"Move aside. You should know what this fight would mean, right?"
Toji frowned as he watched Shinsuke Zenin and shouted.
"So what?"
Shinsuke Zenin turned around and looked at him calmly.
For the sake of so-called dignity? Or to make those people regret it?
He knew what Toji was thinking, of course, but... so what if they defeated Satoru Gojo?
If all he wanted was to make those people regret it, what he'd done back then had already given the Zenin Family enough reason to regret it for the rest of their lives.
Toji froze as he looked at Shinsuke Zenin's calm expression. The Heavenly Spin in his hand, which had been spinning rapidly, slowed to a stop.
Thinking about what he'd done, the fighting spirit that had just flared up in Toji vanished without a trace.
The moment he'd thought of defeating Satoru Gojo to retaliate against the Zenin Family and the Jujutsu World for rejecting the brothers, he'd already lost.
At some point, he'd actually wanted to reclaim the dignity he'd discarded long ago.
"Tch. Mind your own business."
Putting away his Cursed Tool, Toji left. He understood why Shinsuke had stopped him, but he was still annoyed. Shinsuke was only a year older than him, yet he always treated him like an elder would.
Seeing this, Shinsuke Zenin breathed a sigh of relief. Defying the Jujutsu World wasn't something they could prove by defeating one Satoru Gojo.
"Hey, hey, you're just leaving like that? Isn't that a bit much?"
Satoru Gojo, floating in the sky, blocked their path.
Though he'd rather keep savoring this feeling of being "the honored one throughout heaven and earth," the two of them were leaving right in front of him. Wasn't that taking him a little too lightly?
"..."
Looking at Satoru Gojo, who was covered in blood and wore a somewhat deranged expression, Shinsuke Zenin paused. He'd almost forgotten about this guy.
"Gojo... Satoru, right?"
"Riko Amanai isn't dead. We have no grudge against you, so why shouldn't we leave? Are you going to treat us to dinner?"
Shinsuke Zenin retorted. The conflict between them had stemmed from Riko Amanai, and now she was alive and well, so he didn't think there was any need for them to fight.
It wasn't like a Jujutsu Sorcerer running into a Cursed Spirit. They didn't have to fight to the death.
"Hmm..."
After thinking for a moment, Satoru Gojo realized what he meant. "Little Riko isn't dead? But... he almost killed me just now. Doesn't that count as a grudge?"
Did that mean he couldn't get revenge for himself?
At this, Shinsuke Zenin suddenly laughed. "So, did you die? You didn't just survive—you awakened Reverse Cursed Technique because of it. And... that's not all you gained, is it?"
"Make sure you remember this favor. You'll have to repay us someday."
Shinsuke Zenin waved as he left, leaving a bewildered Satoru Gojo standing there.
"What does that mean?"
Satoru Gojo watched the two leave and raised his hand into a fighting stance, but made no further move until they disappeared from sight.
"What the hell? So, does that mean I should be thanking you instead?"
Satoru Gojo finally returned to normal from that strange state. He slowly descended to the ground, rubbed his chin, and fell into doubt.
"By the way... who exactly were those two?"
Try as he might, Satoru Gojo couldn't figure out who the brothers were. He had the feeling he'd seen them somewhere before.
He didn't know that he really had met the two Zenin brothers once as a child, though it had been more than ten years ago.
Not long afterward, Geto Suguru and Riko Amanai found Satoru Gojo.
"Gojo, are you all right?"
Seeing the blood on Satoru Gojo, Geto Suguru looked worried.
Riko Amanai noticed the calm in Satoru Gojo's eyes and suddenly felt he seemed a little unfamiliar. "What happened over here?"
"Nothing. I just met someone interesting."
Satoru Gojo looked at Riko Amanai, his expression returning to one she knew well. "Since Little Riko's here, I guess she chose to leave. Sigh... kids really are a pain."
At this, Riko Amanai puffed up with indignation. They were the ones who'd given her the chance to choose, and now he was teasing her about it.
She looked angry, but inside she felt warm. At least from today on, she had plenty of time to enjoy her youth.
"Gojo, we're in for a lot of trouble now."
Because of Riko Amanai, Tengen—or perhaps the whole Jujutsu World—would probably come after the two of them.
"Geto, are you scared?"
"Are you kidding? We're the strongest."
The three walked on beneath the setting sun, their shadows stretching across the ground—two long and one short—looking exceptionally warm.
"Hey, so you've been living off other people for the past few years?"
Shinsuke Zenin looked at Toji with a serious expression. "You're a grown man, with two working hands and two working feet. How can you live off someone else? Toji, you've fallen pretty far."
"I said that was in the past. I've married into the Fushiguro Family now."
Toji was a little speechless. Why did Shinsuke keep bringing up him living off someone else? It wasn't as if he didn't earn money.
"Married into the family, huh? That's good, then. The old man said you have a son, too. Take me to see him sometime."
Shinsuke Zenin remembered that his little brother had a family now, and decided to forgive him for living off someone else these past few years.
"Megumi? I haven't seen him in years."
Clearly, Toji wasn't much of a father.
He felt guilty about Megumi, but didn't know how to make it up to him, so he'd simply sold him to the Zenin Family.
"But shouldn't you be the one explaining things to me now? Why did you leave without saying goodbye back then?"
Toji looked at Shinsuke. Most of his resentment had faded, but he still felt uneasy without knowing the truth.
Toji didn't know much about what had happened back then. He only knew that the brothers had been despised in the Zenin Family, enduring countless scornful looks and taunts.
His older brother, Shinsuke, had always acted as if he didn't care at all.
But one day, he seemed to become a different person and went on a killing spree in the Zenin Family.
Toji didn't know the exact details, but he knew that afterward, a third of the Zenin Family's members were gone.
After that, his brother disappeared from the Jujutsu World. When the Zenin Family saw him again, their eyes held not only mockery, but also a hint of fear.
At this, Shinsuke Zenin fell silent for a moment. "The old man didn't tell you?"
He slowly began to recount what had happened back then.
In short, he hadn't cared that the entire Zenin Family looked down on him and mocked him. It wasn't as if their words could make him lose a piece of himself.
Besides, he knew how powerful Heavenly Restriction was. He'd been busy developing it every day. How could he spare time to care about a bunch of Cursed Energy monkeys mocking him?
But some members of the Zenin Family had hurt their mother because the brothers had no Cursed Energy. She was the only person in the entire Zenin Family who'd ever made him feel warmth.
Seeing his mother hurt had pushed him past the point of endurance, and in a fit of rage, he'd killed many people.
If his mother hadn't wept and intervened, and Naobito Zenin hadn't stopped him, the Zenin Family would have been even smaller now.
However, back then, he'd been young and brash. When he saw his mother pleading on behalf of the Zenin Family, he couldn't understand it. After a huge argument with her, he left the Zenin Family and began his debauched life abroad.
During that time, he'd thought about many things, and come to terms with most of them. But he hadn't known how to face his mother.
It was only when Naobito Zenin used his connections to find him and tell him that his mother had died.
Afterward, he'd fallen into a period of dejection. That was also when he'd met Yuki Tsukumo.
Time gradually washed away his confusion, and he'd become more and more at ease with life, until Toji's situation brought him back here again.
His only regret was that he hadn't been there to see his mother in this world one last time.
Before you continue