After chatting with Kagayama Kaede for a while, Miyauchi Hikage introduced the particularly reserved Itou Kaiji to her.
"I know this guy. His acting looks pretty good. Your eye for picking actors has always been excellent," Kagayama Kaede nodded towards Itou Kaiji, indicating that he was worth the contract Miyauchi Hikage had given him.
Miyauchi Hikage, however, complained in his heart that Itou Kaiji didn't have any acting skills right now; it was all his genuine reaction.
Before being pushed to the brink, Itou Kaiji was a complete and utter bottom-tier nobody, and a particularly timid one at that.
But there was no need to say this to Kagayama Kaede.
However, while chatting about the videos Miyauchi Hikage had been filming recently, Kagayama Kaede carefully reminded him, "But you should be a little more careful filming that kind of subject. If you really run into a ghost one day, I don't want anything to happen to you."
Seeing Kagayama Kaede's suddenly serious expression, Miyauchi Hikage's smile faded from his face.
Kagayama Kaede didn't believe in those things. For her to suddenly remind him now, did she hear something, or did she come into contact with something?
"There haven't been any haunting rumors around Asahigaoka recently, have there?"
Kagayama Kaede waved her hand. "Not really. Nothing weird is happening in Asahigaoka. At most, I've heard that a wild animal has appeared deep in the mountains, so we've been told not to go into the mountains for a while. I heard the other things from Konomi."
Fujimiya Konomi, who lived near the Koshigaya family.
The Fujimiya family was considered a large family in Asahigaoka, and since Fujimiya Konomi also graduated from the Asahigaoka Branch School, she could be considered a childhood friend two years older than Miyauchi Hikage.
Although she went to high school in the prefecture a year after Miyauchi Hikage started his rustic video phase, she would still often come over to help him.
And in Miyauchi Hikage's heart, Fujimiya Konomi's abilities were on par with Koshigaya Suguru's.
Although her practical and executive abilities weren't as high as Koshigaya Suguru's, she had a gentle and outgoing personality, with a bit of a hidden dark side. When Miyauchi Hikage first started filming rustic videos, the team naturally had a lot of conflicts, and at that time, it was mostly Fujimiya Konomi's communication skills that resolved them.
In addition, she was a quick learner when it came to things like personnel scheduling and budget control.
It could be said that if Fujimiya Konomi wasn't too young and didn't lack the ambition herself, she might have become a poster girl for Asahigaoka just like Kagayama Kaede.
Therefore, hearing that there might be a problem on Fujimiya Konomi's side, Miyauchi Hikage frowned and pressed for more details.
Fortunately, it didn't seem to be Fujimiya Konomi herself who had run into trouble, but rather that some strange haunting incidents had recently occurred at the high school she attended and some nearby middle schools.
At this moment, Itou Kaiji, who was standing to the side, found a chance to interject.
"Before I came to Saitama, I researched some of the local ghost stories and rumors online. It seems there have been quite a few recently."
"One says that a large wild beast has appeared in the mountains of Saitama Prefecture. Someone heard its howls in the mountains. Then there are legends in some middle schools about 'kamikakushi' and a 'cursed stone'. And this one... Saitama's 'suicide mecca,' Yasohachi Bridge. I heard many people choose to commit suicide there, and even people who have just visited the place sometimes feel very unwell..."
"I was originally thinking we could go to those places to shoot an episode, but those rumors can't be real, right?" At this point, Itou Kaiji couldn't help but shiver.
He continued.
The kamikakushi story was about a few students who, after school, saw a girl they had never seen before wearing their school uniform from a distance. The students wanted to go over and talk to her, but as soon as they got close, they found that her figure had suddenly vanished.
The cursed stone was said to be a strange rock. As long as you wrote a person's name on it, you could curse that person. A light curse would be a cold and fever, a heavy one would be serious injury and hospitalization, and there were even rumors that in the most severe cases, it could kill someone.
Listening to Itou Kaiji's words, Miyauchi Hikage's eyebrows couldn't help but twitch.
The first two were manageable. A wild beast, in the worst-case scenario, was just a youkai that had broken its seal. No major youkai would appear here in Saitama Prefecture.
As for the school's urban legends, almost every school had related stories, and more than ninety-nine percent of them were fabricated by people.
However, in the current environment, if enough people believed them, it might actually create some corresponding curses, but they generally wouldn't be too strong, at most third or fourth grade.
The kamikakushi sounded like someone temporarily gained low-level spiritual vision at a special time, like the witching hour, and saw some ordinary ghosts they shouldn't have seen. When the sun set and the witching hour ended, they naturally couldn't see them anymore.
The cursed stone, on the other hand, sounded more like a cursed object hidden in the school to avoid curses was discovered by students.
But that Yasohachi Bridge later on was genuinely cursed.
Although it should only be an ordinary curse right now, in a few months, after the exchange event between the two Jujutsu High schools, a special-grade cursed spirit would appear there.
Even if the special-grade cursed spirit was put there by someone, as a place that could gestate a special-grade cursed spirit, Yasohachi Bridge shouldn't be a simple place.
Miyauchi Hikage wouldn't have a problem investigating there, but if a small fry like Itou Kaiji went, he'd probably catch a cold and be bedridden for at least a few days.
"I know about Yasohachi Bridge, but no murders have happened there, just a lot of suicides. Even if we followed the stories of the suicides, it would be too depressing to film. Let's talk more about what's happening at the school."
Miyauchi Hikage casually shifted the topic back to Fujimiya Konomi's school. Kagayama Kaede scratched her face and then waved her hand at Miyauchi Hikage.
"I graduated years ago, how would I know so much? I just heard a couple of things from Konomi and wanted to give you a heads-up. If you really want to know, you should go ask Konomi yourself."
Miyauchi Hikage thought for a moment and felt that he should indeed go and see if there was any problem on Konomi's side.
After all, the situation in Asahigaoka was now worlds apart from the original story. Although it didn't have as much of an impact on the students of the Asahigaoka Branch School, it had ultimately disrupted the original plot.
Besides, Konomi was one of his most capable subordinates and a childhood friend, so naturally, he should be more concerned.
Before saying goodbye to Kagayama Kaede, he didn't forget to pass on the task his older sister had thrown at him last night to Kagayama Kaede.
"By the way, please take care of the Asahigaoka Branch School's Golden Week outing this year. My Renge said she's really looking forward to this year's trip, and I hope you can find a suitable place. Give everyone a break to rest for a while then."
In response, Kagayama Kaede just told Miyauchi Hikage to "get lost" in an annoyed tone, as if she couldn't stand the sight of him.
But Miyauchi Hikage, who knew her well, knew that she had already taken note of the matter.
After all, this tsundere had always wanted to snatch Renge away from him, she just refused to admit it.
Using his own sister as a bargaining chip, Miyauchi Hikage waved goodbye to Kagayama Kaede and then took Itou Kaiji towards Fujimiya Konomi's house.
Although Asahigaoka was just a village, because it was in the countryside, it was actually quite large. If you included the mountains owned by the Miyauchi family and other families, you could say that you couldn't walk through all the village's land even in two days.
Before Miyauchi Hikage started the Asahigaoka revitalization plan, a lot of the land here was abandoned.
Now that Asahigaoka had become a popular internet spot, although the agricultural cooperative was the type to not even spit out bones after eating them, they still brought in a lot of people and machinery to replant the abandoned land with crops and even opened up a lot of new land on the mountains.
Looking at the new and refreshed appearance of Asahigaoka, Miyauchi Hikage thought about the money the agricultural cooperative took, and it didn't hurt as much.
On the way, he introduced the situation in Asahigaoka to Itou Kaiji.
By the time sweat was starting to form on Itou Kaiji's forehead, they finally arrived at Fujimiya Konomi's house.
Although it was a holiday, Konomi woke up very early.
When she opened the door and saw Miyauchi Hikage, a smile appeared on her face.
"Ara, it's been a long time. Is there something you need, Hikage?"
After leading the two into her house, she served Miyauchi Hikage and Itou Kaiji tea and some snacks.
It looked as if it had been prepared in advance.
At this time, Miyauchi Hikage also secretly observed Fujimiya Konomi's current condition.
Very healthy. Although she didn't practice Hamon, for a high school student, Konomi's physical condition was considered very healthy.
So, after Miyauchi Hikage sat down, he directly asked her, "I heard from Kaede that your school has been having some haunting incidents recently, so I came to check on you."
"But looking at you, Konomi, you didn't deliberately tell Kaede those school ghost stories, did you?"
In response, Fujimiya Konomi just chuckled, looking very happy.
"How could I? Our school really has had a lot of strange rumors recently. I just mentioned them briefly to Kaede. I didn't expect her to tell you about it."
Alright, confirmed.
This woman did it on purpose.
Having grown up with Fujimiya Konomi, Miyauchi Hikage knew that this seemingly gentle girl was actually clearer about things than anyone.
Although she would be tricked by Miyauchi Hikage a few times when she was little, after entering middle school, this girl grew up quickly and could occasionally make some harmless jokes at Miyauchi Hikage's expense.
It could be said that if diaries were given to the girls in Asahigaoka.
His older sisters probably wouldn't even think of him. Renge would find a way to tell him about the diary. The Koshigaya sisters would probably have a hard time suspecting him.
Kagayama Kaede might guess it based on her gut feeling after a long time.
But Fujimiya Konomi had been in the Asahigaoka Branch School with Miyauchi Hikage for seven years. They were always paired up in school to exchange and check homework. This girl was too familiar with his sentence structure and writing habits.
This was different from Shiina Mashiro's natural intuition for Hamon; it was simply a rapport formed after spending a long time together.
So much so that in the first few days after getting the diary, Miyauchi Hikage didn't even go look for Fujimiya Konomi, precisely because he was worried that she would get a diary and immediately confirm his identity.
Fortunately, a month had passed, and Miyauchi Hikage could now confirm that no one in Asahigaoka had received a diary.
The second batch of diaries didn't seem to have been given to any ordinary people either.
He didn't have to worry about his cover being blown at lightning speed again.
In short, based on his understanding of Fujimiya Konomi, Miyauchi Hikage could already tell that she had deliberately leaked the information to make him come to her.
Her "long time no see," spoken with that particular tone, felt like it was aimed at the fact that he had gone to study in Tokyo a month ago without saying a proper goodbye in person.
However, Miyauchi Hikage didn't press the matter further and went along with it, asking Fujimiya Konomi about the rumors.
Fujimiya Konomi casually mentioned some of her school's rumors, which sounded fabricated.
And when she saw that even the timid Itou Kaiji next to them was showing a disbelieving look, Fujimiya Konomi's tone suddenly changed.
"Aren't you guys the ones who specialize in filming these kinds of stories? Since you don't believe it, why don't you come with me to my school and take a look right now?"
Hearing Fujimiya Konomi's invitation, Miyauchi Hikage was a little unsure of what she was trying to do.
But he didn't have any other plans for the day besides accompanying Renge and wandering around Asahigaoka. After glancing at the interested Itou Kaiji, he nodded.
"Alright. Speaking of which, I've never been to your high school all these years. It's fine to go and have a look."
And to confirm if there was anything unclean at her school. If there was, he would help exorcise it along the way.
And with Miyauchi Hikage's words, Fujimiya Konomi immediately went back to her room. About a minute or two later, she returned with a school uniform.
"This was my brother's uniform from back in the day. Get changed, and we'll head out!"
Fujimiya Konomi even gave a serious reason, "The other guy from your videos isn't here. You can put on our school's uniform and make a guest appearance as a student from our school for a cameo. Just leave the filming to me."
But when Miyauchi Hikage saw the uniform, he understood everything instantly.
So Konomi was complaining that he didn't go to the local high school with her but went to study in Tokyo instead.
And now she wanted him to wear this uniform and experience the feeling of going to school with her during the holiday?
Anyway, after thinking of this, Miyauchi Hikage's face didn't show any particular expression, but Itou Kaiji, who was standing to the side, felt like his eyes were going to go blind again.
His boss's damned luck with women!
Someone save me, I don't want to follow these two and be a third wheel.