IZUKU KING OF CURSES

CHAPTER 127

Takako Uro and Ryu Ishigori observe the situation in the Sendai Colony. Dhruv Lakdawalla has fallen and his patrolling shikigami was disappearing. Ryu uses his Kogane to check who defeated Dhruv and discovers the player was Yuta Okkotsu. Takako does the same and while she's glad the ugly shikigami was disappearing, she's concerned about a new threat that will emerge. Ryu realizes he was only able to get close to Dhruv without provoking him because he was occupied with Yuta. Takako and Ryu both know that following Dhruv's defeat, Kurourushi will surely emerge next. While the latter thinks things were getting interesting, the former gets frustrated by the prospect.

After cutting down Dhruv, Yuta regroups with the group of civilians he's been protecting. He tells them it's time to head North to the edge of the barrier but notices a mother and daughter struggling to go on. Yuta changes his mind and tells all the civilians they can rest inside the stadium that was serving as Dhruv's base instead. He's sure it will be safe inside but he's suddenly interrupted by a loud buzzing sound that indicates danger. Yuta orders everyone to hurry inside the stadium as he looks out and sees a giant swarm of bugs chasing people. It's already laid claim to two other people but Yuta was confident he can save the man running out in front of the swarm.

Yuta grabs the man's arm and jumps above the swarm, but he's unable to create enough space and the cockroaches devour the civilian's lower body before quickly stripping off all his flesh. Yuta blocks the cockroaches from attacking him next and notices that all of them were real insects reinforced with cursed energy. The swarm tries to move on from Yuta to attack the other civilians but he summons Rika to stop them. Rika smashes a bridge with a single blow and collapses the structure on top of the swarm, forcing it to go back toward Yuta. The special grade sorcerer imbues his katana with cursed energy and swings it with enough force to create a large blastwave that annihilates the whole swarm in one shot.

Watching the action, Ryu comments that while Yuta's cursed energy output wasn't anything special, his overall cursed energy was very impressive. Meanwhile, Takako looks on and simply comments to herself that Kurourushi's cockroaches were disgusting. Kurourushi was a special grade cockroach curse who was a poor matchup for Dhruv, so it went into a dormant state until he was eliminated. The curse has an endless appetite and eating stimulates its ability to perform parthenogenesis. Now awakened, the cockroach curse was starving and its instincts lead it to devour Yuta. Confronted by this new threat, Yuta asks his Kogane if this cursed spirit was a player, which the shikigami confirms. Dhruv would've been a poor matchup for Kurourushi, so it went into a dormant state until he was eliminated.

While preparing to face off against Kurourushi, Yuta ponders his objective in this colony. He knows resources were finite and it's only a matter of time before a rule allowing passage in and out of colonies was added. However, dangerous players like Dhruv can't be allowed to leave the barrier. With the likelihood that there were other players like him, Yuta knows that communication between colonies was necessary to prevent anyone dangerous from leaving them. In addition to the rules Megumi proposed in the meeting with Tengen, Yuta understands his allies need a means of communication and a way to move in and out of the colonies. That's a total of four rules for their group to get a handle on the Culling Game.

Yuta feels that the Shibuya Incident exhausted all his allies. Poised and ready to engage the enemy player with his katana, In response to Yuta's battle stance, Kurourushi reveals a cursed tool called the Festering Life Sword, an enchanted blade that mixes life and death.