"Yahallo, Natsume-kun!"
Early the next morning, just as Natsume stepped into the classroom, a lively voice rang out behind him. Yui jogged up to him, a bright, relieved smile blooming across her face, the signature bun on her head bobbing with even more energy than usual.
"Morning." Natsume gave a small nod in reply. That was as much greeting as he offered.
"Um... about yesterday, thank you so much!" Yui bowed deeply, her tone filled with sincere gratitude. "If it were not for you, I really do not know what I would have done."
Her voice was not particularly loud, but it was loud enough for the classmates who had been eavesdropping to hear every word clearly. In an instant, all kinds of curious and gossipy gazes turned toward Natsume, the transfer student who usually had almost zero presence in class.
"It was nothing," Natsume answered just as simply. He pulled out his chair and sat down, clearly having no intention of continuing the topic.
All he wanted was a peaceful life. Being placed under the spotlight of everyone's attention was the exact opposite of what he was aiming for.
Yui sensed this as well and tactfully did not cling to him any further. Still, in those bright eyes that looked at Natsume, besides gratitude, there was now a hint of quiet admiration and a deep, unspoken curiosity.
To Natsume, exorcising something like "Hanako," a low-grade cursed spirit, was easier than stepping on an ant. He quickly tossed the whole incident to the back of his mind and returned to his usual routine of zoning out by the window.
However, peaceful days always seemed to hide trouble that arrived without warning.
After school, Natsume turned down Yui's earnest offer to "treat you to a drink as thanks" and headed home alone, his bag slung over one shoulder.
The sunset stretched his shadow out across the pavement. At an intersection, he caught sight of a familiar figure.
Twin tails of golden hair traced two bright arcs in the wind. Her slender body, wrapped in Sobu High's uniform, outlined the gentle curves unique to a high school girl. Even from a distance, he could feel that aura of a top student that warned strangers to keep their distance.
Eriri Spencer Sawamura.
A second-year in Class 2-B at Sobu High, the ace of the art club, a half-British returnee student. With her striking looks and talent, she was extremely popular on campus, a goddess in the eyes of countless boys.
But beneath that glamorous ojou-sama veneer, she hid another, far less public face... the doujin artist "Kashiwagi Eri." A creator with a modest reputation in certain circles, whose specialty was drawing R-18 doujinshi.
Natsume had no particular interest in her and was just about to take another route to avoid unnecessary contact.
In that instant, though, his footsteps came to a halt.
Through the "Six Eyes" that could pierce the essence of all things, he caught a whiff of an ominous, nauseating surge of cursed energy.
It clung to her like a filthy, hate-soaked rag wrapped tight around Eriri's body. The source of that cursed energy... was the silhouette of a grotesquely tall, distorted woman.
She wore a pure white dress and a wide-brimmed sunhat. Beneath the brim, her face was a patch of darkness where no features could be seen. Her mere existence polluted the space around her, bending the light ever so slightly. In Natsume's perception, that impossible mouth of hers was vibrating, releasing a strange, soundless frequency that clawed directly at the soul.
A special grade cursed spirit.
There was no doubt. This was a disaster-class cursed spirit capable of causing massive destruction.
And at this very moment, that special grade cursed spirit had already "marked" the girl in front of him in its own way. Like prey that had already been marked, waiting for the moment it would finally be claimed.
Natsume's brows furrowed, barely noticeably.
Trouble.
That was the only word in his mind. He did not want trouble. But the instincts of a jujutsu sorcerer, or perhaps the last part of him that still felt responsible as a human, would not allow him to stand by while a fellow student was left to die to a special grade cursed spirit.
He changed direction and walked straight toward Eriri.
Eriri was walking with her head down, lost in thought. Her mind was full of storyboard ideas for her next manga, and she did not notice someone approaching at all.
"Hey."
A flat voice suddenly sounded right beside her ear, startling her.
Eriri jerked her head up and saw a handsome face that looked vaguely familiar. It was that transfer student, the one who, like her, did not really fit in with any group.
"W... what is it? Calling out to me so suddenly is really rude, you know!" She reflexively put up her defenses, crossing her arms in front of her chest, speaking with that trademark tsundere bite in her tone.
Natsume ignored the attitude. His gaze seemed to pierce straight through her body, landing on the invisible horror behind her.
"Lately, have you seen a very tall woman in a white dress and a white hat?" He asked calmly. "And she is always near you."
Eriri's pupils shrank sharply. The color drained from her face in an instant.
"H... how do you know that?!" she blurted out, her voice full of shock and disbelief. "Are you stalking me?!"
Natsume shook his head and continued in that same even, unruffled tone. "Then have you heard a very strange sound?"
He paused for a moment, then, imitating the cursed energy's rhythm, shaped the syllables silently with his lips, letting no sound escape, yet making the pattern unmistakable.
"Pop, pop, pop."
Those three beats hit Eriri's heart like a sledgehammer.
She went rigid. Completely.
Yes. That was it. Exactly that sound.
For the past few days, whether she was drawing or lying in bed late at night, that eerie noise would randomly echo next to her ear, like something between the chirp of an insect and the stutter of a broken machine. She had convinced herself it was just auditory hallucinations from being overworked. She had never imagined...
That the boy in front of her would repeat it perfectly. Not a beat off.
A surge of terror, laced with the shame of having some deeply private fear exposed, rushed up to her face, turning her cheeks fiery red.
"Who... who even are you! What nonsense are you spouting! You creep, stay away from me!" she shouted, her bluster clearly covering fear, trying to use her voice to drown out the panic inside. As soon as she finished, she spun around, ready to bolt.
Natsume did not try to stop her.
He simply took a small memo slip from his pocket, quickly scribbled a string of numbers on it, then held it out toward her.
"In three days, it will come to take your life."
His voice was quiet, but the words sank into Eriri's ears with chilling clarity.
"That is my number. If you want to live, call me."
With that, he shoved the scrap of paper into her hand, which, in her agitation, she had forgotten to withdraw, then turned and walked away without looking back, leaving her with nothing but a decisive silhouette against the evening light.
Eriri stood frozen on the spot. The evening breeze made her golden twin tails sway gently behind her.
She lowered her head and stared at the slip of paper in her palm, the one with the phone number written on it. Her body trembled, just barely, but enough to betray her.
Faced with real fear, even her carefully maintained tsundere act began to crumble.