Learning Hollow Wicker Basket

"That bastard...! I'm so pissed off!!!"

Huanglu cursed at Kinoshita while repairing his right arm with Reverse Cursed Technique.

He was confident in the power of his Explosive Flesh. Seeing Kinoshita act so arrogantly, daring to take it head-on, he had hurled an entire arm at him with all his might.

Who could have expected the bastard to suddenly run away again?!

"Were you trying to blow me up too?" Reggie emerged, covered in dust and soot.

Seeing that Kinoshita had already gone down, he glanced at the dead Haba and Remi.

"Finish him..."

"Like I need you to tell me!" Huanglu jumped down first.

Reggie picked up a receipt. His cursed technique, Contractual Recreation, allowed him to recreate the items listed on a receipt simply by burning it with cursed energy.

He could control the recreated items to a certain extent, just as he did now.

"Gasoline, alcohol..."

The receipts burned away, and vast quantities of flammable liquid rained down from the sky.

"Explosive Flesh!"

Huanglu was truly furious this time. He gouged out an eyeball and hurled it down.

An explosion rang out immediately.

"Maximum Technique: Blood Red, Second Revision."

Kinoshita formed a hand sign, pouring out massive cursed energy.

The two immediately looked around in alarm.

"A domain? I didn't think he was a jujutsu sorcerer of that caliber!" Gritting his teeth, Reggie immediately formed a hand sign and activated Hollow Wicker Basket.

Huanglu was momentarily stunned too, but quickly recovered. "It's not a domain! It's just an ordinary barrier technique!"

Blood enveloped the explosion, displacing vast amounts of air. Without air, even the fiercest flames would soon die out.

A sphere of blood at least half a building in size enclosed all three of them.

"So this is Hollow Wicker Basket!" Kinoshita was in no hurry to attack.

He carefully observed the flow of cursed energy around Reggie, even beginning to grasp the principles behind the Hollow Wicker Basket barrier technique.

"This bastard... How dare he trick me!" Reggie released his hand sign, dispelling Hollow Wicker Basket.

"Oh, come on. I never said I could deploy a barrier~" Kinoshita sounded a little disappointed as he watched Hollow Wicker Basket disappear.

"We can't fight him in here!"

"I'll blast a hole, then we get out immediately!" Huanglu turned to unleash Explosive Flesh.

But Kinoshita's lips curled. "Running away?"

"...What did you say?"

"That's more like it."

"Insect Armor."

Thud! Thud!!

Sent flying by two punches, Huanglu chewed on something, then spat out a tooth while still airborne.

"Explosive Flesh."

Smoke burst outward.

Kinoshita charged toward the two without a scratch.

Countless knives came flying at Kinoshita next, but these household items were completely useless.

Kinoshita knocked them aside with two swipes and continued pursuing Huanglu.

Although Reggie's Contractual Recreation interested him and might be worth considering against Sukuna, Huanglu was nothing more than a slightly stronger firecracker in his eyes.

He couldn't even compare to Jogo, yet he wanted to take on Sukuna, who possessed Furnace: Open?

"I have no use for you anymore!"

"Piercing Blood."

A shot of Piercing Blood struck Huanglu's right arm, but he was laughing.

"Die with me!"

Seeing Huanglu lose his mind, Reggie immediately used Contractual Recreation to summon two large trucks as shields in front of him.

Boom-!!!

The protective shell of Maximum Technique: Blood Red, Second Revision was easily blasted open.

Looking at the two destroyed trucks, Reggie inwardly exclaimed at how close that had been.

He hurriedly stood up, clutching his arm. "You bastard, you just had to provoke Huanglu. When he goes crazy, he'll unleash his strongest move at the drop of a hat..."

"Heh... Cough, cough, cough!"

Huanglu had blown his own limbs to pieces with Explosive Flesh. With only his torso remaining, he was ready to laugh mockingly at Kinoshita, who should have been reduced to scraps.

But as the smoke cleared, Kinoshita walked out completely unharmed.

"Idiot~ Don't you even know the rule? Smoke means no damage."

Huanglu's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. He wanted to unleash one last Explosive Flesh using his entire body, but Kinoshita wasn't going to give him that chance.

Crack!

5 points earned!

Hearing Kogane's announcement, Reggie immediately realized that Kinoshita was still alive!

"Damn it... Is this guy a monster? Even that couldn't kill him!"

This was the new effect of Maximum Technique: Blood Red, Second Revision.

In truth, Kinoshita hadn't escaped unscathed. Part of his arm had been blown off, and his body had been blasted bloody. Though it wasn't fatal, he had still taken an instantaneous explosion right in his face.

The effect Kinoshita had added to Maximum Technique: Blood Red wasn't about disguising it as a domain to trick his enemies.

Though he had considered that, the main reason was that his fight with Kinji Hakari had made him realize his lack of staying power.

Didn't Reverse Cursed Technique require cursed energy to replenish blood and muscle?

Kinoshita simply replenished them using the surrounding blood, treating Reverse Cursed Technique as a tool to stitch the muscles together.

Thus, as long as his complex internal organs weren't damaged, Kinoshita could drastically improve the efficiency of his Reverse Cursed Technique.

Under cover of that smoke, Kinoshita had immediately healed his injuries, constructed new clothes, then pretended to be completely unharmed. He had thoroughly fooled Huanglu, leaving him to die bitterly.

Heh.

He could have dodged. He was just having fun.

"Heh heh heh... I'm such a bastard..."

Seeing Kinoshita's sinister gaze, Reggie completely lost the will to resist.

"D-don't come any closer!"

"I'll join you!"

"I'll do whatever you say!"

Kinoshita nodded in satisfaction. "That's more like it. You don't want to get crushed to death by an elephant either, do you?"

"Huh?"

Ten minutes later.

Reggie stared blankly at Kinoshita.

"You want to learn Hollow Wicker Basket?"

He could sense Kinoshita's strength. They weren't remotely on the same level.

Even if Kinoshita could deploy a domain, he wouldn't be surprised in the slightest.

"Quit dawdling and get on with it!" Seeing Reggie's expression, Kinoshita immediately kicked him.

"Hollow Wicker Basket!"

An illusory wooden basket with a lattice-like weave appeared around Reggie.

Kinoshita studied it carefully, while Reggie began explaining its principles.

Everyone knew that within a domain, a sorcerer's attacks carried a sure-hit effect.

There were only two ways to neutralize that sure-hit effect.

The first was to press against the outer shell. Since a domain's sure-hit effect was imbued into its barrier's outer shell, having another domain's shell press against it would neutralize the opponent's sure-hit effect.

For example, when Megumi Fushiguro used Chimera Shadow Garden in his battle against Dagon, it hadn't activated any effects. Simply contesting the outer shell had been enough to strip Horizon of the Captivating Skandha of its sure-hit effect.

But not everyone had the luck and talent to master a domain.

Thus, to resist domains, sorcerers had invented Hollow Wicker Basket a thousand years ago.

Kinoshita had reason to suspect that Sukuna had invented Hollow Wicker Basket.

Hollow Wicker Basket required a two-handed sign. Maintaining that sign would neutralize a domain's sure-hit effect, but the moment the hands were released, the effect would vanish.

This meant sorcerers couldn't form other hand signs, engage in hand-to-hand combat, or the like while using Hollow Wicker Basket.

Except for Sukuna.