The Prison Realm had originally been no bigger than a fist, but following the bald man's shout, it swelled open like a carnivorous flower and stood in front of Dakotsu. At its center, an eye larger than a human head stared at the curse without blinking.
Boom!
Just then, the curse's body jolted, and the ground beneath it cracked from the force. It dropped to one knee and spat out blood.
"No way?!"
The bald man froze in shock. He pulled out two axes from behind his back, ready in case the seal was broken.
'Think! Quickly!'
Dakotsu's mind raced, countless thoughts flashing through it at terrifying speed.
Bang!
In the outside world it was only an instant. In its mind, a full minute had passed.
The Prison Realm split apart into more than ten small cubes with eyes. Pillars shot out from them and wrapped tightly around it.
"Gate: Close!"
Seeing this, the bald man did not give it any chance to speak and issued the command immediately.
"Pfft!"
As he shouted, all the closed eyes on the cubes opened. With a twitching sound like contracting muscles, they folded shut along the pillars.
In the blink of an eye the sealing was complete. It returned to a fist-sized cube. Every eye closed.
Everything went back to normal.
"That was close. So that is Mukuro Fushiguro. He noticed something was wrong in an instant and even tried to break the domain by force… If only I could turn him into a hanger rack."
The bald man stepped forward and caught the Prison Realm before it hit the ground, his voice carrying both amazement and regret.
He was the infamous curse user among sorcerers, Juzo Kumiya, who loved turning human bodies into all kinds of tools and weapons.
"Let's go. We did not even need the backup…"
He played with the cube and called out toward the vine sphere where he had been hiding.
Boom!
The ground collapsed. Beneath it was an even larger sphere of vines, and two curses walked out.
The special grade cursed spirit Smallpox Deity.
The special grade cursed spirit Ganesha.
"How boring."
The Smallpox Deity shook its head in disappointment. They had been lured here by Kenjaku with the promise of the future world. Their role had been to step in and hold Mukuro back if Dakotsu failed.
They had not expected things to go this smoothly.
"There are only small fries outside. Let's see if we can find a suitable hanger rack. If not we go back to Tokyo—"
Juzo was still talking when he suddenly felt the object in his hand becoming incredibly heavy.
Boom!
The Prison Realm slipped from his hand and slammed into the ground, sinking more than ten centimeters deep as the surrounding tiles shattered from the impact.
Then the tightly shut eyes on the cube opened again. Blood tears flowed from them in front of everyone.
"What is going on?!"
Ganesha's huge, dull head could not process the sudden change.
"It is the information. The Prison Realm has not finished processing Mukuro Fushiguro and Dakotsu. He is also resisting. This might get troublesome…"
Juzo figured it out at once, and cold sweat began to form on his forehead.
He had heard that the brother of their target was also in Kyoto. The second curtain could block him for now, but no one knew when the barrier would be broken. A large group of sorcerers was guarding outside. They could not leave this thing here.
"Why is Fushiguro taking so long this time…"
At that moment, Utahime, who had been waiting outside the curtain, quietly slipped in to take a look. In her memory, even a special grade curse never took Mukuro more than a few minutes. It could not be that Sukuna had manifested, right?
But the moment she entered, she saw one man and two curses standing around the small cube on the ground.
Back in her student days she had excelled in academics, and now she was a theory teacher. She recognized it instantly.
The body of the monk Genshin after death.
The special grade cursed tool said to be able to seal anything.
The Prison Realm.
"Since we are waiting anyway, looks like I can make a few wallets first."
Faced with the situation, Juzo showed no worry. He burst into laughter instead.
Utahime sensed the malice in his gaze and immediately retreated, then ran straight toward Mei Mei.
* * *
Inside the Prison Realm.
"Pfft!"
The moment it was trapped, Dakotsu spat out another mouthful of blood. Its body swelled and returned to the scene inside the domain from before. Then, after separating from the fused domain, it appeared again in front of Mukuro.
But now the domain was full of cracks. It looked like it could shatter at any time.
"You did something just now, didn't you?"
Witnessing the curse's sorry state, Mukuro became certain something had happened in those few seconds.
"Yes."
Dakotsu stood up and actually closed the domain on its own.
Fusing the domain with its body had been extremely risky. Turning the domain into part of itself meant that attacking the domain from inside was the same as attacking it. If the domain broke, it would die.
But the advantage was that the domain, which originally could not trap Mukuro, could now restrict him.
For someone with no cursed energy, a domain should have been like useless paper that he could pass through freely. But once the body and the domain fused, the boundary gained physical form. It became a completely sealed shell.
Then Dakotsu only needed to pour all its cursed energy into strengthening itself and the domain's defense, turning it into a temporary wall.
This method also meant it did not need the Prison Realm to lock onto the target and wait one minute. It avoided the risk of the Prison Realm failing to recognize it because of its special nature.
Anything swallowed into Dakotsu's body would not be harmed. It would be treated as part of it.
That was why it could seal itself and bring Mukuro, who was inside the domain, into the Prison Realm together.
What it had gambled on was that it would not be killed in those few seconds.
The result was obvious.
It had succeeded.
When the domain turned into ash and disappeared, the two of them stood in a barren space. All around them were unknown things writhing wildly, each one looking like it had a human face.
"This place… could it be the inside of the Prison Realm?"
For the first time, Mukuro showed a look of surprise.
In just a few seconds, he had been sealed together with the cursed spirit.
**
**
**
Thank you for reading! If you'd like access to extra chapters and want to support my work, you can visit my P@treon:
P@treon/SilverShark769
Vote with Power Stones for Bonus Chapters!
Your support means a lot, thank you!