The weight of Renji's own words pressed down on him.
Something had survived.
The town was gone, erased from existence—but Fujikawa's curse hadn't fully disappeared.
The reflection. The tapping at the window.
Something was still watching.
---
A New Scar
Aoi glanced at Renji's hands. "Your palm…"
Renji looked down—his breath hitched.
Faint, almost invisible—but there.
A spiral-shaped scar had appeared in the center of his palm.
His stomach dropped.
"No." He furiously rubbed at it, as if he could erase it. "No, no, no."
Aoi and Kaito stared.
Kaito's voice was tight. "That wasn't there before."
Renji's fingers trembled. The mark was back.
> Fujikawa was gone.
But the curse still had its grip on him.
---
Unanswered Questions
They rushed back to the inn.
Aoi dug through her bag, pulling out a notebook—one she had taken from the shrine before everything collapsed.
"There has to be something in here." She flipped frantically through the pages, her expression growing more and more tense.
Kaito paced. "We need to consider the possibility that whatever we did—it wasn't enough."
Renji shook his head. "No. We destroyed the source. The box. The town unraveled. We saw it."
Aoi's fingers froze on a page.
Her eyes widened.
"Wait. Look at this."
She turned the notebook to face them.
A passage, scrawled in faded ink:
> "The town does not die. It only moves. The one who breaks the cycle becomes the new vessel."
Silence.
Renji's blood ran cold.
Aoi's hands shook. "Renji…"
Kaito's voice was barely a whisper. "You… didn't break the curse."
Renji stared at his palm.
The spirals hadn't vanished.
They had simply found a new home.
Inside him.
---
End of Chapter 36
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To Be Continue