Among the girls who had diaries, quite a few of them, after reading the unexciting diary entry from the mysterious person tonight and taking note of the names of those few bands, simply glanced at the group chat and went on to deal with their own affairs.
After all, they weren't in bands, nor were they in Tokyo. Participating in these topics would make them seem silly.
But for those girls who were keen on chatting in the group, tonight they were solidly on the front line of eating melons.
Just when everyone thought this was just another day where the mysterious person had no new material and was just padding the diary, that "frail girl" of the group, Honma Meiko, explained her current situation in the group.
That Miyauchi Hikage, who was "involved" with multiple girls in the group, had awakened his supernatural powers while filming a horror video, and had even gotten in touch with a Shinto shrine maiden. Now they were following a special-grade miko from Chichibu Shrine to the place where she had drowned back then to solve her physical problems.
This breaking news was much more explosive than discussing which band's title track was better in the group.
Immediately, no one was talking to Bocchi-chan about bands anymore. Everyone started to care about Honma Meiko and that Miyauchi Hikage.
Under the continuous @s of a certain Umaru, who loved to watch the drama unfold, Shiina Mashiro, who usually didn't say much in the group, sent a message according to the script Miyauchi Hikage had given her in advance: "Miyauchi Hikage told me that night, but I didn't ask much."
Then she went silent again and didn't say any more.
Looking at Shiina Mashiro's matter-of-fact appearance, Umaru also muttered to herself that it was boring.
She had originally thought that Miyauchi Hikage would hide this matter, and maybe it could even create a shuraba (chaotic love-triangle situation) for her to enjoy.
Who knew that Miyauchi Hikage would be so "sincere" as to tell Shiina Mashiro, who was far away in Tokyo, about this matter as soon as he awakened.
Although it was still unclear what ability he had awakened, just being able to awaken supernatural powers was enough to make the girls in the group envious.
And Kasumigaoka Utaha also looked at Shiina Mashiro's calm statement with some envy.
Although she did still often consult Miyauchi Hikage for various matters these days, and he could always give good solutions.
But after all, unlike Honma Meiko and Shiina Mashiro, she had not yet had a showdown with him about her identity as a "Breathing Style successor," so their relationship was naturally not as close as theirs.
Thinking about how Miyauchi Hikage first helped Shiina Mashiro adjust her breathing rhythm, and now, just after awakening his supernatural powers and coming into contact with the Shinto side, he had proactively used his own connections for Honma Meiko's body.
Miyauchi Hikage could really be considered a good man of loyalty and righteousness.
Thinking that he might transfer to a specialized school, just like Yotsuya Miko and Shinomiya Kaguya, soon after returning to Tokyo, Kasumigaoka Utaha felt that she still had to seize the last chance to further consolidate their relationship based on her status as a senpai and a "Breathing Style successor."
In this way, even if Miyauchi Hikage left, she would still have a reason to continue using him to complete her daily tasks in the future.
As she was planning in her mind how to let Miyauchi Hikage "coincidentally" see her activating her breathing method after Golden Week ended, Kasumigaoka Utaha fell into deep thought.
And the group, naturally, because of Honma Meiko's explanation, sparked a discussion among the girls about supernatural awakening and her physical condition.
But because Honma Meiko didn't say anything after that, after chatting for more than twenty minutes, everyone who was still waiting for a follow-up gradually began to disperse.
Until the news of a 5.8 magnitude earthquake suddenly came from Chichibu City.
Although earthquakes were not exactly news, a 5.8 magnitude had reached the level of a moderate-to-strong earthquake and already had a certain destructive power.
But after everyone @'d Honma Meiko to ask if she was in any danger, and she still didn't say anything, everyone became a little anxious.
Afterwards, Shinomiya Kaguya used her family's abilities and found that the epicenter of this earthquake seemed to be in the mountain that Honma Meiko had mentioned and its surroundings. Everyone in the group couldn't help but become even more worried.
Although they knew that she had a special-grade protecting her, the fact that she still hadn't replied in the group was still a bit worrying.
And later, Shinomiya Kaguya even made a special call to inquire, but the answer she got was that the user was out of the service area.
At this point, the former chunibyo girl, who had now evolved into a high-level gamer girl streamer with some fame on the internet, Gokou Ruri, once again posted her speculation in the group.
"Or, is this the aftershock of the battle between that special-grade miko and the mysterious vengeful spirit that cursed Menma?"
Yotsuya Miko, who had been at Jujutsu High for a few days and had read a lot of books, quickly said that there were rules in the inner world that a barrier called a "Curtain" must be set up before exorcising those Cursed Spirits to prevent the battle with them from affecting the outside world.
"After all, that's a special-grade. If the vengeful spirit clinging to Menma over there is a special-grade, it's not too strange to make a little noise when exorcising a special-grade vengeful spirit, right?" Gokou Ruri guessed boldly.
"And it's precisely because they are inside a barrier that it's not so easy for us to get through when we call, right?"
And this speculation was recognized by many people.
So, in order to get first-hand news from Honma Meiko's side, these girls who had nothing to do at night continued to stay by the chat group, waiting for her reply.
In the process, Kasumigaoka Utaha also secretly tried to call Miyauchi Hikage's phone.
After all, an earthquake happened in Chichibu. As a senpai, it's normal to be concerned about her kouhai in Asahigaoka, which is not far from Chichibu, right?
Although it still showed that he was out of the service area, if Miyauchi Hikage saw the missed call later, he would come and explain the situation to her anyway, right?
Kasumigaoka Utaha showed a "just as planned" expression.
But after waiting like this, the girls in the group unknowingly waited for a full two hours, until it was time for Honma Meiko and Miyauchi Hikage to return.
However, Honma Meiko's side was pulled over by the chief priestess to hold a ceremony as soon as she returned. She really didn't have time to look at her phone right now, so she naturally couldn't discover the group of girls in her phone who were eagerly waiting for gossip.
On the other hand, Miyauchi Hikage, after having the miscellaneous things on his hands cleaned up by the Kano-miko using a technique, had already left the barrier on the mountain, accompanied by her.
And just as his front foot left the barrier, a series of message notifications began to come from his phone.
The Kano-miko naturally knew the truth about Miyauchi Hikage's two-hour disappearance, and she, who had already decided to hide this matter, also nodded at him and gave him a "barely plausible" reason.
"During the ritual, in order to ensure its sanctity, my phone was turned off?"
On the other end of the phone, Kagayama Kaede, who had made dozens of calls in the past two hours and had almost braved the danger of aftershocks to go to Chichibu Shrine to find Miyauchi Hikage, and was fortunately stopped by Fujimiya Konomi in the end, clearly let out a big sigh of relief after hearing his voice again.
But then, she couldn't help but feel a little puzzled.
Can the rituals at Chichibu Shrine be that rigorous?
Even an earthquake can't stop the ritual from proceeding?
"Yeah, that's what the miko-san said. She said it was also a test from the gods, and if the ritual was interrupted because of it, Menma would completely lose her chance to recover," Miyauchi Hikage casually added a lot of details to the foundation that the Kano-miko had given.
Kagayama Kaede felt that something was wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on it. In the end, she could only tell Miyauchi Hikage that it was dangerous outside and he should come back quickly.
"I'm fine over here now. I'll be back soon," Miyauchi Hikage said, and then briefly asked about everyone's situation.
After dealing with his relatives and friends in Asahigaoka, Miyauchi Hikage then briefly explained the situation to those who had sent messages of concern.
The most absurd of these was probably the set in Asahigaoka.
When he first learned that there had been an earthquake in Chichibu, he was still thinking that if the filming at the Asahigaoka set was suspended, Tohru wouldn't be able to find the location.
But it turned out that when this group of guys realized the earthquake, because they were already in an open area, they simply used the earthquake's vibration to temporarily film a scene of the earth shaking, which could be used in the future when they encountered a useful scene.
Don't ask why the protagonist team wasn't in this scene before. Just say it's the "tumbling to change scenes" that is a must-see in tokusatsu works.
In short, after learning that the set in Asahigaoka had actually saved a sum of prop fees, which weren't expensive to begin with, thanks to the previous earthquake, and was still working hard on filming, Miyauchi Hikage, who had hung up the phone, couldn't help but wonder if the chicken soup he had fed them before was too effective.
After I go back, I'll give everyone a raise. Otherwise, this money is really burning a hole in the pocket of someone like me who can pick up money just by walking.
Miyauchi Hikage thought, having already picked up three wallets on his way to the city due to the earthquake.
And because the Kano-miko was accompanying him, when he called Shiina Mashiro, he also just briefly mentioned that he was fine and would be back in Tokyo the day after tomorrow.
And Kasumigaoka Utaha finally, at the end, received a thank-you email from Miyauchi Hikage.
"I was participating in a special prayer ritual at Chichibu Shrine before, so I couldn't turn on my phone. Thank you for your concern, senpai. I'm fine over here. I'll bring you some local specialties from Asahigaoka and Chichibu when I get back to Tokyo in a few days."
Looking at the short email, Kasumigaoka Utaha nodded with satisfaction, and then took this email to the group to report that everyone was safe.
"Miyauchi Hikage's side can reply now. It seems that Menma's curse should have been resolved. But Menma, she might need to recuperate after solving her body's problem, which is why she hasn't replied in the group. When she sees the messages tomorrow, she should reply to us."
The girls, who had waited until now only to be told that they might not get any gossip tonight, couldn't help but complain a little.
But some of them had already closed the group chat, preparing to go to rest.
Until the time slowly ticked over to the early morning, Honma Meiko's post made the quiet chat group lively again.
"So the chat group can be used even when there's no signal. If only I had noticed it when I was in the other world... Anyway, thank you all for your concern. I'm fine, and the problem with my body has been resolved. After I'm normally connected with the ley line here in Chichibu, I won't have to worry about my body having problems again."
Honma Meiko had only thought of reporting her situation to her family after her own situation had stabilized, and the chief priestess and the others also seemed to have relaxed a lot and were resting on the side, and she couldn't sleep because of the infusion of spiritual power.
The result was that she found that her phone still couldn't get any signal in the barrier.
On the entire phone, probably only the 999+ messages in the chat group could connect her to the outside world.
And then she took one look and found that most of these chat records were actually related to her and Miyauchi Hikage.
Only then did she quickly send a message, thanking everyone in the group for their concern.
And with the message she sent.
In the early morning, the only few night owls in the group also popped up.
UMR: "?"
Kasumi Utako: "?"
Kuroneko: "?"
Originally, when she was staying up late playing games and saw the special concern message in the group, Umaru still felt that this was her reward for staying up late.
But when she took a closer look, a puzzled expression immediately appeared on her face.
Other world?
Ley line?
It's only been a few hours. How does it feel like so much has happened to her?
However, looking at it, the only ones still staying up late in the group seemed to be the three or four of them, the kings of staying up late. So Umaru took the initiative to ask her about the details of what happened tonight.
Honma Meiko was very assured of everyone in the chat group. After all, with the protection of the diary, it was impossible for everyone to harm each other. Not only direct harm, but indirect harm would also trigger a danger warning to stop them.
After that, Honma Meiko began to explain her physical condition, starting from how she had inadvertently signed a contract with the local ley line when she was a child, and then talking about how she was affected by the nearby spatial fluctuations and took a brief trip to another world.
Then, with the help of Miyauchi Hikage, she helped a dying dragon, and finally brought that dragon, who had lost her place in the other world, back to the current world.
"Ah, as for Hikage-kun's awakened ability, although I do know about it now, I feel that it's not good to reveal his privacy, so I won't say it for now. I can only say that without his help, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to come back from that world, nor could I have saved Miss Tohru."
"Also, please continue to keep the matter about the other world and Miss Tohru a secret. I feel that Miss Tohru's personality is quite good. She also promised not to cause any impact on our world when she came over. If there's a chance in the future, I'll introduce you all to Miss Tohru!"