The scene shifts back to that summer ten years ago.
Shortly after Yoru was swept away by the violent turbulence of time.
"Crash!"
An exquisitely carved antique teacup was hurled against the wall, instantly shattering into a heap of shards.
"Arrogance! Absolute lawlessness!"
In the perpetually dim and oppressive underground meeting room of the Jujutsu General Headquarters at Tokyo Jujutsu High, an elder with a face full of wrinkled, orange-peel skin trembled with rage.
"That heretic Yoru just vanished, and now that bastard Suguru Geto has the audacity to defect openly?!"
"He even massacred an entire village of ordinary people!"
"He is declaring war on the entire jujutsu world!"
Another elder snorted coldly, his murky eyes filled with malice and calculation.
"Send out the order. Classify Suguru Geto as a Special Grade Evil Curse User."
"Issue the highest-level wanted notice to all registered sorcerers!"
"Execution on sight!"
While these higher-ups were fuming to protect their pathetic scrap of dignity...
At the Star Religious Group headquarters.
This evil cult, which had previously fallen into a frenzy over the bounty on Riko Amanai, had now transformed into a literal living hell.
The thick, cloying stench of blood felt heavy enough to lift the ceiling of the grand hall.
*Drip... drip...*
Viscous blood flowed slowly down the marble steps.
In the center of the hall.
Clad in black, Suguru Geto stood silently amidst the carpet of corpses like a cold demon god emerged from the depths of hell.
At his feet lay the severed head of the Star Religious Group's highest leader, eyes wide in a final, futile glare.
"Since you monkeys enjoy cheering for the deaths of others so much..."
Suguru lowered his head. Within his once-gentle eyes, a horrifying darkness and madness now swirled.
"...then go to hell and revel to your heart's content."
Behind him.
Nanako and Mimiko, the twin sisters he had rescued from that ignorant village, clung tightly to the hem of his robe.
The two little girls looked at the scattered limbs and severed torsos without a hint of fear; there was only absolute fanaticism and dependence on the man before them.
"Master Geto..."
Mimiko hugged her tattered doll, her voice faint but firm.
"Are we... going to live here from now on?"
Suguru turned to look at these two poor girls, who had been abused as monsters by their own parents and fellow villagers just because they possessed cursed energy.
A complex, slightly sorrowful smile finally appeared on his cold face.
He reached out and gently patted their heads.
"Yes."
"From today on, this is our home."
Suguru looked up, surveying the gilded hall that reeked of filth and sin.
That bastard Yoru was gone.
That idiot Satoru Gojo remained at Jujutsu High, playing the good boy.
And he, Suguru Geto...
Would take root in the deepest, most bottomless darkness!
'If I'm going to play this part, I must do it so convincingly that even I believe it.'
'Kenjaku, that thousand-year-old rat hiding in the shadows, is incredibly shrewd.'
Over the next ten years.
Suguru Geto fully transformed into a cold-blooded machine for amassing wealth and harvesting souls.
Accompanied by Nanako and Mimiko, he ruthlessly purged the remaining leadership of the Star Religious Group.
Using absolute force and the terrifying Cursed Spirit Manipulation, he turned these once-haughty billionaires and politicians into tools for gathering cursed energy and funds.
Curse users, gangs, underground syndicates...
Anyone who dared to stand in his way was crushed without mercy.
The name 'Worst of All Curse Users' spread like a plague through the underworld.
However, with Yoru's sudden departure, the delicate balance once maintained by the three of them was completely shattered.
During those long ten years of lurking in the shadows.
To make his villainy convincing enough to deceive Kenjaku's ancient, toxic eyes, Suguru was forced to frequently interact with the darkest and most twisted aspects of humanity.
Betrayal, greed, abuse, slaughter...
Those monkeys, corrupted by money and power, reached new lows every single day.
*Hum!*
Inside the dim hall of the Star Religious Group, the flickering candlelight cast Suguru's shadow in a distorted silhouette.
He slumped wearily into the throne that symbolized supreme leadership.
In his hand, he tightly gripped a blood-stained list of top-secret names left by Yoru.
It was the final trump card Yoru had left him before vanishing.
It contained records of the scum hidden within the jujutsu world's leadership and political-business circles, as well as their potential clandestine ties to Kenjaku.
"Urgh..."
Suguru suddenly doubled over, retching violently.
He had just consumed a Semi-Grade 1 Cursed Spirit born from the extreme greed of humans.
The sensation—like swallowing a filthy rag soaked in excrement—made his very soul shudder.
"Monkeys... they really are disgusting creatures."
Suguru muttered to himself.
Within his bloodshot eyes, a flash of genuine killing intent flickered, unnoticed even by himself.
Throughout these ten years of insane role-playing.
He had lost himself in the extreme darkness countless times, feeling an uncontrollable urge to kill the wicked mortals who committed endless evil.
Even worse.
To maintain his persona as a cold-blooded tyrant, he had actually killed many of those monkeys who committed atrocities in the underworld.
With every kill, his sins grew heavier.
With every cursed spirit consumed, the darkness in the depths of his soul deepened.
'Am I... just acting, or have I truly become a complete monster?'
Suguru clutched his head in agony, his fingers digging deep into his long black hair.
Just as his sanity was about to be swallowed by that violent killing intent, plunging him into the abyss of no return.
A brilliantly vivid scene suddenly flashed through his mind.
It was under the dazzling fireworks of the Jujutsu High Night Festival.
Satoru Gojo's arrogant, punchable face. Yoru's red eyes, as clear as water and seemingly able to see through everything.
And the oath they made on the moss-covered stone steps of the shrine—an oath that sounded incredibly chuunibyou but carried immense weight.
"Don't forget what we agreed on."
"No matter what happens in the future, I'm the strongest!"
"And you, squinty-eyes, don't you dare flake out on me halfway!"
""
Suguru gasped sharply, slumped against the throne and drenched in sweat as if he'd been pulled from a lake.
His pupils, which had begun to glaze over, regained their heart-pounding clarity and coldness.
"That was close... almost swallowed by the malice again."
Suguru gave a bitter laugh and tucked the secret list back into his robes.
Right then.
*Ripppp!*
The space in the corner of the hall suddenly let out an eerie distortion sound.
A nauseating stench of decay, accompanied by cold, viscous cursed energy fluctuations, spread silently throughout the hall.
Suguru didn't even turn his head, but his razor-sharp intuition had already locked onto the uninvited guest hiding in the shadows.
It was a Special Grade Imaginary Cursed Spirit, its body like a mountain of flesh covered in eyes!
It made no sound, appearing behind Suguru like a ghost.
Its maw, filled with jagged teeth, aimed at Suguru's head, prepared for a fatal strike!
"A test?"
Suguru sat on his throne, not even shifting his posture.
A flash of cold mockery crossed his narrow eyes.
"After hiding for so many years, have you finally lost your patience, you thousand-year-old rat? Have you come to evaluate this 'worst of all curse users'?"
"Kenjaku!"
Just as the Special Grade's teeth were about to crush Suguru's skull!
*VREEE—!!!*
Centered on Suguru's throne.
The previously calm space suddenly churned violently like boiling water!
Countless black rifts exploded out of thin air.
An aura of pressure a hundred times more terrifying than the Special Grade curse instantly enveloped the entire hall!
"Domain Expansion..."
Suguru slowly stood up. He didn't even glance at the Special Grade spirit.
He simply raised a hand casually.
"Garbhadhatu."
*BOOM—!!!*
Though Suguru's strength had been affected to some degree by Yoru's departure.
And this domain was still just an extremely incomplete prototype, it was more than enough to handle this pawn sent to test him!
The moment the domain expanded.
The Special Grade spirit, previously so menacing, didn't even have time to scream.
Its massive mountain-of-flesh body was like a tomato crushed by an invisible giant hand; with a pop, it instantly exploded into a mist of blood!
Immediately after.
The mist, containing massive amounts of cursed energy, was dominantly devoured in a single gulp by Suguru's black-hole-like Cursed Spirit Manipulation!
*Burp...*
Suguru casually wiped a trace of black cursed energy residue from the corner of the mouth, his eyes cold to the extreme.
"If you want to play, I'll play with you."
"Let's see who is the real hunter and who is the pathetic prey in this ten-year game!"
Atop a skyscraper dozens of kilometers away from the Star Religious Group headquarters.
A man with stitches across his forehead and medium-length hair stood silently overlooking the brilliantly lit city.
"Oh? He's already touching the threshold of a Domain?"
Kenjaku's lips curled into an eerie, calculating arc.
"It seems this Suguru Geto is even more perfect than I imagined."
"He truly is a mouth-watering, top-tier vessel."
The cold wind whistled past, sweeping his laughter into the endless night.
Ten years of shadow games had already silently pushed everyone's fate toward that unpredictable abyss.
On this road of madness gradually veering off track, that faint glimmer of dawn seemed to be growing dimmer.
Only the waning moon, hanging solitary in the high sky, continued to watch silently over this land on the brink of collapse.