"What the hell is Gojo trying to do?!"
Watching the situation on the screen, Kusakabe slapped his thigh and shouted.
Based on the current situation, if Satoru continued clashing domains with Sukuna, he would probably fall behind again. On the other hand, if he relied on the fact that he was outside Malevolent Shrine, he could gain the upper hand.
That was why Kusakabe could not understand what he was doing.
Because he was not the strongest.
Satoru had indeed put a great deal of effort into raising his students. He sincerely hoped that the next generation could fundamentally change this world that had nearly driven his best friend to the brink of collapse.
But that feeling was like the affection a person who loved flowers had for them. Satoru carefully planted and nurtured those flowers, looking forward to seeing them grow and walk down a path completely different from his own.
Yet how could the flowers possibly understand what he was thinking? He had never expected them to.
"What is that...? The domain is becoming..."
A murmur spread through the viewing room.
"It's getting so big!"
On the screen, Unlimited Void, which should have had a relatively small range, was rapidly expanding. In an instant, it completely enveloped Malevolent Shrine.
"If the domain becomes too large, it can indeed avoid the slashes from the Shrine outside. However, its own precision will definitely decrease."
Higuruma immediately pointed out the problem. As a genius who had been able to expand a domain after merely understanding the structure of barriers, he could naturally see this clearly.
There was no external attack to worry about, but losing inside the domain would make everything meaningless. After all, the domain clash between the two had already become a battle both inside and outside.
What confirmed Higuruma's words was the fact that cracks had begun appearing on the outer shell of Unlimited Void.
"Wait! The domain is gradually becoming... smaller?!"
Just as everyone was worrying that Satoru's domain would shatter again at any moment, the Unlimited Void that had been so huge it looked as though it could swallow all of Shinjuku began shrinking at a visible speed.
It compressed until it finally became a floating black sphere about the size of a basketball.
"Seriously? How can Gojo keep changing the conditions for his domain's barrier construction in such a short amount of time?!" Kusakabe, the new head of the New Shadow Style, couldn't help complaining again.
All these signs were quietly widening the gap between Satoru and the rest of them.
A monster and human beings.
"Besides, why can the domain become this small? It can't even fit a person..."
The students found it even harder to believe.
"Sealing. Do you remember? Gojo and Fushiguro were once sealed in two separate places. For them, that was inspiration," Nanami explained it to the younger sorcerers.
The barriers formed by those two cursed objects had allowed the two strongest to experience and imagine such possibilities for themselves.
Even though they never deliberately thought of it that way, thoughts like 'Those two really are monsters...' would still quietly spread through everyone's minds.
* * *
"Looks like you pulled another little trick?"
Inside the domain, Sukuna still maintained the hand seal for Enmaten. Standing beside the shrine, he looked directly at his opponent.
He could not break it.
This version of Unlimited Void seemed much tougher than before. If it was this strong, then even if they came into close contact again, he probably would not be able to break through it as easily as he had before.
"If we're talking about little tricks, you're still ahead of me. Why are you still using Yuta's face?"
Satoru refused to lose even in a battle of words.
The domain clash was evenly matched, so they had to return to close combat once again. And that was exactly where Satoru had the advantage.
As they spoke, his figure had already shot forward. During their casual exchange, his powerful fist slammed straight into the side of Sukuna's face.
As Sukuna's body shifted from the impact, he pulled at the space around him and swung it from the side. The force forcibly knocked away Satoru's other fist, which had been about to continue forward.
Space twisted like ripples spreading across water. Satoru's entire arm seemed to be stretched longer as it was pulled by the layers of ripples within it.
"Thin Ice Breaker."
Just as he was about to fall, Sukuna used the momentum to adjust his posture and threw a punch toward Satoru's abdomen.
Crack!
The sound of shattering glass rang out.
Starting from Sukuna's fist, cracks appeared in the air and rapidly spread in every direction. This strike smashed the entire spatial plane where Satoru was standing.
Heavy cursed energy erupted throughout the area.
The next moment, the two bodies were separated.
Satoru was sent flying backward into the sky while Sukuna was slammed onto the ground headfirst.
'What exactly am I still missing...?'
Reverse Cursed Technique flowed across Sukuna's face as he touched his neck and stood up, looking toward the sky.
'What a troublesome technique...'
Satoru, who had forcibly stabilized himself in midair, already had blood spilling from the corner of his mouth again.
Sky Manipulation could transform space into a plane that the sorcerer could directly use. Although Satoru's Infinity could trap most attacks in the world within infinity, it could not change the reality that the sorcerer himself was still standing within that space.
And the ultimate technique of Sky Manipulation, Thin Ice Breaker, happened to be an attack that could strike the entire spatial plane.
Though its initial movement was relatively obvious, Sukuna still had Domain Amplification, which allowed him to touch Satoru.
Very troublesome...
Satoru wiped away the blood from the corner of his mouth while his mind raced.
However, without Rika being fully manifested by his side, Yuta himself could not store too many copied techniques.
The human brain had a limit to how many techniques it could carry. For Yuta, the limit was two or three at most. The rest had to be stored through Rika and used as external techniques.
If he excluded Malevolent Shrine, which was engraved directly into Sukuna's own soul...
Sky Manipulation and Cursed Speech.
Then what could the other one be? Could Sukuna have another trump card that Jujutsu High had not anticipated?
But aside from the players, almost every technique with any reputation existed within the major jujutsu families. And without Rika's help, Yuta could not copy almost any of those inherited techniques.
Yet during the investigation of the Big Three Families, they had never heard of anything happening to any of their family members. Or could he only store two techniques?
Without a doubt, either possibility was possible.
The two continued thinking in silence, and the domain fell quiet for a moment.
But when their eyes met, the intense looks in them caused all other considerations to be thrown aside.
Defeat the other person or be defeated by them. There were only two choices.
"You look like you're thinking about a lot of things. Let me help you make things a little more straightforward."
Sukuna extended his left hand to the side. "Come out, my Queen."
The terrifying figure of the Queen of Curses emerged from the shadows behind him.
"Don't point your finger at me while wearing Yuta's face!"
Her displeasure came through clearly in her words, yet Rika still stood beside Sukuna.
"Don't worry. According to our agreement, I'll return Yuta Okkotsu to you."
The situation was clear. It was now two against one.
Yet despite the situation appearing unfavorable to him, a smile appeared on Satoru's face.
Once Rika was fully manifested, she could turn the techniques Yuta had stored into cursed tools and allow Sukuna to use them.
But there was actually nothing to fear from that.
Rika could not threaten him. Did Sukuna's need to use external techniques mean that he had already reached the limit of what he could store within his own body?
He could win!
The corners of both their mouths rose in the wind.
Outside the domain, fierce winds began to howl. What was about to sweep through Shinjuku now was the wind of victory.
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