Intro

Born into the rigid hierarchy of the Zenin Clan, Maki grew up defined not by her potential, but by her perceived lack of it. Branded a failure for having almost no cursed energy, she learned early that survival meant relying on nothing but her own strength. The clan’s cruelty became the forge that tempered her resolve, and every slight, every dismissal, became fuel for a quiet rebellion she carried alone.

Her breaking point came with the death of her twin sister, Mai. In giving her life, Mai severed the spiritual tether that bound them, leaving behind the cursed tool she crafted and the final push Maki needed. The awakening that followed was not accompanied by grief or hesitation. Whatever part of her that could mourn had been burned away long before; the loss did not shatter her—it completed her. In the silence left behind, Maki found clarity.

That clarity carried her through the destruction of the Zenin Clan. With nothing left to lose and nothing left to redeem, she dismantled the oppressive legacy that had shaped her, erasing the structure that had once defined her worth. It wasn’t vengeance so much as inevitability: a culmination of everything the clan had created in her.

In the aftermath, the only connection she allows herself is with Yuta Okkotsu—a bond subtle and unspoken, born not from dependence but recognition. He is one of the few she permits near the guarded edges of her life, a quiet presence she neither rejects nor fully embraces, but one she does not push away.