Ducking under the swing of a sword, I twist to the side right as a spear appears where my heart was a moment ago.
"Haha! Missed m- Eee! I'm sorry!"
I yelp as the spear turns sharply and almost takes my head. I twist again the other way at the following downswing before backstepping an inch ahead of the sword's return.
Tachibana-kun really stepped his game up once the initial surprise wore off, and he's been matching my speed more or less well enough. He's a bit slower, but not overmuch now that he's prepared for it.
But even with a stronger body, now that we're fighting in earnest, I'm actually starting to struggle a little bit. It's awesome~.
Seriously, this guy is so much more skilled than me it's not even funny. At least with swords and weapons and stuff, and he has a whole bunch ready to appear and disappear from his hands at will.
And unlike a Jedi Knight, this dude has no problem having his sword disappear and reappear behind my guard.
Plus! All his weapons have Techniques embedded in them, like the sword that causes temporary paralysis or the war fan. All while I don't even have my bunny, since its stuck at the top of the mountain spawning clones as I can't reach into my shadow with my Technique sealed away by Vow.
"Kyaa~!" I squeal as a new weapon appears in his hand, a whip that immediately snaps out and coils around me. "Hentai~!" Tachibana-kun's Cursed Energy flickers slightly at my squeal, which makes me grin. This guy's so easy to rile up~.
In almost the same movement that he captured me, Nagayasu dashes forward and brings both hands overhead as a giant war hammer appears between them. The second it is there, the back of the hammer erupts in flame, giving his downward swing a terrifying amount of speed and force.
With my arms bound by the suspiciously sturdy whip, I can hardly use my arms to defend myself, and what little movement that is available to me with my Technique sealed away wouldn't do much to help me from getting pancaked.
Luckily, I'm flexible.
My right leg snaps up in a near perfect split, timed just right to hit the side of the hammer's head with my ankle enough to knock it off course.
The hammer strikes the earth like a meteor, but where Nagayasu stumbles, I do not. I've put quite the bit of work into practicing my balance after all, even wearing these stupid geta.
So in that brief moment where Nagayasu is off-balance, I hop lightly into the air and twist into a rapid spin, throwing a harsh kick at his chest.
Clang~.
"Haha!" I laugh with good cheer as my foot is brought to an abrupt halt by the appearance of a tower shield, and the lack of pushback is hint enough that the shield fully absorbed the blow. Still, I try to push myself back for space, only to start falling down with gravity instead.
It takes my mind a second to understand, but my laughter is only renewed when I connect the dots.
His shield absorbs, at the very least kinetic energy. Meaning that any attempt to use it as a platform to push off of will result in a total force of a flat zero, thus meaning you could stand on it and try to jump but would never get air.
"That's hilarious~," I laugh as the shield disappears in place of Nagayasu once more ready to pierce me with a spear.
With my back nearly hitting the ground and my arms still bound by that whip, one could be forgiven for thinking I'm at a loss.
Which is likely why Nagayasu seems so surprised when one of my legs bends in front of me just in time to catch his spear through the calf.
The minor pain of being stabbed doesn't even really register anymore these days, so I take the wound in stride and yank the leg to the side as my back hits the ground. Both using the momentum to throw myself back to my feet and to yank the spear out of Nagayasu's hands.
Now, while being stabbed isn't too big of a deal anymore, ripping a spear out of someone's hands while it is stabbed into my leg is entirely different. That shit hurts as it twists and tears through my flesh.
"Owie~!!!" I cry as I throw myself back to my feet a short distance away. Nagayasu doesn't immediately pursue, so I take the moment to shatter the whip binding me and yank his spear out of my leg before twirling it with a flourish and planting it into the ground.
I open my mouth to speak some more, but pause as I get an odd sensation. Following the feeling to its source, I see my leg—already sans of horrific stab wound—starting to go through necrosis.
"Ew." I glare at the evidently poisoned flesh with disgust and stick out my tongue in protest. Luckily, the poison isn't too extreme, so it's no real challenge to clear it away with Reverse Cursed Technique. "Eyyuck."
However, I barely manage to even get started on that before Nagayasu is yelling at me again.
"Do you ever! Shut! Up!!" He seems really rather upset.
So naturally I pout at him. But still, I figure there's no harm in being nice and actually giving him a proper answer.
"I don't know if I should~. It feels like every word I say just pisses you off, you know~? And that anger—" Without warning I abruptly dash forward mid-sentence, causing him to take a half step back in surprise, though he doesn't hesitate to throw an angry swing of his sword at me.
However, unlike when he was really focusing, this move is reckless and throws him off balance, if only slightly. But that slight difference is enough for me to slip past the sword, gently holding his wrist aside with an open palm as I come to a stop with my face only inches from Nagayasu's.
His expression is rather different to my grin.
"—Leaves you open~."
The moment passes and I'm forced to leap away as he swings at me again, landing next to where I panted his spear.
"It's mental warfare~. You seem pretty great at combat, but I get the feel that your experience doesn't really extend beyond controlled bouts and fights with other nobles, right?" I pause, bringing a finger to my lower lip as a thought strikes, one that I freely voice aloud. "Well, I guess that's the difference between you Onmyōji and us Jujutsu Sorcerers."
Turning back to Nagayasu, I grab the spear next to me and give it another twirl, mostly for fun, before sending him a wide grin.
"Curses don't fight to win. Curses fight to break you. In other words..." My grin only grows, knowing that it will just make the following words piss him off even more. "It's your mental strength that's weak~."
Nagayasu stares at me, meeting my grin with a blank face of cold anger. But his aura betrays him. Under that cold façade, his Cursed Energy is a raging whirlpool of violent emotions. I can practically taste the salty spray of the sea as his wrath fluctuates around him in unrelenting waves. Building and building.
For a second, it looks like he is actually going to rein in that storm of emotions. To tame it. A pair of swords appear in his hands and he slowly starts falling into a proper stance.
Which is naturally when I decide to fan that flame. It'll be good for him long term to get an experience like this in a controlled environment. Else he'll eventually meet a strong enough Curse and simply die a painful death.
Though, I'd probably have done it anyway.
"But you know," I begin, sounding thoughtful. Quiet, as if simply speaking mild thoughts aloud, even as I continue to eye him in my periphery. "That kind of tactic doesn't really work so well when the opponent knows about it, so I really should try to find something else to say that would throw you off your game..."
I allow myself to hum thoughtfully for as long as I think I can get away with before his impatience will overcome his curiosity. Only then do I snap my fingers as if I just had a revelation. The performative nature of all this is a part of the strategy. This guy really doesn't feel like he has any experience with people who play dirty at all.
Wait, are we the baddies?? Hmm. I'll ask Kamo about this lat—actually scratch that. I'll ask Tengen. Kamo can't be trusted about this sort of thing. I already know he's a baddie.
Regardless, I don't let my thoughts delay me.
"Ah! I know! Would you like to know a secret~?" I lean forward slightly, speaking in a low tone with a teasing smile. Naturally, I don't actually wait for an answer. "I'm actually suuuper unskilled at fighting~. Physically I mean. If it's Sorcery, then I'm naturally the best~. But with weapons and fists? Well, I'm not bad obviously, but it's kind of hard to learn all of the lessons when almost everyone is so slow and their strikes are all so light. Even when they break my bones, it's oftentimes just because they're too weak for me to stop them. Heh, that's pretty ironic, huh?"
Well, that isn't always the case, but it's true enough in most cases. Nagiko could tear straight though me though, her Technique is cool like that.
Still, my words don't really anger Nagayasu too much. Just annoy him a little at the implied belittling.
Which is where the next part comes in. The bit that will really tickle that pride of his.
"So really, I should thank you," I say, and though his expression doesn't change, I can see the confusion. Twirling his spear around again, I slide a foot back and send him a happy smile. "You are not really strong enough to push me into improving myself, but you are certainly skilled enough for me to learn something through other means~."
Saying so, I bring his spear up in an exact mirror of his own previous stance, and I can see the very second he recognises it.
That's right, Nagayasu-kun~. I'm going to devour your skill to substitute my own lack of it~. Doesn't that just piss you off? Having your life's work, effort that you have clearly put years and years of hard training into perfecting. Doesn't it just piss you off to see me stealing that hard work right in front of your very eyes~?
As it happens this does, in fact, piss him off.
Nagayasu's Cursed Energy surges, spreading far and wide like churning rapids, and I only recognise what he's doing right when his swords disappear and his hands come together.
The palms are held flat against one another, fingers pointed opposite directions, and as he speaks, his hands twist half circle without separating, until the fingers are pointed in the opposite directions.
"Domain Expansion: Recursive Recall."
I can't help but laugh as the Domain snaps into place. Not because of the Domain specifically, but because of my response to it.
With my Technique sealed away, it's not like I can counter-Domain. So Hollow Wicker Basket is the natural choice. However, I wanted to try out the Simple Domain that Ashiya invented.
But!Simple Domain anchors itself to your shadow as vector of expression. Normally no big deal. However, my Technique is currently sealed away, and while I can still make use of Simple Domain, I wound up stuttering at the unexpected feedback, or lack of feedback from my shadow.
The result being that Nagayasu's Domain hits me before I can course correct a defence.
However, I am glad that it did.
My jaw hangs open as my eyes take in the sight of an empty hospital. Like a modern one. From my previous life.
Fucking.. what?
"What is this place?"
Turning around at the voice, I find Nagayasu looking at me strangely from the other side of a large observation window.
"You tell me, it is your Domain." As I answer, I turn away from him because it seems like he's too busy processing to attack right now, and look out of the window.
The sight that greets me is bizarre to say the least. The world outside looks like a forest shrine and a metropolitan city had been crudely stitched together. There are trees and torii gates growing out of and through skyscrapers all while streetlamps and billboards grow from trees like branches.
Seriously, what the fuck am I looking at right now?
"My Domain," Nagayasu begins, drawing my eyes back to him, "Allows me to freely move anything it touches through time. Additionally, the landscape of my Domain changes itself to match with the target's history, defaulting at the moment of their birth. But I have never seen such odd architecture. Tell me, what are you?"
Damn, that's crazy. Though, defaulting to give away the field advantage must be a condition on the Domain to allow it to be as powerful as it is.
Still, I don't really want this guy seeing my entire history, even if it's evidently without any of the people. Even more importantly, what in Yomi will happen if his Domain tries to replicate the landscape from that point in time between my first and second life? That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.
So as much as I find this all interesting, I do what I must and a Simple Domain springs into place beneath my feet. The world around us doesn't change, but I can feel that the Domain is no longer connected to me, so I'm not too bothered by that.
Nagayasu clearly wasn't expecting that though as he recoils in surprise. It makes sense, since the Simple Domain Technique was literally invented on the flight over.
Most likely, he would have used his Technique to turn me into a baby or something the second he saw my hands moving to make the Hollow Wicker Basket sign. Unfortunately for him, Simple Domain doesn't need physical expression.
Nagayasu doesn't bother asking anything—though I would have happily answered. He simply narrows his eyes into a glare and resummons a pair of swords.
Grinning, I once again make the first move, because these Onmyōji are way too passive.
Dashing forward, I thrust the spear at him as if the wall between us doesn't exist, and he parries the spear with his new sword. I quickly learn what Technique is embedded in the new sword as electricity surges down the spear and into my body.
The moment of immobility caused by my muscles all locking up is enough for Nagayasu to cut me with the paralysis sword, though I at least manage to twist enough that he only hits an arm instead of my heart.
Dropping the sparking spear, I grab his wrist before he can pull away and with a twist I hurl him into the wall behind me.
Like a cannonball, Nagayasu smashes through the wall and out into the open air, and I am right behind him, marvelling at the sight of a familiar city sprawled out in every direction. Familiar even through what I can only assume is the landscape surrounding my first birth merging with my second.
Distracted as I am admiring the sights, I react far too late to Nagayasu turning around to attack. My arms snap up in time to defend, but that is all as that same warhammer from earlier slams into me. This time, I am the cannonball as I am launched through several walls and floors before coming to a stop by slamming into a skyscraper.
Looking at the path of destruction left in my wake, I can't help but feel excited at the thought of being able to cause wonton destruction without consequence. It's like playing a zombie game. The same kind of appeal of gratuitous destruction.
However, I do not get the time to indulge in that thought before Nagayasu appears in front of me.
Not out of speed. Fast as he is, I would have noticed him coming. There was no movement here. Simply one moment I am lying in a crater on the side of a skyscraper alone, and the next, he is there.
Considering he only appeared at the edge of my Simple Domain, I can more or less guess what's happening.
That, however, does not help me avoid receiving another hammer blow to the chest. One that sends me hurtling straight through every floor until I hit ground.
Ow.
Without bothering to check where my foe is, I gather a bunch of Cursed Energy into a ball and simply turn myself into a grenade.
As I thought he would, Nagayasu appears in front of me again a moment later, only to notice what I am doing and disappear again.
He's moving himself back and forth through time. That's so cool~. Shame he can't seem to have multiple instances of himself from different times all attack me at once. That'd be even cooler~.
As I am thinking to myself, my Cursed Energy rapidly expands, engulfing the entire bottom floor of this skyscraper and shattering everything.
Laughing, I push myself back to my feet and quickly book it in a run. I don't feel like having a skyscraper fall on top of me right now.
A thunderous boom echoes behind me as I run, and I spare a look backwards to watch with what can only be described as childlike glee as the towering monolith crumbles and falls into another. It doesn't fall straight down into itself funnily enough. More like Jenga.
"It's like a Michael Bay movie~," I whisper with joy before abruptly ducking on instinct just in time for a blade to pass where my neck just was. Impatient~.
Unfortunately, my counter strike hits nothing as Nagayasu disappears again, which sucks.
Just looking at the facts here, I don't really think I can reasonably expect to beat Nagayasu whilst inside of his Domain, which really sucks. It means that I'll have to break it, even though I really want to fight inside of a city with all of the gratuitous destruction that doing so would cause.
Ah well.
Instinct flares again and I turn to see Nagayasu standing behind me with his palm held out in my direction. I only get a brief moment to understand this much before my world becomes one of unmatched pain.
My sight disappears into total darkness and all senses fade away under an all consuming, overwhelming agony. As if every molecule in my body is being torn apart all at the same time. It might have only lasted for a second, but it felt like hours until my sight returns and the pain begins to fade under the warmth of Positive Energy.
Owwww.
With Reverse Cursed Technique working mostly on instinct alone, I quickly take in the sight of shattered stone around me to realise what just happened.
He really just summoned his fortress and superimposed the wall over me? That's such bullshit, no wonder it felt like every inch of me was being torn apart, that's exactly what was happening. Good thing my body is so tough~.
"Man, that's so fucked up~." I guess fighting people in their Domains really is as hard as I should really have expected it to be. Damn. And he keeps disappearing too so I can't even complain at him~!
So rude.
Whatever.
Hopping onto a portion of the summoned fortress that isn't destroyed, I split my focus in two directions. One part I use to expand my Simple Domain so that he can't just keep appearing right next to me. A lot of his advantage will be nullified if I can actually have even just one second to react to his presence.
The other part of my focus I use to pull my Cursed Energy tight into a ball of destructive potential, and without an ounce of hesitation, I launch it at the nearest collection of skyscrapers.
A probably rather unhinged giggle leaves my throat at the sight of destruction that follows. It's seriously like a movie. So cool~!
There was no strategic reason for that attack. I just wanted to do it.
I do wish I had more time to admire it though, but alas, I shouldn't be too blasé. Probably. Well mostly I just want to see everyone else's Techniques too.
Plus, Nagayasu just doesn't have enough destructive power to make an urban fight that interesting. It'd be great with Sukuna, I bet he'd be able to cut a Skyscraper in half and throw it at me or something absurd like that.
Shrugging the thought away, I bring my hands together.
"Domain Expansion."
Nothing happens.
Right.
"Hehe~. Forgot about that~."
Can't really use a Domain without a Technique to draw from, and all I have right now are some bunnies. Bunnies who are outside of the Domain.
Well damn.
Sighing, I resign myself to having to fight Nagayasu inside of his Domain until I can bring one of my bunnies down to break the barrier from the outside.
What a pain~. I want to fight more than just you, selfish Tachibana-kun~. You alone aren't enough to push me.
As Nagayasu appears before me again, I amend to myself that at the very least, I'm learning a lot about how swing a sword. So there's that, I guess.
The problem with that however, is that this fight is getting less fun the longer it goes on. It's not like he's not adapting to me, it's just that I'm adapting faster.
At least smashing a city is fun.
///
Uma no Naishi
///
With a dozen Cursed Tools floating around her, Uma is a whirlwind of death, though she derives no joy from it. If anything, she only feels annoyed that she is having to put up such an effort for rabbits of all things.
Not that it is an effort of course, but she only has so many Cursed Tools and there are simply too many Shikigami for her to get them all.
The thought of failing to stem the entire tide of Shikigami is shameful enough she almost wants to drive one of her blades through her own heart in order to cleanse the offence.
Her train of thought is disturbed when the air in front of her abruptly pulls up. As if the sky were merely a curtain draped before her, the very world itself bends upward. Without an endless number of rabbits attacking her, Uma spares a moment to look up and around and can admit to herself some admiration as she watches the sky fold upwards all around the mountain peak like an invisible bowl rapidly filling with small white Shikigami.
Turning to the nearby presence, Uma looks up at the floating form of Uro Takako, pink hair billowing in the wind as the girl meets her eyes.
"I can deal with this. That idiot of a Fujiwara needs help."
Uma nods and turns around, all of her tools collecting together in a tight formation behind her back.
As she moves back down the mountain, she makes sure to kill any rabbits she comes across. Uro might be able to prevent any more from coming, but she can't do much about all the rabbits that already made it through, and there are plenty of them.
Soon enough though, she manages to find Fujiwara no Yorinaga and for a moment she can't help but just stand there, frozen in disgust as she watches a number of rabbits beat the crap out of him.
This is Grade One? She thinks to herself with a grimace. This is considered an equal to me? What a joke.
Waving a hand forward, a bow floats from her back and draws back. An arrow of Cursed Energy forms on the string once fully drawn, one that she doesn't hesitate to loose.
That rabbits all noticed her approach and a number of them split off to attack her, but it hardly matters because unlike Yorinaga, she earned her ranking.
The arrow looses and immediately splits into dozens of smaller bolts, each of which tracks to a different rabbit and kills them. In just a single move, every Shikigami in the immediate area dies.
Panting, Yorinaga turns her way while wiping some sweat from his forehead. "Thanks. I—"
"Shut up," Uma interrupts, and his jaw snaps shut. "The only thing of worth about you is the utility of using your Technique against stronger foes. You disgust me. Follow without a word, and try not to get lost."
Her words were perhaps more hash than they should have been, but she's just spent however long having to deal with an endless wave of rabbits. She's already annoyed without having to be confronted with the unfortunate reality that she shares the same Grade as this trash.
She doesn't care to apologise though.
A brisk jog brings her to another clearing full of combat, and she takes a moment to admire Ki no Tokibumi as he skilfully tears every Shikigami that gets close to pieces. His staff grows and shrinks so fast and frequently as to be an entirely unpredictable blur of constant movement, but everywhere it passes, trails of fading ink follow.
"Uma-san!" Ki greets, only sparing her a brief glance as he continues to fight, though to a lesser degree now that her Tools are helping. There are a lot more rabbits here than Yorinaga was losing to. "Tachibana-dono pulled him into his Domain," Ki nods to the side, and she follows the gesture to see the Domain in question, a small ball hovering in the air. "Took the flag with him though, so I do not know if we should wait or break it now. Thoughts?"
Uma considers their options for a moment.
If Tachibana used his Domain, then she can only assume that Seimei's warnings held enough truth to them and that Tachibana cannot win by himself. But with that being said, she knows how Tachibana's Domain works, so it's possible that he will be able to pull out a win from inside of it.
Then again, Narauko should in all likelihood be capable of using his own Domain, so if he is the stronger party, then she can only assume that he is choosing not to break free from Tachibana's Domain for whatever reason. She doesn't know why, perhaps to keep them from taking the flag, but letting your opponent do as they please is rarely a good idea.
But again, Tachibana is hardly weak. And even if he can't win, fighting someone inside of their Domain will at least tire Narauko out some. So it's probably a better idea to leave things to Tachibana for now.
Decision made, Uma speaks clearly. "Uro-san is holding back any more rabbits from coming. We should use this time to clear out the critters that have already slipped the net. Seimei would not have said what he did if this commoner was not a real threat, so we can use the time to set up the battlefield to be advantageous before breaking the Domain."
Ki nods his head, sparing a glance at Yorinaga as he does.
"Sounds like a—"
Ki cuts himself off as he observes something strange, and they both watch as the last batch of destroyed Shikigami do not fade into the ether like every other rabbit. Instead, the inky Cursed Energy that makes up their form twists and flies through the air to rapidly gather into a ball underneath Tachibana's closed Domain.
At the same time, a small patch of grass below shudders before a tiny, dirty white form bursts through.
Neither of them are close or fast enough to do anything but watch as the burrowing rabbit opens its mouth wide and bites into the ball of Cursed Energy in front of it, causing the inky substance to twist and shift into pure Cursed Energy before exploding upwards in a very small beam of tiny destruction.
Straight into Tachibana's Domain, which immediately pops like a soap bubble.
Laughter fills the air almost immediately, and Uma looks forward in shock to see Tachibana and Narauko standing there. The former with wide eyes full of surprise and the latter with a sword through his gut but a wild smile on his face and a hand on Tachibana's forearm.
"Gotcha~." Narauko's voice fills the sudden silence for only a second before he violently yanks Tachibana forward while driving a knee into his gut hard enough to shatter organs.
Tachibana hovers in the air for a brief moment from the force of the blow as Narauko lets go of his arm and becomes a blur of movement, rapidly spinning to deliver a harsh kick to Tachibana's side that sends him hurtling through the forest and out of sight with a resounding bang!
Turning back to the rest of them, Narauko grins widely. "Yo~! Are you prepared to lose confidence~?"