Ningen to Kaibutsu no Aida/Noroi no Chikashitsu

*Ningen to Kaibutsu no Aida*—a legendary masterpiece long regarded as one of the most harrowing works in rental manga history—has finally arrived. A brother and sister, left orphaned by a devastating plane crash, are each other's only remaining family. They walk side by side, hand in hand, and one might wish they could have found some sliver of happiness even amid such tragedy. But the younger brother no longer had arms or legs. This is the grievous tale of Yuuichi, the younger brother who miraculously survived the accident despite suffering full-body burns and the loss of all four limbs, and his older sister, who remains by his side as his devoted caretaker. Though she tended selflessly to Yuuichi, who could not survive on his own, the unending burden gradually wore her down. One day, she finally reached her breaking point and found herself overtaken by a dark impulse she believed she had long buried within her heart. *“Can I never find happiness because of my brother?”* *“If only Yuuichi weren’t here…”* What defines a human, and what defines a monster? A hopeless Friday begins. Also included is *Noroi no Chikashitsu*, taken from the special supplement to Shogakukan’s *Shougaku 4-nensei* magazine, August 1968 issue. Rieko is a girl raised in a loving home by kind parents. One day, while playing with friends, she ventures into Inuzuka—a place her mother had strictly forbidden her to enter. In the basement of Inuzuka, Rieko comes face to face with a grotesque creature bearing a human face on a dog's body and, overcome with terror, faints. She awakens in her own room, having been found lying in a field. When she tells her parents what she witnessed at Inuzuka, they are evasive, claiming to know nothing about it. That night, however, Rieko overhears a shocking truth from her parents’ conversation. The monster with a human head and canine body was none other than Takeshi—the severed half of Rieko's twin, born with two heads ten years earlier. A decade ago, pitying Takeshi, who had lost his body so that Rieko might live, her parents had transplanted his head onto a dog's body, hoping to prolong his life even briefly and treasure whatever limited time they had left together. With such an ill-matched union of head and body, it was obvious he would not last long, and everyone believed Takeshi would soon live out his natural span… Cursed screams echo through the cursed basement. This is another unmissable and controversial work, every bit the equal of *Ningen to Kaibutsu no Aida*. It is also worth noting the intriguing thematic parallels to Sugashima’s phantom work, *Soutou no Shoujo*—a story announced as his upcoming project in the publication guide at the end of Tokyo Mangasha’s *Kion*, yet never ultimately released.