"My dear son, Mirai!"
"You've truly given your father the greatest surprise of all today!"
There was no sarcasm in his voice. As Zenin Toji stepped closer, his tone was warm, almost reverent.
He ignored Naobito, who stood nearby, and gazed at Zenin Mirai with eyes filled not with familial affection, but with a feverish obsession, as though he were staring at some priceless artifact.
"Haha… Hahaha!"
Covered in blood and standing amidst the rubble, ten-year-old Zenin Mirai laughed wildly, uncontrollably.
"Seems I still underestimated just how disgusting you really are."
"That look on your face… it's honestly revolting, Zenin Toji."
Mirai's scorn and contempt didn't surprise Naobito in the slightest. Nor did they seem to bother Toji, who had clearly expected as much.
Stepping forward until he was about five meters from his son, Toji calmly sheathed his katana. His voice softened.
"Mirai, I know your life these past ten years has been anything but kind. I failed to give you the care you deserved."
"But starting today, everything changes."
"From this moment forward, I will do everything in my power to fulfill your every wish. The entire Zenin Clan will."
"The Ten Shadows Technique… the strongest technique passed down through the Zenin line for over a millennium."
"You, my son, who has mastered this technique, there is no question. You are the rightful heir to the clan."
Toji's voice grew more impassioned, his eyes burning brighter.
Not only had he found his successor...
With Mirai's sudden rise, he had filled the very void that had denied him leadership, his inability to produce strong offspring.
If he could defeat Naobito in public, then taking the clan head position for himself would seem only natural.
Even if he couldn't beat Naobito openly, there were… other methods. Assassination, perhaps...
No matter what, Zenin Mirai, his own flesh and blood, the one who held the Ten Shadows, was now the indisputable next clan head.
Beneath the dim moonlight, with crumbling ruins behind them, the father's face burned with ambition while the son's burned with madness.
This jarring contrast twisted the atmosphere, and even Naobito, standing just a few steps away, felt a cold shiver crawl up his spine.
Seeing that Mirai remained silent, Toji assumed his son had been moved by the vision he painted.
Reflecting on their strained past, he added with heartfelt conviction, "Don't worry, my son."
"Those servants who humiliated you... the sorcerers who mocked you... I'll make sure they all pay in blood."
Having said this, Toji searched his mind for any other wrongs his son might have suffered.
After a brief silence,
"Heh."
Mirai finally broke the stillness with a scoff.
"What about my mother?"
"The woman you personally threw into the Forbidden Vault when I was just six years old?"
Toji's face froze in shock. Mirai's expression, too, hardened.
"Ridiculous. Absurd."
Then, the boy broke into wild laughter, laughing until he coughed, laughing until tears streamed from his eyes.
The blood on his face smeared with his tears. He whispered bitterly to himself, "I actually hoped this beast would feel guilt. Or regret."
"Your mother?" Toji blinked, as if genuinely confused. "She was just an ordinary woman. A powerless waste who couldn't even control cursed energy. Giving birth to you was the only meaningful thing she ever did for the Zenin Clan."
The "Forbidden Vault" that Mirai mentioned was a sealed underground dungeon, where the clan kept Cursed Spirits.
Toji's face darkened with a trace of anger as he recalled the past. "That wench had the nerve to try and take you away from the clan."
The thought still sent chills down his spine. If she had succeeded in stealing his precious son, how could he ever have dreamed of becoming clan head?
"I see…"
"So that's what happened. Mother… tried to help me escape from this hell."
It had taken four whole years, but now, Mirai finally knew the truth about his mother's death, from the mouth of the man who ended her.
And it was precisely four years ago, when the only person who loved him in this cursed family died, that his awakening began.
"That's enough. Looking at you any longer makes me sick."
As Mirai spoke coldly, the intricate patterns in his scarlet eyes began to spin. A tear in space opened beside his shoulder, and a massive palm shot out.
BOOM!!
The entire estate shook like an earthquake. Even the shockwave alone reduced several buildings to rubble.
ROOOOAAARR!!
A monstrous entity emerged from the rift beside Mirai. With its colossal hands bracing the cracked earth, it raised its head and roared into the sky.
Only its upper body was visible, yet its sheer size stretched beyond a hundred meters. The oppressive aura it released far surpassed that of any ordinary Special Grade Cursed Spirit.
"A Special Grade Cursed Spirit?!"
Naobito leapt to the side, eyes wide as he shouted in disbelief.
Any anime fan from Earth would instantly recognize the monster under Mirai's control,
The Outer Path Gedo Statue, the vessel of the Ten Tails.
...
Wasn't this kid using the Ten Shadows Technique?
Then what kind of technique let him control a Cursed Spirit like that?
As the clan head, Naobito frantically combed through his mental archive of known techniques and jujutsu lore.
Step, step, step…
Under the pale moonlight, Mirai walked toward his "beloved" father, who lay embedded in the ground, drenched in blood.
Toji had been caught off-guard. He hadn't expected his son to strike so suddenly, or with such ruthlessness.
Even though he'd reinforced his vital points with cursed energy just in time, the Gedo Statue's blow had left him seriously wounded.
"Cough… Cough…"
Curled up in a crevice, his body broken and bloodied, Zenin Toji now looked nothing like the proud man he had been moments ago.
As Mirai drew near, Toji struggled to get back on his feet, trembling with effort.
But the killing intent in the boy's eyes, and the monstrous presence looming behind him, made Toji's blood run cold.
For the first time, a flicker of fear and confusion entered Zenin Toji's eyes.
He didn't understand.
She was just a woman. A human. Why did the boy rage so furiously in her name?
"To be born without a cursed technique is to be less than human."
That ancient Zenin belief had long since been etched into his bones.
"My s, "
The word barely left his mouth before everything spun, the world tilted sideways, and the light faded from his vision.
"Wait, "
Naobito, who had arrived a moment too late, opened his mouth to intervene, only to suck in a sharp breath.
Right before his eyes, in that very instant-
Zenin Toji's neck was consumed by a rupture in space, completely devoured the moment Mirai's gaze sharpened.
What was that technique?!
As Naobito turned toward the ten-year-old boy, bloodied but calm-faced, a flicker of unmistakable fear surfaced deep in his eyes.
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200 P.S = 1 Extra Chapter