The Inumaki Clan Prodigy [Jujutsu Kaisen]

Isamu rushed forward as he sheathed both of his swords. He dropped on a dime, sliding under a serrated whip before pushing off the ground and planting both feet into the curse's gut. It spat out blood as it turned its upper body, once vailed in a shall, into something resembling a sea urchin as spikes in myriad shapes and sizes shot every which way.

But to the curse's obvious surprise, the spikes had difficulty finding their form. They did form, yes, but not nearly as fast as intended. As such, Isamu was able to move his legs out of harm's way by transitioning into a handstand, kicking the curse in the bottom of its neck before pushing off the ground and toward the curse.

The curse, dazed from the expertly placed blow, was unable to catch Isamu as he flew over him, delivering a haymaker to the top of its skull before he continued on over him. Finding his footing again, Isamu clenched his fist a few times in consideration.

It was working, somewhat. It was tough to get down without proper instruction and with only one fight to go off of. Domain Amplification was very, very complex. It was somewhat similar to New Shadow Style and its Simple Domain. But only in some ways and it was obvious to Isamu it was in a class of its own even in those ways.

It was sorta like a simple domain that surrounded you at all times, instantly negated a technique instead of slowly weakening it, and had no restrictions when it came to standing in a certain position or staying in one spot.

Jujutsu works off an exchange system. Not necessarily equivalent exchange but for every positive there had to be a negative. That was why "every technique has a weakness" was one of the first things a sorcerer learned. Because by definition, jujutsu always had some kind of balancing system.

So for simple domain, a technique with many benefits and uses, to even work, you had to make sacrifices.

While simple domains had many requirements, many could bypass them. Jujutsu was also an art of subtraction after all. But there still needed to be some downside. Thus, the more requirements you skipped, the harder the technique would be to learn and use in general.

This was why the limitless cursed technique, a seemingly omnipotent technique which gave the user seemingly god-like power, was so hard to use. It required a special and very rare inborn trait and even then it was still incredibly difficult to control.

To simplify, the better the technique, the more requirements and restrictions, the more requirements and restrictions the user skipped, the harder it would be to control and use.

Normally, when learning a technique, you want to perform it with all of the requirements and restrictions before slowly shaving those off as you get better and better at the technique. The problem was, Isamu couldn't apply this to domain amplification for one simple reason.

It didn't have any requirements and only one restriction. Only one restriction in return for everything you gain from the technique was ludicrous. A technique of this level should have at least a dozen requirements and a handful of restrictions to start with. But all of those were traded for an increase in the skill required to perform it, basically forcing the user to skip all requirements and make it as hard as possible to learn and use.

As such, domain amplification was probably the hardest learnable technique to use. And Isamu had one fight with an amateur user to try and learn from. The fact he was using it to any effect was a miracle. Isamu smiled a bit as he realized the situation.

Could Isamu master Domain Amplification before the curse was done using him as a grindstone and left him in the dust? Time would tell.

——

An old woman could hear a pin drop. That's how quiet and desolate the multiple city blocks caught up in the massive explosion of steam were. Not a single living organism moved. Concrete was destroyed, cars flipped from the force, and metal melted by the extreme heat. The attack, in Uraume's opinion, was spectacular.

Sound suddenly returned to the battlefield as a half-melted sign advertising some Plinko parlor the size of a truck was thrown aside. From under it emerged an androgynous figure of around 5 foot, 8 inches. Maybe 7 inches.

Their usual shrine maiden attire was nowhere to be seen for the most part. The bottom half was relatively fine but the top was completely destroyed, leaving only bandages wrapping around the human's torso, from the waist to just below the armpit.

"That was, more destructive than I would've liked. Still…" Uraume said, huffing as the technique's drain took its toll, their breaths visible due to their low internal temperature.

"…It got the job done."

Standing before them was nothing. Rather, the only visible thing something had even been there was a suspiciously Mahoraga-shaped "shadow" burned into the ground itself. It was similar to the shadows the atomic bombs created. Once again Uraume was surprised by their own power. For a first try, this was outstanding.

Now, where had that bastard of a sorcerer go?

——

Megumi limped away from the scene, Toge in his arms. Despite his best efforts, Toge was caught in the crossfire fire and was bleeding pretty badly. As long as he made it to Shoko, he would be fine. After using such a technique, Megumi doubted his attacker, whether they were a he or a she Megumi still didn't know, would be able to get to him there.

He still needed to get there, however. That was his biggest challenge at the moment. With virtually no cursed energy to use his technique, Megumi was just left beaten up and drained. It even got to the point he'd emptied his shadow storage of any tools or objects save for a single sword. All the added weight would do him no good in a life-or-death situation.

Megumi through himself to the side before he even knew he was. It was only a small scuffle, something easily dismissed as some object being knocked down by the wind or maybe a cat. But Megumi's ears, trained diligently by Isamu, heard it and activated Megumi's survival instincts instantly.

Fortunately too. If he'd been a second slower on the uptake he would've been stabbed through the liver, the blade no doubt hitting Toge as well.

Megumi kicked out at his attacker as he fell to the side, forcing them back a step Megumi was forced to put Toge down, a bit rougher than he would've liked though. He instantly drew his double-edged blade from his shadow just in time to block a swipe from the single-edge, katana-like cursed tool of his attacker.

Pushing him back and away from Toge, Megumi was able to get a good look at the man. The man, if he was one and not just a boy, was a short and slightly muscular young man with slicked blonde hair kept in a ponytail tied on the left side of his head. He had thin eyebrows, purple eyes, and lilac markings under each of his eyes. The blade he wielded was attacked to a purple human hand which gripped the wielder's hand. An odd cursed tool for sure.

"You're looking rough man! You sure you should be lugging that dude around? You know your supposta rest when you're hurt right? Well, whatever. I guess I can help you rest. A nice, long rest." The man said in an annoying, childish voice as he clutched the handle of his sword as it clutched back in return.

Before Megumi could say anything the boy rushed him, swinging in his general direction without much technique. Megumi deflected it perfectly before going in himself. He wanted to extend and split his side open but stopped himself.

'When animals are injured and feel cornered, that's when they're the most dangerous. They get desperate. Sure, they kill whatever they're being attacked by in most cases. But most of the time they die too. So when you're in trouble, turtle up a bit, don't get too cocky.' That was Isamu's advice. For some reason, he got the feeling Isamu didn't follow it himself but Megumi figured this was one of those "do as I say, not as I do" moments.

Instead of overextending and possibly getting gutted in return for his mutual destruction BS, Megumi settled for a small scrape to the man's sword arm before backing off and resetting.

Megumi didn't fear this man much. He could tell already he wasn't particularly skilled and judging from his… youthful… tone and looks, he was likely inexperienced. But Megumi guessed there were plenty of examples proving youth didn't mean weak like Isamu, Maki, Yuta, or Gojo back in the day but he digressed.

Megumi wasn't the best swordsman, far from it. But he was adequate and in the "words" of Isamu 'a sold 6 out of 10'. But taking his injuries and general exhaustion into account, Megumi figured he was around a 4. But doing the same to his opponent, Megumi's best estimate for the guy was a solid 2.

But the problem was, the man was in peak condition and could do this a lot longer than Megumi could. Not to mention a potential cursed technique hidden up the man's sleeve. As Megumi saw it, his only option was to take risks and hopefully make it out of this fight in good enough condition to stumble over to Shoko. The problem was, what about Toge? If killed the ponytailed man but died in the process, Toge would be left stranded in the middle of a transfigured human-infested city.

But if Megumi got out alive but with serious wounds, he probably wouldn't be able to make it to Shoko with Toge, if at all.

So what the hell was he gonna do? Fight and hope he gets a safe enough opening to finish the man with no major injury? Should he run? No, he'd be too slow with his injuries, especially with Toge. With nothing left to lose, he sighed self-deprecatingly before throwing his pride to the side and taking in a deep breath.

"NANAMI!!! YUJI!! ANYONE!!! I NEED HELP!!"

——

Uraume sighed in annoyance as they looked upon the puddle of water where the kid was supposed to be. It seemed the heat from the steam melted the ice even if the explosion was too far away to harm either of the sorcerers Uraume had captured.

No matter, it hadn't been long since the explosion, and the one with the black hair was drained and injured. Not to mention the other one he was no doubt carrying. It would be a pain but finding him shouldn't be that difficult.

"NANAMI!!! YUJI!! ANYONE!!! I NEED HELP!!"

Speak of the devil. It seemed he'd gotten in over his head. Uraume tsked as they turned away from the direction the sound had erupted from. They were far too low in cursed energy to fight even somewhat adequately. If it was just the kid, no problem. But the kid and whatever reinforcements showed up, probably a first-grade sorcerer or two among them?

Yeah, best steer clear and retreat. Uraume would need to regenerate some of their energy anyway if they wanted to make an appearance at the grand final of this entertaining night.