Mahiru's innate Domain was fixed, but the form it manifested outwardly could change. Because the assimilated crowds differed in state and mindset, and because Mahiru's own needs differed as well, this Domain the girl possessed—one of an exceptionally creative nature—would also differ in its external expression.
Last time, it had been the Devotees of All Heavens, the User Angels.
And this time, it was the most heretical and most dreadful: a twisted deity. "Come on…" Mahiru stood atop the high-rise, the raging wind sending her long hair whipping wildly.
She curled the corner of her mouth.
"You're the one challenging me!"
Here and now, in this place, Mahiru once again unfurled her own Domain. ——Myriad Voices Chorusing Heaven.
A monstrous yet sacred colossus rose up among the buildings, countless outspread wings hung with countless eyes, brimming over with boundless joy.
They were laughing, praising.
An immense surge of Cursed Energy erupted skyward like a volcano.
"So this is an open-type Domain?" Satoru Gojo watched the scene before him, his eyes flickering. This was something even he couldn't learn.
He had to admit, the Mahiru who used an open-type Domain and the Mahiru from before were like two completely different people.
He had misjudged Mahiru's strength. "Ha, truly impressive…" He was startled that Mahiru's Domain was open-type, but at the same time he understood that the openness of the Domain was only one of its special points.
Mahiru's Domain utterly transcended other ordinary open-type Domains.
Whether it was the means by which she assimilated humans or the conception behind her Technique's use, both were exquisitely refined—and extremely difficult.
With her Domain Expansion deployed, as Mahiru assimilated countless people, her Cursed Energy also soared to a terrifying degree.
Satoru Gojo had to admit that the current Mahiru really did have a chance of pulling off—that thing she'd spoken of, the [Fourth Plan]. On the rooftop, the girl's eyes shone brilliantly.
She formed a hand seal, and the colossus behind her grew once more, becoming even more massive.
The nearly ten thousand tourists in this area had all been assimilated by Mahiru, and the number being encompassed was still increasing.
Under Mahiru's manipulation, countless arms stretched out from the colossus, slender and long, as if tracing ripples through the air—that was Urogi Kyoko's Technique.
Mahiru's Fourth Plan was just this simple and direct—forcibly open a Domain by relying directly on the crowds of Tokyo, and then pour Urogi's Technique into that Domain.
She would use Urogi Kyoko's spatial Technique to block the Black Hole.
Open-type and closed-type Domains were no different in essence when it came to the Sure-Hit effect. The Sure-Hit effect of Satoru Gojo's Domain would be delayed, and Mahiru's Sure-Hit effect would be delayed too. But Urogi's Technique was different.
Urogi's Technique could warp the space in front of the Black Hole, altering the Black Hole's direction of advance. That way, she had no need to try to directly affect the Black Hole.
As for the purpose of Mahiru deploying her Domain, it was of course to boost her own total amount of Cursed Energy.
Although it wasn't a matter of changing the Black Hole itself, based on prior experiments, even tugging at space under the Black Hole's gravity required tremendous power. In her ordinary state she stood no chance at all; only by deploying her Domain could she even attempt it.
But… could the current her actually wrench the Black Hole aside?
In truth, the girl wasn't certain.
Her earlier experiments had only confirmed that Urogi Kyoko's Technique scheme wouldn't fall apart due to the effect of time dilation; but whether her own Cursed Energy was enough to sustain moving the Black Hole away, the girl wasn't sure.
What Mahiru chose was to give it everything she had.
The blue-haired girl stretched out both hands, both eyes glowing.
And so the enormous monstrous deity behind her also stretched out countless hands, pushing toward the Black Hole.
The Black Hole's position was slightly higher than the deity's, and in the brief gap of Mahiru's Domain Expansion, it had already pressed down with endless darkness. This dark expanse of sky was vast; seen from afar, the Black Hole's volume was far larger than the deity's.
It overturned the city, destroying everything, as if nothing at all could stop it.
Then several of the monstrous deity colossus's arms made contact with the dark expanse.
Mahiru gritted her teeth hard, mobilizing her Cursed Energy, and the space in front of the Black Hole was stretched like a canvas.
The sorcerers watching everything unfold before them all held their breath.
Because they saw the Black Hole's speed slow down, slower and slower. That canvas resembling the sky snared the Black Hole like a net, and the Black Hole still struggled forward, trying to ram through this layer of canvas. It had really been blocked!
The Black Hole that even Satoru Gojo could scarcely touch had actually, truly been stopped by Mahiru!
"…So she chose to use Urogi Kyoko's Technique?" Far away, very, very far away, Kenjaku too was observing Mahiru's battlefield from a distance.
After he had fully relocated his base of operations from Kyoto, he saw the Black Hole disaster occur, and a new idea took shape, and now he had come here.
After seeing Mahiru's approach, Kenjaku understood the girl's intent. "This is indeed one solution." Learning Urogi's Technique to drag the Black Hole—this was indeed an idea Kenjaku hadn't reacted to in time. On closer thought, it was actually a fairly simple idea.
"So a Technique can be learned this quickly?"
He didn't know Mahiru had a faster-acting method for learning Techniques, so he was puzzled.
If Kenjaku were to honestly ask himself… he'd feel that even he would find it hard to save the people of Tokyo right now. He had been the first to discover the time turbulence surrounding the Black Hole.
That thing could not only delay time—if you got too close, it might just sweep a person into another timeline, banishing them utterly into the void.
But if one used Urogi's Technique, one could be completely immune to this. "But… your Cursed Energy output and reserves… are they really enough?" Kenjaku narrowed his eyes.
Mahiru was locked in a contest of strength with the Black Hole.
Though the Black Hole had been blocked, it was still slowly pressing forward, and the canvas was being stretched longer and longer—no one knew whether the Black Hole would break through the line of defense first, or whether Mahiru's Technique could hold out first. Thump, thump. "Huh?" Mahiru's eyes went wide. Thump, thump. "What is this?" Maki and Mai and the others looked toward the center of the Black Hole, alarm and bewilderment on their faces. Thump, thump…
What was that sound?
A sound was issuing from the center of the Black Hole, like distant war drums. This sound did not originate from the vibration of air—it was a pulsation of Cursed Energy. Was this a heartbeat?
At the center of the Black Hole, a heartbeat had begun to sound?
Thump, thump!!
A mighty surge of Cursed Energy emerged from the center of the Black Hole, and the Black Hole's outline pulsed along with the heartbeat, instantly expanding by a ring. Crack— Mahiru's pupils contracted tightly.
Because of the Black Hole's abrupt enlargement, her spatial canvas split with a crack.
The girl understood the principle that a thousand-li dike collapses from an ant hole, and hurried to mobilize her Cursed Energy to mend it, but the Black Hole's heartbeat grew even more violent, the Black Hole kept expanding, its gravity kept climbing, and Mahiru's burden instantly skyrocketed.
——It was Yuki Tsukumo.
Yuki Tsukumo's Technique was running at a furious pace.
Mahiru's Technique was the first Technique able to affect the Black Hole—and sensing that something was wrong with the Black Hole's operating state, the "self-preservation instinct" of Yuki Tsukumo, who had lost consciousness on the brink of death, began unconsciously accelerating her Jujutsu Technique.
Because Yuki Tsukumo herself was already near death, this kind of amplification of the Black Hole couldn't last very long.
But the problem was that Mahiru was starting to find it hard to hold on.
Her plan was to proceed in two steps.
In the first step, she would use her Technique to scoop up the Black Hole, getting its whole mass blocked, covering the surrounding space with her Technique; then, once the situation stabilized, she would wrench the space and push the Black Hole in another direction, or bring it to a complete stop. But now, even her first step was already incomparably arduous.
If only she could have assimilated more people, if only she'd had more time and opportunity to practice Urogi Kyoko's Technique.
Right now she felt her shoulders aching unbearably, the drain of Cursed Energy like floodwater pouring out of a collapsing dam.
Then, the next second, something even more alarming happened to the girl.
A bolt of black lightning charged out of the Black Hole, shooting straight at Mahiru.
That was… In an instant Mahiru saw it clearly—that was Yuki Tsukumo's Shikigami!
Yuki Tsukumo's Technique could increase her own mass, and at the same time, she could increase the mass of her Shikigami as well. Using Shikigami to make up for her own disadvantage in close-range means had always been Yuki Tsukumo's way of fighting.
But here and now, she was at death's door, yet her Shikigami had not gone still—instead, like her Technique, it had begun to run automatically. And now it was even attacking toward Mahiru!
"Tch!" Mahiru clicked her tongue.
She was straining with everything she had to desperately resist the Black Hole, and could not afford the slightest distraction. She couldn't use her Domain to defend against the Shikigami's attack, because the moment she eased off, the Black Hole might break free from the spatial canvas.
But neither could she be struck by the Shikigami.
A massive amount of imaginary mass had gathered upon the Shikigami; being struck by it would be no different from being hit by a meteor.
She absolutely could not be hit. "Heavy-Armed Darting Hare!" Mahiru shouted.
She knew there were others by her side, but she couldn't blindly count on others' help.
The Heavy-Armed Darting Hare was a safeguard prepared long in advance, but in truth, facing a Shikigami crammed with imaginary mass, Mahiru did not hold out hope that the Heavy-Armed Darting Hare could withstand the Shikigami's collision.
Satoru Gojo saw this scene from above, frowned, and Cursed Energy stirred across his body. He wanted to help Mahiru block that Shikigami.
But the next second, he halted his steps.
Because, with a "smack," that Shikigami about to reach Mahiru vanished.
Appearing instead, accompanying the sound of clapping hands, were two figures seen from behind.
"Yo! Mahiru, what fun thing are you playing with again!" Todo, clenching his fist, stood at Mahiru's side, laughing heartily as he looked at the Shikigami he had [Displaced] off into the far distance, "You should've told me sooner so I could join in!"
"Mahiru, don't worry, I've come to help too." And on the other side, Yuji Itadori too roused Cursed Energy across his whole body, facing the direction of the Shikigami and assuming a combat stance, "Todo, here we go." "Of course! My best friend!" Mahiru going to fight the Black Hole alone was not because she was all by herself, but only because the others couldn't help for the time being.
And in fact, around her, there had always been many people.
"In that case, I'll leave that Shikigami to you two!" Mahiru no longer paid attention to the Shikigami, and concentrated fully on resisting the Black Hole. As she regrouped and rallied, the rate at which the canvas was cracking began to slow.
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