Chapter Ten: Good News! I Got Cursed!
A few days after Nagi and Kanade joined the Super Research Club.
During club activity time.
Nagi and Kanade arrived at the Super Research Club as usual, helping Chika tidy up the clubroom.
Due to insufficient members, the Super Research Club had to be reclassified as a hobby club.
They needed to sort out the materials in the clubroom quickly and prepare a list to submit to the student council for approval.
The Super Research Club’s room was a rectangular space about half the size of a classroom, with a wooden long table and several chairs in the center.
On the left wall, there was an old bookshelf that looked quite aged, stuffed chaotically with various books, old magazines, and newspapers related to the supernatural, while the right wall featured a whiteboard filled with graffiti and a bulletin board.
Next to the entrance, there was a storage box, while the opposite wall had a sofa for receiving guests, with a window behind it facing the schoolyard.
Today, Nagi and the others needed to move the items from the bookshelf onto the table and categorize them.
As everyone sat silently working at the long table.
Unable to endure the quiet atmosphere any longer, Nagi spoke up.
“It’s so quiet~ Kanade-kun, can we find some topics to chat about~”
“Topics, huh…”
Kanade racked his brain, and after a long silence, said, “The weather today is really nice…”
“That’s true, it really is nice weather…” Chika replied, picking up the conversation.
“……”
The two were completely revealing their lack of conversational skills in an instant.
“Isn’t there anything we can talk about that would keep the conversation going? I just can’t with you guys~”
Nagi made a helpless expression.
As a bright and sunny person, she took the initiative to throw out a topic: “It seems like I might have encountered a stalker recently.”
“Is that so, a stalker…”
“A “stalker!!!?””
Both Kanade and Chika shot up from their chairs simultaneously.
“What do you think!? This topic is definitely something we can chat about, right?”
“Rather than it being something we want to chat about, it’s more like something we can’t avoid talking about!”
“Hoshimiya-chan, are you okay?” Chika expressed her concern.
If someone like Nagi, a beautiful girl, encounters a stalker with ill intentions, the outcome would be unimaginable.
“I’m fine, it’s just ‘seemed like’~” Nagi laughed it off.
But Kanade still couldn’t relax.
He should have known that a beautiful girl like Nagi would attract not just appreciative gazes but also pure malice.
And despite being by her side all this time, he hadn’t noticed any signs of such a thing. Kanade couldn’t help but start blaming himself.
“Hoshimiya-chan, what exactly happened?”
Chika, being another girl present, was the first to ask.
“It probably started a few days ago when I suddenly felt like someone was watching me from behind, but when I turned around, there was no one there.”
“Someone watching from behind? Could it be when Nagi and I were commuting to school together?”
Since Kanade always walked to school with Nagi.
So if Nagi felt like someone was peeping from behind her, it was probably during that time.
But Nagi shook her head.
“I didn’t feel anything while I was with Kanade-kun, but after separating from him, it appears.”
Kanade always personally saw Nagi back to the apartment building before leaving.
“So it must be from other residents in the apartment?” Kanade deduced.
The high-end apartment Nagi lived in had very strict security, making it rare for outsiders to enter.
Kanade was an exception among exceptions.
But unexpectedly, Nagi shook her head again.
“I originally thought so too, but soon I realized that the feeling isn’t just outside; it even happens at home, and even in my own room, I still feel it. So it’s probably just an illusion~”
Nagi concluded.
Hearing this, Kanade couldn’t help but agree with Nagi’s conclusion. If it were just outside, they could suspect a stalker, but if it was at home as well… they certainly couldn’t suspect Nagi’s family, right?
Just as Kanade sighed in relief and prepared to sit down, his peripheral vision caught sight of Chika’s unusually pale face.
“Um, Hoshimiya-chan, just to confirm, does this gaze… come consistently from directly behind you?” Chika asked cautiously.
Nagi raised her fair, adorable face and frowned as if recalling.
Then she nodded.
Chika’s face grew even paler.
Then she secretly leaned closer to Nagi’s ear and whispered, “And does this gaze… often happen when you’re alone… in the shower?”
This time, Nagi looked puzzled: “How do you know, Chika-senpai?”
Upon receiving confirmation, Chika’s face turned ashen.
But in Nagi’s heart, a radiant smile bloomed, feeling relieved.
Great~ After dropping so many hints, she was worried about what she would do if Chika couldn’t guess correctly~
That’s right, Nagi had worked tirelessly for the past few days immersing herself in the Super Research Club.
Finally, she had become possessed by the curse of the evil spirit! Truly, the heavens do not disappoint those who act with intent!
This was something that triggered after the main character, Chika Amamiya, met Kanade in middle school in the original work, leading to her being possessed by an evil spirit.
Now, due to Nagi’s intervention, she had successfully snatched that flag from Chika’s hands.
The reason Nagi wanted to acquire this curse—
Chika soon found an old Super Research publication that the club had released in the past among the countless old newspapers and magazines.
On the cover, there was an unsettling phrase written in red on a black background:
“Supernatural Phenomena: The Shy Dokidoki-san Observing You from the Shadows (Part One)”
Under the eager gaze of her two juniors, Chika could only open it to the corresponding page and read the contents aloud.
【It will appear beside single girls (limited to beautiful girls).
It only appears when you are alone.
Its gaze generally comes from directly behind you.
Its watch will make you aware that “you are being watched” 100% of the time.
It observes regardless of day or night, but seems to appear more easily during private time at night and while bathing.
As time goes on, this gaze will induce unease and fear.
You will slowly be tormented into a state of delirium by its gaze.
You will suspect that everyone around you wants to harm you, causing you to distance yourself from all.
Once you become isolated, Dokidoki-san will appear beside you as a friend who will always accompany you.
Becoming your spiritual anchor, leading you to become permanently attached to it.
Ultimately taking you away from this world, resulting in vanishing.】
“So, I’m cursed by an evil spirit?” Nagi’s expression showed confusion on the surface, but inside she was shouting, “This is it! This is what I want!”
This was the curse that originally befell Chika Amamiya in the original text.
And using this opportunity to quickly close the distance between herself and the main character.
Nagi rushed to join the Super Research Club precisely for this.
Because the method to deal with this curse was very—
“Here it says how to handle this curse…” Chika added.
——Never be alone, Dokidoki-san is a shy child; as long as someone is by your side, it won’t dare to appear.
In an angle unseen by anyone.
Nagi couldn’t help but smirk.
——Tonight, there is no one at home except me, Kanade-kun~
……
……
“Why am I here?”
Kanade tilted his head back, voicing a deep question from the core of his soul.
It was nighttime.
The location was the Hoshimiya house.
More specifically, it was in the washroom in front of the bathroom.
Behind a door away.
Was Nagi, who was taking a shower.
“There must be some mistake, right????”
Kanade sat on the carpet in front of the bathroom door, covering his mouth with his hands, eyes wide in shock.
His brain raced through thoughts.
But he didn’t know what he was thinking, just focusing all his attention on himself.
Otherwise.
He would become overly aware of the sound of water coming from behind him.
Every time the water dripped onto the tiles, images of the water flowing over Nagi’s snow-white skin would involuntarily surface in his mind…
—No, stop quickly!
“Kanade-kun, are you still there?” A slightly anxious voice from behind the door came from Nagi.
“….Uh-huh, I’m still here.”
After receiving a response, a light, relieved laugh escaped Nagi from behind the door.
Because the method to counter the evil spirit, Dokidoki-san’s curse required that Nagi should not be left alone.
So while Nagi was showering, Kanade had to be as close to her as possible.
“Speaking of which, it’s been a while since you stayed over at my house~”
“Because… we’ve both grown up, right…” Kanade’s voice dropped slightly.
“……Yeah, Kanade-kun has become more and more handsome.”
“Stop teasing me…”
The two were having casual banter through the thin glass door.
There was no specific topic, but as long as their voices continued to resonate in this space, it seemed to bring them both comfort.
This made Kanade reminisce about the times they played together as children.
Although it had only been a few years ago, it felt strangely distant, as if it were a long time ago.
He remembered playing in the mud back then.
Because he refused to go in to shower with Nagi.
He would sit at the door waiting for Nagi to finish washing up before it was his turn…
“Sorry to keep you waiting~ It’s your turn now, Kanade-kun~”
Suddenly, the door was pulled open.
Nagi walked out just as he remembered, but the difference was that Nagi was now wrapped in a long towel covering her skin below her shoulders, and her body had become taller and more feminine compared to years ago.
“Wh-What!? W-Why!?”
Panicking, Kanade stammered and scrambled out of the washroom, shutting the door behind him.
Nagi’s starry-eyed gaze was filled with laughter.
“Ehh~ Kanade-kun, what’s wrong?”
“Y-You idiot!? You need to warn me before coming out!”
“But wasn’t it like this when you used to come to my house for a shower before?”
“That was years ago!”
Nagi controlled her speech rhythm precisely while intentionally letting the sound of her clothes rubbing against her skin intersperse between her words.
“The fact that your beautiful childhood friend without a sense of distance is changing clothes behind you” made Kanade feel fidgety.
At this moment, in the Hoshimiya house, aside from Nagi and Kanade, there was no one else.
They were completely alone.
Renji, the student council president, had been busy handling student council affairs recently and had gone to stay at a friend’s house.
Nagi’s older sister, Sayaka Hoshimiya, who was six years older, was a college student living on campus and would not return home except during breaks.
Most importantly, Nagi’s parents were away tonight and wouldn’t be back until the next day.
Thus, Nagi had seized this opportunity to mention, “I might have been cursed by an evil spirit” today.
Kanade, worried about Nagi’s safety, would never knowingly leave her alone at home if he knew she was in danger.
As for the option of calling her family back?
Nagi had easily evaded that with “I don’t want to worry my family.”
Moreover, since the two had been childhood friends growing up together, both of their parents readily agreed to the sleepover.
“Kanade-kun~ Tonight is still long~” Dressed in casual home wear, Nagi revealed a mischievous smile that starkly contrasted with her cute appearance.
