To use the shikigami of [Ten Shadows Cursed Law], one must go through a subjugation procedure.
Only when the summoned shikigami is destroyed or rendered incapable of fighting does the subjugation ritual end, and only then does it finally come under the sorcerer’s command.
This subjugation ritual can be carried out by multiple people, but after that, it becomes invalid.
That was one of the defining traits of [Ten Shadows Cursed Law], which seemed useless at first glance but turned out to be surprisingly versatile.
A subjugated shikigami is finished once it is destroyed, but before it has been subjugated, that invalidation can be used to challenge the ritual as many times as needed.
In that way, one can subjugate the shikigami one by one through trial and error.
In fact, Megumi had also succeeded in subjugating powerful shikigami such as Guan Yu, Hojang, and Wonrok with help from Junpei and Yuji.
But the true value of this trait lay in the limited use of the final shikigami.
No [Ten Shadows Cursed Law] user in history had ever subjugated it, and most of them used it as a last resort when their lives were on the line.
By dragging another person into the subjugation of the tenth shikigami, summoned through a spoken command.
A mutual kill.
A suicide technique that offered one’s own life as the price.
"Furube yurayura."
In an instant, the air nearby changed drastically.
Naoya, who had been about to deliver the finishing blow to Megumi, twisted the blade he was bringing down at the eerie sensation.
Clang!
Instead of stabbing into the back of Megumi’s head, the dagger struck the ground beside him and snapped.
Cold sweat trickled down Naoya’s forehead as he quickly leaped back.
"You crazy little bastard.....!"
Tremble, tremble, tremble
Naoya’s hand, still gripping the blade, would not stop shaking.
He knew he had to move, but fear would not let his body obey.
He had expected something like this might happen, but he had not expected Megumi to give up this quickly.
"You’re really trying to bring it out? Seriously?"
He should have killed him faster.
If "that thing" was summoned, they were both dead men.
The reason he had stopped his blade earlier was because Megumi had to remain alive for the subjugation ritual to end.
Once he had already been designated as the target of the ritual, there was no escaping it.
At a loss, Naoya squeezed his eyes shut, but nothing happened.
"What the hell...?"
Megumi was still lying there, twitching intermittently, and there was no sign of "that thing" being summoned.
Looking closer, it seemed his paralyzed hands, numbed by the earlier lightning strike, were no longer obeying his control.
Without a practitioner, "that thing" could not be called forth by spoken command alone.
"Ha....haha......"
The broken dagger slipped from Naoya’s hand as he let out a relieved breath.
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..............................
...............................
Zenin. Tsumiki. Father.
Gojo Satoru.
"Do you know why Zenin and Gojo don’t get along?"
"What?"
Six Eyes and [Limitless].
[Ten Shadows Cursed Law].
"The clan heads once fought to the death in a duel before the throne, and both of them died."
"Huh?"
Mahoraga.
-Throb
Father.
Contract.
Zenin.
"I’m sorry, Megumi. Looks like I’m playing the role of a father one last time."
A father burning to death in flames.
Senior Maki.
"I want to become the clan head.....and make a place where Mai can belong."
Itadori.
"We’re sorcerers. I don’t want to weigh one life against another."
Zenin again.
"I appoint Fushiguro Megumi as the 27th clan head."
[Ten Shadows Cursed Law].
Zenin.
Father.
"What was I trying to prove?"
"What the hell are you saying?"
Zenin Naoya.
"I want Tsumiki to be happy."
"This kid’s in bad shape."
He had been saved by his sister’s words.
Because she had given him the drive to keep living, when all he had ever wanted was to hate evil people.
That was why, with the power he had been given, he wanted to make the world she lived in a better place.
-So what did you do?
"I don’t know."
Along the way, he had thought it didn’t matter what happened to him.
His father had abandoned him and left, and the Zenin clan had never welcomed him either.
However it turned out, if he could do his part and die, that would have been enough.
-Don’t act so noble. You just wanted to be loved.
"Maybe."
-The people around you expect a lot from you, but you don’t have anything of your own.
If he didn’t value himself, how could anyone else love him?
He had built walls and pushed people away because he didn’t want them to see how pathetic he was.
And yet there were people who still came close to him despite that.
If Gojo Satoru hadn’t been there, he would have been sold off to the Zenin family or gone off the rails.
If Tsumiki hadn’t been there, he would never have become a sorcerer.
And then there were Itadori, Yoshino, Kugisaki, Senior Maki....
"Who the hell do I think I am?"
He hated evil people. He hated vermin who trampled on the lives of decent people.
So that even slightly good people could live more equal lives. That was his creed.
That was why he had worked so hard to become stronger.
But what was left at the end of it?
-The feeling you got every time you looked at Itadori or Yoshino.
"It wasn’t rivalry or a desire to improve."
-It was inferiority.
Unlike my false resolve, they fought sincerely.
Even when they wavered, they moved forward while holding onto what they believed in—
and that was deeply irritating.
Father.
'By fulfilling the pact with Fushiguro Toji.......'
What were you thinking when you tried to send me to the Zenin family?
Because you were short on money?
Or was it.......?
Did you truly believe I would be happy in the place you belonged to?
There was no answer returning from the dead.
"I knew. I knew my father loved me, at least to that extent. I just....didn’t want to believe that he had that side to him."
My pitiful creed trembled dangerously even at the slightest breeze.
-You’re not full of sacrifice. You just wanted to run away.
"Yeah."
-The moment things get a little unfavorable, you don’t even think about fighting to the end—you start thinking about blowing yourself up.
He thought he had been intoxicated by that image of himself.
I’m this devoted. I’m the kind of person who can throw away my own life for my comrades.
Under that filthy self-comfort lay the belief that if he died, everything would end, and he could escape these worries too.
-No one forced you to do anything, but you’re just pretending to sacrifice yourself while planning to run away alone.
Now he admitted it.
He was an idiot with no sense of purpose and no courage to give his all.
And yet he had lived as if his life didn’t matter, just so other people would remember him as a reliable friend and a fine student.
-To love yourself, you have to understand why you can’t love yourself.
The self he finally faced was weak and ugly beyond measure.
He was almost laughing at himself.
-Zenin, father, Mahoraga.
The same repetition, over and over.
He must have gone crazy from losing too much blood.
The owner of the voice that had been speaking to him all this time whispered into his ear.
-If you were given a chance, what would you do?
"I’d move forward."
So that I can finally give my all instead of only ever pretending.
So that I won’t run away even when I’m facing the responsibility of being the Zenin clan head.
So that I can build the strength to protect my comrades without having to throw away my own life.
"For the sake of doing my best."
-And who decides what that means?
"I do. I do!"
I won’t run.
I won’t give up under the name of sacrifice.
-So that is the "sorcerer" you define for yourself.
Yes.
I am a sorcerer.
Even if the process is harsh, I’ll prove it with the result!
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"Hey, nephew. You really dead yet?"
Naoya prodded Megumi, who was gasping with unfocused eyes.
He had been muttering incomprehensible things, maybe hallucinating from the blood loss, but now he said nothing at all.
Naoya had worried he might suddenly spring up and start with that "Furube yurayura" thing again, but it looked like that wouldn’t happen.
"It’s a little unsettling, but.....I guess it’s fine."
Even if he just left him here, some passing curse would eat him.
If he handled the cleanup naturally, no one would find out that he had killed Fushiguro Megumi.
Clicking his tongue, Naoya turned and started walking away, then suddenly felt something strange and looked back.
Sssss...
Megumi, who had been practically a corpse, was rising to his feet while smoke poured from his body.
"What in the.....[Cursed technique reversal]?"
"Well, yes..."
A sorcerer’s skill is heavily dependent on his mental strength.
The core of cursed energy snatched back from the threshold of death.
Amid the chaotic flood of memories flashing before his eyes, Megumi reaffirmed his resolve and succeeded in stepping into the next stage.
"I really thought I was going to die."
"....Seriously?"
"Seriously."
Megumi glared at him with eyes cold as ice.
Naoya’s expression twisted at the unexpected turn of events.
Even after coming back from death, Megumi’s face still burned with fighting spirit, and someone else’s outline seemed to overlay it.
'Toji...?'
"Let’s continue."
He stood firm, his body steady.
Even after a large amount of cursed energy had drained away, Megumi’s posture remained calm.
Naoya accepted the challenge and kicked off the ground, accelerating at once.
'You reached that place? You?'
He couldn’t accept it.
That place, becoming clan head.....
It had to be him.
"You’re Toji’s son! You’ve got [Ten Shadows Cursed Law]! You think that makes you something special?"
Pababababak!
Even as countless blows hammered Megumi’s body, his eyes still burned.
Despite maintaining the one-sided offensive, Naoya instead felt a growing unease.
'Is he going to blow himself up again.....? No.'
This bastard was really planning to beat him here.
'Even so, it’s over if I just keep him from making hand signs!'
Using the earlier experience as a stepping stone, he kept an eye on the ground beneath them.
Even while watching the movement of the shadows, he kept pressing Megumi without giving him a single opening.
Grab!
Boom!
He seized Megumi and slammed him into the ground, then rained down punches without giving him a chance to activate his technique.
Even if the repeated acceleration was straining his knees, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something would happen if he stopped here.
Pupupupupuk!
The barrage, now approaching the speed of sound, poured over Megumi’s guard and crushed his body.
Just when he thought victory was near, Naoya witnessed it.
Megumi grinning as if pain meant nothing.
"[Domain Expansion]."
"Since when...!"
The method Dagon had used in the fight against Naobito and Dagon.
Using the blood drawn from the wound Naoya had just inflicted, Megumi drew a seal on his palm, and a barrier formed around him.
-[Chimera Shadow Garden]
Shadows spread beneath him and Megumi.
A massive spine of bone, like a giant skeleton’s backbone, loomed behind Megumi.
The surrounding space was no longer somewhere Naoya could tread comfortably.
'Damn it...!'
The moment the domain unfolded, Naoya made a quick judgment.
He canceled his technique, took a motionless stance, and wrapped his entire body in cursed energy.
The [Falling Petals] stance, a domain countermeasure handed down in the Kogane family.
Once a domain is established, the sorcerer’s attacks inside it gain sure-hit effect.
It was a countermeasure designed for that very reason, but the opponent was bad news.
Snap!
"Huh....?"
What Naoya had overlooked was that Fushiguro Megumi’s domain was incomplete.
[Chimera Shadow Garden] only included the expansion of the technique, and did not grant a sure-hit effect.
The tongue of a toad shikigami shot out from the shadows and grabbed Naoya’s leg.
Paaang!
[Falling Petals] could also be used offensively.
Naoya released cursed energy and blew apart the tongue of the toad that had seized him, but that brief opening was enough for Megumi.
Immediately, Guan Yu burst out of the shadows and charged at the Naoya who had missed his timing.
Kugugugugu!!
Loss of acceleration from stopping the technique. The opening created by his awareness of the sure-hit effect. His right knee, pushed to its limit.
There was nowhere Naoya could evade this strike.
"You son of a bitch.....!"
Boom!
Naoya’s consciousness flickered out for a moment as Guan Yu’s charge slammed into him.
With the impact so monstrous that nearly every bone in his body shattered, Naoya spun through the air several times before crashing to the ground.
Soon the domain was dispelled, and Megumi approached the Naoya who was foaming at the mouth in agony.
"Gurgh....gurgle....."
"I won’t kill you. Instead, go back and tell them this."
-The clan head seat is mine.
Faced with that icy killing intent, Naoya could only manage a trembling nod.
As Megumi left him behind and walked away, a single tear slid down his face.
"....Damn father."
If you’re watching, I’ll pass this on.
For giving birth to me, for saving my life back then.
Thank you.
That’s all.
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