Afternoon.
Miyauchi Hikage, wearing a different high school's uniform, sat in the passenger seat of the car.
As Itou Kaiji drove, he watched his boss out of the corner of his eye, expertly manipulating a beautiful deck of poker cards that seemed to have come from nowhere.
As a gambling addict who frequented pachinko parlors, Itou Kaiji didn't dare go to big casinos, but he occasionally went to smaller ones to play mahjong and Texas hold'em.
He watched as the poker cards in Miyauchi Hikage's hands flew and crisscrossed in a dazzling display, yet Miyauchi Hikage's attention wasn't on the cards in his hands at all, but on the scenery passing by outside.
Could his boss be a hidden gambling master?
Or were these fancy shuffling techniques part of a magic trick his boss was practicing?
As Itou Kaiji pondered this, he couldn't help but get distracted.
It wasn't until they reached an intersection and Miyauchi Hikage reminded him, "Remember to turn left up ahead," that he snapped his attention back and somewhat hastily turned the steering wheel.
After passing the intersection, Itou Kaiji licked his lips, unable to contain his curiosity any longer, and asked Miyauchi Hikage about it.
"Ah, I am practicing magic. I'm thinking of starting a small series of one or two-minute simple magic reveals when I get the chance," Miyauchi Hikage explained simply, then stopped shuffling.
He turned to Fujimiya Konomi, who was sitting in the back seat, and handed her the deck of cards.
"Pick any card. Let's see if I can guess what it is."
Fujimiya Konomi examined the deck Miyauchi Hikage handed her, then casually drew a card from it.
"Is this all?"
She said, memorizing the card she had drawn.
Then, under Miyauchi Hikage's instruction, she placed it back, shuffled the deck several times, and then returned it to Miyauchi Hikage.
After getting the deck back, Miyauchi Hikage shuffled it casually again, then continued speaking to Fujimiya Konomi, "Turn over the top card and see if it's the one you picked."
Fujimiya Konomi turned it over with an expectant look, and sure enough, the top card was the one she had just drawn.
Her eyes immediately filled with curiosity.
"What kind of magic is this? Can you teach me?"
Miyauchi Hikage just smiled and took the cards back.
"You can wait until I release the magic reveal videos in the future and learn it then."
Of course, even if he did film those videos, the trick he revealed wouldn't be this one.
Because what he was performing now wasn't some simple card trick.
It was genuine card magic.
After several consecutive days of drawing only small props, Miyauchi Hikage had started to think that he could probably only rely on targeted draws to increase his strength in the future.
Unexpectedly, just last night after he finished writing his diary, he received a reward: a "Card Master Template" from a certain League of Legends.
Although his compatibility with that Card Master wasn't great, he had still obtained a series of his abilities.
Gambling skills, divination, card magic, combat experience, and the most important ultimate ability, "Destiny," which could provide a significant boost to his luck and sixth sense, and also came with a teleportation ability.
However, because he had just obtained the template and lacked sufficient magic power, Miyauchi Hikage hadn't yet tested the teleportation range of his "Destiny" ability in this world, but he had already confirmed the card magic.
No matter what kind of card—poker cards, tarot cards, maybe even Yu-Gi-Oh! cards.
In short, as long as it was a card, with a touch of his hand, he could sense and easily swap the position of every card in the deck.
In addition, he could infuse these cards with magic power and Hamon, turning them into dangerous weapons.
Although the Card Master wasn't considered a proper mage in the League of Legends world, and his strength was far from those world-destroying demigods, and even the magic power that came with the template could only be described as mediocre in both quality and quantity.
But a single reward unlocked multiple abilities, including combat experience, which would allow Miyauchi Hikage to adapt to his abilities more quickly.
More importantly, because it was a reward from the diary, not only did he not have to worry about conflicts between the power systems in his body, but it would also have various beneficial effects.
The Pure Yang Body not only elevated Miyauchi Hikage's Hamon to the level of an ultimate lifeform but also improved his adaptability to other supernatural powers.
The magic spells he had obtained before had always been powered by his Hamon and the spiritual energy of his Stand.
Now that the Card Master's seed of magic had taken root and sprouted in his body, he estimated that in just a day or two, he would be able to activate his teleportation ability.
And when his magic power was sufficient to teleport at will, his future mobility would be even greater.
Therefore, Miyauchi Hikage was very satisfied with this reward.
The reason he had agreed to Fujimiya Konomi's invitation was partly because he had felt a trace of magic from the card divination he had performed that morning.
And in the car, he used the cards again for divination, confirming that his choice was not wrong.
He would definitely gain something from this trip.
About an hour later, Itou Kaiji parked the car at the entrance of Fujimiya Konomi's school.
It was a very ordinary-looking high school.
Since this was still the edge of Saitama Prefecture, and the school Fujimiya Konomi attended was just an ordinary public high school, it naturally couldn't compare to a wealthy private school like Toyogasaki, which was built on the edge of the golden area near central Tokyo.
But of course, Miyauchi Hikage wouldn't say that.
Wearing this high school's uniform, he took a few photos with Fujimiya Konomi at the school gate. Of course, the role of the photographer could only be filled by Itou Kaiji.
It was clear that Fujimiya Konomi had been looking forward to this day for a long time.
After taking the photos, Fujimiya Konomi, under the pretext of showing them the locations of the "rumors" inside the school, pulled Miyauchi Hikage along and began to introduce him to her high school.
Although Itou Kaiji, who was following behind with the camera, felt that this was a bit different from what they had discussed before they came.
Didn't we agree that the boss and I would be on screen together, and you would film us?
And it was still the afternoon when the sun was brightest. At this time of day, even he would dare to brave any haunted area alone.
But in the end, Itou Kaiji kept these words to himself.
He thought about the atmosphere when his boss was chatting with this girl in the car earlier.
This girl, along with that Shiina Mashiro in Tokyo who was always following his boss around, had now been elevated to the position of the most powerful contender for "boss's wife" in his mind.
While his boss was enjoying his youth with another girl, as an employee, he should just be a silent cameraman in the back and not spoil his boss's good mood.
Maybe if he did a good job now, he could ask his boss to teach him a couple of those girl-charming card magic tricks when they got back.
Then, whether he went to a small casino or a nightclub, as long as he showed off a trick like that, wouldn't he immediately become the center of attention?
The high school wasn't too big. Even though Fujimiya Konomi tried her best to slow down, they still managed to walk through the entire campus in about an hour.
The school's atmosphere seemed quite good, with no delinquent high school students who mingled with gangsters from society.
Plus, this high school wasn't a college-prep type, so the academic pressure on the students wasn't high.
Therefore, the negative emotions of the students in the school were not that strong.
Even without a cursed object in place, the curses that were born were just some third-rate small fry that would basically cause no harm to the students.
It was unlike delinquent high schools and those extremely strict college-prep high schools. If those places didn't have cursed objects to suppress them, they would probably produce a cursed spirit capable of harming humans every month or two.
Of course, those schools were also considered priority areas for investigation by the inner world, so there generally wouldn't be any major incidents.
Unseen by Itou Kaiji and Fujimiya Konomi, Miyauchi Hikage used his Stand to casually exorcise these creatures of the dark.
"Gosh, it looks like our school's rumors are all fake after all. I wonder who started spreading them around the school. It actually made me a little worried before. But now that I've checked it over with you, Hikage, I feel much more relieved."
Fujimiya Konomi smiled and apologized to Miyauchi Hikage, saying that her information was wrong.
"How about this? I'll treat everyone to some sweets at a delicious dessert shop nearby, and then we can hang out around here for a while. We can go to my place for dinner tonight."
Your abacus is clacking way too loudly. [Your selfish calculations are too obvious.]
"Sweets are fine, but I remember that many middle schools in this area have similar rumors, right? Let's go check those places out later," Miyauchi Hikage skillfully countered Fujimiya Konomi, while his gaze shifted towards the north.
The card divination pointed in that direction. He still intended to go over and see what was going on.
Fujimiya Konomi didn't mind. Anyway, neither Kaede nor the two little Koshigaya girls were here, so it was the same wherever they went.
Itou Kaiji, however, was taken aback.
Even at this point, his boss was still thinking about work.
He could only say that a boss is a boss, able to handle a high-level girl like this with such ease.
After eating some delicious desserts at a nearby shop and resting for a while, they, led by Fujimiya Konomi, went to several nearby middle schools.
The situation in these middle schools was indeed not as stable as at Fujimiya Konomi's high school.
After all, a group of 13 or 14-year-old kids, just entering puberty, were in their most active and rebellious phase.
These middle schools all felt the suppression of some cursed objects to varying degrees.
But the grade of these cursed objects wasn't high, probably just the remains of some grade 1 cursed spirits.
After all, there weren't that many special-grade cursed spirits. It was about right for these places to use the remains of some grade 1 cursed spirits for suppression.
And these cursed objects could at most suppress and exorcise low-level cursed spirits and vengeful spirits. The moment a grade 2 cursed spirit with a bit of intelligence appeared, these cursed objects wouldn't be able to stop them.
However, Miyauchi Hikage wasn't here to do charity. The original work of these spirit removers and jujutsu sorcerers should be left for them to handle.
Miyauchi Hikage at most cleaned up a few suicidal grade 2 cursed spirits that were following them, so as not to affect his mood.
Previously, he couldn't see these vengeful spirits and cursed spirits and needed the help of the Camera Obscura to see them.
But ever since Yellow Temperance accidentally swallowed a vengeful spirit that was caught on camera in the library and evolved the ability to disguise itself as one, Miyauchi Hikage had been able to freely control whether his eyes could see these disgusting creatures.
And as the number of vengeful spirits that Yellow Temperance swallowed increased, the things Miyauchi Hikage could see also kept increasing. He just didn't know to what extent Yellow Temperance could ultimately evolve.
Finally, at five in the afternoon, with dusk approaching, Miyauchi Hikage arrived at the true destination of his trip.
"Let's check this school last. If we still don't find anything, we can buy some hot pot ingredients and go back to make hot pot," Miyauchi Hikage said, standing at the school gate and looking at the two people behind him.
"Seikyou Private Academy?" Itou Kaiji, already tired from walking, looked at the school's name and then paused, as if he had suddenly remembered something.
"I think this is the school I saw online. They said that at dusk, you can easily see a long-haired girl in the school uniform, but when you try to find her, she vanishes."
Fujimiya Konomi, standing beside him, also frowned slightly.
This was already the edge of the city.
"This school seems to be the oldest one around here. I heard that sixty or seventy years ago, when this place was still a village, there was already an old schoolhouse, just like our Asahigaoka Branch School's old building. Later, during urban planning, a new school building was constructed next to the old one."
An abandoned but not yet demolished old school building, a mysterious girl appearing at dusk.
After running around all afternoon, had they finally encountered a place that looked like it had a story?
"Why don't we wait until tomorrow after we've rested, report to that Nanami-san, and then come back to investigate this school's past?"
Itou Kaiji asked his boss. When they went to film in those other places, Miyauchi Hikage had basically investigated the past incidents there first, and then Miyauchi Hikage would tell the story in a slightly scarier way during the filming process.
But now they knew nothing about this school's situation, and they hadn't mentioned this matter to the person in charge in Tokyo.
Thinking that dusk was approaching, Itou Kaiji's legs couldn't help but start to tremble.
Not only was he afraid of really encountering some mysterious dusk girl, but he was also worried that after walking all day, he wouldn't be able to run away in time if he really bumped into something strange.
Miyauchi Hikage, however, looked towards the old school building.
Was the ghost inside the one from his memory?
The card divination had led him here. Was he supposed to exorcise her?
But thinking about how during his morning divination, he might have had a slight thought of looking for other diary holders.
If this divination ability wasn't interfered with by the diary, the other party might be one of the second-batch diary holders!