WARNING : I am not a native speaker. One of my reasons to re-write this fict is because I want to practice my English even just a little. So, read it with a grain of salt and please enjoy yourself.

'Innate domain? Seeing that there is no weird sensation on my body, this means that it is still incomplete Domain Expansion.'

Hachiman again cursed his fate to be involved in the fight inside the domain. The last time he was trapped, he was almost finished off by Hijikata Toshizo.

Hachiman sensed something with strong cursed energy from behind. When he turned around, he found a cursed spirit with the form of a flawless human.

The cursed spirit with long lakeshore blue hair had several stitches running across its face. On the right side of his face, there was a stitch from top to bottom, which goes through his right eye, and a diagonal stitch across his nose. The cursed spirit also appeared to have two distinct irises, one grey and the other pale blue.

"Humans are strange creatures, aren't they? They keep coming to this place even though they know it's a haunted tunnel," said the cursed spirit, "Well, I don't mind anyway, because I get a lot of experimental material."

Hachiman's expression hardened when he saw the cursed spirit. He was angry not because of what the cursed spirit had said. Hachiman was angry purely because of what he was seeing right now.

The cursed spirit's hand was currently gripping the head of a woman. The woman fell limply on her knees. Her hair fell down while her head was gripped by the creature. Haruno's pupils were currently shrinking and shaking, as if her brain was in a state of intense shock. Her mouth was gaping so that some saliva dripped from it.

—OoOoO—

Jujutsu Kaisen by Gege Akutami

Oregairu by Wataru Watari & Ponkan8

Genre : Supernatural, Action, Freindship, Slice of Life, and Little Bit Romance

Summary : Not the romantic comedy of youth that he experienced, not the quiet and normal life of youth he had. He never missed his day-to-day cursing his strange and annoying life. He is Hikigaya Hachiman and this is all his complaints as a jujutsu sorcerer.

Chapter 19: Yukinoshita Haruno's Fate II

—OoOoO—

There were mixed feelings when Hachiman saw the scene before him. Haruno was kneeling helplessly, and the cursed spirit's right hand was holding her head. He didn't know what the long-haired creature wanted. However, he firmly believed in taking action as quickly as possible.

Hachiman immediately shot off at high speed. It didn't take long for the teenager to arrive before the cursed spirit. With one swift series of movements, Hachiman immediately sank his feet into a stance and slammed his fist on the cursed spirit's nose bone.

The blow creates the effect of black flashes that spread randomly. Mahito—the name of the cursed spirit—was thrown several meters away.

However, Hachiman did not pay much attention to the cursed spirit. His attention was entirely divided by Haruno's condition. He immediately crouched down and lifted her upper body, causing her to be semi-sitting.

"Haruno-san, can you hear me?"

No, no answer at all from her. Even so, he could still see her eyelids opening and revealing her quivering pupils. The woman was now in a semi-conscious state with her limp body. Hachiman occasionally tried to sway her body but to no avail. There was no sign of her coming to her senses.

"She's not dead yet? Very interesting. I thought her head was going to explode like everyone else. Does that mean my experiment was successful?" said the cursed spirit in a joyful tone,

Hachiman immediately looked in the direction where the voice came from. And he couldn't help but be surprised after seeing that figure.

'What? No trace of my punch at all? What's more, he really looks fine. Did he immediately heal himself with cursed energy?'

Unlike sorcerers, cursed spirits had very unique and beneficial traits. Sorcerers would be unable to instantly heal wounds on their bodies without using the positive energy gained after activating the Reverse Cursed Technique. However, a cursed spirit did not require such a complicated process. In fact, a cursed spirit was a lump of cursed energy in a certain amount which then took a physical form and had a soul. Therefore, when they were injured, or any part of their body was torn apart, they simply re-flow their cursed energy, and they would instantly get their limbs intact.

'No. If I think again, I didn't see him splattering his blood when I hit him earlier. There's no way my punch wasn't strong enough, right?'

Hachiman was aware that his cursed energy output was not as big as Okkotsu Yuta's. However, he was pretty sure that his output could still compete with other first-grades like Nanami Kento, Todo Aoi, or even Hakari. Especially with his cursed energy trait, every attack he launched would give the target a feeling of nausea or disgust, making the opponent mentally exhausted. Not to mention the black flash effect that would increase the damage up to 2.5 times.

However, seeing that the cursed spirit before him was not affected by the various variables in his attack made Hachiman only come to one conclusion.

'Is he immune to physical attacks? How could that be?'

Mahito put on a pouting face that he made to mock Hachiman. And ignoring the sorcerer, he began to speak again.

"Hey, what was that earlier? It was so amazing, and it was my first time seeing it! Besides, what creature are you? I mean, are you really a human? Your cursed energy isn't felt like a human, you know?"

Hachiman's priority right now wasn't to exorcise the cursed spirit but to escape and evacuate Haruno. Unfortunately, since they were trapped within this imperfect domain, he had no choice but to fight. However, finding the entrance and escaping would remain his priority.

"Why don't you find it yourself?" replied Hachiman while mounting his fighting stance.

A 'crack' sound that sounded quite loud, as if a solid object was hitting the concrete, caught the attention of the two different creatures.

The sound once again sounded, but this time much louder. Not long after—less than a second—a large hole appeared above with the collapse of the concrete and asphalt. Also, the six creatures Hachiman couldn't identify fell down. At the top was a girl with glasses who also fell by stepping on one of the strange creatures.

Maki was the perpetrator of the break-in. In her hand, she carried a three-section staff connected by rings. A naginata she had been using was stuck on the strange creature's body that became her foothold.

Maki scanned her surroundings. All she came across was empty, endless darkness. With just one look, she knew this wasn't a culvert that was supposed to be under an abandoned tunnel but a domain. She looked up to make sure. Sure enough, the hole she made earlier was immediately covered with darkness that seemed to have no end.

"Fuck."

Maki cursed softly. Even though she knew that her body was naturally not a body built to be a sorcerer, Maki never felt inferior and believed she could defeat other sorcerers if she tried hard. However, there was a fact she couldn't deny, and that was her weakness in domain battles.

With very little cursed energy—even less than that of a normal human—she could be said to have absolutely no defence system to guard against the sure-hit effects of a domain. In other words, entering into one's domain meant total defeat for her.

"Maki, this is still imperfect domain expansion!"

Hachiman's scream reached Maki's eardrums. This made her smile wide because she still hadn't lost this time.

Maki immediately pulled out her naginata and threw it at Hachiman. The young man caught it well without any difficulty.

However, on the other hand, Mahito also shot at a very high speed toward Maki. He hid his palms at his side, and when he arrived in front of Maki, he quickly pointed his right palm toward her.

Maki quickly crossed the two sides of her three-section staff and successfully repelled the attack. Maki repelled and clamped Mahito's right hand using both sides of her three-section staff.

This made Mahito surprised. Because he firmly believed that he was running as fast as he could toward her. However, the fact that she didn't just block his attack but also clamped his hand with exact timing made Mahito think she wasn't just the ordinary girl he thought she was.

Before Mahito realized his shock, he felt a sharp object slicing his back. He looked and found Hachiman as the culprit.

However, Hachiman was no less surprised because he witnessed no blood from the cursed spirit coming out. He had already concluded that his opponent was immune to physical attacks. However, he still wasn't used to that fact.

The same expression was also seen on Maki's face. It was her first time witnessing that the slash did not inflict any damage to Mahito, much to her surprise.

Unlike the two young sorcerers, Mahito actually grinned widely. His left hand, which was still free, pointed at the girl.

Hachiman, who noticed it, immediately cut off the hand using a naginata. Meanwhile, Maki, who had regained her composure, let go of Mahito's right hand, which she had clamped with her weapon earlier. She twisted her body and swung the end of her three-section staff with such force that it hit Mahito's body.

Mahito, who received the attack, was thrown very far and was accompanied by a thunderous sound.

"That weapon is terrible as usual, huh?" Hachiman commented.

"I know, right? But using this weapon makes me sick."

Playful Cloud was the name of the three-section staff that Maki used. The weapon was one of several weapons that had been awarded the title of special-grade cursed tools. Special-grade cursed tools were weapons or ones that had not only been imbued with cursed energy but also had a cursed technique embedded. In other words, no matter what it was, cursed tools with unique traits or techniques could be categorized as special grades.

However, Playful Cloud was different. Playful Cloud was the only special-grade cursed tool that didn't have a cursed technique. Instead, it was a solid weapon that responded to the user's raw strength. The stronger the natural strength of the user, the stronger the output produced by Playful Cloud. Because this weapon only responded to raw strength, sorcerers who strengthened their bodies with cursed energy reinforcement couldn't unleash Playful Cloud's greatest potential.

In other words, Maki, who possessed immense physical strength, was the most suitable user for Playful Cloud.

"Great! Splendid! Magnificent! What is that power, anyway? How can a girl with a small body like you exert that much power?"

The voice came from behind the darkness. At the same time, Mahito's figure reappeared with his body still intact without the slightest injury. Behind him, followed by five strange creatures of various shapes.

"What? How could that be? Don't tell me he's immune to physical attacks," Maki muttered.

"That's hard to believe, isn't it?" Hachiman's response, "Besides, the strange creatures we fought above were his doing, perhaps."

"What if his head is crushed?"

"I don't know, but I don't want to make a bet here."

Maki glanced at Hachiman, who also came to the same conclusion. Then her eyes returned to looking straight ahead.

"I hate to say this, but we have to run away now," Maki said in a low voice, "He may have closed and obscured the hole I made, but I can still faintly smell the musty smell from the tunnel."

Most cases of imperfect Domain Expansion were the absence of a barrier that separates the innate domain from the real world. Therefore, every case related to the imperfect domain was mainly in a closed room. Because by using the walls of a building or room, you could make it an artificial barrier. Hijikata Toshizo did the same thing when he deployed his innate domain at the Chiba Folk Museum.

However, because the artificial barrier came from the room's wall, it made it easy for trapped targets to escape as long as there was already a hole in the wall. Still, the obstacle that must be faced was finding the spot again. When a hole could be used to escape, the host's domain tended to cover it with the innate domain and then hide it.

Hachiman, who heard Maki's statement nodded.

"Okay. I'll distract him with my technique. You find the hole you made earlier as quickly as possible."

Hachiman paused his words for a moment. He then glanced at Haruno, who was lying quite far from where the two were.

"And, please help me to take care of that woman," continued Hachiman quietly.

Maki nodded without saying a word and then ran around Mahito's innate domain. However, Hachiman trapping Mahito and his creatures into his illusion gave them the perception that Maki was now heading to Haruno's place to guard her.

Hachiman held Maki's naginata with his left hand horizontally behind him. He lowered his stance slightly and raised his index and middle fingers. A blue aura of cursed energy overflowed from his body. With great control, he suppressed the overflow of energy so that no energy was wasted.

He shot as fast as a bullet toward Mahito. Mahito ordered the five creatures of his creation to block the young sorcerer. However, with a smooth twist and swing of a beautiful naginata, Hachiman quickly got rid of the five strange creatures.

Without pausing to catch his breath, Hachiman continued to increase his speed. In less than a second, he had drastically reduced his distance from Mahito. He swung the naginata down, intending to hit Mahito head-on with the naginata's blade. However, Mahito resisted the attack by crossing his arms with the outer sides of his hands turning sharper.

The collision between the sharp objects caused fairly loud clanking and sparks.

'He can manipulate his body shape? Is that what makes him immune to physical attacks?'

An ability shown by his opponent made Hachiman almost come to a conclusion. However, he put that aside for the time being because he knew there were many things he still didn't understand about his opponent.

Hachiman pulled back the naginata, and so did Mahito. The cursed spirit spun around and swung his left hand. However, before it hit Hachiman, he had turned his hand into a large scythe.

Taking advantage of the naginata's broad range, Hachiman poured his cursed energy into the weapon and slashed Mahito's wrist. The attack that hit Mahito's arm caused black flashes to sparkle and dance around them.

As a special-grades cursed spirit, Mahito's body certainly wasn't that soft. However, Hachiman, who has been training cursed energy reinforcement since he was 12 years old, was very confident in the reinforcement he used. In addition, with him being able to release a black flash at will, he could increase the damage of each attack up to 2.5 times.

Coupled with the cursed tool—naginata—that Maki lent, making the damage higher. Because basically, Maki's cursed tools were different from the ordinary weapons he often used, which he had to manually imbue by himself.

"You're strong, aren't you? Is this the power of a jujutsu sorcerer?"

Mahito did not regrow his hand. Instead, he quickly transformed his entire body into a long snake-like shape. Taking advantage of the snake's slick and nimble body structure, Mahito darted around Hachiman's wrist that was holding the naginata.

The young man's eyes widened at what the cursed spirit did. He aimed his right hand to try to catch Mahito. However, with that snake-like body, he was more agile than Hachiman thought. In about a second, Mahito had reached Hachiman's left shoulder and was about to fly far behind the young man.

However, before he did that, the cursed spirit sprouted a hand from his snake body and was about to touch Hachiman's face. With good reflexes, he dodged it by tilting his head to the side. As a result, only the left side of his head was hit by Mahito's palm.

However, Mahito paid no heed to that. He immediately shot in the direction he had set.

On the other hand, Hachiman stood transfixed. Right after the side of his head touched Mahito's palm, there was a powerful thrust, which seemed to crush the side Mahito had just touched.

"What the fuck was that? What is this strange feeling?"

He corrected his opinion again. Rather than being crushed, the left side of his head seemed to be forced to deform. So, he felt like his head was about to burst.

'So, his cursed technique can change not only his own body shape but also the shape of other beings' bodies?' Hachiman concluded, 'If it weren't for the cursed energy reinforcement, I probably would've died.'

Recalling that it was his cursed energy control that had extended his life slightly in this battle, Hachiman immediately remembered something.

He immediately turned around to look for Mahito's whereabouts. It was not difficult for him to find the creature. He found Mahito still in his snake form and shot toward Maki, who was trying to find a hole for them to get out of this imperfect Domain Expansion.

'What? How did he find out about Maki's whereabouts? Are my illusions not working on him?'

Confusion once again approached the young man. However, he immediately put that aside because this information was far more critical to be conveyed to his colleague directly.

"MAKI, HE IS COMING TO YOU!"

The bespectacled girl, carrying Haruno on her shoulder, immediately turned to Hachiman. Right before her eyes, the girl saw a snake-like figure rushing toward her.

'What? How did he get here? Hadn't Hachiman trapped him into an illusion?' Maki thought with her eyes widened.

On the other hand, Mahito glanced back and saw Hachiman, who was okay even though he had been hit by his cursed technique.

'Fortifying the body with cursed energy gives him the defence to my technique. So, I still need to touch it a few times to defeat a sorcerer of his calibre, huh?' thought Mahito.

"MAKI, DON'T GET TOUCHED BY HIS PALM!"

It was the most essential information Maki should know. Hearing Hachiman shouting like that made her think that the threat from her opponent's palm was perilous.

Maki immediately stopped her movement. She quickly put Haruno down just like that and mounted her fighting stance. While on the other hand, Hachiman was still trying to find out why his technique didn't work for Mahito.

Meanwhile, the cursed spirit intended to make the same move when it managed to touch Hachiman.

'That sorcerer might be able to fortify his body with cursed energy. However, this girl was just an ordinary woman. I don't feel any strong cursed energy from her. I don't know where that superhuman strength came from, though. Obviously, if you can't use cursed energy to reinforce your body, you're done.'

Idle Transfiguration that's the name of Mahito's cursed technique. With his technique, he could instantly change the shape of the soul of another living being, be it a cursed spirit, a human, or even an animal. His cursed technique also had another effect, allowing him to see and understand the soul forms of living beings. Because of that, he was able to realize his own soul form. As long as he was aware of it, he could change the shape of his soul at will.

The body was the vessel of the soul. By changing the shape of the soul, the body's shape would also be forced to change. However, since other beings other than himself had no awareness of their respective soul forms, they could not withstand the change, causing their bodies to disintegrate or even become monsters, as Mahito wished.

This reason also made Mahito immune to physical attacks. As long as he was aware of his soul form, he would be unharmed from physical attacks by using his Idle Transfiguration to reshape his soul form. With the same method, Mahito could also change his body shape.

On the other hand, Maki did possess pure physical prowess far above the average normal human. She could even throw the car if she really wanted to. However, Maki was still seen as an ordinary human in the structure of jujutsu sorcerers due to her lack of cursed energy.

And since she couldn't protect her soul with cursed energy reinforcement, she would get instant death when Mahito touched her.

'Got you, fucking monkey!'

The distance between Mahito quickly slashed to less than a meter. It was a point-blank range, almost impossible to dodge even a top-tier sorcerer.

However, there was something Mahito didn't know about Maki. What Maki had was not just pure physical strength that was like a gorilla. Regarding speed, Maki only lost to Okkotsu Yuta for all students in her batch. Whereas in terms of reflexes, no other student could match her. For that reason, Maki was called by Gojo Satoru the most excellent cursed tools user of her generation.

For some time, Mahito didn't realize that Maki had folded the three parts of Playful Cloud into one. Doing so would indeed reduce Playful Cloud's attack range and mobility, which has been an advantage. However, for a fight that was certainly at extreme range, Maki needed something easier to wield and swing.

When Mahito was about to touch Maki's stomach, the three sticks that were put together blocked him. With a strong swing, Maki managed to push Mahito and throw him as far as she could.

"What the hell with that crazy reflex? Is she really a human?" muttered Mahito, who was still throwing.

Actually, Maki's reflexes weren't this fast. However, after rigorous training by closing her eyes for a year, her senses became so sharper that she could raise her reflexes to a higher level.

On the other hand, while Mahito was about to attack Maki, Hachiman was still trying to find out why his illusion didn't work on Mahito.

He was sure that there was nothing wrong with his technique. All conditions for activation had been met.

Hachiman's Cursed Technique could work in two ways. The first way was to make direct physical contact with the target. While the second way was manually tracking the target's residual energy and then using it to directly give the target illusion.

Residual energy, or the remnants of cursed energy in general, had a wave identical to its user and was always different for every human being. Because of this, Hachiman could easily cast illusions as long as the target emits cursed energy, even if it's just a single drop.

Every living being has cursed energy. Even non-sorcerers had them in small quantities, but still, more than Maki had. Their cursed energy that leaked out along with their various emotions could also be used by Hachiman to give them illusions. So, it was almost impossible for someone to be immune to Hachiman's illusions in the first place.

As far as Hachiman knew, only three people were immune to his illusions.

First was Gojo Satoru. With his eyes capable of seeing up to the sub-atomic scale, Gojo could distinguish Hachiman's illusions very well.

The second was Okkotsu Yuta. He was immune due to the existence of his shikigami, namely Rika. Shikigami generally moved at the user's command and had the same frequency of cursed energy waves as their master. So, as long as the user was trapped by the illusion, the shikigami would also be trapped. However, shikigami Rika was different. She not only moved on Okkotsu Yuta's orders but also moved automatically to protect Yuta. So, if Yuta was mentally affected by negative effects, Rika would return to her realm and awaken Yuta from within.

The third person immune to Hachiman's illusions… was Zen'in Maki. Because her cursed energy was far less than normal humans, her energy couldn't leak out even when angry. Because of that, Hachiman couldn't attach illusions to her through the intermediary of cursed energy. On the other hand, Hachiman could give Maki an illusion by touching her directly. However, she fought not only by relying on eyes but also on smell, hearing, and even sheer instinct, making it difficult for Hachiman to trap her in his illusions.

So, from the various aspects that Hachiman considered, Mahito was by no means among those who were immune to his illusions. In other words, he had a particular method of escaping his technique.

Hachiman sharpened his cursed energy tracking ability. Eliminating minor factors in the innate domain could be pretty tricky because the innate domain was tantamount to a territory filled with the cursed energy of its users. However, Hachiman was the one who had trained his cursed energy control to an extreme level. He practised all of that rigorously under Hiratsuka's tutelage.

In terms of speed, he might lose to Okkotsu and probably be equal to Maki. In terms of reflexes, Maki was still better than him. Likewise, for energy output, he knew his output was not as big as Okkotsu. However, Hachiman was unwilling to lose to anyone when it came to controlling, tracking, and reinforcement. These three things were the first primary material that every jujutsu sorcerer learned. And Hachiman had been honing such basic techniques even before he met Gojo Satoru.

"found you."

Hachiman tilted his head upwards. Due to its small size and the cursed energy that felt the same as Mahito's and the innate domain, the existence of the small object was completely disguised. Up there, he found an eyeball with wings made of leather that kept it at an altitude.

'I believe it also came from that cursed spirit body. That eyeball has the same energy as that damn bastard. But how come that thing doesn't get hit by my illusion too? Is it acting completely as a different body?'

There were many questions he wanted to know about his current opponent. However, he realized this was not the time to think about other matters.

Hachiman immediately pointed his right hand up toward the eyeball. His middle finger and thumb intertwined, ready to snap something. Hachiman quickly circulated his cursed energy into the two fingers and compressed it to form the energy into a high-density energy ball.

After getting the concentration of energy he wanted, Hachiman quickly shot it at the eyeball. With sufficient accuracy and destructive power, the eyeball was instantly annihilated when the energy ball Hachiman fired hit it.

"No matter how good my control is, the wasted energy is a little too much. This is why I don't really like shooting raw energy," Hachiman muttered.

At the same time, Mahito, still thrown after failing to attack Maki, looked at Hachiman.

'Not only is he good at cursed energy reinforcement, but his ability to trace cursed energy is also at a very high level,' Mahito thought casually, 'Well, unfortunately, his reflexes aren't as fast as that weird girl.'

One thing Hachiman didn't realize. When he slashed at Mahito's left hand before the cursed spirit shot toward Maki, the piece of his hand didn't evaporate and disappeared like when a cursed spirit's limb was cut off in general.

A piece of the hand lying on the side of Hachiman's leg suddenly extended and quickly entangled Hachiman.

"Fuck, where did this come from?" Hachiman cursed.

From the legs to the upper body, the piece of Mahito's hand lengthen, enlarge, and bind him tightly. His body seemed to be pressed and about to be crushed. His veins and blood vessels seemed to swell up, making his face red as if all his blood would destroy the veins.

Maki, who saw it from a distance, was about to run to help her partner. However, Hachiman quickly stopped the girl.

"DON'T. I… CAN… OVERCOME IT."

Maki actually wanted to hit that stubbornness. However, she knew Hachiman very well. He wasn't the type to push himself if he couldn't. He was the type who didn't hesitate to run away and use dirty tricks when it was necessary. Because of that, seeing Hachiman, who was still steadfast like that, made Maki couldn't help but believe in him.

Besides, Mahito's main body was approaching her, and she still had to protect the unconscious Haruno.

Meanwhile, from a piece of hand that had now turned into a large lump of flesh wrapped around it, another lump appeared right before Hachiman's face. The clump quickly formed a head shape and let out long, pale blue hair.

"You," Hachiman said with hatred.

A lump of flesh that gave rise to the shape of Mahito's head, complete with all his facial features, grinned widely, mocking the rotten-eyed teenager.

"Are you sure you don't want to accept that gorilla girl's help? You are not sure about anything I can do with my technique, right?" sneered the head Mahito who appeared in front of Hachiman.

Simply put, Hachiman and Maki didn't know how Mahito's cursed technique worked.

Some of the points they know about Mahito's abilities include his ability to produce strange creatures, immunity to physical attacks, the ability to change his body shape, and the ability to change his opponent's body shape. The two of them still hadn't concluded that all this could be done by Mahito by directly touching his target's soul through Idle Transfiguration.

Because of that, Hachiman ignored the piece of the hand lying next to his leg and focused more on tracking down the third eye, which allowed Mahito to escape his illusion.

However, the same was applied to Mahito. With the third eye he created earlier, he could tell that Hachiman's cursed technique was related to illusion. And from their earlier fight, he also realized that the young sorcerer was very good at cursed energy control. Unfortunately, that was all Mahito knew.

Hachiman returned Mahito's mock with a wide grin.

"Isn't… that goes for you too…, bastard?" he replied with a heavy breath.

His fingers that could still move freely now formed a hand seal with linked index and middle fingers.

"Cursed Technique Reversal: Superposition."

Hachiman's body turned into thin red smoke in less than a second. Meanwhile, Mahito's flesh, that grip on and which was about to crush Hachiman, had now become loose because he had lost his target.

"What's that? How could he just disappear and get away?" Mahito muttered with a face full of disbelief.

Superposition, Hachiman's reversal technique, allowed him to be in a state between being and not being. It was a state in which Hachiman entered the reality of the quantum realm, which was very different from the macroscopic world, which was bound by the laws of classical mechanics.

Being in a state completely different from the reality of the real world made Hachiman not only unobservable but also untouchable. He cannot be touched and cannot touch. Therefore, he, who has interacted with the quantum realm, cannot be bound by physical matter.

Maki was no less surprised when she saw what Hachiman did. Hachiman not only disappeared from her sight, but all signs of his life she could not feel.

'The technique is indeed different. But isn't that the same method of reversing as when Satoru used his Red spell?' thought Maki.

And without the girl noticing, a very thin red smoke was already at her side, quickly reforming the physical form of Hikigaya Hachiman. It was only when his body began to form that Maki started to feel her partner's presence again.

'What? How long has he been here? Why I can't feel a single presence of him?' said Maki in her mind.

"Hey, what about the exit hole?" asked Hachiman to break the deadlock.

Maki tried to calm herself down and focus on what had to be done first.

"It's around here. I can smell the disgusting smell from the tunnel just now. However, this innate domain is completely obscuring all the way out even though in reality, we are already quite close."

While not a perfect domain expansion, the innate domain still has unique attributes that confuse anyone caught up in it. Hachiman and Maki also heard the story from Gojo that there was a domain that had a much slower flow of time than the real world, even though the domain was not perfect.

Meanwhile, in Mahito's case, this innate domain of endless darkness could well hide the way out. In other words, if nothing attracted them from the outside, it would be challenging to escape from this place. And if you were already trapped, you must have a particular escape method.

"What are you guys discussing? Looking for a way to escape? I guess jujutsu sorcerers aren't this cowardly."

The ridicule made Maki grit her teeth. She didn't like it when someone called her a coward. However, she had to be aware that the cursed spirit they were currently facing was indeed the worst match for them. Even if she and Hachiman chose to fight him all out with the primary goal of draining their opponent's entire cursed energy so Mahito would be automatically exorcised, it would still be a perilous gamble.

"Escape? Don't get me wrong, you lowly bastard," Hachiman sneered back, "If our attacks don't work against you, what if you get attacks that keep hitting you and automatically hit you to the point that you can't regenerate your body anymore?"

Mahito raised his eyebrows, interested in Hachiman's boast. Meanwhile, Maki, standing beside him suddenly, looked at his face.

It was a bluff that he didn't know whether it would work. However, his first encounter with Mahito was so bad that he had no idea about defeating him.

"Excuse me, Haruno-san."

Hachiman grabbed Haruno, who had fainted, and wrapped his arm around her waist with his left hand.

"Maki, hold onto me. Wherever it is, I don't care. Just hold on to me."

Maki understood her partner's purpose in telling her to cling to him. She knew what her friend wanted to do. Without needing to be told twice, Maki immediately did as Hachiman said.

"You can finally do this, huh?" Maki commented after grabbing Hachiman's right shoulder.

'I've never used it in a real fight. Moreover, the opponent already has a domain even though it's not perfect .'

If this method works, it would probably be able to turn things around. Even if he failed, it could be used to open a way out using this method. So, whatever the outcome, there's no harm in using it.

"Domain Expansion."

—To Be Continued—

Author's Notes: Since this chapter is full of battles, it's shorter than I imagined. Well, actually, I could have lengthened it, but I don't think it's a wise decision. I'm also thinking of Hachiman using the Maximum Technique, which I hadn't had the chance to show when Hachiman fought Quanxi. However, again, I don't think it's the right decision.

I mean, Hachiman already guessed that Mahito was immune to physical attacks after he got hit by Hachiman. And it was confirmed after he and Maki launched an attack on him. So, it felt like Hachiman would actually look stupid if he kept stalling the fight with a definite outcome.

Hachiman's illusion does attack mentally, but it can't be used to defeat his opponent if he can't afford to inflict physical attacks on Mahito. Plus, Mahito coincidentally found a way to overcome Hachiman.

Well, for those who may have forgotten. Maki, in my story, closed her eyes for a year to train her senses with the help of binding vows. You can see it again in chapter 1 (2 if you count the prologue too). So, what I wrote in that chapter was what I planned for this chapter so that if Maki later feels stronger than canon, there's a reason why she becomes more powerful here.

Anyway, I wanted to put a picture of Hachiman as the cover, but i have not a good one. So, for now, I'm using Hachiman and Haruno's image until I find a better one. however, if you have a picture of Hachiman in a jujutsu uniform or something, please let me know

So, what do you think about this chapter? And thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed. Please leave your review for this chapter because your review is my encouragement. See you in the next chapter and stay safe.