Walking down the dim, narrow confines of the secret corridor, the Great Elder's expression was more than a little strained. His bruised face twitched with a dull throb, but thankfully, he was walking a few paces ahead of Zenin Naobito, hiding his battered state from the Zenin Clan Head.
When Naobito first saw the infant Mirai, he had scoffed internally. He assumed these ancient Gojo relics had simply gone soft, unable to even handle a tiny baby, forcing him to step in and do the heavy lifting himself.
It wasn't until he confidently stepped forward to scoop the child into his arms that he realized just how catastrophically wrong he was.
"Come here, little one~ Uncle's got you~" Naobito cooed, forcibly softening his usually stern face into what he thought was a kind smile as he reached for Mirai.
But the moment his calloused palms closed within an inch of the boy, a terrifying, invisible force erupted, viciously striking at Naobito's most vulnerable vitals!
Whoosh—!
If Naobito hadn't been in his physical prime—and if his reflexes hadn't been razor-sharp—his bloodline would have ended right then and there! Despite his hasty evasion, the sheer kinetic force blasted him backward, right in front of the entirely unsurprised, secretly gloating Gojo elders!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
After smashing through three consecutive shoji walls, Naobito's airborne trajectory finally halted, leaving him in the exact same humiliating predicament the Great Elder had suffered earlier.
"Cough! Cough! Cough!"
Fanning away the splintered wood and dust, Naobito hauled himself up. A deep red, hyper-dense aura of cursed energy surged visibly around his body. He locked his furious gaze on the Gojo Great Elder, who was failing to suppress a bark of laughter.
"You decrepit old bastard!" Naobito roared. "You didn't think to mention something that crucial?! You nearly cost me my limbs—and my manhood!"
The Great Elder simply spread his hands and offered a sickeningly innocent shrug. "If I had told you, you wouldn't have believed me. I figured it was best to let you experience it firsthand."
"You—cough, cough!" Naobito nearly choked on his own rage. "Hmph! I don't have the patience to bicker with a cunning old fox like you!"
His kimono was shredded. Annoyed, Naobito ripped off the ruined upper half, revealing a densely muscled physique beneath.
Innate Technique: Projection Sorcery
Zenin Naobito's inherited technique was a fearsome power demanding both flawless precision and blistering speed. He could divide a single second into twenty-four frames, tracing a predetermined sequence of movements using his field of vision as the angle of view. As long as he flawlessly executed those predetermined movements, his speed would exponentially increase.
However, the trajectory could not be altered mid-sequence, nor could it excessively violate the laws of physics. If he failed to execute the sequence perfectly, he would be penalized, forced into a frozen state for exactly one second.
This one-second freeze was also the technique's primary offensive utility. By touching an opponent with his palm, he forced them to abide by the same 24-frame rule. If the target failed to follow a sequence that would make Isaac Newton roll in his grave, they, too, would be frozen.
It was a technique with extreme highs and fatal lows. Master it, and you leave the world in your dust. Fumble it, and you dig your own grave.
As the current Head of the Zenin clan, Naobito was its absolute master. Paired with his innate talent for visualizing comic-book-style storyboards and his inhuman perception of time, he was universally recognized as the fastest sorcerer alive. Even in the era of Gojo Satoru, Naobito would remain second only to Satoru himself in pure speed. That was precisely why he dared to contest the Great Elder for the title of "Strongest Grade 1 Sorcerer."
But all the speed in the world meant nothing right now.
No matter how many times Naobito dashed forward, he couldn't breach the invisible barrier guarding the infant. Let alone kidnapping him, Naobito couldn't even touch him! He had never felt so utterly powerless. He was getting thoroughly bullied by his own newly adopted son.
Why must we resort to violence? Mirai thought dryly, watching the stubborn Zenin head repeatedly bounce off Lexus's absolute defense. Have you no shame, old man? A bearded brute trying to manhandle me. Disgusting.
Amidst this stalemate, Mirai's stomach growled. He was hungry again.
Summoning Lexus, he had his Stand cradle him and float effortlessly across the room toward his birth mother. He unceremoniously kicked a peacefully sleeping Gojo Satoru out of the way and skillfully burrowed into his mother's arms.
Watching this blatant display of foraging finally sparked a realization in Naobito's bruised brain. He stepped out for a moment, returning shortly with a strikingly mature, deeply alluring woman in tow.
Through Naobito's introduction, Mirai learned her name: Takayanagi Mieko.
She was a meticulously trained servant from a Zenin branch family, explicitly selected by Naobito to serve as a personal maid and wet nurse for his "new son." She was profoundly voluptuous, diligent, famously chaste, and unmarried. Naobito figured it was worth a shot to see if the infant would accept her.
The moment Mirai laid eyes on Mieko, his vision metaphorically lit up. Objectively speaking, her beauty was spectacular, easily on par with his birth mother's, though their vibes were polar opposites.
The Gojo Mother (Mafuyu): Pure, elegant, and ethereal, possessing a cold, untouchable grace.
The Zenin Wet Nurse (Mieko): Plump, voluptuous, and mature, carrying a lingering, melancholic sadness in her eyes that instinctively begged a man to comfort her.
As expected of a woman with the name 'Takayanagi,' Mirai thought, thoroughly impressed by the aesthetic selection. I choose you, Auntie Mieko!
Under the astonished and immensely relieved gazes of everyone in the room, Mirai crawled forward, using his tiny hands to propel himself directly to Mieko's side.
Seeing the divine child eagerly approach her, Mieko's eyes softened with maternal sweetness. She leaned down and tenderly scooped him into her generous embrace. This time, Lexus did not intervene.
A collective, heavy sigh of relief echoed through the room.
The Gojo Great Elder: Thank god, we finally got rid of this little monster.
Zenin Naobito: Thank god, the little tyrant is finally satisfied.
And with that, the unprecedented crisis of the Six Eyes twins was officially resolved.
The truth of the twins' birth was sealed as the absolute highest secret between the Gojo and Zenin clans. No paper records were kept. Everyone present in the delivery room was bound by a strict Binding Vow that physically prevented them from ever speaking the truth to an outsider.
Even within the Zenin clan, only Naobito knew the full story. To the rest of the Zenin, Mirai was simply Naobito's illegitimate son who had miraculously inherited the Ten Shadows Technique.
Of course, there was one glaring exception to the rules.
Mirai, possessing the complete self-awareness of an adult, not only retained perfect memories of the entire ordeal but was entirely unbound by the Binding Vows cast upon the adults in the room.
But for the rest of the world, the narrative was set. Driven by deliberate, orchestrated leaks from both clans, the news spread like wildfire.
The Gojo clan had birthed a god graced with the Six Eyes and the Limitless. The Zenin clan had produced a prodigy who inherited the legendary Ten Shadows Technique.
Overnight, the jujutsu world was thrown into an absolute uproar!
The era of the "Double Stars" had officially arrived.
A/N: For this week, every 100 Powerstones will get ya'll an extra chapter! Thank you!