I'm not going to be an Spirit! (Translate)

Looking at the sick smile on the woman's face, he was deeply depressed.

His heart sank to the bottom, but his rich experience made him ready for battle in an instant.

At this moment, he even felt the emotion called fear for the first time in a long time.

At the same time, he finally understood where the ominous feeling that had been lingering in his mind from the beginning came from.

This woman... has been treating herself as food from the very beginning!

He revealed his real name without hesitation, just to force him to take action!

Since fulfilling her wish requires a huge amount of cursed energy, then in her eyes, I, who possess the ability to manipulate cursed energy, must be a rare delicacy in the world, right?

"What a lunatic."

Noritoshi scoffed, shaking his head.

He had always thought that in others' eyes, he was crazy enough.

But compared to the madwoman in front of him, he was far too rational.

At least he knew how to cooperate with others—gathering curse users and cursed spirits into his faction to wage war against the entire Jujutsu world.

But this woman?

Not only does she seek to oppose Jujutsu sorcerers—she even considers curse users and cursed spirits her enemies.

What does it mean to be the enemy of the world?

This is what it means!

"Calm down. I'm not your enemy."

Before meeting Nightmare, Noritoshi never thought he would ever utter such conciliatory words to another.

He had thought today's plan would be simple:

If Nightmare was a cursed spirit—he'd subdue her and make her another pawn under his control.

If Nightmare was human—he'd persuade her, form a mutually beneficial alliance.

If she refused—then they'd part peacefully.

But nothing about Nightmare had gone according to his expectations.

Now, he even felt a faint possibility of being hunted himself.

It sounded ridiculous—

But it was the reality.

Even though he still had many trump cards left to play—

Even with a millennium's worth of accumulated knowledge and strength—

Facing someone who possibly had also survived since ancient times like himself,

without knowing her full capabilities, Noritoshi did not dare to act recklessly.

Unless he had no other choice—he would never choose to engage in a battle with this woman.

"Listen, instead of hunting me, I think you should go after Satoru Gojo—the current Six Eyes bearer."

Since the situation hadn't reached a point of total collapse yet, Noritoshi tried to steer the situation in a different direction, throwing out a suggestion that could potentially save his life:

"Perhaps you don't know—Satoru Gojo, with his Limitless Cursed Technique and Six Eyes, has already become the strongest being in the world. Anyone wanting to fulfill a wish through cursed energy would naturally end up drawing his attention and becoming hunted by him."

Divert the danger.

That was Noritoshi tactic.

Since he couldn't tame this woman—

He'd at least redirect this lunatic's attention elsewhere.

Although many things about Nightmare had gone beyond his expectations—

He was confident about one guess:

She was also wary of Satoru Gojo.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have remained hidden for years, only reappearing recently.

Perhaps she now felt she had some ability to contend with him.

But Gojo threat was likely still substantial to her.

Otherwise, she should be fighting Gojo right now instead of randomly wandering and coincidentally discovering where Sukuna fingers were hidden.

"Mmm… What you say does make sense." Nightmare nodded slightly.

"Good. Then from now on, you go your way, I go mine. Let's just pretend tonight never happened."

"But... I refuse!"

Just as Noritoshi began to breathe a sigh of relief, a voice of rejection echoed from the darkness.

His expression immediately froze.

At the same time—he saw that Kurumi now held a pair of flintlock pistols—one long, one short.

His pupils instantly shrank to pinpricks.

He hadn't gathered intel on Nightmare for nothing.

He knew all too well—her weapons were a pair of flintlock-style cursed tools of special grade.

The condensed cursed energy bullets they fired—

Could easily pierce through the defenses of even special-grade cursed spirits.

"Infinite Abyss!"

Noritoshi swiftly activated his cursed technique: Cursed Spirit Manipulation.

He summoned one of the special-grade cursed spirits stored within him—the Giant Catfish, and used its technique.

In the Edo period, folklore emerged about a giant catfish living underground, believed to cause earthquakes when it stirred.

That fear and superstition gave birth to this cursed spirit.

Its technique—Infinite Abyss—induced hallucinations akin to standing at the edge of a bottomless chasm, causing the target to lose balance.

The next moment—Kurumi footing became unsteady, as if she were falling into an endless void.

She swayed slightly under the illusion.

"Bang!"

But even the slightest sway was enough to throw off her aim.

The cursed bullet missed its mark.

His counterattack, however, was effective!

Seeing Kurumi, affected by the illusion, collapse to the ground, Noritoshi eyes shone with cautious optimism.

Just as he prepared to launch a follow-up attack—

He noticed something strange—

Nightmare, lying on the ground, didn't try to stand up.

Instead, her body melted into the earth, as if she truly were falling into the abyss.

"What?"

Noritoshi expression changed.

Because the Infinite Abyss was a purely hallucinatory technique—

It didn't actually create a real abyss.

"No… Nightmare turned the tables and used her own cursed technique!"

His confusion didn't last long.

Noritoshi suddenly recalled some of the scattered intelligence reports about Nightmare.

The few survivors who had escaped her grasp had revealed bits of intel—

Not just about her weapons, but also about her technique.

Although the Jujutsu world had never reached a consensus about what Nightmare cursed technique actually was—

There was one ability that every survivor agreed upon:

Shadow Infiltration.

Nightmare could dive into shadows at will, and reappear wherever shadows existed.

That was why the Top Brass in the Jujutsu world feared her so much.

It wasn't just because of her overwhelming strength—

But because her elusive ability made her the perfect assassin.

Noritoshi instinctively turned around—

Just as he had guessed, Nightmare had appeared behind him!

"Kuro Mukuro (Black Death)!"

However, this time, he wasn't using a cursed technique, but directly summoning a cursed spirit.

With his summons, a powerful cursed spirit appeared beside him, towering like a human but grotesque in form—resembling a giant cockroach.

The cockroach-like cursed spirit held a kitchen knife covered in dense insect eggs, a sight that immediately made one's skin crawl.

This was Kurourushi—a special grade cursed spirit born from humanity's negative emotions towards cockroaches, one of the sixteen special grade cursed spirits registered by Japan's Jujutsu world.

"Hold her down!"

With an order from him, Kurourushi, under his control, charged toward Tokisaki Kurumi who had just revealed herself, wielding its cleaver and twitching antennae like a death soldier.

A flicker of excitement flashed in Tokisaki Kurumi eyes. She aimed her gun at the suicidal Kurourushi charging toward her.

Special grade cursed spirit—another head for her collection!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Two spiritual bullets fired—one aimed at Kurourushi head, two more at its chest.

Although cursed spirits were notoriously hard to kill, that only applied if they didn't suffer fatal injuries.

For most cursed spirits, losing an arm or leg wasn't fatal—but getting their head blown apart? That was essentially a death sentence.

Still, considering how cockroaches could continue living even after their heads were crushed, and that Kurourushi might possess similar traits, Kurumi made sure to fire extra rounds for good measure.

Unexpectedly, Kurourushi human-like hands began forming hand signs.

Squish squish squish!

Three pale larvae squirmed out from its body.

Fluttering their wings, the larvae flew straight into the path of the spirit bullets, attempting to shield their mother from fatal harm.

But those three larvae—barely even second-grade cursed spirits—how could they possibly stop the attack?

They were instantly blasted into pieces, and the bullets continued, piercing straight through Kurourushi body.

Just as Tokisaki Kurumi had predicted.

Even with its head blown apart, Kurourushi was not exorcised.

Its shattered body was quickly repaired by waves of hatching insect eggs, restoring it to pristine condition in the blink of an eye.

"Tch…"

Kurumi clicked her tongue in displeasure.

This cursed spirit had gone toe-to-toe with special grade jujutsu sorcerer Yuta Okkotsu in the original work—at one point even gaining the upper hand.

If Yuta hadn't injected reverse cursed energy directly into its body, disrupting it on a structural level, he might not have won.

But the problem was—Kurumi didn't know how to use reverse cursed techniques.

In that case, there was only one stupid option left.

Wear it down little by little—draining its cursed energy until it could no longer recover!

Watching the Nightmares entangle with Kurourushi, he thought to himself with cold confidence:

Kurourushi defeat was inevitable—but that didn't matter. He never expected to take down a Nightmare with just one special grade cursed spirit.

As long as he could buy time, that was enough.

Taking a deep breath and calming himself, he began shaping the foundation of a barrier within his body.

Few knew that, besides being a sorcerer, he was also a barrier master.

In fact, a highly skilled one.

Throughout history, there may have only been one barrier master more powerful than him.

"This place forbids shadows."

In just a few dozen seconds, the outline of the barrier had formed clearly in his mind.

As the barrier unfolded, all shadows within a fifty-meter radius vanished—including his own.

This way, he no longer needed to fear surprise attacks from the Nightmare.

Meanwhile, in those short seconds, Kurourushi had received over a hundred fatal wounds. Its self-healing and combat ability plummeted drastically.

From the shadows emerged multiple pale arms, grabbing its body and dragging it into the darkness.

This time, it could no longer escape—it vanished from this world.

He didn't spare even a second to mourn Kurourushi demise, because the next moment, history's most wicked cursed user arrived on the battlefield—himself.

"Domain Expansion!"

Not daring to underestimate the Nightmare for even a moment, after establishing the anti-shadow barrier, he immediately activated his ultimate move:

"Womb of a Thousand Sorrows."

A twisted demonic tree erupted from the ground—its trunk covered in horrific faces, including upside-down pregnant women. Beneath the tree sat three eerie monks with their palms pressed together, seemingly brewing curses and wrath in an infernal womb.

So it came after all!

Tokisaki Kurumi narrowed her eyes and unleashed her own domain without hesitation.

This was the very moment he had been preparing for—a confrontation of domains!

A domain expansion typically manifested as a closed space, locking enemies inside, rendering them unable to escape.

Combined with its guaranteed hit effect, unless one possessed a simple domain or a more powerful domain, there was only death.

Both open and closed domains retained the "guaranteed hit" mechanic.

In the original story, special grade jujutsu sorcerer Yuki Tsukumo also had to deploy a simple domain inside the Womb of a Thousand Sorrows to avoid fatal attacks.

An open domain only sacrificed the closed space advantage to cover a much larger area—yet it was also harder to destroy from the outside, giving it a significant edge.

Seeing the Nightmare step into his domain, he smiled coldly.

Though she seemed to have deployed some strange simple domain, it didn't matter—he, as a master of barriers, had ways to strip away even simple domains piece by piece.

Ten seconds—no, even less—and he would dismantle her simple domain entirely.

After that, she would be like a fish without scales, completely at his mercy.

As for using domain expansion to counter another domain expansion?

Impossible.

Throughout history, those who could use open domains were extremely rare. Even Satoru Gojo could only use closed domains!

However, his rising confidence quickly faded when he saw that Tokisaki Kurumi was still wearing a calm and cold smile.

"At a time like this, I believe this is the proper line to say, right?"

Her lips curved into a twisted smile.

"Domain Expansion."

From her feet, shadows spread like tidal waves, resembling the mouth of a monster ready to devour.

"City of Devouring Time"

In the next moment, crimson descended.