If I hadn't known any better, I might have almost called that red baby octopus cute.
With those big red tentacles, those large doodly eyes, and the fat tears it was shedding, it was definitely cute.
If not for what happened next.
It suddenly vomited out what I could only describe as dozens of skeletal remains from its stomach, splattering them across the station's cold hard floor as if it were nothing.
Once again I was reminded why curse spirits were so dangerous.
Looks were irrelevant.
They were all naturally wired to hate humanity and kill humans.
The focus immediately shifted away from me.
A dangerous, potentially Special Grade curse spirit was far more threatening than a newly awakened curse user.
Naobito was the first one to move.
No one even saw when he did.
One second he was standing right next to us, and the next second the old man was already beside the curse spirit.
Just as Naobito froze the curse spirit—which looked eerily like it had been trapped inside a still frame or photograph—sudden memories surged inside my head the moment I saw it.
Projection Sorcery…
I muttered the name to myself as fragmented memories roughly explained how that cursed technique worked.
The next second the curse spirit was airborne.
Sent flying by Naobito's fist.
What followed was an absolute beatdown.
Naobito completely dominated the curse spirit.
Yet despite that, a lingering fear remained in the back of my mind.
Something was about to happen.
Watching Naobito handle the curse spirit so easily gave me an uneasy feeling.
This wasn't how things happened in those fragmented memories.
And sure enough…
The curse spirit—more accurately, the curse womb that hadn't yet properly formed—suddenly began evolving like a Pokémon.
Its body transformed into a humanoid figure with a red shell and an octopus-like head.
The cursed energy around it spiked so violently that everyone present instantly recognized it.
A Special Grade curse spirit.
"You. Why are you still here? Get out of here. Run," Nanami spoke first.
Hearing him say that, I couldn't help but once again feel how reliable the man was.
However, before I could even take a single step, the curse spirit summoned gallons of water that flooded the entire ground floor of Shibuya Station.
The water surged like a tidal wave, sweeping away everything in its path.
Maki had to drive her naginata into the wall and stand on top of it to keep herself from being washed away.
Nanami somehow managed to reach higher ground as well.
Naobito created a wall of those same frozen frames to shield himself.
Me?
I had none of that.
I wasn't even ready when the water came flooding across the floor.
I desperately struggled to stay afloat, fighting against the current with every ounce of strength I had.
My cursed energy began working purely on instinct, helping me survive the raging flood.
Before I even realized what was happening, Nanami appeared beside me.
He grabbed me by the collar like a wet puppy and lifted me up before placing me safely on higher ground once the water finally receded.
"I'll say it again. Get out of here if you don't wish to die a horrible death," Nanami said firmly.
This time his voice carried far more force.
Then he completely ignored me and dashed straight toward the curse spirit.
By the time I regained my bearings, the battle had already resumed.
The curse spirit was getting thoroughly cooked by three incredible sorcerers of the modern era.
Although, in truth, it was Naobito and Nanami doing most of the work.
Maki mostly acted as a distraction.
But the girl still persisted until the very end.
Watching them fight…
For a brief moment I forgot how dangerous the situation truly was.
Only one thought echoed inside my head.
Can I do that as well?
The longing for power.
It was a desire ingrained within humanity since ancient times.
Especially when people confronted their own mortality and realized how insignificant they truly were in the grand scheme of the world.
And as that desire surfaced, more fragmented memories connected to the current conflict emerged in my mind.
In those memories, the fight unfolded almost exactly like it was happening now.
Almost perfectly the same.
Except… I wasn't there in those memories.
The good side was winning.
If the sorcerers could even be called the "good side."
You never really knew what counted as good or evil in this world.
But they were definitely better than curse spirits.
So for now, I was willing to give the Jujutsu Sorcerers the benefit of the doubt.
At least until my memories proved otherwise.
My mind replayed those memories one by one.
Fragmented as they were, it was difficult to properly understand them.
Trying to find the correct order, their relevance, and whether they were even reliable was exhausting.
But at the end of my short trip through fragmented memory lane…
My eyes suddenly widened.
It felt like death itself was rushing toward me.
"Wait… don't go near him! He's about to—"
My warning came too late.
Way too late.
The next second the entire world around us changed.
It was as if someone had teleported us.
The station was gone.
In its place stood a tropical beach on some distant island.
Sand stretched beneath my feet.
Ocean waves rhythmically crashed against the shore.
Above us was the bluest sky I had ever seen in my life, with soft white clouds lazily drifting across it.
This place was the very definition of a vacation island.
"A Domain," Naobito's eyes widened.
Then he immediately took a stance, cursed energy swirling around him like a coiling snake.
Nanami and Maki both wore grim expressions as they realized what had just happened.
We were in serious trouble.
With the sure-hit effect of the Domain active and none of them possessing a Simple Domain…
They were as good as dead.
At least Nanami and Maki were.
Naobito, as the head of the Zenin Clan and one of the strongest Grade One sorcerers, possessed his own countermeasure against Domains.
Flowing Blossom Emotion.
A technique passed down within the great Jujutsu families.
But would that save him from the curse spirit's attacks?
No.
The curse spirit was intelligent.
It could think.
Dagon.
That was the name it had previously mentioned while arguing with Naobito earlier.
Now it looked around at all of us and quickly reached a conclusion.
"The old man is the real threat. I'll put seventy percent of my power into him. The rest goes to the man in the suit."
It completely ignored both Maki and me.
Maki barely possessed any cursed energy.
And I apparently looked like a complete amateur despite having enough cursed energy to survive for a while.
Soon countless aquatic shikigami began swarming toward Nanami and Naobito.
Nanami struggled to deal with the sure-hit effect of Dagon's Domain since he had no anti-domain technique.
Naobito fared much better thanks to Flowing Blossom Emotion.
Unlike anti-domain barriers, that technique countered the sure-hit effect by using the user's own cursed energy.
However…
It only repelled the guaranteed hit effect.
It didn't block actual physical attacks.
One moment Naobito was holding his ground against the endless aquatic creatures appearing around him.
The next moment a massive red fish—part of the curse itself—lunged straight toward his face.
He couldn't react in time.
He was blasted backward.
Dagon immediately followed.
Ready to eliminate the strongest member of the human side.
He raised his hand, preparing to unleash even more shikigami.
But then he suddenly froze.
His eyes widened.
"My sure-hit effect…?"
From somewhere far away…
A voice echoed across the Domain.
"Domain Expansion…"
Dagon's tropical island illusion began to tremble under the overwhelming force of another Domain establishing itself.