On Miyauchi Hikage's side, after Kanoe Yuuko had been "in a daze" for quite a while, after finishing reading the few diary entries, she could only confirm that the diary she had obtained was indeed far more mysterious than her own existence.
However, as another warning prompt appeared in the diary, Kanoe Yuuko finally realized that now was not the time to figure out the origin of this diary.
The most important thing now was to confirm what the crisis mentioned in this diary was all about.
If it were the muddled her from before, who would get drowsy and want to sleep after just moving around for ten minutes a day, she might never have realized this.
But now, with the help of this diary, Kanoe Yuuko felt as if her spirit had been reborn.
It seemed that for many years, she had not felt her mind so clear.
It was as if... she had returned to before she was alive.
But in the next moment, she realized a problem.
It seemed that from the very beginning of her existence, she had already lost all memories of her previous life.
She only remembered that her name should be Yuuko and that she was a student of this school.
Then, based on the rumors circulating in this school about her, her identity before she was alive seemed to be quite diverse.
Sometimes she died of illness, sometimes she jumped off a building for love, and recently there seemed to be a rumor that she was brutally murdered by a serial killer.
Unlike humans.
Ghosts are beings that can be changed by the influence of rumors.
As a ghost who had already died, in this school, all the rumors related to "Yuuko-san," after the passage of time, seemed to have a part of them reflected back onto her.
"Perhaps it is because I have forgotten my own memories and gradually begun to be unable to distinguish which is the real me, that I have started to enter that 'lost' state?" Kanoe Yuuko analyzed in her heart.
It seemed that at present, this was the most likely possibility.
Ghosts are beings born from a thread of obsession.
If she couldn't even remember the thread of obsession that gave birth to her, then even if she could continue to survive by relying on rumors, if this continued, would she be the ghost of Yuuko, or the "Yuuko-san" pieced together from countless rumors and ghost stories?
Looking at the stone monument before her, which also seemed to have been weathered by the years, she felt that she should be able to distinguish which was the real "Yuuko."
Thinking of this, she turned her head to look at Miyauchi Hikage behind her, and then sat down on this stone monument, which she did not know who had erected for her.
"Seeing this stone monument seems to have made me a little clearer."
She had already confirmed that no matter what method she used to try and bring up the diary, the two ordinary people in front of her would not seem to react, so she simply changed her wording.
This time, Fujimiya Konomi finally understood.
After all, watching Kanoe Yuuko stare at that stone monument for nearly ten minutes in a daze, and even inexplicably say some words that she didn't understand, had made her a little nervous that she might suddenly go on a rampage or something.
Fortunately, this Miss Kanoe Yuuko still seemed relatively rational at the moment.
She stood half a step behind Miyauchi Hikage and asked her, "Miss Kanoe Yuuko, have you remembered something?"
Kanoe Yuuko shook her head with a somewhat bitter expression. "I seem to have forgotten many things, and at the same time, there are some memories in my mind that shouldn't be mine. I'm trying to separate them now, but it doesn't seem to be that easy."
"I feel that I seem to have experienced some unpleasant things in my previous life, which is why I chose to forget those memories after becoming a ghost."
She explained her memory situation to Fujimiya Konomi.
"You guys said just now that you wanted to film my life story and post it on the internet, right?"
"Since you already know my real name, you should also know what I encountered in my previous life, right? It doesn't matter if the investigation isn't clear. Can you tell me what you know now?"
Kanoe Yuuko looked at the warning prompt in the diary and continued, "Even if it's not a pleasant memory, I must recall these things now and find my true self."
Fujimiya Konomi hesitated.
She already knew the truth of what happened back then through Miyauchi Hikage.
However, this truth was indeed a bit too cruel and dark.
She didn't know what the result would be if she told this story to this now amnesiac ghost.
This kind of matter was better left for Miyauchi Hikage to decide.
Miyauchi Hikage, on the other hand, secretly felt a wave of guidance from fate in his heart.
Then he opened his eyes.
"Although more than half a century has passed, it is still a story that will make people feel despair. Miss Kanoe Yuuko, your choice to forget that memory was indeed a form of relief. Are you sure you can bear that past again now?"
Hearing Miyauchi Hikage's serious tone, Kanoe Yuuko's heart couldn't help but waver.
She also seemed unsure if she was really ready now.
She reached out and gently stroked the stone monument with her name on it.
She could almost feel the regret and sadness on this stone monument.
"Has it really been that long..."
Kanoe Yuuko herself was a little dazed.
Has it really been that long?
She put on a relaxed look and nodded at Miyauchi Hikage. "Tell me. It's been so long. I think I should be able to let it go by now."
Miyauchi Hikage raised his camera and adjusted the shooting mode.
Kanoe Yuuko's figure disappeared from the camera's lens.
The camera in this mode would not capture those supernatural images.
In the lens, there was only that stone monument with Yuuko's name carved on it.
At this time, after dusk, as the sky gradually darkened, Miyauchi Hikage, in the form of a narrator, told this story again.
However, what he used was still the original script he had written based on the anime's plot.
The Kanoe family, guardians of the shrine for generations.
After the original shrine fell into decline, the school was built on its grounds.
The great plague more than sixty years ago.
The daily rising death toll.
The increasingly tense and fearful atmosphere.
As an ignorant villager mentioned that in the past, sacrifices were used to appease the wrath of the gods, a group of people struggling on the brink of life and death immediately felt as if they had grasped the last life-saving straw.
"And the sacrifice that the villagers finally chose," Miyauchi Hikage pointed his hand at the stone monument with Yuuko's name on it, and also at Kanoe Yuuko sitting on the monument.
"Was this Kanoe Yuuko, who was not yet 16 at the time."
Then, there was another long silence. The camera only captured a breeze passing through the woods.
Miyauchi Hikage was satisfied with the completion of this segment.
Kanoe Yuuko did not interrupt his explanation throughout the process.
With a trace of destiny magic in his voice, plus his years of experience in making short videos.
The effect of the sky in the camera changing from dusk to darkness also looked quite good.
This segment should be able to be kept in the video.
He looked at Kanoe Yuuko before him.
A look of reminiscence had appeared on Kanoe Yuuko's face at this time.
It seemed that because of the story Miyauchi Hikage told, she had substituted herself into that past.
A look of regret and sadness would occasionally appear on her face.
But after Miyauchi Hikage finished speaking, she shook her head at him.
"What you said, I seem to have some impression of it. It seems to be my past, but it doesn't seem to be the most crucial part."
She hesitated for a moment, and then added, "If it was just this, it doesn't seem like it would be so hard for me to accept."
Miyauchi Hikage nodded.
That was true.
Kanoe Yuuko was originally the type of character who was willing to sacrifice herself for others.
Originally, when she was alive and saw her sister's strange behavior, and mistakenly thought that her sister was preparing to become a sacrifice to save the villagers, her attitude seemed to have been to think of using herself to replace her sister.
But who would have thought that the sister she wanted to save would stab her with the most critical knife at the last moment?
Miyauchi Hikage walked a couple of steps closer.
"Yes, I also feel that this is not the most crucial part. So, what do you think is missing from the story I just told?"
Kanoe Yuuko seemed to have realized something, but then she shook her head vigorously again.
If it were the her from before, she would probably have had the thought of running away from it at this point.
But now, this overly clear mind made it impossible for her to choose to escape anymore.
After more than half a century, that scene from the past seemed to appear in her mind again.
That girl, dressed in a white sacrificial robe with a white cloth on her head, pointed her hand at her and said in a voice that was exceptionally familiar to her, "The offering is Kanoe Yuuko," in such an incomparably cold tone.
She stared blankly at the stone monument beneath her and said the name she had forgotten for more than half a century.
"Yukariko..."
With Kanoe Yuuko's words, Fujimiya Konomi, who was standing behind Miyauchi Hikage, suddenly felt a chill from nowhere.
She couldn't help but shiver, and then clung tightly to Miyauchi Hikage's back, trying to make herself feel more comfortable.
And Miyauchi Hikage slightly turned his body, leading Fujimiya Konomi a few steps back.
At the end of this small path, the shadow Yuuko, with its ferocious face and black energy emanating from its entire body, had finally realized that there was a problem with its main body and had followed its main body's aura all the way here.
At this time, Miyauchi Hikage could clearly see that the shadow Yuuko's gaze was fixed on him.
From the reaction of Fujimiya Konomi behind him, who was hugging him with suddenly increased force, because they had already established a connection with Kanoe Yuuko, Fujimiya Konomi could now also see the existence of the shadow Yuuko.
"Was it you... who made me, remember?"
In the next moment, the shadow Yuuko appeared before Miyauchi Hikage, asking him with her sharp and piercing voice.
And Kanoe Yuuko, who was sitting on the stone monument, also looked at this suddenly appearing "other self" with astonishment.
Unlike her current self, who was wearing a clean old-fashioned school uniform, had her long black hair neatly managed and silky smooth, and looked like a flawless beautiful girl.
The self before her.
Messy long hair, a ferocious appearance.
Wearing a worn-out school uniform, emanating black energy from her entire body, and even some bloodstains could be seen on her body.
Isn't this the appearance of her that was captured by that hot camera?
So, this is the real her?
She stood up, looking at that "self" a little nervously, not knowing what she wanted to do to Miyauchi Hikage.
And looking at such a ferocious face and feeling the negative emotions emanating from her body.
Miyauchi Hikage's heart did not feel any threat.
After all, she had not yet completed her final evolution and was not yet a special-grade vengeful spirit.
If Miyauchi Hikage hadn't sealed his Hamon and Pure Yang Body, a vengeful spirit of this level would probably be only slightly better than the high-grade vengeful spirits in Beika Town that were cleared out by his unconscious AOE, not even being able to see what he looked like.
However, although Beika Town was a place where vengeful spirits gathered, no special-grade vengeful spirits had ever appeared there.
It was also because Beika Town had no special-grade vengeful spirits, and after dealing with the Grade 1 and Grade 2 vengeful spirits there, a new batch of not-so-aggressive vengeful spirits would gather and gestate again in a month or two, so neither the outer world nor the inner world had spent too much effort on this vengeful spirit garbage dump of Beika Town.
Thinking of this, Miyauchi Hikage's gaze quickly swept back and forth between the shadow Yuuko and Yuuko, and then he put on a look of seeming understanding.
"So, the painful memories and negative emotions that Miss Kanoe Yuuko forgot have finally condensed into you?"
Discovering that the boy before her had not produced a single negative emotion in his heart, the shadow Yuuko showed a ferocious smile.
"What a clever man."
"Although your appearance has disrupted my plans, in this matter, I should thank you."
She turned to look at the uneasy Kanoe Yuuko.
"For this past half-century, I have always wanted to appear before you, to make you experience the hatred that I have not been able to extinguish for this past half-century."
"But unfortunately, you couldn't accept that ugly side of yourself, which is me, so you could never see the existence of this shadow."
"And even as the main body, you have been subconsciously suppressing my actions, preventing me from laying a hand on other humans."
She slowly walked in Kanoe Yuuko's direction.
"But you, who have given up your past memories and hatred, how would you know what powerful force these things you have abandoned can generate in this era."
"I, who have memories, have become stronger and stronger because of this inextinguishable hatred. And you, who have no memories, probably can't even maintain your own sanity now."
"I originally thought it would take a few more months to completely absorb your existence and make me a complete being. I didn't expect that these few guys could not only connect with you in those brief few minutes at dusk, but even make you recall the memories of the past and realize my existence."
"In that case, then you shall become one with me again today. Starting with this school built on filth, let's take revenge on those who killed us and their descendants!"
As she said this, the shadow Yuuko reached out her hand towards Kanoe Yuuko, wanting to use her own power to forcibly merge with this frail main body.
And then...
After a long while, looking at Kanoe Yuuko, who seemed to be completely unaffected, the shadow Yuuko stood there stunned for a few seconds.
Then she felt that although she still maintained a connection with the Kanoe Yuuko before her.
But between this connection, another irresistible force had appeared out of nowhere, making it completely impossible for her to absorb the Kanoe Yuuko before her into her own body!