Nanako and Mimiko

The two girls being dragged along by the adults were named Nanako and Mimiko. They were children who had awakened a talent for jujutsu in this rural village.

When their talent awakened and they could see cursed spirits invisible to ordinary people, the kindhearted girls had tried to use their newfound power to help the villagers exorcise them.

But instead of exorcising the cursed spirits and saving the villagers, their actions led the villagers to believe they were responsible for all the disturbances the cursed spirits had caused.

Monsters. Evil monsters...

In the original work, when Suguru Geto carried out this jujutsu mission, he was locked in an iron cage by these ignorant villagers, dressed in ragged clothes, his face bearing signs of a beating.

The girls huddled together in a corner of the iron cage, trembling. If they dared to speak, they would be viciously shouted down or even punched and kicked.

Jujutsu sorcerers who protected ordinary people were treated as monsters by those very same ignorant people. This shattered Suguru Geto's worldview, built around his belief in protecting non-sorcerers as the weak.

Were non-sorcerers really the weak? Perhaps, in their eyes, there was little difference between jujutsu sorcerers and cursed spirits. Both were "monsters."

Now Chinatsu experienced firsthand how Suguru Geto had felt back then. But she did not suffer a breakdown. She had expected the world to be imperfect like this.

It was just...

Even with that mental preparation, seeing Mimiko and Nanako treated this way up close still sent waves of anger surging through her.

Just as the adults were about to drag Mimiko and Nanako into a house and lock them in an iron cage, Chinatsu suddenly appeared right in front of them like a ghost.

Before they could react, Chinatsu's fists, without a trace of cursed energy, slammed into their faces, sending spit flying from their mouths as they fell to the ground.

Some people might have assumed from her appearance alone that Chinatsu was a delicate, frail young heiress, but she shattered those preconceptions with a few heavy punches.

Nanako and Mimiko froze in panic, their bodies still trembling slightly. Seeing this, Chinatsu crouched down with a smile and gently reached out to stroke their heads.

"It's all right. I'm just like you."

After speaking, Chinatsu withdrew her hand and extended a finger, releasing a small, delicate Blue from its tip.

Ordinary people could not see cursed spirits, nor could they see jujutsu. To them, Chinatsu had merely held up a finger.

Nanako and Mimiko, however, clearly saw the Blue released from Chinatsu's fingertip at close range, and their eyes widened.

"Miss, are you a monster too...?"

"A monster? No. We're jujutsu sorcerers."

During their brief exchange, the ignorant villagers around them continued spewing crude insults without the slightest restraint.

"Honestly... so noisy."

Chinatsu extended two fingers together and pointed sharply upward. The villagers around her were caught in the pull of the Blue she had placed overhead and dragged into the air one after another.

Terrified screams burst from their mouths, but as they rose higher, their voices grew fainter until they sounded like the whine of mosquitoes.

Chinatsu would not go so far as to kill them the way Suguru Geto had, but she had no problem teaching them a psychological lesson.

Even if someone investigated afterward, the Jujutsu Higher-Ups could not hold her accountable or put her on trial over something of this magnitude.

The Gojo Clan would not allow it.

Nor would her strength as a Special Grade Sorcerer.

Nanako and Mimiko both stared in a daze. They could use special moves too, but something like this... Wasn't this a divine feat?

Seeing their adorably stunned expressions, Chinatsu continued smiling and stroking their heads, soothing them softly.

"This is jujutsu, an ability only jujutsu sorcerers with a cursed technique can use. We jujutsu sorcerers aren't monsters. You need to understand that. Don't think less of yourselves."

Chinatsu's gentle words reached their ears. After listening to the villagers blame them all this time, even the girls themselves had begun to doubt themselves.

At that moment, those doubts vanished without a trace.

Nanako and Mimiko were twin sisters, a perfectly typical pair of twins. At least one of their parents had also possessed a talent for jujutsu, but both were gone now, leaving the two girls all alone in the village.

"Would you like to come back with me?"

At those words, Nanako and Mimiko immediately lifted their slightly bowed heads and looked at Chinatsu in astonishment.

"C-can we really...?"

"Of course. I'm no god, so I can't take care of everything, but I can certainly look after what's right in front of me."

With just a few words, the matter was settled. Nanako and Mimiko could not remain in the village anyway. They had a talent for jujutsu, but they were still young and needed someone to look after them. Chinatsu happened to be capable of doing just that.

Holding Nanako's hand in her left and Mimiko's in her right, Chinatsu walked out of the village with them, step by step.

The villagers drawn into the sky by Blue only began to descend slowly more than an hour after Chinatsu left, landing on the ground physically unharmed.

Of course, Chinatsu made no guarantees about their mental state.

Since she had come to carry out a jujutsu mission, Chinatsu had relied entirely on her Teleportation to travel. She had neither taken a taxi nor driven.

With no other choice, Chinatsu took out her phone, called a taxi, and rode back to Tokyo.

Taxi fares were extremely expensive in this country. The ride back to Tokyo cost over thirty thousand yen. Traveling the same distance in another country probably would not have cost even half that amount.

Nanako and Mimiko had never seen so much money, and both immediately panicked. Chinatsu merely smiled and told them not to worry about it. A simple taxi ride could not make the slightest dent in her finances.

After all, years of completing high-level jujutsu missions had earned her a considerable fortune, and she also had her standing as a member of the Gojo Clan. There was even a tiny chance she might become its next Clan Head someday.

Chinatsu got out of the taxi with the two girls. They had assumed she would take them to her home, but instead, she led them briskly toward a designer clothing store...