[You held their hands, both small and ice-cold and trembling with terror, and led the two battered children out of that hellish cage, back to where Geto stood waiting.]

[Now, up close, he could see everything.]

[Those eyes, honed by years as a Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer, narrowed as he confirmed the faint but unmistakable flow of Cursed Energy running through Nanako and Mimiko. Their identity as sorcerers was beyond question.]

[And with that confirmation, every discordant piece snapped into place. The wrongness he’d felt at the village entrance. The hatred dripping from the word "monsters" in the villagers’ mouths. The absurdity of a village with no high-grade Cursed Spirit presence yet a trail of deaths and disappearances. Every fractured clue fused into a single, nauseating truth.]

[Whip marks. Burn scars crusted over. Torn skin. Layered across bodies so young they should never have known pain like this. These were children born with power, children who should have been comrades, subjected to inhuman cruelty by a mob of ignorant non-sorcerers who had labeled them monsters.]

[Geto’s breathing grew heavy. Beneath the surface calm he still wore like a mask, a storm was building, and it was monstrous.]

[His fists clenched inside his wide sleeves until the knuckles went white. A vein pulsed at his temple.]

[You caught every sign of that impending eruption. You knew, better than anyone, what this scene meant to him. And you would not let the worst possible ending replay itself here.]

[Your gaze slid to the village chief, flat and cold as dead water, and you spoke in an offhand tone.]

["You went through all the trouble of bringing us here to deal with these two children. Fine... We’ll take them off your hands. Leave them to us."]

[As you spoke, you guided Nanako and Mimiko behind you and placed them in the care of the suit-wearing Assistant Manager, who stood frozen.]

[This was a man who had seen his share of the world’s ugliness. Now his eyes were wide behind his glasses, locked on the wounds covering both girls, and the rims of those eyes had gone red with fury. His hands hovered around the children, trembling, afraid to touch and cause more pain. His breathing came in sharp, ragged pulls.]

[What might have surprised an observer was that you, the only person present capable of advanced healing, didn’t use your Reverse Cursed Technique on the girls. Not yet.]

[It wasn’t coldness. It was calculation at its most precise. Every bleeding wound, every weeping sore on their bodies was evidence. Irrefutable, photographable proof of what this village had done, the kind that would nail these perpetrators to the wall in a modern courtroom.]

[Once the children were settled, you turned back to face the crowd of villagers, their expressions a spectrum of confusion and belligerence, and continued in that same emotionless voice.]

["That said, one thing at a time. Handling them is our job. But if our investigation determines that the disappearances in this village have nothing to do with these girls... then everything you’ve done to these two children becomes a matter for the police."]

[The chief blinked. His brain, sealed for decades inside this mountain backwater and stuffed to bursting with superstition, failed to process the modern terminology. His brow creased with confusion that quickly curdled into indignation, and he barked back.]

["What nonsense are you spouting?! Police? What police?! They’re monsters! They’re the ones who caused the deaths in this village! We were defending ourselves!"]

[You didn’t waste anger on his ignorance.]

["Article 220 of the Japanese Penal Code, Unlawful Arrest and Confinement: any person who unlawfully arrests or confines another shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than three months and not more than seven years."]

["Article 204, Bodily Injury: any person who causes bodily injury to another shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than fifteen years, or a fine of not more than five hundred thousand yen."]

["Article 208, Assault: any person who commits violence not resulting in injury shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than two years, a fine of not more than three hundred thousand yen, detention, or a petty fine."]

["And, Article 3 of the Child Abuse Prevention Act: no person shall abuse a child. Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the same act defines physical abuse as: any violent act inflicted upon a child that causes, or risks causing, physical injury..."]

[Each statute landed heavier than the last. That string of precise, frigid legal language echoed through the decrepit village with the surreal force of a weapon from another world entirely, a bludgeon of civilization brought down on a place that had never known it.]

[The chief and his villagers stared, baffled. And Geto, who moments ago had been teetering on the edge of explosion, stood with his mouth slightly open.]

[Those sharp eyes traced your straight-backed silhouette with something close to bewilderment. He hadn’t expected you to transform into an emotionless magistrate and start reciting entire legal codes at a crowd of people who’d never heard of them.]

[But while the chief couldn’t follow the specifics, he understood imprisonment and fine well enough. Words that meant punishment.]

[It clearly hadn’t occurred to him that the masters sent to exterminate monsters would turn on him.]

[He flailed his arms, voice cracking with outrage.]

["What are you... are you deaf?! They’re monsters! They’re the ones killing people! We were protecting ourselves!"]

[You ignored his snarling entirely and turned to Geto, who still stood rooted in place, his expression caught in some strange limbo. Your tone shifted back to something warm and steady.]

["You heard all that, Geto. One thing at a time. Stop standing there and go find the real culprit behind the disappearances. Once we have it, once these girls are cleared, we’ll know exactly how to handle these people. By the book."]

[In this simulated world whose trajectory you had altered, Geto had never watched Riko Amanai’s head explode in front of him. Had never suffered that catastrophic collapse of faith. His mental state was far healthier than it had ever been on the original timeline.]

["Alright. Leave it to me."]

[Before the words had finished hanging in the air, he was gone into the hunt for the true culprit, the Cursed Spirit responsible for all of this.]

[Tonight, that spirit would bear the full, undiluted wrath of a Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer.]

[Watching his retreating figure, you allowed yourself a quiet exhale.]

[Then you turned to the manager, who had already read your intentions with perfect accuracy. He’d pulled a compact camera from his briefcase and was photographing the girls’ injuries in close-up detail, jaw clenched tight against the anger threatening to crack his composure.]

[You spoke to him with a note of apology.]

["Sorry about this. The paperwork on this one is going to be a nightmare. On top of the Cursed Spirit elimination report, we’ll need to coordinate with civilian police on child abuse and unlawful confinement charges. The documentation alone will be brutal. I’ll help you handle all of it when we get back."]

[The manager waved you off without pausing his shutter clicks.]

[Not a word of complaint about the mountain of extra work headed his way. After witnessing something this horrific firsthand, no decent human being could feel anything but outrage. If anything, he was eager to contribute, to use every photograph to help put these animals behind bars for what they’d done to two helpless children.]

[Besides, as you’d said, the moment Geto tracked down the real Cursed Spirit and proved these girls had nothing to do with the disappearances, the villagers’ self-defense excuse would collapse into the sick joke it always was. Everything after that could be handed off to civilian law enforcement. He wouldn’t need to overstep his authority as Jujutsu High staff.]

[Behind the manager, Nanako and Mimiko peered up at your tall silhouette with cautious, wondering eyes.]

[They couldn’t follow the legal jargon. But they could see the man with the glowing box carefully documenting their wounds. They could see the village chief’s bluster crumbling. And somewhere in their young, battered minds, a dim understanding began to form: the godlike figure who had descended into their world wasn’t here to kill them. He was protecting them, in a way they couldn’t begin to comprehend, but protecting them all the same.]

[On the other side, the chief and his mob of villagers had finally pieced together, from your actions and the manager’s camera, that events had spiraled beyond their control.]

["Stop taking pictures! You’re frauds, all of you Tokyo people! You’re in league with the monsters!"]

[A heavyset villager roared it, his face twisted into something ugly.]

[All reason left him. He hoisted the rusted iron hoe in his hands, dirt still caking its blade, and swung it at your skull with everything he had, the heavy metal head whistling through the air.]

[Against a blow that would have cracked an ordinary person’s skull wide open, you didn’t blink.]

[One hand came up, unhurried. A dull smack of palm against wood, and the descending handle stopped dead in your grip, locked in place like it had hit an iron vise.]

[Under the attacker’s stare, your wrist turned with casual ease, wrenching the hoe from his hands. You tossed it at your feet like discarding trash.]

["Now that... is a different matter entirely."]

[Your other hand slipped into your pocket with perfect composure and drew out your phone. Under the terrified gazes of the assembled villagers, your thumb tapped out a number.]

["Hello, police? I’m calling from a remote mountain area, yes... I’m a visitor from out of town. My companions and I are currently being attacked by local villagers armed with farming tools. Our lives are under serious and immediate threat. Could you send officers right away? The location is..."]

[A pause. Your gaze swept across the mob, every one of them now stunned into slack-jawed silence by this sequence of moves that broke every rule they’d ever known. A few had started to shake at the knees. The corner of your mouth curled into a smile that held no warmth at all.]

["Yes, bring plenty of people. There’s no shortage of suspects here."]

---

Join my Patreon for early access to Chapters: patreon.com/rivyura

Next Target 400PS :)