LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 1: Chapter 1
"Would you like me to save you Mahito?" Psudeo Geto says calmly. Shirou watched on his phone as the city passed him by through the window of the bus.
JJK season 2 had ended long ago but it was airing an especially intense revision and then exam season for Shirou. Meaning that he could only get to watch season 2 now.
It was a kind of delayed gratification for him. Let the episodes grow and then after his exams, he would be able to binge-watch them all.
Shirou looked at the countdown for the next episode. 10 seconds. He looked up at where he was on the journey, he was about 3 minutes away from his stop.
'Damn, there's no point in starting it now.' He lampooned inwardly. He swiped out of Crunchyroll and leaned back in his chair. 'It was pretty cool to see Yuji destroy Mahito, that's been a long time coming. And all with straight hands.'
'though It would be cool to see if he ever got an innate technique. I would have to read the manga for that. Or....' Shirou glanced at his phone 'fuck it' Pulling up google he quickly searched if Yuji ever got an innate technique.
'oh shit, blood manipulation from Death Womb Paintings 4-9, as he's Kenjaku's son like Choso and the other paintings. Shrine from having Sukuna inside of him. Fuck Megumi being a potential man, yuji is the real potential man.' Shirou laughed in his head.
'Though Megumi really got done dirty, he had like a decade of training from the strongest sorcerer alive, and yet the only combination he was able to achieve was Toad and Nue. Making the wells unknown abyss which was pathetic.'
'I mean imagine combining, Nue, Orochi, and Divine Dogs. You've got a full-on Quetzalcoatl there. Claws, wings, and teeth. Raining down lighting on your opponent. What a waste.' Shirou shook his head at the thought of how Megumi's powers were fumbled.
'though this could be down to how shit of a teacher Gojo is. A genius in learning but unable to really teach anyone.'
A stop whizzed past and Shirou reached out and tapped the stop button of the bus. Not a minute later he was off the bus and walking back home. He came to a crossing and crossed it.
'Who else was fumbled? Pseudo Geto, or well I guess more accurately it's Kenjaku? What's the point of having one body that has cursed manipulation when you could have someone like Yuta who can copy all techniques? What do you mean you don't see what Gojo sees in Yuta? What a dumbass.' Shirou snorted.
'Though maybe Yuta doesn't fit his goals, I guess I'll find out what Psudeo Geto's goal is next episode. Seems like it's heading that way with a showdown between Yuji and Geto. Damn, Yuji is about to get rocked.' Shirou thought with a light shake of his head.
Lost in his thoughts he didn't notice the headlights flash until too late. The truck bundled toward him, Shriou tried to dive out of the way but couldn't do it fast enough. The truck slammed into him, shattering bones and killing Shirou instantly.
…
'FUCK!" Shirou bolted upright and screamed. He turned over and retched, but nothing came up, his body convulsed as he relived his last moment. Tears streamed down his face as he felt his bones shatter in his mind.
He coughed violently, before flopping onto his back and panting hard. He stared up at the great... white... nothing? 'The hell am I?'
After recatching his breath and calming himself down he sat up and looked around, he was in a wallless room in the middle of a great expanse of nothing.
The room had an old TV, a coffee table, and two soft leather swivel chairs. One had its back to him. It turned slowly. And in the chair was "Dumbledore?" Shirou couldn't help but exclaim.
'Dumbledore' chuckled, "hahah no not really, it's just the form I like to use, this form has a calming effect on people." Not Dumbledore gestured to the opposite seat "Please make yourself comfortable while we wait for your sibling."
Shirou frowned and sat down "What do you mean-" before he was cut off.
"tea?" The old man said with a gentle smile
"er sure. What do you mean my sibling though?" Shirou asked confused.
Dumbledore tilted his head as a teapot of steaming tea appeared in his hands and two mugs appeared on the table in front of them. "Your younger twin?" Dumbledore said softly.
Shirou tilted his head "Errr I don't have a twin, I ate them in the womb."
At these words, dumbledore freezes and the mug he is pouring the tea into overflows quite rapidly, he coughs a little sheepishly. "I'm sorry, but did you say you didn't have a twin brother? You ate him?"
Shirou nodded, "yeah, why?"
"oh.... oh dear, ohhhhh no." Dumbledore puts the tea down without pouring one for Shirou and summons a bunch of papers into his hands and begins reading them rather feverishly.
"Ahhh wrong timeline." Dumbledore clicks his tongue rather annoyingly. He pinches his brow softly and sighs. "but I've already put the request for everything in. There were two soul reincarnations, 6 wishes in, 3 for each soul. Ah shoot" He mutters.
"Not to interrupt you, or anything but would it be possible to be clued into what's going on?" Shirou asked respectfully.
Dissummoning the papers Dumbledore sighed. "it appears a mistake has been made, either on my part or on my assistant's part. Either they looked into the wrong timeline when gathering the necessary info. Or I killed you in the wrong timeline." Dumbledore says with a weary look on his face.
Shirou pauses, "You killed me...?" He kind of trailed off at the end not sure what to make of it.
"Oh don't worry you'll be reincarnated" he sighs a little and then shrugs "I guess you'll be getting 6 wishes."
Shirou smiles brightly at this info, thank fuck he wasn't permanently dead. That would have sucked.
"I wish for the world of Jujutsu Kaisen. Can I have some time to think about other wishes?"
Dumbledore nodded, and pulled out a sheet of paper "Ahh the world of JJK, according to the notes there's been a large increase of souls wanting to reincarnate there. Of course, the world you be going into would be a slight AU, the characters would be a little older. I believe Yuji is 17 when he is first introduced to the world of jujutsu"
"I could explain the reasons why this is the case and why this world exists and so on. But I'm sure you don't want to hear that."
"No please do!" Shirou said, when else could he learn pure information about the workings of the omniverse?
Dumbledore sighed and thought for a while to get the right words. "Hmmm, well every timeline and world exists at the same time, but the barriers between worlds aren't as solid as you might think. Some people are more in tune with the wavelengths of other realms and worlds. There are numerous names for these people but let's call them Tuners. These people will receive bits of information about a world, some will dismiss them as strange and vivid dreams, daydreams, or other such things."
"However some will be inspired by these visions and go on to create stories in your world based on the things they have seen."
Shirou paused, "So people in mental asylums, saying they see things? They could just be Tuners?"
"Yes some of them would just be very exceptional Tuners who can't handle seeing more than their reality." Dumbledore voiced.
Shirou nodded slowly. "So Jujutsu Kaisen is one of this world?"
"Technically every story exists within the Omniverse, but who knows, perhaps the author of Jujutsu Kaisen is a Tuner. Anyway on to your wishes."
Shirou sighed, trying to put his existential knowledge of the Omniverse to one side as he started to ponder about his new world.
After a long while, he smiled "Okay I've got it. 1. I would like an innate technique based on the projection sorcery and unlimited blade works of Archer EMIYA, Shirou Emiya, and Muramasa. The technique should have the basics of projection sorcery. But allow me to do more, such as change summoned items forms at will, like how EMIYA can change a sword into an arrow but on a much larger scale. Another point should be instant materialization. I should be able to trace anything, not just weapons.
Also, 0.5 seconds or 1 second is too slow for the world of jujutsu. So that should be canceled. Lastly, I should be able to telepathically control the summoned weapons, so I'm not just stuck to firing them like an idiot. Also, the materialisation shouldn't just be weapons, if I want shoes I want to be able to materialize shoes or armour or shields and so on. I should be able to permanently edit my body through Reinforcement, so to give myself extra techniques or edit body parts.
Dumbledore thought this over for a minute, "Okay sounds okay, like Kenjaku you'll have a limit of 3 or 4 techniques. And that's 2 wishes."
Shirou continued "That's fine, for my third wish, I would like to be able to trace other innate techniques and then craft actual weapons with it use of Reinforcement. Or take different parts of techniques to create a new technique to reinforce a weapon. This would allow me to dissect curse techniques and form new circuits to create new cursed techniques that I could then imbue into a cursed tool.
"Interesting, and since you made these weapons the copies you have would be perfect copies. Very good idea." Dumbledore said stroking his beard.
Shirou smiled a little, praise from a ROB was a very good feeling "Umm okay for my third wish I wish for a temporary training wheels system, that teaches me combat and forging and a few other choice servant skills from fate, nothing more and nothing less. Once it's deemed me acceptable it distempers."
Dumbledore nods
Dumbledore smiles and nods for Shirou to continue onwards.
"Lastly I want Servant stats, I want to design my stats," Shirou says with a shit-eating grin.
"hah, you don't ask for much do you little one? Fine, give me a sec to create some boundaries." A look of deep thought passes over the fake Dumbledore and then his eyes twinkle.
"you will have 300 points to buy stats, E is 5, D 15, C 25 B 50, A 75, and EX 150. Mana will be CE amount and Output. CE will automatically have ++ due to the possibility of hitting a black flash. Is this acceptable?"
Shirou nods excitedly. "of course thank you. Can I ask to see the stats of Toji in his prime?"
"Stamina A, Agility EX, Strenght A, Luck C" Dumbledore answered swiftly.
Shirou falls quiet, thinking deeply 'My physical stats don't have to be too high, as I will have CE reinforcement. So I can take a loss on those. But luck and CE have to be as high as possible. As They are unchangeable.
"Okay, I've got it. Luck A, Agility C, Stamina C, Strenght C, CE EX++" Shirou answered after a while.
"Good, now is there anything else, or are you able to start the reincarnation process?" Dumbledore asks as he gets ready to set up the world traversing process.
"Would it be possible to just have my soul go over until I awaken my cursed technique? Then awaken my memories?" Shirou asks curiously
Dumbledore falters for a moment, "You wouldn't be you at the end of it, the soul would be washed and reincarnated in that situation. You would be for all intents and purposes a new person with the memories of your old self. And due to the amount of information coming you would be a late bloomer. Getting your technique at 6 or 7 maybe even 8."
Shirou shrugged "I'm a completely different person to who I was 5 years ago, how is this any different? I will still be me, just different?"
"AS you wish Mr Shirou, I wish you well on your new journey." Dumbledore stands up, "And if I may say one last thing, Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" Dumbledore says with a laugh and Shirou disappears.
…...
2007 Japan
A random gambling room in Shinjuku.
A young boy of about 7, with pure snow white hair and pure crystal ruby red eyes enters.
"Hey Shirou, you're here early, school okay? looking for Toji still?" Moto the owner of the room asks as he starts to get the place ready for the evening.
Shirou nodded, "Yes boss, I haven't seen him around recently. Actually, not recently he hasn't been here for about a year now. Kinda miss him."
"pfff, miss that homeless bum? Yeah right, the only thing you miss is his money, and when he let you try to hit him." Moto mocked a little.
Shirou made a face at Moto behind his back "He taught me how to fight, said I was strong for my age!" Shirou retorted.
Moto laughed "Sure kiddo" he ruffled Shirou's hair as he walked by, "Come on and help set up if you're doing nothing."
Shirou pulled another face behind Moto's back but did as he was told. He had nothing else to do. The fridge was stocked full of beer and soft drinks. The games were ready for other people to play.
People started streaming in, Shirou's eyes flickered around, and some were haggard and weary. One or two had those weird things on their shoulders.
Ever since he was born he had been able to see things, things that other people couldn't. He hadn't told anyone about it, not even his dad. His dad had his own things to worry about. And then... Shirou shook his head shaking the memories out.
Shirou assumed it was due to his eyes. They were different than other people, brighter, stronger, better.
"Kid you alright?" Moto asked curiously.
"Okiedokey!" Shriou called back.
"Okay, then kid, head to your position!" Moto said nodding to the table in the centre.
Shriou nodded and walked over there on his little legs. His job in this little business of Moto's was an unusual one. Thanks to his eyes he could always tell when someone was cheating, so Moto taught him how to run the games for the highest rollers. So be sure that no one was cheating him.
A strange situation for a child to find himself in, but Shirou's father had fallen into the vice of gambling after his wife disappeared. And when he had died Moto had taken Shirou in.
Shirou waited by the table dutifully as regulars came and went, and Shirou constantly dealt with the cards and took in the money when people lost. Tonight was a quiet night, with only one cheater.
The cheater was booted out of the room and told not to come back. All in all a good night. After the patrons had left Moto came over and handed Shirou his payment for the night. If converted into dollars it would be about 250.
"Thanks, moto!" Shirou said cheerfully as he accepted the cash.
"No worries, you did good work tonight. I didn't even think that guy was cheating, good catch." Moto said with a smile.
Shirou smiled innocently "Maybe you have to get your eyes checked old man because it was pretty easy to see."
Moto laughed and lunged for Shirou, who danced out of the way. A little pantomime of cat and mouse happened out of the room. Before Shirou grabbed a broom and held it like a sword.
"face me if you dare!" He declared dramatically. Moto grinned and grabbed the other broom. He swept diagonally down. Shriou dropped the guard and flipped the broom over Moto's lunge. He smacked his opponent's hand causing him to drop the broom.
Shirou held the edge of the broom to Moto's face. "Victory!" Moto smiled while rubbing his sore hand. "How the hell did you manage that?"
"told ya Toji taught me."
The older man sighed a little and ruffled Shirou's hair. "alright alright, you're a great warrior. Now can this great warrior manage to get home by himself or should I walk you back?"
Shirou looked outside. It was a little later than normal, but his house was super close. "I'll be okay, see you tomorrow Moto!" The young boy said as he skipped away. Moto shook his head with a smile as the bell of the door tinkled sounding Shirou's escape.
Shirou walked into the dark street, the sun had already set and it was rapidly getting cooler. Shirou started to walk down the street and barely made it to the next building when he heard a voice from the alleyway.
"hey~ you l-l-little shit!" A slurred voice called out from the darkness. Shirou looked into the alleyway cautiously, thanks to his eyes he could see fine in the low light. Darkness never bothered him as it didn't seem to make a difference to his vision.
The man who had cheated earlier and Shirou had caught was standing there, holding a bottle and taking a drink. He was swaying on his feet and had clearly been drinking. Moto had taught him the signs of drinkers.
Moto thought for a moment, should he engage the clearly drunk man? Or just move on? He decided on the latter. Turning away from the man he calmly stepped away from the alleyway.
"Y-U bi-bitch~" drawled the man. Trying to get closer to Shirou, who in turn sped up and started to walk faster. 'should have let Moto walk me home' he thought to himself as he tried to ignore the inebriated gentleman.
As he walked forward he had a sharp pain at the back of his head and then he found himself lying on the ground. Ears ringing and his vision blurred. 'What... what happened?"
Shirou heard Moto's voice in the background and the sounds of a scuffle, his vision kept blurring and he drifted off into sleep.
…
3...
2...
1...
A movie starts playing, on the screen in front of Shirou a life he never lived plays out in front of him. Going to school, reading books, making friends. Studying hard. And then the end of that life. Meeting a ROB.
"I'm a reincarnated soul?" Shirou thought out loud. "Wait where am I?" He bolted upright and looked around. He was in an old-style movie theatre. He could see the film projector at the back as it kept on replaying the life he now remembered over and over again.
"I don't feel any different?" Shirou muttered to himself "Is this what Dumbledore meant when he said 'I would die? I still feel like Shirou from this life more than the one from my old memories. Ugh, my head's hurting."
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the exit. It was marked exit in green. Shirou got up off of his seat and walked over to the door. 'really hope this is as easy as it seems' he thought to himself. He opened the door with a push and stepped through into the light.
…
Moto paced around the hospital room nervously. It had been over a day since Shirou had fallen unconscious and he was starting to get really agitated. He took the seat next to the bed and held Shirou's little hand.
"Come on kid, you're supposed to be a great warrior. You can't let this stop you." The older man muttered under his breath. He felt Shirou's hand twitch and whipped his head up, staring intently at his face.
Shirou groggily opened his eyes slowly. Breathing out he looked up at the hospital room ceiling. Turning his head to the side he saw moto staring at him intently. Upon seeing Shirou staring back at him, moto lunged forward and wrapped Shirou in a tight hug.
Once Moto managed to regain control over his emotions he quickly asked if Shirou was okay. "How are you feeling kiddo?"
Shirou winced in pain as he moved to sit up in the hospital bed. "Heads a little sore, what happened?" He asked
Moto sighed "The cheater you caught last night went and got drunk at a nearby bar after getting kicked out of our place. Once sufficiently drunk he came back wanting to have a go at me. But found you instead. I'm guessing you turned and wanted to leave, which was a good choice. But he threw his bottle at you and managed to get your head."
Moto held Shirou's hand softly "The bottle shattered on impact and knocked you unconscious. They managed to get the glass out and there won't be any lasting damage."
"so it's all okay then?" Shirou asked cautiously.
Moto smiled "Yeah it's all good."
"Cool, so when can we leave?" Shirou asked curiously.
"pfff ahahahh" Moto started laughing and clamped Shirou on the back. "Damn kid you haven't changed, you really had me scared there for a moment. I'll get it sorted out don't you worry, I'll have us out of here by tonight." Moto paused for a moment.
"How do you feel about selling the place your old man left you and buying up an apartment closer to the shop? There's a decent place across the street from us so." Moto asked carefully, topics regarding Shirou's father were a delicate one. Moto always felt deeply responsible for not reaching out to his old friend when he got low, and after he was gone Moto stepped up and took care of Shirou.
As his profession was part gambling house owner he felt he should have recognized the signs of depression and addiction that led Shirou's father into his spiral. But he hadn't and he could only focus on the here and now, and the child that was in front of him.
Shirou pondered for a moment and then nodded, "Sure boss, sounds good!" Moto smiled, ruffled the boy's head, and stood up. "I'll take you to nurses and see what can be done about us breaking out of this joint."
Shirou waved him off and looked forward as soon as he left. 'System' he thought in his head.
[TRAINING WHEELS SYSTEM]
PARAMETERS
STRENGTH C
AGILITY B
ENDURANCE B
LUCK A
CURSED ENERGY EX++
[INNATE FEATURES]
[PHANTASMAL ARMOURY]: {The user's cursed technique allows the user to create a detailed replica of any weapon, armour, or piece of clothing they have seen or studied, using cursed energy. These items can be controlled telekinetically, giving the user versatile combative and defensive capabilities. The user also possesses the unique ability to craft real-life cursed tools and other items, which can be perfectly replicated by the technique. Please investigate the technique to find out other abilities.}
[SKILLS]
{HAWKEYE}: {Improves both static and visual acuity and kinetic vision. It affects the accuracy of bows and allows the user to execute long-range sniping at extreme accuracy even against targets moving at high speed.}
'… Training wheel system? Really? Well fuck it okay. That's not an arrow to my pride.' Shirou lampooned.
[SYSTEM QUEST!]
[Now that your Innate technique has awakened Mr. Late Bloomer it's time to test it out. Kill your first graded curse!]
[REWARD: ?]
Shirou tilted his head, 'I can do any grade? So I could choose a grade 4 curse and kill that? Seems easy."
[SYSTEM ALERT]
[Host has found a loophole in easily passing the quest. The quest must be fixed.]
[Additional rewards will be given out in accordance with the grade of the curse exorcised.]
Shirou clicked his tongue 'You're not a very smart system are you if you didn't realize that would happen when you approved the quest.'
[SYSTEM]
[The system didn't realise the host was a little bitch that didn't want to put any effort into his training. In the words of a great man, GO BEYOND, PLUS ULTRA!]
Shirou snorted, 'Go beyond huh, well if I don't have any cursed energy reinforcement, and therefore can't truly hurt curses with my physicals. And my weapon handling isn't there yet. Toji only showed me the fundamentals and basics and I've been training that.' Shirou pondered.
'So with all that, I should aim for a grade 3-2, let's just see what I find first. I can still punch a curse and it'll react physically. It just won't do any actual damage or maybe it will but just won't exorcise it. I can't quite remember the rules in the story.'
'But I can't do anything until I'm clear and alone, so I'll have to wait until then.' Shirou thought to himself.
…
It took a couple of days for everything to calm down, Moto didn't want to leave Shirou by himself so Shirou had to stay with Moto for a couple of days until he was comfortable with the boy going back to his apartment by himself.
Shirou flopped onto his bed with a sigh and looked up at the ceiling. 'Damn that was a pain, it was only a little glassing why were they so frantic.' He lampooned to himself. But now he was finally alone.
'System.' He thought and looked over it, it was no different from what it had been the other day. And the quest was still there.
'Good there doesn't seem to be a time limit on when to complete the quest. Though I want to complete soonish. First I have to get a basic understanding of my technique.'
'Even if I have A-ranked Luck, I'm not about to test it by going out in a half-cocked manner. That's a good way to get myself killed.' Shirou thought firmly.
Getting up from the bed he walked on his short legs to the kitchen, he went to a drawer and took out a plain kitchen knife. 'Not like I have access to many swords at the moment so hopefully this will do.' Shirou lampooned.
'Let's do the full incantation this time. It'll probably be the only time I'll ever use the full incantation. Since this is an Innate technique I'll be leagues ahead of Shirou Emiya at the start of the series. I'll eventually go beyond the abilities of Prime EMIYA and Prime Shirou. But what the heck.'
[Trace On!]
[Tracing basic structure]
[Now tracing component materials]
[Altering structure begins]
Green veins began to spread from his and the point of contact on the kitchen knife, they spread through the entire utensil.
[Componant materials strenghting]
The knife glowed brightly and then lines began to fade. Shirou was still holding a basic knife in his hands. He swung it down onto the kitchen counter. Ding! It made a sound as it connected and his hand bounced back.
Shirou looked at the knife. No damage.
"Yeah never saying all that shit again," Shirou said with a frown as he thought about how much the words Trace On would affect him during a fight. However, this should only be taken into consideration against Special Grades, Curses, or Sorcerors.
If Gojo can turn the tide of a battle with a 0.2-second Domain Expansion, Shirou should really try to never have to use incantations. Then again, Gojo and Sukuna both were spouting lines in their fight and Sukuna was dropping his incantations during his clash with everyone else. So perhaps use the Trace On to enhance his technique to work.
[Trace On]
Suddenly blue sparks appeared and then evaporated into a mist revealing a copy of the kitchen knife in Shirou's hands. 'Cool', he then dispersed the summoned knife and then tried summoning it but this time reinforced. He projected what he had in mind and a long needle-like object was summoned. It was the knife but in a long point, it looked a little like a miniature thin lance, or a really long needle.
'Okay, so the editing work, and the reinforcement and the projection. How about the telekinetic movement?' Shirou opened his palm and tried to get the needle to lift off of it, he frowned when it didn't immediately work but the needle gave an encouraging twitch. Shirou clicked his tongue and put more effort into getting it to lift.
Eventually, it responded and started to shakily lift off from his palm like an infant bird on its first flight, unsteady and unsure of itself. Over the next 30 minutes, Shirou became accustomed to controlling his new weapon telekinetically.
The needle moved steadily through the air, zigzagging through the space in the kitchen. 'This definitely feels strange and will take some getting used to. I should practice my technique and use the system to gain combat skills before heading out to find a curse.' Shirou thought to himself.