Death Trade.
A technique where the user can force a trade of any kind inside their domain, as long as the trade values are similar.
However, that didn't give it its unique name. Not at all.
If anything, being able to put a trade was the secondary function of the technique, since a primary trade came pre-imposed on both the user and the enemy.
The Trade of Death.
This particular trade only takes place when someone dies inside the domain. It doesn't matter who kills whom. Upon the death, the other shall get it all. Power, potential—whether it be cursed energy or the technique itself.
The winner gets it all!
And thus,
The technique is appropriately named…
DEATH TRADE…
The volcano curse, who I just recently recalled in those fragmented memories, was called Jogo. He stared at me like I had poked him in his eye for fun's sake after I somehow summoned water out of nowhere.
Maki wasn't that different. She wouldn't call her knowledge of Jujutsu diverse by any means, but even she knew that most techniques are linear in nature.
The boy's technique, as she saw in the domain, was about trading, if she wasn't mistaken. Then why could he use water?
Little did either of them know that I could because I had Dagon's power. His cursed energy. His technique. Even his memories, if I wished to access them.
This was the toll of the Death Trade. The winner gets it all. If I had lost, then everything that makes me, me would have been Dagon's—or any last person standing inside my domain.
"Stop gawking and help me out, will you?" I snapped Maki out of her stupor; the special grade cursed energy I got from Dagon erupted around me, buffing my stats.
That CE shockwave was enough to make Maki concentrate, and both of us rushed at Jogo. He too put aside the sudden water attack and dived headfirst to fight us.
Water surged around me in violent currents, crashing against the burning landscape of Jogo's domain and the inky black of my own. Steam exploded into the air when it came in contact with the volcano curse's heat.
Controlling water was harder than I previously thought, mostly because Dagon himself never relied too much on water. His ace was always those Shikigami.
I can't use those Shikigami without the sure-hit effect of the domain, though.
"Stay close!" I shouted to Maki, and honestly, there was no need for it, seeing as the girl didn't answer back. She was already moving like my shadow.
Jogo appeared in front of us without warning.
A blast of fire erupted from his palm, a concentrated inferno meant to erase us instantly.
I reacted on instinct. Water surged forward, colliding with the flames. The impact detonated into a violent burst of steam, but the force behind it still drove me backward. My feet dragged across part of my domain.
Too strong.
This guy… a special grade?
How come there is such a gap between Dagon and him?
This volcano head felt like on another level.
My body tensed up. If that was his usual level at which he operated, then this fight would not be easy.
Maki slipped through the steam while I was shaken, swinging her naginata in a brutal arc toward Jogo's head.
He caught it.
Rather easily at that.
"You're an outclassed woman. Give up." Jogo could hardly feel any cursed energy inside her, and the lack of cursed energy or any showing of a cursed technique so far meant dead weight in his eyes.
Maki gritted her teeth. The damn comment got to her pride. "Not until I pluck out that eyeball of yours."
"Pathetic," Jogo muttered.
A surge of flames exploded outward from his body.
I yanked the water back around Maki just in time.
The fire crashed against it, boiling it violently. The shield held—but barely. I could feel the cursed energy draining rapidly as I tried to maintain both the domain and the defense.
Maki clicked her tongue and disengaged, flipping back toward me.
"He's too fast," she said, almost growling.
"I can see that." My brow twitched—way to state the obvious.
Jogo didn't give us time to breathe, though. He vanished—and reappeared above us.
A meteor of fire formed in his palms and then came crashing down on both of us.
I threw everything I had upward.
"Kamehame—"
"HAAAAA!"
A massive surge of water collided with it midair. For a moment, the two forces clashed—fire screaming against water, neither giving way.
Then it broke.
The explosion sent both of us flying.
I hit the ground hard, my vision spinning.
The domain flickered for a second. I almost slipped from my mind that if I were to take too much damage, the domain would collapse.
"What was that?" Maki looked at me, bewildered.
"I don't know, okay… I'm going by my instincts here." I complained. Why was she pointing out something I did mid-fight? I didn't know why I did it. It was instinct. I don't even know what those words mean.
It was as if muscle memory kicked in there.
Maki snorted. "More like an 8th grader's instincts," she grumbled under her breath, and then her eyes were back on Jogo.
The volcano curse was charging up a big one.
I forced myself up, dragging water around us again as Jogo let go of a powerful stream of fire at us.
Neither of us needed an indicator to know that this was something we might want to dodge. We threw ourselves to opposite sides as the beam of fire raged past us by hair's length.
Burns.
It burned so hard.
Even when the attack never touched us, my skin felt like it was melting. I quickly released water around both Maki and me to cool us down.
"We'll die like this." Maki grabbed me by the collar and pushed both of us out of another fireball coming our way.
Both of us collapsed on the floor, barely missing the fireball, Maki's entire body pressing against me to keep me down by force.
"Yeah, I noticed that!" I replied. Even if she picked up on the sarcasm in my tone—which I clearly wished her to do—she didn't comment on it.
"Good, then think of something!" she shot back.
'???' I blinked.
I think?
Who's the jujutsu sorcerer here?
"I got nothing. Don't you have something? Something like a powerful technique or a hidden trump card? Anything?" I asked, part desperation, part hope, and a whole lot of me being awed at the audacity of this girl to ask a civilian what to do in a situation like this.
Aren't they supposed to be the professionals?
Man, I'm missing Nanami already!
Maki's body stiffened just for a second before she huffed. "I got nothing like that. If I had, then that volcano head would have already been missing his eyeball by now," she retorted.
What can I say?
We are doomed.
Well, not exactly. There was a way.
It wouldn't take a genius to know that we weren't winning.
Hell, we were barely surviving. And survive we must—at least until the domain clash is over.
"Just stall for time for now. Wait until the domain clash is over," he replied, and once again we were on the move.