Authors Note
Hey guys, thanks a bunch again for the stones and feedback on the chapters, it's massively increased my drive to work on this, and I'm having a lot of fun doing it, so I'm gonna keep writing. Anyways, let's get right into the action.
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"Tch. Vibrating your cursed energy and hiding in its cloud—clever trick." His sneer grew more vicious still. "LET'S SEE IF IT SAVES YOU!" He screamed as he exploded toward me, melting the concrete at his feet in his anger.
I was given no time to ponder what he meant by that as he rapidly closed in, an outstretched hand glowing softly with building heat.
I didn't think—just lifted my left leg and kicked down, activating my technique.
CRACK
The ground shattered beneath me as I barely dodged the eruption of flames from his hand. My explosive movement catapulted me up and into an alley to my right.
I could feel his molten presence accelerating behind me, his cursed energy rolling off him in waves. He was faster, closing the distance, a wave of hot dread rising in my chest.
In desperation, I kicked at the air behind me and forced my technique to activate again, radically increasing my speed—but it wasn't enough. He was still closing in.
My eyes latched onto a fire escape railing ahead. A memory of playing tag in my past life surged to the surface, the first of its kind.
I flipped forward slightly and grabbed the railing with my right hand, swinging around it and sliding between levels of the fire escape, redirecting myself back toward the entrance of the alley.
Jogo flew over me—curses don't exactly train for parkour—overshooting the turn entirely.
I threw my hands straight above my head—left arm screaming in protest, something tearing hot and wet inside the joint—and activated my technique once more.
CRACK
The resulting shockwaves blasted me back toward the entrance of the alley. The action sent a wave of agony through my shoulder that made my vision darken around the edges, but I pushed forward still.
I slightly altered my course with another, smaller blast, barreling toward the alley wall. I did the same trick as before—channeling vibrations into the brick. The building's wall rippled like water before exploding outward in a spray of debris.
I activated my technique again mid-flight. The combination of forces launched me so fast that the city became a streak of grey and my vision tunneled.
'He said something about my vibrating cursed energy making me hard to track, right? So all I need to do is break line of sight and I—'
My thoughts were rudely interrupted by the buildup of cursed energy on the side of a building in front of me.
The building's side cracked, then erupted outward in a stream of lava, fire, and steam directly in my path.
I threw my hands toward the sky and activated my technique at full blast.
CRACK
I unfortunately did not account for the rotational energy I'd generated—I was flipping uncontrollably through the air, careening under the geyser's eruption but spinning like a wheel.
I activated my technique again. Then again. And again.
The blasts slowed my flipping, but I was still rotating through the air. At least I could vaguely maneuver if I needed to.
I kicked off the air twice more—a move I was mentally dubbing Areostep—further slowing my flips and catapulting me forward faster still.
I could still sense Jogo even with all the distance I'd gained in those short few moments. Worse, I could sense him moving toward me.
'But how? He literally just said he had trouble finding me—he also called it a trick, meaning he probably found a way to track me even through my vibrating cursed energy.'
I had no way to confirm it. For all I knew, he could just be following the sound of my technique activating. No time to figure it out now—survival first, answers later.
My thoughts raced desperately as I used Areostep again, propelling myself further. Then I felt it again.
The buildup of cursed energy, this time on my left side.
There was no way to dodge this one. The fissure formed directly beside me instead of in front of me. Time slowed as I saw the crack start to glow.
I threw my fist at it desperately, activating my technique on instinct.
CRACK
The shockwave hit the forming geyser and disrupted the pressure—lava imploded inward for a split second before the windows on that floor shattered outward, molten rock flooding through them instead of at me.
I didn't let myself think about whether anyone was still in that building. Couldn't afford to.
Entirely focused on survival, I kept forward using Areostep again and again, hoping against hope to widen the gap between us even by a meter.
He closed in, equally relentless.
Then his cursed energy formed a wall of something in front of him, that something accelerating toward me like missiles.
I waited until my flipping rotation faced me backward, analyzing whatever the hell was closing in that fast.
I saw a swarm of a dozen or so insects flying straight at me.
My eyes widened in recognition. 'Ember Insects—those things explode on contact.'
When my rotation carried me back to facing forward, I used Areostep again, this time stopping the flipping altogether and sending me faster still.
I allowed myself to drop to about a meter above the road before kicking off again. I reinforced my right side as much as I possibly could and grabbed a lamppost with my right arm, swinging like Spider-Man around it to keep my momentum while changing direction by ninety degrees.
I was going so fast that it caused the lamppost to tilt sideways, breaking the concrete at its base while it leaned. It made a terrible groaning sound but held strong.
The insects followed my turn with no difficulty, their presence lingering behind me, a constant reminder of how fucked I was.
I saw a truck in front of me down the road and had an idea—one that would see me either isekai'd again or narrowly succeeding in not dying.
I used Areostep again, accelerating straight for the truck. The insects matched my charge, heading straight at me.
At the last possible second, I activated my technique in my hands and reinforced my back, then channeled vibrations into the asphalt like I had with the lamppost earlier. The concrete pulverized beneath me, turned to loose sand by the intense vibrations—low friction, almost liquid.
I slid under the truck without losing speed.
The bugs, while maneuverable, couldn't generate such an impulse of movement and careened straight into the side of the truck.
It exploded behind me, bathing the street in a soft orange and yellow glow for a moment.
My relief was short-lived.
Jogo arched over a nearby building and landed directly in front of me, cutting off my escape route. His cursed energy pressed against me like physical heat.
"Stop running, you filthy, COWARDLY HUMAN!!"
His form blurred.
I had maybe half a second.
His right fist drove toward my solar plexus—I couldn't dodge, couldn't retreat. So I did the only thing I could.
My body screamed as I forced reinforcement through my left arm and parried the blow to my right.
CRACK
Space shattered where our arms met. His strike shot wide, the shockwave throwing him off-balance.
I seized the opening, shifted my weight, and threw a hook to his right side just below the ribcage.
His left hand flew up to catch it.
Bad move.
My technique didn't care if you blocked. Space cracks, vibrations move through your body, and you go flying. The only defense was raw durability.
CRACK
Our hands met. I pumped every drop of cursed energy I had left into the blow.
Jogo vanished backward, sent sailing up and through the building behind him. The impact cratered the wall, glass and concrete exploding outward as he disappeared into the structure.
I stood there for half a second, panting, staring at the Jogo-shaped hole in the building.
My left shoulder had gone from "broken glass grinding" to "I literally cannot feel my arm anymore." The painkillers had failed. My cursed energy reserves were in the single digits—every technique activation after this would cost more than the last.
I could use Areostep to chase him. Follow up while he's disoriented.
But—
"Nah, I'd run."
I turned and kicked off the ground, launching myself in the opposite direction as fast as my remaining cursed energy would allow.
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3rd Person POV (Jogo)
He was calm for a moment, taking a second to move a large piece of debris off himself before standing.
Jogo closed its one eye, hands balling into fists, tightening to the point purple blood dripped down its palms. He started to shake—slightly at first, then violently—as he snarled in anger.
His eye snapped open. "THAT INSOLENT HUMAN!" the volcano curse roared as its head and ears erupted with fire. The snarl on its face bordered on feral in its rage as he thought back to the human that had sent him flying—him, a special-grade curse, sent flying by a lowly human of all things.
The office he had crashed into quickly started to rise in temperature. Flames engulfed nearby cubicles. The floor he was standing on dipped slightly as it started to melt, glowing a dull orange.
"GET BACK HERE NOW, HUMAN!" He yelled before charging headfirst back toward Shinji, exploding from his current spot and leaving a destroyed, burning office in his wake.
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Shinji POV
I was getting desperate now. My cursed energy reserves were really low, and he was somehow still tracking me. It was honestly getting a bit ridiculous at this point; my silver hair was dripping in sweat, and my shirt was similarly soaked.
He was closing in faster than before; that punch must have really pissed him off. I Areostepped down another alley, trying- and failing- to lose the volcano curse once more. By the time I had crossed half the alley, he was already at the entrance.
I used Areostep again, launching myself upward at an angle—trying to clear the 30-story building in front of me.
I undershot the arc. Instead of clearing the roof, I was falling short.
Just then, I felt Jogo's cursed energy spike. My hand reached desperately for the building's edge, reinforcing my right arm to haul myself over in an awkward somersault.
It was when I was upside down mid-rotation that I saw why he was building all that cursed energy.
His hand shot forward, and a stream of molten rock erupted from it, forming into a massive lava construct shaped like a fist—easily the size of the rooftop I was about to land on.
I landed roughly from the flip, stumbling but pressing onward. I shifted my reinforcement to my legs, and my form blurred as speed surged through me.
The light from the lava fist shone onto the roof in a cascade of bright orange and yellow, its huge form slamming down toward me.
I just made it to the ledge, triggered my technique to launch myself off—the shockwave cratering the roof beneath me—and rocketed away.
I felt sweltering heat on my back as I cleared the building.
I turned my head to check if he was following. The molten fist finished what I'd started, crushing the top three stories of the building. It lost its form in the process, magma dripping down the building's side like blood.
Jogo arched over the wreckage, straight in my direction.
I knew I couldn't run anymore.
I was running seriously low on cursed energy, and I had tried every way of running I could. While I was nearly guaranteed to die if I fought him, if I kept running, I would just gas out, and I would die for sure. Until this moment, there was a chance of escape, but now...
I did the same "superhero landing" as before—deciding to call it ground break—panting heavily, and turned to face Jogo.
He didn't bother landing like the first time, instead sending a blast of pure heat and fire right at me. I pivoted on my left foot—the motion jarring my destroyed shoulder.
The concentrated beam of heat melted the asphalt where I'd been standing, close enough that I felt my skin blister from proximity alone.
I turned to face Jogo as he landed just down the road; that disgusting smile stretched across his face.
He didn't run this time. Just walked forward slowly, deliberately, like he had all the time in the world. Because he did.
I was out of options. Out of energy. Out of time. My left arm hung uselessly. My shoulder was destroyed. My CE reserves were in the single digits.
But I was still standing. For whatever that was worth.
Jogo's cursed energy pressed against me like physical heat as he closed the distance.
"No more running, human?"
I forced myself to grin despite everything, even though it felt like my face might crack.
"Honestly? I'm just too tired."
He charged.
So did I.
He telegraphed his following punch, a straight left at my jaw. I moved my head down and to the right, dodging his hand slightly. Oddly enough, he didn't do the same fire stream as before. I pivoted again, this time on my right, throwing a desperate uppercut with everything I had left. It connected squarely, but my technique didn't activate.
My eyes widened as I realized too late, 'Domain Ampli-'
His right hand landed, crushing my chest inwards with a strong uppercut, my reinforcement trying desperately to stop the damage, but it was too little too late.
The air in my lungs vanished, and I felt bones in my ribcage crack.
I flew upwards, and he was already there, having jumped up to meet me, sending a strong roundhouse kick straight to my midsection. I vomited blood and was sent through a wall. Then another, and another, and another, blasting straight through the building.
I flew a little longer before crashing through a tree and into a metal-roofed shed that collapsed around me.
Everything hurt. I couldn't move, no matter how hard I tried, my breath coming out in short, shallow bursts. Each breath carried an indescribable pain like my ribs were fighting my lungs, and blood dribbled out the side of my mouth.
Jogo landed in front of me again. It was all I could do to just glare at him hatefully.
He stared a moment at me, face a cold mask.
The mask was quickly broken and replaced with a triumphant grin, before erupting into joyous laughter.
I glared harder.
"You are as pathetic as any other human," he began, "Running scared, but I could always track your movements, because your technique is sisemic in nature."
My glare wavered slightly, confused.
He seemed to understand, replying helpfully, "I am a curse that came from humans' fear of volcanoes. Are humans really so stupid as to think I couldn't track something so closely tied with my own nature?"
My eyes widened in astonishment, primarily because this was never mentioned in the story, but then again, why would it be? To my knowledge, there wasn't a single sisemic technique in all of JJK, but it made sense with how much jujutsu worked on symbolism.
My glare returned with double the force now.
He laughed again, continuing his victory speech, "Why are you angry? Isn't it natural to lose to the truly dominant species? Even one like you—with a grotesquely large amount of cursed energy and output—is obviously weaker than I am, such is the life of an insolent human." He finished with a sneer.
An ugly feeling twisted in my chest as I glared with every fiber of my being, willing the curse before me to simply implode.
He didn't
He stepped forward again, and no words were spared this time.
He extended his hand, the palm glowing softly
And my world exploded into a vibrant orange as flames engulfed me.
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Authors Note
Aaaaand done, the dreaded cliffhanger. It had to come eventually. That being said I hope no one is too disappointed with Shinji's loss to Jogo, he has only been a sorcerer for 30 minutes after all. Yeah, crazy prodigy, right? This chapter is a touch shorter than the last one, but I'm really happy about how it turned out. Please let me know if there is something you feel I could improve on in this chapter.
Thank you for reading. I'm going to bed.