Curse

Kugisaki's expression darkened instantly.

She could disregard those villagers, but the little girl was innocent. She would never allow anyone to harm an innocent person.

Just then, Kugisaki felt someone watching her and turned to look.

It was Rihito.

Their eyes met for a second. Neither said anything, but Kugisaki understood.

Then she turned and walked toward the place where the Scorpion Mound was enshrined.

"Hmph! You should've done that from the start."

Niezaki snorted, his gaze following Kugisaki's every step.

Only after confirming she wasn't trying anything did he slowly follow.

Rihito moved a beat later, but quickly caught up.

When they left the Shrine, the sky had grown even gloomier.

The four of them headed uphill along a path beside the Shrine, almost swallowed by weeds.

The stone steps had long since cracked, breaking into irregular chunks of rubble.

The cedars on either side were taller and denser than those at the foot of the mountain. Their overlapping crowns filtered out most of the last remaining daylight.

The higher they climbed, the quieter the woods became.

Soon, they reached a clearing behind the mountain.

In its center stood a moss-covered stone niche.

"Scorpion Mound-"

At the sight of the two large characters, blurred by time, Niezaki grew intensely excited.

Sixteen years. He had waited sixteen whole years for this moment.

If Che hadn't lied to him, this Cursed Object would surely eliminate the side effects of his Cursed Technique.

Soon, he would be like a normal person, free from the agony of poison eating away at him day and night.

"Hurry, open it!" Niezaki urged.

Kugisaki glanced at the little girl without answering.

Standing before the stone niche, she took a deep breath, then raised her right hand and pressed her palm against the talisman at the center of the seal.

The next second.

Azure Cursed Energy poured from her fingertips, spreading along the markings on the talisman.

The grayish-yellow talismans on the seal lit up one after another. Light spread outward from the center, and the entire stone niche began to emit a low, resonant hum.

Then the ground shook.

Dust billowed from the stone lanterns, and dead branches rattled down from the withered trees.

Having finished, Kugisaki slowly backed away and stood beside Rihito.

But Niezaki, his attention fixed entirely on the seal about to open, failed to notice her movements.

Three seconds later, every talisman was alight.

The trembling of the stone niche reached a critical point, and a cursed presence slowly seeped from beneath the soil.

"Kugisaki!"

At that instant, Rihito let out a low shout.

Then he pulled something from his pocket and swiftly placed it in Kugisaki's hand.

It was a strip of cloth, a torn strip of cloth.

It had fallen from Niezaki during their fight in the Shrine.

Although it wasn't part of his body, it carried sixteen years of Niezaki's Cursed Residue, giving it an unbreakable connection to him.

And that connection made it the perfect medium for Kugisaki's Cursed Technique.

Without hesitating, Kugisaki took out the Straw Doll, wrapped the cloth around it, and gripped her Cursed Tool.

All in one fluid motion.

"Resonance!"

Clink!

The nail, imbued with Kugisaki's Cursed Technique, sank into the cloth-wrapped Straw Doll in an instant.

"Aaaaargh-you damn brats!!"

The instant the Straw Doll was pierced, Niezaki stiffened, his soul suffering a devastating blow.

The little girl slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground.

"Now!"

Seeing his chance, Rihito lunged forward.

With the girl held hostage, he hadn't been able to do anything.

Whether he used his domain or disintegration, any rash action could have hurt her.

Now was his best chance to save the little girl.

"You damn brats! How dare you ambush me! Die, all of you!!!"

As a Curse User who had survived for many years, Niezaki reacted faster than Rihito had expected.

Almost the instant Rihito scooped up the girl, his counterattack came.

"Rotting Poison!!"

In an instant, black poisonous mist erupted from every gap in his bandages, spreading across the clearing like something alive.

Rust visibly spread over the surface of a nearby stone lantern, its stone flaking away like rotten wood.

"No!"

Kugisaki's heart tightened, her gaze fixed on Rihito.

Holding the girl, Rihito ran desperately for safety.

A fine hissing rose behind him, like water boiling in a pan of oil.

It was the sound of the paving stones being corroded. The poisonous mist devoured the ground, gaining on him inch by inch.

Rihito poured Cursed Energy into his legs, each step leaving a footprint in the hard stone paving.

The girl in his arms was unnaturally hot. Her little hands clutched his collar as though it were her last lifeline.

But it was too fast. The poisonous mist was far too fast.

"Aah-!"

The girl in his arms let out a scream filled with pain.

Rihito's heart sank. The moment he escaped the poisonous miasma, he looked down at her.

Kugisaki immediately crouched as well, her gaze falling on the girl.

The girl's face had turned unnaturally pale. Her eyes were tightly closed, and two trails of black liquid slowly trickled from their corners.

"She's been poisoned!"

Both their expressions turned grim.

They had seen the effects of Niezaki's Cursed Technique. The wound on Kugisaki's grandmother was the clearest example.

And now, this girl's eyes...

"Rihito, let's do it!"

Kugisaki rose, her eyes brimming with murderous intent.

Rihito gently laid the girl on the ground and looked toward Niezaki as well.

There was only one way to completely eliminate the poison created by a Cursed Technique.

Kill its user!

Only then would the girl's life be safe, and only then might Kugisaki's grandmother recover from her injury.

Now, Kugisaki held nails between her fingertips, while Cursed Energy gathered over Rihito's fists.

Niezaki looked at the two of them and suddenly smiled.

The smile split his festering mouth, stretching all the way to his ears and exposing the blackened gums beneath.

After releasing the poisonous miasma, his body had already reached its limit.

With every step, chunks fell from beneath his bandages, hitting the ground

with a wet, sticky sound.

Sixteen years of waiting, only to be cornered by two brats.

"I won't accept this... I won't accept this!!"

Niezaki forced the words from deep in his throat, like the whimpering of some dying animal.

Then he abruptly turned and lunged toward the stone niche.

At the sight, Kugisaki's nail sliced through the air, and Rihito charged forward at the same instant.

A moment later, the nail pierced Niezaki's shoulder and drove through his entire left arm.

But he used the force of the impact to keep pitching forward, crashing down in front of the stone niche.

Before he hit the ground, his hand had already reached inside.

Then he pulled out a finger-sized Cursed Object shaped like a cicada pupa.

"The thing inside the Scorpion Mound... it's a Cursed Womb!"

Kugisaki's pupils sharply contracted.

It was too late.

Under her furious, horrified gaze, Niezaki shoved the cicada pupa into his mouth and swallowed it whole.

The next second, his body began to swell.

Dark red patterns spread from his chest across his entire body, as though something were weaving his ruined flesh anew from within.

His muscle tissue twisted and multiplied unnaturally. His festering skin split under the strain, and new black tissue grew in the cracks.

"Che... you lied to me..."

Niezaki's cloudy eyes rolled wildly in their sockets before finally locking onto Kugisaki.

A hoarse murmur squeezed through the gaps between the barbs filling his mouth, his voice carrying the last trace of human resentment.

Then his pupils disappeared entirely.

After gently setting the girl down, Rihito extended his Cursed Energy perception ahead of him. The information it returned made his expression change.

Niezaki's Cursed Energy signature was disappearing, but the cursed presence breaking apart around him hadn't dispersed.

It was gathering again, as though drawn inward by something, contracting toward the center of that swollen body.

Rihito's Cursed Energy perception seemed to strike a barrier.

The Cursed Womb was restructuring itself inside. Though he couldn't see within, he could sense its total Cursed Energy increasing at a terrifying rate.

Sixteen years of obsession had nurtured not deliverance, but a monster that had broken free of its restraints.

In the clearing, the cursed presence surged like a rising tide.

Kugisaki looked up at the body that no longer bore a human shape, tightening her grip on her hammer.

Rihito stepped up beside her, standing shoulder to shoulder.

Wind swept down from the mountaintop, scattering the remnants of the poisonous miasma and carrying the curse toward the gloomy sky.