Rion stared at the words hovering in front of him, translucent and impossible, and felt something crack open in his chest.
Shock first. Confusion right behind it. Then—sudden, overwhelming, almost violent—excitement.
A system.
A system.
Of course it was a system. Of course. Why wouldn't he get a system? He'd died. He'd woken up in a different body. The rules had changed. Reality had rewritten itself around him and handed him the one thing every transmigrator got—a cheat.
His breath came faster.
He wanted to jump. To shout. To laugh like a maniac and let the whole park know that for once, finally, something had gone right.
He didn't.
He clenched his jaw and forced himself still, hyper-aware of the joggers, the pedestrians, the normal people living normal lives who would absolutely stare if he started acting like he'd lost his mind.
Calm down. Read it. Understand it.
He focused on the floating text, the properties listed in clean, clinical lines. Hardness. Rigidity. Weight. Each one a piece of the bench broken down into something extractable. Something usable.
System?
He said it in his head. Quiet. Tentative. Like calling out to see if anyone was home.
The UI shifted.
A new screen replaced the bench's properties, larger, more structured, laid out like a character sheet ripped straight from a game.
[CHARACTER PROFILE]
Name: Rion Jukabe (Previous: Rion Jukabe)
Current Identity:Kaito Gen
Age:18 (Previous: 29)
Sex: Male
Cursed Energy:50/50
Available Property Slots: 0/5
Sorcerer Grade: Unranked
[HOW TO USE:]
Touch a target to reveal its properties
Drag a property with intent (visualize grasping and pulling)
Drop the property into an available slot
Assign the property to a target (self, object, person)
Properties can be removed and reassigned at will
Slots expand with growth
Rion's hands trembled.
Kaito Gen.
That was this body's name. The name written into whatever reality he'd landed in. Not Rion Jukabe, the fat nobody who'd drowned in a river after slipping like an idiot. Kaito Gen. Eighteen years old. Healthy. Alive.
Unranked.
He stared at the sorcerer grade. Empty. Waiting to be filled.
Cursed energy.
The words sat on the screen like a confirmation he hadn't wanted to believe yet.
His heart pounded.
System? he tried again, voice sharper this time, more demanding. Are you there? Can you hear me?
Nothing.
He waited. The UI didn't change. No text box appeared. No voice answered.
Answer me. Explain what this is. Tell me what I'm supposed to—
Silence.
He exhaled, slow and controlled.
Not sentient then.
Just a tool. A function. No personality, no guidance, no hand-holding. He was on his own.
Fine.
He looked back at the bench. The properties still hovered there, waiting. He reached out, fingers extending toward the word [Hardness]
His hand passed through it.
No resistance. No texture. Just empty air where the letters floated.
It's not real. Not physically.
Only he could see it. Only he could interact with it. A UI overlaid onto his perception, invisible to everyone else.
He pulled his hand back and focused. Really focused. Not just reaching out, but intending. Visualizing the act of grasping something solid, something real, even if it looked like nothing.
He reached for [Hardness] again.
This time, he felt it.
Cold.
Not temperature. Not ice or metal or anything physical. Just cold. Like touching the concept of absence, the space where warmth should be and wasn't. It clung to his fingers, resisting, and when he pulled—gently, testing—it came free.
The word detached from the bench's list and followed his hand, dragging through the air like he'd hooked it on an invisible line.
Holy shit.
He held it there, suspended, the property floating in his grip. The bench's list updated instantly
[Properties:]
Rigidity
Weight
Weathering Resistance
Smoothness
Density
Thermal Resistance
Buoyancy
Absorbency
Combustibility
Rion stared at his character sheet. At the empty slots waiting to be filled.
[Available Property Slots: 0/5]
He moved the property toward the slot.
It snapped into place like a magnet finding metal, clean and instant, and a new prompt appeared.
[Property acquired: Hardness]
[Assign to target?]
[Options: Self / Object / Other]
Rion didn't hesitate.
Self.
The UI blinked once. Confirmed.
Then the feeling hit.
Not pain. Not pleasure. Just *change*. Something fundamental shifting beneath his skin, rewriting the rules of what his body was made of. He looked down and his breath caught.
His skin had darkened. Not tanned. Not bruised. Just—harder. A faint brown tint spreading across his forearms, his hands, like the grain of wood pressing through flesh.
It lasted three seconds.
Then it faded. His skin returned to normal. Smooth. Pale. Ordinary.
But the feeling didn't leave.
He touched his arm. Pressed his fingers into the flesh. It didn't give. Not the way it should. Not soft. Not yielding. Just solid. Firm. Like there was something unyielding beneath the surface.
Did it work?
He pinched himself. Hard. Nails digging into skin.
Nothing.
No pain. No sting. Just pressure without consequence.
He tried again. Harder. Twisting the skin between his fingers.
Still nothing.
His pulse quickened.
He made a fist and punched his own thigh. Not gently. A real hit. The kind that should've hurt, should've left a bruise.
His leg absorbed the impact without complaint. No ache. No tenderness. Just the dull thud of contact and nothing else.
This is insane.
He stood there, fist still pressed against his leg, breathing hard.
This is actually insane.
He'd stolen a property from a bench and made it part of himself. His body was harder now. Literally. Physically. Like someone had edited his stats and hit save.
And this was just one property.
I can do this four more times.
The thought landed heavy.
He looked at the bench again. At the remaining properties. At the vending machine nearby. At the jogger disappearing down the path.
I can take anything.
His eyes flicked back to the character sheet. To the line he'd glossed over in his excitement.
Cursed Energy: 50/50
His stomach dropped.
Cursed energy.
He stared at the words, reading them over and over, waiting for them to mean something else.
They didn't.
This is the Jujutsu Kaisen world.
The realization didn't arrive gently. It slammed into him all at once, pieces clicking together with brutal clarity. The Japanese vending machine. The UI using terms like cursed energy and sorcerer grade. The fact that he had energy listed at all.
I'm in JJK.
He'd watched the anime. Read the manga. He knew this world. Knew the curses, the sorcerers, the clans, the politics, the death toll. He knew exactly how dangerous it was.
And he was here.
In it.
With a system that let him drag and drop reality itself.
Rion exhaled, long and shaky, and looked down at his hands.
Things just got a lot weirder.