Chapter 44: You Jie Has Not Sleep Yet (bushi)

"Alright, Xiaobai, come here." Cheng Xiaoyu stood by and watched for a moment, then squatted down and pinched the white jade dog's cheek to get it to look over. Although the dog didn't understand why, it still obeyed its owner, Megumi Fushiguro, and said, "Open your mouth."

Then Cheng Xiaoyu placed her arm across the white jade dog's face. "Hui, let it bite my arm with all its might, treating it like an enemy."

The two people, two dogs and four people looked confused.

"Ah? That's not good."

Cheng Xiaoyu: "I'll just test its bite force. Don't worry, it won't bite your teeth."

This isn't a teething problem.

Despite being full of complaints, Fushiguro Megumi still did as she was told and let the White Jade Dog bite Cheng Xiaoyu's arm hard.

The sharp teeth sank slightly into the flesh, but failed to leave a red mark.

The white jade dog whimpered and increased its strength. The skin and flesh were not tough, but its sharp teeth could not penetrate any further. The person who was bitten was even stroking its fur, leisurely and contentedly, as if he was deliberately grinding his hand on the teeth of the teething puppy and petting the dog at the same time.

After a while, Cheng Xiaoyu noticed that the white jade dog's strength had decreased significantly, and Fushiguro Megumi's expression became increasingly grim. "Okay, you can let go now."

The white jade dog, who suffered the first Waterloo in its life, cried "嘤嘤" and lowered its head back to the black jade dog, looking very depressed with its head and tail lowered.

The black jade dog rubbed its colleague sympathetically and turned back into a shadow.

"Mei, are you sure you told it to bite my arm as an enemy?"

Fushiguro Megumi panted and wiped the sweat from her head: "Yes."

Cheng Xiaoyu asked again: "Do you like watching anime, comics, and playing games?"

Megumi Fushiguro: "I don't like it. Mr. Gojo bought a lot of cartoon CDs, but I'm not very interested. If I have to say, I'm more interested in the morning news."

"Then you should read more anime, manga, movies, and tactics books. Ask Gojo how to increase your cursed energy. Physical training is important, but it should come after the first two."

Cheng Xiaoyu opened her hands, and her shadow twisted on the wall like a living thing.

"Shadows are formless. Unlike water, they are not something you can touch or grasp. They are truly intangible. Therefore, for those who can control shadows, imagination is the most important thing. Our cognition and our imagination will directly affect our combat effectiveness and fighting methods."

"Your ten shadow spells are essentially extensions of your magical power and imagination. That method of raising a shikigami like a Gu and then having it go away was simply a gimmick of someone else's incompetence. Your shikigami's strength depends on only two factors. One is your magical power. You should have noticed this. Just now, the bite force of the jade dog decreased as your magical power depleted, and it became increasingly difficult for you to support the jade dog."

That's why the black jade dog turned back into a shadow.

"The second, and most important, aspect for a shadow mage is your imagination, because 'shadows are formless.' For example, your jade dogs are actually dogs simply because you think they are dogs."

Cheng Xiaoyu picked up the white jade dog, opened its face to show Fushiguro Megumi its big white teeth, and explained.

"Megumi, Tsu Miki, have you ever carefully observed dogs or wolves fighting and hunting?"

Two children who were born in the city and whose families often had no money to pay the electricity bill because their parents left them alone shook their heads.

Cheng Xiaoyu: "That's right. Canines don't just bite hard when fighting. After biting their prey, they shake their heads and tear wildly, tearing the wound open and causing greater damage. This is their instinct, but I haven't seen this instinct in the Jade Dog before. Because Hui doesn't have this concept, the Shikigami born from you naturally don't have it either."

Fearing the child wouldn't understand, Cheng Xiaoyu added, "It's like a box of watercolor brushes passed down from one generation. Each of the ten shadow sorcerers gets all ten colors, but the final result depends on each sorcerer. They can completely break the watercolor brush to mix the colors together and use them as new colors, or they can just use them as they are. There's no single answer."

Megumi Fushiguro nodded, not quite understanding, and the black and white jade dog dissipated and turned back into a shadow as the child's cursed power was consumed.

Cheng Xiaoyu didn't know how much he understood, but her mission was accomplished anyway.

Cheng Xiaoyu: "By the way, if you want to use a Shikigami other than the Jade Dog, you have to defeat it first, right? Can I use it if I defeat someone else?"

Megumi Fushiguro: "No, Mr. Gojo said that although multiple people can be involved in the training process, it is ineffective. Mr. Gojo also did not teach me how to summon and train other Shikigami. He said it is too early for me to train new Shikigami now, and he will teach me when I am strong enough."

I get it. When you're desperate, you can throw a violent animal that attacks indiscriminately to pull everyone around you into the BOSS room. But Megumi Fushiguro is too young, and Gojo Satoru is afraid that he might accidentally explode, so he doesn't teach him.

Cheng Xiaoyu felt a little regretful.

I was thinking I could pick up some punching bags to vent my anger at her for working overtime for nothing...

As Cheng Xiaoyu began to speak, Fushiguro Miki ran over and pulled out a stack of notepads and pencils, trying to remember the key points. Although she didn't understand the knowledge of the world of sorcery, she knew that these would be very useful to her brother, so she drew and wrote down the key points and asked, "Is there anything else I need to pay attention to?"

"At this stage, Hui knows enough. It's better to bite off more than you can chew. If I have to say..." Cheng Xiaoyu thought for a moment, "Summoners shouldn't engage in close combat. You should find a way to learn some long-range attack methods."

Fushiguro Megumi was stunned: "But Mr. Geto can also be considered a summoner, right? I saw him and Mr. Gojo fighting by approaching them."

Cheng Xiaoyu: "First, because they were fighting for fun, not really trying to kill each other. Secondly, how many times did you count how many times he won? Although every mage has a heart for melee combat, mages who can't stack armor and defense and still focus on melee combat will often end up in the graveyard early. Huilai, repeat to me, pure mages should not be obsessed with melee combat!"

Megumi Fushiguro: "...Pure mages should not indulge in close combat."

Cheng Xiaoyu: "Speak louder, you want to learn magic spells when you are so quiet?"

Megumi Fushiguro: "Pure mages should not indulge in melee combat!"

Fushiguro Tsu Miki circled this sentence a few times and said, "I'll put this on the refrigerator later."

"Great, here's some candy for you." Cheng Xiaoyu stuffed a candy into each of the two children's mouths. "Of course, you can't completely give up on either melee or ranged combat. In actual combat, being biased towards one or the other is courting death. Perhaps in the future, Hui will have more powerful and swift melee attacks, but before that, you must first learn the ranged attacks you're best at to minimize your combat risks. You see, in the Pokémon anime, the trainers all throw Pokéballs for the Pokémon to fight, and few of them jump in to join the Pokémon battles, right? That's how Geto Suguru usually fights, because he's seen Pokémon and knows it's the safest way."

It doesn’t matter whether Geto Suguru has seen Pokémon or not, what matters is that Megumi Fushiguro listened to him.

It turns out that Megumi Fushiguro listened to her.

Because Gojo Satoru knocked on Cheng Xiaoyu's guest room door the next morning with a cloth bag in his arms.

"What did you say to Ena-chan?"

Cheng Xiaoyu: "I just told him that I wanted to learn some ranged attack skills from you, and that as a fragile mage, I shouldn't be obsessed with melee combat. Is this considered treasonous in the eyes of you, the Gojo family?"

"That's not the question!" Gojo Satoru said frantically, opening the cloth bag in his hand to reveal the black handle of a gun. "He told me he wanted to learn how to use a gun, and he actually pulled a gun out of that room! He even knew how to load it!"

Cheng Xiaoyu: ...It's easy to guess who is to blame, Fushiguro Shigeru, is this also the self-defense technique you taught your son and daughter?

You are amazing!

One can all imagine Fushiguro Shigeru tilting his head, touching the back of his neck and saying nonchalantly, "Just tell me if you can defend yourself," after hearing the accusation.

Number 233 suddenly realized: "So it wasn't Gojo Satoru who prepared it. When I was scanning the house earlier, I thought he'd left it for the children to protect themselves... Oh, it's been so long since I've seen a normal Earth human child, I've almost forgotten what "normal" means to them."

Gojo Satoru: "At that moment, I really saw the shadow of that jerk on his face!"

Is there a possibility that...it is normal biological genetics for a son to look like his father?

Gojo Satoru: "Don't let the idea of ​​raising a second-rate Fushiguro Shigekiru happen! Try harder on your kid's genes!"

If you, Gojo Satoru, can do this kind of thing, then Fushiguro Jin will have to light a stick for you when he burns incense for his deceased wife to express his gratitude. After all, he really doesn't want his son to become like himself.

Gojo Satoru was still cursing, "I really underestimated that bastard! I thought it was outrageous that he'd become a killer and left the child at home for so long, but I didn't expect him to actually set a gun in a room with only children! And teach the children how to use a gun! I must search that room to see if there's anything else..."

Cheng Xiaoyu: "Children who are left unarmed at home for long periods of time, it's normal to have something to protect them against most threats. A burglar would never expect two elementary school students to have guns. If you take this thing away, won't they feel insecure? Insecure children can easily grow up distorted, and the consequences... just take his father for example."

"I'll feel insecure if I don't take this thing away. You're not human, so you might not understand, but this thing can kill people if it goes off accidentally. Don't use your killer student as a reference for how to grow into a human being." Gojo Satoru smacked his lips. "But you and Ye Moth are right. Children this young will indeed feel insecure when left alone. I'm planning to stay on as a teacher at the school, so I should consider getting a house near the school and move them in so I can visit them right after work."

In order to avoid seeing Fushiguro No. 2 when he opened the door later, Gojo Satoru suddenly felt that it would not be a big deal to buy a house near Tokyo High School. If he was not around, there would be a place for his children to hide if they were in danger, and he could also use the school's training ground.

Cheng Xiaoyu was stunned after hearing this inhumane speech. "You just spent a billion not long ago, didn't you? If you spend money like this recklessly, won't the Gojo family cut off your living expenses and call you a spendthrift?"

Gojo Satoru didn't care. "I'm the future head of the family. Those guys don't need money, so what if I spend some? Besides, they fully supported me in stealing the [Ten Shadow] sorcerer from our sworn enemy, the Zenin family. Besides, I've been very restrained. Okay, I just bought a small apartment. I didn't invest in stocks, funds, start a business, or gamble. That's not squandering money. That's called being frugal."

Cheng Xiaoyu: "Is anyone from your Gojo family starting a business? Don't you care about those guys with toilet-like anthropomorphic heads?"

Gojo Satoru: "Of course not. Don't be fooled by those old men's pedantic prohibitions. They don't care about anything that truly affects their own interests and can make money. It's just that people from the three great families often have little social experience. In recent decades, few entrepreneurs have not lost money. Now they mainly make money by monopolizing the curse exorcism business and taking a commission. That's why they say things like 'You can't exorcise cursed spirits without being a curse master', because they can't make money without using their channels."

The mansion also houses a slew of people with no formal education, no social skills, and no talent for spells, who can only work as servants to make ends meet, further compounding the cost of living there. If he were to become the head of the household, the first thing he'd do would be to get these people into school and training, so they could find work when they were old enough. The place reeks of decay everywhere, where getting up in the middle of the night to make instant noodles requires listening to five people talking. If anyone could leave, no one would want to live there except those old idiots!

Cheng Xiaoyu waited until Gojo Satoru finished his mumbling before pushing the gun back to him. "You should give the gun back to Hui Jiao to teach him. It's at least a means of self-defense in actual combat. If you're worried about hurting someone, you could replace the bullets with rubber bullets or something that won't kill them. Speaking of which, has no one among you sorcerers really thought of getting an enchanted pistol in all these years? Isn't it more convenient and easier to use than most other spell tools?"

"It's not that simple. We exorcists of cursed spirits are different from curse casters who kill people. Ordinary weapons can't hurt cursed spirits, unless the bullet itself is a cursed tool. But in that case, it would be too difficult to recover it later and it would be a waste. The number of bullets needed is huge, and we can't use cursed energy to produce them..."

Gojo Satoru's rebuttal suddenly stopped at his lips. He suddenly remembered the twin sisters of the Zenin family whom he had met once when he took Fushiguro Megumi to the Zenin family to show off.

He remembered the results of the [Six Eyes] test at that time. It seemed that one of the twins was a sorcerer who could use cursed energy to construct matter.

But he had just taken Megumi Fushiguro from the Zenin family, and then took away two children...

Gojo Satoru suddenly asked, "Did Jie in the parallel world also adopt a pair of abused twin sisters?"

Cheng Xiaoyu: “…yes?”

Although I heard that the custody of the twin sisters had been accidentally given to Ye Mo by Geto Suguru.

"...I have something else to do, so I'll excuse you."

Gojo Satoru stood up suddenly, grabbed the gun and the package on the table, and rushed to Geto's dormitory and knocked on the door loudly: "Geto! Come out! Come out quickly! I know you must be awake now! Come out!"

Gojo Satoru suddenly remembered that the twin sisters rescued from the small mountain village are now named Yega and are raised by Teacher Yega. Both legally and factually, Geto Suguru has lost custody of his daughters. At first, everyone thought that Geto Suguru lost his two daughters because of a wrong move.

Is there a possibility that...

"What's up?" Geto Xia Yu, who was woken up from his nap, had his hair disheveled and was filled with resentment, like a demon demanding his life. "You'd better be in a hurry."

Gojo Satoru: "Hurry up and pack up, and go get your real daughters."

In a parallel world, the twin sisters adopted by Geto Suguru are actually someone else!

Geto Summer Oil: “Huh?”