Subjugation

Lady Alluka was patiently listening to him.

Fujiwara Daolong knew that perfectly well.

But when Lady Alluka raised her head, her gray-blue eyes were filled with tenderness and indifference.

This should have been what Fujiwara Daolong wanted, yet for some reason, he felt the urge to cry today.

He bowed slightly, then walked out of the shrine with faltering steps.

A messenger reported that the two-faced, four-armed monster had been heading toward Heian-kyō in recent days, throwing the nobles with their refined tastes into panic once again.

The matter had to be dealt with. As it happened, the shrine guards had proven incompetent, allowing such a grave lapse in security. Fujiwara Daolong sent them, along with the useless Five Void Generals, to the front lines to fight Ryomen Sukuna.

As for that old woman who claimed to have lived for five hundred years, she was dreaming if she thought she could establish a barrier within their territory with herself at its center.

Who knew which political rival had sent her to spy on their Fujiwara Clan? And as for merging with a star plasma vessel or whatever she called it, wishing to Lady Alluka and Nanika for eternal life would be quicker than relying on her.

Fujiwara Daolong gave all the orders for his plan, then massaged his temples, his nerves aching from overexertion.

The head of the Northern House of Fujiwara ordered the clan's elite forces, the Sun, Moon, and Stars Squad and the Five Void Generals, to subjugate the demonic god Ryomen Sukuna, who had been wreaking havoc in recent years. Upon hearing the news, the Abe and Sugawara Clans sent their own elite troops to join the grand undertaking.

When the nobles of Heian-kyō heard about this, they finally stopped being too frightened to leave their homes.

Takako Uro walked at the head of the subjugation force, clad in specially made Wisteria Armor.

She knew she had failed miserably as a guard, allowing someone like that to slip into the shrine and attempt to undermine Lady Alluka's divinity.

Legend had it that the two-faced, four-armed monster came from Hida. Rumor claimed he possessed tremendous strength, slaughtered people without blinking, enjoyed twisting men into hemp ropes, and ate women and children. Every jujutsu sorcerer sent to subjugate him had failed.

This curse user, a walking natural disaster, loomed like a shadow over every jujutsu sorcerer.

Whatever the truth of the other stories, Takako Uro knew the truth behind the so-called Rope Person. She thought most of those rumors were probably distorted hearsay, too. She would carry out the clan's mission properly and strive to return to Lady Alluka's side to serve her once more.

A scout sent word that Ryomen Sukuna was currently staying in a village ten li away.

"That monster is just ahead. We will win!"

A forested mountain stood between the village and their position. A layer of white mist shrouded the woods, and Takako Uro knew it was poisonous miasma.

The miasma might poison ordinary people to death, but everyone here was an elite of the Fujiwara Clan. Fully prepared, they had nothing to fear from such a minor danger.

Without stopping, the subjugation army marched straight into the overlapping shadows of the trees.

When they emerged from the forest, an endless expanse of dark red flooded their vision.

Apart from the two young men standing at the far end, the ground between them was strewn with fragments of corpses.

The bodies were mangled beyond recognition. Every surviving fragment that still bore a face had its eyes wide open. Even in death, these people had never escaped their boundless terror.

Takako Uro raised her head and met the eyes of the two-faced, four-armed monster across from her.

Her breath caught. She quickly lowered her head, fear and panic forcing her to take an involuntary step back.

"More small fry here to spoil the fun?"

The deep, pleasing voice carried danger and contempt.

Ryomen Sukuna curled his lips maliciously as he looked at this batch of small fry, whose equipment was clearly far superior to the usual fare.

"Have you decided how you want to die?"

Before Takako Uro could speak, the leader of the Five Void Generals beside her, who had just been driven back by a country woman, began to sneer.

The Five Void Generals and the Sun, Moon, and Stars Squad were equally renowned elites of the Fujiwara Clan. Yet that woman from Aizu had now disgraced the former throughout Heian-kyō, and they desperately needed an achievement to prove their strength again.

"Insolence! You fools don't know your own limits. What makes you think you're worthy of speaking to Lord Sukuna?!"

Uraume regarded the approaching army coldly. He snorted, his rose-red eyes filled with indifference.

To him, these were nothing more than talking corpses.

As though confirming his thoughts, several slashes tore through the air toward the man who had spoken so arrogantly.

The leader of the Five Void Generals hastily twisted aside, dodging several slashes, but one still sliced toward his shoulder from a distance.

A sharp pain shot through his mind, and blood splattered across his shoulder.

The man looked down. A single invisible cursed technique had sheared away half his arm.

"I'll kill you!"

The jujutsu sorcerer shrieked. Seething with rage, he thrust out his left hand, transforming it into a thin, sharp, poisonous blade, and lunged at Ryomen Sukuna.

The other jujutsu sorcerers of the Fujiwara Clan behind him surged forward together.

The sky suddenly darkened.

A dense vortex of cursed energy gathered above the village like banks of storm clouds. Amid rolling thunder and lightning, cursed techniques glowing in a dazzling array of colors bombarded Ryomen Sukuna from every direction.

The ground sank. Multicolored light intertwined, and the pressure of the cursed energy actually created a vacuum in the area.

"Interesting. This is so very interesting."

Ryomen Sukuna laughed and clapped his hands. Wave after wave of densely packed slashes cut toward the crowd, cleaving through trees, houses, and rocks alike.

Flames from the explosions soared into the sky. It was as though the entire space had been devoured, leaving deep trenches everywhere.

The setting sun shone through the leaden clouds. Black-and-red chunks of bodies fell to the ground along with shattered stones, and streams of blood quickly stained the trenches red.

Sticky, filthy cursed energy warped the surrounding air slightly, and vast masses of negative emotions began to accumulate.

Takako Uro trembled in terror.

It felt as though someone had seized her heart and was squeezing it tight.

From the moment she saw Ryomen Sukuna, she had been unable to stop her tears from falling.

Her eyes, limbs, skin, hair-every part of her body screamed at her to flee this place. Yet her feet remained rigid, as though trapped in a mire she could not pull them from.

Blood-red clouds bore down overhead. The pressure from this natural-disaster curse user was almost tangible, making Takako Uro's scalp prickle and her entire body sting.

She collapsed onto the ground and stared into the abyss of terror. She felt her sanity being eroded. Perhaps she was going to die here.