"Mirai, my good son!"
"Today, you've truly given your father a tremendous surprise!"
There was no trace of mockery in his voice. As Zenin Ogi approached again, his tone was utterly sincere.
Ignoring Naobito standing nearby, Ogi's gaze toward Mirai burned with fervor.
It was not the warmth of familial affection — rather, it was the look one gives a priceless treasure.
"Haha… hahaha!"
Hearing Ogi's words, the ten-year-old Zenin Mirai, drenched in blood and standing amidst ruins, laughed wildly — hysterically.
"It seems I still underestimated just how disgusting you can be."
"That expression of yours… it's truly nauseating, Zenin Ogi."
The boy's vicious attitude surprised neither Naobito nor Ogi himself.
Passing by Naobito, Ogi stopped five meters from Mirai. He sheathed his sword and spoke gently:
"Mirai, I know these past ten years have not been pleasant for you. I admit I have neglected you."
"But from today onward, everything will change!"
"From this moment on, any request you make — I, and even the Zenin Clan, will spare no effort to fulfill!"
"The Ten Shadows Technique! The strongest inherited technique passed down through the Zenin Clan for a thousand years!"
"With that technique, my good son, you will undoubtedly become the uncontested next heir to the Zenin Clan!"
Ogi's voice grew impassioned. His eyes shone brighter and brighter.
Not just the next heir…
The weakness of his lineage — his failure to produce capable children — had now been remedied by Mirai's sudden rise.
If he were to publicly defeat Zenin Naobito, then perhaps the current position of clan head could reasonably become his.
And even if he could not defeat Naobito openly…
Assassination was always an option.
No matter what—
His biological son! Zenin Mirai, wielder of the Ten Shadows Technique!
Becoming the next clan head was beyond doubt.
Under the dim moonlight, with collapsed buildings as the backdrop, the father's face radiated fanatic hope.
The son's face radiated madness — and killing intent.
Such a discordant, fractured image forcibly stitched together.
Even Naobito, standing several steps away, felt a chill creep into his heart.
Seeing Mirai's silence, Ogi assumed his son had been moved by the future he described.
After pondering what might mend their fractured relationship, Ogi added sincerely:
"Son, rest assured!"
"Those servants who insulted you. Those sorcerers who mocked you. I will make them pay in blood!"
After saying that, Ogi could think of nothing else his son might have suffered.
A long silence followed.
"Heh…"
Mirai's soft chuckle finally broke it.
"My mother?"
"The poor woman you personally threw into the depths of the cursed vault when I was six?"
Ogi froze.
Mirai's expression shifted.
"Ridiculous. Absurd."
He threw his head back and laughed maniacally — until he coughed, until tears seeped from his eyes.
Tears slid down blood-streaked cheeks as he murmured bitterly:
"I actually hoped that beast would feel even a shred of guilt."
"Your mother?" Ogi frowned in confusion. "She was nothing but an ordinary human."
"A useless woman who couldn't even control cursed energy. Giving birth to you was the greatest contribution she ever made to the Zenin Clan."
The "cursed vault" Mirai referred to was the underground chamber where the Zenin Clan imprisoned cursed spirits.
Recalling that day, anger surfaced on Ogi's face.
"That bitch deserved to die!"
"She even dared to try taking you away from the Zenin Clan!"
Even now, the thought unsettled him.
If she had truly succeeded in stealing away his precious son, how could he ever have dreamed of becoming clan head?
"Is that so…"
"So Mother… she tried to take me away from this hell…"
Four years after the incident, the boy finally learned the truth of his mother's death — from his "beloved father."
It had been four years ago, when the only person in this hell who loved him suddenly died, that Mirai awakened.
"Enough. The more I look at you, the more I disgust myself."
As Mirai spoke coldly, the intricate patterns in his crimson pupils began to rotate.
Space beside his shoulder abruptly split open—
Two massive hands slammed toward Ogi.
"BOOM!!"
The entire estate shook as though struck by an earthquake. The aftershock alone blasted surrounding structures into ruin.
"ROAR!!!"
A monstrous creature crawled out from the rift beside Mirai's shoulder, its hands pressing against the fractured earth as it howled at the sky.
Only its upper body had emerged — yet it already towered nearly one hundred meters tall.
The oppressive aura radiating from it far surpassed that of an ordinary Special Grade cursed spirit.
"A Special Grade curse?!!"
Naobito leapt aside, eyes bulging as he roared in disbelief.
If any anime fan from Earth were present, they would instantly recognize the creature Mirai controlled—
The shell of the Ten-Tails.
The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
But this wasn't its world.
Wasn't Mirai supposed to wield the Ten Shadows Technique?!
What was this technique that controlled cursed spirits?!
As head of the Zenin Clan, Naobito frantically searched through every scrap of technique knowledge in his mind.
"Step… step… step…"
Glancing faintly at the old man whose mind was practically overheating, Mirai walked calmly beneath the moonlight toward his bloodied father, embedded in the earth.
Caught off guard — never expecting his son's attack to be so ruthless —
Ogi had only managed to wrap cursed energy around his vital points before being smashed into severe injury by the statue's colossal hand.
"Cough… cough…"
Curled within a crater, drenched in blood, the once domineering Ogi now looked utterly pathetic.
As his son approached, Ogi struggled desperately to rise.
The bloodthirsty brutality in the boy's eyes.
The grotesque, terrifying curse looming behind him.
Malice poured forth.
Only now, half-kneeling on the ground, did fear and confusion finally appear in Ogi's eyes.
He could not understand.
She was just a human.
Even if she was his mother —
Why would the boy's fury reach this extent?
The creed "Those who are not sorcerers are not human" had long since been etched into Ogi's soul.
"Son—"
He barely uttered a single word before the world flipped upside down.
His vision dimmed.
"Wait—"
Naobito arrived a half-beat too late. He had just opened his mouth to intervene when he sucked in a sharp breath.
Right before his eyes—
The moment the boy's gaze locked onto Ogi's neck—
An eerie surge of cursed energy erupted.
Space itself tore open.
Zenin Ogi's neck was swallowed whole.
What technique was that?!
Looking at the ten-year-old boy before him — face stained with blood yet expression eerily calm —
Deep within Zenin Naobito's eyes flickered a trace of fear.