[When you pushed open the hospital room door, with its faint, pungent smell of disinfectant, the first thing you saw was Masamichi Yaga lying quietly in bed.]
[The room was dimly lit, with only the heart monitor's monotonous, dull beeping tapping at the air, beat after beat.]
[After so long, seeing him again under circumstances so close to a final farewell made your steps falter slightly at the door.]
[You realized that, compared with the principal you remembered, always so powerfully built and suffocatingly imposing, Masamichi Yaga had grown terribly old.]
[Time's chisel had mercilessly carved deep furrows into his once resolute face. His cheeks had hollowed slightly, and the broad body that had once easily subdued young jujutsu sorcerers now looked somewhat stooped and withered beneath his loose hospital gown.]
[Hearing the door hinge turn, Masamichi Yaga slowly turned his head.]
[The moment his somewhat clouded eyes made out your face, he visibly froze, and his previously steady breathing briefly faltered.]
[It was hardly surprising that he was shocked.]
[After all, thanks to the nearly law-of-causality effect of being forever seventeen, your face, your build, and even the air about your features were almost exactly as they had been when you first met.]
[Time, that most impartial executioner, had lost its power over you alone.]
[After all these years, over a span long enough to change the world's balance of power, your appearance bore not the slightest trace of time's erosion.]
[A complicated light flickered in Masamichi Yaga's clouded eyes. He stared at you in shock, his shriveled lips trembling slightly as he spoke in a hoarse, incredulous voice, almost as if muttering to himself.]
["After all this time... you still look like this?"]
[You walked over to his bed, pulled out the somewhat cold metal visitor's chair, and