[Geto and Gojo were waiting beside the Assistant Manager's black sedan, both of them already bored enough to start getting stupid. From where they stood, they watched three people come out through the revolving glass doors.]
[You were in front, walking at an easy pace. Riko Amanai followed behind you, Misato Kuroi at her side.]
[Gojo held an empty soda can in one hand.]
[Skrrk.]
[The can folded in on itself with a nasty little screech, crushed down into a tight aluminum ball without him even looking at it. He flicked his wrist.]
[The ball sailed through the air, nudged along by a thread of Cursed Energy. It drew a perfect arc and dropped several meters away with a hollow clunk, right into a recycling bin.]
[Only then did Gojo bother looking over the top edge of his sunglasses.]
[His eyes landed on the uniformed girl clutching a panda plushie to her chest like it was body armor. Every inch of her screamed wary, defensive, ready to bite if someone came too close.]
[Gojo's brow twitched.]
["Tch. So I'm supposed to babysit this brat? That's the deal?"]
[Geto had been watching the three of you more carefully. At Gojo's complaint, he turned his head, hands tucked into the wide pockets of his uniform pants.]
["That should be her. But Satoru, listen. When she's in front of us, drop the attitude."]
[Gojo snapped around like he'd just been personally betrayed.]
["Huh? Why?"]
["Satoru, I've been meaning to say this for a while. You need to stop referring to yourself like that, especially around authority figures or during official missions. 'I' should be the bare minimum. This assignment involves the Star Plasma Vessel. There's a real chance we'll be granted a personal audience with Master Tengen afterward. The way you carry yourself right now is barely short of disrespectful."]
[Gojo laced his fingers behind his head and tilted his skull at a ridiculous angle. His face said, clear as day, That's it?]
["Hah? What's the big deal about Master Tengen? I am who I am."]
[Geto sighed quietly and looked ahead again.]
["Besides, the way you talk scares the people we're supposed to protect."]
[Gojo didn't immediately fire back, which was already unusual. He raked a hand through his white hair, lip curling in annoyance.]
["What a pain. Seriously."]
[While they bickered, Geto's attention had already sharpened on the three approaching figures.]
[Something was off.]
[Not loud. Not obvious. Just wrong enough to snag on his nerves.]
[Riko Amanai, the Star Plasma Vessel, had that black-and-white panda crushed against her chest in a death grip. She wasn't just holding it. She was clinging to it like the thing was the last piece of safety left in the world.]
[Kuroi, composed maid uniform and all, was too pale. Too stiff. And both of them were walking a careful half-step behind you. Not like people staying close to a protector. More like people keeping distance from something dangerous.]
[Geto's thoughts stalled on that.]
[Why? Touma isn't anything like Satoru.]
[So why were those two looking at you like that?]
[By the time Geto realized he had gone quiet, you had already brought Riko and Kuroi to a stop in front of them.]
[Your face was the same as always. No trace at all of what had happened upstairs.]
[You turned slightly and made the introductions as if this were any other handoff.]
["Riko, Miss Kuroi, these two are my classmates, Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto. Master Tengen personally selected the three of us for your escort detail. And these two are our mission principals: Riko Amanai, the Star Plasma Vessel, and Misato Kuroi."]
[The second you finished, Gojo's brazen stare met Riko's bristling glare.]
[It was instant. A collision in midair. Two people taking one look at each other and deciding, with impressive speed, that they hated what they saw.]
[The atmosphere between them practically started sparking.]
[You had no intention of getting dragged into that.]
[Without missing a beat, you stepped around the pair just as they locked into their silent little war and headed for the black sedan.]
[Geto called after you, confused.]
["Touma, where are you going?"]
[You paused and looked back.]
["You all get acquainted. I need to brief the Assistant Manager on the cleanup upstairs."]
["Cleanup?"]
[Geto's brow creased.]
[The word meant nothing to him yet. He had no idea the twentieth floor had been turned into the kind of scene people wrote reports about in very careful language.]
[A breeze passed between you.]
[Geto caught the smell a second later.]
[A chill crawled up his spine before he could stop it. He stepped forward, alarm slipping into his voice.]
["Touma, you... what happened up there?"]
[You met his stare with your usual easy smile.]
[Nothing cracked. Nothing shifted. You just lifted a hand in a small, casual wave, like he had asked about a late train.]
["Oh, that? Nothing serious. When I went up to collect them, a few Curse Users drawn in by the bounty were in the corridor. They were trying to reach the Star Plasma Vessel. It seemed better to remove the threat, so I dealt with them. I'm going to coordinate with the manager now so the civilians don't panic."]
[And that was it. You turned away and walked to the car, leaving Geto standing there with the answer lodged somewhere in his chest.]
[At the sedan, you leaned down by the window and began speaking to the sweating assistant manager. Your voice stayed low and even as you explained the situation on the twentieth floor, told him to contact the Windows division for immediate cleanup, and had him start drafting an after-action report.]
[Geto didn't move. He stared at your back.]
[For a few seconds, his mind simply refused to work.]
[You had said it so lightly.]
[Killed people. Actual human beings. Curse Users, yes, but still human. You had described it with the same tone someone might use for bad traffic or a spilled drink.]
[And your eyes. No ripple. No hesitation. Not even a trace of strain.]
[As if ending lives was just another task on the list. A dirty one, maybe. Annoying, maybe. But not worth thinking about once it was done.]
[That was the part that hit wrong.]
[Because everyone at Jujutsu High knew Touma Hayase as a good person.]
[Not "good" in the loud, heroic way. Not the kind who made speeches and stood in the center of the room waiting to be praised.]
[Warm, kind and reliable.]
[The sort of person who stepped in when the assistant manager was on the verge of tears from managing the collateral damage of one of Gojo's unchecked rampages. You would smooth things over, handle the details, and clean up what needed cleaning without acting like you had done anyone a favor.]
[Aside from that one time you'd offered to coach Gojo and Geto in hand-to-hand combat, mostly to sharpen their survival odds, you avoided attention.]
[As far as anyone could tell, your real passion was spending long hours alone in the workshop, crafting Cursed Corpses, or burying yourself in theoretical research on Innate Techniques.]
[And with Kento Nanami and Yu Haibara, the two first-years who had enrolled not long ago, Geto had noticed something hard to ignore.]
[The patience you showed those juniors went beyond what even Masamichi Yaga managed.]
[Yaga was strict and responsible. No one could deny that. But he couldn't do what you did.]
[You cut straight into the core of Nanami's highly specialized Ratio Technique and built one-on-one tactical instruction around it. You gave Haibara, who had no Cursed Technique at all and could only rely on his body, the New Shadow Style as a practical lifeline.]
[You held nothing back.]
[Geto had more than once thought that if those two underclassmen dropped to their knees and called you "master," it would honestly be fair.]
[And yet that same person, that warm, reliable, absurdly patient young man who practically embodied gentleness at Jujutsu High, had just stood in front of him, smiled, and talked about killing several people without the slightest pause.]
[The dissonance split through Geto's moral framework like a crack through glass.]
[We're Jujutsu Sorcerers. We have the right to eliminate Curse Users who threaten society. The obligation, even. That's not the problem.]
[His jaw tightened. But that decisiveness. That coldness afterward...]
[He couldn't finish the thought.]
[While Geto stood there, locked inside his own head, Gojo had been busy trading childish faces and petty insults with Riko. Naturally.]
[But even Gojo noticed when Geto's expression changed.]
[He dropped the argument and turned, following Geto's gaze toward the car.]
["What's wrong, Suguru? You look like you've seen a ghost. Something happen with Touma?"]
[Geto didn't answer right away.]
[Slowly, he turned his head. His face still hadn't quite recovered from the shock.]
[When he spoke, his voice sounded dry.]
["Touma said he killed several Curse Users upstairs. He's talking to the assistant manager now about handling the bodies and the fallout."]
[Gojo blinked.]
[One full second passed.]
[Then he stared at Geto through his sunglasses with pure exasperation, heaved a dramatic sigh, and spoke in the wounded tone of a man who had just watched a friend fail at comedy.]
["Suguru, you really have zero talent for jokes, you know that? Touma? That guy probably agonizes for ten minutes over whether to step on an ant. You're telling me he went upstairs to pick someone up and just casually killed a few people on the way? Come on. Something that out of character isn't going to make anyone laugh."]
[Geto's expression didn't soften. Not even a little.]
[He held Gojo's gaze, staring straight through the lenses at those pale blue eyes. His own look was flat, cold, and deadly serious.]
["Satoru. Look at my eyes. Do I look like I'm joking right now?"]
[The air between them went still.]
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