Jujutsu Kaisen Manga Chapter 174

   

 Summary:

Yuta Okkotsu has excelled in the Culling Game thus far and has impressed everyone who watches him. By felling Dhruv Lakdawalla to ensure the safety of a group of civilians, Yuta also gained the attention of a disturbing new threat.

Plot:

Takako Uro and Ryu Ishigori monitor the situation in the Sendai colony. Dhruv Lakdawalla has fallen and his patrolling shikigami are disappearing. Ryu uses his Kogane to check who defeated Dhruva and discovers that the player is Yuta Okkotsu. Takako does the same, and while she's happy that the ugly shikigami is disappearing, she's worried about the new threat that's emerging. Ryu realizes that he was able to get close to Dhruv without provoking him because he was busy with Yuta. Takako and Ryu both know that after Dhruv's defeat, Kurourushi will surely appear next. While the latter thinks things are getting interesting, the former is frustrated at the prospect.

After defeating Dhruva, Yuta regroups with the group of civilians they protect. He tells them it's time to head north to the edge of the barrier, but notices a mother and daughter trying to move on. Yuta changes his mind and tells all the civilians that they can rest at the stadium, which served as Dhruv's base instead. He's sure he'll be safe inside, but he's suddenly interrupted by a loud buzzing sound that indicates danger. Yuta orders everyone to rush inside the stadium when he looks outside to see a giant swarm of bugs chasing people. Two other people have already claimed it, but Yuta is confident that he can save the man running ahead of the swarm.

Yuta grabs the man's arm and jumps above the swarm, but fails to create enough space and the cockroaches eat the civilian's lower body before quickly stripping him of all his flesh. Yuta stops the cockroaches from attacking him and notices that they are all real insects enhanced by cursed energy. The swarm tries to cross over from Yuta and attack the other civilians, but he calls Rika to stop them. Rika breaks the bridge with a single blow and collapses the structure on top of the swarm, forcing it to return to Yuta. A special class wizard infuses his katana with cursed energy and swings it with enough force to create a large shockwave that destroys an entire swarm in one shot.

Watching the action, Ryu comments that while Yuta's cursed energy output is nothing special, his total cursed energy is very impressive. Meanwhile, Takako watches and simply notes to herself that Kurourushi's cockroaches are disgusting. Kurourushi is a special grade cockroach curse that was a poor match for Dhruva, so it fell into a dormant state until it was removed. Curse has an endless appetite and eating stimulates his ability to perform parthenogenesis. Now awakened, the cockroach curse is hungry and its instincts lead it to devour Yuta. Faced with this new threat, Yuta asks his Kogan if this cursed spirit is a player, which the shikigami confirms. Dhruv would be a bad match for Kurourushi, so it went dormant until he was eliminated. Kurourushi has an endless appetite and eating stimulates his parthenogenesis. Upon awakening, Kurourushi is starving and now his instincts lead him to devour Yuta.

As Yuta prepares to face Kurourushi, he thinks about his goal in this colony. He knows that resources are limited and it's only a matter of time before a rule is added to allow passage to and from colonies. However, dangerous players like Dhruv are not allowed to leave the barrier. With the likelihood that there are other players like him, Yuta knows that communication between the colonies is necessary to keep someone dangerous from leaving. In addition to the rules Megumi proposed in the meeting with Tengen, Yuta understands that his allies need a means of communication and a way to get to and from the colonies. That's a total of four rules for their group to master the game of Culling.

Yuta feels that the Shibuya incident has drained all his allies and he doesn't want his sensei to kill his best friend again. Yuta, primed and ready to attack the enemy player with his katana, decided to kill Kenjaka and score four hundred points himself. In response to Yuta's fighting stance, Kurourushi reveals a cursed tool called the Festering Life Sword, an enchanted blade that mixes life and death.