Chapter 24

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What a busy, bizarre day, Takizawa Sei thought to himself.

First, he had suddenly suffered a bout of PTSD. Before he could sort out his tangled emotions, he ran into Suguru. Then he heard a story that cut straight to the heart, went to Shoko to have his leg treated, lifted his bangs to show her how the wound on his head was healing, had some affectionate fun with Daifuku, exchanged greetings with the children, and finally returned to the Gojo estate with Satoru Gojo.

On the drive, the aftereffects of his PTSD finally caught up with him. He was listless, leaning against the car window and letting the wind blow over him.

Gojo mistook the sight for reluctance to return to the main house.

Catching sight of Gojo's expression, Takizawa knew he was probably overthinking again. "What's wrong?"

Gojo tilted his head slightly. "You really don't want to go back?"

"Not exactly." Takizawa looked thoroughly miserable. "But I can't say I'm looking forward to it, either. I know you have absolute authority there now, but just hearing the words 'main house' makes me feel uncomfortable. The architecture and decor have a certain elegance, but to me, the place just feels gloomy and sinister."

Gojo made no comment. "Nothing there worth remembering?"

"I still like your courtyard." Takizawa answered honestly. "But apart from that, I don't see much reason to go back."

Takizawa did not become attached to places very easily.

He felt a strong sense of belonging toward people. Wherever the person he cared about was, he could quickly settle in there as well.

When they got out of the car, someone came to greet them at the entrance. Takizawa glanced up and realized that the face was familiar, though he could not recall the man's name.

The brown-haired, dark-eyed young man first greeted the head of the family. When his gaze fell on Takizawa, however, he visibly trembled.

Takizawa waved at him. "Hi~"

The man looked as though he had seen a ghost.

Gojo simply walked past him and said offhandedly, "You don't need to follow us."

Out of habit, Takizawa fell into step beside him, gazing around curiously at the surrounding scenery. On the covered walkway, he immediately recognized one of the servants cleaning the floor. When Takizawa had been little, that same man had often crouched in a corner, scrubbing the waxed wooden floorboards. Day after day, year after year.

Takizawa was not close to him, but neither were they on bad terms. They simply had no real connection.

"Master."

The servant greeted Gojo nervously when he saw him.

"Mm."

Gojo replied indifferently and walked past without looking aside.

Takizawa paused in front of the servant. He wanted to say hello, but eventually gave up. Before he left, he watched with his own eyes as the servant's expression shifted from confusion to shock, then to utter dismay, as though he had arrived at an unbelievable conclusion.

What was that supposed to mean?

Connecting the man's changing expressions, Takizawa followed his train of thought and realized that, in the eyes of someone so cut off from news, he probably looked very much like a substitute Gojo had brought back from outside.

Once they had gone a fair distance, Takizawa could no longer hold it in. He burst out laughing.

"Hahahaha, Master... hahaha, master! Master!"

He laughed rather shamelessly, and he knew perfectly well that he should not. Pretending to be serious, he cleared his throat twice. "Sorry, sorry. Hahaha... I just didn't realize what was happening. Hearing about something and seeing it with your own eyes really do feel different. Satoru, I wasn't laughing at you."

He blinked, his sincerity absolute. "I'll call you Master too."

If nothing unexpected happened, Takizawa would be the first person to address Gojo that way.

Everyone knew that the bearer of the Six Eyes would eventually become head of the family.

"Forget it. If you call me Master, I'll break your legs."

"???" Takizawa was utterly stunned. "Why? I show you such loyalty, and not only do I get no reward, you're angry too!"

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Gojo suddenly leaned close to him and raised one eyebrow. His expression was particularly meaningful, with an unmistakable hint of threat.

"You know perfectly well why I'm angry."

Takizawa surrendered at once, putting his whole heart into the performance. "I was wrong. How could our relationship be defined by such a cold, hateful class distinction?"

With his teasing, joking tone, as though it were the most natural thing in the world, he once again affirmed that no barrier could come between them. Hooking an arm around Gojo's shoulders, Takizawa leaned against him and grinned.

"We used to imagine what your life would be like after you became head of the family. Seeing it right in front of me now still feels unreal."

Gojo looked at him with a smile. "This is only the beginning."

After their little argument, combined with the surrounding scenery, Takizawa's feelings were immediately pulled back several years.

Gojo seemed to want to reminisce with him as well, so he brought Takizawa to the training ground where they had so often practiced together. During those first few years when they were always tied to each other, the two-year difference in their physiques meant Takizawa could often knock Gojo down during combat lessons. Unfortunately, that stopped working later on. The Six Eyes grew too quickly. Takizawa fought with all his strength, unwilling to let the gap between them narrow, much less widen in the opposite direction. He was the very model of diligence.

Whenever Gojo occasionally decided that training was too exhausting and tried to slack off, Takizawa would haul him to his feet without the slightest regard for rank or etiquette. Their relationship was less that of master and personal attendant than of equal friends. Gojo never shouted at him, and Takizawa never fawned over Gojo. It was probably around then that the Gojo family realized just how extraordinary a place Takizawa occupied in the heart of the Six-Eyed Divine Child—a realm no one else dared approach, much less enter.

"Why do you train so hard...?" Gojo had asked once, when Takizawa was exhausted to the point of dry heaving.

How had Takizawa answered him back then?

The sun was sinking westward, gilding the entire world. The strongest sorcerer of the present gazed at Takizawa, his figure overlapping with that of the white-haired, green-eyed boy from long ago.

"Do I need a reason? Ha. Because I want to protect you."

Because I want to protect you.

***

"Ah, here..." Takizawa stood at one corner of the training ground and stamped on a small depression in the earth. "This is where a blade was driven in, isn't it? It hasn't been repaired after all these years?"

Gojo sat at the edge of the training ground. When Takizawa turned around, he discovered a tray of tea and pastries beside him. He had not noticed when the servant had brought it.

"It feels like there are fewer people at the estate than before. Am I imagining it? What happened to those elders?" Takizawa walked toward him. "They used to love prying into your affairs."

"They're in the ground," Gojo said flatly.

Takizawa suddenly understood. "Ah... they were getting on in years."

"Is no one training at the grounds today? It's awfully quiet." Takizawa sat down on the other side of the tray and bit into a sweet pastry that had been able to make his entire skull tremble with cloying sweetness since childhood. "Don't tell me you brought me here because you want to fight."

Gojo rested an elbow on his knee, leaned forward, and propped his chin on his hand as he watched Takizawa. His gaze carried a heat almost tangible in its intensity.

"You can't beat me anymore."

It did not sound much like boasting.

"Without counting your ultimate technique, we'd be evenly matched."

"I can use reverse cursed technique now."

Takizawa froze. "Oh. Ohhh... Then I might not be able to beat you."

His insignificant frustration soon faded. Takizawa looked at him steadily.

"That doesn't matter. It doesn't stop me from protecting you."

"......"

Gojo was silent for a moment, his voice suddenly hoarse. "I'm supposed to be the one protecting you now, aren't I?"

Takizawa drank two cups of tea and waved his hand dismissively. "Those two things don't conflict at all."

Whether in the past or the present, Takizawa would always stand in front of Gojo without hesitation.

There was not the slightest change in the young man's expression as he said it.

Takizawa gazed at the scenery on the horizon, so content that he belatedly realized he had done nothing but eat. Gojo, who had always had the sweetest tooth of all, had barely touched anything.

Takizawa paused, still holding a pastry wrapped in paper, and asked softly, "Want some?"

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As his airy voice faded, Takizawa quietly moved closer to Gojo.

When he saw what was happening, his eyes widened in surprise.

"...Satoru?"

Gojo turned his face away.

Yet even that transparently evasive movement could not hide the shimmering moisture in his eyes, or the glistening, soaked color flickering across the whites of them.

...Satoru?

Takizawa hurriedly stood up. "What happened? Why are you crying?"

Gojo pressed his lips together and said nothing. That silence was precisely what made the sight so unusual. Takizawa became utterly flustered. Finally, he steeled himself and said, "Are you so moved that you're crying? Is this really something to cry over? Haven't I always protected you? You can't just because you're stronger than me... Besides, I've learned how to open a domain now. That's pretty incredible."

Takizawa rambled on noisily, receiving only a hoarse reply.

"...Idiot."

"How do you manage to make an insult sound so much like a term of endearment?"

Though he muttered the words, Takizawa relaxed. He stepped closer and wrapped his arms around Gojo's head to comfort him. He thought for a long time about what could have suddenly made the young man so sad. A thousand things surged to the tip of his tongue, but in the end, all he said was with a sigh:

"...I'm right here, aren't I?"

From not far away came the increasingly near sound of scattered footsteps. Takizawa raised his head warily and saw several young men walking toward him together. Their steps were hurried, their expressions strange.

Before Takizawa could ask what they wanted, they all dropped to their knees before him and cried out in trembling voices:

"Mr. Takizawa, we're sorry!"

Takizawa: "??"

The sight left him completely bewildered. The men began introducing themselves one after another, as though the Grim Reaper were pursuing them from behind.

...They were the obnoxious brats who had bullied him back then. It made sense that they had grown up too.

But why had they come to apologize now?

"In August 2001, I pushed you into the birthplace of a grade-one curse and caused you injuries that nearly killed you," one of the young men said, not daring to lift his head. "And you never found out who was responsible."

...Oh. That incident.

Takizawa moved his gaze away, unconcerned. The young man kneeling on the ground continued with his belated apology.

"That wasn't all. I verbally abused you for four years, beat you countless times, burned the gifts you prepared for the head of the family, and put dead insects in your bowl."

"I paid you back for all of that, didn't I? I insulted you too, and I hit you." Takizawa spoke indifferently.

The young man shook his head. "It was different."

His voice trembled with something like remorse and fear.

"You were only retaliating... I did it out of malice."

It made no sense.

Takizawa felt as though the entire scene were an absurd farce.

The men scrambled over one another to confess every wicked thing they had done. Many incidents that had never reached a conclusion back then were dragged into the light. Takizawa listened without reaction, only belatedly realizing that Gojo had probably done something. The moment they heard he had returned, they had come rushing to him to repent and reform.

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