When it came to her friends' safety, Yui's ability to take action became sharper and more efficient than ever.
After using a string of blindly confident promises to calm her two friends who were on the verge of collapse, she immediately called Natsume and poured out everything at top speed, voice tight with panic as she explained the entire situation from start to finish.
On the other end of the line, Natsume simply listened quietly, and when she finished, he gave a calm reply.
"I understand."
"Send me the address. I will be there right away."
There was no surprise in his tone, no hesitation either. It was as if "my friends have been hit with a death curse" was only on the same level as "what should I eat tonight" in his world.
That unshakable calm, steady and unmoving no matter what happened, traveled through the signal and turned into a solid, reassuring force that quickly smoothed out all the anxiety in Yui's chest.
"Yeah, President, I believe in you."
She nodded hard, as if she could already see the curse being solved perfectly.
...
Half an hour later, outside the door of the luxurious Miura family apartment.
Natsume arrived as promised.
"President, over here."
Yui hurried out to greet him like she had just seen salvation arrive.
"T... this is the person you talked about..."
Miura Yumiko stared at the quiet transfer student with a calm face and steady presence. Her eyes were full of doubt, fear, and a fragile sliver of hope all tangled together.
"Natsume. President of the Occult Research Club."
He introduced himself simply, his gaze sweeping over the two pale, exhausted girls in front of him.
"I have already heard the details of the request from Yui."
"As for the fee..."
"Money is not a problem."
Yumiko blurted it out at once. If it meant staying alive, she would pay anything.
"Since you are Yui's friends, I will give you the friendship rate."
Natsume said lightly.
"Ten thousand yen. Think of it as my travel expenses."
He had accepted this request for two reasons. One was to repay the favor he owed Yui. The other, and more important, reason was that he was extremely interested in Sadako, the legendary curse.
A cursed spirit that could spread through recorded images and place a precise countdown to death on the viewer, that kind of structure was a fascinating subject for him to study.
...
The group entered Yumiko's bedroom, now suffused with fear.
The moment the door opened, a cold, sticky wave of ominous cursed energy washed over them.
In Natsume's Six Eyes, this cute princess-style room had long since been completely corroded by thick, invisible black cursed energy. The source of the curse pointed directly to an old VCR sitting in the corner.
"Th... this is it..."
Back in the room that had become the scene of their terror, Yumiko and Hina began trembling uncontrollably. They clung tightly to Yui, as if she were the last safe place in the world.
"Tell me what happened again. In detail."
Natsume stepped into the center of the room and spoke calmly.
His voice had a quiet power that soothed their hearts.
Under his presence and guidance, Yumiko's emotions slowly steadied enough for her to speak. She began to recount everything with a trembling voice.
"It was... a kid who is some distant relative and lives next door. I do not know where he got that videotape. He provoked me, saying I was too scared to watch it..."
For someone like Yumiko, queen of the popular crowd, there was no way she could back down from that kind of taunt. So she pulled Hina along and they watched the tape together.
"After it finished, the phone rang... and then, that warning..."
Her voice cracked and turned hoarse.
"At first, we really thought it was a prank. But the night before last, that kid... the one who gave me the tape... he suddenly died right in front of us."
When she remembered that scene, her eyes turned bloodshot again.
"His expression... it was pure terror, like he had seen the most horrifying thing in the world. Later, his parents called the police. The autopsy said it was sudden cardiac death. In simpler words, he was scared to death."
That was what had completely shattered their mental defenses and forced them to accept the truth.
The curse was real.
"I see."
Natsume nodded when she finished, his face still unchanged.
Then he pointed at the VCR and gave an order that made all three girls shudder.
"To investigate the root of the curse, we need to play it again."
"Eh?!"
Yumiko and Hina nearly fainted on the spot.
"No, no way, absolutely not. If we watch it again, we will definitely die."
"You will not die. Not while I am here."
Natsume's tone allowed no argument.
"Or would you rather wait until tomorrow night and let that thing climb out of the television to come find you?"
Between watching now and waiting to die, they trembled, struggled, and finally chose the former.
Hands shaking like she had late-stage Parkinson's, Yumiko picked up the black videotape oozing bad vibes and pushed it into the VCR.
The old TV hummed and flickered to life. Static snow filled the screen.
Natsume sat cross-legged in front of the TV as if nothing was wrong, calmly taking his place like he was about to watch a movie.
Behind him, Yumiko, Hina, and Yuigahama screamed and scrambled into position, hiding behind his back like three frightened quails. They clutched his clothes tightly and only dared peek at the screen with one eye each from over his shoulder.
The tape began.
The footage was grainy black and white, full of noise. The content made no logical sense, a jumble of disturbing images. A woman combing her hair. A twisted figure crawling on the ground. The character for "Sad" reflected in an eyeball. And finally, a black, abandoned well in a barren field.
Every frame was charged with powerful psychological triggers, all engineered to shred the sanity of whoever watched.
The entire thing lasted just over a minute.
When the scene froze on the image of the well, the VCR clicked and the tape stopped.
The room fell deathly silent.
"... Is it over?"
Yui asked, voice shaking.
"Yes. It is over."
Natsume nodded, a faint look of appreciation still lingering on his face.
"Well constructed. A very creative curse."
Hearing him appraise it like a film critic left the three girls behind him completely lost for words.
"In simple terms."
Natsume stood up, idly brushing nonexistent dust from his clothes as he began his professional explanation.
"Sadako can be regarded as a cursed spirit that uses the videotape as its nest and the television as its door. It spreads its curse through visual information. The moment you watched the tape, its mark was placed on you."
"Mark?"
Yumiko looked helplessly at her hands. They looked perfectly normal.
"Ordinary people cannot see it."
Natsume said.
"But I will make an exception this time and let you 'see' what the world really looks like, so you can understand just how much danger you are in."
He raised his right hand. His index and middle fingers came together and drew a small line through the air.
"Cursed Spirit Eye"
As the words left his lips, a cool pulse of cursed energy spread like a ripple, brushing gently across the three girls' eyes.
At first, they felt nothing.
Then they opened their eyes again and looked around the room.
The screams that followed were loud enough to blow the roof off.
In their vision, the familiar princess bedroom had completely vanished.
In its place was a horrific space, a living nest made entirely of countless writhing, greasy black strands of hair.
Walls, ceiling, floor, even their own bodies were covered with slowly squirming black lines. Those lines were like the tangled long hair of drowned women, oozing thick resentment and the stench of death.
"W... what is this?!"
Yumiko andHiina stared at the constantly crawling strands on their bodies, and their rational minds snapped. Their legs gave out and they collapsed onto the floor.
Even Yui, usually the bravest of the three, had turned deathly pale. She clung tightly to Natsume's arm, shaking so hard her teeth almost chattered.
"Do you see it now?"
Natsume's voice was the only calm, human sound in that nightmare scene.
"This is Sadako's curse."
"It clings to you and slowly eats away at your life force. Tomorrow night, when these strands have completely wrapped around you, that will be the moment you die."
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