Aki stood quietly on the edge of a broken city.
The sky above was dark red. Thick clouds covered the sun. The air smelled like smoke and metal. Wind blew dust and ashes across the road.
He looked around. Tall buildings were cracked or fallen. Roads were split open. Street lights flickered and sparked. Everything felt old, ruined, and quiet. It wasn't the world he remembered.
"This… is home?" Aki whispered.
He had returned with the others after defeating the Ministers and Cheng. They had saved Yūgen. They had completed the Spiral journey.
But this world was different now.
He could feel it in the ground. Cursed energy. A deep, strange power—twisting, loud, and angry. It moved under the earth like fire, looking for something to burn.
Aki held up his arm. A small screen opened on his wrist—a Spiral device.
He spoke into it calmly.
> "To Ren, Yumi, Kael, Rei… I'm in Zone 73. Tokyo ruins. The cursed zone is active here. Something's wrong. Very wrong."
"Please come. I don't think I can do this alone."
He ended the message.
Behind his calm voice, Aki was shaking.
Not because of the ruined city. Not because of the silence.
Because of the spirit inside him.
A cursed being, strong and angry, had been inside him since Yūgen. It had power—too much power. And now, it was waking up again.
He felt it stir.
> "This place is beautiful," it said inside Aki's mind. Its voice was deep, cold, and mocking. "So broken. Just like humans."
Aki clenched his teeth. "Be quiet."
> "You're still pretending to be the hero? After seeing this mess? You need me."
"No," Aki said. "Not yet."
> "Coward."
The cursed spirit laughed quietly in his mind.
Aki pushed it back. He couldn't let it out. Not here. Not now.
He looked around. Something was coming. He felt it.
Then he saw it.
A figure walking toward him from the fog.
Not a monster. A man.
Thin. Dirty. Clothes torn. Skin pale and marked with dark lines—veins full of cursed energy. His eyes were red. Empty.
He stopped in front of Aki.
"…Help… me," the man whispered.
But before Aki could move, the man screamed—and changed.
Black smoke burst from his body. His arms stretched, bones cracking. His mouth tore open, revealing long, sharp teeth. His eyes turned black.
Aki stepped back. "A curseborn…"
The man had become something else. Not alive. Not dead.
Twisted.
The cursed being inside Aki laughed louder.
> "Let me out. Let me rip this thing apart."
Aki didn't answer.
Instead, he took a deep breath—and held out his hand.
Dark energy gathered around his palm. It was his cursed spirit's power. He didn't fully control it… but he had learned to borrow it.
"Just enough," Aki muttered.
The cursed man screamed and charged.
Aki moved fast. He jumped, twisted, and struck with the cursed energy in a sharp wave. The man was knocked back, hitting a broken car.
He got up again—but slower.
"Still human," Aki whispered, shaking his head. "They were all just normal people…"
He didn't want to fight more of them.
He needed help.
---
A few hours passed.
The city remained quiet, cursed energy floating like smoke. Aki waited near the center of the zone, near a fallen tower.
Then, he heard it.
A voice through the Spiral device.
> "Aki, this is Ren. We're coming."
Yumi, Kael, and Rei had received the message. They were heading toward Zone 73.
Aki smiled, just a little.
Not alone anymore.
---
Far away, in another cursed zone, something was watching.
Not a human. Not a curseborn.
Something older. Hidden. Forgotten.
Its voice could not be heard.
But it had begun the chaos.
And soon, it would show itself.