Acres of disappointment, and bouts of confusion were now the main center of Kawalerielki, the capital city of Kazimierz, along with bearing the title as its most booming economic center. The Grand Knight Territory which prided itself to a sinful degree with the possession and large arsenal of competition knights that they possessed, had recently had a grave wound from a sonic blade stabbing into their side. All due to one single man and his happenings back during his match against the Blazingaxe Knight.
The public was chattering with each other, intranet forms were being flooded by the second, and the news outlets were preaching their gospel of what had occurred, attempting to vie for the most clout and relevance as they could. Whether it was information or misinformation, they were spread across the winds of Kawalerielki, scattering to all walks of life that held even the most mitigated of intelligence.
Painting himself as somebody to be despised by the public by humiliating the Left-hand Knight was the plan he had crudely constructed for himself. That way, it would make whoever the stakeholders were for his next match look upon him in anticipation, in order to make their esteemed knight rise in fame by defeating the Higashinese samurai who had trampled on the country's pride. It was a deal, and he wished to follow along with it as he had promised toward Czarny... it was just, he felt quite dirty when making it in the first place, and had decided on other means that was more comfortable for himself.
Yes, he did surrender against the Blazingaxe Knight, that much he honored as part of the deal. They never specified beating him to a bloody pulp to the point where Fushiguro Megumi should have won—and then surrendering. Really, it was their fault, and Czarny should blame his hilariously twistable words for the results that it gave him.
'Disgusting,' Megumi continued to feel the bitter taste in his mouth when thinking back to the man, 'I haven't done nearly enough. It doesn't matter anymore now, because the next target...' There were many things going through his head, and paying back the utmost debt he owed toward the Armorless Union and K.G.C.C. was one of them. Really, it only made him more glad that they were connected—somewhat.
Shaking his head to change topics, he thought back to what he had done in his previous match, after his excitement might have reached too high of a point, to where it even concerned him.
Breaking the sound barrier at Mach 3. When Megumi repeated the notion in his head it became more absurd now that he thought about it. Amongst Jujutsu Sorcerers, there were only a few people that he could count on his own hands that could perform such a feat. Maybe it was because he was too used to watching Gojo Satoru and Ryomen Sukuna shooting through skyscrapers to the point where everything around them turned into shapeless objects, to the point where the entire city was at their whims.
Well, it was better to let bygones be bygones. The public view of Kazimierz would most likely turn into a fleeting memory for him. Just as Shibuya had been, just as Shinjuku had been, just as Primavera, Lungmen, and Ursus had been. At this point, his body had started to become almost used to the lengths this world had crossed to make the whole of Jujutsu politics look upon them with an impressed look.
He kept his head down, making sure to twist the shadows in a way where they discreetly covered his face and kept people's view away from him. It was a small application that he had learned, and required taking into account the many eyes of everybody who would fall upon him. If he had been too obvious with manipulating the shadows, it was most likely that even the most common man could detect such a discrepancy. For the more aware and instinctual warriors, they would see through his disguise at their mere peripheral.
It was a newly created technique, an application of the Ten Shadows that stemmed from both creativity, and the averse nature he had toward the public. This fame—or rather infamy—he had gained over the past two matches was something that he found unprecedented. Megumi never understood the scale of an important national event, and what his involvement would cause, but now the idea became much clearer to him. A single person causing a great uproar like this? It was better relegated toward celebrities who possessed pristine porcelain skin, who could bear to smile falsity in the limelight.
For somebody stuck in the shadows such as himself? Just leaving the country looked to be a far more tantalizing option for himself. Tried and true, he was now practically a nomad wandering from place to place, undestined in whatever "goal" he had been provided with. Well, that shouldn't be too much of a bother for him with how many other stressors were clinging onto him like sticky and chewed up gum.
Glancing around, the Jujutsu Sorcerer raised his hand upward, waving it slightly around. Nobody paid any attention to it, making the black-haired man feel slightly satisfied with the progress he was making. Lacking any means for training himself when making his way through Kawalerielki's streets had always been nagging at his desire to become stronger, so finding innovative ways to do so at every waking moment was an amazing feeling.
Reverse Cursed Technique was obvious enough, and so was the immense weight acting upon his body, that has been consistently been building up over the past few days. So, adding on the Ten Shadows Cursed Technique was an added benefit. Letting his thoughts drag on once more, Megumi paused in his steps as he came toward a store selling weapons—not too different from the ones he had visited before—but it definitely had its minute differences.
'Despite forfeiting, I guess the K.G.C.C. still pays me,' he mused in his mind. 'Let's get on with it, those assassins following me have already completely disappeared.'
Right... There was that problem too. Perhaps he had been quite excited in regards to the grunts who had been trailing and observing his every move, that he had decided to take it upon himself to reverse spy on them in order to find out where some of their bases were. The results were obvious enough, and Megumi was confident that his message had gotten through to them. There was only one person who he was aware of being in the upper echelons, and it was that white uniformed man he met before in the ghettos.
Clicking his tongue, Megumi placed his hand on the cold glass door, pushing it open to enter the weapons shop. He needed to create more Cursed Tools out of everything he bought, because it was guaranteed that he was becoming a number one target for the Armorless Union. Especially with the files he had... accidentally destroyed in his rampage. If they believed him to have stolen all of them—which was at most one paperstack or so—then he'd let them have that misunderstanding.
They were just walking right into his palm at that point.
"Um... sir, a-are you the Cursed Samurai?!"
Suddenly, somebody squealed out like a mouse.
'...Huh? Seriously?' Megumi was broken out of his thoughts when he heard a girl squeal in excitement. 'A weapons shop of all places?' He stared at the... "fan" who could barely contain her excitement, making his mood drop. "Hello...? Could you please save this for another time—"
Unluckily for him, he had to deal with a fan girl causing an outburst in the weapons store, "c-can you actually move at Mach 3?! Can you show it right here? Like—oh my god—you also look like, really really ho—"
Megumi frowned, watching other people from off to the side turn toward them from the ruckus that the woman was causing, the whispers becoming far too loud for his liking.
***
"I wouldn't have expected to have a fan with how negative my public view must be..." Megumi sat on the couch, holding a pen in his hand as he wrote in a poem journal that Viviana had gifted him.
"It would have been more absurd if you hadn't made any fans toward your side, people can be quite diverse in terms of these topics," Viviana responded while going through a poem book, glancing at every text that passed by her eye and attempting to comprehend each of their messages. "What has been dancing across the headlines recently? Ah, I remember now, breaking the sound barrier?"
"You could probably do the same if you tried hard enough," Megumi dryly countered, "you already make a few afterimages of yourself when striking, anyways." He remembered that accomplishment of hers, but it was more flickers of speed in close-ranged combat, rather than pure movement and distance crossing.
"I believe the difference is between night and day, when comparing dancing with the frequency of sound, and far surpassing it three times over," Viviana shook her head, "a large world we live in, don't we?" She would have never thought to be able to meet an eccentric person such as Fushiguro Megumi. But she wasn't complaining either. "Still... performing such a feat—I could see the excitement in your eyes even through a virtual screen."
He raised an eyebrow at her words.
"Although I may be misinterpreting your feelings during the time, I'd assume that was what the brief smile on your face was in relation to. After all, it's rare to ever see you with such an amicable dash," Viviana smiled, "you have a small passion, yet it looks like you wish to... bury it?"
"It wouldn't do me any favors by becoming a sadistic fighting pervert," Megumi thinned his lips, not sugarcoating his words, "losing myself in a battle is the worst thing that I could do, and it will only serve to make me lose sense of myself."
"A pervert? Please, I don't believe such a language suits you at all," Viviana shook her head with a chiding voice, "you're one of the most courteous people I've come to meet. There's no need to degrade yourself."
Once more, Megumi felt like he was being blinded when looking at the woman. The concern in her white eyes, and the truthfulness in every step of her delicate words were... a strange feeling for him, "I'll... take that as a compliment," as he always did.
"That's lovely to hear," she closed her eyes at his words, before turning back to her book when reopening them, "the media has its light focused on you, they speak of anything these days, don't they?"
"When haven't they?" He detected the change in subject, tapping the button of the pen he was holding and letting his mind wander for Haiku inspirations, "I saw an article on you, by the Red Wine. It's really..." Megumi could feel his hand clench against the object tighter, but he kept his face as calm as he could. He let it go.
"I'm more worried about how they've been slandering your name and accomplishments. Despite your involvement in the Major—much to your dismay as I see—discrediting what you've done is just a foolhardy decision," Viviana traced her hand across the words in her book. "My mother has also complained to me that she would barge into those media outlets quarters if she could, and hit the right upside the head. She's quite the woman, isn't she?" She spoke more amusedly.
"Well, I wouldn't mind seeing that," Megumi glanced away with a faux guilty expression, "she leads the Adeptus Sprawiedliwi, I wouldn't expect anything less."
"Indeed, she may as well be the only person in Kazimierz who can terrify even myself," Viviana let her mind relax and her eyes flutter close to a shut. "So, may I ask how you've come to enjoy writing those Haikus?"
"My Haikus?" Megumi let his pen dash across the paper, writing a few words before speaking up again, "I don't know. Probably because I'm inspired by somebody. It just... allows me to let my thoughts run free, without anything to worry about."
He then mumbled something while scribbling on the white sheets of paper in front of him, before turning upwards. His eyes lingered on Viviana, attempting to find any inspiration that he could write for a Haiku.
"Say, please satiate my curiosity for the moment. How do you view yourself?" Viviana's eyes paused on a stanza that caught her interest, "there are many titles the public have granted to you, but you feel as if they had never mattered to you in the first place."
"...Hm?" Megumi paused his pen from writing for a moment, twirling it between his fingers, "I don't know... perhaps Fushiguro Megumi?" He gave a bland response, "there's nothing more to it than that."
"Do you think the Radiant Knight felt the same way?" Viviana asked, "that amongst all the pressure of the mass media, that she was still herself despite all the hope and expectation they had placed upon her?" Along with the sudden turn she would have witnessed, after being ousted as an Infected.
"I don't know," Megumi honestly replied, "I can't relate to, or understand somebody who I haven't seen before."
"Oh, how could I have forgotten?" Viviana smiled, "we should put this talk about public images and its hardships behind us—would you wish to watch some of the Radiant Knight's matches?" She continued beaming toward Megumi, a thinly veiled sensation of excitement and expectation radiating from herself. A beacon had formed in the house, and a certain Ten Shadows user had been completely illuminated by it.
"I'll—sure, I wouldn't mind," Megumi spoke slowly while watching the Elafian woman start to become a lot happier with his words.
...For the next three hours, they watched videos of Margaret Nearl's past matches, all the while Viviana totally did not silently gush about her in the form of mumbles.
***
"Is there still a need to hide your face, Princess?" Laurentina sat on the other side of the table in a private restaurant, propping her chin up with both of her hands, "there are no prying eyes here, so you don't have to worry about any hyenas coming to have a bite at your skin." She pointed out amusedly.
"It's practice," Megumi replied, dangling a fork in front of him, "I need to improve the technique, just having it be an effective measure against normal citizens would be counter-productive." He set the fork down, before reaching for something in his shadows. The Last Knight of Kazimierz book—not the terrible "rewritten" one made by that one corporation that he forgot.
"I see, always attempting to reach something," Laurentina let out a sigh, while grabbing her cup, "you're everywhere on the news recently too, all the ruckus you caused is finally catching up to you, hm?" She took a sip, letting the aromatic smell enter her nose, while the soft liquid tickled her tongue. Once she finished her round of swirls, she set it down and spoke again, "what exactly do you want to do? We've already completed our little task here in Kazimierz, and all that needs to be done is returning to Leithanien—or locating that Rhodes Island company."
"Selfish revenge," Megumi said without even a moment's pause, "sorry if it's dragging you down, but I can't stand those Armorless Union people slaughtering people dwelling in the ghettos for no reason, other than that they're a bad image for the corporations." The black-haired man held a hardcover book in his hands, his finger dashing across the pages as his mind registered every word.
"Slaughter a bunch of people, write those Haikus of yours, and then make more weapons. I think I'm starting to see a pattern, isn't that so?" Laurentina pointed out, "I'm starting to think that sanity of yours may be degrading."
"A pattern? Most likely, I believe that describes my current wants at the moment." Megumi didn't deny it, "still... I guess getting used to your behavior has made my sanity degrade." The black-haired man shot back toward the woman.
"...Aha~ since when did you become a comedian?" Laurentina lightly chuckled while placing her elbow on the table, staring at Megumi with half-lidded eyes, "it's really hard seeing your expression when you're hiding your body behind those shadows." She could see his outline very clearly, the four white eyes peeking out of the black shroud he had put over himself. If anything, he looked like scribbles of black with how erratically the shadows coalesced around his body.
If it had been anybody else, they wouldn't even detect him. For the Abyssal Hunter? He was the most obvious outlier out of everything in the room, and would catch her attention far better than if he were to present himself as somebody normal. 'So—it's only useful for the lower end unaware people, and downright detrimental for those who are like me~' she mused in her mind.
"Stop staring at me like that," Megumi carefully spoke while turning his gaze upward toward the still smiling woman. The way she looked at him was like a predator toward her prey—and it was usually something that connected to her interest in something, "yes, I became a comedian overnight after the match from earlier." He replied without a hint of emotion.
"Well, well, well, I wouldn't have expected such a strange occurrence to take place in one night, but you surely loved playing with your food during that time—did you learn it from me?" Laurentina crossed her legs.
"No, it rubbed off on me from somebody else," Megumi casually said. Usually, even a brief mention of Ryomen Sukuna would have his nerves irritated if it was back then, and yet he had already moved past that point.
"Oh~? Who is this special person?" Laurentina let out an intrigued sound while turning her full attention to him, "I would have expected you to be infallible with how you hold yourself, but to think that somebody could rub off on this ice cold Princess?"
"They would be the worst person you could ever meet," Megumi dryly clarified, "I wouldn't want you to see him eye to eye."
"Ho~ is that so?" Laurentina could feel that the other man was not lying in the slightest, even if his expression and posture was the hardest to read that it has ever been. "Well, seeing as you don't want to speak about it—"
"Said person could probably chop my head off in about... five seconds flat, if he really wanted to," Megumi continued on, continuing to read through his book, "I guess maybe that's how he rubbed off on me. Impression of strength." But there was still more to it than that.
"Five seconds?" Laurentina raised an eyebrow, "you either underestimate yourself, or you're overestimating this person you're speaking of."
"Not really," Megumi let out a yawn. He remembered when Maki had been completely perception-blitzed by Ryomen Sukuna despite the King of Curses having drastically lowered Output, missing an arm, and having his heart crushed by a soul damaging Cursed Tool.
The same Ryomen Sukuna that had suffered a Jacob's Ladder previously at Maximum Output, too. He really was far behind him despite where he was at. With pure Cursed Energy Reinforcement, Noble Eightfold Path and all of his Cursed Tools in hand, the Jujutsu Sorcerer would say he was 6-7 Fingers worth in pure combat capability. 16 Fingers or so with the proper Totalities and Mahoraga.
That was pure combat capability, however, such as Output and battle techniques. It didn't include utility or Cursed Energy Reserves, as the latter was completely separate from Output in general. Even then, Megumi was confident that if Sukuna broke through his Shikigamis, then the black-haired man would be in a world of pain. Worse than when Gojo Satoru had been ragdolling Agito.
That didn't even mention Domain Expansions. Goodness... he would be slaughtered if it came down to a Domain Clash.
"Even with your Divine General?" Laurentina raised a skeptical brow, gauging the... nevermind, she couldn't even gauge the other's expression.
"If he gets past it..." Megumi let his voice draw out for a second "...then I'd be dead." His thoughts also came back to that one time, Sukuna had perception-blitzed Ishigori Ryu, cleaving his head into multiple sections. The same one that had been going somewhat evenly with Okkotsu Yuta, even if he had been clobbered by the end of the match.
"Wow, you learn something new everyday. You land-dwellers certainly have your work cut out for yourselves, but I'd prefer sticking to those trench-sucking abominations deep below." Laurentina crossed her arms and leaned back.
"The person I'm speaking of is already dead, by the way," Megumi felt the need to clarify, "he won't be a bother towards me or anybody else anymore." A small breath left his lips, a small and relaxing feeling coming toward him when he stated that fact, "good riddance." His final words were whispered underneath his breath which cloaked it.
"Come again?" Laurentina placed a hand over her mouth while tilting her head, having heard the whisper. The question was more of a rhetorical one, to probe more at the black-haired man's feelings.
"Good riddance," Megumi repeated, much more confidently, "I'm just glad he won't be able to bother anyone, anymore." He closed his mouth after stating that, letting his lips slowly turn to a frown. 'I'm sorely mistaken, aren't I?' His brows creased while his nails dug a bit harder when trailing across the words on the book. 'How ironic.'
"Well, enough of that then," Laurentina turned away from the topic, "so... should we start talking about your weapon fetish now?"
"...Huh?" Megumi turned toward her with a complex expression. "What do you mean by that?"
"You know~? Your weapon fetish? You've been spending a lot of money and time buying and creating them. Goodness, I still remember that accursed large weapon sheathed by your side, close by that equally morbid blade wrapped in those... talismans? Yes, it's like you forged it from a corpse." Laurentina began running her mouth on the matter, speaking her thoughts and opinions on them. "Ah, you land-dwellers sure are the eccentric kind."
"You're even more eccentric, you sadist," Megumi retorted with a deadpan. He remembered that time he pointed toward the shark lady when speaking upon a subject, but the crazy woman had decided to grab him by the wrist and bite down on his finger. Worse is, she would even bite at his shoulder instinctually whenever the both of them were asleep, 'seriously, does this habit stem from her shark racial features?'
"Oh? Normally, I wouldn't mind if you call my style of dancing sadistic, but to call me that way... hm, you should choose your words more carefully, Princess," Laurentina fired back, but with a different energy. Such fated power was amusement, "speaking of which—we haven't danced together for quite some time—now have we?"
"Can't spare much time right now," Megumi waved her off, "I'm busy with a lot of things. Besides, you should be focusing more on finding out about that Skadi person, and returning to your Abyssal Hunter activities. I've kept you holed up for too long."
"Don't say that," Laurentina chirped, "it's been far more of an amazing time spending my time here with somebody such as yourself. Ah, how insufferable it would have to be to deal with the land-dwellers without a little Princess guiding me all the way. Even then—you're technically the reason why I was able to discover my own kind, and be enlightened of their presence amongst this new world."
"...You'll return home soon, huh?"
"Return home? A metaphorical, and sentimental way of putting it... I guess you could say, I would be returning home when I see my kin once more," Laurentina closed her eyes with serenity, a smile of bliss forming on her face—rather than one of mischief or coyness.
Megumi hummed in agreement, "The next match will be my last," before speaking. He then turned to pull his phone out from his Endless Well of Shadows, "the two opponents so far have been a good test for my new technique." He clicked it open, the light of the digital object flashing on his face, and his Cursed Technique application of hiding his identity had disappeared.
"Last match huh? Well, I guess my Princess won't be stealing the championship trophy for Higashi as the rumors are saying. Anyways, I've seen that new technique you speak of, dropping weapons from those shadows of yours." Laurentina recalled the memory of when she watched his fights back at the hotel, "quite ingenious, why haven't you done so before?"
"Too many problems and restrictions, that I don't have at the moment," Megumi responded impassionately, he glanced at the contents of the message, his eyes narrowing as a result. "Huh, I'm being threatened." As per usual, his tone did not change in the slightest.
"Pfft~ where did that come from?" Laurentina held in a small bout of humor when the black-haired man had changed the subject so suddenly after glancing at his phone, "let me guess—those Armorless Union lackeys have discovered us? Well, more fun for us, I presume?" Her shark teeth were shown at that moment.
"Whatever," Megumi tossed his phone to the side, the object falling into a black liquid vortex portal, "I'll clear out another of their headquarters then, since they want to provoke me so badly." He spoke as if he were dealing with an everyday job, "I have a few plans written down back at our apartment, you should take a look at them. After I finish with this, I'll finish the last round for the Major before dropping out—and then we'll be dealing with those thorns in our sides fully."
"Alright, I'll be diligent with your given task, Princess," Laurentina let out a huff while standing up, "let's see what you have this time."
"I hope it doesn't disappoint," Megumi stood up himself, turning away from her in order to make his exit. "For somebody like you."
"You've hardly disappointed any of my expectations before."
"Thanks."
Laurentina sighed, "oh please, out more emotion into your voice would you? Or—is this how you charm the ladies, acting so aloof and hard to get? Hmph, you're not too dissimilar to Skadi, you know that?"
"Sure, and you really like clinging onto me while we sleep, huh?" Megumi stoically quipped back.
"I'll give you 5 seconds before I start biting you on the neck."
"...Thank you for the heads up."
***
Mists of blood continued to flood the surrounding air, leaving only a lone figure cloaked in black to walk through it. A great many assassins dressed in very light gear pointed their crossbows toward the advancing figure, only to swiftly and deftly find that the top halves of their head had never existed in the first place. The celestial black flames continued to drape off his body, flowing off in tandem with both his figure and robe like apparatus. There were spiked locks atop his head, reminiscent of a certain Jujutsu Sorcerer—because in the truest fashion, he was that man.
Continuously, Juuchi Yosamu continued to dance across his body while he held it with his dominant hand, the other sheathed katana and empty Odachi sheath blacked out by the Ten Shadows' application clicking against each other and swaying along with his body. Every time he swung the Muramasa Blade held in his hands, the direction of its blade would perfectly erase everything in its path with boundless precision. From how finely it severed life itself, one would assume that it was cutting space itself. But that was the farthest from the case.
Stamping his foot against the ground and leaving the entire floor rumbling, Fushiguro Megumi let his arms flow behind him like it was heeding the sways of the wind pressing upon his body when dashing forward. However, he immediately regained control of them and leaped across the scene, making leaps and bounds in his progress across the room, and slicing at any breathing target that he could find. The shadows eventually fell of his body, having found that it proved useless now that he could be seen by the Armorless Union members.
The king with his crown moved through with destined haste, the fury underneath his four eyes showing its decadence. Once more, his blade flowed like a ceaseless river, leaving trails of the purest red, eviscerating those who dared stand in its path. The madness continued to creep into his mind, leaving the four spirals of his eyes to widen ever further, bearing a Curse that threatened the stability of life itself. True to the blade's nature and the Jujutsu Sorcerer's malignancy, every life reaped was sowed into the solitary confinement of Juuchi Yosamu, destined to live for the rest of eternity under ten-thousand cold nights.
His body flickered past a panicked Armorless Union member, their body immediately lighting up with multiple black, white, and crimson slashes intertwining to form a pillar of gore. The visceral scene caused all who stared at it to freeze up with their crossbows pointed, quivering as if the winds of Ursus' Northern Tundras had struck them. Indeed, the passing trails from such a world so far away had found their way to Kazimierz, blessed with the grace of a newfound rage and conviction.
The step was repeated across multiple occasions, leaving nothing but dashes of sanguine paint adorning every single hall that came to pass. Everytime his arm was raised upwards into a downwards cleave, the sleeves of his haori would back down, revealing the black tribal markings across his arms, while his eyes gazed down emotionlessly—knowing he stood over these hapless masses.
"Shit! Kill him! KILL HIM!"
"I'm trying my DAMNDEST RIGHT HERE!"
Two crossbow bolts infused with Arts were about to make contact with his body after had sliced an Armorless Union crossbow man straight in half, before he completely disappeared from view. His eyes hadn't even turned to register the arrows, and yet he was now far past their cover line, standing in a kneeling motion, one hand pressing against the ground; while his right hand looked as if it had completed a grandiose slashing motion. It had, and everything in its path was sliced in half, including the entire building. It was only by a miracle and how precisely he had cut the entire structure, that it hadn't slid off its hinges and collapsed entirely.
Blood spurted, before Megumi stood back up and flicked his Odachi, splaying all the blood off of it. As per usual, the souls of the dead gathered into his weapon, further improving its potency. The more souls gathered, the more Cursed and powerful it would become. Although it was by the slimmest of margins, doing so enough times would grant him some progress to see. How much...? He hadn't done the math yet.
Letting out a breath, Megumi deflected a dagger that had been thrown toward him. An Armorless Union member hiding in the shadows had sprung out with another group, bearing red ribbons to denote them as the "elite" troops. They didn't wield crossbows, the crossbowmen were standing behind them and working in unison to provide a bolt smokescreen in order to distract himself. The result? Useless.
Supreme Art: Morning Sun Sword Drawing
Taking some inspiration from Kusakabe Atsuya in his naming sense, Megumi resheathed his Odachi and activated Noble Eightfold Path. Through countless practice, he had been able to interchange the conditions of the Simple Domain formed by the aforementioned technique, concentrating the barrier's shape in the direction of his sword slash for pure offensive measures—rather than having it all spread out in a path or sphere.
The application for this one? A 360 slash all around himself, the Simple Domain Barrier forming the perfect shape of his sword, and it was on his body's own volition combined with Falling Blossom Emotion's Cursed Energy that his sword drew the perfect arc, not missing the shape of the strike by a single millimeter.
He threw the sheath of the Odachi back with his left hand to create more space for his right hand to draw the weapon fully, before it unleashed itself without any fettered chains binding its purest might.
SLASH!
They were all dead, that was pretty much it.
The familiar chaotic sounds combining together to tell a story of severed limbs and taken lives drenched in blood echoed in Megumi's ears. He decided to critique himself, and understand what he did better compared to the two other times he had destroyed an Armorless Union Headquarters/Base. First of all, by personalizing and applying different tasks for Noble Eightfold Path by forming specific sword styles as Kusakabe had done, he was able to specialize each and every one of their motions into a specific strike.
For example, the normal Noble Eightfold Path formed a spherical barrier around himself, multiplying the effectiveness of Falling Blossom Emotion by eightfold while also instilling a Simple Domain Barrier which uploads it, so it wouldn't spill out and disperse. All of their features were kept, but the problem remained that they were just too spread out for his liking. So by finding a method to compress them into smaller shapes, he could concentrate his blows into a more precise one—resulting in a more effective slash.
The problem was that it couldn't provide the same 360 defensive measure as Noble Eightfold Path, and was meant for purely offensive purposes. There was also the fact that he had to commit to the blow once the Barrier had been formed, and relenting at any moment of its process would completely ruin it, as if it hadn't already left him open for a second party to cleanly attack him.
Morning Sun Sword Drawing was for horizontal strikes. For vertical and thrusting strikes—
—Megumi widened his eyes, feeling a dangerous streak start making its way toward him. Letting a small portion of his mind be consumed by Juuchi Yosamu in order to boost his capabilities. His body reacted far faster than Mach speed, as his body movements and combat movement was far superior compared to his travel speed. His blade was sheathed once more, having to accommodate a large range of movement to get Juuchi Yosamu back in its large sheath.
Supreme Art: Morning Sun Sword Drawing
He swung the Muramasa Blade in order to deflect what had just come his way. It made its path, tearing the Arts enhanced arrow that was unlike the others, and completely splitting it in two. The first condition for his newly formed Binding Vow had been fulfilled, one that he had been dying to test out. Letting his posture go back to normal and sheathing his blade, he could finally test out the rest of his sword techniques.
Drawing the Odachi should have been impossible, but by tossing it behind him, and then recalling it back to his side after his blade had been fully drawn, made the entire process possible.
Glancing upwards through the shattered window, he saw his target... and smirked.
***
"Higashinese target of the Aegir race at 12 o'clock slanted down, possessing some sort of tangible killing intent. Heart rate? Steady, at normal conditions, the wind is blowing softly, conditions are good enough." Lazurite Monique stared at the black line drawn across the entire structure as she stood atop a building, making sure the neon lights of the city completely obstructed her figure. From a distance far away, she wouldn't be spotted by her target, "headquarters most likely cleared out. Smell of blood is rancid. Mood...?" How was her mood? She would never admit it to anybody else, but... "terrified." Her mind spoke out loud on her own, the support the her own had were stationed at some other place, belonging to the Third Squad of the Armorless Union. "First shot being drawn... and fired!"
Her posture of a Victorian archer had been released, the hand unclenching the arrow she had been holding and keeping steady, the stagnant object finally racing toward the target Monique had locked on from so far away. It whistled in the wind, moving through the thankfully destroyed window, so not even glass impeded its course toward the black-haired man. At that moment, her eyes twitched when his red odachi blade curved horizontally in the air around him, rounding around in order to slice her arrow clean in half. A vermillion trail had followed the trajectory of the blade, before—
—His eyes turned toward her, the accursed orbs that had her breath and heartbeat stopping for a split second. She remembered it from the countless footage she had been given by Roy and Platinum... but since when did he have black markings on his face, along with four eyes instead of two?!
"...S-squad should have been notified. Position compromised. Preparing a second nock, before escape," Monique recited her current condition, swiftly taking another arrow and nocking it on her bow and pulling it back. "Target in sight again, preparing a second shot." She heaved in a breath, her pupils shaking and dilating, keeping track of the black-haired man who had stood there, gazing at her. "Firing a second shot...!"
The arrow shot forward toward the target, but before it even made it halfway through...
Supreme Art: Hell Severance Sword Drawing
...It had been sliced in a vertical motion the moment the black-haired man had raised his already drawn blade upwards for a downward strike, holding the hilt with both hands. The form was picture perfect, and so was the release. It made the Lazurite heave in yet another breath, preparing herself for the third arrow. Her pride was in shambles, and her target was still standing still, glancing at her as if she was the most uninteresting person he had ever laid his eyes upon.
"Third arrow at the ready. Activating Arts to its highest degree..." A lapis lazuli color embellishing it in coils of neon blue fabric. Fushiguro Megumi still hadn't moved, all the while his position remained the same as when he had finished his vertical strike. However, Monique's breathing almost hitched when he had grabbed the Odachi with his two hands, reeling it back for a thrusting motion "...releasing the third arrow...!"
With a flash of lazurite light, the arrow propelled forward far more powerful than even a ballista shot, the attack unfashioned for assassination with its blinding light was meant for only one thing: pure destruction. It promised death, and that was what it would grant toward the black-haired man.
However, the domain of lapis lazuli was only for the Yakushi Nyorai to rule over, and was not for some mere mortal to taint it. Then—if that were the case—he shall show the path toward the pure lands for the wayward soul he had laid his eyes upon.
A cadence of thrumming crimson light gathered into a singularity at where Fushiguro Megumi's pulled back Juuchi Yosamu was at. Despite the dimming light coming from it, the purest form of swordsmanship was emblazoned in its spirit alone, bearing not a single emotion too imbalance in order to unleash it.
Powered by a Binding Vow—the Muramasa Blade thrusted forward.
Supreme Art: Horizon Pierce Sword Drawing
A single line of crystal clear ruby was made when the blade had shot forward, surpassing the speed and force of an artillery as the light was finally emitted from the blade. A picturesque scene was created, where the third arrow made contact with the tip of Juuchi Yosamu, and clashed against each other. The results were obvious, as the arrow made of falsified lapis lazuli had been incinerated from the force of the blow.
The force continued to travel across Megumi's body, and the sword itself. Before even he knew it, the Jujutsu Sorcerer had moved upwards toward where he had thrusted his blade, being powerful enough to send him in the direction where Monique was. He had sprung with such great nimbleness, that it looked like his body had teleported.
Within the blink of an eye as the Lazurite widened her eyes and dodged to the side, she found a splurge of blood hissing into the air along with a crimson inflorescence. Monique's right arm had been cut cleanly in half the moment she had attempted to move out of the way of the last move executed by Fushiguro Megumi, but her movements—had proven to be far too slow. The world turned slow for her, as she glanced behind herself, seeing the black-haired man having already made it behind her from that single piercing strike.
The sky upwards, which had been filled with dark clouds... had been utterly split in half. The horizons screamed at the sudden change, an altercation of nature itself from a force so purely malevolent, that it made the city quake.
"Ah-AGH!" The Lazurite felt the pain travel across her severed limb, as she bore sight toward the demon in front of her, turning back and glancing at her with all four of his eyes, his arms still sprung forward from the Supreme Art, 'RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN!' A wave of panic overcame her as she saw her life flashing before her eyes, forcing her left hand to drop her bow and reach for smoke bombs.
Megumi stared blankly, turning around and exiting the posture from before as a cloud of smoke bathed his vision in grey. He could sense multiple other presences starting to surround the area, as his left hand rested on Ame-no-Habakiri's hilt, while Juuchi Yosamu was still being held in his right hand, the aforementioned limb pointing toward his side while being slightly slanted downwards.
Morning Sun Sword Drawing was the horizontal strike.
Hell Severance Sword Drawing was the vertical strike.
Horizon Pierce Sword Drawing was a thrusting strike.
By making a Binding Vow that he could only utilize Horizon Pierce Sword Drawing after using both Morning Sun Sword Drawing and Hell Severance Sword Drawing beforehand, he had been able to create a technique that far surpassed what training could ever do. Specifically, it had to be in the specific order of horizontal, then vertical, and then thrust.
Now that he had sent the message clearly to the Armorless Union's higher echelons and forced them to repeat, the plan they had instilled to lure him toward their third headquarters had completely backfired. The entire fiasco had prompted Megumi to regard the ones surrounding him after the Lazurite's failed assassination attempt.
"Your plan was ridiculous in the first place," his left hand holding Ame-no-Habakiri which was sheathed by his left hip had drawn the blade side down positioned O-Katana. It was in such a position to make the reverse-grip draw as smooth as possible, "tell your leader to use a better voice changer next time."
His shadow erupted forward, shooting out a mass of beasts from them. He had stored his Shikigami in his shadows beforehand, so he didn't need to form handsigns or call them out to release them, and the weight of their bodies was something he could completely handle and bear.
With two Muramasa Blades in hand, he reaped the souls of everybody present, forcing a visceral tornado of blood and guts, aided by the companions bathed in darkness.
***
The Jujutsu Sorcerer let in a breath of fresh air, before exhaling. The two Muramasa Blades were now all sheathed by his left side, his left wrist resting itself on their hilts. He made his way across the public park of Kawalerielki, the twilight having already crept in and leaving only the moon hanging above the horizon. His steps were slow and steady, the weapons continuously clacking together to produce a rhythmic sound, with his black haori creating a resplendent sight with his calm gait.
There was a bench that he saw off in the distance, with a blonde-haired Pegasus man bearing a stoic and serious face sitting upon it. They wore some kind of trench coat, along with a golden ornamented gauntlet on their right hand, while they also held a newspaper in hand, reading over its contents. He didn't question the piece of armor, as people casually wore such things and bore weapons by their side every day of the week. It was a common sight, and so the Jujutsu Sorcerer also felt no need to put away his weapons.
Once he made it to the bench, he was at the opposite side of the Pegasus man, sitting far away from him in order to not disturb his peace. Letting himself relax, Fushiguro Megumi stared at the night sky which was—not littered with stars, the city lights have already obscured them beyond any eyes that could see them. But still, it was an easing sight to stare at the now blackened azure heights up above.
Closing his eyes, a few thoughts came to the black-haired man, and the first one was...
'...I'm really becoming a chunibyo with how I'm naming my attacks now...' Megumi let his lips turn into a frown. His mind wandered back to when Gojo Satoru had told him to embrace his "chuniness," when using the Ten Shadows Cursed Technique in order to make it more effective. His sensei's reasoning?
"Well, Megumi-chan~ if you really think about it, Jujutsu Sorcery is all about chuniness, you get what I mean? You gotta yell out all your attack names in order to make them more effective, and there are even chants for every designated Cursed Technique to prove my point further! Oh, did I mention you can smugly explain your ability to your opponent in order to make it stronger? Aha~ aren't I such a genius? Perhaps whoever invented Jujutsu Sorcery was a chuni at heart~!"
That day, he really wanted to punch his teacher in the face for comparing him to a deranged person with middle-school syndrome. But standing at where he was at now, yelling out chants for the Shrine Cursed Technique, naming his attacks in a way that he thought was cool, and forming handsigns to summon his Ten Shadows Shikigami—he had to admit internally... he was a chunibyo, wasn't he?
'Damn you, Gojo-sensei,' Megumi moved his hand upwards to press against his forehead, feeling a wave of embarrassment come over him. He thanked whatever gods were out there that Laurentina hadn't made fun of him for it, because in the line of Jujutsu Sorcery, everybody was practically a chuni, weren't they? 'Forget it, I should develop sportsmanship skills too, I've already made a set for swordsmanship.'
Standing upwards, the Jujutsu Sorcerer already knew that he had a free-for-all match in the Kazimierz Major, called the Fireblade Melee Arena. So, without a moment's notice, he had decided to go back to his apartment and rest—knowing that tomorrow would be most likely the final day of his stay in Kazimierz and by extension, Kawalerielki.
'I'll face the rest of the Armorless Union after the match, won't I?' Megumi thought back to the second message sent toward his phone. It seemed like whoever was at the absolute top of the organization had already decided to take matters into their own hands, after he had chopped the hand off of that blue-colored dressed woman.
While he made his way back home, he hadn't noticed the gaze of the blonde-haired Pegasus man turning toward him for the briefest of moments.