Chapter 354 The Excited Tiger Stick and the Secretly Prepared Sukuna

“You bastard.”

Ryomen Sukuna glared furiously at Eichi, who was critiquing him.

He wished he could devour Eichi alive right now.

But he couldn’t.

With only one finger’s worth of power, Sukuna couldn’t even fully activate his Domain, let alone defeat Eichi.

Sukuna’s gaze fell upon the pitch-black Domain, as if he could see its edges through the endless darkness.

Whoosh!

A strengthened Dismantle was unleashed, an invisible slash silently disappearing into the darkness.

“So that’s it, he’s protecting the inner wall of the Domain with shadows.”

Sukuna’s last hope of escape, the method of breaking the Domain from within, had also failed.

Because he was facing Sukuna’s open Domain.

So Eichi had reversed the conditions inside and outside the Domain from the start, strengthening the Domain’s outer shell.

Then he had the shadows within the Domain cover its edges, forming a defensive wall to protect the interior.

“This guy, why isn’t he making a move yet?”

Sukuna’s four eyes narrowed slightly, trying to discern Eichi, who was covered in shadows.

He didn’t understand why Eichi, who had him completely cornered, still wasn’t acting.

“Cat and mouse? It feels a bit off.”

Sukuna enjoyed playing cat and mouse, so he could tell that Eichi’s current behavior wasn’t like a game of cat and mouse.

Sukuna was contemplating Eichi’s objective, which would be beneficial for his future actions.

But Eichi paid no attention to Sukuna’s behavior.

“How does it feel? Is it fun inside the shadows?”

Looking at Megumi Fushiguro, who was slowly emerging from the shadows beside him, Eichi reached out and pulled him out.

Fortunately, shadows wouldn’t drench a person like water, otherwise Megumi Fushiguro would have gone from a battle-damaged beauty to a battle-damaged soaking wet beauty.

…”It’s amazing, completely opposite to the world as I know it.”

After a moment of pause, Megumi Fushiguro shared his thoughts.

“Erect a completely blank Barrier around you, then imagine what that world looks like, and load your shadows onto it.”

Eichi continued to guide him.

In the original story, Megumi Fushiguro had grasped Domain Expansion in his first year of high school, but due to insufficient knowledge of Barrier Techniques, he couldn’t seal the Domain and could only use the terrain as an outer shell to expand it.

Eichi, knowing this in advance, naturally made early preparations.

One could say that having a teacher and figuring things out on your own are two completely different concepts.

At least in the initial stages, those with a teacher progress much faster than those who figure things out on their own.

With Eichi, who also possessed the Ten Shadows Technique, as his mentor, Megumi Fushiguro in this lifetime was stronger in both the Ten Shadows Technique and Barrier Techniques than in the original.

Megumi Fushiguro spread his hands, Cursed Energy flowing in his palms.

A hemispherical Barrier rose beside him.

This Barrier was completely blank and capable of loading any Cursed Technique.

Megumi Fushiguro began to imagine how his shadows would flow, how they would expand, how they would attach… Time passed little by little, and with references all around, Megumi Fushiguro quickly controlled his shadows to enter the Barrier.

“Very good, now begin to load your Ten Shadows Technique onto the Barrier.”

Megumi Fushiguro nodded and began to form hand seals, carefully loading his Shikigami onto the Barrier.

Crack, crack, crack.

The Barrier shattered.

“Alright, although it’s a bit off, it’s progress nonetheless.”

Eichi didn’t regret Megumi Fushiguro’s failure.

In his opinion, since Megumi Fushiguro had already taken this step, understanding Domain Expansion was only a matter of time.

What Megumi Fushiguro needed now was a little stimulus, something to make him go wild.

It was almost time for the Juvenile Detention Center incident. At that time, he would see if it could stimulate Megumi Fushiguro. If not, he would have Suguru Geto secretly control a Cursed Spirit to push him.

Eichi didn’t intend to interfere too much with the Juvenile Detention Center incident; he only needed to ensure that Yuji Itadori wouldn’t form a binding vow with Sukuna.

Because the Juvenile Detention Center incident was an important growth experience for everyone. Yuji Itadori learned what it felt like to die and understood his inner self.

Megumi Fushiguro and Nobara Kugisaki also witnessed the true nature of the Jujutsu Sorcerer path, completely shattering the fantasies in the hearts of the young boy and girl.

It could be said that the Juvenile Detention Center incident was the first lesson for them to truly step into the cruel Jujutsu World.

“After the Juvenile Detention Center incident, I need to resolve Megumi’s personality issues as soon as possible.”

Megumi Fushiguro had a significant personality problem: he tended to undervalue himself.

In other words, Megumi Fushiguro wasn’t selfish enough; he always thought of others.

Coupled with the existence of Mahoraga, the strongest Shikigami in the Ten Shadows Technique.

This gave Megumi Fushiguro the idea that in necessary situations, he only needed to sacrifice himself to save others.

Therefore, during his usual practice, Megumi Fushiguro always had a “good enough, good enough” feeling, which caused him to always be “a little short, just a little short” when sparring with Eichi and Toji Fushiguro.

Megumi Fushiguro’s current mindset was to win by dying, not to win even if he had to die.

This was also why Eichi had not helped Megumi Fushiguro tame Mahoraga.

If this mentality wasn’t resolved, Megumi Fushiguro wouldn’t be able to become a top-tier powerhouse, and might even struggle to surpass Kento Nanami.

As a Jujutsu Sorcerer, if you self-destruct every time you encounter a desperate situation, how can you grow?

One must know that Gojo Satoru had evaluated Megumi Fushiguro’s talent as no less than Yuji Itadori’s.

However, due to personality issues, this talent could not be fully utilized.

“I’m going to be busy for a while now.”

Just as Eichi was pondering Megumi Fushiguro’s problem, Sukuna finally couldn’t hold back and decided to go all out.

A powerful slash was unleashed towards Megumi Fushiguro, but it was blocked by a sudden rising shadow wall before it could get close.

“Tch, it really didn’t work, huh?”

Feeling Sukuna’s rapidly decaying Cursed Energy, Eichi knew Sukuna was almost done for.

“Yuji~ Time to wake up.”

The next second, Sukuna’s four eyes lost their focus, and a feeling of powerlessness filled his entire body.

“There he goes again, just who is this brat named Yuji Itadori?”

The moment Yuji Itadori’s consciousness returned, Eichi also dispelled his Domain.

“Sigh, it’s that annoying Cursed Technique Burnout again.”

The feeling of a Shikigami user being unable to summon Shikigami was truly uncomfortable.

“How does it feel?”

“It’s amazing! I can also control slashes like him, ‘whoosh, whoosh, whoosh,’ or control shadows like you,’swish, swish, swish…'”

It was clear that Yuji Itadori was very excited after witnessing the battle between Sukuna and Eichi.

Although he was a typical big-hearted protagonist, Yuji Itadori couldn’t hide his excitement when he first encountered such power that only existed in fantasy.

“‘Swish, swish, swish’ isn’t going to happen; that’s my and Megumi’s unique Cursed Technique. But ‘whoosh, whoosh, whoosh’ is possible. Although you don’t have a Cursed Technique, Sukuna is already residing in your body, so he’ll engrave his Cursed Technique onto your flesh sooner or later. Just consider it his rent.”

“Really? That’s awesome!”

Yuji Itadori happily started jumping up and down.

And Sukuna, within Yuji’s body, received two pieces of information at that moment.

One, Megumi Fushiguro’s Cursed Technique was indeed the Ten Shadows Technique, as he had suspected.

Two, Eichi wanted him to engrave his Cursed Technique into this brat’s body to help this Cursed Technique-less brat acquire a Cursed Technique.

A plan began to form in Sukuna’s mind.