A/N: Welcome to my latest story: Potential Man. Here we go with this one. Next three chapters are up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) already if you want to see them early. Since I just started a new story, there's a cheeky discount on said patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) page for anyone interested.
Tiger Funeral. The Ninth of the Ten Shadows. The only bipedal one other than the Divine General himself. While the Divine General was focused on adaptation and pure power, the Ninth Shadow had a much simpler trick up its sleeve: pure martial might. Tiger Funeral was the strongest of the shadows when it came to physical combat. With the caveat that it was not greater than the Divine General, of course.
It was also one of the hardest of the shadows to tame. Across dozens of Ten Shadows users, only three had tamed it. My goal for tonight was to be the fourth. Dinner had passed some time ago and darkness had crept over the mountain that the Zenin clan called home. In the last three days, I had learned that Round Deer's Reverse Cursed Technique was a perfectly usable alternative to a night of sleep. Tomorrow, we would move out to deal with Kenjaku's little game once I made the divisions, so this was the last chance I would get to add another weapon to my arsenal before then.
I formed the hand sign. "With this treasure I summon thee: Tiger Funeral," I said, and then the small sounds, the wind over the wooden floorboards, the grass and trees, everything seemed to disappear as the tiger formed from my shadow.
Tiger Funeral was massive. Both vertically and horizontally. It stood just a few inches shorter than the Divine General from what I could remember and had a considerably more lithe form, but that was in comparison to the absolute unit that was Mahoraga. My examination was cut short as the shikigami moved. My hands moved up in a block, but the kick smashed straight through. I rolled with the force even as I felt both my arms ache despite the cursed energy I'd reinforced them with.
As I rolled to a stop, I formed my hands into an ox's head. Tiger Funeral kept coming and its kick was met with a charge from Piercing Ox as it shot from my shadow with all the fury of a thousand raging bulls. They clashed, and the tiger yielded, twisting and backflipping to land on its feet again. My fingers did not stop moving. Max Elephant was next.
That was a good choice. Tiger Funeral raced for me again. This time, it jumped over Piercing Ox's charge, allowing it to miss, and then crossed its arms to block a torrent from Max Elephant. Nue came next, wings sparking with electricity. Tiger Funeral spotted the attack coming and jumped in the air to meet the bird. It kicked it back to the ground before the charge on its wings could build.
Piercing Ox had managed to stop and re-aim itself at its target as it made to land. I formed another seal, and the Divine Dog Totality joined the army I had unleashed. It growled with pure malice and ferocity, waiting for the chance to get at its target.
Tiger Funeral watched what was about to happen, and still it landed. It barely touched the ground before jumping again, flipping over Piercing Ox's charge like a professional bullfighter. Divine Dog was there to take advantage of the opening, teeth ready to grab hold of any part of its opponent and make it regret its choices.
Tiger Funeral, still midair, managed to spin and aim a kick for the Dog's head. My shadow latched on to the dog, stopping it from moving any further and allowing the kick to miss, if just barely. And then I released it. Tiger Funeral landed and Divine Dog was on it like an overzealous intern on a work task. I formed another seal and Orochi joined the battle. I could still feel my cursed energy reserves at just below half. Even with unleashing so many shikigami already.
Naoya's death was truly for the greater good. With my old reserves, I'd be struggling to stand at this point. Orochi reared up and struck, shooting across the space that separated it from its target in less than a second. Tiger Funeral seemed to dance away from Divine Dog's grasping combination of tooth and claw before twisting and kicking out at Orochi's head, directing it straight at the ground.
Piercing Ox had rerouted again, but Tiger Funeral tracked it and prepared to move out of the way before its plans were blocked as Divine Dog shot out at it. It twisted, catching the dog straight in the ribcage and driving it straight into the wall. It just barely managed to dodge out of Piercing Ox's way this time. It was good at keeping track of it, probably recognizing that one straight hit from the Piercing Ox would mean game over as things stood now.
I formed another seal, unleashing Gama from my shadow and instructing him to stick around by my side. Tiger Funeral seemed to remember I was the main target just right after I summoned another one of the Ten Shadows. It pushed forwards, only to be forced into a block as Orochi returned to the fight with spectacular aplomb. Max Elephant braced and shot even more water from its trunk.
Tiger Funeral ran off to the side of the training ground, dodging the jet as Max Elephant tried to re-adjust itself and make that crucial hit. Nue returned to the fray, managing to strike the Shikigami I was attempting to recruit by flying in from the opposite end of the training room. Its wings sparked right before it made contact, and the tiger just managed to twist out of the way right on time. Some of the electricity from the wings still struck the tiger, locking it up for a second, and that second was all we needed.
Piercing Ox had managed another redirection and begun another charge. Tiger Funeral forced its body back into motion, but as it made to move, Gama did what I'd summoned it for. Its tongue shot across with all the speed of a bullet from a gun and wrapped around Tiger Funeral right at the last moment, stopping its escape.
Piercing Ox hit and there was the feeling of wind from the point of impact as my hair was swept backwards. Tiger Funeral was sent backwards but it borrowed my trick from earlier, rolling with the blow. Unfortunately, Piercing Ox had been unable to ramp up enough to make it a critical hit.
Tiger Funeral was wounded. It was bleeding from its left side, and obviously favoring its right as it moved, but that did little to temper its fury as it shot for me again. Gama stepped in front of me to take the force of its hit. The good part about the rituals was that even if any of my shikigami died here, I would still be able to use them later on. Dying here only locked them away for the rest of the fight.
Why was I saying that? Because Gama did not survive the punch that he took on my behalf. I formed a seal, and from my shadow exploded dozens of rabbits, each one helping to create distance between the Tiger and me as they pushed it backwards with the benefit of their sheer numbers. I moved backwards as Nue dive-bombed again. This time, the electricity gathered on its wings was enough to cause serious damage. So of course Tiger Funeral saw it coming and grabbed one of the rabbits, hurling it at Nue with so much force that it collided and sent it veering off course.
Tiger Funeral dug its feet into the ground as Orochi's tail slammed straight into it. Said tail curled, and then Orochi was wrapped fully around it.
"Do it," I ordered. Max Elephant needed no more encouragement. He doused both of them and as Tiger Funeral began to rip through Orochi, I held it still with my shadow. The combination of my shadow and Orochi's grip kept it from moving for long enough that Nue's attack was finally allowed to land. They flew on charged wings, managing to arrive unimpeded for the first time all battle, and they used the opportunity for all it was worth.
There was enough electricity in that attack to light up a city block, I could tell. Orochi fell to the ground, dead, and Tiger Funeral fell on both knees, clearly on its last legs. How impressive. It still sought to continue the fight. It still wanted to keep going.
I could see why so few Zenin had managed to tame this monster. But I was not like those who had come before. The Ninth Shikigami of the Ten Shadows began to rise and just as it did so, it was speared through from behind by Piercing Ox, who had been gathering momentum since the last attack had failed to manage the kill. This one? This one did for sure. Brilliant. Fucking brilliant. I felt the technique expand within me and I knew that if I formed the right seal, Tiger Funeral would appear from my shadow. Now all that remained was the Divine General. A mission for another day.
"So the rules of the Culling Game are clear enough, and what we need to do is clear as well," I said to start off our meeting.
"Really? Is it clear?"
"There are three goals here: Free Tsumiki, Free Gojo-sensei, and put an end to this game itself. I think it's best if we work on this from different angles so we can be sure to get everything in the end," I said.
"What do you mean?" Itadori asked, looking straight at me from his position resting against the wall.
"It won't make sense for all of us and the Zenin clan to work on all the goals at the same time. It would be far from efficient. The best way to deal with this game is to split up our forces and split up the goals we need to achieve. The first thing we should do is to add a rule allowing for the transfer of points between players. From there, we can bypass the bit of the Culling Games that mandates violence. After that, we can work on other means of ending the game. On the other end, we need to find the Angel, so a rule allowing players to view the rough locations of other players would be useful as well. Free movement between the colonies will also be essential moving forward so that could be the third rule. That would give us the chance to find and reach the Angel so we can free Gojo. Then finally, we need to add a rule allowing those who have joined the game to withdraw without losing their cursed techniques so we can finally save Tsumiki. That would be the hardest rule to add and would essentially end the game so we can't expect it to work so easily," I said.
"Four hundred points sounds like a lot" Hakari said.
"We'll be working across all the colonies thanks to the Zenin clan and those of us here. We just have to smart about things and I doubt the points will be all that hard to gather" I said.
"And what about communication between the colonies?" Maki asked.
"There's no rule preventing communication so it's more likely that the lack of communication is a feature of the barriers themselves than anything else. Adding it as a rule in the games won't do anything to change the makeup of the barriers themselves. It's better if you and Ui Ui handle communication since you should be able to enter the barriers no problem without being forced into the game" I said.
"So how would you separate us?" Maki asked.
"Simply enough. I and the Hei will enter the Tokyo colony. The one named Kashimo with the most points there will be our first goal. We take him down and we take his points forcefully or force him to add the requisite rule to the game. Itadori, Panda, and Hakari will go into the second Tokyo colony searching out the one known as Higuruma. By the time you manage to force him down, you will know which rule to add based on whether any of us ahead of you has succeeded," I said.
"And what about me?" Maki asked.
"You will lead the rest of the clan across the other colonies and deal with things from outside the barriers, keeping an eye on what's going on in each colony while we bring an end to the fighting. Kenjaku needs the cursed energy caused by so many sorcerers and cursed spirits fighting. Rob him of that and he will have no choice but to show himself," I said.
"This sounds like a plan with a lot of moving parts, but I'll do my bit," Hakari said with a shrug.
XXXX- TOKYO
Ogi, Jinichi, Ranta, and Chojuro stood behind me right outside the edge of the Tokyo B colony. Kashimo was our target here, I thought with a sigh. Kogane appeared before us to confirm that we were interested in joining the game and the limits it would impose on us if we chose to do so. All of us replied with calm affirmations, and I closed my eyes as I stepped through the barrier.
The air began to kiss my skin as I fell towards the ground. I stretched my senses to find that there was no one around me. As expected. The others had their goals. Point accumulation. They were to seek out as many cursed spirits as possible and eradicate them. Considering they were Semi-Grade One sorcerers and stronger, they should have little difficulty with doing that much. I was the one with the larger problem all things considered. Kashimo.
A sorcerer who thought Sukuna was the only possible way for him to get a fair fight. I knew that we had found the limits to him in canon where he had failed to last more than a single chapter against the King of Curses, but he had still been able to force Sukuna to take him seriously, and that was something at least. And I had decided to face a sorcerer like that alone.
Why? Because there was something that this world had taught me. It had taught me that the only ways to get stronger were talent or adversity. Gojo and Sukuna were examples of the former pathway. They were born monsters. It didn't matter what era they were born in, they would have dominated. But the second pathway was shown from a lot of the Culling Game sorcerers. They were stronger than the average sorcerers of this era because they grew up in a stronger period in history.
It showed in people like Itadori as well. He had no business hanging around the kind of fights he did. Not with someone with so little grasp of the true mechanics of cursed energy and with so little training in everything else. But basically from the day he had come into this Jujutsu world, he was forced to face targets much stronger than he was, and because of that he grew faster than anyone else had.
Once I could see my shadow against the ground, I weaved my intention into it. I didn't hit the ground so much as I jumped into my own shadow. That allowed me to move in a less conspicuous form from where I landed just in case there had been anyone waiting to target anyone brought into the Colony. Once I had gone two blocks away from my entry point, I rose from my shadow, and then I began to flare my cursed energy.
I reached into my shadow and pulled out a megaphone. I'd taken a few cursed items from the Zenin vault before coming, but this was not one of them. This was a mundane tool with a simple function.
"I know where Sukuna is!" I screamed into it as I began to walk around the colony.
While I moved, I put very little effort into suppressing my cursed energy. The combination of the noise and the cursed energy was guaranteed to bring Kashimo my way eventually. There was a good chance he'd come across one of the other Zenin sorcerers first, but I'd told them to tell him that I knew what he wanted and I could give it to him. If they failed to do that, well, they'd have to take the beating he unleashed on them.
My thoughts turned to the fight that was guaranteed to ensue once Kashimo came. I had a plan. I knew he had Hollow Wicker Basket but no domain of his own so we could face off in my domain for the fight and that would ensure things were tilted in my favor to a massive degree. That was plan B. Plan A was to face him straight up. The Ten Shadows ensured I had options for keeping him at a good distance for when we fought and like I'd found in my battle with Tiger Funeral, I now had the reserves to use all my shikigami at once at a high level so I could bury him in numbers. That would be the better option for dealing with him without accidentally killing him as well. If he died, I'd gain five points for the win, but the hundred he'd spent his time gathering would be gone.
I stopped, one foot in the air, and allowed the cursed spirit that shot through the building to my side to miss me by the skin of its teeth. Teeth seemed to be something it had in ample supply. The thing had five mouths I could see in its massive head. It was quadrupedal with a longer and slight body that was at odds with the size of its head. It growled before shooting at me again. My shadow stretched out, separating into seven tendrils as it did so.
Said tendrils ripped themselves from the ground as they took on a solid form hardened by my cursed energy before stabbing through the spirit on several points.
That was just the first as it opened a floodgate. Several of them poured out from the hole in the building that one had used and I braced myself to face them before they suddenly made an about-turn, rushing over themselves to flee the vicinity as an unsettling feeling washed over me. Scary, I thought as I felt his energy for the first time. I turned to look at him. He was still a distance away, but even from here I could feel his presence.
"What did you say?" His voice carried from the distance.
I put the megaphone to my lips again. "I know where Sukuna is," I repeated.
"I thought I heard that," he said, and then he shot at me like an arrow from a bow.
A/N: Ready, set… Next three chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early. Since this is a new story, so there's a discount for the rest of the month on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga): feel free to check that out as well.