Chapter 8
Megumi just got back.
It was time.
Fushiguro had warned the others that war was at their step. He knew those who have taken the ten shadow technique were aware of their location, however he believes that they are unaware that they live within the mountain.
Junpei did a quick search of the villages at the base, much to everyone's surprise there was no one within them! It was as if they knew what was to come and have left or taken proper action.
"Remember, our jujutsu is going to be limited due to the seal in place within the ground. I have been training and testing myself. The extent of my limit is one wolf and one other summons of nearly the same size." Fushiguro explained.
"Where's sensei?" asked Panda. "Shouldn't Gojo sensei be briefing us?"
"He's too drunk." Muttered Nobara. "I know he was trying to make Suiryu feel better but still, shitty time to get wasted…"
"Beyond our control at the moment…" Yet he paused as he sensed him. Teetering out of his residence. Gojo was on his feet, he shook his head clear and gave himself some firm slaps on the face. Suddenly, he was coherent and able to assess what was happening.
"So, they are coming to us huh? They are a lot brighter than what I gave them credit for…"
"Sensei…" Fushiguro began to say. He was stunned when his teacher didn't interrupt him. "I suggest we start positioning ourselves to various points that will give us the advantage. I'll take the north since it will give me a better view with Neu and I'll summon the alpha wolf to be on standby."
"I'll take the south. Junpei and Sanso had set up a bunch of nails for me ready to go. I'll take that position." Stated Nobara.
"Inumaki and I will go west." Said Panda.
"I'll take south west, that way I can go to either side if they need help." Said Mika.
"I'll take the east then," Gojo sensei announced.
Megumi then turned and saw the curse wombs at the ready. "Sho and Choso are going to stay behind, just in case." Junpei explained. "But we will fill the gaps between each position to ensure no one slips pass you."
It was decided.
"We need to also be made aware, they might have human shields… They have been forcing those who stayed behind into binding vows, those who refuse, will be targeted and killed. Claiming it is a traitorous act."
"We need to keep an eye out for Todo, he was on his way here… but I have a feeling he is going to get caught up in all of this…" Megumi said.
"We'll keep an eye out for him, besides. I could use another sparing partner!" Junpei said and snickered a little. "To think I never would have thought about learning with a bigger body frame. Also… he's Yuuji's friend."
"Why and how I still don't know…" muttered Nobara.
"We've lost too many already…" Fushiguro whispered. "Let's prepare ourselves, everyone… good luck."
There was nothing left to say, it will be their last stand…
#
Choso watched them leave as he returned to the brothers' residence. He sighed aloud as he too wanted to go out and fight, however. He turned and was carefully given back his little brother. Yuuji has been getting more mobile as of late. He has yet to wake up but it appears, he is trying to.
"Will they be okay?" Sho asked. "I want to help them too, at the same time… I cannot leave everything to you."
Choso sighed. "I don't know at this point. I am unaware as to how many of these sorcerers are coming let alone what they are capable of. But Shoso, I appreciate you staying at my side just in case."
He merely nodded and decided to take his position. Sho will stand at the 'doorway' to the domain, if anyone from the council or the elders legions manage to get in, he will make sure they don't go any farther beyond him!
As he watched on, Choso began to wonder if Suiryu was okay. Despite not having as strong of a connection to him, there was still one. Yet over the past while, he felt that connection grow so weak, he barely feels it. "I hope you are okay, Suiryu…" Choso whispered.
For now though, he will wait for everyone to return. They have to return. For Yuuji's sake, they need to return alive…
#
Earlier…
Suiryu never knew what to expect from a drunken dream.
He has never been drunk before, and yet, the dream he has… it's so vivid in his mind. He stood face to face with Sukuna, and yet there was something off about it all. Sukuna… wasn't acting like himself.
He sat there, staring at Suiryu oddly. "You're still here!?" Suiryu demanded of him.
"I never left," and yet… the tone.
It wasn't his usual snarky, condescending, arrogant, full of him self answer. It was a oddly calm and rather… gentle response.
Suiryu was oddly startled by it. "What's with you? Why aren't you trying to possess me!" he demanded.
"Why haven't you become who you really are?"
Once more, he was startled by the tone, it wasn't mocking him, it wasn't yelling, it… it was sincere.
"You mean, to become you? You fucking think I want to be ANYTHING like you?" Suiryu demanded and even laughed at it. "I want NOTHING to do with you!"
He didn't react the way he thought he would. Sukuna would have mocked him, insulted him for trying to test fate, and yet… this one… was completely calm and collected. He stared into Suiryu's eyes before saying. "Then what are you doing to prevent it?"
"Okay, who the fuck are you!" Suiryu demanded. "You cannot be Sukuna, I know Sukuna. I came from the sick, son of a bitch, and yet you… you're acting odd. You're acting…" suddenly, he paused. The tone this one spoke to him in, it's… it's familiar in a sense. "Why are you asking me such questions, are you Sukuna?"
Strangely enough, he shook his head. "I'm Ryomen,"
"Yeah, that's Sukuna." Suiryu protested.
"My situation… should be considered similar to yours, but that's for another time… for the moment, you need to prepare." Suiryu didn't react as his dominate right arm reached out for him. "Finish what you started…" His hand shoved him right over his left side, over his heart of all things.
Next thing Suiryu knew, he was trapped in a domain. He heard voices all around him, and yet, couldn't make sense of it. "Who… what… WHOSE THERE!" he roared into the abyss, but there was no answer. His body trembled as he looked about the void, it was too familiar to him… it was how he felt when he was bounded to Sukuna before being released from him the first time around. But, Suiryu didn't like the idea that he would be alone. "Will… will someone help me?" he asked meekly. "I.. I don't want to be here… please… someone…"
His body curled up, he went into a fetal position as he tried to think of a way to wake up, but the more he tried, the more he realized he couldn't. Something was going on here! Suddenly, he felt a gentle hand brush through his hair. "Let's leave together," a gentle voice said. "But we need to bring some others along with us…"
#
Out like a light.
Perhaps it was for the best at this point, he has no idea what is happening inside of him. She was cautious to return to earth without disrupting the energy around her too much, so far, she has gone undetected. Peering down once more to Suiryu, her hand gently brushed through his hair. "Is this what you want, Ryujin?" she asked gently. "I do admit, this took me by surprise as well, but… after seeing what I saw between him and Sukuna…"
His eyes suddenly clenched, his body began to sweat as his breathing became deeper and sudden. Backing up, she watched as sparse markings on his body appeared but caught on fire. His right eye shot open and yet his left remained closed. Slowly, he sat up and out of the bed, yet wasn't at full strength. Looking about the room he saw her and smiled. "Hello mother…" he said gently, but it wasn't Suiryu's voice.
"Ryujin… how are you feeling?"
Looking to his hands he sighed. "Not quite there yet. I am having some trouble with the fusing process, but given time I should be able to merge with him. It will depend on Suiryu, at the same time, this body is breaking down rather rapidly. It was maintained with curse energy,"
She nodded to him. "Then how do we fix it?" but then bore a rather wicked grin.
A smile came over him as well. "I know where to get the materials needed. It will be enough, as well… I wish to assist them in this new life they want to establish here. They need elders of their own, but those who have a great understanding of life… having lost theirs."
"I agree, I have already made arrangement for that as well, you are permitted four, no more or less. Understood?"
"Yes mother, I'll leave that for Suiryu to do now. If anything he will only assume it's a drunken dream… Oh… One has already come to him… I knew they would and I am happy they are…" he said and smiled.
Standing up and out of the bed, he looked into the mirror to get a better understanding of his image. Various parts of his body were on fire, yet he does not have his full power yet. Unlike when he possesses Itadori, the curse marks he had became flames, yet with Suiryu his left arm, the upper shoulder of his right, half of his back and stomach bore flames, even his face only the right side possessed the fire. Everything else he appeared human. "Are you strong enough?"
"I am mother, I have more than enough strength for this, as well. I have to stop the elders from their plot. If I can at least do this for them, then I know my sacrifice is not in vein…" he paused as his hand came over his heart. "He has such emotions… very much like young Yuuji, mother. I know he may have come from such a evil being, but… I didn't think I could find that single speck of humanity in Sukuna…"
She nodded. "Come, we don't have much time. I will offer my assistance, yet I cannot participate in battle."
He paused oddly. "You shouldn't be interfering at all, mother…"
"Who said that I am?" she asked and smiled. "If anything, I am merely… distracting. I am permitted to have conversations now and again, am I not?"
"I see where I get flexing the rules from…"
"Indeed, come, there isn't much time."
Ryujin, in full control of Suiryu's body took hold of his mother's hand, one moment he stood in the room, the next, he was underground in a high tech lab. Hidden below the school in Tokyo, Ryujin paused as he sensed powerful energies, and they were attempting to shift into another body.
He walked rather invisibly though the lab, perhaps that is also his divine power at work, the curse users don't appear to notice him the least bit. There were only a small handful of them and yet they were quite vigilant with their work. "The next group is ready, but we are having no success."
"Increase the output, take more from the catalyst and go from there."
He walked into the main lab, there he froze at the sight. Despite the elder's call to kill Yuuji Itadori, he wondered though. If that was truly the case, why have a clone of Sukuna in his original state in suspended animation?
#
The elders were plotting, they have gotten word from the council that they located where the traitors have gone and were planning a full scale attack in the next twenty four hours. As request of the government, they are tasked in sparing most of the citizens if possible, but if extreme measures are needed, they are permitted.
"It won't be long, and soon, we will have everything in place for our reign to last another generation!"
"Indeed, imagine, us being more powerful than the three great families!"
The elders held their conversations behind the silkscreen; it's to prevent those below them from seeing their faces. Yet, before the conversation could continue, the room suddenly felt rather heavy!
Then, she appeared.
A rather large, robust woman, and yet the power behind her was something they couldn't ignore. "What… who are you?" one demanded.
She glared at their screens, the silk caught fire and burned their little façade to the ground. She stared into the faces of the wrinkled old bastards and smirked. "I didn't expect anything less…" she said. "But it has come to my attention that you are intending on harming my child… I won't allow it." She said bluntly.
"Child? Who or what are you?"
She smiled. "You don't have the privilege of knowing my name, but know that I am far more powerful than Sukuna… to me… he's nothing more than an infant. By your standards he is like a god… so tell me, if that is how I perceive him, you should watch your words VERY carefully around me."
They turned rather pale, good. They understand the severity of the situation. "What… what do you want?"
She looked to them oddly. "Me? Oh, I already said my peace. You are after my child and I won't allow such action to go unpunished," but then paused and giggled. "Oh right, I have more than two sons now…"
"Sons…"
The ground below them trembled. "What on earth…"
"Now, your little experiment, is over. One of my children is taking care of that as we speak now. You will no longer be permitted to use what does not belong to you…"
"Experiment? What experiment?" the elders asked as they played dumb.
She glared at them, as she did, her eyes turned a haunting yellow. They looked more demonic the longer one stared into them. "You have cloned Ryomen Sukuna to use as a base of your test… you have also cloned back the first of the three great families to take their technique from but are using Sukuna's energy to bind them into the bodies. It only partly works for the moment, yet soon, it will fail…" she paused once more. "I sense others who have been taken from this world being used as well… but my son has already found and taken them…"
"How… how could you know of all this?!" one elder shouted.
"Earth is my domain, my realm and my responsibility, I cannot interfere with matters as much as I wish to do so. But at the moment, I am content to being doing this for the most part."
"What do you mean?"
"I am merely distracting you," she said and smiled. Then she paused once more. "Oh good, he's finished… well then. Let this be a final warning to you. Stay away from my children. Yuuji Itadori is MY child… and I have been tending to him to grow and become a dragon… if anything happens to my son, I will interfere… and I assure you gentlemen, you will know a new form of suffering when I am done should I be forced to such measures!" by the time she finished speaking, the room trembled from her voice, but then, it grew quiet.
The elders recovered from the shocking appearance of this woman, only to find she vanished as quickly as she appeared.
Then, the messages began to come in.
Councilmen were rushing in, telling them about the lab that was destroyed. "Everything is gone! The clones, everything!"
"There is nothing left, we only have one that survived and they have been perfecting the Kenjaku technique!"
The elders were silent. "It will do," one sighed aloud.
"Elders…"
"There is no point in continuing, we won't be able to replicate the clones again without risk…" said another. "But, bring the one who has been perfecting Kenjaku's skill… there is still use for that one."
