Kirie’s father, Goshima Yasuo, was a fairly well-known local potter.
Right now, however, he was staggering around the backyard like a madman, waving his arms wildly.
He had completely lost himself in hallucinations.
All around him were bizarre pieces of pottery twisted into spiral shapes.
“Dad!
What are you doing?
Dad!” Kirie burst into tears in fright.
“Quit acting fucking crazy!” Shu had absolutely no patience for him and immediately slapped him across the face.
Smack!
The blow carried enough force to spin the middle-aged man around twice before he collapsed face-first onto the ground with a thud.
Shu then raised his foot and smashed every spiral-shaped piece of cursed pottery in the yard to pieces.
“Tsunade!
This one’s yours!” Shu called over his shoulder.
Tsunade stepped forward and repeated the familiar procedure.
Fūinjutsu.
She directly sealed and extracted the curse from Goshima Yasuo.
As the sealing was completed, the madness gradually faded from his eyes.
[Ding!
Reincarnator has successfully prevented the plot character Goshima Yasuo from mutating…] [Reward: 1 D-Rank Side Plot and 1,000 Reward Points.] After that, Shu and Tsunade immediately rushed off to deal with Shuichi’s mother.
She had also fallen under the influence of the spiral curse.
After witnessing her husband’s grotesque death, she had developed an extreme terror of spirals.
Under the curse’s influence, that fear turned into madness.
She even began mutilating herself with scissors, desperate to destroy anything on her body that resembled a spiral.
Fortunately, Shu and Tsunade arrived in time.
Shu knocked her unconscious with another vicious slap, and Tsunade smoothly followed up with Fūinjutsu, extracting the curse energy from her body.
With another crisp notification, they pocketed yet another D-Rank Side Plot and 1,000 Reward Points.
At this point, most of the important supporting characters surrounding the two protagonists during the early plot had been saved through their simple and brutally efficient methods.
Unfortunately, not everyone in this cursed town was lucky enough to be discovered during the early stages of infection.
As time passed, the atmosphere over Kurouzu-cho grew increasingly oppressive.
The curse was deepening at a visibly accelerating rate.
On the afternoon of the third day, Kirie came running to them in a panic.
Something had happened to a couple from her class.
Following Kirie’s directions, Shu and Tsunade eventually found the pair near a seaside cliff.
Even Tsunade, who had seen mountains of corpses on battlefields, felt her scalp crawl at the sight before her.
They could barely be called human anymore.
Their bodies had twisted together like two strands of rope, tightly intertwined in ways that completely violated the structure of the human skeleton.
Their limbs passed through and wrapped around one another.
Even their faces were crushed together, making it almost impossible to tell which arm or leg belonged to whom.
Worse, large patches of their skin had begun peeling away.
Across the exposed, bleeding flesh, layers of fine blue-green snake scales had started to grow.
Tsunade approached with a grim expression and examined them.
Only a few seconds later, she withdrew her hand and shook her head.
“No…
It’s too late.
The curse has already penetrated too deeply.” “I can’t separate the curse energy anymore.
It’s completely entangled with their life force.” “If I forcibly extract it now, their life force will be ripped out along with it.
They’ll die instantly.” Shu stood silently nearby.
‘So this is what late-stage infection looks like.’ ‘This really is grotesque as hell.’ ‘No wonder Japanese horror can get so damn extreme.’ A series of sickening cracks came from the couple as their bones shifted.
Before their eyes, the two bodies completely fused into something resembling a single snake.
Still intertwined, they slithered rapidly across the beach like cold-blooded reptiles before plunging straight into the sea.
They never surfaced again.
Watching the waves gradually calm, Shu drew a deep breath and looked up at the clouds overhead.
They had grown so dark they looked ready to drip black water.
“Looks like the early-stage cases are over.” “The curse is about to enter its full outbreak phase.” “Yeah.” Tsunade tiredly rubbed her temples.
“It’s only been a few days, yet the curse energy in the air has already become this dense.” “At this point, everyone in town has probably been affected.
The only difference is how badly.” She paused.
“How are the preparations for tomorrow’s evacuation?” “Shuichi and the others are ready.” Shu nodded.
“Anyone who can still think clearly, believes them, and is willing to leave will come with us.” “As for those who refuse, or those already too deeply affected by the curse to leave…” “They’ll have to go down with this town.” “But before that, there’s one more place we’re visiting tonight.” “Where?” “The hospital.” Shu smiled faintly.
“There should be a pretty sizeable reward waiting for us there.” …
Late that night, Kurouzu-cho Hospital was terrifyingly silent.
The corridor lights flickered on and off, accompanied by the faint electrical buzz of failing fixtures.
“AHHH!
HELP!!” A sudden scream tore through the dead silence.
BOOM!
An instant later, a hospital-room door was kicked clean off its hinges.
The heavy wooden panel slammed into the opposite wall and shattered into pieces.
Everyone inside froze and turned toward the entrance.
“Nobody move!
You’re surrounded!” With that shout, Shu and Tsunade strode into the room.
Several pregnant women had surrounded a young nurse.
More horrifyingly, their mouths were covered in blood, and each woman was holding a drill.
Their eyes glowed red.
They looked exactly like wild beasts staring at fresh prey.
“These pregnant women were affected too, weren’t they?!” Tsunade frowned deeply.
Through Shu’s Sharingan, dense curse energy was clearly visible around every one of them.
“In nature, female mosquitoes need blood to produce their eggs.” “Under the distortion of the spiral curse, these pregnant women, whose bodies desperately needed nutrition, were transformed into oversized bloodsucking mosquito-like creatures.” “Can they still be saved?” “No.” Shu stared at them coldly.
“The curse has already completely altered their form of life.” “Even the fetuses inside them have mutated into something made almost entirely from curse energy.” “At this point, they’re nothing more than bloodthirsty insects wearing human skin.” …