Isamu stumbled as he caught his breath. The rain around him seemed lighter now that its master had fallen, the pounding feeling on his shoulders waned, and the constant visual clutter subsided. His sword hummed with power as it was once more visible to the human eye. The white glow slowly faded as Isamu weakened his grip on the web of techniques surrounding the sword.
His face gained a confused expression as he questioned what had happened. For a moment, it felt like he wasn't holding anything. The sensation of cutting was also absent as he'd sliced the old man in two. Turning to examine the newly made corpse, for he knew nothing could've survived that attack, he found a split in two swordsman and sword.
But the body and blade didn't seem quite right. It looked like neither had been cut, but it stopped existing in a particular area. Isamu was sure that the repaired blade would be a few inches shorter if he tried to put the sword back together. Combined with the lack of sound, these clues led Isamu to figure out what exactly happened.
The ability of simple domain and domain amplification, combined with and amplified by the ingrained ability of Saraswati to command the world, was taken to a level at which it could negate the very world the blade existed in. Nullifying space itself, it cleaved through the blade and swordsman, as if the same concept of durability and power were nonexistent to its sharpened edge.
It shouldn't have been possible, but Isamu supposed the most practiced and powerful jujutsu sorcerers could bend the bounds of what was likely to their will. Isamu sheathed Saraswati as he walked toward the body of the older man. The rain had nearly stopped entirely at this point, leaving its smell in Isamu's nose and many droplets in his hair.
The sun showed on both men as Isamu raised two hands prayerfully and bowed deeply to his teacher. He thanked him mentally for the grand lesson. Standing straight once more, Isamu gazed over the body for a final time, pondering the man's fighting style for a moment more before turning and leaving him to the elements.
——
Daichi Fujiwara grabbed the handlebars of a nearby motorcycle before tossing it towards a large hauling truck across the street from him. A shadow dashed out from the car before the motorcycle tore through the back of the truck like a speeding bullet. The shadow ducked behind a car parked right behind the truck, only for the passenger side to be caved in by a large jade hammer.
The light red Toyota slammed backwards, trapping the punny sorcerer between the newly made scrap metal and the stone brick of the small convenience store. Daichi didn't waste any time before his left fist smashed into the sorcerer's skull, shattering the dense bone into dozens of fragments before the final member of the tiny band of sorcerers could get a chance to beg.
Daichi stepped away from the vehicle and body, examining the four other sorcerers decorating the street. Well, three of them were, one was impaled on a nearby flagpole. He huffed with dissatisfaction, his hunger for a decent battle far from sated. While the technology and women of this new era were impressive, the caliber of the fighters was far from better.
The only new-aged sorcerer that'd given the Fujiwara pause was, of course, the one with the sky eyes, Kenjaku, whom he had talked about. With him sealed for good, the Jade General started to grow restless and considered whether Kenjaku himself would make for the best challenge.
Alas, Akira had yet to take Kenjaku off the allowlist. But maybe that white haired girl? He wouldn't mind getting a taste of her after-
Daichi could not finish his sentence before he heard a clapping sound. He noticed the slightest movement of cursed energy behind him, prompting him to turn only to meet the sharp end of a katana. The ladder, a few inches, slammed into the gap in his armor, allowing for a better head moment above his throat. He could not move his hand in time before the middle-aged sorcerer cut the fabric, but could not cut skin.
Daichi swung his left fist, but his knuckles met only glass and stone as he heard another clap. This time, the sound was followed by a nauseating feeling as he was briefly thrown off his balance and his equilibrium was thrown into a whack. Daichi wasn't able to realize what happened before a powerful force slammed into the side of his neck. This time, the attack was blunt and only served to annoy the tissue there.
He spun and swung his warhammer wildly behind him, hitting only air as another clap was heard. Two more claps made themselves known as that disorienting feeling came about once more. This time, Daichi attacked without hesitation, swinging his warhammer to his right in hopes of hitting his attacker or at the very least stopping them from attacking.
It didn't work as something impacted his chest, a punch from a shirtless bodybuilder, it seemed, and a moment later, a wave of force crashed through his armor. The jade was cracked in minor ways from what he could tell based on his technique's senses. Daichi's armor repaired itself the next instant before his cursed energy spiked and his jade armor began to move. But before it could turn into spiked rock and shoot out in an omnidirectional blast of buckshot, the cursed words of the Inumaki clan rang out. Hiding under these words was a clap.
A flash of blue lit up Daichi's vision as a massive hand appeared. At the same time, he seized up, and the movement of his armor, too, came to a brief, involuntary halt. Two attacks impacted him at once, one resembling the blunt force from earlier and the other coming from the palm strike to the front of his head, sandwiching his skull between the two attacks. His helmet cracked as the palm's destructive cursed energy waves crashed through his armor like vibrations to a wine class.
The general felt a headache coming on as the continued disorientation began to become quite annoying. Another clap was heard by the Jade general as that sense of nausea made itself known once more. Cursed energy gathered around his ears as his knowledge of cursed speech kicked in subconsciously. As the command wore off, his armor continued its journey, and dozens of large baseball bat-sized spikes blasted in every direction. However, with a series of claps, he knew none of them had landed.
Daichi was not so daft as to be unaware of who he was now facing. The clapping sounds and the apparent swapping of two cursed energy-infused objects or individuals reminded him of a curse technique he saw in Shibuya that night. And taking into account the force of the attacks he was being subjected to, the general assumed the other grade one sorcerer present that night would now join in the assault against him.
Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, for the battle-loving general, he did not think the son of the deranged monk was present. The refinement of the command he had been subjected to was far from potent enough to be produced by that prodigy. Instead, who his attacker might be was a mystery to him, as was the owner of the large palm he'd seen only a moment before.
The general's wide-area attack was not wholly inefficient, as it had stopped, however briefly, the constant chain of attacks he was under. With this pause in the action, he got to observe his new challengers, gain a bearing for his surroundings, and stabilize his equilibrium. He opened his mouth to speak as he slowly morphed his armor.
"In the old days, such a cowardly maneuver would see you executed. But I suppose, as an intruder into this era, I should not hold you to my standards. Either way, I cannot blame you for using the element of surprise to your fullest advantage, but now that you have lost that factor, it would be best for you to surrender and hope for a painless death, for you have floundered and wasted your only opportunity." The general said in a half-humorous, half-menacing tone. The small microscopic cracks along his armor and helm mended as quickly as any internal damage he sustained from the many blunt blows faded.
Todo stood a few dozen feet from the general on the other side of the street, his arms crossed, and his face split by a smile. He was shirtless with a small necklace ending in a rectangular-shaped pendant. From the waist down, he wore baggy black pants on his left as a businessman in a suit with dress pants and a light blue dress shirt to boot. He was missing a matching white jacket, which was no doubt discarded before the fight. In his right hand was a poke-a-dotted wrapped Cleaver, and in his left was a yellow and black tie wrapped around his knuckles. His cursed energy seemed more excited than he would expect from a man as calm and outwardly collected as this one.
The third general squinted his eyes to catch a third and fourth figure hiding in the shade of an overpass nearby. He would've preferred such a fight to occur earlier in the day, but he supposed beggars could not be choosers, nor did he believe such a minor disadvantage to himself would result in defeat. One of the two figures he saw in the darkness was tall and wore a long, heavy coat. He suspected this man to be his first attacker, the one wielding the katana.
The other was considerably shorter and thinner, leading him to believe it was the curse speech user from the cover over his mouth. He did not seem as physically imposing as he would suspect the large attacker from earlier to be. The unknown location of this fifth attacker raised some apprehension in Daichi, but he ultimately discarded the feeling.
"Nowadays, sorcerers are little more than Ronan doing anything to win, so I don't believe I owe you an apology. Especially after the stunt you pulled with Isamu!" The topknot gorilla shouted, clearly angry. The General chuckled, unsure what to make of the man, but ultimately decided he liked his fighting spirit.
"That bravado of yours! Let's see if you match up to the Warriors of my day." The general shouted with equal intensity. He raised his warhammer and slammed it directly before him with all his might. The asphalt shattered and kicked into the air, and a huge piece made itself known directly in front of Daichi, which he shoved with his off hand towards the sorcerer. Clapping was heard, but the General had already raised his arm.
He easily caught the mass of stone before throwing it in the other direction and slamming his hammer towards the sorcerer with the glasses. The sorcerer raised his wrapped cleaver and reinforced the block with his other hand. His knees and elbows buckled and bent under the force, but his parry held.
The bare-chested man clapped again and replaced the suited sorcerer for a… panda?! Or was it a gorilla? The cleaver formerly blocking Daichi's blow was replaced with a large hand that grabbed the jagged, heavy brick of a hammer head. The panda pulled it aside before striking Daichi in the chest with his other hand. The same vibrations he'd felt earlier shrieked through his armor. He ignored blocking the blow in favor of smashing the panda in the face with his left hand. The jagged jade covering his knuckles drew small blood, but the panda gorilla was surprisingly durable.
Daichi reached back his hammer, its jagged edges ripping into the cursed corpse's palm as it was forced to let go. Daichi brought the hammer around to block a blow from his right flank. At the same time, he blocked the katana, clashed with the half of his weapon of war, Daichi's left hand smashed into the panda's face in a horizontal hammer fist.
The gorilla staggered, planting a hand in the ground to steady itself as the General turned his attention more toward the swordsman. The panda grabbed one of the larger asphalt blocks formed by the jade giants' earlier blow before tossing it at the man. It sailed into the man's back, but he didn't seem to notice the projectile as it crumbled on impact.
Todo clapped from afar, using the cursed energy panda had infused into the rock to swap himself and Nanami into the fray. Nanami attacked immediately, only to be blocked by the General's forearm, and with both arms occupied by a grade 1 sorcerer, Todo and Panda leaped at the opportunity. Todo slipped through the cracks in the General's defenses to land a straight punch on Daichi's abdomen. He used the skill he'd picked up from Panda's gorilla mode and sent vibrating, destructive waves of cursed energy through the General, or at least through his armor.
The giant threw a straight kick as he managed to grab Nanami's cleaver. At the same time, he pushed back on Kusakabe's constant assault with his warhammer. Finally, his armor morphed and launched a spike the size of a sword towards Panda's rear attack. Abandoning his offensive, Todo clapped, swapped Panda and Nanami first before instantly swapping Panda and himself.
Nanami deflected the spike away as Panda grabbed the General's leg. Panda pivoted and tossed the General over his shoulder with all his might. Crashing into the convenience store he previously used as something to crack skulls with, glass shattered and metal bent.
"Crush."
Daichi's cursed energy flared to ward off the cursed command, but his eyes widened when he wasn't what was commanded. Instead, the entire building and everything else around the Jade General came flying towards him—uncooked noodles, frying pans, small shelves, kitchen appliances, cash registers, and rebar.
The mighty General roared in glee as he realized the cursed speech user wasn't entirely useless. The flexing of his arms, combined with the force crushing everything into his body, weakening over time, resulted in the rubble falling from his body and Daichi climbing from the destroyed shop. A cleaver streaked across his vision when his eyes spotted sunlight as his head snapped back.
With his feet still buried in the rubble, Daichi wasn't able to pivot as a blow landed on the small of his back. His armor vibrated as he overheard a chant from his right.
"New Shadow Style: Morning Sun Sword Drawing!" The middle-aged swordsman from earlier drew his blade and unleashed six slashes in a little under a second. Daichi's right arm met the assault, his gauntlet being cut to pieces, but his flesh was left unscathed. Jade sprang from the rest of the armor covering his arm to quickly cover the exposed flesh before the swordsman could deal irreparable damage.
Before Daichi could counterattack with the opposite hand, a weight appeared on it, delaying his attack for just long enough that the swordsman got away without trouble. Looking to his left as he finally dug himself out of the rubble, the General found the white-haired boy reeling in a chain; at its end was a sickle. Daichi smiled at the opportunity to get the pesky cursed speech user out of the fight.
He began to move but stopped at the sound of a clap. He put his guard up, ready for any attack, but none came. Daichi lowered his guard a tiny bit, realizing he hadn't been swapped for anything. It was that slight relaxation that Todo took full advantage of. Panda burst out of the rubble with gusto and slammed his palm into the back of the General's armor. Unblockable drumming beat did its thing, weakening the armor as the others closed in.
Daichi's eyes shot around until he found the shirtless man closing in from his left. He kept an eye on his hands, ready for a switch as he defended against the other four. His eyes widened as a disorienting feeling washed through him, and a flash of blue cursed energy blinding him for a second.
A heavy blow fell just below his shoulder, and he found it came from the fancily dressed man once he'd regained a semblance of his footing and bearings. Daichi's already weakened armor cracked along his shoulder before a blast of pencil-sized shards of jade exploded from his side, forcing the sorcerer back with only a few scraps to show for it.
"Quite the bravado, right?! It's my extension technique: Wait For It! Upon clapping my hands, I pick two targets and a number from one through ten. After that number of seconds, the two targets are swapped without clapping. Mess with your head, huh?" Todo shouted from nearby, a shit eating smile on his face.
In the next moment, Inumaki shouted a command, and every stone, pebble, piece of wood, or tin can was tossed into the air and, more importantly, filled with cursed energy. Todo didn't give the general time to think before clapping his hands. The longest, most confusing three minutes and thirty-eight seconds of Daichi's life began with that.
A wave of nausea would crash over Daichi, which was immediately followed by several blows striking his body at once. The vibrations of cursed energy disturbed his armor and insides. In the next moment, another clap was heard, and it was impossible to tell how long it would be before the next swap, if he would be swapped, if so with what, or if two of them would be. He could not read any of their movements, and what made it worse was the complete and utter trust everyone held in the teleporting gorilla.
They moved and attacked with no hesitation. They placed their lives in the man's hands every time he clapped, and it never cost them. There was no telling what direction they would come from, nor who was attacking. Each of them attacked so differently that the General never knew what to prepare himself for, resulting in him wasting energy blocking too much or not blocking enough, and taking unnecessary damage. After all these blows, a dull ache personified through Daichi's entire body.
But after three and a half minutes, the General had had enough. The headache-inducing technique tarnished his thirst for a good time. It wasn't fun anymore. If he ended up dying, fine. But at least make it a good death, not one where he had no idea what was going on or who landed the final blow!
"Domain Expansion: Emerald Barracks!" The general was able to string together the hand signs and chants necessary amidst the constant beating and, for the first time in a while, had a good feeling of his surroundings.
Everyone's eyes widened as hundreds of soldiers made entirely out of jade, each armed with a spear, inhabited large barracks that appeared before them all. They knew someone had to respond. Someone had to do something, to step up and save them all.
At the same time, words echoed through Nanami's head. Words of how being strong enough to defend others held priority over nurturing others and teaching them how to protect themselves. While it may not be entirely accurate, he saw the reason in the sentiment. And he agreed that, as the adult whose job was to defend his juniors, why should they bear the burden?
While these thoughts were racing through Nanami's mind, the jade soldiers raised their spears and tossed them like javelins. Kusakabe and Todo summoned a simple domain, which Kusakabe was large enough to cover most of Panda's gorilla mode. All that was left was Toge.
Nanami knew there was no way to save Toge, as there was no escaping a sure-hit effect—the spear bit into Toge, striking every cubic foot of his body with a javelin.
"Domain Expansion: Golden Ratio!" Nanami's body moved and spoke as his cursed energy swelled. The next volley of spears ment for him ceased, as did the one ment for Inumaki. The spears had hit, of that there was no doubt. But their momentum had been arrested by the explanation of Nanami's domain. The wounds were far from minor, but they weren't immediately life-threatening.
Nanami rushed towards the General. And a moment later, after the other first-grade sorcerers overcame their shock, they joined him. Todo clapped, swapping places with one of the jade warriors close to the General, only to be met with a flying backhand to the face. He had no recourse and was forced to take it on the chin as he flew a dozen feet back. Nanami wondered how he'd been able to read the technique, but quickly dismissed the question as irrelevant. Perhaps his jade soldiers being the target for boogie woogie gave some insight, but it didn't matter how he did it, just that he could.
Daichi turned to block a blow from Nanami and parry the tip of Kusakabe's thrusting sword away with his hand. A dozen jade soldiers jumped the New Shadow Style master and drove a wedge between the two sorcerers as Daichi turned his attention toward Nanami.
"A domain? I can't say I would've expected it from you. Desperate times and all that, I guess." The General said before swaying to the right to dodge a punch from Todo, who followed it up with a spin kick. The General caught it with his palm, only for Todo to drop to the ground and wrap his other leg around the appendage. Nanami came in, unleashing another barrage of chops and slashes upon the jade armor. But it was clear to Nanami that he didn't have the offensive capabilities to harm the General. It didn't help that he needed to maintain a significant amount of energy and focus to keep his domain stable.
The General decided to stop bothering with detangling Todo from his arm and just picked the man up and used his body to batter Nanami away. Todo let go and tumbled to a stop alongside Nanami, who'd rolled out of the way. Jade soldiers closed in from all sides as it was clear who had the advantage in this clash. Due to the lack of scenery change, Nanami's domain helped so little. It stopped them from instantly dying, and that was about it.
Something needed to change, and it turned out that something wasn't far around the corner. It was only a given that if Nanami could give it a go, his more talented juniors could excel.
"Domain Expansion: Takada's World Tour!" The third barrier wasn't present for more than a minute before the pressure of the three innate domains was too much, and all three shattered.
"You're the epitome of an old timer, Nanami! Clearing the way for the next generation and inspiring them! Thank you, teacher!" Todo roared in thanks before running forward. Nanami didn't waste any time either. As he ran, Panda appeared from under the rubble of the destroyed building for the second time in the next moment, a smile on his face despite his arm looking like a pincushion for jade spears.
He now resembled more of a woman with the head of a triceratops mixed with a bug. Each of its three horns slammed into the general's armor, sending massive blasts of cursed energy through the armor. With no more cursed technique to hold or repair the jade together, the suit cracked all over but still held firm.
Nanami rushed in after Todo, with Kusakabe lagging behind them. He hadn't escaped the jade soldiers unscathed, but he was far from out of the fight. Panda dropped to the ground in exhaustion as Todo and Nanami flew over him. Daichi readied a defense, but something had slipped his mind in all the stress, nausea, and expended cursed energy.
"Don't move!"
Todo and Nanami struck his chest simultaneously, and flashes of black streaked through the air. Kusakabe followed right behind.
"New Shadow Style: Nihongō!"
Kusakabe lunged forward, thrusting his sword between the General's ribs and into his heart the moment after his jade shell was finally cracked.