16 Contemplating Life and Techniques

A/N: Btw, just typing this while I remember, but for the sake of the minority that does, I figure I should mention this. I am actually pretty good at spelling and grammar, so when you see mistakes, I also know that they are mistakes, they were just typos. That said, my ass is too lazy to go and correct all my typos, I only make like two a chapter, so there's no need to waste your time leaving a comment correcting me, cuz I know it's wrong and I ain't gonna bother to fix it lol. I do appreciate the thought tho. :3

Onto the chapter!

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Humming some barely remembered tune to myself, I ignore my surroundings as I focus on the talisman in my hands, carefully guiding ink along it in very precise patterns with my brush.

We're at some lake today and Sukuna is currently having fun fighting the Curse we were sent to exorcise. It's some Water Spirit that got corrupted by a nearby village doing ritual sacrifices for some reason.

The story behind it is pretty interesting to me, and the fact that even a neutral kami of such strength can be corrupted by human worship is definitely something to think about. It is Special Grade, after all. That's why we were sent.

But unlike the other grades, Special Grade isn't as evenly defined. Most Grade Ones can generally fight with a chance of winning against most other Grade Ones. However, this is now the third Special Grade Curse we've been sent to kill, and so far none of them have really been much stronger than Inumaki-san.

Sukuna is at least having fun, I can tell that much by the way his Cursed Energy is fluctuating, as it always does when a good battle excites him. The Curse's technique is a pretty lethal poison after all, and I'm not going to purge it for him if he gets hit, so he is technically in danger here.

Obviously he's still going to win, but still.

Either way, it's his turn to kill the Curse, so I'm just sitting a safe distance away on top of Kon's head. I was sitting on one of my other Shikigami on the way here, but Sukuna's fucking up the environment like he's getting paid to, so I summoned Kon instead so I can be above the treeline.

I don't want to get distracted and fuck up again, after all.

I'm working on one of my barrier projects. I'm trying to reinvent the phone via spirit magic. I could even call it the Telephone Technique when I'm done, since it's not like anyone will know I'm copying names, and it would be funny for me, if no one else.

Then again, maybe there are some Seers out there that would recognise the name and be able to call me out on knowing the future, so maybe not then. Damn, that sucks, I was really planning on laughing a lot about that.

Ah well.

I've naturally told Sukuna and Kamo-Sensei about my project, and Kamo-Sensei at least seemed very interested by it. Sukuna was too, for about five minutes.

A technique based around communicating with others will naturally not hold his attention for long, because he doesn't care about anything that promotes teamwork and such. Expansive, long range communication doesn't interest him because it doesn't directly enhance his own abilities, skill or understanding.

Selfish prick.

Even Kamo-Sensei lost some interest when I brought up the idea of spreading the technique to facilitate easier communication throughout the Jujutsu world.

They're both so selfish. No wonder they're such good Sorcerers.

It's a strange triangle that we make. Sukuna and Kamo-Sensei can connect with their shared distain for everyone else, Kamo-Sensei and I can connect on our shared curiosity, and Sukuna and I can connect on being The Strongest.

It's strange, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Another explosion of force sends an enormous geyser of water into the air, and I briefly glance up to see Sukuna riding the draconic sea serpent-shaped Cursed Spirit into their air, laughing manically all the while, and a soft smile grows on me.

Yeah, I love these selfish assholes. 

Even the knowledge that they don't, or maybe even just can't love me back, I really don't care. If anything, it would be a little bit disappointing if they were to abruptly turn around and stop being who they are just to return my platonic affections.

Regardless, I shake my head and get back to my talisman.

According to Kamo-Sensei and the reading material he has recommended me, the art of Barrier Techniques, Kekkaijutsu, actually originated from another art called Fūinjutsu, or Sealing Techniques.

As a side note, Sealing Techniques apparently came from freaking Ninjas! As in, genuine, real life, Shinobi! There are Ninjas as well as Sorcerers!! This is awesome! I want to meet them!

I spent a solid day full of giddy, hyper energy when Kamo-Sensei told me about that, because holy fuck it's cool, but apparently they're basically impossible to find. Which makes sense, since y'know, Ninja. So I probably won't be able to meet one until they inevitably get hired to assassinate either Sukuna or I.

Anyway, the point is that while Barrier Techniques are purely an art of Sorcery, it does have roots in Sealing Techniques. The difference is that Sealing Techniques functioned off of paper tags and special ink, or maybe sometimes blood, the books weren't entirely clear on the exact process.

Barrier Techniques however, don't even need any kind of paper or writing to work, such as the Curtain. However, Barriers can be enhanced by going through the proper process and making talismans. It's no different from any other kind of Sorcery in that aspect. Going through the proper rituals and chants and stuff naturally enhances Sorcery. We just use Subtraction to speed things along, but that's only really necessary in a fight, where a bit of speed can be worth a reduction in power.

The ink is not strictly necessary for Barrier Techniques, but drawing the pathways your Cursed Energy needs to take certainly helps out, even if it does make it easier for other people to understand and thus potentially counter the techniques.

Right now I'm working on what will hopefully be the final revision of my new technique before I can start putting it to use. Since I actually want other people to be able to decode it, I'm drawing it out on a talisman instead of just visualising the whole thing with my Cursed Energy alone.

The end result is incredibly similar to the average Paper Shikigami, the most basic, entry way Shikigami for Sorcerers entering the practice. The normal technique basically just amounts to animating some paper that has been cut into a specific shape, usually a stick figure.

My version is naturally a lot more complex, but I've put a lot of work in, with some help from Kamo-Sensei, to simplify the design enough that it should be relatively easy for anyone to learn.

Apparently I have a pretty warped sense for what's easy and what's difficult though, so I'm basically just running on hope for that.

Either way, my original technique is called Black Butterfly, or Kuroichō, because I could not think of anything more creative.

First, one must cut the paper into the shape of a butterfly. Then comes the infusion, where you simply need to infuse Cursed Energy along the appropriate paths, paths that I am marking with ink to make it so one doesn't have to have a keen sense for Cursed Energy to see what's happening.

During the infusion process, you can implant your message directly from your thoughts, transmitted through your Cursed Energy. Then, once the butterfly is animated, it will seek the nearest shadow and sink into it.

From there, it will seek out the recipient, using the shadows as a vector of travel. I only designed it like this because my own Innate Technique made it a lot easier and more natural for me, and I couldn't think of another way to have the same effect.

It's probably why the paper butterflies always turn out ink black too.

To use the technique, you will also naturally have to be at least passingly familiar with the target of your message. After all, the way the butterfly finds the recipient of the message is basically by tracking their soul through their shadow. 

It's pretty complicated, which is why it's taken me so long to do. I've been attending Jujutsu high for just over three months now and been working on this for most of that time.

Even still, I only managed to get it to work through the use of Binding Vows. The main Binding Vow that you accept when you use the technique is that you will only be using it for the sake of peaceful communication.

If you send a Black Butterfly with hostile intent, or to try and track it to find someone, or to add a delayed effect to the butterfly, or anything like that, then it just won't work.

The method that the butterfly uses to find people is based on my theory on the base structure of humanity.

I believe there are three portions of a person. The soul, the body and the shadow. The body is connected to both, but separates the shadow and soul. So the body can interact with both, and vice versa, but the soul and the shadow cannot directly interact, despite being reflections of one another.

At least, not when there is a body separating them anyway.

This actually helps my technique. It travels through shadows, and because of the connection between shadows and physical bodies, the butterfly is basically incapable of separating people from each other, or even animals.

However, souls stand out. It's like looking at the night sky. The vast, empty and dark space is everywhere, only interrupted by the pinprick lights of the stars.

In this analogy, the bodies are space, and the stars are souls. If there were no stars, then my technique would just get lost in the endless sea of bodies and their shadows. But the soul stands out like a beacon, giving the butterfly direction so it does not get lost.

This way, even if shadows and souls cannot interact, the shadow can still use the soul to find the right body in an endless and indistinguishable sea of bodies.

It's pretty cool, in my admittedly bias opinion. It's not really the telephone I was looking for, but it got the main part down in that it can send messages to anyone you know from anywhere to anywhere. Theoretically.

It also has the added benefit of meaning the recipient can recognise who sent the message purely by feeling, rather than needing the letters to be signed or something. This way, it'd be pretty difficult to send fake messages.

I'm sure people will figure out how to block them eventually, but I doubt anyone will be intercepting my technique anytime soon. It's not just like a radio or morse code or something, you can't just decrypt it and read private messages.

For one, you'd have to somehow be able to actually find the butterflies from the shadows in transit, which even I couldn't do and shadows are my whole thing.

But there's also another Binding Vow in place that makes it so that only the writer and recipient are capable of viewing the message.

The only way to break that would be if someone were to reverse engineer my technique and then remove that Vow from the process, but why the hell would anyone want to purposefully make their messaging less secure?

Regardless, I finish drawing the technique on my paper butterfly and put away my brush. Then I begin pulsing my Cursed Energy through the inscriptions until I eventually reach the part where I need to imbue my message, and I do so with a smile.

Hey, Dad.

It's been a while. How are you? I am doing excellently myself. I have already learnt so many things and seen so much, met so many interesting people. It truly is amazing, I'm having a blast.

My Jujutsu has advanced considerably too. Apparently I'm actually pretty good at this stuff, The Strongest, even. Some warning about that would have been nice. I'm pretty sure I accidentally insulted a lot of people by thinking they were weak. I think I understand your reasoning though. You wanted me to have these experiences myself, instead of just spoiling everything by taking out the challenge and mystery, right?

What do you think of this technique? It's called Black Butterfly and I invented it myself, with a little help from my friends. I would offer to introduce you all at some point, but they're both very very mean and might try to kill you, so I won't.

But even if they are mean, I really do love them both. Especially Sukuna, he's my best friend. I really hope you can safely meet him someday.

Speaking of Sukuna, he's about done with the Curse we were sent to exorcise, so I'll wrap this message up before he cuts my hands off again. He does that a lot, because he is very mean.

I'll explain how Black Butterfly works now so you can send a message back, because I miss you and want to hear from you again.

However, right as I started explaining how to use the technique, the paper butterfly in my hands abruptly burst into a bright blue flame and burned to nothing in mere seconds.

"Eh?" What happened?

Closing my eyes, I recall the sensations coming through my Cursed Energy and quickly realise the issue.

It's a storage problem. I will either have to figure out how to allow for larger messages to be held by the technique, or just deal with sending multiple smaller letters.

Obviously I'm not going to just settle and not try to improve it, but I do quickly make a new Black Butterfly, not bothering with drawing it out, so that I can restore my message before I forget it.

I had to cut a little bit more out of the message to make up for the lack of proper ritual in the form of drawing it all out, but that's fine.

Now, how do I increase the amount of information it is capable of holding?

...I have no ideas.

What did they do to increase storage for computers and stuff? Not for the first time, I regret not paying more attention to school and science and stuff. All I know about increasing storage in computers was to just buy more hard drives.

I have no idea how they actually got the technology to compress from a basement full of servers to a smartphone, so there goes that source of inspiration.

How do you increase storage space without decreasing the size of the object doing the storing? I have no idea. The only thing I can think of is compressing files and stuff, but all that really is is deleting useless data.

The problem with that is that there isn't really background data to be deleted. My technique is already incredibly efficient. It has to be, or I wouldn't have been able to give it enough range to cover the entire country.

Collapsing forwards, I rest my chin on my fluffy foxy Shikigami as I think on it while watching Sukuna kick the Curse into the ground. Compression isn't an answer, I can't think of any examples that could help inspire something, and the technique is already using shadows as an expanded storage, like my own shadow storage technique, so I can't really make the butterfly more like the Tardis.

Staring at the sight, no ideas come to mind, annoying me slightly, when Sukuna kicks the Curse one last time, sending yet another geyser of water into the air.

I watch the water rise with an empty mind until suddenly flinching when an unreasonably bright ray of sunlight reflects off of the water and right into my eyeballs. I rub a thumb over my closed eyes as I roll onto my back, and when I open them again, I am looking at the bright blue sky, dotted by a few pure white clouds.

...Clouds?

Clouds!

The Cloud! That's it! If I'm having problems with internal storage, then I just need to modify it to make use of external storage instead! That should work, right?

Instead of giving the butterflies an internal shadow to function as a miniature pocket dimension, I could instead just link the butterflies directly to the concept of shadows!

I know there is some kind of reverse world, like a shadow dimension of some kind that my technique has given me some access to. So what if I make the butterflies with a Vow that has them deposit their message into the shadow dimension and then pick it back up once they've reached their destination.

By cutting out the required power needed to keep the message through transit and moving that energy to just being enough to hold the message during the receiving and delivering of the message, it should work, right?

"Heh heh heh, I'm gonna invent the fucking Cloud before computers even exist~."

I need to talk to Kamo-Sensei.

A shadow appears blocking out my sun and I look up into Sukuna's judging eyes.

"What? Can't a guy laugh at his own thoughts?"

Sukuna just shakes his head at me, and I call that progress. He would have tried to kill me a couple months ago. One day he might even call me his bestest friend in the whole wide world. Or maybe even share with me a crisp high five.

"Stop thinking annoying things," Sukuna grunts at me. "Let's go."

Or maybe he just didn't try to kill me because he's in a good mood from his fight.

Either way, I shrug my shoulders and mentally command Kon to start heading towards the nearby village, both of us riding it's head.

"This is not the correct direction," Sukuna neutrally comments, to which I nod my head.

"We're going to the village first, to let them know the Curse is gone and to warn them off sacrificing people to kami. Better to prevent than cure and all that."

Sukuna huffs, but he doesn't mock or insult me this time, nor does he voice complaint, even as he very clearly doesn't want to bother reassuring some random commoners.

That's fine though. We have an understanding. He indulges my desires and in turn I indulge his, which in this case means that he doesn't complain even when he thinks it's a waste of time to offer comfort to 'foolish monkeys', if I wanted to use his words.

But seriously, these villagers need some chastisement. Kami are benevolent beings. The only exceptions are Ōkami, who have a greater degree of individuality and are naturally thus less blanketly benevolent than the average kami that isn't really capable of thought in the same way humans are.

The point being, kami are good. They don't generally want human sacrifices. The only example I can even think of of the practice is hitobashira, which is the practice of burying people alive before building any large construct.

But the old man was adamant that that practice is something that came from China and has nothing to do with our Shinto gods in the first place.

We don't venerate our gods out of fear that we will spend eternity in torment if we don't. We venerate them because they deserve it, because a prayer is what little a human can do to pay back the kindness that they show us.

A big part of me is glad I was raised in a Shinto shrine. These gods are much better than the rape happy Greek ones.

"Hey, Sukuna," I say, breaking the silence, getting a hum of acknowledgement from him. "How do you think one would go about linking a Shikigami directly to a land or concept, such that the Shikigami can deposit and collect metaphysical 'belongings' from said land or concept?"

My question manages to get more of a response from him as he turns to face me properly, his expression turning pondering, and though he doesn't show it, I can tell that he's interested in the idea.

Sukuna may be the kind of guy who prefers getting his immediate physical satisfaction, but he's not so one dimensional that he can't enjoy a good theoretical debate. Especially if it's on a subject he's interested in, which is basically just Sorcery and killing people really.

But if I'm being honest with myself, I asked the question more just so that I could enjoy myself by having a fun and engaging conversation with my dear, distant friend. That's more important to me than actually finding a solution.

He looks so much happier when he's exploring new aspects of Jujutsu.

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Chikuzen Province, Kyūshū

///

Exile. Banishment.

How could they?

After all he has done, how dare they banish him. Him!?

Sugawara no Michizane!? They dare send him into exile!?

He is the single greatest Sorcerer there has ever been!

How could they. How dare they.

His genius has pushed Sorcery forward by centuries!

Their nation experienced decades of unheard of peace because of him. He alone has killed more Special Grade Curses than anyone else ever has!

So what if the world overcorrected and started causing a little chaos recently? That does not undo everything he has accomplished! They wouldn't be where they are right now if it wasn't for him!

They should be grateful. 

Bowing on their hands and knees and begging for favour, for mercy. Begging that he save them from the coming storm of chaos.

He is the only one who possibly could.

They need him.

Time will prove him right. They will come back, begging for him to save them.

Of course, he's heard plenty about how there are an unprecedented number of Special Grade Sorcerers running around today, a result of his existence, he thinks they tend to forget, but so what?

Special Grade is the grade with the least equality. Just because there are a bunch of children claiming to be his equal simply because they too bare the title of Special Grade, does not mean that they can replace him!

He is Sugawara no Michizane, the single greatest Sorcerer ever born! He is tired of these nobody monkeys acting like they have any right to tell him what to do!

To Yomi with waiting.

He will show them.

He will show them all!

As a great educator, he will teach them all the folly of crossing Sugawara no Michizane.

They will pay-

His thoughts slam to a halt as an uncomfortable throbbing appears in his head.

He feels something warm and wet trailing down from his forehead and he reaches a hand up to touch it, feeling the liquid coat his fingers until his hand touches something solid that he recognises as cold hard steel.

Pulling his hand away in confusion, he looks down at the blood, his blood, coating his fingers, his mind struggling to comprehend what is happening. Everything just feels so slow, like there's cotton webs in his brain.

Turning his head at the hint of movement in his peripheral vision, he finds that he is not as alone as he thought he was when he comes face to face with a man wearing a mask.

No.. Not just a man.

He is wearing all black of slightly differing shades, covered from head to toe without a single inch of skin exposed. The clothes are all loose but tight, and there's a tantō sheathe on their lower back.

What stands out the most however, is the mask on their face that is designed like that of a butterfly with wings spread. A pretty mosaic suitable for the only bit of character in the outfit. Even their hair is hidden by a hood, and there are no eyeholes through which to see.

It takes Sugawara's addled mind what felt like an eternity to comprehend what he is looking at. Who he is looking at.

"Assassin," he whispers, barely audible.

Recognising his own words manages to light a fire of urgency in Michizane's heart, but no matter how hard he tries, he just can't do anything, and he can't even figure out why.

He's just so tired right now.

"Ninja," the masked man corrects, shaking his head casually even as he pulls his tantō out of its sheathe. "Really, you Sorcerers are a resilient bunch. A kunai through the skull and you're still talking?"

Their words remind Michizane of the blood, his blood, trailing down his face, and he brings his hand back up and touches the blade sticking out of his forehead. His mind is yelling at him to do something, but he can't figure out what.

"The key to killing Sorcerers is to aim for the head," the Ninja comments, as if he is sharing friendly advice. "You lot can heal anything else, but your Reverse Cursed Techniques start in the brain. Add in a little poison, and it all simply comes down to the first strike."

Michizane hears the words said, but he isn't able to comprehend them. It sounds no different to a waterfall to him. Just indistinguishable noise coming from an increasingly blurry figure.

A figure that draws its tantō and raises it. "By the way," the figure says before poking Michizane's head with its free hand, after which his entire world seems to come into focus as the previously incomprehensible words are heard with perfect clarity. "My client wants you to know. Your death was always a part of the plan. The exile was just an excuse to keep you isolated."

The Ninja's words send Michizane reeling, but he doesn't get the time to so much as think to question them before the Ninja's blade swings down and removes his head from his shoulders in a cut so clean that there isn't even a burst of blood, just a steady flow running down the neck like an overfilled glass of water.

The head hits the ground with a soft thud, and immediately the Ninja shudders as a feeling of dread briefly washes over him.

"I know about the whole thing with Sorcerers needing to be killed in the right way to avoid them turning into Vengeful Spirits," the Ninja mutters to himself as he collects and puts away his weaponry. "So what the hell are they thinking hiring us to kill him like this? What kind of idiot wants to make a Vengeful Curse out of this guy?"

After a moment, he just shrugs to himself. "Eh, not my problem."

A sudden weight of malevolence falling on his shoulders reminds him of the corpse at his feet. "Right then, time to go," he says to himself, and putting words to action, he disappears like a ghost in blur of speed the next moment.

Outside of the small mansion Michizane was exiled to, the sky rumbles with violent thunder, lances of lightning lighting up the dark clouds near constantly.

Winds pick up, blowing with enough force to knock a man off his feet and the earth itself shakes as if it too is feeling wrathful, while everything green within a mile of Michizane's corpse withers away into dead brown and ash.

The locals can only assume the worst, and they quicky pack up their belongings and head for their homes, hoping to weather the coming storm and all the dangers it will bring.

Meanwhile, inside of his study, the decapitated head of Sugawara no Michizane...

Opens its eyes.

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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

Awooga, looks like things are gonna kick off.

Sorry for the delay btw, my wifi developed schizophrenia for a bit :(

Also, I've kind of realised that I really don't need to take this fic slow like I normally do, cuz there is honestly so much shit that I could travel at the speed of fucking light and I'd still have mroe shit to write about. Even just the DxD cross does enough for that, but as you might have noticed, there is a few more crosses than just that :>

Also, questions. Should I start using Japanese for technique names and stuff? Like, should I keep saying Barrier Techniques and Sealing Techniques, or should I start saying Kekkaijutsu and Fuinjutsu?

Also, do you have any characters you wanna see a pov from? Or characters/historical figures you wanna see added to the fic? The only requirements is that they were alive between the years 900-1100 or were alive earlier but have some reasonable method of extending their lifespan, like being a yokai.

I had another question too but I can't remember what it was :/

7 chaps ahead on patreon, including the fukin near 10k fight scene with Michizane lol. Next public upload will be a double, and after that another double (the latter will be the one with the fight).