Megumi Fushiguro
Megumi ran through the blood-stained and scorched streets of Shibuya, but this was not a blind, directionless trip. He spun into an alleyway and caught sight of a roving cursed spirit. He didn't have the time to waste on it. He bounced off the wall, gripped a windowsill, then hauled himself upwards, and flipped onto the roof to better make speed.
He was not running off on simple panic; he had a direction and the focus to match. He stopped for a second, using the higher vantage point to figure out the direction he was going and the best path, before jumping off the roof, his reinforced body cushioning against the force of the jump, then he propelled himself forward in a sprinter's stance.
His feet took him once more, tearing past broken bodies, cracked roads, blood-splattered walls as he ran. Fast enough that his lungs burned and his legs screamed as his already diminished cursed energy further reinforced muscle and tendon, every step of the way as he tore his way toward the ramp that led into the underground corridors of Shibuya.
He spotted it seconds later, the entrance lights flickering from the damage it had suffered, but its presence reminded him of why he was here. He spared only a second to look at the map beside the ramp. Floors B1. B2. B3. B4.
B5. The location where Gojo sensei was last seen and believed to be sealed. He did not so much as run down the stairs. He flung himself down them, clearing everything to land in a crouch, then he was moving again, this time through the underground corridors of Shibuya.
For a second, he feared he might be late. He had spent way too much time helping Yaga, Ijichi, and Lerir carry the wounded away to another safe zone ever since Sukuna compromised the former. Then he had taken the time to help stabilize those who could still be stabilized. Basic first aid made him a valuable aid, even if Ieiri's hands did most of the heavy lifting.
"Fushiguro."
Yaga's voice had stopped him mid-stride.
"You've done enough here. I've been unable to contact Kusakabe. Panda, fortunately, was able to reach Aoi Todo and Arata Nitta. They're on their way to B5 to go and unseal Gojo. I recommend you get there as soon as possible. I'll stay behind and ensure Ieiri and the rest are protected, so... good luck, kid."
That had been all. He had given a single nod in response before turning on the spot and sprinting away. He was tired, even if his injuries had been healed, he was still exhausted. Yet, Ieiri was right; without Gojo Satoru, there was no winning this.
The corridors shook as he ran. This was not the familiar explosions that had heralded the beginning of the night, when curses, transfigured humans, and curse users were the worst of their problems. This felt like someone was picking the city up and slamming it back down again and again. Thunderous blows echoed even deep in the tunnels, shaking them.
Mahoraga was still holding Sukuna back.
If his rebellious but surprisingly nice Shikigami was doing all that it could, then he couldn't simply laze about. So it was with that thought that he put on another burst of speed, rounding the tunnel and making his way to B5 in full, only to freeze in realization that he was not the first person there.
Todo stood there, broad shoulders squared, arms folded in front of his chest, blood drying along his fists, and flinty dark eyes already on Megumi the moment he rounded into the floor. Beside him, crouched on the ground and staring at a small crater in the earth was Arata Nitta. The first-year student of Kyoto Technical School looked pale, his eyes wide behind his glasses, before he recognized Megumi.
Megumi shifted his gaze from the duo to where Satoru-sensei was supposed to be. The crater in the ground was empty.
They were too late.
"The enemy?" he questioned, even though he had a clear idea.
"Gone. Alongside Gojo Satoru."
Megumi's stomach dropped.
"That's bad," he said, but he didn't even recognize his voice.
Todo shrugged. "The moment we got to Shibuya, we came here straight away, but he was already missing. Arata is trying to see if he can pick up any residue, but—" Todo waved his hands around at all the blood and damage that filled the underground subway. The sheer amount of violence that had been unleashed here was more than most sorcerers were capable of. "—as you can see, it's been a waste."
"We have to find him, the sorcerer couldn't have gone far," Megumi replied, his head turning, just like Arata was doing, trying to find a trace of Gojo's residual curse energy. He was familiar enough with his teacher to pick it out even in the middle of this mess. Todo shrugged in response before speaking.
"You can do that, I'll—" Before Todo could complete the sentence, there was an explosion of sound, the air pressure shifted as the entire city lurched in response. A tremor shook the entire subway, followed by a shockwave, as the air itself flexed, pressure rolling through the underground space hard enough to knock Arata onto his back and send dust raining from the ceiling. Lights flickered, some bursting outright.
Todo only tucked his knees slightly to steady himself, his feet planted squarely into the ground. Then he continued, "…I'll go and take a look at what's happening up there."
Megumi swallowed. "It's Sukuna. Something happened, I don't know what, but Itadori has been suppressed, and Sukuna is in control. Ierie sensei suspects he's been force-fed more of Sukuna's fingers, and that's what has suppressed him."
Todo frowned. Megumi knew he was close with Itadori, and his expression explained as much. "Who is he fighting?"
"Mahoraga."
Todo looked at him with a raised brow, tilted his head as if he was trying to figure out if he had heard the name before, so Megumi explained. "He's my Shikigami, I don—"
"He's that sense of danger!" Todo explained at once, a grin creeping back to his face, slow and dangerous. "You're telling me you finally summoned it?"
Times like this Megumi found it hard to deny Todo's acclaimed 530,000 IQ, because very often, he made such leaps of logic that surprised everyone else.
Before Megumi could answer, footsteps echoed from a side passage.
Slow and uneven in its cadence.
Everyone turned. Todo still looked unbothered; he only turned his head. Arata scrambled behind his upperclassman while Megumi shifted his fingers, locking them in the shape to summon his preferred shikigami.
Then Nanami Kento emerged from the shadows. Or what was left of him. Megumi's eyes widened as he watched the blond-haired man walk toward them, his single visible eye shaking unfocused in its socket. Megumi almost didn't recognize him. The last time he saw him was right after they survived Dagon's domain. When the strange man had abducted him. What happened after?
Half of Nanami's body was burned black and raw, flesh ruined down to muscle and bone in places. His suit was gone, glasses missing, face slack with pain and delirium. Blood soaked the floor with every step, yet he still walked. One arm hung limp, the other held his short blade forward, and behind him were clueless civilians who followed behind him, like chicks behind a mother hen.
His voice rang out in the silence, quiet but hoarse murmurs.
"Move," Nanami muttered. "Don't stop. They still need you. Just one more step."
Todo acted instantly. "Arata."
Arata didn't hesitate. He ran to Nanami, alongside Megumi.
"Nanami-sensei," Megumi called out as he stopped in front of the sorcerer. Nanami's single eye focused for a split second.
"Pale giant. Itadori. Sukuna. Megumi." His words were broken mutterings that nobody paid note to, but he stopped before them, instinctively understanding he was with allies now. His body dropped to his knees as Arata went to his back, his hands shaking as he activated his cursed technique, freezing the progression of Nanami's wounds and locking them in place before they could worsen.
Nanami sagged, breath hitching, but he stayed upright.
Megumi turned to Arata, and the blond replied to his unasked question. "My technique also helps reduce the pain the subject is feeling." Megumi nodded, just as another shockwave hit mid-technique to the squealing and cries of the civilians around.
The ceiling groaned in response as Todo looked up. "We have to stop that fight now, otherwise at this rate," he said quietly, "there won't be a Shibuya left to save." He turned to Arata. "Stay with the civilians and Nanami. Megumi... come with me."
Then he turned, his jacket hanging on his shoulders like a cape as he walked out of the subway, a tired Megumi trailing behind him.
__
Mahoraga
The city was coming apart at its seams. It was a slow death in comparison to what it had suffered in the original timeline. The damage was smaller, restrained because I was not jumping to the sky and throwing airplanes at Sukuna, but there was only so much that could be preserved when only one participant in the fight showed the barest care for every other being, living or otherwise, in a 200-meter radius. The city would die, and it was only a matter of time unless I did something about it.
That was the conclusion I reached as another wave of Sukuna's cursed energy tore through the streets, buildings folding inward like wet paper as Sukuna unleashed another Dismantle that obliterated everything in its path. I could survive this. My body had already adapted more than enough. I could still be cut, I could still be hurt, but the speed at which I regenerated from the damage was more than Sukuna could output with only fifteen fingers' worth of his power.
I could survive, but Shibuya would not if things continued like this.
I swam through the eddies of his cursed energy, through the Dismantle, ignoring the quickly healed slashes that scattered around my form, then came out of the other side with fist outstretched, the Sword of Extermination leading the charge. Sukuna caught my dive with an open palm.
Tai Chi.
He redirected my body, flinging it to the side. I flipped midair, landed feet first on the building he threw me toward, sparing the scattered life signs I could spot inside. My feet dug deep into the structure, and it shook in response to the force. Then, I began to move upward, running up the wall like it was a straight road, my toes digging in grips, then releasing a second later, my tail flicking behind me to better keep balance. Then I flipped onto the roof and spun on the spot, lashing out with a kick that caught a pursuing Sukuna straight in the face, and even as I heard his jaw snap in response, the King of Curses laughed as he was sent flying, the resulting shockwave destroying anything not nailed down.
I dropped my feet to the ground only to realize I was a few inches off. It took two seconds to regenerate my ankle and feet back.
Malevolent Shrine would not finish this. I'd adapted enough to the point that Sukuna's domain expansion would only be an annoyance. What would finish it is Fuga. Shrine to soften me, then Fuga to erase what remained. I knew it, and somehow I was sure Sukuna was slowly coming to the same realization. He had already noticed I was adapting, and while he didn't adapt in the same way, he was adapting all the same.
His dodges were smoother, his cursed energy output was higher, and flowed better. He was also avoiding the Sword of Extermination more, while shifting martial arts stances like he had an entire catalogue in his head. It was off-putting.
The roof exploded beneath my feet as I hurled myself in the same direction I'd sent Sukuna. He saw me coming from a mile off, then he swung his hand down in a jagged motion, but he couldn't deceive me. He couldn't deceive my senses that had adapted perfectly to his technique.
A feint.
I grinned widely. Pearly jagged teeth stretched my lips in amusement. He actually did it. The fake pump that almost killed Mahoraga in a single blow.
I bull rushed him instead of dodging or retreating, forcing him to throw out a hurried dismantle to give him time to recover, but I deflected it to the side and crossed the distance in a single breath, before burying my fist into his ribs in an upercut that flung him back one more time and through a massive storefront.
I didn't give him another second to breathe. I followed through, crashing through and into the building, only to see him standing in place, staring down at his left hand. His breathing was steady, but something else was wrong. His cursed energy output surged, then wavered. Then that arm twitched; it was minuscule. A muscle there that led to a tendon, and a finger curled in on itself.
Itadori.
The boy was finally fighting back.
Sukuna clicked his tongue, annoyance flashing across his face. "I was enjoying this so much that I didn't realize just how much it's dragged on."
He was right. This was longer than the original fight, and he had never realized, not because he was losing, but because I was different. He was enjoying this because I was forcing him to think, to adjust, to push in ways Canon Mahoraga never had. I was hurting him.
He turned to me. "But no matter how fun this is, I think it's time to finally close the curtains on it. I need to leave something wonderful for my vessel to remember me by, and hopefully, the next time I return, you'll remain just as fun."
His hands lifted. He took his time, a grin on his face, knowing I wouldn't be able to get to him in time. My wings twitched. I felt it before he spoke. The gathering of cursed energy. The way everything stilled. He was about to open his domain.
Then, before he could say the words, my wings twitched again as I sensed a familiar cursed energy. Then it picked up movement. Two heartbeats, two footsteps, two figures. One of them Fushiguro. Sukuna sensed it too, because his eyes flicked sideways for just a heartbeat, then he hesitated, and I suddenly remembered. Sukuna wanted Megumi alive just as much as I did.
I exploded into motion, crossing the gap in a heartbeat. If he had been focused on me, he would have activated his domain faster than I could have crossed the distance, but that split-second distraction cost him. I swung at once, aiming to shear his left hand off, but he shifted to the side at the last second, and I carved a line across his side, but I didn't stop. I spun and lashed out with a kick before he could recover, sending him crashing through the wall and toward the street below.
I followed immediately after, leading sword first, but he was already gone. He had rolled to the side, flipped to his feet, somersaulted backward, and made distance again. His four eyes narrowed on me at once, distraction gone, but I could feel him compensate already. My wings twitched, giving me a clearer view of the duo racing their way to us. Leading the duo was a buff boy with a pineapple hairdo that could only be Todo, while Megumi trailed behind, flagging as exhaustion caught up to him.
I realized what Sukuna was going to do the moment he locked his hands again into his mudra.
An open domain, but smaller and more controlled. This would not be the same 140-meter domain that had killed thousands and broken his vessel from the inside. Instead, this would simply kill hundreds and turn the entire two blocks around us into nothing. I had lost. Sukuna would do what he always wanted to do even if it was on a smaller scale. I might survive, but I felt an ache in the pit of my existence that told me I had lost this particular battle.
Then, Todo screamed, "Itadori!"
My wings twitched in realization. He'd gotten closer. He was getting closer with each breath, courtesy of his technique. His technique.
My neck spun in place and snapped to him, and Todo looked back at me.
It was for just a fraction of a second. I could not speak. I didn't gesture. There was no time for either; there was only time for a single communication, and I did it via my body.
I shifted my weight, the angle of my stance, the tension in my limbs, the way my wings shifted, framing Sukuna and myself and the space between us, the way the tail trailed behind my head.
The sum total of our communication was pure nonsense to someone watching from outside, and if it were any other person, it would have been a waste, and yet once again, my gamble paid off.
Todo's eyes widened, and my grin widened.
I'd gambled on Aoi Todo's intellect. Not his supposed IQ of 530,000. I was not sure how true that was, but what could not be understated was that Todo had a mind faster than any other. A head for combat that surpassed any bar, Gojo Satoru, of course. It was that combat intellect I was counting on, that ridiculous, terrifying mind of his that allowed him to mesh and fight alongside anybody so smoothly it was like him and the person were two parts of a whole.
I didn't wait for confirmation. Instead, I viciously tore the Sword of Extermination free from my forearm. My flesh split, and bone cracked as the fused Special Grade cursed tool was ripped out.
I hurled it at Sukuna a heartbeat later. The blade screamed as it tore through the air, spinning end over end toward Sukuna. The King of Curses barely reacted, other than a slight tilt of his head to the side, lips curling in amusement at my last-ditch effort, then parting as his cursed energy surged once again.
"Domain Expansion—"
I exploded forward, a crater forming beneath my feet as I rushed toward him in a straight line.
"—Malevolent Sh—"
Todo clapped.
The world shifted in response to the cursed technique, and I shifted alongside it. I was suddenly behind Sukuna.
My momentum did not suddenly vanish. It carried through the swap, forcing me to spin on the spot and clamp my huge hands above and below his head, shutting him up before Sukuna could so much as blink in realization. The Sword of Extermination that had swapped places with me acted. The blade had also kept its momentum and carved past his fingers and buried itself into his chest, piercing straight through flesh and heart alike.
For the first time, Sukuna gasped.
Then I hardened my grip on his head and twisted up and to the side. Not all the way. Just enough. His neck broke as the vertebrae that held it straight dislocated with a wet, final sound. The angle was precise and calculated to inflict paralysis but not death. Then I released my hands, and his body collapsed like a sack of flour.
I kicked him onto his back and planted my foot on the side of his face, driving his head into the asphalt, grinding it down as cursed energy flared beneath my heel and Sukuna struggled. He couldn't heal the neck. Not while I kept pressure on the dislocation, and he was forcing cursed energy into a heart that had been perforated.
To heal his neck, he would have to leave his heart long enough to force his reverse-cursed energy to overpower the pressure my foot was placing on it.
Yet despite everything, despite being outplayed, Sukuna's secondary eyes shifted in their sockets to look at me, and his lips twisted into a smile.
I leaned closer.
Words were not shared, but we grinned at each other. There was no hatred. No anger. No rage. Only recognition. My win was ambiguous, his defeat was a messy thing, diluted by outside interference, and a hefty dose of cheating on my end, but all of that did not matter.
I won. I just beat Jujutsu Satan.
Where my grin promised the next time we fought, my win would be cleaner, his promised certain death.
Then the markings began to fade.
The tattoos peeled away like water washing off ink. The extra eyes smoothed over as skin took their place. And the inexplicable weight that was Sukuna's presence, that was his malevolent, cursed energy signature, lifted.
Sukuna's eyes closed, and Itadori Yuji's eyes blinked open. Confusion crossed his face, then pain, raw and immediate as his body realized what had been done to it. I lifted my foot from his broken neck. and he coughed in response.
Blood poured from his mouth and splattered across the ground.
"Brother!" Todo yelled, then clapped again.
The world shifted, leaving me standing a few feet away. My wings twitched, and I observed Todo standing right where I'd been. He was on his knees, cradling Itadori's body, hands rigid as he made a decision, ignoring the broken neck to apply pressure to the wound on his chest, his hands shifting around the blade to stem the bleeding that refused to stop.
I turned just as Megumi finally arrived, panting and puffing seriously as he bent over, struggling for breath. Then he raised his head and stopped dead. He stared at Itadori's broken form with a pale face, till I clapped a solid hand on his shoulder and gave him as solid a look as I could when I had wings for eyes.
It was up to him now.
The wheel above my head turned.
KLNK
A/N: It can't be a JJk fic without a proper Gojo Glaze, so yes, I sneaked in a ( Other than Gojo Satoru, of course.) meme in.