The Devils of Jujutsu

Chapter 23: The Generals

(Fushiguro's p.o.v.)

Kugisaki and I had just arrived outside the Diamond Kingdom's capital. On our way there, we got a bearing on where Geto's army was coming from, so we began the preparations for the upcoming battle. We got out 8 commissioned curtains which were vital to the defense of the city. Kugisaki took half of the curtains, and I took the other half. After that, we split up to set up the commissioned curtains. We set them up in the form of a giant circle with a 2km radius to give us enough room to fight the army. When we were done setting it up, we met back up and Kugisaki said, "Well, now that that's all set up, what do we do now? Go into town and do some sightseeing?" I honestly couldn't believe she would recommend something like that in our situation. "No, we need to train for the battle. With an army of cursed spirits on the march, we can't afford to lay back." I said to her. "True, but it wouldn't hurt to take just one day off for some R&R." She replied. In an attempt to stop her whining before it went any deeper, I said, "I saw a lake while I setting up the curtains, it's just half a kilometer west of here. If you're that set on getting R&R, go swimming then." She replied with a sigh, "I guess it's better than nothing, but don't even think about peeping on me while I'm changing, got it?" I bluntly answered, "You really think anyone would be interested in what you got under those clothes?" That seemed to have made her angry because she grabbed me by the shirt and said, "WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME, MEGUMI?!!!! I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW, I AM A CUTE AND SEXY WOMAN WITH A BODY THAT BOYS WOULD LUST AFTER. HOW DARE YOU SAY I'M NOT ATTRACTIVE?!!!" Before I could reply, someone said, "Well, this is an interesting conversation, mind if we join in?" We both looked to see who said that, and saw two men with gemstones on their foreheads, one had pale skin and grey-spiked up hair, and the other had blonde hair and red, pupil less eyes. 'I remember Asta talking about them before, I believe their names are Mars and Ladros.' I thought.

(Mars' p.o.v.)

Ladros and I were on our way back from a mission with our troops to a new dungeon near the border with the strong magic region. We sent our men back ahead of us, because we had to have a secret chat about how things have been since we conspired to get rid of Morris after our mission to the Witches' Forest. We flew as we conversed. And as we were talking, I saw something down below, I said to Ladros, "Hey, do you see that down there?!" He looked and said, "Yeah, there's something big on the move." We decided to go lower to get a closer look. We saw a whole army of bizarre, grotesque creatures heading in the direction of the capital. We thought about engaging them to stop their advance, but there were too many for the two of us, and I didn't sense any magic from those creatures, so Ladros' magic absorption wouldn't help against them. So, we decided to head back to the capital to report this to the King.

When we were almost there, we saw two people setting something up in an opening in the forest. And from the look of it, whatever they were setting up was in the creatures' path. I assumed that they must've knew something about them. I told Ladros that we should talk to those two. He agreed and we both descended to approach them. We noticed they were a guy with black spiky hair, and a woman with an orange, shoulder length hair. That's when we heard the woman cuss at him about her being attractive. Ladros got their attention by saying, "Well, this is an interesting conversation, mind if we join in?" The black haired man asked us, "Hey, your names aren't Mars and Ladros, are they?" That question surprised both of us, two strangers actually knew us from just one look. I asked them, "How do you know us?" The woman answered, "We heard about the two of you from Asta." That got me more surprised, they actually knew Asta. "How do you two know Asta?" Ladros asked. The black haired man replied, "We've been training with him for the past 2 years. What are you two doing out here?" "We were coming back from a mission, when we saw an army of strange creatures heading for the capital. We planned reporting it to the King, when we saw that you two were setting something up in their path, so we thought that you might know a thing or two about it." Ladros explained. The man and woman looked at each other and the woman said, "You two saw those creatures?" The way she said it got me confused. 'Was it weird that we saw them?' I thought. I replied, "You find it weird that we were able to see them?" The black haired man answered, "Most people aren't able to see them. Normal people start only see them, when they're on the verge of death, or in special places." Ladros asked, "What the hell are they?" The black haired man replied, "We only explain this to like you, people who can see the same thing as us." They then explained about they creatures we saw, cursed spirits, embodiments of fear, hate, and other negative emotions. And they, jujutsu sorcerers have come to defeat the coming army. Honestly, I was a bit skeptical, but after seeing those monsters, I had to believe it. Their explanation made me asked the obvious question, "Will you let us fight these monsters with you? We may not have a lot of pleasant memories of this country, but it is still our home, and we have a right to protect it." Ladros agreed with me. The black haired man, who introduced himself as Fushiguro replied, "I understand you want to defend your home, but only curses can beat curses. While you both do have the talent to learn jujutsu, it's not something you can learn over night." I look down, frustrated that I can't defend my Homeland, while I did promise Fana that we would travel the world together one day, I wanted to make sure we had a home to come back to. The woman who introduced herself as Nobara Kugisaki, said, "Say, you two were trained by the same man who taught Asta swordsmanship, right?" I was confused by her question, but answered to see where she was going, "Yes, Master Fanzell. Why do you ask?" She replied, "Well, if he trained you guys, does that mean you both can you swords?" Ladros answered, "Yeah, but why is that important?" She answered, "Because if that's the case, then there maybe way you both can fight the cursed spirits." Her statement took us by surprise once again.