"No chance!"
Nanami's weapon slammed into Mahito's open mouth, crushing the pairs of tiny hands inside that were about to complete the seal. Every single one of them shattered.
Simultaneously, Mahito was blasted backward.
Nanami leapt forward again, trying to stop him from expanding his domain a second time.
"Hehehe, hahahaha!"
Mahito's laughter sounded unhinged, almost insane. His mouth, torn apart by the blow, hung loosely and could not close.
Nanami had misjudged it.
The sealing could not truly be stopped. Any part of Mahito's body could sprout countless hands at will.
Endless tiny hands burst out across his body. Even his skin seemed to bristle with minuscule palms, as fine as body hair, all desperately forming seals.
Just an instant before Nanami's next strike landed, the seal was complete.
Mahito's soul and cursed energy reached out like two hands moving in opposite directions, finally meeting at that moment.
Then the domain expanded.
Gigantic hands, far larger than Mahito himself and steeped in dark cursed energy, spread outward and swallowed the space around Nanami.
Even though he pulled back the moment it happened, he was still too slow. The domain closed around him.
From the outside, it looked like a massive black sphere with a radius of over five meters, completely sealed.
"Right now, I only want to thank you."
After repairing his mouth with cursed energy, Mahito looked at Nanami gently. His eyes were calm, as if he were already staring at a corpse.
From repeatedly reshaping his soul to activating a domain, it had taken him less than thirty minutes.
All of it was forced out by the pressure this man brought. That was why, before killing him, Mahito did not hesitate to offer his thanks.
Now, Nanami was like something held in his palm. One activation of his technique would be enough to finish it.
"You did manage to open your domain, but it's too early for thanks. I've heard those words plenty of times over the years as a sorcerer."
Nanami spoke evenly, but his brow was furrowed.
A domain was created by using cursed energy to bring forth the innate domain hidden within the mind.
Inside that space, the user's cursed energy output was amplified, and their innate technique gained the effect of guaranteed hit.
Even Satoru's Infinity could not block that certainty.
This was a door Nanami had not fully pushed open yet, a path toward the peak of technique.
He adjusted his goggles. Cursed energy wrapped around his entire body, forming a dense, seamless barrier.
"Is that so? Oh right. You protect your soul with cursed energy, don't you? Then let's see how many times you can withstand my technique."
Mahito spread his hands in front of his chest. Dark blue cursed energy burned on his palms like flames.
"Idle Transfiguration."
Yet, the moment he activated it, the cursed energy around Nanami flared even brighter, like a blazing sun.
Nanami held a defensive stance, both tonfas crossed before him, as if he had silently blocked something.
"What's going on…"
Mahito was confused. He had expected it to take five or six touches to fully trigger the effect, given Nanami's strength and training of the soul.
But from the outside, it looked like nothing had happened to him at all.
"You're playful and greedy about testing your power. You haven't been born long, have you?" Nanami did not change his stance as he asked.
The cursed energy around him was not simple reinforcement. It was Falling Blossom Emotion.
A technique passed down among the Big Three Families, used to counter and neutralize the guaranteed hit of a domain by deflecting attacks at the moment they strike.
It was something Mukuro had specifically arranged for him to learn, asking the Zenin clan head to teach him personally.
Though it was meant to be secret, Mukuro's strength and status made that rule flexible.
With Falling Blossom Emotion, Nanami's resistance to Mahito's technique, and Mahito's relatively limited cursed energy, he could defend even inside the domain.
Mahito did not know that.
"Huh, still asking questions? Fine, you're right."
Mahito raised a finger, his expression almost praising.
"What a shame. You don't have a future."
After confirming it, Nanami's gaze sharpened like a blade.
This cursed spirit's talent was frightening. Left alone, it might one day grow to rival special grade sorcerers.
He would not allow that future.
"Hahahaha. This is my domain—"
Mahito waved his hand, about to mock Nanami, when his words suddenly stopped.
Die.
The blood-red word flashed in his mind.
That overwhelming pressure returned. The presence of death loomed overhead like a storm cloud.
The danger would not fade.
"Idle Transfiguration!"
He activated his technique again, trying to erase that fear.
But once more, the guaranteed hit struck Nanami's defensive stance and failed to produce the expected result.
The unease only grew.
"Again… again! Let's see how long you can keep that pose!"
Once a domain was expanded, victory had to be decided. That was common sense in the jujutsu world.
Mahito had no way out now. He could only unleash his technique again and again like a madman.
"My technique divides the target into ten equal parts by length. It can be the whole body, a section of it, or even something nonliving."
As he defended, Nanami revealed his technique. Dense cursed energy surged around him like raging waves.
"Technique disclosure. So something big is coming."
Mahito smiled, unsure whether it was excitement or terror.
This exchange would decide everything.
"Let me tell you something. Activating a domain does not guarantee victory, and… you were the one who stepped inside."
This sealed space was the perfect field for Nanami to unleash a large-scale technique without worrying about collateral damage.
"Falling Blossom Emotion!"
As Mahito activated his technique again, Nanami deflected it and leapt upward.
"Ratio Technique: Collapse!"
He spun through the air. Black-red cursed energy, like lightning, crackled from the short end of his weapon. Space itself seemed to twist.
A Black Flash.
Nanami struck the domain at its seven-to-three ratio point, as if clashing directly with the space itself.
"Huh?"
Mahito could not understand what he was seeing. It looked like Nanami had missed.
Had his technique altered his opponent's brain first?
Then his eyes widened.
The air split apart.
Like shattering glass, the very space around him fractured. The world under his control shook violently.
'I can't dodge. Block it!'
The perfect enclosure of his domain had become a coffin built just for him.
Mahito reached out, trying to resist with cursed energy, but it was like being trapped inside a sealed mirror.
When the mirror shattered, the overwhelming force surged in like a flood and swallowed him whole.
Blood burst from his mouth and nose. His body felt as if it were being torn apart by raw violence.
Boom!
With a thunderous crash, the domain collapsed.
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