"
Megumi Fushiguro clutched his broken ribs, half-kneeling amidst the ruins of a convenience store.
The excruciating pain made every breath feel like swallowing fire, but he forced himself to look up, glaring at the man smoking nearby.
That man had saved him.
In a display of sheer, crushing power, he had utterly obliterated that invincible "monster."
Yet, Megumi's wariness didn't fade; instead, it intensified.
'What is this feeling... what exactly is going on?'
Megumi questioned himself repeatedly, his nails digging deep into the flesh of his palms.
They were meeting for the first time, so why did his primal instinct of wariness carry a trace of inexplicable attachment and peace?
It was as if, in some long-forgotten dream from a lifetime ago, he had once looked up at this broad back in the same way.
"Hey, kid."
Toji casually crushed his cigarette against the ruined wall with a faint hiss.
He turned around, walking toward Megumi step by step.
His massive frame was like a heavy mountain, each step exerting a suffocating pressure.
"Who... who are you?"
Megumi instinctively tried to retreat, but his broken ribs caused him to stumble, falling back into the rubble.
He gritted his teeth, his right hand already forming the hand sign to summon a shikigami.
Even if his cursed energy was depleted, he wouldn't just wait for death.
Toji stopped.
He stood just a few meters away, his deep, dark eyes fixed silently on the boy's face with a complex expression.
The gaze was devoid of the brutality and madness from the previous battle.
In its place was a look of scrutiny, a hint of pride, and a tenderness laced with endless guilt.
"You've grown up."
Toji spoke, his voice raspy as if ground by coarse sandpaper.
He slowly reached out a large hand covered in callouses and scars, seemingly wanting to touch the boy's cheek or perhaps just pat his shoulder.
"Don't touch me!"
Megumi jerked his head away, his eyes full of resistance and distrust as he shrank back.
"You know me? What... what is your relationship with the Zenin family?"
In Megumi's mind, someone with this level of Heavenly Restriction and such terrifying physical strength couldn't possibly be unrelated to the decaying Zenin family.
Toji's hand froze in mid-air.
Seeing the rejection in the boy's eyes, he gave a self-deprecating smile and slowly withdrew his hand.
"Right... how could you possibly remember a bastard like me."
His voice was soft, like he was talking to himself or making a hollow excuse for a past decision.
Amidst that awkward and oppressive silence...
"It seems I've arrived just in time."
A warm, calm, and reassuringly magnetic voice rang out from the other end of the street without warning.
Megumi and Toji turned their heads at the same time.
A figure wearing dark red kariginu with a flame-like blade slung over his shoulder approached slowly through the Shibuya night and firelight.
"Yoru!"
A flash of undeniable relief and joy crossed Megumi's eyes.
His frayed nerves finally found a moment of rest.
As long as this man was here, it felt like he could hold up the sky with that rusted iron blade even if it came crashing down.
Yoru walked between the two.
He looked at Megumi, who was battered and wary like a little hedgehog, and then at Toji, who looked like a thug but couldn't hide the loneliness in his eyes.
The corners of his mouth curled into a playful smirk.
"Toji, mission accomplished."
Yoru casually tossed a white porcelain bottle over.
"This is a special medicine Shoko just formulated. It'll help with your internal injuries."
Toji caught the bottle, popped two pills into his mouth, and gave a dissatisfied huff.
"Kid, you didn't tell me the target this time included that disgusting corpse."
He pointed at the puddle of dissolved flesh behind them, clearly still bothered by the fight against his own shadow.
"That was an accident, but you had fun, didn't you?"
Yoru chuckled, not dwelling on the topic.
He turned to Megumi, who was looking back and forth between the two with a bewildered expression.
"Instructor Yoru... who exactly is he?"
Megumi struggled to stand, pointing at Toji.
"Why does he have the same body as that monster? Why does he know you?"
"And... why does the way he looks at me feel so strange?"
Yoru went silent for a moment.
He reached out and gently patted Megumi's shoulder, signaling him to calm down first.
Then, Yoru's voice took on an unprecedented seriousness and gravity.
"Megumi, remember when I told you about the merged timelines?"
Megumi blinked and gave a wooden nod.
With the timelines merging, he had indeed been experiencing strange flashes of memory recently.
For instance, Yoru, who should have been his peer, appeared in his memories as a respected instructor.
"In another timeline, the man standing before you died twelve years ago at the hands of Satoru Gojo."
Yoru turned to Toji, his gaze deep.
"But in this world, which I forcibly altered, he survived."
"His name is Toji Fushiguro."
Yoru paused, his next words ringing clearly in Megumi's ears.
"And he is your one and only biological father."
BOOM!!
That name.
That identity.
Like a bolt of lightning tearing through the darkness, it exploded in Megumi's mind!
'Father?'
Megumi's pupils shrank as he froze in place, his very breath stalling.
He looked at the man in disbelief.
At that face so similar to his own, yet etched with the scars of time and violence.
This was the man he had cursed and resented countless times in his dreams, yet had never truly seen.
'The bastard father who abandoned me and Tsumiki for money?!'
Toji looked at his stunned son and scratched his head awkwardly. A characteristic smirk tugged at his lips as he tried to mask his unease.
"Yo. First time meeting you... or should I say, long time no see, Megumi."
Toji paused, his gaze sweeping over Megumi's school collar, which bore no mark of the Zenin family.
"Fushiguro? You don't use the Zenin name?"
Megumi hadn't recovered from the shock; he just shook his head mechanically, answering with a trembling voice.
"I... I took my mother's name... I am Megumi Fushiguro."
Hearing this answer, Toji was momentarily stunned.
Then, as if he had heard the most gratifying news possible, a low chuckle escaped his throat.
"I see... Megumi Fushiguro."
"Not Zenin. Not that nauseating surname..."
Toji took a deep breath of the smoke-filled Shibuya air.
The cruel bloodlust in his eyes finally vanished completely, replaced by an unprecedented sense of relief and peace.
"That's good."
He murmured softly, his voice so raspy it was barely audible.
"It looks like... my bastard choice back then didn't completely ruin you after all."
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