Out of the stack of more than twenty club flyers they had received, Byakuya and Eto ultimately chose two.
One was the Ghoul Studies Society. The other, the Literature Club.
Arima and Minami ended up making the same selections.
To join a club, you could either go directly to the clubroom or wait for the official club fair day when new members were recruited en masse.
They opted to go straight to the Ghoul Studies Society's activity room.
For a club that probably didn't have many members, dropping by in person made the most sense.
Inside the Ghoul Studies Society Clubroom
"I heard the TSC Chairman and the One-Eyed Owl enrolled at our university this year!"
"Yeah, I heard that too. And apparently two of the TSC's top operatives, the ones known as the 'White Reaper' and 'Lantern', are here too?"
"Those are just their nicknames, right? I don't actually know their real names."
"…"
The room was quite large, but sparsely populated—just six people total, split evenly between guys and girls.
Maybe that was because most of them were ghouls… not exactly a big draw for students, especially those from outside Tokyo.
At the moment, they were deep in conversation about today's major campus development.
The biggest rumor spreading across Kamii was that Byakuya and Eto had joined this year's freshman class.
"Still, there's no way someone like them would join this club. They'd probably go to the TSC Enthusiasts Club next door — it's way more popular than we are."
"Can't blame them. Even though there's this push for peaceful coexistence between humans and ghouls, a lot of our students are from outside Tokyo or even from overseas. They're not used to the idea of ghouls being accepted so soon. The school can't really force the issue too quickly. Meanwhile, that other club next door is still riding the wave of nostalgia for the old CCG, even if it is called the TSC now."
"Ugh, let's not worry about other clubs. Let's just focus on doing our thing. By the way, you all handed out the flyers today, right?"
"Yeah, they're all gone. But not a single freshman has come by… looks like today was another bust."
"…"
Just as the discussion continued, a light knock echoed from the door.
Everyone immediately sat up straight in surprise.
"Could it be a new member? How many do you think?"
"I'd be thrilled if we even got one. Though there's no guarantee they'd actually join..."
One of the girls stood up to open the door.
"Welcome—!"
And then she froze.
Standing in front of her were four people — the four she had least expected.
"Thank you" Byakuya said with a polite nod as he stepped into the room.
The girl remained frozen in place.
The rest of the club members quickly recognized them as well — shock spreading across their faces.
They had just said there was no way these VIPs would join their club… and here they were.
"Sorry to interrupt" Byakuya said calmly. "We're here to apply for membership in the GGhoul Studies Society"
A male student snapped out of his daze and scrambled into action. "O-oh! Sure, of course! Please just fill out these forms first."
He handed them four sign-up sheets.
Byakuya and the others filled them out honestly, including their species classification.
Byakuya and Arima wrote "half-human" Minami put "ghoul" and Eto noted "half-ghoul."
Once they submitted their forms, it was as good as official — they were now club members.
With such a small membership to begin with, the last thing the club wanted was to scare off interested recruits, especially ones of this caliber.
"Let me go ahead and introduce myself, Chairman, and everyone else" said the same student, collecting their forms. "I'm Mo Mo, the current club president. I'm also an international student from China."
Oh?
Byakuya looked mildly surprised. He hadn't expected the club leader to be a student from overseas.
"I'm human" Mo Mo added quickly, smiling with a clean-cut charm. "But I've always had a deep interest in ghoul studies."
"I'm Aoba Suzuki, the club's vice president. I'm also a ghoul."
The next voice belonged to a tall, elegant girl with long aqua-blue hair seated beside Mo Mo.
"But I've never harmed a human" she added hastily, likely to ease any discomfort. "My parents used to find corpses for me to feed on when I was little. And now with synthetic food available for ghouls, I don't even need that."
The rest of the members took turns introducing themselves.
"Could you tell us more about what your club actually does?" Eto asked curiously.
"We mainly research anything related to ghouls" Mo Mo replied. "Kagune, kakuhou, quinques, that kind of thing. Outside of that, the clubroom's just a chill place to hang out."
"Wait—you have access to quinques?" Minami asked, genuinely surprised.
Even within the TSC, not just anyone could get their hands on a quinque. The organization had retained much of the CCG's former structure, meaning there were still significant restrictions in place.
So for college students to have access to one was pretty shocking.
"Ah… well, not yet" Mo Mo said with a sheepish grin. "We're still trying. For now, we focus on kagune, kakuhou, and RC cells. Otherwise, we just hang out, chat, and play games."
"That's fine too" Byakuya nodded.
"Still can't believe it..." murmured one of the girls, wide-eyed. "You four—literal legends—are really first-years at our school? Don't tell me you're all younger than we are?"
She looked around at the group.
Everyone in the club besides Byakuya's group was at least a sophomore.
And suddenly, it was clear: Kamii University's Ghoul Studies Society was about to have its most interesting year ever.