Chapter 76: Barrier and Trial, the Fledgling at the Cliff's Edge
The blade flashed like a newborn sun.
Flames surged along its arc.
Yami's [Sun Breathing, First Form: Dance] cut forward with the scorching presence of Yoriichi himself, a slash so pure and fierce it looked capable of cleaving the swollen Special Grade curse straight down the middle.
And for a moment, it almost did.
The curse felt it.
Not with its eyes.
Not with thought.
But with the primitive terror buried in the deepest layer of its existence.
A fatal threat.
The Sukuna finger embedded in its chest suddenly erupted with violent black light.
At the same time, the entire limestone cavern distorted.
The curse did not dodge.
It rejected.
A malformed territory, the crude prototype of an Innate Domain, was forced open in the instant between life and death. Space itself buckled like a pot being turned upside down. The cavern, once whole, split violently into separate layers.
Boom!
Yami's blade struck the barrier that had risen out of nowhere.
Sparks burst across the dark.
The slash did not go through.
Not because it lacked power, but because the moment the barrier formed, the coordinates inside shifted. His strike landed on the wrong space. The target had already been displaced.
When the flames scattered and the air stopped screaming, the battlefield had changed.
Yami stood outside.
Inside the newly formed black barrier, Megumi had been sealed together with the Special Grade curse.
As for Eso and Kechizu, the two Death Painting brothers had clearly understood where the real danger lay. The instant the barrier rose and chaos broke out, they fled without hesitation, escaping toward the forest beyond the cavern.
"Don't run!"
Yuji's shout exploded through the darkness.
Nobara was already moving with him, both of them taking off after the Death Paintings without a second thought.
In the blink of an eye, the battlefield split three ways.
Yuji and Nobara pursued the brothers.
Megumi was trapped inside the barrier with the finger bearer.
And Yami remained alone before the black wall of distorted space.
He lowered his sword slightly and stared at the barrier, his red eyes calm.
"So you used the finger's power to divide the field."
His voice was soft, almost conversational.
Behind the semi-transparent membrane of darkness, the Special Grade curse thrashed and roared, its tentacles lashing wildly as it locked onto Megumi like prey.
It was afraid.
That much was obvious.
Afraid of the swordsman standing outside.
So it had acted on instinct. Exclude the strongest threat. Lock the shikigami user inside. Kill the one that looked easiest to swallow.
Yami's fingers brushed lightly over Shiranui's guard.
"A poor decision."
He spoke without heat, without mockery.
Just fact.
"Separating me from Megumi may be the worst choice you've ever made."
The Transparent World remained fully open.
His gaze passed through the barrier and into the distorted space beyond it, tracing every fluctuation, every fracture, every unstable bend in the cursed coordinates.
This was not a normal Curtain.
It had been mixed with the violent, profane cursed energy of Sukuna's finger. It rejected outside interference while continuously warping the position of the inner space itself. Any attack that failed to hit the precise moment of transition would simply be displaced, diverted, or thrown back by the distortion.
Even [Sun Breathing, Eight Form: Sunflower Thrust] would be meaningless if he mistimed it.
Force would not solve this.
If he broke through recklessly, the barrier might collapse in on itself and drag the internal space down with it.
And Megumi would be caught in the collapse.
So Yami did not move.
He waited.
He watched.
He breathed.
[Total Concentration Breathing: Constant.]
His lungs expanded. His pulse slowed. Every sense sharpened further.
He was searching for a single point.
A single gap.
One strike that would pierce the barrier without shattering the space within.
Inside, Megumi had to survive until that moment came.
Yami's eyes remained fixed on the black membrane.
"Hold on, Megumi."
His voice did not rise, yet it carried more weight than a shout.
"Just a little longer."
…
Inside the barrier, Megumi's breathing was ragged.
Each inhale felt like it scraped against his throat. Blood ran down from his forehead and blurred one side of his vision. His uniform was torn in multiple places, and the hand he pressed against the ground trembled from pain and fatigue.
Across from him, the finger bearer let out another hideous roar.
Its cursed energy was monstrous.
Not just in volume, but in density.
It carried the foul, invasive pressure of Sukuna's finger, and every attack came with the same oppressive malice Megumi had once felt in the juvenile detention center.
"Damn it…"
He wiped blood from his eye with the back of his wrist and forced himself upright.
The Divine Dogs had already been torn apart.
Nue had been shredded out of the air.
Every shikigami he summoned was being overwhelmed before it could even hold the line.
The gap was too wide.
Too brutal.
A tentacle slammed down where he had been standing half a second earlier, pulverizing stone.
Megumi threw himself to the side, rolled, and formed another hand sign.
"Orochi!"
The Great Serpent burst from the shadows in a violent coil, jaws opening wide to intercept the next strike.
It lasted less than a heartbeat.
The curse's tentacles speared through it, ripping the shikigami apart into black fragments that dissolved before they even hit the ground.
Megumi's breath hitched.
That familiar thought crept back into his mind.
I can't win.
Not like this.
Not head on.
Not by normal means.
The Special Grade advanced again, roaring, its misshapen body dragging waves of cursed energy through the barrier space.
Megumi stumbled back.
His heel scraped across wet stone.
And for a single terrible moment, his body moved before his mind did.
His hands started to form that seal.
That one seal.
The one he always reached for when backed into a corner.
The last card.
The answer that cost everything.
[With this treasure, I summon—]
As long as he called it, the battle would end.
Maybe not in victory.
But it would end.
He had always fought with that logic buried somewhere inside him.
If I die here, fine.
If it kills the enemy, even better.
Trade life for life.
Trade himself for the result.
That had become his instinct.
His curse.
Then, just before his fingers completed the motion, a voice cut through his mind.
"Megumi, you're always thinking about sacrifice."
Yami's voice.
Cold when it needed to be. Calm when it mattered most.
Not scolding.
Not mocking.
Just sharp enough to hurt.
"Do you really think everything gets solved as long as you die?"
Another memory rose on top of it.
Gojo's grin.
Careless. Annoying. Yet strangely serious beneath the surface.
"There's a difference between risking your life to win and throwing your life away because it's easier."
Megumi's fingers stopped.
The seal broke apart.
The Special Grade slammed its fist into the ground. The impact blasted him backward, and his body crashed into the rock wall hard enough to drive the air out of his lungs.
Pain exploded through his back.
For a second, his vision went white.
Blood ran down into his mouth.
He tasted iron.
But while leaning there, half collapsed, Megumi started to laugh.
A low, broken sound.
Then he looked at his own bloodstained hands.
Something inside him shifted.
Who am I setting the limit for?
Who decided my shadows stop there?
Why do I keep acting like my only value is dying well?
His breathing changed.
The cursed energy in his body, which had been gathering toward self-destruction, turned.
Outward.
Expanding.
Not to end everything.
To seize everything.
His shadow rippled.
Then boiled.
The darkness beneath his feet spread like ink spilled across the floor.
The Special Grade curse hesitated.
For the first time since the fight began, it recoiled.
Megumi slowly raised his head.
The restraint was gone from his face.
So was the dull fatalism that always sat behind his eyes.
What remained was something rawer.
Hungrier.
Madness, maybe.
Or freedom.
"Yeah…"
He pushed himself off the wall and stood straight.
His hands came together again, but not in the shape of Mahoraga's summoning.
This was different.
This was his.
Something unfinished, reckless, and entirely his own.
The cursed energy in the barrier began to go wild.
The shadows on the ground surged upward like living water.
The cavern darkened.
No—Megumi realized.
It was not getting darker.
The shadows were multiplying.
Swallowing space.
Claiming it.
The finger bearer sensed the shift and backed away with a guttural shriek.
Too late.
Megumi's grin widened, blood at the corner of his mouth.
"If that's how it is…"
His voice came out hoarse and unsteady, but there was exhilaration buried inside it.
"Then none of you get to have an easy time either."
The ground beneath him liquefied into shadow.
Cursed energy poured out of him in waves.
His hands locked into the sign he had seen in dreams and never once dared to complete in reality.
"Domain Expansion—"
.....
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