It wasn't until he saw that neither the boys behind him nor the girls behind Shiina Mashiro seemed to have noticed the changes on her body and in her hands just now that Miyauchi Hikage quickly realized where the problem lay.
The diary would automatically block the perception of ordinary people who did not possess one. Miyauchi Hikage was aware of this.
Through his eavesdropping function, he could also roughly understand that the diary would take the initiative to issue a reminder when a diary holder was performing a dangerous operation, and that it could be defended against with Reading Value.
If he hadn't guessed wrong, the Shiina Mashiro just now had probably used a similar function, extending this perception-blocking function to her ripple breathing.
The result was that only he could clearly see the ripple emanating from Shiina Mashiro's body, and then, worried that this dangerous act would be discovered by someone, he had subconsciously made a move to stop her.
At this moment, Miyauchi Hikage finally realized one thing.
Shiina Mashiro was indeed a bit slow to react to the outside world, a natural airhead, lacking in common sense and the ability to take care of herself. If no one took care of her, she might even starve to death in a few days.
But she was not a fool. On the contrary, she was a true genius.
And at certain moments, that sudden flash of creativity of hers could achieve unexpected effects.
Just like now, Shiina Mashiro had simply sensed that the aura on his body was like the sun, and had taken the initiative to ask him, wanting to find out if he was the mysterious person who wrote the diary.
Seriously speaking, the probability of this was probably less than ten percent.
With such a probability, the other girls would at most have just noted him down and prepared to probe a few times in the future before making a decision.
It was only someone like Shiina Mashiro, who completely trusted her intuition, that would go all-in on this less than ten percent possibility.
So, on their first meeting, he had been exposed in front of this natural airhead girl because of his own carelessness?
Miyauchi Hikage had indeed thought about who would be the first to discover his identity if it were exposed, and had also thought about what would happen to him after being discovered.
But he really, even after looking at the list of anime heroines he had recorded from memory a hundred times, could not have imagined that that person would be Shiina Mashiro.
However, what he needed to worry about now was not this natural airhead, Shiina Mashiro, exposing his identity to the other girls who held a diary.
But rather, how to explain his action of pressing down on her hands just now, and her even more direct and shocking action of grabbing his hand in return, to the people around them.
On the side, Shiina Mahiru, who had never had such a bold interaction with the opposite sex, immediately blushed.
Why is my own cousin so bold? Can she just hold hands with a boy she's met for the first time?
Then should I manage this kind of thing? In what way should I manage it?
She looked at Miyauchi Hikari beside her, as if wanting the other to help her.
Miyauchi Hikari was also still in shock.
My own little brother actually took the initiative to make a move!
Is this still my little brother?
It wasn't until she felt Shiina Mahiru's gaze asking for help that she realized they were still on the street, and that her cousin was watching right there.
He doesn't even know how to be mindful of the impact.
If you really have thoughts, then you should do it secretly in private. Would I, your second sister, not help you?
And so she coughed lightly. "Um, Hikage, aren't you taking advantage of a girl? That's not right."
Miyauchi Hikage rolled his eyes at his sister.
Can't you see that she's the one grabbing my hand and not letting go?
If he used force, he could naturally break free easily, but at the moment, there were at least five or six girls with diaries and more than ten bodyguards sent by Shinomiya Kaguya lurking on this street in Akihabara.
He didn't want his movements to be too big and once again attract the attention of Hayasaka Ai in the coffee shop.
So he could only nod slightly at Shiina Mashiro, and then said in a low voice, "Why don't you let go first, and we can find a time to talk again?"
Shiina Mashiro did not move.
Looking at her eyes, it seemed that she felt that if she let go of his hand now, he would disappear again.
To this, Miyauchi Hikage could only helplessly introduce his second sister to her.
"This is my twin sister, Miyauchi Hikari. She is your cousin Shiina Mahiru's neighbor, and also the person who picked you up from the station yesterday."
"Although the two of us don't live together now, I will be going over to her place tomorrow. We can talk together then."
Shiina Mashiro, who had not been listening carefully to his self-introduction before, blinked her eyes and looked back and forth between Miyauchi Hikage's and Miyauchi Hikari's faces for a good while.
Ignoring the sun-like feeling on Miyauchi Hikage, the two of them did look quite similar.
Thinking of this, Shiina Mashiro let go of his hand, and instead, very naturally grabbed Miyauchi Hikari's arm, while her gaze continued to be fixed on him.
That gaze seemed to say, Don't you think of leaving with your sister.
This action still left the people present unable to understand, but Miyauchi Hikage couldn't help but let out a secret sigh of relief, and so he took the opportunity to make an explanation.
"I think it's probably because Hikari and I look very similar, and Hikari was the one who picked her up from the station yesterday, so she would subconsciously be closer to me," Miyauchi Hikage explained, somewhat forcedly.
Shiina Mashiro had originally wanted to explain, but looking at his stare, she still kept the words in her stomach and continued to obediently hold onto Miyauchi Hikari's arm.
Although this explanation sounded very problematic, it just so happened to strike a chord with Miyauchi Hikari, who had never been able to compare to her little brother in any area.
So it was because of her charm that Shiina Mashiro had taken a liking to her little brother on their first meeting?
That sounds quite reasonable!
And so she kindly explained to Shiina Mashiro, who was holding her arm, "Although I do look quite similar to my little brother, I'm actually still very different from him in many ways. You have to look more clearly next time."
Because of Miyauchi Hikari's mysterious self-confidence, even Shiina Mahiru became a little unsure.
Really... is that so?
Although when Miyauchi Hikari had picked up Shiina Mashiro yesterday, the two of them had looked quite familiar, but were they really that familiar?
In any case, for the time being, the other's attention was shifted from himself to this not-so-bright second sister of his.
Of course, this explanation certainly couldn't fool the two smart people, Katō Megumi and Sakakibara Kōichi, who were watching from a complete passerby's perspective.
However, without a diary, it was impossible for them to guess the real truth.
And with their personalities, they wouldn't take the initiative to expose Miyauchi Hikage either.
Unless Katō Megumi could also get a diary.
But from what Miyauchi Hikage had discovered so far, only one character from each work could get a diary at present. With Kasumigaoka Utaha having already obtained one, even if the diary started a second round of distribution, the probability of Katō Megumi getting one should not be high.
Miyauchi Hikage thought to himself.