For Tomorrow's Sake | Various!JJK x Reader

Beads of sweat roll down the back of your neck. Your forehead feels slick, your breathing slightly uneven, and your hands tremble as you grip the cursed tool tightly. Meanwhile, Toji stands as tall and proud as ever. You can't see even the slightest trace of exhaustion. Man. He really is the Terminator.

"Take a break," Toji says. "I'll give you a few minutes."

You make slow, nodding motions, wincing a bit as you set the cursed tool aside. There are bloody blisters all over the palms of your hands. It's difficult to suppress your cursed energy while sparring with Toji, when you get the urge to heal your wounds as quickly as they appear. The pain doesn't last long, though. By the time you blink, your injuries have fully healed. Using reverse cursed technique seems to become more intuitive by the day. At some point, you suspect it might even feel as natural as breathing.

Satoru sits down next to you, handing you a water bottle. "Here. Take a break for a few minutes. I wanted to talk to you about something anyway."

"About what?" you ask, as you uncap the bottle and take a big, satisfying gulp.

Satoru doesn't respond immediately. He takes a few moments to just stare at you, eyes brighter and bluer than the sky itself. You never know quite what he's thinking, when he looks at you like that. It's not exactly scrutiny, but you can tell that he's deep in thought. There's something about you that he just can't wrap his head around. Something that he's never been able to wrap his head around.

The truth is that you're an oddity. Stranger than he can even put into words. But he doesn't care. Whatever inexplicable circumstances surround you, you're still his best friend, and you mean the world to him.

Which is why he's so afraid.

"Your cursed energy," Satoru finally says. "I wasn't sure if I should tell you right away. I was worried that it might freak you out. But... it happened again. Your cursed energy permanently increased. It happened right after you healed Toji's wife."

You blink. Okay, you weren't expecting that. It seriously happened again? What does that mean? You always thought that a sorcerer's cursed energy reservoir was pretty much determined from birth. Granted, there are ways to increase it on a short-term basis. You're very familiar with Binding Vows at this point, and Nanami's Binding Vow is a perfect example of a temporary power-up. But for someone's cursed energy to steadily increase over time, and for it to be cumulative? Is that really possible? You were convinced the first time was some kind of fluke.

"Are you sure?" you frown.

"Obviously. I told you this last time, too. There's no way I'd get this wrong. No one's cursed energy is as familiar to me as yours is. You're the last person I would ever be mistaken about."

"So, I'm getting stronger. My cursed energy is randomly increasing as I grow up?"

"Probably not. I think there's some kind of condition in play." He pauses for a moment, lips pursing. "The first time it ever happened... it was right after you saved one of the Gojo Clan members. He would've died if you hadn't used your reverse cursed technique on him. You prevented his death. You changed his fate. And it just happened again, after you prevented Toji's wife from dying."

Ah.

You see what he's getting at. It's just so hard to believe. Unless you're wildly misinterpreting things, it kind of sounds like...

"I think that every time you save someone's life, your cursed energy will increase more and more," Satoru says. "You might actually have a technique after all. Something innate. Something that's exclusively your own."