Going into the forest of autumn leaves was admittedly calm. I underestimated the beauty and energy a magical world could provide. It felt like the forest was breathing like I was in a place brimming with a large concentration of spiritual significance.
Maybe Mother came here once to practice her magic too. It was made evident by the fact of it being late autumn, that most of these leaves hadn't fallen off. They only kept their scarlet and orange pigment, a true testament to my inferral about my mother's strength. Especially considering how massive these trees are.
Similar to a redwood from my homeworld, these trees were roughly 20-40 damn feet in diameter. Magic could attest to this, but imagine my refusal to believe this after looking up at the behemoth of a tree. I estimated it to be about 250-300 feet high. Being 14, I refrained from probing my mother for answers about her strengths. Like a puzzle piece, I will know in time. But this is just ridiculous.
This is only making me feel bad for what I'm about to do to these. I snickered.
Time to test my abilities.
I decided to opt for Sukuna's abilities first. That is due to his abilities being easier to understand. It was one of the reasons why I favored the curse user so much. His abilities were simple, based on the power to cut enemies to scraps, while also having some kind of innate ability as well. I died before the audience could conclude what it exactly was, but I know it was flame-based for the most part. I started with the first technique I knew, closing my eyes to focus on the tree in front of me.
Cursed Energy is a powerful manifestation of power devolving from negative emotions in the JJK world, and having a vast amount of it can grant a human to see curses, effectively giving them the potential to become Jujutsu Sorcerers. Taking a wild guess, I focused on my emotions. Feeling the ebb and flow of what I was currently feeling. Contentment. Probably because of Mom. Shit. Why do I have to be so happy?
I had to focus on something negative, something either sorrowful or infuriating.
It must've been quite a time I spent in these woods just thinking about how I could make myself angry. Approximately thirty minutes now. But I finally got it.
I focused on my previous life, my old family, and my old "precious people". The reason for my premature death. I couldn't believe my circumstances for a moment. These people took me for a piece of trash, garbage. It was as if I never mattered to them, they didn't care if I lived or died, they cast me aside till I ended up dying a pathetic and needless death. The fact that I couldn't remember the final moments of it drove me over the edge.
It took me to be transmigrated to another world for me to be happy. To feel like I mattered.
I snapped my eyes open, and lo and behold, The familiar black flames of cursed energy swayed, singing with joy at my summoning. It seemed to invigorate me, charging me with enough energy to last for several weeks. I looked around, fascinated with the size of my aura. Its appearance looked like a spherical structure of fire, twisting and churning with corruption and glee.
I knew for a fact I could've kept it going, it was yet to cross the line from simple righteous anger to hatred, yet I had to know restraint in moments like these.
'If I got too emotional, I could end up hurting people.'
The flame spanned several meters all around me, promising to grow further if I desired it. I knew that if I had kept going it would most likely envelop this whole forest. Maybe even beyond that point.
'The cursed energy reserves of Gojo and Sukuna are not to be underestimated.'
Not wanting to be hunted down by my dear mother in fear of her son being caught in a forest fire, I let my anger naturally calm down. As I did, so did the flame. 'That was easier than I thought. I assumed I would have had trouble with getting it to go down' I inhaled deeply, relief washing over me. 'Time for the easier part, [Cursed Techniques]'
After the flame completely dissipated I had to focus and make a mental note on my reserves. When I get to practicing the six eyes I'll have to know how Gojo did that neat little trick of minimizing cursed energy output, virtually making his skills cost zero cursed energy. This character was cheat incarnate, but now that I had his and the main antagonist's abilities, I couldn't exactly say anything could I? I shook my head, exasperated. 'I'm getting distracted.'
I focused my efforts on the first technique I would unleash. [dismantle].
Thinking about how I would go about this, I remembered a brief rundown of how Techniques worked in the series. I recall Gojo likening Cursed Techniques to kitchen appliances once, saying that the cursed energy was the electricity and the technique was the appliance.
Unlike cursed techniques that a regular non-clan sorcerer had to conceive to figure out on their own, I had the benefactor of having two innate techniques ingrained in my being. I also had the benefit of knowing how these techniques function on a much deeper level than someone who never knew what infinity or whatever the fuck Sukuna had. Perhaps I have Azathoth to thank for my mastery of a technique I don't even have complete knowledge of huh? So, therefore, all that was needed in a sense, was to simply... Plug it up.
I lifted my arm in small acknowledgment to the tree, and I uttered my first execution of a technique with as much authority as I could muster.
"[Dismantle]!!"
A pure white light came into existence for half a second into this world, first emanating from me to making its way to the tree in a fraction of a second. The tree seemed to burst at the base of its trunk, exploding with dense tree bark after making its wound a sick sight to see. But it wasn't safe. Its enormous body crackled from its branches, the effects of being unbalanced for over a millennia. The tree slowly tipped over to its side, making a sluggish and powerful drop to the bottom.
BOOOM!
The ground shook at its impact, even going as far as causing tremors as it fell. Yumi had to recover from his speechlessness at this level of destruction. 'From one attack!' he exclaimed, feeling in awe.
"Not gonna lie, I'm gonna have to pat myself on the back for my wishes. You did good Yumi, You did good."
I looked at what remained of the tree. "A clean cut," I said. Witnessing a lone stump in its place. Imagining combat applications of this technique was anything short of it all ending in a massacre. 'yet we still haven't got to the good stuff yet'. I smirked and turned to look at the sun. I had a couple more hours left until Mother would call me to get my stuff together. So I had to choose what I wanted to practice wisely for the time being. Room Of Requirement could help me with that, but I had more techniques to learn.
I eventually resolved to mind as well practice [Cleave]. Its difference is in its intensity and application from [Dismantle]. I knew I had to take a slightly different approach.
I raised my arm toward a tree to my left, not even bothering to look at my execution.
"[Cleave!]"
This effect was different! From the corner of my eye, I could see the tree collapsing in on itself. It seems as if the cut just now went vertically this time, slicing the tree down the middle. 'The tree must've been pretty old to just collapse like that. The roots are the only thing keeping it from uprooting.' Again, I bore witness to a clean cut.
'Truly a formidable technique'.
Not wasting any time, I almost went to attempt my domain expansion, but I wasn't going to do that for two reasons. One, I don't exactly know the level of destruction a domain as sophisticated as Sukuna's can yield to the surrounding landscape. No one that I've witnessed in the series except for Sukuna himself, had the innate control to change the range and area of effect with their domains. I sure as hell wasn't arrogant enough to try and keep damage to a minimum with a domain as destructive as Sukunas without extensive training.
It was like trying to drive slowly and properly with a hellcat after just getting your driver's license. You just don't do that. I would have one shot to get it completely and flawlessly right. I wasn't going to test my luck and destroy this entire forest in an attempt to perfect it.
and from that another reason was also born.
'I really don't want to have to explain to Mom about her forest being pitifully destroyed. I already killed off two trees, Mind as well destroy the entire forest with a domain expansion right?' I mused. I reserved a spot in my mind for the exclusive ability I wished from the God Of Chaos. 'Sukuna's form. Maybe I'll try and see how it feels.'
I couldn't come up with anything complex to activate this transformation, so I would reserve it to a simple hand-sign and hope for the best. I had to make sure to exercise caution, as my wish was pretty vague I admit. I never even explained how the wish would inherently work, So I fully prepared for the absolute worst to happen just in case.
Taking a deep inhale to calm my nerves, I pulled my hands together, copying the serpent hand sign from one of my beloved anime series to get my point across. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. So I winged it.
"Divine Transformation; King Of Curses!" I shouted.