Becoming Sukuna

"Is this your student?"

Sukuna glanced down at the figure of Hachiman Hikigaya, who had collapsed before him. He took two steps back, crouching down to inspect him closely. From Hikigaya's perspective, all he could see was a large black blindfold looming over him.

"Quite ordinary and weak," Sukuna commented.

"Hah... so weak, this really is private business," Hikigaya responded with a dry chuckle, trying to force a grin with his dead-fish eyes.

"Can you stand this?" Sukuna suddenly grabbed the back of Hikigaya's collar and yanked him up. "Use your technique against this damn white-haired bastard!"

"Uh... isn't this a bad idea?" Hikigaya, drenched in sweat, hesitated. "Aren't you two acquainted?"

Looking at the tall white-haired man in front of him, Hikigaya could tell that his posture suggested he was more than just a casual acquaintance of Sukuna's, probably a formidable opponent whose abilities matched Sukuna's. Was Sukuna truly hoping for his demise by forcing him to fight such a powerful person?

"Yeah, we're partners. Just go ahead and attack your ally; it's not a good look, is it?" Sukuna said, his voice carefree, showing no sign of tension as if he didn't see Hikigaya's technique as a threat.

"Look at his punchable face. Don't you just want to punch him right in the face?" Sukuna gave Hikigaya a hard shove, causing him to stumble forward. His tone then grew more serious. "I told you to use it! Go ahead and hit him!"

"Ugh..." Hikigaya grimaced in pain.

Forced by Sukuna's command, Hikigaya reluctantly raised his head, staring at Sukuna's ally. "I'm going to attack now... please be careful."

Sukuna was curious—was Hikigaya's technique special? Was he testing it to see if it could break Sukuna's Limitless?

As Hikigaya pondered this, Sukuna looked on with mild interest. "No worries, just attack. I'm not worried."

Was it sheer confidence in his power?

Hikigaya thought as he directed his hand toward one of Sukuna's arms and activated his technique.

"Hmm?"

Sukuna raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised.

Although Hikigaya's technique didn't break through Sukuna's Limitless and inflict any harm, Sukuna could sense the void around him contracting. This was something that had never happened before.

As Hikigaya, the caster, felt his cursed energy drain rapidly, he stopped the technique. The sudden drain of cursed energy left him weak, and he collapsed once more, gasping for air.

"What... what happened?" Hikigaya looked up, bewildered, still thinking that Sukuna had done something to him.

"Cursed energy backlash," Sukuna explained with an easy grin. "The gap between you and me is far too great. Just expending that much cursed energy is already good enough."

Ignoring the differences in their techniques, just comparing the amount of cursed energy they had, it was clear the disparity was massive.

The only people who had more cursed energy than Sukuna were two individuals: one was the person in front of him—Sukuna—and the other was his student, Yuta Okkotsu.

Sukuna's gaze flickered between the two before he turned his attention to the unharmed Sukuna.

From what Hikigaya had described earlier, Sukuna had assumed that Hikigaya's technique involved concepts of space and dimensions. Perhaps it could break through Sukuna's Limitless.

After receiving a task from Sukuna, he had decided to bring Hikigaya here to test it. However, things weren't quite as expected. Although he had anticipated it, Sukuna couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed.

If only Hikigaya's technique could truly break through Sukuna's Limitless. He might be able to learn from it and develop an attack that could truly pose a threat to Sukuna.

"Enough jokes, let's get to the explanation," Sukuna said, stepping aside to clear the way for the orphanage door. "This explanation is mainly for the two of you. Since Sukuna accepted the higher education task to train Yukinoshita and…"

"I'm Hikigaya. Hachiman Hikigaya," the dead-fish-eyed boy obediently introduced himself.

"...and Hikigaya, your abilities, this place will be perfect for you."

Sukuna then pointed at Hikigaya with a smile. "Hey, hey! Question! What exactly is a cursed spirit?"

"Eh? Are you asking me?" The question was so simple that Hikigaya blinked in confusion before slowly answering, "It's a monster born from human negative emotions…"

"Close enough. To be more precise, cursed spirits are formed by cursed energy that spills out from human negative emotions and accumulates over time. Looks like your teacher didn't teach you much," Sukuna teased as he found an opportunity to mock Sukuna.

As Sukuna began to explain the task ahead, Sukuna handed control back to Yukinoshita. At hearing Sukuna's mockery, Yukinoshita spoke up, rebutting, "I'm a practical type, okay?"

Sukuna shrugged before turning back to Hikigaya. "Here's the real question."

"Most people hate cockroaches, right? A lot of people are also afraid of these disgusting creatures. So, there's a chance that a cockroach cursed spirit might be born." He then gave Hikigaya a thumbs-up. "Now, if that cockroach cursed spirit is exterminated, what do you think happens next?"

"Exterminated...?" Hikigaya paused, starting to think it through.

Yukinoshita, however, quickly came to a realization, her eyes flashing with understanding. "The cockroach cursed spirit is exterminated, but the people who hate cockroaches still exist. A new cockroach cursed spirit would be born?"

"That's right," Sukuna confirmed her answer before turning to face the orphanage. "This place is the same."

"This area was once a burial ground. Beneath it, countless corpses were buried. Now, it's an orphanage, a place with immense negative energy. That's why cursed spirits are constantly born here, and nothing will change even if the building is remodeled. This place could easily be called a den of magic."

"Every so often, higher-ups send people to cleanse the cursed spirits here. The newly born cursed spirits are generally weak, but there are a lot of them. It's a perfect place for training."

Yukinoshita looked thoughtful, then suddenly posed a question: "If cursed spirits keep being born, and sorcerers have to keep eliminating them, isn't that just treating the symptoms and not the root cause?"

"Isn't there any way to cure it permanently?"

After Yukinoshita voiced her concern, she noticed Sukuna's slight pause. However, since most of his face was hidden behind his blindfold, she couldn't see his expression.

"Technically speaking…"

Sukuna was about to answer when he was interrupted by Sukuna.

"A permanent solution might exist, but for now, this is all we can do."

"Now, it's time for the cleaning activity to begin."

The old orphanage before them truly deserves to be called a haunted place.

The weathered stone walls are lined with rusted wire mesh, and the iron gate at the entrance is similarly stained with red rust, making it appear like dried bloodstains.

A few crows land on the nearby streetlight poles, cawing mournfully, as the desolate street exudes an eerie stillness.

More importantly, even the untrained in sensing cursed energy, like Hachiman Hikigaya, could feel the overwhelming negative cursed energy seeping from the dilapidated orphanage.

"This doesn't look too good, huh?" He already felt the urge to back out.

"Considering your current abilities, yes, it's quite dangerous," Satoru Gojo said in a light-hearted tone. "From level 4 to level 2 cursed spirits, their numbers vary, but I estimate there are at least thirty here."

"Do you two think you can handle it?" Gojo raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"Definitely not," Hikigaya answered without hesitation.

"How would you know without trying?" Yukinoshita Yukino's voice was firm.

Both of their statements echoed at the same time, but their meanings were worlds apart.

"Your student is interesting," Gojo chuckled.

"You've got it wrong. This guy isn't my student," Sukuna corrected, a frown on his face. That damn dead-fish-eyed kid was really embarrassing him today.

"Stop stalling and let's go in," Yukinoshita Yukino said calmly, stepping forward first.

Hikigaya scratched his head, wondering when Yukino had become so brave.

"That's the spirit! It's important to have some confidence!" Gojo praised, stepping forward to follow behind them.

"Just so you know, I won't be your commander this time," Sukuna said to Yukino in advance.

"You don't need to say that." Even if Sukuna hadn't said so, Yukino would have requested this. She couldn't always rely on his commands during battles; people shouldn't stay stagnant.

She placed her hand on the rusty iron gate and effortlessly pushed it open.

As soon as her right foot stepped into the orphanage, Yukino's pupils contracted sharply. A sudden, piercing chill shot up her spine, and the frigid cursed energy seemed to manifest as shadowy hands reaching up from the ground, trying to drag her into hell.

"This feeling... it's unbearable," Yukino muttered.

Hikigaya followed and instinctively shuddered, equally affected by the oppressive cursed energy pervading the area.

After a moment of adjusting to the discomfort, Yukino took a deep breath. "Let's go."

The atmosphere here was too dense, and Yukino couldn't rely on sensing cursed energy to track hidden spirits. They would have to explore the area carefully, trying to avoid being surrounded by the spirits.

The orphanage covered a large area with well-maintained facilities, offering education, sports, medical care, and entertainment. It must have been a place that provided a sense of home for abandoned children before it was shut down.

Unfortunately, it had been poorly located, and after a series of supernatural incidents, it had to be abandoned.

The empty plaza had many dug-out tree pits, and a lone flagpole stood at the flag-raising platform, looking bleak under the overcast sky.

"It's empty here, too," Yukino observed, scanning the surroundings. Her gaze finally settled on the buildings. "Looks like they're hiding inside."

"Feels like a horror movie set… It's so creepy, I really don't want to go in," Hikigaya shivered as a cold wind blew past, causing goosebumps all over his body.

Yukino ignored his complaints and walked steadily towards the building.

"Hey, wait for me!" Hikigaya called, cautiously surveying his surroundings, fearing a cursed spirit might appear and ambush them. But when he turned around, he saw Yukino had already walked quite a distance ahead and hurried to catch up.

This woman's lack of concern was unbelievable!

Before Hikigaya could catch up, Yukino reached the glass doors of the building, which had already been unlocked, and pushed them open.

Inside was a large hall. Straight ahead were stairs leading to the second floor, and on both sides were corridors that led to the dormitories and dining area.

The hall also had several round stools and tables in the corners, with toys scattered on the floor—evidently, the children had once played here.

Right in front of them, a "child" was crouched on the floor, awkwardly stacking blocks.

"Calling it a child is a bit of a stretch," Hikigaya observed as he entered the hall. He saw the cursed spirit—though small in size, its appearance was very basic: a small sphere for a head, a large cylinder for a body, and four small cylinders as limbs.

It resembled a mechanical lifeform from NieR.

"Use your technique, dead-fish-eyed kid," Sukuna suddenly spoke up. He hadn't seen Hikigaya's technique used on Gojo, but it shouldn't fail against such a weak level 4 cursed spirit.

Hikigaya nodded and extended his hand toward the cursed spirit. The creature had already noticed them, its mouth stretched into an eerie, sinister grin. "Come... play... with... us..."

Before it could finish its broken words, Hikigaya clenched his fist, and the cursed spirit was instantly trapped within a mirror that appeared out of thin air, as if crushed by an invisible press.

"Interesting."

Sukuna raised his hand in the domain, and Yukino mirrored the movement in reality. She tapped on the mirror, and the cursed spirit stared out from behind the glass with wide, innocent eyes.

"Would this count as reducing the cursed spirit's dimension?" Sukuna mused.

"Never tried it. How could I use an offensive technique on myself?" Hikigaya's forehead beaded with sweat, fearing Sukuna might make him trap himself in the mirror.

"No worries, let's continue." Fortunately, Sukuna wasn't that cruel and soon returned to his position.

Hikigaya let out a sigh of relief, then shattered the mirror with his technique. The cursed spirit inside was destroyed and vanished along with the shattered mirror, turning into light particles.

"Where should we go next?" Hikigaya asked after dealing with the level 4 cursed spirit in the hall.

"Let's head to the dormitory," Yukino replied after a brief glance at the map on the wall.