The other side

It was almost dark by the time he returned to Jujutsu High.

Suguru Geto skipped the cafeteria and went straight back to his dorm room. He needed to be alone, to sort through everything he had experienced that day.

That Grade 2 Cursed Spirit was far too unusual. Cursed spirits were born from humanity's negative emotions; their very existence was a curse. But that spirit that collected memories didn't seem to exist as a curse.

Suguru Geto couldn't find the right words.

He sat on his bed and called the cursed spirit up from the depths of his consciousness. It wasn't a full summoning, but a gentler touch.

The cursed spirit responded.

It didn't take physical form, but Suguru Geto could feel its presence. Deep within his consciousness, that flowing mass of light revolved quietly. He reached out to it with his mind again and saw more. Not complete memories, but fragments: children crying, a teacher sighing, the back of a man standing in an empty classroom. Those fragments mingled together without forming a complete picture, but every piece told the same story.

The school had closed. The population had dwindled, leaving too few students to keep it open. What the people in those memories had felt when they lost the school wasn't fear or anger, but sadness.

A pure, quiet sadness, like water.

This cursed spirit had been born from that sadness.

It hadn't been born from negative emotions, but from "loss." It existed not to hurt, but to preserve memories that had been forgotten, washed away by time.

Suguru Geto felt the cursed spirit's emotions. They resonated with him.

He had lost so much, too. His ideals, his convictions, his friends, himself. He had lost them, then returned, carrying the memories of those losses and trying to regain everything.

This cursed spirit was like him.

It, too, had been born from loss.

A knock came at the door.

"Geto, are you in there?" It was Satoru Gojo's voice.

"Yes." Suguru Geto withdrew his awareness from the cursed spirit.

Satoru Gojo pushed the door open and came in carrying two bags. He set one on the desk. "Curry. Shoko asked me to bring it to you. She said you didn't go to the cafeteria today, so you must've forgotten to eat again."

Suguru Geto glanced at the bag and caught the aroma of curry. His stomach growled right on cue, reminding him he hadn't eaten all day.

Satoru Gojo sat down across from him, opened his own bag, and took out an identical serving of curry.

The two ate in silence.

After a while, Satoru Gojo suddenly spoke.

"Geto, you took in a new cursed spirit today."

It wasn't a question.

"Yes," Suguru Geto said. "Grade 2."

"I know." Satoru Gojo stirred his curry with his spoon without looking up. "But that cursed spirit is different. Its cursed energy fluctuations don't seem like those of your old ones."

Suguru Geto said nothing.

"Your old cursed spirits all had scattered, chaotic cursed energy, like a tangled ball of thread." Satoru Gojo looked up, watching him from behind his sunglasses. "But this one's cursed energy is very orderly. Like a mirror."

A mirror again.

Suguru Geto set down his spoon and looked at Satoru Gojo.

"Satoru," he said, "what would you think if I told you that cursed spirit wasn't born from negative emotions?"

Satoru Gojo tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

"It was born from 'loss,'" Suguru Geto said. "From an emotion that isn't negative, but isn't positive either. A neutral emotion."

Satoru Gojo fell silent for a few seconds.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"I'm not," Suguru Geto said. "But I saw those memories inside it. The memories it collected held sadness without any aggression."

Satoru Gojo set down his spoon.

He took off his sunglasses and looked at Suguru Geto with his azure Six Eyes, light swirling within them.

"Geto," he said, "do you know what you're saying?"

"I do."

"You're talking about a new kind of cursed spirit. One that's never been documented before, born from emotions that aren't negative."

"I know."

Satoru Gojo stared at him for a few seconds, then smiled.

It wasn't a flippant smile, or a showy one. It was quiet, as though he had discovered something interesting.

"Interesting," he said. "Really interesting."

He picked up his spoon again and went back to eating his curry.

Suguru Geto watched him, a little bewildered.

"That's your reaction?" he asked.

"What else?" Satoru Gojo said indistinctly through a mouthful of curry. "Should I make a big fuss? Report it to Mr. Yaga right away? Take that cursed spirit away for research?"

"At least act a little surprised."

"I am surprised," Satoru Gojo said, his tone as flat as if he were commenting on the nice weather. "But after that, what? It's still a cursed spirit, you're still Suguru Geto, and I'm still Satoru Gojo. Nothing's changed."

Suguru Geto fell silent.

Nothing's changed.

Satoru Gojo was right. Whatever emotion that cursed spirit had been born from, whatever the thing inside Suguru Geto's body was, however many secrets this world held that he knew nothing about, right here and now, they were sitting in a dorm room, eating curry and talking like two ordinary seventeen-year-old boys.

Nothing had changed.

And yet everything had.

Suguru Geto picked up his spoon and went back to eating his curry.

The curry had cooled a little, but it still tasted good. The spiciness spread across his tongue, bringing a warm, reassuring sensation.

"Satoru," he said.

"Hmm?"

"Thank you."

"You're saying thank you again." Satoru Gojo didn't look up. "You've already said it plenty of times."

"Because I mean it every time."

Satoru Gojo's hand paused.

He didn't look up, but Suguru Geto saw his ears flush faintly with some emotion he didn't know how to name.

Then Satoru Gojo stood, tossed his empty curry container into the trash, picked up his bag, and headed for the door.

He stopped at the doorway.

"Geto."

"Yeah."

"Whatever that thing inside your body is," Satoru Gojo said without turning around, his voice drifting back from the doorway, "I'll get rid of it."

"What if you can't?"

Satoru Gojo was silent for a second.

"Then I'll face it with you."

Then he left.

The door closed softly behind him.

Suguru Geto sat on the bed, looking at the closed door, the lingering taste of curry still on his tongue.

Deep within his consciousness, the Grade 2 Cursed Spirit slept quietly. Deep within his cursed energy core, that thing like a shattered mirror was growing slowly, inexorably.

He closed his eyes.

He remembered what the cursed spirit had said: "You have light, too."

He didn't know what that meant. But he knew that, starting today, the way he saw this world was different. Not because his eyes had changed, but because he had seen another side of the world. There wasn't only ugliness and darkness, but beauty and light as well.

Even in cursed spirits.

Even in someone like him.