Chapter 121 – The Scheming Tengen, Domain Expansion!
The battlefield fractured. The space around Choso collapsed, swallowing him whole until not even a trace of his blood remained.
Only Kenjaku and Tsukumo Yuki stood in the void that followed.
The ancient sorcerer's eyes narrowed slightly, his mind flicking back to the events of a few days prior — when he had inherited the Kamo clan and quietly absorbed the entire Jujutsu Headquarters in one move.
He had assumed that somewhere within the archives, amidst the dusty tomes and classified reports, there would be data on Special Grade Sorcerer Tsukumo Yuki.
But there was nothing.
Not a single mention of her technique.
No diagrams. No speculation. No records.
A blank page — and that, for Kenjaku, was enough to make him cautious.
He raised a hand. Reality itself split apart, and from the tear in space emerged a pair of massive, spectral hands, prying open the fabric of the void.
"Let's see what kind of technique you possess," he murmured.
A black rift widened above his head — a cursed spirit forcing its way through, its form still hidden in the swirling haze.
Tsukumo's golden eyes flicked upward, her tone almost casual.
"That curse… looks like an import."
Kenjaku smiled faintly. "Indeed. An imported deity — a divine malediction from the East. It can drive away all things that obstruct it. A special-grade curse that imposes conceptual effects upon its target."
He gestured with a flourish.
"Now then — please, begin your performance."
With a thunderous roar, the creature fully manifested — a four-armed giant elephant, each arm wrapped in enormous prayer beads that shimmered with sinister light.
Its body was bulging with muscle, its aura thick enough to shake the earth beneath their feet.
"Graar!!!"
The bellow cracked through the air like a quake.
Tsukumo tilted her head, unimpressed. "Looks scary enough, I'll give you that."
Then she grinned. "Star Rage!"
The skeletal shikigami beside her — the serpent with eight wings she'd been using — suddenly contracted, its entire form folding in on itself until it became a perfect sphere.
Veins bulged along her arms, her muscles tightening. She raised her left leg high, cursed energy coiling around it like a vortex—
—and kicked.
The air cracked like thunder as the ball shot forth, spinning violently, howling toward the giant elephant like a meteor.
Kenjaku's brow twitched.
So crude… he thought, almost offended by her barbaric execution.
But his smirk vanished in the next instant.
"BOOM!!"
The spinning sphere smashed through the elephant's torso, splitting it clean in half.
Violet ichor gushed from the wound in fountains, painting the battlefield in cursed blood.
"Booooom!"
A heartbeat later, the rotation intensified within the beast's body — and the pressure became too much.
The four-armed curse exploded from within, its flesh vaporizing into a storm of purple mist.
Kenjaku's eyes narrowed slightly, a spark of interest flickering at last.
"…So that's her raw power," he murmured, brushing stray dust from his sleeve.
For the first time, the ancient manipulator of curses felt a rare emotion stir in his chest — anticipation.
Tsukumo Yuki stood amidst the smoke, calm and fierce, her hair flowing like molten gold.
"Imported or not," she said coolly, "trash is still trash once you step on it."
Kenjaku landed amidst the debris, his eyes narrowing. "...That sphere shouldn't have had that much force."
Before he could ponder further, Tsukumo was already in front of him, her fist cocked back, a smile cutting across her face.
"What's wrong?" she mocked. "Afraid to get close because you don't know my technique?"
Her eyes glimmered with wild amusement. "Fine, I'll be generous and tell you—"
She leaned in. "My cursed technique… is Star Rage."
Then her fist fell.
"——Booooooom!!"
A single strike — a punch carrying impossible weight — slammed into Kenjaku's skull.
The world shattered.
His body was hurled like a meteor, smashing through mountains, forests, and temples before tearing through the fabric of space itself. The empty barrier realm split apart under the sheer impact, fragments of black void scattering like glass.
When Kenjaku crawled from the rubble, his body cracked and his arms mangled, his expression finally turned grim.
"So… she can add mass without succumbing to it," he muttered, flexing his fingers.
That was Tsukumo Yuki's forbidden art—"Star Rage."
A technique that allowed her to attach overwhelming, impossible mass to her body—or to her familiar, Garuda—while remaining unaffected by it.
Kenjaku activated Reverse Cursed Technique, mending his shattered arms as he analyzed her in silence.
"At this rate," he murmured, "the cursed spirits I left in Shibuya won't help me at all."
Her technique made quantity meaningless—no swarm of curses could restrain her.
He exhaled softly.
"So then… can I really take down this beast alone?"
At the same time, Tsukumo studied him just as carefully.
From his earlier battle with Choso, she'd glimpsed something new—a gravity-based technique. If that was all he had, she wasn't worried.
But someone like Kenjaku… never relied on just one.
Both of them stood still, eyes sharp, tension vibrating in the air. Two Special Grades, reading each other's breath, each waiting for the other to make the first fatal mistake.
Then Kenjaku sighed and spread his arms.
"No use holding back. Against an opponent like you, if I don't deploy my domain… it would imply I have no confidence in it."
A wicked smile curved his lips.
"Domain Expansion — Womb Profusion."
A surge of cursed energy erupted, thick as blood and hot as fire.
Behind Kenjaku, a colossal crimson tree burst from the earth — its roots writhing, its bark pulsing with veins of light.
Each branch dripped with faces—human, twisted, whispering. The entire domain reeked of sin, echoing a thousand years of his crimes.
Tsukumo didn't move. She didn't open her own domain—yet.
Instead, she raised her guard and formed a seal.
"New Shadow Style — Simple Domain!"
A shimmering barrier formed around her, repelling the instant-hit effect of Kenjaku's domain expansion.
And then—she shouted.
"Tengen!"
Before this battle, Tsukumo and Tengen had already devised a strategy.
She would force Kenjaku to open his domain first.
Once his barrier spread, Tengen could analyze it from within the Empty Star Corridor, neutralize its composition, and collapse the domain from the outside.
After that, Kenjaku's technique would temporarily shut down, leaving him vulnerable—
and Tsukumo would finish him.
That was the plan.
But it hinged on one condition: Kenjaku had to be the one to expand his domain first.
Otherwise, if Tsukumo opened hers first, Tengen's interference would neutralize her barrier instead.
Tengen's voice rang faintly in her mind:
"Hold for ten seconds. That's all I need."
Now, inside the domain, Tsukumo's eyes darted across the spreading corruption. Her Simple Domain was already cracking under the pressure.
"Ten seconds, huh?" she muttered grimly. "You'd better be fast, old woman."
Meanwhile, in the Star Corridor, Tengen's expression twisted in shock.
"This is impossible…"
Her voice trembled. "There's—there's no barrier! His domain… it doesn't have a shell!"
She froze, horrified. They hadn't accounted for that.
Inside the domain, Kenjaku chuckled darkly.
"Did you really think that little trick could save you?"
Tsukumo's heart dropped.
Kenjaku stepped forward, the bloody roots writhing around him.
"So that's your plan, huh? Relying on that shut-in relic?"
He smirked.
"You forget, I'm not like her. I've lived through the ages. I've fought, schemed, and killed across a thousand years of deceit in the jujutsu world. You can't outplay me with ancient toys."
With that, Tsukumo's Simple Domain shattered—devoured by the pulsating red curse around them.
"Haah…"
Tsukumo exhaled, her lips curling into a smirk despite the situation.
"My man was right," she muttered under her breath. "Tengen… you're a damn liability."
Then she roared, her cursed energy erupting like a star going supernova.
"Fine! Enough plans!"
She clasped her hands together, power flooding her veins.
"Domain Expansion — Stellar Core Hell!"
The entire world shuddered as her star-forged domain exploded outward, swallowing Kenjaku's cursed forest in a blinding burst of cosmic gold.