A/N: Look at this image. (If you're reading this on FFnet, please read it on Ao3 or Wattpad, it's 1000x better, and you can see images).
"Powerful enough to include a Cursed Technique that was sure to kill."
:)
C'mon Gege, why wasn't this expanded upon?
Well, time to get creative.
Also, Domain Amplification is a mistranslation, as it's more accurate to call it Domain "Envelopment."
Thank you to everybody who suggested making Megumi learn DA, because it brought me to research it more and I stumbled upon this panel that I haven't seen since like two years ago.
***
The office was a swamp filled with sticks and mud aligning every single part of it, a place where Ch'en had to wonder how many more hours she was going to sink in the structural amalgamation of stone, steel, and glass formed together to tower over all other buildings that lined the side of Lungmen's streets. Said streets have consistently been overrun by the trash of the trash, those dregs who continuously committed crimes not even for a reason to live another day—but just to splurge more on whatever luxuries they desired.
It was a monolith that displayed its power and authority wholly to the rest of the world, for others to look upon with awareness and implicit meaning. However, what purpose did it serve if it were just an apparition meant to send a message across, where the more intelligent were able to see it as nothing more than a symphony of flaccidity and plastic welded together? She had to, and needed to make sure that it stood as a bastion of the law itself, to leave criminals twiddling their thumbs and sweat buckets at the mere mention or sight of it.
...However?
Goddamned paperwork, it was always paperwork. Such pure sheens of paper that held not even a single stain of humanity's taint, had been corrupted by the blackened ink of what she assumed to be the most annoying people in existence. The reconstruction of the absolutely ravaged District of Lungmen that was almost enough to make an Originium reactor explosion whistle with recognition was still in progress, but it was good progress. Not everything was built in a single day, especially for such a large-scale fulcrum that was once an inspiring district that showed off Lungmen's wealth and economic prosperity. What fed into its construction was the countless workers taking entire day shifts and the amount of people that had to have been hired to increase the expanding workforce.
Construction had boomed as a viable option in just a single day. No thanks to a certain bastard, and some pretentious aberrational monstrosity that acted like it were some Divine General that belonged to heaven. It was more akin to a demon dressed very assumingly in the attire of an angel, but its origination of a beast festering in the deepest pits of the sulfur inferno was what looked to be more accurate in her eyes.
Had she been getting sleepless nights and nightmares of such a being? Of course she had. It had been ever so frustrating having to be reminded every time she fell asleep, and every time her mind dozed off from exhaustion. The marbled being made of the purest fraudulent ivory that she had ever laid witness to in her life—even far greater than any money regurgitating noble could muster—kept appearing in what should have been the mental confines of her fortified mind. Nothing was supposed to invade it, but a skilled general who knew the intricacies of physiological warfare, and it just so happened to be that damned thing, huh?
Her pen continued to scribble incessantly as her eyes narrowed in frustration. Her jacket had been taken off, as the temperatures of the office did not do well with the accumulated stress boiling the blood in her body. Frantic activities before, such as quelling people causing public unrest, or conspiracy theorists who should be relegated as madmen in a mental asylum, were all the rage that needed to wacked down a notch. Every. Single. Day. Ever since the damned Chimera Bird, Shadow Tiger, Water Dragon, and then Divine General—the amount of people who had turned to religious teachings and texts had damn near doubled in the condensed population of Lungmen.
That wasn't even mentioning the amount of information that had been leaked from the intranet and messengers to other countries, namely the rest of Yan, and perhaps even some parts of Higashi if she were to assume its pace. If there was one thing that she could bet on for the public mass to do, it was to spread misinformation and fear in some of the worst ways possible. It didn't help that the majority of the population were gullible fools who instinctively believe the flashiest articles that they see.
A splitting headache came over the lobes of her brains, forcing the dragon lady to slam her pen back on her desk, close her eyes with irritation, and place a hand over her forehead. The more that she thought about the subject, the frustrations that came with it would increase incrementally as a result. Rinse and repeat the process with toothpaste, along with water, and over the course of a few months—that was the annoyance she unwillingly had to put up with.
KNOCK!
KNOCK!
The room outside of her office and leading just to where the elevator was had two knocks echoing against it. The reverberation travelled through the air like a thin-scaled fish, travelling all across the vicinity and then into her ears. Perhaps if she had been in a better state of mind, then perhaps the irritable sound that had become a pet peeve wouldn't have aided in splitting her brain ever further. For a moment—when Ch'en saw that the door started to creak open—she prayed that it were Hoshiguma rather than the tiger bitch that—
"Ch'en!"
...It was Swire. Of course, she had always opened doors without consent from the other person inside after knocking. "What do you want?" Ch'en called out toward the woman who had made herself known. Her gaze came to the luxurious locks of Swire's golden honeycup hair cascading down like waterfalls, before twisting like small tornadoes the lower it reached. All in all, it must have cost a copious amount of money blown into the air to have it done and maintained.
"Catch on to the latest news?" Swire walked a couple of steps inside while glancing around, as if her gaze was judging every single aspect of the room. After that, she stood still and placed her hands on her hips, showing off a familiar sass to the other woman in front of her, "ah, well. What am I even talking about? Of course you haven't," she let out a huff when looking at Ch'en's narrowed lids of visual hamperance.
"I don't have time for that, or for this nonsense, Swire." Ch'en crossed her arms and leaned back on her chair, while also closing her eyes in order to let her brain rest. "Just spit it out and stop acting cryptic, it doesn't suit your mouth-running self."
"Wow, coming up with new insults every time you go to bed, huh?" Swire sarcastically mouthed out, "whatever, you're lucky this is an important one. Remember all the news running around Lungmen before? Across practically every single news article and intranet forum?"
"Get on with it," Ch'en kept her eyes closed, but scrunched up her expression, "I already do."
"Well~ you see, Ursus might have had a similar situation to us, you know?" Swire said with a sing-song tone, and looked away. However, a small portion of her gaze lingered on the dragon lady in front of her, watching as her eyes shot open.
"...Explain." Ch'en narrowed her eyes, the headache from earlier having vanished and replaced with... a strange feeling.
"Ursus, Chernobog, had about the same situation as we did. You know, all of the strange creatures appearing around that the public has no idea where they had come from?" Swire continued.
"..." Ch'en could feel her hand tightening into a balled fist from under the table.
"They're blaming Higashi for the entire debacle, saying it was some kind of ploy from them to rile up and incite a war," Swire let out an annoyed huff, "take a look at this image. An eight-headed serpent with each of them eclipsing a skyscraper peering from a red thunderstorm, and it looks like it came from a Higashinese painting too." The tiger lady reached into her bag and pulled out an image, and then tossed it to Ch'en.
She received it by swiftly reaching her hand upwards to catch it, "what...?" She narrowed her eyes when lowering it to eye level, and bore witness to what it looked like. "Shit..." Ch'en let out a curse from underneath her breath, "and Higashi is taking all the blame for this?"
"Mhm, just as I said," Swire shrugged, "it was clear enough for the Ursus Government and public that the creature resembles something that would come from Higashi. Hilariously so, and now both countries are at a crisis." Her tone became more worried at the end, even if she had attempted to cover it.
"A political one," she replied and narrowed her eyes at the picture. "We already know who this is, right?" Her voice fell into a deadpan.
Swire let out a hum, "it's said that some rather important military figures in Chernobog were dead that day—presumably at the time when the eight-headed serpent appeared, and when it had vanished. Put two and two together, and you've got a connected disaster in the making, especially if fingers are going to be pointed against each other. Now if it was actually him, then what the hell were his motives?"
"Tch..." Ch'en stamped the photo onto her desk and pinched the bridge of her nose with her free one, "so, are we gonna have a second Bloodpeak Campaign? Is Yan and Lungmen going to get involved?" She could feel a sense of dread coming to herself when thinking about it, "we know more about this than Ursus and Higashi combined, most likely, so—"
"Chief Wei left for a diplomatic meeting just recently," Swire cut her off, "hold your rattling tail for a second, you dragon bitch, it's still in Lungmen, just at a farther part of it." Not before letting an insult slide through.
Ch'en creased her brows even further, glaring at Swire. She would ignore the provocation, for now, "and he didn't inform me?"
"What are you glaring at me for? As if it's my fault," Swire put up just about the same expression as the other woman while huffing, "if you want more details, it's most likely because that event in Chernobog and the ones in Lungmen could easily be tied together with each other, especially with the timeframe that happened. Overall, we might be able to avert a further disaster if he gets involved and speaks his piece for Higashi, then maybe the misunderstanding could be cleared. Lungmen was the best neutral ground they could find, if you didn't know—by the way."
"With the information he has," Ch'en completed the rest of the reason for Swire, "then they know who the exact person to put the blame on, isn't that right? And then this entire shit storm will be averted, just as you said?"
"Seems so, just as I said." Swire shrugged.
'...Even elsewhere, that bastard still causes problems. An eight-headed serpent now, huh?' Ch'en's fist tightened even further, with the piercing pain of her nails sinking into her own skin like the fangs of a wolf.
"Oh, and I heard Lin had also decided to go there on her own," Swire added.
"Excuse me?" Ch'en raised an eyebrow.
"What? So surprising? Her father also let her go without much of an issue either," Swire continued to add more fuel to the fire, "ah... it's almost as if somebody else was completely left out on the matter."
"...Where in Lungmen are they having this meeting?" Ch'en growled out.
"Huh?" Swire turned toward Ch'en with an absurd look, "what are you talking about now?"
"Where. In Lungmen. Are they having. This meeting?" Ch'en repeated for the woman.
"Listen—Ch'en, don't be a dumbass, alright?" Swire let her expression fall into a deadpan as she leaned forward with her hands on her hips, "they already have Lin, she can be much more reasonable than you as much as I hate to admit it."
"Please, I hold more information in the matter than her," Ch'en slammed her palm on her desk while standing up, "now tell me, where the hell are they having this meeting?"
"...I can't believe you," Swire let out a rough sigh, "fine, I'll tell you. Don't fuck anything up, alright? If Chief Wei gives you a verbal beatdown, then I'm completely fine with that."
"Fuck you too."
"Don't make me change my mind, bitch!"
Ch'en let out a sigh, and turned down to stare at her palm. The small drop of blood she had drawn had already dried up and coagulated. She had already checked with the doctors, not a single drop of Originium in it.
...She didn't know what to think of it. She still couldn't.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The realm of three worlds was just about to change. That much was a certainty as the winds of change have blown its aggressive breath across the world of Terra, coursing through the frosted peaks of mountains and endless planes of the verdant prairies blessed with the incandescent moonlight shone from up above. For one man played by the hands of Fate as one would with a deck of cards dressed across the table, he would find himself being the epitome of one struck by misfortune. Worse than any thunderstrike that could find its way toward him.
***
"Brandt, tell me, what do you think somebody like Fushiguro Megumi is?" Werner von Hochberg stared off into the night skies of Sturmland, watching as the clouds moved across with great pace, blanketing everything in an everlasting shadow. There were brief traces of life in the form of flickering lights off in the city, but not a single instrument of music was being played.
"A monster," Brandt, the Gesatzwachter, echoed his voice through his helmet. He stood with a firm posture as any excellent personal guard would, domineering in his height and adamant in his fortress, "what young man possesses the ability to slaughter an entire group of the Witch King's Remnants? Even more so—contend against a Geszatwachter?" He still remembered the barrage of animals he had to go up against. And their... twisted, malformed forms that screeched an unholy melody against nature itself. Truly, a talented individual that would be sought out as a tool of power amongst many who desired such.
"A monster..." Werner's hands were placed behind his back as he breathed in the night air, letting it fill his lungs with the vitality it had been sorely lacking over the past years, "a fitting moniker. Of course, you had almost reached for your blade when he walked into my room, hadn't you?"
"A bloodied monster comes walking into your place of stay with a gait that would make even the worst of the remnants reconsider how cruel they are. The more I recall of the scene, the more I believe that there's more to him than meets the eye," Brandt shook his head with disbelief, "we've been delving upon this matter for the better part of a month now. Tell me, what has caught your eye so much that you keep bringing us back to the matter? Is it because of the letter?"
"Have you ever witnessed such a thing?" Werner ignored the last question, and asked his own, "the capability of summoning some sort of... divine being. A four-armed one that held weapons that even I wasn't able to identify, ones that reminded me of the ones utilized during Die Septemeraufstand, perhaps even surpassing them. I wish to ask of you, have you ever seen somebody possess all three of them at once?" Despite the initial shock of witnessing the distorted humanoid summon and overcoming it—it was only after he had been sent off Fushiguro Megumi and been allowed to ruminate over his thoughts after clearing many of his stressors could he truly register the absurd situation.
"...There have been many outliers and intricate individuals I have met throughout my entire time as a Gesatzwachter... Nay, since my entire duration of serving the entirety of Leithanien, and I could say that such individuals in relation to Fushiguro Megumi's abilities are... not far and wide," Brandt tapped against the hilt of his weapon while ruminating over his thoughts. "He does not utilize Arts, either. That much of a conclusion I have come to."
"Truly, it seems all of our drawn conclusions to him have reached a moot point because of that," Werner rubbed his chin while exhaling, once more feeling the harsh breeze of the outside enter the room, but he wouldn't have it any other way.
"Such is the nature of this vast world, there is not much we can do but delve upon these ever increasing mysteries."
"...Isn't it ironic? We were merely suggesting the political implications that his abilities may bring to himself, and yet here I am in the solitude of my mind imagining him standing at the side of the twin Kaiserins." Werner let out an amused huff, "or perhaps even a part of Leithanien's military? A Gesatzwachter? Oh how it is filled with absurdity, but I doubt a man like him would be one to settle in one single place."
"It isn't ironic, if you have already classified yourself as one of them," Brandt replied.
"Beforehand?"
"Beforehand."
"You're always an amusing one, Brandt. You haven't held this same energy ever since I've become a Kurfurst." Werner stared off into space. What was once a street filled with cars the size of beads from where he stood was now completely empty and devoid of life.
"You should take your position more seriously, Kurfurst Hochberg."
"Ah," Werner let out a sigh while placing his hand on the window sills, "do you think my daughter has already received my message?" He asked.
"By the time of a passing month, guaranteed. I doubt no less of an army would be needed to impede a monster's journey, after all," Brandt curtly said.
"Hm... then do you think she still cares to read them, at all?" Werner's eyes softened when the stars became clear to his vision. The celestial constructs which transcended any of their understandings, posed in a magnificent yet apathetic manner, "would she even remember what my face looks like?" He still remembered his daughter's own. She bore the same resemblance of his wife, after all, how could he ever forget those two faces?
"...I can't deliver an opinion on this matter." Brandt really couldn;t.
"I see." Werner took in a deep breath before letting it release, before changing the subject to something more fitting, "Cora Lowenstein must be preparing for the Kaiserinnenfest in Zwillingsturme. I pray everything goes smoothly for her," Werner made his last comment.
"Hm..." Brandt let out a stoic sound of agreement. "Then I believe our guests should return with news about their delivery soon in relative time to the Kaiserinnenfest."
"Indeed, Frau Arturia has been waiting for quite some time now."
***
Desire.
Humans always feel the need to satisfy themself one way or another. They desire for pleasure, for anything that would bring them away from the pain that they left in every facet of life. Every tear shed, every paint felt, every pang of hunger, and every feeling of dissatisfaction, comes from the endless desire that is felt. What would a human be... if they were truly liberated from desire?
"Well, what do ya' think?"
Megumi glanced away from the piece of text that the white-haired man in front of him had given. For himself, the highschooler didn't know why his sensei was giving him texts such as these, when he didn't even take any philosophy courses or philosophy classes in the first place. In fact, he didn't desire to take any in the first place, "what is this?"
"Really, you don't know?" Gojo Satoru pulled up his blindfold with a confused expression, "I thought you'd like reading these kinds of things, with how stoic and preachy you are of your views and all." He let a small smile break on his lips.
"Preachy...? What was I even preachy about?" Megumi questioned, "I just gave you my view on Jujutsu Society from earlier. There's nothing more and nothing less about it." The pain he felt in his chest continued to deaden while he shot down his sensei's words.
"There's something more emotionally significant about an outburst rather than just speaking your mind, don't you understand?" Gojo let out a humorous huff, "well, let me ask you something then. Do you desire anything? Forget about what we talked about earlier, this is what I want to focus on more."
The young Jujutsu Sorcerer glanced at his mentor for a moment, before leaning back and crossing his arms. "A normal life." Megumi didn't need to hesitate in what he said, he wished to live a normal life.
"Hm?" Gojo raised an eyebrow, "that's your deepest desire? The one you want the most?"
"Yes."
"Oh." He looked taken aback for a moment, whether for dramatic effect or not, Megumi did not know, "well... I guess that makes sense...?" Gojo had started to ruminate over the response he had been given, "I thought you wanted to make sure all "good" people get what they deserve for being as they are. Wasn't that what that whole schtick was?"
"Tch..." Megumi placed a hand over his face while sighing, "as a Jujutsu Sorcerer, I have a duty to exorcise Cursed Spirits and follow the will of the higher-ups, who represent Jujutsu Society as a whole."
"Do you want to follow that?"
"No. Never."
"Then whaddya want to follow?" Gojo questioned.
"...To make sure good people... don't have to suffer for their actions." Megumi thinned his lips. There was a concept, one of karma where either good will or bad will via actions or thoughts would be "if karma exists, Gojo-sensei... then why? Why do they have to suffer, why do they have to wait until everything passes before they're rewarded for their deeds?"
Why? Why was the world so unfair?
"Megumi-chan..." Gojo let out a sigh, "you know it was out of your power. Hell, it's even out of my own power. It was just..."
"Chance, it was just chance, wasn't it?" Megumi's lips quivered as his hand holding the armrest of his chair tightened, showing the bare paleness of his knuckles, "because everything just has to be so unfortunate, is that it?" Of course, the world wasn't all fairy tales, and he knew that. That was what he should have known ever since stepping into the world of Jujutsu Society, where only the most depraved and scummy people thrive, where negative emotions and Curses festered to the top of the food chain.
It wasn't fit... for any righteous people. It punished righteous people, and the reason why he hadn't been punished himself, was because... he was the farthest it came to being righteous. That was it, wasn't it, that was why his sister—
"Megumi."
Not listening to his sensei's words, Megumi continued on, "I didn't want to enter Jujutsu Society in the first place. I would have been happier if I didn't know anything, if the damned Zen'in Clan hadn't existed, if I hadn't been sold off to them, if my father hadn't..." He was reaching his boiling point, where all of his composure had vanished into thin air. The only thing that was left was a thin vapor, producing a great amount of heat that continued to rise.
"Megumi."
"I... I just I..." Megumi placed his hand over his face, his words falling short of his own breath, and his back leaning against his chair. He had no more words to speak, and he didn't know what else to say, but only one thing kept ringing clear in his mind. The world was unfair, it was completely so, and there was nothing that would so graciously bring him out of the pain it brought. Neither would those who deserve to be liberated from such worldly afflictions be granted such respite, either.
"Megumi." Gojo spoke once more, his voice the most stern the black-haired man had ever heard. His words caused Megumi to lower his hand and gaze at the two endless skies of the... thing in front of him. The one who seemed to have stood above everything else, unaffected by anything, a transcendent being—who had discovered all truth there was to life... was that what he was? "What do you desire?"
"I just wanted to live with her," Megumi glanced down, his facial muscles never once being released from its strain, "a normal life. Where I could see her married, watching the sun rise before she woke up on a clear day... I just wanted to..." She was a good person. She deserved the world. But the world itself was cruel.
"Let me ask you a different question then. As a Jujutsu Sorcerer—what do you want?"
He paused.
A Jujutsu Sorcerer.
What did he want, as a Jujutsu Sorcerer?
As a normal person living a normal life, what could he do for his sister? Was there even anything he could do with such a powerless identity?
Gojo spoke once more, "you said you don't want good people to suffer. As a Jujutsu Sorcerer, can you make this happen?" He lowered his head, the bangs of his hair flowing over his eyes like a river's sheen, "do you want to let Tsumiki-chan suffer?"
"That..." Megumi could feel the nails of his fingers dig into the palms of his hands, drawing blood as his teeth continued to gnash against each other. His brows were creased, eyes closed as he recycled what he had heard, like an infinitely turning wheel. "I... want to help her. She is a good person, she always has been. It's unfair, it's unfair for her, and everybody else like her who has to live in this world."
"We both know that." Gojo interlocked his fingers together, before leaning over and pressing his elbow against his knees, "so—shape that into something. Shape that into a desire that you want to follow, otherwise, how else would you ever grow to achieve what you want? To aid Tsumiki-chan from her Curse?"
Megumi didn't know how to answer. Desire, was that what he needed, was that the lacking feature that...
"Yes. It is."
He was cut off from his thoughts, turning upward to glance at Gojo Satoru. He could see his eyes, and that single sight was enough to fill the immeasurable void that was forming a pit in himself.
To desire for something.
Maybe then, he could enact a change. Any change that could turn his life around.
Just once, and that would be all the confirmation he would need.
Just to succeed once.
***
Desire.
Desire had always wrought into existence a person for a human being, encompassing all the flesh, bones, and skin that they were; the neurotransmitter which piloted the well-oiled machine that was the human body. From the barest of atoms and molecules, the desire came from the soul and thought themselves, that was how it was, and how it always will be.
What did he desire now?
Was it just to live on, as Itadori Yuji had told him? Was it to search for a way home? Was it to reach a boundless height that not even the gods could ever reach? Jujutsu Sorcery could make the impossible possible, such as imposing one's will upon the world, and cutting through the immaculate fabric of the world—of existence—itself. Even so, what could it do for him? What desires could it wring out of this withered carcass of passing time? A body with no desire was a body without purpose.
He had a purpose. He desired. He was selfish. He lusted. He was gluttonous. He was greedy.
Even then, was it enough? Where did his satisfaction start and where did it end? Where did all of the heavenly embrace of enlightenment's liberation stray off to once the cold waters of reality splashed over his body once more? An imaginative, figurative, and unexisting liquid which had always splashed him over the face, over and over again, all over the course of his life. First his father's horrid abandonment, second his sister's unfair coma, and third... his complete severance from the world itself—as if he were just a toy to be chewed up and spat out.
He was a clown. Wholly a clown.
No amount of desire could ever change that fact about him, could it? It was Fate itself, the destiny of the path written down on a scroll and carved through the course of his own history, that he was a clown. Whether he desired, whether he became selfish, and whether he were to become a calamity that cared not for anything that dared stare him straight in the eye with hatred, he was always—and always will be—a clown.
"—In light of the recent news of the blackout and strange flash that had occurred off in the incomplete Area 1 of Kawalerielki, many investigations of what had happened has taken place, and the suspects have been declared to be Leithanian terrorists hijacking the Nomadic City's engines, causing what was a city-wide blackout of Kawalerielki entirely. Mass panic had ensued, and the Kazimierz Major had to be put in a state of suspension for further safety of the audience which had been watching. Furthermore, there has been recent sightings and images of the underground of Kawalerielki housing what looks to be impoverished and Infected occupants, here are some images—"
The television blared its nonsensical sound into Fushiguro Megumi's ear while he laid in the embrace of his bed's fabric. It was an annoying clamor that continued to frustrate him the more that it spouted whatever facet of information that he already knew, but he had decided to let it be, in order for a certain somebody to listen to it. There was nothing for him to do other than leave this blasted city.
"—While the blackout and separation of the Nomadic City plates was an event that shook every citizen to their core, the flash of light off in he incomplete Area 1 was the one that has been the recent topic on everybody's minds. During the time of the blackout, some drones were still able to be utilized, and only a single one was active and in close proximity to Area 1, and was only able to catch one recorded before it was destroyed. Here it is—"
For a transient moment, his eyes strayed from the empty white wall that he was staring at. It turned toward the screen blaring its light in the darkened room, invading it with a property that he found irritating, and toward what was being presented as the digital image for the news. A sense of relief overcame him when it was only a flash of Chimera Bird's lit up form, along with the many destroyed skyscrapers. He and the Darksteels were nowhere to be seen in sight, as if they had never existed in the first place.
"—Unfortunately, even from the distance it was at, the assumed Electromagnetic Pulse Wave emitted from the colossal monster had disabled it and left it to tumble to the ground, and be destroyed. The recorded footage was the only thing that was recovered from the beam of light that was fired off from the sky. Now this leaves many speculations of what the oversized bird with six wings is. A secret weapon that has gone rogue? Some undocumented monster that had found its way to Kazimierz during the blackout? Or is something much more sinister at play—?"
When absurd theories came out, that was when Megumi had decided to turn away from the screen and mute it from his ears entirely. There was nothing good that came from listening to hearsay such as a news channel that was attempting to propagate fear for viewership and attention. They could make as many theories as they wanted to, but he wouldn't listen to them, and nor would he care about them. The only time he did, is when it involved himself, as that would have meant he was found out to be the cause of the disaster.
He felt a hand touch his hair and spread it, before it started to move softly across it. The motion was rhythmic, and Megumi hadn't paid much attention to it, having been too lost in his thoughts to let it fully register to his neural pathways.
"Princess."
"...Not now." Megumi let out a small groan while keeping himself still. There was a grappling feeling in his mind that he couldn't pry off, not with the current state that he was stuck in. "Just... keep quiet." He didn't want anything interrupting his thoughts, and the horrendous television sounds had already turned into white noise after hours of not paying attention to it.
His request was granted to him, as there was nothing else heard in the room aside from the static of the television turning on and off. Perhaps it was because the power hadn't fully restored yet in a stable manner, but it wasn't anything that could be assumed to be detrimental to the city seeing how infrequent it was. If anything, the static sounds that would rarely occur was just music to his ears, keeping himself calm and steady enough to delve through his brain once more. Even if it led nowhere—just as all the other times, it still provided the illusion that he was doing something.
Laurentina's hand continued to run across his head. Even if he didn't want to admit it, the feeling was a comfortable one. The more he experienced it, the more his eyelids became heavy, which left his body to sink ever further into the bed he was laying in. The sense of the deep night came over him eventually, when his eyes shut and he was granted passage once more to the world of his dreams. Despite the city outside having never slept ever since the start of this day, Megumi could find himself drifting away in spite of their brewing storm.
***
"Ha~ damn, now that's just messed up..." Roy dragged Platinum across the ground while panting, his injuries keeping him from moving at what he normally would be, "the hell was that... white-haired lady?" He couldn't even chuckle properly with the amount of damage he had sustained. "And now... don't tell me you're dead, come on man, you've been doing this for like—years now." He glanced down at Platinum, watching how he had been cut in half horizontally "...Well, I guess, urgh! Anything can happen any day, huh? How unfortunate."
He dropped the body of the dead Platinum to the ground, hearing the primordial thump of a body having been deprived of its life. Amongst the millions upon millions of deaths that had occurred throughout this entire planet's history, the Lazurite was reminded of how insignificant he was. Well, that was until he dispelled the thought, recalling all of the absurd events that had occurred in one single night.
"Don't tell me..." He leaned against a wall close by Platinum's corpse, staring off into the distance where his opponent had run off to after clearing out two entire squadrons of Armorless Union Assassins and Armorless Union Cleanup Elites. It wasn't because the monstrous woman had decided she was at her limit, no... it was because of the gigantic pillar of light that practically illuminated the entire city in its vicious descent from the empty skies. If anything, she looked to be enjoying slaughtering them with that expression which screamed insanity.
"The Darksteels, there's no way, right...? Haha, that'd be a nice joke, eh?" It was an absurd thought that crossed his mind the more he thought about that black-haired man dubbed as the "Cursed Samurai" by the public and the Kazimierz Major. However, despite essentially moving at speeds of Mach 3, if he were caught off-guard, then it would be easy pickings for the Darksteels, like picking cherries off of a field.
After all, the set-up was perfect. Cause a blackout which would have an entire city go into a blackout, go after their target while they're lost in the dark, and even if they weren't able to nail him on the first try, the next wave of spears should have killed him. Even then... despite all of these possibilities swirling in his mind and boiling up like a soup filled with countless ingredients, none of them held true to what he had just seen. He didn't remember any Darksteel or assassin possessing the ability to bombard the earth from the skies with a huge beam of light that shook the Nomadic City plates.
"...What the hell?" Roy pressed his hand against his forehead, "should I just quit?" He chuckled to himself, already realizing that everything had gone to shit in one day, "might as well at this point, if they're all gone—"
His communications device rang.
"...Well, here we go." Roy let out a sigh, before pressing his back against the wall harshly and standing back up, "city destroying monster, huh? Why did somebody like that have to find their way to Kazimierz?" He reached for the object with his still functioning hand, "looks like we're gonna have to go for another round if they want to. Wait, did that mean they won...?"
He clicked the button.
A voice replied through static, "we're... proceeding... into hiding..."
...Shit.
That didn't sound like they had won.
***
Viviana cleared her mind of all the articles that have sprung up across the intranet. She wasn't one to look at them much at all, and would much prefer to read newspapers rather than the digitally forged pieces of "information." Right now, she stared at the small unrolled piece of white and black colors displaying all of what had happened yesterday night, and the associative images that came with them. Across all of them, a single image had caught her eye the most.
A gigantic six-winged bird that looked to be massive based on the size her brain had instinctively compared to the other structures around it. It was a construct made up of light orange fur that looked more like painting brought to life and given real life qualities than a fully organic creature. The white bone mask that looked like it was made of marble also held what she assumed to be a "human" face. But she couldn't see it fully from the perspective of the picture plastered on the newspaper.
Her gaze trailed across the words, registering them all with swift precision. All of the information placed into this single hand-held object had immediately started to flood her mind, a method she had become accustomed to when reading multiple books, and during high-speed combat situations; but had refrained from utilizing too much in order to enjoy reading novels. For newspapers like these? Then there was no need to limit the ability to any degree further, as it would just prove to be an unnecessary option.
'So this is the one that had created the beam of golden light? A serene and absurd scene, but I laid my eyes upon the sight just last night, during the blackout. But... to think it was from this...?' Viviana glanced away from the text with a complex look on her face. The pale marbles of her eyes continued to take in the beast, one that looked like it came from a folktale or illustrated stories of knights triumphing against a great evil. But instead of a dragon which stood over primeval towers made of stone, this was an abnormal bird with strange qualities which eclipsed entire skyscrapers.
'Leithanian terrorists, Kazimierz Major on hold...' She continued to read over the rest of the contents that the newspaper had. Although the Leithanian terrorists part somewhat felt weird to read, she wasn't ignorant enough to know that Kazimierz and Leithanien still held skirmishes against each other close to their borders. The Major being put on hold was already expected considering what had happened, and... 'Ghettos hidden underneath Kawalerielki...' Now that was the most eyebrow raising part.
Put honestly, what had she been expecting? The city didn't have any slums and they held pride in that kind of fact. It turns out... the slums were just hidden underneath the city plates all along? From what she was reading from the article, that seemed to be the case. How all of these happened in a single day after Fushiguro Megumi completely dropped out of the Majors was like ten Originium bombshell suddenly falling down one by one.
Letting out a sigh while setting the newspaper down, Viviana stared off toward the skies. It was dawn, where the light of the sun bled into the sky and dyed the entire world in its warm colors. To her, though, it didn't look warm at all, and she would have much preferred today to be a more passive one compared to what had occurred yesterday.
Her thoughts came back to Fushiguro Megumi.
Really... she would like to stargaze with him sometime. Perhaps that should be the next thing she should ask of him, or maybe even listening to the many Haikus he has written? The next time he comes to visit her home, of course.
She could wait.
***
There was a gigantic landship over and off in the distance, while they stood at some settlement. They were close by a shop that held some words that Megumi remembered from his past life, off in another world. He didn't wish to delve on their definition, as they were in some way, different from the ones he had remembered. It was one that sold fried food of a specific variety, and held a color theme of red, white, and black. That was as much as his attention was paid to it, as time had always been a costly thing for him.
Instead, it focused on the landship off in the distance.
"That's Rhodes Island?" Laurentina looked somewhat impressed, but the feeling died out the more she stared at it. The landship standing like a bastion constructed of metal and turned into a steel behemoth made for land traversal was... just as she had described it to be. Nothing of note, really, "you've been awfully quiet on our ride here, Princess. If you want to—"
"Let's go," Megumi responded with a tired voice, and there were bags present under his eyes. "Let's just... go. You're returning home. Soon." His voice drew out while he continued to stare at the landship in front of him, perhaps even possessing less interest than Laurentina.
"...To clarify," Laurentina crossed her arms from the driver's seat, "I'm not returning home any time soon. Besides, it's only a smidgen of a chance that Skadi is even there. That Orca would never be one to join a pharmaceutical company," she elaborated further.
"You were made for a purpose."
"What?" Laurentina turned toward Megumi with a strange look on her face.
"You said you were made for a purpose before," his voice continued to sound like that of a corpse's—whatever that sounded like, "to kill those "trench-sucking" and "uninspired" beasts that lurk underneath the sea. When was the last time you've ever done it?" He continued to press on, opening the door to the truck and stepping out.
"If I were to make an assumption, hm... a few months?" Laurentina said.
The sights before them were not only the landship. Despite the wastelands spanning far and wide, there was a decrepit valley filled with mountains aligning its sides. They were the superstructures of the planet itself, maybe not the greatest that it had to offer, but the height was daunting enough for anybody to look up with an impressed look. For the two spectators of the towering monoliths of rotten green, it wasn't anything more impressive than staring at a cobblestone wall.
Megumi spoke again, "a few months. I've been denying your purpose for that entire length, haven't I?" The black-haired man continued to stare off into the horizon, making sure everything in its view was singed deep into his brain. Despite the beauty it lacked, he wouldn't forget this day, "please. Just go home. You deserve it." He said with a small voice, setting himself back down on the chair of their vehicle.
"What...?" Laurentina stared at him incredulously, wondering where he was coming from, and what he was talking about.
"Rhodes Island hires practically anybody. I've done some research. For somebody like you, who's also an Infected, they're also extremely welcoming." Megumi spoke like a machine preprogrammed to say those words, as if it were a part of his existence ever since he came into existence, "they also have many liaisons between many companies and organizations alike. If anything, it looks like you've struck a goldmine, and it's very likely this Skadi person is with them. Even if she isn't, then they would be able to find her much more effectively than I ever could."
"...Princess," Laurentina's voice turned to a crawl as she lowered her gaze, a shadow casting over her eyes.
"You've already found a way back to your home, even if you haven't quite reached there yet. Go on, I don't want to hold you back, or deny you of your purpose," Megumi said, "you don't have to repay any debt to me. Even if you felt obligated to any, you've already repaid it."
He was a Curse. He would always be a Curse.
"I don't quite understand," Laurentina said with an emotionless voice.
"Don't you get it?" Megumi answered with a question, "you're free to do whatever you want. To go on and complete whatever purpose you were made for, you won't find or accomplish it with me."
Not with a Curse.
"When have you ever held me back?" Laurentina crossed her arms, her eyes were still yet to be seen.
"For the past months. I already told you, when was the last time you've ever fought one of those Seaborn?"
"That's not what matters."
"It does."
"Since when?"
"Always," Megumi replied, "it always has. But I've been selfish, I've turned a blind eye, and I never once thought about you, or your purpose. Not until now."
Laurentina thinned her lips, "you're spouting nonsense."
"Haven't I always? I've been lying to you, ever since we've met," Megumi dryly shot back, "not once have I ever told you the full truth, not even when you sang to me, not even when we danced together, and not even when we fought together."
"You..."
"I've lied, over and over again. Over our course together, I've only fed you half-truths and told you nothing of what was the truth. You don't know what my home is, you don't know what truly happened to it, and you don't even know what my previous occupation was." Megumi continued to speak, "not of my enemies, or origins, or the nature of my powers. I've kept you in the dark, for the entire length of time since you've travelled with me."
"..."
"I've fed you lies, I've been holding you back from your purpose, and I've dragged you all across the world for my own nonsense. You've found your way home, you've found a path, and I have my own to follow. So—"
"Please, shut up," Laurentina cut him off.
Megumi shut his mouth.
"Answer me again. When did that ever matter?"
"I've already explained to you—"
"I don't care. Is it nonsensical to believe that—amongst all the "lies" and "half-truths" you've fed me, that I don't care?" Laurentina spoke with venom.
"..." Megumi didn't know what to say.
"I always knew, whether implicitly or explicitly, that you always avoided speaking about yourself. Any topics that came your way, or were in relation to you, Megumi, you always reared your head away and spoke some nonsense. I never once cared about such things, because you were always sincere, because you always held an intention I found dazzling." Laurentina could feel her grip tightening, "what do you think separates you from those liars who had stuck syringes into my neck and spine? Tell me."
"...I don't know."
"Intention, you buffoon," Laurentina let out a frustrated sigh, "you and your lousy justice. It was as if you didn't know what you wanted or what you were doing, and yet it was of the purest intent I've ever seen. It was... beautiful. Do you, for even a second, understand your beauty?" She saw that light, the beautiful star amongst all others which shone the brightest, which had enamored her.
"What is so beautiful about me?" Megumi clenched his teeth together, "what is so beautiful about my accursed existence?! I'm a clown! That's all I've ever meant to be! A clown!" Once his teeth unclenched, a yell shot out from his vocal chords, the stoicness and unmoving he he had once possessed shattering like rock.
His words started to die down as he breathed roughly, becoming short of breath after he had staked his claim. Between the labored breaths, he never once looked behind himself to gauge the expression of Laurentina... until now. He glanced back, to see the expression on her face. He wished he hadn't looked.
"...Megumi."
Laurentina's voice had become an imperceptible whisper, one that Fushiguro Megumi hadn't ever seen from her. It was dripping with ire, one that seemed reserved for people she despised. The fires of wrath have been stoked, and it burned the brightest when in front of one's eyes, unluckily, it was before his eyes.
"We've always danced together, back then. We haven't done one in, oh, so long," Laurentina's head turned upwards, the full crimson bearings ladened underneath her orbs had glowed intensely, blotting out whatever light which came over Megumi, "so—indulge me one more time, why don't you? I've, always, been looking forward to another one."
An insult to himself, had been an insult to her.
***
A valley of rotten grass and rotten trees, devoid of any life that could provide evidence for it to declare itself as a part of nature. It was a blemish in what was the natural beauty of all things, an unapologetic spit that was enough to disillusion anybody who bore witness to it, and crush the dreams of those who wished to see the beauty of all things. Perhaps, even amongst some of the most brilliant minds, such a concept could be extrapolated from a ruined place such as this.
Fushiguro Megumi stood at one side, staring at the large dagger in his hand. The object was in its broken state, leaving it as nothing but a broken Cursed Tool that barely functioned in what it could accomplish back in its glory days. The power to shift the earth and forge the planet as it was, and to drive back the Primordial Chaos which had infected the entire world in a mass of burning heaps. Truly, a weapon worthy of being wielded by the first two gods of the Shinto pantheon.
He glanced to the side while infusing it with Reverse Cursed Energy, intent on recovering its previous form, and gained access to its second imbued Cursed Technique. The Jujutsu Sorcerer never had a chance to wield it properly, in fear of the damage it would cause, and what sort of beacon it would send off with its energy signature. However, with his opponent being an Abyssal Hunter who surpassed him in every aspect of strength, he would be willing to see what it had to offer.
He had only been reading books on how to forge weapons, what weapons there were, and practicing Barrier Techniques. Those were his main focus for the past month, and he could see how much use he could put into them all.
Laurentina... he once couldn't bear to look in those eyes she gave him. It was far too intense for him to look at in his state, only when he fell further into depravity could he bear it with no shame. Indeed, right now, however, he could stare at it without even flinching—or even glancing away. He had fallen. He was disgraced.
The Cursed Tool he held transformed, not with the same immaculate fervor it had done so before, but with a more calm and serene modulation. It had once required four Black Flashes in order to execute, but once the feeling had been grasped and ingrained deep into his soul, Megumi could now repair it without even a moment's hesitation. So, there it was, the three-pronged spear enlarged in size and now in his right hand's grasp.
Ame-no-Sakahoko, the Inverted Spear of Heaven.
Despite its almighty presence becoming localized at where the weapon was, it could still be felt by the Abyssal Hunter standing on the opposite side of him. She had remembered it, when the black-haired man had stood over the corpse of those two Facerending Liches, while accompanied by the ravaging beast that was sent from heaven—or hell—she didn't particularly know. What she also didn't know was what capabilities it held.
A silence came over as they stood with their weapons brandished.
Then, as if they both had agreed for a moment to attack each other, their movements came together in tandem for a furious charge against one another. The ground broke from their leap, leaving a deformed landscape from where they once stood of lifted rocks and shattered debris, before they were close enough to see the light of each other's orbs.
Without hesitation, Megumi stopped his advance, and lifted his Cursed Tool upwards, making the land underneath Laurentina shake.
The Aegir widened her eyes when something slammed upwards on her feet. It was a gigantic earthen pillar which had been commanded to rise from the great spear she had seen transform in Fushiguro Megumi's hand. It was larger than any skyscraper she had ever seen on dryland, a testament to its function.
Without any moment to lapse into rest, the entire structure shattered with a force that sent its cracked bits flying everywhere in large parts. Each bit dotted the sky like stars in the night, but the time wasn't approaching the darkened pits of lacking sunlight in the slightest.
Laurentina rebalanced herself and found her foot planting on one of the finely destroyed debris, which was large enough to fit multiple human bodies on it. There were thousands of others that were rising high into the sky, and she spotted him. The Jujutsu Sorcerer who was leaping across each and every one of them, building up a speed with a golden barrier surrounding himself. If he wanted to go so bad, then she'd comply.
Dashing herself and leaving the rock she was on shattered, she maneuvered through each and every one of them as Fushiguro Megumi had. Two blurs were drawn across the sky as the world around themselves froze. Each rock that either one had landed on were pulverized into fine dust once they leapt off of it, and shockwaves continued to pulsate across where they clashed, sending further dust and shattered powder flying across the valley of their location.
They were two fighter jets unrestricted in their movements, able to change course freely and without any difficulty, and without any bars held in where they could impact. In this case, themselves.
One by one, each of the debris had become shattered, eventually telling the story that all things that withstood the test of time were eventually born to carry the burden of one single fate. That not all things were permanent, and that the ultimate result of all things as a constant, was death.
All the rocks in the sky had already crumbled, before uselessly falling from the sky. As a result, two other stars fell along with them.
Megumi landed on the ground after the brief bout that they had with each other. His body was aching, and it still was the moment he had planted his feet on the ground and assessed the passing calamity that had overtaken the land. Ame-no-Sakahoko's second Cursed Technique barely let him stand one step behind Laurentina in terms of attacks, and he was sure she was still holding back in order not to pulverize his bones and skin him alive. The power to manipulate force itself, to such a fine degree that it could forge landscapes.
It was too bad that he didn't possess enough of an understanding of it in order to do anything other than form skyscraper sized pillars. If he were Izanami or Izanagi, then creating the earth would have been child's play. But alas, he wasn't, and he doubted he ever could be.
Laurentina landed not too far from him, landing more gracefully than he did. The wind kicked up, billowing both her dresses across the wind in a majestic manner, along with Fushiguro Megumi's own black haori. The destruction between them was one of craters and blistered trees, spanning across the entire landscape that they had danced across. The mountains around remained untouched, but not for long.
The Jujutsu Sorcerer took in a calm breath, as he closed his eyes and concentrated. His body turned to the side as he continued to walk slowly, his opponent only taking a glance at him and mimicking the same motion. They both began walking.
Underneath the calm exterior that the black-haired man was giving off, a strange energy ladened underneath started to swirl as he recounted the past that hadn't belonged to him. The many techniques engraved into his muscles and etched deep into his flesh was enough to bleed, and that was what he wanted. To bleed out all of the experiences that had been ingrained into them by a king now long lost to time, in order to unleash the ancient curse that had once overtaken the world of Japan.
Domain Amplification
Laurentina felt a strange energy cascade off of Fushiguro Megumi, prompting her attention to be turned to him in order to assess what had happened. Like all of his previous abilities, a strange transparent dark-blue aura had encompassed him. Although it matches the same appearance as when he had enhanced himself with that strange energy... the nature she felt from it, was completely different.
Domain Envelopment
Suddenly, they all turned black with a spike of an accursed energy. It moved in a pirouette, twirling around his body as the ebony aura churned across his body in a twisted way. Like monsters creeping across his skin—Laurentina could see eyes underneath them, bleeding some sort of viscous black liquid that was dispelled once it lingered too long in the air. It was thin and coaxing, compelling the man in front of her to call out a familiar name.
"Nue."
Instead of the usual bird dressed in a black inferno coating, she saw four of them come out of the shadows that had been enveloping him, and be in a completely stabilized form. They possessed six-wings each and had a unique pattern on their orange wings, and their size was about half the body of Fushiguro Megumi.
"Multiple of them?" Laurentina narrowed her eyes when glancing at the multiple summons she bore witness to, in their distorted forms. She was already aware of the strange changes they had undergone since Leithanien, but... the most distorted of them all was Fushiguro Megumi.
Something was enveloping him in a strange black aura that resembled the immolation of flames, but the strangest part was that there were barely perceptible eyes made of scribbles and distorted shapes leaking out from them too.
"You know my abilities well, don't you?" Megumi balanced Ame-no-Sakahoko with one hand while wiping the dripping blood from his mouth with the other one, "you could tell that I can only summon more than one of my Shikigamis if they were in an "unstable" form." He continued to slowly pace across the arena, a habit that he had developed in order to keep his blood and adrenaline running.
The four fully stable six-winged Nues continued to swarm around him, drawing Domain Trajectories that would keep him protected if the Aegir had decided to charge him.
"We've spent months together, sparring, travelling, repelling unruly people... I wouldn't have missed a small detail like that," Laurentina dryly said, "you've changed a lot ever since I've found you floundering across Primavera like a lost fish, that much was noticeable..." She closed her eyes as if reminiscing. "Your words from earlier sting, do you know that?"
"...I've changed?" Megumi let out a huff, as if he found it hilarious, "of course I have. I always have, haven't I?" He glared off to the space in front of him, head tilted up as he stared at the sky, Laurentina still keeping the same pace as him. "Can you even say you know what I was, or what I've turned into?"
A Curse.
"Like you're somebody running out of time, like you're off to chase something that is falling out of the reach of the grasp of your hands," Laurentina answered.
The wind continued to rustle around Megumi as the Nues' crackling purple electricity continued to siphon around his blackened body, "did you know about Domain Amplification?" He suddenly changed to a different topic.
"Hm?" Laurentina turned to stare at him with an incredulous look, "and where is this coming form?" Weren't they talking about him at the moment?
"Domain Amplification coats one in an Domain Barrier that doesn't have a Cursed Technique imbued, which lets a Cursed Technique flow into its empty space, and therefore neutralize them. I learnt it, I felt it, and I instinctively know how to use it, despite having never been taught it by anybody." Megumi continued to drabble on while his eyes trailed across the wasted mountains and desolate forests of where he stood, "but the fact remains that it is a Domain Barrier enveloped around a person—which still allows for a Cursed Technique to be imbued. The reason why Jujutsu Sorcerers and Cursed Spirits alike don't imbue a Cursed Spirit inside of it, is for it to properly work as a tool to weaken and eventually disable Cursed Techniques. It is also useful as an Anti-Barrier Technique."
Laurentina felt her brow twitch, where did all the sentimentality go, why was this black-haired man flooding her with semantics about his... ability? Even then, what was he even talking about with all these misconstrued definitions that seem like they would go together hand and hand, if she didn't lack any context behind them.
"A Domain Expansion, by default, increases one's potential by a magnitude of 120%, allowing greater Output and greater malleability of one's Cursed Technique to be exhibited inside of a Domain Expansion. Case in point, my Shikigamis have become much more powerful, and I can fully summon their more powerful forms—their stable forms—in large amounts, rather than the multiple summons being limited to the unstable forms." Megumi's hand moved with the shadows possessing eyes in them, before it jolted and pointed toward his temple, "I'd like to call this Domain Envelopment, and it's superior to a Domain Expansion in regards to the fact that I don't experience Burnout or overexertion on my Cursed Energy Reserves—"
"Can you shut your mouth?" Laurentina had to reign in whatever impatience she had not to fall into an indignant outburst.
"—But the downside is that the Sure-Hit effect is only around my body, and not extended toward my Shikigami, and I can't utilize my other ingrained Cursed Technique in tandem with it either." Megumi hadn't heeded her words and finished the last part of his explanation, "and all the other benefits that come with it." Gashadokuro couldn't create Totalities for him as it wasn't fully manifested, and the pool that would suck people in endlessly wasn't there. "Do you know why I'm explaining this to you?"
"Please, we were discussing our lives before this whole mess," Laurentina let out an exasperated breath, "what do you even gain from this?"
"So that I can defeat you more handily." Without a single word after that, Megumi shot toward Laurentina, leaving a sonic boom in his wake. Ame-no-Sakahoko was brandished for a thrust as the four Nues followed after him.
Laurentina reacted quickly by concentrating her eyes, "a cheap provocation?!" She parried the blow, and the transferred force quaked the earth around them, leaving the land deformed from where she had redirected the spear toward, "of course—I wouldn't mind!" The Aegir smiled, ready to demobilize Fushiguro Megumi by crushing his legs with a vertical downwards blow with her buzzsaw.
However, it merely impacted the ground and left the entire earth below her crumbling from it. A large earthly plate was lifted up, shifting the land that they stood upon once more. Laurentina glanced upwards and saw that Megumi had already leapt backwards along with his Nues, holding a summoned Daiitoku in his left hand.
BZZT—CRACK!
Laurentina leapt to the side as a barrage of lightning bolts slammed at where she was at, keeping note that the Nues had aided in the attack by firing off their own lightning bolts. She skidded to a halt that left the ground beneath her feet turning upwards as her enemy landed on his feet, dispelled Daiitoku, and motioned for the Nues to charge toward her.
Brandishing her supercharged buzzsaw that emitted great heat from its friction, water started to gather around her. Being granted the feeling of being in the sea once more, Laurentina darted forward and swung in a wide arc at the Nues, sending off highly pressurized water that blocked their electrical currents and blew them back, before focusing on Fushiguro Megumi.
The black-haired man was already a step ahead, as he used both of his now free hands to block the blow of her buzzsaw, which caused him to grunt out and be blown away in the opposite direction. Right after, the Abyssal Hunter would grant him no respite and chase after his flying form, and revved up another blow.
Megumi immediately summoned his Handcannon and fired off a shot.
BANG!
A vermillion spiral shot out of the object's barrel and clashed against the bladed portion of Laurentina's weapon at point-blank range. The acting force of both the weapons caused it to cancel out, slightly pushing Laurentina back while Megumi was forced to bear more of a burden and be sent further backwards—crashing into multiple large trees which fell down.
While he continued to be dazed from the clash, Laurentina lowered her head as a Nue passed over, and slashed her weapon to kill the other three which had drawn Domain Trajectories around her body, leaving their bodies falling uselessly to the ground. She swung her weapon in a wide arc again, in order to have it clash against the Domain Trajectories and bear the burden of it, before chasing after the Nue which hadn't died yet.
"Tiger Funeral!"
"Divine Dog: Totality!"
Suddenly, two other beasts burst forward in order to intercept her way toward the Nue, a three-headed werewolf, and a twisted tiger with burning amber eyes ready to consume the world in its flames. Speaking of the tiger, its maw opened up widely, before a blast of flames was emitted from it which turned into an all-encompassing beam.
BOOM!
Laurentina dashed to the side and watched as the phenomenon of pure destruction passed by her and turned every acre of life behind her into a wasted pit of ash. She didn't turn around to fully gauge it, as Divine Dog: Totality shot upwards from the shadow, two of them to be exact, and charged toward her.
"How useful," Laurentina sarcastically said while ducking her head, avoiding an horizontal slash from Ame-no-Sakahoko after Megumi had secretly gone behind her. "I could already tell—" she pressed against Megumi's stomach with her left hand while her right arm drew an arc with her buzzsaw toward the two Totalities, "—what you were to do."
BAM!
Megumi winced as he applied Cursed Energy Reinforcement to his stomach, feeling the pressure pass through it from Laurentina's attack, while the two Divine Dog: Totalities were blown back, leaving lacerations from the Abyssal Hunter's water expulsion. He was sent backwards, while mentally commanding Nue and Tiger Funeral to follow up.
On cue, the two were already en route toward Laurentina. The bird Shikigami was high in the air and charging bolts of purple lightning, and thundered it down toward Laurentina. Tiger Funeral held Homusubisu in its hands, executing martial arts maneuvers as it flickered into static lines toward Laurentina.
"You said that..." The target of their assault, sidestepped the lightning bolts which blew up the ground "...you're impeding my journey back to my home, and my purpose," Laurentina lifted her tool of destruction upwards, letting the handle clash against the three-section staff that Tiger Funeral was holding. The entire ground around them experienced the shockwave, leaving it caving downwards in spider-web cracks, "says who? You never answered properly." She called out, watching as the weapon of the Shikigami in front of her coiled around the handle. "Just like all other times!"
The Shikigami attempted to pull back its weapon in order to have the buzzsaw be pulled out of the Abyssal Hunter's hands, but in a contest of strength, it was sorely lacking. Immediately, a drop-kick was delivered to its chest as Laurentina intercepted its action by slightly leaping off the floor and dealing the blow. The three-section staff that was wrapped around her weapon uncoiled and Tiger Funeral was knocked off its feet.
"Rabbit Escape!"
A smokescreen of white rabbits possessing multiple eyes, and holding a body almost as large as a human's surrounded her. They were alien in the Aegir's eyes, showing off just how malformed they had been ever since she had first seen their normal forms. It was somewhat off-putting, making Laurentina wonder what exactly the black-haired man had done to his usually cute summons.
She stomped the ground with a deft movement, leaving it further damaged and sending up a shockwave which threw them all off balance, "are you even listening?" She called out toward Megumi, before two-handing her buzzsaw and abruptly twirling around while slashing her weapon. A hefty slash came out of it as she bent her knees in order to disperse the momentum from it, leaving her hair cascading across the air along with her skirt, "or do I need to spill open your guts for you to hear me?"
The Rabbit Escapes were all turned into blood from the attack.
KLNK!
Right after, just as she was about to stand back up with a straight posture, a force pressed down on her entire body, making her feet stab into the ground as the impact settled in. 'The spear...' Laurentina creased her brows a black puddle further dug her in deeper, and it didn't help that her senses were being pricked with the sound of lightning cracking.
From all around her, a dome of purple lightning had surrounded the area, before it was turned golden. Megumi, who had provided an ample enough distraction with Rabbit Escape raised Daiitoku that he had quickly re-summoned in his left hand, before letting a beam of condensed lightning crash into ground from their vicinity—aided by the Domain Trajectory of Nue.
BOOM!
The force was felt, as trees were incinerated in its wake. The area around them was bound to turn barren, as Megumi narrowed his eyes in the beam of light that had been created. Right after though, he shot his eyes wide open as he dispelled Daiitoku and raised Ame-on-Sakahoko upwards defensively. It would prove for naught as Laurentina grabbed him by the face right after, looking no worse for wear after taking the previous attack.
KLNK!
"Well~ Do I?!" Laurentina coyly called out while raising her voice, increasing her speed and leaving the ground rupturing from her steps. Megumi could do nothing as he was carried off in the wind, being dragged by the white-haired woman across multiple trees, tearing them apart and leaving his body screaming in pain, "are you going to answer, my dear Princess?!" She then threw him with great force, and turned around to slash at Tiger Funeral who had been chasing after them, sending it backwards as the Shikigami blocked her blow.
The Abyssal Hunter shot the tiger a dirty look, "don't interrupt our time together, mister!" She reeled her left arm back and landed a clean blow from its dazed form, letting it dig into its stomach as blood spurted out, "this ought to teach you some manners!" Her expression shifted to glee as she could feel her hands digging into its organs, leaving the Shikigami reeling in pain. What she didn't notice however, was the transferred wheel atop its head.
KLNK!
"Great Serpent!"
Laurentina raised her buzzsaw casually to her right as a gigantic serpent found itself clamping its mouth on it, before the weapon turned on and started ripping it apart. To her left, just as Tiger Funeral had a punch in preparation despite its ruined state, Fushiguro Megumi swung Ame-no-Sakahoko swiftly.
"Hah~" Laurentina threw Great Serpent off course and crashed into the ground as blood flowed from in, before she let her left arm leave Tiger Funeral's chest in order to spin in a rightwards direction, and leave a viscera of blood splattering from her movement. It proved effective as she gracefully avoided the punch, and was able to contend with the oppressive force of Ame-no-Sakahoko with her now free buzzsaw, "weren't you just so talkative earlier?" She faux whined.
Eventually, they broke off from the clash.
Taking the initiative as Megumi breathed out a coarse breath, he brandished Ame-no-Sakahoko and charged Laurentina, opening up a large shadow pit behind him as an army of Shikigami sprouted outwards, straining his Cursed Energy reserves in the process.
"Oh?" Laurentina grinned, accepting the challenge. Spinning her buzzsaw with both of her hands, she landed on the ground before launching forward once more. Once she came to the horde, her weapon clashed with Megumi's own, producing a shockwave to be felt all across the area. Right after, they spun around each other before breaking off, leaving the Abyssal Hunter to run rampant in the horde of Shikigamis which had formed.
First, she split off the heads of a group of werewolves and birds emitting lightning, and then went for a vertical strike which sliced a large serpent clean in half. Afterwards, she leapt upwards in a backflip and avoided the flaming downwards strikes at her position from three Tiger Funerals and decapitated all of them handily, before she grabbed a Nue which had charged her and threw it toward Megumi, who was forced to bash it away with Ame-no-Sakahoko.
The force produced from the Cursed Tool fortunately also caused Laurentina to be blasted backwards, prompting the rest of the remaining Shikigami to chase after her.
The Abyssal Hunter regained balance as she looked upwards to see the white rabbits all form together to form a size towering over skyscrapers, and elephant sized birds with six wings fly across the air in a controlled pattern, and a swarm of oxes charging toward her. To start it all off, she sidestepped a downwards strike from Ame-no-Sakahoko after Megumi had made his way toward her first, and swatted away a combined bolt strike from the Nues, letting it crash into some location she didn't know.
She didn't speak, letting her weapon move across the air at blurring speeds, clashing weapons with Fushiguro Megumi's great spear while also tearing apart the Shikigamis that attempted to interfere. They moved in tandem across the environment, turning into streaks of colors and blurring across the battlefield as the area started to deform from their actions.
Not only were there splashes of blood running across the valley like a pouring river, there were also impacts which left the area completely crater, running across as far as the eye could see. Trees and grasslands turned upside down as flashes and distorted ringing sounds continued to reverberate across, mixing in with the sounds of dying beasts.
Torrents of highly pressurized water shot all across the area from Max Elephant, while explosions of fire came from Tiger Funeral. None if it compared, however, to the rippling force which tore apart sections of land from a certain Jujutsu Sorcerer and Abyssal Hunter.
Megumi twisted his body in the midst of the chaos, barely moving out of the way of a buzzsaw which would have torn his stomach open. Right after, he summoned Daiitoku in his left hand and waved it downwards, surrounding himself with bolts of lightning which forced Laurentina to retreat. As strikes of thunder left the ground melting into heaps of sizzling molten rocks, while also providing a bright smokescreen for him to strafe around Laurentina.
The Abyssal Hunter in question looked disappointed, sending a deft kick behind herself in order to leave a Divine Dog: Totality with a hole in its stomach before she decapitated all three of its heads, and let the blood run along with the water emitted from her buzzsaw to bash against Megumi's Cursed Tool which had been thrusted forward—dispelling the Cursed Tool's force which was powerful enough to twist the lands to its will.
"Ghk!" Megumi strained himself in order to keep Laurentina in place, "if you want an answer... I've already given it to you!" He gritted out while the buzzsaw continued to spin, sending off sparks against Ame-no-Sakahoko.
"Really?" Laurentina still looked disappointed, "give me a proper answer," she spat out, tilting her head in order to dodge a torrent of water, before backhanding it in order to send it back to the Max Elephant who had fired it off—leaving a sizeable hole in its head.
KLNK!
Megumi twisted Ame-no-Sakahoko around her weapon in a way that the buzzsaw would not find its way toward him, coming to a better understanding of her fighting style. He would find his weapon intercepted again from the surprised Aegir, leading the two into another flurry of clashes that was more on equal footing than before.
...If the Abyssal Hunter hadn't changed her style of fighting mid clash, and jabbed her fingers into Megumi's side.
SPLAT!
"Ugh...!" Megumi clenched his teeth as he locked his muscles together in order to slow down the bleeding. It proved useless as Laurentina removed her hand from the area, leaving a splatter of blood to come out of it. All of his Shikigamis were dead from the previous assault, leaving him defenseless against his opponent's next barrage of attacks.
Despite what distractions he attempted to create with Daiitoku by striking lightning across the area around him and tearing apart the land with Ame-no-Sakahoko to his advantage, the Abyssal Hunter would always find a way to leave him flying across the air from a blow, and he couldn't distract her any longer with his Shikigamis if he didn't want to expend his Cursed Energy uselessly.
KLNK!
The moment his Dharmachakra spun against, a blow which should have cracked his skull and left his life in jeopardy was deflected by Ame-no-Sakahoko, but was still enough to send him crashing into one of the mountains in the valley.
BOOM!
Once again, the ground was lifted upwards before breaking off into a million debris, leaving them to fall uselessly to the ground at the authority of the planet's gravity. A large dust cloud was formed as Laurentina casually flourished her buzzsaw and landed on the ground, waving her hand in order to dispel the smoke in front of her. A brief current of a gale passed through the land, clearing it far faster than the normal time it would take.
"So?" Laurentina called out toward the rubble, already knowing where Fushiguro Megumi was. His strange coating had been dispelled, because she no longer felt the strange signature that it gave off, "we're fighting for no reason, aren't we? How about we set a little condition, hm~?" She continued to speak, "if I win, you'll have to follow me from now on, and if you win, then I'll leave you alone. A fitting one, wouldn't you say?"
"—TWIN METEORS."
"Huh?"
"DISMANTLE!"
The air distorted in front of Laurentina, providing an ethereal sight of the world turning red and black at that very moment. Following the commands of her instinctual body, she hurriedly leapt to the side and produced a sonic boom, watching as the attack forged from the most accursed of hands ripped across the scene in a vertical cleave. Everything in its path was pulverized, before it spanned across the valley before impacting a mountain behind it, leaving a large gash across the bosom of nature.
"...Aren't you just so~ cheeky?" Laurentina grinned toward the chasm that had been formed from the slash, watching as a black-haired man raised up from the mountain of debris that had been pressing down on his shoulders. Black markings were on his face, while his crimson spiraled eyes were now numbering in two pairs.
"If I lose this fight—it's no different from dying." Megumi called out toward the woman with an uncharacteristic spite, "do you expect me to be defeated by somebody like you? Please..." Round Deer stood behind him, healing his injuries while he chuckled—
"—DISMANTLE!"
Laurentina was about to make a reply toward his words which had ached her heart, but let her buzzsaw spring forward into a barrage of twirling slashes, deflecting the barrage of Dismantles that had been sent her way.
Megumi had already dashed out of the crater he was in, his shadows opening up from the distraction the barrage of Dismantles had provided him.
Great Serpent: Totality - Sea Dragon Mizuchi
The chants and hand signs were already complete.
A gigantic dragon shot upwards with water falling off of its body, before it reared its head toward Laurentina and fired off a torrent of electric water, pressurized enough to rip across the valley and make its way toward her.
She dodged to the side as the ground before her had been ripped apart...
"DISMANTLE."
...While also leaping across a grid of slashes which had attempted to slice her apart, but then found something impacting her side, which came from a Tiger Funeral who had fired off a beam of fire from its mouth.
She was launched away, leaving an annoyed feeling to come over her as more slashes came her way along with golden streaks of thunder baring their fangs toward her.
"Such versatility..." Laurentina sarcastically said while her body continued to move across the valley in order to maneuver the torrents of water that erupted from the ground, the golden lightning which cracked across the air with a cackle of laughter, and the brief fire beams that would be sent from Tiger Funeral. Did she mention that barrages of slashes would also randomly appear? How fun.
She turned around and met the four eyes of Fushiguro Megumi, who attempted to grab her face with his left hand. Thinking fast, Laurentina deflected his arm by slamming her wrist against his arm, and reeled back her buzzsaw in order to rip his side open.
DISMANTLE
Megumi twisted his arm around her own and sent a fast Dismantle to bounce the buzzsaw backwards with greater force, making Laurentina reel backwards, before his right hand reeled Ame-no-Sakahoko back for a mean thrust.
BOOM!
Bearing the full brunt of the Cursed Tool at point-blank range, Laurentina felt as if the space in front of her had cracked, sending her backwards, 'it wasn't this mighty before?!' She regained her balance by letting her foot slide across the ground, and used the momentum to continue sliding and avoiding the volley of attacks that came after.
Then, she leapt into the air and kicked a fire beam back at Tiger Funeral, who Megumi was forced to dispel before it suffered any more damage. His Domain Envelopment was already turned off so he could use Shrine in tandem with the Ten Shadows—the Domain Envelopment was only used in order to let his Shikigamis land hits without being permanently destroyed.
That way, it made way for his second to third strongest Totality in his arsenal.
Mizuchi flew to Megumi's side and charged past him in order to bite at Laurentina.
The Aegir let out a huff while ramming her buzzsaw into its mouth, which the dragon clamped its jaw in order to catch it between its teeth, letting the bladed portion grind against them while it coursed electricity all around its body and electrocute the Abyssal Hunter.
While she was being brought upwards, Megumi pointed a finger gun toward her while precisely sending off Dismantles in a way where it would hit her and avoid his Totality. It worked, leaving shallow cuts to come across her body while she continued to be electrocuted by Mizuchi—
—The half side of Mizuchi's head burst into blood, leaving Laurentina to be free from its grasp as she fell like a meteor toward him.
Megumi widened his eyes and raised Ame-no-Sakahoko upwards while leaping back. He wasn't worried about the Totality, as Round Deer's Reverse Cursed Technique would let it recover, and thus—
BOOM!
The ground blew upwards from Laurentina's impact, spanning across a radius which almost left Megumi gaping in shock. Raising his weapon downwards as the Abyssal Hunter shot forward in a ferocious charge, he found his body once more turning into a rag doll from a kick she sent toward his chest, making his spit out blood despite the enhancements his body had received from Cursed Energy.
He continued to be launched backwards as Laurentina charged him with sadistic glee, and any attempts to deflect her blow with Ame-no-Sakahoko proved useless as his mastery of the weapon could hardly scratch even the surface of its potential. Even if he lifted the earth into a pillar to impede the Abyssal Hunter's path, she would burst through it and land a blow which left him further reeling back, if he attempted to use the force in a purely offensive manner; she would overcome it and crash him across more trees or scraping off against the ground.
At the final hit, he felt his ribs stabbing into his lungs, leaving blood spilling out of his mouth in copious amounts while his oxygen intake was hampered.
BOOM!
His body crashed into the side of a mountain, making him roll across it. Still clenching Ame-no-Sakahoko in his right hand, he let his black haori fall off and dispel into his Endless Well of Shadows. His breath was rough, panting as he turned upwards to see Laurentina landing not too far away from him.
"So...? Had enough already?" Laurentina called out while pushing her hair back, "or do you need more of a beating, hm?" She sassed out toward him.
"I don't understand... hah~ what do you... hah~ want from me?" Megumi stood up shakily, wiping his mouth with his left hand while glaring at the Abyssal Hunter, "is this about the debt...? I already told you, I couldn't care less—!"
"It's not about the debt, how dense are you?" Laurentina interrupted him with an annoyed look, "when has it ever been about that useless debt? Please, do you take me for that much of a fool?"
"..."
"It's merely you that I want, how complex of a concept is that to understand?" Laurentina stared at him with an exasperated look.
"You won't get me, then," Megumi countered, "you already have Skadi to go back to, an entire home that you've been brought away from, I have no place—"
"I've heard enough," Laurentina launched forward.
"...!" Megumi brought his hands together quickly while dispelling Ame-no-Sakahoko. His mouth opened, calling for the chant of his win condition, the single Shikigami that would turn the tides of war itself.
"WITH THIS SACRED TREASURE...!"
A deafening silence came over, as the temporal flow of time had come to a halt at a primordial force that had found its way into the world. Not a single pin could be heard in the void that had enveloped the entire valley, as even the sun's incandescent light had been blocked out by its supreme influence. All that lingered were the shadows—no, not even the shadows—it was a fissure between reality itself.
"I SUMMON...!"
Laurentina was frozen in this realm, only her eyes functioning as they darted upward toward the cocoon that had formed behind Fushiguro Megumi. The cicada which laid underneath it was ready to be metamorphosed into the world with its divine splendor, to bring upon the wrath of the enlightened Manjushri. Across its ivory skin which consumed all the light of the world in all of its consuming wake...
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Erupted forth...
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From its incorporeal womb...
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EIGHT-HANDLED SWORD DIVERGENT SILA DIVINE GENERAL MAHORAGA!!!
...The God of Shikigami, the Embodiment of Scorn, wrought forth to shift the clouds of the empyreal heavens!
...So, Chariot of the Apocalypse, let it be known...
...The Path to Enlightenment...
...Has opened forth...
...In the palms of transcendent gold...!
SWORD OF EXTERMINATION - UNSHEATHE
The crown was now off.
It was a mere flicker of a Supreme Art held in the passing generations of history, and bathed in the blood of the thousands of enemies it had struck down. A technique meant for slaying even the mightiest of dragons—dressed in the contempt of diverging paths—became known to the world once more.
Laurentina found her pupils constricting as she bore witness to the eyes of heaven revealing itself right where the blade had flown across from. Her shoulder bled, both her flesh, bones, and skin ripping off as the mountain that had been stood upon shook from the slash which had been sent off.
'The Divine General...'
Six wings came from its eyes, as its skin looked to have been crafted from the finest of marbles she had ever seen, surpassing any single sculpture she had laid her eyes upon. A flame bathed in the aureate flesh of the celestial planes poured off of its body, while its torn black hakama rippled across the wind, accentuating its peerless attack which had sealed the mountains themselves. The blade crudely attached to its wrist with gray cloth aligned in golden symbols she couldn't understand was dressed in beautiful patterns of folded damascus steel.
Before her eyes, she finally understood it. The star which she had been gazing upon, the one which shone the brightest, was always one to burn itself out the fastest. They burned, and burned, and burned... until they no longer could, until they exploded from their own growth, and unleashed the brightest shine it could. In its wake was a beautiful sight which would consume everything in its wake, leaving only one thing after it had completely died out. No longer did it glimmer in the darkness, no. That wasn't it.
All that was left was a blackhole.
...It was then the gaping maw of Mahoraga morphed into a grin.
***
"Hah... Hah... Hah..." Megumi breathed roughly while Mahoraga stood behind him, staring at the slash which had left the clouds up above split in its undying wake. A light shone downwards, illuminating the path which had been carved forth from the wrist-bound blade of the Shikigami, and leaving an Abyssal Hunter temporarily halted. "Laurentina... you've already lost, just surrender."
Mahoraga growled.
"...I've already lost?" Laurentina tilted her head while taking in the frame of Mahoraga standing behind Fushiguro Megumi, the sight irritating her for whatever reason. That irritation only turned into a frustrated chuckle, before... "HAHAHA~!" It erupted into full blown laughter, "oh please~ when did you become so amusing?" Her wound healed while she placed her left hand over her mouth, sneering toward the two.
"Since today, it seems," Megumi deadpanned, his left hand resting on the two sheathed blades by his left hip. "Just go back to Skadi, Laurentina."
"Hehe~ go back...?" Laurentina let the last of her humor die out in the last giggle, "not without you."
A declaration was made.
Between the two, only one will have their way.