There was nothing behind her.
"I was only joking~"
Nakano Ichika giggled, just like Kasumigaoka Utaha had earlier.
Tsk!
Kasumigaoka Utaha folded her arms, her long, slender legs in black stockings lightly crossed.
Although she had been the one to start the joke and had no right to criticize the other girl, she still felt incredibly annoyed.
Nakano Miku raised her head:
"Psionic Users should have different levels too, right?"
"Huh?"
Nakano Ichika and Kasumigaoka Utaha turned toward her at the same time.
Nakano Miku lowered her brows slightly and said in a low voice:
"Kira-kun is obviously much stronger than ordinary Psionic Users. Some people might even be born as Psionic Users. They can sense more psychic energy, so their Spiritual Sight should be stronger too, right?"
Kasumigaoka Utaha's expression grew serious, and her raised leg lowered as well.
"What are you trying to say?"
Nakano Miku still kept her head lowered, as if talking to herself:
"People with stronger Spiritual Sight should be able to see more things, right?"
"Hey, Kasumigaoka-senpai."
Nakano Miku raised her head and pointed at Kasumigaoka Utaha's shoulder.
"Don't you need to fix your hair?"
Kasumigaoka Utaha instinctively looked toward her left shoulder. Her smooth, jet-black hair spilled over it. She reflexively reached out to sweep it aside, but a chill of dread quickly rose from the depths of her heart.
Was there something there? Was something she couldn't see lying on her shoulder?
Nakano Miku looked away and silently lowered her head. She no longer looked at the twenty-centimeter-tall Evil Spirit behind the other girl's shoulder—a two-headed figure with a huge head and long, flowing hair!
"Update!"
"Update! Update!"
The endlessly repeated muttering entered Nakano Miku's ears, making the girl's body tremble slightly.
Because she knew that it was an Evil Spirit—a genuine Evil Spirit!
It was tiny, but it was also terrifying.
Kasumigaoka Utaha forced herself not to look at her shoulder and pretended to remain calm.
"You're joking, right?"
Nakano Miku silently lowered her head without answering.
Nakano Ichika muttered under her breath:
"Miku doesn't like joking."
The atmosphere instantly froze. They seemed to feel waves of cold wind sweeping in from behind them.
Because there was an invisible Evil Spirit among them!
Although no one besides Nakano Miku could see the Evil Spirit, and no one knew what it looked like or where exactly it was standing, that very uncertainty made it even more terrifying!
"Sorry for the wait."
Footsteps approached from a distance, and Kira Yoshikage's voice reached the girls' ears.
A glimmer of hope appeared in Kasumigaoka Utaha's eyes, as though a drowning person had spotted a lifeline. She nervously stood and hurried to Kira Yoshikage's side.
The girl's voice trembled slightly:
"Hey, Kira-kun, is there something on my shoulder?"
Kira Yoshikage handed the file folder back to Kasumigaoka Utaha. His gaze moved from her hand to her shoulder.
"So you can't see it. I thought it was your shikigami."
Kira Yoshikage muttered in a low voice, seeming somewhat disappointed.
Nakano Ichika asked cautiously:
"Is that the Benevolent Spirit Kira-kun mentioned?"
Kira Yoshikage gently shook his head.
"A spirit haunting her?" Nakano Nino asked.
Kira Yoshikage pondered for a moment.
"If I had to give it a suitable name, I'd call it the Update-Chasing Spirit."
Nakano Mayu blinked.
"Chasing updates?"
"It keeps urging her to update. The fact that Miss Kasumigaoka can write so quickly probably has something to do with it. This is actually a good thing."
After hearing Kira Yoshikage's explanation, Nakano Mayu instinctively looked toward Kasumigaoka Utaha's shoulder, even though none of them could see the Evil Spirit.
This was clearly a terrifying situation, so why did it somehow feel a little comical?
"Update! Update! Update!"
The two-headed Evil Spirit completely ignored the gazes of the others. It simply kept repeating the words beside the girl's ear, even though she couldn't hear it at all.
Although it was small, it was no ordinary Evil Spirit.
Evil Spirits were born from human fear, but some fears were always greater than others.
The earth, for example. The sky. The ocean.
And, of course, the fear of being urged to update.
In a sense, this Evil Spirit had limitless potential. As long as the act of urging someone to update existed, and as long as authors still feared being urged to update, this Evil Spirit could continue to grow.
And Nakano Miku, who had been able to see it immediately after awakening, clearly possessed far greater psychic talent than the others.
Kasumigaoka Utaha was on the verge of tears.
"I don't want this kind of good thing at all!"
If her ability to write so quickly was related to the Evil Spirit, didn't that mean she had truly been staying with an Evil Spirit all these days?
The thought nearly made Kasumigaoka Utaha collapse. She looked pitifully at Kira Yoshikage.
"Kira-kun, please, you have to set her free!"
"Are you sure you want to do that?" Kira Yoshikage glanced at the two-headed Evil Spirit, searching for some part of it that could be put to practical use.
Unfortunately, there was none.
Its hands weren't attractive at all.
"Fifty thousand yen!"
Fifty thousand?
Kira Yoshikage remained expressionless as Pink Panther reached out and touched the two-headed Evil Spirit.
"Upda—"
Boom!
The Update-Chasing Spirit's voice abruptly stopped, and its body dissolved into gray ash.
Kira Yoshikage's tone remained unchanged.
"Let's talk about the book."
"Miss Kasumigaoka, are you planning to end it with the third volume?"
"..."
Kasumigaoka Utaha had not expected the topic to jump so far. It took her a while to recover, and her voice still stammered slightly.
"I-I never thought about that. Machida's suggestion was to write at least five volumes..."
"Then I suggest changing the ending. In a harem-oriented work, you can't declare a single winner before the true ending. You have to keep the tension going. Otherwise, it would be giving up an entire forest for the sake of one tree. Even if someone wins, she can only be temporarily ahead. You have to make sure everyone is a winner in the end. But Sayuka's confession at the end of the third volume practically leads to a happy ending. How is Mayui supposed to deal with that? If you want to achieve a true harem ending, then unless everyone can accept the others' existence from the beginning, you can only make them compromise through continued tension."
"Continued tension?"
Kasumigaoka Utaha quickly understood what this unfamiliar term meant, but she hesitated.
"But I feel like I can't keep dragging it out..."
"Then add a new heroine."
Kira Yoshikage offered his advice.
"How can a harem-oriented work have only two heroines? At most, that counts as a dual-protagonist romance. It doesn't deserve to be called a harem!"
Kasumigaoka Utaha gained a new insight, while the eyes of the Nakano Quintuplets grew rather complicated.
Was Kira-kun's definition of a harem really that strict?
Chapter 48: Sakurajima Mai Was Very Popular
As Golden Week drew to a close, school life gradually returned to normal, and Kira Yoshikage felt a trace of long-lost peace in his heart. What pleased him most was that among the Disciplinary Committee Members on duty at the school gate, he could finally no longer see Kashiwagi Nagisa.
She seemed to have finally given up waiting at the school gate and searching for Kira Yoshikage among the students.
Thanks to that, Kira Yoshikage no longer needed to climb over the wall. He could enter the school openly through the main gate.
Kira Yoshikage's gaze swept across the bench beside the road. A girl was curled up there, wearing an outfit that looked extremely revealing—bunny-girl clothing that clearly couldn't pass the Disciplinary Committee's inspection.
Kira Yoshikage knew her. Or rather, very few young people would fail to recognize her.
She had debuted as a child actress at the age of six and later transitioned into a popular film actress. She was a genuine celebrity. At least seventy percent of Japan's citizens knew her and could call out her name at first glance—Sakurajima Mai.
For such a celebrity to appear at Shuchiin Academy wearing a bunny-girl outfit would undoubtedly draw everyone's attention.
And that was exactly what happened. Sakurajima Mai was very popular.
Kira Yoshikage quickly looked away and headed straight for the teaching building where the Mixed Academy was located.
Sakurajima Mai crouched in the corner of the bench, hugging her legs and curling into a ball.
A cold wind swept past, making the girl tremble even harder. Her murmured words carried an obvious sobbing tone.
"Help me. I don't care who it is—someone, please help me..."
The girl's almost prayerful cries were heard by no one. There were plenty of students passing by, but her cries attracted no one's attention.
Even so, Sakurajima Mai was still very popular.
Around her were all kinds of "creatures"—some thin and tall, some short and plump, some large and muscular, and some emaciated. Without exception, they had hideous faces and radiated black energy. They surrounded her, snarling, roaring, or muttering.
"Hey, hey, you can see me, right?"
"You can see me, right?"
"You can see me, can't you?"
"Sakurajima Mai! Aunty-wash-the-railway! Aunty-wash-the-railway!"
"Look at me. Please look at me properly! I like you so much, so why won't you look at me?"
The facts proved that Sakurajima Mai was very popular.
"Kira-kun..."
Kira Yoshikage had just taken his seat when an almost inaudible voice came from the desk in front of him.
It belonged to the girl seated in front of Kira Yoshikage. What left the deepest impression was her smooth, long pink hair, as well as those small, fair hands that she rarely displayed but which were actually hiding a surprising strength—Kira Yoshikage had a deep impression of her.
By rights, a girl like this should have been very popular.
But because she was always lowering her head and hunching her back, with her eyes hidden behind her bangs, she gave off a somewhat gloomy and antisocial air. In addition, she did not seem good at socializing, so she had few friends in class.