Jiki stretched on his medical bed before smoothly moving to his feet. He wasn't sure why they had left him in a regular hospital facility instead of taking him to Shoko. Then again, in hindsight, he wasn't injured, at least not enough to require the services of the best healer in the whole country when she could be busy with others. What he had experienced was different.
Cursed energy exhaustion. It was a vastly less lethal version of the chakra exhaustion he was more familiar with. Chakra was a well-balanced combination of the energy produced by both the body and mind, and when such a thing was exhausted... well, the body and mind began to suffer as a result, shutting down. Best-case scenarios for such conditions came down to unconsciousness as the body and mind recovered automatically. Worst-case scenarios led to death.
Jiki shifted into squats, exercising his thighs after the few days of bed rest. Cursed energy exhaustion was a different outcome, one that highlighted the vast difference between the two types of energy. Cursed energy was created by negative emotions formed from within, which meant that to generate more cursed energy, one had to be heavily tied to a negative emotion. This was easy in theory, vastly difficult in practice. However, this meant that loss of cursed energy or exhaustion wasn't as dangerous as chakra exhaustion.
He had known this earlier, of course, at least theoretically. Sorcerers were more likely to die in battle than run out of cursed energy, so it wasn't exactly a well-studied phenomenon. However, he had taken the risk when he stabilized Shoko. He smoothly rose to his feet and came to a halt. This was as much practice as he could do while trapped in the hospital without any dedicated equipment. With that done, he turned to the door as it swung open.
Satoru stepped in with a grin and two white bags in both of his raised hands. "I got kushidango and some ice cream." Jiki smiled, then sat down as Satoru took his place beside him. They sat and ate in comfortable silence and for long minutes; all that could be heard was the sound of their mouths working on the dango skewers. It didn't take long for them to finish.
"How was the meeting?" Jiki asked.
Satoru murmured something noncommittally as he drank water before speaking again. "I told them about Kenjaku, about our theory regarding Gakuganji and the higher-ups. Not everyone was present, of course. Only the few I felt we could trust."
Jiki hummed in return, deep in thought. "And Itadori? Any news about him?"
For the first time, Satoru's features twisted into a near snarl of anger before it smoothed out a split second later. "None for now."
Seeing the direction the conversation was heading and not willing to indulge it further, Jiki switched topics.
"The Goodwill Event. I heard nobody won?"
Satoru smiled then. "The original grade-two curse that should've decided the competition was missing, and coupled with the attack on the school, most things were put on hold. But officially, if we were counting the secondary method of winning, which is the school with the most exorcisms done on the curses..." Satoru turned to him, his smile widening. "We win."
Jiki let out a chuckle at that. Maki and the rest would be happy with that, at least. It wasn't the consolation they wanted, not the overwhelming victory against the sister school they desired, but it was a win regardless.
"How are the rest of the students?"
"Most of them are fine. The most grievously wounded was Aoi Todo, and since his recovery, he has disappeared. Most likely to find his teacher or something along those lines, but I doubt he took his defeat at Kenjaku's hands well. The rest of the Kyoto students left a few days ago. Our beloved sister school is in a bit of turmoil owing to Gakuganji's subterfuge and subsequent betrayal." Satoru shrugged as he continued. "But they'll be fine. Kusakube is transferring over there to become the acting principal for now. They're also aware there's a massive threat out there now, even if they don't all know the details, so I guess everyone will be trying to get stronger too."
This time Satoru turned to Jiki, his smile returning slowly. "Speaking of getting stronger, I've heard the whispers, alongside your somehow even smoother flow and better control of cursed energy. You hit a Black Flash, didn't you?"
Jiki cracked a smile, and that was all the confirmation Satoru needed as he let out a laugh. "Finally! Although in this, talent and skill are not to blame. The spark of Black chooses who to bless, especially since Black Flash is generally achieved by chance and the desperation of being pushed. Which means that for the truly strong, Black Flash is not a frequent occurrence, because we are never truly pushed." Satoru trailed off, refreshing some memory.
"Considering your strength, when did you land your first one?" Jiki asked, curiosity lacing his tone.
Satoru gave a nostalgic smile before replying. "Taira no Masakado, one of the three great vengeful spirits of Japan."
Jiki raised an eyebrow at that. That was the extent of his surprise. Little was known about the three great vengeful spirits. Since he learned of Sugawara's relation to them, Jiki had theorized that each of the three great clans of today could draw their lineage to each of the three great vengeful spirits, and that connection was one of the reasons the three great vengeful spirits were sealed and trapped. Much like Sukuna, they could not be destroyed, at least not easily. They could only be contained in the imperial vaults of the Royal Palace.
"How did that happen?"
"Someone stupid managed to break into the vault sometime in 2016. Luckily, the issue was contained to the palace. I was summoned, and we fought for a bit, then the royal family's specialized onmyoji, sorcerers specialized in sealing, managed to trap him back." Satoru squeezed his hand into a fist. "It was probably the first time I was truly pushed since Toji Fushiguro managed to... kill me."
Satoru's death was still a sore spot for him. He had been clinically dead for long minutes before he somehow managed to revive himself. Jiki decided to shift topics. "I also managed a domain expansion."
Satoru blinked, his playful air vanishing in an instant. "You what?"
Jiki nodded, stretching his arms behind his head with the nonchalance of someone trying not to brag. "It was broken from the outside, but even if it wasn't, it wouldn't have lasted for more than a minute or two. I wasn't ready for the strain. But yes, it was a domain. It happened after the Black Flash. Everything suddenly made sense... if only for a moment."
Satoru leaned in slightly, his eyes narrowing, not in judgment, but in focused interest. "And the barrier? Was it fully closed? Did you overwrite the space within?"
Jiki barely gave it a thought before slowly shaking his head. "It was unstable. I doubt Kenjaku and Kashimo could see it, trapped as they were inside it, but the borders were fluctuating, like ripples instead of walls. I think my understanding of cursed energy shifted too quickly, and my eyes couldn't keep up. But the technique inside... it was familiar, and that familiarity helped to ground the barrier."
"What was it?" Satoru asked, now deadly serious. "We've been unable to figure out your cursed technique, so what kind of technique did you anchor your domain with?"
Jiki didn't answer right away. He stared at the wall for a moment, as if the memory was still forming, still fresh clay in his hands. Then, softly, he said:
"It was based off my Tsukuyomi, so I named it Heavenly Delusion."
Satoru exhaled, then burst into laughter. "You really named your domain like a final boss, huh?"
"It makes falsehoods real," Jiki defended immediately. He knew Satoru well enough to be aware of where he wanted to lead the conversation. So he continued speaking rapidly, explaining the technique. "For as long as the domain holds, whatever I claim to be true becomes true within reason. Lies become facts. The unreal becomes real. If I say you're blind, you won't see. If I say you're cursed, you'll feel the effects. Inside my domain... I am God." He finished with a whisper, realizing just how delusional he sounded, an uchiha drunk on the power of their eyes. Izanagi without the cost.
Satoru was silent for a long time. Gone was the humor he was about to inject into the conversation. Then, in a voice that held no jest or sarcasm, only awe: "That's... terrifying."
Jiki allowed himself an uncharacteristic smirk, even if it was a small one. "If I can hold it longer next time and find a way to counteract the strain on my eyes, maybe it'll live up to the name."
Silence stretched between them for a bit. Then Satoru looked away, his tone shifting back to grim business. "We're nearly certain now that Kenjaku might be after Sukuna's return, judging by the things he has been stealing. It's a good thing you managed to stop them from stealing our pieces of Sukuna's fingers..." Satoru trailed off before admitting, "I'm worried about him."
"Yuji."
"Yes... I promised him my protection. The protection of the strongest sorcerer." Then he turned back and gave Jiki a grin. "Although that title might be more contested than ever before now."
Jiki leaned forward, a more natural smile on his face. "I don't think Itadori is dead, nor has Sukuna been reincarnated using his body. Otherwise, I'm sure we would both felt his return." Jiki said by way of consolation. "We simply need to find out how much Uraume knows."
"She's in captivity now," Satoru agreed, moving to his feet immediately. "Knowing her identity as a reincarnated sorcerer, we went searching, and we found the name mentioned a couple of times in our records about Sukuna, so she should have a lot of information about Kenjaku's plans as well as whatever Sukuna plans."
"Then we'll make her talk," Jiki said, rising as well. "I'll make her talk.
...
Yuji's eyes snapped open.
His breath came in short, panicked bursts, and his body was absolutely covered in sweat. He tried to move but found his limbs bound tightly. His mind felt sluggish, but whatever had been done to him, he was rapidly recovering already because with a shake of his head, his senses began to clear. He looked around him. Dim lights flickered against rusted walls covered with paper talismans. The smell of incense and decay mixed in the air.
He looked down at himself to see he was seated on a wooden chair. His body was bound with ropes, and on those ropes were matching talismans like the ones littered around the room. He jerked on the ropes and found he could not tear his way free. Whoever had bound him had accounted for his inhuman strength. So he reached for his cursed energy and froze when it came up empty... not empty. He tried again, only to realize that he was closed off from it.
"I expected you to be able to house Sukuna with no problem. No mental degradation or physical breakdown of the body that incompatible vessels always suffer, making the host forcefully take over and find another way out."
A familiar voice echoed nearby. Kaori Itadori... his mother. Or was it Kenjaku, like Gojo Jiki had claimed? Yuji was confused, and his disorientation was not helping matters in the slightest.
"You're awake. Good. We have much to discuss, my child."
Yuji turned his head weakly to where the voice was coming from.
Kaori stood beside a low, makeshift table covered in talismans, surgical tools, and glass containers filled with twisted embryos. One of them twitched as Yuji watched, then his eyes drifted up to her once more. She greeted him with a wide, beatific smile.
"I didn't want it to be like this, you understand that, right?" she started, sounding genuinely remorseful. She walked forward, past the table and up towards him, before stroking his face gently. "Our beautiful Yuji. I blame those Gojos and Tengen's machinations with fate. It wasn't enough that she forced a Gojo with the Six Eyes and the Limitless technique to be born to interfere with my plans. It had to create a brand new type of Gojo to do the same."
A laugh echoed out from behind her, forcing Yuji to turn his attention away from Kaori and towards where the laugh had come from, revealing the pale and patchwork figure of the special grade curse she had introduced as Mahito. The curse stood further back, grinning ear to ear, watching him like a cat would a wounded mouse. Seeing his attention on him, it waved.
How was he here? The last thing he remembered was the attack by the weird guy with his hair wrapped up to look like horns. The lightning strike that had obliterated everything and Jiki racing to him just in time to protect him, then there was darkness. Yuji gritted his teeth. "What happened? Where are Todo and Jiki?"
Kaori tilted her head at him. "You wake up alone and tied up, and your first worries are about your friends and not yourself... You're so much like Jin, you know. And since you didn't meet him, I suppose I have your grandfather's influence to blame. After all, he was the one who raised both of you."
Yuji replied with a glare, and finally Kaori shrugged her shoulders. "Fine, fine, that's no way to look at your mother. Aoi Todo is fine. I told you I was not going to kill him, and I kept my word. As for Gojo Jiki..." she trailed off, a complicated expression on her face. "I thought I was capable of it, with the right people. However, the reveal of his domain..." K trailed off with true and real fear in her eyes. "Anyway, he's alive as well. Although I'm sure that by now, he would have a good idea that you've been taken." She finally finished, recovering her composure.
Yuji let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. His friends were okay. He refocused his attention on the woman. "So what do you want from me, Kenjaku?"
Kenjaku walked toward him, unhurried. "Again, with that... I've introduced myself already. My name is Kaori Itadori, your mother."
"Or Kenjaku," Yuji replied, and he watched carefully, which was why he saw it. She flinched. Gojo Jiki was right. She shook her head before letting out a sigh, then brightened up a split second later. "Fine, I have the perfect proof." She turned back to the table and riffled through it for a minute before coming back with a picture in hand, a picture that made Itadori's eyes widen in shock.
It was a picture of her alongside a man who looked so much like him, but with glasses on, and then there he was, a little baby in the man's hands. At the corner of the picture stood his grandfather. The old man stared at her with something close to, but not quite, a glare. Did Jiji know? Was this what he had wanted to tell him before Yuji had brushed him off?
"That might be your mother's body, Itadori-kun, but the person wearing it is not your mother."
That was what Jiki had claimed, yet looking at this picture brought confusion to him. It was clearly a picture of him alongside his parents on the day he was born, and there was Kaori, alongside his father and his grandfather. She might actually be his mother... Then his eyes drifted to where his grandfather, the man who had single-handedly raised him and imprinted his present core values into him.
He watched him stare at her with that same complicated look in his eyes, and that was enough to dampen Yuji's hope. For whatever reason, his grandfather had not trusted her, and that was enough to keep him suspicious. Still, the image had worked just like she had hoped.
"What do you want from me... Kaori?" he asked again, cautiously and yet tired, and a smile blossomed on her face. Just as quickly, the smile died down as she gave him some space.
"I want to get to know you more than I had the chance to under the near gaze of Tengen and the Gojos. I want to introduce you to friends." Kenjaku gestured toward Mahito, and Mahito waved back happily.
"Family," Kenjaku continued, but this time she gestured towards the twisted embryos in their glasses. "But most importantly, I want to offer you understanding, Yuji. And a gift. I did not lie to you when I spoke earlier. I have no desire to see you dead, unlike the rest of the world. Unlike the flawed deal the Gojos bargained for with the higher-ups. I want you to live, to fulfill your potential, and at the end of the day, help me with my overarching goals. You've been fighting for the wrong side for so long... It's time you saw the world for what it really is."
Yuji's fingers twitched. Despite everything, despite her attack on the school and his kidnapping, there was truth in her words. Yuji could tell that she meant them with every fiber of her being. He could almost physically feel the intensity behind her words. Still, he jerked in his chair, jerked hard enough that one of the talismans broke free and drifted to the ground.
His cursed energy stirred slightly an instant later. It was sluggish but still present, which solidified the thought. It was the talismans that locked away his access to his cursed energy. "Then release me," he stated with a frown.
Kenjaku walked up and crouched beside him, a complicated expression on her face. "Soon, my child, soon. You have to understand. You're not here to be broken, despite what you think. You're here to evolve, to become a better, stronger you."
Mahito clapped softly in mock applause behind her. "Think of this as a school trip! Away from school. I heard those are always fun. At least that's what Junpei used to say. "It's all about field learning and the transformation that comes with it." Mahito finished with a grin and his hands forming air quotes.
Yuji stared at the two of them and let out a sigh. "So what now?"
Kenjaku stood back up and began to walk away. "For now, you wait. We need to discuss what losing one of ours means for us in the grand scheme of things. Uraume's loss was always a probability, even if it was a low one. Now I'll have to make more dangerous overtures to characters I had originally found too dangerous and fickle to enlist. However, Gojo Jiki's presence demands a response. An overwhelming one. After that, we'll have a talk with your... resident guest, I suppose."
Yuji's eyes widened. "Sukuna?"
Kenjaku replied with a closed eyes smile, then she waved him off as she stepped out of the room alongside Mahito, leaving Yuji alone with his thoughts.