Person POV Shinji November 9th
Movies were such a blessed thing.
Honestly, from how disappointing these culling games players have been, I think I might have died of boredom without them and Uro. Uro was now a full-fledged movie buff, and I had even gotten her to watch some of the dubbed movies.
Hence why right now I'm going to the local convenience store to raid it for snacks and alcohol. That was another thing Uro had taken a particular interest in, testing the alcoholic beverages of the modern era, past the sake she was used to.
She didn't care much for beer, but sipped on vodka and tequila like it was water. Needless to say, we got hammered a couple of times and used RCT to heal the hangover and adverse effects. Well, she used RCT. I used the healing pods to heal myself.
Most busted ability ever.
I had also gotten a hell of a lot stronger, even without cursed energy reinforcement or frequency stacking, because I had been working out, then healing myself, and then working out again. And again and again until I was out of cursed energy at the very end of the day.
What happens if we get attacked at night?
Well, we had put our heads together and found out how to make a nice barrier that would hold off against even a special grade for about ten minutes. Which was enough for Uro to get into action and eliminate them, plus I recovered CE scarily fast, so it was all good.
But right now, I was more focused on the movie night ahead of me, we were gonna be watching a dubbed version of Pacific Rim, god that was such a good movie.
Surely that would be more entertaining than the weak sorcerers I've been fighting. 95 points to my name and not a single one of them survived the first punch.
I'm starting to see how Kashimo got 200 points. Speaking of the 'god of lightning,' they had already added the rule to let others see points, which was two days earlier than canon.
That tiny little divergence made me think, so I used Kogane to see the highest point counts in Sendai. I was at the top with 95 points, Dhruv was in second with 87 points, Uro was in third with 80 points, and, surprisingly, someone I did not recognize by the name of Kiden Jiki had a total of 63 points.
Ryu had 50 points, which meant that this random I had no clue about was outscoring one of the members of MY faction.
Unacceptable.
I would have to recruit him.
It's the only thing I can think of, other than killing the poor guy, but I think that'd be a waste of potential. I mean, clearly the guy wasn't lacking in it if he got so many points.
Dhruv was a maybe on recruitment because he had pissed Uro and me off so much with his annoying ass shikigami.
I sighed as I walked down the wide-open street. The nearby street lamps flickered, and I considered how I would approach him or recruit him, but I think I'll just beat him up before giving my recruitment speech to him.
Plus, the faction was pretty noncomit–
A rusty piece of rebar pierced straight through where my heart should have been.
I vomited blood, as the street's windows exploded and a loud boom washed over me. A sharp ring of pain echoed through my body, and I moved to break the line of sight from wherever I was getting sniped from.
I saw a grey blur this time, having now been prepared for its absurd speed, but I was still unable to fully dodge the weaponized rebar as it shot straight through my left shoulder.
Another boom washed over me, and I dashed out of the street and into an alley. I reinforced my heart to the maximum and ripped the rebar out. The instant it was out, I covered the hole with a healing pod.
'Fuck, that was close, just who the hell…' I stopped that line of thought; it didn't matter who it was. I needed to get the fuck out of there and–
A piece of rebar broke through the wall in front of me, slowing it just enough for me to throw my head to the side and dodge on pure instinct.
I Aerostepped up just enough to clear the alley building. I vibrated my leg right before I touched the roof, and exploded sideways just as another nearly impossible to track blur shot from where I was just at.
I aerostepped diagonally toward where I thought the rebar was shooting from, and another two booms washed over me. Sweat started to build on the base of my neck. I hadn't even seen those two.
I pulled Fester from the waste band on my pants with my right hand, and my left moved to form a hand sign.
I curled my pointer finger and touched the tips of my middle, ring, and pinky fingers to the tip of my thumb in a perfect circle. I put my hand upside down in front of my belly button and focused.
I extended my vibrations outside my body, forming a 5-meter-wide barrier around me. "Extension Technique: Pulse Perception."
It was a technique I had devised, inspired by Kusakabe's quick draw and simple domain, and Maki's precognition, given to her with her fully realized heavenly restriction.
It worked by making a barrier around me while imposing the condition of unilaterally accepting everything into it. In exchange, I could sense and track everything not vibrating at my unique, cursed energy frequency.
By forming the hand sign, I increased the technique's potency, giving me absurd reaction time.
I felt something puncture the barrier, and I blocked with the vibrating blade of Fester. The rebar cut cleanly down the middle like butter. After a couple of hours of testing with the cursed tool, I found that by vibrating the blade at the right compact frequency, I could cut through damn near anything.
I aerostepped closer still, and the cityscape blurred and melted together as I accelerated. Another piece of rebar punctured the barrier straight for my head, and I narrowly barrel-rolled, dodging the blow.
Another rebar piece came flying in, and I had to desperately swipe Fester at it to cut it in half before it would spear straight through my head.
He learned it seemed as he sent a cluster of three rebar pieces next, and I felt all three impact my sensory barrier, and I managed to cut through two of them that were aimed at my head.
I let the last one pierce through my left shoulder, and I ripped it out and healed the wound before he could send another at me.
I aerostepped, closing the distance faster and faster. I could feel the shit heads' cursed energy signature now. It felt strong, less than Uro, but definitely above the grade one level, from how Uro classified the others we saw.
'There you are…' I locked my eyes in the direction of his signature, just in time to feel twelve lightning-fast signatures enter my technique barrier, and I widened my eyes.
I blocked my head with the flat side of Fester and felt three impacts against it, as my torso turned into an abstract art piece. 'FUCK! WERE THOSE NUTS AND BOLTS?!' I screamed out in my head.
I created a healing pod on my chest, furrowing my eyebrows at the mentally intensive process of maintaining two barriers of different purposes. Seriously, how Kenjaku and Tengen were so good with barriers was beyond me.
I aerosteped sideways and was met with the feeling of a whole car entering my barrier. I swiped with fester and cut straight through the car before it could hit me. Another two cars entered my field, and I punched one, turning it into a crumpled pancake, before turning and swiping with Fester.
I barely managed to cut the second car in half, god fighting without the use of an arm was annoying. 'Stupid budget, Magnito.' I thought to myself.
I turned back to the source once more and let myself drop to the road. Entire metal segments of the road curved out of the asphalt, but I vanished before they could crush into where I just stood.
I crossed my arms, temporarily dispelling my sensory technique, and barreled through the wall of an office building and into the chest of the one throwing the metal pieces of rebar and screws. He had greasy black hair and a pale disposition and was punted back through the other side of the building.
He threw his arms toward me as he flew backward out of the building. The whole office started to crumble inwards, everything metal, including the metal supports inside the building shooting at me.
But I smirked and clapped, activating my technique and sending an overwhelming pressure wave outwards. I've noticed that the more metal he controls, the slower each piece flies individually.
The wave obliterated the building we were in, and all the makeshift metal projectiles flattened against the wave and were thrown away. The wave caught up to the boy's flying form and sent him flying even further back.
He reached out for a huge green street sign, and it ripped off, spinning towards him. He landed on it like a huge sheet-metal magic carpet. He landed in a kneel and started accelerating backwards.
He kept a palm against the highway sign and reached a building to our side. I reactivated Pulse Perception, just as I saw the building collapse into rubble and hundreds of spears of metal railgunned at me.
I had enough time to punch forward with the hand holding fester, cracking space, and flattening the spears against the resulting shockwave. I barrel rolled and aerostepped towards the ground.
I flipped and caught the stop sign that was flying at my neck centimeters before it beheaded me. I flooded it with my cursed energy, effectively breaking whatever hold the guy's technique had on it, and flung it straight at the brown-haired boy.
He reached out and tried to grab it out of the air with his technique, but it was flying far too fast. A deep gash opened on his side, spilling blood profusely. I saw him scream out, and I used his moment of distraction to charge a pencil-thin beam of vibrating cursed energy.
I shot it like a finger gun, and it impacted squarely against the shoulder of the arm pressed to the sign.
His shoulder jumped back, and his palm was lifted from the sign. He started to fall, but he slammed his other arm onto the sign, palm down, and stabilized. His furious eyes landed on me, and he pointed at me with his injured arm.
Two trucks slammed headfirst into each other exactly where I was standing. They crumpled together, but I was never in between them.
The moment he started to point at me, I had already vibrated my leg and shot forward at top speed. He bent the front of the sign up in an attempt to protect himself, but I had already appeared behind him.
The previously uninjured arm that was pressed against the sign was cut clean off at the shoulder. He swiped at me with what was once an arm, but he only sprayed his blood in my direction.
His motion did send a street lamp at me like a javelin, but without an arm, it was far too slow. I holstered Fester in the waistband of my pants and exploded forward in an Aerostep. I entered the boy's personal space and stopped abruptly, "I don't want to kill you, ya know?"
He ignored me and threw a jab with his remaining arm. I weaved my head easily out of the way. The boy had a lot to learn in terms of reinforcement. "If you would just–" He propelled himself off the sign with a pulse of cursed energy. 'Oh?' I thought, 'That wasn't a normal jump.'
I locked my eyes on where the boy was now, and we was sending another open fist my direction and closing it. Several buildings around us and the majority of the road around us exploded into rubble as thousands of metal spears shot at me from every direction.
But I sighed, that might work on someone weaker, but by using this many projectiles, he sacrificed the one thing that made his technique so scary to me.
The sheer speed of it.
Seriously, I was getting totally blitzed without my perception technique, but now, as I watched all the spears close in, I was kinda disappointed.
He should have just stuck to his initial approach, but let's see if he's really worth it. I aerostepped and vanished from where I was standing.
If he survived this hit, then we'd talk.
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3rd Person POV Jiki
'What the fuck is he?! Some kind of monster?!' Jiki thought to himself. He hadn't felt this outclassed since he was nearly killed by that crazy pink-haired sorcerer on the first day. He was lucky her attention was drawn to some other fighter at the time.
'I mean COME ON! The first hit is a direct hit, to his heart, HIS HEART! HOW IS HE NOT DEAD!' Jiki thought to himself, as someone who was awakened by Kenjaku, he had no clue of RCT or what Jujutsu was truly capable of.
But despite Jiki throwing every move in his arsenal at the silver-haired boy, he still closed the distance and cut off his fucking arm.
That was not how this was supposed to go, not according to Jiki. He had awakened the godlike power of magnetic manipulation and had trained nonstop since he almost died at the hands of that pink-haired woman. This should be his fight to win, not to lose.
And now he was sure of his victory, with all of the thousands of metal spikes he was sending at stupid fast speeds, no way would the boy make it out of this.
He watched the spears close in with eager excitement, but right as they were about to impact the boy, he vanished. All the spears impacted and cumbled against another, but his focus was drawn to the silver-haired boy.
First cocked back, and a translucent white sphere was surrounding it, far too close to dodge. Jiki threw his good arm to block, but it was far too late. A fist impacted his stomach, and a meter-wide crack appeared in space.
It exploded backwards into a shockwave that traveled through his body, and he vomited blood. He flew bounching off the side of a building, skipping twice along the road before rolling to a stop in the middle of a street.
'I can't move,' He though to himself laying down and coughing up more blood. 'One punch, and I think I'm gonna die.' He tried to breathe, but only shallow, wet gasps came out.
The silver-haired boy landed next to him, and he sneered up at them. "Now, about what I was saying, I don't really want to kill you, see I'm making this faction, and I think–"
"Fuck you!" He interupted with the last of his strength before pulsing his cursed energy.
He had thought of this move a couple of days ago, but was too scared to test it. See, by creating a huge pulse of electromagnetic energy on the ground and a bigger one in the sky, the charge should flow between the two, creating a huge artificial lightning bolt.
He didn't care about what the boy was talking about; all he cared about was that the fucker died for taking one of his arms.
His hair stood on edge and he smirked. The silver-haired boy stared down at him, "What are you–" He started before he was interrupted by the deafening roar of lightning.
And Jiki knew no more.
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1st Person POV Shinji
God damned it, why did he have to use a self-destruct move?
And why did it have to be so cool, too? Now I really wish I had recruited him.
I stared down the crispy corpse that was now burned beyond recognition. I had activated a healing pod the instant the technique had finished and was mostly healed by now at the cost of a small chunk of my reserves.
That lightning strike had been a hell of a lot stronger than a normal one, too, considering how much it cratered the road.
I sighed again at the missed opportunity. I could try to heal him, but if we were willing to suicide me before hearing me out, I think he'd be more of a liability.
I sighed and went back on my quest for snacks and drinks for tonight. I think I might get a nice Japanese whisky on second thought, that sounds really good.
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It took me another half hour to get everything else I wanted: some popcorn, some nice chocolates, and a bottle of 15-year-old Japanese whisky.
Needless to say, tonight will be fun. "Uro, I'm back!" I called out as I left my shoes at the door.
I heard quiet but hurried footsteps, "Finally! What took you so long?!"
I smirked smugly at her, "Check the leader board." I said, simply having realized on the way home that I had actually won our little wager.
Her face dropped in an instant, and she hurriedly called to Kogane. Only to be shocked to find that I had indeed crossed the final gap, "How?" She asked almost despondently.
I walked past her and patted her shoulder, "Stand proud, you were strong." I said mockingly as I passed her.
She came out of her shocked stupor and followed me into the kitchen as I set down the bags of food and drinks. "Wait, what happened?" She asked more curiously than concerned. "Were they strong?" She asked excitedly.
"Yeah, actually," I said, and she stopped, "I even tried to recruit him." I explained.
"And?" She asked impatiently.
"And he killed himself in some last-ditch attempt on my life." I shrugged, "He had a technique that let him control metal and shoot it ridiculously fast. Used that to make really strong lightning somehow, probably through electromagnetism."
"Oohh reaally thaats sooo cool." She drawled out before continuing, "So what's the movie about?"
I smiled at her single-minded focus and threw the popcorn in the microwave. "It's basically an alternate universe where Humanity builds these huge mechs to fight huge curses like monsters called Kaiju."
She tilted her head at me while pulling the first bottle of whisky out. "And 'mechs' are?" she asked as she got out two medium glasses. She put some ice cubes in both cups, before uncorquing the bottle and 'lightly' filling both glasses with whisky.
I nervously glanced at the quantity she was pouring, but answered, "They're like huge metal armor sets bigger than most of the buildings here, controlled by normal-sized humans."
"Haa?" She said intelligently while sliding my glass across the table. I grabbed the cup, and she walked toward me, hers in hand.
I took in her appearance; she had taken off her choker and earrings and was wearing my silver hoodie from the first day. She was wearing a small pair of basketball shorts as well, and they were mostly covered by my hoodie.
I raised my glass as she stepped close, "You'll see in the movie," I said simply, and watched as she raised hers. "Cheers?" I offered.
She smiled and clicked her glass against mine, "Cheers." She said and stared a moment longer.
I took a sip, as did she, before turning back to the now popping popcorn. Uro sat on the counter next to me, taking another swig of her drink.
I waited in comfortable silence before grabbing the finished popcorn bag. I reached over and opened the cupboard to grab a big bowl, and Uro ducked her head enough to give me access. I set the bowl down beside her and poured the popcorn into it.
I crumpled the bag and threw it into the trash bin on the other side of the kitchen. I made eye contact with Uro again, smiled, and passed the bowl of fresh popcorn to her.
She grabbed it and jumped off the counter, walking purposefully towards the couch. I grabbed my drink, the chocolates, and the two bottles and trailed behind her. She plopped down in the middle of the couch, and I took my spot on the right side of the couch.
I set the rest of the snacks and drinks on the couch table and looked to Uro. There was about a person's distance between us, and Uro placed the bowl between us. I hiked my left arm along the back of the couch and grabbed the remote. God, I love this movie.
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A Huge crustatious Kaju ripped down the street, buildings crumbling in its wake. It roared and threw its two pincers down, a plume of dust billowing from its every movement.
Cars were crushed under their own weight and the weight of the falling debris.
It was chasing the small form of a crying child. It swung another pincer through the building on the child's left, and she screamed and cried harder as she ran in her bright red slippers.
She rounded the corner of an alley and hid behind a dumpster, as a figure in black metal armor with a clear glass visor was shown behind her, staring at her.
"What's happening?"
Uro's confused voice snapped me out of the movie, and I turned to her. We had both gotten cold, and I had gotten a blanket for us, so we were sitting a lot closer now than before.
Only the bowl really separated us now, and I could smell both the floral perfume and the faint scent of alcholhol waft off her.
Looking at her, the only real tell that she was drunk was the ever-so-soft dusting of pink on her cheeks.
I, on the other hand, was far more of a lightweight.
"Sso Basically he's in her memories right now, and she iss reliving the moment her parents died, cuz she'ss reaally new at linking," I said with a slight slur on my words.
She didn't respond, too busy staring enraptured at the scene in front of her.
I smiled. It was fun finding movies she liked.
I turned back to the TV and decided to let her enjoy the movie.
Her shoulder pressed against mine as she leaned forward, unconsciously closing the remaining distance between us.
I didn't pull away.
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Okay, so maybe we drank a little too much.
I looked at the empty bottle before looking back at the TV.
The end credits were playing, names scrolling across the screen, and I couldn't even read the names. Gipsy's danger theme was swelling, and I slapped my hand on the remote a couple of times to turn down the volume, ending up turning the whole TV off.
I sighed, feeling my whole body decompress. Except for the weight on my left side.
I looked down and saw a mop of pink hair. Uro was asleep, cuddled up on my side, my hand on her back, pulling her closer. 'Hoh shit? Whend that happen?' I though eye lids drooping.
'God, I'm so sleepy… and so warm.' I thought and looked at Uro's sleeping form, taking deep breaths.
In my drunken state, I pulled her closer and moved to lie on my back, Uro ontop of me.
She grumbled in her sleep, resnuggling up to me until she was comfortable, but she didn't wake up. I smiled down at her sleeping form and pulled the blanket over us. Future me would likely have to explain this to Uro in the morning.
Now though…
Now I was comfortable, and so so tired.
My last thoughts before drifting off were the smell of flowers and whisky, warmth and trust.
Future me could deal with the consequences.
Present me was exactly where he wanted to be.
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A/N:
Aaaaand done, wow that was a lot I hope you guys enjoyed the Jiki fight is a little short, but its meant to show that Shinji's presence has some real narrative weight and to play with OC's with unique techniques.
Also, if you guys really want to see more of him, I can just as easily rewrite him back in, by just flashing back and saying Shinji changed his mind and took him to Ryu. But to me that feels contrived. Let me know how you liked it!
Also, the first chapter for both the Hakari and Force fics is out. Please don't execpt anything close to a consistent schedule on those because I work on each depending on writer's block, but this story is still my main focus at this point. Also for the force fic the love interest is between:
Female Gojo
And Maki
(The timeline of the fic will depend on FML we are not like the Big E here; everyone will be about the same age.)
For the Hakari fic, it is going to be either:
Toru
Nejire
Or bring Kirara over to MHA, but that one makes the least sense to me at this time.
Let me know your thoughts on that, and if your wondering when Tusk or the Ten Shadows fics are going to come out...
Got no clue.
Hope you enjoyed, let me know if you did and what I can do to improve!
Next chapter is Yuta, have a great night!