Before long, Akuto returned to the Yotsuya Family home and gave the body back to Miko.
After Miko got out of bed, she moved her body around and found that none of the stiffness in her limbs usually follows an all-nighter.
After taking a shower in the bathroom and eating breakfast, Miko walked out of the house.
Then... Miko jumped straight down from the steps at the entrance.
As a result of her leap, she jumped less than a meter high and almost shattered her knees when she landed on the ground.
"What are you doing?"
Hearing Akuto's words, Miko's face turned visibly red, but she quickly put on a poker face and walked toward the school expressionlessly.
"You just now... wanted to fly, didn't you?"
Akuto's teasing voice drifted over.
Miko's breathing faltered for a moment, and she wisely chose to ignore Akuto.
She had just seen her own body jumping around like a magical girl or a ninja in the city's night sky yesterday and thought it looked very cool.
So she wanted to give it a try.
It was clearly the same body.
Miko didn't understand why Akuto could jump dozens of meters in one leap, while she could only jump dozens of centimeters.
The key was that she had been caught by Akuto.
This is simply too much!
When she reached the corner, Miko had a constant feeling of being watched.
Looking back, there was nothing there.
"Strange."
Miko shook her head and left.
Shortly after Miko left, Kyosuke stepped out from behind a trash can.
"There aren't any other men either."
Kyosuke arrived at school absent-mindedly, and his best friend walked over and patted him on the shoulder.
"Kyosuke, what's wrong with you?"
"I'm thinking about my sister; she's been very strange lately."
"Very strange?" His best friend scratched his head. "In what way is she strange?"
Kyosuke propped up his head and said listlessly.
"She's been absent-minded lately, and she locks her door when she goes back to her room. I got scolded yesterday for entering her room without knocking."
"And I heard her talking all the time before, and yesterday I vaguely heard a man's voice in her room."
His best friend nodded very seriously.
"I see, I... don't understand at all!"
"She must be in love!"
At this moment, the girl behind Kyosuke had a confident look on her face.
"My sister was just like that when she got a boyfriend. Talking at night must be a long phone call, right? How sweet!"
"When a girl is in love, her heart and soul are all on the other person."
"A boyfriend?"
Kyosuke felt that this possibility was not small.
"I must investigate; I can't let my sister be deceived!"
...On the otherside, Miko also arrived at her class.
"Miko! Did you watch 'Spooky Tales' yesterday?"
"I stayed up too late doing homework yesterday and missed it!"
"Homework!" Miko's pupils shrank. "Oh no, I forgot to do my homework yesterday!"
"Hana, let me copy your homework! Please!"
"Eh?" Hana put her hands on her hips and looked closely at Miko, as if trying to discover something.
"Miko actually forgot to do her homework? You've been acting weird lately... Forget it, this young lady will be merciful and let you copy it!"
Miko held the book with a devout expression.
"Hana, you are simply the Ancient Greek god in charge of homework! Arigato!"
While Miko was writing furiously, several girls were gathered together gossiping.
"Did you guys watch TV? A boy was killed nearby yesterday."
"I saw it! So scary! I heard he was beheaded, and the criminal is still at large!"
"Huh? That's too terrifying. How could there be such a cruel criminal? Didn't the surveillance cameras catch it? These police officers are really something."
"Hmm?"
Miko's pen paused, and she felt nauseous just thinking about that horrific scene from yesterday.
Looking down, a line had been drawn on her notebook at some point.
To be honest, Miko couldn't say she didn't have any qualms in her heart; after all, it was her own body that had killed someone, and in such a cruel way.
The gossip among the girls continued.
"I heard he was from the school next door."
"I know about this!" A girl leaned in mysteriously and looked around cautiously.
"Do you guys know Nishimiya Shouko from Class C?"
Miko's pen paused again.
"Nishimiya Shouko, is that the girl Akuto mentioned yesterday..."
"Eh? You mean that deaf girl?"
"Seems like it. She has that aloof look, like she's keeping everyone at a distance. What a bitch!"
"I heard she uses a pen to communicate. It sounds so disgusting."
The girls discussed with faces full of disdain, while the pink-haired girl among them continued in a low voice.
"It's related to her."
"Actually, Nishimiya Shouko wasn't completely deaf at first; she just had a hearing impairment."
"In elementary school, she and I were in different classes."
"Back then, I heard that the students in her class bullied that Nishimiya girl and pulled out her hearing aids, and as a result, she really did go deaf. There was a lot of blood at the time."
When she said this, the other girls stopped talking.
Their faces also bore their own expressions of sighing.
"Then, I heard Shoko was hit by Ishida Shoya, and Shoko transferred schools. Among those bullies, the one who bullied Shoko the most was named Ishida Shoya. The guy who died yesterday was him!"
"Eh?!"
"He actually laid a hand on a girl; he really deserved it!"
"It's good that he's dead. Do you think it might be Shoko taking revenge? Turning into a ghost at night..."
"Ah! Hiromi, don't scare people!"
The pink-haired girl messed around for a while before continuing.
"After Shoko left the school, Ishida became the target of everyone's bullying and was bullied until graduation."
"I didn't expect him to be killed suddenly."
Miko kept her head down looking at her homework, but her mind was not on it at all.
"So... was it because of this..."
Miko seemed to recognize a completely different Akuto.
Akuto who would feel angry because of the injustice done to others and would even go so far as to kill.
It seemed... he wasn't as evil as he said he was.
Miko wasn't stupid; she had heard Akuto mention Nishimiya Shouko's name, which meant Akuto had gotten to know Shouko through some channel.
He knew about the things Shouko had encountered.
So when he met Ishida, Akuto would not hesitate to kill.
That was pure evil that even an evil spirit could not forgive.
Unknowingly, the morning classes ended.
Miko thought for a moment, then stood up and pulled Hana out the door.
"Eh? Miko, where are we going? Let me grab my bread!"
Hana quickly stuffed the bread in her hand into her mouth, her cheeks bulging like a hamster's, then grabbed another bag and followed Miko.
"I want to go see Nishimiya Shouko from Class C."
"Eh? Miko, are you into gossip too?"
"I really don't want to hear you calling me a gossip."
Miko glanced at Hana; she was the real gossip leader and head of the intelligence department.
"That's her, right?"
Hana pointed to the end of the hallway, where a slender girl was walking out carrying a bento.
"Nishimiya-san!"
Hana waved her arm like a social butterfly.
Miko covered her face and Hana's mouth at the same time:
"She's a hearing-impaired person... she can't hear!"
"Eh? Is that so? Hehe... then I'll go stop her!"
Hana was like a bull, surprisingly strong, and Miko couldn't stop her at all.
Hana caught up with Shoko in a few steps and patted her on the shoulder.
Shouko instinctively shrank her neck and looked back somewhat fearfully, with terror that couldn't be hidden in her eyes.