Megumi Of Ten Shadows: CH034

-CHAPTER 34-

-FUSHIGURO MEGUMI POV-

“Phew!” I sighed as I leaned back in my chair and looked around at the absolute mess I had made of my room.

Books and ancient scrolls spread across the room irresponsibly, with the empty and half-eaten bags of chips packets and crushed soda cans sprawled around the room.

A week had passed by in a blur after my date with Maki, and August was halfway finished. 

Everyone had started to go back to working missions and classes as the “break period” slowly ended. Curse Spirits once again beginning their natural surge as Halloween, and autumn, approached.

It was almost orderly in a way… How the chaotic beings like Cursed Sprits spawned. While significant surges in negative energy impacted it- like when a natural disaster or a tragedy happened –for most part it followed a seasonal schedule.

While everyone was out there protecting people- believe me I was salty about that -I was out of commission and spending my time… well, lazing around.

Maybe I went a little overboard. I smiled wryly, yet shrugged my shoulders. Well what can I do? All of my friends and Gojo are out on missions, and my technique isn’t even back yet. I really have nothing really productive to do outside of my CE control training- which I’ve done already –or straight up reading…

So reading it was. And I decided to take a jaunt through the enormous and often conflicting history of the Jujutsu Society.

And it was… interesting to say the least. There were both a lot and very few documents detailing the history of Jujutsu as it was known. Some events were described down to a tee yet some were mentioned as important yet glossed over completely.

Like take for example, there were multiple books worth of information about the details and “true” history of the King Of Curses, Ryomen Sukuna. 

Though the main problem was that there was a lot of conflicting information between all of them because of the different writers and perspectives. There was a bunch of stuff that I know for a fact is flat out wrong because of my meta-knowledge. 

Like the stuff about the Jujutsu Society defeating and sealing him when I know he was never defeated and instead died when he was old and copied the technique to seal his soul in cursed objects from Kenjaku.

Though I guess that’s what happens when you’re a thousand year old myth that many people don’t even believe was real, right?

But returning to the topic- while Sukuna had a lot of public information about himself available there was nearly not as much for another one of the ‘greats’ (especially as they were relevant to me).

Taira no Masakado. My ancestor and from whom the Ten Shadows technique originated. He was one of the Three Great Vengeful Spirits in the Japanese mythology upon which the Three Great Clans had built their own fortunes, reputation and might.

While there was a so-called “history” available about him in the normal world, it was noticeably so confounding that it made no sense to a true Jujutsu Sorcerer, so I took it with a grain of salt.

Yet it was one of the templates upon which the samurai culture was born and based on, as Taira no Masakado is someone widely regarded as one of the first samurai ever.

And the Jujutsu version of the historical event was only marginally better. Especially when there was only a chapter dedicated to him in the one book about the Three Great Vengeful Spirits that I could find in the library.

A lot of his history in that book was just the basic summary, like his life, his family, rebellion against the emperor, his death by the hands of his own cousin, and his rebirth as a flying head Special-Grade Cursed Spirit that brought chaos to the country before being taken down by monk sorcerer in the past.

Only some lines gave some credence and clues to his technique like controlling shadows when he was fighting his last battle against Fujiwara no Hidesato, another legendary sorcerer from that era.

Only thing the book confirmed was that he was the originator from whom the Ten Shadows descended from- which everyone already knows. 

Of course this was mighty suspicious. This led me to theorize that Zenin Clan had purposefully erased or withheld the public record of his technique- for one reason or another. Who knows with those traditional old farts?

I giggled to myself. Though it was amusing to find out that Zenin Clan was actually started by his only surviving daughter after his death, wonder what Naoya would say about that? The misogynistic little shit that he was would probably blow a fuse…

I shook my head and got up to go to the washroom, when I stumbled upon a packed package lying on the front of my door. Curious, I looked around to see if someone had dropped it, then sensing it was free of CE, I crouched and lifted it up. To my surprise I read my name written on front of it. 

Huh, wonder who left this. I had never gotten a parcel before. My previous actions forgotten I took the package and went back into my room, opening it with a box cutter.

It was an old big leather bound book with some type of string bindings, along with a letter. Despite the brimming curiosity in my mind, I held off on reading the book straight away and focused on the letter first.

It was short, yet my eyes widened as I continued reading it.

Megumi,

The Zenin finally came around and stopped their childish tantrum, agreeing to hand-over their complete manual of everything they recorded on the Ten Shadows Technique, along with instructions on how to train its abilities. 

I don’t have say what you should do with it now right?

Gojo, the sweets extraordinaire.

“…” Well, that’s Gojo’s handwriting all right. Did he remember that my technique would recover in a day or two?

I looked at the leather bound book and sighed a little in disappointment.

After the Zenin had flat-out refused it the last time when I was researching about Funeral Tiger, I had almost given up hope that I could ever get my hands on this book and decided to move forward on my own. 

After all, did I really need this after all the strides I had made on my own? It was a testament to my luck, hard work, talent and support from my friends that I had reached as far as I had.

And it had worked too! I had not needed nearly as much effort as I had thought to defeat and tame him.

Of course knowing how much impact this manual would’ve had on my progress was impossible now because for one, I already knew about the basics of the Ten Shadows technique from my meta-knowledge beforehand. And for two, I had already tamed eight of the ten shadows when I had enrolled into Jujutsu High. So it would’ve only provided me with information about Koso and Mahoraga which would inevitably prove to be unreliable if the pattern of all my Shikigami having their particular different quirks was any indication.

So while it would be useful, it wouldn’t nearly be as useful as it should’ve been.

The one thing that interested me with this right now would be the history of Ten Shadows technique, especially about its first user, and whatever info it could provide me about the Divine General before our clash.

Though, I wonder what changed with the Zenin to suddenly decide to give this away… I shrugged. Whatever, it is probably something related to a clan politics thing… More for me though!

I looked at the clock wincing as it showed the time being after midnight. Despite how late it was, I was not ready to wait till the morning to read this. So let’s get to reading… Tonight’s going to be a long night.

...

That was… Eventful, to say the least. I thought as I rubbed my eyes and leaned back on my chair in thought.

The manual had provided some much needed clarity to the events of Taira no Masakado’s life and death.

I was not going to detail his life story, but what I had found about the origins of my technique was fascinating.

Innate Technique Evolution… A thing that was only lightly touched upon in the canon of Jujutsu Kaisen, yet held so much history and potential. Something that I was going through myself.

But that was just the beginning.

The original technique of Ten Shadows wasn’t even named the Ten Shadows. It was in this historical record called ‘The Divine Shadows’ while it was very… on the nose kind of name, it was decently accurate.

For one, it let him have a much deeper control over his shadows than I, or any other user ever had. He was virtually unbeatable at night, and could create full on constructs of his imagination out of shadows and even had enough mastery to create shadow doubles of himself in broad daylight.

But the latter was not that surprising as Canon Megumi was also able to make doubles of himself in his domain- unlike myself because my interpretation of the technique was different.

What was surprising was finding out that the shadows could be used as bindings, sealing cursed spirits for use later on. That was how the Ten Shadows had become ten.

The ancient users were able to bind strong Cursed Spirits to themselves. Like how Masakado’s daughter- a Princess Takiyasha could summon an Gama, multiple other types of Curse Spirits and even a Gashadokuro (giant skeleton sprit made from spirits of dead warriors) to fight for herself.

Normally these bound spirits didn’t even have to go through a Subjugation Ritual for the user to tame and control them. But there were of course, exceptions to that…

It all revolved around the Ten Sacred Treasures of Japanese mythology

The disadvantage here was that these “normal” Cursed Spirits didn’t pass on to the next holder… Only the Shikigami possessing one of the Ten Sacred Treasures would pass on to the next holder, and to control these “Sacred Treasure” Shikigami you had no choice but to go through a Subjugation Ritual to tame them.

And that was how the Ten Shadows became Ten. Each user finding and binding the “Ten Sacred Treasures” Shikigamis to our technique and bloodline over the millennia.

The advantage of these Shikigami was that they were much more connected with the user, as the user could blend them and make use of them however they liked, while they were only able to command the ‘normal’ Shikigami.

Unfortunately, the technique of how to use the shadows to bind cursed spirits and what requirement it needed was lost to time as was the reason why it all revolved around the ten treasures in the first place.

The only thing I know for sure is that there must be more to it than that… because Funeral Tiger had been continuously inherited for generations despite him bearing no symbol of any of the treasures. My eyes narrows at that thought.

However, I had found out a critical piece of lore about a certain Divine General….

The first user had only one other Shikigami he had ever tamed in his life aside from the Divine Dogs. 

A being referred to in the text as the guardian of the God’s greatest treasure, the Tennoken (Sword of Heaven)… A divine being with ethereal wings and might, The Divine Guardian Tennin.

A being that I am almost certain, would go on to become Mahoraga. 

As legend goes, Masakado had to challenge and prove himself to the great guardian, defeating him in an honorable great battle of legends before he would be able to wield the Sword of Heaven… Or the Sword of Extermination as it would go on to be known.

The sword would enhance his already superhuman strength to godlike levels and give him the ability to cannel absurd levels of positive energy. Granting him near invincibility from all conventional weaponry and cursed techniques- but leaving him with only one weak spot on the back of his neck.

Some say that it was this nigh-invincibility that gave him the confidence to rebel against the Emperor and crown himself as Shinnō (New Emperor).

After reading this, there was no doubt in my mind that he had found a way to wear Mahoraga upon himself, like a how Take-Over Magic worked in Fairy Tale. Inheriting the Shikigami’s nigh-invincibility, as well as the Sword of Extermination. 

And the likely explanation has to be some kind of Binding Vow if his weak spot had anything to say… But could I transfer it to others? Because that was the primary concern for me, after all the Shikigami was my only hope of saving my sister. I guess that would have to be seen.

And another thing was how significantly weaker Mahoraga was when he was known as Tennin. Only adapting to a phenomena after of hundreds of hits…

It was the only time he had ever been defeated…

Because every time after that; no user had ever been capable of defeating and taming him… This leads me to believe that he gained power even in his sealed state, becoming stronger with generations…

One thing was clear… Mahoraga had spent perhaps the longest time slumbering and gaining power within the Ten Shadows, more than a millennia…

And only time would tell how powerful he would be when time for our battle comes…

And till then I had some things to learn. I thought as I looked down at the extra abilities Ten Shadows provided beyond the basics. Well’s Unknown Abyss, eh? I had almost forgotten that ability existed…

…

Two days passed by in the blink of an eye, as I finished reading the training manual on my technique, and a new week began- and with it came its new excitements. 

While my friends were excited about the upcoming School Exchange Event I was focused on something else…

Primarily, how just as I blinked awake, I could now feel the active thrumming of power that was my Innate Technique tingle beneath my fingers just waiting for my order.

These two weeks passed so quickly, yet so slowly. A huge smile broke out on my face as I threw away the light blanket on me aside, and joined my hands in shadow-graphic of a ‘dog’- my hand brimming with my tightly controlled CE, as I called out.

“[Gyokuken!]”

“HOWWLLLL!!” My currently strongest Shikigami howled with power as he was summoned out of my extending shadow for the first time in two weeks, standing at 7 feet tall as he stood on his two pawed feet. Stopping and bringing his large snot close as I hugged and patted him lovingly.

To others he would strike a frightening figure as a ripped, bipedal, black and white furred, seven-foot tall wolf with blood red eyes that promised violence. Their own primal instincts would scream in terror as they looked upon the visage of this brutal looking monster…

Yet, to me he was but a cute and fuzzy ball of fluff that liked getting headpats and scratches.

“BARK!”

“Who’s a good boy?! Who’s a good boy?! You are!” I cooed as I scratched beneath his ears to his immense joy, his eyes closing in enjoyment as his tail wagged in happiness.

“BARK!”

I really missed this… I couldn’t help but quirk up a smile as I enjoyed the soft presence of my first Shikigami.

It felt like a hollow pit within me was filled once again. If nothing else then this proved without a doubt that these Shikigami are a part of me, so not being able to use my technique was akin to living without a right hand or an eye…

“But those days are now behind.” I muttered, running my hand through his soft and fuzzy fur. 

I hoped that I never had to go to such lengths to win a fight ever again because not only did it-to my surprise – significantly impact my own mental well being but also because it left me defenseless with my most powerful asset being denied to me.

And in a world like this, for someone like me, that could be very dangerous in the wrong situation. 

Yet I would do that all over again if it would guarantee my victory in a life or death battle. Because ultimately, survival and victory was all that mattered and this Binding Vow was only a temporary restriction despite how much discomfort it gave to me.

I should probably thank Maki, Yuta, Panda, Hakari, and Inumaki for all the help they gave freely over the past two weeks. Maybe a gift would work too?

I shook my head off of those thoughts as I stood up, patting him on his snot with a smile as The Divine Dog backs away obediently. “Let’s go [Gyokuken]; it’s time to go back to the grind. We have lost enough time as it is.”

A smile full of excitement and anticipation spread across my face. I cannot wait to experiment with all the new stuff I have learned in the last few days…

“BARK!”

…

A/N: There was a lot of lore in this chapter, but don’t worry it’s important and would be relevant very quickly. In this arc itself in fact.

EDIT: I put “August is almost at an end” at the start of the chapter before which was a mistake, since in the previous chapters before that I had just said August had started some days ago. So now that is fixed- August is only halfway finished (2 weeks are still left for Kyoto Event which happens in September).

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[EDITED FOR SPELLING MISTAKES]

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