Megumi
The bubbling heat from the water he sat submerged in sent a soothing feeling through his body. His muscles untensed and relaxed the longer he lounged in the bath, drawn up by one of the maids.
It was his first time in one, and he had not walked in so much as Mahoraga had carried him like a wet cat before depositing him in the tub of hot water. It was a good thing the bandages they used to wrap his wounds were treated extensively to be waterproof, or it would have been a waste.
He wanted to look down at it, the jagged injury gotten from Ogi Zenin, but the effort to raise his head, open his eyes, and look at it proved to be more than he was capable of, so he left it for another time.
He drifted.
Thoughts of what he could do differently. Dreams of what could have been. Memories of what had been. Experiences of what is. Everything was a hazy mess. A contorted vision of multiple things as he took the brief respite to wonder.
He had gotten used to the faint medicinal scent of crushed leaves and potions utilized by women who were already ancient before he was born. He was quickly coming to learn that clans were more complex than he first thought.
It had been less than a day since he had been made clan leader, and so far he had learned that ancient clans like the Zenin had alternative ways of healing that did not rely on modern medicine or Reverse Cursed Technique. These were recipes and secrets created centuries ago, then studied and passed on by word of mouth.
He would have doubted their efficiency, considering the last person they had treated was Naobito Zenin, and if it was as effective as it should be, the older man would still be alive, and Megumi Zenin would still be Megumi Fushiguro.
In the haze of drifting thoughts and memories, he wondered what his now-revealed father would've thought. The memory came all too easily.
"Hey. What is your name?"
"Fushiguro."
A warm, heartfelt smile from lips that looked like they were not familiar with such joyful emotion.
"Not Zenin..."
A piece of sharpened steel slammed into the side of a skull, breaking bone and penetrating into the brain. Blood spurted out, staining the man's hand and leaking down the side of his head, and yet, despite the gruesome and spontaneous suicide, the man's eyes were clear. He had no regret.
"I'm glad."
Then he dropped to his knees and fell face first, leaving a stunned Megumi Fushiguro with a punctured kidney.
For the first time since he was dropped into the tub, Megumi allowed his eyes to crack open with effort, and he looked up at the wooden roof. He didn't think the old man would be very happy about it, or would he? After all, he was not just any Zenin. He was the clan head, and what did it matter? Why was he trying to justify himself to a man who had abandoned him and Tsumiki?
A man he said he did not care for, or even want to know about his death.
A man who saved him in Dagon's Domain and killed himself rather than fight Megumi further, a traitorous part of his mind reminded him. The voice sounded so much like Tsumiki's. Thinking of Tsumiki...
The sound of a sliding door rang out behind him, and Megumi only took a second to consider if it was an assassin. His body tensed, then the footsteps rang out, heavy and at a pace he was familiar with, and he relaxed once more, allowing the heat to reinvigorate his muscles.
A muscled girl came to a stop above him, her dark black hair cut short and rough, one eye covered with a bandage, while a pair of glasses sat easily on her nose. Megumi took note of the burn scars that covered her body and the fact that she had changed her uniform. She swapped out the long-sleeved top, skirt, and leggings that hid most of her body for a tight sleeveless shirt, a brown belt, and tight trousers.
Megumi noted that her new dress made sure to reveal her scars, burn scars gotten from the same Disaster Cursed Spirit that fought Sukuna. She wore her injuries from surviving the ambush like a badge. He didn't blame her. After all, Naobito died from the injuries he had gotten from that same ambush.
She tilted her head to the side, peering down on him with little emotion. Maki hardly showed much even before Shibuya, and looking up at her now, it seemed like she had somehow grown worse at expressing herself.
"So you're the clan head now."
"I am."
Her jaw flexed, and her serene expression changed to something confused for a minute.
"Huh."
"Get a seat, Maki. I'm going to get a crick in my neck if I keep this up."
She let out a soft grunt before pulling a seat to the side of his tub and sitting on it, arms locked together.
"So how did that happen?"
Megumi told her in a drab tone. He knew this was something he was bound to recite more than once. He told her of how he went to see his sister. He told her of the Culling Games, a ritual that had been enacted and one Tsumiki had been drawn into, even if the side effect of that was waking her up from her coma. He told her of his decision to join the games and get her out permanently, of being summoned for Naobito's will hearing, and of the fight that followed. By the time he was done, he needed a glass of water, but a look at Maki reminded him that she was no maid.
"So your Shikigami was the one that caused all the destruction," she noted with a thoughtful tone. "It could be felt all the way in the city. We thought they were earthquakes..." She trailed off, looking out of the window in the direction Megumi faintly felt the Shikigami. "Shibuya's utter destruction suddenly makes sense if that thing was fighting Sukuna there. I'm surprised the damage didn't spread further."
"That aside, what now, Megumi? I doubt the higher-ups would be very happy to know you're the one in charge now. I heard rumors of how you stood up to them. Now they get you as the Zenin clan head instead of someone like Naoya, whom they can control. That makes it two out of the three great clans they can't call to order..." She trailed off and gave him a focused look with her one single eye. "You should be careful."
Megumi gave a slow nod. He had not even considered it. What came next? His decision to accept the role had been spontaneous and spite-fueled, and now that the emotion was gone, he was left holding the reins of a burning chariot.
"How're things outside? How's the clan taking the new leadership?" he questioned suddenly.
"Better than they would've if I were the new clan leader."
Megumi gave her a confused glance, but she simply waved his confusion away, and for the first time, Megumi caught a glimpse of the bone-white sword on her hip. A Cursed Tool. Special Grade? How had he not noticed it earlier? He changed his focus the moment she started speaking.
"Anyway, most people are taking it well enough. A big part of that is because they worship your Shikigami. I suppose you won't understand how big of a deal he is in the Zenin clan. You didn't grow up hearing about the Divine General. You didn't play as the Zenin clan head who summoned him. You didn't act the role of the Gojo clan head that got crushed by the Shikigami."
"What?"
She gave him a sardonic smile as she continued, allowing her legs to stretch as she leaned back.
"Then there's the reputation and the wins under his belt. There's a betting pool going, you know. Started by Mei Mei. Who would win between the Divine General and Satoru Gojo? My money is on Gojo-sensei, of course."
Megumi let out a bark of laughter at that, one that descended into chuckles.
"I don't blame you. I'd pick Gojo-sensei as well, if Mahoraga wouldn't cuff my ear hard enough to crack my skull."
"The rumor is true then. The Divine General is sentient?"
"Yes."
"So what did they do wrong?"
"Who?" he questioned in confusion.
"The previous Ten Shadows users and clan heads that summoned him." Maki fixed him with a look. "What did they do so wrong that made the Divine General kill them, and what did you do right that made him spare you?"
Megumi sank back into the water, because it was a question he did not have an answer to. A question he had been asking himself from the moment he summoned the Shikigami and it didn't kill him on the spot. They sat in compatible silence for a short while before he broke it.
"Your father... Is he ali-."
"Unfortunately," Maki cut him off before he could continue. "Heavily injured, multiple broken bones, caved-in ribs, etc. But Ogi Zenin is a stubborn bastard, you know. Jinichi is in a somewhat worse state. I don't know what the brute did to piss off your Shikigami, but he crippled the man. I hear he was taken to Shoko. Naoya surrendered, which is a pity. I would've loved to dance over his broken corpse. There was only one casualty."
"Who?"
"Chojuro. You won't know him. He was an old perverted recluse. I heard your Shikigami hit him so hard, the only thing that was left of him was a smear of blood staining the floor and walls red."
Megumi nodded in understanding. Maki didn't seem bothered about the man's death. He doubted she cared for anybody in the Zenin clan in particular, other than her sister, and speaking of that...
"I want you to come back. I've given it some thought, and while I didn't originally want this, I've stumbled into it either way, and I've decided that I'm going to change the way things are done here. The way things are done in general, like Gojo-sensei wanted, but I'll start small. I'll start with the Zenin clan, and I need someone I can trust in this pit of vipers."
Maki's response was silence, a silence that lasted for a long minute, so he sat up and looked at her.
"So, would you?"
Maki looked past him, past the door, and into the clan. Her gaze was unfocused. She was thinking, so he allowed her.
"I didn't consider that things would ever turn out like this... Not in my wildest dreams, you know. I always thought the day I came back, I'd have to fight. Fight for everything I threw away, everything I lacked the strength to keep. I thought I would wage a war against the damned clan... but at the end of the day, Naobito is dead. Naoya and the rest cowed... Life is a funny thing with the curveballs it throws."
He knew that more than any other person. Everything post-Shibuya had been a roller coaster of the unexpected.
Her gaze finally focused, and she turned it to him.
"Fine. I suppose if things are going to change, I should help out instead of plotting how to destroy everything."
She gave him that sardonic grin once more before smoothly transitioning to her feet.
"I'm stepping out to check up on Mai. I will break the news to her about my return, but first, what next?"
Megumi contemplated the question before speaking.
"I'm going to bring Tsumiki here. I left her in the hospital because with the higher-ups acting up, I didn't want her on the school premises, but now that I'm the clan head, I can protect her better if she's in the Zenin clan. At least as soon as we're done setting this place in order. Then we will return to the school for Yuji and..."
"Yuji is missing."
Megumi turned to her.
"What?"
"I hear it happened shortly after the higher-ups decided to suspend his execution. His guards stepped into his room, and he was gone, but his window was wide open. I guess he finally got fed up with waiting in that cramped room."
Megumi internalized her words, then nodded in understanding. As long as he was alive, they could always find him.
"I see. We still have to return to the school either way. I need more information on the Culling Games and how I can get Tsumiki out of it, as well as a way to rescue Gojo-sensei."
Maki agreed with a nod.
"I met Yuki Tsukumo shortly after Shoko finished healing me. She said she had a plan for that, one that involved Master Tengen as well, so as soon as you're done healing up, get dressed. We'll head out together."
Megumi nodded in agreement, and he began to sink back into the tub, his eyes drifting closed. Then they snapped back open and he nearly shot straight out of the pool as he realized the elephant in the room was missing, his connection so faint it was nearly gone. He turned to Maki, who was already one foot out.
"Where is Mahoraga!?"
__
In a dark room, lit by only a single candle whose flame wavered only slightly, silence reigned. A silence that had been going on for some time.
It had started the moment the report finished being read aloud, and it had continued through the moment the reader set the document down, and it was still going now. It was the silence of a room full of people who had things to say and were each waiting for someone else to say them first.
The Divine Maiden grew tired of the silence and finally broke it.
"Were you aware of this, Ougi?"
"I was not," the old man replied with a grumble.
"And now we all pay for your obliviousness to the goings-on of your own clan. How did you not know your own son passed on the mantle of clan leader to Megumi Fushiguro?"
"It was a clause written..."
"It does not matter," another voice cut him off. "This makes two out of three great clans out of our reach. First, it was the Gojo, and now the Zenin, both led by people who flaunt our rules. People who treat our words and orders as simple suggestions. Who next? The Kamo? When that happens, what would be left of us? Of our soft power? We are powerful because we are listened to. We are obeyed. What happens when that illusion is stripped away?"
The silence returned as the temperature in the room dropped.
It was Tenketsu who finally broke the silence this time, speaking in the tone of someone who had something stewing, who had simply been waiting for the appropriate moment to say what he had, and had finally decided the audience was ready to listen.
"The boy is not Gojo Satoru."
The room turned toward him.
"I am not minimizing what happened at the Zenin compound, or the power the Shikigami has shown so far," Tenketsu continued before he could get cursed at by the annoyed men and women present. "The Shikigami's capabilities are significant, and the demonstrations in Shibuya and now in the Zenin clan are clear." A brief pause. "However, Gojo Satoru was a singular problem because Gojo Satoru was insurmountable. There was no angle from which he could be approached. No leverage. No dependency. No weakness. Fushiguro Megumi does not have such security."
"We're listening."
"Fushiguro Megumi is a seventeen years old boy. He has a sister in a hospital. He has a friend whose execution order is still on record. He has a teacher he wants freed from his prison." Tenketsu's voice remained even. "He has dependencies. He has people. And the Shikigami, whatever it is, is bound to him."
"You're suggesting we go through the boy," the Kamo elder said, the first person to pick up on the way he punctuated the last sentence.
"I'm simply pointing out that the boy is approachable in ways that Gojo Satoru never was. Human, in a way, the Strongest Sorcerer is not." Tenketsu looked at the report. "The Shikigami can be in one place at a time. It cannot protect everyone simultaneously. And Fushiguro Megumi, unlike the Six Eyes, does not have the luxury of Limitless."
He looked at the rest of them.
"All I'm saying is that there is more than one way to kill a cub, no matter how big the lion is."
The Shrine maiden turned to look at the gathering of people whose Tenketsu words were moving. She could already see how, like fish, they had bitten the bait and had been lured in, their eyes shining with madness, and she cursed herself for not leaving the moment the Gojo Elder did.