Notes: The strongest, most irresponsible show-off.

Chapter 7

Present Day

The still night air in the graveyard was broken by an impact which shook the earth. The gravestone Gojo Satoru had been leaning against lay shattered in the center of the impact crater. The man himself had dodged the attack with his usual swiftness. A somewhat humanoid figure with one eye and the top of its head looking like a volcano crouched at the epicenter of the impact zone.

"A devil?" Satoru asked, not really expecting an answer from the creature. Non-humans weren't exactly known for learning human speech.

Surprisingly, the volcano head did speak, though not in response to Satoru's half-question. "Take this!"

What looked like the top of a volcano appeared on the side of the shrine Satoru was near. It erupted, and he was caught in the blast.

"Well, that was nothing special," the volcano head commented.

"Who are you calling nothing special?" Satoru asked, stepping unharmed from the billowing smoke left by the attack. The small patch of ground he had been standing on was the only part of the earth nearby which remained unscorched.

"Stupid brat," the devil replied. It had to be a devil; their corrupted souls were formerly human, though rarely retained any human traits such as speech, just the vague physical form. It was also very powerful, mana rolling from it in red waves.

"You seem confident in yourself," Satoru replied with a smirk. "S-rank?"

The devil grinned. "You have no sense of danger at all."

"No sense of danger?" It was true that they were the only two in the graveyard since Satoru had sent his three students away. Castle Suga was close enough to pose a risk of reinforcements if the battle dragged on, but far enough that apparently this devil thought he could finish the fight before that happened.

The devil made a gesture and insects appeared from the ash in the air, spearing toward Satoru with needle-like stingers. The mage-king raised two fingers, and the insects were frozen centimeters from him. "What happens if it stings me?" he asked curiously.

He never got an answer. The insects screamed and then exploded all around him. Leaping into the air, he avoided both attacks. The devil pressed him in person this time, running at him with one hand wrapped in flames. He blasted several attacks at him, thinking each hit. More clouds of smoke billowed up, obscuring Satoru from the devil's sight.

"Is that it?" he could hear the devil saying. "That guy exaggerated. Humans these days are weak. They don't live in truth. Real strength and the truth are spread through death."

"This again?" Satoru asked as the smoke cleared. He made a mental note of the devil's mention of another entity, male, involved with him. "When are you going to learn?"

The devil turned and gaped at him in shock. "How did you-"

Satoru grinned. "Well the short version is: you didn't hit me."

"That's impossible, I hit you point blank with those attacks, I know they made contact!" the devil shouted.

"No need to get angry. It was a simple mistake. What you touched was the infinity between us." Seeing the devil's confusion, he decided it would be fun to torment the creature further by explaining. "Here, I'll show you! Put out your hand." He held out his own hand as though about to give a high-five.

The devil's single eye narrowed, but he seemed to come to the conclusion that this was not a clever trap and approached, holding out one hand. The hand halted just a centimeter away, unable to come closer. "I'm not stopping you. It's more like you're slowing down the closer you get. So, wanna hold hands?"

The devil's expression looked both angry and repulsed at the suggestion. "No thanks."

"Don't be shy, you're making me feel embarrassed."

"Why you-"

This was too much fun, Satoru thought as he landed a mana-reinforced punch to the devil's chest as it spluttered to respond to his 'advances'. The devil spat out some dark blood. Satoru layered on the attacks and the devil reeled from his hits - powered by both mana reinforcement and the extra impact of his Infinity.

"Infinity is something that's naturally there. I just bring it into reality. Convergence and divergence. If you touch this empty space, what would happen?" Red light swirled just above his fingertip, a vacuum in space created with his Limitless magic. "Red."

The hole in space blasted the devil all the way out of the graveyard and into the vast forests beyond. Satoru followed his opponent using Blue to pull himself toward his target and landing a roundhouse kick which sent the devil flying into a pond. Floating in the sky watching as steam rose from the pond, he had a brilliant idea.

Three of the four horses reared as he suddenly appeared in front of them on the road back to Castle Suga. His own mare was well used to his sudden appearances and remained calm as Megumi and Nobara tried to calm their steeds. Yuji had taken a tumble off his own but had quickly caught the bridle so his beast did not run off.

"Yuji, Nobara. Class is now in session. I'm going to teach you two about the external expression of a mage's innate magic: domain expansion." he said, putting a hand on each of them. "Make sure the horses don't all run off," he added to an irritated Megumi before warping off back to the pond with his two students in tow.

By now, the devil had risen and was standing waist-deep in middle of the body of water, looking around for him no doubt. "Thanks for waiting!" Satoru said cheerfully, removing his hand from Yuji to wave at his opponent. "These two will be sitting in on today's class."

"His head is a volcano! A volcano!" Yuji shouted, pointing in alarm. His focus then shifted to the fact that the three of them were standing on the surface of the water while the devil was half sunk in it.

Nobara was looking calculatingly at the devil. She clearly knew what they were up against, seeing its high mana levels.

The devil, though worse for the wear during their fight so far, still smirked. "You needed some shields?" he asked.

"Shields? Of course not. Haven't I been beating your ass so far?" Satoru retorted. "Like I said, this is a lesson for them."

The devil's expression of infuriation returned. "They'll be liabilities for you, fool."

"Nah, we should be good," Satoru said with a laugh. "After all, you're weak."

At this latest remark, the devil's anger reached new heights, and the volcano on his head erupted. His ears seemed to erupt as well. "Don't underestimate me, you brat! I'll wreck you and your smug face, and kill these two as a bonus!"

Yuji expressed some mild alarm. Even Nobara had a hint of worry on her face. Satoru gave each of them a pat on the head. "Don't worry. Just stay close to me."

"Domain Expansion: Coffin of the Iron Mountain!"

At the devil's proclamation, a dark barrier quickly closed around him and his three targets. They were inside an active volcano.

"What in the hells?" Yuji asked in shock. Nobara took a step closer to Satoru's side. She clearly knew the basics of domains but had never seen one cast let alone been inside one.

"This is domain expansion," the mage-king explained to the boy, recalling that he had no magic background whatsoever. "It's an environment created with magic which reflects the innate magic of the caster. It uses a lot of mana but can be worth it because it boosts the magic of the caster while inside it. Domains also have a guaranteed hit effect. The magic imbued with this effect will always hit the target." He casually destroyed a fiery chunk of rock hurtling toward the three of them with a mana-reinforced punch.

"Always?" Yuji asked in shock.

"Always," Satoru confirmed. "But there are ways to counter it. Otherwise whoever deployed a domain first would always win, so mages or other creatures with magic would just use it right away in most instances. First, you can block the attack physically while reinforcing yourself with mana like I just did. Second, and I cannot recommend this, you could run away. Domains tend to have very dense barriers, almost impossible to break from the inside, which is why I said I wouldn't recommend-"

"Your infinity!" the devil cut in. "If we're here in my domain, my attacks will reach you, correct?"

"Yup, it sure will." The mage-king wasn't too upset that the devil had cut in, and simply continued his speech to Nobara and Yuji after replying. "The third option is the most effective counter though: use your own domain expansion. When multiple domains are expanded at the same time, the more refined one will win the clash. It can also depend on compatibility and overall magic," he added as an afterthought.

As he added the last part, the devil started screaming "I won't even leave a single ash behind, Gojo Satoru!"

Satoru reached up, fingers grasping the fabric of his black blindfold. He drew it down with his left hand while crossing the index and middle fingers of his right hand. "Domain Expansion: Unlimited Void."

Yuji and Nobara, close at his sides, gaped; Yuji at the vast starry landscape which had appeared around them and Nobara first at his uncovered eyes and then at their surroundings. The devil stood frozen, overloaded with information that was endless and yet incomplete, thanks to the effect of his domain.

Satoru floated over toward his opponent, pulling his students with him as he lectured the devil. "You're inside the Limitless. Perception, communication, the actions you take in life are forced on you infinitely. Ironic isn't it? Given everything, but unable to do anything. Dying slowly. I think I'll stop here, since I have some questions for you."

His right hand gripped the volcano peak of the devil's head and ripped. He allowed his domain's barrier to dissipate. "So, who sent you?" he asked, planting one foot on the ripped-off head and replacing his blindfold. Yuji and Nobara were standing on the ground now, slightly behind him. "I know you mentioned a guy earlier in our fight. Who is he? What does he want?"

As he rolled the devil's head around on the ground under his foot while threatening it, a tree suddenly sprung up under his foot, forcing him to move it. The head rolled away from him, on the opposite side of the tree. A field of flowers sprung up, and suddenly he couldn't remember why he was interrogating-

He snapped out of it just as another foe approached, scooping up the head and making a run for it. Yuji and Nobara were snatched up by vines and pulled toward trees with gaping jaws, forcing him to prioritize their safety over chasing whatever had run off with the volcano head. By the time he freed them, swift as he was, both of the devils' presences had vanished. The newcomer was very good at suppressing its mana. And it was a lot more creepy than volcano head.

"Sensei," Nobara spoke behind him. "I didn't know monsters could speak. I know devils are created from human souls, but I was taught only arch-devils are able to speak human language."

Satoru adopted a thoughtful pose, one hand under his chin and the other folded across his chest. "This seems to be an exception. We have multiple high level devils working together instead of individually. This is getting fun! Yuji, Nobara, I want you and all my other students to get strong enough to beat something like that."

Both of them seemed a little disheartened at his expectations. Well, it was their first experience with an S-rank foe. Maybe he should have worked them into this more slowly. Oh well, too late for that now! He clapped both his hands. "Let's get back to Megumi."

The ride back was filled with chatter - mostly from Yuji and Nobara. They were sharing the story of his fight and domain expansion standoff with Megumi, who was mostly nonplussed. He had witnessed Unlimited Void before, as well as the domains of several other mages, he told them. It wasn't that big of a deal, and Gojo-sensei was an irresponsible showoff for taking the two of them to fight an S-rank devil. The Ten Shadows wielder was slightly disturbed by the end of the tale, which had the S-rank rescued by another devil, likely an S-rank as well. Unlike Gojo, he was concerned about the team up rather than excited.

Hours later, after his three students had had dinner and gone to their rooms to prepare for bed, Satoru strolled down the halls of the castle to the infirmary. Shoko and Yaga were already in there, the former having dissected one of the malformed corpse's arms. The healer shook her head. "It sure looks physical to me," she said. "The bones here are broken as though a tremendous force was at work. The weird part is that there's no external bruises on the arm. Anything capable of breaking bone like that should have left external marks from crushing the blood vessels in order to cause that degree of damage. Yuta was on to something with his suspicions about the cause of this damage."

She left the arm alone and poked at the deformed cranium of the villager while Satoru lifted his blindfold slightly to trace the residuals with one of his uncovered Six Eyes. "If it wasn't the body…" he mused.

"It was the soul," Yaga finished. His doll magic was also tied to souls. It was natural for him to logically conclude such from their findings at this point.

Silence fell between teacher and former students. Yaga was side-eying the two of them in that way he tended to do when he thought Satoru wasn't paying attention. To complete the illusion, the king pretended not to be. Whatever his former sensei thought, he had yet to even attempt to voice it over the past decade. It would remain unsaid.

xXxXx

The sound of a sliding door opening interrupted the continuous music of the waves on the shore as well as the irregular noises made by the monster in the sea. "This is quite the calm domain," Geto Suguru stated.

"What happened to Jogo, Geto?" asked another monster - this one appeared human but for the stitching running across his body irregularly.

The necromancer folded his arms in his sleeves and strode toward the speaker, keeping his feet just clear of the lapping waves. "He's at death's door. But Hanami went after him, so he'll probably live. I had to leave before anyone started searching the area. I can't let any mages see me, especially those from the castle."

"How irresponsible. You encouraged him, didn't you?"

Geto scoffed. "Hardly. I told him he'd die."

At that moment, another door in the middle of nowhere improbably opened on the beach. "Jogo, Hanami, I'm glad you're okay."

"Okay? What in the Nine Hells are you talking about Mahito?!" spat the irritated head of Jogo. It was the only part Hanami had recovered from Gojo Satoru's thorough thrashing.

"You got off easy," Geto said with a knowing smirk. "But now you should understand the difference between you and the king. Within the tiers of S-rank, he's the difference between an A-rank and a D-rank compared to you. We need every advantage if we are going to seal him. The right time and the right place. I'll give you the details later if that's okay, Mahito."

"No objections," the patchwork devil said, mismatching eyes meeting Geto's own purple gaze. "Let's be cunning, like you said."

xXxXx

Several more days passed by in a blur. Yuji's life was full of learning about magic. Fortunately, he seemed to be a quick learner in the physical control aspects of it, as the doll Yaga-sensei had given him had now been napping for over twenty-four hours. The knowledge aspects of it though were tougher. He felt like his brain was overheating and steam should be coming out his ears when sitting in class with the others.

The others were usually just Fushiguro and Kugisaki. The rest of the mages close to their age at the castle had been tasked with preparing for some kind of event. Yuji hadn't paid much attention, focusing on his own tasks at hand. Gojo sometimes stopped by, but he seemed to have a lot going on as well. Yuji had at least developed his own fighting style. After seeing it once, Gojo had nicknamed it 'divergent fist' because the magic behind his physical punches lagged slightly behind the time of impact. The name stuck, as Yuji liked it well enough himself.

A week after he had arrived at the castle, he was escorted by a messenger to the king's office. Half-hidden behind stacks of paperwork was Gojo himself. His white hair just peeked over the top of the stack in front, and he moved it to the side. "Yuji! Glad you responded to my message so promptly."

Not that he really had any other choice, seeing as the request had been sent via a messenger who was to bring him to the meeting place immediately. "Yes! Reporting for duty, Gojo-sensei!" Yuji said, saluting as Gojo dismissed the messenger with a wave.

The king stood, chatting amiably with his latest student as they walked down several halls and through multiple shoji doors. The room they entered reminded Yuji of the storage room out in the yard, but instead of weapons and armor lay all sorts of other objects, most of them covered with seals but some not. The necklace that had begun this chain of events in the former thief's life sat on a table in the middle of the room with sealing tags stacked neatly by it. Clearly someone was prepared to protect others from it.

"Now, this necklace I had Megumi get was a tip from a mage passing through Ikawa who noticed its red aura. Its origins are unknown, but we might be able to match it to a specimen we already have information on," Gojo began. "Some of them are artifacts so old all we know is that a demon lord of one kind or another once had an attachment to it. Others we can tie to specific creatures or mages."

He held up what looked like a wrapped leg bone and began to undo the paper wrapped around it. Yuji looked slightly horrified. "This is the leg bone of Ume Yoko. Legend has it she made deals with a demon lord of the Abyss in order to gain power over some of his subordinates."

Upon seeing Yuji's incomprehension, he explained further. "Demons are beings of chaos. Only a mad mage or one very confident in their abilities would make a deal with show no gratitude when summoned from the Abyss, and require preparation in order to keep them under control. If a mistake is made and they break free of the mage controlling them, the summoner is just the first victim of its wrath. Devils on the other hand are more hierarchical. Any contracts made with them are enforced by their dark lord, of whom little is known. They're also former humans with corrupted souls forged in the Nine Hells. If you break a contract with them, your soul will end up in the Nine Hells and eventually be turned into a devil as well. Didn't you pay attention to Yaga's lectures?"

"Uh, I don't think we covered those topics," Yuji said. He was concerned with the way Gojo was waving the bone around while telling this history lesson. Wasn't it dangerous? "So how did you end up with her leg bone?"

The king shrugged. "Don't know. This thing's been sitting around for six hundred years or so according to the records." He pressed the artifact into Yuji's hands.

The young man took it gingerly. "I don't notice anything special about it," he commented.

"You don't feel any sort of connection to it? Nothing at all?" Gojo pressed, leaning in as though it would let him see better through his blindfold.

Yuji wasn't sure why he wore it. When he'd seen his sensei's eyes that day in the graveyard, it hadn't seemed like he was blind at all. He'd bother Fushiguro with that question later and shook his head in answer to Gojo's question.

Gojo didn't look put out in the slightest. He turned to a scroll on the desk and drew a line through one of the nearly-illegible scribbles under the category 'demons' on a long list.

The rest of the morning was filled with Yuji holding various objects passed to him by the king, who carefully marked down which ones failed. So far, all of them. The objects ranged from the bones of mages who dealt with various demons or devils to the personal effects of notorious rogue mages and even former mage-kings. Gojo had explained that these objects, after being in proximity to the mage who wore them day after day, became imbued with some of their mana.

After many failures, Gojo carefully scanned the room, hesitating slightly before going toward an object on a far shelf. The seals on it were yellowed with age and faded, some cracking to dust as he removed them as carefully as possible. He touched the uncovered silver and ruby ring for a brief moment and then activated his Infinity. The unwrapped artifact glowed with the same red aura as the necklace Yuji had been after. It seemed that whatever force lay within it could affect the mage-king, but not as greatly as others if he dared to touch it himself.

"I think this is it," he said softly, free hand tapping his blindfold near his eyes. "The mana has the exact same look. I really hoped this wouldn't be the case, but just to be sure…" He dropped the ring in Yuji's outstretched hand.

Nothing happened outwardly. Inwardly, something surged. Yuji flinched at the feeling; at the power which had seemed to reach out from within him to touch the ring almost reverently, familiarly.

Peering at him even more closely, Gojo asked what had just happened. The best Yuji could explain was that something within him had seemed… excited to hold the object.

Gojo nodded slowly, lips pressed together. It didn't seem like a good sign to Yuji. "That does it. The stone in that necklace must have been set in something once worn or used by Ryomen Sukuna."

Yuji blinked and turned his gaze to the innocent-looking necklace. Well, innocent unless he squinted hard enough to see its malevolent red aura. He wasn't very good at sensing mana yet. "The Ryomen Sukuna? The one parents threaten will eat you if you don't finish your vegetables?"

Gojo laughed. "I haven't heard that one before, but yes. He was a real… person." Yuji noted the hesitation before the last word his sensei said. "Once, long ago. But he was sealed by the first mage-king as I'm sure you already know."

The former thief nodded. He knew that much at least. Everyone in the kingdom of Nara did. "What does it mean that I have a connection to him, Gojo-sensei? Isn't that bad?"

The mage-king looked unerringly at him. Yuji could almost imagine his unusually blue eyes boring into him from behind the dark blindfold that blocked them from view. "I don't know." He began wrapping the ring in fresh seals and soon its red glow was once again blocked. He gave the same treatment to the necklace as he continued talking.

"A lot of early records by Sugawara no Michizane were lost over the centuries. Only a few of his original writings have been preserved, and those were focusing on politics and policies during his reign, not how he and his allies sealed Sukuna. A lot of that is carried on by oral tradition alone. Many scholars theorize that at least some of these records were intentionally destroyed by groups or individuals who seek to unseal Sukuna."

"Sensei, why would anyone want to unseal him? He's pure evil, right? And if he was a person, he should be dead by now if all that happened eight hundred years ago."

Gojo nodded. "One thing the records do prove is that the world was a different place back then. Crueler and wilder. The strong fought for dominance, and the weak were trampled beneath them as they fought. As bad as the three clans are today with their petty squabbles, at least they haven't had an all-out war since those days. As flawed as the system of rulership of this kingdom is, creating one position of ultimate power did narrow the conflict to just the few strongest of each era. For the most part. As for whether or not he is dead, even the barrier-keeper Tengen doesn't know." His expression turned slightly haunted. "I've been there, you know. And there's something in there, something evil."

Yuji didn't know anything about clan politicking, but the rest of the explanation made sense. The fact that Gojo-sensei could have such an expression when talking about the barrier concerned him, so he focused on the first part of his response. "So mages protecting the people isn't just propaganda?"

His sensei laughed, his former dark mood and expression clearing just as suddenly as they had appeared. "Well I would say it's not, but it depends on the leadership in all honesty. Some kings are good and some bad. The passing of power from one to the next can be bloody, but it's still better than the warring factions that existed back in Sukuna's time."

Should I ask him how he became king? Yuji thought.

His expression must have given away that he had a question, because the king asked "You have another question for me?"

By now he was meandering around the room replacing objects into shelves and cabinets, but his eyes still seemed to pick up on even the minutest of details. Yuji wondered if that was the reason why they were such an unusual shade of blue.

"Sensei, how did you become king?" He knew kings were either named in their predecessor's will as their successor, took the kingship through battle, or fought the successor before he was crowned in order to be crowned himself.

The white-haired man finished placing an amulet in a drawer, closed it, and turned to face Yuji. His expression was unusually grim. "I took it through battle. Though it wasn't much of a fight."

After seeing him in action last week, Yuji figured that made sense. "And the old king. Did he…"

"He's still alive," Gojo said with a scowl. Yuji thought he muttered that he ought to be thankful for his life. "Not enjoying the status demotion though, I'm sure." His grin was back in full force now, though with a bit of an edge to it.

"I see," Yuji stated, deciding that that had been enough questions.

He and Gojo left the room, and the king placed a barrier on it before leading the way to the castle training grounds, where Kugisaki and Fushiguro were waiting. The king waved to them and then turned to head back into the castle. Maybe he was going to work on that massive pile of paperwork Yuji had seen him behind earlier.

"There you are," Kugisaki said, stomping over to herd him over to where she had been standing with Fushiguro. 'Herding' meant standing behind him and pushing him over.

"You missed morning history lectures," Fushiguro stated in a monotone. He had been hanging around the castle a lot more than he usually did. Or at least that's what he had told Kugisaki and Yuji. Apparently Gojo-sensei wanted the three of them to be a team like some of the older mages were. Though it seemed like team sizes weren't set in stone.

Okkotsu Yuta, whom Yuji still had yet to meet, was the de facto leader of the group containing Maki, Inumaki, and sometimes Panda as well. There were two other mages a bit older than Okkotsu whose names he hadn't even heard mentioned, just that they existed and hadn't stopped by Castle Suga in a while. Those two apparently worked together on a lot of missions and assignments as well.

"What a shame," Yuji replied, feeling that it was not really a shame at all and actually a great victory. Thank you, Gojo-sensei! On that note, he had a question to pester the dark-haired mage with. "Ne, Fushiguro, why does sensei wear a blindfold all the time? I'm pretty sure he isn't actually blind."

Fushiguro stared at him as though he had grown a second head before shaking his own head with a sigh and answering. "Because of the Six Eyes. It's an innate magic passed down in the Gojo Clan that makes the user incredibly perceptive to magic. He's the first mage in the clan born with both the Six Eyes and Limitless magic in four hundred years. I keep forgetting you know next to nothing about mages or magic." He shook his head again in disappointment. "But to dumb it down to the lowest level possible for you, he can see really well and the blindfold helps limit what he has to process visually."

"Well sorryyyy I didn't grow up privileged like you," Yuji retorted jokingly.

Fushiguro's eyes flashed with an instant of pure anger before he carefully concealed it behind his usual blank façade. Yuji realized he might have stepped on a nerve about the other man's past and decided to steer clear of those kinds of jokes from now on.

A smack on the back of his head made him jump. "What was that for?" he asked Kugisaki, clutching his head. She was holding her own hand as if the hit had hurt her as much as it had him.

"Being an idiot. Come on, let's train."

The two young men followed in her wake to the training yard and took up various weapons. This was Yuji's favorite part of the day, and the one thing about his magic lessons that he excelled in.

In the midst of a battle royale between the three of them - Yuji pulling his punches ever so slightly so as not to permanently damage one of the other mages - Maki, Inumaki, and Panda appeared suddenly. The three of them were holding cages covered in seals. Each cage contained some growling and spitting creature, each more odd-looking than the next. It was his first time seeing monsters up close like this. Next to them, a man their age in a white haori tied loosely over a white shirt and loose black pants with a katana tied at his belt had one hand on a massive cage with-

"Is that a wyvern?!" Kugisaki exclaimed, hurrying over to peer more closely at the caged creature. Yuji relaxed, the battle over with the arrival of the other young mages.

The man in white nodded. "An unlikely find, but it will be great for the competition. I don't think we've met. I'm Okkotsu Yuta." He strode forward and bowed, then held out a hand.

Kugisaki took it after bowing slightly herself. "I'm Kugisaki Nobara. Pleased to meet you! I've heard a lot about you from Fushiguro and Gojo-sensei."

Okkotsu smiled, looking faintly embarrassed, and turned to Yuji. "Itadori Yuji, pleased to meet you," the former thief parroted, bowing and shaking hands with him as Kugisaki had. "You mentioned a competition?"

Okkotsu nodded. "If you three want to participate, you should meet in my quarters tonight. We're going to discuss strategy," he said, gesturing toward Maki, Inumaki and Panda.

Yuji nodded eagerly, glancing toward the wyvern. It was snarling and twisting in its small cage. "Definitely!"

The older mages trekked off across the training yard to wherever they had been storing the monsters collected on their daily expeditions. Yuji, Kugisaki, and Fushiguro resumed sparring until it was time to bathe before dinner.

They ate in one of the larger dining halls with Okkotsu and the other young mages, as well as a number of official looking staff members. It seemed like the visiting mages from other clans had everyone in a tizzy of preparation.

After dinner, the young mages retired to Okkotsu's spacious quarters. Fushiguro muttered a brief background story about Okkotsu under his breath to Yuji and Kugisaki while trailing behind their seniors on the way there.

Okkotsu was a distant cousin of Gojo-sensei and had been brought to the Gojo estate when his magic levels suddenly spiked from average C-rank mage to S-rank at age eleven. The king had heard of the event and swept the boy from his family's grasp to stay at the castle with him and receive the best education in magic possible. Yaga, Gojo's old sensei from his family's estate, had traveled with his former student to Castle Suga when he assumed the kingship and helped look after young mages the king took under his wing. There was an open invite to all the clans to have their mages study at the castle, but they tended to only show up on occasion, which was what this semi-annual event was centered around.

Finally, the six mages and one panda circled up on the floor of Okkotsu's large living room. Gaps in the shoji doors showed a spacious bedroom on one side and what looked like an office on the other. Unlike Gojo's desk, it was meticulously clean.

Okkotsu's voice cut off Yuji's further perusal of the room, and he snapped his eyes to the slightly older mage, who had returned from his office with a scroll in hand. "I have the official list of who is all coming," he announced to the room, unrolling the scroll to read the names listed. "From the Kamo Clan: Todo Aoi, Kamo Noritoshi, Nishimiya Momo, Miwa Kasumi, Muta Kokichi, and Nitta Arata. From the Zen'in Clan: Zen'in Mai."

He snapped the scroll closed and Yuji blinked. Only one Zen'in was coming?

Across the circle from him, Maki crossed her arms. "That's seven total. There's seven of us here right now."

"Are Kinji and Kirara going to make it this year?" Panda asked.

Okkotsu looked thoughtful. "I haven't heard from either of them in a few months. Have any of you?"

Panda shook his head, though his response should have been evident since he had asked the question. Inumaki also shook his head, as did Fushiguro.

"Nope," Maki said shortly.

Yuji raised a hand and Okkotsu, clearly running the meeting, nodded at him. "Um, who are they?" he asked.

Okkotsu hit one open palm with his other fist. "Right, I forgot you and Kugisaki haven't met either of them, Itadori. Hakari Kinji and Hoshi Kirara are our seniors. Kirara is eighteen and Hakari is nineteen. They were also scouted by Gojo-sensei like you two were and live here at the castle."

"Live in the loosest sense," Maki added dryly, "since none of us have seen them in months. All the missions they could have taken end up being our chores now. Or Fushiguro's," she added. The dark-haired mage had taken on more missions the last few months as well thanks to their seniors' absence.

"Well then it sounds like it will be us seven against those seven," Kugisaki added to the conversation. "Since no one thinks the other two will show up."

"Not quite," Okkotsu replied. "Nitta Arata isn't a fighter. His magic is more suited to healing, so he usually spends time in the infirmary while we're having any sort of combat lessons or engagements. He'll be around for the other more learning-centered classes though, so you'll still get a chance to meet him." He let out a breath. "Since I'm helping organize and run the main event this year, I feel it would be unfair of me to join in unless I'm needed for numbers balance. It would be good to get Kugisaki and Itadori involved if possible. Plus it's a little unfair as I'm the only S-rank."

"Since when did we concern ourselves with rankings or making the numbers balance? I don't remember it being an issue last year," Maki said, turning her gaze to meet his dark eyes. "If you and Hakari both don't participate, Todo won't be happy."

"He'll throw a fit. Especially after how things went down last year," Panda said rather glumly.

"Salmon roe," Inumaki added.

Fushiguro, Kugisaki and Yuji all looked at each other. The Ten Shadows wielder shrugged. "I wasn't there, I was at home and missed the event," he told them.

Yuji raised his hand again and Okkotsu nodded at him to ask his question. "Uh, why don't we switch up the teams so everyone can participate? You know, pair yourself up with some lower ranked mages or something?"

The entire room was looking at him blankly. Clearly he was out of the loop on something.

Fushiguro took it upon himself to explain. "Rivalries between the clans run deep. You can't ask a mage you don't trust to guard your back, even in a game setting like this. It's why the families or king usually send out groups of mages all from the same association instead of mixing us up if a mission requires more than one mage."

The others nodded along in agreement. "It's also best to pair up with those you will likely work alongside in the future, to build up experience with each others' magic and fighting styles," Okkotsu added.

Kugisaki waved her hand in the air and asked her own question when Okkotsu acknowledged her. "What exactly happened last year, if you don't mind me asking?"

Maki smirked. Inumaki and Panda's expressions were inscrutable. Okkotsu scratched his head, a light blush on his cheeks. Was he embarrassed? "Well," he began. "It all started the night before the big event."

xXxXx

"I'm telling you, he went that way!" came an angry voice through the darkened alleyways.

Yoshino Junpei tried hard not to pant, though his lungs ached for air. His dark brown hair hung on one side of his sweaty face, blocking one green eye from view.

The footsteps which had been closing in on his alleyway hiding spot stopped and backtracked, heading away from him. He sighed in relief. Too soon. The footsteps stopped again and headed back in his direction.

"I swear I heard someone back here!" a second voice called out loudly.

"Hey guys," came a third voice.

Junpei silently covered his mouth. Kotaro and Hiera had gone for help? But the two of them usually just beat on him themselves. Where was Yuji? He had knocked on his friend's doorframe multiple times a day since he left on his last mission for the Thieves Guild, but he was never around. Junpei had even dared to slide the door open himself one day and found the place entirely untouched. It looked just as it had the last time he had been in there, down to the crinkles in Yuji's blankets and the pair of socks lying on the floor.

He was growing worried about his friend, but at this point he needed to focus on worrying about himself. It had been a bad idea to try pickpocketing from his two bullies without Yuji's assistance. Especially after the two had been in some kind of a mood after being cleaned out by a card shark the night before.

The third voice continued. "Let's mind our manners. It's late out and you're being loud. Time to hush up."

A sickening squelching sound came next, followed by a thud and then a scream which was abruptly cut off. Junpei was thankful for the hand he had clapped over his mouth. Had he just heard what he thought he had?

Cautiously, he peered around the corner. A dark figure with long hair was standing over two slumped bodies. He recognized the two downed forms as Kotaro and Hiera. The man standing over them must have been the owner of the third voice he had heard. Fortunately, the man had his back to Junpei and he stepped over the probable corpses of Kotaro and Hiera on his way further down the alley.

After he had passed out of view, Junpei finally stepped out from his hiding place and made his way to where his bullies lay still as stone. He didn't even need to bend down to feel for their pulses to know they were dead. Their heads were grotesquely swollen to odd shapes, expressions contorted in the agony they had died in.

"Were those guys important to you?"

Junpei froze, half squatting over the bodies of his now former bullies. It was the third voice, the man - if a man could do such a thing - who had murdered them for being loud.

"No," he whispered. He slowly stood to face the man, still shadowed in the darkness of the alleyway.

The man held one palm out to his side in a half shrug. "You gonna judge me?"

Junpei swallowed. What would be the best approach to this situation? He glanced down at his dead bullies. They would bother him no more. And Yuji was gone, perhaps never to return. Maybe he had died on his last mission from the guild. He swallowed again and then spoke. "Could I… do what you did?"

The man smiled, teeth glinting white in the limited light. "Now why would you want to do that?" he purred. But he gestured for Junpei to follow him regardless. The boy only hesitated a moment before following. Who knew what would happen if he disobeyed that silent command.

The man apparently lived in the sewer system under the city - ancient tunnels built long ago which had probably not been cleaned in a few hundred years. Or at least, those were the thoughts running through Junpei's head. He hadn't even known the sewer system was this extensive and complex, just that it carried fresh water into the city and wastewater out.

The man made a gesture and mage-lights glowed to life on the walls of the large room they had entered. It was a freshwater room and didn't stink like some of the tunnels they had passed on their way to get there. Now that there was light, Junpei could see what looked like stitches all over the man in irregular patterns, as though he had haphazardly sewn on his skin. He had long grayish hair sectioned off loosely into thirds with ties. His left eye was dark blue while his right was a gray that matched his hair. There was something unearthly about him.

Perhaps Junpei's expression upon seeing him gave voice to his unspoken thoughts, for the man grinned. "Do you fear me because I am not of this world?"

Junpei gulped. "Not of this world?"

The not-man lay back in a hammock, arms resting behind his head as Junpei sat on a large stone block halfway across the room from him. "My name is Mahito. I once was a human like you. I don't remember it. It must have been ages ago. But all devils were once humans who sold their souls to our dark lord. To you in your privileged city life, we may as well be fairy tales. But we exist. And humans fear us for simply existing."

Junpei's first thought was that the devil might not have grasped the entire scope of why humans feared him himself. After all, he had murdered Kotaro and Hiera just for speaking too loudly at night. The devil continued his speech without interruption though. As of now, Junpei did not dare.

"The fact that we are categorized as threats and eliminated with prejudice strengthens us in the Nine Hells. But what people fear most aren't fairy tales, right?"

The pause drew on just long enough for Junpei to think Mahito wanted him to answer. "You mean… something like natural disasters or illnesses?" he guessed.

The devil smiled. "Talking with you is so easy."

Junpei started. "Huh? Really?" He hadn't said much, happy to let Mahito do most of the talking.

"The earth, the forest, the sea. People have always feared them. Their fears resulted in the birth of devils with those aspects. They gained consciousness and crawled up from the depths of the Nine Hells to reach the Material Plane. I'm proud to call them my friends."

"Mahito," Junpei cautiously used the devil's name. "What aspect are you born from?"

The devil grinned. "People. Thanks to the hatred spewed from human to human, I was born."

Junpei gradually warmed up to the conversation. If Mahito had not killed him yet, he likely wouldn't randomly snap and do it. As they discussed love, hate, and indifference, he felt a strange connection to the devil. Despite his earlier doubts, Mahito had been correct - talking was easy for the two of them.

The devil soon led him to an adjacent room, where a massive blob of something sat, vaguely resembling a human. "What is that?" Junpei queried.

Mahito scratched his chin. "An experiment to see how big a human can get." He took a finger-shaped object from his pocket and handed it to Junpei. "And this one's the opposite."

Junpei nearly dropped what had once been human. "Are you bothered by corpses?" Mahito asked, draping an arm around him. Junpei did his best not to stiffen instinctively at the contact and somewhatly succeeded.

"I don't know. In the alleyway, those were guys I hated. But if it had been my mother, then I would hate you of course. I know how evil people can be, so that's why I don't expect anything from anyone. That's why these peoples' deaths mean nothing to me. Indifference is what humans should strive for."

"Sounds more like revenge," Mahito shot back.

Junpei covered the bad side of his face. The side he let his hair grow long on to prevent his scars from showing. He hadn't even let Yuji see those marks of bullying. "Are you saying that I got it all mixed up?"

"Junpei, do you think people have 'heart'?"

"Huh?" The boy was confused by this new line of conversation. "They do, don't they?"

"No," the devil replied immediately. "They have souls, but that's different from 'heart'. In this world, only I understand the soul's composition. I can even transmogrify living beings. Emotions come from the soul. It's too simplistic to call it 'heart'. People overthink things they can't see. I can see the soul, so for me it's nothing special. It's practically the same as the human body. It just exists. Do you understand? Life has no weight or particular value. Just like how water flows through the earth, life simply flows. For you and me and everyone else, it's all the same. Without meaning. Without value. That's why you can do whatever you want. Live the way you want. You're limiting yourself by settling for indifference. There's no reason to restrict yourself in that way. If you're hungry, eat. If you hate, kill."

It was a bold philosophy, Junpei thought as he headed back up to the surface. He slipped through the door without waking his mother and changed before lying down to sleep. Mahito had been… interesting. And his way of thinking was so different from anyone Junpei had met.

He wondered what Yuji would think of the devil. Despite working for the Thieves Guild, he was one of the most honest and caring people Junpei knew. Shivering, he knew Yuji would despise him if he continued to see Mahito. Briefly, he entertained the notion that now that Kotaro and Hiera were dead the bullying would end. But that was just wishful thinking. With his strongest protection - Yuji - gone, others would take their place. Unless he stood his ground. Unless he stood with Mahito.