Chapter 118: Valiant Miko Fired the First Shot of the Revolution
"Hey, Emiya-kun.
Why do you think those Curses are so intent on stealing Sukuna's fingers? Are they afraid we'll keep feeding the fingers to Itadori?"
Gojo Satoru asked Emiya this question after the baseball game of the Exchange Event ended that day.
When faced with this question, Emiya retorted with a question of his own:
"If all those fingers were in your hands, would you not feed them to Itadori?"
Then Gojo Satoru fell silent.
The answer, of course, was yes!
For Gojo Satoru, who has a personality that enjoys chaos and possesses sufficient confidence in his own strength, he would naturally want to immediately feed all the fingers to Itadori Yuji, allowing his strength to experience an explosive growth.
Even if Ryoumen Sukuna temporarily seized control of the body due to the increased number of fingers, it wouldn't matter. Gojo Satoru was actually looking forward to that scenario.
It was only natural for him, the modern [Strongest], to want a peak confrontation with the [Strongest] from a thousand years ago.
However, from this perspective, the whole chain of events was easy to figure out.
Gojo Satoru's thoughts were ultimately his own. Given the 'prudence' of the higher-ups in the Jujutsu world, even if they had temporarily given up on the idea of executing Itadori Yuji, it was only for him to have a greater use in the future.
For example, waiting until all the 'Sukuna fingers' were collected, and then feeding them all to Itadori Yuji simultaneously before executing him.
In this way, they could not only get rid of Itadori Yuji, a ticking time bomb, but also destroy all twenty Sukuna fingers at once.
After all, this Special Grade Cursed Object was truly useless to them; on the contrary, it would attract disaster as the seals came undone, or even be exploited by those with malicious intent.
Other Special Grade Cursed Objects at least possessed some unexpected abilities. Wasn't this finger, which could only strengthen a Curse, purely negative in effect?
And since this was how the higher-ups in the Jujutsu world planned to use the fingers, the Curses' intention to steal them was not hard to guess.
They weren't trying to use the fingers to strengthen their own fighting power; they were more likely trying to ensure the complete resurrection of Ryoumen Sukuna within Itadori Yuji.
Gojo Satoru was confident he could defeat a fully-powered Ryoumen Sukuna, but perhaps the Curses were also confident that a complete Sukuna could be a match for Gojo Satoru?
The Curses' goal was unequivocally to destroy humanity, and Ryoumen Sukuna certainly didn't seem like he would side with humans.
Even if his personality meant he wouldn't be fond of Curses either, as long as it inflicted a fatal blow on the Jujutsu world, everything would be beneficial to the Curses.
After all, Curses cannot be completely eliminated, but Sorcerers can be.
When Emiya relayed this thought to Gojo Satoru, who knew that the latter still maintained an attitude of complete unconcern?
He said at the time that the more the Curses wanted Ryoumen Sukuna within Itadori Yuji to fully resurrect, the less likely they were to actively attack Itadori Yuji himself.
He also trusted the talent of his students. A little bit of trouble would not be an obstacle; rather, it would become a catalyst for continuous growth.
Indeed, at Itadori Yuji's current growth rate, it wouldn't be long before he truly reached the strength of a Grade 1 Sorcerer, and a few more months of training would bring him close to catching up with veteran Sorcerers.
The growth rate of the others was also completely up to par, and they were only short of some real combat experience before becoming true Grade 1 Sorcerers.
Furthermore, their strength was completely at a disadvantage for now. Emiya and Gojo Satoru alone were enough to neutralize all of the Curses' high-end fighting power.
Gojo Satoru was not worried about this. In fact, after entrusting the students to Emiya, he happily took off for a publicly-funded trip overseas.
The main idea was that Gojo Satoru was not Japan's Gojo Satoru but the whole world's communal Gojo Satoru.
The next few days were quite peaceful. The Kyoto School students returned to their school after the Exchange Event. The Tokyo School students also made great strides in strength under Emiya's careful guidance.
Emiya first tailored a suitable weapon for each of them, and then began to teach them applicable techniques based on their different weapons.
Fortunately, they had Zen'in Maki, an all-rounder who specialized in using a variety of weapons, or Emiya might not have been able to look after so many people all at once.
It's worth noting that Itadori Yuji seemed to have genuinely fallen in love with greatswords, as the few weapons he chose to practice were all of the bulky, 'great-skill-in-clumsiness' type.
Things like a 'door-slab greatsword' or a nodachi nearly three meters long were his favorites.
Moreover, due to his strength being even more exaggerated than that of Zen'in Maki, who possesses a Heavenly Restriction, Itadori Yuji could easily wield these large weapons with ferocious power, allowing Emiya to recklessly add special materials to the weapons.
Big is strong! Hard is good!
That's pretty much the gist of it.
After another entire day of arduous training for the students, Emiya happened to receive a communication from Yotsuya Miko.
She said that she seemed to have inexplicably awakened a [Innate Technique], and upon learning this news, Emiya immediately rushed over to her location without delay.
After paying the ransom of one bento box to Miko's good friend, Yurikawa Hana, Emiya successfully took Miko away from her side. Her good friend, with her mouth full, went bouncing and skipping to the side.
Calculating by this method of equivalent exchange, perhaps as long as the meal tickets were sufficient, this child could unhesitatingly sell herself out.
Everything else is fake; only the delicious food in her mouth is real—this was Yurikawa Hana 's simple and unadorned value system.
"So... what is the [Innate Technique] you mentioned?"
In response to Emiya's question, Yotsuya Miko quickly led him to a deserted alley and then gently clapped her hands.
Clap—
As the crisp sound of clapping echoed in the alley, two very familiar figures slowly materialized behind Yotsuya Miko, amidst the fluttering of golden leaves.
"These are... the two divine servants from back then?!"
With this familiar visual effect, and the signature miko outfit and fox ears, how could Emiya possibly mistake them?
But the fake mountain god had already dissipated with the destruction of the ritual. How could these two divine servants, which were mere derivatives, still exist?
Was it the effect of Yotsuya Miko's Cursed Technique? Could she reproduce enemies she had seen before, or had she directly captured the spiritual forms of the two divine servants to her side?
"I don't know what happened. I just suddenly dreamed of some things while sleeping last night, and then I found that I could summon these two... Shikigami.
The dream at the time seemed to be their memories from when they were alive, but because those memories were too fragmented, I couldn't organize any effective information right away... but after realizing there was a problem, I immediately came to find Shirou-kun!"
Yotsuya Miko explained the source of the ability very clearly, although there were still quite a few mysteries.
Emiya had long suspected that the divine servants' true forms also originated from genuine humans, but he hadn't expected those memories to still be preserved until now.
Furthermore...
The process by which Yotsuya Miko acquired the ability sounded so similar to his own!
Both inexplicably dreamed of scenes from others' memories and then woke up with a new ability. Could this kind of thing be contagious?
"If it's an [Innate Technique], you should have known its name and ability when you acquired it. Did you?"
Emiya tried to ask.
Upon hearing this, Yotsuya Miko thought hard but finally shook her head unexpectedly.
"I just suddenly knew in my head that I could summon them this way. There was nothing else—no name and no ability.
However...
However, it seems that if my ability gets stronger, I will be able to summon even more powerful Shikigami, perhaps including the Mountain God I saw that time..."
Because she wasn't entirely sure, Yotsuya Miko was a bit hesitant and spoke in fragments while revealing this information.
"No name? But that big guy can also be summoned?!"
"Mhm..."
Emiya didn't yet know if an [Innate Technique] could present in this way, but this was likely a special ability belonging to Miko herself and not the influence of something else.
Emiya tried to get closer to the two divine servants floating in mid-air to observe them. He found that they were no longer as lively as before; they seemed to be just purely command-following Shikigami, hovering there blankly.
If they had no autonomy, although their power might be somewhat lacking, it also meant there would be no extra danger.
"It's okay. It looks like you've just awakened some kind of ability. Regardless, it's a good thing, isn't it?
When I go back, I can ask Principal Yaga if such a situation is possible... Miko, you really don't need to worry too much."
Not to mention the Mountain God, which could fully rival a Special Grade Curse, the combined power of these two divine servants would be a match for an ordinary Grade 1 Curse.
Emiya should be happy that Yotsuya Miko, who was previously powerless, suddenly gained such an ability.
After all, with her Spirit Sight, it was impossible for her to live a life far removed from Curses and danger. Having these Shikigami to protect her was an entirely good thing.
As for why the original intelligence had disappeared?
Perhaps it was because their long-imprisoned souls had already drifted away with the wind.
"Oh right, this way I can also be helpful..."
Yotsuya Miko muttered softly, then immediately asked Emiya, "But Shirou-kun, I still don't know how to use Cursed Techniques or fighting skills very well. Could you maybe spare some time to help train me or something..."
In fact, the things Miko dreamed of were more than just the original memory fragments of the two Shikigami.
She even had a nightmare a few days ago, dreaming that Emiya was happily holding hands and playing around with an unfamiliar woman with blue hair, and she was immediately jolted awake by this terrifying nightmare!
Although she knew it was just a dream, the memory, which was still clear after waking up, made Yotsuya Miko extremely vigilant, forcing her to rack her brains for her lifelong happiness.
This matter required her to be on ten thousand percent alert! After all, Emiya didn't seem like the type to care much about such things!
"If you're asking for frequent training... there shouldn't be any problem."
Emiya agreed after a brief thought.
In any case, the daily special training for the students didn't take up much of his time. He was only responsible for teaching the techniques, and the remaining training portion was mostly supervised by Zen'in Maki.
The students didn't even need anyone to supervise them specifically. After the external invasion incident, every one of them trained very seriously.
For Emiya, who had ample time, having Yotsuya Miko as one more student was completely fine.
"Really, truly? That's great!"
Valiant Miko had already taken the first step toward revolutionary victory. Wouldn't securing the base of operations be easily accomplished now?
Ding-a-ling—
Just then, Emiya's phone suddenly rang.
He gave Yotsuya Miko a greeting and stepped slightly to the side, then answered the call from an assistant manager.
"Are you saying Itadori and the others received a seemingly questionable mission request from the higher-ups?
Understood, I'll go check it out."
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I'm happy to announce a new Fanfiction!
Danmachi - Emiya becomes the protagonist
Shirou Emiya awakens on the 18th floor of the Dungeon and is brought back to Orario by the Loki Familia.
Can Shirou becomes a Hero in this World? (No Bell)
Read ahead (40 chapters) by supporting me on buymeacoffee com/varietl or ko-fi edwriting