[True Goddess/Criminal Investigation] Players Aren't Necessarily Heroes Who Save the World

[Announcements]

Updates resume every other day on September 22. Thanks for waiting!

[Chapter comments are open] Feel free to leave your comments!

[New cover] Take a look at the new cover! It's a beautiful one in a Japanese light novel style!

[New Blurb]

A player buys the newest game in the Shin Megami Tensei series, a spin-off called Cursed Tales, and names the protagonist "Unnamed."

Unnamed awakens the technique "Cursed Spirit Contracting."

Unnamed encounters a Special Grade Cursed Spirit. Unnamed confidently says hi. Unnamed... is forced to reload and start over.

The overconfident player faces a major boss before even leaving the beginner's village. On the 666th restart, a passing god takes notice and grants a permanent buff, "A God's Downward Glance."

At that moment, countless streams of information pour into the player's eyes through the god's shared vision, frying the player's CPU. Fortunately, the god is kind enough to turn off the shared vision, leaving behind only a long string of taunts.

And so the player begins the game with a god who calls themself "Teacher" haunting them.

The main storyline says to enroll at the technical college?

Sure, sure, I'll enroll right away. Complete missions and contract cursed spirits? Sure, sure, I'll get right on it.

A white-haired cat, a black-haired fox, and a JK healer. These are the classmates who'll wage war this year? Great. The player likes these NPCs. Let the storm come harder... Huh?

The more the player plays, the more something feels off. Why is a series as cold and emotionless as Shin Megami Tensei turning into a Persona game, complete with bonds, exams, and swimsuit episodes!?

Nooo, is the game going to stab the player in the back when they eventually turn their blades on their classmates!? Game designers, you *@*/*%&$=...!!!

*Reader's Guide:

1. You don't need to have played the Shin Megami Tensei series to read this. The setting is Jujutsu Kaisen, so you can just read it as Jujutsu Kaisen fanfiction. Shin Megami Tensei only informs the protagonist's outlook on games.

2. Slow-paced and extremely long. Serious plot interspersed with daily life. The overall story isn't exactly light, but the author loves comedy, so the general atmosphere is fairly cheerful.

3. There are no typical character-rescue plots, and the story won't go out of its way to save specific characters.

4. Multiple playthroughs. The first playthrough will mainly follow the order of Hidden Inventory/Premature Death, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, and Jujutsu Kaisen 1, 2, and 3 (anime). The player doesn't have a strong urge to save people. Maybe a little, but really not much. In other words, they might save someone, but if they can't, they'll give up.

5. The protagonist is chaotic neutral and favors their own people. Their enjoyment of the game is constantly at odds with their remaining conscience toward NPCs, and the former wins out. They have their own player-centered understanding of everything. From a human perspective, they're a little inhuman. In short, they're a highly anthropomorphic, eccentric protagonist.

6. Multiple playthroughs and multiple endings. There isn't a true all-happy group ending, but there will be one in the extras. If you'd like an idea of what the endings are like and don't mind [spoilers], you can refer to the different endings in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. The author personally thinks they'll be more like traditional RPG endings. All in all, it's Shin Megami Tensei, for crying out loud. Don't expect the tone to be normal!

7. This is a full-on indulgence in the author's personal tastes, as well as a first attempt at writing a long novel. The author has never written one before, so please bear with the copious character interpretations.

8. Romance: The player only likes the characters in the way a player likes characters. Even if they know an NPC likes them, the relationship won't go beyond friendship.

Many other characters will have one-sided feelings for the player.

The post-story extras may add romantic pairings. It depends on readers' reactions! If people want to see them, the author will write them, but please note that there won't be pairings between canon characters.

9. The fifth volume is complete, and the extras are being drafted. They're expected to be long.

10. The author is very long-winded. Sorry. (Updated 2026/10/04)

[Volume 1: A Storm Is Brewing] [Volume 2: A Treasure Invites Disaster] [Volume 3: Currents Beneath the Surface] [Extra: The Prophecy of Maya] [Volume 4: Passing the Torch] Complete

[Volume 5: All Walks of Life] Updating

[Bonus Chapter Rules] 100 nutrient solutions per chapter, 50 comments per chapter, 50 additions to favorites per chapter. (Based on the total displayed on the author's Jinjiang page. There is often a delay.)

[Revisions] For now, only typos are being corrected, though other small changes may be made occasionally. A slow, full revision is underway. Most plot points won't change. Revisions may include typos, awkward phrasing, and added descriptions for personal aesthetic reasons, among other things.

[Old Blurb]

A sudden idea. The Chaos, Law, and Neutral factions in Shin Megami Tensei seem to fit Jujutsu Kaisen remarkably well (yeah).

I considered whether to write this as a tabletop role-playing game or about a player, and eventually chose a video game player.

Atlus releases a Shin Megami Tensei spin-off in collaboration with a famous IP. As a devoted Atlus fan, the player buys the game cartridge and starts playing right away.

As a player familiar with the Shin Megami Tensei series, they're completely emotionless. In their eyes, the strongest upperclassman and the JK healer are both future enemies. Even allies might get killed off, and if a bond can't be formed, there's no point getting attached.

The player's ultimate goal is to earn the platinum trophy and complete the entire Cursed Spirit Compendium! A completionist player will see every ending!

But the NPCs don't seem to think so.

And they're going to school in Shin Megami Tensei? For real? Isn't this supposed to be Persona!?

The player is completely emotionless when it comes to romance. Even when they like someone, it's not romantic... though it isn't friendship or familial affection either. But the NPCs will develop all sorts of one-sided feelings for the player.

The player gets cheats and all kinds of mods. This is mainly written for fun.

The player mainly favors Chaos, but will play every ending to get the platinum trophy.

The process of having to replay the whole game from the beginning to see different Shin Megami Tensei endings will be changed... As for how it really turns out... Let's just say I'm having a rough time as a player.

*The author has a strong urge to make snarky comments while writing, so they come up with ways to add them right away (there will be lots of asides in parentheses).

*The player has no gender, but the character they control is female! (Maybe I didn't make that clear.)

Updates are currently every other day, at 00:05:01. Moderation takes about an hour and a half to two hours, so it's totally fine to wait until you wake up during the day to read.

The old blurb didn't feel appealing enough, so I wrote a new one. (New blurb updated 2026/3/29)

[Coming Soon ↓]

[Jujutsu Kaisen] A Melancholy Spring and Summer

A short romance novel. The protagonist's love interest is Suguru Geto. See the author's profile for the blurb.

Currently drafting. Once it's finished, the whole thing will be posted at once.

Theme: Creating a new world.