Naomitsu Zenin

"Father! Father! Our little brother opened his eyes!"

"He did! He really opened his eyes! He's so cute!"

Naomitsu opened his eyes to find two little girls staring at him curiously. Then he raised a hand. The infant's arm confirmed it: he had transmigrated.

A Dayun truck had sent him to the afterlife while he was crossing the road.

Beside the bed, a middle-aged man pushed the two little girls aside and approached the woman, his eyes fixed on the infant Naomitsu.

"It's a boy! Wonderful! Wonderful!"

The woman beside him also seemed to have been released from her emotional distress, gazing down at the child in her arms with a gentle smile.

"You are the future light of our Zenin Clan, and the hope of me, Ogi Zenin. Your name shall be Naomitsu Zenin."

And so, upon transmigrating, Naomitsu became Ogi Zenin's youngest son, the younger brother of Maki Zenin and Mai.

Having transmigrated in soul, Naomitsu could instinctively sense that his body was very different.

First and most obvious, he already knew how to use the innate cursed technique passed down through the Zenin Clan's bloodline: the Ten Shadows Technique.

He also had a visual display of cursed energy comparable to the Six Eyes.

Above Naomitsu's own head was a [1] indicator. Above Maki's and Mai's heads were numbers in the tens.

When he looked at Ogi Zenin, the string of digits totaled a full fifty or sixty thousand.

"Get some rest and take good care of the child. You two, get out. Don't disturb Naomitsu's rest."

Ogi Zenin grabbed a little girl in each hand and left the room, leaving Naomitsu and his mother in peace.

Naomitsu, meanwhile, stared blankly at the large [1] above his head.

In this world, being born into a jujutsu sorcerer family without cursed energy was practically a death sentence.

That was especially true of the Zenin Clan, which revered cursed energy to an extreme. Children without cursed energy faced verbal and physical abuse at best, and were left to fend for themselves at worst.

Toji Zenin might have been powerful now thanks to his heavenly restriction, but that strength had been forged through repeated brushes with death, with his life on the line.

Had Naomitsu not been born, Maki and Mai would have ended up thrown into the Cursed Spirit House and locked away in the dark in a few years.

Naomitsu could even accept that outcome. Through training, there was at least some "hope" of obtaining the powerful body granted by a heavenly restriction.

Mediocre cursed energy, however, was truly despair-inducing.

Still an infant, Naomitsu looked at the [1] before his eyes and already wanted to start over.

You gave me the Ten Shadows Technique! What the hell is the point if you won't give me cursed energy?

I'll focus on staying alive for now. Who knows what the future holds? I've finally gotten another chance at life. I should at least make it worth something.

With an anxious heart, Naomitsu began his life as an infant in the Zenin Clan.

A year later, cicadas sang in midsummer.

Sunlight filtered through gaps between the trees and shone through the window onto the face of Naomitsu, who had just turned one. He opened his eyes, interrupting his training.

Four months earlier, he had become able to get out of bed, walk, and train on his own. The [1], which had remained unchanged for eight months, had also begun to slowly increase four months ago.

"Every jujutsu sorcerer is born with their own cursed energy, and its upper limit is fixed. Constant training can only refine it. It cannot grow beyond that limit."

That was what the old fossils in the clan had told Naomitsu. Today, however, that entrenched belief had been shattered.

"Four months of training raised my cursed energy from [1] to [100]. But today, without any warning, it doubled to [200]."

This inexplicable phenomenon gave Naomitsu the beginnings of a theory. He would need time to verify it.

"My body's cursed energy reserves aren't full yet. They're probably about halfway there. That means my cursed energy at full capacity should be around [400]."

Of course, Naomitsu's estimate of his current cursed energy limit was inaccurate. Cursed energy normally manifested in children between the ages of three and six; Naomitsu's abnormality was due to the strength of his soul.

"Why did I have to end up with you two useless things?! You might as well die!"

Outside, in the courtyard, Ogi Zenin's voice was loud enough for Naomitsu to hear him from inside his room.

This was hardly the first time Ogi Zenin had berated Maki and her sister. Ever since the sisters turned three and manifested a pitiful, almost nonexistent amount of cursed energy, things had been like this.

"Twins! Why did it have to be twins?! I knew you two worthless brats should have been put to death the moment you were born!"

Twins were considered extremely inauspicious in jujutsu sorcerer families. The Gojo Clan was even more ruthless: if two children possessed the Six Eyes, one would be put to death immediately.

Other clans were not quite so strict, but twins still had a difficult time. All the more so if the children had no cursed energy.

Even someone as powerful as Sukuna had eaten his own younger brother in the womb.

"Dear, we still have Naomitsu. He's a boy, and he's very bright."

Hearing his wife's attempt to soothe him, Ogi Zenin threw down his wooden stick and walked away in disgust, his gaze toward the sisters filled with nothing but contempt.

"Phew... Being born into a family like this really is a tragedy..."

Once Ogi Zenin had gone far enough away, Naomitsu let out a breath.

He had no room to pity Maki and her sister. If his own performance after turning three failed to satisfy Ogi Zenin, his fate would only be worse than theirs.

He was Ogi Zenin's last hope amid his despair. If he turned out to be useless too, Ogi Zenin might fly into an absolute rage and kill him outright.

"Waaah..."

Shutting out the jumble of sobs around him, Naomitsu climbed back onto his little bed to rest. This body was still too fragile for excessive training.

It was 2005. For Naomitsu, it was a quiet afternoon. At Tokyo Jujutsu High, however, three new students had arrived.

Satoru Gojo, Suguru Geto, and Shoko.

Around this time next year, the Star Plasma Vessel Incident would begin. Toji Fushiguro would act for money, while Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto would head toward different destinies.

Naomitsu, who would be only two years old then, could do nothing about any of it.

For now, his days were full.

In the mornings, he read books to familiarize himself with jujutsu theory and its applications. In the afternoons, he practiced hand-to-hand combat with Maki and Mai to strengthen his body.

Three months passed in the blink of an eye.

Through arduous training, Naomitsu's cursed energy reached [400]. He also discovered that this was far from his limit; his cursed energy was simply growing slowly, perhaps because he was too young.

Still, everything was moving in the right direction. By the time he turned three, he would have several thousand units of cursed energy, comparable to a Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer.

"You little shit! Why were you fighting? Why?!"

"Father! My sister only fought with them to protect me..."

"Shut up!"

"I'll beat you to death! Tonight, I'm throwing you into the Cursed Spirit House to feed the cursed spirits!"

Curses rang out endlessly in the courtyard. Naomitsu jumped down from his bed and pushed open the door.

"Father, I want to learn the quick-draw slash."