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spacebaby1 · 8 months ago

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Saving Ace (Ace x F!reader)

I live and breathe comfort first, especially for Ace D portgas; my baby. Thank you for this idea! Thank you, @captainportgasdace

T.W: Blood, scars

"Ya! Why do you keep running into the wilds like you have seven souls and end up hurting yourself. You always show up covered in cuts and bruises, Ace! Do you fight wild animals out there?" Your little bow still not fixed and still in your school uniform both you and Ace sat in front of your house as you were cleaning his cuts. You're both ten and nine years old. This was supposed to be the first day of school, but of course, Ace didn't show interest in being part of it. "I don't mind getting hurt because I know you will always take care of them afterwards." Pinching your cheeks with his other hand, he chuckled. You rolled your eyes before slapping his hand away from your cheeks. Getting up, you looked at him half mad, "I'm not always gonna be there to save you when you're hurt." You heard him laugh as you walked inside the house.

A painful yelp that left your lips after you hit the ground hard, arm half burnt from the Akainu fist, and both Luffy and Ace not far from where you fell. Immediately, you noticed Luffy fell unconscious in front of you to his side, bleeding everywhere. "Lu-luffy, n-no, please g-get up!" Your voice shaking as you pleaded. Turning to your other side for Ace was painful. The fist caused you too much damage in the arm that you could feel it burning and numb at the same time. Hold on to the ground you tried hard to slide towards Ace, unable to move one of your legs, hardly breathing and chocking on your own blood. You held Ace's hand, "A-A-Ace, g-get up! ACE!"

The others were quick to distract Akainu from the three of you as if suddenly you three weren't there. You saw Junpei rushing to take Luffy away, and you took a breath of relief, but still, this wasn't over, Ace was right there and hurt. A painful scream left your lips as you sat up and grabbed Ace to stand still, avoiding every muscles of your telling you to just fall because that first few steps were killing you, "A-Ace d-don't die o-on me, plea-AHHH," you almost dropped Ace when you felt the burning pain in your arm again. Seeing the heart pirate crew was a relief because you've met Law before, and you knew he was there on your side. "I-" unable to speak anymore, you cried, terrified that you're unable to let out a sound from how much you were in pain. If it wasn't for Marco to bring you and Ace on the heart pirate submarine; not once you let go of Ace even when Marco let you down and left before saying something that you couldn't hear because of how loud your ears were ringing. Everything seemed blurry even when Law reached to hold you up from your head bent position, still holding Ace and murmuring for him to wake up. Vision barely clear you spoke to Law, "P-please save him, you-you have to save him. Lu-luffy h-has no-fami- Save A-Ace." You were shaking badly, not sure if Law can even hear your voice or it's just in your mind that you're speaking when in reality you're unable to speak. Immediately, Law's crew gathered around you to take Ace, and you finally let go, watching them disappear inside the submarine while Law supported you to stand still. You gasped before reaching further and away from Law's grip, only to fall on your knees and scream in pain. "You're hurt! Let me help you," you shook your head, and Law didn't let go but turned you towards him, "you need to let me help you. I will not let Ace or Luffy die, but I will also not let you die." You blinked at him, finally feeling the blood deipping down your eyes; ironically, you couldn't remember hitting your head that hard that you were bleeding from every part of your body. "Ace." Was the last thing you whispered before falling unconscious in Law's arms.

"I'm leaving. Aren't gonna say goodbye?" Ace giggled, waving for you.

"ACE!" You screamed, reaching your hand as you woke up. You were breathing heavily with the oxygen mask on and bandages all over you. The door opened, and Bepo entered with a stock of bandages but gasped when he saw you sitting on the bed, "You're awake. How are you feeling? Does it hurt anywhere? Are you hungry? Do you wan-"

"A-ace and Luffy. Are they oka-"

You didn't get the finish your question when Luffy entered the room with a huge smile and a bandage on his head, "Ah! You're awake!" He cheerful spoke and your eyes widened before pulling away all the machines hooked on you before running into Luffy's arms, it was then when you finally realised how badly you were hurt because you could feel every muscle hurting. You cried in Luffy's arms, hugging him tight, "You're okay. Oh, I'm so glad to see you, Luffy. You're okay? Of course you are. I was so scared Luffy, you were hurt and weren't moving. I was so so scared." He nuzzled his head on your shoulder, "I'm fine tra-guy fixed me up, heheheh. He's a really good doctor." You chuckled at how Luffy said Law's name before pulling away and nodding, "where's Ace? Is he on the deck? He should be out of the sun -" You saw the look of Luffy's face changed as his smile dropped.

Your heart dropped when you entered the room, Law was standing next to the machine that was hooked on Ace's body. You gasped, feeling tears filling your eyes as you rushed to his side. Your sweet Ace looked beyond hurt, lay on the bed unconscious. His skin pale and huge bandage around his chest, placing a gentle hand almost hovering over where he was hurt, you cried before Law spoke, "he's fine now, give him time to recover. But it will take him time to wake up. Just be patient." You lifted your head and stood up, bowing to Law, avoiding the pain in your side as you spoke, "I'll forever be in your debts for saving my boy. Thank you for saving Luffy and Ace-"

Law rushed to make you stand still, making sure to be gentle with his grip on your hand, "Don't bow like this. You're still hurt. And it's my job. there's no need to thank me at all." Your lips quivered, and you nodded, trying hard to hold yourself before Law placed one of his hands on your head, "are you feeling any pain?" You lied, shaking your head, and Law only nodded, fully aware that you indeed were lying to him, but he also knew you're saying that to stay here with Ace, "But you need to rest. Come on, Bepo, you too, Luffy. I need to run a few tests for you." Law dragged both Bepo and Luffy out of the room to give you privacy. You sat on the chair beside the bed, leaning your head next to his, and gently caressed his face, "Ace, can you hear me? Please wake up, I miss you, I miss your voice. Please, wake up. Recover fast, humm?" You kissed his forehead over and over.

The next few days felt too long, but you simply stayed by Ace's side, not leaving him alone. Luffy would stay with you by Ace only to be dragged out by Law because he keeps talking loudly to Ace and once tried to open Ace's eyes to wake him up fast. Sometimes, you'd find Luffy sitting there silently staring at Ace with a sad face waiting for his brother to wake up. Law also had to drag you out to your room to sleep, but you'll always end up returning to Ace's room and always falling asleep on the chair with your head next Ace's. Law cringed at the uncomfortable position you were sleeping with all your injuries, "ah, what the hell," with a sigh he picked you up and laid you on the bed beside Ace and placed a blanket over you both since the bed was big enough.

You'd often felt his hands slightly move when you held them, but again, they'll not move again the same minutes, so you thought it's probably because you're imagining it. It was just another long day, and you were resting your head on the bed beside Ace, almost dozing away.

A soft hand rested on your face, and you hummed at the vivid dream. It wasn't until you were sure that you heard a breathy chuckled that your eyes shot open and you sat up looking down at Ace, "Hi, my a-angel."

You immediately started to cry, hugging him. You placed kisses all over his collarbone, neck, jaw, and face as he smiled weakly. "Ace, A-Ace, Sweetie. My Ace." He held your face gently with both hands, "My angel, my brave girl. Gimmy a kiss," you chuckled with tears rolling down your cheeks and placed a few soft kisses on his lips, trying not to hurt him. Then, he kissed your forehead as he closed his eyes, took a deep sigh, and hugged you tight as you as you cried on his chest, "A-Ace, why did you scare me like that? I thought I had lost you, I don't want you to leave me, please. I can't live without you, I need you, Luffy needs you. You scared me to death, I never want to see you in pain, never ever ever. I love you, i love you so much."

"Look at me please, I've been thinking about you, you made me live. You saved my life, I know you did." You looked at him rubbing the tears away before he held your hands chuckled, "Shh, you'll rub your eyes red like that. Don't cry." He spoke, voice tired as he whipped your tears with his thumb, "my beautiful princess. My strong, brave girl." You shook your head crying before falling on his chest, "Ace," he wrapped his arms around you. "Yes, Ace's heart. My beautiful girl, I'm here, I'm still here."

The door flung open, making you and Ace jump, "ACE!" Luffy gasped when he saw his brother rushing to hug you both down, and you laughed, "Luffy, I can't breathe." Ace groaned with a smile. While Law stood there silently and sighed; at least the three of you were alive.

Even though Ace woke up, he was still in so much pain most of the time. Law still didn't let any of you off his ship; he needed Ace to recover fully. There were nights when Ace would have nightmares, twisting and turning in the bed waking you up because of how much he was burning in pain or nightmares. He'll always find you right next to him, eyes tired but trying to calm him down from his nightmares. "Hey, it's okay. You're safe, and everyone's safe. Darling, it's okay, shhh." You hugged him, rubbing his back as he calmed down, nuzzling his head in your hair, "You're safe." He hated making you worry or stay up all night looking after him, but he was terrified to be alone, and he needed you beside him. He held your hands, kissing them over and over, "Please don't leave me." You kissed his forehead, "never, I'll never leave you." You never fell asleep before him. You'll always stay awake caressing his hair softly or cuddling him humming to him while rubbing his back where he was injured soothing his pain away in any possible way You happily stayed up all night if it meant for Ace to feel safe from his pain and nightmare. When Law finally took the bandage off his chest. Ace had to look at the scar right in the middle of his chest. He grew insecure about it because he thought you'll think about him differently. Ace who refused to wear a shirt now refused to take it off, and if he'd change, he'd leave the room. That night he was in pain again, his chest itching from pain as he increased his own temperature with his devil fruit before you woke him up soothingly hushing him while gently rubbing his arms, "you're sweating, let me help you take the shir-"

"NO!" He held the end of the shirt tightly, not looking at you as he sat.

"You're burning Ace-"

He shook his head aggressively, "Why? Do you think that low of me?" He blinked at your question about to cry, "you think I didn't notice? You hate wearing shirts, you said it's hell, especially if you sleep with a shirt on. And now you're hiding a simple scar -"

"It's not simple it's ug-"

"If you think I care about a scar of your then you'd absolutely care about this," you lifted your shirt to show him your side, left arm; covered in your injuries scars, tears streaming down his eyes as he gasped at how much you were hurt trying to save him. "No, I don't! I don't care about the scars, please come back to me." He reached for you, still unable to walk much, and you immediately hugged him crying. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry, sorry. You must've been in so much pain, and it's all my fault. I didn't know I'm sorry I didn't know, why didn't you tell me? You were in pain, and you didn't tell me. I deserve all your injuries. It's my fa-"

"No, no, I will never blame you. You're my everything, Ace. I don't care how much pain I'm in because it all disappears when I see you safe and sound. I don't feel pain when you're around, I don't feel any of it when I see you sleeping comfortably. I could never blame you, I'll take your pain. If I can, I will die for you." Ace cried harder at that and he doesn't remember when was the last time he cried this much knowing how much you loved him, "I'll forever be in your debt, I owe you my life. My life, body, and soul are yours. All yours. You saved me. I love you, I love you, oh I love you so much."

That is all that took Ace to finally stop caring about that scar and return to his old self. If you thought he was clingy before, then you were wrong because he got clingier now. He got used to you taking care of him and you really didn't mind showing him the love and care, he'd refuse to accept anyone else's help and care if it's not you, even Luffy's. Sorry, Luffy.

He'd only let you tend to his wounds and injuries to the point that Law gave up and taught you how to tend to his healing injuries. Ace got more clingy asking you to hold him every chance he got because he was so used to your soft embrace and hands softly scratching his scalp, and he'll whine if you gave the same attention to Luffy; even though you saw Luffy as your little brother. Ace would absolutely not fall asleep if you're not holding him in your arms with him nuzzling his face in your neck. He will fight sleep waiting for you. And you love how clingy he got and yarns for your care. Even after Law told him that he healed out of his injuries. Ace will still look at you with puppy eyes and want his cuddles and head scratch, or you just rubbing his back. He's completely utterly in love with you, even more than he thought he was in love with you.

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linkspooky · 7 months ago

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SUKUNA, YOU ARE ME

Now that we're in the last few chapters of Jujutsu Kaisen it's time to do a deep dive into Yuji and Sukuna's relationship. Is what Yuji showing Sukuna here truly empathy? Does Sukuna's death and Yuji's attempt to reach out mean Sukuna was human all along? We'll discuss that, the parallels between this and Mahito, and what Sukuna's exit means for both himself and Yuji as characters underneath the cut.

I AM YOU

While this post is about the connection between Yuji and Sukuna, I'm going to say the majority of this post will be about Yuji. I stated this in a previous post, I don't believe Yuji's showing Sukuna empathy here. While his offer to let Sukuna live inside of him may be genuine, it doesn't come from a place of genuine understanding. Sukuna himself isn't written as a character to be understood or empathized with.

Look at the words Yuji said. "You are me." He's not saying he's like Sukuna, he's saying Sukuna is like him. He is projecting himself onto Sukuna. Everyone in the story does, even Kashimo and Gojo who both considers themselves the strongest of their time and who naturally should have been able to understand the isolation of being someone as incomprehensibly strong as Sukuna were just projecting their own personal experiences on them in the end.

Of course we could dig a little deeper on the topic.

How much can one person truly understand another? It doesn't have to be a curser, or a borderline incomprehensible deity like Sukuna. How much do you understand your own best friend?

Gojo mentions that he felt loved by everyone, but also that he was so beyond their understanding that they may as well have been plants in comparison to him.

Of course, Shoko herself says that Shoko was always right there next to Gojo trying to offer him support and Gojo just chose to keep her at an arm's length. Gojo also believed that only someone as equally as powerful as him like Sukuna could understand him. Only to find that Sukuna didn't care about Gojo's feelings of isolation at all, nor was he troubled by love in the least.

Gojo makes himself out to be someone so superior to other human beings that he's beyond their comprehension, but that's Sukuna. Gojo did feel understood once, by Geto in his youth. The thing was that Gojo assumed that Geto could understand him because they were both euqal in power level. However, years after the fact when Gojo has long surpassed Geto, their friendship remains exactly the same.

The one that Gojo pictures patting him on the back is adult Geto, not teenage Geto. The one who Gojo truly would have been satisfied by in the end was Geto, not Sukuna.

So maybe what makes Sukuna so impossible to understand by others is that same reason why Shoko can't be close to Geto. Sukuna can't be understood by others because he doesn't care to be understood by them.

Perhaps, understanding isn't the end all be all of human connection. Gojo accepted Geto, and he didn't accept Shoko. Maybe Shoko would have been able to understand Gojo if Gojo ever tried to be emotionally open with her the ever way he was with Geto then he might have felt understood.

Then there's Ryomen Sukuna who rejects love and every notion of humanity along with it.

Therefore empathy means nothing to Sukuna. Yuji's empathy in particular. No, Yuji's attempt to save Sukuna is more about himself than Sukuna. It's a reflection of a change of Yuji's state of mind that he's willing to accept living with a curse like Sukuna. That he'd even try to understand Sukuna. Curses that Yuji previously dismissed as not even being worth understanding.

The first time Yuji said these words was when Yuji tried to make an offer to Sukuna to let him take control of his body in order to heal Junpei, in order to be laughed at by Sukuna. It was the last time Yuji ever asked anything of Sukuna.

Remember, in the very beginning of the manga Sukuna seemed like a standard inner demon character like the nine tails, or hollow ichigo. Yuji even thinks he can use Sukuna to switch out to help fight for him like against the special grade cursed spirit. However, we and the audience quickly learns that not only is Sukuna not just some evil half of Yuji, or a convenient power up, he's an actively malevolent entity with a will that will do anything to escape.

When Yuji realizes that Mahito and Sukuna are both curses, he starts to see Sukuna as an enemy trapped within him. Something he's reminded of again and again, especially after the Shibuya Massacre. From that moment Sukuna and Mahito become like villainous foils to Yuji, the dark to his light, the enemy for him to kill.

Yuji defines Mahito and Sukuna as his opposites and his enemies By killing them, he also gives himself a role. It's Sukuna and Mahito's actions in taunting is the first time Yuji uses the language "kill" when dealing with curses.

Mahito compared himself to Yuji and by saying as a curse he mindlessly kills humans. The same way that Yuji as a sorcerer, mindlessly kills curses. They are on the opposite side of the same cycle with no end in sight.

Yuji decides to embrace this violent cycle because it at least gives him a role to play. If curses are the shadow of humanity, if they're a reflection of humanity then what exactly is you saying here?

Yuji says he is Mahito, and then immediately that he's going to kill Mahito. It's not a statement of self acceptance, or accepting your shadow, but rather a statement of self destruction. Even though Mahito is a chaotic evil curse who enjoys killing humans, Yuji's decision to throw away his humanity just for the sake of killing him isn't a healthy way.

When Mahito said "You are me" he was attempting to drag Yuji down to his level. Yuji then willfully descends to Mahito's level as long as it gives him the strength to kill Mahito. It's character regression on his part. Yuji once said he didn't want to kill because then the value of life might become vague to him.

In a way it did, because Yuji began to devalue his own life. Yuji wasn't able to see any meaning in his life besides a "role' that someone else assigned him. Not only was he willing to throw it away at the drop of a hat, but he also didn't feel like he had permission to live.

Unlike Yuta who actively sought affirmation from others, Yuji rejected that affirmation and tried to push everyone including people like Megumi and Choso away. They were right next to him, but Yuji became unable to accept their love and support.

Yuji is a strange paradox because he presents himself as an all-loving hero who just wants to save as many people as possible, but then you read his dialogue and he's like "I'm just a cog in the machine, I will continue to kill curses until one day I die. Then I'll just be replaced by another cog. There's no meaning at all to this sequence. Life is an endless nightmare."

I'm exaggerating, but underneath Yuji's sweet nature and goofing around, there's this very bleak attitude that his life means nothing except for the labor that he produces, and one day he'll be tossed aside and that's fine because it's what he deserves.

If Yuta seeks self-affirmation, then Yuji is seeking self-destruction. His self-loathing leads him to practically lay his head down on the chopping block and offer his neck up for execution by Higuruma's domain during the fight with Higuruma, even when Higuruma himself points out that Yuji isn't the one at fault because he wans't in control of his own body. Yuji will still take the blame, anything to punish himself further.

So, the words Yuji uses in his triumph against Mahito also signify the destruction of his own ego. That is what Yuji does when he adapts his cog mentality, he denies his own sense of self.

What Yuji experiences is basically a prolonged ego-death.

Ego death is a "complete loss of subjective self-identity".[1] The term is used in various intertwined contexts, with related meanings. The 19th-century philosopher and psychologist William James uses the synonymous term "self-surrender" and Jungian psychology uses the synonymous term psychic death, referring to a fundamental transformation of the psyche.

I brung up Ego-Death in the Jungian context, but in Yuji's case, resigning himself to being a cog is also an act of self-surrender. Yuji basically moves away from all of his previous ideals. He only sees himself as a tool to kill curses. Saving others, or helping guide others to a natural death, those things get put on the back burner as a tool doesn't need ideals.

He's abandoned all kinds of idealism and higher reasoning. In fact that is what Mahito wanted him to do, to abandon the higher reasoning that belongs to human beings and act on instinct like a curse. Mahito successfully pushed Yuji to abandon human reason and become an unthinking cog.

Jung defines the Ego-Death as the stripping away of everything else to revert to your natural self. According to Ventegodt and Merrick, the Jungian term "psychic death" is a synonym for "ego death":

In order to radically improve global quality of life, it seems necessary to have a fundamental transformation of the psyche. Such a shift in personality has been labeled an "ego death" in Buddhism or a psychic death by Jung, because it implies a shift back to the existential position of the natural self, i.e., living the true purpose of life.

Megumi also experiences an ego-death over the course of the manga that mirrors Yuji's own when Sukuna takes over his body, soaks his soul to bring Megumi near evil, and then kills Tsumiki. At this point both Yuji and Megumi both lose what were their reasons for fighting. The so-called "dignity obtained by human reason" is lost. After having those reasons stripped away from them and experiencing their ego-deaths both of them surrender control. Megumi becomes helpless and stops trying to fight Sukuna. While Yuji may not seem like he's given up on anything since he keeps trucking along, he too has given up on thinking for himself. Yuji has essentially given up as much as Megumi has, there's just less plot consequences for it.

Either way they are both brought to their lowest point by ego-death, in order to bring them to their lowest point, and make them experience a rebirth of sorts.

The persona in Jung is the face you show the outside world. it's one part of personality, with the other being the shadow. The shadow is the repressed part of peresonality. Just like curses are made up of repressed human emotions that leak out from our collective subconscious. Curses serve as the shadow of humanity collectively, especially Mahito who is made up of everything humans hate and fear about other humans. The physical embodiment of human cruelty.

However, a person can't live without their shadow. There's no such thing as a human without flaws after all, and you don't become a better person just by ignoring your own flaws. The kinds of people who are unaware of their own flaws tend to unconsciously repeat the same mistakes again and again and again.

Yuji despises curses as inhuman monsters that he can slaughter like they're enemies in a video game, but they're like... made of human vices. They are the product of humanity's emotions. Yuji's habit of only looking at the good makes him unaware of both his own shadow, his own shortcomings, and also the darker shades of grey in the world around him.

Megumi and Yuji both are characters who, need to be dragged down to the darkest point of the shadow and forced to confront their own flaws in order to learn about themselves. It's not a coincidence thaT Yuji who puts humanity on such a pedestal is a human and curse hybrid. That his older brother who's shown to be a source of overflowing unconditional love is also a human / curse hybrid, and who Yuji nearly killed because he blindly, obediently decided to kill curses. That Yuji killed two of his other curse / human hybrid brothers in spite of noticing they were different from other curses and had a family bond with each other.

It's not a coincidence that Yuji who puts humanity on such a pedestal devoured the corpses of all of his other brothers the same way that Sukuna ate his own twin in the womb to gain the power to defeat Sukuna.

Yuiji lacks a lot of self-awareness. That's why I've always said he doesn't quite live up to the "all-loving hero" he sees himself as. Savior is just a role that Yuji has adopted in order to give himself a purpose in life, but he falls short of that. The reason that he falls short is ironically that Yuji tries so hard to be superhuman, that he can't forgive himself for having basic human flaws.

It's why "Being a child is not a sin" is such a meaningful line coming from Nanami. In Yuji's eyes being a child is a sin. He constantly blames himself for not being able to hold the weight of the world on his shoulders, for not being able to save everyone by himself even though he's only been a jujutsu sorcerer for a few months.

It's why Yuji gets excited for a moment when Kusakabe mentions that Yuji is developing very fast by sorcerer standards, because he wants to be someone monstrously talented like Higuruma or Gojo - and why he immediately looks so disappointed when Kusakabe says it's not because Yuji is talented it's just because of Sukuna.

Yuji feels an overwhelming amount of responsibility and wants to be a special person who is strong enough to actually carry all that responsibility on his shoulders. That's why I say Yuji isn't a true all-loving hero, because it's more about Yuji's own feelings than the act of saving others. His guilt complex over Sukuna.

His desires to be someone special and meaningful. Yuji wants to be a good person who saves others because it gives YUJI and purpose and it gives YUJI a sense of fulfillment. If you've read Tokyo Ghoul it's like Kaneki's reason for participating in the Anteiku Raid. Not because he genuinely wanted to save others, but because he "was tired of not being able to do a thing."

(I'm keeping the meme panel because it's funny)-

Yuji wants to be strong and wants to be a savior because Yuji feels insecure in himself and loathes himself for his own weakness. However, this pushes Yuji farther away from his goal of saving others and making connections with other people so he can die surrounded by people BECAUSE people empathize with each other over their weaknesses.

Yuji wants to become someone strong and unbreakable who will never falter, never feel pain, and most of all never lose. He basically wants to become Satoru Gojo, but if Yuji were to ever rise to Gojo's level like that just by getting rid of all of his weaknesses he'd fundamentally lose his ability to connect with people the way Gojo and Sukuna have.

Yuji defines himself in strength, and suffering, and always overcoming, but then what is his heart for? He strives to become someone stronger than Gojo or Sukuna to protect his friends, but if he loses his heart that loves and cherishes those friends in the process then what even is the point?

Yuji walks a dangerous road from the culling games up until the Shinjuku incident, into nearly becoming like Mahito or Sukuna in his attempts to be stronger than them. I don't think he was ever in danger of going on a murder spree, but I do think he was risking becoming someone like Gojo.

Gojo made himself a tool for Jujutsu Society for the greater good and look what happened to him in the end. Not only did he die in the line of duty, his corpse was turned into a puppet to use as a weapon against the enemy. He made himself into a monster even when people like Yuta were begging Gojo not to. Yuji was on a similiar path of cutting off all the people who loved him and just becoming a person exploited in both life and death for the greater good.

So what stopped him?

Megumi.

YOU ARE ME.

A few people said that Yuji's abandoning the cog mentality suddenly happened too fast, or felt unearned but I think if you look at the culling games arc from higiruma's fight onwards as a whole it's actually a natural progression.

It all starts with Higuruma and Yuji's conversation:

Higuruma: "You're innocent. You didn't commit that crime." Yuji: "Even so, it's my fault." Higuruma: "Why?" Yuji: "...I see. Itaodri, there still may be a lot of people who are weak like you."

Yuji is someone who loevs humans, but puts humanity as a whole on a pedestal. He loves humanity but hates human weakness, especially his own weakness. Ironic because Higuruma is also someone who became jaded by having to work in the corrupt justice system and was forced to look at human ugliness day after day after day even though he wanted to be someone who valued people for their weaknesses.

Yuji doesn't learn to empathize with human weakness until Megumi's weaknesses are the one he's forced to confront. He doesn't abandon his notion of roles until he's robbed of his roles by Sukuna when Megumi becomes the possessed one instead of him.

Yuji is fine with being a sacrifice for the greater good, but he is not fine with sacrificing Megumi. By knowing exactly what Megumi is going through and wanting to save Megumi from Sukuna's possession, Yuji is in an odd way forced to empathize with himself. Like, it's a double standard on his part that's being challenged. Yuji blames himself for all the people he hurt as Sukuna, but he'd never blame Megumi for letting Sukuna kill tsumuki while possessing his body.

In his refusal to sacrifice Megumi for the greater good, even when Megumi is begging him to do so he rejects the common Ethos that sorcerer's are expendable cogs who are expected to sacrifice themselves and their comrades in the eternal fight against curses for the sake of public safety.

Yuji carries with him this grandiose notion of saving as many people as possible. However, when the option comes to make a sacrifice that would save hundreds of thousands of people from the merger by fighting to kill Megumi instead of save him from Sukuna's clutches Yuji can't do it. Even though Megumi at that point would be a completely willing sacrifice.

Yuji has to abandon his cog mentality to save Megumi, because an unthinking cog wouldn't put Megumi's life over the lives of everyone in Shibuya. A cog, especially a sorcerer would kill that one kid in order to save thousands of lives. Heck, Kusakabe more conservative sorcerer even brings up that argument that everything would have been avoided if Yuji was executed to begin with.

In order to save Megumi, Yuji must also reclaim his own humanity. There's a reason that Nanami, and Nobara, die right before Yuji adopts his cog mentality. Nanami, the most ethical of the first grade sorcerers who tried to teach Yuji to value his own life because he was a child, and Nobara the only kid in the main trio who was a normal person are both representatives of Yuji's humanity.

After losing both Yuji becomes reckless, he stops valuing his own life. As I said far, far bove, Yuji never listened to the advice Nanami gave him that it wasn't a sin to be a child. Yuji has this entire time thought it was a sin just to be weak, just to need the help of other people, just to not be able to accomplish everything on his own.

After Yuji starts reconciling with his own humanity though, he regains his connections to both Nanami and Nobara. Nanami comes back symbolically in the form of Higuruma, someone Yuji tries to encourage to live instead of taking the same suicidal path that Yuji was bent on. Whereas, Nobara herself actually comes back from the dead in time to land the final blow, the same way she reminded Yuji of her presence and that she wasn't alone in the Mahito fight.

Yuji also regains these connections when he's processed the grief for both people. He remembers Nanami and what Nanami left him in a more positive light. In my interpretation the line "I am a sorcerer" refers to Yuji developing a more healthy version of being a sorcerer. That instead of Yuji seeing sorcerers as slaves who have to sacrifice themselves for the greater good like Geto did, Yuji can see the camraderie between sorcerers who fight and put their lives on the line together.

Either way, I think the moment Yuji truly reconciled with the grief of death is sadly enough with Choso's death. If you want proof that Yuji's revelation wasn't rushed, that he didn't skip from point a to point b, then it's right here.

Choso apologizes to Yuji for leaving him ahead of time, and Yuji tells him not to, because Choso was always by his side when he was at his lowest point and that brief time they had together was enough for him.

Yuji's relationships so far have been defined by his fear of losing people. He wants to have a natural death, he wants the other people around him to have good deaths, he doesn't want people to die too early. By focusing on the fear of losing people, he hasn't yet been able to enjoy the time that they were around. However, in this moment he realizes how much Choso meant to him, even if their relationship was brief, and even if it came to an end. Yuji learned you can still love someone even if you inevitably lose them.

This is when Yuji finally accepts mortality and fragility as a part of life.

This is also what Sukuna can't accept. That life is fragile. That life is weak. That life comes to an end. Sukuna's entire goal is to maximize pleasure and live as long as possible, and therefore he's rejected all of the unpleasant parts of reality. Sukuna doesn't want to live in the real world like a human being, he wants to exist only in the world of Jujutsu where he's a god.

This is what Yuji represents to Sukuna, The human vulnerability, and mundanity that he threw away, by literally cannabilizing his own twin and throwing away part of his soul. The part of his soul that Sukuna threw away was taken by Kenjaku, and used as a science experiment to create Yuji. Technically, Sukuna is Yuji's uncle but symbolically Yuji is the twin that Sukuna cast aside. Especially since in this world cursed energy treats identical twins like they are the same person.

Yuji for the longest time tried to do what Sukuna did. Tried to throw his own humanity away so he could be as strong as Sukuna. He literally even ate the corpses of his own brothers.

Yuji and Sukuna are symbolically twins, but Yuji learns to embrace the things that Sukuna threw away. Sukuna threw away his own soul's twin in order to grow strong. He became all powerful in the jujutsu world because he ate his twin and gained an extra pair of arms and a mouth. He's like if Maki chose to kill Mai instead of Mai sacrificing herself for Maki's sake.

Yuji chose companionship with others over power. Sukuna doesn't need others people to satisfy him, and Yuji begs Megumi to come back from the dead because his life would be lonely without him. Yuji doesn't have some noble reason for going this far for Megumi's sake. He's not saving Megumi for the greater good, but because his connection to Megumi is important to him. Because he doesn't want to go through life without Megumi.

Yuji loathes weakness like Sukuna. Yuji desires to be someone special like Sukuna. Yuji has a grandiose sense of self importance like Sukuna. Yuji desires power like Sukuna. Yuji looks down on weak people like Sukuna does, he just condescendingly wants to save them instead of Sukuna who just wants to stomp on them like ants.

Yuji is also literally Sukuna. He was created by an offshoot of his soul. The same way that Sukuna was born with a body perfect for Jujutsu, Yuji was born stronger than anyone his age, and develops at an extreme rate as a sorcerer BECAUSE he was Kenjaku's science project to make the perfect vessel for Sukuna.

They are totally twinsies in so many ways, the only difference in the end is that Yuji learns to value human connection. In Sukuna's book there is no meaning to life, except for the pleasures he pursues as an individual. Therefore Sukuna is the only real person that matters or even exists. The narrator says as much he alone is the honored one, all that exists is his pleasures and displeasures.

In Buberian terms Sukuna only experiences existence and I and It relationships.

Buber's main proposition is that we may address existence in two ways:

The attitude of the "I" towards an "It", towards an object that is separate in itself, which we either use or experience.

The attitude of the "I" towards "Thou", in a relationship in which the other is not separated by discrete bounds.

Sukuna is the "i" and everyone else is an "it." Sukuna is the only real person who exists, and everyone else is just an object for their amusement.

Whereas, Yuji experiences "I" and "Thou" relationships. Yuji learns to see other people as different from himself. Yuji appreciates people as separate entities. While Sukuna gets amusement from his life by treating other people like toys, for Yuji the value in his life comes from the people who have entered into his life in some form. He appreciates the relationships he's formed with people and the memories they've left behind, no matter how brief the time they spent together was.

This is why Yuji's words reach Megumi, because he respects that Megumi feels differently than he does. He doesn't tell Megumi to just suck it up and keep fighting because that's what Yuji would do. He understands that he's a different person than Megumi, and he can't say he understands the grief and pain Megumi is going through right now.

That's Yuji's big revelation, in just a few short months as a sorcerer he's met so many people who left an impact on him. Some of those relationships came to an end early, but that painful ending doesn't negate what they meant to him.

The few months he spent with Choso have value even if it's not the same as the one hudnred and fifty years Choso spent with the rest of his brothers, because Choso supported Yuji when he was at his lowest point. Yuji finally sees that what gave his life meaning was the memories he made with other people while they were alive together. Not the way that they died.

So Yuji is finally willing to let himself exist outside of a role.

That's what he's offering to Sukuna as well. Maybe not empathy or understanding, because if Yuji had truly learned empathy maybe Sukuna might have accepted his offer. No, Yuji is simply willing to offer Sukuna the chance to live alongside him.

Sukuna rejects bonds of all kinds and Yuji is now embracing them. Yuji no longer seeks to annihilate curses because they're a fundamental part of life. Yuji wants to live on with his curses and burdens. He's also willing to give Sukuna a chance to keep living too.

Even Yuji points out that both of them are totally twinsies. Sukuna was born as a curse because he devoured his twin brother in the womb. Yuji was born as a curse because he was created to be Sukuna's vessel. The only way that Yuji is the way that he is is because he was raised as a normal child by his grandfather. If Yuji hadn't then he would have turned out entirely different. It's the same way that Choso became human because of his love for his brothers, even though he was born as a curse human hybrid and tossed aside by Kenjaku as a failed experience.

Yuji acknowledges both his capacity to have turned out like Sukuna if not for his grandfather's sake. This time when he says You are me, he's not saying it to threaten and destroy the person he sees as his shadow. This time Yuji is trying to reconcile with his shadow. He's looking at the person who represents the absolute worst of humanity, and the things he hates about himself and is still willing to give them the chance to keep on living together with him.

When Yuji says "I am you, so I'll kill you" to Mahito, that signals his first step on the road to self destruction.

When Yuji says, "I am you, so I'll save you" to Sukuna, that signals his first step on the road to self-acceptance.

It's Yuji allowing himself for the first time to just exist as a normal person not as the hero of some epic story. He even gave Sukuna that chance too, to just continue living alongisde him, but sukuna rejected it to keep on living as a curse until the end.

So, while Yuji saying "You are me" to Sukuna isn't true empathy, it is Yuji learning to accept himself and his flaws. . Because if Yuji is willing to forgive someone like Sukuna, then perhaps he might just learn to forgive himself.

#yuji itadori #itafushi #megumi fushiguro #ryomen sukuna #jjk meta #jujutsu kaisen meta #jujutsu kaisen theory #jjk spoilers #jujutsu kaisen spoilers

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honeycreammilkshake · 8 months ago

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as both a sukuita and sukuna fan, chapter 268 killed me. at first i thought it was because we finally got another really intimate and highly emotional scene between sukuna and yuuji, and that sukuna chose to die over accepting yuuji's kindness, but now i can't stop thinking about how this entire chapter was such a good character study and a metaphor for one of the most important themes in the story.

in chapter 21, there's a really interesting conversation between junpei and mahito, where junpei disagrees with the quote "the opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference." he knows how evil people can be so he chooses to feel indifferent about human suffering instead. mahito's view on this is also really intriguing, especially considering how he is a curse born from the hate people share for each other.

i could be wrong but it sounds like the basic message here is that deadening yourself to such intense feelings — love or hate — is a type of retaliation for being hurt or consumed by them. which makes me wonder if sukuna had a similar story to junpei, and if that explains how he became what he is.

we know that sukuna wasn't wanted as a child. he was more than likely rejected by both normal society and the jujutsu world. like junpei he was probably treated cruelly or strongly made aware of the many people who hated him. sukuna claimed to know what love is, but i think what he actually understood was the absence of love. he understood maybe what it means to others, but he had never felt or experienced it himself.

which brings me back to junpei's idea that indifference should be the solution. this is kind of the same philosophy sukuna has: he believes in this unshakable hierarchy of strength where the weak should have no right to lament their suffering. his idea was that the strongest were indifferent to suffering, that it's greedy to be lonely because of this. he calls it his "nature" to live in this self-indulgent way that is completely uncaring and selfish.

but then there's yuuji.

yuuji has been alone for a lot of his life. at the beginning, he doesn't have any really close friends, since even the other occult club members don't know him all that well. his only family was wasuke, who was difficult and pushed people away, including yuuji.

after his grandfather's death, he wanted to do right and fulfill wasuke's request of helping people, to be able to die surrounded by those he cares about. he pretty much gave his life to help other people by accepting responsibility as sukuna's vessel, and shows concern and kindness even to strangers.

he seems the exact opposite of sukuna and he stands for all the things that the king of curses hates... so why is it that someone sukuna considers so weak has so much power over him?

the only one who's really managed to make sukuna rethink his ideas of the world has been yuuji. even sukuna acknowledged that he was affected more by yuuji than anyone else.

to him, those who challenged him 1000 years ago were "other people." his relationship with yuuji was and always has been so special that even he admits it.

sukuna mostly strived for indifference his entire life. consuming so many humans was merely a way for him to pass the time until death, as he said, and those tastes were passing and unmemorable for the most part. everything was so unfeeling about the way he made his philosophy sound during his conversation with kashimo, and he couldn't answer as to why he would decide to cross the ages into modern life if his life before had been truly satisfactory. it's like he wasn't even moved to support his own ideals.

but here yuuji is... an annoying brat he called weak and boring, yet every time they fought sukuna looked thrilled and even impressed, though he resented it. and every time yuuji challenged him, sukuna was bothered enough to challenge him right back.

"the opposite of love is indifference." if this is true, sukuna was most likely forced into his indifference due to the fact he was never wanted or loved. but yuuji awakened so many feelings inside of him, too many. living as sukuna's vessel, they shared such a close connection while still opposing each other in every single way. yuuji represented the intense feelings of both love and hate in the way he fought so hard for others while sukuna's own indifference started to break the longer he spent inside of yuuji. he was far more reactive to yuuji than with others, and had even given him special treatment. there were many times he could have killed yuuji or his friends, but he didn't.

yuuji has made it clear that he hates sukuna's indifference to the value of people's lives.

sukuna's indifference towards life is against everything yuuji believes in but strangely enough, yuuji was still willing to accept sukuna. to not only pity him, but to have genuine empathy and compassion for such a monster as well.

he even says to sukuna that they are the same, despite seeming to be complete opposites of each other.

to me, yuuji saying that the monster sukuna became was a matter of chance, shows that he understands how indifference cut sukuna off from having a different fate.

there is a vast area of shades between love and hate, unlike the overwhelmingly static state of indifference. yuuji was showing those shades of love and hate to sukuna, telling him that they could live in the mixed shades of both.

and i really wished sukuna chose to coexist with both that love and hate and remain with yuuji. but he was too used to being indifferent and rejected that offer.

i'm really hoping we get to see yuuji's thoughts on this in the next few chapters, because he looked truly disappointed by sukuna's rejection.

#im still so mad about what happened to junpei ;-;#this is really incoherent and has many errors probably #but i wanted to get my basic thoughts across #honey posts #sukuita #sukuna ryomen #itadori yuuji #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #meta

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bryngmemoney · 1 year ago

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✁FASHION FLIRT✃

Megumi Fushiguro x Reader

⭑story masterlist link

tw: death jokes

Writing in between messages!!

🪡Chapter Sixteen: Deserve each other

You sat in the fashion room, waiting for Megumi to show up. It was around 5:45 and he had texted you saying he was almost there, just stopped for gas. It was fine since you guys hadn’t agreed to meet till six, you just happened to be early. It was late and a Friday, so no one was really around, except for some people in the film room right next to you apparently. Every now and then you would hear a muffled yell, almost reprehending. You just figured it was some people arguing over something.

You saw another text from Megumi saying he was about to leave the gas station and head over saying he’d be there soon. Distracted by your messages, you failed to realize the person standing at the open door in the front of the room. You looked up after seeing something move in the corner of your eye, jumping a little when you saw Sukuna standing there glaring at you. “What’d I scare you?”

“Ew freak, what are you doing here?”

“Could ask the same thing.”

You looked back down at your phone, turning it off and placing it down on the table. “Waiting on Megumi, trying on his stuff.” He just hummed in reply heading over to the table you sat at “You and him a thing?”

“Well, kind of?”

He just squinted his eyes at you for a second, before replying “He could do so much better.” “Ok fuck you.” He just laughed in response.

“Was that you yelling in the room over?” you asked. “You could hear that?” He actually looked surprise. “You’re always so damn loud, just you talking gives people headaches, can you imagine your screaming.”

Even after knowing him for a while the way he stares people down still freaks you out, like how he was doing right now. “I wouldn’t have to if people were competent, my fucking partner sucks, he doesn’t know anything and his ideas are stupid, I should’ve hunted down Yuji or that one emo friend of his.”

“Junpei?”

“Jellyfish yea.”

“It’s Junpei, and who’s your partner anyway?”

“This annoying ass kid with blue hair, he’s so weird, I wish Uraume or Megumi were film majors. You know, actual competent people?”

“I almost did choose film, if that helps.”

You and Sukuna looked up to where the voice was coming from, seeing Megumi walk towards you guys, a small smile on his face. “Megumi!” you two collectively said. He responded with a hey, taking a seat next to you.

“How you’ve been? You and Y/n?” Sukuna asked.

“And Uraume?” Megumi replied.

“Goodbye, I take back my previous statement you two deserve each other.”

Author’s Note: this chapter came out WAYYY later than i wanted it to but i just got so busy even if it was in my drafts i could not find time to finish it

but anyways like two (maybe three) chapter will be out tomorrow (hopefully) 🤗🤗🤗🤗

hope you guys enjoyed!

Taglist below, feel free to comment or dm me to be added!!

TAGLIST

@iridescentrays @gumimegz @maya-maya-56 @mamafly @lunavixia @swissy23 @coltsgf @m00nglad3-mp3 @etsukis @xosren @qtnfer @oengleli @harek89 @y-sabell-a @morgyyyyyyy @getolvr @liliumaraneae @k3lbade @aiieera @dancedancey @get0sfav @chuyasthighs0 @hyssoplampflickers @kpopanimen @sad-darksoul @vivi-loves-penguins @kasumitenbaz @talkingsperm @nymphsdomain @inlovewithlondonn @rzcnlb @enchantingkitty @fuyuzemi @lysaray @ni-ki-ismyluv @reneny @frumira @mixzimi @miralunaela @dreamxiing @p3achiee @anianurst

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goatyuuji · 9 months ago

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itfs week was ages ago I KNOW PLEASE FORGIVE ME...anyways itfs week fic rec list 🩷💙🩷

solar flare by HamsterQinghua (G, 3.8k)

“You…” Fushiguro starts slowly, and the hair on Yuuji’s arm raises at his low tone. “You’re… Sukuna’s vessel.” Yuuji wonders for a brief second if he’s been the one slapped with the way Fushiguro’s words tunnel into his gut and burn in his throat. He swallows. Even Kugisaki, next to him, has her brows drawn together in confusion. “What?” Yuuji asks, and his voice is small, even to his own ears. “No, I’m not—” He cuts himself off. He couldn’t say he wasn’t Sukuna’s vessel, right? --- or, Megumi forgets only Yuuji after an unfortunate encounter, and Yuuji's handling it well. really. Check out their entire itfs week fics: here

lovesick by xiaoscribbles (G, 2.5k)

“You say that so easily,” Megumi’s frown deepens, the hurt in his chest growing with every word she says. She doesn’t mean any harm by it, but sometimes, she’s too blunt. “I know,” Nobara sits up again. She leans into his space, brown eyes twinkling with mischief. “I’m not saying you need to get over it. I’m saying that this doesn’t have to hurt.” “And if I lose him again?” He snaps, his aura no longer light and airy, but deathly serious. “It happened once. I don't think I can deal with it if it happens again.” Or, Junpei exists. Megumi is jealous. Nobara is overworked and underpaid.

Lawfully Yours by tamarsilan (M, 18.6k)

He holds up his pinkie, in the way his new fathers had recently taught him meant business, “I promise.” She wraps a small digit around his own, smiling wide with her crooked front teeth. Check out their entire itfs week fics: here

wasteland, baby! by uriekukistan (T, 2.5k)

Fushiguro cupped his face gently, guiding Yuuji’s eyes to meet his own green ones. The look in his eyes brought a fresh wave of tears to Yuuji’s. Yuuji recognized the look on his face, the same one he wore at the detention center as Yuuji bled out on the sidewalk in front of him. His expression was soft, loving even, far too loving for someone like Yuuji. He was a monster, but Fushiguro looked at him like he was so, so human. “What is it?” Fushiguro said softly. “Talk to me.” OR the Culling Game Arc hotel scene we all deserve Check out their entire itfs week fics: here

as all friends do by staromantic (T, 2.6k)

“Wow, wow, wow,” Megumi interrupts her, immediately sitting up as he hears her words. “What boyfriend? I don’t have a boyfriend.” “Are you drunk, Megumi? Or high? What the fuck are you on about?” Nobara exclaims, stressing her words and moving her hands wildly. “Are you fucking with me?” or : Megumi has a boyfriend he doesn’t know about, Nobara is surrounded by idiots and Yuuji teaches Megumi that kissing your homies is actually not platonic behaviour Check out their entire itfs week fics: here

a condition called love by earthtodora (T, 3.3k)

Megumi gets injured, and the whole incident is causing Yuuji the realization that he might, in fact, be in love with his friend. Chaos ensues.

in hindsight, we were fated by getosmanta (G, 3.8k)

“Nah.” Itadori simply says, watching the dogs with a smile. “You know, Geto and I talked about you a lot.” Megumi freezes. “About your technique, how you tried to face Sukuna,” Itadori continues, rambling with pink cheeks and wind-bitten lips. “How I didn’t realize that I’d miss you until I couldn’t see you.” or 5+1 times Megumi wonders about Soulmates

You are my type, and I am yours by Gelafour (T, 3.8k)

Megumi is in love with Yuuji, but his crush has a preferred type of person. And everything changes on the day Yuuji asks, out of nowhere, about Megumi's type... Check out their entire itfs week fics: here

In the public eye by meyers (G, 3.7k)

There was something disgusting about all that stupid theater. He couldn't stand it. What did they know besides nothing? What did they know about Yuuji? He didn't like to look like a superstar, even though people said he would be one someday. He was just like any normal seventeen year old boy and he didn't need anyone to stare at him assuming the most erroneous things that could be assumed. It was something that was killing him inside. They didn't know him as well as he did! ----- Where Yuuji becomes the new sensation of his school after a basketball game, and Megumi can't stand others talking about him. Check out their entire itfs week fics: here

ALSO CHECK OUT THE OFFICIAL ITFS WEEK WORK COLLECTION

PS: lots of love to the mods of this fest and all the artists and the writers that participated, you all are so awesome and it was such a good fest <3

#jjk #jujutsu kaisen #itafushi #yuji itadori #itadori yuuji #megumi fushiguro #jjk megumi #jjk yuji #megumi x yuuji #fushiita #meguyuji #yuuji x megumi #jjk fic recs #itafushi fic recs #itfs fic recs #fic recs #fic rec #jjk fics

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videnrambles · 2 months ago

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My First Friend

AU where both Junpei and Yuuji die during the Mahito fight but come back as together cursed spirits.

They appear, clinging to each other, in Nanami's apartment one day. Nanami recognizes Yuji instantly and realizes that the other spirit was the boy Yuji's body had been wrapped around trying to shield.

They are somewhat sentient but struggle to speak clearly. More often speaking in some warped language and hissing out a few stuttering words if they need Nanami.

I could see the story going a lot of different ways. Below is a specific idea of how I'd write the story but I'm hiding it so that it doesn't force the specifics on someone.

Now I could see this story going many different ways but I'm a sucker for Papamin so here's what I want:

Junpei and Yuji form some kind of bond with Nanami and get separation anxiety. Nanami brings them on a few mission, watches as his 2 new sons rip high level curses apart with ease.

It is slowly noticed that Nanami has begun taking more and more high level missions and is fulfilling them extremely quickly.

It is revealed that Nanami has formed a bond with not just 1 but 2 special grade cursed spirits. He goes through a whole evaluation and it's determined that the curses are docile enough to continue working with him.

Eventually people realize that one of the cursed spirits is Yuji. They believe, despite Nanami saying otherwise, that Junpei is causing Yuji to become cursed. Gojo is hesitant to tell them who Junpei really is because he doesn't want his students knowing that Yuji died again.

The students try to separate Yuji and Junpei, despite Nanami and Gojo's protests, resulting in a massive outburst that even Gojo struggles to stop.

The attempted separation causes Junpei and Yuji to become extremely anxious. Gojo and Nanami get extremely pissed at the students.

Gojo finally explains what really happened to Yuji and the students feel horribly guilty. Nanami takes his sons back home and refuses interaction from anyone.

After the failed socialization attempts, Nanami goes back to bringing his kids on missions. Now registered as a special grade he and his kid's travel a lot more giving him excuses to avoid people.

At this point its really up to the writer on if they want Nanami to either slowly withdraw from the Jujutsu world. Or if they want to have Junpei and Yuji slowly forgive the students for what happened.

Short Details:

Right now I'm imagining Junpei and Yuji as these small child like figures made of dark mist (Like Kurogiri from mha but with slightly more shape)

The mist on Yuji's head is pink

Junpei has glowing blue eyes and Yuji has gold

They both wear a Jujutsu Tech uniform, Junpei's having a light blue hood instead of red.

When angry or fighting the two of them grow bigger

They have the same abilities just significantly stronger (Every hit from Yuji is basically a black flash, and Junpei can summon much bigger/stronger jellyfish) and also RCT

I also want them to have an ability to temporarily hide in extremely small spaces. Like when they need to hide from a sorcerer they turn into smoke and hide in Nanami's suit jacket. It hides them from everyone but Gojo.

When they feel fully relaxed and safe they become quite small, roughly the size of a 4 year old (3 feet). They demand Nanami carry them whenever possible.

Nanami has started wearing an ear piece so he can talk to the kids in public without drawing much suspicion.

Small Story Lines:

Gojo's first time seeing Yuji alone is when his house get's broken into. Yuji is attempting to steal the cursed doll he used in training, he became attached to the thing. Gojo and Yuji have a talk, (Gojo does most of the talking, Yuji uses gestures and a few words) and it is revealed that Gojo blames himself for both of Yuji's deaths. Yuji hugs Gojo and tells him it's okay, as best he can, he doesn't blame Gojo for what happened.

Idk really know what happens to Sukuna, maybe he becomes a weird little stuffed animal that Yuji carries around.

Upon realizing that Yuji and Junpei can fight pretty well, Nanami takes them to hunt down and beat the shit out of Mahito.

Maybe Nagi also comes back as like an overprotective Mama bear spirit. Nanami and Ijichi are the only ones who are allowed to get close. She passes on once Nanami proves that he will be able to protect her son and his friend.

Nanami refuses to allow these kids to join Jujutsu Tech or near the higher ups. It doesn't matter that they're cursed spirits, he doesn't want to fail them again.

I wanna add more but I'll prolly forget ;-;

#jujutsu kaisen #jjk #yuji itadori #jjk yuji #jjk nanami #nanami kento #jjk fanfic #jjk junpei #cursed spirit junpei #cursed spirit itadori yuuji #itajun #papamin #cursed spirit yuuji #jjk gojo #can be read as platonic or romantic

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still-breathing-au-p3r · 5 months ago

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Seemingly satisfied, Kirijo-san addresses the whole team at once.

An uncomfortable quiet settles over the room. Shinjiro gets it. S.E.E.S. had given them a purpose, and as glad as everyone is to see the end of the Dark Hour, having that purpose pulled out from under your feet isn’t easy. He knows it’s got to be especially rough for Aki, with the bullheaded focus he always throws himself at a goal with. He can’t even imagine how much tougher it is for Kirijo, who’s been fighting her way to this moment for most of her life.

He’s not one-hundred percent sure how everyone else truly feels about it, but as for himself? Shinjiro can easily say he won’t miss it.

He hadn’t picked up an evoker that first time with any kind of greater purpose in mind, and he hadn’t been looking for one either. All that’d mattered to him was having Aki’s back if he was hellbent on putting himself in harm’s way.

Maybe at one point he’d started to feel some sense of duty about getting rid of the Dark Hour, but that was a long time ago. Two years is more than long enough for the idea of “duty” to start looking worthless in retrospect.

And it wasn’t like he’d come back because he’d suddenly found that drive again, either– that had been about settling his debts. If anything he did also helped Aki and Kirijo get rid of the Dark Hour, then he was glad to do it, but that wasn’t his battle to win anymore.

The triumph and normalcy Kirijo-san mentions next don’t feel like his prizes to claim either. He still doesn’t know whether he’ll even get to, let alone what to do with them if he does– but no one else seems to, either. If he asked Aki or Kirijo about it, they’d probably answer with some cheesy declaration that they’ll ‘figure it out together.’ He can practically hear exactly how they’d say it.

…He can’t deny though, that being clueless together does sound less daunting than being clueless alone.

He’s been getting more and more sentimental these days. He isn’t sure how he feels about that.

Kirijo crisply banishes the growing awkwardness before it can put down roots, and finally they settle in to eat. The fish tastes every bit as good as it looks– it’s the best he’s ever had, no question.

Shinjiro stays where he is, but most of the rest of the team wanders around playing musical chairs with who they’re talking to and what kind of sushi is within grabbing distance. At one point Arisato sits next to him, eyeballing several pieces of tuna philosophically for nearly a full minute before finally choosing one.

He still doesn’t eat it right away. Instead he examines it like he’s getting ready to paint a portrait. He’s still looking at the fish when he speaks to Shinjiro.

Arisato just shrugs, ambivalent as always, and finally eats his sushi now that he’s memorized it. He didn’t deny it, which Shinjiro is going to accept as an admission whether Arisato likes it or not. It’s still annoying how unbothered he is about the whole thing– about most things. What Shinjiro wouldn’t give to be able to tap into a little bit of that kind of nonchalance on command.

Arisato moves on to scrutinize the grilled eel next and Aki immediately takes his place and reignites an old favorite argument of theirs over the merits of tuna versus salmon.

Junpei suggests taking a photo to commemorate the evening, then promptly turns it into a disaster– which probably makes it the best possible representation of this pack of absolute weirdos. He’s never been a fan of getting his picture taken, but… he does kind of want a copy of this one.

The night goes on. The sushi dwindles and so does the conversation as everyone starts settling into a state of well-fed zen. Shinjiro crosses his arms loosely and lets his head loll to rest on the back of the couch. He feels satiated and drowsy, and so content that it kind of loops back around to be a little alarming from just how unfamiliar he’s become with the feeling.

Everyone else on the team offers some kind of agreement, except for Koromaru. While Takeba scolds Junpei over trying to give a dog raw fish, Koromaru slinks over to sit on Shinjiro’s feet and sulk.

He rubs one of Koro’s velvet soft ears between his thumb and forefinger and mumbles a promise to make him something special tomorrow.

He looks over to Arisato, who offers nothing but a stone-faced thumbs-up. Shinjiro rolls his eyes. Arisato adds a second thumbs-up and exactly zero changes to his expression. Typical.

They laugh and Koromaru yips happily, his tail wagging a mile a minute.

Like someone just opened a door and let in a gust of chill November air, a thin shiver skims its way over Shinjiro’s back, leaving his muscles tense in its wake. The feeling that something is about to go horribly wrong resurfaces with a vengeance.

Shinjiro glances at the clock– one minute left.

He’s not the only one feeling all kinds of anxious– in the back of his head he can feel his Persona, still as a frozen pond but uneasy and alert. Aki catches his gaze and they share a knowing look. They’re both thinking the same thing.

The last second until midnight trips past.

The Dark Hour descends.

#shinjiro aragaki #junpei iori #akihiko sanada #persona 3 #p3 #persona 3 reload #yukari takeba #takeharu kirijo #fuuka yamagishi #still breathing au #sbau main plot #sbau canon #sbau november #sbau november 4 #talksprites and fic #edited sprites #sprites edited by seth #shinjiro pov #(dun dun DUNNNNN)

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girlfriendsofthegalaxy · 6 months ago

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tuesday again 10/22/2024

rare tuesdaypost with no fallow sections. i CANNOT find the exact image i am looking for (mouse-drawn person sitting on bar stool with ankles crossed and blushing with eyelashes) but i feel like i found a lot of things this week that charmed me immensely. rare many such cases of many interests intersecting.

listening

almost exactly a year ago i wrote about jolynn j chin's SHIFTED, a piano jazz piece where the time signatures change on every bar, which came with an explainer video that is, spiritually, a physics video.

she's done it again with OFF TIME and a full album of equally bonkers concepts. i have a brain that is fairly good at manipulating 2D things (yarn, fabric) into 3D things but i do Not have this kind of math brain. wild shit.

youtube

reading

thank you philip for overseeing the photography of this trio of DELILAH DIRK graphic novels from Tony Cliff. i saw these on the library shelf and went "holy shit i read one of these as a webcomic in high school".

very well-paced indiana jones and james bond adjacent pulp adventures, with a soupcon of steampunk conveyances for taste. delilah started life in 2007 when strong snappy female characters were far less common. this is particularly...not quite grating, but very notable in the first two books (published in 2013 and 2016 respectively). they are intended to be middle-grade (disney villain falling deaths, no tits or ass, etc), but they punch far above their intended age range. a particularly interesting reckoning with the long-suffering native guide trope. not a series overly concerned with historical accuracy, although it's certainly more grounded in real history than you might expect of a middle-grade pulp adventure graphic novel. more colonial political concerns than i remembered or expected.

the art is really killer in all three books. tony cliff really knows the effect of a good page turn spread.

he also has a very charming way of illustrating continuing action across a huge panel. all four shots are from The Pillars of Hercules (2018) bc it happened to be the last one i read and the one with by far the most ambitious art.

watching

tubi has acquired the streaming rights to most of the batman animated movies. i keep getting served ads on instagram for an upcoming animated film about batman and the yakuza, where the premise is that a portal from real-life japan has opened up over gotham and the yakuza are pouring through like a demonic horde. this seems to be a sequel to batman ninja (2018, dir. Junpei Mizusaki)

youtube

Batman, along with his allies and adversaries, finds himself transported from modern Gotham City to feudal Japan.

batman ninja includes the lines:

I’m going to rule this country and turn it into a kingdom of monkeys and rewrite the history of the world!

and

What am I going to do with you, Batman? You’ve destroyed a perfectly good giant robot castle!

i would describe this as more of a feature-length animation showcase than anything else. the haters on letterboxed didn't even give it an average of 3 but that's bc they hate fun. this is some real weeb shit. this is not a grimdark or particularly thoughful batman entry. this is an entry to clap your hands in glee at the giant gundam vs monkey army fight. they have once again done my favorite comics boy jason todd dirty but what the fuck else is new.

so much fun even on just the like tree field guide level of identifying the six or seven animation styles. plus everyone's feudal japan looks are sick as shit.

was it Good? no. was i delighted at nearly every moment? fuck yeah.

playing

EXCEPTIONALLY charming embroidery-based game jam game, Cross Stitched by Panzerr here for free on itch.io. made in godot. god bless.

(image from the developer) you've got your little baba yaga house gundam in the center constantly firing projectiles, and you have to keep these fucking birds back. you can WASD around the edges of the tapestry, and your health is in the top (i really love how it gets "ruined" dark chunks taken out of it as you lose health, like a piece of embroidery decaying) and the bottom black bar of motifs fills up as you make progress towards adding another level and another piece to your powerup level tapestry.

(following images from me) you do have to think about your placement and plan it out a bit, and you can't embroider over something you've already stitched. would not recommend surrounding your initial base damage motif with other motifs bc then you've sort of fucked yourself over. a really simple concept (a good bite size for a game jam) elevated by a very fun visual style and great music. really delighted me! i am so jaded by my time in the video game marketing mines that i forgot they can be fun actually!

making

unphotographable: too many bugs in my house! tried to replace the weatherstripping on my front door and discovering that both the front door and the storm door were installed incorrectly and should probably be replaced.

in better news, the newest pathetic little waif in the office bathroom has been freshly neutered and will be going to a nice cushy indoor home next week-ish. whenever he is fully recovered. the most polite cat i have ever had in this carrier: did not piss, shit, or throw up.

KO'd by six cc's of various goops. poor man.

#ruby #tuesday again #tuesday again no problem #flashing gif

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gio-cosmo · 7 months ago

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Hi here’s me rambling endlessly abt strega and how they were handled in reload for a bit ⬇️ (heavy spoilers)

Strega is a trio of antagonists that I often see overlooked completely, frequently described as “forgettable” and “non-threatening”. You’d think that an antagonistic group responsible for one of the main characters deaths would hold more weight, right? I think the main reason that this is such a common mindset is because of Strega’s critical lack of screen-time, and also the fact that their backstories / reasoning behind their actions are explained in a very rushed manner. Despite this, I think Strega is an incredibly interesting group of characters, and I think it’s a shame Atlus didn’t bother to flesh them out more.

Main issue: Lack of screen-time. Why the rush?

Atlus made a point to act as if Reload would give Strega a plethora of new content, but in reality, we barely got anything extra at all. Is it a step up from Portable/FES? Absolutely, and I’m very grateful for that. But even still, this was a golden opportunity to really show off Strega’s intricacies, and to throw away such a perfect chance was a pretty lousy move, in my opinion. There was so many opportunities to show Strega’s viewpoints and have it flow well with the story, but these chances were rarely taken — because of this, their presence in the story is weakened substantially.

Lack of group interaction - when having an antagonist group, it’s important to have them be…well, you know. A group. We barely get to see them interact together, and when we do, it’s either for very quick moments, or it’s when their talking to someone else (in which, it’s usually just Takaya talking on behalf of all of them)

This falls along with how their lack of screen-time is the biggest issues — there’s no chances to see them interact with each other if their barely given the chance to be on screen to begin with.

Lack of individual interaction - where the hell is my Jin hangout event? :(

If they can figure out how to give Takaya one-on-one conversations with the MC to let the player get to know his character more, they could’ve certainly figured out how to do so with Jin and Chidori as well. They could’ve had you talk with Jin through the assassination request site and Chidori by finding her at the bench she’s always at when she talks with Junpei. See how that took me approximately five seconds to think up? You’re telling me nobody in the development room was like “hey guys maybe we should actually give ALL of our main antagonists some one-on-one interactions so we can see how they function when away from each other. Oh, I guess we don’t really show them interacting as a group that much either so we should throw that in as well lmfaoo whoops” Like guys come on. I’m sighing so heavily right now and also shaking my head in dismay.

(You could argue that we already get to see Chidori interact solo with Junpei so it wouldn’t be necessary to see her interact solo with the MC, but I still think it would be a neat addition. All I know is that there is absolutely NO reason that Jin shouldn’t have gotten some sort of hangout event :(

Missed opportunities - “let’s all be able to shift and not tell Chidori!”

We don’t get a single trio fight in the entire game. This is so ridiculous to me that I get irritated every time I think about it. “Let’s have a antag trio and not let them fight together haha” yeah real funny man I’m having such a good laugh over here 😐 it doesn’t even make any sense either. Chidori’s solo fight genuinely should’ve just been a trio fight. “She told us to wait inside lol” damn she’s not even letting you spectate??? 😭 developers wanted them off-screen so bad they LITERALLY had them wait outside the door standing there doing nothing. Atlus. Come on now man.

Common misconceptions — “Strega doesn’t care about Chidori.”

WRONG INCORRECT BUZZER 🚨🚨🚨 They do, actually, they just have roundabout ways of showing it because of the whole “caring about people is a weakness” mindset that they so desperately latch onto. I’ve seen lots a people say that they believe Takaya truly does not care for his teammates at all, and while I guess in technicality it’s all up to personal interpretation, I do strongly disagree with this standpoint. The last thing Takaya is saying while watching Nyx approach is that he wishes Jin was with him, and gets visibly and vocally distressed when Jin falls in battle before him. In the Persona 3 manga, what stops Takaya from killing Junpei is the sight of Chidori’s spirit. If he truly didn’t care about Chidori, why would that stop him in his tracks? I think it’s clear that Takaya is stuck in a mindset that formed when he was an angry and mistreated child, and because of this he’s convinced himself he is incapable of feeling attachment towards anyone, and voices this constantly while seeing it as a weakness. Despite this, I do think he cares about his teammates deep down, but refuses to admit it. This extremely ingrained hypocrisy is something I wish was more expanded on.

Misconceptions continued - “the fact that the members of Strega aren’t ridiculously overpowered makes them bad villains.”

…No! For Strega, using their Persona’s is a very taxing endeavor — it wouldn’t make canonical sense for them to be extremely powerful. You might be thinking, “well, the fact that their battles aren’t immensely difficult is why they aren’t payed much mind as antagonists.” I disagree. The reason is the criminal lack of screen time. Now, I don’t think it’s bad to want more difficult fights, to each their own and all, I just think it’s a bit silly when people use that as their main core reason for hating them, considering it really wouldn’t make *sense* for them to be super powerful. Anyways. Moving on.

Things that would’ve strengthened Strega as characters:

- More scenes

- A more fleshed out work-together event (teaming up with Takaya was cool, but also a bit random? Should’ve been expanded upon more)

- Backstory flashbacks (this could also have been used as foreshadowing for Ikutsuki’s betrayal instead of making it seem so abrupt)

- DLC (being able to play AS them for a bit would be awesome)

Frankly, I think that The Answer should’ve been included in base-game, and Strega should’ve gotten a DLC. They would really benefit one, and they could make it really informative and interesting, explaining more about how they were experimented on as kids & how it affects them, etc.

I also think it would’ve been beneficial to make Strega have more influence outside of the Dark Hour. In the later parts of the game, they do gain popularity when the cult starts up, but it’s all incredibly abrupt and there’s barely any lead up to it. It would’ve been interesting to see a gradual lead up to it all, slowly seeing their influence spread as the game continues, and having tension rise as they ensnare more people into believing their set of ideals. Having them suddenly gain influence so rapidly seemed just..generally unrealistic, I guess.

There’s for real even more I could go on about but this is already so long that I’ll go ahead and cut myself off here. Anyways. I love Strega <3

#I actually made this into an entire slideshow for my tiktok but I can’t fit all the slides on here #so I just pasted the text lmfao #gotta spread the Strega ramblings one way or another #persona 3 #p3 #persona 3 reload #persona #jin shirato #chidori yoshino #takaya sakaki #(if I got any details wrong feel free to throw bricks at me or something - my memory is so baddd 😭)

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