The Spiral Obsession: Part 2 is the second chapter in the Uzumaki manga and is found within the first volume in the series.
Summary[]
Villagers pointing out the smoke settling into Dragonfly Pond.
Continuing right where The Spiral Obsession: Part 1 left off, Kirie Goshima and Shuichi Saito looked up into the sky. They saw the smoke from the crematorium drifting into the sky and forming the shape of a spiral. People mentioned how eerie it looked, and others claimed it to be a bad omen. Eventually, the smoke began to drift over and settle down, dropping towards Dragonfly Pond. The smoke began settling into the pond, as if the pond had been sucking it in. As everyone watched, Yukie Saito watched the sight in fear. She began to yell, exclaiming for her husband to leave her alone. Some people approached the woman, worried about her, and Shuichi tried calming his mother down, claiming that it was just a coincidence.
Smoke in the sky, with the shape of Mr. Saito's face.
Yukie pointed up at the sky, claiming that Shuichi's father was there. As Shuichi and Kirie looked up at the sky, they saw the smoke spiraling down into the lake, but as Kirie described, "The drifting smoke for a split second... Became the face of Shuichi's father..." The face in the smoke smiled in a wicked manner. Yukie began to scream, crying and having a mental breakdown. Some of the guests called an ambulance. At Kurôzu Hospital, 2 of the nurses restrained Yukie on the bed while Shuichi and Kirie stood nearby. Yukie saw one of the nurse's hair buns, which was twisted in, like a spiral. Yukie went into a panic and attempted to climb off the bed, while the other nurse tried getting her back up.
Yukie using scissors to cut off her fingerprints.
Yukie proceeded to develop and extreme phobia of spirals. She was hospitalized, and her phobia worsened to the point where she couldn't eat solid food. She would even get scared, pointing out anything remotely spiral shaped around her. She even became terrified of curling hair, or even her own hair in a bun. So she decided to shave her head once she noticed the hair whorl she had. Eventually, she even realized the tips of her fingers and toes had spiral shapes on her fingerprints and toe prints, so she ended up using sharp metal scissors to cut the skin off of them. Because of this, she usually wore a wool hat and mittens to hide her bald head or the scars left from cutting her fingerprints off.
Shuichi talking with Kirie about his mother's condition, along with explaining how he and the hospital staff are trying to neutralize Yukie's phobia.
Shuichi spoke to Kirie, telling her that every spiral his mother saw looked like his father when they found him dead. But when Yukie saw it, he wasn't dead. He would turn and look at her and say, "Yukie, Dear... Come join me in the spiral." Shuichi says his mother is completely delusional. He shows Kirie as an example that he would even wear a hat to cover the hair whorl he had, and gloves to hide his fingerprints as to prevent triggering her spiral phobia. The other doctors and nurses in the hospital are also taking precautions as to not further worsen Yukie's condition. Yukie seemed to have been calming down, especially since she seems to have gotten rid of all the spiral on her body, and the staff just have to cure her phobia. Sometime later, Shuichi wheelchaired his mother over to the Director's office. The Director asked Yukie about how she was feeling, and if she was still afraid of spirals, to which she said she was.
Shuichi staring at the anatomy poster of the Cochlea uneasily.
The director proposed taking Yukie to the Psychiatric Ward in Midoriyama-Shi for observation. Yukie looked at Shuichi nervously, saying she didn't know about going there. Shuichi began to look at the anatomy posters on the wall, noticing something for the ear. As he stared at it with unease, he saw that in the human ear, was the Cochlea, a spiral shaped organ meant for picking up sound in the inner part of the human ear. The Director and Yukie yelled at Shuichi, which caused him to pay attention to them oncemore. The Director looked over at the posters, asking if there was something there that bothered him. Shuichi quickly deflected the question ,not wanting for his mother to know about what he saw. Yukie looked at him in confusion, even went as far as to call him strange with a sassy look on her face.
Yukie complains about the siren while Shuichi looks at her.
In room 103 (Yukie's hospital room), Yukie talked with Shuichi, saying that she didn't want to go to Midoriyama-Shi as that was where they were planning on taking his late father. Shuichi conivinced his mother into going there, telling her that she should go where they have special treatment for her so she'd stop hurting herself. Yukie said she wouldn't hurt herself, since she had gotten rid of any spirals on her body. The five o'clock siren rang out, causing Yukie to cover up her ears in disdain as she complained, saying, "I HATE that sound! It just pierces through my ears!" Later, Shichi walked along the street while talking to Kirie. He told her that he hoped his mother never realized about the Cochlea, the spiral shaped organ in the human ear. He felt that if she did find out, that since she already cut off her fingertips and shaved her head just to get rid of those spirals, that she might do something more endangering and drastic.
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A centipede curled into a spiral, with the face of Mr. Saito in it.
That night, Yukie was sleeping in her hospital bed. A centipede began to crawl up the bed and go near her left ear. The centipede crawled near the entrance of her ear and tried crawling inside. Yukie's eyes widened and she sat up, feeling the centipede dangling out of her ear. She screamed and pulled out the centipede, throwing it on the ground. She threw an analog alarm clock at the centipede. The centipede crawled around and nestled into a spiral shape. Yukie looked at it in horror, seeing the face of her dead husband, which was made out of centipede limbs (likely due to the influence of The Spiral) He looked over at her and asked her to join him in the spiral. He asked her why she hated them, claiming it was still in her body. He wished to crawl into her ears and nestle deep inside them. Yukie screamed in terror, her voice echoing through the hospital.
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Kirie bringing Yukie back to her room.
The next day, Kirie and Shuichi visited Yukie. Kirie mentioned that the staff said she had screamed last night, asking if Yukie was okay. A nurse came in to take Yukie's temperature, and she proceeded to ask the nurse what was inside the human ear. She feared there was a spiral in it, and despite the nurse's and Shuichi's objections, Yukie went to the Director's office to look at the anatomy posters. She saw that they were gone, and asked the Director what happened, to which he replied by saying they were outdated. She searched the bookcase for any anatomy pictures, but Shuichi quickly stopped her and told her what she heard from his late father was fake, saying she was dreaming. While Kirie took Yukie back to her room, Shuichi thanked the Director for removing the posters. It is implied that the Director might've purposefully removed the posters due to Yukie's condition. The Director mentioned that until they can get her a specialist in Midoriyama-Shi, she was in danger.
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Yukie stares in terror at Mr. Saito's face appearing in the IV machine.
Later that night, the nurse hooked up Yukie onto the IV machine. She explained that it would be Yukie's last night on IV since she would be transferred to Midoriyama-Shi the next day. She said goodnight to Yukie before leaving the room. The water in the IV machine began to swirl, creating a whirpool. Yukie stared at it with fear. In the water, Mr. Saito's face appeared, and she screamed. He looked at her ad told her there were spirals in her ears. She ripped the plastic tube out of her arm. She knocked the IV machine back, causing it to crash on the ground. The IV tube dropped on the ground in the shape of a spiral.
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Yukie stabbing her ear with scissors.
Yukie curled onto the bed and screamed. She became incredibly scared, her spiral phobia triggering due to the events unfolding. She heard her husband, still telling her there were spirals in her ears. She believed she slid the spirals in her ears, and the only way for her husband to leave her alone was to get the spirals out of her ears. She searched through a drawer next to her hospital bed and pulled out medical scissors. She stared at it heavily, and began pointing it near the entrance of her ear. She moved the scissors away from her ear. She aimed at her ear in a stabbing motion, and a scream was heard throughout the hospital.
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Kirie describing the events of Yukie's funeral. A black spiral of smoke emerged in the sky on the day of her funeral.
Likely, after someone found her, she ended up being wrapped in bandages. By stabbing her ears, she destroyed her sense of hearing, along with destroying her sense of balance, putting her in a constant state of vertigo. She would scream about spinning and turning into a spiral, being haunted by her spiral phobia till the moment she died. On the day of her funeral, as her body was being burned in the crematorium, another black spiral of smoke emerged in the sky above Kurôzu-Cho.
Trivia[]
- Both Yukie Saito's and Mr. Saito's ashes spiraled as smoke in the sky funerals.
- There is foreshadowing of how the spiral can influence someone's mentality and environment.