LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 7: The Ten Shadows Potential
The crashing sound attracted the attention of the people on the compound.
Slowly people appear to see what is going on.
"Who is fighting Naoya-san?" A young man asks. He doesn't look like it but he is one of the high-ranking members of the Zen'in clan.
"Open your eyes, Ranta. Those wolves... He can only be the one with the Inherited Technique, The Ten Shadows." An old decrepit man says, with a creepy smile on his face. He is Zen'in Chojuro.
"So he is Toji's brat... I can see the similarities" A big and muscular man comments. He is Toji's older brother and Megumi's uncle, Zen'in Jinichi.
"..." On the side, a middle-aged man with an impassive expression doesn't say anything. He is Maki and Mai's Father, Zen'in Ogi.
On the other side of the courtyard, Naobito and Satooru also watch with interest.
"Aren't you gonna help him? Naoya has a foul mouth, but he is a genius." Naobito asks Gojo while taking a sip of his gourd. "The brat is only 13-year-old after all."
"Nah, he is good. I'm worried that you're gonna intervene to save your baby boy from being humiliated." Gojo mocks
"Hahaha. Seeing Naoya's face hitting the ground would be fun! Humbling the cocky bastard!"
Satooru shakes her head at the geezer's antics.
Now, on Megumi and Naoya showdown.
The two didn't appear to be in a hurry to start throwing hands.
"Another Inherited Technique, Projection Sorcery, huh?" Megumi comments
"And what of it?" Naoya is not surprised that he figured it out. Inherited Techniques are an open secret after all.
"Nothing, just thinking how unfair is to you... With a subpar technique... How much handicap do you want?" Megumi smirks
"You..."
He really has a way to get under Naoya's skin. But the older sorcerer doesn't attack because Megumi makes a handsign.
"Round Deer." From the shadows, his shikigami was summoned behind him.
The huge deer turns to Maki, still on the ground, and approaches his nose to the girl. His antlers glow and motes of light bathe Maki, healing her.
"Really versatile... The Ten Shadows." One of the audience comments
"..." Maki checks herself, feeling as good as new in a matter of seconds.
"Go to the side for a bit." Megumi's voice reaches her
"...I don't need you to meddle in my affairs." She says stubbornly while standing up
Megumi turns to her and stares at her eyes "Heh~ Nice eyes. But shoo shoo..." He dismisses her with one hand "This is not even about you anymore. I'm doing it because his face looks really punchable. So I'm gonna break his bonés a bit, to relieve some stress." He says, talking like Naoya is one of these toys that someone squeezes to deal with stress
"Whatever then..." Maki huffs and steps to the side
"Oops... Escape Rabbit." Megumi summons the swarm of rabbits fast.
The white curtain of rabbits surrounds him. Only a second later is shown the reason he did that.
A certain number of rabbits are turned in animation frames and Naoya appears close to the swarm of rabbits that were surrounding Megumi. It's not even possible to see the boy anymore.
"Projection Sorcery... Allows the user to divide an action into 24 frames and compress it in a second. It's like a glitch. It makes you move very fast... Teleporting 24 times in that second, by following the pre-established trajectory." Megumi's voice comes from inside the swarm of rabbits "So I just need to put more than 24 obstacles to block your cheat movement. Now you see why I need to handicap myself?"
The rabbits become shadows and are dispersed while Megumi reappears with a mocking smile on his face.
"That's the thing with Inherited Techniques, you have the experience of the previous users as a manual, but everyone knows it..." Chojuro sighs and shakes his head from his spot in the audience.
"But Inherited Techniques are strong, it's the user's job to use it properly. What matters if you know the Gojo Satooru technique? Can someone defeat her?"
"..."
Back to Megumi, he begins explaining his technique.
"It would be unfair, so I will not make this a jumping... It will be a 1v1." He says.
"Hah? Are you mocking me? Are you not gonna use the shikigamis?" Naoya asks annoyed
"Oh no, I will use my summons... Let me explain how..." He chuckles satisfied with himself before he begins "The Ten Shadows is an unusual shikigami technique... Because it's not only a shikigami technique."
"The fact that I need to defeat the shikigami to tame it and if the shikigami dies, it dies for real... It always bothered me, you know?" Megumi smiles and makes a handsign again.
But the handsign appears to be incomplete "Let me show you firsthand, the true nature of the Ten Shadows Technique..."
The two Divine Dogs go to stand by each side of him, while the Round Deer stays behind him.
"When one of the ten shikigamis is destroyed, its powers don't disappear. It flows to another shikigami that inherits it, strengthening himself. Don't you find it weird? I mean, I destroy the shikigami during the taming ritual and he reappears as mine, and all of a sudden he can't be destroyed anymore. And the power remains."
His words trap the people's attention. Indeed, the Ten Shadows Technique is a very unusual Shikigami Cursed Technique.
"Then the epiphany hit me... When I just tamed some of my shikigami and I needed to wait for some time for the shikigami to be ready to be summoned and used by me." Megumi smiles widen
He continues "The Ten Shadows Technique... Shikigamis summoned using shadows as a medium... The shikigamis are like the painting and the shadows are the ink..."
"...and the in ink not dry!"
Then the Divine Dogs start melting in shadows, like ink, and the two merge into a huge werewolf.
The 3-meter-tall black and white werewolf howls into the air, putting pressure on the courtyard.
"Forced Totality... Or chimerism. I still don't know how to call it." Megumi says behind the huge werewolf
"So it's possible to combine the shikigami even without them being destroyed." A clan member comments
"The number of possible combinations is large."
"Not only that... Imagine a shikigami that is the combination of all ten!"
Megumi continues "The clan head allowed me to see the records of the previous user, so I can share something so that you guys can write down too."
He doesn't care about sharing a little knowledge. The previous user probably will only appear in a century or so.
"In truth, no shikigami is eternally destroyed... You just need to re-paint it. They just assumed that they would be destroyed forever because of the complications of re-summoning them... Maybe the first ones reached that conclusion, and the successors didn't question their ancestor's wisdom."
Naobito sighs from his location "So him being born from outside the clan was a good thing to not narrow his view? Maybe was destiny..." He says, unknown that the true reason that Megumi doesn't have a narrow view is his background as a reincarnated self-insert.
"But the price to reform a destroyed shikigami is time... Apparently, it must be a strenuous process to repaint a shikigami. Days of meditation maybe, so that can be another reason no one saw this possibility." Megumi continues "I can only guess, no shikigami of mine was even destroyed, but when I need to separate them is a hard process that I can't do during a battle... For now."
"Okay, so you're bragging of your oh great wisdom, brat. Are you done? I already allowed you to explain your technique so that you can get stronger. Can I crush you now?" Naoya says with a half-irritated and half-mocking expression.
Megumi chuckles "To tell the truth, I'm not done yet... And yes, explaining it is making me do much more smoothly than before." Maybe explaining the Inherited technique to the Zen'in Clan unlocked some special condition. He can feel that he can control it better.
"Let's go back a little... So what would happen to a user of the Ten Shadows Technique if all the shikigamis are destroyed? And the user being dumb enough to not think about reforming a shikigami? What would happen? Would the technique die? No more shikigamis and thats it?
I thought about it for a long time..."
Megumi let them think about the answer.
He answers it himself after some time "No. I believe that after the destruction of all shikigamis is the moment where the true final form of the Ten Shadows will be shown."
He makes two handsigns and the werewolf and the deer start melting in shadows again. The shadows coalesced around him.
"Shadows are simply an extension of the main body... Remember that." He repeats his words of epiphany of the past when he discovered that he could share his senses with his shikigamis.
"That means the user himself would be the subject of Totality! And would become capable of using the shikigamis strength and abilities."
After a vortex of shadows surrounding him disappears, Megumi reappears a little differently.
In his hands and feet, gauntlets and greaves made of shadows and in the shape of a Wolf's claws.
Above his head, the two antlers of the deer float like a crown.
"A Ten Shadows Technique User is not a Summoner... But a Beastmaster! Now we can start this 1v1."
...
"Oooh~ So this is the final form of a Ten Shadows user, as expected of the technique that is said on the same breath of the Limitless and the Six Eyes." Satooru praises while clapping.
She thinks about the possibilities. Only imagining someone who has the passive self-healing of the Round Deer and the adaptability of Mahoraga is terrifying enough, coupled with the other eight then...
It really is on the level of the Infinity now. It only required a genius user like her.
Like herself, Megumi can bring the full potential of his technique.
...
Back to Megumi
A cracking sound echoes from the floating antlers and they shatter above Megumi's head.
"Oops, it appears that my limit is wearing one at a time. For now..." He says, not worried in the slightest "Familiarity is also a factor, you know? Only recently I tamed Round Deer."
Megumi finally puts a fighting stance, flexing his armored limbs "Whatever, Divine Dogs will be enough."
"Now that you ran your mouth, you will have no excuse to when I clean the floor with you." Naoya also stretches a little before putting a stance.
Megumi doesn't answer because he is done with the trash talk. Time to action.
The two measured each other for some time, tension filled the air. Before they dash together.
They literally disappear from normal people's sight while fighting.
If not for the trail of darkness, normal people would think the two went away.
They move and clash at high speeds and through the whole courtyard.
Naoya is fast with his technique and many times he turns Megumi into animation frames and attacks him in this defenseless state.
But it doesn't appear to do much damage, Megumi always bounces back and counterattacks. Some claws attack connects with Naoya, during the cooldown of the technique, making him bleed.
It is also possible to notice that Megumi's eyes are following Naoya, and his body is slowly catching up.
"He is really keeping up with Projection Sorcery with his own speed." Jinichi comments
"Not only that, his senses are incredibly sharp to follow Naoya's movements. He probably gained more than physical strength with his fusion with the Divine Dogs." Ogi, a more experiente sorcerer, notices.
"But he is stronger than normal, no? He couldn't be this strong by only using the Divine Dogs... Or only one of the shikigamis is enough to keep up with the Special Grade 1 Naoya-san?" Ranta asks in amazement
"He has good control of his cursed energy and a tremendous amount too. Maybe is that." Chojuro adds
"But it doesn't appear that he is using a lot of cursed energy to reinforce himself though..." Ranta tilts his head while watching the fight.
...
On the other side of the courtyard, Satooru and Naobito also discuss the fight
"Is Megumi's body special? The brat is literally brute forcing through his fight." Naobito asks
"Indeed, It appears Megumi was always stronger than his peers. It's almost like he inherited his father's strong body but without the drawbacks." Satooru says
"Oh~ That's a scary prospect." Naobito gets serious and narrows his eyes while watching the fight. "Can the advantages be passed through blood like that?"
It's indeed a scary thought, but they are obviously wrong.
The important is that Megumi's cover about his body is working.
...
The fight continues. A boring fight for the watchers.
It's basically a direct dashing and hit game. After an exceptionally big crash, the two Fighters allow themselves to be pushed back and make a pause.
"..."
Megumi looks bruised and haggard. He blocks one of his nostrils and snorts a certain amount of blood there.
But he appears much better than Naoya. There are slash marks all over Naoya's body and his breath is more unstable than Megumi's.
Megumi gives him a look before tilting his head "Do you know Domain Expansion?" He asks
"Do you think I would say that now?" Naoya shots back
"I was simply thinking, and you must have noticed by now, that you can't defeat me by simply hitting me normally." Megumi comments calmly, he then spares a sideglance to Satooru "And I don't think you will have the chance to slash my throat with some cursed tool either." Gojo would intervene immediately
"..." Naoya is not crazy to try to really kill Megumi under Gojo's watch
"I bet that you use a dagger." He guesses correctly "So, I'm asking if you have a Domain Expansion to break this impasse, you know? If not, you will be defeated next."
"Hah! You talk like you can win at any time."
"In this spar? Pretty much... Let me show you." Megumi says and his whole aura changes
"!" Everyone felt the invisible pressure emanating from the boy while he resumed a fighting stance. The ground even cracks under his feet.
It's not like he was not giving his all on the fight before, but there's a difference in intent.
Before, he is fighting to accomplish the hard task of keeping up with Naoya. He practiced with his senses, his Haki, his cursed energy manipulation... He was even pressured by the older sorcerer.
Now? He has the full intent of finishing the fight in the fastest possible way.
And everyone can feel it...
Haki is intent. The Darkness Devil's presence is enough to make people give up on their lives and wait for death. And the genes showed themselves now.
The invisible pressure makes even the higher-ups of the Zen'in clan sweat a little, PTSD flashbacks kicking in when faced with Megumi's intent. It's almost like their hearts are grabbed by him now. For an instant, the idea of victory against this 13-year-old boy disappeared from their minds.
Even Satooru's brows shot up while seeing that. Megumi never showed this side to her, after all.
If even Satooru is impressed, one can only imagine the pressure on Naoya. His eyes widen in surprise and even fear... But props to him. The fear and hesitation are squashed by anger immediately.
"You still have to eat a lot of rice to be HIM, brat!" He barks
Megumi ignores him. Exhaling a breath of hot air, he closes his eyes and focuses his senses on Naoya.
It looks like he is looking down on him, which makes Naoya even angrier, but in truth, Megumi is really going all out on focusing.
Naoya disappears from his spot, he is attacking without Mercy now.
With his eyes closed, Megumi can feel Naoya's weird movements in his mind's eye, like pictures in the dark.
'2,4,8,12,16,20...21...22...23... 24!!'
This time is Megumi's turn to disappear from his spot momentarily. He reappears, but this time he turns around to face the Naoya that circled around him.
Naoya and Megumi attack at the same time. Naoya reaches with his hand to turn Megumi into an Animation frame and Megumi goes for a punch.
The result?
"Simultaneous..." Satooru says seeing the two land their attack at the same time "But..." She smiles
When Megumi Punch hits Naoya's solar plexus, sparks fly...
/X\/X\X/\X\/X\X/II BLACK FLASH II/\/X\/X\/\X/\X\X/X\
Megumi finally landed a Black Flash. The symbolism goes deep. Canon Megumi never landed one, when even Nobara landed. The one with the greatest potential of the trio never landed in canon, but now...
It's like the confirmation that he is on the right path.
Megumi's animation frame floats in the air.
In Projection Sorcery, the user can trap someone in an animation frame for one second. If Naoya recovers he could press his advantage but he is already out of commission.
The older sorcerer is frozen on the spot, bleeding from all the orifices on his head.
"It's over..." People sigh around them
One second pass... *Crack*
Megumi is released from the frame and dashes at Naoya with a big smile on his lips. "I said that I would break your bones!"
"Hehe~ He is not gonna stop now, the rush of hitting a Black Flash went over his head" Gojo laughs
Megumi grabs Naoya's limp arm and swings him like a ragdoll to the ground.
People wince seeing that but Naoya's head doesn't hit the ground like expected, the ground becomes darker and the old sorcerer sinks into the pool of shadows.
Still, with his big smile, Megumi puts his hand on the ground after Naoya sinks completely, and gives it a palm strike.
*Boom*
In a dark geyser, Naoya emerges from teh ground. His limbs twisted in weird angles.
Inside Megumi's pocket shadow realm, he can apply pressure to crush anyone and anything inside. Like Blackbeard.
With a wet thud, Naoya hits the ground and the fight is over.
.....
Naobito rushes to check on the son and sighs that only his limbs are broken. Not a big deal to a sorcerer. He will recover like nothing ever happened.
Physically at least.
Megumi, now more calm, approaches the fallen Naoya.
'A pity I can't stamp him... Gojo is watching.' He thinks regretfully.
With the Six Eyes, Gojo can see his every move and she wouldn't miss his strange movements to stamp Naoya. After all, it needs 3 seconds for the Stamp to take effect.
'Whatever, knowing his personality this wouldn't be the last time that I will meet him. When he came from revenge he is finished.'
"So, can I cure him or he is one of those types that are too prideful to receive help from the winner?" Megumi asks Naobito, who is checking his son
"He is absolutely like that! Gahaha! And it's not like we don't have a healer. Take him to the healing hall!" He says and shouts some orders to some people that take Naoya away.
"Are you good?" Gojo approaches Megumi too
"No problem..." He says and finally starts using Reverse Cursed Technique on himself "It's hard to do so many things at the same time while fighting."
"You will get the hang of it."
After a sound of acknowledgment, Megumi turns around to see the real prize of today. He didn't mind not stamping Naoya if he could win Maki over.
After some seconds of deliberation, he decides to go with the way that is more his style... Being direct.
"Hey, old man. Can I take her away with me?" He points at Maki with his thumb
This makes everyone's attention turn to the bespectacled teen.
"Hmm? Maki? So that's the why you two started fighting?" Naobito scratches his chin "Do you want to make her your concubine? Go for it."
"Why everything in this clan is about making someone a servant, a pet, or a concubine? All of you have issues." Megumi rolls his eyes
Unknown to him, this is 30% his fault.
Taking concubines and mistresses is still socially accepted in the old-fashioned Jujutsu Society, especially in the big clans. Yes.
BUT when Megumi made his build, he bought not only [Universal Calibration] but [Normalcy]. This last one makes people don't care and accept when the contractor is in a relationship with multiple women. Even when in a modern setting, he would be the exception.
Now, this perk is working together with Megumi's background in making people think "Alright, go for it. Take as many women you can, breed them to create some powerful babies with good genes. Totally normal behavior and expected to you to do.".
Megumi walks to his target "So, Maki right?"
"What do you want?" She asks, unfriendly and on guard.
"The real question here is 'What do YOU want?'. It appears that you don't have an easy life here..." Megumi looks around everyone "Are you okay with it?"
"Of course not."
"And what are you gonna do about it?"
"...excuse me, why do I owe you an explanation?" Maki snorts "Don't think you are all that just because you helped me earlier. I didn't even ask for help." She crosses her arms while turning her head away
'Prideful, huh?' "You owe me nothing, but... It would be a waste of my efforts if I simply go away and the same thing happens tomorrow. So let me ask you again... What are you planning to do to change your crappy life here? Run away? Kill everyone? Maybe I can help you with that..."
"..."
"..."
Maki stares at him for some time, unsure...
Megumi decides to give one last push. "C'mon... You don't have the eyes of someone who gave up. You must have a dream or an objective at least."
If she doesn't open up, he can only give up for now and come back later. 'But it would be a pain in the ass.'
"...I just need to become a first-rate Jujutsu Sorcerer on my own. I plan to enroll in Jujutsu High School next year." She finally reveals, making Megumi cheer on his mind.
"Oh~ So you are gonna go to the dorms when you start Jujutsu High? Why don't you get out of this cesspool of a place earlier and come with me?" He finally asks
"You?"
"Well, come to live at my place for some months till school starts. Will cut your suffering short." He offers with a shrug.
"...and why are you helping me?"
'Because you will be a muscle mommy in the future so I investing my stocks now' "A certain sense of responsibility after butting my nose on this matter. It would leave a bad taste in my mouth... And I feel a certain level of familiarity with you for some reason..." He throws some cryptic words here.
There will be a pay-off later when Maki's Heavenly Restriction is properly revealed and can be connected with Megumi's Father.
"..." She continues to stare at him suspiciously
"..." After all that, if he adds anything it will only look desperate and more suspicious
"You know what? Fine..." She sighs and rubs her forehead. Despite herself, she decided to trust Megumi.
There are some reasons for that. The fact he really helped her with no apparent gain, he is basically everything she is not. He can be the pride of the Zen'in clan and he didn't care about it and helped her.
Maybe it is because he is strong and she respects strength.
Maybe is Gojo Satooru's reputation and the fact he is with with her.
Maybe is his handsome face.
Maybe is everything combined, but Maki decided to leave the clan earlier and somewhat trust this teen she met today.
"Good choice, go gather your things while I go the archives. Meet me there." Megumi starts walking away before his eyes meet with someone, making him pause "...do you have a twin sister?" He asks while staring at Mai in the middle of the bystanders.
She is staring at them with a weird expression.
Maki follows his gaze and finds Mai too. Her lips pursed and she didn't respond
"...complicated relationship?" Megumi stares at her over his shoulder
"Something like that..."
"Is she treated like you?" He needs to ask
"A little better."
"Hmmmmm." He contemplates hard before shrugging 'Fuck the plot, let's break this CURSE, and take the whole twin package. heh~' "One more will not hurt." He says to Maki before he disappears from his spot.
With his imitation of Flash Step, he arrives in front of Mai, surprising the teen.
"You heard, right? Go get your things." He doesn't beat around the bush this time. His personality made him already tired of using subterfuge.
"Er, what?" Mai doesn't have Maki's strong personality, so she reacts shyly and even a little meekly to Megumi's forceful approach.
"..." Megumi sighs in pity seeing that 'Where's that caustic bitch from canon?' "Just gather your things and meet me at the archives. I will take you and your sister from here. Later we will discuss your future." He can't resist and pats her head "If anyone stops you, just shout that I kill them..." He says off-handled before turning around and going to Gojo.
"Done gathering your harem?" The white-haired woman asks with a teasing smile
'You have no idea' "Shut up." He puts on an annoyed act
The two walk together to the archives of the Zen'in clan while Gojo spins the key on her finger.
"I didn't know Megumi-kyun had this side on him... Should I be worried?" Gojo makes an act of covering her breasts and putting some distance between them
'Yes' He thinks, but outwardly he sighs "It's just some familiarity. And the thought that if was I raised here, maybe I would be bullying them too... So I'm fighting this thought by making a good action or something like that." 'Damn, [Covert Talent] really helps with lying, or I was always this good?
Gojo stops her teasing smile for a moment before adopting a more calm one "If it makes you feel better, I don't think you would grow up to be like that anyway." She pats his head
"..." Megumi ignores her patronizing words and looks around. Those strange looks are still directed at them, but now he understands "It's always like that? Sorry for making you come here."
Gojo pauses again before looking around too "Hehe~ In this backward Jujutsu Society many don't like that a woman is much stronger than them. The clan head here is a surprising exception, he respects strength. But most of the clans are this way." She says lightly
"And here I was thinking is because you're annoying that people don't like you. But that is only half the reason, huh?"
"Hey!" She fakes being offended "Anyway, don't mind that too much. I also enjoy walking in front of them and reminding them that I'm superior. Heehee~ Rubbing salting on their wounded macho egos." She laughs without a care on the world
"..." 'So here one of the reasons that she is purposefully annoying is to pay back some prejudice... Not that she would be much different otherwise.'
"Don't become like those guys okay, Megumi-kyun? Be a good boy~ There There~" She continues to pat his head in an irritating way
"..."
.....
"So this is Mourning Tiger power, huh? I can deal with it..." Inside the Archives, Megumi takes pictures of the journals of his ancestors and users of the Ten Shadows Technique.
He also took the opportunity to take Picture of the manuals of secret arts like the Anti-domain Technique: Falling Blossom Emotion and others.
He could've asked Gojo, but the woman is not good at teaching these things.
"Well, that's everything... Let's leave this place." Megumi says and the two walk out of the archives to meet Maki and Mai there with some baggage by their feet. Megumi notices a package suspiciously shaped like a naginata behind Maki.
'Now that she is like my responsibility, I will talk with Gojo about how to acquire Cursed Tools... Hm~ I can start to work as a sorcerer, right? I'm strong.' He thinks
"Are you forgetting about anything?"
"..." Maki and Mai are silent
"Phones? Clothes? Something that you hide? Say goodbye to someone?" He doublechecks "No, then let's go."
"I called Ijichi for a ride." Gojo says while checking her phone.
If was only Megumi, she could've teleported, but more people and baggage complicate things. It's a new skill after all.
.....
In the car
"..."
"..."
"..."
"...awkwwwwaaaard~~~~" Gojo sings from the front seat.
"..."
"..."
On the backseat, together with the green-haired twins, Megumi sighs mentally at the situation.
He gives the nervous Mai a sideglance 'I swear that I really had no intention of becoming a pokemon trainer harem lord, but here I am...'
His initial plan was really to go only for Maki in this world.
'And then Tsumiki... And the Mai comes in the combo... And it would be a crime to not go for Gojo... Haah~ Already four, things are getting out of control' He sighs mentally again 'And there will be Yorozu... And I bet my right arm that Uraume is confirmed female here'
He believed in quality over quantity, so he really wanted to have his retinue composed only for his favorites. After all, with so many worlds, even with only his favorites the number will go up radically.
But planning and living in this situation is not the same.
'The man is isekai'ed good, but the possibilities corrupt him... -Rousseau probably'
'Should I press the fuck it button and go for everyone already. This world is filled with baddies. Even that useless broom girl is not that bad... And if we are on that, why not go for Yuki, right? Ugh, But the thing is I don't know how many of them will want to follow me and how it works to leave them behind... Does time stop in this world? There are some perks to this, right? Connect my demiplane, which I don't have, to all visited worlds...' He starts contemplating his future
"Shouldn't you formally introduce yourself to your... 'concubines'... Megumi-kyun." Gojo interrupts his thoughts and the silence in the car, but there's a certain edge to her playful voice
Maki and Mai "..."
Megumi sighs, this time outwardly, and decided to bite the bullet. Someone needs to say something... Gojo is not a reliable figure and Ijichi is sweating bullets for some reason.
"Haah~ Just ignore her, 90% of what she talks about is irrelevant. " "Hey!" "And her favorite hobby is messing with people." He says
"..." Once again, the twins maintain their silence
"..." Megumi turns his eyes to them while supporting his cheek with a hand on the window "Are you too on bad terms?"
"..." This time they squirm uncomfortably
"I see..." He pauses for some time before deciding to continue "I was on bad terms with my step-sister too... Till recently."
The twins turn to him in a synchronized fashion
"We have different personalities. Very different personalities... She is a kind and genuinely good person, and I'm not. In middle school, I beat up some bullies and she didn't like it not even a bit. I ignored her annoyingly optimistic talk of 'fighting is not good' and did my thing. This led to our estranged relationship. We barely talked for more than a year." Megumi explains
After looking outside the window for some seconds he continues without looking at anyone in the car "More or less six months ago I decided that enough is enough and went to talk with her. The truth is, I beat up these delinquents and problematic people to create a safe environment for her and other people. Nowadays, all of those bastards bow if they see me and they don't dare to bully anyone or cause trouble." He chuckles a little.
He knows this part will resonate with Maki because he knows that she also wants to create a safe space for Mai in the Zen'in clan. Maki decided to take the brunt of the hardships to allow Mai to have it easy.
"When I finally, and a little embarrassed, explained that to her she also told me some valid and reasonable points... She was worried about me becoming violent, I'm in my formative years after all, and the fact I was being ostracized by everyone and don't have friends." He shrugs at these last words "To that, I don't care. I really don't care if I can keep her safe." He sideglances Maki for a moment before turning his eyes to the outside again
"The thing is... In this line of a job, I can die. And if that was the case, I don't want her last memories of me being us fighting..." He shrugs again "When is put on the balance, any other problem between us sounds childish. We solved that and now we're good.
"..."
Now he fully turns to the twins "I don't know the relationship between you two and I will not ask you to tell me. I choose to talk about mine, so don't feel obligated in any way to answer in kind. What I know is... Hardly any bad blood between teenage girls goes so deep that can't be solved with some heart-to-heart talk."
"..."
After saying that, true to his word, he doesn't pressure the two and he turns again to the outside. To let them to their own thoughts.
"That's a good advice..." Gojo says in a rare serious voice "With the little life experience you two have, I also don't think is an unsolvable issue."
Megumi stared at the back of the white-haired woman, guessing that she must be thinking about Geto and how their path differed.
Even Ijichi went to share some words of wisdom.
"Well, if you ask me..." He started
"No one asked you, Ijichi. Watch the road and let the talk end with my awesome and wise words." Gojo interrupts
The poor Ijichi shrinks at the bullying.
....
Finally, they arrive at Megumi's house
Ijichi left them while the other four entered the house.
"I'm home."
"Megumi! Welcome back." Tsumiki appears from the corner in casual clothes "Hello Gojo-san!"
"Hi, Tsumiki! You continue lovely, so different from Megumi's evil and unfriendly face~" Gojo greets the girl with enthusiasm
"And these two are..." Tsumiki eyes the twins carefully
"We're gonna be housing them from now on..." Megumi says a little awkwardly.
Now he noticed that he will be living with 3 women. Three teenage girls. Things will be complicated. 'Lures and Perks don't fail me now.' He prays on his mind
"Oh, welcome then. I'm Fushiguro Tsumiki. Nice to meet you!" The kind girl doesn't question it, guessing the two have their circumstances. And they are already approved by Megumi and Gojo after all. They can't be bad people.
The twins eye the girl of the same age as them, like Megumi said they can notice at the first moment that she is a rare good person.
After the exchange of greetings, Megumi guides the two to his room.
"The house has 3 rooms, my room is the bigger one, the master bedroom. You guys can share it. I will take my things off there later." He opens the door and shows his room. It's a spartan room that he has no problem parting with "There's an extra mattress that I will bring later, bear with it for a while. We will buy the necessary things later."
After putting their baggage down and grabbing his necessary stuff Megumi starts leaving them alone.
"I'm guessing that you two must be accustomed to traditional fancy food, so I already asked for a lot of junk food. Let me present you guys to a new world." He smirks before closing the door behind him.
The truth is that he remembers that the twin's favorite food is junk food. He read on their Character Cards. The reason is probably as he guessed. Traditional Japanese food shoved down their throats their whole lives and junk food must taste like freedom to them.
As a side note, on the first day that he came from this world, Megumi sat down to write down everything he remembered from the plot. From useless things like the favorite foods of the characters; to important things like everyone's Cursed Techniques and even huge secrets like how Yaga makes self-sufficient Cursed Corpses. Even a timeline of the events. All in code, obviously. And now it is kept on his Shadow Inventory.
........
With Megumi leaving, the room goes silent and the mood once again gets awkward between the sisters.
Mai sits on the bed while Maki walks around the room looking around. Her eyes finally land on a wall covered by sheets of metal.
"..." She approaches the metal wall, a hand thick of the material, and stares intently at the two fist prints on the metal. The two very clear fist imprints inside two holes that are made by constant impact.
She touches it, feeling that is really metal, and amazed that someone can do that.
'No traces of cursed energy...' She adjusts her glasses to look at it better 'Did he really do it with only his physical strength?' She even puts her own fist in one of the imprints.
For some reason, she feels something there. Something other than cursed energy. She can almost see Megumi punching the metal in her mind. Thousands and thousands of times.
"Strange training..." She finally is shaken off her reverie when she hears Mai's voice. She turns back to see Mai also staring at the metal wall, but not that interested.
"Yeah..." Maki moves away from the wall
"..."
"..."
The awkwardness is so thick that Sukuna could've cut it with his cursed technique.
"So this happened, huh?" Maki says
"Yeah, this happened..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"When I woke up today I didn't expect to end up leaving the clan following a boy and Gojo Satooru." Mai comments
"Me neither..." Maki agrees
"..."
"Did you talk with our parents before leaving?" Maki asks while looking away
"You not?"
"No..."
"So you're lucky... None of them presented any resistance to the fact." Mai says with a complicated face
"..."
"Mother only said 'Behave' and Father said that is a good opportunity to add value to my life... 'if I can bear a strong child from the Ten Shadows user'..." Her voice cracks a little.
"...bastards" Maki says in a low voice through gritted teeth. Her fists are tight on her side "Don't mind what they said. We are out of their control now."
"At least he is cute and not a guy of our father's age..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Wow, the mood is heavy here..." Megumi's head emerges from a black pool on the ground
"What the-" Mai jumps in fright
"Why didn't you knock on the door?" Maki asks annoyed, almost stepping on Megumi's head
"I wanted to catch you guys on surprise in case you two are going through my underwear or something." He smirks
"As if!" Now Maki really raises her foot to step on him.
"Sorry, I don't have this kind of fetish... The food is here. Let's eat." He says "And the main reason is that I like to use my powers trivially to train. Before I could only do this in shadows, now I can make the shadows for me to travel. Neat, huh? But it consumes a lot of cursed energy." He says before sinking back and the black pool disappears
"Look at the guy that we put ourselves in the hands of..." Maki groans regrettably
"It can't be worse than on the clan." Mai says
"In the worst case, we beat him and ran away." Maki huffs
"...together?" Mai asks a little unsure
Maki turns to her. To stare at her sister's eyes
"Together." She confirms with a strong nod.
Mai's smile makes her happy and she thinks the invisible wall distancing the two crumbled a little with that smile. Maybe she can allow herself to be optimistic about this new phase.