The world shattered and reformed.
A vast lake stretched before them, mirror-smooth and endless. They were standing, the snow on the ground replaced with lush grass. The lake extended outward, its far shore invisible in the distance. Eternal spring daylight bathed everything in golden warmth. Sakura trees lined the perimeter behind them, their petals falling in slow arcs and dissolving into light.
At the center of the lake, far out on the water, floated a massive lotus mandala of glowing stone, etched with pulsing sutra script. Mount Fuji dominated the horizon, impossibly close and majestic.
The air smelled of cherry blossoms and incense. Distant bells chimed softly.
"It's beautiful," Mai whispered, tears pricking her eyes.
Even Maki stood frozen, staring with unconcealed awe.
Sukuna's finger lay on the ground directly in front of them, radiating malevolent energy like a beacon.
Every curse spirit within one hundred and fifty meters had been dragged into the domain—dozens of them, scattered across the landscape, trapped and unable to escape. They shambled toward the finger with hungry determination.
Shien's voice carried across the domain with unmistakable pride.
"This is the pinnacle of jujutsu sorcery," he said, gesturing at the sublime landscape. "My domain traps any being with cursed energy in a 150-meter radius within Lotus Pyre Mandala. Inside my domain, I can target the opponent's soul. There is no escape or defense."
He snapped his fingers lazily.
A Grade 4 curse ignited instantly, purple-white flame consuming it from within until nothing remained.
"See? Glorious, isn't it!"
Then he walked back toward the Sakura trees, dropped his rucksack on the ground, and sat directly on top of it. The bag bulged with supplies.
He pulled out his Nintendo DS and popped it open.
"You two defend the finger. Don't let the curses eat it or they'll become Special Grades and kill you." He started tapping through the menu. "I'd help, but I'm about to fight the Elite Four and I've been grinding for this all week."
"What?!" Maki's voice cracked.
"Elite Four! And Cynthia is no joke either!" The Pokemon battle music started playing from the tiny speakers. "You've got maybe thirty seconds before they reach the finger. Better get moving."
The curses surged forward.
Maki and Mai positioned themselves between the finger and the advancing horde.
The first wave hit—Grade 4 curses, the bottom feeders of the curse hierarchy. They scurried toward the finger with reckless abandon.
Maki's naginata cut through them in wide arcs. Mai's pistol cracked, cursed energy-enhanced bullets punching clean through curse flesh.
Mai fired three rapid shots, dropping two curses.
"Mai, trigger discipline! You're mag-dumping. This isn't Call of Duty."
"I'm—trying—to—survive!" Mai gasped between shots.
"You miss too much, and you're holding the pistol too tight. You're gonna be out of ammo if keep spraying and praying."
A centipede-like curse scuttled forward fast—a Grade 3 at minimum, its body formed from concentrated cursed energy rather than just ambient negativity. Multiple legs ending in grasping human hands, mandibles clicking.
"Oh hey, that's an actual curse," Shien said, sounding mildly interested. "Probably manifested from someone's fear of insects. Watch out for the stinger on the back!"
It lunged at Maki.
She blocked with the naginata shaft, the impact jarring her arms. "A little help?!"
"Stop whining! I have better things to do!" Shien opened a massive bag of chips and began to munch. "Just hit the segments between the carapace. If a curse is fast, disable its legs and then go for the head."
Maki adjusted, drove her blade through a joint. The curse screeched and collapsed.
"There you go! See, you're learning." His DS made a victory jingle. "Oh nice." Crunch.
Twenty minutes in, Mai was cycling through magazines fast.
"I'm running low!" she called out.
"That's rough," Shien said, eyes glued to his screen.
"Shien, I need more ammo!"
"It's in the bag."
"So give it to me!"
"I'm sitting on the bag."
"Then stand up!"
"Can't. I'm in the middle of a battle. You can't pause during trainer fights. Dont be selfish , Mai."
"I'M GOING TO DIE!"
"Probably. Oh, and there's a curse on your six. Left six. Your left, not mine."
Mai spun and barely got a shot off in time.
"See? You're fine. Stop being dramatic."
Maki ran past Mai, slashing through two Fly Heads. "When this is over, I'm throwing your stupid Nintendo in the lake!"
"You wouldn't dare. I haven't saved in like twenty minutes." Click click click.
Mai's pistol clicked empty. She looked at the approaching curses with dawning horror.
"I'm out!"
"That's unfortunate," Shien said, still focused on his game.
Maki growled with frustration, pulled a cleaver from her belt, and threw it to her sister. "Use Slaughter Demon!"
Mai caught the cleaver—a wicked-looking blade with a crude charm hanging from the handle. The weapon hummed with latent cursed energy.
"Oh, she brought Slaughter Demon?" Shien sounded amused. "Good job, Maki! Always have a backup!"
"SHUT UP!"
A Grade 3 curse—vaguely humanoid, formed from concentrated fear and hatred rather than just ambient cursed energy—lunged at Mai.
She met it with Slaughter Demon, the cleaver blazing with cursed energy. The weapon was designed for brutal close-quarters combat, each strike amplified by the tool's innate technique.
She hacked into the curse with wild, desperate swings.
"Okay, so your form is terrible," Shien commented while his Pokemon battle music played. "Like, genuinely awful. Let the edge of the blade do the cutting! Stab and slice! I'm surprised that you're still alive."
The curse dissolved under Mai's assault.
"Character growth!" Shien cheered. "Mai discovers the joy of close-quarters combat!" as Mai's face was covered in purple blood.
An hour in, the twins were drenched in sweat.
A curse manifested that looked like a massive centipede, but its segments were formed from human torsos twisted together. A Curse Womb—not yet fully developed but dangerous.
"Oh, that's nasty," Shien said. "That's like a Curse Womb. They're unstable. Might evolve into something worse if you don't kill it fast."
"THEN HELP US!"
"I could... but I won't."
Maki and Mai attacked the centipede-curse together. Mai's cleaver hacked at segments while Maki's naginata targeted the head.
It took three minutes of brutal effort to bring down.
When it dissolved, both were gasping.
"Not bad," Shien said. "Three minutes, twelve seconds. Could be faster. Oh hey, I beat Cynthia! It's impressive because it was a Nuzlocke. You know how I like to challenge myself, right."
"I hate you so much," Maki panted.
"Yeah, I get that a lot. Oh, there are like eight more curses coming from your left. You should probably deal with those."
A swarm-type curse appeared—a cluster of Fly Heads that had merged together into something more cohesive and dangerous, like a school of fish forming a larger predator shape.
Mai tried hacking at it with Slaughter Demon, but the blade just passed through as the swarm dispersed and reformed.
"That's not gonna work," Shien said helpfully.
"NO!"
"Then you should probably figure something else out. I'd suggest running, but that seems cowardly."
"We're literally fighting for our lives!" Mai screamed.
"And I'm multitasking. We're both accomplishing things today."
Shien snapped his fingers, and the swarm curse was incinerated in a puff of smoke.
Ninety minutes in, a particularly dangerous curse appeared—a Grade 2, manifested from deep-seated fear and trauma rather than surface-level anxiety. It resembled a twisted amalgamation of body parts, constantly shifting and reforming.
It rushed them fast—too fast.
Mai was mid-swing with Slaughter Demon, flailing like a toddler leaving herself completely exposed.
Shien's eyes didn't leave his DS screen.
He just snapped his fingers.
Snap.
The Grade 2 curse ignited mid-lunge, its soul burning away in an instant. It dissolved before reaching Mai.
"Pay attention, you need to improve your timing" Shien said mildly, starting a new game file. "That one was actually dangerous."
"Please pass the bullets!" Mai half-screamed, half-whined.
"Well, I could..." Click click. "But where's the learning in that? You need experience. Character building. Also, I'm busy. I'm going for a full Pokedex this playthrough."
"You're insane!"
"I'm your sensei, so you bitches better recognize !!! Also, there's another curse behind you. Grade 3. Looks angry."
The battle continued.
Shien would occasionally glance up, assess a threat, and snap his fingers without interrupting his game.
Snap.
"SHIEN!" both twins screamed.
"What? I'm helping. You're not dead, are you? Then I'm doing my job."
Two hours later, the last curse fell.
The twins collapsed on the grass, completely spent. Maki's arms trembled. Mai could barely grip Slaughter Demon.
"Good job," Shien said, saving his game. "You didn't die. That's success in my book."
He stood, walked over, and healed their injuries with Reverse Cursed Technique, restoring their stamina.
"There you are, good as new! You're welcome."
Mai pulled out bentos with shaking hands as Maki ate furiously, occasionally giving Shien hateful glances. They laid on the grass, the twins too exhausted to take out the blanket and Shien too lazy to do it.
After a while, Mai looked at the lake. "Can we swim?"
Shien raised an eyebrow.
"Please? We're disgusting and it's right there and—"
"Fine. Go swim. Don't drown."
Both twins stripped down to their undergarments and waded in. The water was perfect.
Shien watched them for a moment, then shrugged and decided to join them.
They just floated on the lake, enjoying a beautiful spring day in the domain as blistering cold winds blew through forest outside.
"It is so cold outside! Can we just stay here and train? Please?" Mai pleaded. Maki was unpacking the tent, but her mind was clearly on the conversation between Mai and Shien.
"Fine! But only because Maki looks tired!" Shien said before rubbing Maki's head, which she tried to swat away.
Maki prepared their bedrolls as they readied to go to bed under a sakura tree.
"Shien-chan, could you make it nighttime? It's kinda bright in here?" Mai asked sweetly.
Shien scowled. "Shut up! And go to sleep before I kick you out into the cold."
Mai puffed up her cheek. "Hhrrmph," and buried her face into the bedroll.
Shien turned off the Nintendo and began to meditate.
They stayed in the domain for two days.
The pattern repeated: Shien had refined his domain to the point where he could open the domain's borders, let curses flood in using Sukuna's finger as bait, and the twins would fight.
"Maki, that curse literally has its back to you. How are you still struggling?"
"Mai, stop screaming every time a curse gets close. It's distracting! If you're gonna die, do it with some dignity!"
Maki was holding back the cursed spirits as Mai tried desperately to reload her pistol when a snake-shaped cursed spirit slithered from behind, trying to spray its venom on the twins.
Snap.
"Oh wow, you both almost died. Good thing I was paying attention. Anyway, back to grinding."
When they couldn't fight anymore, he'd close the borders and they'd rest, eat, swim.
By the second day, both twins had improved dramatically.
Shien never slept—this was a test of mental endurance for him. Maintaining a complete domain was challenging at the best of times for most sorcerers.
His cursed energy reserves stayed strong—twenty-five percent depletion even after forty-eight hours. The older Shien got, the stronger he became; he required less than an hour of sleep a day. So staying up for two days would not be a problem for him. But the cursed technique burnout built steadily. He needed to keep his cursed technique active to be able to protect the twins in case they got into trouble inside his domain. (AN: Dagon uses his domain for fun, but that is because he was only using a partial domain indoors. And Dagon had deactivated the sure hit, thereby significantly reducing the load. He is also a curse spirit, so he does not have the restrictions that human sorcerers have.)
This is going to hurt when I drop it.
"Alright, we're done," he announced on the second evening. "Time to go home."
They gathered their gear reluctantly.
Shien sealed Sukuna's finger, layered the talismans carefully.
"Ready?"
They nodded.
He released the domain.
The world shattered like glass.
Everything dissolved—the lake, the sakura trees, the lotus mandala, Mount Fuji. Reality reasserted itself with the blistering cold of the forest.
Shien staggered immediately.
The cursed technique burnout hit like a truck—his mind foggy and his vision swimming. Forty-eight hours of continuous domain maintenance with no sleep.
"I'm fine," he said when Maki looked worried.
"Just need to sleep. Let's get to the car."
"No, you are not! You're bleeding from your nose," Mai squealed.
Maki took Shien's rucksack from him, concern evident in her eyes.
Shien centered himself, bent over, getting a fistful of snow, turning it into a ball and dabbing it on his nose. The snowball turned bright pink in seconds.
The cursed technique burnout must have fried my frontal lobe.
"It's nothing... just some brain damage."
"Yeah, I knew that before you started bleeding from your nose," Maki scoffed.
Mai scowled at her twin. "Don't joke!" She grabbed Shien's arm as they began to walk back to the car.
"Relax he has that RCT he should be fine ! " Maki said luggin both the rucksack and marching ahead.
They walked through the winter forest in exhausted silence.
Shien's mind was thick, sluggish. The technique burnout made everything feel distant and unreal. Shien was recovering quickly—nothing his superhuman body and RCT couldn't fix.
Just reach the car. Sleep while Hayato drives.
They emerged at the entrance where Hayato was supposed to wait for them. Shien sensed that something was wrong.
Two bullet holes in the windshield. Spider-web cracks radiating from the impacts. Through the broken windshield, he could see Hayato slumped in the driver's seat, blood soaking through his clothes from gunshot wounds to the chest, his body completely still.
The engine was still running. Even exhausted and sleep-deprived, Shien's mind was still superhuman. In a second, he processed the information.
Then adrenaline hit.
"Stop. Get down!"
The sharp crack of gunfire split the air, and Shien's instincts kicked in before his exhausted mind could fully process what was happening. He shoved Mai hard to the side, away from him, and launched himself at Maki, tackling her to the ground just as the first bullet punched through his right arm and the second tore through his left thigh, both piercing straight through his cursed energy reinforcement.
White-hot pain radiated from the wounds as blood poured out, and through the agony, one thought screamed in his mind: How did bullets pierce my cursed energy reinforcement?