The entire banquet hall whipped their heads around at the exact same time.
Standing there was a six-year-old boy, glaring at them with a terrifyingly fierce scowl.
It was Mirai. The noise of the chattering elite had finally woken him from his nap, and he had wiggled out of Takayanagi Mieko's arms to come over and personally reprimand the crowd.
Clack! Clack! Clack! The sound of hurried heels echoed across the floor.
Mieko rushed over, gently grasping Mirai's small hand. Realizing the tension in the room, she immediately bowed respectfully to the surrounding officials of the Three Great Families.
"I am so incredibly sorry," she apologized smoothly. "Mirai-sama did not mean to offend. He has only just woken up and is still suffering from a bit of sleep-drunkenness. Please forgive his outburst."
"Auntie Mieko, why are you apologizing?" Mirai grumbled, pouting in dissatisfaction. "They're the ones acting like a bunch of bickering aunties haggling at a fish market! They don't have the dignity of the Three Great Families at all. Can't they see Auntie Mafuyu is so exhausted she can barely stand?"
His "concern" was mostly just a convenient excuse to scold them. But to Yukino Mafuyu's ears, his words sounded like heavenly music.
She bit her red lip, genuinely moved. Covering her mouth with her hands, her eyes sparkled with overwhelming surprise and affection.
He's grown up so much, she thought. And he's even more handsome than Satoru...
Unlike the rigid, arrogant elders of the Three Great Families who obsessed over blood purity and cursed techniques, Mafuyu had only one true hobby in life.
She was an absolute, shameless face-connoisseur. She loved beautiful things.
And right now, looking at her eldest son, she felt as though she were gazing at the most dazzling, flawless gemstone in the world.
"And you!"
Mirai suddenly pointed his small finger directly into the crowd, selecting a 'lucky' volunteer to serve as an example for the rest of the room.
"Me?" An elder from the Kamo clan pointed at himself in utter confusion.
"Yes, you!" Mirai sneered. "Weren't you just loudly wondering how my strength compared to Satoru's?"
He snapped his fingers.
"Show him the answer, Mr. Mahoraga!"
BOOM!!!
Only one person in the room—Gojo Satoru—even registered the movement before it happened.
A violent gale, hitting with the kinetic force of a Category 8 hurricane, ripped through the banquet hall! Elite sorcerers were forced to cross their arms and shield their faces just to stay standing.
When the dust settled, the Kamo elder was gone.
In his exact spot stood a towering, muscular behemoth, flashing a set of pristine, terrifyingly bright white teeth.
Right beside Mahoraga's foot, a massive crater had been punched straight through the reinforced concrete floor, dropping like an abyss. A particularly brave sorcerer crept to the edge and peered down.
There, several floors below in the underground parking garage, lay the Kamo elder. He was a bloody, mangled mess, crushed on top of a luxury sedan, twitching feebly. He was breathing in far less air than he was breathing out.
"...Now you know," Mirai concluded flatly.
Having answered the question, Mirai completely ignored the paralyzed crowd.
Meanwhile, a nearby octogenarian—who had been forced to his knees by the wind pressure—suddenly scrambled up. Moving with the desperate agility of an eighteen-year-old, he scooped up a five-year-old girl and sprinted toward the stairs.
The man in the crater was his only son. He was off to find a user of Reverse Cursed Technique before his bloodline ended.
But the shockwaves of Mahoraga's first public appearance had only just begun.
Every single sorcerer from the Three Great Families stared in absolute, paralyzing horror at the towering Shikigami in the center of the hall, and then at the six-year-old boy standing proudly before it with his arms crossed.
Powerful! Terrifyingly powerful! Genius! An absolute monster!
For the few Zenin and Gojo elders who actually knew the lore behind the "Ten Shadows: Mahoraga," their minds were short-circuiting.
If the historical texts are accurate... is this even a Shikigami meant to be tamed by humans?! And it was subjugated by a six-year-old?! Not even cheap light novels dare to write plots this absurd!
"Umm... why is everyone staring at me?"
Mirai's terrifying warlord persona shattered in exactly three seconds. He stuffed a cream puff into his mouth, his cheeks bulging as he mumbled, "Keep playing the music! Keep dancing!"
He waved his hand generously, acting as though the kid who had just casually hospitalized a Grade 1 Kamo elder over a nap was someone else entirely.
Under the suffocating, silent oppression of Mahoraga standing guard, the banquet hall finally 'got back on track.' Everyone rigidly adhered to a peaceful, polite, and very quiet atmosphere of communication.
"Pfft!"
Seeing the incredibly polite, whisper-quiet tone the crowd had suddenly adopted, Mafuyu couldn't help but cover her mouth and giggle.
Suddenly, she felt a slight tug on the sleeve of her kimono.
She looked down, expecting to see Satoru, but instead found Mirai standing there, a dollop of cream on his cheek.
"Auntie Mafuyu, you look so pretty when you smile~" Mirai cooed innocently. "When you feel overwhelmed, just smile and everything will be okay. Auntie Mieko taught me that!"
From across the room, Mieko's radar went off.
Politely but firmly brushing off the Gojo elders trying to flatter her, she glided over to Mirai's side. She exchanged a silent, incredibly tense glance with Mafuyu—a silent declaration of sovereignty over the boy's affections.
Mafuyu merely offered a serene nod. Then, entirely ignoring Mieko's jealous gaze, she leaned down with a sweet smile and gently wiped the cream from the corner of Mirai's mouth.
"Mirai, was it?" Mafuyu asked, her voice soft and impossibly alluring. "Would you like to go out and play with Auntie for a bit? It just so happens that you and Satoru were born on the exact same day. Since you're the same age, I'm sure you two will get along wonderfully."
"Hmph. Who would want to play with him?"
Gojo Satoru shoved his hands into his pockets, turning his head away with a deeply arrogant scowl. "Don't think you're so great just because you brought a big Shikigami. I'll smash that thing to pieces sooner or later!"
Seeing his overpowered idiot of a younger brother acting jealous and fighting for their mother's attention, Mirai just laughed. An invisible, tyrannical aura seemed to radiate from him.
"Sorry, but Mr. Mahoraga is pretty tough," Mirai teased. "I hope you can catch up to us one day, Satoru~"
"You—!" Satoru bristled.
"Satoru! You will not speak to others like that!" Mafuyu scolded, her tone dropping into a stern reprimand. "Mirai is the Head of the Zenin Clan, and he has mastered an incredible Shikigami. You must respect him... as if he were your own brother." Her eyes met Mirai's for a fleeting second.
"Hmph! What's so great about being Clan Head?" Satoru yelled, his pride stung. "I'll be the Head of the Gojo clan soon! No! I want to be the Clan Head right now!"
"Satoru, stop making a scene! Mommy is getting angry!" Mafuyu frowned, pretending to be furious.
"Are you being mean to me?!" Satoru's eyes widened in genuine shock. "You've never been mean to me before! And it's all because of this other kid..."
The legendary Six Eyes, capable of perceiving the flow of cursed energy down to the atomic level, utterly failed to read the room. Satoru's brilliant blue eyes welled up with actual tears. He aggressively wiped his face, turned on his heel, and stomped away.
"Fine! I don't care about you anymore!"
"Satoru—wait!"
Seeing that her youngest was genuinely throwing a jealous tantrum, Mafuyu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She turned back to Mirai.
"I'm so sorry, little Mirai. If there's a chance later, Auntie will definitely take you out to play, okay?"
"Okay. It's a promise, then." Mirai held up his pinky finger.
Mafuyu smiled warmly, linking her pinky with his. "It's a promise."
After securing the vow, Mafuyu hiked up her kimono and hurried off in the direction Satoru had fled.
Watching her retreating back, a genuine, happy smile touched Mirai's face.
Standing beside him, Mieko felt a sharp pang of disappointment. Seeing Mirai and Mafuyu act so intimately upon their first "meeting" made her chest tighten. She knew she had no biological right to prevent the boy from returning to his true mother's side.
But...
What is this awful, unwilling feeling in my heart? she thought.
Mirai-sama... if you ever come to understand how deeply I feel for you, please... never leave my side.
A/N: For this week, every 100 Powerstones will get ya'll an extra chapter! Thank you!