"Surprised to see me?"
Jinsuke glanced at the wary crowd around him, a hint of scorn curling on his lips.
"Why the long faces? I'm not a monster."
With that, he withdrew the hand resting on the man's shoulder and walked straight toward the inner rooms without so much as a backward glance.
A bunch of self-important sorcerers—not even worth his time.
"Whew..."
The onlookers watched him leave, tension heavy in their eyes, brows furrowed tight. Only the man who had mocked Maki earlier finally exhaled, his back drenched in sweat.
It wasn't that he was cowardly — the oppressive weight coming from Jinsuke was just too much to bear.
"Mom... who was that?" Little Maki tugged at her mother's hand, gazing curiously at the departing figure.
"He... he's your cousin, I suppose..." The woman's eyes carried faint shock of their own. She never imagined that man would return to the family.
A boy born without cursed energy, who had grown up sneered at and despised — yet somehow, relying only on his fists, had turned into someone the entire clan feared.
"...Cousin?"
"Why is that guy back? Didn't the clan drive him out already?"
Whispers rippled among the surrounding clan members.
"Better not let what happened back then repeat itself."
"Hmph. He's just a useless fool without cursed energy. What, could he possibly challenge the whole Zenin clan?"
"You clearly didn't live through that night. If you had, you'd never speak like that."
"Enough. Stop wasting time on nonsense — scatter."
One of the elders dispersed the crowd. Family scandals should never spread beyond their walls.
Watching them go, Maki muttered softly to herself:
"So that man doesn't have cursed energy either? Then why is everyone so afraid of him?"
Her small head couldn't make sense of it at all.
Once the hall cleared, Jinsuke entered the inner chamber. Sitting cross-legged on a cushion was an old man. Behind him, the character for "Zen" hung on the wall.
"Well, well. Still alive, old man?"
This was the current head of the Zenin Clan, a special grade 1 sorcerer: Naobito Zenin.
Calmly, Naobito poured a cup of tea and pushed it forward. His face showed no surprise at Jinsuke's appearance.
"It's been eight years. This time, you won't be leaving again, will you?" he asked, like speaking to an old acquaintance. No trace of the fear the others had shown.
In his eyes, no matter how strong Jinsuke was, he was still just a junior.
"Who knows." Jinsuke took a sip of tea and spat his tongue out—the bitterness was unbearable.
"What about Toji?"
"Him? After you left, he quit the clan. Last I heard, he married into another family and changed his name to Toji Fushiguro."
Naobito's tone was steady. Though Toji had cut ties with the clan, his personal dealings with Naobito remained amicable. They'd even met recently.
"Not long ago, he sold his own son to the Zenin Clan."
"I see. That does sound like him." Jinsuke's face remained expressionless.
Having grown up alongside Toji in the Zenin household, he knew the man all too well.
"You agreed to it?" Naobito asked, puzzled at Jinsuke's lack of reaction.
"Toji made that decision himself. And besides—what, do you expect two guys with no cursed energy to raise him? Teach him?"
Jinsuke had no thought of reclaiming Megumi.
The boy carried the clan's inherited technique — potential enough to one day rival Satoru, the strongest ceiling among sorcerers. With the Zenin family's resources, his talent would flourish more fully.
Why not let the clan hatch the egg for him? He didn't mind.
Still... the relationship between Toji and his son clearly needed fixing.
"That may be best" Naobito said. "With the Gojo family's existence already upsetting the balance of the Jujutsu world, let's hope Toji's son awakens the Zenin's inherited technique."
He had even settled the price with Toji: if Megumi truly awakened the family's secret technique, Naobito was willing to pay with everything.
And "everything" meant the entirety of the Zenin Clan.
"Satoru Gojo , huh..." Of course Jinsuke knew him well.
"Anyway, any major events in the jujutsu world lately?"
"Major events... If I had to say, the big one is Tengen's once-in-five-hundred-years assimilation. It's happening in just a few days."
As one of the Big Three Sorcerer Clans, Naobito naturally knew about Tengen's affairs.
"That so? Guess I came back at just the right time."
For the first time, Jinsuke felt a trace of gratitude toward Yuki. Thank goodness he'd returned in time—otherwise he might have lost his brother.
"Well, old man, stay alive, will you? If you croak, this clan's finished."
Jinsuke rose, scratching his ear, and left.
Of everyone in the clan, Naobito was the only one he considered to have even a shred of substance.
Watching his retreating back, Naobito sighed. Just thinking of those two brothers gave him a headache.
It was only thanks to him that the clan hadn't already collapsed. Anyone else in his seat would've seen it fall long ago.
Outside the clan compound, Jinsuke ran into Maki standing by the gates, her small figure firm despite her size. Behind her, the timid Mai clung to her hand.
"S-sis... he's scary. L-let's run!" Mai whispered in fear, tugging at her sister's hand. To her, facing Jinsuke was even more terrifying than seeing a cursed spirit.
But Maki's gaze was fixed sharply on him. She ignored her sister's pleas, simply holding her hand loosely.
"Hey! Why is everyone afraid of you?"
Her voice rose as Jinsuke approached, eyes not clouded by fear — only hungry for an answer.
At that, Jinsuke stopped in his tracks. He looked down at her with faint amusement curling his lips.
"Kid, nice eyes you've got."
Then he walked past the sisters without answering.
"Wait! You didn't tell me!" Maki turned, fists clenched, shouting after him.
"Because they're afraid to die."
His voice drifted back as he vanished from sight, leaving Maki frozen in thought.
"Afraid... to die?" she murmured.
"Sis, let's go home. You have to hold my hand tight — don't let go, okay?"
"Yeah, I know." Snapping out of her daze, Maki led her sister away.
Meanwhile, Jinsuke had already set off on his journey to find Toji.
As for Maki — he couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy.
He could sense the faintest trace of cursed energy within her. So weak it was practically nonexistent.
Too weak to become a sorcerer, yet not completely like him or Toji either — unable to gain the monstrous strength their Heavenly Restriction had granted.
She was destined to endure sneers, scorn, endless mockery...
And without enough power to strike back.