Leader of the Panxing Cult, but Trained by a Con Artist

On the way to a small mountain village, Suguru Geto met a traveler who introduced himself as Houshi Akira.

The man looked so utterly ordinary. No cursed energy, terrible stamina, and even a single cursed spirit could easily kill him... That was Suguru's first impression of the smiling, brown-haired man.

"Thank goodness, I finally ran into someone. Walking along mountain trails alone makes me nervous. I'm absolutely hopeless at anything athletic, so if I ran into any danger, I'd probably just drop dead on the spot." The man said this while patting his chest as if relieved.

After a car accident left him badly shaken, Houshi clung to Suguru as if imprinted on him, barely leaving his side. Under the circumstances, Suguru had no choice but to put away his cursed spirits and pretend to be an ordinary person. Thanks to Houshi's impressive knowledge of folklore, their brief journey was surprisingly pleasant. For the first time, Suguru found someone outside school he could get along with, and nearly forgot the difference between them.

Until Suguru saw the young jujutsu sorcerers locked in cages. Something inside him snapped.

Sorcerers and non-sorcerers really were like two different species. He couldn't help but feel shaken. In the past, had he ever hurt people who shared his circumstances in order to protect the weak?

Why was he standing here? What had brought him here in the first place? The weak he was supposed to protect...

Who, exactly, were they?

...Suguru Geto stopped pretending. Suguru Geto laid his cards on the table.

He would wipe out every monkey in the world. He would say it as loudly as he could: he hated monkeys!

...After committing such an atrocity, there was no way he could ever return to Jujutsu High. If he was going to become a curse user, he might as well come up with a badass alias, right?

As Suguru mused idly, he activated his technique. For now, it would be best to deal with the monkeys in front of him. No one here would get away. One, two, three... Oh, he'd almost forgotten the brown-leather-jacketed man he'd just met. How pitiful. Being a monkey was his greatest sin.

Before Suguru could speak, Houshi Akira, standing not far away, suddenly laughed. "You've been holding it in this whole time, haven't you?"

Suguru: "..."

"Even though you find it disgusting, even though you're furious, you still have to pretend you didn't see anything. That must be exhausting. I couldn't have held back either. I thought you'd come up with another pile of high-minded excuses and keep pretending forever."

"...Ah, I got a little carried away just now. Sorry about that. I was just thinking, it's wonderful, isn't it? So you can make that kind of interesting face after all. I've been waiting for someone like you to show up. I wonder what you plan to do next? Um, if you don't mind, I have a rather bold request..."

Instead of backing away, Houshi Akira smiled and took a step closer.

"Let me join you."

Author's Note: Suguru, a would-be leader of the Star Religious Group with a mob-character script, got led astray by Houshi Akira, a con artist with a Reigen script (.) But Reigen's story is about healing, so what kind of twisted direction will these two complicated characters take together, huh?

Theme: The beauty of an ordinary life