Two days later, at the Gojo Family estate.
"Divine Child, here is the information you requested."
An Assistant Supervisor from the Gojo Family handed Satoru Gojo the information on Eiji Zenin that he had spent the night compiling after receiving the order.
Satoru Gojo was currently nibbling on bread, boredly watching the bamboo grove and rockery in the courtyard.
"Put it there."
After returning home the night before last, Satoru Gojo's two Bodyguards had reported what had happened to the clan head. The Gojo Clan Head had then immediately ordered people to gather information on Eiji.
When Satoru Gojo learned of it, he asked for a copy as well.
Name: Eiji Zenin Family Members: Father: Sho Zenin (deceased) Mother: Chiyoko Yukimura (deceased) ...
Below was a detailed account of Eiji and his parents.
Sho Zenin had no Innate Technique. He had been loyal to the Zenin Family's Kukuru Squad and died two years ago during an exorcism mission while covering the retreat of Zenin Family Jujutsu Sorcerers after their exorcism attempt failed.
Chiyoko Yukimura had been an ordinary person who had always dreamed of marrying into wealth and living like nobility. Unfortunately, after marrying into the wealthy Zenin Family, she discovered that Sho Zenin was not the male lead of some drama as she had imagined, and her life was vastly different from what she had expected.
When Chiyoko Yukimura wanted a divorce, the Zenin Family disciplined her according to its family rules. In her fear, she gave up on running away.
A year after Sho Zenin's death, six-year-old Eiji Zenin still had not awakened an Innate Technique. Having lost her last hope, Chiyoko Yukimura hanged herself.
In this world, the age at which Jujutsu Sorcerers awakened their Innate Techniques was between four and six. Few people who passed that age could awaken a Technique, and most of those who did only awakened one by accident when faced with a life-or-death crisis.
But not everyone was the protagonist of a hot-blooded manga who could escape danger by relying on a newly awakened Technique.
After all, obtaining an unfamiliar ability in a life-or-death crisis could sometimes become a liability if one did not know how to use it.
Thus, most people could not escape the fate of death even after awakening a Technique, much less in the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, where even important characters could be killed off one after another.
Therefore, after Eiji Zenin failed to awaken a Technique at the age of six, Chiyoko Yukimura lost her hope of rising above others through Eiji's awakened Technique and ultimately hanged herself.
After reading Eiji's file, Satoru Gojo set it on the floor beside him, tilted his head back to look at the sky, and began considering what amusement Eiji could bring him.
Meanwhile, in the Kamo Family's main estate, an Old Man with Stitched Seams across his forehead was also reading the same file.
The Old Man was a Kamo Elder whose body had been taken over by Kenjaku. He was also one of the Jujutsu World's higher-ups with real authority. When the Gojo Family had used the Management Council's power to search for a Cursed Spirit for Satoru Gojo to practice against, Kenjaku had received the news.
With the intention of testing this generation's Six Eyes, Kenjaku had fed one of Sukuna's Fingers to the Cursed Spirit prepared for Satoru Gojo's practice, giving rise to the Special Grade Imaginary Curse Spirit, Half-Body Vengeful Spirit.
Yet rather than figuring out the Six Eyes' capabilities, he had reeled in an even bigger fish.
"Mahoraga, the strongest Shikigami that no one has ever tamed in a thousand years... How did that little brat do it?"
Kenjaku could not make sense of it no matter how much he thought.
"Never mind. The answer will reveal itself eventually."
In Kenjaku's eyes, Eiji had many uses. Whether he used a few tricks to recruit him as a subordinate, turned him into a player for the Culling Game, or kept him as a spare vessel, all were excellent options.
A useful tool like that was best kept under his own control. At the very least, he could not allow any family to control him.
"Another five hundred years..."
The five-hundred-year deadline was approaching. The Six Eyes had been born on schedule, and Tengen's next assimilation was not far off.
"Will I be able to stop Tengen from assimilating with the Star Plasma Vessel this time, or will I have to wait another five hundred years?"
Kenjaku's gaze fell upon a game piece marked with the words Star Religious Cult.
Afterward, Kenjaku tacitly adopted the same approach as the Gojo Family, concealing all traces of Eiji's existence and removing him from the Zenin Family's sight.
Kenjaku did not want Eiji to return to the Zenin Family because he wanted to keep him for his own use.
The Gojo Family did not want Eiji to return to the Zenin Family because if Eiji returned, the Zenin Family's strength would greatly increase, and they would gain a means of threatening the Divine Child of the Six Eyes.
They wanted to erase the existence that could threaten the Divine Child of the Six Eyes in advance, yet they feared Mahoraga's power and did not dare act rashly.
In the end, the Gojo Clan Head and several elders decided to recruit Eiji into their family without the Zenin Family's knowledge.
In their minds, winning over a Child who had suffered the Zenin Family's bullying and had been helped by the Gojo Family would be absurdly easy.
Because Eiji did not know how to clear away Cursed Remnants, the Gojo Family still had his whereabouts under control. As long as they staged a few chance encounters later and offered him some favors, would this seven-year-old Child not happily follow them home?
As for the Zenin Family...
With both the Divine Child of the Six Eyes and the unprecedented Ten Shadows Technique's Mahoraga, did the Zenin Family dare say a word?
Besides, Eiji Zenin had been bullied by Zenin Family members back then. They could settle that score properly.
At that thought, the aged Gojo Clan Head's old face bloomed like a chrysanthemum. Satoru Gojo, who had just entered the room and seen this, immediately turned around and left.
"Ah, Satoru. Come chat with this old man."
Upon hearing that, Satoru Gojo ran even faster.
Born with the Six Eyes, Satoru Gojo possessed unparalleled powers of observation and could see countless details that ordinary people struggled to notice. For that very reason, he was far more mature than his peers.
Other people's thoughts simply could not be hidden from Satoru Gojo. Without needing to study microexpressions, he could guess what adults were thinking from the slightest changes in their expressions.
And he knew that whenever the old clan head wore that expression and called him over in such an affectionate tone, he was probably going to drag him off to do something boring again.
For example, taking him around to visit people and telling everyone that he had only awakened the Limitless at four and could only Exorcise Cursed Spirits at five, unlike their children.
"Why is that child running away?"
Watching Satoru Gojo vanish around the corner of the hallway in an instant, the aged Gojo Clan Head helplessly shook his head.
He could not catch up. There was simply no way he could catch up.
At that moment, Eiji, whom both Kenjaku and the Gojo Clan Head had on their minds, was leisurely basking in the sun in a rural courtyard.
It was a recently abandoned rural courtyard with a fence, a newly bought recliner, a little fan in his hand, a tea table beside him piled with snacks, and two fluffy large dogs lying at his feet.
"This is what life should be."
Eiji could not help sighing.
After resting for a day yesterday, Eiji went to an ATM while it was still light out and the shops on the street had not yet closed, withdrawing some money.
After that, Eiji began a massive shopping spree in town.
This area was already within Osaka. Whether from what he had gleaned indirectly while at the Zenin Family or from what he had learned while chatting with Satoru Gojo the day before yesterday, this was Gojo Family territory, and Zenin Family members rarely appeared here.
Thus, Eiji no longer hid from place to place. Mainly because the Gojo Family had such little presence in the story, and because of Satoru Gojo, Eiji did not feel hostile toward them.
He was grateful for the ATMs that had already been in service for many years. Otherwise, if a seven-year-old Child like him had gone to withdraw money with a bank card containing a massive deposit, the bank would probably have assumed he had stolen money from home and called the police.
He was also grateful to the worker who had gone into the city for work years ago, leaving him this little courtyard and giving him a warm little home.
And just like that, seven-year-old Eiji began living the retirement life he had never managed to enjoy even in his previous life.
Before you continue
Explore the wiki