Make Every Life as a Ghost or Sorcerer Count!

(Unlimited comments are open~ Feel free to comment~)

As an old fossil reborn from the Taisho era, when there were no computers or cell phones, and burdened with a cursed spirit, Kaigaku honestly couldn't make heads or tails of his golden finger.

Its childish introduction, flippant attitude toward the world, and behavior of forcibly taking over someone else's brain all made Kaigaku dislike it.

But in the world he had been reborn into, cursed spirits were everywhere. When he was on the verge of death, the System that had answered his call became his only chance of staying alive.

And so began his long struggle against his malicious golden finger.

[Bang bang~ Welcome to the Mini-Game System~ Life is one grand game! Find the trick and solve the puzzles to clear the levels~]

[Life Simulator]

[Ding~ Drawing your talent now]

[Draw successful~ Your talent is: Potential (When household finances are below 0, cursed energy +1)]

Kaigaku: ??? Is it mocking me for being poor?

Before he could give this ridiculous talent a thumbs-down, it had already activated on its own.

A certain young man wearing round sunglasses, meeting Kaigaku for the first time, widened his eyes in surprise. "Wow, your total cursed energy is incredible..."

Kaigaku, who was so poor he had to eat cursed spirits, gave him a deeply impoverished side-eye.

But when Kaigaku happened upon a way to exploit a bug, things quickly spiraled out of control.

One day, a girl with a heavenly restriction had once again borrowed a cursed tool from her upperclassman, a year ahead of her, only for him to put on an act and give it to her. She stared at him, a whole head full of question marks.

"You bastard! Is it fun to keep giving away things you borrowed?"

Kaigaku said nothing. He just kept exploiting the bug.

Household finances -1 -1 -1, cursed energy +1 +1 +1

His immense cursed energy fattened up the yellow-haired cursed spirit clinging to him. Then, one day, a shameless scumbag adult dragged Kaigaku in front of another scumbag.

"Hurry up, hurry up, Kaigaku! Use that move on him!"

Kaigaku's forehead throbbed with a vein. He took a deep breath and raised his hand. The cursed spirit on him struck a pose to match.

"How rude. We're true love!"

[Dream House]

[Clear match-three levels, upgrade your facilities, and get everything you want!!]

"Great!"

Kaigaku had just sliced through the third fly head. He watched the cutscene, where three fly heads were mashed together and put in a pot. When the lid opened, a steaming, mouthwatering loaf of bread appeared in his palm. Suddenly, he had absolutely no desire to eat.

A certain squinty-eyed, foxlike young man cheerfully held out a pitch-black cursed spirit orb. "Help me out, Master Kaigaku!"

"I want to dye this thing green... no, wait! Spicy!"

[Miracle Dress-Up]

[Become a styling master! Fight in the outfits you love! The higher your rating, the bigger the bonus~]

Kaigaku expressionlessly put back the glittering frilly dress and cute matching hair accessories he had gotten from a ten-pull, picked up the white stockings and thigh garters that had fallen on the floor, and once again questioned the meaning of life.

If he had to fight cursed spirits dressed like this, he might as well go and s...

"Woohoo~ Magical girl transformation~ Your flower fairy outfit can't beat mine, Suguru~"

"You don't get it, Satoru. Stats are what matter most. My flower fairy outfit gives a full five percent more crit damage than yours, so the flower fairy wins."

The two scumbag adults were having the time of their lives.

Was becoming strong really conditional on becoming a shameless scumbag adult like them...?

Watching the two strongest sorcerers dress themselves up like Christmas trees without a care in the world, Kaigaku questioned this world for the nth time.

Even if his golden finger tormented him, even if the insane jujutsu world drove him to despair, Kaigaku refused to settle for being weak. As a Demon Slayer, he had aimed to become a Hashira; as a demon, he would aim to become an Upper Rank. So why couldn't he become a Special Grade as a jujutsu sorcerer?

So what if he used cursed spirits to make bread? So what if he wore a little dress into battle? So what if he became the jujutsu world's standard-issue weirdo? He'd do it all!!

His golden finger was a pain to deal with, but it was incredibly useful. Kaigaku's strength began to soar, while his reputation plummeted off a cliff.

"Sure, he threatened to kidnap me when we first met, fed me and Tsumiki food made from cursed spirits, makes everyone wear dresses before every battle, and has a really weird technique... But Kaigaku is our benefactor," said the spiky-haired, sour-faced junior.

"A pitiful scumbag who's been corrupted by studying under two scumbag teachers. He keeps borrowing other people's cursed tools and passing them around. Other than that, he's pretty reliable," said the cursed tool expert girl.

"Salmon! Salmon!" The descendant of the cursed speech clan held up a green sign with a big check mark on it. (A magical upperclassman who can produce throat medicine at any moment! Translated by Panda.)

"Gojo-sensei keeps making him say weird things in front of me and Geto-sensei... but he's reassuring to have around," said the jujutsu world's fourth Special Grade.

"He can be a little too serious, and he's also a bit of a power-seeker... but he's a good kid," said everyone at Tokyo Jujutsu High.

"He's a variable. A variable in the world. A child who was allowed to grow up with everyone's hopes resting on him," said the spicy teacher, Gojo.

"He's the new hope of the jujutsu world, a junior I can entrust things to, and... the student I'm proudest of," said the bun-haired teacher, eyes crinkling.

Kaigaku didn't know why he hadn't forgotten his past-life memories when he was reborn, but he had decided to treat everything about demons and Demon Slayers from his previous life as a dream and focus on his new life... until one day, he was horrified to discover that the companion cursed spirit he had always called by the name of the junior he disliked in his previous life... was actually that very junior, reborn as a cursed spirit?

Even in his dreams, Kaigaku kept trying to remember what he had done to his junior in his past life to make him cling to him even after being reborn as a cursed spirit.

But his junior acted as if he had been wronged, chattering away about a promise Kaigaku had no memory of making.

"What are you talking about, senpai?" Zenitsu opened his eyes wide and said with an innocent air. "You promised me. If I found you, we'd never be apart for the rest of our lives."

He smiled, eyes curving, and wrapped his arms around Kaigaku's neck, pressing his cheek against the side of Kaigaku's neck.

"We said a lifetime. If we're even a minute or a second short, it doesn't count as a lifetime."

"Senpai, this is a curse we placed on each other."

Content warnings:

1. Note! Any character may end up in women's clothing! If this bothers you, don't hope it'll be different. Leave right now!

2. The protagonist is Zenitsu's senpai, Kaigaku. Readers who strongly dislike Kaigaku are advised not to open this story.

Kaigaku/Zenitsu, with Gojo/Geto and Mob/Reigen as side couples. Gojo/Geto feature heavily early on.

Little Kaigaku is mistakenly reborn in a world full of cursed spirits, while little Zenitsu is reborn in a school-world without demons and dreams every night that he's a cursed spirit on his senpai's body.

They'll transmigrate between worlds in the middle and later parts, with the goal of finding a world where little Kaigaku can be happy. In the end, little Kaigaku will be able to travel between several worlds and get everything he wants.

A preview of my upcoming story, "Geto! Stop Stealing the Brain's Stitches!":

After receiving his best friend's final gift, an eternal sleep, the Geto cult leader obediently went to hell.

So he could keep watching his best friend, the Geto cult leader worked tirelessly and did his best until he finally earned the hell assistant director's favor and became his right-hand man. From then on, he began life as a little civil servant in the underworld, working, slacking off, and secretly using the Clean Glass Mirror, an artifact used in hell to observe the living world, to catch up on anime.

What he hadn't expected was that his life in hell would go smoothly, while the plot of the anime he was following kept spiraling toward hell.

Trusting his best friend completely, he steeled himself and kept watching, suppressing the urge to force his way through hell's gates guarded by ox-headed and horse-faced demons.

Even when his best friend was exploited by the old geezers at Headquarters, besieged by cursed spirits, locked in a cat carrier by the brain wearing his own face, and forced to face the thousand-year-old zombie alone with the hopes of the whole jujutsu world resting on him, the Geto cult leader gritted his teeth and kept watching.

Until his best friend was cut in half at the waist by Sukuna, denied peace even in death, and had his corpse used by his students to attack Sukuna...

He watched the story's ending with a blank expression, crushed the remote in his hand, and punched through the TV screen.

The consequence of casually wrecking hell's property was that, the next second, the Geto cult leader's soul was sucked into the shattered Clean Glass Mirror, and everything went black.

When he woke up again, the Geto cult leader was surprised to discover that his soul had returned to a time before the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.

The jujutsu world was rife with undercurrents. The higher-ups had long been fed up with Gojo-sensei, the strongest sorcerer, and in the shadows, a disgusting brain was plotting to seal Gojo-sensei, resurrect Sukuna, and destroy the jujutsu world.

Looking at the leader of the Star Religious Group, his former self, who knew nothing of this and was devoted to seeking eternal peace at the hands of his best friend, the Geto cult leader, already traumatized by the previous life's plot, drew on his determination to ruin everyone's lives. He drew a line of stitches across his forehead and climbed behind the wheel of a demolition truck.

The brain was secretly coveting his corpse? The Geto cult leader put on a nurse's uniform, topped it with stitches, and appeared on a comedy show in his original body to show himself off from every angle!

The brain wanted to manipulate everything from the shadows? The Geto cult leader took over the body the brain didn't want and stabbed him in the back!

The brain's technique could fool the Six Eyes? The Geto cult leader tapped the stitches on his head and smiled at Gojo-sensei. "Just look for my scar."

The brain wanted to seal the Six Eyes? The Geto cult leader struck with a chop, tossed him high, and successfully circled around to rip off the brain's skull, throwing the toothy lump of brain into the Prison Realm.

"Once you're in there, I'll be the only brain left. I'll make sure to inherit everything from you, Brain-chan."

The Geto cult leader cheerfully waved at the imprisoned brain.

Taking advantage of wearing the brain's face, the Geto cult leader spent every day ruining one person's life after another, living freely and without a care.

But he couldn't figure out why the Six Eyes, who shouldn't have been able to recognize the brain, always managed to pick him out from among himself and the brain with pinpoint accuracy.

"What's so strange about that?" the person in question said. "Jujutsu's just Jujutsu."

"Even without the Six Eyes, I'd recognize Jujutsu."

Gojo/Geto. A story about Geto stealing the brain's body and saving the jujutsu world with a demolition truck.

There will probably be lots of jujutsu references. Probably.

Lots of OOC. Reader discretion advised.

Theme: Those who strive to live deserve the chance to be happy.