Malevolent Shrine (
Description
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The hand signs for Malevolent Shrine.
Befitting its name, Malevolent Shrine constructs a disfeatured Buddhist shrine (resembling an oversized zushi, or more vaguely a chinjudō) that has been distorted to instead enshrine demons. Several bovine skulls form the base of the shrine. The hip-and-gable roof has horns emerging from it, two smaller and closed mouths in each gable, and human skulls that hang down from it. The four entrances to the shrine are formed by four large, grotesque mouths, complete with humanlike teeth and tongues.[1][2] Another smaller mouth is present between the two layers of the roof. Four short, tree-like stumps with gnarled branches stand at each corner of the shrine.
In its alternate form, Malevolent Shrine takes a much more gruesome, eldritch appearance. It takes the form of a large mass of flesh, horns and teeth with multiple large eyes that stare in different directions. There are also patches of hair-like appendages throughout its body, along with four large curved horns at the top, two giant humanoid hands at the bottom and a spine-like appendage tapering down from the back.[3]
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Malevolent Shrine's sure-hit effect.
Malevolent Shrine's guaranteed-hit ability relentlessly slashes apart anything until nothing but dust remains of what has been caught in the effective range, via Sukuna's two types of slashing attacks: Cleave and Dismantle, which only cease when the domain is disengaged or Sukuna is so badly injured he can not sustain the domain anymore. Sukuna can set which of the two attacks to use against specific types of targets, such as using Dismantle for inanimate objects and Cleave for subjects with cursed energy.[4]
Sukuna has the divine ability to expand his domain without closing the barrier to create a separate space. This creates a binding vow due to allowing an escape route from the domain that enables him to expand the effective range of the guaranteed-hit up to a maximum radius of nearly 200 meters.[5] Furthermore, unlike other domains which operate with an outer shell like Unlimited Void and can be cancelled if the shell is destroyed, Malevolent Shrine cannot be destroyed by any normal means because of the lack of an enclosed barrier. The only way to effectively destroy Malevolent Shrine is to injure Sukuna to the point where he can no longer maintain the domain.[6][7]
Usage
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Malevolent Shrine relentlessly slashing its target.
Sukuna is a master of domain expansion and his Malevolent Shrine is equally refined as Satoru Gojo's Unlimited Void, capable of overpowering the vast majority of domains. With the power of only two fingers, Sukuna effortlessly cut a Finger Bearer, a special grade cursed spirit, to pieces immediately after opening Malevolent Shrine. Sukuna only expanded his domain against the Finger Bearer to display "true jujutsu".[8]
Sukuna unleashed Malevolent Shrine in Shibuya during his battle with Mahoraga. In order to overwhelm Mahoraga's adaptation ability and avoid hitting Megumi Fushiguro, Sukuna used his domain to unleash a torrent of slashing attacks over a 140-meter radius, narrowing down its range.[9] He set Malevolent Shrine to target anything within range with cursed energy using Cleave and used Dismantle for inanimate objects. This not only injured Mahoraga, but also massacred numerous civilians and cut off Toge Inumaki's arm as a result.[10]
Malevolent Shrine defeating Unlimited Void in a domain clash by destroying its outer shell.
During his battle with Satoru Gojo, Sukuna expanded his domain a total of three times. As previously mentioned, Malevolent Shrine can equal Unlimited Void in a domain clash, but that is only the case inside a barrier. Malevolent Shrine's range reached beyond Unlimited Void's barrier during the first clash of domains. With a domain's barrier being weak to attacks on its outer shell, Gojo's domain was crushed by Malevolent Shrine's slashing attacks and he was immediately struck by its can't-miss attack.[11]
Later in the fight, Sukuna revealed that he can change the conditions of his domain with a binding vow, such as removing Malevolent Shrine's guaranteed-hit effect within Unlimited Void's effective area and narrowing down its effective range similar to when it was used in Shibuya in exchange for increased power to counter Gojo's Unlimited Void's reinforced outer shell, collapsing it a second time.[12] On the third exchange, due to Gojo also changing his domain's condition in response, both domains collapsed simultaneously after three minutes due to Malevolent Shrine destroying Unlimited Void's barrier from the outside, but Satoru managing to damage Sukuna enough to the point where he can't maintain his domain.[13]
Sukuna is unable to maintain his domain due to his injury.
After a brief physical exchange, the two sorcerers expanded their domains at the same time once again. However, the outcome remained the same, and both domains collapsed simultaneously.[14] As Satoru punched Sukuna into a pillar, both fighters activated their domain expansions once more. However, Sukuna activated his less than one-hundredth of a second later due to having to heal his physical body using reverse cursed technique, thus delaying him from restoring his cursed technique. As a result, Unlimited Void was able to briefly immobilize him, allowing Satoru to severely wound him. The injury rendered Sukuna unable to maintain Malevolent Shrine after two minutes and forty seconds, causing it to collapse within Satoru's domain. Without his domain's guaranteed-hit effect negating Satoru's, Sukuna's mind was flooded with infinite yet incomplete information, immobilizing him and forcing him to summon Mahoraga to destroy the domain.[15]
Malevolent Shrine collapses before fully forming.
Afterwards, when Satoru attempted to expand his domain a sixth time but failed, Sukuna planned to finish their fight by expanding his own domain and enclosing it with a barrier to prevent Satoru from escaping. However, upon expanding Malevolent Shrine, it immediately collapsed as a result of the damage done to Sukuna's brain by Unlimited Void, which he was subjected to for a total of less than ten seconds. This prevented the King of Curses from using domain expansion for the remainder of his fight with the strongest sorcerer of modern times.[16]
"The king's domain returns to its master in a shower of black sparks."
After suffering seven consecutive Black Flashes from Yuji Itadori, Sukuna activated an impromptu Malevolent Shrine as a desperate measure. By changing the hand signs and using a part of his brain undamaged by Unlimited Void, Sukuna was able to unleash Malevolent Shrine with its full effective area and output while being invigorated with the effects of Black Flash by including uncertain conditions and improvised binding vows.[17] Additionally, by not lowering the degree of difficulty for his barrier technique, Sukuna maintained its open-barrier nature in order to capture Maki Zenin, who had no cursed energy. Due to Sukuna's condition, he could only maintain this high-level domain for 99 seconds before it crumbled.[18]
The revenge match between the strongest domains.
After Yuta Okkotsu returned to the battlefield, having taken over Satoru's body using Kenjaku's cursed technique, Sukuna expanded his domain to clash with Yuta's Unlimited Void.[19] In order to counter the increased durability of Unlimited Void's barrier, Sukuna shrunk the effective range of his domain to only surround the outer shell of Yuta's domain, thereby removing the time limit.[20] Both of their domains simultaneously collapsed after Yuta struck Sukuna with Hollow Technique: Purple, which severely damaged the latter but also destroyed his own domain's barrier.[21]
Trivia
- To expand Malevolent Shrine, Sukuna makes the so-called Enma Palm Sign (
閻 魔 天 の掌 印 Enmaten no Shōin?):[22] the two-handed mudra representing the Buddhist god of death. - Regarding the name of this Domain Expansion:
- Fukuma (伏魔?), comes from fukumaden (伏魔殿?), referring to an abode of demons or a palace wherein demons lurk, and is also translatable as "Pandemonium".
- Mizushi (御廚子?), could have different meanings depending on context, both as an archaic word for "Kitchen" or as a word for "Shrine". For more details, see here...
- The shrine this domain summons (especially with its hip-and-gable roof and four openings) superficially resembles the zushi-style Tamamushi Shrine (
玉虫厨子 Tamamushi no Zushi?) of the Hōryū Temple.
References
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga and Anime: Chapter 8 (p. 13) and Episode 4.
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga and Anime: Chapter 119 (pp. 2-3) and Episode 41.
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 258 (pp. 2-3).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga and Anime: Chapter 119 (p. 7) and Episode 41.
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga and Anime: Chapter 119 (pp. 2-4) and Episode 41.
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 228 (p. 8).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 229 (p. 6-12).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga and Anime: Chapter 8 (p. 14-15) and Episode 4.
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga and Anime: Chapter 119 (pp. 2-9) and Episode 41.
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga and Anime: Chapter 137 (p. 19) and Episode 47.
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 225 (pp. 12-19).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 227 (pp. 11-13).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 228 (pp. 9-12).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 229 (p. 1-8).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 229 (pp. 9-19).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 230 (pp. 8-16).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 258 (pp. 4-5).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 258 (pp. 12-13).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 261 (pp. 18-19).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 262 (p. 5).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 263 (pp. 1-2).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 255 (pp. 15-16).