Preparations.

There is a discord for this fic. It has Live Updates about chapter progress and when they are completed, pictures for characters, lots of tidbits about the story, among other things. Join at https: // discord.gg / aWZ9qX9mAW

Glory to my chief Proofreader; Solare for he is the one who points out mistakes and acts as my favourite wall to bounce ideas off of.

Looks like the voting was unanimous and my Goat Yuji Itadori wins, as expected.

Now who would win…

Current Manga Yuji Itadori

Or.. 

Prime Geto Suguru

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The next day at noon.

24 October, 2017.

Megumi was in a clearing of the forest of Jujutsu Tech, training for the upcoming parade as he knew all too well how dangerous it would be and he knew he needed all the strength he could possibly achieve.

And so he was upside down, balancing on one hand and performing upside-down one handed push ups. Although to him, this wasn't enough as wrapped around him were large weights that were strapped onto him with the help of miniature Gamma clones that moved and changed the weights around constantly.

Although he could've simply upped the weight of whatever was in his shadow, he is using this unconventional weighting to help him train his balance as some parts of his body were heavier and some were lighter and his goal in this training was to perform his one handed push ups while staying balanced and not leaning.

It was a type of training that no normal human could have undertaken as it would leave lasting damage and would just not be possible to do, yet he does it anyways as he needed to surpass everything that defined him as Human and reach something beyond.

'I need to be stronger, better, faster… Being just merely strong isn't enough! I need to be The Strongest! So that no bastard will even dare to get close to someone I love ever again, I need them all to shit themselves and run at the mere mention of my name!' the raven haired man said as drops of sweat fell down his face.

If you were to look closer, you would also notice a few odd things. The top of his head had a pair of black wolf ears, his lower back had a semi-long and fluffy black tail and if you focused even closer you would notice that his body had more hair than normal.

'I don't particularly enjoy having these ears and the tail, it makes me feel like a furry... But if I can replicate that permanent Incarnation Mutation like what happened with Nue, my physical stats and strength would become much stronger than before; if nothing else, these enhanced senses are nice.' he thought as his ears then started twitching, picking up on a new sound.

It was thanks to these senses that he heard 5 paired footsteps approaching his location as he switched his hand to the other to train the other side of his body.

'... Is that two Satoru's? No, that must be Yuta. The manga was not kidding, their cursed energy signatures are quite similar, only Yuta's feels more 'evil'. Must be the effect of Rika or whatever ability in his bloodline that let him curse her. Still got no clue on how that works…' 

Just as he was finishing his last 'set', the 5 pairs arrived at his location on the edges of the clearing; revealing the very people he guessed. Satoru, Yuta, Maki and… honestly he forgot what the white haired one's name was but the last one was obvious.

"Megumi~! Why are you hiding and training so far out here in the forest? You shy of your soon to be Senpais~?" Gojo called out teasingly while approaching him.

At his side were his so called 'Senpais', Yuta was looking at him with an incredulous expression as he was speechless at his overkill training that was shared by his white haired friend.

Maki had an interested look on her face, she considered the benefits of such training for improving her balance, overall core strength and fine tuned control over her movements. However, Panda was focused on something else; he noticed his newly gained wolf parts and pointed them out first before anyone could say anything else.

"Wait, are those dog ears? You didn't have those yesterday! Are you some kind of cursed corpse too?!" Panda shouted out excitedly at the possibility of finding a kindred soul.

The surprising statement caused Megumi's focus to falter as he lost his balance and started falling to the side. He immediately reacted by reaching his other hand onto the ground and pushing it with all his strength, which caused him to lift off the ground and into the air.

A short summersault later, he landed back on the ground gracefully as his Gamma shikigami desummoned. 

"No, I'm not. This is just an application of my cursed technique. One that I'd appreciate you kept out of the Zen'in clan's ears, don't like those fuckers and I don't need their attention on me more than it usually is. It's a pain to avoid their spies normally as it is." Megumi explained while stretching his limbs after a hard workout.

Turning to a nearby tree, he looked at it with a deadpan expression on his face with a hand on his hip and seemingly spoke to nothing. 

"That goes to you too, Miss Spy.".

The space on top of a branch of the tree shivered slightly as from seemingly nothing a woman dressed in black form fitting clothes, even through her mask you could see her visible embarrassment in her reddish amber coloured eyes, she had a quite shapely figure that could be seen at a glance.

"Y-Yes Zen'in-sama!" she exclaimed hastily as she bowed.

"Well, as long as you understand. Now, shoo! Go take a break and get some food, the Zen'in clan doesn't need to know anything about here." Megumi shooed her away with an exacerbated expression before flicking her a small wad of cash that had enough money to feed a small family for a couple of days.

"Y-You're too kind, Z-Zen'in-sama! I will leave for n-now." Despite her embarrassment and nervousness, she grabbed the wad of cash expertly, bowed once again and then blurred away into nothingness.

As they watched her disappear they looked back to Megumi with a puzzled expression, although Maki looked like she recognised the 'spy'.

"Who was that? A secret admirer?" Gojo asked half jokingly but Megumi could tell through experience that there was more to it.

He heard the silent question; 'Is she dangerous, should I be worried?'.

In response he waved his hand dismissively as he deactivated his Incarnation, letting his new appendages melt away, much to the fascination of Yuta and Panda.

"Oh don't worry about her, she's a spy the Zen'in clan put on me. Think I first noticed her at the beginning of the year, but really she's harmless, she just keeps an eye on me and my movements. Knowing them, they probably forced this on her, so I usually just let her do her job and give her some money to have some nice things everyone now and then, god knows she deserves a break from those assholes."

Maki's expression twisted as she heard his explanation but it softened as he told her what he knew. After all, she knew first hand the cruelty of the Zen'in clan when it's allowed to fester.

"Hm, yea' I get you. But enough of that! I'm here to introduce you to your future Senpais!" the white haired man declared theatrically. 

"Everyone, this is Megumi Fushiguro! He is technically a potential heir to the Zen'in clan, though so far he stayed away from them and lived without their influence thanks to my help! He's been training in Jujutsu ever since he was 4 and with the help of his talent, cursed technique along with special training and attention from yours truly, he has become a 1st Grade sorcerer that could be considered the strongest non-special grade sorcerer even if you consider the big 3 clans."

Giving them a few seconds to absorb the surprising information, he then started gesturing to his side, he pointed at his upperclassmen and started introducing them. 

"First we have Toge Inumaki, he is the sole remaining descendant of the Inumaki clan and bears the titular clan's cursed technique; Cursed Speech! It's quite strong but he can't talk in normal words due to fear of hurting others so he speaks in sushi ingredients!" 

Toge is a young, slender man with brown eyes, light skin, and short, spiky hair. The Inumaki clan's "Snake and Fangs" symbol was emblazoned on his tongue and both cheeks from birth. Toge is dressed in athletic pants, sneakers, and a white short sleeve shirt worn over a light-tan turtleneck sweater. 

[Image (In Discord)]

"Pickled Ginger." the white haired boy said with a small wave.

"Secondly we have Panda here, he is principle Yaga's son who also happens to be Cursed Corpse capable of shifting between 3 different forms! He's quite interesting and would prove to be a good punching bag if you're in a pinch!" 

Panda resembles a mature big panda in appearance. His bear-like build makes him considerably taller than his classmates, and curiously he was dressed. He had on a scarf and a jacket that looked somewhat silly on his larger than life frame.

[Image (In Discord)]

"Hehe, yeah! I'm pretty tough, so you can hit me all- HEY!" Panda bragged at first before the full meaning of his teacher's layered insult went through his mind.

Ignoring his large student, Gojo went on to introduce the last two of his upperclassmen.

"Thirdly, we have Maki! You probably already know her but let me tell you more about her! She's probably the best pure weapon user and is really gifted in martial arts, plus you can't let her slim muscles fool you! She's strong enough to make a fully grown gorilla blush and quiver in fear, but she'd probably never be popular with men 'cuz she'd scare them off with her attitude!"

Maki is a youthful woman with a tall, well-built frame. Her long black hair is pulled back into a short ponytail, and she has small golden eyes. She wore glasses that allowed her to see curses, and her hair fell in fringes across her forehead, with thinner strands framing her cheekbones. She was dressed in her typical Jujutsu Tech student attire, with long, thick tan socks and black shoes.

[Image (In Discord)]

"OI! Watch it dumbass, I'll kick your ass even through that damned infinity!" The black haired girl said, proving Gojo right with her description and had to be held back from attacking him by Panda.

"And last but not least, we have Yuta Okkotsu! I'd introduce him further but you already met him in full the other day!"

"E-Eh? Oh, yeah! Nice to meet you again Fushiguro-san, at least on a better occasion…" The nervous boy trailed off at the end, remembering how every interaction he had with Megumi over the last two days had ended with or been under very unfortunate circumstances. A fact that made him rethink if he was truly as cursed as he considered himself.

"Nice to meet you all, officially this time. And Yuta, don't worry about it. Wasn't your fault on both times, and also lose the honorifics and the formality. We're Jujutsu Sorcerers so why the need for such formalities? That goes for the rest of you guys too!" Megumi said, dismissing the boy's doubts.

His declaration was met with grins and nods, as they all agreed with him.

"Sounds good, Megumi!"

"Wasn't gonna bother with all that from the start."

"Bonito Flakes!"

"O-Ok, if you say so M-Megumi!"

From the outskirts of the group, Gojo was standing with a solemn smile on his face. He was deeply happy to see his students form the connections and friendships he once had, yet saddened by remembering the good times that passed by.

He was taken out of his reflections when he felt a hand touching his shoulder, his infinity that was activated didn't stop it as it didn't detect any danger. 

What he saw was Megumi holding his shoulder with concern, beside him were his classmates who had the same expression.

"You good Satoru?" 

"Hehe, yeah… I'm good."

…

A few days later.

"That's good balance Maki, but you need to put your whole core into it, the weights change in location and heaviness constantly so you need to focus your effort on the core of your body." Megumi explained looking into Maki's eyes.

"Yeah, but it's easier said than done!" she grunted while looking into his own eyes with a strained expression.

They were both upside down and performing the same training he was doing alone, although this time his weights shifted around even faster. Both their clothes and hair were dishevelled from falling over after losing their balance.

Slowly but steadily they were getting better balance, control and coordination in their bodies. This training would come immensely useful in high speed battles where balance and coordination is priceless. Maki stood to gain the most from this as she would need this graceful control in fights as she relies on overwhelming her opponents with sheer strength and technique.

Inumaki was running around in a huge circle for as long as he could, all the while using his technique at specific points of the loop against copies of Rabbit Escape from Megumi. This served to help him gain stamina to keep up against flights with multiple opponents and get used to using his technique multiple times consecutively so as to keep up in fights against high speed or resilient opponents.

Panda was currently sparring against Blizzard in his totality form, and he was completely outclassed. Even with his gorilla form, he could not hope to keep up with the overwhelming strength and speed of the Shikigami. The purpose of this training was to get Panda used to fighting opponents that had greater physical strength and learn to fight without relying on his physical abilities.

Yuta on the other hand, was extremely gifted in his fighting capabilities as all he needed was good foundational knowledge of Jujutsu, a strong sparring partner and a guiding hand to flourish as a sorcerer and soar in strength.

And in the end, even while he was practising with Maki. Megumi was simultaneously honing his control over his shikigami by controlling the amount of cursed energy he flows into Rabbit Escape to maintain its existence and clone at specific times that depend on where Inumaki is in his loop. 

This also applied to Blizzard as he was maintaining his Totality form as well as trying to take in and comprehend information coming in from his side and from his shikigami to improve his parallel processing capabilities.

He was also doing this by summoning Nue besides Yuta and forcing himself to comprehend the lessons that Gojo was providing even though he was splitting his attention in 4 separate directions. It was practically impossible for the first couple of days but eventually it started to click as he was now able to understand Gojo's lesson.

"Ok Yuta, now it's time to go over Black Flashes!" Gojo said as he rubbed a white board clean and started explaining.

"When cursed energy is delivered within 0.000001 seconds of a physical hit, Black Flash is a distortion in space. A sorcerer who succeeds in doing so will see their cursed energy flash black, and their blow will have a devastating force equal to a regular hit raised by 2.5. It takes extreme focus to unleash Black Flash, and not even I can use it whenever I want!" 

He then went on to draw some illustrations on the board to explain his next point more clearly.

"But personally I feel like that's a shitty explanation or at least an incomplete one. I mean if that's the whole secret behind it, then i could land it at will. For instance, if I load up my fist with cursed energy and throw a punch." He proceeded to do so to demonstrate his point.

"That cursed energy is either: one: the type that will strengthen my fist, two: the type that will crash into my opponent, or three: the type that'll do both." 

Each point had a separate punch where a keen eye would also spot how his cursed energy mimicked his explanations perfectly in a feat that would be completely impossible for anyone else.

"It's not just the timing of the hit. It depends on the blend too, so it's a toss up. and it's not like anyone can even control the third type. Well, anyone except for me." He said with a smug grin.

"This might make you laugh but I personally think there's some connection with temperature and humidity. black flash is a spatial phenomenon after all. The point is, there's no correct answer as to how to unleash a black flash. When I'm really going for it, I incorporate my cursed technique into my strikes, ultimately making it come down to luck, even for me."

He then concluded with "I mean, Nanami's consecutive black flash record is higher than mine. Having said that, if we're talking about the total number, I'm higher. I kill everything quickly so there's no time to land 'em consecutively for me."

…

Soon the day of reckoning arrived as they all readied themselves for what was going to be the fight of their lives.

Standing side by side in the heart of Shinjuku were Megumi and Satoru, both standing at the ready for the start of a very long night. He made sure to deposit all the weights he had in his shadow so he wasn't slowed down by any weight

"...Sorry about Tsumiki, with all the craziness that's been happening I never got the chance to say it, so I'll just say it now. I'm sorry about Tsumiki, wish I could've been there for you when it mattered." Gojo confessed.

"Don't worry about it Satoru, she's gonna be fine. She'll wake up eventually and we'll deal with things as they come from there." The raven haired man said back to him.

Megumi didn't blame him for his late acknowledgment in the slightest, he knew that Satoru struggled when it came to emotional things like this and was proud of him for gathering up the courage to say it anyways.

They then stood in a comfortable silence as they awaited the start of the fight. It came faster than they had anticipated as within half a second, they could sense hundreds of curses being released to masecare without regard for innocent lives or dignity.

The NIght Parade of a 1000 Demons has officially begun.