Chapter 35

Megumi pulled a blade half way out of his shadow, keeping it mostly concealed to form some kind of element of surprise. Megumi didn't recognize the man or woman immediately but after racking his brain, he remembered a description one of the curse users captured during the goodwill event gave them.

"That monk kid with the white hair. I'm not even sure if they're a he or a she."

The person in front of Megumi definitely fit the description. The robes of a shrine maiden. White and red hair styled into a bowl cut. The androgynous appearance. It was definitely an enemy working with Geto.

"You… remind me of Yuji Itadori." They said before Megumi could theorize any further. Before he or Toga could react their enemy was right in front of them, their cursed energy surging.

"Blas-" before Toga could finish his command, his was frozen in place. His left arm and his entire lower body covered in ice while a chunk of ice covered his mouth like a gag.

Megumi finished drawing his sword from his shadow and swung at them. They back stepped his first swing, ducked the second, and side stepped the third before kicking him in the gut and bring him to his knees.

"I sense a certain… potential in you. Your body is unnaturally resilient. Perhaps you could be of some use to my master. I suppose I shouldn't kill you then. But this annoyance can be discarded." They said in their androgynous voice as they walked over to the frozen in place Toga. They lifted their right hand as their index finger was covered in ice, forming a makeshift knife which they pressed against Inumaki's forehead.

——

Birds chirped a happy toon as they sat on their branches, discussing whatever problems trouble them in a language Megumi knew he would never understand, not that he would ever try.

The sun beamed down on them, Megumi watching from the cooler, but not quite cool, jujutsu high building. Its traditional Japanese sliding doors were wide open, blocking none of the sound emitted from the bamboo shishi-odoshi near the koi pond.

"Do you know why the Gojo and Zen'in families are on such bad terms?" Gojo Satoru asked, leaning back on an extendable lawn chair, his legs propped up. His usual black uniform and blind folded were now replaced by a black pair of sweatpants and a long sleeve sweater, round sun glasses, which so tinted they were impossible for anyone not possessing the legendary six eyes to see through, rest in front of his eyes.

"I didn't know they were on bad terms." Megumi responded dressed a white dress shirt and black pants.

"Ohhhh the worst! I think it was during the Edo era… or maybe the Keicho? I forget, but the heads of each family got heated during a spar in front of the aristocracy and killed each other." Gojo explained, tilting his head down his glasses sliding down the ridge of his nose as he did.

"Who were the heads back then?" Megumi asked.

"A limitless cursed technique user with the six eyes from the Gojo family, just like me…" Gojo said throwing his hands up before putting them behind his head to use as a pillow.

"…and a user of the Ten Shadows Technique from the Zen'in… just like you, Megumi. You get what I'm trying to say, right?"

——

Megumi held a lot of doubt about that, if he could actually become a sorcerer capable of beating Gojo. But if he had to guess how his predecessor killed the head of the Gojo clan, he'd have to say something like this.

The Ten Shadows cursed technique is a cursed technique made up of ten individual shikigami. But only the demon dogs are given to the user for free. Every other shikigami must be summoned and tamed in a subjugation ritual before the user can summon and use them at will.

During this ritual, only the user and their tamed shikigami are permitted to harm the untamed shikigami. If anyone else interferes in the ritual it becomes void and the shikigami will not be tamed even if defeated.

This makes the whole ritual and the exorcism of the shikigami pointless for the user. But even some pointless things can be useful. For even if you must exorcise the shikigami to use them, you can summon them anytime you wish in an attempt to exorcise them.

Meaning a Ten Shadows user could summon a shikigami using a subjugation ritual and rope in an opponent, forcing them to participate and fight the shikigami. In all of history, no one has ever come close to subjugating this one.

Megumi brought his hands together, forming two fists in a specific hand sign as he began to chant. Pouring every last drop of cursed energy remaining into the summoning, he gave up his life in order to take theirs. He just hoped Toga wouldn't be caught in the crossfire.

"With this treasure I summon, Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga."

Uraume raised their hand the moment the words were spoken, super cooled cursed energy swirling around them as they prepared to attack. Wolfs appeared, howling at the moon, frogs formed two lines to guide the general forward.

The shikigami appeared from the boys shadow like every other of its kind, its towering 8 foot frame moving with surprisingly speed as it moved towards the kid.

The shikigami itself was a towering, muscular humanoid figure with four wings protruding from its eye sockets and a tail-like appendage extending from the back of its head. Hovering just above this was a large eight-handled wheel.

"Frost calm." Uraume spoke, using one of the most powerful techniques in their arsenal right away. Luckily, their ice reached them before the shikigami could strike the now cursed energy deprived boy.

He was incased in ice, as was the shikigami. Uraume rushed forward, slamming their fist into the beasts head, shattering it completely as it was blasted away. The boy was less frozen than the shikigami, the ice only freezing the upper layers of his skin and no deeper. He would be of no use to their master if he was crippled or dead.

"Stay if you value your life." They said before dashing towards a recently created dust cloud, the shikigami's large form digging itself out from the food truck Uraume had punched it into. Its head, somehow, was fully regenerated.

Strapped to its right wrist was a long blade, its length humming with a yellow glow. Uraume raised their hands again, blowing into their plans and sending a ball of chilled mist into the shikigami, freezing its entire torso including its blade arm.

Uraume then created a large, sharped slab of ice and flung it at high speeds towards the shikigami's chest, destroying it completely and sending its body parts every which way. But in the next moment the wheel above its head trembled and a brand new upper body appeared from its surviving lower body.

Uraume didn't like the feel of the thing. Something about that wheel gave them pause. It'd be best not to give it any chance to put some plan into action and just kill it in one blow. But so far that wasn't working.

Maybe their maximum technique was in order? How long had it been since they were forced to use it? Over a 1000 years at the very least.

"How bothersome."

——

Geto, dressed in his usual monk robes, a scar crisscrossed with stitching running across his forehead, observed from the edge of the crater created by Jogo's altered Maximum technique: Meteor.

The man in white, a man he recognized as Toji Zen'in, the breaker of fate, the slayer of Satoru Gojo, lay face first on the ground, completely knocked out. His opponent, the victor of their little spar walking away from his body, going to retrieve his sword so that he may finish the job.

Geto wasn't all that surprised Toji Zen'in was brought back to life after his defeat by the hands of Satoru Gojo 11 years ago. But the implications of the feat were truly remarkable. The Séance technique used to bring forth the body and appearance of a dead individual and overwrite an existing body in order to gain its power and physical capabilities was interesting, true, but nothing all that ground breaking to Geto.

But what was ground breaking was Toji Zen'in's ability to take control of the original body using his own. His soul took no part in it, as would be required in normal circumstances. Only his body played a part, his body had beaten the original's soul. It reminded Geto of his little conversation with Satoru Gojo not too long ago.

It sorta made him rethink his plan for the future but after some thought, he decided it was fine. He had two plans after all. If that one failed, it would lead to the success of the other so it didn't matter much.

Isamu Inumaki though, that was another surprise. Geto knew he was talented and all but not to this extent. Being able to claim the maximum technique of another and refine it as you see fit was amazing. Sure, the way he danced around Zen'in and knocked him unconscious was impressive but less so. Geto was more interested in jujutsu after all.

A cursed technique was tied to your person closely, especially for Jogo whose body was pretty much themed around the technique. As you went along with your techniques progression, the technique was more and more connected to you. This was part of the reason domain expansions were so powerful and unyielding.

A Maximum Technique was only a step below a domain expansion, making it quite close to the user. This would make it pretty much impossible for anyone to mess with it in terms of its intent. Sure, you could mess with its flight path by deflecting it or weaken it with a technique like simple domain but its purpose, that of smashing into you, would be unchanged.

But Isamu Inumaki had changed that. Not only did he change the technique's intended target to that of the user, Jogo, but he also improved the technique in a way the user didn't have in mind previously.

If Geto had to compare it to something, he'd say it would be like forcing a river flowing down a steep hill to instead flow up hill while also increasing the amount of water in the river and the speed at which it flowed. Sure, cursed speech was more conducive to the feat than most techniques but it was still more than impressive.

"Isamu Inumaki… fufu… you are surpassing my high expectations. Keep it up." Geto said to himself before turning towards the center of the crater which Inumaki and Zen'in had slowly distanced themselves from during their brawl. There were some fingers to collect.

——

Isamu didn't like killing powerful people, contrary to what some might see as a good thing. To him, it was just a waste. He liked seeing new things, especially when it came to jujutsu. So when he saw a new technique with a good user, all he wanted to do was see where they'd go with it and how the technique would develop.

With some, he didn't mind that act, such was the case with the cursed spirit. It was obvious it was lacking in the talent department so nothing it did would be all that interesting. Just 'more fire' or 'hotter lava', nothing cool. But others, he had a real hard time finishing.

The man in front of him was powerful, no two ways about it. Strong, fast, durable, ruthless, the whole nine yards. And all without a lick of cursed energy. Isamu wanted to know how it was done, who this man was, if Maki could achieve something similar. In short, he didn't want to kill him.

But he knew he would have to. Not even a minute ago he was trying to break Isamu's neck. If he woke up he'd just try to do it again.

As Isamu raised his sword, he couldn't shake the feeling of curiosity. It was obvious there was more to this man than he knew. He was probably a famous sorcerer or curse user known for killing so and so. It reminded him of when he would come across a dead body with a spooky audio recording in a video game. He kinda wanted to know the lore behind the man.

But Isamu had been selfish enough for one night, he would need to be satisfied with a good fight and another victory under his belt. Well, two, he guessed.

With a quick intake of breath and a swift chop downward Isamu buried the blade in the man's throat, cutting half way through, only stopping when he felt the blade hit spine. Blood splatted across his shoes and pants as Isamu thought of something he really should've given more thought to before. In all the chaos it'd slipped his mind.

What now?