Demon god

Nanika and Alluka had been of one body and one mind since birth. She simply did not quite understand what it meant to obey.

Nanika had no ability to create false memories. She thought of the toys Alluka usually played with and the obedient watchdog outside the Shrine, then used her power to erase the part of the Emperor's mind capable of independent thought, leaving his other instincts intact.

She placed the strand of spider silk that could leash him into Fujiwara Daolong's hands.

Once Fujiwara Daolong realized that the Emperor truly would obey only his commands, he was ecstatic.

No one could resist the temptation of becoming the supreme ruler, and Fujiwara Daolong was no exception.

The Emperor could manage his own daily needs.

But Fujiwara Daolong enjoyed the feeling of taking his place even more.

Being a subject and being an emperor were different things, after all, even if the Empress was his own daughter.

He took care not to act out of character for the Emperor, faithfully following his daily routines. He even composed elegant haiku himself to send to his daughter, the Empress.

After indulging in the arrogance of a ruler for long enough, Fujiwara Daolong began to find his political enemies intolerable.

The imperial court could not consist of Fujiwara Kita alone. The tangled relationships among the other clans were not something he could resolve simply by banishing those people to remote fiefs.

A man ruled by a mind consumed with desire would have no morals or ethics to speak of.

Fujiwara Daolong thought that perhaps he could make more people openly obey his wishes.

If even the Emperor could become his dog, why couldn't everyone else?

If the Sun, Moon, and Stars Squad could not kill the political enemies who refused to submit to the Fujiwara Clan, he had Nanika bring them under his control.

But those people were not treated nearly as well as the Emperor. They became pets he used whenever he remembered them, and stray dogs he left lying around and ignored whenever he forgot.

Only once no one dared openly oppose the Fujiwara Clan did he temporarily abandon the idea of making more wishes.

Aside from wishes concerning power at court, the elders of Fujiwara Kita also made many wishes to mass-produce jujutsu sorcerers for their clan.

And because of the Fujiwara Clan's incessant wishes, Rope Person incidents occurred from time to time in remote villages. News traveled poorly between villages, but as time passed, ordinary people finally noticed the danger lurking around them.

They feared that blood-soaked future. All kinds of negative emotions spread like a virus, and curses born from the waste of those emotions grew ever more numerous.

The newborn curses wandered instinctively and without awareness, wreaking havoc, devouring, and harming humans in turn.

It seemed like a vicious cycle.

Amid the widespread slaughter and blood-drenched despair, many ordinary people began kneeling in worship before that two-faced, four-armed monster.

They revered him as a god and offered him the freshest sacrifices, hoping only to beg mercy from this lofty demon god and have their lives spared.

It was then that the pink-haired young man with two faces and four arms finally discovered what he was being blamed for.

Every jujutsu sorcerer hated him to the bone. From time to time, people who believed they held the moral high ground banded together to attack him. They shouted about righteousness, yet could offer no coherent explanation.

"My lord, you clearly weren't the one who made those Rope People! These so-called champions of justice are truly hypocritical."

Unlike the leisurely pink-haired young man, Uraume was deeply indignant on his lord's behalf.

In Uraume's eyes, his lord merely did as he pleased.

Though Lord Sukuna rarely left anyone alive, neither those Rope People nor the sacrifices offered across the land had anything to do with him.

Those were merely the work of people from who knew where, slaughtering civilians in Lord Sukuna's name.

"I know who did it. To think they would pin it on me. Interesting."

Recently, rumors had begun attaching the legendary demon god's name, "Ryomen Sukuna," to him. The pink-haired youth raised an eyebrow, as though something amusing had occurred to him, then folded his arms and laughed without restraint.

"My lord, who would be so bold?"

Uraume blinked his purplish-red eyes in confusion.

As far as he was concerned, not a single jujutsu sorcerer in this era could compare to his lord in the slightest. Hadn't that noisy woman been beaten all the way back home by his lord just a while ago?

"Just a brat."

His voice was utterly cold, yet Uraume heard something different in it.

Aside from food, Lord Sukuna took little interest in anything, and he had retaliated against every curse user who provoked him. Yet now, with such an enormous crime pinned on him, all he had to say was "a brat"?

For once, Uraume was puzzled.

"Aren't you coming?"

As he sank into unfamiliar contemplation, Sukuna's voice came from the distance.

"Lord Sukuna, this doesn't seem to be the direction of Yamata no Orochi."

Uraume hesitated, but ultimately could not resist asking.

They had heard that a monster called Yamata no Orochi was wreaking havoc in Harima, causing the jujutsu sorcerers of Heian-kyō considerable trouble.

Lord Sukuna had always enjoyed challenging the strong. Rumor had it that Yamata no Orochi used positive energy rather than cursed energy, and his lord was very interested.

"Of course I have to retrieve what's mine first."

Ryomen Sukuna cast an indifferent glance into the distance.

In that direction, dozens of villagers knelt in prayer, holding torches aloft.

Three richly dressed young women were bound with ropes atop an altar. They screamed in terror, their lovely faces streaked with tears.