JUJUTSU KAISEN: the lost chapters (english version)

CHAPTER 3 ◇ What freedom means

Location:
Somewhere in the mountains near Tokyo

Actors:
Suguru Geto (special rank curse mage)

Time:
11 October 2017

The young man looks out of the window and brushes the strand of hair that always catches his eye behind his ear. In a few hours, the sun will have disappeared behind the mountain ridge. It is utopian to want to finish his report today, yet he does not have forever to do so. Plans for the future have already been made. December 24, 2017 will be his day. Once he has taken possession of this curse spirit, no one will be able to stop him. Then he will finally be able to create the world he and his family have been dreaming of for so long. The world would finally be free and a better place. Without all this madness. And who knows, maybe, just maybe, everything could then become a bit like it used to be....

He turns back to his work and rereads the last sentences he has written:

When Suguru returned to the jujutsu academy on that fateful evening of 28 October, his friends were already waiting for him at the edge of the barrier. Whether he wanted to or not, he had to answer their questions. Shoko, in particular, was surprised that her friend, who usually had such a good attitude, had gone back to the shopping centre alone and, above all, without telling anyone. He told them about Sayuri and that he had changed his mind about her. Now Shoko was also more than interested in getting to know the curse girl with her strange café. So they visited Sayuri together at the next opportunity and this meeting was to be followed by many more. Shoko had quickly taken the girl to her heart. Since the jujutsu academy in Tokyo was usually teeming with male colleagues who, according to her, were rude, silly and insensitive, Shoko had finally found in her a female contact person with whom she could talk about the really important things in life.

Satoru and Suguru had made it more than clear to her that they did not want to chat with her about boys or other girly cranium and had absolutely no idea about make-up and the latest fashion trends. Even though Sayuri didn't have much of a mind when Shoko talked about these important things, she still listened with interest and sometimes took notes. Sometimes they spent whole evenings talking to each other or helping Sayuri clean up the mall a bit and put the roughest rubbish into bags. And before they knew it, or even had to say it, the four of them had become friends. Another question was also unspoken: what would happen next? Sayuri had never directly asked Suguru again if he would absorb her, but Shoko brought up the subject more often during their last meetings, bluntly telling him about his latest curses from the last missions. Satoru had also brought it up with him several times, though in the girls' absence. However, Suguru always avoided the subject. He didn't know how to deal with it himself. Sayuri was a friend to him. He couldn't absorb a friend. It would be like absorbing Satoru or Shoko...the whole thing preoccupied him a lot and didn't let him sleep well lately. Seeing her face beaming with joy every time they all or he alone came to visit her. And no matter how long they stayed, no one ever really felt that it was even remotely long enough. Because in the end they always had to make their way back to the academy. Leave her in that place. And even if they helped her clean up, it was only a drop in the ocean.

Location:
Abandoned shopping centre

Actors:
Suguru Geto (Jujuzist 3rd rank 1st year)
Satoru Gojo (Jujuzist 3rd rank 1st year)
Sayuri (Curse Spirit)

Time:
15.November.20XX, Late afternoon

That afternoon, Sayuri did not receive Suguru in the entrance hall of the mall as usual. Irritated, he looked around to see if she might want to make a joke out of hiding somewhere to scare him. But he could not spot her in any of the hiding places. A little worried, he went alone to her café. Already at the door he noticed that something was wrong. The window of the shop front had been smashed in one place. As if someone had thrown a stone through it. From inside, he heard noises that sounded like someone sweeping glass together. His chest tightened. His hand remained over the door handle for a moment before he plucked up the courage to push it down. Inside, chaos reigned. Someone had torn the pictures off the walls. The mannequins lay in pieces all over the room. Tables and chairs had been knocked over. Now the penetrating smell that usually only greeted people in the front part of the shopping centre was also in his nostrils. Shards of glass and other rubbish seemed to have been thrown about wildly. In the midst of all this misery, Sayuri stood sweeping up the fragments of her home with a broom. When he stepped over the threshold and the shop bell that Shoko had given her jingled - a café needs something like that - she wheeled around to him and laughed. It sounded false and hollow. „Oh, Suguru. You're already here. Ha, ha, ha. I wasn't paying attention to the time. I'm sorry, I haven't quite finished cleaning up the clutter here. But why don't you sit down? I'll make some tea and I've already read your book and...". Did it just seem that way to him or were there tears glistening in her eyes? He came to the conclusion that it must have been his imagination. After all, curses were not capable of such emotions. Nevertheless, he bridged the distance between them with two steps and carefully took the broom from her hand. He leant it against the counter with a knife stuck in the wooden panelling. Someone had carved the word 'PEACE' into it. He hesitantly took Sayuri in his arms and she buried her face in his jacket before she began to sob bitterly. „What happened?" he whispered. His voice sounded throaty and raspy. Even to him it seemed foreign. Sobbing, she told him that the previous night a few youths had come here to have a party. Basically nothing unusual. They had drunk a lot of alcohol and consumed drugs. While a ghetto blaster blared deafening music through the mall. Normally, such excesses always took place at the front of the mall, which is why Sayuri had her ‚peace' in the café or, as was the case last night, she retreated to the boiler room. There, the bawling and jeering were almost inaudible. But this time the sounds seemed disproportionately close to her. She had decided to go and see and when she came upstairs she found the group back in their café. „I chased them away," she confessed meekly, „I was so angry that I could no longer suppress my presence. I shouted at them to get out of here. I don't think they saw me, but they must have sensed something. They started screaming in panic and running wildly. Finally they ran away. I'm sorry Suguru...". He got goosebumps as he remembered the pressure of their presence. Satoru and he had also once felt a taste of her power. And that too in combination with alcohol and drugs. „...I promised you not to attack anyone and now I did!". She continued to cry softly. He tentatively stroked her head. „It's okay...you didn't do anything wrong.". He fished his mobile phone out of his jacket pocket and typed a short message to Satoru, „Come to the mall. Now!".