Inhuman Makyo

Representatives of Japan and Simuria come to understand that cursed spirits and Kalyans are strikingly alike, and they hurry to stop the Great Purification Ritual underway in Tokyo, the curse-ridden former capital nicknamed the Inhuman Makyo, before other aliens witness it.

Cross relays that some Simurians believe humans are slaughtering Kalyans. Usami counters that no Kalyans exist on Earth, but Jabaloma describes the weeping witness who claimed to see them dying in Tokyo. On a maintenance run for the city's warding barriers, Yuka explains to Maru that curses gather in Tokyo because the government publicly tied them to that one place after the Culling Game, so the wards must hold to stop cursed energy from leaking out. The ritual is a scheduled mass exorcism timed to the barriers' weakest point. Inside the city, the veteran sorcerer Yakumaru clears wasp-like curses, then finds an unnatural cluster of weak spirits drawn toward a Simurian who sits calmly beside a curse, alerting both parties.

Grasping the resemblance, Usami and Mino rush in, joined by Cross and Jabaloma, who offer the Naunax for speed. When the envoys arrive, Yakumaru bursts out demanding reinforcements and aims at the approaching aliens. Usami restrains him with Cursed Speech and suspends the ritual, while Cross shows Osuki that a genuine Kalyan's death would strain his third eye far more, and that the vanishing curse proves these beings lack physical bodies. Apologies pass between the leaders, but hostility lingers.

Elsewhere Yuka, Tsurugi, and Maru discuss why cursed objects sit in remote or sacred spots and how they eventually become curse-magnets that need reinforcement. Maru, moved that sorcerers choose to protect people unlike Rumelian warriors fated from birth, vows to propose Rumelian help with the barriers. Back in Tokyo, Yakumaru mistakes Cross reaching into his clothes for a draw and shoots him twice, and as both sides ready to fight despite frantic pleas, Dabura appears demanding answers. The chapter features Cursed Speech, is set in Tokyo, and is collected in Modulo Volume 2.