Chapter Text
“Yuji..” Yuji Itadori glanced at his grandfather, his head tilting in confusion while he kept on fixing the flowers he brought that day, “Yeah, gramps??” “You’re a strong kid, so help others. Even if it’s only those closest to you, just save the people you can. It’s ok if you lose your way, don’t worry about whether they’ll thank you or not. When you die, please be surrounded by people that love you and care about you… Don’t end up like me.” Wasake Itadori said, looking deeply at his grandson’s back before turning away. “Gramps, what are you babbling on about? Quit talking like you’re about to die, you’ll get through this.” Yuji spoke with a hum.
A minute passed without a response which made the boy pause as he slowly turned to his grandfather who was lying motionless in his hospital bed. The boy stepped closer before kneeling by the bed and grabbing the older man’s cold hand. “... I even promised Grandma Shimura from upstairs to give you a chance when you got out, just had to ruin my plans huh.” the teen muttered as a tear rolled down his cheek.
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The young man sighed tiredly as he signed the last of the paperwork given to him by the hospital, “We’ll call you to come get your grandfather’s ashes.” the nurse that was looking after Wasake, Konan, spoke to the boy in a gentle tone which made him nod a bit. The pink haired boy was getting ready to go home when Konan stopped him, “Sorry but can you wait a moment. I almost forgot to give you this.” The young nurse mentioned before pulling out a latter and a small notebook from her pocket. “During his last days, Wasake arranged that these were handed to you after his passing.” she explained as she handed the teen the items. Thanking the woman, Yuji walked out of the hospital only stopping to sit down on a bench in a nearby park. With trembling hands, the teen opened the letter and started reading.
Dear Yuji
If you’re reading this, it means that I’m dead. You’re at that age where I believe you’re ready to know the truth about our family and its history. The world isn’t as it seems, unknown to the public eye, there are creatures called curses that are created from people’s negative emotions. These curses are a threat to humanity, causing over 10 000 people go missing every year to which most likely means that these missing people have been killed and eaten by them. The reason I know this is because the Itadori Family is a clan of Jujutsu sorcerers, you can think of these sorcerers as people who fight curses using cursed technique.
We were highly active in the Jujutsu world 100 years ago under the leadership of our ancestor, Futsunushi Itadori but after his timely death, our clan drifted away from it and slowly became normal citizens except for a small few, one of them being my father. The reason I’m telling you this is because I see potential in you in becoming a powerful Jujutsu sorcerer from how I observed you growing up. At the moment your cursed energy is dormant but with time and in the right situation, it will awaken and when that happens you will need a cursed technique to fend off curses with.
The notebook you have is the journal my father wrote which talks about everything you need to know if you’re going to be a Jujutsu Sorcerer along with the cursed technique passed down in the family. Although, if it seems to be too much for you, I don’t want you to force yourself to go down this path. The choice is up to you at the end of the day, just make sure you choose something that aligns with what your heart wants.
Make sure to not waste your life like me
Wasake Itadori
Yuji looked down at the letter with mixed emotions which caused him to look up at the darkening sky, deep in thought. He wondered if what was written was true or not but knowing his grandparent, he leaned more on the former. If that was the case, he wondered why everyone didn’t know about these curses and the type of disaster they brought. But thinking more into the matter, it made sense as to why it was kept quiet since if everyone knew about it, it would just cause chaos. Sighing, the teen put the letter in his hoodie pocket before opening the notebook. The first few pages talked more about cursed energy and curses, explaining their concepts and how they worked. The content confused to the boy, but he got a good grasp on what it was saying. Flipping through a few more page, he reached the section that was talking about his family’s cursed technique.
Gradation air and Tracing
This is a technique involving the materialization of objects, in accordance with the user’s imagination, through the use of cursed energy. Gradation comes from the fact that the created object slowly fades away after being created, and Air is an allusion to the fact that said object is made from "nothing". This technique is similar to Construction but unlike it, the objects you create have a time limit while as Construction’s do not. In normal practice the technique is considered useless, but a way was found which can make it a high-grade technique.
Tracing is the advanced version of Gradation air in which not only does it reproduce the shape and substance of an object, but also its entire history as well. Objects created with tracing are slightly inferior to the originals due to the fact that only so much information can be gathered by sight alone and a copy can never be superior to the originals. The condition set for the technique to work is that the object must be seen directly by the user for them to make a copy of it hence an object cannot be copied through blueprints and such.
Tracing is split into seven steps:
- Judging the concept of creation.
- Hypothesizing the basic structure.
- Duplicating the composition material.
- Imitating the skill of its making.
- Sympathizing with the experience of its growth.
- Reproducing the accumulated years.
- Excelling every manufacturing process
Because of these steps, it is possible to produce incredibly stable objects that can remain in the world seemingly indefinitely after their creation, unless broken or dismissed. To active this technique the user must chant its unique incarnation….
“Yuji Itadori.” Yuji was snapped out of his concentration as he looked up to see a black-haired teen staring down at him. “My name is Megumi Fushiguro from Jujutsu tech and there’s something we have to discuss.” The newcomer continued as he took a seat next to the pink haired boy before continuing, “You have a very dangerous cursed object with you and I’m here to take it off your hands.” “Cursed object?” Yuji questioned with a raised eyebrow, he remembered what his great-grandfather wrote about cursed objects which made him take this matter more seriously. “The item you found is a special grade object that is very dangerous and can lead to many deaths if its unsealed.” Megumi then pulled out his phone and showed the boy a picture of the object.
The pink haired boy looked at the picture closely and before nodding and looking through his pockets school bag before pulling out a small box and handing it over to the other boy. Megumi sighed in relief as he opened the box but froze as he found it empty, he glared at Yuji before grabbing him by the collar. “Where’s the cursed finger?!?” Megumi shouted. The pink haired boy paused, thinking before he answered, “There’s a possibility that my senpai took it… And if I remember it correctly, she said that she wanted to open it tonight.” The sorcerer’s face turn pale before letting the boy’s collar go and running towards Sagisawa Highschool. Yuji put the notebook in his pocket before running after Megumi.
They arrived minutes later to feel an ominous aura surrounding the school, “What the fuck is that?” Yuji questioned, looking at the visible aura around the building with interest. Megumi didn’t explain as he jumped over the fence around the school and making his way inside, “Stay here if you don’t want to die. It's dangerous inside.” The black-haired teen made his way inside the school as he put his hands together, making a shadow puppet dog before a black and white Shikigami dogs jumped out of his shadow with a growl. The three ran through the building, clearing any curses they saw until they reached the fourth floor where they saw a curse getting ready to eat a girl who held a withered finger in her hand. Before Megumi could do anything, he saw Yuji suddenly appear as he smashed through the window next to the curse as he drop-kicked it, forcing it to let the schoolgirl go. The pink haired boy caught his upperclassmen and landed next to the sorcerer which gave him the Shikigami an opportunity to kill the curse.
Yuji took the finger out of his senpai’s hand and looked over to Megumi with a raised eyebrow, “Good thing we got here before it was eaten.” “Eaten? Why would someone want to eat this? Is it tasty or something?” the older teen’s face turned to one of shock as he looked between the finger and the other teen. “No, you eat it to gain cursed energy. Whatever, just give me the finger.” Megumi sighed as he held his hand out, waiting but before the finger could land on his hand, a large curse came out of nowhere, gunning straight at Yuji but Megumi pushed him out of the way, leading getting thrown through the ceiling and on the rooftop.
Megumi coughed out a mouth full of blood and was trying to retaliate by summoning more Shikigami’s but the curse wasn’t giving him a chance to do so, frustrating him. He managed to gain some distance and went into a low stance, lifting his fists in front of him, getting ready to do something due to how his cursed energy suddenly spiked. Before he could even start, Yuji came flying through the rooftop entrance and started fighting with the curse but to his current limitations, he was getting tossed around like a ragdoll. “Why are you here!? Just go grab your friends and get the hell out of here!” The sorcerer screamed at the boy, but he was ignored as the fight continued one-sidedly.
The curse grabbed Yuji and lifted him up, slowly squeezing the boy who grit his teeth in pain. “Throw me the finger, the curse will turn its attention towards me. Do it quick!!” Megumi reasoned but the other teen didn’t seem to be listening which frustrated him more as he continued his berate. Yuji stared at the curse, dread and fear slowly creeping into his stomach as time seemed to stop as his life flashed through his mind. He thought that this was the end for him when the contents of his Great-grandfather's notebook slapped him in the face. The pink haired teen closed his eyes and took a deep breath as his dug through his memories, going far into his younger days until he stopped to one memory where his class went to the Tokyo National Museum.
He felt as if he was currently relieving the memory in real time as his class walked through the museum, half listening to their tour guide until they stopped at a display case which held the oldest katana that belonged to the Five Swords Under Heaven. The teen stopped as he fully turned to the weapon as everything faded around him, he slowly walked closer as the case disappeared which allowed him to reach his hand out to his, gripping his worn handle before an incarnation came to his mind that consisted of only two words.
“Trace… On” The katana shattered and floated in the air before turning to Yuji as the pieces shot into his forehead as new memories appeared into his mind, making him watch them as if it was a long movie. Yuji stood there and watched as Yasutsuna of Hoki first had the first concept of the sword before spending weeks to months, carefully smithing the sword into existence. The movie continued as Yasutsuna gave the sword to Minamoto no Yorimitsu who later used the weapon as he had his the hardest fight of his life against the demon Shutendoji, who the boy guessed was an cursed spirit from the past. He watched as the sword its name at the end of the fight before being passed around the likes of Shoguns, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu before finally ending up in the Tokyo National Museum.
By the end, all the requirements needed to activate the Tracing technique were met. Yuji felt a sudden rush of power as his cursed energy awaked with such intensity as his aura alone obliterating the curse’s arm, freeing him. The boy landed and looked at the curse with a resolve in his eyes as bright red lines, which looked like circuits, slowly crept down his right arm, causing some curse energy to gather in his hand. “Dojigiri Yasutsuna” Yuji called out as said katana manifested in his hand but instead of its modern form, the sword had reverted to his peak, its beautiful and shiny blade shining under the moonlight.
The young man looked at the sword for a moment before getting into a Kento Stance, raising the weapon into the air. His grip tightened as the vails on the back of his hands bulged a bit before the swung the katana down in a vertical slash as slash of cursed energy flew at the curse before cutting it in two. Megumi was left God smacked as he looked at the older boy with a mixture of emotions due to what he had just saw and the amount of cursed energy that was radiating off him which reminded the boy of a certain white-haired man. “Yo Megumi, what happened? Did you find the finger? And what's up with the new spike of cursed energy?” Speak of the devil. Yuji turned to where Megumi was to see a man with white hair and a blind fold holding a plastic bag standing next to him, but before he could question who the man was, his world went black as he fainted.