"Divine Dogs." "Nue." "Great Serpent." "Mourning Tiger." "Round Deer."
Standing in the center of the martial arts dojo, Mirai fluidly transitioned through a series of complex hand seals. With every incantation, the pitch-black shadows beneath his feet surged and boiled like a turbulent sea.
The greatest advantage of the Ten Shadows Technique, when compared to other high-tier innate techniques, was its remarkably low cursed energy consumption. When paired with the Six Eyes—the ultimate "power saver" of the jujutsu world—Mirai could freely manipulate and sustain his shikigami with almost zero cursed energy drain.
Because of this, even though Mirai was only six years old, he could control multiple shikigami simultaneously and execute hyper-complex maneuvers with ease. The only real cost was mental fatigue, but even that was negligible.
Within the dojo, the ancient, ethereal blue of the Six Eyes shimmered faintly beneath his beautifully crafted, opaque black lenses.
Following Mirai's precise manipulation, the five distinct shikigami began to melt and fuse together, coalescing into a single, towering, humanoid entity.
Its upper torso was distinctly avian, its face obscured by a bone-white mask. It possessed a surprisingly alluring, anthropomorphic mouth, massive Rinnegan-like concentric eyes, and a pair of delicate antlers resting atop its head. Its chest bore two distinct, feminine mounds patterned with the black-and-white stripes of a tiger. Below its slender waist—which looked thin enough to snap—it wore the same dark, baggy hakama trousers as the Divine General, Mahoraga.
This was the Chimera Beast that Sukuna had birthed in the original timeline: Agito.
Mirai had successfully summoned Agito for the first time when he was just three years old. Since then, practicing its manifestation had become part of his daily routine—a stepping stone toward his ultimate goal of uncovering the mystery behind a nine-body Totality fusion.
"Hmm, that feels about right," Mirai murmured, assessing the cursed energy flow.
Looking up at the massive Chimera Beast, whose head nearly brushed the high ceiling of the dojo, Mirai waved a small hand. "Squat down, lower your head, and let me touch you."
Agito obediently crouched. Mirai gently parted its purple, anthropomorphic lips, reaching a hand inside to stroke its fine, razor-sharp teeth and its thick, barbed tongue. A prickly, stinging sensation traveled up his palm—it felt a bit like petting a very large, very dangerous cat. It was a bizarrely wonderful texture.
After a moment, Agito gently clamped its jaws shut, resting its massive head on its arms like a cushion, exposing its soft, fluffy belly.
Mirai leaned against it, his tone laced with genuine curiosity. "I wonder... do you still retain your individual consciousness in this state?"
As if sensing its master's contemplative mood, Agito carefully extended an index finger—twice as thick as Mirai's entire arm—and gently ruffled the boy's hair, playfully booping his nose and tracing his lips.
This was a habitual gesture for Agito, a physical expression of affection and comfort. It served a similar purpose to Mirai checking its teeth: it was a secret handshake between master and servant to confirm that the Chimera had retained its memories and consciousness despite the fusion.
After a brief, tender moment, Mirai finalized his mental preparations.
Jumping back from Agito's plush belly, Mirai took one last look at his ugly-yet-oddly-endearing creation, then waved his hand, dismissing the Chimera back into his shadow.
"Lexus," Mirai commanded. "Lock down the perimeter of the dojo. Do not let a single fly inside."
[Acknowledged.]
A mechanical, distinctly mature female voice echoed within Mirai's mind. Instantly, the silver-gray, ethereal figure of Lexus materialized beside him before phasing straight through the solid walls of the dojo, establishing an absolute defensive perimeter outside.
The room was completely secured.
Mirai changed into a bright yellow Taoist robe adorned with the Eight Trigrams of Tai Chi. In the exact center of the dojo, he lit three massive sticks of incense—each thicker and taller than he was.
"May the ancestors of the Zenin clan bless me with success," Mirai muttered.
Then, he dropped to his knees, facing East. "Jade Emperor, Queen Mother, Buddha Tathagata, Bodhisattva Guanyin, Taishang Laojun, Great Immortal Zhenyuan—I am an orthodox son of the Celestial Empire! In life, I am a man of the Empire; in death, I am a ghost of the Empire! Please protect me and let this work on the first try!"
"If I succeed," Mirai bargained, "I promise to slaughter a few of the Zenin clan's worst scumbags and send them down to serve you as a token of my gratitude!"
After kowtowing three times to the mythical pantheon of the East, Mirai stood up, dusted off his robes, and rapidly began to weave a complex sequence of hand seals.
"Divine Dogs!" "Nue!" "Great Serpent!" "Toad!" "Round Deer!" "Piercing Ox!" "Max Elephant!" "Escape Rabbit!" "Mourning Tiger!"
With each tender but unyielding shout, nine distinct, chaotic masses of pitch-black shadow violently tore themselves free from the darkness beneath Mirai's feet! They writhed and roared, struggling against one another like a turbulent, ink-black tide.
Beads of cold sweat began to slide down Mirai's forehead. The cursed energy required to merely hold them all in the physical realm at once was staggering.
"Return, Lexus!"
At his command, the silver-gray Stand instantly phased back into Mirai's body. Armed with Lexus's overwhelming physical reinforcement and processing power, Mirai took a deep, grounding breath.
His hands blurred as he executed forty-nine hand seals in a single second.
"Hah!"
"Blood is fire! Cursed energy is love!" "My pride! My soul!" "Let the gathering chaos forge an infinitely deep abyss! Let it transform into an inextinguishable beacon, guiding the path to the ultimate synthesis of Yin and Yang!"
"Totality Fusion!"
The nine distinct shadows violently imploded, collapsing into a single, pitch-black sphere resting in the center of Mirai's palms.
It began to pulse.
Thump! Thump!! THUMP!!!
It was the heartbeat of a primordial fetus nurturing an entirely new existence. The sheer density of its presence was suffocating. The heartbeat reverberated with such concussive force that it could be clearly heard across the entire Zenin compound, rippling outward into the surrounding mountains.
"What?!" "What is that presence?!"
The first person to detect the anomaly was Zenin Toji.
Just yesterday, Mirai had officially appointed Toji as his personal Sword-Bearing Guard, allowing him to loiter near the clan's core perimeter. Although Mirai was merely a six-year-old child, his terrifying innate strength and broad-minded disregard for the clan's archaic prejudices regarding Heavenly Restrictions had earned Toji's genuine loyalty. For Toji, Mirai wasn't just a master; he was a soulmate worth dying for.
Sensing the apocalyptic pressure, the Heavenly Tyrant—the strongest physical fighter in the jujutsu world—instantly bolted toward the dojo!
Across the compound, Zenin servants, branch members, and elders all froze in terror, hearing the thunderous heartbeat and scrambling to react.
Back inside the dojo.
The nine-body Chimera egg resting in Mirai's palms was beating frantically, the frequency climbing from a dull thud to a deafening roar. But just as the pressure reached its absolute zenith, it suddenly plunged into dead silence. The heartbeat vanished.
"Haaah..."
Staring at the pure black sphere—now the size of a simple chicken egg—Mirai wiped a thick layer of sweat from his forehead with his free hand, exhaling a ragged breath.
The sheer drain on his cursed energy, mental stamina, and physical endurance was terrifying. To attempt this as a six-year-old was bordering on suicidal. If he hadn't merged with his invincible Stand for assistance, the cursed energy depletion alone would have knocked him unconscious.
But success or failure hinged on this final step!
"You, who are bound by the concepts of 'Infinity,' 'Eternity,' and 'Freedom'!" Mirai chanted, pouring his remaining energy into the sphere. "Rise from the other side of the abyss! Break free from the darkness!"
"Come forth!" "Guardian of the Shadows!" "My ultimate Shikigami—Jedora!"
As the final syllable left his lips, the Six Eyes beneath his lenses dilated completely!
Mirai gritted his teeth, his fingers clamping down hard on the sphere. Blinding, absolute darkness violently erupted from the gaps between his fingers—a darkness that was deep, mysterious, and terrifyingly alluring.
Suddenly—Crack!
The shadow beneath Mirai's feet seemed to shatter some invisible shackle. It surged upward like a wild stallion breaking its reins, instantly entangling and fusing with the darkness erupting from his hands!
A colossal silhouette began to twist and materialize at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Step. It landed gracefully.
Before him stood a massive, snow-white beast of holy elegance. A delicate, exquisite tail fanned out behind it, composed of nine distinct, velvet-soft stripes. Atop its head rested a magnificent crown of intricately woven antlers.
But its upper half was flawlessly human. It possessed skin as pale as ice, bones as delicate as jade, and was draped in the luxurious, elegant attire of a traditional shrine maiden.
The overall silhouette of Jedora was vaguely reminiscent of a centaur. However, its lower animal half wasn't a horse—it was infinitely closer to the mythological Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox.
Staring up at his newly birthed Shikigami, Mirai's breath hitched in his throat. His young face was frozen in absolute astonishment.
Powerful! Invincible! The absolute strongest! Sexy! Elegant! Enchanting!
These seemingly contradictory feelings coexisted in perfect harmony as he gazed at the masterpiece he had created. He suddenly understood exactly why Seto Kaiba got so fanatically, passionately insane every time he summoned the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
"Fusion summoning truly is the most noble form of combat," Mirai sighed reverently, instinctively reaching his hand upward to stroke his creation.
A/N: For this week, every 100 Powerstones will get ya'll an extra chapter! Thank you!