[The same tactics. Down to the last detail.]

[Naobito Zenin knelt on one knee against the rough asphalt, one hand clamped over his battered stomach.]

[Every ragged breath sent a fresh wave of churning agony through his gut, each pulse of pain scraping along nerves sharpened by decades as a Grade 1 sorcerer.]

[Only now did those bloodshot old eyes fully comprehend the terror of the young man standing before him. He was one hundred percent certain: the person in the Jujutsu High uniform was Megumi Fushiguro’s teacher.]

[Because in that split-second exchange, every element of the attack had been identical. The flood of weak shikigami, Rabbit Escape, deployed to blind him and strip away spatial awareness. The silent creep of shadow spreading like a swamp beneath his feet. The sudden loss of footing weaponized to shatter Projection Sorcery’s rigid frame-count rules and trigger the freeze penalty. All of it was carved from the same mold as the tactics Megumi had used back at the Zenin compound when his Divine Dog turned the tables on Naoya.]

[Cold sweat seeped through Naobito’s back in a fine, ceaseless film. Something worse than pain crawled up his spine: retroactive dread.]

[Because no one understood better than he did that the lightning-fast kick he’d taken had been pulled.]

[If you could wield the Ten Shadows Technique with equal mastery, then during that lethal frozen second when he’d been locked inside the two-dimensional frame, you could have done what Megumi did. Summoned a shikigami with claws that would split him crown to navel. Drawn a cursed tool. Killed him as easily as snuffing a candle.]

[But you hadn’t. You hadn’t even maintained the technique lockdown on his Cursed Technique. Instead, you’d casually summoned a swarm of harmless rabbits.]

[The realization hit Naobito’s war-worn heart like a stone dropping into deep water. He finally understood the message hidden behind what had seemed like an unnecessary flourish.]

[This hadn’t been a fight. It had been a declaration, delivered from so far above him that looking up made his neck ache. You’d been telling him, in the most humiliating way possible:]

[Even if I release the lock and let you use your precious technique at full power. Even if I limit myself to the same basic Ten Shadows moves I taught my student. Whenever I feel like it, in the very domain of speed you’re most proud of, I can take Naobito Zenin’s head as easily as crushing an ant.]

[Inside the car, Mei Mei’s shock eclipsed even the man kneeling on the pavement.]

[Those eyes that always stayed half-lidded, glinting with calculation, were blown wide open. The red lips that normally held an elegant, composed smile hung parted, unable to close.]

[She’d built a mental model of your strength long ago. Scraps of intelligence gathered during the Star Plasma Vessel escort incident, combined with the way Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto, two Special Grade monsters who bowed to no one, consistently treated you with something that looked an awful lot like deference and respect. She’d known you were an abyss with no visible bottom.]

[But suspecting it and watching it happen were different countries entirely.]

[She’d never imagined that when a head of the Big Three Sorcerer Families served as your measuring stick, the gap between you would yawn this wide, this hopeless.]

[This was Naobito Zenin. The Fastest Sorcerer in all of Japan behind Satoru Gojo alone.]

[Even running the scenario in her own head, Mei Mei knew that if she faced Projection Sorcery herself, she’d need a massive array of crows deployed in advance on suicide runs to stand any chance. In a close-quarters blitz where afterimages blurred into nothing, she’d struggle to gain any real advantage and risked being killed in an instant.]

[And what had happened here? One exchange. A single pass. The untouchable head of the Zenin Clan hadn’t grazed so much as your sleeve before being kicked across the road like a toddler tripping over his own feet.]

[He couldn’t even survive one move?]

[Outside, in the dark, you stood with the same weightless composure as before.]

[Looking down at Naobito, still gasping on his knees, you spoke without a trace of inflection.]

["That should be enough of a lesson. Or does the dignity of a Big Three head demand another attempt?"]

["..."]

[Inside his billowing sleeves, Naobito’s fists clenched until his nails bit into his palms.]

[The frustration was excruciating. Deep in his core, the pride of a battle-hardened Grade 1 sorcerer howled, trying to ignite the will to fight you to the death.]

[But reality had doused whatever the alcohol had left burning. What remained of his reason delivered the verdict without mercy: he could not win.]

[Summoning what felt like the last of his strength, he fixed his eyes on you and asked, voice low and deadly serious.]

["Was it you... did that bastard Toji put you up to this?"]

[You regarded his guarded expression and shook your head, tone casual.]

["I don’t know what kind of rotten deal he made with you, but he did ask me to keep an eye on those two kids while he was gone."]

["..."]

[Naobito’s gaze dropped. He turned the words over in his mind, chewing on every syllable.]

[Old fox that he was, he pieced together the logic quickly enough. Toji hadn’t foreseen tonight’s clash and specifically arranged for you to block the Zenin Clan. You’d become Megumi’s guardian and mentor for a far simpler reason: someone had asked you to look after a child, and you’d done it.]

[While Naobito’s thoughts churned, you reached into your jacket pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a metal lighter.]

[A crisp click.]

[You dipped your head to light up. The tobacco crackled with a rough, granular hiss as you drew deep, then exhaled a slow cloud of grey-white smoke.]

["What you should be doing right now isn’t standing here stewing in frustration. You should be counting your blessings that I’m the one who stopped you. If you’d gotten past me and gone for Megumi in that car while he was wound that tight... you wouldn’t be standing here talking to me in one piece."]

[Naobito’s pupils contracted sharply.]

[You gestured lazily toward the night sky with the hand holding your cigarette and continued, patient as a teacher walking a student through a theorem.]

["You’re a head of the Big Three. You should understand this better than anyone. Compared to letting a child run wild and burn through power without restraint, teaching someone that young to control his strength with precision in a life-or-death fight... that’s a thousand times harder."]

[Thunder detonated inside Naobito’s skull.]

[His already sweat-soaked back plunged into an ice bath. Perspiration streamed down his forehead in sheets.]

[Before chasing Megumi out of the compound, he’d done his duty as clan head and assessed the casualties with ruthless speed. Ogi Zenin, weapon shattered, chest caved in. Jinichi Zenin, injured during the breakout, along with a string of elite members from the Hei and the combat squads. Every one of them hurt, some of them crippled.]

[But not one of them dead.]

[The full horror of what you’d said crashed over him.]

[Megumi’s shikigami had torn through those battle-seasoned Grade 1 sorcerers with ease. Which meant that if a single flicker of killing intent had crossed the boy’s mind during his escape, or if he’d lost his grip on the shikigami’s feral instincts for even a heartbeat... he could have mowed through Ogi Zenin and every last one of them like cutting grass.]

[It was because of this monstrous teacher drilling discipline into Megumi day after day that the boy had maintained absolute control over his power even in the grip of terror and fury.]

[That was the only reason the ancient Zenin Clan hadn’t been gutted tonight, reduced to a laughingstock of the jujutsu world, or wiped off the map entirely, by a black hound summoned by a child who hadn’t turned ten.]

[This... this is the true power of the Ten Shadows Technique, the lost heritage of our clan...]

[Naobito whispered it to himself, and something erupted behind those clouded eyes: a blinding collision of revelation and feverish awe.]

[He finally understood. The old family records weren’t legends. This was the power that had let the Zenin Clan stand tall against the Gojo Clan centuries ago, matching their Six Eyes and Limitless blow for blow, fighting them to mutual destruction.]

[If he pushed the thought further... given the cold-blooded tactical sense, the devious application of technique, and the explosive force Megumi had displayed tonight... if the boy at this age were pitted against the Gojo Clan’s divine child with the Six Eyes at the same age, Megumi might have a serious chance of winning.]

[Watching fear, terror, and a kind of feverish obsession war across Naobito’s face, you knew the night’s performance had achieved exactly what you’d intended. The "shock and awe," the demonstration, both had landed perfectly.]

[The boundless potential of the Ten Shadows Technique and the genius named Megumi Fushiguro had been seared into the rotting memory and greedy marrow of the Zenin Clan’s leadership. Permanently.]

[You dropped the spent cigarette and ground it out under your shoe.]

["I don’t know what you people are scheming behind the scenes, but I can guess. It’s probably some idiotic mess Toji stirred up for money. Let me be clear: I’m his teacher, not his legal guardian. I have no intention of overstepping and deciding the boy’s future for him."]

[You turned and walked toward the car, your voice drifting back on the night wind.]

["If you have the skill to persuade Megumi, to make him genuinely willing to nod his head and go back to the Zenin Clan of his own free will, I won’t say a word. But..."]

[Your stride paused. You glanced back over your shoulder, lenses catching a shard of cold light.]

["Don’t ever think about using force like tonight again. That... would be pointless."]

[...]

[Naobito stood in the frigid wind like a statue, one hand pressed to his aching stomach, absorbing every word of that final warning as though it were a sentencing.]

[A lifetime spent navigating the power struggles of the jujutsu world had made him a consummate politician. He caught the key word instantly.]

[You’d said "pointless." Not "don’t."]

[He understood the subtext with perfect clarity. If the Zenin Clan tried force again, what they’d face next time wouldn’t be a child’s desperate struggle. It would be the nameless horror standing before him now, wielding enough absolute violence to tear the entire Zenin Clan out by the roots.]

[Because against power like that, every scheme and strong-arm tactic became exactly what you’d called it. Pointless.]

[You didn’t spare Naobito another glance. You pulled open the car door and dropped into the passenger seat.]

[The engine rumbled low and deep. The car swung around and vanished into the darkness, a black phantom swallowed by the winding mountain road.]

[From inside the car, you watched the shrinking figure in the rearview mirror and felt no concern that Naobito would broadcast your abilities or tonight’s humiliation.]

[Partly because countless simulation runs had already confirmed that Naobito Zenin, hidebound and stubborn as he was, wasn’t one of the people lurking on the other side of the stitch line.]

[Partly because, whether driven by his own towering pride as clan head or the Zenin family’s ancient obsession with saving face, the shame of being single-handedly dismantled by an outsider, their own clan head punted across the asphalt, was a secret they’d guard far more zealously than you ever would. They’d bury it and let it rot.]

[As for what came next for Megumi... you glanced at the boy slumped unconscious across the back seat, drained to his last drop of energy.]

[After tonight, the Zenin Clan’s leadership would scramble to clean up this mess far more eagerly than you ever needed to.]

[Countless simulated lifetimes had taught you everything about that reeking, fossilized family.]

[To the Zenin Clan, Megumi Fushiguro, who had displayed talent and power that bordered on the divine, was a black rose laced with lethal poison, radiating an irresistible allure.]

[The deeper tonight’s thorns had cut them, the more their blood soaked the ground, the more they’d been humbled and wounded by that strength, the more desperately they’d crave the intoxicating potential Megumi represented.]

[Because it was carved into the Zenin bloodline across generations, an instinct as revolting as it was honest: the fear of absolute authority, and the worship of absolute power. Cruelty to the weak. Worship of the strong.]