"My good son! My future!"
"You've really given your father a wonderful surprise today!"
Ignoring the wreckage around him, Zenin Ogi approached with utmost sincerity. His voice wasn't mocking; it was filled with genuine, fervent delight.
He ignored Naobito standing nearby. Ogi's eyes were locked onto Mirai, burning with a greed that looked almost like love. But it wasn't love for his son. It was the look of a man staring at a winning lottery ticket he thought he had thrown away.
...
"Haha... Hahahaha!"
Hearing Ogi's words, the ten-year-old Mirai threw his head back and laughed. His voice, cracking with mania, echoed through the ruins of the branch compound.
"It seems I underestimated you, Father," Mirai gasped, wiping a tear of blood from his cheek. "Just when I think you can't get any more disgusting, you find a new bottom."
Naobito, watching from the sidelines, didn't intervene. He just took another sip from his gourd, his eyes calculating.
Ogi stopped five meters away from the boy. He sheathed his katana completely, a gesture of trust, and spoke in a gentle, coaxing tone.
"Mirai... I know you haven't been happy for the past ten years. I admit, I may have lacked... care for you."
"But from this day forward, everything will change!"
Ogi took a step forward, his hands open.
"From this moment on, I, your father—and the entire Zenin Clan—will do everything in our power to fulfill your every desire!"
"The Ten Shadows Technique! The strongest technique passed down through a thousand years of our history!"
"With this power, my good son, you are the undisputed heir! You will become the Clan Head, and I will be right there beside you!"
Ogi's face was flushed with excitement.
The problem of my succession is solved, Ogi thought wildly. If I defeat Naobito in a public duel now, with my son's power backing me, I can take the throne! Or perhaps... we just assassinate Naobito right here.
It doesn't matter. He is MY biological son. He is MY tool.
In the dim moonlight, the scene was grotesque. A father radiating twisted hope, facing a son radiating pure, concentrated murder.
Mirai stopped laughing. The silence that followed was heavy, suffocating even the night breeze.
Ogi, thinking his son was moved by the promise of power, added sincerely, "Son, don't worry! Those servants who insulted you? The sorcerers who mocked you? I will make them pay! I will execute every single one of them for you!"
Ogi racked his brain, trying to think of any other grievances his son might have.
"Heh."
Mirai finally broke the silence.
"Where is my mother?"
Ogi blinked. "What?"
"My mother," Mirai repeated, his voice devoid of emotion. "The poor woman you personally threw into the Curse Warehouse when I was six years old. What happened to her?"
Ogi's expression froze. Confusion washed over him.
"Ridiculous! Absurd!"
Mirai started laughing again, but this time, fresh tears welled up in his eyes, mixing with the dried blood on his face.
"I actually dared to hope..." Mirai whispered, his voice trembling. "I actually dared to hope that a beast like you might feel a shred of guilt."
"Your mother?" Ogi frowned, genuinely puzzled. "She was just a non-sorcerer. An ordinary human."
"A piece of trash who couldn't even control Cursed Energy. Giving birth to you was the only contribution she ever made to this family."
Ogi recalled the woman. He recalled throwing her into the "Disciplinary Pit"—a warehouse filled with low-grade curses used to punish servants.
A flash of anger crossed Ogi's face. "That bitch... she deserved to die!"
"Do you know what she tried to do? She tried to steal you! She wanted to take you away from the Zenin Clan!"
Ogi shuddered at the memory. "If that woman had succeeded in taking my son—my precious Ten Shadows user—away... I would have lost everything! She tried to ruin my future!"
"Is that so..."
Mirai looked down at his hands.
"So, she wanted to take me away from this hell..."
Four years. It had taken four years to confirm the truth. His mother hadn't abandoned him. She had died trying to save him. She was the only person who had ever loved him, and this man—this thing in front of him—had fed her to curses.
"Forget it," Mirai whispered.
He looked up. The geometric pattern in his eyes began to spin violently.
"Looking at you any longer... it just makes me sick."
The space behind Mirai's shoulder warped. A rift in reality tore open.
From the void, a pair of gigantic, withered hands slammed down onto the earth!
BOOM!
The entire estate shook as if hit by a magnitude 7 earthquake. The shockwave alone flattened the surrounding walls.
"ROOOAAAAR!"
A roar that sounded like the screams of a thousand souls erupted from the void.
A monster crawled out of the dimensional rift behind Mirai. It was colossal—its upper body alone was over a hundred meters tall. It looked like a dried, wooden husk of a demon, blindfolded, with nine dragon-like protrusions on its back.
The Gedo Mazo. (Demonic Statue of the Outer Path).
The oppressive aura it released was suffocating. It felt heavier than any Special Grade Cursed Spirit Naobito had ever encountered.
"A Special Grade?!"
Naobito leaped back, his eyes bulging. "No... that pressure... it's beyond Special Grade!"
What the hell is that?! Naobito's mind raced. I thought the boy had the Ten Shadows! Since when does the Ten Shadows summon a wooden giant the size of a skyscraper?!
Mirai didn't look back at the monster. He just walked toward Ogi.
Ogi had been too close. When the Gedo Mazo slammed its hands down, the impact had buried him.
"Cough... cough..."
Ogi dragged himself out of a crater. He was covered in dirt and blood, his ceremonial robes tattered. He looked pathetic.
He looked up and saw his son approaching. Behind the boy, the wooden titan loomed against the moon, radiating pure malice.
For the first time in his life, Zenin Ogi felt fear.
He looked into Mirai's eyes and saw nothing human.
"Son..." Ogi stammered, trembling. "Wait... I..."
"Non-sorcerers are not human," Mirai quoted softly. "That is the Zenin way, isn't it?"
Mirai's right eye focused on Ogi's neck.
"Kamui."
Space twisted.
There was no sound of a blade. No splash of blood.
One moment, Zenin Ogi was speaking. The next, his head was simply... gone.
Space spiraled into a singularity at his neck, twisting and warping until his head was sucked into another dimension entirely.
Thud.
Ogi's headless body remained kneeling for a second, then slumped forward into the dirt.
"Wait!"
Naobito shouted, stepping forward too late. He stared at the headless corpse, his breath hitching in his throat.
What... what was that?
He didn't touch him. He didn't use a shikigami.
He just... looked at him.
Naobito looked from the corpse to the ten-year-old boy. Mirai stood calmly, blood dripping from his chin, the massive Gedo Mazo towering behind him like a guardian deity from hell.
For the first time in decades, Zenin Naobito felt a chill run down his spine.
This boy... is a monster.
....
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