Ignorance

Suguru Geto leaned against the wall beside the alley, waiting for Sakurada Niji to deal with the cursed spirit. With nothing to do, he took out his phone and played on it for quite a while before he finally heard Niji's footsteps coming from the alley.

"Niji, how did it go?" Geto put away his phone and walked over to him.

"Just a dumping ground for bodies after gang fights. No good people involved. Have the Assistant Supervisor contact the police to handle it." Niji was completely absorbed in playing with the [threads] in his hands, weaving them back and forth between his fingers.

"Okay, I sent the message. What are you playing with?" Geto watched the constantly shifting threads of cursed energy at Niji's fingertips with curiosity.

"A new move~ I'm practicing~ The principle behind it is..." Niji explained the principles behind developing the move to Geto.

"Well~ You and Satoru both like developing complicated moves~ I couldn't do that~" Geto looked utterly baffled.

"You think I want to?! When have I ever studied this seriously..." Niji deeply regretted not studying physics and mathematics properly. Now he couldn't even figure out the principles behind developing many of the moves in his head.

Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique, Space Swap, all that stuff... My brain just can't wrap itself around them~

After thinking for only a short while, Niji felt his scalp start to itch. He scratched his head, and a few long gray hairs fell to the ground.

"Haha~ All right, let's head to the next assignment. It's pretty far away. Come on~" Geto had already summoned the Rainbow Dragon and was standing inside his mouth.

"Hmm... It should be like this... Thread... Swing... Point... Maximum force..." Muttering to himself, Niji stepped into the Rainbow Dragon's mouth, unconsciously manipulating the threads of cursed energy as he thought.

"..." Geto glanced at Niji, then stopped trying to talk to him. In the past, whenever Niji started researching his cursed technique, he would stay in his room and never come out.

Well, I'll leave him alone~ Once he finishes his research, he'll shout something weird like, 'My mission is complete,' anyway. Geto was used to it. He left Niji undisturbed and focused on controlling the Rainbow Dragon.

Rainbow Dragon Airlines was in flight~~

About half an hour later, the Rainbow Dragon landed in the woods near a village.

"We're here~ Niji~" Geto called out casually.

"Huh? Oh... We're here..." Niji wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth, stood up, and stretched. As it turned out, all that thinking had exhausted him, and he had fallen asleep without realizing it...

"..." Geto gave Niji an exasperated look and handed him his phone.

"The assignment details. Take a look." Geto hadn't planned to take this assignment himself either.

On the phone

Assistant Supervisor: This assignment is in a village on Sanbon Tochi Mountain. The villagers reported to the police that monsters had appeared in their village and requested police intervention. There have been no casualties among the villagers, but they insist that the monsters in the village have already been subdued.

Here it is, the turning point in Geto's fate...

"I'll handle this one too, Geto~" Niji tried to act as though nothing was wrong, hoping to slip it past Geto and let him skip this incident.

Geto stared at Niji with a serious expression. Only when Niji began struggling to maintain his composure did Geto sigh.

Geto had long known this day would come. The description of this assignment closely resembled the story Niji had told him, and he had spent a long time preparing for this day.

"Niji, it's my story. I'll bear it myself," Geto told him after jumping off the Rainbow Dragon.

"I can at least come with you, right? I'll only stop you from killing anyone." Niji stepped out of the Rainbow Dragon's mouth as well and followed Geto.

"Do you really think I'd kill them as I am now? They're ignorant fools. I'll make them live in regret. One day, I'll make them understand that jujutsu sorcerers are beings to be revered."

After hearing Niji's words, Geto turned around and gave him an innocent look, as though reproaching Niji for not trusting him.

But what came out of his mouth left Niji rather embarrassed. He felt that Geto was acting very strangely now... Yet he didn't seem to be lying.

"All right, Geto. I believe you." After saying that, Niji said nothing more and simply walked behind Geto.

Neither of them spoke along the way.

Before long, they arrived at the remote little village. It looked extremely undeveloped, with hardly any modern buildings in sight. Only the few utility poles standing in the village showed that it hadn't been completely cut off from civilized society. At the entrance, a few middle-aged men who had finished their farmwork were sitting beneath a tree in the shade. When they spotted Niji and Geto, they quickly stood up and approached.

"What are you here for?!" Seeing the two strangers, one of the middle-aged men unconsciously adopted a somewhat interrogative tone.

"We're the exorcists your village chief invited. Just take us to him," Niji told the man before them.

"...All right. Follow me." The middle-aged man hesitantly sized them up, apparently questioning whether two people so young could perform an exorcism. In the end, however, he agreed to their request and began leading the way.

Along the way, the two passed through the entire village and saw its condition. It was the sort of village that had only just received electricity; most households didn't even have light bulbs.

"You're out performing exorcisms at such a young age?" Unable to contain his curiosity any longer, the middle-aged man asked them.

"True exorcists commune with the gods. Only a select few possess that gift. Those without it are merely [mortals]," Geto told the man. His tone was flat and utterly devoid of emotion, but that very demeanor convinced the man.

Maybe, in ordinary people's eyes, gods are supposed to be this aloof. They aren't supposed to have emotions either. What is Geto... planning to do... Niji said nothing and began playing along with Geto, schooling his own expression into a cold mask (▼へ▼).

Their demeanor and the inexplicable pressure emanating from them made the middle-aged man increasingly respectful. His attitude along the way became noticeably ingratiating.

Finally, the middle-aged man led them through the village to the foot of the mountain behind it. Pointing at a house not far away, he told them,

"Honored exorcists, that house is where we're keeping the monsters locked up. Let's hurry over!" The middle-aged man seemed rather impatient. From the look of him, he really had experienced something supernatural.