Zen'in Clan — Akashi Dormitory
"ARGH!"
"IT HURTS! IT HURTS SO MUCH!"
"PLEASE, JUST KILL ME!"
That was the atmosphere in the Akashi dormitory.
The dose Toji had administered was substantial — enough to keep every member unconscious until morning despite the severity of their wounds. Wounds that, under ordinary circumstances, would have killed them from blood loss before morning. Toji and Zoro had accounted for that: cauterization using intense heat had sealed the damage. So alongside missing tendons came third-degree burns covering the same areas.
When the anesthetic wore off, the members of Akashi woke up to something indistinguishable from hell.
"ARGH! PLEASE, I'M BEGGING YOU!"
"SAVE ME!"
The screams spread through the compound in the early morning, eventually reaching Naobito.
He had been awake through the night, turning Zoro's visit over and over — and specifically, turning over the final words. When the screams reached him, instinct said going there himself would make the meaning clear.
He was moving before the thought finished forming, innate technique already running.
Projection.
Fwish!
Twenty-four frames per second. The fastest sorcerer of his generation.
The Akashi dormitory appeared before him in what felt like an instant — and what he found there sent a cold wave through him.
Macabre, objectively. Though for a jujutsu sorcerer, macabre didn't usually mean much. He'd seen worse, more than once.
But this time the fear came anyway, because the scene made the words make sense.
*"Not all the clan members died today — that's my favor. Next time, I won't be so merciful."*
'So that's what he meant.'
To most people in the clan, those words would have sounded like the arrogance of someone overestimating themselves. The Zen'in clan had stood at the pinnacle of the jujutsu world for centuries. Countless enemies had come and gone. None had managed to bring them down. The idea that someone without a trace of cursed energy could threaten them would have been laughable in any ordinary conversation.
Naobito didn't find it laughable. Not because he had any particular insight into the twins' actual capabilities, but because the proof was standing right in front of him.
"He entered the compound. Crossed the entire distance to the Akashi base. Incapacitated every single member. Then came to warn me personally. And none of us detected anything until it was over."
Which meant the Kukuru would have been equally helpless. The Hei the same.
"I didn't even sense his presence before Jinta went down."
Not a single thought given to retaliation. Not from sentiment — there was none — but from the straightforward calculation that pursuing revenge against these two would leave the clan in worse shape than the attack already had.
The only question that actually mattered right now was:
"How do we keep this from reaching the other clans?"
Akashi wasn't simply one unit among many. Beyond Kukuru, and arguably on the same tier as the Hei, they were one of the clan's fundamental operational forces. That force had been neutralized in a single night. Not dead — but with injuries of this magnitude, walking again was unlikely. Fighting was fantasy.
'As if the Gojo situation wasn't enough.'
While the mind worked through possible approaches, a figure came running from across the compound.
"Naobito-sama! Naobito-sama! Soya-sama and Natsugu-sama — they're missing! We can't find them anywhere!"
The warning signals from Naobito's instincts climbed another degree.
"FIND THEM. NOW."
The shout came out louder than intended. A hand went to his throat immediately afterward.
'My blood pressure.'
---
Plop.
Plop.
Plop.
The only sound in the garden came from a bamboo fountain cycling through its rhythm — filling, tipping, emptying, resetting.
The room beside it was something else entirely.
The tension inside was dense enough to be felt on entry. About ten men occupied the space, each one older than the last, every face carrying that particular Zen'in certainty that nothing remained to prove — that the world owed them its deference simply by virtue of who they were.
The council of elders. Second authority in the clan only to the head himself.
They had gathered for an emergency summons, Naobito and Ogi standing before them.
"Why have you called us at this hour?" one elder said, irritation already in his voice. "Our next scheduled meeting is two weeks away."
Naobito didn't answer immediately. He brought the beer to his mouth instead.
Glug.
Glug.
Glug.
The elder's patience was fraying visibly. Then Naobito lowered the can, exhaled slowly, and spoke.
"Ahh… we were attacked."
The tone was completely indifferent. Whether that came from the alcohol or from the sheer absurdity of what he'd just said was impossible to determine.
The room did not share the indifference.
"What?!"
"Who would dare?!"
"The Gojo clan!"
"Ever since the Six Eyes were born they've been growing more and more insolent!"
"We cannot allow this to go unanswered!"
Every single conclusion pointed to the same name. In their world, no other option made sense.
Naobito let them run. Then corrected them.
"No. It wasn't the Gojo clan."
The room stopped.
Not the Gojo clan. Then — who?
"It was Fear and Terror."
Ogi turned the name over. It meant nothing to him.
"Who?"
"The top mercenary pair operating out of Kyoto's jujutsu underworld. Separately, each of them is the best in their respective field — enough to have earned names for it." A pause, another drink. "'The Scythe of Certain Death.' 'Sudden Death.'"
"Mercenaries." Ogi's voice was flat with skepticism. "You're telling me mercenaries did this."
"Not ordinary ones. They take any contract — with two conditions. The target can't be innocent, and the payment has to be worth it."
"Surely even the great clans aren't within their scope."
"They've hit the Kamo clan. More than once. The Kamo and their subordinate clans have been actively hunting them ever since."
The disbelief spread through the room in waves.
"So someone hired them against us."
"No."
"Then why did they—" The more they heard, the less the picture made sense.
"Vengeance."
"V-Vengeance?"
"They have a grievance against this clan. And it's a legitimate one."
"Legitimate?" One of the elders leaned forward. "You know these people, Naobito?"
The question carried weight. Answering carelessly could position him as complicit. He didn't particularly care.
"Yes. I know them."
Ogi's eyes sharpened immediately.
"Then you called us here to tell us who they are."
"No."
"What do you mean, no?"
"Their first attack alone has already done us significant damage. If we escalate to full war against them, we might win — but what's left of us after that war won't qualify as one of the Three Great Clans anymore."
The shock that moved through the room was different from the last. Quieter. More settled.
Then, finally, the question that should have come first surfaced.
"What exactly was this attack?" an elder asked.
A silence fell across the meeting. It didn't hold for long.
"They wiped out Akashi."
"WHAT?!"
"Last night. Infiltrated the compound, entered every room, and tore out the tendons in both hands and both feet of every member while they slept. Nobody detected anything. We only found out this morning when the screaming started."
"Then that means—"
"Yes. They could have done the same to any section of this compound. To any of us."
The sound of multiple people swallowing at once was audible.
"If they limited themselves to Akashi, it's because Akashi was who they had a score to settle with. But that's not where it ends—there are others involved as well…"
The door flung open before the sentence could close.
"NAOBITO-SAMA!"
The subordinate caught himself when he registered the room, and dropped immediately to his knees.
"I greet the honorable elders. And Ogi-sama."
"Skip it. Report."
"Yes, Naobito-sama. We found Soya-sama and Natsugu-sama, but—"
A pause.
"But what?" Ogi pressed.
"They're already dead."
The shock that should have followed didn't come. What replaced it was something quieter and colder — the particular fear that arrives when a threat finally becomes real.
Naobito read the room and felt laughter arrive despite everything.
"Hahaha! Well… they do live up to the name. Hahaha! Now — listen to me."
The council pulled itself together and focused.
Something had shifted in Naobito. The usual looseness was gone. What replaced it was the weight of someone who actually led something.
"I didn't call you here to discuss retaliation. The opposite. I called you here to tell you: do nothing reckless. Reinforce the domain's security — but under no circumstances, none whatsoever, do anything that draws their attention back to us. Is that understood?"
"YES, NAOBITO-SAMA."
Every council member. Every single one, without exception — including Ogi.
Not a good chapter for me. I had no inspiration anymore. I'm even surprised I made such a long chapter (even if it didn't tell a good story). Actually, I'm not even sure if what I wrote is consistent with jjk
Regarding the poll about my next fanfiction:
The JJK fanfic and the 7DS fanfic have the same number of votes, so I'll decide the winner myself.
And it will be…
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La fanfiction Seven deadly sins.
Sorry for jjk fans but there isn't enough 7ds fanfic on webnonel