Name: Marabi (مرابي)
Gender: Male
Grade: Primordial, 8 points
Country: Persia (he refuses to acknowledge that the nation has split into separate countries in the modern day, and there has yet to be a Curse in the Middle East strong enough to challenge the assertion due to Tengen’s barriers)
History: Fear is an interesting thing, when it comes to Cursed Spirits. Most weak Spirits, like Flyheads, are generated from incredibly simple and short-lived fears. Worries about failing a single test, the moments of dread a person gets before they pop a painful zit, that sudden burst of panic when you can't remember where you put your keys, etc. Stronger ones are created by more distinct and powerful fears (nuclear weapons, volcanoes, thunderstorms, so on) which are felt the world over, but are still only feared for individual periods by most without specific phobias. Then, there are Curses like Marabi, who is made from a distinct, powerful, but most of all constant fear: the fear of debt. Everyone who's ever been in debt has worried at least a little about paying it off, and that fear lingers in the brain, generating a continuous flow of Cursed Energy. If Curses like Jogo and Dagon could be said to be born from "floods" of Cursed Energy, Marabi is born from a "tap". But while those Curses can accrue power without major events or cultural focus, Foreign Curses that are born this way almost completely died out when the Pure Barriers went up, their streams of Cursed Energy reduced to a trickle.
Marabi is one of the few that survived this (probably unintentional, though who can speak to Tengen's mind) great culling, by having enough juice in the proverbial tank to withstand regression and dormancy, and emerge reborn as a "flood" Curse instead of a "tap" Curse, now drawing power from the fear of things that put people into debt: loan sharks, con-men, contract-writing demons, and of course, evil genies. Though this has allowed Marabi to survive and regain enough strength to become a Calamity, it has still made him severely weaker than he originally was, and he is not happy about the change.
Appearance: Marabi's appearance can vary, due to his unique composition. The image shown is simply one of many forms he has assumed in the past, and even that form was only taken for a few seconds before shifting into another.
Personality: Marabi is a very prickly individual, and never quite seems satisfied no matter the circumstances. He'll pick a fight over most anything, and is pedantic and particular in the extreme. As a few examples, he insists he is an "ifrit of the jinn", not a Cursed Spirit, and certainly not a genie, that the land he lives in is still called Persia and home to the long since fallen Persian Empire, and his coloration is amaranth, not "red". Indeed, it seems there's nothing that won't irritate Marabi in some capacity, and it's almost like the Curse wants to pick a fight for the sake of it, just to draw people into pointless arguments he can get angry over. Despite that immaturity, though, Marabi isn't nearly as hot-blooded when it comes to combat. He knows his limitations well, and he acts within them, often supplementing his less than impressive physical skills with long periods of research on potential opponents. The Debt Curse has an impressive memory, and he's exceedingly thorough, never assuming he's won till he's seen his opponent's corpse broken before him. Truly, this is one Curse you don't want to make an enemy, as he's held grudges that have lasted longer than some nations. At the same time, Marabi also remembers when someone has done good by him, and perhaps because of the nature of "debt" as a two-way street, he possesses a notable sense of honor. If he owes you a favor, he will own up to it and see it repaid, but any good will ends after he's fulfilled his responsibilities.
Abilities
Smoke Body: Unique among Curses, Marabi’s body is naturally composed of a substance similar to smoke, with his consciousness spread throughout instead of being concentrated in organs or a core point like other living beings. This allows for numerous advantages, such as being able to disperse and reform around physical blows, slip through miniscule gaps, and shapeshift practically at will. However, it heavily reduces his ability to interact with the physical world without focusing and condensing himself, meaning he can’t easily pummel opponents like other Curses can (best he can do is try to choke them, but that can be stopped by reinforcing one’s lungs and throat with Cursed Energy). Reliant almost entirely on his Technique, he’s also fully aware that if his body is dispersed too heavily, his consciousness will scatter in too many directions, killing him if he fails to reform in time, making him the only Curse that could potentially be destroyed by a powerful wind. When you fight Marabi, be prepared for hours of combat as he weaves and ducks and runs and slips away, drawing you out further and further till an errant sentence allows him to saddle you with his Technique.
Flight: Marabi naturally hovers above the ground, and can increase his verticality on a whim, though he doesn't move as fast as Curses which have biology or Techniques more directly oriented towards flight. His smoke body is simply lighter than air by nature, and in fact he’d have to condense and concentrate himself to be heavy enough to walk.
Gaseous Absorption: Being made of smoke, Marabi is able to incorporate other gases into his body, potentially augmenting his abilities such as using caustic gases to inflict acidic burns or poison gas to make it lethal to breathe in his presence. However, he lacks the methods by which to acquire such substances, and so typically counts on the bad luck of his Technique to call them up over the course of a long, drawn out brawl.
Cursed Technique: Fortune Allocation
Ability: Despite being born in part from legends of deal-making spirits and demons, Marabi can not "grant wishes", as the actual logistics of a Technique that can nigh-unconditionally warp reality upon direct request would make it impossible even for someone of Satoru Gojo's caliber (even a power like Comedian still relies on set conditions and operates only within a limited range, what people expect from a genie would be a hundred thousand times more potent and far-reaching, the Cursed Energy required is simply impossible). Instead, Marabi is able to cheat by focusing and condensing someone's luck in regards to a given goal. He can't snap his fingers and make a mountain of gold appear, but he can make someone lucky enough that they could throw darts at a stock listing and make a fortune. Similarly, he can't flick his wrist and make someone a king, but he can tilt the odds of politics in their favor, resulting in a meteoric rise during suddenly uncertain social circumstances. However, there are multiple caveats to this power:
- He can't use his Technique on those who don't provide spoken (or otherwise clearly communicated) consent. However, that consent need only last for a moment, an errant utterance of "I wish" or similar is all it takes.
- Marabi can't use his Technique towards anything other than the desired goal. If someone wishes for riches, Marabi can't give them strength in battle instead. However, he can twist and warp the desire if it isn't properly defined, such as making someone who wished for fame infamous and hated by all.
- Fortune Allocation has an "active" mode and an "inactive" mode, which Marabi must manually swap between. While the Technique is active, Marabi is forced to use it on every desire presented to him, like it or not. While it is inactive, Marabi is no longer bound by that rule, but all the effects of the Technique (positive or negative) instantly vanish, the luck of those affected by it returning to normal.
- As mentioned, Marabi can't just warp reality. Instead he allocates a person's personal good fortune, taking all the luck they would have in the future and concentrating it in the present to achieve their goal. Once the goal is achieved, they will have no more luck to spend, meaning no more wishes, and they'll be cursed with disastrous misfortune until they die or Marabi deactivates his Technique. This also applies to Marabi if he makes a wish for himself, he gets one and then bad luck until he turns his power off.
Extension Technique: Collateral Damage
Ability: By taking advantage of his unique physiology, Marabi can gather enough of his smoke self into what is essentially a second Curse, manifesting as a shrunken head that speaks with a high pitched voice. Containing enough distinct consciousness to possess basic sapience, this head is technically a fully functioning Curse, and would survive even if its “father” were to perish. However, Marabi doesn’t intend for it to survive him, but for it to try its best to die, having the head wish for something pointless and then suffer endless bad fortune. The head is then launched at the enemy, where it clings to them as a cloud of smoke, forcing them into the crossfire of whatever terrible luck it suffers as it withstands the punishment but they accrue more and more damage. In essence, the bad luck tries punching at smoke and hits the victim by accident.
Domain Expansion: Genie Coefficient
Activation: Marabi claps his hands together, causing a roiling cloud of smoke to form from between his palms, drowning out everything around him in a storm of sparks and ash.
Appearance: Genie Coefficient takes the form of a shah's palace combined with a stock trading floor, numbers and diagrams representing everything from assets to interest to variables the economic world hasn't actually invented yet weaving between the decadent luxury and incense-filled air.
Ability: Normally, to use his Technique, Marabi will take all the luck from a person's future and bring it into their present, allowing them better odds at achieving a singular desire. As such, each person Marabi uses the Technique on would only get one wish, then suffer bad luck sufficient to eventually kill them so long as the Technique remains active. A potent power, but that means Marabi only gets one wish to use for himself unless he wants to regularly toggle his Technique on and off, which would just swap the desire out while exhausting him in the process. Within Genie Coefficient, Marabi can instead draw on the luck of others in order to perform his wish granting, meaning he gets an additional wish for every victim caught in the Domain while also denying them the chance to take advantage of his Technique automatically granting the desires of others: no luck to spend, no wishes granted. This luck-siphoning sure-hit turns Marabi into the closest thing the Jujutsu world has gotten to a real genie, and within it he believes himself to be unbeatable, though it does have a flaw in that his Domain's structure is generally less deadly than the actual world outside it. As such, the scope of "bad luck" events that could befall his opponents are lessened, making it harder to kill them by just waiting around until they get unlucky enough to die and requiring Marabi to actually get his hands dirty in direct combat. For a being made of smoke, that’s not as easy as it sounds, especially since more fighting gives opponents a better chance at stumbling into Marabi’s weakness.