I look at Tsumiki's sleeping form for a little more bringing my attention to my Company Device. There's something I need to check...
My credits jumped from 14 to 76 out of the blue, well not out of the blue entirely... When I tamed Mahoraga.
He is a Tier 7, so I gained the 60 credits of the capture, and a plus 2 because having him on my retinue gives me a discount on the [Body Defense] that I already bought.
Okay, this is all well and good but... Why the hell did I gain credits when I tamed him?!?
He is a shikigami! My Shikigami! It makes no sense! But against my understanding, he is here on my retinue as my Familiar. It's like capturing Star Platinum from Jotaro, right?
How? And Why? If it's like that, why didn't I gain anything when I tamed the other nine shikigami?
Hmmm. I pause to think...
Maybe I'm looking at this from the wrong perspective, maybe it is not about me…?
Mahoraga is kinda special... It would not be an exaggeration to say that he is like, 50% of the worth of the whole Ten Shadows Technique.
Maybe the collective thoughts of the fans and the Community, which made memes and all that about him, helped establish him as a character. There are some characters in the catalog like that... I can buy Let Me Solo Her, the guy from Elden Ring.
Maybe he is like Rika because he is kinda autonomous, so he is more like a summon from a fantasy world?
There are a lot of maybes that may hold some truth, but I think the main reason is...
People want Mahoraga. The contractors I mean... Again, Mahoraga alone is half of the technique and some people want to have him as a familiar without the need to have the Ten Shadows.
People want to buy him and have him as the guardian or brute strength. I can't fault them, I would buy Mahoraga as a familiar too and I plan to buy a Darkrai as a pet one day(but he is expensive).
He is a useful and obedient option to anyone who wants a bodyguard, and he can even hide in your shadow.
The Company can sell a Character only after a contractor captured the original, right? So that they can make copies...
So, Mahoraga is in the Catalog not to reward me for taming him, but to sell him to the others. My reward was simply a consequence.
That also explains why the other shikigami are not in the Catalog, there's no demand for them.
Damn, Capitalism is really a strong force that can move everything.
Anyway, I will not care anymore. What matters is that I gained something from it and how I use this surplus of credits.
I did not expect to gain any more credits till the beginning of canon, so I'm at a loss.
76 credits... I can buy a Tier 6 character, Sweet Home, and a lot of Lures for the girls.
Damn, I can buy a Waifu Sensei for some other world and use [Added Potential] to learn the Power System. Like Tsunade to learn Jutsus or... Tsk, Unohana and Yoruichi are Tier 7... But I can buy Matsumoto and Rukia.
Hm~ Tempting... Jutsus and Kido, but...
I sigh because now is not the right moment.
Anything bought with [Added Potential] starts at Tier 0. Even with the Talents, it would take too long to train. This world timeline is small and I can't spread myself too thin now.
So the safest option is to buy some defenses!
Or maybe some Talents and share them with my retinue... Hm~, I pause to think again.
Another bonus of Mahoraga being part of my retinue is that he can benefit from the Talents and Defenses! This is huge!
What would happen if I shared [Soul Talent] with him? Would the Adaptation be faster? Heck! Now I remembered that I can give Mahoraga a Template!
"..." Hm~ Doomsday from DC... Or is it too redundant?
I also can help the girls, Martial and Soul talents can help them, and Science may be of great help to Mai. And maybe I should take Science Talent now, to exercise it so that when I start learning other power systems like magic, I can be at the genius level.
I go to the Defenses tab to take a look again... Yeah, there's not much that can help now.
A Contractor needs to buy his Defenses based on the world he is in. If I was in a superhero world Mind, Information, Paradox, Trace and others would be essential to deal with their bullshittery. Here is not a priority.
Maybe Polymorph because of Mahito... But it's 50 credits, ugh. And Sukuna will protect my soul if I become his host and...
"..." Then I pause...
And look up to see Tsumiki in front of me... In a coma.
I do not hesitate anymore and buy the first level of [Polymorph Defense]. Not for me, but for my girls.
I don't want a Nobara situation. The fact that Mahito can kill them with a touch scares me a little...
*Huff* I exhale and recline myself on my chair after the purchase, relief pouring on me.
"Peace of mind is priceless..."
After that, I hesitate only a little more before I buy [Science Talent] for myself. My credits going down to a pitiful number of 6.
But I think it's a good purchase. Now that I'm close to completing Blackbeard's Template, I can focus on my studies more, hence I can learn Barrier techniques. Tengen can do some dope shit with this, right? Like, create a pocket dimension or something.
I will also be playing to my strengths, because it appears that I have an affinity with curtains and barriers because of the whole darkness thing.
I have no knowledge or expertise to deal with Kenjaku shenanigans, but it's better to start later than never. I don't enjoy the feeling of impotence...
There is time before the plot starts, I can learn till there while perfecting my Domain-related techniques. Barriers and Domain techniques are like cousins.
"I will ask Gojo later..."
"Ask me what later?" Obviously, she would appear exactly at the moment that I mention her.
"To finish Middle School early." I turn to her and say calmly
"..." She is blindfolded but I can still feel her measuring me with a look.
"I'm not depressed or anything..." I say before she gets to this ridiculous conclusion "I just want to focus on what is really important. I want time for that."
"Hmm, I'm worried about you." She says while holding her chin between her fingers. "Without school, you would not have any reason to go out and socialize."
"I don't socialize in school anyway." I scoff "And I go out with you, to train, with the girls..."
"Yeah, but that would become your routine. Sometimes that is not good for someone as young as you. You should go do new things, make mistakes, have fun, get to know new people... Leave the torturing stagnating routines to adults like us."
"I will do fun things..." When I go to another world with my harem.
"Even so... Your mental health, dude. Sorcerers are fucked up in the head, but if we stay alone with our thoughts too long bad things tend to happen" She pauses, probably thinking about Geto "If you promise me to go out once a day to do anything beyond visiting Tsumiki and visit Jujutsu high once a week, I will see to make your end your Middle School in this half of the year."
"Deal." I agree easily.
I planned to go there to see more profound books about barriers anyway. What are the chances of getting in contact with Tengen to learn from her?
*Haah* Gojo sighs seeing my eagerness and pulls a chair to sit down at my side.
"You're really different from your past self, so motivated... Too motivated sometimes." She sighs again "Finishing school to study and train more? Who thinks this?"
"...someone destined to a profession with an extremely high risk of death." I deadpan.
"...fair enough."
"But I understand where you're coming from..." I pause for some time before elaborating. I prepared this script almost a year ago. "Do you remember that you had a similar talk in the past?"
"Yeah... When you asked about your father and when you asked me to take you to the Zen'in clan."
"You teased me about suddenly having the motivation to live to my potential."
"I remember that too." She laughs
"I didn't say the 'why' though... It's so silly." I look out the window with a distant expression
"..."
"I had a dream." I turn to her
"A dream?"
Yes, the most cliche explanation for abrupt changes in self-inserts and meta-knowledge. This and the "Hidden Master".
"A silly nightmare of bad things happening with people around me" I shrug "With you, Tsumiki... And me, too powerless to do anything."
"But... But it was only a nightmare..." She says, almost going to mock me
But I shut her up harshly "I know that!"
"..."
"But it's not like our lives aren't somehow different from a horror movie, right? A nightmare with supernatural things to us is like a normal person having one with a car crash... Or being shot by a gun." I say with a sigh
"..."
"It's silly, I already said that... but it could happen. There's an honest to god possibility that can happen..." Will happen "And I refuse to be a waste of potential that allows the worst-case scenarios to happen because I did not give my best when I had time."
And that's the truth. If Megumi was better, Jujutsu Kaisen would be a short story with a cliche wholesome happy ending.
"..." She "stares" at me in silence for some time "Whoa~, look at Megumi-kyun~ All responsible~" She decides the best course of action is to make fun of me and pat my head in a patronizing way. She does this a lot to de-escalate awkward and serious situations.
"...you know that is because you always take things lightly that many people don't like you, right?"
"I know, but I don't plan to pretend to be serious just to please uptight people." She laughs "And messing with you guys is fun. Haha."
"..."
"But seriously... You shouldn't worry about these things, Megumi. I'm the strongest. It's my job to protect you." She says a little more seriously now while standing up, and then gives me a thumbs-up with a megawatt smile worth Guy-sensei
"And who takes care of you?"
"...!" Her smile falters
"Does the strongest need to be Gojo Satooru?" I ask with resolve, probably giving flashbacks from a similar question that was asked in the past "Maybe it's simply some childish male pride or another thing, but..."
I avert my eyes to look at Tsumiki again. Even to me it's a little embarrassing to say this, even if it's my honest feelings.
"...I will not let you be the only monster."
And for the first time in my life, I left her at a loss for words.
.....
Later, alone at home
I am working on remaking my training schedule. Now that I achieved the milestone of taming Mahoraga, I can relax a little in the physical training. Not that I will slack off, I will simply not almost kill myself and dedicate my time breaking my body so that the Blackbeard Template could level up.
Said template will now be hard to level up for the last time to reach completion, so it's better to focus on other things instead of something with a diminishing return.
And I am also the strongest physically in the verse. Even Maki can only topple me in speed.
"I will talk with Mai later about even heavier weights... Maybe during the summer break."
Time to give a little more attention to the Darkness Devil template, but how do I train it? My best bet is playing with Darkness/Shadow Manipulation. Darkness constructs, shadow skills...
Maybe I should try doing things my templates would do... Maki recently pointed out that I have a strange laugh, then I noticed that I laugh like Blackbeard when it's a full-blown belly laugh. I also like cherry pies, but almost everyone likes cherry pies.
Truth be told, I'm glad that the influences are just these small things, but I will keep it in mind when choosing new templates in the future.
So, if I try to be more actively in tune with my templates, the process will go faster... Then the problem appears...
No one knows anything about the Darkness Devil's personality. The guy appeared and killed half of the cast while refusing to elaborate. To this point, some people think that he was in truth trying to save Chainsaw Man from Makima.
Should I try eating raw meat or something? Maybe stay in my room in the dark while listening to the "Sound of Silence" or emo music. Maybe try to terrorize people to feed off their fear. Or maybe... !!
Hmm~ Can this work?
Well, let's try and no time like the present. Without thinking I sank in the shadows to teleport away and hurry up to find what I was looking for.
Going around the usual places where Cursed Energy coalesces I focus and finally find a small cursed spirit chilling sitting in a trash bin in a dark alley, looking at the people that pass creepily.
I grab the weak curse and enter the alley, the thing struggles futilely in my iron grip. Luckily he is not that disgusting, just like a little monkey with an ugly face and super long limbs that he used to sometimes touch the people passing by sexually.
Finally, in the privacy of the back of the alley, the darkness doesn't bother me, in truth it will help, I throw him on the wall unceremoniously.
"Shut up." I growl at the little monkey curse.
He freezes, scared shitless. I notice that I have had this effect in the past, I'm still unclear if it's some early stage Conqueror's Haki or a boon of the Darkness Devil.
And it can go both ways, I remember being flocked by flyheads... Ugh, Gojo didn't waste time calling me shit because I attracted flies. In the same stance, if I flex my presence differently weak spirits don't dare to get close, or even make a sound.
"I should've tried this earlier..." I say as I start concentrating.
Raising my hand with my palm facing upward, I focus on the tip of my index finger.
I think I never concentrated more before... I need to will what I want, if not it will not have the desired effect.
After an undetermined amount of time, darkness starts coalescing in my digit.
But this is different from my normal darkness... The whole place becomes a tad darker when this small amount of darkness, as big as a bean, appears. Obviously, it's of a different quality from any other darkness that I can conjure, devil fruit, cursed energy, or any other way...
I finally notice the sweat pouring into my eyes and with that, I become aware of the fatigue that assaulted me. Darkness Devil Template is still Tier 5, barely above human levels.
"Ugh... Eat it." I say strong, my voice sounding raspy, while presenting the small amount of cursed energy to the curse.
And it appears that I didn't need to say anything from the beginning, the curse would fight me for it apparently. He launched himself and grabbed the thing not unlike a monkey would do to a peanut and stuffed it in his mouth eagerly.
I observe with extreme focus, paying attention to the curse and to myself...
The changes are almost instantaneous.
The monkey curse starts swelling, his fur growing darker, his muscles bulging. He is going from a gibbon to an orangutan at a fast pace.
He is acting crazy too, screaming and beating his body with his close hands and jumping in place... I also can feel a small connection...
"!!" Then it happens even faster than the beginning of the transformation.
The swelling starts getting weird and disproportional, veins popping off him and the excited shouts become pained howls and...
*Poof*
"..." He explodes in my face like a balloon.
But even the dark fluids that hit me can't wash away my good mood. Even with this failure, the possibilities are obvious.
"This has... potential~" My smile is wide while cleaning my face.
I know what my priority will be now.
.....
It has been a week since I tamed the Big Raga.
During this week I came to understand his capabilities, but I always had some doubts about it.
In this secluded part of the forest, I observe him standing there while I hold my jaw in contemplation.
"You are surprisingly hard to 'wear' and merge, you know? Much different from the others..." I comment.
He simply shrugs his shoulders at me. He has a little personality, a stoic unbothered one.
It appears that creating the ultimate chimera from all ten shadows is harder than I thought.
I also can finally answer that question... "Does Mahoraga keep his adaptations between summons?"
The short answer is "Yes." But there are some "buts" and "ifs".
After taming him, from now on he will keep the adaptations so I can prepare beforehand. This is a huge combo with my Metaknowledge.
Now the little problems.
First, if Mahoraga is destroyed for real or I "destroy" him to create a chimera he will lose the adaptations when I "re-paint" him. Maybe that's why Sukuna created Agito instead of something stronger by using Totality in Mahoraga. He would lose all adaptation that Mahoraga went through in the battle, throwing everything out the window.
And the second, he has 8 slots.
That surprised me, not even once in canon did they comment about this limit. But then I remembered that people normally have only one Cursed Technique so it doesn't matter.
And it would not be weird for this number to increase in the future either.
Mahoraga was meant to be the "late throw in a game of paper-rock-scissors", he is super effective when fighting against one person. Imagine playing against five people, your hand will win against some and lose against some(most of the time).
Mahoraga can adapt to only one phenomena at a time too.
But this advantage can be circumvented if you pull a Batman and prepare beforehand. I can make Mahoraga solo the Disaster Curses. No Diff.
I will need to do some more tests in the future. If I can make him adapt beforehand to things like slashes, fire, water... And how effective it will be when he finds stronger versions of these phenomena.
Mahoraga can be immune to normal fire by completing a full Revolution of his wheel and then be hurt by other, higher level, types of fire. Like Sukuna's arrow.
More good news is that his adaptation is not entirely defensive either. He doesn't simply get resistant to the phenomena, he kinda changes to better fight it. He also grows, stronger, and faster, and recovers faster from injuries from that phenomena.
Maki told me that this worried her during the taming ritual. Mahoraga kept getting stronger, it was not simply him growing effective against slashes... If I took more time to attack him, maybe he would heal from his head only.
Luckily I killed him when the wheel turned only three times.
I also need to see if he will "adapt to being my shikigami"... He could use Sukuna's flying Slash, so... Can he use some of my powers too?
Zehe~ Mahoraga using the Tremor-Tremor fruit~ Or haki~
Seriously, I can let him be the MC now...
It's also a scary prospect if Mahoraga really grows stronger the more he adapts. Just remember that a clean slate Mahoraga gave trouble to a 15-finger Sukuna.
To be fair he was countered rather easily, but even so.
The thing is the contradictions... If Mahoraga adapts to fire, would he be weaker to Ice? Like a Pokemon. I need to test it too.
"Hmm~" After writing all the points on the ground I nod to myself "Not bad, not bad."
I turned to Big Raga who was patiently waiting for me to think
"You're not like those Boss characters that become weak when they are playable." I joke "With my mind using you, you will become even better... I just need to use you correctly. Like Vergil in Devil May Cry."
I stand up and stretch a little.
"So let's start using a slot to adapt you to brute strength and Impact." I smirk while raising my fist and he smirks back.
....
Now, I'm walking to Jujutsu High to meet the girls.
Apparently, they want me to meet their classmates, Panda and Inumaki. I heard Inumaki is still a boy, so I was never interested in meeting them.
Normally, Maki and Mai come to me on the weekends, so this time I'm going to them. They're also using me as a delivery boy, as I'm carrying a bunch of fast food for them to eat after they finish their training session.
Meh, not a problem. I have an inventory and weekly threesomes, I can allow myself to be used a little as a mule.
I finally reach an open field to see Maki thrashing Panda and Inumaki. She is taking it easy, but the difference in skills is obvious.
"Yo." I greet Mai, who was sitting on the grass while watching her classmates while putting my face close to her ear
"Kyah! Megumi! You scared me... *Huff* You and this habit of being sneaky." She admonishes me but smiles afterward when I give a peck on her forehead.
"Sorry, but I can't lose the opportunity." [Covert Talent] baby, I was always sneaky. It even helps me to suppress my cursed energy.
"Guess what Gojo-sensei gave me earlier." She says with an excited smile
Hm? It's not her birthday... "A useless life lesson? Money? High blood pressure by sheer annoyance?"
"No, idiot. The Chain of a Thousand Miles!" She beams
"I thought it was broken..?"
"It was! Gojo-sensei ended up destroying the back end of the chain that was Hidden inside an inventory curse, that's why it became useless."
I remember that. The chain was inside my brother, the worm and he also took Hollow Purple.
"I see... She would not give you a useless thing and seeing your excitement..." I look at her, already guessing the implications.
"Exactly. I think I can restore it!"
"That would be awesome. I mean, I bet you could eventually do another one, but it's great that it can spare you the effort." I say while patting her head
"Hehe~, I'm awesome I know." She preens over the praise "While Gojo-sensei was looking for books for me, she found one with the picture of the Chain. In the back end, there's a big ring and an oval weight. Guessing that was the core and the reason the thing can grow infinitely, she went to find it. Apparently, she threw it in the corner of the Gojo Clan armory." She explains in more detail
"I see, and if you know the shape and the effect of the missing part..."
"...I can complete it with the clear image that I have. I'm already accumulating Cursed Energy." She says the last part in a whisper to me.
"What are you talking about?" We are interrupted by Maki getting close, Panda and Inumaki following her while dragging their tared feet and beaten asses.
"..." She could absolutely hear what we talked about, she only announced that they were coming to make us shut up "A 'Hi, Megumi. I love you' would've been a proper greeting." I deadpan at her
"Shut up..."
Hm? Ah! Zehe~ I see~
I stand up and go to hug her. "Okay, okay... Let's not fight. I missed you."
"Wait! I'm all sweaty..." She says while trying to avoid me
"I don't care, let me give you a kiss." I continue to approach her
"No! Get off me!"
She was embarrassed because of her classmates! She is even blushing a little. Panda and Inumaki are giggling behind their hands while looking at the scene.
"Are you embarrassed of your boyfriend?" I act hurt
"No! Just don't do this shit in public!"
"Daga Kotowaru! (I refuse!) It's the boyfriend's job to embarrass the girlfriend in front of her friends and destroy whatever stoic image she built."
"It's true."
"Salmon."
The two nod at me sagely
"Argh! I'm gonna kill you guys too!" Maki shouts with a blush
....
After our little gag moment, we sat under a tree and I took out all the food I brought. We talked a little, mostly Panda, and an interesting topic appears
"Did you guys hear that apparently there will be a new student?" Panda comments "I heard the Principal grumbling about it..."
Oh, it's finally here.
.....
In a room dimly illuminated by candles in the depths of Jujutsu High.
A boy is sitting on a chair while hugging his knees while vacantly staring at the wall filled with paper talismans.
"Okkotsu Yuta-kun... There's a way to save both yourself and Rika." Gojo talks, attracting his attention "Attend Tokyo Jujutsu High School."