JJK: Developing my potential

After that warning, Megumi vanished from the curse's sight in the blink of an eye. Before it could react, he reappeared in front of it, delivering a punch reinforced with cursed energy directly to its abdomen. The impact was so brutal that it sent the curse flying, smashing through several trees in its path.

"Huh? This one seems weaker than I imagined. Better save this," Megumi thought as he returned the [Honjo Masamune] to his [Shadow Inventory]. He knew there would be a more fitting occasion to unsheathe such a powerful sword.

When they saw their master sent flying by the impact, the curse's servants quickly sprang into action. Four of them rushed toward Megumi, while one headed straight for Mei Mei.

"Hey, trash! Weren't you the one saying we'd be your puppets? All I see is someone so pathetic they need others to do their work," said Megumi, his voice dripping with mockery and confidence. While skillfully dodging the attacks of the former sorcerers, his words were not only provocative but a deliberate attempt to break the curse's morale.

This mission was unlike anything Megumi had faced before. It wasn't just about exorcising a special-grade curse; that would have been child's play for him. This time, the true objective was ensuring the safety of the higher-ups' grandchildren.

To achieve this, he needed to understand how the curse's technique worked. The higher-ups were terrified of the possibility that if the curse died, their grandchildren might perish too. No one knew for sure how the ritual would play out. Would the curse vanish, leaving the children safe and sound? Or would its death seal their fate?

In reality, the zombification effect would dissipate upon the curse's death, but neither Megumi nor Mei Mei could know that. They needed answers, and uncovering the secrets behind the ritual had become their top priority.

For that reason, Megumi held back from eliminating the sorcerers attacking him. If he crushed the curse's will too quickly, it might completely shut down and refuse to speak, complicating the mission even further. Every move Megumi made was coldly calculated, keeping up the pressure without crossing that delicate line.

Pain.

That was all Kino could feel at that moment. Although Megumi's attack hadn't been designed to kill him, gravely injuring him was clearly a viable option. Megumi knew curses could regenerate using cursed energy, which gave him room to be ruthless.

'How is this possible?' Kino wondered, panting as he channeled his cursed energy to the maximum to repair the damage the attack had inflicted on his body. Every second was a struggle to stay upright.

Finally, after stabilizing himself, Kino rose slowly. In the distance, he could make out Megumi and Mei Mei fiercely battling the grade 1 sorcerers he had enslaved with his cursed technique. His frustration grew as he watched them dominate his servants with apparent ease.

'Tsk, it seems they didn't underestimate me. They sent a special-grade sorcerer.' The thought both irritated and excited him. If he could defeat Megumi, it wouldn't just prove his strength—it would allow him to take over Megumi's body and turn it into the perfect weapon for an ultimate confrontation against Satoru Gojo. A twisted smile spread across his face at the thought.

'But… which one of them is it? According to my reports, only three special-grade sorcerers are active. Obviously, it's not Gojo Satoru. Yuki Tsukumo is a woman, so she's out too. Then… is this boy Megumi Fushiguro?'

Kino frowned as he tried to piece the information together in his mind. 'But he's supposed to be ten years old… How can a child that age look like this? Something doesn't add up.'

However, there was no time to dwell on it. He noticed that his puppets, as he liked to call the sorcerers he had enslaved, were being overwhelmed by Megumi and Mei Mei. His window of opportunity was closing.

'I can't just stand by. I have to strike now.'

With renewed resolve, Kino charged directly at Megumi, convinced that his previous state had been the result of underestimating him.

Swossh!

Megumi narrowly avoided Kino's claws but had no chance to catch his breath. One of the curse's servants used their cursed technique to unleash a violent gust of wind in his direction. Megumi reacted instantly, conjuring a wall of shadows to counter it.

"GRRRRR... CLINK!"

Without pause, another servant transformed the ground into a viscous substance, akin to quicksand. Forced to act quickly, Megumi created shadow wings on his back, lifting himself into the air to avoid being trapped.

"GRRRRR... CLINK!"

Even in the air, the attacks didn't relent. As he ascended, Kino and two of his servants launched a coordinated attack. One of them, capable of molding cursed energy with rubber-like properties, created an improvised structure that propelled both Kino and another servant—a grotesque version of "The Thing"—straight toward Megumi.

"GRRRRR... CLINK!"

In that brief but intense exchange, Megumi noticed a troubling change. The servants' attacks now displayed perfect coordination, far superior to before. Something had shifted since Kino rejoined the fight.

'So he's communicating with them somehow…' Megumi deduced, observing every movement with surgical precision. He now had a clearer idea of Kino's technique.

But Megumi wasn't just analyzing. While fighting, he was working on a far more ambitious plan: making Mahoraga adapt to the curse's techniques. For brief moments, Megumi would partially summon parts of the shikigami, allowing them to be affected by the attacks from both Kino and his servants.

So far, Mahoraga had begun adapting to the techniques of the four servants, but Kino's primary technique remained a significant obstacle. Megumi knew that if Mahoraga could fully adapt, interrogating the curse would no longer be necessary.

If he succeeded, he could wield Mahoraga in a manner similar to how Sukuna had used it to overcome Gojo Satoru's [Infinity]. Once Mahoraga adapted to the technique, Megumi could instruct the shikigami to find an alternative adaptation that would allow it to heal both the council elders' grandchildren and Ui Ui.

"GRRRRR... CLINK!", "GRRRRR... CLINK!", "GRRRRR... CLINK!"

The battle between Megumi and the curse dragged on for several more minutes, but Mahoraga still showed no signs of adapting to Kino's technique. It seemed that to achieve full adaptation, the shikigami needed to directly experience the technique, not merely interact with the enemies superficially.

Meanwhile, Mei Mei had already defeated her opponent, sacrificing one of her crows in the process. As agreed with Megumi before the fight, she remained on the sidelines, observing, ready to intervene if the curse attempted a domain expansion to destroy it from the outside.

After fighting the curse for a considerable amount of time and realizing that his strategy of making Mahoraga adapt to Kino's technique wasn't working, Megumi decided to revert to the initial plan: intimidate the curse and then try to extract answers.

In an instant, Megumi struck Kino forcefully, sending him flying through the air. Immediately after, he appeared next to Mei Mei and transported them both into his Shadow Inventory. Moments later, [Peregrine Nue] descended from the sky, slamming into the ground and unleashing all the energy it had accumulated during its descent. The resulting explosion shook the forest, vaporizing nearby curse servants and slightly burning Kino's skin, leaving him sprawled in the distance.

After the explosion, Megumi emerged from the Shadow Inventory with Mei Mei. As she surveyed the devastation caused by the bird, Mei Mei, for the first time during the entire fight, broke her silence:

"Honestly… this is unfair."

Megumi smirked and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Come on, don't get discouraged. Your crows can do something similar too."

"Maybe, if I sacrificed about a hundred," Mei Mei replied, her tone bordering on sarcasm, though she knew that even her reserves of cursed energy wouldn't be enough to control that many at once.

Without further ado, Megumi took charge of the situation again.

"Anyway… I'm going to interrogate it. Stay here."

With a powerful leap, Megumi landed beside the agonizing curse. The creature, reduced to a pitiful state, barely had the strength to move.

"Hey, trash…" Megumi allowed a faint layer of positive energy to envelop his fingers, enough to cause the curse pain but not destroy it.

"Kino…" The soft murmur from the curse interrupted Megumi's speech.

"Well, well, so you finally decide to talk. Good. Kino, since you're feeling so chatty, I'll make you an offer. If you want to live, let's make a deal… a binding vow. Answer one of my questions, and I'll let you live."

Of course, Megumi was lying. He had long since realized his inability to create binding vows, but the curse didn't know that. He planned to exploit its ignorance so that only his part of the deal would be enforced.

"Binding vow?" The creature murmured, confused. It had never heard of such a thing, not even after interrogating several grade-one sorcerers. Well, one couldn't blame it; after all, if you don't know something exists, you can't ask about it.

"Really? You don't know?" Megumi's tone was persuasive, almost diabolical. "A binding vow is an unbreakable promise. Many people use it to gain power in exchange for a sacrifice, but it can also be used to ensure others uphold the terms of a contract."

Hearing those words, a flicker of hope crossed the curse's eyes. Megumi noticed it immediately, thinking his plan was going perfectly.

"So, what do you say? Do we have a deal?" A smiling Megumi extended his hand, wrapped in cursed energy, toward the curse.

"Fine…" Kino hesitated for a moment but ultimately accepted the gesture. As its hand touched Megumi's, the sorcerer's smile vanished. Something felt wrong.

[Domain Expansion: Field of Spores]

Reality twisted around them. Megumi realized his mistake too late. By revealing the existence of binding vows, he had sparked a glimmer of hope in the desperate curse. Kino had made a deal, but not with Megumi… with the world itself.

It had sacrificed everything: its current body, its technique, its future as a curse. In return, it would receive all the cursed energy the world could provide for one minute. One minute was enough.

"Fool…" Kino whispered as its domain unfolded with overwhelming intensity.

Kino's plan was simple: to use all the cursed energy the world granted him to expand his domain and ensure the guaranteed hit of [Parasitism]. His goal was clear: to take over Megumi's body. By switching bodies, the clause that dictated the destruction of his current form would be nullified, allowing him to survive and, on top of that, gain access to a powerful cursed technique to replace the one he would inevitably lose in the process.

Unfortunately for Kino, the same world that gave him the hope of survival would also be the one to seal his fate.

It had been a long time since the world lost its battle to bind Megumi to destiny. Since then, it hadn't had the chance to anchor him to its web once more. However, now, thanks to one of its own children—the curse known as Kino—the world finally saw a new opportunity.

Just as Megumi's original soul had once served as a bridge for the world to extend its chains toward Woon Gi, this time it would be Kino's soul, attempting to take over Megumi's body through his technique, that would serve the same purpose.

"Crack." Kino's domain shattered with a sharp sound, breaking the moment a small piece of his soul made contact with Megumi's. Not even Mei Mei had time to attempt an intervention.

At this moment, both Megumi and the world seemed to conspire to cruelly punish Kino's soul. On one hand, Megumi's soul sought to devour Kino's in the same way it had consumed the soul of the original Megumi. On the other hand, the world poured all its strength into using Kino's soul as a conduit to anchor Megumi to the web of destiny.

However, this time, something was different… The world had learned from its mistakes. It would no longer attempt to subdue Megumi with brute force alone. Now, its strategy was far more insidious: it would first seek to break his mind.

—[Unknown Location]—

"You have nowhere left to run, pathetic young master," spoke a man with a face full of scars. "It would've been better if you had died with your parents in that accident".

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A/N: Hello there! It's been a while—did you miss me? I missed you! And I have the perfect excuse for my absence: I was kidnapped…

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By the Christmas spirit. 🎄✨

Alright, on a more serious note, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. As for me, I think this has been the best Christmas I've had since I was a kid. I wish you all the best and hope that all your goals for the upcoming year come true.

Fortunately, I'll be able to post chapters more frequently now, though probably not by New Year's.

By the way, I'm considering adding Luce as a sorcerer from the Vatican. Originally, that role was going to be for the Pope, but since Luce is so popular and intriguing, I thought it'd be great to include her in the fic.

A/N: Don't hesitate to point out any errors in the writing, or let me know if there's something you don't like or find odd. Your feedback will benefit both you as a reader and me as a writer. I'm always paying attention to all messages.

A/N: If you want to see 5 chapters ahead on Webnovel, you can join my P@treon.

link: [email protected]/Wade69

Next chapter: The World Pt2