The moment I laid eyes on it, every muscle in my body instinctively tensed.
My casual expression disappeared. And for the first time since coming to this world…
I genuinely felt my heart skip a beat.
Standing in front of us was something I recognized immediately.
Its skin was pale white, almost corpse-like, stretched unnaturally over a massive frame. Its limbs were too long, too thin, too wrong, as if some mad sculptor had tried to make a human from memory and failed halfway through. Its face—or whatever passed for one—had no eyes, no nose, no features.
Just that wide, ugly, scary mouth.
A grotesque, vertical maw lined with jagged teeth stretching from forehead to chin and the cursed energy coming off it…
"…No way."
My voice came out quieter than I intended.
Beside me, Mei Mei's expression had completely changed. The playful greed, the smug professionalism, and the teasing smiles were gone. Her eyes were locked onto the creature with absolute seriousness, her body already angled for retreat.
We weren't standing in the forest anymore. I slowly looked around.
The trees had twisted. The ground no longer looked natural.
Distances stretched and compressed unnaturally. Shadows bent unnaturally. The air felt thicker, heavier, like walking through invisible water.
I immediately recognized what had happened.
Innate domain. Not a full domain expansion, mind you.
An innate domain is a mental landscape representing a person's soul or core being, born within every individual (humans, sorcerers, and curses). It serves as the foundation for innate cursed techniques, and when projected externally using a barrier to trap opponents, it is known as Domain Expansion.
Even though it is not a full domain, it is close enough to ruin my day.
I slowly exhaled through my nose.
Of all the things I could have found…
Of all the special grades in this damn world…
A Finger Bearer.
For any who don't know what a Finger Bearers curse is, Finger Bearers begin as cursed wombs where they gestate until birth. During this period, they are already ranked as special grade and can be seen by non-sorcerers. Once born, they expand their innate domain with cursed energy, similar to a domain expansion, that warps the dimensions of its birthplace. And currently Mei Mei and I are standing instead in its native domain.
I stared at the curse as it tilted its grotesque head toward us, almost like it was studying prey.
And that's what made my blood run cold.
Because finger bearers shouldn't exist yet.
If my fragmented memory of the canon was right, the events involving those things were years away. Yuji wasn't even at Jujutsu High yet. Sukuna's fingers should still be scattered. The timeline shouldn't allow this.
Unless something changed or I changed it.
My jaw tightened. "…That's bad."
Beside me, Mei Mei didn't take her eyes off the course.
"This is bad," she said flatly.
I nodded slowly, cursed energy beginning to flow through every fiber of my body.
"Yeah," I swallowed once. "Very bad."
The Finger Bearer suddenly moved.
Its head lowered slightly as its massive body hunched forward, almost like a predator ready to spring. The sheer pressure coming off it made the air distort around its body. Even my cursed energy threads, which I usually spread subconsciously through the battlefield, were trembling.
Mei Mei clicked her tongue.
"This wasn't in the report."
"No kidding."
She glanced at me for half a second.
"My original fee just tripled."
I actually laughed.
Facing a nightmare straight out of canon, and she was negotiating.
"If you survive this," I said while rolling my shoulders, "I'll pay you five times."
That got her attention. One of her eyebrows rose slightly.
"Now that..." She smiled under the pressure of impending death. "…sounds motivating."
The Finger Bearer suddenly let out a low, distorted growl.
But the moment it reached my ears, my blinding vow instinctively reacted. My cursed energy surged.
Mei Mei's eyes widened slightly as she looked at me.
"…You're activating it already?"
I kept my eyes locked on the course.
"Yes, it's Christmas time. Time to give that ugly bastard a gift."
~~~
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