NOVEL NEXT Chapter 8: Learning.
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2011, February.
"Anything new happen in school?" Megumi asked before shovelling some soba noodles down his throat.
"Swallow first before talking, Megumi! And other than making a new friend, not really. Just the same old school day." Tsumiki chastised her brother about his poor dining table habits before answering him.
Megumi swallowed a chunk of the noodles and then drank some water to wash it down. "Oh? A new friend huh? What's their name?" Megumi asked before he took a bite of some shrimp tempura.
"Well. If you must know, her name is Fujinuma. We met during a table tennis match." Tsumiki said. She then picked up a bowl of Miso soup and sipped from it.
"Hm."
Behind them was a sliding door that led to the backyard of the Fushiguro estate, the twin Divine Dogs, Blizzard and Nyx could be seen running after each other and fighting playfully. In the corner of the yard there was a newly made pond. Gamma could be seen soaking in the pond scaring the fish around him. The Great Serpent was coiled around a boulder in the middle of the yard, enjoying the warm sun.
Not only were the Shikigami released so they could relax for themselves, this also gave Megumi practice. The summoning and maintaining of his Shikigami also requires a constant drain on his cursed energy reserves to maintain their presence.
By summoning his Shikigami and keeping them summoned for as long as possible, he will get used to doing so and eventually summoning and maintaining his Shikigami would require little to no cursed energy as he would become so efficient with it the drain would essentially be non-existent. Currently he is able to keep all of them summoned for up to 6 hours.
It was shaping up to be a pleasantly quiet morning, until a flash of light bloomed in the middle of the dining room. Startling Tsumiki as Megumi drew his blade from his shadow on instinct and sliced at the intruder with haste.
"New Shadow Style: Batto Sword Drawing!" His practice with the swords technique over the months he has been consistently training with Kusakabe has made him able to expand his domain in a second flat.
This speed would have taken out any sorcerer and injured a higher level one but as the blade neared the intruder it merely stopped moving.
"Huh? Oh it's you, use the door next time jackass. And what's with the dumb bandages, your glasses not working so well?" Megumi said, annoyed as he withdrew Kage and sheathed it within his shadow.
"Oh but it's not as fun that way! Did ya miss me?" The intruder was revealed to be Gojo who was now sporting some white bandages that covered his eyes.
"And to answer your question, they're working just fine. I just wanted to try out a new look is all. How do I look, aren't I simply dashing?" Gojo answered before starting to take poses.
"You look stupid, Satoru." "You look great, Gojo-san!" Both siblings gave completely opposite opinions at the same time.
""Huh?"" They turned around and looked at each other questioningly.
"Why are you being so mean, Megumi! He looks great!". The elder sister pouted.
"No he doesn't, he looks stupid, stop complimenting him. It goes straight to his big dumb stupid head!" Tsumiki gasped at this and was about to retort.
Before the siblings could begin to bicker about with each other, Gojo interjected.
"As much as I would love to listen to you two argue about my looks, I didn't come here just for this."
"Oh right, why are you here anyways." Megumi questioned.
"I am here not only to check on you and your training but also to give you this!" Gojo exclaimed theatrically as he pulled out a small card from his back pocket.
"Your new Sorcerer ID, congratulations Megumi. You're officially a Grade three sorcerer at 8 years old! I can think of anyone other than me, Suguru or Yuki that managed that!" Gojo declared with a grin.
Tsumiki seemed in awe at Gojo's declaration while Megumi simply smirked.
"Anyways, it's been a while since we've talked about your training. Tell me, what have you achieved since I left you in Kusakabe's hands? Has he been teaching you well?"
Megumi went on to explain his training over the past year, from his physical training, his swordsmanship practice and his group training with his shikigami.
An overlong explanation later.
"Ah I see, you got down Kusakabe's swordsmanship in under a year and mastered Simple Domain in a month. Quite impressive." Gojo's grin expanded to cover his full face.
"Yeah, it wasn't that hard after I got over the physical part and saw it demonstrated a couple times." Megumi dismissed it as an easy feat.
"HAHA! Can you believe this guy Tsukmiki? He beat my record and just dismissed it as nothing special. What a little monster." The older man laughed at the incredulous statement, Tsumiki simply giggled as she had come to expect at least this much from her brother.
"Speaking of which, Kusakabe never really went into detail about simple domains. I can't really use it or any barriers alone." Megumi confessed.
He went on to explain. "He told me to ask you to explain it for me, and said you were more knowledgeable about this."
Gojo simply grinned.
"Well of course I know better, he's good and all but I'm me after all." He lifted the bandages from his cursed eyes, revealing azure galactic irises that seemed to gaze through him.
He put the bandages back and clapped his hands.
"Alrighty then! Time for an impromptu lesson in barriers!" He then snapped his fingers and a white board appeared in the room in a flash of blue.
"OK! Let's start with normal barriers" Megumi simply reached into his shadow and pulled out a notebook and pen to start taking notes. Tsumiki merely sat on a nearby couch and listened in as she did some homework.
"Barriers are zones or territories established with jujutsu. They are generally used to conceal, contain, or deny entry to entities within that space. Cursed techniques that erect barriers are known as barrier techniques." Gojo explained as he drew a rough sketch of a barrier.
"Barriers are territories of various sizes and effects that anyone with enough cursed energy can learn to create. To surround and protect the user is the most basic use of a barrier. However, some barriers, like curtains, have an outer shell to protect the edge while others do not.
Some can even make complex barriers that can be customised with certain conditions using binding vows and talismans, but this takes a certain degree of skill to accomplish effectively. Like barring certain people from a barrier while allowing others in. Barriers also only recognize individuals with cursed energy and they completely ignore inanimate objects and buildings."
Megumi nodded, taking it all in.
"Then we have curtains; A Curtain is a barrier with a large dome-shaped outer shell that hides anything within it from outside view. Inside the barrier turns the sky to night, luring cursed spirits out from hiding. Curtains are mainly utilised by jujutsu sorcerers to maintain secrecy while exorcising curses." Gojo drew a curtain on the white board before telling Megumi to follow him outside.
"I'll show you an example." Gojo said before walking up to the boulder that the Great Serpent was sleeping on who looked at him quizzically. And raising his hand, twisting his index and middle fingers around each other.
"Emerge from the darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure."
Upon activation, a dark, almost liquid-like matter dripped down from the sky to form the outer barrier wall in the shape of a half-sphere.
"As you can see anything within the barrier will be imperceivable from outside view, preventing non-sorcerers from being able to see any jujutsu or cursed spirit activity inside. They will only see the environment as it was from the moment the technique is cast. Any sorcerer, even windows, can perceive a curtain's black outer shell from the outside. Usually, applying enough force to the outer shell of the curtain will break it, as with any barrier wall. However, curtains can also be customised with binding vows to create certain conditions."
He then dismissed the curtain, which revealed an annoyed Serpent who gave the Honoured One a side eye before going back to sleep.
"Then we have a Domain barrier, you've already used those in your simple domain but I'll explain them for you anyways." He snapped his fingers, the whiteboard teleporting in with a flash.
"Barriers are the foundation of any domain, whether it be a fully expanded innate domain or a simple domain. An environment can be crafted out of cursed energy within a barrier. If that environment is an innate domain and the barrier is imbued with an innate technique, it is considered a complete domain expansion. In other cases, incomplete domains can create or completely change environments within the space of a barrier." Megumi was taking notes at hyper speed.
Gojo finally concluded with, "Even after a barrier is fully formed, its placement can be moved by the user while they're still in the domain. One way to forcibly close a barrier without the proper skill is to overlay it with a physical structure. However, the barrier imbued with the user's innate technique will not incorporate a can't-miss attack, arguably the greatest strength of a domain expansion."
"There are some other barriers like the Falling Blossom Emotion from the Zenin clan but I can teach you that later. The other barriers even I can't use and only Tengen can so there's no point in going over them." Gojo shrugged as he stated matter of factly.
"Hm I see, thank you. This'll be very helpful. I've been needing something extra to subjugate my next Shikigami." Megumi thanked his teacher as he wrote some final notes and closed his book.
Gojo just gave a large grin that seemed to radiate sunshine that almost blinded the younger boy making him look away.
…
A week later, 9 pm.
Megumi stood in the middle of a clearing with some trees with thick branches in the Jujutsu tech forest
By his side, all of his available Shikigami were summoned already. They were positioned in specific locations ready to jump in.
'First of all, Let me see if this would work. It would make my life a lot easier.'
"With the Heavens above as my witness, I Vow to not fully manifest The Great Serpent of the Ten Shadows technique. In exchange its strength, speed and size will increase dramatically."
The skies above Megumi shook for a moment, before he felt a change occur within his technique. More specifically to his Great Serpent.
Within the inner domain of Megumi's soul, the Serpent could be seen as a silver chain appeared and wrapped around its tail.
Megumi grinned maniacally as he felt the change. 'Good, it worked. This will increase the usefulness of the serpent dramatically.'
"Alright, let's do this." The shikigami heard their master's orders and readied up.
The raven-haired boy brought his hands up, hooking his thumbs together and spreading his fingers apart mimicking the shape of wings.
"Nue!"
An abyss appeared ahead of the Ten Shadows user from within it, a large avian creature flew out. It settled in the sky before letting out a screech and surveying the area around it from its position of high ground, allowing all to look at its majestic frame.
Nue is a large owl-like creature with brownish orange feathers and a white mask-like skull. It had large wings, two sets of talons and human-like teeth.
[Image (In Discord)]
Noticing that it was out numbered severely and would likely not be able to win a direct fight, Nue opted to instead move towards the skies where it reigned supreme and use hit and run tactics to wear it's opponents down.
Or at least it would have, had its enemy allowed it to do so.
Before Nue could escape to the skies out of his and his Shikigami's reach, for the final time Megumi brought his hands together, each hand forming a dome as he put them side to side forming a ball.
'I wouldn't know where to start if I tried to do this without help but thanks to Satoru's explanation and demonstrations, this became a simple matter of trial and error.' His grin became a sinister chuckle as he started chanting.
"Improvised Barrier Technique: Hollow Cage"
Suddenly a barrier made of shadowy chains and steel formed above Nue, the creature unable to react to the barrier's sudden formation flew into it at full speed, slightly stunning itself.
The barrier quickly closed down, the chains tightening even further, trapping even Megumi himself within it.
"HAHA IT WORKED, I AM A FUCKING GENIUS!" Megumi ignored his opponent and exploded with laughter and incredulousness at his own talent.
He looked down at his hands with awe, before muttering. "I can't believe that worked, it was just a shot in the dark that would've made my life a lot easier if it worked but it did!"
He looked back up at Nue who was covering itself with electricity and trying to slam itself into the chains of the barrier.
"Hehe that's not gonna work you filthy bird." Megumi stated with an air of grim satisfaction.
"In exchange for making the inside of this barrier virtually indestructible I had to make the outside of it as weak as wet tissue paper, if even a toddler threw a rock at it, it would shatter instantly. The only realistic way of breaking the barrier from within now is to defeat me which you can't hope to achieve. Of course the completed version would ideally be more resilient but it'll do for now."
He then formed a ball with his right hand and clenched it as if squeezing a stress ball. In response the chains of the barrier started closing in around them, the diameter of it becoming smaller and forcing Nue even closer down into the ground.
"I don't have time to deal with you, I've got better things to do." He said as he dropped his right hand and raised his left with only his index and middle fingers extended to the sky.
"Serpent, Catch."
In front of him an abyss appeared as from within the Great Serpent flew out and into the sky as it bit Nue within its own domain in the skies and brought it down to its master as an offering.
The Great Serpent was different than before, it was much bigger than before, its hide looked thicker. The marks around its eyes had spread even further marking its entire body.
In its maw, Nue thrashed around with futility trying to escape. But it was slowly getting more and more sluggish, as if it was being paralysed. The serpent's fangs biting deep within its body as it seemed to contain a paralytic venom that would've doubtlessly greatly affected Megumi during the subjugation ritual had he allowed it to bite him or any of his shikigami.
"Do not worry, you'll be back soon and this time you'll know to be on the right side." Megumi said with a sadistic tone as he reached into his shadow and pulled out Kage who had gained some more black specks along his blade.
He then swung his blade in a wide arc at the trapped bird's neck.
Splirt
[A/N: Yap session I know, sry but it's necessary. I didn't wanna do this either.]