"I'm sorry for arriving late, my lady. Please forgive me." The fox-looking man apologized as he carried Kaminaga to the exit. He sees many wounds littered all over Mei's body and exhales calmly. "What am I to do with you, mistress.?" He sighed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The long, pink-haired male manages to escape the innate domain along with Kaminaga, taking her outside of the detention center; where it was still raining. The foxian fellow made sure that Mei was absolutely dry, using his body to shield her from the rain. At this point, the man's clothes were completely drenched from the drizzle, but he didn't seem to care; all that mattered to him was Mei's health.
The pink-haired man does a quick survey of his surroundings, making sure that there are no threats nearby so that he can find a place for Kaminaga to rest. When he came to the conclusion that there were no threats or enemies near the area, the fox placed Kaminaga down near a tree, leaning her upper body against its thick, wooden trunk.
"This isn't the best place for a young girl to rest, but it's the most I can do right now." said the fox, wiping a droplet of rainwater away from his face as he stood up underneath the tree.
Immediately after the pink-haired man sets Mei down against the tree, a pink smoke surrounds and engulfs him, and the man transforms back into a small, pink fox. He falls onto Mei's lap, landing on her thighs while squealing angrily.
'I reverted back into a fox?!' The pink-haired man, who was now in the form of a fox, thought. 'This is such an inconvenient time... Being in that human form exhausted a lot of my cursed energy.' He looks up at Mei's sleeping form, quietly observing how her chest rises with each breath she takes. 'If she were to make me her familiar, transforming into a human for a prolonged period of time wouldn't be an issue for me.' He exhales a sigh before laying himself down on Mei's legs, resting his fluffy head on her lap. 'All I can do now is just wait.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Laughter. The sounds of joy and idle chatter were all that Mei heard as she silently gazed up at the sky while being surrounded by three people.
To her right, there sat a man with long, dark hair tied into a low ponytail. He wore an outfit that was befitting of a general, and he had a red tengu mask tied around the side of his head. He held a cup of sake in his left hand, sipping it away merrily.
To Mei's left, there lay a female kitsune with short, white hair, fluffy ears, and a long, white, fluffy tail. She wore an outfit similar to the shrine maidens in Japan from back then, but the outfit had its own few additions.
Lastly, there was a female oni with long dark hair and horns that had red tips, resting her head on Mei's lap. She looked identical to the cursed oni that Mei fought earlier, except that she didn't have those two red marks running across her cheeks.
They all seemed to know Kaminaga very well as if they were close friends. But Kaminaga didn't know who they were... did she? For some reason, they seemed familiar.
"Spending time with everyone like this is relaxing." said the tengu general, turning to look at Mei with a small smile.
Mei nods in reply, returning the smile.
"Yes. I completely agree, Sasayuri," she responds. 'Sasayuri..? Who is that?' Mei wondered.
"Yeah! We should all hang out more!" the oni lying on Mei's lap blurts out, grinning from ear to ear. The white-haired kitsune nods her head in agreement.
All of a sudden, Mei's head began to throb painfully; a surge of memories came rushing into her mind. She stood up from the floor, clutching her head tightly as her body began to swing back and forth, to and fro. The three people surrounding her stood up from their seats, worried for the noirette.
"Ei! Are you alright? What's the matter?" asked Sasayuri, the tengu general. He reaches out a hand towards Mei, but she slaps it away, glaring viciously at him.
"Don't touch me!" She growls, taking a few steps back from the other three. 'Why are they calling me 'Ei?''
"Ei! Please, calm down!" The white-haired kitsune pleaded, taking Mei's hands into her own. "This isn't like you."
The female oni, Chiyo, wraps her arms around Mei's waist, in an attempt to calm her friend down.
"Listen to Kitsune Saiguu, Ei! Please stop!" Chiyo begged as Mei tried to wiggle out of her grasp.
"Let me go!" Mei demanded.
Suddenly, Mei saw images of each of her friends' deaths. Sasayuri lost his life during a battle with a giant serpent, trying to protect Mei. Chiyo lost her mind during an intense war and drew out her sword against Mei, so she had to be the one to kill Chiyo. The kitsune saiguu was consumed by an unknown entity during said intense war and was turned into filth. Ei never found out what happened to her afterward. Wait... Ei?
When Mei reopened her eyes, she found herself all alone. The three people who were once surrounding her were completely gone; they vanished into thin air.
'Where... Where did they go..?' Mei wondered to herself, looking around for any sign of them but to no avail. It was like they never existed, to begin with.
"Mei." A cold voice called out to the girl from behind.
Mei whips her head around and sees a woman who looks almost exactly like her. The only difference is that the woman had longer hair that reached her ankles, horns were poking out of her head, and her eyes were a shade of violet instead of blue. She takes a step towards Mei, but Kaminaga cautiously takes a step back, keeping herself on guard against this woman who looks identical to her.
"You needn't fear me, Mei." The woman said, raising her hands to show that she wasn't holding any weapons. She seemed harmless.
Mei quirks an eyebrow and slightly crouches down, getting ready to activate her cursed technique when needed. "And why should I trust you?" asked Kaminaga, tilting her head to the side curiously. She looks up and down at the identical woman with a scrutinizing gaze, still wary of her.
"Because we're the same person."
Mei's cerulean eyes widened in disbelief as she watched the woman slowly alter her appearance, transforming herself to look more like Mei. Kaminaga lowered her arms to her side and started to approach the woman carefully, her lips parted from shock. She reached out a hand towards the woman, grabbing a few strands of her obsidian-colored hair. Mei examines the strands carefully.
"Just... who are you?" Mei questioned the stranger, looking up at her with a bewildered expression.
The stranger lets out a soft sigh, and closes her violet eyes before reopening them to speak.
"Like I said, we are the same person. I am you," She points at herself and then Mei. "and you are me." she points at Mei and then herself.
Mei blinks twice, unable to comprehend what the strange woman was saying.
"I'm not really sure what you mean by that, miss.." The noirette says sheepishly, turning her gaze away from the woman.
"Dear me, how did I end up reincarnating as an idiot?" the woman huffed quietly, crossing her arms in annoyance. "You know what? It's fine. Let me put it this way; I am you from your past life. You are my reincarnation."
"Ah... I think I understand now." Mei mumbled to herself, thinking deeply. She glances up at her doppelganger. "So we're the same person?"
"Yes, you fool." The woman flicks Mei's forehead, earning an 'ow' from the young girl. "That's what I've been trying to tell you this whole time." She sighs again.
Mei stumbles back from the flick and gently caresses the small bump on her forehead, trying to soothe the pain.
"Ow... I'm sorry." She pouts before going back to her normal self. "Anyways, what kind of person was I in my past life?"
"You weren't actually a person, so to speak."
"Then what was I?"
"You were a god." The woman's lips curl up into a slight smile, a proud one, at that. "A very powerful one, to be specific."
Mei's navy eyes instantly lit up with curiosity. "I... I was?"
The woman nods her head in reply. "Yes, that's right. You were a god in your past life. Now," she starts levitating mid-air, sitting with her legs crisscrossed. "allow me to tell you a story from the past."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Outside the detention center, the veil began to dissipate, starting from the top and ending at the bottom. Megumi leans against the passenger window of Ijichi's car, talking with the sorcerer while standing in the rain.
"Please expand the evacuation area to ten kilometers."
"What about you?" Ijichi asked the ravenette.
"I'm waiting here for Itadori to return." Fushiguro replied flatly, his tone void of any emotion.
"I see." Ijichi muttered, sighing softly. "After I take Kugisaki to the hospital, I'll return as quickly as possible. Are you sure you don't want me to take Kaminaga along with me?"
Megumi shakes his head. "No, there's no need to take her with you. I'll make sure to keep Kaminaga safe. And, there wouldn't be much point in you staying here."
Ijichi's mouth curls down into a deep frown. 'Is he calling me useless...?'
"If you want to do something, please ask them to send over a sorcerer who's grade one or higher." The ravenette says with a sigh. "Not that I imagine any are around." He murmured quietly.
Megumi's emerald eyes wander back to Mei's unconscious form with a concerned gaze. There were multiple cuts and bruises scattered all over her body.
'She's severely injured... Just who was Kaminaga fighting..?'
"I'll do what I can. Later." Ijichi bids his farewell to the raven-haired sorcerer before rolling up his window, and then driving away in the rain.
Fushiguro walks over to where Mei is lying and he crouches down next to her, gently brushing away a strand of hair that got in the way of her face. His eyebrows furrowed, green eyes narrowed in frustration as he gently traced the small cuts on Mei's face using the tip of his finger while muttering incoherent curses.
"Good grief, Mei... Just what did you get yourself into?" The ravenette muttered, his tone and words laced with worry. He quickly retracts his hand away from her face before standing back up. "Geez, you really need to be more careful." Megumi stares at the detention center with a glum expression. 'If the worst case happens... Then it's my responsibility to end Itadori.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hey, did you know? We're both classified as special grade, apparently." Sukuna grinned as he looked up at the cursed spirit, which was currently fixed into a wall, its body split up into five parts. "Both you and me, man."
The cursed spirit struggles to regenerate its severed limbs.
"Good job, special grade. Keep trying!" Sukuna says enthusiastically, encouraging the cursed spirit.
After the curse finished regenerating its cursed limbs, the curse pried itself out of the wall, leaped down, and stood in front of Sukuna with a prideful grin, as if it were saying, "Look at me, Dad! I did it!"
"You look happy." Sukuna leans forward with his hands in his pockets, smirking. "Want me to praise you?" He cooed. "But healing with cursed energy isn't that hard for cursed spirits, unlike for humans." Sukuna leans back. "Neither you nor this brat really understand what curses truly are." He cocks his head to the side, his bright red eyes glistening with his confidence, his body radiating an aura of power. "This is a good opportunity, so I'll show you... What real jujutsu truly is."
Sukuna claps his hands together.
"Domain Expansion:"
The water Sukuna and the cursed spirit were standing on instantly turns red, like the color of blood.
"Malevolent Shrine."
The terrain changes for a brief second, before the cursed spirit's body splits up into four parts vertically, making the room go back to normal.
"I was planning to cut you in three slices, but you're really weak," Sukuna said mockingly to the curse as he approached it slowly, taking small steps before pulling out his detached finger from a hole in the curse's chest. "Oh yeah, and then there's this." He throws the finger into the air and swiftly catches it with one hand. "I'll be taking this."
As Sukuna turns around to leave, the special grade's body goes up into flames of blue and purple, eventually disintegrating into nothingness.
"It's over." Sukuna spoke loudly as he stood on a ledge in the building. He closes his eyes, expecting Itadori to regain control, but nothing happens. He opens his eyes. "This sucks! If you're just gonna switch, then do it already!" The king of curses yelled. "What's the matter, brat?"
After a few more seconds, still nothing has happened. It seemed that Itadori wasn't going to regain control over his body anytime soon, much to Sukuna's pleasure. His lips curve up into a wide, menacing grin.
"Heh."
(A/N: Hi everyone!! Sorry for the late update... lol. I've been really busy with school lately, and I've been going thru some writer's block. I feel like this chapter is really crappy though, ngl. I might edit it later when I have time. Anyways, thank you for reading chapter 15 of 'She Shines Eternal!' And thank you so much for 4k+ reads!! I love you guys sm <333)