Chapter 26: The Girl of Steel.
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Glory to my chief Proofreader; Solare for he is the one who points out mistakes and acts as my favourite wall to bounce ideas off of.
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The next day.
"And this is gonna be your room, you can do whatever you want in here as long as you don't set it on fire! The last time I did that, Suguru and I got chewed out for an hour straight!" Gojo chuckled out as he opened the door to an empty room.
"Woah, it's huge! This is all for me huh? Cool!" Yuji simply replied, he got inside the room and started unpacking a small carry-on bag.
Gojo looked on as his new student as he placed a concerningly little amount of clothes in a closet and made a mental note to make sure to buy him some. He laughed a little when he saw the boy start to hang up a poster with an actress in a swimsuit on it, he didn't really recognise her but she had blonde hair and an hourglass figure.
"You'll meet your Senpais later on, right now the second years are out on a mission and the third years are a bit.. indisposed so it'll probably be a while till you meet them." He said with an amused grin.
The pink haired boy hummed along to this as he got the rest of things in order, they stayed in a comfortable silence for a little while until the white haired man spoke up again.
"You know, you don't have to go out and fight. Megumi n' I could just go out and collect all the fingers for you. Why don't you wait here?" Gojo asked.
"Oi, I already said I'll do it, no need to make me question it! Even so, it would be funny to watch Fushiguro beat up after bringing me fingers while I relax." Yuji chuckled while imagining Megumi bruised and beaten, handing a laidback Yuji a finger with a deadpan glare.
"Pffft, yeah you're right, that is a funny image. But if I'm being honest here there was no way you weren't fighting." Gojo laughed out at Yuji's expense who just baulked at him.
"The hell, really?! So that was just a test question, I never actually had a choice?" He exclaimed with outrage.
"Haha, yeah no, if it was that easy we'd have gotten them all already ages ago. Some of them radiate cursed energy as much as he has ego but others of his fingers are pretty good at hiding, it'd take years for us to find them alone and who knows what would happen with you by then." Gojo answered him, and then went on to explain what specifically he needs him for.
"So basically we need you, or more accurately we need the Sukuna inside you to act as our 'finger radar' as it were and help us find the rest of them. Since he's inside you, he's gonna act as our radar and help us find the rest of the fingers to put him back together." He stated as if it was a done deal.
This attitude put Yuji off as he hit the side of his own head lighting with a concerned expression while muttering.
"Yeah for some reason, I don't think he'll just play along with that…"
"Ah don't worry, I'm sure we'll come up with a win-win compromise with him." Gojo placated with a smile as he picked up on his muttering.
Their conversation was interrupted by a loud crashing noise and tremor that shook the building which caused Yuji to jump with Satoru only looking back casually and grinning.
"Oh? Looks like he's back at it again."
"'He's'? Who's he and what's he doin'? I could feel the shockwave from whatever that was from here." He asked with an alarmed expression.
"Why don't we go and see?" The white haired man announced with the same grin.
He then came up to his student and grabbed him by the shoulder much to his confusion, a second later a blue flash covered the two of them as space itself folded and twisted before they disappeared from their location.
Itadori fell over immediately as space spat them out again, caught completely off guard and unprepared for the sudden change. After taking a moment to right himself once more he looked up at Gojo for a moment before looking past him and gaped his mouth in surprise.
There stood Megumi, he was shirtless and covered in sweat revealing numerous scars that riddled his muscular form. His arm was elbow deep inside the ground, around his arm was a sizable crater that sent cracks throughout the ground around them.
He growled in annoyance as he pulled out his fist with some effort revealing a coating of cursed energy in its purest form, as he stood up the cursed energy began to move and coalesce into a ball of pure obsidian energy which he then aimed at Satoru and fired.
The energy fired off at immense speeds and crashed into Gojo's infinity barrier, the energy bubbled over against the infinite space, covering the white haired man in its embrace as it tried to reach its target to no avail; the blast fizzled out after a few seconds showing the grinning Satoru behind it.
'I told him about sensing Geto for a second before being teleported away, he seems to believe me but is convinced I must have mistaken it. I suppose there is a difference between believing someone wouldn't lie to you and actually seeing it with your own eyes. Well, hopefully he doesn't fuck up again this time and get sealed.'
'Wonder if Kenjaku is somewhat weaker this time because he lost an arm? Nah, that wouldn't matter, that Rat of all people should be capable of healing the soul. Although, it should still be fine either way if he gets sealed since we have both the Inverted Spear of Heaven and the Black Rope to be able to break open the Prison realm early.'
"What's that for Megumi~? You could have hurt me for real with that, you know?" Satoru complained theatrically with a hurt tone.
"As if, that blast was barely enough to destroy a boulder, not to mention hurt you of all people. I needed somewhere safe to shoot it and you were right there, plus I got to test for how long they go for." Megumi said with a shrug as he fell through the ground and was swallowed by his own shadow.
"He can just do that, where'd he go?!" Yuji questioned incredulously.
"Oh that's just one of Megumi's abilities, he can go into his shadow at any time he wants and-" Gojo started explaining to his student happily.
"I'd rather if you don't go on to explain the inner intricacies of my abilities on a whim Satoru, the walls have ears…"
The two of them heard a familiar voice behind them which caused them to turn around, when they turned they saw the black haired again. This time he was fully clothed, Haori and all with an annoyed expression on his face.
'In the end Satoru was right, it's all about the Cursed Energy you release to hit your opponent, but maximised, allowed to flow as it wishes. Normally we're trained to keep a death grip on our cursed energy but if you let it flow, use your body as a guide and just open the floodgates…' Megumi considered.
He raised his hand slowly in deep thought, along his arm sparks of cursed energy shone as small obsidian rivers were born of the sparks as they all coalesced into his palm where an orb of Pure Cursed energy was formed.
'Still, that attack was practically useless, against anything that isn't some weak ass 2nd grade curse it'd be like throwing a rock at them. The problem here really is output, what I need to make it actually effective is 100% output capability in order to fire off as much of my cursed energy at once.'
"Oh but worry about things like that are for the weak not us Megumi, who cares?" Gojo replied with a small laugh.
"I'm sorry, I'm still on that last bit. What do you mean the walls have ears, Megumi?" Asked Itadori before his fellow student could answer.
"Well I don't know if either of you have realised or completely internalised this yet but you have Ryomen Sukuna inside of you right now, he's probably listening into everything we say and I'd rather not let a nigh immortal 1000 year old monster know the ins and outs of my technique if i can help it. That about make sense?" Megumi answered as he crushed the orb of cursed energy in his hand.
'Tch, still inefficient as hell. That would have been enough to obliterate a Semi-Grade One but that isn't worth the drain against actual threats. This alone took like 1.5% of my cursed energy reserves because of how I needed to force it, so I need to figure out a way to increase my output if I want to increase the effectiveness of this ability. I wonder though, would a Binding Vow work..?'
"Oh.. yeah that makes sense! I wouldn't want that maniac to know too much about my powers either if I could help it, just lemme know when you want me to leave so he doesn't hear anything important Fushiguro!" As a credit to Yuji the boy didn't seem to take it to heart and understood the black haired man's misgivings.
"Thanks for understanding Itadori, I'm glad atleast you're a reasonable person." Megumi said with a relieved sigh, in the background you could see Gojo take a virtual arrow to the heart with the word 'Not Reasonable' on it.
'There's some shit that's inevitable for him to find out but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, for now I'd like to at the very least keep some knowledge away from him so I can have some cards close to my chest when the time comes.'
"Shut up, I'm not taking backhanded insults from a Furry! A-Ahem, anyways, we still have things we need to do gentlemen. Today is the day we go and receive the third first year student!" Gojo announced dramatically, trying his best to seem unaffected by his student's jab by shooting one of his own.
His jab hand landed quite handily as Megumi was struck through the heart by a virtual arrow with the word 'Furry' on it. Yuji had just tilted his head in confusion, not sure what Gojo was referencing and just decided to change the subject for his classmates' favour.
"Cool, who're they gonna be?" Yuji asked excitedly, much to the pleasure of his teacher who was about to go on a theatrical tirade again.
"Oh yeah, Nobara Kugisaki no?" The black haired man said with a grin as he rolled his shoulder and started walking away, trying to play it off as if the gab didn't affect him and trying to steal Satoru's chance to have his moment.
"I'm trying to have a dramatic reveal here, how do you even know that?!" Satoru questioned exasperatedly while pointing at his retreating form much to the amusement of the pink haired boy beside him.
"Well of course I know Satoru, I have eyes and ears everywhere." Megumi cryptically responded.
'Speaking of which, I need to hit up Mei again to check on her progress. I had her go and start building up my control over the upper managers and higher ups, cost me a pretty penny but if she does her job it'll be invaluable for when it's time to take over. Not sure how she plans to do so but after so much time together I know she has some tricks up her sleeve that could come in clutch.'
"Look at the little bastard, trying to look cool…" Satoru grumbled as he followed him, Yuji followed besides him still laughing his head off.
…
An Hour Later.
"So why's my uniform different from yours, it's got this weird red hood thing."
"Well, I'm sure you noticed my Haori, it's not in the standard Jujutsu Tech uniform. But as you've seen many times already, Jujutsu tech's not your average school; each student can ask for their own changes to their uniforms." Megumi answered between sips of his coffee.
"Yeah that checks out, must be why there's only 3 students in our year. It's a bit weird, almost like it was never meant to be a school…" Yuji's words became a low mutter at the end as he considered the oddness of how weird their school system was.
"Well if you think about it, have you ever met a sorcerer before you met us? Our kind is extremely rare, we're not like everyone else." The black haired man replied as he finished his coffee and threw it into a trash can behind him, the cup hit the edge of the trash can and fell out to the side.
"Huh, now that you mention it, that is true. Wait, I just realised I never asked for a change in my uniform!"
"Well that's 'cuz I did it for you and it looks like it's a good fit." Gojo said with a grin as he handed him a bucket of popcorn.
"But how did you know my size-"
"Never mind that, look there she is!" The white haired man deflected, pointing at a brown haired girl walking down the street from a train station.
They watched on as she walked past a man who stopped a girl in the street and asked her about modelling much to the blonde girl's annoyance.
Megumi reached his longer arm over Yuji's head and grabbed a fist full of his popcorn, knocking his novelty '2018' glasses off his face although he didn't seem to care much. He was giggling over watching their prospective classmate stop and pester the man about her own chances of being a model much to the man's complete and utter horror.
"How embarrassing!"
"Like you're one to talk, you look ridiculous you fucking brat." He heard a familiar voice speak out from the side, it was Sukuna who had opened up one of the eyes and sprouted a mouth on his face to ridicule him.
"Shush."
Megumi's hand came down like a serpent and slapped at Sukuna's mouth, coincidentally it was also Yuji's face which caused the boy to spin in place from the impact a perfect 360 degrees, landing perfectly with his drink and popcorn intact to the amusement of Satoru who was laughing his ass off.
"W-We shouldn't waste too much time. Hey Kugisaki over here!" Gojo called out to get the girl's attention after a bit of laughing, this succeeded as she came over to them.
"Let's start from the top. My name is Satoru Gojo, I'm your teacher for this year. And these are your new classmates, go ahead and introduce yourselves." He continued as he motioned to the side at the other two.
"My name is Nobara Kugisaki, remember it well since the two of you should count yourselves lucky to be my classmates." She announced with an air of superiority.
Nobara has a thin build and is of ordinary height. Her brown hair, which reaches her neck, is done in a mid-length fashion with bangs that cover the right part of her forehead and hide one of her orange eyes. She wears a long, matching skirt that falls just above her knees along with a button-down jacket in a dark blue gakuran style for her jujutsu school uniform. She also sports black stockings and brown shoes along with her signature brown belt that holds her tools for jujutsu.
[Image (In Discord)]
"Yo! I'm Yuji Itadori, from Sendai!" The pink haired teen declared cheerfully with a wave, not taking it personally.
'Ugh, he already looks like a hick, he probably ate his own boogers as a kid…' Thought Nobara immediately.
"Name's Megumi Fushiguro, hope we can get along." He introduced himself casually as he stole Yuji's popcorn bucket and started eating from it, although the boy didn't seem to care much as he just finished his drink and started eating with him from the bucket.
"Wait.. 'Megumi Fushiguro'? I know you.. You're the one that Izumi told me about, the Special Grade that wants to change everything, uproot all of Jujutsu HQ and restart from the bottom up." Kugisaki recalled with a mixture of awe and surprise.
"Keep your voice down will you? I'd rather not let all of Harajuku know of my plan, not yet anyways." Megumi said with a sly grin.
"Megumiiiiii, you're telling me you went ahead with our plan without even telling me everything about it first? I'm so hurt!" Satoru exclaimed as he grabbed the black haired man by the shoulders while shaking him from side to side.
"I did it because I knew you would do something like this Satoru!" Megumi cried out as he struggled to get the man off of him.
Itadori and Kugisaki watched on in amusement at their actions for a while as Megumi jumped out of their teacher's grip, just for the older man to rush at him to continue his shakedown. They ran across the street, up and over parked cars and even in the air for a moment much to both of their surprises.
"So do you plan on explaining what she means by 'uproot all of Jujutsu HQ', aren't they supposed to be the good guys?" Yuji questioned from the side, stopping the impromptu cat and mouse chase.
Taking the small pause that Yuji's question gave to Satoru as an opening, his arm was suddenly covered in a barrier much like a Domain would but the barrier was hollow and incomplete as it had no cursed technique instilled within.
'Domain Amplification!'
Megumi elbowed Satoru to get him off him, the barrier around his elbow glowed a brilliant Dark Blue aura that was tinged with a hint of black. As the elbow reached Satoru's Infinity barrier, the barrier struggled for a moment as within less than half a second the barrier was torn apart which allowed Megumi to strike right into the man's liver sending him crashing down to the ground in a mixture of surprise and unexpected pain.
'Oh~, Never in my life had I needed something so badly and never knew until I had received it.' Megumi thought with a small sigh of satisfaction.
"OW, fuck me sideways, since when could you do that?!" Gojo exclaimed as he crumpled on the ground for a moment from the unexpected strike.
"Well Satoru, did ya think I just spent the past 3 years twiddling my thumbs like a jackass? Took a while to figure it out since I wanted to do it without you knowing but you'd be surprised what Mei can find with enough motivation!" Megumi laughed out at finally being able to touch the man after chasing his back for what seemed like a lifetime.
'Well, I figured a lot of it out myself with the help of my previous knowledge but I just couldn't figure out how to bring it together and finalise the ability for a while. Mei was able to get a record on Domain Amplification from some guy named Fujiwara Yoshitsune that helped me pull it all together. It also had a lot of interesting information about Barriers, Domain Barriers or otherwise. I should be able to complete my Domain soon, all I need is some Inspiration.'
He and Satoru looked at each other for a few moments as both of their faces were covered with grins much to the complete and utter confusion of the two behind them, they knew what they had to do next.
"Same time tomorrow?" Gojo asked from his place on the ground as he sat in a cross legged position,
"Forest outside Shoko's, she's gonna wanna see it for sure."
"Deal!"
"I am so fucking confused…" Kugisaki muttered out as she looked at the duo, not understanding what was happening in the slightest.
"You and me both…" Itadori mumbled in agreement by her side, looking even more confused than before.
"... Anyways, now that that's done! I'll explain it all in detail for you but for now all that you need to know is that the Higher Ups are all corrupt bastards down to the core as are all the big Jujutsu clans, and I plan to upend the whole of it. I will rebuild everything from the ground up, to make it a society worthy of living in for once in its miserable existence." Megumi announced to his classmates without any hesitation.
The reactions were better than he had hoped for actually; Nobara was smiling, looking like she agreed with his plan without needing much convincing and Yuji.. Well he didn't look like he outright hated it but he still seemed somewhat lost in the intricacies of the plan.
Satoru had the biggest reaction, as he got up from the ground, all he had on his face was a giant honest smile.
"Uh Satoru, now that we got her; you're gonna take them out to that place right?" Megumi asked, being intentionally vague as he put his hands in his pockets.
"Oh? Yeah, I'll be taking them to that place, what about it?" The man replied with a grin, glad that Megumi is allowing him to play his pranks.
"Then if it's all the same to you then, I'm gonna head out to meet her. If that's alright?" He asked with a sombre tone at the end.
Satoru had immediately caught on to the change in tone and understood what he meant, much to the utter confusion of the two behind him.
"Yeah Megumi, that's fine. Don't mind us. Go." Satoru said with a soft tone.
"Thanks Satoru." Megumi replied as he walked away into the crowd around them and disappeared.
…
Half an hour later.
Shinjuku, Tokyo. Medical Jujutsu Ward.
Megumi walked into a quiet hospital room, there was nothing but the sound of a heart monitor softly beeping steadily. In his hands was a bouquet of flowers, they were all beautiful White Lotus flowers that held a hint of pink, he placed them on top of a desk near a window right next to another bouquet.
He took the old bouquet and placed it into the trash can as all the flowers had begun to wilt and dry up, he then turned to the hospital bed. On it was Blizzard who was sleeping, guarding the person on the bed at his orders as he did every day that Megumi didn't need him.
Megumi sat on the chair next to the bed and looked at the person in the bed, it was his sister Tsumiki. On her forehead was a curse mark, one that burned the same soft crimson glow that it did ever since she fell into a coma.
He dragged his chair closer as he started observing the curse mark for a while while taking notes in a small notebook he had bought a few years ago, flipping through the pages you could see numerous notes that go on and on about dozens of ways that the curse could have been engraved or how it would be possible to break said curse.
Some of the pages had perfect handwriting while others had messy handwriting with a lot of scratched out lines that showed annoyance from the writer, there were even some pages that were torn out messily.
He spent the next hour writing notes expanding on previous points, many of them regarding the soul and how the forceful Incarnation of another being was dug into his sister's very being without any sort signs before it all came to ahead when she fell into a coma.
Eventually he stopped writing and just stared at the paper in silence before his grip on the pen tightened suddenly as a loud shattering sounded throughout the small room, causing Blizzard to look up from his place on the bed for a moment before going back to sleep.
Megumi stayed in that position for a moment before he got up and went to the bathroom in the room to wash off the ink that stained his hands but no matter how hard he tried, the crimson colours wouldn't fade away, his hands remained covered in Red even after the ink had long faded away.
He stared at his hands for a moment before he walked away from the sink and sat back down near Tsumiki while looking out the window.
Megumi then stayed there for a couple of minutes, just thinking, replaying through his plans and everything else that plagued him throughout the day. Occasionally looking at her intensely, as if trying to find something that was not there.
'After using the rabbit Incarnation a few times I can now tell a vague outline of my own soul and that has been very enlightening to say the least but I still can't see or feel anything beyond that. No matter how hard I try, I still can't see the shape of her soul.'
The minutes soon turned to hours as he stayed in the room quietly, at some point he had made his way to the window and opened it widely as he looked out onto the setting sun, in his hand was a cigarette that he had completely finished.
Megumi crushed the cigarette between his fingers and threw it outside the window in a fit of frustration for his small relapse, turning back to the bed he walked up to Tsumiki and moved a stray hair away from her nose with a determined expression.
"Soon Tsumiki, I'll find a way to free you from this curse. Whether it be by force or some other way, I will do it no matter what." He muttered to himself, Blizzard rose from his place at the bed and looked at him.
"And then I'm going to find the rat bastard that did this to you. And when I do, I am going to kill him."
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