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CHAPTER START---
"Huh?" Taiyo looks around, not seeing Gojo or Yuki anymore, yet everything is as it was moments ago. "I guess they left to chat," he mutters before resuming his training.
Now he focused internally on his souls, trying to replicate the resonance between them.
"Just one more thing on the long list of things to learn, but if I can control the resonance, I can fast-track my training," Taiyo says as he starts his meditation from the very beginning, this time trying to visualize his souls.
---Meanwhile…
"Let go of me," Yuki demands as Gojo drops her, causing her to land on her ass while he remains hovering above.
One moment she was sitting opposite Taiyo in the grass, then a hand was covering her face, and now she finds herself on the roof of a Tokyo skyscraper.
"I told you never to come back to the school," Gojo says as he lowers himself to the roof and walks toward her.
Yuki gets up and frowns, folding her arms. "Since when do I listen to anyone?"
"Well, clearly I had good reason for not wanting you anywhere near future students. What sick twisted ideas were you putting in Taiyo's head?"
"You can't seriously blame me for what happened with Su—"
"Don't even say his name!" Gojo's Cursed Energy flares up for a moment, causing her to step back.
"Fine," she raises her hands in surrender. "But I already told you. I didn't put any ideas in his head. He was being indecisive, and I just explained the options. I never thought he would pick such an extreme one."
"He'd still be with us if not for you," Gojo says. "And I'm long past caring about your excuses."
Yuki sighs. "Even with those divine eyes of yours, he's always been your blind spot. It's not like you can't force him to come back. I'm sure you know where he is, but you just don't want to fight your friend, right? You're fine with him still killing civilians, so long as he doesn't bother Jujutsu Tech, is that it?"
"That's really none of your business," Gojo says. "And Suguru doesn't hurt people who can control Cursed Energy, so I don't particularly care what he does if he keeps his head down."
"Yeah, but that's the thing," Yuki walks over to the edge of the roof, standing with her toes over the side and leaning forward, looking at the street 200m -650ft- below. "I don't care enough to hunt him down, and he's still your best friend. That means nobody can touch him, unless—"
"Unless another Special Grade appears," Gojo says. "I know, and I've already made arrangements."
"Going through a lot of trouble to protect a traitor."
"He didn't betray us," Gojo growls out. "He's just… a bit confused, he'll come back."
"Sure, that's why he took three of the Registered Special Grade Cursed Spirits from containment, right?"
"Those won't be a problem for me," Gojo says. "And if you cared so much, you'd spend more than one week a year in Japan. If you cared so much, you'd go hunt him down. We both know you could."
"Yeah, but you'd get in the way, and I quite enjoy living." Yuki steps away from the edge and walks over to Gojo. "My student, Aoi, he'll be joining Jujutsu Tech next year."
"Tokyo?"
"Kyoto, I already promised Utahime she could have him. But that's why I was visiting Yaga today."
"So now we have to worry about your bad influence on more students?"
Yuki grumbles, "Your Infinity stops more than just attacks from reaching you, but logic too, when he's concerned. Fix that blind spot, mister 'The Strongest'."
Gojo narrows his eyes at her for a moment before turning to walk away, only for her to call out to him.
"Wait, there is one more thing," Yuki says, and he turns back to see a serious look on her face. "It's about that kid."
"Taiyo?" Gojo asks.
"Yeah, the Special Grade with two souls. Is he your student?"
"No, I'm not a teacher. Kusakabe is teaching him."
"Shit," Yuki rubs her chin as she considers the consequences of that.
"What's wrong with Kusakabe? He's the best teacher anyone could have."
"That's the problem." She gives Gojo a serious look. "That boy, it would have been better for you to teach him. The more he learns, the more dangerous he'll become, and you're a notoriously shitty teacher."
Ignoring her insult, Gojo crosses his arms. "And why shouldn't we teach him?"
"Those souls of his… You and Yaga, can see souls like me, but I can hear them, their desire. That boy, he's dangerous, for us and for the Jujutsu Society as a whole, and maybe the entire world."
"What, is he evil?" Gojo asks. "Sorry, but I don't trust you to judge anyone."
"He's not evil, if anything, he's overflowing with love, but it's not like I've ever felt before," Yuki says. "His Cursed Energy is naturally warm. It's loving, but not kind or gentle. And his love demands certain things, I'm sure of it."
"And you're worried that those things would be dangerous."
"They are dangerous," Yuki says. "When I felt his souls resonate earlier, it took all my control not to kill him right then and there. Every fragment of my being told me that it would be the right thing to do, to protect everyone."
"But you didn't, why?"
Yuki sighs, "Because kids can change…But I still think I should have killed him."
"You think I'd let you?"
"Nah, I missed my one chance," Yuki says. "But, if I'm right, well, you're the Jujutsu Society's biggest weapon, so you'll have to play your part."
Gojo thinks about it for a moment, then looks away, pulling back on his blindfold.
"You miscalculated," he says, softly. "I don't care about Jujutsu Society that much, and I sure as hell won't let a kid die just because of your shitty intuition. If I ever catch you talking to one of the students again, I'll rip your head off…"
He instantly disappears, warping back to campus and leaving her alone on the roof.
Yuki shakes her head, wishing she had just killed Taiyo when she got the chance, and knowing she'd never be able to reach him while Satoru Gojo was protecting him.
"Shit, my motorcycle is back at the school," she looks around, not seeing anything on the rooftop. "And that jerk brought me to a roof with no way to get inside the building!"
She spots the rooftop of a slightly shorter skyscraper across the street, one with a door leading into the building, and casually hops over to land in front of it, cracking the roof.
"Uh, I'll blame that for Gojo," she says while looking down at the damage and taking out her phone.
A few seconds and one broken door later, she's walking down the stairwell to the ground floor when her call connects.
"Hey, Masamichi, can you have someone send my bike for me?"
"*****"
"Oh, I'm in Tokyo. Gojo and I had a little talk."
"*****"
"No, I can't come back. He's not in the mood for me to be on campus again."
"*****"
"Great, thanks, I appreciate it!" Yuki says before she hangs up. "Gah, I really hope I'm wrong about this kid, otherwise I'll have to live with not killing him today…"
---Later That Afternoon…
Sitting in a classroom, on top of one of the desks, Taiyo watches carefully as Kusakabe draws some diagrams on the chalkboard.
"Get it now?" Kusakabe asks. "If you want to make a Binding Vow with another person, you can't leave out any details. They must be fully aware of all aspects of it before it can be made solid under Jujutsu.
If you make a Binding Vow with yourself, like Nanami's Binding Vow where his Cursed Energy is limited down to 80% during his working hours but increased to 120% during his overtime hours, you have to be exact.
If you aren't exact, then it won't take effect, and if Jujutsu thinks you're trying to take advantage of it by not sacrificing enough, it could have consequences for you.
For Nanami's Binding Vow, the consequence is just the Vow being cancelled and his Cursed Energy being normal, but if his Binding Vow was something like.
'In exchange for not eating sushi ever again, I get infinite Cursed Energy,' It's not that nothing would happen, but he could be punished if he focused on his Cursed Energy while saying that and really intended to take advantage of Jujutsu."
"I see," Taiyo snaps his fingers. "So if I make a Binding Vow with myself but can't figure out the exact value of what I want, it's easier to give Jujutsu more than I need to?"
"Exactly," Kusakabe says. "So if you wanted something ridiculous like raising your Cursed Energy storage and output to 200%, in preparation for that, you'd likely have to have your Cursed Energy sealed away for a disproportionate amount of time before it, in exchange, you may get 200% for one hour. But that's an extreme example since Binding Vow's also take in the potential of the person in the consideration."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, a Binding Vow like that won't work if you knew or planned not to get into any situation where you'd need Cursed Energy before. So if you knew you'd be spending the next 24 hours in a safe place, this Binding Vow won't work because you aren't really giving up anything, you're just getting rewarded for existing."
"But if I was in a Warzone, it would work because I'm putting myself in danger to fulfill it, right?"
"Exactly," Kusakabe says. "This is the premise of Simple Domain as well, since at its core it's a set of Binding Vows."
Kusakabe begins writing on the board.
"After finding the core of your Cursed Energy, you can expand it outward around you. The New Shadow Style allows us to 'program' our Cursed Energy to autopilot our body and react to things faster than we can, but I can't teach you that.
What I can teach you is how to make the Binding Vows where you can sense things within your Simple Domain and weaken the Sure Hit attacks of a Domain Expansion.
But obviously, it will put you into a tug of war with their Cursed Energy, so it will remove the 'sure hit' property, but they can still hit you."
"So the bullet doesn't have an aimbot but will still be fired at me?"
"Exactly, and Unlimited Void somewhat bypasses this since unless you start your Simple Domain faster than he can cast his Domain Expansion, you will lose. Domain Amplification works better in a situation like that.
This is because Simple Domains aren't meant to fight, they're meant to defend. The Binding Vows make it so that you can't raise your feet off the ground, so you're stuck in place, and in most cases, you can't separate your hands or can't let go of your sword."
"So you put everything into defense to either outlast their Domain Expansion or let one of your allies attack."
"Exactly," Kusakabe says. "New Shadow Style allows us to turn this defensive technique into an offensive technique through some advanced Cursed Energy manipulation."
"I see," Taiyo taps his chin as he studies Kusakabe's diagrams. "So if I want any chance to beat Gojo, I need to win a battle of Domain Expansions. How does that work?"
"Simple, you can't win that," Kusakabe says as he moves to the other half of the board and begins drawing a Domain Expansion. "The refinement is what determines which Domain Expansion wins, and all of this is assuming you'll awaken your Domain Expansion within the next six months."
"Refinement?"
"Refinement is a combination of countless things. Modern Domain Expansions have 'sure hit' effects, to instantly kill their opponents. This makes them better in combat, but in a battle of Domain Expansions, many older Domain Expansions without any offensive capabilities would win.
This is because Cursed Energy controls the flow, the strength of the inside and outside of the barrier, and how easy it is to find the barrier from within the domain. So if the Domain Expansion creates a classroom like this, with the Barrier being the walls that you can easily touch, that would be compensated by the barrier being much stronger inside."
"I see, a Domain Expansion is a ten-layered Binding Vow," Taiyo says. "So from inside Unlimited Void, the walls are likely weak since they're so far away from the middle."
"Essentially, and in a Domain Expansion tug-of-war, where both are fighting over the same space to create their Barriers, the one with less lethality is heavily favored. Traditional Domain Expansions don't hurt the opponent, they simply change the battlefield or the rules. Like if your enemy is a sniper, it would put you in a boxing ring, where the ring itself doesn't damage them, but because you're more suited to it, you have an advantage."
"I see, so this gives me an opening then," Taiyo says. "Gojo's Domain Expansion is his weak point."
"Huh? How the hell did you come up with that idea?"
"How often can Domain Expansions be used?"
"They cost so much Cursed Energy and overload the brain so much, I've never heard of anyone using more than one a day," Kusakabe says.
"That means I'll only have one opening, and about this Innate Technique burnout?"
"Right, since a Domain Expansion starts with the Barrier being made, then your Innate Technique is removed and placed into the Barrier to create the sure hit effect, after it's returned to you when the Barrier breaks you need time to adjust, usually about 5 minutes, for your brain to cool down and use it again."
"Can anyone use it after their Domain Expansion?"
"No, the nature of Jujutsu puts a lot of stress on the brain, which makes controlling your Innate Technique extremely difficult if not impossible, and more complex Innate Techniques like the Limitless are likely the most difficult."
"So it won't be 'sealed', but every second he'll regain some control of the Limitless."
"Basically yeah," Kusakabe says as he observes his student, who is deep in thought. "What crazy plan are you making?"
"Nothing crazy," Taiyo says. "Honestly, it's pretty basic. No matter how crazy the Innate Technique, some universal rules are the same for everyone, because Jujutsu is fair, so that's what I'll build my plan around…"
END CHAPTER---
Discord: discord .gg /eHuxNeZfyS [Come chat with me]
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene [Read ahead & support me]
You.tube: @KeanuEugene [Giving away all my writing knowledge]