The next morning, at dawn.
The first ray of sunlight slipped through the gap in the curtains and washed away the ominous red glow that had stained the room all night. The moment that light touched the floor, Utaha almost scrambled up from the corner in a clumsy half-crawl, half-stumble.
Her dark circles were so heavy they could almost drip, her face was completely drained of color, and her mental state was already dangling over the edge of collapse. Yet in her eyes, one last spark of determination still kept her going.
She washed up as fast as she could, threw on Sobu High's uniform, and even her usually flawless black stockings were pulled on crooked. She skipped breakfast entirely, ignored her parents' worried questions and bolted out of the apartment, heading straight for the one place that now held all of her remaining hopes.
Sobu High.
Occult Research Club.
…
After the second period break that morning.
The Occult Research Club's door was suddenly shoved open with a loud bang.
Natsume, who had been leisurely sipping tea inside, and Yashiro, who was quietly immersed in her basic cursed formula notes, both looked up toward the doorway at the same time.
There, clinging to the doorframe and panting hard, stood a girl with a lithe figure and long black hair.
Kasumigaoka Utaha.
She had spent the whole way asking for directions before she finally found this inconspicuous clubroom tucked into a forgotten corner of the old school building. But the moment she saw the inside, the fragile hope she had just managed to gather froze over again.
In the room, there was only a boy in the same uniform as her, who looked about her age, and… an elementary schooler?
This is the Occult Research Club everyone said "really works"?
And this guy the underclassman praised like some miraculous savior of all supernatural problems… is just this lazy-looking boy, calmly sipping tea?
The gap between what she had imagined and what she saw was so huge that her heart, already worn down by two sleepless nights of fear, was immediately flooded by doubt and disappointment again.
"This… is the Occult Research Club, right?" She held onto the doorframe, her voice trembling from both the run over and the anxiety clawing at her chest.
"This is the place you are looking for." Natsume put his teacup down. His pale blue eyes swept over her calmly. "So, what can I do for you, customer?"
Looking at how calm he was, Utaha's doubts only grew. She bit lightly on her lower lip. The barbed tongue and confidence that could make any boy feel small on a normal day were completely useless right now.
Could it be… that I really just grabbed at the first straw I saw and threw my last hope at some fake exorcist who plays at being mysterious?
She hesitated. For a moment she even thought about turning around and leaving.
At that very moment, the boy spoke again.
His tone was still as calm as before, but the words themselves slammed into her mind like a bolt out of nowhere.
"Let me guess, you have not been able to sleep because the 'Red Room' curse has been tormenting you, right?" Natsume's gaze felt like it could pass straight through flesh and bone, down into the deepest part of her heart. "That sort of thing is pretty hard to explain to your editor or your readers. Wouldn't you agree, Utako-sensei?"
"…!"
Utaha's pupils shrank to pinpoints.
Kasumi Utako.
That pen name, that secret identity she had never once admitted to at school, that she had never mentioned in front of any classmate, that belonged solely to her life as a light novel author… had just been dragged into the light and spoken aloud by a boy she was meeting for the very first time.
He not only knew she had run afoul of the "Red Room", he even knew exactly who she was behind the screen.
No amount of background checking could do that.
The shock smashed what remained of her suspicion and defensive walls to pieces. She stared blankly at Natsume's calm, deep blue eyes and, for the first time in a very long time, felt her carefully maintained disguise and all her secrets laid bare and transparent in front of someone else.
"H… how do you…" Her voice was shaking so badly she could barely form the words.
"Is it not normal for a jujutsu sorcerer to read minds?" Natsume half joked, then gestured to the chair opposite him. "Come in and sit down, Utako-sensei. Let's talk about your 'Red Room' commission."
Pulled along like a marionette with her strings tugged, Utaha walked in on autopilot and sat down across from him.
Under that steady gaze, she no longer had the strength or the will to hold anything back. Piece by piece, she laid out everything that had happened over the last two days.
"…that is how it is." By the time she finished, it felt like her entire body had been drained. She slumped back into the chair, her eyes filled with helplessness and pleading. "Today is the third day. If we do not do something, tonight… I really will die."
"I understand." Natsume nodded slightly, expression still untouched by panic. "The 'Red Room' is a fairly well-known modern urban legend. The core of the curse is using the computer network as a medium, polluting the victim's mind at a set time, then on the third night, using some unknown method to carry out the killing."
"Th… then, do you have a way to stop it?" Utaha asked, every muscle tense, because the answer decided whether she lived or died.
"I can deal with it." Natsume's reply was crisp and direct. "But my exorcism fees are very expensive."
"How much?" At this point, Kasumigaoka Utaha could not bring herself to care about much else.
Natsume held up one finger.
"One million yen for the exorcism."
"One million…?" Even as a bestselling author, she still sucked in a breath when she heard that number.
But her surprise only lasted a heartbeat. Her eyes moved from his calm face to her own trembling hands, and then something clicked.
"Fine. I agree." She answered almost without hesitation. "As long as you can save my life, I can transfer the money right now."
You can earn money again.
You cannot grow another life.
Even she understood that much.
"Good choice." Natsume acknowledged her decisiveness with a hint of approval. "However, the exorcism ritual has to be carried out at midnight, when the curse is at its strongest. Until then, you will still have to endure for a while longer."
The thought of enduring another long day before facing midnight again made fear creep back onto Utaha's face.
Natsume saw the anxiety rise and fall in her eyes. The corners of his mouth curved slightly as he slipped smoothly into his "professional businessman" mode.
"Of course, to help our clients get through the daytime without being eaten alive by their own nerves, my office also offers an optional security package."
He pulled open a drawer and took out a white paper talisman etched with dense, intricate symbols, then held it out to her.
"A custom protection charm. It will effectively block out low-level spirits and keep the curse's aura from gnawing at your mind during the day. Special discounted price, two hundred thousand yen."
"…"
Kasumigaoka Utaha stared at the unremarkable slip of paper, then at Natsume's "honest merchant" expression, and could not stop the corner of her mouth from twitching.
So this guy is not only some unfathomably powerful expert, he is also a full-on scam merchant.
But right now, she had no room to bargain.
She gritted her teeth and, using her phone, transferred one million two hundred thousand yen in one go to the account Natsume provided.
"Alright, then this is yours." Natsume passed the talisman to her.
She took it, still half skeptical.
And the moment her fingertips touched the talisman—
A warmth that was impossible to put into words, heavy and steady, surged from the paper into her body. It spread like a thin, gentle stream through every inch of her.
It felt like someone who had been freezing to death in a blizzard had suddenly slipped into a luxurious hot spring. In an instant, all the cold that had soaked into her bones over the past two nights, all the terror and pressure, was driven out.
The effect was so immediate, so miraculous, that any lingering doubt she had was wiped away completely.
Clutching the talisman tight, feeling that long-lost, almost tear-inducing sense of safety, Utaha's last bit of lingering doubts about being ripped off vanished without a trace.
She lifted her head. Looking at the calm boy in front of her, wine-red eyes shining, for the first time, with a trust and dependence that came straight from her heart.
All she had to do now was hold on quietly and wait for night to fall.
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