Shadow Master Marinette
Who here is a fan of Jujutsu Kaisen and Miraculous Ladybug? Because I am!
And as such it's only natural for me to do a crossover involving the two.
The premise for this particular idea? Well, we'll be looking at a what if scenario where Marinette Dupain-Cheng has the fabled Ten Shadows Technique from Jujutsu Kaisen and how that would change the story, from her childhood all the way up to the war against Hawkmoth.
First of all, we need to figure out how Marinette would have the Ten Shadows, so we're going to need some LOOOOOOOOORE to figure it out.
While you can make your own backstory on how it happened, here's my take: Long ago a member of the Zen'in Clan who wasn't a complete dipshit married a Chinese Sorcerer and got married, and then their union produced the bloodline that would go on to produce Sabine and, therefore, Marinette.
Yup, in this timeline Marinette is not only French/Italian/Chinese, but also a bit Japanese!(Albeit rather distantly due to the Zen'in staying in China and their bloodline propagating there)
Naturally, this means that Sabine is also a Jujutsu Sorcerer, and considering the kind of person she is she also likely taught Tom how to used Cursed Energy. So not only is Marinette getting an upgrade here, but her parents are as well!
Here's a quick rundown on their Cursed Techniques.
Sabine's CT is Cursed Amplification, which allows her to amp up any aspect of herself or an ally. What that means is that she can amplify the power of her strikes to make the lightest tap hit like a truck, strengthen the durability of her body to be practically indestructible, increase the healing speed of Reversed Cursed Technique, and even increase her chances of landing a Black Flash!
Tom Cursed Technique is the much more simple Nature's Gift, which is basically a lesser version of Hanami' Disaster Plants due to Tom lacking the needed Cursed Energy reserves. Despite Tom's CT technically being weaker than Hanami's he makes up for it in knowledge and creativity, allowing him to catch up and catch opponents off guard.
Together, they're the Nightmare of Nature, with Sabine amping up Tom's Technique to the point it makes Hanami look weak in comparison.
(To give a general idea of their power, Sabine is a Special-Grade Sorcerer while Tom is Semi-Grade 1)
But enough about her parents! Lets move onto the star of the show!
Now Marinette's life is mostly the same, with the exception of her papa having some cool magic tricks that he shows her, but diverges on her fourth birthday when a smol pair of wolves pop out of her shadow, surprising the little bean.
After a brief panic from both Marinette and her parents Tom and Sabine calm her down and explain to her that this is just her Cursed Technique coming in and that there's nothing to be afraid of, Tom emphasising the point by picking the two Gyokuken up and placing them in his lap, which the two allow as their connection to Marinette make them instinctually friendly to her loved ones.
Seeing her Shikigami being so passive, Marinette tentatively reaches out to pet them and receives affectionate licks in return, causing the bluenette to quickly come to love these gud bois!
So caught up in playing with her shadow puppers, she doesn't noticed her parents exchanging a look with each other.
They had planned to begin teaching her Jujutsu when she turned six, but the emergence of this legendary Cursed Technique in their daughter has pushed their plans up to now.
And so, they began teaching Marinette the ways of being a Jujutsu Sorcerer, dividing which of them teaches what depending on their expertise in that particular aspect of Jujutsu.
Sabine teaches her about raw Cursed Energy Manipulation, Cursed Energy Reinforcement, Cursed Energy Detection, the history and known capabilities of the Ten Shadows Technique, and tops it with lessons on various martial arts to supplement Marinette's fighting style to ensure her daughter isn't a sitting duck without her Shikigami around to protect her.
Tom, meanwhile, focuses more on encouraging Marinette to be creative with her Cursed Technique, to constantly do unexpected things with it to catch opponents off guard. He also teaches her how to use Reversed Cursed Technique as while Sabine is technically better at it than him, that's mainly due to her using Cursed Amplification to ramp up it's efficiency while Tom has to do it the natural way.
When it comes to stuff like Binding Vows, Cursed Tools, how to analyse opponents and exploit their weaknesses, and the various ways to boost Cursed Techniques they take turns teaching their daughter, as they both have their own unique way of doing it when it comes to those things.
Marinette also did a bit of training by herself. Nothing serious or dangerous, but she did practice with the Ten Shadows Technique, both in working in tandem with the Gyokuken and using it's subsidiary abilities like Shadow Diving, Shadow Storage, and making Shadow Clones of herself(she loved using them to prank her parents). She also played quite a few more games, both to increase her reaction time and reflexes and to help her problem solving skills.
During this time she also learned the unique ability of the Gyokuken, being able to merge together to form a werewolf-like Shikigami that was powerful enough to give her papa some trouble against it(Tom still won due to experience, but it was still a challenge for him).
She also named her doggos, giving them Japanese names in honour of her Japanese roots, even if they aren't very prevalent to her nowadays. The white wolf is Akari, the black wolf was named Yamimaru, and she calls their merged form Twilight.
Finally, an entire year had passed since her birthday, marking her as now being five years old, she decided it was time to attempt a Subjugation Ritual. And with the knowledge Sabine had passed onto her about the Ten Shadows Technique, she decided that Gama(The toad) was the safest option, just to get a general feel for it.
Her parents were still on standby, of course, just in case things go sideways.
And so Marinette made her preparations, clearing out a room in the bakery so Gama wouldn't have anything to throw at her, did a full song and dance number with music and finishing with a loud "Merged Beast: Werewolf!" to summon a supercharged Twilight, and made multiple Shadow Clones as decoys before beginning the Ritual.
But, as it turned it, these preparation were completely unnecessary as Gama didn't even get the chance to move before Twilight was already ripping them limb from limb and painting the walls with the Shikigami's blood.
Marinette felt cheated.
To make his daughter feel better Tom decided to fight her so her preparations didn't go to waste, however he quickly realised this was the wrong move when he could barely keep up with the powered-up Twilight, barely avoiding getting gored on the Shikigami's claws.
And then a sudden reappearance by Gama left Tom on the ground, wrapped up by a very long tongue. Sabine had a good laugh as her husband got beat by their five year old daughter.
"Good job sweetie."
"Thanks mama."
(Note: If Marinette were to fight Tom herself she'd have to rely heavily on her Shadow Clone just to even the score, the reason she won here was because of her jacked up Shikigami)
And so begins another year for our little hero, and the beginning of a pattern for her. For most of the year she trains her skills, gaining new ones and refining the ones she already has, along with practicing with her Shikigami and occasionally go Curse hunting with her parents. But when her birthday comes back around, she does another Subjugation Ritual to add another Shikigami to her ranks.
On her sixth birthday Marinette had Gama tie Orochi down to let Twilight go ham on the giant snake.
On her seventh birthday Nue was squashed against the ceiling of the Parisian catacombs, crushed between it and Orochi's massive head.
On her eighth birthday Marinette dug a giant hole and summoned Bansho in it, baiting the elephant Shikigami to fill it with water before having Nue take her out of the pit and zapping Bansho's water hole.
On her ninth birthday Marinette committed rabbit genocide.
On her tenth birthday Marinette used Datto to blind Kangyu before having Akari and Yamimaru tear the tendons of the ox Shikigami, disabling it's movement and, by extension, it's ability.
A few months before her eleventh birthday Marinette broke tradition and had Well's Unknown Abyss hold Madoka still to let Kangyu ram the deer Shikigami into oblivion. The reason for this? She discovered Rose's illness and found it's existence to be unacceptable, so she decided to get the "Miracle of the Ten Shadows" early in order to heal her friend.
On her twelfth birthday Marinette had just decided to combo Koso into oblivion and not give them a chance to fight back due to her lack of information on them.
And so the moment the tiger Shikigami appeared it was immediately ambushed by Orochi, who brought it up into the sky to get electrocuted by Nue a bit before Orochi curled it's massive body and brought Koso back down to the ground in an incredibly painful manner.
The snake Shikigami was then dispelled, but they were immediately replaced with a swarm of rabbit Shikigami that blocked Koso's sight. This was intentional, as Marinette had also used Datto to push herself high into the sky in order to summon Bansho and drop the elephant Shikigami onto the Divine Guard after Datto was dismissed.
Jumping up, Marinette allowed Nue to grab her and take her away as Bansho was dispelled. Koso got up on all fours, ready to pursue, only for a long tongue to snag their ankle and send them flying into the path of Kangyu, who had been running for quite some time and built up plenty of distance for it's charge, instantly killing the tiger Shikigami.
And thus, Marinette now had nine different Shikigami of the Ten Shadows Technique under her command, officially classifying her as a Special-Grade Sorcerer.
All that was left, was him.
The Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga.
And so, on her thirteenth birthday, Marinette... Took a break.
She had a classic party with all her friends, eating good food, playing party games, and just generally having a good time simply existing.
It wasn't that she wasn't confident in her abilities, oh no. It's just that this is Mahoraga we're talking about here! The trump card of the Ten Shadows! The untameable beast! The strongest Shikigami in existence! He Who Knows No Bounds!
And given how long the Ten Shadows Technique has been around I wouldn't be surprised if a user or two got into conflict with Miraculous Holders in the past and summoned the Divine General as a last resort, ending up with everyone dead and several Miraculous being lost in the heat of battle.
And so, instead of risking her life duking it out with the most absolute unit of the Ten Shadows Technique Marinette decided to further refine herself and her Cursed Technique.
But lets put a pin in all this for a minute and see how all this has effected Marinette's school life.
Taking a glance into the average day in Mme. Bustier's classroom we find that the dynamics are mostly the same between the various classmates, but everyone is much calmer and friendlier with each other. This is because Marinette has the Ten Shadows Technique, and as it turns out having a small army of shadow monsters with various abilities under your command is a good deterrent against the local bully.
In other words, Marinette doesn't tolerate Chloe's bullshit and threatens to feed her to her dogs if the blonde doesn't behave herself.
Chloe tried to called upon her father's authority to even the odds, but no amount of political power is gonna save you from getting swallowed whole by a giant snake or trampled by an elephant.
With Chloe forced to shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down lest she become literal dog food, the classroom is a much more harmonious place thanks to it's resident Beast Tamer keeping the peace.
Marinette also has a defined friend group from the start.
First up, Nino. This boi has been her friend since forever and is one of the few people Marinette has felt safe passing the knowledge of Cursed Energy onto, the others being the other members of her friend group.
He has his canon crush on her, but Marinette sees him more like a brother.
Next is... Nathanial! I like the idea of him being friends with Marinette as they're both artistic individuals with animosity towards Chloe for her constant cruelty. Plus, they're both in the Art Club so them bonding over their respective art forms isn't that much of a sketch- I mean stretch!
He also has a bit of a crush on her, but Marinette views him as her best friend.
For Marinette's next friends, it's a two-for-one deal as it's Juleka and Rose! They're both part of the canon "Girl Squad", they're both part of the Art Club like Mari and Nath, and in this timeline Marinette broke her own tradition and fought a battle to the death just to cure Rose of her illness despite them not being friends at the time, so in their opinion Marinette is the class hero!
While the two of them are loyal girlfriends to each other they both admitted to having small crushes on Marinette and wouldn't mind giving a poly-relationship a try if Marinette asked. Meanwhile Marinette is the biggest supporter of their relationship and views them as great friends.
Her friendship with them also means Marinette occasionally hangs out with Ivan due to Kitty Section connection and having already met Luka, although she just considers herself on friendly terms with them rather than fully fledged friends.
Finally, Marinette has one more friend in her group and it is... Sabrina! Betcha didn't see that one coming ay?
So, to explain, after Marinette's initial threat to Chloe she saw the blonde treating Sabrina like a slave and said "Not on my watch foul knave!" before sweeping Sabrina off of her feet and whisking her away to a paradise of friendship and happiness!
That's how Sabrina sees it anyway. In actuality Marinette just asked Sabrina if she wanted to be friends and hang out with her, to which Sabrina gladly accepted. Although there was some friction at first as Sabrina wasn't used to healthy relationships, causing her to try to be Marinette's servant in all but name(Don't worry, she got better).
And, of course, Sabrina has a crush on her, because of course she does. But unfortunately for her Marinette only sees her as a friend and a victim of abuse, so sorry little police pupper but you ain't getting the class cinnamon roll in this timeline.
...Unless?
Anyways I feel like I got a little off topic here, so back to Marinette having the Ten Shadows Technique.
So one day Marinette is just chilling in her room, hanging out with her dogs, and playing a two-player game with Koso as her number two. However she's been a bit bored recently, having essentially mastered most of the abilities of the Ten Shadows Technique with only her Domain Expansion and further refinement being options for her.
Then, she comes to a thought. What if the Ten Shadows Technique had more capabilities available to her than she knew? It wasn't completely implausible after all, since she doubted the first Ten Shadows User knew all of the things she did right now, so why not explore her Cursed Technique for a bit?
After finishing the level she and Koso were on Marinette dismissed her two Shikigami before summoning Nue and slipping into it's shadow and mentally commanding them to fly out of the city's bounds.
Once there, she popped out of Nue's shadow and dismissed them before thinking about the possibilities of her Technique. During which, she asked herself one simple question, one that changed the entire way she thought about the Ten Shadows Technique.
Why ten?
Why were there only ten Shikigami available to subjugate and summon? Why was she limited to only having ten Shikigami? Why was there any limit to the Shikigami when the Ten Shadows Technique had many more applications to it?
The answer? There wasn't. As proven when Marinette made a Shadow Hand Puppet in the shape of a horse and entered a subjugation ritual with a completely new Shikigami, one that took the form of a black horse with blazing red eyes and blood red flames replacing it's mane and leg hair.
Naturally, she curbstomped it quickly with the help of Bansho and Twilight, but she didn't pay much attention to that. What she did pay attention to was the fact that she just busted the limits of her Cursed Technique!
For the next few hours Marinette went on a rampage against her own Technique, conquering Shikigami after Shikigami, adding more and more to her arsenal of abilities with each successful subjugation.
She also now understood why the Ten Shadows Technique was the rival of the Limitless and Six Eyes, for it's utility seemed boundless right now!
'No...' Marinette thought, 'It's no longer the Ten Shadows Technique, for that name is misleading. From now on it shall be called the Shadow Master Technique!'
With her newly dubbed "Shadow Master Technique", Marinette summoned Nue and returned home, using one of her new Shikigami's abilities to hide the two of them from sight so that she could go directly to her balcony without drawing attention to herself.
'Watch out Mahoraga, for I'm coming for you.' Marinette Dupain-Cheng vowed, determined to tame the legendary Shikigami.
What do you guys think so far? Is this worth continuing? Will Marinette the Shadow Master be the one to tame Mahoraga? How do you think the Miraculous will effect her? Comment your thoughts down below!
(Also, I couldn't figure out how to Linebreak so I just used a GIF of Mahoraga)