A few minutes before the battle between Kenjaku and Mukuro, the Shinjuku battlefield had already reached an intense stage.
Satoru and Sukuna expanded their respective Domains at the same time.
The hand sign of Taishakuten against the hand sign of Enmaten.
Malevolent Shrine rose from beneath Sukuna's feet and lifted him high into the air. The evil and killing intent surrounding it surged toward Satoru. At the same time, Unlimited Void rapidly spread from behind Satoru.
The enclosed Domain instantly trapped Sukuna and his shrine inside it. As a result, everyone in the viewing room lost sight of the two of them.
* * *
"It's really an open Domain..."
Looking at the black sphere on the screen and the slashes raining down on it from outside, Kusakabe was already covered in cold sweat.
He had heard about this since the Shibuya incident. According to the students, Mukuro had once taken over his nephew's body and clashed with Sukuna in a Domain without boundaries.
Yet Kusakabe had never witnessed it himself after all, and the reality was far more shocking than the rumors.
It was like writing directly across the sky without a canvas, or picking up a bottle of water without even having a bottle. Until he saw it with his own eyes, he would have thought something like this was completely absurd.
However...
"Wait! If that's the case, wouldn't Gojo be at a disadvantage? The outer shell of a Domain is much weaker than the inside!"
Kusakabe suddenly realized the key point and immediately stood up to look at Shoko. She clearly knew what kind of training Satoru had gone through.
"In theory, yes. But don't forget, Gojo isn't someone who can be explained by theory."
Shoko still had an unlit cigarette between her lips. She answered Kusakabe calmly while keeping her eyes fixed on the screen, which had not changed in the slightest.
* * *
Inside Unlimited Void, the two still maintained their hand signs, but Sukuna's brows furrowed slightly.
One of the advantages of a Domain was preventing the opponent from escaping. Because of this restriction, it was common knowledge that the outer shell would become weaker.
At its core, a Domain was the manifestation of a sorcerer's mental world, so ordinary methods could not directly affect it by attacking its barrier.
A Domain clash was different, however.
If both Domains were enclosed or both were open, the two would have to clash through their barriers. In other words, it would be "guaranteed-hit" against "guaranteed-hit", causing both sides to lose the ability to activate their true guaranteed-hit effects.
But when two Domains had different forms, their boundaries did not merge. Because of that, there were two different areas of conflict: inside the Domain and outside the Domain.
The former was easy enough to understand. The problem was the latter.
The effect of an open Domain could directly act on the outer shell of an enclosed Domain. Since both were manifestations of mental worlds, attacks from the outside of an open Domain could fundamentally break through an enclosed Domain.
At least, that was how it should have worked in theory.
But...
'It can't break through?'
This was a development Sukuna had not expected.
Whether it was the clash inside the Domains or the slashes attacking from outside, Satoru had managed to block them all.
"How is it? Pretty surprising, right?"
Satoru had already released his hand sign and was now charging toward Sukuna.
The cursed energy activation from expanding the Domain had already been completed, and continuing to maintain the hand sign would not provide much additional enhancement, so there was no need to keep doing it.
Even so, he did not forget to loudly taunt Sukuna, his eyes filled with pride.
"I see. Kashimo and Fushiguro taught you this, didn't they?"
Seeing the confidence in Satoru's eyes, Sukuna understood.
When he had used "Enchain" to take over Yuta's body, he had already tried reversing the conditions that formed the inside and outside of a Domain's barrier, making the outer shell impossible to invade.
With Kashimo's battle intelligence, he would definitely have noticed the trick. On top of that, Mukuro had also used an open Domain before. He would certainly know the difference between the two forms and how to counter it.
"Who knows?"
As they spoke casually, Satoru's fist was already flying toward Sukuna.
Smack!
However, the fist carrying the effect of inviolability was caught by Sukuna's palm after only a brief impact.
Taking advantage of the opening, Sukuna swung his other hand and smashed it toward Satoru's face.
'He can use Domain Amplification while using his cursed technique? No, if his innate technique has already been assigned to Shrine, then it's a different matter.'
In that extremely brief moment of surprise, Satoru had already reached his conclusion.
Back in Shibuya, when he had been held back by the volcano head and that weed, he had already realized that Domain Amplification and an innate technique could not be used simultaneously.
If that was a restriction placed on the use of Domain Amplification, even Sukuna could not violate it.
But Malevolent Shrine and Unlimited Void were currently competing with their respective guaranteed-hit effects, and the former's guaranteed-hit effect was Sukuna's innate technique.
Therefore, in order to avoid falling behind in the Domain clash, he could not cancel his technique and switch to Domain Amplification.
The only possibility was that Shrine had become the center of the Domain instead of Sukuna himself.
After a brainstorm, Satoru had already figured it out, reflexively reaching out his hand to catch Sukuna's fist at the same time.
The situation had now become a stalemate, with each of them gripping one of the other's fists and restraining the other.
Yet Sukuna revealed a smile at that moment.
'His Domain's guaranteed-hit effect is turned off?!'
Satoru suddenly sensed that something was wrong.
He looked at his hands. Because Sukuna was using Domain Amplification, the two were now in complete physical contact.
Inside Unlimited Void, anyone Satoru touched would not be affected by the Domain's guaranteed-hit effect.
Thus, it was not hard to guess that what Sukuna wanted to do now was to increase the Domain's output!
Satoru remembered the training with Mukuro. By giving up the guaranteed-hit effect of a Domain, the restriction could be changed into an increase in external output.
He immediately tried to imitate this method and respond, but he was one step too slow.
Crackle!
In the blink of an eye, the outer shell of Unlimited Void was shattered by endless slashes.
Satoru had entered the burnout period of his cursed technique!
"It's over! Gojo-sensei's Domain!"
The two figures reappeared in the crow's vision. Yet as Unlimited Void shattered, the Malevolent Shrine that remained standing caused everyone at Jujutsu High to tremble.
This meant that Satoru had lost the Domain clash!
"Goodbye, Satoru Gojo."
With a smug look in Sukuna's eyes, slash after slash appeared across Satoru's body. Blood sprayed into the air and stained his white hair red.
* * *
"I'm going to help Sensei!"
Yuji, who was in the viewing room, could no longer hold himself back and stood up.
"Have you forgotten what happened to Kashimo earlier? You'll die!"
Beside him, Ryu exhaled a cloud of smoke and scolded.
'Until Sukuna's condition becomes worse than mine or Gojo's, anyone who interferes will only become a burden.' That had been Kashimo's warning before he left.
"Itadori, I know you're worried about Gojo, but for now, please trust us adults." Nanami's expression remained calm. He pushed up his glasses while never taking his eyes off the screen.
As if to prove his words, the situation on the screen suddenly changed.
* * *
Amid the seemingly endless slashes, Satoru suddenly kicked Sukuna hard in the abdomen.
The smile on Sukuna's face disappeared instantly. The intense pain forced him to release his grip and stagger back several steps.
"How was that? My reaction was pretty fast, right?"
When Sukuna raised his head, a circle of light had already appeared beneath Satoru's feet, while white smoke continued to rise from his wounds.
New Shadow Style: Simple Domain!
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