As soon as the domain was deployed, Junpei unfolded a simple domain and neutralized the sure-hit.
He had already experienced the domain of a sorcerer from a thousand years ago in his fight with Ishigori, so his judgment was quick.
Wuuung
The domains of the past were a [sure-hit] without the [sure-kill].
Because the extension effect of the technique was almost nonexistent, they had the advantage of faster activation and stronger pushback than modern domains, but their power was lower.
Since it was fair to say there were no other additional effects, it wasn’t that threatening as long as he could neutralize the sure-hit effect.
Uro, who had tried to distort Junpei’s entire body with the sure-hit effect and failed, frowned at this unfamiliar technique.
'Mihegalong? No. This is a more advanced technique than that. Can it stay active at all times without forming a barrier?'
Unlike Mihegalong, which only neutralized the 'sure-hit effect' but couldn’t block the technique itself, this one seemed to neutralize the technique itself to some extent as well.
He probably couldn’t maintain that state forever, but even as a temporary measure, it was still annoying.
They had planned to rush in the moment the domain opened and kill him in one blow, but the plan had gone sideways.
"Why is that thing fine?"
"That weird barrier blocked the sure-hit effect. Looks like we’ll have to drag this out or cut through it directly."
As expected of second place.
So he wasn’t going to go down quietly.
'But we still have the advantage!'
"Higuruma! Team up!"
"I know."
The moment Uro shot into the air, Higuruma charged at Junpei.
The sword gripped in one hand like a fencing stance lunged like a snake aiming for prey.
Practical swordsmanship he had naturally learned after awakening, by slaughtering countless curses and counterattacking sorcerers who came at him.
He had never learned proper swordsmanship, but his body knew how to move to carve up an enemy by the best possible route.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Junpei dodged the lethal thrusts by twisting his upper body this way and that.
In the midst of those dazzling movements, a few strands of hair he hadn’t quite escaped in time were cut loose and fluttered away.
As Higuruma lost out in the movement of the point, his grip on the Executioner’s Sword changed, and a horizontal slash cut across Junpei’s midsection.
Whoosh!
'Now!'
Junpei slipped past the wide-ranging but large-motion technique and immediately counterattacked.
His fist shot out beyond the speed of perception, smashing Higuruma in the pit of the stomach and the face in succession, then a kick flew out to push him back.
And just before the tip of his foot touched Higuruma’s chest, space warped from the slender hand that slipped in between the two of them.
Suuuuuk
"You...!"
"Heh. The Executioner’s Sword is scary, sure, but weren’t you paying too much attention to it?"
Her leg, from the calf to the foot, stretched and bent like rubber, all twisted and warped.
Before the technique’s duration ended, an unavoidable two-pronged attack came crashing down.
Higuruma, who had somehow switched the sword to a reverse grip, brought it down on Junpei’s leg as it returned to normal, and cracks spread between the two hands Uro had extended.
Ushunatan (宇守羅彈)
Pakaang!
A finishing move that locks onto the space where the opponent is positioned, then releases cursed energy to collapse the space itself.
The moment the Executioner’s Sword pierced his leg, Junpei was hit head-on by the aftermath of the collapsed space and sent flying at tremendous speed, slamming into the theater wall.
Thunk!
"Got him!"
Uro smiled in anticipation at the satisfying impact, but Higuruma’s expression was the opposite—flat and unreadable.
That light sensation he had felt at the end.
There was no way that had been a coincidence.
"I told you not to do that. He’s not dead yet."
"What? Huh? How?!"
Junpei’s severed leg was stuck in the Executioner’s Sword.
Sssss...
Rather than defend against Uro’s attack, he had made the bold decision to sever his own leg.
It had been the right call, and Junpei, having already finished recovering while smoke rose from the severed leg, stood up from afar.
Even the internal injuries from Ushunatan had healed completely.
At the sight of that eerie gaze, standing there perfectly fine and glaring this way, a chill ran down Higuruma’s spine.
'What the hell is this guy?'
Sorcerers who had their technique confiscated usually found their cursed energy control thrown off as well.
He didn’t know the exact reason, but Higuruma guessed it was probably because the sensations they had long used in parallel with their technique got tangled up.
He had naturally assumed Junpei, too, would be like that after receiving the maximum penalty, but he wasn’t.
Not only had he unfolded a simple domain, he was also overwhelming Higuruma in close combat with cursed energy reinforcement. On top of that, he even had a high-level reverse cursed technique that could restore lost body parts.
There was no sign of any condition issues in his seamless, skillful cursed energy control.
His basic physical specs were beyond amazing—so much so that they inspired awe instead.
He was still a dangerous opponent, and the moment Higuruma resolved to stay even more alert,
Pow!
Higuruma’s consciousness cut out for a moment.
'I let my guard down.'
If he hadn’t cut off his leg, he would have died without a chance to move.
So this was why [Jackpot] was called [Jackpot].
Considering Higuruma had awakened his technique less than twenty days ago, it was terrifying potential.
'But weirdly, I feel like my head’s clearing up.'
The condition was still the same—one hit and he was dead—and it wasn’t like things would get any better from here, but
thanks to that, he felt like he was finally getting a sense of how to deal with the two of them working together.
Listening to their story could wait until after he had subdued them.
Right now, all he had to think about was surviving and getting out of here.
So then, he might as well stop holding back and go all out.
Puhwhaak!
Massive cursed energy exploded from Junpei’s body as he accelerated.
With his technique gone, he could focus only on himself, and his cursed energy control became even sharper.
The transcendent leg strength he gained by concentrating cursed energy in his legs and bursting forward.
Junpei closed the distance to the two of them in an instant and unleashed a barrage of attacks at incredible speed.
Pow!
He caught Higuruma, who had failed to react in time and couldn’t track the attack, with an uppercut to the jaw, then spun through into a back kick at Uro.
Bam!
"Ghk!"
Unlike Higuruma, who had been knocked away as the first target, Uro barely reacted in time and blocked it, only for another kick to come flying at her.
The air stretched out and the force was blocked, losing its direction as it spilled away, but Junpei didn’t stop there.
He grabbed Uro’s counterattacking heavy strike and twisted it, lowering his body as much as possible and concentrating the rotational force into the tip of his foot.
He planted his free hand on the ground,
lowered his center of gravity, and unleashed a rebounding man-shaped kick.
It was a picture-perfect action scene, with a satisfying Bam and a crisp, exhilarating sound.
"..!"
Uro’s eyes rolled back as she took a blow to the temple while still being held.
Junpei, not missing the momentum, grabbed Uro and hurled her toward Higuruma, who was charging in from behind.
KWAANG!
The two bodies collided and overlapped, getting shoved backward.
The foot Higuruma used to catch her scraped across the floor with a Sssss and left a mark, and Junpei’s dropkick that followed immediately pierced through both of them at once.
The strike landed with perfect timing and maximum force, detonating with a boom like a stomach being blown open.
Puhwung!
"Guhk!"
"Ugh!"
With the sensation of their organs twisting, Higuruma and Uro were flung back together, making bizarre noises.
Uro, trembling as she braced herself on the ground with shaking hands, spat out a clot of blood from her mouth.
"Kuhk!"
Her organs had burst.
She had to buy time somehow and recover with reverse cursed technique...
Grab
"Ugh...?"
Before she could even gather herself, rough hands seized her.
"Hup!"
KWAANG!
When one person faces many, there is a fixed strategy to use.
Separate them, then pick them off one by one.
It might be different in a narrow alley, but in this open theater, splitting the two apart wasn’t easy—yet a number of conditions had come together to create this situation.
First, Uro had almost no direct attack techniques.
Ushunatan was powerful, but it had a pile of restrictions and obvious openings, so it wasn’t a technique that was hard to deal with.
Moreover, when using Ushunatan, she couldn’t assist Higuruma with distortion, so the options available to her were fewer than expected.
Second, the Executioner’s Sword Higuruma possessed.
Though the sword’s effect was overwhelming, its utility was inferior to the staff summoned by the usual confiscation.
Because shape-shifting and resummoning were blocked, landing the Executioner’s Sword on Junpei depended entirely on Higuruma’s hand-to-hand combat skill.
And no matter how much of a genius he was, he had spent more than ten years as a desk worker, so his movement was inevitably a little behind the other ranked players.
And finally,
the fact that Junpei’s confiscated technique, Mapari, was external.
And because Junpei had trained the sense of handling multiple shikigami at once, losing one shikigami now wasn’t enough to throw off his cursed energy control.
Thanks to that, Higuruma’s [Confiscation] had not affected Junpei’s cursed energy control ability even a little.
'Why is it always me...!'
"Because I figured it’d be easier if I crushed you first."
There was a reason Junpei was beating Uro so brutally in particular.
Why? Because it was better than trading blows with Higuruma, who had an instant-kill skill.
Rather than endure Uro’s interference while targeting him, it was better to deal with Uro first.
And while he was at it, he could stack damage and break the domain too.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
After completely separating Higuruma and Uro, he began pouring a relentless assault onto Uro.
Fists and feet flew at a speed that was hard to follow with the eye, battering Uro’s bare body.
For her part, all she could do was distort the surrounding space to block it, or occasionally throw out counterattacks that wouldn’t even reach him.
"Higurumaaaa!!!"
"I’m coming now...ghk."
Crash!
He didn’t forget to keep Higuruma in check whenever he tried to interfere.
When Higuruma was far away, he hurled cursed-energy-laden objects at random to keep him from approaching,
and if he somehow came closer while swinging the sword, Junpei overwhelmed him with hand-to-hand combat and drove him back.
Whoosh
'Again!'
Flinch
"..?"
Pow!
"Y-you bastard!"
There were also moments where Higuruma’s interference turned everything into a mess.
He would pretend to attack Uro, then use the feint to kick Higuruma away.
Or he would outright grab Uro and swing her around like a weapon, making it impossible for Higuruma to recklessly swing the Executioner’s Sword.
'There are too many options! It’s impossible to read!'
'Shit! Maybe it would’ve been better to take him on alone..!'
Both of them were already sick of Junpei, who used only hand-to-hand combat to show them all kinds of bizarre and unthinkable tactics.
Even after two ranked players had joined forces and deployed a domain, they still couldn’t handle one person.
The sight of overwhelming fundamentals deciding the outcome was like Gojo Satoru overwhelming curses in Shibuya.
But Junpei was feeling the danger too.
'Higuruma is getting used to my movements.'
That was especially true of Higuruma’s growth, as he rapidly improved even in this situation and kept closing in.
The proof was how he watched Junpei’s movements during the fight and imitated them, becoming faster in response.
If he dragged this out any longer, it would be dangerous.
'There’s also the domain problem. The moment the simple domain breaks, I won’t be able to move with the sure-hit, and the Executioner’s Sword will come flying.'
Uro, as a reincarnated player, could use reverse cursed technique.
On top of that, perhaps because of her 'distortion,' the damage she had taken was overwhelmingly less than the amount of time he had spent beating her down.
It would be impossible to stop her domain with hand-to-hand combat alone before the simple domain broke.
Even if he looked overwhelmingly advantaged right now, the situation could flip in an instant.
He had to prepare a countermeasure while he still had the room.
How could he recover his technique? How could he dismantle the domain?
Think. Think.
How do I...?
Ripple
"!"
"Higurumaaaa!! Riiight noooow!!!!!"
"Aaaaaah!!"
While he was lost in thought, Uro, who had somehow clung tightly to his body, twisted the surrounding space.
The technique was strengthened by [bond], which expanded the range instead of dragging herself into it too.
The overlapped bodies of the man and woman were crushed into a chaotic mess like modern art, and Higuruma’s sword stabbed in through the gap.
'I can’t use the method of cutting off my body to dodge!'
At that moment of utter crisis, a thought flashed through Junpei’s mind.
Trial technique. The adjudicator based on the six laws.
Trial.
"I’m appealing!"
The second trial, in other words, the appellate trial.
A target who was found guilty by the adjudicator and received a penalty could request a retrial up to two times, as long as they did not admit guilt.
And the adjudicator never refused that.
"...So you noticed."
Shooosh
At the unavoidably requested appeal, Higuruma’s domain unfolded once more.
"Damn it! That was the perfect chance!"
Dragged into the forcibly unfolded domain and seated in the gallery, Uro angrily bit her nails.
It had been a chance, and then he went and requested a retrial. There was nothing more frustrating than this.
The only good thing was that her domain hadn’t collapsed.
Basically, the main factor in a domain clash is the repulsion between barriers.
That is why, by adjusting the strength and size of the barrier, it was possible to create a form in which they coexisted inside.
The same principle as when Fushiguro Megumi, in the fight with Dagon, couldn’t destroy the barrier and only managed to punch a hole in it.
There was a slight difference in that Megumi’s domain did not close the barrier, but because they had trained in advance for sudden situations like this, they had somehow managed it.
'Damn it. Please, lawyer...!'
Inside the courtroom, all forms of violence were prohibited.
Since she hadn’t been summoned as a witness, the only thing she could do now was watch the verdict.
Even if they couldn’t maintain the death penalty, the situation would improve if Higuruma could get a guilty verdict against Yoshino.
'As I thought. So this is the second trial.'
Junpei, having escaped the crisis with a brilliant move, let out a sigh of relief inwardly.
Judging by the aura he could feel, Uro’s domain seemed to be intact, but he had already thought of that too.
'There’s no way I’m getting a death sentence in this trial.'
It was a little embarrassing to say out loud, but in his life he had almost never committed a crime deserving judgment.
Rather, he had been the one getting beaten up, not the one beating or bullying others, and he hadn’t committed petty crimes like theft either.
He could truly boast that he had lived a clean life.
In Ishigori and Doruve’s case, those had been special cases caused by the uniqueness and purpose of the Death Migration, and since they had already been used up in the previous trial, they wouldn’t come up again.
'The only two left are Ito and Uryu Kazuya, I guess.'
Attempted murder of Ito Shota, who had been threatened with death by him.
Uryu Kazuya, the department store security guard, who had actually been killed.
These two also had a high chance of being found guilty, but at the very least, he wouldn’t be sentenced to death.
'If I can just identify the evidence properly, there’s even a chance I could be found not guilty.'
He had a strategy.
The tide would not turn.
With a calm mind, Junpei waited for the adjudicator to open his mouth.
What reached his ears shortly after was—
[Yoshino Junpei is accused of aiding and abetting the murder of his mother, Yoshino Nagi, on September 12, 2018.]
.............
Mom.
His mom, who died because of him.
His original sin, one he would never forget for the rest of his life.
"I did it."
I killed Mom.
"This isn’t a lie, and it isn’t denial."
What he chose was not denial, nor silence, but confession.
The verdict was handed down.
[Guilty, [Confiscation]]
Aiding and abetting parricide.
Guilty.
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