"Around 2500 BCE, I was born in a small village. Human civilization wasn't much developed at that time. There were no cursed spirits, therefore no jujutsu or jujutsu sorcerer.
"Negative emotions of humans still existed at that time. For instance, humans feared lightning and believed that it was a God's punishment for them. For negative emotions to condense into a cursed spirit— it needed a catalyst—something that would trigger the transformation from abstract feeling into tangible entity.
"And that catalyst was me."
Hojo was stunned by the sudden shift of the story's pacing. He had already anticipated something like 'once upon a time' stuff, but he couldn't stop himself from revaluating the nature of Yahaech once again in his eyes.
"I used my own soul to transform into a cursed spirit. When I was about fifteen-years old, a group of wolves attacked my village. For the first time in my life, I felt true sorrow and despair. A feeling that questioned me what do you have to live on? It constantly asked me— for what purpose— you still want to live?"
"That was raw and pure despair."
Grief lingered in his voice for a moment, before he continued.
"Almost everyone from my village was killed by those injured and hungry wolves. And those who were still remaining, felt the same feeling of mine. But I don't know why that power was only given to me."
"Among all those who were remaining, only my soul was changed into a cursed spirit. Maybe because I was so weak and afraid of death, that transformation was only triggered by me. "
Yahaech sighed as memories from depth of his heart unfolded before his eyes. One of his loeyes eye remained focused on Hojo to watch him.
Also, by slowing down, he matched his speed of walking with Hojo after seeing him struggling a bit.
"My strength suddenly increased and something dark started to release from my skin. Then—I lost my sanity— and slaughtered all wolves and humans alike. When I saw the blood and flesh of people killed by me, guilt enshrouded me. My own village people were killed by me. I even killed those who remained."
"That agony increased my power exponentially and from that day, I forgot what happiness meant. Smile vanished from my face for eternity. A curse of killing my villagers was etched into the bottom of my heart. And ironically, that suffering and that curse became powerhouse of my strength."
"For more than hundreds of years, I lived there alone in suffering. I killed every being I found and devour them. Soon, my body evolved and I started to feel the unbelievable amount of energy and strength bestowed to me. From that moment, I never felt tired or exhausted. But this came with a price— normal food like fruits and vegetables no longer filled my appetite. Only flesh & suffering of living beings—made my stomach full."
Hojo gulped after hearing his last words. He felt a strange feeling flowing inside him— was it fear?
Maybe.
But he didn't dare to say a single word to ruin the flow of his words. He remained silent, hearing him while continuously trying not to show any external emotion on his face. But Yahaech knew everything he thought & felt.
For the period of time, Hojo was in this semi-death state, he was like a body part of Yahaech. Why would Yahaech not know what his own part was feeling?
"I adjusted myself to this new requirement of my body and because of this, my powers continued to increase. In the beginning, they were reaching the new heights rapidly, but as time passed and killing became my daily routine— acceleration of my strength increment slowed down at the same rapid speed, at which my strength was growing in the beginning."
"Just in a year, the whole region where I lived was wiped out of living beings. All of them were sacrificed for me— so that I could continue to live and... kill. That was when I finally thought to travel. As there was no food, it was obvious to leave. But another reason could be that I was afraid of being killed if I travelled alone without appropriate strength."
"But, who could kill me with my current strength at that time? My power was at its peak according to me as killing no longer increased my strength."
"After I left that region, I learnt one of the most important lessons of mine in my whole life. That was— there is no wound— time can't heal. At least, any mental pain can be healed as time passes. Even if it take a millennium for it to heal. But shameful for me, it took just 150 years to forget every pain I was feeling back then."
"Although, my life was still empty and my heart was hollow, I somehow found my purpose to live— to become strong and travel all the corners of this huge world. Most of the people at that time were like early humans, so my intelligence was far more superior than all of them combined. Thanks to my powers, I could think clearly at more higher speed."
"Japan was small. I realised this when I was 300 years old. In the period of these 150 years after I left my village region, I travelled almost all of Japan and slaughtered countless humans & animals for my food. Of course, many of the humans were alive because I ate the most suitable quantity that was enough to satisfy my hunger. Because I knew, there was a comma already placed before my strength. So no need to overkill."
Hojo was somehow managing to digest his words. He heard this kind of stuff, only in stories and fiction. But how could he neglect the person and situation before him?
He was kind of forced to believe. Anyways, it didn't matter if he believed or not, Yahaech continued to tell him the forbidden and hidden origin of jujutsu.
"In that exact era, I was the strongest human, strongest cursed spirit and the strongest living being on the earth. But humans have limitations, placed on them by nature. No matter how much stronger I was, compared to all other beings, it didn't help me to cross the borders of Japan which were overall surrounded by seas. I needed to travel to other parts of the country, but water became a huge wall or a great hindrance in my path."
"I was only a cursed spirit, also special one which had a physical body. Because the other cursed spirits that were born later had a spiritual body only. Unlike me, they were only visible to certain humans and beings."
"The title "father of all curses" was given to me because almost all the cursed spirits of that era and later eras were born directly or indirectly from the solidification of the huge negative aura I released."
'Now, all this makes sense. So he is this much ancient. Unbelievable!'
Hojo couldn't stop himself from thinking about Yahaech in his mind, though he knew that his thoughts were clearly exposed to Yahaech.
Yahaech didn't say anything related to describing his thoughts and continued.
" 'Curses', this was the term I thought for my children. Sadly, I killed most of them because they had almost zero intelligence and they attacked anyone who came within their sight. How could I let them attack and injure me when I was sure that they wanted to kill me? I showed no mercy and killed every single one of them. And I felt no hesitation, no guilt as I had risen above these human feelings long before."
"Unfortunately, because of my ruthless nature, more and more of cursed spirits continued to be born from my aura, becoming stronger every time. I was already 400 years old when I had wiped all the cursed spirits from earth twenty-four times."
"It's weird that I usually fought with my bare hands against thousands of cursed spirits. Luckily, after one hundred years, my aura was so strong that its spiritual pressure alone could kill the cursed spirit in twenty meters of radius from me."
'Truly a monster,' a chill ran down his spine as Hojo gulped once again in silent awe. He now truly frightened of him.
What would happen if Yahaech had released all of his presence before Hojo?
Would he be able to still stand and Walk like this after that? He knew the answer about this.