A/N
Hey, guys, this chapter is going to be more of an interlude and expanding on the power system a touch, so it won't be very action-heavy. I had a lot of trouble with writing everyone's POV and respective character voices, hence the late release.
With that being said lets get straight into it.
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Jogo POV
I landed on the roof of the building I'd sent that human through, volcanic stone cracking beneath my feet.
He was the most infuriating human I'd ever encountered. Running, dodging, refusing to die—the mere thought was nearly enough to make my head erupt.
All that cursed energy. Leaking constantly, blanketing the area, making him impossible to pin down even while fighting.
'Such an absurd amount,' I thought, my face twisting into a sneer. 'It surpasses even my own.'
My fists clenched. Heat rippled through the air around me.
'But of course—humans could never grasp cursed energy the way we curses do. Terrible efficiency. He burned through everything and died like the pathetic insect he was.'
I shook my head, forcing the irritation down. The boy was ash now. Completely irrelevant.
Kenjaku had told us to leave him be, but that arrogant sorcerer had no place ordering us around. We were curses—the true inheritors of this world. We bowed to no one.
My snarl shifted into a wide grin.
Domain Amplification had worked perfectly. Stopped that brat's technique from sending me flying, negated his annoying vibrations. A successful test run.
And now, the real target awaited.
My eye fixed on the chaos of Shibuya spread before me, zeroing in on where Kenjaku told us to meet.
It was time to get rid of the main obstacle to the world of curses.
Satoru Gojo.
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Shinji POV
Binding vows were a fickle thing. Gege had been wonderfully vague about what they could do—seemingly anything, if you paid the equivalent price. That's why, when I realized Jogo was about to give me the Nanami treatment, I gambled everything on one.
'With the heavens above as my witness, I relinquish all remaining cursed energy in my body—in exchange, create a barrier of vibrating cursed energy just above my skin for the next five seconds.'
It was a gamble because I had no idea if the price of a vow was subjective or objective.
Objectively, I was casting a barrier technique I didn't know how to perform, paying for it with the dregs of my very limited cursed energy reserves.
Subjectively, though? I was leaving myself defenseless for what could be the rest of the night—vulnerable to any random curse in the most dangerous battlefield in the world.
I half-expected it not to work.
Then I felt it. My cursed energy ripped away, flooding out of my body and vibrating along my skin in a paper-thin shell. The heat was still unbearable—nothing could stop that—but the flames never made direct contact.
The binding vow had accepted.
I felt Jogo leave, his presence launching away into the chaos. Relief hit me so hard I cried—the tears evaporating almost instantly.
The flames died moments later. The barrier collapsed a second after.
I wanted to move. Nothing responded. Not even my eyelids, which were slowly sliding shut.
My skin was red and steaming—first-degree burns, maybe second in places, covering every inch of exposed flesh.
But I was alive.
My vision darkened. My strength failed.
I gave in
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Ino POV
'God, I really hate this city.'
The thought came automatically, practiced. I'd thought it a hundred times tonight already, but somehow it never got old. There was always something new to hate—a fresh corpse, another collapsed building, the smell of burned flesh mixing with sulfur and ash.
My mask filtered most of it, thank god, but even through the carbon layers I could taste Shibuya dying.
Smoke everywhere. Fires that wouldn't die. Rubble that used to be someone's home, someone's business, someone's life. And was that lava flowing down Meiji Avenue?
Cursed energy signatures flickered out across the city like dying stars. Each one was a sorcerer or a civilian who'd run out of luck.
Nanami-san had given me simple orders: kill transfigured humans, evacuate civilians. Two tasks. Straightforward.
Except nothing about tonight was simple, and I was starting to think Nanami-san knew that when he sent me out here. A test, maybe. Or just desperation—we were so undermanned that even semi-grade 1 sorcerers were being trusted with critical work.
'Don't screw this up, Ino.'
I rounded the corner of a destroyed storefront, boots crunching on broken glass, when I felt it—the barest scraps of a cursed energy signature. Weak enough I almost missed it. Coming from a cluster of burned trees to my left.
I ran straight at it.
'Please be alive. Please be alive.'
The signature led me to what used to be some kind of food stand. The metal roof had collapsed inward, bent around something in the middle. Someone.
'What the fuck?'
He was red. Not bloody red—cooked red. Burns covering every inch of exposed skin, his silver hair singed and wild. His shirt was purple-stained and torn in places. Curse blood. He'd been fighting.
And somehow, impossibly, he was breathing. If you could call it breathing—more like a wheeze that hurts to listen to, each inhale sounding like it might be the last.
'Sorcerer,' I confirmed, kneeling beside him. Had to be. That purple blood on his shirt was definitely from a curse.
I gingerly started extracting him from the wreckage, careful not to jostle anything that might be broken. Which, given how he looked, was probably everything.
"Don't give out on me yet, okay?" I said it quietly, not sure if he could even hear me. "Shoko-san's gonna fix you up. You just gotta hold on."
The boy didn't respond. Didn't even twitch.
I lifted him as gently as I could and started running toward the triage point, trying not to think about how light he was, how young he looked, how many people I'd found tonight who didn't make it.
'Not this one,' I thought. 'This one lives.'
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Shoko POV
I wiped sweat from my brow with the back of my hand, grimacing when it came away bloody. Not mine—at least, I didn't think so. Hard to tell at this point.
The patient in front of me groaned softly as I finished sealing his abdominal wound. Stable. He'd live. Probably.
'God, I really need a cigarette.'
The thought had become a mantra. Every patient, every sutured wound, every successful application of RCT—I need a cigarette. My kingdom for a cigarette. My left arm for a cigarette and five minutes of silence.
Movement in my peripheral vision. Ino approaching with another body in his arms.
I groaned.
Then I actually looked at what he was carrying, and my eyebrows rose despite my exhaustion.
The kid looked like he'd been thrown into an oven. Burns covering every visible inch of skin, his hair singed, his clothes a purple ripped mess. And yet—
'He's alive?'
"Got another one for you, Shoko-san." Ino laid him down with surprising gentleness.
"How bad?" I asked, already moving, already reaching for my cursed energy even though I was running on fumes.
"Don't know. Just found him in a crater on the south side."
'Great diagnostics,' I thought, but didn't say it. Ino was doing his best, and snapping at him wouldn't help anyone.
I let my cursed energy flow into the boy to assess the damage—
—and immediately recoiled.
"Jesus." The word came out strangled. "The hell happened to him?"
Ribs pulverized. Left shoulder more destroyed than whole. Burns everywhere. And his cursed energy…
'A civilian has more energy than this.'
"Is he a sorcerer?" I asked, already pumping RCT into him because the answer didn't matter—he needed healing now.
"Got no clue," Ino said, gesturing at the purple-stained shirt. "But that's definitely curse blood, so probably."
I focused on the ribs first. Life-threatening. The bones knit back together under my technique, faster than they should have—my exhaustion was making me sloppy, burning through cursed energy inefficiently.
'Can't afford to care.'
The shoulder came next. Reconstructing it piece by piece, muscle and tendon and bone. The burns were tedious, covering every inch of him, but methodical work.
Ino had already left, back to his mission. Good. The hero worship he had for Nanami was intense—borderline unhealthy—but it kept him motivated tonight.
'Not my problem.'
Two minutes to fully heal him. Not bad, considering how wrecked he'd been.
Then I felt it.
His cursed energy signature was… growing.
'What?'
I pulled my hand back, watching with growing disbelief as his signature slowly climbed. Over the next few minutes, it went from barely noticeable to civilian level, then kept going. Grade 4.
'The hell?'
No one regenerated cursed energy that fast. No one. Even Gojo didn't—though he barely needed to with his Six Eyes efficiency.
I let my cursed energy probe deeper, trying to understand what I was seeing.
He wasn't in a coma. Brain activity normal. Vitals stable. But he wasn't waking up either, like his consciousness had just… disconnected.
'It's almost like cursed energy hibernation.'
The thought came with an absurd mental image—a cartoonish bear snoozing with a snot bubble radiating cursed energy—and I actually smiled despite everything.
The smile died when his signature jumped again. Grade 3.
'Okay, that's not normal.'
I glanced at the growing pile of wounded waiting for treatment, then back at the mystery boy.
"You better be worth this attention," I muttered.
He didn't answer. Just kept breathing, kept regenerating cursed energy at an impossible rate.
I shook my head and moved to the next patient. People were dying. Whatever weirdness this kid had going on could wait.
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Shinji POV
Everything was dark, pitch black, so dark that closing my eyes actually felt bright- 'Oh god dammit,' I groaned mentally I really thought that whole vow thing would have saved me, but I guess not.
I sank into despair, Mahito was the one to wake me last time, no way in hell whatever universe I was going to—or wasn't going to—had Mahito so unless another soul manipulator was gonna wake me up I think I'm gonna drift here for all eternity.
What didn't make sense was that I could still feel myself vibrating, a lot less than before, but still vibrating. That made me uncomfortable. In the very short time I had cursed energy, the vibration became a part of me. Something ingrained into my very soul. So feeling it was so weak was wrong.
I concentrated hard, trying to increase the vibrations in any way I could. It worked, and my being sang. Relief washed over my soul in a way I didn't even know how horrible I felt until that moment.
I was content for a moment to just exist and feel the vibrations. I was a bit bummed though. Even if my time in the JJK universe was short and was spent mostly fighting for my life, it was fun.
I mean really aerostepping through the air and blasting away entire buildings with a single punch was super cool. And don't get me started on how good it felt to unlock cursed energy for the first time. Really I see how Sukuna became so obsessed with jujutsu.
I take it back I'm super bummed I didn't even get the legendary RCT high or the Black Flash enlightenment. Just imagining that made me mentally shiver, on top of my existing vibrations.
'Oh well, in another life I suppose.' Despite my apparent acceptance I really couldn't move past the fact that I wasn't going back. Like some part of me just couldn't—wouldn't—accept that fact.
But there was ultimately nothing I could do so I metaphorically kicked back and waited.
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Shoko POV
Ten minutes later, I had to stop working entirely.
The kid's cursed energy had climbed to grade 2. And it was still going.
'This is insane.'
Worse—it was vibrating. His entire signature hummed with a constant, rhythmic oscillation that I could feel even from three meters away.
My current patient groaned, and I realized my hands had stilled mid-healing. I forced myself to focus, to keep pumping RCT even as my mind raced.
'Barely noticeable to grade 2 in twelve minutes. That's not possible.'
Then I felt it—a presence beginning to build in the distance. Faint at first, but growing. The air itself seemed to thicken, cursed energy creeping across the city like a slow-moving storm front.
Malicious. Ancient. Hungry.
The pressure intensified with each passing second, and I knew—knew—what was coming even before the full weight of it crashed down on Shibuya.
Sukuna.
I heard a sharp intake of breath from where the kid was lying.
His eyes snapped open, yellow with a ring in the middle, which was odd.
'Wonder if its something like the Six Eyes?' I wondered my head tilting once more.
He blinked once, then twice, looking almost disbelieving. Like he'd expected to wake up somewhere else. Somewhere worse.
I couldn't help it. Despite the exhaustion, despite the death surrounding us, despite everything—I smirked.
"Welcome back to the land of the living."
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Shinji Pov
Okay, now what the absolute fuck is that?
I felt a huge pressure placed on the core of my being, like a bucket of cold water thrown atop me.
And my eyes opened, the sight of the same starless night as before greeted me. I blinked, completely caught off guard by the fact that I was alive. A prod at my cursed energy told me that I was still stupid low on cursed it.
I blinked twice the feeling of air filling my lungs intoxicating compared to that void again. Even despite the crushing presence in the background I was elated—
"Welcome back to the land of the living." I heard a female voice to my left, knocking me from my thoughts. And my head turned in her direction.
She was of fairly average height with long brown hair and a slender build. Her eyes were a similar shade of brown, with deep bags under them. The most noticeable thing about her admittedly pretty face was the beauty mark under her right eye.
Shoko Ieri, the resident healer of the verse.
'Guess that explains the lack of pain in my chest and shoulder.' I thought of staring at Shoko a touch more than what might be appropriate. What? Sue me, this was the first time since awakening that I could interact with a canon character without fearing for my life.
I shook it off, opening my mouth to respond, but she was already working and said, "If you're done gawking, there are people who need your help."
Slightly taken aback by her blunt response I quickly answered, "Uhh yeah sorry to break it to you, but I'm still almost out of cursed energy so I can't really help anyone at the moment."
She stopped, "What?" She asked, seeming breathless.
It was my turn to be slightly confused, "Yeah I'm running on empty here so I really can't help anyone." She snorted in response, and I sat up rolling my left shoulder and marveling at the lack of pain.
"Yeah right I can feel your cursed energy, and unless you're a secret special grade I didn't know existed you're lying." She kept working suturing the patient in front of her.
I blinked again, considering what she said. Special grade was a broad category after all seeing as how both Geto and Gojo were special grades. But that was still a huge development, for me and the world of Jujutsu. Special grades don't just grow on trees, and there's a balance to maintain too, so curses definitely got an indirect buff.
"Yeah, no clue what a special grade is, but definitely that because I have next to nothing to spare right now." I lied through my teeth. If it somehow got out that I awakened in Shibuya, knowing anything about jujutsu society would be a huge flag.
The question she was about to ask died as I asked a follow-up question, "What is that presence I'm feeling, it's suffocating." I didn't want her to question me
She sighed, "Most likely Sukuna if I had to guess, but I don't get paid enough to worry about something like that. I leave that mess to you sorcerers." My brows furrowed at her response, glancing behind me seeing nothing, before looking back at her and pointing at myself.
"Who me?" She smirked at me, amused, and nodded. "Yeah resounding fuck no to that, I'm gonna sit here and regain my cursed energy." I lay back down, content in feeling the vibration of my cursed energy. Jogo can have his fun dying to Sukuna, which he deserves for lighting me on fire.
"How are you doing that?" She asked, this time diverting her full attention to my direction.
"Doing what?" I asked in return, genuinely confused.
"Regaining your cursed energy that fast."
"Uhh, I don't know, I'm just focusing on the vibration of my cursed energy, kinda matching it with the vibration of my soul." She stared at me dumbly, like I had just told her that the sky was red.
"Whatever that means" I heard her grumble as she turned back to work on her patients.
I let the issue drop and went back to regenerating my cursed energy.
But man, was I glad to be alive.
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A/N
Aaaaaand done, wow yeah, I had to go back and check the source material several times to try and get those voices right, so I do hope you enjoyed it, but let me know if there is anything I can do to improve on it.
I've also been drafting how I want the scene where Shinji meets his love interest, and yes, I've decided on at least one, if I go the harem route, which I don't think, nor want to go down. It's a really uncommon choice as far as I'm aware, but I don't think this character gets enough love in either canon or the FF community so I will try to do them justice in this novel.
Thank you all for reading. I'm going to bed.