Sorcerers, Expendables, Monsters

The atmosphere in Masamichi Yaga's office was suffocating.

A thin white envelope lay on the desk. It was the only "spoils" Masamichi Yaga had brought back after demanding an explanation from the higher-ups.

"What is this?"

You looked at the envelope and asked a question you already knew the answer to.

"'Compensation' for Nanami and Haibara's mission."

Masamichi Yaga removed his sunglasses and pinched the bridge of his nose hard, his voice steeped in exhaustion and humiliation.

"The people at the top said that although the intelligence department made a 'minor error' in its grading, since the target wasn't ultimately exorcised, it counted as an 'incomplete mission.'"

"However, considering the participants' severe injuries, the higher-ups made an 'exception' and issued the full payment for the original Grade 2 mission as relief money."

You froze.

They had taken the payment already owed for a Grade 2 mission, labeled it "relief money," and handed it down as charity. As for the Grade 1 cursed spirit that had nearly killed them, Kento Nanami's severed right arm, the intelligence department's fatal mistake...

There was no apology, no accountability, no recalculation of the payment as a Grade 1 mission. Just this thin envelope.

Suddenly, you wanted to laugh. The corners of your mouth curled uncontrollably into a deeply mocking smile.

At that moment, the value of a human life took its most concrete form before you. Kento Nanami's arm and Yu Haibara's life together were worth no more than a few hundred thousand yen in "Grade 2 mission payment."

"Sir, have those higher-ups... always been this sickening?"

In fact, in every simulation, whether as an assistant supervisor or at school, you had rarely had the opportunity to interact directly with the higher-ups' core decision-makers. You knew they were rotten, but you had never expected them to be this arrogant.

Masamichi Yaga looked at your icy gaze and let out a long sigh.

"Always. This is the kind of place Jujutsu Society has always been."

Masamichi Yaga paused, his tone growing complicated.

"But... not even bothering to keep up appearances, openly shifting the blame onto the people carrying out the mission... this is worse than before. Even I don't know why they've suddenly become so brazen."

Masamichi Yaga did not understand, but you faintly discerned the cruel chain of logic.

You turned toward the window, and an image surfaced in your mind: that white-haired god floating in the air, carving an abyss into the ground with a casual blast of Purple.

It was because of Satoru Gojo.

Satoru Gojo's "awakening" had turned him into a flawless, tireless, invincible, highly efficient mission machine.

For those higher-ups sitting behind their screens, now that they had a "god-tier engine" capable of handling ninety-nine percent of crises...

Those "ordinary gears" that constantly broke down, needed repairs, and complained naturally lost their value as things to nurture and cherish.

How could two "expendables" who had nearly died dealing with a Grade 1 cursed spirit possibly deserve to demand that the higher-ups bow their heads and admit fault?

Throw them away when they broke. Replace them when they died. That was the higher-ups' logic now.

The workings of this precise, twisted system filled you with a profound sense of powerlessness.

And the saddest part was that, as a student of Jujutsu High and a healer who treated the wounded, you were also a screw keeping this meat grinder running.

The higher-ups' cold-bloodedness was even more efficient than you had imagined.

A mere two days later, before the stinging sensation of nerve conduction in Kento Nanami's reattached right arm had even fully subsided, new mission orders arrived.

There was no leave, no psychological counseling, as though the torii that had nearly killed them two days earlier and that rampaging Grade 1 Land God had been nothing more than a trivial little incident on their work calendar.

As you watched them leave Jujutsu High, you keenly noticed the change in Kento Nanami.

The blond boy who had once been meticulous and taken his profession as a jujutsu sorcerer seriously now looked somewhat stooped from behind.

You could no longer see that light in his eyes, that desire to eradicate curses. In its place were suffocating "exhaustion" and "disgust."

It was the numbness of someone who had seen through this pile of shit called "Jujutsu Society" and had nothing left but mechanical obedience.

Several more days passed in this oppressive atmosphere of stagnant water.

That afternoon, an assistant supervisor delivered a kraft-paper document envelope stamped with a red "urgent" mark to your desk with a measure of awe.

You opened the envelope and pulled out the documents inside.

Mission location: A remote old village.

Mission objective: Investigate multiple incidents of villagers being spirited away and dying under mysterious circumstances. Suspected involvement of a Grade 1 (or Semi-Grade 1) cursed spirit. Determine the cause and perform an exorcism.

Assigned personnel: Special Grade Sorcerer Suguru Geto, Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer Li Shunchen.

As you looked at the file, so familiar it made your scalp prickle, your fingertips abruptly trembled, and your entire body went rigid.

Even though you had prepared yourself, when the gears of fate truly began to clatter and pushed this moment before you, you still felt dazed.

You had not expected this moment to come so soon.

That remote old village. That ignorant, insular village that locked two innocent twin girls in a cage and abused them.

In your memories of one simulation, that was precisely where, as an assistant supervisor, you had first witnessed the string in Suguru Geto's heart called "protecting non-sorcerers" snap completely.

That very day, he had slaughtered all 112 villagers, set himself on his blood-paved path of the "greater good," and killed you along the way when you tried to stop him.

"This mission... is something wrong with it?"

A heavily nasal voice, steeped in utter exhaustion, sounded above your head.

You came back to yourself. Suguru Geto had approached without you noticing. The dark circles beneath his eyes were as deep as ink that would not dissolve, and he was so thin his cheekbones protruded. A faint, nauseating sourness of vomit clung to him from swallowing a cursed spirit.

Seeing you stare blankly at the mission file, and with Nanami and Haibara having nearly met disaster not long ago, he instinctively assumed this urgent file contained some certain-death trap.

He leaned over to look.

"A remote old village... suspected Grade 1 cursed spirit..."

Suguru Geto read quietly, his brows slightly furrowed. He did not seem to find anything particularly outrageous. For a Special Grade, a Grade 1 investigation mission was routine.

He turned his dull foxlike eyes toward you, his tone carrying a trace of numbness that even he failed to notice.

"Is there something wrong with it, Shunchen?"

You closed your eyes and took a deep breath.

The bloody stench of those hundred-odd corpses and the sensation of the cursed spirit's blade piercing your chest in the simulation seemed to return to your senses.

You closed the mission file. When you opened your eyes again, your gaze had regained its almost ruthless calm.

"Nothing."

You looked at your fellow student, who was about to embark on the path of an Asura, and answered in an icy tone laden with a double meaning only you understood.

"I just suddenly... remembered some people I once knew, and some things that have already happened."

The mountains stood like enormous black barriers, swallowing the last of the twilight sun.

The black sedan jolted along the rugged mountain road for a long time before finally arriving, toward evening, at the mission location: a secluded village seemingly forgotten entirely by modern civilization.

The air smelled of moldy dead leaves and some indescribable, nauseating insularity.

As soon as the car stopped, you pushed open the door and got out.

You surveyed your surroundings. The dilapidated wooden houses and the furtive gazes flickering in the shadows matched the backdrop of the massacre in your memory perfectly.

You turned and tapped on the driver's window.

"Drop us off here. Don't follow us in. Head back the way you came and pick us up tomorrow morning."

You smiled, your tone calm but carrying unquestionable resolve.

"Huh? But..."

The assistant supervisor looked deeply troubled and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

"Li, this doesn't really follow protocol. A Grade 1 cursed spirit is suspected in this mission. According to procedure, I have to remain outside the barrier to observe and maintain communications..."

"I'm asking you to leave precisely because it's suspected to be Grade 1."

You interrupted him, your voice gentle but carrying just the right touch of seriousness.

"The terrain around this village is too enclosed. If a fight breaks out, it'll be difficult for us to split our attention to protect you."

"For your safety, and so we can investigate and perform the exorcism without reservations, leaving first is your best option. I'll take responsibility for anything that happens."

If Satoru Gojo or another proud jujutsu sorcerer had used such an excuse to send him away, the assistant supervisor would most likely have bowed and apologized while stubbornly sticking to protocol.

But you were different.

Among all of Jujutsu High's assistant supervisors, your name was synonymous with "reliable."

You were mild-tempered and never put on airs as a sorcerer. On many missions, you even casually completed assistant supervisor duties such as writing reports and surveying terrain to perfection, making them wonder whether you had once worked as an assistant supervisor yourself.

In the end, faced with your proposal made "purely out of concern," the assistant supervisor gratefully swallowed his objections.

"I understand... Then I'll leave it to you both! Please be careful!"

The black sedan soon turned around, its taillights disappearing into the night down the mountain.

Meanwhile, Suguru Geto stood beside the torii at the village entrance, studying you with an utterly unfamiliar gaze.

"Why did you suddenly arrange that?"

Suguru Geto frowned, keenly pointing out the inconsistency.

"The mission brief says a Grade 1 is suspected, but the cursed residue here is extremely faint. It clearly doesn't look like a Grade 1 cursed spirit is actually lurking here. Why did you deliberately send the supervisor away?"

You did not answer immediately. Instead, you adjusted the glasses on your nose and began walking into the village at an extremely slow pace.

"Since the mission already assumes it's Grade 1, there's nothing wrong with staying a little more alert or slowing down a little, is there?"

You spoke calmly.

"We can use this time to sort through a few questions."

"Sort through questions?"

Watching your unusual behavior, Suguru Geto grew even more puzzled.

Normally, you would have decisively sought out the village chief for information as soon as you arrived. You might even have already begun using your cursed technique to probe the flow of cursed energy nearby.

You would not be strolling along like an old man in a park, idly chatting with him about such baffling topics.

From Suguru Geto's perspective, you were acting far too strangely. Something had been off ever since you saw that mission file.

You stopped, turned, and looked deeply into Suguru Geto's tired, foxlike eyes.

"Geto, did you know?"

"In the eyes of those ignorant ordinary people, sorcerers with power... are themselves a kind of 'aberration,' much like Grade 1 cursed spirits."

"Human fear never distinguishes between power used to kill and power used to save."

Suguru Geto shuddered.

He faintly detected something extremely dangerous yet extremely familiar in your words. It was precisely the thought that had been struggling wildly in his mind through countless recent days and nights.

"Shunchen... what do you mean?"

Suguru Geto stared fixedly at you, complex emotions churning in his previously lifeless eyes.

But before you could spell it out, a flurry of hurried, disorderly footsteps interrupted your confrontation.

"Oh! Wonderful! This is wonderful!"

A gaunt old man with a deeply wrinkled face and a worn kimono hurried out of the shadows with several villagers carrying farming tools, like hyenas catching the scent of blood.

He was the village chief. He practically lunged toward you, his deeply lined face mixing the ecstasy of salvation, a morbid fear, and a self-righteous malice.

"You're the 'masters' sent from Tokyo, aren't you! Have you finally come to deal with those two monsters?!"

Suguru Geto frowned at the interruption to his thoughts. He was in no mood to deal with this monkey, so agitated that spittle flew from his mouth.

But he suppressed his irritation and began the customary questions.

"Please calm down. About the incidents of villagers being spirited away..."

"It's all those two monsters' doing!!"

The village chief paid no attention to what Suguru Geto was saying. He abruptly turned and pointed a trembling, stick-thin finger forcefully toward the far end of the village, where a dilapidated wooden house stood hidden in the darkness, locked with chains.

The old man's features twisted with hatred and fear.

"It's them! Just get rid of them! Kill them! Then the village will be peaceful!"

Suguru Geto froze. His gaze passed over the babbling village chief and followed that skeletal finger toward the wooden house steeped in despair.

At that moment, his instincts and common sense as a Special Grade Sorcerer blared frantic alarms in his mind.

Wait.

Get rid of... the "monsters"?

Monsters locked inside that wooden house?

Suguru Geto's pupils contracted slightly, and the string called "reason" in his mind began to creak dangerously.

He knew one thing: a "Grade 1 cursed spirit" was a terrifying disaster that even fully armed tank units could not handle.

Never mind "locking it inside some little wooden house"...

These antlike ordinary people, who did not even possess cursed energy, were not even qualified to see cursed spirits.

Which raised a question.

These so-called "monsters," locked in a cage by ordinary people brimming with malice, who even wanted jujutsu sorcerers to "dispose of" them...

What exactly were they?