Heavy snow fell from the sky, frost covering the ground in silver.
Inside the estate, atop the altar used for sacrificial rites, a human woman was tightly bound.
The platform was piled high with dry firewood, while the Fallen One's father stood nearby holding a torch.
"Stop!!!"
Despite possessing overwhelming strength, the Fallen One could only watch helplessly from below.
He had never expected to be poisoned within his own home.
A paralytic toxin so potent that even Reverse Cursed Technique could not heal it left him utterly powerless, forcing him to watch with bloodshot eyes.
All four of his eyes trembled as he desperately pleaded with his father.
"A sorcerer should never mingle with ordinary humans!"
The tall man coldly tossed the torch onto the pyre.
"Especially you, Fallen One. You should never have such a weakness."
"The enemy has already realized your kindness. Since they can't defeat you directly, they'll target these insects instead."
"Three separate groups of enemies you spared have already infiltrated this estate trying to abduct this woman."
"In this era, kindness is poison. It will only destroy you—and destroy the clan."
The Fallen One paid no attention to his father's words.
He merely collapsed helplessly into the snow, scalding tears pouring from all four eyes.
His mother's agonized screams pierced his heart like blade after blade.
But more than anything—
it was her eyes.
Amid the sparks and flames, they were filled with overwhelming hatred.
Not toward the husband who burned her alive—
but toward her own child.
Hatred and curses directed at the Fallen One himself.
Lying in the snow, the Fallen One could not understand why his mother looked at him that way.
All he felt was the unbearable pain of his soul being torn apart, while his fearsome face twisted with despair and helplessness.
"Heh. That idiot."
Beside Mirai, Sukuna let out a cold laugh.
"With strength like that, yet he let a bunch of insects manipulate and toy with him."
"How laughable. Pitiful. Miserable."
Mirai glanced at the vessel beside him, then toward the Fallen One in the snow.
He felt as though he was beginning to understand.
A thousand years ago, the gulf between ordinary humans and sorcerers was absolute.
Everyone understood this—including the Fallen One's mother, who had just been burned alive.
Through Kenjaku's memories, Mirai had once witnessed the lives of ordinary humans from that era.
Beyond the terror of cursed spirits, there were disease, freezing cold, hunger, and the cruelty of human nature itself.
In the end, the Fallen One's mother had simply been an ordinary human trying to survive—trying to obtain protection.
She had no feelings for the Fallen One's father.
And toward the monster child she had given birth to...
she felt the same.
That was why she blamed her horrific death on the Fallen One.
And it was precisely because of the Fallen One's kindness that his father dared to burn his birth mother alive without hesitation.
Because everyone in the clan knew—
the Fallen One, who could not even kill his enemies, would never harm them.
In the days that followed, the Fallen One refused to participate in the clan's battles with the outside world.
He abandoned violence as a form of retaliation against both his clan and his father.
No longer fighting, the Fallen One became a guard within the clan's forbidden treasury.
He assisted in crafting cursed tools and prevented others from stealing them.
It was also here that the Fallen One first encountered the ritual known as 「The Bath」.
A cursed tool forging method controlled exclusively by the four great powers and their subordinate noble houses.
Carefully selected cursed spirits were cut apart, dissolved, and filtered using poisonous curse techniques.
The resulting liquid of cursed energy was then used to soak ordinary objects for ten months and ten days.
Through this process, normal weapons could be transformed into cursed tools capable of combating curses and enhancing a sorcerer's power.
"Uraume."
Silver-white hair. A half-ring crimson marking behind the head.
Upon seeing the Fallen One arrive, Uraume merely cast him a cold glance before continuing with their work.
Frozen cursed spirits were carved apart by Uraume's masterful blade work, chunks of flesh falling one after another into the ritual bath.
It was an extraordinary technique—cutting cursed spirits into countless pieces without actually killing them.
After observing only briefly, the Fallen One completely mastered the method, even surpassing it.
The Fallen One's compassion extended toward living beings—
not curses.
Already accustomed to Uraume's icy personality, the Fallen One casually picked up a blade and began helping.
To him, life had finally become peaceful again.
But that peace was once more shattered by his father's arrival.
At least when it came to slaughtering curses, the Fallen One showed no resistance.
The dull days guarding the forbidden treasury continued for roughly half a year.
"The Fujiwara Northern House grows stronger by the day. The 'Sun, Moon, and Stars Squad' and the 'Five Void Generals' are at the height of their power."
"The Sugawara Main House has already begun gathering forces to create an even stronger unit."
"Fallen One—with your strength, you would undoubtedly become the strongest member of the 'Niraccha Pacification Squad'!"
The man's eyes swirled with terrifying ambition and hunger for authority.
But the Fallen One's response was like a bucket of ice water poured over him.
Having no desire to participate in slaughter or bloodshed ever again, the Fallen One rejected the offer without a second thought.
His father departed in disappointment, but the Fallen One knew the matter would not end so easily.
This was the golden age of jujutsu.
Sorcerers and jujutsu clans were far more numerous than in the modern era.
Yet before the four great powers, they had no hope of rising.
Either they accepted subjugation and paid tribute regularly—
or awaited extermination.
Children within lesser clans who awakened promising abilities were constantly recruited into the private military forces of the great houses,
used as expendable tools in wars against rival factions.
Thus, an alliance dissatisfied with the status quo was formed.
With the support of the "Esoteric Buddhist Sect," countless jujutsu clans united to establish the Imperial Guard.
Under the banner of creating order and stability for ordinary humans,
they willingly lowered themselves and integrated into human political authority.
As a result, the title of Emperor became increasingly deified in the eyes of ordinary people.
Meanwhile, the Fallen One's father—consumed by ambition—had long grown dissatisfied with paying tribute to the Sugawara Main House.
The rise of the Imperial Guard stirred his own ambitions as well.
Some time later, the Fallen One seemed to make the first true friend of his life.
Sky-blue hair. Dressed in imperial robes.
A member of one of the families within the Imperial Guard.
Because of her immortal cursed technique, she was even considered a possible future Empress.
Mirai, watching from the side, narrowed his eyes slightly upon seeing the girl appear.
This was the second time he had encountered her within someone else's memories.
Seeing her arrive, the Fallen One revealed a gentle smile.
"You came."
The girl smiled and nodded.
She did not fear the Fallen One's appearance or his monstrous body.
What she admired was that rare and precious kindness within him.
"I heard many interesting Buddhist teachings again recently from Master Genshin. I'll tell you about them."
Because of his appearance, ordinary humans were terrified upon seeing the Fallen One, while sorcerers often mistook him for a cursed spirit.
As a result, the Fallen One disliked going outside.
From then on, the girl frequently accompanied her family elders to the Fallen One's estate.
Meanwhile, the Fallen One's father secretly continued making contact with other factions behind the Sugawara Main House's back.
"Oh right, Fallen One."
"Today at Master Genshin's temple, a cold little brat showed up."
"He's kind of like your Uraume."
The girl smiled as she shared her stories.
"He was a nameless child monk Master Genshin picked up from a pile of cursed spirits."
"The Master said he already prepared a Buddhist name for him."
"Kenjaku."
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