Going back

After fighting with Tannin and partly subjugating him, Sukuna rushed towards the forest where Tamamo was. He knew that she was watching the first part of the battle, but left soon after. When he arrived there, he saw her sitting near a campfire.

"So? Did you make him at least somehow useful? Even though he is only Ultimate-class, he is still one of the Dragon Kings." Tamamo said without even turning around. As they were exploring Underworld, and finding new information, they took their power-level system. It was pretty convenient, so they thought they could use it, not like they had any to use in the first place.

"Yeah, you don't have to remind me," he frowned at her: "So, how was my fight? Even though he was a bit too weak, he was still stronger than those bats out there." He scoffed at devils. They were clearly delusional if they thought that they could rule the world alone.

"It was good, only first part though. I mean, you could finish this fight in seconds, but you still fought for few hours, so it got boring after some time. But I must say, what you said is true. His physical powers are at the Pinnacle Ultimate-class level. I'm sure he could be useful later, so your idea is splendid, as always." Tamamo said with a small teasing smile.

Sukuna wasn't even bothered with her smile and said: "His strength is not so useful at the moment, what I want from him is information and experience. I know he will be useful. He has lived for pretty long and got the title of the Dragon King, so he could teach something to our familiars. I don't think that two of us will learn something useful though, but it still might be interesting for the future."

Tamamo pondered for a while about what Sukuna said, and then answered with a small "Um".

"So, can we leave? We have clearly nothing to do here anymore. Also, I want to see how those guys are doing back in Japan. I must say that they are pretty reliable, especially that.. what was his name, Kenjaku I think? Even though he was a sorcerer in the past, he is still far better than most of those cursed spirits." When he gathered some subordinates back in Japan, he actually remembered only a few of them.

Kenjaku was one of them. He was always relaxed and cheerful, even in fights. Also, he showed that he was a pretty good manipulator, as he pursued some of his goals. Sukuna couldn't only understand why would someone with such capabilities even bother about some shitty human evolutionary? There were so many methods for them to grow stronger if someone actually showed it to them, but it was so useless in his opinion.

"Hehe, you are right, he is the rather relaxed guy, though his brain technique is a bit scary. But sure, we can leave. I don't find anything interesting here either. But maybe it will change soon?~" As she said that, she flicked her fingers and they both teleported away from this place.

Somewhere in Japan.

Sukuna and Tamamo teleported to what seems like vast plains. They moved towards the lonely tree that was standing in the middle of the plains. As Tamamo activated a bit of her magic in front of this tree, a large staircase appeared next to the tree. Both of them didn't say anything about that and just went down the stairs. When they got inside, the entrance closed, and torches lit up all the way down.

After walking for few minutes, they entered a huge room– no, rather than a room, it could be called a small realm. There were few old Japan fashioned shrines and few ponds. It was really bright here, even if there wasn't any resemblance to the sun. You could see few curses walking here and there, seemingly not bothered about anyone.

Sukuna didn't care about its looking if it was practical. Tamamo, to the contrary, felt like she wants this place to be really good-looking, so she took a role of an architect. She liked the overall style of Japan, so she didn't change it all that much. For now, the place didn't contain a lot of room nor there were a lot of curses, but it was enough for now.

They chose some unnecessary plains in the middle of Japan, and under it, they made their own small world. Tamamo did put a lot of barriers, so no one under Ultimate-class being could even try to get here alive. She clearly didn't want to get her small "home" get ruined by some nasty devils or yokai.

They then slowly started to move towards the largest shrine that was in the center of the evolving "town". Though it was looking a bit different, as it was adorned by some skulls, spiky roof and it gave this overall vibe of "evil". Sukuna wasn't bothered by it in one bit, so he went straight towards the entrance.

When they got in, they saw that the insides were decorated by some pillars with red and black patterns, some lanterns hanging from the ceiling, and few demon face masks on the walls. Shrine was rather huge, so they had to go to another room. When they finally entered it, they saw a large table and three people sitting there.

One of them was Kenjaku. He was wearing a dark kimono with white socks and wooden sandals. He had long black hair, sharp eyes, and a smile was adorning his face. He also had a stitched scar running horizontally through his forehead, which was a rather unique trait. When he saw Sukuna and Tamamo enter the room his smile grew even wider. He bowed slightly and said: "Welcome back, Sukuna-dono, Tamamo-sama."

"Welcome back, master" This was Uraume. Sukuna still didn't know what gender Uraume is but decided to go with mark her as a female. She still had chin-length white hair with an irregular line of dark plum pink running horizontally across the back of her head. She had dark pink eyes that were sparkling with joy while maintaining her blank expression. She was also extremely loyal to Sukuna.

"Welcome back, Sukuna-dono, Tamamo-sama." And this was Makino. He was also an evil sorcerer just like Kenjaku. He wore black kimono, with red markings in form of flowers. He had long dark purple messy hair and golden eyes. Also, his ears were a little bit pointier than normal humans had. From the trio, he was most loyal to Sukuna. He was really proficient in using cursed energy, but he hated his own clan to the very core. When Sukuna made him an offer, he immediately accepted it, after hearing what Sukuna wanted to do with Sorcerer Clans.

Sukuna only nodded slightly and proceeded to sit down as well. "So? How our plans are going so far? I assume that there shouldn't be any problems, right?" He asked while narrowing his eyes.

It was Kenjaku who answered him with a usual smile on his face: "All is going flawless, just as planned. Sorcerers don't seem to realize either, that we are planning something against them. It seems that they grew really arrogant because of no major events happening. I collected a lot of curses here, and those two did the same," he pointed at Makino and Uraume, who only ignored him. They have been in the group for few years, so they are used to his attitude: "All in all, we should be ready within a few days."

"Hmm? Is that so? Hahaha, then it's good. We also got a lot of information from our visit to the Underworld. I think I'll let Tamamo explain it to you, as it might be useful for the future. I will be going then, for now, I should be back in few days when we start our mission." As Sukuna said that in a jovial tone, he disappeared from the spot.

*Sigh*

Tamamo sighed loudly and then said: "He is like some little kid who got a new toy to play with..." She then smiled and started explaining their trip to the Underworld.

A few hours later

"...and this is how Sukuna beat up a Dragon King and then we want back." Tamamo still kept her smile. She was actually very excited to tell others about their trip to the Underworld.

The trio thought about that huge pile of information that Tamamo explained to them. After few minutes of sorting information, Kenjaku asked: "So he wants a massive war to happen?"

Tamamo nodded: "Yeah, basically it is what he wants. But we still have a lot of time before that happens, and also a lot of stuff to do." She then stood up, and said: "I will go for a walk, I haven't been in Japan for 5 years or so, might as well watch if something changed." She then proceeded to teleport away.

When Tamamo left, Kenjaku chuckled a little bit: "I knew that Underworld was one hell of a place, but to think that it was to such extent. Seems like there is still much more interesting going on in this world than we initially thought. I should certainly think about his words back then... Maybe I should really just abandon this idea of mine?..." He muttered the end to himself, but two of his companions could still hear him, albeit only slightly. He then proceeded to walk away, while thinking about various possibilities.

Back to the Sukuna

He was now standing on one particular cliff while looking down on the city. There were a lot of yokai's there, but he was just thinking, and not making any drastic moves. One day he even considered raiding this city, but for now, it gives him more merits when it still stands here.

He can't even imagine how annoying it would be to deal with gods that defend yokai's. On top of that, even if he kills those gods as well, some other supernatural beings will flood Japan. He is sure that even devils might take advantage of this, and while it is fun to massacre those bats, they will annoy him to no end.

It's not like he has any grudge against yokais either. So for now, if they won't intervene with his plans, he won't do anything against them either. He doesn't even consider those measly head-hunters that would hear rumours about him, and then try to kill him, which is laughable.

While still being in deep thought, he felt two hands fell on his shoulders. He knew who did they belong to but still shrugged them off in annoyance. He then said: "Stop being so intimate with me already."

"Mou.~ Must you be so cold towards me? I thought you would like it.~" Tamamo said with a cute pout. She then walked next to Sukuna and watched towards the city that was in front of her. "It still looks the same, no matter how much time passed. What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing important. I just wonder if you are such a powerful yokai and a nine-tailed fox on top of that, couldn't you just hide your divinity and claim this town for yourself?"

"That would be too boring, you know that. Also, it is still not that easy. Even though they haven't heard about my real name for some time, they still should know that I'm a nine-tailed fox. And now imagine if out of nowhere, a powerful nine-tailed fox pops out. Would be too suspicious." She smiled remembering all those years she was near Sukuna. "Besides, I'm not interested in ruling Kyoto."

"Hmm? Is that so? But I must say, that Japan looks far better than the Underworld, even if it was a bit more interesting there."

"I can't agree more with you."

And like that, they watched the town of Kyoto till the darkness slowly descended on this part of the world.