Shinomiya Kaguya looked at the seemingly insignificant grain of sand in Miyauchi Hikage's hand.
Before knowing its existence, it was indeed that inconspicuous.
But after knowing the power contained within this grain of sand, when she looked at Miyauchi Hikage's hand again, her thoughts couldn't help but undergo a subtle change.
For a moment, she really wanted to take it from Miyauchi Hikage's hand to see if it would awaken a Stand within her.
It wasn't until Miyauchi Hikage snapped his fingers in front of her, refocusing her attention on him, that she realized her previous thoughts seemed a bit off.
"It seems you've felt it. Although this thing looks inconspicuous at first glance, once you notice its existence, it might release some special power to attract others' attention. I even suspect it possesses 'self-awareness' under certain circumstances to choose people capable of awakening a Stand."
The entire JOJO manga emphasizes the concept of "fate". In Part 5, Bruno Bucciarati foresaw his impending death early on. In Part 6, the process of Enrico Pucci awakening Made in Heaven was even more filled with traces of fate.
However, although the power of fate is strong, and even the protagonists cannot defy their own fate, the spirit of JOJO is that everyone, with their own resolve, carves out a path forward in the dark wilderness.
In short, as the main setting of JOJO Part 3, the source of these Stands that people can awaken is naturally also entwined by the power of fate.
Although not like those manufactured bows and arrows in the original work, where the arrowheads have various special powers, this thing is indeed not simple either.
Previously, when Miyauchi Hikage first projected it, even Shiina Mashiro was attracted by it for an instant.
It was just that later, according to the research of Miyauchi Hikage and Tohru, they found that if this thing did not directly induce another person's Stand power, then they could only use the method from the original JOJO work, which was to pierce the human body with the bow and arrow, directly applying the power of the meteorite to the human body.
This indeed could directly develop human potential, but similarly, compared to naturally awakening a Stand, this method's test on human constitution and willpower was simply too great.
Indeed, using this method, even if only one out of dozens of ordinary people could obtain a Stand this way, in terms of the probability of supernatural awakening alone, this could already be considered quite high.
But similarly, the negative effect was that if the person doing this could not obtain a Stand, they would die due to the overly direct power of the meteorite.
Without supernatural healing methods, using this method could be said to have a mortality rate of over ninety percent.
It was just that unlike the grain of sand in Miyauchi Hikage's hand, those acquired manufactured bows and arrows had their respective functions. The arrows that ended up with Nijimura Keicho and Passione had no additional abilities, just purely stimulating a Stand.
The arrow that fell into the hands of Kira Yoshihiro had a certain ability to choose its target itself. Also, before Kira Yoshikage's spirit was about to collapse, it actively pierced his hand, allowing Killer Queen to evolve the third bomb.
Then there was the Requiem Arrow, the most powerful among all the bows and arrows.
Not only did it have the ability to choose its target, but it could also further evolve a Stand into a powerful Requiem form.
A blank Silver Chariot, after adding Requiem, possessed the power to manipulate others' Stands and swap souls.
Gold Experience Requiem could even revert all attacks and even death to zero, rendering all Stand abilities ineffective against him. At the same time, it could make people never reach the truth, only constantly experiencing the infinite loop of death-rebirth-continued death in the cracks of the world.
Even judging from certain scenes in Part 6, the final boss Pucci and his brother awakened their Stands: "Whitesnake", which could freely extract others' Stands and memories, and "Weather Report", which could freely manipulate weather on a large scale and even turn people into snails. These two exceptionally powerful Stands were also stimulated by an arrow carved with a beetle relief on the arrowhead, though it was uncertain if this arrow was the Requiem Arrow.
It was just unknown how exactly those special bows and arrows were made.
Miyauchi Hikage felt that the material for those bows and arrows should be the same meteorite, but perhaps some special ritual was added during the production process, resulting in different effects.
And now, although Miyauchi Hikage was fully capable of making a bow and arrow to stimulate Stands according to his own wishes, because he couldn't confirm the survival rate of the bow and arrow, he had never put it into action.
Miyauchi Hikage clenched his fist, and then continued speaking to Shinomiya Kaguya: "If you successfully awaken a Stand, naturally there's no problem. But if you fail, I'm afraid you'll have to pay a Senzu Bean as the price. Moreover, I'm not sure if a Senzu Bean can have an effect on your body in this situation similar to a viral invasion. So before I further figure out its nature, it's best not to take this risk. At most, just have close contact with it for a period of time to see if you can naturally awaken a Stand."
Shinomiya Kaguya naturally understood Miyauchi Hikage's meaning.
Directly using this grain of sand to awaken a Stand had a low probability, and the result of a failed awakening was death.
"So, even you are not confident?"
Miyauchi Hikage shook his head: "That's not it. The stimulation of a Stand still depends on physical and mental power. For you guys right now, there might still be relatively high risks, because your physical and mental power either haven't met the standard yet, or are unbalanced like you are now."
"But with my current physical and mental condition, the probability of awakening a Stand should be very high, and even if it fails, my body can likely withstand the pressure."
"It's just that I don't know what kind of Stand I will awaken because of this, so I haven't made a decision yet."
He looked at Shinomiya Kaguya: "After all, I already possess very powerful strength now. Even without awakening a Stand, I still have a lot of room for improvement. If the Stand ability is average, then so be it, but in case it awakens a Stand with negative effects, it would instead be a burden for me."
Hearing this, Shinomiya Kaguya almost wanted to roll her eyes at Miyauchi Hikage.
For her to awaken a Stand, there were still huge risks, and even a Senzu Bean might not be useful. Yet Miyauchi Hikage had already started worrying whether the awakened Stand would match his wishes, preferring not to have it if it didn't.
But on second thought, Miyauchi Hikage could even project items that awaken Stands, and coupled with his strength exceeding special-grade, it wasn't strange to have these considerations.
So Shinomiya Kaguya changed her tone and looked at Miyauchi Hikage with an innocent gaze, asking if he could let her have close contact with this grain of sand for a night to see if she could awaken a Stand this way.
"Let's talk about it after a few days. Otherwise, I'm really worried you might accidentally swallow it. Moreover, didn't I just say it? Awakening a Stand also requires an opportunity for you guys. You just awakened Psychokinesis not long ago. A Stand ability can also be considered a manifestation of personal willpower. With your impatient willpower right now, heaven knows what kind of Stand you would awaken."
"Anyway, you should calm your mind first. When you have the ability to awaken a Stand, I will definitely remind you."
Receiving this answer, although Shinomiya Kaguya was somewhat helpless, she clearly understood the principle that too much is as bad as too little.
Anyway, Miyauchi Hikage was already able to mass-produce these Stand sands now. After they return to Tokyo, there will definitely still be many opportunities to continue awakening Stands.
But inwardly, Shinomiya Kaguya still cared a bit: "Then tell me, exactly who among us has already awakened a Stand under the stimulation of this thing?"
After interacting for more than two months, the girls in the group were quite harmonious now, and relatively open about information. Basically, no one would deliberately keep secrets.
However, until now, none of the girls in the group had mentioned any changes in their bodies, yet Miyauchi Hikage stated so certainly that someone had already awakened. If Shinomiya Kaguya didn't figure it out, she might not even sleep well tonight.
Facing Shinomiya Kaguya acting pitiful, Miyauchi Hikage put away the sand and then held up a finger: "I'll simply give you a hint. That is, a certain someone already awakened a Stand during the earthquake the night before yesterday. Even her Stand has started running around outside under her alias, but that person hasn't noticed the changes in her body until now."
"To a certain extent, this can be considered an ability going out of control, right? It's just that the Stand hasn't done anything particularly outrageous, so I didn't bother with it."
Hearing this, Shinomiya Kaguya's eyes widened slightly.
Someone's Stand has already started bypassing the main body and running wild outside?
She wanted to continue getting more information from Miyauchi Hikage, but Miyauchi Hikage stopped there and didn't say more, just smiling and letting Shinomiya Kaguya investigate herself.
Seeing that there was really no way to get other information from Miyauchi Hikage, Shinomiya Kaguya could only bid farewell and hurriedly left Miyauchi Hikage's room. At the same time, she sent the information she just obtained in his room to the girls in the group, omitting Miyauchi Hikage's Projection technique.
Umaru: "What? Someone among us has already awakened a Stand, but hasn't realized it yet!?"
"Who is it? Who is so lucky!"
It was just as Miyauchi Hikage had said, the person who awakened the Stand completely hadn't realized she had already awakened a Stand. To the extent that even though almost all the girls in the group popped up to reply with a few words, they still didn't find out who had awakened the Stand.
"Could it be that the person who awakened the Stand is not from our group?" Kasumigaoka Utaha said uncertainly in the group.
For example, on her side were Eriri and Kato Megumi, the other two Saekano heroines. Gotoh Hitori had even brought her band over directly, and they had been practicing in the soundproof room in the hotel these past few days.
"Anyway, how about we gather first and look at each other to see if there are any changes in everyone's bodies? With Miko's eyesight, she might be able to see something?"
Under Shinomiya Kaguya's proposal, in less than ten minutes, the girls in the group arrived at the presidential suite on the top floor of the hotel.
This was naturally the room where Shinomiya Kaguya and Hayasaka Ai lived.
However, this hotel was originally the best hotel in Morioh Town. Although the other rooms weren't as big as the presidential suite to accommodate over ten girls, the decoration style was relatively unified and wouldn't be much worse.
Shinomiya Kaguya glanced at Yotsuya Miko standing on the side.
But after Yotsuya Miko carefully looked at these girls, she also didn't find anything strange on them.
"So, you guys really haven't felt any problems with your bodies these past few days? That's a physical Stand. The other party's actions would more or less have some impact on your bodies, right?" Umaru first looked at her own body, completely unchanged from usual. Also, in Miyauchi Hikage's explanation, she belonged to the category of having just awakened other powers, making it hard to naturally awaken a Stand again in a short time.
But for the girls, they indeed hadn't felt any physical changes.
"According to Hikage-kun, the more exquisite the skills one masters, the easier it is to awaken a Stand ability. I think this should also be considered a reminder from Hikage-kun."
Shinomiya Kaguya explained, and then asked everyone to think about their respective specialties.
After asking around, they still didn't find any problems.
"Could it really have awakened on someone else?" Shinomiya Kaguya pondered uncertainly.
However, awakening on someone else wasn't a problem either.
It should be said that her attitude towards these girls in the group and towards other people would still have quite a big difference.
The girls in the group could be seen as her partners, but for other girls, she wouldn't need to restrain some of her methods.
Of course, considering that those girls were also protagonists in their respective works, and mostly had connections with the girls in the group, she tried her best not to use those methods.
"Utaha, I'll trouble you to check on Eriri's side. Bocchi-chan, you should also pay more attention to your band..." Shinomiya Kaguya looked at Kasumigaoka Utaha and Gotoh Hitori like this.
Her gaze wandered among several people.
For some reason, she suddenly felt a sense of incongruity somewhere.
Her gaze swept over the girls again and again.
Although she had already become quite familiar with the people in the group, being suddenly stared at with such sharp eyes, Gotoh Hitori was still somewhat unaccustomed.
"I will go ask them. Is, is there anything else?" Gotoh Hitori timidly asked Shinomiya Kaguya.
And it was also when Shinomiya Kaguya's gaze fell on Gotoh Hitori again that Shinomiya Kaguya suddenly realized where the incongruity was.
She pointed straight down at Gotoh Hitori's feet, her voice slightly sharp: "Bocchi, where did your shadow go?"