The Strongest Sorcerer of Tomorrow

by Aaaaaaert

How would he ever be able to face the world again? It kept echoing in his head, over and over again... so he had to ask himself honestly: Could he truly keep living? After all the failures he had amounted to? He couldn't, he truly couldn't. When the final Black Flash fell, so did his life. (Warning: Read on Ao3, the formatting got screwed when transferred for nearly 800k words.)

65. Children of Ursus

A/N: 18k Words

OOO*

Megumi looked upwards while setting his book back on his desk. The couch was comfortable, and he wouldn't have it any other way. Sometimes the object made for massaging the back with its incomprehensible inner-workings was more appealing than an actual bed, and sometimes it wasn't. It really just depended on his mood.

"Megumi-chan."

...Now his mood was gone, "you've been visiting me a lot recently."

"Eh? Can't a teacher visit his student from time to time?" Gojo walked into his room from the open door with his hands at the back of his head.

"Whatever," Megumi sighed while laying down on the couch. "What is it this time?" He already knew the schedule.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" He perked up with slight confusion.

"Yeah, nothing," Gojo shrugged while finding a chair not too far off, and sat down on it, "a bit of a short break before I have to go and settle some other business."

"...Okay."

Nothing followed after that as the spring sun peeked over the curtains of the windows. The light had its path paved through by the accommodating silence, and brief particles of dust could be seen amongst the brightened canvas.

"Hey. Do you plan on becoming the Strongest?" Gojo Satoru asked a question, abruptly ending the moment before.

"Didn't I already tell you this?" The black-haired man turned from his couch to gauge the other man's expression, "I'm just here to find a way to lift my sister's Curse."

"Hypothetically, you have the potential—which you do—would you wanna become the Strongest? Quite a title to have too, Strongest of the Modern Era. Strongest of the Next Generation."

"Not interested."

"Ha~? How could you be SO boring?" Gojo leaned back on his chair with dramatism, "don't you wanna possess the strength to... I dunno? Fling a skyscraper into the stratosphere or something?"

"I don't see how that can help with my daily life," was Megumi's blunt response.

"It can help you a ton! You're just not thinking too deeply into it."

"Give me five valid applications it can be used for in my life.

"Uh..." Gojo gained a thoughtful look while glancing elsewhere. "Protecting yourself, protecting myself, protecting your sister, scaring bad people, and showing off."

"Those are the worst reasons you've ever given." He deadpanned.

"So and so, might be up there," the white-haired man didn't even attempt to refute it, "no, but seriously Megumi-chan. You have the Ten Shadows Cursed Technique, the Prized Jewel of the Zen'in Clan. Do you really have no aspirations aside from living a normal life?" His mood took a sharp turn as he lowered his shades to stare at the teenager.

"...I don't."

"There's a lot I see in you," Gojo Satoru pointed his finger parallel to his forehead while leaning back again, "it'd be a shame to see it all go to waste."

"Why does it matter?"

"You're right, why does it?" The Strongest Sorcerer asked, "hell if I know." A chuckle left his lips, one which Fushiguro Megumi couldn't quite understand. "If you ever do become the Strongest—don't get too lonely, 'kay?"

Strength. The Strongest. Loneliness.

It never meant anything to him at that very moment, because he was always content with his life as it was. Even if Tsumiki hasn't been there with him for a lengthy time, he kept a faint flickering hope sealed deep inside his chest that she would awake some day. Like a dream atop the highest clouds, ones which he knew deep down, were unreachable.

"What do you mean by that?" Megumi frowned. He didn't understand why the white-haired man had brought up such a statement.

"Just make some friends or something, you're always droning around in Jujutsu College's high school sector, not even bothering to talk with your other juniors or seniors."

"I do talk with them," he refuted.

"Yeah, only on missions or group projects," Gojo countered back, "so just take my words to heart alright? Not everybody's as fabulous as me—to the point where cooperating with others is practically unnecessary." He stood up, the applied weight on his chair having been relieved.

"Mmh," Megumi let out a grunt in response. As he watched from his lying position, his teacher started to make an exit.

"Anyways, I'm heading off abroad to Chernobyl." Gojo raised his hand in the air with a short wave while side-eyeing Megumi from where he stood.

"Huh? Why?" Megumi raised an eyebrow ladened with only confusion because of what he had just heard. "Chernobyl of all places?"

"Cursed Spirits, ya' know? They're not that powerful outside of Japan, but hoo boy, can they become something nasty in some certain circumstances," he replied. "I'm not just headed off to Chernobyl either, I also have some business in Russia."

...That was interesting to know, "Russia? Another Cursed Spirit?"

"Yup! An Imaginary Vengeful Cursed Spirit apparently," Gojo placed his hand on the door frame, "if you're curious about their name, it's..." his voice drew out for dramatic effect "...Baba Yaga."

"...I have no idea who that is," Megumi deadpanned.

"Blegh~! So boring, don't you know any other mythology or folktales that aren't from Asia?" The Strongest Sorcerer rolled his eyes. "Go catch up on some other country's folklore while I'm gone, alright? You're probably gonna be doing the same thing as me when you get older!"

"Not in a million years."

"Yes in a million years!" Gojo chuckled, "until next time."

The door closed shut.

*OOO*

A scalding heat licked his skin as Megumi walked through Rhine Labs' hallways. He didn't know what had happened, but the flames were already enough for him to figure out what had happened, and who it had come from.

Ifrit.

There was nothing else that needed to be said as he continued to move past the researchers who were screaming and backing away from the inferno which guaranteed pain. Whenever the orange fires kissed with red reached their invisible hands out as if to grasp at any living life which passed by, in order to make sure that under no circumstance—would they make it through safely.

For him, the flames felt as if they were speaking to him in a story that he was all too familiar with. Pain, anger, sorrow, and rage; those were all emotions that were common in Terra. He had the displeasure of facing all of them from other people, and from himself. At this point in his life, all he could do was face them head on.

Megumi paused in his steps as the wall beside him literally exploded, forcing the Jujutsu Sorcerer to utilize Cursed Energy Reinforcement and block it with his arm. With a single heave, the object burst into a hundred pieces of debris, the force exerted sending it flying back.

Out of the corner of his eye, the black-haired man could spot Dr. Silence attempting to traverse the hellish wasteland in an attempt to reach whoever was causing the entire mess. The black-haired man narrowed his eyes as the danger posed from such an act was prominent, and therefore it was upon his interests to bring her with all of the other evacuated researchers.

"Silence!" He called out toward the woman, but felt himself recoiling back when the wall bursted from where she was at, sending debris and the Liberi's body barreling backwards, "tch!" The Jujutsu Sorcerer immediately propelled himself to her side as the debris continued falling and caught her body, and then pulled her out of the way of the blast.

The flaming combustion slammed against the wall where Silence was just about to slam into, as Megumi carried her off to a safer distance. He could hear the woman start coughing erratically as her hands clutched at his shoulder, before he calmly set her down, "Silence, I need context. What happened?" He could feel the presence in the other room, and it was domineering in all senses of the word. His voice had almost let out a curse.

"If-Ifrit," Silence said with a shaky breath as she settled on the wall, "I-I can't let Saria get to...!"

Megumi had heard enough, "I can handle the situation." He didn't understand why she was so averse to Saria when they had been getting along well from the past few months or so when he had seen them interacting together, but now wasn't the time to think over such things. "Whatever's afflicting Ifrit, I'll get rid of it."

"W-wait!"

He didn't heed her words as he glared toward where the opening of the wall was, hearing more and more eruptions inside of the room, along with sounds of debris flying everywhere. The temperature increased as he moved closer and closer toward the entrance, before shooting inwards and gazing at what was before him.

Ifrit, she didn't look like Ifrit. There was an apparatus behind her, in the form of what looked to be a devil. The flames gathered around her body and heeded her will only, just as the whites of her eyes settled on him. In fact, her entire eye had turned white, denoting the lost control and offending demeanor that she held.

"Ifrit," Megumi called her name one more time calmly, while standing upwards in a straight posture. "You're not really Ifrit are you?"

"GAH!" She let out a scream as a palm was pointed toward him, a torrent of flames cascading outwards and forming a tornado which had shot toward him.

The Jujutsu Sorcerer scrunched his features. Talking wasn't going to work, who could have known?

"Ryomen Sukuna."

A single phrase of a name was spoken, just as the flames were about to latch their unruly claws upon his body and burn it into nothing but blackened ash. From behind him, a shadow puddle rose upwards with a wild splash, sending the motes of ebony across the room, which co-existed with the flames enveloping the entire environment in its burning blanket.

The torrent of flames had departed like Moses standing before the Red Sea, a divine wind blowing through the room as the Arts in front of him had parted ways to create a path for him. The results had been achieved with arguably the most powerful Totality he had at his disposal, which had the greatest firepower in terms of flames, and an intrinsic understanding of Cursed Tool usage.

...And that had included Ame-no-Sakahoko, which was held in two of its four arms.

"Ifrit" stepped backwards in shock from the appearance of the Totality. The once extinct race of a Diablo's soul gazed upon the Imaginary Demon which looked to be a mockery of their kind, and the golden flames which seemed to sneer at any and all life which existed upon the world. The interpretation of Fushiguro Megumi—was working its magic.

"Stand down, Ifrit," the black-haired man called out toward the child.

A scream was all he received from the possessed(?) child as she swung an arm at him, wherein the sent flames exacerbated into a billowing tsunami ready to consume his entire body.

"INCINERATOR..."

"...OPEN!"

From the side—just as Saria had entered the room in her combat gear—she watched in shock as purple flames tore apart the tsunami of flames she had seen approaching from behind her shield. She peeked from the side as her pupils shrunk, staring at the black-haired man who had his right arm pointing to his right side as it had just finished an arc. Upon his face were four eyes and strange markings that she hadn't remembered being present.

Along with... that thing that stood standing beside him, at a height which eclipsed even his own, just about two heads taller than him, "Megumi?!" She yelled out toward the black-haired man in confusion as she turned toward Ifrit.

The Jujutsu Sorcerer didn't reply to her as he held the purple flames between his fingers the same way that his sensei had done with a certain Red projectile. He presented it toward the Diablo in front of him with a neutral expression. The Totality behind him however, bore a savage grin in contrast to his tame one.

The purple flames continued to flicker, with "Ifrit" at its focal point.

The Diabolic Crisis was just about to end there.

OOO*

It was silent in the room as Megumi stared down at the files. He hardly understood many of the contents, but he was able to utilize whatever skills he learned back in Jujutsu College to fully grasp what they meant, and he had already found his disappointment rising the more he gazed upon it.

There were many secrets in the contents which had revealed everything that he needed to know. Nobody would suspect that he had stolen them, and even if they did, the black-haired man was completely fine with that. They couldn't stop him, they wouldn't stop him, and he could simply high-tail it out of Columbia and change his appearance if it came down to it.

Everything used to be so simple. In Tokyo, he exorcised Cursed Spirits, he would visit Tsumiki in the hospital, and then he would go back home. Perhaps some banter with Gojo Satoru and whatever else that came with it.

Right now?

His grip tightened and creased the files as a result, with a million fissures appearing on them. With a single flick of his wrist right after, the entire thing was set ablaze and left less than even ash as the smallest bonds holding together the piece of written sin were destroyed. A small sigh left his lips as frustration overcame him, and that was when he had decided to leave the hotel.

He donned his black haori and soon after placed his hand on the door knob leading to outside. It opened, and Megumi paused for a moment when he found that somebody was standing just outside. It was Saria, the stern Vouivre who possessed white hair and held a grim expression on her face.

There was something he detected, and that was hesitance. For what? He would find out soon.

"Saria," Megumi attempted to show at least a small bit of confusion upon his expressionless face, "what are you doing here at this time?"

"Megumi... There have been recent reports at Rhine Lab just before I resigned that many classified files were stolen," Saria began, recalling the words of Kristen Wright when she had first stepped into the room, "I had a feeling..."

"Yes, it was me," he didn't hesitate with his response.

"...You do know the dangers which come from such an action, right?" She looked upwards to gaze into those soulless eyes. The ones which had called upon a demon to subjugate Ifrit, and the ones which bore four eyes which bled vileness itself.

"Why do you care? You already resigned."

"This isn't about me," Saria could feel her eye imperceptibly twitch while she attempted to keep her cool, "this is about you. What plans did you have for stealing them? Rhine Lab isn't so foolish as to drop a case like this so easily. They're all highly classified to an extent where—"

"Why. Do. You. Care?"

Saria was visibly shocked when Megumi's voice crawled down to one of annoyance and anger.

"If you want to know so bad, then fine. I'm going to commit a crime, you shouldn't be involved with me, so leave." He creased his brows as a troubled frown came across his features.

"You... you're going to commit a crime, you're..." Saria could feel her fist tightening as she registered what she had heard, "what exactly are you going to do? Do you understand what you're even doing in the first place?!" Her voice rose slightly higher, but she sealed her lips shut together as she prayed nobody heard her outburst.

"I know."

"Then..."

"I'm going to kill people. Is it murder? Yes. Is it wrong? Most likely. Do I care? I stopped ages ago."

"...Have you gone insane?" She let out a breath as she had almost backed away from the black-haired man, but she kept her feet steady.

"Do you think it's wrong?"

"This isn't just a matter of being correct..." Saria kept her teeth from gritting together, "the dangers that also come with it..."

"Danger is irrelevant," Megumi shoddily replied.

"Then do you think killing anybody will fix anything?" She pressed further on.

"No, it won't."

"Then what is this for?!" Saria felt her frustrations boil up further as she grabbed the black-haired man by the collar and pushed him into the room, "they'll simply be replaced! Do you even know who you're supposed to target—do you know the consequences that would come from that?"

Megumi felt his legs impact the countertop, before he had been lifted from it and felt his back slamming against the wall. He didn't react, "Saria."

"They're scum, there's no denying that! But you can't just go executing whatever you believe is right!"

"Saria..."

"Their crimes will be buried under their deaths, nothing would be found out, and everything would just go on as they always have been!"

"..."

"Is that all you know...? Killing? Murder? Is there no other option you can conceive?" Saria felt her grip tightening on his collar as she felt her arms shake.

"There isn't," Megumi said.

"What...?"

"This isn't for Ifrit. This isn't for Silence. This isn't for you," his words continued on, before reaching his ultimatum, "this is for me."

"..." Saria almost felt her jaw becoming slack at his words.

"I can't stand it. Those bastards walking around, posed up as if they're worth anything," Megumi turned upwards, the shadows leaving his eyes as he stared with the most clear eyes toward Saria, "I just want to kill them. Selfishly. There's nothing more to it than that."

"It's just... selfish?" The Vouivre woman felt her words dying in her throat as she stared into his eyes once more. Crimson spirals, what used to be a dark blue from what she could remember back in Lungmen had changed.

"Yes, it's just selfish—" A fist slammed into his cheek as Megumi's head was sent reeling back. He still didn't react.

"Don't you have any logic for this?!" Saria reeled her fist back again.

"I don't—" Another one made contact with his cheek when he turned back, setting him back to square one.

"How could you say that you want to murder for no other reason... other than just doing it?!"

"You don't understand—" He was always brought back to square one, with a raging fist to his cheek.

"What is there to understand? This leads nowhere!" She yelled out toward him with increasing anger.

"...You're more expressive than usual." He didn't know why, but those words made the Vouivre's fist stop just as it was about to make contact with his cheek again. Megumi didn't say anything else as he stared into the woman's eyes, and gaze upon all of the turmoil churning from under them.

Not a single word was spoken after, as Saria's fist continued to hover over his battered face.

*OOO*

Columbia's park was nothing revolutionary. It was just a park, and Megumi was sitting on one of the benches in order to mull over his actions. His face still stung as if a wasp had pestered it to no end, but he didn't care about that at the moment. Temporary obstructions to his goals such as pain were useless.

All he could do was stare upwards toward the skies which were blocked by light pollution. Only two stars shimmered and burned their life from up above, from the position that he was at. It was only after a minute had passed that the light from one of them had completely faded from his view, something that not even his enhanced senses could detect anymore.

Blankly, the Jujutsu Sorcerer continued to look at the only remaining one. His lifeless eyes bore witness to many things, and his tired body had been subject to many of life's many storms. Fate just had it out to get him, and he was already starting to become afraid that—he was becoming used to it.

How funny.

Closing his eyes, looking downwards, and then reopening his eyes to see his palms, the black-haired man felt the urge to scratch his itching cheek. The pulsating bruises continued to become an annoyance to him.

A question was posed.

Should he do it?

Should he listen to Saria? Or should he listen to himself?

His steps came to a halt as a hand was on his shoulders, prompting the black-haired man to slowly look behind himself and see... "Muelsyse." The voice of recognition toward her was dry, as he was sure the Elf got front row seats to his bruised cheek.

"Eh—ah, Megumi! I was wondering where you had gone off to after..." Muelsyse began talking with an expression and inflection that attempted to hide her nervousness, but it didn't seem to be working well "...and well, I was wondering if you'd like to spend some time cooling off after the whole fiasco from earlier, you know... as friends?"

If the term "cooling off" was her attempt at humor, then Megumi found that it was extremely backhanded. But for her sake, he nodded slowly toward her request. His mood was not fit for a worded response toward her.

"Aha! I knew you'd come around!" Muelsyse placed her hands on her hips with a victorious pose, "come on, I'll show you all the best parts of Columbia, so turn that frown upside down! I didn't bring you here to ruin your mood! Haha..." A quivering laugh left her lips after as she grabbed his arm and dragged him along. "Come on, let's get that nasty bruise of yours treated and we can..."

Megumi watched as everything else became a blur. The city lights tunnel-visioned in his eyes as they became nothing but unclear motes of life, and the towering structures all around him started to become nothing but a fading memory. He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he hadn't registered much of what Muelsyse had said, and his perception of time had started to completely fade.

Like scrolling through the pictures which he was so fond of in a camera roll. It was just so...

...

"Ah, Saria must have done a number..."

...

"I'm sure she didn't mean to..."

...

"Do you see those lights over there—"

...

"I frequent this shop a lot because of—"

...

"Do you like it—?"

...

"They even have the best candy here! Well, I know it's just my opinion, but—"

...

"Um, Megumi—?"

...

"Megumi—"

...

"Stop."

Muelsyse paused just outside the shop while she was dragging Megumi by the arm, and looked back "...yes?" The Elf was taken aback when looking at his expression. A small patch was placed on his cheek to soothe the bruise, but he hadn't look as downtrodden as he did just moments ago.

"I've made up my mind.

She didn't understand what he was talking about at that very moment. But deep down, a faint understanding was present when she had recalled back to his apartment which had been rented for his stay in Columbia. Muelsyse had been listening in with her back against the wall what the two had been arguing about.

"I just want to be happy."

The Water Elf could feel her anxiety rise.

As she looked into his eyes, she could only tell one thing.

Megumi was willing to become a criminal.

For the sake of his "happiness."

*OOO*

Silence stared at the contents of Ifrit's Oripathy stage and recent developments. The medicine provided by Rhodes Island was far greater than anything Rhine Lab could have offered, which was the nature of their partnership with one another, even if she wished to avoid the latter's involvement as much as possible.

Due to her complicated position and contracts undertaken, the entire situation proved to be headache inducing. It didn't help that narcolepsy overtook her at some parts of the day, making it difficult for her to check up on Ifrit if she were to do anything—

—Where was Ifrit?

Silence glanced around her office room and looked toward the door which was slightly ajar. For a moment, panic overtook her to the point where the exhaustion she felt from her narcolepsy vanished.

Springing up from her seat and walking toward the door, the Liberi woman frantically opened it wide and glanced around the hallway, from left to right. When a glimpse of the troublemaker was seen at the corner of her eye, she bolted toward where Ifrit was and called out her name.

"Ifrit!" When she arrived at the hallway, Silence became aware of what the little child was doing.

Her hands clapped together with a confident look forming on her face, an indomitable one that looked to be mimicking something else rather than being her own.

"Immolator...!"

"...Open!"

Then, flames started to stick outwards from her palms when they spread outwards, with a chant-like exclamation leaving Ifrit's tongue. Pyroclastic smoke emitted a slight bit, before being whisked away by the stagnant air.

Silence paused in her steps as all feelings of wanting to go to sleep had already vanished. Faint sounds of clapping could be heard as she turned toward who exactly was in front of Ifrit, and she was greeted with a white-haired woman wearing a very... intricate outfit from what she could describe.

"Ifrit...?" She could have sworn she'd seen this white-haired woman before. The mentioned child from her exclamation finally reacted, and the flame Arts she had activated had completely dispelled.

"Eh? Ah! Silence!" Ifrit jolted with shock, as if she hadn't heard the previous exclamation toward her name before. The shocked and flustered expression on her face completely gave it away, like a child who had done something wrong. Because that was exactly what she was.

The clapping sounds of the third party stopped with her arrival, "oh? I take it this child belongs to you?"

Silence gave the white-haired woman a glance before moving up to Ifrit and lightly grabbing her shoulders to pull her away, much to the child's dismay, "I apologize if Ifrit has caused any trouble, she can..."

A small grunt came from Ifrit, but Silence promptly ignored it—while the other woman cut in response to the apology, "there's no need to apologize, it was a nostalgic scene to experience."

The Liberi owlishly blinked a few times, "pardon...?"

"A little child's flames can't do much to me anyways, so what is there to be worried about?" A smile was given from the white-haired woman, "you may call me Specter. That's what everybody on this landship does, no?"

"Ah..." A brief sense of realization overcame Silence as she was wholly aware of who this woman was. While a brief recounting of what she had heard of this apparently unstable woman entered her mind, "I see. No problems, then?"

"No problems at all," Laurentina, now known as Specter, smiled, and gave a small glance toward Ifrit. "She was a well-behaved child, I wouldn't mind greeting her once more." Her words seemed to have a positive impact on Silence.

The child tilted her head in slight confusion, but let it go. A sense of relief was granted toward her with the Aegir's words, but she wouldn't let it show because it would be too embarrassing for her to admit such a thing.

"...Thank you, thank you very much. Ifrit can sometimes be a problem child..." Silence could hear the mentioned child jolt "...But she means more good than harm."

"I'm well aware," Specter gave a sweet smile, "her words were quite interesting. But—I believe those matters should be left for another time, we both have other places to be, don't we?"

Silence gave a hum and a small nod, as she watched the white-haired woman bow formally with her fingers clutching the hem of her dress, "until next time, then?" She mumbled as the eccentric woman turned away and walked down the hallways. Her back disappeared from sight not long after.

What a strange occurrence.

Shaking her head and snapping herself out of her stupor, SIlence turned down to look at the troublemaker in her grasp, "Ifrit. What did I say about going outside without permission?"

"Ugh..." Ifrit drooped, "t-that it's a bad thing..."

The Liberi woman let out a sigh afterwards, "at least you know better now. Who was that woman, anyways?" She already knew some aspects and rumors of the Specter person who had just wisped away like a ghost, but she wished to know Ifrit's opinion on the matter.

"Her?" Ifrit perked up slightly, "oh, um, when I tested out my Arts in the training room, she saw what I did and got interested with my chant or something! She probably thought it was amazing!" Her hands were then placed on her hips with a happy look on her face—one which was one of accomplishment.

She could have sworn she had heard that "chant" Ifrit used before, at some place, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. However, her musings were dispelled as another realization struck her "...you've snuck into the training room before?" Silence's tone started to lower as she realized what the child had just said.

...Ifrit froze in place, her expression becoming lost to time as if it were a statue.

Only then did the little devil start to notice her blunder, "n-no! Not at all! You were probably hearing things!"

Silence was—in fact—not hearing things.

OOO*

Megumi woke up with his back toward an uncomfortable piece of rock. A thought came into his mind that he must have fallen unconscious for a few seconds due to the strain his Essenced Totalities were giving his Cursed Energy Reserves, but powered through all of the troubles he was undergoing. That was what he had always done, and that was what he was going to do now.

Glancing upwards with slight effort after de-summoning his Essenced Totalities—who were already pre-summoned and were stuck in his shadows—both the feeling of weight and burning of his Cursed Energy Reserves had finally vanished. There was not much time left on them with the 30 minute Binding Vow on them, so he forcefully unmerged them after.

The Catastrophe still swirled above. The blackened rocks and orange misshapen clouds brewed together to form what was the bane of settlements, the iron claw which would scrape off and alter entire landscapes. Standing under one for too long would lead to death for many, but for the Jujutsu Sorcerer, it didn't seem as harmful as a Sure-Hit from a Domain Expansion would be.

Ganesha's ability had already worn off. So he would simply detach the Vajra end from his Trishula by specifically choosing the portion from his Endless Well of Shadows and fire off bolts of lightning which would cleave any objects barreling close to him in two. It also served as less of a beacon on his back as compared to the large Trishula.

His focus was not on the disaster anymore, and was on the building named asSaint Peterheim.

Sensitivity to negative emotions in general was common for a Jujutsu Sorcerer. Did that make them more empathetic or sympathetic to people? Not really, especially when the feeling for such negative emotions was more a splodge of mud splashed upon them rather than any hint of understanding—sadly enough.

But he doubted Jujutsu Society would have it any other way. For a structure built upon selfishness and insanity, anybody who cared too much about empathy and understanding of other's emotions was bound to have it rough. Case in point, Itadori Yuji.

Megumi rested his case.

Holding the single-bladed Vajra tighter in a reverse-grip, the black-haired man moved close to a rock and merged with the shadows that were present. He made his way toward the source of negative emotions—which would be well-concentrated enough in his previous world to form a hotspot for Cursed Spirits.

Whatever happened there, the Jujutsu Sorcerer decided to see for himself.

...Even he was hesitant to see.

OOO*

Anna skulked around the shadowed hallways of Peterheim. Perhaps it had been a terribly awful idea for her to leave the room where the rest of the sane students—for this school's standards—to look for more suppliesalone, but she'd be damned if they didn't find a way out of this blasted place any time soon.

The windows were sealed off with metal plating as usual, and the rancid scent of blood graced the rusted metal. Constant batters could be seen on them, but not to the point where it looked like a dent had formed. The barricades created by thosemonsterswere multi-layered, and any loud sounds from students bashing against it would only lead to retaliation from the forces outside.

Lockers were seen, all of them either having their doors ripped off their hinges or were wide open. All of them had been searched and raided for food, and put into the storeroom that had... unfortunately went up in flames. At this point, Anna was starting to regret her actions, but shook her head and continued to make it through. Her hand reached into her coat and clenched the small teddy bear inside tighter, a great sense of unease overcoming her.

There were corpses, it looked like they had large pieces ripped or bitten off of them. It used to make her uncontrollably shake and retch, but not anymore. She turned away from them and continued her exodus amongst the hallways retrofitted with orange lights of the Catastrophe raging outside—and she was wondering when a piece from the natural disaster would blow a hole in Peterheim or end her life. Either could happen.

But knowing her rotten luck over the past weeks or so, something like that seemed more like a dream than anything.

The chatter of mad students could be heard in some rooms, which prompted her to stick closer to the shadows and bend her knees to a lower posture. She had a dagger in hand. The instrument of stabbing was rather lackluster in its size and use, but that was the best weapon she could scrounge up and use without being a bother to carry around on her body.

She took a huff in as she scanned every single inch of the hallway as she walked through it. The many sounds which came from the other rooms were disturbing to say the least, but she could stomach it for the time being. There was a certain distance that she had designated in her mind before deciding to go back, and Anna was sure that would be in about a few more meters—

"You!"

—Her body froze.

She turned toward the noise as she saw a student in the tattered school uniform of Peterheim. The hems of his blazer looked like it had gone through a cheese grater and were drenched in pus and vomit, along with the sleeves of his undershirt. There was a weapon on hand, sharp metal scissors from the book of it, and it was held tightly in his hand.

"What do you think you're doing in our territory?!" The boy proclaimed in a loud voice, which was most likely to alert the reset of the students around.

Anna narrowed her eyes from underneath her monocle, feeling the sudden urge to curse. But she held it in and decided that it would be best to hightail it out of the hallway before a crowd of the other student's gang would gather up like an army of demons. With a hasty step, she sprung upwards and took a step back, but the movement had made her slightly lose balance.

"I'll kill you!"

Just great, he was one of the mad ones. Anna pulled out her dagger with sweat starting to build up on the back of her neck, and pointed toward him in an effort to halt his movement. However, he was lacking more screws than she imagined, and continued to bum-rush her without a care in the world. The wild mane of his mouth gaped open as saliva could be seen from it, and the rest of his eyes turned the same color as his sclera—pitch white.

Anna readied herself to strike back and hopefully make it out of the situation alive, but the next occurrence left her baffled. From the shadows, something had twisted out of it like an apparition rising from a black pond, and stood in front of her and the charging student. They—he—was tall, towering over both of them as a hand covered by his black robes reached out and grabbed the wrist of the charging student.

A rush of air overcame the scene as the rough sound of bone creaking under pressure could be heard. Anymore, and the Ursus girl was sure that the boy's wrist would have snapped cleanly in half, revealing a sharp broken bone through the joint. She looked upwards, and the person who had stopped the madness from before was revealed.

Spiky black hair which looked like it came out of a cartoon (in a good way), white undershirt in the form of what looked to be Higashinese clothing, the same black robes she remembered, and an apathetic scowl on his face that seemed to have been born in his very genetics. He was... scary, to say the least, and she had to wonder what a young adult(?) like him was doing in Saint Peterheim with such clothes.

"What a shitty situation," a mumble was heard from the black-haired man as he threw the student back with a swift toss of his arm. "Leave." A single declaration was given to the stumbling boy who was backing away.

"Y-you! An adult?!" The student gritted his teeth, while Anna watched the scene with confusion.

Despite what the Ursus girl felt, the logical crevices of her mind were making heads over what was happening. Keeping calm was a needed skill, and she was glad she possessed such a thing. So, from what she could tell, the black-haired man looked to be helping her and was most likely somebody who had entered the building from outside—for reasons she doesn't know.

"I said leave," the black-haired man deepened his scowl, "do I need to repeat myself, unruly brat?"

"G-guh!" The boy glared daggers at the uncaring man, "I-I'll get you back for that, you pussy!" He turned tail and ran away, his footsteps echoing across the hallway. No other disturbance was given after he had stormed away, and all other students in the locked rooms were most likely too busy with whatever to have noticed the commotion in the hallway.

"Are you alright?" Fushiguro Megumi turned around to the teal-haired Ursus girl behind him with a softer voice.

"I... yes," Anna nodded while snapping herself out of her ruminations, "I'm quite fine..." She rummaged her head to find any answers she could come up with, but everything fell flat on their heads when the black-haired man sighed with relief and knelt down to eye-level with her.

"That's a relief to hear. Could you tell me fully what happened here...?"

As if on cue, a scream could be heard from across the hallways as silence overtook the both of them. For the young adult, his body paused as he could feel the high-pitched sound waves bristle across his skin and into his ears, the sound furthermore clued him in on what was happening without any words needing to be exchanged.

"...From that sound, and the state of this school," Anna fixed her monocle with her index and thumb finger, "I'm sure you can understand what Saint Peterheim has turned into"

Was the world out to get him at this point?

OOO*

A blanket of the abyss, a darkened chasm, and an endless fall which brought nothing but a single sensation upon the nerves. Cold, the feeling continued to prick at her skin like needles or bristles. Outside the thick walls of the building was also the clamoring sound of something hard and mineral in nature slamming against the barren soil.

She quivered. Despite there being no wind inside such a sealed structure from all sides, it sure as hell felt like there was something brushing against her skin and providing the uncomfortable feeling. Sonya let out a growl as her hand inched closer to her weapon, a broken fire axe crudely wounded back together.

The tool meant for defending by any means necessary was brought up with two arms and held close to her chest. Dried blood was splattered on the floor in front of her, and some specks of the coagulated crimson liquid also dotted her hands. She glared at the sealed door in front of her, a sense of unease coming over her.

The constant battering of what she knew as a Catastrophe loomed over their lives. With some quick thinking, it could be either a blessing or a curse for them. A piece of raw Originium could strike at a wall and breach it open for them to exit from, or another could unfortunately destroy an entire room and take them along with it. It was honestly 50/50, but such a chance for freedom from this artificial hell was enough for her to desire it.

Her gaze turned toward Lada, the Ursus girl with blonde hair who was sleeping. She was huddled together in a fetal position with a blanket draped over herself, a disturbed expression constantly etched onto her usually more "positive" one. Well, as positive as it can be for this damnable situation.

"Lada," Sonya whispered toward the girl, as if her voice could bleed through the walls and alert all sorts of unsavory people, especially theReunionpeople who were keeping the school under lock. "Psst~!Lada!" Her voice rose just a slight bit higher as she came closer to the other occupant of the room.

The person being called out had a hand placed on her shoulder, and was lightly shaken. Such a movement made her shift in her sleep, as her eyes shook open, "a-ah... it wasn't—it wasn't me..."

"Lada!" Sonya's hushed continued to call out to her while keeping her eyes darting across the scenery. The noise created by the Catastrophe wasn't enough to wake up the sleeping girl, so she was relying on the familiarity of her voice and the abrupt movements of her shaking, "wake up!"

"K-kyah!" Lada shot upwards with a frantic movement, shaking uncontrollably before a firm grip was established on her shoulders, "w-who...?" She hadn't been woken up so abruptly ever since the massive explosion outside. It was far away, but the blinding light was still somewhat visible from where they were.

"It's me! Keep it down!" Sonya continued with a lowered voice as she turned around to glance around the room. At any moment, the chaos of the students outside could reach their room, all with the start of the sealed door in front of them being breached open. It had replayed itself over in her mind, and she was sure that her fears would come to fruition at some point.

"O-oh!" Lada's bear ears twitched before the strange feeling from before passed, and she shifted back to her positive attitude. "Did something happen?" She spoke in the same hushed way as the other Ursus student and followed her gaze across the room. The other students inside such as Natalya and Rosalind were slightly shuffling from their positions.

"Do you hear what's happening outside? A Catastrophe," Sonya said. "It's different from that massive explosion which hadn't done much from where we were at."

"A Catastrophe... wait, then that means...!"

"Exactly," she spoke affirmatively, "we just have to find a section of the school that's been busted open and ditch this hellhole."

"I don't believe so," a third voice came in, and both Lada and Sonya turned toward it. They recognized who she was, Natalya, "what I mean to say is—Reunion is most likely to be stationed around the perimeter to catch anybody who is attempting to escape. Which would be us."

"Tch, then are you content with just staying here?" Sonya narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms, "what would be better? Rotting here from starvation or having a chance to be bashed in the head by those white-masked bastards outside?"

Lada stared between the two with a worried expression.

"I'm not in disagreement with your plan or choice, I'm merely pointing out the dangers which would be present. We ought to plan if we want to make it outside, and that is if we can find an opening that has been created by the Catastrophe," Natalya shook her head. "But with how it is outside... it would be a miracle if we aren't squished under it instead."

"Hmph," Sonya grumbled, "then we better make one fast." She looked around the room to check for any supplies she could bring. There were multiple backpacks which held essentials that they needed, but sadly not food. At most, they were medical kits and extra weapons just in case their own broke.

"Hey, where's Anna?" It was then the fourth voice in the room echoed across the room, belonging to Rosalind, "er... she didn't go out alone to search for supplies right?" Her usual sparky attitude was mixed with some apprehension.

"I think she did," Sonya replied, "where else could she have gone?"

"Damn it, doesn't she know any better?" Sonya was peeved. "Whatever, we can search for her while finding an opening—"

The door clicked open, making them all turn their sights to the heavily fortified object turning open far too casually to their liking. Only the group knew the combinations for the lock, which proved that the person behind it should be...

...Anna, with a black-haired tall man?

Silence overcame the group inside the room as the teal-haired Ursus girl awkwardly walked in with the stranger.

Megumi walked in while glancing around, before his eyes rested on the occupants present. He felt out of place in such an area, but kept himself steady while closing the door behind him. From the reactions of the other students, there was only one word which could accurately describe how they felt: suspicion.

"Anna, who is that?" Sonya was the first to speak up with a defensive voice. Lada who was beside her shifted her gaze between the two, craning her neck upwards and then downwards between Megumi and Anna.

The other girls, Natalya and Rosalind were already shuffling toward their own weapons, preparing for the worst case scenario.

Anna was just about to speak, but Megumi placed a hand on her shoulders and stepped forward, "I'm not here to cause any harm." He raised his hand with his palm facing toward them, "if anything, I'm rather ignorant of what had happened in this school, so please pardon me."

Sonya continued to stare warily, "huh? And what brought you to a shithole like this? I would have thought somebody like you would have left at first sight rather than entering." The hallways were a bloodied mess anyways, and the rotten stink of corpses would drive anybody away.

"I wasn't fully expecting children or teenagers," Megumi thinned his lips while lowering his hand, "I was told by Anna that I would get the full picture of what happened here if I asked you guys." He gave a small glance toward the Ursus child beside him. "I can already paint a rather clear picture with what I've seen, though. Like I said before, I'm not here to cause any harm—I wouldn't gainanythingin the first place if I were to kill a bunch of children."

"How can we trust that?" Sonya pressed on while keeping her weapon close to her, "for all we know, you might just be some sadistic monster who's just toying with us."

"Sonya..." Lada, the blonde-haired one, didn't know what to say. Seeing another sane person, and an adult no less, had been reinvigorating.

'Sonya has a point," Natalya added from her side, "how can we trust you?"

An awkward look crossed Megumi's features as he scratched the back of his neck. Perhaps if he was still a teenager their age, it would have been much easier to talk to them, but he was now a 20 year-old.

"I can vouch for him," Anna spoke up while raising her right hand to fix her monocle. Eyes turned to her, before she continued, "he saved my life when an unruly student attacked me, rather sincerely too. I believe it would be too much of a stretch if he's doing it simply to fool us."

"Hm..." Sonya continued to keep her eyes narrowed.

The other girls glanced at each other as if attempting to come to a consensus, while the black-haired man was internally grateful to the Ursus student who had spoken up for him.

"Ah, is that true?" Lada sprung up from her blanket and asked toward Megumi, the recipient turning toward her somewhat taken aback by her rather bubbly attitude compared to everybody else.

"Yes, I wouldn't have it any other way. I don't know how exactly I can prove that, though..." Megumi paused his words when the Ursus girl sprung up from where she was and darted up to him, "huh?" He also implicitly noticed Anna also sharing the same reaction as he did.

"You helped Anna, right?" Lada looked upwards while grabbing his arm.

"You could say so...?" Megumi glanced toward the teal-haired girl in question. She shrugged.

"Really? Does that mean you're here to help us?" An expectant glow was in her eyes while she spoke.

"That... are youtrappedin here?" The Jujutsu Sorcerer needed more information.

"Lada! You shouldn't approach a stranger like that!" Sonya called out from behind.

"Let her be, it doesn't seem to be causing any harm," Natalya chimed in while witnessing the scene.

"Hold on," Lada turned back to answer Sonya before turning back to Megumi, "So uhm..."

"I need information, what happened here?" He cut to the chase.

"Ah well... the adults kind of left or were killed when those white-maksed guys came around, b-but we've been holding up!" She gave a smile. It didn't fully feel like one to Megumi, despite how bright it was.

"White masks...? Don't tell me..." A mumble escaped his lips, while his arm kept being held by the blonde-haired girl.

"Reunion, that was what they called themselves, a bunch of bastards if you ask me," Sonya piped in with a grumble. Just a mention of their name made her irritated.

"Reunion?" Megumi could feel his brows crease further. There was no way... to cause something likethis? His mood was dropping, but he didn't show it.

"Yeah, we've been stuck in this stinking place for a while now!" Rosalind walked beside Lada while curiously looking upward to Megumi, "all of our food supplies got burnt in the process..."

Sonya twitched at that mention.

"Wait, hold on," Natalya spoke up once more while joining the pile in front of the black-haired man, "I have to ask, what had brought you here anyways?"

"What brought me here?" Megumi repeated, and the white-haired girl whoreminded him of Laurentinain terms of appearance nodded, "I was attempting to avoid Reunion. They've been trashing the city like animals. I stumbled upon this place, and well..."

"Stumbled upon shit." Sonya already assumed his opinions on the place. "Since you helped Anna from a crazed bastard, then you'd probably already know the kind of mess you just walked in on. Welcome to hell." She scoffed.

"Hey, don't be like that," Lada kept her positivity up, "we have a reasonable adult with us now, and he found a way in, right?"

"...I broke my way in, if that's what you're referring to." Megumi nodded.

That madeeverybodyperk up.

"You broke your way in? Wait, are you insinuating that..." Anna let her voice draw out for the black-haired man to complete the rest for her.

"That there's a hole leading inside and outside? Not really." Megumi shook his head. His words brought a sense of disappointment to everybody.

"If that is so, then how were you able to make it inside?" Natalya said.

"You specified that youbroke in, the dots aren't connecting," Sonya said with a confused tone.

"Ididbreak in, but it was through a very small opening that I doubt either of you could fit through. I was only able to move through them because of my... Arts." Megumi clarified once more, "and... what's your name?" He turned down toward the blonde-haired Ursus girl.

"Me? It's Lada! And also, you have Arts?!" She seemed rather ecstatic,tooecstatic for some reason.

The rest had also become slightly more interested at the mention of Arts, especially Anna who had witnessed him crawling from out of the shadows. However, they reined in their curiosity for the moment, as more pressing questions needed to be answered.

"Lada, then. Could you let go of my arm? Yes, Idohave Arts." He pointed with his other hand that was free, "you've been grasping at it very tightly, it's becoming uncomfortable."

"O-oh, haha, sorry!" Lada backed away while nervously laughing, "sorry, sorry, it's just that... well, you already know from what we've said, right?"

A look of concern crossed Megumi's features as he turned back toward the other students. Anna, he remembered her name, held the same worried look as he did even if she looked to be the calmest out of the rest of them aside from the... white-haired girl. The one with brown hair and dashed with a red streak on it was the most wary out of them, and the dark brown-haired Ursus student who was closest to the white-haired one seemed to be the second most relaxed—but the small quiver in her crossed hands already clued him in that everything was not as it seemed.

They possessed weapons, some which were already made, and some which were makeshift in nature. That was what had caught his eye when he first entered, and he wasn'ttoosurprised considering the state of Peterheim's interior. From what these students were implying, they've been stuck in this place for quite a long time while their food supplies were running low, and considering the mess and chaos that was present in the other rooms he had snuck past with Anna...

"Do you all want to leave?" Megumi suddenly said.

"Huh?" Rosalind reacted visibly to his words.

"What are you getting at?" Sonya said at the same time.

"I'm in agreement with Sonya here," Natalya said right after her. "Your words seem to be implying something."

"Hmph," the aforementioned student huffed from the words of the previous speaker.

"We do want to leave!" Lada affirmed what the entire group felt without waiting for an answer from the question to his question, "it's been kinda a doozy struggle to make it around without... you know..."

Megumi watched her attitude shift once more. Her hands clasped behind her back while her right foot softly kicked against the ground, her bright eyes glancing elsewhere as it dimmed. The black-haired man still kept a neutral expression, but he had already made up his mind, "I can get you all out of here. No strings attached."

"Uh? Really?!" Lada jolted when she heard his words and looked up at him, "like, really really?"

"Yes, really," the black-haired man continued to keep his posture as he answered. "I can find a way out." He couldeasilyforce a way out. The many means available to him were far and wide.

"Uhm, is that so...?" Natalya blinked a few times when hearing those words. She wanted to believe his words, but the recent events had made her ditch her rose-tinted glasses ages ago. Although he looked tall and formidable under the—strangely—Higashinese clothing of his, she didn't know how potent he was in combat. Nobody did.

"Wait, you can't just drop a bombshell like that," Sonya spat out, "how can you be so confident in that? There's about a hundred of those Reunion bastards surrounding Peterheim, and we haven't felt anything crash into the school from the Catastrophe."

"The Catastrophe is far away, it's still going to take some time before it reaches the school. At most, pebbles from the perimeter will reach Peterheim," Megumi replied, "Anna, you've seen how bright its light was from the hallways, right?"

"I did, it wasn't anything too bright from our distance." Anna nodded, "the amount emitted—even if I may be wrong—is very little. But still, I'm confused too, howwillyou find a way out?" She assumed he had the same plans as them for using the Catastrophe to their advantage, if and when it breaks open a section of the school.

"I—" Megumi was just about to reply with his choice of method, but shut his lips when he sensed movement behind the door he had shut for the group. Turning around, he silently narrowed his eyes as a crawling sense of unease overcame him.

"...?" Sonya raised an eyebrow, "well, are you—"

"Shh~" Megumi raised his index finger to his lip and let out a low shushing sound, "somebody, about a group of twenty or so are approaching."

"Twenty?" The Ursus girl was even more confused now, "whyare they approaching? No, scratch that, howdoyou know that many are approaching?"

"I can feel their footsteps, don't you?" He frowned while continuing to listen out to their movements. They were coming closer.

Sonya did not, and it irritated her.

"Now that you point that out, I do...!" Lada's bear ears twitched, "who could they belong to?"

"I seldom hear it," Natalya's worries rose, "could they perhaps be from the...?" Her voice mellowed out to a hum as she attempted to correlate them to anybody who would have qualms with them.

"From what?" Megumi asked.

"The aristocrats, the same ilk as her," Sonya growled out, while also pointing her chin toward Natalya who let out a sigh.

"...You don't seem to get along," he added with a thoughtful look.

"Of course not," the previous girl stated.

"Unfortunately," Natalya said.

Anna let out a sigh from hearing their words, "be it as it may, we're gathered together now. Because out of everybody else, I believe that they... are rather the more tolerable out of the rest."

"I can agree with that, but... what are we going to do next?" Lada chimed in, but her voice became more worried as she clutched at her weapons at the footsteps which were becoming louder.

"Our options are rather limited, and by limited I mean we only have one option," Anna said. "I'm sure we're all well aware of what that means."

"Enemies," Natalya nodded.

"Ugh, if they want to come beating at our doorstep, then at least they better have a good reason for it," Rosalind let out a frustrated groan.

"Can we get any reasonable answers from them in the first place?" Sonya asked.

"...Yeah, you're right," Rosalind relented.

Megumi glanced between them, the tension was palpable. "I'll go deal with them." He stared at the vacant metal door which was starting to shake from the many footsteps behind it, most likely an army of imps at the ready with their pitchforks and torches.'Better not let them burn this entire building down.'

He took a step forward.

"E-excuse me?" Natalya called out to the black-haired man who had already placed his hand on the doorknob, and was doing the lock. "Pardon, but don't you believe that..."

"I can handle it," he replied.

"Handle it my ass! Just because you're an adult doesn't mean you're invincible to a bunch of mad and hungry students with weapons!" Sonya felt as if a volcano was brewing into fermented lava at the top of her head when watching his reckless actions.

Anna kept silent as she didn't know what to make of the situation, while Lada stared between him and her allies as the black-haired man continued to undo the lock. Rosalind just about shared the same sentiment, but she was more so attempting to diffuse the situation.

Before any more words could be exchanged, the lock had been undone. With a deft and abrupt movement, the makeshift reinforced door shot open abruptly like it had been fired from a cannon. It was all done with a single jolt of his arm, and it produced a vibrating echo which had coursed through the walls andshookthe entire structure.

There was a large group of students outside who were repulsed from the suddenness of the action, which had almost sent them off of their feet. For the Ursus Student-Self Governing Group, they paused with bated breaths and clutched their weapons tighter in their hands. Fushiguro Megumi was at the forefront of the battlefield, and he was going to fully take up the mantle he had borne back before in middle school.

"Don't you think you're all being too unreasonable?" His voice bellowed out toward the disoriented aggressors who had bore the brunt of the shockwave produced when he had slammed the door open. "There's a fundamental rule in interacting with others you brats, do you know what that is?" He narrowed his eyes in annoyance as he gauged what was in front of him.

Children in disarray, holding bloodied weapons and scraggly clothes, along with messy hair, and crazed looks to top it all off. Anna wasn't lying when she said that her group, the U.S.S.G. was the most sane out of them all.

"An adult—?!"

"W-who is that—?"

"Did they have an adult with them the entire time—!"

"W-where was he w-when—!"

"Those bastards—!"

Their voices were silenced when his hand slammed against the reinforced door once more, producing yet another reverberation which had rattled their bodies, "it's"I won't kill you, so please don't kill me either." So let me ask you one question:do you want me to kill you?"Megumi's voice fell gravely as his head lowered downwards to stare at them. His height towered over them.

The U.S.S.G. girls turned to stare at each other for a moment, unable to make any clear words with the situation. All they could do was watch what he did after such a bold proclamation, and hope for the best that the situation didn't escalate into a full bloodbath.

A single scream was heard from a student at the forefront, as they charged with their weapon.

Megumi's face fell into an emotionless one as annoyance continued to rest itself inside of his heart. From that point onwards, he was sure that the entire thing would turn into a chain reaction where every other aggressive student would charge toward him, so there was only one option that was left for him.

Beating up a bunch of kids.

OOO*

The Ursus students stared at their once schoolmates who had gone precariously mad over the span of their stay in the dredged up school structure that was put to the side merely for them to suffer inside. Their actions endlessly spoke of their constant insanity, and they honestly could not put the blame against them under any measure—because that would mean admonishing even themselves.

It was as if the line between right and wrong had been blurred. To be more accurate, it had vanished completely, turned into nothing but dust and kicked up into the wind to be carried off to wherever they are taken. Perhaps some other place would find that it would reform itself back, in order to establish civility once more.

At this point, what should have been a fight for survival between people who were no different than the beasts of the wild had abruptly ended. Like a foot stomping down and putting an end to whatever it had squished underneath its soles, because that was the most accurate assessment they could make of the situation. Not excessive gore, no streams of blood, and certainly no bodies which had been viscerally ripped apart by blunt and sharp objects alike, left as a symbol for the savage to admire.

Just... unconsciousness, a pervading silence suffused into the air for a rather bizarre scene to present itself. Bizarre in the sense, that if it were recorded and put into some B-Movie, then the Ursus students observing such a scene wouldn't find it completely out of place if it were to become a passing scene from the corners of their sclera. Such events leading up to such a thing though, could not.

The bodies of the aggressors laid in a pile, beaten and battered. They were like marionettes on thinly tied strings which had been severed straight in half, leaving them to uselessly fall on their faces flat. Atop them was a black-haired man who had his thumb pressed against his forehead, a look of perturbation plastered on the imaginary painting that was his face.

Natalya saw it all. The skillful footwork that weaved through every single attempt on him as if there were a million holes in the woven fabric of strikes, and then the lazy palm strikes which carried a wrathful softness to them. Instead of utilizing his knuckles meant for drawing blood and disrupting inner components of the body, a masterful control over his actions looked to be the main point of his counteraction.

She wasn't knowledgeable about Higashinese culture or whatever their outfits meant, but from underneath his black robes she could see what she could recognize as a martial artist's outfit. With only a little more deliberation of its purpose, the white-haired Ursus girl had come to the conclusion of her mental thesis that he was a fighter who had been trained to reach the point of excellency that had been displayed.

It was fascinating to look at,'just from one person...'Just where had he come from?

Anna came to the same line of thought. Every single move had a purpose, and each strike felt as if they were articulated in order not to cause unnecessary damage toward the now still bodies underneath his feet. While she had witnessed him stopping an aggressive boy with scissors in his hands, such a feat wasn't enough for her to conclude that he would be able to accomplish something such as this.

It was only when the brief mention of Arts not long before could the other Ursus student finally understand and come to terms with what she had seen. Practice makes perfect, and she was sure that the stranger in front of them possessed a degree of tutelage in the art of defending oneself—in fact, she could assuredly say that was aguaranteedfact.

'Note to self, don't get on his bad side.'She hastily fixed her monocle to appear normal. Deep inside, she didn't want to know what it would be like to face down the black-robed man in a fight, even with numbers.

Lada had starry eyes. From behind Sonya and holding her weaponized frying pan at the ready with her torn vault shield, every action had been burned into her mind. From the casual flips which sent bodies airborne and the unbothered small leg sweeps which had sent entire groups tripping over each other, it was as if the black-haired man had done such an action so many times before. It was like looking at a movie star's performances in real life, and it wasjustenough for her to push the fact that the angered students were ready to slaughter them at the moment.

'Can I do that when I'm his age?'A rather expectant outview was made for her future—even if it were to further cope with the previous trauma.

Sonya didn't know what to say. She clutched at her fire axe with bated breaths while watching the entire scuffle go down. Bodies were flung, heads were bashed into the wall, and swift strikes which she couldbarelydetect were sent, all actions which had become nothing more than a blur in the air. It wasn't the powerful strikes or the booming blows—which weren't present in the first place—but the near invisibility of each and every one of his actions. It didn't help that those black robes had obscured his every action too, with how long the sleeves moved past enough to cover his hands.

'If we had all ganged up on him, we would have been mauled.'Further worry and unease crept up on her, she didn't know what to think of the young adult.

Rosalind was impressed. She could immediately tell that their benefactor had experience fighting, to such a degree that he was able to make multiple armed and crazed opponents look like nothing but flailing childrens... er, well, theywerea bunch of flailing children, but still! It was an absolute spectacle to look at him trashing those bastards as if it were a Tuesday session for himself. Maybe, just maybe, she could ask him for tips in terms of martial arts or combat styles.

'Wow, look at him sitting up on their piled bodies... Actually, did he have to do that?'She let out a low whistle while placing his palm over her head, as if shielding her eyes from a nonexistent sun.

Fushiguro Megumi let out a long drawn out sigh while his thumb continued to rub his forehead, before referring to the knocked down students below him, "I don't care if you're a bunch of toughened up survivors who think you're worth more than a life. Do that crap in front of me again and I'll make sure to finish the job." An irate voice continued to leave his glossy lips as he stepped down from the pile—his foot crunching against the hands and arms of the students before he landed down. "You, what's your name?"

Sonya blinked when Megumi pointed a finger at her, "Z-Sonya... why are you asking that, huh?" She kept her posture as steady as possible. A bastion cannot stand upwards and appear durable if it looked like an loftless tower.

"What do you want to do with them?" Megumi turned his point into a thumb and pointed it from over his shoulder toward the unconscious students. "It's your call."

The girl with a red streak in her hair took a moment to let his words settle into her mind. Why was it that he was askingherfor her opinion? But now that she thought about it, amongst that pile of thrown out trash were some students that she knew, either previous "friends" or people who she had a vendetta with before and after this entire shitfest. Closing her eyes with a postulating demeanor, she let out a deep breath and finally decided.

"Just let them go, they're not worth it. Whatever they do next after we leave, I don't care," Sonya could feel all eyes turn on her as she said that, "and besides, aren'tyouthe adult here? Why are you asking me for my opinion?" She placed her hands on her hips with a rather standoffish attitude.

"Well, that's good to hear," strangely enough, a small smile made its way on Megumi's lips as he turned around, "I thought you'd be a good decision-maker. I'm glad to know that, there's nothing more to it than that."

"Huh?" She blinked a few times when hearing his words, and was further dazed when Lada had placed her hands on her shoulders from behind.

"Wow, do you hear that? He thinks you're a good decision-maker!" The most jubilant one out of them smiled while giving their General a thumbs-up.

Sonya thinned her lips, "not that I care," she turned away with a miffed breath.

A few footsteps rang out as Megumi continued walking, before pausing in his steps and turning back toward the students, "so? You all wanted to leave this place, are you coming or not?" He tilted his head while his black haori flowed back down to its normal position.

The Ursus Student-Self Governing Group took a moment of their time to mull his words over.

Without a single word spoken amongst one another, a single consensus was made.

"Let us pack our stuff first," Sonya said, "we're coming along."

OOO*

Megumi made a mental note of what he knew of the students. Natalya, the white-haired Ursus was a rather refined lady, most likely a child of nobility, Sonya was steadfast and usually had a badmouth, but her heart seemed to be in the right place. Rosalind and Lada were the most energetic out of the batch, the best way to describe them were balls of positivity, even if they sometimes lapsed and revealed some parts that foretold of... PTSD, and trauma. Anna was the most calm and collected, she looked to be as refined as Natalya—but more so in the sense that she was... dedicated in the pursuit of knowledge? That was the best way he could describe it.

He didn't care much for their status, he was impartial to that. They also didn't seem to mind it much either, even if Natalya and Sonya sometimes argued or threw strays at each other. Even then, they weren't bad at all, and it seemed it was more out of habit than anything else. As long as it didn't become a problem, then he was content with letting them be as they were. Butting into business that he didn't belong to never suited him after all, unless it was for the scum of the earth.

A single deep-seated rage boiled in his heart as he continued to make his way through the hallways with them. The topic of Reunion had shimmered in his mind over the past hour of his stay in Saint Peterheim, and his opinion of the group only fell more and more. Talulah, what had she done to allow something like this to happen? In fact, who thehellwas in charge of this entire thing in the first place?

It angered him, but he couldn't let it show.

"More footsteps?" Natalya stopped in her tracks while trailing behind Megumi as her bear ears twitched. It was a useful trait, "somebody is approaching from down the hallway, it's best if we remain vigilant to..."

Before she could say anything, Megumi continued to trot downwards without a care in the world. With a single swift movement of his hand when he saw who exactly had turned the corner—an armed Reunion member—their fate had already been sealed amongst the clouds of crackling fissures.

Lada, Sonya, Natalya, Anna, and Rosalind watched in shock as a golden bolt of lightning travelled from the single-bladed end of the item held in Megumi's hand. It lit up the entire room as it travelled toward the Reunion member, who couldn't even react to the attack. A single explosion was heard as their entire body was blown apart, leaving their severed limbs to shoot out while their torso burst into paste.

"Goodness..."Natalya breathed out in awe. She had seen more gruesome sights while holed up in Peterheim at the whim of tyrants, but the sudden and unexpected visceral scene produced from the sight was still enough to shock her.

The Jujutsu Sorcerer was starting to feel guilty for showing such a gorey sight in front of them, but they were less grossed out than he could have imagined. From the looks of it, they were more surprised from the sudden firepower shown than the bursted body.

"A-Arts?" Anna clutched her teddy bear while she backed away from the sight. A single flick was all that was needed to reduce the enemy into what she had seen, "it was too fast to react to..." she continued to mumble, attempting to use any knowledge about Arts she knew from her parents or from her own experience to delegate what kind of application was used.

"Yes, it's Arts," Megumi twirled his Vajra in between his fingers while glancing back, "this is one of my Arts Unit." He stopped twirling it as he held the Cursed Tool between his fingers, and dangled it in front for the teens to see. Though, he had to admit, the hesitant and scared looks on their faces had almost made him pull it back.

"T-that's—are you from the army?" Sonya still kept up a defensive posture, but now she knew the capabilities of the black-haired man in front of her. The item in his hand lookedexpensiveandpotent, with how it looked to be dressed in a magnificent aureate dress.

"What army?" He raised an eyebrow, "I was a citizen in Chernobog. Retired from Higashi."

"...You're too young to be retired," Anna pointed out.

"In fact... What is a Higashinese doing in Ursus?" Natalya added in, "I'm afraid to say but others are not likely to take your kind well. Apologies, if I come off as disrespectful." She received a side-eye from some of the other students.

Fushiguro Megumi thinned his lips as the suspicious gazes of the students continued to bore into him. "Is it that surprising for a Higashinese to appear in Ursus?" He grumbled while pulling back his Vajra—much to the disappointment of Anna—surprisingly.'I already know the answer.'

"I would have thought you would be aware of that," Rosalind scratched the back of her head, "you know? People usually stare a lot and make gestures to an outside person, stuff like that."

"Of course, they're racist," Megumi rolled his eyes, not sugar coating his response in the slightest. It seemed to somewhat take the students aback, "but that doesn't matter in this situation right now, does it?" They recovered rather handily after.

"...Hrm, not at all," Sonya agreed, "we have to get out of this damnable place. You better not stab us in the back."

"What do I even gain from that?" He questioned while turning back down the hallway, "besides, I have a grudge against Reunion..." their images flashed through his mind as a complicated look overcame his features "...especially with what they've done."

"Then, I believe our goals align to some extent," Natalya said, "you wish to enact justice upon Reunion, and we wish to leave this overrun city."

"Is that it?" Sonya glanced toward Natalya before turning back to Megumi.

"I want to escape too. Dealing with an entire army without any planning is hazardous," the black-haired man shook his head, "it would be foolish of me to think otherwise."

"Then we just have to work together, right?" Lada rose up, "Mister...?"

"Megumi, Fushiguro Megumi." He replied to her. Seeing her expectant and brightened look from the previously disheartened one made him speak in a softer voice, "family name first, given name last."

"Mr. Megu... Mr. Fushiguro then!" The blonde-haired Ursus girl fixed the addressing of his name.

"Ah... we've never received your name before," Natalya fiddled with her weapon, as she remembered. "Nor have we introduced ourselves to you." For somebody who was helping them leave Saint Peterheim, how could she have forgotten to follow such a rudimentary behavioral pattern that was basic manners?

"If you want to introduce yourselves, you can do so now," the black-haired man lowered his hand as his haori's sleeves fell down. He already knew some of their names, but it was best to hear them again and learn the ones he doesn't know.

"Make it quick, I'm Sonya," the brunette with a red streak in her hair replied, "any bastards that stumble my way will have to face this axe against their head."

"Mhm," Megumi nodded and turned to the next one. He wasn't sure, but she looked to be slightly grumpy with how dismissive he was of her—then again, it was just a guess.

"Natalya, it's a pleasure to meet you," the white-haired Ursus walked upwards and extended her hand for a handshake, "I thank you for your help, truly." She could hear Sonya let out a humph from the side, but ignored it.

"Likewise," he received the hand and shook it.

"Oh! Oh! And I'm Lada!" The blonde-haired Ursus ran upwards after and grasped his hand with both of her own and viciously shook it up and down, "I have a hobby for cooking!"

"That's good to hear..." Megumi hoped he hadn't sounded too deadpan to the point where it was rude. But from the look the white-haired girl—Natalya was giving him from the side—he could only give her a small shrug, which elicited a small reaction from her.

"You already know who I am," Anna walked to the side of Lada while the latter broke hand contact with Megumi and waltzed back, "but my name is Anna. A pleasure."

"It is," the black-haired man nodded.

"And my name's Rosalind!" Last but not least, another girl's voice who was holding an axe on her shoulder, and a composite crossbow on her other hand, came up with a confident exterior; "wanna shake on it?" She extended a hand just like Natalya and Anna.

"Sure," Megumi gave her a handshake.

She set down her crossbow for it, "you're pretty stone-faced, huh?" Rosalind commented while tilting her head.

"I believe that's his natural demeanor, Rosalind." Natalya commented from the side.

"It is. But aside from that, we should get going now," Megumi broke away from the handshake for about the third time and motioned for them to follow him, but then paused when he realized something.

"Why'd you stop?" Sonya stopped moving in tandem with him and asked her question, "we still haven't found an opening yet."

"No, that's not it." He shook his head.

"Then what is it?" The de-facto leader of the U.S.S.G. asked.

"I just realized it would be much faster if I tore down the wall."

"Huh?"

"Eh?"

"Pardon?"

"Seriously?"

"Are you confident that is accomplishable?"

Rosalind, Anna, Lada, Sonya, and Natalya spoke at the same time, with the lattermost's words being the most distinct out of them.

"You're asking if it's accomplishable?" Megumi turned and asked Natalya.

The white-haired girl nodded slowly, while the rest of the students were starting to feel a strange feeling well up in their chest.

"Of course it is," he raised his Vajra to the side and toward the thick wall with its windows covered in thick steel plating welded onto the windows. "Look." With a single jab in reverse-grip with the only bladed end of his Cursed Tool, and fired off a bolt of lightning whichtore throughthe entire structure with ease.

The U.S.S.G. stepped back and instinctively raised their arms to shield themselves from any debris that would come their way, but none did. They soon lowered from their guarded positions in order to gaze upon the steaming hole that had been formed, not a single speck of what had confined them deep inside the walls of Peterheim was there.

"I..." Natalya blinked a few times to register what had happened, "it was... that easy?" She mumbled.

"Woah!" Lada's eyes widened, "what kind of Arts Unit is that?!"

Anna kept a silent posture while analyzing the damage that had been inflicted to the silent and sorrowful walls. It was very likely that anybody who was unfortunate to stand in-between the sudden attack would have been evaporated, reduced to not even paste—letting her compute in her mind that the lightning Arts blast wasmuchmore powerful than the last one.

Without a single word, Megumi stepped outside of the opening he had made, before turning around to wait for the students to follow along.

OOO*

Over the small course of their journey in making it out of Peterheim as a Catastrophe loomed above them, the Jujutsu Sorcerer had gotten acclimated to the students to a decent degree. Only a few small talks or exchanges were given, and some encounters with the Reunion guards who had been reduced to small numbers because of the Catastrophe were efficiently cleared out. The students surprisingly were effective in combating them, and he only needed to step in a scant number of times to stun their enemies in order for the students to land a clear hit.

Was this how Gojo Satoru felt? Well, it didn't matter now.

Compliments were also given toward the students when he was impressed with their synergy, which aided in some of their motivation...? He wasn't particularly sure, but Megumi decided to shrug it off and continue on the journey with them. That blonde-haired girl named Lada had also been the most talkative out of them, while Anna inquired more about his Arts than the rest of the group. Natalya listened a few times and asked her own questions, but they were usually timed or for certain situations. Rosalind had almost the same energy as Lada, but different in its own way.

Sonya was... complicated. He didn't know the word to describe it, and the Jujutsu Sorcerer didn't wish to prescribe such an intrinsically demeaning word to somebody, but he would say she was... somebody who had difficulty expressing her feelings. Compared to Lada who he had accidently headpatted one time—which she accepted in a stride—Sonya would occasionally glare at him when he did that.

He would make note not to headpat her. For some reason though, that didn't seem like a good idea, but Megumi decided to follow his logic more than anything.

Eventually, after avoiding the Catastrophe and shielding the students from the Originium which rained down, they finally reached a section of the Catastrophe where it was the least vicious out of the rest. It was still passing through, and in about a few minutes, Megumi was sure it would come to pass.

"You have a shard stuck on your shoulder!"

He turned to Sonya who had pointed with a panicked expression to his back, "I do?" Megumi wasn't bothered, and merely turned round to place his hand on it. "Ah, I do." His fingers were stained with blood when he reached the area, and the sharp pain finally registered.'That's unlucky. Did I lose concentration?'

"What do you mean, I do?!" The Ursus girl became more irritated at his words, "do you know how dangerous that is? Lada, do you have a medical kit in your bag?"

"O-oh! I do!" The blonde-haired woman who was broken out of her stasis when seeing the wound which seeped the hue of crushed cherries, took off her backpack and started to unzip it.

Natalya walked up to the black-haired man, "please, you should settle down and keep yourself as calm as possible. With how active we have been walking around, any more movement may cause your wound to fester." She went on her tippy-toes and placed a hand on his undamaged shoulder and attempted to usher him to sit down.

Anna and Rosalind were with Lada and Sonya, helping them fish out the med-kit they had brought with them.

"It's fine," Megumi said, which caused Natalya to pause in her actions, and for the others to become bewildered from his words. His hand moved to grab at the Originium shard embedded in his shoulder and pulled it out with one swift motion, sending off a stream of blood from it.

"A-are you stupid?! What the hell are you thinking, you dumbass!" Sonya felt electricity pass through her body as she watched the blood seep out. Ursine expletives were escaping her mouth by the second as she scampered to get the contents of the med-kit out faster.

Natalya hurriedly pulled out a handkerchief from her pocket and immediately forced Megumi to sit down while applying pressure to the wound, "you... this..." she was at a loss for words when she applied more force in order to staunch the bleeding. "Unbelievable... do you feel any pain...?" The expression of his face hadn't looked perturbed at all, which was the most disturbing part for her.

"I said it would be fine," Megumi waved his palm in the air as if it was alright, but that made Natalya apply even more pressure.

"Stop it with the excessive movements," the white-haired woman let out a stressed sigh.

The rest of the events weren't too significant to Megumi, but he did remember some of the U.S.S.G. students grab at his hair frustratingly after sealing his wound while giving him an earful. He hadn't used Reverse Cursed Technique, because he realized he would have to explain yet another facet of his Arts to them—and also due to the fact that he didn't know how much of his Cursed Energy Reserves he could expend before he reached a state where he wouldn't be victorious against somebody like FrostNova or Patriot.

The matter settled as it was. However, he was forced to stay at the back of the group while the U.S.S.G. came to an agreement to move ahead of him because of his injuries.

The weird look Natalya and Anna gave him for how unbothered he looked was strange, but he merely placed his hands in his pockets and glanced away. Megumi didn't know how much longer he could stand under them with how tiring the entire day had been.

OOO*

A few hours of walking had passed...

Megumi motioned for the students to hide behind the large boulder, much to the dismay of Sonya. The girl mouthed to him a "no" in silence, but he simply deadpanned and mouthed back to her "I have a plan, just stay back and focus on defending yourselves." The Ursus girl narrowed her eyes toward him while he made a "please" expression with his face, which was finally what made her comply.

He had to show them that his injuries were fine when releasing the bandages on his shoulder, which made the students deadpan at the constant surprises he would show them.

It was then all of them seemed to follow along with his commands just fine, but not before clutching their weapons tighter. He was just about to stand up and face the rather large squadron of Reunion members who had just appeared, but he felt a hand grab at his arm. Looking down, he found a worried look plastered on Lada's expression, the blonde-haired girl was nervous.

He paused to give her reassuring gaze, and turned it toward the other students. Hopefully it was, and the black-haired man assumed it to be so and the rest gave him grave nods, along with Lada's hand loosening on his arm. To give a final reassurance, he simply mouthed toward them, "run away if the situation gets bad and leave me. Survival matters more."

It seemed to send a small shock down the student's spines, while they reacted in various different ways towards his words. Sonya's eyes looked to have twitched while her face scrunched up in hesitation, Anna gave him a confused look, Lada's expression seemed to have sunk, Natalya's face became complex, and Rosalind gave him an "HUH?" while shaking her arms in the air.

All he responded with was motioning toward the girls to lay low. With that signal, Megumi placed his hand on the boulder and abruptly vaulted over it, producing a rough sound which he was sure even the Reunion group heard.

The bated breaths of the Ursus students were palpable as tensions rose to a higher point—especially when the Jujutsu Sorcerer's footsteps rang out loud for everybody to hear—a purposeful maneuver from him to focus the attention of Reunion upon him. It worked, and a large entourage of those bloodied clowns had turned toward him, gazes filled with bloodlust from underneath their masks.

However, instead of the confidence they had when slaughtering civilians and killing the helpless, they had instantly recognized who he was.

"Oh lookie here, what do we have—Oh... Oh shit—!"

"W-wait isn't he...?"

"I know that guy...! He's the one who put fucking Talulah out of commission—!"

"What are you guys talking about—?!"

"We HAVE to get the fuck out of here—!"

Chaos ensued amongst the group as they all took a step back or pulled one of their overly excitable friends back, the ignorant ones who hadn't known of who they were standing up against. The ones who did know merely saw an apparition of Death with his black robes billowing in the wind, the one which had nearly laid waste to their leader in an explosion which scraped the skies.

Megumi kept his face neutral, while approaching casually, "so, some of youdoknow who I am," a single stomp with his last step made them all tense up. "If one of you tells me who orchestrated this entire mess back there..." his thumb pointed backwards toward Peterheim "...maybe I'll make your deaths painless." The black-haired man's gaze lowered as his body became more tense. Veins became prominent on his arm when his black haori brushed back.

"D-do we listen to him—?!"

"Fuck, if I'm dying do you think I'm telling him shit—?!"

"W-we've gone through worse bastard! Do you think torture will make us talk—?!"

"If we're dying, we're going to die for Reunion—!"

The Ursus students kept themselves steady while hearing the words of the Reunion soldiers started to rise. There were sounds of crossbows being nocked or being put at the ready, as the fervor of the large group in front of Fushiguro Megumi rose to a crescendo, burning away any fear that they had earlier. Questions arose in their mind of the newly-found information of him apparently decommissioning this "Talulah," who they assumed to be a high-ranking member of Reunion.

The questions were overshadowed by the worry they felt for the black-haired man while they stared at each other with their palms becoming sweatier. They had seen the numbers before, and while they were confident that he was somebody who was anextremelycapable fighter, the numbers he was going against just seemed too lopsided for a chance of winning.

For Sonya, a stray thought overcame her, and two options presented themselves. Run away in the distraction as she had suggested, or stand up and fight alongside him. The decision was on her as the de-facto leader of the students, and it weighed heavily on her. Whenever she pondered more on the situation, the more she would also start gritting her teeth. The others shared the same sentiment.

When they took the risk to peek over the debris they were hiding behind to see what action they should undertake next, an unexpected scene of destined slaughter had presented itself in front of them. For the next few minutes or so, they could finally understand why such confidence and nonchalance was held with Fushiguro Megumi.

"...Tch," ire became present on his face as his Cursed Energy leaked out towards the Reunion grunts, "a bunch of self-virtuous bastards. You're all insufferable." Megumi didn't need to say anymore as his main hands clasped together to form a dog shadow puppet sign while an extra pair of arms from Tiger Funeral appeared from behind the shoulders of his black haori—each holding both the Vajra and Trishula forms of Ame-no-Nuboko—while being colored completely black.

"Divine Dogs."

A black puddle formed beneath his feet and spanned outwards, revealing from its deepest crevices companions who had been with him since childhood. They might not be the Divine General which could shake the skies and cut the existence itself, but they sure as hell could provide an effective means of support.

Single-headed wolves of unstable ebony burst outside of the shadow pond, summoned by normal means rather than utilizing apoptosis. Under constant deliberation over the past two years, Fushiguro Megumi had decided to make the Binding Vow of apoptosis an interchangeable one, for the sake of his mental health.

The Reunion grunts were surprised at the sudden summoning, but the crossbowmen at the backline were already firing off bolts. It proved fruitless however, as the Divine Dogs either caught the projectiles in their mouth or they were interrupted with golden lightning pulverizing them into nothing.

With a single step, and his weapons in hand, Megumi burst forward and left the air behind him ruptured. It wasn't even a battle, nor could it be called an even fight—it was a slaughter. The effort exuded was no different than a light warm-up, even from the deprecated Reserves that he had been experiencing from having his Essenced Totalities stored in shadow for almost 30 minutes, which was the allotted time before they forcefully unmerged.

A chorus of screams came out as body parts started flying upwards. With excellent usage of his extra artificial limbs that he had trained and mastered in his spare time, a self-made martial arts style utilizing multiple weapons had been found. First, one hand held the Vajra, two hands utilized the Trishula, and one was free to use another weapon freely. They all moved in perfect unison and harmony as he made his way through the group with his pack of wolves, decimating any defense or offense thrown at him.

Lightning was either shot down from the skies or rippled off from his Trishula, the fabric on the three-pronged weapon following every movement made with the Divine Cursed Tool. More heads were lobbed off, more corpses were made, and a feast was given toward his Shikigamis. At times, he would swap weapons with Ame-no-Sakahoko from Ame-no-Nuboko just to become more familiar with the Cursed Tools he hadn't utilized for a lengthy time.

But overall—nothing else needed to be done. He was too fast for them to react, and the extra limbs made his defense nearly impenetrable. A twitch of his Vajra, a twirl of his polearms, and a relentless charge; all needed for an unmitigated onslaught against a "misguided" force that he had no qualms about being unforgiving.

Tiger Funeral's arms were temporarily retracted back into his shadows. A simple punch with his actual arm, and then a summon of his Shikigami's limbs once more along with his Trishula in hand ready to strike was also done to throw off his opponent. Rinse and repeat, Fushiguro Megumi had finally found a fighting-style he was comfortable with.

With a plant of his Trishula on the last remaining Reunion member from his charge, the Jujutsu Sorcerer crossed his normal arms while the blackened arms of Tiger Funeral holding his weapons dispelled. The weapons disappeared along with them as the encirclement of Divine Dogs having finished their work also vanished in tandem with his actions.

"I'm done, it's safe to come out now." He turned back to the Ursus students.

...They looked rather surprised.

OOO*

"That. Was. AMAZING!" Lada almost squealed while holding a white rabbit in her hands.

They were in a shop that hadn't been inflicted by the whims of the Catastrophe, at some corner of Chernobog. It had been seldom raided by Reunion, but there were still some nonperishable goods which lay on the ground in cans or different sorts of colorful packaging that were on the color spectrum. The students were moving around and gathering as many supplies as they could in bags, and placed it in front of Megumi because he said that he knew a way to carry all of them.

"I don't even know where to start! I didn't know you could summon entire lightning storms from the sky like that! Just how long have you been using Arts for?!" The blonde-haired girl sat by him and continued to ask him. "And you can summon these cute animals too? Along with extra arms?! It's so...hehe, so cool!"

"I've been using my abilities since childhood," Megumi replied while sinking the grocery bags into his shadow. The first display of it was needed before the U.S.S.G. had gotten used to it. It was to be expected, with all the other "Arts" abilities he had shown them before.

While Lada continued to passionately ask him with more questions, Anna moved through the store while grabbing anything she could and placing it into a bag.

For her, it was still a strange feeling to be out of the hellhole that was Peterheim, and she was confident that the rest of the students felt the same way with how they were droning around the convenience store while listening to the black-haired man's responses. His Arts were a surprise for her, but she knew well enough that multiple Arts could be learned—but it was just that they were more difficult to learn if it wasn't related to one's innately born Arts.

...Still, they had learned he was only20 years old. To display that level of skill despite not being that much older than them had almost made Anna feel as if her own Arts was insignificant.

On the side of Sonya, she tossed a can of dried tomatoes into her grocery bag while listening in. She still attempted to process the memories in her brain from what she had witnessed before. Two extra shadow arms, a dance which looked nearly divine, and the skillful usage of those two golden weapons, and that wasn't even mentioning his abnormal regeneration(?)... she was starting to believe—no, shealreadybelieved that he was more than what meets the eye. A Higashinese man in Chernobog who had a vendetta against Ursus, and they were lucky enough for him to stumble upon Saint Peterheim...

She was sure he meant well, despite all of the mysteries surrounding him. The despondent look on his face and faint trace of understanding across his features was enough to make her sure of that after the time they had spent moving through Chernobog.'I don't know why... but damn it, why does it look like he understands us?'

Sonya was left rummaging through her mind while turning to the black-haired man. He was listening patiently to Lada practically fangirling with what she had seen, while also answering her questions with a measured and professional way. Those eyes, they were empty, and one she could tell had faced suffering. To what extent, she didn't know—but she was able to scrounge up enough of a clue to the point where heknewhow to talk with them.

When he wasn't throwing a thousand Arts around willy-nilly, of course. Holy shit, just how many did he have? She needed to start keeping note of just how many he had...

Rosalind peeked from the side of a shelf while looking at Megumi, before speaking up, "hey! Megumi was it?" She wasn't one for professionalism, especially not for somebody who was only 20 years old, "that lightning stuff you did... I was just wondering if you were aware of that eight-headed serpent that terrorized Chernobog before."

The black-haired man thinned his lips for a moment, "the... eight-headed serpent?" A small sense of guilt overcame him.

"Oh! The big bad monster that hovered over the skies!" Lada stood up, while the other students listened intently in, "I remember it when heading home from school. It was massive, like—this big!" She stretched her arms out, "each head was larger than a skyscraper!"

"I'm aware of it," Megumi replied, "it's the most viewed video in Chernobog."

"Ah, so you do know!" Lada became more ecstatic, "do you think you'd be able to beat it? Well, I'm confident that you can!" The blonde-haired woman became more jumpy when recounting her story of her own eye witness of Yamata-no-Orochi.

The Jujutsu Sorcerer became increasingly more guilty when he had learned how she described the scene, but he didn't let it show.

"It was when those thunder and dark clouds rolled in that I fell down and started to shake. Really, I was so scared that I expected the entire city to be drowned out by its lightning and swallowed whole by that gigantic monster!" The blonde-haired girl shivered slightly when recounting it, "were you there? I bet you were ready to attack it head first, huh?"

"I wasn't there to witness its rampage," Megumi told a half-truth. He truly wasn't there to see what the Totality was doing because he was too busy dealing with other businesses. "I only decided to stay in Chernobog a few months ago."

"Aw..." Lada let out a disappointed pout, but shook her head to dispel it, "ah, back to the previous question, do you think you can beat it?"

"A monster of that size?" Sonya spoke up from the sidelines while picking up the last item on the floor and tossing it into a plastic bag, "please—his abilities were impressive, but I don't think it's taking something likethatdown." She let out a huff while speaking her thoughts.

"Hm... Well, you do have a point," Rosalind agreed with her, "I was also there to witness it. The eight-headed serpent was MASSIVE, like—to the point where I thought I would be able to see it from kilometers away!"

Anna didn't give her opinion, and was more curious on Megumi's own.

Speaking of Megumi, he had decided to answer them, "I would keel over and die," he admitted. "Like a wet towel."

"Eh?" Lada blinked owlishly a few times.

For a moment, silence overcame the room as a small hiss of laughter could be heard—namely from Sonya.

The Ursus girl burst into laughter from the black-haired man's honesty, and broke off into an uncontrollable fit that even she had become baffled at how amused she was at his words.

Everybody stared bizarrely at her while she attempted to recover.

The rest of the time in the store was spent collecting the rest of the supplies. Megumi at one time, had to stop Lada from impulsively biting Rabbit Escape for whatever reason, to which the blonde-haired girl had tears at the corner of her eye and profusely apologized for what she had done.

He forgave her, of course. But it was good to know that the students liked his animals. When Sonya asked if he could summon a bear, she looked to be discouraged in guised uncaringness when he said that he didn't, but she did like the Divine Dogs he brought out. The rest of the students had a copy of Rabbit Escape which they also held in their hands, and Anna in particular held both a teddy bear and the white Shikigami together.

Overall, despite the previously gloomy and on-edge attitude that he had seen back in Saint Peterheim, he was glad that they could express some happiness with his Shikigamis. For a moment, a small moment of bliss passed him when he rested his head on a seat in the store. Looking out for any Reunion members was a non-factor, because he hadn't sensed any of their presences with a Divine Dog surveying the perimeter in secret.

OOO*

"Natalya?" Megumi blinked a few times when staring at the white-haired Ursus girl carrying a ginormous object with her. It clacked with each step, and he had to reinterpret his awareness of a Terran's average strength compared to a civilian back on Earth because she carried itcasually.

"Ah, Mr. Fushiguro," Natalya perked up when she turned toward him. "Where are the rest?" A white Divine Dog followed beside her as she lowered her posture to pet it, all the while her right hand held a gigantic object.

"There's no need for formalities, just call me Megumi," he realized this was the first time he had conversed with the student on his own. "They're inside the jeep right now and enjoying a meal, we were waiting for you before departing."

"I see, Megumi then, I hope I wasn't a burden with the amount of time I spent roaming. Amazing companion you have, by the way. It was an honor to be assisted by it." Natalya finished petting the Shikigami who enjoyed it, before the Divine Dog moved alongside her as she approached him.

"Thank you," Megumi replied, "I've also been meaning to ask... what is that object you're carrying?"

"Oh? This?" Natalya lifted it closer upwards with casual ease, "if my memory recalls correctly, it is a small-scale siege engine. I had stumbled upon it while walking around, but it seems to no longer be functional."

"A small-scale siege engine? Isn't that used to shoot at another Nomadic City to connect them during warfare?" He wasalmostbaffled at how she had found it while walking around, but then he remembered that Chernobog had been in a recent violent takeover by Reunion. The military of Chernobog didn't fare well either, and he was sure that they attempted to pull out as many means as they could against the deformed terrorist organization.

"Precisely so," Natalya moved to his side while he was sitting on a boulder, and set it down while taking a seat herself. "Though, it doesn't seem to be functional anymore." She stared at the object which had been settled down. "At best, it's only useful for intimidation purposes."

"I can fix it," he commented.

"You can?" She widened her eyes.

"I'm used to making weapons," the black-haired man off-handedly remarked, "I think if I spend a short amount of time on the siege engine, then I can fix it," and make it a thousand times better.

"Oh? Well, that remains to be seen," the Ursus girl chuckled while her cloak shifted in the arid wind that blew. "Thank you, truly."

"...?" Megumi kept silent.

"I would have thought that school back there would have been my tomb," Natalya's knees were brought upwards to her chest, "I don't believe the others have thanked you yet—but I'm sure they'll come around to it. Despite what you may believe, the entire debacle has... affected us more than we'd like to admit. I can't fully speak on their behalf, because we're not on the greatest of terms."

"...It's no problem," he said, "I don't believe the youth, people as young as you girls, should have to go through something like that." Wow... he was starting to sound like Gojo Satoru now, wasn't he? His point still stood, however.

He already knew of Natalya's rather complex adjustment into the U.S.S.G., considering how Sonya held a pet peeve against the Ursus aristocracy. Still, they fact that they were willing to take in the white-haired Ursus girl spoke enough for him to hear.

"That's lovely to hear," Natalya nodded, "I'm just... glad." A shaky breath left her lips as it experienced condensation in the air, "to put it behind me. Thank you, once more. I cannot stress it enough." The white Divine Dog who was settled beside her nuzzled itself against her comforting hand.

"Mmh," Megumi hummed in recognition. Nothing else needed to be said, he was content.

...Really all the anger and hatred from back in Chernobog had faded. A sense of serenity overcame him, as his Curses were no longer needed.

The sun's rays bled into the skies and painted it a magnificent color, something which he had admired only a few times in his life. At times before this, all he could do was count the temporal clock in his mind for when something needed to be done, no matter how dirty it was, and no matter how deep he needed to delve in order to accomplish them. This time, no more. He could finally sit back and take a small rest.

If only it could last for an eternity.

OOO*

His head turned toward the horizon's edge, and turned back to the white jeep that was by his side. It was large enough to fit all of them, and with the map they had recovered from the store they had dropped by for supplies, the route to Lungmen was practically secured. He was glad that he knew how to read maps, along with the help of Anna and Natalya in interpreting it.

'...Ah, and how could I have forgotten.'Megumi said in his mind while letting out a small sigh,'Mephisto... don't think you'll be getting off easily.'His eyes became half-lidded as a shadow cast itself from his bangs. While the vehicle continued to move away from Chernobog, his eyes turned toward the rear-view window mirror, never once letting the Nomadic City leave his sights.

The black-haired man had learned from the students that the one who had caused the entire fiasco in Saint Peterheim...

...Was that little bastard—Mephisto.

Truly, it belonged to the name of a demon.

That didn't matter now however, he could settle his qualms with him later. There were more important things to deal with at the moment.

Namely, Lungmen.

If he had to be honest, he wouldn't have ever wanted to visit the city again.

But that was the closest place to Chernobog that would be safe for the Ursine children. So, he swallowed the discomforting feeling and let the whims of Fate take him elsewhere once more.

Just so it knew however...

...He would keep control of his own life.

OOO*

A/N: Sadly no Reunion, Lungmen, or Rhodes Island this chapter. Next chapter, it's likely we'll see more on their side.

Gonna do more individual scenes with the Ursus students and Megumi, because it might seem too jumbled if we have each of them in the same scene. Also so we could uh... focus more on their trauma individually.

Also, Rosa/Natalya looked VERY similar to Laurentina/Specter, so I checked their illustrators and found that indeed, they were drawn by the same illustrator, lmfao. I have a funny scene in plan for that.

Anyways.

Next Chapter: Lungmen