As night fell, this patch of woods was enveloped in darkness.
And with the appearance of the shadow Yuuko, a sinister aura was added to the woods.
Amidst Kanoe Yuuko's uneasy gaze, the shadow Yuuko's eyes lingered on the diary in her hand for a long time.
Then it shifted its gaze to Miyauchi Hikage.
This also made Kanoe Yuuko's heart tense up.
After all, her strength was far inferior to the shadow Yuuko's. If the other, unable to devour her main body, chose to vent this angry emotion on others, she had no way to stop it.
She was already prepared. If the shadow Yuuko were to really threaten her with these people, then she could only try to negotiate terms with her, to ensure the lives of Miyauchi Hikage and the others as much as possible.
However, to her surprise, the shadow Yuuko suddenly showed a sinister smile, left Miyauchi Hikage with a sentence, "You're lucky, you've saved your life," and then said to Kanoe Yuuko, "Even if you've obtained other powers, you're only delaying the time of your complete dissipation. When you lose all consciousness, you will still become a part of me."
Then, just as she had appeared, she vanished from their sight like a ghost.
This move, not only did Kanoe Yuuko, the main body, not understand it, but even Miyauchi Hikage was a little confused.
What does she mean I'm lucky and saved my life?
After seeing that Kanoe Yuuko was currently completely incapable of controlling the shadow Yuuko, Miyauchi Hikage had already prepared to seal the shadow Yuuko.
Although in terms of pure stats, he might only be at a Grade 1 level right now.
But the anti-vengeful spirit specialization on his body allowed him to face vengeful spirits and ghosts of a higher grade. It would be difficult for them to break through his defense, while he could easily create an area around himself that could continuously inflict real damage on these ghosts.
A super Grade 1 vengeful spirit like the shadow Yuuko couldn't take his life.
At the very least, it would have to be a special-grade who had mastered a domain.
Now, there was one person and one ghost present.
One was Fujimiya Konomi, a childhood friend he had known since he was little and knew inside and out.
The other was Kanoe Yuuko, this ghost who was a holder of a second-batch diary. As long as Miyauchi Hikage had a showdown with her, she was actually someone who could be won over.
In the future, after the holders of the second-batch diaries obtained the commission authority, Kanoe Yuuko could also serve as a "mole" among this batch of holders.
As long as they created the illusion that the shadow Yuuko and Kanoe Yuuko had "perished together," the remaining problems could be solved.
Miyauchi Hikage was just waiting for the shadow Yuuko to take the initiative to attack him.
Who knew that although the shadow Yuuko had been coveting his body for a while, she suddenly turned around and left, causing his plan to "play the pig to eat the tiger" to fall through.
And with the departure of the shadow Yuuko, he could see that both Kanoe Yuuko and Fujimiya Konomi behind him let out a huge sigh of relief.
It seemed that the existence of the shadow Yuuko had indeed brought them a lot of mental stress.
On Kanoe Yuuko's side, after she breathed a sigh of relief and saw that the diary in her hand no longer issued danger warnings, a strong sense of powerlessness arose in her heart.
They were clearly one and the same, but the other's power was so much stronger than hers, and she also had all her memories from before she was alive.
Without the protection of the diary, she would have been forcibly devoured by the other long ago.
So the other should be the main body of "Kanoe Yuuko," right?
She looked at the diary in her hand, not knowing what she could do now to resolve the crisis from the shadow Yuuko's side.
"But, why did she suddenly leave?"
Fujimiya Konomi on the side was still a little puzzled and asked Miyauchi Hikage.
When the shadow Yuuko appeared just now, although it was only for a few short minutes, she felt that her back and palms were completely soaked.
If it weren't for Miyauchi Hikage secretly and weakly transmitting some Hamon to her, she would probably have fallen seriously ill after going back tonight.
But because of the protection of Hamon, she could still barely maintain a calm train of thought.
And the first question she was thinking about now was the reason for the shadow Yuuko's departure.
From her appearance just now, and from what she had said, the other was also Kanoe Yuuko, but a collection of all of Kanoe Yuuko's negative emotions, separated from the main body because the Kanoe Yuuko before them could not accept her own ugliness.
The Kanoe Yuuko before them, because she wanted to forget everything from the past, had been unaware of this other side of herself for the past half-century.
Similarly, that ugly Kanoe Yuuko, because her main body was unaware of her, had also been unable to forcibly merge with her main body.
She mentioned two ways.
Either Kanoe Yuuko would one day suddenly realize the truth of the past and be able to see her.
Or the shadow Yuuko would accumulate power bit by bit, making her main body weaker and weaker until it completely disappeared.
According to what she said, the second method was already close to succeeding.
It was only when Miyauchi Hikage and the others arrived here, investigated the truth of the past, and guided Kanoe Yuuko to recall the truth, that that thing appeared in order to devour the amnesiac Kanoe Yuuko.
However, for some unknown reason, that ugly Kanoe Yuuko seemed unable to directly merge with the Kanoe Yuuko before them.
Originally, looking at her appearance, it seemed that she could go on a rampage at any moment.
Fujimiya Konomi could only press her body tightly against Miyauchi Hikage's back.
Not only because she thought that if she really had to die, it wouldn't be bad to die with Miyauchi Hikage.
At the same time, she could also feel the reassuring feeling that Miyauchi Hikage was silently transmitting to her through the palm of his hand.
It was as if Miyauchi Hikage was using his not-even-accelerated heartbeat to tell her that he could handle everything now.
So, she had the mood to ponder the reason for Kanoe Yuuko's departure.
From what she had said before she left, it seemed that she had really just left because she had remembered something else important.
Fujimiya Konomi's gaze fell on Kanoe Yuuko, wanting to know if she, the main body, had any feelings.
Kanoe Yuuko was also puzzled by what Fujimiya Konomi had said at this time.
What on earth did she want to do?
At this time, it was naturally Miyauchi Hikage's turn to act.
The moment the shadow Yuuko left, he had quickly used the power of "Destiny" under the cover of Yellow Temperance to see the entire situation around the school.
And then, at the school gate, he saw Kanoe Yukariko, who was determined to die, and whose fate was pointing towards death.
Was she preparing to take revenge on Kanoe Yukariko, a revenge that was not completed back then?
Kanoe Yukariko's side had probably been waiting for this day for half a century.
Could the shadow Yuuko really feel the pleasure of revenge like this?
Miyauchi Hikage's heart did not fluctuate much regarding Kanoe Yukariko's impending death.
After all, what she had done back then was laid out there.
She had proactively sacrificed her own sister.
And then, because of her actions, her father had chosen to commit suicide in despair.
Although the not-yet-split vengeful spirit of Kanoe Yuuko had let her go back then, allowing her to live the remaining sixty years in confusion and atonement.
But in Miyauchi Hikage's opinion, even if Kanoe Yuuko's vengeful spirit had let her go, Kanoe Yukariko should have chosen to end her own life directly.
In that way, perhaps after witnessing the death of the sister who had killed her, Kanoe Yuuko's side could have let go of her hatred earlier and gone for reincarnation.
Even if there was still resentment that was difficult to resolve in her heart, at that time of supernatural decline, Kanoe Yuuko, who had died in a sacrifice and became a vengeful spirit by relying on the ley line and extreme negative emotions, would have had a hard time surviving until after the spiritual resurgence without external help.
The result was that in the sixty years that Kanoe Yukariko had lived, knowing that her sister had become a vengeful spirit, she could neither find a way to resolve her hatred nor was she willing to let an exorcist exorcise her own sister.
She kept this old school building, which had long been unusable, and then continuously spread rumors about Yuuko in the school for the past half-century.
Originally, doing so would not have been a big problem. In the past few decades, what she did had indeed stabilized the existence of the "Yuuko-san" ghost story in this school.
But with the spiritual resurgence, the shadow Yuuko quickly absorbed power relying on those negative emotions, and then, under the constraints of her main body, she deliberately created some ghost stories and horror events that did not harm people but would generate a large amount of negative emotions, constantly strengthening herself by relying on human negative emotions.
This also led to the main body of Kanoe Yuuko becoming weaker and weaker. After realizing the existence of the shadow Yuuko, she could no longer control her actions at all.
Sixty years ago, she had killed her own sister due to her own ignorance and foolishness.
Sixty years later, due to her own guilt and unease, she allowed the shadow Yuuko to become powerful.
It could only be said that the two most important choices Kanoe Yukariko had made in her life had both caused great harm to her own sister.
Miyauchi Hikage thought to himself, and even felt that if the shadow Yuuko just simply killed Kanoe Yukariko, it would be too simple a solution.
It probably wouldn't satisfy her desire for revenge at all, but rather would satisfy Kanoe Yukariko's own desire for atonement.
Muttering this, Miyauchi Hikage suddenly thought of that Kanoe Kirie, who bore an eighty-percent resemblance to Kanoe Yuuko.
Thinking of this, Miyauchi Hikage finally looked at Kanoe Yuuko before him.
"If I'm not mistaken, I'm afraid that 'Yuuko' has noticed the arrival of Chairman Kanoe Yukariko."
"This morning, when we went to visit Chairman Kanoe Yukariko and obtained her filming permission, she also told us that she would personally come to the school in the evening to watch our filming."
Although she had already recalled that memory, hearing the name Kanoe Yukariko again still had a considerable impact on Kanoe Yuuko's heart.
In the original story, it was because Kanoe Yuuko, in her interactions with the protagonist, through the ghost stories and rumors circulating in the school, realized the complexity of human thought and the idea of "relying on gods" when faced with insurmountable problems.
In order to force a happy ending, a rather classic Japanese forgiveness trope was added, forcing Kanoe Yuuko to forcibly resolve this hatred because she was too arrogant back then, did not realize the attitude of the villagers, and did not notice the sensitivity of her sister's heart. Of course, more importantly, it was because her feelings for the male protagonist gave her a place to entrust her emotions.
However, now Kanoe Yuuko had not found her emotional anchor, nor had she used this kind of forgiving thinking to substitute herself into her past self.
Therefore, at this moment, just hearing the name Kanoe Yukariko, she subconsciously recalled her tragic appearance before she died, making her expression can't help but become a little ferocious.
But then, she shook her head vigorously again.
She did indeed still have hatred for Kanoe Yukariko and the villagers of that time in her heart.
But even at her most angry, she could never bring herself to lay a hand on her own sister, only wanting her to atone for a lifetime with regret and guilt.
And now, if that self really wanted to kill Kanoe Yukariko, although she could understand the hatred in that self's heart, she did not want that self to really take that step.
After all, although that self had already broken free from her own restrictions, their origin was still the Kanoe Yuuko who had died sixty years ago.
The current Kanoe Yuuko was still thinking of resolving the other's hatred, not letting her indulge her hatred and desires.
Therefore, after hearing from Miyauchi Hikage that the shadow Yuuko's target might be Kanoe Yukariko, after nearly a minute of hesitation, she still made her choice with a firm tone.
"No, I have to go and stop her."
She looked at Miyauchi Hikage and thanked him.
No matter what, Miyauchi Hikage had let her discover this diary, and then awakened her, letting her recall the truth of the past.
Although the final result might not change, and she would inevitably be devoured by the shadow Yuuko in the end.
But at least she could do these things with her own beliefs in a clear-headed state.
Then, she issued a reminder to Miyauchi Hikage. "Anyway, you guys should leave here quickly. I can't guarantee your safety now."
"I know you seem to know many powerful exorcists. If I fail, I hope you can tell them about that 'me's' situation and have them exorcise 'me' before that 'me' poses a greater threat."
As she said this, Kanoe Yuuko paused for a moment and made another decision.
"Although you probably can't see it, I've decided to leave it here with you."
"If this thing falls into the hands of that 'me,' it might only make things worse."
She took out the diary she had just obtained, then walked up to Miyauchi Hikage and carefully placed it in his hands.
At the same time, Miyauchi Hikage also received a notification.
"A diary holder has been detected actively relinquishing ownership of the diary. Do you wish to reclaim the diary?"