[When you ran into him by the vending machines at school a few days later, he was the same as always.]
[He ruffled a groggy, freshly woken Megumi's hair with one hand and stole the ice-cold cola you'd just bought with the other.]
["Hssss... ahhh! That hits the spot!"]
[He didn't ask what happened at the Zenin compound that night. He didn't scold you for not calling him either, even though Toji had, technically speaking, entrusted Megumi to him as the boy's official guardian. This should have been his problem.]
[He just looked at you.]
[Quietly, for once.]
[Because he knew you too well. If you were the kind of person who could show weakness and ask for help, you never would've gone alone in the first place. You always did this. Carried everything in silence. Took the whole load onto yourself until it started crushing you. Just like when you dealt with Suguru Geto's defection alone.]
[For one brief moment, behind those dark lenses, you caught a flicker of something that looked almost raw.]
[Frustration. Turned inward.]
[He was wondering if things would've gone differently if he hadn't handed Megumi's care over to you. If, without meaning to, he'd put one more impossible burden on shoulders that were already carrying too much.]
[Of course he understood what this had really cost. On paper, it looked like a win. In reality, going alone against a clan with centuries of power behind it was never going to end cleanly. The constant brush with death, the tightrope walk over the abyss, the fact that one wrong step would've buried you, no Grade 1 title in the world was enough to cover that price.]
["Yo. The freshly minted Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer, in the flesh."]
[Gojo took another long drink of your stolen cola, raised an eyebrow over the rim of his sunglasses, and slipped right back into that familiar mix of whining and teasing like nothing had happened.]
["Next time something that fun comes up, at least give me a heads-up, okay? Hogging all the glory and keeping me in the dark, Hayase, that's cold. Least you could do is save me a dramatic entrance."]
[You looked at his grin, took back the half-empty bottle he offered you, and felt the last stone finally lift from your chest.]
["Next time. For sure."]
[By the time you visited the Zenin compound again, this time as a guest, a full week had passed.]
[The formal visitation letter, the expensive aged sake from Hokuriku that Naobito had specifically requested, all of that had been dumped on Mei Mei.]
[Right now your head had room for exactly two things: getting stronger and analyzing techniques. The suffocating etiquette of the Big Three Sorcerer Families, with all their rigid hierarchy and borderline deranged social rituals, was something you had neither the patience nor the talent for.]
[More to the point, you refused to waste energy on their hollow little pageant.]
[Because in those long, suffocating simulated memories, you'd spent two full years living inside this compound.]
[Back then, you'd been Naoya Zenin's dog. Talentless mongrel, the servants called you, tossing it around as casually as gossip. Every flagstone in this courtyard remembered your humiliation. Every corridor had heard you swallow your pride and endure it.]
[The two guards at the gate, still dressed in traditional bound garments, recognized your face and froze.]
[Their pupils contracted. What spread across those once-arrogant faces was something primal, the helpless fear of prey staring up at a predator it knew it couldn't fight.]
[Compared to how they'd treated you in those simulated memories, the contrast was so absurd it almost circled back around to funny.]
[They reacted like they were facing a siege. The guard on the left dropped a hand to his sword on reflex, but his fingers were shaking too badly for the move to mean much, and he couldn't bring himself to meet your eyes.]
["L-Lord Hayase."]
[The guard on the right recovered a little faster. His spine seemed to melt as he bent into a deep bow, cold sweat shining on his forehead, every word dripping with deference just shy of groveling.]
["Our deepest apologies. If you would permit it, might we ask you to wait here a moment? I'll send my colleague to the inner estate at once and arrange a proper escort for you, sir."]
[A routine visit, and they were treating it like a tyrant had arrived to inspect conquered territory.]
[You looked at the exposed back of his bowed head.]
[What you felt wasn't satisfaction.]
[It was tired, bone-deep sadness.]
[This was the Zenin clan.]
[Here, nothing mattered except talent and strength. Humanity, warmth, basic dignity, none of it was worth anything. When you were weak, they were dogs at your heels. When you became strong enough to destroy them, they turned into the smoothest bootlickers alive.]
["Go."]
[Your voice came out flat. You had no interest in making life harder for a gate guard.]
[You stood beneath the eaves and watched him hurry toward the inner estate like a man fleeing a nightmare. Then your gaze drifted to the spread of dark buildings beyond the gate.]
[A week ago, you'd stormed this place to save a child, ready to tear the whole Zenin clan down around you if you had to.]
[Today, you stood at that same threshold carrying fine sake, holding the title of Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer and the status of honored guest.]
[The whole thing was ridiculous.]
[You let out a quiet laugh.]
[You didn't wait long. Footsteps came steady and unhurried, and the Zenin clan member sent to receive you stepped into view.]
[Ranta Zenin.]
[One of the Hei's upper ranks, one of the clan's best. At least he wasn't shaking like the gate guards had been. Still, the tension in his face was obvious. Too stiff to be simple courtesy.]
[He stopped in front of you and bowed, deep and textbook clean.]
["Lord Hayase. The clan head has been expecting you. Please, follow me."]
[Compared to the hostility he'd shown the night you forced your way in, this version of him was practically a different person.]