Third Person POV

Mahito coughed violently, pulling himself from the rubble with shaky movements.

Shiki stood still; her gaze locked onto him. There was no doubt—it was him. Even after four years, his face is still the same.

Without hesitation, she unsheathed her sword, her expression cold.

This time, she wouldn't just kill him. She would erase him completely, obliterating every trace of his existence from this world.

But before she could make her move, a sudden tug on her shoulder stopped her.

"Shiki-senpai!"

She turned, her sharp eyes narrowing at the boy who had called out to her.

'Who is he?'

Shiki wasn't in her right mind. At this moment, she couldn't distinguish between friend or foe. To her, anyone who got in her way was an enemy—nothing more, nothing less.

With a single, fluid motion, Shiki punched the boy, the force of the blow sending him hurtling backward. She didn't even spare him a second glance.

"Itadori-kun!" Nanami called out, rushing forward just in time to catch the boy before he hit the ground.

He looked down at Yuji, unconscious from a single blow.

'Unbelievable,'

Nanami thought grimly. For someone as durable as Yuji to be knocked out in one punch—it spoke volumes about the strength behind it.

His gaze then shifted to Shiki, and a chill crawled down his spine. Gojo's words on the phone replayed in his mind.

"—She's not in her right mind right now."

The aura Shiki exuded was calm yet terrifying. It was rare for someone to radiate such pure malevolence and hatred.

Yet, her anger wasn't like a raging wildfire—untamed, destructive, consuming everything in its path. Nor was it the profound, suffocating fury that lay hidden in the depths of the ocean, vast and crushing in its enormity.

The hatred emanating from her wasn't overwhelming or chaotic; it didn't scream for destruction or revenge. It was something far worse.

It was dreadful, terrible, awful.

But most importantly, it was empty.

Nanami couldn't find the words to define it, but he could feel it in every fiber of his being. That dreadful emptiness—it wasn't human.

And that contradiction unsettled him the most. How could something so calm, so eerily composed, carry such an inhuman level of hatred? For a brief moment, Nanami wondered if Shiki was even aware of it herself. Or worse, if this emptiness had become all that she was.

And he didn't want to get any closer.

Mahito, on the other hand, was taken aback by Shiki's sudden appearance.

"Who is she?" he wondered, his twisted grin faltering for a moment.

By the look of the situation, it seemed she wasn't aligned with the Jujutsu Sorcerers. Yet, she didn't feel like an ally to him either.

But for some strange reason, Mahito felt as though he had met her before, perhaps long ago. The sensation was fleeting but distinct—a sense of familiarity that unsettled him.

"Interesting," he muttered under his breath, his lips curling into a smirk. "Well, whatever she is, it looks like this will be fun."

Shiki, who had remained silent, continued to stare at him with an emotionless gaze.

No anger.

No hatred.

Not even the faintest flicker of vengeance.

Every semblance of emotion seemed to have vanished. It was as if any trace of emotion had been stripped away, leaving her hollow, an empty vessel incapable of feeling.

And yet, despite the absence of that familiar fire, she couldn't stop. She wouldn't stop.

If she denied herself even this, she would be left with nothing but her own insignificance and the crushing realization that her existence held no purpose.

It was the only thing that had kept her moving all this time.

So, without hesitation, Shiki dashed forward.

Mahito's eyes flickered with interest as he quickly summoned several transfigured humans to throw in her path.

Watching her intently, Mahito felt a surge of recognition—Shiki was strong. Far stronger than the vessel of Sukuna or even that 7:3 sorcerer he'd encountered. Dealing with three of people was going to be a pain, especially since those two knew about his weak point. His life was in serious danger.

With Yuji Itadori unconscious, Mahito knew his immediate focus needed to be on distracting one of them. If he could deal with them one at a time, there might be a chance.

Several transfigured humans now attacked both Shiki and Nanami.

"Attack the student at the gym," Mahito ordered them.

Nanami's eyes narrowed at the sudden shift in focus, his concern rising as he turned his attention to the cursed army. But Shiki—she didn't even seem to acknowledge the command.

Mahito tried again, his voice tinged with mock curiosity. "Are you sure? Aren't you worried about the student?"

But Shiki didn't flinch. Her eyes remained locked on him as she continued her relentless pursuit.

The cursed spirits lunged at her from all sides, closing in, surrounding her completely. But before they could even get close, Shiki swung her sword with lightning speed. The transfigured humans crumpled to the ground, dismembered in an instant. She had targeted the weak points in their body.

Mahito's lips curled into a grin, amusement flickering in his eyes. "Did you know they were human?"

Without a pause, Shiki beheaded another one.

"And?" she replied, her voice flat, eyes never leaving Mahito.

Mahito hesitated, the thrill of the challenge not yet fading. 'This woman, was truly something else.'

Shiki closed the distance between them as Mahito continued to flee, tossing transfigured humans in her path to slow her down.

A massive curse appeared ahead, blocking her vision, but Shiki didn't slow down. In a single swing, she cut through it with ease, utterly killing the spirit.

When the dust settled, Mahito was gone.

Shiki paused, scanning her surroundings. Her senses shifted, and before she could even pinpoint his exact location, she felt Mahito's presence next to her. He lunged, delivering a punch aimed directly at her stomach.

Shiki blocked the strike with her right hand, the impact reverberating through her arm. In that brief moment, she swiftly swapped the sword to her left hand. Without hesitation, she swung for Mahito's head for a direct and instant kill.

He ducked just in time, narrowly evading the fatal blow. As he recovered, Mahito's foot shot upward, landing a powerful kick that sent Shiki flying backward. She hit the ground hard but landed gracefully, rolling to absorb the impact.

"Impressive," Mahito said, a grin curling on his lips.

During that brief moment, Shiki reduced the impact of the kick by moving her body in the same direction as the kick's force. This allowed her to lessen the damage and stay in control of her movements.

Shiki pushed herself up, brushing the dirt from her clothes.

"Hey, did we meet somewhere?" Mahito's voice came out curious, almost playful.

Shiki's eyes twitched, a flicker of irritation crossing her face.

"Haha, I guess I was right. Did I kill your family or something?"

She didn't respond. Ignoring his taunt, Shiki charged forward. Her eyes traced the lines of death on his body—four along his arm, hand, and feet, four more across his torso, two on his neck, and one running straight through his head.

To end this swiftly, she needed to target his neck—behead him. But with his ability to shift his form at will, pinpointing the lines on his body would be a lot more tricky.

But that doesn't matter, his shape could change, but the lines would remain.

Mahito, sensing the incoming attack, reshaped his arm, his intent clear—he was going to grab Shiki and crush her in the palm of his hand.

In the split second of distraction, Shiki moved. Her eyes locked onto the line along Mahito's arm, and without hesitation, she cut.

Mahito's instincts kicked in. He tried to evade, but Shiki's speed was too much. He avoided the worst of it, but not all of it—the blade's edge scraped across his arm, cutting deep enough to force him back.

Looking down at his hand, Mahito saw the damage. Half of it had been severed cleanly, the remaining portion hanging by threads, blood dripping in uneven splatters to the ground. But instead of reacting with pain or fear, Mahito only smiled, his gaze darkening as he examined his mangled arm.

"Hey, do you think the soul resides in the body? Or do you think the body forms around the soul?"

The words carried no real curiosity and served only as a provocation. In Mahito's mind, nothing truly posed a threat—not to him.

But shiki, didnt respond, instead, she quickly swing her blade, targeting the line in his neck. But mahito eveades it by leaped backward.

"Since you were unwilling to answer," he said, his grin widening, "the answer is this—the body forms around the soul."

As if to prove his point, he began to regenerate his hand. Or so he thought.

"Huh?"

But nothing happens.

He glanced at his hand, waiting for the healing process, but it didn't come. His body remained as it was—damaged and unhealed.

Borrowing his own words, Mahito believed the soul shapes the body, meaning the physical form reflects the state of the soul. If the soul is damaged, the body suffers. If the soul is altered or manipulated, the body changes in turn.

But such reasoning was meaningless to someone like Shiki.

To her, whether the soul resided in the body or the body formed around the soul was irrelevant.

That distinction made no difference to her.

Death, in its purest form, was absolute.

When she severed the line of death in the body, the soul was affected without question. Her blade cut through the most fundamental weakness in a person—their line of death—thus rendering Mahito's regeneration meaningless.

Mahito's confusion deepened.

Something was missing. No, it wasn't just missing—it was killed. A portion of his soul was obliterated rather than damaged.

A portion of his soul is now absent.

He couldn't understand how it had happened, nor could he grasp how her attack had even worked. From the very start, Mahito had sensed that the girl in front of him didn't possess a single trace of cursed energy. But despite this oddity, he didn't dwell on it—he found her amusing, and that was enough.

But now, faced with the evidence of his own soul being affected, a new question arose in his mind.

'How can her attack affect my soul?'

"What's wrong?" Shiki's voice cut through his thoughts, her calm expression unmoved by his internal struggle.

Mahito's eyes narrowed, his mind scrambling to make sense of the situation. The way her attack had pierced through his very essence—it shouldn't be possible.

He glared at her, his smile faltering for the first time. "What did you do to me?"

Shiki tilted her head slightly, the faintest glint of amusement flashing in her eyes as she spoke, her voice calm and empty.

"I removed the possibility of you existing anymore."

Mahito's confusion lingered, but for Shiki, it was the truth. It didn't matter if Mahito couldn't understand. There was no point in speaking to the dead.

Without another word, she stepped forward, her sword held lightly in her hand, her eyes never leaving Mahito.

This time for sure, she will never let him escape.

She will erase his existence.

Nanami, on the other hand, continued to watch from the sidelines. After dispatching the last of the transfigured humans, he initially considered stepping in to assist Shiki. However, he quickly changed his mind.

Instead, he chose to observe, carefully assessing the situation.

As he watched, something about Mahito's behavior struck him as odd. The cursed spirit wasn't making any effort to regenerate. That alone was peculiar, given Mahito's abilities. But as he observed the situation, one possibility came to mind. Shiki's attacks were working in a way he couldn't understand, preventing Mahito from healing.

Then, to his alarm, Mahito sprinted toward his direction. Nanami quickly turned his attention to Yuji, still unconscious and vulnerable on the ground, bracing himself to protect him.

But Mahito wasn't focused on Nanami. In an instant, he manipulated his own soul, reshaping his feet into something more animalistic to increase his speed.

Nanami reacted just in time, slashing at Mahito's leg, but the curse spirit managed to bypass him, grabbing hold of Yuji in a swift motion.

'Damn it,' Nanami thought, his mind racing. 'Did he intend to take Itadori hostage?'

Mahito's twisted grin widened as he held the unconscious Yuji in his grip, a cruel sense of satisfaction in his eyes. The situation had taken a turn for the worse.

Shiki, meanwhile, had only one thought on her mind. Nothing else mattered. That single, consuming focus worried Nanami more than anything else in this moment.

"Shiki!" Nanami called out, his voice tight with concern.

But it was too late. The state of mind Shiki was in had passed the point of reason. She cared nothing for the consequences—no lives mattered except the one she was after.

Mahito on the other hand, faced with death, feel a sudden of inspiration. In the face of death, it feels as if everything was making sense.

Mahito, sensing the growing pressure of the situation, felt something shift within him. In the face of certain death, everything seemed to click into place. For the briefest moment, clarity washed over him.

'If this continues, I will definitely die', he thought, his body instinctively reacting to the rush of power surging through him.

'But...I think I can do it now.'

In the span of a heartbeat, Mahito unlocked his full potential.

"Domain Expansion: Self-Embodiment of Perfection!"

The world around them distorted as Mahito unleashed his domain. It expanded outward, swallowing everything in its path. The blackness enveloped the space, and the very air seemed to grow heavy with the oppressive force of Mahito curse energy.

At the center of the domain, massive hands appeared, their fingers curled together in the shape of a twisted flower.

From the base of these hands, numerous other arms emerged, intertwining and weaving together in a dense, web-like pattern. The arms reached out, grabbing and pulling everything into the center. As they joined together, they formed an impenetrable net, trapping everything inside, a cage within a cage.

Domain Expansion.

A construct where the user creates an innate domain inside a barrier infused with their cursed technique. Within this domain, their ultimate attack is guaranteed to hit.

It is the pinnacle of jujutsu sorcery.

And now, Nanami, Shiki, and the unconcious Yuji were caught inside Mahito's Domain Expansion.

'Mahito's cursed technique requires physical contact with his palm to manipulate a soul. But in a domain that guarantees a hit, that means...'

Nanami's thoughts raced as he quickly pieced it together. The moment the domain materialized, it was already checkmate. For both him and Yuji, this was nothing short of a death sentence.

Mahito's ability to reshape souls relied on physical touch. But now, inside the boundaries of his Domain Expansion, that requirement was completely bypassed. Physical contact was no longer necessary. The domain itself ensured that the condition was met, allowing Mahito to directly alter their souls without even lifting a finger.

Mahito, with a smug expression, prepared to kill them all.

"Idle Transfiguration." He smiled coldly, his eyes narrowing as he looked at Shiki. "I should thank you."

She would be the first.

But nothing happened.

The domain's guaranteed hit was supposed to touch the soul of anyone within its confines, interfering with their very essence. But Shiki stood there, unaffected.

Shiki possessed no cursed energy—not even a trace. Born with a heavenly restriction that erased every bit of cursed energy in exchange for a body enhanced beyond human limits and heightened senses, she existed outside the rules of Mahito's domain.

The sure-hit effect didn't register her presence. To the domain, she might as well have been invisible.

However, that same guaranteed hit reached something—or rather, someone—else. A being Mahito should never have touched.

A chilling aura swept through the domain, suffocating and oppressive. Mahito froze, his usual smugness wiped clean as Sukuna materialized, seated on a throne of bones. His expression was sharp, deadly—but most of all, annoyed.

"How insolent…" Sukuna's voice cut through the silence like a blade. "I warned you that there wouldn't be a second time."

For Shiki, the situation was simple. She didn't tolerate anyone interfering with her battles, especially not Sukuna.

When she noticed the threads of cursed energy shooting toward Mahito, aiming to strike him down, her first instinct was to stay back and let things play out. But she wouldn't allow anyone, even Sukuna to dictate the outcome of her fight.

Swish!

With a single movement, she stepped between Sukuna and Mahito. The lines of death appeared in her vision, stretching across the threads. In one decisive stroke, she cut them apart, severing their purpose and killing them in an instant.

Sukuna's expression shifted slightly. "Oh?"

Shiki's rainbow-colored eyes locked onto his, unwavering. "Stay out of this, or I'll kill you too," she said flatly, her tone as cold as steel.

For a moment, there was silence. Then Sukuna's laughter echoed through the domain, dark and amused.

"Hahahaha… That's more like it. Fine, little girl," he said, leaning back on his throne. "Keep yourself alive, you and that boy."

With those words, Sukuna slowly disappeared, sinking into the shadows.

The domain was silent for a moment, but Mahito didn't waste the opportunity. Using the brief window of Sukuna's departure, he reached out and touched Shiki with his wounded hand.

Even though the domain's sure-hit effect had no impact on her, Mahito's Idle Transfiguration didn't rely on that. The moment he touched her, his technique would take hold.

Idle Transfiguration allowed Mahito to manipulate a person's soul, shaping it however he pleased. All he needed was to feel the soul's general structure. It took less than a second to twist someone into a grotesque, transfigured human, and he intended to kill Shiki here and now.

But the moment his hand made contact with her soul, Mahito froze.

It was revolting.

The sensation sent a chill down his spine. Her soul wasn't human. It wasn't anything he had ever encountered before. It was cold, hollow, and devoid of the qualities that made a soul a soul.

It was just… a void.

Shiki, on the other hand, didn't stop to analyze what had just happened. The instant she felt his touch, her instincts took over. She swung her blade upward, then brought it down, severing the line she saw on his body.

Mahito didn't even register the pain at first. The hesitation caused by touching her soul had left him completely vulnerable. It wasn't until he saw his severed hand fall to the ground that he realized what had happened.

And then, he felt it again.

That sensation he could never forget—the feeling of his soul being "killed" by Shiki.

For a moment, he stood there, stunned, as if the concept of his existence itself had been split in two.

Now, a question worth considering: What makes a hallway a hallway?

A hallway is a hallway because it serves as one—its existence tied to its purpose. But what happens when a hallway loses its meaning? It ceases to exist as a hallway.

Everything that has a beginning must have an end. And so, too, must every purpose meet its end.

Shiki understood this on a level beyond thought. Within the domain, her heightened senses revealed an intricate network of lines. They marked the inevitable end of everything around her. And all those lines converged at a single point beneath her feet, chaotic and messy like a child's scribble.

The point of death.

The place where existence ceased to exist.

So, What happens when a domain loses its meaning?

Shiki raised her sword and stabbed the point of death.

The effect was immediate. The domain didn't shatter like glass—it began to wither. Slowly, piece by piece, it dissolved, its essence fading away until nothing remained.

As the last remnants of the domain faded into the void, it was clear there was no escape left for Mahito.

This was the place where Mahito would die.

Shiki swung her sword. The blade cut through the air, just an inch from Mahito's line of death.

But suddenly—

BOOM!

A wall of ice erupted from the ground with a deafening crack, splitting the space between Shiki and Mahito. The air hissed as frost spread, chilling the ground beneath their feet.

Shiki's eyes narrowed. Without hesitation, she slashed at the wall, her blade tore through the frozen barrier, sending shards of ice scattering like broken glass. But it was too late.

Mahito was gone.

She quickly turned, her gaze snapping to the top of the school building. There, a figure stood, holding the injured Mahito.

Mahito coughed, a twisted grin on his face despite his injuries. "Reishin! I almost died, you know."

"That's why I'm saving you," the man replied flatly, his grip on Mahito firm. His voice carried no trace of emotion.

"You cannot die just yet. We still need you alive."

"How cold."

Despite his injuries, Mahito managed to wave mockingly toward Shiki. "Until next time, don't die just yet. After all, I'm the one who's going to kill you."

Though his tone was light and almost cheerful, the bloodlust pouring off him was undeniable. Born from the hatred of humanity itself, Mahito couldn't let things end this way. But in his current condition, there was no other option.

Shiki's grip on her sword tightened, her knuckles turning white. The anger bubbling inside her reached a boiling point.

"Not again!"

For Shiki, opportunities like this didn't come twice. She had been so close to killing him, so close to ending it all. But just as the moment was within her grasp, it was snatched away.

She refused to accept such an outcome.

Her mind was set. She would chase him, even if it meant traveling to the ends of the earth.

But before she could move, a firm hand gripped her shoulder.

"Shiki, dont chase him." Nanami said firmly. "Mahito isn't the type of cursed spirit you can defeat in blind pursuit. He's already escaped once, and chasing him without a plan will only give him more opportunities to trap you. You'll lose your focus—and that will cost you your life."

Shiki turned her head slightly, her sharp eyes glaring at Nanami.

'Huh? Who is this person? Why did he stopped me? Is he his accomplice?'

Her mind raced with questions, but they all led to the same conclusion.

An enemy.

Without hesitation, Shiki swung her sword at Nanami, aiming to kill him in a single strike before resuming her pursuit of Mahito.

Swoosh!

"!"

But her blade stopped just short of Nanami, halted mid-air. A hand had intercepted it.

"Alright, that's enough, Shiki," a casual voice broke through the tension.

Standing between them was Gojo Satoru, his palm held up effortlessly against the blade, stopping it in its tracks without so much as a scratch.

His blindfolded gaze tilted toward her, a playful grin on his lips. "I know you're upset, but you might want to think twice before cutting down an ally. It's bad manners, you know."

The sharp edge of Shiki's blade trembled against Gojo's hand, never reaching its target.

[END]

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That's it for the chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it!

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