Chapter Text

Another long day of work at the gas station nearby is over.

A small yet happy hum leaves Yuuji’s throat, glad with the fact he’s home again.

Today’s shift was manageable enough. Though he did have to deal with some weird punk trying to steal something from the store. Yuuji really has to thank his body for having incredible speed and stamina, or else he probably wouldn’t have been able to catch the guy. Well, it's not like his boss would even care if something got stolen.

Ugh, he groans, not even wanting to think about today’s shift anymore. He just wants to chill now. Yuuji moves to the kitchen, grabs a cutting board, a knife, and a apple.

I think I'll order some fast food later, I'm too lazy to actually cook something right now. Yuuji thinks to himself as he began to cut the apple.

A Discord notification from his phone snatched his attention.

Yuuji grabs the device before seeing it was Nobara messaging him.

@ StrawDoll

StrawDoll

GamingStrawDoll_3308

December 2, 2021

StrawDoll 9:19 PM
hop on jjo n stream w me? still need to get that stupid ass relic -_-

[ + Message @StrawDoll ☺ ]

Ah... Jujutsu Online. Nobara wants to grind again with Yuuji for the upcoming event.

Jujutsu Online; A modern fantasy MMO game based around sorcerers and curses. A popular and well loved game by many gamers around the world. Yuuji has been playing it for a while now, starting from participating in the game’s public beta-release until now. He wouldn’t say that he’s a try-hard, but he does have some skill with the game’s combat system. Originally, JJO would only be revolved around the campaign it offered. But that wouldn't be the only mode in the game.

The game includes multiple modes;

The Roleplaying Mode is for fans who are interested in developing their own stories with their own characters or pre-set characters from the game’s story. An unpopular yet loved category for fans, Yuuji remembers sometimes joining it and participating in Roleplay Events for fun.

The Predestined World Mode, currently the most popular option, it started with being a request from the fans to make an open world mode where people could do whatever in survival. Choose to fight others, fighting enemies, participate temporary events made by the creators or hang out with others. In this mode, a player could decide what their character should be, you can choose between a Jujutsu Sorcerer or a Curse User, and fight against other parties. After the beta-release of the game, it was safe to say that the developers were intrigued with the request from fans. And once the game had its first full official release with a campaign, the developers top priority was creating a predestined world mode. And ever since that mode was released to the public, it became the most popular mode.

And lastly, Yuuji’s favorite thing about the game; it’s Campaign Mode. Not many players nowadays only play for the story the game offers, but he thinks it’s one of the best things to ever exist. Don’t get Yuuji wrong, he likes the Predestined World Mode, but the campaign offers a little more cinematic experience than only just gameplay. Yuuji couldn’t get enough of the characters, animation, cutscenes, voice acting, sound and most importantly; the story itself. He likes how real it sometimes feels. And every campaign update never disappoints him. Yuuji sometimes asks himself that maybe the reason his viewer count is low is that he mainly streams when playing the campaign. But honestly? He isn’t complaining. Happy with the community he now has and being able to interact with them peacefully, gosh he can’t imagine how it is to be a popular streamer. Weekly he’d watch some well-known streamers, and whenever he glances at the chat that shows hundreds of messages per minute makes him wonder how sometimes popular streamers still manage to interact decent enough with their own community.

Yuuji looks at the time before sending a text back.

Guess he's streaming tonight with Nobara!

"These curses are a pain in the ass." Nobara sighs, taking out a Grade 2 Curse. "Remind me again why the devs added so many shitty curses near a relic spawn-point? This is making me waste energy..."

Yuuji could hear her whine over the in-game's voice chat system. "Because it's a relic? It's supposed to attract curses. Given the rarity, you know that well enough." He proceeds to munch on the last slice of the apple before cleaning his hands with a tissue before fully turning back into the game.

”Are you seriously still eating that forsaken apple? Stop eating and help me!”

”I’m finished with eating, don’t worry. You’ve exorcised those curses alone pretty well! I don’t see why you’d need my help.”

"But it's so annoying! I'm gonna have to farm back my energy points after this." Yuuji could see Nobara applying a healing item on herself, then, looking around more, he spots the relic they've been looking for. "Uh, StrawDoll?" Yuuji calling Nobara by her in-game name made her stop and turn to her partner. "What?"

Yuuji takes the relic, showcasing it to Nobara in his hand before happily replying, "Mission complete!"

"That's it?"  She deadpans. 

Yuuji stills, "Huh?"

"That's the relic we fought for? Are you kidding me? That thing looks useless." Disappointment clear in her tone before she scoffs. “Let’s just go back to the High School.”

But before neither characters could move, a Special Grade Boss health bar would appear on both parties' ends.

Both characters turns to look at the curse. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I was wondering when we’d get that,” Yuuji muttered.

“You knew a boss battle would happen!?” And before she could snap more at Yuuji, the curse began to sprint towards them, aiming and ready to attack.

The enemy locked on Nobara with its attacks.

“Dash to the side! Don’t let it touch you, it seems to be a poisonous related one!” Yuuji says aloud when he realized what boss type it was. “This is gonna be annoying.” He mutters before attacking the curse from behind.

The boss fight went… alright, on Yuuji’s end, but for Nobara on the other hand…

“You prick!”

After Nobara’s character went down, the first thing she did was call Yuuji on Discord so that she could yell at him.

“My character is now down for a good 12 hours because I had to do all the work on exorcising those pests before making me waste my energy points and unable to fully defend myself during the boss fight! While you stood by the side and ate your stupid apple!”

”You said you were fine with me eating my food real quick!”

”Real quick my ass!” She spat back.

Yuuji ended up finally defeating the boss by using a special attack in the end, and collected Nobara’s dropped items so he could give those back to her later.

Checking his own character’s health, he realized that he himself was also quite low.

”I hate these kinds of curses.” Yuuji mumbled as he saw that the poisonous effect from the enemy still lingered on his character.

”No shit, loser.” Nobara replies.

Yuuji grumbles in return before taking out his healing items.

And just as Yuuji was about to heal himself in-game, he suddenly hears a Steam Achievement sound effect play in the background.

Achievement Unlocked!
Disgraced One.
Meet "The Strongest"

Hah?

His eyes glances at the text before the achievement disappeared from his monitor.

The Strongest? What type of achievement is that?

It sounds familiar, but nothing could ring a bell from what it is. Yuuji's gaze flickered towards his second monitor that was displaying his live chat, apparently, Yuuji wasn't the only one confused.

...Except for Megumi. He notices Megumi's panic through the text, what the hell is that achievement and why is his friend so panicked about it?

”Hey, Nobara? Do you know what the achievement 'Disgraced One' is? The description isn’t helpful-“ Yuuji asks, but was rudely cut off.

”That was the most pathetic battle I had to witness from afar.” A new voice spoke up, oddly familiar.

Yuuji looks around, moving his character a bit around to try spot the source of the unknown voice. He couldn’t see shit, even with his room being completely dark (Ignoring the light from his monitors.) he still couldn’t see anything. Damn these dark forest biomes. "I dunno what achievement that is... Yuuji? What's wrong?" Nobara asks.

”A player is near, I don't think it's a ally or from of our clan.” Yuuji says in a softer tone, hoping it would be a bit harder for the unfamiliar player to hear what he's saying, “I’m pulling up your stream right now.” He could hear her reply back.

”That’s kinda rude to say.” Yuuji finally spoke back louder at the voice in-game, trying to engage in a small conversation with it while putting the relic in his inventory.

The voice hums, "I don't think so." It became louder, almost as if it was walking towards him. Yuuji's eyes looks quickly at the map in game, but couldn't spot a player on it other than him. Maybe it's a new game feature? But if it was a new feature... No, it has to be a player. The voice spoke up again, making Yuuji focus his attention on 'it' again. "It's quite a shame honestly, your technique isn't all that bad. But your game-style ruins it. Honestly." More clearer, Yuuji began to notice who's voice it was.

Please say they only have a familiar voice and that it isn't him.

Yuuji's eyes flickered towards his Twitch chat worryingly, trying to see (and hope) he is wrong, but then realized the situation.

MeGum_ii: IT'S A SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT YOU GET WHEN SUKUNA IS NEARBY

Fuck me.

Yuuji finally managed to see the gamer tag of the voice, a vibrant, bloody red text, Displaying the name; LORD_RYOUMEN

He should be happy to finally meet one of the best players in JJO, and a streamer he watches sometimes, but given who it was. Yuuji wasn't happy at all. Oh gods-

Sukuna, Also known as LORD_RYOUMEN on many online platforms, is a well known streamer and content creator that mainly makes content of JJO, Yuuji used to watch his live streams during some of his shifts if it was a boring day and when there aren't any customers. He's learned some playstyles via Sukuna's gameplay or showcases, but usually his content would be just evolved around ...bullying players. Even for his attitude in-game and outside, he still managed to gain a lot of attraction from players and watchers. Yuuji sometimes wonders if it was due to his good looks, or just his impressive playstyle... It became quickly clear that if you'd met Sukuna in-game, your character would quickly meet death soon after. But there are some times where players would survive an encounter with Sukuna.

Once Sukuna's full character was visible to Yuuji's point of view, Yuuji tried to walk back, but then got the warning message including a 20 seconds count-down.

"Your character is frozen in fear by the presence of The King of Curses. (18s)"

Fuck. He totally forgot about that.

People on the internet has posted various of clips and compilations that were related to Sukuna and meeting him in-game. Yuuji sometimes saw a few clips here and there posted on either Twitter or Reddit, mainly it having blown up in popularity. If you're "lucky" enough to meet Sukuna in-game for the first time, your character would freeze. This was a feature that recently had been added to the game for Sukuna himself, a small update that would add a decent amount of features for popular players & players that were on the leaderboards. Yuuji didn't remember all, but he could remember watching a few showcases from the streamers who had gotten their special effect in game when the update came out. From Gojo getting a special character animation for his hand-to-hand combat playstyle to Jogo's Technique cutscene that would play if you're nearby. And then, Sukuna's effect to freeze players from fear after meeting him for the first time in-game.

Sukuna had showcased his own feature on stream a few times, but when he showcased it for the first time, the developers got a lot of backlash from the fans. Stating it was unfair, but the developers reply to the public's backlash said it was for Dramatic effect, and that Sukuna's battle abilities would be blocked for a few seconds as well when the effect takes place, making a decent balancing.

"Shit shit shit- not now!" The viewers from his stream could hear his infamous keyboard's keys clicking loudly. Hearing that Yuuji was quite panicked now with this situation and that he wanted to flee right away. I can't die yet! I need to retrieve the relic back to Tokyo Jujutsu High-

"Drop the relic." Sukuna asks, well, more like demands Yuuji, as he stood in front of the frozen character. As Sukuna waited a few seconds, he glanced at Yuuji's username. "Curse... Sniper Yuu? That's kinda cringe." Sukuna grimaces, wry amusement clear in his voice.

'Oh my gods he said Yuuji's username- Maybe he should die of happiness? Or embarrassment! He can't decide-' Yuuji blinks at the main monitor. "Yuu, stop fanboying in your head, he's about to kill you!" Nobara hisses.

Before Yuuji could reply, a loud slash sound effect could be heard through Yuuji's headset, following with the familiar sound of blood dropping onto the ground.

"Your character lost a hand. Seek immediate help or your character could die from bloodloss. (298s)"

Although, even if Sukuna's fight abilities would be blocked for the time being until the freeze effect faded away. That didn't stop him from immediately attacking the player right after-

"Drop the relic." He repeats.

“W-wait—If I give you the relic, will you let me live?” Yuuji asks, but both he and Sukuna already know the answer for that.

Sukuna doesn’t reply back, still waiting for the other player to give him the relic. His character takes a step forward, making Yuuji step backwards. “Okay okay! I’m sorry Nobara…” he sighs, and then holds the relic in his other remaining hand.

Sukuna wasted no time and snatched it from Yuuji’s hand. He can’t believe Sukuna is interacting with him! He watches the popular streamer put the relic in his inventory.

“If you needed this relic, why didn’t you help us defeat that special grade? Would’ve saved you time.” Yuuji’s asks while quickly applying a bandage around his wrist tightly to prevent more blood loss.

“It was entertaining enough to see that curse beat the shit out of you and that girl, can’t deny that I had a good laugh when it took her out.” The curse user simply replied.

“That fuckin’ dickhead! I’ll kill him when I see him in game!” Yuuji could hear his friend’s voice loudly through the headphones.

Yuuji was about to reply back, until he saw Sukuna’s character move to a fighting stance. “W-wait! I thought we agreed on letting me survive since I gave the relic!—” Yuuji panics before managing to block the punch Sukuna threw. Barely.

Holy! That speed is intense—

Sukuna threw another punch, and this time Yuuji wasn’t able to block nor dodge it in time. Slamming Yuuji’s character through the air and fell onto the ground, now a couple of meters away from the ‘King’. The small streamer quickly tried to get up, yet struggling with the fact he was low on stamina or energy points.

And before Yuuji’s character stood up, he was met with another blow from the other. Shit he needs to come up with something now!! He could run away? But theres a high chance Sukuna would follow him, and Yuuji’s stamina was almost completely gone.

The next couple of seconds turned into Yuuji either failing or succeeding in dodging or blocking Sukuna’s fists, the other gave Yuuji’s character no time to recover. Honestly, it felt like Sukuna was now just flexing his hand to hand combat experience to Yuuji, and it very much wasn’t fun being the one receiving endless attacks.

Yuuji has to think of something, anything! Maybe he could land an attack on Sukuna if he’s distracted? But how does one even distract a high-level player!? Well what other options does he have? Yuuji begins to think about how he could catch Sukuna off guard to land a punch, and then he gets an idea.

Dodge, dodge, dash backwards, wait for the enemy to lunge forward, jump in the air, use the remaining energy points in an heavy attack focused on his legs and make the attack in the air.

Yuuji would’ve been able to land a blow on Sukuna, if he hadn’t parried it with the Hiten in his hand.

“Damnit!” Yuuji yells at Sukuna’s move.

“I wont deny, that idea is not that bad, just poorly executed is all.” The curse user says, it was clear he was smirking through the screen.

“You’re not letting my character rest for at least some stamina! That’s unfair!” Yuuji winches, barely dodging a new attack.

“At least you’re aware. Shouldn’t have used up almost all your energy points on that boss before!” He laughs before abruptly stopping with attacking Yuuji’s character. “Though I am getting bored.” Sukuna watches Yuuji’s character breathe heavily before speaking up again. “Yuu, or whatever your name is.”

“Huh?” Are they seriously getting into conversation right after fighting!? Well… better than dying.

“Change your play style, it could save you a lot of energy points. The one you used when fighting that boss from before clearly left you almost unable to fully defend yourself. Get creative and focus on different moves. Your technique is being wasted with how you’re currently playing it.” Was all Sukuna said, before his character made a move, and then—

"Your character is now unplayable for the next 11 hours, 59 minutes and 54 seconds."

What…
What just happened???

Yuuji blinks multiple times at the monitor and at the letters, trying to process the events he’d just witnessed.

Damnit! His HP was so shit, Sukuna easily one-shotted him by using his Dismantle skill. So unfair!

In the background, Nobara laughs at Yuuji and at the fact she wasn’t the only one with a character down today. “Karma!”