Entering Tokyo No. 1 Colony

The moment the blood touched Mark Three, it surged toward Kirara Hoshi like a flood bursting through a dam.

"Huh?"

Kirara Hoshi blinked in disbelief.

"Kin-chan!"

Kinji Hakari immediately turned around, but he was too late.

"You two really do make a powerful team, but Kirara Hoshi is both your strength and your weakness." Kinoshita let out a breath of relief.

Unleashing Maximum Technique: Blood Red Modified had nearly dropped his cursed energy reserves below half.

After all, there was no limit to Kinji Hakari's jackpots. Even with as much cursed energy as ten Sukuna's Fingers, Kinoshita couldn't withstand that kind of relentless onslaught.

"I lost... What exactly are you after?"

Seeing that the blood hadn't harmed Kirara Hoshi, Kinji Hakari willingly deactivated his cursed technique.

Kinoshita slumped to the floor. He really couldn't blame Roku for failing to beat Kinji Hakari.

Without the offensive power of five Sukuna fingers, killing Hakari during a jackpot was incredibly difficult.

No wonder Okkotsu had said Kinji Hakari was stronger than him when he was on a roll.

"Thank goodness~"

Kinoshita waved a hand. "It's actually pretty simple. When Itadori gets here, go bring Hajime Kashimo to Tokyo No. 1 Colony."

Kinji Hakari immediately looked puzzled.

Kinoshita began explaining.

Ten minutes later.

Kinji Hakari burst out laughing. "What? Satoru Gojo got sealed? Hahahahahahaha!"

"Hahahahahahahahaha!!!"

Three minutes passed.

"...You're seriously kidding me, right?"

Seeing that Kinoshita didn't look like he was joking, he asked again, this time seriously, "So this Kenjaku's goal is..."

"To create a Great Thunder Cursed Spirit that will absorb every human in Japan."

"Uh... And Sukuna's goal..."

"To take over Megumi Fushiguro's body and obtain a Great Thunder Shikigami."

"Then... your goal...?"

"To exorcise Sukuna, that Thunder King of Curses, good and hard, then do a great thunder dance on his head," Kinoshita said with a perfectly straight face.

Kinji Hakari was curious. This guy clearly wasn't a Thunder Sorcerer, so why was every other word out of his mouth about thunder?

"After bringing Hajime Kashimo, a powerhouse from four hundred years ago, to the First Barrier, bring Ryu Ishigori over from the Sendai Colony too." Kinji Hakari leaned back on the couch and picked up a glass.

Kirara Hoshi immediately poured him a drink.

"You really know how to order people around..."

Kinoshita accepted a glass as well.

Although he really wanted to see Sukuna at his peak, what he wanted most right now was to kill him once first.

He could lose once or twice, but not a third time.

There would be plenty of chances to see Sukuna at his peak anyway. He might as well kill him while he was vulnerable.

Last time, Sukuna had used a binding vow in Tokyo No. 1 Colony to temporarily suppress Megumi Fushiguro's soul at the cost of not deploying his domain.

This time, as long as he gathered all the powerhouses in Tokyo No. 1 Colony, even without Satoru Gojo, it should be pretty easy for all of them to gang up on a Sukuna who couldn't use his domain, right?

"How exactly do you know so much?" Kinji Hakari eyed Kinoshita suspiciously.

Kinoshita rubbed his nose. "Don't underestimate my intelligence network!"

Kinji Hakari felt more and more that Kinoshita didn't seem like a Blood Manipulation sorcerer at all. He seemed much more like a Thunder Sorcerer.

"Yuta Okkotsu might not listen to me." Kinji Hakari took a sip of his drink. "After all, you don't have any proof for what you're saying. Even if I'm willing to listen to you, Okkotsu might not be."

Kinoshita stretched.

"Don't worry. No matter what happens, I'll find a way to kill Sukuna."

Kinji Hakari didn't pursue the subject. Since he had lost, he would naturally follow Kinoshita's plan.

After all, as long as it didn't involve those stubborn old higher-ups, Kinji Hakari didn't mind helping people from Jujutsu High.

"I'm leaving it to you, Hakari." Kinoshita pushed open the monitoring room door and waved over his shoulder.

Kinji Hakari gave a cold chuckle. "You're the one who'd better not die."

Outside Tokyo No. 1 Colony.

November 7.

Kinoshita loosened up his limbs. He still really wanted to learn a way to counter domains.

Sukuna's binding vow belonged to the pay-first, benefit-later category.

Binding vows broadly fell into two categories: pay first and benefit later, or benefit first and pay later.

For example, Kento Nanami's Overtime Restriction limited him to releasing only 80% of his cursed energy during working hours, allowing him to reach 120% during overtime.

Kento Nanami paid for the binding vow during working hours, then used its benefits during overtime.

That kind of binding vow could be broken.

For example, if Kento Nanami released 100% of his cursed energy during working hours, the only consequence would be that he couldn't reach 120% during overtime.

The same applied here.

Sukuna's binding vow came at the cost of being unable to deploy his domain, along with revealing that information to his opponents. If he deployed his domain, the only price would be losing his ability to keep suppressing Megumi Fushiguro's soul.

As for pay-first, benefit-later vows, examples included Sukuna's Furnace: Open having to be used one-on-one outside his domain, and his promise to form a hand sign and point the direction for every future World-Cutting Slash in exchange for firing one without any windup.

Breaking those would result in extremely severe consequences.

At best, he'd end up scattered in pieces. At worst, they wouldn't even be able to piece him back together.

In any case, at the point in time Kinoshita had chosen, Sukuna could use Domain Expansion only once at most. That was already a considerable advantage.

If Satoru Gojo hadn't clashed domains with him during the Shinjuku Showdown, Malevolent Shrine alone would have been enough-everyone else combined couldn't have endured two of Sukuna's Domain Expansions.

"Ughhh... I'm so jealous of Domain Expansion..."

Kinoshita sighed.

Despite having seen Idle Death Gamble, Horizon of the Captivating Skandha, and Malevolent Shrine, Kinoshita still hadn't made much progress with domains.

"Who in the First Barrier knows Hollow Wicker Basket?"

Kinoshita immediately thought of someone.

That brought him back to a classic battle.

The one where Kinoshita had thoroughly enjoyed watching two episodes of elephant versus house from the other side of the screen.

Reggie's cursed technique was called Contractual Recreation. It allowed him to turn receipts from actual transactions into shikigami.

However, because he was inside the colony, the receipts he could collect were extremely limited.

Kinoshita recalled the receipt for the atomic bomb dropped on Japan during World War II, and a smile unconsciously tugged at his lips.

"Ahem... That might be a little unrealistic."

After all, constructing an atomic bomb would require an enormous amount of cursed energy from Kinoshita, but as long as he had the receipt, Reggie could just about summon one.

But that wasn't the point. The point was that Reggie, as an ancient sorcerer, knew Hollow Wicker Basket.

If Kinoshita wanted to withstand Sukuna's one opportunity to use his domain, he really needed to ask Reggie for some pointers.

Simple Domain would have been better, but Kinji Hakari's cursed technique came with a domain built in. He had no need to learn it.

That left Kinoshita with no way to learn it from him.

"Hi~"

"I'm Kogane. A survival game called the Culling Game is currently taking place here."

"If you enter, you will become a player. Do you still wish to enter?"

Kinoshita nodded. "Yes! No problem!"