NOVEL NEXT Chapter 30: Trust I.
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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.
SUKUNA IS FUCKING DEAD! HALLELUJAH!
FUCKING FINALLY!
Uraume js killed herself immediately after she sensed Sukuna died, Hakari def blew her back out though.
Unfortunately, Bumgumi is back too but that won't ruin my mood.
Early asf chap drop to celebrate the occasion!
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Megumi hummed along for a moment as he said his piece to Yuji who just stood there with a deep sense of shock and realisation as the black haired man's shadow devoured the three corpses whole without much thought or consideration.
'Hm, my inventory is getting cluttered at this point, the weight doesn't bother me much anymore but I wonder how much faster and stronger I'd get if I released some of this burden. Speaking of strength, could I change the mutations granted by my Incarnations if I tried hard enough?' Megumi considered while he cracked his neck casually.
'Maybe I could make it so I shoot water or even fire out of my eyes instead of my hands like Superman or Dio or some shit. I could be being too greedy with it though, even if it would be cool as hell…' Megumi thought as finished storing the corpses and walked off to look for the next two with Nobara and eventually Yuji as well on his tail.
They continued walking for a while and they even found the two remaining detainees that were missed during the evacuation, however they were already dead. When they had found them Megumi had come in close and observed the state of the bodies.
"Odd, the cursed womb hasn't shown itself yet, I can't feel anything of its presence other than residuals. And these bodies, from the way they were killed.. It was quick and rushed, the blood is still leaking from some places, which means…" Megumi muttered to the two of them in a tone and manner that Kugisaki had instantly picked up on before his shadows once again moved forwards and devoured the two corpses.
"It must be close!" Kugisaki grasped what he was getting at and immediately withdrew her hammer and nails, ready to fight whatever might be coming at them.
Hearing that the threat was close and approaching, Itadori had let go of his doubts and hesitation, deciding to leave any of his questions or contemplations for later on and got in a fighting stance with his arms burning in a blaze of cursed energy.
Megumi stayed quiet for a moment as he observed his surroundings astutely, eventually a small grin covered his face before his right hand shined for a moment with sparks of electricity running down its length; around his arm formed a hollow barrier from which he had activated Domain Amplification.
The special grade sorcerer blurred ahead from his location faster than Kugisaki or Itadori could even blink and brought his hand back before he threw a devastating haymaker at seemingly nothing. However their eyes widened as they saw the space before him crumple away, revealing a large wall behind it that shattered apart to rubble from the impact.
Half a metre to the right of his fist was the Finger Bearer's head, the curse itself jumped back in surprise as it had almost lost its life in an instant.
The Special Grade curse had been hiding itself within the folds of its Domain which was why Megumi and the others couldn't feel its presence for so long but it had still left a residual that Megumi was able to track and use to find it with terrifying accuracy.
'After fighting Maki so many times, this much tracking is fucking nothing. I'm more disappointed in myself for not finding it sooner.' The black haired man thought as he withdrew his arm and turned to face the cowering curse.
"Oh, why are ya' running away, peeping tom? Got something in your pants you wanna hide from me?" Megumi asked with a sadistic grin.
From his palm sprouted 3 shadow tendrils that extended and wrapped around each other to form a vague oval shape before fading away to reveal Kage which Megumi grabbed with two hands, ready to to cut apart the curse the instant he got the chance.
Megumi then paused for a moment, he felt something was off with the curse. Although it was clearly still terrified, he could tell it had a plan and so he chose to rush in to kill it before it could do anything dangerous to Kugisaki or Itadori.
"Fushiguro!" "It's got us!"
As Megumi was about to rush forwards he stopped when he heard his classmate's voices and swung his Katana to the side to deflect a blast of cursed energy that came from his right, turning to face the source he found a second Finger Bearer staring him down with a grin.
'Are you fucking kidding me, there's two of them? Ugh, why does nothing go according to plan? Well, if there's any explanation for this bullshit it'd probably be that rat bastard Kenjaku's fault. Yeah, it's definitely him.'
He grimaced as he saw why as in its hands were Itadori and Kugisaki, the special grade curse had hid in the folds of the twin cursed womb's shared domain and grabbed the two of them hostage right under his nose. The curse kept its hands on their necks with an obvious message on its face that if he stepped out of line, both the hostages would get their necks snapped.
"God fucking damnit.. Fuck it, life's all about risk right?" Megumi muttered to himself as he considered his options before he decided that the best outcome would have to come from a desperate gamble.
'Is this the smartest thing to do? No, prolly not. I am still gonna do it? Yeah, I am. I always wanted to test myself against Sukuna, so this would be the best chance to do so in a controlled environment. Satoru had his chance to play, now it's my turn.'
He slowly dropped Kage to the ground and moved to bring his hands up in the universal sign of surrender much to the twin curse's delight, however he had a plan that would thwart their efforts entirely.
"Itadori swap with Sukuna now!" He ordered while bringing his hands together in a familiar pose, Yuji understood his classmate's order and knew he must have a plan so he decided to just listen before starting to allow Sukuna to take over his body.
"Domain Expansion: Chimera Shadow Garden!"
The shadows beneath his feet didn't simply rush forwards, they all formed together spontaneously as a gigantic Domain Barrier surrounded not just the 5 combatants, but the entirety of the detainment ward faster than anyone could even begin to comprehend.
Megumi's desperate gamble relied on a Domain Expansion, a feat that normally would give time for a sorcerer or curse to make a counter move; which would lead to the demise of Yuji Itadori and Nobara Kugisaki.
However, Megumi Fushiguro had amended this with a Binding Vow.
In exchange for combining the instant expansion of his Domain and the activation of its abilities while expanding the range and effectiveness of his Domain by 120%, Megumi Fushiguro will not use another Domain Expansion for the next 15 days and the Domain will only last 0.5 seconds.
Firstly; he used his ability to freely move and teleport entities in his Domain through his Abyss to move Nobara Kugisaki from the hands of the Finger Bearer to his side in order to keep her safe.
Secondly; he folded his Domain's space around the Finger Bearer that held Yuji Itadori and the pink haired teen himself and teleported them away to the very edge of his Domain right as Tattoos started forming throughout the teen's body.
Then the Domain faded away shortly after this as its purpose has been completed, another reason why he included the time limit within the Binding Vow was the fact that this meant that he would receive practically zero drain from the Domain Expansion no matter how much he forced it as the Binding Vow did most of the heavy lifting.
Dissolving the Domain immediately also served to deter Sukuna from using his own Domain and start a Domain Clash which could endanger both himself and Nobara as the Finger Bearers were still in the equation.
This Domain Expansion served multiple different purposes as it gave Megumi time to both kill the Finger Bearer before storing away the finger into his Inventory and also allow Nobara time to escape the area safely as well as let the Windows know of the inevitable fight between him and Sukuna.
Speaking of whom, sending Yuji away so far as he transfers control to Sukuna guarantees his safety as the King's ego and arrogance would not allow him to let a curse that held his neck live which meant that the other Finger Bearer would be taken care of as well without the need of his intervention.
'It's a perfect Binding Vow, I'm gaining everything that I need in this situation and lose basically nothing! All I'm betting on is my ability to handle a 3 finger Sukuna, which is going to be a piece of cake. The 15-day-long restriction on my use of a Domain doesn't matter either way as after this I won't need it for two months either way as the Goodwill event starts then.' Megumi thought with a grin as he saw all his plans fall together perfectly.
"Kugisaki, go tell the Windows that Sukuna and I are about to fight. I'll try to contain him but they should still evacuate the nearby buildings in case it gets outta hand." He ordered as a tendril sprouted from his hand and grabbed Kage again before bringing the blade into his hands.
"Are you sure I can't stay here and help?" Kugisaki asked with a worried expression, unsure if it was right to leave him to fight alone.
"Don't worry, this is nothing. I'm going to be The Strongest after all, I can handle this much." Megumi declared resolutely as he looked back and pointed at himself with his thumb.
Nobara didn't question him for a moment as she knew time was precious so she started sprinting away but not before she fired off a surprise Nail at the Finger Bearer that Megumi was going to fight, the nail flew forwards at great speeds at the curse pierced it right through the head.
The curse staggered backwards as it was caught off guard by the attack and held its head for a moment as it struggled to pull out the nail with a growl of anger, as even though it didn't do huge damage, the nail struck the curse at its soul.
"Heh, good work Kugisaki. I'll make a First Grade Sorcerer of you yet, at the very least I'll help you reach a Peak of Jujutsu." Megumi commented with a small chuckle as he brought up Kage to shoulder height and held the blade horizontally with his right hand.
'I haven't really tested the limits of my control over Kage's form, I suppose now would be the time to do a bit of experimentation since I have a willing volunteer right here. Let's start small and go up from there…' Megumi thought as he placed his right hand at the tip of the blade.
The black haired man then pressed against the blade and pushed inwards, instead of piercing through him, the blade was dissolved into shadows that centred around his hand as he pushed his hand onto the hilt of the Katana before pulling backwards while applying his cursed technique.
The blade was reforged once more under his will and influence to a longer, more serrated edge that was built with the intent of drawing as much blood from its target as possible.
"Hm, dunno what to call this ability.. Eh, doesn't matter, not that big of a change currently but maybe I could push it further and further as I go. Time for you to die, I have to get ready for the big boy to arrive."
Megumi blurred from his location and was upon the Special Grade curse within less than a second, the Finger Bearer placed up a barrier of pure cursed energy in response to block the attack as it then jumped back and fired off repeated blasts of Orange energy at him.
Kage's serrated blade struck against the barrier and shredded it apart in an instant, he kept going as he jumped in and between each blast with incredible grace. Megumi was again a mere metre away from the curse as it decided to go for a different approach.
The curse threw an enhanced yet clumsy punch towards the sorcerer's gut, to this Megumi weaved to the side with unnatural dexterity and sliced off the curse's extend arm in a single swipe before he leveraged his superior stature to bring the curse closer before slicing off the other arm in the same motion.
He didn't stop there as he dropped to the ground and threw an electric roundhouse kick at the curse's knee which caused it to snap apart, the Finger Bearer fell down to the ground in a heap of pain and fear as electric shocks ran down its leg.
"Shit, I can already feel Sukuna's cursed energy approaching my location. I figured he'd want to play with his curse for a bit more but I suppose I'm short on time, let's see if I can do the same thing that Yuta did with that Cockroach curse." Megumi muttered to himself as he channelled his Incarnations once again, holes appeared in his palms along with rings that formed around his irises.
"Incarnation: Max Elephant and Tranquil Deer."
Megumi reached down with both his hands as he grabbed the now healed Finger Bearer by the head with both his hands and pulled it upwards to look it in the eyes.
"Please don't try to struggle, it will be quick, possibly painless." The Special Grade Sorcerer informed with a cold expression, as if the very act was a chore to him. The curse grabbed his arms and tried to pull them away with all its power to no avail, as his hands were like steel vice grips that refused to release.
Then came the flames, an inferno of hellfire covered its head and started burning its whole body into cinders, while he did so the curse turned to slam its limbs against him repeatedly in an attempt to escape. As the fire started devouring the curse's body, Megumi channelled his Tranquil Deer's Incarnation and through it, the ability to output Reversed Cursed Technique.
Positive Energy flowed throughout his body as it healed any damage done by the curse that tried its best to escape his grasp by slamming into him with blasts of cursed energy, the positive energy flowed through his arms and directly into the body of the Finger Bearer which caused it to howl in pain.
The Positive energy ravaged the inner core of the curse as it started to be torn apart by the energy that was the absolute antithesis to the cursed energy that created it. The Finger Bearer's limbs went limp shortly after as it was burned away into dust and ash from the combined Flames and Reversed Cursed Technique.
All that was left behind was a single purple waxy finger, the Special Grade cursed Object that birthed the curse to begin with; Ryomen Sukuna's finger.
The Innate Domain around him faded away into nothingness as he was returned to the real world, Megumi was standing in a clearing that was in the middle of the detainment centre as it seemed that when he moved inside the domain he was also moved in his position relative to reality.
Megumi reached down and picked up the finger that laid among the dust and ash that was the Special Grade curse just as he felt a malevolent presence arrive behind him.
"Took you long enough sleeping beauty, was being in the body of a 15 year old boy too stimulating for you? I suppose being asleep for a 1000 years would make you the 'Strongest Sleeper in History', right?" The black haired man asked with a grin as he turned around and faced the King of Curses, the finger within his palm was covered by obsidian tendrils and devoured into his abyss.
'Not making the same mistake twice.'
"Is that your attempt at humour? You Jujutsu Sorcerers are always an absolute bore and a pain in every era." The king scoffed at the obvious attempt at getting under his skin.
"I was taking my time in coming here since I was considering what to do now that I have temporary control over this vessel but now I know exactly what I am going to do! I'm going to kill you and this worthless vessel, I will make sure you both suffer!" He declared with malevolent intent.
"Oh boy, I am so scared right now! Please don't do that Sukuna! Please spare us!" Megumi mocked, not taking him seriously in the slightest.
Both combatants stood opposed to each other as they readied to make their first move in the battle to decide the fate of both Itadori Yuji and possibly even the lives of everyone else in the prefecture.
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Author's Note:
Don't mind me, I'm just gonna sit back and enjoy this Plotkuna pack…
If you guys reach 250 Power Stones I'll release the next chapter tomorrow!
…
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Next Chapter Title: Trust II.
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