"Domain Expansion: Time Cell Moon Palace!"
The black shadows fell like a heavy shroud from the heavens, transforming the world into a boundless, silent cosmic void.
Flesh and bone manifested as a bridge suspended in the emptiness, leading toward a single, gargantuan eye that loomed over the horizon. Inside this space, cursed energy flowed like blood through veins; manipulating his technique became as effortless as drawing breath.
Naoya Zenin erupted into a manic laughter, his handsome face contorted into a mask of delirious ecstasy.
"Finally..."
"I've finally done it!"
"The ultimate mystery of the technique, the pinnacle of cursed energy—Domain Expansion! I have finally set foot upon the same heights as them!"
Vibrating with power, Naoya turned his predatory gaze toward Maki. "I told you. You are not Toji. You are not Souma Gojo. The only one meant to stand at the summit... IS ME!"
"As a reward for helping me reach this peak, I'll allow you a moment for your final words!"
Maki looked at the raving Naoya and let out a sharp, cold snort. Her silhouette vanished instantly.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Maki blurred across the boundaries of the Domain, her speed so immense that the human eye could no longer track her movement.
"Useless! It's all useless!" Naoya shrieked with laughter. "You truly are a failure who understands nothing of jujutsu! Within this world, my attacks are guaranteed to hit. I don't even need to touch you to apply my technique!"
"Relying on mere physical prowess? How arrogant!"
"Projection Sorcery!"
Bolstered by the Domain, the technique that once targeted the body now operated at the cellular level.
"From this moment on, every cell in your body must track my movements perfectly. If they fail to follow the twenty-four frames per second, they will freeze and shatter. You will be killed by your own biology!"
But in the next heartbeat, Naoya's triumphant grin froze.
"How... how is this possible?"
He realized with a jolt of pure terror that within this Domain—a space he supposedly mastered completely—he could not locate Maki's position. The "Sure-Hit" effect, the ultimate pride of a sorcerer, had become a hollow joke.
"Why can't I find you?!"
"Oh? Is it really that hard to figure out?"
Maki's voice whispered directly into his ear. Naoya spun around, but he struck only a fading afterimage.
"Sorcerers, cursed spirits, even normal humans... they all possess cursed energy," Maki's voice drifted through the void, cold and clinical. "But I am different. There isn't a single drop of it in me."
"A Domain recognizes targets based on cursed energy. To your 'sure-hit' effect, I am nothing more than a lifeless object—like a building or a rock. You can't lock onto what you can't sense."
Maki's silhouette reappeared, her eyes full of mockery. "This is basic jujutsu theory, taught to me by Souma Gojo-sensei at the High School. I suppose someone as pampered as you, living in the 'mighty' Zenin estate, felt such trifles were beneath him."
"Then again, the Zenin have always been too busy looking down their noses to actually see what's in front of them."
"You...!"
Naoya's eyes bulged with rage. He began lashing out blindly into the darkness, screaming as he struck at shadows. "DIE! DIE! JUST DIE!"
"How... pathetic."
The voice came from directly behind him. Before Naoya could turn, a sharp, white-hot agony blossomed in his chest.
The massive blade of True Steel Hou erupted through his sternum, a fountain of blood spraying into the air like a macabre flower.
CRASH!!!
The black shell of the Domain shattered like falling glass.
Naoya collapsed to his knees on the stone floor of the courtyard. Blood leaked from his nose and mouth, his body trembling as the warmth began to drain from his limbs.
Maki didn't look back at the dying man. She sheathed her blade and walked toward a quiet, unassuming room in the back of the estate.
Click—
Maki opened the door. In the kitchen, her mother was busy preparing a meal. To be cooking while her daughters' lives hung in the balance... one could call it stoic, or perhaps just cold-blooded.
"Mother."
The flat, hollow tone made the woman freeze. She turned slowly, her face pale and glistening with cold sweat as she looked at her daughter. That Maki had fought through the clan's elites to stand before her was a reality she hadn't prepared for.
Maki asked a single, quiet question. "Mother. Tell me. Back then... at the storehouse... why did you tell me to go back?"
At the entrance to the忌庫, her mother had been uncharacteristically frantic, begging her to leave. Maki wanted to know if it was a flicker of maternal love.
"What are you talking about?" her mother stammered, looking away.
The silence between them stretched, heavy and suffocating.
Hiss—
The rice cooker released a cloud of steam, the sharp sound puncturing the oppressive quiet.
"You told me to go back, but you didn't give me a reason," Maki said, her expression unchanging. "You knew everything, didn't you? You knew the plan and played deaf. You knew Mai was about to be murdered by that beast, and you stood by and told me to run so you wouldn't have to watch two of us die."
"As a mother, you could watch your children be slaughtered by their father and feel nothing."
Maki's gaze was devoid of emotion. "Even now, you won't tell me the truth?"
The woman looked at Maki with pure terror. She saw the resolve in her daughter's eyes and knew her own silence was inexcusable. She hadn't raised a hand against the twins, but she had spent their lives undermining them with her weakness, trying to drag them down into the same mire of submission she occupied.
She wasn't the executioner, but she was the ultimate accomplice.
Maki's mother closed her eyes, waiting for the blow.
But after a long moment, nothing happened. When she opened her eyes, Maki was gone. Perhaps it was a lingering shred of sentiment, or perhaps it was the knowledge that Mai was still alive, but Maki hadn't succumbed to total madness. She didn't kill her mother as she had in another timeline; she simply walked away, treating the woman as a complete stranger.
In the courtyard, a long, jagged streak of blood smeared the stone path.
A gore-soaked Naoya was crawling on his stomach, his eyes wide and fixed. "Maki... Maki... I'll kill you... I'll kill you!"
He still had a chance. He knew where Ogi had hidden the emergency supplies. Among them was a specialized Cursed Tool imbued with a one-time Reverse Cursed Technique. If he could just reach it, he could heal. He could win.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The sound of wooden sandals echoed on the stone.
Naoya struggled to lift his head. When he saw Maki's mother, a surge of frantic hope hit him. "Perfect! Someone's here!"
"You! Over here! Help me to the Salt Room!" he barked, his voice still carrying the arrogance of a master addressing a servant.
The woman walked forward expressionless and reached out her hand. Naoya moved to take it.
Schlick!
Naoya's pupils shrank. He stared up at the woman in total disbelief. She was holding a simple paring knife she had taken from the kitchen. The blade was buried deep in his throat.
"How... why..."
"I... I can't... die by the hand of... a lowly servant..."
Thud.
Naoya's head hit the stone. The light faded from his eyes, leaving him staring at nothing.
Maki's mother let out a small, sickly smile of satisfaction. Then, without hesitation, she turned the knife and drove it into her own neck.
She collapsed into the pool of blood, gazing up at the brilliant blue sky. As the world blurred, a memory resurfaced—one she thought she had lost. A field of flowers, a picnic, and the three of them—her, Maki, and Mai—all laughing.
"I'm glad..." she whispered, her voice a ghost of a sound. "That I gave birth to you."
The woman closed her eyes, a faint smile lingering as the Zenin estate fell into a final, deathly silence.
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