Yuji's hand froze midair. At the same time, his head slowly lowered for no reason.
"Itadori..."
Yuta immediately sensed something wrong from his junior's presence.
"Yuji! Don't let Sukuna take advantage of this!"
Beside him, Todo shouted desperately while trying to break free from the ice binding him.
In their current condition, if Sukuna fully emerged now, they might all die here.
But when the boy raised his head again, strange markings had already spread across his face. A mocking smile appeared openly, and the aura of the King of Curses overflowed outward. His terrifying cursed energy felt as though it would pierce the heavens themselves.
Sukuna had come out.
"Hm? Yuta!"
Rika, who had originally been rushing toward Uraume, suddenly sensed the horrifying presence behind her and instantly turned around midair to charge toward Sukuna.
"Don't rush, Queen. We'll get along just fine."
Sukuna casually raised one hand and extended two fingers.
"Dismantle."
Having regained the power of sixteen fingers, he used that violent slash as if announcing his return once more.
Rika was a cursed spirit. She was not included within the condition of the binding vow between Sukuna and Yuji that forbade harming others.
Pfft!
The next sound after the violent cutting wind was blood spraying into the air.
A deep wound split open across Rika's body as blue-purple blood continuously poured out, and the cursed energy contained within the slash blasted her backward several meters.
"So this is Sukuna?!"
Kashimo's eyes nearly turned red with excitement as he struggled harder against the ice.
If his cursed energy had recovered even slightly more, this level of technique would never have trapped him or Yuta.
Yet in the next instant, the massive cursed energy inside Rika completely healed her wounds. The giant eye on her face opened once more as she entered a state close to berserk.
"Do not disturb Sukuna-sama!"
Behind her, anger also appeared on Uraume's beautiful face as icy cursed energy surged from both hands toward Rika.
"Don't touch my Yuta!"
To Uraume's disbelief, the ice that had just frozen Rika shattered apart instantly.
The charging figure of the Queen of Curses seemed unstoppable.
"I'd really love to play with you a little, but not now. I still have more important things to do, so..."
Sukuna spread his hands with an almost helpless tone before casually slashing apart the ice around Kashimo and Todo's legs, then throwing both of them toward Rika.
"Rika! Save those two first!"
Afraid the pair would fall into Uraume's hands otherwise, Yuta immediately shouted.
Rika casually caught them under her arms without slowing her charge toward Sukuna in the slightest.
"You should worry about yourself first."
At that moment, only Sukuna and Yuta remained standing close together.
Sukuna laughed mockingly. Then, before everyone's shocked eyes, he formed the Enma Ten hand sign.
"Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine."
A massive gate of bones rose from the earth as seas of corpses and blood swallowed the two of them within.
However, this domain was completely different from the open-barrier Malevolent Shrine Sukuna used in Shibuya. This time, the barrier fully closed like an ordinary domain.
"What...? Sukuna's domain should be an open barrier!"
Seeing this, Todo froze in disbelief while still hanging from Rika's side together with Kashimo.
Although the Shibuya Incident had only recently ended, information about Sukuna had already spread throughout Jujutsu High. But what he witnessed now was entirely different from everything he had heard.
"How naive. What you saw before was merely the tip of Sukuna-sama's power."
Uraume's face overflowed with pride.
Domain Expansions were divided into closed and open barriers.
Ordinary domains were naturally closed. To turn one into an open barrier required reaching extraordinary mastery in barrier techniques because it involved binding vows and barrier construction.
Anyone capable of creating an open barrier naturally also knew how to turn it back into a closed one.
This was the Malevolent Shrine standing before them now.
"Give my Yuta back!"
Ignoring Uraume's smug expression, Rika roared furiously after failing to enter before the barrier closed. She smashed a heavy punch directly into the domain.
Yet what happened next stunned Todo once again.
Everything he witnessed about domains today had completely overturned his understanding of jujutsu.
Despite Rika's overwhelming strength, her punch merely shook the barrier slightly without damaging its surface at all.
Every sorcerer knew that domains focused mainly on the guaranteed-hit effect inside and trapping enemies within. Because of that, the outside barrier was usually far weaker.
Just like how Todo previously invaded Uro's domain, even if Rika could not outright destroy the shell, with that level of force she should at least have broken inside.
"Yuta!"
Growing more frantic, Rika condensed an enormous amount of cursed energy before blasting it directly at the barrier.
But once the smoke faded, nothing had changed.
"Could it be..."
Todo hesitated as though he had reached a terrifying conclusion.
"It's a binding vow."
Kashimo finished the thought for him.
And just as the two suspected, Sukuna had used binding vows and altered the domain's structure itself.
He reversed the nature of the barrier and the original "inescapable from within" became "impossible to invade from outside."
To maximize the effect of "impossible to invade," Sukuna even made another binding vow and abandoned the guaranteed-hit effect entirely.
As a result, the domain's outer shell became absolutely indestructible and impossible to pass through.
And all of this took the King of Curses less than five seconds.
* * *
Meanwhile, inside the domain...
"Not sure if it'll work, but opportunities this perfect don't come often."
There were less than forty seconds left before Enchain expired, while the weakened Yuta still could not fully break free from the ice.
Sukuna stared at "his own" fingers, seemingly preparing something.
"You can't mean..."
A conversation suddenly flashed through Yuta's mind.
It was from a special meeting held not long ago between the special grade sorcerers, and the topic of discussion back then had been Sukuna.
During that meeting, Fushiguro-san proposed a theory.
Yuji, as the perfect vessel, was essentially a "shield" capable of suppressing Sukuna completely.
But once the King of Curses fully awakened, he would definitely seek a way to escape that control.
And what was the best method?
Naturally, leaving Yuji's body entirely.
* * *
(Flashback)
"But wouldn't Sukuna's soul have extremely strict requirements for a body? Otherwise he would've reincarnated long ago."
Yuki, who had studied souls deeply, rested her chin on her hands while questioning that theory.
"That's exactly the problem. We don't know who qualifies as a suitable vessel in his eyes," Satoru answered. "So theoretically, aside from me and this idiot, any special grade sorcerer or exceptionally talented grade 1 sorcerer could become his target."
Mukuro, possessing a Heavenly Restriction body, could never resonate with cursed objects and therefore was not a candidate.
Satoru possessed Infinity, making body theft nearly impossible.
More importantly, even Sukuna himself could not guarantee victory against them in his current incomplete state.
"Megumi and Hakari are the most likely targets."
Geto made that conclusion based on cursed technique potential and talent.
As for the three of them?
Even the King of Curses could not defeat a special grade sorcerer quickly while not at full power.
(Flashback End)
* * *
Thinking back on it now, realization finally struck Yuta like lightning.
A sinister grin spread across Sukuna's face as he grabbed Yuji's little finger tightly.
"Correct answers deserve rewards."
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