Jujutsu Kaisen: False Dawn

There was something I'd always wanted to try.

Back when I was still just a reader… just a guy staring at manga panels, flipping through pages, and watching Yuta do the impossible—I always wondered: how does someone like him match Yuji? Yuta was strong, yeah, but he didn't have that absurd physicality that Yuji had. He wasn't built like a martial arts freak and didn't have a cursed object housing the king of curses inside his stomach.

So how?

The answer hit me hard back then—and it came back to me now: raw cursed energy.

Yuta made up for everything else by flooding himself with cursed energy. Overcharging. Supercharging. Turning himself into a living weapon.

And now?

Now I had Rika.

For five minutes, I had her. For five minutes, I had bottomless cursed energy.

And I was going to test everything I'd never been able to before.

---

I stood there at the shrine, my hands slightly shaking—not from fear, but from sheer anticipation.

I stood still for a second in the middle of the clearing, letting my breath calm. Then I reached inward—not with my hands, but with intent. With will.

I ran my cursed energy through my Red Cursed Circuit.

The result was instant.

My skin hummed. My spine vibrated. The cursed energy flooded through the thread-line network inside me like a tsunami rushing down a pipe.

Rika didn't speak; she just stood beside me like a loyal shadow. Her cursed energy began to flow—slow at first, then faster. Like she was turning a faucet… and then opening the floodgates.

I felt it immediately.

Boom.

Like my entire core expanded. Like I'd suddenly grown new lungs just to breathe in this cursed energy.

I took one deep breath and ran my cursed energy down my red cursed circuit.

It flared up. Lit up.

I felt the threads inside me vibrate, twist, and stabilize—and I did what I'd always wanted to do.

I pushed.

I let cursed energy flood me like a lunatic, like a man with no tomorrow. My entire system screamed at me, but Rika—**Rika kept pouring energy in.** More and more and more.

Seconds passed.

The cursed energy coating my body grew violent. Chaotic. It wasn't wrapping around me anymore—it was erupting.

My clothes flapped wildly, as if I were standing in a wind tunnel. The air around me shimmered with red light. A faint glow pulsed under my skin, leaking from the overworked circuits of cursed thread running inside me.

I looked down at my hands.

They were glowing.

The red cursed circuits had become visible.

"Holy—"

I didn't finish the thought.

I took a step forward.

BOOM.

The ground beneath me cracked—no, shattered.

Dust exploded outward.

My step had broken the earth.

The sheer force behind that step had thrown debris outward like I'd stomped down from the sky.

I stood there, breathless, as cursed energy continued to tear out of me like a storm.

My heart was racing. My whole body felt like it was about to ignite.

But I was smiling.

I was grinning like a lunatic.

Because I understood something. Something that had always felt like magic in the manga but now made terrifying, glorious sense:

Sukuna wasn't just strong. He was efficient.

He had two things:

- Insane amounts of cursed energy.

- Near-perfect control.

That's what made him a monster.

And right now, with Rika?

For five minutes, I was close.

I wasn't him—not yet—but I could see the outline. The shadow of what he was. The raw mechanics. I was walking the same road.

My cursed energy wasn't just strong—it was overflowing, violent, unhinged… but it was powerful. The world felt slower. My reflexes are sharper. My instincts are heightened. I felt like I could punch through buildings.

But then—

I stopped.

Because everything inside me started to scream.

The cursed circuits were burning.

Overheating.

They weren't meant to process this much energy. They weren't complete. They weren't stable.

I dropped to my knees, breathing hard.

I cut the flow.

Let it die.

And it did.

The cursed energy around me evaporated in wisps. My glow faded. The ground settled.

And I sat there—on the cracked ground, covered in sweat, lungs heaving.

My whole body felt like it had been run over. Like I'd just worked out for five straight hours. My circuits were sore, my muscles twitching, and my head pounding.

But I couldn't stop smiling.

"I… I can do it," I muttered. "I can… become more."

And just like that—

Rika disappeared.

Her full form faded into smoke. A black mist, rising and vanishing into the air like a dissolving curse.

The five minutes were over.

And the second she was gone, I felt it.

The emptiness.

Like I'd been holding a god in my bloodstream, and now… it was just me again.

My cursed energy felt thin. Hollow. Like I'd used up everything and more.

The high was gone.

And in its place, exhaustion.

Bone-deep. Unrelenting. Crushing.

My body collapsed backward onto the grass.

Eyes open, staring at the darkening sky.

"Five minutes," I whispered. "That's all I get…"

And the price?

I was wrecked.

This… was the downside.

This was the cost.

Power had a price. Of course it did.

Still… I wouldn't trade those five minutes for anything.

I'd tasted something most people never would.

I'd stood, just for a moment, on the edge of what's possible.

And it lit something in me. Something that wasn't going out anytime soon.

---

Eventually, I dragged myself back to the apartment. I didn't even take my shoes off. Just stumbled in, collapsed on the mat, and let everything fade.

My body hurt. My head was spinning.

And I smiled as I fell asleep.

No thoughts. No regrets.

Just a quiet, dumb, exhausted smile.

Because I knew—

I was getting closer.