Current Year: 800 (Golden Age of Jujutsu)
The sun bled across the horizon like an open wound as the entire Higuruma Clan gathered in the village square.
In the center, forced to her knees before a cold stone chopping block, knelt Himiko Higuruma. Her wrists were bound behind her back, yet her posture remained proud, regal, unbroken.
Her father, the clan leader, sat slumped in a chair to the side — pale, frail, and coughing violently into a cloth. The once-powerful man was now a shadow of himself, his body ravaged by a long and mysterious illness.
An elder stepped forward, voice loud and theatrical for the entire clan to hear.
"Lord Higuruma… it is with great sorrow that we must confirm the truth. Your daughter, Himiko, has been slowly poisoning you. She grew tired of waiting for you to pass naturally. She wanted the title of clan head now — even if it meant killing her own father."
The sick man lifted his trembling head, eyes filled with pain and betrayal as he looked at his daughter.
"…Himiko… is this true?"
Himiko's eyes blazed with fury. She glared at the elders standing behind her father, then turned back to him, her voice sharp and clear.
"Father, listen to me. I have done no such thing. I have never poisoned you. These old cowards have been whispering in your ear for months, feeding you their lies because they are terrified of a woman taking the seat of power!"
She leaned forward, voice rising with raw emotion.
"They don't want me to lead because I am not a man. That is the only reason. They have used your illness to turn you against your own daughter!"
The head elder snarled, stepping closer.
"Silence, witch! Your father has grown weak because of your poison! We have witnesses! We have proof!"
Himiko laughed bitterly, shaking her head.
"Proof? You have nothing but fear. You would rather watch this clan rot under weak men than allow a woman to make it strong."
She looked back at her dying father, her voice suddenly softer, almost pleading.
"Father… please. Do not let these frightened old men take your daughter from you."
For a brief moment, something like doubt flickered across the sick man's face.
But the elders quickly surrounded him, whispering frantically in his ear.
His expression hardened once again.
With a trembling hand, he gave the order:
"…Execute her."
Himiko's eyes filled with cold, murderous rage. She stared straight at her father as the executioner stepped behind her.
Her final words cut through the air like a blade:
"You will all regret this day… I swear it on every shard of my soul."
The blade flashed.
Her head fell.
And the sky itself screamed in response.
Himiko's head rolled across the dirt. For three agonizing seconds, the entire square was deathly silent.
A violent, blood-red shockwave of cursed energy detonated from the chopping block, shattering every torch and cracking the stone beneath it. The executioner was hurled backward like a broken doll. The elders stumbled, clutching their ears as an unearthly pressure crushed down on them.
Her father, the dying clan head, could only stare in wide-eyed horror from his sickbed.
Himiko's headless corpse did not fall.
It melted.
Flesh turned to boiling black sludge. Bone cracked and reformed into jagged white porcelain. From that pool of blood and betrayal rose something nightmarish — a towering, grotesque mass of cracked porcelain and violently swirling black shards. Jagged limbs jutted out at unnatural angles. A gaping, jagged maw opened where her face should be, leaking pure cursed energy.
Hundreds of black grudge shards orbited the monster like a storm of hatred.
The thing that was once Himiko Higuruma had no face, no voice — only rage.
But this was no ordinary curse.
The Higuruma clan's prized innate technique, Soul Fracture, had been warped by her dying hatred into something far more terrifying.
Harvest — the ability to violently rip a black grudge shard directly from any soul drowning in negative emotion. The stronger the fear, guilt, or betrayal they felt, the larger and deadlier the shard became.
Fracture — using those shards as weapons. Hurl one into a target, crush it, and unleash a soul-rupture that tears their spirit apart like shattering glass.
The head elder's voice cracked as he stumbled backward.
"W-what… what is that thing?!"
A massive black grudge shard violently ripped itself out of his soul and flew straight into the monster's body.
The vengeful spirit of Himiko let out a guttural, glass-shattering roar that shook the entire village.
Every single clansman took a terrified step back.
The massacre was about to begin.
The vengeful spirit surged forward, but the Higuruma Clan did not die quietly.
Two sorcerers stepped up to face her — the clan's strongest.
The first, a tall scarred man, roared and activated Soul Fracture:
"Soul Fracture: Binding Chains!"
Thick black chains of cursed energy exploded outward, wrapping around the monster's porcelain limbs and torso. They tightened, digging into her body, and began cracking her soul from the outside. Visible fractures spiderwebbed across her porcelain mass.
At the same time, the second fighter — a sharp-eyed woman with the clan's rarest technique — clapped her hands together and declared:
"Soul Sentencing: Verdict — Guilty!"
A massive glowing scale materialized in the air above the spirit. One side weighed her rage and betrayal. The other weighed the "crimes" the clan had pinned on her. The scale tipped violently… then suddenly snapped back.
"Not Guilty?!" the woman gasped in disbelief.
The scale shattered.
But they weren't done.
The man poured more power into his chains, making them thicker and tighter. "Hold her! Don't let her move!" The woman immediately followed up, summoning glowing black swords made of cursed energy and hurling them at the trapped spirit.
For a moment, it looked like they were winning.
The porcelain monster staggered. Cracks spread wider across her body. She roared in pain as the chains dug deeper.
Then something inside her snapped.
A sudden, violent surge of cursed energy exploded outward. The chains shattered like cheap glass. The monster's body began to grow, porcelain mass expanding and becoming denser. New jagged limbs burst out from her sides. The orbiting black shards spun faster, glowing with power.
She had evolved mid-battle.
The man's eyes widened in terror. "She… she just got stronger?!"
The woman tried one last desperate attack — "Soul Sentencing: Final Judgment!" — but the spirit was already moving.
She charged.
One massive porcelain limb slammed into the man so hard it caved in his entire chest. The moment he died, a huge black grudge shard violently ripped out of his soul and flew straight into her body.
The woman turned to run, but the monster was on her in an instant. A jagged limb grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off the ground. She struggled, gasping out her final words:
"You… were supposed to be our princess…"
The spirit crushed her without mercy. Another large shard tore free from her soul and joined the violent storm orbiting the monster.
With their two strongest fighters dead, the rest of the clan broke completely.
Screams filled the square as the massacre became total. The vengeful spirit tore through the remaining clansmen without resistance, harvesting shard after shard with every kill.
When the last body fell, only three people remained alive.
Himiko's father, too weak to stand, lay coughing on his platform.
And a few feet away stood her husband, clutching their infant son to his chest, shaking with terror.
The monstrous spirit slowly turned toward them.
Her husband took a shaky step forward, voice breaking.
"Himiko… if any part of you can still hear me… please. Let us live. I'll take our son far away. He'll never know any of this. Just… let us go."
The vengeful spirit stood completely still, jagged maw inches from them, black shards humming violently around her body.
After several long, tense seconds… she slowly turned her head away.
Her husband didn't hesitate. He clutched their son tighter and ran into the dark forest as fast as his legs could carry him, never once looking back.
The spirit watched them disappear into the trees.
The overwhelming fury inside her remained… but something else had begun to awaken.
Something colder.
Something more aware.
She slowly turned her jagged maw toward the only person still alive.
Her father.
The dying clan head lay on his sickbed platform, too weak to move, too weak to run. His trembling eyes were filled with pure terror as he watched the monster that used to be his daughter approach.
Himiko's father coughed violently, blood staining his lips.
"Himiko…" he rasped, voice barely a whisper. "Please… I… I was wrong…"
The spirit loomed over him.
She didn't speak. She couldn't speak yet.
Instead, she reached out with one jagged porcelain limb and slowly pressed it against his chest. Not hard enough to kill him. Just hard enough to make him feel it.
She began to Harvest.
One by one, black grudge shards began ripping out of her father's soul. Each shard carried every lie he had told himself, every time he had chosen the elders over his own daughter, every moment of weakness where he let fear rule him.
With every shard that tore free, her father screamed in agony.
The spirit did not stop.
She kept him alive on purpose, forcing shard after shard out of him, making him feel every ounce of guilt and regret he carried.
His body convulsed. His face twisted in pain.
"I'm… sorry…" he gasped between screams. "I should have… protected you…"
The vengeful spirit simply watched him suffer in silence, her jagged maw hovering inches from his face.
She was in no rush.
The man who had ordered her death would not die quickly tonight.
The vengeful spirit stood over her dying father like a nightmare made of porcelain and malice.
Her jagged limb pressed against his chest, slowly, methodically ripping black grudge shards out of his soul one by one. Each extraction sent fresh waves of agony through his frail body.
Her father's eyes widened in terror as another shard tore free.
"W-wait… please!" he gasped, voice cracking. "Himiko… my daughter… I beg you! I was wrong! The elders tricked me! They fed me those lies about you poisoning me!"
He coughed violently, blood spraying from his mouth.
"I was sick… I was scared… I didn't know what to believe! Please… forgive this foolish old man!"
Another shard violently ripped out of him. He screamed, his back arching off the platform.
"I should have protected you! You were my only child! My heir! I let those cowards turn me against my own blood… I deserve this pain, but please… just kill me! Don't make me suffer like this!"
His trembling hand reached up weakly, trying to touch the monster's porcelain form.
"Himiko… look at me… I'm begging you. End it. End your father's suffering. I know I don't deserve mercy, but I'm begging you… as the man who raised you… please…"
Tears mixed with blood on his face.
"I was wrong to fear a woman leading our clan. You would have been greater than any of us. I see that now… I see it too late…"
The spirit didn't move. She just kept harvesting, pulling out shard after shard while he pleaded between screams.
"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry… If you're still in there somewhere… forgive me… I love you, Himiko… I always have…"
His voice grew weaker, barely a whisper now.
"Just… finish it… don't leave me like this…"
She kept going.
Shard after shard tore violently out of his soul. Every extraction sent fresh agony ripping through his frail body. His screams grew hoarse, ragged, desperate.
"Himiko… I'm begging you!" he sobbed, blood bubbling from his lips.
Minutes stretched into what felt like hours.
His pleas grew weaker. His eyes began to glaze over. The once-proud clan leader's mind finally broke under the weight of his own sins. He stopped speaking in coherent sentences, only muttering broken fragments between shallow, rattling breaths.
"…Himiko… sorry… my daughter… forgive… please…"
Eventually, even the muttering stopped.
His body went limp on the platform, eyes vacant, staring at nothing. Brain dead. A hollow shell of a man, still technically alive but with nothing left inside.
The vengeful spirit finally withdrew her limb.
She turned away without a second glance, leaving her father as a breathing corpse in the ruins of the village square.
Hours later, a traveling merchant passing through the area would stumble upon the slaughter. He would find the entire Higuruma Clan wiped out — nothing but blood and corpses. The only survivor he would discover was the clan head himself… a drooling, empty-eyed husk staring blankly at the sky.
The news would spread like wildfire across the Heian world:
"The entire Higuruma Clan has been annihilated… only their leader remains, alive but with his mind completely destroyed."
The birth of a new curse had begun.
And the world would soon learn to fear it.