Oda was an utterly ordinary middle-aged man.
His mother was a member of the Zen'in main line, which was probably the only remotely aristocratic blood in his body. But since his father was just a painfully average salaryman, the two more or less canceled each other out, leaving Oda with no real face to call himself nobility.
Even with a father who had absolutely nothing to do with the jujutsu world, Oda was still, at least nominally, descended from the Zen'in family. Relying on those family ties, he entered the clan and buried himself in study with the dream of becoming a sorcerer.
But reality was cruel.
Becoming a sorcerer had nothing to do with effort acquired after birth.
To become a qualified jujutsu sorcerer, one had to possess an innate technique.
In the Zen'in clan, where strength ruled above all, if a descendant awakened an innate technique, then the strength of that technique determined their future standing within the family.
Naoya Zen'in had awakened the same Projection Sorcery as Naobito Zen'in, and that was why he had been tacitly accepted as the next clan head.
But even Projection Sorcery was not the peak of the Zen'in clan.
Just as the Gojo clan had the Six Eyes and Limitless, the Zen'in clan also had its own perfect answer—
the Ten Shadows Technique.
Oda himself had once fantasized that maybe, just maybe, he would hit the jackpot and awaken the Ten Shadows Technique, vaulting from an insignificant edge character of the Zen'in family straight into the position of future clan heir.
Reality proved, however, that he had been born terminally unlucky—
forget the Ten Shadows Technique, he had not awakened any innate technique at all.
Which, honestly, was not surprising.
His father was an ordinary man, and his mother's bloodline was thin enough that claiming noble ancestry was basically a joke. It was the sort of thing where, if you actually traced the family tree, it would become laughably flimsy.
So the road to becoming a sorcerer was dead.
But if he looked at it from another angle, the road to becoming a glorified cleaner had opened wide.
The Zen'in clan, as one of the Big Three Families, was obscenely wealthy. Even if one of their descendants lacked the talent to become a sorcerer, they would not simply kick them out of the house. After all, get married, have children, roll the gacha again—maybe the next generation would pop out an SSR.
So joining the Kukuru Unit became the only real option.
Oda was a man who knew how to accept reality.
After all, he was not Maki Zen'in. He did not have a father who was effectively second-in-command of the Zen'in clan. He did not have any pride worth losing. So what if he spent his days doing odd jobs for the Zen'in family?
This was still a famous and powerful clan.
Out in the wider world, this was practically Fortune 500 territory.
Surely that beat ending up like his father—working himself to death as a corporate drone under capitalist exploitation?
Between being exploited by capitalism and being exploited by feudalism, Oda thought long and hard, then finally chose to grit his teeth, kneel outside Naoya Zen'in's door, knock his forehead against the ground a few times, and become the young master's loyal dog.
Honestly, working for Young Master Naoya was not all bad.
The pay was high.
Naoya Zen'in paid more than twice the average salary of a Kukuru Unit member, and never cared much about whether the books balanced.
The work was light.
Naoya Zen'in never let Oda get involved in actual jujutsu world business. He only had him handle errands, purchases, and miscellaneous chores.
And there was no overtime.
As Kyoto's pampered young aristocrat, Naoya Zen'in spent his nights attending all sorts of elite social gatherings. A lackey like Oda was naturally far too low-ranked to be brought along.
Other than needing to work with his head metaphorically tucked under his arm, it would be hard to find a better job in the entire jujutsu world.
As long as Oda could deaden his conscience and focus on being a proper lackey, life really could be quite comfortable.
But there was no helping it.
He was just that sort of timid, honest country man, and at this point in life there was no changing it.
Having somehow finished the sponsorship arrangements in exactly three minutes, Oda finally returned home, exhausted to the bone.
He pinched at his trousers, only to realize that the fabric there was already soaked through.
"Is this sweat?"
The middle-aged man sniffed it, then sighed in relief.
"So it's piss. That makes more sense. There's no way facing a monster like Young Master Naoya would only scare me into sweating..."
After all, Oda had worked by Naoya Zen'in's side for years and had seen firsthand how terrifyingly good the young master was at tormenting servants.
So Oda had not been pretending.
He had genuinely pissed himself earlier.
"Uncle Oda, you're back?"
A warm voice came from inside the room.
Oda quickly forced a smile and replied as casually as he could, "Sorry, Ranta. I'm reeking of sweat right now. I'll eat after I wash up."
Soon enough, Oda changed clothes, suppressed all the anxiety in his heart, and prepared to face his nephew-looking relative in the best state he could manage.
Ranta Zen'in.
Like Oda, Ranta was also a distant relative of the Zen'in family. But unlike Oda, he had been lucky enough to awaken an innate technique, and his talent as a sorcerer was exceptionally bright. He was already a special grade-one sorcerer and a senior member of the Hei, the Zen'in clan's elite combat organization.
The Hei was the nominal superior organization above the Kukuru Unit and one of the pillars of the Zen'in family.
Not only was Ranta young and accomplished, what was even rarer was that he had not absorbed the arrogance so common in the jujutsu world. He was still the same country kid he had always been—gentle, polite, and on excellent terms with the Kukuru Unit. Whether the other person was a sorcerer or not, he would call them uncle or auntie with natural warmth. He was the kind of good kid everyone loved on sight.
"Uncle Oda, did something happen?"
At the dinner table, Ranta deliberately placed a piece of meat into Oda's bowl and asked with concern.
"...What makes you ask?"
Oda forced a calm smile.
"Do I really look that bad today?"
"Is it something involving Mr. Naoya?"
Ranta really was sharp. There was no way Oda could hide anything from him.
"Yeah... something happened today."
After a moment of silence, Oda finally nodded.
He put down his chopsticks, rubbed his brow, and his whole face seemed worn through with exhaustion.
"Young Master Naoya specifically asked me for Jujutsu High's freshman list today. I thought it was just a passing whim, but it turns out he still refuses to let things go. He was actually trying to pry into Maki and Mai's affairs!"
Ranta's brows drew together slightly.
He had heard about Maki Zen'in and Mai Zen'in before.
After all, as Ogi Zen'in's daughters, they should by all rights have inherited an innate technique. But what the Zen'in family had never expected was that the children born would be twins...
In the jujutsu world, twins had always been seen as an ill omen.
In ancient times, if twins were born, one would certainly have been drowned, with only one child allowed to live.
Ogi had originally intended exactly that, but Maki and Mai's mother had refused even at the cost of her life, and fought desperately to keep both girls alive.
And sure enough, something strange manifested in the twins.
The younger sister, Mai, was all right. She had awakened the Construction Technique. Though her cursed energy was weak, she was still, in the end, a sorcerer.
But the older sister, Maki, had awakened the legendary Heavenly Restriction...
Heavenly Restriction had robbed Maki of all cursed energy, leaving her unable even to see curses, but in exchange it had drastically strengthened her body, giving her tremendous physical ability.
In the Zen'in clan, where cursed energy was everything, even Oda—who had not awakened an innate technique—still possessed a respectable amount of cursed energy.
And yet the daughter of Ogi Zen'in, effectively the Zen'in family's second-in-command, had not a shred of cursed energy at all?
That alone was shameful enough.
Not to mention that the last Zen'in family member to awaken Heavenly Restriction had been none other than Toji Zen'in—the criminal of the jujutsu world, killed by Satoru Gojo himself.
All of those ominous signs meant that Maki Zen'in had been bullied relentlessly within the Zen'in clan since childhood. Anyone could kick her around, and in the end she left home in fury, pushing everything to an extreme.
"What does Mr. Naoya want?"
"He ordered me to arrange sponsorship money for Maki! And it has to be done anonymously! He specifically doesn't want her to know who the sponsor is!"
The more Oda thought about it, the angrier he became.
Before Maki left the Zen'in family, she had even been exceptionally allowed to join the Kukuru Unit despite being a woman. Back then, Oda had thought she was a very serious, hardworking girl. But the monstrous Zen'in family had driven her into madness!
Perhaps because Naoya Zen'in himself was no longer nearby, the middle-aged man finally found the courage to slam the table and burst out:
"Ranta! Tell me what kind of insanity this is! Forcing that child to use money from her enemy to keep studying—by the time the truth comes out, I can't even imagine what kind of despair will show up on Maki's face!!!"
But unlike Oda's fury, Ranta fell into thought.
Then the black-haired young man with the ponytail spoke softly—
and what he said nearly scared Oda half to death.
"I think Mr. Naoya may actually be doing a good thing."
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