Surveillance

During the first week of his suspension, Suguru Geto's life settled into a fixed routine.

He got up at six in the morning and went to the cafeteria for breakfast. From seven to nine, he practiced hand-to-hand combat at the training grounds. Yu Haibara and Kento Nanami were usually there too. They each trained on their own, occasionally exchanging a few words. From nine to eleven, he read novels he had borrowed from the school library in his dorm room. He read slowly, spending several minutes on a single page—not because he couldn't understand it, but because his mind kept wandering. In the afternoon, he either sat beneath a tree on the mountain behind the school or browsed decades-old records in the Old Library. At night, he worked on his weekly report, then went to bed.

The Association had forbidden him from leaving Jujutsu High, but imposed no other restrictions. Within the bounds of the rules, he tried to keep himself occupied. When he had nothing to do, he thought too much.

On Monday, Suguru Geto ran into Shoko on the mountain behind the school.

Shoko was sitting beneath a tree, wearing a thick army-green padded coat over her white lab coat.

"What are you doing here?" Suguru Geto sat down beside her.

"Am I not allowed to come here?" Shoko flicked the ash off her cigarette.

They sat in silence for a while. The sky was overcast, as though it might rain soon.

"Shoko," Suguru Geto said, "can your Reverse Cursed Technique repair the creases in a cursed energy core?"

Shoko took a drag and slowly exhaled. "No. Reverse Cursed Technique is fundamentally about restoration-returning something to its original state. But your cursed energy core was stretched out and then shrank back, leaving creases. That's not damage. It's deformation. Deformation can't be reversed. You can only wait for it to recover slowly on its own."

"How long will that take?"

"I don't know. Maybe three months, maybe three years. Maybe it'll never recover."

Suguru Geto said nothing. Shoko stubbed her cigarette out in the snow, screwed the lid onto her thermos, and turned to look at him.

"Geto, what did you find in the Old Library?"

Suguru Geto glanced at her. "How did you know I'd been going there?"

"Haibara told me. He said you've been going there a lot lately."

Suguru Geto was silent for a few seconds. "I found a case. Forty years ago, there was a Special Grade Sorcerer who also had something growing inside his body. His cursed energy mutated, his core became deformed, and that thing grew. The Association locked him up to study him. In the end, he died."

Shoko's fingers paused on her thermos.

"Are you afraid you'll end up like him?"

Suguru Geto thought for a moment. "I don't know. Maybe I am, maybe I'm not."

Shoko stared at him for a few seconds, then stood and brushed the snow off her trousers.

"Geto," she said, "you're not that man from forty years ago. You have us."

She left. Suguru Geto sat beneath the tree, watching her retreating figure disappear from view. Shoko walked briskly, the hem of her white lab coat fluttering in the wind.

On Wednesday, Suguru Geto ran into Kento Nanami in the cafeteria.

"Nanami, don't you have class today?"

"This afternoon." Nanami turned to look at Suguru Geto. "Geto, people from the Association came this morning."

Suguru Geto's hand paused. "What for?"

"To see Mr. Yaga. I overheard some of it in the hallway." Nanami's voice was low. "They were asking about you. Whether you were still living at Jujutsu High, whether you'd left at all, whether you'd had any contact with the outside world."

Suguru Geto set down his chopsticks. "They think I'll run."

Nanami didn't answer that. "Mr. Yaga said you're his student, and he's responsible for you. The people from the Association said responsibility wasn't for Mr. Yaga to claim. It was for the Association. Mr. Yaga didn't respond."

Suguru Geto was silent for a few seconds. The Association was applying pressure. Not directly on him, but through Masamichi Yaga. They wanted to know whether he was still under their control, whether he was still obediently staying at Jujutsu High, whether he was still writing those weekly reports.

"Nanami," Suguru Geto said, "does Satoru Gojo know?"

"No. I haven't told him."

"Don't tell him."

Nanami nodded.

On Friday, Suguru Geto spent another entire afternoon in the Old Library.

Ever since finding Nakajima's notes, he had been going through the other materials on the same shelf. The books and notes there all came from the same period, from Showa 40 to Showa 45-a span of roughly five years. He was looking for more records about Nakajima, or any other similar cases.

He found three documents. The first was the Association's internal investigation report on the Nakajima incident, written in Showa 43, a year after Nakajima's death. The report was brief, only two pages long. Its conclusion read: "The Nakajima incident resulted from the Natural Collapse of his cursed energy core, not from external factors. No comparable cases are available for reference. We recommend archiving this case without further investigation."

Suguru Geto stared at the words "Natural Collapse" in silence for a long time. Natural Collapse. Not caused by that thing, not caused by the mutation of his cursed energy, not caused by the Association's mishandling. Natural Collapse. He remembered the line in Nakajima's notes: "The people from the Association won't let me die. They still want to study me." Nakajima had known the Association couldn't let him die, yet he had died anyway.

The second document was a cursed energy test report, signed with an unfamiliar name and dated Showa 42. It contained data from tests of Nakajima's cursed energy fluctuations, dense with numbers and charts that Suguru Geto couldn't quite understand. But he understood the final line: "An unknown component exists within the subject's cursed energy fluctuations. This component does not belong to any known type of cursed energy. Further study is recommended."

The third document was a letter. Not a letter from the Association, nor a report, but a handwritten letter on yellowed paper. The handwriting was neat, as though it had been written along a ruler. It was addressed to the "Jujutsu Association Investigation Department" and signed with a name: Ichiro Nakajima. Suguru Geto's heartbeat quickened. This was a letter Nakajima had written to the Association.

He read on.

"September, Showa 42. To the members of the Investigation Department. I write this letter not to appeal, nor to complain, but to leave a record. As I write, the thing inside my body has grown to the size of a fist. It is still growing. I know I do not have long to live. But there is one thing I hope you will understand: that thing is unlike any existence known to you. It is more like a seed, planted deep within my cursed energy core, feeding on my cursed energy as it waits for the day it sprouts. I do not know what will emerge when it does. Perhaps it will be me, perhaps another me, perhaps something I have never seen before. You need not grieve for me. I have merely taken one step ahead of you."

Suguru Geto folded the letter and put it back where he had found it. He leaned against the bookshelf and closed his eyes for a while. A seed. Sprouting. Another me. Every word Nakajima had used felt as though it had been plucked from Suguru Geto's own mind.

It was already dark. He stood in the archive doorway, looking toward the administration building in the distance. Its lights were still on. Masamichi Yaga was probably still in his office. He wanted to go see Yaga, tell him about Nakajima, and ask whether the Association knew about that case from forty years ago.

But after hesitating for a while, he didn't go. He simply stood there a little longer, then walked back to his dorm.