Chapter 18: Chapter 17 - Nishimiya, Mechamaru and Todo
Nishimiya saw Kamo and Mai got defeated and Miwa got her katana taken by Sachiko while flying on her broom.
"We've barely started and two of them are out. Miwa also got her weapon stolen so she can't fight with Tokyo team. What a bad start" Nishimiya sighed. "Mechamaru and Todo are still out there but Todo said he isn't cooperating with us. So I can only meet up with Mechamaru."
She thought, then went on to find Mechamaru.
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After splitting up into two groups, Maki, Junpei and Megumi followed divine dog to hunt the curses.
"something is not right." Megumi said with a frown. They were walking for about twenty minutes already and still hadn't seen any trace of Kyoto team.
Maki nodded and said, "I was expecting we would meet some of the Kyoto team after splitting up. At least Mai should be hunting me down."
"Is there a chance that they're working as a team and killing Itadori?" Junpei was worried.
"Maybe. But Nakamura said she would keep an eye on some of them, right? I wonder what happened there." Maki said.
"May be they're still fighting over there." Megumi said after a while.
"Either way, let's just focus on hunting cursed spirits first. We can meet up with them soon and ask what happened." Maki said. Megumi and Junpei agreed and continued walking.
Soon, they encountered a Grade 2 curse.
"Leave that to me" Maki said as she prepared to fight with the curse.
Megumi nodded and waited at the side.
"Wow, she's strong." Junpei was amazed.
"Even though Maki senpai is only grade 4 Jujutsu sorcerer, she is actually stronger than her grade. Exorcising a grade-2 curse isn't difficult for her." Megumi explained.
"You all are so strong." Junpei commented.
"Okay. I'm done. Let's move forward." Maki said.
Just when they're about to move, they heard an explosion.
"Is that Mechamaru? Who is he fighting against ?" Maki said with a frown.
"Let's go check out." Megumi said and the three of them followed the sound.
When they got there, Panda was fighting against Mechamaru while Nishimiya created strong gust of wind to make Panda difficult to charge towards Mechamaru.
"Nue."
Megumi frowned and summoned Nue to attack Nishimiya mid-air.
Nue charged towards Nishimiya and electrocute her. Nishimiya lost her balance for a while but she controlled her broom just in time before it touched the ground. Maki ran towards her and asked.
"Where're the others? Are they ganging up on Itadori?"
"Maybe." Nishimiya said, not willing to tell them that three of her team is already defeated by Sachiko.
"Tsk." Megumi gritted his teeth at that and asked, "Where are they?"
"Why should I tell you?" Nishimiya replied and then created a gust of strong wind to repel Megumi's group. She tried to fly away after that.
"Nue. Chase her."
But, Mechamaru attacked Nue with his concentrated beam of cursed energy. Then, he made an explosion to distract them as he retreated with Nishimiya.
"They escaped." Junpei said.
They walked over to Panda and asked what happened.
"After we split up, Kugisaki and I encountered with Nishimiya. Kugisaki asked her if they were really planning to kill Itadori and then they fought. Kugisaki used her cursed technique to make Nishimiya fall onto the ground. Just when she was about to knock Nishimiya out, Mechamaru showed up and made an explosion. We were caught off guard and Kugisaki got blasted away, I think. Then, Mechamaru charged towards me so we fought." Panda explained.
Then, they saw Nobara walking towards them. Since she was blasted away by Mechamaru's explosion beam, she was injured. Fortunately, they weren't critical.
"Are you alright, Kugisaki?" Junpei asked.
"I'm fine. I'm gonna kill that robot." Nobara said angrily.
"They already escaped." Megumi said with a sigh.
"Sh*t."
Maki then started after a while,
"Why would they escape suddenly when they could've just called their team for backup. Nishimiya can use her ability to locate them from above."
"I also think this is strange. They even looked like they were in a hurry to retreat." Megumi also said.
"Right, Nakamura said that she can keep an eye on some of them. We should call her." Panda suggested and Megumi nodded.
"Hello." Sachiko's voice could be heard over the phone.
"Do you know where other Kyoto students are? Nishimiya and Mechamaru just ran away when they could've called backup. So we're worried that others might be ganging up on Itadori." Megumi said.
"Oh, don't worry about them anymore. I knocked out Kamo and tied Mai to a tree with cursed energy threads. Kamo won't be able to move for a few hours. As for Mai, she probably won't be able to move until I let her go or the teachers come and cut the cursed energy threads. I also took Miwa's katana so she's probably walking in the forest unarmed now. " Sachiko replied.
"Wait...what?" Megumi blinked.
"Did you just say you took three out in a go?"
"If you say it like that, it seems to be the case..Sorry I didn't call you earlier. I was busy watching Itadori fight with Todo."
Sachiko said and then hang up.
Megumi sighed and explained to the group. "She said she knocked Kamo out and tied Mai to a tree, then took Miwa's weapon. Also, Todo is still fighting with Itadori and she is watching it."
"Watching? like an audience ?" Maki asked with a frown and Megumi nodded, "Yes."
"That sounds like something that idiot Satoru would do." Maki sighed.
"Gojo sensei trained her for two months." Megumi shook his head.
"..."
"Well, no wonder Nishimiya and Mechamary ran in a hurry. They probably knew that and didn't want to get wiped out." Panda said.
"So what do we do now? Chase those two?" Junpei asked.
"We'll beat those two up when we see them next time. " Nobara said.
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Sachiko planned to leave the scene after defeating three of Kyoto team, she even walked a few steps away from the scene. But, after considering for a while, she ended up returning there to watch the fight.
Todo was now teaching Itadori how to properly control cursed energy in a fight. Sachiko sat on the tree and watched them fight.
"Don't you think you're watching too long, Nakamura?" Todo finally asked.
"Is it? I didn't think I have much to do anyway. I already dealt with three of them and I'm sure my senpais and classmates can take care of the other two. So I just figured I'm gonna keep an eye on you." Sachiko chuckled, "Plus watching two of you fight is more interesting."
"Then, fight with me." Todo said.
"What? Aren't you fighting with Itadori?"
"I'll continue fighting with him after fighting with you." Todo replied but Sachiko shook her head.
"No. Fight with Itadori first."
"Why? Didn't you say you're going to fight with me? Are you taking back your words?" Todo said, impatient.
"Well, you fight with fists and I don't feel like fighting like that yet. So, you should just fight with Itadori first." Sachiko replied.
"You're just taking back your words! Fight me now!" Todo said as he charged over.
"Nope." Sachiko said as she dodged to the side. "I'll just go and take out some curses first. After that, I'll come back."
After saying that, Sachiko left.
"Tsk. She escaped." Todo grunted.
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Nishimiya was finding out the location of curses and Mechamaru was taking out the curses. They were fighting a grade-2 curse and the curse was nearly exorcised when it was suddenly slashed by a cursed energy blade.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to steal your kill." Sachiko said and Nishimiya could tell she was just messing with her.
"If you kill steal, then you kill steal. There's no need to find an excuse anyway. " Nishimiya said.
"Oh, I wasn't finding an excuse. I really didn't want to kill it. It's an accident." Sachiko claimed.
"..."
"Okay. It wasn't an accident but I just wanted to mess with you. Really didn't expect to accidentally kill it tho. Did I put too much cursed energy?" Sachiko looked like she was seriously thinking but Nishimiya knew she wasn't.
"What is wrong with the girls from Tokyo school? They aren't cute at all." Nishimiya mumbled.
"So you're going to wipe us out now?" Mechamaru asked.
"Who do you take me for? Do I look like a madman who only knows to fight? I don't like violent fights at all!" Sachiko complained.
"You're saying this like you didn't just took three of us out in less than five minutes! Drop the act already! Everyone knows what you did." Mechamaru said.
Sachiko frowned and said , "What do you mean by acting? I just want to mess around and that's all. I wasn't even planning on fighting you two. My senpais won't get to show off their skills if I did that, after all."
Mechamaru was so frustrated for some reason that he launched his laser beams at Sachiko.
"Why would you attack me suddenly when we're having a conversation. Is that something a civilized person should do?" Sachiko said in an annoyed tone.
"Just shut up already!" Mechamaru shouted as he continued his attacks.
'What is he doing? This isn't even what we agreed to do.' Nishimiya thought, but she still supported Mechamaru in the battle. She used her broom to create strong gust of wind.
Sachiko was unfazed by the wind, naturally. Cursed energy wrapped around her acted as a shield and she also used bursts of cursed energy to attack Mechamaru.
'What should I do? I don't think I should take these two out. If I did, this team battle will become so boring and the rest of our team won't get a chance to shine.' Sachiko thought.
'But since I've started fighting them already, I don't want to just run away. It would seem like I lost to them.'
Sachiko was thinking what she should do and fought casually. But Mechamaru and Nishimiya couldn't breach her defences at all.
"Fine. Let's just tie them down." Sachiko said to herself, then manipulated her cursed energy to threads. The threads of cursed energy wrapped around Nishimiya and Mechamaru and then Sachiko binded them to a nearby tree.
"I've adjusted the cursed energy output so you should be able to move in a few hours. If you tried hard enough, you should be able to escape after an hour." Sachiko said.
"You're crazy." Nishimiya said.
"Am I?" Sachiko wondered but she didn't really care. She just liked messing around and going with the flow. Worrying what others might think of her just wasn't her type.
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"Did she just take out the whole Kyoto team except Todo?" Mei Mei said.
"Apparently, she did." Gojo said with a laugh.
"She's crazy." Utahime shook her head.
"Seems like we got another special case, principal Gakuganji. You read the reports right? I'm sure you know what it means then.." Gojo paused, then continued, "A special grade Jujutsu sorcerer"
Gojo said that with a meaningful voice."You don't plan to keep this underwraps for some reason, do you?"
Gakuganji had a murderous aura for a second but he replied nonchalantly, "We still need to make sure if she is actually that strong."
"Go ahead, then" Gojo chuckled.
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"So, we can fight now, Nakamura." Todo said.
"Yeah, I guess." Sachiko nodded as she thought , 'If I don't fight him, he won't leave me alone.'
Todo charged towards her and threw a puch at her. Sachiko just dodged and used a blast of cursed energy to knock him off. Todo quickly recovered from that and charged with more vigor. Sachiko sent blasts after blasts of cursed energy.
'I can't get close to her at all.' Todo thought, 'But if she keeps attacking like this, her cursed energy will run out sooner than me.'
Sachiko put on a smile as she knew Todo's thoughts but she didn't say anything. After a few minutes, Todo noticed Sachiko wasn't even trying.
"How dare you not fight me seriously? You know this is my last goodwill event and yet you still dare to fight like this?" Todo said furiously.
'If I get all serious, you'll die.' Sachiko thought but she just replied, "I wasn't just feeling like it. But since you're already a third year and this is your last event, let's have a good fight."
Sachiko said as she concentrated the cursed energy into a cursed energy katana.
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"Set the barrier now. We're ready." Hanami said.
"Got it." The curse user replied as he chanted, "Emerge from darkness, that which is darker than black. Purify this impurity."
"Now that we got a special present for you, prepare to die, Nakamura Sachiko." Hanami said as it watched the barrier forming.