"Looks like you did it..."
"Hiromi Higuruma."
Kashimo watched the man before him, drenched in blood yet still standing ramrod straight. The corners of his mouth slowly lifted, and a hint of appreciation entered his pale blue eyes.
Hiromi Higuruma had been called a genius even as a Non-Sorcerer. After becoming a Sorcerer, he had tapped further into his talent, teaching himself basic Barrier Techniques mere days after acquiring his Cursed Technique. His capacity to learn was extraordinary, and now... he had even learned Reverse Cursed Technique.
He flicked his wrist, sending his gavel through a short, vicious arc. The rush of air stirred by its head abruptly widened the distance between them. Learning Reverse Cursed Technique had posed no great obstacle for him. The main difficulty lay in converting the negative energy of Cursed Energy into positive energy. Then Higuruma had thought of it: two negatives made a positive.
He glanced down at the wound in his chest, which was still slowly healing. New skin grew inward from its edges, faintly pink in the murky light. He pressed a finger against the edge of the wound, confirmed that the bone had healed, then raised his head and tightened his grip on the gavel again.
The handle turned almost half a rotation in his palm, its head pointing at Kashimo's chest. He watched that teal figure, watched the faint smile on his face, and slowly steadied his breathing.
"Domain Expansion-Deadly Sentencing."
As Hiromi Higuruma's voice fell, the spectral courtroom unfolded once more.
Kashimo offered no resistance, did not expand a domain, and did not even move. He merely rolled the Inventory Curse Worm coiled around his waist into a ball and swallowed it back into his stomach, then folded his arms and leaned against the railing of the defendant's stand,