Jujutsu Kaisen: Exception

Somewhere in Japan, a huge mansion of traditional Japanese style stood proud on the foot of a mountain.

The mansion consisted of about 8 separate buildings, each the size of a respectable school and each had its own respective garden.

All in all, the mansion was build atop a land of about 3 square kilometers.

And inside one of such mansions, an empty room was accommodating two people.

One of them was an old man with grey colored hair and an unbelievably sharp moustache. He wore the traditional Japanese haori, and sat comfortably on a luxurious looking futon that had been placed onto the floor.

His face held a cold expression that felt like it could pierce into the very soul of a person.

Opposite to him, stood a relatively young man. He had dark black hair with blackish brown eyes and had a pretty average face. His physique could also be said to be average. His muscles did not seem to be developed at all; in fact, if one looked at the two of them, one would consider the old man to be way more muscular and strong.

Which wouldn't be entirely inaccurate as well.

The young man's face marred a confused expression as he stared into the void.

"Shuichi! Why are you spacing out!" The old man screamed at him, making him break out of his stupor.

"What?" The young man, named Shuichi blurted out in surprise of being yelled at. As he broke out of his stupor, he looked around himself in confusion, as if he had just woken up from a dream.

Seeing such a display from the young man before him, the old man's head grew a tick mark.

"Oi!" He screamed once again, and with it, an invisible aura, reminiscent of an ethereal burning flame spread out from his body, enveloping the entire room in a phantom pressure.

In front of such an intimidating presence, the young man jolted and his knees suddenly gave out. His legs became soft and he fell down onto the ground in horror; beads of sweat pouring down from his head in fear.

"How dare you ignore my words! Not only are you a waste, but you also turn out to be an idiot!" The man screamed and the pressure on top of Shuichi increased by several folds.

'What the hell?!' The young man screamed inside his head, confused at the bizarre situation in which he had found himself in. 'Where the hell am I?! What is this enormous pressure? It feels like a mountain is on my shoulders!'

The man's eyes turned to the old man sitting in front of him, 'And who the hell is this scary old man?!'

Looking at the fearful eyes of the young man, the pressure lessened considerably and eventually, all of the phantom pressure eventually disappeared as if it was never there.

As the pressure disappeared, the young man breathed a sigh of relief. And although he was confused about the situation, he did not dare be careless anymore. The sense of imminent danger he felt from the old man was unlike anything he had ever faced or imagined.

He forced his wobbly legs to stand up, but just when he did, a wave of images began to appear in his mind. It was a series of flashing clips, like watching a slide show of a movie. The images all focused on a single character, a man named Shuichi and the absurd existence of things like curses and his struggles in his family.

As the images gradually receded, the man looked at the old man with newfound confidence and vigilance.

What the young man had learned from the slide show of what he amused to be memories, he came to understand the type of world he had ended up in.

The world consisted of mystical elements, more specifically curses. The world held cursed spirits that stemmed out from negative energy produced by the negative emotions of humans. The curses are inherently malevolent and harm humans on a wide scale all over the world. And what stops the curses from causing too much damage, it the existence of curses energy users, called Jujutsu sorcerers.

Jujutsu sorcerers are able to draw out the negative energy from their emotions and use it to achieve various effects, such as strengthening the body and accelerating their healing powers. Along with that the jujutsu sorcerers are also able to achieve special physics defying feats using something called cursed techniques.

Jujutsu sorcerers, to achieve maximum efficiency in killing curses and prevent malevolent curse users, had established an organisation several centuries ago.

Aside from that, there are also various families that comprise the jujutsu world. The largest being the big three jujutsu families, the Gojo family, the Kamo family and finally the Zenin family.

And the man in front of his was Naobito Zenin, the current head of the Zenin clan.

By this point, the young man realized the situation in which he had found himself in.

He had somehow traveled to another world after being hit by a truck. In his previous life, his name was also Shuichi, a normal employee in a big company that worked all of its employees to the bone.

He was overworked and also addicted to games and stuff. And the body of the man he had inhabited, Shuichi Zenin, was a waste in the clan. And from what he had seen from the memories he had received, the Zenin clan was the strictest when it came to matters of cursed techniques, valuing strength above anything else.

It seemed that both in the previous life and in the new life, he was a loser…

'Feels like I'm in a bad situation…' He thought in his mind.

"Shuichi, the Zenin family does not tolerate failures like you." Naobito said in a solemn tone, "So, from now on, you are expelled from the Zenin family!"

Hearing such words, Shuichi was quiet for a moment.

"May I ask why?"

"You are a waste." Naobito said with an icy glare. "You don't have a cursed technique, your cursed energy is below even that of an average human, you have no talent in martial skills, you don't have a mind suited for strategist or an advisor." One by one, Naobito listed out the defects in Shuichi, while he stood still to listen.

"Not to mention you don't even have a strong body. So you can't base this on a heavenly restriction." He pointed at him, "You are trash. No, you are lower than trash. You are simply a waste of space."

Shuichi looked at the ground without saying anything. Seeing this, Naobito smiled.

"Do not need me to list out more reasons?" He asked calmly.

"No… I will leave the Zenin clan today…" Shuichi replied with a small voice.

"It's great that you understand." He said while lying down onto the futon, "Now go, I wouldn't want to share the same room with you for more time than necessary."

"I understand." Shuichi bowed and left the room. It was not that he wanted to bow. It was simply what he needed to do as a respect to the clan head. As someone with the blood of the Zenin family, disrespecting the clan head was considered a grave crime.

Even though he was no longer a part of the clan, he could still be thrown into the disciplinary pit by a single order from him.

He wanted to avoid that.

Shuichi walked through the mansion without so much a sound. He didn't know why, but he was deeply affected by the words that the old man said.

'A waste of space.'

'Worse than trash.'

'A failure to the family.'

These words kept on ringing inside his head and he didn't know why. Why were these words affecting him to such an incredible degree?

Perhaps it was the memories of the previous owner affecting his thought process.

The previous Shuichi was always trying to get the approval of others, even going so far as to complete any task given to him, even if he was gravely injured in the process.

"Hah!" He sighed while walking down the hall.

"What am I gonna do now?" He said to himself. At first he had thought about all of the novels he had read. Perhaps he would achieve the height of his potential in this life and stand at the pinnacle of this world. But reality was harsh.

The upper limit of a jujutsu sorcerer was decided when he was born. If he had a good cursed technique, he could grow to extreme heights. If not, he could only blame his own luck.

That was an irrefutable fact in the jujutsu world. The strength of the sorcerer was decided 80% by the type of cursed technique he had, while the other 20% was their own hard work.

It was the kind of harsh world that crushed the hopes of a hard worker. It didn't matter how hard one tried to increase his power, in front of raw potential and talent, he would still be lacking. Reality is harsh.

While Shuichi was thinking about what he was going to do in the future, he reached the door to his room.

The current Shuichi had no parents. They had both died while fighting some first grade curse when he was very little. As such, he did not have many memories of them. It was also the reason he lived in a corner of the mansion, occupying a small room that would otherwise be treated as a closet.

'Maybe I should open up a shop of cursed trinkets.' He mused, thinking of a potential way of scamming normal people. He didn't know how to make cursed equipment, but he could always use the measly amount of cursed energy he had to achieve some effect for a short amount of time. And that would be all he would need.

He opened up the door to his room and walked inside, revealing the extremely congested room with the minimum about of things. It consisted of a small futon on the ground, a closet at the side for clothes, a connected bathroom and a book shelf that consisted of the basics of jujutsu arts.

As he looked at the room in disappointment, suddenly, a holographic screen appeared in front of him.

[Hello Player]

"Huh?" He blurted out in surprise. Looking at the holographic screen in front of him, he was surprised.

He cleared his throat and excitedly called out "Status"

{[Status]} [Skill Tree] [Inventory(1!)]

[Name: Zenin Shuichi

Level: 1

Class: Sorcerer

Cursed Technique: None

Innate Skills: None]

'Okay… That's… disappointing' Shuichi thought. He had expected the system to be like a typical rpg setting, where he could level up and increase his attributes. But that did not seem to be the case. He 'could' level up but there was no such thing as stats being displayed. Not to mention there wasn't even an HP or an MP bar.

His earlier excited considerably died down but it was not completely eliminated.

Then he looked at the inventory, which had a '1!' on it.

He quietly opened up the inventory.

[Status] [Skill Tree] {[Inventory]}

[Starter Gift: Gives the best possible starting point based on the class of the user]

Shuichi read the explanation and couldn't help but have some expectations in his heart.

"Open Starter Pack!"

[Starter Pack is being opened]

[You have received Skill: Cursed Technique Creation]

[You have received Skill: Corrupted Mind]

"HUH!?"