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 (Link in my bio)
Naoya struck first. 24 movements in a second had him plotting his path and landing a punch on the Divine General before he could fully halt. Each punch was followed by another as he got faster and faster thanks to his technique. The Divine General tried to move, only to freeze still. Naoya then landed another powerful punch that sent him flying backwards, rolling along the surface of my shadow. He rose again, but this time was frozen — not by Naoya's technique, but Ranta.
The floating pair of eyes held him still as Jinichi and Ogi moved as one. The katana Ogi wielded was enclosed in flame, and then he slashed it once, sending a firestorm that consumed the Divine General. He roasted in place as Jinichi jumped into the air. The wheel above Mahoraga's head turned once, but it was too late. Jinichi struck with an ethereal fist that hit with the force of a train smashing into its target.
The Divine General was blasted nearly to pieces, but still, it rose. That didn't matter though. I judged it weak enough for the final blow. Mythical Beast Amber graced the world for the first time. It was not in battle against Sukuna like Kashimo would have wished, but I know he would have considered Mahoraga a worthy adversary. Shadow became electricity and Kashimo was off. He struck before Mahoraga could rise again as I directed his actions.
Fingers of lightning tore through flesh as he raked his fingers across the Divine General's chest. His mouth opened wider than any human could have managed, and I was near deafened by the thunder it created. It racked through the Divine General and then Kashimo flew upwards before clasping what his hands had turned into together.
The pillar of lightning smashed downwards like cosmic punishment and instantly incinerated the Divine General. I could feel it in my technique. He was done for. The wheel that had once remained above his head turned to ash as the rest of his body did so as well.
I felt the Ten Shadows complete itself. One final shikigami. Yes. I fell to a knee as the cost of the battle caught up to me. My cursed energy reserves had been strongly depleted in one fell swoop. Cursed Technique Reversal was a bitch of a technique. I closed my eyes and allowed my summoned shadows to return to my shadow where they remained. I felt some of my reserves return but nowhere near enough for me to be comfortable getting into combat.
I dropped my domain next, finding myself on the pier once again. I looked around myself. There was nothing around. Any cursed spirits had been driven off by the fight with Mahoraga.
As for sorcerers, there was no one left, best I knew, so this was, funny enough, the best place for a rest. Just a quick one to recover my reserves and output. I walked over to one of the shipping crates that was a bit more out of the way and offered some protection — both from the elements and from general sight so I wouldn't be so easily stumbled across. I made a sign with my hands, releasing the Divine Dog Totality from my shadow and sending him on patrol. With his senses and speed, he'd have the best chance of catching out anyone who tried to take advantage of my state.
Next was Round Deer. Its job was much more important. Recovery help. The positive energy it outputted constantly would heal my body of the small wounds I'd not been able to handle with my own Reverse Cursed Technique while aiding recovery and restfulness. I slumped against the crate after that. The deer bent down, lying down right next to me and nuzzling me with its antlers. I nodded at it as I felt its energy fill me up with a fresh feeling. I slumped off to sleep.
— —
"A new rule has been added to the game." Kogane's voice brought me to full wakefulness. I lifted my head to look at the floating shikigami.
"Player Yuta Okkotsu has added a rule. Players may now freely move between colonies," he said. Finally.
"What's the time, Kogane?" I asked, looking at the clock it surfaced. Four hours of sleep and no more. I wondered what had taken Maki so long in the first place, but it was probably a good thing.
"Show me the location of the player Yorozu," I asked. It surfaced her stationary in Tokyo. She hadn't made a move on Itadori yet. I wondered why.
"Show me the location of all the players in the other Tokyo colony," I said next. The map it displayed this time was much larger. I tried touching it, surprised to find that I could manipulate it with my fingers. I zoomed in on the area with Itadori. Itadori, Hakari, Takaba, Higuruma, and Hana were all moving together. That made sense then. Yorozu had probably been able to figure out just what Hana and the Angel would do to her if she showed her face and had decided to just stalk them from afar instead. I noted that every time Itadori and his group changed their location, Yorozu would change hers as well, maintaining a constant distance. How interesting.
I whistled for Divine Dog to return and was surprised when it did so dragging a man with him. His teeth were clenched around the man's shoulder, dragging him into the crate I rested at. I looked down at the man that had been brought to me. Charles Bernard.
"Hey hey hey, man, I wasn't looking for any trouble. I was just walking and then your dog attacked me," he said once his eyes came upon me, lurching upwards to his knees. He didn't even try to stand.
"You're scared," I observed.
"No. No, I'm not sc-scared." His voice shook at the last word, undermining his whole point.
"Sure. If you say so," I chuckled.
"Do you want to fight?" I asked.
"No, no. Please no, man. I don't want to fight you, please," he said. I loomed down on him more. What had happened to him, I wondered. From the manga, he seemed to have been looking for a reason to fight. Why run away from one now that it had come to him?
"What do you know about me?" I asked.
"Nothing. I swear. I didn't see anything."
"Now, you see, I didn't ask if you'd seen anything. I asked what you knew," I said, and he flinched backwards, dropping into a crouched bow.
"Nothing. Please," he said. A solid shadow ripped through his foot with a flex of my will.
"Don't lie to me again, please," I requested.
"Fine. I saw you fight those guys. The four of them. I saw you beat them, then you put them in your domain and they came out dead. And then I saw you fight that monster thing," he said.
"Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga," I corrected as I stepped by him and out of the crate.
"What?" he stuttered out.
"That's the monster's name. Don't forget it. I advise you run far away from Japan, Charles," I said, and then with a twist of my fingers, Nue rose from my shadow engraved with the Orochi Totality — he was several orders of magnitude more massive than normal and took a commensurate amount of cursed energy to summon. Thankfully, my cursed energy reserves had recovered almost fully in the time I'd been asleep. Both Divine Dog and Round Deer returned to my shadow afterwards.
It was time for my date with destiny. Yorozu wouldn't know what hit her. I felt a stutter in my heart at those words. 'I won't kill her, Megumi. I promise,' I thought to myself, and the feeling was gone.
This weakness, this plague had bothered me for so long. It was time for Megumi's will to rest and the only way to do that was to free Tsumiki from the Culling Games and accomplish his final purpose. Nue, with a single flap of its massive wings, took me into the air, flying the course down to the other Tokyo colony.
While we flew, I strategised. Yorozu first, and then Kenjaku. After Kenjaku was dealt with, we would handle Sukuna. Sukuna had waited until Megumi's spirit had been broken before he struck. He couldn't have known about Yorozu ahead of time so it was more likely that he either had his own plan in place to see it happen or he was just waiting for the chance to make it happen in and of itself.
If that was the case, then he could be dealt with last once everything had been handled. Hana was one way to handle that, but my fight with Mahoraga had given me other ideas. Jujutsu had many answers. A cursed technique was as adaptable as its user. I would demo my idea with Tsumiki first and we would see. I was confident, and something told me that was more important than the logic of it.
Nue took me to the next Tokyo colony in no time. I could see the group with Itadori through the map. They were at one of the higher floors of a high-rise building. They were staying still — probably either discussing what to do next or resting. I could meet with them to debrief before confronting Yorozu, but even the thought of delaying any further caused an uncomfortable twinge to come from my chest. It was best to get over it sooner rather than later, I decided. She was in a building of her own — on the same block but two buildings away.
Nue's wings sparked as they began to build up voltage. We struck with a concentrated wave of electricity that travelled all through the building. I watched as she flew out of a window, the sound of shattering glass behind her. Her body sparked and sizzled with electricity, but she did not seem to be having much trouble managing it as she landed on the roof of the next building, which was much lower.
Nue lowered us to her level and I jumped off, landing on the roof next to her.
"Megumi, what are you doing?" she asked, doing an impressive job of faking Tsumiki's voice.
"Please drop the pretence. Seeing you wear my sister's face is unnerving enough," I said with a shrug, setting the stage with my first bit of deception. If she anticipated that I would hold back because she was in Tsumiki's body then she was all the more likely to underestimate me.
"Oh? So you've figured it out then?"
"From the very beginning. Now there are two ways we can do this. Either you leave that body now or I beat you out of it," I said, taking my stance. She scoffed.
"Do you know who I am, boy? I lived in a time where the sorcerers you call Special Grade today would be nothing more than fodder. I am the fated beloved of the King of Curses. If you bow and worship me as a big sister, Megumi Fushiguro, maybe I will allow you to leave her alive," she said, smile wide.
"I take it you're going to do this the hard way then," I said, and then I pushed against the ground, sending cursed energy to my feet and shooting forwards.
She formed a pair of insect wings behind her and shot at me as well. She formed some sort of gauntlet around her hand as she approached and aimed a knife hand at my head. It shifted into a sword as she did so. I tilted my head out of the way at the last possible second and attempted to knee her in the stomach.
Using her wings, she floated upwards, flipping over my head and avoiding the attack. Said wings shifted behind her to form a set of blades that lengthened and threatened to stab straight through my back. I spun around the attack and tried to kick her in the head. She blocked with her gauntlet-clad hand. I abandoned the attack as the gauntlet shifted and spikes formed along the sides, aiming to skewer me in one go.
Tiger Funeral rose from my shadow, hands lurching out and grabbing the spikes before twisting them away from me. A second later, Divine Dog joined her, leaping around her and trying to grab Yorozu in his fangs. Her Liquid Metal gauntlet shifted to become a hammer that she swung in his direction. He stopped dead, jumping backwards, and avoided the attack.
Nue struck now, unleashing a wave of electricity. She somehow managed to sense it, a mass of metal forming behind her that took the electric attack head on. She swung at Tiger Funeral with the hammer she had, but the martial arts-focused shikigami avoided the attack and then punched out at her. She formed a shield of metal in front of her.
"When I lived, even the Fujiwara clan knew not to mess with me. You, a scion of a clan far lesser, would dare?" she muttered to herself more than to me. Piercing Ox rose next, charging at her.
"Behold, my ultimate technique," she said. The Liquid Metal she had formed in the last few minutes then flew back to her body. It spread across her form, turning into the insect carapace she had used in her fight against Sukuna.
I formed a sign with my hands and Round Deer rose from my shadow, looming over me. Its positive energy washed over the battlefield, messing with her control and destabilising the carapace for a second before she could fully form it. She hissed, re-establishing her control faster than even Kashimo had managed.
She shot at me, hands spread out to reveal a set of claws she intended to use to rip me to shreds. I waited until she was about to strike. My shadow snagged hers, holding her in my grip. The Liquid Metal that surrounded her shot out in a series of tendrils that tried to close the distance. Of course she could manipulate them even without being able to move. While I dodged out of the way, I fought off her attempts to overwhelm my control with her own cursed energy — thankfully I did not need to do this for very long — and then my fingers came together for the fourth time in a single day, probably some sort of record right now.
My shadow deepened and spread around us. I could see her begin to shape her Liquid Metal into something. Probably that perfect sphere she had used against Sukuna. Thankfully she didn't manage to complete the formation as the sure hit of my domain took effect, beginning to grab her.
At the same time, I made a vow with Jujutsu itself. 'I will not use the third ability of my technique (the ability to absorb people) outside of my domain, and in exchange it will gain the ability to discern between souls in its absorption.'
The Binding Vow clicked into place, and in my head I could feel both Tsumiki and Yorozu in there. I sighed in relief. It worked. And so my technique got to work on one of the targets while completely ignoring the other. Yorozu fought her journey into shadow with all her might, but none could resist when I had them in my grasp. I ripped her out of Tsumiki's body and devoured her essence completely.
I felt my cursed energy swell even further. She'd had a lot of the stuff, clearly. Enough that my massive reserves had nearly doubled from taking her in. It was like an 80% increase in my reserves. My output grew as well, by a lesser but still significant 45%. At this point, I didn't even have any techniques that needed that much cursed energy output in the first place. The domain shattered around us as Tsumiki fell to the floor.
I rushed towards her and watched as her head tilted up at me.
"Tsumiki?" I asked.
"Megumi! I was so worried when that woman started fighting you. She wanted to kill you," she said, grabbing me and enclosing me in a hug.
"She didn't. I'm right here," I said, grabbing her as well as soft sobs wracked her body.
'Thank you.' I did not hear a voice in my head, but I did feel it as a weight that had been pressing down on my soul lightened and then backed off. You're welcome, Megumi.
"Let's get going, Tsumiki," I said, lifting her into my arms and then preparing to head towards the rest of everyone when I felt a spike of cursed energy. I turned in time to see Itadori land on the roof next to me. Hakari and Higuruma followed soon after, and then Angel came down, carrying Takaba along.
"Megumi? What are you doing here?" Itadori asked.
"Megumi?" Hana called, looking over at me and flushing a bright red. I ignored that for the time being and answered Itadori instead.
"Tsumiki was possessed by an incarnated sorcerer, but I've been able to save her now. I want us to add a rule to allow her to leave the game," I said.
"We don't have a hundred points. Hakari is close but—"
"Kogane, please transfer all my points to Kinji Hakari," I said.
"Transfer completed," it said.
"You have received twenty-five points from Megumi Fushiguro," Hakari's own assigned shikigami spoke.
"So what rule do I add?" he asked, giving me a look I couldn't discern.
"Rule thirteen, there are no rules," Takaba cut in. I turned my head to look at him as he began laughing at a manifestly terrible joke.
My attention on him, I didn't even notice when Itadori seized and went completely still. He jumped away from us, faster than most of us could track. My shadow latched onto nothing but air as he grabbed hold of Takaba by the neck with one hand while the other pressed against Hana's neck. She slumped against his body and he lowered her gently to the ground.
A/N: Did you see this coming? The argument here is simple. Sukuna saw his chance of getting Megumi shrink to almost nothing and at the same time has gotten the chance to see Takaba's technique firsthand and figure it out completely. And if Sukuna's technique requires mental frailty then Takaba was, in my view, one of the most vulnerable (while still valuable) targets of the lot. 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.