Ritual of Harmony

Yuji reveals that scrubbing cursed energy away completely cannot be done and nudges Maru toward a different route to harmony. Once Maru grasps the hidden tie linking Rumelians with Kalyans and with the cursed spirits, he reshapes his approach and sees the ritual of harmony through.

Deep in the soul pathway, Yuji cautions that stripping cursed energy from Japan's people alone will not halt the birth of curses. Even those abroad, often labeled as having none, still leak it in trace amounts, so the rare powerful curse can form outside Japan. Ever since curses became public roughly seventy years ago, foreign cursed energy has crept into the country, meaning places like Tokyo would keep spawning curses even after a full domestic purge. Seeing that the corridor links the soul of every person alive, Yuji concludes the one sure way to stop curses is to drain all of humanity, a feat past Maru's technique. Maru hesitates, confirming as much: even reshaping Japanese and Simurian souls to mirror non-Japanese ones would leave faint cursed energy able to spawn curses. He adds that his Harmony technique exists to unite peoples and therefore cannot directly hurt anyone. Yuji grants that a total purge would harm ordinary bodies apart from those gifted with a physical Heavenly Restriction, yet argues sorcerers would keep their edge and could clear the few yearly curses while Tokyo rebuilds.

Maru still believes the deeper Earthling and Simurian rift over how curses are treated would linger, so Yuji proposes folding cursed spirits into the harmonization and asks why Rumelians take curses for Kalyans. With plush dolls of a curse and a Rumel village Kalyan, Yuji argues not every curse-like being is hostile, naming Tengen and Choso. Consulting the village Kalyan, Maru finds that one shared color runs through every Rumelian, Kalyan, and cursed spirit soul, unlike the mixed hues of all other souls. Curses, though bodiless and born of leaked energy, house those identically colored souls as vessels, which is why Rumelians confuse the two and why Kalyans spare them. Unable to overwrite soul color outright, Maru lands on a fresh idea: convert the pathway into a mechanism that divides souls and remolds them, dispersing each color and reshaping the forms to wipe out the greatest possible amount of cursed energy.

Over in Africa, Dabura takes the Black Rope from a local sorcerer. Maru steps before him in a dark void, apologizing for breaking up the duel yet again, and his request is that Dabura go back to Simuria so his technique can save Yuka. Dabura agrees, having come to Earth only to keep his promise to Dura, and with the Rumel Tribe no longer needing his guard he calls his role finished. He tells his sister Spejo they are heading home, and her touch on the Black Rope instantly snaps the Deskunte chieftain's curse laid upon her. After the siblings leave, Maru comes to understand what his cursed technique has truly been all along. He then mends the injuries of Tsurugi, Yuka, Usami, and Cross before thanking Yuji, who notes one task is left, which Maru opts to do alone. Looking over Tokyo from the pathway, Maru calls out to every cursed-spirit soul, owning that he was unready to shoulder so great a sin and asking them to rest in peace. Cross takes his hand to share the load, and Tsurugi and Yuka soon link in too. In tears, Maru gives thanks to his brother and his friends and begins, as he and Cross pray to soothe the rising spirits and complete the Ritual of Harmony. A 4-koma bonus shows Osuki and two Simurians given Earth liquor and making Dapa sample it for poison, after which a soused Dapa panics before Dabura and admits the truth.