Akira nodded. "The difficulty is about the same, but the challenges are different. After three attempts, I've figured out a few things."
"Stop right there." Satoru Gojo raised a hand, cutting him off. "What's the fun in exploring if someone tells me everything beforehand? The unknown is what makes it interesting."
"I was only going to tell you what to watch out for."
"That would matter if we were dealing with something in the real world. This is a nightmare dungeon." Satoru Gojo shrugged. "Besides, you're all standing here talking to me, so it obviously isn't that dangerous. At least, it won't kill you outright."
"That's probably the only kind thing about this nightmare," Akira said. "I think it's because Rika Orimoto is still a kind girl at heart."
"Good enough!" Satoru Gojo grinned and waved his hand forward, as though pushing open an invisible door. "Now, watch the top player, Satoru Gojo, carry the whole team!"
He struck a pose.
"Party up!"
"..."
Nobody responded.
Satoru Gojo waited for a moment before lowering his head and looking at everyone over his sunglasses.
"Hey, come on. Work with me a little. It's been ages since I've had a proper entrance scene." He spread his hands. "I even wanted to help you and Nanami last time, but you two didn't call me until everything was over. Do you have any idea how disappointing that was?"
Akira looked at him without saying anything.
This man really knew how to make a serious situation feel ridiculous.
Still, since Satoru Gojo had already come, there was no point trying to send him away. They needed his strength anyway, especially with the nightmare becoming more difficult each time they entered.
Akira turned toward the darkness beside him.
"Darkrai!"
A low response came from the shadow.
Darkrai emerged and raised one claw. Darkness spread beneath it, forming a passage into the nightmare world.
Satoru Gojo immediately stepped forward.
"All right! Nightmare dungeon party, let's go!"
Without waiting for anyone else, he walked straight into the darkness.
The others exchanged glances.
After remembering what had happened during their previous attempts, they seemed to reach the same conclusion without needing to say anything.
Several amused smiles appeared on their faces.
Some of those smiles were rather malicious.
Akira shook his head and followed them inside.
By the time they entered, Satoru Gojo had already started fighting.
The first thing Akira heard was a bell.
Its dull ringing spread across the sky, sounding like something announcing the end of the world.
Above them, black, purple, and dark red covered the sky in uneven patches. The colors mixed together, giving the entire world a strange and oppressive appearance.
The air was even worse.
A rotten smell hung everywhere, mixed with something like burning sulfur. Every breath carried the familiar stench of a curse.
And beneath that sky, countless shadows wandered across the ground.
Some resembled people. Others looked like corpses dragging themselves forward. There were even figures that seemed to have no proper shape at all.
It was impossible to tell whether they were living humans, dead bodies, or wandering spirits.
Whatever they were, the moment they noticed an intruder, they rushed toward him.
Their target was naturally Satoru Gojo.
"Not bad. There's quite a lot of them."
Standing in the middle of the swarm, Satoru Gojo casually extended his right hand.
His fingers curled.
The shadows in front of him were suddenly pulled together by an invisible force.
Dozens of figures collided, piling into a huge black mass that rose from the ground. More shadows were dragged into it, their bodies twisting together until it was impossible to tell where one ended and another began.
Satoru Gojo glanced at the mass.
Then he pushed his hand forward.
Boom!
A powerful repulsive force swept across the battlefield.
The shadows were thrown backward, crashing into one another as they flew across the ground. The force cleared a large area in front of him.
For a moment, nothing remained nearby.
Satoru Gojo turned toward the students and waved.
"See? Easy!"
Just as he finished speaking, the ground beneath him moved.
Two shadows suddenly burst out, one attacking from his left and the other from behind.
Their timing was almost perfect.
They had approached through the ground, hidden themselves until the last moment, and attacked from angles that an ordinary person would never have noticed.
Unfortunately, their opponent was Satoru Gojo.
Even with his sunglasses on, the Six Eyes allowed him to perceive their movements clearly.
He dealt with both attackers in an instant.
However, the two shadows had only been the beginning.
The ground around him suddenly erupted.
More shadows rushed out from below, while others appeared from directions that should have been impossible. Some even seemed to emerge directly from the darkness surrounding him.
Mixed among them were several figures that looked completely different from the others.
They ran on all fours.
Their mouths were filled with sharp teeth, and their long tongues hung outside as they charged forward. Their movements were much faster than those of the ordinary shadows.
Before Satoru Gojo could clear the area again, one of them reached him.
Its claws swept across his head, messing up his carefully arranged white hair.
A second creature attacked immediately afterward.
Bang!
The impact sent Satoru Gojo flying.
He crashed into the ground and rolled several times before stopping.
For a moment, he remained where he was.
Then he pushed himself up, his clothes covered in dust and his hair sticking out in several directions.
"Hey! Where the hell did these dogs come from?!"
The students watched from a safe distance.
Nobody rushed forward.
Instead, they began commenting on what they had just seen.
"Nice hit."
"Well done."
"Salmon."
"Impressive."
Their voices were full of approval.
Unfortunately, none of that approval was directed at their teacher.
Akira was even worse.
He stood closest to Satoru Gojo, yet showed absolutely no intention of helping.
"Yo, yo, yo! Isn't that the invincible Satoru Gojo?" Akira called out with a grin. "Long time no see, Gojo-sensei. You're looking pretty rough today."
He had already experienced this nightmare three times.
One of the first things he had learned was that standing still was the safest choice in this area. The creatures were especially aggressive toward moving targets, while those who remained in place were far less likely to draw their attention.
Naturally, Akira had tried explaining this earlier.
Satoru Gojo was the one who refused to listen.
Since the man insisted on exploring everything himself, Akira saw no reason to interrupt his fun.
As for worrying about his safety?
That was unnecessary.
Satoru Gojo was still Satoru Gojo.
Even without knowing the rules of this place, a few nightmare creatures were hardly enough to put him in real danger.
Satoru Gojo didn't seem bothered by the mockery.
He raised one hand.
A powerful force swept across the area, sending the nearby shadows flying into the distance.
He followed it with another attack, tearing away a layer of the ground around him.
Since the creatures liked hiding underground, he might as well remove their hiding places.
After making sure nothing was immediately approaching, he calmly brushed the dust from his clothes and fixed his hair.
"Careless. I just didn't dodge."
Akira stared at him.
"Seriously? You were the one who compared this place to Dark Souls, and you still didn't expect the double-dog attack?"
"I was just using it as an example!" Satoru Gojo protested. "How was I supposed to know Makoto would actually put something like that in here?"
The two experienced gamers looked at each other.
For once, neither had anything useful to say.
Then a third voice joined their conversation.
"Um..."
Yuta Okkotsu raised his hand slightly.
Everyone turned toward him.
"I think it might be because this is Rika's dream," Yuta said. "If the things here are connected to her memories, then some of them might come from the games she liked."
Akira blinked.
Yuta continued, "We used to play games together a lot. Actually, Rika was much better at them than I was."
"..."
Satoru Gojo slowly turned his head.
"Yuta."
"Yes?"
"That's pretty important information. You should have told us earlier!"
Yuta looked a little troubled.
"I didn't know it would matter this much."
Satoru Gojo looked around at the ruined landscape, the strange sky, and the countless shadows still wandering in the distance.
He really hadn't expected Rika Orimoto's nightmare to be this extreme.
Akira immediately seized the chance to get back at him.
"Would knowing that have changed anything? Who was the one who said exploring was only fun when everything was unknown?"
"Me."
Satoru Gojo admitted it without the slightest hesitation.
"Then what are you complaining about?"
"I'm not complaining. I'm just saying Yuta should have mentioned it."
Akira rolled his eyes.
Arguing with this man was pointless.
However, just as he was about to drop the subject, something suddenly occurred to him.
"Wait a second."
He looked Satoru Gojo up and down.
The earlier scene replayed in his mind.
Those doglike creatures had actually managed to touch Satoru Gojo. One had messed up his hair, and the other had sent him flying.
At first, Akira had been too busy laughing to think about it.
Now that he considered it, something was clearly wrong.
"Teacher, how did those dogs manage to hit you?"
"Hm?"
"Your shield. What happened to it?"
Akira was referring to Infinity, the defensive application of Satoru Gojo's Limitless technique.
Under normal circumstances, an attack should never have reached him in the first place.
Regardless of how fast those nightmare creatures were, they shouldn't have been able to touch him.
Yet two of them had done exactly that.
"Oh, that?"
Satoru Gojo answered as though Akira had asked something completely ordinary.
"That's because we're currently inside Rika Orimoto's Domain Expansion."
He adjusted his sunglasses.
"My shield has been neutralized. Or, to put it in gaming terms, it got dispelled."
"..."
Silence.
This time, even the students who had been enjoying Satoru Gojo's embarrassment stopped smiling.
Akira stared at him.
"Domain Expansion?"
He paused, trying to make sure he had heard correctly.
"You mean that Domain Expansion?"
"Yeah." Satoru Gojo looked at him strangely. "What other Domain Expansion would I be talking about?"
Akira didn't answer immediately.
He looked around at the nightmare world once again.
The strange sky.
The ruined ground.
The endless shadows.
The creatures that appeared from impossible directions.
And most importantly, the fact that they could bypass Satoru Gojo's Infinity.
Everything suddenly made much more sense.
Although Darkrai's ability to enter dreams was already beyond the normal understanding of Jujutsu, Akira had never seriously considered that the nightmare itself might be a Domain Expansion.
After all, Domain Expansion was something he had only heard about.
He knew the name and understood that it represented one of the highest levels of Jujutsu.
But he had never personally experienced one.
"I didn't notice," Akira admitted. "I've heard about Domain Expansion before, but this is my first time actually being inside one."
He looked at the surrounding landscape again.
"Still, now that you mention it, it makes sense. With Cursed Spirit Rika's level of power, it would actually be strange if she couldn't form a Domain Expansion. And considering her situation, a domain that takes the form of a dream isn't that surprising."
The more he thought about it, the more reasonable the explanation seemed.
Among the known Jujutsu Sorcerers of the current generation, Satoru Gojo was the only one Akira knew for certain had mastered Domain Expansion.
There were also records of powerful Cursed Spirits possessing similar abilities.
However, none of those examples had appeared in front of Akira at this point.
Without direct experience, there was only so much he could understand from descriptions alone.
"Right, right. I almost forgot."
Hearing Akira's explanation, Satoru Gojo suddenly clapped his hands.
"You guys haven't actually seen a Domain Expansion before, have you?"
Akira looked at him.
"Didn't I just say that?"
Satoru Gojo ignored the complaint.
Instead, his expression brightened as though he had just discovered something interesting.
"Perfect!"
He turned toward the students.
"Since we have such a rare opportunity, why don't we have a lesson?"
"A lesson?" Panda repeated.
"That's right!" Satoru Gojo pointed toward the nightmare world around them. "It's been a while since I've properly taught you guys anything, so today, Satoru Gojo-sensei will personally explain the peak of Jujutsu combat!"
He spread his arms.
"Domain Expansion!"
Akira didn't know what to say.
The man had been sent flying by a pair of nightmare dogs just moments ago.
Now he was acting as though everything had been part of his teaching plan from the beginning.
Still, nobody objected.
At Tokyo Jujutsu High, using powerful enemies as teaching material was hardly unusual.
In fact, learning through actual combat was one of the school's most common teaching methods.
If a suitable enemy appeared, an experienced teacher might even explain its abilities while fighting it.
And when it came to Domain Expansion, Satoru Gojo was probably the best teacher they could ask for.
This was knowledge that even many Grade One Jujutsu Sorcerers had never experienced firsthand.
For students who hoped to reach the highest levels of Jujutsu, the opportunity was extremely valuable.
Even Akira stopped making fun of him.
Seeing that everyone was paying attention, Satoru Gojo nodded in satisfaction.
"Good. Now, let's start with the basics."
He raised one finger.
"Domain Expansion is the highest form of applying an Innate Domain through Jujutsu. Basically, you use Cursed Energy to bring your Innate Domain into reality and apply your Cursed Technique to that space."
He gestured toward the surrounding nightmare.
"Normally, this involves creating a barrier and constructing your own space inside it. Once the technique is properly applied, the entire area becomes your territory."
"Teacher."
Yuta Okkotsu suddenly raised his hand.
His posture was so proper that, for a moment, it almost felt as though they were sitting in an ordinary classroom.
Satoru Gojo immediately pointed at him.
"Yes, Yuta!"
"What exactly is an Innate Domain?"
"Ah."
Satoru Gojo paused.
"We have to start from there, huh?"
He rubbed his chin.
Then he remembered that Yuta Okkotsu had joined Tokyo Jujutsu High halfway through the usual training process.
Unlike the others, Yuta had barely received any systematic education about the foundations of Jujutsu.
It was only natural that he wouldn't understand terms that experienced Jujutsu Sorcerers treated as common knowledge.
"All right, then. Let's start with the Innate Domain."
Satoru Gojo held up one finger again.
"Every person has an inner world. You can think of it as the world that exists inside your mind, shaped by your thoughts, memories, and sense of self."
He tapped the side of his head.
"In Jujutsu, we call that an Innate Domain."
"A world inside your mind?" Yuta repeated.
"Exactly. Some people call it the world of cognition. Others describe it as the place where the soul exists. There are different ways to explain it, but they're all talking about roughly the same thing."
Satoru Gojo continued, "In theory, all humans possess an Innate Domain. The same applies to intelligent beings like Rika Orimoto and Panda."
Panda pointed a paw at himself.
"Me too?"
"Of course. You're a living Cursed Corpse with your own consciousness. Why wouldn't you have one?"
"Fair enough."
Satoru Gojo turned back toward everyone.
"The important part is that having an Innate Domain and being able to recognize it are two very different things."
He raised a second finger.
"Most people live their entire lives without ever realizing that such a world exists inside them. Even among Jujutsu Sorcerers, those who can truly perceive their own Innate Domain are extremely rare."
The students listened carefully.
They had already learned about Cursed Energy, Cursed Techniques, and the different ways sorcerers could use them.
But the concept of an inner world was something much harder to understand.
After all, it wasn't a physical place that could be found simply by looking for it.
Panda thought for a moment before raising his paw.
"Then, Gojo-sensei, how do you become aware of your Innate Domain?"