#cause when he'd covered them in class it sounded anecdotal

[despite-everything]

have this geology exam in the morning and im fucking nervous man. last exam in that class i got the worst grade ive ever received on an exam in my LIFE

[hexpea]

Ch. 11: A Question of Immortality

You didn't need to confess to Suguru after all. His declaration was met with your eager reciprocation only to finish what you had started on the countertop there on the sofa. 

Thursday had arrived, your fourth day back from the dead, and Suguru was able to set you up with an appointment to see Tengen later that afternoon. It was an honor considering hardly anyone was invited beyond that final barrier. But Tengen took a particular interest in your case and wanted to know more about what you had experienced.

"Why isn't Suguru guiding me down here?" You asked Satoru as the two of you made your way down to Tengen's residence below the school. 

It looked almost like some kind of dark dungeon. Brick covered many of the walls and the lights were a dim red color which gave off an eery feeling. You certainly couldn't wait to get your answers and get out of there. 

"He doesn't come down here anymore," Satoru said almost somberly. He clearly wasn't himself down there, he'd usually be overly cheerful, joking around like some kind of immature kid. 

"What's that mean?" You chuckled as the two of you exited the last long tunnel. In front of you stood the trunk of a large tree, something about it feeling very supernatural. 

"So he hasn't told you what happened down here ten years ago...?" Satoru trailed off with a sigh. 

"No," you gave him a weird look as the two of you paused for a moment in front of the tree. In this moment, you quickly noticed the blood on the floor. It was nearly brown, showing that there was some age to it. 

"Ten years ago, he and I were assigned to find and protect the Star Plasma Vessel, Riko," Satoru began. "A guy named Toji is contracted to kill her, manages to get the best of me..." he hesitated, clearly hating the thought, "and he comes down here to where Riko and Suguru are and shoots her almost immediately. And in front of Suguru. She was only 14."

"That's awful," you mumbled, staring down at the bloodied ground. 

"Yep," Satoru said with a pop of the 'p.' "Told Suguru I was dead, the two of them duke it out but not without Toji saying something incredibly messed up to Suguru after knocking him out. It messed him up real good, I still think he's trying to get over it."

"What did he say?" You asked, voice still in a curious mumble. You knew from general talk that Suguru went through something traumatic that caused him to spiral, but you had never received the details. 

"I wasn't there, so I'm not entirely sure," Satoru sighed, "something about how he was able to take us down without using jujutsu."

"Oh..." you weren't entirely satisfied, making a mental note to ask Suguru about it later. 

"But he was never the same after that. Short while later, he damn near killed an entire village over it," Satoru concluded, placing his hands on his hips, "but luckily we were able to talk him down before it all went down -- to put it short. It actually took quite a while and some rehabilitation to get him thinking straight again."

You didn't say anything in response. It all sounded so intense. Your Suguru? A budding murderer ten years ago? You couldn't believe it, refused to until you heard it from him. No wonder he had been busy trying to redeem himself.

"Anyway, if you go down those stairs, pass the gate, and head toward the base of the tree you'll find Tengen," Satoru smiled over at you. 

"Right, thanks," you mumbled and began your decent.

Not only were you emotionally thrown off by the anecdote Satoru left you, but you were incredibly nervous to meet Tengen. When you were in class all those years ago, Tengen was almost like a school legend. No one had seen them, so it was almost like they didn't exist.

"Hello, Y/N," Tengen greeted as you passed the final barrier, the one where only those invited could enter. "Welcome."

"H-hello," you replied back, cautiously stepping into the room. The room itself seemed a lot more welcoming than the area you had just entered in from, though this room was nearly vacant besides Tengen sitting in a chair, another empty chair waiting for you. 

"I hear you have some questions about immortality," Tengen smiled at you. Their four eyes blinked simultaneously, nearly sending a shiver down your spine. It was clear they were more curse than human at this point, likely because the previous merger was unsuccessful. 

"I do," you replied slowly, taking a seat in the empty chair after they used their hand to motion an offer. 

Tengen had what looked to be copies of your files. They clearly educated themselves on your situation. "Your case is interesting, to say the least," they smiled, "your immortality isn't immortality at all."

"It's not?" You furrowed your brow, now suddenly confidently interested. They shook their head in response.

"Nowhere in your file or the file on your inherited technique mention immortality. Corporealization, yes, but there's no reason you should have been able to come back from the death you experienced," they explained. Your eyes nearly burst out of your head in shock and disbelief.

"So then, why am I here? How can I be here?" You shook your head, jaw hanging slightly open. 

"Well," they sighed, "I have your file here, but I also have the school's history file as well as the Geto family file from that time period. The conclusion I was able to come to involves potentially one curse and one binding vow, one more obvious than the other."

"I'm listening," you nodded, now leaning forward out of eagerness. 

"The first is the curse that lies within the Geto family," Tengen began, "and your association with Suguru Geto's grandfather, Sengoku. It appears as though he may have...cursed you accidentally. We have a similar situation at the moment with one of our second year students, Yuta Okkotsu and the special grade curse, Rika Orimoto."

"I think Satoru may have mentioned them to me at some point. Rika was the little girl who died in an accident, right? And Yuta had accidentally cursed her?"

"Correct," Tengen nodded once. "With this journal," Tengen held up the familiar memo book that Suguru had shown you, "it seems as though Sengoku accidentally placed a curse on you. I believe your inherited technique allowed you to maintain shape rather than turn into some type of monster like Rika."

"So what about the second?" You asked. The Geto family situation certainly felt obvious, but this mysterious second one, you had no idea what it could be about. 

"The second revolves around your death and the school's incident with curse user Kenjaku," Tengen sighed. "This is all my speculation, I should forewarn you."

"Sure," you nodded, eagerly trying to egg them on to continue. 

"Your former body was never recovered, which means there's a copy of you somewhere," Tengen explained.

"What? That makes no sense. Surely that body would have decomposed by now," you laughed nervously and shook your head.

"You would think so, but Kenjaku is quite intelligent. And within the years you've been gone, there have been incredible revelations regarding corpse preservation," Tengen noted. You were still baffled, but continued listening. "Kenjaku is a...body jumper, to put it plainly. It's possible they have your body and are either presently using it or are saving it for later. In any case, you may still be here because that body is still here."

"So you're saying the 'body' I have now isn't real?" You scoffed, completely confused by Tengen's explanation.

They shook their head. "Not exactly, I mean in regard to your immortality. You should have permanently died the moment your throat was cut, and clearly you did. But you came back roughly 80 years later. The question to that is why. It could be either the Geto family curse or Kenjaku's actions or both."

"And you aren't sure?" You were nearly too stunned to speak. Tengen nodded somberly. 

"I'm afraid not. I have my hunches, of course," they sighed before continuing. "Kenjaku's technique operates using a binding vow to enter corpses of their choosing. It's possible that the soul within the body remains dormant while Kenjaku uses it. But because you are able to separate your soul from your physical body with your technique...it may be the reason why you are able to live independently while Kenjaku uses it. In other words, perhaps you awoke because Kenjaku entered your first body. But I don't have all of the information on how their technique operates in order to tell you factual information."

"I understand," you nodded in thought. "So I guess that means if Kenjaku's binding vow ends with my body, I could ultimately die. Which means I could die at any moment because we don't know when they're going to ditch my original corpse."

"That's very likely if Kenjaku's binding vow is what is keeping you here. If it's the Geto family curse, then you may remain and may already be aging as normal."

"And another question could be why has Kenjaku chosen now to enter my body?" You looked up at Tengen in a bit of a panic. 

"Kenjaku's motives are already a mystery. It's best to think of them as the mad scientist of the jujutsu world with goals lying in the realm of evolution," Tengen attempted to explain. "It's possible they've found a use in pretending to be you in order to evolve humanity."

You paused in thought for a moment, taking in everything that you learned from Tengen. You took a deep breath to calm your nerves.

"Thank you, Master Tengen," you smiled politely at the creature in front of you. "I think the rest is up to me to figure out."

Tengen nodded once. "If you feel like you need more consult, don't hesitate to ask," they smiled back as you stood up. 

You gave a single bow and turned to leave. In a way, you felt like you had more questions than answers. 

"Oh, and Y/N, one more thing," Tengen called out to you. You turned around briefly to listen. "About the Geto family curse, it's important to tell you that I can sense Sengoku's energy. Looking back on it...I'd say I've been sensing it for the past 28 years or so."

"Tengen..." you found yourself choking on your words a bit, wondering if he was really telling you what you were thinking. 

"He's not gone, Y/N. And he may not be here, but, perhaps, he's simply someone else and doesn't realize it," Tengen grinned at you as if that was a completely normal thing to say. 

You were too stunned to reply or even fathom one of the many questions in your head. You simply had to head back up from where you came.