[Three days flashed by in the blink of an eye, and Tokyo Jujutsu High entered an unprecedented state of martial law.] [Simply because Satomi Gojo wasn’t there, everyone treated the situation as if they were facing the ultimate trial.] [Since Sugumi Geto’s exact objective remained a mystery, the mobilizable combat forces were broadly split into two distinct squads.] [Squad One was spearheaded by Grade 1 Sorcerer Atsuya Kusakabe, tasked with guarding the Tombs of the Star and the cursed warehouses lining the path to it.
Squad Two was led by Grade 1 Sorcerer Keiko Nanami, stationed on standby along the outer perimeter of the campus to prevent Sugumi Geto from sealing the school within a Veil and launching an assault on the civilian population of Tokyo.] [The two teams maintained constant communication using Grade 1 Sorcerer Mei Mei’s crow shikigami as intermediaries.
The moment Sugumi Geto’s personal coordinates were confirmed, they would immediately converge to execute a coordinated pincer movement.] [––Logically speaking, if her sole purpose was the slaughter of non-sorcerers, Sugumi Geto wouldn’t need to go through such elaborate theatrics.
Consequently, Squad Two, holding down the perimeter, was expected to have a relatively lighter workload.
Most of the ungraduated high school students were assigned here.] [Meanwhile, Squad One was predominantly comprised of seasoned, adult sorcerers, though the two senior gym-sis’, Kinhime Hakari and Kirara Hoshi, had joined that frontline as well.] [Yet, purely in terms of raw destructive output, you felt that Squad Two–bolstered by Yuna Okotsu–was actually the heavier-hitting team.] [Aside from yourself, Yuna, and Keiko Nanami, the roster included Grade 2 Sorcerer Takuma Ino and…
Megumi Fushiguro.
Well, your childhood friend Megumi Fushiguro, to be precise.] [Aloof, sharp-tongued, a total sister-con, a textbook loner, a devout practitioner of soloism, a current junior high schooler, and a stunning hime-cut brunette who vanished and reappeared as unpredictably as a stray cat.
Despite the “childhood friend” label, your dynamic was strictly limited to her occasionally pestering you for tips on jujutsu theory…
After all, she didn’t even seem particularly close to her adoptive guardian, Ms.
Gojo.] [“…!”] [Sure enough, it didn’t take long for Mei Mei’s crows to broadcast a critical alert: “The Cursed Warehouse is under attack!”] [“Move out.
We’re moving to reinforce Squad One.”] [The commander of Squad Two, Keiko Nanami–27 years old, seemingly a junior classmate one year behind Ms.
Gojo–wore a crisp business suit with her light-blonde hair pinned up in a neat, low bun.
Tall, elegant, and striking, she was a refined beauty with distinct biracial features.] [“Listen to me, students.
You have not yet reached the age where you must definitively resolve to spend the rest of your lives as sorcerers.
Therefore, in the upcoming clash, please treat your own survival as the absolute highest priority.
The Jujutsu world may be an absolute dumpster fire, but it hasn’t degenerated to the point of demanding the sacrifice of children.”] [An incredible personality.
Truly, she was a woman capable of radiating pure maternal energy.] [You find yourself spacing out…
When the pressure peaks, your mind has a funny habit of drifting toward completely random thoughts.] [Suddenly, your vision goes pitch-black.
Beside you, Yuna Okotsu has reached out with a faint smile, gently cupping her hand over your eyes.] [“Tachibana-kun, what exactly are you staring at?
In a situation like this, instead of keeping your eyes glued to the other sorcerers, shouldn’t you be focusing on whether an enemy is about to jump us?”] [*Fair point.
But Miss Okotsu, if you keep blindly blocking my line of sight like this, it makes it literally impossible to see anything at all, doesn’t it?*] [“–––––!”] [The very next microsecond, a voice…
no, two distinct female voices you had never heard before echoed sharply through the air.] [“Domain Expansion—”] [*An ambush?!
And they’re leading with a Domain Expansion right out of the gate?
Wait a minute, didn’t Ms.
Gojo explicitly state that Sugumi Geto hadn’t mastered a domain?
Back then, you were even bewildered that a Special Grade could lack a domain, but it turns out that was just garbage intel?!*] [Yuna instantly snapped her hand back.
You could hear her breathing quicken, followed immediately by the sharp *shring* of a blade clearing its scabbard.] [The sunlight flared intensely against your retinas.
As your vision cleared, you finally caught sight of the adversaries barring your path.] [One was a thoroughly unremarkable, middle-aged woman–save for the glaring horizontal stitches running across her forehead.
And the other one…
was…
Megumi Fushiguro’s older sister, whom you had visited once in the hospital ward alongside Ms.
Gojo?!] [“–Womb Profusion.”] [“–Threefold Affliction!”] [Domain Expansion–the ultimate technique that splits reality itself.] [Using barrier techniques to construct a defined perimeter, it locks down a personal territory from which trapped targets find it virtually impossible to break free…
Furthermore, it subjects everyone inside to a relentless, inescapable onslaught of the user’s Innate Technique, carrying a guaranteed-hit effect.
It stands as the absolute zenith of jujutsu mastery.] [In a team brawl, can you use a domain to isolate opponents and pick them off one by one?
Generally speaking, no.
While the inner walls of a domain’s barrier are incredibly durable, the exterior is notoriously fragile.
Any ally left on the outside only needs to smash the barrier from the exterior to let their comrades break out.] [But what if–there are *two* domains deployed simultaneously?
Naturally, they can trap two separate groups of people entirely.] [You and Yuna Okotsu found yourselves trapped within the domain of “Megumi Fushiguro’s older sister,” while the rest of your squad was locked inside the domain of the stitched-forehead woman.] “Wait, hold on a minute!
System, did you stealth-buff the difficulty settings behind my back?!” Outside the simulation, Rui is actively driven to laughter by the sheer absurdity of this development.
“I didn’t complain when you forced Yuna to throw hands with Sugumi Geto less than half a year into her enrollment, but now you’ve swapped her out for Kenjaku and Yorozu?!
Someone explain to me why the hell Yorozu is even awake at this point in the timeline?!” Rui could only grimace.
But after a moment’s thought, it actually tracked with the lore.
“Whatever, Yorozu’s cursed object was personally synthesized by Kenjaku anyway, and since both of them are utterly obsessed with reviving Sukuna, a collaboration isn’t out of the question…
Kenjaku is currently running around in Kaori Itadori’s skin–Yuji’s mom–so she probably woke Yorozu up early just to supplement her raw numbers.
I can pretty much guess what that ancient mastermind is plotting…” Kenjaku, that millennial-old schemer, spent her entire existence doing two things: playing around with her massive Cursed Spirit fusion project, or hunting for a top-tier body to hijack.
And whose body would she be eyeing right now?
It wasn’t even a question.
The fact that she had shown her face here proved that her ultimate prize was no longer Sugumi Geto.
And the available vessels on this specific battlefield were: a functionally rigid but highly adaptable Construction Technique, a Ratio Technique that boiled down to basic physical brawling, a Cursed Speech user who burned through her vocal cords, a Grade 2 Sorcerer, a Ten Shadows user who was currently the most filial daughter alive, and an absolute cheat code possessing unconditional copying powered by infinite cursed energy.
Even an idiot would know which character to lock in.
[“New Shadow Style: Simple Domain!”] [You immediately deploy a Simple Domain, casting a protective aura over both yourself and Yuna.] [A flawless tactical response.
However, the woman occupying “Megumi Fushiguro’s older sister’s” body merely clicked her tongue, her face twisted in pure irritation.] [“Hey, little girl over there.
Kenjaku told me about you guys.
You two can play around with Construction Technique as well, right?
What a waste.
Cowering in a shell like that is pathetic.”] [She licks her lips.
In a flash, an insect armor remarkably similar to yours materializes across her skin.] [“Did no one ever teach you?
Fighting…
means tearing your enemy into seventeen or eighteen bloody pieces with your bare fucking hands!”] [Dragonfly wings buzz violently.
A silhouette that was dozens of meters away just a split-second ago instantly breaches your personal space!] [The clash is violently dragged into an aerial dogfight.
The three of you blur through the pure white expanse of the domain, crossing blades, colliding, and ricocheting off the barriers.] [For users of the Construction Technique who both command absolute air superiority, this trajectory was practically a certainty–and, naturally, the radius of your Simple Domain wasn’t anywhere near expansive enough to keep Yuna constantly shielded amidst such high-speed, chaotic maneuvering.] [Yet, “Megumi Fushiguro’s older sister” purposely refrained from triggering her domain’s guaranteed-hit effect against her…] [What the you inside the simulation didn’t know was that the definitive effect of Domain Expansion: Threefold Affliction was to subject the target to a Perfect Sphere of infinite, crushing pressure, erasing them from existence in a microsecond.] [If that thing clipped Yuna Okotsu even once, the pristine body Kenjaku had spent so much effort salivating over would be reduced to absolute dust.] [She didn’t dare touch Yuna, but she had absolutely zero reservations about erasing you.] [A Simple Domain is the sanctuary of the weak.
When pitted against an authentic, fully realized domain, it functions as nothing more than a temporary stalling mechanism…
to say nothing of the fact that your raw cursed energy volume and fine manipulation couldn’t even begin to compare to Yorozu, a top-tier powerhouse from a thousand years ago.] [How much longer can you hold out?
Two seconds?
Three seconds?] [Yuna watched the entire spectacle unfold, pure panic seizing her chest.
Her instincts screamed at her to shake off Yorozu and race back to your side…
Even though she hadn’t learned a Simple Domain yet, meaning standing beside you wouldn’t offer any protection, the completely frantic Miss Okotsu no longer had the mental capacity to process tactical logic.] [“—I will protect you.”] [That single promise was the one thing she absolutely refused to break!] [Without a single syllable of warning, the pitch-black silhouette of Rika erupted from her shadow, driving a massive, devastating fist straight into Yorozu’s unprotected midsection.
The sheer force of the impact sent the ancient sorcerer hurtling backward, while the violent recoil propelled Yuna in the opposite direction, bringing her to a dead halt right beside you.] [On the other side of the white void, Yorozu clutched her stomach, her facial features contorting into an expression of sheer disbelief.] [“Guh…
hooo…
*You dare?* How dare you brats do this to me?!”] [Even though she had only taken a single physical punch, her expression was so utterly warped it looked as though she had been commanded to swallow a brick by a Cursed Speech user.] [“The…
The Sukuna finger!
The one I went through so much trouble to get from Kenjaku, the one I tucked so perfectly inside there…
You absolute bastards just knocked it right out of me, ahhhhhhhh!!”] —