Chapter 18: The Fushimiya Curse
The mansion was quiet.
At 3:32 in the morning, silence had a way of exposing the truth. There were no employees wandering the halls. No conversations. No distractions.
Only the sound of my own breathing as I stood before the window, watching the moonlight settle across the estate my family had spent generations building.
A fortune.
A legacy.
A name.
Things that were meant to outlive ambition.
Footsteps echoed behind me.
I didn't need to turn around to know who it was.
"Taro."
He stopped.
"What are you doing here?"
I slowly faced my son.
He had his coat on.
Already preparing to leave.
Even now... always chasing another scheme.
I looked at him for several seconds before speaking.
"Tell me something."
"What exactly do you hope to gain from all of this?"
"I gave you everything."
"The company."
"The resources."
"The opportunities."
"A life most people could never dream of."
"And this is how you've chosen to use them."
He scoffed.
"Out of everyone in the world, I thought maybe you'd understand... appreciate what I'm doing."
Appreciate.
An interesting word.
I removed my glasses and folded them neatly into my pocket.
"Appreciate?"
"Am I supposed to appreciate that you've turned the Fushimiya Company into an international network for funding the Puppeteer Age Resurrection Project?"
"That you've reduced decades of honest work into a machine for your obsession?"
"You've turned Aoi into a blueprint."
"A prototype."
"Something to replicate."
He met my gaze without hesitation.
"Have you looked at society lately?"
"Mediocrity spreads like a virus."
"A virus we can finally contain."
"If this succeeds..."
"We can change the world."
There it was.
Not confidence.
Certainty.
The same certainty my father once possessed.
"You think you're Eiji."
He answered immediately.
"No."
"I'm better."
"I know what I'm doing."
"Eiji became distracted."
"He loved his family."
"He loved Shinobu."
"He loved you."
I almost smiled.
"Eiji did make one correct decision."
"He chose people over his ambition."
"Unfortunately..."
"Someone copied his madness."
"The Neo Sun Tzu Project."
"My father created the spark."
"Others chose to feed the fire."
I stepped closer.
"In this family..."
"Everyone blamed Eiji."
"They called him insane."
"They weren't entirely wrong."
"But I never believed he was the greatest problem."
"I blame the people who inherited his ambition."
"You."
"Renko Sukamo."
"And Toshiro Sobu."
"The three of you possess the same disease."
"Arrogance."
A few hours earlier...
Kyou had died.
His final request lingered in my mind.
Don't let the curse continue.
Taro laughed quietly.
"How noble."
I ignored the sarcasm.
"You already have enough enemies."
"And your own sons have begun to see through you."
His expression finally shifted.
"What are you talking about?"
I looked directly into his eyes.
"You truly are a terrible father."
"You haven't noticed, have you?"
"Aoi visits this house less every month."
"You don't see what's happening because you've convinced yourself you're still leading your family."
"You aren't."
"They're walking away from you."
"You simply haven't realized it."
He stayed silent.
I remembered a story I'd told him when he was still a child.
"Do you remember the tale of the Foolish Knight?"
He poured himself a glass of wine.
"I assume you didn't come here just to tell me a bedtime story."
"No."
"I came here because you've become the ending."
I folded my hands behind my back.
"Once there was a knight."
"He believed his king was weak."
"He believed only he understood what the kingdom needed."
"So he decided to create a better king."
"By force."
"He gathered followers."
"He gathered disciples."
"He searched endlessly for someone worthy."
"No one satisfied him."
"Eventually he had a son."
"He saw greatness."
"But greatness wasn't enough."
"He wanted perfection."
"So he continued."
"He sacrificed villages."
"He sacrificed families."
"He sacrificed peace."
"All for the future he imagined."
"In the end..."
"The people he claimed to save hated him."
"His disciples abandoned him."
"His own sons imprisoned him."
"He died alone."
"But his ideals survived."
"Someone else repeated his mistakes."
"And another."
"And another."
"Until the entire world collapsed beneath generations of self-proclaimed saviors."
I looked at Taro.
"The story was never about the knight."
"It was about the curse."
He stared back.
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
I answered without emotion.
"You are not a god."
"You are intelligent."
"Extraordinarily so."
"But intelligence has never been the same thing as wisdom."
"You are gambling everything..."
"...on a future you will personally destroy."
He tightened his grip on the glass.
"Why can't you understand?"
"This is for the good of humanity."
I shook my head.
"Was supplying weapons to the Red Ghoul for humanity?"
"Was hiring Merrin to assassinate an innocent FBI agent for humanity?"
"Was corrupting members of the United States government alongside Toshiro Sobu for humanity?"
His eyes narrowed.
"How did you know—"
I interrupted him.
"Old age isn't the same thing as ignorance."
"I've watched."
"I've listened."
"And unlike you..."
"I've learned."
Silence returned.
There was nothing left to discuss.
I picked up my coat.
"Very well."
"I won't stop you."
"You'll continue believing you've won."
"You'll believe history belongs to you."
"Perhaps it will."
"For a while."
I opened the mansion door.
"But every decision creates a debt."
"And every sin demands payment."
"Maybe not today."
"Maybe not tomorrow."
"Maybe not even next year."
"But eventually..."
"Everything you've done..."
"Will return."
"And when it does..."
"It won't ask for permission."
I stepped into the cold night.
The curse of the Fushimiya family had never been genius.
It had always been believing that genius placed us above consequence.