Seven Years Later.
Seven years passed faster than I expected. Without the use of a calendar, I had resorted to counting the years by the coming seasons. It wasn't hard when, due to the less pollution and cooler temperatures, it was easy to tell when winter passed, and thus the beginning of a new year.
Not many things had changed during those years; I still only wandered the countryside of Japan, or whatever name it had during this period. Since learning to hide my presence, animals no longer avoided me, and I could hunt them again, thus not having to go into villages for most food.
Things that did change regarded humans and curses. For starters, sorcerers no longer attacked me solo; now they usually came in groups of 4 or 5, and their strength indicated that they were grade 2 and 1, usually the former playing support to the latter.
The second change was that whenever I hid my presence, curses would no longer avoid me, or at least those that couldn't think straight
And lastly, when going into villages, towns, and/or a noble's compound, a new destination I added when I felt extremely bored, I no longer hid myself under a cloak. It was…more freeing than I had envisioned.
I wasn't attacked on sight anymore, thanks to my constant use of Cursed Energy to create pressure around everyone. Thanks to it, mundane people didn't try anything against me anymore, because they couldn't. I learned this technique when I announced my presence with my cursed energy. I could add my anger, rage, or bloodlust, I knew not which specifically, onto it, creating a feeling of dread all around me, and freezing everyone around me.
It was extremely useful as it also seemed to freeze most sorcerers, making it easier to deal with them. In the end, I practiced with it until I could use it instinctively. I once questioned a sorcerer on why others didn't use something similar; it didn't seem that hard to replicate after all. He said that my amount of cursed energy was otherworldly and even most special grades would be hard pressed to imitate something similar.
During these years, it didn't come as a surprise that I began to build a reputation. With all the villages I had massacred in the past and my constant killing, in self-defense, of sorcerers, whom normal people saw as very skilled or powerful samurai, shinobi, or whatever type of warrior, gave me a reputation as a merciless demon that wandered across Japan killing senselessly.
It gave me a bad reputation and made people less likely to even talk to me, but by this point, I couldn't care less; it's not like there was a line of people waiting to talk to me anyway. It helped to keep people from doing something reckless and stupid every time I wandered into people.
Probably the only thing I found funny about this whole thing was the monikers.
The Four-armed Ogre.
The Two-faced Demon.
Or just: Ryomen Sukuna.
One of my goals was close to being achieved: people were scared of even saying my name. And if my reputation wasn't enough to scare people into submission, I was sure my physical appearance would be more than enough.
I was correct in my assumption that I would exceed 7ft; I was now a 7' 6" brick of a man. I never stopped training; in fact, I pushed myself even further if I wanted to become the strongest. I argued that if Cursed Energy served as a multiplier to my natural capabilities, then I would reach my peak without Cursed Energy.
Actively stopping cursed energy from flowing through my body, I trained six days of the week, with only one day to rest, for the past 7 years.
For my strength, push-ups, sit-ups, and as many burpees as I could, and whenever I felt it was becoming easier, I would add weight to my back, my shoulders, or pants, first logs, then rocks, and then a boulder.
For my stamina and speed, I ran up and down any nearby mountain every morning. And just like with strength, I kept adding weight until I had to run up the mountain while carrying a boulder. And thanks to RCT, I wasn't afraid of giving myself any long-lasting injury.
And for my fists, I punched tree trunks until my knuckles bled, I didn't stop until I could topple a tree with but a punch. I didn't stop until I was capable of breaking stone with my bare hands.
When I achieved all that, I knew I had reached my peak.
My muscles were bigger and more defined than ever, my constitution was unbreakable, my stamina endless, my dexterity unmatched, and my strength boundless. Physically, I had no rival anymore.
Physically.
In Sorcery, it was another matter altogether.
I trained extensively with my techniques. Dismantle was easier to use; I no longer needed hand motions to send weaker ones. I could send hundreds of the weaker ones at a time, as if I were sending a net of invisible blades. For stronger ones, I only needed to point in the direction I wanted them to go. I could send dozens of them in an instant just by pointing. I only needed motion from my hand or fingers for the strongest ones, those that can tunnel through a mountain and split the clouds.
With Cleave, although less used, I still made sure to properly train it; unless the target had sufficient cursed energy protecting them, my strongest Cleave could now cut down anyone to the cellular level. And I was hoping to be able to cut down someone at a molecular level sometime in the future, but for now, that was the most I could improve Cleave.
Hell, I had even discovered that I could produce fire, the name of the technique appeared on my head the day I had first used it. Divine Flame. I hadn't gotten to mastering it yet, but what I could do with it for now was more than enough. It would've been so useful in the years prior.
While I was proud of my techniques, I knew that I hadn't reached the pinnacle of Jujutsu Sorcery yet.
Domain Expansion.
What Himejima had called the best Jujutsu had to offer. Although we never got to discuss it in depth, he mentioned that only the strongest, the really hard-working, or the talented, managed to achieve it.
The last technique I was missing to become one of the strongest sorcerers to live.
For a few days, I would hide my presence when I sensed a fight between a sorcerer and a curse to see if any of them used a Domain Expansion. The times they did use it, I tried to learn it by just watching and feeling the curse energy of the caster. I did not learn it, but I gained some understanding of how it worked.
My second plan was to let others use it on me. While not all grade 1 sorcerers had Domain Expansion, the ones that did I toyed with until they activated it. Every time I would try to study everything that happened, from the moment the domain surrounded me, to the point I would kill the sorcerer when his Domain failed to kill me, or I had seen enough.
Both types of experiences helped me know better how Cursed Energy was manifested and took a form that defied logic when a sorcerer activated their Domain.
It was only a matter of time until I learned and mastered Domain Expansion. I just knew it.
Sometime later
I was leaning on the wall of a cave, my eyes closed as I heard the rain pour from the heavens with a vengeance. The storm seemed to rage on; no matter how much time had passed, the winds kept blowing rain at intense speeds.
Just by seeing the speed of the wind, I could deduce that this was a Typhoon. Quite devastating for island nations like Japan. Destruction incarnate some would call it. God's wrath, superstitious fools would call it. But I'm sure that for those as strong as me, it's just a strong breeze.
But there was a slight problem…I was hungry. While I could fix any torn muscle and any injury with RCT, it could not provide the nutrients and calories that food provided.
The storm had caught me off guard days before, and animals were hard to track under these conditions, and I didn't know where the nearest town was. I was nearing my third day without eating, and while water was of no consequence, not when it was falling freely from the sky, I felt my stomach ache at the lack of solid food.
I had made a temporary shelter out of the side of a mountain; I had used cleave to create a hole to wait out the storm, just because it was a breeze for me did not mean I wanted to get wet.
The temperature would be chilling for others, but with cursed energy, I could protect myself from both the cold and the heat. Honestly, cursed energy was such a cheat sometimes.
Before I could think of anything else, I felt a chill encompass the area. I let out a breath and saw wispy steam come out of my mouth. That was weird; my cursed energy should protect me from the cold.
I turned to see the entrance of the cave, and where there had once been a typhoon, strong winds, and water making vision hard, there was now a snowstorm raging outside. This sudden change couldn't be natural. I opened my senses, and I was right.
The sudden temperature change was the result of a cursed technique. It was a very powerful technique if it encompassed the whole mountain. I felt a shiver spread over my body and decided to increase my cursed energy going through my body, after all I wasn't looking to get sick.
Almost instantly, I could no longer feel the biting chill of the snowstorm. If this was a technique, then that meant that a sorcerer was nearby; hopefully, they had a refuge stocked with food or something.
I located the source of the technique several miles away; in fact, when I expanded my senses, it felt as if the snowstorm was expanding. That was weird; an experienced sorcerer would have better control of their technique.
I jumped into the air, blasting through it as if I weren't going against 140 mph winds. I jumped several miles up, and although I couldn't see due to the clouds, it helped me pinpoint the origin of the cursed technique better.
Hitting the ground at speeds that would've killed anyone else, I began to make my way towards where I felt the origin, the eye of this storm, so to speak.
The closer I got, the colder it seemed to get; no longer was it snow that the wind blew, but icicles the size of my pinkie, then the size of my index, then my hand, until there was ice debris flying almost as big as my head. I cut apart any debris that flew my way with low-powered Dismantles.
The ground became ice, and the trees were frozen solid, also encased in ice. It was hard to keep my eyes open, even with cursed energy helping me, but I managed. Finally, I came across a clearing, and there was a compound standing tall. Or what remained of one at least.
It looked like the roof had been blown away by the strong winds, and the storm had destroyed the walls, leaving the residence open to the elements. But most importantly, everything was covered in ice. But there was a shape to the ice, like it had spread outwards.
For every step that I took towards the epicenter, the temperature seemed to decrease even more. It was no trouble for my cursed energy, yet it was impressive all the same, the sheer potential this sorcerer had it made me giddy to think of the challenge if I were to fight them.
And finally, I saw them. And the thoughts of fighting them disappeared with the winds of the storm.
There at the center of it all was a child. A child probably no older than 13, pale like a ghost with white hair and a white yukata, they hugged their legs and looked as if they had been freezing forever. Their clothes were frosted all over. Their eyes were open, yet when I approached, they didn't react to me; a closer look revealed a vacant look in them.
I had no idea what to do.
Though killing them would clear the storm and return things to normal, I had yet to kill a child on purpose. I didn't care for the collateral when I sent a dismantle at someone, after all, I couldn't be bothered to account for every single detail, but in this very moment, it was something else altogether.
It would be a mercy to kill them…but I wouldn't. I don't think I was ready to take that step. I had probably killed children before, unknowingly, as it was, I was still my technique, but I couldn't bring myself to kill this one.
Instead, I did the next best thing.
"Open," I whispered.
Flames appeared on my hand, the cold winds trying to extinguish them but failing under the potency of my technique. I brought my hands close to the child, close enough to feel their warmth, but not close enough to burn them alive. The only reason I knew they were alive was because I could feel their cursed energy.
After what felt like hours, the frosting on their clothes was gone, and some slight color returned to their face, and at last their eyes closed. I felt the cursed technique recede until it was gone completely. I let out a sigh. Before long, the ice stopped, and then the snow, leaving only the rain again.
I didn't want to risk the kid dying due to rain, so I stood and faced the sky.
"Horizon's sword,
a fracture formed,
the sky will fall,
as Heaven is torn..."
I raised my two right arms and…
"Dismantle: Sky Splitting Slash"
…I sent a Dismantle that targeted the clouds overhead. The clouds split open like the Red Sea, and a starry night sky greeted me. Across the horizon, the clouds were split, the end of my attack impossible to see, and the winds were agitated as they tried to fill the vacuum that my Dismantlehad created.
It was an experimental technique designed to cut through the air and create a vacuum. A technique I developed to use against sorcerers capable of flight, if I ever encountered one.
On this occasion, I used it to part the clouds and bring some respite from the rain. I could still feel the wind, although at a lesser speed, but that didn't matter; I just wanted to get rid of the rain. Proof of my growth and power, cursed energy became weaker the longer it travelled, for me to split the sky like so...I smirked at the thought.
I looked down at the kid, and now, without the wind and snow getting in my way, I could get a better look at them. They had very delicate features, making it very hard to discern their gender, very thin, malnourished, most likely. They would die from hunger soon.
At the thought of hunger, mine returned full blast now that I had nothing to distract me and take my mind off the days without eating. I clutched my stomach as it growled loudly, clearly in protest of its continued emptiness.
At the corner of my eye, I saw the shape of a man.
Lying a few feet away from where the kid was, two ice sculptures lay on the floor. Except they weren't ice sculptures.
They were frozen bodies.
A man and a woman.
My mind started to wander.
No, that was a bad idea. It was a sick idea…but did I have another choice? Of course I had! But who knew when the storm would let up? It could take days.
I can't believe I was seriously considering this.
I couldn't eat the kid's parents, for what else could they be? This was obviously the home of a noble family.
But there was no other source of food for miles. I couldn't die. I wouldn't die, and not to such a common thing as hunger.
I reminded myself of my ultimate goal.
To become the Strongest and live unbothered.
But for that, I needed to live. I couldn't complain about where I found my food.
This wasn't the 21st century, where food was accessible almost everywhere, I was somewhere in a time before the steam engine, before industrialization, before industrialized agriculture. A time when food was scarce, and I couldn't complain about where I got it.
Another moral I broke in the name of survival.
But that was me, not the kid. Could I force them to eat their parents? If they wanted to live, they would have to. This was a complete mess, out of the frying pan and into another.
"Mmm," I turned back to the small teen, he, now hearing his voice, I could tell was a boy, was beginning to wake. "What," his voice, barely above a whisper, sounded hoarse and strained.
"Hey, kid," I called out to him. He looked around, not alarmed at all at the unfamiliar voice, until his eyes landed on me and…nothing. His expression remained unchanged. He gave no expression of fear, terror, or horror. It remained unchanged.
"W-who-" A sudden coughing fit hit him, his health was worse than I imagined, he was constantly shaking, and could barely move.
"Who I am doesn't matter, you are on death's door," I started. "Your body needs food, but there is none nearby except…" I let my gaze go back to the two bodies frozen a few feet away.
He followed my gaze. I thought he would react to the death of his parents with anything: sadness, anger, hopelessness, but once more he remained unmoving.
"G-g-good…r-riddance," he managed to grit out. Rage flickering briefly in his gaze
Huh…for him to say that. For him to feel that.
My mind went back to the day I had been born, to all the glares I had received.
To the look my mother always gave me.
It was like that, wasn't it? Any second thoughts I had disappeared.
Dismantle cut apart the bodies into neat pieces. Divine Flames thawed them out of the ice and cooked them. In a matter of minutes, we both had a piece of meat on our hands.
Human meat.
I took a deep breath and began to dig in.
Not much after, the kid did the same.
Faster than I expected, we had eaten the bodies, I ate the majority, while the kid only ate a leg at most.
The disturbing part was that I hadn't disliked it.
We stood in silence for some minutes, the only sound being the wind and the rain far away. The kid had sat on his knees and silently looked at him as if waiting for him to say anything.
Not knowing what to say, I decided to start with the most basic of things.
"The name's Sukuna kid, what's yours?"
Introductions.
"Nice to meet you, Sukuna-sama." his voice sounded stronger and more mature for a kid of his age; however, no emotion could be heard, as if he was just going through the paces. "My name is Uraume."
I nodded at him, glad to finally put a name to the face.
"What will happen to me now?" he asked me. Although the question sounded innocent, it was loaded.
There were many options laid out: I could just leave and go without looking back. I had already saved his life; I had no responsibility to this kid, but I knew he was too frail to survive on his own, even with such a powerful technique. He would just end up killing himself.
I could kill him. It would be a mercy. However, I still wanted to hold on to at least the last moral I had, even if it was already twisted.
Then I remembered his reaction when he saw me. None. No reaction. He wasn't disturbed.
And I felt something inside me rekindle.
"You'll come with me," I stated. It wasn't an option.
"I'll take care of you now, Uraume."