章節 29: What is a ‘Good Person’?
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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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And so, following the climactic battle between teacher and student, the three classmates spent the next two weeks together.
Megumi had made good on his promise and begun training them in Jujutsu; for Kugisaki he had focused on the physicals as best as he could. He started by pushing her to get her physical strength and speed up as high as possible as well as raise her stamina to keep up in fights. He chose to leave the martial arts training as well as any cursed tool training for when Maki comes back from her mission in Hokkaido.
As for Yuji, the pink haired teen was an absolute natural at everything that had to do with fighting and physical strength. In fact, Yuji was even stronger than himself in pure physical ability, even after his recent boost in strength. So Megumi had instead taken the opportunity to drill as much knowledge about Jujutsu into Yuji's thick skull in as little time as possible.
Satoru had also followed through on his promise by taking the 3 of them out shopping where Nobara in particular had taken advantage and racked up a collective sum of over 350,000 Yen on Satoru's tab from clothes, accessories and the like.
Not that the white haired man seemed to care in the slightest, he just gave her a credit card and told her to go crazy with it. Satoru and Megumi then took Yuji to their own store and bought him a whole dressing cupboard's worth of clothes along with everything a man would want for his room, including a brand new phone as Yuji surprisingly didn't have one before.
Satoru had seemed slightly off ever since their spar, not anything bad mind you, just different. More care-free, if that was even possible, according to Shoko he was even acting more and more like he did before just like back when he was still in his second year in Jujutsu high.
'Well, if nothing else, at least it tells me that my point did get across into that thick skull of his. So at the very least I got something out of that ass beating, even weeks later my jaw still has phantom aches sometimes. Speaking of which…' Megumi thought as he grabbed a rather large cheeseburger from a brown bag by his side and swallowed it whole in a single bite.
Even as he burped and laid back even further in his leather seat, by his side was a trash bag filled with 6 other burger wrappers, Megumi paid no mind when Nobara looked at him with utter disgust as she paused eating some fries. Yuji on the other hand has just finished his own burger and turned to Megumi before calling out to him.
"Yo, Fushiguro! Ya' got something' on the top of your nose." The pink haired teen said before he dug his hand into his own bag and ate some fries by the handful.
The black haired man blinked at that before he absent mindedly opened his mouth slightly, from it his tongue emerged and stretched up to his nose and licked a bit of sauce that was on it. These actions caused Kugisaki to grimace even harder with disgust.
"Could you atleast pretend like we're in a high class environment and not do that disgusting shit here? It was bad enough when you first got it and I'd rather not have to face it everyday." She pleaded, her disgust of frogs acting up again.
The three of them were sitting in a high end limousine that was driving them to their first mission, the inside was as luxurious as one could imagine, they even had minifridges with drinks and snacks. Megumi had gotten their driver to stop at a nearby burger restaurant for some food before they began their mission as a gift to his classmates.
"And you could at least pretend to be nice to me? Remember who had the connections that got us in this high class environment with his own high class connections?" Megumi asked in response with a smug expression as he extended his hand slightly, from it shot forwards a tendril of shadows that grabbed a drink from Yuji's seat.
"Hey! Stop stealing my drinks!" The pink haired teen cried out in indignation.
"Stop making it so fun and easy to steal your drinks." Megumi simply said in reply as he started drinking, paying the boy no mind as he stole Megumi's own drink in return.
'Hehe, these new Mutations are fun, who'd have thunk I'd get Gama's Mutation first before anything else? I guess I have been abusing the hell outta it recently, what can I say? Being spiderman is fun!' Megumi thought with a grin as he finished Yuji's drink.
Indeed, following the battle with Satoru, Megumi's body had been pushed to the limits and had been forced to evolve under the pressure of the battle. He had gained stronger twitch musculature and even higher enhanced senses with some other gains as well.
He could now use his shadow tendrils whenever he wants without the need for a full Incarnation to do so, granted, they were much weaker than normal and he could only use about 3 at the same time instead of as many as he wanted as he usually could. Most curiously along with that, his mouth had been deeply enhanced as well.
'Not sure how I feel about me becoming basically a throat goat after this Mutation, I don't even think I have a gag-reflex anymore. Along with that my tongue can now stretch to ridiculous lengths and sizes at will, at least Mei would be happy about that one…' He thought with a chuckle, imagining her reaction if he showed her what he could now do.
'She is the only one I can think of that could even still keep up with my stamina at this point, might break a regular girl accidentally at this point with my base enhanced physical strength. Doesn't hurt that she's hot as hell too, now that I think about it.. She hasn't been doing anything weird with Ui Ui like she would before when we go on missions. It is kinda adorable when he calls me Big Bro whenever I teach him something.' Megumi concluded in his head as the car stopped.
Megumi Fushiguro had once again evolved a step past his very Humanity into something more, this fact would have disturbed or brought pause to most other people, but Megumi was cut of a different cloth.
'Honestly my growth is really amazing, I can't wait to see what I get next, I want more!'
Megumi got out of the car with a grin, as he did so, he ran a hand through his now shortened hair which caused him to sigh. The front door of the limousine opened shortly after, revealing a young woman with Magenta hair in a fine suit with a serious and reserved demeanour.
'Although.. Fucking Satoru, bastard couldn't hold it in when he saw me approaching with the Inverted Spear and fired off a Purple. Fucker burned off half my fucking hair, now I look like a mix of Meguna and Toji. Took me months to get my hair that long!' Megumi thought with an annoyed expression.
Yuji and Nobara looked at each other for a moment before shrugging and following him outside, Yuji stretched as he looked around the area, it was a well maintained Detainment Ward. There were no people around aside from half a dozen men in suits that made a perimeter around the area, blocking anyone from coming inside.
The Magenta haired woman approached the trio with a clipboard in her hands, she was greeted with a cheerful wave from Itadori which was swiftly ignored with a blank expression as she made her way in front of Megumi and bowed deeply.
"Young Master, shall I begin the debrief for your mission?" She asked, still in the bow.
"Uh, yes, you can Rin. And I told you to not call me that, I'm not your 'master', the bow isn't necessary either." Megumi ordered with a grimace while grabbing her by her shoulders and pulling her back up to a standing position, he could feel the daggers being stared into his back from his two partners.
"Of course Young Master, I shall begin now. The two of you should listen well, I won't be repeating myself for the two of you." Rin announced with the same reserved tone and expression after she was pulled up, completely ignoring his first request.
Rin Otomo is a 24 year old very demure woman who wears a black, two piece business suit with a red-violet necktie. She has short Magenta hair with matching eyes, most curiously she also has a mole just under her left eye.
[Image (In Discord)]
This caused Yuji and Nobara to turn to Megumi with identical raised eyebrows, their annoyance and curiosity evident in their expressions. To this the black haired man waved them off in a way that told them that he was planning to explain everything later.
"Multiple Windows have confirmed the existence of a Cursed Womb within the building, the levels of cursed energy present suggest the Womb is in the process of becoming or already being a Special Grade threat. This is why this mission was entrusted to the Young Master instead of anyone else, the two of you are here to tag along and help him evacuate the survivors." Rin explained as she handed the three of them each a copy of a report on the situation.
"Oh, a Special Grade, that's the strongest kind of curse right? Isn't this a bit much for us, this is our first big mission together, no?" Yuji asked, drawing a smile from Megumi who was proud that his repeated lessons in Jujutsu had left an impact on the boy.
"This should still be no problem for the Young Master but the two of you should stay close to him and prioritise your own life as well as the evacuation of the detainees that were left behind during the evacuation. Please take extra care to not be a burden on the Young Master, he might be too kind to say anything but please keep your own inadequacies in mind during this mission." Rin responded with complete and utter sincerity.
This request drew an immediate reaction from the duo who turned to Megumi with even graver expressions, who only sported an exasperated face in response. But before they could express their displeasure to him in great detail, their attention was stolen by a sudden voice crying out behind them.
"Hey, excuse me! Is Tadashi- Is my son Tadashi ok?" An older woman with black hair cried out, she had somehow made her past all of the barricades that should have blocked her entry.
"My apologies ma'am, but it seems there's been a gas leak in the building. We are still trying to get a handle on the matter, so I can't give anymore details so you must forgive us." Rin answered her immediately with a smile, showing her great experience when it came to dealing with civilians.
"It can't be…" The older woman mumbled under her breath as she fell to her knees in despair, crying for the unknown fate of her son.
The woman's crying visage left a significant impact on Yuji Itadori's countenance, his face showed all those present exactly how much he wanted to fulfil her request.
"Fushirguro, Kugisaki.. We have to save him!" Itadori almost begged the two of them, Nobara and Megumi, both were not very affected by the display and remained stoic on the matter.
Turning away towards the building as the woman was taken away by an apologetic Window with blonde hair, they started making their way towards the building, ready to begin.
"This is where I shall stop, please go ahead with the Young Master and try to keep out of his way. I will put up the veil." Rin requested as she bowed to Megumi before bringing her hand up and calling down a curtain around the building.
As the curtain fell down around them, Nobara immediately took the opportunity to grill the black haired man for answers about the Window's odd behaviour.
"Okay, what the hell was that about? Why's she calling you 'Young Master' all the time and treating the two of us like we're just useless and holding you back?" The brown haired girl demanded answers.
"Yeah, for real! What's the deal with all that?" The pink haired boy asked incredulously as well.
"Ugh, fine but isn't my fault ok? This is all 'cuz of a poorly worded Binding Vow that happened a few weeks ago!" Megumi said, trying to placate them with a tired expression.
"Well basically, long story short; I helped her clan get out of a shitty situation in exchange for their loyalty afterwards and now she and the rest of her clan now only refer to me as 'Young Master' no matter how hard I ask them not to. After the whole Incident I chose her to be my personal assistant and Window for Sorcery matters among other things."
"Then explain dumbass, what kinda Binding Vow forces an entire clan worth of people to call you their master?" Nobara asked sceptically as they all approached the side entrance of the detainment ward.
"As I said it's a long story so I'd rather not go into it right now, but basically; the Otomo clan's former leader was in cahoots with the Kamo clan's elders to weaken the clan and have all of its resources be eventually dissolved into the Kamo clan. He was also a major asshole who treated everyone in his clan as less than human and somehow treated the women there even worse." Megumi revealed as they entered into the detainment ward.
The surprise of the insides of the ward being overtaken by the Innate Domain was overshadowed by his reveal as the two of his classmates have already witnessed more impressive Jujutsu and knew what to do in this situation thanks to Megumi's in depth guidance over the past 2 weeks.
They knew that finding their exit wasn't going to be very difficult so they stayed calm and kept probing Megumi for more information about the Otomo clan incident.
"Woah, isn't that like, illegal? What'd you do to stop 'em?" Yuji asked, all the clan politics were still way beyond him but he still wanted to know more.
"Well, obviously it is dumbass, let him continue!" Nobara commented while smacking him up the head which garnered a disgruntled "Hey!" from the pink haired boy.
"If it interests you that much, I'll be happy to explain the whole incident to you on a later date. But for now all you need to know is that I used my influence with the Zen'in clan, as well as Satoru's control over the Gojo clan to put pressure on the Kamo's to make them back off. After that it was as simple as taking care of the previous leader of the Otomo clan and making an example out of him so that no one else has any funny ideas. Either way, the moral of the story is be careful with your words when making a Binding Vow." Megumi explained with a small smirk.
"You really are reliable, Fushiguro! You saved a lot of people, including me!" The pink haired boy declared with a huge smile before he paused for a moment.
"Wait, it just clicked for me, when you said you 'made an example' outta him, did you mean…?" Yuji trailed off at the end of his sentence, the words leaving him as he came to a dire conclusion.
"Yes Itadori, I killed him." Megumi simply confirmed.
The coldness of his classmate's tone sent shivers down Yuji's spine, although they had bonded quite a lot during their past 2 weeks together, he still wasn't used to this side of the black haired man. The coldness and utter indifference to taking the life of another human, it was incredibly unsettling to him.
His shock didn't stop there as they all stopped in their places as they spotted 3 of the missing detainees that were meant to be evacuated, however, they were not alive. Two of the detainees were crushed and crumpled viciously, their bodies were crushed and compacted into balls of broken bones and flesh.
And thrown against a wall was the upper half of a body with the other half nowhere to be seen, the face of the corpse held a disturbing expression of fear and despair upon it as the victim had no doubt been subjected to vile horrors that no man deserved to face.
"Sheesh, that's brutal." Nobara muttered with a disgusted expression as she blocked her nose from the awful smell permeating from the 3 violated corpses.
"Mhm, that should be three of the missing victims, two more to go then." Megumi commented as he looked around for the next area they could check.
Itadori however had quietly made his way towards the body that was left the most intact and started searching it for a moment before stopping and calling out to the others.
"We're bringing this body back, it's that lady's son. She won't be satisfied with just us saying he's dead, we need to give her at least this much peace of mind." He said as he held in his hands a name tag that held 'Tadashi Okazaki' on it.
"I dunno if that's such a good idea…" Kugisaki replied with a pensive tone.
Megumi said nothing to this as he just made his way towards Itadori with an indifferent expression on his face, when he arrived he simply placed a hand on the pink haired teen's shoulder and pulled him to the side.
'I haven't really tried this before, but now's as good a time as any to try it out. I have been playing with this idea for a while and this Incarnation has finally given me the opportunity to try if it would work.' The black haired man thought as he closed his eyes for a moment and tried to focus.
'Incarnation: Tranquil Deer and Max Elephant.'
When Megumi had opened his eyes again they now had two circles inside them, signifying the activation of the Deer's Incarnation. He then raised his hand and aimed his palm towards the broken body of Tadashi, in the middle of his palm was a small hole from which seeped an ominous aura.
'Normally a Max Elephant Incarnation would allow me to create and shoot water made of Cursed Energy from a hole on my palm, however if I were to use Tranquil Deer's ability to grant me access to Positive Energy and use that instead in the process of creation of Max Elephant's Incarnation then…'
As Megumi thought, he willed the positive energy created from his borrowed Reversed Cursed Technique to flow into his Incarnation instead of cursed energy as he normally did. And watched as his arm shivered for a moment before a spark flowed throughout him.
Instead of water shooting from his palm, a blinding Flame sparked and shot forwards with reckless abandon. The hungry inferno covered the body it was aimed at as within a second, its flesh was burned away in a horrific display of strength.
"What the hell are you doing Fushiguro?!" Itadori cried out as he grabbed the black haired man and pulled him back to try to stop him from continuing what he perceived as a senseless act of cruelty.
"Calm yourself Itadori, don't you remember? Rin told the lady that there's been a gas leak in the building, no? Well, I dunno about you but I've never heard of a gas leak cutting someone in half before. I have however heard of them causing explosions that burned people to death, you said 'peace of mind' remember? This is giving her peace of mind." Megumi explained to him with an air of indifference which took the fight out of the boy immediately.
"Please don't mistake my goodwill for kindness, Itadori. I'm doing this only for you, personally I would have left their corpses to be found by the Windows or destroyed with the Innate Domain when I kill the Special Grade in here." He said as he shrugged off Yuji's hand and walked a few feet closer to the burned corpse before turning his head around and going on even further.
"Beyond everything you need to get this through your head, we are Jujutsu Sorcerers. We're mercenaries by trade, no great Sorcerer is a 'Good person' and neither am I." The Special Grade sorcerer declared as his shadows extended from his body, they shifted towards the now charred body of Tadashi Okazaki and devoured it whole.
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Author's Note:
We got an insight into how Megumi views his job as a Sorcerer, let's see if Yuji agrees or not shall we?
…
Next Chapter Title: Trust.
…
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