Double Domain

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Itsuki Zenin was the head of the Zenin Clan, one of the Big Three Families.

After joining Jujutsu High, he had used a domain to instantly kill a fire-wielding special-grade cursed spirit.

During the Goodwill Event, his strength had been comparable to Satoru Gojo's...

Or perhaps a step above.

During the Shibuya Incident, he had been the mastermind who sealed Satoru Gojo head-on.

That was the information Yuki had received before entering the battlefield.

The situation inside Itsuki's domain, and how people reacted after being caught in it, had also been shared.

During their brief exchange earlier, Yuji and Megumi, both of whom had entered Itsuki's domain before, told the others everything they knew.

White Zetsu had also once said, during his speech at Jujutsu High, that Itsuki seemed to have two domains.

But after White Zetsu summoned the ancient tree Maki had seen in childhood, that chilling suspicion had temporarily been pushed to the back of everyone's mind.

The first stage of the plan had been simple.

Best case, they would use Todo's Boogie Woogie to strike Itsuki head-on while he was unprepared.

If that failed, Yuki would get close and open her domain.

Even if she had to sacrifice half her body in a self-destruction, she would shatter Itsuki's domain shell along with her own.

Yuki could not heal technique burnout with Reverse Cursed Technique. That required a level of control she did not possess.

So after both domains broke...

During that tiny window when Itsuki's technique was burned out and he had no phasing around him, Inumaki would use Cursed Speech in time.

He would stop Itsuki Zenin from repairing the burnout immediately.

Then came Todo.

In the fraction of a second when Cursed Speech immobilized him, Todo needed to transfer Itsuki to Yuki's side.

Even if half her body had to detonate, Yuki still had the shikigami she had not yet used in that way.

Garuda would become the final killing move.

The entire plan was almost perfect.

Provided...

Itsuki was only as strong as what they had seen so far.

...

"Domain Expansion: Star Rage Prize Ring!"

If Itsuki's Final Scene, Lapis Moon was a sure-kill technique that erased the mind, then Yuki Tsukumo's Star Rage Prize Ring was a desperate ultimate move designed to annihilate the body.

Vast cursed energy howled.

An ink-black domain shell swallowed Itsuki and every sorcerer from Jujutsu High.

"A boxing ring?"

Supporting his severed arm, Panda stared up and blurted the words.

The square boxing ring was only about six square meters.

Blood-red ropes surrounded it, limiting the fighters' ability to leave.

Countless human silhouettes formed from cursed energy crowded beneath the ring, shouting with everything they had.

Their excitement was feverish.

The sorcerers from Jujutsu High all appeared on benches in the audience area below the ring, becoming part of the packed crowd.

The two fighters above the ring were naturally Itsuki and Yuki Tsukumo, who now wore boxing gloves.

In the manga from Itsuki's previous life, Yuki had died at Kenjaku's hands before she could open her domain.

Itsuki did not expand his own domain immediately.

Instead, he studied the inside of hers with clear interest.

Or more precisely, he studied its rules.

Bang.

Bang.

Yuki struck her fists together and spoke with a slightly relaxed expression.

"I won't bother explaining the sure-hit effect."

"Inside this ring, every punch I throw with virtual mass multiplies in power."

"No matter how good your Reverse Cursed Technique is, you can survive three punches at most."

For Yuki Tsukumo, as long as a fist reinforced by her technique landed, the result itself was certain death.

Itsuki nodded slightly in agreement.

"Mass multiplied without a theoretical upper limit could break space, and perhaps even time."

"True. If I take several of your punches head-on, I will die too."

Itsuki lifted his eyes toward Yuki, his expression calm.

"Provided your fists actually have a chance to touch me."

Golden hair drifted around Yuki as she stared into Itsuki's pupils and clenched her knuckles.

"You really are arrogant."

"When I said it multiplies, I did not only mean power."

"I meant quantity too."

The explanation of her technique strengthened it further.

Yuki lowered her body.

Then she punched.

One punch came out.

A hundred followed.

The four red ropes surrounding the ring bulged and transformed into red boxing gloves.

They carried terrifying cursed energy and attacked Itsuki at the center of the ring from every direction.

The roaring beneath the ring climbed to its peak.

The sound waves rushing upward transformed into dense fist strikes as well.

The domain shell trembled.

Red gloves filled Itsuki's widening field of vision.

Itsuki smiled faintly.

He crossed his fingers, pressed the backs of his hands together, and lowered them toward the ground.

Wrong.

In the audience, Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara saw Itsuki form the hand sign and shot to their feet.

Their pupils shook violently as a chill shot through them.

That...

That was not the domain hand sign he had used against the volcano-headed cursed spirit.

Kusakabe, Utahime, and the others were startled by the three first-years' reaction and had not yet asked what was wrong.

Terrifying cursed energy spread down from the stage.

A thick ink darker than the surrounding blackness instantly covered all of Yuki's domain.

"Domain Expansion: Shadow Verdict, Grand Slaughter Mausoleum."

...

Inside the boundless Kamui Dimension.

"White Zetsu..."

Mai sat beneath the God Tree, arms wrapped around her knees, her expression complicated.

"What exactly is Brother Itsuki planning?"

Earlier, when Itsuki absorbed the cursed energy inside the Shibuya barrier and used the God Tree roots to attack, Mai had been able to faintly see the battle outside through the Kamui Dimension.

But after Yuki opened her domain, her view was sealed off.

She could not describe what she was feeling.

It was as if something inside her had been torn in two.

On one side were companions who had fought beside her through life and death.

On the other was the older brother she had always feared.

After waking alive, Mai had also wondered.

If she had not taken those few steps then...

If she had not closed her eyes and walked toward Itsuki...

Would she have never awakened again?

"Telling you is fine."

"Not like the Itsuki kid is going to let you return to Jujutsu High anyway."

White Zetsu lay on his back on the ground with a Cuban cigar in his mouth.

His hands rested behind his head, one leg crossed over the other as it swung lazily.

"That idiot Brain is preparing to lay down ten huge barriers across Japan."

"He'll summon sorcerers from the past, plus all kinds of strange cursed spirits."

White Zetsu turned his head toward Mai and grinned.

"Guess what all that is to the Itsuki kid."

Mai froze.

This was the first time she had heard Fake Geto's plan.

Then she remembered the terrifying scenes she had seen in the cursed storehouse at the Zenin estate over all those years.

She spoke in a daze.

"Absorption... nutrients?"

Zenin sorcerers went out to capture cursed spirits, and Itsuki absorbed them inside the cursed storehouse.

If what White Zetsu said was true, then ten massive barriers would be...

An endless breeding farm.

"That's part of it, sure. Also the easiest goal to achieve."

"But cursed energy? With Uncle Zetsu's main body helping him, the Itsuki kid doesn't actually lack that."

White Zetsu clicked his tongue and kept swinging his leg.

"Those old guys from a thousand years ago..."

"Even if he drained them dry, it wouldn't change much."

His disdainful tone showed that he did not take Kenjaku's ancient powerhouses seriously at all.

Mai stared blankly.

"Then why is Brother Itsuki helping that person you call Brain?"

White Zetsu grinned.

"The so-called strongest from a thousand years ago, including Satoru Gojo and Ryomen Sukuna..."

"They're only appetizers."

"When you sorcerers exorcise cursed spirits, why do you put up barriers?"

Mai answered without thinking.

"To suppress the birth of curses and keep ordinary people from seeing invisible threats."

"To let the public stay calm..."

Mai recited the rules Jujutsu High had taught her since enrollment, one after another.

"Then what happens if every person in Japan can see cursed spirits?"

"Maybe not only Japan."

White Zetsu's casual words froze Mai in place.

A long while passed.

"The end of the world..."

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