Author Note: I changed the last chapter. He is Special Grade 1 (ie: grade 1 but affiliated with the clan.) No longer Special Grade. If you want you can read the chapter again but it didn't really change much. Instead of going on missions with one elder/his brother he will be doing more training with the same elder who has been training him up to this point. Then after a while he will get to create his own party to do missions with.
I walked along the edge of the clan forest.
Even now, days later, the damage was obvious.
The ground dipped inward where the center of the fight had been. Trees had been ripped out or snapped in half. The soil had collapsed into a wide crater.
Roughly one hundred meters across.
About twenty meters deep at the center.
Kuroda had done most of that.
'The second explosion I did definitely had nothing to do with all this destruction'
I stopped at the edge and looked down.
A special grade curse born from a human sorcerer's hatred.
A vengeful cursed spirit.
Kuroda had been dangerous. Not just because of his cursed energy, but because of how complete he was as a curse.
He had reached what most sorcerers considered the peak of jujutsu.
A maximum technique.
A domain expansion.
Healing, even if it wasn't the reverse cursed technique.
Most sorcerers never reached even one of those.
He had all three.
And even then, he still had room to grow.
If he had remained alive for a few more days, he might have improved his domain. He might have been able to make that binding vow which allowed combat a permanent aspect to his domain. Without the drawback of his barrier falling apart.
I would have definitely died if he had managed that.
I turned away from the crater.
The fight was over. Thinking about what Kuroda could have become didn't matter anymore.
Instead, my thoughts moved somewhere else.
Tomogui.
More specifically, whether he managed to retrieve 'it'.
If the body remained intact enough, his technique should have worked.
I continued walking until the forest thinned and the main estate came into view.
By the time I reached the house, the sun was already lowering.
The moment I stepped inside, someone rushed toward me.
"Futago!"
Aiko.
Before I could say anything, she grabbed my shoulders and started looking me over.
"You're really fine?" she asked.
"Yes."
She leaned closer, checking my arms and face.
"You didn't lie to the healers?"
"No. Why would I?"
She stared at me for another second before finally relaxing.
"…Good."
Then she immediately frowned.
"You worried me."
I didn't respond to that.
Instead, I smelled food.
Aiko noticed where I was looking.
"I made dinner," she said. "Your favorite."
At that moment the door behind me opened again.
Tomogui walked in.
"Perfect timing," Aiko said. "Both of you sit."
We did.
Dinner was quiet at first.
Aiko kept glancing at me like she expected me to suddenly collapse.
'She is a good person, if I weren't a kid I would think of her as a parent'
Tomogui noticed but didn't comment.
Eventually Aiko relaxed enough to start talking about normal things around the estate. Small complaints about servants. Repairs that were being done near the outer buildings.
Nothing important.
For a while, it felt like a normal evening.
After we finished eating, Aiko cleared the dishes and pushed us both toward our room.
"Go rest," she said.
We didn't argue.
Once the door closed behind us, the mood changed.
I looked at Tomogui.
*…Did you get it?*
He didn't answer right away.
Instead, he reached into his sleeve and pulled something out.
A golden core rested in his hand.
It was slightly larger than the others we had collected before.
The surface wasn't smooth.
Lines crossed over it in a cube pattern.
Like a Rubik's cube.
*Kuroda's,* Tomogui said.
I picked it up.
The cursed energy inside was dense.
Stronger than anything we had collected before.
Tomogui walked over to the table and placed several small bags down.
*Also these.*
He opened one.
Cores spilled onto the table.
Orange stripes ran across each one.
*How many?* I asked.
*I counted earlier,* he said.
*Forty-five grade four cores.*
*Thirty grade three cores.*
*Twelve grade two cores.*
*Three grade one cores.*
I looked at the pile.
*That many?*
Tomogui nodded.
*Kuroda's attack wiped out most of the curses in the forest.*
*So you collected the leftovers.*
*Yes, while we were returning to the clan I picked up cores on the way back. I also went back into the forest to collect any other cores. There may still be some out there, but I just couldn't find them*
That was … great!.
But my attention returned to the golden core.
Tomogui noticed.
*You want to do it now?*
*Yes.*
He took the core back from me.
Then he placed a bottle on the table.
Tomogui held the core above it.
His cursed energy started to rise.
Cursed Evolution.
Cracks formed across the golden core.
The lines followed the cube pattern.
The cracks spread until the entire surface split.
Instead of breaking apart, liquid began to flow out.
Tomogui tilted the core slightly so the liquid poured into the bottle.
The bottle slowly filled.
When it stopped, it was about half full.
Tomogui set the empty shell of the core aside.
Then he looked at the bottle.
*Holy Ichor.*
I leaned forward.
The liquid was thick and gold.
That used to be Kuroda.
Condensed into something usable.
*So," I said, "what do we do with it?*
Tomogui tapped the bottle lightly.
*We could implant it.*
*... I thought we went over why that won't be happening*
*Yeah I was just joking, after we learn RCT we can try it*
Cutting into our own bodies to test something like this would be stupid.
I thought for a moment.
Then something came to mind.
*…Kenjaku mentioned something once in the Jujutsu Kaisen manga*
Tomogui looked up.
*A ritual used to create cursed tools.*
*Kodoku.*
He nodded slowly.
*The one where heirlooms are soaked in liquid made from cursed spirits. It was used on megumi, to make Sukuna have more control over his body right?*
*Yes.*
Normally the curses were crushed and strained until they turned into a solution.
But we already had something similar.
I pointed at the bottle.
*We could try using that instead.*
Tomogui followed my gaze.
*Holy Ichor.*
We both looked at the bottle for a few seconds.
Then Tomogui nodded.
*We have enough to experiment.*
*No reason to save all of it.*
If the ritual worked, we could create something useful.
My thoughts went to weapons.
I had trained with a katana before.
*We should make a katana, I trained with them. They are easier to get and because of the range, they are better for us right now, compared to short swords*
Tomogui considered that.
*…That makes sense.*
He sealed the bottle and pushed the pile of cores aside.
*So,* he said.
*When do we start?*
I leaned back in the chair.
*As soon as possible, as Special Grade 1's we can probably just head to the treasury and take a normal sword out no problem. Hopefully the clan has some weapons that aren't already cursed tools.*
*Still it should take around 10 months for bathing to be complete, we need to find a place where we can do it safely without any interruptions.*
If this worked, it would be the first cursed tool we created ourselves.
And if the Holy Ichor behaved the way we expected…
This is going to be fun.
Author Note: Anyone know when Kenjaku took over the Kamo clan. Is there any confirmed time period at which he began taking over the Jujutsu Society. I assumed it was around when he got geto's body but that honestly seems stupid in retrospect. I might just continue the story with that assumption in mind unless there are any confirmed time periods where he started.