NOVEL NEXT Chapter 13: False God.
There is a discord for this fic. It has Live Updates about chapter progress and when they are completed, pictures for characters, lots of tidbits about the story, among other things. Join at https: // discord.gg / aWZ9qX9mAW
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A few months later.
July, 2014.
"Tsumiki, I'm heading out on a mission!" Megumi said as he was walking out of his room and entered the living room already putting on a jacket.
"Already? You already went out on a mission yesterday! Don't you think it's a bit much?" His sister said as she paused her TV show, looking up to him.
"Yeah, but this one is an emergency. Looks like some village out in the sticks is overwhelmed with curses and the local sorcerers can't handle it alone, so they need me to go out and help them." Megumi replied as he put on his right shoe.
Tsumiki didn't seem fully convinced, "You don't have to go every time some sorcerer stubs his toe y'know? I know you feel responsible because of the balance shifting, but it isn't your Burden to bear."
"I appreciate your worry but… It is." Megumi put on his other shoe and walked away, stopping at the front door.
"Bye, see you later tonight 'kay?"
Tsumiki sighed before she relented, "See you tonight, try not to break a limb or two."
"No promises!" He said as he walked off to the black car ready in front of their house, to which she just shook her head and turned her show back on.
"You took my brother you filthy fucking omen, I'm going to rip your horned head off and mount it on my fucking wall." A tall red haired woman in armour declared as she readied her blade.
"You can try you rotted bitch, but Miquella is mine!" A large man with horns all over his head leaving only one eye left out replied, he then took out a large spear with 3 points like a trident ready to fight.
Tsumiki laughed out loud, "Wow, I thought my family was broken. Who steals their underaged half brother to fondle his hand?"
[A/N: If you get the reference, you get a cookie.]
…
Megumi saw a familiar blonde haired woman waiting for him in the car.
"Good evening Akari-san, it seems you're my manager for today once again." Megumi greeted the window as he entered the car.
Akari smiled and greeted him back, "Yep, looks like we're gonna be working together for the foreseeable future."
"Well, good to have someone I know and can rely on, shall we?" Megumi said while strapping on his seatbelt.
"Y-Yes, let's head out." The woman had a slight blush at the unexpected compliment and drove off to the mission's location.
Megumi zoned out as he listened to the radio, the sights outside the window went from the metropolitan crawl of Tokyo, to the outskirts of town, to greenery of nature and soon enough to the mountains. The car stopped and they both stepped out, greenery and mountains as far as the eye can see.
'I hate leaving Tsumiki alone in the house but there isn't much I can do about it, Kenjaku could strike at any time even while she was at school. All I can do is keep an eye on her when I can, I think I'll start leaving at least one shikigami behind to protect her while I'm not around, they'll give me a warning if nothing else.' Megumi thought as he got out of the car and looked around.
"Welcome to Mount Kumotori, your mission today is to assist the local sorcerer in quelling a cult that's been discovered recently." Akari said as she pulled out a clipboard and started divulging some more information.
"As far as we know, they call themselves the 'Church of the Cursed Monarch', apparently they plan on trying to summon a special curse soon. We don't know how they plan to do so, but no matter what it cannot be good."
Megumi hummed along and then asked, "Do we know where their headquarters is or do we have to find it?".
"The local sorcerer has already located their hideout so all you need to do is clear the cultists out together. We should be meeting with them here soon enough." She answered before she flipped the page and started writing something.
"That so? Alright then, I should get ready then." The raven haired boy said as he summoned Blizzard, the loyal hound jumping out of his shadow with a bark before stretching and sitting patiently awaiting instructions.
After a few moments Megumi sensed a sorcerer's signature approaching, it didn't seem all that strong so he wasn't alerted much and just assumed it to be the sorcerer. This proved to be the right choice as a feminine voice sounded out from its direction.
"Oh hey you two, you must be the help sent from headquarters right~?"
Megumi turned to have a good look at the owner of said voice as before long a blush covered his face.
"Nice to finally meet you two, my name is Izumi Hanako~" 'She' said before bowing with a flourish.
"N-Nice to meet you too, Miss Hanako. My name is Megumi Fushiguro, I'll be in your care." Megumi said, struggling to keep a stutter out of his voice and hide his blush by bowing as well.
"Miss? But I'm a boy! You're funny Fushiguro-kun~"
Megumi straightened himself in pure horror as he took another look at 'her'.
'She' had long Pink styled into a bob cut with a black bowtie and tied into a long Braid that reached her lower back, she wore a traditional Miko outfit consisting of a white Kosode and red Umanori-styled hakama pants and finished with traditional japanese sandals.
[Image (In Discord)]
'Holy shit, it's been so long since I saw him, I almost forgot the greatest trap known to humankind. Is that..'
"... Astolfo?" Megumi accidentally muttered out, loud enough for the boy to hear him.
"Just met and already made up nicknames Fushiguro-kun~? How forward~" Izumi said, already taking the chance to tease the boy.
This gab caused Megumi's already burning face to turn into a bonfire as his face turned deep red.
Thankfully for Megumi before the teasing could continue, he was saved by Akari faux coughing into her hand to attract their attention.
"As entertaining as this is, we have a mission to take care of. Shall we gentlemen?" The window said as she motioned
'I could kiss you Akari-san.' Megumi thought, thankful for the save.
"Alright fine~, ruin my fun." Izumi pouted before he started to lead the way towards the location of the cultist hideout, they walked through an oddly quiet village.
Before long, they found themselves standing before a Minka, a large traditional Japanese mansion. It had a large stone wall surrounding the compound making it a perfect stronghold.
Or it would be, had Megumi not had access to flight. He brought his hands together in the summoning sign for Nue and activated what is coming out to be his most useful ability as of yet, Incarnation.
"Incarnation: Nue."
His Orange wings sprouted once more, this time going through his clothes as he had acquired special sorcerer clothing that he had custom made for himself by the finest Gojo clan fabricators. It could adapt to the changes in his body and allow any Incarnations to take place without breaking his clothing, in this case his wings simply passed through his Hakama as if there were holes in it to let them pass.
This sudden change caused Akari's eyebrow to raise as she already heard of his ability but hasn't seen it in action before, Izumi on the other hand seemed to be in utter awe.
"Wow~, these wings are so cute Fushiguro-kun!" Izumi gushed, as he reached out slowly to pet them.
"Thanks Hanako-san, I think it'd be best if we just flew in and took them by surprise." The now winged boy deflected.
"Ew, 'Hanako-san' that's too formal! Just call me Izumi!" The titular sorcerer groaned out, seeming disgusted by the formality.
"Only if you call me Megumi." He acquiesced with some heat on his cheeks.
"Deal!"
"If you two are done flirting, I'll set up the curtain and you two can start. I'll make sure no cultists escape." Akari commented with a deadpan expression.
The two blushed slightly before Megumi spoke up "Alright Izumi, as soon as Akari-san sets up the curtain, I'll grab you and fly us in."
Restraining himself to not tease him any further, Izumi simply nodded seriously.
"Alright then, let us begin." The blonde haired woman said as she brought her hand up with a finger twisted and started chanting.
"Emerge from the darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure."
As the curtain fell down upon the compound, the window turned to the two sorcerers and said "Godspeed gentlemen."
They nodded as Megumi grabbed Izumi and flapped his wings with great wings and flew up in a gust of wind. Entering the curtain, they had a birds eye view and spotted some guards placed around the yard. They were centred around the main building and heavily guarded the main entrance.
"Now would be a good time to talk sorcery, do you have a technique Izumi?" Megumi asked as he was scanning the enemy, looking for a weak point or anything interesting.
"I'm decent with a sword and can hold my own in a fight against anything up to a 2nd grade curse, but I also have a pretty good cursed technique. It's called 'Rhythm Enchantment'; I can choose a target to empower and grant them absolute focus, kinda like forcing them into 'The Zone'. I have to channel it through dancing but it's pretty strong if I can pull it off." Izumi explained, almost seeming like he was bragging at the end.
"Huh.. That's pretty cool actually. Wait, are you related to Utahime Iori by any chance?" Megumi recalled the technique of the older sorcerer 'Solo Forbidden Area', which would boost a given target and allow them to have an increased cursed energy output as long as they were within her range.
"Oh, how'd you know? She's actually my big cousin!" Izumi was a bit impressed.
"It's nothing, just know her from a mutual friend. Let's begin shall we?" Megumi dismissed.
"Sure, let's go!" He put his hands into his Kosode and pulled out a pure black Katana with pink flowers near the hilt.
He dived down directly at a guard in the middle of a group crushing him into the ground instantly, the shockwave of his landing sending the rest of the group flying away.
Izumi jumped out of his arms and cut down a nearby guard who managed to avoid the impact. Megumi, not one to waste time, immediately started summoning his Shikigami one after another.
And then they began their slaughter through the compound, crushing any cultists they found without hesitation.
The cultists that were taken by surprise lost some of their numbers but recovered fast as a coupler curse users among them surfaced and started fighting back, none were all that strong but their surprising numbers overwhelmed the pair of sorcerers.
But with the help of his shikigami Megumi kept up with the tide of fodder, taking out his Greatsword and channelling cursed energy through it to activate its ability and slicing the very air ahead of him causing an aurora of energy to fly of out of the blade and slash into the crowd.
Frozen limbs flying out as it took out a couple of cultists, Blizzard following the icy blast as he shifted and morphed into his Totality form with a shout from Megumi. He ran into the crowd and started ripping them apart.
A ball of fire flying at him stole his attention from the fight ahead of him, he dodged barely as it singed his clothes. Looking towards the source he saw a sorcerer with balls of fire within his hands and a crazed expression on his face and an odd tattoo on his forehead that he shared with all his comrades.
"We will not allow you to interrupt the descent of our Monarch! MAY CHAOS TAKE THE WORLD!" The cultist exclaimed with a fanatical roar before throwing two more fireballs. To which Megumi responded by pointing his hands towards it and calling out to his shikigami.
"Max Elephant, counter it!" The Elephant followed his orders as it fired out a wave of water towards the fireballs which caused them to fizzle out into vapour.
"GRR, damn you! Charge, charge for the glory of our Monarch!" The sorcerer growled out in rage, his fellow cultist sprinted ahead with reckless abandon at his command, not caring for their lives in the slightest.
"Run them over!" Megumi ordered as he turned around and cut down a cultist on his right with Kage, now dual wielding his blades, the Greatsword resting on his Shoulder in his left hand and his Katana in his right.
The war elephant charged, running through the minions and tanking some fire balls to the head with some damage. As he reached the sorcerer he fired a tidal wave of water at him point blank, sending him flying backwards, straight into the range of Gamma who grabbed him and threw him back towards Megumi.
Who, without turning as he pulled out his blade from a dead cultist splattering some blood on his face, simply ordered "Serpent, devour him."
Behind him an abyss opened as The Great Serpent flew out swallowing the sorcerer whole in a sickening crunch before returning to his shadow.
Looking around him, he saw the numbers of the cultists had been culled into nothing, turning towards Izumi he saw him cut down the last of his enemies, having defeated a good amount of them single handedly.
"Ah good, looks like we dealt with all of them inside, let's head inside and finish this shall we?" Megumi called out his partner as he stored his Greatsword in his shadow again and desummoned Gamma and Max Elephant to conserve energy.
"Hm? Oh sure, let's go!" Izumi said cheerfully as he wiped away some blood from his blade.
The two sorcerers walked towards the main building, guard still up but assured that they had taken care of most of the cultists.
Author's Note:
I wish to put it on record that this OC was chosen by someone in discord. I merely let him choose the Oc and he chose Astolfo in a Miko outfit. And I thought it'd be hilarious if Megumi was flustered by seeing an anime femboy in real life.