"Chains aren't always iron. Sometimes, they're just past of your own…, you know?"
—Satoru Gojo
Training Ground Delta – Restricted Section
Clouds hung low like the sky was sulking. Fog crept over the training ground, thick enough to choke out even cursed energy. The air tasted heavy.
Akashi stood shirtless in the center of this weird, hexagon-shaped pit. Weird, but whatever. The Glyphs faintly glowed on his skin, flickering like half-forgotten Christmas lights. The Twelfth Flame glyph on his chest pulsed with slow, steady, almost like a heartbeat, or a dragon napping under his ribs.
Gojo, for once, looked dead serious. Arms folded. No lazy grin.
"We're diving into your memories," he said, voice flat as old soda.
"You'll see the things that you forgot. Stuff that you buried."
Akashi shrugged, mouth twitching. "Like that's new."
Gojo's eyes narrowed. "This time, they'll hit back."
He triggered his Memory Drag technique with some freaky hybrid of Limitless and cursed soul voodoo. Not a domain, really. More like a tightrope walk between their souls, with nothing but nightmares for a net.
"Ready?" Gojo asked.
Akashi rolled his neck. "Always Born ready."
Inside the Memory Spiral
The world twisted. Reality snapped like an old tape.
Suddenly, Akashi was seven again. The slums.
He was kneeling over his mother's body with so much blood, too much silence. His mouth was open, but the sound just wouldn't came out.
But this time, he was watching it from above, like some cruel ghost.bro honestly it's a nightmare to watch again your own mother death infront of you but can't do anything :(.....
Gojo's voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere.
"This is where it's all started. First time your cursed energy exploded. The glyph didn't just stick but grew right here."
On the blood-splattered wall, a spiral burned—red, ugly, alive.
And something inside it… moved.
Memory Fragment – Chain Manifestation
The spiral blinked open. Out slid a chain, pale and cold and wrong. It snaked over and latched onto kid-Akashi's wrist.
"What the—" Akashi tried to move, but nope, body felt like lead.
Gojo again: "That's your guilt, man. First curse you ever made. Never got rid of it."
The chain yanked kid-Akashi straight up, then twisted towards the adult Akashi and stared...
Yeah, it wanted him now.
Back in the Arena
Akashi's real body shook like a leaf in a typhoon. Cursed energy flared. Fire licked up his back, but the glyphs went black, like someone turned off the lights in the dark room in your house.....
Gojo shouted, "Break it! It's not your chain anymore!"
Memory Spiral – Final Layer
Inside the memory, the chain wrapped around everything, The legs, arms, chest, probably his soul for all he knew.
Kid-Akashi just wept, frozen.
Deep inside, the dragon form—his other self—stirred. Scales pushed through skin. Not for power, but as a reminder: he made it through this. Didn't break.
He looked down at his younger self and said, "You're not my weakness. You're my reason."
Akashi slammed his hand into the ground. Glyphs exploded, a spiral of blinding light.
Chains shattered.
Training Ground – Present
He screamed—loud enough that the crows flew off. Black fire tore out of his glyphs, burned hot, then shifted and gold now, all at once.
Gojo's grin came back, smug as ever.
"Now now Look at you..kid, learning the counter-seals and stuff huh."
Akashi just breathed, finally calm.
"Guess so."
He held out his hand then Outta nowhere a new chain formed, golden and solid, not a prison this time, but a weapon.
New Technique Unlocked: Flame Chain Glyph – Warden's Bind
Elsewhere — Spiral Cult's Inner Sanctum
Some crusty bastard....High Priest dropped a cursed tablet, eyes bugging out as golden fire ate through it.
"He broke the Chain of Origin!"
"Impossible!"
The Priest's eyes went black as a starless night.
"Then he really is the Warden… Reborn."
He hissed: "Prepare the Calling. We will take him now by force."
Tokyo — Rooftop at Sunset
That evening. Akashi sat on a rooftop, watching the sky fade.
Nobara limped over, banged up but stubborn as always.
"Yuji says you screamed your soul out today."
"Not wrong," Akashi muttered.
They just sat there, staring at the city, both too tired for big speeches.
Akashi finally said, "I used to think I needed strength just to survive. Now… I think I need it to protect people like you."
Nobara snorted a classic one. "Idiot. You already do."
The wind brushed past, warm that not from the setting sun, but from the gold glyph still burning on his chest.