"Isn't Shinomiya Kaguya completely targeting Yotsuya Miko?"
Standing at the foot of a somewhat old, abandoned building, Miyauchi Hikage held Shiina Mashiro's phone, scrolling through the chat logs of the girls.
Shiina Mashiro stood quietly beside him, taking small bites of her baumkuchen.
As for Ito Kaiji and Sakakibara Kouichi, he had already sent them to inquire about the haunting situation of this building.
This was the location for the exorcism request Shiina Mashiro had received today. So, before school let out, Miyauchi Hikage had contacted Ito Kaiji and come to the base of this building under the guise of scouting for suitable filming locations.
Originally, Miyauchi Hikari had also wanted to come and join the fun.
But she was afraid of ghosts, so after Miyauchi Hikage told her a few ghost stories, she scurried back to Shiina Mahiru for comfort. Hikage also had her mention to Mahiru that he was taking Mashiro out to gather material.
In any case, Miyauchi Hikage's attitude towards Shiina Mashiro's request was quite relaxed.
A B-rank request, for 15 Reading Value points.
At most, this place would contain a Grade 2 or 3 Cursed Spirit or vengeful spirit.
And it probably hadn't caused any major disturbances; otherwise, the nearby shrines or the Jujutsu higher-ups would have already sent someone to clean it up.
In any case, if a real problem arose, it was a matter that Miyauchi Hikage could solve with a wave of his hand just by tearing off his sealing talisman and unleashing his Pure Yang Body.
And for now, after sending Ito Kaiji and the other two to investigate their surroundings and then summoning his Stand, Yellow Temperance, to follow them, Miyauchi Hikage remained here, scrolling through the chat logs.
"Shinkage-ryū is not a good thing. I'll remind them again in the diary in a couple of days, lest they accidentally sign an indenture contract with someone."
Those who form a Binding Vow with the Shinkage-ryū really have to offer their own lifespan to the head of the school.
According to the manga, the Shinkage-ryū wanted to secretly take control of the Jujutsu world, but their family head was just an ordinary Grade 1 Sorcerer, at a level where he was easily killed in the end of the manga.
Miyauchi Hikage really didn't know how the Shinkage-ryū, with a family head who was still just a Grade 1 Sorcerer after living for hundreds of years and showed no signs of a higher potential, planned to achieve their goal. He could only guess that there might be some conspiracy behind it.
However, the manga ended abruptly at that point, so the things behind these foreshadowings naturally came to nothing.
Of course, Miyauchi Hikage had no intention of getting involved in these inexplicable plotlines. A simple reminder to the girls would be enough. Who knows, maybe Shinomiya Kaguya could really get a lenient Binding Vow by throwing money at it.
As for Takanashi Rikka receiving a danger warning from the diary, Miyauchi Hikage found it even less surprising.
Although Hamon's upper limit wasn't considered high for the superhumans of the hidden world, as a supernatural power, its entry barrier was much lower than that of the Shinkage-ryū.
Practicing Shinkage-ryū at least required awakening a talent for Cursed Energy. The threshold for Hamon was just maintaining breathing and finding the rhythm of breathing. Even if one's aptitude was so poor that they couldn't produce Hamon, maintaining the breathing rhythm for a long time could still significantly strengthen their physique.
If a power that could be practiced so easily was noticed by people in the hidden world—especially since the girls had Reading Value points, and the speed of their training made up for the only flaw of slow Hamon progression—it would be strange if they weren't coveted.
It was indeed time to make these girls a little more cautious. It was fine to be a chuunibyou in the real world, but if you wanted to maintain a chuunibyou mentality in the hidden world, you had to speak with strength.
It was a good thing for Takanashi Rikka to tone down her personality a bit for the price of one Reading Value point.
Look at Kuroneko. After being guided by Jerry for a while, isn't her personality much better than before? She can even have a normal meal and chat with Yukinoshita Yukino.
In comparison, he was more concerned about whether Yotsuya Miko's Spirit Sight could develop other functions after entering the Jujutsu world.
"I wonder, in this messy crossover worldview, are Miko's eyes a superpower, a spiritual power awakening, or some special kind of Innate Technique?"
"Even if Yotsuya Miko isn't valued by Jujutsu High, Shinomiya Kaguya, as the one who recommended her, won't be affected. If she really awakens some special ability, then Shinomiya Kaguya will have hit the jackpot."
Muttering this under his breath, Miyauchi Hikage finished reading the chat logs and returned the phone to Shiina Mashiro.
"Are we going back?" Shiina Mashiro asked softly, taking the phone.
She didn't like the environment of this place; even the baumkuchen didn't taste as good here.
"Soon. This place is, after all, a gathering point for human negative emotions. Your perception is stronger, so you'll feel a bit uncomfortable for now. Just circulate your Hamon the way I taught you, and you'll be fine," Miyauchi Hikage reminded her to use Hamon breathing to dispel the uncomfortable feeling.
"My Stand is sweeping through the inside. There are quite a few scattered vengeful spirits and Cursed Spirits. Keep an eye on the request interface in your diary. When the task is completed, we can go."
Although Yellow Temperance's range was only E on the official stats panel, both its performance in the story and Miyauchi Hikage's own experience using it suggested that this stat was not that accurate.
The Stand's main body could move within 10 meters of him, but through its own elasticity, it could stretch its body into a thread-like form, like Stone Free, extending several tens of meters away.
And like a spiritual body, it could ignore buildings and share its vision with Miyauchi Hikage.
It also had the ability to split. The split individuals could then move further away from the main body.
These split individuals would follow the instructions given before splitting. Although he couldn't share their vision or continue to command them, recalling them was no problem.
If there was no supply, they would completely dissipate after a period of time.
Of course, more importantly, Yellow Temperance's body was also an excellent conductor of Hamon.
Against those weak Grade 4 vengeful spirits, Yellow Temperance would use a part of its body to devour them, unlocking its transformation templates.
If they were Grade 3 or even Grade 2 vengeful spirits, it would have to rely on Miyauchi Hikage's sun-like super Hamon.
Of course, Miyauchi Hikage didn't come here this time to completely eliminate all these vengeful spirits.
This morning, he had received a private message from Jerry, telling him that it would be home tonight.
He also reminded Jerry to remember to restrain its Hamon, lest it be detected.
Although there had been fewer exorcists around Beika Town these days, because of the incident a month ago that caused a bunch of vengeful spirits to escape Beika Town and almost cause a major disturbance, the officials were now paying a little more attention to this vengeful spirit dumping ground.
It would be troublesome if Jerry was discovered by those Jujutsu Sorcerers or spirit mediums.
In any case, Jerry's return was a good thing. The projects that he hadn't had time to advance before could now be handed over to Jerry as manual labor.
So, after Shiina Mashiro reminded him that she had completed the request, Miyauchi Hikage had Yellow Temperance bring out those half-dead small-fry vengeful spirits that had been devoured and some ordinary ghosts that were about to dissipate, and temporarily sealed them with sealing talismans.
"Later, I'll have Jerry study whether it's possible to digitize these guys using Relic technology."
If it succeeded, he planned to find a few obedient ordinary ghosts, turn them into cyber ghosts, and have them work for him on the internet, which would count as a force he had built himself.
After all, if ordinary ghosts didn't become vengeful spirits, they would either automatically dissipate and reincarnate after a few days or be devoured by stronger vengeful spirits. By giving them a way to continue to exist, he believed there should be quite a few ghosts willing to work for him.
He just needed to be a little cautious. If Jerry had a flash of inspiration and created an electronic poltergeist that escaped, he estimated that group of spirit mediums would have to ponder for a long time on how to deal with this new species of ghost.
After a while, Ito Kaiji and Sakakibara Kouichi, who were investigating nearby, also returned with the information they had gathered.
Miyauchi Hikage listened to some of the things they had found out and confirmed that although this place had rumors of being haunted, it hadn't caused any big news. Even if they filmed it, it wouldn't have much of a show effect.
So they just simply shot a few video clips, which they could put in the behind-the-scenes footage later to get some discussion.
This kind of thing was also a matter of routine for them.
After all, it was impossible for Miyauchi Hikage to find a bunch of suitable filming locations right away. That would also give Ito Kaiji and Sakakibara Kouichi the idea that filming videos was too easy.
Therefore, Miyauchi Hikage naturally had to put on a show and take them to a few places to inspect, ultimately considering several places before filming.
Originally, Ito Kaiji had said that since he had quit his convenience store job, he could scout out more suitable locations while the two of them were at school.
But this was naturally rejected by Miyauchi Hikage.
After all, although the vast majority of vengeful spirits wouldn't attack people unless they were seen, what if the ever-unlucky Ito Kaiji ran into a Cursed Spirit? Then forget about a tough spot; even bringing out "Kaiji in Despair" wouldn't be able to handle it.
It's not like Ito Kaiji, the protagonist, would suddenly awaken Cursed Energy at a life-or-death moment and become a Jujutsu Sorcerer with aptitude no less than Gojo Satoru's, right?
Although it did feel like a plot that would appear in Jujutsu Kaisen, for the safety of his own employee, Miyauchi Hikage naturally couldn't let Ito Kaiji take that risk.
Ito Kaiji was a little unhappy about this. It was only after Miyauchi Hikage stuffed a red envelope into his hand and then explained the danger of investigating crime scenes alone, even bringing out Nanami Kento's warning to them, that the idea was dismissed.
After that, he happily took his wages and went to his usual pachinko parlor, never mentioning these things again.
As for Sakakibara Kouichi, Miyauchi Hikage's handling of him was different, much more direct.
After all, Sakakibara Kouichi, the protagonist, was originally from the horror-suspense work Another. His tolerance for this kind of thing would be much stronger.
By gradually mentioning these things to him and raising his tolerance and acceptance bit by bit, if he still had to transfer back to Yomiyama North in the future, when he encountered the matter of the "Deceased," there probably wouldn't be as many victims as in the original work.
Of course, if Miyauchi Hikage had already become invincible by then, he wouldn't mind helping his friend out by exorcising the "curse" of Yomiyama North, which had lasted for decades but had yet to be resolved by other exorcists.
This meant that the curse's main body was either at a Grade 1 or even Special Grade level, or it was hidden very deep, so deep that even powerful exorcists couldn't find its source.
Plus, only one class was cursed each year, and there was a way to break it by completely ignoring one person in the class before a death occurred. So, the people of Yomiyama North, unwilling to pay too high a price, had hidden this matter and handled it with a low profile.
The current Sakakibara Kouichi had already realized that something was wrong.
For example, in Miyauchi Hikage's last video, he had "intentionally" leaked a half-second shot of a vengeful spirit.
It wasn't very obvious, but after he used a smurf account to point it out in the video's comments, their newly released video received the highest number of views so far.
A considerable number of people were discussing whether the "thing" that appeared in those few frames was real.
Of course, most people, including the thick-skinned Ito Kaiji, didn't take it seriously, only thinking it was probably due to the image being a bit blurry or Miyauchi Hikage not handling the material well.
And Miyauchi Hikage also explained it this way to his classmates.
But Sakakibara Kouichi, as a horror-suspense fan, was naturally more inclined to overthink things and wouldn't so easily believe it was just due to Miyauchi Hikage not handling the material well.
For this reason, he had even secretly confirmed it with Miyauchi Hikage again at school.
But at that time, Miyauchi Hikage's reply had a different tone. He didn't confirm or deny it, only stating that he had indeed discovered such a segment in the footage while editing.
He even directly showed a part of the original footage to Sakakibara Kouichi.
Seeing the image of the vengeful spirit appearing on the screen for several seconds, the way Sakakibara Kouichi looked at Miyauchi Hikage became a bit strange.
"So if it's really real, are you still going to continue filming videos on this theme in the future?" This was Sakakibara Kouichi's question to Miyauchi Hikage after seeing that footage.
And Miyauchi Hikage's answer was also very simple: "The officials definitely know more than I do. Since they only asked me to report to them in advance, then I'll just keep filming. Even if it's real, maybe I can even get an official position in the future."
One could only say that Sakakibara Kouichi was truly worthy of being the protagonist of a horror work. He only thought about it in the classroom for an afternoon before deciding to continue working with Miyauchi Hikage in the future.
His explanation was also very simple. Miyauchi Hikage wasn't afraid, so what did he have to worry about? He also didn't want to be seen as a "Lord Ye who loves dragons" by his friend.
If he really missed this opportunity, he might not even have time for regrets in the future.