71 Maki

[Author Note]

Disc: HrPrTeam

FUNNY NUMBER!

LET'S GOOOO!

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

__________

Naohiro

Waking up, I feel my reserves are back at 70% capacity. Having a lot of cursed energy means that there is a fairly slow recharge timer.

As long as I don't use insane binding vows or fire off five or more domains, I'll be fine.

In any case, I'm glad that I'm back home and not stuck in a room with the big bad of the verse.

Tengen could've put a bed in the room at the very least, but I had to sleep on the hard tiles.

It was even more stressful since I had to be careful of Kenjaku.

Who knows what he would do?

I'm comfortable.

I just wanna...sleep...

*Knock*

A tick mark appears on my head as I sense who is outside my door. "What do you want, Potential Man?"

The door slowly slides open, and I see a kid with spiky black hair. "I just wanted to talk for a bit."

Sitting up on my bed, I wave him in. "What is it?"

He sits down next to me. "I was speaking to Naoya and I was told that I can become a special grade in the future."

I raised my eyebrow. "Where are you going with this? I've already told you that you are Potential Man."

Megumi didn't speak for a while.

*Sigh*

He sighed and then looked straight at me. "Help me tame Mahoraga."

I blinked. "That was the point of the conversation? I thought you were going to give up on being a sorcerer or something."

He recoils and looks offended. "HUH!? Why would I quit my path to becoming a jujutsu sorcerer?"

I smirk. "Well, you walk in here to talk seriously with me, your teacher. Don't act like you haven't complained to me in the past."

Megumi flops his head back, but I laugh. "I'm kidding, but seriously. You're aware that no Ten Shadows user has ever tamed Mahoraga. That's because the thing isn't meant to be tamed."

I give a sigh of my own. "*Sigh* If I'm being realistic with you, taming Mahoraga will be almost impossible."

He looks down, but I smile. "I said, almost impossible, Potential Man."

His eyes widen. "Can I really do it?"

A lightbulb goes off in my head. "I'll tell you what. We'll tame your other ones and have you practice against Mahoraga."

He scoots away from me. "Practice?"

I give him a closed-eye smile. "I mean, you can't die during a ritual if I participate, and Shoko will be able to heal you whenever you get beaten up. It also doubles as practice of my own. I still need some more fire resistance."

He tilts his head to the side. "Why?"

I raise my own eyebrow. "Why not get stronger when you have the opportunity?"

Megumi nods. "Makes sense, but I don't know if I can tame Mahoraga."

I laugh. "HAHAHA! You probably can't, but you have the strongest sorcerer and a top-tier medical professional on your side. If anyone can tame the thing, it's you."

He clenches his fists. "Then, I'm going to do it."

A wide smile appears on my face. "Having tamed Mahoraga already shoots you to high-special grade status. Show me that you want to become Accomplishing Man."

He tries to give me a serious nod, but it looks hilarious coming from a seven-year-old child.

...

Megumi gets up to leave, but Naoya peeks his head around the corner. "Hey, Naohiro. A minute?"

I tilt my head to the side but smile when I sense Choso at the entrance.

Running around the corner, I yell to the front. "Hey, Choso!"

With a stoic look on his face, he makes a short bow. Behind him, 'deformed humans' are showcased.

If you didn't know them, you would assume they were made from Idle Transfiguration.

I return his short bow. "Am I to assume these are all of your brothers?"

While I had met them before, I only paid attention to Eso, Ketchizu, and Choso.

Surprisingly, he dropped his stoic face and gave a short smile. "All but one, it seems."

I turn to look at Naoya. "This is my brother Naoya. Naoya, these are my new friends."

His eye twitches. "They are definitely interesting. Hey, are these the people you made a binding vow with using my name?"

Shamelessly, I give him a nod and a wide smile.

Naoya rubs his forehead. "Ugh, why does it feel like I'm the one running the clan? We have a group of unknown individuals coming into the clan compound, and Father is nowhere to be found."

I stretch. "What do you think he's doing, drinking."

He crosses his arms. "Sounds about right."

I keep my smile. "In any case, let's get you all settled in."

With that, they all entered the compound, and I was in charge of tour duty since I was the only one who knew them.

It would take a while for them and the clan members to know each other and get along, but as long as you don't screw with him or his brothers, he's a chill guy.

Choso and death paintings, get.

...

I flop back on my bed. "I need a nap."

*Knock*

My eyes widen a little.

How, I didn't sense anyone. Ah, I know where this is going.

Lying back down, I speak up. "You can come in, Maki."

I slightly narrow my eyes. I'm going to make sure that I'm able to track her. I don't like not knowing where people are at.

The door slides open. "You knew it was me?"

I nodded. "I can sense things with cursed energy. If I can't sense something, it means it has no cursed energy. To long didn't read, you have a heavenly restriction."

She walks in and sits down near the entrance. "I never got to thank you for helping Mai and me. Had you not done what you did, we would still be weak with little to no future as sorcerers."

I raise my eyebrow. "You're oddly mature. Wasn't Mai the one who was carrying you around?"

Maki straightened her back. "Ever since I've gotten my heavenly restriction unleashed, I've become the 'older sister,' and I'm strong enough to protect her."

I smile. "Interesting, so is that all you needed from me? To thank me?"

She rubs the back of her head. "Well, Big Bro Naoya said that you owed him one, so he wanted me to ask you to help with my training."

I've abandoned him twice, used him in a binding vow, and sent half-curses to the compound even when he wasn't free.

...

Yeah, I think I do owe him one.

...

I get up. "Alright, but I'm going to focus on Potential Man most of the time."

She tilts her head to the side. "Potential Man?"

I huff a laugh. "Megumi."

Maki has a confused expression. "Right..."

I walk towards the entrance and start walking towards the training ground. "Are you going to come with or do you not want help?"

She snaps out of her thoughts as she runs to catch up with me.

...

Making our way to the training ground, I ask her a question. "Have you been treated well here?"

She ponders for a moment before answering. "It was bad at first, but a combination of you and Big Bro Naoya helped Mai and me fit into the clan."

As we arrive, I speak up. "That so?"

Maki nods as she stands across from me on the grass field.

I smile. "Alright then, show me what you got."

She gets into a stance before shooting at me and throwing a punch.

I catch her fist that was sent towards my chest due to her height.

My eyes widen a little. "Wow, that isn't bad. I couldn't throw a punch that hard at seven unless I was using reinforcement."

She responded with a sidekick to my thigh.

I checked her kick, which made her fall over.

Falling back, she used her hands to push off the ground and shoot both legs towards my chin, but I tilted my head back.

Using her momentum, she tried grabbing my hair as she flew past me.

I was ragdolling to see what she could do, but she is not tearing my hair out.

My hand flies up and grabs hers before she can get a hold and throw her across the field.

I crack my neck as I smile. "It looks like Potential Man isn't the only one with potential. You would have more potential than him if not for one factor in his cursed technique."

She sits up and breathes heavily. "*Huff* *Huff* Thanks, you're really strong."

I smirk. "I know."

Maki gives me a deadpan stare but shakes her head. "Big Bro Naoya was right about you."

I raised my eyebrow. "What did Naoya tell you about me?"

However, all she did was smile.

...

I hate kids.

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