Shoes.
Sandals.
Footwear.
Since ancient times, they have been used by humans to protect their legs from uneven land, spikes, dirt, weather changes, and even as a fashion statement.
However, there are a few other uses as well, like in the hand of an angry parent, where it would be a deadly weapon.
And at times like these, where I felt everything slow down upon Mahito's hands drawing close to Nobara's face, and I could feel it.
Having nothing else to stop him with, I did the only thing I could.
I intentionally lost the shoe I stole from Megumi, which was already loose to begin with, and with all my might, flicked it hard with a kick towards them.
Just as Nobara's face was almost touched by Mahito, a curse energy-infused projectile appeared between them out of nowhere, hitting right on Nobara's beautiful face and sending the stylish girl flying back with a deafening sound of cheek clapping.
Nobara's entire face distorted into various shapes if seen in slow motion, most likely generating comments like not cute at all if this were a YouTube video.
Bang…
Nobara was almost knocked out, I was even surprised that the girl was still groaning and clutching her face with curses flowing out of her mouth instead of hammer and nails, still conscious.
"Hmm… in my defence, I was aiming for the curse." I said with an apologetic expression.
Mahito had barely missed her face and had run past her with his inertia. He looked at the discarded shoe and then at my leg with a pouty face, like saying, 'that's not fair.'
Nobara finally removed her hand from her face, a reddish print of the underside of the shoe was left behind, almost reminding me of this one character from that pirate anime I couldn't recall the name of.
Damn, perhaps not all the memories were back.
"You !"
She fixed her deadly eyes on me, blood running down her nose, and that made my own blood lose a degree of its temperature.
"Hmm… sorry, but I honestly was aiming for the curse."
I gave her my best apologetic look while trying to avoid her deadly glare, which promised pain and vengeance.
"Do you know how much it costs to get a facial spa in Tokyo… do you have any idea?" She raged. For a second, Mahito was forgotten, she got up like nothing happened and marched up to me, hammer in hand, like a war general on the march.
"And who are you? I don't remember any student in Jujutsu High besides those I have already met before." Her eyes narrowed, giving me that suspicious look.
"Do I look like a student to you?"
"You're not? Then why are you wearing the Jujutsu Tech uniform?"
"Even Gojo wears it." I shrugged.
Nobara paused, having nothing to refute that. But she once again honed back on me. "Don't try to change the subject, you don't look that old, most likely my age. So, tell me, who are you?"
My eyes were flickering between her and Mahito, who seemed to be patiently waiting for us to finish.
Gotta say, even this world's villains are different, at least they are more understanding. A curse made of human behavior indeed.
"Can we focus on the curse for now, please?" I said, and shamelessly refused to look back at her. Eventually, she had to break off her glare, but not before she stated, "We are not done about this matter, you're paying for my next spa visit."
And there it was, another debt to a girl I barely knew.
I slowly drew closer to Mahito while lazily taking off the other shoe as well, maintaining balance when the fight breaks out and all.
"Name's Nobara Kugisaki. First year at Tokyo Jujutsu Tech…"
Surprisingly, Nobara walked beside me, not planning to let me handle the curse alone. And knowing that she was among the few who could actually hurt Mahito, I was all for it.
We walked a little further, until a tick mark formed on her face. "Oi, I just introduced myself, it's bad manners if you don't do that, you know." She chided with irritation building in.
"Hmm…." I pursed my lips, I still couldn't remember my name.
"For some unexplainable circumstances, I can't disclose my name right now."
That only seemed to deepen her suspicion.
"Tch…, whatever, don't get in my way," she snorted and turned to Mahito.
'Come on… at least a little thank you for saving your life.' I never said those words, but I wanted to.
'Such a bi—'
Before I could complete that line of thought, Mahito had decided that he was done watching, he was already next to me with all the intention to end it in one go.
A sneak attack, it was so quick that Nobara's earlier nonchalant and petty attitude all but evaporated.
"Look out." She shouted, but it was already too late. The hand drew near and landed right on my chest with a soft thump.
Nobara, for all her eccentric personality, wasn't dumb enough to not know what I was trying to do back there. I saved her life, and now upon seeing I might be the one dying, her panic blossomed full-blown.
Nails were already between her fingers, ready to hammer them down at Mahito's very soul. But before she could do that, Mahito himself seemed to lose his earlier mirth.
"Why is it not working?" He murmured, palm digging ever so slightly deeper into my chest to make sure the contact was established.
I wasn't just standing around either, before he could move back, my punch was already at his face.
It landed right on his face, deforming it and sending the curse back with enough power that he hit the wall with a sickening thud.
Mahito's body slumped down, shaken. His head felt like it was spinning from that direct hit, his hand subconsciously came to his face and wiped something leaking there.
Blood. It was his blood.
That first actually hurt him.
"You know, every technique has its weakness. We just have to find it." I replied with a grinned face, having recently figured out exactly how I can hurt him.
Even Nobara on the side raised her brows at this, so besides herself and Yuji, there was someone else who could beat this dude.
Mahito's spinning vision finally came to a stop and his eyes fixed onto me like a prey that had suddenly found its target had fangs of its own.
His eyes darted around me, trying to figure out how I hurt him until he sensed it.
"That technique." His eyes narrowed with a hiss.
"Yup, just picked it up from your friend Jogo. Took me a while to figure out, but it wasn't that hard." I shrugged, in turn making Mahito frown at the revelation.
"Domain Amplification." He said with a spat.
A big bright smile plastered on my face.
"Yup, it's a pretty nice technique once you try it out." I grinned, confusing Nobara who had no idea what this technique was.
Jogo knew the technique; most likely he learned it to deal with Gojo specifically. Since I had his powers and memories, I in concept knew how to use the technique.
I could have immediately used the technique if I still possessed his powers, but no can do.
Instead, I had to figure it out by recalling how I saw him using it and the intel I saw inside his memories.
Since the technique can bypass Gojo's infinity by negating his technique completely, I had a suspicion that it would work on Mahito as well.
And my assumptions were correct, Mahito is keeping the shape of his soul intact so he doesn't take damage even when his body is injured.
But, if domain amplification can negate that effect, it will hurt him.
"Oi, are you two done talking? I have other places to be." She butted in and pointed at me.
"You can hurt him, right?"
"Yeah." I nodded.
"Good, then you're not completely useless."
I just rolled my eyes at this, the girl sure has an attitude problem.
"Now we are gonna do it how it's been taught to us at school." She smirked.
I raised my brows, honestly surprised they actually learn something in that school, the anime sure didn't show everything.
"And what's that?"
She grinned, "We're gonna jump him."
My smile froze...
'Of course,' I had my hopes up for nothing.
xXx
A/N : Okay someone predicted I'll be doing that with the shoe, won't name him though.
By the way, did you guys knew domain amplification can hurt Mahito? I didn't knew until I did a little bit of research. All originated from the curiosity of knowing how Mechamaru hurt Mahito.
The answer was simple domain, and I thought, well if simple domain can then domain amplification could as well right !
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