Under Kanoe Yukariko's warm hospitality, Miyauchi Hikage enjoyed another sumptuous lunch at the Kanoe residence.
Kanoe Kirie seemed absent-minded throughout the meal, probably because she had not yet come to terms with the truth she had just learned.
On the other hand, Kanoe Yukariko even briefly inquired about the arrangements for after the filming tonight.
Itou Kaiji, who was only focused on eating, found this a bit strange.
What arrangements after the filming?
Shouldn't they just go home and rest after filming?
Could it be that this old lady had some special activity she wanted them to experience?
Itou Kaiji wondered in his heart.
Miyauchi Hikage, however, nodded at her.
"I already contacted the professionals last night. According to their reply, they should be arriving this afternoon."
Although Nanami Kento had said to only call that contact number when he ran into trouble, with Miyauchi Hikage's cautious nature, he had naturally already made contact with them last night using the information Nanami Kento had given him.
It was clear that the Jujutsu world was indeed short-staffed right now.
The jujutsu sorcerer of unknown grade who answered the phone was indeed very respectful to Nanami Kento after hearing his name, but he probably really couldn't spare the time to come and confirm the situation of a "vengeful spirit" that had been stable for more than half a century.
However, that jujutsu sorcerer had taken the initiative to contact him again this morning, saying that he had outsourced the matter and had helped Miyauchi Hikage contact another shrine with a relatively long history in Saitama Prefecture, finding a shrine maiden there to help.
It seemed that Nanami Kento had explained some things to this jujutsu sorcerer.
The sorcerer had casually mentioned over the phone that the shrine maiden had strength close to Grade 1. After Miyauchi Hikage pretended to be puzzled and asked for more details, the sorcerer just brushed it off with a perfunctory answer.
Originally, if it were just a shrine maiden, Miyauchi Hikage wouldn't have cared much.
However, after Miyauchi Hikage did a card divination this morning, he had a subtle feeling, as if he might know that shrine maiden.
Recalling the few shrines he had visited in the prefecture over the years, and after thinking of a certain shrine, Miyauchi Hikage couldn't help but have a strange feeling of "could it really be them?"
After resting for a while after lunch, Miyauchi Hikage's group, along with the silent Kanoe Kirie, returned to Seikyou Academy and began some simple filming work, using the daytime to introduce the situation of the academy and the story from half a century ago.
And around three in the afternoon, having almost completed the preliminary preparations, Miyauchi Hikage finally received a call from that shrine maiden.
Although it was not a familiar voice, it was indeed a familiar surname.
In a place like Japan, the surname Hiiragi could hardly be considered a common one, let alone a Hiiragi family that also had a shrine.
"In other words, it really is the Hiiragi family from my memory. I originally thought that in this world, Takamiya Shrine was just a relatively obscure shrine, but I didn't expect it to be connected to the inner world after all. I just don't know if it's the eldest or second eldest sister from the family who's coming," after hanging up the phone, Miyauchi Hikage muttered in a voice only he could hear.
Perhaps in this hodgepodge world, the families that have been managing shrines for generations all have some connection to the inner world.
But before this, Miyauchi Hikage had indeed found it difficult to connect that gag anime from Kyoto Animation's early years, "Lucky Star," with supernatural powers.
But after actually taking this call, Miyauchi Hikage also thought about it carefully for a while.
In his memory, the protagonist Izumi Konata's mother's spirit was guarding their home, and had even created a spirit photograph because she wanted a photo of her husband and daughter together.
And the Hiiragi Kagami and Hiiragi Tsukasa sisters' family did indeed run a shrine.
And although their Takamiya Shrine was an obscure local shrine in this world, and Miyauchi Hikage had only discovered it by chance while taking everyone out on a spring trip, and had just gone in to pay his respects and said hello to the two sisters who were working part-time as shrine maidens at the time.
But the real-life prototype of this shrine, Washinomiya Shrine, was known in his previous life as one of the oldest and largest shrines in the Kanto region.
In mythology, Yamato Takeru had also worshipped at this shrine.
Although it was just a prototype and didn't mean much, it still had some reference value.
In addition, Miyauchi Hikage had also visited there before and could feel the history of that shrine. Therefore, the Takamiya Shrine managed by the Hiiragi family should also be an old shrine that has been passed down for a thousand years.
Coupled with the situation in this world, for the ancestors of the Hiiragi family to be able to establish a shrine in that era of the Pandemonium of a hundred demons, and to be able to continue making a living even during the hundred years of supernatural decline, it was not strange for them to have a connection with the inner world.
Perhaps the ancestors of the Hiiragi and Kanoe families even knew each other several hundred years ago.
Miyauchi Hikage muttered, and then walked towards the school gate.
Before long, a woman with short purple hair, who looked to be in her early twenties, arrived at the school gate by car.
After exchanging greetings and confirming their identities, she formally introduced herself.
Hiiragi Inori, a shrine maiden from Takamiya Shrine.
However, she was not wearing a miko uniform at the moment, but just ordinary casual clothes.
She patted the bag she was carrying on her back, indicating that the miko uniform was inside, but it was too troublesome to wear. If it wasn't necessary, she rarely wore it even at home, let alone when going out.
Although it was their first meeting, upon hearing her words and seeing her habitual stretching motion after getting out of the car, Miyauchi Hikage instantly connected her with his own eldest sister.
She seemed to be a lazy person, just like his own big sister.
"Hiiragi Inori-san, if I'm not mistaken, you should have a few younger sisters, right?" Miyauchi Hikage asked, and said that he had once visited Takamiya Shrine and had said hello to her two younger sisters.
But after Miyauchi Hikage said this, Hiiragi Inori patted his shoulder. "So you've worshipped at my house before. To be able to find such a remote place, no wonder I felt we were quite fated when I first saw you."
"Next time you come to my shrine, I'll show you around properly and have my younger sisters serve you in their miko uniforms. But let me say this first, although my younger sisters are all very cute, if you want to marry any of them, you'll have to go through many trials!"
As she said this, she paused for a moment and continued to whisper to Miyauchi Hikage, "But if you're willing to marry into the family, I can help put in a few good words for you with my family."
Hearing this, the corner of Miyauchi Hikage's mouth twitched slightly, and he secretly sized up the girl before him.
The Hiiragi family's genes were just like that. Not to mention Hiiragi Kagami and Hiiragi Tsukasa, those two high school girls who had hardly developed at all, even you, the eldest sister, are a bit pitiful in that department.
"I'm sorry, I'm also the only son in my family, and I haven't considered marrying into another family for the time being," Miyauchi Hikage waved his hand, making Hiiragi Inori sigh slightly.
After muttering something like "why can't I find a suitable boy," she finally looked up again and continued speaking to Miyauchi Hikage, "Speaking of which, I've seen your videos. To be honest, they're not bad. At least my cowardly sister couldn't sleep after watching them. But when you were filming, did you ever feel nervous when you found out you had filmed that 'vengeful spirit'?"
Miyauchi Hikage looked at Hiiragi Inori before him. "Aren't there people like you in this world who are specially responsible for dealing with those 'things'? With you guys around, what's there for me to worry about?"
After hearing Miyauchi Hikage's words, Hiiragi Inori looked at him a few more times, as if to confirm whether his heart was really so calm.
"So you've already realized it. And here that guy Nanami even asked me to tell you these things subtly without making a fuss."
So you're the helper Nanami found.
This fake middle-aged man's social circle is quite wide.
But you're not being subtle at all. You're not even building up to it.
Who starts by directly asking if he's afraid of ghosts?
Miyauchi Hikage shrugged. "After all, I'm just a video maker. Even if I'm filming videos related to murder cases, it shouldn't be so soon that someone comes out to warn me not to film similar videos again."
"Although Nanami-san later informed me that I could continue filming, I have to report in advance before each shoot, which is obviously not normal."
"And the ghost filmed in the video, in the original audio and video files I have, there are indeed more shots of it. After confirming that it wasn't a problem caused by the camera flickering, I began to realize this."
Miyauchi Hikage finally pointed to the entrance of Seikyou Academy.
"And then, the day before yesterday, my own eyes saw that so-called dusk maiden appear at the entrance of this school. Although my friend said that the girl's figure disappeared when she was taking me there, for some reason, I could still vaguely see some of her figure."
Hearing this, Hiiragi Inori stared at Miyauchi Hikage's eyes with her blue pupils.
"As expected, what they told me was right. You might have already started to awaken your powers. Although your aptitude might be a bit lacking, with this kind of mind, no wonder you were noticed by those jujutsu sorcerers..."
"It's a pity you've already been reserved by those jujutsu sorcerers, otherwise I would have wanted to recommend you."
She muttered, seeming to be thinking about whether to cause a scene with the Jujutsu world for Miyauchi Hikage, but in the end, she probably gave up the idea of poaching him.
Of course, if he insisted, that would be another matter.
Miyauchi Hikage continued to put on a puzzled look, as if he didn't know what a jujutsu sorcerer was.
Hiiragi Inori waved her hand, seemingly finding it too troublesome to explain these things.
"It's too troublesome to explain these things. Let them explain it to you themselves when the time comes."
She turned her head to look inside the school. "I'm just here to confirm the situation of the vengeful spirit here. My mother came to confirm the situation here back then, and it's been about ten years now."
"If there are no major problems, I'd like to go home for dinner tonight."
She said this, and seeing that Miyauchi Hikage still had a puzzled expression, she added a few more sentences, "You don't know, do you? The vengeful spirit here is an old fellow who has existed for half a century. She has been very well-behaved all these years and can even help suppress other vengeful spirits, so this area has always been quite safe."
"As long as we confirm that her situation hasn't changed, you guys can not only use her to film videos, but she probably won't do anything to you even if you want to demolish the old school building she's attached to."
"Otherwise, that guy Nanami wouldn't have agreed to let you come into contact with her."
Although she hadn't said much, the Hiiragi Inori before him clearly couldn't be bothered to explain any more and was about to walk into the school right away.
Along the way, Miyauchi Hikage also tried to ask about the shrine and her younger sisters, wanting to know if the twin sisters Hiiragi Kagami and Hiiragi Tsukasa had also awakened their spiritual powers.
When these topics were mentioned, Hiiragi Inori was more willing to talk.
From her words, it seemed that the inertia of the plot from "Lucky Star" still existed.
The four Hiiragi sisters all seemed to have a certain amount of spiritual power in their bodies. As twins, Hiiragi Kagami and Hiiragi Tsukasa might have even higher talent in spiritual power than her.
But because she was the eldest sister in the family and had shown a much stronger talent for spiritual power than her mother during the spiritual resurgence, she was chosen early on to be the successor of the shrine and was secretly trained.
In order to comply with the secrecy law signed by the inner world, among the next generation of the Takamiya Shrine, currently only Hiiragi Inori was aware of these matters concerning the inner world.
The remaining three younger sisters would not be told these things unless they awakened their spiritual vision on their own.
In other words, apart from this lazy eldest sister who didn't have much of a role in the anime and her mother, the remaining daughters of the Hiiragi family were completely ignorant of their family's affairs and were still living according to the trajectory in the anime.
"But recently, the spiritual energy has become more and more active, and the number of awakened people is constantly increasing. The secrecy law is becoming difficult to enforce. I guess my younger sisters are about to become aware of the power in their bodies. I wonder what this world will become in the future..."
As she said this, Hiiragi Inori urged Miyauchi Hikage again, seeming to imply that if he could marry her younger sister, the children they had in the future might also inherit their spiritual powers and become a brand new supernatural family.
It wasn't until they reached the old school building, where the filming site had been set up, that she reined it in a little, but she still maintained that relaxed appearance, seemingly not noticing the strangeness hidden beneath the calm surface of this old building.
"Although the resentment power has increased a lot compared to ten years ago, it's still within the normal range. It looks like today's work will be done quickly."
Muttering about finishing up quickly and going back for dinner, Hiiragi Inori, in front of the few people outside the school building, walked directly into this old building.
And looking at her oblivious appearance, Miyauchi Hikage was thinking in his heart whether he should call Nanami Kento for backup.