[With the handoff in that remote mountain village finally behind you, you loaded the sleeping Nanako and Mimiko into the car and drove straight back to Tokyo Jujutsu High without stopping.

Your first order of business was a full debrief with Masamichi Yaga on every absurd, sickening detail of what had transpired.]

[In his spacious office, Yaga listened to the entire account from start to finish, then let out a long, heavy sigh.]

[He pinched the bridge of his nose where a vein throbbed beneath the skin. His face, already severe by default, had collapsed into a knot of exhaustion and barely contained frustration.]

[The chaos Yuki Tsukumo had unleashed on campus not long ago had only just died down. Outside his window, the buildings she’d wrecked were still surrounded by scaffolding and the grating racket of repair crews.]

[And now his problem students had gone out on a routine exorcism mission and somehow dragged back a civilian criminal case involving a mountain cult, mass unlawful confinement, and the systematic torture of children.]

[Yet for all the migraine pounding behind his eyes, Yaga didn’t utter a single word of blame. Not one.]

[If anything, his bloodshot gaze held a quiet note of approval. He spoke highly of the way you’d handled things on the ground, the composure you’d maintained under pressure.]

[The jujutsu world and civilian society operated behind an enormous wall of separation. If a sorcerer let emotion take the wheel and used their power to punish ordinary people, no matter how vile those people were, the fallout would be catastrophic and irreversible.]

[You’d had the presence of mind to surgically separate Cursed Spirit incident from human crime then wielded secular law against secular evil. It was, without question, the correct call, and the one that protected everyone involved.]

[But the culprit had been handed off to the police. Now came the harder question: what to do with Nanako and Mimiko.]

[Yaga laced his fingers together on the desk, his tone growing heavy.]

["Under normal civilian procedures, these two would be transferred to a Child Guidance Center as rescued abuse victims. They’d undergo long-term psychological intervention, then be placed in a public welfare facility or matched with an eligible foster family."]

["That won’t work."]

[You cut him off without hesitation, calmly identifying the fatal flaw in that plan.]

["Yaga-sensei, they aren’t ordinary children. The abuse is one thing, but more critically, they’re genuine sorcerers. They’re one of us."]

[The image of Nanako in that wooden cage flashed through your mind, Cursed Energy flaring wild around her small body in a burst of raw fury. You pressed on.]

["Even if they can’t fully control their Innate Techniques yet, the power is real. After what they’ve been through, their hostility toward non-sorcerers is intense and deeply ingrained.

Hand them over to social workers who’ve never heard of Cursed Energy, and the moment their emotions spike and that power lashes out, no ordinary caretaker will be equipped to handle it. They’ll be labeled real ’monsters’ by civilian society, and this time there won’t be anyone to pull them back. It’ll end in tragedy."]

[Yaga fell silent. He understood the logic perfectly. That didn’t make the problem any less thorny.]

[Into that silence, you looked him dead in the eye and made a proposal that no one in the room saw coming.]

["Let me take them in."]

[Beside you, Geto’s head snapped up. Those narrow eyes went wide with undisguised shock.]

[He stared at your calm profile, stunned. It wasn’t enough that you’d kept him from losing control in those mountains, that you’d shielded two children with the law as your weapon. Now, with the crisis behind you, you were seriously, deliberately volunteering to shoulder the weight of their entire future.]

[You paid his astonishment no attention and laid out your reasoning for Yaga with methodical precision.]

["They’re nowhere near the age or psychological readiness to enroll at Jujutsu High. They’ll need a long transition period in regular schools, time for their minds to heal. I’m already caring for two children their age, one of them a year younger. I have real experience with this age group. Having peers around will act as a buffer, something to ease them back toward a normal life and help them lower their guard. And beyond all of that... I’m the one who pulled them out of that cage with my own hands. Right now, in this entire world, they trust me more than any stranger. That matters."]

[Yaga leaned back in his chair, studying your straight-backed silhouette with a long, searching look.]

[From where he sat, he suspected he understood why you’d volunteer for something this heavy. Two children orphaned and alone, ground down by a world that had shown them nothing but cruelty. The parallel to your own history was too sharp to miss. Empathy born from recognition, that had to be the engine driving this.]

[As an educator with decades under his belt, Yaga could tell from the mission report alone that Nanako and Mimiko’s rehabilitation would be anything but easy. Setting aside how far their Cursed Techniques could eventually be developed, the sheer difficulty of coaxing two children raised in that kind of hell to trust humanity again, to open hearts that had been sealed shut by violence, was a mountain in its own right.]

[But on that front, you held an advantage no one else could match.]

["Your reasoning is sound. But you’re a minor. Under current law, you can’t go through the standard adoption process. So I’ll step in. On paper, I’ll be their legal guardian and adoptive parent. You handle the day-to-day care. As their guardian, I’ll check in regularly on their psychological state and living conditions."]

[With Yaga’s official backing, every remaining obstacle dissolved.]

[You moved fast. Next to the apartment where Megumi Fushiguro and Tsumiki Fushiguro currently lived, you secured a second unit, a dedicated space for Nanako and Mimiko. For the first time in their lives, they had something that could be called a home.]

[School wasn’t on the table yet. Their physical wounds could be erased with the Reverse Cursed Technique, but the damage carved into their minds would need time, and patience, to mend.]

[The more pressing battle was legal: the prosecution of the village abuse case, and the critical process of transferring guardianship rights over both minors.]

[It was a swamp. The kind of case that seasoned attorneys ran from on sight. Negligible fees. A nightmare of evidence gathering. Cross-jurisdictional enforcement in a remote mountain region. A wall of obstinate, superstitious villagers who’d fight every step. Courtroom brawls with entrenched local clan interests. No veteran lawyer wanted to touch it.]

[But you happened to cross paths with a twenty-five-year-old rookie attorney named Hiromi Higuruma, fresh out of his first year in practice and burning with conviction.]

[At first glance, taking in his tired eyes and rumpled suit, you’d considered spending more money, pulling strings to find someone older, sharper, maybe even ruthless enough to crush opposition without breaking a sweat. You weren’t willing to risk a single misstep where these two children were concerned.]

[Then you sat down with him. You talked. You reviewed his credentials. And what you discovered behind that disheveled exterior left you genuinely stunned.]

[In Japan’s civilian world, becoming a licensed attorney meant surviving a bar examination so brutal it was legendary. Pass rates were abysmal.]

[Even after clearing that hurdle, candidates faced another year and a half of grueling practical training at the Legal Training and Research Institute. Most law students, even the gifted ones, didn’t hang their shingle until twenty-eight or thirty.]

[Higuruma had passed the bar on his first attempt at twenty-two, the year he finished his undergraduate degree. After completing his training, he’d entered practice between twenty-four and twenty-five with results that turned heads across the profession.]

[But what struck you hardest wasn’t the brilliance of his mind. It was the fire that ignited in those weary eyes the moment he heard what had been done to Nanako and Mimiko. A blaze of absolute, uncompromising fury on behalf of justice.]

[He didn’t calculate the case’s razor-thin margins. Didn’t weigh the headache of litigating across jurisdictions. He committed on the spot, waiving his fee entirely, volunteering to provide comprehensive legal representation for two girls he’d never met.]

["The law cannot leave victims weeping in broad daylight." That single, unwavering declaration killed any thought you’d had of finding someone else.]

[You placed the case file into Hiromi Higuruma’s hands, its pages stained with blood and tears, and with that handoff, the curtain rose on a trial that would drag every last one of those villagers into the hell they’d earned.]

---

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

Next Target 600PS :)