Nanako and Miko

"The situation was extremely dire, and then Gojo Sawa-senpai suddenly appeared in midair and took down that curse with a single blow!"

"Thank goodness Gojo Sawa-senpai was there, or Haibara and I would have been done for!"

Yu Haibara waved his arms animatedly as he described the scene to Suguru Geto.

"Hey hey hey! Geto-senpai, can you pull off something like that too?"

Suguru Geto rubbed his nose. "More or less."

"As expected of Geto-senpai! Oh, right, here's the local specialty you asked me to bring back!"

"Haibara, it's time to turn in the mission report."

Kento Nanami said to Haibara, and when he noticed Geto was there too, he stepped forward to greet him. "Geto-senpai!"

Suguru Geto smiled and waved a hand in acknowledgment, then watched the two retreating figures as he sank into thought.

"Almost died, huh... This time it was Lady Luck's favor. Next time? And the time after that?"

"This marathon called cursed techniques—at the finish line lies a mountain of comrades' corpses. Curses can't be eradicated no matter how many you destroy. Human greed and fear have no end."

Just as he was lost in thought, someone suddenly slapped his shoulder.

Suguru Geto jolted awake, looked up, and relaxed only when he saw it was Gojo Sawa.

"Hey, Taku, don't just appear behind people like that—you'll scare someone to death!"

Gojo Sawa chuckled. "Isn't it you who let your guard down? What were you thinking about so deeply?"

Suguru Geto paused, then tested the waters. "Taku, do you really think what we're doing is right?"

"In this world, human greed and fear are endless, curses will never disappear. On this path as a jujutsu sorcerer, in the end, nothing changes except piling up comrades' corpses!"

"Well..."

Gojo Sawa plopped down beside Suguru Geto. "Going by what you said, in five billion years the sun will explode, everything will cease to exist, dust returns to dust."

"Since it'll all be annihilated sooner or later and nothing can change that, then everyone might as well just give up and coast!"

Suguru Geto's mouth twitched. "That's not exactly what I meant... Hey, seriously, Taku, why did you become a jujutsu sorcerer?"

Gojo Sawa broke into a cold sweat.

Transmigrating into the Gojo Clan and ending up with the Six Eyes—there's no way I could avoid being a sorcerer even if I wanted to!

But after all these years of weathering life here, Gojo Sawa had fully accepted this existence.

"If I had to say... the convenience store on the corner, the movie theater in Ginza, the comic conventions in Akihabara, AKB48..."

"Hey hey hey, just these trivial little things?"

Suguru Geto looked baffled.

"Geto, you always say sorcerers should protect non-sorcerers, even to the point of losing their lives, as if it's some self-evident duty."

"But you know, I fight curses only for myself. Because I love this world. I love living here. So I won't allow anything to destroy it."

"Do you think Yu Haibara became a sorcerer because he feels a responsibility to protect the weak? No. It's because the act of protecting the weak is something he himself loves. So at his core, he's living for himself too."

In truth, this question wasn't one that troubled only Suguru Geto.

According to the original story, Kento Nanami had also deeply doubted the meaning of what he did.

Later, right after graduating from Jujutsu High, he quit being a sorcerer, cast off the "protect the weak" responsibility, and became a corporate drone.

Only after coming to understand his own heart (or perhaps because office work was even worse than being a sorcerer) did he return to the ranks of sorcerers.

So really, whether a sorcerer takes on that responsibility is a matter of free choice.

Gojo Sawa turned to look at Suguru Geto. "So, setting aside the shackles of protecting the weak, Geto, what is it that you became a sorcerer for?"

Taku's words left Geto frozen in place.

He began to search his own heart: why had he become a sorcerer?

Protecting the weak?

That seemed like nothing more than the sorcerer doctrine he'd absorbed since childhood, not something he truly wanted to do.

For a moment, Suguru Geto felt even more lost, and even inexplicably irritated.

Beep beep beep—

Suddenly, Geto's phone rang.

He pulled it out, and the voice on the other end came from the Mission Department. "Mr. Geto, there's a mission for you. The location is a remote mountain area..."

Gojo Sawa's ear twitched as he eavesdropped on the location.

"Alright, I'll head out now."

Suguru Geto sighed, turned to Gojo Sawa, and forced a faint smile.

"I've got to go."

Gojo Sawa nodded, watching Geto's gradually receding figure, and scratched his head in mild frustration.

"Should I tell Satoru about this..."

In a remote mountain area of Hakone County, on the outskirts of Tokyo.

"Monsters! Two monsters! Just like your parents!"

"We should have killed you when you were still babies!"

"My child almost died because of you—we can't let you keep doing evil!"

Suguru Geto ignored the villagers' verbal attacks, expressionlessly staring at the two little girls trembling inside the cage.

Their clothes were tattered, their faces sallow and thin, their bodies covered with bloody marks from abuse.

These two were Mimiko Hasaba and Nanako Hasaba.

The village head spoke loudly beside Geto: "Mr. Geto, these are the two monsters!"

"Those two have been muttering nonsense all day long, and ever since, strange things have been happening in our village—several people have died or gone mad!"

The villagers in this remote mountain area clearly still clung to some feudal superstitions.

In their eyes, Mimiko Hasaba and Nanako Hasaba, with their bizarre behavior, were the culprits behind the frequent anomalies.

But as a sorcerer, Geto saw through it at a glance.

"Two children born in a remote mountain area with innate sorcery talent... I can tell what's really going on just by looking!"

Combining the details the villagers had recounted with the subtle movements and glances of the two little girls, Geto effortlessly pieced together the truth of the matter.

The two had awakened their cursed technique abilities and could see curses invisible to ordinary people. Kind-hearted, they decided to use their newly awakened power to help the villagers.

But because their strength was too weak, not only did they fail to exorcise the curses, but their unusual behavior aroused the villagers' suspicion and hostility.

Before him were the two sisters huddled together, clinging to each other; in his ears were the endless, vile curses of the villagers.

Protect the weak? Who exactly were the weak?

Create a world without curses? Kill all non-sorcerers?

At this moment, none of those thoughts crossed Suguru Geto's mind.

Right now, he was just furious—he only wanted... to kill.

"Excuse me..."

Geto suddenly turned around, smiling at the village head. "I've noticed something. Let's talk outside."