Choose

By the time they left her grandmother's house, the sky had mostly darkened.

Dusk fell quickly in the mountains. Once the sun slipped behind the ridge, the whole village seemed trapped beneath an overturned gray-blue bowl.

Kugisaki walked ahead, her pace brisk.

"Let's go to the Shrine first. The old hag moved the villagers there."

Rihito followed behind her.

Back in the house, Kugisaki had been pulled back from the brink of fury, and her emotions had settled into something heavier.

They crossed the deserted village paths and climbed the stone steps up the mountain.

Moss covered most of the steps, and the stone lanterns on either side had long since gone out.

The Shrine gradually took shape in the twilight-a small wooden building with warped roof timbers and white paper streamers on its sacred rope shredded by the wind.

Suddenly, Kugisaki stopped. Rihito halted almost at the same instant.

"It's too quiet," Rihito said softly.

Kugisaki nodded in agreement.

With dozens of villagers crowded inside for shelter, it should never have been this quiet.

Unless...

Kugisaki reached for the hammer at her waist as Rihito extended his Cursed Energy senses ahead.

He sensed the Cursed Energy signatures of dozens of ordinary people huddled deep inside the Shrine, faint and chaotic.

But in front of them lingered a trace of cursed residue, cold and sticky, like the miasma rising from something rotten.

"...He's already here."

Kugisaki went rigid.

"Come on. We have to face him sooner or later."

With that, Rihito stepped forward first.

Kugisaki watched Rihito's back, then hurried after him.

Soon, they climbed the last few stone steps.

The doors of the Worship Hall stood wide open. Dozens of villagers huddled together in the farthest corner.

In the middle of the hall, a man sat cross-legged before the offering table, his back to the entrance and his entire body wrapped in filthy bandages.

Several dead crows lay scattered at his feet. Most of their feathers had corroded away, exposing blackened, festering flesh.

At the sound of their approach, the man quickly stood and turned toward the entrance.

A fanatical gaze shone through the gaps in his bandages, finally settling on Kugisaki.

"You don't look like Toru, but you have his eyes." His voice was hoarse, like a knife scraping glass.

Kugisaki did not answer. She looked past him at the villagers in the corner.

"Was that your doing?"

"The old hag?" Niezaki tilted his head. The movement tugged at the bandages around his neck, letting black pus seep through.

"I could have killed her, but I needed her to write that letter. Otherwise, no one would come to undo this seal."

As he spoke, Niezaki stepped forward, then raised a hand to point at the villagers huddled behind him.

"You have two choices now. First, be a good girl and undo the seal, and I'll let them go. Second..."

Niezaki did not finish, but everyone knew exactly what he meant.

A deathly silence fell over the Worship Hall.

Then a voice came from the corner.

"...Get out."

Kugisaki stiffened for a moment, then turned toward the voice.

The speaker was an old man sitting cross-legged in the corner. In the dim light, she could barely make out his face.

Yet his trembling voice carried an anger that seemed to come from nowhere.

"If it weren't for your Kugisaki Family, how would this disaster have befallen our village?"

His words opened Pandora's box. One accusation after another rose from the dark corner.

"That's right. Your family brought this on us..."

"My granddaughter's still in here. She's only four..."

"Please, we're begging you. Open that thing..."

Looking at the figures in the corner, Rihito knitted his brows, then glanced at Kugisaki with concern.

But instead of growing angry at their words, Kugisaki relaxed.

She offered no explanation and made no argument.

Then her hammer rang out.

Whoosh!

A sharp whistle tore through the stifling air of the Worship Hall.

A nail flew from Kugisaki's hand, heading straight for Niezaki's face.

Niezaki shifted. Before his afterimage had faded, he was already beside the offering table.

Kugisaki did not pause. A second nail followed, then a third, the gaps between them shrinking to almost nothing as the shriek of metal filled the air.

But each time, Niezaki began moving before she struck, his clouded eyes fixed on her hands.

"Sixteen years. I never imagined Toru's daughter would come this far. But you're still too slow!"

Whoosh!

Another nail skimmed past his shoulder.

This one was faster than the others. Niezaki turned a fraction too late, and the nail ripped open his bandages, exposing the festering flesh beneath.

Suddenly, he stopped.

Black mist seeped from the gaps in the bandages all over his body, gathering into a barrier in front of him.

Kugisaki's nail struck the black mist and stopped. Before their eyes, it rusted and blackened, then fell onto the wooden floor with a clink and shattered into pieces.

"I haven't fought in nearly sixteen years. You two will make good practice."

"Disgusting bastard. Die!" Kugisaki spat, raising her hammer again.

At the same time, Rihito closed in, Cursed Energy surging around both fists.

Rihito rushed into close range and drove a Cursed Energy-wrapped fist toward Niezaki's ribs.

Niezaki raised an arm to block. A dull thud came from beneath his bandages, and the impact forced him back half a step.

He hastily gathered his black mist, only for Rihito's other fist to blast it apart head-on.

"This brat's Cursed Technique..."

Niezaki's clouded eyes shifted as he tried to glean something from Rihito's attacks, but Kugisaki gave him no time.

A nail tore through the air from the side.

Niezaki jerked his head aside. The nail grazed his temple, ripping through the bandages and drawing a streak of black blood.

He grunted and retreated, clutching his face as thick black pus seeped between his fingers.

His body should have reached its limit long ago.

Rihito gave him no chance to catch his breath.

He and Kugisaki alternated their attacks, one up close and the other at range. Niezaki was forced steadily backward, his black mist gathering more and more slowly.

Whenever he tried to spread his mist barrier, Rihito forced his way in to interrupt him, with Kugisaki's nails following close behind, forcing

him to expose more openings.

Thud!

Niezaki's back struck the offering table with a heavy thump.

He doubled over, gasping violently. Most of his bandages had come loose, exposing great patches of festering flesh.

His face barely looked human anymore. The backlash from his Cursed Technique had eaten away his flesh until it resembled a piece of water-rotted wood.

"Sixteen years. If it weren't for the backlash from my Cursed Technique, how could two brats have driven me this far..."

Niezaki bowed his head, his shoulders trembling slightly.

At a distance, Kugisaki already had a nail aimed between his brows.

Rihito's fist was poised to strike.

But in the next instant, both of them froze, their eyes blazing with rage as they stared at Niezaki.

Niezaki slowly straightened. Reaching behind his back with his right hand, he grabbed a little girl of six or seven by the back of her neck and hauled her bodily into the air.

"Waaah... Daddy, Mommy..."

The girl's face turned blue, broken sobs squeezing from her throat.

Several screams erupted from the corner. The villagers surged forward like mad, only to be driven back instantly by the black mist.

"Come on. Choose."

Niezaki pointed his other hand at the villagers huddled in the corner, then back at the girl. Black fluid seeped from the cracked corners of his mouth.

"Undo the seal, or let everyone die here?"