I was supposed to update this three days ago 💀💀 I'm so sorry. I haven't been writing for any of my fics or answering tumblr asks because I've been too busy playing Honkai Star Rail and Final Fantasy Crisis Core 💀💀💀

11:30 AM
Outside of the Shibuya Garden Tower
6 minutes before Itadori and co. attempt to ambush 'Geto'

MIZUHIME'S BLUE EYES SNAPPED OPEN.

Still keeping a strong hold on her, Uraume immediately sensed the sudden shift in weight, but realized too late what was going on. A pale fist reached out and collided with their cheek. They felt themself skidding back, her body swiftly slipping through their grasps.

Once her feet touched the ground, she quickly tried to access her situation. First of all, she was pretty sure she was still somewhere in Shibuya, surrounded by the usual tall skyscrapers, but something was terribly wrong.

Far ahead her was nothing but ruin and desolation. The line of tall buildings and skyscrapers were gone beyond that point, all she could see were ravaged grounds and broken buildings. What had happened to the city?

Her attention then turned to the person who had been carrying her. She couldn't pinpoint their gender—they had an androgynous appearance and all—but they had white robes and white hair with some red in the back. Were they a curse user? A part of 'Geto's group?

"Who are you?" She demanded, her voice hard and her muscles tense.

Despite being attacked, the person remained calm. They even spoke to her respectfully, like a servant speaking to their master.

"My name is Uraume, my lady," they said, bowing lowly. "I understand that you're frightened, but you needn't worry. I was given orders by my master to take you to safety."

Mizuhime furrowed her brows, suspicion and confusion coiling in her gut. She hadn't been addressed like that since a thousand years ago. In fact, something about this person seemed... odd. Their attire, their mannerisms, the way they spoke Japanese... It all seemed so... out of place.

"Who is your master?" She asked curiously.

"Ryomen Sukuna," they replied.

She couldn't help the bewildered 'huh?!' that slipped out of her. Since when was Sukuna a 'master'? Back then, he had been a peasant! A commoner!

He managed to get servants after I died, no wonder he's so cocky and annoying now! She thought, but pushed it aside. There were more pressing matters to deal with.

She shook her head. "Sorry, but I'm afraid I can't go with you. I need to stay here."

Their expression turned steely. "Well I'm afraid I cannot let you do that."

She crinkled her nose, a little irked. This person recognized her status as a Lady, but was still refusing her? Sukuna clearly never bothered to discipline his servants then.

Whoa there, her inner voice said, a little alarmed. Careful now, this isn't the Heian era anymore!

"My lady," Uraume put on a placating tone that wasn't working on her. "Please. I must take you elsewhere."

"No," she replied calmly. "I'm not going anywhere with you."

Uraume blinked, then calmly let out a sigh. Mizuhime wasn't blind to how tense their body became. "You leave me no choice then."

Ice grew on the ground, running on a path straight for her feet. She jumped back before she could be frozen in place, a deep chill now settling in the air.

They were an ice user.

Mizuhime bit the inside of her cheek as she tried to strategize. Ice was basically just water waiting to happen, but she didn't see herself having an upper hand in this fight. Neither did she think Uraume would either.

She shot a hand out. The ice Uraume created broke apart, shifting back into water that quickly sped back to them. They ran to the side, but the water scythes followed suit. When they tried to summon a shield, Mizuhime melted that too.

She came at them from behind, hand encased in water, ready to swipe their head clean off, but bringing water so close to them was a mistake. Suddenly her hand was frozen over and by the time she melted it off, Uraume was already blasting icicles her way.

She ducked into the side of a building to avoid them.

"I'll ask you again, my lady," their voice rang, calm as ever. "Please allow me to remove you from the premises, as my master has ordered."

She didn't dare to peek out from the edge of the building. Instead, her senses were focused on the bright red fire hydrant a few feet away.

When Mizuhime didn't respond, Uraume began walking towards the wall she was hiding behind. When they fell into step with the fire hydrant, Mizuhime finally made her move.

Uraume flinched back as the fire hydrant suddenly exploded, water bursting out like a tidal wave ready to swallow them. They reached out with their arm, freezing it before it could touch them, but that was all the distraction Mizuhime needed.

It was clear to her that Uraume wasn't that adept at close combat, because they couldn't even protect themself from the vicious punch to the gut that she mercilessly delivered.

She briefly caught a glimpse of blood and saliva spurting out of their mouth, along with the shell-shocked expression on their face before they went flying back. This time, they didn't manage to catch themselves, their body then slamming into an expensive looking car—hopefully one that was empty.

Mizuhime stood there, waiting and watching. Uraume barely even stirred. Below them, the crushed car continued to wail as the alarm was triggered. She debated on whether she should finish them off. This person clearly wasn't an ally, but they were still Sukuna's servant. Surely he had replacements though, right?

While Mizuhime was busy thinking it over, Uraume opened her eyes, an angry growl leaving their bloodied lips.

They had underestimated the girl, but then again, that was their fault for assuming that the King of Curses would pick someone weak. Plus, hadn't he mentioned that he had been training her too? Of course his chosen consort would be strong.

But what to do now? If they remained still, the girl would leave and Sukuna definitely wouldn't like that. Their powers left them at a stalemate: Mizuhime could unfreeze their ice and turn it into water to use it against them, and they could refreeze the water and use it against her. Close combat was out of the question.

"Tch," they clicked their tongue, slowly rising from their fallen position. Shattered glass fell to the ground, the sound snapping Mizuhime's focus back onto them.

She tensed up as an icy mist started to surround their body. Uraume brought a hand up, like they were ready to blow a kiss her way.

"Maximum Output: Dead Calm," they spoke, blowing into their closed fist. The cloud of freezing mist blew towards her, but quickly hardened into huge spikes of ice that quickly festered around the area.

Mizuhime's eyes widened in alarm at the amount of ice that was rapidly coming at her. It was like a tidal wave of ice shards, towering over her and leaving her with no escape routes. She doubted there was enough time for her to melt it all away before it could hit her.

"Concentrate, melons," she recalled Sukuna's snappish words. "This isn't something you can do at will. You must concentrate. Harness your cursed energy. Take note of your timing. It has to be perfect. You need to apply your cursed energy within one-millionth of a second into a physical attack. Then and only then—"

The ice was on her and cursed energy was flowing through her fist. She didn't hesitate, her movements becoming a blur as she struck her fist against the first wave of ice. Streaks of dark cursed energy burst forth, Uraume's deadly ice attack shattering into a million shards.

"—will you be able to perform a Black Flash."

The impact of her blow caused a shockwave throughout the area, the broken ice shards flying back to Uraume who could hardly dodge it in time. It struck everything around them, but the most devastated was the building situated behind Uraume. When the shards hit it, the whole thing started to fall apart.

The last thing Mizuhime saw was Uraume's eyes widening as the building—impaled by ice shards of their own making—started to topple over them.

Mizuhime wasn't spared, however. She was luckier though, being far allowed her to quickly run away before the damage could befall on her too. Once she was sure that she was in a safe zone, she bent over, clutching her knees and breathing heavily.

"A Black Flash..." She breathed out in utter amazement. "I actually did it."

There was a giddy grin on her face, but she quickly wiped it off. Now wasn't the time to be celebrating.

She turned back to the destruction she caused. The icy mist was slowly drifting away, but she could still manage to see it. The building had now been reduced to rubble on the ground, joined by the spikes of ice that had yet to melt.

If Sukuna were here, he would tell her to confirm the kill.

"Always confirm the kill, melons. It'd be embarrassing to be caught off guard by someone you thought you killed." He once told her.

Swallowing thickly, she hurried back to the destruction, only to pause. Uraume's cursed energy was... gone. Which meant they were either dead or they had survived and gotten away.

"Shit," she cursed aloud when she couldn't find a body. She didn't know whether to be relieved or scared.

After what had happened with Mimiko and Nanako, the idea of killing someone again made her sick. But... but Uraume was different. The twins were kids just like her, angry and desperate to get their dad back, and Uraume was clearly a bigger threat than them so killing Uraume would be doing everyone a favor—

No! What was she doing? Making excuses now?

She shook her head, forcing the idea of murder away. She felt like she was going crazy. When did everything start spiraling out of control?

I need to find everyone, she decided, putting her focus onto something else.

━━━━━━･❪ 🩸 ❫ ･━━━━━━

She headed for the ruined portions of Shibuya. She didn't know why, but she had a feeling that she needed to go there. As she reached the borders, she couldn't help but stop and survey the damage.

The destruction somehow managed to be so... precise. She could see the imaginary line dividing the destroyed part of Shibuya from the (mostly) untouched parts of the city so clearly. It had to have been the work of Sukuna's domain expansion, fully aware that he could bring it into the real world rather than in an enclosed space. Only he could've been able to do something like this.

Yuji.

God, he must be devastated.

She went in, sprinting through the desolate area of Shibuya before picking up a huge amount of cursed energy coming from somewhere.

There! She thought, running towards.

She came across a razed battle area, her eyes flitting through the many familiar faces. She saw Yuji and some students and staff members of the Kyoto branch, and even Yuji's supposed brother, Choso, was there. Concerningly enough, Megumi was nowhere in sight. She couldn't find anyone from the Tokyo branch there.

They had yet to notice her, but then a white figure appeared in her peripherals, sending an icy attack at Choso's direction.

Before it could do any damage, she willed the ice to revert back to water, joining the battle.

Uraume whipped their head to her, glaring. To her major annoyance, they must be capable of using Reverse Cursed Technique because any injuries they had from their fight was nowhere to be found.

"You again," they said in a clipped tone.

"Senpai!" Yuji cried out in relief. Now that she was closer, she could see the scar running across the center of his face and another one on the corner of his lip.

She tried to give him a reassuring smile, but her gaze moved onto Uraume.

"So," her eyes narrowed. "This is where you ran off to."

"Wow!" A slightly familiar voice exclaimed. Heads turned to the man dressed in Buddhist monk clothes. He wore a cheery smile on his face, waving happily at her. "Goodness, I never expected to see you again!"

"...You," she said lowly, her eyes darting between him and Uraume. This was the fake 'Geto' that somehow knew of her past in the Heian era.

"Hello Uchiumi-san," he greeted her brightly as if they were friends having a reunion. "It truly is great to see you again. I'm so curious about you though, do you mind if I—"

He started to walk towards her, but Choso wasn't going to allow that.

"—She is not an experiment! And you'll pay for what you've done to my family!" He yelled out, trying to strike him down with Piercing Blood, a move that only a Kamo should be able to perform.

His attack managed to snap everyone back into action, and the fight resumed. Uraume went after him, but Mizuhime met them halfway and intercepted the attack.

Behind her, she could hear Choso engaging in a fight with Kenjaku. He seemed angry, roaring something about Yuji and his family. She had no idea what caused him to switch sides, but she was relieved he was with them regardless.

Uraume sent more ice her way, but Yuji appeared and punched through it before it could touch her. That seemed to piss them off.

"Watch it!" They snapped. "Whose body do you think that is?!"

"It's his own, you stupid bitch!" Mizuhime snapped back before smacking them to the ground with one of her Extended Hands that she conjured.

"You're our ally, right?" Yuji yelled at Choso.

Choso blocked a punch from 'Geto' and skidded back until he was at Yuji's side. "No!"

"Huh?!" Both Yuji and Mizuhime turned to him incredulously.

"I'm your big brother," Choso stated.

"Take this seriously, would ya?!" Yuji cried out.

"Why don't you try calling me onii-chan? Just once!" He pleaded.

"Get out of the way!" Mizuhime suddenly yelled. Uraume was now shooting icicles at them.

Choso immediately picked the both of them up and in less than a second, they were on the other side of the field.

"T-thanks..." Yuji said shakily as they were let down.

"Will you call me 'onii-chan' now?" Choso asked hopefully.

"Dude!"

On the other end, 'Geto' and Uraume stood side-by-side.

"Don't kill them," he chided them. "I need a messenger."

"Is that reason enough to let everyone live?" Uraume asked, annoyed.

Momo swooped down on them with her broom, swinging outward and trying to cut them down with Wind Scythe. It was a sharp attack, one that should've sliced them in half, but Uraume flung it off like it was nothing.

They readied a counter, but dodged when Noritoshi sent a volley of blood arrows their way.

"Listen up!" Momo addressed Mizuhime, Yuji, and Choso while Noritoshi was occupying their enemies. "We gotta buy time until Utahime-sensei is ready, okay?!"

Mizuhime didn't think there would be enough time for that because Uraume was on them in an instant.

"You want a messenger right?" Uraume asked darkly, preparing yet another deadly attack. "Itadori Yuji alone would be enough!"

They slammed their hand on the ground, generating massive amounts of spiked ice that flew telekinetically in the air. Mizuhime was ready to revert it all back to water, but Uraume had already anticipated it.

"Oh you're not getting in the way again!" They roared, sending it towards her.

Mizuhime was about to turn it into water, but suddenly the worst thing happened: her foot slipped.

Her eyes widened in realization. Uraume had frosted over the ground, not so much that it would be noticeable, but just enough to make her slip. It was so discreet, so genius, and it had worked perfectly.

The icefall struck her first. For a second, her vision flashed white, and then it returned to her, strained and dazed.

Cold. It was so fucking cold. She thought that years of swimming around the sea made her less vulnerable to the cold, but this was beyond that. Almost her entire body had frozen over. Hovering over her were large icicles threatening to fall down and impale her.

She could see Yuji, Momo, and Choso in similar states. Behind her, she could hear her allies struggling and crying out, so she knew they were on the same boat too.

Just when she was sure they were about to die from the cold, something quite literally broke them out of it. There was a whizzing sound in the air followed by a loud THWACK! and suddenly, she, Yuji, and Choso were freed.

They collapsed to the ground, too cold to really move. Weakly, she tried to move her stiff neck to crane her head up, wanting to catch a glimpse of what freed them.

It looked like a flying serpentine cursed spirit with a body made out of bones. No, wait, could this be a shikigami—?

"It's been a while, Geto," a feminine voice interrupted her thoughts. In came a gorgeous blonde woman, strutting towards the scene as if she was entering a catwalk and not a battlefield. "Can I get your answer from before? What kind of girls are you into?"

What? She blinked in disbelief, managing to exchange bewildered glances with Yuji and Choso. They all seemed to be thinking the same thing: is she for real?

"Tsukumo Yuki!" Geto grinned wryly at her appearance.

Yuki walked forward until she was standing in front of them, like she was guarding them from him.

"Do you remember our talk about how to create a world where curses no longer exist?" She began. "No matter what method you adopt, human beings will advance one stage higher. The next stage of humanity lies in breaking away from cursed energy."

"No." He disagreed, all signs of amusement gone. His face was scarily serious. "It lies in optimizing cursed energy."

"Actually..." Yuji feebly spoke up. "I don't get either way."

Yuki could only hopelessly shrug at him like she was saying, 'sorry kid, can't help ya out there!'.

"I thought you abandoned that method twelve years ago when Zenin Toji died." 'Geto' said.

Mizuhime perked up. There was that name again. Zenin Toji. Seriously, who was this guy and why was everyone so obsessed with him?

"I was talking to Geto. Oh well. I came back to the original principles. Besides, your method has a big hole," Yuki shot him down. "Compared to Japan, extremely few jujutsu sorcerers and cursed spirits appear overseas. Tengen's barrier is necessary for optimizing cursed energy. The only ones capable of becoming sorcerers through Tengen and optimizing cursed energy are the humans of this country."

"That would mean Japan has a virtual monopoly on cursed energy," she continued. "A certain superpower and the Middle East would not remain silent. Flesh-and-blood human beings are the energy source, so you can easily imagine the suffering that would result. That is a world far removed from the ideal that I pursue."

He let out a laugh at that, as if the thought of millions of people possibly being experimented on and tortured was hilarious. "Haha! So what? We have different objectives. I do not wish for a world without cursed spirits. Or an idyllic and peaceful world. Non-sorcerers. Sorcerers. Cursed spirits. These are all possibilities of cursed energy in the form of human beings. And yet, there must be more to human potential. I tried to bring that forth myself, but that doesn't work."

Choso let out an angry snarl at that, trying fruitlessly to move, but his limbs were still frosted over.

"What I can create does not exceed the bounds of my own potential. The answer is always flickering darkly in chaos. Do you understand?" He questioned her. "What I should have created was chaos that not even I could control. I have already extracted the cursed technique."

Yuki seemed to realize what he was talking about. Quickly, she whirled over to them, her face panicked. "There's a cursed spirit called Mahito, right?! He has a cursed technique that can manipulate the soul! Where is he?!"

"T-that guy just absorbed him..." Yuji answered.

"Seriously?!"

Mizuhime didn't have time to be shocked at that revelation, because 'Geto' was already preparing his next move.

"Idle Transfiguration!" He shouted, slamming his palm on the ground. A giant seal marking appeared around him and over their heads.

Yuki looked up in alarm. "Remote activation of a cursed technique?!"

Nobody had a clue what he had done, but Mizuhime could feel something shift in the air. Whatever he had activated, she knew it wouldn't be good.

"Thank you, Itadori Yuji," 'Geto' said as he stood back up. The markings on the ground and air faded away. "The quality of the cursed spirits' techniques ceases to grow at the moment they are absorbed by cursed spirit manipulation. Mojito grew during his fight against you. I actually wanted Jogo and Ranto too, but oh well."

"What have you done?" Yuki asked sharply.

"I remotely cast Idle Transfiguration on two types of non-sorcerers who'd already been marked: the people who I had ingest cursed objects like Itadori Yuki and the people with cursed techniques whose brains were meant to be non-sorcerers like Yoshino Junpei," he explained.

"I adjusted their brains for sorcery. To the former, I gave strength as vessels. To the latter, the capacity to use cursed techniques. And as of this moment, I have broken the seal on the cursed objects. Some have been deep in slumber since being exposed to my cursed energy at the time of the marking, but they will soon awaken. To deepen the understanding of cursed energy, I will have them fight each other. I carefully chose them and the cursed objects. Think of it as releasing a thousand malevolent Itadori Yujis."

"A thousand? That's not many," Yuki noted. "You underestimate human rationality. You think people will kill each other simply because they got power?"

"Everything has an order," he replied smoothly. "I would not make such an oversight. Your questions are starting to lack perspicacity."

Yuki's smile turned stiff. She turned to Choso and the kids. "He's pissing me off. Let's go beat him down!"

"Sorry, I can't move right now..." Yuji said apologetically, but just as he said that, the remaining ice chunks on their bodies started to melt away.

Mizuhime sucked in a breath as the cold started to chip away. Behind her, she could hear the rest of them being freed too.

Uraume suddenly collapsed, breathing heavily.

"What happened, Uraume?" 'Geto' asked curiously.

"Poison!" They spat out.

"My blood was mixed in with piercing blood. Of course it's poison." Choso spoke up, slowly standing.

"Wait," Momo said. "There's no backup from Mai. There may still be more of them."

"My comrade is protecting Aoi, the girl with the gun, as well as the suit," Yuki reassured her. "They don't belong here."

"Can you move?" Panda asked Noritoshi.

"Yeah. I can regulate my body temperature. So no problem."

(Meanwhile, Kusakabe flopped down to the ground.)

"I am still talking." 'Geto' said, no longer smiling. "The cursed objects that I provided are what's left of the sorcerers I painstakingly made vows with a millennium ago. However, I did not only enter into contracts with sorcerers. But those vows became null when I obtained this body."

Mizuhime's head was running a mile a minute. The more he spoke, the more she was trying to piece together what he was planning.

Not only did 'Geto' manage to turn non-sorcerers into sorcerers, but he had made some sort of vow with ancient sorcerers back in the past... and now that he was in Geto's body, his end of the vows were nullified. Meaning he was free from any consequences that would've been coming after him.

This left her shaken. What did he do? What were these vows he had made? It had to have been something big if he wanted to avoid the consequences of breaking his end of the deal.

Yuki seemed to realize what he was doing too. "No way!" She exclaimed, looking concerningly scared.

'Geto' smirked. "This is the world of the future."

A horde of cursed spirits burst from him, surrounding the group instantly.

'Geto' pulled out a cube. It looked like a large die, with a bunch of familiar blue eyes plastered on the sides. "Goodbye, Itadori Yuji."

"GOJO-SENSEI!" He shouted, trying to dart forward.

"I expect much from you," 'Geto' told him. "Are you listening, Sukuna? It is beginning once again. The world of Heian. The Golden Age of cursed techniques!" 

— author's note —

Black Flash: (taken directly from the wiki page) Black Flash is a distortion in space that occurs when cursed energy is applied within 0.000001 seconds of a physical hit. When a sorcerer is able to achieve this, their cursed energy flashes black, and the destructive power of their strike is equal to a normal hit to the power of 2.5.

About time I had her do this lol! As always, we can thank Sukuna for this achievement 💖

I GOT MIZUHIME FANART!!! This is from YnLifen:

Another mizuhime from fangirl-332!:

Aaaaand from naoyaofficialmommy:

Lastly, here are some picrews made by me!!!