Chapter 59 — You Can Use Domain Expansion Too?
Boom!
Zen'in Maki watched as the wooden door of the room suddenly tore free from its frame and blasted outward. A second thunderous crash followed as it slammed into something outside—but its momentum didn't slow at all, continuing to rocket away down the hallway.
Through the swirling dust, Ren stood calmly in the doorway.
In one hand he held a porcelain cup, casually taking a sip of the hot milk tea he had just poured from the drink machine.
"I was wondering why you were so busy you forgot to eat," he said lazily. "The buffet's about to close and you still didn't show up. Turns out you picked up some overtime work."
Maki's face flushed red, her eyes slightly unfocused as she stared at the boy's figure standing in the haze.
A faint smile struggled onto her lips.
Finally… you made it, Ren.
"Though that scream wasn't yours—" Ren glanced at the woman lying nearby, noticing Maki's cursed tool stuck in her abdomen. He looked puzzled. "Is that how you send signals for help?"
"Is that how Tokyo Jujutsu High teaches you to treat civilians?"
"I—I didn't hit anything vital," Maki said weakly.
Maybe she should have shouted for help herself. But that would have been humiliating.
And more importantly—
The cursed spirit's strange technique had been building up inside her body, almost pushing her past the limits of her self-control. At the time she had genuinely feared that if she opened her mouth to scream, what came out might not be a normal cry for help—
…but some twisted sound instead.
If that happened, she would rather die.
And besides… a sound like that probably wouldn't have worked as a distress signal anyway.
"Wait—"
Ren turned his head toward her voice.
Only then did he finally notice Maki lying in the corner of the room.
Through the haze of dust he couldn't see clearly, but her posture and voice made it obvious something was wrong.
"How are you?"
He dashed forward in a single step and crouched beside her, concern in his eyes.
"Ah!"
The next second he suddenly jumped back.
Then he rushed away, grabbed a bedsheet, and immediately returned, draping it over Maki to cover the exposed skin outside her bath towel. His pale face flushed slightly.
"I—"
Maki knew this wasn't the time to worry about that.
Even though it was humiliating, the most urgent thing right now was to share the information she had learned.
"Be careful," she said awkwardly, her voice trembling.
"That cursed spirit's technique… it—it works by touching the body—"
"Hah—!"
"—it stimulates a person's… desires—"
She struggled to steady her breathing.
"Don't… don't let it touch you."
Even as she spoke, Maki reached out and lightly ran her fingers along the boy's arm.
"A-and… some of the ordinary people in this inn… have already been controlled by it. Y-you… you need to be careful…"
She could hear the pounding of blood inside her head. Her temples throbbed as if her mind were being scorched by flames.
For some reason, even though her savior had finally arrived—though she only needed to endure a little longer—her resistance was collapsing at an alarming speed.
All she wanted… all she wanted was—
Ren listened as Maki spoke in ragged breaths.
Her cheeks were flushed, her breathing hot. He suddenly noticed that the way she looked at him seemed strange—her bright eyes almost too bright.
She stuck out her rosy tongue and licked her lips.
"Ren… don't… don't get hurt…"
Lowering her head, she pressed her cheek against the arm she was holding. Her warm lips brushed against the back of his hand.
"You have to come back… come back to my side… and then we… we…"
Ren suddenly felt a damp sensation spreading across the back of his hand.
"Cough—!"
He jolted and quickly pulled his hand away.
"It's okay," he said, placing a steady hand on Maki's shoulder and leaning her gently against the wall.
"I'll deal with that thing and get you back to normal."
Then, as Maki's unfocused gaze drifted and she instinctively leaned her head again toward his arm, Ren rose swiftly to his feet.
At the same moment, accompanied by an enraged roar, the cursed spirit he had blasted away earlier leapt back onto the half-destroyed balcony.
It looked like a huge wooden tub.
Carved into the planks were jack-o'-lantern-like eyes, ears, and a mouth. From the top and bottom of the tub extended dozens of long, liquid-like tentacles, each ending in a vaguely human hand.
A few tentacles supported its body against the ground while the rest whipped wildly through the air.
"Get lost!" it roared, opening its massive mouth. Water sloshed violently from the top of its body.
"Lord Bath doesn't want male slaves!"
At the tip of one of its liquid tentacles, a human-like hand rapidly expanded, forming a bathtub-sized fist that smashed toward Ren.
Remembering Maki's warning, Ren condensed cursed energy around his own fist and punched forward.
Boom!
The cursed spirit shrieked again as its enormous fist shattered, liquid splashing everywhere.
"You—!"
"Human! Let's see how many hands you've got!"
Seventeen or eighteen tentacles lashed forward at once. In an instant the air howled with wind as a storm of bathtub-sized fists came crashing toward Ren.
"When my technique lands on you, you'll go hump a wall!"
Ren's mouth twitched. A cold smile spread across his face.
"So you like using hands, huh?"
"Void Path Technique No. 6 — True Thousand Hands."
Countless arms formed from cursed energy burst out behind Ren. Each arm seized one of the tentacles reaching toward him and yanked hard.
"GAAAAH!" the cursed spirit screamed in agony.
"I'll kill you!" Layer upon layer of furious roars echoed through the cramped room. "You stupid male! How dare you interrupt Lord Bath's enjoyment! Lord Bath will kill—kill you!"
The water inside its wooden tub body rippled violently as two more liquid tentacles shot out.
But these tentacles didn't attack Ren.
Instead, they entwined with each other, the ten human-like fingers forming a strange hand seal.
"Domain Expansion!"
Ren's expression changed instantly. His scalp tingled.
Another domain?
Within just a few days, I've run into two cursed spirits capable of Domain Expansion?
As the spirit's roar echoed, the scenery around them changed in an instant.
The ordinary inn room vanished.
In its place appeared a steaming hot spring surrounded by thick mist. Along the edges of the spring and within the water lay countless naked women, their bodies sprawled out as they let out soft, alluring moans.
A mental landscape manifesting into reality—
This was indeed a domain, a genuine one.
Without hesitation, Ren immediately deployed a Simple Domain.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
More massive hands shot out from the cursed spirit toward him.
Ren swung his arms repeatedly, unleashing slashing attacks that cut down the incoming limbs.
But the arms emerging from the spirit seemed endless. Each time he cut one down, another replaced it.
Wait…
After a moment of stalemate, Ren suddenly felt something strange.
This "domain" didn't seem quite right.
A complete Domain Expansion should guarantee certain hit and certain kill. According to what he had learned recently, attacks inside a domain shouldn't travel like normal attacks—they should appear directly on the target or on the Simple Domain used to block them.
But this cursed spirit's attacks were still launching from its own body, just like before.
He could clearly see the trajectory of every strike.