Bonding.

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A few hours later.

Tokyo Jujutsu High, First Year Classroom.

"I can't do it right now okay, just wait!" Megumi said, trying to reason with the pink haired teen holding him.

"Pleaseee, Gojo-sensei said you had 8 Shikigami, show us!" Itadori demanded, grabbing Megumi and shaking him from side to side despite being much shorter.

"For real, we're gonna be classmates for the next 3 years, might as well get acquainted with each other's techniques no?" Nobara stated from the side with a grin as she watched the two of them.

"Exactly so, show us already, Gojo-sensei said you have an elephant! I've only seen those in movies!" Yuji cried out.

"Calm down will ya', I never said I don't wanna show you, I will. But we're in doors right now and in class, if I summon them all they'll just break the room and I'll have to pay for it again!" Megumi placated, his voice being shaky from all his movement.

'Well, I thought about hiding the information on my Shikigami from Yuji to keep it away from Sukuna but with his battle IQ and brute force it wouldn't really change much anyways. I'll settle for just keeping some of the more complicated intricacies of my technique hidden for a rainy day so he wouldn't be able to plan ahead for them.'

"Again?" Yuji repeated questioningly, sensing a story behind his choice of words as he paused his shaking.

The black haired man used Yuji's pause to grab him by his face and push him off of him with one move. The pink haired young man was sent stumbling back trying to get his balance back, Nobara giggling a bit at their antics.

"There was an.. Incident last year and a curse user had infiltrated the school so me and a few of our upperclassmen had to fight him off. It was a mess and I ended up creating a large amount of collateral damage at the end with one of our upperclassmen." Megumi answered sheepishly.

"And since I was the only one with money 'cuz I worked as a sorcerer from childhood I had to help pay for the repairs…" He rubbed the back of his head as he remembered Principal Yaga's rage after seeing the broken building.

That prompted the other two of them to burst out with laughter after imagining his face as he was forced to pay a large sum to fix a building by an irate principal Yaga. The laughter caused a vein to bulge on Megumi's forehead as he disappeared from his place much to their surprise.

"You guys wanted to see my Shikigami right? Let's head outside so you can see them shall we?" Megumi asked as they both felt a tight grip hold them by the back of their shirts and lift them up from the ground with the help of his superior height and strength.

"Fushiguro, we can talk about this!" Yuji cried out as he spazzed his arms around trying to get out of his hold.

"He's right, there's no need to jump to conclusions!" Nobara cried out as well, trying her best to get out of his grasp.

This all did nothing to stop him as Megumi walked towards the open window, he brought his hands back and threw them out with full force.

As they were in the middle of the air, Yuji moved himself towards Nobara and grabbed her while turning around, giving his back to the ground to take the brunt of the damage. However she wasn't going to let him protect the two of them alone as she used her superior cursed energy manipulation skills to reinforce the two of them from the impact.

Megumi jumped from the window to them after throwing them and landed gracefully without any trouble, he then stood there and looked at them in amusement as they were crumpled on top of each other. They proved themselves to be nothing if not tenacious as they picked themselves up and started berating him again for throwing them.

'It really is just like I remember, these two share one brain cell I swear to god. It's endearing if nothing else, I'll make sure to train these two up to heights that they would have never reached in the original. They will not die meaningless deaths, I swear it.' The black haired man decreed to himself while shaking his head in amusement.

"Alright, alright calm down! No harm done, no? You guys made it just fine, let's just start so I can show you my Shikigami." He reasoned to placate them.

Almost as if a switch flipped in their head, both of them immediately backed off with excited grins much to his amusement as they proved him right faster than he had anticipated.

"Alright then, Come on out." Megumi ordered, from his back the shadows exploded outwards massively revealing 4 shikigami.

First to appear was Gamma who jumped out of his shadows and reached to the top of a nearby boulder with a single bound, second was a small white Rabbit who jumped out of the shadow as well and ran up to be by his side.

Third was Max Elephant who simply appeared born of his shadow and walked off to a nearby grass patch and started grazing from it to pass the time. Last but not least was Nue who flew out of his shadow and roamed the skies for a moment before flying back down and landing on his extended arm.

"I have a few more but I can only summon 4 of them at a time so these will be enough for now, you can see the rest of them later on." Megumi said with a hidden sly smile as he watched Yuji shout out in excitement and run off towards the direction of Max Elephant.

Nobara wasn't immediately convinced as she looked him in the eye with suspicion while Yuji ran off, he looked at her with an astute expression and nodded with a wink. Her eyes widened for a moment in recognition before she nodded back to him and came closer to inspect Nue who was on his arm.

'Looks like she caught on to my lie there, obviously I can summon all of them at the same time if I wanted to but for now it's more advantageous for me if Yuji, E.I Sukuna thinks I can't for eventuality that he would escape.'

Kugisaki started petting the bird on his arm to the bird's immense pleasure, her fingers sinking deep into the orange feather's of Nue.

"He is adorable, what's his name?" She asked with a grin.

"Nue."

Their attention was then stolen by Itadori calling out to Megumi to catch his attention, turning to face him Megumi and Nobara doubled over in laughter as Yuji was currently sitting on top of Max Elephant with an ecstatic visage.

"Yo Fushiguro! What's this guy's name!" Yuji called out to him, waving whole heartedly while Max Elephant just huffed at the boy on top of him and continued grazing as if nothing was wrong.

"His name is Baku, he likes to be scratched near the top of his trunk." The black haired man replied back while pointing at the top of his own nose.

As he did so, Nue hopped off his arm and onto the awaiting arm of Nobara who stumbled for a moment as she tried to hold the giant shikigami before she onto the ground with shikigami sitting on top of her contently to Megumi's amusement.

"Holy hell, he's so heavy. How did you just hold him up so easily and for so long?" She groaned out between pushes to try and get the bird off of her.

"It's called training Kugisaki, you should try it sometimes." Megumi said smugly as he snapped his finger, Nue listened to his unspoken order and hopped off of her and flew away into the skies. He also felt his cursed energy be drained ever so slightly as Rabbit Escape started cloning itself in the background.

"Ugh, you might be right about that I do need to get my physical strength up. It's one thing if a Special Grade like you is stronger than me but even Itadori is miles stronger than me with just his base strength alone without any cursed energy reinforcement. I can't fall behind, I need to catch up!" Nobara declared as she affirmed her will to become stronger.

"I'm happy to hear it, we can start your training by tomorrow. I know someone who has even stronger physical strength than myself actually so she would be able to help you even more than I could when she comes back from her mission, she's even better than me in using cursed tools for battle so she could help you with that too." He explained to her as he held out his hand for her to grab onto.

"Sounds good to me, just as long as you keep that frog away from me. I hate frogs…" Nobara confessed with a disgusted expression as she grabbed onto his hand and was pulled up to her feet. 

"His name is Gama, but that's fine he now knows to stay away unless you're in danger." Megumi replied with a light chuckle. Gama himself only looked down at the girl for a moment before just hopping away and minding his business.

Turning back to Yuji he saw him standing in front of a few dozen copies of Rabbit Escape, he was currently showing them how to fight with one of them leading the charge in repeating the pink haired teen's moves.

Nobara and Megumi watched on in awe as they mimicked Yuji's moves with terrifying accuracy with the one leading the copies going even beyond this as he hopped around and performed terrifyingly graceful attacks.

"I-Is that the main one?" Asked Nobara with a twitching eye as she watched her classmate enthusiastically show the group of Rabbits a move he called 'Manji Kick' which was perfectly mimicked instantly by the leading Rabbit.

"N-No, that's Subaru. He's always been the most vicious of all of them, quite frankly even though he's a clone he might be scarier than some of my other Shikigami. The main one is somewhere hidden between all of them so he isn't found and can't permanently die, his name is Yoichi." 

'Now that I think about it, I think it's about time I stop stalling and finally start subjugating the rest of my Shikigami already. I stopped subjugating any new shikigami for a while because I wanted to focus on training my fundamentals with cursed energy manipulation, hand to hand combat and my swordsmanship with Kusakabe as well as refine all my techniques as much as possible before I subjugate the rest.' Megumi thought while watching Yuji train the Rabbits.

Nobara walked towards them and started talking with Yuji, she just sat near them and watched, seeming to be in deep thought.

'There's also that fight me n Satoru plan to have tomorrow, if I plan on hoping to keep up with him I'm gonna need access to RCT and since that shit still doesn't make that much sense to me I'll get Deer instead. Knowing its effects it might even be part of an answer to Infinity, how would Domain Amplification work when layered with an output of Positive Energy?' Megumi considered. 

He brought up his hand while activating Domain Amplification and just observed it deep in thought, after a few moments he clenched his hand closed with a determined expression. No matter what happens in that fight tomorrow, he will at the very least land a few punches and wipe that damned grin off of Satoru's face.

"Gather 'round, I'm gonna subjugate another one of my shikigami now. Maybe you could stand to learn a thing or two from watching me fight it." Fushiguro called out from some ways away as Yuji had just finished teaching the Rabbits all that he knew about fighting.

"Oh, sounds cool Fushiguro, I'm in!" Shouted Yuji in response as he ran over in his direction with Nobara not too far behind.

The two of them gathered around as he unsummoned his Shikigami, he took a mental note of his surroundings and decided that they were good enough. They stood to the side and sat down on a nearby boulder to watch him as he worked.

'Hm, Blizzard is out of the question since he's currently watching over Tsumiki so I can't summon him for it. Well, I suppose then I could use some kind of merged beast to kill her easily but it wouldn't really teach them anything and tip Sukuna off on the fact that I can merge them pretty early. Fine then, I'll only use Kage for her, this should be useful to them to teach them how to deal with any healers they come across.' 

Megumi brought his hands together to create the shadow puppet of a Deer with antlers, ahead of him his shadows grew and expanded outwards. From them form a large mass which then exploded to reveal the newest Shikigami.

"Tranquil Deer."

Tranquil Deer is a huge muscular Deer-like shikigami but unlike Sukuna's version it did not have four eyes and had two eyes instead although they retained circles around their irises. Its ears are close to the top of its head, above its fine-pronged antlers. 

Most curiously enough though, his version of the shikigami more resembled a Moose than it did a normal Deer. It had a symbol on the left side of its neck that resembles the Jewel of Resuscitation.

[Image (In Discord)]

As the Shikigami was summoned Megumi pulled Kage from his sleeve to ready himself for the upcoming fight, much to the duo's surprise as to them it seemed like he pulled it out of nowhere. He charged up his blade with Cursed Energy

The Deer-like shikigami was finally fully formed and looked ahead at him, sizing him up for a bit before it brought its head down and faced him with it. It started charging itself with cursed energy and charged at him with full intent to run him through.

Megumi looked at it as it was approaching and simply sidestepped the charge at the last second, causing the shikigami to run past him and slam into a tree, the tree shattered on impact as it turned itself around to charge at him again but faltered immediately.

Along its right side was a deep cut that ran down its whole length that would have crippled any other curve or shikigami that wasn't a special grade. Yuji clapped in surprise as he saw the cut, Nobara looked at it with suspicion.

"That's a deep cut, it should be crippled and easy prey now, no? But something's off with its cursed energy, and why's it not phased in the slightest?" Kugisaki called out questioningly, her experience with curses told her that there was something off.

"You're right about that Kugisaki, any other curse or shikigami would have been put in deep shit after that attack. But Tranquil Deer is different, it possesses a unique ability that only those who stand at the peak of Jujutsu are able to grasp. One that even I don't have as of yet, it can channel Reverse Cursed Technique." Megumi answered for her with a grin.

To his two classmate's shock the cursed energy within the shikigami morphed and Reversed, becoming Positive Energy that began to mend the cut along the Deer-like Shikigami's side. The cut closed together in under a second as the Shikigami immediately charged ahead at him once again to try and kill him.

This time Megumi let it close the distance and waited for the last second before he slid underneath the shikigami and sliced its left hind leg off in a single cut, sending the Deer onto the ground instantly as he jumped back up to his feet and watched the shikigami tumble down.

"What's Reversed Cursed Technique?" Yuji asked as he watched the Deer's leg be regenerated in seconds with a slight sense of awe. "Could I learn to do that?"

"Idiot, Reversed Cursed Technique isn't something that any random sorcerer can do. You heard him, didn't you? He's a special grade but even he can't use it yet. I didn't even meet anyone who could use it my entire life, I didn't even think it was possible." Nobara explained to him.

"She's right y'know?" The black haired man said as he dodged another charge by the deer by jumping on top of it and slamming its head onto the ground with the pressure of him jumping off.

"However, I personally know 3 people who are capable of using; in fact two of them were just able to use it inherently without needing to learn it. Even Sukuna himself knows it, so it is very possible to learn it. My plan is to learn RCT and then help the two of you learn it too by the end of our first year." Megumi declared as he watched the Shikigami pick itself up from the ground, heal and then charge at him once again.

"HAH, as if you filthy brats could hope to learn Reversed Cursed Technique in a year. I'll get control of this vessel soon enough and when I do I'm going to slaughter all of you-" Sukuna snarked out at them as he made a mouth on Yuji's face to speak his mind but was stopped when he was covered by Kugisaki slapping Yuji's cheek.

"- Don't think that that alone would stop me girl, I'll have some fun with you when I get control of this-" Sukuna said smugly as he made another mouth right above her hand, to which she then punched it away, this time her hand was heavily reinforced with cursed energy.

"OUCH, do it gently, that hurts me too damnit!" Yuji cried out as he held his now bruised face with one hand and grabbed Kugisaki by her shirt with the other.

"Well maybe you shouldn't have eaten a Special Grade cursed object when you had a special grade sorcerer nearby to help you!" Nobara snarked back at him at his stupidity as she too grabbed him by the shirt.

Before they could continue their bickering their attentions were stolen by a loud crash in the direction of where the fight was, turning to see what it was their eyes widened slightly as they saw Megumi clashing with the Shikigami.

He was standing still and not moving, in hands were the antlers of Tranquil Deer that he was gripping with great strength as he had stopped the deer's charge in its place by simply dropping Kage from his grasp where it sunk deep into the ground blade first and had stopped its charge in its place immediately. 

"Now, I'll show you what to do when faced with an opponent who has RCT when you don't! The way all RCT is channelled and produced is inside the brain of the user so in order to deal with any user of RCT, you must always go for the head!" Megumi declared as his body lit up in an inferno of cursed energy while holding the struggling shikigami by the antlers.

He dug his feet into the ground and heaved, pulling the curse down onto the ground beneath him and stomped on its neck. Reaching down, he grabbed Kage and proceeded to cut off the Shikigami's head in a single swing.

The Shikigami went limp immediately as it then turned into shadows and dissolved away into nothingness, with that; the Subjugation of the shikigami 'Tranquil Deer' has been completed.

Megumi sighed as he stood up onto his feet, he swung his blade into the air with great strength which caused the blood that covered the blade to fly off. He heard some small applause, turning to its source he saw his two classmates walking towards him with grins on their faces.

'This time, this time.. This time I won't lose anyone again, no one I love will die. I refuse to allow it. Now that Deer has been Tamed, soon I'll tame Funeral Tiger. And then after that, I will Subjugate the Divine General, I will not fail again. No matter the cost.'

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