Chapter Text
Wasuke Itadori didn’t know how it came to this.
One day he tried to visit his son, Jin Itadori, and his grandson Yuji to find that the home was completely decimated. Furniture was overturned and ripped, tables were cracked in half, the kitchen sink was running and overflowing with water, and there was the lifeless body of his son in the middle of it all.
Wasuke knew that Jin’s wife, Kaori, was not right. His senses with Cursed Energy told him so. The woman had an abundance of it, and it felt tainted. Jin unfortunately didn’t have the same ability of Cursed Energy like Wasuke, so he was blinded by the “woman” that was before him.
Yuji… Where is Yuji…?
There was faint crying over the sound of the water in the kitchen. The old man rushed up the stairs so he could get to the small nursery that housed his grandson. Upstairs was just as wrecked - the master bedroom overturned, and sheets ripped to shreds. The guest bedroom looked as though a bomb had gone off.
Yet the nursery was untouched, the walls still a lovely shade of yellow with pictures of trains and animals plastered instead of scarlet splatters of blood. The radio played a soft piano melody to help soothe the child to slumber.
Yuji was lying in his crib, barely a year old, screaming at the top of his lungs. Wasuke darted for the crib and desperately grabbed for his only family left. He could tell that the boy was in distress, the Cursed Energy was light in the boy, but it fluctuated more like an object than person.
As soon as Yuji felt his grandfather’s presence, the crying seized, his red, chubby face is distress and his wide, brown eyes filled with tears.
“I got ya, Yuji…” Wasuke hugged Yuji close to his chest just as sirens were heard from outside, the ambulance and police arriving. Maybe one of the neighbors called?
Pictures were taken of the scene and Jin’s corpse was wheeled out on a stretcher. Wasuke’s chest painfully ached seeing his son in that state. All that man wanted was to be an amazing father to his own son… and someone, something, took it from him.
Wasuke was questioned as he arrived at the scene before anyone else. He explained his intentions - he hadn’t heard from his son in a few days, and he was concerned. He wanted to also check on his grandson.
“Do you know the location of Kaori Itadori?” a man asked, who was tall and broad shouldered. He wore sunglasses and had a goatee, his brown hair spiked up. Wasuke recognized the button that was on the man’s collar, the symbol from the Jujutsu world.
Shit… haven’t thought of them bastards in years.
“I do not,” Wasuke replied evenly. “I never liked that woman, she was always… off”
The man raised a brow. “‘Off’?” he repeated. “How so?”
Wasuke rather not get into full details on how he suspected she was a Jujutsu Sorcerer herself, despite talking to one in front of him. He didn’t want to reveal his cards that he could see curses and was once a student himself so many years ago.
“Call it an ‘Old Man’s Intuition’,” Wasuke informed. “I always felt like she was using my son and was obsessive of some kind of occult thing.”
There… that can tip them off about her while showing I don’t know anything about curses.
“I see,” the large man replied, writing in a small notepad.
“Mr. Yaga, we found some residuals!” a young woman called out to him.
“Excuse me,” Yaga excused himself with a bow.
They suspect a Cursed Spirit did this… and I do too… I just know that bitch has something to do with it as well.
The police informed Wasuke that as he was the next of kin to Yuji, he would be the first one available to take the baby in. Wasuke hadn’t raised a baby in over twenty years, and he had his wife still at that time as well. However, his grandson needed him, and he wasn’t going to refuse.
Yuji was placed back into Wasuke’s arms after someone in the ambulance looked him over, the baby as calm as a clam. His brown eyes were identical to Jin’s from when he was a baby, his cheeks chubby as well. Yuji cooed gently as Wasuke bounced him. The boy was wrapped in a blue blanket with a cartoon image of a tiger embroidered largely in the center.
The Cursed Energy from him… it shouldn’t be like this in an infant…
He was allowed to go home after another hour, and he was glad. Energy was drained from him. Not only did he have to plan his son’s funeral service, but he had to get everything for Yuji as well; Wasuke didn’t want any of the items in the home as he knew they were tainted with Cursed Energy, so now he had to buy new baby essentials, formula, and clothes for his grandson.
The night was long as Yuji cried, going through what little formula Wasuke had in the home from when Jin visited and brought the baby. The kid ate a lot – a lot more than a normal baby, and according to his pediatrician he couldn't find anything wrong, just that he ate more than normal; he wasn't overweight, and he had the right amount of baby fat on his face and body.
In the morning Yuji was crying as though he was being stabbed, his small eyes wide with terror. Wasuke had in him in a small bassinet next to him in his room, and he noticed that there was a Curse looming over the infant. The Curse looked almost human in shape, large bloodshot eyes, but it had multiple appendages with multiple mouths agape with sharp teeth.
“Miiiiiinnnnnneeeeeee….” The creature moaned.
Wasuke may not have exorcised a Curse in over thirty years, but he still had the basics. He knew this Curse that was terrifying his grandson was a lower grade – maybe a Grade 3 at best. He infused a defense knife he kept on his nightstand with Cursed Energy before he lunged across the bed, stabbing the creature at its side.
“GAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!” the Curse hissed, its mouths widened in pain and surprise before it crumpled to the ground, fizzling away like carbonation gas.
Yuji continued to cry, his face streaming with tears. Wasuke thought the kid was going to pop his head off at this point.
He lifted the baby out of his bassinet and held him close, feeling the Cursed Energy radiate from the boy.
Did he… attract that Curse…? Did he attract the one at the house too?
There was no way an infant should have this amount of Cursed Energy… If a person had the ability to become a Jujutsu Sorcerer, the ability to see Curses developed at around the age of five. Genetic Cursed Techniques developed around the same time as well.
The city always had so many Curses, as Curses were born from humans. Large cities tend to have larger and more dangerous ones due to high levels of stress from the population. Wasuke decided to keep Yuji safe they would relocate to a village area where the Curses would be milder to handle.
Within a week Jin’s cremation was done and his small funeral service was done at the local cemetery. There were very few people as Jin wasn’t close to many work colleagues, and Wasuke along with Yuji were the only family. Yuji was none the wiser as he was asleep in a stroller, wearing a black onesie, soft snores coming from him.
Wasuke managed to arrange things at his current job to relocate to a town that was near Kyoto, a town called Ide. It was small and village-like, yet close enough to Kyoto within a couple hours where their Jujutsu Sorcerers could still be contacted in case anything goes wrong.
Yuji seemed to enjoy the new atmosphere, well, as much as an infant could notice. He babbled and took his first steps without a hitch. It tugged at Wasuke’s heart to see his grandson already growing up so fast and without his father.
The small-town life seemed to help them adjust very well, the Curses were very sparce, and Yuji barely noticed them. He would comment once or twice, saying something that looked odd, but he quickly thought they were some sort of imaginary friends. Wasuke exorcised them quickly without the boy noticing.
It seemed each year that Yuji grew older, the Cursed Energy that emitted from him grew too - and it was chaotic. A calamity that grew and begged to be let out.
When Yuji turned five years old, that was when the screaming started. He would wake up in the middle of the night screaming at the top of his lungs saying, “how much it hurt” and to “please make it stop”.
Wasuke when the first time it happened, he nearly pulled out his Cursed Energy infused knife against his own grandson as sitting in the bed, crying and screaming his eyes out, no longer had the face of the little boy he was raising…
But he had the cursed marks, black and precise, against his face, his brown eyes now red, his canine teeth sharper than normal…
The King of Curses, Ryōmen Sukuna.