Shinjuku, Tokyo — December 24th, Christmas Eve
The heart of the city should have been aglow with lights, music, and the warmth of holiday cheer. Instead, Shinjuku had descended into chaos. Flames licked at shattered buildings. Screams echoed through the smoke-choked streets. Demons—no, Curse Spirits—roamed freely, slaughtering anyone in sight.
Where joy should have thrived, only despair remained.
Amidst this nightmare stood a dazed teenager, his gaze locked onto the carnage before him.
Akiyama Ren was his name—or rather, the name he'd taken after waking up in this world sixteen years ago. Born again in what he'd thought was a peaceful slice-of-life setting, he'd never imagined that it would one day shift into a living hell.
His legs trembled as his mind raced.
This… This is the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, isn't it?!
The realization struck him like a lightning bolt.
He recognized the grotesque, deformed Curse Spirits that howled and tore through the city like a plague. The chaos unfolding wasn't random. It was a massacre orchestrated by Suguru Geto, the traitorous Jujutsu Sorcerer, to draw out Yuta Okkotsu and claim the Special Grade Curse Spirit, Rika Orimoto.
Wait… does that mean this world is part of the Jujutsu Kaisen universe?!
The truth hit harder than any blow. This wasn't just some fantasy world or dreamland. It was a multiverse, stitched together from the grim and dangerous worlds of shounen anime. And Ren? He was nothing more than an average reborn civilian. No system. No cheat skills. No power. Just knowledge... and the creeping dread of his own insignificance.
"Get out of there, now!"
A sharp, commanding voice cut through the madness.
Ren turned to see a woman sprinting toward him—her icy-blue hair flowing behind her, a katana in hand, dressed in a fitted exorcist uniform. Her face was etched with focus, her blade already gleaming with cursed energy.
Miwa Kasumi?!
The recognition sent chills down his spine.
He hadn't thought of her in years. She was a side character in Jujutsu Kaisen, often considered weak compared to the heavyweights. But here, seeing her cut down a grotesque Curse Spirit in a single stroke, she looked like a warrior descended from the heavens.
If even Miwa is this strong… then what kind of monsters are Gojo Satoru, Ryomen Sukuna, or Geto himself?
Before he could gather his thoughts, a massive shadow loomed behind him. Ren didn't have to turn to know something horrific had crept up on him.
He could smell it.
The stench of rot. Of decay. Of death.
A revolting Curse Spirit the size of a bus—its body like a bloated maggot fused with limbs from a nightmare—lurched forward. Its gaping maw stretched wide, rows of jagged teeth dripping black slime as it surged toward him.
Ren froze.
He couldn't run.
Couldn't scream.
So this is how it ends—?
But just before the jaws could close in, a flash of silver light cleaved through the air.
SHLNK!
The Curse Spirit was split clean in two, its upper half slamming into a nearby wall with a splatter. Kasumi stood between him and the monster, her blade now soaked in cursed blood.
"You okay?" she asked, barely winded.
Ren opened his mouth to answer, but the words never left. His eyes widened in horror.
Behind her—it moved.
The severed Curse Spirit, impossibly, began to regenerate. Its body wriggled and snapped back together, maggot flesh knitting with wet, squelching sounds.
Kasumi noticed his expression and turned, eyes narrowing.
"Damn—!"
She raised her blade just as the Curse Spirit launched at them with feral hunger. She barely managed to cross her katana and sheath to block the strike.
BOOM!
The impact was devastating.
Steel shattered. The two were hurled through the air, crashing into the wall of a nearby storefront like ragdolls.
Ren gasped, tasting blood.
"Gah—!"
His ribs screamed in protest. He couldn't feel his left arm. Beside him, Kasumi lay unmoving, her uniform torn and bloodied, fragments of her shattered sword embedded in her flesh.
The Curse Spirit laughed. A guttural, high-pitched screech that sent shivers down his spine.
"Eat… eat… EAT YOU… EAAAAAT!"
It crawled closer, slobbering, its bulk blotting out the flames behind it.
Ren wanted to run.
To fight.
To live.
But nothing moved. His limbs were dead weight. His vision blurred.
Damn it… Is this how I die?
He'd spent sixteen years thinking he was just another background character in a peaceful world. Never trained. Never prepared. And now, the world revealed its true colors—and he had no power to fight back.
"No cheat… no skills… not even a dumb system," Ren muttered, chuckling bitterly.
"I'm a disgrace to all transmigrators."
The despair was overwhelming. The heat of the fires faded. The monstrous whispers of the Curse Spirit grew distant.
He shut his eyes.
Waiting.
Surrendering.
He had already given up.
The pain in his chest had dulled into numbness. His limbs no longer responded. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
So this is how it ends…
Akiyama Ren closed his eyes. Not in peace—but in bitter resignation.
The maggot-like Curse Spirit loomed above, its distended jaw yawning wide, prepared to devour both him and Miwa Kasumi in one grotesque gulp.
But then—
[Ding! Life-threatening situation detected. System binding accelerated!] [Ding! Binding successful.]
The world fell silent.
Ren's eyes snapped open.
Time had stopped.
The Curse Spirit was frozen mid-lunge, jaws parted. The flames devouring Shinjuku hung motionless. Debris floated in the air like snowflakes suspended in glass.
The chaos, the screaming, the death—everything was still.
Even the wind had vanished.
[Ding! Congratulations, Host. Treasure Chest System successfully bound. You've received your Newbie Chest.] [Would you like to open it?]
"Yes," Ren whispered, barely audible.
[Opening Newbie Chest… Success!] [Acquired: Star Gate (Dimensional Access), Storage Space, Rimuru Tempest Template.] [Warning: Host is in immediate danger. Template use is recommended. Activate Rimuru Tempest Template?]
"Yes!" Ren barked.
He didn't even hesitate. He had no time to question where the voice came from or how it worked. He just needed to survive.
The moment he accepted, a surge of unimaginable power erupted inside him.
Magic—pure, violent, alive—coursed through every fiber of his being. His wounds sealed. His broken bones realigned. His blood shimmered faintly with azure light.
[Unique Skill: Predator – Acquired] [Unique Skill: Raphael – Acquired] [Demon Lord evolution – Complete] [Dragon Species transformation – Successful] [God-tier Skills Integrated: Void God Azathoth, Gluttonous King Beelzebub]
The flood of notifications echoed endlessly in his mind. Each one brought another wave of strength, clarity, control.
By the time the last prompt sounded, Ren was no longer human.
He stood calmly in the frozen world, clothed in a new form. His body was lean, refined—scaled with radiant markings, draped in garments woven from energy. His eyes glowed like twin stars.
And then—
Time resumed.
The Curse Spirit lunged.
Ren raised his hand.
It stopped mid-air—caught by an invisible force. Then, with a simple clench of his fist, the creature imploded into glowing ash.
Gone.
Erased like dust on the wind.
Ren exhaled slowly and looked down at his palm.
So this is the strength of Rimuru Tempest…
It was overwhelming. Divine. Addictive.
But even this power had limits.
[Notice: Template Use Duration – 24 hours. Three uses remaining.]
"Tch. What a waste," Ren muttered, annoyed. "I had to burn a god-tier trump card on a low-grade maggot?"
He glanced at Miwa's unconscious form, cradled gently by invisible threads of energy he now controlled. He exhaled, relieved. She was alive.
But this was only the beginning.
As the aftershock of his transformation rippled through the cursed energy network of Japan, the entire Jujutsu world shuddered.
At that exact moment—
Gojo Satoru, who had just dropkicked Miguel into a bus stop, froze mid-stride. His brows furrowed. He pulled off his blindfold. The sky itself seemed to tremble.
"…What the hell was that?" he muttered.
At the same time, far away at Tokyo Jujutsu High, Suguru Geto dropped the cursed item he was examining. A cold sweat trickled down his back.
Even overseas, Tsukumo Yuki paused in the middle of a cursed spirit hunt and looked to the east with narrowed eyes.
The patriarchs of the Zen'in, Kamo, and Gojo families felt it too.
An impossible pressure. Something divine… and angry.
Ren didn't know it yet. But in that moment, the entire world had felt him awaken.
A new power had emerged—neither Jujutsu Sorcerer nor Curse Spirit. Something… beyond.
*************************
Just to clarify, Great Skill Raphael later evolves to Ciel. I tried to bring the skills in the template to be as close as possible to peak Rimuru. I haven't really read the light novels, so, correct me if I'm wrong.