Kaminari Isshin and Yamato Kuka finally departed. Aside from telling Ren to "wait for good news," they also extended an unexpected opportunity to Kujo Hinano: provisional acceptance into the Unnatural Countermeasures Unit.
Of course, since Hinano possessed no exorcist abilities at all, she couldn't join as a combat operative. For now, she could only be assigned to logistical support.
Even so, the girl practically sparkled with joy. Yamato Kuka had informed her that once she officially joined the Unit, she would receive proper systematic training.New recruits who demonstrated enough spiritual potential were sometimes even allowed to attend professional schools for exorcists. Those schools were rare and usually filled with children from long-standing onmyoji lineages, but the Unit reserved a small number of spots each year.
If Hinano worked hard, becoming a full-fledged civilian onmyoji wasn't out of the question.
Onmyoji clans had deep foundations, and those born into them began their training with a massive advantage.But that didn't mean outsiders had no chance. Throughout history, countless legendary exorcists had risen from humble origins — some even founding their own schools and being remembered for generations.
In short, Yamato Kuka's encouragement fired Hinano up completely. She was already eagerly fantasizing about her future working for the Countermeasures Unit, eyes shining with determination.
This time, only Hinano earned Kuka's approval.Yuzaburō, who accompanied her, was ignored outright.
Part of it was his weak mental fortitude — far worse than Hinano's.The other part was his age: his spiritual power had long since solidified, making him unsuitable for training under Kaminari's team.
While Hinano buzzed with excitement about joining the Unit, Ren Kuroda was in full panic mode.
He didn't even register Hinano's cheerful promise to treat him to dinner. Instead, the moment the investigators left, Ren bolted home and started packing like his life depended on it.
Yes — packing. As in preparing to run away.
Ren knew for a fact that the tragic backstory he'd given Kaminari Isshin and the others was complete fiction. If they investigated the "Tenjōin family" he invented, everything would fall apart instantly.
"Ren? What are you doing? Didn't you say you were only going to work a part-time job? Why are you packing now? Are you leaving the city for this job?"
His mother, Tenjōin Masami, stared at him in confusion as he frantically shoved items into a suitcase.
"Mom, you and Ryuki should pack too — quickly! We need to move. Right away. I lied to some very important people and said you were from an onmyoji family. They'll find out soon, so we need to run before they realize the truth!"
Ren rattled everything out in a single breath while stuffing clothes into bags.
Masami blinked at him innocently.
"Hm? How did you know Mom is from an onmyoji family? I don't remember telling you that."
Ren: ╮(￣▽￣"")╭
His hands froze mid-packing.Then, stiff as a robot with a glitching CPU, he turned toward his mother with a face that screamed What did you just say?
A few minutes later, Ren sat collapsed on the sofa, looking like a crashed computer.Across from him sat Masami, eyes distant with nostalgia, while little Ryuki slept peacefully in her lap.
According to Masami, she truly did come from a minor onmyoji family — but she had avoided mentioning it because her memories of that place were painful.
As a child of a collateral branch, Masami was already treated as insignificant.Worse, she had been born without any spiritual power at all — a "failure" by her family's standards.
In onmyoji households, spiritual power defined one's worth. A child without it was a disgrace.
Masami's mother died soon after giving birth, leaving her isolated — powerless, parentless, and low-ranked. She endured endless humiliation and neglect.
Eventually, in order to "preserve the family's honor," they exiled her and forbade her from ever identifying herself as a member of the Tenjōin family again.
Heartbroken and wandering aimlessly after her expulsion, Masami happened to encounter Ren's adoptive father — who at the time had stumbled outside drunk, simply looking for something to eat.
After hearing of her suffering, her drunken would-be rescuer marched straight into the Tenjōin estate……and single-handedly annihilated the entire clan.
Ren sat in stunned silence. The melodrama was absurd — but he still couldn't snap out of his daze.
Part of the shock came from how over-the-top the tale was…But the bigger issue was this:
The story he had fabricated earlier was a perfect 70–80% match with the truth.
At this point, Ren seriously wondered whether his words had been blessed by some cosmic power — or if the System was purposely manipulating narrative events behind his back.
Masami really had come from an onmyoji family.That family really had been wiped out by a monstrous being.
The only difference?It wasn't a sealed yokai that escaped its prison…
It was Ren's adoptive father.
Now Ren finally understood why the Countermeasures Unit hadn't doubted his story at all — because, by sheer coincidence, he really was from an onmyoji lineage.
So what was he exactly?A half-demon… from an onmyoji family?
Ren remained mentally scrambled for the rest of the night.
But because of this revelation, he no longer needed to hurry and flee — after all, he was technically a legitimate descendant of the Tenjōin clan.
Though his tale differed from the truth — such as the timing of the clan's destruction — those details were trivial. The Tenjōin family had been a small, insignificant clan, and they had indeed been annihilated by a monstrous being.
As for why they were destroyed — and Ren's half-demon heritage — Ren doubted the Countermeasures Unit could investigate that deeply.
If their intelligence really was that powerful, then no onmyoji family would have any secrets left.
And indeed, that was the limit of their reach.Even with government backing and a formidable information network, the Unit's investigation revealed only that Tenjōin Masami had once belonged to that clan.They couldn't find anything on Ren's biological father.
To them, Ren was simply a gifted swordsman who had helped police subdue rogue yokai several times. They had no reason to suspect he was anything other than human.
As for the inconsistencies between their findings and Ren's version of events, the Unit brushed them off as childhood memory errors — or perhaps "white lies" Masami told to spare her son from the pain of abandonment.