"Domain Expansion: Three-Fold Affliction."
It was like the world was suddenly splashed and painted white. Like God had said, let there be white instead of light. That was the speed of a Heian sorcerer's Domain Expansion deployment, which reminded me that I had been lucky with Sukuna's domain because Itadori had been fighting back and messing up his output.
Here, Tsumiki was barely aware of the fight waged for her soul, and I had not even seen the barrier form or enclose us. One second, I was facing Megumi; the next, in the flap of a wing, I was in a white void, only the void wasn't exactly white.
Spread out in some way were oversized floating organic structures that resembled what I was guessing at a glance was the scooped-out and disembodied brains of insects, and trailing beneath them were their nervous systems. The structures were not particularly uniform or ordered. Instead, they were spread around haphazardly. It took me a heartbeat to realize they were moving, which drew my eyes to the one still figure.
Yoruzu.
"I almost thought that wouldn't work." The incarnated sorcerer said with a smile, her head tilted to the side like a cat locked in a box with a particularly fat, winged-eyed rat. She was so confident in her victory she began to monologue, and knowing her technique, I did not blame her.
"The boy was already getting too suspicious. I thought the game was up when he stumbled over to us, but I guess some things are so ingrained, it does not need conscious output. Do you understand that, Shikigami? Do you understand love?"
I growled in response, and in annoyance. It was a bass thing that shook the disembodied structures around me from the sheer annoyance at the yapping. I had never accounted for this, which spoke to the level of my hubris. I had always assumed I would be able to separate Tsumiki and Yoruzu before she got off her Domain Expansion, and so my first adaptation in this fight had been a directed adaptation to separating souls.
I had only one direct adaptation to her technique, which meant I could not pull off a canon sure-hit destruction like OG Mahoraga had done. Unlike me, Sukuna had adapted multiple times by the time Tsumiki deployed her Domain Expansion and the Perfect Sphere, and I didn't think my single adaptation was going to be enough to take care of this situation.
Tsumiki laughed in response, clapping her hands. "I didn't think so. This has been fun," she continued, nodding gently. "More fun than I expected. I've never lost so badly. The last time I did..." Her cheeks flushed at that, at the memory of the first time she encountered Sukuna. "If I didn't have my eyes on him, perhaps I would've shown you what it meant to love, and to be loved. In another life, we might've even gotten married."
I scowled at the delusional woman, and she smiled in response, taking a single step back to stand beside the Perfect Sphere. "If you were more conversational, I would've described this for you. The Perfect Sphere. But you're even more standoffish than Sukuna, so I suppose there is no need." Her hand rested on the side of the black, perfectly round orb, and she looked at it kindly before turning back to me with a single word on her lips.
"Die."
The sphere moved.
It was such a simple thing, yet enough to highlight an inconsistency. An attack in a domain was guaranteed a sure-hit effect, and that was the sole reason I had been worried about getting into a fight with Yoruzu without a sure counter for getting her out of Tsumiki first.
The Perfect Sphere was an impossibility granted to her only by the miracle of her cursed technique, Creation. By achieving supreme mathematical perfection, the sphere had an infinitely small point of contact, generating infinite pressure. In essence, anything the sphere hit was not so much destroyed as it was simply erased from existence.
However, it came with the downside of being slow for the scale at which sorcerers fought at, which was why Yoruzu only deployed it in tandem with her domain by relying on the sure-hit effect of her domain, which meant the Perfect Sphere was not supposed to move. It was not supposed to travel to the opponent. It was supposed to simply manifest and erase.
The only reason for this discontinuity...
"Hahahahahahahahahah!"
A laughter tore itself past my lips, louder than even my earlier growl. The shadow beneath my feet came to life, turning vicious, like oil, and out of that shadow came a red-eyed Megumi, teeth bared to match mine, hands clasped into the sign of his own Domain Expansion, as he glared at Yoruzu.
"I'm sorry." The words split his lips, through gritted teeth. "I'm sorry." I could hear the sob, guilt, and shame in his words. "I'll make it right," Megumi said, glaring with anger and hate, and when he turned to me, I could feel the promise in the words.
When a domain was intruded on by another domain like Megumi was doing, the barriers that registered sure-hits were left... confused. Not knowing which technique to work for, thereby rendering it useless. In a domain clash like this, the more refined barrier usually won out, and this time, Megumi's opponent was not Dagon, who had just hatched from the moving chrysalis that was his cursed womb. His opponent was a Heian sorcerer, with a perfected Domain Expansion, and yet...
"Fuck off and wait your turn, Kid!" Yoruzu roared, shoving her hands forward and sending the Perfect Sphere at Megumi, but I took a step in front of him, my feet and weight displacing the liquid Shadows on the ground. Yoruzu's eyes widened as I swung my Blade of Extermination at the sphere, only for it to deform before the blade even touched it. It warped down the middle and turned into two perfect spheres that both shifted out of my range dodging the slash.
I turned to look at Yoruzu and saw that despite her experience, she was struggling. My wings flicked, and I paid attention to Megumi and noticed something I had not expected. His own shadow was spreading as he glared at Tsumiki. It was slow, like ink splashed on a white cloth. It slowly and steadily infected the white, turning it black as it spread, and spread, and spread, faster and faster with every passing breath.
"No, no! What are you doing, you stupid bastard? Stop it, stop it already!"
I watched a vein pop in Megumi's eyes as he glared, the eye turning completely bloodshot and pink. Another vein burst in his nose, and blood began to leak from the sheer effort he put into this, and yet he continued, madness and desire fueling him and i could almost feel his brain bleed from the struggle.
A truly determined Fushiguro Megumi was frankly a terrifying thing to behold, because I watched him jump into the fire, head first, and in the heat that was the forge, he began to mold and refine his Domain Expansion to match that of a Heian-era sorcerer.
Once more I felt a stir in my chest, just like the time I watched him beat Ogi Zenin and take on the mantle of the clan head. "Stand proud, Megumi Fushiguro," I began, my voice rumbling through the domain. Megumi looked up at me in surprise. This was the first time I was truly speaking to him. "You have exceeded my expectations." Megumi's surprise turned to shock, then I turned away to face Yoruzu.
"No, no, no! I'm not done here yet!" The frenzied woman said, madness filling her eyes as she formed a hand sign, and the two Perfect Spheres split once more, turning into four smaller Perfect Spheres. Blood immediately burst out of Yoruzu's nose and eyes as she stared back at us with madness. This was the limit she could force out, yet I could tell that she planned to continue without care for her life or the body she inhabited.
This was the depths it took to win. This was what it meant to be a sorcerer, to put your life on the line completely for victory. Just like Megumi, this was Yoruzu's own twisted version of love... What an utterly mad woman. I took a step forward, and her bloodshot, weeping eyes widened in fear, and with a gesture, she sent all four balls at me from the east, west, north, and south.
KLNK
The metaphysical weight of the wheel upon my head was felt once more, as it spun in place before coming to a slow stop. This time, it was not explicitly an adaptation to her technique like I had expected. Instead, it was an adaptation to something more vital.
My wings twitched as my awareness suddenly flipped, and I could suddenly see the barrier that encompassed us from the outside. I had just adapted to Domains, but as it was only the first adaptation, all it granted me was perception.
The barrier that had once been nothing more than an invisible prison suddenly became very tangible in a conceptual way. I could not see because I did not have eyes, but I could perceive where Yoruzu's original barrier started and where it ended. More importantly, I could perceive the struggle taking place inside it.
The tug-of-war was happening on the outside, as Megumi's incomplete Chimera Shadow Garden was crashing against Yoruzu's refined Domain Expansion, disrupting the sure-hit effect just enough to keep it from immediately deciding whose technique to recognize, while also refining itself into a complete and proper domain.
In any other situation, that would not have mattered.
Even if I could perceive a barrier, perception alone was not enough to destroy a domain, but I was not alone.
Megumi was already attacking the barrier from within. Yoruzu was reinforcing it against him while simultaneously maintaining the Perfect Sphere and attempting to kill me. A Domain was strongest when it was complete, stable, and unchallenged, and this one was none of those things. Megumi had already introduced a flaw into its structure, a fault line that spread through the barrier like a crack through tempered glass.
And I had already adapted once to Yoruzu's cursed technique.
That was enough.
The wheel above my head completed its rotation as I stepped forward, ignoring the four Perfect Spheres closing in from every direction. My sword rose, but instead of turning toward Yoruzu or the spheres themselves, I aimed it at the empty space in front of me. More specifically, I aimed it at the invisible seam where Megumi's shadows fought against Yoruzu's Domain.
Then I swung down in one precise strike. The Blade of Extermination slipped through the air without resistance, and for a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then the second heartbeat came, and the barrier shattered around us.
The white world fractured apart in an instant, cracks racing across the endless expanse before the entire Domain imploded around us. Cursed energy constructs flaking away as the forest returned all around us. The broken trees and the cracked ground, in all its beauty.
Yoruzu staggered violently, more confusion resolving into understanding as she stared at me.
"I- I finally understand your damn technique. Y-you actually adap—" Before she could finish her sentence, blood burst from her mouth as cursed technique burnout slammed into her like a physical blow. The four Perfect Spheres trembled in place for the briefest instant before collapsing into black dust, their mathematical perfection undone the moment the technique sustaining them disappeared.
I grinned down at her. The second person to figure out my cursed technique. Fear filled Yoruzu's features as she collapsed to her knees. "W-what are you?!"
"Death."
__
Megumi
The barrier collapsed around them with a sound like shattering glass, the endless white world splintering apart into the familiar forest, but Megumi barely spared any of it a glance, not when he felt his brain boiling in his skull as he was hit with burnout.
He was not exactly sure what Mahoraga had done, or how the Shikigami had broken the domain tug-of-war, but that was a running theme, so he didn't bother with it. Instead, he shook his head aggressively as he searched. Then his eyes fell on Tsumiki... No. She was not Tsumiki. His confusion had nearly killed his Shikigami once; he would not allow it to happen again.
The woman scrambled backward on the ruined floor, every trace of the confidence she had displayed inside her Domain gone. Her breathing had become ragged, her palms scraped against broken earth and splinters of trees as she desperately pushed herself away, trying to create even another meter of distance between herself and the approaching Shikigami.
Mahoraga simply walked after her.
There was no urgency in his movements. The Shikigami did not burst into the impossible speed or explosive violence Megumi knew He was capable of. He simply walked. One slow, deliberate step after another, the heavy footfalls echoing through the clearing, catching up to Tsumiki like an inevitable force of nature.
"T-This isn't over!" Yoruzu shouted, forcing strength into her voice, but nobody was fooled. "You won't rip me from my love. Not again. This can't happen again."
She snatched up chunks of broken wood and shattered stone, hurling them one after another. They struck Mahoraga's chest, stirring the ornaments implanted across his pectoral muscles, and one clipped his head before bouncing harmlessly away, utterly useless. Then, in her frantic search to find something else to throw, her eyes locked with Megumi's.
"P-Please!" she shouted, her voice cracking. "Megumi-kun! Stop him! He's going to kill me." That voice. It was so much like Tsumiki's in that face... It took everything he had in him, every damn thing, to stay still and silent, and he felt his heart squeeze at the next words that left her lips.
"You know this body!" she continued, her voice changing to that angry, cruel tone, pointing at herself with shaking hands. "This is your sister! If he attacks me, he'll attack her too! He's going to kill her!"
Megumi's fingers tightened into fists. He wanted to move; he wanted to step in and stop this. Every instinct, every fiber in him was screaming at him to move, at him to protect Tsumiki.
"Stand proud, Megumi Fushiguro. You have exceeded my expectations."
His chest tightened painfully, but his feet remained planted where they were. Mahoraga stopped directly in front of her, and the woman froze in response. This time, she did not bother to beg, argue, or cajole. Instead, she glared up at the Shikigami in empty defiance.
Mahoraga raised the blade attached to his forearm, and Megumi found out that despite the impending death, he could not... No. He would not look away. If he was going to stand on the side, he was going to watch everything.
The sword came down in one clean motion, and his heart stopped beating in his chest, twisted in horror as it was; then the blade passed through Tsumiki's body without resistance, without the expected spray of blood.
Megumi stared in confusion at the lack of a wound, as the blade emerged from the other side, carrying something with it.
Wrapped around the flat of the blade was what looked like a cursed object. A long strand of silky black hair tied together with crimson ribbons, each ribbon covered in tiny markings that pulsed with cursed energy.
Mahoraga reached up with his free hand, grabbed the hair and ribbon, then twisted violently before snapping it. There was a low whine, then the ribbons turned to black ashes that drifted down from the Shikigami's hands to the ground.
Silence filled the clearing, and Megumi looked from the ashes to Tsumiki, unable to understand what he had just witnessed. His legs carried him forward before his mind caught up, and a second later he found himself dropping heavily to his knees beside her.
"Tsumiki?"
She didn't answer.
His hands shook as he reached toward her shoulder, afraid to touch her yet even more afraid not to. Then her eyelashes fluttered, and Megumi's outstretched hand froze in place.
Her breathing deepened slightly before her brown eyes slowly flickered open, unfocused at first as they wandered across the ruined clearing. She blinked once, then twice, before finally turning toward him.
"...Megumi-kun?"
Her voice was quiet, so weak and confused they tugged on his heartstrings.
"...Is that really you?"
Megumi turned to Mahoraga first, refusing to be fed false hope for the second time, and when Mahoraga simply nodded, Megumi felt the ground give away under him as every emotion he had forced down over the past year and a half surfaced at once, and before he realized it, tears were already running freely down his face.
He laughed once, the sound breaking apart halfway through into an ugly sob as he wrapped his arms around her, holding her so tightly he knew it had to hurt, and yet he found it hard to let go.
"I... I thought I'd lost you."
He could barely recognize his own voice, twisted and lost in his sobbing and tears as it was.
Tsumiki, still confused by everything around her, slowly lifted an arm and rested it against his back.
"...I'm sorry," she whispered, and Megumi cried all the harder for she had nothing to apologise for.