(This isn't a story with an invincible protagonist. The protagonist's abilities will grow stronger. Come take a look at our adorable little-girl Mahoraga, and apologies if this doesn't live up to expectations.)
Zheng Bai's last memory was of sitting in his college dorm room. He had just finished reading the entire Jujutsu Kaisen manga when he came across a post on Tieba:
Would you rather transmigrate into a dating sim as the male lead, or go toe-to-toe with Sukuna in Jujutsu Kaisen?
Was that even a question? Without hesitation, Zheng Bai chose-the dating sim.
What else would he pick? Was he supposed to enter the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, get casually sliced in half by Sukuna, and become cannon fodder who could only gasp, "So fast..." before his life flashed before his eyes, never even managing to give Lord Sukuna a good time?
What a joke. Were the dating sim's pretty girls not appealing enough? Was sweet romance not fun anymore?
Just as that thought crossed his mind, the dorm's aging wiring finally buckled under four computers and an air conditioner running at full power. With a bang, Zheng Bai's computer exploded.
"Fuck!" became the last word he left behind in that world.
When Zheng Bai opened his eyes again, he found himself surrounded by darkness.
Wait... did I transmigrate?! Murasame! Kujo Miyako! Snow Woman! I'm fucking coming! Elation surged through Zheng Bai.
But things rarely went the way anyone wanted. When he tried to move his body, he noticed something wrong.
His enormous body was as heavy as a mountain, and countless invisible restraints made moving nearly impossible.
Before Zheng Bai could think it through, the Dharma Wheel above this massive body's head suddenly began to turn.
At first, it turned slowly with a series of clicks. Then it spun faster and faster, until its outline became a blurred halo in his perception.
"That Dharma Wheel... holy shit! It's Mahoraga!"
The Jujutsu Kaisen manga he had just finished reading!
Come on, man! Didn't I pick the dating sim?! Why did you dump me into Jujutsu Kaisen anyway?!
That's not how this was supposed to go!
Wait! Doesn't Mahoraga's Dharma Wheel only turn when adapting? But I'm not in a fight right now. What's it adapting to?
Zheng Bai's thoughts raced. Could it be adapting to the phenomenon of my transmigration itself?
The Dharma Wheel soon gave him an answer. This time, its method of adaptation was reconstruction.
Zheng Bai felt this body coming apart.
There was no pain. Instead, Mahoraga's very existence was being altered. The massive shell began to disintegrate, and the cursed energy, rules, and even the concept of existence that constituted the shikigami were completely restructured beneath the rapidly spinning Dharma Wheel.
Zheng Bai felt his viewpoint sinking lower. His entire body was being broken apart and compressed anew. Its heaviness faded, replaced by an unfamiliar lightness.
The restraints imposed by the shikigami contract were dissolving as well.
Zheng Bai understood. Mahoraga was adapting to his human soul.
With every rotation of the Dharma Wheel, the new body became more defined. After its final turn, the wheel stopped, and the concept of a human jujutsu sorcerer was fixed in place.
Then an intense feeling of rejection struck. Now human, he was forcibly expelled from the world of shikigami.
In an alley beside a bustling Tokyo street, space twisted slightly, and a petite figure was spat out.
"Ugh."
Zheng Bai hit the ground with a soft, delicate grunt.
?
Hearing his own girlish voice, Zheng Bai froze.
"No way??" A horrifying thought flooded his mind, and he lowered his head with a tremble.
He saw a pair of small, pale hands, their fingers slender and fair, their nails neatly trimmed. Long, silver-white hair fell over his shoulders, shimmering faintly in the alley's dim light.
He raised a hand to his face. His skin felt soft and smooth, utterly unlike the shikigami Mahoraga.
Scrambling over to a puddle in the corner of the alley, he studied his reflection by the faint light spilling in from the distant street.
Silver hair, red eyes, and a young face that looked about twelve or thirteen. An obviously oversized black tracksuit hung loosely from his small, slender frame.
The Dharma Wheel rested quietly above his head. Rather than detracting from his appearance, this inhuman feature lent him a distinctive charm.
"I turned into a little-girl Mahoraga?" He had seen fan creations like this on Tieba in his previous life, but he had never imagined becoming one himself!
"Fine, Mahoraga adapted into a little girl. I get it." After a long while, he muttered to the empty air, trying to accept reality. "But could someone tell me where my cursed energy went?"
He tried to summon the power inside his body. There was nothing.
Literally nothing. He couldn't sense even the slightest flow of cursed energy. Right now, he was no different from an utterly ordinary little girl.
His only consolation was that the feeling of restraint had vanished completely.
He could feel that he was free now. This body was no longer a shikigami, no longer bound by a contract. In terms of the nature of his existence, he was classified as a human jujutsu sorcerer-even if that sorcerer currently had zero cursed energy.
But every aspect of Mahoraga's abilities had been weakened to varying degrees.
He thought for a while. Perhaps Mahoraga had taken his fragile soul into account while adapting into this body.
A binding vow sealing away most of his abilities had bought him the identity of a human jujutsu sorcerer and complete freedom.
As he gained a sense of his condition, information about this body also flooded his mind:
Kujo Mashiro, the last surviving heir of the long-declining Kujo jujutsu family.
"It can even adapt an identity into existence? Seriously?" Mashiro could only let out a long sigh and stand up.
"Hm?"
Something pressed against her waist. Mashiro reached down and drew a katana.
It was about sixty centimeters long, with a silver-white blade and a black hilt. She gave it a casual swing, and a faint, cold gleam appeared along its edge.
Mahoraga only had one weapon, when it came down to it, right?
"The Sword of Extermination." Mashiro murmured its name. After examining it carefully for a moment, she sensed that it wasn't much different from its depiction in the manga.
But now, all it retained was a limited advantage against cursed spirits and the ability to cut through cursed energy.
"The power to adapt, plus the Sword of Extermination..." She stood still for three minutes.
Click, click. The Dharma Wheel above her head turned slowly.
A damp breeze swept through the alley, stirring dust from the ground. The distant bustle of the city reached her ears: traffic, indistinct voices. Everything felt so real that it was almost disorienting.
This was the real Tokyo. This was the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, a world where she knew every plot point and every tragedy.
And now she was Kujo Mashiro, someone who theoretically shouldn't exist.
"...All right."
At last, she spoke. Her voice was soft and sweet, and she still wasn't quite used to it.
"I'm already here."
Even if she had no cursed energy yet, she couldn't actually resign herself to being cannon fodder, could she?
Who wouldn't want to get right in the characters' faces, spout a couple of unhinged one-liners, and then throw down with all their might?
Since she had become a little-girl Mahoraga, since she had gained the ability to adapt, she couldn't live with a weakling's mindset.
She walked out of the alley. Light from the city that never slept poured down, illuminating her silver hair and crimson eyes.
Traffic streamed along the road, and pedestrians hurried past. Mashiro looked up at the date displayed on a giant screen: June 2018. Everything should have only just begun.
Lifting her head, she knew that somewhere in this world, Yuji Itadori would soon swallow the first Sukuna's Finger. The Shibuya Incident, the Culling Game, countless deaths and sacrifices... she remembered the entire story.
"In that case, as someone with a PhD in Jujutsu Kaisen, I should do what I want to do. Undo some disappointments. Save some people."
Kujo Mashiro had adapted too. Her lips curved as she looked at her slightly trembling hands. It wasn't fear, but excitement at being able to personally take part in these blood-pumping moments.
"Sukuna, just you wait. I'm coming to throw down with you."
As long as she kept adapting, kept growing stronger, then-
"You're the challenger here."
Announcement from the production team:
1. Mashiro's appearance bug has been fixed. Her Dharma Wheel now appears above her head, which better matches the little-girl Mahoraga design.
New players, please don't be confused if you see paragraph comments mentioning this.
2. A setting inconsistency has been fixed. Details of her abilities have been moved to the first chapter, and several short explanatory passages have been added.
Before you continue