"What do you want from me?"
Toji lit a cigarette after finding an empty alley.
"Toji, did you forget something?" Eichi asked.
"What?"
Seeing Toji turn his head with a confused expression, Eichi covered his face helplessly.
"You forgot Megumi Fushiguro, Fushiguro Tsumiki, and Fushiguro Minako."
Just in case, Eichi even mentioned their full names, including "Fushiguro" for all of them.
"Megumi?"
Toji's expression was blank, like he could be made into an emoji.
Eichi grew even more helpless.
It was as if he drank a bottle of milk and forgot his child.
People often say there's great terror between life and death, and many who experience it no longer care about many things.
Toji was such a person.
The only problem was that Toji cared about a little too many things.
He never experienced parental love or responsibility as a child.
Toji also didn't know what responsibilities a father should fulfill.
Perhaps it was because of this that Toji later chose to sell Megumi Fushiguro to Naobito.
But to say that Toji didn't love Megumi Fushiguro was impossible.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have recognized Megumi Fushiguro and said, "Not a Zenin, that's good," before taking his own life.
Eichi only remembered often hearing a saying: the unfortunate must spend their entire lives healing their childhoods.
Toji was in such a situation.
Perhaps he would never understand the thoughts of a normal family in his lifetime.
"He's your son."
"Ah, Megumi. Speaking of that name, I'm the one who gave it to him."
At that moment, Toji showed a happy expression.
"Listen carefully, Toji."
"Huh?"
Toji turned his head, his indifferent expression returning, as if nothing mattered to him.
"Children need to eat to survive, and eating requires money. Even that dumpster, the Zenin Clan, at least left you a meal, didn't it?"
Saying this, Eichi looked up and continued to provoke him.
"Are you even worse than that dumpster, the Zenin Clan?"
Eichi knew that there were very few things in this world that Toji truly cared about.
Megumi, whom he occasionally remembered, and... the Zenin Clan, which left him with lifelong scars.
"Tsk."
Toji seemed to recall something, making an annoyed sound.
"I get it. I'll go back tonight."
Toji scratched his head.
"Do you still have money?" Eichi asked, concerned.
He was afraid Toji had gambled all his money away.
Since Toji became a complete Heavenly Restriction, there was almost nothing that excited him besides games of chance like soccer betting and horse racing.
The key was that Toji didn't even care about money.
"Still have some. If not, I'll just ask Chizuru for some."
"Chizuru?"
"Ah, that woman you just saw is her."
Eichi's mouth twitched.
It really is you. You can be so righteous taking one woman's money to support another.
"I say, Toji, didn't you used to take on a lot of requests? Find some proper work."
"Requests? I haven't taken one of those in years. Besides, isn't work just for people to earn money? Aren't I earning money right now?"
Eichi was defeated by Toji's words.
Seemingly sensing Eichi's thoughts, Toji continued.
"How I live my life is my business. Why do I have to work according to other people's demands?"
It was blunt, yet very real.
Toji's words reminded Eichi of a book he had read in his previous life.
"Bullshit Jobs."
The book began by posing a question to you.
Do you think your work contributes to this world?
If you don't know, the author later provided a simple and crude solution.
How significant would the impact on this world be if your job disappeared?
This simplifies the question you need to ponder considerably.
If ordinary jobs like farmers, doctors, and sanitation workers disappeared, our lives would certainly be greatly affected.
But if those at the top, like foundation executives, investment assistants, and executive secretaries, whom we perceive as earning fortunes daily, disappeared, would our lives become difficult to sustain?
According to the author's view, the reason why current jobs feel fake and empty is that the core of work is no longer about improving efficiency and output.
Instead, it's about maintaining the existing order and the established Rank hierarchy.
This is what has led to the increasing psychological trauma caused by current jobs to ordinary people.
The resentment of today's workers is truly greater than that of ghosts; who knows how many evil sword immortals it could nourish.
Toji didn't experience such a situation.
Toji didn't care about rules; he only cared about survival and following his own will.
Perhaps the death of Megumi Fushiguro's birth mother was also a reason for this.
This big boy lost the person he loved just as he was beginning to feel what love was.
Therefore, he became even more closed off.
Eichi didn't know if he could kick open Toji's heart, but he knew someone who could.
Megumi Fushiguro.
This child, who had raised Gojo Satoru, could definitely do it.
"Alright, remember to go back and see Megumi and the others."
On the way here, Eichi also learned about the situation of Minako and the two children.
Minako's life was struggling under the expenses of raising children and daily living.
If she didn't pay the rent soon, she might be evicted from the two-story house they were currently living in.
This was after the landlord had already extended her some time out of consideration for Minako raising two children alone.
"Why don't you just buy that house? Because they couldn't pay the rent, Megumi and the others almost ended up on the streets."
The statement was a bit exaggerated, but when Gojo Satoru found Megumi Fushiguro later, the siblings' living conditions were indeed very poor.
"How much is that house?"
"...Let me check."
"Housing prices have fallen again. Now it's over 20,000 Island Nation yen per square meter..."
Since the collapse of the Island Nation's real estate bubble more than a decade ago, housing prices had been plummeting, but Eichi remembered the lowest point was still many years away.
The house was two stories, with a yard and a garage... Eichi quickly estimated the price in his mind and then gave the answer.
"Ah, it's ten million yen."
Toji scratched his head.
Never mind, I'll just ask Chizuru for more.
"Why don't you take on some Cursed Spirits exorcism requests? With cursed tools, it shouldn't be hard for you to exorcise Cursed Spirits. You could save up ten million Island Nation yen in no time."
Geto had once saved up money by frantically exorcising Cursed Spirits to buy his dream cursed tool, Playful Cloud.
"Huh?"
Toji turned to look at Eichi.
"Who wants to fight to the death when they can earn money comfortably?"
Toji's eyes showed a look that seemed to say, 'Is something wrong with this kid's brain?'
Crack.
Eichi instantly broke.
Damn, I'm so envious... No, it's criticism.
This unhealthy trend must be severely criticized and firmly curbed.