East Blue, Shimotsuki Village.
Led by Shimotsuki Kozaburo, Sephiroth stepped into a swordsmanship dojo with a plaque reading "Shimotsuki Dojo" hanging above its entrance. The two passed straight through the main hall and headed toward the rear courtyard residences.
He casually glanced at the students practicing sword swings in the hall. There were both adults and children among them—the youngest were five or six, while the oldest looked to be in their twenties...
They had barely taken a few steps along the rear courtyard corridor when a man with a ponytail, glasses, and eyes narrowed into slits came up to greet them.
"Wait... you are?"
Shimotsuki Koushirou looked at the young man who resembled him by sixty or seventy percent, and an astonished expression appeared on his face.
Why did this man look so much like his father did when he was young...?
Could he be an illegitimate child his father had fathered outside when he was younger...?
At that, Shimotsuki Kozaburo said matter-of-factly:
"I'm your father!"
"Sir, please don't joke about something like that!"
A vein bulged slightly on Shimotsuki Koushirou's forehead. If this young man had claimed to be his younger brother or older brother, he could have tolerated it!
After all, the young man looked far too much like his father—even his voice was extremely similar...
"Heh! You brat, I only became a few years younger and you can't recognize me anymore...
"You have a red birthmark on your left buttock. You wet the bed when you were six, and when you were seven, you peeked into the women's bathhouse..."
This young man actually knew so many embarrassing things from his childhood?
Moreover, the other party's build and appearance were so similar to his father's that he had no choice but to believe it!
Under Sephiroth's somewhat