Seeing Eriri's expression ge like that, Ryuji couldn't help but ugh.

  She was always amusing to him, especially wheried so hard to hide her true feelings.

  However, it robably a good idea to reassure her.

  With a smile, Ryuji said, "Alright, let's do as Eriri says. We explore the shopping street ime!"

  Eriri, who had been a bit a first, brightened up when she heard his words.

  "Okay!" she agreed cheerfully.

  Sayuri, who had been them, sighed with mild exasperation.

  "Well, in that case, let's pn for the rip," she ceded.

  Eriri, hearing this, shot an annoyed g her mother.

  ime? I'll make sure you don't tag aloime, she thought. There's no way I'll let you spoil things again!

  "Let's go," Eriri said hastily, grabbing Ryuji's hand and dragging him toward the couple's mall, eager to escape from her mother.

  Watg her daughter rush away like that, Sayuri couldn't help but chuckle to herself.

  Ah, I see how it is.

  She wasn't na?ve Sayuri could tell Eriri was trying to run away with Ryuji.

  But what she'd been really looking for was Ryuji's respoo see if he would side with her daughter. It seemed he did.

  That's very good, Sayuri thought. She didn't know all the details about Ryuji's background, but if he was siderate and cared for her daughter, that was more than enough for her.

  "Hmph~" Sayuri hummed tentedly to herself as she followed after them, still in a good mood.

  The afternoon passed quickly.

  By the time they finished dihe sky outside had darkened, casting long shadows over the street.

  "Is it this te already?" Eriri said with disappoi as she g the time.

  Damn it! If Mom hadn't tagged along, maybe I could've asked Ryuji to see a movie with me… Maybe even go to a hotel afterward… but no, she just had to e along and ruihing!

  "Eriri, were you pnning to spend the night?" Sayuri teased her daughter, much to Eriri's horror.

  Oh my god, what are you saying?! she thought, mortified. I'm so gd I was here to stop this, Sayuri tinued silently, though a little flicted. She liked Ryuji, but the thought of her daughter rushing things still made her unfortable as a mother.

  "No! That's not what I meant!" Eriri stammered, her face flushed with embarrassment.

  She threw a gre at her mother, trying to save face. If Ryuji thought she was that easy, it would be disastrous!

  Ryuji, however, just chuckled softly. He reached out and tapped Eriri's forehead gently.

  "Alright, alright," he said. "There's always aime."

  His words seemed to calm Eriri down. She looked up at him, her mood visibly lifting as she smiled shyly.

  "Okay," she said, nodding seriously, her earlier frustration fotten.

  Sayuri watched the exge, speechless. Her daughter's mood ged so quickly, and the way she looked at Ryuji… Yep, her little girl had grown up.

  "Well the's—"

  Before Sayuri could finish her sentence, a group of men in suits and sungsses suddenly approached them. There were three or four of them, and they immediately moved to block Ryuji's path, their attention fixed on him.

  "Are you Ryuji?" one of them asked, his voice cold and anding.

  "???"

  The sudden frontation caught both Eriri and Sayuri by surprise. They exged fused looks.

  Why were these men looking for Ryuji? Could he have gotten into some kind of trouble? Sayuri wondered. But after spending the afternoon with him, she found it hard to believe. She decided to hold her judgment and see what was going on.

  "What do you want with me?" Ryuji asked, his voice calm, but his sharp gaze didn't miss a thing.

  He could se immediately these weren't ordinary people. There was cursed energy radiating from them.

  These men were sorcerers.

  sidering his iions with Gojo Satoru, Zenin Maki, and Inumaki Toge, Ryuji figured that his identity had probably spread within the sorcerer world by now.

  But were these people from the higher-ups, ue curse users?

  "You don't o ask so many questions," one of the men said arrogantly, his voice dripping with disdain.

  It became clear from their posture and attitude they believed themselves superior. It wasn't something that could be easily faked.

  Ah, I see now. Rotten officials from the sorcerer world, Ryuji thought to himself, the pieces falling into pce. Their arrogance was unmistakable. These weren't rogue curse users; they were from the upper echelons, the ones who had been corrupted by power, much like Gojo had warned him about.

  "You're ing with us," one of the men said, stepping forward. "Someone wants to see you."

  As they moved in closer, it was clear that if Ryuji refused, they were prepared to use force.

  "What do you think you're doing?!" Eriri stepped in front of Ryuji, her voice filled with anger. She wasly sure what was happening, but she khese men weren't friendly.

  "A monkey?"

  One of the men sneered as he looked at Eriri, his eyes cold and dismissive.

  To them, Eriri, a normal person, was nothing more than a primitive being worthless in their eyes.

  Their words made Ryuji's eyes narrow. It was an attitude he had seen among some sorcerers a belief that ordinary humans were beh them. Some sorcerers sidered non-sorcerers to be little more than animals.

  "Wait…"

  Sayuri, seeing her daughter getting involved, quickly stepped forward, trying to defuse the situation.

  "I'm Sayuri Sawamura of the Sawamura family. That's my daughter, and Ryuji is her friend. Please, show some respect."

  She had hoped that invoking the Sawamura name would make these meate. After all, the Sawamura family was well-known, if not as iial as the Shinomiya family.

  But instead, they just ughed.

  "The Sawamura family?"

  "A family of monkeys?"

  Their ughter was filled with derision. The Sawamura family meant nothing to them unless it was one of the great sorcerer families like Gojo or Zenin, they couldn't care less.

  Sayuri was taken aback by their pt. How dare they talk like that?

  "You should step aside, or we'll destroy your little monkey family too," one of the men said coldly.

  Theuro Ryuji. "You knoe are. You know the sequences if you refuse us."

  The arrogan their voices was almost unbearable.

  Ryuji gently pced a hand on both Sayuri and Eriri's shoulders, signaling them to stay calm.

  He looked at the sorcerers, a dangerous smile f on his lips.

  "So… you're the pdogs of those rotten higher-ups, huh?"

  "You!" One of the men, infuriated by Ryuji's audacity, stepped forward.

  But Ryuji cut him off with a dark, quiet voice.

  "If the Sawamura family is harmed because of this, I'll wipe out every st one of you."

  In fact, Ryuji khat Gojo shared the same ses, but Gojo had yet to a them. Ryuji, however, had no such qualms.

  If they touched anyone close to him, he wouldn't hesitate to sughter them all.

  "You've got some nerve," one of the men growled, the atmosphere growing tense.

  Ryuji just smiled wider.

  "Do you know who you're dealing with?" one of the sorcerers barked.

  Ryuji's eyes gleamed dangerously. "I don't care who you are."

  The sorcerers, who were used to being treated with resped fear, were clearly not prepared for this level of defiance.

  Sayuri, watg this exge, was stunned. It didn't seem like these men were part of any trouble Ryuji had gotten into they seemed to be uimating him.

  "You should know the cost of attag us," another sorcerer said, trying tain the upper hand.

  But Ryuji had had enough.

  He tugged at his colr, revealing the cursed marks along his mouth, a sign of the powerful spell he now trolled.

  "What the…?!" The sorcerers' eyes widened in shock.

  "Kneel," Ryuji anded.

  Instantly, the invisible force of the spell smmed into the sorcerers, f them to their knees.

  Veins bulged on their foreheads as they struggled to stand, but it was futile. They were pletely powerless against the spell.

  "This… this is the Inumaki family's cursed teique!"

  "How… how you use it?!"

  The curse teique from the Inumaki family was infamous, and seeing it in a left the sorcerers dumbstruck.

  "I don't care what you say," one of the men gasped. "But if you kill us, your friends will die too!"

  Ryuji's smile disappeared, his expression growing dark.

  "That was your st mistake."

  With one final and, he activated the spell fully.

  "it suicide."

  As Ryuji turned away, leading Sayuri and Eriri past the kneeling sorcerers, the spell took full effect.

  "Ahh!"

  A bloodcurdling scream erupted from one of the men. His hands, as if trolled by an unseen force, reached for the dagger at his waist. Despite the horror in his eyes, his body moved against his will.

  "No, no, please, no!" the sorcerer pleaded, his face pale with terror. But it was too te. His own hand sshed the bde across his throat, the gurgling sound of his final breath eg in the now-horrified crowd that had gathered nearby.

  The other sorcerers watched in frozen disbelief as their rade colpsed in a pool of his own blood. Some bystanders shrieked, others ran away in fear, but none dared approach.

  Ryuji didn't even gnce back at the se, though his senses were fully aware of everything happening behind him. He could hear the remaining sorcerers, struggling to break free from the spell's grip, their gasps filled with the terror of knowing they couldn't stop what was i.

  One by ohey would follow.

  The tension in the air was suffog, but Ryuji's stride remained calm and unhurried as he guided Eriri and Sayuri out of the chaos.

  "This… is real?" Sayuri whispered, her voice shaky with disbelief.

  She had never witnessed something so horrific before. To watch men die like that, trolled by nothing more than a word from Ryuji… it was beyond prehension.

  Eriri, though ner to Ryuji's power, still shuddered at the se. She held onto Ryuji's arm more tightly but didn't say anything. She trusted him pletely.

  "Everything's fine now," Ryuji reassured them softly, his voice calm. "They won't bother us again."

  Sayuri, still in shock, could only nod, but her mind was rag. Just what kind of world had her daughter gotten involved in? And Ryuji… what was he?

  Before Sayuri could process any further, Ryuji suddenly came to a stop.

  Directly in front of them stood a figure, impeccably dressed in a tailored suit, his tie , and a pair of distinct, circur gsses resting on his nose. His expression was stoic, almost bored, as if nothing around him could phase him.

  It was Nanami Kento.