The glass automatic doors of the Youth Palace slid open silently before them, revealing not the expected spacious and bright lobby, but an unsettling, light-devouring darkness. Outside the door, it was still an ordinary gloomy day in Tokyo, but inside the door, it seemed night had fallen early. Only the green glow of the emergency exit sign in the distance resembled the pupil of a beast, flickering faintly in the thick darkness.
The air was stagnant, filled with a dusty smell like an old library, but mixed with a deeper, sweet, strange atmosphere, as if something was slowly decaying. It was clearly a new building, yet it exuded the chill of an ancient tomb.
The "curtain" fell, isolating the inside from the outside. Ijichi's nervous voice came through the earpiece, confirming the entrance was stable.
Megumi Fushiguro stood at the front, took a deep breath, and quickly formed a simple hand seal before him.
"Jade Dog."
As he called out in a low voice, the small shadow beneath his feet stirred like water ripples. White light easily leaped out from it and landed quietly before him.
It was one of his shikigami—Jade Dog White. Its entire body was snow-white, its fur fluffy and soft, its form resembling a large dog, its posture elegant, its pointed ears pricked up alertly, and a pair of blue eyes flickered in the darkness—intelligent and loyal. As soon as it appeared, it quietly crouched at Fushiguro's feet, awaiting instructions.
This was the most basic scouting shikigami, with a keen sense of smell, swift movements, and the ability to see through invisibility or perceive residual cursed energy to a certain extent. It was most suitable for initial searches in buildings with unknown locations and scattered targets.
However, the moment Jade Dog White appeared—
"Huh?"
Yuji Itadori suddenly let out a short, questioning nasal sound. At the same time, a thin cut on his left cheek suddenly split open, then formed the outline of a mouth.
It was Sukuna.
"Huh? Are these things still this small?"
His voice sounded directly in the heads of Itadori (and the two nearby)—hoarse and playful.
"The pair of black and white Jade Dogs in my memory—where are the 'dogs'? Those were clearly wild beasts comparable to horses!"
"The black one (Jade Dog Black) was like a moving shadow mountain, its fangs like short halberds, a single claw capable of smashing rocks; the pure white one (Jade Dog White) was as fast as a silver lightning bolt, thunder entangled all around, with a sacred aura of purifying evil spirits in its bites. When they walked side by side, they were enough to crush hundreds or thousands of low-level cursed spirits. They were indispensable pioneers and hunters in Zen'in Genji's shikigami legion."
"I always thought that..." Sukuna's voice sounded again with an absurd emotion. "Those two beings were two giant wolves. It's been a long time... they're really just two dogs?"
Megumi Fushiguro, who had originally been focused on sensing the flow of cursed energy around him, instantly darkened. A blue vein on his forehead twitched almost inexplicably. It was one thing to comment on his shikigami, but with that disgusting tone of "diminishing" and "not impressive"... it was simply stepping on the subtle pride and pain in his heart as a successor of the Ten Shadows Technique.
He knew his shikigami were far from the power of those under Lord Zen'in Genji's command. That was a fact. But when Sukuna, a thousand-year-old monster, pointed it out with such "reminiscing about the good old days" attitude, it was still very infuriating.
Nobara Kugisaki beside him acutely felt the sharp drop in air pressure around Fushiguro. She immediately coughed dryly, trying to smooth things over, patted Megumi Fushiguro on the shoulder, and comforted him in a tone that said, "I feel you":
"It's okay, Fushiguro! Don't listen to that old monster's nonsense! The little ones are still adorable! Jade Dog White is very agile and easy to use! Look at this fur, so white! Its eyes are so bright! Condensation is the essence, you know? Right, Itadori!"
As she spoke, she frantically winked at Itadori.
Sukuna's mouth on Itadori's face had disappeared. Itadori himself blinked, looked at the dark-faced Fushiguro, then at Kugisaki with an expression of "begging for cooperation," and then down at Jade Dog White, who tilted its head as if not understanding what they were saying, still loyally waiting for instructions. He sincerely nodded and repeated:
"Yeah! Kugisaki's right! There are advantages to being small! Look, in such a narrow corridor, Jade Dog White is much more convenient to move around. If it were as big as Sukuna said, wouldn't it be hard to maneuver? And Jade Dog White is very reliable, wasn't it just last time that it helped us find a hidden cursed spirit?"
He tried to argue with facts, his tone extremely sincere.
However, when these words reached Megumi Fushiguro's ears, it was equivalent to "Yes, your shikigami is very small, but we can work hard to find other advantages for it," causing his already dark face to edge slightly towards "complete despair."
"…"
Megumi Fushiguro slowly turned his head, scanning with dead-fish eyes past Kugisaki, who was trying hard to suppress her laughter, and Itadori, who wore an expression of "I'm just telling the truth." He pressed his thin lips into a straight line, finally squeezing out a sentence through his teeth:
"You two, shut the hell up."
His voice wasn't loud, but it was cold, with an undeniable sense of finality.
Pfft— Kugisaki finally couldn't hold back and burst out laughing, then immediately covered her mouth, her shoulders shaking. Itadori also scratched his head, looking a bit sheepish and somewhat amused.
The vignette lightened the heavy atmosphere at the entrance of the Youth Palace. Megumi Fushiguro took a deep breath, forced himself to ignore Sukuna's mockery and the "comfort" from his two foolish companions, and refocused his attention. He crouched down, touched the white fluffy head of the Jade Dog, and quietly ordered:
"White, search the building. Prioritize human vital signs and strong cursed energy. Avoid direct confrontation. Report immediately when you find a target."
Woof! Jade Dog White let out a very light, spirited yelp, rubbed against Fushiguro's palm, and then its body moved, turning into a swift white shadow, silently disappearing into the darkness of the corridor ahead. Only the soft sound of its sniffing nose and very light paw steps gradually faded away.
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