Bang!
Gojo Satoru, upon entering the hospital room, strode towards the bed where Zoro's family was huddled together. Then, he stiffly placed his arms alongside his body and bent at the waist at a right angle.
"I'm soooorrryyyy—!"
His voice was so loud that Shoko, who followed him in, immediately covered her ears. She grimaced in disgust.
"Really crazy."
"...Hic."
Tsumiki, who was nestled to Zoro's left side, started hiccupping in surprise.
Toji handed Tsumiki a bottle of water. Struggling to open it, Zoro naturally took the bottle, opened it, and handed it back to her.
Zoro frowned. What was this guy doing showing up all of a sudden and scaring the kid?
'Both father and Tsumiki.'
He couldn't understand why so many people were apologizing to him today. Especially when neither of them really had anything to apologize for. As for Gojo Satoru, he wasn't sure.
'Hopefully, this guy isn't going to start crying and clinging to me.'
He was ready to cut him down if that happened.
The only reason he wasn't doing it right now was because, despite the over-exaggeration and playfulness, he couldn't sense any falsehood or malice from him.
...Which meant, the intention to apologize was genuine.
Even more ridiculous.
"Let's get out of here~"
Shoko quickly assessed the situation and dashed out of the room. She felt it would be troublesome to get involved.
"...When you apologize."
Zoro calmly began to speak.
"You need to state what you did wrong and why you did it."
Simply screaming sorry doesn't make it an apology.
Well, Zoro himself wasn't great at apologizing to others, either.
He would never apologize for something he didn't believe was wrong.
Gojo straightened up and scratched the back of his white head. Then, casually, he dropped a bombshell.
"The thing about you encountering the Special Grade curse, it seems like it was my fault."
"What?!"
Tsumiki, who had been hiccupping, jumped in shock, and Zoro's eyebrows shot up.
Tsumiki stepped in front of Zoro, her eyes blazing with anger, and glared at Satoru.
"Did you send that monster to torment my brother?!"
"Are you the one who hurt my brother?!"
Megumi also swelled up in anger and stepped down from the bed towards Satoru. Then, he began to swing his small fists at Satoru's legs.
"Hit! Hit!"
"Heh. Missed me."
Gojo Satoru effortlessly deflected Megumi's punches and stuck out his tongue mockingly.
Zoro observed Gojo's seemingly shielded defense with interest, then subtly glanced at Toji.
Unlike the riotous Tsumiki and Megumi, Toji was quiet. His face remained expressionless as usual, not showing much anger.
But Zoro knew.
'He's thinking of killing.'
The expressionless face was an instinct to hide his fierce hostility from an opponent marked for death. Showing anger or murderous intent would make the target wary. As evidence, Toji's heartbeat became slower and slower, like a person in calm meditation, despite the situation making it impossible.
'It's a controlled physical reaction. Doesn't seem conscious... maybe an instinct.'
When the opponent, not sensing any murderous intent from Toji's nonverbal reactions, let their guard down,
That's when he would draw his weapon and strike a vital spot in one blow.
Be it the head, the neck, or the heart.
'As expected, father is more of a killer than a swordsman.'
He didn't seem to care much about the tool or method, as long as he could kill. This was evident from sparring sessions where he wouldn't stick to one type of weapon but would choose whatever was most efficient at the moment.
Behind that expressionless face, hundreds, thousands of plans to kill Gojo Satoru without harming his family must have been flickering into existence and then disappearing.
Not to hold back from killing, but to select the plan with the highest chance of success.
'He usually doesn't show such a demeanor in front of us, preferring to be discreet.'
But it seemed like he wasn't in the state of mind to care about that now. The only thought dominating Toji's mind was murder, as visible to Zoro.
Zoro extended his hand towards Toji. Normally, Toji would have reacted immediately, but this time he was a bit slow to look at Zoro. It didn't matter. He looked this way, after all.
"Toji, the sword."
Toji made an indescribable expression for a moment, then threw the sheathed Wado Ichimonji, which had been leaning against the hospital wall, to Zoro. Zoro stood up from the bed and caught it.
Still blocking Megumi's kicks with his Mugen, Satoru looked at the scene with an interested expression.
"Going to fight?"
"Haven't decided yet."
Swinging a sword overwhelmed by emotions could lead to cutting what shouldn't be cut. Nor was he so magnanimous as to let pass what needed cutting.
Unlike a few days ago, Toji was now by Zoro's side. If one of them protected Megumi and Tsumiki and the other fought, there would definitely be a chance of winning against Gojo Satoru.
For now, Zoro remained neutral. Whether to draw the sword or not would depend on what Gojo Satoru said next.
"One thing at a time. Start from the beginning."
What you just said, what does it mean?
Gojo Satoru looked at Zoro for a moment, then pushed away the pouting Megumi's cheek, pulled a chair closer, and sat down.
"Remember when I visited your house?"
"Yes."
"At that time, I used the power of the Gojo family to investigate the dispatch records of Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College. Based on that, I found a suitable location for your family."
Because such strong entities wouldn't leave nearby curses alone.
He selected a few areas in Tokyo where the population was large but the dispatch of sorcerers was suspiciously low in recent years. Then, sorcerers from the Gojo family were dispatched to those selected areas, and Satoru personally scoured the most promising locations.
'Not everyone we met at Ueno Zoo was from Tokyo, so it was almost like a gamble.'
Nonetheless, that plan was spectacularly successful, and Satoru was able to meet Zoro's family. He also found out they were using the Zenin surname. But…
"That information was passed to the head priest by someone from my family."
Everything from the fact that Gojo had gone to visit them, the location of their home, to brief personal information about Zoro's family.
"Who received it?"
"As I said, the head priest... who harbors some resentment towards the Zenin family."
His sister was almost sold into marriage to someone from the Zenin family, where she died, or something like that, Gojo muttered in a dry voice.
"He diverted some nearby protective charms. And used them to gather curses."
Toji laughed with a choked sound.
"So, because our information leaked and a head priest with a grudge against the Zenin targeted Zoro, this whole thing was orchestrated?"
"That's how it seems."
"Do you believe that?"
Gojo Satoru scoffed.
"Of course not. It's not a game a mere Grade 2 head priest can play."
However, further investigation was difficult. Since a person from the Gojo family was involved, there was suspicion that the Gojo family had orchestrated and tried to cover up the incident.
Indeed, the Zenin family was hopping mad, accusing the Gojo family of trying to assassinate their young and talented kin. Before, they didn't even know of their existence, but as soon as they learned that a Special Grade curse was defeated, they started ranting about their talented kin, which was quite hypocritical.
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