Khanadiety
patreon
Before My Very Eyes Chapter 4 (Anew)
🕑 Added 2024-09-21 01:27:51 +0000 UTCThe first time I heard there was a color darker than black, I dismissed it as nonsense. Black was the final frontier, the ultimate void, the color that signified the end of everything—no light, no life, no hope. What could possibly be darker than that? But curiosity gnawed at me, and I couldn’t resist. After school, I sat at my computer, fingers flying over the keyboard, searching for answers.
Color darker than black, I had typed.
The search results flashed on the screen.
Vantablack.
I clicked the link, and the explanation unfurled before me. An exceptionally deep, intense black, it absorbed 99.965% of visible light, leaving nothing behind. It wasn’t just black; it was a black hole in pigment form, a place where light vanished, never to return. The idea was abstract, almost absurd—a color that could consume light itself.
But no amount of scientific marvel could have prepared me for the Unlimited Void.
Vantablack was a pale imitation of the darkness that now surrounded me. The Void wasn’t just a lack of light—it was the absence of existence itself.
It felt like standing in a cosmic expanse, a solar system stripped of planets, stars spinning helplessly in a sunless abyss. At its core loomed a black hole, massive and menacing, a chasm so profound it swallowed everything whole.
You had to understand. A darkness so absolute it defied understanding. It pulled away all light, leaving behind nothing.
Something stirred within me. It wasn’t fear. It was hunger. My Rinnegan seemed to pulse, almost as if it were resonating with the Void itself, feeding off the boundless energy and knowledge swirling around us.
Stars flickered around this colossal singularity fighting its pull but their light was a feeble whisper against the encroaching blackness. They struggled to shine, cold and distant, and as they drifted closer to the center, they dimmed, their glow stretched thin until it flickered out completely.
And yet, amid this cosmic terror, my eyes were locked onto the Gedo Mazo in front of me.
The statue was unmoving, immobile. Its grotesque form frozen, an unmoving relic against the backdrop of endless night. Its arm was still outstretched, mid-swing, caught in the final instant before it could reach me. No matter how much power it had once mustered, it was powerless here—trapped, like a fly in amber.
Up close, I could see every crack in its bark-like skin, every jagged edge of its fissured surface. Yet, even as it stood frozen, a single thought echoed in my mind—it’s still trying. Despite the overwhelming force of the Unlimited Void, the statue hadn’t given up. It was locked in its final act, a punch that would never land, a force that would never be unleashed.
“What you’re feeling now,” Gojo’s voice broke through the haze, pulling me back from the brink, “is the true essence of the Unlimited Void...”
His grip tightened on my shoulder, a reminder that I wasn’t alone in this desolate, terrifying universe.
“Here, in this domain, your mind is overwhelmed by boundless raw information. Every thought, every action, every breath you’ve ever taken is repeated infinitely in your head. It’s more than just knowledge; it’s the sum of existence itself, flooding into you, drowning you in a sea of endless data.”
The words resonated within the stillness, each syllable resonating in a way that was almost too much to process, yet something deep inside me stirred, hungry for more. It felt like I was on the verge of grasping something, something beyond cursed energy, beyond jujutsu itself.
“And yet, you’re paralyzed,” he continued, his tone both instructive and almost…detached. “Your body can’t move, your mind can’t focus. It’s the curse and the beauty of the Unlimited Void—to feel everything and nothing at the same time.”
“Overwhelming, isn’t it?” He questioned the statue, like it could talk or move even.
Gojo’s gaze shifted to me, his focus pulling me back from the edge of that overwhelming hunger. “This shikigami of yours… it’s interesting. The way it moves, the way it fights—it's not just brute force. It’s almost like a husk, a container designed to store and channel cursed energy.”
His eyes narrowed slightly, a glint of curiosity flashing within his bright blue gaze “I noticed something else, too. When one of those nine eyes opened, it started absorbing cursed energy. Fueling itself. It wasn’t just getting stronger—it was healing, rejuvenating itself. A clever trick, really. But I wonder…”
Gojo tilted his head, “What happens when the other eight eyes open?
There was a pause, as if he were allowing the weight of his words to sink in. Then, with a faint smile, he added, “Still, I have to thank you for this. It’s been a while since I’ve had to stretch my legs.”
I was half listening, half consumed by the strange sensation coursing through me. My Rinnegan throbbed, and I could feel it, deep inside—a hunger, a thirst for something more. The darkness around me, the endless void of stars, the vastness of it all—it was calling to me, and my Rinnegan was answering.
His eyes then gleamed—stunning, almost otherworldly in their vivid, icily blue brilliance. The smile beneath his wide, piercing eyes grew manic, the kind that hinted at a thrill only one such as he could understand.
“However, it is time for you to…”
He brought his hand up and around, positioning his fingers with the grace of a conductor preparing to strike the final, perfect note. His hand began to glow into an almost blinding purple, the air around it rippling.
“To be gone.”
Snap
The light from his hand exploded outward, expanding into a beam of vivid, impossible purple tearing through the Void. The brilliance was blinding, overwhelming, as if the very fabric of space was being ripped apart by the attack, and yet my Rinnegan gleamed, drinking in every second of the spectacle before—
Everything went white.
The color lingered at the edge of my vision as the world abruptly shifted. The oppressive weight of the Unlimited Void evaporates, leaving us back in the real world, the familiar sights of Sendai City slowly coming into focus. The contrast is almost disorienting—one moment I was suspended in a nightmarish abyss, and now the faint light of the rising sun began to wash over the city, casting long shadows that stretched across the ruined landscape.
Nanami stands a few paces away. He dusts off his coat, his gaze shifting to Gojo. “Still as nonstandard as ever, Gojo,” he remarks, his voice steady but carrying a hint of something almost resembling relief.
Gojo stretches, rolling his shoulders as if he had just finished a particularly satisfying workout. “Maaa, I don’t get the opportunity to let loose a lot,” he says with a casual grin, as if our encounter with a being of unimaginable power was just another day at the office for him.
“And the shikigami?” Nanami asks, his tone tinged with professional curiosity.
“Gone for now,” Gojo replies, his smile turning a little more serious. “The ritual has been annulled.”
His words echoed in my mind as the weight of the recent events crashed down on me. My legs buckled, and I crumpled, unable to stand. The tension, the fear, the relentless struggle—it was all over. The monstrous force that had loomed over us, threatening to devour everything, had vanished.
But more than that, I realize with sudden clarity that I had been in the presence of something far beyond my comprehension, far beyond anything I had ever imagined.
The Pinnacle of jujutsu sorcery.
Domain Expansion
This pseudo universe, orchestrated by the man who standing before me, as if it were nothing.
Gojo notices my collapse, his usual carefree expression softening ever so slightly. He crouches down beside me. For a moment, he just looks at me, as if assessing the toll the experience has taken. Then, with a small, almost affectionate smile, he reaches out and gently taps my head and-
Everything fades to black.
____________________________________
Motherfucker. This motherfucker knocked me out. I remember everything now.
Anger surged within me. I yanked against the ropes binding my wrists and ankles, feeling the rough fibers cut into my skin, but they held firm.
He raised his hand, and with a flick of his wrist, the seals on the ropes tightened, drawing another gasp of pain from me. an instant, the ropes tightened painfully. It wasn’t just the physical constriction that made me pause. No, it was something deeper, more insidious. I felt my cursed energy, which had been swirling inside me, suddenly slow to a crawl. It was as if the energy itself had become sluggish, like it was being blocked, restricted, by the very ropes that held me.
Panic gripped me, cold and unyielding, as I realized that the ropes weren’t just binding me—they were suppressing me, choking off my connection to my cursed energy. Every attempt to gather even a small amount was met with a sluggish resistance, as if the energy was being siphoned away, leaving me weaker with each passing second.
My anger was quickly replaced by a growing sense of dread.
“Tell me,” he said softly, almost coaxingly.
The pain was unbearable, but more than that, it was the pressure of his questions, the knowledge that there was no easy answer. My thoughts were a jumbled mess, tangled between fear and the flickers of memories I could barely grasp.
“I... I don’t know,” I choked out finally. “My eyes. I saw how you performed the Cursed Technique Reversal. I saw the flow of your cursed energy—”
Gojo’s expression didn’t change. He tilted his head slightly, as though contemplating a particularly troublesome puzzle. “Your eyes,” he repeated, almost mockingly. “You can see the flow of cursed energy. That’s interesting.”
“But still not enough”
He took a step closer, the intensity of his presence almost overwhelming. “Seeing and understanding are two very different things. Even if you observed my technique, it doesn’t mean you truly comprehend the nature of the reversed cursed energy or the Limitless. It’s not enough to merely see—one must grasp the principles behind it to replicate it.”
I struggled to focus through the throbbing pain, trying to piece together the fragments of my thoughts. “I... I saw how the energy moved, how it reversed—”
“Seeing is not enough,” Gojo cut me once again. “You see, to perform that particular cursed technique, you need more than just simple observation. You need the ability to manipulate the concept Infininty at a fundamental level. In other words, you need the Limitless.”
He leaned in closer, his voice dropping to a whisper. “Without the Limitless, understanding and seeing the flow of my cursed energy is…well pointless.”
I understood what he was saying. It made sense. Performing the Cursed Technique Reversal: Red should have been impossible for me. Not only for the fact that reversed cursed technique was extremely difficult to learn, Cursed eyes or not, I simply did not possess the Limitless, so replicating such a technique should be beyond my reach.
Unless…
A sudden, sharp realization cut through the fog of my confusion. While I did not possess the Limitless, I did have something that allowed me to manipulate and distort space at will.
The Deva Path.
With the ability to manipulate and distort space, it was bound to reason that cursed techniques involving spatial distortions could be within my reach. I was very careful to keep this realization off my face.
Gojo watched me intently, the silence stretching. “Or you can choose not to tell me. Either way, you are getting executed.”
The word sliced through my thoughts like a cold blade. “Executed?”
Gojo's voice grew colder, more final. “You have been recognized as the sorcerer responsible for the massacre in Miyagino-ku, Sendai city. For the deaths of over 200 non-sorcerers, you have been sentenced to die.”
Executed.
The word echoed in my mind, bouncing off the walls of my skull, refusing to settle. It didn’t make sense. How I just couldn’t catch a break. My thoughts began to whirl, faster and faster.
This new life was quickly proving itself to be a nightmare—a sick, twisted game that I hadn’t asked to play, but was somehow caught in the middle of. And I was fucking sick of it.
I could feel my breathing becoming ragged, the frustration turning to rage, hot and consuming.
Executed.
The anger boiled over, scalding me from the inside out. My fists clenched, nails digging into my palms as my entire body trembled with the effort to keep it in check. My heart pounded in my chest, each beat like a drum in my ears, drowning out everything else. The rope binding me felt tighter, suffocating, like it was trying to snuff out the fire raging within me.
Executed.
For the deaths of what, a bunch of nameless nobodies? Faceless civilians who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? Canon fodder. That’s all they were. People who didn’t even matter in the grand scheme of things, and I was being condemned to die for them? The absurdity of it all was a sick joke.
Executed.
The word clawed at my insides, digging deep into my gut. It churned there, mixing with the confusion, the frustration, and the mounting sense of injustice.
I was tired. Fucking tired of this, Tired of this worst day ever. Tired of being not being in control. Tired of feeling weak. Helpless. Shit. I had not slept on a bed in a very long time. My time in this world had been nothing but a series of humiliations, one after the other.
Well no more.
I had the motherfucking rinnegan. The eyes of a God itself. Though I seemed to have access to just the deva path right now, it was enough.
Slowly, I lifted my head, feeling the heat in my eyes as they met Gojo’s, eyes blazing with defiance despite the pain. “
The words came out in a snarl, my control slipping with every second. The anger, the frustration, the injustice of it all—everything was crashing down on me, and I couldn’t hold it back any longer.
“If you think I’m going to just roll over and die, you’ve got another thing coming,” I hissed, my eyes burning with fury.
Before he could respond, the talismans on the ropes flared to life, burning with intense flames. The Rinnegan’s perfect control allowed me to channel and amplify my cursed energy, making the talismans’ protection crumble under the pressure. The talismans could no longer withstand the strain. The bindings fell away, disintegrating in the fiery light.
In the same instant, I raised my hand, starting the process of charging Red once again, The air around me quickly filling with energy as I channeled the deva path and through it, grasped infinity.
Negative was rapidly inverting, transforming into positive, and the power I was amassing formed a sphere that pulsed and flickered with a deep, violent crimson light.
Vrum!
The room around me vibrated with the intensity of it. The very air crackled and hissed, electrified by the sheer volume of cursed energy I was harnessing. Shadows danced along the walls, flickering wildly as Red intensified, threatening to consume everything in its path.
For the briefest moment, the ever-unflappable Gojo Satoru looked… surprised. And then, with a silly, almost childlike smile tugging at his lips, he spoke, his voice tinged with awe. “So, you really can do it,” he said, almost as if he were marveling at something unexpected.
“You really can touch infinity.”
The air crackled something fierce as I poured more cursed energy into the raw sphere forming before me, intensifying with every second.
The sphere surged but before I could unleash the full force of the attack, Gojo moved with a speed that was almost imperceptible. He reached out, clamping his hand over mine. In an instant, red was snuffed. The rays of the color vanishing as if they had never existed.
“Stop that,” he said firmly, his voice tinged with an edge of authority. “You’ll only injure yourself.”
I blinked, stunned. What…?
Red was gone. Just like that. The energy I had been building—was snuffed out in an instant. By him. By Gojo Satoru.
The silence in the room was deafening as I looked at Gojo, my heartbeat thudding in my ears. His hand remained on mine, gentle now, no longer the firm grasp of control that had crushed my attack. His face—calm, unreadable. There wasn’t a hint of effort, no sign that he had struggled at all to extinguish infinity. He could have been turning off a light switch for all the concern he showed.
He held my gaze as he slowly released my hand.
“I do have something to confess.” His voice dropped to a mock-serious tone, and he raised a finger to his lips, as if revealing some great secret. “Tada!” His sudden burst of cheer felt like a slap, utterly dissonant with the charged atmosphere.
I blinked, my mind struggling to catch up with the whiplash of his tone.
“You’re not going to be executed. I lied. Well not lie per say but you are definitely not going to be-“he brought a hand to his neck, miming a throat-slitting motion with a dramatic “krrr” sound, his face going slack with a mock-dead expression—tongue lolling out and eyes rolling back for full effect. In the next instant, he snapped back to his usual self, grinning.
I blinked, the words taking a moment to register. “What?”
“The higher-ups have been debating your fate,” Gojo continued, his tone more casual now, as if we weren’t standing in the aftermath of a nearly catastrophic moment. “Turns out, your technique has some interesting similarities to those of the Zenin clan and my own clan, the Gojo clan. That has caught everyone’s attention.”
I could barely process what he was saying. The raw power I had just summoned, the way he had effortlessly nullified it… My mind was spinning.
“The higher-ups voted,” Gojo said with a dismissive wave of his hand, as though the entire ordeal were a mild inconvenience. “And a few of them decided that you might be more useful alive. Not that I would’ve let them kill you anyway.
His grin widened again. “You’re far too interesting for that.”
I stood there, still reeling from the abrupt shift.
“So now,” Gojo added with a grin, “Congratulations! You’re officially a ward of the Gojo clan.”
I stared at him, my mind struggling to catch up. He had just effortlessly shut down my attack and now he was talking about me becoming part of his clan like it was some kind of prize.
Stunned silence was all I could manage.
Gojo stood up, stretching casually as if the intense encounter had been nothing more than a minor workout. “You’re already out of the bindings,” he said, nodding toward the remnants of the talismans that had once held me. “C’mon,” he added, starting to walk toward the door with an easy, unbothered gait.
I remained rooted in place, still trying to process what just happened. But before Gojo reached the door, he suddenly stopped and turned back, his expression curious.
“Oh, right kid,” he said, scratching the back of his head, “I just realized I don’t know your name.”
My throat felt dry, but I finally managed to get my mouth to move. “It’s Nagato,” I replied, my voice hoarse but steady. “Nagato Uzumaki.”
His expression behind his blindfold widened slightly, like a flicker of interest crossing his face. “Nagato Uzumaki, huh?” He gave a small, approving nod before flashing a grin. “Well, Nagato, welcome to the Gojo clan.”
