Jujutsu Kaisen: False Dawn

"Rika, grab me and float."

Those words left my mouth before I could really think them through. I had ideas—curious ones—stuff I always wondered about while reading the manga. Like, why the hell didn't Yuta just… fly with Rika?

I mean, she could float. She had mass. She had strength. And now I had her.

So I gave the order. Calm, clear.

Rika turned her monstrous head to me, and in one smooth motion, her massive arms slid around my torso. A chill ran down my spine. She was cold—not just temperature-wise, but cursed cold. Like the kind of cold that only came from raw energy. From something not human touching something that used to be.

And then—she lifted.

I left the ground. For real.

My feet hovered, then dangled, then swung slightly in the air as Rika carried me upward, rising slowly.

I was floating. No, I was flying.

I looked around fast, heart pounding like a damn drumline. The sun was low now—glowing orange and bleeding across the trees in the distance.

"Rika," I muttered, "fly higher—but stay low. I don't want anyone to see us."

She didn't even nod. Just moved.

The shift in speed was instant. My breath caught in my throat as we zipped over the forest floor. The trees below blurred like green streaks on a canvas. Wind slapped my face. I had to close my eyes for a second. Rika was moving—fast. Faster than cars. Faster than anything that should've been this massive and floating.

"Back to the shrine!" I shouted, trying not to panic. "Full speed!"

Again—she reacted instantly.

The world turned into a smear. Everything I passed looked like it was being pulled through water.

By the time we landed, my hair was a mess and my heart was pounding. I laughed. Laughed like an idiot. A breathless, shocked, absolutely thrilled idiot.

I. Could. Fly.

I was grinning so wide my face hurt. This wasn't a cursed technique—it was an experience. It was freedom.

But that was just the beginning.

—

I spent the next half hour doing structured tests with Rika—fully manifested.

But even from the first few seconds of it, I knew… she was too strong.

I didn't dare tell her to punch anything. I had a bad feeling that if she hit a tree at full force, it wouldn't just break—it'd explode and probably take five more with it. So instead, I tested finesse. Obedience. Intelligence.

"Hey, Rika," I said gently, still half-laughing from our flight, "can you speak? Say… hello."

A pause.

Then, with a guttural, low rasp, slightly feminine: "Hello."

I stepped back. Goosebumps.

What the actual hell. That worked?!

Her voice was distorted, like someone was whispering underwater into a microphone made of bone.

I had not expected that.

"…Okay then," I muttered. "Let's test more."

I ran a few basic tasks. Math. Words. Recognition.

"Rika, what's two plus three?"

A pause. "Five."

"Spell… shrine?"

Silence.

Then, "…Shhh…rine?"

That was horrifying and impressive all at once. She could process—but not well. Her voice stumbled on longer words, and she didn't seem to understand anything abstract. Definitely not someone to have a conversation with. Trying to talk to her was like talking to a haunted elementary school student.

Still—amazing.

I tried something else next: "Can you open your storage? The cursed tool place."

She stared at me for a second.

Then she placed her massive clawed hand to her chest and split it open.

Literally opened her chest like a cursed cabinet. Inside? Shadowy space. A pocket dimension, maybe. It wasn't like looking into a body—more like staring into a black vault lined with cursed residue.

Okay. Yeah. That was enough tests for now.

I took a few steps back and sighed. "You're insane…"

And that was the truth. Even just looking at her—standing there, watching me with blank cursed eyes—I knew. She wasn't just strong.

She was special grade. Undeniably.

But what about me?

—

I needed to test myself now.

So I stepped a few feet away from her, clenched my fists, and channeled my cursed energy.

My circuits lit up.

The red cursed circuit that ran through my body burned with flow. And then, in one instant, my whole body was coated in cursed energy.

It didn't just wrap around me—it hummed. Boomed. Vibrated. My entire body felt like it was singing.

And I held it. Five seconds… ten… twenty…

I didn't feel tired.

Thirty seconds.

Still steady.

A minute.

My cursed energy was holding firm. Flowing like water from a well that had just hit a new spring.

And I thought, could I stay like this for hours now? Days?

It didn't matter. Because I only had Rika for five minutes. But for those five minutes?

I could be…

Unstoppable.

And now that I could coat my body this easily… there was something I always wanted to try.