Deep winter

On December 13, the snow at Jujutsu High stopped and started, then started and stopped again.

Suguru Geto stood at the gym entrance, watching the people inside. Yu Haibara and Kento Nanami were sparring. Haibara moved much faster than before, and his strikes came from trickier angles. Nanami struggled to block them, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

"Geto." Kento Nanami came over during the break between partners, wiping his sweat with a towel. His breathing was still a little labored, but his expression remained serious.

"Nanami," Suguru Geto said, "Haibara has improved a lot lately."

"Yes." Kento Nanami glanced at Haibara, who was drinking water. "He trains for an extra two hours every day. I tell him to rest, but he won't listen."

"What do you think?"

Kento Nanami fell silent for a few seconds. "He's afraid."

"Of what?"

"Of not being strong enough. Of something like Zama happening again." Kento Nanami's voice was quiet. "Of making you take another hit for him."

Suguru Geto said nothing. He watched Yu Haibara put down his water bottle, pick up his wooden sword again, and walk to the center of the floor. The boy's back had grown a little broader, the lines of his shoulders more defined.

But "no longer being a burden" and "no longer needing anyone's protection" were two different things. Suguru Geto knew Yu Haibara was desperately trying to cross that line, but Haibara didn't know that the line didn't actually exist. As long as people lived, there would always be times when they needed someone else to protect them. That wasn't weakness. That was life itself.

On December 15, Masamichi Yaga called Suguru Geto into his office.

A map lay spread across the desk, with a circle drawn on it in red pen. It marked a place called Mount Asama, in the mountains along the border between Gunma Prefecture and Nagano Prefecture.

"The January 15 mission has been moved up," Masamichi Yaga said. "The Association received new intelligence. That special grade cursed spirit's range of activity is expanding. If we leave it alone, it will affect the surrounding residential areas before the end of the year. So the mission has been moved to December 28."

Suguru Geto looked at the red circle on the map. December 28 was less than two weeks away.

"Does Satoru Gojo know?" he asked.

"He's already been notified," Masamichi Yaga replied. "You two will go together. The Association wants it dealt with quickly. Don't give the cursed spirit a chance to escape into the mountains."

Suguru Geto nodded.

Masamichi Yaga looked at Suguru Geto. There was something in his eyes that Geto rarely saw on Yaga's face.

"Geto," Masamichi Yaga said, "how big is that egg inside your body now?"

"Two and a half fists."

"How big will it be after you fight this special grade?"

"Three fists, maybe bigger," Suguru Geto said helplessly.

"Geto," he said, "you can choose not to go. Satoru Gojo can handle it on his own."

"I know."

"Then are you going?"

Suguru Geto met Masamichi Yaga's eyes. "Yes. I can't keep doing nothing, hanging around Jujutsu High and living off the place until I die."

Masamichi Yaga stared at him for a few seconds, then nodded. "All right. But promise me one thing."

"What?"

"When you get back from the fight, have Shoko give you a full examination immediately. Whatever the results are, you're not to hide anything."

Suguru Geto nodded and left the office.

On December 20, Suguru Geto ran into Shoko in the hills behind the school.

Shoko wore a thick padded jacket over her white coat, a lit cigarette between her lips. She sat beneath a tree, with a thermos beside her. Its lid was open, and steam rose from it.

"How did you know about this place?" Suguru Geto sat down beside her.

"Satoru Gojo told me." Shoko flicked the ash off her cigarette. "He said you've been coming here a lot lately."

"Shoko," Suguru Geto said, "can you get rid of it with Reverse Cursed Technique?"

Shoko took a drag and slowly exhaled. "That depends on what it is. A tumor, yes. A mass of condensed cursed energy, yes. But if it's something related to the soul, no. Reverse Cursed Technique is fundamentally about 'restoration'-returning something to its original state. But if that thing is itself part of the 'original,' there's nothing to restore."

"What about the egg? Is it part of the 'original'?"

Shoko fell silent for a few seconds. "I don't know. Satoru Gojo said it might be your soul. If it is, then it's part of the 'original.' If it isn't, then it's a foreign object."

"How do we tell?"

"We can't." Shoko stubbed her cigarette out in the snow, picked up her thermos, and took a sip of tea. "Not unless we wait for it to hatch."

Suguru Geto leaned against the tree trunk and tilted his head back to look at the gray sky. The clouds were so thick that he could see neither the sun nor their shapes, only an even expanse of gray, like a sheet of lead.

"Shoko," he said, "are you afraid of dying?"

Shoko's hand paused. She studied Suguru Geto's profile for a few seconds.

"No," she said. "But I'm afraid of the people around me dying."

Suguru Geto turned to look at her. Shoko's expression was calm, but he could see the despair of being able to do nothing but watch. She had seen too many injured jujutsu sorcerers in the infirmary. Some had walked out alive. Others hadn't.

On December 22, Satoru Gojo stopped Suguru Geto at the training ground.

"Six days left," Satoru Gojo said.

"I know."

"Are you ready?"

Suguru Geto looked at him. Satoru Gojo wasn't wearing sunglasses that day, leaving his azure Six Eyes fully exposed to the winter sunlight.

"I'm ready," Suguru Geto said.

"Liar." Satoru Gojo's tone was flat. "That egg inside you has grown again over the past two days. Your cursed energy fluctuations are more unstable than they were last week. You're sleeping worse, and your appetite is getting worse too. You're not ready."

Suguru Geto fell silent for a few seconds.

"Satoru," he said, "when did you start noticing these things?"

Satoru Gojo tilted his head. "What things?"

"My sleep. My appetite. My cursed energy fluctuations." Suguru Geto looked at him. "When did you start noticing all those details?"

Satoru Gojo didn't answer right away. He looked at Suguru Geto for a long time.

"Since the first day you said you hadn't slept well," Satoru Gojo said. "August 15. You said, 'I had a nightmare,' but your eyes told me you hadn't had a nightmare. You hadn't slept at all."

"So you've been observing me for these past four months."

"Not observing," Satoru Gojo corrected him. "Watching over you."

"Relax. I can wipe out a cursed spirit like that with a snap of my fingers. Then you swallow the Cursed Spirit Orb, we go back to Jujutsu High, Shoko examines you, and then we go to the cafeteria to eat. The order won't change, and neither will the outcome." Satoru Gojo patted Suguru Geto's shoulder.

December 25. Christmas.

Jujutsu High didn't celebrate Christmas, but the students still exchanged small gifts. Yu Haibara had prepared one for everyone: a fountain pen for Nanami, an ashtray for Shoko, a sunglasses case for Satoru Gojo, and a scarf for Suguru Geto. It was gray wool, soft to the touch.

"Geto, it's cold in winter, and you're always running off into the hills without a coat." Haibara scratched his head. "So I thought a scarf might help."

Suguru Geto took the scarf and wrapped it once around his neck. The wool felt warm against his skin.

"Thank you, Haibara," he said.

Kento Nanami gave Suguru Geto a popular science book about mining geology. A line on the title page read, "Geto, stay safe on the Gunma Prefecture mission."

Suguru Geto opened it to the first page and saw that Nanami had marked several spots in red pen on a map of the mines. They were places where the special grade cursed spirit might be hiding. Kento Nanami had taken the time to study the mines' geological structure and mark the most likely areas.

Shoko gave him a first-aid kit twice the size of the one Suguru Geto normally carried. Along with the usual medicines, it contained a small bottle of pale blue liquid-a Reverse Cursed Technique support agent, more concentrated than the one she had given him last time.

"Use it sparingly," Shoko said.

Satoru Gojo's gift was the strangest: a small knife. Its blade was short, only palm-sized, but densely engraved with runes. Suguru Geto recognized a few of them. They were used to enhance cursed energy conduction.

"Where did you get it?" Suguru Geto asked.

"I had someone make it," Satoru Gojo said. "If you're in danger, use this. Its cursed energy conductivity is ninety-seven percent."

Ninety-seven percent. The number made Suguru Geto pause. Even the best cursed tools on the market only had a cursed energy conductivity of around ninety percent. This small knife's conductivity far exceeded that of conventional cursed tools.

"Satoru, how much did you spend?"

Satoru Gojo didn't answer the question. "Money isn't an issue. Just don't die."

Suguru Geto held the small knife and felt the traces of Satoru Gojo's cursed energy lingering on its blade. Satoru Gojo had probably tested it many times with his own cursed energy.