The crucible where curses are born, Shinjuku, Tokyo.
This bustling commercial district was full of overworked salarymen and stylishly dressed men and women.
Beside one traffic packed street, a young man in a tank top stood with his long blond hair hanging loose, his body covered in curse markings, looking like some yakuza lackey. He had one hand stretched out, literally carrying an elderly woman across the street...
Ignoring the traffic lights, the two of them crossed straight through the lanes and reached the other side. The young man casually loosened his grip and set the old woman down on the ground.
The old woman did not mind his rough manner at all and said gratefully,
"Thank you, young man. I forgot my glasses at home. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't even have made it across the road..."
But the young man gave no response. He only narrowed his eyes and rested his chin on one hand, lost in thought.
The old woman called out to him a few times, but he still did not respond.
Seems like a good kid, just one who likes to think...
The old woman took a piece of pumpkin candy from her basket, wrapped it in paper, set it on the ground, and slowly left.
During that whole stretch of time, Ryomen Sukuna had been immersed in his own thoughts.
What he had just been doing was probing this body's Technique.
By tracing the flow of the Cursed Energy system in this body, examining the curse markings engraved on it, and combining that with Haruta Shigemo's memories and explanations, Sukuna discovered that Haruta Shigemo's Technique was this:
"By accumulating 'miracles and luck' in ordinary times, one obtains 'miracles in moments of crisis.'"
So he immediately began experimenting with that Technique.
He poured in the positive energy produced by Reverse Cursed Technique and turned it into this:
"By actively giving miracles to others, bring miracles to oneself."
Sukuna carried out all kinds of experiments for the Technique. He helped a child get a cat down from a tree, snatched a box of bread from a store and gave it to a beggar by the roadside, saved someone who was about to be hit by a car, though the car itself got sliced to pieces, and so on.
And just now, when Sukuna helped that old woman across the street, he felt the Cursed Energy in this body begin circulating through its system on its own. So he directly used the Technique once, just to see what would happen...
But Sukuna had no intention of standing there waiting. He sank his consciousness straight into his own Innate Domain...
A pool of blood for a pond, bones strewn everywhere. Sukuna sat atop a small hill made of ox bones, looking down at Haruta Shigemo, whom he had deliberately left behind.
"Maggot, can you cook?"
Haruta Shigemo, who had been sitting in the blood, hurriedly flipped over, slammed his forehead to the ground, and knelt.
"M, my lord, actually, since I've always lived alone..."
Swish. An arm flew out.
Haruta Shigemo glanced at his suddenly missing right arm, then at Sukuna's indifferent eyes, and instantly realized that if he kept rambling instead of getting to the point, he would definitely die.
His terror was so extreme that it even suppressed the pain of his soul being cut apart. Haruta Shigemo went deathly pale and did not dare keep talking.
"Have you ever cooked human flesh?"
"I have! I have!"
It was as if being questioned meant he was allowed to speak. Haruta Shigemo answered with all his strength, almost as though he were venting the pain he had just suffered.
"Not bad... then..."
Haruta Shigemo's face lit up with joy the moment he heard that. It meant he could live again. Someone like him, who loved bullying the weak, was already imagining how he would throw his weight around under Sukuna's protection and become his willing hound...
Then...
With a full seven hundred and twenty degree spin and a stereoscopic view from two angles, he clearly saw a human shaped body blown into chunks...
Sukuna casually killed Haruta Shigemo, then nodded thoughtfully.
Judging from the fluctuations in his emotions, the way the outside Technique had reacted, and the feel of cutting him, this brat's Technique was strongly tied to the body. Its connection to the soul was not nearly as strong.
"You knew your place, but you were boring..."
After dealing with Haruta Shigemo's soul, Sukuna opened his eyes and turned to glance behind him, where a person in a loose black coat was standing.
[Heh, so this is the so called 'miracle'?]
Kenjaku lifted a hand and tossed a package toward Sukuna.
"Fifteen fingers. Plus some information on the current sorcerers..."
To be honest, Kenjaku had already stopped expecting much from this finger collection plan. Satoru Gojo had returned to the Gojo Clan, Suguru Geto was tied up outside with missions, and although Akira Zenin had unexpectedly come back, he had been drawn away by Yorozu...
On top of that, the barriers at Jujutsu High were practically nonexistent to her.
Collecting these fingers had turned out to be surprisingly easy... it was just that nobody knew where the remaining fingers had been hidden. Not even the slightest information had leaked out...
Sukuna did not take the package. Instead, he gave Kenjaku a thoughtful look.
If he chose not to attack and simply let her leave, would that count as accumulating the kind of miracle where someone who should have been killed survived only because he chose not to act?
"Even with a trick, this body can only withstand one finger at most..."
At those words, Kenjaku immediately pulled out a much larger package and threw it to Sukuna, then tossed him a test tube filled with red liquid. It was a special vessel Kenjaku had prepared using the blood of Itadori's father.
Sokushinbutsu... and...
Sukuna picked up the package and held the test tube in his hand.
"Collecting this kind of thing... I really don't like the sight of you right now... If you haven't left in three seconds, I'll kill you."
Kenjaku did not hesitate. She turned and left at once. She had never come here looking for an ally in the first place.
The Cursed Spirits Team had been wiped out completely in the previous operation, which made her realize just how absurd the current Jujutsu world had become.
But the truly interesting thing was the development of Jujutsu that went beyond planning and design. There was also a great deal worth studying in the arm that had been altered by Akira Zenin's abnormal Cursed Energy...
No matter what Sukuna did, as long as he could draw the attention of the Jujutsu world, she could continue lying low, whether to change things herself or simply bear witness to them...
...
After Kenjaku disappeared, Sukuna once again checked the state of his body.
"The Technique isn't reacting... Or maybe the amount of miracle is too small?"
Then he would use it as an experiment. The people here who should have been sliced apart, but did not die because he was testing the Technique, would do nicely for seeing whether miracles could be accumulated.
Sukuna took out the little notebook and began flipping through the information Kenjaku had gathered. Haruta Shigemo's memories were far too shallow.
"Oh? [Limitless], [Cursed Spirit Manipulation]...
Switching Techniques within a Domain through 'loading'... now that is a little interesting..."