The shadow Yuuko didn't know what method those outsiders had used to make Kanoe Yuuko, a ghost who had been avoiding it for more than half a century, finally decide to face herself.
Because of this, she didn't have much killing intent towards Miyauchi Hikage and the others.
At the very least, she would give them a quick death.
Compared to Kanoe Yukariko, for whom she had spent the last half-century thinking of ways to torture, an early death could indeed be considered a form of relief.
But the current situation was that after waiting for decades, just when she was about to slowly devour the main body of Kanoe Yuuko and completely replace her to become the true "main body" of Kanoe Yuuko.
She now found that she couldn't merge with the Kanoe Yuuko before her!?
A force she simply couldn't shake was just lying between them so casually, preventing her from crossing this chasm to fulfill her wish of half a century.
"You actually have a backup plan?"
The shadow Yuuko shook her head in disbelief, the resentment on her body almost materializing at this moment.
"No, how could you have a backup plan? We were originally one. If you had this kind of power, there's no way you could have hidden it from me!"
The shadow Yuuko stared intently at Kanoe Yuuko with her dark pupils.
At this moment, she finally noticed the seemingly ordinary gray diary in Kanoe Yuuko's hand.
She was very sure that the Kanoe Yuuko before had never taken out such a thing.
In other words, the power Kanoe Yuuko had to resist her came from this diary that she had obtained at some unknown time?
And on Kanoe Yuuko's side, seeing the gaze of this extremely ugly self land on the diary in her hand, her heart couldn't help but tighten.
Almost at the instant the shadow Yuuko appeared, she had recalled the past she had wanted to forget, and in a very short time, she understood how this ugly self had been born.
More than half a century ago, she was chosen by her own sister to be an offering to the gods.
Then, before her disbelieving eyes, the villagers, to prevent her from running away, broke her legs.
Then they threw her into the basement of the old school building, which was also the last shrine left in this world by the Kanoe family, with only a few candles.
In the basement, she did not die immediately.
Instead, she died of starvation amidst despair, confusion, anger, and hatred.
Looking at the "Kanoe Yuuko" before her, she could completely feel how twisted her own heart was at that time.
Even before she died, she had to pray to the shrine, hoping to obtain the power to take revenge on everyone.
"If I cannot take revenge on those people, then this resentment will never be resolved."
Kanoe Yuuko recalled her vow before she died.
But she had not been able to fulfill this vow.
Perhaps this was so-called retribution.
By the time she regained consciousness as a ghost, the villagers who had killed her had all lost their lives in that plague.
The only one still alive was her own sister.
But at that time, Kanoe Yuuko, at the last moment of killing her sister, still hesitated.
One reason was that when she was about to kill her sister, she saw her own extremely ugly appearance through the other's eyes, making it unacceptable for her to believe that was her now, nor was she willing to lay a hand on her own sister, the last bloodline of the Kanoe family left in the world.
The other reason was that after seeing her sister's look of seeking release in death, an even darker thought arose in her heart, thinking that she could not let her die so easily.
She wanted her to live forever in the torment and remorse of having killed her own sister with her own hands, yet her sister, even after becoming a demon, was unwilling to kill her to vent her anger.
Only after her heart was tormented to the point of being completely worthless would she personally kill her to satisfy her desire for revenge.
These two completely different mentalities produced the same idea.
The final result was that Kanoe Yukariko, as the only survivor of that sacrificial event, had been unable to walk out of the shadow of the past for half a century.
And Kanoe Yuuko, after that, gradually differentiated into two different existences.
The main body, but having lost her memory, Kanoe Yuuko;
The shadow Yuuko, whose heart was full of hatred for humanity, but was unable to lay a hand on others due to the constraints of the main body.
As the other had said, although they had been separated for half a century, in the final analysis, she and the other were indeed one.
Only when the different sides of the two Kanoe Yuukos were combined could they be considered the complete "Kanoe Yuuko."
Under such circumstances, since she could see this diary that suddenly appeared before her, the other should be able to see it as well.
To be precise, this "self" before her probably also had control over this diary.
It was just that because she had the desire to come and check out this cenotaph that Miyauchi Hikage had mentioned, which her sister had set up for her, that she had obtained ownership of this diary first.
So, the warning issued to her by the diary was referring to this self before her wanting to completely devour her?
And the emergency authority that the diary had opened for her was to cut off the connection between her and the other self, preventing the other from directly devouring her.
Feeling the other's anger and helplessness, at this moment, Kanoe Yuuko also somewhat understood why this diary had appeared next to this stone monument.
She began to feel fortunate that this diary had not appeared at the old school building.
If it had really appeared around the old school building, then she, who only had less than ten minutes of clear-headed time a day, would never have been able to discover this diary before this self.
At that time, faced with the other's devouring, she would probably have only been able to disappear completely in a muddled state.
Thinking of this, Kanoe Yuuko couldn't help but look at the shadow Yuuko before her with a trace of sadness.
It was precisely because she understood the other's existence that she could more clearly recognize what the hatred on the other meant.
Unless she, as the main body, could proactively merge with the other and then completely let go of this hatred.
Otherwise, the hatred on the shadow Yuuko could not be resolved and would only continue to linger in her heart.
If she really let the other devour her, then Kanoe Yuuko, with only hatred left in her heart and having lost all constraints, would take revenge on all of humanity.
But although she knew the shadow Yuuko's purpose, Kanoe Yuuko could only find with bitterness that she seemed to be able to do nothing now.
Her power was far inferior to this "self" accumulated from negative emotions.
The only reason she could avoid being devoured now was by relying on the power of the diary.
Even if her own strength were several times stronger, she would probably not be her opponent.
If it were more than ten years ago, when the spiritual resurgence was just beginning, she could still use her identity as the main body to control the other.
But now, Kanoe Yuuko could no longer have any influence on the shadow Yuuko before her.
Even if she were to try and devour this shadow Yuuko in reverse, she probably wouldn't even be able to digest her even if she ate until she was full.
More importantly, after having recovered a part of her memory, Kanoe Yuuko herself was still a little confused.
At least in her current state, after merging a part of her memory, she still couldn't let go of all hatred and achieve nirvana on the spot.
If she accepted all of the shadow Yuuko's hatred of the past fifty years, she felt that she might even be assimilated by the shadow Yuuko's inner hatred.
"Even if you really devour me and complete your revenge, what else can you do?"
Kanoe Yuuko looked at this ugly self and couldn't help but shake her head.
"If you really take that step, what awaits you and me is only complete destruction."
Humans are not lacking in powerful individuals.
After her mind became clear and she recalled many past memories, although Kanoe Yuuko's range of activity had always been limited to the school grounds, she had still seen some human exorcists and sorcerers.
The main reason she and the shadow Yuuko could still exist was that she had never taken the initiative to harm anyone, at most just scaring ordinary people.
Therefore, Kanoe Yuuko's current thought was just to have the shadow Yuuko temporarily give up the idea of revenge and see if they could find a way to coexist peacefully.
"Since you can see it, then you should also be able to feel its power. If you don't want to be erased by it, I think you'd better go back obediently now," Kanoe Yuuko raised the diary in her hand, wanting to use this method to scare away the shadow Yuuko first, and then find a way to solve this problem later.
However, it was obvious that although the shadow Yuuko seemed a little exasperated due to the failure of the merger, and her eyes towards Kanoe Yuuko and the diary in her hand had an added layer of vigilance and fanaticism.
But when faced with Kanoe Yuuko's request for peace talks, she directly showed a look of disdain.
"Then you can come and destroy me, or find a way to merge with me again, and use your will to make me give up the idea of revenge."
Seeing a trace of hesitation appear on Kanoe Yuuko's face.
The arc of the shadow Yuuko's already split mouth became even more exaggerated.
"So, it seems that that power can only barely protect you. You yourself can't control this power at all."
"But, if this power is only for passive defense, how long can it last?"
The shadow Yuuko seemed to be able to perceive the wavering in Kanoe Yuuko's heart even more clearly.
"I'm not like you, a guy who has lost her memory and just wanders around aimlessly at dusk every day before going back to rest. I have been preparing for today for a long time."
"Those so-called exorcists and sorcerers can't stop the coming of the next era."
The shadow Yuuko responded sinisterly, as if she had already planned her course of action after becoming a "complete being," and had even learned more inside stories due to the invitations extended to her by some curses.
She was indeed a little wary of the power of the mysterious diary in Kanoe Yuuko's hand now.
However, since the power over there could not be absorbed for the time being, and her purpose had already been witnessed by an exorcist...
The shadow Yuuko's gaze fell on Miyauchi Hikage.
Putting aside the ordinary person Fujimiya Konomi, Miyauchi Hikage's body seemed quite suitable for possession.
Because Miyauchi Hikage had currently only sealed his Pure Yang Body and Hamon, his physical strength and yang energy were only slightly higher than that of an ordinary person. Unless someone had skills like X-ray vision or the Transparent World to see through his body completely, it was naturally impossible to discover these secrets about him.
And the Card Master template he had just obtained was still in a high-speed growth period and did not have any particularly conspicuous features.
If anything, it was that when he used the "Destiny" skill to its fullest to perceive the fate of others and use the teleportation function, his eyes would emit a golden light, which would be quite obvious if not concealed by Yellow Temperance.
Miyauchi Hikage, who possessed the Card Master template, already had the seed of magic in his body and had even slightly come into contact with a trace of magic connected to space and destiny.
In the eyes of those supernatural beings with perception abilities, he should indeed be considered a rather talented youth.
So on the shadow Yuuko's side, Miyauchi Hikage, who had good physical and mental qualities and seemed to be on the verge of awakening supernatural powers, was a rather useful body. With his body, she should be able to temporarily break free from the shackles between her, the shrine, and the basement, and leave this school.
And besides Miyauchi Hikage, that Kanoe Kirie, who bore some resemblance to her, was also a good conductor.
As Kanoe Yukariko's granddaughter, although her aptitude was not particularly outstanding, due to their blood connection, her power should be able to be exerted in her body at a level closer to her main body's power.
It was only natural that Kanoe Kirie, as the granddaughter, should pay some price for the mistakes her grandmother had made back then.
But just as the shadow Yuuko was about to use Miyauchi Hikage as a springboard, snatch Kanoe Kirie, and leave this school first, and then contact the curses that had sought her out before, and then find a way to force Kanoe Yuuko to merge with her.
She suddenly sensed a certain elderly figure appearing at the entrance of Seikyou Academy.
Although sixty years had passed, every time she saw that figure, the shadow Yuuko had to endure the hatred in her heart, and due to the constraints of her main body, she was unable to act.
However, now.
She no longer needed to endure.
Although it was a little regrettable that the final merger was not completed, the negative emotions she had absorbed over so many years, in this era of accelerated spiritual resurgence, would not have too much of an impact on her current self even without Kanoe Yuuko.
The flower of hatred, which had been brewing for sixty years, should also be welcoming its result today.