"The situation was incredibly dire, and then Senior Souma just appeared in mid-air, defeating that cursed spirit with a single blow!"
"It is lucky Senior Souma was there, otherwise Nanami and I would have been in serious trouble!"
Yu Haibara was animatedly describing the scene to Suguru Geto, his hands moving wildly to illustrate the scale of the battle.
"Hey, hey! Senior Suguru, can you do something of that magnitude too?"
Suguru rubbed his nose, his expression calm. "Something like that."
"As expected of Senior Suguru! Oh, right, here are the local souvenirs you asked for!"
"Haibara, it is time to submit the mission report," Nanami called out. Seeing Geto, he stepped forward with a polite nod. "Senior Suguru."
Suguru waved them off with a smile, but as he watched their retreating backs, he fell into a deep silence.
They nearly died. This time it was a stroke of luck, but what about next time? Or the time after that?
This marathon called jujutsu sorcery—does the finish line really only lead to a mountain of comrades' corpses? Curses can be exorcised, but never eradicated. Human greed and fear have no end.
Just as his thoughts began to drift into dark places, a heavy hand clapped onto his shoulder. Suguru jumped, relaxing only when he saw it was Souma Gojo.
"Hey, Ze, don't just appear behind people like that. You'll give someone a heart attack!"
Souma laughed, his tone teasing. "It seems like you're the one who let your guard down. What are you thinking about so intensely?"
Suguru paused, then asked tentatively, "Ze, do you think what we're doing is actually right?"
"In this world, greed and fear are endless, and cursed spirits will never truly disappear. The path of a sorcerer feels like it changes nothing in the end, except for adding more bodies to the pile."
"Well..." Souma sat down heavily beside him. "If you want to look at it that way, the sun will explode in five billion years and everything will cease to exist anyway. Dust to dust. Since everything ends eventually and nothing can be changed on a cosmic scale, should we all just give up now?"
Suguru's mouth twitched. "That isn't exactly what I meant. Seriously, Ze, why do you choose to be a sorcerer?"
Souma felt a slight sweat. Being born into the Gojo clan as a Six Eyes user made the choice for him, but after all these years, he had truly embraced this life.
"If I had to say... the convenience stores on the corner, the cinemas in Ginza, the conventions in Akihabara, AKB48..."
"Wait, wait. You do it just for those trivial things?" Suguru looked puzzled.
"Suguru, you always say sorcerers should protect non-sorcerers as if it's some divine responsibility. But I fight curses simply for myself. I like this world and I like living in it, so I won't allow anything to destroy it."
"Do you think Haibara is a sorcerer because he feels a burden to protect the weak? No. He does it because the act of protecting others is something he loves. At his core, he is living for himself too."
This dilemma didn't just haunt Suguru. In the original timeline, even Kento Nanami deeply doubted the meaning of his work, eventually quitting to become a corporate employee before realizing that jujutsu, while difficult, was where he belonged. The responsibility of a sorcerer is a choice, not a cage.
Souma turned to his friend. "So, if you cast aside the shackles of protecting the weak, what is it that you want to be a sorcerer for, Suguru?"
The question left Suguru stunned. He began to search his heart. Protecting the weak? That felt like a dogma he had been taught since childhood, not a personal desire. For a moment, his confusion deepened, replaced by an inexplicable surge of irritation.
Suddenly, Suguru's phone rang. It was the mission department. "Mr. Geto, we have a mission for you in a remote mountain village..."
Souma's sharp ears caught the location.
"Understood. I'll head there immediately." Suguru sighed, giving Souma a strained smile before walking away.
Watching his back, Souma scratched his head in frustration. "Should I tell Satoru about this?"
The outskirts of Tokyo, a remote mountain area in Hakone.
"Monsters! Two monsters! Just like your parents!"
"We should have killed you both when you were babies!"
"My child almost died because of you. We can't let you keep doing this!"
Suguru Geto ignored the villagers' vitriol. He stared expressionlessly at the two little girls shivering inside a wooden cage. Their clothes were tattered, their faces gaunt, and their skin was covered in dark red welts from abuse. These were Nanako and Mimiko Hasaba.
"Mr. Geto, these are the monsters!" the village chief shouted beside him. "They talk to themselves all day, and ever since they started, strange things have been happening. People have died or gone mad!"
In this isolated region, feudal superstition was still law. To them, these two girls with strange behavior were the source of every misfortune. But as a sorcerer, Suguru saw the truth instantly.
Two children born with cursed techniques in a remote area—the script was all too familiar.
They could see the curses that others could not. Being kind-hearted, they likely tried to use their newly awakened powers to help, but because they were weak, they couldn't finish the job. Their strange movements only invited the hostility of the ignorant.
Before him were two sisters huddling together for warmth; in his ears were the endless, foul curses of the "weak" people he was supposed to protect.
Protect the weak? Who exactly was the weak one here?
Create a world without cursed spirits? Kill all non-sorcerers?
At this moment, Suguru didn't care about those grand theories. He was simply furious. He wanted to kill.
"Actually..."
Suguru turned toward the village chief, flashing a thin, polite smile. "I've discovered something. Let's step outside and have a chat."
Read The Full Story at P@treon: P@treon .com/zefyrus