Tomie withdrew her fingers, shaking her hand in disgust as if it had been tainted by some filth.
She fished a silk handkerchief out of her backpack and meticulously wiped each fingertip, her movements carrying a sickly obsession.
To her, the terrified expressions on Kirie and Shuichi's faces seemed both ridiculous and entirely unnecessary.
"Stop looking like your parents just died."
"That just now was merely an appetizer."
Those words felt like a basin of ice water poured directly over Kirie and Shuichi's hearts.
*That* was an appetizer?
That utterly horrifying curse, ripped straight out of a person's brain, was just an appetizer.
Then what kind of hell were they going to face next?
A chill crept up their spines, traveling all the way to the back of their heads.
...
The group rushed into Shuichi's house.
The scene before them was far worse than they had imagined.
The living room was a total mess, with snapped ropes dangling from a chair.
Shuichi's mother, her hair disheveled, was curled up in a corner, whimpering.
Her hands were dripping with blood.
The tips of all ten of her fingers had been snipped into a mangled, bloody mess with a pair of scissors.
The television was still on.
A nature documentary was playing on the screen.
A gentle male narrator's voice sounded.
"...Inside the human ear exists a perfect spiral structure, known as the cochlea..."
Hearing this, Shuichi's mother shuddered violently.
She snapped her head up, madness surfacing on her terror-twisted face.
She raised the blood-soaked scissors in her hand.
The sharp tips were aimed directly at her own ear.
"Mom, don't!"
Shuichi cried out, but he was far too late to stop her.
In the nick of time, a faint golden-red glimmer flashed through the air.
Hana, who had been standing silently to the side, lightly flicked her fingertip.
A cluster of [Pure Yang Flame] struck Shuichi's mother precisely on the wrist holding the scissors.
"Ah!"
She cried out in pain.
The searing heat caused her arm to jerk, and the scissors slipped from her grasp, clattering to the floor.
Before she could make another move.
A ghost-like silhouette appeared silently behind her.
Tomie's palm clamped over the back of her head.
[Idle Transfiguration] activated.
The spiral curse—which had grown exponentially due to extreme terror and was on the verge of completely devouring its host's sanity—was violently seized from within her soul by a large hand.
Then, it was ruthlessly ripped out.
Finally, Tomie effortlessly crushed it.
*Poof.*
The core of the curse had been exorcised.
However, the mental state of Shuichi's mother had long since collapsed, a breakdown that would require long-term rest to even have a chance of recovery.
Ignoring everyone in front of her, she remained where she was, muttering to herself.
"Spirals... must cut them off..."
"Cut off... all the spirals..."
Shuichi looked at Yang Yi, his eyes brimming with pleading tears.
Yang Yi gave a slight nod and pulled out an even stronger divine artifact—the Emperor's Undergarment Fragment Amulet.
The moment the amulet was placed on Shuichi's mother, the madness and terror in her eyes rapidly faded, replaced by a profound tranquility.
Her body slowly went limp as she fell into a deep sleep.
"Once everything here is resolved, she'll wake up naturally."
The crisis was temporarily averted.
But before anyone could breathe a sigh of relief, Kirie's phone suddenly rang.
It was a call from her mother.
As soon as the call connected, incoherent sobbing and screaming came from the other end.
"Kirie! Come back quickly! Your father... he... he..."
"He was... he was eaten... by a clay pot!"
Kirie's father, Yasuo Goshima, was a ceramic artist. Just moments ago, while firing a spiral-patterned clay pot, his entire arm had been sucked inside by an irresistible force.
Right now, he was slowly being devoured by that spiral-shaped pot.
The group piled back into the Batmobile and sped toward Kirie's house.
Along the way, they witnessed an incredibly bizarre sight.
In the middle of the road, two massive, hideous "Snail People" were entangled with each other.
Their bodies were twisted together in copulation, leaving large pools of nauseating slime flowing across the ground.
Beside them lay a clutch of freshly laid, spiral-shaped snail eggs.
Yang Yi remained expressionless and slammed his foot on the gas pedal.
*Vroom—!!!*
Without slowing down in the slightest, the Batmobile drove straight over the two Snail People, crushing them beneath its tires.
*Crack—!!! Squelch—!!!*
The sickening sound of shattering bones and shells, mixed with the wet squelch of crushed flesh, echoed clearly inside the vehicle.
The members of the Girl Squad felt their stomachs churn.
Shuichi and Kirie were trembling in fear; only Tomie's expression grew increasingly excited.
Soon, the group arrived at the pottery studio of Kirie's family.
However, Yang Yi had no intention of slowing down. He steered the vehicle and crashed it directly into the studio's fragile wall.
*Crash—!!!*
Amidst the sound of splintering wood and the terrified screams of Kirie's mother, the Batmobile burst through the wall.
The massive impact instantly shattered the "man-eating" clay pot.
Kirie's father was also sent flying by the tremendous force.
Although his arm had been freed from the spiral, it was already twisted into the shape of a fried dough twist.
He slammed heavily onto the ground. The bones throughout his body let out a series of crisp snaps.
Just when Kirie thought it was over, an even more horrifying scene unfolded.
Under the influence of the curse, Yasuo Goshima's body—which should have been limp—did not stop moving.
Every part of his body seemed to possess a mind of its own, beginning to frantically twist, coil, and contract in an anti-physiological manner.
Ultimately.
Under the terror-stricken gazes of his family.
Yasuo Goshima contorted into a horrifying "human spiral."
Yang Yi and Tomie exchanged a glance.
Identical cold, manic smiles crept onto both of their faces.
Yang Yi casually grabbed a large chunk of wet clay from nearby.
He spoke to the utterly stunned Kirie and her mother.
"The situation right now is quite complicated, so we'll need to use some extreme measures! I hope you can understand."
Of course, it didn't matter if they didn't understand.
Tomie, meanwhile, cracked her knuckles, producing a series of sharp *pops*, and walked step by step toward the continuously twisting man.
She was ready to start "sculpting."
Ignoring the despairing looks from Kirie and her mother.
Yang Yi and Tomie began their cruel "artistic creation."
Tomie activated [Idle Transfiguration].
Her hands transformed into invisible blades. Letting out a sickly, delighted laugh, she reached deep into Yasuo Goshima's body.
She forcibly crushed those twisted bones, then straightened them out.
The crisp sounds of bones snapping and being reattached echoed endlessly throughout the studio.
Finally, after Tomie had shattered every bone in his body and reassembled them, this lump of a spiral finally regained some semblance of a human shape.
Yang Yi quickly smeared the wet clay all over his body.
Soon, a massive clay pot encased Yasuo Goshima, leaving only his head exposed.
"Hana."
Hana immediately understood.
From her palm, [Pure Yang Flame] surged forth.
The golden-red flames instantly enveloped the entire clay pot, completing an ultra-high-temperature rapid firing.
Before long, a smooth-surfaced, quaintly shaped, and even somewhat artistic "humanoid clay pot" was born.
Yang Yi pushed this "masterpiece," which was still radiating astonishing heat, in front of Kirie and her mother.
"Don't be alarmed. This is a highly efficient exorcism method we've developed."
"The man inside the pot is still alive. Once we resolve the anomalies in your Kurouzu Town, he'll be able to break out of the pot."
"Oh, right. Remember to feed him so he doesn't starve to death."
At the opening of the clay pot.
Yasuo Goshima's face, covered in cracks from the firing process, was filled with terror. His unfocused pupils were staring fixedly at his family.