In the isolated coastal town of Kurohane, eerie spiral patterns begin appearing everywhere—on walls, in trees, even in people’s reflections. When Renji Kisaragi, a skeptical high school journalist, returns home after hearing about his brother Shun’s sudden and mysterious death, he finds himself trapped in a nightmarish time loop.

Every time he dies, time rewinds—resetting two days earlier. But with each reset, reality twists further: people disappear, time fractures, and his own body begins to change. As he searches for the cause, he discovers his estranged father, Kaoru Kisaragi, may have been the one who triggered the loop.

Aided by his childhood friend Aoi Tsukimura, who holds secrets of her own, Renji must uncover the mystery of The Spiral Gate before it consumes everything. But some truths are worse than death. And the entity behind the spirals does not want to be stopped.

Renji must make an impossible choice: sacrifice himself to break the loop—or risk losing his humanity to escape.

Renji sat cross-legged on the motel floor, shirt sleeve rolled up, eyes fixed on the spiral mark on his forearm.


No longer just a wound or a scar—it had begun to branch. Tiny offshoots, like ink trails, now curled up his arm and across his shoulder in delicate, almost intentional patterns.


Suma leaned over with narrowed eyes. "That's… new."


"Too symmetrical to be just corruption," Aoi murmured. "It's like... directions."


Kaito grabbed a notepad and began sketching the pattern Renji traced with his fingers. "What if this is the Spiral Hunter's trail? Left behind for someone like Renji to follow?"


As he ran his fingers along the branching spirals, he saw flashes again—brief, disjointed images:


A shrine hidden under the roots of a dying tree.


A stone gate carved into a cliffside, with a single vertical scar splitting it in half.


He opened his eyes, breath shaky. "I think I know where to go."


Suma laid out an old map of the region. "Where did the flashes lead you?"


1. The Withered Tree Shrine – long-abandoned, swallowed by forest near the base of Mt. Shide.


2. The Bone Spiral – an ancient ritual site spoken of in Kyokami folklore, said to be cursed ground.


3. The Severed Gate – a hidden ruin believed to be a passageway to the Spiral Realm's source.


"These places aren't just haunted," Suma said grimly. "They're anchors. The spiral uses them to root itself in the physical world."


Aoi glanced at Renji's arm. "And your skin is showing us how to break those roots."


That night, as they prepared to leave for the first location, Renji sat alone outside the motel under the stars.


> "Am I following his path… or repeating it?"


But deep in his bones, he felt it listening.


As they drove toward the mountain shrine the next morning, the spiral mark pulsed in rhythm with the car engine.


A distant whisper echoed in Renji's head—growing louder the closer they got.


Like something waiting to be found. Or awakened.


Chapter 46 - The Map in the Skin