JJK: Developing my potential

After Mei Mei passed out, exhausted from the intense orgasm Megumi's massage had brought her, the dark-haired man observed her still figure with a faint smile before bringing his fingers to his mouth, tasting the juices that lingered on them. "Mmm, delicious," he thought, slowly licking his lips. Then, with the same composure, he stood up and began preparing to track the curse, patiently waiting for Mei Mei to wake up.

A few minutes passed before the sorceress began to stir. Her breathing, now calmer, revealed how restorative the brief rest had been. Slowly, she opened her eyes, blinking softly as she took in her surroundings. Her body felt light, almost ethereal, and her mind, usually plagued by thoughts of her brother, was clear for the first time in days—ready to focus entirely on the mission.

"Oh, you're awake," said Megumi, seated cross-legged by the window, his eyes closed as he watched the curse through his [Bat Camera].

"Huh? What happened?" Mei Mei asked in a drowsy tone as she sat up in bed, still feeling the residual effects of her recent pleasure.

"Nothing alarming. I've located the curse," Megumi replied nonchalantly.

Mei Mei quickly straightened up upon hearing those words, her mind now fully alert. "What? How? When?" she exclaimed, surprised.

"Relax, Mei. First of all, remember you're not in any condition to exorcise it right now," Megumi said, his focus still on the connection with his shikigami. "I'll explain while you get ready."

His comment made Mei Mei recall what Megumi had done earlier, and a faint blush crept across her cheeks—a rare occurrence for her. Maintaining her natural elegance, she grabbed a sheet to cover herself before standing up and calmly searching for her sorceress attire. Meanwhile, she listened intently as Megumi began his explanation.

"You see… before we left the forest, I summoned a shikigami to track the curse. I didn't want to waste time while we headed to the hotel. Just as you woke up, the shikigami found it," Megumi explained calmly, severing the connection with his shikigami and focusing his attention on Mei Mei.

As the dark-haired man spoke, Mei Mei began dressing quickly, her urgency barely contained.

Noticing her haste, Megumi added, "There's no need to rush, Mei. We can take our time to prepare. My shadow manipulation technique will allow us to teleport directly to the curse's location. By immersing ourselves in the shadow dimension, I can link our position to the shikigami's and use it as a portal to reach the target."

Mei Mei paused for a moment, letting Megumi's words sink in. The firmness in his voice and the precision of his actions not only calmed her but also strengthened her trust in him. With a soft sigh and a barely perceptible smile forming on her lips, she nodded in gratitude, meeting his gaze directly.

Once Mei Mei finished getting ready, she turned to him and took his hand, her eyes filled with determination. Without exchanging words, they closed their eyes, prepared to face the curse that awaited them. Seconds later, darkness began to envelop them, and in a blink, they vanished from the room.

—[Location: Forest in Nara Prefecture]—

High in the sky, a bat began to convulse, transforming into a sphere of shadows. From it, Megumi and Mei Mei descended, hand in hand, shrouded in darkness.

Just before hitting the ground, Megumi raised his hand, forming an umbrella of shadows that elegantly slowed their descent. Once they landed, Mei Mei broke the silence.

"Well then, where's the curse?" she asked, her tone carrying its usual professionalism.

"It's about 300 meters to the northeast," Megumi replied calmly. "I teleported us to this distance so it wouldn't detect our presence."

"Didn't expect anything less from you," Mei Mei said with a faint smile. Then she added, "Tell me, Megumi, how do you think we should proceed from here?"

Megumi looked at her, surprised. "You're really asking me? Given your personality, I figured you'd be more tactical. I assumed you'd want to take charge of the plans."

From what Megumi had observed in the Jujutsu Kaisen manga, Mei Mei always took control during operations, even when surrounded by special-grade sorcerers. It was clear she wouldn't relinquish leadership of the mission easily, but he had expected at least some resistance—not the complete cooperation Mei Mei was now showing.

"Oh, so that's what you thought of me?" Mei Mei chuckled softly, appreciating Megumi's perception. "You're right. Normally, I'm the one who takes charge of strategy. I even enjoy testing my teammates during missions," she said, recalling a mission she had once shared with Utahime.

"But…" she continued, "in the short time we've worked together, you've proven yourself capable. Besides, it was decided from the start that I'd only be your support on this mission."

Megumi smiled, baring his teeth. "Good to know. Honestly, I was worried we might clash over that, but I'm glad that's not the case."

"Alright, enough chit-chat. What's the plan?" Mei Mei asked, tilting her head slightly, now fully focused.

"First, I'll set up a few aces in the hole," Megumi replied. Immediately after, he summoned [Peregrine Nue], instructing it to fly as high as possible and await further orders.

Then, Megumi extended his hand into his [Shadow Inventory] and pulled out a sword that gleamed with an impressive silver shine. It was the [Honjo Masamune], a legendary Japanese katana believed lost since World War II, but confiscated by the Zenin clan during that era.

"Oh my, looks like you're bringing out the big guns," Mei Mei joked with an amused smile. "You don't happen to have something for me, do you?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," Megumi replied, surprising the sorceress. He pulled a wooden necklace from his shadow and gently placed it around Mei Mei's neck.

Intrigued, Mei Mei examined the necklace. It was clearly a cursed tool, as she could feel the energy radiating from it, but its purpose was unclear.

Noticing her puzzled expression, Megumi explained, "I found this necklace gathering dust in the Zenin clan's vault at the Tokyo Jujutsu High. Its ability is to create a barrier capable of blocking a powerful attack once a day. I tested it, and it can withstand, at minimum, an attack from a special-grade curse. It used to be worn by the Zenin clan's future heirs."

Mei Mei raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "Well, I didn't expect you to give me something so valuable." Her tone carried a hint of more than just gratitude.

"Well… after what we did, it's the least I could do," Megumi said with a sly smile, maintaining his confidence.

"Ha, you're a bold one, aren't you?" Mei Mei replied, amused.

"I thought that was already clear," Megumi quipped before shifting to a more serious expression. "Alright, enough flirting. The preparations are complete. Follow me."

Without waiting for a response, Megumi started running, and Mei Mei, with a barely perceptible smile, followed closely, ready to confront the curse.

As they got closer to the curse's location, they couldn't help but notice something unsettling: the animals around them were watching in a strange way. Pausing briefly to examine them, they discovered that these creatures harbored cursed energy within their bodies. Most disturbing was a shared feature: grotesque fungi growing in parts of their bodies.

"Hey, Mei, looks like you were right. This curse's technique does more than just drive people mad. These animals look… relatively normal, except for those fungi," Megumi commented, narrowing his eyes.

"That's true… I feel like we're being watched, and I'm not talking about the animals," Mei Mei replied, glancing around.

"Well, we'd better take care of these little ones. Who knows what might happen," Megumi said, then opened shadow portals in the air. From them, cursed-energy-infused pins emerged, piercing all the animals.

You might be wondering how our protagonist can carry so many cursed tools in his shadow without being weighed down. Besides being incredibly strong thanks to his training, there's another secret behind this ability: a fortuitous discovery.

It all started after the battle against Naoya Zenin. Megumi had forgotten that, amid the chaos, he stored in his [Shadow Inventory] the book he used to legitimize that duel. A year passed before he remembered it, during a conversation with Maki where he recounted how he defeated Naoya. That's when he decided to retrieve the book, as it was no longer useful.

Megumi was immediately surprised: the book had transformed into a cursed tool. Apparently, the immense amounts of cursed energy he poured into his shadow could, given enough time, imbue any stored object with special properties.

After examining the new abilities the book had gained, Megumi discovered two fascinating things. The first, remote summoning: he could dissolve an object into shadows and store it, then summon it no matter how far away it was. The second, stored objects no longer had weight while in his shadow.

Fascinated by this discovery, Megumi began amassing a large collection of cursed tools in his shadow, creating a diverse arsenal he could draw upon in any battle. In essence, he had developed his own version of a mystical armory, akin to the [Gate of Babylon].

With the animals eliminated, Megumi and Mei Mei resumed their journey toward the curse, alert to any new threats that might arise.

—[Depths of the Forest: Cordiceps Curse Location]—

In the center of a cleared glade, five humanoid figures surrounded another, who appeared to be their leader. All of them shared a disturbing feature: small fungi grew in various parts of their bodies, grotesquely deforming them.

"Hmm... it seems they didn't send Gojo Satoru. What a disappointment. Oh well, who am I to refuse such generous offerings? Kekeke…" the central figure chuckled sinisterly.

That figure was Kino, the curse Megumi and Mei Mei were hunting. Sitting calmly in the clearing, Kino observed them from afar, using his cursed technique, [Parasitism], which allowed him to spy through the animals he had previously infected with [Servitude].

Truth be told, Kino was surprised. He had assumed that the sorcerer society would send their most powerful sorcerer, the legendary Gojo Satoru, to confront him. His plan had even been meticulously crafted to provoke such a response. He had infected the grandchildren of the higher-ups with the zombifying effects of his technique, turning the situation into a personal crisis for them. However, instead of Gojo, they had only sent two "nobodies."

Kino would soon regret his lack of better preparation.

To understand Kino's motivations, one must first grasp the nature of his cursed technique. [Parasitism] consisted of three main abilities: Zombification, Servitude, and Parasitization.

The first, [Zombification]: This allowed him to infect living beings with his fungi, gradually transforming them into uncontrollable berserkers that attacked any living thing in their path.

The second, [Servitude]: With this ability, he could inject fungi into his victims, bending them to his will. As long as Kino was stronger than his targets, these individuals would become his loyal servants. In fact, he had used this technique to subjugate the five Grade 1 sorcerers who had previously hunted him, extracting valuable information about the sorcerer world from them.

A secondary aspect of this technique was Kino's ability to see through the eyes of his servants.

Finally, the third, [Parasitization]: The most terrifying ability, and the reason behind his actions. If Kino successfully lands this technique on a target, He could take complete control of anyone's body. His ultimate goal was to use this ability on Gojo Satoru, capturing him through a domain expansion to possess his body and become the most powerful curse of all.

For now, that ambitious plan would have to wait. The arrival of Megumi and Mei Mei was unexpected, but Kino didn't underestimate the chance to enjoy a "warm-up" while awaiting his true target.

Shaking off his thoughts of the past, Kino, already aware of the arrival of who he believed would become his new puppets, decided to greet them with a taunt.

"Oh, so you've finally arrived… my future marionettes," he said arrogantly, bowing theatrically while a mocking smile spread across his face.

Upon seeing the five figures around the curse, Mei Mei was the first to point out a troubling detail.

"Megumi… those guys around the one in the center look a lot like the five Grade 1 sorcerers who were sent to hunt the curse," she murmured tensely, as images from past mission files flashed through her mind—faces she had seen before, though not yet deformed by fungi.

"Hey!, knockoff Pain. You'd better go all out from the start."

Megumi's voice rang out like a warning, charged with defiance. In that instant, his cursed energy exploded with overwhelming intensity, and the Dharma wheel materialized above his head, spinning slowly—a relentless omen of what was to come.

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A/N: Someone mentioned to me that when using AI a lot, the descriptions can come out a bit strange. And honestly, upon rereading some things in English, I noticed that, with my limited knowledge of the language, it's true. I don't plan to rewrite all the chapters, but I will work on improving chapters 22 and 23 from Patreon.

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: By the way, don't get excited: Kino is to Megumi what Jogo was to Gojo and Sukuna.

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 Pt1