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Published In:
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| Publication Date: September 13, 2023 | |
| Pages: 18 (black and white) | |
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Manga Summaries
Volume 21
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| Chapters Originally Published in: | |
| Shonen Sunday 2023 Vol. 42 - 51 |
Chapter
199: 呪った理由
Norotta wake
(The Reason Behind the Curse)
Mao and Nanoka arrive at Miwako's home in Ayame's stead. Here they speak with Miwako who reveals that Sumi is the daughter of her servants, a friend who is also akin to a personal maid. She felt that Sumi should not be in a relationship with Kandori, a student lodger, because he had a fiancee already, however Kandori claims to have broken off the engagement. Feeling that Kandori was likely to jilt her friend, Miwako bought a curse to try to drive him away. Mao asks her to confirm that she wants a more powerful curse now which she acknowledges. When he goes to see Kandori he is shocked that he has taken on a feral, animal-like appearance as he rests in bed. It seems Ayame's supposedly simple curse has grown strangely powerful and effected Kandori in ways it was not supposed to. Mao places a paper talisman over Kandori's face and asks that it be left on overnight in order to remove the curse. Miwako seems upset that Mao is exorcising the curse that she had cast and he pulls her aside to speak to her. He explains that the cursed needle Ayame gave her was for sewing an item that would then make Kandori leave, but she confesses to wishing he would die while she was stitching with the needle. This made the curse much more powerful than it was supposed to be. Mao explains that in addition to the cursed needle she already returned to him, he would also need the item she stitched that was supposed to have been given to Kandori. Miwako seems nervous and explains that she can have it for Mao the next day, as it will take her some time to find it. As Mao and and Nanoka leave, Nanoka explains that Kandori really did end his engagement with the other girl and seems to genuinely love Sumiko. After they have left, Miwako asks Sumiko to give her the item she stitched for Kandori, as she apparently left it in Sumiko's care.
Chapter
200: 呪う覚悟
Narau kakugo
(The Determination to Curse)
Miwako recalls that she gave a good luck charm to Sumiko, a prayer inside a small hand-sewn bag. Sumiko explains that she had loaned the good luck charm to Kandori to help him pass his exam. Miwako realizes that is why the curse effected him so severely. When Sumiko picks up the charm to return it to Miwako she immediately collapses. Fearing her friend is in danger she goes to remove the paper talisman from Kandori's face, hoping it still has enough power to help Sumiko despite the fact that Mao told her not to disturb it until morning. As soon as she touches it her hands become clawed and furry. Mao appears, explaining that he was suspicious so he lingered and explains that the curse has now rebounded onto Miwako. It seems she gave the cursed amulet to her friend out of frustration that she ignored her advice to leave Kandori alone. Mao and Nanoka take Miwako back to Ayame who examines how the curse has reversed itself and explains that if she had wanted a curse to punish her friend for not listening she should have explained that and she would have given her something else. Using her newfound powers Ayame is able to see that the curse has lost its hold over the amulet, and she easily exorcises Miwako as well, explaining she'll be paying for the extra effort she has had to put in. Miwako returns home and is relieved to see that both Sumiko and Kandori are all better now. At Mao's home, Nanoka suggests that perhaps Miwako was also in love with Kandori and simply jealous of her friend winning his heart. Mao hypothesizes that the dark haze Ayame can see is not a curse in itself, but the future fate of someone. He was relieved to see that Miwako was able to change her fate and wonders if Yurako would be able to do the same. When Nanoka casually admits she understands why someone would want to curse someone else Mao is surprised, but she promises she would never actually go through with it.
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Published In:
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| Publication Date: September 20, 2023 | |
| Pages: 3 (full color) 16 (black and white) | |
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Chapter
201: 子寄せの笛
Koyose no fue
(The Bewitching Flute)
Mao, Nanoka and Otoya meet with Tenko who tells them of a recent spate of disappearancs of children from nearby elementary schools and homes. It seems the children all stand up en masse and walk away never. Elsewhere at Shiranui's temple he tells Mei and Renji he wants them to investigate the disappearances, as he suspects one of the the Goko clan's artifacts, the Bewitching Flute, may be responsible. Shiranui comments that the flute was not particularly powerful and that it was loaned out to mechants seeking to enslave children. A rural village begins to order all the children to stay in the town's assembly hall in hopes of keeping watch over them to protect them. They children seem happy enought, but at night they all rise and try to leave. When the adults try to herd them back inside the children turn vicious and attack the adults, biting them and beating them with logs and torches. Mao and Nanoka rush out, though Mao cautions Nanoka to be careful, if the two of them get their poisoned blood on the children it will kill them. The children escape and Otoya follows after them, going undercover to see what is happening. Mei and Renji arrive as well seeking the flute, with both agreeing that they will murder whomever has the flute and return it to Shiranui. Otoya follows the children into a cavern behind a waterfall and leaves glowing dandelion seeds for Mao to follow his trail. In the cavern Otoya finds a man in a woven bamboo cage made for criminals. In his mouth is a bamboo bridle as he pleads for help. Much to Otoya's surprise a young boy plays the flute that has lured all the children to the cavern.
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Published In:
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| Publication Date: September 27, 2023 | |
| Pages: 18 (black and white) | |
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Chapter
202: 笛使い
Fuetsukai
(The Flute Player)
Nanoka and Mao follow the path left by Otoya as Mao realizes that one of the old Goko clan curse tools is to blame for what is happening. In the cavern the flutist begins to play the instrument to force the children to beat the imprisoned man, though Otoya does not react. Confused and angered that Otoya is somehow not obeying him, he has the children pursue Otoya who begins to flee after scattering paper sutras behind him which burst into flame. However Renji and Mei are the ones who discover Otoya as he tries to escape. Mei binds the children when they begin to attack and Renji tell her to hold off Mao and Nanoka while he chases down the flute player. With a tangle of vines, Mao is waylaid, only to come across the imprisoned man in the bamboo cage. Freeing him, the man reveals that the flute-player is Mushizo, a boy he took in who stole his flute and used it against him. Deeper in the cavern Renji catches up with Mushizo and sends his kakachu fire bugs to incinerate the boy.
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Published In:
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| Publication Date: October 4, 2023 | |
| Pages: 18 (black and white) | |
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Chapter
203: 笛の音の呪縛
Fue no ne no jubaku
(The Curse of the Flute's Tune)
Renji sends his kakachu insects to combust the fleeing Mushizo, but before they reach him a spray of water extinguishes them. Mao summoned forth Genbu to quench the firey bugs. Mao explains that he wants to hear what Mushizo is up to and why he was kidnapping children. Binding him with the vines of her plants, Mei takes him back to the grizzled man who was trapped in the cage and the bearded man explains that he was given the Bewitching Flute by a man who enslaved children, and he used the flute for the same purposes. He claims he took on a weak and near death Mushizo when he was a child and took care of him until the boy stole the flute from him. The slaver says that Mushizo was too strange looking for anyone to buy from him, and so he kept the boy as his own servant. Mushizo angrily explains that recently he simply could no longer hear the flute and it lost its hold over him. Nanoka realizes that he became too old to hear the frequency of the flute's tune. When Mushizo stole the flute he realized that the slaver was still threatening to kill him, and as a result he used the flute to summon more children to fetch a cage to bind his former master in. It seems Mushizo had no deeper plans that his simple desire for revenge. Mao explains he will exorcise the cursed flute, but Mei and Renji snatch the instrument away, explaining they were sent to reclaim the item as it is property of the Goko clan. Nanoka tells the pair that she knows they would never support a tool that could be used to enslave children given their own pasts. Instead they tell Mao to help Mushizo find a new profession as they take the bearded slave master away with them.
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Published In:
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| Publication Date: October 11, 2023 | |
| Pages: 18 (black and white) | |
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Chapter
204: 生人形
Iki ningyo
(The Living Doll)
Mao and Nanoka are able to return the abducted children to their parents and they entrust Mushizo to the care of Tenko rather than turning him over to the authorities. They soon learn that other children that had been abducted by the scruffy man were found and rescued after tips were sent to the police in the wake of burned bodies, no doubt the work of Renji and Mei. Nanoka states that the pair are not wholly evil, but Mao points out that they are murderers and they are unlikely to turn against the Goko Clan. Elsewhere at a party thrown by Baron Kawazu, Kamon is hearing about an unusual "living doll" that many of the attendees are excited about. Kamon is intrigued to see the doll with its large, glass eyes. The partygoers are delighted by its likelike and lifesize appearance but as Kamon studies it he can sense a small trace of malice emanating from the doll. He decides this must be the work of the Goko clan. Days later the girls that Kamon is living with report to him that the Baron was killed and the doll was stolen. Kamon interrogates the Baron's butler who reveals that Kawazu's chest was crushed somehow. Using paper amulets to detect any risidual energy, Kamon discovers there is a powerful taint of metal left in the room.
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Published In:
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| Publication Date: October 18, 2023 | |
| Pages: 18 (black and white) | |
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Chapter
205: 人形師
Ningyoshi
(Dollmaker)
Kamon visits Mao, Nanoka, Hyakka and Otoya to tell them about the living doll and the death of Baron Kawazu. Even more concerning, Kamon reports that he has heard accounts of more and more people acquiring living dolls. He investigated one such source and reported that he could sense no metal energy or malice from the doll, but was told that all of the dolls have been purchased from the Goko Clan. With that concerning revelation, Mao and Nanoka sneak into a manor that is reported to have bought one of the dolls. However, the dolls that Mao, Nanoka and Hyakka all investigate are entirely ordinary. Elsewhere a strange man unveils the same doll that was stolen from Baron Kawazu and tells a new client he will sell it on one condition- he cannot show the doll to anyone. The man soon realizes that this is the doll that belonged to Baron Kawazu and nearly refuses it, however the strange man assures him that the doll was returned to him after the Baron's death. The wealthy man accepts the deal and buys the doll, keeping in in a private room and looking at it every night. Suddenly the doll moves and as he gets close to examine it the doll crushes him to death. Hearing of this, Hyakka, Mao, Nanoka and Kamon come to investigate. They detect the metal energy of Hakubi, particularly his metal scarecrow foot soldiers.
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Published In:
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| Publication Date: October 25, 2023 | |
| Pages: 18 (black and white) | |
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Chapter
206: 人形工房
Ningyou koubou
(Doll Workshop)
Late at night the doll comes alive, standing and embracing her new owner with a crushing grip that breaks his back and makes blood pour from his mouth. With her work done, the doll wanders outside to a waiting car where the doll salesman awaits her. He greets the doll as "Tsuyako" and promises to clean her blood-stained skin once he gets her back to his workshop. As his car drives away Hyakka's birds flutter overhead, tracking the doll back to its home base. While mending the doll's skin, Nanoka, Mao, Kamon and Hyakka arrive and confront the dollmaker about his connections with Hakubi. However the man says he does not know Hakubi and asks the group if they are from the Goko Clan. He reveals that he has merely implied to his wealthy clients that he is a member of the Goko Clan in order to raise his prices, and he charges double if someone asks if he can make his dolls murder someone. When they request an assassination he offers his killer doll to the target and charges them a fee to purchase it, only to let it murder them. Everyone is shocked by the dollmaker's casual economic interests, but Hyakka presses him, telling him that he knows the spell the man is using to animate his dolls is Hakubi's Metal Scarecrow Spell. Soon dozens of dolls begin to attack, flinging themselves at the group as Kamon and Mao slice their heads of to no avail. In the commotion the dollmaker escapes with Tsuyako and they dive out an upstairs window and flee. Kamon, who is unfamiliar with Hakubi's metal scarecrows, does not know how someone like this dollmaker could command so many dolls at once without any onmyoji training, and Hykka points out that the only time he could have seen Hakubi's metal scarecrows was during his attack on a village 20 years ago.
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| Publication Date: November 1, 2023 | |
| Pages: 18 (black and white) | |
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Chapter
207: 動力
Douryoku
(Power Source)
The dollmaker recalls his past, remembering how he apprenticed to a puppetmaker for a decade before he was finally allowed to assist his master. Decades ago he was sent to deliever a completed doll to a group of traveling puppeteers only to find everyone in the village had been murdered by Hakubi's mechanical scarecrows. Just as he was about to be killed Hyakka ran by in the distance, destroying the mechanical creatures with his flames. The dollmaker was stunned and watched a small spore-like thing fall from the wreckage of one of the scarecrows- the power source of their movement. His recollection breaks off as Mao and the others catch up with him as he tries to escape with Tsuyako only to be finally halted. Mao tells him that he seemed to have no concern for his dolls being destroyed when he made them attack, but was more worried about fetching his briefcase before making his escape. Mao correctly guesses that whatever allows him to animate the dolls is contained within it. As Hyakka confronts the dollmaker he explains that a metal kesaran pasaran fell out of the scarecrow all those years ago. Kamon explains that they are folk creatures that multiple if used to powered ones face. The dollmaker says that these metal kesaran pasaran animated his doll and when he placed it in an iron kettle for safekeeping it multipled. Now twenty years have passed and the dollmaker has begun to create assassination dolls in order to earn more money to fund his passion for crafting dolls. Hykka threatens to burn Tsuyako and the kesaran pasaran power source but the dollmaker tries to escape only to be ensnared by Kamon's vines. Mao slices his suitcase open, causing dozens of kesaran pasaran to spill out. Just then a portal opens and Hakubi arrives.
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Published In:
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| Publication Date: November 8, 2023 | |
| Pages: 1 (full color) 18 (black and white) | |
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Chapter
208: 耐えがたい罰
Taegatai batsu
(A Fitting Punishment)
Hakubi arrives having heard the same rumors about killer dolls that Mao and his allies had heard. His is annoyed with the dollmaker for sullying the name of the Goko Clan with such reckless assassinations that can easily be traced back to him. Nanoka points out that Renji and Soma both leave bodies that have been mangled and burned for the public to find, but Mao points out no one could trace those murders to them in the same way that the dollmaker is clearly connected to the deaths committed by his dolls. The dollmaker begs Hakubi to help him dispose of Kamon, Mao and Hykka as tells Hakubi about how beautiful his doll Tsuyako is. Because of his skills Hakubi is able to manipulate the doll to do things that she was not designed to, sending sharp metal spears from her mouth and huge blades from her arms as she battles against Mao and the others. The dollmaker is distressed by the sight of his lovely doll being used in such a fashion and begs Hakubi to stop twisting his doll unnaturally. Kamon scoffs, saying it seems a fitting punishment for the dollmaker to see his creation's beautfy reduced to a simple metal monstrosity. Hakubi coldly says that power is beauty as he lures Mao and the others into a trap.
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Published In:
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| Publication Date: November 15, 2023 | |
| Pages: 18 (black and white) | |
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