Kevin the Bored
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38 Chain-Quest Concludes!
🕑 Added 2025-04-20 22:11:19 +0000 UTCStanding once more under the light of the moon, I meet Kazuro's intense stare with a smile. Thanks to my Technique, I assume that's the reason anyway, I've never had any trouble seeing in the dark in this life, so I'm perfectly capable of seeing the excitement clear on Kazuro's face.
It's kind of weird actually. Kazuro is a Kappa and has a beak. How in Yomi can I tell what his expression means? It's nothing like the human equivalent.
I can only assume that it's because his aura is so clearly excited. It's kind of hard to mistake how he's feeling right now to be honest.
I wish I could share the same excitement.
I will give up every facet of my Inherited Technique, with the exception of Ice Bear. In exchange, my fine control over Ice Bear will be drastically enhanced.
My smile returns in earnest as I feel the Vow take hold. I might not be able to enjoy the same excitement as Kazuro, the excitement of a good fight. What I can enjoy however, is the joy of experimenting with a new Technique.
Kami I love my Ten Shadows so damn much. This life is amazing.
"Are you ready, Kazuro-san?" I ask, and Kazuro responds by letting his aura flare wildly, white fire surrounding his body as he enhances himself with Touki.
"FIIIIGHT!!!!" He screams in response, immediately charging forward with enough force that the lake explodes behind him.
Someone's eager~.
Smiling, I bring my hands together. "Ice Bear."
Ice pools out underneath me, freezing the surface of the lake from where I stand and rapidly spreading out. By the time that Kazuro's next footstep lands, the ice is already in place to flow up his leg.
"NOT ENOUGH!! NARAUKOOOO!!!" Kazuro yells, shattering the ice and not slowing his pace at all.
"YOU DON'T HAVE TO SHOUT! I CAN HEAR YOU, KAZURO!!" I yell back at him while responding to his lunge by creating a wall of ice in front of me that I shape into a snowflake.
The ice shield shatters on contact with Kazuro, and I have to lean back to avoid taking a strong right to the face.
I guess there was more to Setsura's Technique than just aesthetics.
Kazuro steps into his own punch and throws his left in an uppercut to my gut, but even with Touki, he is just too slow. Instead of countering, I push up with one leg while lifting the other to catch Kazuro's punch on my shin.
From there, it's just a matter of straightening out my leg and using the force of his own punch to launch myself away and gain some distance. As I am in the air, I create one hundred and eight slabs of ice around me and start twisting and moulding them into swords, doing my best to add intricate engravings to them all.
By the time I land, they're done and a gesture forward sends them rocketing to meet Kazuro's continues charge. This time, they don't even manage to reach him as Kazuro takes a deep breathe and then spits out a torrent of water.
Contrary to what I would have expected of him, the water doesn't come out in a single wave. Instead, the stream splits up into a hundred individual arcs, making it almost look like a gigantic lightning bolt made of water. Each arc strikes a sword and each sword shatters to pieces.
I should probably stop trying to copy Setsura then. It doesn't seem to be working. Whatever she did to her ice made it way more potent than normal, but I guess Jujutsu is inherently personal.
Alright then, I guess I'll just do things my way instead.
Swords and shields are overrated anyway.
///
Suwa no Kazuro
///
Kazuro's elders call him foolish. They say he is brash, simple minded, thoughtless.
He disagrees with them.
As far as Kazuro is concerned, the world is far more simple than everyone else makes it out to be. Kazenro likes to talk about perception, authority, wisdom. All sorts of crap.
Kazuro doesn't care about any of that. It just makes something simple complicated.
Life is simply finding something you enjoy and pursuing it.
Nothing more, nothing less. All this consideration and care about the opinions and actions of others is pointless in his mind. He just wants to do what he wants and enjoy himself.
Which is why he is so happy right now. Because if there is one thing that Kazuro enjoys, it is a fight.
The adrenaline, the action, the fact that you have to trust yourself to act without thought just to stay alive.
He lives for that shit.
So when Narauko's crude swords of ice shatter under his spears of water, it is a laugh that leaves his beak as his fist soars towards Narauko's face.
The human's eyes widen in shock, clearly not having expected Kazuro's own incredible power, far beyond that of the Yuki-onna before him.
However, when his fist crashes against Narauko's face, it feels strange. Wrong. He barely even gets to consider the feeling before Narauko's body shifts into alabaster white and shatters to pieces.
A clone.
"Missed me~," the soft whisper comes from right behind him, close enough that he can feel the hot breath on the back of his head.
Reacting without thought, Kazuro spins around with a backhand blow, only to see Narauko's smiling face leaning back just enough to avoid his fist. The human doesn't give him any time to recover from the action, blurring a step forward and planting a palm in Kazuro's gut.
The force behind the blow cracks his inner shell and sends him careening over the lake like a skipping rock. He soon catches himself, the very water below rising to life in order to cushion him.
His eyes snap up, searching for a follow-up attack that never comes. Instead, he only sees Narauko standing a distance away. His hands rest in his sleeves and his scarf waves in the gentle breeze while he simply smiles.
"Water is stubborn," Narauko says, the unexpected words bringing a lull to their battle. "It seems malleable, but it isn't. When water wants to go somewhere, it will carve through the very world itself if it needs to, and it will not allow itself to be diverted, not without a fight anyway. It's got a good balance. The unstoppable nature of water makes for strong piercing power, and the heavy deep makes for a good shield. Strong offence, strong defence."
Kazuro already knows this. There are of course many different ways water can be used, but in terms of offence and defence, water strikes a balance better than any other element. This is why he is so proud to wield it. As strong as fire and as sturdy as the earth. Yet, despite knowing this, he doesn't interrupt.
"For my best friend, that might be enough. Offence, defence, what more could you need? Well, I have always found greater value in versatility. In that, I am afraid that ice supersedes water."
Narauko turns to face him at an angle, and he blinks when two Naraukos step from the same spot and in opposite directions. They both speak as one. "Unlike water, ice does not really flow. It has no impetus of its own. Because of this, it is not as unassailable nor as sharp. However, this nature makes ice like clay. Malleable."
Another step and neither Narauko moves, while two more step forward out of them, leaving four identical humans staring at him, once more speaking in synch. "Water is strong, but it is limited in the forms it can take. But ice? Ice can be whatever you want it to be, because ice has no will like water does, and so your own will becomes its directive."
Another step, and Kazuro notices that he is being surrounded, but he cannot tell which Narauko is the real one. So instead of rushing forward, he allows the human to keep talking while he begins gathering his Youki, preparing for an attack that will wipe out any number of clones.
Each Narauko chuckles as he takes another step. "It is ironic. I bested Setsura by giving in to the unmalleable nature of water, and now I will best you by with the malleable nature of ice." He pauses, humming to himself as if in consideration while taking another step. "I wonder... Is it that I win because I am playing to the nature of my hand, or do I win simply because I am too strong to lose?"
Those final words are not something that he can ignore, so Kazuro pulls all of the Youki he has been gathering up to his closed palms.
"DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE ME, HUMAN!!" He yells, and as he does so, his arms pull apart, a deluge of water following the action.
From his hands, a pulse of water spreads. An expanding ring of water as tall as he is rapidly spreading out in every direction.
Unexpectedly, none of the Naraukos make to move or defend themselves. Instead, they all simply smile. Mocking him. Not even taking their hands out of their sleeves.
The ring of water smashes into each clone almost simultaneously, and to a fault, they all shift to alabaster white and shatter under the crushing force of the tides.
But then, where is Narauko? Kazuro thinks to himself, eyes dotting about, frantically searching for any sign of his foe.
But then, after glancing behind himself and seeing nothing, when his eyes turn back forward, Narauko is standing there. Hands in his sleeves. Smiling at him. Uncaring of the wave crashing down behind him as Kazuro's attack bleeds off momentum.
"Did you know that ice is actually colourless?" Narauko calls out to him, his tone casual. Kazuro only listens because he is trying to figure out what trickery is taking place.
"The white we see is just impurities. Air bubbles mostly. But pure ice is completely colourless." Narauko takes a step closer and brings a hand out of his sleeves. "Made right, ice could mimic glass. Or perhaps, a mirror?" Narauko's hand taps forward at the air, yet instead of touching nothing, Kazuro watches as the world cracks in front of him.
A second later and the cracks spread until reality shatters like a mirror, revealing what lay beyond.
The background remains the same, the world no different than before. But what is revealed is a small army of ice sculptures standing behind Narauko, shaped into men and tigers and crows.
"Quantity is a quality all on its own you know," Narauko informs him, smiling smugly.
But Kazuro does not cower. No, instead of fear, or doubt, what he sees only fills him with glee.
It starts slow at first, a shaking of the shoulders into a low chuckle until he can no longer contain it and Kazuro bursts out into laughter.
"LET US TEST THAT THEORY!!" He calls out, blood thrumming through his veins and Touki burning over his skin.
"Very well," Narauko responds, still smiling, before snapping his fingers.
The army behind him comes to life immediately and Kazuro doesn't hesitate to meet their charge.
The birds reach him first, and he shatters the first with a single punch and bats aside the second, only for the third to shatter itself against his chest.
The impact hurts, but it barely slows him. Instead, the pain only motivates him, causing the fire of his Touki to burn even brighter with his boundless lust for battle as fuel.
More birds of ice funnel into his path, but he elects to ignore them in favour of the approaching tigers. The constant impacts hurt, he feels the frost starting to spread across his chest, a dozen cuts dripping blood that freezes and shatters under each impact.
"Haha."
The first tiger to lunch at him fares no better than the first bird, smashed to smithereens under a single blow. The second however, clings to his arm as he tries to bat it aside, digging frozen claws into his flesh and fangs into his bones.
"Hahaha!"
Kazuro's free hand snaps out to catch another tiger by its throat, and even as he crushes and casts it aside, his beak snaps forward to the tiger attached to his arm. In one savage move, he bites down into the construct's skull and rips off its head, causing the rest of its body to shatter even as the ice in beak morphs to grow spikes that pierce the soft flesh and fill his mouth with blood.
He chokes only for a moment before his Youki churns the blood and shattered ice into a spear that launches from betwixt his lips like a bolt of lightning, shattering a dozen tigers and a dozen more men.
"HahahahahaHAHAHAA!!"
His laughter tears from his beak without constraint, his blood boils and his mind is filled with only the love of battle.
The human constructs reach him and he doesn't back down, shattering ice with every swing. Uncaring of the blows that he receives in turn. His sides ache from fists made of ice, his chest is painted red from wounds caused by a hundred beaks and claws. A tiger latches onto his leg, fangs digging deep through his thigh and down to the bone.
A howl of pain leaves him as he rips the construct off of him and flings it at the soldiers in front of him, but even that pain cannot come close to dampening the boiling of his blood.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! NOW THIS IS BATTLE!!"
Even with the pain scouring his entire body, Kazuro knows that he has never felt such euphoria as in this very moment, and when his eye catches Narauko's through the thinning army of ice, he expresses his feelings the only way he knows how.
Kazuro's speed only increases, a surge of strength being pulled from deep within his soul. The remaining constructs are obliterated under his charge, and he is pleased to see Narauko's smile only grow as he gets closer.
A distant part of his mind recognises the noise of every construct behind him collapsing, the will once driving them giving up control. The bigger part of him however, focuses on putting everything he has into his fist as he brings it down on Narauko.
This time, Narauko doesn't ignore him and the humans arms snap out of his sleeves to catch his blow. However, when their fists should have connected, instead, Kazuro's fist shatters nothing, sending shards of reflective ice scattering through the air.
He only has enough to time to recognise that he was tricked by another mirror before he feels a heavy blow impact his side, once more sending him skipping across the surface of the lake.
This time however, he is given no reprieve, as Narauko is already upon him by the time he has regained his bearings. Kazuro barely raises his arms fast enough to block another crushing blow, and he doesn't hesitate to act, having no time for thought.
His Youki commands the water beneath him to hold him still, leaving only his upper body to be knocked back by the blow, and he uses the posture to build up momentum, pulling himself forward with a counter attack.
However, once again the image of Narauko merely shatters under his blow. Not a moment later, he feels through his Youki infused with the water he stands upon as the pressure of a pair of feet appears on the water behind him.
He has no time to react to this before the next blow comes, but he feels his glee only grow as he allows himself to be moved by the blow, sliding across the water as if it is ice.
Spinning with the movement, he turns to face where the blow came from to see Narauko charging to meet him head on.
Kazuro's beak only stretches wider as his grin grows.
"DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE ME!!!" He yells out, matching his declaration by throwing another punch at Narauko's smiling visage.
This time, he is not surprised when Narauko's form shatters into nothing.
"I!"
This time, he is not surprised when a pair of feet touch down behind him.
"AM!"
This time, he does react in time. Dropping low just in time to feel the displaced air produced by Narauko's punch missing.
"STRONG!"
This time, Kazuro spins low, a leg stretched out that catches Narauko unaware, knocking the human horizontal. Perfect for Kazuro to rise up with an uppercut holding all of his strength, all of his joy, all of his fighting spirit.
"BLACK FLASH!!!"
His fist stops short an inch before Narauko's torso, sparks of black and red lightning bursting from between his fist and Narauko's body. Space itself seems to resist his fist, twisting and bending until it can bend no more.
An instant that felt like an eternity passes and his fist makes contact.
The world shatters, infinite colours and endless darkness flashing without control as space cracks.
Only this time, what shatters is not an illusion, it is no mirror, and Narauko does not avoid anything.
The moment passes and sound returns to his ears, booming and ringing, not that he even noticed its absence. The water of the lake drops like a crater and shoots straight back up, blocking his sight with a cloud of bubbly white surf.
The cloud is only disturbed by Narauko's form being launched away, a tailwind following him that draws the surf like an arrow.
Kazuro feels amazing.
He doesn't want to stop, and so he doesn't.
His legs tens, strength like he has never known filling him and then he is in the air, soaring through the skies after Narauko.
In his mind, he finds a scene replaying itself, and his Youki flows in mimicry without any conscious thought.
Water flows from his bones, through the gaps in his scales, out of every open wound. The water flows until it surrounds him entirely, an echo of his shape trailing after his wake.
"Water Echo," he mutters to himself, hardly even thinking.
His attention instead focused on the form of Narauko below, lying on his back in the lake's shallow water, staring up at his descending form with a wide smile.
He sees Narauko laugh, but he doesn't hear it. He sees Narauko speak, "You really are just so funny, Kazuro," but he never hears the words.
And then, as he continues to fall, his strength coming together to deliver one final, overpowering strike, he finally falls close enough to hear Narauko's next words, though he won't remember them.
"I guess I've played enough," Narauko says, a hand sliding over the water to his side. "It was fun, but I wouldn't want there to be any doubt."
A wave of power cuts through the haze of euphoria, but Kazuro does not even have the time to blink before everything jars to a stop and his world becomes white.
///
Shiroiwa no Setsura
///
When the fight started, Setsura could admit to some annoyance at the sight of Narauko poorly attempting to copy her Techniques. There is so much more weight to them than just their shape. It felt insulting.
Then, when she saw his spears and swords doing nothing to harm the Kappa and his shields doing nothing to slow him, Setsura felt a concern that he might already be on the Kappa's side and was holding back against Kazuro, his earlier words little more than wind.
Then he proved such thoughts overly paranoid by showcasing a level of control over his ice that still managed to surprise her.
The fight seemed fairly close from there, similar to her own but reversed, with Narauko taking the defensive position this time.
And then Kazuro surprised her by hitting a Black Flash.
She felt concern then. Concern that the Kappa might win, that Kazuro might grow too strong to deal with, and surprisingly even to herself, concern for Narauko's health.
Looking forward at the still world in front of her and the stunned silence enveloping them all, she realises that even after losing to him, she had still been underestimating him.
A new mountain stands over the lake of their battlefield. A mountain of ice standing too tall to see its peak from where she stands.
One moment, it seemed as if Kazuro was about to land a finishing blow, and the next, white.
Ice rose so fast to appear instant, as if the air itself was flash frozen, leaving only a towering monolith separating her clan from the Kappa and encasing Kazuro in a prison he surely could not escape.
That level of power. That output...
"Is he even human?" One of her clanswomen mutters, and she almost nods her head in agreement, before an image flashes through her mind.
A pale face highlighted by a pair of deep, purple eyes. A face she has only seen once but whose eyes she has never been able to forget.
No. Perhaps he truly is a human. Merely another anomaly, just like her.
I do not know who my mother is, he said. Perhaps there is no evidence beyond the impossible power she just witnessed, so alike with her own, but she can no longer continue to doubt her suspicion.
There is no evidence, but she has a feeling...
No. There is no evidence, so she will say nothing. It is not her place to do so.
But if she is right, then perhaps Miracles are possible after all.
She is snapped out of her thoughts by a deep, echoing crack that is followed by a dozen more. To a fault, all eyes turn to the growing cracks in the mountain of ice, and they watch with bated breaths as the cracks grow and spread.
Not a minute later, the entire mountain starts to crumble inwards, falling chunks of ice sending what little of the lake's surface isn't frozen into rising waves.
The sound of a footstep somehow carries over all of the ice, and their eyes are drawn to a shadowed figure as it steps through the collapsing mountain without a care for falling debris.
She is beyond feeling any surprise as she watches Narauko walk out of the crumbling monolith, carrying Kazuro bodily over his shoulder.
As if it were merely waiting for the permission of its master, the very second Narauko is clear of the ice, what is left of the construct immediately shatters into dust and crumbles behind him. The icy dust billows away in the wind, leaving the night sky sparkling with reflected moonlight, creating an ethereal scene that is as beautiful as it is terrifying in its implications.
No one speaks and no one moves. They just wait and watch. Eventually, enough of the ice disperses through the air enough for them to once more see the Kappa standing on the opposite bank. She finds some small comfort in knowing that they are just as stunned as she is.
Into this silence, they only watch as a giant polar bear climbs out of Narauko's shadow. They watch as he drapes Kazuro's body over the bear and then step forward, stairs of ice appearing in front of him. He comes to a stop on a raised platform and pans his gaze first over the assembled Kappa and then over her Yuki-onna.
Then he speaks, his voice reaching them clearly despite the distance.
"I am Narauko, and I am The Strongest. In accordance with the old ways, I claim this lake to be my own. Does anybody contest my claim?"
No one does. They would be fools to do so.
Narauko nods once, and then he smiles. "Good. Now let us discuss the future. I still need to get back to-" Abruptly he pauses, and it is only because of her enhanced sight and hearing that she catches the stupefied look frozen on his face and the muttered words that follow.
"Oh crap, the Vows! They dismissed Escape Rabbit! Fuck."
///
A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
Teehee, Narauko getting hit by some more black flashes. At this point, it's almost as if there's some kind of deeper meaning going on with that that isn't being explicitly stated....
Another fight scene chapter. How fucking crazy is it that I can just straight up write 4k long fight scenes now? When I started writing they'd be like 500 words lmao, crazy.
So, not too much in the way of plot in this chapter, but that's obviously gonna change next chapter. With this side quest done, I'm planning (read: hoping) to start moving the plot forward. I have a lot of ideas for various scenes of plot development, so look forward to that.
I will once again claim that I am going to try and write faster, whether or not that will be true or not idk. A man can hope.
Next chap might even be omake. I'll rewatch jjk s2 tomorrow and see if inspiration strikes.
Comments
Yuval Roth
Yeh, I kind of thing he would only be able to hit black flash in a fight he truly push himself in, guess he meeds to wait for his fight with sukuna or find an ultimate.
356PumpsAMinute
Can’t wait for Narauko and Sukuna to meet again! Wonder if they will meet in a omake in the future.
