My feet stepped onto an impossible surface—a frozen black ocean turned mirror, reflecting nothing. Each footstep birthed pale circles of light, like the dying embers of stars. In the distance, seven luminous orbs hung suspended, egg-shaped and silent, arranged as if conducting a ghostly waltz in the void. I longed to touch them, but the dark sea beneath me slowed my steps, as if whispering that those lights might grant me power I couldn’t yet fathom.
Then, movement.
A black silhouette wove between the orbs, wings unfurling like spilled ink across a canvas of sky. No ordinary bird, nor any crow I knew. It had… four eyes? Two pairs of violet light, blinking out of sync, gleaming like stars trapped in feathers. Each wingbeat left trails of shadow-smoke, as if the air itself split to let it pass. I blinked—Was this an illusion? Or a creature from another world revealing itself?
Ah.
Suddenly, the boy’s memories resurfaced. This was his shikigami.
A wind hissed in a language I didn’t know, and the bird turned its heads toward me. All four eyes brightened, as if recognizing something even I hadn’t realized lay within me.
After a moment, I reached out and touched one of the lights—and knowledge flooded in.
"The Cursed Generals: Seven Shikigami."
Unlike the Zenin clan’s Ten Shadows technique, which required defeating shikigami in combat, this was different.
The Cursed Generals demanded a sacrifice: the corpse of a human, a jujutsu sorcerer, a shikigami, or a cursed spirit—anything, so long as it was lifeless and the brain remained intact.
Swallowing a human corpse would amplify cursed energy—critical for this boy’s pitiful reserves. But consuming a cursed spirit or shikigami? Worthless. No power boost, no expansion of energy.
It was as if the technique itself ordered me to devour sorcerers.
The implications hit me like a blade.
"This turns me into a tragic character—like early-arc Yuta Okkotsu, but darker. Because this… involves direct complicity in death."
---
Morning sun slipped through the window, painting gold stripes across the still-cold bedsheets. I rose, my head light, the spring air carrying more than just the scent of rain. Something felt alien.
This bed was familiar yet foreign. Like a puzzle piece forced into place.
The mirror showed a stranger: a child’s small frame, hair black as a crow’s wing, cropped neatly at the shoulders. Pale skin, almost luminous in the dim light—as if carved from a captured crescent moon. And the eyes… my eyes? Too large for that face.
I lifted a hand, and the reflection mimicked me, movements heavy with borrowed memories. The smile I attempted twisted into something sweet but hollow.
"This isn’t a dream."
My voice a child’s voice—echoed back.
"System."
Nothing.
"System…?"
Silence. Seems the awakening of this cursed technique was my only ‘welcome gift’ to this world.
I sifted through the boy’s memories. His power was a single four-eyed crow shikigami. Just that. But the seven lights? A newly awakened curse.
The Cursed Generals.
"Ugh… hurts." The wound on this body’s stomach pulsed. Peeling back the bandages revealed a gash spanning half the torso.
"Yeah. Bad. Maybe the original owner died, and my soul took over."
I formed a hand seal.
"Come. Crow."
Shadows writhed. Darkness stretched like tar, pushing the shikigami into reality. Its first wingbeat—"Bashaa!"—sent dust flying.
Jet-black feathers. Violet eyes glowing like knives, vertical pupils locking onto mine. Through its vision, the world sharpened—startling.
It perched on my shoulder, and I activated Reverse Cursed Technique (RCT). The wound began knitting itself shut.
"Not bad. Slow, but… no ‘system,’ yet I’ve got an RCT crow. Can’t complain."
A flashback: Sukuna and Gojo wielding RCT effortlessly, while I needed seals and a shikigami. Embarrassing.
Fatal Flaw: This power can’t level up. Safety nets don’t exist here.
- RCT only works while the crow is active
(unlike Gojo, who could heal in his sleep).
- If the crow dies? I revert to a helpless human with no healing.
- The Cursed Generals respawn after a 24-hour cooldown if destroyed. The crow? Gone forever—unless I fuse it with one of the seven.
"Impossible. Better to learn RCT on my own than rely on this bird."
And the Generals? Once a sacrifice is chosen, it’s permanent.
I needed to strategize. Who to devour?
Names surfaced: Jogo. Mahito. Yorozu. Uraume. And… Hajime Kashimo, the lightning-wielding berserker from the Sengoku era.
Imagining Hajime facing Hakari or Sukuna—what a spectacle. If he became my shikigami…
A grin split my face—lopsided, childish. I chuckled, cheeks flushing at my own excitement. Eyes narrowed, fists clenched.
"Ah, I look like an idiot." A short laugh ("Heh"), head shaking. But warmth bloomed in my chest. "I… really love this."
…….
"Summoning the crow already drained half my energy."
I dismissed it. The stomach wound wasn’t fully healed, but revealing my RCT shikigami now would be dangerous. For reconnaissance only—for now.
Wait. I’ll master RCT myself. Freely. Like Gojo. Like Sukuna.