Jujutsu Kaisen: I have everything I need now!

Deep within the underground drainage system of Shinjuku, Tokyo.

The stench of decay mingled with the squalor of the sewers, fermenting endlessly in the damp pipes. This was a dark, shadowy corner, the city's darkest place.

"Tick-tock, tick-tock."

Turbid sewage seeped from the cracks overhead, dripping onto the dried bloodstains on the ground.

Xia Youjie, or rather Lu Suo, leaned against the moss-covered wall, panting heavily. He was in a sorry state; his five-strand kasaya was tattered beyond recognition, and his exposed skin was covered with burns and cuts.

"What a...freak."

Lu Suo reached out and touched his shoulder, which was missing half. The reversal technique was slowly repairing his body, but the intense pain of purification still lingered.

"Without relying on incantations, you can reach this level simply by relying on your physical body and some strange power." There was no frustration after failure on Lu Suo's face. Instead, he had an almost morbidly fanatical smile on his face. "On the first day of the twelfth month, the surprise you brought even surpassed that of Su Nuo."

He leaned against the wall, stumbling and sinking into the darkness.

He could sense something escaping from the battlefield above.

"Has the procedure gone awry?"

Lu Suo stopped in front of a huge sedimentation pool.

The pool, which should have been filled with sewage, was now churning with a thick, black fluid. It was boiling, it was roaring, and countless deformed animal heads appeared and disappeared in the black mud.

That was a "shadow".

It is the origin of the ten shadow spells that have lost their tamers, lost their shikigami forms, and completely returned to chaos.

"What beautiful chaos."

Lu Suo opened his arms as if embracing a lover he had been separated from for a long time.

"Free from the constraints of rules and the limitations of form, you are now a pure curse, a conduit to another dimension."

The black mud seemed to sense Lu Suo's presence, or rather, the vast reserve of magical power within him. It instantly surged, transforming into a gigantic black hand that lunged at Lu Suo on the shore.

"bring it on."

Lu Suo did not dodge. He even took a step forward, releasing the restrictions on his own spell.

The black mud slowly crawled up his body and began to slowly spread across his skin.

Lu Suo opened his mouth wide, his jaw making a crisp sound as it opened to an exaggerated angle. The black fluid seemed to have found an outlet, frantically pouring into his mouth, drilling into his esophagus, and permeating every cell in his body.

"Glug... Glug..."

The sound of swallowing echoed through the empty sewer.

pain.

A tearing, excruciating pain. This was the first time he had ever felt such agonizing pain.

This mass of black mud contains not only the brutality of the shikigami, but also the resentment of the ten shadow magic users throughout history, as well as fragments of the rules left behind when the Twelfth Lunar Month killed the Demon Void.

"Ugh... Ughhhhh!!"

Lu Suo knelt on the ground, his hands gripping the earth so tightly that his nails snapped and bled profusely. His body began to convulse violently, as if countless snakes were writhing beneath his skin. Black lines rapidly spread across his entire body—the erosion of shadows.

"Suppress... suppress them!"

Lu Suo mobilized all the magical power he had accumulated over a thousand years, as well as his abnormally tenacious soul power, and began to forcibly assimilate with this rampaging shadow.

I don't know how much time passed.

The sewers returned to deathly silence.

Lu Suo, who was kneeling on the ground, slowly raised his head.

The face that originally belonged to Xia Youjie underwent some strange changes. At the sutures on his forehead, the wounds that had been tightly closed reopened, but instead of blood, black mist flowed out.

And on his face, a mask is slowly forming.

It was a greenish-blue mask with menacing fangs and blood-red eyes.

【Shadow Cover】

This was the name that came to mind when he devoured that mass of chaos.

"call......."

Lu Suo stood up and reached out to touch the mask on his face. It felt icy cold, like touching a piece of ancient ice.

"This feels really good."

His voice changed. It became deeper, as if echoing from hell.

With a slight thought, the surrounding shadows suddenly came to life.

"hiss--"

Dozens of red eyes lit up in the darkness.

Those were soldiers emerging from the shadows. They wore tight-fitting black ninja outfits, completely covered except for a pair of emotionless red eyes. Although they were entirely composed of shadows, they exuded a suffocating killing intent.

The Shadow Legion.

"I see." Lu Suo looked at the shadow soldiers who obeyed his every command, a satisfied smile curving his lips. "Is this the product of the collapse of the ten shadow spells? No longer summoning shikigami, but a legion that directly commands the Shadow Kingdom."

"Although we have lost the top-tier individual combat power of the Demon Void, we still have the ability to move through any shadows, with an endless number of them."

Lu Suo raised his hand, and a shadowy ninja immediately knelt at his feet, turning into a pool of black water and merging into his shadow.

"It suits me better now."

He turned around and looked up.

After gaining the power of the "King of Shadows," his perception underwent a qualitative leap. He could clearly sense an aura directly above him that was extremely similar to, or even of the same origin as, his current power.

"The first day of December..."

Lu Suo murmured the name, his red eyes beneath the mask gleaming with greed.

"I have a rough idea of ​​some of the secrets you have."

"Since the Death Migration is no longer effective, let's try a different approach."

Lu Suo's figure slowly sank into the shadows beneath his feet, as naturally as sinking into water.

"Let's have a...new game."

......

Furano, Hokkaido.

It's 2 a.m.

The snow outside the window was still falling, showing no sign of stopping. The thick snow absorbed all sounds from heaven and earth, plunging the small town into an extreme tranquility.

The second floor of the flower shop was well-heated.

On December 1st, he lay on the sofa, covered with the blanket that smelled faintly of lavender. He only slept for a short hour.

He kept his eyes closed, and although he couldn't sleep, he thoroughly enjoyed this state of "rest".

Sudden.

A very subtle, tingling sensation, like an electric current flowing through nerve endings, instantly spread throughout his body.

He suddenly opened his eyes on the first day of December.

Those clear eyes were no longer languid; instead, they held an extreme alertness.

"What happened?"

He sat up, his hand on his chest.

Just a moment ago, he felt the power of the talisman within his body resonate with an extremely faint sound.

The feeling was similar to the repulsive force of the world he experienced when he first activated his domain in the wilderness. But this time, it was colder and more viscous.

"Something... has arrived."

On the first day of December, I subconsciously looked towards the bedroom.

The door was ajar, and through the crack, you could see Mayi sleeping peacefully in bed. Her breathing was even, and she seemed undisturbed.

December 1st breathed a sigh of relief, stood up quietly, and walked to the window. He didn't draw back the curtains, but looked out through the gap.

The streets were deserted.