Some years later
I hated the rain. Or more specifically, I hated having to travel during the rain. But that is the hand I was dealt with this day. I have been walking across the country since that day, going from town to town, always hiding my arms and face under a cloak, It was very fortunate that the ass that tried to kill me had a high-quality cloak I could use to hide my body, not because I feared the people's reaction to me, even if I hated that their first reaction was to scream or attack, but because I didn't want to have to deal with the. I didn't know if I was a wanted man after what I did. After the massacre. Massacres.
Eventually, word had to get around, right? It wasn't like I killed everyone; I spared all the kids and the younger women. Even though I knew they would have nightmares in the days to come, I couldn't kill them; they couldn't be held responsible for the actions of the adults.
I don't know what became of the survivors. Perhaps they rebuilt. Perhaps they all died. Or perhaps they moved to another town, I don't know, and I can't seem to care.
That's been happening a lot lately. Not caring.
I didn't think much of it when I killed the mob, since I rationalized that it was me or them. Same with the fucker that came days later, it was a choice between him and me. But it became worrying when, in my anger, I killed the majority of the townspeople, and after I stopped and found myself standing atop a mountain of bodies, all I could feel was…nothing. It felt like any other Tuesday, not even seeing the faces of the children full of terror, covered in tears and blood, did nothing to stir my emotions.
I was the strongest there was. The apex predator.
And my body, I, seemed to know it.
That wouldn't be the last time I massacred an entire village. Yet I tried never to be the aggressor. All the following massacres happened because someone saw under my cloak, be it a man, a woman, or a child; they would always panic, causing a commotion that ended with them trying to kill me, and me killing them all.
And that's not counting all the weirdos that kept coming after me.
When the weird assassin/samurai asshole manipulated the same energy as the one I had in me, I knew he and I couldn't be the only ones. I was proven right a few weeks later, when a second person came, flaring his energy unlike the first guy, who had tight control over it.
He spouted nonsense I couldn't understand, and when I saw him take a stance, I dismantled him. However, I took note of some of the words I recognized that the first one had said; they seemed important.
And that's how I took this journey, with nothing left, I set out to first learn this ancient version of Japanese. Afterwards…who knows, I just can't seem to care.
I visited many towns and villages since then, and in those I didn't end up erasing from the map, I managed to pick up a few words, mainly questions to ask for directions, and stuff to help me locate the next town. However, it soon became difficult to infiltrate towns, as I kept growing taller and more robust than everyone else. And people soon started looking at me suspiciously.
Where the average height of Japanese was around 5'5" during this time, I was already nearing 6' at the tender age of 13. Seeing this, I thought of the distinct possibility of reaching 7' by the time I reached adulthood.
In the last town I passed through, I managed to get information on a Buddhist Temple not far from them, a temple in which they taught those who were willing to learn to read and write.
And thus I was here, walking under the rain, uphill, eating a piece of bread I had to ration. For some inexplicable reason, all animals started to avoid me as if I were the plague; no matter how sneaky I approached, they always seemed to sense my presence. I had to start stealing provisions from markets if I couldn't buy them.
As I kept walking, I started to see the beginnings of an arch at the top of the trail. I was finally reaching the top of this godforsaken temple. Even the rain started to recede, and the clouds began to break apart. And as I kept getting closer, I began to see the forms of people under the archway. Somehow, they knew I was coming. Did someone in the town come to warn them?
It didn't matter. They were a Buddhist temple, if what I could barely remember from my last life was that people in these temples were pacifists, so here was to hoping that they wouldn't start something they would later regret.
I stopped once I reached the top and stood in front of five men, all of them wore white kimono, but only four wore red overcoats, while the one in the middle, possibly the tallest man I had encountered until now standing at around 7' 2", wore a green overcoat with some symbols on the edges of his coat. He wore some red beads around his neck. He had a large scar across his forehead, and the pupils in his eyes were white, indicating that he was blind, yet he seemed to know exactly where I was. Said eyes narrowed, and his face was impassive. I also noticed how his whole body was ready for any provocation. Yet he did nothing.
Points in his favor.
"What do you seek, stranger? What are you looking for here that you have to announce your presence from so far away?" I understood some of the words. He asked me what I was looking for, but I didn't understand the rest of his question. Well, it didn't matter, I know what I wanted.
"I…" I started and saw how many of the men surrounding the small giant flinched and tensed. "…seek to…learn the language…to write and to read," I spoke in what I managed to learn while traveling. My request seemed to surprise… Was he a priest? I will just call him a Buddhist leader for now. My request surprised him, since he couldn't control that fraction in which his eyes widened very slightly, yet he remained on guard, but not tense like those around him.
"And is flaring your presence really necessary to ask what we already provide?" he asked, his tone clipped. He asked why I announced(?) myself to ask for this, which confused me, as I had no recollection of doing such a thing.
"I don't understand…I never…announced me self" I spoke, grimacing slightly at the butchering of the words, compared to his eloquence, I sounded like a 3-year-old.
My words calmed him somewhat, as if gaining an understanding he didn't have before "I see," he murmured, but I managed to hear it. "Either way, I have to make sure that you won't try anything, to do that we'll make a binding vow."
A contract? Vow? I'm sure he mentioned one of the two. It was clear what he wanted: an agreement or a promise of some kind; they probably wanted something in return for my lessons. I thought they offered to anyone willing, so I'm sure these are just semantics.
"Okay," I agreed to make it formal. I was sure that whatever they asked for, I was more than capable of achieving.
He nodded, "We will teach you how to talk, read, and write, and in return, you must never do harm to any member of the temple," he offered his hand as he finished.
In exchange for learning, I had to… not harm anyone…? I'm sure that's what he said, that was easy to agree with, after all, if I harmed or killed anyone, they would be less willing to teach me, or worse, well…dead.
With that in mind, I raised my hand, making sure to keep my second arm hidden under the cloak, and easily shook his hand.
However, as soon as I shook it, I heard chains and my body felt slightly…heavier, not in any physical way, but as if something rested on my…soul. My eyes instantly narrowed under my hood, but I didn't comment on it. That hadn't been a normal agreement.
I instantly concentrated and noticed that he, too, had some amount of negative energy in him; however, his output was significantly lower than those who had been trying to kill me.
His energy was interacting weirdly with mine, as if they were intertwining. Whatever that was, it didn't look like the times others used it to attack, so for now, I would say nothing about it.
Once we finished shaking our hands, he seemed more relaxed, and even those beside him weren't as tense as they had been; they still looked at me warily. I still don't know why I'm sure I was covering myself completely
"When do…I start?" I asked, eager to get rid of this language barrier that's been plaguing me since I was reborn.
"Now"
3 years later
Living in this temple was…an experience. True to Himejima-san's word, the Buddhist leader who had received me all those years ago, I was taught how to speak, write, and read. It wasn't easy, especially when you try to associate it with the language you already know. It was easier learning to write and read, but after three long years, I managed to learn all three to an acceptable level.
During my stay, I wasn't allowed to just laze around; even if they agreed to teach me in exchange for not doing anything, I still had to put in the work just like everyone else. Even if everyone seemed to get used to my presence, I never took off my cloak outside my room. I didn't know if they would look past my appearance or not, but I did not want to have to destroy the temple.
It had been… tolerable living here.
However, something that surprised me was Himejima-san not only looking through my disguise with no trouble at all but also talking to me about it.
"Sukuna," he had called out to me one day, after everyone had gone to have their evening meal. I liked to eat alone. "Tell me, why do you hide your other arms?"
The question had instantly set me on high alert. My body tensed as I slowly turned to look up at him. I had hit a growth spurt and had finally shot past the 6' mark, but I was still shorter than him.
Hearing that his tone wasn't accusatory and seeing that his body language wasn't aggressive, I let myself relax a little.
"How did you…?" I didn't even finish the question, unable to even fathom how a blind man sees more than a normal man.
"The shape of your soul gave it away," he replied in the same tone as if saying that 'the sky is blue.'
"What?" What in the spiritual fuck did he mean by that?
And that was how I learned the biggest piece of knowledge during my stay and the answers as to what the energy inside of me was, or as it was called…
Cursed Energy.
Once I could understand without any trouble what others were saying to me, Himejima-san started teaching me about cursed energy. He explained to me how it was something humans gave off from their negative emotions and thoughts, and how there existed a select few that were able to produce said energy inside of their bodies, sometimes from birth, other times through experience, or in some rare cases with age.
He told me that I specifically had possibly the largest amount of cursed energy he had seen in anyone, but that my control was atrocious and kept leaking out of my body, thus announcing my presence for all to feel. That's what he had meant when I arrived the first time.
Every day after calligraphy lessons, he would teach me how to control my output and how to efficiently use my cursed energy. After months of training, I finally asked how it was that he knew so much. And he explained to me what Jujutsu society was.
I wasn't far off in calling those weird creatures that I used to kill evil spirits, as they were called Curses, and they formed when the negative emotions of humans became too many or too strong, giving them a physical form and the ability to affect the world.
And that's where sorcerers came in, or the fuckers that have been trying to kill me for the last eight years. People who gained powers thanks to their cursed energy, called cursed techniques, and used said techniques to exorcise the curses roaming around.
After learning all this, I felt the urge to get better. To get faster. To get Stronger. I did not doubt that stronger opponents would soon start coming after me, either confusing me with a curse due to my appearance. Or in revenge.
It seemed that the first sorcerer who tried to kill me belonged to a very important clan in Jujutsu Society. How did I know that? Well, Himejima-san was kind enough to teach me about the three largest clans of Jujutsu. And the emblems that represented each clan.
An emblem that was the same as the symbol that the first sorcerer who tried to kill me had on his kimono.
The Fujiwara Clan.
It finally made sense why all those sorcerers kept trying to kill me, they were either trying to avenge their clanmate, or clanmates for all those who followed, or were just trying to finish the job the first one started. Either way, they were gunning for my head.
Eventually, after all the lessons we had, he became the only person I actively spoke with, not exactly a friend, but someone I had no trouble talking to. Naturally curious about all his knowledge, I questioned him about it.
"Why do you know all this?" I asked him once, after he had finished explaining to me about hereditary cursed techniques, he was about to go to his quarters. "How did you end up here?"
He stopped mid-step. He didn't say anything for a while. His hand formed into a fist before he took a deep breath and let it go.
"I once was a sorcerer as well," he began, his voice low and his tone melancholic, "I belonged to the Himejima Clan, a small branch of the Tachibana Clan. I was the brother of the clan head, one of three. I used to be in charge of training the next generation, I sometimes even took the odd job, but life was peaceful," he smiled briefly, clearly remembering better times, before his expression turned sour, "and then a special grade curse attacked the compound."
Special grade. It is a category of its own in Jujutsu Society. The highest of four.
"We don't know where it came from, if it was lured or if it was bad luck," he said, his tone heavy with memories of the past, his cursed energy flaring slightly. "It rushed through the compound, destroying everything and killing everyone in its path. It took the combined efforts of my brothers and me to take it down, but not before killing them and blinding me for life."
He took a deep breath, regaining control of his cursed energy.
"In the aftermath, the clan had been destroyed, and I was the only survivor; thus, I retired here to live the rest of my days wanting nothing more to do with Sorcerers and curses." He ended.
I sympathized with him; I could somewhat understand what it was to lose everything, even if by comparison, he had lost more than I.
But in the deep corner of my mind, a tiny voice couldn't help but call him weak.
Thus passed the days, even after I reached an advanced level in reading and writing, I continued to stay at the temple, doing my tasks alone under the cover of my cloak, refining what I now knew was my cursed technique, and learning to see cursed energy and souls with Himejima-san as my teacher.
After many years roaming the countryside, I had finally found a brief period of calm. One that made me hope that the Fujiwara clan would forget about me. Even though I logically knew that they never would.
And a few days later, I was proven right.