Chapter 13 - Mahito

"I really don't like cutting down humans." Sachiko said with a sigh as she cut down another curse.

"Neither do I" Nanami agreed.

"Isn't it time to come out now?" Nanami finally asked after cutting down a few more curses.

A cursed spirit that really resemled humans came out and when he only saw Nanami and Sachiko, he said, "Wow, I'm glad. If Gojo Satoru was here, I would be troubled. But if someone too weak comes, I can't have my experiment."

"I don't like working overtime, so let's finish this up quickly." Nanami said.

"Okay." Sachiko replied.

Nanani then charged towards Mahito with his knife. Sachiko conjured an arrow using her cursed energy. "I haven't practiced with arrows that much so pardon me if my skills are too poor~" She said with a light chuckle, then shot two arrows towards Mahito.

'These arrows were made with cursed energy? They're fast.' Mahito thought as he dodged the arrows and Nanami's attacks.

"You dodged? Okay, I'll just shoot more arrows." Sachiko sighed as she shot ten arrows towards Mahito.

Meanwhile, Nanami was fighting close combat with Mahito so Mahito had to dodge the arrows while dodging Nanami's attacks. Mahito could only dodge nine arrows and one penetrated its chest. As the arrow penetrated its chest, the cursed energy flowed into Mahito's body making him extremely numb. The amount of cursed energy in arrows wasn't enough to make Mahito explode but Sachiko expected that. Since Namami was fighting with the curse close combat, she didn't think it was a good idea to concentrate too much cursed energy in one arrow. She still didn't know what kind of cursed technique Mahito had, after all. It would be troublesome if Nanami got injured because of her.

Nanani took the chance and used his cursed technique to ratio cut Mahito. Mahito covered its chest with its arms and one of the arms got cut off.

However, Mahito looked unfazed by it as he said, "You Jujutsu sorcerers don't get it, do you? As long as I preserve the shape of my soul, my body can be any shape. See? I'm not healing myself." The arm which was cut off by Nanami grew back.

"So you're saying you won't be actually injured as long as you preserve your soul? Can you also change your body by reshaping your soul?" Sachiko asked.

"Haha. So you get it? I'll ask you a question. Is the body hosted within the soul or is the soul enveloping the body?" Mahito asked Sachiko.

"I don't know much about souls but judging by the way you ask, the answer should be the latter? Since you said soul is more important than your body." Sachiko replied.

Mahito just laughed and charged towards her. Sachiko dodged swiftly but Mahito pulled out a shrunken doll which was even smaller than a fist size.

"So, you stock humans now?" Sachiko said, disgusted.

"Why? Feel so hurt now? Jujutsu sorcerer" Mahito asked as he put cursed energy into those and made them attack her.

"I seperate my emotions while dealing with curses like you."

"Come on. We both know it's a lie. You feel sad for them, don't you? Don't you also feel guilty?"

"You plan to guilt trip me. Sorry but that's not gonna work. You're the one who turned them into these things and not me. So, I don't think I'm guilty for their death. But, of course, I will feel sorry for them after this." Sachiko replied.

Sachiko then discarded the bow and conjured a katana with cursed energy. She also tried to sense the cursed energy in Mahito's body but she couldn't quite understand how it worked. She could see how it flowed but there was like a piece missing that she couldn't put a finger on it.

Nanami also charged towards Mahito again but Mahito pulled out more curses to distract them. Nanami was touched by Mahito and Mahito just said, "You know, I can also reshape your souls and turn you into curses. Normal people don't survive long after being turned into a curse but Jujutsu sorcerers.." He grinned.

"It's a shame you subconsciously protected your soul with cursed energy. Otherwise, you wouldn't be human anymore." Mahito continued.

Sachiko took a glance at Nanami and when he looked okay, she charged towards Mahito. She tried to slash Mahito's arms off on purpose to see more of his cursed energy flowed and plan an attack to disturb his energy flow. After a few cuts here and there, she figured out an occasional flow of his cursed energy. It was 10% probability that her attack could work and deal actual damage to Mahito's soul. Although 10% is not enough, it 's still better than none. She also tried to copy the cursed energy flow to protect her soul so that her soul wouldn't be reshaped quickly even if Mahito touched her.

Nanami also helped by slashing Mahito. Sachiko made use of the time to understand Mahito's cursed energy flow better while trying to attack at the same time. After a few more minutes of battle, Sachiko got a glimpse of how Mahito's curse energy actually worked and she sent a blast of cursed energy just in time.

"You know this wouldn't work. Why still try..." Mahito paused as he felt his soul suffered damage from the attack.

"I don't know much about souls but if it's cursed energy, it's my innate technique. " Sachiko smiled as she said. "Thanks for demonstrating me how it works. I think I learned a lot today."

'You learned a lot today? That seemingly carefree and flamboyant attitude...' Nanami felt his headache forming. He didn't think he could get along with her. Nevertheless, he still said, "Nakamura, if your attacks work, I'll distract him. You just focus on attacking."

Sachiko nodded and sent blasts after blasts of cursed energy after that. As a result, Mahito was struggling to protect its soul. It even changed into a smaller shape to reduce the chance of Sachiko's attacks hitting it.

"I wonder if I can also use this to injure your soul?" Sachiko muttered as she used her cursed technique, "Prison of Nightmares."

Mahito was enveloped by the mist and his mind was invaded by a whole lot of scenerios one worse than the other and he knew it was not illusion but possibilities that could happen. And that sent shivers and trauma deep into his soul.

That was when a mysterious figure who was wearing a mask came in and attacked, breaking Mahito out of his trance. Nanami was also caught off guard and although he tried to dodge as soon as he noticed the figure, it was too late. A hand chop infused with cursed energy hit Nanami hard and broke some ribs in the process. Blood spew out of his mouth and the pain making him unable to move for a few seconds. Mahito transformed his arms into a blade and injured Nanami in the stomach in the mean time.

"Nanami san!"

The mysterious figure then attacked Sachiko. Sachiko dodged the attacks swiftly and made her way to Nanami. A hand chop landed on her back which made her feel like her lungs had exploded.

She spat out a mouthful of blood and she laughed bitterly, "Cough..I really didn't think I would get injured to this point today." She then used reverse cursed technique to heal herself.

"So you can use cursed energy to heal yourself. That'll be quite troublesome so I'll just retreat for now. I hope to meet you again soon." The mysterious figure said before retreating.

"Are you serious?! Didn't you come here to help out?" Mahito yelled at him.

"I did. But sorry, Mahito, I have my priorities and I'm not going to fight a risky battle. It's not time yet, after all." With that, the figure left.

Sachiko chose not to chase him because she couldn't leave the injured Nanami alone with the soul reshaping curse. She shouted over to Nanami.

"Nanami san! Are you okay?"

Nanami nodded as he tried to get up, "I should be fine if I can heal this in an hour."

"Okay then" Sachiko sighed in relief.

Then, she sent out a blast of energy to attack Mahito's soul again. Mahito became irritated as he had to dodge again and again. He didn't know how he had lost upperhand anymore as he was pushed further and further to the edge. He also didn't expect that he would meet his mortal enemy today. 'I need something powerful..so powerful that she wouldn't be able to dodge at all..if I don't want to die, I have to figure that out." Mahito thought as fought for his life. "Something no one would be able to escape and allow me to transfigure their souls...I'll use all my remaining cursed energy for this!"

He then, chanted, "Domain Expansion."

"Self-Embodiment of Perfection."

Sachiko and Nanami were dragged into Mahito's domain where everything was Mahito's hands.

'This is the pinnacle of cursed techniques I couldn't reach. To use cursed techniques which transfigures the soul, he probably need to touch someone with his palm. But now that I'm in his domain, I'm literally in the hands of the opponent.' Nanami thought.

"Just because I couldn't touch you before, you thought you could exorcise me? Now that you're in my palms, I can transfigure your soul now! haha" Mahito grinned.

"Not so fast. You know, Gojo sensei said when two people use Domain Expansion at the same time, the more refined sorcery will win and I've always wanted to test that out." Sachiko said lightly as she activated her domain expansion. "Domain Expansion."

"Myriad Possibilities."

The hands wrapping all over the space vanished and they were all transported into an endless dark space with an ocean as the floor.

"What..what is happening? How did you defeat my domain?" Mahito asked in confusion.

"Isn't it obvious? That means my Jujutsu is more refined than yours." Sachiko replied.

"It's impossible!!"

Sachiko ignored Mahito and asked, "Nanami san, is there anything you wanna ask him?"

"Please ask him about the teenager, Junpei." Nanami answered with a nod.

"Okay then." Sachiko said then asked Mahito, "Tell me why you caused the three deaths in that cinema. And what's your relationship with Junpei? What do you plan to do with him?"

Mahito replied after a while, "I did it to draw the attention of Junpei. Then, I told him about Jujutsu sorcerers on purpose and to be nice to them. If he had a good relationship with Itadori Yuuji, Itadori Yuuji would save him when I kill him,right? So, I wanted to use him to make Itadori agree to a binding vow with Sukuna. Or if Junpei could push him so hard that his life is in danger, he would be forced to agree to a binding vow with Sukuna."

"And how do you plan to kill Junpei?" She asked.

"The current Junpei is still against taking lives for revenge so I...I'm going to use Sukuna's finger to attract curses into his house and kill his mother to push him to the edge. Then, I'll kill him if Itadori wasn't defeated by him." Mahito replied.

"Where is Sukuna's finger then?" She asked.

"I...I already gave it to another curse to carry out the plan." He answered.

"Is that so? How about your relationship with that mysterious one earlier?"

"We only teamed up together for a goal where cursed spirits would replace humans." Just after saying this, Mahito's eyes widened. How come he ended up revealing his plans?

"I see. That's all I need to know for now." Sachiko said after taking a while to control the shock. Who would've known those curses were working together for a terrifying goal?

"Die by getting your soul slowly destroyed, Mahito. It's a payback for what you've done to those humans." She said coldly after that.

Then, Mahito screamed as he felt unbearable pain deep in his soul. "What is this power..?!"

"I just said I can literally control and command everything in this domain. Thank you for demonstrating your cursed technique to me earlier. And goodbye, Mahito." She said as she watched Mahito's soul getting destroyed.

"...." Nanami was speechless. What kind of power is that? She could literally just say anything in this domain and that would come true?

After a few minutes, Mahito's soul got completely destroyed and Sachiko successfully exorcised another special grade curse.

"Oh, I wasn't actually holding back while fighting with Mahito earlier. The reason why I could destroy his soul now was because I knew how his cursed energy flowed to use his technique and learned how to deal fatal damage to his soul after fighting with him. Please don't get me wrong." Sachiko explained after getting out of the domain. And it was true. If she used domain expansion earlier to exorcise Mahito before understanding how his cursed technique worked, she couldn't have destroyed his soul. The most she could've done was damage his soul to some extent by making him watch the endless possibilities. Her domain expansion still depended on her own strength, after all.

"...Okay, let's just leave first." Nanami said after a while.

Sachiko nodded and walked out of the tunnel with Nanami.

"Nanani san, are you alright?"

She asked when they were outside. She then looked at Nanami's injuries. He was stabbed in the stomach and a few ribs were broken. His inner organs were also damaged when he was handchopped by that mysterious figure.

Nanami nodded.

"Alright. I'll heal your injuries now." Sachiko said.

"I didn't have a chance to ask earlier. You can use reversed curse technique?"

"Yeah. I mean it's because of my cursed technique that I can control and manipulate cursed energy anyway I want. So, it wasn't that difficult for me multiply it with another source of cursed energy to heal. However, it still took some practice for me to use it whenever I want. But, now I can use it as long as I have enough cursed energy."

"So, that's how it is." Nanami nodded and as Sachiko used reverse cursed technique, he could see his injuries healing rapidly. It didn't take more than ten seconds to heal completely.

'What a terrifying power.. It seems the rumors weren't exaggerating after all.' Nanami thought. No matter how he thought about it, she was strong.

"Right, Nanami san, that mysterious figure..do you think it was even a curse or was it a curse user?"

She didn't have a good glance at that mysterious figure but it was more likely a curse user than a curse.

"It's more likely a curse user."

"That's what I thought too. But to think that a curse user is collaborating with curses of that caliber and even had a terrifying goal. I could almost see a war.."

Sachiko replied with a sigh.

"I'm afraid that is the case. "

Nanami agreed.

"Well, let's just go back first and meet with Itadori and Ijichi san for now! We still need to discuss Junpei's case." Sachiko said.

"Alright. I'll call Ijichi and to pick us up." Nanami said.

"Or we can just show up at whatever they're now!" Sachiko replied with a grin.

"No." Nanami shook his head. But, he knew it was nowhere near enough to stop Sachiko as he literally got dragged to Junpei's house in the end.