Meaning

"What? This is so out of the way. What could possibly be interesting out here?"

Satoru Gojo watched the mountain villages grow increasingly remote as he sat in my car, getting jolted all over the place. He slumped back against the seat and muttered under his breath.

"How about sneaking off with two adorable little girls?"

I considered it briefly, pressed harder on the accelerator, and gave him that answer.

Satoru Gojo: ?! Confused cat, silent cat, shocked cat!

"Huh? Dazai, does Teacher Yaga know you..."

"First of all, I'm not a lolicon. But I do know a perverted lolicon who likes little girls under twelve."

As I answered, all I could picture was Mori in his white coat, hugging Alice with little pink flowers floating around him as he cuddled her.

...Yes, a middle-aged man in his thirties calling out to an ability almost as old as himself, "Alice~~~"

"Dazai, perhaps you should first explain why we're going to abduct... take these children away."

Suguru Geto paused over a particular word, cleared his throat, then turned his gaze back to Osamu Dazai.

"Ah-because those two adorable young ladies are jujutsu sorcerers."

"Speaking of which, Geto, have the cursed spirits you see ever frightened you? Having parents who don't understand at all can be troublesome in a somewhat backward or traditional mountain village, or even an old-fashioned family in a big city."

My voice still held a smile. I even had time to turn and wink my big heterochromic brown eyes at Suguru Geto.

"So they're..."

"Ah, a preference for boys, backward traditions, and they're freaks to boot. If we don't go, how long do you think they'll survive, Geto, Satoru?"

"..."

"So, let's hurry up and steal some children!"

I announced it loudly and sped up again, leaving Suguru Geto and Satoru Gojo without a word of protest.

When it came to understanding, probably no one understood being misunderstood by parents and relatives better than Suguru Geto.

A child who constantly claimed to see monsters and stared fearfully at some spot, but who, to adults, seemed to be playing pranks and telling nothing but lies.

No matter which hospital examined him, they never found anything. In the end, he could only endure it silently and pretend he couldn't see a thing in front of his parents, relatives, and friends.

And Suguru Geto hadn't even come from a backward, traditional place.

"Come on, let's hurry over."

I raced all the way to the village entrance, adjusted my scarf with a touch of flair, then hopped out of the car.

The village wasn't well developed. It was the sort of place you could call a remote backwater. Some people stood around the houses, probably unused to seeing anyone drive up at such speed.

It was a rather isolated place, after all. Normally, they wouldn't encounter anything like that.

I picked an old woman sitting by a doorway at random, letting the other villagers' gazes wander over the three of us.

"Hello there. Say, I heard you have two monsters here destroying the village?"

"We do. What do you want?"

"Well, are they for sale?"

Smiling faintly, I pulled a stack of banknotes from the wallet I never saved any money in and waved it in front of her.

"Weren't we going to sneak..."

Satoru Gojo muttered under his breath, but shut his mouth under his best friend Suguru Geto's deadly glare and watched their seemingly debonair senior engage in human trafficking.

Clearly, this was no longer testing the limits of the law. This was an outright crime, though staying within the law was practically impossible in Jujutsu Society...

As for me-oh, were you lecturing the boss of the Port Mafia about breaking the law?

So that consideration never entered my mind. I focused solely on how to get them thrown in jail once I had the two children.

That was why, even though I heard Satoru Gojo, I said nothing and kept my attention on the person before me.

"Those two monsters are worth that much... No, ahem, they're still members of our village. For that little, we can't..."

The old woman's eyes widened at the stack of money, but she quickly swallowed the words that had slipped out. Greed flashed in her eyes before she squeezed them shut and prepared to bargain.

Honestly, if Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto weren't here, I could have simply threatened her. There was no need for all this trouble.

Still, for the sake of the physical and mental well-being of the two students behind me, I sighed softly and regarded the old woman with utter resignation.

"Stop, stop. That's all they're worth. Any more, and we won't want them-"

Drawing out the last word, I waved away her urge to continue, casually tucked the money back into my wallet, and made to leave.

"W-wait! Don't go."

The old woman hastily called me back, grabbing my sleeve in a death grip and insisting on pulling me back.

"Oh! We can discuss it, we can discuss it. Everything's negotiable. I'll take you to see them right now."

With that, she dragged me off in one direction, moving at an astonishing speed.

"If it's negotiable, that makes things easy. Sorry for the trouble, lovely lady."

I smiled faintly and took out my wallet again, discreetly slipping my sleeve from the old woman's grasp as I followed her slowly along the dusty road.

As we followed her, the villagers gradually drew closer. Quite a few had overheard our conversation and were muttering that they deserved a share of the money too.

Perhaps because of our clothes and the way we spent money, however, they only muttered among themselves, showing no intention of approaching us directly.

I didn't particularly care. Satoru Gojo remained expressionless as he followed, but Suguru Geto looked on the verge of exploding with rage.

There was no helping it. Selling children out of the blue was outrageous anywhere, let alone to Suguru Geto, who had upheld his position in their arguments for so long.

Beside him, Satoru Gojo was much calmer. The Gojo Clan had done plenty of things in the past, after all. Those things never reached the outside world, but as the clan's young master, Satoru Gojo couldn't possibly be ignorant of such sordid complications.

After all, the higher someone's position, the more leisure they had to do certain...

In short, things that violated morality and the law, and that ordinary people found difficult to stomach.

As the route grew increasingly remote, we finally reached a wooden shack. It was utterly dilapidated, letting drafts in everywhere and littered with dust and rubbish.

The sight made both boys frown slightly; neither often encountered scenes like this.

Dust swirled before me, coating my formerly pure-black uniform in an almost gray-white layer.

Beyond the battered wooden door sat an enormous cage.

The cage wasn't locked and would open with a gentle push, but a thick layer of mud had caked onto it, enough to make anyone frown.

Expressionless, I reached out and pushed open the wooden door. It creaked, the already decrepit door letting out a sharp, grating screech.

We slowly stepped into the cage. There was even more dust inside, enough to make you want to sneeze just from coming near it.

Come to think of it, wouldn't Akutagawa be absolutely miserable if he came here? That sudden wandering thought drew a smile from me, which vanished again the next second.

I glanced at the grime on my hand, but ultimately refrained from taking the Complete Suicide Manual out of my coat to check whether it listed a similar way to die.

"These are the two little brutes."

Our gazes followed the old woman's pointing finger to two little girls huddled together.

Two small heads huddled beside a broken, drafty window. The girls trembled, looking thin and filthy, their sleeves seemingly encased in mud.

When they noticed other people arriving, they curled up even tighter, not daring to look up at anyone.

"So these are your two little monsters?"

The corners of my mouth lifted slightly as my gaze wandered over the people around me, lingering on Suguru Geto's tightly clenched hands.

"Yes! They're the little monsters that old monster gave birth to! Not one of that family was any good. They claimed they could see all kinds of nonsense. The deaths in our village must have been their curses!"

A voice from somewhere reached my ears.

With that voice taking the lead, the other villagers gradually began voicing their agreement.

"These two little brutes brought disaster to the village."

"These two monsters will destroy our village."

"They don't deserve to live!"

"They have no right to stay here."

Voices rose and fell around me. I kept that faint smile on my face, looking warmly at everyone present.

I watched the indignant people before me and the crowd of villagers who had hurried over.

No one contradicted them, so their curses grew louder and louder, their collective outrage creating a thoroughly farcical scene.

"All right, all right. I'll take them away."

I waved lightly and casually tossed the money from my wallet aside. The wind scattered the banknotes around us.

Ten-thousand-yen notes, exposed to wind, rain, and dust, lay scattered throughout the muddy, filthy shack.

What followed was a frenzied scramble, while I walked alone toward the two children huddled together.

"Would you two adorable young ladies like to leave this place with me?"

Smiling faintly, I gently held both hands out to them.

They still trembled in the corner. I kept smiling softly and waited patiently for them to warm to me.

At some point, Suguru Geto and Satoru Gojo had come to stand beside me. But ever since the villagers had said these two children deserved to die, Suguru Geto had been barely able to contain his emotions.

He had clenched his hands so tightly that they were bleeding. Only his last scrap of reason kept him from killing anyone.

I seemed entirely unconcerned by their state, still watching the two young ladies gently, that faint smile still curving my lips.

"We'll go with you."

Suddenly, a voice so quiet it was almost inaudible came from one of the little girls before me.

My attention shifted entirely to her.

Holding on to the little girl beside her, she placed her dirty hand in mine. The other girl's eyes were swollen red from crying, but she took my hand too.

Smiling gently, I slowly walked forward with a blond little girl in my left hand and a black-haired little girl in my right, leading them out of the cage.

Out of this hell called their hometown. Being different really did bring trouble, especially when they were at their most helpless.

As we walked out, the villagers, who had gathered most of the money, looked at us, then at the two little girls now on their feet. Noticing those gazes, the girls quickly hid behind me, trembling in fear.

"Don't worry. It's all right now."

With that, I swiftly led them away, my gaze sweeping once more over Suguru Geto's clenched fists.

"Satoru, go with Geto and drive the car over here. I remember there's some water in it. I don't really mind all this, but if I get back in the car looking like this, the assistant supervisor will probably nag me to death, won't he?"

"The assistant supervisor would dare nag you?"

Satoru Gojo answered almost instantly, but when he saw the two young ladies, he stopped speaking for once and pulled Suguru Geto along toward the car.

Then Satoru Gojo noticed Suguru Geto's hands, clenched hard enough to bleed. After a few seconds of silence, he quickly changed his approach. As for what he said to Suguru Geto, that remained unknown.

I'll add the rest a little later, for a total of 4,000 characters.