บท 46: The Calm Before the Storm.
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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.
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"Good job you two." Megumi called out, hailing a hand towards the sky as he did to gather their attention while he kept the other in his pocket.
"Managed to take out both Cursed Wombs without taking too much damage, that's some fine work from the two of you." He said, channelling his Tranquil Deer Incarnation as he did so in order to heal their wounds.
"Pfft, it was light work. Only annoying part was the tall one's Blood spears or whatever, they were too fast and too hard to dodge. Well that and this poison, you got anything for that?" Nobara answered, rubbing her left arm as she did so.
"Unfortunately not, as useful as Reverse Cursed Technique is, it can't completely wipe away all traces of Poisons. So you'll have to deal with the effects of the poison, although I'll help clear away most of the damage that it'd do." Megumi explained, raising a hand and offering it to her.
"Really? How annoying, well whatever! Get to it will ya'? I'd rather not get scars." Nobara responded, meeting his arm with her own 'Rot' infested limb.
Megumi grasped her hand gently with his, careful to not aggravate her wounds. And a second later, the familiar aura of his Positive Energy flowed from his body like a geyser and into hers.
The orange haired sorcerer sighed in satisfaction as she felt her body and arm be restored back to their fullest health, she never got tired of the sensation no matter how many times she felt it.
"Yuji should be dealing with this better than you though, he's Sukuna's Vessel and that grants him an inherent immunity to poison." He commented just as he had completed restoring her body to the best condition it could possibly be, although traces and remnants of the poison remained.
"Of course the idiot gets free Resistance, lucky bastard. Yuji- you okay?" Nobara griped for a moment at the knowledge that her friend just had such an immunity intrinsically, but she stopped when she saw the look on his face.
Her reaction drew Megumi's attention, he turned around to face what she looked upon and paused as well.
Itadori Yuji had a look of Pure Defeated Remorse.
Megumi's ringed crimson eyes softened at the sight, he walked forwards towards his friend and reached out to him. He grasped the shorter man's shoulder and channelled his Reverse Cursed Technique into him. And although the wounds on the Vessel faded away, the wounds on his Spirit were much harder to heal.
"What's wrong, Yuji?" He asked, leaving behind all pretences and simply reaching a caring hand towards a friend.
"...Fushiguro, you said you killed someone before.. Right?" Asked the pink haired man, his eyes not leaving the ground beneath them.
Megumi almost physically recoiled at that question, because while it had been something he expected to answer at some point, the choice to use his last name had taken him off guard.
So he took a moment to think clearly about his answer before choosing to remain honest with his friend.
"Yes, I did." He answered, the candid answer drew his classmate's eye back to his own right as he finished healing his body completely.
"...When you killed them, did you feel anything? Sadness? Regret? Anger?" Itadori questioned, he didn't just want an answer – he needed it, desperately.
Megumi Fushiguro looked his friend directly in the eyes and answered.
"No, I did not. I felt Nothing."
The answer came to him Quickly, Naturally. He didn't feel a need to think or consider his words, for they were only the Truth.
"As far as I can remember, I've never cared for the lives of those that I didn't know or threatened me. And, to be frank with you, I don't even remember the first time I took a life." Megumi admitted, his eyes searched his friend's own for any emotions even as he continued his words.
"Do you find that Disturbing? Unsettling? Cold-Hearted?"
With that, Megumi Fushiguro laid his soul bare. He had given his peace, and was allowing his dear friend to come to a conclusion all his own.
"I.. I Don't Know…"
That was all Itadori Yuji could say for a time, and so Megumi had allowed him time to think, to reflect and contemplate.
Nothing was more important to him than making sure his friend was ready for the road ahead, as he knew above all else; the world would not be so Kind as to allow him that same Luxury a Second time.
"There was a time where I think I would have. Before meeting you, before Sukuna, before any of this… But now? Now, I'm not so sure." Yuji confessed, the Vessel of the Strongest was feeling an odd kind of nostalgic melancholy.
"I'm happy that Nobara and I survived and came out unharmed, but I still feel sad for the life I had to take along the way to get there – That despite winning, Tears were shed from my actions. I just don't know if I am in the right here, that's all."
As Yuji finished his confession, he looked towards his comrades. He was unsure of what he even expected when he did so, perhaps Doubt? Or maybe it would be the same apprehension he felt.
What he didn't expect were two soft smiles, ones without Judgement or Cynicism.
"It's normal to be unsure, Dummy. When you're a sorcerer, you don't always have the time to think about whether the things we do are 'Good' or 'Bad', you just do." Nobara laughed quietly, brushing a few strands of hair behind one of her ears idly as she did so.
"And I guess if it was a 'Bad' thing to do, it would make us all Accomplices in our actions, no?" She questioned almost playfully, moving her already moving hand to rest at her hip.
To that, Itadori Yuji felt a Gentle Smile of his own form.
"Now then, let's make merry shall we? We still have that dinner from Satoru to go to." Megumi called out, wrapping an arm around each of them as he did so.
"Ugh, it's probably gonna be some disgusting shit too!" Nobara groaned as she tried to imagine what kind of food he would give them.
"Well, it can't be that bad if Gojo-sensei likes it!" Yuji placated, placing his doubts to the back of his mind.
For now, perhaps just living his life and finding out his own standard for 'Right' and 'Wrong' along the way would be a good start.
…
The Next Day.
Megumi entered a shop in the afternoon, it was a quiet flower shop with only two other customers inside. He walked ahead with purpose and went towards a corner which had white flowers.
"Welcome! Ah- Fushiguro-san! You're back again, the usual?" The store attendant asked, she kept a cheerful yet professional smile on her face as she greeted him.
"Yes Kobayashi-san, the usual." He stood there for a moment as she turned around, grabbing an empty bouquet as she did. He reached into his jacket to access his inventory, pulling out a wallet from it.
When the store clerk Kobayashi came back to him, she held in her hands a Large Bouquet of flowers.
The petals are pure white, creating a striking contrast with the glossy, dark green leaves that surround it. The flower has a soft, rounded shape, often with layers of petals that overlap tightly in the centre, gradually loosening towards the edges
"Here you go, sir!" She said, handing him the bouquet which he took with a quiet thanks. He followed her to the small cash register at the corner of the store and handed her a Credit Card.
"White Camellias and Lilies again, huh Fushiguro-san?" Kobayashi commented, filling the silence between them with idle chatter as the Card Machine peeped to prompt the user to insert a password.
"Yes, they were her Favourite ones. Health and Rebirth, it's kind of an odd choice for her to make now that I think about it." Megumi answered, feeling a slight sense of melancholy as he entered the password for the card.
BEEP!
"Well I'm glad you like them, have a good day!" She spoke cheerfully while handing him the card back, he grabbed it along with the Bouquet and left the store without another word.
Megumi stood outside the store for a moment, absentmindedly putting his wallet back into his inventory. He brought the flowers up to his nose and smelled them again, with an expression that implied he was trying to understand something.
"I still don't get the big idea about these, they smell just like regular flowers to me. But she was always a flower nerd, so maybe there's something special about them, I dunno." He muttered under his breath.
A sudden shake in his shadow caught his attention however, he curiously reached into his jacket and pulled out his phone and saw it was a call from Nobara.
"Uh, hello? What is it?"
"Yo, get your ass over to the location I'm gonna send. It's important."
"What's so important you needed to call me on our day off?"
"There's a girl here from Yuji's old school, we need info on the idiot."
"...I'll be there in a minute."
"Faster."
With that, he closed the call and sighed lightly. Looking around for a moment, he saw that there was nobody around and so he carefully dropped the Bouquet of flowers into his shadow.
Megumi felt the Bouquet enter the shadow and into his Inventory where it floated for a moment before it was removed a second later. He then started sprinting ahead towards an indeterminate location.
Halfway across the country was one of Megumi Fushiguro's clones, he pulled out the flowers from his shadow and walked towards a window sill. He unwound the bouquet and inserted the flowers into a vase right after emptying it.
The clone then proceeded to go sit back down on his chair, by his side was a small notebook which he opened again.
Inside the notebook were painstakingly organised and meticulous notes about the soul, he even had diagrams referencing both the Body and Soul as one.
"Why aren't there any damned records on the soul around? Having to figure all this shit out from scratch is really getting on my nerves. …Maybe I should try to contact Yuki? She would definitely know way more about the soul than I do."
The clone sighed in annoyance before going back to his studies of the Soul, he had a long road ahead of him. Reconstructing and Researching the Soul was not something one could do to a masterful degree without outside help in a short time after all.
Back with the Original Megumi, he had stopped himself right before a small quaint coffee shop. He brushed off some dust on his jacket and walked in, immediately the smell of grown coffee invaded his enhanced nose causing him to grimace in annoyance.
'This is why I don't go out to places anymore and just get Rin to do it for me, this shit is just annoying.' Megumi blocked his nose with his finger for a moment, reaching into his jacket out of habit, looking for something to block it indefinitely.
"Megumi! Over here!" He looked up and searched for the owner of the voice, he found it eventually in Nobara who was waving for his attention. By her side was a brown haired girl with what seemed like a permanent timid expression.
The black haired man walked over towards the two of them, and when he arrived he greeted them with a small wave before turning to his classmate.
"Yo, you got a facemask on you by any chance?" He asked, all the while he gestured for her to move over so he could sit down.
"Uhhh, I don't think so.. Why?" Nobara moved over to the side, checking for one as she did so but didn't find one.
"My nose is getting stuffy from the smell of coffee, it's too concentrated here." Megumi rubbed his nose in annoyance once more as he sat down.
"Umm.. Here, I-I have one."
The black haired man turned to face the girl in front of him, he spotted a black facemask in her hands which he gratefully took and wore.
"Ahh, that's much better. Sorry, it's rude of me to take something of yours without even asking your name. Would you please humour me?" He asked, resting his head on a hand as he did so.
"M-My name is Yuko. Ozawa Yuko, it's nice to meet you." She introduced herself, a small smattering heat covering her face as she did so.
Yuko is a tall girl with short brown hair that extends to her shoulder with straight bangs that cover her forehead. She wears a cream coloured baggy sweater that extends past her waist, a long lime skirt that extends all the way down to her ankles, and white high heeled shoes with brown tips.
[Image (In Discord)]
"I was Itadori's classmate back in Junior High, I wanted to ask.. Does I-Itadori have a girlfriend?" Yuko asked timidly, twiddling her index fingers together as she did.
"Oh so it's like that, huh?!" Megumi asked.
"Yeah, it's exactly like that!" Nobara confirmed.
"Hmm… He definitely doesn't have a girlfriend. He's got a poster of a model in a bikini in his room and he also didn't really care much when he had to move over to Tokyo." He answered after taking a moment to think.
"Really? Do you happen to know what kinda girls he likes?" Kugisaki questioned, wanting to be sure before going forward with anything.
To that, Megumi Fushiguro just smirked and turned his head to the side while it was resting on his hand as if in thought.
'Might as well go all the way here, Yuji deserves it.' He thought before facing them again with an expression that hid deep amusement.
"I remember he said something about liking Tall Brunettes."
Now that, had gotten an immediate reaction from both girls whose entire demeanour changed in an instant.
"You have a real shot, I'll call him right now! You okay with that Ozawa?" Nobara declared, standing up in place and tapping away at her phone instantly.
"Oh yeah!" The brown haired girl responded, resoluteness had completely overtaken her once timid face.
A few seconds of typing later, Nobara finished and sat back down to wait for Yuji to arrive.
"What now, how are we gonna do this?" She asked, drawing a look of apprehension from Yuko.
"We aren't doing anything. Get up, we have to let the two of them sit down and talk, otherwise it would be too awkward for the two of them to do anything remotely romantic." Megumi ordered, getting up from the chair and motioning for her to follow him.
"You sure that's a good idea? What if he doesn't recognise her from her new look?" She replied, wanting to be sure before leaving the other girl to the proverbial wolves.
"Trust me, he's got this."
With that, Nobara had gotten up from the bench and followed him in getting to a safe distance away to observe the two of them.
"Oh and Ozawa?" Megumi called out before leaving the store.
"Huh, y-yes?" Yuko answered, she was in the middle of hyping herself up to do this.
"Yuji's a bit thick in the head, but a little honesty will go a long way with him." He stated while tapping his temple for emphasis, before waving a hand at her and leaving the coffee shop. Nobara followed him out while sending a thumbs up to the brunette as she did so.
"R-Right!"
Megumi and Nobara walked off a few feet away from the shop and made their way towards the opposite side of the road, hiding in a nearby restaurant in order to observe the coffee shop without Yuji spotting them.
Just in time too, as a few seconds after they had sat down, Yuji himself had arrived and entered the store.
They were thankfully able to see the interactions between the two of them since their seat was next to a glass window. From what they could see it was a pleasant chat with giggles and laughs shared from the both of them.
20 minutes and a small bribe to the restaurant employees later, they watched Yuko Ozawa exit the store with an excited, giddy smile.
Megumi Fushiguro and Nobara Kugisaki looked at each other with proud grins, before they slammed their hands together in celebration.
CLAP!
""Mission Accomplished!""
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Author's Note:
More Yuji Glaze and Character Development…
Well what'd ya expect from me?! I'm a Wuji Himadori Glazer through and through!
MY AGENDA WILL NEVER DIE! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Also no chaps for a few days or until I'm fully moved in and ready to write again.
…
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Next Chapter Title: A Method to Madness.
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