Night Parade of a Hundred Demons of Mount Oe

At 19:37 on the 24th, the legendary King of a Hundred Demons, "Shuten Doji," appeared in Shinjuku, Tokyo, returning to the human world once more as a Flesh Receptacle.

"Gen Naine"... or rather, Shuten Doji, seemed to notice the blade protruding from her chest after making her declaration. The flesh beneath her ribs on both sides began to writhe before splitting open, and two more arms extended from within. They bent behind her at an eerie angle and gripped Dojigiri's blade.

Then, as though nothing had happened, Shuten Doji pulled it out. She held Dojigiri—the blade that had once slain her—and examined it closely. The wound in her chest and abdomen healed at a visible speed. Then she wiped away the blood on the blade with her finger and brought it to her mouth.

A perhaps nostalgic look surfaced in her five strange eyes. "Descendant of the Gen Family." Then those unnerving pupils abruptly turned toward the Curse User who had revived her. "Human, as a reward for awakening me, state your request!"

The Curse User's entire body stiffened. The way she looked at him was hardly the gaze of someone honorable and trustworthy; it was more like a gourmand eyeing a delicacy. He forced himself to say, "I have no request. We have brought forth the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons once more in this age. My lord need only enjoy yourself."

As her unrestrained laughter gradually rose, the Curse User offered up the other two Cursed Blades as well.

"So, have you decided how you want to die?" Shen Yuanyi said with a smile as he walked over to the Curse User.

Shuten Doji's eyes suddenly turned in different directions. Then, without any action from her, scarlet flames abruptly rose from her body.

As though this were a signal, the scenery around Shuten Doji changed in an instant as those fearsome flames ignited.

One of the two familiar blades that the insect had offered had vanished, while the insect himself still remained kneeling. Yet the head that had been on his neck was nowhere to be seen.

The smile vanished from her face. Her many pupils spun rapidly before locking onto the youth holding the Onikiri she had just seen.

"Was it simply speed? No... it was the effect of his Cursed Technique. I failed to react at all, yet my defenses were already triggered..."

Shuten Doji gripped her blade with two hands while the other two formed a hand sign before her chest. "As expected, Jujutsu Sorcerers are as annoying as ever!"

"Night Parade of a Hundred Demons!"

Shen Yuanyi held the stolen Onikiri as he recalled what had just happened. When he had activated his Cursed Technique and intended to test Shuten Doji with an attack, he had been forced back by the bloody flames that automatically rose from her body.

Though they took the form of flames, they were actually a special means of attack and defense combined. They were exceptionally efficient at destroying both Cursed Energy and flesh.

After realizing that he might not be able to inflict any meaningful damage on her, Shen Yuanyi changed targets. He seized a weapon instead, then used Onikiri to kill the Curse User.

Seeing Shuten Doji use an unknown technique, Shen Yuanyi immediately turned and shouted to the nearby Jujutsu Sorcerers, "Get away from here, now!"

Seeing thick black mist surge around Shuten Doji, the nearby Jujutsu Sorcerers knew this was far beyond anything they could handle and hurriedly retreated.

"Ha ha ha! Come, offer everything you have to me! The Ooe Mountain Ghost Domain shall descend once more!"

Then an astonishing sight appeared. The Cursed Spirits closer to the area abruptly stopped fighting the Jujutsu Sorcerers and instead swarmed toward Shuten Doji.

Before they could even approach her, these mostly low-grade Cursed Spirits twisted in midair and shattered into smoke, all of them flowing into Shuten Doji's open embrace.

As the black mist around her churned, several figures emerged from it. The most eye-catching was a beautiful woman who covered the lower half of her face with her sleeve. The exposed half of her face seemed full of smiles, yet the longer one looked, the more inhuman it seemed.

Then a thick, sharp spear tore through the black mist and pierced the ground. Several sharp whistles followed, and several more blackish-gray "spears" rose from the ground, forming a thorn-covered cage.

A massive figure then emerged from within. An enormous, strangely smiling face pushed aside the black mist and looked down upon everyone. Then came its savage fangs and eight eyes arranged along either side—it was a terrifying Cursed Spirit with the grotesque form of a spider.

Nanami Kento removed his tie and wrapped it around his hand. His expression was as cold as a polar iceberg as he stared at Shuten Doji, but Shen Yuanyi called out to stop him. "Nanami-senpai, Gen Naine is still alive for now because of the unique nature of her Cursed Technique. What we need to do next is exorcise this Cursed Spirit. Leave her to me. I'll have to trouble you with that big one, Nanami-senpai..."

Only then did Nanami's expression ease somewhat. He looked at the other Cursed Spirits still swarming toward them and said gravely, "We need to finish this quickly. It seems capable of absorbing those Cursed Spirits and turning them into stronger curses..."

"Mm. Let's move..."

Before he could finish speaking, Shen Yuanyi appeared before Shuten Doji with a piercing explosion. Several tears had already been ripped into the bloody flames burning around her body.

Shen Yuanyi's sword-holding right hand was now charred black. The intense pain made his arm twitch uncontrollably. He had forcibly broken through Shuten Doji's fiery defense, only to have the retaliatory attack cling to his hand.

Shen Yuanyi then activated Cursed Technique Reversal and restored his right hand. Shuten Doji's gaze shifted as she lowered her head to inspect the several wounds on her body.

It was already remarkable that this brat could break through her defenses and leave wounds on the Demon King's Body. And with that Onikiri... if she remembered correctly, that blade seemed particularly destructive toward "flesh."

And that technique he had used to recover just now... was that Reverse Cursed Technique? No, not quite. These Jujutsu Sorcerers... they had been the same in the past and were still the same now! There were always those stubborn, stone-like bastards among them. And there was also the commotion over there...

Shuten Doji had noticed the enormous disturbance elsewhere on the battlefield. An exceptionally massive Cursed Spirit had been annihilated in an instant by some attack, and the aftershock had shattered all the windows in the surrounding buildings, sending down a rain of glass.

This needs to end quickly!

The same thought flashed through both Shuten Doji and Shen Yuanyi's minds. Shuten Doji did not know, but how could Shen Yuanyi not? That had clearly been Gojo-sensei's doing.

Thinking back to how Gojo-sensei had urgently called him and Panda over, then quickly sent the two of them away, there was only one possibility: something had happened at Jujutsu High.

Could it be... Geto Suguru's target was Rika? Was the intelligence on his Cursed Technique wrong? That was highly possible. Hadn't Shen Yuanyi kept his own Cursed Technique secret as well? It was only natural for Geto Suguru to keep something in reserve. In other words, he could absorb Cursed Spirits that already had binding contracts...

And Shuten Doji before him seemed capable of an effect similar to Cursed Spirit Manipulation. Not only could she transform the Cursed Spirits she absorbed into stronger curses, she could use them to strengthen herself as well!

Shuten Doji stared at Shen Yuanyi, the corners of her mouth nearly splitting to her ears. Then she pointed at a car by the roadside. Blood-red Cursed Energy spread from her arm into the air before crawling over the entire vehicle.

The car's steel frame melted away in an instant. Everything else—the plastic, rubber, and other debris—burned to nothing.

In the blink of an eye, the molten iron churning in the bloody flames formed an iron handle under her control.

Shuten Doji gripped it as though the scorching heat did not exist, leaving only the air around her distorted by the heat.

She exerted force and pulled out an incomparably vicious "beast." Its cylindrical shaft was covered in fang-like spikes, scattered across it in chaotic disarray. Looking at it alone gave one the feeling that it would leap up and bite at them the next instant.

Shuten Doji held a blade in one hand and the spiked club in the other, while her remaining pair of hands was already prepared to seize Shen Yuanyi, rip him apart, and drain his blood.

I'll test him with a wide-area attack first...

Shuten Doji swung her spiked club and smashed it viciously into the ground. Even a thick steel plate would likely have been pulverized by that blow.

Shen Yuanyi entered the Timeless State again, intending to see whether he could injure Shuten Doji once more or seize Dojigiri. With its formidable armor-piercing ability, it might prove exceptionally effective at breaking through Shuten Doji's defenses.

But when he drew near, Shen Yuanyi discovered that her previous attack had essentially smashed Cursed Energy into the area around her. In other words, the moment he approached, those bloody flames would be triggered again.

It was not that Shen Yuanyi would be burned by the bloody flames while his Cursed Technique was active. Rather, once he approached Shuten Doji, he would inevitably be contaminated by that special Cursed Energy. The instant he exited the Timeless State, that Cursed Energy would resume its burning state.

So Shen Yuanyi changed targets and looked toward Nanami Kento's two opponents: the strange, beautiful woman and the giant spider.

The beautiful woman no longer possessed any soul-stirring beauty. The reason was that her left hand, which had been hidden inside her sleeve, was now fully exposed—it was a savage, bluish-black demon hand.

It formed a violent contrast with her lovely face. Yet as the battle continued, the right hand that had covered her face also fell away, revealing features that further destroyed that beauty.

The lower half of her face was as grotesque as a demon from old tales, and her beast-like fangs sent a chill through anyone who saw them.

The female demon-like Cursed Spirit and the giant spider worked together, leaving Nanami Kento somewhat hard-pressed for the moment. Shen Yuanyi decided to deal with one first, then figure out how to handle Shuten Doji.

He easily severed her head with Onikiri, then cut off her limbs and pierced straight through her heart.

Nanami watched in astonishment as the Cursed Spirit before him suddenly had her head tilt and fall away. Her body seemed like a wooden doll that had lost all connection to its limbs, while a spray of blood burst from her chest.

Then he shifted his stance, split the strange head flying through the air with a single slash, and charged straight toward the giant spider.

Ratio Technique!

In Nanami Kento's eyes, the spider Cursed Spirit's hard, weapon-like legs were precisely divided into ten segments.

His Cursed Technique allowed him to inflict critical damage by striking the point at a seven-to-three ratio along his target's length. It could even stack with Black Flash... and, coincidentally, Nanami Kento had experienced Black Flash before.

When the black light around Nanami's strike struck the spider Cursed Spirit's legs, those limbs harder than steel split apart as easily as sugarcane.

As it lost its balance, Nanami struck again and again. Two more slashes flashing with black light severed most of the spider Cursed Spirit's legs.

Three Consecutive Black Flashes!

Then Nanami leaped off its collapsing body. In his eyes, its head was divided into ten segments from left to right. A thunderous slash then descended from above, and the raging black dragon tore apart everything in its path. As blood sprayed from the clean wound, the spider Cursed Spirit's massive body collapsed.

Four Consecutive Black Flashes!

Nanami turned to look toward Shen Yuanyi, only to see Shuten Doji standing amid the bloody flames. Shen Yuanyi's figure flickered continuously around her like frames skipping in a video.

Every appearance caused great explosions of bloody flames in the air. Relying on the strength of her body, Shuten Doji laughed wildly as she endured slashes too fast for even her to react to, then swung her iron club to unleash violent gusts.

From time to time, Dojigiri and Kumo-kiri alternated, scattering flowing trails of sword light through the air. Most of the strikes missed, however; they were more often attempts to restrict Shen Yuanyi's attacks.

This level of recovery isn't normal!

Shuten Doji thought rapidly. Every time this brat healed his injuries, his Cursed Energy and every other aspect of his condition recovered along with them. Those attacks that consumed enormous amounts of Cursed Energy had continued for a long time now, not to mention the cost of extinguishing her demon flames.

The battle on the other side was nearly over. That terrifying Jujutsu Sorcerer could attack at any moment. She could not drag this out any longer!

Shuten Doji drove the savage spiked club in her hand into the ground. A wave of fire rose from the earth and rolled outward in every direction. After forcing back Shen Yuanyi and Nanami Kento, quite a few Cursed Spirits threw themselves into the flames like moths to a fire, causing only faint ripples.

Shuten Doji held a Cursed Blade in each hand while her other two hands crossed and clasped together, her thumbs and little fingers with sharp nails touching. Vast Cursed Energy erupted forth.

"Domain Expansion: Night Parade of a Hundred Demons of Mount Oe!"