They Were Two Different Worlds

"It was a Curse User, wasn't it?"

Miwa Chisei's voice trembled slightly. She could read the traces left at the scene, too. This had not been the work of a cursed spirit.

There was no way to treat it as an accident, not after what had happened yesterday.

"A comparison of the cursed energy residue identified a registered Curse User who operates in the ordinary world as a hired killer."

The words "hired killer" struck a raw nerve in Miwa Chisei.

She closed her eyes wearily, as though unwilling to face the gruesome sight.

"It was because of me."

She had been so naive. If she could threaten ordinary people, why couldn't ordinary people hire a Curse User?

She had spent too long hiding in comfort under constant oppression. She had come to believe there was an unbridgeable gulf between Jujutsu Society and ordinary people, that blending into their world would let her numb herself to the fact that the Miwa family's blood ran in her veins.

To ordinary people, her actions made her an aberration. So how would they deal with an aberration?

With another aberration.

"I was the one who hurt that bastard."

Miwa felt a burning heat behind her eyes.

"They would have guessed you were a Jujutsu Sorcerer, too. If you belonged to Jujutsu Society, killing an ordinary person would be simpler than getting tangled up with you."

"This Curse User kills for money. He doesn't have any grand, passionate ideals."

Faced with a scene like this, even Satoru Gojo couldn't bring himself to make a joke. After all, Miwa Chisei had handled this poorly.

She shouldn't have used cursed energy to interfere so much in the world of ordinary humans.

It wasn't doing them any favors. It might even get them hurt.

For the first time, the fifteen-year-old girl was stricken with grief over her own laughable ideas.

When her father died, his last words to her had been: protect the ordinary humans of this world, weak as they are individually. No matter what, they are the world's foundation.

Because she had been born with the greatest cursed energy the Miwa family had seen in its hundred years of decline, Miwa Chisei had always believed she could handle anything on her own.

It was a deeply ingrained belief in an abandoned family.

Miwa Chisei finally opened her eyes. She walked over to Yamato Kaho's remains and clasped a hand that had long since stiffened, using her other hand to close the eye that had remained open in death.

Red cursed energy flowed beside her, then coiled around Yamato Kaho as though alive, gently caressing her body.

"Kaho, may you be well in your next life."

Blood spilled from the corner of her mouth, then turned into an ethereal red glow and dissipated in the air.

The Miwa family's divination jujutsu did more than peer into the past and future.

With blood from the tip of her tongue as the medium, she asked for neither wealth nor status, only peace and safety in Kaho's next life.

How many years of Miwa Chisei's life had this cost her? She no longer cared. None of it mattered.

"Hey, are you crazy? Reincarnation is something out of novels. You actually believe in it?"

Satoru Gojo was more rational. He found the sight before him painful to watch.

Miwa Chisei didn't get angry. She released Yamato Kaho's hand, stood, and wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.

She hadn't cried. Her empty eyes weren't wet, yet Satoru Gojo felt that the irritating girl before him was weeping.

Forget it. I'm done with this. What a pain.

Satoru Gojo turned and left the bedroom, running straight into Suguru Geto, who had been waiting in the living room.

Suguru Geto gave Satoru Gojo a light punch in the chest and smiled.

"All right, let's catch that guy and bring him to Miss Miwa."

"I'm not her damn bodyguard. She can go herself."

Despite his words, Satoru Gojo still strode toward the apartment's exit.

The previously clear afternoon sky filled with dark clouds in an instant, and heavy rain began to fall. The thick clouds hung low, as though ready to crush all the turmoil and ugliness in the world.

The rain washed over the ground, seeming to wash through Miwa Chisei's thoughts as well, stripping certain things away layer by layer.

She suddenly remembered a conversation she'd had with her father when she was little.

"Dad, why does the Miwa family's history stop five hundred years ago?"

"Because that was when the Miwa family disappeared into the river of history, becoming just another part of the nameless masses whose lives could not be recorded."

"But why did that happen? Other families kept being recorded in history."

Her father sighed and gently stroked Miwa Chisei's head.

"Perhaps history doesn't recognize the Miwa family."

"Then can I make history recognize the Miwa family again someday?"

A thousand unspoken words lay hidden in her father's eyes. He only shook his head.

"Qianxing, that isn't something you can accomplish alone. So don't dwell on it. Just live out your life in peace and safety."

Ah, so I had hopeful thoughts like that when I was little, too.

Was the Miwa family really so unfortunate? Was that why we were driven out, why Yamato Kaho died because of me?

That despondency lasted only a few seconds before Miwa Chisei couldn't help laughing.

Bullshit.

She bowed deeply to Yamato Kaho, put her sunglasses back on, and walked out of the apartment into the raging storm.

The girl walked down the street without an umbrella. Passersby kept glancing at her, finding her strange.

Compared with the people frantically running for shelter, her pace was far too leisurely. She strolled through the all-enveloping rain as though wandering through a garden.

Miwa Chisei tucked her hands into her sleeves. Her wooden sandals tapped against the asphalt, their rhythm like notes in a piece of music.

Ahead of her, red cursed energy spread toward a certain place as though alive.

Heh. You ran pretty fast.

A deep chill settled into Miwa Chisei's scarlet eyes behind her sunglasses. Unhurriedly, she plucked out two silver hairs and blew them into the air.

"The next time you blink, you'll appear in front of me."

A breath later, a man dressed in black appeared out of thin air before her. He was bundled up tightly, looking every bit like someone well accustomed to skulking around.

The instant the man appeared, Miwa Chisei clearly saw relief in his eyes.

Relief? Are you out of your mind?

Meanwhile, at a spot the man had just fled through, Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto stared, dumbstruck. The man had been firmly bound by a summoned cursed spirit, yet he had vanished with a whoosh.

"An accomplice? Once I find them, I'll beat them both to death."

Satoru Gojo was only halfway through his tirade when his Six Eyes caught a trail of red cursed energy. Thoroughly annoyed, he swept his rain-soaked silver hair back, exposing his smooth, pale forehead.

"Geto, come catch a rabbit with me."

Suguru Geto looked utterly baffled and offered an eloquent reply.

"Are you out of your damn mind?"