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"SADAKO!" Kai's voice resounded throughout the banquet hall. "Domain Expansion!!"
Sadako's Domain appeared the moment she arrived. For a split second, everyone's vision blurred. When things cleared, the banquet hall was gone. Now, they stood in a dark, suffocating forest, with Sadako's old well at the center, silent and foreboding.
Swish. Swish. Swish.
No one could follow what happened next. They only saw quick flashes of shadows moving through the darkness. In an instant, the swarm of lesser Cursed Spirits was gone.
Kuchisake-Onna's paralysis and Sadako's quick attacks made a deadly team. One held the targets still, while the other took them out before they knew what was happening.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMM!!
As Sadako moved to finish off Mr. Yukinoshita, a burst of cursed energy exploded behind him. It wasn't a full Domain Expansion, but the start of one.
A rough Simple Domain spread out, just strong enough to block Sadako's technique.
Sadako reappeared behind Kai in a flash and stood beside Kuchisake-Onna. The two Cursed Spirits stared at Mr. Yukinoshita in silence, their eyes gleaming with mockery and cruelty.
Their target had shown powers fit for a Special Grade Cursed Spirit, but that wasn't enough to scare them. The most dangerous being in this Domain wasn't either of them.
"He reached Special Grade?" Kai studied the mutated Mr. Yukinoshita with interest. "That really is a dangerous ability."
Special Grade Cursed Spirits had been appearing more frequently lately...
Sadako and Kuchisake-Onna slowly turned their heads toward him. Neither spoke, but their silent stare conveyed the same message.
No matter how dangerous a Special Grade was, it still couldn't compare to him.
Kai ignored their looks and turned to Sadako. "By the way, can your Domain handle a little chaos?"
Cursed Spirit Manipulation bound them to Kai, but he never erased their minds or stripped them of their personalities. He could have, but he didn't see the point. Making them mindless puppets would just be boring.
Sadako seemed briefly surprised by the question. After a pause, she gave a firm nod.
"In that case..." Kai's lips curved into a sharp smile. "Let the battle begin."
He raised both hands.
The air behind him broke apart, opening into countless pitch-black cracks.
"LET'S TEAR THIS PLACE APART!!"
Kai rarely called out a huge swarm of Cursed Spirits at once. Still, the real strength of Cursed Spirit Manipulation was in numbers—overwhelming an enemy with so many monsters that fighting back became pointless.
Roars and shrieks resounded across the forest.
Under Kai's command, a vast horde of Cursed Spirits surged from the fissures and charged straight toward Mr. Yukinoshita. Within seconds, his twisted figure disappeared beneath the enormous wave.
Sheer numbers decided the outcome.
Mr. Yukinoshita couldn't put up any real fight... This wasn't a battle. It was a takedown.
"Settle down," Kai said. "A Special Grade is still worth collecting."
The frenzied horde froze the moment his voice rang out.
Kai walked forward slowly, moving through the crowd of monsters like he owned the place. The Cursed Spirits moved aside together, making a wide path for their king. None of them had the courage to step out of line.
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"..." The sight left the onlookers speechless.
It wasn't divine or demonic. It was something even colder.
Even Ran Mouri had to admit she couldn't take her eyes off Kai.
"RAN. RAN!" Sonoko tried to keep her voice down, but excitement had already overtaken her. She clutched Ran's wrist with enough force to hurt.
"Sonoko, you're hurting me."
Ran understood why her best friend reacted that way, but she didn't need to look to know Sonoko's grip would leave a red mark.
"Sorry! My bad!" Sonoko released her at once, though her eyes remained fixed on Kai, shining with excitement. "Ran, did you see that? HE'S SO COOL!"
"Sonoko..."
"You have to help me," Sonoko insisted. "If I let him slip away, I swear I'll die alone."
Sonoko was known for chasing after handsome guys and saying she fell in love at first sight almost every week, but Ran knew her best. Under all the drama, Sonoko was more reserved than she seemed. She talked a big game, but rarely acted on it.
But this time, the look in Sonoko's eyes was different.
"Are you serious?" Ran asked.
"OF COURSE I AM!"
Sonoko looked ready to declare that she had never been this serious about anything in her life.
"All right..." Ran sighed. She couldn't say no to her childhood friend. "But I don't know anything about this either."
Ran wasn't much of an expert on romance. Whatever was going on between her and Shinichi Kudo couldn't really be called a normal relationship.
"Just help me figure it out," Sonoko said, refusing to give up. "Two heads are better than one."
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Meanwhile, Kai stopped in front of Mr. Yukinoshita and slowly raised his hands.
"Cursed Spirit Manipulation."
The Cursed Spirit fused with Mr. Yukinoshita began to warp. Its distorted body twisted violently as Kai extracted it from the man, condensing it between his palms until it became a pitch-black orb.
"A Special Grade with a soul-based technique," Kai murmured, absorbing the spirit's knowledge through his technique. "Excellent."
Its natural technique worked on the soul. It wasn't as overpowered as Mahito's Idle Transfiguration, but it was still useful.
Kai didn't have a way to target the soul directly before, and this ability fixed that.
Thud.
After the Cursed Spirit was gone, Mr. Yukinoshita fell to the ground, pale and unconscious. He looked thin, weak, and empty—a harsh change from the monster he was just moments ago.
"Kai-kun!" Yukino and Haruno were the first to rush to his side, concern clear in their eyes.
"Don't worry." Kai gave them a reassuring smile. "Something like that isn't enough to threaten me."
The sisters looked down at their unconscious father. Their relationship with him had always been difficult, but he was still their dad. Seeing him like this left them with feelings they couldn't even name.
"Kai-kun, was it?"
Fumino Yukinoshita walked over with the others, her face calm again. She wore the practiced smile of a matriarch already thinking through the new situation...
"We are indebted to you tonight. If you had not intervened, everyone in this room might have died."
As she spoke, her piercing eyes moved over Kai and her two daughters.
Now she understood how Kai had fixed the strange accidents at their construction sites. No wonder Haruno hadn't wanted to explain the details.
Fumino knew nothing about Cursed Spirits or Jujutsu Society before tonight, but she had witnessed Kai's power with her own eyes. Combined with Tomoko Suzuki's deferential attitude toward him, the truth was clear enough.
Kai was someone the Yukinoshita family needed to keep nearby...
And since both her daughters already seemed close to him, Fumino's instincts as matriarch kicked in. She wanted to bring him into their circle!!
"It was nothing," Kai replied lightly. "As a Jujutsu Sorcerer, this is part of the job."
The crisis was over, so giving a polite answer was easy.
Soon, his attention turned to Tomoko Suzuki.
"Even if I hadn't been here, I assume Madam Suzuki had countermeasures of her own."
Unlike the panicked guests, Tomoko stayed calm the whole time. That alone showed she had some kind of backup plan. As the head of a top company, she clearly knew about the world's hidden dangers.
"Please, just call me Tomoko," she replied with a warm, elegant smile. "My only countermeasure was contacting other Jujutsu Sorcerers for backup, and I admit my understanding of your world remains limited. Regardless, we owe you our deepest gratitude tonight."
Tomoko did possess contact information for several sorcerers. It was an emergency lifeline she had received from her husband, Shiro Suzuki.
Still, she understood one thing clearly.
Even if she had called for help, no ordinary backup would have arrived in time to save them.
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