Inside the collapsing pressure of five Domains—
Time slowed.
Sound faded.
Pain blurred.
As bones cracked and blood filled his mouth,
Toji Fushiguro felt something strange.
Not fear.
Not regret.
A memory.
A Quiet Afternoon
Years ago—
Before the hatred.
Before the oath.
Before the killing.
Toji was walking down a simple street, holding a tiny hand.
Beside him—
A very small Megumi Fushiguro.
Megumi looked up at him.
"Papa… why don't you use cursed energy?"
Toji smirked faintly.
"Because I don't need it."
Megumi frowned in confusion.
"But everyone says it's important."
Toji stopped walking.
Kneeling down, he placed a hand on the boy's head.
"Listen carefully."
"Strength isn't what they decide."
"It's what you survive."
Megumi didn't fully understand.
But he smiled anyway.
And for a rare moment—
Toji smiled back.
The Day Everything Broke
The memory shifted.
Screams.
Shattered concrete.
Four sorcerers standing over a fallen Toji.
He had been ambushed.
Outnumbered.
Caught off guard while protecting Megumi.
One of them held Megumi in the air.
Cursed energy wrapped around the child like chains.
"Zero cursed energy trash," one of them spat.
"You should've stayed invisible."
Toji tried to stand—
But a Domain pinned him down.
He couldn't move.
He couldn't reach.
He could only watch.
Megumi's small voice called out—
"Papa!"
And then—
Silence.
Blood on the pavement.
Rain mixing with red.
The sorcerers disappeared, laughing.
Leaving Toji alive.
Intentionally.
To suffer.
The Oath
Back to that night.
Toji holding his son's lifeless body.
No tears.
No scream.
Just silence.
The world of sorcerers had decided his child was expendable.
Because of power.
Because of status.
Because he was different.
Zero cursed energy.
Zero value.
Toji stood slowly under the rain.
His voice was calm.
"I'll erase you all."
Not out of madness.
Not out of chaos.
But calculation.
"If strength decides worth…"
"Then I'll show you what real strength is."
Back to the Present
The memory shattered.
The crushing weight of five Domains returned.
Blood filled Toji's vision.
But his grip on the thin black blade tightened.
Megumi's small hand.
That innocent question.
"Why don't you use cursed energy?"
Toji whispered under the crushing force—
"Because I don't need it."
The air around the blade distorted violently.
The synchronized Domains flickered.
A crack ran through space itself.
Outside the layered prison—
Yuta Okkotsu felt it.
Something had shifted.
The man who was about to be crushed—
Was no longer fighting just to survive.
He was fighting to fulfill a promise.
And the structure of five overlapping Domains—
Was about to meet something they had never accounted for.
Not cursed energy.
Not a counter-Domain.
But complete rejection.
The crushing force trembled.
And Toji finally moved.