Reiji shifted his gaze toward Shoko. During his previous battle, he had noticed something deeply unsettling. When the relic activated, it granted him what felt like an endless supply of cursed energy… far beyond human limits.
But that was impossible. There couldn't be a push without a pull. Energy never came from nothing. So where was that boundless force coming from?
The activation conditions of Akame still baffled him. What truly disturbed him, however, was how the relic sometimes moved on its own. During combat, there were moments when his limbs reacted without command, his vision distorted, and his heartbeat fell out of sync with his own body. It was as if something else was steering him.
No one wanted to lose control of their own body.
'Is Akame actually a cursed object?' Reiji wondered grimly.
Cursed objects rarely acted on their own, and almost never interfered with their host. Yet the cursed relic displayed traits eerily close to a living being: fear, recognition, instinct, even self-preservation.
Reiji's thoughts soured as his memory drifted back to that winter night, flashes of red snow, screaming voices, and that light that burned itself into his vision forever.
The elders had always referred to Akame as a "cursed tool" sealed within the Kamo archives, inactive for centuries. But if that were true… what was it doing thinking for itself?
He had sworn to total secrecy about it's existence. But now secrecy was a burden. He needed to understand what was happening to him… and he needed help to do it.
With a low groan, Reiji pushed himself upright on the hospital bed and looked at Shoko.
"Shoko, I… I actually don't have an eye," he said quietly, his tone hesitant and weary.
Shoko's calm expression faltered. "What?" she blinked. "Are you being serious right now?"
Reiji nodded thoughtfully. He had never spoken about this to anyone outside his clan.
"Yes, Shoko," he said softly, touching the orb embedded in his right socket. "This may look like an eye… but it's actually a cursed relic of the Kamo clan."
For once, Shoko Ieiri was visibly taken aback. Her usual detached calm cracked into pure bewilderment.
"Let me guess," she muttered, rubbing her temple. "Reverse Cursed Technique can't fix that either?"
Reiji almost smiled. "You're right. It can't."
Shoko stared at him for a moment, expression unreadable. Then, without warning, she sighed. "...Alright. What do you need from me?"
Reiji blinked. "You'll help me?"
"You're already my patient," she said flatly. "Might as well go all in. What are we doing… brain surgery?"
Reiji chuckled nervously. "Uh, neither. Do you, by any chance… know how to operate an MRI machine?"
Shoko raised an eyebrow. "Eh?"
*******************************************************************************
Later that night, the two of them walked quietly down the dim corridors of Jujutsu High's infirmary. The hallway was eerily silent… only the hum of distant lights and the faint echo of their footsteps filled the space.
"You do realize that," Shoko muttered, an old keycard in hand, "if Yaga finds out we used school equipment for, um… cursed eye analysis, we're both getting lectured for weeks, right?"
"It's fine," Reiji said, trying to sound casual, but he failed miserably. "This is for research. Kind of."
"Kind of," Shoko repeated, clearly unimpressed.
The small MRI suite at the end of the hall was unlit except for the glow of the monitor screens. Shoko switched on the machines, soon, their low hum filled the room.
"Lie down and stay still," she instructed, slipping into her professional tone. "If this relic has any sort of cursed interference, the machine might pick up anomalies in neural conductivity. Though, I honestly have no idea what we'll find."
Reiji slid onto the padded table, head resting against the cradle. The cold air of the room brushed his skin as the table moved him into the cylindrical scanner.
The rhythmic pulse of the MRI filled the silence, like a slow mechanical heartbeat.
Shoko sat at the console, eyes narrowing as the first scan appeared on the monitor.
At first, everything seemed normal. Skull. Brain tissue. Facial nerves.
Then she froze.
"Reiji… your right optic nerve is completely destroyed," she said quietly. "There's no anatomical connection between the relic and your visual cortex."
Reiji's voice echoed weakly from the machine. "Then how am I seeing out of it?"
Shoko zoomed in, adjusting the imaging frequency. Her eyes widened as the image flickered… faint threads, thinner than veins, extended from the base of the relic into his skull.
"What the hell…" she muttered. "It's not connected by the optic nerve. It's connected directly to your brain."
She switched to a 3D overlay, her medical intuition kicking in as she traced each thread's path.
"These filaments are not biological. They look like cursed constructs. One is clearly embedded in your frontal lobe, near the area that has been theorized to be responsible for RCT processing… another's wrapped around the parietal nodes where technique modulation happens…"
Reiji lay silent, gripping the edge of the table.
"It's interfacing with my brain?"
"More than interfacing," Shoko said grimly. "I think it has integrated into your brain. These extensions are directly connected to the regions involved in cursed energy output, burnout suppression, and… wait…"
She leaned closer to the screen, her tone tightening.
"There's a strand linking to the limbic system. Emotional regulation, fear, pain response…"
Reiji's breath hitched. "So is it… reading my state?"
Shoko frowned deeply. "Not just reading. More like, it's reacting to you, maybe even adapting to you. I think every time you push your body past its limits, Akame is working to reinforce your neural output like a positive feedback loop."
Reiji swallowed. "Shoko… when I fought the dragon, for a moment it felt like I would never run out of cursed energy…"
"hmm? Maybe that's because it's borrowing from you, no that doesn't make sense… borrowing from something else then? Think of it like an external cursed organ that is directly feeding energy to your brain."
The machine beeped as the final scan completed. Shoko stared at the 3D image; she was half fascinated and half horrified.
Behind Reiji's right eye socket, the relic pulsed faintly. The dark tendrils anchored deep within his skull, their tips glowing faintly. The image almost seemed alive, flickering as if in acknowledgment of being observed.
"Reiji… this thing is self-aware," Shoko said under her breath.
Reiji's pulse spiked. "How can you tell?"
"Look at the scan feed," she whispered. "The energy level within your brain just rose when I spoke. As if it was responding to external stimuli."
The MRI began to emit a faint hum, it was however much louder than before. Shoko quickly reached for the controls. "Damn it, the cursed interference is building up."
The screen glitched as the image distorted into red and black streaks.
Reiji's heart raced. "Shoko…"
"That's enough for today," she said, powering it down.
The machine hissed as the magnet released. Reiji slid out, panting slightly.
Shoko removed her gloves, her face paler than usual.
"Reiji… whatever Akame is, it's not just a cursed tool. My guess is that it's something symbiotic or parasitic. It has merged with you on a cellular level."
Reiji sat up slowly, the fluorescent light reflecting off Akame's surface. The crimson relic pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat.
"Then… if it's alive," he murmured, "does that mean it has a will of its own?"
Shoko stared at him for a long moment before replying.
"If it does," she said quietly, "then you are in a very tricky situation right now."
The room fell silent again… the hum of the machine was the only reminder of what they'd just seen.
*******************************************************************************
(Flashback)
The morning mist clung to the courtyard like a veil, soft and silver. A young Reiji Kamo stood barefoot on the cold stone, his small frame trembling as he steadied his breath. In front of him, Kamo Dairoku observed in silence, arms folded behind his back. With the faintest trace of curiosity hidden beneath his usual sternness.
"Again," Dairoku ordered.
Reiji clenched his fists and focused. The little boy's palms trembled as he drew blood from a small pot of blood kept nearby. The droplet floated shakily in the air, wobbling as his cursed energy tried to stabilize it.
"Don't force it, brat," Dairoku said, voice deep and calm. "Blood is like emotion… if you strain it, it will lose its shape. You must let it flow."
Reiji exhaled slowly. The trembling ceased. The blood sphere hovered steadily, glimmering faintly crimson under the morning light.
"Now," Dairoku murmured, "Piercing Blood."
The boy thrust his hand forward. A thin streak of red energy shot from his palm, slicing through the air. This time, it didn't vanish midway through. It slammed into the wooden training post far across the yard with a dull crack, splintering the surface before vanishing.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Reiji looked up, panting, a little startled by his own success. "Did… did it work?"
Dairoku walked toward the post, his boots echoing softly against the stone. He placed a hand against the impact mark, then frowned slightly. The wood was pierced clean through… the blood had bored deep. It left a faint scorch where cursed energy had burned into the grain. It had somehow penetrated far deeper than expected.
"Yes…" he said quietly.
His hawk-like eyes widened slightly, "Yes, it did… work ."
Reiji blinked, unsure if that was praise or reprimand.
Dairoku's face shifted towards the boy. For a moment, his stern features softened. "Remember this, Reiji. Cursed energy mirrors your soul. You cannot fake control. What you just did was powerful, but… if you believe that it was your best effort, then you would be lying to yourself."
The mighty elder turned around, "you are still lacking…"
The boy frowned faintly, his chest heaving.
The morning sun broke through the clouds. A thin crimson line was etched on the wooden post… it was the mark of a boy who would one day drown the world in blood.