You Really Know How to Keep Score

At 2:17 p.m., Yang Jian lay on his dorm bed, staring at the ceiling.

His phone vibrated.

An encrypted text from Shiu Kong. Three lines, no punctuation:

"Jujutsu Headquarters has classified the incident at Shibuya Hub Three as a barrier collapse caused by a special grade cursed spirit going berserk but someone isn't buying it"

A second message followed immediately.

"Councilor Kusumoto has privately called in two Specialists bypassing the formal review process expected to arrive in Tokyo tomorrow"

Yang Jian set his phone down.

Kusumoto.

That name had appeared on the list Shiu Kong had given him earlier. He handled budget allocations and approvals for cursed object transfers.

The funding for that underground laboratory in Shibuya had most likely been approved by him.

The laboratory had blown up, the people were dead, and the finger was gone.

Of course Kusumoto would investigate.

Yang Jian rolled over, pulled the Flip Phone from beneath his pillow, and sent Shiu Kong a reply:

"What are their specialties?"

The reply came quickly.

"One is a Grade 2 Sorcerer who specializes in a trace-tracking cursed technique the other's identity is unknown reportedly on loan from Kyoto"

Trace-tracking.

Yang Jian narrowed his eyes.

He had cleaned up the third basement level in Shibuya thoroughly. While his ghost domain covered it, the red light had crushed every physical trace and all cursed energy residue into nothing.

But a tracking cursed technique might not necessarily look for cursed energy.

Footprints, lingering body heat, even disturbances in airborne particles-some sorcerers could perceive things down to the molecular level.

He had used the front entrance that night.

He had manually twisted the Blast-Proof Steel Mesh open, then closed it again. In theory, the metal surface would retain traces of how the force had been distributed.

That was a loose end.

Yang Jian sat up and turned it over in his head.

The simplest solution: return to Shibuya and swallow that entire steel mesh door into his fifth-layer ghost domain.

With the door gone, the traces would naturally disappear too.

But acting in broad daylight would draw too much attention. Jujutsu Headquarters had people turning Shibuya upside down right now.

Wait until dark.

He sent Shiu Kong one last message: "Until those two arrive in Tokyo, keep an eye on personnel movements near Shibuya Entrance Three for me. Notify me immediately if anything changes."

After sending it, he snapped the Flip Phone shut and tucked it into a gap in the mattress.

He was just about to close his eyes when someone knocked three times.

The rhythm was measured, nothing like Satoru Gojo's door-kicking style.

"Come in."

The door opened, and Suguru Geto stood in the doorway.

His uniform jacket hung over one arm. In his other hand, he carried a can of Oolong Tea and a can of Cola.

He glanced at Yang Jian's bed and the empty cans scattered across the floor, said nothing, and came in to set the drinks on the desk.

"You didn't go to the cafeteria at lunch."

"Wasn't hungry."

"Shoko asked me to pass something along." Suguru Geto pulled out a chair and sat down, leaning against its back. "She said the two purple crystals you brought her last time retained over seventy percent of their internal cursed energy circuits. Their microscopic mesh structure doesn't match any known cursed spirit specimen."

Yang Jian opened a can of Oolong Tea and took a sip. "So?"

"She wants a few more."

"I don't have any left. Those things don't come wholesale."

Suguru Geto nodded without asking where they had come from.

He fell silent for a few seconds, his gaze settling on the spot against the wall at the head of Yang Jian's bed-the Chopping Knife was wrapped in black cloth, with a section of its wooden handle exposed.

"Satoru gave me the gist of what happened in Shibuya."

Yang Jian looked up at him.

Suguru Geto's expression was calm, and so was his voice.

But Yang Jian had dealt with him for a year. He knew what "calm" meant with Suguru Geto.

He was processing it.

"Jujutsu Headquarters was raising a special grade cursed spirit underground, feeding it resentment from living people, and planning to use Sukuna's Finger in a catalysis experiment." Suguru Geto paused after saying that.

"You wiped out that nest."

It wasn't a question.

"Yeah."

"Along with the sorcerers guarding it?"

"Ten people. Two operative sorcerers, eight hidden sentries." Yang Jian drank his Cola. "All on Jujutsu Headquarters' payroll."

Suguru Geto said nothing.

Birds chirped outside the window.

Sunlight fell across the desk, illuminating the beads of condensation on the Oolong Tea can.

About ten seconds passed before Suguru Geto spoke.

"I'm not here to talk you out of anything."

Yang Jian watched him.

"Those people were involved in the plan to cultivate a special grade cursed spirit. If it had succeeded, hundreds of thousands of lives in Shibuya would have been the price. You killed them. In terms of the outcome, you cut the losses."

Suguru Geto's tone remained unchanged, but Yang Jian noticed his hand tighten on his knee.

"What are you trying to say?"

"I'm wondering what I would have done if I'd discovered that laboratory first."

"You would have tried to get the people out first, hand them over to the higher-ups, and follow proper procedure," Yang Jian answered for him. "Then the higher-ups would have buried the news, reassigned everyone involved, and started over somewhere else. Three months later, you'd find the same laboratory in another city, just with a different set of guards."

Suguru Geto didn't argue.

Yang Jian set down the tea can.

"Geto, you don't need to make excuses for me. I didn't hesitate when I killed those people, and I won't regret it afterward. I'll answer for it myself."

Suguru Geto looked up.

The two held each other's gaze for a few seconds.

"I'm not making excuses for you." Suguru Geto's voice dropped a little. "I'm wondering who that saying-sorcerers protect non-sorcerers-actually protects. Those hidden sentries were sorcerers too.

"They drew salaries from Jujutsu Headquarters and carried out their superiors' orders, all while feeding man-eating monsters underground."

He stood and pushed the chair back into place.

"What you did was dirty. But this world is dirtier than you."

With that, he left.

The door closed behind him.

Yang Jian leaned against the windowsill and listened as the footsteps faded at the end of the hallway.

Suguru Geto was changing earlier than he had in the original story.

In the original, the triggers for Suguru Geto's turn to darkness had been the physical torment of swallowing cursed spirits for years, combined with witnessing the malice non-sorcerers in a village directed at his own kind.

His breakdown had been a slow accumulation.

Things were different now.

Yang Jian's presence was like a file, gradually wearing away the shell of "sorcerers should protect everyone."

Suguru Geto hadn't broken, but the cracks already ran deep.

Yang Jian wasn't sure whether that was good or bad.

All he knew was that, for now at least, Suguru Geto was still on their side.

At six in the evening, the sky began to darken.

Yang Jian put on a dark jacket and headed out. At the school gate, he ran into Satoru Gojo, who had just returned.

The white-haired man carried two convenience store bags and was chewing something.

One look at Yang Jian's outfit, and he had him figured out.

"Going out to stir up trouble again?"

"Taking a walk."

"You don't need to wear black for a walk."

"I like black."

Satoru Gojo raised a shopping bag to cover half his face, his voice emerging from behind the plastic. "Jujutsu Headquarters sent more people to Shibuya this afternoon. There's another Veil outside Entrance Three now."

Yang Jian paused midstep.

"How dense is it?"

"Moderately high. A tracking type. Step inside, and it marks you. They can locate you for seventy-two hours after you leave." Satoru Gojo lowered the bag. "I took a quick look as I passed by. That old fox Kusumoto isn't holding back."

A Tracking Veil.

Yang Jian had never encountered one before, or even heard of it.

The first time he'd entered Shibuya, the perimeter had been covered by a standard containment Veil. It had only one function, and crushing it with his ghost domain had been about as easy as stepping on an ant.

But a Tracking Veil was different-it didn't block anyone or sound an alarm. It only marked them.

Anyone who stepped inside would be none the wiser, only to bitterly regret it when their location was pinpointed within the next seventy-two hours.

That thing now covered the route Yang Jian had used before.

If he went back there tonight...

"Take it down for me."

Satoru Gojo tilted his head. "Why should I?"

"Last time, you took that half-finished can of mine. Consider it my treat. Now you're returning the favor."

The corner of Satoru Gojo's mouth twitched. "You really know how to keep score."

(I'll use these [] brackets only for the system from now on. Using them so much for Shiu Kong's dialogue feels like it makes the reading experience a little worse.)