Cursed Spirits (
History
The origin of curses and jujutsu is largely unknown. However, it can be surmised that because cursed energy comes from negative emotion, curses have always existed alongside humanity. During the Heian Era, the golden age of jujutsu, the sorcerer Ryomen Sukuna was recognized as the undisputed King of Curses. His influence has lived on to greatly affect the current age.
In the modern-day, the number of unexplained deaths and disappearances in Japan exceeds ten thousand annually. These statistics are a direct result of the influence that curses have on normal society. Their existence has been kept secret from non-sorcerers, as they are invisible to them. Jujutsu sorcerers act in secret to repel the threat of curses.
Starting in 2017, the year the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons occurred, curse-related events have begun to happen more frequently while presenting more danger than ever before. This includes Sukuna's reincarnation as well as the unregistered appearance of over four new special grade cursed spirits in Mahito's group.
Description
Creation Process
Curses are created when cursed energy leaks from (non-sorcerer) humans as a result of their harboring of negative emotions. Cursed energy thus gathers in one spot, building up like sediment until a cursed spirit takes form.[1][2]
Negative energy flowing out of humans and collecting in one place to form a curse.
Populated locations such as schools and hospitals are hotspots for bearing curses because many negative emotions are associated with memories of those places.[3] This same concept applies humanity's collective fear and hatred. An image of fear shared by the masses can create a powerful curse even if the subject is not real, such as famous monsters or ghosts. It is the negative emotions that humanity directed at this image that causes it to manifest as a curse.
Longstanding negative feelings, such as humanity's collective relationship with plagues and natural disasters, results in a collection of cursed energy so massive the cursed spirits manifested from them have a consciousness related to those feelings. For example, humanity's fear and mistreatment of forests have directly resulted in Hanami, a very intelligent special grade cursed spirit who wants to free the earth of humans in order to protect the forests and trees from them.[4] Mahito is an exceptionally strong and intelligent curse that challenges the concept of the human soul itself because he was born from the hatred humans feel toward one another.[5]
Sorcerers must also be killed with jujutsu or they can become a vengeful cursed spirit after death.[6][7]
Characteristics
A young woman unknowingly cursed by a Fly Head.
Cursed spirits bodies are entirely made up of cursed energy. Their metaphysical existence makes it impossible for non-sorcerers to perceive or touch them. Living non-sorcerers who have been cursed can only tell they have strange symptoms without realizing a cursed spirit is behind it; however, it is possible to gain the ability to see a curse in a life-or-death situation due to the overwhelming negative emotion the person experiences and consequently high cursed energy they emit.[8]
Curses created from humanity's collective fear of natural disasters.
Curses come in all kinds of grotesque shapes and sizes. They tend to linger around their point of origin and instinctively curse humans.[9] Other than that, a curse's habits vary a great deal from spirit to spirit. Curses are most stable while possessing an item,[10] and some curses can possess inanimate objects to become cursed corpses.[11]
Special grade cursed spirits with high intelligence tend to be bipedal creatures with structure comparable to humans. They are capable of holding a normal conversation and working together as an organized group. It must be noted, however, that intelligence is not exclusive to special grade cursed spirits; even a curse as low as Grade 3 or 4 can possess intelligence.[12][13][14]
Certain curses, such as shikigami, obey humans after they're forced into submission by their master.[15] Others have the ability to mark a human and haunt them, making them capable of attacking a human even if they're located away from their point of origin.[16]
As stated by Uraume, although there are some exceptions, when cursed spirits are killed, or lose a part of their limbs, they turn to dust as a result of a disappearing reaction. Cursed spirits have cores in their bodies, which can be in their heads or elsewhere.[17]
Exorcism
A curse disappearing after being exorcised by a sorcerer's shikigami.
With bodies composed of cursed energy, cursed spirits cannot be harmed by conventional means. They can be hit by a physical attack but it will deal no damage regardless of how powerful it is. The general rule of jujutsu is that a curse must be exorcised using another curse, which means curses can only be exorcised using cursed energy.[18] A fatal attack using cursed energy will cause the cursed spirit to disappear completely. This does not apply to curses who have been incarnated using a flesh and blood human vessel, such as the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings.[19]
Curses that are too powerful to be destroyed must be sealed away using a constraint. Sukuna has continued to exist as twenty fingers classified as special grade cursed objects that can still attract cursed spirits and choose its own vessel. Sukuna's fingers had to be individually sealed with talisman to inhibit the damage they cause.[20]
If a vengeful cursed spirit that is cursing someone is too powerful to exorcise, millions of figurative knots of cursed energy must be slowly analyzed and undone one by one. The victim of said curse can do so by learning to master channeling the cursed energy being used to curse them.[21] This was believed to be the case for Yuta and Rika; however, Yuta was actually the one who turned her into a vengeful cursed spirit. If the cursed severs the bond tying servant to master and the curse doesn't desire punishment, then the curse breaks. By going beyond the limits of Rika's power and promising himself in return, the curse was broken once Rika decided not to punish him.[22]
Classifications
A cursed spirit forming after a human who has been cursed died.
Vengeful Cursed Spirit (
Kuchisake-Onna, an Imaginary Vengeful Cursed Spirit.
Imaginary Vengeful Cursed Spirit (
Smallpox Deity, a Disease Cursed Spirit.
Disease Cursed Spirit (
Powers and Abilities
A weaker curse attempting to surprise attack Yuji.
As jujutsu is essentially the manipulation of the energy which curses embody, it's only natural for them to be able to use it. Like sorcerers, they are capable of using a multitude of curse-related abilities, most of which are cursed techniques unique to the specific curse.
Weaker spirits use their presence to curse humans or attack them with their metaphysical features (i.e. teeth, claws). They often act on animalistic instinct to attack in packs but can be frightened by superior cursed energy. Phasing through solid surfaces is an ability that can only be used by low-grade cursed spirits.[30]
An Imaginary Vengeful Spirit using advanced jujutsu.
The more powerful curses possess immense levels of cursed energy and uncanny cursed techniques. In some cases, special grade cursed spirits can even produce their own domains. In the current age, curses far outweigh sorcerers in terms of strength. There are over sixteen different special grade curse spirits and only four special grade sorcerers,[31] two of whom aren't even committed to fighting curses. If it were not for Satoru Gojo, it is likely curses would completely overtake humanity, at least in Japan.[32]
Special grade curse spirits, all of whom possess great levels of cursed energy, can manipulate their cursed energy much more naturally than a sorcerer. Unlike sorcerers, strong curses can reinforce their bodies to heal wounds without using a reverse cursed technique; this is again owed to curses’ curse energy-based bodies, which require only cursed energy to heal wounds rather than positive energy from a reverse cursed technique. In fact, reverse cursed technique is fatal to most curses; positive energy can completely compromise the cursed energy that makes up curses’ bodies and destroy them from the inside out, even in the case of a special grade curse.[33] Finger Bearers, special grade curses born from Sukuna's fingers, can release their cursed energy with explosive force and utilize it as a weapon in the form of explosions, spears of energy, blasts and much more. Sukuna believes this to be an obsolete form of jujutsu compared to his cursed techniques, including Domain Expansion. [34]
List of Cursed Spirits
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See also
References
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 77 (p. 7).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 1.
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Vol. 0 (p. 30).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 45 (p. 17-19).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 20 (p. 16-19).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 33 (p. 8).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 77 (p. 8).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 1 (p. 43).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 8 (p. 5).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Vol. 0 (p. 65).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 4 (p. 19).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 13 (p. 18).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 16 (p. 7).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 22 (p. 5).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 44 (p. 8).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 56 (p. 14).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 216 (p. 07-08).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 1 (p. 46-47).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 62 (p. 4).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 55 (p. 15).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Vol. 0 (p. 64-65).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Vol. 0 (p. 194).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Vol. 0 (p. 193-194).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 20 (p. 16-17).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 3 (p. 5).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 73 (p. 10).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Vol. 0 (p. 179).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Vol. 12 (p. 110).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 102 (p. 8).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Vol. 11 (p. 28).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Vol. 0 (p. 178).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 92 (p. 16).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 175 (pp. 7, 17).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 9 (p. 12).