Thoughts on Role-Swap Mai Zenin (JJK Role-Swap AU Ramble)
(Major Spoilers JJK Season 3 Episode 4)
Okay, so I'm starting to work on characters for the JJK role-swap I'm potentially planning, and currently, I'm working on how I want Mai's role to look in the series.
Since I will be following the typical guidelines I set for myself when I was writing my Demon Slayer fanfic, it means that every character will almost definitely inherit their swapped counter partner's fate while still trying to stay as close to their canon personalities, backstories, and abilities as possible.
With the Zenin twins, that basically means they will be acting as they did in canon with their same abilities and motivation (Maki having a heavenly restricted body and wanting to become a sorceror to make the Zenin Clan a place for Mai to exist, while Mai has a very weak curse technique with zero desire to become a sorceror and an anger towards Maki for forcing her to follow in her footsteps due to her choices). The only difference is that Maki will be at the Kyoto Jujutsu High School while Mai is at Tokyo and mentored by Geto.
That leaves the question about how to handle their fate following the Shibuya Incident and their return to the Zenin Clan. Because if we follow the events of canon for them but swapped...then that means Maki dies and Mai survives to destroy the Zenin Clan.
So, what would that look like?
Obviously, since Mai will be with a different group of students in her grade (Yuji, Junpei, and Hanami) with Geto as her teacher, they will definitely have an impact on her personality and perspective on being a sorcerer a bit, but she will still harbor resentment toward Maki for leaving her. And while she may not be as motivated to be a sorceror as others due to her own fears and personal feelings about the job, she still loves her sister enough that if the worst happened to Maki in that situation, she would have found the strength to finish what she started.
Now, based on what I've been learning about the JJK power systems (because I'm still new and working my way through the series from the beginning to the end, since I watched things a bit out of order), as identitcal twins, Maki and Mai's cursed energy and desires were interconnected with one another, which meant they could never reach their full potentials as sorcerors while the other lives. Maki could never have a fully-realized heavenly restriction due to the cursed energy she still possessed from Mai (as well as Mai's lack of desire to get stronger), and Mai could never have a fully-realized cursed technique since Maki still had the small amount she needed to be complete.
(Which makes Mai's death more devastating, that the only way Maki could fulfill her greatest desire was at the cost of the one person who was the motivation for it...and that's SUCH gut-wrenching writing...)
So, with that logic, the only way Mai could have become a fully-realized sorceror with a fully-realized technique is if Maki died. Which probably would have allowed her to construct more without an immediate drawback.
So here’s the big question I was thinking about:
Would it be possible, in this hypothetical scenario, for Mai to have taken on Maki’s Heavenly Pact if her sister had been the one to die instead?
I suppose it could potentially be done as a binding vow, but would that make sense?
Mai using the full power of her technique would make the most sense, but would that fit thematically?
I'm still deciding what I want to do about Toji Fushiguro (since part of what made Maki so terrifying to the Zenin Clan once they realized she had escaped and was ready to kill them was that she had become a "second-coming" of sorts of Toji and what he could have done if he wanted to), and whether he will be swapped with someone or not. His character played such a pivotal role in the series for the little screentime he had, and he did it all without cursed energy. Which makes Maki wiping out the Zenin Clan such an amazing moment in the story.
So would having Mai, with a now full-powered innate technique, doing that have the same impact?
I could definitely see her keeping her creations simple, like maybe crafting a small blade for herself or giving herself unlimited ammo, and choosing to end the clan with the same fighting style that Maki would have done in her place. As a way to replicate the way Toji chose to fight, without any of the enhancements he would have had.
(I also have a small idea I haven't completely dismissed yet, where Mai ends up half-blind at the end of the Shibuya Incident, and then fully after visiting the Zenin Clan. And maybe unintentionally trading her eyesight in exchange for enhanced senses, either willingly or unwillingly. But I'm still trying to figure out if that would make sense.
But a part of me LOVES the idea of Mai as a child always closing her eyes when Maki led them across that bridge so she wouldn't see the cursed spirits, and that was the only time she wasn't afraid of them. And now, with her eyesight permanently gone, a lot of that fear of seeing cursed spirits is gone, with or without her cursed technique.)
But would that have the same impact? And would it even be possible for the twins to trade who takes the cursed energy with them into the afterlife?
If anyone could give me some feedback about it, I would greatly appreciate it! If I do go through with this AU (which is starting to look that way), I want to do Mai's character justice and see if there are ways to make it unique to her and a bit different than Maki's.
