"Domain Expansion: Ungrudging Sanctum!"

In an instant, Shoko's domain - and holy shit, she did it - explodes out and overtakes the cavern.

Several things happen in quick succession.

One

Percy stutters to a halt as the scenery around them changes. The rock underfoot becomes a familiar meadow of green grass, and the ceiling melts into a blue, sunlit sky.

The forest of cedar trees grows out surrounding the glade, and right in front of him is the same torri gate that Shoko had taken them to earlier, the komainu lions carved proudly on either side of it somehow more complete and less age-worn than they were before.

Beyond it, the shrine they hadn't stepped foot near is shrouded in faintly translucent white mist, and it exudes power like there's no end to it.

No.

Not power.

Percy breathes as the positive energy washes over him, and brings with it the oddest sense of peace. His cursed energy seems to shrivel and retreat inside of him, but the strange loss of control doesn't leave him feeling any weaker.

No, somehow, he feels stronger and healthier and better than he's ever felt before, a blissful warmth welling and spreading from and over every inch of him until he can't help but stop and bask in it.

Behind him, Satoru inhales sharply as the rents the curse had carved into his chest knit back together and leave smooth, unblemished skin without so much as a hint of scarring left behind. Shoji-sensei's shoulders droop and he gasps in quiet, awed confusion as the strain he'd put himself through vanishes like it had never been there at all, and even Suguru's clenched fists go slack in astonished relief he hadn't even known he'd needed.

Two

Shoko stands triumphant, head tilted back and eyes closed in the wake of accomplishing something truly magnificent. The smile that she wears is completely open and unbound in a way unlike anything Percy's seen from her before, and it pulls and pulls at her lips until she bursts into victorious, nearly deranged laughter that echoes around her domain endlessly.

She looks like someone who's fought against the weight of the heavens themselves and managed to come out on top regardless - and there are none that can deny her success. Around her, the victims of Tamamo-no-Mae that had been rushing at her collapse, instantly and without struggle, like puppets with their strings cut.

Even as they fall at her feet, their skin colors once more, bruises and cuts fade, and the oppressive residuals of cursed energy and muted malevolence are wiped off of them without a trace.

Three

"̴̢̡̭̜̭̤̹̱̻͇̯̩̙͎͉̓͜ͅN̵̲͖̬̤͙̎͒͆͂͆̐͛̅̏̌͋̃̏͛͑̔͘O̵̡̨̟̦̤̩̲̠̝̪͛͌̀͘!̸̰̯̺̎̊͂́̋̓̍̽́͑̄̄̀͗͘"̴̡̮͖̲͔͉̍͊̍̒͂̍̈́̍̐̃̔͐̃́

Tamamo-no-Mae screams.

The curse howls and writhes in the air as it lights up with an off-white glow, bucking and thrashing against nothing at all as the overabundant positive energy - the natural opposite of a curse's existence - burns at its very essence.

Suguru's curses don't do the same - they're already disintegrated into nothingness, eradicated the moment the domain had snapped into being.

Four

The domain collapses - it's something new, unrefined, and it doesn't hold for long as the barrier containing it crumbles. The landscape Shoko had conjured dissolves with it, and Tamamo-no-Mae - still flailing and screeching - soars headfirst into the cavern wall behind it with so much desperate and uncontrolled power it buries itself a foot into the stone with a spectacularly brutal impact and a shower of dust and debris.

Boom.

The curse collapses as it tries to emerge from the crater it had made for itself, and ends up crawling forwards all fours, panting and gasping in a truly pitiful display.

Percy can tell that it's weaker now - lesser than it was before.

By a lot.

It hardly reacts as the five of them close in on it, and even when it does, it chooses to focus only on Shoko.

"What have you done to me!?"

Shoko, still chuckling helplessly, takes a long second to put herself together. She glances Percy's way, cheeks flushed and eyes alight with delight, and he finds himself automatically matching her wild grin tit for tat.

"I honestly haven't got a clue. Let me get back to you on that one, you ugly sack of shit."

The curse hisses - and then shrinks back when Satoru steps into its line of sight.

"In the meantime, you can have three guesses on what we're going to do to you now," He says with a smile, and oh, that's pure halfway-to-unhinged murder in his eyes. He puts his hands together and cracks his knuckles menacingly. "The first two don't count."

"You-!"

None of them care to let the curse get in a single word more.

Satoru moves first, rushing in like a man with a grudge - and fair enough, that - and Shoko dives in after him, and Suguru and Percy and even Shoji-sensei follows, and the five of them...

Well...

There are no other words for it.

They jump the fucking curse.

Tamamo-mae howls as Shoko's wild haymaker shatters half of its mask, it wails as Satoru seizes its left arm and wrenches until the limb is literally ripped out of its socket, it gets folded over as Percy's kick flies in out of nowhere, and even Suguru gets in on the action with a savage backhand and the flings it right back to Satoru, and the less said about what happens after that, the better.

The carnage lasts only until Shoji-sensei slides in and slices its last remaining arm with the kind of vengeful relish only someone who's been pushed so far out of their comfort zone something in them snaps can muster, and then they pause.

The curse groans, half-pulverized face still trapped beneath Satoru's grinding foot, and a silent agreement passes through them with nothing but the power of eye contact.

It's downright impressive, really.

"This would be the point where we exorcise you," Percy tells it cheerfully. "But I think that'd be too easy."

"You screwed with a lot of people." Shoko agrees. "And while a bunch of them I wouldn't lose any sleep over, you messed with my aunt, ugly. You shouldn't have done that. Suguru?"

His friend sighs, brushing his bangs aside with a steady hand.

"I'm not your garbage disposal system." He grunts, but he's not fooling anyone.

Not with the way his teeth are barred and that viciously satisfied set to his face.

...Man, they're all a little nuts, aren't they?

"Wait-"

Suguru ignores Tamamo-no-Mae's last rasp with practiced ease and raises his hand out palm-first. The curse buckles, twists, and then it gives one last wail as it's pulled from underneath Satorou's crushing hold and distorted, body stretching and twisting around them grotesquely before spiralling into Suguru's waiting hand like it's being sucked into a whirlpool.

Half a second later, a marble of purple and brown cursed energy condenses and drops into his grasp, and the deed is done.

Suguru grimaces as he stares at it in the momentary silence that follows.

"Great. I've lost over a dozen curses, and this one is going to suck."

Percy winces as he watches him lift it to his mouth quickly and pops it in his mouth, swallowing it as quickly as he can manage.

"At least you get a special grade out of it, right?" He tries to console him over his disgusted coughs.

"Yeah, and it tastes extra shitty."

"I'll get you a breath mint."

Satoru makes a disgusted sound.

"The hell for? Get him something sweet - like mochi. It'll wash the taste out better."

"Is all you think about mochi? Or sugar?"

"Don't judge me, dumbass, the only snacks you'll even eat are blue!"

"Oi! There's nothing wrong-!"

"Pfffft."

The three of them stop and turn to Shoko, and her shoulders are already heaving from the effort of suppressing her laughs.

"You're all. So. Stupid."

And then she throws back her head for the second time that day and absolutely loses it.

Percy tries to open his mouth to protest, but he ends up catching Suguru's eyes and Satoru's after him in quick succession, and the next thing he knows he's on his knees from the force of his own laughter and the other two just barely manage to stay on their feet.

Because really, she's not wrong.

Shoji-sensei doesn't laugh with them, but he does pinch the bridge of his nose and let out a sigh that's just on the side of amused and, dare he say it, fond - probably because he's still in shock at being alive. - and that's a victory in Percy's book if there ever was one.

Mission accomplished.

...

The next day and a half are hectic.

By the time they manage to awaken, corral and lead all of Tamamo-no-Mae's former victims back to the village in one piece, the sun is already rising in the distance.

By the time they reach the clan compound a half-hour later, they're greeted by the clan head and a crowd of revived sorcerors, Kazuha at their wake.

They'd woken up the second Shoko had expanded her domain - go figure.

Percy grins when the older woman rushes in and draws Shoko into a hug.

"Hey, obasan. How was the nap?"

Yeah, this is great.

...

"You've expanded a domain."

Kiyohira looks absolutely flabbergasted, disbelieving, and just a pinch furious.

It's hilarious.

"It's not perfect yet - It still needs refining." Shoko answers, but she doesn't deny it. "But yes, I did."

And man, had they spent hours talking about that. Satoru hadn't even bothered hiding his amazed envy - none of them had.

Of course, Shoko barely being able to explain the act beyond ' I stopped thinking and just did it' wasn't that helpful, but Percy would take what he could get.

"Preposterous. Impossible!"

Kiyohira glances towards Shoji-sensei, as if trying to force him to recant his report through sheer force of his indignant self-important outrage, but their teacher's face doesn't so much as twitch.

Apparently, standing up to a special-grade makes it easier to take on uppity old men with attitude problems.

Who knew?

"You have no innate technique!"

"No." Shoko agrees.

"You can not expand a domain without an innate technique!"

"And yet... I did." Shoko's tone is absolutely placid - and somehow manages to covey self-satisfaction and insulting smugness in the same breath.

Percy's impressed, he truly is. Ten out of ten on the delivery.

Even Suguru and Satoru are visibly struggling not to laugh.

"How?"

Shoko finally smiles, and then she rises from her seat and stretches leisurely. Kioyhira follows her with wild eyes and rapidly purpling skin.

"That's my business, isn't it?"

Then she turns around and heads for the door.

"Do not turn your back on me, girl! I have not dismissed you!"

Shoko doesn't answer. Kiyohira snarls and leaps to his feet.

"You will face me when I address you!"

Still no answer.

"Karasu Shoko, you will obey-!"

Percy sees it happen in slow motion.

Kiyohira's arm reaches out, seizing Shoko's shoulder in a vice grip, and his friend responds to this in an entirely calm and reasonable manner.

She whirls on the spot, cocks back her fist and drives it into her grandfather's nose with enough force that they all hear it crunch beneath the blow. The old man's head snaps back and he tumbles onto his ass like a complete tool, staring up at Shoko in stunned disbelief.

Bloody nose and all.

"My name..." She declares in the scene that follows. "Is Ieri Shoko."

She narrows her eyes and stares at her grandfather with utter contempt.

"Don't forget it, you old bastard."

"You-!"

And then she turns and strolls out of the room, the four of them - even shoji-sensei - following in her wake and leaving a gaping Kiyohira on the ground.

"My hero," Percy tells her in genuine admiration, and they all ignore the way Shoji-sensei exhales tiredly and reprimands him for it. "I've been wanting to do that since the second we met him."

Seriously, he'd had three close calls in the last ten minutes alone.

"He does have that effect on people."

Satoru snorts "Every elder in Japan has that effect on people."

Shoko considers that, and then raises an eyebrow.

"What's stopping you from doing the same?"

Satoru's answering grin is probably bad news all around, honestly.

"'What indeed?'"

"No." Shoji-sensei interrupts, sounding panicked. "Whatever it is you're plotting, no. The post-mission report is going to be a disaster as it is."

Percy laughs with the rest of them and pauses abruptly when he catches someone staring at them out of the corner of his eye.

It's a brown-haired kid dressed in a white kimono, staring at their little group with wide-eyes.

"Oi, Shoko."

"Hm?"

He points and she turns to spot the kid, who flushes a brilliant red and makes a noise that reminds him of a steaming kettle. He bows in their general direction, lower than Percy would have expected, and then takes off sprinting and rounds the corner so fast you'd think he was on fire.

Shoko blinks.

"Huh."

"Who was that?" Suguru asks, but Percy thinks he already knows.

"That was Kota-kun." Kazuha steps into view, drawing Shoko's attention back to her. "He awoke with the rest of us after you defeated the cursed spirit. He was very much eager to meet you, Shoko, but... perhaps now isn't the time."

"Probably not." His friend agrees, before pausing in sudden thought. "How did your precious clan heir even get infected, anyway? How would the special-grade have even gotten to him?"

To that, Kazuha actually shrugs.

"He accompanied Kenji-san on a training mission. It... did not go well, clearly."

"Clearly." Shoko agrees dryly.

There was a pause.

"I heard you were leaving." Kazuha asks, somewhat hesitantly.

"Yeah." Shoko answers nonchalantly. "Just have to finish packing."

"I see." Kazuha opens her mouth to speak, and closes it again.

Aunt and niece stare at each other, and a wealth of unspoken meaning passes between them.

In the end, Kazuha only smiles, a little sadly, and tips her head gently.

"Well done on your success, Shoko. I never doubted you were capable of it. Have a safe trip home, and give my regards to your mother."

Shoko stares at her a little more, before shrugging and taking half a step back.

"Give them to her yourself. There's nothing stopping you from visiting."

Kazuha seems taken aback by the suggestion, tilting her head in thought before her smile becomes just a little lighter.

"...No, I suppose there isn't."

And then she steps forward and draws Shoko into a final hug.

...

"..."

"..."

"..."

"This is soooooo awkward."

Oh, for the love of-!

Percy and Suguru immediately pounce on a protesting, flailing Satoru and start dragging him away.

"For once in your life, don't be an ass!"

"Seriously, Satoru, be better!"

And that, as they say, was that.

...

Miles away, a figure reclined on a chair and sighed in disappointment.

"Done already?"

Tamamo-no-Mae had been defeated - And after all the effort they'd gone to awaken the irritating nuisance in the first place.

...Oh, well.

A slow smile began to spread across their visage, wide and menacing.

Disappointing performance aside, the curse had served its purpose. There was no longer a theoretical limit to the quality of curse Geto Suguru could consume, and the powers of the Six-eyes of this generation was decidedly subpar.

Excellent.

That sorcerers would likely grow stronger and more proficient in time... but not nearly enough to get ahead in his games. Not even the third special grade and the interesting girl in their orbit would make a difference in what was to come.

Yes, Kenjaku thought with growing relish, everything is going right according to plan.

...

The class demonstrates the sacred art of jumping!:

/sa8w9Pl

Shoko getting her long-awaited catharsis:

/IxNtUA3

Satoru witnessing the closest thing possible to a healthy relationship in the immediate vicinity and getting grossed out by the unfamiliar feels:

/umdsnGQ

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