What woke me was the cry of some distant bird, and the rumble of storm clouds gathering on the horizon. My eyes caught lightning rumble and dance across dark skies, then plummet into the sea with a deafening crack.
"Where...?"
I looked down. My hands were a haze, my legs were crossed under me though I was sure I had never sat that way in my life. Immediately, I checked for my glasses to find them missing. That explained the haze... or not, my sight wasn't that weak. Lost, I looked around, and patted the dead earth beneath me in some futile attempt at discerning my surroundings.
What meagre world I could see was this sheer hill upon the edge of which I sat. A few steps, a push, and I'd surely fall to a horrible death, crushed on the massive rocks below. No, maybe I'd be lucky enough to fall into the great waves raging against them. I didn't know which would be a better fate, senselessly putting my life in danger for thrills like a certain friend of mine had never appealed to my person.
No, I was happier sitting in a library, or at my office, with a cup of coffee in hand, no matter how poorly it just so happened to be made. Office, yes, that was where I'd been. My last memory was putting my head down for a bit of rest... and then,
"So... this is a dream."
It didn't feel like that at all. Though, I could not feel the howling winds at all, so... Hm, greater confusion was an appealing choice.
I tried to move.
Thunder flashed once more. Lightning came crashing down upon-... I closed my eyes shut without ever wanting to. The pain never came. I wasn't certain there was to be pain. Someone like me couldn't possibly know what getting struck by lightning was supposed to feel like. There weren't that many people who survived-
"So the pathogen is finally complete."
I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar youth. He was tall and lean, though not particularly handsome, and the black tattoos lining his eyes were rather out of place against his fair skin. His dark hair swayed with wind I did not feel and his narrowed crimson eyes made me supremely uncomfortable.
What he wore was like a mishmash of some child's dream about monkhood after playing Mortal Kombat, and in his one hand was a dark spear taller than he. The bells hung from it chimed incessantly and gratingly. I'd have possibly punched him in the face if I could, for disturbing my peace.
"Greetings, future potential man."
My image of him shattered like someone had taken a sledge to its glassy being.
"What?"
"Lucky, aren't you? You don't even have to put up with the childish gods that rule these lands for my legacy."
I failed to understand even a single word.
"Well, I was the one who thought it'd be cool to begin with, so I guess it's fine, as long as you don't Zaza' it."
...
What was this wackjob spouting?
"Are you going to be a potential man? A fraud like the one who had what I toiled for here? Or will you break the-"
"What the hell does any of that mean?" I finally spoke out, unable to handle the second-hand embarrassment from a grown man speaking such words in public, "Are you talking about Megu-"
"A feisty and rude one? Lowkey, vibes."
My face expressed my complete confusion and disgust.
"Oh come off it, it's not like I get to aura farm much anymore-"
What the hell was this person?
He was certainly the type my friends would have bullied for those words alone.
"-right! I don't have much time. Sorry about the yap. Tsukuyomi-sama said this'd be a one-time deal-" He waved his free hand around in panic. The bells hung from his spears jingled loudly as he began clearing his throat. "-Anyway! Congratulations. You're a God Holder, and my pathogen is finally finished. If you want more details, find my manuscripts, Zen'in child from the distant future. I gave our clan that name cause I wanted to pay homage to the OG. If not, that's lowkey cool too."
I scrunched up my face, entirely off-put by his behaviour.
He looked so proud of himself too...
"Make your ancestor, that's me, proud with your aura-farming!"
"Kill yourself."
I clamped my mouth shut with both hands, eyes widening.
His behaviour was so foreign that I ended up unable to conceal my true thoughts like usual. Strangely, I didn't regret speaking them out loud. He restrained a laugh.
"Ah, feels so good to hear my own language, bruzzah-" He threw his head back, "-No one even understood me for a while with how far back I popped up. Didn't stop me from making..."
His voice began to distort like a TV without signal.
"Ten Shadows..."
I strained my ears, trying to understand.
"Tsukuyomi-sama personally... his parents... divine mystery... my reward for-"
Then, the world turned upside down and I began to fall. My screams were silent and none bore witness to my shame.
For that, I was grateful.
"My. Diary. Peak."
-
I sucked in a breath of hot, ventilated air, and immediately pain wracked my head from the blaring lights overhead. The loud disco music didn't help at all. With nary a thought, I gripped my head with one hand, and downed a shot whatever I was holding in the other hand.
A club. That was where I was.
...How?
As a man with deceased parents and an early-graduate that dove headfirst into a dead-end job, alcohol was an old friend. Especially now, after the first few months were done, and the dreary reality of lower-run white-collar work had begun to set in. But, I was at work. I clearly remembered being at work, my boss' shouting, my co-worker's hushed apology for missing some deadline... I even distinctly recalled eying the ass of-
I had been at work.
How was I now in a club?
A bar, sure, but a club was just noisy, and a breeding nest for all kinds of criminal activity and scummy scams. I had begun to hate the noise the most.
"Another."
I gripped my head and raised my glass. The older woman behind the counter gave me a strange look, but nodded before pouring whiskey from a half-empty bottle. Only after I had downed the next shot, did I take a look around.
Yes, the club was noisy, but there were a scant-few people in there. A couple of shady asian men with tattoos sat in one corner, and three office-workers were huddled together on the far end. Other than them, there was only the lone woman in a shimmering, short dress sat beside me, staring at me with an inexplicable glint in her dark eyes.
The world grew hazier and hazier even though the whiskey wasn't nearly enough. I caught the bartender giving me an afeared look. She stepped back just as the woman beside me turned my way, giving me a generous look of her cleavage.
With a practised smile, she tucked some loose hair behind her ear.
"Like what you see~?" Her voice was unusually sultry. Then, suddenly, she was placing a hand on my inner thigh... stroking...
Thinking back on it, there was a not-so-small chance my drink had been spiked, or perhaps this new body of mine was simply that unused to drinking. But, I only remembered being terribly annoyed by her behaviour, and also so terrified that my mind settled on one and one thing alone.
That was,
I slammed my glass against her cheek. She went down with a choked cry. The tattoo'd men in the corner rose just as she fell.
"Oi, bastard! He just hit that woman!"
One of them was socking me before I knew it, and then I was on the floor too.
"Psshhh... fuck you... What diid that guy... say again? Ten Shadows?"
"Tarou! You hit him too damn hard! How the hell are we supposed to find-"
The music was so loud.
"Fuck you, white knights..." My words slurred. I held up my fists. "With this treasure, I summon..."
"Oi, what the hell are those tats-"
Now, as any normal youth, I was as much into anime, manga and light novels as the next person and even if I hadn't been, there were few people who were not the least bit familiar with Jujutsu Kaisen due to its massive popularity for years upon end.
That was to say, I recognised what that man claiming to be my ancestor had said.
I just didn't believe him.
At least, not until I heard howling wolves, and the cracking of a ten foot moth cocoon from behind me. My mind came to a grinding halt when that grand mass of muscle in a gi with wings for eyes was suddenly staring down at me.
""What the fuck is-""
The eight-handled wheel behind his head clinked.
He should not have existed. He could not possibly exist. The very air around him seemed to reject his presence. My throat felt dry, and my legs grew paralyzed. Why... How?
"Well..."
And then, I heard the disgusting squelch of bone and flesh being crushed together as I flew towards the wall. I heard my shoulder crack when I hit it. For a while, the pain never even came. No, my eyes haphazardly tracked each and every booming footstep of the absurd monstrosity coming my way despite what it was doing to me.
Ah, he had punched me.
When it was upon me, that creature simply stared down with clenched fists.
The Ten Shadows had to be tamed in a fight to the death... right?
Dammit.
Transmigration then, was it?
"Haha-"
I'd messed up so grandly it was hilarious.
The Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga stared down at me.
"W-What the fuck is that thing?!"
"It's going to kill that kid!"
Instead of crushing my head right there and then, the Divine General crumbled away like sand in the wind.
...
...
"Huh."
I coughed out blood, and the world grew dark.
-
Hope you enjoyed.
Please PLEASE comment your thoughts on this. Feedback is INTEGRAL to this at this time. I need to know what you think.
As usual, you can find a couple chapters ahead at patre0n.com/Bleap
5 rn.