A cave was on the outskirts of Laterano, hidden away in a crevice where no prying eyes could ever find their way to. There were the sounds of waterfall off in the distance creating a clamoring echo, and then furthermore leaving its voice to travel all across the interior. To some, it would be a province of serenity where one could close their eyes and let themselves be washed away by the running waters, but for a certain inheritor of an accursed fate—it continued to remind himself of how many times he had been turned upside down by such incessant waters.
Megumi let out a sigh as his hand had finished tracing across the vacant air around his body, splattering crimson paint wherever it travelled, and until the walls around him were left with dried blood. A burgundy color, something that he had grown used to throughout his entire life, along with the putrid stink that came with it. His eyes finally settled down as the process was finished, toward one single person at the center.
"You're the one causing all those terrorist bombings," he cut to the chase, flicking his hand as the residual blood flicked off of it. "I wouldn't have expected that, Fiammetta spoke highly of you and Patia, Alicia." Really, at the same time, he wasn't too surprised. The ramblings of that bird woman had delegated the person in front of him as an upstanding citizen.
...What could have happened? Well, this was Terra after all. Megumi wasn't too surprised anymore.
"Is that so?" A Liberi woman wearing a uniformed cloak which designated which organization she belonged to, "ah... Patia and Fiammetta, I haven't seen the former in a long time." Alicia looked reminiscent and unbothered by the corpses strewn about around her. "I guess the former is off doing something else. Fiammetta... She's too blind. It's unfortunate."
"You shouldn't be saying that," Megumi almost felt the urge to roll his eyes, "when you've been bombing the innocents in Laterano." He hated getting involved in this matter, but he just couldn't help himself. Deep down, he couldn't allow something like this to happen when he knew he could do something about it.
"Of course." Alicia didn't deny it, "say—could you honor a person's last dying wish?" She didn't receive a response, but she went along with it, "tell Fiammetta everything I did." That friend of hers... deserved to know at least that.
"No," the response was immediate.
"What?" The Liberi looked somewhat confused, as if he didn't do so, then it was most likely that he would be facing the wrath of a terrible misunderstanding. Not that she was complaining, though, "why not?"
"I don't like bad people," Megumi's voice was impassive, "does a bad person like you deserve to taint somebody else's memory?"
"...You sound quite juvenile when you say that, don't you know?"
"I know. I don't care."
"Ha~ okay, then. Do I deserve to taint somebody else's memory?" Alicia let out a sigh while mulling over the question.
"I won't follow through with your request." He didn't let her finish that single thought, and spoke his ultimatum.
"Care to elaborate more to this dying soul?" She already knew, but the Liberi was merely entertaining the last vestiges of her consciousness.
"For someone like you... you don't deserve anything," Megumi's eyes were cold-blooded, holding not a single tinge of warmth that could delegate him as anything but a Curse, "I've already decided on that. Fiammetta knowing what you did will be the final act for your treacherous actions—I can't respect that. In fact, I could have never respected you in the first place."
"Isn't that a shame?" She sarcastically said.
"It's a shame, yes. Out of everything you could have done, you become a terrorist and betray everything that Fiammetta knew about you." By all means, she was a bad person. He hated them, with a passion. One that had been festering ever since he had bore witness to the injustice that this world seemed to hold dear.
He hated it.
He despised it.
Action was never something he took upon himself, unless circumstances came into play, or whenever his illogical emotions got the better of him.
"How can you say that?" Alicia spoke up again.
"What are you talking about now?"
"Haha..." Alicia let out a dry chuckle, "you're suggesting... no, you've been suggesting I was a hypocrite for what I've done, yeah?"
"You want change for Laterano, to get rid of that "false paradise" that you've been parading around like a crazed cultist," Megumi narrowed his eyes, "and you resort to terrorist acts for it. By all means, you're proving nothing. You're worse than this idea you're so zealous about."
"Have you done anything?"
...Megumi paused at those words.
"Aside from killing people, stabbing things, and shooting things, have you done anything?" Alicia continued, "your eyes are obvious enough, you murderer. I wonder how many people out there think you're some monster with the way you carry yourself and grow an extra pair of eyes."
His four eyes narrowed.
"Oh—that isn't even mentioning those markings of yours that make you on par with some of the worst Sarkaz. Hah! Do you even know what they have to go through? Laterano is only a paradise for Sanktas who turn their heads away from the world and everything else, there is no place in their world except for themselves."
"So what?"
"Huh?"
"Are you just envious, then?" Megumi growled, "who cares if they live in their own paradise? Don't you think you care too much?"
"Wow, you really know nothing, do you?" Alicia scoffed.
"Yes, I do." Megumi rolled his eyes, "you view the world however you want, and nothing can change your mind. I've already come to terms with that," he glared viciously after, "what's so wrong if I view the world as selfishly as I want to?"
"Now you're just being absurd. Though, I guess there's some merit to that."
Megumi sighed, turning an angered gaze toward her, as his eyes widened further, "don't we all?" He lifted his hand up and pointed the Handcannon toward her head, "I chose to live selfishly for my own sake, to alleviate any pain that this world throws toward him. My pleasure comes first. That's all that matters, you bastard." His mouth lifted upwards in a smile, but his eyes told a completely different story.
A macabre story.
"I guess my first instincts were right," Alicia sighed without much resistance toward her fate, "you're a monster."
Behind Megumi in the canals of the cave, he could hear the voices of Lemuen, Mostima, and Fiammetta just faintly. They were arriving here sooner or later, and they were the right authority to handle this situation. But really... Did he want that? Did he want their judgement and Laterano's judgement to be given on this Liberi woman, when he would be much more satisfied with his own?
Not at all.
That would go against his pleasures.
He just wanted her dead.
Just as the footsteps became louder, Megumi shifted his expression into one that resembled a cold-hard statue. It was unfeeling and uncaring, bearing the uncanny resemblance of a certain man remembered in his previous life.
Fushiguro Tsumiki and Itadori Yuji no longer existed, Arturia was right.
No longer would he grieve to himself and deny himself because of the problems he caused,
He lived for his own desires now, and he was now capable of it in every measure. How relishing it was.
"If you go against my wishes, I'll just Curse you."
A crack of thunder rang out in the confined mass of stones and sedimentary, and echoed across the walls like a hammer slamming into a gong. A visceral crushing sound came out as an unnatural beam of red laser crackling with brief sparks of vermillion lightning rushed forward from the gaping maw of a puppet forged for destruction. A puppet dressed in the shape of a firearm, and twisted in colors of black—death's most favorable hue.
The entire top section of Alicia's body had been erased, having been completely evaporated. Not a single sound came from her now nonexistent lips as steam rose from the charred crisp of the outline created of the blast. The interior of the cave shook from the blast as pebbles started to drift downwards and clack against the floor, while the stalagmites above started to quiver from the harsh shaking.
Then, it stopped.
All that remained was a sizzling sound, and the smell of a burnt corpse.
Megumi glanced backwards as the footsteps he had heard from earlier before had stopped. With a stoic look, he gazed at the three figures who had entered his view, who were looking at him in a way that he had wholly expected.
A blue-haired Fallen Sankta stared with a puzzled expression, the usual calm and unfazeable expression having vanished completely. Her hands had been reaching for the two staves at her hip.
A red-haired Sankta had stood up from her wheelchair and had her hand paused on the sniper rifle just beside it. Her eyes were becoming colder by the second, something that had never once daunted the black-haired man gazing into them.
A white-haired Liberi with a dab of red at the end of her locks looked on with wide eyes, as if attempting to comprehend the scene that had just occurred in front of her. There was a hint of denial before it had been burned away into nothing but ash, leaving a rage that gradually immolated itself into existence.
In front of him was the corpse of her "friend." The barrel of the Handcannon was still steaming from the output of power that it had unleashed, ringing out a clear message for everybody to hear.
Despite the scene of tragedy...
...For once, Fushiguro Megumi felt no regret for his actions.
OOO*
The news was restless, that much was already a fact for him. Thankfully, he had learned not to mess himself up any further by having Round Deer walk around. He was lucky that the recorded footage looked faked and somewhat edited, so the city wasn't going to go up in arms over a potential "sign" of his Shikigamis returning anytime soon.
The news outlet that displayed it had also been attacked for fake journalism, something that he hadn't felt too particularly guilty about.
After two years of his actions having averted being put on the news, Megumi had become far too lenient in whatever he had done. Such a thought could just have been fallacious connections for himself, but it was best for him to be vigilant. Most likely though, he would take everything with a more lax step.
With how beneficial his attitude over the past months had been to calm his swirling chest over the chaos he had brewed across some few countries—Megumi was willing to selfishly indulge a few more times.
Today, there were only a few patients in the Azazel Clinic that he had helped Hellagur attend to. Usually, it would be applying medicine that stagnated Oripathy development for a slight bit or applying practices which are believed to be able to relieve symptoms for Oripathy. Other than that, he would secretly create and apply Positive Energy from Round Deer's Shadow Extension to alleviate some stages of Oripathy.
Majority of the time, the patients would delegate their belief of how it was reduced to the medicine's potency.
For those who were just newly Infected, he could outright cure them. Why was that so? Well, the excuse could be made that the doctors who had designated them as Infected were wrong, or that there was some error in the machinery. It was plausible enough to them that the patients walked out of the clinic with a dazed look on their face, but completely believed his words. Most of the arrivals were people from the slums... so misinformation that he gave them—white lies—was much more effective than expected.
Still, Megumi felt like it was morally wrong to make it seem like the medicine of Azazel Clinic was supremely effective in what it did when it was his Cursed Energy which had been treating them, and not the medicine that was applied. Therefore, he would need to compensate for his questionable actions by visiting Azazel Clinic oftenly, and continue to apply his treatment until all the Infected populace of the hospital were in a better state.
His actions were always one of faulty reasoning, and he had come to accept that.
Besides, it wasn't like he didn't enjoy such an action. It was the best method he could conjure for himself in order to keep himself in a calm state while doing what he believed was right. Indulging his degeneracy by traveling a world that threw problems after problems toward him was not something that Megumi needed at the moment. Sure, there could have been situations that called for it, but too much would just leave him in a far more sorry state than before.
Moderation was key.
While he wore gloves over his hands, Megumi applied some sort of medicine through a syringe on a middle-aged man, and watched as the transparent liquid transferred from the object and into the man's veins. While that occurred, a calming presence came from his hands, which the black-haired man had reassured was a part of his Arts—which provided a calming sensation to dull any pain that overcame the person—while also saying it provided some small degrees of injury treatment.
Really, if he convinced the patients enough that it provided no harm and could only benefit them, then they would swallow it up as if it were cold hard facts. Thankfully though, it was a fact that Reverse Cursed Technique could only give benefits to the people who were given the mystical treatment, it was just that the purpose he was using it for was... a half-truth. Just like his entire life had been, a half-truth.
'Or maybe I'm just overthinking,' Megumi was now staring at himself in the mirror, as his doctor gloves were off.'I would have never expected to become a volunteer at a hospital... but then again, I did the same back in Laterano for no reason.' It was also when he had felt his mind drifting away, falling to the vices to both his self-interest and lucid thoughts.
That single day he had volunteered as a helping hand for the doctors who had become understaffed was when he completely lost himself. There was no rhyme or reason for doing so, but he had secretly treated all of the patients in the hospital during that time by Outputting Positive Energy into them while committing to the actions that the doctors had instructed him to do. He had worked as a volunteer for Ieri Shoko once, so it wasn't difficult to do.
Megumi couldn't deny that he had gotten carried away when waking up a patient from their coma though. It brought him to the awkward moment when Lemuen—the name of the patient—had woken up in a daze and was staring at him.
Nobody ever found out that it was him who had woken her up, except for Lemuen herself and some other two people or so. The doctors were flabbergasted when checking up on the Sankta's condition. The fact that she had awoken so abruptly while he was tasked with making sure her room was in proper order wasn't what was so surprising, but the fact that her legs were inmuchbetter condition than expected.
By all means, they had expected her to become a paraplegic by the time she had woken up. But the fact that her legs still functioned, albeit to a short and temporary degree, made them all question if their previous results were faulty or not. A recovery period for the injuries she had sustained was nothing short of a miracle.
Megumi... kept his gaze away from the woman while she sent glances toward him. The Sankta woman had definitely known it was him. It didn't help the absurd situation that she was far more "energetic" and active than what a recovered patient of a lengthy coma of four years would have been.
Thankfully, she was willing to keep the entire thing under wraps.
OOO*
Megumi stood by the window staring outside, as if something else had caught his eye. In actuality, nothing was catching his eye, and he was more content with avoiding the gaze a certain angel woman was giving him. He was now sure the most awkward moments of his life was when he was interacting with Sanktas, but he was willing to believe that Arturia was an outlier amongst them.
Right now...? He didn't know how to feel about that. Also, why did the doctors immediately hand her a sniper rifle of all things when she had first woken up? That fact still flabbergasted him and left him at a complete loss for words. Overall, the hospital and Laterano's culture still left him at a loss for words—why were guns allowed in a hospital? Was the United States this lenient on their gun laws too?!
Lemuen continued to stare at him from her wheelchair. The doctors had said that less activity with her legs unless it was for physical therapy sessions would help it recover quicker. Going back into any extraneous activities such as combat would be detrimental for her if she strained herself too much—but the fact still remained that her legs could function properly, an unprecedented event with what the doctors were telling her from the X-ray scans when she was still in a coma.
Unbeknownst to her however, the Patron Firearm leaning by her wheelchair contributed to a good portion of the anxiety that Fushiguro Megumi felt.
What further piqued her interest was when she had caught a glimpse of his eyes. Sure, she remembered seeing the nervous and rather "normal" reaction of somebody who felt like their secret was going to be exposed—which didn't help when she had been shooting discreet glances toward him—but there was also something she saw beneath those crimson orbs. One that mere acting couldn't hide.
A murderer. A killer. A soldier.
The lattermost description was more fitting for the... Higashinese Aegir? Well, she'd assume him to be some sort of sea urchin based Aegir, but that's besides the point.
He had some history, but the fact that he had somehow brought Lemuen out of her coma led the Sankta to not question him on matters that would definitely be personal. "Lemuen the Silent" wouldn't be needed for somebody who had helped her out of what she assumed to be goodwill if his volunteer position in the hospital was anything to go by.
Might as well take everything with a stride.
"Fushiguro Megumi, was it?" Lemuen called out to the black-haired man who did a relatively terrible job of showing his "disinterest."
"...Yes?" It took a small deep breath from himself before he could turn around and stare at the woman who he knew as Lemuen.
"I'm not quite knowledgeable about the Higashinese language—but isn't Megumi a female's name?" She had decided to start off with a lighthearted joke.
It didn't seem to work, as a brief silence passed by the room. There was not a single word that spoke from Fushiguro Megumi's lips as he registered what the woman had just said. For a long time, there hadn't been anybody who had made, or understood such a connection.
"Too soon?" Lemuen "awkwardly" asked with a tilt of her head. Gazing into his eyes once more already told her a lot about the person in front of her—he was dangerous. No... he could be dangerous, she had inferred as much based on the small changes and twitches of his eyes.
"That's not it, it's just that I haven't heard somebody make that same joke in a long time," Megumi placed his hands in his pockets while letting the tension leave his chest. At least the woman in front of him wasn't too standoffish, "Lemuen, then?" He didn't know if he should go for a handshake or not, so he stayed stationary where he was at.
"I'm sure the doctors have said my name a million times now," Lemuen said, glad that the black-haired man hadn't taken offense to her pointing his feminine name, "I forgot to say—thank you for bringing me out of my coma, and dealing with the further complications that would come out of it."
"Oh... so you do know," Megumi thinned his lips.
"Please, if you wish to keep it a secret, then I can tell you I'm good at keeping secrets," she reassuringly smiled, "I haven't seen any Healing Arts as potent as yours, if what the doctors said was correct."
He blinked a few times after hearing what the Sankta just said. It was a surprise, but a welcome one, "really...?"
"Of course, it looks like you just want to help people, isn't that right?" Lemuen asked. Why else would he volunteer in the first place?
"I guess so..." Megumi scratched the back of his neck, "I don't lose anything doing this. I don't gain anything either, it's just something I'm putting my time into. Instead of letting it go to waste." He's already wasted enough time doing nothing when he returned back to Leithanien, and it was only when the Echoes of Herkunftshorn had interfered with the Kaiserinnenfest did he do anything.
...Which had also led him to meet the Twin Empressess. Goodness, their sheer presence alone surpassed that of Patriot's and reminded him of his own world's strongest—perhaps even intensified. Overall, each of them were people who most likely could take down an entire nation back on Earth.
Arturia's parting words had influenced him more than he'd like to admit. If the other Sankta found out, he could already imagine the coy but smug smile on her lips that would appear. Almost like Lauren—nevermind.
"It's likely I can leave from the hospital soon to get some fresh air," Lemuen mumbled out while staring elsewhere, "it's been four years since I've seen Laterano, and since you're a tourist volunteer who hasn't seen much of this city yourself... Am I right?"
"I haven't seen much," Megumi replied.
"Ah, come on, put some more enthusiasm in your voice," the Sankta sighed while fiddling with the barrel of her sniper rifle, which caused the black-haired man to flinch slightly, "you remind me of Mostima."
"Mostima?"
"Forget it, just think of her as a war buddy" she waved him off, "I feel slightly guilty that I'm only able to give you a few thanks for bringing me out of a coma and fixing the condition of my legs, something that even the best Casters brought in by the Pope couldn't fix..."
Megumi had to blink a few times, the Pope himself brought in Casters to treat this woman...? At that point, just how important was she to warrant something like that? Most likely, she held a rather high position before the whole coma thing, and he was willing it was one in the military as she called this "Mostima" person a war buddy.
"...So—how about I guide you around Laterano and I'll see if I remember some of the sights from when I was still conscious, what do you think?" Lemuen finished fiddling with the barrel of her sniper before turning to him, "it works out, since you could be delegated as a volunteer helping a recovering patient after all."
"You don't have to feel indebted to me," Megumi took her advice from before and let some emotion flow out. He didn't like anybody ever feeling like they had to pay him back, especially since it reminded him of a certain somebody.
"Eh?" The Sankta crossed her arms exasperatedly, "alright, then, you don't have to see it as me paying back a debt or something, you could just say we're each giving each other benefits through this, how does that sound this time around?"
"...Well, if you say so," Megumi shrugged, "I have nothing else to do, so I don't mind if you put it like that." He glanced out of the window again.
"...Hmph," Lemuen looked at him with a neutral expression while he continued to stare off elsewhere. He was weird, and less sociable than she imagined Mostima ever being, "I'll ask the doctors for a temporary discharge then. Say, what possessed you to visit Laterano in the first place?"
"I... uh," Megumi didn't feel like answering the question, but he decided to kill some time before a doctor returned, "some woman suggested it to me." That was the only thing he had remembered from Arturia's incessant yapping about emotions and the like. Also when she had taught him how to play a violin.
"Another Sankta, I presume?"
"Another Sankta, yes," Megumi replied, "her name was Arturia."
"...Huh?" Lemuen had to do a double take when she heard that name, "come again? Who?"
"Arturia? Arturia Giallo." The black-haired man repeated, "What's wrong?" He gazed back at the Sankta woman, and spotted her surprised look, which prompted him to feel even more confused.
"Oh, it's nothing," Lemuen smiled 'sweetly" while interlocking her fingers together on her lap, "could you tell me more? I'm very curious." She sounded friendly, but deep down in the heart of Fushiguro Megumi, he couldn't help but feel as if the assumption were misplaced in his mind.
For a moment, the Jujutsu Sorcerer had to contemplate what history Arturia had with Lemuen—or perhaps would it be more accurate to say that she had history with Laterano as a whole?
Well, he didn't like the look that the Sankta in front of him was giving him right now, so he most likely had no choice but to respond to her. Seriously, it was always the Sanktas that troubled him to some extent.
What a waste of time.
OOO*
Megumi stared at the flowers placed in a vase at the corner of his room. It was close by the window where the light of the sun bled through and fed the petals of the floral pink spread. It was a canvas, crossed in a beautiful pattern that had left his eyes distracted for a moment.
Shaking his head, the black-haired man walked toward where his mattress was.
The comfort of the subpar bed overtook himself the moment he settled down on it. His white dress shirt ruffled slightly when he placed both of his hands behind his head while letting out a sigh. For a moment, he let his mind drift away and recalibrate all of its functions in order for him to work at maximum efficiency the next time he would open it up. A few seconds had passed, then a few minutes, and soon an hour.
That was enough rest.
Snapping his eyes open, Megumi fished for the pockets of his black dress pants and pulled out his phone from it. He wondered if this was how Nanami Kento felt like when working as a 9-5 office worker, slaving away the entire day while dressed in "appropriate" attire for work. For himself, he was a volunteer doctor that wore a doctor's cloak loaned to him whenever he stepped into Azazel Clinic, but he was digressing.
He enjoyed the mundane work, to be honest. It didn't provide the same high and drug-like feeling that landing a Black Flash did, or developing new avenues of strength, or even forming new Binding Vows—but it was still a more healthy alternative. Becoming addicted to drugs which was what he had been practically doing so ever since he landed his first Black Flash against that...
...What was her name again? Ah, right, Lappland. Lappland Saluzzo.
He remembered encountering her father and letting him know that she was a "feisty" one back during his stay in Siracusa when he was...not himself after clearing out some Famiglia grunts. The small twitch on his facial expression was definitely a sight he found amusing. Once more, Gojo Satoru's words had been proven to be correct when he said that a Jujutsu Sorcerer in combat is much different than one out of it.
Megumi reminded himself to watch what he said while high.
Even then, Siracusa itself was a disaster of a stay, which was exactly what he had intended in the first place. It could have been executed much better and more surgically, but it was what it was. Nothing could change the past.
'Getting an addiction and becoming a Jujutsu Pervert shouldn't be my goal,' Megumi shook his head to clear his thoughts and stared at the screen of his phone.'Moderation is key, that's what I've been telling myself ever since arriving in Chernobog. I need to see it through until I become...'
Until he became what?
...Until he became happy.
Indeed, that's what he wanted.
He felt like he was a teenager again with how many hours he's sunk into just mindlessly scrolling through the artificial blue lights of his phone. The many flashing images and colors that sunk through his pupils and refracted itself into his brain became a commodity for himself, the only source of "entertainment" that had found itself in his life.
If anything, it was the closest thing he had to a hobby even if it didn't feel the same compared to back home.
Eventually, a news article caught his eye. 'Infected riots have been skyrocketing?' He stared at the images for a moment while scrolling through it rapidly. His eye caught every single detail and word that was plastered upon the digital screen, and he had a general gist of what it was talking about.
'A very biased article fearmongering the Infected populace,' Megumi dryly summarized in his mind. He didn't like looking at articles that talked about the Infected, because ninety-nine times out of a hundred they were going to be some of the most biased yellow journalism that he would ever lay his eyes upon.
There were only a scant few images in the article that he had scrolled through that only showed the protestors standing against the Chernobog police. No videos were embedded either, so the black-haired man could already guess what had happened in the aftermath. Still though, a few cops were injured during the riot? That should have been obvious enough for him, all riots were bound to end up with violence on both sides.
'I wonder how Earth would view all of this,' the thought of his home came back to him, but he let it go just as fast. 'Whatever,' Megumi shook his head and sat up from his mattress. His hair was slightly messier, but he didn't mind, 'off to the slums, then.' He still wanted to deal with some of the other crime rings inside of Chernobog.
Especially since he had been getting rid of the prominent ones, then it was bound to happen that the rivals of the ones he had destroyed or lesser syndicates would start to rise up in their place. At this point of his life, he was playing whack-a-mole against all of these crime syndicates that kept popping up. The only reason he was able to keep his sanity intact when dealing with them was because Siracusa was a far bigger hassle when he had "visited" the place.
Even then, he couldn't completely rid it of crime if he didn't want to dismantle an entire nation.
Sitting up once more, Megumi decided to pay the slums a visit with his remaining free time.
OOO*
The streets were a lot more rowdy than Megumi could have imagined, while he continued to move through it. Concrete roads which held age-old cracks were being trampled on by the hundreds, and perhaps even thousands while he was keeping himself obscured with a Ten Shadows application.
Rocks were being thrown along with smoke grenades, and also what he assumed to be this world' equivalent of tear gas. They didn't affect him thanks to a thin layer of Cursed Energy Reinforcement blocking out the effects and along with an application of Reverse Cursed Technique keeping all harmful substances out of his body.
For the Infected populace who were protesting and rioting, they weren't so fortunate. The police had run up to them and started to beat them down with their batons, shouting profanity and commands amongst each other while doing so. It was a sorry sight, but Megumi had already become used to something like this. The only change was that the Infected people actually carried makeshift weapons and were in larger amounts...
...It looked to him that they were steadily growing in larger amounts. Perhaps they had enough of the injustice that they were facing and were rallying up against it. Although he wished he could help them in their plight, there would be no future that he could imagine which didn't involve bloodshed in order to achieve equal rights for them. Ursus wasn't like the United States, Japan, or any tolerable country when it came to civil rights protests—he doubted they would ever listen to the requests or the demands of the Infected populace due to the intense discrimination that they faced.
Especially for a country which held death camps in the Northern Tundras, and utilized the Infected as slaves in order to mine for them.
'Disgusting, absolutely disgusting.'
For a single man like him, Megumi couldn't do much. All he could do was pave the way for a group known as Reunion two years ago by clearing out as many military bases stationed in the Northern Tundras as possible. Even then, he was sure that they would be replaced within a moment's notice, so he had decided to attack a higher chain of command to deal with such annoyances.
Whether it helped them out or not was something that he wasn't too aware or knowledgeable of.
A metallic can void of any juice flew just past Megumi's head as he didn't react to it. There was no need to. While he continued to move through the ever building pile of bodies around him and increasing fog, the Jujutsu Sorcerer's mood began to drop. There was a sudden urge to do something about the problem and help out the Infected who were facing mistreatment, especially when he had been brought back to the memory of Reunion.
Halting in his steps as the chaos around him reached a crescendo, he took a moment and closed his eyes in order to regain his bearings. Megumi could hear the constant shouting and bashing of skulls against the cold pavement of Chernobog's emotionless streets start to become deafened. Once a few more seconds passed while he stood in midst of the anarchic epicenter, did the Jujutsu Sorcerer finally decide on his next course of action.
'I could help them out silently.'
Mentally, he called out to a Totality in his mind while turning around to gaze at the scenery. The black-haired man wouldn't summon it fully, but only a small portion of it from his shadows while executing an ability that would stop the police from brutally beating down the Infected people. It would require focus to make sure the Totality wouldn't be seen, but he didn't mind much.
"Come out, Ganesha," Megumi's voice was nothing short of a small whisper amongst the resonating sounds around him. It didn't bleed through the smokescreen of the mess that he had found himself standing in, but it was just enough to call upon the divine eminence stored in the chasms of his very soul.
Mahoraga: "Totality" - Ganesha, God of New Beginnings
(Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga Airavata [Max Elephant Rabbit Escape])
In the piling smokescreen, an unnatural shadow formed. Peering out of it were gigantic pale fingers the size of his body, lightly lined with a tinge of pink, and possessing the patterns of an elephant. Then, it swiftly clapped together before anybody could notice it—leaving a majestic reverberation that seemed out of the world.
BWOOM!
A primordial tune of the hands clashing against one another entered everybody's ears as a strange phenomena had occurred. The police officers which had been charging and beating the Infected people of Chernobog were now floating in the air against their whims, left rotating on their own axis as they wrestled against an invisible force that seemed to be keeping them in its clutches.
Profanity continued to ring out amongst them as the Infected backed away from such an uncanny scene. Some were starting to believe they were hallucinating, while some had already begun to assume that what was happening in front of them was due to the machinations of an extremely skilled Arts Caster. Even then, they were too flabbergasted at the sight to do anything other than watch with awe.
Megumi watched the scene silently before turning away. Whether the Infected decided to stay and protest against the Chernobog police was up to them, as the effects that he placed were only temporary and would fade away eventually.
The Totality he had summoned was an Essenced Totality created by his Ten Shadows Maximum Technique, Vaiḍūryanirbhāsa. The essence of life was in the palm of his hands, to spring forth a new existence from the primordial capabilities of the Yakushi Nyorai.
How Vaiḍūryanirbhāsa worked was that he imbued the essence of Mahoraga—the core of the Ten Shadows Cursed Technique, and not the actual Shikigami—into his Totality. It wasn't a true Mahoraga Totality as the rules of the Ten Shadows dictated that he couldn't create such a thing, but it was more accurate to say that it was an "evolved" form of his Totality. Every single Totality that he had created and were active would be subjected to the Maximum Technique upon activation.
Furthermore, how it functioned was that it improved the affected Totality's overall capabilities, along with providing an added bonus to it. Instead of granting the Totality the ability of "adapting to any and all phenomena" that would be expected from Mahoraga, the added essence of the Divine General's ability would rather undergo a complex process of adaptation which would grant the Totality "any and all ability" that related to the mythological interpretation of the Essenced Totality that Fushiguro Megumi could think of.
Simply put, the ability to "adapt to any and all phenomena" has proven its name once more.
How else was the Divine General able to create the "World Cutting Slash" and change the nature of its Cursed Energy? Without a doubt, Mahoraga was the God of Shikigami, a divine technique granted material form.
Vaiḍūryanirbhāsa could also only grant one ability to the Totality relating to its mythology rather than every single one relating to it. If he had to compare, Ganesha was merely a step below Mahoraga in terms of pure combat capabilities such as physical strength and elemental abilities, barring their conceptual abilities.
For Ganesha, the mythology of the Essenced Totality mentioned it being the "Destroyer of Obstacles," meaning that it could remove any and all obstacles that were in front of it.
However, there were obviously limits to abilities granted by Mahoraga's essence. Case in point, Ganesha could only delegate one single target as an obstacle and "remove" it from his sight, and it could only remove three obstacles before it goes on a cooldown. However, it could still put the concept of obstacle removal onverybroad concepts, but the broader it was, the more diluted it became. Megumi remembered the Essenced Totality being able to "remove" a volley of Arts artillery with a single clap when he delegated them broadly as an obstacle. Such a sight still proved the immaculate capabilities that the ability still held.
Another limitation to the obstacle removal ability granted by Vaiḍūryanirbhāsa was that it couldn't simply delete things from existence. The aforementioned artillery barrage of Arts that Ganesha had "removed" as an obstacle were merely diverted off course via an unnatural alteration of gravity that bent them away from his direction. If there were heat-seeking missiles after him, the Megumi was confident that the obstacle removal would alter with their tracking systems and cause them to go haywire, or do the same gravity alteration it did against the artillery barrage.
Overall, it was better relegated as a defensive ability than an offensive one.
Truly, the Ten Shadows was built upon the imaginary pillar of interpretation. The more he had discovered the abilities of this Cursed Technique, the more he was glad that he had read up on a lot of mythology before being transported to the world of Terra. If he hadn't, then he doubted he would be able to create any of the Totalities or Essenced Totalities that he had created before.
'Wasn't there a Special Grade Asian Divine Cursed Spirit also called Ganesha that Gojo-sensei talked about being sent abroad to deal with?' Megumi scratched his head while staring at his Essenced Totality, 'he said he couldn't find it and assumed it killed itself or something like that... Well, I guess another more powerful Cursed Spirit found Ganesha and dealt with it.' Not even the Strongest Sorcerer knew what happened to the Cursed Spirit version of Ganesha, so it wouldn't do him any good to delve on the matter either.
It had also possessed the power to remove obstacles, and that small piece of memory had inspired him to evolve Airavata into Ganesha. Well, it was the only other superior being of Hindu mythology that was even remotely related to Airavata, the Mount of God Indra.
The Maximum Technique of the Ten Shadows was never discovered as nobody in the history of the Zen'in Clan had ever been able to tame the Divine General known as Mahoraga. Ryomen Sukuna had achieved such a feat of taming it—but with only one month of practicing with the Cursed Technique—even the King of Curses couldn't discover what the Maximum Technique was. It didn't help that he never constructed one for his main Cursed Technique known as Shrine either.
Besides, achieving a Maximum Technique for many would be assumed to be the pinnacle yetlimitof what their Cursed Technique could achieve. Yet for the Ten Shadows Cursed Technique, the supposed "limit" for it was simply one that opened a limitless avenue for even more possibilities of what could be achieved.
Oh how extravagant and tantalizing the thought was. What if he had created an Essenced Totality out of Mizuchi, Yamata-no-Orochi, and Ryomen Sukuna? The strength they would achieve would far surpass that of even Mahoraga himself. In fact, what if he imbued the essence of the Divine General into—
—Megumi's steps came to a halt.
He had already sensed it when he had first summoned Ganesha, but he didn't think they could have seen the Essenced Totality itself. So when the Jujutsu Sorcerer glanced upward toward one of the rooftops, he barely saw the flickering blur of a shadow moving away from where he was at. Based on their strength level that his senses were telling him, then they must have been able to somewhat notice something wrong with his presence.
'For somebody of that level, they might not completely spot me, but they might know something was wrong with the shadow concealment I placed over myself,'Megumi theorized in his mind while his steps continued to traverse him across the slums.
Well, they didn't look to be anybody important, he still needed to find criminal syndicates to clear out.
OOO*
Crownslayer sweatdropped while dashing across the rooftops. Whatever she saw was completely unnatural, and something that she needed to report to Talulah and the other commanders as soon as possible.
'Those fingers alone were the size of a human body, it appeared out of the ground in a strange way, and it made all of those police officers float out of control,' the Reproba continued to recount the events in her mind. 'Strange, it felt so strange too,' she bit her lip from under her mask when her instincts screamed at her to run away. Whatever thatthingthat appeared from the shadows was, it wasn't anything normal.
A strange and powerful summoner was in the midst of Chernobog, and whether they were on the side of Reunion or not was still questionable. Although he helped the Infected against the police officers in their riot, that still didn't tell her everything that she needed to know about him. It didn't help either that Crownslayer didn't remember him at all in the ranks of Reunion, because he looked to be an important enough figure if he was present in their movement.
Her feet continued to traverse atop the buildings silently, before she started to come to sight of one of Reunion's headquarters. A few more leaps which left the wind grazing across her face and fluttering her hood were enough before she landed on the ground softly. Once she did, Crownslayer took a few steps around the structure which looked like a large warehouse, before finding where she needed to go.
She had the keys, so entering it was trivial. Once the door opened and she took a few steps inside, she was greeted with Reunion members maintaining their weapons or counting whatever supplies they had. They weren't the new ones that they had been rallying, but old ones which they could trust with crucial activities such as these. Looking around, she spotted Faust and Mephisto.
The latter seemed to have spotted her, shooting her a grin in response when their eyes met, "oh! Crownslayer! I thought you said you wanted to survey Chernobog to see how things have been escalating, you're back early." Mephisto walked up to her with his cane in tow, the object clicking with every single step forward.
"Change of plans," Crownslayer mutedly watched as Faust silently followed along with the other commander, "we might have a person of interest that we have to keep track of." Her nerves continued to be provoked when she stared at the unnaturally shadowed figure of that man, and the... divine hands that peered out of the shadows.
"A person of interest?" Mephisto's interest was piqued as he smiled, "well, who could have caught your attention? Are they a part of the Chernobog military or police?" If that was so, then he was sure that plans could be easily devised in order to deal with them, even if said plans excluded Patriot and Talulah from the equation. That much he was confident in.
"That's the problem, I couldn't tell out any of their features," Crownslayer admitted with a slightly miffed breath, "I flashed a silent photo of them...him, but it couldn't make out any details of his face or hair." She reached into one of her jacket pockets and brought out the device and handed it toward the two, "take a look for yourself."
Faust took the initiative to take the device and turn it in a way that he and Mephisto could see it, before scrolling through the pictures, "that's strange. His face is obscured," he noted out while narrowing his eyes, as if focusing would dispel the already predetermined image. "An Arts ability which cloaks what they look like?" It wasn't that surprising.
"Looks to be so," Mephisto tapped his cane while looking at the image, "they look like any ordinary office worker aside from that Arts covering their body. Hmm, I'd assume they're some spy from another country or something like that? What did they do?"
"That's the strange part," Crownslayer huffed out while crossing her arms, "they summoned...something from the shadows, a pair of hands where each finger was larger than a human body, and they clapped. It made the Chernobog police officers fighting against the rioters float up and lose control of their body's trajectory."
Mephisto and Faust raised an eyebrow, before the latter spoke up.
"Summoned from the shadows, and a pair of hands?" Faust felt like he remembered a description or image in the crevices of his memory relating to something like that, "a summoner, then. If they were using the ability against the Chernobog police, then..."
"Aha, checkmate!" Mephisto looked proud while snapping his fingers, "so I was right, a potential spy from another country, or something different from that. I wouldn't say we should put all of our eggs in one basket, but I'm willing to bet on that with how they have some presence of concealment Arts, along with another special one..."
"Their concealment Arts were still detectable by me," Crownslayer pointed out, "so either I'm skilled enough to detect a spy from another country, or the person using it only half-assedly learned it, and their specialization lies in summoning. Besides, what do they even gain from disrupting the Chernobog police?"
"Oh please, Crownslayer, no need to downplay yourself," Mephisto waved his hand in the air amusedly, "I'm sure you can match up with some elite spies in some other countries. Well, if you try hard enough."
Crownslayer narrowed her eyes, not being able to tell if Mephisto was being sarcastic or not.
Faust decided to cut in, "we'll figure out what to do with him if we find him," he continued to stare at the image. Certainly, the black scribbles and blur around his body were menacing, but if Crownslayer could spot a discrepancy such as this, then the top brasses of Reunion should be able to do the same.
"Another thing to note," Crownslayer said, "I was hardly able to detect him."
"Wow, should I take back my earlier statement," Mephisto said.
"Shut up," Crownslayer growled, "if you were there, you wouldn't have spotted him either.
"I'm sure Faust would," Mephisto rolled his eyes.
Faust didn't respond, but kept looking at the images, as if he vaguely remembered somebody that fit the description of Crownslayer's person of interest.
"That isn't the point, I only said that to remind you guys to keep a keen eye out for him, because he's harder to spot than you think," Crownslayer impatiently tapped her finger against the upper portion of her crossed arms.
"Sure, sure, I'll keep that in mind," Mephisto said in a dismissive tone, "the only two factors we have to worry about is the Chernobog military, and with all the sabotaging we've done..." a small small but sick smile made its way across his face "...we're bound to succeed and stomp this maggot of a city into the curb."
"Do you two remember?" Faust suddenly spoke up, interrupting the two from their thoughts, "back in the Northern Tundras?"
"I wasn't there during that time period," Crownslayer said, "what are you talking about?"
"A lot happened in the Northern Tundras, Faust. Care to point out a specific event?" Mephisto asked.
"Fushiguro Megumi," Faust spoke the name while scrolling through the images.
"H-him...?" Mephisto blinked a few times in shock while remembering the visage of the black-haired man and the golden wheel above his head, before shaking his head to dispel the image. "Ah... why are you bringing him up?" Even if he didn't wish to say it out loud, the emotionless eyes ofthatman had once haunted him back during his stay in the Northern Tundras.
"Who?" Crownslayer didn't miss the small moment where Mephisto seemed to be momentarily... repulsed?
"The one who killed two Emperor's Blades and forced three to flee," Faust said once again, before closing the camera and handing it back to Crownslayer. However, the Reproba didn't receive it, and only stared dumbfoundedly at him.
"Killed two Emperor's Blades, are you screwing with me?" Crownslayer felt her eyebrow twitch, "I haven't met one myself, but those are people only Talulah, Patriot, and FrostNova can deal with. You're saying this nobody I haven't ever heard of killed two of them?"
"Hrm," Mephisto pressed his lips together, an uncharacteristic aversion to the topic that surprised even Crownslayer when she saw it, "whatever. He's off traveling the world or something, he never cared for Reunion's goal in the first place."
"Crownslayer, if you want to know more, ask Talulah or the veteran members of Reunion," Faust shook the camera in his hand, which finally prompted the woman to take it back from his hands, "we still have tasks to do."
"...Right," Crownslayer still didn't believe such an absurd story, but the grave looks upon the two's looks didn't sit well with you. "What brought up the topic of this... stranger—Emperor's Blade killer—or whatever, anyways?"
Mephisto himself was also interested, and turned toward Faust for an answer, "well, I'm curious too."
"..." Faust didn't know what to say, "I don't know." He scratched the back of his head, "he just... came back to my memories."
"Huh, strange," Mephisto shrugged, "well, better get back to planning our next move. Chernobog's doom is waiting for our arrival, after all." He motioned for Faust to follow him, and the crossbowman did.
Crownslayer watched the two depart before turning back to the camera in her hands. 'Should I present this to FrostNova or even Talulah?' She fiddled with the device for a moment, the previous topic of a mysterious man who had once met Reunion and killed two Emperor's Blades still circulating in her mind.
OOO*
Ganesha was large, that much was already a given when Megumi first witnessed its towering height. For comparison the Jujutsu Sorcerer could only compare to the size of its eye compared to the rest of its large body. It was a four-armed elephant with the body of a fat human. Its legs were rather short, and it could walk on all fours while keeping two hands open for clapping. On each of its wrists were beads wrapped around it, of the religious type.
Its skin tone was also similar to that of Mahoraga, and it possessed three heads, each with an elephant trunk of its own. There was one Dharmachakra which hovered above at the middle head, but it was merely there for cosmetic purposes, as it didn't possess any abilities of its own. Besides, even for Mahoraga, the item was only a representation of its adaptational abilities.
The summoner of the divine being tore his gaze from it, and then stared across the wide room, watching as blood continued to seep across the ground. By utilizing the obstacle removal ability of Ganesha, he was able to make everybody's body in the room float up and then unceremoniously splat against the ground. Craters were left from the action, and weapons laid attended only by bloodied corpses.
'My job here is done, time to go home.'
Megumi didn't give it much thought, and dispelled Ganesha. He would donate the money he took from them to an orphanage or something, he was already well off enough after robbing the Famiglias of Siracusa and the other unscrupulous people who had the misfortune of encountering him on a bad day.
Tomorrow shouldn't be anything too bad, considering how his month was going. The process would be the same, help out at the Azazel Clinic, and then scroll through the news.
...So why did he feel as if something was wrong?
Instinct, it was both a blessing and a curse.
OOO*
A/N: Megumi is no different from Sukuna in his views, it's just that they're placed differently, in terms of quality (type) and quantity (severity).
Megumi: Wants to save whoever he wants selfishly, and will Curse (kill) anybody who stands in the way of that.
Sukuna: Wants to consume whoever he wants selfishly, and will Curse (kill) anybody who stands in the way of that.
Don't get things mixed up, he's one step into the grave.
The first flashback is only one part of his character that had been developed.
There was a comment in the previous chapter that brilliantly accentuated what I was attempting to show with Megumi's character in regards to his stay in Chernobog, and what he does in it.
If anybody is still confused about Ten Shadows Maximum, just think of Mahoraga's essence adapting so much in relation to the mythological Totality's history that it is able to grant the Totality it is imbued into any and all abilities that relate to its mythology. But it can only grant one single ability relating to the phenomena.
It can only grant one ability and an overall increase in strength. The essence of Mahoraga won't adapt to grant the Totality the mythological strength of what they are based on, because Ganesha would just be able to blow up the universe.
I only want Megumi to be "busted" in a "tactical" sense rather than just obliterating everybody in one punch. Which is why he's still a squishy human who can be knocked around by an Abyssal Hunter if he doesn't rely on his stronger summons. Tension, stakes, and writing him struggling is one of the main parts why I enjoy writing TSSoT so much.
Also, yes, Ganesha is an actual Cursed Spirit in JJK.
The fact that there was a Ganesha Cursed Spirit implies that there could have been a Shiva Cursed Spirit and a Nuke Cursed Spirit... Come on Gege, why couldn't we have seen more Cursed Spirits?