章節 15: 15 Does Your Nature Limit You?
Sugawara no Gojo
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Normally, when a new Innate Technique is born to a clan, it is treated with hopeful scepticism.
The clans being as they are, tradition is paramount, so any technique without centuries of history is generally looked down on. Of course, there are always exceptions to be made if the technique in question is particularly powerful.
His Senior, Abe no Seimei is an absolutely perfect example of this. His Innate Technique is the first of its kind and has little similarities to the Abe's usual Inherited Techniques, such as the one that Abe no Yasuchika, his classmate, possesses.
He, like Abe no Seimei, is another example, possessing an entirely original Innate Technique.
His Innate Technique is called Limitless. If he had to describe it, he would call it the perfect defence. It operates on the concept of infinity in space. His instructors referenced Achilles and the Tortoise, an old explanation of the paradox of a distance that continues to grow infinitely from some foreign nation.
When he is using his technique for defence, the effect is that the closer anything gets to touching him the farther it has to go. It makes him basically untouchable.
However, he is not Abe no Seimei.
His Senior is all but guaranteed to become Clan Head once he graduates, to no one's surprise. He may be called a Grade One, but everyone knows that the only reason he isn't Special Grade is because his technique can be resisted with sufficient Cursed Energy.
Personally, Gojo is of the opinion that Seimei will become a true Special Grade the moment he figures out Reversed Curse Technique.
Unlike Seimei, Gojo is not a genius. Well, perhaps it is more accurate to say he is not enough of a genius. He has certainly earned his promotion to Grade One, even if people, namely Kiyohara, keep insisting he only got the promotion due to the nepotism of his grandfather.
The problem with Gojo's technique, Limitless, is that it is all but impossible to control.
Perhaps if he was his grandfather, it might have been doable with his eyes. But he is not his grandfather, he is Sugawara no Gojo, and he can only do what he can do.
He can't master his technique, not truly. He knows this. It is not a matter of effort or even really talent. It is just impossible, there are far too many variables for the human mind to keep track of.
It took his entire life honing what he had just to be able to consistently put up barriers and send out repulsive forces. It was only recently that he managed his first proper use of Limitless beyond the base neutral application of Infinity.
Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue.
It's an impressive technique, he can admit that much. But it is still clearly not enough.
Evidence enough of this was Kiyohara inviting him to spar shortly after acquiring the technique. He barely got one proper use out of it before she had overcome it and bested him again.
Her words as she left hurt, as they always do, the constant mocking burning deep into his psyche and tinting the entire world in greyscale.
But it's nothing new.
It's the story of his life, really.
The moment his clan knew the specifics of how his technique functioned, he was put on a pedestal. The elders aren't fools after all, they could see the immense potential his technique possesses.
Yet, he could not live up to the expectations placed on him.
Day after day, year after year, he continued to fail. They treated him like he was incapable of thought. Like his mind was so addled and retarded that he could not parse together enough thoughts to figure out how to use a technique that is literally engraved into his body and soul.
They didn't understand. Couldn't understand. How could he possibly make proper use of his technique? How could his eyes see through Infinity? He is not his grandfather.
His entire life has been filled with mockery. His clan, his family, telling him that he is useless. Telling him that he has failed them, that he should stop treating Jujutsu like a game and actually put some effort in.
As if any of you have ever put in as much effort as me.
He is simply not enough. He knows this.
He will never master Limitless.
But that doesn't mean he has to give up.
He just had to shift his goals around a little.
It doesn't matter if he will never experience the heights that his technique can reach. He already knows he won't, so he gave up trying to be a Sorcerer that could reach the hights of his grandfather.
Instead, he looked to the future.
His clan no doubt expects him to give them some children once he graduates so they can preserve the technique without the added shame of his name.
But Gojo has different plans. For why would he obey those who have done nothing but ridicule him his entire life?
When he graduates, he intends to leave the clan entirely and found his own.
Because even if he cannot master Limitless, that does not mean that his descendants would be the same. In the end, his grandfather's blood does run through his veins.
Perhaps in the distant future, a descendant of his will inherit both his Innate Technique and his grandfather's Cursed Eyes. Then, surely they will be able to bring honour to his name.
So it does not matter if they ridicule him. It does not matter if they mock him, or if they treat him like an object to be used to advance their own techniques.
He will continue to come running like a trained dog every time Kiyohara calls for him to spar, or anyone else for that matter. He will continue to allow himself to suffer humiliation after humiliation as his fellows best him in combat and mock his poor control of his technique, either with their eyes or words.
He will bear all of it, everything it takes, and all the while, he will watch them. How their Cursed Energy flows, what little of it his lacking talent allows him to sense. He will watch how their Cursed Techniques function, how they use them, and he will learn.
He will hone himself on them even as they use him as a whetstone for their own progress.
It doesn't matter, after all, what happens to him.
He just needs to explore his technique as much as he is able. He just needs to write it all down, to make a record of his experiences, everything he's learnt.
Part of the reason Inherited Techniques are so valued, beyond simple tradition, is that they can benefit from generations of user experience to call upon, making mastery that much easier to achieve.
Gojo does not have this advantage, but that does not mean his descendants must suffer the same disadvantage. To make up for the lack of many generations, he just needs to keep experimenting and writing everything down.
This way, whoever inherits Limitless might be able to do what he can not.
Sugawara no Gojo knows he will never be anyone special, so he is simply pinning all of his hope on the future.
It is the only way he could possibly bear to keep going, by dreaming of a better life. Perhaps it is cowardly of him, to live vicariously through the dream of his descendants, but it is all he has.
He can not do what he can not do, so he can only do what he must.
The sudden sound of destruction snaps Gojo out of his thoughts, and he spins on his heel to turn and face the building behind him from where he stands in a solitary training field.
The echo of walls being shattered rings out in a rapidly loudening staccato until the wall he is directly facing explodes outwards. From the shower of rubble, a figure blurs in his direction, and he hastily raises a wall of Infinity between them.
The figure crashes into his barrier and instantly slows down to a stop as if he had miles to bleed off the inertia instead of inches. It's only once they are floating right in front of him that Gojo is able to make out the figure's shape.
Dressed in the same standard almost-black kimono of the school, he sees a man with a head of straight, short black hair. Notably however, the figure is missing both arms up to the bicep, a steady stream of blood dripping down to the grass below.
"Eh?" The man makes a noise of confusion, not sounding pained by his wounds before slowly tilting his head sideways, struggling slightly due to Infinity, to look behind him.
"Oh," he says once their eyes meet, his own lighting up with a smile. "You caught me. Thank you for that."
With his piece said, he simply steps forward out of Gojo's Infinity and then, in the process of turning around, both of his arms regenerate fast enough to be fully healed by the time he can clasp them together in front of himself and bow, though not very deeply, in thanks.
Gojo recognises this boy. It is one of his Juniors. Specifically, one of the Special Grades, Narauko.
Yet another existence to whom he cannot hope to compare.
Abe no Seimei, Kiyohara no Nagiko, Narauko, Sukuna, Minamoto no Yorimitsu, Ashiya Dōman. Just off the top of his head he can list six people who surpass him so utterly that he could train every day of his life until he is forty while still being incapable of beating them when they were twelve, and all of them are students of Jujutsu High just like him.
There has never been a great many Sorcerers overall, but in this era of prodigies, Sugawara no Gojo struggles to even be considered average. Then there are people like the one in front of him, who need only weeks to catch up to his life's worth of effort. People who can surpass him without even realising that they've achieved anything, just because it is so easy to them that they are incapable of being proud about it.
Such as mastering Reverse Cursed Technique to such an extend that one can regenerate entire limbs in moments without showing any kind of effort. Does he even know how absurd that is?
It was Gojo's grandfather that spread knowledge of how to produce Reverse Cursed Energy outside of the Great Clans in the first place, and here is a clan-less boy who likely would have figured it out by himself, without the Six Eyes.
He has heard a lot about Narauko. Rumours about him seem to spread as if wildfire.
It is to be expected when one is a Special Grade really, especially when one comes out of nowhere.
As far as anyone seems to be aware, Narauko was just some random commoner until about two months ago. The story goes that a passing Sorcerer noticed his Cursed Energy and sent him to the school.
Obviously that is not true, everyone with a functioning brain knows this, and despite what his family may think, Gojo is not so blind.
No one would ever give up a Special Grade so easily. They would either take them in and teach them themselves, or they would try to turn them into a weapon or all manner of other things.
At the very least, they would want credit for finding the boy. Just asking for compensation for delivering him would grant anyone enough wealth to live the rest of their days as if noble.
Gojo thinks that the mystery has contributed to the spread of rumours.
There are of course the absurd rumours, like the one that he scorned Kiyohara by rejecting her advances. As if that woman would ever make an advancement without knowing it would be accepted.
Some people say that he is secretly a kami, or half kami, or the child of a kami, or blessed by one. Those rumours are pretty popular, simply because he is said to be incredibly kind, at least for a Sorcerer anyway. Gojo doesn't know if that means much, considering how Sorcerers are rarely kind.
Especially since Narauko is supposedly best friends with Sukuna.
Gojo himself has only had the misfortune of meeting that Curse in human skin once, but even then, it's impossible not to know when he is nearby. Sukuna has enough Cursed Energy to blanket the entire complex, from the school to the administrative buildings, and his aura of malice is unmistakable.
How could anyone who would befriend such a being be truly kind? He struggles to accept that. Especially since Narauko is so adept at hiding his Cursed Energy, that is supposed to be comparable to Sukuna's, even though to Gojo's senses he might as well be looking at a Grade Four.
He's even heard rumblings of Narauko, and Sukuna as well, getting titled. Not officially, of course, but despite the irony, it is the unofficial titles that always seem the most significant.
Sugawara no Michizane is The Strongest.
Abe no Seimei is The Deadliest.
Koshikibu no Naishi is The Most Lethal.
Minamoto no Yorimitsu is The Fastest.
Titles have weight. Official titles less so, because they are simply decided by some bureaucrat and enforced by paper. Unofficial titles are formed and enforced by consensus of the people.
It gives them more meaning.
Abe no Seimei is not The Deadliest because he has an official title declaring him such. He is The Deadliest because everyone who knows how his technique functions understands it to simply be a true fact.
He doesn't know what people will end up calling Sukuna, but for Narauko he has heard numerous people declare him The Most Versatile.
He doesn't know all the details, but apparently his Innate Technique is equivalent to eleven individual techniques. At a minimum.
Even he, with the ability to manipulate the Infinity between space, knows that that is absurd. Unlike him however, Narauko actually has the talent to make use of his technique.
"It is no problem," Gojo belatedly responds to Narauko's gratitude, getting a smile in response.
Narauko's smile is strange to him, who has only ever lived surrounded by Sorcerers who scorn him. It's unfamiliar, pulling at a faint memory from one of his missions where he saved some girl, a child. He doesn't remember her face or name, but her smile stuck in his head, along with her words of thanks.
Perhaps he was being weak again, to be finding so much validation in the innocent thanks of a child, but he doesn't care. It was the first time anyone had thanked him.
Narauko's smile reminds him of hers. A pure, childlike excitement and simple, unburdened happiness radiating from him.
It kind of pisses him off a little, but he knows that it is just jealousy speaking. His entire life he has felt as if Mount Fuji itself were pressing down on him. He wishes he could be as carefree as the boy in front of him.
"Whatcha doin' out here by yourself?" Narauko asks before scowling and clicking his tongue, though he keeps smiling even under the expressions of annoyance. "Sukuna is influencing me too much," he mutters more to himself than Gojo.
Straightening himself out, Narauko gives Gojo a shallow bow. "My apologies for my casual verbiage. What I meant to ask was if you would be willing to indulge my curiosity?"
Despite himself, Gojo feels his lip twitch upwards briefly and he waves Narauko's words away. "Do not worry about it, most of us students tend to speak casually with one another. And I am training. What about you? Why were you missing your arms a moment ago?"
"Oh that," Narauko says as if he forgot already. "I was annoying Sukuna because he was mean about a project I have been working on, so we got into a fight and he cut my arms off."
"I heard that you two were friends?" Gojo asks with a raised brow.
"Of course we are!" Narauko exclaims with a bright smile. "Best friends, even! Sukuna is just a massive asshole, so he uses violence as a vector to display his affection."
That doesn't sound right, but he's not going to question it.
"I don't think the staff will appreciate if you continue to fight outside of the designated training areas," he says instead.
"I know, I know. That's why I am going to leave Sukuna alone for a bit. In the meantime, the first person I met who knew anything about Sorcery told me that it's rude to ask about people's techniques. That said, would you be willing to tell me about yours anyway?"
The only reason it's considered impolite to ask about other people's techniques is when it is assumed that the two people will come into conflict at a later date. Nobody wants to give potential enemies an advantage over them, doing so would be foolish to the extreme.
"I don't mind at all," Gojo answers. After all, it doesn't matter if he gives Narauko an advantage over him, since he could never hope to win in the first place. Better to give something pointless up in the hopes that he might get something out of it.
Decision made, he holds his hand out, fingers splayed, to Narauko, layering Infinity over it. "My technique is called Limitless," he says as Narauko reaches forward to take his hand and finds himself pressing against an infinitely growing distance. "It allows me to govern the infinity between space, like Achilles and the Tortoise, if you know that tale."
Narauko lets out a long, impressed whistle at his words. "Your technique functions off a paradox? That is so cool!! Does that mean you can mess with gravity too! Or teleport! Can you make enough gravity to bend light around you to become invisible! Kami, there's so much potential! Heh, you could even say there's Limitless potential, eh? Eh?"
Gojo's brows rise at Narauko's immediately excitable response, and already he knows he made the right choice. He's never even considered attempting to turn invisible before. He chooses to ignore that last bit though.
"I can mess with gravity, yes, but I cannot teleport and I have not attempted to bend light. I was not aware that gravity could effect light."
"Oh yeah," Narauko flicks his hand like what he's talking about is inconsequentially simple stuff. "Gravity can affect basically everything. From weight to light to time itself, gravity is pretty fundamental. You know how strong winds cut around objects? If you were to surround yourself like that but with heavy gravity instead of air then you could probably turn invisible."
"I will have to try later," Gojo states. "I might have more success with this than my failed attempts at teleportation."
"I would have thought it'd be pretty easy to teleport with a technique like yours?" Narauko points out. "Just make an infinitely small tunnel, so that the massive concentration of gravity messes with time, that connects two places, with an entrance and exit on either size that basically sucks you in and spits you out. Well, I don't know how to explain it better than that, but I'm pretty sure I about got it right. Maybe."
Gojo finds his eyes widening with incredulity as he hears the rather simple explanation. Simple though it may be, his own attempts have been more along the lines of simply reducing the infinity between two spaces as low as possible.
The best he's been able to achieve is pulling two places together like magnets, and he hasn't been able to spread the technique very far because of how intensive it is on his Cursed Energy and concentration.
But if he only needed a thin string of Limitless instead, then maybe he'd be able to figure something out. The explanation given was limited to be sure, but he feels in his bones that he can make something of it.
It really just goes to prove the difference between people like him and people like Narauko. He's sure that if Narauko had his technique, he would have achieved much more by now.
Still, this interaction has definitely been beneficial. With that in mind, he gives Narauko a polite bow. "You have given me much to think about Narauko-san, thank you."
"It's no problem at all, Sugawara-san," Narauko waves away the thanks with a smile. "You're technique is really interesting, I'm probably going to be thinking about it all week. It'll be something to talk about with Sukuna too. He loves talking about interesting techniques."
That makes Gojo pause slightly, and he briefly debates internally if it's a good idea to ask, before deciding that Narauko likely won't make an issue of it, from what little he has observed of the boy. "If I may ask you one thing before I leave, Narauko-san?"
"Of course."
"I have heard that you and Sukuna are friends, yet I am finding myself struggling to understand how one such as yourself could befriend one as, if you will excuse my words, blatantly malicious as Sukuna." It's something that has been bothering him since he saw Narauko smile.
Said smile changes imperceptibly at the question, gaining a thoughtful, somewhat solemn tone as he faces Gojo.
"We can not help who we are, and we can only do what we can do. Sukuna disagrees with my every opinion, and for that reason, he is the only one who can understand me, and I him."
Gojo doesn't really fully understand what Narauko means, and can tell that Narauko knows this from the hidden disappointment in his eyes. But nonetheless, he feels the words resonate with him somewhat.
It gives him a new perspective on things. He's spent this whole time focusing on what he can do and giving up on the expectations placed on him by others. But Narauko's words resonate with his own feelings.
He can only do what he can do.
"I see," he says before bowing again and preparing to leave. "Thank you for humouring me, Narauko-san."
"It is no issue, Gojo-san. Good luck in your training. With your technique, it shouldn't be difficult to imagine a more powerful version of yourself."
Narauko's parting words bounce around his head as he walks away. Imagine a stronger version of himself. His grandfather always comes to mind whenever he tries. A mountain he cannot surpass.
But maybe he can climb closer than he thought. He still knows that all his efforts are for the sake of his descendants being able to advance quicker, but even then, he can't help but want to hold onto this feeling, the possibility that he might be able to actually achieve something with his technique.
In this era, he is no genius. He is no Abe no Seimei, no Narauko. This fact hasn't changed.
But if someone like Narauko can look at his technique and be so impressed...
Shaking his head, Gojo walks through empty corridors until he reaches his private garden to sit down in peaceful silence, his mind still on the ideas Narauko has given him.
"Limitless, huh?" He mutters to himself, barely a whisper leaving him as his hand clenches shut and his eyes close.
For the first time, he considers that maybe he will be able to give his descendants more than just the basics as a guide.
Whatever the case, it would be best if he can figure it out soon. His grandfather's position as Jujutsu Inspector General is becoming increasingly shaky lately.
Part of the reason is actually Narauko himself, alongside Sukuna. They've been doing so many missions with so few problems that the big families are feeling more and more confident about a world without Sugawara no Michizane having any power.
He needs to be prepared.
He must be ready to cut himself off from the clan at the opportune moment. Right when his grandfather loses his position. He feels a little bit bad for using his grandfather's hardships like this, but at the same time, he doesn't hold any love for the man.
The chaos that will surround his 'retirement' will be exactly what he needs to separate himself from his clan and found his own before they can force him into anything.
For that, he needs to be stronger.
Or, he mentally concedes, I could just learn to hide from them instead.
It would be dishonourable, but he has long given up on bringing honour to the name Gojo by himself.
///
Narauko
///
"Even if that is the case, what is the point in having a perfect defence if there is no offence? A battle of attrition?" Sukuna scoffs at the mere idea, making me shake my head in exasperation.
On one hand, I kind of get where he's coming from. A battle of attrition takes out a lot of need for skill, so it's understandably less impressive in the eyes of someone who views talent and technique above all others.
But at the same time, sometimes you just have to play to your strengths. It'd be pretty hypocritical to complain about someone's fighting style just because their strengths are different to your own.
It was about a week ago that I met Sugawara no Gojo, and Sukuna and I are still arguing about Limitless.
Perhaps it is in part because of the limited knowledge of maths and physics I possess as someone who has lived a thousand years in the future, but I just can't see an end to the potential that Limitless has, it's just so damn overpowered.
For crying out loud, it literally governs infinity. It doesn't matter if the infinity is limited in any way, not that space is really much of a limitation, but anything infinite is obviously going to be incredible.
Sukuna is just too caught up in the fact that it's barely got any natural offence to it.
"I just don't understand how the technique doesn't spaghettify everyone it touches," I say while idly side stepping a needle of Cursed Energy the size of my arm.
It's my turn to kill the Curse for our mission, so my Divine Dog: Totality is doing that while we talk. It's some bee-like thing that shoots giant spikes from its tail that are poisonous. I only know that because I let it hit me because I was curious how it worked and what it felt like.
Still, it's only Grade One so we can just ignore it in favour of our argument.
"Spaghettify?" Sukuna asks, seeming unimpressed by the sheepish grin I send him.
I kept saying future words by accident when our arguments got heated, so at this point I've basically given up on censoring myself around him.
It's pretty liberating for me, but I think it's lowered his opinion of me since I keep making up random words from his perspective, with none of the context either, since it's not like he knows what spaghetti is.
Tch. I should have just said noodlification.
"What I mean is, if someone gets caught in his Infinity, then the distance gets larger even as it gets smaller. So surely if you tried to pull your hand out of Infinity, it would fall to pieces, since different parts of your hand would be moving differing distances, right? You would end up looking like a noodle."
Sukuna rolls his eyes. "That would only happen if the speed was constant, wouldn't it? Your hand would just push and pull at speeds relative to whichever part is furthest into the Infinity."
My head feels like it's going to melt the more I think about it. I'm pretty sure what Sukuna said makes sense, but I also know what people smarter than me have said about black holes.
I'm not a physicist, and I'm starting to get confused.
"Still, anything that can get called 'perfect' is definitely powerful, even if its offence is limited," I say instead, making Sukuna give me a look.
I return that look with a smug smirk. "Heh, I bet you're just jealous because your defence is terri- AH FUCK! STOP CUTTING MY FUCKING HANDS OFF!"
He just gives me a smirk exactly mirroring my own. "Just because your defence is terrible..."
This asshole...
My brow twitches even as I fail to hide my smile and the moment my hands finish regenerating, I make a fox-shaped shadowgraphic with one hand, looking at Sukuna through the gap between my thumb and middle finger.
"Kon."
///
A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
Sukuna and Narauko are getting along well, huh?
Also, I started writing this chap and got about halfway through before getting distracted and then procrastinating for like, nearly a week, and I ended up losing my thought process about what I was doing with Gojo, so if there feels like there's a quality falloff or something this chapter, that's why.
Also, I've notice that I'm doing a lot of foreshadowing n stuff lmao.
There is action coming up, but I'm undecided if I wanna do one more chill-ish chapter before kicking it off :/
Also y'know, patreon yada yada, you get it.
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