章 31: Trust II.
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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.
I managed to Grind out a chapter earlier than expected so I decided to give you guys a new chapter early despite not hitting the Goal I posted for you, aren't I so nice?
Please Enjoy the following Sukuna Vs Megumi, I know I did.
Oh, and also…
We officially passed 100k words with his chapter guys! It's been a genuine honour to be on this road with you guys for so long, here's to a 100k more!
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"Don't make me laugh brat, you might put on a brave front but I know you fear for this brat and his miserable life."
"You are right to fear for him, because it seems that the brat is having some trouble swapping back, especially after I ate another one of my fingers from that joke of a curse. So I've decided to take this brat hostage!" Sukuna announced with a sense of gleeful malice.
Much to Megumi's annoyance, the King of Curses proceeded to pierce himself with his own hand and pull out his own heart or rather his vessel's.
"There, now the brat can't swap back and I'll keep his body for my own!" Sukuna declared as he exploded with maniacal laughter, expecting the sorcerer in front of him to fall into despair. However the king was brought out of his jubilation as he heard the black haired sorcerer start laughing uproariously along with him.
"O-Oh, I'm sorry don't mind me 'your majesty'. Continue your celebration, I just find it hysterical is all." Megumi explained, waving him off as he wiped away a tear that was building in his eye.
"Find what hysterical?" Sukuna asked with 4 squinted eyes.
"The fact that you think you could kill me with only 3 fingers and no heart."
Now that had gotten him the reaction he wanted as Sukuna had immediately raised his hand and aimed it towards him, Megumi saw this and jumped back to avoid the obvious use of his cursed technique as Sukuna had fired off multiple Dismantles towards Megumi.
However as he did, Megumi noted an odd sensation that fired off throughout his body. It was almost as if he could sense a disturbance in the air ahead of him, a vague sense that something dangerous and invisible was approaching him.
'What the hell was that, are my senses fucking with me? Or.. Is it that my senses are truly reaching beyond that of a Human? Am I getting close to being able to sense and locate Sukuna's dismantles with my bare senses without the need of a cursed technique thanks to my Perma-Mutations? How exhilarating, my growth truly knows no bounds!'
Megumi laughed out as he felt his senses fire off once more, alerting him to incoming danger as he dodged Dismantle after Dismantle, every now and then he would miss a Dismantle that dug into his flesh and tried to cut him apart; However he healed all his wounds with his borrowed Reversed Cursed Technique.
The King of Curses noted that Dismantles at his current level of fingers would not be sufficient to turn the upstart sorcerer to mince meat and decided to get in close to rip him to shreds himself with Cleaves.
"Why are you running Sorcerer? Aren't you supposed to be strong? But I guess being 'strong' in an Era of weaklings means as much as this brat is smart." Sukuna called out as he closed the distance in order to kill the Brat.
'He might only have 3 fingers currently but he's still the King of Curses for a reason, I can't underestimate him at any point. Honestly, you would need at the very least a 3 finger head start in power in order to face him on equal terms and even then, one fuck up would mean you lost a limb or even your head. So there's no need to risk any of my Shikigami like before, I can handle this one myself. Let's piss him off just a little bit more though!'
"Let's get a bit more serious, shall we Sukuna?" Megumi declared with a grin, happy to be able to put this specific ability into testing once again.
He activated another Incarnation, his eyes shifting to a crimson red in the process, the combined effect of both the rings in his eyes along with its new crimson colour had caused Megumi's and Sukuna's eyes to look uncannily similar.
'Incarnation: Rabbit Escape.'
Megumi stayed in place as Sukuna blurred towards him with supernatural speeds, ready to rend the one who disrespected him to mince meat in seconds. But just as he reached closer, Megumi suddenly fell through the ground and into his very shadow, disappearing from view.
Sukuna paused in his place and looked around with 4 keen eyes, looking for any sign of him to no avail. He growled in annoyance at this, grumbling under his breath "I hate these Jujutsu Sorcerers…"
"Yo Sukuna!" The king heard from behind him, he turned and fired off a Dismantle without moving his arms at the sorcerer that foolishly revealed his location.
However, to the King's surprise, although the Dismantle had struck true and sliced it's target in half; to his shock he saw it just be pulled back together as if he was never cut to begin with. So Sukuna sent even more Dismantles at his opponent to check if this new 'ability' had a limit.
"Now that's just rude!" Megumi complained with a childish grin even while he continued to be sliced apart and pulled back together by repeated Dismantles.
Slash after slash, cut after cut dug into his flesh but for naught as the only impact they left was cutting apart his body to reveal a sea of shadows being confined within.
His plan had truly worked and he had perfected his cloning ability. And much like many of his other techniques, it was built upon a Binding Vow within its core.
Essentially, he had taken the base concept of his clones having hollow bodies due to their limitations around the soul and expanded upon it. He had merged his ability to create clones built of shadows into his Incarnation with Binding Vow to never use it outside of the Incarnation.
In exchange his shadows will be able to fill the hollow void within his clones that were made from the lack of enough of his soul to go around; which allows them to be able to pull themselves back together after every injury with minimal effort, essentially making his clones functionally Immortal unless you were to obliterate them completely with one attack or are able to strike at his soul directly which would allow you to ignore their special durability.
This ability would not have been perfected and held together with just that, so Megumi undertook yet another Binding Vow to do so. In exchange for the stabilisation of his clones, Megumi will only be able to create 4 clones at a time when he could previously make 9 and they would all lose the senses of Touch, Smell and Taste.
'Which also means that I won't feel anything when my clones are injured, so they can be ripped apart for all I care! God, I'm a genius sometimes. Eat your heart out Plotkuna, this is how you become a 'Binding Vow Merchant'!' Megumi thought, laughing as he and 3 more of his clones revealed themselves from different corners of the clearing.
"I know right, Clogumi?" "So rude, honestly." "Maybe the Fraud needs a nap to calm down." "That could be it, Clogumi."
Sukuna turned to the voices, seeming almost flabbergasted at what he was witnessing. All of the copies of Megumi held a similar amount of cursed energy showing thanks to his cursed energy trait which helped him hide among his clones.
Along with that, all the clones had shells made of his very soul so at first glance, no matter which one you looked at, they would seem to be the original even to one who can perceive the contours of the soul as Ryomen Sukuna could.
"I have to admit, you might be one of, if not the most infuriating Jujutsu Sorcerer I have had the displeasure of facing even back in my time." Sukuna admitted with a sense of begrudging respect as even though he wanted to kill him, he could not deny the feat of Jujutsu he was facing.
'To do this in such an effective way with a Technique seemingly limited to only summoning Shikigami at first glance, fascinating. How much training was required for this? Or is it a base intrinsic ability for the technique?' Sukuna thought, he found himself somewhat impressed at the showcase of unusual abilities from this young sorcerer.
"Oh you ain't seen nothing yet Sukuna, I've read up on you recently after Itadori went and ate your finger. And I've found a rather interesting ability of yours, watch this…" One of the copies said with a shared devious grin as they all brought their hands up and placed them facing each other vertically while channelling his Incarnations once more.
"Fuga."
Pillars of flames were summoned in between the palms of every Megumi copy as shortly after they collectively started bringing their palms together, creating a pressurised orb of hellfire within their palms that was then compressed even further and further.
"You… You wouldn't dare…" The King growled out in complete and utter rage at the mockery he was witnessing.
"Convergence: Piercing Cinders!"
They all shouted out collectively as streams of pressurised flames shot at Sukuna like lasers, the man jumped out of the way as he avoided all of the blasts that met together in the middle to create an inferno that threatened to burn down the entire detainment centre.
"You fucking black haired brat, you call that a flame?!" Sukuna raged out as he landed a few feet away from the inferno with an enraged expression at the obvious disrespect thrown towards his cursed techniques, although that rage hid a sense of slight respect at the sorcerer's ingenuity to be able to make such an elaborate copy of his ability with his own.
"I'll show you what a real flame looks like…" The King of Curses declared as he brought his hands together into the form of his Domain Expansion hand sign while the Megumi clones all moved to activate their own Simple Domain as they couldn't use their own Domain to counter Sukuna's 'Malevolent Shrine'.
A traditional Shinto shrine formed behind the Monarch, however its form was morphed and perverted from its formally divine form, its foundations were made of the skulls of Oxes and each side of the shrine was a huge cursed maw. The Cursed Aura leaking from the would send shivers down the spines of any living being in the area.
"Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shri-nne"
Sukuna started chanting for the activation of his Domain Expansion but stopped at the end when a pulse fired off throughout the core of his being that caused his strength to leave him, which made his words start to slur at the end.
The Megumi clones just collectively smiled at this as they stopped moving and put their hands down from their positions for Simple Domain before one by one, they all dissolved away into a puddle of darkness that flew from their location and slammed into the original Megumi who was to the left of Sukuna.
Shortly after the pulse, the Shrine behind Sukuna shook for a moment before it shattered apart in an instant with a shower of broken bones. With it, the King stumbled forwards as he began to lose more and more control over his vessel along with his Tattoos starting to fade.
"Looks like the 'King of Curses' needs to take another power nap, maybe you should look over your 'Malfunctioning Shrine' for a while before you take over again. Bye bye Gramps!"
"T-This Brat is actually-" The King mumbled with a sense of disbelief as all the tattoos that covered the body of his vessel faded away within seconds.
"Welcome back Itadori, I apologise for not being able to keep you alive despite all my talk. I suppose me saving you and keeping you from being executed was merely just Greed on my end." Megumi confessed as he looked the now heartless man in the eyes.
"Nah, you're wrong Fushiguro. You are a Good Person, even though you are also a Great Sorcerer." These were the first words that came out of the pink haired teen's mouth as he regained control over his body.
"You talk real big about how you're a bad person and allat, but my grandpa always said that actions spoke louder than words and ever since I met you, you've been nothing but kind to me and everyone else around you."
"I never really thought about it before, but back then when we first met? You could have just knocked me out and gone to take the finger alone, it would have been much more efficient and I would have never eaten that finger. But you didn't, you let me follow along to help my friends even if it wasn't the smartest thing to do!"
"Deep inside, you're just a big softie that has been hurt by the world and now tries to hide his feelings by using that hard-ass facade!" Yuji declared with a heartfelt grin even as blood started pooling in his mouth and dripped down his chin.
"If I had lived, I'd have made sure to drill that info into your head till you can't forget it! Anyways, I think this is it for me now. Take care of Kugisaki for me will ya'? I'm sure she'll go really far, especially with your help!" Itadori Yuji said cheerfully.
Before his body fell over, Dead.
Megumi Fushiguro stood there speechless for a moment as he took in the pink haired man's dying words, his silence shortly then turned into a small chuckle, then an uproarious laughter from the bottom of his soul.
Soon enough, Megumi was laughing so hard he was starting to tear up from all his laughter, his Incarnations even faded away as he lost his focused hold upon them.
"Who the hell says something like that before he thinks he's gonna die? Fuckin' hell Itadori Yuji, you Truly are the Main Character and the Protagonist. No other man would be able to say things like that with a straight face." Megumi chuckled to himself as he wiped away the last of his tears.
"I swear upon my name as Megumi Fushiguro, I won't allow you to fall into the same pit of depression and despair you did in our first life, Itadori." He then summoned by his side his latest and most useful shikigami; Tranquil Deer.
The Shikigami immediately went to work as she lowered her head down so that her antler touched the body of Yuji Itadori before she started channelling her Reversed Cursed Energy. Immediately as she did, all of the wounds left upon the Vessel's body started mending together and most importantly, his heart was rebuilt from the ground up till it was reborn brand new and better than before.
"Yo Fushiguro, looks like the fight is over. What happened, why is Itadori on the ground with your shikigami touching him?" Kugisaki asked as she jogged over to him, having finally gotten done evacuating the area with the Windows and saw that the fight had ended.
"Oh, Sukuna ripped out his heart before Itadori swapped back, essentially killing the both of them when he did." Megumi answered casually as Golden sparks of electricity started building throughout his right leg.
"He WHAT?!"
"Oh don't worry, death is temporary with him. Watch this!" Megumi shouted as he brought up his right leg that was covered in a shower of sparks and slammed it straight onto the left side of Yuji's chest.
This caused an immediate reaction as the pink haired former dead man shot up from his place on the ground and screamed out in pain, the electric charge within Megumi's leg had forced his heart beat to start again, effectively reviving him from death.
"Wakey, wakey sleeping beauty. How was death?" Megumi asked with a grin, his foot still on his chest.
"What the hell, I died right? Wait no, I was in Sukuna's Innate Inner Domain for a while. The shitty geezer was talking about some Binding Vow he wanted to make with me in exchange for reviving me. Of course I told him to go fuck himself repeatedly with the bad end of a pocket knife since he seems to like cutting things so much!" Itadori blurted out all his inner thoughts as he was getting over the high of death and revival.
'Good, looks like I revived him way before Sukuna managed to trick him into that Binding Vow. Suck my nuts Plotkuna, no 'Enchain' for you! Now I only need to watch out for the couple times that Sukuna takes over every once in a while, although knowing my luck it'll probably be a weekly occurrence…' Megumi thought, happy that he had stopped a major fuck up from happening in the first place.
"Dear god my life has gotten so much weirder after meeting the two of you, at the very least the dead remained dead before I met you guys… What are we even gonna tell the higher ups?" Kugisaki lamented how screwed up her life had become after meeting her classmates.
"That's the neat part, we don't tell 'em shit!" Megumi stated cheerfully as he placed a hand into his shadow and started looking for something.
"...Tell them what now?" Nobara asked with a tired expression as Yuji touched his chest like he was double checking that it was still there.
"We tell 'em that Itadori died, that would get them off of his back and remove the death penalty order from him temporarily, giving him more freedom for a while." He explained.
"And how do you suppose we get them to believe that he died without a corpse?" Kugisaki asked with a deadpan expression.
"That's what this body is for, we tell them that I burned the body away after our fight to ensure Sukuna's demise and all that was left was the heart that Sukuna himself ripped out of Itadori's chest. Shoko would be more than happy to work with us and forge a document if it meant fucking with the higher ups!" The two of them paused in shock as he then pulled out one of the bodies of the detainees that they found.
'Speaking of Sukuna, after this fight, I think I've grasped it. The true form of my Domain, the next time I use it. I will unleash my True Sure-Hit, and finally complete my Domain Expansion.'
"You don't mean…" She asked, feeling somewhat disgusted.
"Yep!" Megumi confirmed as he unceremoniously pierced the chest of the corpse with his hand just Sukuna did to Yuji and ripped out the heart of the body before throwing the heart and the body back in to be used later on and for ease of storage.
"Hey guys, I dunno if it's just cuz I came back from the dead. But I feel like we're much closer than before. What do you think about just calling each other by our first names?"
"Sounds good, I always hated those formalities. We're Jujutsu Sorcerers, what does it matter what our first names are!"
"Eh, sure whatever. After everything that happened today, Megumi is right. What does it matter what they are?"
"I love you guys, for real real!"
"Me too man, me too."
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Author's Note:
And so the trio is now closer than ever before, and ready to face the future together as comrades!
We didn't reach my desired goal this time, but the offer is still in effect albeit at a higher goal.
Reach 300 Power Stones and I'll drop an Extra Chapter Early!
…
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Next Chapter Title: Responsibility and Reunion.
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