Curse Returns, a gamble from the start, I awaken dual spells

Kugizaki's hometown is a small mountain village called Sasori Village, located in the vicinity of Tono City, Iwate Prefecture.

Since Kugizaki took the leave voluntarily, it couldn't be considered a mission, so there was no car to pick them up; the two of them went by train.

After getting off the train, led by Kugizaki, the two hiked along a secluded mountain path.

"After all this time, this road is still as difficult to travel as expected."

Walking on the muddy mountain path, Kugizaki's tone revealed an indescribable disgust.

Rinren didn't find this strange at all.

In the original story, she deeply disliked the closed-off and xenophobic village, the ignorant villagers, and her mother's irresponsibility.

She went to Tokyo not to enroll in a vocational college.

Instead, she fled the countryside to find Saori in Tokyo, and decided to live entirely for herself.

But this escape is only temporary; Kugizaki will eventually have to face what he has to face.

Just like now.

"Kugizaki, can you tell me about your hometown?"

Suddenly, Li Ren asked such a question.

The tall, dense fir trees on both sides of the mountain road cut the sunlight into fragmented spots.

Kugizaki did not answer immediately, and the gravel under her feet crunched under her feet.

"What's there to say?"

Her tone wasn't like a refusal, but rather more like she didn't know where to begin.

Rito didn't urge her, but slowed his pace, keeping a half-body distance between them.

The distance was neither too far nor too close, neither making her feel pressured nor indicating that he had given up on the topic.

After walking about two hundred meters, the mountain path began to narrow, and the branches of the bushes on both sides would occasionally brush against our sleeves.

Suddenly, Kugizaki raised his hand and snapped a withered branch blocking his way with far more force than necessary.

"Do you know what this kind of village is like?"

Her voice sounded very calm, as if she were answering a trivial question.

But Rinren sensed a deliberate intent in it.

"Everyone knows everyone, and everyone's business is everyone's business. What clothes you wear, who you talk to, and what time you go home—everyone remembers all of that."

With that, Kugizaki threw the broken branch to the side of the road.

"When I was little, I didn't want to stay in the village. I just wanted to run away. My mother said it was shameful for a girl to run away, but I ignored her."

"And then?" Rito asked.

Kugizaki paused for a moment.

"Later I met Saori-nee. She moved from Tokyo and was different from me, a little kid. She had seen the outside world and could tell me a lot of things I had never heard before."

Her tone softened a little, but only for a fleeting moment.

"But the village couldn't accept her."

Kugizaki suddenly quickened his pace, as if he was venting something.

"Those people said she 'corrupted' the village children and that she wasn't a decent person."

"A bunch of clueless bastards, gossiping and pointing fingers behind her back, practically drove her away."

She paused, as if catching her breath.

"The day Saori left, I went to see her off. She told me, 'Wild Rose, you must go to Tokyo in the future and live the life you want.'"

Kugizaki's voice suddenly lowered.

"That's why I came."

Liren listened in silence.

The original work mentions these things sporadically, but the weight of those written words and hearing them spoken by the people involved is completely different.

Kugizaki's reasons for hating this village were never abstract.

Isolation, xenophobia, ignorance.

Behind each of these words lies a specific form of harm.

Her grandmother wanted to keep her by her side, her mother thought she was "shameful," and Saori, the only one who understood her, was driven away by the village.

Her coming to Tokyo was essentially an escape.

Escape from a world where "everyone makes decisions for you" to a world where "you can make decisions for yourself".

"And what about your grandmother?" Rihito asked.

Kugizaki paused again, this time for even longer than before.

"...The old woman is another matter."

She didn't continue, but her tone softened noticeably.

Rito did not ask any further questions about his grandmother.

He could tell that Kugizaki's willingness to say these things was already an exception.

She probably never told anyone about those old stories from the village, since she never mentioned her past when she was in college.

She was willing to speak out either because she felt that since the person had followed her here, they had the right to know, or because these words had been bottled up inside her for too long and would rot away if she didn't tell someone.

Either way, it means that Kugizaki trusted him more than she admitted.

The mountain road took a turn ahead.

Kugizaki suddenly stopped, and Rito stopped as well.

I followed her gaze.

In the valley, a cluster of gray rooftops are scattered among the green trees.

At the entrance of the village stands a stone tablet, the inscription of which is mostly covered by moss and cannot be read.

Scorpion Village.

There was no smoke from cooking fires, nor any human voices.

It was daytime, yet the entire village was eerily quiet.

Rito subtly adjusted his hand position, and Kugizaki also lowered one of the straps of the bag full of nails from his shoulder.

"Let's go," Kugizaki said.

Her voice regained its strength, as if the conversation had been swept away by the mountain wind.

The two entered the village.

The doors of the houses on both sides of the stone-paved road were tightly closed, and the clotheslines under the eaves hung empty, some of them broken, with the ends swaying gently in the wind.

Kugizaki remained silent, his pace quickening.

Li Ren followed closely behind.

She turned past a persimmon tree that was half withered and walked towards an old wooden house.

The door was ajar, and there was a fresh crack on the door frame, as if it had been hit from the inside by something heavy.

Seeing this, Kugizaki paused for a moment, then reached out and pushed the door open.

The room was dimly lit, and broken wooden basins were scattered on the tatami mats, with water stains and dark red marks mixed together.

A thin, elderly woman was huddled in a corner, her gray kimono soaked in blood, her gray hair disheveled and obscuring her face.

"...Old woman?" Kugizaki's voice trembled slightly.

She rushed over, knelt beside the old man, and reached out to check his carotid artery.

The moment her finger pressed down, her shoulders visibly relaxed for a split second.

still alive.

But the next second, it was immediately replaced by an even deeper stiffness.

Her grandmother had several lacerations on her body, the most serious of which ran from her calf to her thigh.

The flesh was torn open, the edges blackened, as if it had been corroded by something.

Rito stood at the door, his expression visibly grave. The injuries didn't seem to be caused by a cursed spirit.

He quickly went through the known types of spells in his mind: corrosive attacks, blackened wounds, residual toxins...

There are similar records in the college's database, but they all seem to be related to that kind of existence.

Thinking of this, Li Ren felt a slight tightening in her heart.

At this moment, the old man's eyelids twitched, and he opened them a crack.

"...Wild rose...?"

Her voice was so thin it sounded like a thread about to break.

Then she saw the figure behind Kugizaki, her pupils contracted sharply, and her aged hand gripped Kugizaki's sleeve tightly, her knuckles trembling.

"Hurry up..."

Kugizaki held her hand, his voice revealing neither joy nor anger.

"Who did this?"

The old man did not answer.

Her gaze went past Kugizaki's shoulder and stared straight at Rito.

A few seconds later, her lips moved slightly.

"...The Curse Master."