(Pov Satoshi)
9:00 pm
I heard the fighting before I saw it, the sound of big things being thrown and smashing into the ground. All things considered, I had made good time getting here. I hadn't even seen anyone else along the way. Turning onto the street outside the main subway entrance, I caught a glimpse of my target.
Despite the new outfit, the man currently attacking Megumi was unmistakable. Fushiguro Toji, 'the Sorcerer Killer,' had been his nickname ultimately, though his own pride would be his downfall. After failing to kill the Star Plasma Vessel, Toji decided to try to kill the now-awakened Satoru, but fell to the power of his Imaginary Technique: Hollow Purple. He had also nearly killed me before that, the dick.
Things would be different this time. Back then, my arsenal of cursed tools was lacking, and my Heavenly Restriction hadn't fully developed. Now, though, not only was it awakened, but I had even gotten his inventory curse, which kept an impressive number of cursed tools and other items within.
Though it would seem Toji had acquired a cursed tool of his own, an unfortunately familiar one. It resembled a cleaver, but the blade was wrapped in white cloth with black dots. He had managed to steal Nanami's cursed tool, his unique cleverness, which had been used so often with his technique that the Ratio technique had been imprinted on it.
I couldn't delay if Megumi was hit by Toji and Ratio activated, he'd die, so I rushed in and drew Playful Cloud. I used the middle bar to block the attack, though even without the Ratio effect, the force was immense, exactly how I remembered. I slid the bar down until the cleaver was pressed against the small chain between the sections, then attempted to wrap the tool around it.
Toji realized what I was trying to do, though, and pulled the cursed tool back. He jumped back a few meters, readied himself, but didn't move yet. I was stronger now, but still I couldn't afford to be careless. Here, our strength would be similar, but before his death, Toji had been older than me, so his experience in combat was greater, though that was in fighting sorcerers. I brought Playful Cloud up, holding each end. I still wanted to try and force the cleaver from Toji's hands before he fully figured out how to use it.
Megumi, who had been pushed behind me during my approach, managed to regain his senses and stood next to me, though still slightly behind, his hands already coming together. "Thanks for the save. What should we do?" Megumi asked, glancing at Toji, who was still standing in his ready position, his now black eyes shifting between the two of us.
From what I remember, his body had been brought back by a cursed technique in an attempt to give one of the enemies his strength, but due to his Heavenly Restriction, Toji was able to take control. After killing the sorcerer who started the technique, it went out of control. Now he's operating on the simple directive to find strong sorcerers and kill them, no matter who they are. Originally, he would get a close-up look at Megumi while trying to kill him, and upon realizing it was his son and he was still a Fushiguro, Toji would kill himself to end his rampage.
I couldn't rely on that this time, however, so I would have to kill him myself, and the fastest way to do that would be the Soul Split Katana. It could separate Toji's soul from this body, and it would be a good test to see if this would work later on incarnated sorcerers. I couldn't use it yet, though there wasn't an opportunity to grab the blade from the worm. If I let my guard down for a moment, he would attack just the same with me.
Suddenly, I felt a shift, not a physical change, but a sudden thought. It rushed into my head that danger was coming, and I didn't question it; instead, I jumped to the right. A moment after I had left my original spot, Toji's fist flew forward, creating a wave of pressure. If I had moved half a second later, that punch would have landed.
With this attack, the battle had officially begun. I landed and launched my own attack, swinging Playful Cloud by its last link to maximize range. The end of the staff connected, though not with flesh, as Toji had brought the cleaver up as a shield. The impact was still enough, though, forcing him off his feet and down the street. As soon as he landed, though, he disappeared, and I felt him move behind me.
I ducked under his swing and swept my leg behind me, toppling the man. Before I could turn and strike, though, he had already rolled away. I hadn't felt like this during a fight before; it must have been a result of the improved senses from my Heavenly Restriction. Toji was too fast to see properly, but I could still feel when his attacks were coming, and the same must have been true for him. It was a matter of who slipped up first now; whether we missed a dodge by a bit or didn't block an attack properly, it didn't matter. Whoever did it first would lose.
I wasn't going to give him any time to relax and charged back in, slipping behind him and launching a kick at the back of his knee. The leg I was aiming for suddenly swung forward and around, aiming for my head, but I managed to intercept it with Playful Cloud. I didn't waste the opportunity locking the middle link around the leg. I swung Toji around, throwing him through a window of a nearby convenience store.
This proved to be a mistake, as before I could follow, knives began flying out of the store, each one aimed at a different vital spot. Before I could move to block them, a wall of white suddenly grew in front of me. It seemed to be moving around, and, looking more closely, I noticed the wall was actually made of rabbits. It was Rabbit Escape, one of the Ten Shadows shikigami. This one could multiply itself endlessly and be used for defense. I glanced over and saw Megumi, who had followed our fight, likely looking for a way to assist. What a helpful kid.
Suddenly, I had an idea of how Megumi could make this much easier, and I called out to him, "Hey, how's your cursed energy level?" He was confused at first but responded: "I'm still ok mostly."
"Good, I have a plan, follow my lead," I said before jumping back as Toji finally emerged from the store, multiple kitchen knives of varying sizes strapped to his body. We both began to clash once more, each exchange nearly equal in strength and speed. Each punch was matched with another or dodged, and each kick was nullified. We had both gained our own advantages, though. With Megumi assisting, Toji couldn't focus solely on me, or he risked one of the shikigami landing an attack. Still, I also had to be careful of his additional weapons.
Eventually, I managed to pull the cleaver from his hand by wrapping the last section of Playful Clouds chain around the handle. But I overextended and felt an incredible pain in my gut. He had landed a major hit right to my stomach, but I wasn't about to let him get away with that, so I held his arm in place and managed to land a kick to his side. As a result of the punch, though, I dropped Playful Cloud with the cursed tool, landing between the two of us. We were each just a few meters away from the weapon, but before either of us made a move, a large pink tongue wrapped around the staff and pulled it away.
Toji looked over and moved to attack Megumi and Toad for the weapon, but I intercepted him first, throwing a series of jabs. He dodged the attacks and responded with a quick right hook followed by a roundhouse kick. I caught his leg and threw him further away from Megumi towards a parking garage. I rushed forward and let out a fast barrage of attacks, doing everything in my power to push him deeper into the garage, though this wasn't without damage, as during the clash, he landed a cut across my cheek and side with one of his knives.
Then he grabbed me by the waist and began to lift me in a suplex, but I smashed my elbow into his arm, loosening his grip enough to escape the grab. Landing, I rolled behind a nearby car, then lay down and used my legs to launch it towards Toji at high speed. He dodged the oncoming car, and once more we clashed in a flurry of punches and kicks until, out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Megumi had finally entered the parking garage as well. It was time for the plan to commence.
"Megumi, do the thing!" I yelled while making a gesture with my hands. He understood my intention and brought his hands together, his fingers interlocking.
"Domain Expansion: Chimera Shadow Garden!"
Suddenly, the parking garage was flooded with a black sea of shadows, and a spine-like column formed behind Megumi. This was his domain; it was still incomplete, as Megumi hadn't yet figured out how to form the barrier himself, which was why he needed the already-formed parking garage to act as a barrier. Though there was one advantage of such a domain, as without being complete, there was no sure hit, meaning it could still target people like Toji.
Suddenly, a swarm of large black wolves ran forward and swarmed Toji. The domain's main ability allowed Megumi to summon as many of his shikigami as he could, and if killed, they weren't lost. The wolves didn't last long, but they served as a good distraction, allowing me to land a punch to the back of Toji's head, stunning him, and before he could recover, a tongue wrapped around him, slamming him into the ceiling.
He broke free from the tongue, though now there was blood trailing down the side of his head. He didn't have long to recuperate as even more shadows began attacking, including shadow clones of Megumi. Toji was on the defensive, though, and with his remaining knives, sliced his way through each enemy, but the distraction was enough. I pulled out the Split Soul Katana and rushed in from his blind side, slicing him across the side before he could react.
As the sword cut him, Toji's eyes cleared up, returning to their normal color, and for the last time, they focused on Megumi, though this time he truly saw him. There was a slight smile on his face as his body collapsed forward, and the domain ended shortly after. The body morphed back into whoever it had originally been as the soul of Fushiguro Toji returned to that airport.
"Satoshi-Sensei, who was that guy?" Megumi asked after a moment. His nose was bleeding, likely due to the overexertion from using his domain. Though I wasn't doing great either, he may not have landed direct hits with weapons, but Toji was still incredibly strong. I was definitely going to have some bruises after this.
I let out a sigh as I tried to think about how I should answer this question before settling on the truth. "That was someone who's been dead a long time, likely brought back through a cursed technique. Specifically, he was Fushiguro Toji, formerly Zenin Toji, who used to hunt sorcerers for money and once nearly killed both Satoru and me."
"Fushiguro?" Megumi asked with an odd look on his face.
"Yeah, he's also your dad. He took your mom's name to separate himself from the Zenin clan. After he was killed, he apparently asked Satoru to look after you." I explained, and his face grew more shocked.
"So why did he attack me?" He asked, almost beginning to shrink in on himself.
"I doubt he knew what was happening. You saw his eyes. Whatever technique brought him back also took all his control right until the moment he died." I said, placing a hand on Megumi's shoulder. "He cared about you even if he didn't know how to show it the first time around; he trusted Satoru to keep you safe and out of the hands of the Zenin."
He looked at me like he was trying to see if I was telling the truth, and after a moment, he nodded. We left the parking garage and headed back to Nanami and his group. We never made it back, though, as on the street, I felt a sudden and overwhelming sense of danger, even stronger than during my earlier fight.
I shoved Megumi aside as far as I could and jumped up, and below me, the ground split. A large horizontal line was digging into the street, and it looked like the area had never existed. The moment I landed, I turned around and saw the worst possible thing at that moment.
Yuji was there, standing on a roof nearby, but it was clear who was in control. His hair was pulled back, and there was a malicious smile on his face, and underneath his regular eyes, there were two smaller ones.
How had he managed to take control? Originally, Yuji was knocked out by Choso and later fed multiple fingers by both the Hasaba twins and Jogo, but the Hasaba twins were on our side, and Jogo was dead. The questions I had in mind suddenly stopped when a second figure appeared next to Sukuna, a man I could recognize no matter what.
He was of average height with a slim build, but his defining features were his pure white hair and the blue eyes that marked him as a member of the Gojo clan. What stuck out most was the line across his forehead, a line of stitches. It was my uncle, the man who raised me and was more of a father to Satoru and me than our own was; it was Gojo Toshino, or his body, at least.
"Well, Satoshi-Kun, I'm surprised you could dodge such an attack. It's a shame I never got the chance to observe you more closely, the things I could have done with a body like yours." Kenjaku said in my uncle's voice, the same voice that used to wish me goodnight and tell me he was proud of how strong I had become.
When was the last time I had talked with him or checked in with him? I had been so busy dealing with curses and my students, I hadn't called him recently. Now his body was being puppeted by a crazed maniac, and that same voice had taken on a cruel, mocking tone.
"Unfortunately, the prison realm only holds one, and I doubt there will be much left of you after Sukuna is done with you." He continued, and hearing these words come from my uncle filled me with something I hadn't felt before, at least not to this extent.
I had certainly been angry before, but this rage was so strong it looped back to calm. I gripped the Soul Split Katana so tightly that I could hear the handle creak, and a clear goal overcame me. I had to kill him, no matter what. There was no other possible outcome. I didn't care about Sukuna or the people left in the district. I was going to kill Kenjaku.
I used all my strength to launch myself forward, my blade swinging, aimed directly for Kenjaku's neck.
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Sorry for the cliff hanger here but the next few chapters will have a lot of action in them. Also, I wanted to say sorry for the wait, but my dad was recently taken to the hospital, and they found out he has cancer, so I had to go home to see him. He's doing fine currently and they'll start treatment in a few weeks they're currently trying to get his weight back up because the tumor had been pushing on the opening to his stomach, so he hadn't been able to eat solid food until they did a gastric bypass. I'll try to write more chapters but with this and schoolwork increasing I don't know how much I can write in the coming weeks, so I apologize.