Ekans_Kumar

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.

The Spiral Gate

Renji and Aoi walked in silence, their footsteps crunching against the soft sand.

The ocean behind them stretched endlessly, the waves crashing in a steady rhythm.

Ahead of them, the city loomed—tall, unfamiliar, yet strangely… familiar.

Skyscrapers of sleek glass and metal towered over the horizon, their reflections shimmering under the afternoon sun.

No sound of cars. No people moving through the streets.

Just the wind, howling through empty buildings.

Aoi swallowed hard. "Renji… where the hell are we?"

Renji's grip tightened. "I don't know."

But they had no choice. They had to keep moving.

As they stepped onto the pavement, the silence pressed in.

Stores had signs in the windows, restaurants had food displays… but no people.

It was as if the city had been abandoned in an instant.

Aoi ran her fingers along a car parked on the side of the road.

"There's no dust," she murmured. "It's like… someone was just here."

Renji exhaled. This place shouldn't exist.

They had escaped the loops, left the spirals behind—but had they truly returned to reality?

There—at the far end of the street—a shadow disappeared behind a building.

"…We're not alone," she whispered.

And they had to do it before whatever was watching them made its move.

They kept walking, the tension thick in the air.

A massive digital billboard in the center of the street, flashing a single message in bright red letters:

The loops, the spirals, the nightmare—they had broken free.

But this wasn't the same Kurohane.

The buildings were different. The streets were changed.

A copy of a city that shouldn't exist.

Or had they just stepped into another illusion?

"…Renji. I don't think we're done yet."

A shadow flickered at the edge of his vision.

A sound he hadn't heard since he left the loops.

Aoi grabbed his arm. "Renji, we need to go. Now."

They turned and ran—deeper into the city that shouldn't exist.

And behind them, something watched.

A City That Shouldn’t Exist