ch4, Transferring school

~~~~~~~~~~~~ [Makiri's Pov ] ~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So what's up with the girl? What is that finger?"

After I was kidnapped by the white-haired man, he told me to come along while he carried the unconscious girl and tied her to a chair.

Even I'm not stupid enough to leave them alone like this, so I stayed to make sure nothing would happen.

"The finger," he said after finishing tying the girl up, "was one of Sukuna's fingers."

"She is known as the strongest sorcerer in history, although she's more of a cursed spirit than a sorcerer."

"And her finger is a catalyst for her reincarnation. It is said that she was so strong that no one could beat her.

It got to the point where she just killed everyone and then turned herself into 20 fingers so she could be reincarnated again when she had someone else to fight."

I listened to all this, and the only thing I got from his explanation was that there was a lunatic so strong she killed everyone and then herself just to fight again later on.

That's... honestly in line with everything that's been happening right now.

"So why 20? Did she turn her toes into fingers too?" I asked which is, understandable. I've heard some people like that.

"No, no. She has four arms." Ah, so she's even more of a freak.

"But that's enough about that. Let's talk about you being a freak." The white-haired man changed the subject, and before I knew it, I was also tied up in a chair.

"Why? Do I need to be tied up?" I asked justifiably.

"I find it easier to interrogate someone when they're tied up," he replied. What? you know what? I am not gonna ask

"Okay! So, you told me the gist of it, and it looks like you have no idea what's happening either." Before all of this, I had mentioned the weird voice in my head and the invisible panel, but that was pretty much it.

"So, continue. Tell me what else is there in that panel and what did those voices tell you?"

"It wasn't really that much, to be honest. It's like in a video game where you have stats to determine your power.

My Strength is 40, my Cursed Energy is 47, and my Dexterity is 51.

At first, they were all 40, but the voice kept giving me those stats, and I could feel that I got faster every time my Dexterity increased."

So I continued to explain everything to him in great detail, including all that had happened, the binding vows that took one of my power stones, and what power stones are.

"So they just... gave you this power for no reason? Is there no pattern or anything that suggests you'll get them if you do certain things?"

"Nope. But this is the first time this has happened, so maybe there is a pattern. Maybe I'll only get them if I'm fighting ghosts."

Just when I thought I had this thing figured out, the notification came in again.

[You got 2 Cursed Energy from elpepe]

[You got 3 Powerstones from Al_Dagheri]

[You got 3 Powerstones from Luke_Skywalker_0789]

'What the f*ck? From Sky Wars?'

"What's wrong? Your cursed energy got increased again," the cursed energy sensor noted, sensing my increase and asking me a question I was still confused about.

"Well, that was my theory being proven wrong. It's not just when I'm fighting—they'll give me these powers seemingly at random," I told him about the new notifications and the names of the people giving me those power stones and cursed energy.

"From Sky Wars?" he asked.

"That's what I'm saying!" Really, how random could my power be?

"So, they gave you power stones? What are those?"

"Even I don't quite get it. All I know is that sometimes I can use them in binding vows or whatever, or I can use them to increase my stats."

"You can use them to increase your stats? How many do you have?"

I opened up my status board, which could be accessed with just a thought—nice.

"I have... 26 of them," I said.

"And how many points of stats are those?"

What is he even asking? "...26," I told him, giving him a questioning look.

"So one stone equals one point?"

Isn't that normal?

"Yes."

"I see."

He appeared to fall into deep thought. I didn't know what he was thinking, but it looked like he was taking this seriously.

[You got 2 Powerstones from DUGBERT]

[You got 1 Powerstone from Fourt_Kung]

[You got 3 Dexterity from Praxys]

'This guy really wants me to get faster.'

"Another voice?" the white-haired man asked.

"Yeah, this time it gave me 3 power stones total and 3 Dexterity, so my Dexterity is now 54, which is the highest number on my stats," I explained, and he nodded in understanding.

""I see—"

"Yeah, I'm gonna stop you right there. How did you see? You're wearing a blindfold." That had been bugging me the entire time.

"Don't worry about it. In the meantime, I think you should hold on to those power stones. They might save your life in the future because of those binding vows you were talking about."

"But if you want my advice, put them into cursed energy. Your level on that is still quite low, after all."

"Why are you speaking as if I want to be a sorcerer? What even is being a sorcerer? Are you guys even getting paid?"

That's the number one problem I have with being a sorcerer. If being a sorcerer is like being in the Justice League where you just save the world for no reason, then I'm out. I don't want to be there.

"Sure you do, and you'll get free scholarship until you graduate. how about that?"

"sign me up" See? you should've lead with that and not the lab rat bullshit

~~~~~~~~~~~~ [Yuji's Pov] ~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today has been a weird day. Soon after I saw my grandpa die, a strange girl talked about ghosts and other things I don't really understand.

But then it looked like the ghosts were targeting my senpais at school, so we went there to save them. Just when we arrived, a person famous for being a neet among the first years jumped from the third floor while holding some grotesque monster.

It's a good thing the weird girl has her magical bird; otherwise, he might be dead.

Everything after that was just a blur, until the end where I ate the thing that the curse had been looking for to save everyone.

"And because of that, you are being executed." And now there is a weird old man speaking nonsense.

I can only stare at him with a face full of confusion as he explains how his apprentice doesn't want me to die and asked him personally to spare me.

Just for me to still get executed.

"This story doesn't make sense so far," I told him straight, and he replied with, "Hey man, I tried." Try harder.

"An execution is an execution, buuuuut we are suspending the sentence."

"Suspending the sentence? So it's on hold for now?" I don't know if I should be relieved or not.

"Yup, let me put it this way," the old man said suddenly, putting his hand in his pocket and pulling out what looked like a perfect copy of the finger from last night.

"This is the same as the cursed object you ate last," he explained. He then threw it into the air, and out of nowhere, it was shot into the wall, cracking it with tremendous force.

"As you can see, it's indestructible," he said. "With each passing day, they get even stronger. We actually have no one who can seal them right now, so that's a problem for everyone on the planet."

Here's the revised version of your text:

"That's where *you come in. If you eat all of the fingers and then we kill you, then the fingers are no more!" he explained again, and I couldn't help but feel like this is a bit unfair.

'Why do I need to die just to destroy some fingers?'

"The higher-ups were a bit scared that Sukuna might come out, so they want to kill you right now."

"But I told them, 'Hey, if we're going to kill this girl anyway, why not wait until she's eaten all of them?' And of course, they agreed because they can't say anything to me."

'Then why can't you just told them to spare me?'

Here's the revised version of your text:

"So that was my proposal, Yuji-chan. We can either kill you now and get rid of one finger, or we kill you later and get rid of all of them. The choice is yours."

'How is any of this a choice? It's just die now or die later.' Presented with this very unfair situation, I decided to choose the one that would keep me alive the longest.

"That's kind of unfair, don't you think?" Suddenly, I heard a voice coming from my side, and there I saw the famous NEET.

"It is unfair, but we don't have any other choice," the old man replied.

"Well, what if she ate all of them? Let's say she ate all 20 fingers and still managed to keep her consciousness. What's stopping her from unleashing Sukuna right then and there to avoid her execution?" the NEET responded once again.

"Well, if she does that, then I'll take care of it. I am the strongest, after all." Wow, they really wanted me dead.

"So this is really set in stone? She really needs to die just to save people who don't even know she exists?"

"Yes."

"I see." He stopped talking for a few seconds. He looked up at the ceiling as if he was thinking about something.

Until he speaks again: "Hey, old man," he said.

"I am not that old, you know?"

"I don't care."

"Anyway, are these higher-ups the same ones that wanted to turn me into a lab rat?"

'They want to do what?!'

"Correct," the old man replied. He just nodded in response. Is that really all he wanted to know?

~~~~~~~~~~~ [Makiri's pov] ~~~~~~~~~~~

"Yeah, Mom, I got transferred. I know. I'll talk to you later; I need to pack my stuff for now. Stay safe, okay?" I hung up the phone and continued to pack up my things. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not, but whatever. I got a job and a free scholarship—I'm not going to turn this down.

Also, I heard that getting an office job is hard and can be gruelingly boring, so I'm just going to be a sorcerer and deal with curses for a living. I don't care.

"So you got scouted?" I heard Rin ask from the door while I was packing my stuff.

"Kind of. They said it's a prestigious school and they'll make sure I get a job when I graduate. Who can turn down that kind of opportunity?" I replied, continuing to put my gaming consoles and other things into a box.

She walked into my room and sat on the bed. "Tokyo High of Jujutsu? I've never heard of that school before."

"Neither did I."

She stopped talking for a moment, maybe deciding that I could pack my stuff in peace now.

Ah, who am I kidding? Something is definitely wrong with her.

"What's wrong?" I asked her, but I already know that she is gonna answer with–

"Nothing." –Nothing, See? She's so predictable.

"You know I'm not going to ask you again if you say that," I told her. She and I have been friends since elementary school, so she knows I don't like to dig too deeply into people's problems.

"Good," she responded. I could still see that something was bothering her, but since she didn't want to talk about it, I wasn't going to press the issue.

She can take care of herself, I'm sure.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[You got 3 Powerstones from DEZMI_TV]

[You got 2 Powerstones from vitor_bugo]

[You got 3 Powerstones from Random_person_253

[You got 3 Strength from Skibidirizz]

[You got 3 Dexterity from DEKUWITHDRIP]

I stared at my status panel while finishing up packing my stuff. After I was done, someone drove me to the hospital to pick up another person, and it was none other than the pink-haired lunatic.

She's technically in the same boat as me, only her boat is far deadlier. But eeh basically the same.

[Makiri Tohsaka

Strength = 43

Cursed Energy = 50

Dexterity = 57

Undistributed Stones = 34]

Now, I have to decide where to allocate the undistributed points.

I could put the points into Cursed Energy, but since I have no idea how to use it, it feels like giving myself more limbs that I can't control—useless.

So, my two options are either Strength or Speed.

Strength… what does it really mean? What does it entail?

Do I just lift heavy stuff? That doesn't sound very useful.

So what about Dexterity? Is it speed? What kind of speed are we talking about?

Running speed? Perception speed? Reaction speed? Or is it all of the above?

Because if it's all of the above, then hell yeah, I want this. Reaction speed is crucial if I want to stay alive, and running speed is also crucial if I want to stay alive.

soooo... is that it? is this my main build?

'You know what? Forget it. I'll get more later anyway. Let's just put them all into speed for now.'

I decided to allocate every single point to speed, and whoa. This time, I felt the difference much more acutely than before.

Before, it was just a small increase, one point at a time, but now it feels like my speed has doubled.

Everything seemed to move half as fast as usual for a few seconds until my mind could adjust to my newfound speed.

[Makiri Tohsaka

Strength = 43

Cursed Energy = 50

Dexterity = 91

Undistributed Stones = 0]

So it's official: my life is just a game now. I didn't notice it last night because of the rush, but it's really sinking in now that I am a playable character.

"Tohsaka-san?" A feminine voice called out my name from my side.

It was the pink-haired girl.

"Yes?" I responded. "Is there something you need?"

"No, nothing like that. It's just that you've been staring off into nothing, and I thought something might be bothering you," she said. But I got the feeling that she just wanted to talk.

"No, nothing. Just using my weird ability, I guess. More importantly, are you sure you're okay?" I brushed off my weird ability and asked her something that had been bugging me.

"Me? I'm fine. What do you mean?" she said with an oblivious expression.

"You're going to be executed after they are done using you. How are you so chill about that? Aren't you mad or something? I know I would be if it were happening to me," I told her directly, sharing my thoughts on her execution.

It's stupid, it's really stupid. Why does she need to die? Why can't they just wait until she dies naturally? I mean, she's not immortal.

It will happen eventually. Just wait it out.

"Well," she said, "I am mad about it. I keep thinking about why I need to be executed in the first place. Like, can't I just eat the fingers and then wait until I get old and die?" That's what I'm saying!

"But I guess if my existence—or Sukuna's existence—is endangering a lot of people, then the sooner we die, the better, right?" See? This is why I don't like good people.

I don't understand how their minds work. She's willing to sacrifice herself for a bunch of people she doesn't even know.

"You're an amazing person, you know?" I told her suddenly.

"Huh?" she responded, looking confused.

"You're willing to sacrifice yourself for the sake of a bunch of random people who don't even know you exist. That's commendable, but a bit foolish in my opinion.

I will never do that. I'm telling you right now, it will never happen. Trust me," I told her. I'm not a good person. If I have to choose between me and a random person, I'm choosing me. I don't care.

"Hihi, you say that, but what you did last night says otherwise," she smirked at me, and I already had a counter ready.

"Last night's me was drunk and on every drug imaginable. That's why he did crazy stuff like that." What's that? I did that? Pfft, no. That was someone else.

"Uh-huh, sure. Keep telling yourself that," she said.

What do you mean by that, pinky?

~~~~~~~~~~ [To be continued] ~~~~~~~~~~

[Makiri Tohsaka

Strength = 43

Cursed energy = 50 (still can't see curses by the way

Dexterity = 91 (Average running speed = 32,96Km/h)

undistributed stones = 0]

Sorry! I should've upload this chapter last night but I was knocked out from my job and just went right to sleep.