Chapter 3

My early life flew by in a blur of boredom and inaction. I stayed with the woman who had carried me to meet the clan head for a while while my mother was recovering. As it turned out, that woman was my aunt, but she and my mother looked nothing alike, so I didn't fault my deductive skills. After my mother recovered, I was sent to live with her full-time since she always stayed within the clan compound at all times. Even though she was a sorcerer, she was ordered by the clan leader to stay inside at all times due to the usefulness of her cursed technique.

Her cursed technique, Prophet, allows her to see glimpses of the future in her dreams. She had been able to save the lives of numerous clan sorcerers over the years with her visions. Technically, I wasn't even supposed to exist due to the clan head ordering my mother not to have children due to her Heavenly Restriction that made her extremely weak in exchange for more cursed energy. My father, being a powerful sorcerer and the brother of the clan leader, ignored this order and got her pregnant anyway. He figured that the two of them would be able to have an extremely powerful child, and my mother was able to confirm this with a vision.

I was glad for my mother's technique, but not because it resulted in my birth. With the system, I could have been reborn wherever. No, I was happy about my mother's technique because it gave me an excuse for replicating the techniques of sorcerers that don't show up until the end of the series or the techniques of the disaster curses. My father's technique was good, but nothing worth replicating, it allows him to spread a cloud of poisonous gas to incapacitate enemies. Speaking of cursed techniques to replicate, my first three to four years, where all I could do is exist in the compound, gave me plenty of time to consider the first technique to replicate.

I had narrowed my first choice down to some of the less complex but still powerful cursed techniques since I wanted to be able to get through plenty of levels quickly so that I can have something to lean back on in case of trouble. The two techniques I was considering were Granite Blast and Cleave/Dismantle. I was considering both of these techniques as my first due to their relative simplicity while still having plenty of lethality to them. I liked Granite Blast due to its very basic nature as a blast of cursed energy, it would basically be my training wheels before moving on to more complex techniques.

However, there was a massive drawback to Granite Blast that I couldn't ignore. The technique is very destructive because it is just an explosive blast of cursed energy. That would make it very hard to train casually every day without veils having to be put up every time I want to train. Also, when I began to go out on jobs or just fight cursed spirits in cities in general, there would be massive amounts of collateral damage to deal with. That was where I was leaning toward Cleave/Dismantle, it is more subtle while being extremely lethal while still remaining relatively simplistic in nature. I was leaning heavily toward going down the Sukuna route the more I thought about it.

(A/N: I was actually planning to go with Granite Blast first, but in writing this, I convinced myself to go with Cleave/Dismantle. Just a little funny side note)

With that decided, all I could do was wander around the compound until I turn four. At four, I will start to be instructed in hand-to-hand combat and swordsmanship. I planned to grind out those two skills for a year or two until I gain access to cursed energy and my innate technique. Then, once I get access to cursed energy manipulation, I will try to level that up as much as possible. With my system, I am confident that I can reach the same heights as the six eyes in cursed energy manipulation, but it will take some time. I didn't stress too much since I have years to work on all my basic skills once I unlock everything.

In my years wandering around the compound, I learned that Satoru is, in fact, 11 years older than I am. I thought about trying to get him to make a promise to train me in the future, but I dismissed that idea for two reasons. One, I already know a lot about the power system due to watching the system and knowing a lot. Of course, that doesn't translate to experience, but I was sure that I could brute force some stuff in the future and figure it out on my own. Two, Satoru isn't ever depicted as a very good teacher at all in the series. He is powerful and can do a lot, but he can't explain how to do that stuff to others since it is all so natural for him.

I also learned that the clan had quite a few sorcerers, but most of them just have okay or no techniques. There were no stand-out sorcerers in the clan other than Satoru himself. I only saw the wonder child on a few occasions since he spent a lot of time training and getting groomed to be the next head of the clan. Plus, as I grew older, he began to prepare to go away to Tokyo Jujutsu High as a first-year student. That made our already infrequent encounters ever more rare. I didn't mind that too much, but the two of us had a friendly relationship, so it was slightly disappointing to see him go away when he turned 15.

My disappointment was offset by the fact that Gojo leaving for Jujustu High was also the time I was set to begin my training. I woke up early the day my training was set to start and walked to the training ground to meet my father. He had never instructed me to arrive earlier than the time he had told me to come, but after knowing the man for four years, I knew that he would be upset if I didn't arrive early to begin training. He was the type to expect you to arrive an hour early and leave an hour late. I didn't mind that too much since I had nothing else to do but train for the next few years anyway. I was happy to break up the stale monotony of my life up to this point with hardcore training.

I arrived at the training ground to find my father already waiting, "Good, I can see that you actually want to learn, let's begin," he said as he threw one of the wooden practice swords to me.

The one he threw me was smaller than the one he held, but defiantly not enough for a four-year-old child to wield comfortably. I caught the blade and almost tipped over immediately due to its size and weight. I didn't complain, though, beginning to hold the sword like my father. I could see that he was carefully examining everything with that hard light in his eyes. When he saw me copy him without a complaint about the sword, he nodded and began his introduction on the sword. I listened to his instruction, but I also knew that it would be easier if I got the skill from the system, so I took a few swings, mirroring his posture when he gave me the demo.

He began to look at me disapprovingly as I gave a few sloppy swings. Just as he was about to admonish me for beginning without him telling me to, his mouth fell open as he watched my previously trash swings and stance become much, much better all of a sudden. Only after one decent swing was I granted the skill, which instantly improved my technique by a large margin. I could see the disbelief in my father's eyes, but also a new emotion beginning to show itself, pride. To credit the man, even with his astonishment, he took the development in stride and just moved on to more advanced concepts sooner. As he spoke, I took the time to glance at the skill description.

[New Passive Skill - Swordsmanship (Lv. 1): +2% damage, +1% movement efficiency]

I grinned as I looked at the skill, +200% damage at level 100 sounded pretty nice to me. The ability to actually see the power of my skills and how they increase gave me enough motivation to keep training until I literally dropped from exhaustion. Even then, I tried to rise to my feet and continue, I was addicted to the grind after all. By the end of the day, I could tell that my father was thoroughly impressed, but I was looking at my system.

I managed to get Swordsmanship to level 4 today. I knew that the early levels would be easy, but that sight caused my determination to grow tenfold.