[It wasn’t long before the sound of your footsteps shattered the dead silence, and a rustling wave of commotion rippled through the decrepit houses around you.]

[The old man was the village chief. He stumbled toward your group in a near-collapse, his face, carved with deep grooves and liver spots, contorting violently.]

["You... you three are the masters sent from Tokyo, aren’t you?! Thank heavens, thank heavens! So young, I never expected... You’ve finally come to deal with those two monsters?!"]

[His voice scraped out hoarse and shrill.]

[Geto’s already furrowed brow knotted tighter.]

[Every instinct honed by years as a Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer screamed that something was wrong.]

[The way the chief said "those two monsters," the tone, the expression, none of it fit.]

[When ordinary people encountered Cursed Spirits, what they showed was raw, primal terror of the unknown, of death itself. But the chief, and the villagers huddled behind him, their eyes held something else entirely. Not the fear of some horrifying Cursed Spirit. What burned there was hatred directed downward, at something they considered beneath them.]

[None of it matched a mission classified as Grade 1 Cursed Spirit elimination.]

["What do you mean? You know where the monsters are?"]

[The old man trembled all over with agitation, and when he answered, his voice rang out with the self-satisfied pride of someone recounting a great deed.]

["Of course I know! We’ve already locked them up! We were waiting for you to come finish the job!"]

[As he spoke, he thrust out a skeletal finger, nails caked with black grime, jabbing it toward the far end of the village.]

[There, swallowed by darkness and mist, the faint outline of a ramshackle wooden structure emerged, bound shut with heavy iron chains.]

[Geto’s expression froze. Then it shifted into something stranger, caught between disbelief and dawning dread.]

[He turned, instinctively, to look at you. The question in his eyes was heavy.]

[Because in that moment, every instinct he possessed as a Special Grade was shrieking the same alarm. Cursed Spirits were formless aberrations born from humanity’s collective negative emotions.]

[How could a group of ordinary people, people who couldn’t even perceive Cursed Energy, lock one inside a wooden shack with iron chains?]

[And if what waited inside truly approached Grade 1 in threat level, these oblivious villagers would have been slaughtered the instant they got close.]

[You read the shifting storm across Geto’s face. You could guess that his sharp mind was already working toward the answer, approaching it with growing reluctance, fighting every step against the cruel truth taking shape.]

[You said nothing. A slight lift of your chin, a calm look, telling him to keep asking.]

[Geto swallowed hard, forcing down the surge of doubt churning inside him, and pressed on, his voice cutting.]

["What do you mean you locked the monsters up? What exactly did you lock in there?"]

[The old man’s features, lit by the flickering torchlight, twisted into something barely human, a mask of hatred and fear fused together.]

["Them! Those two cursed brats who brought disaster on us! If you masters would take care of them, kill them, our village will finally have peace!"]

[Geto sucked in a sharp breath.]

["Them." "Brats." The words hit like a hammer to the chest.]

[The full realization crashed over him. What these villagers had caged in iron chains, what they despised with every fiber of their being, wasn’t a Cursed Spirit at all.]

[It had to be... children. Children who, in the eyes of these ignorant people, had manifested some extraordinary power and been branded "monsters" for it. Fellow humans. Young sorcerers who had awakened their Cursed Energy.]

[The very weak he had sworn to protect were demanding he butcher his own kind.]

[You stepped forward, smooth and unhurried, placing yourself between Geto and the chief, taking over the conversation before it could spiral further.]

["It’s fine."]

[Your expression stayed warm, impeccable, not a crack showing. Your voice was steady as you addressed the chief.]

["We’re here now. We’ll handle everything. First, take us to see these monsters of yours."]

[Geto whipped his head toward you, brow tight, eyes blazing with confusion and barely contained fury. He opened his mouth to warn you of what this meant.]

["Hayase...!"]

[You turned your head just slightly, fixing him with those fathomless dark eyes, and raised a single finger to your lips.]

[Silence.]

[Geto’s jaw clenched. Whatever he’d been about to say, he swallowed it, forcing the turmoil back down through sheer will.]

[Seeing you agree to follow, a sickening fervor lit up the chief’s face, mingled with fawning eagerness.]

[He scrambled ahead to lead the way, his pace almost frantic as he approached the cramped structure at the village’s edge. Bony fingers snatched at the rusted chain bolted across the rotting door, metal grinding against metal in a sound that set teeth on edge.]

[He fumbled at his waist for what felt like an eternity before producing a corroded key. A heavy click as the lock gave way.]

[With a heave, he threw open the door that caged his monsters, presenting it to the masters sent by the authorities, a proud display of his village’s righteous crusade against evil.]

["Creeeak..."]

[The mold-covered door groaned open under his force.]

[Faint torchlight from behind spilled inside, and the room’s contents were laid bare.]

[No towering, twisted form of a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit. No carnage. No horror-movie tableau of blood and viscera.]

[What lay before them was a cramped, lightless room without a single window.]

[The air was thick with the stench of mildew, layered over something far worse: the reek of human waste and dried blood, so concentrated it clawed at the throat.]

[And in the center of that room, a crude wooden cage. Narrow and filthy. The kind of thing built for penning livestock or stray dogs, its slats coated in grime so thick it had texture.]

[Two skeletal girls were locked inside.]

[Whatever clothing they wore had long since lost its original color, torn to rags that barely covered them.]

[In the dim light, the skin stretched over their stick-thin limbs told the full story: a patchwork of bruises in every shade of purple and green, raised welts from whippings, and burns that had festered into weeping sores.]

[They clung to each other, two kittens caught in a downpour with nowhere left to run.]

[Geto’s pupils contracted to pinpoints.]

[He stood frozen.]

["...What is this?"]

[But before the self-congratulating chief could offer a single word of explanation, you had already moved past Geto without a moment’s hesitation, stepping into the room.]

[Under the widening, terrified eyes of both girls, under the hostile, defensive glares of animals expecting the next blow, you walked straight to the cage.]

[You didn’t bother looking for a key. One hand reached out, fingertips flickering with an imperceptible trace of pure Cursed Energy, and closed around the brass padlock.]

[Crack.]

[A clean, brittle snap. The lock crumpled into twisted scrap in your grip.]

[The heavy chain slithered off and hit the ground with a dull clatter.]

[You pushed open the rough wooden door and under the stunned, wary gazes of both girls, bent slightly at the waist and extended a clean, steady hand toward them.]

[Your voice carried no condescension. It was quiet, matter-of-fact, like stating something obvious.]

["Can you walk out on your own?"]

[Nanako and Mimiko froze. Their hearts, so long filled with nothing but abuse and fear, hammered violently against their ribs.]

[They couldn’t comprehend what you meant. This stranger who had appeared from nowhere, who had destroyed their cage as easily, what did he want? In the entirety of their short lives, outsiders had brought nothing but agony.]

[Before the standoff could resolve, the chief’s voice exploded from behind you, shrill and outraged, the shriek of a man whose tail had been stepped on.]

["Master! What are you doing?! You can’t let those two monsters out! They’ll use that sorcery of theirs to kill again!"]

[The instant his words landed, the villagers outside erupted, a chorus of venom and accusation pouring in from every direction.]

["That’s right! Just the other day, my grandson was nearly killed by that invisible force of theirs!"]

["Those two little freaks aren’t right in the head! Time after time they’ve attacked our people with that unholy power! They’re monsters through and through! Curses, both of them!"]

["Pfah! Your dead parents were the same as you, filthy monsters!"]

["Should’ve strangled you both when you were still babies, right when your parents died, and tossed you in the river to join them underground!"]

[The words, not content with twisting the truth, reached past the living to desecrate the dead. Inside the cage, Nanako’s trembling stopped.]

[Her head snapped up. Bloodshot eyes blazed through the swelling, and like a mother wolf defending her last cub, she hurled every scrap of remaining strength into a hoarse, desperate rebuttal at the mob outside.]

["You’re lying! You were the ones who... you started it! You hit us first!"]

[That small, hopeless act of defiance didn’t stir a single flicker of conscience. What it earned instead was a redoubled torrent of curses and the crack of hurled stones.]

["Shut up! Damn monster! How dare you talk back!"]

[Standing there, your finely tuned Cursed Energy perception caught it clearly.]

[Nanako’s jaw was clenched so tight the muscles stood out. Tears of rage and grief pooled in her swollen eyes, threatening to spill.]

[And inside that body, wasted by years of malnutrition, something stirred. The extremity of her emotions was forcibly dragging at the thin, dangerous current of Cursed Energy coiled within her, pulling it to the surface.]

[A drowning girl clutching the last knife she could find. Instinct was driving her to unleash her still-immature Innate Technique at the villagers beyond the door. A killing strike.]

[If she lashed out now, everything would change irreversibly.]

[The warmth drained from your eyes in an instant. You leaned in close, your face near theirs, and in a voice pitched so low that only Nanako and Mimiko could hear it, you delivered a single, frozen warning.]

["I’ll get you out of this hell. But before that... shut down whatever you’re thinking of doing right now."]

[The words had barely left your lips when a pressure descended on them, something that gripped the soul and froze it solid.]

[A shudder tore through both girls.]

[Nanako and Mimiko looked up and met your eyes. In that instant, those eyes held nothing. No warmth, no cruelty, no emotion at all. A void that went down forever.]

[What seized them then was something primal, something that lived in the deepest basement of every living creature’s instinct. Pure, marrow-deep terror.]

[This was nothing like the malice radiating from the villagers outside, all that loud, clumsy hatred with a face and a name.]

[This was suppression from a higher order of existence. A weight so absolute it didn’t leave room for even the thought of resistance. No anger in it, no spite. It carried no emotion whatsoever, and that was what made it annihilating.]

[As if the gentle-looking boy kneeling before them was something wearing a human shape, and the moment they defied his will, they would be erased from the world as casually and completely as brushing dust from a sleeve.]

[You felt it clearly: the Cursed Energy that had gathered inside them, drawn up by fury at the villagers, collapsed in an instant under that absolute terror. Scattered and gone.]

[What filled the space it left was awe and dread of the unknown thing crouching in front of them.]

[The danger passed. The ice in your eyes thawed, and what replaced it was a smile, satisfied and, strangely, gentle.]

[You reached out with both hands, left and right, ignoring the filth that caked their skin, and took hold of their trembling, fragile fingers with a grip that was steady and sure.]

[Then you looked them straight in the eyes, those dazed, frightened eyes, and spoke with a quiet smile. The words were meant for three people only, and they carried a meaning that cut far deeper than the surface.]

["Remember this. If you’d done what you were about to do, you’d have given that mob outside exactly what they wanted. You would have become, completely and irreversibly, the monsters they already call you."]

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