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Ten years prior to the events in question, a seventeen-year-old Rohan moved into [[Rohan Kishibe's grandmother|his grandmother]]'s inn for the summer, hoping to create a one-shot that would launch his career as a manga artist. At that time, Rohan met a young and mysterious woman named [[Nanase Kishibe|Nanase Fujikura]], the only tenant of the inn. The two youths eventually became friends, though the woman seemed unusually interested in Rohan's work. One evening, Nanase presented to Rohan the story of the blackest pigment of the world: 300 years ago, the Japanese artist [[Nizaemon Yamamura]] found the pigment within a tree trunk and used it in many of his works. However, the tree he cut to exploit the pigment was private property, and the lord of the property had him put to death. Rumors spread that the painter cast a curse upon his works, leading to all of his paintings being burned except one. Nanase had seen that "evil" painting once, before it was sold to the Louvre. Before she could provide any more detail, Nanase was interrupted by a call from her husband, and rushed out of the inn to meet with him. One week later, Nanase mysteriously reappeared and tearfully threw herself into Rohan's arms. Seeing that Rohan created a character in his manga based on her likeness, Nanase quickly destroyed the drafts and apologized to Rohan before once again disappearing from his life.
After restarting his manuscript from scratch, Rohan continued to pursue his passion, eventually becoming a successful manga artist. Ten years passed before Rohan was reminded of the cursed painting by chance during a conversation with [[Okuyasu Nijimura]], [[Koichi Hirose]], and [[Josuke Higashikata]]. Once more overcome with curiosity, Rohan decides to visit the Louvre and see the painting for himself. In France, Rohan meets with an interpreter by the name of [[
The group travels deep into the underground tunnels of the Louvre, eventually finding the door to the storage room at the bottom of a staircase in the depths of the building. The firemen glimpse the painting while attempting to break down the door, but suddenly see a shadow moving. When Gaucher and the firemen break down the door to investigate, one of the firemen is suddenly shot in the head, seemingly out of nowhere. The four survivors bear witness to a mob emerging from the darkness and staring directly at them. Gaucher recognizes one of the people in the mob as the victim of a car accident, and his body is instantly crushed against the wall, with tire marks appearing on his skin. Noguchi attempts to escape by climbing the stairs, but is cornered by more of the mysterious phantoms. As the second fireman recognizes a man he saw die in the war and is himself gunned down, Rohan sees several of his ancestors within the ghostly mob, including his grandmother. Rohan uses his ability to read one of the ghosts, but finds that their pages contain only the word "death." Noguchi sees her son [[Pierre]], who drowned in a lake after his mother neglected him, and embraces her son as her body is filled with water and explodes.
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