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Later that day, after Naoya and Utahime returned, Toji shared the happy news with the rest of them and tried to shoo away the guests so that he could celebrate with his family, but Miyuki smacked him and invited Naoya and the others as well.
Toji begrudgingly agreed and took everyone out for sushi, though mid-dinner, he wanted to take the knife from the chef and stab Naoya, who was stacking plate after plate.
Naoya, who noticed Toji's glare, smiled and ordered to pick up another plate while looking Toji dead in the eyes.
Maki, Mai, and Megumi copied Naoya as well since he told them that they would grow strong if they ate nicely.
Toji looked at his cousins and son with a vein throbbing on his forehead, to which Naoya and the girls just smiled while Megumi made sure not to make eye contact with Toji, or he would increase his training.
Like that, their evening ended, and though Naoya felt bad seeing the bill, he knew that Toji earned enough to not feel it as a burden.
Also, if he needed help in the future, Naoya was more than willing to aid him and Miyuki, though he hoped such a situation wouldn't arise and Toji's career would continue nicely. From what Miyuki told him, Toji just got an offer to work in an action movie. He was not the main lead, but the ones making this movie were big names, so it paid well, too.
He was also somehow working as a voice actor. (A/N: He is working as a voice actor for Dio Brando)
The man's profile was just too diverse. Sure, he has stopped working as a stunt double now, but he still works as an actor, model, and now even voice actor. Toji was too deep into show business.
Miyuki also told him that Toji tried to go into sports but dropped it after other players got seriously injured because of him, and he was told to drop out.
Toji, though, was still looking for more gigs. According to him, he planned to retire within 10 years and then go on a lovey-dovey world tour with Miyuki. Though that plan would most likely be postponed, considering that a new child was coming their way, and unlike Megumi, they would not be old enough to be left alone for their trip in 10 years.
If he were still working as an assassin, he would have earned quite a lot by this time, but he was making sure to stay away from the shady side. Naoya even offered to refer him to the Jujutsu division as a freelancer so that he could blow off some steam while working, but Toji disagreed. If he were to be active with the Jujutsu HQ, sooner or later, someone would come to bother him and his family, and he was not very keen for that.
-----
A few days later:
Currently, it was a few hours before sunrise and Naoya and a few people were running desperately, as if running away from something.
They didn't even dare look back; their only focus was on getting away as far as possible.
However, their wish and, unfortunately, their life were short-lived.
All of a sudden, a person materialised in front of them, making them shocked.
The person in question didn't say anything; he simply raised the gun in his hand and shot the panicked runners dead centre in their heads. The gun had a silencer, so the noise wasn't much to alert the surroundings.
Needless to say, this mysterious gunner was Naoya, who was currently on a mission to deal with a group of curse users. He busted out their hideout and detained most of them, but a few ran away, so he had to do a little extra work.
Naoya gave one final glance at the dead men in front of him and then pulled them into his shadow to dispose of them later.
He threw the gun in the storage as well and then started to walk towards the place where the car from the HQ was parked.
Once he arrived, the personnel from the Jujutsu division gave him a bow and then proceeded to get the report of the mission from Naoya.
It wasn't long since Naoya arrived for the mission, but with his track record, the man knew that the mission must have been completed.
Naoya gave the explanation and handed the dead bodies to the man as well, and then left for his home.
HQ was better suited for a clean-up anyway, since they have people for that as well.
-----
As he returned to the Zenin estate, he looked at the time and saw that he still had enough time to catch a couple of hours of sleep.
He walked into the estate and headed straight to his room.
Maki and Mai were now old enough and had their own room, so he slept alone.
...Or that was supposed to be the case.
The twins were snoring peacefully in his room. Seeing them, Naoya sighed and pulled out his futon as well and lay down to sleep.
A few hours later, his alarm rang, making him scrunch up his brows with annoyance. Still, he needed to wake up, or he would be late for training and classes.
Waking up groggily, Naoya grabbed the twins as well and took them with him to get them ready for training as well.
-----
Once the training period was over, Naoya and the twins, now bathed and dressed for their college and school respectively, were sitting down to their breakfast. They were joined by Naobito, who was reading a newspaper while sitting on some tea.
"Morning, father," greeted Naoya.
"Morning, Uncle," greeted Maki and Mai in unison.
"...Good morning," replied Naobito.
He looked at Naoya and the twins and just remembered the complaints from the clansmen about how Naoya was giving preferential treatment to the two girls and how the girls were disgracing the Zenin name.
The Zenin clan, for better or worse, had a very orthodox ideology. It had a set of rules for all clansmen that they should follow, and Naoya and the kids were constantly breaking those rules from time to time. Sure, the rules were a bit lax now, thanks to Kagenori's and Naobito's reforms, but there were still some unnecessary rules present, and the oldies made sure that others followed them.
Unfortunately for them, even though Naoya mostly doesn't follow the troublesome rules, they could not interfere much with him since they don't want to face his wrath.
The twins, though, were a different case; not only were they girls, they were twins, which is the worst combination for any Zenin clan member, and they were not looked favourably upon by most of the senior clansmen.
But because of Naoya's favour, none could uselessly reprimand them. Naoya didn't say anything if they fumbled in training and were scolded for that, but bullying or shunning them otherwise was a huge no for Naoya, and he made sure that the people knew that.
To be frank, Naobito didn't want to deal with this trivial issue about favouritism. It's not like every higher up in the clan didn't have favourites. It's just that those who are still trying to snatch authority from him and Naoya are being a pain in the ass.
The youngsters of the clan like Naoya a lot, while most of the Hei members were not bothered by him as well; it was only a select few ass holes who couldn't sit still.
Naobito thought for a bit longer before he turned towards a servant.
"Bring me some sake," ordered Naobito.
"Again drinking in the morning?" asked Naoya.
Naobito has recently developed quite a bad habit of drinking. According to the old man, it was the only thing that kept him sane from all the nonsense he dealt with as the clan head.
To Naoya, though, it just looked like a bad case of addiction. He wasn't one to stop others from enjoying and taking it easy, but there should still be some restraint. It was not healthy for the old man after all.
"Stop nagging. Let me drink in peace," replied Naobito as he picked up the cup that the servant filled for him and drank it in one go.
Without saying anything, the servant filled it once again.
Naoya looked at the scene and shook his head. He could try to stop him now, but he knew well that the man would drink once he was gone anyway.
"Don't learn from this old man of mine, okay?" said Naoya and looked at the twins.
Maki and Mai nodded, though they chugged their soup just like how Naobito chugged sake.
Naoya facepalmed at that. They were already picking up the bad habits.
Once he was done with his breakfast, he sent the kids to school and went back inside. He still had time for his classes and still some tasks to finish.
With a tray of food in his hand, he slowly walked through the estate.
"Grandpa," called Naoya.
Kagenori, the previous head of the Zenin clan, was now just a sweet 117-year-old man. With this advanced age, the once active old man was now barely able to move around much, and Naoya helped him whenever he could with his basic activities, eating being one of them.
Sure their were servants who could aid the old man, but it felt nice to aid the old man occasionally and spend more time with him.
Naoya waited for a bit, but no response came.
He slowly opened the door to his room so as not to startle the old man and noticed that the old man still seemed to be sleeping.
He placed the tray down and sat down near Kagenori.
"Grandpa, wake up, it's already morning," said Naoya and lightly shook him.
But the old man didn't move.
Naoya shook him once again, but there was still no response.
Seeing him not moving or waking up, Naoya panicked a bit.
He immediately removed the sheet from his top and checked for his pulse.
'...'
He couldn't feel anything.
Naoya immediately went into panic and summoned [Round Deer], hoping that he was just bad at checking pulse.
"Senzu!" called Naoya.
The deer, without being told, started to use RCT on Kagenori.
"Kiyoshi! John!" called Naoya.
The two brothers rushed in and got ready to act. Naoya's voice conveyed that there was an emergency.
They looked at him for orders, but seeing him holding Kagenori's hand with a panicked look on his face, he told them what the emergency was.
"Tell them to get the car ready! Inform the hospital!"
Kiyoshi and John, still a bit shocked by Kagenori's condition, were not able to think straight.
"Move!!!!" yelled Naoya, once again seeing the two still standing.
This snapped the two of them out of their trance, and they rushed out of the room to perform their duties.
Once they were gone, Naoya focused on the unresponsive Kagenori again.
He was not able to think straight. He wanted to see the old man wake up, but aside from using RCT from Senzu, he didn't know what he could do.
"Just wake up...." muttered Naoya.
He held his hand and closed his eyes.
Cursed energy within Naoya surged. He didn't know if this would be of any help or not, but he was going to try whatever he could.
Though faint, there was still some connection between him and Kagenori; the [Solid Shadows] within him were passed down to him from his grandfather, and there were still some fragments of his cursed energy within him.
He didn't say anything and just continued to focus on the [Solid Shadow] technique and search for the fragment of Kagenori's CE within him.
-----
Naoya suddenly felt his surroundings change. He looked around, but as far as he tried to see.
Though in all that vast darkness, there was someone. Someone familiar.
"*Phew*, thank god it worked.....you sure know how to make my heart drop, Grandpa," said Naoya with a sigh and walked towards Kagenori.
The old man was quite weak now, and without his help, he wouldn't be able to get up.
Surprisingly, though, the old man stood up.
"Huh? You can get back up on your own now?" asked Naoya with mild surprise.
"Naoya."
"Yes."
"Come here," called the old man.
Naoya ran up to him.
"Bend down a bit," said Kagenori calmly. Naoya, after all, was quite taller than him.
Naoya did as Kagenori said and got on his knees.
Kagenori smiled at Naoya.
"You have turned into a fine young man," said Kagenori and placed his hand on Naoya's head.
"Of course, I am. The finest one at that. Now, sit back and relax for a bit. Let's take you to get checked up at the hospital."
The black surroundings around them suddenly changed, and instead, they now stood on a ground. It was the main ground of the Zenin clan where the two of them first met.
"You were quite different from the other kids of the clan that I had seen over the years....and that remains true to date. Because of you, the clan has a future where it can change."
"I was quite an amazing kid, though the bar to pass to be different from the others wasn't high in the Zenin clan from the start."
"Haha, I suppose that's true. One of my biggest mistakes, I guess....Well, I will trouble you to fix that for me. Can you do it?" asked Kagenori
"Eh? Too troublesome. Well, I guess if you are the one asking, then I will think about it."
"Such an annoying brat.....do it if you can and want to. Just live how you feel like it. Without regrets. With happiness. With your loved ones."
"...I mean, I will do that."
"Fufu, good. That's what all matters to me. Live with your head held high. I know that the world is not nice, nor will it get easier in the future. I tried to raise you like a sorcerer that I never was. Be sure to surpass even that version of yourself."
"So much work. You really know how to work me to the bone."
"I know that you can do it, that's why I push you further. You are one of the few things that I take pride in after all."
Hearing that, Naoya smiled a bit. Genuine praise from Kagenori was rare.
"I too take pride that you are my Grandpa.....and that I can tell annoying shits 'Do you know who my Grandpa is?'."
"Haha. You sure were an insane kid for using that move. Still, now you have to deal with those annoying shits on your own....though if you sent them to me, I will deal with them after that."
"Now now, don't sell yourself short, you can still kick people's ass. You are built differently, you know,"
"Unfortunately, I guess my time of kicking others' asses has come to an end," said Kagenori and ruffled Naoya's hair.
Naoya looked at him in confusion. The old man seemed a bit sad to him after all.
...Now that he thought about it, why did the black space suddenly change into the main Zenin ground earlier?
His grandpa too looked a bit better than before, being able to stand up on his own,....but why was there a sudden change?
He tried to stand up, but Kagenori simply shook his head and patted his head.
"Take care of yourself and your family, Naoya. Work hard, study well, and eat and sleep plenty. Live a long life without regrets and with your head held high. Try to be a good father if you ever have children. Utahime is a nice girl; take good care of her. Maki and Mai are quite young, try to help them grow up into bright and beautiful girls with endless possibilities for their future. There is also that undisciplined drunkard of my son Naobito; tell him to take better care of himself. Drinking so much is not good for his health....what else is there....I have too many things to say....well, you are a smart and dependable kid, you will make good decisions.....Ah, right, if possible, remember fond memories about this old man," said Kagenori as his tears slowly started to drip down.
Naoya, too, had his eyes watering. He may not be sure of what was happening with the surroundings or the whole situation in general, but he could somewhat feel that his connection with Kagenori was weakening.
"...Grandpa," muttered Naoya.
"Hm?" asked Kagenori with a soft smile.
Naoya looked at his face. He had so many things to say, but no words seemed to come out of him.
In the end, the only thing that he could say was-
"I love you, grandpa. You were the coolest grandpa ever."
Kagenori's smile widened as he, for one final time, laughed out loud.
"Thank you.....and goodbye....Don't you dare come to me soon," said Kagenori and flicked Naoya's forehead.
The world around Naoya suddenly shattered, and Naoya's eyes suddenly opened wide. He was back in Kagenori's room, holding the old man's hand.
The old man was still not awake, but even with his eyes closed, it seemed that the man was at peace.
Naoya's cursed energy suddenly flared, and he felt something leave him. He looked towards the ceiling and then towards Kagenori. It felt like those last fragments of Kagenori with him that connected the two of them were gone.
Naoya didn't know how to feel about that, though, for now, he felt like it would be alright if he cried for a bit.