A/N: This story was built from an idea I had while in the shower. It was initially intended to be only 20 chapters long and we managed to only overshoot that by a bit. The ending I had in mind was quite different from what I got and I think this one was better for a lot of reasons. If you enjoyed this and haven't read any of my other stuff, I recommend reading The Seadragon's Roar or One Thousand Hands (the two stories I am currently working on) or And So The Dragons Danced (my favourite complete one). If you want to see what I was getting up to before I managed to find a modicum of skill, you can read Oak (don't kill me if you do though). Thank you for reading this. Thank you for making it this far.
DECEMBER 24TH 2028
The snow fell around me, bathing the world in white that reflected the sun's soft rays. I could hear the cries of children in the distance and the stern words of their handler as she chased them around. I would turn my attention to that in time, but I went down on one knee to stare down at the mausoleum that had been built.
"Here lies Satoru Gojo, Sixty-Seventh Head of the Gojo Clan. Father, Friend, Teacher. December 7, 1989 - December 24th 2018."
He had been twenty-nine when he died. I was only a few years younger than that now and the more time passed, the more I thought about him.
"Hey Sensei, it's been a minute, hasn't it? Itadori and Okkotsu wanted me to come along with them last year, but I could scarcely take the time away from work to come over. It was the kind of thing you'd understand, I don't doubt. You always did put the world before your needs a good portion of the time. You died for them, but you died doing what you wanted, and I think sometimes that you must have been happy when you died. That smile on your face was not because you were caught off guard and could not change your expression. It was because you were having fun. And when I think about that, I am happy. Because even if it had to happen right before you died, I am happy you finally got to have some fun. Part of me wonders if you are somewhere watching us now. I doubt it, but does it matter? I used to think you'd never have been able to rest if you thought that Sukuna was still out there, but I don't think so anymore. I think you always knew we would find a way to win. That is what it means to be a sensei, isn't it?" I chuckled, lifting a hand and rubbing some of the snow that had fallen onto my hair off.
Using cursed energy near a grave was a huge no-no in jujutsu circles and while I considered it unnecessary superstition in most cases, I still did not want to find out what a cursed spirit based on Gojo Satoru of all people would be. It might be the first thing in half a decade to give me a good fight, but I wasn't some battle-hungry monster. I was perfectly fine just being the undisputed strongest. It made my job much easier. Speaking of jobs...
"Yuji became a Sensei, did you know? I never thought it would be him out of all of us who would return to the school to teach. I mean, Yuta and I do poke our heads in to help Shoko with the workload if it is ever too much as she approaches eventual retirement, but you know what I mean. He's a good Sensei even. I watched his students at the last Tournament of Peace and they were something else. Teamwork, quick thinking, and adaptability. It was almost like watching him, Nobara, and me from when we were younger. Is that how you felt watching us? Little founts of potential?" I asked while moving my knees a bit to make myself more comfortable. It probably said something about my physical fitness levels that I was already managing to get uncomfortable from even this much. I would have to get back to physical training soon. Yuji would probably be happy to have me join him, Todo, and Hakari.
"I guess since I've told you about Yuji — though he probably already told you himself — I might as well talk about everyone else. Nobara is doing good work right now. Her work on maintaining Tengen's barriers by adapting Resonance has left us able to deal with a new resurgence of the most powerful cursed spirits. She's able to force them to form in a small set of areas that we can then more easily monitor for purification and then exorcism if we are unable to purify before the spirit forms. Panda is a Principal now and he does so much good work. He heads the Northern Unified Jujutsu School. Yes, this might make you a bit sad to find out, but the old Jujutsu schools did not survive the changes Kenjaku and Sukuna set in motion. They were just not able to adapt in the way we needed them to and in the end, forming new schools was the best way to approach things. Those old sites now serve other functions in our government." I said with a small smile. It had been my idea to move on from the old schools and their methods. Everyone had fought it, saying it was better to just reform the schools rather than scrap generations of effort in one go. I was stubborn when I wanted to be, and I had won in the end.
Now there was a Northern, Western, Eastern, and Southern School. They were all branches of the Unified Jujutsu School and taught broadly the same syllabus, but being spread out meant that students could more easily be moved out to deal with the weaker spirits.
"Speaking of the Schools — somehow, that old fart Gakuganji is still alive. He pisses me off sometimes, but not enough for me to go through the trouble of removing that troublesome tongue from his head. He heads the Southern School. The Northern and Southern are the biggest schools. Kusakabe-san and that woman with the music ability now head the Eastern and Western Schools respectively. Of course we still have an exchange event, but it's bigger than ever. One of Yuji's students won it this year. Hakari runs gambling around this and other sorcerer-aimed events like this one while Mei-Mei handles the streaming and whatever. You should have figured that it was impossible to put the sorcery cat back in the hat after Kenjaku did what he did, so we figured it was best to own it. We've been working with the humans where we can, and while they were initially afraid and on the cusp of doing something dangerous and reckless, we were able to calm them down with time and then get them to begin working with us. Now we live alongside them to an extent. Sorcerers are represented on the United Nations. We are basically a country of our own built on the ashes of what was once Japan, and this is where I must confess something, Sensei." I said, looking around to make sure that no one was watching.
I took a slow breath. Even with the cursed bell remaining tellingly silent, I still looked around. These words could sink my reign in its infancy.
"I killed the Emperor and his family. I decapitated Japan's non-sorcerer government. I did it in the weeks after you were gone. I had to act quickly, and once it became clear that there was no chance to hide sorcery from the non-sorcerers — they had gotten satellite footage of the battle between you and Sukuna and while they could not see the cursed energy you both used, they could see the effects of the techniques. We had to work to secure things quickly. With no incumbent government of Japan, we were able to neatly step in. Now Japan is the United Sorcery Kingdom on the world stage and we deal with all sorts of problems for the rest of the world. We figured out how to make good on Kenjaku's promise of using cursed energy as a clean power source and now about 12% of the world's energy comes from cursed energy reactors. We had to make moves to accelerate that quicker than normal, but I did not regret any of it, to be honest. It was what was necessary." I said, feeling a weight lift off my chest as I admitted it out loud for the first time to someone who was not Maki or Mei-Mei. Just like me, Maki had an understanding of what was necessary. She helped me plan and execute while Mei-Mei had somehow been there every step of the way. The mercenary woman was surprisingly loyal to the Sorcery Kingdom. I did not know what long game she was playing right now, but I just had to accept that I would have to deal with it when it came up.
"But to be honest, there are parts of it I am proud of. Times where I acted and felt like you were at my shoulder all the while. When I made decisions that felt like what you would have done in the same situation. One of those times was with the United States. We told them multiple times: we would not tolerate experimentation on Sorcerers. We told them we would always know. But they did not believe it. They never believed you would know until you did. And so I decapitated their military in one day. I took their president and kept him in my domain for a week. I waged war across all levels of their government with my Kingdom behind me. Sorcerers almost always fought either cursed spirits or each other. Because of that, I think we always underestimated what a well-trained group of Grade 1s with three Special Grades could do to a nation. We eliminated the greatest world power. Their nuclear weapons we destroyed or sabotaged, their intelligence agencies we dismantled, their public services we crippled. Electricity, water, telecommunications. Some call it the single greatest war crime in history. I called it a message. And it is a message that has stuck. We won, Sensei. We won. Not Sukuna, not Kenjaku, not even the fucking Higher-Ups. We won." I said with a bright smile.
A smile that got even brighter as the sound of laughing children got even closer. I turned to look at them, watching my little brood as they approached. They had the black hair of the Zenin clan and the same angular faces both Mai and I possesed. They were in that awkward age in between toddlers and children and sometimes I was stuck between wanting them to grow up and be able to stand on their own and wanting to lock them in forever as children. Just mine, never the world's.
Five. Triplets and a set of twins. A cursed brood if traditional jujutsu was to be believed. As I watched, three of them concentrated and then began to skip across space, moving in and out of the visible world with ease as they teleported each other — but never themselves — small distances until they reached me, while my little set of twins ran faster than children had any right to before fusing into one larger child and then separating again to confuse their chasing caretaker.
"Don't worry, Miwa. I've got it from here." I said to her as my shadows reached out, grabbing each of the little munchkins in their grip.
"Now what did I say about running from Aunty Miwa?" I began.
A/N: I think this is a good enough epilogue all things considered. Any questions you have, I will answer if I can. Also, if you did make it this far, can you offer some constructive criticism on the entire work. What worked for you, what didn't work for you, what should I get better at before I start a new story. Thank you. Thank you so much for reading Potential Man