A Certain Death

The team member behind them, already driven mad, charged straight into the captain, interrupting his attempt to restrain the other man.

The floor, left dangerously brittle by the fire, cracked and collapsed under the impact of the two men.

When the captain looked down into the hole, all he saw were the two men impaled on a broken concrete pillar.

Everything had happened far too quickly. In less than a minute, he had lost two teammates he had worked alongside day after day.

Though firefighting was an extremely dangerous profession, and casualties were practically routine, he had never seen deaths this bizarre. It had happened so fast that none of it felt real.

Despite his strong suspicion that his teammates' deaths were directly or indirectly connected to this child, his sense of professional duty still compelled him to take Tan Man away.

The situation was complicated. As far as his identity was concerned, Tan Man was an unregistered resident with no legal identification.

And from the evidence gathered so far, Tan Man's home had been the starting point of this inexplicable fire.

He was also the only survivor to emerge from the fire completely unharmed. Coupled with the two firefighters' bizarre loss of control, it inevitably seemed sinister to outsiders.

Yaga first met Tan Man in an interrogation room at the police station.

Aside from his cursed energy, which could certainly be called exceptional, there were plenty of bruises and abrasions plainly visible on his small body beneath the soot stains.

Though Yaga had not dealt with this police station very often, he at least believed that the police would not beat a child who was only a few years old.

If that belief was correct, he could scarcely imagine what this child had endured in his daily life.

Yaga tried to speak. "Hey, little one..."

But before he could finish, Tan Man raised his head, which he had kept lowered all this time, and spoke first.

"Mother died because of me, didn't she?"

"..."

Yaga had never expected those to be the first words he heard from this child.

And his behavior was completely unlike that of other children his age.

What word could describe this feeling?

Calm, or indifferent? Neither seemed quite right. Yaga could see Tan Man's hands clutching the hem of his clothes.

In truth, his upbringing had indeed left Tan Man more indifferent than most people. Even his question to Yaga about his mother was only an attempt to make this tragedy feel more real.

Perhaps because Yaga had not answered, Tan Man cautiously pressed on.

"Did those people die because of me too? Am I... going to be killed?"

By "those people," Tan Man meant everyone who had died in the fire he had indirectly caused.

If he had not been able to sense that the thousand dead, through their karmic connection to him, had been consigned directly and unconditionally to Hell to suffer, Tan Man would not have felt much sense of reality either.

[Though he had yet to understand the connection between sin, his cursed technique, and himself, he could still sense the resentment of the dead, along with the successive opening of the lower twofold Hell: Black Rope and Sanghata Hell.]

[Matricide and slaying a thousand people were counted separately, which was why two levels could open at once.]

"..."

Normally, Yaga would have answered this question with an unhesitating "It'll be all right," if only to soothe the child first.

But this incident had caused far too much damage. The entire street had been affected by the blaze, and the financial losses and death toll were so great that both Jujutsu Headquarters and the government needed a "reasonable" conclusion to settle the matter.

After speaking with the Window personnel in charge, Yaga already had a rough idea of what had happened. The child had likely awakened a cursed technique related to fire, ultimately causing this enormous tragedy.

Yaga was willing to believe Tan Man had not intended any of this. Regardless of its power, controlling a newly awakened cursed technique was extremely difficult, especially for such a young child. But ultimately, that was nothing more than Yaga's own wishful thinking.

Yaga deliberated for a long time before finally saying gently, "I'll do everything I can to keep that from happening."

Yaga was not exactly deceiving Tan Man. He truly would seek leniency for him, but only within the limits of what he could do.

After all, Yaga was still young. He had not even become the principal of Tokyo Jujutsu High yet, and he held little authority.

Not enough authority to indulge his compassion and save the child before him.

"..."

From Yaga's answer, Tan Man had all but confirmed his fate.

The Jujutsu Headquarters of this world would never show mercy to a worthless brat like me, especially not the child of a lowly, unregistered hostess.

The first article of the Jujutsu Sorcerer Obligations Treaty alone would give Headquarters more than enough grounds to dispose of me.

[① The mission of jujutsu sorcerers is to prevent disasters caused by jujutsu, cursed objects, and cursed spirits, and to maintain peace and safety in society.]

[② All jujutsu sorcerers must abide by this treaty. The rules established in this treaty shall take precedence over laws and regulations.]

Moreover, the financial damage was enormous. Under the laws of the Mortal World, Japanese law would not impose a severe punishment on a six-year-old like him; he would not even have to be sent to the Juvenile Detention Center.

But every business on that street was controlled by gangs. Having lost a major source of income, those gangs would never let Tan Man off easily just because of his age.

All I wanted was to answer the hopes that woman, my mother, had placed in me.

Why had it ended up like this?

Tan Man did not understand. He had already endured everything and lived so cautiously. Why did heaven still have to play such a cruel joke on him?

Even with his cursed technique awakened, even with his Evil Eye awakened, neither was enough to let a six-year-old fight his way out and escape unscathed.

But Tan Man did not want to die!

"...Naobito Zenin."

"What?"

For a moment, Yaga had not caught what Tan Man said.

Tan Man slammed his forehead against the table and pleaded with Yaga in utter earnestness. "Naobito Zenin. That's the name Mother told me belonged to my father. I don't know who else to ask anymore. I want to contact my father and tell him everything!"

As soon as Yaga heard Tan Man's words, his brow furrowed.

It was not that he was confused about who Naobito Zenin was. He knew him; after all, he was the current head of the Zenin Clan.

It was just that hearing this name from the child before him, and hearing him call that man his father, left Yaga with a sense of unreality.

Many thoughts raced through Yaga's mind. If Tan Man really was a child of the Zenin Clan, then, given where he had been found and his lack of even a legal identity, he was almost certainly an illegitimate son. If Yaga openly informed the Zenin Clan, they might even take him for someone trying to use the opportunity to blackmail them.

But when Yaga saw Tan Man's earnest, pleading, terrified expression, his heart ultimately softened, and he chose to contact Naobito Zenin in a personal capacity.

"What? My child? What nonsense are you talking about!"