Shohei never slept as deep as mornings after he expended the majority of his cursed energy reserves in missions or training. He slept through his alarm for getting ready for breakfast and he would have slept through his alarm for training, but a loud knock on his dorm door shook him awake.
"It's open," Shohei yawned, not caring who walked in on him with morning hair and cottonmouth.
"Up and at it," Maki said, strolling into the room with a styrofoam box in hand. "If Panda isn't hibernating neither are you. You're sleeping through breakfast right now. No missing meals when you're training."
"Actually," Shohei said with an expressive nasally accent and finger raised. "It is common knowledge that the Giant Panda Bear does not hibernate in the late seasons of October. And regarding its other furry kin, the average male black bear doesn't begin its hibernation until mid-December."
Maki punched Shohei in the chest while his Gravity Field was down, knocking him flat back on the bed. She took a seat next to him on the scattered covers and waited for him to stop whining to hand the box to him.
"I love that you're a nerd. I hate your sarcasm," Maki said.
"I love you too," Shohei sighed, sitting up and taking the box. It was that morning's breakfast of rice, a small cut of grilled fish, and an omelet. "Thank you."
"How's training?" Maki asked, spreading her arms behind the boy and his pillows, making the bed her own.
"Good," Shohei said, honestly. "Today would be better if you fed me," he cooed, waving the plastic fork under her nose.
The glare Maki's golden eyes gave Shohei did not sway him to stop teasing the girl. She snatched the fork from his hand after he wiggled his eyebrows one too many times. She broke the fork in half and tossed it into a corner of the room.
"Now you can eat like a dog," Maki sneered, a grin creeping up her face.
"Woof," Shohei mocked, digging into the breakfast all the same.
Shohei swiftly finished his breakfast and explained the previous day's training while dressing himself.
"Your shirt is backwards," Maki said and Sho was pulling a hoodie over his head.
"Whoops," Sho said, correcting it. "I'm a little distracted by you," Shohei chuckled with a wink.
"I'm glad you appreciate my looks," Maki hummed, rolling off Sho's bed and giving him a coach's pat on the butt. "Go get 'em today sweet cheeks," Maki said nonchalantly as she left the room, on que with Sho's alarm ringing.
Training was brutal off the bat. Satoru fighting aggressively had backed Shohei onto the defensive instantly, leaving him only able to counter attack twice in the span of the first three hours.
Shohei's attention never sidetracked that day, because if it did, Satoru's speed would overwhelm him at every opportunity, knocking Shohei to the ground as he wanted.
"Come on Sho," Satoru said, kicking the boy's calf and throwing a large cross that he ducked. "This is only a moderate intensity overall. It's good you can hold this long with Gravity field and no techniques, but you've got to deal with a persistent aggressor better than this. They would've switched up their approach seeing that they weren't making any ground and seeing that you had steam to keep going as long. They could pull out a technique or Domain and that could be wraps."
"I would've put an aggressor in a gravity blender before I let a fight go on like this," Shohei admitted, leaping back for space.
"Well, I wouldn't put it past someone skilled enough to fight for three hours straight to have the possibility of landing a Black Flash on you in that time," Satoru warned. "This is why knowing how to fight aggression with aggression is indispensable."
"Then come here," Shohei grunted, tired of running and wanting to move onto casting a Domain.
Shohei lunged at the man with a push kick to his stomach, but Satoru taught Sho that exact move. He backhanded Sho's leg inward and kicked his standing leg, causing Sho to fall.
Satoru brought the fight to a ground pound for the first time in the past week, stradling Sho and punching him while down.
Shohei then again had to turtle like yesterday, his Gravity Field and Satoru's Infinity in a peculiar grappling deadlock. If Satoru didn't have Infinity, then loosely grappling Shohei wasn't an option. Gravity Field would either throw him askew or rip him apart if he gripped too tightly. Since Gojo had Infinity, it made grappling way easier for him. He could choose what he touched, and currently that was punching Shohei, and what Infinity acted on, and that was his legs straddling Shohei's torso. Sho couldn't push off of Satoru's Infinity to slide from underneath, and he couldn't throw him off even if he could get in position.
It was all frantic. Shohei was like a sitting duck getting its bill bashed in. Gojo's punches were just crashing down into Sho's guard or slipping through and bashing his face in. No blood was drawn, but Sho would have a new collection of bruises if he didn't escape.
He couldn't gather his thoughts as his head kept getting knocked against the ground below him too, so he decided he needed the extra concentration. Shohei activated Tunnel Vision and immediately felt his heart rate lower.
It was like a breath of fresh air. The technique gave him the ability to think back and the means to block better than he was. Sho could read Satoru's punches again and block as best as he could. Sho realized there was no getting out of this grapple, and he had one means of making Satoru stop it. It wasn't a smart move to strike back when you're the one on the bottom of a ground pound, but that was the only option.
Shohei focused on his only target, Satrou's chin. The man was occupied with pummeling him and knows Sho had a solid basis in mixed martial arts to not strike back when on bottom, so he'd never expect it. Shohei had no time to waste, and if he failed on the first try there was no telling if Satoru would begin predicting the strikes and leave the boy hopeless.
Shohei stopped overthinking, he striked, and he succeeded. A Black Flash erupted from Sho's palm strike to Satoru's chin.
"Oh thank you God," Shohei heaved, relief pouring from his soul when he succeeded in the impossible. "Thank you Sparks of Black."
"Well," Satoru said, surprised at the occurrence. "I'm glad, but who'd have thought you could pull that off under the pressure and distraction of getting your face actively caved in."
"It was a gamble," Sho admitted. "I think I'm done with gambling for a while. My heart is racing again."
"Well, slow it down. We're moving on to Domain Expansions again," Gojo cheered, as happy as if he didn't just beat his cousin to death for three hours.
"Let me get a drink," Sho demanded. "I can still taste your knuckles."
Once gathered and still in the zone from Black Flash, Shohei joined Gojo in the center and they continued.
"As you know, a Domain is the casters home court, and with home court, comes home a literal court advantage," Satoru said. "A Domain gives the caster a significant stat boost to everything. Strength, speed, reaction, even durability. You name it, it buffs it. I want you to cast it primarily thinking about how no one is up to scratch to fight you in your Domain."
"Okay," Shohei said. Shohei thought this sounded way simpler than yesterday's task of forming the barrier, but he could be wrong for all he knew. He just hoped that since he's cast his Domain once before, it would be easier to build on top of after all they covered yesterday.
"Domain Expansion!" Shohei chanted, the back of his palms touching and his two hands either clenched closed or splayed open.
The orb sprouted around them, blank in all its sensations and unfortunately identical as yesterday.
"Damn," Satoru muttered blankly, adjusting his glasses.
"The same as yesterday," Shohei sighed. "No boost."
"That's alright," Satoru dismissed. "Lower the barrier and try again. You've got the reserves to spare."
"Alright," Shohei said, and did just that. The barrier disappeared and they stood in the illuminated training area again.
"Hmm," Satoru hummed, rubbing his chin. "How do I explain it better?"
"There isn't really a way to explain it better," Shohei interrupted. "You explained it well, I just didn't apply it."
"Are you sure?" Satoru asked.
"No," Shohei admitted, frustrated, tired, and sore. "This is all such a caliber above what I was doing before. Black Flashes. Domain Expansions. I don't think I'm all that smart, but this is a lot. To be honest, I don't think this will even bring me up to scratch with the likes of people like you, Yuta, or Hakari like you say it will."
"Sho," Satoru sighed. "You're a prodigy. Your strength is more than the larger cursed energy reserves or Limitless you inherited from the Clan. You being the only sorcerer born in this age to naturally have a Inherited and Innate technique is just the tip of the iceberg. Your extensive sensing range might as well be as big a handicap as it is a strength. I still think that's what distracts you so much and despite that, you've learned at a rate that no other sorcerer could. You've almost learned to cast a Domain Expansion with three days of proper training and advanced your other skills at the same time. Not even Yuta or Hakari have accomplished such Domain training."
"Thanks Satoru. Can we continue?" Shohei asked, emboldened. To have real evidence given why he was as competent as his peers and senpai that he looked up to lit a fire in Sho.
"Of course," Satoru said. "And I think I could have explained the stat boost better. Regarding my territory comparison yesterday, the stat boost is like your land's soil and crops enriching you. We should stick with that comparison for now. No need to make it even more complicated."
Shohei nodded, recalling the success he had when applying the territory example to form the barrier and applying it to the stat boost.
Shohei intertwined his fingers and cast, "Domain Expansion!"
The orb formed, enshrouding the two Gojos. With the comparison to territory and enhanced potential of Black Flash along came the stat boost to Shohei.
At first glance his own body felt like it was more reinforced and as healthy as he ever felt, even with his face damaged. His limbs felt springy and explosive, as if he weren't even under Gravity Field. Shohei looked down to his own hands and felt like he was seeing every muscle twitch and wrinkle of skin. The resistance provided by Gravity Conductor felt lighter than ever, and Sho had even been forced to increase its intensity after all the sparring with Satoru recently. His extremely dense muscles refined from training under Gravity Field felt more durable than ever without an ounce of Reinforcement.
"How's it feeling?" Satoru asked, grinning at Shohei stretching and examining his own body.
"Different," Shohei said, searching for better words. "Foreign. It's like the boost is making my normal perception feel like a waterdown version of Tunnel Vision and my body feels like it's barely under Gravity Field. And since it's my own barrier my sensing extends outside of it too rather than being blocked off like someone else's barrier."
Shohei released Gravity Field to experience the boost unencumbered and was overwhelmed by the experience.
"Wow," Shohei gasped, clenching and unclenching a fist. "Can I punch you Satoru?"
"Go ahead," Satoru agreed in a hoot of laughter. Before he could even let out a second giggle, Shohei's knee was fruitless closing the distance between it and his chin. "Man," Gojo scoffed. "I forget how nimble you are without being weighed down. Probably faster than Yuji and definitely when in your Domain."
Shohei fell back to his feet and beamed with a shocked expression at his own speed.
"This is so sweet," Shohei gasped. "I bet I wouldn't get washed like I was earlier if we fought in here, even with Gravity Field on."
"Probably. And trust me," Satoru said. "It all pales in comparison to when you see your Domain fully realized. I barely believed the sight when I saw my Domain, Unlimited Void."
"Can we please try to cast it fully realized today?" Shohei begged, imagining all the possibilities of his full Domain.
"No no," Satoru said. "Not yet. I actually planned for you to fight here a little using whatever techniques or means you want to get the full scope of fighting in your home court. After that we can cast this a few more times to get you accustomed."
"Really?" Shohei asked, skeptical of the sweet deal. "No Gravity Field? I can use Gravity Conductor? Even Stygian Void?"
"Really. Anything you want," Gojo confirmed.
"Haha," Shohei cackled, giddy as he unsheathed Iguana Talon and formed a hand sign in his other hand. "That's what I'm talking about."
The hand sign erected a force of gravity preventing Satoru from backing up, letting Shohei beeline to him. Shohei's arms were a blur, slashing and punching harmlessly to Satoru, but technically efficient.
The Domain set the grounds equal to Sho and Satoru's second day of training, where Satoru primarily defended and occasionally counter-strike. Shohei having access to his main means of combat, Gravity Conductor, let him throw around Satoru much more. Shohei didn't even aim to harm Gojo in particular, but moving him around on command was a nice benefit.
Shohei enjoyed his time spent slinging around his cousins and fighting at a much more favorable pace using his traditional fighting style, but sooner than Shohei expected, the Domain dissipated.
The barrier fell and Shohei felt his body revert to its typical level of capability. Oddly enough, Shohei didn't feel what he could only describe as his second set of hands. It was too late when Shohei released Gravity Conductor wasn't working and he hadn't put Gravity Field back up, and Satoru was upon him. A punch rocketed into Shohei's stomach, sending him flying into the far walls of the room.
"Now," Satoru said as if he were resuming a lesson in class. "A commonly forgotten fact of a Domain is that the caster is rather vulnerable immediately after. Once a Domain is lowered, the Domain's caster's technique burns away temporarily, unusable. With you, both your techniques that you rely on defending you are lagging behind after casting, leaving you naked in the open with a predictable weak point. Don't ever think you're in the clear in the moments following your Domain. Even if you defeated the enemy inside there could be a threat outside you were not prepared for."
"Yes sir," Shohei weezed, crawling up from the ground. Sho's abs were wrecked from the punch and his spine and skull throbbing from getting blasted into the wall.
Shohei massaged his stomach and after another brief moment he felt Gravity Conductor and Stygian Void return. Before Shohei could recall what he was forgetting, his great club Shooting Star crashed through the roof of the facility and crashed to the floor with a small explosion of gathered cursed energy. He had stopped suspending it above him when he lost control of Gravity Conductor.
"Shit," Shohei said.
"Shit," Satoru said.
The two called the grounds keeper of the school to inform them why there was a giant hole in the ceiling and crater in the floor.
The two of them would have to submit a report to Principal Yaga and pay a small fee for the excessive damages, but beyond that, Satoru was sure they wouldn't get in too much trouble.
"Well," Satoru interrupted the silence they were in as they walked away from the facility. "That was fun."
"You could say that," Shohei said grinning, hoisting Shooting Star over his shoulder until he could position it in the atmosphere when he had enough cursed energy. "What now?"
"Well," Satoru said. "I was gonna have you continue sparring to teach you to endure through a fight with minimal cursed energy. I don't think it's wise to fight in the open or forest willy nilly in case we destroy something else. I hadn't accounted for an incomplete Domain continuously consuming your cursed energy rather than using a measured amount like a complete Domain. Even a complete Domain won't consume more cursed energy if it's in an active clash with another Domain. Either way, that'll hash itself out next weekend when the facility is fixed or we move to a new one."
"So that's it for today?" Shohei asked.
"Not quite," Satoru said, holding up a finger. "Throughout this week I need you to do something to help progress your training for next time."
"What? Cast a Domain in my free time?" Shohei asked.
"You can if you want, but no," Satou said. "There are what I refer to as lethal and non-lethal Domains. Non-Lethal Domains used to be common years and years ago when lethal fire hit techniques were not present in Domains. Non-lethal Domains simply make you comply with a set of rules in the Domain like no blinking or only using your left hand. Something harmless like that. Lethal Domains are the norm of Domains in the modern era and you will more likely than not have one. I want you to ask yourself what object or concept feels unbeatable to you. What seems so insurmountable that you pray you never would have to oppose it. Give it some real thought and do some self reflection while your at it. I expect a thoughtful answer when we train next weekend. Can you do that?"
"I can do that," Shohei assured, but puzzled by the odd requests.
"Good man," Satoru barked, slapping Sho's shoulder.