Kurourushi

True to its nature, Kurourushi looked the part of a roach curse. A maroon insect exoskeleton seemed to form its face, arms, and legs, and the fairly tall creature could extend as many as four human arms. Human hands and feet rounded out the body, while a black shroud descending from its head buried the abdomen and also draped the wings and limbs, which only appeared when it moved.

Every loathsome trait of a cockroach showed in its face. Six lengthy purple antennae rose from it, eight scattered clusters of red eyes ringed by orange sclerae dotted its surface, and human-like teeth crouched behind a multi-layered jaw.

No genuine ego shaped Kurourushi; pure cursed-spirit instinct drove it instead. It craved nothing but to eat people and ease an endless appetite, and whatever blocked that meal drew its anger. Yuta cutting into its starving feast made the curse lock entirely onto consuming him, even demanding why he meddled; asked in turn for its reason to kill, it replied flatly that the taste of iron was what it loved. The identical child it spawned carried the same unquenchable hunger, crashing a domain battle while echoing that very line.

Among the mere sixteen cursed spirits ever registered at special grade, Kurourushi held a place, arisen from humanity's collective loathing of roaches. Alongside its humanoid-cockroach physiology, it could call up and steer limitless cursed cockroaches bolstered by its energy, plus wield cursed techniques and its hallmark weapon, the Festering Life Sword. Kenjaku had beaten it before and folded it into Cursed Spirit Manipulation, later releasing it to play at an elite tier in the game. Smarter than most curses, it spoke and reasoned clearly, grasped its own position well enough to stockpile fifty-two points, judged Dhruv Lakdawalla a bad matchup, and went dormant, even fathering an offspring to inherit its energy should it be exorcised.

Dhruv's fall woke it ravenous, and it flung swarms out to peel the flesh from anyone close. Perched on a twister of flying roaches, it cast techniques at range, screened itself behind a swarm to distract Yuta, then blinded him with Earthen Insect Trance before landing one sword blow after another and nearly eating him. Yuta endured, wrecked its body with reverse cursed technique, and exorcised the parent through a mouth-to-mouth surge of positive energy. The child, sustained by the nation's cursed energy of fear, lived on. After Takako Uro's domain expansion left her exposed, it lopped off her arm, but the spirit could not survive Granite Blast striking it head-on; once Ryu Ishigori connected with that blow and a follow-up burst of positive energy hit, it was finally destroyed. Its innate technique bred and directed man-eating roaches that fed its parthenogenesis, the reproductive process spawning both new roaches and its twin offspring, while the Festering Life Sword launched cursed insect eggs that hatched inside targets and tore out of their skin.