Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror

Kirie, Shuichi, and Maruyama come across a precipice. They look down and see an enormous spiral of row houses. At first, they think the spiral is a new town, but Shuichi points out that it is Kurouzu-cho. Maruyama notes that it isn’t possible to build so much in such a short span of time—but Shuichi suggests that they are in a “time spiral” (560). When the group reaches town, Kirie decides to find her parents. She enters the row house spiral with Shuichi and Maruyama.

Kirie peeks into a townhouse and inquires about her parents. The residents do not know anything; they instead throw out a twisted corpse and ask Kirie if she could dispose of it. As Kirie, Shuichi, and Maruyama advance into the spiral, they find more contorted corpses thrown out of the row houses. A man notices the group and is revealed to be the volunteer who’d been expanding his house when they left for the mountains (in Chapter 17). He tells the group that it has been years since they left. Kirie asks him about her father, and he says that he heard of a potter living by Dragonfly Pond.

Kirie, Shuichi, and Maruyama try to find a way out of the spiral, but they keep encountering dead ends. Shuichi muses that Kurouzu-cho is cursed to endure the spiral forever: Every few centuries, the spiral comes back to haunt the town, and the town (and any memories of the spiral’s horrors) is destroyed. Shuichi spots a smoke spiral in the sky, and Kirie realizes it is tunneling towards Dragonfly Pond. The group enters a row house, trying to follow the smoke. While Kirie and Shuichi make it out, Maruyama is trapped by the residents and perishes.

Kirie and Shuichi come across a series of empty row houses. The water in Dragonfly Pond is gone; in its stead, lies a tunnel spiraling underground. The couple decides to venture down together.

As Kirie and Shuichi make their descent, the steps seem to go on forever; an unknown amount of time passes. They encounter a body whose limbs are looped in spirals. As they step over the body, it calls out to them and asks to be carried. When Shuichi denies its request, it bites Kirie’s ankle before launching itself at Shuichi, wrapping around his body like a python. Shuichi and the twisted being fall into the chasm below.

Kirie races down the steps to Shuichi. She sees light at the bottom of the chasm and comes across what appears to be an enormous ammonite fossil; it is the top of a spiral tower. Kirie cannot reach the tower and ends up falling. She thinks she is going to die, but somehow, her “body fell slowly, as if a great whirlwind were carrying me down” (599). She lands atop a pile of corpses, all knotted together in snake-like spirals.

Kirie realizes she is in a vast spiral palace full of spiral towers, orbs, and looped stones. At its center, lies an enormous orb emitting a mesmerizing light. Kirie searches for Shuichi; further in, the corpses are so old that they’ve turned to stone. Suddenly, she comes across her parents, fossilized in an embrace. Shuichi crawls to Kirie, his legs injured.

Shuichi looks at the orb and realizes it is the source of Kurouzu-cho’s curse: It emanates cursed rays every few centuries, luring the town’s residents to its underground palace. Shuichi says he is too exhausted to go on. Kirie pledges to stay with him, and they take each other’s hands. Their arms become entwined like two snakes. As they embrace, the spiral palace grows upwards towards Kurouzu-cho and completes itself. Time stands still, rendering the curse “over [at] the same moment it began” (610). As Kirie remains in Shuichi’s embrace until the end of time, she muses that a new Kurouzu-cho will be built on top of the ruins and the spiral curse will awaken once more.