On weekends, the front gate of Chiba University was even more crowded than usual.
The sun was warm, the wind was gentle, and both sides of the main avenue were packed with club recruitment booths. Upperclassmen called out enthusiastically, shoving flyers into the hands of passing freshmen, filling the air with the noisy, restless energy of youth.
Against this lively backdrop, the appearance of Natsume and his group landed like a drop of cold water in boiling oil, making the atmosphere around them turn strangely subtle.
"Uwaa, this is amazing, so this is what university club recruitment looks like?"
Yui's eyes shone with curiosity and excitement. She stuck close to Natsume's side as if staying near him could somehow give her enough courage to face this completely unfamiliar world.
Yesterday in the Occult Research Club, the moment Eiko brought up her request, Yui had practically shot her hand into the air, insisting she had to come along. Her official reason was, "As a member of the club, I have a duty to join club activities."
But the way her eyes kept sneaking glances at Natsume Yuu, full of bright, hopeful light, had long since betrayed what she was really thinking.
She just wanted a legitimate reason to stay by his side, nothing more.
"Hmph, it is nothing but a bunch of hormone driven college students engaging in meaningless social activities."
Utaha folded her arms, sweeping a critical gaze over the surroundings. Her voice carried a faint, hard to miss sourness. As Natsume's "official girlfriend," she had no intention of giving any other girl an opening, but this request was a serious case. In the end, she had reluctantly agreed that everyone would go together
Acting as their guide, Eiko walked at the front, cheerfully explaining the layout of the campus while quietly using the corner of her eye to observe the "rivals" behind her.
"Everyone, look. Up ahead is our campus club plaza, it is the busiest spot here."
Eiko smiled as she pointed toward the densest knot of people.
"Most of the clubs recruit here. I am pretty sure the one we are looking for is mixed somewhere in that crowd."
The group quickly reached the center of the plaza.
A chaotic jumble of sound rolled together into a roaring wave. The music club's guitar and vocals, the dance club's pounding beats, and the anime club's cosplay weirdos all mingled together, drawing a vibrant, noisy picture of university life.
However, in Natsume's Six Eyes, the world in front of him looked completely different.
Countless mottled, faint traces of cursed residue drifted in the air like dust motes, seeping off every passing student. These were the marks left behind by the negative emotions produced unconsciously in daily life. All together they formed a chaotic gray haze of cursed energy.
For an ordinary jujutsu sorcerer, trying to find the signature of a particular curse in this vast ocean would be no different from searching for a needle in a haystack.
For Natsume, it was as easy as breathing.
His Six Eyes automatically filtered out all useless, weak information, like a supercomputer with infinite precision instantly sifting, comparing, and locking onto targets among billions of data points.
Almost the moment he stepped into the plaza, his gaze pierced through the swarming crowd and fixed precisely on a booth in the far corner.
It was a very ordinary stall, with only a simple sign hanging on it: "Travel Club."
Behind the table sat a cheerful looking young man, smiling as he enthusiastically introduced the club to passing students.
But on his body, a dense, almost tangible concentration of cursed residue rose and coiled like black flames, heavy with the smell of death and despair.
In this gray sea of cursed energy, he stood out like a beacon in the fog, impossible to miss.
"Found him," Natsume said calmly.
"Eh, already?" Yui's eyes flew wide in shock.
"It is the president of that 'Travel Club,'" Natsume replied in the same flat tone, as if he were stating a simple, obvious fact.
Yashiro also stopped at the same time. Her strange dual pupils locked onto the same point, and she gave a serious nod, quietly confirming Natsume's judgment.
Just then, the club president, a man named Nagayama, seemed to sense their attention. He turned around, and when he saw Eiko, Utaha, and the others, all of them strikingly beautiful, his eyes instantly lit up. He hurried over with an eager grin.
"Hey there, are you all interested in our Travel Club?"
Nagayama's smile was bright and friendly, his tone full of easy charm.
"We are the freest, most fun club at Chiba! Our main activity is taking road trips together to all kinds of cool places. All expenses paid."
With that kind of sales pitch, no one would ever connect him to those three blood soaked "group suicides."
"Sounds great," Natsume stepped forward naturally, placing himself between the girls and Nagayama with a relaxed smile.
"We were just thinking of finding a club to join. Is it still possible to sign up now?"
"Of course, anytime!"
Nagayama looked genuinely delighted.
"And you know, it just so happens that we are having a welcome event this afternoon. We are driving out to a villa in the suburbs for a party. How about joining us right now?"
"Sure."
Natsume agreed without a hint of hesitation.
Following the trail straight to the source was always the fastest way to deal with a curse.
Led by the ever enthusiastic Nagayama, the group followed him toward the parking lot.
As they walked, Natsume deliberately fell half a step behind and drifted to Yashiro's side.
"Yashiro," he said in a voice only the two of them could hear, calm as always, "something is off."
"Yeah."
Yashiro tilted her head up to look at him, her small face unusually stern.
"I can feel it too. That thing clinging to him is very strange. It does not have a soul."
"Exactly."
A faint curve tugged at the corner of Natsume's mouth.
"That is not a cursed spirit, and it is not possession. More accurately, it is just a 'cursed corpse,' something sculpted out of the original source's cursed energy, a puppet with no will of its own."
"Cursed corpse…?"
Yashiro's pupils tightened sharply.
"Right. And a very delicately crafted puppet at that."
Natsume's gaze grew deeper, colder.
"The real body is hiding behind the scenes, using this cursed corpse as bait to lure prey into its nest one by one."
With that realization, the nature of the whole incident shifted in an instant. It was no longer just a simple case of a malicious spirit clinging to a human, but a carefully composed hunt orchestrated by a highly intelligent cursed spirit.
And they had already walked straight into the hunter's trap.