"I've been waiting a long time for you too."
Jigen stood in the doorway, his golden vertical pupils fixed on the black-clad youth half a head shorter than him. His expression was so calm it was uncanny, as though he were facing an old friend who had arranged to come over for tea.
"You knew I'd come?" The grass stem in Shengu Xuan's mouth bobbed.
"Word that Momoshiki and Urashiki had returned to the homeworld reached me two months ago." Jigen stepped out of the doorway onto the flagstone path, the moonlight stretching his thin shadow long. "Someone who could send Momoshiki crawling back blind would find me sooner or later."
"You're certainly taking it calmly."
"Because there's no point hiding anymore." Jigen clasped his hands behind his back, Shengu Xuan's chaos-colored eyes reflected in his golden vertical pupils. "Your Shadowkhan have already captured all my people, haven't they?"
"Five." Shengu Xuan raised an open hand and waved it. "There's one I haven't found."
"Kashin Koji is outside my control. He betrayed me long ago." Jigen sounded as though he were discussing something that had nothing to do with him.
Shengu Xuan tilted his head, studying the man's expression and posture. His chaos-colored eyes swept over him twice, as though examining an interesting ornament.
"What about the one inside you? Isn't he coming out to say hello?"
Jigen's golden vertical pupils flickered the instant those words fell, and the first crack appeared in his calm expression.
"You even know about that?"
"Obviously." Shengu Xuan slipped his hand back into his pocket, shifting his weight from his left foot to his right. "Ōtsutsuki Isshiki has been living inside you as a parasite, using you as a vessel for who knows how many years. Did you think I came here for tea?"