That House Is a Damn Eyesore

Hauling himself upright with thoughts of reaching Momo, Okarun pauses to shift the Evil Eye along. Down in the depths, Turbo Granny screams for aid while trapped in the worm's clinging phlegm, and she brightens at the sight of Okarun arriving, though he soon sinks into the same goo, leaving the two to shout up to Momo. Above ground, Momo runs into trouble with the law for torching the Enjoji house. With the sun nearing the horizon, she pleads with the firefighters to hose down the earth even as the police take her into custody. The soil quakes, and the crowd watches the Tsuchinoko surface, exactly as Momo intended after recalling Jiji's lesson that worms cannot stay buried once water floods their burrows and wither under the sun's light. Spotting the creature ducking behind the house to dodge the rays, Momo wields her powers to demolish the building and clobber the worm with a hurled fire truck, remarking on what an eyesore it was.

Recovered enough to lug the Evil Eye toward the steps, Okarun works to ease their getaway. He catches Turbo Granny's cries from the phlegm below and goes to free her, only to get mired himself. The fire crew battles the blaze while officers, convinced Momo is the arsonist, move to cuff her. Daylight is almost gone. Momo urges the workers to douse the ground with all the water they can, recalling Jiji's warning that worms suffocate in the rain and shrivel under sunlight once they surface to breathe. The Great Serpent erupts and runs wild, so Momo hurls a fire truck through the house to lay the beast bare.

This nineteen-page chapter covers part of the Cursed House Arc within the Kintama Hunt Saga, published February 15, 2022, in Volume 6 and adapted as Episode 15. It splits between Okarun's failed rescue in the phlegm and Momo's surface gambit to lure and expose the Tsuchinoko.