Seeing Yamato Kuka unleash a wave of spiritual pressure as if preparing for battle, Kamishiro Isshin pressed a hand to his forehead in exasperation.
Before coming here, they had explicitly agreed—their number one goal tonight was to recruit Ren Kuroda.
The world was changing. The cause was still unknown, but the facts were clear: monsters were resurfacing everywhere.
As a government-backed special task force, the Unnatural Phenomena Countermeasures Bureau had been seeing a sharp rise in supernatural incidents every year. And the yokai emerging recently were growing stronger by the month.
Even though the Bureau was constantly adding new recruits, it was still a drop in the ocean compared to the explosion of monster activity nationwide.
First and foremost, yokai had overwhelming natural advantages.
Humans needed decades of disciplined cultivation to gain spiritual power...but many yokai were born with terrifying levels of demonic force.
Modern weaponry and technology helped bridge the gap somewhat, making humans less helpless than ancient exorcists. But—
—over time, the old families' exorcist lineages had thinned, weakened, or disappeared entirely.
Humanity's average combat strength improved thanks to tech and basic training, but their number of "top-tier fighters" was pitifully small.
Yes, firearms enhanced with spiritual water could handle low-ranking yokai—D-rank and below.
But once a yokai reached above that level?
Useless.
Which was why, when rumors emerged that a lone exorcist capable of slaying a C-rank yokai was active in the quiet districts of Ukiyo-chō, the Bureau unanimously concluded:
Recruit him. Whatever it takes.
Sure, Japan still had plenty of exorcists capable of defeating C-rank yokai.
But almost all of them were priests, shrine heads, temple masters—the elite of elite houses.
There was no world in which those "upper echelons" would join a government agency.
But a strong exorcist who wasn't tied down?A free agent?
That changed everything.
Frankly, when Kamishiro Isshin first realized that the swordsman who had accompanied Yuzaburo and the others was Ren Kuroda, he thought it had to be a case of mistaken identity.
Ren was simply too young.
At Ren's age, Isshin's own combat strength had barely reached D-rank—and that had been considered extraordinary for his generation.
Even the brightest young talents today weren't as outrageously strong as Ren Kuroda.
Take Yamato Kuka, standing in front of Ren right now.
Among all the gifted and powerful young exorcists in Japan, she was undeniably one of the best.
And the only reason she had joined the Unnatural Countermeasures Bureau was because she was fleeing a forced marriage arranged by her prestigious Onmyoji family.
Although the Bureau was a legitimate government unit, the big exorcist clans didn't think highly of it. They only allowed some relatives to join out of political courtesy.
The ones they sent were usually branch family members or average talents.
But direct heirs?Geniuses like Yamato Kuka?
Those families would never willingly let them go.
All this simply underscored one truth:
Powerful independent exorcists were unimaginably precious.
Kamishiro Isshin's earlier words were hinting at that—very clearly.
Ren wasn't "one of them," so he'd be held responsible for all damages.
But if he became one of them…
Then compensation wouldn't even be a topic.
Unfortunately, Ren had not understood the hint at all.
He wasn't an exorcist.He was half-demon.Joining an organization whose job was to exterminate monsters was laughable.
Not to mention…
Yamato Kuka had been staring at him with such a battle-hungry gleam in her eyes that Ren assumed she intended to kill him, not recruit him.
The thought of recruitment never even crossed his mind.
"Young man, don't be reckless," Kamishiro Isshin said quickly. "Our main purpose here is to get to know you better. Also, if I may be direct—what family do you hail from? And would you consider joining the Unnatural Countermeasures Bureau?"
Ren blinked.
Then blinked again.
Recruit him?Recruit a half-demon to fight demons?
His brain went temporarily blank.
But after a moment, he realized they must've made the same mistake Yuzaburo and the others had—they thought he was some wandering heir of an Onmyoji clan.
But what family?He had none.
He was an imposter.A fake.
He didn't even know his true origin clearly. His mother knew nothing about his adoptive father except that the man had been "really handsome."
So when Kamishiro Isshin asked about his lineage, Ren froze.
Should he admit the truth?
Absolutely not.
If they learned he was half-demon, they wouldn't ask for compensation—they'd try to cut him open.
Sure, Ren was confident he could defeat Yamato Kuka or Kamishiro Isshin one-on-one.
But what if the Bureau had someone even stronger waiting in the shadows?
Still, just because he lacked a real background didn't mean he couldn't craft one.
He'd read too many novels…Played too many games…Fantasized far too many plotlines…
Storytelling was practically his superpower.
And so—
A tragic, beautifully fabricated tale spilled effortlessly from Ren Kuroda's mouth.
A tale so dramatic, so sorrowfully convincing, that Kamishiro Isshin and Yamato Kuka found themselves listening with wide-eyed fascination.
Even Kujo Hinano teared up at one point.
According to Ren's story:
He had been born into an obscure exorcist lineage—one few had heard of, but with a long tradition of sealing yokai.
One day, a demon that their clan had suppressed for generations finally broke free.
Knowing the monster's escape would bring disaster upon all of humanity, his family—men, women, and even children—sacrificed their lives to stop it.
They succeeded only in wounding the demon. It fled, leaving devastation behind.
Ren's pregnant mother escaped with the young Ren.
Haunted by his family's deaths, Ren trained relentlessly, consumed by vengeance.
Eventually, he found and slew the demon—but not before it cursed him. Under certain conditions, he would transform into a demonic being.
The story was, in Ren's opinion, embarrassingly melodramatic.
But thanks to his flawless acting, Kamishiro Isshin and Yamato Kuka hung onto every word with burning intensity.
For a moment, they even saw—superimposed over Ren—the tragic silhouette of a boy swinging his sword under the moonlight, driven by despair and revenge.