Yashiro's violent entrance landed like a sledgehammer, smashing the eerie silence of the place to pieces.
Every cursed corpse on the scene froze for a heartbeat. On their puppet-like faces, an expression very close to "shock" appeared for the first time.
"Oh? So we have been found out."
A calm, faintly lazy voice sounded from behind the cursed corpses.
The "sleeping" Natsume slowly opened his Six Eyes. He was still holding Yui with one arm, and did not even bother to turn around. He simply lifted his free hand, movements unhurried.
"That's enough."
The moment those words fell, several threads of cursed energy, finer than hair and glimmering with a faint blue light, shot out from his fingertips.
Those threads moved as if alive. They traced clean arcs through the air at a speed beyond human sight, and in the blink of an eye, wrapped tightly around every cursed corpse present, including "Nagayama".
"Pssht."
There was no grand explosion, no dramatic light show.
Only a sound like a blade cutting through rotten wood. The six exquisitely made cursed corpses, puppets realistic enough to mimic human emotions, were instantly sliced into countless pieces, scattering across the ground. The cursed energy clinging to them could not even put up the slightest resistance. Faced with Natsume's impossibly pure energy, it was completely purified and erased.
As expected. Destroying disposable puppet bodies like these does not earn any Curse Points.
Natsume confirmed that fact calmly in his heart and let the shimmering threads dissolve back into the air.
"Nice work."
Yashiro tossed him a sincere compliment, then took out a strange alien plush from her pocket. She aimed the plush at the drifting wisps of black resentment leaking from the shredded cursed corpses. The plush's mouth opened like a tiny black hole and sucked all the dark miasma straight in.
Once she was done, Yashiro did not show the slightest mercy. She lifted the plush and gave its head a sharp slap.
"Hey, you in there, behave yourself," she threatened in her childish voice, every word dripping menace. "These were just appetizers. If you dare show even a hint of disobedience, I will let you taste what 'graduation' feels like."
The plush trembled in her hands, as if whatever was sealed inside truly understood the warning.
"You were too impulsive."
Natsume stood up and looked at the torn-open van roof behind her, his tone as calm as always.
"I could not help it," Yashiro put the plush away and tilted her head up to look at him, a flicker of worry flashing through her twin pupils. "That sleep spell just now almost got my sister. I panicked a little."
Natsume glanced toward the other van where Eiko was still unconscious and gave a small nod of understanding.
He gently patted Yui's cheek.
"Yui, wake up."
"Mmm…"
Yui let out a soft, sleepy murmur. She blinked her eyes open, dazed.
"Natsume-kun…? Are we there already? Why did I fall asleep…"
"Yeah, we are here."
Natsume pointed calmly at the mess of broken limbs and joints littering the ground, his tone as flat as if he were talking about the weather.
"While you were sleeping, Nagayama-senpai and his buddies were possessed by evil spirits. The scary story we heard earlier was real."
"Eh…?"
Yui's brain froze for three full seconds. When she finally processed both his words and the "parts" on the ground together, a wave of pure terror shot from the soles of her feet straight up to the top of her head.
"KYAAAAAA!"
Her shriek split the sky. Without thinking, she spun around and clung to the only safe person nearby in panic, practically tackling Natsume.
"T… There are ghosts! Natsume-kun, save me!"
She buried her face deep in his chest, her whole body trembling like a leaf in a storm.
Right about then, Utaha and Eiko also stirred awake one after another.
The first thing Eiko saw when she opened her eyes was Yui wrapped around Natsume's chest and refusing to let go. A fierce flash of jealousy and cold light flickered through her beautiful eyes.
Yui, caught up in blind panic, enjoyed that brief moment of safety for all of two heartbeats before she registered the firm warmth against her cheek. Heat rushed up from her neck to the tips of her ears in an instant. Like she had been electrocuted, she leapt away, waving her hands in a fluster.
"S… sorry! I did not mean to!"
But the instant she backed off and her gaze fell again on the shredded puppet remains all over the ground, another wave of fear surged up. Regret immediately followed on its heels.
What am I doing, jumping away at a time like this… that was such a good chance…
Natsume did not spare their quiet little battlefield of emotions even half a thought. His attention was already locked onto the abandoned building looming in front of them.
In his Six Eyes, a scene as bizarre as a nightmare was unfolding.
Countless formless, faintly glowing wandering spirits were marching in from all directions, like puppets pulled along by invisible strings. They shuffled in stiff, synchronized steps, lining up in neat rows and streaming in from every corner of the area, all converging on the black maw of the building's entrance.
"What is this…" Natsume's brows knit ever so slightly.
"It is a spiritual pathway," Yashiro answered. At some point she had appeared silently at his side, her small face unusually serious. "And not just one. There are two of them. They are stretching in from different directions and intersecting here. That kind of phenomenon is extremely abnormal."
Natsume did not reply immediately. Instead, he circled the building once, boots crunching on gravel, until he stopped at an unremarkable corner of the exterior wall.
There, carved deep into the peeling concrete, was a symbol shaped like the kanji for "well."
"Found it."
Yashiro's pupils shrank sharply when she saw the mark.
"That is… Daishoji Temple's Guiding Script… I have only ever seen it recorded in our family's old texts."
"Looks like we guessed right."
Natsume's tone cooled.
The truth was now obvious.
This was no coincidence. Someone had used an ancient curse technique to forcibly bend and redirect spiritual pathways, herding hundreds, maybe thousands, of innocent stray souls into this building like livestock.
For one purpose only: to feed the evil spirit living inside.
"Let's go. Time to take a look."
Natsume walked toward the entrance. The others quickly fell in behind him.
The moment they stepped into the building, a thick wave of chill washed over them, as if they had plunged straight into an ice cellar.
A few cursed-constructed familiars drifted around the lobby, their forms distorted and murky. When they spotted living humans, they let out silent screams and lunged forward.
"These ones are mine."
Yashiro volunteered without hesitation. She pulled out the alien plush again. The toy worked like a vacuum cleaner, sucking up every last familiar that came close. The aura around the plush grew noticeably stronger.
Without pausing, the group headed up the stairs.
With every floor they climbed, the chill in the air surged, doubling and redoubling. From a simple cold draft, to bone-deep frost, and finally to something so heavy it almost turned physical. The chill coiled through the corridors like black fog, creeping into their minds, weighing their hearts down with suffocation and despair.
"T… this density of cursed energy…"
Even the well-traveled Yashiro could not help feeling a shock like she had never known. Her small face was filled with disbelief.
"It is almost on par with that the Special Grade Cursed Spirit we encountered before…"
At the word "special-grade," Eiko's legs nearly gave out. She grabbed the wall for support, her complexion turning ghostly white.
In her head, only one thought was spinning around and around.
Special… special-grade…? For this exorcism request… did I only offer two hundred thousand yen…
On top of the fear, a stabbing regret hit her like a knife.
The price… I really undercharged this time…