The Jujutsu High Battlefield
"Convergence: Piercing Blood!"
Choso slammed his palms together. A hyper-pressurized line of blood shrieked through the air, striking Uraume's right hand and detonating it into a spray of frozen mist and gore.
Uraume didn't flinch. As a master of the Reverse Cursed Technique, the flesh knitted back together in a heartbeat, pristine and pale as winter marble.
"Ice Formation: Frost Calm!"
A hazy white mist rolled outward like a creeping dawn, encasing everything it touched in a crystalline layer of rime.
"Blood Manipulation: Red Scale Jump!"
"Star's Lament: Heat Breath!"
Choso stimulated his blood flow, driving his internal temperature to feverish heights to resist the numbing cold. Beside him, Riko Amanai's technique proved even more effective; she manipulated the ambient temperature directly. Within a twenty-meter radius of her, the ice simply ceased to exist, creating a warm sanctuary amidst the blizzard.
Crr-ack!
Nearby, the Domain of the Smallpox Deity shattered like glass. Mei Mei and Ui Ui emerged from the shards.
The Deity's Domain prioritized the target with the highest cursed energy. By masking her own presence and letting Ui Ui flare his energy to full power, Mei Mei had manipulated the ritual. While Ui Ui used his Simple Domain to buy time within the coffin, Mei Mei had unleashed her Black Bird Manipulation to execute the Special Grade curse with clinical precision.
In a display of absolute, unspoken trust, the siblings had neutralized one of the most persistent threats on the field.
Simultaneously, Megumi Fushiguro deactivated his Chimera Shadow Garden. At his feet, the hulking remains of Shuten-doji were dissolving into black soot.
"Brother!" Todo bellowed.
"Got it!" Itadori replied.
The two unleashed a synchronized assault born of pure "Best Friend" chemistry, pulverizing the Special Grade curse Ganesha into a pulp of cursed energy.
"Die!" Toge Inumaki roared, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth as the invisible force of his Cursed Speech crushed the bell of Dojoji until it imploded.
"Gekizhen Palm!" Panda, in Gorilla Mode, smashed the Spider Mother into fragments of chitin and shadow.
Nanami Kento adjusted his glasses, looking at the shimmering form of the Tamamo-no-Mae Incarnate. He slowly unwrapped his necktie and bound it around his hand with practiced deliberation.
"Forgive me, but I'd rather not keep the others waiting," Nanami muttered. "It's time for overtime."
His cursed energy surged violently as he lunged. The Tamamo-no-Mae shrieked, its body swelling into a colossal Nine-Tailed Fox. Nine tails lashed out like mountain-cracking whips, making the very earth tremble. Nanami didn't hesitate. He danced through the gaps of the nine-fold assault, his eyes tracking the critical ratio points.
"Black Flash!"
A bolt of black lightning roared like a serpent. One tail was severed instantly.
Then—
"Black Flash!"
BOOM!!!
"Black Flash!"
...
Nine consecutive Black Flashes.
The fox's nine tails were shorn away in a whirlwind of black sparks. Nanami Kento had just shattered his own record of four consecutive strikes. As he walked toward the now-naked spirit, it let out a pathetic, fearful howl.
"My apologies," Nanami said, his eyes hard beneath his shades. "Threats of that nature no longer work on me."
He broke into a sprint, leaped high into the air, and brought his blunt blade down upon the fox's brow with every ounce of his soul.
"Black Flash!"
The tenth strike.
The massive body of the Tamamo-no-Mae crashed to the ground, dissolving into a thousand points of light.
With that, the Grade 1 battlefield was silent. The "Night Parade" was over.
Riko, Choso, Mei Mei, Nanami, Todo, Inumaki, Panda, and Megumi.
Eight Grade 1 sorcerers—and a remarkably sturdy "passerby" named Yuji Itadori—closed the circle. They surrounded Uraume, the last remnant of the Heian era's cold shadow.
"Tch!" Uraume spat, eyes darting between the formidable wall of sorcerers.
In this situation, victory was an impossibility. Survival required a retreat.
"Ice Formation: Cold Wave!"
A titanic wall of ice erupted from the earth, separating Uraume from the pack. He turned to flee, but—
"Projection Sorcery!"
Naobito Zenin, the old man himself, blurred into the fray. Uraume's body stiffened, frozen into a 24-frame-per-second photograph for a single, fatal heartbeat.
In that instant, a shadow appeared at Uraume's flank. A blade began to leave its scabbard.
"New Shadow Style!"
Kusakabe Atsuya. He was a man who loved to slack off, but he was also a genius. Armed with no innate technique, he had reached the rank of Grade 1 through pure mastery of the blade and physical refinement.
The draw was a flash of silver aimed directly at Uraume's throat.
Clink—
Kusakabe's pupils dilated. His blade had struck Uraume's neck, but it had only chipped a layer of ice. At the edge of death, Uraume had managed to manifest a high-density frost armor around his throat, catching the lethal ambush.
CRASH!
But the delay was fatal. The ice wall shattered. The wave of Grade 1s poured through.
"Nue!"
Megumi summoned his winged shikigami. High-voltage electricity surged through the conductive ice, striking Uraume with paralyzing force.
"Not good!" Uraume's limbs locked up.
Nanami seized the opening. "Ratio Technique!"
A blow of immense crushing force slammed into Uraume's waist. He was sent flying, coughing blood, straight into the path of a waiting Todo and Itadori.
"Black Flash!"
CRACK—
Two fists connected with Uraume's lower back. The impact shattered his spine and pulverized his internal organs. Uraume's eyes rolled back; his consciousness began to drift.
"Black Bird Manipulation!"
A crow, imbued with a suicide-vow of cursed energy, streaked through the air like a missile and tore straight through Uraume's heart.
Kusakabe drew his sword one final time.
"New Shadow Style: Evening Moon!"
This time, there was no ice armor. No defense. The blade swept through Uraume's neck with a clean, wet shing.
Uraume's head detached from his shoulders, tumbling across the pavement. For a few seconds, his eyes remained wide, filled with a vacant confusion. It was only when he saw his own decapitated body still standing that the reality of his death set in.
Memories flooded back. His mind leaped across a thousand years to a quiet, lakeside estate where he first met Sukuna.
When had he started following the King of Curses?
Ah... he remembered now.
In the famine-stricken chaos of the Heian era, he had been cornered by a mob of starving refugees. They were no longer human; they were beasts, and Uraume was nothing more than meat to them.
Sukuna had been passing by. He hadn't even looked their way, showing no interest in the squalor of the weak.
But then, a terrifying chill had blossomed in the midsummer heat. When Sukuna turned around, he saw a young Uraume staring in shock at his own hands, while the refugees before him had been turned into statues of ice.
An awakening.
Even then, Sukuna was only mildly intrigued. But when the frail boy let out a manic, jagged laugh and began to tear the frozen humans into pieces, Sukuna finally smiled.
"Hey, brat. I like your eyes. Come be my dog."
Uraume had looked up at Sukuna, the overwhelming pressure of the man's soul making it clear that he was in the presence of a god. He hesitated before asking, "What do you want me to do?"
Sukuna's grin was savage. "They wanted to eat you, didn't they? So, you'll cook them for me. I want to see how they taste."
"...Understood."
From that day on, Uraume became Sukuna's personal chef—and his portable freezer.
Now, Uraume's head lay in the dirt, staring blankly at the Tokyo sky.
"Ah... Sukuna-sama..."
The light in his eyes slowly flickered out.