(Year 2001)
A couple of months had already passed since Hiroyuki and Senjumaru graduated from Tokyo Jujutsu High.
Strangely enough, life had only become busier afterward.
Back when they were still students, there was always something occupying their time. Missions, training, annoying lectures, clan matters, curse exterminations, sparring, and everything else that came with being a Jujutsu Sorcerer. Even when they tried to sit down and relax, something troublesome would inevitably appear.
One would think graduating would give them a little more freedom.
It didn't.
If anything, Hiroyuki had somehow become even busier.
Beep! Beep!
Inside a dark-colored sedan, Hiroyuki lightly tapped his finger against the steering wheel while staring at the unmoving line of vehicles ahead of him.
Engines hummed outside. Horns occasionally blared from different directions as impatient drivers attempted to squeeze into whatever little space they could find, only to achieve absolutely nothing.
Traffic.
The absolute bane of civilization.
Hiroyuki released a long, exhausted sigh.
Beside him, Senjumaru quietly knitted something with the same calm expression she usually wore. She glanced at him briefly before returning her attention to the cloth resting on her lap.
"You seem frustrated," she said.
"Can you blame me?"
Senjumaru considered the question for all of half a second.
"No."
Her immediate answer earned a short laugh from him.
At least she understood.
Hiroyuki wasn't exactly angry. Irritated would probably be the better word. After spending nearly half the day listening to a group of old men talk in circles, anyone would feel the same.
Strength alone simply wasn't enough in the Jujutsu World. No matter how powerful someone became, there would always be problems that couldn't be solved with their fists. Eventually, they would have to deal with the people sitting behind the curtains.
The so-called higher-ups.
Or, as Hiroyuki preferred to call them...
"Old fools."
People who talked too much, understood too little, and somehow believed that growing old automatically made them wise.
Unfortunately, now that Hiroyuki had graduated and officially entered adulthood within Jujutsu Society, avoiding those people was no longer an option. That was especially true for someone who possessed both his strength and position.
He clicked his tongue when the traffic ahead failed to move even an inch.
Honestly, it was almost impressive.
Maybe some Curse had possessed the road. At least then, Hiroyuki could exorcise it and finally go home.
The two remained quiet for another minute, accompanied by nothing but the humming engines outside and the occasional sound of an angry driver abusing his horn.
Then, as casually as one might mention the weather, Senjumaru spoke.
"Ah, I achieved Domain Expansion yesterday."
Hiroyuki's finger stopped tapping.
He blinked before briefly turning toward her.
"You what?"
"I achieved Domain Expansion yesterday," she repeated, continuing to knit as if she hadn't just revealed something that most sorcerers would spend their entire lives failing to accomplish.
Hiroyuki stared at her for several seconds before shaking his head.
"You really are ridiculous."
There wasn't any sarcasm in his voice this time. Even among Special Grade Sorcerers, achieving Domain Expansion at their age was far from simple.
Of course, neither of them had ever been normal. They had already demonstrated that fact more times than Hiroyuki could count.
Still, this was impressive even by their standards.
"Congratulations," he said sincerely. "You worked hard for it."
Senjumaru's hands briefly slowed.
"Thank you."
Her expression barely changed, but Hiroyuki noticed the slight softness in her voice. A moment later, however, she shook her head.
"It is still nothing compared to you. You achieved yours years ago."
Hiroyuki gave a weak laugh and returned his attention to the road.
"That's different. I'm a special case."
Senjumaru looked toward him, waiting.
"I already had experience with something similar," he explained. "From my previous life."
A small hint of understanding crossed her face, but she didn't interrupt.
His previous life wasn't exactly a secret between them anymore. Hiroyuki had never sat Senjumaru down and explained everything from beginning to end, but over the years, she had learned enough to connect most of the pieces herself.
He occasionally spoke about places that didn't exist, people she had never met, and battles that couldn't have possibly happened during his current life. Senjumaru was far too intelligent not to notice.
Eventually, she had simply asked him about it.
Hiroyuki hadn't seen much reason to lie.
It was Senjumaru, after all. If there was anyone in this world whom he could trust with that information, it would be her.
For a while, only the noises outside filled the car. Hiroyuki watched another vehicle move half a meter before stopping again.
"In my previous life," he eventually continued, "there was someone I needed to kill near the end."
His fingers tightened slightly around the steering wheel.
"The problem was that reaching him wasn't simple. He existed somewhere strange. Imagine an Innate Domain, except far larger and entirely under his control."
Senjumaru's knitting gradually slowed until her hands became still.
"The closer I came to the end of that war, the more obvious it became that I couldn't defeat him normally. I needed to enter that place, but the moment I did, everything inside would favor him."
He glanced at her briefly.
"So I improvised. I created something similar to a Domain of my own."
Senjumaru tilted her head slightly.
"Similar?"
"It wasn't exactly the same as a Domain Expansion, but the basic idea was close enough. Without it, I wouldn't have even been able to reach him."
The traffic finally moved.
Hiroyuki stepped on the accelerator, advanced several meters and, much to his disappointment, was immediately forced to stop again.
He sighed.
"Reaching him was only half the problem. The real challenge was existing in the same space without immediately being crushed by his power. To prevent that, I overlapped my space with his. The reaction neutralized enough of his control for us to fight on something resembling equal ground."
"Like a Domain Clash," Senjumaru murmured.
"Exactly."
Hiroyuki nodded, then rested his head against the seat.
"Though that wasn't the only space involved."
Senjumaru said nothing, but her attention remained fixed on him.
"The world we live in can technically be treated as a Domain of its own," he continued, lightly gesturing at everything outside the car. "Let's call it Earth's Domain."
For the first time since the explanation began, Senjumaru's expression visibly shifted.
"A three-way Domain Clash?"
"Bingo."
Although calling it a clash wasn't entirely accurate, it was the easiest way to explain what had happened. Hiroyuki's artificial space had overlapped with his enemy's territory while both continued existing inside the world that contained them.
Three different spaces, each operating according to different rules, had been forced together.
The result had been disastrous.
"From Earth's perspective, the overlap probably lasted only a few seconds," Hiroyuki explained. "Maybe three. I'm not completely sure."
Senjumaru's eyes narrowed slightly, but she remained silent.
"Inside was different. Space, time, reality... a lot of things stopped behaving properly once the three spaces began interfering with each other."
He paused.
"We fought there for decades."
The cloth resting on Senjumaru's lap went completely forgotten.
It was a small reaction. Most people probably wouldn't have noticed it at all, but Hiroyuki had known her for far too long to miss it.
"Only a few seconds passed in the outside world," he continued, "but the fight felt like it lasted for decades to us. Maybe it actually did. By that point, the difference hardly mattered."
He had fought, adapted, failed, recovered, and continued fighting for what felt like a lifetime. The experience had changed him in ways that even he probably didn't understand completely.
Sometimes, Hiroyuki wondered exactly how old he was supposed to consider himself.
He quickly pushed the thought aside. That was an existential crisis for another day.
"I tried to end it as quickly as possible. Trust me, if I could've made it shorter, I would've."
Senjumaru slowly lowered her gaze toward the cloth in her hands, but she didn't resume knitting.
Hiroyuki looked through the windshield at the countless vehicles, buildings and people surrounding them. It was such an ordinary sight that most would find it boring.
To him, however, there was something comforting about it.
The world outside was alive.
His previous one no longer was.
"When three spaces of that scale begin crushing against each other, you can probably imagine what happens to everything caught between them."
Senjumaru didn't answer.
She didn't need to.
The world had begun collapsing long before the final battle, and Hiroyuki hadn't been the one who started its destruction. By then, humanity was already standing at the edge of extinction. If he hadn't acted, everything would have ended anyway.
That didn't absolve him of his part in what followed.
The dying land.
The collapsing cities.
The end of everything that remained.
Hiroyuki had finished the battle, but the world hadn't survived the victory.
"I wasn't the only reason it happened," he said quietly. "But I can't exactly call myself innocent either."
For a moment, Senjumaru simply watched him.
She offered no empty reassurance. She didn't tell him it wasn't his fault or pretend to understand a world she had never seen.
Instead, she gave him the only answer that mattered.
"You finished what needed to be done."
Hiroyuki stared ahead before releasing a weak laugh.
"Yeah."
It wasn't forgiveness, nor was it supposed to be.
It was simply the truth.
He had finished the job.
Thankfully, before the conversation could become any heavier, the traffic finally began moving properly. Hiroyuki followed the vehicles ahead, and it wasn't long before a familiar set of traditional gates appeared in the distance.
The Gojo Estate.
Large, old and annoyingly expensive-looking.
"Looks like we're finally here."
As Hiroyuki guided the sedan toward the entrance, the gates slowly opened to welcome them.
Somewhere inside that unnecessarily large estate, a certain white-haired brat was probably already causing trouble.
Or worse, waiting for Hiroyuki to arrive so they could cause trouble together.
Knowing Satoru, it was probably both.