Inside the luxury sedan.
Zenin Toji, newly appointed as Mirai's exclusive Sword-Bearing Guard, sat up front, expertly gripping the steering wheel.
In the spacious, lavishly appointed back seat, Mirai lounged like a tiny emperor, leaning lazily against Takayanagi Mieko's soft, fragrant embrace. From time to time, he tilted his head back, allowing her to gently feed him sips of warm milk from a crystal bottle.
Ahhh~ So good~ So comfortable~
Mirai felt entirely at peace. He wouldn't trade this perfectly pampered, utterly degenerate lifestyle even if God himself offered him a seat in heaven.
"Pfft~"
Mieko covered her mouth with a delicate hand, unable to suppress a soft giggle. The sheer arrogance of her six-year-old master—drinking his morning milk with the haughty posture of a warlord savoring fine wine—was too endearing. No matter how many times she saw it, it never failed to amuse her.
Once the milk was finished, the young, perpetually sleepy Clan Head melted into a puddle of absolute laziness, letting Mieko cradle him like a prized porcelain doll as she delicately dabbed the milk stains from his lips.
Time slipped by like a galloping white horse. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, they had arrived.
The sedan pulled to a smooth stop in front of a magnificent, five-star luxury hotel in the heart of Tokyo.
"...Mirai-sama, we've arrived. It's time to go inside," Mieko whispered, her familiar, soothing voice brushing against his ear.
Half-asleep and entirely unmotivated, Mirai didn't even open his eyes. He just nuzzled deeper into her chest. "I'm sleepy~ Carry me~" he mumbled, his voice thick with childish stubbornness.
Looking down at his flushed, adorable sleeping face, Mieko's heart instantly melted into a puddle. She pressed a tender kiss to his forehead. "Go to sleep, my sweet boy~ Sleep for as long as you'd like~"
Up front, Toji tossed the car keys to the terrified valet. The "Strongest Bodyguard" diligently circled the car to open the rear door in absolute silence.
Cradling Mirai securely in one arm, Mieko placed her free hand over Toji's offered palm and stepped out of the vehicle with calm, ethereal grace.
Naobito, however, who had ridden shotgun, received absolutely zero fanfare. Stepping out of the car entirely ignored, the former Clan Head shoved his hands into his pockets, grumbling under his breath like a slighted housewife.
"Honestly," Naobito muttered, "I'm still the former Head of the Zenin clan. Why is the disparity in treatment so aggressively large?"
Mieko covered her mouth, chuckling softly at his bruised ego. "Oh, don't be so jealous, Naobito-sama. Mirai-sama is still just a child~"
Naobito's mustache twitched indignantly. "Who hasn't been a child before..."
Toji rolled his eyes, utterly unable to stomach the old man's whining. "What, you old ghost? Are you trying to compete with the Clan Head for Miss Mieko's embrace? Because I can snap your neck right now to save us both the embarrassment."
"Cough! Cough! Cough!" Naobito nearly choked on his own spit. A violent surge of adrenaline shot through his veins as he nervously glanced at the sleeping boy in Mieko's arms. His survival instincts screaming, Naobito launched into a rapid-fire denial.
"I'm not! I didn't! Stop talking nonsense, you brute!"
"Hah! Then shut up and walk," Toji sneered, turning his back on the former patriarch to escort Mieko and Mirai toward the entrance.
Naobito was left standing in the wind, sweating profusely and feeling thoroughly bullied.
"Welcome~" "Ah, honored guests of the Zenin clan! Please, right this way~"
As the group approached the hotel's grand entrance, a smiling hostess in a sleek, elegant uniform immediately bowed and greeted them with practiced warmth.
It wasn't surprising that she instantly recognized the Zenin insignia. This entire five-star hotel was a Gojo clan asset. Today, they had completely cleared the premises of civilians to exclusively host the Three Great Families' annual exchange banquet. Even the hostess greeting them at the door was a specially trained jujutsu sorcerer with Grade 2 combat capabilities.
Such was the terrifying, bottomless heritage of the Three Great Families.
On the hotel's top floor, the massive banquet hall was already buzzing with life. Grade 1 and Grade 2 sorcerers—who were practically myths to ordinary jujutsu society—were scattered everywhere. While not as common as stray dogs on the street, they were certainly more common than a virgin in a university town.
With the late arrival of the Zenin clan, all three apex families of the jujutsu pyramid—the Gojo, the Zenin, and the Kamo—were finally present.
However, because Mirai's group had arrived late, Mieko deliberately bypassed the grand entrance, steering them toward a secluded, dimly lit corner booth so the young master could continue his nap undisturbed.
Because of this quiet entry, the vast majority of the room's attention remained fixated entirely on the far side of the venue.
There stood a white-haired, blue-eyed boy and a stunningly fragile woman.
The Six Eyes Divine Child.
If the jujutsu world had a social media trending page, those four words would permanently occupy the number one spot. Just like in the original timeline, Gojo Satoru's birth had fundamentally shifted the balance of the world.
In the underground black market, Satoru's bounty had skyrocketed to an absurd one billion yen—far exceeding the original timeline's 100 million baseline!
(Coincidentally, the bounty sitting comfortably in second place was Zenin Mirai, currently valued at 500 million yen.)
The Six Eyes and the Ten Shadows. Two miraculous, divine talents that graced the earth only once every few centuries. The jujutsu world had taken to calling them the "Twin Stars." Naturally, absolutely no one outside the innermost circles knew they were actually biological brothers. To the public, they were simply the two brightest, most terrifying stars hanging over the new era.
Right now, young Gojo Satoru was holding the hand of his mother, Yukino Mafuyu.
They were surrounded three layers deep by high-ranking officials from the Three Families and eager branch members. The naturally aloof and utterly arrogant Satoru would have normally blasted these annoying flies away with his cursed energy, but he had promised his mother he would "behave" and represent the Gojo clan properly at the banquet.
If not for that promise, he wouldn't have given these mediocre fools the time of day. Honestly, the fact that he hadn't openly called them 'monkeys' yet was proof of his immense restraint. Hmph!
"Mafuyu-sama! Could you sign this for me? As the divine mother of the Six Eyes, what are your thoughts on his education?" "Mafuyu-sama, is it true that your constitution was permanently damaged due to the sheer cursed energy required to birth him?" "Mafuyu-sama! Do you have any of Satoru-sama's old baby blankets or pacifiers?! I want to buy them! Name your price, anything!" "Mafuyu-sama, how does Satoru-sama's current output compare to the Zenin clan's young master?! Have the Twin Stars fought yet?!" "Mafuyu-sama, what are Satoru-sama's preferences?! What does he like to eat?! What kind of girls does he prefer?!"
"Ah... ah la..." Mafuyu stammered, overwhelmed. "Everyone, please, don't push... one at a time..."
Because it was a miracle Satoru had even agreed to attend, the Gojo elders had shoved the entire burden of socializing and diplomacy onto the fragile Mafuyu, terrified that Satoru's arrogant mouth would trigger a clan war.
These elite, high-ranking sorcerers—men and women who normally looked down on ordinary humans as insignificant pigs and ants—were currently acting like rabid, star-crazed teenage girls.
They flattered, they pushed, they probed for weaknesses, and they begged for favors. A bizarre, suffocating barrage of questions rained down on the mother and son.
Mafuyu, already suffering from a critically weak constitution, was buckling under the pressure. Her breath grew shallow, and cold sweat plastered her hair to her forehead. Her pale, snow-white skin was flushed with an unhealthy, feverish red. She looked like a smartphone battery on 1% operating at maximum capacity.
Satoru noticed his mother trembling. His piercing blue eyes darkened. He had reached the absolute limit of his patience and was just about to detonate a burst of Limitless to clear the room.
However...
Before Satoru could explode, a childish, yet terrifyingly dignified voice echoed from the far corner of the room, completely overriding the noise!
"YAKAMASHI!!!" (You're being too damn loud!)
"Noise! Noise! Noise! What the hell are all of you arguing about?! Can't you see I'm trying to sleep?!"
The sheer, oppressive weight of an absolute apex predator swept over the banquet hall!
It felt as though an invisible, suffocating hand had instantly clamped down on the heart and throat of every single person in the room.
The bustling, chaotic venue instantly flatlined. An eerie, deathly silence descended.
The elite sorcerers of the Three Great Families froze like terrified cicadas in winter. The room became so utterly, paralyzingly quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
A/N: For this week, every 100 Powerstones will get ya'll an extra chapter! Thank you!