#cursed techniques

“What?” Satoru asks, his voice faint because he doesn’t understand what’s going on.

“I said, it’s a good idea because that way I can get rid of you faster. You think I enjoy spending all my goddamn time with you? Don’t be ridiculous, Satoru,” Suguru says, and his voice isn’t even mean.

It makes it that much harder to understand what he says but once the words really hit Satoru it almost feels as if a stone is dropping in his stomach.

“Is this—the curse?” Satoru dares to ask, even though it wouldn’t make a difference.

Chances are it’s some kind of technique that forces Suguru to say what he really thinks and in all honesty, Satoru shouldn’t be surprised.

He knew that this was coming eventually. He just thought he’d have more time.

“Okay,” Satoru says with a shaky smile when Suguru nods with huge eyes. “We have to get you to Shoko, so she can check you out.”

“Satoru,” Suguru says but cuts himself off before more words can spill out and Satoru avoids his eyes.

He always knew that Suguru is just too nice to say what’s really on his mind, but he can’t deny that it hurts.

“You’re so annoying,” Suguru says through clenched teeth and the look on his face speaks of pure desperation. “You might be the strongest but what does that even matter when your personality fucking sucks?”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Satoru forces himself to says, scratching the back of his head. “It’s hard to get the whole package, huh?”

Maybe if he just plays this off, if he pretends that this doesn’t hurt as much as it does, then he can get through this.

There’s no way they will get through this because Satoru is pretty sure that after today there won’t be a them to speak of anymore but maybe if Satoru pushes all of his feelings away right now, he won’t come out completely shattered at the end.

Here’s to hoping, he bitterly thinks and forces himself to look away when he spots tears in Suguru’s eyes.

Of course Suguru never wanted him to know that; he truly is too good for his own sake and Satoru probably should have never confessed to him in the first place. He thought Suguru has always been pretty good at saying no to him so he dared to risk it, secure in the knowledge that Suguru wouldn’t just go along with it because of who he is, but of course he had to be wrong in that regard, too.

“Satoru, will you please just go?” Suguru presses out, clearly using every ounce of willpower he has to not say whatever truth wants to spill out next and Satoru nods.

“I’ll—teleport back, inform Shoko of what’s happening, so you won’t have to explain anything to her,” Satoru offers and it sees as if his talking is setting Suguru off again, because despite the way he still clenches his mouth shut, words spill out.

“It’s so laughable that you think I could really love you. You’re so goddamn annoying. I’m glad for every second we don’t have to spend together. And the way you can’t keep your mouth shut! It makes me want to punch you so bad.”

“Great,” Satoru mutters, fighting the stinging of his eyes. “Maybe we can ask Yaga for more solo missions once this is over,” he suggests and valiantly pretends that his heart isn’t currently crumbling in his chest.

He thinks he has trouble breathing but in all honesty he is too numb to really notice anything right now.

“I’ll—go then,” he weakly says, and teleports out of there before Suguru can word vomit again.

Shoko startles badly when Satoru lands in her room but he doesn’t care.

All he wants right now is to hide himself away and never come back out because losing Suguru like this feels as if his chest is caving in and he’d really like to have a breakdown about this in peace.

“What the fuck!”

“Suguru is on his way back. The last curse he consumed did something to him, a truth spell or something along those lines,” he tells her and even to his own ears his voice sounds horribly flat.

“What? That’s so rare, and Geto doesn’t shy away to say the truth anyway, so how would you know?”

“Oh, believe me, there’s plenty he doesn’t normally say,” Satoru whispers and can’t help the few tears that spill over.

It seems it catches Shoko completely off guard because her look is absolutely horrified.

“What the hell happened?”

“He was just—very vocal about his feelings for me,” Satoru says, even as he walks towards the door. “I—you can tell him I won’t come to class for a few days, that the message is received. I’ll talk to Yaga too, about the solo missions, so he doesn’t have to worry about that. I won’t—tell him I get it. I won’t bother him again.”

“That is so fucking wrong, I don’t even know where to start,” Shoko whispers and Satoru gives her a court nod.

“Thanks for taking care of him.”

He slips out of her room, not looking back, not looking around to see if Suguru is already close and once he’s in his room, he simply—stops.

His head is a mess and his heart is in shambles and it feels an awful lot as if his spirit is broken and for a moment Satoru can do nothing but force himself to breathe. His thoughts are screaming at him in rage, his heart is screaming at him in pain and the contradicting feelings make him feel sick to his stomach.

If he has to throw up now, he’ll cry his eyes out, he just knows it, so he swallows everything back and then sits down on the bed.

Satoru feels almost brittle, as if too much movement could break him apart into a thousand pieces at any moment, but sitting at the edge of his bed is good. He can do that.

He can do that until he has to pick himself back up again and go out there, and maybe he’ll piece himself back together wrong but who cares, right?

As long as he functions, as long as he can still be useful, can still be the strongest it doesn’t matter one bit.

Satoru doesn’t know how long he spends like that on his bed but by the time the door to his room flies open it’s already dark out and Satoru feels stiff like a statue. He barely manages to get his eyes to focus and it doesn’t help at all when he realises that it’s Suguru who is standing in his room, chest heaving with how fast he must have run here.

“I—this is my room,” Satoru says, voice completely devoid of inflection. “You can’t tell me to get lost from here.”

“I love you,” Suguru blurts out and crosses the room in three huge strides. “Fuck, Satoru, I love you and I am so, so sorry, I didn’t know,” he almost cries out and Satoru is too surprised to do anything.

He didn’t think Suguru would go back to lying to him.

“It’s okay,” Satoru forces himself to say. “You don’t have to do this. I get it. It’s fine. You can—I’m not mad, or anything.”

“But you should be, gods, you should be, Satoru. Shoko said you think this is some kind of technique that makes me say the truth, so you should really definitely be fucking furious with me if you think I would lie to you like that.”

“It doesn’t matter,” he whispers, because nothing matters anymore and he wheezes when Suguru hugs him even tighter.

“It wasn’t a truth thing,” he finally says and it’s a good thing Satoru is already mostly motionless because that would have made him freeze again.

“Yes, it was.”

“No. It made me say what you were most afraid of hearing,” Suguru says and Satoru wonders why he’s doing this.

He already cut all ties between them, what reason could he possibly have to lie now?

“I know you don’t believe me, but now that the effect has worn off, I can use the curse to do the same to other people,” Suguru whispers and hides his face in Satoru’s neck. “So—I want to use it on you, so you understand that nothing what I said is what I truly feel.”

“Suguru—” he cuts himself off because with what was said, he doesn’t think he has the right to call him that, so Satoru tries again. “Geto.” The name sounds stiff and wrong in his mouth and Satoru almost feels bad for the way it makes Suguru flinch. “It’s okay. We’ll just—not. Not anything, you know. Not talk, not see each other, it’s fine.”

“It’s fucking not!” Suguru suddenly yells out, his voice wet with tears. “You don’t get a say in this. I’m sorry, Satoru, but I’m using that technique on you.”

He pulls away, a determined look on his face and before Satoru can say something else he feels Suguru’s cursed energy spike before it settles over him.

And just like that he can’t keep his mouth shut anymore, words being torn from his throat.

“You’re such a boring, righteous person. You think anyone wants to be around you with that judging look and your flat personality? Grow a character. And you think you have any right to stand besides me? You’re nothing compared to me and I don’t need you. I don’t even want you around because you’re just holding me back. You’re just like everyone else and it’s really laughable for you to think that you will ever be anything but average.”

Satoru’s hand flies to his mouth, but it’s too late already, the words are already out there and just like that, Suguru’s cursed energy fizzles out into nothing.

Suguru works his jaw a few times, before a determined look settles over his face.

“There,” he almost spits out. “Was that the truth you said just now?” he demands to know and even though he tries to look stern, Satoru spots the minute shaking of his voice.

“No,” Satoru immediately cries out. “It felt as if the words were pulled out of me, but I have no idea where they came from.”

“It’s what I’m afraid of hearing from you,” Suguru admits and even though it’s clearly not easy for him, he meets Satoru’s eyes.

“And what I said is what you’re afraid of hearing from me. There’s no truth to these words. The curse is just preying on our insecurities.”

Satoru opens the mouth to argue with him about that, because surely there must be some truth to what Suguru had said to him but he remembers how it felt, to have that cursed technique on him and he realises that Suguru is right.

There was no truth in any of the words Satoru just said; those words weren’t even things he has ever thought before, not once in the time he has known Suguru, and if that is true for him, then the same must be true for Suguru, right?

“I don’t think any of those things,” Satoru says, because he feels as if he should and Suguru gives him a shaky smile.

“And I don’t think any of the things I said to you before either. I love you, Satoru, personality and non-stop running mouth and all. I really do. I never want to be parted from you.”

“You’re not average,” Satoru immediately gives back because the thought that Suguru could really think that about himself is unbelievable to him. “You’re incredible and wonderful and you’re not holding me back and everyone loves you and finds you approachable because you are a wonderful human!”

“Okay,” Suguru says, his eyes a bit watery.

“I’m so sorry I believed you would say these things to me,” Satoru cries out because what if he damaged the trust between them now by easily believing what Suguru said?

“Please tell me we’re not about to develop another issue between us,” Suguru sighs out. “I can’t take anymore, this was already taxing enough.”

“But—”

“Satoru, the technique is specifically designed for me to say what you fear to hear the most from me. Of course you’d believe it, because it’s what you already believe deep down. The same goes for me. I would have believed you in a heartbeat if you said any of that because I am so afraid that it’s true. It doesn’t have anything to do with trust. I know you trust me. I know you love me. And I feel the same.”

Satoru takes a moment to digest that and figures Suguru is probably right. He has to be, because Satoru thinks he can’t take it if he isn’t.

He already lost Suguru once today—however fabricated and forced that was—and he doesn’t think he can do it again. Not today and not ever.

“I am really, really tired,” Satoru says and leans forward, falling into Suguru’s arms.

“I am, too,” he agrees. “Date night is kind of ruined, but is a cuddle session still on the table?” he asks and immediately Satoru’s hands shoot out to grab Suguru’s shirt.

“You’re not leaving my sight today,” he decides and Suguru nods.

“Then lets get to bed, alright?”

Satoru easily slides under the cover, not daring to let go of Suguru in fear of him running out on him, but Suguru is right behind him and soon enough they are curled up together.

“We’ll have to talk about this again,” Suguru mutters into the space between them. “I don’t like how you think any of what I said could be real. I hate that you think it could be true.”

Satoru really doesn’t want to hear that right now, but he gets where Suguru is coming from because knowing that Suguru thinks so lowly of himself, hurts him in ways he wasn’t prepared for.

“Same,” he gives back which makes Suguru smile. “But not today.”

“Hell no,” Suguru immediately agrees and pulls Satoru closer. “Today we only do this.”

Satoru snuggles into Suguru, scooting as close as he can and he sighs when he is finally able to hear Suguru’s heartbeat.

Today was horrible and under no circumstances does he ever want to do it again, but he has to admit that the end is kind of okay.

The infinity is something which makes it impossible for any techniques to reach Satoru. It makes him untouchable at all times.What is Satoru Gojo’s greatest difficult as a character? It’s getting closer to other people. 

Gojo has it in his head that the only person who can stand next to him is someone equally as strong as he is. Which is why he allowed Geto in for a long time, until Gojo became “the strongest” alone. In the year after that moment, Gojo and Geto grew further and further apart because Gojo was now strong enough to handle every mission on his own. When Geto just leaves, Gojo is shocked that he can’t reach him. Gojo is an untouchable person, and, someone unable to reach the person he truly cares about in time. He can’t touch Geto, at least not in a way that matters, not in a way that would save him. 

This is also something Kamo Sr. complains about later, specifically referring to this scene. For Gojo, other people will only ever be something that gets in his way, specifically because of his cursed technique.

Gojo’s second technique is the unlimited void. He specifically says this to Jogo when using it against him for the first time. 

Here’s thes skinny, the real irony here is he’s talking about himself. Gojo is someone capable of anything, and yet he’s incapable of affecting the world in the way he wants. He wants political reform,but the way to do that is to bow your head and play politics, the two things Gojo is terrible at. 

Gojo is someone who can do anything, and yet at the same time fails at everything he sets out to achieve. His great power doesn’t really enable him to do anything he wants, because he’s just one person like everybody else in the world. He could kill all the higher ups but that wouldn’t change things. Gojo is bad at politics so, when he fails in Shibuya, he’s the one who ends up exiled and blamed for letting himself get sealed by the elders who hold all the true power in the situation.

His domain is the perfect metaphor for his character, someone who simultaneously holds all the power and is ultimately powerless. 

These other ones are going to be a little bit quicker because we haven’t gotten as many details on their cursed techniques. There’s some serious foiling going on with Yuji and Megumi’s cursed techniques. Yuji and Megumi both revolve around the concept of the shadow. The shadow is the other self, or the repressed self. Both of these characters deal with a lot of themes of repression. 

It’s commented several times that Megumi has way more potential, having inherited what is most likely the most powerful technique in the Zenin arsenal in the ten shadows. However, at the same time he’s someone who ignores his own potential my repressing himself. 

Megumi is someone who continually represses himself by saying that there’s no way he could ever be as strong as Gojo. He pretends to be weaker than he really is. However, repressing himself is what makes his shadow grow even more powerful. 

Megumi and Yuji are both characters who are built around the idea of repressing themselves until they go nuts. They’re both embodying this jungian idea of the other self, the repressed shadow. They both, flip, for lack of a better term. 

Megumi is all silent brooding until he goes crazy with power. We don’t know what Yuji’s technique is, but not only does he show the same behavior, all smiles on the surface until he flips out into a violent rage. Yuji also specifically has two sides to himself. The other side is Sukuna, a violent murderer. We’re also shown gradually, over the course of the story, the two sides coming closer to one another. 

Both Megumi and Sukuna repress themselves, so their selves are split. Megumi has a shadow based technique, as a metaphor for his true potential being much, much more than he says it is. Sukuna being the flip side of Yuji, shows how Yuji divides himself betwee his “violent self” and his “friendly, nice guy” normal self that he uses mainly to interact with others. Megumi suppresses his potential, Yuji his violent side. 

Nobara’s main technique is using pins into a straw doll, to hurt others in the same area on their bodies. (Simplifying, for the sake of time). Rsonance inflicts pain on another person using an effigy, like a hair, or blood, connected to an avatar like the straw doll, or even in some cases her own body like in Origin of Obedience. 

It’s actually a pretty common place way to curse others in japan, like you could buy a doll, tie someone’s hair to it, and then stick pins in it. It’s like ouji boards are for us, it’s like a curse that’s in the common popular knowledge. A teen girl might try to curse someone if their boyfriend cheats on them. It’s like how people in america can have witchcraft phases when they’re teenagers (not talking about like, actual practicing wiccans and whatnot). There’s also a commonly used phrase in japan, “When you’re cursing someone prepare to dig two graves.” It means, that in the decision to curse someone else, the curse might rebound and affect yourself too. Like, how revenge won’t just hurt the person you want to avenge yourself on, you might end up hurting somebody else, or even yourself in the process. 

Not only does Nobara physically experience this once, she curses herself using resonance in order to harm somebody else by using her body as the straw doll proxy. Nobara’s central character trait is her complete lack of sympathy for other people. 

As a star move towards us, its light will shift on the spectrum closer to the blue, because its frequency will get higher and the wavelenght will compress. Thus, the energy level is increasing the nearer it gets to us.

I can hear y’all thinking “Oh, THAT’s why the other one is called Forward: Blue.”

Yep, precisely :D

Same as before - and on the contrary at the same time - the form might be named after the “Blue-shift”, the other effect of the Doppler shift.

With the ambulance: as it approaces, you can hear the pitch getting higher and higher; the sound’s frequency hightens, getting to its “blue” peak when it is front of you.

Following the concept of something getting NEARER to you, “Forward: Blue” works pulling in, towards Gojou.

Now, we reached Hollow: Purple. This is were the speculations and the fun begin.

You might ask me: but, Moody, you used an image where blue is not the end of the line, there’s violet (purple) right there. So why not call it ‘Forward: Purple’?

Hollow: Purple then doesn’t seems to make sense. Also, purple is still the mix of blue and red, right?

Well....yes (Hollow: Purple seems to not make sense using the Doppler Shift), yes (purple is still the result of mixing red and blue) and no (it’s shouldn’t be called Forward: Purple).

I think Hollow: Purple mixes the color wheel scheme theory, the ‘spectral’ violet light, and how we are able to perceive violet.

First, let’s talk about how the human eye “sees” this color, ‘cause it’s a trick :P

I’m explaining:

Our eyes have nice little cells to differentiate colors, named photoreceptors: cones and rods.

Usually we have 3 types of cones, each of those reacting to 3 main wavelenghts: blue (high frequency) green (medium frequency) and red (low frequency). Rods are all the same and they’re sensitive to the amount of light (or brightness) in the environment. They’re also the ones who permits us to see during nightime (in a grayscale, ‘cause the cones turn off during the night). 

Our eyes’ lenses shields us from the high-energy radiations coming from Sun and space, which are detrimental and dangerous (but some of them are very useful) on a variety of level (UVA [black light], UVB, UVC [germicide], X-rays, ϒ-rays...the nasty stuff, :D). Thus, violet and/or ultraviolet cones don’t have a reason to exsist, since those wavelenghts are not supposed to reach the retina.

Following this idea, we cannot see the wavelenght of violet.

But we see violet.

As the frequencies of the colors stimulates one or more cones and a certain amount of rods, we are able to distinguish more tints, like cyan, magenta, yellow (CMYK...yes, those very one), brown, pink, ochre, gray and all the other shades in between...and yes, purple as well, as a mix of blue and red cones’ activation. Now this makes sense, right?

Here’s a nice and easy list of how colors come up.

We can see purple, but at the same time, we are not.

We can see it as a ‘cone-mix’ color, but not as a ‘spectral’ color.

There’s an anatomical condition called aphakia (greek - “without lens”) in which a person doesn’t have (naturally or because of surgery/incident) one or both lenses, so the radiation is able to enter the eye and they can “see” the ultraviolet light. Still, it’s not the bright purple we might imagine; some of them define it as a blueish-purpleish white (if someone who’s reading this is aphakic, please don’t be afraid and share your version with us!).

Complicated? Yeah, I feel you.

In my opinion, “Hollow: Purple” extrapolates both this concepts: it is the combination of Red and Blue as cones’ stimulation (color wheel) = Gojou’s techinques of pushing and pulling, which escalates from a ideological nonesense into a consequent annihilation, and something that seems real, feels real, really isn’t, but still happens.

Like "Violet Light”, indeed :)

Same as UV spectrum energy, Hollow: Purple destruction capacity is bordeline-armageddon.