A/N: Before you all bite my head off like they did in the Patreon. I'm just going to say it early. Yuzuki doesn't lose the Gojo template.
That's all.
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White.
That was the first thing Yuzuki noticed.
White above him.
White beneath him.
White in every direction, stretching outward until it looked less like a place and more like the idea of a place. No ceiling. No walls. No horizon. Just an endless blank void that made him feel like he had been dropped into the center of an unwritten page.
He blinked.
Then blinked again.
His body felt strange. Light. Too light. Like he was present, but only technically.
For a while, he simply stood there in silence.
Then he looked around and muttered, "...Am I dead?"
"Very."
The voice came from nowhere and everywhere at once.
Yuzuki turned.
A man was suddenly there.
No, not a man exactly.
Something shaped like one.
He sat in a floating chair that hadn't existed a moment ago, one leg crossed over the other, chin resting on one fist, glaring at Yuzuki with the expression of someone who had just watched a beloved collectible get dropped down a staircase.
He looked young.
Too young to feel ancient.
Long pale hair. Golden eyes. White robes that blended almost insultingly well into the void. Beautiful in the very annoying, very divine way that immediately made Yuzuki want to dislike him.
The stranger stared at him for a long, loaded second.
Then pointed accusingly.
"You ruined him."
Yuzuki blinked. "...What?"
"You." The man stood up from the floating chair in one dramatic motion. "Ruined. Him."
Yuzuki looked behind himself. "Who?"
The man's eye twitched.
"Gojo Satoru!" he shouted, as if the answer should have been obvious to even gravel. "My favorite character! My glorious, untouchable, magnificent blue-eyed king! And what did you do with him?" He clutched his chest. "You butchered him."
Yuzuki stared.
Then slowly said, "I have several questions."
"Too bad," the man snapped. "I'm still mad."
He started pacing.
Actually pacing.
Across infinite white nothingness.
It somehow worked.
"I reincarnated you because you were good in your last life," he said. "Kind-hearted. Self-sacrificing. The whole tragic hero package. So I thought, why not reward the boy? Give him the Six Eyes. Give him the fundamental template of Satoru Gojo. Let him live out the fantasy."
He whirled around and jabbed a finger at Yuzuki again.
"And then you went and made that."
Yuzuki frowned. "That is incredibly vague."
"Your Hatsu!" the god shouted. "Your execution of Limitless! It was awful!"
Yuzuki looked personally offended. "It was not awful."
"It was depressing!"
"It was practical!"
"It was ugly!"
"It was functional!"
The god clutched his forehead. "Exactly! Gojo is not supposed to be functional, he's supposed to be transcendent!"
Yuzuki crossed his arms. "That's easy for you to say. You weren't the one fighting Hisoka."
"Oh please," the god said, rolling his eyes so hard it was almost divine thunder. "Do you know what I saw? A tragic, clunky, budget-version Infinity that kept sputtering because you kept trying to brute-force it through aura scaling. I nearly vomited."
Yuzuki's eye twitched. "I was improvising in a different power system."
"And badly!"
"Look," Yuzuki shot back, "you gave me Gojo's fundamentals in Hunter x Hunter. I had to make it work within Nen rules. That takes adaptation."
The god made a disgusted noise. "No, what it took was taste. And you have none."
"That is unbelievably rude."
"That is unbelievably true."
They glared at each other in silence.
Then Yuzuki pointed. "Also, why are you angry at me? You're the one who gave me a power system mismatch."
The god froze.
For one tiny second.
Then he looked away and coughed into his hand.
"That is not the point."
"It absolutely is the point."
"No, the point," the god said, recovering his dignity with the speed of a guilty politician, "is that I have decided to bring you back to life."
Yuzuki's brows rose. "Oh."
Then the god lifted one hand.
"But."
Yuzuki immediately frowned. "There's always a but."
"I'm taking the Six Eyes and Limitless away from you."
Yuzuki went still.
For the first time since arriving in the void, he looked genuinely rattled.
"What?"
"You heard me."
"You can't just do that."
"I'm literally a god. That's one of the few things I can definitely do."
Yuzuki stepped forward. "Wait, wait, wait. You can't just yank my whole build because you didn't like the aesthetic."
The god looked scandalized. "The aesthetic? The aesthetic!? Boy, you insult me. This is about principle."
"This is about you being petty."
"This is about you ruining my favorite character."
"I did not ruin Gojo!"
The god leaned in. "You turned Limitless into a budget math problem."
"It was elegant under pressure!"
"It was tragic under observation!"
Yuzuki dragged a hand down his face. "Okay. Fine. Fine. You think I messed it up. But taking it away completely is too much."
The god considered that.
Then narrowed his eyes.
"Hm."
Yuzuki saw the opening and pressed harder. "Look, if you send me back without the Six Eyes and Limitless, my chances against Hisoka are even worse than before. And what, I just lose my eyes? People are going to think that's weird. My whole appearance changes."
The god waved a hand dismissively. "Your appearance won't change."
Yuzuki blinked. "What?"
"You'll just lose the eyes."
"That sentence makes no sense."
"I am a god. I can alter perception to smooth over the transition. To everyone else, nothing will feel off unless I want it to."
Yuzuki stared at him. "That is incredibly unfair."
"It is incredibly useful."
The god folded his arms. "And as for Hisoka, he'll lose interest in you."
That made Yuzuki's face change.
"What?"
The god nodded. "Obviously. You haven't fully bloomed yet. Without the Six Eyes and Limitless constantly accelerating your value as prey, to him you'll essentially be going back to zero."
Yuzuki looked deeply offended on multiple levels. "That is a horrible sentence."
"It is also true."
The god turned away, then added, "However..."
Yuzuki brightened slightly. "There's another however?"
"There is. If you manage to make watching you more fun, I may return your techniques."
Yuzuki frowned. "What does 'more fun' even mean?"
The god spun around and pointed at him again.
"Stop being so boring!"
Yuzuki stared.
Then stared harder.
Then finally said, "You are the worst deity I have ever met."
"I am the only deity you've ever met."
"That makes it worse."
The god ignored him. "As collateral, I'll let you choose a replacement template."
Yuzuki narrowed his eyes. "Replacement?"
The god nodded. "Yes. Since I'm taking back Gojo's fundamentals, I'll give you a new starting point."
Yuzuki waited.
The god held up two fingers.
"Your options are Yuki Tsukumo... or Okkotsu Yuta."
That made Yuzuki pause.
Then frown.
"Why are those my only options?"
"Because I said so."
"That's not an answer."
"It's a divine answer."
Yuzuki thought for a moment, then asked, "Can I get Sukuna instead?"
The god's expression went flat.
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because you'll ruin him too."
Yuzuki looked offended all over again. "That's slander."
"That's pattern recognition."
Yuzuki clicked his tongue. "You're impossible."
"I'm omniscient. Similar energy."
Yuzuki started pacing now, just as dramatically as the god had earlier.
"Okay. Let me think. If I go back with no Six Eyes, no Limitless, and Hisoka loses interest, then I need something with immediate scalability. Something that can survive Hunter x Hunter's nonsense." He glanced up. "And you're not even telling me exactly what I'll get under the template?"
The god smiled.
"Correct."
"That's insane."
"It's mysterious and it's entertaining."
Yuzuki dragged both hands through his hair. "Unbelievable."
He thought for another few seconds.
Yuki was monstrous. Abnormal mass. Brutal output. Great in direct combat.
Yuta, on the other hand...
Versatility.
Potential.
Something closer to his own instinctive style.
Finally he exhaled and pointed.
"Fine. Then Yuta."
The god smiled brightly. "Excellent choice."
Yuzuki immediately regretted how pleased that made him look.
"So what exactly am I getting from Yuta's template?"
The god's smile widened.
"Not telling."
Yuzuki almost choked. "What do you mean not telling?"
"I mean," the god said, already stepping backward into light that hadn't been there a second ago, "you'll find out when you wake up."
"That is not how negotiations work!"
"This was never a negotiation."
Yuzuki pointed furiously. "You can't keep doing that! Every time I get one useful answer, you hide three more behind your back!"
The god laughed.
Actually laughed.
Then he lifted one hand, fingers glowing with soft white power.
"Try to be more interesting this time," he said. "And maybe, maybe I'll let you earn Gojo back."
Yuzuki's eyes widened. "Wait—"
"Bye-bye."
The light surged.
The void tore away.
And Yuzuki lost consciousness all over again.
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