The transition was not a roar, but a silence so absolute it felt like his eardrums were being pressed inward by the weight of the ocean.
Kaito Sora's last memory was a mundane one: the smell of rain on hot pavement and the screech of tires that didn't stop in time.
There had been no pain—only a sudden, jarring disconnection, like a plug being pulled from a wall. Then, the void. It was a space without color or time, a suspension that felt like it lasted both a second and an eternity.
And then, the world came rushing back.
THUMP.
His heart kicked against his ribs like a trapped bird. Kaito gasped, his lungs burning as they pulled in air that tasted of iron, ozone, and wet trash. It was a violent, grounding sensation. He was alive.
He was lying on his back, his spine pressed against hard, uneven asphalt. He stayed there for a long moment, staring up. He wasn't looking at the ceiling of a hospital or the clouds of a suburban sky.
He was looking at the narrow strip of darkness between two towering concrete monoliths. It was an alleyway—cramped, filthy, and dimly lit by the flickering orange hum of a streetlamp somewhere out on the main road.
I should be dead, he thought. The thought was strangely calm, a cold realization that sat in his gut. That truck... there's no way I walked away from that.
He moved to sit up, and that's when the first wave of "wrongness" hit him.
His body felt... massive. In his previous life, Kaito had been an average man, standing maybe 5'9 on a good day, with the soft build of someone who spent too many hours behind a desk or a gaming console. But as he pushed himself off the ground, his arms felt like pillars of corded wire.
His hands, when they pressed into the grit of the alley floor, were large, with long, elegant fingers and callouses he didn't recognize.
He stood up, and the world seemed to shrink.
He kept rising until his head was level with a rusted fire escape that should have been well above his reach. He felt tall—towering, in fact. His center of gravity had shifted, his legs felt like coiled springs, and he moved with a fluid grace that felt entirely alien to him.
Kaito took a few steps, his boots clicking softly against the wet ground. He felt light, despite his increased mass. He caught sight of a puddle gathered in the dent of a plastic tarp nearby. The water was dark, reflecting the sickly yellow light of the city, but it was clear enough to serve as a mirror.
Kaito knelt—a long, controlled drop—and looked.
The man in the reflection was not Kaito Sora. Or at least, not the one he knew.
A face of impossible, aristocratic perfection stared back. His jawline was sharp enough to look carved from flint, his nose straight and arrogant. His skin was pale, almost luminous in the dark, contrasting sharply with a wild, messy mane of pale blonde hair that looked like spun silk tarnished by dust.
But it was the eyes that stopped his heart.
They weren't brown. They were a piercing, stormy grey, like the surface of the moon or the sky just before a hurricane breaks. They held a depth that felt ancient, yet he was clearly looking at a youth. A boy of sixteen, perhaps, but with the presence of a king.
"What... is this?"
His voice came out as a low, melodic baritone. It was smooth, vibrating in his chest in a way that made him feel powerful.
Before he could spiral into a panic, the air in front of him rippled. It looked like heat rising from a summer road, but it coalesced into a sharp, obsidian-colored screen. It didn't glow; it seemed to consume the light around it.
[Akashic Sign-In System: Initialized]
[Status: Synchronizing with Host...]
[Host: Kaito Sora]
[Age: 16]
[Bloodline: Human (Anomalous)]
Kaito's breath hitched. A System. He knew the stories, the "Sign-In" novels where the protagonist was given a cheat code to the universe. If this was real, then the world he was in wasn't just any world.
[Current Location: Roppongi, Tokyo — Cursed Training Grounds (Site of the First Mission)]
[Warning: High concentration of negative emotions detected.]
Roppongi. First mission. The pieces clicked together with terrifying speed. The blue veils, the Cursed Spirits, the "Honored One." He wasn't just in Japan; he was in Jujutsu Kaisen.
A world where human misery took physical form and ate you alive in the dark.
[Initial Sign-In is available for this location.]
[Does the Host wish to Sign-In?]
"Yes," Kaito murmured, his voice steadying. In a world of monsters, he wouldn't survive as a "perfect" human. He needed to be something more. "Sign in."
[Sign-In Successful!]
[Location: The Roppongi Veil.]
[Reward: Passive Ability — 'Observation Haki' (Origin: One Piece World)]
[Description: Allows the user to sense the presence, strength, and emotions of others. Grants a 'sixth sense' for incoming threats.]
Something from another world? Kaito thought, his brow furrowing. It isn't just Jujutsu... the System draws from everything.
A sudden, sharp heat blossomed at the base of his skull. It wasn't painful, but it was intrusive, like a hot wire being threaded through his brain. His vision flickered. For a split second, the alleyway disappeared, replaced by a world of white light and grey shadows.
Then, the world snapped back into focus—but it was louder.
He could hear the heartbeat of a stray cat three alleys over. He could feel the "weight" of the buildings around him.
And most importantly, he felt a sudden, freezing chill at the small of his back. It felt like a jagged piece of ice was being pressed against his spine.
There.
He didn't turn his head. He didn't have to. The Observation Haki painted a vivid picture in his mind. High up on the brick wall behind him, something was clinging to the masonry.
It was a mass of bloated, purple flesh, covered in dozens of blinking, lidless eyes. It had too many limbs, each ending in a needle-like claw.
It was a Cursed Spirit. And it was drooling.
"So... tall..." the curse gargled, the sound vibrating through Kaito's new, heightened senses. "Such... pretty... eyes... I want... to taste..."
Kaito felt a surge of adrenaline, but it wasn't the paralyzing fear he expected. His new body felt... ready. He could feel a dormant power deep in his marrow—something massive, locked behind a golden seal that hummed with the power of a thousand suns.
[Genesis Seal: Level 1/50]
[Status: Locked.]
[Requirement: Witness or participate in 50 World-Defining Events to unlock 'Origin Creation'.]
The Genesis power. He could feel it, but it was like looking at a mountain through a thick fog. He couldn't reach it, couldn't touch it. He was weak. For now, he was just a 6'4 teenager with a sixth sense and no way to fight back.
The curse let out a wet, screeching sound and launched itself from the wall.
In the eyes of a normal human, it would have been a blur of purple death. But to Kaito, the world slowed down. The Observation Haki predicted the trajectory. He saw the "line" of the curse's intent before it even left the bricks.
He pivoted. It was a simple movement, a step to the left, but his new body executed it with the precision of a master dancer. The curse sailed past him, its claws whistling through the air where his throat had been a second before.
It slammed into a pile of wooden pallets, splintering them into toothpicks.
"You're fast," Kaito said, his grey eyes tracking the creature with an eerie calm.
He was testing himself. He had no cursed energy—at least, none he knew how to use—but he had something the sorcerers of this world didn't. He had the laws of a different reality.
The curse spun around, its eyes twitching in fury. "Eat! I... eat... you!"
It lunged again, more frantic this time. Kaito dodged again, a lean to the right, then a duck. He was playing with fire, he knew that. If those claws so much as grazed him, he didn't have the "Reverse Cursed Technique" to heal.
I need a weapon, he thought.
As if answering his desire, the System pinged again.
[Quest Triggered: Survive your first encounter.]
[Bonus Reward for 'Elegant Survival' (Take no damage): Temporary Access to 'Iron Body' (Tekkai).]
Kaito felt his muscles densify. It was a strange sensation, like his flesh was turning into cold-rolled steel.
The curse, frustrated by its missed attacks, let out a piercing howl that rattled the windows of the surrounding buildings.
It gathered its many limbs and launched a final, desperate strike, aiming to envelop Kaito in its bloated mass.
Kaito didn't move this time. He planted his feet, his 6'4 frame standing like an unbreakable pillar in the center of the filth.
"Tekkai," he whispered.
The curse's claws struck his chest with the sound of a sledgehammer hitting an anvil. CLANG.
The creature's eyes widened. Its claws, meant to shred flesh, bent and snapped against Kaito's skin. It hung there, suspended against his chest, paralyzed by shock.
Kaito looked down at the monster, his blonde hair shadowing his stormy eyes.
He felt a cold, predatory thrill. He grabbed the curse by its main head—his hand easily large enough to palm it—and felt the "Iron Body" power transfer into his grip.
"My turn," he said.
With a roar of effort, he slammed the creature into the ground. The force was so immense that the asphalt cracked, a web of fissures spreading out from the point of impact.
The curse didn't disappear—it wasn't made of physical matter, after all—but the sheer physical trauma caused its form to flicker and leak dark, miasmic fluid.
He didn't have cursed energy to finish it, but he had done enough to stun it.
He stood up, brushing a stray lock of blonde hair out of his face. He was breathing hard, but he wasn't exhausted. He felt... exhilarated.
But as he prepared to find a way to truly exorcise the thing, the Observation Haki screamed a warning. Not of a threat, but of a presence.
A presence so massive, so overwhelming, that the Cursed Spirit on the ground began to dissolve simply out of fear.
Kaito turned his head toward the entrance of the alley.
Standing there was a man who seemed to command the very air he breathed. He wore a high-collared black jacket and a dark blindfold that covered his eyes, yet there was no doubt he was looking directly at Kaito. His hair was a stark, snowy white, standing up in defiant spikes.
The man tilted his head, a playful, yet razor-sharp smile tugging at his lips.
"Well, well," the man said, his voice light and airy. "I was looking for a cursed spirit, but I think I found something way more interesting. You're a big one, aren't you?"
Kaito froze. He knew that voice. He knew that blindfold.
Gojo Satoru had arrived.
And the System in Kaito's mind flashed a new, golden notification:
[Target Encountered: The Honored One.]
[Sign-In Available: Location — Within the Infinity.]