Chimera Shadow Garden—in the original work, Megumi Fushiguro comes to grasp this Domain in the midst of a battle against a Special Grade Cursed Spirit. But in this timeline, she only learned it by relying on Mahiru's help.
The difference in how she came to learn it doesn't change the form of Fushiguro's Domain.
Chimera Shadow Garden was still a "prototype"—it had no "guaranteed-hit effect", nor a sealed outer shell. To explain it carefully—you could only say Fushiguro's Domain was a half-finished product.
With no guaranteed-hit effect, there was no sure-kill ability—at most it gave her a home-field advantage in battle.
With no shell, it couldn't trap the enemy, so she had to borrow the walls of some existing building to serve as the Domain's outer wall.
It was a thoroughly crippled Domain.
But even crippled, a Domain was still a Domain—the pinnacle of Jujutsu Technique that ordinary people could never construct.
As Kashimo was smashed into the factory building, Fushiguro Maki's Domain unfurled along with it. Black shadows gushed out from Fushiguro's side like a fountain; the shadows, viscous to the point of being liquid, surged out like ocean waves, spreading along the ground and the surrounding walls, wrapping up the entire space.
Kashimo's pupils tightened.
So it was true...
Earlier he'd heard Mahiru say "anyone who can't beat a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit can open a Domain"... he'd thought Mahiru was deliberately lying to him...
So it was true!
The black-haired girl before him was as weak as a roadside pushover, yet she had actually mastered the supreme technique that was the "Domain"!
Mahiru hadn't lied to him!
"Hahahaha!" Kashimo laughed loudly. "Not bad!"
His forcibly controlled body recovered its mobility once more. He plugged his ears with Cursed Energy, the Cursed Energy across his body surging violently, clashing against Mahiru's [Husk] and canceling it out.
He landed on the water-like surface of the shadows.
Kashimo swiftly formed a hand sign with both hands.
"Miyakogakuro!"
In an intricate configuration, Cursed Energy constructed an illusory cage that enclosed Kashimo.
Miyakogakuro's effect was to block the guaranteed-hit effect of a Domain. Hajime Kashimo had not yet realized that Fushiguro Maki's Domain in fact had no guaranteed-hit effect.
His Miyakogakuro took shape a touch later than Fushiguro Maki's Domain, so his physical body was exposed within the Domain for half a second. He didn't feel himself get struck by any guaranteed-hit effect, but because Fushiguro was so weak, he assumed it was because he'd opened his "Miyakogakuro" so fast that the guaranteed-hit effect hadn't had time to take hold.
Haha!
Kashimo figured he was practically a Miyakogakuro master.
Seeing the Miyakogakuro, Fushiguro Maki broke into a sweat.
He thought she was a pushover, and in truth—if she didn't unleash Mahoraga—she really was no more than a speed bump in front of Hajime Kashimo.
The Domain could boost her control over the shadows and raise the upper limit of her Shikigami control... but against a master like Kashimo it was utterly useless.
"...Tch." The girl clicked her tongue, under enormous pressure.
Could she really pull it off... the task Mahiru had handed her...?
Damn it!
No matter how hard, she'd have to grit her teeth and go for it!
After all, the two of them were fighting now for a whole lot of money... pfft, for a whole lot of Tokyo's citizens!
"Hahahahaha!—" Facing Kashimo, Fushiguro Maki put on the smug, self-satisfied, arrogant, conceited grin of a super invincible protagonist. "You there—your Cursed Energy is lightning, right!"
—Her acting exploded into full force!
The "super-thick skin" she'd gained through special training under Mahiru had, in this moment, become a technique even more useful than Miyakogakuro!
"The guaranteed-hit effect of my Domain is to absorb lightning!"
Fushiguro Maki laughed up at the heavens, her whole body radiating a "you've finally fallen into my trap!" aura. "Now, you've already lost for sure!"
Kashimo—froze.
He released his Cursed Energy and discovered that his lightning-attribute Cursed Energy really was being absorbed into the shadows beneath his feet.
It was actually true?!
He was astonished.
Any quality conductor could carry his lightning Cursed Energy away, and this Domain was the same—this Domain was as if a massive conductor; the instant his Cursed Energy appeared, it would be absorbed!
Wait, was there really a Domain this absurdly tailored against him?!
This conductor Domain of yours—besides dealing with me, is it any use against anyone else?!
Kashimo badly wanted to shout this retort, but they were in the middle of a fight, so he chose to seize the moment while Fushiguro was laughing up at the sky and charged straight in her direction.
The long staff he'd used as a weapon had been blasted off who-knows-where by Mahiru.
With both hands locked into the hand-sign posture, his combat power dropped sharply. But even so, with his legs alone he could one-shot Fushiguro Maki.
A single kick could stomp Fushiguro to death.
But just then someone else emerged from the shadows, black lightning flashing in his hand, slamming a punch toward Kashimo to halt his attack.
It was Yuji Itadori!
Fushiguro's Domain could provide Yuji Itadori with cover. He'd been hiding all this while, waiting along the path Kashimo was bound to take. Now, the moment had come, and he burst straight out to launch a surprise strike at Kashimo's face.
"Black Flash!!—"
Kashimo's side kick collided with Yuji Itadori's fist.
Cursed Energy exploded, the shadow-pool churning.
This was very bad—the lightning attribute of his Cursed Energy didn't come from his Technique. It was an innate property of his Cursed Energy itself.
In other words, the moment Hajime Kashimo activated his Cursed Energy, it would automatically be absorbed by Fushiguro's Domain. Unless he fought without using any Cursed Energy at all, there was simply no way for him to stem this drain!
But without using Cursed Energy, he'd get punched flying by the Black Flash jock!
And for some reason, even though he'd already deployed his "Miyakogakuro", he still couldn't fend off the "guaranteed-hit absorption effect" of Fushiguro Maki's Domain.
Why was that?!
Could it be that Fushiguro Maki really was a "genius"?
Her Domain's effect—that even a Miyakogakuro master like him couldn't completely block with Miyakogakuro?
Having landed a clean hit, Yuji Itadori pressed his advantage, his fist wrapped in a second Black Flash, blasting toward Hajime Kashimo.
Kashimo had no choice but to mobilize his Cursed Energy again to fend off Yuji Itadori's attack, and at the same time—naturally—his Cursed Energy drained away.
Hajime Kashimo genuinely couldn't comprehend it.
Why would there be a Domain dedicated to absorbing lightning?!
He looked toward Fushiguro and met her gaze.
And at this moment, Mahiru's voice surfaced in Fushiguro's mind too—
"Quick, pretend you're a bit worn out!"
Mahiru hadn't entered the Domain to join the fight yet—this was part of their plan... but how on earth do you fake being worn out?! I don't know how!
Maybe it was the potential hidden in her body bursting forth, her battle instincts awakening—at this moment a flash of inspiration struck inside Fushiguro Maki's head, a veteran thespian taking possession of her, and she pretended to stagger in place right where she stood...
Hm?!
The moment Hajime Kashimo saw Maki stagger in place, her expression strained, he abruptly understood something.
That's right!
She'd said the guaranteed-hit effect was "absorption"! Not "erasure"!
Absorption has an upper limit!
Which is to say—so long as his Cursed Energy output exceeded Fushiguro Maki's absorption limit, he could shatter her Domain outright?!
"Your Domain really is bizarre!" An unrestrained grin appeared on Kashimo's face. "It's the most unusual Domain I've ever seen to date!..."
He'd originally planned to wait until Fushiguro Maki's Domain Expansion ran out before fighting at full strength again, just getting by for the time being... yes, that was the safest approach.
Even knowing Fushiguro Maki's Domain had a limit, waiting for the Domain to end before going all-out was still the safest method.
But...
"That's the way of a loser!"
BOOM!!!—
Sky-piercing lightning surged out explosively from beneath Hajime Kashimo's feet.
"Come on, while your Domain's still holding!" Hajime Kashimo bared an utterly frenzied grin. "I'll slaughter you all into a spray of blood and flesh!!—"
Indeed—why could it absorb lightning? This kind of Domain truly was unusual, or rather, the very logic of its existence sounded problematic.
So there had to be some trick to it.
But where was the trick?
Outside the Domain, after Mahiru confirmed the situation was normal, she didn't enter the Domain right away, but instead linked up with her clone in another room of the power station.
"How's it going!"
she asked, bouncing with excitement.
And the staff in the room were watching the screen nervously: "Um... we'll have to wait and see a bit more..."
Fushiguro Maki's Domain effect can absorb lightning?
Bullshit!
How could our great genius Fushiguro possibly pull off something like that!
That Domain was just a smokescreen! On one hand it concealed the room's true nature, and on the other it used the Domain to protect the room, keeping the room that Mahiru and the workers had built together from being swiftly destroyed.
That room was, in essence, a giant conductor.
The floor and walls were all high-grade conductive materials from the power plant, and Mahiru had also used her Technique to develop a kind of highly efficient conductive spider silk, wound all around.
These things would be covered over by Fushiguro's shadows and wouldn't show up within Fushiguro's Domain, so Hajime Kashimo couldn't see them.
At the same time, because Fushiguro's Domain essentially had no shell, the moment Hajime Kashimo used Cursed Energy, that energy would pass through Fushiguro Maki's Domain and dissipate into the surrounding conductive materials, thereby being absorbed.
Finally it was transmitted into the power station's other facilities.
Such as the electricity-storage equipment.
Such as... the interface connected to the power grid of the city of Tokyo.
"I will slaughter you all into a spray of blood and flesh!!—"
Hajime Kashimo's frenzied shout carried over from the distance. Carried along with it was the deafening boom of thunder.
The earth seemed to tremble, the sheer force shaking the mountain peaks.
And in this very moment...
"...Ohhh!" The staff's eyes went wide. "We've got it! We've got it!! The power's coming in!..."
The charge readings on the storage equipment shot up in an instant, and all the equipment across the entire power station began operating furiously.
"We've got it!! We've got it!!—"
Kashimo's Cursed Energy had turned into electrical power. Kashimo's body had now become the power-generating core of the station.
"Whoaaa! So much electricity!" the staff cried out in shock. "Way more than predicted!"
In the distance, in the dark city of Tokyo shrouded in the night, several buildings lit up in an instant.
Everyone in the city was startled by the sudden light, and then they all cheered together.
The staff were cheering, the citizens were cheering, and outside, Mahiru was cheering too.
"We're rich!"
This much electricity—think how much it'll sell for!
This time we've really struck it big!
It's the end of the month! Pleeease, everyone, your monthly tickets! Thanks, everybody!
____
👻🔥Seek: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: COTE: Counterattack System
Let's hit these goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = 1 extra chapter for the public!