บท 11: Cages.
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A few months later.
July, 2013.
"There's no way! You have to show me!" Tsumiki was pestering Megumi to show her his new ability.
"Ugh fine, but only for a little while, I'm not that efficient at it yet and it's pretty draining, so I wanna save it for later when I start actually training with it." Megumi acquiesced to her request albeit somewhat unwillingly.
"Yes! Now show me!" Tsumiki jumped up and down in excitement.
"Alright, alright calm down. But I'm showing you Nue, not divine dog." Tsumiki seemed slightly disappointed at that but she agreed, happy that she got what she wanted.
The raven-haired boy closed his eyes in focus before bringing his hands up in the pose for summoning Nue, he then called out the technique's name.
"Incarnation: Nue."
His back shifted and morphed as his shirt began to expand, and then it exploded outwards as two large orange wings sprouted from his back, his eyes had also shifted and became more orange as well. His vision improved drastically as cursed energy seemed to gather around it making them more resistant to irritants.
"AH, Damn it. I forgot to take off my shirt again, this sucks, that was my favourite one." Megumi seemed quite annoyed at his mistake.
His sister on the other hand was a completely different case, she had stars in her eyes. "THAT'S SO COOL!"
She ran up to him and started inspecting his newly grown wings, first simply touching them, but before long she ran her hands through them.
"Hey, gentler there, I'm still getting used to the feeling of having new limbs so they're still pretty sensitive right now." Megumi exclaimed with some heat on his cheeks.
'Guess the process of Incarnation was more biological than I thought before, if it worked by just manifesting the limb built with shadows then it wouldn't be sensitive as it is now. What was it that Sukuna said when he saw Yuji's 'Shrine'? 'The display and workings of a cursed technique depends on the interpretation of the user and the time period', huh?' He considered with a thoughtful expression.
'Maybe this is why I can't summon out of order? Perhaps my Interpretation and use of the technique made it evolve or display itself in a way that's different than before? My Shikigami do have way more independent thought than in the OG as far as I can remember, so perhaps that is part of the changes that passively occurred to the Ten Shadows under my use?'
"Sorry it's just that they're so soft! Wait… Can you actually fly with them whenever? Can you take me flying with them?" Tsumiki almost begged the younger boy to take her flying.
"Fine, fine. Let's go outside first." The older girl jumped from her place and ran outside, her brother not as enthused as her simply walked out behind her.
Tsumiki looked at him with a grin and held her hands out, the boy who had recently had a growth spurt and became a few inches taller than her and had some toned muscles showing along his arms simply sighed and then reached his hands out.
Instead of grabbing her by under her shoulders, he grabbed behind her knees and her neck and lifted her into a bridal carry.
"Hey, what are y-" Megumi grinned and then his wings flapped with great strength, sending the both of them into the air with great speed.
The winged boy laughed out as his sister was screaming out in fear and surprise, her face buried in his chest.
They flew up higher and higher as Metres became Kilometres, until they pierced the heavens above and reached just above the clouds.
When Megumi stopped, they were about 4 Kilometres in the sky. Tsumiki took a moment to breathe for a moment, before she gathered the courage to look up.
She lost her breath right after, the view in front of her took all the words from her, she couldn't even begin to describe it.
Megumi grinned. "Beautiful isn't it?"
"It's… It's…"
"Breathtaking?" The raven haired boy quipped.
"Yea- HEY! That's so lame!" Tsumiki giggled and hit him on his chest lightly.
"Made you laugh, doesn't that make you lame?"
"Oh shush you."
[A/N: Get your minds out of the gutter, they're brother and sister. This isn't the hub, get a life. Or better yet, Get some Bitches.]
They looked back towards the infinite horizon for a few moments before Tsumiki spoke up. "I wish the others could see this, how would Satoru and Shoko react?"
"Well Satoru would probably be able to fly this high up by himself, I'm not so sure Shoko would really care though, she doesn't seem like the type." Megumi mused.
"Oh yeah! I totally forgot but Shoko graduated the other day, right? Let's go check Jujutsu tech, she said she'd start working there when she graduated. Let's go say hi and congratulate her!"
"You just wanted to fly more didn't you?" Megumi looked at her with a deadpanned gaze.
Tsumiki just glared back at him, as if daring him to challenge her.
He sighed before acquiescing to her request. "Alright."
He gripped her tighter and ordered her to hold on, she held on with all her might in fear, before he dove down from the skies at blinding speeds.
He was unbothered by the wind hitting his face and eyes thanks to the mutations provided by the Incarnation, cursed energy gathered around his eyes and protected them causing his normally green eyes to burn an incandescent Orange.
They flew along the city just above the skyline above all the normal citizens of Tokyo as within mere moments they entered the barriers surrounding Jujutsu Tech, Megumi then slowed himself down and with a flap of his wings they landed down in front of the main building of the school.
He then let Tsumiki down while she gripped his arms for a moment before she sat down on the ground to take in some breaths.
"Was it fun at least?" Megumi snarked at her while she was panting, his wings shuddering for a moment before they exploded into shadows and feathers. She looked up at him furiously for a moment before calming down realising that she did kinda ask for this.
"Shut it, let's go." They walked side by side to the medical ward where they assumed Shoko would be.
As they were walking through the halls of the building they ran into another duo, an old man with a gourd and a young Black haired girl around Tsumiki's age.
"Ah, Megumi Zen'in, what a coincidence to meet you here! How have you been? I've heard nothing but great things about you, becoming a second grade sorcerer already is exactly what I expected from you." The old man was Noabito Zen'in the Head of the Zen'in clan and he was grinning with an air of satisfaction.
Megumi grimaced for a moment before steeling his expression and replying. "You're too kind Zen'in-san, but really this is just because I've been blessed and am taking full advantage of that."
He stepped forward closer to the man while subtly hiding Tsumiki behind his now larger body and making sure to hide his back so as to not reveal the holes in them and hint at his new ability or expose it.
'Note to self: Get some clothes that adapt to Incarnations so I don't ruin all my clothes, I'd really rather the Zen'in clan doesn't know about them till I'm strong enough to at least match a 1st grade in a 1 on 1 fight.'
Noabito took notice of his move and decided to let it slide as he wanted to curry favour with the young prodigy, he took a deep gulp of his gorge before he spoke up again. "You're too humble Megumi, as a Zen'in and the Ten Shadows user, you should really be more assertive."
Megumi recognised the girl beside him and looked her up and down before looking her in the eyes, the girl looking at him right back with an impassive tone although it had an undertone of envy.
The older man picked up on this as he brought his hand up to gesture at the girl. "Oh, how rude of me. This is your cousin Zen'in Maki, I brought her along as we had some matters to attend to with the principal."
Maki is a young woman with a tall athletic build. She has small golden eyes and long black hair tied into a short ponytail. She had fringes of hair over her forehead with smaller strands framing her cheeks and glasses. She wore a traditional outfit, a white yukata, and a black hakama as her impassive expression turned into a small grimace.
[Image (In Discord)]
Maki then bowed to Megumi hiding her deepening grimace and greeted him with a reserved tone. "It is an honour to meet you Zen'in-san, I've heard much about you from Zen'in-sama."
As she stood back up straight her expression went from a grimace to deep shock as she witnessed a scene that she almost couldn't believe.
Megumi had bowed back to her and looked her in the eyes before greeting her back. "The honour is all mine Maki-San, but please call me Megumi. We're cousins after all, aren't we?" He made sure to emphasise the use of her given name, knowing exactly how she felt about their shared name.
He then surprised her even further as he gestured to his back and introduced his sister. "This is my older sister Tsumiki." Who just smiled warmly as she knew of the Zen'in clan's values.
Noabito's expression slightly twisted before he called out to them and started to walk away. "It was good meeting you Megumi, come Maki I have much to do."
Maki looked at Megumi one last time before she hurried after the older man. As she passed by him, Megumi whispered to her a few cryptic words.
"No bird stays caged forever."
The brother and sister then walked off, letting Maki stir in her thoughts as she walked behind Noabito, in her stupor she didn't notice that she walked closer to him than before, from 3 steps to 2 steps.
…
"Oh, hey you two. Came all the way here for me did you?" Shoko looked up from a notebook and greeted the two of them.
Tsumiki spoke up first and congratulated her cheerfully. "Yeah! Congrats Shoko, you finally did it! What's next for you, are you just gonna work with Jujutsu Tech?"
"Mhm, that's right. You wouldn't believe how much they pay me here, guess having an RCT user on their payroll is important to them after all." She smirked and pulled out a smoke, she then patted her lab coat trying to find a lighter.
"Here." Megumi reached into his shadow and pulled out a lighter. Shoko just smiled a bit before thanking him as he lit her cigarette.
Tsumiki seemed confused and a bit suspicious. "Hey.. Why do you have a lighter in your shadow?"
"You never know when you might need one, besides, you'd be surprised with how many things I keep in there." He demonstrated this by putting his hand under his shirt and pulled out a charger.
"Oh ok tha-"
He reached in again and pulled out a towel.
"Why do you-"
He reached in again and pulled out a pillow, which Shoko took and placed on her chair and laid back to witness the two siblings' tomfoolery.
Reaching in again he pulled out a pair of shoes.
"Wait.. are those my-"
Once again he reached in and pulled out a new shirt, taking his current one off revealing his slightly toned body and putting on the new one.
"Why do you.. Wait that's pretty sma-"
Megumi then reached directly into his shadow which started to expand and grabbed onto something, his arms strained slightly as he pulled out a twin bed.
"OK THAT'S IT! Why do you have a freaking bed in your shadow!" Tsumiki shouted out incredulously as she pointed at him, while Shoko just snickered at their antics.
"... You never know when you might need one." Megumi replied simply.
"I- I walked into that one I guess… Now that I think about it, How do you have a bed in your shadow? Don't you have to bear the weight of whatever is in it?" She asked, confused.
"A simple application of low level cursed energy reinforcement, I do that till I get used to the weight of everything and let my body deal with it alone for a while. Till I get used to that too, then I just up the weight by adding heavier stuff into my shadow. It's really good training, I passively build muscle and get good at using cursed energy reinforcement while doing basic everyday things." He rolled his neck as he explained.
Tsumiki just hummed along taking it at face value, but Shoko as a doctor and a fellow sorcerer was both impressed at his ingenious training plan and horrified at any potential side effects of such intensive and long spanning stress to his entire body.
"You should probably come in for a check up every now and then to make sure you don't do any permanent damage to your body, and don't overdo it, I should be able to heal mostly anything but you don't want to test that theory."
Megumi just nodded to that.
…
Later that night.
In a clearing of a forest.
"Well, it's about time I get the next Shikigami, it shouldn't be too hard if all goes according to plan." Megumi could be seen wearing a White and Black Hoari over his normal casual clothes.
He brought his hands up and slid one over the other while crossing some fingers, creating the symbol of Max Elephant. Shortly after that, his shadow exploded in size as beside him it formed a boulder of cursed energy and shadows that revealed the titular Shikigami, which was bigger than when it was summoned for subjugation, going from 2.8 metres tall to over 3.4 metres tall.
Shifting his hands into a more familiar hand sign he made the sign for Nue as the creature flew out of his shadow and rested atop a nearby boulder, ready for any commands.
Megumi looked around and then at the beautiful moonlight and then shrugged and readied himself to summon the next shikigami, his hands coming together connected by his fingers while facing opposite directions forming a shadow puppet of a Rabbit.
"Rabbit Escape."
Ahead of him, his shadow extended ahead of him as from within it, hopped a single Rabbit. It was pure white with red eyes and had its Shikigami sign on its belly. It had a long shape with 3 spheres connected to the top of it and a cross in the middle.
The rabbit looked at him, seeming slightly afraid before shadows covered it for a moment and it split into two, then four, then 8, then 16. It kept multiplying as soon enough it would grow into a tidal wave, if one paid close attention you could see the original Shikigami try to run away and let its doubles overwhelm the summoner.
Megumi noticed this as he kept track of the original and just smirked before bringing his hands together one final time, this time into a less familiar pose with his hands creating a ball shape and started chanting.
"Mastered Barrier Technique: Hollow Cage"
Almost instantly a cage of shadows and steel formed around them, trapping the summoned shikigami and leaving it unable to escape. 'Took a while and some practice but I've mastered it. Now the barrier should be just as strong inside as it is outside, not the most useful technique but it will come in clutch sometimes.'
One of the doubles didn't seem to care as it was already running ahead to the summoner hopping atop its brothers and sisters and immediately throwing a kick towards its enemy.
Not allowing it to hit Megumi simply weaved to the side, dodging the attack and then elbowing it causing it to explode into shadows, he then looked towards the rest of the tidal wave and then pointed towards them and ordered his newest Shikigami to attack.
"Max Elephant, flood them and force them to a corner." Not needing to be told twice, the Shikigami did so as its cheeks bulged out for a moment before it shot out a tidal wave over water, flooding the barrier space.
"Nue, just as we practised!" Nue followed it's masters order and flew over to Max Elephant and landed on its head and flapped its wings as electricity formed around its wings, before it flapped its wings forwards towards the trunk of Max Elephant as the electricity coalesced and seeped into the tidal wave flowing from the Shikigami and hit the concentrated Rabbit doubles.
"Combined Move: Electro-Tidal Surge!"
The attack was super effective as the Rabbits on the other end of it were all overwhelmed by the tidal wave of water and then were electrocuted severely by the attack as the water conducted the electricity allowing it to reach each and every double, including the original.
Within mere moments, all the Shikigami were reduced to dust and shadows as the Subjugation Ritual came to an end.
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