Shinji POV
A frightening black stretched out from behind her, enveloping the area around us. And everything was pitch black for a moment.
I slammed my hands together in a desperate attempt at a Hollow wicker basket, praying against hope that the domain might give me some inspiration.
It gave me a better idea of barriers, but still no HWB. 'Fuck I am so dead.'
The darkness shifted, and suddenly we were both in an endless sky, the floor a shallow floor of perfectly reflective water. The horizon was an endless sky in a perpetual sunset, clouds dotting the distance.
But the sky bent, warped in a circular orbit around the center of the domain. Takako Uro flew, her usually barren outfit covering the vast majority of herself now, only her head and parts of her torso exposed.
Despite putting up no defense against a domain's sure hit, I was standing unharmed. 'Something is wrong, really fucking wrong.'
Uro grinned down at me, content in her apparent dominion over the 'sky'. Something about that expression, predatory and wild, made my pulse spike.
'I have no idea what her domain does,' I though looking at her, 'But I know domains buff the user and whatever its sure hit effect is… it can't be good for my health.'
With that in mind, I Aerostepped straight for her. Her grin widened, splitting her face from ear to ear. 'Somethings off…'
I punched at her exposed head with a perfect right jab, and she didn't even flinch. Instead of my fist connecting with her head, it instead impacted my own head. Stranger still, in spite of my not activating my technique, space still fractured at the point of contact.
I was sent careening backwards, skipping along the shallow water. 'What the fuck just–'
"Surprised?" I heard her ask, and I got to my feet, "My domain works differently from other domains–" she started, and I took the moment to rub my sore jaw. "–my sure hit effect does not apply to my enemy; instead, it applies to the sky my opponents attack passes through." My pupils shrank.
"It curves the sky back at the attacker and shatters the sky on contact. In effect, my sure-hit is your own attack." She finished striking a pose and pulling her knees close to her chest, arms raised to the sky.
What.
The.
Fuck.
That was the most broken shit I have ever heard. I cursed Gege's hatred for women–I would have loved to have known that before coming here.
I was broken from my cursing of the author by her smug, nearly purring voice, "What's more, is that my ability to manipulate the sky while in my domain is greatly enhanced." She locked eyes with me and slowly, exaggeratedly, clapped her hands, space dragged together in her grasp.
She finished her clap, and her once distant eyes were now centimeters from my own. Time seemed to slow once more, her breath hot on my face. 'Telepo–'
Her leg swung at my head like a whip, and I just barely put my arm up in time. She had gotten even faster. Her leg slammed into my arms, space cracked, and I was sent sailing.
I rolled as I skipped across the water. I used an arm to stop my rolling and slowed to a stop, only to watch helplessly as she clapped once more.
She threw a right jab at my chin, and I moved to parry it. My arm bent and slapped itself out of the way instead of her arm. Space cracked again, and I was sent flying, my vision darkening at the edges slightly.
'THINK DAMN IT–' I snarled and Aerostepped, something I could do because it targeted myself, I guessed.
That brought me pause, because how did the domain recognize what was and wasn't me? It must be by my cursed energy, right? If no cursed energy means being treated like an object by a domain, then it must recognize them by their cursed energy.
I grinned and stopped using the frequency staking on my skin.
My cursed energy exploded outwards, flooding the domain. It was a huge waste of energy, but I purposely sent more of my cursed energy out.
'Now the domain shouldn't recognize where I start and end, right? That's why Jogo could barely track me, so theoretically, I saw Uro stop, take a half step back with a horrified look on her face.
"Just… JUST HOW MUCH CURSED ENERGY DO YOU HAVE!" She screamed at me, my smile broke my face in two, and my theory about my capacity was confirmed.
"Enough," I said and Aerostepped at her once more. She stopped, her horrified face morphing into one that looked like she was questioning my intelligence.
'Little did she know I was a genius.' I thought smugly fienting a left jab to her face. She stared unimpressed, 'right, she doesn't need to react to those,' I thought dumbly, before lashing out with a devastating hook to her stomach.
Only for my fist to still bend and hit me in the stomach. Spit ejected itself from my mouth, and I lost my breath, flying backwards from the impact.
I skipped on the water once more and coughed. 'Right so in hindsight…' I coughed again, gasping for breath, 'not my smartest idea.' But I could feel something on the edges of the domain.
It felt solid, like glass almost, 'The barrier?' That wouldn't make sense. There's no way I could feel the barrier from the inside. Unless…
She broke me from my thoughts, "Did you really think that if you released all your cursed energy, my technique wouldn't work? You may have what feels like a bottomless reserve of cursed energy, but no amount of raw cursed energy could destabilize a domain."
She thought I was trying to destabilize her domain?
But why?
Was it because my cursed energy vibrates?
But why would that destabilize her domain?
I wasn't given anymore time to think as she shook her head. "Dumbass," she said under her breath, and my eyes narrowed. She raised her hands to clap once more.
This time, I was ready. I used my counter technique from earlier, trying to "destabilize" the space so she couldn't bend my attacks back.
She appeared to my side this time, having anticipated my anticipating her teleport.
She sent a punch to my left side, aiming for my liver. I learned and Aerostepped to dodge, refusing to engage her on her own terms.
Her punch was just barely slow, hitting my hoodie, but not me. I could feel her try to crack the sky. But it remained whole.
A cheshire grin found its place on my face, and I lashed out with a right to her shoulder, my counter technique still in place. My fist was still bent, impacting against my shoulder, but the punch didn't crack space.
She snarled and screamed, throwing a flurry of punches at me, but I crossed my arms in front of me. I kept the counter up, wincing at what felt like a rain of sledge hammers against my arms.
She broke the rhythm by slipping an upper cut under my crossed arms, and I gagged. Her left hand grabbed my intersecting arms and pulled herself into a crushing knee to my chest once more.
Spit flew from my mouth, and her left arm moved from holding my arms, throwing an elbow to the side of my head instead. My head rocked away from the blow, and she pivoted, impossibly graceful.
Her resulting kick to my chest sent me flying into the distance.
She grabbed the sky in front of her and pulled.
The sensation was nauseating, like being yanked by invisible chains. Suddenly, I was in front of her again. 'Shit—'
Her left cross connected before I could react, and I was airborne. She grabbed the sky again.
"Now do you see?" I was before her again.
She didn't wait this time. Her kick sent me flying immediately.
I braced for the next pull. It came faster. "The sky is MINE—" Her voice was cold, matter-of-fact, as she punted me away again.
Another pull. "—to mold—"
When I appeared in front of her this time, there was something different in her expression. Like she was studying me with genuine interest even as she hit me. "—to BREAK—"
The pull was more violent. Her knee drove into my chest, and I tasted blood.
"—so stop MEDDLING WITH SOMETHING THAT ISN'T YOURS!" The final hit sent me skidding across the water.
I waited for another pull, but it never came.
She just stood there, watching me. Her posture was relaxed and confident, but she was still watching.
I stayed down for a second, every part of my body screaming.
"You know what's funny?" She began strutting forward. "I usually get bored by now. But you..." She tilted her head, studying me like I was something interesting. "You keep surprising me."
"Is that supposed to be a compliment?" I said as I watched her strut forward, she knew I couldn't do anything to her, even if I wanted to.
She crouched down, bringing herself to eye level. The smile on her face was different now, less mocking, more genuine. "It means I'm having fun with you," she admitted. "So don't go dying on me just yet. I'm not done playing."
'The hell?' I started to stand, she matched me almost like a dance, 'Is she making a pass at me?' I looked into her wide, dilated eyes.
'Nah, probably just adrenaline, but WOW, talk about Bipolar, crazy women sure are scary.' I thought and gulped. Despite my thoughts, I felt more eager than anything.
I wiped the trail of blood from my lips and spat the rest that was in my mouth out. But she made a great point; in her domain, this was her sky.
But that's because this was her domain.
'So how do I break it?' I thought back to what a domain was: a barrier imbued with someones innate technique.
'So if cursed energy was electricity, and cursed techniques were electrical circuits, a domain must be a region of enclosed space where the circuits' output connects to all space in the Domain.'
I saw her reach, most likely to punch me, but I Aerostepped to the side. I was close to a breakthrough. I could feel it.
'My cursed energy was still everywhere in the domain, so why didn't that disrupt the circuit? Two different sources of power flowing into a circuit should overload it.'
She moved to clap, and I aerostepped away again. She read my movement appearing above my new trajectory. I hastily used the quake with both of my hands to shoot me down and out of her path.
I had an epiphany, 'because the circuit is in the barrier, so I need to inject my own energy into the barrier–or better yet, just break the barrier itself.'
She tried to pull me again, but I punched the space in front of me, cracking it. The shock wave traveled to her before bending and sending itself back at me. She pulled me, but I was sent back anyway because of my blast.
'Easier said than done, the only person who broke a domain's barrier from the inside was Sukuna.' I smiled sardonically as the sky warped and pulled me to the ground. 'Yeah, all I need to do is match the strongest in the series–'
My thoughts halted as I felt something, or more accurately, became aware of something.
That thin, glass-like thing that was holding my cursed energy, it was also vibrating. Nowhere close to my frequency, but oscillating all the same.
You know, that gave me an idea.
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3rd Person POV (Uro 5 seconds before)
'Is he trying to destabilize my domain?'
Something about his cursed energy was interfering with her barrier.
Those constant vibrations, were they random, or was he actively probing for weaknesses? She couldn't tell.
'No way. He can't be that clever.' But the interference was too persistent to ignore.
She and Shinji Aerostepped, and she clapped her hands together, folding space, and appeared above him, having anticipated his dash.
Shinji used another quake to blast away before she could connect. His grey hair was matted with blood and water.
Uro grabbed the sky above him and pulled downward like closing a fist.
He slammed into the water-logged floor, the impact sending water spraying in every direction.
Most sorcerers would be unconscious by now. But this one just kept getting back up, blood dripping from his mouth, ringed yellow eyes still sharp and focused.
'Pretty thing,' she thought distantly. 'Shame he won't look nearly as good when I'm done with him.' There was something satisfying about imagining him finally broken.
That defiant look in his eyes was replaced with defeat. His will crushed under the weight of her sky. Now that would be worth seeing. She dismissed the thought. Watching as the boy started to pick himself up.
It was amusing to see him keep trying, she decided.
The boy got to his feet as Uro was about to move, getting bored with waiting. Yet as the boy spoke, she paused her pursuit momentarily. "You know what's funny about domains?" He asked rhetorically, mimicking her earlier words
"They're barriers." He finished like it was the grand
The water dripped from his hair, and Uro's expression shifted, confused, but wary, "What?" she bit out at his ramblings.
"They're elaborate, complex barriers, but barriers nonetheless." He started, "and barriers, I have come to discover, oscillate at a natural frequency as all things do–" The boy's hands started to shake, no, all of his cursed energy's vibration shifted.
Uro's eyes widened in alarm, feeling her domain start to destabilize, "–which means if I oscillate my cursed energy at the same resonance frequency–" She moved to clap, but the damage was done.
Shinji moved his hands together in the same sign as Hollow Wicker Basket. And two vibrational pulses emanate from him.
Having his cursed energy all along the domain, Shinji could feel the natural oscillations of the barrier, and after already experiencing frequency matching with his own soul, Uro's barrier stood no chance.
"Extension Technique: Resonance Cascade"
The sky fractured along invisible seams. Uro threw her head around, panicked, desperately trying to reinforce her barrier.
But it was futile.
Resonance Cascade worked by using the domain's own frequency, amplified into a standing wave that violently shatters the domain. Reinforcing the domain would do nothing but make the vibrations stronger.
The domain collapsed fully, the barrier obliterating itself.
Uro stood, transfixed and horrified, staring at Shinji as her reality, her sky, came collapsing around her.
"Now then–" The boy began, apparently uncaring of Uro's devastated state. "–Shall we continue?" he asked, getting into a stance.
'This boy…' Uro thought, sweat building on the base of her neck as a stray strand of hair fell in front of her face. 'Just what is he?' An image appeared in the back of her mind, unprompted.
A walking calamity with 4 arms and two faces.
'He's a monster.' She thought about getting into a stance herself. The thought didn't scare her as much as it should.
Instead, her heart beat faster, and heat settled into her abdomen and head.
'This new era…' Her eyes bore into Shinji's, 'is a little scary.'
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Shinji POV
That was a really fucking risky move.
'And DAMN was it a cursed energy waste.' That one move had drained nearly 20% of my cursed energy reserves.
For reference, that was what I spent on all the earlier parts of the fight combined.
I was again beyond thankful for the kick in my efficiency those black flashes gave me; without it, I was 100% sure that I would be out of cursed energy at the moment.
My attention was drawn to Uro once more, but for a totally different reason.
You see, one of the downsides of wearing your technique as an outfit is that when your domain breaks, and you suffer technique burnout…
Your outfit goes too.
Uro stood before me, completely bare from head to toe. And fuck, she was gorgeous.
I felt heat crawl up my neck, and she noticed instantly.
She raised an eyebrow, coming out of whatever stupor she was in a moment ago. She looked down to see what had caught my attention and smirked. "What? Have you never seen a woman in the nude?" Her voice was teasing and predatory.
The heat crawled up to my cheeks, and my comeback died in my throat, "Shut up." I replied weakly, dodging the question.
Her smirk widened into a full grin, and she crossed her arms under her chest, making sure to emphasize certain parts of her chest. "Is that why you decided to compete in the culling games? You died with regrets?" She shifted her weight and jutted a hip to her side.
"Died without a maiden of your own, perhaps?" she finished with a teasing shark-like smile.
The heat in my face exploded, and I could feel my face erupt in a blush.
'I know this bitch–' my arms cocked back, and I lowered my weight, '–who was CONFRIMED to not having had a lover,' I activated frequency stacking once more. '–did NOT just call me bitchless.'
I exploded off the ground in an Aerostep, closing the distance in a matter of moments. I threw a right straight at her jaw. And with her grin unfaltering, she deftly pushed the blow away from her chin with her left hand.
She mirrored my first blow, and I copied her parry. Her smile widened a fraction, eyes still locked on my own.
Her lead leg came up in a roundhouse, and I raised a knee to intercept it. She used her outstretched leg as a pivot point and sent another jumpkick with her back leg to my head.
I brought my right arm back by my head, her leg impacting dully against it. I slammed my raised leg down, stepping in with an elbow directed to her chin.
Her head weaved back, and her left hand flicked out in a lightning-fast jab to my exposed right side.
It landed squarely. My momentum was slightly halted, but I pressed on, kicking the air behind me.
I Aerostepped off it into a spear tackle at full speed. I caught her in the stomach, her mouth opening in a silent scream as I carried her off her feet.
And right through a building.
I held on, Aerostepping again and again demolition the buildings in our wake. Through one building, then two, then three, until he speared her through 5 buildings, each falling to rumble.
She finally had enough and slammed a double hammer fist into my back. I was sent sailing downwards, but without her technique, she lost a lot of her attack power.
I snapped my head up at her from my falling position. I made a platform of cracked space, landing on it, before exploding it and shooting upwards. I cocked my right arm back and slammed a punch to her stomach as I flew past her.
Space cracked, and she was sent hurtling into the clouds.
I chased with a series of Quake and Aerostep. When I caught up to her, I wrapped my legs around her torso. She tried to use her right hand to punch me from our new position, but I slapped it away with my right hand.
I launched a flurry of blows to her face, a right jab, then a left straight, then another right, then slapping her with my left hand and hitting her with a right hook.
Her right arm came up next, and I back-handed that one away with my left hand, throwing a hard right then left once again. Her head flew back, blood erupting from her button-like nose.
I grabbed her head in both my hands this time and head-butted her full force. I heard a crack, and grinned when I saw her broken nose.
She looked dazed now, and I took the opportunity to slam both open palms to the upper portion of her chest, cracking space like I saw her do to Yuta in the manga.
I unwrapped my legs as she went sailing into another building, it collapsing around it. I felt another pulse of RCT and an explosion of cursed energy as the dust cleared from her form.
I panted, while I wasn't near running out of cursed energy, my physical fitness was still lacking.
'Great, more training…' but that was a thought for another time. It was time to finish this.
I saw her try to stand from the crater I put her in. I used Quake and Aerostep to close the distance in a moment. I leveled a punch right to her solar plexus as I landed, and blood and spit flew from her mouth.
More dust erupted from the blow, and I felt another pulse of RCT, much weaker this time. She let out a wet cough, blood leaking from her full lips. She tried to move, but gave up after about a second of effort.
"Are–" she began before coughing once more, "Are you going to kill me?"
I took a moment to breathe, considering my next words very carefully, "Nah." I said nonchalantly while staring down at her naked form.
"Just–" She started her voice, seemingly breaking, before averting her eyes for the first time since I broke her domain. "Just make it quick?" It sounded more like a question than a request.
I felt nausea wash over me, 'She thinks I'm gonna… ugh god no.' I needed to clear up that thought very fast.
I sighed and took off my hoodie. It was damp with sweat and blood, but it would do. I threw the jacket over her, "Here, you look cold." I said, and she looked back towards me, clearly confused.
I walked over next to her and sat next to her, looking to the sky. She wasn't a threat to me right now. I could feel that her cursed energy reserves were almost out. Domain expansion and RCT were draining that way.
Her head followed my movement, but she made no movements whatsoever. I was silent for a second, thinking again, "You asked me for my reasoning to fight in the culling games, right?" I turned my head towards her, and she nodded confusedly.
"Before I answer that, would you mind telling me why you fight?" I already knew the answer, but she needed to hear me ask.
She stared at me for a moment before scoffing and looking to the sky, "Why do you want to know?" She asked almost despondently, knowing that I could kill her in a moment if I so chose.
"Humor me," I replied noncommittally.
"..." She was silent for a minute, "When I was alive, I was the captain of the assassin squad known as the Sun, Moon, and Stars Squad." She began regaling her life story. I know she was probably only telling me as a way of buying time to recover, but I listened anyway.
"We were an elite and loyal group of assassins for the Fujiwara–" She spat the name like it was a slur, "–so loyal were we that we were not even given names, because we didn't need them."
"But one day, I was given a name." She said, almost nostalgic, "Takako Uro, a name given to me by a member of that very clan." She had a tiny, tiny smile before that expression was squashed.
"In spite of all of my loyalty, it was that very same man who betrayed me. Framing me for the murder of a fellow clansman." I was impressed by the amount of raw vitriol she could put into one sentence.
"So I decided that I would use this new opportunity, new life, all for myself." She moved her arm up, shakily and slowly grasping at the sky uselessly. "I'll get as many points in the culling games as I can, kill everyone I need to–bow to no one." Her arm fell, lacking the strength to keep it there.
"A lot of good that's doing me now…" she trailed off, turning her head towards me, "What do you want? My body?" she asked, and I raised a brow at her, surprised.
"Don't play coy with me," She growled at me, "You clearly don't want me dead, so what do you want?"
I smiled, making eye contact once more. This was it, the one plan I could see working, "I've got no idea." I said honestly, I could feel her confused stare, so I continued, "I'm not like you, I don't remember my life before incarnation." I turned my head at her, seeing her wide-eyed stare.
I smiled, "I didn't even remember how to do Jujutsu until just last night." I said and smiled at her absolutely gob-smacked look. I grinned, continuing, "Mostly I'm just trying to survive all this, and figure out who I am. I only got my name from my ID card." I scratched the back of my head.
"But I know three things," I extended my pinky, ring, and middle fingers.
"That I want to be the strongest–" I put down my middle finger.
"That so long as this game is going on and Jujutsu Society is hunting me, that I will never be truly free–" I put down my ring finger and watched as her delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly.
"And that it gets lonely at the top." I put my pinky down at last. I watched her mouth open, vying to interrupt, but I put a hand out, stopping her. I was still carefully keeping track of how much cursed energy she was regenerating.
"What I mean is that the culling games will continue, and I will be forced to kill, regardless of whether I choose who to kill, I will still be forced to kill." I chose these next words very carefully: "At that point, I think I'd lose agency over my own life, and I hate that feeling."
I felt her cursed energy still, her pupils shrinking to pin pricks, "Plus, I saw some sorcerers yesterday, and they were trying to kill me for just being incarnated. Apparently, we kill the host soul when we incarnate, so they have a kill on sight order." I turned my gaze back to the sky.
What I said wasn't technically a lie; they would definitely have killed me today or at the end of the games. It was just a slight stretching of the truth.
"So either way you look at it, we're either forced to kill, or forced to run, but never truly free." This was it; I had to hammer in that either way, she didn't get what she wanted.
"And what's your solution, Oh Wise One?" She asked sarcastically, and my smirk turned amused at her burgeoning pride.
"Well, I'm not stupid, or strong enough–" 'yet' I thought, "–to kill all of jujutsu society. But a group of people, at my level or stronger? That they would have to respect." I turned back to her, confident smirk still on my face.
"So, what you want to make a new…clan?" She asked disgustedly.
"Absolutely not," I waved her off with my hand, "I want to make a collective of people joined by something other than blood," I replied to her unasked question.
"Then off what?" She asked impatiently.
"Shared pursuit of personal freedom. The group or faction wouldn't have a hierarchy, no orders, you just have to help the others if they ask." I answered before hastily adding, "You can say no, of course." I smiled, confident in my pitch–
"That's the dumbest shit I've ever heard." She said flatly, and my grin dropped. "For one, how would you keep everyone in line? And how would you coordinate anything?"
I sweat dropped my grin falling, "It'd be easy to coordinate, because there would be so few of us. I'm not just letting any second-rate sorcerer join. You'd have to be special-grade, at the bare minimum." Her eyebrows shot up, and I could see the next question forming in her head. I responded before she could ask it.
"The concentration of special grades in the culling games is the highest in history, the majority of which can be reasoned with," I said, thinking of my next stop after this. I had some time before Jujutsu High became legitimately active in the culling games.
To that end, this conversation was really me just pulling shit out of my ass.
I had no plans of going around collecting special grades like Pokémon, but if this goes well, who knows, I might just go around and collect members for my…
Crew
I smiled at the parallel to the man, my powers came from before, quickly shaking my head and getting back on topic.
"As for how I'd keep them in line well–" My confident smirk returned, "I will be the strongest. If you stepped out of line, I'd just beat the shit out of you."
She still looked unconvinced, so I decided to play my last card, sighing while slowly getting to my feet, "Look, I'm only doing this because, as I said, it gets lonely at the top. I could just kill you and move on, but you have the potential to sit at the top or close to it–" Turned to look down on her, intentionally positioning the sun behind me.
"When you abandoned your old life for this game, you traded the cage of the Fujiwara for the bigger cage that was the Culling games and called it freedom." I stretched my hand to her.
"What I offer you now is a key, a true path to freedom, all you have to do is fight the strongest opponents of the modern era." I saw something in her expression change, and my grin sharpened, "You in?"
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Uro POV
'This boy,' I thought as I stared into his eyes, the sun's light reflecting slightly through his silver hair, giving him an ethereal look.
'I think I get why the sky chose him over me,' I started to sit up, 'Newgate Shinji, show me, show me just how high you can fly, would you?'
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Shinji POV
"Dumbass," I heard her mutter as she closed her eyes, before snapping them open and staring me straight in the eyes. "Why didn't you put it like that in the first place?"
Her hand was oddly small and soft in my own, I noted dully as she placed her hand in mine. She stared at me a moment longer, her smile becoming the tiniest bit softer.
"I'm going to regret this, aren't I?" she asked me.
"I think those are better left to our prior lives," I replied cheekily, and she pulled herself up.
With my help, of course.
What can I say? I'm a generous guy.
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A/N:
Aaaaaand done, wow, that was the longest chapter yet. I'm really happy with how it came out if you have any questions about resonance cascade or Uro's characterization, then leave a comment, and I will try to clear up as much as possible.
That was a very long fight, the first time it spanned over two chapters for me and a total of over 8k words, so I really hope you enjoyed it.
If you're wondering about the whole crew thing, I'm playing with the idea of a new faction independent of traditional Jujutsu society. Plus, there should be some new world-building we can do with modolu, and also the outside world learning about cursed energy with that.
But if you guys hate the idea... I might still do it, sorry, but I'm doing this for fun mostly.
But anyways, thank you again for reading, have a good night.