"Young Master Satoru, Zenin Toji is trash. Someohout cursed energy is not worth knowing!"

  "As the Six Eyes heir of the Gojo family, someoh Heavenly Restri isn't qualified to be your friend."

  Shinsuke's face twisted in dissatisfa.

  He couldn't uand why the Rokugan of the Gojo family would bother with someone like Toji.

  To him, Toji was nothing more than a failure, a man without cursed energy, utterly useless in the world of sorcery.

  Oher side, Satoshi's expression darkened, his irritation growing at being interrupted yet again by Shinsuke.

  Shunichi, standing guard at Satoshi's side, now wore an openly hostile expression.

  Shinsuke had been spouting insults about Toji, but in doing so, he was also ily insulting Satoshi.

  Did this fool not realize that he eaking to someone who also bore Heavenly Restri, someone who also cked cursed energy?

  Shunichi was about to step forward and act, but Satoshi stopped him.

  First, he oji's aowledgment.

  He wasn't sure why Toji remained indifferent, allowing Shio openly insult him like this, but at the moment, he himself had not been directly offended.

  As a member of the Gojo family, he couldn't apulse.

  Unfortunately, his silence was pletely misinterpreted by Zenin Shinsuke.

  "Young Master Satoru, you must be thinking the same thing as me, right? People without cursed energy have no p the world of jujutsu."

  "The sorcerer world belongs to sorcerers. art of the Three Great Families, the pinnacle of jujutsu society. Surely, you uand that, right?"

  Seeing Satoshi remain quiet, Shiook it as agreement.

  His expression grew more arrogant, his insults toward Toji being more btant.

  Until he said—

  "In the world of sorcery, Heavenly Restri is only given to trash!"

  —

  A sudden burst of cursed energy fred between Satoshi and Shinsuke.

  "Heavenly Restri is trash?"

  Satoru's voice was calm, yet chilling. His pierg blue eyes locked onto Zenin Shinsuke.

  "What qualifications do you have to say that?"

  His voice rang through the hall, sharp and anding.

  As a direct desdant of the Gojo family and the stro Six Eyes user of his geion, his words carried an undeniable weight.

  The entire venue fell silent.

  Ieiri Shoko, Okkotsu Yuto, Zenin Ogi, Gojo Kumaen…

  Everyouroward Satoru.

  Those outside the Gojo didn't fully uand why he was sed, but the members of the Gojo family knew immediately.

  Shinsuke's words had struck a nerve.

  Satoshi was a bearer of Heavenly Restri.

  To insult Heavenly Restri was to insult him.

  Shiiffeaking two involuntary steps bader the sheer pressure of Satoru's aura.

  His face was filled with shock.

  He kneerful the Six Eyes was.

  But he had never expected to be so thhly oppressed by the presence of a six-year-old child.

  He had made a mistake.

  He had assumed that the child before him was Satoru.

  But no—this was Gojo Satoshi.

  And in that moment, Shinsuke uood everything.

  He now knew why Satoshi had approached Toji.

  He now knew why Satoru was furious.

  He now uood why Kumaen had barely introduced Satoshi at all, why it seemed like the was trying to ignore him.

  "I see…"

  "Gojo Satoshi, you're also a bearer of Heavenly Restri!"

  Zenin Shinsuke's excmatio a ripple of shock through the entire hall.

  Ieiri Shoko, Okkotsu Yuto, Zenin Ogi.

  All eyes turoward Satoshi.

  Heavenly Restri.

  The other Six Eyes user of the Gojo family…

  Was born without any cursed energy.

  It sounded absurd, yet, uhe Gojo 's treatment of him, it all suddenly made sense.

  Toji's eyes flickered with realization.

  Now, he uood why he felt a sense of familiarity toward Satoshi.

  They were the same.

  Both born into one of the Three Great Families.

  Both raised in s that valued cursed energy above all else.

  Both discriminated against by their own blood.

  Now, it was clear.

  The six-year-old boy before him… had reized this simirity.

  That's why he had sought him out.

  A rare smile appeared on Zenin Toji's face.

  He looked at Satoshi silently, waiting to see how he would hahis situation.

  He was curious.

  How would this boy, who bore both the Six Eyes and Heavenly Restri respond?

  Would he simply ehe humiliation?

  Or would he fight back?

  Toji wao see it.

  "Gojo Satoshi…" he murmured, too quiet for anyone else to hear.

  "…You should be able to do it."

  —

  "Excuse me… Zenin Shinsuke, was it?"

  Satoshi's voice cut through the tension, light and almost pyful.

  "You mistook me for Satoru just now, didn't you?"

  He smiled at Shinsuke, his tone ced with amusement.

  "Yes, I'm Gojo Satoshi. I'm not a genius sorcerer like Satoru. I have no cursed energy. I am a bearer of Heavenly Restri, just like the trash you were talking about."

  Satoru and Shunichi frow Satoshi's self-depreg words, but he raised a hand to stop them.

  He had no iion of letting this slide.

  Gripping Sode no Shirayuki at his side, he took a step forward.

  "Zenin Shinsuke, do you really think I 't defeat you just because I ck cursed energy?"

  "Do you really believe that you represent the younger geion of the Zenin family?"

  His voice turned cold.

  "What you just said is a direct provocation to me."

  "The dignity of the Gojo family ot be trampled upon. Not even by the Zenin ."

  He tightened his grip on his sword.

  "Allow me, a so-called loser, to shatter your shallow beliefs."

  "Zenin Shinsuke, I challenge you to an Imperial Duel!"

  The Imperial Duel, a long-standing tradition of the Three Great Families.

  To avoid unnecessary loss of powerful sorcerers, disputes between members of these s could be settled through this formal duel.

  Ohe duel was cluded, the results would be final, no further hostilities would be permitted between the involved parties, ensuring tinued cooperatioween the s.

  And Satoshi had seized this ce.

  If he could crush Zenin Shinsuke in the Imperial Duel, it would serve as both a lesson and a form of retribution.

  Not just for himself.

  But for Zenin Toji as well.

  Even though Toji hadn't ht expressed displeasure at Shinsuke's words, there was no way he was fih them.

  Satoshi exhaled.

  sider this my way of proving that Heavenly Restri isn't something to be looked down upon.

  "Imperial Duel!?" Gasps erupted throughout the hall.