Local Faith II

Shortly after having conversed with Geto, Arai meet up with Nanami and Haibara to their desired location. Their mission was just outside of Nagoya city within Aichi's Prefecture.

Their mission was simple. To exorcise a curse that had been wreaking havoc. It had killed over 20 civilians and a sorcerer was dispatched before but no response was answered back to them. The conclusion was that the sorcerer was dead and the curse must be a second grade curse.

"Still I don't why they dispatched all three of us to kill one grade two curse. Nanami and I can go on solo missions and beat it." Haibara muttered nonchalantly as he grabbed a snack and munched on it.

Arai snickered hearing this. "Well it's not confirmed to be a second grade. It can be a semi-grade 1 which is why Nanami is here. It's his first mission as a full-fledge semi-first grade sorcerer so I guess you can say that it's to fully prove himself to the Jujutsu higher-ups that he's competent."

"You know Arai, I don't like the higher-ups."

"That's surprising. I thought you would like everyone in the world before you die."

"No one likes people who manipulate everyone. Hiding behind the corrupted system just so that they can exploit it and gain power. Nobody likes people like that Arai, well that is if you're not one of them."

"Can we please focus on the mission?"

Nanami broke the conversation and walked ahead of them. They were at an abandoned shrine where the people worshiped their gods. Specifically the Japanese Gods Amaterasu Goddess of the Sun and Tsukuyomi God of the Moon.

Normally people in Japan don't really worship the Japanese Gods anymore. They are less religious than before especially when their world was developing faster and faster making the things like shrines only be represented in festivals or during specific events.

Only in rural areas like they were at could they find shrines like these around.

This one was definitely bigger than most as the shrine stood at a 18 meters tall with the symbol of the respective gods that the locals worshipped.

This shrine was actually made around 7 centuries ago and was still standing to this day. It was said that one of their ancestors who was an actual sorcerer built this to please the gods so that divine protection would come to protect them.

But the sorcerer left out one of the three gods of japanese culture.

Susanoo, the God of the Storm.

The sorcerer thought that the God was too destructive and wrathful so out of concern left that god out.

The God that saw this felt infuriated that a mere mortal ignored him and instead worshipped his siblings.

His wrath encompassed the village in the form of a storm and destroyed the sorcerer and his family.

He was about to do the same to the people living in the village but was stopped by his siblings who then had the humans make a promise to build a shrine and worship him. To never forget his wrath or they shall know pain.

"Gods... what a joke." Arai waved his hand dismissing the story. "If gods 'really' existed then they would come down here to rule us. They're not going to stay in Heaven and look down to us, they'll prefer their 'sheep' to follow them like good pets."

Haibara continuously nodded his head. "Honestly, I agree. It's not like the Gods will strike me down where I'm standing."

A lightning strike suddenly struck the shrine making it fall apart and crumble.

"""... """

The three stood there looking back at the shrine that was destroyed. The sky wasn't even dark nor was it raining but lightning fell down right when they were talking about gods.

"... alright moving on."

Moving on, they stepped into the grounds of the temple. It wasn't maintained anymore and had plants and vines grow everywhere. The smell was foul but not enough to break the three's composure.

The ground they were at at the back had a statue of a woman with black hair and a sword in her right arm. She wore a pink traditional kimono and had white makeup on her face.

Despite the temple being deserted, this statue was oddly maintained in good condition which made it seem out of place.

"That thing's not a curse but it's clean. Did the villagers forget to tell us that someone cleaned this statue recently?" Haibara asked curious but also on guard.

"Not that I know of, just stay on guard and let's keep looking for that curse."

They went past the statue but weirdly Arai couldn't get his mind off of it. It was odd, he could tell it wasn't a curse and even tried using his eyes to see if it had a mind but it didn't.

Yet it felt real. As in it had thoughts behind those eyes.

"Isao, stop standing around. Let's go." Nanami called him and he woke up from his stupor.

He wasn't one to lose his composure in a tense situation like this. It only happened twice including this moment. And the other one was when he saw Gojo and Toji fight.

Still, he put it in the back of his mind and kept going forward. Right now wasn't the time to idle by when a curse could attack you at any moment.

But that's when they began feeling something. The presence of multiple curses.

"That's a lot of them." Haibara commented but he didn't pull out his clay.

Because when they arrived at where they sensed the curses, all they saw were smoking remnant of curses. The curses were exorcised but there was no one here that could do that. All three of them looked at each other as they came to the same conclusion.

Civil War.

They had fought each other and tried to have one come up on top. Powerful curses don't group up with one another which is why when they see a curse go in their territory, they will fight and determine a champion.

The three of them widened their eyes as they felt a foreign powerful curse energy. They immediately jumped to the sides and avoided an attack. The attack was so powerful that it easily destroyed the stone floor.

Arai got back up after dodging the attack and chuckled nervously while pulling out his weapon and curse spirits.

"Second grade my ass! That's a first grade."

The curse spirit was at the center of the attack and got up.

The curse in front of them looked like an amalgamation of animals. A chimera of sorts, it sported an elephant's trunk, rhinoceros' eyes, an ox's tail, and a tiger's paws. It wore a black gown and had Chinese dialect written on it. It had Mala necklace on its neck and it was wrapped several times.

It's height reached 7 feet and its size was over 18 feet long.

The curse energy it was emitting equaled to that of a first grade.

But the thing about curse spirits like this was that it could have a great power. Although it wasn't in its fully realized state, it was still considered powerful.

That great power was the predecessor of a Domain Expansion.

Innate Domains.

The power to manifest your mind into reality. Innate Domains refer to both the mind and the predecessor of a Domain Expansion.

"Ar-are yo-you all right?" The curse spoke with a distorted voice. Like an echo that was ringing right next to your ear.

The three young sorcerers immediately realized the situation they were in.

Innate Domains although powerful would never be used by sorcerers. The reason being that it doesn't create a space unlike the Domain Expansion. It doesn't make its own territory which means an Innate Domain can't go up against a Domain Expansion. And the most known fact about Domain Expansions is that it has a guaranteed hit effect which an Innate Domain does not possess.

Using an Innate Domain when one makes a Domain Expansion is useless.

It requires years of training which most people would prefer to focus on their own innate techniques or Domain Expansions.

The second thing is that its range is much more limited than a Domain Expansion. So much so that it's just best to focus on your innate technique without a domain.

Lastly innate domains always need a condition. Whether it'd be to function or use the technique, there's always a condition that needs to be fulfilled.

Some Domain Expansion needs conditions but not all of them. An innate Domain is simply an extension of an innate technique.

The three who studied and learned about this knew what that curse spirit was talking about. It was a condition. A question that needed to be answered by the three of them or they won't be able to attack.

Haibara- "I'm as fine as one can be."

Arai- "The usual."

Nanami- "I'm well enough."

With the three answered the question, the condition had been fulfilled. They could now move but the curse spirit could now use its technique.

"Baku!"

The three student would now come face to face against an Innate Domain.