The Inumaki Clan Prodigy [Jujutsu Kaisen]

Mahito tried to dodge the constant rain of slashes but was met with little success as the sorcerer bore down on him with both blades in hand. The best he could do was sway a bit and receive a cut in a less vital spot.

Mahito sidestepped a slash only for a throwing knife to embed itself in his heel, causing him to trip and begin to fall backward. Before he could catch himself the brat threw the shorted blade into the air and punched him square in the face with a left hook, caving in Mahito's skull and sending him flying into a wall.

As Mahito dug himself out of the wall and dusted himself off a bit, his skull reforming into its proper state, he examined the sorcerer's fighting style. Not his technique or anything as Mahito knew fuck all about swordsmanship. No, he was trying to figure out his plan of attack.

He couldn't damage Mahito, a fact he no doubt knew. But if he did know, why did he keep attacking? He even went so far as to not use his technique to save energy, resorting to blades and fists for the most part. Mahito was truly stumped as he readied a few transfigured humans

Mahito scattered the transfigured creatures every which way. Some ordered to attack, some to defend, and some to hide away somewhere and prepare to take him by surprise. Mahito only needed one touch while the kid needed every little thing to go right and for Mahito to be dumb enough to use his domain, the gap in likelihood between the two win conditions was vast.

The brat's right hand was a blur for a quarter of a second as his blade flicked every which way. Blood mist filled the air as both Mahito and the sorcerer were covered in foreign blood as they met in the middle of the transfigured carnage. Mahito covered his left arm in hardened, scale-like armor as he blocked the longer blade, his arm only being halfway cut through.

His other hand transformed into a blade to meet the other sword, parring it as a third arm growing out of his shoulder, a palm ready to transfigure the young sorcerer. Before it could even cross half the distance between Mahito and the kid, Mahito's throat was kicked so hard by the tip of the kid's foot that he temporarily lost his focus.

The longer blade cut through the rest of Mahito's left arm as the short blade came up to cut off the third arm. The sorcerer then blitzed past Mahito so fast he didn't have a snowball's chance in hell to see the cuts before they were already complete.

Mahito's head fell from his upper body as his upper body was detached from his lower body, his only remaining arm getting hit in the same slice that'd dissected his midsection. As Mahito's body began to regenerate he ordered some of the transfigured humans he'd ordered to hide away to reappear.

Three jumped out of seemingly nowhere only to be met with the flashing of steel and the cold gaze of an apathetic sorcerer. All of them were beheaded in an instant but they'd played their part.

"Idle Transfiguration: Body Repel!"

Souls didn't like being forced together. Every soul had its own "ego" and reacted harshly when someone tried to get rid of that ego by merging it with another. Mahito used his repulsive nature offensive, creating a large transfigured mouth twice the size of Mahito that launched forward with the help of the repulsive souls.

The sorcerer was caught a bit off guard as the giant transfigured abomination crashed into him. He stabbed the longer blade into its mouth, using the sword as a pillar to keep the creature from closing its mouth as he used the shorter blade to stab up into the thing's head, killing it.

The sorcerer then dashed to the side after grabbing his sword, the creature rocketing off into some wall. Mahito suddenly burst out of the transfigured human's long, snake-like body as his newly healed right arm swung, its knuckles turned into a large, long spear-like head.

The sorcerer calmly met the attack like he knew it was coming, his blade edge meeting the spearhead right on and cutting through the lesser blade, cleaving Mahito's forearm down the middle the long way. His other blade lashes out as well, taking off Mahito's head for the third time in as many minutes.

Mahito's headless body was carried away with the rest as the transfigured human as the sorcerer stomped on his detached head, turning it into a mere smudge of purple on the cracked and destroyed concrete.

"Man, this beheading thing is starting to get annoying," Mahito said as his headless body grew a mouth and detached itself from the transfigured human's mangled body. As he regrets the rest of his head, the sorcerer rushed him, the unstoppable, unceasing storm of blades that he was.

The kid feinted left which Mahito read, turning his arm below the elbow into a long, jagged blade to block the slash now headed towards his mid-thigh on his right leg.

Just as he got his arm into position, the sorcerer's sword turned up on a dime and slashed Mahito from chin to scalp. Mahito forced spikes from his chest, each multiple feet in length as he at least tried to go for mutual destruction. Mahito would win if all they did was trade blows after all.

Sadly, nothing landed. Each spike was cut through with the brat even grabbing one of the dismembered spikes and shoving it into Mahito's heart. Mahito, after healing his split open head back together whipped his arm out as he expanded his hand to the size of the entire station hallway.

If he could make some distance he could chip away at him with transfigured humans and ranged attacks. Mahito knew if he was able to output at least a minor amount of damage, he could win the battle by simply outlasting the sorcerer.

Unfortunately for him, the sorcerer just cut the hand in half like it was made of wax paper. Mahito readied his other hand, now holding three shrunken transfigured humans, only for the brat to finally open his mouth and say something.

"Twist."

Mahito's bones snapped as his muscle fibers tore, every blood vessel in both arms tearing themselves apart as they were mangled and twisted. Before Mahito could even begin to heal any of said injuries, the sorcerer with hair as white as snow chopped down.

The Katana reaped a bloody path from the top of Mahito's head to his waist, each half of his body flopping to either side, only connected by the few inches of waist the blade hadn't cut through.

Before the man could back away or continue his assault, Mahito healed his left arm and stabbed out at him with a spearhead for a hand. The swordsman met it with the edge of his own blade only to be surprised by its increased power.

Mahito found it odd. From what Geto had told him, cursed speech could affect Mahito's soul and damage him for real. But after feeling the technique himself he discovered that was indeed not the case. Had he been lied to?

——

The curse's two halves snapped together as its other arm healed and stretched out with an empty palm. Isamu, his blade and hand knocked up so the blade itself was positioned behind his back, dropped his sword before ducking the outstretched arm. He grabbed the sword from behind him without looking before blitzing forward.

Isamu slid past the curse, lashing out at its throat before turning and resetting a bit. The right arm of the curse fell to the ground courtesy of Maya as blood exploded out of the side of its neck. The cut was about halfway through his neck. Shallower than he intended.

At the last second, the curse was able to lean to the side a bit and minimize damage. Something Isamu didn't think it should've been able to do. Was Isamu just underestimating its speed? He didn't think so. Every other decapitation attempt had succeeded after all.

Isamu was never the type to underestimate. He overestimated his opponents more than anything per Maki's teachings.

"You're good. Fast. Faster than me. Right now at least." The curse said, placing a hand on its neck as it healed, regrowing his other arm as well. Its face broke out in a large small as it turned its head, glaring a bit out of the side of its eye.

That's when Isamu remembered something else Nanami had informed him of. The patch-faced curse was newly born, yes. But its rate of growth was incredible. After only a few months it had performed domain expansion. Not a very good one, sure, but being able to do one at all put you in the upper echelons of sorcerers.

Judging by its increased ability to dodge attacks and throw attacks on top of its words, Isamu figured it was growing. Learning from him to get faster and faster. To become able to push Isamu more and more before eventually Isamu was left in the dust and killed for his efforts.

Isamu already knew it but now it was clearer than ever. His current methods wouldn't work. He couldn't draw out the fight as he wouldn't be able to outlast it cursed energy wise and he would eventually be overcome by its growth. And the worst part? The curse knew this.

It knew it was winning and would win eventually. Meaning it would see no reason to use its domain and give Isamu an opportunity to win should he overcome the domain expansion.

Isamu saw a few options at the moment. One, run away, find Yuji, then jump it. While probably the smart plan, Isamu was hesitant. Isamu didn't know the whereabouts of Yuji or if he was even still alive. So while Isamu ran around trying to find him, the curse would have more than enough time to plan and kill more people. Not to mention the fight would still be a toss-up even if Yuji was there in peak condition due to Isamu being forced to play a supportive role

Two, develop a domain expansion. This would force the curse to use its own domain as while it was difficult to hurt permanently, in the face of a sure hit technique even Gojo would be damaged. So as long as his domain won or tied the clash, Isamu would be able to force the curse into a state of cursed technique burnout and kill him.

There were a few pitfalls with that one. It was reliant on Isamu's domain being more refined than the curse's, or at least good enough to tie. Isamu wasn't confident in this outcome. Sure, Isamu was talented, and everything he did tended to be a step above the rest. But it was clear the curse in front of him wasn't lacking in the talent department either. Not to mention the curse first used its domain at least a month ago, giving it more than enough time to refine it further.

So there was a solid possibility Isamu simply lost the clash and died to its sure hit technique. At least, a solid enough possibility for Isamu to not want to risk it. On top of that, the intense cursed energy drain of a domain expansion meant if Isamu did lose the clash and somehow didn't die, he would be too drained to give any of his other plans a shot. So Isamu decided to leave domain expansion as a plan B as even if his other plans didn't work, he could always resort to a desperate domain expansion.

And finally, figure out some technique that let him damage the curse. Isamu doubted he would be able to replicate whatever Yuji did that let him damage it as quite frankly he had no idea what it was Yuji did. But Isamu did have plenty of experience negating cursed techniques.

Simple domain and its output-decreasing abilities could work. If he killed the curse before using simple domain to drop its output so much that it was unable to use its technique with enough power to bring itself back it could end up dying. But Isamu didn't know exactly how the curse's technique worked.

Isamu didn't know if its technique activated before its death like a second life, making a simple domain after the fact useless. Isamu also didn't know if the curse would die even without its technique. Could it still use its technique to keep itself alive, just not heal, until its natural cursed body healed itself or until Isamu dropped his simple domain and it got its output back up? There were just too many unknowns for Isamu to feel confident in the method.

But why was Isamu even considering simple domain when he had a much better option? A technique he'd already seen in use. A technique with the ability to negate any technique without fail as long as the user and their opponent possessed similar levels of power. The technique the plant curse used to slay the Inumaki clan elders.

Domain Amplification.