What a veritable Hell on Earth the Goko Compound was. Curses were an apt focus, because the entire group is pretty much a curse afflicting anyone who’s ever had anything to do with it. That becomes increasingly clear the deeper we get into Mao – this is a chronicle of the Goko Clan’s web of destruction. No one affiliated seems to have escaped it – including pets. That’s why as much as one wants to dismiss certain characters as villains (Shiranui is a good candidate) in the end the big bad is clearly the Goko itself.

Even seemingly well-intentioned diaspora like Natsuno (Kugimiya Rie playing against type a bit) spread the disease. She’s the earth sorcerer who trained the hapless Domon on how to use her “healing” soil. She used it to revive his murdered wife – sure, no one could have seen that was a bad idea – and trained him on how to make the soil. He the disseminates the Goko curse outward through all the patients he treats with it, leading to their own demise. His end is the only one possible and it must be said, not undeserved – he showed no remorse for the harm he’d done using what Natsuno taught him.

In the moment Natsuno seems to have no ill intentions towards Mao for what that’s worth. She also has no idea how or why Sana seems to be working for Shiranui (people keep saying “alive” but that seems unlikely). As it happens Sana was in love with Daigo, who Mao considered a big brother. When Mao says he’d have been happy if those two had found happiness, Natsuno believes him (and should). Daigo was not one of the onmyoudou invited to the ritual, so his death may have been an accident – stepping on a curse intended for someone else. Or it could have been revenge for being Sana’s lover (maybe from her father).

Mao tells Natsuno he just wants to find Sana and save her if possible. Ootoya’s expression at his reaction to Nanoka’s “Then what?” is priceless – imagine being denser than a shikigami. Natsuno goes on her way for the nonce, sure to play a role later. Kamon continues to investigate Shiranui, and discovers that he’s moved his shrine to the bottom of the sea. He also notes that the local fishermen’s nets have becomes clogged with hair drifting up from the shrine, which he collects a sample of. He summons Mao to the mansion where he’s performed his latest onmyouji-gigolo act for a spirit summoning, using the hair as a katashiro.

That’s where Masago comes into play. We haven’t heard about her in a while. But she too seems to have fallen into Shiranui’s clutches. We don’t yet know if Masago was summoned but the math suggests otherwise, though she was clearly a better water sorcerer than Shiranui who was. Why wasn’t Masago (who Kamon had feelings for, though he’s too much of a playboy for them to be called love) summoned? And given that both Mao and Kamon are convinced the spirit they summoned wasn’t that of a living person, how has Shiranui bent her to his uses?