The Origin of Obedience

Megumi, Nobara, and Yuji travel out to a case linked to the school Megumi once attended, Saitama Urami East Junior High, where several former students have died under strange circumstances. At the same time, far from the investigation, Mahito and Geto move forward with their plans and force a Cursed Womb to take physical form.

A man named Taichi Kanada is killed by an unseen cursed spirit after finding his locked door open, joining a pattern of victims who all share the same alma mater. Assistant manager Akari Nitta drives the first-years to the scene and lays out the theory that a curse planted years ago is only now claiming lives, though Megumi questions how one spirit could span so many dates and places. At the school, local delinquents bow to Megumi rather than the smug Yuji and Nobara, exposing that their reserved classmate once ruled the area as a brawler. A staff member named Takeda and the delinquents point the group toward Yasohachi Bridge, a suicide and paranormal hotspot where students once tested their courage by bungee jumping.

Elsewhere, Geto explains to Mahito why sorcerers cannot fully destroy special grade cursed objects and can only suspend them, then Mahito jams a Death Painting Womb down an ordinary person's throat, turning him into a living curse and christening him Kechizu. After the bridge yields nothing by day, a former classmate's revelation that Megumi's sister Tsumiki visited the site rattles him. He sends his friends home and returns alone at night, reasoning that the curse hides inside a domain reachable only by crossing beneath the bridge over the river in darkness.

The episode adapts chapters fifty-five and fifty-six and belongs to the Death Painting Arc, airing in Japan on March 13, 2021. Yuji and Nobara refuse to leave Megumi behind, joining him to enter the curse's domain where a mole-like spirit waits. The closing Juju Stroll has the trio catch a purse thief and earn a free meatless gyoza meal. Megumi reveals to his teammates that Tsumiki lies trapped in an unwaking sleep that the curse could end.