My Dad Is The Strongest?: Ch.10

“Phantom Reverberations of the Cursed Shadows.” The moment the spirit activated its domain, Killua quickly leapt back as he watched a pulse of cursed energy rippling across the playground and rise up to seal them both away in a barrier.

Immediately, the cursed energy darkened rapidly and turned into an abyssal void, the air growing thick with the scent of blood and mallice as numerous crumbling stone ruins rose up from the floor.

The sky above was lit up with the reflection of a blood red moon casting a hellish light upon the area and in the far distance, Killua heard the sound of chains rattling and the wails of numerous souls as if they were in agony.

In the middle of the domain stood a dimly lit temple, its walls adorned with murals of souls in pain that were constantly shifting and the ground of the was a cracked mirror, reflecting the shattered reflection of the blood moon hanging in the air above.

“Judgement's End: First Echo.” The spirit growled as it stood up and began walking towards Killua, whose eyes narrowed as he watched the spirit and his floating arm ominously making their way towards him.

'Don't attack unless you're attacked. His domain is most likely going to be something to enhance his reflection-based attacks.' With a howl, the spirit went from walking to sprinting in the blink of an eye.

Killua's hand quickly reached up and caught the swinging arm coming for his neck, quickly letting go of it the next moment and moving back as the other arm tried to slash his throat out.

As he went to push away the arm, Killua hissed as he felt a powerful burst of pain in his left leg, delaying him just long enough for the arm to land a jagged cut to his right shoulder.

'I see. So every touch now counts as pain.' Killua thought with a frown as he decided to move out of the way of the arm slashing at his head, ducking under the left arm coming around with another claw swipe before flipping over the right arm with a spin.

Leaping back as the left arm slammed down upon the ground, Killua came to a sliding stop as he saw the spirit raising a finger towards him, quickly making a hand sign with the index and middle fingers extended while the other fingers were curled in and his left hand being in a claw-like shape held at waist level in front of him.

“Falling Blossom Emotion.”

“Judgement's End: Second Echo.” The moment the left arm of the spirit shot forward, Killua's body was enveloped in a dense layer of cursed energy that swiftly sliced through it.

However, the boy frowned as the arm that he had sliced in half quickly formed into two separate arms that flew around in a wide arc before coming at him from both sides.

Once again, though, his cursed energy sliced both arms to ribbons as they got near, but Killua's frown deepened as the severed parts simply grew out into more arms that began to assault and block his vision from all sides.

'He's deliberately trying to hit me.' Killua thought as he stared at the spirit, watching as it stood completely still with gritted teeth before it vanished from his sight the moment an arm flew past in front of his eyes.

The moment it did, Killua dispelled Falling Blossom Emotion and leapt back as the spirit's long right arm slammed down upon the ground, but the boy growled as he felt pain rippling in his chest while watching as the spirit had caught one arm and crushed it in his grasp.

Quickly moving back with rapid steps as the electricity around his body sparked intensely, Killua took a deep breath as he felt another ripple of pain in his chest before lunging forward.

With the first step, he shot past the spirit while ripping its right arm clean off, but the spirit didn't even seem phased as it simply regenerated that arm while biting down on another of the left arms floating around.

Killua rushed past once more, stumbling from the pain but not stopping in his attack as he shaved a chunk from its side with a claw strike and forced it to regenerate once more.

However, Killua felt himself smirking as sparks of electricity began to analyse the movements of each arm, feeling his body instinctively weaving and moving around the dozens of arms trying to claw at him while he rapidly rushed back into the battle.

The spirit however felt an emotion it thought it could never feel before as it watched the young boy completely ignore the pain being inflicted on his body, not missing the single goal shimmering behind Killua's eyes as the electricity around the boy's body grew even stronger.

Fear.

“Judgement's End!” The spirit chanted with a finger pointed at Killua while its numerous left arms decayed all around them and as Killua readied himself for the influx of pain, it never came.

Determined to finish this fight, Killua blitzed towards the spirit with electricity sparking around his hand, coming to a sliding stop in front of the spirit while slowly swinging forward.

“Final Echo!” The spirit growled as it looked at Killua with a wide smirk and the boy only had a moment for his eyes to widen as he felt his body leaping back right as a monstrous shockwave of scarlet energy rippled out from the spirit's form.

The next moment, Falling Blossom Emotion formed around Killua's right side and his head just in time to block the brunt of the attack, but the boy let out a silent scream as he felt the pain rippling through the left side of his body.

It felt as if his left side was being skinned and then turned inside out over and over as he felt the pain of all his attacks being reflected to him in the blink of an eye.

The pain only lasted for a brief moment, but to Killua, it felt like an eternity before he finally fell to his knees, looking at his left arm and leg to see both being nothing but dark purple masses of flesh while blood flowed profusely from the numerous cuts on each limb.

Looking up at the spirit while taking deep shaky breaths, Killua was surprised to see the spirit looking in pain as well while it glared at him, a bit confused at how it was in pain before frowning as he realized that the spirit must have used a Binding Vow with its domain.

'Most likely one that let it feel some of the pain I did in order to significantly boost the resulting effect of his final technique.' Killua thought with a frown as he slowly stumbled to his feet, letting his left arm hang and steadying his left leg as the spirit stood up as well.

“Why…won't you die?!” The spirit growled as its left arm slowly grew out from its stump, but it stayed attached this time and Killua frowned as he saw the right arm shrinking down to be at the same length as the left arm to where both came to the spirit's knees.

“Hah, you will see…that I'm not like…other sorcerers.” Killua answered with a grin before looking around as he watched the domain crack, the stone structures crumbling away as the dark skies around them shattered to reveal the darkened sky of the Curtain above them.

'Looks like he can't use his domain anymore and that means he's easier to beat. That being said, I already have a broken arm and leg.' Killua thought with a frown as he clenched and unclenched his right hand, wishing that he had train somewhat more in utilizing his technique to dodge invisible attacks.

“I don't care for other sorcerers! On my name as Ibaraki-douji…I will destroy you!” The spirit roared as it charged forward and Killua readied himself for the final clash as sparks rippled across his body before he activated Speed of Lightning once more.

With a thought, the boy lunged forward with his leg already pulled back and lashed out with a high kick the moment he appeared in front of the spirit, who took the blow with a howl while slashing out at Killua's side.

Yet, the boy was fully awake as he hooked his foot on the back of the spirit's head before pulling himself past it, landing with a spin and sliding under a swing at his head before leaping to his feet and lashing out with a corkscrew kick to the spirit's shoulder while it kicked at him.

The spirit hissed as it blocked the kick and Killua gritted his teeth with a hiss as he felt pain rippling through his injured left side, making him stumble as he landed before quickly raising a hand as the spirit lashed out with a punch.

Blocking the strike and letting it sent him flying backwards, the boy flipped around before charging in back again, electricity racing across his body as the spirit rushed towards him as well.

As the spirit lunged forward with its clawed hands aimed at his throat, Killua did not move out of the way not because he didn't feel any threat from the spirit's threat.

No, he simply didn't have to as Speed of Lightning fully activated one last time, feeling his body shifting down slightly to slide under Ibaraki for a brief moment while he swung his right arm that was surging with electricity above his head.

Leaping to his feet and spinning around as he slid past the spirit, Killua finally relaxed as he saw the spirit's head continuing to roll away while its body came to a rolling stop, falling back on his ass while watching as the spirit crumbled away.

His left arm was completely useless, his muscles were screaming from being forced to move and his cursed energy was a bit low from overusing Speed of Lightning, but as he watched the spirit fading away, Killua wiped the blood from his mouth while having a frown on his face.

“Yeah…that hurt like hell.”

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“Severe bruising on his left lung, the left side of his heart, the left side of his liver and his left kidney along with broken bones and torn muscles in his left arm, leg and side.” Shoko spoke with a frown, Killua looking a bit sheepish at her words while his grandfather and grandmother frowned at the diagnosis.

“Truth be told, it was only thanks to his absurdly powerful cursed energy that his body is forcing itself to stay functional as even some of the best Grade 1 sorcerer would have died the moment they finished the battle.”

“Hah, at least we can be happy that he's a Special Grade, but where did you all learn all of those techniques you spoke of?” Gintoki asked with a raised eyebrow and Killua smirked before shrugging.

“Dad's training.” He answered and the man rolled his eyes before Kanade spoke up.

“Well, I'm just happy that you've made it back and finished your mission.” She said and Killua nodded with a smile as he thought back to the battle.

If he had not known of Falling Blossom Emotion or if his counter had taken just a second longer, he would not have been able to take out the spirit and he would be the one now dying.

However, he felt that he should have been stronger. He has fought against stronger enemies and he has been through worse.

So why did it feel like this fight took everything from him?

'I know why. I've always been fast enough to dodge death, to move away from an attack before it could hit me…but with this, I know that with sure-hits and despite my anti-domain measurements, I will never be enough.'

“I do too, but I don't want to feel grateful now. I need to get stronger and I think I have a way to do so.”

“And what does that entail?” Gintoki asked and Killua didn't answer as he looked directly at Shoko.

“Can you teach me how to use Reverse Cursed Technique?”

“Nope, because I've tried to explain it to your dad and even he didn't get not the slightest clue of where to begin.” She answered and Killua frowned before crossing his arms as he nodded.

“Then, can you at least explain it?”

“Well, you know how cursed energy is also called negative energy and is unfit for healing living tissue? Well, the reverse cursed technique produces positive energy by multiplying cursed energy against cursed energy and the brain then directs the flow of it compared to how the gut is where cursed energy flows from.”

'Positive energy from clashing negative against negative. Therefore…' Killua didn't say anything as he mulled over Shoko's words while gathering cursed energy on both hands, holding them a few centimeters away from each other while focusing the energy to the centre.

'If my cursed energy is like electricity, then I simply need to think of multiplying the negative charges from one hand against the negative charges from the other hand and then…' Killua thought with a frown as he watched his cursed energy rippling on both hands before a pleased smile spread across his face as he saw the energy go from a light sparking blue to a pure white.

“Something like this?” He asked as he looked at Shoko, who simply stared at him while his grandparents looked surprised before he dismissed the technique with a sly giggle as Shoko took out a flask and took a swig from it.

“…You know, you're a pain in my ass just like your father.”

“I know.” Killua answered and the woman shook her head before she looked at the grandparents who had snapped out of their shock when they saw her turning to them.

“Keep him at home for a couple more days, but with this, he'd probably be okay by tomorrow.”

“We will. Thank you, Shoko.” Gintoki spoke with a smile and Shoko nodded back before Killua grumbled as she ruffled his hair, watching as his grandpa escorted his aunt back out of the compound.

“So, how was the first mission? Was it a bit too dangerous?” Kanade asked as she knelt besides her son and Killua smiled before shaking his head.

“Not at all. In fact, can I have some more like these?”

“…Just like your father.”

A/N: And Killua ends off the battle with reverse-engineering the reverse cursed technique and being victorious against his first Special Grade opponent.

Also, for those that don't know, Ibaraki-douji was basically the right-hand man of Shuten-douji, who I believe is the biggest and most powerful oni in Shinto Mythology.

I might be right, but do correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, with Killua having faced his first domain, you can bet your behind that he's going to try his best to get his own along with awakening his Maximum technique.

However, we'll have to wait until the next chapter to see what happens.

Also, if the fight was too short, let me know and we'll expand it tomorrow.

As always, read, enjoy, review and until the next one…

Ba-Bye~!!