Sometimes, doing one thing exceptionally well in this world ends up becoming an obstacle to everything else.
That was exactly Mahiko's situation right now.
She had developed her Jujutsu Technique too deeply, too broadly. As a result, when she attempted to expand her Domain, the innate Domain generated through her Technique carried too much weight — enough to instantly shatter the barrier shell around it, which was never all that sturdy to begin with.
So she was compressing it. Continuously compressing it. Squeezing the barrier shell tighter and tighter, raising its density.
And in that moment, the measure actually worked.
The inside of the barrier had been pure darkness — but in the instant the shell snapped shut, something different flickered into being. A particular set of jujutsu rules had taken hold within that space.
A spark of joy lit up in Mahiko's chest.
Then, a second later — crack — the barrier let out a sound like shattering glass and collapsed entirely.
Mahiko fell from the air again and hit the ground tailbone-first. "Ow!"
She'd succeeded — but only just barely. Her Domain had appeared for a single instant, and nothing more.
For any other jujutsu sorcerer, a barrier wouldn't collapse the moment it appeared — because for them, the hard part was getting the innate Domain to manifest in the first place. Once it was up, it was up.
Mahiko's situation was simply too different from everyone else's.
"About 0.2 seconds, huh..." She rubbed her backside and grumbled as she got to her feet.
Then she laughed out loud. "...Hahaha. 0.2 seconds — that's honestly not bad at all..."
0.2 seconds. That was roughly the figure.
Mahiko's Domain had held for approximately 0.2 seconds before falling apart.
In truth, this was already a massive breakthrough. It was a leap from nothing to something — and it validated the theoretical framework she'd been working from. So if anything, what filled the girl's chest right now was mostly joy.
A bottleneck she'd been stuck at for so long had finally cracked open. The rush of crossing that threshold from zero to one was almost addictive.
Still, she couldn't get too carried away.
Yes, she could expand a Domain now — but only for 0.2 seconds.
And at 0.2 seconds, the actual damage output was limited.
In the original story, Mahito had once deployed a 0.2-second Domain, and the damage it dealt was nowhere near that of a fully sustained expansion. When Mahito used that technique against Todo, it only took off one hand — and even that had been under the condition that Mahito had previously landed a Black Flash and could launch an attack simultaneously with the Domain.
If Mahiko tried to use it right now, she probably couldn't just snap her Domain open mid-fight and instantly kill someone. At best, it could serve as a high-damage finisher — a way to execute an already-weakened enemy.
On top of that, a 0.2-second Domain expansion couldn't help Mahiko hold her own against an opponent who also had a Domain. In a Domain clash, both sides' Domains contest each other directly — and Mahiko's collapsing after 0.2 seconds meant it would honestly last shorter than a Simple Domain or even a Mikekazuchi Cage.
"Hehehe~" But it still felt amazing. She was genuinely over the moon.
This was a Domain Expansion. A Domain Expansion!
It was just a shame it lasted only 0.2 seconds — she hadn't even had time to see what her Domain actually looked like.
What would it be like, she wondered?
Would it be the same as the original — the Self-Embodiment of Perfection? Or something completely different?
She had a feeling — her Domain, at its most complete, hadn't revealed itself yet.
Everything was relative. If expanding her Domain was this extraordinarily difficult, then the Domain she eventually expanded would surely surpass the vast majority of others.
Maybe it would be a breathtakingly gorgeous world. Who could say!
The girl rested where she was, waiting for her Technique's cooldown to finish, while turning over ideas in her head for other ways to strengthen her barrier.
Even without a Domain — if she ran into someone who had one, it wasn't like she'd automatically get one-shot, right?
She rolled upright and pulled out the scroll Kenjaku had given her earlier — the one about the Mikekazuchi Cage.
The Mikekazuchi Cage functioned similarly to a Simple Domain: when an opponent opened their Domain, you could deploy this cage around yourself to temporarily block their guaranteed-hit effect.
Under normal circumstances, opening the cage only delayed death. On one hand, the cage would eventually be broken down. On the other, maintaining the Mikekazuchi Cage required forming hand seals with both hands — meaning your hands were completely occupied, and your physical combat ability was essentially sealed off.
Inside an opponent's Domain, you'd just end up getting beaten to a pulp.
But Mahiko was different.
The restriction of needing both hands for seals was basically meaningless for someone who could reshape her body at will.
Just grow herself an extra pair of hands. Problem solved.
Mahiko began practicing the Mikekazuchi Cage.
She was naturally gifted — after a few attempts, she could deploy the cage around herself with reasonable consistency.
Then she started experimenting with growing herself an extra pair of hands, using one pair to hold the seals and maintain the cage while using the other pair for other Jujutsu Techniques.
"Hm."
It actually wasn't that hard.
Maybe because the girl was already so used to multitasking — it wasn't particularly difficult at all. She got it on her first try.
But when she looked at those extra hands frozen in their seal formation, she suddenly thought: this looks really ugly.
She decided to try a different approach. After some experimentation —
"This works perfectly!"
She touched the halo floating above her head and smiled with satisfaction.
It was a golden ring of light hovering just above her, glowing faintly — but inside it, many tiny miniaturized seal-forming hands were arranged in a circle.
These tiny hands formed a ring, and their combined effect was identical to using her grown-out full-sized hands for the seals. And because they were miniaturized and kept above her head, they didn't interfere with Mahiko's normal fighting at all. It was a genuinely elegant optimization.
Going forward, whenever an opponent opened their Domain, she'd light up the halo and deploy the cage — ensuring she retained a meaningful capacity to fight back even while inside an enemy Domain.
Research complete, the girl let out a long, full exhale and lay back where she was, finally letting herself rest.
"Hey, Cursed Spirit — I'm done with my puppet show over here. Just giving you a heads up." And right at that moment, Mechamaru's voice suddenly crackled through.
Oh, wrapped up already?
Mahiko blinked. "Do you know how to expand a Domain?"
Mechamaru: ?
Mechamaru: "I don't. Why are you asking that?"
Mahiko laughed. "I can."
Mechamaru: ?
Mahiko: "I can expand a Domain and you can't — does that bother you?"
Mechamaru: "...Are you out of your mind?"
Mechamaru decided he really had too much time on his hands. He'd only contacted Mahiko to fill her in on the current situation so she could plan her next move on her own — and somehow ended up getting mocked for it instead. Honestly, why did he even bother.
Mahiko giggled. "I mean, how long have you been a jujutsu sorcerer? How is it that someone like me, who's only been alive for a few months, can already expand a Domain — while you still can't?"
Mechamaru: "Yes, yes. You're amazing. You're incredible. Ridiculous natural talent. Living in luxury, soaking up every comfort..."
Tsk.
What did this blue-haired Cursed Spirit mean by 'only been alive a few months?' Did she mean that literally?
Domain Expansion in that short a time?
What kind of monstrous talent was this?
Mechamaru quietly clicked his tongue.
As the spy caught between the sorcerers' side and the opposition, Mechamaru had the clearest view of how both sides' strength was growing. The sorcerer side kept producing more and more geniuses — and the opposition had their own terrifying existence in Mahiko, whose potential was so absurd it defied all logic.
Squeezed between people like these, Mechamaru felt less like a spy and more like a small boat caught in a storm — doing nothing but getting swept along by forces entirely beyond his control.
Ha...
Pathetic. He was a jujutsu sorcerer, and here he was getting rattled by a Cursed Spirit. He'd be a laughingstock.
"Anyway, Cursed Spirit — the reason I contacted you was something else entirely."
"Hm? What is it?"
"Remember those twenty bodies from the factory I told you about before? The remains have been transported into Tokyo."
"Oh." Mahiko blinked.
Strictly speaking, those shouldn't be very useful anymore — after all, the fake person from back then had already been taken care of by Mahiko.
"I know. But I watched you deal with the fake at the fire station, and the appearance of the fire station's victims and the remains from the factory aren't quite the same."
"Oh?"
So Kenjaku still had other fakes out there?
That didn't surprise Mahiko in the slightest.
Last time she'd been able to find the fake because Mechamaru had tipped her off about the Kamo family's secret unit — but now that she'd obtained these remains, what could she actually do with them?
"Guess I'll go pick them up." Mahiko tapped her chin thoughtfully.
Might as well go take a look. Who knew — there might be something important in there.
"Where are they?" Mahiko asked.
Mechamaru explained that the smuggling channel he'd used worked by mixing the contraband in with other legitimate cargo being shipped in.
The remains were currently being transported into Tokyo along with a load of stage props and equipment. They were headed for the backstage area of an idol venue — estimated arrival around three or four in the afternoon. It was only eleven in the morning now. Plenty of time.
An idol venue?
Mahiko blinked.
Now that she thought about it — idol venue — she vaguely remembered overhearing something about that from the students in Junpei's classroom. Something about an idol named Kotaka holding an event today, wasn't it?
Surely it couldn't be the same venue?
It was exactly the same venue. And it was huge.
"Oh?" Mahiko looked at the venue in front of her and widened her eyes slightly. "It's this big?"
She had assumed an idol venue would be something like a small live house.
She was wrong. This was an enormous, multi-use idol event complex.
More like a comic convention or a gaming expo in scale. Two massive connected halls, each packed with a variety of idols holding all manner of events.
Something like a music festival crossed with a full carnival.
"Holy..."
The place was packed to bursting — a roar of voices, idols interacting with crowds and singing on small stages scattered throughout, filling the air from every direction.
She was currently in her Cursed Spirit state, which meant ordinary people couldn't see her. But the crowd was just so dense that she kept having to dodge and weave to avoid being bumped into. She really didn't love the idea of being jostled by people who couldn't even see her.
So many people.
So many idols, too.
There were all kinds here — obscure underground idols without a name to their credit, and then national-level superstars backed by major agencies with enormous fanbases.
Kotaka wasn't quite national-level, but her popularity seemed quite respectable. Her poster even confirmed she would appear on the venue's main stage.
Hmm...
Mahiko glanced at the time.
It wasn't even noon yet. Still a long time before Mechamaru's package would arrive here.
Hmm...
Might as well take a look around first!
She hadn't bought a ticket, but she was already here — and there were so many gorgeous girls around. It would be a shame not to see what everyone was up to!
Mahiko went bouncing off to check out the idol girls at every corner of the venue.
Idols were genuinely incredible.
Some had beautiful voices. Some danced like they were made for it.
Some performed with reckless effort — sweat flying — while others interacted with the crowd with a warmth so genuine their smiles looked like blooming flowers.
Around the main hall, the venue was ringed with numerous small stages.
The small stages featured the up-and-coming idols.
Apparently, if they performed well enough on the spot and received enough audience votes, they could earn a spot performing on the main stage.
Performing on the main stage was also every one of these idols' dream. Up there, they could earn far greater popularity — even rocket to stardom overnight.
Because of that, every idol who hadn't yet made it to the main stage was pouring everything they had into their performance. In their smiles and in the sweat they shed, you could see their hopes for the future shining through.
Mahiko stood there among it all, closed her eyes, spread her arms wide, and breathed in deeply.
Wow. This was truly wonderful.
As always, places like this were the best.
She was a curse born from human malice — and stepping into a place overflowing with hope, dreams, and effort felt almost like a baptism.
Mahiko bounced around happily, running here and there.
This idol was nervous. That one was dancing. This one was cracking jokes. That one was deep in fan service mode...
And then she suddenly noticed — one of the small stages had an unusually large crowd around it.
Mahiko was surprised.
The crowd around it was so thick she couldn't see through the mass of people to make out who was actually on that stage.
Curiosity got the better of her. She squeezed through the crowd until she reached the very front.
The audience all around her were screaming and cheering, waving glow sticks, the atmosphere blazing like they were watching some top-tier superstar.
And then she saw them — three impossibly, absurdly cute idol girls standing on the stage.
One had short white hair and red eyes, with a cool, sharp style.
One had long golden hair and wore an eye patch, with a gentle, big-sister kind of vibe.
And the third was a small blue-haired girl — tiny in stature, like a mascot character — bouncing around on stage doing an adorably choreographed cute dance...
Mahiko stared for a moment. She rubbed her eyes and looked again.
Yes. Three absolutely stunning girls on stage.
One with white hair and red eyes. One with golden hair and an eye patch. And the third — blue hair, tiny frame —
"???"
Mahiko's expression completely lost control. She grabbed her own head with both hands and her jaw dropped — the face of someone experiencing the profound sensation of "how in the world are YOU HERE."
In doing so, she made eye contact with the white-haired, red-eyed girl on stage — and was spotted.
The white-haired girl was equally shocked, her cheeks flaring bright red in an instant.
But Mahiko no longer cared about being seen.
All she could feel right now was that the world had completely lost its mind.
Utterly, thoroughly lost its mind.
No, but seriously — what on earth...
WHY WERE JOGO AND HANAMI DOING AN IDOL ACT ON STAGE WITH DAGON——!!
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