwards as the faceless man took advantage of my stagger and punched me. I was barely moved, his strength not to be ignored but not much to write home about either. "You'll take it, then." I pushed the palm holding the new technique forwards and it connected with the mute man.
Instantly, I jumped back before it could activate, both dodging its small implosion as well as the punch Uro threw. When I landed, I got to see my newly invented technique in action- the Faceless man was now stuck inside of a prison of flame. My eyes told me it's exact properties and they were as planned- even if you're fire resistant, the barrier infused into the technique, cast simultaneously to the chant, allows for it to have physical push-back, while the empowered flames would incinerate anybody that wasn't immune to burning alive.
He completely ignored the fact that there was a cage around him and walked forwards, only to be instantly turned to ash. An instant later, he was inside the cage again, walked forwards and turned to ash. Somehow, his 'respawn point' had reset. Was it because I'd forced him to do more than one move, or was it on a time limit?
"That's my fiance-!" The anger did not make her attack any less useless, I thought to myself as I saw Tan rush at me, flame surging all around her and creating a blazing battering ram.
I stepped aside and lobbed her head off as she passed by.
"Only one left." Uro looked furious, her hands raised up to cast her domain as she floated a good ways away from me. For a second, I contemplated stopping her like I did Michizane, then I remembered that I wanted to learn Domain Expansion myself and, with the Six Eyes, I was perfectly capable of doing so by seeing one.
So, I crossed my arms and waited for her to finish casting. "Domain Expansion: Ceaseless Sky!" The blood streaming out of my eyes started pouring in waves, the thumping of my headache feeling like war drums. A black curtain stretched itself around us until it encompassed the clearing.
Then, the Technique's inner world manifested itself.
Ceaseless sky was right- there was no floor beneath us, only the pale blue expanse that hung above the mortal world, now all around us. No clouds ever came close enough to be defined as real, only drifting far away from us. Still, I didn't fall, an invisible floor keeping me steady.
I saw her furious smirk turn to a victorious one but she didn't brag and the split second I took to just admire the inner-workings of a Domain Expansion cost me dearly. Her technique's sure-hit effect came into play, my right arms feeling bent and broken for a moment before I saw the world distort and shatter around them, completely flaying them out of existence.
It wasn't the most painful thing I've experienced but feeling your limbs be ripped apart by the space they occupied was certainly up there. Even as I healed my injury almost instantly, my mind rattled with my fledgling theory on Domain Expansion.
Bringing your Cursed Technique into the real world requires the barrier Domains erect as well as skill in handling your technique independent of Cursed Energy. The barrier itself was simple, really the only hard part was the actual act of manifesting the Domain itself, but the chant and skill help achieve the final result.
So, I held up my own hands with a grin on both my mouths. "Domain Expansion." I felt my even being resonate as my already insanely talented Cursed Energy manipulation, boosted to the possible limit by my fate-breaking Six Eyes, showed its merit as Uro's world shattered, giving away to mine.
"Hunter's Pride."
Yorozu gave her beloved one last look before she dashed deeper into the forest, the four Void Generals hot on her heels. Her technique thrummed below her skin and she allowed it to run wild, creating a small storm of Liquid Metal to swirl around her, ripping through the trees and rejecting the scythe that one of them swung at her.
She remembered that one- she was the fast girl. The other three guys, though you could barely distinguish them from their uniform black clothing, circled her as their only female member was rebuffed.
"You will never be allowed back into the clan, we will hunt you until the Kami themselves think us mad, traitor!" While the three other generals were quiet and reserved, this one, the short guy, hadn't quite received the memo. His brown eyes reflected fury and vengeance, his pride probably still stung from last time around.
His Katana was as plain as it was boring, it literally didn't have an effect. It was Cursed to the bare minimum to be able to kill Curses and Sorcerers. The other two generals were twins, she knew from their statues and from the rare times they spoke, both wielding their unique Cursed Tools.
Above the back of their left and right palms respectively floated a miniature golden four-gripped wheel. Those were definitely new, the twins didn't wield any Cursed Tools the last time around. And they didn't bother elaborating, rushing forwards and impacting her storm.
Before she could direct her autonomous defense to pierce them, her concentration was taken by the scythe wielding General as she slipped her weapon through cracks in the vortex behind her, slashing into her spine. She shouted in pain but, having learned RCT just yesterday, healed the injury with crawling slowness.
She turned to retaliate but the woman was gone. The twins had jumped back and the wheels above their hands were now slowly spinning. She had a bad feeling about this.
She was still bleeding, though she was back to her feet now, having fallen down as she was briefly paralyzed. Still, this was nothing on her spars with Sukuna. "You're all not worth his time, so I'll finish what I started and save his shoes for stepping into the dogshit you'd all be." Yorozu smiled, sure of both her and her owner's victory.
She decided that summoning her armor was best, her victory the last time around was already close, they had new Cursed Tools now so she would take this more seriously, despite her taunting words.
It proved useful as the short kid's Cursed Technique activated, a paper door appearing in the air behind her, within her storm, and sliding open to reveal the kid, Katana ready to slash at her. Her armor was fully created and the blade simply bounced off the chitin.
Her hand swiped at him and he was knocked back, but he slipped into one of his doorways before his back could be shredded apart by the storm. Taking a look at her reserves, she decided to coalesce her storm into a ball of Liquid Metal above her. It wasn't her ultimate technique, but it would suffice.
She saw the woman rush at her, the twins behind, while the short guy circled her from behind. The scythe was vibrating, somehow increasing its cutting power- her Cursed Technique. Her insect armor was vulnerable to cursed cutting attacks, especially from extremely sharp sources. This scythe had cut through her perfect defense once before, so Yorozu decided to take her out first.
The ground shattered beneath her as she met their charge, ducking low to avoid the first horizontal swipe before grabbing her ankle and launching her into a tree. Before she could fully straighten, the twins had already hit her stomach in sync.
She saw the wheels starting to spin faster. She grabbed their wrists and broke them- one twin escaped her grasp as he activated his technique, briefly flickering and displacing himself behind her. The other twin was blessed with no such technique- so as she grabbed his head with her other hand and broke the neck, he couldn't do much about it.
She tanked the punch to her back that was meant to keep her from doing that very same thing. "Noooooo!" The first bit of emotion seeped into the remaining twin's voice as his brother slumped to the ground, dead.
Something odd happened, then. As she turned around, the other twin started flickering in place, his form dissolving and reforming without pause. His Cursed Energy spiked and Yorozu took a hesitant step back. "What-?" She was flying through the forest, the stomach area of her ingenious armor blown open by a punch that was nearing Sukuna's unenhanced ones.
He'd gotten stronger, his technique- he flickered through the trees, eyes wide and blood-shot through his mask, before he was in front of her in an instant. She raised her hands and blocked the first punch, but when he teleported behind her and kicked her side, she was too slow to react.
When she landed, a paper doorway opened and the kid stepped through, blade poised to piece into her stomach. She rolled to the side, the blade tearing into the dirt, before she swiped at it, breaking the Katana into pieces as she stood up on lightly shaking legs.
She took a breath and felt for Sukuna's Cursed Energy to calm herself, finding the beacon of power flowering into a vortex in the distance. She let three small orbs of Liquid Metal shape themselves around her, their surfaces rippling with semi-autonomous fury.
The twin flickered behind her and she turned, already swiping at his head, but he teleported to her opposite side as she did so, his fist impacting the back of her head.
*KA-CLUNK*
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the wheel spin one full rotation, the sound of a heavy metal object sliding into place somewhere echoing out. Suddenly, when he took advantage of her stupor to duck her retaliatory strike and strike at her leg, his fist broke through her armor and shattered her right shin.
His voice was monotone when he deigned to speak, teleporting and flickering all around her, breaking apart her armor with each punch he threw. He seemed omnipresent, never staying in one place after attacking her. "The Zenin granted us these tools, forged by the remnants of the Tenth Shikigami during its last summoning. They are destined to kill the Demon, but I will stain them with your blood as well."
She snarled and focused on defense, not being able to keep up with his speed. Thankfully, his allies could only stand around and watch in fear of not accidentally hitting him. Her armor was reforged every time he broke through. She let it crystallize above her as she slipped her arms out of the insect ones. She focused and started creating her magnum-opus in her palm.
A perfect sphere.
Draining most of her remaining reserves was all it took, but her result was what she desired. A shaking orb in the palm of her hand, to be expanded if she fed it more energy. Then, she waited for the next punch that shattered her chestplate. When a fist peeked through, she pushed the orb forwards and disintegrated the fist and the wheel.
She heard screaming and reformed her suit and slipped her arms back into place. When her bug-vision came online again, she saw the now-single child clutching the stump his hand once was. She didn't waste any time, sliding the orb out of the hole in her stomach, closing said breach and then expanding it and floating it over to the man, who died screaming- completely erased.
"Why?" The woman asked, clearly seeing that there was no way out. While her guard was still up, neither she nor the now weaponless boy were rushing to attack her. "Why do all this? Why side with that demon? I hate you, do not mistake my words, but I would like to find understanding before my death."
She laughed, honestly laughed. "You wouldn't get it, you're not strong after all." Yorozu ignored the angry growl. "But life is so boring when you're standing at the peak of strength. The only thing you want is company at the top, and I've found it. Doesn't hurt that he's fun to be around, definitely better than you prejudiced fucks."
The angry expression on her face was clear. "I fought for my right to be ranked amongst the Void Generals each day, breaking through my detractors, to those who'd rather see a man in my place. You don't have the right to complain about being a woman when you're too powerful to be touched by our problems."
"Jujutsu is unfair, Youma." The boy finally spoke. "Inequality is the foundation of our society. People will be born stronger than you could ever hope to be. All us regular folk can do is die slower. Do not bemoan our fate, make the best of it."
"Boy's right." She took leisurely steps towards them and they tensed up, the conversation dying out. In a last-ditch effort to kill her, the boy made a doorway behind her, aiming to slash at her back. She floated the orb at him, killing him instantly. She continued its momentum and homed in on Youma, who was jumping away with a terrified expression. It turned to dying fury as her body was dissolved.
"Ha…" She let out a calming breath, thinking of what she could do now. "Sukuna won't need help, but maybe Uraume would… Ugh, he'd be mad if she died. Fine, let's go help the bitch." On her way towards the freeze-tinted Cursed Energy signature, she picked up the remaining Cursed Tool from one of the twins' corpses.
Kenjaku watched the battle and chuckled to himself as Uro triggered her Domain. He didn't focus too much on them, deciding to stay within his little barrier of invisibility and contemplate Sukuna's actions. The world tilted on his every move, after all.
He had shattered his own fate by implanting the Six Eyes. Kenjaku himself had toyed with the idea but he'd never found a body resilient enough, never had large enough Cursed Energy reserves nor the skill with Binding Vows necessary to achieve the feat. But Sukuna had, and it had ripped him out of fate's weave.
Tengen and he had concluded that Jujutsu itself would see fit to punish the King of Curses for his transgression, be it by blinding his offspring or some other ironically fitting way. Already, Kenjaku had witnessed the birth of the next Six Eyes holder, only a few days after Michizane's death. Normally, it took at least a week.
It was a small boy in the newly formed Gojo clan, created out of the Sugawara's remnants, that had quickly scattered to the far-out countryside to stay away from their culler. He'd visited them and seen the boy for himself. He'd decided to let him live, since there had never been two Six Eyes present at the same time in history.
Though, Sukuna's new shattered ruby eyes could not truly be called the same name as the inherited technique of the Sugawara clan.
It had become impossible to stop the Demon faster than he or Tengen anticipated, his strength growing exponentially. Now, he couldn't even strike at his companions, for Sukuna would find the traces and track him down before he could do anything with them. Sukuna was to be approached with caution and Kenjaku must employ everything he can to get him to agree with his plan.
But even if he didn't, his children and children's children will bear his strength, even if just a fraction of it. Even if they would be restricted by heaven itself. And they could be approached. They could be brokered with. He saw the Zenin Clan Head pass by his barrier, unknowing of Kenjaku's presence. He looked almost giddy for being as old as he was.
Kenjaku knew the man had always wanted to see his technique's pinnacle for himself, but never dared to summon him, despite having mastered all nine other Shikigami. Sukuna would be exhausted after fighting the Celestial Squad, even if only slightly, so the Zenin might even have a chance, minute as it would be.
No matter, Kenjaku would have to wait until it was all over before he made his own moves.
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