The morning sunlight filtered through sparse clouds, spilling onto the slope leading to Toyosaki Academy.
Utaha was walking towards school with her usual seemingly elegant gait. Her eyes gazed straight ahead, carrying a hint of her customary aloofness.
However, only Utaha herself knew that everything was different today.
A thousand-year-old monster resided within her body. And on her face, despite her intense mental focus and Sukuna's grudgingly cooperative 'restraint,' those two fissures still lingered like faint, indistinct scars, requiring careful concealment by a few deliberately lowered strands of hair.
What unsettled her even more was that she could clearly feel the gazes directed at her were more numerous than usual, laden with various meanings—admiration, curiosity, jealousy, and even some ill-intentioned peering.
But she paid no heed to the others' stares. Her steps were heavier and slower than ever before.
Suddenly, her pupils contracted slightly. Where her vision fell, the world seemed draped in a bizarre filter. Among the familiar streets and pedestrians, there were mixed in some indescribable 'things.'
In the shadow of a utility pole, a black mass writhed ceaselessly, exuding a chilling aura.
Behind a hurried office worker, a translucent, facially distorted phantom was dragged along, emitting silent wails.
Even in the air, some malicious presences occasionally drifted past.
Their forms varied, but their commonality was the intensely discomforting negative aura they emitted, and their numbers were shockingly high.
'What... what are these?' Utaha asked inwardly, forcefully resisting the urge to look away.
She felt her sanity points plummeting. If before it was just theoretical knowledge that the world wasn't simple, now she was visually, inescapably, placed in a horror movie set teeming with monsters.
In her mind, Sukuna also fell into a rare silence for a moment, seemingly observing as well.
After a while, he spoke with a hint of obvious confusion and disdain, "Tsk, something's off. These things... they don't look like pure Cursed Spirits. Cursed Spirits are 'instantly' generated from human negative emotions, their forms and natures relatively singular. But these things... their aura is more chaotic, more ancient, like... some kind of residual spirit or aggregate of grudges? And there are far too many of them, it defies common sense."
He paused, his tone turning serious. "Could it be that this world, besides the Cursed Energy system, there are also some other messy stuff mixed in? Like... Evil Spirits? Yokai? Or even weirder things?"
Utaha didn't hear Sukuna's muttering. However, what felt eerie to her was that despite being able to clearly see these terrifying creatures, they seemed to... ignore her?
Those twisted existences, whether crouching in shadows or drifting in the air, upon 'seeing' her approach, not only didn't pounce, but instead recoiled instinctively as if encountering something more fearsome, or simply detoured around her.
It was as if, in their eyes, she was the more terrifying presence.
"They... seem afraid of me?" Utaha asked uncertainly in her heart.
"Afraid of you?" Sukuna sneered, but this time the laugh held a hint of understanding.
"They're not afraid of you, little girl. They're afraid of me, of the terrifying aura of the King of Curses attached to you."
He explained, "To these low-level, instinct-driven things, your very existence is full of contradictions. Outwardly a human girl, but on a soul level, you emanate a pressure that makes their souls tremble. In their perception, you might not be prey, but a higher-order, more dangerous peer disguised as a human, or simply some evil god strolling around in human skin. Seeking advantage and avoiding harm is instinct. Of course they don't dare provoke you."
This explanation gave Utaha mixed feelings. On one hand, not being attacked by these monsters was certainly good. On the other hand, being regarded as 'one of their own' or a 'big shot' by these monsters was hardly a pleasant feeling. Utaha felt she had gotten dirty stuff stuck to her.
...
Entering the classroom, Sukuna was astonished to find many anime characters present here—Yukinoshita Yukino from 'Oregairu', Furuhashi Fumino from 'We Never Learn', and so on.
The appearance level of the girls in this class was a significant cut above the outside average, giving Sukuna quite the feast for the eyes.
Earlier on the road, Utaha had already taken out her phone and quickly typed 'Ryomen Sukuna' into the search bar. The results that popped up on the screen made her pause slightly.
The search results mainly pointed to the legendary Japanese demon-god—Ryomen Sukuna.
According to the 'Chronicles of Japan', he was active during the Hida Province period, described as having a monstrous body, possessing two faces and four arms, joined back-to-back, without a neck and each with hands and feet, capable of simultaneously using a bow and arrows as well as dual swords.
Because he rebelled against the imperial court and plundered the people, he was eventually slain by the dispatched Takefutsu no Kuma. His popular image is that of a monster, but some local legends also depict him as a hero protecting a region.
"Rebellion against the court... plundering the people... eventually slain..." Utaha murmured softly, a flash of understanding in her eyes.
With her intelligence, it was easy to interpret deeper information from this brief historical record.
"It seems the so-called 'demon-god' was likely a local resistance leader of that time. Because he opposed the central authority, he was deliberately vilified and demonized in later official histories. The so-called 'two faces, four arms' might just be an exaggerated description of his valor or some combat posture?"
"Hmph." Sukuna's cold snort echoed in her mind, filled with thick disdain and mockery.
"So curious about me? However, what's written in this book has absolutely nothing to do with this great one. Rebellion against the court? Plundering the people? Utterly boring. Do I need such high-sounding reasons for my actions?"
"As for the image... let them fabricate as they please, it's merely the babbling of ants."
Utaha didn't refute, silently closing the phone page. She knew it would be difficult to get a straightforward answer about his true past from Sukuna, but at least she confirmed one thing: the existence possessing her body had origins far more ancient and complex than she had imagined.
Although the original Sukuna certainly wasn't the dark hero Utaha imagined, coincidentally, this Sukuna was a fused version. The humanity carried by the transmigrated soul shifted Sukuna from chaotic evil to chaotic neutral, aligning in a sense with the original Sukuna's image.