A high-pitched shriek rang out as hundreds of curse spirits chased after me while I ran for my life. The only thing in my mind right now was survival as I bolted through the station as fast as my two legs could carry me.
Running away from curse spirits—let alone hundreds of them—was not something a normal human could keep up for long.
Thankfully, I wasn't normal.
Ever since I faced those curse spirits, I had felt a strange sense of power. The fear of dying—of being devoured alive—perhaps brought out a hidden potential I had never been aware of until today.
Though that statement would be false, since I didn't quite remember anything about myself, let alone comment on my own potential. My memories were a mess. My mind was a mess. My body, my instincts, and this strange power that I instinctively seemed to know how to use were the only things keeping me alive.
A giant rat-like curse spirit almost bit my butt off when I poured more of that power I was running on into my legs for just a fraction of a second, increasing my speed enough to evade it.
Again, most of it was instinct.
My body moved before my mind could comprehend anything, acting purely to protect my life.
Curse Energy.
That was the power I was using.
How did I know?
I had no idea.
My memories were slowly restoring themselves, though clearly not fast enough considering the ever-approaching curse spirits drawing closer every second.
I wished I could at least recall my own name. At least then I would know who had died when the end came for me.
I also wished I knew why this was happening to me, because I would like to file a long complaint when I went up there—or down, for that matter.
Will hell even file my complaints?
A ridiculous thought at a time like this, but I couldn't help it. My mind was going crazy from the nonstop action I had never signed up for.
As soon as I entered the upper floor, my eyes locked onto the exit to the floor above. If the number two beside the sign meant this was the second underground floor, then I was only two floors away from freedom.
At least I wouldn't be locked up with these curse spirits in this underground station anymore.
That small hope was the only thing keeping me going.
Until that hope was crushed.
A giant centipede-like curse spirit blocked the exit to the upper floor before I could even reach it.
My eyes widened.
Panic settled into my heart as my speed unconsciously slowed down for long enough for the curse spirits behind me to catch up.
The next second, as if consumed by a flood of curse spirits, I was submerged beneath them.
I couldn't understand why this was happening to me.
Why was I here?
I didn't know.
But I knew one thing for certain.
I wasn't supposed to die like this.
Why me?
Just as I thought I was done for, a memory appeared out of nowhere—something I never thought would be possible to recall at the moment of my death.
When almost everything in my mind was a blabbering mess, suddenly one memory seemed… comprehensible.
"Jujutsu Kaisen?"
What was that?
I didn't know. The memories still weren't whole. They were still fragments.
But they were clearer now.
And that was the only thing I had.
So I dove into them, hoping to find something—anything—that could help me survive, even if the chances were almost zero.
Still, I searched.
Memories of people.
Humans born with extraordinary powers, fighting against these curse spirits.
For millennia this fight had continued, over and over again. Gods knew how many humans had died at the hands of these curse spirits.
No one knew how many curse spirits had been slain by humans with powers like mine.
No…
There was a term for that.
I had just learned it.
Sorcerers.
Jujutsu Sorcerers.
Was I a Jujutsu Sorcerer?
I didn't know.
But I had to become one right now if I wanted to live.
I dug deeper through the memories. I needed something—anything—that could save my life.
The memories were fragmented, never complete, yet still enough for me to piece together what was happening.
A never-ending war between humans and curses.
A balance maintained by the world itself.
And then there was him.
The man downstairs.
The one who broke that balance.
The strongest one in this world.
This was his story.
And many others.
I noticed something strange.
I wasn't in those memories.
I wasn't part of this world.
Then I realised why I had felt something was wrong ever since I regained consciousness.
Those memories showed what was happening, and also what was yet to happen.
Memories of the future!
How?
I knew the white-haired man—Satoru—was about to get captured by that black-haired man dressed like a monk.
I knew what was about to happen next.
I knew just how screwed I was if I didn't leave this city.
In none of the memory fragments did I see myself.
It was as if I wasn't even meant to exist here.
But that didn't matter right now.
My biggest concern was finding a way out of this place.
Otherwise, I was done for.
Time passed.
My body was crushed beneath hundreds of curse spirits fighting over who would get to eat me.
Some gnawed at my legs.
Others pierced their grotesque hands into my head.
The only reason I was still alive was because they were fighting each other over their claim to the prey.
Infighting.
It gave me some time.
Almost useless time.
Yet somehow it was enough for me to figure something out from those memories.
It still wasn't much.
Most of it was instinctive.
But I had figured something out.
'No… don't die.'
'I can't die here.'
'I have to do something.'
'Focus.'
'Do what the boy in the memory did.'
"FOCUS!"
'Focus the energy.'
'Fight back.'
I repeated those words to myself while trying to concentrate, even as my bones cracked under the pressure, even as I felt something biting into my flesh trying to rip it apart.
I refused to get distracted.
If I did, I would die.
I only had one chance.
I focused.
More and more.
Until I could finally sense the power around me. It was leaking out regardless of my control.
I had to control it.
And it wasn't easy.
But I had no other choice.
Just as the infighting between the curse spirits began to settle—just as they seemed to decide that eating me was more important than fighting each other—my eyes flashed open.
With all the power left inside my body, I bet everything I had.
Even my life.
I threw one very ordinary-looking punch upward at the first curse spirit I could reach.
And then—
It felt as if my punch shattered space itself.
The air around my fist rippled.
Then came a violent eruption of black lightning that tore straight through the curse spirit above me while blasting the surrounding creatures away with a force comparable to a truck crashing into someone at a hundred miles per hour.
For a few moments, on a floor previously filled with swarming curse spirits, an empty space appeared where none of them dared to approach.
And at the center of that space was me.
Lying on the ground.
My fist still raised in the air.
Sparks of black lightning crackled faintly around it.
My mind felt like it had been struck by lightning as well.
I felt high on something completely unknown.
Surely nothing on Earth could make someone feel as if they had achieved Nirvana the way I felt right now.
The violent and unstable energy inside me from earlier had become calm.
Docile almost.
It moved exactly how I commanded it.
It worked exactly how I wanted it to.
Slowly, I stood up.
My eyes were still dazed.
Still processing the phenomenon I had just learned was called a Black Flash.
A phenomenon that occurs when cursed energy is applied within one-millionth of a second after a physical hit.
Besides its many benefits for a sorcerer, I personally gained something I desperately needed.
Clarity.
My mind finally snapped back into proper working order.
My fragmented memories began to fall into place.
The brain fog was gone.
And now I knew what Jujutsu Kaisen was.
But that didn't matter right now.
Not when hundreds of curse spirits were staring at me with hungry eyes, ready to devour me alive.
I pursed my lips.
I had to get out of this situation before questioning the reality of my existence.
Thankfully, I had also realised something else as well.
I wasn't as helpless as I had first thought.
"Fine," I muttered with a smirk.
"You guys wanna fight?"
"Good then."
"Come at me."
That open declaration broke all hell loose.
Hundreds of curse spirits rushed at me like starving hyenas.
I didn't panic.
Instead, I brought both of my hands together in an unfamiliar yet strangely familiar hand sign.
My index and pinky fingers folded inward while my ring and middle fingers extended upward. Both hands connected, the fingers intertwining to form a tent-like shape.
"Domain Expansion…"
"DEATH TRADE."