There are broadly three ways to resist a domain.
Endure it with a stopgap like a simple domain or Hollow Wicker Basket. Or, though it is nearly impossible, escape beyond the barrier.
And then, there is the way of confronting it by unfolding your own domain.
Personally, I’d recommend the last method.
Not only is it the most orthodox and efficient approach, it also gives you a chance to counterattack.
Even if you lose the tug-of-war between domains, pouring everything out is far more satisfying than dying without even getting to struggle. Anyway, that’s how it is.
But.
Didn’t I say this before?
-There are always exceptions.
-Crackle!
Okkotsu Yuta and Kenjaku.
The domains the two of them unfolded collided head-on and began a tug-of-war of power.
No, they didn’t even get to the tug-of-war stage.
"?!!"
"Hah. Good choice, not dodging and meeting me head-on."
Inside the domain, they were almost evenly matched.
The interior of a domain is formed by a sorcerer’s cursed energy, control, and mental image.
Since it has nothing to do with barrier techniques, even accounting for the difference in age and experience between Kenjaku and Okkotsu, the battle was unfolding on fairly equal footing.
However.
"There’s no barrier...?"
There was no barrier to push against.
Instead of a barrier, all that twisted and throbbed at the center was a grotesque pillar packed with distorted human faces, standing there as a symbol.
"How does that even make sense? Was that thing even a domain possible with barrier techniques in the first place?!"
Kenjaku’s [Coffin] was a barrierless domain.
A divine feat that manifested a domain in real space without closing it with a barrier.
It was like painting in midair without a canvas.
Because it wasn’t closed off by a barrier, it could be escaped from, but that wasn’t much of a problem.
A barrierless domain had overwhelming compatibility against a domain with a barrier.
"Damn it!"
-Creak crack!
Okkotsu tried to maintain the barrier with all his strength, but the domain was already half-shattered and on the verge of collapse, so recovery seemed far off.
Normally, a tug-of-war between domains works by renewing ownership of the barrier and devouring the opponent’s domain.
If there is no barrier, the tug-of-war itself cannot even take place. You can attack the opponent’s barrier from the outside and smash it, and the sure-hit effect inside the barrier is also neutralized.
In other words, from the moment the domain was unfolded, Okkotsu’s chance of winning this fight was,
-Bang!
nonexistent.
-Rumble...!
The technique Kenjaku had assigned to the domain was [Anti-Gravity System].
Curse Spirit Manipulation had little value in a domain beyond expanding the technique, and his innate technique wasn’t suited for combat, so this was the original technique of Itadori Kaori, chosen as a desperate measure.
Pure gravity alone was useless because of its poor output and short duration, but add technique reversal to it, and the story changes.
Strong gravity crushed Okkotsu down, the kind even a special-grade sorcerer couldn’t easily escape from.
-Grrrrk! Krazzzk!
"Ghk!"
The range covered the entire domain.
The duration lasted as long as Kenjaku’s cursed energy allowed.
"Oh? You’re enduring it."
Even after the domain broke, Okkotsu protected his body with his own monstrous cursed energy and kept holding on, so Kenjaku reversed the technique he had been maintaining with reversal back to pure form.
The gravity that had been pinning him down inverted, and Okkotsu’s body, which had been drilling into the ground, floated up.
By the time he had thrashed around, he was already at a height where the ground felt distant.
"Fall endlessly."
"He’s planning to lift me up and drop me!"
If he fell under gravity like this, it would be instant death.
Smashing into the ground at 300 m/s would not be a pleasant way to go.
"What do I do?"
Even if the technique had burned out, Rika was still there as an external body. Should he call Rika?
No. Even if Rika came out now, there was nothing she could do.
It’d be a miracle if they didn’t both get flattened into pancakes.
-Whoosh!
Before he knew it, his body was falling.
The ground rushed up in an instant, and just before impact Okkotsu used his reflexes to catch his posture in midair.
The sure-hit effect was offset by the simple domain wrapped around his body, and he managed to avoid ending up dead like a squashed frog.
-Thud!
"Ow..."
"A simple domain?"
As he endured the impact of the fall and got back up, he could feel Kenjaku staring this way in surprise.
Of course he’d be curious. How was he using a secret art taught only to disciples who entered the New Shadow Style?
"I just watched it and copied it."
Glad it worked.
Still, putting that aside, there was still a serious problem left.
Kenjaku’s domain was still active, and the rate at which the simple domain was being shaved away was no joke.
"Luckily, since he’s only been using gravity from the start, it seems he can’t run multiple techniques at once..."
That was the only reassuring part.
If he had pinned them down with gravity and then summoned a legion of special-grade cursed spirits, they would have been helpless.
It was fortunate that he hadn’t assigned Curse Spirit Manipulation to the domain out of caution toward cursed technique reversal output, but this [gravity] was probably not a technique well suited to combat either. He must have slapped a bunch of binding vows onto it to make it work, which was surely why it was so hard to operate.
Twenty seconds? Ten?
Within that time, he had to somehow dispel this domain or escape it.
The technique had recovered, but if they dragged this out, Kenjaku would move into full action.
"Still."
There was still a chance.
Okkotsu’s eyes swept over the siege barrier dome enclosing him and Kenjaku.
Since the barrier hadn’t been destroyed even after the domain was unfolded, the range of the domain must have been limited to inside this space.
Then what he could do was.
"Rika, come here."
"....?"
"All of it."
As Okkotsu murmured softly while touching his ring, cursed energy exploded up from his body.
The limiter came off, greatly increasing the amount of cursed energy he could use, and the aura surrounding his body grew even more ferocious.
Behind him, Rika fully manifested and was summoned, drawing out the power she had before being exorcised.
The five minutes that began with Rika’s full manifestation.
At last, it was the moment Okkotsu revealed the hidden card he had been keeping.
"So you’re finally bringing out the copy! But how are you planning to deal with me?"
The moment Okkotsu released the limiter, Kenjaku sprang into action.
Even though he had dominated the domain battle, he still did not let his guard down.
Taking off the limiter now meant there was some kind of trick up his sleeve.
Before he could do anything pointless, Kenjaku pressed the attack without giving him room to breathe.
-Boom!
[Ouch!]
With a fierce adjustment of gravity, Rika was slammed into the ground.
Okkotsu’s simple domain was also about to be completely shattered.
The instant he was about to crush the two of them flat with gravity at maximum output,
"Domain Expansion."
he heard words that should never have reached Kenjaku’s ears.
Unlike his body, which was already moving exactly as he had predicted, his mind stood still and sank into contemplation.
"Another Domain Expansion? Even if the technique has recovered, that’s impossible."
Gojo Satoru couldn’t do something like that casually, and neither could Sukuna.
It would be possible if they destroyed their own brain and regenerated it with cursed technique reversal, but he didn’t think Okkotsu would pull a crazy stunt like that here.
At the very least, you’d need something like the Six Eyes to perform such precise work.
The answer was unexpectedly simple.
The domain that had just been unfolded was,
[Zarasu Bakuto]
not Okkotsu’s.
The technique he had copied with Hakari Kinjiro’s permission, [Zarasu Bakuto].
The unusual thing about Hakari’s technique was that the domain came with it by default.
A form in which the domain must exist in order for the technique to be deployed. That also applied to Okkotsu, who had copied Hakari’s technique.
"So that’s the way you’re doing it...!"
"I thought I’d try a little trick."
In other words, if Okkotsu copied and used Hakari’s [Zarasu Bakuto],
and if he hit the jackpot within five minutes,
he could unfold a domain more than twice in a single day.
-Shhhhk!
The domain unfolded again as before, but this time the form was different.
Instead of directly constructing a barrier, he used the siege barrier Kenjaku had already designed as an outline and manifested the mental image within it.
A domain of unprecedented size now spread from the outside and overlaid Kenjaku’s [Coffin].
"He’s using the siege barrier as an outline so the domain won’t be destroyed from the outside!"
The inside of a barrier is sturdy, so it won’t break from ordinary attacks.
If the ranges overlap, the sure-hit effects will neutralize each other, but because both sides unfolded domains, they’ll be stuck in place.
In other words, it was an awkward cohabitation where a barrierless domain functioned inside a closed barrier domain, but with its function lost.
Kenjaku had suddenly been saddled with an anti-gravity system that no longer had a sure-hit effect, and he had only two choices.
Expand the domain further and break the barrier, or cancel the domain and bring out Curse Spirit Manipulation again to face him.
If he chose the former, he would win the domain battle, but this “dungeon” would collapse, allowing escape or the possibility of Maki or Choso joining in.
If he chose the latter, even if the technique burned out, [Zarasu Bakuto] had no harmful sure-hit effect, so he could still fight Okkotsu head-on.
-Rustle...
"Tch."
"So you canceled the domain?"
True to his rational nature, Kenjaku chose the latter.
Being forced into a choice by an unexpected trick was irritating.
But for some reason, more than that, he felt like he was going to go crazy from how much he enjoyed this battle that kept surpassing his expectations.
"A barrierless domain. I didn’t know something like that was possible."
"And then you cover it with another one and swallow it up? With a copied technique, no less? That’s inventive. Maybe I made the dungeon for nothing."
"You say that, but you’ve got the face of someone who’s having the time of his life."
"Caught me?"
Yes. It was fun.
So fun that even the garbage information being forcibly shoved into my brain right now could be accepted with delight.
"Then let’s play even harder."
"It won’t be fun once your arms and legs get cut off and you’re stuffed into a box."
With a deadpan face, Okkotsu spat out those savage words, and behind him the roulette numbers appeared.
6-6 Rich.
In a moment, the Rich Action would play.
"Then what I need to do is knock you down before you become immortal."
"Then why are you standing there so still?"
"Embarrassingly, my technique burned out completely. I hate fights with no chance of winning. I’ll wait."
Kenjaku shrugged and really did nothing, waiting for the result.
Until the Rich Action passed quickly and the final number appeared on the screen.
"Still pretending you’ve got room to spare."
This time, I’ll go first.
The moment the roulette result appeared, Okkotsu formed a hand sign shaped like a bird.
[Nue - Mixed Convergence Koya]
"Inherited shikigami! So you can copy that too."
And then,
-Kaboom!
6-6-6.
Jackpot.
"Lucky."
"I was lucky."
When the bonus round ended and the domain was dismissed, they returned to the original barrier.
Infinite cursed energy overflowed from Okkotsu’s body, and lively music rang out.
-CATU, CATU, CATU, CATU, CATU
The music was ridiculous, but Okkotsu’s momentum was more ferocious than ever.
His cursed energy, now beyond his usual limits, Rika in full manifestation, and even the inherited shikigami of the Ten Shadows Cursed Law.
A total of three pairs of eyes were glaring fiercely at Kenjaku.
"That’s terrifying."
If he didn’t fight seriously, he might lose.
"Three against one? That’s cheating."
"I’m going again."
The battle had already turned.
Within five minutes, he would completely subdue Kenjaku.
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