Restless Shadows

Deep within Tokyo's Shinjuku underground drainage system.

The stench of rot mixed with the marsh-gas odor unique to sewers, fermenting endlessly through the damp pipes. This was a blind spot beyond the reach of light, the darkest place in the city.

"Drip. Drip."

Murky sewage seeped from cracks overhead, dripping onto bloodstains that had long since dried on the ground.

Suguru Geto—or rather, Kenjaku—leaned against a moss-covered wall, gasping for breath. He was a wretched sight. That Gojo-style robe had been torn to tatters, and the exposed skin beneath was covered in burns and cuts.

"What a... freak."

Kenjaku reached up and touched what remained of his shoulder. Reverse Cursed Technique was slowly repairing his flesh, but the searing agony of purification still lingered.

"Without relying on cursed energy, he reached this level through sheer physical strength and some bizarre power." There was no dejection on Kenjaku's face after his defeat. Instead, he wore an almost pathological, feverish smile. "Shiyue Shuo, the surprise you brought me surpasses even Sukuna."

Bracing himself against the wall, he staggered deeper into the darkness.

He could sense that something had escaped from the battlefield above.

"Did the technique lose control?"

Kenjaku stopped before an enormous settling tank.

The tank, which should have been filled with sewage, was now churning with a thick black fluid. It boiled and roared, countless malformed beast heads surfacing from the black mud before vanishing again.

That was "shadow."

It was the origin of the Ten Shadows Technique, having lost its tamer and its shikigami forms, completely returning to chaos.

"What beautiful chaos."

Kenjaku spread his arms as though embracing a lover he had not seen in ages.

"Free of the Binding Vow of rules, free of the limits of form. You are now a pure curse, a passage connecting another dimension."

The black mud seemed to sense Kenjaku's presence—or rather, the vast reserves of cursed energy within him. It instantly boiled over, transforming into a gigantic black hand that lunged for Kenjaku on the bank.

"Come."

Kenjaku did not dodge. He even took a step forward, lifting the restrictions on his own technique.

The black mud slowly crawled over his body, writhing across him.

Kenjaku opened his mouth. His jawbone cracked sharply as it stretched to an exaggerated angle. As though it had found an outlet, the black fluid poured madly into his mouth, down his throat, and into every cell of his body.

"Gulp... gulp..."

The sound of swallowing echoed through the empty sewer.

Pain.

Tearing, agonizing pain. This was the first time he had ever felt such heart-rending torment.

Within that black mud lay not only the savagery of the shikigami, but also the resentment of every previous user of the Ten Shadows Technique—and the fragments of rules Shiyue Shuo had left behind when he killed Mahoraga.

"Ugh... Aaargh!!"

Kenjaku dropped to his knees, his hands clawing desperately at the ground. His nails snapped, blood streaming from his fingers. His body began convulsing violently, as if countless snakes were slithering beneath his skin. Black patterns rapidly spread across his body—the corruption of shadow.

"Suppress it... Suppress it for me!"

Kenjaku drew upon every bit of cursed energy he had accumulated over a thousand years, as well as his monstrously resilient soul. He began forcibly assimilating with the rampaging shadow.

Who knew how much time passed.

The sewer returned to dead silence.

Kenjaku, kneeling on the ground, slowly raised his head.

Suguru Geto's face had undergone an eerie change. The stitched wound across his forehead, once tightly closed, split open again. But what flowed from it was not blood, but black mist.

A mask was slowly forming over his face.

It was a turquoise-green mask with vicious fangs and blood-red eyes.

[Shadow Shroud]

That was the name that had surfaced in his mind when he devoured that mass of chaos.

"Hah..."

Kenjaku rose to his feet and touched the mask on his face. It felt ice-cold, like he was stroking a block of ancient ice.

"This feels rather nice."

His voice had changed. It had become deeper, as if it carried echoes from hell.

At the slightest movement of his will, the shadows around him suddenly came alive.

"Shhh—"

Dozens of red eyes lit up in the darkness.

Soldiers emerged from the shadows. They wore tight black ninja outfits wrapped tightly around them, exposing only pairs of emotionless red eyes. Though entirely made of shadow, they radiated suffocating killing intent.

The Shadow Corps.

"I see." Kenjaku watched the shadow soldiers that obeyed his every command, a satisfied curve forming at his lips. "So this is what remains after the Ten Shadows Technique collapses? No longer summoning shikigami, but directly commanding the army of the shadow realm."

"Though I have lost the supreme individual combat power of Mahoraga, there is this inexhaustible number, as well as the ability to travel through any shadow."

Kenjaku raised his hand. A shadow ninja immediately knelt at his feet, turning into a puddle of black water and merging into his shadow.

"It suits me better now."

He turned and looked upward.

After obtaining the authority of the Shadow King, his perception had undergone a qualitative leap. He could clearly sense an aura directly above him that was extremely similar to his current power—perhaps even from the same source.

"Shiyue Shuo..."

Kenjaku murmured the name, greed gleaming in the red eyes beneath his mask.

"I think I have guessed some of the secrets you carry."

"Since the Culling Game has already failed, then we will play by different rules."

Kenjaku's figure slowly sank into the shadow beneath his feet, as naturally as sinking into water.

"Let us have... a new game."

Hokkaido, Furano.

Two in the morning.

Snow continued to fall outside, showing no sign of stopping. The thick snow swallowed every sound between heaven and earth, plunging the small town into absolute silence.

The heating was turned up high on the second floor of the flower shop.

Shiyue Shuo lay on the sofa beneath a blanket carrying a faint lavender scent. In the end, he had slept for only a short hour.

His eyes remained closed. Though he could not sleep, he particularly enjoyed this state of "rest."

Suddenly.

An extremely faint tremor, like an electric current passing through the tips of his nerves, instantly spread throughout his body.

Shiyue Shuo's eyes flew open.

The laziness from moments ago was utterly gone from those clear eyes, replaced by extreme vigilance.

"What is this?"

He sat up, one hand pressed to his chest.

At that instant, he had felt the power of the talismans within him let out an incredibly faint resonance.

It felt like the rejection of the world he had sensed when he first opened his domain in the wilderness. But this time, it was colder and more viscous.

"Something... has arrived."

Shiyue Shuo instinctively looked toward the bedroom.

The door there was slightly ajar. Through the gap, he could see Mai sleeping peacefully on the bed. Her breathing was steady, and she appeared unaffected.

Shiyue Shuo let out a breath of relief, then quietly rose and walked to the window. He did not pull aside the curtains, merely peering outside through a gap in them.

The street was empty.

Add Bookmark

Return to Contents

Report Chapter Error