Aoi Todo stood on a barren hillside. From his vantage point, patches of black, purple, and dark red light filled the entire sky.
The sound of the "Cursed Energy Sludge" crashing against the tent echoed like a tolling bell, as if announcing the arrival of the apocalypse…
Countless "Tree Cursed Spirits" wandered in clusters, endlessly roaming. The moment they spotted an outsider, they would swarm without hesitation.
Suddenly, he noticed a "Tree Cursed Spirit" that had broken away from the group below, chasing two figures.
"You… hurry up and… use that brain of yours to figure something out!"
Haruta Shigemo ran with all his strength, dodging the lashes of the spirit's branches. Grabbing a momentary opening, he shouted at the burly, bald man beside him, who wore a strange black eye patch.
"What am I supposed to do?"
Juzo Kumiya was in far better shape than Haruta, but his face was pale, and he dared not take a single hit from the Cursed Spirit. If it weren't for the fact that this thing was a plant and moved awkwardly, the two of them would have been dead already.
"If you ask me, you'd better shut up and just focus on running forward! If you die, I'll turn you into a sword to match the one in your hand!"
Whether out of fear or obedience, Haruta immediately lowered his head and sprinted forward, his speed suddenly surging.
Juzo Kumiya ignored him entirely, gritting his teeth as he cursed Kenjaku under his breath.
[Damn it, my plan was to turn Satoru Gojo into a coat hanger. Why is there no one here? Why did so many Cursed Spirits suddenly appear? I can't leave this tent—the woman in the cloak was lying to me!!]
Then Juzo spotted a massive figure atop the mountain and shouted to Haruta beside him:
"I've got an idea! Run to the mountaintop!!"
Haruta's eyes lit up, and he followed with excitement, but as he turned, his speed betrayed him—he tripped over his own foot and fell.
Juzo had no intention of helping; the stumble would slow the Cursed Spirits just long enough. After all, when being chased by a beast, all that matters is being faster than your teammate…
"I'll remember this. Once it's over… huh?"
Juzo suddenly realized his vision was flipping constantly. At a certain angle, he saw that branches from the shadow had pierced his body, and a massive leaf had sliced through his neck…
Meanwhile, Haruta, having stumbled, had narrowly avoided the fatal strike…
But before he could even get up, the scene shifted. A burly figure now stood directly in front of him.
"Have you seen a boy with pink hair wearing a Jujutsu High uniform?"
Aoi Todo didn't cast a technique; he simply stepped forward, grabbed Haruta by the collar, and hauled him up to the mountaintop…
Below, the Tree Cursed Spirits, finding no living humans nearby, opened their huge mouths along the tree trunks, swallowed Juzo Kumiya's body, and slowly moved back toward the main force.
"I've seen him! I've seen him!!"
Haruta nodded frantically, pointing in a specific direction.
"I saw the person you're talking about when the Cursed Spirits were chasing me!!"
"Oh~~"
Aoi Todo narrowed his eyes, scanning the frail boy before him—a boy with a single golden ponytail and three asymmetrical purple stripes beneath his eyes.
"Then take me there… but on the way, you have to answer one question. It'll decide whether I take you with me once I find that person…"
With that, Aoi Todo grabbed Haruta Shigemo by the collar with one hand and sprinted in the direction the boy had pointed.
"Kid, what kind of women do you like?"
"Huh?"
Haruta Shigemo, bracing himself for some kind of "interrogation," froze, stunned by the question.
"J-just… as long as she's a pretty girl…"
"Is that so…"
Before Aoi Todo could react, Haruta Shigemo drove the knife in his hand viciously into Todo's lower back.
He hadn't actually seen Yuji Itadori; he had just pointed randomly. If Todo reached that spot and found no one, the gorilla-like sorcerer wouldn't let him off easily. So he struck first—sneak attacks and underhanded moves were his specialty…
But just as the blade pierced Todo's back, a sharp "smack" rang out, and Haruta Shigemo found himself thrown onto an open field, facing a surging wave of "Mud" rushing straight at him…
"You answered too quickly!"
Aoi Todo stood a short distance away, glancing at Haruta, though it was unclear which question he was referring to…
He had already seen through Haruta's intentions, which was why he had left a Cursed Energy-infused stone at the foot of the mountain as leverage.
Shigemo Haruta crouched on the ground, trembling as the sludge approached. He had seen this before… anywhere this stuff touched would instantly become barren, and any living thing would be turned into a Cursed Spirit!
"No! No!! No!!! I can't die here—I've always been lucky!!!!"
Haruta shook his head, screaming as he backed away. Suddenly, another purple line beneath his eyes vanished. A red object fell from the sky, landing in his mouth and sliding down his gaping throat…
After a moment of stunned pain, his body was wracked with agony. He retched violently, rolling across the ground, repeatedly smashing into rocks and tearing his flesh further…
As the purple lines beneath his eyes disappeared one by one, the ruptured blood vessels and muscles within his body reshaped themselves into patterns resembling the "Demon-Crushing Enemy-Slaying Technique"—the very seal used to bind Sukuna, the "Wheel of Dharma Technique."
Because Haruta had briefly come into contact with the "Mud," some of his flesh had turned into Cursed Spirits, drastically boosting his poison resistance…
Sukuna slowly awoke within him, but Haruta had no chance of contending with the cursed spirit's soul and was immediately overpowered…
His facial bones grew rugged, sharp nails sprouted from his ten neatly trimmed fingers.
From his eyebrows, across his face, shoulders, arms, chest, abdomen, and back… intricate runes formed, radiating from the periphery toward the center, forged from highly concentrated Cursed Energy.
This was the ancient aesthetics of Cursed Energy from a thousand years ago, a mark of the strong…
Haruta's once frail body now bulged with muscle, the runes accentuating his form, radiating an overwhelming, oppressive presence…
"The moonlight and the air are indeed still…"
Mid-thought, Sukuna glanced upward… It wasn't moonlight but sunlight filtered through the canopy. The air reeked of sulfur and the stench of concentrated Cursed Energy—not fresh at all. The outside environment felt even less comfortable than inside his own fingers…
No more shouting, no more maniacal laughter; his exaggerated movements stopped abruptly as Sukuna sank into thought…
Has the human world become this harsh a thousand years later? Have the Cursed Spirits finally won? What about those bothersome Jujutsu Sorcerers?
Sensing an intensely concentrated malevolent energy, Sukuna noticed the "Mud" and calmly extended a hand to block it.
He was then engulfed by the sludge, swept away, and disappeared without a trace…
"Uh…"
Aoi Todo, standing on the hill, looked down at the now-empty valley. That aura had promised a fierce battle… yet the man had simply been swept away.
"Well… never mind. I'll go find Brother first…"
"Wait."
Todo suddenly turned toward a nearby rock, where a "little bird" was resting. Upon closer inspection, the bird's face bore a grayish-white stitched visage.
The stitched face stared in astonishment at the spot where Sukuna had vanished, frozen for a long moment…
"What a pure yet evil aura…"
...