Night. The bustling streets shimmered with city lights.
Maki and Mai, still little girls, held tightly onto their mother's hands, savoring the rare breeze and the sense of freedom it brought beyond the Zenin estate walls.
As they passed a toy store, Mai's gaze lingered longingly through the thick glass, though she kept quiet, too well-mannered to speak her desire aloud.
"Buy them all," their mother said suddenly.
Her voice startled Mai.
"I-it's fine, Mother. I don't really want toys," she replied quickly, shaking her head.
A lie. Pretending. Hiding.
This was the first lesson Mai had learned growing up in the Zenin Clan, how to mask her emotions.
"I'm not buying them because you want them," her mother said softly, looking down at her daughter. "I'm doing it because it's the Clan Head's order. We must obey."
Buy whatever the girls showed interest in, this was the instruction Zenin Mirai had left before his departure.
The woman followed that command with solemn care, though perhaps, in her actions, there was a trace of maternal tenderness that could not be completely hidden.
"...Okay."
"I understand, Mother."
"Pull back the surveillance on Shoko."
"Have you found the cursed user I asked you to locate?"
Inside the Zenin estate's meeting room, Mirai sat with his chin resting casually on one hand, his tone flat and unbothered.
Just as Shoko had suspected earlier that day, the real target of that staged outing wasn't the cursed users, it was Suguru Geto.
But among those users was still a specific target Mirai had hoped to flush out. Unfortunately, the bait hadn't worked.
"Clan Head, we... we still haven't found anything," stammered the sorcerer responsible for the investigation, bowing deeply, his back stiff with dread.
Silence fell. The massive meeting hall turned deathly still.
Sweat beaded and dripped from the man's brow, soaking the back of his robes. The wordless pressure in the room grew heavier with each second.
"Hhh...!"
"Drip... drip."
Zenin Ju, a Grade 1 sorcerer tasked with the cursed user search, clenched his teeth tightly, trying to endure the pain of his missing left arm.
His bloodshot eyes were devoid of emotion, cold, lifeless.
Compared to the friendly youth who had been speaking so openly with Shoko earlier that day, the Mirai before them now was like a different person altogether.
"Three months ago, I gave you his image and the details of his cursed technique."
"Three full months, and you've got nothing?"
Mirai's eyes narrowed coldly as he stared at the one-armed man. "If you still have nothing next time I ask, save me the trouble and end yourself."
"Y-yes!"
Ju didn't even bother to stop the bleeding. He bowed so low his head nearly hit the floor, grateful that it was only his arm lost and not his head.
Watching from the side, even the former Clan Head felt a rare sense of awe.
That heartless brat... had actually shown a sliver of mercy today?
They were slowly growing used to this new kind of "discipline" under Mirai's rule.
With that matter settled, Mirai casually flipped open an old, worn notebook in his hands.
Monitoring underage children?
Locating Sukuna's fingers?
A woman with stitches across her forehead?
One bizarre order after another flowed from his lips, none of which the others could make sense of.
Yet not a single soul dared raise a question.
"That's enough for now. Get the preparations in place."
With those words, Mirai stood from his cross-legged seat and stretched.
He then formed a series of hand signs slowly and murmured, "Clear out every living thing within five hundred meters."
The underground training chamber destroyed during the earlier incident still hadn't been rebuilt.
As soon as he spoke, without needing further command from Naobito, everyone scattered at once.
It was like ink dropping into a still pond.
The moment Zenin Mirai released the suppression on his cursed energy, the entire Zenin estate shifted. He became the absolute center of gravity.
Everyone, sorcerers and civilians alike, within a five-hundred-meter radius suddenly felt as if a giant weight had settled on their hearts.
"Buru Bu, Yura Yura…"
Mirai whispered ancient syllables under his breath.
The shadows beneath his feet began to ripple and boil under the light.
"Mahoraga!!!"
Not far away, Naobito broke out in a cold sweat and shouted aloud in shock.
No wonder Mirai had cleared the area.
This was the summoning ritual of the Ten Shadows Technique.
Naobito's fists clenched instinctively, his heart racing wildly.
According to the historical records, no Zenin Clan Head in all of history had ever succeeded in taming the strongest shikigami.
From the shadows emerged a massive, monstrous figure, its presence alone enough to chill the blood.
Its muscular upper body was bare, veins bulging across its torso. Above its head floated a wheel-like formation resembling a ship's helm.
A massive unsheathed blade, bound to its right arm in torn bandages, glinted with a sharp, cold light.
Its grotesque face twisted into a feral snarl, baring jagged fangs. Two gnarled branch-like protrusions grew from its eyes, resembling demonic wings.
Two rows of black hound shikigami howled beside its feet, as if welcoming its descent.
"The Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General, Mahoraga."
Mirai whispered the creature's full name, his crimson eyes alight with fascination.
"Boom!"
Before he could admire it further, Mahoraga's sword-bound right arm suddenly lashed out toward Mirai.
This was the solo taming ritual: either tame the shikigami... or be killed by it.
The slash cleaved a deep trench into the ground, its shockwave splitting the stone like a quake. The meeting hall trembled violently and collapsed.
"Excellent. Truly excellent."
A figure stood amidst the ruin, completely unharmed.
Mirai's eyes gleamed, satisfied with Mahoraga's sheer destructive power.
The creature paused for a brief moment... then lunged again with terrifying force!
"Boom!!"
Its steel-like left fist and sword-wrapped right arm pounded down in a frenzy, unleashing a storm of devastating strikes on Mirai's position.
As long as the summoner remained alive, Mahoraga's attacks would not stop.
Explosions echoed in rapid succession. Cracks spread across the ground like spiderwebs, growing deeper with every blow.
"Fall back!!"
"Evacuate everyone immediately!"
Even from five hundred meters away, Naobito barked frantic orders at the sorcerers around him.
He knew exactly what Mahoraga was capable of.
Centuries ago, a Zenin Clan Head had summoned this very shikigami and dragged the Gojo Clan Head down with him.
That Gojo... had been a Limitless sorcerer born with Six Eyes, just like Satoru Gojo now.
As he watched Mirai undergo the ritual without warning, Naobito's emotions were in turmoil.
Anxiety. Fear. Dread... and above all, overwhelming hope.
If Mirai succeeded in taming it...
Then Zenin Mirai would become the strongest Clan Head in the history of the Zenin family. No one could dispute it.
As time ticked by, the former meeting room was reduced to a massive pit.
Its surface was torn with deep rifts, rubble and debris scattered everywhere.
At the bottom of the crater, a partially phase-shifted Mirai watched Mahoraga carefully. His gaze was fixed on the rotating wheel above the shikigami's head.
"Clink, "
With a sharp metallic ring, the wheel finally stopped spinning.
From the start of the assault to this very moment, Mirai had been counting every rotation.
"Whoosh!"
The sword flashed again, slicing through the air.
Mirai twisted his body sharply to dodge, but pain erupted across his chest.
Two minutes and thirty seconds.
That was how long it took for Mahoraga to adapt to his phasing technique, a time frame Mirai had predicted precisely.
The Kamui-based ocular technique, converted into a cursed technique by the will of the world, was not invincible.
Mahoraga, known as the strongest shikigami, was not terrifying for its raw attack or defense alone.
Its true horror lay in its ability to adapt... to anything and everything in existence.
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200 P.S = 1 Extra Chapter