Domain Expansion

The battle on the school grounds was approaching a fever pitch.

With the arrival of the Grade 1 Sorcerer Kento Nanami, the fight that had previously favored Mahito seven to three over Itadori suddenly gained another variable.

[Ratio Technique]

This seemingly ordinary yet highly effective cursed technique did not rely on brute accumulations of cursed energy.

Instead, it created a "weak point" at the seven-to-three division of a target's length, allowing for a "critical hit."

As a result, even against powerful enemies whose physical toughness far surpassed his own, Kento Nanami could reliably inflict damage and create openings.

Mahito was experiencing precisely that.

By constantly changing his shape to reduce both his exposed surface and the number of places he could be struck, Mahito could indeed counter each attack Itadori launched.

But the slightest lapse allowed Kento Nanami to finish his calculations, seize an opening, and unleash his technique.

Critical hits to the weak points along the seven-to-three division forcibly interrupted Mahito's attacks and movements. Combined with Kento Nanami's nimble movements and Itadori's heavy punches, which inherently struck the soul, a single opening was all the two needed to keep Mahito pinned down under a relentless beating...

"So that's it... So that's it!!!"

The short-bladed cursed tool infused with cursed energy and Itadori's heavy punches kept Mahito trapped in place.

Tempered by life-and-death struggles, having reconciled his ideals with reality and understood the responsibility and burden of exorcising cursed spirits, Itadori no longer feared the transfigured humans in Mahito's hands.

Every blow slammed into Mahito's twisted soul. Coupled with Kento Nanami's attacks sealing off every possible escape, they brought Mahito closer to experiencing the word "death" than ever before...

Such pressure... such exhilarating tension...

"This really is a new experience~"

An eerie smile appeared at the corners of Mahito's mouth.

Both men, still pressing their attacks, keenly sensed the sudden change in his presence.

As a Grade 1 Sorcerer, Kento Nanami seemed to realize something. Almost instinctively, he reached out and shoved away the still-bewildered Itadori...

"Domain Expansion-"

The surrounding air froze the instant human hands forming seals appeared in Mahito's mouth and his chant rang out.

Something deeper than darkness, something that reached further into his soul, burst out of the shadows inside his mouth with a whoosh.

Nanami and Itadori rapidly retreated, but under the pressure of that almost invisible darkness, little more than a blurred outline, one was pushed forward and squeezed toward Mahito while the other was mercilessly flung outside...

The target locked onto by Mahito's domain was-Kento Nanami.

The edges of his vision began to blur. Countless transparent, slender fingers writhed and formed seals in the corners of Nanami's eyes.

Centered on the spot where Mahito had stood, reality was ruthlessly "replaced."

Nanami could still feel the ground beneath his feet and the sky overhead. Even the cold wind whipping past him was still there...

But those familiar things had all been enveloped and cut off by a layer of even more "real" laws...

And what prevented him from sensing it all was-

"Self-Embodiment of Perfection."

The boundaries changed completely as Mahito finished his chant.

Countless human hands of different shapes and sizes intertwined and clasped one another. In an order that transcended geometry, they instantly constructed an enormous spherical barrier.

These hands were not mere embodiments of cursed energy. Some were slender like women's hands, their knuckles white from exertion; some were thick like laborers' hands, with bulging, tangled veins; others resembled infants' hands, their not-yet-fully-extended fingers curled inward.

Together, however, they formed a living shell, an utterly isolated cocoon embodying "the ultimate evil of humanity," rejecting all interference from the outside world...

"Heh, still a step too late."

Kento Nanami smiled self-deprecatingly and removed his glasses. As a Grade 1 Sorcerer, he naturally knew the effects of Domain Expansion and what would happen after being dragged into a domain.

Without a means of countering the domain's sure-hit effect, what awaited him was a lethal strike from Mahito's technique.

The [sure-hit] of [Domain Expansion], combined with [Idle Transfiguration]'s [sure-kill] attack on the soul.

Against such a lavish combination, Nanami's chances of survival were nonexistent...

"I should really thank you."

Mahito's damaged body had now recovered completely.

After expanding his domain, his soul's strength and his control over cursed energy had risen to another level.

And he owed it all to the combined pressure from Kento Nanami and Itadori...

"No need to thank me..."

Nanami's voice was calm. As he watched Mahito's palm aim at him, scenes from his exhausting, hurried life began flashing before his eyes...

Truthfully, he could not accept it.

But there was nothing he could do.

"Modern jujutsu sorcerers really demand too much. They single-mindedly pursue domains that guarantee both a hit and a kill, yet have no way to counter Domain Expansion themselves..."

"Isn't a situation like this just asking to die?"

In the distance, Hajime Kashimo watched the spherical black domain barrier taking shape on the school grounds. Even though he already knew the battle's inevitable course, he still felt puzzled and confused.

To him, modern sorcerers' single-minded pursuit of combining sure-hit and sure-kill effects in their domains was simply incomprehensible.

In his era, powerful fighters capable of expanding domains had been everywhere.

But to those people, a domain was merely an added bonus. Even when both sides expanded their domains in battle, it was only a means of neutralizing the sure-hit effect.

By obsessively pursuing the combination of sure-hit and sure-kill effects, they instead lost the means to defend against the sure-hit effects of an opponent's domain...

In Hajime Kashimo's eyes, this was putting the cart before the horse.

And most importantly...

Kento Nanami simply lacked the speed and strength to interrupt his opponent's Domain Expansion.

Among the many powerful fighters from four hundred years ago, the one who stood out most in Hajime Kashimo's memory for pursuing such a sure-hit, sure-kill domain was a challenger from a family of Cursed Speech Users.

By combining his domain's sure-hit effect with his own technique's powerful sure-kill ability, he could instantly kill any cursed spirit or jujutsu sorcerer he targeted the moment his domain expanded.

Yet even a fighter of such extraordinary strength had died at Hajime Kashimo's hands back then.

The reason was-

He was too slow.

During the time it took to activate Domain Expansion, a jujutsu sorcerer was almost defenseless and vulnerable.

Faced with Hajime Kashimo's thunder-wreathed punch and tremendous speed, anyone who was not an idiot could choose between meeting death after expanding their domain and abandoning Domain Expansion to defend themselves.

That Cursed Speech User had clearly chosen the latter.

And the price he paid was-

Hajime Kashimo smashed his skull apart with a single punch...

"Still, it's not entirely without merit..."

As Yuji Itadori leaped onto the outer shell of Mahito's domain barrier and gathered his strength for a heavy punch, Hajime Kashimo turned, grabbed the unconscious Junpei by the collar, and headed toward Jujutsu High.

Even though Hajime Kashimo looked down from the bottom of his heart on sorcerers who pursued sure-hit, sure-kill domains.

He could not deny that, in the modern era, only those who possessed such domains could truly be considered "strong"...

Then, as the strongest man from four hundred years ago, he ought to keep pace with the times as well...