A few seconds after Dio landed with a sonic-boom cloud beneath his feet, Satoru Gojo and Shoko Ieiri materialized out of thin air, without warning, as though an invisible hand had folded space itself and suddenly unfolded it again.
Gojo had used his cursed technique to define the distance between two points as "negative infinity," generating a nearly infinite instantaneous pull and achieving "teleportation" in another sense.
"Yo, long time no see, Satoru, Shoko."
Geto narrowed his eyes, smiling like a sly fox.
He casually raised his right hand toward them, both greeting them and signaling, "I'm right here."
"Hi~" Shoko raised a hand in a friendly greeting, an unlit cigarette still held between her fingers.
"Whoa-are you kidding me? This is awful!"
A rare look of bewilderment crossed Gojo's face. His mouth fell open so wide that even his back molars were visible.
"This isn't a hallucination my delusions finally ran wild and conjured up, is it?!"
"That's rude, Satoru." Suguru Geto finally took his hand off Yuta Okkotsu's shoulder, his tone carrying a half-serious hint of complaint. "We haven't seen each other in so long, and that's the first thing you say?"
Dio's calm voice cut into the conversation, laden as it was with a ten-year absence and tangled emotions. "Satoru Gojo, this is the situation I told you about. You're not going to go back on your word, are you?"
"Someone you know, Gojo-sensei? Looks like there's some old bad blood. Is he here to fight?"
Maki Zenin asked bluntly, keeping a firm grip on her long sword without the slightest intention of lowering her guard. Her gaze moved back and forth between Geto and Gojo.
"If I can help it, there won't be a fight." Geto waved a hand amiably, his tone sincere. "Satoru, I came back to talk everything through properly here, then apologize to you-to all of you-and make things right."
Not long ago, he would probably have hurled insults at a "weakling" like Maki Zenin, who possessed almost no cursed energy.
Now, it no longer mattered.
He and Mr. Dio would save this world. Those with limited abilities could simply follow behind them and cheer!
He took a deep breath, banished every trace of a smile from his face, and looked at Satoru Gojo, Shoko Ieiri, and Masamichi Yaga in turn. Then he solemnly bowed at ninety degrees to his teacher and two friends.
"I'm sorry. I was wrong."
"Huh?" Gojo truly froze.
He spent several seconds checking the words he had heard over and over, then his entire body jolted.
"...I don't know what kind of act this is... but Geto, I'm going to take you seriously, you know?"
"The me who despises non-sorcerers and the me who rejects that are both 'me,' existing at the same time.
A sorcerer's life is like a marathon with an indistinct finish line.
Ten years ago, I took the wrong turn at a crossroads, and stubbornly kept going for far too long," Geto said, remaining bowed.
Then he straightened and bowed deeply once more.
"Yaga-sensei, Satoru, Shoko...
Thank you for worrying about me all these years.
Killing every non-sorcerer is an unrealistic fantasy. I've decided...
To return to the oldest, most direct path-putting myself on the line and keeping cursed spirits suppressed for the rest of my life."
Geto raised his head, his gaze sweeping across all the faces around him, familiar and unfamiliar, wary and conflicted. His voice was quiet, yet carried a clarity and resolve tempered by experience:
"The world misjudged me, Suguru Geto, yesterday. It has misjudged me again today, and perhaps it will misjudge me tomorrow. But I am still myself.
I've never feared being misunderstood. I'm not a child anymore, either. I don't expect everyone to understand."
"Haha, so it still comes back to what I said back then-makes no sense."
At some point, Shoko had approached with a cigarette between her lips. She exhaled a smoke ring, her voice carrying its usual languor and a trace of wistfulness.
"At first, I thought you just felt no one could understand you, and were sulking like someone who'd never finished puberty.
I never imagined... you'd actually find a bunch of 'like-minded' companions and keep that 'sulking' going for ten years."
"I imagined our reunion so many times. Throwing a lavish feast, maybe, or coming up with a creative welcome ceremony to give you a huge surprise-
But all of that felt a little too formal. Taking up too much of your time might even make it a nuisance for you.
But now that I'm actually standing in front of you, I get it. None of that matters. All the ceremony can go out the window!" Gojo picked up the conversation.
His voice was a little tight, but a slightly exaggerated grin spread across his face. He stepped forward and pulled Geto into a fierce hug, his voice muffled against Geto's shoulder, with an almost imperceptible nasal catch:
"...I've been waiting for this day. I've really been waiting so long... Welcome back, Geto!"
Masamichi Yaga watched in silence, his gaze behind his sunglasses impossibly complicated.
Only after a long while did he speak, his voice deep and slow, heavy with self-reproach. "Opening the eyes of students who've gone astray and guiding them back to the right path-that is the foundation of education... And in that respect, I... failed badly."
"With Mr. Geto back, those old fossils at Jujutsu Headquarters are probably going to have a whole basketful of nasty things to say. Might even lose a few hairs from sheer anger, huh?"
Atsuya Kusakabe grinned, his tone carrying the teasing air of an acquaintance enjoying the spectacle and happy to stir the pot.
"To be honest."
Kento Nanami adjusted his glasses and walked steadily out from behind the crowd, his voice as calm and pragmatic as ever.
"The number of non-sorcerers they've disposed of in secret, or indirectly caused to die through their compromises, probably isn't any lower than the number Geto openly killed.
I find it rather unreasonable that he's the only one wanted."
He walked up to Geto, held out his hand, and gave him a crisp high five. "Welcome back, senpai."
"Haha, thanks for backing me up, Nanami." Geto smiled. "I heard you stopped being a jujutsu sorcerer for a while and went off to become an ordinary office worker. I didn't expect you to come back."
"Because every job is shit."
For the first time in a long while, Nanami laughed from the heart.
"So, by comparison, I might as well keep doing this 'shit' job as a jujutsu sorcerer. That way... perhaps I can save a few more people."
"Nanami, perhaps you'd be better off saying less of that?" Mei Mei elegantly brushed back her hair, a strange gleam flashing in her eyes. "In theory, I have a duty and an obligation to report everything that happens here accurately."
"Come on, you wouldn't spoil the mood like that, would you?" Gojo grinned and shot her a sidelong glance, an unmistakable "threat" in his tone.
"Oh dear, since the 'strongest of the modern age' has so blatantly 'threatened' me..."
Mei Mei covered her mouth and chuckled, the cunning in her eyes deepening.
"Then it would be perfectly reasonable and logical for the information reported to be 'abridged' or 'delayed' due to 'interference,' wouldn't it?"
"All right, stop standing around here."
Principal Yaga spoke at just the right moment, his resonant voice breaking through the delicate, easing atmosphere.
"Let's go to the conference room. This isn't the place to talk. Students, return to your classrooms. Sorcerers of grade one or above may sit in."
Geto nodded, looked once more at everyone present, and made his promise. "Yes, sir.
I'll lay everything out openly-what I've experienced these past ten years, how I've changed, and what I intend to do from here."
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