Outcasts

An immense terror resonated deep within Kenjaku and Tengen after that cry.

A mistlike shape with an indistinct face gradually appeared behind Alluka.

Its enormous, terrifying body let out a child's shrill sobs.

Cursed Energy that seemed capable of corrupting souls surged around her. Her pitch-black features slowly opened, like a black hole that could never be filled, and stared fixedly in Tengen's direction.

Her gaze was icy, like a vulture that had marked its prey and was waiting for its final moment of death.

Hatred, murderous intent, hunger, and the urge to protect.

All those emotions flowed through the entire space alongside her Cursed Energy.

"Alluka..."

The shrill, halting voice uttered a sluggish murmur.

She sounded like a lost child, helpless and unable to find her way.

Tengen seized the opportunity to throw a cube-shaped Cursed Tool onto the ground.

The instant it landed, it rapidly came apart into several pieces.

A great mass of viscous flesh and fascia wriggled outward like moss. A huge, solitary eye opened within it, weeping blood, and reflected Alluka's floating body, her fate unknown.

"Does this thing really work?"

Watching the terrifying Cursed Spirit hovering in the air, Kenjaku seriously doubted whether this Cursed Tool called the "Prison Realm" would work at all.

Genshin was the founder of Buddhism's Pure Land school, and his Cursed Technique was a Barrier Technique. Both Kenjaku and Tengen knew him well.

Before everyone set out to subjugate Sukuna, Genshin had been asked to leave his seclusion, but his health had long since deteriorated. He sealed numerous curses within his own body, then passed away and became a Cursed Object.

The "Prison Realm" had been delivered by one of his monks.

Genshin's exact words had been, "With your Barrier Techniques, you should be able to seal away someone who is a natural disaster incarnate..."

He had wanted to seal Sukuna with the Cursed Object he would become after death.

Unfortunately, the Prison Realm could only seal one person at a time.

Neither Kenjaku nor Tengen had gone to subjugate Ryomen Sukuna at all.

Anything within four meters of the opened Prison Realm could be sealed inside after spending one minute under the gaze of that bleeding eye.

And that minute was one minute within the creature's mind.

The Prison Realm had been kept with Tengen all this time. She had thought that, with Alluka on the verge of death, surely a minute would pass within her mind.

Who could have known that this enormous Cursed Spirit would appear out of thin air in that single instant?

In theory, the minute within the mind should have been measured by the body's owner. But would a minute within the Cursed Spirit's mind count now? Could this pitch-black, unknown creature think for a minute?

Kenjaku stared unblinkingly at the Cursed Spirit in the air, unease stirring within him.

Bloody froth kept spilling from Alluka's throat. The instant she breathed her last, the monster that had hatched within her emerged straight through her body.

Everything that followed was like a nightmare.

Before Tengen could react, an invisible force tore her body in different directions. Her features writhed beneath folds of compressed flesh, and her lips opened and closed as she gasped through the flowing blood.

Her entire body was kneaded like dough. Great swaths of flesh and skin were ripped open, exposing the bones and fascia beneath.

One, two... countless fissures began to appear.

It was like bones snapping, like all the oxygen being sucked away.

"It hurts..."

A voice hoarse with pain spilled from her throat. She wanted to whimper in agony.

Blood splashed through the air and pattered down into the pure-white space. With a cry of terror, Tengen was twisted into a grotesque, distorted Rope Person.

Kenjaku was very familiar with this process. He had fled at the very first instant.

The brainless body he left behind was twisted into an ugly Rope Person, just like Tengen.

Uraume had still been fighting Sugawara Satoru moments earlier.

Because the Six Eyes could see through Cursed Energy, Sugawara Satoru had anticipated several of Uraume's Jujutsu attacks before he used them.

He hated the feeling. The fight was unbearably frustrating.

Fortunately, Sugawara Satoru did not know Reverse Cursed Technique. Just as Uraume gritted his teeth, determined to make another push, a scalding rain of blood poured over his head. He hastily wiped away the salty, metallic liquid with his hand, only to see that Sugawara Satoru had already been twisted into the kind of Rope Person he had seen before.

"Alluka?"

Uraume turned around just in time to see the barrier shatter. An enormous, translucent, mistlike entity slowly approached, cradling a tiny body.

Her features resembled rolling tangles of black thread, and tears silently streamed down her deathly pale face.

"Nanika, this is..."

In disbelief, Uraume tried to take a step forward.

But countless twisted strands of fleshlike matter stretched out from the Cursed Tool behind Nanika. Like a spiderweb, they bound the body she held in her arms.

"What happened?"

Uraume had no idea what any of this was. He formed an ice blade in his hand, intending to cut through the material.

But in an extremely short time, the fragments drew together, pulling Nanika and Alluka's body inside and turning into a fist-sized Cube.

Eyes opened densely across the Cube. The air seemed to freeze, leaving Uraume speechless.

A hand reached out and took hold of the Prison Realm.

At some point, two trails of tears had run down Uraume's face.

He raised his head to see the pink-haired young man, bare-chested, toying with the cube-shaped Cursed Tool in his hand.

"What is this?"

His voice was as deep and sharp as ever, carrying a terrifying sense of pressure.

Ryomen Sukuna did not have a single wound on him. The supposed campaign by all the Jujutsu Sorcerers to subjugate him seemed to have been nothing more than a game to him.

"I'm sorry, Lord Sukuna. This is all my fault..."

Uraume bowed his head deeply and explained what had happened.

Even now, he did not understand any of it. Was Alluka dead? What had Sugawara Satoru come here to do? Who were those two Rope People inside whose features could no longer be made out?

And what was this Cursed Tool?

"Is that so..."

Ryomen Sukuna looked at the bloodstained Cube in his hand. Inexplicably, he felt murderous intent boiling in his chest like oil over a raging fire.

Love was born of loneliness, and its death was loneliness too.

Just as Alluka was inherently incapable of understanding hatred, Sukuna could not feel love.

An absolute powerhouse, and the loneliness that came with it-no one had ever taught him what love was.

Nor could he understand how such a strange being could exist within the body of a creature so weak that a touch could kill her.

They were lonely outcasts, yet each was the other's one and only blood relative.

They truly were a strange pair of siblings.

A gust of wind swept past. Thunder rumbled in the sky, and a sheet of white paper, wet along one side, drifted toward him on the wind.

Ryomen Sukuna reached out and caught it. The writing on the paper was crooked and uneven; without looking closely, it was impossible to make out what it said.

"Let's go."

He casually tossed the paper into the gauzy drizzle, and his tall figure headed into the distance.

"Where... are we going?"

Uraume followed cautiously behind him.

"Too many small fry. Time to clear them out."

In the pitch-black world, a voice rang out like a sudden thunderclap.