My parents married out of convenience, a norm for our kind.
…I meant as Magi, not as Japanese.
For Magus families, it was extremely vital to have successors with sufficient talent for Magecraft.
The ‘talent’ in question mostly referred to the overall condition of the successor’s Magic Circuits.
The Matou were currently facing a crisis regarding talent.
With every generation, the quality and quantity of their Magic Circuits steadily decreased.
In order to combat this crisis, my father married my mother for her family’s Thaumaturgical Attribute, which had the ability to greatly increase the chances of passing down certain traits to their offspring, including that of Magic Circuits.
If they succeeded in producing a child whose talent was not in any way inferior to my father, the worse case scenario would be averted.
Although my father’s talent was barely passable in the grand scheme of things, so as long future successors remained at that level, it would simply be a matter of time before an anomaly with considerably more talent appeared in the family.
Of course, that scenario depended entirely on me; the so-called last hope of the Matou.
I knew all of this and more not only because of my meta knowledge, but also because adults tended to hide things from children only after said children could understand and remember.
As a baby, I presumably couldn’t.
This was my greatest advantage as my parents spoke freely even when I was in the room…
Like what they were doing right now.
“This is the boy, Father.” Byakuya said as he approached us, his gaze alternating between the hunched Zouken and his two other family members.
Unlike the older man’s sure expression, Byakuya displayed only a resigned look of apprehension.
“Tch, tch…
he looks just like you when you were his age.” Zouken clicked his tongue as he reached up with his pale right hand to hold my head.
My mother visibly tensed, but she didn’t dare to pull away as his cold finger touched my glabella.
“Healthy, no abnormalities in the physical body to be observed,” he determined with just that single touch as my eyes trembled at the sight of something emerging from his sleeve.
“Let’s see…”
It was a Crest Worm.
A disgusting, undulating creature, the Crest Worm was tiny in scale, only about the size of one my infant fingers.
Yet the repulsion I felt towards it didn’t wane one bit despite its size.
The only saving grace was that it didn’t use the original design that resembled a man’s private parts.
Instead, the Crest Worm that pulsated before me had the censored, redesigned appearence; a sharp-toothed worm with visible hard ridges.
That being said, the protruding horn I distinctly remembered from the redesign was nowhere to be seen.
“…H-How deep is it going to go, Zouken-sama?” Shina deigned to ask, finally mustering up the courage to speak up for her newborn son.
Her worries weren’t unfounded as I shared much of her reluctance.
…Surely there were other ways to ascertain the quality of my Magic Circuits, right?
Now for any Magus family, appraising one’s Magical Circuits should be a relatively normal affair.
However, I couldn’t imagine that any other family would involve a Crest Worm in the procedure.
My mother’s reaction was solid proof of this.
Unfortunately for her, Zouken merely scoffed in response.
“My methods are not to be questioned, woman.
If the conventional rituals were superior, I wouldn’t have even bothered to come personally.”
Somehow, I doubted his statement.
Shina reluctantly let it pass as she and Byakuya observed the Crest Worm with tentative gazes.
It abruptly twitched, as though possessed by a higher will, and began to climb up Zouken’s finger before dropping off onto my forehead.
Chills traversed my spine as it crawled on my skin.
I wanted to nothing but lash out like the terrified infant that I was, but the moment I opened my mouth to release my cry, it slid right in and I was left in horrorified state as I felt it rapidly go deeper down my throat.
‘…What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck!?’
I wanted to puke.
God, I wanted to.
The thing settled somewhere down my gut as I felt it moving around my body.
It was exploring my newborn anatomy like free real estate and I felt even more anxious than before.
Suddenly, I had a thought relating to the procedure.
Could the cheat I’ve been waiting for all this while actually be my Magic Circuits?
Could it be that, unlike the original Shinji, I was born with a vast amount of magical talent?
Such a cheat would have been ideal if I had reincarnated in literally any other Magus family.
Unfortunately, I was a Matou, and the sad truth about this family was that the only member of it that really mattered was Zouken.
All the other members like my father were just puppets for him to use to his liking.
And I meant that literally since he was an ancient bastard.
Although he looked 80 now, he was far, far older than that.
The Heavens’s Feel route established that this crazy old monster had a penchant for stealing the bodies of his own descendants to continue living.
I suspected that he intended do the same to me should I possess enough Magic Circuits of sufficient quality in my body.
After all, his current body probably only had a good few decades left before it crumbled away.
The sheer possibility of that happening to me in the future was more than enough to make my skin crawl.
Compared to becoming a parasitized puppet, perhaps merely being cursed with dog shit talent wasn’t so bad.
Eventually, about 3 minutes later, the procedure finally ended.
Much to my endless relief, the Crest Worm crawled back out.
“Not a single tear shed.
If he wasn’t of my bloodline, I would have thought you’ve given birth to a demon-blooded Oni.” Zouken gave a chuckle as he retrieved the Crest Worm and immediately turned back to leave the room.
“Though even that would have been more tolerable…”
“Wait, Father!” Byakuya perked up, startled at the old man’s sudden dismissal.
“What about Shinji’s Magic Circuits, what were the results?”
“Results?
That’s precisely what I wanted from you and yet you failed to give me even that, Byakuya,” Zouken revealed with a sneer as he didn’t bother turning back his head.
“You truly are garbage compared to Kariya.
Why did it have to be you that stuck around instead of him!?”
“Your little progeny’s no less of a failure.
You yourself can barely be called a Magus, but that brat you bore is a disgrace, the end of our hopeless lineage!
His Magic Circuits are certainly plentiful in quantity, even more so than most of your ancestors.
However, not even a single one can be made use of as they are all stunted and atrophied.
He will never be able to master Magecraft in his entire life.
At best, he can be used for fuel.”
“…What!?” Shina broke down hearing this as her grasp over me tightened considerably, causing me to jolt.
The news didn’t escape me either as I mentally sighed in relief, only to freeze at the mad ancestor’s last choice of words.
‘At best, he can be used for fuel…?’
Images of a certain worm pit located underneath our estate flashed through my mind.
The same worm pit that had been featured so prominently in the most shocking parts of Heaven’s Feel.
There’s no doubt about it.
Zouken was going to feed me to his worm pit and there wouldn’t be anything left of me once he had his fill!
I already knew how violating it was to have a single Crest Worm inside my body.
If I were to be thrown in that pit, there would be hundreds of them digging into my flesh from every orifice…
My mother, on her part, understood this well enough as she cried out in dismay, “Z-Zouken-sama, wait!”
“Please, you musn’t be so hasty…
I-I can make more!
Shinji might not have the talent, but that doesn’t mean his siblings won’t as well.” She desperately uttered, trying to find a reason, any reason, to stop Zouken’s sudden decision from solidifying into reality.
“By then, consuming him won’t be necessary.
P-Please, just reconsider!”
“Shina…” Byakuya muttered with a defeated expression as he held onto his wife’s shoulder.
Zouken flat out laughed in her face, “Sorry, woman.
I’ve already learned my lesson from your husband and his brother.
Having multiple potential successors only rots the entire lineage.
Shinji’s fate is sealed.
His Magical Energy should be enough for a few…
hm, unless—you want to take his position for yourself?”
“I will not touch him if you do.
That is my promise.
As bothersome and pathetic as you are, you are still a Magus.
Your body will serve as much better nourishment for my familiars than a talentless neonate.
What do you say?” The old man said with a grin.
“No, don’t.” Byakuya frantically shooked his head, urging Shina to let it go, let their son go…
But how could a mother possibly sacrifice her son for something so meaningless?
“Yes, I’ll do it,” Shina stated both resolutely and dejectedly as Zouken nodded with a smile.
Shinji’s mother was never quite elaborated on in the original story, so I’ve made my own deductions about her mainly from headcanon.