"N-no, there's really no need to apologize," Kenjaku said as she stepped forward toward Toji's wife.
She gently lifted the woman who had bowed in front of her and her husband, in a friendly gesture.
The short-haired woman was first startled by the sudden contact, but she quickly relaxed, soothed by Kenjaku's soft smile.
"My husband isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed either, hehe~ but that's part of what makes him charming," she let slip with a small smile.
"Oh, what a coincidence. My man can't be 'normal' without me around either," replied the mistress of the Fushiguro household in a slightly enthusiastic tone after hearing Kenjaku's words.
The two women then started talking about their husbands without paying any attention to their surroundings.
To Jin, the situation felt a bit strange, but it still made sense at its core.
Jin read a lot thanks to his reading skill. That passion had grown stronger over time.
That was how he had begun studying the human mind, with the goal of improving his future cursed corpses.
In psychology, the behavior of Kenjaku and Toji's wife corresponded to the similarity-attraction principle: the more two people resemble each other, the more they feel drawn to one another.
"Even though I do most of the cooking, it's true that Kenjaku likes taking care of the little everyday things," Jin thought while observing the interaction between the two women.
"Forget my question," Toji suddenly declared, watching his wife's face.
The sorcerer killer let out a small, relaxed smile upon seeing her smile even more.
"If only moments like this could last forever… damn, what the hell am I even saying…" he thought inwardly.
Toji immediately chased away those thoughts he judged naive.
Even though he was trash, the ghost of the Zenin clan remained a pragmatic man.
Unfortunately, it was precisely that side of himself that was the source of his current depression.
Not a single day had passed since Megumi's birth without him wondering whether a "monkey" like him truly deserved this life.
Had he been right to renounce the Zenin name?
Hadn't he simply run away, leaving everything behind? If so, why had he started a family?
Was this just a pathetic attempt to get the recognition his clan had refused to give him?
The idea seemed logical given all the women he had known up to now.
It was possible that his current wife was merely another pitiful attempt to obtain validation from his family.
Unbeknownst to his wife, Toji was still going through a real existential crisis.
He wondered whether he truly deserved happiness.
Deep down, the scar left by the Zenin clan still lingered inside him. His wife was only a temporary bandage.
She hadn't managed to heal Toji.
"No need, since I'm a friend of Gong Shi Woo," Jin replied, without having much information about Toji's mental state.
He was already thinking about the consequences of a possible future without a racist Suguru Geto, or a Satoru Gojo holding the title of "strongest."
"It doesn't matter if they don't reach their full potential. Knowing my wife, she'll launch her plan as intended," he thought while analyzing the overall situation.
Jin had no intention of preventing Yuji from eating Sukuna's finger. As a father, he unconsciously wanted to see the peak of his descendant.
Nevertheless, the Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Sandai incidents could not be tolerated.
"Oh… I remember now, you're the guy from the cemetery, right?" Toji declared in a nonchalant tone.
All subsequent wariness vanished like snow under the sun at the mention of his identity as a former client of Gong.
Jin nodded to confirm, then adjusted his glasses properly to observe Toji better.
Even though it annoyed him, he only had his eyesight to detect this guy.
"Note to self: I also need to learn how to use soul wavelength detection without Tsubaki," he cursed inwardly.
Still, he showed none of his discomfort and spoke again.
"Indeed, but I'm a little surprised you recognized me with so few clues. I was wearing a mask back then," Jin replied, also wondering where he might have slipped up.
Toji tilted his head to the side, as if looking at an irredeemable idiot.
"A mask? You think that's enough to hide your identity… Haha!" he said, bursting into laughter at the end.
That laugh briefly drew the attention of their wives, but they chose to ignore the men.
For the duo of housewives, their husbands were eccentric men. So Toji's burst of laughter didn't hold their interest for long.
"From what I can see, only your strength has really improved. On the other hand, you're still lacking experience in other side aspects," Toji said while wiping away a fake tear from his eye.
Jin remained confused by Toji's words. The confusion was clearly visible on his face, but Toji hesitated for a moment before explaining.
"Anyway, I plan to retire from this line of work soon," he thought to himself, referring to his role as a hitman.
"Your scent… you can't change it, but you can hide it or mask it," Toji explained, pointing at his own nose.
That information was a real shock to Jin's mind, because he had forgotten this aspect of Maki and Toji.
The two didn't just have extraordinary bodies—they also possessed superhuman senses compared to sorcerers and ordinary humans.
He had been careless.
"Now that I think about it… we've been talking for a while, but we haven't even introduced ourselves properly," Toji's wife suddenly declared after lightly pulling her husband toward her.
It was clear that Toji could have resisted his wife's weak pull. However, he let himself be dragged, displaying an annoyed expression.
A bit like a teenager being pulled by his mother after doing something stupid.
"It's fine, you can still do it. Especially since our husbands already seem to know each other quite well," Kenjaku replied, pulling Jin toward her in a similar fashion.
Toji's wife hadn't noticed, but Kenjaku had emphasized the part "our husbands already seem to know each other quite well."
"She's strong… could I kill her if I tried?" Toji thought while analyzing Kenjaku's gesture as he kept Jin in his arms.
Toji had noticed that Kenjaku had overheard their conversation with Jin. Yet the two men were somewhat apart, and the crowd around them made it impossible for a normal person.
If Jin could read Toji's thoughts, he would probably have said: "Dude, don't make your wife a widow."
Fortunately, no one knew the thoughts of the shame of the Zenin.
Thus, the two powerful entities of the cursed spirit masters' world were being publicly intimidated by their wives.
"M-Mommy is being mean to Daddy," Yuji stammered after seeing Jin's embarrassment while Kenjaku and her new friend scolded their husbands to cover up their "professional" entourage.
Little Megumi nodded toward Yuji after hearing those words.