AN: This chapter is a lot of theory. It might be a single Pov. A lot about binding vows.
And about last chapter. Aizawa said that Riku has to learn how to resist adaptation until the Sports festival.
I think i wrote it badly, but he is not saying that Riku is not allowed to use it. He is saying that Riku needs to prove that he can resist an adaptation IF he needs to. If he can prove that, that shows control over his ability and less danger for others, then he gets to participate.
(Pov: Riku Shinda)
The hours passed by quickly and soon enough, noon had arrived. Riku had sat through the courses with usual Stoicism, not really struggling with anything so far. Although, that was mostly because he remembered most topics from his own life.
'I hope this will last.'
*Riiing.
The sound of the bell announced the end of the class, freeing Riku's head from all these thoughts. Again, his Cursed Energy flared up and his attention returned to the Principal (?) in the Principal's office.
'That is our Principal...?'
The small, beaver-like figure had somehow finished working through the mountain of paperwork. Riku had watched in amazement how it methodically threw a document a glance, filled it out or tapped on its computer, then laid it aside in less than 20 seconds.
'An intelligence quirk? Probably?'
So now, having finished its work, it simply sat in the office with a cup of tea, staring at monitors which... well, Riku couldn't exactly see them.
'Does he get to decide whether i participate in the festival? Or is it like a board of directors...?'
The class around him had gotten up from their seats and huddled into groups, excitedly discussing the sports festival. Even Fumikage was included, who despite his stone-like expression, had his excitement eclipsing nearly all other emotion.
But Riku simply blended them out.
'Aizawa said that morning classes will be for Academics, and afternoon for individual Quirk training. I'm gonna visit this Principal before the training.'
That meant no food for this Raga. But it was alright.
A few people threw him awkward glances as he got up, not knowing if sharing their excitement with him was appropriate given the conditions he had been given, but Uraraka knew none of that.
"Deku... Iida... Shindai..."
The three halted in confusion at the girl's serious tone. Only Riku sensed the determination before she spoke.
"Lets crush it. The sports festival."
"URARAKA! YOUR FACE!"
Her serious statement, accompanied by Midoriya's scream attracted attention and Ashido and Asui soon joined in, seemingly confused.
"What's up with her? She's kind of like... not being Uraraka."
'I guess even she has ambition.'
Riku shrugged, then turned towards the exit and gave them a wave with his tail.
"M'I GNIOG OT KCEHC TAHW ESEHT SNOITIDNOC ERA TUOBA."
(I'm going to check what these conditions are about.)
His sentence left a bit of curiosity lingering behind him but Riku simply ignored it and walked out with big steps, heading straight to the office with the tea drinking mammal.
'The tea drinking mammal which might decide my fate.'
-
Soon, Riku stood in front of the door. No hesitation was in his movement as he raised his hand and tapped the door three times taking a step back, hands folded in front of him.
'Yes, i'm trying to give a good impression. That's the Principal goddamnit.'
"Come in."
The voice was high-pitched, as one would expect from a mammal of this size. Riku complied and entered the office, carefully closing the door behind him and faced the principal.
"Hmm? Can i help you, student?"
The principal's tone was one of mild confusion, but his emotions betrayed him.
'Curiosity, excitement, mischief, of course he knows who i am.'
But Riku was a polite gentle-mutant. He wouldn't call out a school-principal on their act.
"OLLEH RM LAPICNIRP. I MA UKIR AIDNIHS DNA I DLUOW EKIL OT SSUCSID EHT SNOITIDNOC EV'I NEEB NEVIG ROF EHT STROPS LAVITSEF."
(Hello Mr Principal. I am Riku Shindai and i would like to discuss the conditions i've been given for the sports festival)
"Ah! There was something like that, wasn't there?"
The Principal hopped down from his seat and theatrically waddled over to another stack of paper, taking out a file, returning to his seat with it.
Then, he read it.
For over a minute. In Silence.
'I know damn well you can read faster than that, i watched you work.'
Riku did not say anything and was honestly grateful for his mutated expression, because had he had a human face, it would have betrayed his disbelief and annoyance for the act of the principal.
He was still standing, not knowing if taking a seat was appropriate while the Principal whose name Riku still did not know, made humming sounds when finishing his "read."
Then, he finally spoke up.
"Hm, well indeed. I say you seem to be in a particular situation with that quirk of yours. Riku Shindai was it? Please, take a seat."
The Principal made a light gesture towards the couch further away from the desk, then stood up upon his desk and folded his hands behind his back.
"The conditions, i believe, were rather simple? We need you to prove capability of refusing your own Adaptations. Mindlessly adapting to anything is going to help you for your own strength, but there are downsides to it as well, im sure you already know. If you cannot do so, then allowing you to use your quirk during the festival is simply dangerous."
'...there are downsides?'
Now, Riku was not stupid. He understood very well that the Principal was referring to the USJ event, where Riku lost control.
That being said, this was due to a special situation.
'Although, i guess he wants to make sure no more special situations appear?'
And honestly, it didn't matter what the reasons were. He wanted to participate in the Sports festival. The only reason he was in the office was to ask how to learn to refuse these adaptations and what resources he could get in order to learn that.
"I EES. TUB YM SNOITATPODA ERIUQER A TNECED TIB FO ILUMITS. I DEEN OT EB DESOPXE OT SKRUIQ RO SNOITAUTIS NI REDRO OT TPADA RO TSISER GNITPADA."
(I see. But my Adaptations require a decent bit of Stimuli. I need to be exposed to Quirks or situations in order to adapt or resist adapting.)
It was sudden, but the Principals excitement suddenly spiked, his curiosity flaring up as well.
Despite that, his demeanor did not change. He remained standing and raised a hand to his chin, seemingly in thought.
"Of course, for the next two weeks of training UA will expedite a fair amount of resources in order to help you with this dilemma of yours. That being said, your classmates, nor the other classes will be able to help you with this. The Sports festival is quite competitive, you see? It would not be fair towards them if you prematurely adapted to their Quirks."
The Principal paused for moment, then continued.
"But in order to appraise the necessary resources, i need to know a bit about your quirk. Would you mind telling me about it?"
"RETFA GNIEB DESOPXE OT ENEMONEHP, I TPADA."
(After being exposed to Phenomena, i adapt.)
"Ah, no." The Principal shook his head. "That was not what i was asking. I'm sorry, i should have formulated this better."
The Principal's curiosity flared up even more.
"The Energy mentioned in the file. Cursed Energy. Your speech. The wheel, how does it feel? How are they all connected?"
'...I don't think my Cursed Energy is all that connected to adaptation, but whatever.'
"YM HCEEPS SAW DENIAG HGUORHT DESRUC YGRENE. EHT ECIOV UOY RAEH DNA DNATSREDNU SI TON ENIM. TI SI RUOY NIARB GNITALSNART EHT TNETNI FO YM SDROW."
(My speech was gained through Cursed Energy. The voice you hear and understand is not mine. It is your brain translating my intent.)
The Principal did not react, simply listening with a polite smile.
"I T'NOD WONK YM S'NOITATPADA NOITCENNOC OT DESRUC YGRENE. TUB YM DESRUC YGRENE SAW TNESERP EROFEB EHT LEEHW. TI NAC DAR SNOITOME DNA YB GNIYAL TI DNUORA ECAPS, I ESU TI EKIL A ROSNES OT ESNES YM SGNIDNUORRUS."
(I don't know my Adaptation's connection to Cursed Energy. But my Cursed Energy was present before the wheel. It can read emotions and by laying it around space, i use it like a sensor to sense my surroundings.)
This time, a smile bloomed on the Principals face as his amusement and excitement rose. Still, he did not speak.
"DNA EHT LEEHW SLEEF DEGGOLC. EKIL A YTSUR GOC, GNILLIWNU OT EVOM. NEHT, REVO EMIT FO GNIEB DESOPXE OT GNIHTEMOS, STI EKIL TI SEMOCEB REISAE DNA REISAE OT NRUT, LITNU I REHTIE ECROF TI OT EVOM RO TI SEOD OS FLESTI."
(And the wheel feels clogged. Like a rusty cog, unwilling to move. Then, over time of being exposed to something, its like it becomes easier and easier to turn, until i either force it to move or it does so itself.)
"Hehe..." The Principal's shoulder started shaking. Then, he suddenly threw his head back and laughed.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH."
'What the hell. This dude could be a villain with his laugh.'
"I apologize. Its just... from your explanation, your quirk seems rather incredible."
The Principal wiped his face with his sleeves before suddenly composing himself.
"Does your Cursed Energy feel any different while you adapt?"
"ON. YLNO FI I TPADA YM DESRUC YGRENE OT GNIHTEMOS."
(No. Only if i adapt my Cursed Energy to something.)
"So, they're separate... This is a bit troublesome. It sounds like you have two Quirks."
As he spoke those words, the principals emotions suddenly changed. Concern, fear and seriousness flared up, along with... suspicion?
'Huh? Why does it scare him so much.'
Riku was well aware this was not normal. But he himself had no idea as to why he had Cursed Energy. Adaptation by itself, would have been enough.
In Jujutsu Kaisen, Mahoraga had only adapted to use Cursed Energy after fighting Sukuna and deciding that Reverse Cursed technique was not efficient against him.
But did he have Cursed Energy? He was a Cursed construct, so yes.
'I'm not a construct though. Right?'
Unease welled up in him, another existential question had now popped up. But he shook it off as Nezu continued.
"There has to be some kind of connection between the two. If so, then this is a case like young Todoroki's. His Quirk, fire-and-ice is just a single Quirk, balancing both these aspects. Your quirk should be the same. Again, i ask you for any connection between the two."
A deep growl escaped Riku as he leaned back in the couch, trying to connect the dot between this. Soon enough, he had his answer.
'You cannot have a Cursed Technique without Cursed Energy. So my Quirk would be Cursed Energy. My technique is Adaptation.'
His wings twitched lightly at that realization, but the confusion then resurfaced.
'But Mahoraga's technique is unique even in JJK. He adapts to anything, regardless of Cursed Energy.'
Was there anyone with a technique like him? Sukuna's shrine relied on Cursed Energy. Gojo's technique. Even Yuta... Oh!
'Hakari's technique gives him unlimited Cursed Energy. His immortality is a byproduct of this unlimited Cursed Energy. But its temporary...
And Takaba! The comedian allows him to change reality. He too, uses Cursed Energy but the binding vow of not knowing his own technique is probably the condition for his technique not being overly reliant on Cursed Energy.'
Were there others like that? Immediately, a certain blonde twink flashed in his mind.
'...the guy with the miracles. He didn't know his own technique, but his technique still worked. Its the same as Takaba. Just a weaker technique.'[1]
Was not knowing one's technique some sort of vow or restriction, in exchange for Cursed techniques not running out of Cursed Energy?
But Riku knew his technique. And Mahoraga's adaptation was also the kind which did not rely on Cursed Energy.
'Does Mahoraga's better Adaptation come from such a vow?'
But in the same moment he formed the thought, he dismissed it.
'Mahoraga is a construct. His technique is innate to the ten shadows and probably automatically optimized.'
Riku's tail lashed wildly, a sudden excitement lighting up in him.
'If i resist Adaptation, could i maybe adapt to optimize my own adaptation?'
In front of him, Nezu sat still, not making any noise. He simply stared at the strange Mutant-student who seemed deep in thought. A small smirk bloomed on his face as he watched the students wing twitch. His tail lashing. His grin, widening. He was sure of it, the student had found a connection between Cursed Energy and Adaptation.
That meant, the worst case scenario had been avoided.
But Riku did not notice any of the Principal's relief. He finally had some clarity about some of his circumstances. Adaptation was a byproduct of his Cursed Energy. It was simply his Cursed technique.
So, he had to be able to optimize it. Maybe through binding vows? He knew how to make the simple vows, trading momentary weakness for later strength, but none had worked on Adaptation.
'What if there is a vow or restriction, innate to my technique.'
The realization hit him like a bus. Some techniques in Jujutsu Kaisen had binding vows, innate to them. So his attempt at Binding vows for his technique had failed because he had not paid attention to an innate vow?
"Shindai."
Stimuli. What if the Stimuli he needed to endure, was the trade in the vow for his technique to work? And what if he could improve it?
"Shindai. Please listen."
Hmm?
It was sudden, but the Principal suddenly pulled him out of his musings. His emotions were calm, excitement having faded a bit, although it seemed more like he was purposefully restraining his own emotions.
"Shindai. It seems like you have come to a realization. The break is over and practical Quirk training will begin. I believe that the Faux-cities were given to the classes for individual Quirk training, so please head over and organize with your class.
Once there, please organize your realization and talk to Aizawa about what you may need in order to elevate your Quirk. Please don't forget the condition we set. The decision to your participation is not in my sole discretion, you will have to prove your capability of resisting your own Quirk."
Riku nodded, thoughts still swirling in his head. The Principal then jumped off the table and returned to his seat.
"If you have any questions or ideas, please feel free to come to me. Frankly, i am rather curious about your Quirk and I'd gladly help you discover its intricacies."
"I LLIW. KNAHT UOY."
(I will. Thank you.)
With this, Riku stood up and gave the Principal a bow before making his way out of the office.
His mind remained in chaos, wondering about the nature of binding vows in relation to his Technique, how he could test it, constantly comparing it to what he knew about JJK.
The fact that failure of demonstrating control over his own Quirk would shut him out of the Sports festival was not even considered in his head. The amount of realizations he had gotten fueled his optimism.
And so, with swirling thoughts and a large grin, the Mutant stomped towards the Faux-city, towards the entrance where Aizawa stood.
'First, I'll tell Aizawa i need some time to organize my thoughts about training. Then, I'll do just that. After organizing my thoughts, I'll figure out what to tell the teachers and principal. Then, I'll start training.'
Theory before Practice.
-
Minutes later, Riku found himself roaming the Faux-city. He was calmly walking towards a more isolated spot where he simply found a small bench on which to sit down upon.
'My Adaptation is the Cursed Technique of my Quirk. My Quirk is Cursed Energy.'
In transmigrator's words, his Quirk followed the Jujutsu Kaisen power-system. It was like those template systems, just without system.
'I know that binding vows can affect my base Cursed Energy. Small vows, the likes of Nanami's Overtime work with me too.'
You limit your Cursed Energy a specific amount. Then, when he went overtime, the Cursed Energy he put aside was added to his original reserves.
This vow was good for Nanami, because the Sorcerer's output (Cursed Energy he can use at once) was rather big. That meant his Cursed Energy also depleted faster and while his Cursed Energy reserves were most likely sizeable, they were probably not enough to sustain his large output.
For Nanami Kento, this binding vow solved his problem of insufficient Cursed Energy. It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough.
Riku had tried it out and it had worked for him too. But given that his Output and reserves were likely bigger than Nanami's, he simply did not need such a vow.
There were other simple binding vows, most were directly tied to Cursed Energy output. You restrain it, using less Cursed Energy you actually can. Then, later you unleash more than you actually should be capable of.
Again, unnecessary for Riku at this point. He had a strong physique, good reserves and a strong output in addition to good control. In terms of base stats, he was already incredible, with the sole exception of speed. But his sheer bulk solved that. Although improving speed at some point was a necessity.
'The main problem is Technique and Quirk.'
His weakness was some Quirk which most likely existed somewhere. If the villain with Decay had managed to touch his head instead of his arm, would his adaptation save him? Mahoraga was capable of recovering from turning into a splat of blood. Riku did not know if he could, nor did he know how to test that.
Now that he had Regeneration, it would somewhat cancel out Decay. He just needed to improve it. That was something he could train a lot easier now that he had it.
A deep groan escaped his throat. Right now, all of this was irrelevant.
Now, he needed to fulfill UA's condition. Gain control over Adaptation and be capable of refusing any problematic Adaptation.[2]
'Some techniques in Jujutsu Kaisen have innate vows. Similar to heavenly Restrictions like Toji's, Maki's or Mechamaru's, but different. They don't affect Cursed Energy itself, but rather the technique.'
Calling them vow's wasn't exactly correct. They were just conditions. An example was Projection Sorcery.
It made one capable of dividing a single second into 24 frames. That meant that in that second, the user would move according to the 24 preselected frames, achieving incredible speed.
But, if the user failed to follow the 24 preselected frames, they would freeze for a full second.
Additionally, if the user of this sorcery touched someone, then the technique would be applied to them. They would have to pre-determine their movement into 24 frames for a single second.
And because in a fight, this touch would be unexpected, they would not be ready, not follow the movement, and therefore freeze.
Conditions like these were not uncommon, but despite that, not everyone had them. Some techniques were naturally simple, such as Sukuna's shine which had no conditions in order to work.
'My technique has a condition as well. I don't know if conditions count as vows, but regardless, i need stimuli in order to adapt.'
Something needed to affect him. Either failure, in order to adapt offensively or pain/danger in order to adapt defensively.
But because Pain and Danger were stronger Stimuli than something vague like failure, they were just easier to adapt to. Hence, defense was easier than offense.
'Can i make a vow to make adapting easier? My Cursed Energy doesn't play a role in Adaptation, maybe i can feed it to the Wheel?'
The problem was that he relied on Cursed Energy for Sight. If he gave it away, he'd gradually make his sensor smaller until he'd go blind. Although maybe he'd be capable of Adapting a Solution to his blindness?
'I guess it doesn't matter right now. I should start by just trying to resist an Adaptation. I'll ask Aizawa or Nezu if they can arrange a situation i can adapt to. Then i'll just...not adapt.'
Then, he'd try the same thing again. Perhaps including some sort of binding vow. He'd have to think of ideas.[3]
With that Riku burrowed his head in hands whilst burrowing through his memory for each mentioned binding vow in Jujutsu Kaisen.
-
-
CHAPTER END
This was basically just thinking and i bet i went off track between 1 to 5 times.
Some might think that he should know that Adaptation is a Cursed technique and Cursed Energy is the Quirk, but i think this is one of the simple things which are not that clear about Mahoraga. We know he is a Shikigami and that this is his ability. No one thinks about Nue and a Lightning related Cursed technique after all, right? Nor about the rabbit or about the Elephant.
And don't forget, MC isn't exactly an intellectual. He never even considered the question, "which of the two is my quirk."
Just reincarnated with body and abilities and accepted it.
[1] For those having forgot about him. I'll post a comment with the twink who allowed us to first see Mahoraga. My glorious Twink-king, Haruta Shigemo, the bisected one.
[2] Again, problematic Adaptation refers to Selfish adaptation. It may be good for him to turn into an exploding thermo-nuclear reactor mid-fight, but it probably isn't so good for Japan.
[3] Me too.